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Hows burning crusade for casual players?

B

BD2003

Lifer
I bought wow when it first came out, had lots of fun with it. I leveled a rogue up to 56, and various other characters into their 20-30s. I kinda felt like I was left out of the coolest parts of the game because I was unwilling to devote the time to raiding etc - I didn't care about the loot, I just wanted to see and play the badass dungeons that blizzard created.

So how's the new exp fair for casual players? Specifically:

How long does it take to get from 60-70?
I've heard that the new dungeons require less players, and have two difficulty levels, so you could experience them without having to devote your life to a guild....true?
Is level 65 overpowering enough that I could finally run through the previous endgame dungeons with a few people?

Basically...whats in it for the people that DON'T plan on raiding every day?

Being that the expansion is $40 and DOESNT come with a free month, thats even MORE expensive than the original game...it's gotta be worth it...
 
If you want to play that level 56 more then Burning Crusade will have tons for you to do and play with.

It will give you two new races for altmania with new starting areas and new things to explore for that level 1-20 span of time.

Leveling up is more like early on as opposed to later on in the original game. More quests per area and more in it just to do per area. Keeping you from looking for an area to grind out a bit.

The intstances seem to be consistantly doable for a group in the level range and there are fewer large raid type things, and in addition with the 2 difficulties you can do the easy and the hard later on or if you feel you have a good group. And in some cases the Heroic Dungeons can give better loot then some raid instances(Only heard this, only 65 myself).

If you plan to continue playing WoW, once you get your rogue to 58-60 I'd get the expansion. Or if you want to start another little one. Otherwise you will get little from it (Have to be 58 to go to the outlands)
 
Originally posted by: Rangoric
If you want to play that level 56 more then Burning Crusade will have tons for you to do and play with.

It will give you two new races for altmania with new starting areas and new things to explore for that level 1-20 span of time.

Leveling up is more like early on as opposed to later on in the original game. More quests per area and more in it just to do per area. Keeping you from looking for an area to grind out a bit.

The intstances seem to be consistantly doable for a group in the level range and there are fewer large raid type things, and in addition with the 2 difficulties you can do the easy and the hard later on or if you feel you have a good group. And in some cases the Heroic Dungeons can give better loot then some raid instances(Only heard this, only 65 myself).

If you plan to continue playing WoW, once you get your rogue to 58-60 I'd get the expansion. Or if you want to start another little one. Otherwise you will get little from it (Have to be 58 to go to the outlands)
Click to expand...

Hmm...well thats good. Because the first 30 levels or so were really fun...you're always gaining new abilities and exploring new areas with plenty of quests. After that, it felt like I spent more time flying around to find the next quest in the next remote area, never really getting anywhere.

How are the new looking for group features? I'd like to quickly be able to get into a group to hit dungeons and what not, but the meeting stones and inns never worked because no one else would ever go to them.
 
the new LFG is pretty much useless, at least from when I tried it. Old content runs for the 55+ crowd are infrequent as you can do outlands at 58.

 
Originally posted by: BD2003
I bought wow when it first came out, had lots of fun with it. I leveled a rogue up to 56, and various other characters into their 20-30s. I kinda felt like I was left out of the coolest parts of the game because I was unwilling to devote the time to raiding etc - I didn't care about the loot, I just wanted to see and play the badass dungeons that blizzard created.


So how's the new exp fair for casual players? Specifically:



How long does it take to get from 60-70?

Some people were 70 less than 48 hours after the expansion release. My personal experience is it took about a week and a half but I'm more towards the hard core playing side. The experience is incredible, I hit 70 and had 1 and 2/3 zones left to do, outerworld zones. Mobs give around 500-600 (1000-1200 rested) xp, and quests give 10k+. You will fill your quest log in every zone and each quest seems like a 10 step chain. Tons of experience.

I've heard that the new dungeons require less players, and have two difficulty levels, so you could experience them without having to devote your life to a guild....true?
Is level 65 overpowering enough that I could finally run through the previous endgame dungeons with a few people?

The new instances are challenging, that being said, they aren't impossible. Levels help etc. Not sure if game mechanics lend to doing old dungeons with a handful of people, that would also be a gear issue. People have reported doing Onyxia and ZG with a single group. I'd imagine MC could be done with 10-20, not sure on the others. Certain end game encounters still require numbers. The levels do help, just being level 70 you get about a 2500-3500 hp boost (a ton more for warriors).

Basically...whats in it for the people that DON'T plan on raiding every day?
There are a lot more 'alternative' ways to get raid level loot. Lots of factions to grind, tradeskills seem to be a bit more useful. World pvp objectives that matter (way better than silithus and eastern plaguelands). The current endgame encounters for high end guilds are a 25man zone with 2 encounters and a 10 man zone, which requires a key about the time investement of the onyxia key (but maybe a bit harder).

I'm in a raid guild, and with the smaller raid size, you don't have to raid every night, even if the guild may want to. out of 35 people on, we run either a 25man or 2x10man's atm. Everyone else is free to do what they please. There are lots of quest rewards that are very good in the world zones, group(formerly named elite) quests.


Being that the expansion is $40 and DOESNT come with a free month, thats even MORE expensive than the original game...it's gotta be worth it...
I'm really enjoying it myself, even not raiding every night like i was used to. There's so much stuff to get done, atm, I can't find the time to do everything i want to do in a given night.
Click to expand...

Also to note, you don't have to be 58 to do outland content, you can be summoned there at any level, though I'd say 56 is the lowest you'd want to try.

A Paladin in our guild(horde) did 58->60 in about 3 hours in the outlands first zone. After that without rested xp, the level costs increase a bit but that's an example of how much more xp you get.



 
The meeting stones are nicely updated - you can summon other people to them, no lock needed, with at least 2 people already at the stone

plenty of 5 man instance content to keep the non-raiders happy

tons of gear upgrades too
 
It took me about a week and half; I hit 70 and probably could have done it in only 2 area's (I myself never went to Shadowmoon) The new instances are okay, just like any other five mans you would expect. On heroic however, they are very different and pugging them will be difficult and can seem almost impossible. As far as doing old dungeons after gaining a few levels past 60, I don't think it would be worth it. The raid bosses scale, so after level 60, they get harder and the gear doesn't change. Although having your tank with 12k HP unbuffed and your rogues with 70-80 DPS weapons, you probably won't have many issues.

There really is a lot to do in the expansion. Like Glayde had said, there are many factions to grind along with the world pvp objectives.

I'm having a good time with it and actually had fun doing the grind all over. The new area's are well done and again, there is always something to do. I say give it a go if you haven't already 🙂
 
As for boss scaling in the old world, the only thing that changes is how hard they may hit to the main tank.

Abilities etc will not change, neither will their hp pool. From reports I've read, people doing naxx who did it before, it's much easier.

The main thing to remember is that with the new scaling system (10000ac may give 50% damage reduction at 60 to a 60 mob, 10000ac gives maybe 35% reduction to a 70 mob if you are 70). You do need your tanks to get more ac and +defense gear to tank some of the old world bosses. Of course with the increased hps and new talents and spells everyone has, and the increased dps, id think old world content would be much easier.
 
They scale mechanically, meaning glancing hits, resists, and crushing blows come into play, but their HP and attack damage should be unchanged, so like I said, when you have a tank with 12k unbuffed HP and rogues with 80DPS weapons and healers rejuvs ticking for 800 you won't be having many issues. I was just stating that it wouldn't be worth the effort 🙂
 
Originally posted by: Chacotako
They scale mechanically, meaning glancing hits, resists, and crushing blows come into play, but their HP and attack damage should be unchanged, so like I said, when you have a tank with 12k unbuffed HP and rogues with 80DPS weapons and healers rejuvs ticking for 800 you won't be having many issues. I was just stating that it wouldn't be worth the effort 🙂
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Well, I really don't care about gear. 😛 All that stuff is just numbers in the end. I just want to actually play through it for the fun of it. I never did get to really go through the sunken temple, or ANY of the endgame lvl 60 dungeons, because I wasn't hooked up with a raiding guild. It just seemed kind of silly to me that the coolest content in the game was inaccessible to those who didnt devote their lives to it.
 
It doesn't take much effort to level to 70 at all. I think I was around 5-7 hours per level just questing. I ended up with almost all of Netherstorm done by the time I hit 70 and I still had Shadowmoon Valley to complete. It's good to note that I only ever instanced once while leveling (The Underbog and The Slave Pens in Zangarmarsh). These instances are much shorter than they used to be and I believe that came from Blizzard finding out that people didn't want to spend hours in an instance.

Now, some older MMO'ers from games like EQ or UO may not agree with the whining from WoW players about time needing to be spent, but when looking at the level of effort it takes at earlier levels compared to higher levels... WoW was incredibly unbalanced when it came to pre-BC end-game compared to pre-BC leveling. This factor is incredibly bad to gaming as you've set up a precedent that 'x' amount of work is required to attain your goal.. but now you've just quadrupled that factor.

I remember reading an article on Slashdot that talked about burn-out being caused by the lack of rewards for the amount of work that you put in. WoW was a great example of this, because originally you received a lot of gratification, and then it stagnated. But when it changed, you still expected the level of gratification for your work and it wasn't received. Such things cause burn-out in people because they begin to realize that there's nothing in it for them anymore.

Personally, I leveled my rogue to 70 and gave up playing him. All of my friends are doing Karazhan and junk and I'm not keyed so I don't even care nor was I even asked to join them in getting keyed. So I decided to make my final character (I have a character of every class) and I'm going to get my new Shaman to 60 (and possibly 70). I find him fun but I REALLY think Totemic Call should be lowered from level 30 to level 20. Totems are the most annoying aspect of a Shaman, especially when you just beat a battle and you rest up... ohhh too bad, a mob aggro'd your 2 minute Stoneskin totem and now once that totem dies (in 1 hit), you have to fight that mob regardless of your hp/mana. Totemic Call, however, removes the totems (the best part) and restores 25% of the mana that they cost (a nice bonus 😛).

Also, I'm not a fan of the Draenei area. I don't think it was designed very well as I found myself unable to properly organize quests to avoid having to run all over like a chicken with my head cut off. As Kim Jeung would say, it's INEVITUBUR! Although, I've had that same complaint about the Wetlands for a long time... they need to move the Rethial the Greenwarden to fix the balance in that area as Night Elves and Draenei come from the Harbor (so they get the quests to kill the Young Wetland Crocolisks and to kill Gobbler which are the same level as the Greenwarden's quest). Because of the bad ordering, I usually end up doing the Crocolisk skin quest, then all of the murloc quests, then the raptor relic quest (a chain from The Absent Minded Prospector) then Whelgar's Expedition then get the quest to deliver the skins from the dude at the cross-roads, then go to Rethial's quests, which have you literally go all the way down to Dun Algaz (where Dwarves and Gnomes enter The Wetlands) to find the best spot to kill the Gnolls at (the camp to the east of Dun Algaz is my personal favorite spot to do that quest... although my Shaman kept killing them too fast and I had like 30 second spawns lol).

Oh and for anyone who's made it through this long blurb (sorry, haven't had a WoW post to talk in for awhile!) I'm debating on how to equip my Shaman. I won a Flurry Axe a bit ago (while leveling my Mage... I won it over a warrior too 😛 I asked him how we were rolling, but he was foreign so he never responded and I turned off rolls 😱). Now, I can get another one of these for some serious proc'age combined with either dual fiery weapon or dual +7 weapon damage enchants (the newer BC enchants). But you tend to hear people wanting to get slower weapons, even for Windfury. But my take on it is that the Flurry Axe (1.5 speed) is quite fast, so unless Windfury is PPM, it will proc fairly often and even more since the Flurry Axe has a chance on hit to get an extra attack. Also, combined with Flurry, the Flurry Axe will drop from 1.5 speed to 1.0 or 1.1 speed (depending on how Blizzard rounds, it drops to 1.05). This is some pretty constant DPS here, so my take on it is this... if Windfury is not PPM (which I don't know), then a faster weapon could lead to more procs and possibly similar damage (crits will still suffer a bit though).
 
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