played it casually since the Beta.
IMO, Vanilla days were the best days, when patch 1.3 cane out.
The old Honor system was funky, but I liked it. I also loved the Title system that came with it.
Leveling wasn't as slow as other old school MMOs but compared to now? Was a snails pace. Several months to get a nice geared 60 was considered fucking fast. Every level from beyond level 20 felt amazing. Every bracket in PvP felt worthy. And, for the most part, every instance was complex because they were so large and daunting. But, there rewards for your endurance was well worth it. There were also old hat tricks, like, rumors that your warrior could level weapon skill faster if he was using Intell gear. Each stat had a use by ALL classes back then. I remember having an Agi Warrior back in the day. That crap wouldn't work now. No individuality anymore. Back then, you could be pretty different, mix a spec up, get some crazy gear types and still be formidable and unique. The leveling experience grew you into your character. Now? You just rush to 80 as quick as possible or else you quit. You skip all that growing, and all the exploring. The different brackets of PvP adventures, the social friendships formed while WALKING, yes WALKING to BRD or Wailing Caverns.
As time went on, WoW got easier and easier. IDC what you all say, but WoW is very little skill, at least now; for the simple purpose of Blizzard trying to attract more and more players.
WoW is an Everyone's game, almost like it's the Wii of MMOs. Everyone can play it, even the fucking retards (which now a days there are just so many of them).
BC was an absolute horrible expansion. With it's release, Metzen had to cough up apologies for the loop holes and misdirections of the Lore and Storyline we had been following since Orcs and Humans. The Instances got small, dainty and easier. There were rewards every where that were easy to achieve so any sense of accomplishment was only felt by one rare ass drop? Or Black Temple raids.
Then, Enter Wrath. Good expansion but so many game changes made the game even easier. By then, in PvP, you had throngs of what we all called "Welfare" gear. To get your mounts, all the newbies only had to pay a couple hundred gold where back in the day it cost thousands (all the vets wished we could have a refund since auction houses are so recently inflated). With so much free shit? It's like, wtf? why try? While the instances and shite were overall, a little better and at least, prettier, they were still easy as shit.
Over all, Raiding wasn't all that appealing to me. I'm a competitive player, thus PvP is the only real "skill" show I believe in. Raiding did nothing for your PvP. I could beat your T10.5 ass with arena gear rather handedly, just because that's how it's supposed to be I guess. Raiding is like playing a solo game with many people, and it still suffers the same effects as such. What is it that was said in an old strat guide for Brood War? "Once you figure out how to beat the computer, it's just over. But versus another human? Another player? It's totally different". The only complicated thing about raids is the IQ range of your Raid group.
The lasting promise of WoW was it's PvP, which did take skill. Actual Arena combat, with real players is exhilarating, but due to whining involved, and the fact that Characters need to be balanced both Raid wise and PvP wise, Blizzard has never been able to balance all the class types. There's is a lot of injustice with each class. Still, I've got a lot of respect for the Arena guys/gals. Despite the complications with the game design, they still find the skill and prowess to combat very well in-game, no matter the Nerf.
I believe the title system linked to Battlegrounds is making a return. Ranges from ''Corporal'' to ''Marshal'' (Alliance) and ''Grunt'' to ''General'' (Horde).
The leveling experience grew you into your character. Now? You just rush to 80 as quick as possible or else you quit. You skip all that growing, and all the exploring. The different brackets of PvP adventures, the social friendships formed while WALKING, yes WALKING to BRD or Wailing Caverns.
I don't think the leveling experience has gotten any worse. Following the XP cap reductions, perhaps the heirlooms are 'overkill' in that they unnecessarily shorten the path further, but that's up for debate. If anything, the quests are now more varied, new zones are being added while the old ones are getting a second life, there are more pets and items and dungeons than ever. This is not to say I don't hear you about the LFG changes — instant-summoning doesn't feel right to me neither, yet many appreciate the feature.
What can we say? It's the game evolving. For every move Blizzard takes, there are players to raise their thumb and players to mourn the change. And, honestly, I don't think anyone's really right or wrong about it ; there are wishes that are mutually exclusive. You like the Arenas, I think they're the bane of WoW as I believe Blizzard should have always put more emphasis on Battlegrounds as far as PvP is concerned, for a multitude of reasons — but hey, they're here to stay and it's fine.
Let's be honest to ourselves : we like or dislike the direction WoW is taking because we fit in a certain crowd. I can see why some players prefer shorter dungeons. I can see why hard-earned rewards are appreciated. I can understand why the concept of Hero classes is frown upon. I can regret the feeling of epicness some 40-man raids provided. I can even hate Blizzard's choice to shrug off Ulduar's originality when dealing with hard modes in profit of a linear drop-box and number tweaks. But all of this, is not due to the game getting worse, catering to casuals, or what have you — we grow up as players and our interests do not always match a game's direction, that is all.
If you claim PvP is the only thing in the game that requires skill, why do you even care if questing requires more or less skill in the first place?
Ah well, at least you're not claiming Blizzard has oversimplified the entire game including raids without actually having downed anything past 4/12 normal IcC.
played it casually since the Beta. IMO, Vanilla days were the best days, when patch 1.3 cane out. The old Honor system was funky, but I liked it. I also loved the Title system that came with it.
I love my old PvP rank/title. I didn't PvP much but I went through a period were all I wanted to do was kill other players.
Ah well, at least you're not claiming Blizzard has oversimplified the entire game including raids without actually having downed anything past 4/12 normal IcC.
I think one reason I got burned out so fast in LK, was because they stopped bringing that creativity to the boss fights that they used to. There have been some amazingly fun bosses in LK, but nothing like Vanilla days, or even TBC. Of course, it's hard to come up with new ways to challenge your players.
Lvl 80 mage and death knight.
Valaraukador is the Mage
Cyrukh is the DK
Both Horde and on the server Korgath
I was part my guild's main raiding group and was one of the better geared raiders in the guild, until some circumstances forced me from raiding. I haven't played in a while but I think I might return in cataclysm. (I had framerate issues with my old computer so this will be a nice change)
Honestly, I thought Wrath of the Lich King was kinda boring. But I do enjoy the leveling speeds. The slowness of leveling in Vanilla and TBC and unbearable for me and caused me to quit the game like 3 times before I reached 70 (which took me around a year or more). It was soo boring :/ I think I enjoyed raiding in BC more than in WotLK, but it might've been because I was in a guild that struggled through content and so each victory meant more. IDk, I'm just rambling : /
I think one reason I got burned out so fast in LK, was because they stopped bringing that creativity to the boss fights that they used to. There have been some amazingly fun bosses in LK, but nothing like Vanilla days, or even TBC. Of course, it's hard to come up with new ways to challenge your players.
I found Ulduar really interesting and the Mimiron encounter, amazing. Of course, it was hands down the best instance of WotlK and no amount of awesomeness can excuse the fiasco known as ''Trial of the Crusader''. Icecrown Citadel, while not a bad raid by any means, lacked the ambitious audacity put behind the design of Ulduar and there aren't many encounters that feel memorable, The Lich King being a fortunate exception.
The WotlK raiding experience would likely have been better if Blizzard didn't try so many things, at least after 3.1. I mean, the rehash of Naxx wasn't the end of the world, they explored an interesting concept with the Obsidian Sanctum. Climbing the difficulty levels from 0 to 3 dragons felt great, the fight was altered, and it was rewarding. They extended the concept with Ulduar and from my perspective, it has been the pinnacle of WoW raiding since 2004 : every player could get in, you had optional bosses, variety, good rewards (even a Legendary!) and the difficulty and accessibility never reached so many guilds. The concept of hard modes triggered in original manners, sometimes offering up to 5 difficulty levels with appropriate rewards, is precisely the design Blizzard should of kept (albeit with a limited number of bosses).
Why they purposely regressed with ToC, I cannot fathom. You'd think a 5-boss instance would be the perfect opportunity to offer original bosses, while exploring new avenues for hard modes. Instead, not only have they recycled old stuff, but worse, they chose to offer two difficulties : ''pug-level'' and ''hardcore''. I mean, wait, what? That's so silly. So incredibly silly. I would have preferred 3.2's raid content not to exist at all and see 3.3 buffed or released earlier, than receive this silly slap. Then they totally scrap Ulduar's design of hard modes and go on with Icecrown linear-modes, which do not even unlock hard modes right away for guilds who faceroll normal mode. Blizzard's gating the content but in a bad way. =/
This is why I'm skeptical about the future of raiding and Cataclysm. They had it right and changed their mind. That's not to say they lack the talent and expertise to pull off an ''Ulduar-move'' again. But I deplore the odds the raiding experience will further suffer from unwarranted experimentation.
I used to. Had a 80 bloodelf dk and dwarf huntard(Hunters roll on all teh loot!!)
Sometimes I still miss playing it.. I dont know. Time constraints forced me to quit. I also sucked at pvp:/ but I loved it, Palas would roflstomp me.
The call to arms song track definitely brings back those memories
I never made any money from professions lol. I used to sell pets. What were their names...hmm...That elite raptor, In the barrens..
Made like 10k selling that.
Best moment was when I built my engineering chopter. Ah, best best moment!!!.
I also had a guild. 120 members.
Maybe I`ll try Cataclysm someday. Looks to be pretty cool.
I'm actually kind of scared to get back into WoW...I was 12, until I was 14 I basically wasted my life on that game...From the time school was finished to bed time it was World of Warcraft. Like it really looks cool, but I seriously need help with portion control. T_T
I did play for about 3 years, from right before BC to Ulduar. Realized that the game took too much of my time thanks to my addictive personality, and quit. Now i have a job to take all my time =/
i did the get the first hunter to 80 achievement tho...... so... much.... grats.... spam.....
I'm actually kind of scared to get back into WoW...I was 12, until I was 14 I basically wasted my life on that game...From the time school was finished to bed time it was World of Warcraft. Like it really looks cool, but I seriously need help with portion control. T_T
If you had fun playing the game and meeting with other players, do not regret that time. Even if you wish you played less.
Times goes, it's okay, you have so much more ahead of you. Keep the good memories. And explore new avenues.
Played as a rogue since vanilla. Loved the class ever since. Played BC but never quite killed Illidan - although our guild did. Never downed that really final boss, forgot the name. Tried returning to WotLK but this time as a priest, meh, good times but never quite felt the same as pre-BC and BC. I have to say our guild really had a hard time because our people played as casuals although our core were serious raiders. Also internet boss had the best of us. I guess my greatest achievement in WoW was I had the best 2s team in our server during the Vengeful Season (3). I was also rank 4 in our battlegroup (BG9).during the same time.
Aura - Rogue - Kil'Jaeden server
Funnystars - Priest - Jubei'thos server
Thinking of starting a 10 man casual guild with my old pals during Cata. Meh, but who knows, I love making SC2 maps.
played it casually since the Beta. IMO, Vanilla days were the best days, when patch 1.3 cane out. The old Honor system was funky, but I liked it. I also loved the Title system that came with it.
Leveling wasn't as slow as other old school MMOs but compared to now? Was a snails pace. Several months to get a nice geared 60 was considered fucking fast. Every level from beyond level 20 felt amazing. Every bracket in PvP felt worthy. And, for the most part, every instance was complex because they were so large and daunting. But, there rewards for your endurance was well worth it. There were also old hat tricks, like, rumors that your warrior could level weapon skill faster if he was using Intell gear. Each stat had a use by ALL classes back then. I remember having an Agi Warrior back in the day. That crap wouldn't work now. No individuality anymore. Back then, you could be pretty different, mix a spec up, get some crazy gear types and still be formidable and unique. The leveling experience grew you into your character. Now? You just rush to 80 as quick as possible or else you quit. You skip all that growing, and all the exploring. The different brackets of PvP adventures, the social friendships formed while WALKING, yes WALKING to BRD or Wailing Caverns.
As time went on, WoW got easier and easier. IDC what you all say, but WoW is very little skill, at least now; for the simple purpose of Blizzard trying to attract more and more players. WoW is an Everyone's game, almost like it's the Wii of MMOs. Everyone can play it, even the fucking retards (which now a days there are just so many of them). BC was an absolute horrible expansion. With it's release, Metzen had to cough up apologies for the loop holes and misdirections of the Lore and Storyline we had been following since Orcs and Humans. The Instances got small, dainty and easier. There were rewards every where that were easy to achieve so any sense of accomplishment was only felt by one rare ass drop? Or Black Temple raids. Then, Enter Wrath. Good expansion but so many game changes made the game even easier. By then, in PvP, you had throngs of what we all called "Welfare" gear. To get your mounts, all the newbies only had to pay a couple hundred gold where back in the day it cost thousands (all the vets wished we could have a refund since auction houses are so recently inflated). With so much free shit? It's like, wtf? why try? While the instances and shite were overall, a little better and at least, prettier, they were still easy as shit.
Over all, Raiding wasn't all that appealing to me. I'm a competitive player, thus PvP is the only real "skill" show I believe in. Raiding did nothing for your PvP. I could beat your T10.5 ass with arena gear rather handedly, just because that's how it's supposed to be I guess. Raiding is like playing a solo game with many people, and it still suffers the same effects as such. What is it that was said in an old strat guide for Brood War? "Once you figure out how to beat the computer, it's just over. But versus another human? Another player? It's totally different". The only complicated thing about raids is the IQ range of your Raid group.
The lasting promise of WoW was it's PvP, which did take skill. Actual Arena combat, with real players is exhilarating, but due to whining involved, and the fact that Characters need to be balanced both Raid wise and PvP wise, Blizzard has never been able to balance all the class types. There's is a lot of injustice with each class. Still, I've got a lot of respect for the Arena guys/gals. Despite the complications with the game design, they still find the skill and prowess to combat very well in-game, no matter the Nerf.
I believe the title system linked to Battlegrounds is making a return. Ranges from ''Corporal'' to ''Marshal'' (Alliance) and ''Grunt'' to ''General'' (Horde).
I don't think the leveling experience has gotten any worse. Following the XP cap reductions, perhaps the heirlooms are 'overkill' in that they unnecessarily shorten the path further, but that's up for debate. If anything, the quests are now more varied, new zones are being added while the old ones are getting a second life, there are more pets and items and dungeons than ever. This is not to say I don't hear you about the LFG changes — instant-summoning doesn't feel right to me neither, yet many appreciate the feature.
What can we say? It's the game evolving. For every move Blizzard takes, there are players to raise their thumb and players to mourn the change. And, honestly, I don't think anyone's really right or wrong about it ; there are wishes that are mutually exclusive. You like the Arenas, I think they're the bane of WoW as I believe Blizzard should have always put more emphasis on Battlegrounds as far as PvP is concerned, for a multitude of reasons — but hey, they're here to stay and it's fine.
Let's be honest to ourselves : we like or dislike the direction WoW is taking because we fit in a certain crowd. I can see why some players prefer shorter dungeons. I can see why hard-earned rewards are appreciated. I can understand why the concept of Hero classes is frown upon. I can regret the feeling of epicness some 40-man raids provided. I can even hate Blizzard's choice to shrug off Ulduar's originality when dealing with hard modes in profit of a linear drop-box and number tweaks. But all of this, is not due to the game getting worse, catering to casuals, or what have you — we grow up as players and our interests do not always match a game's direction, that is all.
@Pimpmunkeh: Go
If you claim PvP is the only thing in the game that requires skill, why do you even care if questing requires more or less skill in the first place?
Ah well, at least you're not claiming Blizzard has oversimplified the entire game including raids without actually having downed anything past 4/12 normal IcC.
I love my old PvP rank/title. I didn't PvP much but I went through a period were all I wanted to do was kill other players.
I think one reason I got burned out so fast in LK, was because they stopped bringing that creativity to the boss fights that they used to. There have been some amazingly fun bosses in LK, but nothing like Vanilla days, or even TBC. Of course, it's hard to come up with new ways to challenge your players.
Lvl 80 mage and death knight. Valaraukador is the Mage Cyrukh is the DK Both Horde and on the server Korgath I was part my guild's main raiding group and was one of the better geared raiders in the guild, until some circumstances forced me from raiding. I haven't played in a while but I think I might return in cataclysm. (I had framerate issues with my old computer so this will be a nice change)
Honestly, I thought Wrath of the Lich King was kinda boring. But I do enjoy the leveling speeds. The slowness of leveling in Vanilla and TBC and unbearable for me and caused me to quit the game like 3 times before I reached 70 (which took me around a year or more). It was soo boring :/ I think I enjoyed raiding in BC more than in WotLK, but it might've been because I was in a guild that struggled through content and so each victory meant more. IDk, I'm just rambling : /
I found Ulduar really interesting and the Mimiron encounter, amazing. Of course, it was hands down the best instance of WotlK and no amount of awesomeness can excuse the fiasco known as ''Trial of the Crusader''. Icecrown Citadel, while not a bad raid by any means, lacked the ambitious audacity put behind the design of Ulduar and there aren't many encounters that feel memorable, The Lich King being a fortunate exception.
The WotlK raiding experience would likely have been better if Blizzard didn't try so many things, at least after 3.1. I mean, the rehash of Naxx wasn't the end of the world, they explored an interesting concept with the Obsidian Sanctum. Climbing the difficulty levels from 0 to 3 dragons felt great, the fight was altered, and it was rewarding. They extended the concept with Ulduar and from my perspective, it has been the pinnacle of WoW raiding since 2004 : every player could get in, you had optional bosses, variety, good rewards (even a Legendary!) and the difficulty and accessibility never reached so many guilds. The concept of hard modes triggered in original manners, sometimes offering up to 5 difficulty levels with appropriate rewards, is precisely the design Blizzard should of kept (albeit with a limited number of bosses).
Why they purposely regressed with ToC, I cannot fathom. You'd think a 5-boss instance would be the perfect opportunity to offer original bosses, while exploring new avenues for hard modes. Instead, not only have they recycled old stuff, but worse, they chose to offer two difficulties : ''pug-level'' and ''hardcore''. I mean, wait, what? That's so silly. So incredibly silly. I would have preferred 3.2's raid content not to exist at all and see 3.3 buffed or released earlier, than receive this silly slap. Then they totally scrap Ulduar's design of hard modes and go on with Icecrown linear-modes, which do not even unlock hard modes right away for guilds who faceroll normal mode. Blizzard's gating the content but in a bad way. =/
This is why I'm skeptical about the future of raiding and Cataclysm. They had it right and changed their mind. That's not to say they lack the talent and expertise to pull off an ''Ulduar-move'' again. But I deplore the odds the raiding experience will further suffer from unwarranted experimentation.
Ran MC a bit last night with two friends.
Two bindings dropped in one of the runs.
My mage got 'em.
Now to figure out how the hell I'm gonna get the elementium...
I dreamed a friend of mine reintroduced me to WoW.
I now want my night back. If anything, let me dream about Starcraft!
(Dreaming about medics can get pretty sweet. See by the 1m50s mark for reference.)
I'm actually kind of scared to get back into WoW...I was 12, until I was 14 I basically wasted my life on that game...From the time school was finished to bed time it was World of Warcraft. Like it really looks cool, but I seriously need help with portion control. T_T
This thread is tl;dr!
I did play for about 3 years, from right before BC to Ulduar. Realized that the game took too much of my time thanks to my addictive personality, and quit. Now i have a job to take all my time =/
i did the get the first hunter to 80 achievement tho...... so... much.... grats.... spam.....
If you had fun playing the game and meeting with other players, do not regret that time. Even if you wish you played less.
Times goes, it's okay, you have so much more ahead of you. Keep the good memories. And explore new avenues.
Played as a rogue since vanilla. Loved the class ever since. Played BC but never quite killed Illidan - although our guild did. Never downed that really final boss, forgot the name. Tried returning to WotLK but this time as a priest, meh, good times but never quite felt the same as pre-BC and BC. I have to say our guild really had a hard time because our people played as casuals although our core were serious raiders. Also internet boss had the best of us. I guess my greatest achievement in WoW was I had the best 2s team in our server during the Vengeful Season (3). I was also rank 4 in our battlegroup (BG9).during the same time.
Aura - Rogue - Kil'Jaeden server Funnystars - Priest - Jubei'thos server
Thinking of starting a 10 man casual guild with my old pals during Cata. Meh, but who knows, I love making SC2 maps.
Cataclysm login music
Epic..
I only played WoW till level 9, then I got bored of it and quit.