World of Warcraft: Current Year

Zish

Trakanon Raider
46
20
They haven't even announced the next expansion. We still have at least another year to go.
That doesn't mean we're not nearing the end.

We were in ICC for a year, but the expansion itself was done 3 months after ICC was released.
 

OneofOne

Silver Baronet of the Realm
6,605
8,042
Do they think that it's taking too long? or did they do some kind of numbers, and feel that there are not enough characters at level 90?
I'm not sure how this is even possible. If there's an easier game in which to hit max level, I've not heard of it. And now make it faster? Does not compute.
 

Kuro

Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
8,348
21,210
43+ dailies each day for the first month pretty much burnt out any desire I ever had to level an alt.

That, and the reality of tokens/loot composition in a steady 10-man raid group meaning there might be one other class I'd ever be able to potentially play without screwing up the raid's loot balance.
 

Dom_sl

shitlord
266
0
That doesn't mean we're not nearing the end.

We were in ICC for a year, but the expansion itself was done 3 months after ICC was released.
I'm not sure what crazy time-vortex you live in that you think Cata was "done" 9 months before it released, but that aside: Cata saw them lose so many people not just because of how easy it was to gear out alts, but because it was stupid easy to max out your entire character list with all max levels, completely eliminating the "I still have some alts to level" carrot that contributes to keeping people subbed. Not to mention that people are going to become even more frustrated with the pacing of the current daily grind and LFR ilvl reqs once it becomes an issue for multiple characters instead of just their main and their secondary characters, possibly contributing to burnout.

I am a HUGE alt guy, so this benefits me, but I still recognize that it's just too early for this. Do it a month into 5.4 or something so people feel like they have a chance to max out all their characters for the next xpack, but certainly not a year (likely more) before the next xpack.
 

Caeden

Silver Baronet of the Realm
7,359
11,887
I think the next expac releases in February at latest. I'm betting against all logic though.
 

Dom_sl

shitlord
266
0
They also are reducing the # of lesser charms for rune turn ins to 50.
And they'll drop off of 90+ mobs in 5.3 as well, so I think we'll see a return of logging onto an alt each day, running a heroic for VP/Daily Rep/Charms, and the occasional LFR. A heroic each day will pretty much cover everything your alt needs.
 

Bizazedo

Lord Nagafen Raider
75
46
I think they're trying to make a dynamic balance for alts. That and the content is slowly funneling. In reality you have one rep and a fuckton of dungeons now for alts so I'm somewhat surprised by this too. I guess some folks grind reps on alts. I barely do on my main.
Feels like this is the answer. They're trying to slide the bar, as it were. Let the hardcores and regular, non retarded players hit a certain level and then balance the see-saw to let others catch up.

It does feel too early, though, but they have data we don't......I'd assume. That and on other forums where more casuals play they were whining about not being able to hit 90 lesser coins a week.

I dunno.
 

Cybsled

Avatar of War Slayer
16,441
12,089
It's easy to hit 90 coins on paper. In practice it's tedious, hence the complaints (especially if you play more than one character). There are other changes as well, like the Test of Valor only requiring 3k valor vs 6k. That's one of the reasons I kinda burnt out on my warlock...it felt like there was a really big valor gate, but this was coupled by insane DPS queues for dungeons/raids which meant it took a much longer time investment vs. a tank or healer char.
 

Needless

Toe Sucker
9,169
3,268
The damage they do is nuts.. jesus christ haha
DK tank has 1.3m health.. yeesh

That fight looked really boring though, that's kind of a shame for a heroic only boss
 

LadyVex_sl

shitlord
868
0
I realize we're on a really fucking slippery slope with "challenge" in this game but I think 7 wipes the first week on a new lfr boss should probably be the standard at least for end-tier bosses. Any less and the fucker might as well bounce around, do a 30 second laser light show, then pull out one of those t-shirt guns and shoot "epics" at people. At this point lfr is barely a fraction of the encounter as is.

If it kills you, just wait a few weeks for the mentally challenged to be Pavloved enough.
This is essentially what LFR already is. Example: First week of the last part of ToT and Iron Qon and Twin Consorts went down like bitches. We actually wiped once on Iron Qon because we weren't running with a full raid (Missing two healers) and couldn't out heal his stomp crap. Twin Consorts literally just keeled over. So you go from that to Lei Shen, which is like, wtf?

The issue with Lei Shen is that it employs a lot of shit like, stand in this or die, don't stand in this or die, stack here or die, don't stack here and die...it's essentially a bunch of opposites used in the same fight. On my hunter alt I died quite a few times just because if no one else stacks with you you are full on taking something you cannot singularly soak. (With cooldowns down.)

I'll be honest, I do like that it's difficult, and that it's the end boss. It's not like Durumu which is like, turn down your fucking particle density and graphics or you can't see the safe shit. So many bosses in ToT are outright fucking retarded easy, then they throw something like that at you and it's like, ugh.

In LFR it has to be retarded easy, because people will not sit around and figure the fight out like your raid group would. They'll get frustrated and leave, meaning that someone new probably comes in on Lei Shen and you have to reteach the raid. The first week we did 7 wipes on Lei Shen before he died, and the raid almost fully reformed FOUR TIMES. I mean from like 5 players to 25 over and over again.

Only my alt does LFR, because LFR is just absolute shit. At this point I cannot figure out if my main is working harder in normal 10 ToT or my alt hunter is in 25 LFR. It's different types, but I'm still the one soaking shit on Lei Shei and grabbing orbs on Horridon, yada yada yada.

Some fights just do not feel fucking tuned. So many abilities are just binary - there's no way to get hit by something really on Lei Shen and survive, which sucks, because when you're collapsing, or stacking etc and no one else is and you're getting just destroyed it's fucking annoying. Being the one with the static shock running into the raid WHILE PEOPLE RUN AWAY FROM YOU makes me want to scream.

With the amount of trash in that instance, with how long the fights are...LFR is definitely a workout, which makes it doubly ridiculous you don't even get a small amount of VP per boss.

This shit is giving me AQ flashbacks, which just tests my gag reflex.
 

Caeden

Silver Baronet of the Realm
7,359
11,887
Having spent all of cata and mop as blood/frost, I tell you unholy plays quite nice and puts out great damage. Just doesn't have the easy mode cleave of frost. I had missed using death coil and ghouls.
 

Morph_hammer

Lord Nagafen Raider
52
1
I'm still holding out for 5.4 in hopes that it's uber. Anymore about it? Rumors?
It's called Siege of Orgrimmar, and the final boss of the expansion will probably be Garrosh in some form.

Rumor has it he has been possessed by a Sha, old god, whatever bullshit, so we can go 2 ways:

1. Beat Garrosh to 1% hp, the Sha/old god relieves control of him and flees, he gives a "finally i see the light again" speech and dies.

2. Beat Garrosh to 1%, the Sha/old god relieves control and we kill it, Garrosh becomes the GOOD GUY warchief again

Either way I don't really enjoy the MoP lore, i prefer the WOTLK lich king badass shit. I'm half expecting Caruso to pop out and kill Garrosh, make a cheesy "He was not prepared" line, put his sunglasses on and YEEEAAAAAHH out of there. The End.
 

Cybsled

Avatar of War Slayer
16,441
12,089
Actually, I don't think it will be the Sha. I think it will tie to the Burning Legion. Garrosh always wanted the glory of the "old" Horde, which was made possible by demonic influence. Mannoroth's blood is what cursed the Orcs and Garrosh wears Mannoroth's remains as armor now. I don't think that is a mere coincidence.

Garrosh dies/whatever and then the big reveal is the Legion is coming (or is already here in some form).
 

Meko

Bronze Knight of the Realm
117
1
I thought there were talks about 5.4 possibly having the MOST content ever etc etc? Did I make that up?