World of Warcraft

[DESSTROYER]

I started playing about a month ago, met good friends online, have a fun, cool guild, alot of things to do, i pay every 6 months instead of monthly, made alts, twink pvp etc . It's the good mmo that caused low budget clones to pop up.

And it didn't change my gaming schedule, i already played enough games, and i don't play any more or less than i used to.

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

Wow hasn't ruined my life at all. I'm diong great at school, got a GF, got loads of friends, some play it, some don't and I'm a raider. So **** all of you, I win.

 

[Javert]

Well I have nothing against WoW being a "time/life-waster". In the grand scheme of things, all games are. But I'd rather be wasting my time on something less derivative and pointless.

 

[Jintor]

I don't follow what you are being sarcastic about.

All game mechanics are repedative. All of them.

My friend quit his subscription this morning - he has more stuff to worry about IRL.

 

[Absinthe]

I don't follow what you are being sarcastic about.

You say that WoW is based on the repetition of actions. Welcome to gaming in general.

Yes, the game is built on the grind. Why is that a bad thing? So long as I'm interested and engaged in the content, who cares? I like pimping out my characters with good gear after a lot of effort. I like toying around with talent calculators and doing research into a spec I'm interested in. I like selling materials in the Trade channel and getting a nice stash of cash in return. Hell, I'm close to finally getting my Netherdrake mount, and while it's been a lot of hard work, I can guarantee you I will be full of nothing but glee when I get it.

 

[phantomdesign]

That's all good until you hit level 70, get your full epics and realize your character's [1] gear [2] spec [3] playstyle is EXACTLY THE SAME as every single other true end-game character.

If you're not the same? You're doing it wrong. Why? Well, blizzard nerfs everything un-ordinary because it's seen as an exploit. The classes that deviate the most from this are rogues and warlocks, but the concept still holds true for them.

 

[Absinthe]

As somebody who has been an end-game raider for a while (or was until I couldn't make most raids on my current schedule), I disagree.

Obviously, you generally need to have established specs for a lot of raiding, but then how else can you have it? Not every spec can be viable or else you dilute the significance of your spec and respeccing. I think a lot of issues with being pigeon-holed can be addressed by simple observation and balancing. Originally, you had to be a Marksman hunter if you were going to be taken along on raids. Come the last big patch with some simple tweaks and increased pet survivability in raids, and now Beast Mastery has become just as viable, if not moreso. The Survival tree is still shafted, but then that's always been more beneficial in PVP. There's almost always a trade-off depending on what you want to do in end-game, be it instances, arenas, or simply grinding for mats and money.

Similar with armor, while the tiered sets are the most obvious choice for endgame raiding, I saw plenty of people outfitted with AQ40 gear back in the day. My current class leader rolls with High Warlord gear and specs quite a bit into the Survival tree for his PVP'ing, yet he puts out more DPS than any other hunter and most casters. So even if most people do end up speccing and gearing the same, it will only get you so far. A lot of people just need to start embracing their own playstyle and strengths (within reason). If you're doing well, you're not likely to get any complaints.

I have my own issues with the game, but that has more to do with its setting and universe. In terms of game mechanics and structure, I have few complaints. You can find a lot of diversity. It's just up to the players if they want to view cookie-cutter specializations as de facto. I really couldn't care, personally. I was the first in my guild to get full Tier 2 just the same as countless others in competing guilds had already done. Did that cheapen my feeling of accomplishment? Not in the slightest.

 

[phantomdesign]

I did all the 70 PVP, arenas, lots of 70-raiding, etc too and hold to my opinion. There are only 2-3 "correct" specs per class & there is only really 2-3 choices for end-game gear (usually PVE & PVP).

The only real difference between the 70-green, 70-blue, 70-epic, 70 "level 115" epic, 70 "level 125" epics is the amount, the stats are all the same.

Sure you can artificially create differences, but 98% of those are less efficient or just stupid.

I'm not saying you're nessecarly wrong, but I do have a difference of perception.

 

[Absinthe]

The eventual pigeon-holing of 2/3 specs is inevitable unless you want to completely dilute content to make every spec viable. There's no way of avoiding that. Is that an inherent flaw in design? Maybe, but I don't see it as so.

Even if we accept that there's a limited selection of viable endgame gear, it's still very much staggered. Everybody progresses at different rates. It was very uncommon for me to see another hunter with a full or near-full tiered set the same as mine. They may be benchmarks, but that doesn't entail that every other "true" endgame character has the same. People are scattered all over the place in progression.

Yes, certain talents and stats are required to be viable in specific areas of endgame content. You'll either be annoyed by that or simply won't care.

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

Ideally each and every class has to balance the following, survivability / DPS / raid viability. Almost each and every class can be broken down this way - though it intermingles and talent trees are never entirely dedicated to any one of these attributes; it's up the the user to decide what best suits his play style. While when WoW was launched players were extremely limited to the one spec that best suits your class; this is certainly not the case anymore.

Nobody who dedicates a good amount of time to this game will tell you there is one particular spec for your class. It's often exaggerated how much you have to invest in polar specs - people cling to talents that are no longer that vital to the end game, or any content in particular anymore.