The Old WoW monkey is on me back......

Pipboy2000

I haven't played this game for about 8 months now. I was a huge addict before BC came out, Nax, Aq40, MC, BWL all that cleared... master warrior tanker. After BC came out though I was left in the dust by my clan... took a month break. When I came bacj everyone I knew was level 70 and leveling by yourself trading in dreadnaught for greens, was just too much for me to take. I quit, then about 2 months later I rerolled a orc rouge on a deadish server and got to 70. But since it was pretty dead getting groups as a rouge was like looking for a needles in a hay stack. I then gave away all of my gold and quit again. I then made one more feeble attempt with a hunter a few months down the line, but stopped.   Recently I've been playing UT3, Crysis, CoD4, Bioshock... all great games, but they dont fill that MMORPG void. I'm looking forward to WAR, but thats a bit far off.

Thats the back story. The main question is what has really changed in the past 8 months, I think stopped the patch before the patch where they shortend leveling times from 20-60 and added stuff in duskwallow. So I'm pretty out of the loop and since you cant make a post on the WOW forums w/o being a subcriber I just wanted to know what had changed. Also other things as to what characters are low right, whats good, whats bad. What classes are on top, whats the highest instance right now? Just general info about what's been going down. Is the leveling increase really noticeable? If I were to come back I'd probably just totally restart on another server and bite the bullet.  Any info or help would be much appreciated, thank you.  

 

retrospectic

Originally posted by Pipboy2000


Thats the back story. The main question is what has really changed in the past 8 months, I think stopped the patch before the patch where they shortend leveling times from 20-60 and added stuff in duskwallow. So I'm pretty out of the loop and since you cant make a post on the WOW forums w/o being a subcriber I just wanted to know what had changed. Also other things as to what characters are low right, whats good, whats bad.
I hear a lot of complaints from Shamans, but that's nothing 8 months has changed.  Right now I'd say hunters, warlocks, druids, and priests having gotten significant buffs.  They make up a large portion of arena teams, and have been getting some PvE oriented buffs as well.  That being said, I think all classes have been getting tweaked towards player requests as of late.
What classes are on top, whats the highest instance right now?
Black Temple is still the most difficult instance.  Patch 2.4, which comes out soon, is going to release a new Sunwell themed instance that will take the spot as top difficulty.  As far as 10-mans, Zul'Aman is the hardest 10-man.  It has a timed event much like the baron strat run, and it takes a very focused and geared group of 10 to accomplish.  As for heroics, I'd say that most of them have been nerfed and changed to require a limited amount of difficulty.  With 2.4, Old Hillsbrad will be seeing a nerf, thankfully.  That was previously the most difficult run, imo.  Also with 2.4 a new 5-man non-heroic and heroic dungeon will be launched.  It will supposedly be the hardest 5-man and has epic loot in both versions.
Just general info about what's been going down. Is the leveling increase really noticeable?
The leveling adjustments are VERY noticeable.  I have recently leveled an alt from 1 - 60.  The grind took a considerably short amount of time post-nerf.  Also, the leveling exp nerf was not the only change.  Most elite quests from 20 - 60 have been changed to non-elite, and many world elites have been changed to non-elite.  The dwarfs near Tarren Mill and Southshore, for example, have had all of their quests changed to non-elite and are easily soloable.
I'd say that a good leveler can easily get to 60 in a week and some change.
If I were to come back I'd probably just totally restart on another server and bite the bullet.  Any info or help would be much appreciated, thank you.  
You might want to check which battlegroup your server of choice is on.  I can't recall, but certain battlegroups are more competitive and favor a side for battlegrounds.  I know that my battlegroup sees far fewer horde victories than others. 
Other than that, make a post on this forum if you decide to roll and find if any users play there.  I play on Perenolde, and I'm always willing to help returning players get bags and enough gold to make the beginning suck less.
 

 

Pappy13

 

Originally posted by Pipboy2000


I haven't played this game for about 8 months now. I was a huge addict before BC came out, Nax, Aq40, MC, BWL all that cleared... master warrior tanker. After BC came out though I was left in the dust by my clan... took a month break. When I came bacj everyone I knew was level 70 and leveling by yourself trading in dreadnaught for greens, was just too much for me to take. I quit, then about 2 months later I rerolled a orc rouge on a deadish server and got to 70. But since it was pretty dead getting groups as a rouge was like looking for a needles in a hay stack. I then gave away all of my gold and quit again. I then made one more feeble attempt with a hunter a few months down the line, but stopped.   Recently I've been playing UT3, Crysis, CoD4, Bioshock... all great games, but they dont fill that MMORPG void. I'm looking forward to WAR, but thats a bit far off.
Thats the back story. The main question is what has really changed in the past 8 months, I think stopped the patch before the patch where they shortend leveling times from 20-60 and added stuff in duskwallow. So I'm pretty out of the loop and since you cant make a post on the WOW forums w/o being a subcriber I just wanted to know what had changed. Also other things as to what characters are low right, whats good, whats bad. What classes are on top, whats the highest instance right now? Just general info about what's been going down. Is the leveling increase really noticeable? If I were to come back I'd probably just totally restart on another server and bite the bullet.  Any info or help would be much appreciated, thank you.  
 

While a lot has changed, much of it is still the same and since you have tried several times to start back up, I can't really think of anything that has been added in the last 8 months that would make you change your mind this time.  I'm not trying to tell you not to try it again, I just don't think you should get your hopes up too high.

 

But to answer some of your questions, yes the leveling change is very noticeable.  It takes about on average 2 hours to gain a level almost all the way up to level 60.  Once you hit 70 it's probably a bit more like 4 hours or something.  Sometimes more and sometimes less just depending on exactly what you are doing as some quests go very fast and others take longer.  What I have found though is that since leveling seems to be faster, you don't need to do as many quests.  I find myself dropping or just not even taking quests which I know are time consuming and just doing the ones I know I can complete fairly quickly or I enjoy.  With the additional quests that were added to Dustwallow Marsh, there's really more quests then are needed to level even without doing any grinding whatsoever.  It's also made sticking to one continent or the other easier.  You really don't have to do a lot of boat/Zeppelin riding back and forth, you can stick to either Kalimdor or the Eastern Kingdoms for the most part and level all the way to 60 if you like.  At least it's that way for the Alliance which I play primarily.

A 10 man instance called Zul'Aman was also added in the alst patch and In the next patch which should be released very soon they will be adding another 5 man and 25 man instance in a new area called Sunwell Isle.  I don't really know much about them at this point.

Debates on classes have gone on for 3 years and it's constantly changing.  I think just about every class has had it's time on the top at one time or another and I'm sure it will continue that way as people find new ways to spec and it becomes all the rage for a while until something new comes along.  In my opinion, every class has as at least 1 or 2 very viable builds no matter whether your like PvE or PvP, so there's plenty of variety.

Nadia

if you do reroll

 

new PVE server, Cairne,  launched last week

 

its the 1st new server in over a year -- that has no transfers

RomanStoic

zzccmmmk