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So after about a three year break, I broke down and bought Pandaland
Foomerang
Member UncommonPosts: 5,628
It has been a while since I played this game. I wanted to play with some old friends and just kind of revisit my favorite Disc Priest. I remember hitting 85 in Cata and getting all my PvP gear, maxed out my professions. And as I waited for the new season, I kind of felt like I was done. But its been a while, so I figured what the hell, drop 20 bucks and see whats goin on.
I left on a good note. Satisfied. But a lot has changed since I left. I dont know what it is, but the game feels way more flimsy than I remember. Movement is turbo speed, jumping feels floaty. The core abilities are all still there and they feel about the same, which is nice. But with the new talent tree (or lack thereof), everything feels very automated.
I have about a billion passives that just "happen" whenever I push a button. For example, when I hit Power Word: Shield, I get a haste buff, a run speed buff, trinket proc. Hit penance, i get grace, divine insight, another trinket proc. cast smite, evangelism, some other timer...i dont know.
I push three buttons in about 2 seconds and my screen explodes. My characters has more sparklies and flashes going off all around her. My buff bar is full of shit on timers, my action bar has various abilities with big sparkly borders around abilities t wants me to push for some proc I got.
I dont know. It feels very...cheap? Automatic maybe. Like a f2p game or something. SO much eye candy it seems to get muddled into an ugly mess.
The core gameplay is still there, buried under a mountain of flash that feels unnervingly self congratulatory.
Maybe I was gone too long. The charm is lost on me. The world feels dated. Graphics look tired. The tongue in cheek humor in the quests feel overworked and forced.
Perhaps I really am done with this one. Kind of bittersweet. I will play to 90 for the next month...maybe haha.
I log off and head back to FFXIV and I can hear my eyes saying, "THANK YOU!"
ANyway, just wanted to share that even in WoW, it seems like you cant go home anymore. Which is a little sad. But also kind of nice. Like some closure or something. But I do miss my old disc priest, and I really miss my old affliction warlock from tbc.
Comments
Ya! I just did that as well. Got a good deal for Panda AND the new exp coming out. Love the fact I get a lvl 90 character right away. I've played a little so far game has changed a lot since I played 2 1/2 years ago. Seems more BASIC! I'm probably not gonna play till December though, will wait for EXP!
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I understand that feeling pretty well OP. If you do keep playing and get yourself WOD it is even worst then that in this next xpac.
Every class change in that xpac. Some skills or talent got removed ( like a lot of them ) They got change into passives and some spells ( mendatory for some ) moved into talents. Other change to spec specific .
eg : fire mage dont have frost nova anymore and nothing replaces it. We also lost Ice lance, etc.
Hit, expertise and other stats removed completely and some other got there name change and value change also.
Lots can still change from now to release but i doubt it regarding what i mention in this post.
Fun time i am telling you.
P.S. did i mention in flex you wont get anymore of those set gears? only regular purple gear now no more sets. And also spirit was taking away from most gear pieces except a few. ( weapons have none anymore i think i still need to double check this one ).
I also heard that threat was taken away from tanking abilities in the xpac. SO if you are a tank, threat is just a passive ability. Hadnt heard about spirit. Its kind of unfortunate.
Each class seems to vary a lot. I'm perfectly fine with nothing missing from my Windwalker(DPS) monk, the only thing I lost on the beta server is the ability to drop healing spheres manually, but they seem to pop up more in combat so I guess it evens out. I feel like a Fire mage shouldn't have frost nova or ice lance, but I don't play as a mage myself. All the stuff they were given in the tail-end of Burning Crusade seemed ridiculous.
You are braver than I. I quit WOW when TBC launched as I didn't care for the direction the game was heading, and came back briefly (for a month) to try out Cata which confirmed my worst assumptions, the game really did go in a direction I don't like so I logged off for the last time.
I've seen Pandaland played a few times, still doesn't look interesting but for those who enjoy theme parks its probably still one of the best games out there.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
OP seems (to me) as an excuse to give one up to FFXIV. Luckily for millions 'looks' are not an issue and when it comes to game play and content WOW shines.
I too have gone back to WoW recently. My original run was Jan '05 through March '13. Went back for a couple of months from Oct-Dec '13 and then came back at the end of July of this year. So the changes weren't a shock to my system as they most likely were for you, since I had 5 90 level characters before I left WoW the first time. I went back after playing Wildstar, and well played WS made me want to go back to WoW, which is a much better themepark experience imo.
The reason for the flashes and screen indicators for many abilities now was in response to the many mods that people had to run for raids and what not. Blizzard basically added their own version of spellflash, and weakauras into the game itself. While it may feel "cheap" to you, it was a pretty requested feature by the playerbase. As Blizzard makes more and more complicated boss fights, and more and more abilities procing off other abilities, the more and more mods the playerbase needed to track everything. While the mods still do a better job (since they are configurable), the Blizzard version of the auras and spellflash were put in as a quality of life change.
Additionally, yes it's true that Blizzard is pruning many abilities for all classes and spec in the next expansion back. Many of the changes are there to fight button bloat (which has gotten really out of hand for many classes and specs), and to deal with some of the more monotonous things in WoW. I can't recall dealing with hit caps in other mmos aside from wow...ever.
Some of the other changes seemingly are for adding more "flavor" to specific classes and specs. Fire mages losing abilities like frost nova and blizzard were done to add more flavor of the fire mage being a specialist with fire spells. Frost lost many fire spells as well.
Blizzard explains things pretty well in their beta patch notes http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/13423478/warlords-of-draenor%E2%84%A2-beta-patch-notes-august-1-8-1-2014.
Whether or not the individual likes the changes or not is entirely up to them. Personally, I find them to be pretty refreshing.
I blame the children. Sorry, but kids have such a short attention span these days that I can barely keep their attention long enough to spank their ass. EVERYTHING is easier. I think back and I remember the spreadsheets of data and formulas and raid compositions and theorycrafting. I honestly spent at LEAST an hour a day with my nose in a spreadsheet, either planning a raid, updating calculators, talent trees, etc., helping out guildies to figure out builds.
These days it's like all done for them. So why create complexity that is simply being crunched and condensed and minimalized with a few simple questions through a form online? Shoot, I got my son a rubik's cube for Christmas. I was like, "Yeah! Now you can feel the pain I did when I was growing up!!" Like an hour later he comes upstairs and it was done. I was thinking, "OMG my son is a genius!!". I said, "That's crazy! Awesome job!" and his response is, "Yeah, I couldn't figure it out, so I just googled it. It's actually pretty easy."
It's really hard to imagine a game these days where achievement is synonymous with hard work. I remember being like, "crap! I really want that sword, but then I need to level my swords." That sucked! But when you did it, it's not like it jump up and blew you like it does these days. ACHIEVEMENT! Your sword skill is now 5...... ACHIEVEMENT!!! Your sword skill is now 10.....
That being said, I'm still playing it. Much of it isn't even about content any more, it's just because I'm invested in the lore. I was hoping WoD might get a throwback to some more difficulty content (outside raids), but it's not looking that way. I'm not all that concerned, though. I usually just do Raid Finder content anyway, since it's easier at my continuously advancing age. Can't wait to see if The Repopulation might be the answer to some of my needs for mental stimulation.
Crazkanuk
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Azarelos - 90 Hunter - Emerald
Durnzig - 90 Paladin - Emerald
Demonicron - 90 Death Knight - Emerald Dream - US
Tankinpain - 90 Monk - Azjol-Nerub - US
Brindell - 90 Warrior - Emerald Dream - US
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After playing other MMOs, it always feels like that for me when i go back to WoW.
The game is just old, with technical limitations due to it's engine. If they wanted to, they could change it drastically in a radical new direction, to keep it up to date with new MMOs, but they would just be better off creating WoW 2, or just another MMO entirely, such as Diablo.
I dont play FFXIV for the combat. So that should help you understand.
Anyway, I went through the paces. Hit 90 and maxed my professions, which was surprisingly fast. Went to timeless isle and zerged silver elites for a couple days and got completely epic'd out which was alarmingly fast. Did a couple of the new bgs, healed some heroics. Disc felt pretty good after a while. Not too far off from before. But I still prefer the old talent tree style. Reforged, gem sockets, enchants, sitting at around 28000 spell power which is ridiculous and over half a mil health haha. So I did what any old school WoW player would do. Solo'd every raid up through ICC. Been able to do almost all of them. SOme of the Ulduar mechanics are a hard barrier but Ive been looking up other ways to get around them.
Anyway, it was cool to see all those raids that I never got to see. Just walk in and mow em down. Scratched an itch. Now Im done.
I think I will pass on the expac.
I actually quit for 3 years as well, came back 3 months ago, and played for 2 or so.
My conclusion was quite opposite, i felt that the game controlled smoothly, still held up fantastically graphics wise ( Though I've always been a fan of cartoony ) and loved the way character control felt.
That said the content was just to boring and to much of the same for me to keep playing, but it was fun while it lasted.
I think the thing I liked most about my revisit is being able to mount up and just fly across huge continents. I really miss that in FFXIV. The irony, though, is that when I log off WoW and log onto FFXIV, I miss the open zones but my eyes just breathe a sigh of relief.
I remember watching a sunset in WoW back in the day. I thought it was cool. Sunsets in FFXIV are just epic. I guess WoWs just not where Im at anymore. And thats ok. The game still offers exactly what a lot of people want. Just not really for me anymore.
I mean, Ive been gaming for 35+ years. Killing shit is kinda meh. I like doing other types of things in video games. More creative, social, interactive, blah blah. I wont say Im "past" killing stuff because that would a) be a lie and b) be condescending.
I just want to do other things more than killing. FFXIV offers me that.
If bloated numbers matter to you, there's a stat squish in WoD; an LFR-geared 90 has 60k HP, and you go up to about 90k in the level 95 range(haven't hit lv100 cap with all the beta resets)
Will old raids scale with that as well? Or is this the golden time to solo old raid content?
It's weird but i think i'm the exact opposite position right now. Was a huge FF fan and played XI pretty hardcore for years before moving on to XIV. I had never played WoW despite being a huge "hater" of the game overall, mostly due to it's accessibility.
After reaching cap on a few jobs in XIV, i realized that it just wasn't the game i was hoping for. Perhaps it was due to all my favorite classes not being in the game such as Dark Knight, Samurai, and Ninja (i know it's coming). Or perhaps it was the pace of combat with what i felt was a ridiculously slow GCD. In all honesty, i didn't like any of the classes and the ones that were alright were not able to be played how i wanted. No dps warrior? Really?
This got me to try WoW on a whim about 8 months ago. I hated the art style and the player base long before i even logged in but i went for it anyways. I now see what all the fuss is about as far as combat goes. It's responsive and just feels right to me. I also enjoy all the classes and the ability to play each class three different ways. Stances are something XIV desperately needs in my opinion. I'm a huge proponent of letting players play the class they enjoy but the way they want to.
Now i personally hate having to level alts. This is by far my favorite aspect of XI and XIV with the ability to level every class/job on one character. It allows someone to make a name for themselves instead of hiding behind a dozen different ones. If you love alts, then the possibility to do so is still there but you're not forced to in order to level another class.
I also see what all the fuss is about as far as the different feels of the expansions. I absolutely hate the Vanilla/BC zones and art while i absolutely love everything about Wrath. ICC and Ulduar are amazing is size and scope and i really wish i got to experience them in their prime. Having my favorite class introduced in that expansion doesn't hurt either i suppose.
Somewhere between XI - XIV - WoW is the perfect game for me.
i remember the pre-event to Cata with Gnomergan
http://www.wowwiki.com/Operation:_Gnomeregan
the pre-event was heavily phased and my friend was happily saying that most the leveling content was going to be phased like this
i told her I hated the "solo" phased questing and Cata would be the first expansion i had no intention of buying
I did buy Cata anyhow (after making a deal w my friend that she had to play EQ2 for 2 weeks if i bought Cata)
but i hated Cata
EQ2 fan sites
PVP combat and lack of any skill tree customization was a deal breaker. I maxed out a few classes and got their skill ups fairly casually. Keep in mind I had quit right before CATA came out thinking I would hate the changes. I was right.
The best thing to me was the CATA starting zones, it was downhill into Panda hell from there. There really is not a skill tree anymore merely a select your avatar option. So after selecting your avatars specialization and doing the shallow pigeonholed combat you get your gear up. After you get your gear score up to a tolerable level you start either doing serious raiding or rated pvp. The game itself though. Non rated BGs have become a WALL of overgeared people in tweaked heirlooms so the casuals have no pvp fun zone anymore. Lack of any world pvp and dead cities makes this even more noticeable. Danger and risk have been removed in favor of flying over everything. I think I actually had more fun in Area 52 than any of the new zones since everyone is fighting while buying transmogs. Which btw Transmogs have Broken the market more than goldsellers ever could. They have taken all the fun elements as well as all the challenge and removed them from the game. On top of that, next expansion they are essentially removing all CC, there will be less cc than in Vanilla. So its just going to be, Gw2 with better maps.