A Look Back At World of Warcraft in 2020 | MMORPG.com

System · December 2020

A Look Back At World of Warcraft in 2020 | MMORPG.com

Robin takes a look back at World of Warcraft in 2020. There's been many surprises this year, and a lot of things that were fun, but also some moments that weren't so great.

Read the full story here

ILLISET · December 2020

Whenever I play wow now I almost fall asleep at my desk. They need to just make a new MMORPG instead of coming out with content for this.

Horusra · December 2020

Have too much to do in this expansion...need more time.

Nanfoodle · December 2020

Horusra said:

Have too much to do in this expansion...need more time.

Ya so much to do and having a blast doin it.

FrodoFragins · December 2020

I remember the last nail in the coffin for me was M+ group finders and the difficulty in DPS getting in. A recent post I saw seemed even worse with all of the people selling carries.

Does solo Torghast replace M+ at all?

Horusra · December 2020

FrodoFragins said:

I remember the last nail in the coffin for me was M+ group finders and the difficulty in DPS getting in. A recent post I saw seemed even worse with all of the people selling carries.

Does solo Torghast replace M+ at all?

Takes longer but you get good gear from getting soul ash. Max ilvl of 235 I believe.

kitarad · December 2020

Tis is indeed a sad thing when you cannot just play with random strangers and not have to worry about what class you're. It's almost mandatory that you come into an MMORPG with a retinue of friends if you want to just enjoy it. The old way of just partying with strangers you meet is gone and buying carries is an abhorrent development. One that cheapens everything.

Horusra · December 2020

kitarad said:

Tis is indeed a sad thing when you cannot just play with random strangers and not have to worry about what class you're. It's almost mandatory that you come into an MMORPG with a retinue of friends if you want to just enjoy it. The old way of just partying with strangers you meet is gone and buying carries is an abhorrent development. One that cheapens everything.

You talking about 1994? cause pretty much since WoW and others came around DPS always gets the shaft in any Trinity game.

xpsync · December 2020

Looking back? It's still March 2020?

No "Happy New Year" from me this year, at 11:59:59 it'll be "GO F*CK YOURSELF 2020!!!"

I can't believe i'm crafting again, in wow! It matters, so glad it's back.

The Maw, tbh i didn't know what to make of it at first but has become one of my most favorite zones. It's old school, and stygia spending, i love how it alleviates some of its burdens but remains overall a place you need to be cautious in, i mean in EQ2 you always had to work your way into a target, objective and yeah some old school flavor and along with Torghast, it's like a whole other world/game.

I switched to Destruction some time back and was in the Maw getting lost souls and there's this boss just up on the platform. Well i threw my chit into the forge and when i was heading back that way a group was about to take him down so i'm running at that fast as possible smashing conflagrate and a hair a microscopic hair but i must have hit just in time as there was loot sparkles.

WTF is this? Yep my first legendary, in my inventory is Memory of Azj'Aqir's Madness. Now i'm like NOICE!!! and i must have this. So started looking into the crafting, and took tailor, and left mining.

Looking into the crafting i'm like WTF crafting is f'ing thing again? Normally i'd take mining and harvesting use it to make gold and level and when capped basically forget all about it. Now it's an integral part of my alts growth.

Speaking of alts, ofc i had more time to play over the holiday and yeah i mean if you are a one character player and not into raiding or mythic progression, i admit you will run out of stuff to do, "not really" but from certain perspectives yes.

To date i've run maybe half dozen dungeons so far in all, so far more casual, loving the lore, the zones and now with more time ALTS!

Alts totally make Shadowlands SHINE! If you only play 1 character you're only getting 1/4 of the game content. With the extra time i had time for alts, so got my hunter rocking at 56 atm, and i mean right way i took herb and alchemy, and feeding my warlock lightless silk as fast as i can. OMG it's so nice to have a more fleshed out mmorpg again. Sure it's no EQ2 but all steps int eh right direction.

Finally hit 170 on my warlock, like only a few days ago so ofc LFR and all in one run too, i signed up thinking i'd wait for hours i dunno like maybe 15 seconds lol. One run as everything was explained before we started a boss and ofc becasue it's LFR... but as anyone knows they can be harder than a geared out team that knows what they are doing.

Shadowlands can be jarring at times after playing BFA, your IL growth is glacier slow.

I mean at times i feel like someone at blizzard woke the f up. YES, this is f'ing RPG, it's how they work, can't do content get gud and obv better gear then try content again.

I dunno i'm so not into doing any group content all the time, and probably as i way over did that it in BFA and Classic.

So speaking as a casual, the game is amazing. Most of all though i love the glacier slow improvements as it keeps solo content engaging and challenging, chock full of satisfaction of getting out of unheard of jams by knowing your class well. Feeling the incremental, small af, but you feel the improvements, you know the +1 factor.

Then you have my boys, been having their raid stream up while playing at times too, and yeah i dunno as much as i miss that camaraderie, solving with your team, the team work, i must admit i like what i'm doing atm much better? I dunno, maybe later on get tin to that again.

The game has tons of casual content (more if you're into alts), or group or both play styles covered. I mean of the half dozen dungeons which were fun af, challenging, on 2 or 3 runs i got no drop at all. THIS IS SO MUCH BETTER BLIZZ!! Keep on this road. I dunno it's like they are trying to retrain the mmorpg playerbase back to its roots, deep, challenging, slowly as it's going to take time, but gotta start somewhere, right?

FrodoFragins · December 2020

Horusra said:

kitarad said:

Tis is indeed a sad thing when you cannot just play with random strangers and not have to worry about what class you're. It's almost mandatory that you come into an MMORPG with a retinue of friends if you want to just enjoy it. The old way of just partying with strangers you meet is gone and buying carries is an abhorrent development. One that cheapens everything.

You talking about 1994? cause pretty much since WoW and others came around DPS always gets the shaft in any Trinity game.

I never understood why blizzard do what Turbine did with LOTRO and make it 4DPS per tank/healer

xpsync · December 2020

kitarad said:

Tis is indeed a sad thing when you cannot just play with random strangers and not have to worry about what class you're. It's almost mandatory that you come into an MMORPG with a retinue of friends if you want to just enjoy it. The old way of just partying with strangers you meet is gone and buying carries is an abhorrent development. One that cheapens everything.

If that is your first hand experience then that's that, but if you're going with "what people say" then i dunno personally i don't find that at all. I mean all the time, and i mean "ALL" the time i'm grouping up with peeps, you know working in tandem, but not grouped but working on the content together as it's tough af out there.

My one boy pug'd out completion of the raid with strangers as his team only plays twice a week, which works for the one boy but not the other so instead of leaving, he did it all with strangers.

Could be the playing side by side with the other faction or this is just how casuals play as i'm new to this in wow, but factions always seems to work together and on top of that sometimes you work with the other faction even though they or i/we won't get credit on mob, but shit's tough af in many places and gotta work together, with strangers.

Groqstrong · December 2020

For the first time ever i have my first legendary in WoW do to shadowlands. Yes i will admit that it is easier for players but its not a cakewalk either.

Groqstrong · December 2020

kitarad said:

Tis is indeed a sad thing when you cannot just play with random strangers and not have to worry about what class you're. It's almost mandatory that you come into an MMORPG with a retinue of friends if you want to just enjoy it. The old way of just partying with strangers you meet is gone and buying carries is an abhorrent development. One that cheapens everything.

Im in a 900 person guild and all the content ive done leading up to my legendary has been with randoms without buying any carries.

The group finder/maker are pretty easy to use.

vtravi · December 2020

For me personally, this is the best WoW has ever been. The classes are fun to play. The classes are starting to feel different again after years and years of them all seeming the same. They finally have seemed to get the difficulty right. Mythics are easy if you do the mechanics but can become near impossible if your group doesn't get it right. Torghast was the best content I have seen in Wow, until people complained that it was too hard now it is a snore fest that I can just steamroll through unfortunately. I am an average player that is lucky to be in a good guild. We have cleared the raid on normal and are starting Heroic tonight. I am not sure if I am good enough for Heroic but will try until they get sick of me dying. I will keep trying to get better and enjoying myself while I do so.

xpsync · December 2020

vtravi said:

For me personally, this is the best WoW has ever been. The classes are fun to play. The classes are starting to feel different again after years and years of them all seeming the same. They finally have seemed to get the difficulty right. Mythics are easy if you do the mechanics but can become near impossible if your group doesn't get it right. Torghast was the best content I have seen in Wow, until people complained that it was too hard now it is a snore fest that I can just steamroll through unfortunately. I am an average player that is lucky to be in a good guild. We have cleared the raid on normal and are starting Heroic tonight. I am not sure if I am good enough for Heroic but will try until they get sick of me dying. I will keep trying to get better and enjoying myself while I do so.

I've noticed the difficulty remains difficult with the low rate of upgrades, you appreciate higher level gear more and don't become broken within a week or two.

Leveling to 60 is really fun going with threads of fate. The story line intro to 60 was awesome, and plan to do it again, but if you had to do it every time not so much i'd think. ToF is much slower which is a very good thing, and the challenge is quite high.

Unsure but every run i've done (like 6ish heroics) i'm top dps? and not by a little. In the future i plan to look at other players gear, i'm left wondering is it cause i've spent so much time getting to know my classes very well through getting into so many oh shit moments and most of the time pulling a rabbit out of my hat, not always but as i level and learn i dunno it's pretty crazy the situations i'll survive, or are they all lower end gear than i have?

I dunno i just have a feeling it's knowing your class well which matters in Shadowlands, and less than the gear, sure gear matters but you're not facerolling content in a matter of a couple weeks like before.

GreenSage39 · December 2020

Eh, I'm not going to lie. I miss MOP. The immersion was great, quest lines were awesome and everything has gone down hill from there.

It's like you're on rails now, but rails with reinforced bumpers haha. I don't know how to describe it. Maybe that's what Blizzard thinks the next generation needs. More padding for their floaters.

Nanfoodle · December 2020

kitarad said:

Tis is indeed a sad thing when you cannot just play with random strangers and not have to worry about what class you're. It's almost mandatory that you come into an MMORPG with a retinue of friends if you want to just enjoy it. The old way of just partying with strangers you meet is gone and buying carries is an abhorrent development. One that cheapens everything.

That's one of the areas in MMOs I miss that WoW still does. I hate how most MMOs, all classes can fill the same role to the point classes don't matter. Everyone heals and tanks and DPS. I find this model for classes refreshing.

xpsync · December 2020

GreenSage39 said:

Eh, I'm not going to lie. I miss MOP. The immersion was great, quest lines were awesome and everything has gone down hill from there.

It's like you're on rails now, but rails with reinforced bumpers haha. I don't know how to describe it. Maybe that's what Blizzard thinks the next generation needs. More padding for their floaters.

The game has been around for a long time and at some point along the way wow clicked with people during a certain time and place in their life.

It's a huge reason you hear people always go on and on about wrath, yeah it was good but it was a humongous amount of players first love.

Vanilla got mmorpg vets with the "this is easy" lure, hey it sucked me in for month then was boring af compared to complex mmorpg's like SWG and EQ2. Then BC started the catering to casual, and popped the cork on wrath. Word spread, people heard about this fun game called World of Warcraft and checked it out for the first time, first mmorpg love.

SO yes wrath was good, i was there, it's when i hit wow the hardest but it wasn't my first love and tbph it was merely an ok good expansion. Why it seems like the moon to peeps is because it was for many their first love, and for some was the best expansion much like you feel MoP is the best.

I came back for classic as i missed out vanilla playing EQ2 up until late bc then hammered wrath, left at cata buying every expac since and leaving in well under a month, the most i did with wow for a decade was hate on it. Then BOOM vanilla was the chit after all, better than EQ2 during its glory days, not by a long shot, but the world raids were incredibly fun.

The only reason i bought BFA, as it was about to be the first expansion i ever skipped entirely, was my son wanted someone to play with, then his friends came on board and was happy i could stop playing, the game still felt the same, and all the negative things people say i felt too.

Classic came, had an amazing several months in there, then don't ask me i started tinkering with BFA and next thing i knew was hooked af. Leveled all classes to cap, and Shadowlands is an amazing expansion, to me it's so not f'ing old stale wow, why? don't ask me.

All i know is i'm having a fun time and that's all that matters, that's all that counts.

Hiromant · December 2020

It's boring, don't waste your money on it.

xpsync · January 2021

Hiromant said:

It's boring, don't waste your money on it.

Oh damn really? Thanks for letting me know my dude, i'll stop playing immediately... wafi

Panther2103 · January 2021

I really liked the first 3 or 4 weeks of the expansion, but holy crap does running the same 8 mythic + dungeons get boring as hell. Torghast is fun the first few times but just gets tiring as well. I really wish there was meaningful PvP content but the gear earned through PvP is so hard capped due to conquest that it just feels pointless to grind.

Maybe I'll take up pet battles or crafting, that might eat some time away I've never really done either of those things.

xpsync · January 2021

Panther2103 said:

I really liked the first 3 or 4 weeks of the expansion, but holy crap does running the same 8 mythic + dungeons get boring as hell. Torghast is fun the first few times but just gets tiring as well. I really wish there was meaningful PvP content but the gear earned through PvP is so hard capped due to conquest that it just feels pointless to grind.

Maybe I'll take up pet battles or crafting, that might eat some time away I've never really done either of those things.

If you're into alts, you're set, actually you'll be overloaded with content.

In BFA all i did was run dungeons, SL so far, maybe done 4 of the 8?, and in total just over a half dozen runs.

SL is much more of a rpg expansion and if you can do what you want to do and not worry about BiS (which, i know, is a difficult thing to do) and just enjoy doing you, then you'll find this is by far the best wow expansion ever.

On my destruction warlock i have the legendary, Madness of the Azj'Aqir, it dropped outta nowhere in that i wasn't going after it.

So i look it up and under no circumstance you should ever craft this, one site doesn't even mention its existence its so f'ing "bad".

I'm like i love what it's going to do and crafted it, i ran 5 timewalks with peeps much higher il, i'm top dps, even in sl heroics i finally checked and yes people have higher il and i'm top dps so wtf right.

So i'm on the worst dps class, worst legendary, but topping the dps groups. Do i want to be top dps, wasn't aiming for that, in fact i was hoping i would at a minimum at least out dps the healer, and not joking, i've been there, 5th many times.

When i was running dungeons i got good at my classes, played them till they were broken and of the 12 took a few way beyond broken, and thought i was good or i really knew my class, which yes but try and solo shadowlands then you'll learn what your class is really capable of and in turn learn to play it like you've never played it before. It's most likely why i'm topping the dps, squeezing out every drop in solo to save my life.

Now remember, that's if you haven't broken your class by over gearing it. I'm 176 atm and loving the content, still challenging and engaging, keeps me on my toes so it is rewarding af to play the game, get myself out of situations i would have normally died if all i did was group, i mean you'll surprise yourself, i'm always saying... i so should have died there, but you know a hair of life left... works!

Started an alt on another covenant through ToF which is the chit. i love the story but ToF is the bomb, such an incredibly good option. I'll do the story again one day but ToF is hard to say no to. Anyway yeah one covenant is hard to keep up with, two i can see will be a struggle, 3 i dunno, we'll see when i get there as i want (and will) to do all 4.

It's strange as i didn't intend or plan on playing the way i'm playing (mostly solo), and not running non stop dungeons, or not actively breaking my toon asap, or raiding, and i think i'ts because wow has made an engaging expansion, and i don't mean just through content, the combat is more challenging overall, the mah, as an example. Which then makes playing the game so much more rewarding.

As i learned the game, i found i eventually had time for an alt, and i'm hoping in time i'll have time for a 3rd and 4th alt. I love torghast but thinking about it, i'm sitting on 1k soul ash, for what? right? yeah no reason to run that every single week when i'm happy with the one i have, so more alt time.

To my biggest surprise i'm crafting again, it's a thing again, and works so well while leveling alts, and not just take mining and herb to make gold and level asap, my main is a tailor and i could not give up lucrative mining (just yet), and on my alt i took alchemy and herb, and you know any lightless silk drops get sent straight to my main, if not tailoring would go nowhere or i'd be broke, lightless silk is rare and in high demand, alts to the rescue!

Being part of the more casual crowd, i must say, cool peeps, i dunno you can kinda tell who is a casual player and who isn't, casual are cool, calm, collected, take their time, plan their moves, think! then act, and dungeon, well... bull in a china shop comes to mind.

Casual players will side group up much of the time, and over time you start to recognize fellow casuals and play together but not bother grouping up, sometimes, but not always. Then i start to wonder if casual is not the best name for probably the most skilled players in the game.

Panther2103 · January 2021

xpsync said:

Panther2103 said:

I really liked the first 3 or 4 weeks of the expansion, but holy crap does running the same 8 mythic + dungeons get boring as hell. Torghast is fun the first few times but just gets tiring as well. I really wish there was meaningful PvP content but the gear earned through PvP is so hard capped due to conquest that it just feels pointless to grind.

Maybe I'll take up pet battles or crafting, that might eat some time away I've never really done either of those things.

If you're into alts, you're set, actually you'll be overloaded with content.

In BFA all i did was run dungeons, SL so far, maybe done 4 of the 8?, and in total just over a half dozen runs.

SL is much more of a rpg expansion and if you can do what you want to do and not worry about BiS (which, i know, is a difficult thing to do) and just enjoy doing you, then you'll find this is by far the best wow expansion ever.

On my destruction warlock i have the legendary, Madness of the Azj'Aqir, it dropped outta nowhere in that i wasn't going after it.

So i look it up and under no circumstance you should ever craft this, one site doesn't even mention its existence its so f'ing "bad".

I'm like i love what it's going to do and crafted it, i ran 5 timewalks with peeps much higher il, i'm top dps, even in sl heroics i finally checked and yes people have higher il and i'm top dps so wtf right.

So i'm on the worst dps class, worst legendary, but topping the dps groups. Do i want to be top dps, wasn't aiming for that, in fact i was hoping i would at a minimum at least out dps the healer, and not joking, i've been there, 5th many times.

When i was running dungeons i got good at my classes, played them till they were broken and of the 12 took a few way beyond broken, and thought i was good or i really knew my class, which yes but try and solo shadowlands then you'll learn what your class is really capable of and in turn learn to play it like you've never played it before. It's most likely why i'm topping the dps, squeezing out every drop in solo to save my life.

Now remember, that's if you haven't broken your class by over gearing it. I'm 176 atm and loving the content, still challenging and engaging, keeps me on my toes so it is rewarding af to play the game, get myself out of situations i would have normally died if all i did was group, i mean you'll surprise yourself, i'm always saying... i so should have died there, but you know a hair of life left... works!

Started an alt on another covenant through ToF which is the chit. i love the story but ToF is the bomb, such an incredibly good option. I'll do the story again one day but ToF is hard to say no to. Anyway yeah one covenant is hard to keep up with, two i can see will be a struggle, 3 i dunno, we'll see when i get there as i want (and will) to do all 4.

It's strange as i didn't intend or plan on playing the way i'm playing (mostly solo), and not running non stop dungeons, or not actively breaking my toon asap, or raiding, and i think i'ts because wow has made an engaging expansion, and i don't mean just through content, the combat is more challenging overall, the mah, as an example. Which then makes playing the game so much more rewarding.

As i learned the game, i found i eventually had time for an alt, and i'm hoping in time i'll have time for a 3rd and 4th alt. I love torghast but thinking about it, i'm sitting on 1k soul ash, for what? right? yeah no reason to run that every single week when i'm happy with the one i have, so more alt time.

To my biggest surprise i'm crafting again, it's a thing again, and works so well while leveling alts, and not just take mining and herb to make gold and level asap, my main is a tailor and i could not give up lucrative mining (just yet), and on my alt i took alchemy and herb, and you know any lightless silk drops get sent straight to my main, if not tailoring would go nowhere or i'd be broke, lightless silk is rare and in high demand, alts to the rescue!

Being part of the more casual crowd, i must say, cool peeps, i dunno you can kinda tell who is a casual player and who isn't, casual are cool, calm, collected, take their time, plan their moves, think! then act, and dungeon, well... bull in china shop comes to mind.

Casual players will side group up much of the time, and over time you start to recognize fellow casuals and play together but not bother grouping up, sometimes, but not always. Then i start to wonder if casual is not the best name for probably the most skilled players in the game.

I'll try more alts, I am currently leveling my DK up but I can see where you are coming from. FYI with your extra soul ash, you can upgrade your legendary (first upgrade I think is 750?) you just need the base item from the auction house to upgrade it to. I think my problem is, I PvP a lot in WoW and that's very gear reliant so I burnt out super quick running mythic + (I think I have ran each dungeon like 10 times now). Crafting sounds kind of fun though now, I picked up enchanting but can't for the life of me figure out how it works other than disenchanting to make money.

xpsync · January 2021

@Panther2103

Doesn't hurt to try other playstyles, or alternative activities. Being perfectly honest i never thought i'd be playing wow as one of my two mmorpg's. I like to devote all time into the same mmorpg's, bouncing around mmorpg's to me is a waste and not what was meant by their original design.

But you know, corporate greed is a thing, a new mmorpg every other week i admit was fun at the time, but, i was never a fan of that type of playing, it went totally against what an mmorpg was to me, an mmorpg is your home away from home, not a f'ing air bnb lifestyle.

I'm sure pvp is the same, you gotta do what you gotta do, the only pvp i truly got in deep and loved was classic's world raids. I really should try retail pvp sometime, as i did with wow after only knocking it for the last decade.

I'm not knocking other playstyles, grouping, pvp, raiding - that's my boys... that's all they do and they excel at it, i'm only surprised at the coolness of the casual player. I dunno i've grouping for so long i always and i'll be real... thought they are the wow babies, the qq'ers, can't play so whine, and yeah so wrong. It took becoming a casual player to know and understand another professional casual player, or it took the changes in wow's challenge level to shine the light.

Some people only play pet battles in the guild, one member said, i think she said like a thousand f'ing pets WTF? 1k really that many is mind blowing but when you think that's the only game they play, makes sense but still sounds like a lot, huge achievement no doubt.

It's funny to watch the game which ruined the genre by stealing challenge and watch all the other mmorpg stumble over themselves by degrading their titles into jokes, or made from scratch as a joke, as in mind numbingly easy af looking at you swtor, i mean come on you shutdown SWG for swtor? swtor is an excellence story driving co-op game, not an mmorpg.

So even wow realizes after totally f'ing over the genre to the point no one wants to make them anymore, (some just pretend too for the free $$) that even blizz understands too easy isn't sustainable, and are bringing back challenge, the getting to know your class again matters, crafting, and i'm sure if anyone tried to come up against wow ever again, well they'll just have to pull out the ace up thier sleeve, their insta destroy all competition doomsday device... Housing!

Garrik · January 2021

Never thought I'd go back to WoW having played it from launch through to Legion, yet here I am having an absolute blast with Shadowlands. Couldn't recommend it more - and that goes for both old and new players alike. There really is some excellent content to play through for sure! My partner (also played since launch) and my younger brother (played through WoD) and some old friends/guildies have also returned; they are all having a great time thus far, which is making it all the more enjoyable

xpsync · January 2021

Garrik said:

Never thought I'd go back to WoW

Same, there's just no way i would, yet i am. lol

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