8 Features that Drastically Changed World of Warcraft
- Thread starter ffronw
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All of these changed the game, certainly, but LFG/LFR and cross realm playing were what killed the game. There's a certain honor to that.
Yeah, remember some of these. Rift also has all that, so I am happy playing that now.
The pet battle system didnt make the cut, btw?
The pet battle system didnt make the cut, btw?
The new spec system was a direct result of Blizzard's unwillingness to separate PvP and PvE in character skills. They spent years trying to make skills and builds balanced for both sides of the game, never getting it right, until they finally threw up their hands in defeat and ultra-simplified the whole thing.
The area looting was somewhat of a blessing, however it was broken from the start due to some kind of internal maximum loot allowed in the loot frame. If you had a pile of corpses and just auto looted the pile you end up with 8 (just throwing a number out, I didn't keep count) items/stacks and then the sparkles went away. If you manually looted however and left at least one item (or the gold/silver) and then looted again you would often find addition items and stacks that had not been displayed due to the limit which you would not have gotten had you otherwise autolooted. This seems to have been "fixed" fairly recently by simply discarding any additional loot that doesn't fit within the initial loot frame so if you attempt to loot again only the items you left are available to be looted.
Transmog has been fairly fun, although I do wish they'd allow you to hide everything except for chest and leg items. There's some wonderful looking items that just get overwhelmed/ruined by cheesy and over the top shoulder items and bulky gloves. A few of the new class specific trasmog sets actually have invisible shoulder items that were disallowed from being used for transmog purposes. When I play, about half my time is spent hunting down the perfect additions to my various alts' transmog.
I'd have to say Garrisons were a big game changing feature, just not for the better. Personal housing in wildstar spoiled me and while I couldn't afford the housing in FF: ARR, what I saw was still a heck of a lot more customizable than the garrisons choice of "which of 5 buildings do you want to toss on this patch of land". My other issue was pulling up the guild roster to see all of the guildies in the same location, but not visible. By the time 6.2 hit they weren't visible on the guild roster either. If only they had done something more in line with a guild garrison this expansion wouldn't have felt so vacant.
Transmog has been fairly fun, although I do wish they'd allow you to hide everything except for chest and leg items. There's some wonderful looking items that just get overwhelmed/ruined by cheesy and over the top shoulder items and bulky gloves. A few of the new class specific trasmog sets actually have invisible shoulder items that were disallowed from being used for transmog purposes. When I play, about half my time is spent hunting down the perfect additions to my various alts' transmog.
I'd have to say Garrisons were a big game changing feature, just not for the better. Personal housing in wildstar spoiled me and while I couldn't afford the housing in FF: ARR, what I saw was still a heck of a lot more customizable than the garrisons choice of "which of 5 buildings do you want to toss on this patch of land". My other issue was pulling up the guild roster to see all of the guildies in the same location, but not visible. By the time 6.2 hit they weren't visible on the guild roster either. If only they had done something more in line with a guild garrison this expansion wouldn't have felt so vacant.
Yup... I had quit WoW and occasionally came back to see if I liked new changes. These right here ensured that I didn't waste my time doing that anymore. In particular, cross realm play is a community killer. I won't play any MMO that copies that particular bit of garbage.Ftaghn To You Too said:
Yep. In fact I hate all of these changes, with the exception of dual spec. And this list is pretty much exactly why I played WoW from Beta test until just after Cataclysm. And have never picked it up again.Ftaghn To You Too said:
Every so often I get super nostalgic and want to play again... but, sadly, the awesome game that I miss no longer exists.
so yeah the talent tree change was horrible as some of us just learned how to play our class our way and maxed dps. honestly last person who told me I needed to respec for better dps was left in the dust, and I was a dam clicker!ffronw said:
sorry this is one of the reasons I left wow so im a bit touchy on the subject, other then that good list
Interesting that the addition of Battlegrounds wasn't mentioned, especially since (despite what some people might say) that's the reason World PvP died.
In fact, I'd say at this stage that the only thing that would make me try a new MMORPG is dropping the idea of instances entirely.
In fact, I'd say at this stage that the only thing that would make me try a new MMORPG is dropping the idea of instances entirely.
I'll throw out another vote for disdain of the new talent system. Yes cookie cutter builds were generally the main thing, but most of the time you had at least a few points left over to customize how you wanted. That said, there were also often interesting unusual builds. I still greatly miss my frost/unholy DW hybrid build from early Wrath. 2/3 of my damage was ranged spell damage as a DK.
Cross server stuff....eh, for some servers the pop is so low that is really is necessary, just look at it as a fancy server merge. That said, the damage to the community between it and group finder really is catastrophic. It is nice how much easier it is to do most content, but rarely ever get fun groups since then. Also hurts natural guild development.
I know a lot of it probably is rose-tinted glasses or whatever, but I do feel the game has gone to far into theme-park mmo territory. Immersion is just dead.
Transmog, multi-loot, duel-spec, and Reagent bank (and stacks of 200) are all great however. Honestly don't understand why it took so long to implement those.
No mention of Garrisons, which were a massive disappointment....it has all the worst parts of player housing with very little of the customization and sense of home. They went for a more "awesome" factor, but then also threw in more features that encourage you to spend all your time in the garrison instead of out in the world...the exact problem they claimed to have with player housing in the first place. As is it seems to hit most of the major problems with player housing, without filling a lot of the desires.
Cross server stuff....eh, for some servers the pop is so low that is really is necessary, just look at it as a fancy server merge. That said, the damage to the community between it and group finder really is catastrophic. It is nice how much easier it is to do most content, but rarely ever get fun groups since then. Also hurts natural guild development.
I know a lot of it probably is rose-tinted glasses or whatever, but I do feel the game has gone to far into theme-park mmo territory. Immersion is just dead.
Transmog, multi-loot, duel-spec, and Reagent bank (and stacks of 200) are all great however. Honestly don't understand why it took so long to implement those.
No mention of Garrisons, which were a massive disappointment....it has all the worst parts of player housing with very little of the customization and sense of home. They went for a more "awesome" factor, but then also threw in more features that encourage you to spend all your time in the garrison instead of out in the world...the exact problem they claimed to have with player housing in the first place. As is it seems to hit most of the major problems with player housing, without filling a lot of the desires.
To each their own I guess, I like this list and the changes in general.
Transmog, area loot, reagent tab, cross-realm play, flex raiding, and dual talents have all been huge boons. Flex raiding took some time though. I think they've done a much better job scaling mechanics between 10 and 30 with Hellfire Citadel than Blackrock Foundry.
The new talent system is nice but I would not have considered it game changing compared to pet battles or garrisons. There still isn't a significant choice on talents, depending on the class, but it did simplify things making it easier to determine what talents are most beneficial depending on the situation, and it's a lot easier to respec on the fly for different raid bosses now.
Transmog, area loot, reagent tab, cross-realm play, flex raiding, and dual talents have all been huge boons. Flex raiding took some time though. I think they've done a much better job scaling mechanics between 10 and 30 with Hellfire Citadel than Blackrock Foundry.
The new talent system is nice but I would not have considered it game changing compared to pet battles or garrisons. There still isn't a significant choice on talents, depending on the class, but it did simplify things making it easier to determine what talents are most beneficial depending on the situation, and it's a lot easier to respec on the fly for different raid bosses now.
Cross-realm play is what kept my guild and my community alive. We have about a third of our raid made up of people from other servers who we raid with consistently. The cross-realm matchmaking is also how I pug heroic before my guild moves into heroic raiding each tier. LFR on the other hand, I'm not a fan of but I don't do LFR because I don't have to, thankfully, so I can appreciate it's purpose from a distance, that it lets people at least see the content even if they don't have raiding guilds, don't want to find one and/or don't want to pug cross-realm.Ftaghn To You Too said:
I missed most of those features since I stopped playing at the end of BC.
The only features of those listed that I experienced where the introduction of the lfg tool and cross-realm play (only for pvp).
I hated the lfg tool. What I hated the most was the lack of flexibility that a simple message in a chat provides. Besides that, I felt that the groups that were put together weren't much fun. Maybe it's just that I remember the bad experiences better, but it seemed like the groups lacked teamwork. That the players acted less like they were playing in a group, but more like they were playing with a bunch of npc's.
While the crossrealm play removed the waiting time battlegrounds almost entirely, the lack of communication seemed to get even worse. I also felt like the players where rushing even more on the battlegrounds. I don't think anyone cared much if they even won.
The only features of those listed that I experienced where the introduction of the lfg tool and cross-realm play (only for pvp).
I hated the lfg tool. What I hated the most was the lack of flexibility that a simple message in a chat provides. Besides that, I felt that the groups that were put together weren't much fun. Maybe it's just that I remember the bad experiences better, but it seemed like the groups lacked teamwork. That the players acted less like they were playing in a group, but more like they were playing with a bunch of npc's.
While the crossrealm play removed the waiting time battlegrounds almost entirely, the lack of communication seemed to get even worse. I also felt like the players where rushing even more on the battlegrounds. I don't think anyone cared much if they even won.
So true. Even though it was some trouble finding a right group sometimes, the search pretty much guaranteed respect and the desire to go through the dungeon together. It could even lead to more.Ftaghn To You Too said:
Enter LFG ... no talking tool, + Cross Realm ... guarantee of no possibility of communication after, therefore killing everything that could follow after a dungeon previously.
I pretty much stopped playing WoW after my first LFG-Naxx-Raid. It was not the only thing, but I think it helped my decision to instantly stop playing and never come back again.
Yeah, sorry, mate, but Cross-Realm was a dreadful addition, particularly on roleplaying servers. It was already difficult enough to handle the yaa-hoos and lolboys bumbling through, after Cross Realm went live, there was sodding nowhere to hide.
Of course, Blizzard has always treated their RP-servers as a mistake and a secret shame. Introducing some poisoned saltwater into that particular ecosystem was probably intended.
Cross Realm Play was fine when it was connecting players between servers for raids, dungeons and the like. Communication took a hit, but the cross realm system suited the instance-structure, since it's an isolated location. But it was not a good idea to introduce it to the overworld. Particularly in a way that made people pop in and out of it. But then again, why worry about the overworld?
You're not supposed to be out there, evidently. You're not supposed to be out on adventures. You're not supposed to gather some friends you know and travel to a dungeon, killing some rare elites or ganking someone. Or God forbid, grill a few pretend-sausages over a pretend-fire in a pretend-forest. The moment you're level-capped, you're finished with the game world and don't need it anymore. You're evidently supposed to sit in the capitol and wait for a raid, like an airport, save a few carefully planned excursions for dailies and mats.
The Garrisons seems like the logical final expression of that design philosophy, a place to sit and wait for random raids to pop up without having to spend time around other players as bored as you. Players that flutter in and out of your existance like phantoms, players you'll never need to know and never will. Sometimes it's possible to break through the glass box, as it were, and make consistent relations with other players, on your server server or other, but it's hardly the intention, it seems.
The intention seems to be for us stalwart heroes to sit in a house waiting for something to happen.
I am being hysterical, but that was the feeling I got towards the end of my WoW-experience.
Of course, Blizzard has always treated their RP-servers as a mistake and a secret shame. Introducing some poisoned saltwater into that particular ecosystem was probably intended.
Cross Realm Play was fine when it was connecting players between servers for raids, dungeons and the like. Communication took a hit, but the cross realm system suited the instance-structure, since it's an isolated location. But it was not a good idea to introduce it to the overworld. Particularly in a way that made people pop in and out of it. But then again, why worry about the overworld?
You're not supposed to be out there, evidently. You're not supposed to be out on adventures. You're not supposed to gather some friends you know and travel to a dungeon, killing some rare elites or ganking someone. Or God forbid, grill a few pretend-sausages over a pretend-fire in a pretend-forest. The moment you're level-capped, you're finished with the game world and don't need it anymore. You're evidently supposed to sit in the capitol and wait for a raid, like an airport, save a few carefully planned excursions for dailies and mats.
The Garrisons seems like the logical final expression of that design philosophy, a place to sit and wait for random raids to pop up without having to spend time around other players as bored as you. Players that flutter in and out of your existance like phantoms, players you'll never need to know and never will. Sometimes it's possible to break through the glass box, as it were, and make consistent relations with other players, on your server server or other, but it's hardly the intention, it seems.
The intention seems to be for us stalwart heroes to sit in a house waiting for something to happen.
I am being hysterical, but that was the feeling I got towards the end of my WoW-experience.
LFR was brilliant. As a FIFO miner, it was hard to hold down a spot in a raiding guild so this let me experience the raids. Sometimes even with a good group! By the time LFG came out, I was thoroughly sick of waiting ages to form even a group for a five-man dungeon so I loved it.
Dual spec was brilliant, too, for obvious reasons.
Transmog was merely cosmetic and too minor an issue for me. I did end up using it but only to make some items look less wanky or bulky.
Cross-realm BGs were probably fine but I didn't PvP much. In open world, though, it ruined it. Rude, greedy d-heads from other realms stealing kills, camping rares etc. Plus the lag switching zones, passengers falling out of dual-seat flying mounts, fishing comps ruined... So much bad stuff.
The rest, for me, were great but too late. I stopped half-way through Pandaland. Levelled 15 toons to 90 with maxed profs and just couldn't be bothered any more! Pandas, Pokemon and impatient, rude players ruined it for me. (I had 141/150 pets at the time!)
I tried Rift but it was a poor man's WoW and too frustrating. I tried Age of Conan but it's not much better than Rift. I've started playing Diablo 3 that I got with the happy-pack a few years ago and that's a bit of fun but it'll soon pass, too. I honestly don't think there'll be anything as good as WoW was at it's peak during Wrath. /sigh Back to real life.
Dual spec was brilliant, too, for obvious reasons.
Transmog was merely cosmetic and too minor an issue for me. I did end up using it but only to make some items look less wanky or bulky.
Cross-realm BGs were probably fine but I didn't PvP much. In open world, though, it ruined it. Rude, greedy d-heads from other realms stealing kills, camping rares etc. Plus the lag switching zones, passengers falling out of dual-seat flying mounts, fishing comps ruined... So much bad stuff.
The rest, for me, were great but too late. I stopped half-way through Pandaland. Levelled 15 toons to 90 with maxed profs and just couldn't be bothered any more! Pandas, Pokemon and impatient, rude players ruined it for me. (I had 141/150 pets at the time!)
I tried Rift but it was a poor man's WoW and too frustrating. I tried Age of Conan but it's not much better than Rift. I've started playing Diablo 3 that I got with the happy-pack a few years ago and that's a bit of fun but it'll soon pass, too. I honestly don't think there'll be anything as good as WoW was at it's peak during Wrath. /sigh Back to real life.