I’d have to check because I think I said this before but, what I had mentioned is going to happen. The ugly water strider that can walk over water, will lose the ability and now every mount can get it. Apparently mounts are getting a ‘gem slot’ where they can choose special abilities, water walking being one of them. I said it before but it only seemed fair to let any mount do it otherwise EVERYONE would use 1 mount because of the bonus. Plus it was SO ugly. So so ugly.
Don’t want to play, because there is too much to do
Too much to do in a game seems like it would not be a problem. But here we are with too much to do in WoW. I’ll explain.
The simplest things that were easy in other expansions now require a lot of work. Flying, as I’ve talked about before. Previously it just cost gold. Now it takes a rep grind, quest grind, explore grind, etc. I JUST WANT TO FUCKING FLY but no, I have to do hours and hours of stuff I really don’t want to do. But if I want flying, I have to.
Gear, before in Cata for instance, you could casually grind your JP and get a 2 piece set and if you were serious, you raided to get the 4 pc. Now the best gear is kinda random and there are crazy levels of dungeons to do via mythics. I guess it’s pretty popular but looking at +10 dungeons it’s like oh come on.
The “CTA” cool maps in pvp are neat though, but I haven’t really pvp’d seriously in ages. I use to do area, rbgs, random battlegrounds, all the time. Not any more.
Almost everyone I knew in game is gone on top of all of that. It’s like playing a single player MMORPG. I don’t know if I can join another dying guild either.
Brawl vs AI
The most recent brawl in the updated Arathi Basin is vs a team entirely of AI. I really don’t think even Alliance can lose but it’s enjoyable for a few reasons. For one, you know you aren’t going to get blasted out of your boots and GY farmed by a team 100x better than you. I quit doing random bgs for like 2 years now, when I use to do them ALL THE TIME, because of this. With the exception of WoD where Alliance dominated, you could expect, as Alliance, to get murdered in every single bg.
I’m talking terribly unbalanced by score, HK’s, damage, you name it. You sort a scoreboard and see the top 7 be Horde by damage and welp, why even bother.
The AI has decent damage, and even then are often better than the live players. However it gives Alliance in particular a chance to win for once, and practice stuff like spinning. These bots try to stealth cap and ninja cap like a BOSS. You have to be on your spin game or they WILL take it from under your nose. I think it’s very excellent practice without getting absolutely slaughtered like you would in any other game. So my reasons for liking it really boils down to
- fighting a team only slightly sub-par with an average Alliance player
- Almost impossible to not win
- Your team has a good chance to respond to inc calls and WIN the team fight
- Alliance works together and can actually feel a win
That being said, I would love to see different flavors of this like in Overwatch. Have a legendary mode where the AI has god-mode where they know where the other team is at all times and responds accordingly. THAT would be sweet. They could know that you have 3 in the road going to Farm and 1 hunter at stables and send an appropriate amount where they need to go. I’d love to see that.
The Gates
I’m kind of scratching my head as to why Blizzard keeps gating absolutely everything behind something else. Ok, not really, I know it’s to keep people in the game longer. But typically it’s not even remotely fun AND it didn’t use to be that way. Normally games start off pretty grindy and get easier, this is going the other way. Here’s my examples.
New races or classes:
Classic: Just pick them and play
BC: Just pick them and play (Blood Elf, Dranaei)
Wrath: Just pick it, do a very interesting starting area, and play (Death Knight)
Cata: Just pick it, do a very interesting starting area, and play (Goblin, Worgen)
MoP: Just pick it, do a very interesting starting area, and play (Pandaren)
WoD: None
Legion: Just pick it, do a very interesting starting area, and play (Demon Hunter)
BFA: Get A BUNCH of reps to EXALTED, do a TON of quests, and then play (several hours to even get to that point mind you, applies to lightforged draenei, dark iron dwarves, night borne, etc etc)
Flying:
Classic: No flying
BC: Flying was very expensive, nether drakes requiring grind
Wrath: Purchase Northrend flying for gold. A lot of it.
Cata: Purchase old world flying for gold.
MoP: Get to max level and purchase panda flying for gold.
WoD: Get to max level and grind out a very long, and 2 part series of quests and achievements to get flying.
Legion: Get to max level and grind out a very long, and 2 part series of quests and achievements to get flying. Then promptly lose it in the next zone shortly after earning it.
BFA: No flying again, do a very long 1 part to grind out rep and quests to get flying. Expansion has been out 8 months and there isn’t even a part 2 yet. Sigh.
Flight points:
I’m a little fuzzy on the specifics between expansions on this one, but before BFA you just got to the flight point, learned it, and could use it. If I recall correctly your alts would also have it. At some point that became no longer the case. It was like that, as far as I know, from Classic until Legion (10+ years).
But hey, in BFA there are flight points you have to grind rep for and BUY before you can learn them, and some even locked behind QUESTS. What the actual shit Blizzard? NO flying AND you have to grind or buy flight points to get around in a timely fashion? It’s especially egregious in some zones where the flight points are only on the coasts of the land and none anywhere near the center. Why not just remove the X on the game when we log in and remove the log out option?
WINTERGRASP IS BACK!!
They turned Wintergrasp into a queue-able battleground and WOW. I haven’t seen this much activity even back when it was new! Lines of vehicles everywhere, people getting chased down by catapults, 12 sieges and demos rolling towards the towers, just amazing!
It’s a good time all around. Now that being said, I do believe that defending is way easier than attacking right now. I played 3, won 2, and the loss was attacking and the 2 wins defending. I have some thoughts about that.
Defenders, just have it easier. You can spare maybe 4 vehicles to go get the towers and break them down in relatively short order, making the game end quicker. The rest of your vehicles can be helping ALL THE OTHER players who are in the turrets on the keep, on the ground assisting you, and absolutely wreck both the players and the vehicles coming in. So let’s count that, defenders have the keep turrets, the RPG GGs, any vehicles they have (catapults are SCARY anti-personnel vehicles right now!), and any players in ideal situations around the keep. As a solo player you can stand on the keep ledges if ranged, you can stay near the keep walls and teleport instantly back in, etc.
As the attackers you… you can get vehicles. And uh, that’s it. You have to send way more than 4 people to defend your towers since there are 3 and 1 player has a hard time taking out 1 vehicle. So let’s say 3 players per vehicle. If the other team is rolling 12 sieges, like my loss game was doing, you need probably at least 30 people to go take care of that. That leaves 10 people to go beat up the keep, and you’re facing all the defense I just talked about.
Now let’s say you are on the attack, and defending your towers, you have all the rings and temples and workshops and have 16 vehicles. I think that’s the max. You send all 16 to batter down the keep walls. The defenders can abandon breaking down your towers no problem, and rush to deal with you with all the resources they have. Let’s just list, IMO of course, what side has what to be clear.
Defenders:
- Turrets on the keep
- Attacking from the walls
- Easy port back into the keep for safety
- RPG GG (two shot vehicles)
- Easily defend-able choke point assuming the other side only opens one wall
- The leisure to abandon tower breaking at any time for keep defense
Attackers:
- uh. the same vehicles defenders can get?
- ?????
I really don’t know how the attackers can win very easily. They are pretty much forced to be spread out, with the ease of getting vehicles both sides that I’ve seen have pretty equal amounts, but attackers need to defend 3 towers spread across the south part of the map, while also making a HUGE push to the keep, against massive defenses. Attackers have to get down the turrets, defend against the other sides vehicles, protect their own vehicles against players as well, while also trying to break down walls where you are basically immobile while doing so.
They may need to add something for the attackers, like the ability to repair the vehicles.