BC thoughts and first impressions

[Shadowwolf]

I enjoy my priest, its quiet, I can enjoy the quests, basically experiencing the content like I wish to do without much outside hassle and headache. So there is a plus side I suppose in that respect. Ive made the 60-70 trip 2 times already in the last few months time, im not exactly eager to start the journey again, especially considering some of the things I cited already taking place. I dont feel like getting so frustrated and fed up I log off because some jerk somewhere in his parents basement feels the need to exert some superiority over me because his boss at the gas station made him sweep the floor today and "his guild downs Nef".

[un4]

I like the gear updates.  I almost never have time to do 5-mans, so now I can be on par with everyone else.  Since I'm used to doing the same work as other 60s with gear fit for a 46 rogue, it's a great break for me.

[Simy]

Well if its kewl with y'all i will be leveling a dranei shammy all the way to 70, cause first Ive never done taht before and 2nd itll be helpful for yall.  So far BC seems fun,. I LOVE the belf starting zone

[Grendeel]

I hate TBC
I hate the competition for quest and mobs
I hate the ease of which u can breeze thru the content.  I have yet to require any help with any quest other than the overlord in hellsifire
I hate the fact i worked so hard to get my character ubber strong to have it relegated to an average toon again.
I hate the lag and DC
I hate the fact once u get to 70 there is not much left to accomplish other than running instances to get your t4 or t5 gear..  I miss the idea of looking forward to progessing thru MC, BWL, AQ and Naxx.  Unless pvp keeps people interested, once people reach 70, i predict this to be the end of WoW.

At least i did love levelling the new Draeni Shammy in Exodar.  I loved the story lines and the questing in a peaceful environment.  Sadly, I have to go back to the old content for the rest of my levelling.  At least its a Shammy and everything will be new to me in play style.

Overall i give TBC an F and do not like how the future looks for Wow

[voctovian]

I have to say that overall TBC has not been that positive.  Yes, it has been fun to be able to dish out some meaningful damage (against undead and demons).  However, it has been really annoying that I have worked hard to get some of the best healing equipment available (pre Tier3), only to find that I am vendoring almost all of it... it hurts to vendor items that cost >75g.  As for currency, it seems that money is so much easier to get now, there has effectively been a devaluation of the currency by over 50%.. that really bothers me because I have worked really hard to earn the gold that I have.  Most of the mats that I have collected over time have plummeted in value as well 

As far as content, there are some interesting things to see, but the depth of the content at 70 appears to be lacking... it looks like a pure grind.  I was really excited about AQ20/MC/ONY/BWL/AQ40/NAXX.. I do not see this depth and breadth of content in the higher levels of BC.  For me, it will probably be more interesting to try to 5man UBRS, 3man Scholo/strat/LBRS then to do grinds for markers for Tier 4 and 5.  I guess I will see, but I dont think I will want to do endless grinds on the same instances.

[Kaidelina]

I'm sorry to hear bout your experience Gren...

Have to say that BC has been a mixed bag for me.

I really enjoy the new content, seeing new places, getting new quests.  I also really have enjoyed playing my shammy.  "I'll just throw down a totem while i cast... FROSTSHOCK!"   Heh, not there yet as my shammy doesn't have frostshock yet, but excitedly anticipating it.

As for the downside, BC has really changed the dynamics of the game.  I think the old content is basically done.  How hard will it be to get 20 people together now to run ZG when we can't even get 10 for UBRS   

For me, a large part of this game is the interaction with the people I enjoy spending time with.  This guild is so awesome in that way.  Since BC, i do miss some of this.  I miss our raids. I miss the group pvp(where Goss/Rox/Dylon or whomever runs into a group of horde, who then immediately turn on me once they realize... OMG I'm healing!!!  ). I miss just the relaxed days of levelling an alt.

Only one other thing, I'm saddened to see the behavior that BC has brought out in some people (never from anyone in our guild).  Kinda takes the fun out of the game when someone keeps tagging your kills or trains a bunch of mobs onto you.

I think wow is going through some growing pains and hopefully with some time, this will all get sorted out.

[Tankgrl]

I miss the old wow.
I miss the end game and 5 mans.
Boo Blizzard. Boo.

[Genoism]

you guys take your gear to seriously....and all those 40 man places - we can still do them once we're done leveling and what not. But all the new instances are better in every way. All those previous instances are essentially blizzards blunder because they were still learning on how to make a fun instance. Like the first boss in BWL razorgore - NOT a fun fight, not at all.... There are some fights in BWL where you are guaranteed to die(literarly u just suddenly get a debuff and it says u basically have 15 seconds to live and oh btw if u die near anyone they die too). That was not fun. In AQ40 there is 4-5 hours of TRASH mob clearing before the last boss, the fastest and best guild out there could not do it faster then 4 hours. As lv70s even if we did it in 2 hours...thats 2 hours of clearing trash! C'mon thats no fun. I know its fun to just see those places but I promise you AQ40 looks exactly like AQ20 and BWL looks EXACTLY like a bigger version of any other instance in blackrock mountain. Naxx...well lets just say that if your entire raid doesn't have good ping - just one person lagging out could easily wipe the entire raid(regardless of what level you are). I think there's a ton of good reasons blizzard switched over to 25man or less. And have since learnt a lot and i could tell from the first instance i was in - the ramparts. It was short, not impossible but u still needed coordination.

I think the reason gear in tbc is so much better is so that people who have raided naxx don't feel like there is absolutely nothing for them until they hit 70. They start replacing their gear in the upper 60's while we who've raided zg/aq replace it in the lower 60s. Certainly the hardcore raiders have put in a ton more time cuz they raid for hours on end daily must feel sad vendoring an epic they paid tons of dkp to get. We just do it sooner then they do and we put in less time then they did. As for the GM gear gren...that stuff is going to last for quite a long time while you level. I think there's a gun around lv66 thats better then my GM gun...i certainly put in a lot of time to get the gun but it served me really well....so did your gear...would you really want to wear the same gear till 70? Sure there are some inconsistances like a lv59 green ring that was better then my 60 epic ring from zg....but those are rare occurances it seems. When I was leveling my hunter I was cutting through mobs like butter while I saw others struggling. Our gear certainly gave us a huge edge over those people who just hit 60.

[Shadowwolf]

Its not about the gear itself tho. Its the fact that the hard effort and work has been wiped out with a new grind. I dont care about other guilds who spent DKP on their stuff, thats meaningless as its not us, we all worked very hard for what we have. We worked hard taking out the bosses we have and the rewards we received for doing such. Granted theres now some new obstacles to face, but even still its sad to see that all go by the wayside in lieu of the new content.

It'll be fun to do the old still, regardless of how "awful" some of it is because most of us have never been able to see things like Naxx and with what Blizz did with this expansion is insure that most guilds never will for the most part. For us Id still like to plan runs for Onyxia, MC, BWL, etc because it will be fun to do, even better at 70 where it wont require as many people to accomplish success in there which is where we shine since we dont have ample people to throw in a raid. The 25 person raids are a great idea, im not knocking that, im just disheartened at a general lack of "content" so far in Outland as ive seen. The old stuff had more a solid story and background to it, the new stuff just seems to be there for the sake of killing. Kind of like things like Dire Maul Tribute and all, they had some enjoyment I just dont see in the new stuff so far.

Yea it might be premature to make claim to this right now, and in beta I never got to run a raid so I dont know how they will play out. Just remember the feeling of elation way back when we first downed Drakk in UBRS as a guild for the first time and it became routine, or even better when we took out Hakkar for the first time, how excited everyone was, and in MC, with half the required raid attendees taking out the first boss on the first try how much of an achievement that seemed. Even the first times we managed to pull off a successful 45min Strat run. Think about that stuff the next time you run one of the new instances and see if you get the same feeling from them and thats what im talking about.

They did a great job with making content for the average joe, they really did. No longer do you need to be in a huge zerg raid guild to get to see the big stuff, but I think they sacrificed content and depth in order to rush the package out the door. Should have left it in the oven just a tad longer as its not done yet =P

[Genoism]

dunno im pretty happy with it :p
im trying to save most of the outland experience for my warrior.
I do feel however that they CRAMMED all the quests soooo much. Everything in the outlands feels crammed to me.
And i do hate stupid quests that make u get a drop off the last boss so u could go and get his head...kinda stupid if you ask me.

I think all that gear i got from zg has really really helped me fly through mobs in the outlands on my hunter. While doing some quests near a few others i've seen ppl who clearly never raided taking constant breaks in between mobs while I didn't have to stop at all. I think the gear we attained did exactly what we hoped it would do, give us an edge...it seems to me like people here are just upset that others are able to upgrade to gear equiviliant or better then the ones we got from zg in a mere 15 minutes from a quest. Even though it kinda sux, i think it gave a lot of life back to the game because before this it always felt like there would be tons of people out there who had more time to play the game would get better gear then me and i would never be able to participate fairly in pvp. But now that just about anyone can get this awesome gear it balances the game out a lot more where I dont get steamrolled by other players just cuz they have more time to play.

Even though we skipped the zg-mc-bwl-etc progress that progress simply moved on to 70+...so its still there we just have to level to it first. From some of the stuff posted on worldofraids.com during the beta it looks like there are some crazy 'epic' quests where you really have to do a lot and imo it seems cool....yes there are grinds but...this whole game is about grinding isn't it?

[Muridin]

all teh mob tagging, mob training to go for someone else, mob fighting and that damn fel reaver ( honestly, how can something that big, still sneak up on you?!?!? ) there is still alot for us out there...

exactly like someone said, we can still find challenges .... and we can still progress through all the 40 man raids
cos lets face it, there are challenges in there awaiting us ...

and dont forget, there is still raids for us to try in outland, and then there is Kharazan

imho, we as a casual/family slightly raiding guild, are way better off than the hardcore raiders, as we still have lots of things to discover, do kill and so on

[Luise]

I reckon Blizz will prob make an expansion for the expansion- with more end-game raids for lvl 70s...give them 6 months to a year...just an opinion.

[Genoism]

I reckon Blizz will prob make an expansion for the expansion- with more end-game raids for lvl 70s...give them 6 months to a year...just an opinion.

they did say they plan on putting out an expansion yearly :p

[Darkling]

Guess I can put my two-cents in. I've been having a lot of fun with TBC so far. Sure, it doesn't seem like they added a lot, but they truly did add a lot of stuff. I can't say the beginning instances in Hellfire Peninsula should be longer. You're out questing around, some people have a couple of quests for those instances, and you can get a 5-man together for a quick run through them. Not only do you get wicked drops, there is also faction gained, and experience.

As far as the equipment goes, I love it. All the hard work I did to get what I had from ZG/AQ/UBRS, it was worth it. Not all of my gear is 'obsolete' yet, so I still have them equipped.

Some of the new abilities could be better. Like for rogues, Envenom and Deadly Throw. They cause little damage, but again, they are considered finishing moves. At first my damage was pretty low on envenom, then I started doing crits of over 1000 with a 5 pt combo built up. Deadly Throw, it's great, however, it's really only useful against mobs that are running away or if you need more time to bandage up because crippling poison has worn off sooner than you thought. I know druids are happy with maim. Talk about multiclassing, druids are almost like rogues with the cat aspect.

I was excited about TBC coming out and, even though I'm 64 now, I still find it exciting. Last night I discovered new stuff again. There are tons of quests and great quest rewards. Think about the quest rewards for a minute (back to the gear issue). If the greens of these quest rewards weren't better than the blues and epics we had from azshara, then there would be little motivation in doing those quests. The gear has to be better. And Blizz also listened sorta when it came to rep grinding. Tons of factions to gain rep with now. But it is also much easier to get rep with these factions.

The expansion wasn't meant for people like us to grind to 70 in a week or two days. If that's what you want to do, that's great. Myself, I'm slowing down some to enjoy what I pay for in my own way. Hardcore raiders are definitely going to most disappointed. Take your time and enjoy the game. Leveling is great, but taking the time to just explore and find new scenery and areas is just as great.

[Luise]

I'm with you on that one TB- i like to stop and smell the roses. Do that often- especially when I'm lost...err..out exploring new territory.

I love checking out the new cities too- and its so much fun to be improving professions again.

And since I've been on holidays I've been able to quest with guildies more- so I'm really enjoying myself.

I'll be back to 5am game time next week - when school holidays finish 

:Chocobox:ooh- i love those chocs Shadow..can we have more?