Question about returning to WoW after the desaster that is Archeage

[Zwiebelchen]

I'm done with F2P. Trion ruined an awesome game with a lot of fresh takes on the aged MMO genre by bad management and pay to win cashgrab bullshit.

But since that left me kind of with a hole to fill, I am currently thinking about returning to WoW. And WoD seems to be an awesome expansion in many ways...


So I'm thinking about renewing my subscription and possibly inviting my gf over aswell. So the "invite a friend" program looks perfect to me, especially since you get the ability to summon your friend.

But there's one thing that is bothering me about this:
According to the FAQ, you gain a 300% experience boost when questing with the invitee. Is there a way to disable this mechanic? I want the free month of the IAF program, but I don't want the experience boost, as I consider bypassing content as just a terrible life choice.

 

[Eagle XI]

Yeah, that would be like jumping down to the sharks from a sinking ship.

 

[gorillabull]

there is a lot of great old content but i recommend only going through it with at least 2 other friends. this is simply due to the fact that you will have only few occasions where you will be able to run instances with people who are not complete window lickers until you reach level 90 or 100 that is just the way it is nowadays people who actually use their brain are spread thin by a massive quantity of retards, but this is only if you want to run instances, if you just wanna do quests then you should have no problem also no clue about the xp but i think its only until level 90 so you will not have the problem questing in wod

 

[Zwiebelchen]

there is a lot of great old content but i recommend only going through it with at least 2 other friends. this is simply due to the fact that you will have only few occasions where you will be able to run instances with people who are not complete window lickers until you reach level 90 or 100 that is just the way it is nowadays people who actually use their brain are spread thin by a massive quantity of retards, but this is only if you want to run instances, if you just wanna do quests then you should have no problem also no clue about the xp but i think its only until level 90 so you will not have the problem questing in wod

Well, we intent to play as tank and healer (and I have years of vanilla and BC experience with healing), so that won't be a problem really. We just need to find some scrubs to deal damage and are ready to go.

I talked to customer support yesterday about this and the conclusion was that there is no way to disable the extra xp gain except by not being in a party.
They have a button to break the link on the support interface, but, to quote what he said: "In training they told us never to touch that button, as bad things might happen to accounts when this is used". I didn't know if I had to laugh or cry about this.


I'll probably go play a priest. What's the most fun tank class in the game atm?

 

[Chaosy]

If you don't invite your friend to a group you wont gain the 300% exp.

I don't think you can disable it completely though.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

If you don't invite your friend to a group you wont gain the 300% exp.

I don't think you can disable it completely though.

Yeah that's what the GM told me aswell.

But fortunately the basic WoW game is on sale right now. Just 5 bucks for the game including a whole month of gametime. So I probably won't need the RAF anyway.

 

[PurgeandFire]

I would recommend it, definitely for the WoD zones. There are a lot more cooler things to do ever since they added Garrisons, and there are no flying mounts in Draenor until the first major patch, which makes it pretty exciting to explore (flying mounts always felt so impersonal and made quests become a grind) and encounter enemies (if you're into world pvp). There are a lot of familiar faces, and the lore is pretty neat (if you're into that).

Also, WoD is the best expansion in terms of playing with another person. The quests are all tailored to work with multiple people, and they've done things like mob scaling to make it more interesting when you have more than one player doing a single-target kill quest. Gathering quests are also a lot better.

As for the funnest tank, the options are: guardian druid, prot warrior, prot pally, blood dk, and brewmaster monk. In my opinion, prot pally is probably the funnest (especially with avenger's shield).

Overall, I'd certainly say it is worth a shot. $5 + a month is a great deal. You can always wait until you're 90 before purchasing WoD, but ultimately I'd say it is worth it to buy the xpac. I actually bought WoD off G2A for about $40 each (total ~$80 for two people), so I saved ~$20 total between us. The purchase process is a bit weird since you're dealing with digital keys (you have to confirm it via call, and then do a screen share to use your key), but once I got through that, it worked like a charm. And it is always a lot more funner when everyone is still new to the game. Things become more exciting and dungeons become friendlier.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Heh... now the only problem for me is surviving the awful graphics and convincing my girl that she doesn't miss the sea traveling (and derpy ship physics) of Archeage. Abusing bad ragdoll physics is always fun...

click

 

[Zaramorus]

That kinda sucks that the remove flying mounts in Draenor. It makes the game frustrating again as it was in WotLK. Seriously Blizzard needs to remove some mountains. It makes the world so unrealistic and boring if every zone is seperated with mountains.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

That kinda sucks that the remove flying mounts in Draenor. It makes the game frustrating again as it was in WotLK. Seriously Blizzard needs to remove some mountains. It makes the world so unrealistic and boring if every zone is seperated with mountains.

I object this. I think flying mounts destroy any aspect of exploration in MMOs. I wish they had never opened up the old world for flying mounts. It was really cool to find new flying routes and discover remote places by foot.

I remember all the traveling vanilla quests and how I was at awe whenever I finally made up my mind and made the journey.


One of my dearest memories in early days of vanilla WoW was traveling from Ironforge to Stormwind via railway, then traveling south all the way to Booty Bay, taking the ship to barrens and then moving south to thousand needles just to complete a couple of quests there. All that without even a single loading bar, except for the ship travel across the ocean.

Or moving north from Ironforge, coming across Loch Modan, Swamplands, Arathi just to get to Shadowfang keep in a time where you couldn't just teleport to any dungeon instantly via dungeon finder.

A lot of people hated those traveling quests. But I loved them. There was a feeling of epicness in a world that felt almost endless back in Vanilla days when open world MMOs were new and exciting things. With the episodic content of later expansions, WoW never reached that level of open-ness and epicness again that players felt in Vanilla.
And heck, even the lack of quests in the level 35-55 range in Vanilla WoW was amazing as it forced you to travel through the world and see all those nice places you probably would have never visited otherwise.

It's a shame that blizzard casualized the old world in Cataclysm so much. But, yeah I can understand that this is a matter of oppinion, so whatever.


Have you ever travelled all the way from Darnassus to Silithus on foot? I don't know how you feel about that, but I consider this an epic experience worth much more than any expansion content ever released. The awesome music, the feeling of lonelyness when you travel through barrens and needles ... And when you finally reached Silithus after almost 50 minutes of walking, you didn't even see one third of the original vanilla game. Damn, I wish exploration would be as exciting as it was back then when you had to wait until level 40 before you could get your 60% mount.

 

[Chaosy]

That kinda sucks that the remove flying mounts in Draenor. It makes the game frustrating again as it was in WotLK. Seriously Blizzard needs to remove some mountains. It makes the world so unrealistic and boring if every zone is seperated with mountains.

Oh please...

That was the best thing they have done since classic. Flying mounts ruin the experience and only make people lazy. *cough* have a group will travel *cough*

WoD is awesome so far, I am yet to rate the incoming raid and arena experience since it's not out yet though.

 

[Zaramorus]

Maybe if there was less shit in my way like mountains then i would not care if there are flying mounts or not and second thing what i hate are those mobs who have daze.

 

[PurgeandFire]

@Zwiebelchen: I agree as well. Flying mounts tend to ruin exploration. In MoP, Blizzard thought "oh it'd be okay as long as we prohibit them until you're 90". It helped a little, but at 90, everything became "fly here to complete this daily, fly there" without any contact with anything. It was a cool idea for outland (and implemented pretty well for Wrath), but I never wanted it for azeroth, and I definitely am glad they are delaying it in WoD.

On my first account (a trial account: gnome rogue), I traveled through duskwood, stranglethorn vale, wetlands, arathi highlands, ashenvale, and even a bit of burning steppes. I died incredibly often (trial account limit was 20, and many of those zones were much higher level), but it was such a cool experience exploring.

And I still remember trying to recruit for groups. It was a lengthy process of trying to whisper people around your level who could satisfy the roles. You were lucky if you could find a tank (usually it was just a feral in bear form or a warrior/pally with a shield) and luckier to find a dedicated healer (no dual-spec back then).

But those are mostly memories, and perhaps with a lot of silver lining. I used to complain about all of Blizzard's changes and how they ruined the game's old "feel", but I've come to appreciate a lot of the changes they did make. One of the biggest was cross-realm. I love it. A lot of people have mixed feelings about it, but it makes servers feel populated again. My two main servers lost a lot of population after each xpac, and it was like that for a lot of servers. I remember logging on to Cho'gall-US as alliance, and when I typed /who, there were only 2 alliance online (apart from me). And there was a guild called "The Resistance", which served to battle the population difference. Server merges fix the problem, but it also suffers fluctuations.

Cross realm, however, makes every server feel lively. You can see random people walking in lowbie zones, and you'll find more people to do things with. Also, you can easily play with random friends without having to transfer characters or level a new char (in case they play on a different server). It is great.

As for exploration, I enjoyed it a lot in TBC, Wrath, some of cata, and WoD (not much for MoP). In both TBC and Wrath, I was too poor to afford a flying mount, so I had to experience the world on foot anyway. In cata, you should definitely try Vash'jir and Uldum! Vash'jir is by far one of my favorite zones. As for WoD, I love every part of it. There are some zones I prefer more than others, but it was the best questing experience I've had, and I did get some big "nostalgia" moments.

Garrisons + treasures = happy exploration. There are a bunch of treasures around draenor that you can pick up, and they are often in weird areas. Sometimes you'll have to climb houses or rocks, or you'll have to look really really closely to see them. Ultimately, I think Blizzard was a bit more creative with leveling and reducing tediousness in this expansion. A lot of people want that feeling they got when they first explored vanilla/BC. But blizzard can't achieve that with just new zones and new quests. Even if it is the same type of content, it won't necessarily give the same feel. But with the new additions in WoD, I've gotten quite a few of those "this is awesome" moments.

Oh, and make sure your music is on. WoW music has been consistently great. As for WoD, there are some callbacks to wc3 music, and that pleased my nostalgia glands.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Heh, the server I'm on won't suffer from a low population any time soon. When I just returned to my old server (revived my old Draenai priest on Frostmourne to get some starting gold for my new character), the server was marked as "full" to my surprise. Seems like nothing changed in that department since WotLK.

The only thing that is really new to me is the monk class. Is it recommended? And is it over/underplayed currently? I love priests and I will probably make one, but as I'm starting new anyway, I wouldn't playing something that is currently underplayed.

Gnomes can be priests now, eh? It's like a dream come true... one of those weird ones with burning cards and mount Sinai.

 

[Razosh]

@PurgeandFire: In my opinion flying mounts are one of the best things ever to have been implemented I just think they should use it for previous content not the current one. For instance in TBC it should have been included for Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms and in WotLK it should have been implemented in Outland. Unless you're playing on a PvP realm there's no good side to having flying mounts in the current content as far as my opinion goes.

I definitely spent more time than should have been spent in Northrend running around on my Hawkstrider rather than my Dragonhawk as it was such a beautiful landscape. Even in MoP and Cata I switched to Hawkstrider a little now and then to truly explore the zone. I also think I had a whole other respect for the Timeless Isle because of it didn't allow flying mounts. I think that Timeless Isle and the Isle of Thunder were the first steps in limiting flying mounts in WoW and I couldn't be more glad.

I haven't tried out WoD as of yet but I hope it's one big Timeless Isle, that zone is in my opinion the best zone as of yet. One of the biggest hopes I have is that all mounts will be usable as non-flying mounts so I can ride in with my Proto-Drakes and Dragonhawks as ground mounts, that would definitely improve PvP a lot.

As far as Garrisons go I hope you can invite representatives from every faction you've ever reached exalted with to come live at your Garrison. It would be really cool to have Merithra sit on the roof of the Town Hall or have Gurlocs run around and play. It would be really fun and would make the 68 factions I've reached exalted with more fun to hoard. I would like to see many of those small aesthetic changes that would make your Garrison unique. Maybe I could also hang Onyxia's head over my throne.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Started playing with my girl now and ... well ... mixed feelings. I don't know why, but I couldn't make her like the game so far. The feedback was "I don't understand the hype.". And I can't even blame her for that oppinion!

She started a Draenai and a bloodelf (as those are the only races that have acceptable female models) and was instantly put off by the dull questing experience in the starting zones. And I had to agree with her on that, unfortunately. They are extremely uncreative and feature almost only kill quests. On top of that, the dumbed down playstyle of lowlevel characters wasn't helping. Who the fuck at blizzard thought it was a good idea to reduce the number of abilities to just 2-3 until reaching level 10 and make basicly every enemy a one-shot? That's boring as hell and doesn't help convincing someone that the game is fun.

And yes, I know that both the draenai and the blood elven starting zones are basicly untouched by cataclysm. Compared to the creativity in the Worgen and Pandaren starting zones, this is just aweful.

My last straw now is convincing her to give the game another try as a Worgen or Pandaren and hope for the best. If it doesn't work, then meh... no WoW for me. I don't want to play alone.

Damn you, WoW, you had one job!

 

[Razosh]

Questing has always baffled me, it isn't the main focus of the game yet it still takes up an incredible amount of time. It's awesome that you get a free level 90 with WoD as I think ten levels is about the amount you need to get enough accustomed to your class to be able to run dungeons and RF and then use those two to further increase your skill to serious raiding. You don't really get any that experience from questing anyhow so it's odd to have so many levels.

 

[PurgeandFire]

Unfortunately, convincing someone to give WoW a chance is like walking uphill. It is tough, especially if they have the mentality that it is "hyped".

Low-level questing is brain dead at the moment. You used to have to worry about dying (those damn westfall pyromancers), but they've sort of done away with much of that worry, thinking that more deaths would turn people away (I don't agree). But be sure to give different things a shot.

1-10 is a step you have to cross. If you're interested in running dungeons, you'll have to rough it until you're level 15. One idea is you could try duoing instances. When I was first playing, I had a fun time trying to duo instances with my friend. It let's you enjoy the instance a bit more, and it might be more challenging since looking-for-dungeon is pretty brain dead. And PvP... that is the thing that really attracted me to the game. It is what kept me coming back. It is nerve wracking at first (I used to get really nervous even when just doing a regular battleground), but who knows? It might be fun. I always mix in a bit of PvP as I'm leveling, just to keep myself entertained. Although, to be fair--the low level brackets will be awful. Hunters and rogues will likely one-shot you, especially since people are running around decked in heirlooms. It is essentially like fighting twinks, except that it is a lot more accessible.

But at the end of the day, if she doesn't like it, maybe it isn't for her. Try to convince her to give things a chance (at least try to get past 60, since you have a month of play anyway), and see if she enjoys anything in particular, whether it be dungeoning, questing, PvP, or social interaction (you can try joining a guild), or even exploring (silvermoon was amazing the first time I saw it). Sometimes it might even be weird things, such as the holidays (pilgrim's bounty just ended, but winter's veil is coming up). Or it could be exploring. Music? Idk. Sometimes people will just enjoy a particular class a lot. You asked whether monks are fun. Yeah, they are really fun. And hilarious.

@Razosh: That would be cool. Applying flying for the previous zone in the next expansion. I'd be happy with that. I'm not too against flying in principle. I just want other people to enjoy the expansions properly, even if it has to be forced upon them. xD

 

[Zaramorus]

I think that some WoW zone music is terrible. Desolace music is so annoying. First its like just wierd and then like somekinda ghosts scream.

 

[PurgeandFire]

To each his own. Most of the vanilla music wasn't particularly harmonic--a lot of it was rather ambient (often a mixture of noises, esp. for places like feralas, silithus, etc.). But that is part of its charm.

Besides, we tend to associate our feelings with the zone to the actual music. When I hear dun morogh music or westfall music (on youtube), I don't think of the actual music itself. Rather, you get lost in thought, thinking about the times you were in those zones. I'm guessing you didn't like leveling in desolace, and I can't blame you for that. Pre-cata, desolace was super isolated, and there were scarcely any quests. It is a wasteland, honestly. The only highlight was to see Rexxar, and maybe to explore Mauradon. I don't hate the zone myself--but I can see why people would dislike it.

I'm not quite sure of the "screaming" you described. I wish I knew which music you were referring to--desolace shares its music with some other areas so I'm not sure which song it is. Are you referring to the desolace music after Cataclysm, or before Cataclysm?

 

[Zaramorus]

To each his own. Most of the vanilla music wasn't particularly harmonic--a lot of it was rather ambient (often a mixture of noises, esp. for places like feralas, silithus, etc.). But that is part of its charm.

Besides, we tend to associate our feelings with the zone to the actual music. When I hear dun morogh music or westfall music (on youtube), I don't think of the actual music itself. Rather, you get lost in thought, thinking about the times you were in those zones. I'm guessing you didn't like leveling in desolace, and I can't blame you for that. Pre-cata, desolace was super isolated, and there were scarcely any quests. It is a wasteland, honestly. The only highlight was to see Rexxar, and maybe to explore Mauradon. I don't hate the zone myself--but I can see why people would dislike it.

I'm not quite sure of the "screaming" you described. I wish I knew which music you were referring to--desolace shares its music with some other areas so I'm not sure which song it is. Are you referring to the desolace music after Cataclysm, or before Cataclysm?

After Cata. Btw Eastern-Plaguelands song is cool and annoying at the same time. There is one place in desolace i like tho. There is a Thunder Axe Fortress and that place has a pretty good song. And that screaming might be the screams of Highborne ghosts or something. Also does anyone what the song is called that is in that Thunder Axe Fortress? I think you can also hear that music when going to Razor Hill as Alliance.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

I gotta say that the background music in WoW is probably the best part of the game. I love almost all of the tracks and especially the darker ambient tracks. They really set the mood; especially at barrens.

The music team of Blizzard did a phenomenal job to emphasize a feeling of lonelyness in certain areas (desolace, barrens, tanaris). I loved wandering thousand needles (before cataclysm destroyed the zone by making it into a water level ... seriously, why do that Blizzard? Everyone hates water levels) for the music and the deserted feeling. I wished more modern games would have such powerful tracks to back up the mood of a zone instead of playing age-old generic fantasy tropes for background music.

 

[Zaramorus]

I gotta say that the background music in WoW is probably the best part of the game. I love almost all of the tracks and especially the darker ambient tracks. They really set the mood; especially at barrens.

The music team of Blizzard did a phenomenal job to emphasize a feeling of lonelyness in certain areas (desolace, barrens, tanaris). I loved wandering thousand needles (before cataclysm destroyed the zone by making it into a water level ... seriously, why do that Blizzard? Everyone hates water levels) for the music and the deserted feeling. I wished more modern games would have such powerful tracks to back up the mood of a zone instead of playing age-old generic fantasy tropes for background music.

You are right. Everyone really hates water levels. Mostly when they are in a Super Mario game . I really hated that. I had to swim like the whole Thousand Needles just to get to Ungoro Crater, but im happy about one thing. I remember Thousand Needles in WotLK i freaking hated it. There were so many mobs so there was no way not aggroing some idiot. So im very thankful to Deathwing for drowning all those bastard mobs that didnt never leave me alone, but sadly Thousand Needles sucks now.