Monday, February 24, 2014

Monday Random Thoughts

- Do you think they will allow flying at 85 once warlords comes out?

- It would make no sense to make us reach 90 to get flying when once we reach 90 we will be leaving the area afterwards.

- We did not have flying in BC but do now.

- We did not have flying in wrath but we do now.

- Cataclysm was the first expansion with flying from the start.

- I am expecting that in the 6.0 pre patch we should be allowed to fly in mists at 85.

- Unless they kind of forget about that.

- Blizzard does have a problem forgetting the little things.

- As I love to say, the little things matter too.

- I did a lot of leveling this weekend and I found something I would buy that concerns leveling.

- Not an instant 90.

- Not an experience boosting potion.

- Not additional heirloom gear.

- But the ability to just level alone.

- If blizzard ever offered a service where you can pay to put yourself on a solo server I would buy it in a heart beat.

- Like a toggle where you can turn it on to quest in peace.

- I was thinking $10 for this and it would not lock to one character only but to one battle.net account and all characters on it.

- So when you buy it all characters have the option forever.

- But then I started thinking that is too low for blizzard.

- They have a track record for over pricing things so what price would I pay at most for an option like that.

- $20? $50? $100?

- And then when thinking about it and the fact I would still pay $100 and not even bat an eye doing it that it occurred to me that this is the single most important thing to me in game.

- I like leveling, many don't, but I hate waiting.

- Waiting 15 minutes for respawns, no fun.

- Waiting with 9 people standing there all spamming AoE trying to get the first tag when it respawns, no fun.

- People not being willing to group so five of us can get it done because they would lose their spot in queue with the dungeon finder, no fun.

- Sholazar basin was always one of my favorite zones in wrath.

- It was great for mining, for skinning, for herbing, for rare tames for my hunter, for questing because of the nessingwary quest hub, you name it, it was always one of my favorites.

- Until cross realm zones.

- Cross realms have to be up there for fighting for the #1 spot of worst thing blizzard ever did to the game.

- Now there are dozens of people hovering over rare pet spawn points.

- Now there are dozens of people hovering of rare battle pet spawn points.

- Now there are dozens of people mining and skinning and herbing.

- Now there are dozens of people doing the quest line.

- It was not even half this busy when it was current content and brand spanking new.

- It took me 40 minutes, yes 40 freaking minutes, of flying around and dive bombing mobs to try to get the tag to finish the quest where I needed to kill 15 each of the rhinos and cats.

- I usually finish the zone in 40 minutes give or take.

- Even before they reduced the experience needed for the zone.

- Yes, I would, without a shadow of a doubt and without a second of thought, pay $100 for the ability to be left alone to enjoy the game.

- I like to quest.

- I do not like to fly around for 40 minutes to kill a total of 30 mobs it should take no more than 3 minutes to do.

- And think of all the added advantages of that service.

- All the nods you want for gathering, uncontested.

- All the rare items in the world just laying there for you to pick up.

- All the rare mobs always up for you.

- Screw that, the more that I think about it I would pay $200 for the ability to be left alone on a server.

- Heck, make that $300 and I would still pay it without batting an eye.

- I just want to play the game.

- Waiting for mobs to respawn is not playing the game.

- Yeah, just being grumpy, I know, but hey, its what I do.

- How about offering me the option to pay $60 to delevel a character.

- No, I am not talking one of mine, I am talking someone elses.

- Ever see someone so bad in a random that you wonder how they managed to level to 90?

- Pay $60 and delevel them and make them do it again.

- That would be so mean.

- Could you see all the world first guilds breaking open the piggy banks to delevel their competition.

- I don't mean they should add that one seriously, but it sure would be funny.

- All world first type guilds would have level 1 characters the second a new raid came out.

- And blizzard would make a fortune.

- Come now, don't tell me you do not see the humor there.

- I got my new shaman to 60 and left it there.

- I would love to know when this boost to 90 is coming out.

- It would help me decide if I want to continue leveling or if I will wait.

- While I could never see myself paying for a boost to 90 from 1 to 90 I really like the idea of a boost to 90 from 60 to 90 with professions.

- You can get to 60 pretty quick and easy but professions can be annoying sometimes.

- It is worth paying something to skip the professions in my opinion.

- Worth a lot more than skipping levels.

- I level my professions as I go usually so it is really not that much of a big deal for me but lately I've been leveling all new characters with mining and herbalism.

- I sell everything while I level and use that gold to power level whatever real profession I wanted.

- When I get to 90 I switch them and then power level real professions.

- My shaman has already made over 5K selling all those low level ores and herbs.

- Should be ample to power level any profession.

- But skipping having to do that would remove that step and make life a lot easier.

- And save me 5,000 gold or more to boot.

- No more bouncing between characters sending over materials.

- No more raiding the auction house for materials.

- No more having to send another character out into the world to gather the materials I need.

- No more needing to ask guild mates for help with those occasional odd ball materials.

- Just pay and ding, max level professions.

- That is worth $60 a hell of a lot more than leveling a character is.

- While I do enjoy doing it, if I am not leveling a profession as I go, going back and doing it is just busy work.

- But can't use that as an excuse for making something skipable.

- Because it can be used for anything.

- Gathering conquest to get all the top PvP gear is just busy work, maybe they should sell that.

- Killing bosses is just busy work, maybe they should just sell gear.

- If I already killed all the bosses in LFR, flex and normal why do it again on heroic, it is just busy work, maybe they should just sell that heroic gear.

- Of even if you did it just in LFR, why have to do it on flex and normal and heroic, you already did it, it is just busy work, maybe they should just sell all that gear.

- Doing proving grounds for metals is just busy work, maybe they should sell them too.

- And endless waves are even more busy work, why do it if you already have gold, it should be sold as well.

- If we can skip leveling because it is just busy work then an argument can be presented for almost anything as being just busy work.

- Killing the same bosses each week hoping to get a drop is about as busy work as busy work can get.

- If anything it is the only argument for there being a random number generator.

- If we all got our gear on the first kill we might not go back.

- That is the theory blizzard works on right?

- So that is why the RNG exists, to make people come back to do it over and over again, it is all just busy work.

- So maybe they will just start selling gear too, after all, killing a boss 90 times to get one item is no different then leveling up 90 times to get to the point that allows you to kill that boss.

- If you are going to sell 90 levels might as well sell 90 boss kills and just give people the loot.

- That is the way the game is heading.

- Thinking about loot a friend of mine that normally is a heroic raider gave me an interesting answer when I asked him why he has stopped playing this expansion.

- Normally he is on all the time, killing heroic bosses over and over trying to get the best of the best gear, but now he just killed heroic garrosh once and has quit.

- He said the gear means nothing now.

- I asked, what do you mean by that.

- He said during the first tier he wanted to be best in slot so he did it over and over every week so he had the best gear to get into the next raid when it came out so he could down it faster.

- When the second tier came out he did it over and over to get best in slot so when the third tier came out he would be in the best position to down it.

- This tier, once it was done, there is no reason to get best in slot because best in slot will be replaced with quest items when the next expansion comes out.

- There is no motivation to raid this tier any longer once it is done.

- The gear means nothing and will be replaced with quest greens.

- He made an amazingly valid point.

- So, makes me wonder, why is the last tier, that offers nothing really, the tier we always have the longest.

- I wonder how many other heroic raiders that already defeated garrosh on heroic feel that way.

- Makes me wonder if blizzard plans things wrong.

- Lets say, for example, this expansion lasts 2 years, which it might at the rate it is going.

- Maybe the first tier should have lasted 9 months, second tier 9 months and last tier 6 months instead of what we had of 6 months, 6 months and 12 months.

- If the last tier really offers nothing because the gear will be replaced with quest gear, what is the reason for making it last so long?

- When I mentioned this to someone in guild he said, that is why I do not want to do heroics.

- He hates when I tell him I want to do some heroic progression.  He thinks it is wasting time.

- Hence the reason we do not dabble much in heroics, a lot of people feel that way.

- He logic was, I downed garrosh already, I got the BoA already, the gear from heroics means nothing because it will not help us get down the next tier because there is no next tier.

- He said, my quest gear will replace my normal gear just as well as it would replace my heroic gear but without doing heroics it will feel like a bigger upgrade.

- You know, he has an amazing point.

- Gear for me has always been a means to an end.

- If I need gear to compensate for a lack of skill then I want gear.

- It is why I love valor gear for my alts, it makes up for my lack of skill playing them.

- And I hate blizzard removed valor gear, maybe another nomination for worst decision blizzard ever made.

- My rogue without valor gear might as well not exist.

- How he managed to get the cloak is still beyond me.

- Even now he still has not broke a 520 item level.

- No luck on orods or celestials.

- Yes, this far in and still nothing from either, you believe that crap?

- It is not like I do it every week on him, so it is not as bad as it might sound.

- But in the end if I kill garrosh on a 520 character, a 540 character or a 560 character means nothing.

- It is the act of killing him that matters.

- What I am wearing doesn't, unless I need it to be able to do it.

- So I can understand why I seem to be hearing a lot more people saying they have no desire to raid any longer.

- What are they raiding for if they are not into rare pet drops or something else or looking for upgrades.

- There will always be gear whores who need gear to make themselves feel better.

- Or they need the gear to accomplish something they want to do solo.

- But if gear is not your motivation, like it seems for the people I mentioned, it isn't when they know they will be replacing it with quest gear, a raid tier should not last this long.

- I think blizzard can fix this.

- Always have thought they could.

- When a new expansion comes out, if you are BiS heroic gear from the previous expansion, it should be able to carry you into the next raid tier.

- That is why you farm heroics, to set you up for the next raid tier.

- Being there are more levels of raiding now they could do it, and it really would help with gear inflation issues.

- If you are LFR geared you should be able to get to level 92 before you start replacing gear.

- If you are flex geared you should be able to get to level 95 before you start replacing gear.

- If you are normal geared you should be able to push straight to 100 but will need level 100 dungeon gear if you want to attempt raids.

- If you are heroic geared you should be able to walk straight into normal modes (the new normal, as in flex now) the second you hit 100.

- It would give a much greater motivation to keep gearing up, keep leveling up your item level.

- Because the better your gear is the longer it will last, which makes it much more attractive to go after.

- Otherwise you could do LFR and then say you are done with this expansion because LFR gear will be replaced just the same as heroic gear will be replaced with the first quest you do in the new expansion.

- From a new expansion perspective where everyone is replacing everything on the first quest they do LFR is equal to heroic gear.  They are both useless.

- I do not think new expansions should be a complete gear reset like they are now.

- It should be a continuation, just with more levels, not a huge boost like they always make it.

- I was VERY upset to hear that garrisons were going to be tied only to warlords.

- Yet another thing we are going to need to invest a lot of time on just to have it left behind.

- It is not the time that bothers me, the game is full of time wasters like that.

- We wasted time in every patch that ever game out, building argent tournament reputation, opening all of the molten front, building our farm, etc.

- It is that this one seems like it will need a lot from us, gold wise, at least from the little we have seen.

- If we are going to have to invest that much time and gold into something I would like it to be something that moved from expansion to expansion with us.

- Like battle pets.

- If when this expansion was over they never added anything to do with them again you might feel like you wasted your time.

- Sure, the mini game would still be there, just like our garrison should.

- I did not mind leaving my AT reputation behind, I still have it and all the titles associated with it. But there is nothing I would want there.

- I did not mind leaving the MC behind, because I could go back there at any time and have access to it all being I opened it.  But there is nothing I would want there.

- I most likely will not mind leaving my farm behind, because it is not being updated meaning there would be nothing I would want there.

- Except to visit poor dog.

- There was nothing to add to AT or MC but there was something to add to the farm.

- Would I have liked to see the farm updated and bought with us somehow?  Absolutely.

- But we will have a farm on our garrison, I think, so I can deal with it.

- Garrisons will be so much more.

- Like the farm on steroids.

- So it makes losing the farm hurt a little less.

- Not like the farm was hard to open or took anything except some time from us.

- It did not need attention.

- It did not need gold.

- It did not need to be micro managed to get the maximum potential out of it.

- There was no complexity to it.

- Whereas garrisons seem like they will need a lot of our attention, a lot of our gold, a lot of micro management and a lot of complexity to it.

- At least if we want to have the best followers to do the best things and get the best stuff for us.

- And with all that work I don't think I will like that we would have to leave it behind.

- And the followers I am already thinking of like pets.

- Things I would want to keep around.

- There will be common, uncommon, rare, epic and maybe even legendary follows.

- You can send them to do dungeons, raids, gather materials or do quests for gold.

- Who would ever want to leave that stuff behind.

- After all the work of finding the best ones, be it rare or epic.

- After all the work of leveling them up so they can kick ass at their job.

- Just like we do with pets.

- How would you like if with a new expansion all your pets disappear or become useless?

- I don't want all my effort leveling my followers and finding the best followers wasted because it is tied to one expansion.

- They are like my pets.

- I was against the idea of making a garrison BoA, so to speak, where all your characters use the same one.

- I wanted each of my characters to have their own garrison.

- To build an army of 20 level 100s all with full garrisons farming everything I would ever need.

- But if it is just going to be another throw away piece of garbage that we will not have with us forever, I do not want to waste my time and gold on it with multiple characters.

- I would not want to find the best followers, level all those followers, train all those followers, build up all those builds, all to just leave it behind on multiple characters.

- Now, being it will not be following us having it be one garrison for your entire account works for me.

- I would rather not build it up many times.

- If they are going to insist on it being a one expansion thing I would be glad to only have to do it on one character and never have to worry about it again.

- If something matters, if something is going to move forward with you, you can tie it to the individual character.

- If something is a one and out thing just as filler content I do not want to do busy work of building it on every single character.

- Seems an idea I really liked and was looking forward was already ruined by one single line.

- It will be tied to warlords only.

- Boo blizzard, boo.

- Maybe another nomination for worst idea?

- Well, that remains to be seen.

- Garrisons might suck and not be even one tenth as cool as they sound.

- So it will just be another one of those things that are just busy work.

- I already mentioned they might keep adding things to skip busy work and sell it.

- Like skipping the busy work of leveling.

- Maybe they will sell instant max garrisons to skip the busy work of leveling it yourself.

- $60 and you have all level 3 building and legendary followers.

- Blah, I would build it myself on one character and say screw it on the rest.

- It isn't worth even .60 cents if it is not something that moves forward with us.

- I hope blizzard changes their mind on that.

- How much do you want to bet there will be followers you can get only at the shop?

- I am willing to bet that right now.

- Any takers?

- Have a great day.

26 comments:

  1. I tend to think about my alts the way you seem to think about Dog or your pets (or now these supposedly legendary followers. I am my hunter, everything else is support. They may be good friends or family even, but they're not me. So that's why I'd like account wide garrisons. I'd love to see my druid friend hanging out in there when I don't play her, or have her go visit my hunter and lend a hand when I do play her. Maybe I'm a little crazy for thinking about my alts that way...

    Anyhow, yeah, they must be expecting huge huge huge inflation of in-game gold. A lot of guides are saying you'll need between 100k and 200k starting off in WoD. Most players just don't have that, though. Although it would add to the specialness of having something most players can't afford, I don't think that's really what they were going for; which leads me back to thinking they must be expecting inflation to go way up in-game, to where it doesn't feel like we really invested that much.

    ~Delirium

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    1. I think the same. I am a hunter and they are my support. However, when I am not raiding or not doing something else on my hunter I tend to like to build other things up. Meaning alts, their professions, etc. I have 2 hunters 560 or over and probably will end up having another 2 at that point. I like hunters, but everything else is there to keep me into the game when I am not playing my hunters.

      If it were not for alts I would not log in except for raid night and that is beginning to get boring too. So basically, if not for alts I might just quit the game. So of course how I feel leveling them and playing them matters to me.

      Most players do not have 30K gold never the less 200K. I have people on my raid team I constantly need to give gold for repairs because they do not even have that.

      If I had to guess I would say that the number of people with over even 10K is probably in the less than 10% range. Sure I would be able to afford garrisons but I am not the average player. If they intend them to be that expensive they better expect an in flux of gold buyers and gold sellers because most people just do not have that type of gold or even know how to make it.

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  2. It's a video game... it's all busy work, 100% of it. Garrisons being expansion-specific or "permanent" changes that not one bit. The farm was stage 1 of "housing"... but was limited. Garrisons will be stage 2 of "housing"... integrating the farm + a whole lot more. I suspect they already have a plan in mind for stage 3 and if that means leaving the Garrison on Draenor, I'm fine with that and if I find Garrisons to be worth spending time on, I'll spend time on it regardless.

    As will you. :)

    We've always been able to fly in zones on new toons by the time the next expansion hits so I'd expect something similar in MoP. The MoP terrain design was pretty good, though, so I'd expect them to leverage it as long as possible... probably to 6.0 as you suggested or even until WoD hits.

    I'm torn on the gear reset idea. Obviously, as a generally high-level raider (heroic in Wrath, full clear in Cat with legendary daggers, somehow even more heroic in MoP) I'd "like" to carry gear forward as long as possible to increase its value to me and make the current acquisition as worthwhile as possible...

    ... but ultimately I think I like the reset better. New place, new gear, cut the ties from the earlier expansion. I used to hang on to gear as long as possible, especially in early Cat, but at some point I realized that was silly... it's just gear. Since realizing that I immediately swap in quest greens even if they're downgrades. Makes the transition a lot less bittersweet.

    It's true, for those who are raiding specifically for gear, getting ANY gear in the final tier is pointless beyond what's needed to kill the bosses you care about. Me, I'm plugging away, killing new bosses here and there because that's why I raid, to kill bosses. That'll sustain me for a while yet, H Garrosh isn't imminent but is possible, we haven't hit a wall yet. Looping back around to my original line, it's all busy work, it's just a matter of spending the time how we want to, whether in-game or not. I like raiding so therefore I raid. For those who aren't finding it compelling enough, they should be doing something else instead. Gotta follow your own joy, whatever it is.

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    1. Yes it is all busy work, but it can be fun.

      Pet battles are a complete waste of time, sure, but when doing them they are fun. See, that is what I mean.

      I like leveling, to some it is just a means to an end. For me it is part of the game play, for them it is just busy work.

      I know I will do the garrisons anyway because I am a sucker for building things, it is why I like leveling, I can see my character being built, so to speak.

      I would hope that there will be a stage 3 and at some point there will be something we keep. Just hate building and leaving behind.

      I am having an issue finding my own joy right now. :(

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    2. I've been struggling with it a bit outside of raids as well so I've dusted off some old games I had piled up and have played through them, mostly on weekends... that's been working well so far.

      I missed the CRZ discussion in my original response... generally I don't mind CRZ (and it's helped me a lot personally for getting things like world boss kills) but it has downsides. I'm not sure it's in Blizzard's best interest to offer a CRZ toggle, though, even if it makes them some money... they brought it into the game, despite a lot of negative comments (including mine), for a reason. These days I barely notice it in normal gameplay. On the other hand, once all of the realm connections are done and assuming there's enough population out and about in the world, I could see them using it less or not at all for leveling zones and leave it in-game only for cross-server grouping purposes. At that point, though, if there's enough pop, CRZ wouldn't activate anyway so it's probably a moot point.

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    3. They will keep using it and over populating zones that should not be over populated because it "makes the game feel epic". Their words, not mine.

      Trust be told, they will keep doing it so people do not run around and say, look at this place, it is empty, the game is dying. That is why they added it. It has absolutely nothing to do with game play.

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    4. Well, that's hard to argue, even with CRZ it isn't uncommon for me to go 15 minutes without seeing another player. For a new player joining an MMO and expecting there to be ... massive numbers of other players around, I'm not sure how they'd react. I'm sure some would assume the game is dead and just stop playing... that's not really in anyone's best interest.

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    5. I think anyone joining an MMO in today's world knows that the only game is the end game and does not actually expect to see anyone out there while leveling.

      It is not like vanilla, or BC, or heck, even wrath, where leveling could take a fair chunk of time and you would spend more than 30 minutes to an hour at max in a zone. There used to be a reason to have zones full, because you needed help with things. Now you do not, so the zones do not need to be full. If anything, the reason zones are so empty is because it goes by so fast that people are in and out and you can miss them. Not like the good old (or bad old depending on how you look at it) days when you would log on for a week or two and still be in the same zones and the people you ran into were in those same zones as well. If it takes you more than 2 sessions of game play to get through a zone they are not really leveling, they are hanging out.

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    6. I don't know if you play any other MMOs (I don't) but if I picked up a new one to play I'd expect the leveling game to be active and significant. I think the rush to end-game thing is specific to veteran WoW players rather than being an MMO thing. Hell, I'd swear I read a bunch of blog posts from SWTOR players who basically didn't do end-game, they just leveled toons until they got bored and then they quit. Definitely wasn't a "rush to end-game" mentality happening.

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    7. I think leveling should take a while, it should play a big part in the game. Always have thought that way. It is blizzard that has turned it into something useless to the point I really do not understand why we even have it in the game any longer.

      I do play a few others like rift, but rarely, very rarely.

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    8. Uh. If they'd ignored it for the past 10 years then I might agree but they completely revamped the 1-60 experience in Cataclysm... and I generally much prefer the current leveling. How does that fit the "Blizzard has turned it into something useless" narrative?

      I think a new player would do just fine with the leveling game... as long as they either finish zones off or aren't worried about incomplete narratives. There's obviously a bit of a disconnect there but that's just a function of there being a lot more vets than actual noobs doing the leveling.

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    9. Because there are no hard mobs, no elite quests, no learning required, everything happens so fast you are out of an area before you even started it.

      When leveling took time you learned, because you had to learn. To kill things faster, to survive, to push to level up. Now you sneeze and you leveled, you get up to go to the bathroom and come back to see you leveled.

      They made leveling such a complete joke I wonder why it is even still there. It sure as hell is not there to teach anyone anything. It is not there to tell a story because you can never finish a zone because you are out leveling the quests 15 minutes after you got there. What is leveling for? It is a waste of time now.

      And I am someone to loves leveling saying that.

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  3. well, alts to you guys are different than alts to me. I have 3 hunters, 2 rogues, 1 soon to be 90 mage, 1 Druid. They are different, yet, the same to me. When I am on JuWun for instance, I am her. When I on Icey, I am her and of course when I am on me (Roo the Hunter), I am me. Different, yet the same.

    I sure hope one wont need 100,000 to 200,000. I dont have it, never will for Wabbits of Death.

    I hope for a garrison, one doesn't need to do quests like for the legendary cloak. I will never be able to get one, either.

    Blizzard did forget to have flying all this time in two areas - Blood Elf area and the Draeni (goat people) area. Why? It's nothing sacred. One can fly in the gnome, dwarf area, human area, NE area, why not those two areas? maybe they forgot? silly blizzard.

    Maybe it is time that gear didn't give adds to your abilities (you know, int, agi, etc). Maybe it's time just grants you armor and thats it. Magic swords or bows are way too many. Conan didn't have a magic sword.

    I would like to see a WOW expansion set in the "old west". That would be cool. Or the aftermath of a nuke war (differen than that whatever2 coming out). that would be as cool.

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    1. I am sure garrisons will involve quests but probably quests more like opening the farm then quests like getting the legendary cloak.

      They did not forget those areas, they purposely ignored them. To do them would mean they would have to redo the entire BC expansion and with so much time wasted remaking the old world they did not want to waste even more time.

      We need to get back to basic fantasy setting I think.

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  4. PS - you are long winded today, yesterday and Saturday. When did you find time to play? :P

    -rascal roo

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  5. - Flying at 85. I'd say 'yes', but it's Blizzard, so who knows.

    - Level alone! Awesome idea. Just disabling CRZ would be enough. I put a few levels on my druid last night, but luckily didn't run into any problems. They'd never do it though because they want us to have all that game-breaking competition...

    - Spread out the tier lengths. Definitely agree. 6, 6, 12 is stupid. The earlier tiers go too fast and the last tier takes too long. At least do 9, 9, 9.

    - I like the idea of heroic gear being entry level for the first tier of the next expansion. It would give more longevity to the final tier.

    - I want account-wide garrisons as well.

    On another note, I did proving grounds last night for the first time. Bronze and Silver were a joke. Gold took me 2 attempts. I was a few seconds short the first time on Wave 10, but the second time I used flask/food and adjusted my CD usage, so I got it with a few seconds to spare. The downscaling was annoying. I wasn't expertise capped for some reason and the lost haste had me constantly focus starved.

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    1. When leveling it is a time of the day thing. I was on late saturday night because I did not get home til after 12. At 3 in the morning there was no one out there. But I am never on during that time, so leveling at that time is not ideal for me but it was nice.

      I wish gear from the last tier of an expansion meant something but it doesn't. It is for epeen only.

      It is weird doing them wish scaled gear. Just feels wrong. I think they would have been better scaling the content up to you then scaling you down to the content. But scaling you down to the content is much easier to do so I am sure that is why they went that way. Sometimes it can take time to get used to it.

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  6. I will admit I didn't read all you wrote (shame on me), but I'm always amazed at the difference between our experiences with CRZ.

    Is it because you're in US and I'm in EU? I'm playing mainly on 2 realms, an english one and a french one, on tbh I barely noticed any difference between before and after CRZ. Mobs are still everywhere, nodes are plentyfull.

    Best example for me is this Week-end : while in queue for the event I randomlly went to Storms Peak and went of of there with a brand new Time Lost Proto Drake. There was NO ONE around.

    Honestly for me they could turn it off and I wouldn't see the difference.

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    1. It could be something different between US and EU realms and it could be different based on the time of the day you play.

      At prime times the CRZ can be insane and zones packed so much there is nothing ever alive. At off time it could be just like it normally should be. A few people here and there. Luck also plays a big role in it. Luck of the draw of if there are a lot of people doing the same quests as you. I've been to hubs around the same time of day on different characters and seen 20 people trying to do the same quest and been alone doing it.

      I wish they would turn it off. It serves no purpose what so ever except to pack zones that are meant for leveling purposes. With the push to the end game and the desire to make leveling faster and faster, why pack the zones? Let people get things done faster and not slower by having to share mobs.

      CRZ is one of the worst additions to the game without a doubt. All because blizzard wanted to save face and make it look like the game was packed. I wish they would realize that we do not care if the world is packed while leveling. We just want to enjoy the game and sometimes the game is more enjoyable when alone. Leveling is one of those cases.

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    2. I definitely notice CRZ. It's not overcrowded in most cases, but I remember leveling before it and I'd often be the only person in the zone. Now, I run into people everywhere and none of them are from my realm.

      Hunting for rares is useless now. There's almost always someone camping every spawn point whereas there used to be only 1 or 2 out there looking for it.

      Also, I see more people in Ironforge now than I do in Stormwind...

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    3. Stormwind is still pretty packed on my server but yes, I used to be the only person in ironforge and now the place is as packed as stormwind. In a city CRZ makes things look cool, because that is all it is about, looks, but in the world, when you are fighting for long respawn timers like in BC or looking for a rare to tame or kill, CRZ sucks.

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  7. Hi Grumpy! Delurking after following you on RSS for the past couple of months. Thanks for my daily read. :)

    I've investigated this on several EU realms, and found that the density varies depending on the realms in the coalescence. On my home server of Magtheridon, it is just painful to quest now. Recently, at about 2am, I was doing the quests in EP where you have to kill three separate named mobs: The Commander, the Assassin and the Archer. All three were dead when I got to them. All three. At 2am. That is not an experience I would wish on anybody.

    OTOH, on certain other realms, the density is much lower. On one realm, Earthen Ring, there is no CRZ atr all, though I don't know how long that blessed state will last. Just as, on US Realms, The Venture Co is, I believe, still CRZ-free. If you really would pay to level in peace, perhaps consider rolling or transferring there, and then paying to transfer back.

    I'm thinking of doing that myself on Earthen Ring, Earthen Ring is too quiet for my taste, and it galls me to pay Blizzard for their bad, but my Ironman character is there, and I might just do it anyway.

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    1. I am glad you have been enjoying.

      Thanks for checking that out and sharing the information. I am guessing the people that have not experienced it in the EU, or US for that matter, are just lucky enough to be on a server that is not over connected like mine is. At least on mine 3 AM was kind of nice, even if there were a few people around.

      I would consider that but I believe it is a PvP server and I do not like to PvP while leveling unless it is going to be a fair fight of similar levels. Sadly from experience I can tell you that never happens.

      Blizzard should make some "small" servers with the intention of staying that size.

      I would be willing to be that if blizzard started a small server and offered free transfers to it they would need to open a ton more servers to keep them small. There are a great deal of people that prefer a more intimate setting while playing. A few others here and there, not people all over the place everywhere you turn.

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  8. I hate crz, leveling again is so much slower, there are bottleneck quests, either because it involves a 'boss' which people then queue up for, or too few mobs with too low a drop rate of the require item. I wouldn't mind a few realms crz'ed to be that bad, but it seems like more and more are being packed in. I often wonder if a realization of this might be part of the argument behind instant 90s, reduces hardware costs for 'throw-away' content.

    Although, sometimes the queuing results in something really nice. You come to where a 'boss' is, the guy in front of you is the opposite faction. You can't group. Now, I always speed up the kill by helping the people in front of me, faster to starting the respawn timer. Sometimes, the opposite faction player notices, then hangs around to pay back the favor, because you two couldn't group. Now that's generosity, purposefully slowing yourself down to help someone that you'd naturally be 'enemies' with. Gives me a warm feeling inside.

    But yes, I'd pay a lot for a private instance. Although I suspect the actual cost for Blizz for that would be more than $300 a year in increased hardware costs across the entire system.

    I was kitted out in full vp/raid gear at the beginning of MoP on all my characters. The gear I got questing didn't start being better for a couple of levels at least, but I like the idea of aiming for this at a design level.

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    1. Those ones with low drop rates and few mobs are really annoying because you end up with 15 people running around AoEing everything just in case one spawns. You are right, there are a lot of bottle neck quests. If they could at least manage to help with those it would be much easier.

      I've had a few from opposite factions do that as well. It almost seems like, percentage wise, I've had better interaction with people I could not talk to. Including kill skipping in mines and stuff. I get this one, they get the next one, I get the one after, etc. Kind of cool.

      The only piece from cata that seemed to last until late mist leveling was the cloak if I remember correctly. Some of the other gear, because it was gemmed and enchanted and heroic did last a little bit. But my normal geared characters were replacing stuff in the starting area and by kun lai had nothing left.

      Raid gear, even normal raid gear, should last at least until the next level dungeons. Just my opinion.

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