--Niniel EU-Kilrogg --Niniel EU-Kilrogg

Swiftmend

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.

2008-11-27

Wrath difficulty

I'm stealing two quotes that caught my attention from our guild forum, I hope those who said it don't mind. Personally I'm only level 75 and have only done the first four normal instances so I'm not sure about the level 80 heroics or Naxx raiding yet but here are what my guildmates are saying after having raided and done heroics at 80.


My impression of Wotlk so far is that the bar has been lowered way too much, going straight to heroics and steaming through them in T6 gear was a very dull feeling, infact I can't remember anything in the current dungeons (Besides the HoS event, which is way overtuned) that has been challenging, and I have not used CC to nowhere near the same level as I did in TBC, tbh, SL normal pre-nerf is more challenging than any of todays heroics. Awaiting Tier 8 content before doing my final judgement, but Aion seems very intresting atm.


The gear curve needed to be steeper. We should be looking for upgrades in normal dungeons before progressing to raids and heroics. I'm all for accessibility, but throwing gear at people simply negates a large portion of the content you've designed

Initially I felt the Skihilum whines that content was too easy was a sad attempt to dictate the pace of content for the sake of the bleeding edge, but there's really little challenge in the current content. Progressing through difficult encounters is far more satisfying than steamrolling through content and collecting meaningless gear.

Fundamentally, I think the developers have confused making content accessible to casuals with removing the difficulty curve. None-so-good.

I've only sidegraded a cloak and got some new trinkets while questing but my gear is still all from BC besides that. As a moonkin I'm destroying 8-10 mobs at equal level if my cooldowns are available such as Force of Nature and Starfall. Is that fun? Sure, for a while but I'd like it to be harder than that. I'm still enjoying questing at a slow pace but it's a bit sad how the guild has already cleared 10 man Naxx and Spider wing on 25 man.

I really agree that you should need to go through the regular 80 instances before heroics before raiding or what's the point of that content? I'd like to enjoy the design and experience and encounters of all instances in increasing difficulty.

Is it possible for me to storm through Naxx and then do regular 80 instances and enjoy them? I don't think so, the challenge is where the fun lies. How is storming 80 heroics in full level 70 gear fun? If I gear up even more in new raids then the new content becomes even more obsolete.

6 comments:

Aertimus said...

Amen. I'm level 78 right now. Sometimes I get on and don't do anything because I don't know why I'm doing it. Sometimes I think I should race to 80 to blow through raid content, but I'm scared I will get bored really really fast. Other times I think I should be looking for gear upgrades, but then I remember there is no point anymore. So I stare at the screen in Dalaran feeling depressed.

Niniel said...

/comfort

You shouldn't stare at the screen or be depressed, if you are then just log off for a while. You seem like an awesome and talented person so if you're bored with it then don't play for a while then see if it's fun when you get back. I've been bored with the game from time to time too but then I remember that it's the social bonds and achieving personal goals that make it fun.

The new content will probably become harder! It's been stated that Naxx was designed to be very "entry level" for new raiders so Blizzard can safely design the next raids to be harder knowing that everyone should have full Naxx gear making it easy to tune it I suppose.

Unknown said...

Just about everyone except DK's and recently rerolled characters (like mine) outgear Naxxramas or at least heroics because of 3 reasons:
- easily attainable arena gear in TBC
- SWP badge gear and 2 years to farm badges
- no more attunements for BT and MH

Those 3 combined have ensured that everyone (except aforementioned people) are at least on a tier 5 level of gear.

Back when TBC was launched, people from guilds that had cleared BWL and/or AQ40, and definitely those who had cleared 40man Naxxramas, breezed through leveling, heroics and entry level raids as well. They only failed at Gruul/Magtheridon because they were tuned horribly wrong - poor design, not lack of gear.

The only difference between then and now, is that you (nor me) weren't one of those raiders. You are now - you're sporting tier 5 gear or s2 arena gear in that picture at the top of your blog. Flashback to 2 years ago, you would've outgeared most heroics and early Karazhan as well.

On my hunter I didn't have any raid/badge/arena gear and I can tell you that some quests leveling up were indeed challenging, and I expect to be struggling to keep up in heroics. I definitely don't look forward to seeing the first WWS's of raids I'll be on. I do need to gear up first, and I'm looking forward to it :)

Ask any hardcore raider and they'll confirm this is nothing new - it's just new for scrubs like us.

Niniel said...

Good points and I'm glad to hear it!

My perspective really is a lot different this time around. I entered Outland with almost a complete Feralheart which was completed at level 65 I think. Had I've been wearing Dreamwalker I'd probably have kept it until level 70. This was just voiced opinions from my guildmates so I'll find out what it's like at 80 soon on my own.
I have noticed that 10 lvl 74 mobs hit me a lot harder than 10 lvl 70 ones and my gear is still the same so that makes sense ;)

I predict I'll swap out my T6 for blue level 78-80 instance gear and quest chain rewards. Hoperfully I'll have time to enjoy some heroics before getting dragged into 25 man Naxx and have gear thrown at me, hehe.
In terms of gear I suppose the biggest difference between Outland and the old world was gear itemization, especially the amount of stamina that was added to the new Outland gear compared to the old raid items.
It seems the gear difference has been flattened out a bit in this expansion hasn't it?

That picture up top is a bit old by now, that was T5 (I've never owned anything pvp-like except the trinket and I don't do arenas or BG at all on my druid, not sure why really). I entered Northrend in six pieces of T6 and two Sunwell items so that's why I think it's easy to nuke mobs. Let me log on to my mage in early Karazhan gear and I might cry like a baby about hard it is in Northrend ;)

Anonymous said...

The difficulties are there, you just have to find them. some of the achievements on heroics are challenging, but yeah having to wait for that is a long time.

I'm still mostly in t6. I've replaced a couple pieces with blues/epics out of heroics and 80 lvl dungeons.

I agree that wrath is easy. I think blizz is trying to make everything accessable to everyone. and I can only hope that there is something challenging later one for ppl who want to be challenged. that you need only find it.

for example.. killing one of the bosses in the violet hold, without killing any of his adds... that strikes me as a challenge.. perhaps it won't be when you outgear the content though.

I reserve my judgement.

lvling resto was significantly easier this time than it has been in the past though. i was taking on 2 camps worth of mobs at a time and just thorns + hurricane + heals and wait for them to die.

Niniel said...

I hope you are right! Nothing like beating a hard challenge! :)

You should try out questing as Moonkin, it's a lot of fun! I'm a pure resto druid at heart but I succumbed to the power of laser feathers at least until 80. Starfall, Force of Nature, Barkskin and Hurricane is a cool combination.