2006. Pre-TBC. "The days when having epics meant something". Was it better than today?
I found this while browsing the web: WoW @ 60. It's a (now outdated) guide that teached 'new' 60's what to do when they got to max level. They could do instances like Stratholme, Scholomance, Blackrock Spire/Depths (which were raids at that time, by the way); they could do some nice quest chains...everything required a solid group to beat. And hell, it would be hard to get a 40 people PuG back in those days. Was it enough?
PvP "wasn't balanced"; has it ever been? Rogues only needed one skill to kill people. Shamans only needed Frost Shock to crit and they were successful. Basically, it wasn't much different from nowadays, except for the whole plethora of skills you have to use now. The only totally new thing that was implemented in PvP was Arenas, but that's a whole new story.
My point is: was it a lot different? Therefore, was it better or worse back then?
It was definitely worse from a 'casual' point of view. Very few had epics back then, and whoever did was admired by others, who only managed to get blues from 'lower quality' raids. Doing MC/BWL/OL meant you were pro. You were recognised by your T2 helm. Having a Thunderfury was amazing, and it actually required effort rather than luck to obtain.
From a hardcore player point of view, it was probably better, because people complimented their gear and how pro they were. I'm sure they loved that, everyone does. However, they can't say it was better because content was harder to beat. I'm willing to say that I find some encounters from WotLK (Hard Modes) even harder than MC or BWL.
I'm completely sure there will never be a conclusion about the previously stated questions. It's something that people will always be divided about, but if we think about it, we have a much bigger variety of stuff to do now, than we did in 2006. We got lots of intances, heroic instances, barber shops, arenas, a lot of dailies, achievements...I could go on all day. And last, but not least, 2 new professions: Jewelcrafting (introduced in TBC) and Inscription (introduced in Wrath). And that's why I prefer WotLK against Vanilla. It wasn't as easy to make money as it is now, not even close. A lot more money circulates; people have new things to buy (which they didn't back in pre-TBC), specially 'must-have' items like gems and glyphs. That's why those 2 professions are the best features ever. I make insane amounts of money with them. With that money, I make sure that I am properly prepared for my raids (or any activity I'm part of), and I can certainly enjoy the game more than I did 3 years ago, and still not be a hardcore player.
60 vs 80
I have to say, as much as people complain - 80 is far far better in almost every way.
ReplyDeleteRemember when 'hybrids' were terrible at anything but healing?
Remember when having a 100% speed ground mount was rare?
Remember when raiding was a 40 man affair that took 3-5 hours a night, 5 or so days a week to stay competitive?
Remember when your bags were a mix of 14/16 slots?
Remember when there wasn't even any battlegrounds, let alone arenas?
Even recent things like adding hard modes (and even more recently 'heroic modes') were great changes in my opinion.
The list goes on and on, but essentially the point remains that there are many many great changes in WotLK compared to vanilla WoW.
While i do have fond memories of pre-bc i have to agree things did get alot better. More quest at max level shorter duengons. You have to admit if you take some of the newer players into scholomance at 60 in mix matched old greens that was a hard instance. CC was necessary and you had to have a good leader to finish the duengon. Although it was fun at the time i am glad the game has progressed and changed because i no longer have the time to do a 3 hour 5 man dungeon that requires me to bludgeon morons with words and hold their hands so the group of 6 mobs doesnt go crazy wtf pwning the healer. They are great memories but i would not return there after going to greener pastures.
ReplyDeleteThis is indeed something I've been thinking about alot. I played wow in pre-tbc, or vanilla wow which some refer to it as, and after quitting just beforre aq20 and 40 was up I came back this automn.
ReplyDeleteWhat I came back to was a complete new experience, ofcourse the level cap was raised and new monsters with gear to seek were out there, but there were also a heck lot of changes aswell.
It's truly like you write in your post, compared to the "new" wow, there were much more difficult to obtain good gear (read purples or epics) and it demanded way more hard core gaming and cooperation. This is why I'd prefer the old days.
When we look at the days of wotlk passing by us we see nearly everyone ding lvl 80 with epics within the first hour. There's no longer necessary to delve into the game, either by farming for a looong time or knowing one own's class and play well, to get good gear or in any way explore the end-game potential.
To me the game is developing into a short-sight profit game, to earn the different profits one just have to wait less and less, do less and less and perform less and less. WoW is now more focused on making the players play just a little bit more than giving us the pleasure of long-term goals which we found back in the pre-tbc days.
Yeah it took longer time to get groups for instances, yeah, it took longer time to do those aswell, and for sure it took insanely long time to reach the maximum potentiality of the game by getting fulle epics, epic mount and exalted reputation. But wasn't those achievements also more fun to finally get aswell? Well, it was for me :)