Octopus Overlords

I stopped playing because the game seemed to be getting harder to solo contents. I'm more of a loner that can spend hours grinding stuff or doing things that can be done solo. Is the game now more solo friendly?

Everything is soloable, although some is easier than others, with the obvious exception of group content (dungeons, raids.) There are definitely areas that are tougher than others, though (very late game stuff is usually challening), and not every class is created equally when it comes to soloing.

Welcome back weekend.

All inactive accounts are active from Nov 5 until Nov 9. It is live now and BFA is now included free.

https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-gb/news/ ... vember-5-9

Shadowlands is nearly here, and you and your allies are needed back on the front lines. This weekend, we're giving all players with inactive World of Warcraft accounts full access to the game* and all of your characters without a subscription. You’ll be able to access all expansions including Battle for Azeroth, so you can play the most recent content and be ready for Shadowlands when it launches on November 24, 2020 at 00:01 CET. Rejoin your guild, rally your comrades, and prepare to brave the beyond.

Return to World of Warcraft FREE from November 5 to November 9.**

Last time I played this was when the very first expansion was released. I left my dwarf paladin sitting down in some place with a picturesque view. I wonder if that zone is one of the ones that got "redone".

NickAragua wrote: ↑Thu Nov 05, 2020 3:55 pm Last time I played this was when the very first expansion was released. I left my dwarf paladin sitting down in some place with a picturesque view. I wonder if that zone is one of the ones that got "redone".

If it was somewhere in the expansion, no. Anywhere else that existed then, yes.

When I created a new character on Thrall a few weeks ago, I quickly got distracted by life and quit playing. I hadn't yet stepped foot outside the Zandalar capital. I found it to be gorgeous, but quickly became lost, even with the handholding. I'm always frustrated by massive MMORPG cities that have little actual function. That may not be a fair assessment here (I know learning a new layout is always challenging at first), but especially as WoW and other MMOs age there seems to be a drive to create spectacular towns rather than functional ones. The pathing/clustering may be well designed (like I'm glad all the trade skill stuff is in the same area), but it's still so easy to get lost on your initial visits. I also imagine these expansion zones really weren't designed with level 10s in mind, who only have their first ground mount tier unlocked.

There was also that quest where you're transformed into a little dinosaur and have to sneak through the market. I tried and failed about 20 times, even after looking up tips online. I should have abandoned it, but I'm a completionist. That stuff kills the game for me.


Anyway, the positive news is that I finally got Mrs. Nym interested after she had to send in a photo of her ID to get her account unlocked and reset her authenticator. We started a Paladin-Mage Draenai duo on Proudmore, and are having a lot of fun through level 20 and playing in BfA for the first time. I didn't really want to go Alliance again, at least without any of the allied races unlocked. (The lightforged Draenai have bitchin' beard options... the regular ones less so.) But Mrs. Nym had a specific character concept in mind. We settled on Proudmore so we can apply to Greivance if we decide to join a large guild. (But if OO members coalesce anywhere in particular come Shadowlands, I'm sure we'd be willing to jump ship.)

Boralus in Kul Tiras seems more navigable to me. The initial questing zone is still massive though... and I suspect the last couple of expansions I've missed have been similar. But it feels so different than questing in the old vanilla/Cata zones that were more like being plunked in a sandbox with walls. For immersion, this is wonderful. But for maintaining focus and keeping under the quest log limit, it's a nightmare. The nice thing is that it really doesn't feel slow traversing the zone, even on beginner's mounts. Quest variety however is pretty much the same as in vanilla lol. It's nice to see little improvements like escort targets stopping to wait for you however, and the public and star quests are nice for variety's sake. (Again, I doubt these are new to WoW, and certainly have been in other games for ages now. But I haven't played since Pandaria.) Vehicle-type quests that have been around since TBC break things up every now and again, as do ones where you get to use a special item. But these have always felt "floaty" to me. Outside of combat, interaction with the WoW environment has always felt poor due to the lack of physics (but part of that I realize is by design, and I know we're talking about a game that's 15+ years old).

I find the compulsion to gather crafting mats to be frustrating though. When I see that little golden pin on my minimap, I have to go grab it. I quickly get off course, and this isn't conducive to duoing. I'm also confused by crafting and the economy post-level-squish, but I'm sure I'll figure it out once I actually look into it.

Sudy wrote: ↑Sat Nov 14, 2020 12:23 am I hadn't yet stepped foot outside the Zandalar capital. I found it to be gorgeous, but quickly became lost, even with the handholding. [snip] The pathing/clustering may be well designed (like I'm glad all the trade skill stuff is in the same area), but it's still so easy to get lost on your initial visits.

It isn't well designed. It is a nightmare of unnecessary back-and forth staircases and confusing verticality. The Alliance city is mostly flat with passages to quickly go between important areas. Zuldazar is a nightmarish climbing puzzle because they felt they just had to work their city into a mesoamerican pyramid. Early on they got a lot of complaints about the design. Some tips if you go back: When you choose a loa, choose Gonk. His buff lets you jump down between levels with minimal falling damage. Second, everything is clustered in three areas: The bank/teleporters at the top, the trainers down one side, and the docks. Last, use the flight points. There are two of them, one by the bank/teleporters, the other down at the docks. It's usually easiest to fly between the two rather than running up or down the pyramid to get between the top and ground level.

Thanks for the tips! I definitely want to check it out again at some point. I mean, aesthetically, it's stunning. But I thought it must have just been unfamiliarity and laziness. You'd think they'd put a lot of thought into pathing design when it's going to be the main hub for a faction for a couple of years. (If it was... I'm not quite clear on that yet, only having begun the expansion. And about a month before the next one launches. )

It's the faction hub.

The truth is that 90% of the time you'll just be flying back and forth between the top and the docks. That simplifies it somewhat. The special machine down at the side is only super important for the endgame, and by then you'll be looking at flight anyway.

Rolled an undead Shadow Priest (first one ever) on Thrall a couple of weeks ago and should make 50 with him today or tomorrow. That may sound fast, or maybe it won't--it's fast for me!--but with the squish and leveling changes they just fly.

I spent until 42 in Pandaria because I like the scenery but two night ago I saw a post on reddit about a 10-50 speed run done in less than four hours. That's not my style but I was a little intrigued. There was a zone progression listed culminating with the Warlords of Draenor intro==>Gorgorond so I decided to switch and see what it was like. I made it from 42 to 46 in about an hour and a half just running through the intro until you get your stronghold setup. Wild.

Everything I've read has suggested levelling is super speedy now, and I'm earnestly not sure how I feel about that. Mind you, I only ever got deep into endgame in Cata. And by no means do I want to play through all the expansions each time I roll an alt. But there was something magical about the levelling experience that seems lost now. I know nothing says I can't play old content after hitting cap, but it seems less interesting to me if I'm not gaining levels. I guess it's a premature concern considering I haven't broken 25 yet.

I have multiple 50s on Thrall, plus some up-and-coming on Proudmoore. If anyone's around, I'm Blackhawk#1791 on b.net.

Sudy wrote: ↑Sat Nov 14, 2020 9:23 am Thanks for the tips! I definitely want to check it out again at some point. I mean, aesthetically, it's stunning. But I thought it must have just been unfamiliarity and laziness. You'd think they'd put a lot of thought into pathing design when it's going to be the main hub for a faction for a couple of years. (If it was... I'm not quite clear on that yet, only having begun the expansion. And about a month before the next one launches. )

No, it's a horrible execution of a city concept. I have 9 max-level Horde characters. It took me at least half the expansion to figure out which NPC sold cooking supplies so I wouldn't have to take a flight path back and forth while leveling cooking (because the trainer is in the main building and the only vendor I initially found was on the docks).

I disagree about picking Gonk. I always picked Pa'ku to use her totems to fly between areas (before they unlocked flight in the last expac). There's an addon that shows you the totems and their destinations on your map.

I liked Gonk before I could fly just because it let me jump down to the trainers in two bounds, which would have killed me otherwise. But I agree - the flight points can be handy, especially before flight.

This is about to go live.

Friends able to (attempt) log in are telling me it's pretty clogged.

At least on Thrall.

I was logged in and stupidly logged out, can't get back in of course.

Lorini wrote: ↑Mon Nov 23, 2020 7:05 pm I was logged in and stupidly logged out, can't get back in of course.

folks are saying they were booted even if they were logged in before 6:00.

How can they not have this worked out by now.

They do have it worked out. It's implementing the solution that's the problem. It not worth it for them to upgrade their entire system to handle a problem that happens two or three days every year and a half, then have all of that sit idle for the rest of the time.

gilraen wrote: ↑Sat Nov 14, 2020 7:15 pm No, it's a horrible execution of a city concept.

It really was. My main is Alliance and I was so glad to have Boralus Harbor as a hub rather than Dazaralor. By the time I started leveling my Horde toon I already had flight. I'd have been pissed at that nightmare starting out.

Does anyone have an alliance guild that has a wide range of ages, is relatively casual, but likes grouping? My daughter (16) is having a tough time finding a cooperative guild. In addition, the whole family has been looking for an alliance server just to mix things up. There's 4 of us total.

This may not fit your wide age range requirement, but myself and a group of friends have a small Alliance guild (currently 6 members) on Elune, you are welcome to join us. We all started fresh on the server and at present we are all questing through Shadowlands and learning the dungeons. Presently we have run Necrotic Wake a few times while we get our gear scores up to unlock the other dungeons. All of us have not played in a few years and the new dungeon mechanics are kicking our butts but we are plucky and keep trying. We've completed the first dungeon a few times but it's taken quite a few wipes each time. Anyway, right now we are a small group of older men but we are all casual and friendly and discussions and language are all very G-rated. Couple of folks are also dads and no one would have any issue with your daughter joining us for dungeon runs or quests. Unfortunately raiding is not a priority, if that's what your looking for. If you are interested let me know and I will PM you with my in-game info.

Elune! What the furbolg are you doing on Elune? That was my server way back at launch. Looks like its population is pretty poor these days.


Mrs. Nym and I have abandoned our new toons on Proudmore-Alliance because we're indecisive self-doubters and have re-rolled a Shaman-Hunter duo on Thrall-Horde for now. Still guildless... still considering applying to Grievance, but wanted to see if these characters stick first.

Funny story, turns out there are two servers with Elune in the name. When my co-worker told me a few folks were jumping back in for Shadowlands on "Elune" I thought he meant Sisters of Elune, so I said sure, I already have characters there. Turns out he meant the other Elune. I totally prefer Horde but the consensus was Alliance so I was out voted.

Hunter and Shaman are both solid choices, both can solo really well so a duo should be cake. Leveling seems insanely fast now a days. I resubbed about a month before the expansion released figuring I would work on getting "a" character to as close to 50 as I could before release. In the first two weeks I unlocked two allied races, rolled a Priest, leveled to 50, then rolled a Hunter and leveled to 50, then the anniversary started with the bonus XP so didn't want to waste that. I rolled a Shaman and leveled to 50. Still had time before release so geared up all three characters during the pre-release event, still had time left so leveled a Warlock to 50.

In the past I always played enhancement Shaman but I was not digging the changes so switched to Elemental and I am very happy with the playstyle. I've also healed using Shaman Resto spec and I also like how it plays so far. Couple of good instant cast heals/HOTS, good group healing and can still toss out some extra damage. My only complaint so far is lack of cleanse as that seems a huge mechanic for dungeons. As far as Hunter, one of my guild mates plays as Marksman and it feels like the spec does just a skosh more damage, just enough to be noticeable, but I still prefer Beastmaster. More utility, better survivability and two pets, sort of. Plus, most important all the really cool pet models/skins. I am currently running Faultline and Steeltusk as my two pets and I love the matching aesthetic.

I'm going to have a hard time switching to alliance as all my rep/achievements are horde. However, I really want a better guild experience.

The daughter is being teen. She wants to play when she wants to play typically corresponding to when we are working. When we want to play she's got other stuff to do. Making decisions based on her plans are not the best idea.

I do want an alliance guild. My brother in law has invited us, but he's flaky too, so we'll see.

I'd love to play with some of you guys but everyone's so darned scattered. But I guess that's the reality of a once-ultra-popular 15-year-old game with this server structure.

Feel like there's a not small amount of us on Thrall / Horde.

Others in my play group have hit 60 already but I'm cruising along at 55 currently. I should hit 60 by the end of the week though.

We've run Necrotic Wake a couple of times as well. I don't have a solid group of five so there is usually a slot or two that goes to randoms. If any of you are on Thrall and want to run dungeons let me know and if we have a spot I'll hit you up.

Going to be a while before we hit max level, but I'll keep that in mind, thanks! Are you currently with Grievance?

So we're "attuned" to BfA content or whatever, but I got a quest in Orgrimmar to do Ragefire Chasm. So we walked into it, as we couldn't queue, and managed to beat it as a duo at level 20. It was fun. Everything scaled. Appropriate gold and XP rewards, but no item rewards from the quests. No blues dropped from any of the bosses except for the final one.

Which is all fine. I just wish it was clearer how the old content worked and what was worth doing. Like yeah, we're on the BtA track, so we should quest there and use the group finder for the BtA content as we level. But as an instance fan, I just miss having the option to queue for the old ones without switching at Chromie, if I can even do that and have it not screw anything up. Like, why even present the RFC quest to new players if it's mostly meaningless for them to complete it?

I guess this is bound to happen with the quantity of the content. The level squish is definitely a godsend. Who wants to have to level through all expansions over and over? But it's just such a different (and initially unclear) experience, now.


I'm also confused as to how your relevant dungeons work post-squish. The first one is level 10-50? The next is 16-50? Do you only get grouped with similarly leveled characters and the content scales to your average level, or do we wind up in a group with players across the whole range?

Sudy wrote: ↑Mon Nov 30, 2020 8:46 am Which is all fine. I just wish it was clearer how the old content worked and what was worth doing. Like yeah, we're on the BtA track, so we should quest there and use the group finder for the BtA content as we level. But as an instance fan, I just miss having the option to queue for the old ones without switching at Chromie, if I can even do that and have it not screw anything up. Like, why even present the RFC quest to new players if it's mostly meaningless for them to complete it?

None of it is meaningless. Everything scales appropriately within a certain range and it's pretty big I think. When it's no longer in the range it should fade if you have "ignore low level quests" enabled which it is by default.

However, I would recommend doing Chromie time and choose Mists of Pandaria. That is a hugely underrated expansion. You're not going to be able to do everything anyway before you hit 50.

I'm also confused as to how your relevant dungeons work post-squish. The first one is level 10-50? The next is 16-50? Do you only get grouped with similarly leveled characters and the content scales to your average level, or do we wind up in a group with players across the whole range?

You get grouped with anyone, but content scales appropriately. Damage numbers are converted into percentages (you won't see it directly) so a 40 can do the same content at the same time as a 20 and it will look like 40 content to the 40 and 20 content to the 20.

Thanks. And meaningless, no. But not as relevant or as enjoyable as I once found it. I do appreciate that they haven't completely invalidated the content. I do however think it would be kind of a waste of time for new players who didn't understand some content is more relevant than others though. I wish I could have all expansions' instances be available in the group finder at once.

We've played at least part of Mists before, so we thought it made sense to start with BfA to experience the story before moving into Shadowlands. I look forward to playing/re-playing all of them on alts though, at least until I burn out. I haven't played in an expansion since Mists, so I've missed a lot.

Noxiousdog, totally understand and there is no expiration on the invitation, just hit me up when or if you would like to join us.

I would say which Time-Line you pick from Chromie depends on what your trying to accomplish. If you want to hit 50 as quickly as possible then WOD/Legion are very good, if you want to explore an expansion that you missed or re-visit some old favorite zones then one of the other time-lines, want to get caught up on events then BFA. Warlords, Legion and BFA all introduced new mechanics (Garrison, Class Hall/Class Weapon, Heart of Azeroth) and all are worthless once you hit Shadowlands but BFA had the most interesting and meaningful within the BFA content of the three.

As far as loot in dungeons, I would say get used to the minimalist approach, my understanding is that Blizzard has made changes to reduce the number of rewards and try and make what you do get more meaningful, so far I am not liking it. The last run we did of Necrotic Wake, out of 4 bosses, only one group member received any loot at all and it was worthless. So one single blue drop for the entire group across the whole dungeon.

Ugh, it's that way in new content too? That saps a lot of the fun/excitement out of instances for me. I'm used to each boss dropping a blue in the levelling dungeons, and running each one multiple times to try to get all the ones that are upgrades to me. Otherwise it's just repetitive content. But, maybe that's gradually changed over the past few expansions? It sure seemed like they were setting us up for the norm with the babby's first instance at the end of Exile's Reach.

Sudy wrote: ↑Mon Nov 30, 2020 2:24 am Going to be a while before we hit max level, but I'll keep that in mind, thanks! Are you currently with Grievance?

No not currently. I'm un-guilded but playing with friends.

I'm sure I was removed due to inactivity but they were a very friendly group and--I'm making an assumption here---I don't think it would be difficult to get back in.

Sudy wrote: ↑Mon Nov 30, 2020 1:08 pm Ugh, it's that way in new content too? That saps a lot of the fun/excitement out of instances for me. I'm used to each boss dropping a blue in the levelling dungeons, and running each one multiple times to try to get all the ones that are upgrades to me. Otherwise it's just repetitive content. But, maybe that's gradually changed over the past few expansions? It sure seemed like they were setting us up for the norm with the babby's first instance at the end of Exile's Reach.

They made that change some time ago. Instead of a pile of random crap everybody fights over, each person has a chance of an item that is relevant to their current class/spec. You still get the same amount of usable loot. You just won't see the stuff you can't use.

They disable that feature when running older content (or at least they used to) to aid in transmog farming.

How are you guys finding Shadowlands? I don't know if I'm being too hard on it but it's just not clicking with me like the other expansions.

I feel like I'm spoiled by the previous 2 expansions scaling multiple zones to your level, so you could go through them in whatever order you picked. I'm trying to get a jump start on some professions, so I'm leveling several alts simultaneously, but after doing the entire first zone (Bastion) on 3 alts, I feel like I'm starting to lose brain cells. And don't get me started on the unskippable intro quest line...6 alts down, 8 to go

gilraen wrote: ↑Mon Nov 30, 2020 6:27 pm I feel like I'm spoiled by the previous 2 expansions scaling multiple zones to your level, so you could go through them in whatever order you picked. I'm trying to get a jump start on some professions, so I'm leveling several alts simultaneously, but after doing the entire first zone (Bastion) on 3 alts, I feel like I'm starting to lose brain cells. And don't get me started on the unskippable intro quest line...6 alts down, 8 to go

I'm soooo disappointed. I suggested she go with "Dark. Dim. Shadowy..."

gilraen wrote: ↑Mon Nov 30, 2020 6:27 pm I feel like I'm spoiled by the previous 2 expansions scaling multiple zones to your level, so you could go through them in whatever order you picked. I'm trying to get a jump start on some professions, so I'm leveling several alts simultaneously, but after doing the entire first zone (Bastion) on 3 alts, I feel like I'm starting to lose brain cells. And don't get me started on the unskippable intro quest line...6 alts down, 8 to go

Yeah, I can't do it. I have an orc hunter alt that I would like to level. Maybe let a few months pass and I'll have forgotten the pain.

The fact that the campaign is completely on rails is a big negative for me. Similar to Gilraen, I have now taken several alts through the opening sequence (The Maw) and Bastion and am burnt out on the zone. I have decided to focus on one character at a time now. My plan is to complete the campaign on a single character then go back and start on an alt in the hopes that the gap in time will make replaying the same exact quests in the same order a bit more bearable. Not sure why Blizzard decided to make this change to make things incredibly linear but I am not a fan.

Aside from Blizzard making Sylvanna godlike in the opening cinematic, I initially was enjoying the story line. It's not exactly original but it started out decent. Around mid-way through the Maldraxxus zone it started going south for me and hasn't picked back up yet.

I participated in the pre-release event in Icecrown and outfitted most of my characters with a full set of the Argent Conscript armor plus the weapon from Nathanos and this has resulted in hours and hours of play in Shadowlands without a single upgrade. Nothing from quests, drops or dungeons was better than what I was using.

On the positive side, I feel like the zones so far are just the right size and questing has been fairly smooth. An issue I had with some of the other expansions is you would be sent across a zone to turn in a quest which would unlock another group of quests even though you still had half a dozen quests where you had started from, so lots of back and forth. This does not seen to be the case in Shadowlands. Another item on the positive side, it is very easy to skill up to 30 slot bags and the materials are very easy to acquire. No daily grinds or super low drop rates to get some nice size bags. Also the main hub for the expansion, Oribos is simply a two level giant circle with all the NPC/Vendors along the outer edge, very easy to navigate and traverse.

Tao wrote: ↑Mon Nov 30, 2020 7:44 pm My plan is to complete the campaign on a single character then go back and start on an alt in the hopes that the gap in time will make replaying the same exact quests in the same order a bit more bearable. Not sure why Blizzard decided to make this change to make things incredibly linear but I am not a fan.

My understanding is that once you hit level 60 and complete the campaign on one character, you have the option to level alts using "Threads of Fate" mode - the campaign auto-completes for you, you just do world quests, bonus objectives and dungeons to level to 60. Except from what I read on the WoW forums, unless you spam dungeon runs, this leveling mode is way slower than campaign questing. Since I'm not in any guild, don't know anyone on my server, and pretty much despise doing group content with random groups, I might use it as a last resort. But you guys got a guild and run dungeons, so this may be a better option for you.