Cataclysm is a week old now. I'm sure most people are already 85 and decked out in their epics and whatnot. And I'm not sure I want to play much more.
I knew, from reading about beta, that the game was going to be very different. For a soloer, it is.
First of all, the mobs are tough, really really tough. I wasn't having too much trouble with my Druid, but some of my others are barely getting through most fights. We went from fighting level 80s in Northrend with 12k HP, to level 80s with 30k+ HP. And obviously they hit much harder-and the many instant respawns are horrible. But I'm sure these mobs are tuned to someone in their ICC epix, and not to some noob with barely iLvl 200 gear.
My Druid is level 84. And the only quests I've done have been finishing Mount Hyjal. The rest has been from mining and Archaeology.
Archaeology can be fun, but it is extremely annoying at times. Running in circles while the green light points in a different direction 5 different times is ridiculous. And yes, I know all about triangulation. I spend quite a lot of time with a GPS and I study maps as one of my main hobbies-like USGS maps, not just street maps. This profession is right up my alley. The only other problem is the bugs. Right now, at level 42o, I have 2 sites I can't finish which means I'm down to looking for 14 sites at a time rather than 16. One in Dragonmaw Village in Shadowmoon points to a spot outside the zone, so you get "you can't use that here" when you try to step closer to where the green light is pointing. The second is smack dab in the middle of Aerie Peak-and I'm Horde. I'm not going INTO an Alliance town to get an artifact. Screw that. Otherwise, it's sort of fun-I have the Raptor and Gnome pets, and the Raptor mount-they are pretty cool.
My biggest beef is with the guild leveling nerf that hit yesterday. My main realm has the guild with most of my 80s, my husband and kid's characters. The first few days we never got near the cap, but we were making progress. I thought we might actually hit level 2 next weekend. Then the cut back to 25% of XP and the progress has grinded to a halt. I don't want to hit level 25 in a month like most guilds, I'm not asking for the SAME THINGS AS HUGE GUILDS, I was just hoping that maybe we could actually hit freaking level 2!! in a few weeks! Is that REALLY too much to ask?? I suppose it is, judging by comments made by so many in the forums. It's either "join a huge guild or GTFO or STFU".
Don't get me wrong-I really honestly don't give two shits about the guild perks. I have 80s on 3 other realms that are guildless and I don't really care if they ever join a guild. I don't need the "perks" and I don't need other people. But I was really hoping our little family could at least make a LITTLE progress. At this rate, we probably won't hit level 3 until the next expansion hits-if we are still playing by then.
At least with Wrath I had something to look forward to when I hit the max level-there were tons of dailies with lots if interesting rewards. I worked towards the Hodirs to get the Mammoth(that I never rode). I even did those 3 measly dailies for Wyrmrest to get exalted and the Red Drake-it took me months and months, but it was worth it! What dailies are there now? I'm not 85 yet and haven't opened any, so I don't know for sure, but I think it's just Therazane(with no reward worth bothering for) and Tol Barad(which will require your realm to have control if you want to get the extra dailies). Oh and one little daily for Tolvir, for 150 rep-it's not like I really wanted that camel anyway. There might be a few in Twilight Highlands(haven't been there yet), but no interesting rewards there either. No dailies for Earthen Ring or Gaurdians of Hyjal-disappointing. I crave another Argent Tournament!!
I know, it's stupid of me to want to get exalted with a faction just for a mount or something cosmetic-even if it's something I'll never use(Mammoth and Red Drake)-but I have no real use for the end-game gear. Even the little achievement for being exalted is a nice thing to strive for. I see now that they are trying to reinforce that the BIG GUILDS and RAID/HEROICS/ARENA or GTFO. I guess it is time for me to move back to the Sims or some other shit like that. Can't really kill anyone to get your frustration out in the Sims-unless you place them in a building with no doors and no food. They will die eventually. It's torture and just not as satisfying as bashing in some big ugly Ogre skulls.
Worgens/Goblins-I just can't get into them. Haven't gotten one past level 13. The Goblin areas-ugh. I'm sure I'm the only person playing the game who drove their little hot rod around as carefully as possible, never using the speed boost, looking for the talk radio station, and avoiding the people like crazy. I drove it like I drive my real car. Can't help it. And then I get to Lost Isles, and the leader guy yells out every few minutes how EVERYTHING IS YOUR FAULT! Naming YOU by name! Great, for someone with self-esteem issues, who has thought everything was my fault ever since I was a kid, it makes me want to take my character to the water and drown it, just get it over with and end it all. Thanks game.
The Worgen I just find boring so far. The architecture is AMAZING. I could run around Gilneas all day. But I can do that with any of my 80s, without the annoying mobs. I'm not sure why I just don't really like the actual characters so far. It could also be the absolute massive amount of others in the zones that turns me off. Perhaps if I was running around alone, I'd be more into it. Right now I'm either AFKing or rushing through to avoid the random jerk who wants to spam duels or group invites or just talk about stupid shit. Go away!
So a week in and I'm not having fun. Not to mention I get absolutely hounded and ridiculed on the one message board that I used to frequent. So this will be my only vent portal. If ANYTHING positive happens for soloers, I'll post about it. If not, well I might just not be playing much longer. Doesn't seem like they want my kind around here anymore.
5 comments:
Mobs hit harder and have more hit points, but Cata gear has heaps more stamina than WoTLK gear so that helps. With 8 80's I'm sure you have the skill and experience to overcome most situations. Maybe WoTLK was too easy. Embrace the excitement of near-death experiences.
Don't get hung up on people in raid epics. Chances are almost every piece will be replaced by quest reward greens. Epics will be much harder to come by as well, with heroics being much harder.
When all is said and done, WoW is a multiplayer game, so there have to be benefits to social players and this can and does disadvantage solo players. I hope your guild does level sufficiently to gain a few perks. A dozen (or however many you have in the guild) 80's should get you a few perks, albeit more slowly than before.
Most people are so absorbed in what they're doing that they won't notice your name being broadcast, especially when they've heard the broadcast 200 times before. If there are too many people around there's always fishing or farming in a quiet spot.
Whatever you do don't go back to the dark side. Playing The Sims is like looking into the abyss. And it doesn't have a vibrant economy.
Hey Skaut! Glad to see you posting again! It's been a few months.
I did try leveling my paladin in basically nothing but left over quest greens from WOTLK and a few crafted blues that I could pull together and it worked fine. The mobs don't seem to start hitting ridiculously hard until Deepholm, and by then I had upgraded almost every piece of gear with quest rewards from Mt. Hyjal.
I definitely needed to be a little bit more careful and strategic with my pulls - no more just flying into the objective and not worrying about all the mobs around - but eventually figured out that it was workable as long as I was careful.
Uldum and Twilight Highlands have both been really good. I echo your feelings on the lack of dailies though. There seems to be significantly less available than there were at the launch of WOTLK - but hopefully that is something they'll get fixed soon.
Hey hey, don't give up on Cataclysm or Archaeology.
Yeah, Archaeology is extremely boring, but it will have its rewards. I'm looking forward to the level 85 BOA epics from it, and luckily the one toon I'm doing it with is also my Alchemist, so hopefully I'll get the Vial of the Sands Dragon Mount recipe drop.
Guild XP - Just make sure to do as many quests or dailies as possible. Yes, Wrath mobs only give 10% XP, but Wrath quests still give a good amount of XP, and the dailies XP ratchets up with higher levels (i.e. Dalaran dailies giving 40k xp at level 83)
My personal guild is at 17% to level 2, and that's with me doing the Argent Tournament dailies on 2 toons per day, since they're still working towards Crusader, doing the Orgrimmar Cooking and Fishing dailies on all toons, and the Dalaran fish/cooking dailies on maybe 6 toons, if they're the easy quests that don't require travel.
I haven't even touched any Cataclysm quests yet, yet my main is 83 just from Archaeology and dailies.
I just had a bugged dig site in Dire Maul, so I looked on the forums. Apparently, if you go dig somewhere else, and come back to that dig site, it'll reset the spawns. It worked for me.
Aerie Peak...in the Hinterlands? Those are level 40 npcs I believe. Just grit your teeth and kill kill kill. :)
Been reading you blog since I started the game about a 1 1/2 ago. I started out alot like you, I never thought I would be able to ever get into groups, or be skilled enough to run dungeons, or any of that type of stuff. After about 4 months I learned alot abut how things worked and ended up joining a guild right around the time the LFD tool came out. It changed the game for me. By the end of Lich King I had raided about 7/12 in ICC on my Mage and Paladin, and had become completely comfortable in any 5-man setting.
I know those things aren't an option for you though, given you personality, and honestly, as far as content at 85, I don't know that Cata will have much to offer you. Endgame is much more difficult now, even for people interested in raiding. I am lucky to have found a late-night guild that is fairly causal but interested in some progression, but I would never want to PUG these new Heroic dungeons (which i know you could care less about).
However, Cata should keep you entertained for at least a bit since I know how much you like alts. And the new world quests are fantastic in almost every zone. You could do Loremaster, or even grind out "The Insane" title? In new gear you and your husband and child go and 3 man many of the Northrend instances you never got to see very easily, and you can almost certainly solo any BC heroic. Just some ideas.
Post a Comment