Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Well I used to play a few years ago (on a horrible crack server no less lol)

Anywho my brother and I used to have great adventures playing together and whatnot. And the other day I got the itch and and have been playing the free trial and now its making me realize just how much I missed thanks to that crappy server. Seriously more then half the quests were broke, ALOT of class skills were bugged and didnt work (Hell I couldnt play a hunter because almost all the skills were bugged)

Anywho, Ive been thinking of starting up a REAL account for WoW, and was just wondering what to expect. Also how much has the game changed in the last couple years?

And lastly, Im thinking about getting WoW and the burning crusade expansion, and holding off on the litch king until later, I mean itll take me forever to get high enough where Ill even need it. Anyways Im wondering can I have up to Burning Crusades and still play? Ive googled but so many people were back and forth on a yes or no.

the simple answer is YES.
You can play it with just the base game even. Mind you some of the current content will be missing but....

The only thing you'll be missing if you don't get lich king is access to the death knight (have to have a lvl 55 toon to unlock it) and the northrend stuff (lvl 68). If you get it you will just wanna get the battle chest and wait until later to get the lich king stuff. I'm on gilneas if you wanna roll a horde toon.

You're kinda sorta coming in at a bad time. The next expansion is due in 4 months, give or take, and the game is experiencing the usual doldrums before a massive change. You're in for some misery not knowing the maps, dungeons and fights and are unlikely to find many groups willing to tutor you.

That said, if you do jump onboard now you could get your toons to 80 very easily by the time the expansion rolls around. Once Cataclysm hits, the Vanilla WoW world will basically be overwritten and gone forever. You'll miss the new streamlined leveling in the expansion though.

Oh, and once the expansion hits guilds tend to implode and reform, making it a good chance to jump into a raiding guild if you're interested in putting some serious time into it.

The game has changed considerably in the past couple of years. 1-60 is considerably easier than before... actually 60-70 is pretty easy too now a days. Its possible to get to max level before the next expansion but you may not get to experience a lot of the end game stuff. Do you know what roll you want to play? DPS? Tank? Healing?

Im really not sure at this moment. Ive been messing around a little bit with a hunter, since like I said the crack server I used to play on was pure garbage. But Ive been a huge fan of rogues. Infact I made one today and have been doing that. Im not sure yet gents, some days I think I want to get into WoW, and others I dont.

So they are getting a new expansion eh?

I got back into WoW after being away for about a year and I have to say that it's pretty awesome.
I've been rolling my old trusty 30ish warlock and a new death knight and I'm enjoying it a lot more than any game I have now.
The game has certainly sped up in terms of levelling, but the pre-Burning Crusade content is really boring since there's almost no one in any of those zones EVER.
The warlock is probably the most rewarding class because it's difficult but extremely potent and useful in later content.
If you're looking for something easy just play a rogue.
Greetz,
Mr. Self Destruct

I think your Avatar changes more then anyones on DAKKA.

Im still not sure weather or not to jump in. I used to have so much fun playing with my brother on there. It seems a bit lacking with out him as my co-pilot lol

If your getting into 40k now and trying to decide which roll to fill just bear in mind that DPS have the hardest time finding groups or spots in a raiding guild.

If you want to be truely over powered in WoW play a Paladin Tank.

My main is Catyrpelius, I'm a lvl 80 Female Dwarf Prot Paladin on Korialstrasz, I'm also Spamala a lvl 80 Female Gnome Fury Warrior, I'm also Nubnubs a lvl 80 Female Drani Death Knight. If you play on my server send me a message.

Death to the Horde!

god, I JUST quit wow like 2 months ago, because it was trashing my grades at college, and I can't afford to fail out.

I had a prot/ret dual class paladin... with 5.5k+ GS in both sets.... was fun. Ret was definitely more enjoyable, 2 piece tier 10 gear was amazing, able to use divine storm every quarter second made my character a whirlwind of death and destruction, and i'd constantly hit over 10,000 damage per second against trash mobs in ICC.

it was fun, but looking back, I wish I had spent that time on either painting for warhammer, or studying.

Well the only problem with joining your server Catyrpelis, is I LOVE the horde not to mention my cousin and brother in law play on the same server, and have promised to "hook me up" Im guessing that means money or something.

A few questions though about basic WoW speak. What the hell is DPS exactly? When I played (a couple years ago) like I said it was on a horrible crack server so everything was pretty much different from real WoW. My main then though was an Ork tank, and I loved it. Right now Im messing around with a warrior class but instead of full on tank, Ive been playing with 2 handed maces as its fun smashing things.

Also what do GOOD guilds look for in a potential guildmember? I want to enjoy playing and all, asnd I wont take things super serious (I have a life after all) but I still want to have fun doing raids and such at higher lvls.

Catyrpelius wrote:....DPS have the hardest time finding groups or spots in a raiding guild.....
If you want to be truely over powered in WoW play a Paladin Tank.

See this is the main problem I find with WoW.. and some other MMorpg games... Elitism. Nothing ruins the experience, for me, of going through, making YOUR character that you think would be a cool idea, then having some "expert" come along and tell you "You build sucks, you should do it THIS way." That just leads to what is basically just another spam character. It becomes about DPS, Tanks, Heals, etc.. and less about the character classes.

Me.. I like to play non-DPS, fire-support based Hunters. Have 2 dwarf hunters with Scorpid pets, though right now my account is inactive due to finances.

Ok, to answer your questions....

DPS in wow stands for Damage per Second, its the basis for measuring all damage dealing classes. At lvl 80 DPS will vary between 2k and 10k+ depending upon class, gear and the player behind the computer.

If your starting a warrior once you get to lvl 59 you will be able to take a talent called Titans Grip which basically allows you to duel weild two handed weapons, if you want to do this, then put most of your points into the Fury tree. A fury warrior is one of the coolest looking characters in the game, but they are trickey to play and requier some specific addons to be effective.

Good guilds... this is a hard thing to give advice on as there are alot of guilds that I would consider good, but in their own ways. On one hand you have your lvling guilds which will help you lvl up. You have your casual guilds that raid occasionally and dont put to much emphasis on progression and clearing all the new content the first week it comes out. You then have your hard core raiding guilds, these guilds require a major comitment in both time and effeort, if they think your are holding them back they will get rid of you. The more laid back the guild the less they require, most guildes expect you to know your class and come prepared to raids. Most often they want all your equipment to be fully gemmed and enchanted. Most of the hard core guilds have an attendace requirement.

If you get your warrior to lvl 80 you should expect alot of people to try and talk you into tanking...If your a more laid back player I would recommend trying out a paladin, they are much less gear dependant then a Warrior.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

helgrenze wrote:

Catyrpelius wrote:....DPS have the hardest time finding groups or spots in a raiding guild.....
If you want to be truely over powered in WoW play a Paladin Tank.

See this is the main problem I find with WoW.. and some other MMorpg games... Elitism. Nothing ruins the experience, for me, of going through, making YOUR character that you think would be a cool idea, then having some "expert" come along and tell you "You build sucks, you should do it THIS way." That just leads to what is basically just another spam character. It becomes about DPS, Tanks, Heals, etc.. and less about the character classes.

Me.. I like to play non-DPS, fire-support based Hunters. Have 2 dwarf hunters with Scorpid pets, though right now my account is inactive due to finances.

It has nothing to do with elitism, any character can be good if the player behind the computer is good. Its just that in a game that constantly tries to achive balance Blizzard tends to fail more often then not, and this leads to Buffing and Nerfing of classes. Right now as it stands if you take the player out of it Protection Paladins are the hardest tanks to kill, its just the way things fall, It doesnt make any other class that can tank unplayable though.

Wow isnt like any other games, Blizzard to an extent allows you to mod your own game and run addons that track real numbers. It is entierly possible to determine what will happen to your dps, hps or survivability if you change x talents or switch out this peice of gear.

As far as people people ruining your experiance by telling you what talents to take or how to play, remember this... In a raid their are either 9 or 24 other people relying on you to do whatever job you may be speced for. If you are holding them back because of how you choose to play, is that really fair to them?

Catyrpelius wrote:As far as people people ruining your experiance by telling you what talents to take or how to play, remember this... In a raid their are either 9 or 24 other people relying on you to do whatever job you may be speced for. If you are holding them back because of how you choose to play, is that really fair to them?

Yeah... like you can't Tank with a rogue.... or DPS with a mage.... or heal with anything other than a druid or cleric....
I also play City of Heroes/Villians and get the same elitist crap suggestions.... especially with Tanks.
Elitists don't care if you play a certain style, as long as you play their way and fit the mold they feel is right for whatever class you are playing. And Bliz help you if you disagree.
I have tanked with rogues. Are they best suited for it?...no. Can it be done?... hel yeah. But try it with almost any group.... you get jumped for not playing right and then get booted.
Want real fun, try running a Gandolf-style, sword wielding mage. Get back to me when that style of mage is accepted.

You cant tank with a rouge, there is no high lvl Leather Defense gear, since they swiched the way druid tanking works.

Your not talking about elitism, your talking about differences in classes.

The basis for tanking is NOT having high defense... its holding agro. Having high Def is beneficial but if you can't hold the agro then all that def is wasted.
I tank with rogues quite often as I can hold agro better than most warriors.
Its called play style. Elitism says that you cannot do something with a particular class "cause thats not how it's done."
Hunter with no pet.. not how it's done....
Mage with a sword... not how it's done.
Priest geared for combat... not how it's done.
Rogues tanking.... Not how it's done

Need me to go on? Just because its not the "most efficient" way to do something doesn't make it wrong. Just more challenging.
Elitists want everything pigeonholed... Priests heal, warriors/Paladins tank, Hunters Dps,

helgrenze wrote:The basis for tanking is NOT having high defense... its holding agro. Having high Def is beneficial but if you can't hold the agro then all that def is wasted.
I tank with rogues quite often as I can hold agro better than most warriors.
Its called play style. Elitism says that you cannot do something with a particular class "cause thats not how it's done."
Hunter with no pet.. not how it's done....
Mage with a sword... not how it's done.
Priest geared for combat... not how it's done.
Rogues tanking.... Not how it's done

Need me to go on? Just because its not the "most efficient" way to do something doesn't make it wrong. Just more challenging.
Elitists want everything pigeonholed... Priests heal, warriors/Paladins tank, Hunters Dps,

Same thing goes on in Guild Wars. I had this Ritualist who used Weapon of Quickening (makes spells recharge 33% faster, and I could keep it up on an entire group at the same time) to VSF (Gear farm), but hell if any group outside of my guild wanted me, "A Ritualist is nie useless outside of Frozen Soiling".... Idiots.

If your not defense capped you can receive a crushing blow, double damage from a boss that hits for 25k melee, equals insta death.

Hunter with no pet...all your doing is missing out on dps, you dont have to put any talents into any pet related abilities.

A mage with a sword, there are spell power swords out there.

If you havent played in awhile then you havent experianced any of Blizzards new bosses. There are times during certain fights where I, a tank with 55k health buffed can be one shot by a boss unless I use the right cooldowns.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Its not an instance of something cant be done, its just that it cant be done well.

yea, in blizzard's newest endgame dungeon, ICC, the one boss festergut hits for about 10,000 damage per shot. He has a buff that stacks on him that makes him do up to double damage... so the tank can take 20,000 damage shots in quick succession. If your not at 540 defense minimum, there's a chance he could do a crushing blow and land a 40,000 dmg or more shot on you... frying you.

now, my paladin had about 43,000 life unbuffed. Thats great and all, but when bosses hit for huge numbers like that, you can't really do anything about it.

Of course, if your gear is good enough, you can do some crazy things. I remember near the end, if I wanted to do some quick heroics to get badges for heirloom gear for an alt, I'd go full prot gear, use a bryntroll 2-handed axe, and ret spec, and tank through heroic-level dungeons. The ONLY time I died was when I had a healer in entirely greens who's holy light spell (paladin healer) was critical healing me for under 5k.

WoW isnt like it used to be, I can remember back in the days of Vanilla WoW when me and some buddies couldnt find a tank the hunter in the group would use his pet turtle as a tank. The game isnt like that anymore.

if your hunter is good enough, you can tank heroic dungeons with your pet.

raids are a different story.

Yeah and you are not supposed to solo instances either.... I do it all the time. Takes time and statagy as well as some skill with the class to pull it off.

And WoW is becoming all about the Raids especially endgame, where the elitists hold sway over what plays and what doesn't.

Blizzard lately has been servicing the elite style players and mostly ignoring the roleplayers and other "fringe" elements. Thus you have people with multiple accounts that run raids and endgame content by themselves. I think the record is something like 35 accounts for a single player.

I loved WoW, even though I haven't played it in about a year and a half now. Leveling from 1-60 and experiencing it for the first time was the best part.

I don't know what's changed, I basically got to 80 and quit. But I'd say go for it!

I wouldn't go back before Cataclysm is released, but even then I don't know if I will personally go back.

If you just play it every once in a while to have a good time, its fine. Try not to get sucked into the raiding environment though, unless you like that sort of thing. I've spent(wasted) wayyyyyyy too much time with raiding over the years since WoW came out...

daedalus-templarius wrote:
Try not to get sucked into the raiding environment though, unless you like that sort of thing. I've spent(wasted) wayyyyyyy too much time with raiding over the years since WoW came out...

The problem is that much of the end content is based on raiding. After a certain level, you pretty much HAVE to do raids to get anywhere.

helgrenze wrote:

The problem is that much of the end content is based on raiding. After a certain level, you pretty much HAVE to do raids to get anywhere.

Exactly. One of the many reasons I quit.

If battlegrounds didn't take 20-30 minutes to get into, I might play to do that... but yea, I don't particularly want to log in to wait. I'd rather just play something else in that case.

helgrenze wrote:

Catyrpelius wrote:As far as people people ruining your experiance by telling you what talents to take or how to play, remember this... In a raid their are either 9 or 24 other people relying on you to do whatever job you may be speced for. If you are holding them back because of how you choose to play, is that really fair to them?

Yeah... like you can't Tank with a rogue.... or DPS with a mage.... or heal with anything other than a druid or cleric....
I also play City of Heroes/Villians and get the same elitist crap suggestions.... especially with Tanks.
Elitists don't care if you play a certain style, as long as you play their way and fit the mold they feel is right for whatever class you are playing. And Bliz help you if you disagree.
I have tanked with rogues. Are they best suited for it?...no. Can it be done?... hel yeah. But try it with almost any group.... you get jumped for not playing right and then get booted.
Want real fun, try running a Gandolf-style, sword wielding mage. Get back to me when that style of mage is accepted.

No, see, you want to play D&D online, not WoW.

You want to build a character in a way that can't be done. Can a rogue tank a raid instance? No. Can a Mage melee...ever...and be good? No.

WoW isn't the game for you, each class has its role, and depending on specialization, can fill different roles. If you're tanking as a rogue, you're an idiot. If you're meleeing with a mage, you wont get into any hard-core raiding guild.

If you consider Hunter as anything BUT a DPS class, then you don't know how to play. "Fire Support" is the same as being DPS. I think of "Fire Support" as being bad at DPS'ing and you don't want to admit it.

Karon wrote:

helgrenze wrote:

Catyrpelius wrote:As far as people people ruining your experiance by telling you what talents to take or how to play, remember this... In a raid their are either 9 or 24 other people relying on you to do whatever job you may be speced for. If you are holding them back because of how you choose to play, is that really fair to them?

Yeah... like you can't Tank with a rogue.... or DPS with a mage.... or heal with anything other than a druid or cleric....
I also play City of Heroes/Villians and get the same elitist crap suggestions.... especially with Tanks.
Elitists don't care if you play a certain style, as long as you play their way and fit the mold they feel is right for whatever class you are playing. And Bliz help you if you disagree.
I have tanked with rogues. Are they best suited for it?...no. Can it be done?... hel yeah. But try it with almost any group.... you get jumped for not playing right and then get booted.
Want real fun, try running a Gandolf-style, sword wielding mage. Get back to me when that style of mage is accepted.

No, see, you want to play D&D online, not WoW.

You want to build a character in a way that can't be done. Can a rogue tank a raid instance? No. Can a Mage melee...ever...and be good? No.

WoW isn't the game for you, each class has its role, and depending on specialization, can fill different roles. If you're tanking as a rogue, you're an idiot. If you're meleeing with a mage, you wont get into any hard-core raiding guild.

If you consider Hunter as anything BUT a DPS class, then you don't know how to play. "Fire Support" is the same as being DPS. I think of "Fire Support" as being bad at DPS'ing and you don't want to admit it.

Thank you for proving my point aboout ELITISM.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also.. if I wanted to play a Halfling (not a playable WoW race) mage with rogue abilities, then Yeah I would be playing my character on D&D Online.

Warrior is pretty fun to play whether dps or tanking. I used to play as a warrior. Had fun running around bashing things around when I was first starting out. Then when I started playing 60+ during Burning Crusade I did some tanking and still was able to have fun bashing things around. Warrior in PVP is kinda fun too.

In no way do you HAVE to do raids to do anything, especially now with the new dungeon finding system. Now, granted, some of these do turn it into a bit of a job, but there are plenty of things to do without needing to go on raids. Let's take a look:

Heroics/gearing up - Heroics are plenty difficult, and the game doesn't let you go into them using the dungeon finder unless you have good enough gear. This leads to...

PvP - constant battles over Wintergrasp in Northrend, and a wide selection of battlegrounds to go into and waste time in. In addition, there's always the arena, where you and some friends team up against others in fights to the death.

Achievement grinding - sure, it's boring to some, but others live for it. There are hundreds of achievements for WoW now, so you can always find something to go for. A chunk of them are for raids, but many of them are just dungeons and PvP, along with a lot of quirky ones. Plus, there's always the Explorer achievement that you can go for to discover everything out there.

Dailies - this is where it starts to feel like a job, but hey. At endgame, there are a lot of quests that can be redone once a day, from bombing runs to wrangling nether rays (in the Outlands, at least). And you can do 25 of those a day, each one giving you reputation and money.

And @helgrenze: I just want to point out that you very well can play like that if you really want to, just don't expect to do any sort of raiding like that. If you're expecting to raid, it's not elitism or how good you are at the game, it comes down to that's how the game is designed - yes, Rogues can hold aggro and with a good enough healer, yes, they can tank. But can it tank a 25 or even 10 man raid? There's no way - like honersstodnt said, bosses will quickly start being able to knock out your health in a single hit. It doesn't matter how good your healer is, or how well you can hold aggro. The healer can't heal you up from dead.

The problem you seem to have is that you want a game that has a totally open playstyle where you can play a spellslinging, sword-wielding Gandalf-esque character. Or try being a Rogue that can tank even the toughest of bosses. But World of Warcraft does not work that way. Every class has its own niche that it fills (in fact, 3 of them) and trying to go outside that box doesn't work well - the game just isn't built for it to work well, no matter how hard you try. It has nothing to do with being accepted as a good build - within the confines of the system (which you have to go with) it isn't a good build.