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I can't believe Blizz let something like this has happened:

Aye, thats one of the bugs, but setting your graphics to good or lower fixes the issue.

Although to be fair, that the point of a Beta test.

Pacific wrote:My biggest problem with WoW was that it became far, far too easy. Both the enemies, and even the amount of help it gave you for quests. I had left the game for a couple of years and came back to try out Cataclysm - admittedly they had done a great job changing the setting, but I just shocked at how easily I was sailing through the game. A defensive dwarf warrior should not be able to get to level 20-something without dying even once!

I guess the intent was to get people racing through the ranks and then on to the end-game content (because of course, that's when the game starts, right?) But, one of my favourite ever memories of the game was having to band together with other dwarves to fight the elite ogres of Loch Modan. Having to really work hard to finish those quests. Removing 95% of the elite baddies just turned the first few months of gameplay with a new player into boring grind fest and race, and I think did a lot to destroy the player interaction and communities.

A question that might be asked is how many level 20 Dwarves do you see running around nowadays?

I don't play so that is a genuine question - but surely most WoW players are vets by now whose alts are of a reasonable level?


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rockerbikie wrote:I can't believe Blizz let something like this has happened in a beta!

Even in vanilla you can could level to 20 easily without dying.

Leveling difficulty has absolutely nothing to do with the difficulty of the game. If you want to point to decreased difficulty use the dumbed down heroics as an example, but people still fail at the ZG herois somehow...

well one can hardly call levelling on WoW stimulating. No skill to it whatsoever.

PotBS on the other hand - there was a game one could not level up on and watch the telly at the same time; you actually had to pay attention because not only were enemy ships smart, they were often a match for you.

Aye, there is a new game going around the forums called Ironman, where you are not allowed to rez on your way to lvl 85, one death and its all over.

I think there where some other limitations, no heirloom stuff, only stuff you earn from quests for gear etc.

Seems a fun distraction.

Also yeah Henners, unless you are going for a group thing, with buddies, you can level through to one of the bigger hub locations without meeting more than the occasional person. I think my Worgen Druid didn't see more than a single player (outside the cities) until she got to Strangethorn.

Although it does depend on the path you take, some seem more travelled than others.

WaR had the same issue with public quests, awesome idea, grouping together to take down the boss. Not so great two months into the game, and the occasional new player and the altaholics are struggling to get past the 2nd phase to unlock the boss, never mind beating the boss.

WaR was ultimately flawed in segregating the area PvP the way it did; all that effort into making fun areas went to waste when everyone hit endgame.

Aye, what pains me more with WaR, was folks where telling them that all the way through beta, and they didn't listen.

Hence, we have the dregs of a Warhammer game barely on life support.

Pacific wrote:My biggest problem with WoW was that it became far, far too easy. Both the enemies, and even the amount of help it gave you for quests. I had left the game for a couple of years and came back to try out Cataclysm - admittedly they had done a great job changing the setting, but I just shocked at how easily I was sailing through the game. A defensive dwarf warrior should not be able to get to level 20-something without dying even once!

I guess the intent was to get people racing through the ranks and then on to the end-game content (because of course, that's when the game starts, right?) But, one of my favourite ever memories of the game was having to band together with other dwarves to fight the elite ogres of Loch Modan. Having to really work hard to finish those quests. Removing 95% of the elite baddies just turned the first few months of gameplay with a new player into boring grind fest and race, and I think did a lot to destroy the player interaction and communities.

Hear, hear. I remember playing the game since Vanilla, and it's shockingly easy now. My biggest lament is the fact that dungeons are laughably easy now. I remember when crowd control was actually required to make it through the dungeon - back in Burning Crusade, Shattered Halls was one of the trickiest dungeons in the game, because it required gigantic pulls of 6-8 elites at a time, and everyone with a CC spell had to use one. Nowadays it's just the same old thing - tank rushes in, aoes the group, and the DPS go to town.

Heck, remember when bosses actually required strategy and tactics to win? Same dungeon, Shattered Halls - the last boss was insanely difficult. In addition to a boss that periodically becomes invincible and turns into a giant blender, there are periodic mobs coming in from the entrance to harass the party. It was a hell of a fight, and there was so much satisfaction when he finally went down for the count.

Much as I say that, however, I've got to say that I agree with toning down the solo experience. Difficulty in a game is fine, but having a hard-ass time beating a dungeon, at least you're with four other people who are going through the same thing. Tensions can rise, sure, but everybody's in that situation. When you're alone, it's just infuriating to bang your head against one tough mob, or one harsh area on the map filled with enemies. Not to mention the fact that as the expansions go on and the game grows bigger, nobody is around to do those fancy elite quests. At least on my server, depending on the area, I'm lucky to see one or two other players in any given zone. Removing most of the group quests really tones down on the frustration of not being able to complete some quests, just because there's nobody in the area to help out.

All things said and done, I miss the old WoW, but I'm happy with what they've done with the game. Let's see what else they've done. They revamped the talent system so every single one is a precious gift. They added a group finder allowing for cross-realm instance groups that are found automatically - no more spamming trade chat with requests for a healer to come to the instance, and no more abandoning a dungeon group when a DPS drops. They changed the skill descriptions so you can tell just by looking at it what it does - this was a huge help for my priest, who was using Flash Heal on absolutely everything because I didn't realize that it had a much higher mana cost than Heal.

All I'm saying is, the game was a fantastic challenge before, but honestly, there are a lot of changes that I welcomed with open arms, because I remember some of the many annoyances from the old days.

The last boss in Shattered Halls was never difficult except on heroic mode. Any group in full 70 blues could easily down him.

The only exceptionally difficult things from early WoW were timed Stratholme runs and a few of the raids.

The peak of WoW's difficulty was probably Wrath, it has been dumbed down somewhat since then. The skill cap in the OG and TBC was significantly lower simply because there were less abilities, less viable specs, fewer classes, and simpler mechanics. The limiting factor in OG was rarely skill, but time and gear.

I would argue that the tail end of Vanilla was the most difficult! Remember AQ40 and Naxx?!?

Ugh.... I hated that crap soooooo much and then after healing myself to tears, I had to get rid of my gear seconds after BC launched lol!

Wrath was a nice challenge too though.

Light of the Dawn and Yogg Saron with no aid are probably the two hardest fights in the game.