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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2015 14:17 
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Well if you've no friends or family active in the game I guess it'd be hard to get motivated. At any given time I've got a few mates playing the game and am in an active guild, plus with Mrs Hearthly and Hearthly Jnr playing now that's a whole new layer of stuff to do as well.

So yes, my reaction would probably be the same if logged into a server, all alone :)


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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Sat Nov 07, 2015 11:40 
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Next expansion has been announced, ('LEGION'), and for one I'll be glad to see it as after a very promising start WoD turned out to be a bit crap.

The questing through the zones was fantastic, and the first batch of dungeons were superb. It just turns out that they were, erm, the only dungeons.... Yes we got Mythic difficulty but there was nothing like the later-expansion dungeons that we got in Wrath and Cataclysm. They did open up the final questing zone of Tanaan Jungle but after a decent opening quest line that turned out to be nothing more than rep grinds via dailies, very dull - I didn't even bother with them.

Timewalking dungeons have been added, and they are on one hand a cynical way of recycling old content, but it has been fun to revisit previous expansions' dungeons and play them 'on level' as it were, but with Level 100 appropriate loot.

LFR is the random clusterfuck it's always been, a nice way to see raid content but as ever, only about half the raid only need to know what they're doing to progress, I find tough five-mans more challenging and interesting. Then again I have neither the time or the inclination to commit to a proper raiding guild or calendar, so LFR is at least a doorway to the content.

The garrisons ultimately ended up being a rather tedious grind, and sucked the life out of a lot of the rest of the economy, the shipyards were more of the same, except with boats. (It also led to a lot of players simply living in their garrisons, which are instanced away from the rest of the world, so the cities were a lot emptier.) They were very lucrative though, I earned something in the region of 500,000 gold out of mine before I couldn't even be bothered with that any more.

I haven't been playing in any serious capacity for months, but have retained my account to play with Mrs Hearthly and Hearthly Jnr as they're still having loads of fun with the game and Hearthly Jnr hasn't even got a character to Level 100 yet.

We're going to need three copies of the expansion, Hearthly Jnr is eyeing up the digital deluxe edition as she wants the pets and mounts, so that'll be £50 + £35 + £35 (!) on top of the £30 per month we're paying for the subs on three accounts.... Blizz are already doing the pre-order even though it's not out until next September.

The subscriber numbers say it all, after peaking at just over 10 million in the wake of the expansion's launch, they've plummeted to 5.5 million and Blizz now say they won't report the numbers from now on. (Although 5.5 million active subscribers is still a very healthy number overall.)

I'd bet on the game having at least another decade in it yet though.


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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Fri Nov 11, 2016 12:16 
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The current expansion LEGION has been with us for a while now, and it's really good.

We've got three accounts on the go (me, Mrs, Jnr) so that's £30 per month, and it was £35 per head for the expansion itself as well. I am freeloading Hearthstone extra-hard to try and compensate a bit.

In some regards it's 'more WoW' but they have made some bold design choices. For example all the Level 100-110 content now dynamically scales to your level, so whereas in previous expansions there'd be a clear zone progression to get from the previous level cap to the new level cap - (and zones you were over-level for were rendered trivial, and under-level for effectively inaccessible) - now you can do the zones in any order you want and they just scale to your level. (The loot drops scale too, so you're always getting meaningful drops or rewards from quests.)

This carries over to the dungeons as well, so instead of a dungeon dropping off your list as you become too high level for it, you can cheerfully make a group of five people with levels of between 100-110 (there's a minimum gear level required at Level 100), and it chucks you into the dungeon together, and you all see appropriately scaled baddies for your level, which take and deal appropriate damage. (As per the open world stuff, the loot drops scale too, so you're always getting meaningful drops or rewards from quests.)

One way of looking at this is you're all basically just 'Level 1' as the game dynamically scales its content around you, as if you were a Level 1 character doing Level 1 quests, but we're all very much of the opinion that it's a great change.

At Level 110 there is a specific zone to go to, a load of Level 110 quests and dungeons and raids and so on, which you can gear up for and ultimately overgear in the traditional sense, but the overall levelling experience to get to that point is much improved. (The first major content patch to add new stuff for 110s has already landed, and Blizzard are promising a far better management of this aspect of the game than they did in Dreanor, and have held their hands up to having made a mistake in that regard.)

It's been great for our group because historically we've had to say stuff like 'Everyone get to at least 92 for Saturday, but no higher than 94' - whereas now it really doesn't matter, we can just rock up with any character we like between 100 and 110, and run dungeons together.

Quite dramatically, weapon drops, craftable weapons etc have effectively been removed from the game, every Level 100 now gets an 'Artifact Weapon' questline to complete, and the resulting weapon then levels with them from 100-110 and then beyond that in terms of iLevel, and there's a unique 'currency' called Artifact Weapon Power to customise it.

Excellently, not only is there a unique artifact questline for every class, but for every spec of every class too, so the early game at the start of levelling from 100 is different every time. (You can go on to complete the two other spec questlines, and get the other artifact weapons, from Level 102.)

The garrisons have gone, to be replaced with an 'Order Hall, which is a bit like a garrison but has loads of other players in it of your class. The mission and follower system has been massively streamlined too, on the 'less is more' principle and it's a far better system.

The feeling amongst us is the game is now the best its been since Wrath Of The Lich King, and that's really saying something. Whether or not Blizzard can maintain the momentum through the two year expansion cycle is another matter (Draenor started off incredibly strongly but lost itself with an absolute drought of content from the mid-point onwards), but we shall see.

I'd recommend giving it a go, it still runs really nicely on a lower-spec PC, Jnr's i5+750Ti can handle it at 1920x1200 with settings at about '8 of 10' and maintain 50-60FPS most of the time - so you don't need a mega-PC to have a try.


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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Thu Nov 24, 2016 8:51 
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Black Friday sale sort of thing now available on the full WoW game less the latest expansion.

£4.99 gets you everything up to and including the previous expansion, Warlords of Draenor, and your first month's subscription.

Cheap way to give it a try likes.

https://eu.battle.net/shop/en/product/world-of-warcraft

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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Thu Nov 24, 2016 10:10 
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Is there still a monthly subscription?

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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Thu Nov 24, 2016 11:28 
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KovacsC wrote:
Is there still a monthly subscription?


There is yes, ranging from £9.99 down to about £8.69 depending on how long you renew for.

The point with that offer is you get the entire game (less one expansion), and a month's subscription, for a fiver - which is a decent chunk of time to get a good feel for the game and whether or not you'd like to play on an ongoing basis, for really not much cash.


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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Thu Nov 24, 2016 11:38 
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To be fair I would expect the game for free, if I was paying over £100 a year in subs....

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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Thu Nov 24, 2016 11:40 
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KovacsC wrote:
To be fair I would expect the game for free, if I was paying over £100 a year in subs....

Yeah, it's a disgraceful business model.

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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Thu Nov 24, 2016 12:03 
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I find it substantially less disgraceful than what seems to pass for the 'AAA' games business model these days, which is to sell broken games at full price, repeatedly shunt out multi-gigabyte patches for months that may or may not fix everything, whilst selling multiple DLC bundles that add in stuff that should have arguably been present at launch, with an extra layer of micro-transactions added in for extra giggles.

Yes WoW costs a chunk of cash to play, but you're getting the most comprehensively and well supported game in the world for your money, that is constantly being actively developed and improved, with patches, changes, new content, and full expansions.

It has a development team that numbers in the hundreds, working full time on the game, all the time - and that isn't cheap.

So yes, to play it's a tenner a month and then £35 every two years for the next full expansion, or if you're prepared to be an expansion behind the game is a tenner (or even a fiver, as above), plus your tenner a month.

One can choose to vote with their wallets however they wish, of course :)


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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Thu Nov 24, 2016 12:04 
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:facepalm: :DD

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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Thu Nov 24, 2016 12:07 
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Lonewolves wrote:
KovacsC wrote:
To be fair I would expect the game for free, if I was paying over £100 a year in subs....

Yeah, it's a disgraceful business model.


Worse than netrunner

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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Thu Nov 24, 2016 12:11 
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Hearthly wrote:
I find it substantially less disgraceful than what seems to pass for the 'AAA' games business model these days, which is to sell broken games at full price, repeatedly shunt out multi-gigabyte patches for months that may or may not fix everything, whilst selling multiple DLC bundles that add in stuff that should have arguably been present at launch, with an extra layer of micro-transactions added in for extra giggles.

Yes WoW costs a chunk of cash to play, but you're getting the most comprehensively and well supported game in the world for your money, that is constantly being actively developed and improved, with patches, changes, new content, and full expansions.

It has a development team that numbers in the hundreds, working full time on the game, all the time - and that isn't cheap.

So yes, to play it's a tenner a month and then £35 every two years for the next full expansion, or if you're prepared to be an expansion behind the game is a tenner (or even a fiver, as above), plus your tenner a month.

One can choose to vote with their wallets however they wish, of course :)


I think you missed the point by a country mile.....

EVE has a monthly charge but the game is free to play. If I remember most MMos have that model.

it is a bit cheeky to charge £35 for an expansion as well as a monthly charge

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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Fri Nov 25, 2016 9:58 
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KovacsC wrote:
I think you missed the point by a country mile.....

EVE has a monthly charge but the game is free to play. If I remember most MMos have that model.

it is a bit cheeky to charge £35 for an expansion as well as a monthly charge


What you have to remember with WoW is that they don't just push an expansion out of the door and then leave the game alone for two years, with everyone on the WoW team immediately starting to work on the next expansion.

The current expansion, Legion, was released at the end of the August, and has already received its first major content update, with many more in the pipeline over the life-cycle of the expansion, before the next full expansion is released (this is usually a two-year cycle, or thereabouts).

As well as these major updates, each expansion receives constant tweaks, patches, hotfixes, minor content updates, seasonal events, and so on.

If you don't mind being an expansion behind, the game is damn near free to play ('buy') (the £5 deal above is a drop from £10, so it was hardly mega-expensive beforehand), and the only ongoing charges are indeed the subscription. If you want the latest expansion then yes they do cost £35 at launch and usually for the first year or so, after which point they generally drop down to £20 and then lower as the expansion gets older.

It's hard to over-emphasise just how vast WoW really is, this is perhaps unsurprising considering the game is now over twelve years and six expansions old, but nonetheless it's a massive world to explore with a huge variety of things to do, and all of it actively and constantly curated, maintained, and improved.

I can completely understand folks looking at the headline numbers and baulking, '£35 for an expansion AND a tenner a month? Fuck off!', and that's fine, hence my suggestion that the £5 for the full game up to Draenor and including a month's subscription, might be a good way for people to investigate without a large commitment of cash, and then subsequently decide if they think it's worth continuing or not.

I've lost count of the AAA games me and my mates have tried over the years, MMOs and otherwise, with and without monthly subscriptions, and in terms of a game you can play on a long-term basis and continue to get enjoyment and satisfaction out of - nothing has ever come close to WoW.


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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Sat Nov 26, 2016 16:21 
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My point is....

The subscription should be enough to keep the game going and fund expansion. There should not be a need to pay for an expansion.

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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Tue Jan 17, 2017 20:54 
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My first ever legendary item, and I've been playing the game since July 2008!

Well I was quite excited at least :)

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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Wed Feb 08, 2017 9:05 
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Six months into the new expansion and there's a consensus amongst us that the game is currently the best it's ever been.

Blizzard have really nailed the endgame now, so that even if you're not a hardcore guild raider, there's loads of stuff to do at the level cap, and there's a constant stream of new content coming onstream as well. (Blizzard admitted they fucked this up in the last expansion.) There are a load of new tools built into the game which make grouping up for world quest/group content quick and easy for when you're playing by yourself, so you'll routinely find yourself in groups doing stuff (if you want to), all the way up to 40-man groups taking down world bosses and suchlike.

Our group is currently working on 'Mythic Plus' dungeon progression, which is the hardest 5-man content in the game. Dungeon difficulty goes Normal > Heroic > Mythic > and then Mythic Plus +2, +3, +4 etc up to +11. We've currently managed a +2 run and will be attempting a +3 run later in the week.

On a family level Mrs H and H Jnr are really loving it too, and the three of us play together daily doing more 'family friendly' pursuits in keeping with H Jnr's limited tolerance for stressful situations. (She's very fond of questing and levelling, and doing some of the easier world quests to gear up at Level 110.)

None of you care, you won't install it, you won't try it, even though it's free-to-play up to Level 20. All I'll say though, is there's a really good game just going begging here.


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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Wed Feb 08, 2017 10:36 
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Hearthly wrote:
None of you care, you won't install it, you won't try it, even though it's free-to-play up to Level 20.

Correct. But I do enjoy reading about it.


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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Wed Feb 08, 2017 10:39 
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Hearthly wrote:
None of you care, you won't install it, you won't try it

Christ no. I already have one MMO time and money sink and that's one too many.

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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Wed Feb 08, 2017 10:39 
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I think there were probably three reasons I've never played WoW. The monthly subscription and the PC specs aren't as much of an issue now, but the last still remains - I was terrible for getting hooked on Diablo II and I think I'd be the same with this. It's bad enough that I haven't weaned myself off Binding of Isaac yet, let alone adding an RPG into the mix too. :)

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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Tue Sep 26, 2017 8:51 
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Quote:
This led to what Klara describes as a disturbing scene: "A female human really wanted to 69 with me as a few paladins watch and simulate ejaculation through spells that emit white light." Klara responded with a very clear "no!", to which the players responded by surrounding her and harassing her further.


https://motherboard.vice.com/amp/en_us/ ... pe-problem

There are often lots of people in their underwear in the Goldshire Tavern, although it's never gone as far as ejaculating Paladins in my own experience, then again we don't play on RP servers.


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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Mon Aug 06, 2018 19:40 
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Latest expansion is imminent, it's currently in the 'pre-launch' phase which means there are some new questlines to do and the prologue story for the expansion itself, with different questlines for each factions.

Myself, Mrs Hearthly and Hearthly Jnr have been questing out the new stuff over the last couple of days (admittedly there isn't a huge amount of stuff to do yet), ready for when the full expansion launches later this month.

Even if that is of no interest to you whatsoever, I'd respectfully draw your attention to just one of the amazing cinematics Blizzard has done to get a grip on the character arcs going into the expansion.

(i.e. This is worth watching, just on its own merits.)



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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Tue Aug 07, 2018 10:37 

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Yeah but, Horde>Alliance.

My friends are trying to get me to come back, they're telling me how they've rerolled on another server as alliance because they wanted to play the new high elfs.

I don't mind coming back, but I'm not rerolling my character that i've spent (far too much) time on getting gear/achis/goldz and I sure as shit aint transferring him for £50.

It's a real shame as this is the first expansion I've actually been interested in.

E:(I will agree that Cinematic is great, also the Sylvanas ones great too)


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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Wed Aug 08, 2018 15:26 
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You get a Level 110 boost when you buy the expansion, or at least, we all did because we pre-ordered it. (i.e. Check that you still get the boost with the expansion.)

Don't worry about being on different servers, with the new community system groups and guilds sort of straddle servers anyway.

Gold is largely irrelevant now (I don't even bother playing the AH anymore) and of course any gear you've currently got will be going in the bin anyway.

The pre-expansion world quests are awarding gear more powerful than the endgame raid gear from the current expansion, so even with a fresh 110 you can get them 'endgame' geared quite easily just doing the current pre-expansion content.

When was the last time you played the game in anger?

As for Horde vs Alliance, most of my characters are Horde but I always level an Alliance or two per expansion as we like to see each expansion from both sides. I think the Taurens are my favourite race and I love the music in Thunder Bluff.


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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 14:41 
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ugvm'er at heart...

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I have 3 L110 characters ready to go. My holy priest which was the character I mained for Legion, a mage which I used my 110 boost on, and my hunter which I mained for WoD.
My hunter was at 105 on Friday, so I took him to 110 on Saturday. I expect he is the one that I will concentrate on to start with, as holy priest damage has gone through the floor recently. I used to round up and holy nova spam, that still works but takes ages these days.

I have Wednesdays off work anyway, so a Tuesday night release is perfect for me. I've also taken Thursday/Friday off work, as I might as well use my holiday days for something!

I expect Tuesday night will be a shit show, but i'll be pissed anyway, so I'll start on Wednesday morning and see how the servers are holding up.


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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 15:39 
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Do a

/played

on all your characters.

Post the results here.

Biggest nerd wins!


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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 16:00 
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ugvm'er at heart...

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It'll have to wait till tonight, but sure...


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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 16:07 
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ugvm'er at heart...

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Hmm... it appears that it's released tonight at 11pm, not tomorrow at 11pm...


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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 17:40 
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5658 hours 8)

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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 20:04 
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ugvm'er at heart...

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1896 hours here, you win ;)


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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 20:31 
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It's almost as if something is expected to happen here soon...


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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 20:32 
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Trooper wrote:
1896 hours here, you win ;)


Is that including all your characters ever though?

I've still got all the characters I've ever rolled, except for a Rogue I got to Level 10 and deleted, so that really is my total game time for an entire decade, less maybe three or four hours.


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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 20:33 
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ugvm'er at heart...

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Hearthly wrote:
Trooper wrote:
1896 hours here, you win ;)


Is that including all your characters ever though?

I've still got all the characters I've ever rolled, except for a Rogue I got to Level 10 and deleted, so that really is my total game time for an entire decade, less maybe three or four hours.


Yup, 23 characters on 3 different servers.


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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 20:38 
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In all fairness I was MASSIVELY into this game for the first three or four years, I eased off in Cataclysm and have been more of a casual player since then. (In WoW terms at least.)

But during Wrath, it was basically all I did....... :o


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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 23:13 
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ugvm'er at heart...

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I'm enjoying BfA so far!


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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 23:25 
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That first quest was hard, now i'm onto the first boss.


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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 23:27 
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Dammit, he killed me!


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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Tue Aug 14, 2018 8:00 
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I was logging in and playing OK on Doomhammer, but I wasn't trying to do the new expansion stuff. Are you still playing on Draenor? According to the realm select screen that server is full so I guess it'll suffer more.


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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Tue Aug 14, 2018 8:25 
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Hearthly wrote:
I was logging in and playing OK on Doomhammer, but I wasn't trying to do the new expansion stuff. Are you still playing on Draenor? According to the realm select screen that server is full so I guess it'll suffer more.


Yeah draenor is the busiest eu server, it didn't handle the launch well...


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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Wed Aug 15, 2018 8:00 
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Poor Hearthly Jnr, after months of excitement and build-up she got a dreadful case of the jitters yesterday evening and couldn't bring herself to log in and start playing, it's like she'd built it up so much in her mind when it finally came time to play she was unsure about it.

Fortunately Mrs Hearthly had the idea of logging in with one of her (many) 110s and doing the initial few quests whilst Jnr watched, that did the trick nicely and after an hour or so she was champing at the bit to get started, although by that time it was too late for us to start ourselves.

I used the time to log into my Priest but discovered that Blizzard have made questing as Holy pretty much non-viable (I've been Holy forever, basically, I don't like Shadow at all and for some reason I've just never tried Discipline).

However, I'd decided I wanted to level as a Priest with Mrs Hearthly and Jnr, so with Holy non-viable for questing (i.e. no meaningful damage output, so I'd just be healing as we were questing which isn't much use) - I decided to try Discipline for the first time ever (I've been playing WoW for over 10 years, and I've never played a Disc Priest before).

Took a short while to get the abilities and rotation sorted (Icy Veins always helps....), but after going out into the world and smacking a few 110 mobs around I decided I rather liked it. Good heals and good DPS in one handy package!

So by all accounts we'll be kicking off our questing adventures tonight. Nice to see the cities so busy again, Orgrimmar was rammed!


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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Wed Aug 15, 2018 9:12 
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Hearthly wrote:

I used the time to log into my Priest but discovered that Blizzard have made questing as Holy pretty much non-viable (I've been Holy forever, basically, I don't like Shadow at all and for some reason I've just never tried Discipline).


Exactly the same here. I don't like shadow as I want my healer to actually be able to heal... I expect i'll have to switch to disco this time round. Like you i've never really tried it before.


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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Wed Aug 15, 2018 10:34 
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It felt pretty good to play once I got in the groove with it.

I used the Icy Veins guide to get it set up - https://www.icy-veins.com/wow/disciplin ... ling-guide

(TBH it made me feel a bit silly for sticking with Holy for so long, somehow you appear not to sacrifice healing ability, but gain a load of DPS as well!)


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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2018 13:36 
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I'm taking it slow. Done the first troll zone completely (might have missed a quest or two as I have a couple of areas to explore to get the achievement, not sure where they are...), did a dungeon at the end, done a few missions in the next zone.
Hit L115 yesterday.


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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Wed Aug 22, 2018 11:14 
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A great article about the new expansion.

We're all loving it, the game is as good as its been since The Lich King.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018 ... ong-missed

Quote:
I remember a moment from the game's early days, warily waiting for a late-night ferry alongside an Alliance player. I could tell from this gnome's kit that he was an engineer, like my troll character, and so I felt a kinship with him; but we couldn't talk about it because the /say command would translate our speech into gibberish across factions. So I produced my mechanical squirrel pet, which only engineers could make, and pointed at it. He did the same. Then we spent a happy few minutes demonstrating our silly gizmos to each other before going our separate ways. It was a magical, hands-across-the-divide moment that was only possible because the divide had been placed there. This is why this stuff matters.


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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Sun Sep 09, 2018 12:49 
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Attachment:
WoWScrnShot_090918_124722.jpg


There is a table under there somewhere. Anyone would think some new content is about to drop for the horde and it's sitting at 99% complete...

Still having fun with the expansion, hit 120 a while back and have been gradually finishing all the quests and getting gear.


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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Sun Sep 09, 2018 13:05 
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The warfront has hit 100% and unlocked!

It is broken, you can't queue for it, and it has broken the queuing system for everything! :D


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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Mon Sep 10, 2018 9:02 
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We've got to 120 on Horde and are now doing the Alliance side. We're not in any mad rush so are reading all the text quest, watching all the cutscenes and cinematics, and generally just enjoying the journey.

The questing system is refined to the point of near perfection now, if you look at all the tedious shit that used to be in the game for, essentially, no reason whatsoever, the way they structure the game now is sheer brilliance.

Overall I think I prefer the Horde experience this expansion, although Alliance has plenty of high points too.

The music guys have really knocked it out of the park this time as well, although let's be honest, they always do.


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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Mon Sep 10, 2018 10:11 
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Warfronts take 20 minutes to do, give you a 370 item and a 340 item first time, then a 340 item every time you do it.
Considering I was scrabbling around to get 320 items before this, and 340 items are Mythic level difficulty, it seems a tad too generous to me

My 370 drop was a weapon, so I was very happy as it basically doubled my dps...

Also, lots of complaining as the warfront works out to be once a month on rotation, and lasts for a week. Only one side can do it at once, and Horde are first. Alliance are losing their shit :D


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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Tue Oct 09, 2018 20:17 
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I had fun, but i'm done with this expansion for now. Sub cancelled, i'll wait for the next major drop of content. Managed to hit around 350 iLvl in the end.
I'm not into raiding and mythic content, so it was pvp or leveling an alt, or cancelling my sub, so I chose the latter. Once i'm done with Forza I might go back for a bit and see what else has been added.


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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Wed Oct 10, 2018 10:28 
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Yeah pretty much the same for me (although I haven't cancelled my sub as I may be required to occasionally go on and assist the family).

I was chatting about it with a mate the other day as he's dropped it as well, and I likened the way the game is constructed now as a sugar hit. You just get EVERYTHING and LOADS OF IT ALL THE TIME. On top of that you're made to feel MEGA POWERFUL and it's SUCCESS after SUCCESS.

The problem is, when it's hard to fail then succeeding quickly stops feeling good, as you know you've not really earned it. Like a sugar hit, it feels good for a short period of time, but the effect quickly wears off.

Also, the game is so slick and streamlined now that it feels less and less like an open world and more like a scripted experience.

I might give WoW Classic a go when that launches.


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 Post subject: Re: World of Warcraft goes free-to-play
PostPosted: Tue Aug 27, 2019 17:26 
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Well there goes the rest of the year then.

Mrs Hearthly waited in a queue for two hours today.

NOTE - If you don't know what you're looking at it, this is the WoW Classic, a recreation of the original game from 2005, with levels running from 1-60. (Specifically patch 1.12, which is the earliest one Blizzard could find the code and databases for.)

Attachment:
classerso.jpg


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