Thoughts on Wrath of the Lich King

My first MMO was Final Fantasy XI. I was originally very much against MMOs, mostly due to having a poor connection (dialup, and a rather crappy one at that), and I enjoy playing games on my own terms and my own pace. However, a ton of online people decided to play FFXI and form a guild and I got drawn into it. It was some of the most fun I've ever had with any game.

Of course, in hindsight, FFXI was a frustrating, difficult, and ultimately unfriendly game which at least 75% of your time spent playing was waiting for a party invite or farming and the end-game comprised of waiting 3-4 hours for a boss to spawn, and the challenge of that boss wasn't fighting him, but tagging him before another guild did.

But still, I played with a pretty tight knit group of people. Despite the problems it was a lot of fun. And because of that, I completely dismissed WOW as a game. There was no way I could support playing two MMOs at one time. Of course, like all things, people got bored, started leaving. As people hit max level they left our friendly linkshell and started joining serious end-game guilds. And as more people moved on from that guild, and I started logging in by myself...I started seriously wondering what the point was anymore.

Then a new guy started at work. A WOW addict. And, the moment he found out I played computer games and even an MMO he tried to get me to play on his server. It was surprisingly easy to quit FFXI. And WOW truly is a different experience.

My favorite class in FFXI was Black Mage. And so I created a Mage as my first WOW character. I think I also created a Warlock, and a Paladin too. At first I was shocked at how simple WOW was compared to FFXI. A Mage in WOW have a much more restrictive list of spells available compared to FFXI. Though the mechanics were fairly similar (sit back, play artillery).

Once I started playing WOW, I never looked back. Over a 3 month period I got my mage from 1 to 60, and the day I got to 60 my friend got me into a Raiding Guild. It wasn't a very advanced raiding guild...they were in MC where lots of raiders were already clearing Naxx...but I didn't care. Hell, I had like 3 blue items, and the rest were greens. If I hadn't been a friend of someone in the guild, I would have never got in.

Equitas was a fun guild, I met a lot of people there and had fun. My first raid ever I got the T1 Chest Piece (which I've kept for nostalgia purposes); and I went from being the worst mage in the guild (Hell at the time I was Fire/Frost) to the 2nd best in a little over 3 months. It was a good time, and I felt a serious sense of accomplishment when we finally killed Ragnaros and began looking at BWL.

Unfortunately, by the time we started BWL Burning Crusade was only a month or 2 away; rumors were flying about how BC greens were replacing vintage purples...and interest in raiding in any form plummeted to nothing. And with all of the new super-special PVP gear they released with the PVP revamp, any remaining interest tanked completely.

Man I had high hopes for Burning Crusade. I wasn't sure about the idea of 25-man raids vs. 40...though I liked AQ20 and ZG. I thought the idea of a ton of new, smaller 5-mans was a nice idea; and I liked the idea of Heroics. Plus, with all of the new gear, new spells, new visuals, etc, BC was sounding pretty damned sweet.

And then it came out.

Leveling in BC was fun. It was slower than I would have liked, but I duoed with my friend (another mage) all through BC and had a blast doing it. However, even at the beginning, some of the flaws started showing up. Everything past the quests themselves seemed over-tuned. Many instances had simply way too much trash for the number of bosses in them (I still dread Shadow Labyrinth between the first and second bosses).

Heroics were an awesome idea; but some of them were extremely difficult; with very little in the way of rewards. (Heroic MGT is the way heroics should have always been). Not to mention the fact that with Badges, most players simply refused to go back to standard 5-mans...making it more difficult for late-comers to progress.

Of course, past heroics was Karazhan. It was a fairly interesting raid zone, long, a little trashy at points but with plenty of bosses. Of course it was a 10 man raid zone, not a 25 man...and Karazhan completely destroyed guilds. (It effectively destroyed Equitas)...Gruul's Lair and Mag's lair were simply not designed as introductory raid zones...they were damned near impossible for people not in Karazhan gear when they were first introduced.

The thing is, BC was designed to reset the bar, and brought in a lot of new players...but they never bothered to ease people into the 25-man raiding game...hell after the attunements were dropped I know a lot of guilds simply skipped Mag because Lurker in SSC was easier.

So, BC had a lot of good ideas; but suffered from poor execution. Nerfs. Bad instance designs. Poor tuning. With very little attempt to ease players into the end game.

And now WOTLK is coming. And it follows much the same strategy of BC. Shorter 5 Mans. Heroics. A few introductory 1-2 shot raid bosses. And the re-use of Naxx. This is both a good and bad thing. Due to how similar it is, hopefully Blizzard has learned its lesson about the mistakes they made in BC; though I'm a little worried.

Already, interest in raiding has started to decline...while the gear shift in Wrath won't be as big Sunwell gear will begin being replaced in later 5-mans in Wrath. And I don't think it's possible that Blizzard can introduce a new class, 10 new levels (with new abilities) and not undergo a large number of class changes and nerfs after release. So in that regard, I don't think WOTLK is going to be any better (I just hope Mage is safe from the nerf bat).

Though I'm not in beta, I've been listening to what people say. 5-mans are supposed to be shorter...hopefully that means less trash, not fewer bosses. A better trash-to-boss ratio in WOTLK will go a long way to making the game a bit better all around. The new badge system, with tiered badges sounds like a good idea too. Already the badge system in BC has gotten out of whack--no badge gear should cost more than 50 badges IMO.

The idea of making 10 man versions of 25 man raids is a brilliant one, but one I'm also the most worried about. In BC, Karazhan was it for most of the game; ZA was late, and rather annoying. But by having all 25-man raids having a 10 man equivalent...means that people who like that sort of play style will have plenty of options down the road. Unfortunately it could also mean that Blizzard will just assume that 25-mans are for the hard core and make them all extremely difficult. And I don't know about you, but SSC/TK just wore me down with all of the trash and the overly long fights...MH was rather annoying; and BT was actually fairly good except for a few bosses that were just damned annoying. If we see more instances like BT, and fewer like SSC/TK, I'll be happy. And hopefully Naxx's very design will accommodate that...a large, sprawling instance broken into wings, with lots of bosses and options...just about a perfect combination for a 25-man raid zone.

Maybe at some point I'll get a chance at the beta, though really leveling doesn't give a good idea of what the expansion is going to be like. Most of my time with BC was spent with the end-game, and that's a LOT harder to test or get a feel for in a beta.