Honestly I've been having a shitton of fun with the raids and I've never had a problem finding a group for anything, although that might be because I play tank and I normally go with at least 1 other person in the DLP guild.

 

LOL, 'might be'?

 

I like the raid a lot. My issue is that none of it really feels like it matters. Like, almost nothing in there is really memorable. There's no quests in there. There's no mount off Ghuun. I can name maybe two of the items off the top of my head, and neither are for my class. Like, where the longevity in it? People are still killing xavius for his shoulders or garrosh for his, or any number of bosses for a mount, but none of Uldir is noteable at all. Like, why does it matter what those super feet are when you can proc a titanforge off a worldquest, or just run mythic +7 for heroic equivalent loot. It just feels very impersonal. Some of the items I can remember are like seabreeze, because it has a unique effect, or the ring and trinket from waycrest, because it's a set, or the fish mace from the island expeditions, because it's cool looking. So I could spend more time raiding, and I would enjoy it, but I just feel that it's very far off the mark of where I feel the purpose should be.

 

I really like the raid, being honest. It's very well designed, without a single bad boss (though admittedly, not every boss is particularly good), and that's pretty nice.

My only real complaint with the raid is the excessive amount of trash, especially right before Zul. I don't have to pug anything for it though, so I am likely the outlier around here.

 

I can understand not getting into groups because you lack the achievement might be annoying. But on the other end there's 19 mouthbreathing spergs with 6.5 fingers, a twitchy eye and a soon to be cross mothers and one competent player. The likelyhood of it being the last category vastly increases if you take people with Curve or Mythic achievements week 2.

 

I think the 'retard pugger' meme is hugely overblown. You invite fifteen pugs into your raid, one moron doesn't get on discord and does garbage dps and that poisons the water. 'Omg fuck pugs!' etc.

WoW is not a hard game. I'd argue the majority of the people still playing (that aren't in guilds doing current content) are ex-raiders who don't have time to commit to full-time raiding anymore, or the inclination.

 

I would agree, apart from high end mythic raiding it's a very easy game. Which is why when people fail abysmally to perform it is even more frustrating. If you get just one muppet out of your batch of randoms every time I salute you - I've found the complete opposite. Even if they actually do their job, follow the mechanics and put out the required dps in the given bracket, it's still at least a double time investment to taking people who are also raiding mythic at a equivalent level. Naturally it's all relative, they may be good enough to complete the actual content, even geared enough - it's just too much of a disparity to what it could've otherwise been, and when you're running 3x alts or more every week through heroic you don't want to waste the time.

The reason for the 'absurd' requirements is quite simple. The groups are run to get alts gear. You don't want to get the people doing poorly because they're bad, which are more likely to be the ones without achievements. You don't want people doing poorly because they're behind in gear, which is why you invite as high ilvl as you can get. No one thinks that these factors is definite proof of anything, but without any other standards to judge a random name in a list, it is the best indicators you can get. We used to do rolling invite lists and just kick people who performed badly and invite new ones after every boss.

The reason I'm unsubbed is that without time/inclination to raid at a high level, I'd be stuck with these groups. I'd rather not play at all, based on all previous experience of these groups.

 

small bit of news regarding WoW Classic today. Copied/pasted from reddit

https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/n...zcon-wow-classic-demo-with-the-virtual-ticket

Here's a transcription for those of you at work who need their fix RIGHT NOW.
Every BlizzCon, we look for opportunities to bring new aspects of the experience to our community around the world. This year, we’re excited to announce that for the first time ever, BlizzCon Virtual Ticket holders will join BlizzCon attendees as the first people to play the World of Warcraft Classic demo we’re creating for BlizzCon at home.

Youtube: Blizzcon Preview 2018 Shortly after the BlizzCon opening ceremony on November 2 (on or around 1pm PDT), players will be able to download the same in-development BlizzCon WoW Classic Demo that will be playable on the show floor. Players will have a chance to explore and enjoy a limited questing experience through a pair of classic early-level zones—one Horde and one Alliance—and experience firsthand our recreation of the original Azeroth.

Once the demo is live, you’ll be able to play until 10am PST on November 8, giving BlizzCon attendees a chance to check it out again once they get back home.

DECLARE YOUR ALLEGIANCE WITH BLIZZCON IN-GAME LOOT

In addition to access to the BlizzCon WoW Classic Demo, starting today BlizzCon attendees and Virtual Ticket holders will receive commemorative in-game items that will help them proudly display their Horde or Alliance pride as the Battle for Azeroth rages on:

War Mantle of the Alliance & War Mantle of the Horde: Show all of Azeroth where your allegiance lies with a pair of faction-themed cosmetic cloaks—one for Horde characters, and one for Alliance. Stormwind Champion’s War Banner & Orgrimmar Hero’s War Banner: Strike fear into your enemies and stand your ground when you plant your faction’s banner on the battlefield.

In addition to this year’s WoW items and access to the BlizzCon WoW Classic demo, the Virtual Ticket provides plenty of great BlizzCon content for your viewing pleasure along with additional in-game goodies from Overwatch®, Diablo® III, Hearthstone®, Heroes of the Storm®, and StarCraft® II.

Thanks to Aph for transcribing the post..

Ion and JAB in conversation regarding the demo (thanks to /u/shmageggy):
Ion: But we're also going to be talking a bit about World of Warcraft: Classic. I know a lot of you have been wondering where we're at with that project; it's been a few months since our last update. Well, at Blizzcon, we're going to have a whole lot to say. We'll have a panel digging into the philosophies that have guided us in recreating the classic experience, as well as a lot of the technical challenges, and a full update on where we stand with the project.

And, we're also really excited to announce that you're going to be able to jump in and try out WoW:Classic for yourself as part of our floor demo. So you can either do the Mythic Dungeon Challenge, or you can get on, play Classic, and you can explore one of a couple of iconic zones. Either an iconic Horde zone or an iconic Alliance zone. You can run around -- slowly, on foot of course . You can plink away and autoshoot quillboar or Defias depending on your preference, spend a talent point here or there, and see where we are with the project. We can't wait to hear your feedback.

...

Jay We're very pleased and couldn't be more excited to announce that the WoW:Classic demo that Ion just talked about will be playable by all holders of the virtual ticket in the comfort of their own homes. Our plan right now is for the WoW:Classic servers to go live at the conclusion of opening ceremonies on November 2nd, and then everyone will be able to log in who has a virtual ticket.

...

Ion: One question that I'm sure many of you have in particular is, "Well what if I'm not around that weekend? What if I'm busy? What if I can't get to a computer?". Well we want to make sure that you can get a chance to explore the experience too, so we're going to keep our servers for the Classic demo up and accessible through at least November 8th.

Details

• The Demo will run from November 2nd to November 8th.
• The Demo will feature two zones, one for the Horde and one for the Alliance.
• The demo appears to go beyond level 10, as you will be able to spend a few talent points.
• Access is available through the Blizzcon Virtual Ticket, which costs $50 USD, £35 GBP, $70 CAD/AUS €40 EUR

 

I'm irrationally hostile towards Classic. Maybe it's naive but I can't help but think BfA coming out unfinished is tied to that.

 

So yeah, as a follow up to my earlier statement, turns out even without relying on DLPers it's easy as fuck to find a raid group. Although I have to say that my favourite part is listening to people in various discords looking over the DPS applicants and turning away people with ~360 ilvl because they haven't killed enough enough the bosses, whilst I got in within seconds as a 353 Prot Warrior with only a single heroic boss kill.

 

Got my maghar rogue to 120 last night. Guess it kinda shows how I feel about BfA when I've spent so much time levelling alts instead of doing actual content.

 

Going into a new reset with 3 characters at 120 instead of just 2 is definitely going to overtax my playing time. I did manage to get my rogue a good set of starting gear though. It's at 342. Got 4 pieces doing the Arathi rares, which are resetting today, and mostly just random stuff from base level mythics. Got a cloak from the world boss, nothing from LFR, and 2 pieces from normal Uldir, which is sort of amazing that I even managed to get in a group at all. Also spent a few hours farming the 60k gold I needed for the darkmoon fathoms deck, which of course means that as soon as I equipped it, I had a 360 trinket drop for me else where to go with the 365 trinket I got for doing the timewalking dungeon quest. I've got too many high level trinkets, yet still wearing blue rings and pants, but that's how it goes.

Anyways, I feel like I need to start creating a to-do list. first thing to do when logging on is to open weekly chests, which is +9 for mage, +4 for shaman, +2 for rogue. Then, I have to go buy all my bonus rolls. Then, there's the normal world boss. Then warfront, which I think we get to get the 370 quest reward again? Then, theres the warfront world boss. Also, supposedly it's Muradin up as a commander this week, and with the warboat research nerfed to needing only 2 commanders and not 3, then that means that can get started as well, though the reward is just a headstart for warfronts, which isn't that exciting. Then, I think this week's quest rotation (assuming it goes mythics, pvp, pet battles, timewalking, repeat) is 4 mythic dungeons for another 370 piece. Then, on top of all that is getting raids done. I still haven't killed g'huun in normal, though truthfully I haven't even tried, but I should try and get that done at some point. But, all the good pug groups are likely to be earlier in the week, meaning today and tomorrow, which means there's not enough time for all the previous points, points which would be useful to actually get into those groups. Vicious circle.

Also, I started pvping on my rogue. I legit hadn't done a battleground since like WotLK, but within 2 minutes of my first warsong gulch in forever, I managed to cap the flag. I was expecting to just get steamrolled by overgeared players. And while there likely is some, somehow it felt like my rogue was overgeared, despite having only like 8 hours played at 120. I guess some people didn't take advantage of timewalking and arathi rares to get a jumpstart on gearing. I kinda really want to get my rogue geared up now and maybe do some rated stuff at some point, even if I suck. Not too big of a fan of the conquest point system though, and would much rather have pvp vendors back.

 

Fathoms is better than any 360 trinket you'll find. It has an estimated 900+ dps for melee class. You'll need a 385+ to replace it, and even then it depends entirely on the trinket. (https://bloodmallet.com/index.html#rogue_assassination)

Fathoms falls off a bit for AoE situation, but even then I'm pretty sure whatever 360 trinket you got is not better than it.

 

I know it's not better than it, that's why I bought it. I was just mentioning that it's karma that as soon as I did, I got another high level trinket that I can't use yet while my character has no other gear above 340 yet, making it a wasted drop.

 

Bit late to the party, but I finally got my first ghuun kill last night. And first mythrax kill for that matter. I employed the strategy of trying to get the raid done earlier in the week when good guild groups are running it, rather than waiting for the weekened when its going to be mostly alts. Now, one would think I got it done on my 365 mage, but it was actually my 340 rogue that I got it done with first, funnily enough. Somehow though, I went 0/8 on boss loot, which is frustrating since pretty much anything in that place other than a cloak or trinket would have been an upgrade. I did get a pair of boots from someone else, so I guess I can't complain too much. Still need to do a lot of catchup to get to a level that I can reasonably expect to get heroic invites at, probably around 355.

 

To be honest, If you want to raid its better find a guild even when you only can go like 1/2 raid nights a week. I pugged a few AHOTC( SOO and BRF)did few challenge modes Gold in earlier expansions and I had to waste time progressing the same bosses every week and I had known how to do all the "special" mechanics on my hunter. Today I can find a pug with a snap of my fingers( since I can play all specs of my monk, ilvl 365) but I don't do it... pugging raids is so much wasted time and I play casually.
For example Monday we first killed Mytrax hc after 2 hours of progression and Wednesday(EU reset day) we down it within 4 attempts. If I had to pug it again I had to progress the boss all over again with a different group.

Another point is that the first two mythic bosses are easier than Mytrax and Guun hc and their loot will help you and your guildies progress the later bosses on hc.


But yeah... the freedom of not having commitments is amazing too

edit: if you have Wednesday morning free you can find some sick pugs there.

 

That's easier said than done. I only have a handful of hours to play when I get home from work, so I'd rather that be spent on a thing of my choosing. I like to be able to spend an hour in a pug and then leave and go do whatever. However, in the previous expansion, I did have a guild that had the perfect hours for me, like 8-10 2 days a week, and an extra day on sunday for alts if wanted, and it worked out great since we made it through heroic nighthold. I have actually checked to see what kind of guilds are available, and there's actually none that fits the time slot I could work with. And, I'm certainly not transferring to another server.

 

Sometimes a reset really does feel like forever. The week started off pretty weak with my weekly mythic boxes having duds or minor upgrades at best. However, I did get a complete ghuun run on my rogue, albeit with no drops. And then the very next day, I manage the same thing with my shaman, which was cool. My main still hasn't done it, but I'll try this week. I might even push for a heroic kill. I did manage to get a heroic Mother kill on my shaman. Not that Mother is hard at all, but getting into any heroic raid as a shaman is the hard part, despite the fact that I came in 4th on dps in a full group. I actually got the mace to drop from her, which pretty much solidifies that I'm keeping the shaman as dps and not resto. Now, I just need to get that same mace on my rogue.

I got some good mythic+ done this week, thanks to lungs and merill. +10 motherlode for the mage, +8 motherlode for the shaman, and a random +5 for my rogue at some point. I know I should probably do more high level M+, but honestly, I really don't want to burn out on them. Because, like, once you burn out on them, what other content is there really in this expansion? And, I still am kind of wary of them ever since Legion. The AP grind with them was unreal, before it got changed. Like, I remember seeing reports of people having done like 1100 Maw of Soul runs just 2 months into the expansion. Also, I don't want to do to many, since when the weekly quest is for mythics (hopefully this week), I'm going to have to do that for all of my characters, which will be tedious even though they can be M0. But, there's no denying that I can still use the gear. I just hope that my mage's chest for this week is an upgrade and not for the only slot I have a piece already over 385 in. Azerite chestpiece would be ideal, since I'm still wearing a 340, though a belt or ring would likely raise my ilvl high enough to get a 370 from the emissary.

I tried some pvp this week on my rogue, but it's rough. I capped my conquest points twice, trying to play catchup, so I got a weapon and chest, which was nice. Rogue is fun, but there's really not that many classes it can kill. Warlocks, hunters, and other rogues, seems to be it. And even starting from rank 0 in arena was hit or miss with how geared the other team was. Sometimes they were fresh 120's, while others were 370's. But even a fresh 120 ret paladin can wreck me. Of course some of this comes down to spec, and a lot of it comes down to player skill, and neither are where they need to be. Even rbgs were annoying. Well, not across the board. Mostly isle of conquest. That place is terrible. Horde never wins the middle, and Alliance always seems to have an unlimited supply of unkillable healers. AV goes pretty well most of the time though. The normal rbgs are mostly fine, though I guess arathi basin is only really tolerable because I'm a rogue. I still think there's a couple I haven't done yet? Strand of the Ancients is one, since I vaguely remember vehicles in it, and there's probably others. What all this really means is that I should really be doing pvp on my shaman or mage instead.

But after all that, I still found myself with some free time this week to do whatever. I always do a ton of old raids, since I find that pretty fun, and it's easy money, and I'm still trying to get thunderfury, sulfuras and warglaives. But, since I found myself with some extra time, I started working towards the rogue daggers as well. I want to start on shadowmourne as well, but I'd really like to level up my warrior some more so it goes faster. Other than that, I once again started the grind for the Tol'vir mount. Well, I guess there's technically two mounts, and I've gotten neither, but the one I want most is the scarab. I've actually got a fairly sizable stack of hieroglyphics now. They're being listed for 10K+ on my server, which makes me hesitate to actually use them. Hell, the pet from that place sells for like 400k for some reason, so there's that as well.

Anyways, should be a pretty fun day. Weekly chest, pvp chest, get bonus rolls, do normal world boss, do arathi world boss, rinse/repeat 3x hopefully have time for a heroic pug.

 

Had a good raiding night. Cleared Heroic Uldir within 1h30 and then got some progression on Mythic. Ended up with a nice 380 weapon upgrade from weekly chest and a +10 shrine key for that sweet trinket chance to drop so all in all a good reset for me.

 

Yeah, I cancelled my sub the other day.

I gotta say, I feel like narratively, the team hit a home run. Boralus is also on par with Suramar to me too in terms of beauty - and jesus, the music is just incredible all over the place.

It's with every other part of the game that I'm fed up. I'm sure there's been a million reddit threads/ YT vids going into it better than I would, but I'll say I just mirror a lot of the sentiment shared by the 'haters'. Particularly with Azerite Armour, how we're getting loot and just the 'feel' of the content in there right now being supremely tedious.

It also doesn't help being a Shadow Priest, lol.