I feel the urge returning…

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It hit me a few days ago but I’ve tried to ignore it.  Ever since Cataclysm’s announcement I can’t get World of Warcraft out of my head – ironically many of you posting on your blogs have had the same problem.  I have the urge to subscribe for just a month and see what has changed over the past six months.   Why would I possibly be having this urge?  I have not played a mmorpg all summer; In fact, it’s been even longer than that.  These are the types of games that I enjoy the most.  Sure, I can play a game like Starcraft for several years but I will never be as invested in a RTS like I will a mmorpg.  There is a certain sense of attachment that I have with these games that goes beyond “Oh I like to log in for fun la de da”.  I enjoy the progression, the investment, the reward, and the necessity for something ‘more’ from the player.

Aion does not release until September 22.  Open Beta starts on the 6th and lasts for a week, but since nothing carries over I can’t help but feel like the attachment and investment do not exist.  What am I going to do for the next 24 days?  I’ve had just about all the Heroes of Newerth I can handle.  I need that distraction.  Can WoW fill the void?

The last time I played WoW was January 5, 2009.  Dang, it’s actually been closer to eight months since I played.  I canceled my account because I couldn’t bring myself to participate in the same old gear treadmill again.  I didn’t have an active guild to raid with, so I was stuck with pug’s and ninja looters.  Arena PvP does not interest me, and I’m not a competitive BG player.  That means I’m a PvE’er, without a guild, and 8 months behind the curve.  Would going back even be doable?  I have the offer from a friend to go to his server (Suramar) and join the guild he’s in.  They casually progress through PvE and are pretty nice from what he tells me.  I would need a nice group of people to help me.  My Deathknight (yeah, I actually main a DK) is level 80 and geared up with most of the heroic instance gear.  I’m at that point where I need to do 10-mans and gear up, but even though I ran a dozen or so raids I never got any loot on him (ninjas, bad luck ,etc).

What does a player like me do if he returns?  Do I log in and try to find a group to do heroics?  Do people even do them still?  What is this “ToC” I hear about and can I do that in heroic 5-man loot?  I’m full of so many questions and that’s what keeps me away from the game more than anything.  Having 24 days before Aion means I have the time to drop a month and try the game.  I have nothing better to do.   But I need answers, and hopefully you guys can help me.

I almost talked myself out of resubbing today, but I want to make sure it’s a bad idea first.  If I could play with people I know, see content, get gear and other  loot then I want to play WoW.  If all it would be is an exercise in futility then I’ll just stay away and wait for Cataclysm.  Thoughts, advice, or ideas?

  • Dude, go…have fun….GO!!! Don’t worry about what anyone does or says. Just HAVE FUN!! If you don’t WANT to go after GEAR, FIND SOMETHING ELSE TO DO! GO!!!

    *doves releases into the air*

    *soaring music playing as sword become unsheathed*

    Beau

  • I started up again in December, but quit right before the last big patch hit (3.2) I’m just bored of the whole game, and am not planning to go back anytime soon.

    But since you only tried WotLK a month or so, I’d say give it a go again.

    The loot is easier to get than ever, its basically being handed to you for free. The badge system was changed with the 3.2 patch, you now get the same badge no matter what instance you run. 5man heroic/Nax/Ulduar, same badges.

    (Except the newest raid Crusaders’ Coliseum, which have their own badges one tier higher than the rest, )

  • As a slight variation of what Beau said, you have to ask yourself what it is that you want to do. Do you want to see the old content one last time on a new alt? It’s now (well, the next year, give or take) or never. If you WANT to be doing group PVE content, don’t let the fact that you will incidentally be acquiring gear that you will get rid of in a few months stop you.

    The one thing that I would categorically advise against is playing WoW for the express purpose of bettering your character. Between the treadmill and the gear reset (for all we know, we’re getting another minireset in the next patch, which will probably sometime late this year or early next), playing WoW specifically to upgrade your gear has never been more pointless.

    P.S. 5-man TOC is the new instance, you beat three bosses in an arena with no trash and get Naxx-quality epics for your trouble.

  • Lol, I swear, this game really *is* crack!

    Thankfully, I don’t much like crack. :p

    I don’t really see the issue. If you’re not playing anything else, it wouldn’t hurt to resub and see for yourself whether or not it’s really worth your time.

    Personally though, I’d recommend putting in a very strong first month for school because once Aion comes out, you’re going to start slacking on that front hardcore! :p

  • With the ability to get “epix” from ToC (even on normal), you should be able to gear up very quickly if you want to go back. Don’t be fooled though, its the same treadmill it was when you left.

  • *sigh* Don’t take this the wrong way, but I miss the Keen that was demanding change from– well– WoW in particular. Maybe it’s just because it’s more exciting to hear about something different.

    That said, man go wherever you’ll have fun, or wherever your feet are pointing you toward. There’s no shame in enjoying the game that’s essentially been the best of the genre by most people’s standards, that’s for sure.

    It would be nice to hear about your experiences in-game, I think I’m burning out on conjecture about what’s around the next corner. That’s me selfishly explaining what I’d prefer to read, hah.

    Don’t let the loot ninjas get you down.

  • I returned to WoW myself about a month ago. I am up to level 79 on my Undead Warlock and am having a blast. I have heard much about the “grind” of WoW’s endgame, but I guess I will have to see for myself. Right now I have found a good guild and am just enjoying myself.

    Some nights I do dungeons, others I run BGs, others I work on gathering or crafting, others I do Wintergrasp, others I check out what’s going with the Argent Tournament, and others I just quest. I don’t seem to ever run out of things to do. I agree with Beau, Keen, just do what you want and have fun! 🙂 I am also working on leveling my Death Knight on off nights. You see them everywhere I know, but I enjoy it so who cares?

  • Go ahead. You’ve got nothing to lose, and time to spare. But some bits of advice to make sure the experience doesn’t turn sour:

    First, make sure you have a friend. The game’s not worth it if you don’t have friendlies you can speak with, preferably in a guild that’s not full of swine.

    Second, make sure that guild offer you’re getting is from a group with the same playing philosophies as you. If you’re a casual PvE player, verify that the guild is the same, and can raid on a schedule that’s good for you.

    Third, even if the guild is good, it might be useless if you discover they’re not willing to participate in the content you enjoy or want to do. You’re ready for 10-man content, but at the T7 level. If the guild wants nothing but Ulduar and doesn’t want to help you get geared for it, then your time is wasted.

    Luckily, the “ToC” you’ve been hearing about is a good way to get ready for the next stages of content. That, and anything pre-Argent Coliseum (Patch 3.2.X) that drops badges will now drop Badges of Conquest, and those in turn can be converted to the lesser badges at your desire. That should make it easier to get better gear, unless you’re too tired of running the same dungeons that you did while getting Heroic-geared.

    Overall, just have fun with it. The worst that could happen is that you find the prospect of getting ready to kill Arthas unappealing, and all that means is you have more to look forward to when Cataclysm DOES come by.

  • From your own article:
    “I canceled my account because I couldn’t bring myself to participate in the same old gear treadmill again.”
    shortly followed by
    “I’m at that point where I need to … gear up”
    Sounds like you are bored and need something to fill the time. WoW gear treadmill won’t change. I’d wait until Cataclysm comes out to see new content and enjoy that.

  • It’s still a treadmill – it’s really the core of the endgame. However, the game no longer requires you to collectively bash your head against a boss for weeks before downing him. Pugs are downing the T9 content – it’s short and fairly easy. And I would suggest that it’s actually fun because of this – no long trash grinds, both in Uld and ToC it’s basically boss after boss.

    Something to think about with your DK – tank. DPS can get boring – it’s a treadmill to get higher numbers. Occassionally you’ll have some special responsibilities, but mostly you just avoid standing in crap and pew pew. Tanking, however, is a larger challenge. Sure anyone can tank – but there are TONS of bad ones out there. Becoming a good one is fun – and it’s probably the only role that requires 100% attention for the entire run.

    PS – Heroics are being run constantly. They drop the T8 emblems – in fact everything does. A new 80 should chain run heroics and basically get all the emblem gear. Chain run ToC normal as well. This will give you enough to get into T8+. Do Naxx/OBS/Maly if you haven’t seen them.

    And yes – there are more ninja pugs than ever these days.

  • WoW is like that old busted girlfriend that everyone broke up with, but calls every once in a while for a booty call. Well, it’s time to realize where she’s been and stop calling her. She’s pretty worn out by now.

  • I resubbed to DAoC. Sorry but the gear grind in WoW just has me not wanting to play it. Oddly, I have always loved DAoC. Right now I leveled up a Vamp and am having a blast in Thid on him. I also have a Ranger in Molvik i play as well. Now I’m just waiting for Aion in Sept.

  • I was struggling with the exact same issue. I decided to reopen my account after almost 2.5 years and couldn’t be happier. The only thing I have to gripe about is when I stopped playing I had 5 70s and now not only do I have to figure out what spec I want to be, I have to figure out who I want to play.

    IMHO I haven’t seen WoW’s level of polish on any other MMORPG out there. Log In, play, have fun. Its as easy as that. 🙂

  • “PS – Heroics are being run constantly. They drop the T8 emblems – in fact everything does. A new 80 should chain run heroics and basically get all the emblem gear. Chain run ToC normal as well. This will give you enough to get into T8+. Do Naxx/OBS/Maly if you haven’t seen them.”

    This sounds exactly like what drove Keen away in the first place.

  • I’m kinda in the same boat. As much as I love HoN in general, I’m really tired of pub’n games with no auto match making. Sprinkle in some JackArse teammates and it can snowball downhill pretty quick. Last night was the first night I purposely did a disc just because I couldn’t stand the folks in the game. I only played a total of 10 hours of WotLk, so I may jump into that a bit as well. As much as the 3.2 patch interests me (new BG Anyone played it? Any Good?) I’m also looking for alternatives.

    I also don’t really have any desire to play Aion OB for a week, wipe it, and do it again. Just not for me.

  • I went back to WoW with WoTLK and was impressed at first by the new changes. I really liked the Death Knight intro story with the phasing technology. I leveled 2 characters to 80 and soon realized I still didn’t appreciate what the game had turned into after BC expansion. Don’t get me wrong I still think its a great game, but it wasn’t for me.

    *The treadmill is still there, with more emphasis on arena play and easier grouping/content. With that said instances are so dumbed down, that when your groups wipe it makes you question how good players are now a days, compared to the past.

    *I find the 25 man raiding content such as Ulduar to be not as fun as the old raiding for some reason. I can’t tell you why, but for some reason it doesn’t feel as epic.

    *World pvp is non existent, as Lake Wintergrasp is more like a stop animation film where you go to farm rep.

    *You will lose that “special” feeling of “everything feels new” in your first week of being 80 and sitting in Dalaran.

    This is when the game turns into a big chat client where you will either run around mining or collecting herbs, but to what point? The crafting system isn’t like that of SWG where you could make items that made you stand out and better than the rest. Oh no, best thing you will end up doing is playing the auction house.

    Now my friends are still playing WoW. Many of them hold WoW close to their heart because, like a lot of other people WoW was their first MMO. Like others have said if you have friends that will be playing, go check it out and make your own observations. Heck you might have a little fun goofing off for those 24 days.

  • It’s ironic. Last night I got the urge too. If I wasn’t trying to finally finish painting my 40K army after 2 years I would probably have gave it a go.

  • After reading some of your posts, Keen, it seems like the things that drove you away from WoW’s endgame are still there. Not much has changed. It’s a gear grind any way you slice. Sure, they keep giving you more options and ways to get the gear, but it’s all a grind. Some people like it, some don’t. But I doubt WoW will have any lasting interest for you if you still feel the same way about the endgame. You could still have fun for a month or so before Aion comes out, though.

  • Your old friends will for sure have a blast to drag you through!

    You will also enjoy levelling through content you already know again, now with elite mobs that go down just because you auto-attacked them.

    Just think about how and why you quit WOTLK or already earlier in TBC again.

    Many people were thinking of resubscribing to WoW because of the expansion announcement. But think again and do not head back to the same old crap just because you are in dire need of a proper MMO fix, junkie… 🙂

  • My guild is a small, mature, tight knit group that considers itself casual. We run Ulduar 10 a few nights a week and don’t get bent out of shape when a wipe occurs. The guildies are very helpful to one another and play the game for the challenge; not for the epics.

    I am not sure that it would be a good time for you to resub Keen. Aion is just around the corner, and while $15 is worth a month of gaming, the extra $25 to transfer your DK is not imo. You are, however, welcome to join us. I have always enjoyed grouping with you, and I believe that my guildies will enjoy your company as well.

    For those of you that are calling WoW “the same old gear grind and content treadmill”; no mmo will suffice (Aion included). Lets be honest folks. We can’t possibly expect devs to produce new content at the rate that players progress. WoW is the best at what it does. The pve is second to none, and 3.2 has improved the pvp by curving the burst damage a bit imo.

  • “I have the urge to subscribe for just a month and see what has changed over the past six months.”

    Nothing. The game is still the same gear treadmill it was before. You’ll come back, have fun with some new dungeons, and then it will be over, and you’ll be in the same position you were in before. Cataclysm isn’t going to change any of this. Most of the content is, in fact, recycled.

  • Nothing really changed and will not change until rated BG which is next expansion. Only difference is that by doing same stuff you will get a lot better items.

    I could think of two real changes since:
    1) Arena matchmarking got somewhat changed so you should meet people at your skill level. Also ratings going down from next season (1st September) so you will be able to buy most of that stuff by just playing like average Joe.
    2) You can do daily tournament champion quests (but to unlock them you need to do like 2 weeks of non-champion ones) and do champion seals so you buy nice heirloom items for alts (now also with chest for another 10% XP).

    Rest is same:
    – heroics for badges, you just get better badges now
    – raid 10/25 for items, just not Naxx but Ulduar/ToC
    – farm honor in BG and WG
    etc.

    Well I am really looking forward to rated BG as this should spawn some real PvP guilds and you will get arena-like rewards without playing hated arena.

  • @Fugazi

    “Well I am really looking forward to rated BG as this should spawn some real PvP guilds and you will get arena-like rewards without playing hated arena.”

    This alone has me intersted in trying the game out again. I also hear the new raid (Coliseum) is very short, ie: no frigging trash mobs! Bringing back Onyxia has also piqued my interest. My only concern is after I’ve beaten Ony a few times I’ll be stuck with the same game I quit months back. FFXIV can’t come out soon enough 🙁

  • The endgame is nice since you can have a life and spend only a few hours clearing it if you’re good. Then for the people that want to go for something challenging there’s hardmodes.

    Currently Yogg 0+ is the hardest thing in the game, once thought impossible till a Chinese guild playing on Taiwan servers downed em. ToC the raid and 5 man is nice and fun, we’ll have to wait till we can down the final boss though, really cool what happens.

  • Keen, I’m in the exact same boat as you. I stopped playing in early February, and just came back.

    I would recommend doing regular ToC runs over and over (there is no lockout)as it’s a loot pinata. I got four purples out of it in one day. It’s really easy to find a pug for it too. Then you should run a bunch of heroics because you can get Tier 9 items from it. Try out the Argent Tournament because it’s fun 🙂 Get pugs for VoA10 and 25, and also OS.

    It’s pretty easy to get back into it. Just start joining pugs and go!

  • Just wait for Cata Keen. We’re getting ready to go into video game season so you don’t need WoW right now.

  • I’ve been playing a bit with my friends who still play, but I’ve been really bored. I’ll log in to do BG’s from time to time, but often as not I’ll /afk out and not even finish it, due to the piss poor state of PvP at the moment. Arena is slightly better, but only if you’re into Arena, and have done the pvp grind to get 500+ resilience – otherwise it’s torture.

    I find the small group PvE I’ve done to be pretty terrible right now. I miss the days of delving through BRD and Stratholme for hours. I did ToC on regular for the first time last night, to try to gear up my Priest, and although I got a ton of gear, it was really underwhelming and boring as an instance: No challenge, no lore, repetitive forced dialog has replaced trash mobs. It all takes place inside one big coliseum, so it’s not even interesting to see. Frankly I think it’s one of worst 5 mans in the game. After an hour or two I was so exhausted from the mindlessness of it that I logged off and went to bed.

    But yeah as has been said, it’s easy to get some really good gear out of there, and after a few runs I’m sure you could start doing heroics for badges, which get you some of the best gear in the game now.

    You’ve just got to make a call, I guess. I can’t really recommend what I’ve seen of 3.2, however, particularly not as a DK. If you had a Shaman or another class that got some new toys I’d so go for it, but Blizz doesn’t seem to know what to do with DKs anymore.

  • Bah..Cataclysm is a year away at best. Don’t succom to the hype just yet. Today it will still be the same game you’ve quit in the past.

    Might I suggest EQ2,or perhaps Vanguard for a monthly tour?

    Myself I’m still dabbling in WOW with my brother on Thursday nights and playing WAR. But we all know you’ve sworn off WAR forever so thats not an option 🙂

    I still think Vanguard is the best MMO to date but without a bigger player base its just not viable. If you havent played in a while I urge you to at least give it a free trial.

  • The treadmill being steep is what bothers me more than the existence of a treadmill itself. It’s having to get a pair of pants that are good enough to go to another place to get a pair of pants just to have good enough pants to get the real pants I want that bothers me. If it was more about doing content that I want to do to get the pants I want then I would be happier.

    I know quite well that the treadmill is still there. I keep hearing that it’s “easier than ever” to get gear though. To me, it’s probably not easy enough but I wonder if it’s just easy enough for me to stomach it. I like running instances – I don’t mind doing them over and over – I just don’t like doing them because I have to in order to do something else, yet not get what I need after running them. It’s this sense of going nowhere. I have horrible luck with getting loot.

    Question: I tried to armory my character and I’m getting some error message. Is that because he hasn’t logged in for so long?

    —-

    @Snafzg: Even when WAR came out, being the fanboy I was back then, I kept my 4.0 cumulative gpa. School always comes before games for me. I don’t know what happened during that break between High school and College, but somehow I matured enough to get my priorities straight. Oh, and I just like how the header looks with the WoW characters. Lich King = badass, Goblins = badass, Worgen = cool, Bounty Hunters = badass, Praag = good zone.

    @Cuppycake: Thanks Cuppy, that’s what I wanted to know. I hope that I can do ToC in the gear that I have right now (mostly heroic 5-man loot).

    —–

    Thanks for the info everyone. I’ll be giving it a couple more days of thought before I decide. I’m worried about my character not coming up on the armory… if he’s gone/hacked/deleted then I’ll definitely not come back.

    If getting gear is a lot more casual then I know that I can have fun. I like loot pinatas. I like getting rewarded for what I do, especially if getting rewarded is just a side effect of polished fun content which I find WoW to usually have, except it gets tainted by the gear not coming at a reasonable rate to justify the purpose behind getting it.

  • i haven’t truly had fun in WoW since around the time BC released. I did enjoy it for a bit, but the world seems dead to me now.

    however, i guess if you already have an 80, theres really no reason not to re-sub.
    if you do and enjoy it, awesome. if not, oh well, its only 14 bucks.

  • Question: I tried to armory my character and I’m getting some error message. Is that because he hasn’t logged in for so long?

    Probably.

  • Its not a treadmill. Its a set of stairs, and IMHO, they finally have gotten it right. Step 1 is get to 80. Step 2 is do 5 mans and 5 man heroics to get gear sufficient to raid. Step 3 is raid. That’s it. No “farm tier 1 to get to tier 2 to get to tier 3”.

    ( and yes, if you’re inactive, your toon drops off the armory)

  • @EpicCin: Do you think that I am at a sufficient place on my level 80 DK who has mostly Heroic 5 man loot (from the original WotLK 5 mans) to hit places like 5 man ToC to get epics to raid?

  • @Keen Absolutely. Its really simpler than that, actually. You don’t “need to farm 5 man ToC” to be raid-ready. You just need to farm any WotLK 5 man heroics. Doing so gives you conquest badges. Conquest badges gets you gear good enough to raid pretty much any/everything. I can see your armory or anything, but if you’re already in ilvl 213ish stuff, you’re already good to go.

  • Hmmm… It might not be a bad idea to evaluate what part of WoW you enjoyed the most. It sounds like you enjoyed the end game content, just not the end game politics (ninjas, the free range rude, etc).

    Maybe doing the content with folks of a similar mindset would be enough to tide you over until you’re ready for the next MMO?

  • Man, i feel your pain. I quit for like 6 months and had no clue how it would feel getting gear. I pvp and pve so im not so dead end with one section of the game, but i know that peole are ALWAYS doing heroics man. Yes, even to this day, i have tanks in my group that can dominate Ulduar 25 and they run heroics. it’s apparently all about the new emblems for the ToC patch. So run ToC 5 man heroic, and check the plate dps loot. that and emblems are equivalent to ulduar 10 easy. just run some ToC. my rogue got 7 NEW GOOD pieces of gear from it.

  • I really wish WoW would let you change faction and/or race. With all the faction balance now I just don’t see why they won’t allow it on out of balance servers.

    I only have one guy (lvl 70) and I’ve had him since beginning. I’d truly love to drop the dwarf and change him into a Horde. Kinda tired of “Aegh” all the time (Its been what ~5 years). But maybe I’m in the minority.

    But that was one of the problems I have had going back. I’m just tired of dwarfs, and I don’t want to reroll another guy from zero (that’s not a DK).

  • I felt the urge myself but am going to resist this time. My guild of the last couple years recently fell apart and I don’t have any desire to start over again and check out the 3.2 stuff. Just when I feel like I’m getting ahead of the curve a new patch comes out and I’m back to square one and grinding for more gear. As good as the game is, I don’t find myself enjoying it much anymore.

    I am hoping Champions Online will keep me entertained until the 22nd.

  • Don’t go back, ToC isn’t that great, all they have released is Ulduar, I stopped playing about 4-5 months ago due to the rather uninteresting new content they added (the start of the argent stuff + ulduar). Just couldn’t take the grind anymore, I had been treadmilling since classic, and I had nearly 7000 achievement points (Over 3000 quests done, etc), so no, unless you have some friends to go with, just don’t bother, but if theres content you’ve missed, quest lines, or you have some people who are willing to invite you to raid, it can be fun to try them out a few times.

    If you aren’t raiding, there’s not alot of point, but if you wanna try a few raids casually with some friends, go for it, thats my only advice. (I was geared to the teeth and even got a couple ulduar pieces before I quit on my shaman)

  • @Cuppycake

    This is the problem, instance grind… over, and over, and over, and over.

    Yeah though, you can kind of skip to T9 gear using emblems you get from heroics and such now, but that doesn’t make it less grindtastic. And yes Keen, ToC isn’t that long/hard, no worries at trying it.

  • @Keen If you have heroic loot (which is i200) you can easily farm ToC and other heroics and get upgrades ridiculously quickly…maybe VoA and OBS too because they are so fast.

    A fresh 80 in greens can be raiding the highest end content in a week, without a ridiculous grind. I took an ele shaman alt to the T9 coliseum 25 raid a week after dinging 80, and we downed both bosses (only 2 available at the time).

    So yes – you can quickly get gear to do virtually anything in the game.

  • HAHAHAHA Keen My god!

    I, too, cancelled my account in January 2009. and the SAME thing is happening to me now. After blizzcon and all announcements there, i’m finding myself replaying Warcraft3 + TFT..

    watching the cutscenes, and the load screens with the oh-so-familiar scenery and maps makes me want to reinstall and reactivate.

  • @Howdy Doody : Changing faction AND race is coming, already announced.

    That’s hilarious. I kept asking in the suggestion forums that they should allow this. Every time you would get a tsunami of crying flamers saying that it would “break the game”.

  • @Danath Here’s the thing: ANYTHING is gonna be a “grind” if you don’t enjoy doing it. Heroics are relatively fast, and I enjoy 5 man group content. Its small enough that it feels “personal”, assuming you’re not PUGing. And with the current system, you can at least choose which of the many heroics you wanna do, and which ones you’d NEVER DO AGAIN! (Culling of Strat falls into that category for me).

  • If you left because of the grind and you are going to start again when you come back, then don’t come back.

    I’d suggest holding off now, then come back when Cataclysm launches, start a new character (one of the new race/class combos) at a time when loads of people will be re-rolling. Then you can play up through the “new” content to the New content and gear up without it being a grind.

    Or if you can get your Beau head on and just come back for the fun of it, then sure, re-sub until Aion takes you away or whatever. But no, don’t come backand fall into the same grind that drove you away in the first place.

  • I know exactly how you feel 🙂 I’m going to start up a new character! Cataclysm has really got me hyped up again for it, I have no idea why. It’s kinda a shame too because the wait is going to be terrible as a result!

  • After not logging into account snce May 2008 and cancelling tyhen and not seriously playing since maybe Jan 2008, I broke down and resubbed last night…..just been a bit tired with playing lotro for the last 8 months and WAR before that since Beta.

    Think I will start a new toon somewhere since I dont think any of my old guildies play anymore.

    It was purely Cataclsym’s fault.

  • Honestly, everything you said, I thought about too. We’re on the same page. I only played the second Aion CB weekend because I just wanted to test it out, see if I liked it (which I did) and then let it sit. In the meantime I played a few other games here and there, eager to give into my MMO itch. They announced cataclysm, nostalgia set in, and I reinstalled, patched, and jumped back in (yes, I’m a 80 DK main too now). After getting everything just right settings wise, I found myself just standing there in Dalaran again with not a damn thing to do.

    I’ve got til Aion prerelease headstart, so hopefully I find some groups to pass the time.

    My biggest concern with even -considering- reactivating my WoW sub was that I’d get sucked back in, and be stuck with Aion already purchased (I don’t like to play more than one MMO at a time, perhaps influenced by the old days when everyone had their game loyalty to UO or EQ). Thankfully, after that first hour, I remembered why I left to begin with, and still look forward to Aion 🙂

    My advice, if anything, jumping back in will remind you of why you left, which in itself has it’s own merit. Enjoy 🙂

  • Gotta do what makes you happy. If you do resub and become disgruntled though it could taint your eagerness for Cataclysm. I love new content, new stuff period, but once its newness is gone thats what determines how well a game will hold me. WotLK content held me long enough for 2 80s but the same old mechanics to get them there grinded on me so hard it killed my appreciation for the game and even for fantasy settings in general.

    Now my initial excitement for Cataclysm has even faded and I doubt I’ll play it just for the new content. I’ll probably try the OB just to see what all the fuss is about but a Korean WoW with wings doesn’t sound fun. I’m just glad to have found something different to play that has enough in the sandbox to keep me occupied and entertained for a long time.

  • LOL, whew good one, “Korean WOW with wings”??!! umm… NO! That’s the best you can come with? Nice try, but FAIL! If that’s the case WoW is just a big puzzle with all the pieces gathered from prior mmo’s and spit shined to death. I’m not hating on wow, but if Aion is just what u say it is, why are people waiting on it to start? They might as well just play or re-activate wow for what it’s worth. Your words give it no justice, whatsoever. If anything I feel Aion is a watered down Lineage II. Where the masses can absorb it better, compared to L2.

  • There isn’t anyhting new if you have played since WOTLK. A new raid that is about it. I wouldn’t suggest resubbing with Aion so close.

  • Honestly, I can’t ever see going back to WoW. (I played for over close to 400 days /played time, have 6x80s and like 6x60s-70s) I personally only play MMOs for PvP anymore… and Blizzard’s idea of PvP is arena. Personally I HATE arena’s gearing system. I mean, arena is great for people who have are lucky enough to have rolled the right class, have the best gear, and have close friends that have all those as well… I am very sick of WoWs dependence on gear and other players to achieve anything that isnt just aesthetic, its leveling system, and its same old no World PvP system.

    Why does Cataclysm even appeal to you? You know its just going to be the same old thing, more end game raids, and people farming BGs and Arena.

    On a side note Keen, I offered my knowledge of GW2 (since I have been following it since it was just a rumor years ago). Well, they just added a FAQ page on thier site of all their interviews. http://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/guild-wars-2-qa-roundup.html

    Very happy to see they are keeping the event driven world. Yay for randomly raided cities by NPC and population control!!!

  • I had the same urge and gave in, except I decided to make a whole new character like Gordon. The way I looked at it, I could play my 80 and do the same chain running of heroics I’d done before or start fresh and give the old content a final nod before Cataclysm comes out. Since I’m planning on leaving WoW again when Aion comes out, this one month period will probably be the last time I see the old world before it gets revamped, so repeating the leveling for a few weeks isn’t that big of a deal. Let me know if you decide to do the same. We could get everyone that’s interested from the community together one server 🙂

  • I am also thinking of going back to WoW. But it would be to work on my crafting on my high levels as well to stock on some nice armor and weapons to give aid to my low levels once the Cataclysm hit’s. I have quite a few low levels I will not work on until the addition hits. I too am having the error and agree with a earlier statement that it may be due to a lack of updates and logging in for such a long time.

  • @ Hellified..well it was just one sentence so I wasn’t trying for anything. But come on, even The Aion vs WoW write-up made both sound identical. Aion looks prettier than WoW’s outdated graphics, oh yeah and wings. Why are people waiting for it to start? (including my son)…..people right now are waiting for ANTHING besides WoW to start that has a glimmer of hope. And I truly think WoW players are desperately searching for ANYTHING to get them out of WoW and so will feel right at home playing Aion where things are so similar.

  • @Salbos I agree with you, in part, that people are waiting for anything besides WoW, but to sum it all by saying “WoW with wings” doesn’t do the game any justice.

    My biggest issue with the industry right now is that so many people compare wow to everything. Yes WoW did things big, yes they made MMO’s more acceptable and palatable, but WoW isn’t the be all, end all. I don’t know if u ever played L2 but if you had you could tell the direct relation between it and Aion.

    If watering down a game and making it more acceptable to the less hardcore of gamers means they are duplicating wow, well then, I guess you are right.

    Don’t forget about L2, it was big, maybe not in america, but it was big. I was about to go indepth in release dates and Lineage Orig but no need, all is available on wiki.

    All I am saying is, im tired of the dry comparisons. For me, to truly compare has to involve experiencing, and many have not truly experienced Lineage in any form, I or II.

  • Keen. My view (if you ever get this far down the comments).

    In retrospect, I now see I play WoW/MMOs for the purpose of finding new interesting things to discover.

    I feel WoW no longer offers much interest:
    – gear improvement (grinding same old dungeons/raids)
    – quests (have become corny after doing thousands)
    – PvP (fun for a while but now over it)

    For me, WoW is now only good for new content then unsubscribe.

    As some famous MMO commentator said (Ive forgotten his name), once we fully understand the meta-game underlying the game we lose interest.

  • @Hellified agreed, wow comparisons get old but being the big boy on the block makes it inevitable. One thing I will say, Aion looks incredible, and I’ll be carefully watching my son get absorbed by it as he tries to get me into it. He’s good at sucking me into MMOs.

  • If you can spare the $15.00 and have the desire to play WoW you might as well go for it. You will either 1) Enjoy your time for a month or 2) End up realizing that WoW really isn’t for you. Both win scenarios in my opinion.

  • how often do you have to quit wow before you finally notice that its better to stay away from it 😛

  • This was exactly what the new expansion announcement did for me too. I have no MMO to bide my time until my friends and I take on Aion later this month. So one month, sure ill kick around WoW. It helps that that when I did buy the expansion last year I was too engrossed in WAR to experience all the content.

  • Dont do it, imho.
    No real reason to do that now.
    Best thing to do maybe will be return when Cataclysm is out (or a month before), reroll from scratch and enjoy a new ride in a new world.

  • Resub, I subbed WoW for the month while waiting for Aion. If you haven’t done the leveling process already in WotLK its very fun. If you have already done it and your characters are at 80 already… well you might want to rethink subbing as the end game is supposedly just as exciting as ever, and if you aren’t a part of an already established and geared raiding community you will end up collectng badges andrunning heroics, but that can be fun if you are with friends. These games really are about hanging out with friends right?

  • ToC is the new dungeon/raid from the newest patch. It stands for Trial of Champions. Gives tier 9 gear.