Starting area's... I almost feel insulted.

#0 - Dec. 13, 2009, 12:38 a.m.

After making a new baby Orc, I've noticed after a while that I could happily strut around in the cave. I actually noticed it first when I killed the scorpion, Sarkoth. "Hey, he's neutral... Oh well". Then I found out the entire cave is neutral, even the level 5 starting area boss.

Working as intended, so it seems. Every starting area has been altered to weed out the evil aggressive newbie-killing mobs. Kill Garrick Padfoot for you, the Defias criminal? Sure, no problem, he is standing there picking his nose anyway. Yes, he's got some friends, but they'll just look at you with a stupid grin on their faces as you attack their leader. Oh, and do you want to pick up some grapes for me? The Defias standing around them are not exactly violent, but well, they smell a bit bad so I don't want to go there myself. Thanks.

Seriously, I love this patch, but of all the changes to make the game easier, this has to be the most stupid one. I was fond of the micro-dungeons in the starting area's. It's a great way for new players to learn how to pull carefully without too much chance of it going wrong (the aggro range in the starting area was never really high). Now it's just a walk in the park, as you enter those caves and camps you just have to kill one mob, the level 5 end boss - for the rest, just strut around and take whatever solves your quest and then move on, only to discover that the mobs in the next area suddenly start to hurt. No harm done, probably, because guess what, dying before level 10 lost its penalty!

I mean, making the game easier and more casual-friendly is one thing, completely destroying any challenge in the early levels is another. This is just laughable. I think I died once in a starting area, and that's when I started playing 4.5 years ago. I almost feel insulted as a gamer. I mean, come on Blizzard, we can handle it. :)

Ancilorn

#41 - Dec. 13, 2009, 12:03 p.m.

Q u o t e:
Please tell me you're kidding? Please tell me they did not make all those mobs yellow? What does Blizzard think we are?

You're a level 80 with game experience, so running an alt character through a starting zone is likely to be trivial for you either way, so it's no massive change. If anything it should just be a tad quicker for an experienced player to run through there.

This change is for people who are not only new to WoW, but entirely new to the MMO experience who have embarked on a journey through a starting zone. This is one part of our new introductory experience. It's not here to help you old timers. =)

Ancilorn

#44 - Dec. 13, 2009, 12:13 p.m.

Q u o t e:
Wow was my first MMO and i did fine through the aggresive mobs.

Every individual is different. We wanted to change the learning curve, and this coupled with other changes make the curve much more friendly. We have a lot of data to indicate a change was worth making. We'll see how it pans out.

Ancilorn

#151 - Dec. 14, 2009, 8:12 p.m.

Q u o t e:
Yeah you're right of course, but it just boggles me seeing them waste ANY time at all on such idiotic changes. As you said in the OP, it almost makes me feel insulted in my intelligence when i make a new character.

You're continuing to overlook the fact that this change is not for you. We could even up the level of the starting area mobs by 2 and double their aggro range and most experienced players would be able to get through it without breaking too much of a sweat. I would go so far as to say that this change is not for anyone contributing to this thread, since its a safe assumption you've all fought through a large chunk of Azeroth already on one character or more. :)