#0 - May 20, 2009, 11:04 p.m.
Posted on this account as I'm getting the once-a-month "Account is inactive" payment processing bug today. My main is Snowfox, a veteran 80 night elf priest. Her armory is here: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Vek%27nilash&n=Snowfox
Introduction
I love this game, I love healing, and I love being a priest. Unfortunately I also find myself feeling less of an urge to login, and hope to explain why in a neutral way. In the past, I have posted about frustration I felt with priests, and feel they were addressed (perhaps not *my* posts, but the issues nonetheless). My complaint is NOT about priests being weak or anything like that. I think what was done to disc was brilliant, even if currently very strong. My concerns are at a higher level than just priesting or even healing though.
Parts of the game experienced
I post this, just so readers understand my perspective is not from lack of exploring different sides of the game:
* 5p pugging - everything, multiple times
* 40P raiding - everything but the end of naxx at 60
* 10p raiding - everything before Ulduar
* 25p raiding - everything but Malygos before Ulduar (in pugs)
* Vanilla PvP - grinded out commander
* BC PvP - full but not topline set of arena gear
* Wotlk PvP - less than bc, and got involved at the worst possible time for a priest: pre-nerf DK's.
* Addon development - although I'd rather not go into specifics
* RP realms - I am an adept roleplayer
* PvP realms - On a rogue alt and old druid
* Multiboxing - Three at once, clearing instances. Also doing 5p heroics as both the tank and healer, simultaneously.
* Classes - 80 priest, 80 dk, 74 warlock, 60 druid, and everything else at random levels.
What changed or needed to change, but didn't:
Monoguilds:
WoW's system of allowing membership in one and only one guild at a time is simply outdated. Layered/multi-guilding alone would solve a lot of the social angst present now.
"On rails" frustration:
I'm frustrated by the sometimes constricted feeling of healing, that the heal I'm expected to use is almost pre-calculated, over-analyzed, and the specific need for a spell almost coded directly into the boss fights themselves.
Lack of user content:
While I understand developers want their vision, done with quality - In WoW, players have total lack of creative control, there still being nothing liked sandboxed but free form content creation, guild housing, or any way to really add anything to the game beyond addons and a clever tabard design.
Arenas/PvP:
Perhaps I'm terrible at them, perhaps I'd be better now but don't wish to go. I don't know, I just know I'd rather watch go farming herbs than set foot in one now. We can handwave this one away as personal preference though.
Raiding relapsed:
In short, the love I have for 5p's I still feel for 10p's. However the corporate work-world feeling I had in 40p's I still feel in 25p's. It isn't about easy or hard, it's about feeling drained by them. I won't go back to it, if it involves the same monoguilding-with-strangers as it has.
The demise of 5p's:
I've done all of them, repeatedly, on different toons, in different roles, in all manners of groups. I would still login to do them, but there is little reason to now. There is no progression of any sort to be had from them. Even kidnapping puppies gives more money for the time than the daily heroics. At 60, even after killing C'Thun I remember doing a dire maul tribute run for mana pots. I don't see that effect anymore.
IV. The big picture
I actually do know what it is like to be brought on to extend and develop an already existing software system, one which carries with it the legacy of the past, for both good and bad. I know that non-antagonistic feedback plays a pivotal role. When I get home from work, debating what to do to unwind, I think of WoW first... but then I think of exactly *what* I would do, and my head just hangs. Maybe I've gone too far outside the norm, played too long, or have gotten too old. I realize there are many broad issues here, and this is more emotion/need based post than the usual number theories. If I had to pick just *one* as the most important - I'd implore the developers to not underestimate the importance of 5p's and their remaining relevant to progression. They are what keep players/healers like myself logging in, how players meet and form social bonds with their realm, and often leads to other things like raiding or pvp. My <3 will always belong to the 5p's. There isn't an item or title possible that can change that. If some of the other issues didn't exist, the 5p issue would likely not seem as important.
I post this as a priest, a tank, and a player - but always remembering my roots healing the pug 5p's.
Please.
I want to want to login.
