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BA Shared Topic: Preparing for Wrath of the Lich King
Published on June 15, 2008 by Phaelia 
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This is in response to the Shared Topic from Blog Azeroth entitled Preparing for Wrath of the Lich King.
Even while still in the midst of the Friends-and-Family Alpha, the Wrath of the Lich King has managed to assert itself into the forefront of many players’ minds. As with Burning Crusade, many players are feeling a sense of general apathy toward character progression, knowing that their efforts will appear insignificant in the face of the items and abilities we’ll likely to acquire on the all-too-short trek to level 80 in Northrend.
While many players — particularly those on the upper end of raid progression — bemoan the future obsolescence of all their hard work and distinction, I’m personally looking forward to the day when I can replace my legs or chest with a blue quest drop. Of course, the level 71 chest piece is likely to look like something tailored by a colorblind hobo with a terrible sense of humor, but still — loot is loot, right? (WRONG. The best loot complements my hair and shows off my lithe figure.)
Knowing that Wrath of the Lich King is rumored for a release later this year has made me dither at spending my Heroic badges. I spent a few hours planning a spell damage/crit set a couple of weekends ago, but uncertainty regarding the changes to +Healing and universal Spell Power and the increased emphasis on wearing leather armor we may see from the Improved Tree of Life talent has me at a loss for what items would be the best for the purposes of leveling. I’m still undecided whether I will spec deep into Balance (!) so that my husband’s Mage and I can AOE our way to level 80 or if I’ll stay Tree of Life and gather up and tank the mobs for him to Blizzard into Oblivion (look out, Bethesda — level 73 Elite Furbolgs headed your way). Assuming that the changes to +Healing go live, I probably won’t need to pick up Balance gear for the expansion. Although it might not be a bad idea to find a leather chest piece …
Sadly, despite my guild’s recent progress in Tempest Keep and into Mount Hyjal, I find myself pretty disinterested in raiding. I don’t feel like this is necessarily related to Wrath of the Lich King’s readily available upgrades over what I might acquire in those zones but almost more related to the 10-man progression track Blizzard is promising. To me, 25-man raids have always felt impersonal, especially when I’m raiding with my husband. 10-man raids like Zul’Aman and Karazhan have always been much more fun and make me feel more like my husband and I have actually been playing a game together rather than both playing the same single-player game simultaneously. While I’m not considering leaving my guild, I have to admit the idea of a tight-knit group of friends progressing through content like a cadre of elite assassins (and healers!) sounds idyllic.
As for the blog, I’m pensive about the inevitable updates that will need to be made to theorycrafting articles. I suspect many pieces will end up in the Obsolete Category, and it will likely take several months to “catch up” on the different topics I’ve covered in the past. I’m also thinking forward to articles I will be able to write should the indoor roots change actually go live. Between that, the hopefully high number of mobs susceptible to Hibernate, and Cyclone, we’ll be gods of crowd control. Also healing, though many of the talent changes to Restoration are likely to get the axe (HAHA! Get it? ‘Cause we’re trees!) instead of making it through to release.
So how has the news about and impending release of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion affected the way YOU play?
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All these things can be done in 5 mans though. Riverwishs...
Yup, I feel the exact same on the raiding part.. I’d like to see all the different places TBC have to offer me, but it’s very discouraging when you think “I spend all these nights raiding, giving everything I can, but in a few months, it’s not even gonna matter, and I can start over again”. I am gonna hate the day I switch out an epic with a greenie…
It’s actually reached the point where I’m either consider quitting WoW when WotLK comes out, or rerolling something else, simply because I’m gonna feel bad about having spend so much time gearing up my druid, and it’s just wasted.
So, it has slightly killed my love to raiding, and I’m not really (at the moment, at least) looking forward to the expansion.
I’ll be taking a week off of work I suspect to try and grind 4 specs of gear somehow to actually get in on these 10 man groups easily and without too much competition.
I’m quite curious to see what level of an upgrade this new gear in WOTLK is gonna be. Is my tier 5/6 quality stuff going to be replaced by the first new green leatherworking piece I can make? Or will I be waiting until level 78/79 before I actually start seeing some possibility of switching things out?
/me ponders.
As for the whole 25 vs 10 bit … I’m kind of half and half. I honestly don’t mind the 25 mans, but, then again, I have noone on my realm that I am truly close to. I’m not married/nor seeing anyone… and I don’t have any family that play either. Most of whom I do enjoy playing with are simply friends that I met in the guild when I changed over. Most of the folks in the guild like me, and vice versa honestly, so, the 25 mans are just a large group of friends.
/shrugs.
The 10 mans on the other hand, well, let’s face it, I don’t mind it when there’s less competition for the stuff I want :p, and there is something gratifying about being a larger piece of the group so to speak, where one person can literally be the difference between a wipe and a save.
Hard to say either way. But, that long-winded blurb of mine said, I’m looking forward to the new stuff to see/beat up/ and the possibility of my chicken doing something other than suggestive pelvic thrusting.
And my tree too
I am looking forward to the 10 man option ,I like the more intimate setting. I have some very dear friends I play with and we are all excited about this.
BAD PUN!
I’m looking forward to WoLK - and more of your insightful articles in regard to druiding. As a devout 25-man raider (really hoping to see KJ dead before the xpac hits we are 3/6 SW now) I’ll even admit the 10 man versions of raids are going to be welcome and refreshing. I think it was a good call by Blizzard - let’s face it, people LOVE ten mans. Who still doesn’t enjoy a jaunt through Kara or ZA with a pack of your best buddies?
I’m not entirely sold on 10 man raiding being the grand solution to enjoy raiding. It is true, for me to do 25 man raids I’m forced to hang out with people I’d rather not, and at times I wish I were in a smaller raid. However, I can’t help but think back to one of my favorite fantasy series: dragonlance (Yes I’m just that cool). At one point the balance between good and evil got out of whack, with good having the upper hand. Once all evil was vanquished, the good forces starting to do battle with neutral factions…since once all evil was destroyed, neutral became then new evil. I guess what I’m getting at, is some people that may seem perfectly awesome in a 25man environment, may begin to bug you in a 10 man. Somewhat like moving in with your best friend. Anyways, I’m rambling now, looking forward to see how classes are balanced out in the expansion. New shaman resto tree looked pretty lackluster…
I’ve kindda got the opposite feeling towards raiding now. I’m in a group progressing through SSC/TK, but I’d love to see Hyjal and BT before WotLK comes out. I’ve been busting my hump to get all of the badge gear and the raid drops I need, and I’m thinking of jumping ship to a bigger group for the summer just to forge ahead a bit.
As for raiding, I love the idea of 10 mans. Partly because you can play with more of your close friends and less of your loose acquaintances, but also because there’s more personal responsibility. It’s much easier to put together a quality 10 man group and keep everyone accountable for what they do than it is with 25 people.
I’m in somewhat the same boat as Walkere, but rowing in the opposite direction: the RP realm I’m on suddenly has a fair number of people who are quite interested in finishing Naxx before it moves.
Other than that change of venue for Saturdays, nothing else has really changed for me, though: priority one is still being the best tree that I can be. I can do something about my ability now, to an extent, by getting appropriate gear and continuing to hone my skills. I can’t really do much about having appropriate gear for WotLK, though, and while I can read about how things are likely to be, that’s loads different from actually putting the new spells and talents into action.
While I’m not a raider, I’m feeling the same thing to an extent with pvp, especially with the bar having been raised with personal rating requirements. As I can’t play actively, I can’t play in an active 5s, and thats where holy pallies excel - 2s and 3s are just too hard. So I’m feeling rather lethargic with regard to grinding honour etc for s4, especially having got 4/5 + weap (and hopefully shoulders before season changes) the idea of having to do it all again feels just a little bit like deja vu. So I’m working on getting together ret gear to level with in wotlk and casually bg with in s4.
As for my druid, he’s resto atm and I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to do. Its fun and all, but I’m really not enjoying pvp as much as on my pally - pally will always be my first love, if you know what I mean - even though the pally is frustrating as hell to play at lower brackets. One thing I don’t like so much with my resto druid is that you can’t really do much but heal. You’d be pretty surprised how much damage a holy pally can put out - its definately more than a resto druid, or feels that way anyway. So I think the aim will be to collect some feral gear for levelling in wotlk, perhaps with a view to staying feral at 80 endgame. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy raiding as a tree, but I’m finding on my druid, at least, that healing as resto in bgs and trying to solo stuff in the world isn’t nearly as fun as it is on my rather geared pally
As for raiding, I still enjoy karazhan immensely - I would have to say that the 10man content is one of the highlights for me of tbc, even though I predominantly pvp these days.
Anyway, good luck with the final months of the burning crusade, perhaps I’ll see you on the battlefields as retribution
i’m torn on LK, on one hand i want to see northrend, on the other its gonna be the same jumbled puzzle of rep grinds and crappy raids that BC is. i want to see the changes to spell damage / +healing go through as it would cut down on my now expansive equipment collection, i think the proposed changes to ToL will be useful for cloth wearing trees.
as far as raids go. 10 man are prolly better, but i like the few 25 mans ive been in.
in the end its a question of what will happen with LK. i have a feeling its another BC masquerading as a ‘we learned our lesson’ expac.
I want all the new talents now they seem to good to be true.
I just started playing WoW when BC was released. I didn’t hit 70 until Kara was on farm & everyone was getting ready for other raids. I heard alot of “lets run Underbog” or “Let’s go to Mana Tombs”, and “I need to run Bot.” while leveling. So, this time around, I’m looking forward to actually leveling with people & discovering stuff with them and, making it to exalted rep with lots of factions.
I love the picture, Phae
Oh blargh. I’ve just had a startling revelation, and it’s not sitting too well. I had for some reason put on my blinders with regards to the expansion being so near, and was head-down concentrating on upgrades for myself as if there was no expansion looming on the horizon at all. I had just resigned myself to the fact that once I had enough badges, I’d be dropping them on the chicken crossbow, but now I don’t know what to do. How long will that thing last me once the expansion comes out? Will it be worth all the Kara runs I will have made to collect enough badges? Or will the first quest reward ranged weapon be enough of an upgrade that I’ll want to switch it out? Aaaargh, I’ve got to think now.
With regard to raiding, I’m still going to keep pushing through the current content, it’s still a great high to come together as a group and kick the big bad bosses in the teeth. I am interested to see how the raiding changes will come across in the expansion, but until then I’m content to follow the current progression and see how far we can get before WotLK comes out
I personally found the old 40 man raids a much more social raid than either 10 or 25 mans. Having so many people in the raid allowed for us to bring along people that weren’t necessarily the best players in the world, but were just people we enjoyed having along.
When BC came along a lot of my old guildies who I really enjoyed raiding with could not get a raid slot in the new 10 man, kara. So a lot of my close friends quit.
Now, because of the demands placed on each and every raider in the 10/25 mans, you can no longer bring a friend a long just for the fun of it even if they weren’t as hard core as you. I’ll admit it has made me clean up my game and pull out my 110% like never before, and all my current guildies are lean mean raid boss grilling machines, but I would really like it if they brought back 40 man raid instances :(.
Not that I don’t love my current guildies, it just seems a little less like a group of friends playing together, and more like a military unit. Still close knit, but not everyone you enjoy being with can join.
Its been stated that the new Naxx (first lvl 80 raid instance) will have gear on par with sunwell gear. So that 150 badge weapon you are working on will probably last you all the way up to 80, to be replaced my a dungeon blue. Kind of like HWL weapons were in TBC.
I will preface this comment by admitting that I am very, very competitive when it regards my hobby. I’m actually hoping for a later rather than sooner release of the x-pac. My guild has a very good thing going–we have cleared all T5 content and are now leaving it behind forever, and we are 4/5 and 2/9 in T6. It’s a very good time (for us, anyway) to raid. For me, gear is instrumental, not a goal in itself. I worked my butt off to get all the badge gear and to gem my slots with epics, but I can always be better, faster, more efficient. Yes, I’m continuing to work on gear progression, but that drive participates in a larger desire to be a better player–a goal that I attack on several fronts. I will be happy to replace my current gear with better in the expansion, no matter how hard I worked for the T5/T6 set. I welcome new gear in the expansion as a new avenue of self-improvement. The reason to work so hard, of course, is to see new bosses and to get better at killing the old ones. I love both 10 and 25-mans. In the 10 mans, my guild is working towards an Amani War Bear. That’s an incredible challenge for T5 geared players, and I love things like that.
I’d like to see my guild go into the expansion strong, friendly, and organized–with a dead Illidan behind us. I’m not sure if we’ll get to Sunwell, as I don’t want to push us to the breaking point in an instance that kills guilds who’ve farmed T6 for months. I also want to see us stay balanced for 25-man raids. Why? 25-mans are a greater challenge, especially for guild officers. I am the healing lead and recruiting officer for my guild, and part of the fun is the difficulty of finding new raiders and fitting them into the group. The ten-man progression might be easier, and might certainly let me play with a more select group. However, I don’t think there will be enough room in 10-mans for the friends I’ve made playing in 25s. Are we really going to take two resto druids and two holy priests to 10-mans? And what about the fact that my boyfriend is a tank, and two other good friends in the guild are also tanks? We can’t all play at once. I might not get to play with my very favorite people in the smaller-size raids. Yes, in 25s there is the occasional difficult personality–but that would probably happen at the 10-person raids too. I love what my guild has going at the 25-man size and would like to continue to progress along that model in Wrath.
@Sarkuu: I actually don’t mind replacing raid-acquired items with quested greens. To me, that was one of the most enjoyable parts about leveling up in TBC. I even built half decent starting Feral and Balance sets (that I never used).
@Teranin: I’ve read that the intention is for T5/T6 items to last until a few levels into the expansion (74/75). I’m sure there will be exceptions, though, especially if you’ve built a specialty set with stats that aren’t typically found on leveling gear (like spell haste).
You make a good point about being a bigger part of your raid’s success in a 10-man instance. I also happen to think that the Druid’s very nature as a versatile class will always shine best in smaller environments where specialization is less important. That’s also one of the reasons that we shine in 2v2 vs. 5v5. As a Resto Druid in particular, we have a whole assortment of versatile tools at our disposal.
@Lotha: That’s excellent. Have you guys given any thought to how many people your guild will need to sustain 10-man progression? It seems like you’d need some cushion for those times where a couple of people go on vacation.
@Kirkie: “Refreshing” is a good word for 10-man content. The 10-man raids (even timers in ZA) have always seemed more laid back and fun, where anyone and everyone can feel free to participate in cheerful banter over voice chat. It’s also a LOT easier to coordinate healing for.
@Sheshonk: What an interesting parallel between smaller raid sizes and the Dragonlance series. I think, however, that people can’t possibly ask for a smaller raid size than 10-man. Those would just be Heroic instances!
@Walkere: You aren’t alone. It seems like many players develop a last-ditch desire to see everything there is to see before an expansion is released. We’ve recently had guild members who previously have had very low attendance clamoring to see the inside of Black Temple. We’re probably going to capitulate to those requests before the ones asking to farm trash in Sunwell. (>.< )
@Adremma: I was wondering why there was a sudden resurgence of interest in Naxxramas on my realm (RP also, Scarlet Crusade). It hadn't occurred to me that people might want to see it the way it was before it's changed. From everything I'd heard about its original pre-TBC difficulty, I'm quite happy not seeing it the way it was personally!
@Lovemace: I don't think I've ever heard someone say that as a Resto Druid, you can't do much more than heal. I played up to 1915 as a Resto Druid in Season 2 and I must say that it was one of THE most challenging things I've ever done. It also made me a tremendously better Druid overall, improving my reflexes and familiarizing me with skills and spells I'd never had occassion to use before. Feral Charge, Pounce, Travel Form, Bash, Barkskin, Cyclone, Entanging Roots, Insect Swarm, Abolish Poison, Faerie Fire, Moonfire ... the list goes on and on and on. Playing a Restoration Druid is one of the more challenging healers because there are so many options. When leveraged properly, though, we can do very well in those Arenas where our core strength (mobility) isn't hampered.
@Koriban: I actually really enjoyed the rep grinds from TBC. I thought it was a neat way of measuring your experience with the individual instance hubs and rewarding people with a little something extra for choosing to go through dungeons while they leveled rather than trying to solo/duo it outside. I do think that some of the rewards were a bit lackluster. I hope that there are more viable pieces for assorted specs in WotLK.
@Wynn: Me too! I've been excitedly planning my revised level 70 spec in anticipation of the pre-release patch we know will come before the expansion!
@Dyera: That definitely is one downside to leveling up separate from your friends and is probably one of the reasons that they reduced the Heroic requirements from Revered to Honored (which is generally pretty easy to reach through collecting-turnins and quests). I hope that the Heroics in the new expansion start at Honored requirement, too.
@Josh: Why, thank you, sir. It was actually my Arbor Day submission. I cheated. ^_^
@Asara: Keep in mind that the Badges of Justice you acquire now almost certainly won't be usable in the expansion at all. So you really have a couple of options: spend badges on definite upgrades that will probably be usable for at least a few more months, spend badges on epic gems to use or to sell, spend badges on primal nethers to craft tradeskilled items. Personally, I finished nabbing all the upgrades for my main spec, gemmed out my gear with epic gems, and am now planning to spend any more badges I get on epic gems to sell.
@Tenka: I think that the size of 40-man raids definitely lent itself to bringing along sub-par players ... who were often quite sociable and enjoyable. What a shock when we moved into Karazhan for the first time. It turns out that several people you considered pretty important and as strong contributors really didn't have the first clue about what they were doing. ^_^ Seriously, how in the world did we ever kill Ragnaros?
It *does* stink to lose the ability to allow sub-par players to participate in progression-oriented raids, but I still find those environments more socially enjoyable. I do miss the one Hunter who used to sing nigh-incessantly.
@Sheshonk: That's different than the progression I had read. I thought they were aiming to have people replacing T5/T6 with WotLK items in their mid 70s.
@Sydera: You've described very well how I look at the gear improvements in WotLK. I personally can't wait to look like a space clown on acid... well, maybe I can. But the intially easy-to-acquire stat upgrades will be welcome and fun.
What you point out about 25->10 man raids and having to cut back on the number of any given class you bring along is pretty scary. I suspect that most guilds that currently run 25-man content will probably continue to run 25-man raids on their “main” scheduled raid nights and run 10-mans on “off nights” for the purposes of gearing people up outside of the DKP system.
@ Phae - Oh I do agree with you there, in the context of arenas resto druids do so much more than heal. Perhaps thats why I’m struggling a bit - I spend most of my time on my druid playing arena rather than farming for the honour gear so as to survive the quick switch and gib
After long stints back on my Paladin I tend to play a bit like a Paladin too - its embarrassing! I forget that I can’t tank damage, and that I don’t just have to heal through dmg, but that I ACTUALLY HAVE CC to mitigate damage!
The other side of that is that I’m finding battlegrounds so frustrating. Its a less controlled environment than in arena, in that in arena you don’t have a half dozen alliance melee zerging you all at once, which rather hurts with my 300 resilience (theres a bit of poetic licence in there..). A geared pvp Paladin lives a very long time. I just don’t have the skill and gear yet to do that on my druid. Added to that, horde on my druid’s battlegroup are rather terrible. We don’t often win AV, and the other battlegrounds usually start with us 2:1 outnumbered.
I’m just finding the transition from a Paladin difficult - from often being frustratingly powerless as a paladin yet very resilient, to being incredibly flexible and powerful as a druid yet in a way quite fragile.
I guess my “not much more than heal” comment was directed towards pve solo-play - questing and the like. Certain daily quests are just irritating in comparison to my pally. Having to roots and then wrath mf spam things is frustratingly slow compared to gathering up 10-20 mobs on my pally and conc’n them down
I will have to try an insect swarm build, and get over my nervousness re: needing all the healing I can get cos I’m so much more squishy than I’m used to!
I think the point of BT is to kill Illidan and get your necklace upgraded for your brand spanking new FREE hearthstone to outland!! (not everyones a druid with a port to MG you know! )
@Lovemace: Oh, I see! Thank you for clarifying. =) Despite how well Druids do in smallscale Arenas, I still find them VERY frustrating to play. Yes, we have some awesome tricks up our sleeve but it’s stressful trying to stay away from everyone in order to use them. I personally think that, while a Druid in the hand of a mere mortal (like myself), isn’t a PvP-powerhouse, they have so much potential in the hands of a truly-skilled player that they’ve attracted a disproportionate number of hardcore PvPers who have really been able to make them shine.
@Inwë: What??? You get a free HS to Shatt for killing Illy-beans? What is this OP nonsense!? Onward to BT, I say!