The benefit of cross realm is lower queue times; if you're bound to your server, it's no different than using the LFG bulletin board addon everyone uses already. Also the Dungeon Finder makes ninja looting very difficult/rare anyway, as you literally can't need on something that isn't designed for your class. The exception being possibly trinkets for offspec or what not. If you are a shaman for instance, you can not roll need on a leather piece, only greed or pass. You can only roll on weapons you can use and your "designated" armor class.
Lengthy post ahead, if you want short simple sentence answers, scroll past this. People say, and I used to be one of them, that LFG ruined WoW cause it eliminated the social aspect but I have since changed my mind on that. I've been playing a lot of classic (mostly classic in fact) since it launched and subsequently TBC and the rose colored glasses are at least somewhat off. With LFG you could at least get a group for somewhat obscure instances that were hard to find groups for in the 1-60 bracket (ones that don't have a mage or paladin offering boosts for gold) and people seem content with boosts as well where there is NO challenge and hardly any talking. Most people just AFK and shut up. So no that's not it. LFG actually solves that issue, it gives people who wants to run dungeons a way to do so, especially on low populated servers where there might not be enough people interested at your particular time and place. Also the running to the stone to summon was very romantic the first 20 times, then it got stale and people just stand still now waiting for 2 people to sigh and go "Fine, I'll run there".Another criticism attached to the belief that LFG is to blame for ruined social aspect is that "Now you don't know players anymore" and that is said by people who used to invest into their community, usually low to medium pop servers; anything higher is just hard to keep track of. I currently play TBC Classic on Firemaw and sure I do run into some guy I ran some dungeon with from time to time but I can't honestly say I have any sort of pulse on the community at large. And I think why we used to has nothing to do with dungeon finder at all but rather we chose to invest into the community; getting to know people, having people on our friends list, joining and being loyal to guilds. It is not the same now. I think what destroyed the social aspect of the game in regards to dungeons is difficulty level. I pop into retail from time to time and by now people are so overgeared that any difficulty is trivial at best, the dungeons that are challenging get nerfed anyway so there was not much of a difficulty to start with (at least not for long) and the whole mentality of the group is shut up, go go go and flame people for any mistakes. We have minmaxed the dungeon experience and you're supposed to rush through pulling the bare minimum to complete the dungeon. Any time-locked dungeons (like Violet Hold for instance where mobs come in timed waves) get skipped or frowned upon cause you can't speedrun them. And this is the attitude players have now. Now in real time, not in which expansion is current. You see the same mentality in Classic and Classic TBC. There are a lot more gated-by-the-players content now than before: By that I mean even if you fulfill the gated-by-the-game requirements (gear level, attunements, keys etc) there is another gate set by players usually at a sweet spot just below where the content is trivial. You have gear and log inspection to ensure you can help achieve the speedrun. Sure, you could find a guild that wants to experience the instances and raids. This is a real option. But even those do run out of slots, and sooner or later, patience and the rose colored glasses come off and they either move on or expect speed runs cause they feel done with the content. The expiry date of content is shorter and shorter and it doesn't help that it is also made easier and more available. But mainly it is player attitude in this modern day and age. We are so used to on-demand and being egocentric, sometimes egoistic. And there is no changing that. So no, I don't feel LFG ruined WoW. WoW only has a place in time where the attitude fits it, and they have tried to adapt to changing player attitudes as the expansions have rolled out (which they had to, there was no other way if they wanted to stay in the loop) - But here is the sweet thing: I don't think player attitude will change anytime soon on the whole. But each individual can tune their own attitude in terms of expectations, behavior and slaying that monkey on your back screaming in your ear that you are left out, and find zen and enjoyment in the game in other ways. Basically it is up to you to make the best of it. :PWon't say sorry for long post, I wouldn't mean it anyway.
Yes, LFD needs to be in BUT it can't be cross-realm.
If they do wrath, they should do it without ever adding the fungeon finder to it.
As for me, I cannot wait to see WotLK Classic implemented. It was the pinnacle of Wow gameplay (and I've played all the way from the original Vanilla to Shadowlands), at least for me as I'm a pure PvE player (dunno and really don't care at all about the PvP aspect of the game)All changes and additions were awesome QoL improvements, the story is awesome, and the questing and raiding flow is unmatched. The two most controversial aspects of the Xpack, the Trial of The Crusader raid and the Dungeon Finder, were not as bad as it seemed (for me at least).I really enjoyed the Trial raid, the lack of thrash was a refresh, and only the PvP-esque encounter with a horde-like setup was a bit meh for me. The rest were interesting encounters.Also, the Dungeon Finder tool was not a bad idea by itself, only the implementation was not as good as it could have been. For me, the best possible LFG tool implementation is the current Group Finder used in retail for Mythic Dungeons. It allows for super easy looking, visually pleasant, while avoiding the auto-matching and the instant-teleport, which were the worst offenders. That unfortunately will be hard to mix with cross-realms groups, but that won't be needed if the population management is properly done. Finally, only the "random queue" feature of the original Group Finder would be missing (I guess Blizzard used it for speeding up queuing and setups), but I'm pretty sure something similar can be archieved with the current Shadowlands Mythic LFG tool.
The LFD could be at the start of the Xpac, with some "filters" like : -If you're below level 68, the tool let you do Cross-realms dungeons. -Above 68, it's only with ppl of your realm. I know i'm probably dreaming but if they could just put an option as they did in WoD to get better graphisms (I played on some PV with Legion graphics as an option so ...) Put the game in its 3.3.5a state :) And btw, Eye of Eternity was during Ulduar phase if i remember well, cause loots were at ilvl 226 in 25man. P1 (Naxx + Obsidian) : 10m = 200ilvl / 25man = 213P2 (Ulduar + Eye) : 10m = 213 (Eye) and 219 (Ulduar) / 25man = 226P3 (Trial + Ony) : 10m = 232 / 25man = 245 --------- Crusade dungeon : 200ilvl NM / 213ilvl HMP4 (ICC) : 10m = 251ilvl NM, 264 HM / 25m = 264 NM, 277 HM
Any talk of "destroying the community" with the RFD/LFG tool is just beyond stupid at this point with Classic. On the populated realms, for pugging, there is very little beyond not being a ninja. Literally just logged on my priest, saw in BB that a grp for SP needed a healer, joined, and after the paladins sorted buffs, not a word was said until the end. For pugging norms/heroics, this is literally it. Raids are a different matter, with ZA usually asking for discord, same for the 25 mans. Kara fine without though.For the lesser pop realms, surely it can only be a benefit to have x realm open up and keep them alive? That's the only reason my retail chars have kept going, the realm is basically dead for mythic raiding, but M+ being x realm is keeping it somewhat viable.
Everything we know. But start off by warning us we know nothing at all.
Please let us import the micro-bar UI from Cataclysm.I mean, Caracter specs, SpellBook, Profession Book, Guild Info, Mini-map. The ergonomy and the design is largely better than this old schit.
Stop deleting every comment that's mildly critical of your article process, it sucks.
No heirlooms is the biggest thing No lfg following right afterThose two things alone would save wotlk for me
General sentiment seems to think a server locked dungeon finder is fine. I draw the line at anything cross realm.
100% agree! This nostalgia for "social aspect" is narrow and ignores the fact that people interact with each other VERY differently in 2022 than they did in 2009. Who really likes sitting and waiting 40-100 minutes to form a group to run a dungeon? Whats fun about that!