I signed up for World of Warcraft just for the free week they offered. I played a couple of times, said hello to my old characters, started a new one, realized I had both no idea how to play and no particular reason to do so, and was about to bid WoW adieu until Cataclysm. I’d always planned on playing a little when the next expansion was released.
Then patch 3.3 came, and with it the new Automatic LFG thing. Pick between a random “classic” dungeon, or some specific dungeon, select your party role (always damage in my case, but those who can swap between tanking, healing and damage can signal which they want), after awhile you get whisked from wherever you are to the Scarlet Monastery.
Well, maybe that’s just me.
Azeroth Advisor SAID I’d probably be ending up there. In fact, I should be getting another edition from the Azeroth Advisor crew pretty soon because I leveled three times (admittedly, I had maximum rest experience — three year’s worth).
Well, no longer. From following QuestHelper around, getting a great talent build from RogueBuilds, re-learning about poisons and as many instance runs as I wanted to queue for, I’ve just kinda had fun.
Which is bizarre because I wasn’t having fun when I quit, yet the game hasn’t changed that much, at least for low level characters. It’s just that random dungeon thing hit some sort of perfect storm with me. I can run around and do some quests, then queue up for a dungeon, do Scarlet Monastery (library once, armory twice), watch every bit of loot go to people who rolled need for things they clearly didn’t *need*. The fluff dog whistle from the dog trainer? C’mon, that’s a greed item.
Nonetheless, I wasn’t there for the loot but for the fun and to relearn the game.
If I wanted achievements, I got them. I got a couple just for doing the two wings of SM I did. I also got special gift packs on the completion of two of them (probably not on the third because I was dead), each of which had a bit of blue jewelry.
Anyway, I decided to subscribe to WoW for a month. I don’t know where I’m going with it. I won’t be joining another guild, I’m Head Snack of Snacks for the Horde! You just don’t give that up! But with this random dungeon feature, there are things I don’t need any more to enjoy WoW. And those things are a) guild mates, b) LFG channels, or c) friends.
That’s it. With patch 3.3, WoW has finally managed to get rid of any need for friends to do dungeons.
17 thoughts on “World of Warcraft: Random Dungeons FTW”
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It is very casual, doesn’t it. But I think it is a good thing for guilds. If friends A,B,C want to be together in one guild, they often had to form their own one or sometimes it happened that one of them HAD to join another guild if he wanted to have a raid spot.
This frees guilds a bit from the “We need a class X for raid/dungeon Y, no more class Z, already have enough of them” idea and makes them a bit more a group of buddies, which doesn’t sound too bad to me.
Sounds fun, people actually doing the old content.
For an added bonus, I have been looking for a way to eliminate the need for friends my entire life! awesome! 🙂
There is one problem with these PUGs and that is if a group member decides they just want to leave the group, they leave you high and dry. I’ve seen it happen a couple times this weekend. Either because someone was bickering with someone else, or someone just suddenly has to leave with no explanation. Since you aren’t in the same guild or even the same server, no one feels any obligation to stay. Then you get locked out of that instance for 24 hrs. So I can see the value of having guilds to at least fill most of your dungeon runs, and maybe pickup an extra person or whatever. And of course if you need the absolute best gear you still have to raid. But overall yes, this new feature has reduced some of the need for a guild. I don’t think it will destroy them though.
Daria, isn’t that always a problem with PUGs in general?
I think the new system is great. I hated never being able to run any instances when making alts. You could never get a guild group, or even a pug group without wasting three hours of your day spamming chat. I have always liked some of the beginning instances like Wailing Caverns, Scarlet Monestary, and others.
With the new system its just too easy to do. It reminds of the scenario button in Warhammer. If you don’t have to even think about it, and the game does all the work you just can’t pass it up. Blizzard always comes up with the best ideas, and steals others while improving them.
Ok I see how it is…. no friends to play WoW with huh ???? Im on Shadowmoon if you want to come play…. 🙂 Talked to West and Xzan on Winterhoof the other night too.
I left EQ1 and watched Sony/Verant make everyone the same, using Class Balancing and destroying the uniqueness… making everyone the same pretty much, and making it WAAAAY to easy..
SOo, I leave to play World of Warcraft, new, nice, easy to play.. not a big learning curve since I had played EQ since beta…. And now… Cataclysm …pretty simply.. Every race, can be pretty much any class… OH! and we get to have Archimonde back (who’s been pretty much dead since Warcraft III), as well as the whole world gets ripped apart and changed, and we have the return of the Highborne… blah blah blah… Class Balancing again!! “Make everyone Special, therefore no one is.” …. It will destroy wow like it destroyed pretty much every MMO I played since Meridian 59. (which, btw was the first Graphical MMO even if it was only a pseudo 3d and 100+ people would tax the servers).
Honestly.. it was all the kiddies and PvP whiners.. Horde gets Shamans!!! Alliance has Paladins!!!…. Should have left that alone… Now, everyone can be everything, and Blizzard takes an old Black and White photo ….. Cleans it up, colors it, and calls it “New and Improved”.
Nice idea about a “Queue” system for Dungeons. On an entire server full of 80’s.. No one wanted to run with my level 63 to do Ramps… Or Blood Furnace, or run through some “lesser” content. And.. I was tired of the same old quest grind, on the same route as everyone else. I leveled my toons to 80, and heard about Cataclysm… Read the ripping up of the lore, class balancing…. and essentially… lost my hope that WoW would avoid the stupidity that Social Engineering (Make everyone the same, so no one feels left out) is the way to go.
No more challenge!! No more effort!! Oh! Here’s your mount, at level 30 (used to be 40) and your epic mount at 40 (used to be 50).. no.. thats tooo hard for you, lets make it 20 and you can get your epic at 30 now… And.. all you paladins and warlocks who had to get groups to quest with you to get your Epics…. that is no longer a problem!! We give you a SPELL and you can summon now..
Pretty soon… you want have to know how to get anywhere in the game(s)… you just have to click on this certain stone, and POOF! you’re there!
boring, and only plays on the lazy a$$ immidiate gratification kiddies, who want something for nothing… who can’t get up off the game to go let the dogs out, take the trash out..
Nope.. Seeing Cataclysm, seeing the destruction of the lore and the Class Balancing crap… I quit playing WoW. Anything that takes the challenge out, bores me and if its not challenging and takes a little thought and effort… Well… I’m just not that freakin, lazy…
@Noffin – !!!!!
@Quinten – I was in an Uldaman group last night, and one of the people there admitted he didn’t even know where Uldaman WAS. I’ve more or less stopped doing quests, anyway. I just run around in Ironforge until I get assigned to a dungeon. It teleports me there, and after brings me right back to Ironforge so I can AH whatever loot I won. I never have to take a step out of the city.
Just like the BGs.
Is it cheapening WoW? I don’t know. WoW has increasingly focused more on the game aspects than the world aspects of the game. I can’t even imagine what Cataclysm will bring, for as it stands now, the newbie lands could vanish entirely and few people would notice.
This is what I don’t understand, too. The whole Cataclyslm thing is being promoted on the idea of seeing all the old lands revamped and renewed. Then ahead of that they add this system which looks set fair to remove any need or desire to step out of a capital city.
When EQ added Plane of Knowledge it completely changed the game. Soon players who understood the geography of Norrath were in a minority. The entire centre of gravity in the game moved to PoK, where it remained for several years until further transportation changes moved it into the Guild Lobby.
Those changes were nowhere near as radical as the WoW Dungeon Finder. This new change effectively turns WoW into Guild Wars; a set of Instances with a Facility Hub. Except it’s even more extreme, because you can get to any dungeon from anywhere.
Well, you DO still have to level to 15th, which is going to make a couple of the very low dungeons somewhat inversely elite. Apart from that, though, the only reason most players will leave town now is for the very rare “essential” quest.
I wonder if this was Blizzard’s intent, or whther they have something up their sleeve that will force (or bribe) players to come out and experience the Cataclysm. Becasue if they don’t it stands a good chance of being the Cataclysm nobody noticed.
Hmmm. One more thought, though. The lion’s share of crafting mats are still outdoors, aren’t they? That could be…interesting.
Well.. crafting aside, most people just farm mats and sell in the AH. All you have to do is spend the gold. If what Blizzard is releasing about Cataclysm is true….. it will be a Cataclysm for all the RPG, Lore gamers… It will be a glorified PVP, FPS… all you do is PvP.. quests will have no connection or content worthy of any storyline.
Revisiting the past, ‘reliving’ the past… is never a good idea.. the only way to go is forward…. Wow is going a significant step backwards. Making the same mistakes other MMO’s have done, and failed… but.. there is always some moron, trying to ice skate up hill… Just like Socialism… someone always thinks they can do it better…. then reality beats them with a “Clue-by-four”, and they fail…… epic fail…
My Wife and I actually loaded up Everquest 2… amazingly… well.. so far, we’re entertained… Lets see what it does when we hit our 20’s.. its day 1 of our 14 day trial…
Thats all I get ???? just !!!!! silly lil rogue, whos your favorite rogue buddy of all time???
@Noffin — I’m just so happy whenever I hear from you 🙂
Well Im happy if we can play a game together again 🙂
Using the New Dungeon system is by far the single best way to farm the new Emblem of Triumph. I get groups faster, I get better quality players since the system tries to group you with others with like gear scores. Full Teir 9, thank you blizz
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