Despite being a raider myself I have always criticized the lack of non raid content. I did this because my raiding enthusiasm has always been somewhat wavering as I have already gone through a raid burnout phase (pre BWL) and I'm somewhat suffering from it again now, and I always wanted something worthwhile to do in WoW, even I didn't felt like raiding the same instance for the xth time.
The casual faction on the forums and their complaints on the WoW-Forums had always my deepest felt sympathy ... up to Patch 1.10.
Before patch 1.10 the so called casuals often claimed that they didn't wanted epics on a silverplatter, they just wanted something to do and the occasional epic reward for this, and that reputation grinds are a lame excuse for content (which they are indeed).
Then came patch 1.10 and Blizzard reworked the old end game instances: Stratholme, Scholomance, and UBRS, with new itemization, less trash spawns, but also a 5 man cap (10 for UBRS), as well as adding questlines to upgrade their T0 equipment, partly up to epic status.
The following deluge of whines from casuals filled oceans:
Scholo and Strat are way to hard to 5 man it. Only those already equipped in epic gear can make it in 45 mins up to Baron in Strat.
Thats such a bull#$%& I can't believe any selfrespecting WoW player, casual or not, may utter it without blushing from shame.
This probably sounds arrogant, but we 5 manned Scholo and Strat during those good'ol days after release, when they haven't yet removed any spawns from these places, and people looked at you odd for going with only 5 people into it. 5 manning these instances was incredible fun, and far from impossible. We managed to do Strat from the side entrance up to Baron, equipped with blues and greens, within a good hour, without rushing it. Considering that some spawns have been removed during a series of nerfs from then on, doing it in 45 mins seems very well possible, especially if you push it a bit. This is all under premise, that everyone is on voice com and knows the basics of his class and of instancing.
People responded on the WoW-Forums that such level of expertise can't be expected of casuals because all they do is PUG, there is always some moron in the group and being on voice com is an unreasonable demand anyway, because there is no native function in the game to support it.
Excuse me, but WoW is not rocket science. The basics of 5 man instancing can be described like follows: Tank it, spank it, heal the tank and the occasional AEer. That's it. There is nothing more to it. You don't have to calculate mana/heal ratios, spirit to mp/5 efficiencys, elaborate on aggro functions or carry expensive consumables to do it. Is it really that hard to get into a guild of 5 to 10 people, so you don't have to suffer from PUGatory constantly and do these quests?
One should have been warned after patch 1.7 already, as many wanted smaller raid content for medium sized guilds and Blizzard came up with ZG, which is a wonderful medium sized raid instance, with Epic drops generally as good as MC gear, and the best blues to be found in the entire game, all beautifully designed, and the same people that asked for these kind of instances complained that 20 man raids are, now when they give it a second thought, unreasonable for casuals. Now these people claim that even 5 man instances are too much asked for.
Let me reiterate: I respect everyone who sais that 40 man raids, and all the corporate like raid guild feeling, with it's time requirements, DKP accounting, hierarchys and other rather unpleasent side effects, isn't their cup of tea and that they also deserve ways to improve their char after hitting lvl 60, that go beyond mindless rep grinds, BUT a Massively Multiplayer Game is designed to reward socializing, otherwise there wouldn't be much sense to experience this game as this little world it is, that is called your server. So go out make some friends, or at least some acquaintances. You will not only get better gear, but also a much richer playing experience.
The casual faction on the forums and their complaints on the WoW-Forums had always my deepest felt sympathy ... up to Patch 1.10.
Before patch 1.10 the so called casuals often claimed that they didn't wanted epics on a silverplatter, they just wanted something to do and the occasional epic reward for this, and that reputation grinds are a lame excuse for content (which they are indeed).
Then came patch 1.10 and Blizzard reworked the old end game instances: Stratholme, Scholomance, and UBRS, with new itemization, less trash spawns, but also a 5 man cap (10 for UBRS), as well as adding questlines to upgrade their T0 equipment, partly up to epic status.
The following deluge of whines from casuals filled oceans:
Scholo and Strat are way to hard to 5 man it. Only those already equipped in epic gear can make it in 45 mins up to Baron in Strat.
Thats such a bull#$%& I can't believe any selfrespecting WoW player, casual or not, may utter it without blushing from shame.
This probably sounds arrogant, but we 5 manned Scholo and Strat during those good'ol days after release, when they haven't yet removed any spawns from these places, and people looked at you odd for going with only 5 people into it. 5 manning these instances was incredible fun, and far from impossible. We managed to do Strat from the side entrance up to Baron, equipped with blues and greens, within a good hour, without rushing it. Considering that some spawns have been removed during a series of nerfs from then on, doing it in 45 mins seems very well possible, especially if you push it a bit. This is all under premise, that everyone is on voice com and knows the basics of his class and of instancing.
People responded on the WoW-Forums that such level of expertise can't be expected of casuals because all they do is PUG, there is always some moron in the group and being on voice com is an unreasonable demand anyway, because there is no native function in the game to support it.
Excuse me, but WoW is not rocket science. The basics of 5 man instancing can be described like follows: Tank it, spank it, heal the tank and the occasional AEer. That's it. There is nothing more to it. You don't have to calculate mana/heal ratios, spirit to mp/5 efficiencys, elaborate on aggro functions or carry expensive consumables to do it. Is it really that hard to get into a guild of 5 to 10 people, so you don't have to suffer from PUGatory constantly and do these quests?
One should have been warned after patch 1.7 already, as many wanted smaller raid content for medium sized guilds and Blizzard came up with ZG, which is a wonderful medium sized raid instance, with Epic drops generally as good as MC gear, and the best blues to be found in the entire game, all beautifully designed, and the same people that asked for these kind of instances complained that 20 man raids are, now when they give it a second thought, unreasonable for casuals. Now these people claim that even 5 man instances are too much asked for.
Let me reiterate: I respect everyone who sais that 40 man raids, and all the corporate like raid guild feeling, with it's time requirements, DKP accounting, hierarchys and other rather unpleasent side effects, isn't their cup of tea and that they also deserve ways to improve their char after hitting lvl 60, that go beyond mindless rep grinds, BUT a Massively Multiplayer Game is designed to reward socializing, otherwise there wouldn't be much sense to experience this game as this little world it is, that is called your server. So go out make some friends, or at least some acquaintances. You will not only get better gear, but also a much richer playing experience.