Well... I did it, i quit wow cold turkey

[kandrathe]

I have a beta invite, but I didn't enjoy my time in the beta for cata. It was plagued with problems related to my GPU, and I only got to play for a few weeks.

So... No. You actually haven't experienced MOP.

pandas
The Pandaren as a race just don't interest me. Model looks aside, I'm just not interested in playing a big ol' panda bear. I will say, that allowing them to be either horde or alliance, is something that I had postulated about over on Maintankadin when discussing new races even before Cataclysm, when I was hoping that the worgen would have been a class, not a race, and would get that treatment at the end of their starting zone.

So, Night Elves yelling "Hail to the night", Goblins driving around go carts / choppers, Merlocs gurgleing, or singing flower / panda kung-fu companions was ok. But, Panda's as a race is just a bridge too far?

Then came the models, which to me, just don't "fit" in WoW. They look too cartoony for me. They look more like they belong on Dreamworks/Nickelodeon's Kung Fu Panda, than in World of Warcraft. I get it, It's not targeted at me. I understand it, I just don't like it.

Not cartoony?


Cartoony?

tanking
I LOVE THE IDEA of Active Mitigation. It was what drew me to my DK when I realized that I just want to vomit at the idea of Holy Power. Controlling what I did, having so many cooldowns meant a lot to me. I also feel like the Death Knight tank is similar to Cat DPS. The difference between a bad DK tank and an OK Dk tank is huge. The difference between either of them, and a good or even great dk tank, is even bigger. I would consider myself a "good" dk tank. Great DK tanks are the guys who make videos soloing things that I wiped to (Mionelol / Raegwynn are examples of great.)

The problem with the new tanking model, is that threat is a joke. I will never forget the first time I went into H:MGT with Lurkers, and Glaur commented over Mumble about how I held threat REALLY well, considering I was a tier of gear+ behind the rest of the guild. That meant a lot to me to hear. I studied, HARD on how to ride that line between threat and survival. I prided myself on the DPS parses, when my DPS were pulling great numbers, and not dying. That meant I was doing a damn good job as a tank.

Now, with the loss of threat as a viable mechanic, I was getting bored. On Heroic Morchok, one of the few fights I tanked in Dragon Soul, I spent more and more time focusing on taking less damage, and waiting for that "perfect moment" to Death Strike, delaying my attacks. While that is "cool" and it was fun, part of me lamented that if this would have been Pre-4.2, I could never have delayed my skills like that. Xarhud would have ripped aggro.

Vengeance was an interesting idea towards threat, and making tank DPS not LOLable. I liked it. But when they changed it in 4.2, I felt like it went too far. Threat was no longer an issue. Things just "came to me" because I was angry and threw down a DnD. Playing the survival game, and the threat game felt good.

There are 3 changes to tanking in MOP;

1) Tanks will do much more damage. Maybe about 70% of a DPS class, but much more than before. You have an active role now in taking things down.

2) A new active defense model where you need to watch your resources and cool downs and be more active in mitigating damage. Again, you are no longer a threat generating stone that watches aggro, and otherwise acts as a mobile punching bag for the selected mob.

3) Big changes to the way block works. It will be a separate roll after determining if an attack misses or is dodged or parried. Block also is subject to diminishing returns which is wasn’t before, meaning that it will not likely be able to be capped. Previously block was part of the same roll which leaned to the magic 102.4% rule, meaning if miss, parry, dodge, and block all added up to 102.4% you would never suffer a normal full strength hit. Now that it is separate it is impossible to get to that situation. This means tanks will suffer more damage, which ties into the active mitigation from #2. Again, they are making tanks require more skills.

Far from being dumbed down -- it is quite the opposite. Tanking will be hard work.

Pokewow
... I really, REALLY hate the idea of pet battles.

And... Again, you've never experienced them. I played away most of a Saturday on MOP beta a couple weeks ago only running around trapping pets and trying them out. It fits in nicely with adding yet another thing to do while you are running around looking for herbs, minerals, etc. Am I a huge fan OMG -- gotta get em all? No, but you know what? My 12 year old son and I had a great time with it. So, sure. You may not like it. I don't like having everyone in the AH start doing the /train thing simultaneously, so I avoid the crowded ones. No one will be forced to do this. It's merely an amusement and actually makes companions more interesting than just a vanity thing.

The new Rep Grinds
I hated the rep grinds in TBC. I was elated when tabard reps were introduced in WotLK (guess which rep in WOTLK I never got to exalted? I'll give you a hint: There's no tabard, and you don't need it for raiding, or mounts) . I hated the Aldor/Scryer grind. I hated the Sons of Hodir Grind, and I wanted to drop a nuke on the entire zone of deepholm. WORST. GRINDS. EVER Going to a system where that is going to be closer to the norm than the tabards? No Thanks.

They will never do the TBC rep / dungeon lock thing again... But, I loved the Sons of Hodir -- I'm not sure how you thought it was a grind. I finished the quests, and did about a week of dailies to get exalted. Maybe they dumbed it down since you did it. And... It is likely now that many things will be account wide -- maybe even some reputation based stuff...

The casualization of raiding
LFR and the RDF / LFG tool are the best, and worst things to ever happen to WoW IMO. They killed Server communities, but made the game more accessible to more people.

I don't know. For a more casual player such as myself, it may be the only way I ever see 90% of the content of the game I bought. I love my guild. I'd rather do guild stuff -- even if LFR would be better for my progression.

I hate LFR. I burnt out in it, I hate that it's 25 man. I don't like 25 man raiding. I wouldn't have lasted as long in the game had I been stuck in 25m raiding.

I don't know. I've never LFR'd yet. My only experience was Avarice 40 man raiding in Classic, pre-TBC. It was hard to get everyone together and on the same page.

This also means I hate the progressive nerfs. ... I also hate "heroic mode" but that's another topic, and not strictly MoP related.

I wish the game were built differently (scaled difficulty/loot to the levels of the party / raid). I don't hate it. What I dislike is that my guildies are levels above me, and I can't play with them until I gear up. The game IMHO should accommodate some amount of group disparity.

The setup of the story this time around
They are trying something different. Maybe it works. Maybe it doesn't. Personally, I don't care for the direction of "the first tier is the end of the box game", and then we move on. I don't care that we are going to fight Garrosh, and I can't stand him!

I started playing WoW because I saw the Black Temple trailer video at Kaine's house. I WANTED TO KILL HIM. I wanted to kill Arthas. I wanted to kill DW (more so than most people). I wanted, craved, and desired that... "big bad guy".

Whatever. :-) My son has to tell me about the lore. I don't get it or keep up with it.

Putting the "war" back in warcraft.
I don't care. I don't care about the alliance. I don't want to fight the alliance. If you look at the total of my non "twink" toon kills (Yes, I have a 19 twink hunter that I've had since TBC) I have less than 1500 HK's, and most of those came while on a PvP server in BC. I just don't care for the pvp aspect. I don't care about the "War" between the two factions. I play horde because I like the races more. I play Horde because my friends played horde when I started. Not because I truly care about the war. I didn't play the RTS's, so I'm not that invested in it.

There is plenty of game for the non-PVPer. I think what is missing to me is the random world PVP from the beginning -- Tauren Mill vs South Shore -- Alliance getting together and surrounding the Crossroads. It was possible for 30-40 level 14 toons in Darkshore to repell a small gang of level 30ish bullies who came north to hassle the elves. It was not something I wanted ALL the time, (hence why I chose a PVE server), but it was fun to gang up occasionally and go raise hell.

As you can see, most of it, is just the fact that the game doesn't align with my vision of fun anymore.

So be it. You quit. Feel better?