02-14-2012, 03:26 AM
I'm sure the class stacking you're describing was more pronounced than what I saw. However, just to let you know what The Core did: We had a few very dedicated players who had approved alts. In the newly released raid dungeons (e.g. Naxxramus), most people would play their mains and most of the equipment would go to mains. However, we would still run the older raid dungeons to equip people who didn't quite have all their equipment yet plus give those with approved alts a chance to equip those out. (The people with alts would also often play them in the 20-man raid dungeons). Then, if there was a boss encounter in the new raid dungeon needing some extra class stacking -- or maybe the composition of the raid that night wasn't quite right -- then the guild have a pool of alts they could switch to. This was a way of being able to "class stack" without making the guild bigger and have people sitting outside just for an encounter or two.
I realized that I forgot to mention something else that I really like about the new WoW, which is coming into play a lot more with the better BC equipment: critical strike and haste actually matter for priests. I like how even dot's are affected by them. It sure gives a priest a lot more equipment options than before.
Neriad ran dungeons up to level 65 and built up her reputation with Honor Hold, Cenarian Circle, and Sporegarr (she kept getting put in the Underbog dungeon). I decided on a lark to then start her questing in the Hellfire Penninsula to see how high she could build her reputation with Honor Hold. At first, it was kind of fun. The quests hadn't changed (at least they seemed very similar to the ones I remember on the Horde side), but some of the early quests involving the war against the demons were fun. The quest involving throwing bombs off a gryphon was a nice change of pace.
However, after a while, I started remembering why I *hated* the outdoor part of the Burning Crusade. It seemed like every zone was just one more reputation grind. And, in particular, the Hellfire Penninsula, whose theme started off so well, had its story splinter in so many directions that nothing got developed. There's the fight against the demons, there's the fight against the native orcs, there's the fight with the Horde, but we're also supposed to save the Horde from destruction. There're the two random goblins who need help. There's the armory where everybody got turned into ghosts. There's the Cenarian Circle stuff out west. There're the slimes. There's the egg gathering. Etc, etc. Too much stuff that's unrelated to one another and almost all of it follows the "kill X monsters / gather Y items / kill the boss" formula. The more I played, the more I remembered, and when I flew around to the other zones after giving up on the Hellfire Penninsula, I said "forget this!"
So, I did the one thing I did enjoy in Burning Crusade -- ran dungeons. The Mana Tombs and the Caverns of Time dungeons were especially fun for me. So Neriad is now 68 based mostly on running dungeons, and she just appeared in Northrend. However, she'll probably run a few more dungeons before she starts questing there in earnest.
I realized that I forgot to mention something else that I really like about the new WoW, which is coming into play a lot more with the better BC equipment: critical strike and haste actually matter for priests. I like how even dot's are affected by them. It sure gives a priest a lot more equipment options than before.
Neriad ran dungeons up to level 65 and built up her reputation with Honor Hold, Cenarian Circle, and Sporegarr (she kept getting put in the Underbog dungeon). I decided on a lark to then start her questing in the Hellfire Penninsula to see how high she could build her reputation with Honor Hold. At first, it was kind of fun. The quests hadn't changed (at least they seemed very similar to the ones I remember on the Horde side), but some of the early quests involving the war against the demons were fun. The quest involving throwing bombs off a gryphon was a nice change of pace.
However, after a while, I started remembering why I *hated* the outdoor part of the Burning Crusade. It seemed like every zone was just one more reputation grind. And, in particular, the Hellfire Penninsula, whose theme started off so well, had its story splinter in so many directions that nothing got developed. There's the fight against the demons, there's the fight against the native orcs, there's the fight with the Horde, but we're also supposed to save the Horde from destruction. There're the two random goblins who need help. There's the armory where everybody got turned into ghosts. There's the Cenarian Circle stuff out west. There're the slimes. There's the egg gathering. Etc, etc. Too much stuff that's unrelated to one another and almost all of it follows the "kill X monsters / gather Y items / kill the boss" formula. The more I played, the more I remembered, and when I flew around to the other zones after giving up on the Hellfire Penninsula, I said "forget this!"
So, I did the one thing I did enjoy in Burning Crusade -- ran dungeons. The Mana Tombs and the Caverns of Time dungeons were especially fun for me. So Neriad is now 68 based mostly on running dungeons, and she just appeared in Northrend. However, she'll probably run a few more dungeons before she starts questing there in earnest.