Breakfast Topic: To Raid or Not to Raid
by Elizabeth Harper 
May 11th 2006 at 8:00AM
With the honor system's PvP rewards starting to look a little tired, and a new raid dungeon and tier 3 armor being released in patch 1.11, any player has to wonder what there is to do at level 60 other than raid. Of course there's more small dungeons coming in the Burning Crusade expansion, and the community managers have been vaguely suggesting future improvements to the PvP system, but for now the game seems to strongly push one towards raiding. What do you think of the existing raiding system - love it or hate it? Do you enjoy the raiding game or have you found other ways to enjoy Azeroth after level 60?Filed under: Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jason May 11th 2006 8:08AM
World PvP ftw.
Raiding is good, but it gets repetitive sometimes if a dungeon is already on farm status. However, learning new content is cool too.
But World PvP... you never get tired of that. If you're 60 and a horde, just go to Tyr's Hand, or Sorrow Hill. You'll find plenty of fresh blood there. (At least on Magtheridon.)
thies May 11th 2006 8:42AM
I have no interest in sitting in the same damn cave with 39 people over and over again. For PVP: don't become level 60 but instead stay at 59 and things will be a lot better for you. In general I hope that the normal Burning Crusade drops will be mostly equal to current raid drops to make the overall situation less ridiculous. Personally I'll outfit my current main character with a mixture of crafted and quested epics and be done with it until BC. I should have my Robe of the Void this weekend. After that it's twink and questing time.
Xinhaijian May 11th 2006 10:04AM
it's funny how pvp used to be a viable option for gear... like a year ago. why don't they update pvp gear when they put out new raid gear? or would that make too much sense?
Mat May 11th 2006 10:30AM
I wouldn't say I dislike Raids, but they take sooooo long. And I understand they're trying to make them hard enough so that it's a challenge, but still...
The tough part isn't dealing so much with the total amount of time you have to commit to get gear, it's how large those chunks are at a time. If you want to do any kind of realistic run in AV or in a raid you're probably going to spend AT LEAST 4-5 hours and that's hard for most people to do consistently.
I know that's the problem I'm running into right now... I'm stuck in blues and never seem to have enough time to get some purps.
TheLimper May 11th 2006 10:40AM
Raiding is the way to go, no question. The PVP grind is ridiculous, people complain that raiding is a time sink, but PVP requires near round the clock BG's to rank up to the highest levels. Raiding with a good group can be a lot of fun and you get to experience, first-hand some of the coolest content in the game.
Abkani May 11th 2006 10:59AM
I haven't found the attraction to raiding. I abhor PvP and, really, I don't need leet gear.
My patience for raiding is virtually nil, my patience for instances is just *barely* enough for me to collect my .5 armor set.
I very much prefer doing a variety of things in the game and doing small instances only now and then.
Doing the same super-long instance over and over again is a concept that almost brings me to tears.
jpc May 11th 2006 11:34AM
Picture this:
A new zone - a battlefield zone. Not instanced. This zone would have faction MOBs and be a contested zone - even for pve servers. These faction MOBs would contniually go after the other faction's base camp. If your faction controlled both sides, you would have access to extra awesome loots. You get to help these mobs, obviously or else it wouldn't be any fun. There could be some AI mechanism to prevent one faction from controlling both 'bases' for more than x amount of time by flooding the area with more of the losing side's mobs. This would be fun for everybody, not require a huge group, not require a huge amount of time, and be rewarding.
Make it so Blizz.
This is your opportunity to create new end game content for *EVERYONE*
Tokrim May 11th 2006 11:34AM
I sit at a crossroads right now. I notice that not to many of the level 60's on my servers, minus the rogues actually have a lot of the high end gear. I also pvp a lot, and know that at 60 it's all about the gear that you have. I am currently level 59, and leaning towards just using my character to pvp till the burning crusade pack comes out. Unless there is a way to shut off the experience that I dont know about. As of right now, I will pvp with my 59 to get those uber rewards, and twink another character.
Harpo May 11th 2006 12:14PM
I feel for people who continue to play at 60 in a guild that can't raid. The PVP grind just plain blows. Rank does not mean skill, it means you have no life, or 4 people playing your character. They need to really look into the system. As for raiding, the learning part is really a time sink, but once you get down to 3-hour BWL clears it gets better. My guild is up to C'thun, I bet we'll have him down in a week or 2. At that point, we'll basically have 2-3 nights of raiding a week.
However, I can't help but have a negative feeling about Burning Crusades, and how it's gonna make all our hard-earned gear worth jack and shit. The Tier 3 gear is ridiculously better - it's not even close. I've seen shots of a 289 +healing mace - that's nearly double the amount C'Thun's mace adds.
Brian Arnold May 11th 2006 1:32PM
jpc, they're talking about stuff like that in the Outland areas, which could be quite nice.
As for at 60 - I've been 60 for about nine months now. I've casually ran ZG a few times, one or two AQ runs, and a couple of MC runs, but that's it. For the most part, I'm basically sticking with my guild and doing a lot of Blackrock stuff, Strath, and Scholo. Last night I led a group of people into BRD to attune for MC, and it was a blast. I hadn't actually led the group before, so that was fun. We didn't have a warrior to tank, but our druid in bear form did an amazing job, and we didn't wipe once. It was a blast.
I've found that simply just hanging out, helping out, and socializing with guildies is quite enjoyable at 60.
mirko May 11th 2006 1:50PM
How about PVP quests?
You would go to the warmaster in one of the big cities and he would give you a ladder system of PVP quests like so:
1. Kill 10 privates.
2. Kill 10 coporals.
3. Kill 10 sergeants.
...
X. Kill 1 Grand Marshall/High Warlord.
Bliz then limits the kills to only the outside world, so no BG kills would count. Of course every ladder point would have a reward for completion just like the rank rewards: better bracer, necklace, trinket, whatever, and of course killing a GM/HWL would net you an uber-weapon or piece of armor. Plus the quests should be repeatable so that multiple kills give you another weapon or different piece of armor. But the good thing about it is it would put a price on all the PVP'ers and it would reopen world PVP to those of us in the grind for raid gear.
Just a thought.
Ceej May 11th 2006 2:54PM
I'm not much one for raiding. I do understand that it is a popular endgame pasttime, so I understand the need to pay attention to that side of things. But really, I think there are a lot of people interested in Variation of content, not just more of the same. Another raid instance with new mobs and content is all fine and well, but - it's still raiding.
I'd like to see more 5 mans - lots more 5 mans, with good solid storylines attached. I'd even like to see instances with a 2-3 man cap, and even perhaps a one-man instance - maybe tied in with class quests or some such. A "Rite of passage" quest with different objectives for each class.
Just my 2cp.
Dave May 11th 2006 10:44PM
Well I'd like to try raiding. My character has been PVPing but it's too much of a grind; right now just trying to get exalted with WSG, and then I'll quit BGs for good. My guild is pretty small and it's been hard to form a raid alliance; I'll go with the flow, but am looking forward to Burning Crusade and what it can offer. (And i hope the expansion after that doesn't take too long).
I'm wondering what happens to the raid dungeons after the release of TBC. Will they stay put? Get an upgrade?
ikiko May 12th 2006 6:09AM
Can we please have some crafter love? Some of us like to craft and work the in game markets--that's what we play for--as a casual gamer, I don't have time to devote the hours it takes to accomplish the raids--I'm not in it for the purples nor the battlegrounds, but the community of buying and selling. I worked to become an axesmith--please please blizzard show us some love.
MattRossi May 12th 2006 7:29PM
I'd rather spend three hours once a week running BWL than spend two hours a night for a week running Strat.
Shane May 19th 2006 10:15AM
If you plan on raiding, all I can say is pick your guild and check their current number of your class. I have a great group of people for a guild, but with our numbers (200+ lvl 60's) not all raiding of course, you can be sitting around a while waiting on gear. I haven't been raiding long on my newest 60, but 25 raids and nothing to show for it but repair bills SUCKS!