Status of implementation/Worth changing over from WotlK?

Hey guys,

I've been of the game for a year and would like to spent some casual time in WoW again. Before I left I played on Ragnaros/Horde in a very active PvE guild (2-5 raids a week) and am not really looking for this kind of game anymore. So i figured I might just as well "migrate" to Frostwolf :)
I liked WotlK cause it was very stable, most of end game content is working, classes are not overly bugged and pvp in Arena and BG's was very active.

so How is the status of these things in MoP right now?

- How buggy are the classes? I've checked the Bug-Tracker and the two classes that interest me (druid and paladin) seem to be fine, yet i've read on the forums that especially balance druids are still unplayably bugged?
- how smooth/fast is leveling, how many quests are working? Does the Dungeonfinder work? even on lower levels?
- does PvP happen and is it fun? or are some classes so buggy that they dominate everything?
- How well scripted are the dungeons and raids that are already open?
- And last of all: is it worth it to make the step? or will I have to learn so many new things and is the game so BIG with the new add on that I would have to spend weeks only to get the hang of it again?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by meno

Hey guys,

I've been of the game for a year and would like to spent some casual time in WoW again. Before I left I played on Ragnaros/Horde in a very active PvE guild (2-5 raids a week) and am not really looking for this kind of game anymore. So i figured I might just as well "migrate" to Frostwolf :)
I liked WotlK cause it was very stable, most of end game content is working, classes are not overly bugged and pvp in Arena and BG's was very active.

so How is the status of these things in MoP right now?

- How buggy are the classes? I've checked the Bug-Tracker and the two classes that interest me (druid and paladin) seem to be fine, yet i've read on the forums that especially balance druids are still unplayably bugged?
- how smooth/fast is leveling, how many quests are working? Does the Dungeonfinder work? even on lower levels?
- does PvP happen and is it fun? or are some classes so buggy that they dominate everything?
- How well scripted are the dungeons and raids that are already open?
- And last of all: is it worth it to make the step? or will I have to learn so many new things and is the game so BIG with the new add on that I would have to spend weeks only to get the hang of it again?

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1. balance druids are very powerfull but u need full grev gear. so no, they are very playable.
2. DF works but most of the instances are closed cough, cough. Tho it is x7 exp ,so you can hit 90 in a few hrs if u switch zones smootlhy.
3. pvp happens ,but bgs mostly, 3s are dead, 2s are title bracket to epeen in capitals.
4. poorly
5. it is worth, gameplay is easier and better

Well, that all sounds very good!

especially that my beloved boomkin does well this expansion sounds awesome! I was very very very [...] frustrated with its under performance in WotlK ..
How are things with Paladins?
how bad is the situation with the dungeon scripts? do they work at least?

On a side note: I've heard that Lordaeron is on a new core now?

I personally would hold back for a while,the long delayed 5.4.8 has been finally implemented,but nothing ground breaking per say has not happened yes,and judging by the frequency of updates,it's not going to change. The server is still losing it's popularity,thus the population has tanked hard,and still keeps tanking,there are still a lot of annoying buggs that are present back from beta test,some of which has not even gotten marked as confirmed. For competitive guilds the experience was bad in a sense of them ninja-releasing content,most guilds that wanted to rush for warmane firsts had to relay on rumors from within the developer circles and take turns on watching for a sudden restart with announcement and then pray that they can get enough solid players to go for it.
Pet battles are still nonexistent,so unless you want to spend your killing time hunting for achievements that might or might not work,there really is nothing else to do than idle in major hubs. Phasing is flat out broken. Almost none of old raid instances are available,and they messed up marketplace,so getting your favorite set for transmog is a huge time sink (not as in few weeks,but depending on what you want,assuming it's even available,it can take several months)
Paladins are fine,so are boomkins,the performance tho....if you mean FPS-wise,MoP requires more juice than WOTLK,if you mean server performance-wise then last time i remember,FW was not exactly the most stable of servers.

TL/DR palas are fine,boomkins too,performance for server is meh,for client - requires more juice than wotlk,the development has been slow,5.4.8 is so far yet to show any major improvements and content additions. all in all,i would wait and see what happens. atm the server is slowly loosing population,so not the best time to dedicate the attention toward.

let me put it this way...theres a reason people moved forward from WOTLK....the 90's are gone (i know the expansion wasn't in the 90s) ppl need the word NEW in their life

* things are simplified now...talents are simpler as most pro wannabes say but they offer you different play styles which is awesome because in the past (wotlk - cata) you would have had to switch ur damn spec to get a talent that fits a particular situation while in MOP you have the ability to do that with just 1 token + all the previous talents from a specific spec are available via passive skills so nothing is really lost...they just focused on the talents that people were switching between most often and give the option to do so without wasting time money and gear

* leveling is a delight, you dont have to go to the trainer every 2 minutes to learn 1 rank of a certain skill which is awesome AND skills are free ( not popular for the people stuck in the 90s that felt the need to farm a ton of gold just so they can get the skills) + every flypath for your level is opened

* pvp mostly happens in BGs and 2s...most of the popular bgs are open and fun but in order to win you have to be in a premade or geared...regardless of faction

* both druid and paladin are viable, really...a person that says any class is not viable in MOP is a total noob....EVERY class is viable and every class can do TONS of damage if played well (you will see a lot of warriors but some of them only play that class because it is like the paladin of WOTLK, headmashing the keyboard 123123123 and no real skill, the real warriors will always stand out of the crowd, but 90% of them are brainless monkeys that can be easily defeated...some of them only get away with kills because they are geared and spam 3 buttons)

* you will have to learn a LOT of new things...if you skil directly from wotlk to mop youre gonna have a bad time because the experience has changed a lot throught 2 expansions...classes are different, youre gonna see a lot of new things and skills, underdog classes are now OP and vice versa depending on class, many new interface additions which remove the need of certain addons like GS / grid etc

overall, the expansion is way better than wotlk / cata. it just needs more attention from the devs...but that will eventually happen

thanks for the feedback guys! I m gonna try and sum up what you said and base my questions on it:

1. @avitus thanks for the overview on the level of implementation. You answer to many of my apprehensions! The exact reason for this post was, that for the first 40 levels, Frostwolf seems just fine. M
Apart from that I have no idea how well the End-Game content works: as in high level quests, 5 man dungeons, heroics, reputation farming etc...
But is it really that bad, that I will have nothing to do in MoP end game? PvP seems to be live and well (at least in BG's) according to @Styrak.
I would be satisfied if I could have a solid gear progression, get a few basic items, do normal dungeons until I have enough tokens to get better gear etc, for a change queue in BG's and if nothing else is on: farm herbs and make a steady income with buff potions and daily transmutes.

2. Server stability and population: I ve been looking at the information graphs on the homepage and Frostwolf seems to have a median population of about 2k players right now, approx. the same as Ragnaros (my native realm), thats ofc just my short term observation. As for stability:
my 2011 MBP is crying under the workload, so I have to play on ultra low graphic settings, but apart from that I really can't tell how well the crucial end game stuff is implemented. Apart from that I've had one or two client crashes and disconnects, but that didn't bother me too much. Also latencs seems to be fine at about 50ms.

3. what changes in MoP i ve seen so far, I really liked:
In WotlK you where pretty much locked into a few viable builds, with maybe 5 points allocated freely, I first frowned upon the MoP system but I now believe its a more pragmatic approach to what was already a fact. Also that you get access to key abilities a lot earlier is very nice (Moonkin form, e. g.)
So all in all I believe that MoP is actually an improvement in terms of game play, since it favors a more casual game, what is exactly I am looking for. What worried me is that this would be nullified by broken talents, skills and Class mechanics, but as you stated that doesnt seem to be the case?

4. I also love to hear that every class is viable in MoP. Does that hold true for PvP and PvE? For as a Boomkin player I am certain, in WotlK some classes were significantly stronger that others. Boomy's lacked hard CC, escape mechanisms, etc. (view Clovis' PvP guide for further reference) and made them vastly inferior to DK's or Paladins. That Warriors and Hunters are the OP classes now I ve already read. But that doesnt bother me as much as long as the others aren't broken.

5. Last: Hows gear progression: I hear PvP is more gear dependent than ever? eventhough they removed resilience and there isn't an ICC 25 heroic trinket which doubles your dps?

Thanks again for the feedback and I hope you can help me even further :)

1. Yes you have end game, dungeons are working (not all give vp), as far for raid you have msv nor/hc, toes, hof norm/hc and tot normal. The truth her is that many are bugged yes you can kill bosses but they are not working as intended. Reputations are working, I think that only 3 mop reputations are not working.
2. Servers are mostly stable, it gets laggy for time to time, but it's not very bad.
3. You are right, I been playing since tbc and i have to say mop is a huge improvement. Talent system is much better, and like you said in worlk/cata you had predetermined build copy/paste, here you are faced to change your talents much more if something is working for one boos might not work for another.
4. Yes almost every class is viable, the thing is that some specs need more gear to do more dmg. I dont see many ferals in pve and demo is bugged atm, but anything else is fine.
5.For pvp you have base resilience and you get pvp power form gear that will increase your dmg. For pve you can get into dungeons get jp and vp and buy gear. However it is better to get pvp gear for pve. So pvp gear is changed you dont get 1 stat less, pvp power is extra stat that you get alongside your normal stats.
If you ask me you should try it out i found it to be very good.

thanks for the feedback :) I am currently leveling a paladin on Frostwolf and am looking forward to what the endgame brings :)