...Let me just say, it is kind of stupidly refreshing to encounter someone else who had That experience with progression raiding in their 20s. Doesn't happen often, beyond the people I still know from back then, anymore!
And yet, the game also now has the 5-player mythic+ system that scales infinitely in difficulty and offers mechanical and throughput challenges that put me to the test more than any progression raid encounter ever has (and is actually fun and doesn't require the herding of 10-25 ornery cats). But when you're facerolling through Deadmines and looking at 100 levels to get to what people say is "the fun part", that's sort of a problem.
That is both very tempting and very... well, reflective of why I probably won't get back there, hah. Leveling is something I honestly always hated, except for the dungeons. No matter how much they soft-instanced the solo questline content in Wrath+, the writing in WoW was never, ever compelling to me; I was always 100% there for the multiplayer PvE. I loved raiding (I actually weirdly enjoyed the cat-herding aspect, even, but our group was also part of a pretty unique network/organizational umbrella that made things like finding last-minute replacements for no-shows very doable, so that was almost certainly a factor), but got the same sort of joy out of my core group of five just... reading each other's minds and acting as a unit to take on serious dungeon challenges.
I laugh/cry. I mained priest for years (*points at icon*), sometimes holy and sometimes shadow, but they've revamped the class so many times that it really is unrecognizable. I ended up trying resto shaman instead and that's what I've stuck with for the most part.
Yeah, I would go holy semi-regularly if we were missing someone (especially in Black Temple, where You Must Have This Many CoH Priests To Ride - there was at least one time where we portaled/summoned me out to respec specifically for the one fight), so I was really familiar with/enjoyed that side of things too. I have a HUGE aversion to the idea of going back to a priest and finding it so different. I'm glad I'm tanking on the new druid because a large part of me doesn't want to know what resto looks like, now. (I raid tanked on my old druid, too, so it's not like that's at all new to me, but only at the goof-off level, stuff a tier or two below progression. The vast majority of raid time on her, I spent healing. She's also the character I did the most PvP on, because god was resto PvP fun in TBC. xD)
Yup, I hear you. Vanilla class design is clunky and limiting in a lot of ways, especially when compared to the expectation set later that all specs would be roughly equal in a raid environment. A lot of the "off" specs will have a place in PvP, but that doesn't appeal to everyone. I could definitely see myself playing a BC server; I hope we'll get that option next if Classic is financially successful. Fingers crossed.
YEAH! All of this! I... at this point I'm just gonna say it, I'll definitely at least give Classic a go when it comes out, and I could be happy playing a holy priest if I got to end-game content again. (Actually, despite being basically The Batshit DPS Priest on my server, once upon a time, and that being my original MMO identity, I've gravitated toward the healer role in the two I've played, albeit briefly, since - SWTOR and Wildstar.) Was never much of one for PvP except with 1. friends and 2. Lifebloom, haha, though perhaps my more recent honing of reaction time in Overwatch will change that.
(Sorry to go on and on... I'm actually really excited for Classic and it makes me excited when someone else is interested!)
No apologies remotely needed - frankly your commentary made my evening. I still know a lot of people who play or have played WoW but getting to chatter about Then versus Now with someone it sounds like had a very similar experience to mine is Fucking Great!
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And yet, the game also now has the 5-player mythic+ system that scales infinitely in difficulty and offers mechanical and throughput challenges that put me to the test more than any progression raid encounter ever has (and is actually fun and doesn't require the herding of 10-25 ornery cats). But when you're facerolling through Deadmines and looking at 100 levels to get to what people say is "the fun part", that's sort of a problem.
That is both very tempting and very... well, reflective of why I probably won't get back there, hah. Leveling is something I honestly always hated, except for the dungeons. No matter how much they soft-instanced the solo questline content in Wrath+, the writing in WoW was never, ever compelling to me; I was always 100% there for the multiplayer PvE. I loved raiding (I actually weirdly enjoyed the cat-herding aspect, even, but our group was also part of a pretty unique network/organizational umbrella that made things like finding last-minute replacements for no-shows very doable, so that was almost certainly a factor), but got the same sort of joy out of my core group of five just... reading each other's minds and acting as a unit to take on serious dungeon challenges.
I laugh/cry. I mained priest for years (*points at icon*), sometimes holy and sometimes shadow, but they've revamped the class so many times that it really is unrecognizable. I ended up trying resto shaman instead and that's what I've stuck with for the most part.
Yeah, I would go holy semi-regularly if we were missing someone (especially in Black Temple, where You Must Have This Many CoH Priests To Ride - there was at least one time where we portaled/summoned me out to respec specifically for the one fight), so I was really familiar with/enjoyed that side of things too. I have a HUGE aversion to the idea of going back to a priest and finding it so different. I'm glad I'm tanking on the new druid because a large part of me doesn't want to know what resto looks like, now. (I raid tanked on my old druid, too, so it's not like that's at all new to me, but only at the goof-off level, stuff a tier or two below progression. The vast majority of raid time on her, I spent healing. She's also the character I did the most PvP on, because god was resto PvP fun in TBC. xD)
Yup, I hear you. Vanilla class design is clunky and limiting in a lot of ways, especially when compared to the expectation set later that all specs would be roughly equal in a raid environment. A lot of the "off" specs will have a place in PvP, but that doesn't appeal to everyone. I could definitely see myself playing a BC server; I hope we'll get that option next if Classic is financially successful. Fingers crossed.
YEAH! All of this! I... at this point I'm just gonna say it, I'll definitely at least give Classic a go when it comes out, and I could be happy playing a holy priest if I got to end-game content again. (Actually, despite being basically The Batshit DPS Priest on my server, once upon a time, and that being my original MMO identity, I've gravitated toward the healer role in the two I've played, albeit briefly, since - SWTOR and Wildstar.) Was never much of one for PvP except with 1. friends and 2. Lifebloom, haha, though perhaps my more recent honing of reaction time in Overwatch will change that.
(Sorry to go on and on... I'm actually really excited for Classic and it makes me excited when someone else is interested!)
No apologies remotely needed - frankly your commentary made my evening. I still know a lot of people who play or have played WoW but getting to chatter about Then versus Now with someone it sounds like had a very similar experience to mine is Fucking Great!