The Best and the Worst of WoW Patch 5.0-5.1

Written by: Olivia Grace (@oliviadgrace) | February 26, 2013 11:16 am

18 Comments

WoW Patch 5.2 is most likely just a week away, with the PvP season slated to end on March 5th. So, it’s a reasonable time to look back at the first couple of rounds of Mists of Pandaria and see what was the best and the worst of WoW.

First off, what was the worst of WoW patch 5.0, and indeed 5.1? I’m bundling the two together since there wasn’t really enough new content added in 5.1 to make it comparable to patch 5.2 – sure, some new dailies, new zones, and other things such as the Brawler’s Guild, but I think it’s better to lump them all together. For me, it’s no great surprise – the reputation requirements. Particularly as one of my max-level characters is an enchanter, the prospect of grinding every 5.0 reputation to exalted is unappealing at best. As I mention in the video, I really think that, with patch 5.2, as well as lowering the valor point cost of items, Blizzard should be dropping the reputation requirements down a level. And maybe adding some BoAs!

As for the best of the first two patches? I’d say it was the raids, they badly needed reinvigoration after the damp squib that was Dragon Soul, and the new raids delivered! I really enjoyed them, and tanking felt fun again when I tried it. I don’t mention it in the video, but I also absolutely loved the Brawler’s Guild, when I’d actually managed to get an invitation and managed to get there when the queue times were low. I still think it’s a great idea with iffy implementation, and would love to see it improved. But the biggest thing for me is one of the new battlegrounds – Temple of Kotmogu. I initially said that Silvershard Mines was a good one, but I was wrong, alas. Temple of Kotmogu is brilliant, though, and I’m holding out hope for more new battlegrounds in the future.

What about WoW Patch 5.2?

What are you looking forward to in the next patch? For me, it’s the PvP dailies. I tried them out on the PTR, and they’re actually really good fun! I like infiltrating the opposite faction’s base, and love the fact that, even on PvE servers, doing them will flag you for PvP. I don’t know how they’ll work out in the long run, of course, they might turn out to be terrible, but one can only hope, right? I’m also excited about the new raid, having been on the PTR testing, it’s pretty fun!

But what about you? What’s sucked in WoW recently, and what’s been awesome, and what are you looking forward to in the upcoming patch 5.2?

The Best and the Worst of WoW Patch 5.0-5.1

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http://www.facebook.com/jason.jenkins.73 Jason Jenkins

the worst thing for 5.0 and 5.1 was that they restricted the rep grinds to only being able to be done via dailies. I prefered the cata and lich king way of tabards and dungeon runs coupled with doing a few dailies.

the thing that i see as the worst thing coming in 5.2 is the way they are doing the rare spawn sharing as blizz should know full well people are going to grief others by taping the rare spawn and just letting that one person beat it down on their own with all that extra health.
http://www.facebook.com/clajo.mchar Clajo Mc’Har

There shouldn’t be as many dailies in the game. Make them weekly quests & buff thier rep reward. That way players can get them out of the way at thier liesure and get on with other aspects of the game before they run out of time every night lol.
http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr

You’re joking right? Is GamebreakerTV really serious with this article. This seems to be another GamebreakerTV invitation for players and non-players to post how much they hate WoW.
- http://twitter.com/DanielReasor Daniel Reasor
  
  So give a positive answer and spell out what 5.0′s successes were.
- Karizee
  
  I think Olivia is scouting for Blizzard, trying to figure out why they are bleeding subs at such an alarming rate.
  - Kevyne_Shandris
    
    Well, Ghostcrawler did say he’ll have to read outside the WoW forums for better input. Can’t say much other than ”Kumbaya” on the fansites (which takes the Stanford Prison experiment to new extremes), or face permanent bans.
Unknownman14

I’ll be honest I felt that the title of this article will only invite WoW Haters to post only negative opinions of WoW and why it should fail and not even read the topic. Not saying the title is bad but if you put in “Worst of WoW” in the title the internet tend to ignore everything else and post to hate just to hate.

But getting back to topic the way of getting rep to factions was the worst part of 5.0 and 5.1 because it is true, there is only one path to get reputations (a.k.a. dalies). I’m sure there will be more or similar comments to my opinion on what is bad about the previous patches so I’m going to leave it at that. But what I like about the previous patches was farming mats on your “farm”, brawlers guild, cooking profession simplified and the flipping table (and yes this is my highlight of 5.0 more than raids).

What I am excited for the upcoming patch is the simplification of blacksmith, the buff of getting profession mats on your farm so I can work on my transmog set and also the new single scenario. Also I am happy that warlocks are finally able to get green fire (even though I don’t play one).
http://twitter.com/Deadalon Deadalon

I think everyone knows my feelings about MOP to this date. In short – it had many systems that simply were not thought out and in most cases were damaging to how players enjoyed WOW before this expansion.

In terms of 5.2. It does not fix any of the big issues. The game still has fully double gated rep and valor grind. It still has broken LFR function that does not take into account ilvl of your spec. It still rewards LFR with random epics in gaming content that is well below par of anything acceptable for a social and skill based content.

The penalty for playing multirole class is still huge compared to former expansions. Upgrade system might be back so ppl are still focusing on 1 spec – and dailies are still to much of a focus for ppl to ignore DPS specs and be able to go fully out as healer and tanks.

The only thing that interest me about 5.2 is the single player scenarios. Not because I enjoy solo play. Not to mention it does not put players into the world but rather into instances. But just because the 3 player scenarios were so bad and so lackluster in terms of gameplay that they simply were not worth doing.
In terms of alt play – the game looks even less interesting than before. Its still the same grinding and ppl now know how bad LFR experience really is over months and months of alts.

I will not be coming back to 5.2 simply because BLizzard has not done anything in this patch to strengthen the core of the game. The core is role balance, social aspect and guild content. There is still huge balancing issue in terms of roles (healers always needed). LFR takes away much of the social aspect of being in a guild and raiding on more casual basis. And the progression in normal raids is sadly just way out of sync with what most of the players are aiming for in terms of progression. When that adds up with 10 mans being punished both on terms of RNG of drops and progression + horrible idea of “super” items.. there is no way I will be returning to MOP or even future WOW expansions.

BLizzard has totally lost the focus of what a mmoRPG needs to be structured around. All what made WOW what it was as a RPG has been removed in few years. And the results are in – more and more players leaving the game – and less and less players even bothering to try it to max level.
- Kevyne_Shandris
  
  Healing was gutted in 4.0.1. It’s clear where Blizzard is going with the healing model — more passive healing (did you see the numbers for Illuminated Healing now? It’s what is topping the “healing” Holy paladins are doing, basically the the new Disc Priests by passively absorbing damage, because our direct heals are too expensive to use otherwise [or we spend eons trying to generate Holy power to actively heal]).
  
  I don’t raid anymore since I chose the Holy paladin sub-class as an active healer as my main toon. If I’m more worried to upping mastery to prevent damage to be the next Disc Priest, why play a Holy paladin in a raid setting (not like our tier set bonuses are thrilling anyway)?
  
  So I switched to PvP, but the power generation we must continue is too slow in PvP. Blessed Life used to reward 1 HP charge every 8 secs, now it’s 20 secs. In PvP you can drain that HP very quickly — and there’s dismal mana regen with PvP gear because Blizzard wants quick deaths (which says, why have healers in PvP if it’s all about killing the healer first and within 2 minutes?) — and it’s FoL healing there because of the huge burst damage and Divine heals are too slow to cast (we can’t add more haste to compensate, as crit heals are more important). And what heal can compensate for a Chaos Bolt or Arcane Blast that crits for 188k in PvP gear? No heal can keep up with that much damage.
  
  It’s like why even be in PvE or PvP to heal? Dedicated healers are becoming more rare per expansion, and in some ways I think it’s planned that way (GW2 model) because of Blizzard’s idea that will eliminate the problem in finding enough healers. Healers exist because folks like healing, take the fun out of healing, players don’t play the role (just like folks don’t play tanks). And healers can’t be made overnight, it’s something a player really wants to play to be good at — and those who rushed in after 4.0.1 to heal wanted rotations and treated Holy paladin healing like a Ret, it doesn’t work like that. It’s the right heal at the right time model, in a game now with dexerity the prime focus, when our best heals we have to stand in place (imagine the flak if competent DPS had to stand in the fire to even DPS, with little “get out of Dodge” mechanics?).
  
  Also with GC’s comments on searching for a way to do away with intellect plate even, I don’t see the support for the sub-class anymore. It’s like they distinctly don’t like Holy paladin healing claiming it’s too simple. Truth is it’s a very burst friendly class (all three sub-classes) and they want to control that burst ability. HP is a gating mechanism to prevent spam healing, so you spend 8 sec, 8 sec, 8 sec trying to maintain 3 HP all the time (it’s even tied into our running/riding speed). More time generating HP isn’t fun (nor is it really healing — Illuminated Healing absorbs by that mechanic s passive a player doesn’t feel like it’s healing, it’s absorb stats, not some fun mechanic).
  
  It was fun healing as a Holy paladin in WoTLK though. Big heals, fast and furious. What DPS considers fun with big DPS numbers and fast takedowns. Yet that’s denied to healers, because it makes the game “too easy” to Blizzard (Jeeze, mana pots are but 30k of mana once per fight even, and one FoL is 22500 of it…worthless).
  
  No role now has a larger disconnect than healing now. It’s some afterthought.
http://twitter.com/Evilevi Levi Cathcart

What are the chances of us seeing “whats bad about GW2?” or “How terrible is Swtor?”

This is as a video works but with the ability to reply; Troll bait.
mcfoyle

olivia’s voice is so soothing
http://www.facebook.com/people/Hamad-Ali-Al-Jalahma/512893526 Hamad Ali Al-Jalahma

Well I am NOT looking forward to those ridiculous PvE nurfs to warriors ! :/
Loinofbeef

Worst – Blizzard forgetting the entire point of normal raids having a couple of pugable bosses at the start. Forgetting the entire point of Valor being the catch up mechanism that it was originally brought in to be and adding charms as the catch up mechanism that really just give you more gold. Bring back Tier pieces for valor even add all the normal raid gear to valor. Want people to play longer? give them an attainable goal that’s what valor did, now its pointless.
Best – Many other great games coming out, what a great time to quit. Some that allow you to grind a dungeon over and over gain a currency and purchase any pieces from the dungeon that just wont drop for you. WotLK had it right
Kevyne_Shandris

There’s just so much to say that’s negative and so little that’s positive of these patches.

When players suggested that we didn’t mind that it would take time to get equal gear via questing, we didn’t mean to lock it behind a rep grind gate that took the entire day to finish. Instead of something you did on the side while leveling alts; doing PvP and a host of other content, the dailies for gear became a literal Asian grinder in scope. By the time all the dailies were done for the day for gear/tradeskill recipes, there was little time left to do much else.

The danger of heavily gating content is burn out, too. A whole expansion but of grinding for 5 valor a quest becomes unbearable.

A better solution is to bring back a weekly quest that would offer 250 valor, similar to what WoTLK had. This way players can run their alts in as well, as gearing out alts this expansion has been a beast. Weekly quests like that would also bring back PuR realm raids which are but dead since Cata.

Class design: I play a Holy paladin and it flat out sucks to play this expansion. Be it out in the world questing, to healing. Spend more time generating Holy power to heal than healing isn’t a fun class mechanic, nor taking any mana regen source away but to be a casualty as well (melee for mana). Looking at WoL data it’s showing passive abilities (like Illuminated Healing for absorbs) is much of the “healing” involved. To heal for a Holy paladin is to generate enough HP to use Eternal Flame/LoD, as direct cast heals would burn through all the mana (and 60k crit Holy Light heal does nothing for the damage a 700k HP tank can recieve, so players use Divine Light that 10 would drain 300k in less than 30secs). Went from fast cheap heals to actively heal, to this passive and wait for HP generation healing. All done because content (especially raids) is about who can heal most on the run (dexerity fights now). If you like playing a healer you actually want to heal…not run all over the map instead.

RNG: Addicts will claim “get used to it”. But 3 years of raiding and only winning 1 raid level shield (in WoTLK), the RNG is a no go. I left raiding but for Sha and Galleon because the odds of getting that shield is so low it no longer is a motivator to raid. Switched to PvP, for at least there’s some light at the end of the tunnel – no RNG there. RNG changes due to how much salt is added or deleted, it’s not a fixed roll of the dice. Blizzard purposely keeps intellect plate at low drop rates (or put our weapons at the end boss, when everyone else can get geared out on BoEs or trash drops). It’s these silly mechanics that will keep players from even wanting to bother with raiding. I don’t care about XYZ that can drop in a raid, I care about getting some gear before the tier is finished…not the last week when it’s useless.

Gearing: Tier patches effectively last 6 months (18 months of a 24 month expansion). If it takes 4 months to gear out, that leaves but 2 months to enjoy the gear before it’s useless. This is a depressing cycle. All that work, all that time and if the stars align right you are fully geared…for 2 months. 5.2 PvPers can get elite gear if they farm for 27k CP. If you can cap 2200 CP a week, it’ll take over 3 months to unlock getting that gear. It’ll take 2 months (full cap of 2200) to gear out, and again, having only 1 month to enjoy the labor.

It’s no wonder why GW2 looks so appealing for PvP gearing alone.

Somewhere in the bowels of Blizzard HQ they have to realize it’s not 2004 anymore nor that WoW isn’t the only MMO to play. I’m very glad competition is out in MMOland now, as this gear out / burn out cycle due to it just has to end. WoW isn’t a second job, it’s suppose to be entertainment with a reasonable return on the investment of time+effort+money spent on the subscription. Not 3 years without a shield; not 2 months tops to enjoy the gear (if RNG plays nice); not getting all geared out to have but next expansion greens to replace all that epicness.
http://www.facebook.com/Kreistof Christopher Claude Norris

Illidan US Represent! >.>””’
http://twitter.com/aG_Deilwynna Johan Bärtzner

bad: rep farming…
good: world raids like Sha of Anger and the leveling 85-90
http://www.facebook.com/people/Aaron-C/507377235 Aaron C.

Best: easy, quick, and cheap skill-up of all professions
Worst: WAYYYY too many.
Rep Grind
Valor behind rep
Dailies to get rep
Unable to do dailies until 90
Dailies locked behind dailies
God-awful drop rates in LFR and world bosses
etc
5mans

LIV

THEY ANNOUNCED NO NEW 5 MANS.

NONE!

AHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHHGGHHDSDGHSDAHGDSAJGHjlkdshalksdhg

The Best and the Worst of WoW Patch 5.0-5.1

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