My experiences and the state of the game

[Obeliske]

I wanted to take a minute to talk about my experiences with the server so far. I'm hoping honestly to have people argue with me and tell me I'm wrong on a few things or maybe get a dev to respond with some insight if I'm lucky but I'm not really expecting anything.

I started on the server about 6 months ago and learned there would be a new season. So I played for a bit, bought a few things off the store, and waited for the new season. I rejoined during the new season and wanted to play an old school enhance shaman (not really understanding a lot about the draft play). I had a pretty good time but found that I did no damage and got chewed out pretty hard during dungeons by people at sixty. So I looked at my build realized there was no way I was going to be able to build something that I wanted in that regard until BC. Around this time the wREs started dropping so I started looking at them I tried a few of them (Serpent Form, the necromancer one, and a few others though at this point I have all the wave one and two wREs). I settled on Arcane Thunder Seer as my pet for now.

After that I gears up in mythics maxed my hit and started raiding. I almost immediately ran into the problem where the gear I was getting in raids was lowering my hit. My T pieces lowered my hit well below cap and I spent a few days working on my build trying to bring it back up. I've gotten it as good as I can and actually started getting T2 gear. I really like the server a lot but this is where I start to run into real problems.

I got my T2 Head today, looked at all the different options and realized there is literally no T2 helms that offer support for arcane thunder seer. I don't normally complain about this kind of thing but I already pull FAR less DPS then most people actually raiding on top of the lack of options for Tgear playing a build made by the devs. Stack with that a complete lack of +hit options for gear.

I'm feeling kind of left behind. The unwanted step child you know. Lacking hit options, lacking damage potential (my build can be found in another post in the builds forums if your interested), lacking support via gear, all for a very rarely played wRE (because it's a PITA to get).

On the other hand however I probably offer more raid buffs than any other build in the game so I'm not to worried about my damage directly, it's mostly the lack of +hit options on my T gear that's getting to me.

Then I logged in yesterday to find that there's a new cost been added to the transmogs in the AH... Now I've spent probably 10k gold on golden cards since the season launch trying to get a few epic ones (and I'm still 3 or 4 short for this build). I have a few pieces up that command a very high price and they are up there because I occasionally get trade offers on them (and have traded more then one for things I actually want). Some of the transmogs I've put up aren't worth much and they don't sell well, but the ones that are rare are worth something and sometimes they don't sell right away due to their prices, for instance I have a weapon (as far as I've seen in the last week the only copy of it) I have up for 1kG. I've been slowly lowering the price because I have no idea what it will sell for and there's no way for me to know but now I'm supposed to pay 60G a day for something that's not likely to sell or I can sell it for far less and it still might not sell. Tag onto the the mount I have, I've never seen another one up there so it's up for an absurd amount so somebody trades it from me. I can't afford to put it up for 300G a day and since it's the only one I've seen I can't even tell what it should be sold for. 6% doesn't sound like a lot until you have no idea what things are worth and have no basis for price and then if they don't sell your just out that much money making it even less likely your going to make a profit off selling a transmog.

I can't figure out the thought process behind it but that money always went to the golden cards in an attempt to get the cards I'm after or right back to the AH buying my girl mounts and pets she likes (she has less time to play then I do).

So now I'm getting screwed for not playing the meta and screwed for not playing one of the well known to need nerfs builds, screwed for helping my raid because I can't get my build (Did I mention I'm over prestige 40? I'm approaching the actual leaderboards for number of prestiges). I've spent probably 1k$ IRL money on the server since release my girl and a few IRL friends who play with me have probably spent nearly the same (total not each), which so far has been worth it because we use the money to get stuff to put into the AH to continue with our games. This new change might be the straw that breaks out back though. I currently run the guild ShockTops and am so close to saying screw it and when I go most of my close group will go with me we go between games a few times a year and this is what we settled on but now we can't even support our hobby in a way that isn't detrimental to ourselves.

None of us is interested in PVP in any manner it's why we make money on the AH via transmogs and pets and mounts and that's been taken from us. PVP seems to be the only place to make any money on the server and it's not a place we can or are willing to go (I literally can't and one of my friends has tried and flat out said he hates it). In a game that has PVP there's no chance at balance with the way things are being introduced so that kind of is what it is but there's no support for underperforming things either?

What is going on? What is the ultimate goal on the server because there seems to be a pretty big exodus lately. I assume mostly due to people getting bored because the servers not "new" anymore but there are a lot of issues that I'm seeing people talk about that aren't being addressed in any way either.

I don't believe (like a lot of other games and servers) that it's a greed issue. I just don't feel like there's any connection between the game and the developers. Stuff is getting added and changed with no real thought and everything's being funneled through PVP which a very large segment of the population doesn't want to do (hence the very high price of things on the AH) and the segment that does enjoy PVP gets to prey on the people who don't want to that give up and go there which makes people have more feels bad moments and leave. On top of which the PVP crowd doesn't need things like pots and flasks and high end raiding gear which are all gated through their content. They basically get to make up their own price for crafting materials required for PVE content AND get to sell the PVErs back their stuff which leads to more feels bad.

I'm all for the grind. I really am, I don't mind the RNG nature of Thrall. I really really like it in fact. It makes the payoff feel good when it finally happens. I just don't feel like my times being rewarded anymore and I don't feel like I'm being respected as a player anymore as my own agency is being taken from me.

I want to keep playing, I'm enjoying raiding, I love my guild and the people I play with but I've seriously been considering handing off leadership and walking away. At this point only the relationships I have here really keep me here and the knowledge that my guild will likely fall apart without me (I'm the guy that gets people together to do stuff all day). I'm open to suggestions on what to do here.

I can't use Discord due to the server requiring two factor authentication and my phone number being attached to an old account that Discord wont help me with (due to 2FA there) so I can't post this to the Discord to get some chatter. I did however post something similar ingame via ticket and was told "We've passed your opinions up the chain" or something to that degree. That was about two weeks ago and nothing has changed. I don't require immediate change but I would like to know that the issues are known, that they are being addressed, and at least in respect to the changes in transmog selling wtf the thought process was there because that 100% is going to kill the secondary market on those which will prevent people from buying them in the first place.

EDIT: Gold cost on a posted item on the AH has since been capped at 30G

[Ironcloak]

@Obeliske Looking at your build post, if you are missing hit rating change out the elemental weapon enchants for either precision and/or balance of power. The passive effect of flametongue weapon is rather weak even talented.

What rotation are you using?

Would swapping out controlled storm for forked lightning help in AOE situations?

[Kaladin]

@Obeliske Send me a DM at Kaladin#0001 and I can verify you in the Discord and ask questions about your feedback.

[Obeliske]

@Ironcloak I you

Both Precision and BoP are in my build and I'm still missing hit hence using Fel Armor talented to make Spi into Hit. TBF I made this mistake early on and have been slowly working more Spi back into the build. However looking at the T1 and T2 armor (finally got me some T2) absolutely none of the T set bonuses work for the build (Technically the T1 isn't to bad but lack of hit is feels bad town) and the T2 has set bonuses that MIGHT work but not on this server (threat reduction with tanks being so over tuned).

Amusingly enough I've been using this build since it was released and the first iteration was heavy nature damage via Lightning Overload and Forked Lightning. The damage was ok and mana issues non-existent. The second iteration was a 50/50 split Nature/Arcane and pulled slightly better DPS but introduced mana issues, the third iteration is heavy Arcane mana issues are non-existent and DPS is up significantly (roughly 500 DPS).

To answer more directly, yes it does help a little but as a target can only be affected by CL once per cast all Forked Lightning does is increase the number of targets by two and remember that each fork does less damage then the one before it (-40% per jump iirc) so at #5 if the shot was to do 1000 initial dmg you would be doing (1000-600-360-216-129.6) Meaning your doing an extra 345.6dmg or roughly 1/3 total damage and only if the pack has 5 mobs in it on a 7 sec cd (lowered to 4.75 seconds for another three talent points).

I actually just posted the build on the architect if you want to get a peek you can search up "Arcane Thunder".

It does decently well in raids and ok in mythics but it will never see an M+ run.

[Obeliske]

@Kaladin Cool, pretty sure I've mentioned this more than once to a GM in tickets but nobody has ever offered to manually verify me. Actually I'm even fairly sure I've already got you added and talked to you on Discord before about it

I'd love to answer questions about anything! I really like the work you guys have done and I'd love to be as involved as I can be Unfortunately so far that's mostly theorycrafting and working with guildies as no Discord so that would be great to get sorted!

[Dutch]

@Obeliske You can also DM me on discord at Dutch#2668

I would love to talk to you more about a lot of this!