Hail RetPaladin.com!
Tharvolde here. I debated whether or not this even warranted a front-page post as it could be construed as attention-seeking but please rest assured that isn’t a goal of mine here. Given how long I’ve been writing for this site partnered with some of the great relationships I’ve established within the community, I feel it is warranted and therefore here we are.
World of Warcraft was once an amazing game. It undoubtedly has set the standard for the MMO genre and has set a very daunting mark for any competitor to strive for. Since I began playing the game on December 1, 2004, just seven days after retail launch, I have had a great deal of fun. Initially it was the immersion and majesty of an unexplored world with hidden dangers that kept my interest keen and lucid. Before long it was Molten Core, Blackwing Lair and the like that offered a welcome challenge and the opportunity to meet interesting and likable people. Battlegrounds then quickly became my target of admiration and, what seemed like an eternity later, Arena took complete control of my interest. Over the last year my enjoyment within this game has diminished both steadily and rapidly clear down to the recent past where I was hanging on only to the competition of high-end Arena. This last area of enjoyment has now passed just the same and I’m left what I feel is an empty, mindless game with little to offer me.
The game’s fall from esteem, as mentioned, has been a steady decline but this is sharply contrasted by the roller coaster of balance that even the standard-setters at Blizzard cannot seem to level out for the life of them. One patch my class is severely handicapped but the very next we are gods. The cycle perpetuates itself ad infinitum and I am now clear on the fact that there will be no end. At the start of this Arena season I had high hopes for it being an extremely balanced and enjoyable one. The increased health pools, reduction on healing power, removal of MS effects and the general playstyle of the game initially lead me to believe this. Even still, it quickly became apparent that this season was no different from its eight predecessors. You have Warriors out of control with their damage and Frost Mages beyond ridiculous with their control. You have the removal of 50% healing debuffs only to be countered with the introduction of healing absorbtion by Death Knights. You have Moonkin who hit like a moist noodle but then decimate entire Arena teams with an instant cast, AoE, non-channeled ability that forces everyone to run and hide. You have the removal of defensive magic dispels from every DPS spec that had them yet Shadow Priests happily touting theirs to Gladiator ranks.
Generally speaking, you have imbalance partnered with ridiculous, unexplainable changes to core mechanics and it is ruining the game for countless players like me.
I am unable to ride the roller coaster of balance any longer and I am especially unable to sit back and idly watch as the company that brought us this once intriguing game ignores the logical and timely advice of some of the game’s top players. If all this weren’t enough, it feels as though the player base has degraded unto a state of “elitism” that I find unappealing.
All of this may have not been enough to pull me from a game of almost six and a half years but with the introduction of a competing MMO that, finally, has shown itself to be a superior effort to that which Blizzard continually puts forth, the decision for me became easy. Rift, for me, is just a better game all around. Yes, there are issues given the game’s young age. Yet the Trion Worlds team has shown themselves to be very open and quick when implementing fixes. The game, in its very early state, is already superior to WoW in more ways than I care to mention on the front page of a site dedicated to a World of Warcraft talent tree. Suffice it to say, there is no longer any compelling reason to stick around.
I wish everyone the absolute best and regardless of whether you stay to play WoW or move on to something else, know that I sincerely appreciate the opportunity to write for you here at RetPaladin.com. It’s been a privilege and I hope each and every one of you enjoys yourselves in Azeroth, Telara, or wherever your adventures may lead you.
Thanks again and swing ‘em hard!
~Tharvolde
PS: Should you be inclined to reach out to me, you can find me on the Faemist-PvP shard as a Defiant Rogue named Synovia!
March 30th, 2011 - 9:11 pm
No offense Tharvolde, but what happened to you is you simply burned-out. Your post says this. You went from one new thing to another new thing in WoW until you used up all available avenues of entertainment within the game. Nothing wrong with that but don’t bash WoW because your burned out. I have played the game for a couple of years and pvp and arena are now more enjoyable for me than ever. Rift will be great for you, for now, but that too will wear out. It is the nature of things on this little planet called earth. You will someday find a game to replace Rift because you will find it too boring. That is the nature of gamers and gaming. We constantly need something new to stimulate our over-stimulated minds. Take care and when your burn-out fades away, you will probably come back. At least I hope you do.
March 31st, 2011 - 12:00 am
Going to miss you man, just know you are always more then welcome here.
March 31st, 2011 - 12:09 am
Howdy Tharvolde, I’ve been in a similar boat, although sadly I’ve only tried to play arena competitively this season as it, in my opinion was our best chance all round to do well, for those without leet heals etc to hang onto anyway, hard to find good players where I’m from.
But yeah when you don’t “love” something as you did once, time to have a rest imao, I might have a chop at Rift as well at some stage.
Th WoG change will ruin us basically imao, it’s absolutely insane that a traditional dps class can have control and heals in some form, it’s basically what we should have always been, an arms warrior now, is what ret should have been almost, but anyway, I digress, have a good one.
March 31st, 2011 - 12:11 am
Kirrena @ Tearfall Defiant Warrior. I’ll keep an eye out for you in warfronts. And blame losses on you =D
But I do agree with your view on the decline of WoW. For the last couple years I played, it felt like I wasn’t having fun and I was just logging for dailies and to use a glorified chat room. PvP in WotLK was terrible and from what I heard, Cata isn’t much better.
March 31st, 2011 - 1:22 am
Thanks for everything man and gl in rift aswel,l keep swinging them hard even as a rouge
.
March 31st, 2011 - 11:32 am
I still love you deeply.
<3
March 31st, 2011 - 2:05 pm
Im sure more than a few of us are right behind you as to leaving WoW, myself included, as to Rift, I hope its fun but I’ll wait for GW2 and SWOTOR!
March 31st, 2011 - 4:00 pm
Much respect, this site has been a beacon to like-minded folks needing to talk out the roller-coaster ride.
I’ve come to the same conclusion – there is no end to this. There are classes left to smash folks in pvp for month after month, yet we’re nerfed on the back a very slight healing advantage that hasn’t translated into real world results and statistics. It seems Blizzard read off a different data sheet to the rest of us when deciding on balance.
The real pain for me is the time commitment vs reward. In PVP, even with consistent wins it takes hundreds of games to get even a respectable level of gear. So I’ve looked at my other toons and it’s just not worth it anymore.
As the first poster types. Perhaps it is just burnout – but that’s life, you will buronout of most activities in the long run. With that in mind, there is always ‘reasoning’ behind that decision, and Tharvolde’s are salient and match my own, so I’m convinced on his honesty.
the following unrepentent comments from blizzard on the nerf and its supposed ‘necessity’ is the last straw. Having typed similar words in the past, there’s a true sense of relief washing over me.
March 31st, 2011 - 8:26 pm
Enjoy yourself, man.
I’m pretty burnt out myself and playing other games has done me a world of good. Even if I didn’t get burnt out, Ret PvP is the whole game to me, but only a fraction of it to the devs. I know that I’ll never be satisfied. And yea, PvP balance is like a game of whack a mole.
Best wishes, Tharvolde.
April 1st, 2011 - 4:34 am
Azar 46 Defiant Dps Warrior!
20champion/0rift/38 paragon! I’ll see you there and am glad to see you too have lifted the burden of WoW!
April 1st, 2011 - 11:52 am
Bullshit, whether it is a day early of April 1st, this smells like BS. Especially the part with freaking Rift, gosh i hate that game
April 1st, 2011 - 5:19 pm
No BS, Doublecross. I purposely posted it prior for that reason. Rift is amazing and it gets better with every patch!
April 1st, 2011 - 7:33 pm
Whether or not this is a joke, I quit WoW when Dragon Age II came out. I would rather play a decent single player RPG than the joke that WoW has become. I quit for a year when 3.3 was released, and now have quit again for almost a month. Doubt I’ll be back this time.
April 2nd, 2011 - 12:45 am
^
So did WoW when it started.
April 2nd, 2011 - 1:38 am
^ Rift has most of the things wow has NOW lol. Just think about that for a minute. No need to even attempt to compare releases.
I’d say I’ll be sad to see you go man but Having played wow(As a Ret from start to finish of course) from release till now, I too am playing Rift. . I enjoyed reading your posts tho . They were always pretty close to my feelings on things. It’s pretty painfully obvious at this point that blizzard isn’t ever going to get anything together both for Rets and really for the game overall. They made out like they were going to let it be fun for a while and several years later there is still no reasonable change. Let’s hope Rift continues to listen and will actually understand how their game works, something Blizzard will never get right. Byebye Ret , Hello Champ/Bst/Para. When I look at the talent trees They actually make me happy instead of disappointed. Imagine that.
April 2nd, 2011 - 2:22 am
^ Until everyone started getting everything they want, and it got boring!
Miss you Tharvolde
I’ll probably be migrating to Rift too! The death of healing and cleansing means (for me) that the ret paladin is now gone.
April 3rd, 2011 - 2:34 am
I have played WoW for 4 years and i stop my subscription 1 month ago for yours same reason. Now im playing league of legend, like athene
April 3rd, 2011 - 2:21 pm
Yea, I left not too long ago myself. Probably gonna stop playing MMOs all together (unless Star Wars: Old Republic shows more promise than it does now).
Good luck to you sir.
April 8th, 2011 - 1:25 pm
I must say I understand you completely. I stopped playing a month or 2 ago and now just occasionaly click on pages like this out of nostalgia. I was at the point where I logged in to raid just for the sake of the guild. Have fun and good luck.
II amc urrently waiting for guild wars 2. (guardians look promising)
April 8th, 2011 - 4:57 pm
Tools.
April 9th, 2011 - 1:45 am
Lol no it’s cos ur bad and cant adjust… noob… go play ez mode rift then
April 10th, 2011 - 5:18 am
I somewhat agree with what you say, ret spec has been messed to much with, but atm we are very good, I will quit on the next patch because of WOG CD, I’m just tired of been bullied in a way by blizz because they just cant make their stupid mind when it comes to what they want our spec to be like, and if they do take away WOG and I don’t get a spell such as charge like a warrior or leap, or a death grip I’m a total waste of space in the game, and I would be easily quited, WOG was all I had to survive and now its gone… I feel like I spend so much time playing and getting geared and getting my battlemaster tittle just so they can poop on me … GL on Rift
April 10th, 2011 - 7:01 am
I totally agree with you. I quit WoW a couple months ago and don’t plan to come back. I might check into Rift now that you mention it, but as of now I quit MMO’s all together. I think I had little hope that I could come here to see it was all fixed, but looks like its the same as it always is.
I see people say you’re burned out which I can tell you are, but its from the imbalance imo… not the game. I’m burned out for that reason. Tired of waiting on the next patch hoping it gives Ret Pallys a chance to compete against all classes with the same gear. Seems like other classes scale better with gear.
I never got into raiding much cause there is a large amount of time spent researching strategies online and watching videos, as well as preparing and gathering potions, flasks, enchants, and gems to keep your gear optimized for better chances of success. Add to that the time spent making gold for funding all these adventures and you have yourself quite a time consuming hobby. I don’t have that much time to spend and I prefer acting on impulse rather then playing the hokie pokie every fight.
April 11th, 2011 - 3:08 am
Farewell, good friend. I’m always sad when a fellow Paladin leaves our ranks, not to mention an elite one. Many share your same sentiments about WoW, myself included. You and thousands of other friends I may never meet, but I hope your life goes on with a new-found joy in some other game, hobby or endeavor. Stay a Paladin at heart. ♥
-F.
May 12th, 2011 - 9:28 am
Like tharvolde , i did the same. Played since 2005. This game is pve focused since the begin and will be the same till the end.