Emblem of Conquest (Ulduar 25 badge)

[mmcookies]

Looks like Blizzard is definitely adding new badges for each new tier

And since I'm unwilling and unable to raid, this means I'm definitely out

5-boxing has been fun
Good luck to you all

[Multibocks]

You know there will be a new Vault of Archavon boss right? That means you can get raid gear through a PUG, I find it to not be so bad. It's a quick raid and I have rarely been in a /fail.

However I understand, and Im sure it's not the only factor in quitting.

[mmcookies]

no pugs, never again

[HPB]

If you don't want to do 25man Ulduar, then just don't do 25man Ulduar. If you're not in there, you don't need the next tier of loot, so you don't get it.

Not having the new uber gear doesn't stop you from playing and doesn't interfere with a "casual" playstyle. In fact many, many WoW players are never on the cutting edge - never on the final raids for endgame. They're always a tier or two behind on the raiding scheme (myself included). There's nothing wrong with that.

No one is saying, "You must do 25 man Ulduar and you must have the new badges to keep playing."

[Zaelar]

No one is saying, "You must do 25 man Ulduar and you must have the new badges to keep playing."

mmcookies is.

I wonder how he's getting valor badges right now considering the only way to get them is in 25 mans.

[Redbeard]

Im not even to end game yet with my team (my druid has done a bit of 10 man naxx but thats it) and im a little disappointed that theyre not adding a new 5 man dungeon with the new raid.

Sure you dont have to raid and get new gear etc, but that is the only progression available in the game after you get to level cap. If they dont give us another way to do that then I can understand his/her being done for now.

[mmcookies]

I don't need the top tier of loot, and I don't like to raid.

What I do need is progression, which is what I'm paying Blizzard for.

As of this moment, I have pretty much the best gear I can get out of doing heroics, and by the looks of 3.1 PTR, Blizzard won't be adding any more 5-man content until at least 3.2.
(last time they didn't add any until 2.4)

And I'm just not willing to wait that long.

[Malekyth]

As someone whose highest group is 73, who has one single fast flyer out of probably twenty 70+ characters, who has not successfully multiboxed a heroic, Kara, ZA, or any of the old-world raids, who has a pitiful fraction of the achievements -- and who plays almost every night for at least a few hours, not even counting the weekend binges -- I'm floored by the idea of someone who'd consider quitting the game in a huff because they've run out of things to do. How many hours are in the day on your planet? :)

[puppychow]

Every person is going to be a different, a number of multiboxers cleared every heroic 1-2 months ago and as said there really isn't much to do beyond that except farm, and that gets boring after a while. I sat in awe of Niley & ss2 while they had every heroic cleared over 2 months ago while I was still struggling with caverns of time, now my guys are all geared in full t7/t7.5 and have 200+ badges each and 10k+ gold and I haven't run a heroic in over 2 weeks. Of course, I'm having fun just leveling a deathknight now, its a lot more fun doing 70-80 with only one guy doing quests than it is trying to do 5 collection quests at once. And I like to raid on my main, so I have something interesting to look forward to in 3.1, but for the non-raiders I think 3.1 is going to be very boring after 3-4 weeks, which is sad :( I have no desire to level my 2nd (3d, etc) teams to 80, its a lot of work to go from 70-80 and end of the day the differences between tank classes, melee classes, caster classes, and healers is not that huge.

Even if they had put in a new 5 man though it wouldn't have lasted that long, maybe an extra 2-3 weeks to farm it out totally. I'd guess in patch 3.1.5 or whatever, a few months down the road, they let you turn in heroism emblems for conquest badges, so at least 5-manners will have some form of gear upgrade path.

[Redbeard]

He wants to progress his 5 man team. Obviously there are other things to do in the game. He could try to amass 100k gold on each character. He could fill all 50 character slots on a server with level 80 characters and gear them in heroic gear. He could try for every achievement. We all define our own goals within the framework of the game.

Yours is a valid goal (apparently leveling your groups and having fun). His is also a valid goal (being able to progress his characters outside of a raid). Best of luck to both of you =)
As someone whose highest group is 73, who has one single fast flyer out of probably twenty 70+ characters, who has not successfully multiboxed a heroic, Kara, ZA, or any of the old-world raids, who has a pitiful fraction of the achievements -- and who plays almost every night for at least a few hours, not even counting the weekend binges -- I'm floored by the idea of someone who'd consider quitting the game in a huff because they've run out of things to do. How many hours are in the day on your planet? :)

[Bigfish]

If Ulduar is more safety dancing and portal clicking, I'm not remotely interested.

Edit because it may need clarified: When Blizz announced all raids would be 10-mannable, I was happy. Now that I've got there, I find them to be not too different from the previous raiding scene: pat your head and rub your tummy for 5 minutes, and if you're gear is good enough, you get more gear. I guess that's all well and good, but once again, I'm finding myself not wanting to raid because of gimmick after gimmick, with raid lock outs really preventing you from learning and practicing encounters.

Personally, I'd say take 10-mans off of lock out, take out badges, and let people farm the things.

[Khatovar]

-- I'm floored by the idea of someone who'd consider quitting the game in a huff because they've run out of things to do. How many hours are in the day on your planet? :)

Doesn't look like a huff to me. My husband and I did the exact same thing a few weeks ago when it became evident that Blizz didn't consider progression a game everyone could play. 25mans are raids. 10 mans are raiding's tag-a-long younger sibling. 5mans are the kid they bring in when the show jumps the shark.

My husband and I saw this coming back when they started releasing details from beta. Blizz tries to do too much and in the end does nothing. Every time Blue opened thier mouth it was another nerf coming down the pike or some other bait and switch that brought the game closer to a generic, white-bread experiance. When we heard that 25s could buy 10 man badges and not the other way around, we knew the game was not going to get better and it was time to go.

Personally, I'm just as floored by people that roll dozens of toons and spend month after month repeating the same content over and over. Our idea of fun is not rolling 5 of every class, that's not why we box. Thus why I quit and why I imagine Mmcookies is quitting. I don't WANT to do H VH or whatever over and over again, every day for the next 6 months while we wait for Blizzard to release another 5-man...which will actually only be a single 5-man, probably full of gimmick fights, that we'll have to live with until the next expansion. Waiting until the end of the fight to see if DBM says "XX down in TT:tt! This is a new record!" is not what my husband and I consider personal progression.

You enjoy playing a ton of different classes, good for you, that gives you plenty to do. Other people enjoy the OCD-ness of achievments, good for them, they've got plenty to do. But not everyone plays the same way, and I don't see paying Blizz $15 a month x4 or 5 or 10 to do something I don't want to do or play a way I don't want to play just so I have something to do as logical or healthy. So I took my toys and went to a new playground. That's not a huff, that's moving on.

[Redbeard]

Dont mean to hijack the thread, but how are you finding EQ2 in the context of having something to do without raiding at max level? I know there are achievement points or whatever they call them to work on but thats really just "extending" max level.

Ive dabbled in EQ2 but never got past level 30 or so, I wonder how nice the end game is for small content lovers vs wow's.

[Malekyth]

Doesn't look like a huff to me.Me neither. Sorry, I was probably trusting that the smiley combined with the complete lack of huff would convey the teasing, "wow, you're kicking my ass despite the fact that I'm completely addicted to WoW" tone. I don't post well.

[Khatovar]

The first time I played when 70 was the cap, there was still a ton to do. I just couldn't do a lot of it because I wasn't multi-boxing then. Adventure and crafting Writs, HQs, Signature quests, mentoring and solo quests all kept me very occupied when I wasn't in a group.

Raiding in EQ2 is not as big a deal as it is in WoW. You can't really compare the two. The gap between raiding in WoW and dungeons in WoW is very pronounced. The gap between raiding and dungeons in EQ2 is more like the gap between 2v2 and 5v5 arena.

Dungeons themselves can be "good" for a 10-15 level range...think of SM in its entirety, but not broken up into wings with their own entrances. Raids, however, tended to be shorter...more along the lines of the World Dragons for contested raids and Archavon the Stone Keeper or Onyxia for instanced ones, with some of the longer ones being as long as a short instance in WoW. And raiding can be done as early as level 20. The minimal time investment makes hitting a raid an easier process. It's more like raiding is additional endgame content, not THE endgame content. I mean, right now there are 34 max level raids. There's more than 140 raids across all levels. So you don't rush to cap so you can raid in EQ2 like you do in WoW. Raiding just isn't really the be-all, end-all focus of the game. If you've got a full group, then there's really not much you can't do.

[Fef]

Doesn't look like a huff to me.Me neither. Sorry, I was probably trusting that the smiley combined with the complete lack of huff would convey the teasing, "wow, you're kicking my ass despite the fact that I'm completely addicted to WoW" tone. I don't post well.

That's exactly how I took your post.

Besides, I had the impression you were talking about me there. I do have a group at 80, actually. Druidx1+Hunterx4, hardly a group to farm heroics, they are not done with regular level 80 instances yet. It is nice and challenging to play that kind of group, without a real tank. I like that kind of challenge. On the same "silly" note, I have a group of 5 Arcane Mages. I went to Hellfire Rampart at level 62 the other day, just to see if I could make it to the first boss. I was quite easy to get to him, actually (5xsheep FTW), but I couldn't take him lower than 95% ... I'll be back at higher level, that he can be sure !

I also like levelling. Levelling different groups does imply doing the same quests again (at least some of them), but it is usually after some time. Also, the same quest played with one character (or group) and another often feels like a completely different experience. To me, this is by far less boring than farming an instance or doing dailies. I went through WotLK content just few weeks ago, and I am looking forward to doing it again with my next group in line (the inevitable Palax1+Shamanx4).

[Bigfish]

To anyone who's claimed they've "run out of things to do".

One word: Acheivments.

I doubt any of you have even come close to maxing them all out. When you accomplish that, then you can complain about running out of things to do.

Except achievments are largely irrelevant.

[Redbeard]

I dont think the issue is not having anything to do (like I said above you can make whatever goal you want in the game). Its running out of ways to progress your characters in a group setting. Achievements might progress your "achievements points" but they dont progress your character in the sense that they make them better / more powerful. Which is what you do in RPGs. In my opinion. =)
To anyone who's claimed they've "run out of things to do".

One word: Acheivments.

I doubt any of you have even come close to maxing them all out. When you accomplish that, then you can complain about running out of things to do.

[genocyde]

To anyone who's claimed they've "run out of things to do".

One word: Acheivments.

I doubt any of you have even come close to maxing them all out. When you accomplish that, then you can complain about running out of things to do.

Except achievments are largely irrelevant.
How are achievements any more irrelevant than gearing up?

Hey, looks at my gear I must have worked hard for this!
Hey, looks at my cheevy's I must have worked hard for these!

They are both pretty much useless once you are done with them, but getting them is what it's all about.

At least go for glory of the hero, or maybe PvP, or maybe make videos or find new ways. Try speccing a 5 man holy trinity team 5xDPS and see if u can still clear heroics.

Heck, I'm thinking it might be fun to grab ECK and pull him into moorabi's room in gundrak and see if we can get the less-rabi achievement with ECK bouncing around annoying everyone.

Once you run out of things that interest you, you become very aware that you are playing a game and the sun is shining outside. It doesn't really matter what everyone else thinks you should do.

[Bigfish]

The big difference between gear and achievments is that unlocking achievements has no in-game consequences. Congratulations, you ate 50 types of food, here's your rare mount!


And don't tell me the new raids aren't accessible - there are successful PuGs everyday for Naxx and Obsidian Sanctum. This is so much better than the days of Pugging UBRS and failing (when it was 15 man).

Except the major difference is that now, if you kill incendius, you're locked to that instance of UBRS for the whole week. Pressing concerns, bad puggers, people dropping can all ruin your run, and then you're stuck with your thumb up your ass while you wait for the reset timer, or someone else saved to the raid pugs the rest of the bosses, or any number of other things that can ruin your once a week shot at this stuff.

[Bigfish]

The hand-out candy epics of the past weren't necesarily a good thing, but it was a nice step in the direction of accessability you get now. Right now though, there is a severe disconnect between heroics and 10-mans, an issue that arises largely from the 7-day lock out on 10-man raids. 1 day would seem a bit more balanced to me, with some changes in loot tables to reflect the farmability.

The build a guild/join a guild argument is exactly the type of situation they had back in vanilla WoW, which holds water to an extent, but in the interest of content-open-to-all, 7 day lock outs aren't helping people see Naxxramas, OS, Maylgos, or soon Ulduar.

[puppychow]

If you clear instances without issues, which I think the majority of raiding guilds currently do, then more people would quit wow as you'd gear up in a matter of days instead of weeks or months. For example on my mage, paladin, and resto shaman I am in 4/5 to 5/5 T7.5 and full naxx25 epics, missing maybe 2-3 pieces (esp caster rings! doh!). Those 2-3 pieces are the only things really keeping me raiding on my mage, I pretty much afk follow on trash while leveling my DK and fight on bosses. If the raid lockout period was simply 3 days I would be farming stuff x3 faster and would have best in slot long ago in every slot and probably have cancelled that account as well.

The issue you are really talking about is that if you get stuck in a raid that failed, there is no recovery until next week. That really does suck. Not sure whats a good way to engineer a fix, since its more a social issue (grouping with people you know/trust) rather than a gameplay issue, but if Blizzard is smart they would come up with some sort of fix that lets people who are saved to failed instances still somehow pug it with others - maybe for bosses they have already killed in any given raid that week, they are ineligble for loot but can still join new fresh pugs. It would also allow people who clear raids quickly to help (or even hire themselves out) others, without getting any item drops.

[zanthor]

I can has yer gold?

[Bigfish]

But that's more an issue of where BiS gear is available, how fast it can be run, and whether blizz is ever going to utilize forward looking gameplay (ie, Working hard to farm current content in anticipation that work is going to yield an advantage at some point in the future.) No one's saying 25 man should be on any different lock out than it is now. The matter is a conflicting issue of the casual goal of 10-man raids with non-casual lock outs.

There is also an issue of gearing speed versus latest content, namely when Ulduar and eventually Icecrown Citadel get released, are players going to have to spend 3-6 months gearing up to even be current with attempting modern content?

See. where I'm sitting, I don't want to farm this crap from here to forever, and if I'm going to have to farm it, I'd like to get it done all at once

[Redbeard]

Ultimately all this 10 man / 25 man accessibility stuff is besides the point.

He plays 5 mans. He doesnt want to raid. Hes run out of meaningful (in that it advances your character) stuff to do in that domain so hes stopping playing.

We should really be talking about how blizzard can allow you to continue to progress your character without chasing gear so that were not all done after 1 or 2 months playing at end game. If the solution to "Where is my character progression beyond level 80?" is "roll an alt"... yikes. =)

I always thought something like the AA system (i think thats what its called) in EQ sounded like fun. I mean, if we're out there grinding dailies and stuff anyways it would be cool to be making your character more powerful. I guess the devs dont like them though... i read a quote that said something to the effect that.. Once they put a system like that in place, they have to start balancing the game assuming people have them.

I dont know, im not a game designer, I dont know what the solution is. I would definitely enjoy some new avenues of character progression though outside of year, bottom line for me.

[Redbeard]

We should really be talking about how blizzard can allow you to continue to progress your character without chasing gear so that were not all done after 1 or 2 months playing at end game. If the solution to "Where is my character progression beyond level 80?" is "roll an alt"... yikes. =)

This is where achievments come in. In the end, its all bragging rights right? Best gear - most accomplishments - whats the difference in the grand scheme? :)Achievements dont improve your character. I dont know about you but I box so i dont have to talk to other people hahah so theres nobody to brag to but myself =) I dont play for bragging rights. I play because its fun to me. Saying on day 1 that I cant kill monster x and then on day 10 I can because my character is better is fun to me. ive progressed. Achievements just mean that I still cant kill monster X but I have a title now. Redbeard the Unprogressed lol =P

[Bollwerk]

I really don't understand the reason for the OP's post. I fail to see how Ulduar changes anything from the way things are already setup.

[Bigfish]

If you're not progressing through harder content, "better gear" becomes a moot point, and a "just for looks" reason.

Better gear also lets you progress through similar difficulty content faster.

[Alemi]

Better gear also lets you progress through similar difficulty content faster.But, what in fact you are doing, is trivalizing the content. Think back to BC when 5 shaman teams, like mine, could farm heroics without a tank. This wasn't intended, but we were geared with the PvP equivilent of Sunwell gear and it made the content trivial, since it was designed for people in quest blues. As Fur said, that's what blizzard is trying to avoid.

While it may sound elitist, I don't want everyone who only want to do 5 mans to have access to the gear I get from raids. The effort, time, and ability put into the raids is considerable, and it's not "fair" to the raiders if people can just farm heroics for days on end and end up with the same gear. This was evident in BC. With that said, I also think this system sucks. I've said it in my guild chat, in trade, and on the forums. Most people do pug raids now, and what's going to happen is that blizzard is going to create a gear gap where those of us who've progressed into Ulduar are going to have 0 motivation to do heroics. This'll lengthen the gear gap between people freshly hitting 80 and make groups harder to find.

It's a double edged sword. There's no ifs and or buts about it.

And to people who complain about gimmicks in raids, that's the nature of raids. It's about the coordination of 10 or 25 people to defeat an encounter using a variety of strategy, but there's absolutely nothing saying a boxer can't do it, and if anything, I have more fun playing multiple characters. I multibox becuase I enjoy having my own team to do what I want, when I want. I also play with a static raiding group (10 man) and am in a casual raiding guild (25 man) and we're all online friends. I just have multiple heads, and most of my guild enjoys it (our resto shaman hates me just because we roll on the same stuff).

But the end line is, if you want the best gear, you have to do the harder content. You can choose not to, but with that choice comes consequences. It's no different than people who want the best PvP gear and don't want to arena (but arena is a whole different story atm).

[Bigfish]

Don't read too much in to that. For the largest part, the statement you're quoting is my disagreement to the notion that achievements carry the same weight as gear progression. I'm not saying people running 5 mans should get access to the same ilvl of content as the current raid-of-the-patch, but at the same time, its completely understandable for someone who relegates themselves to 5-man content to be a bit upset that a new raid dungeon got added, but they're still sitting at the wall they hit months ago. More so, they're stuck either playing catch-up or sitting around in hopes that the next content patch shows them some love.

Now personally, I've got no right to cling to the "but what about the 5-mans argument", as I can throw my 10 guys at Naxx and OS all damn day if I want. But personally, I've been in this exact position before, and it really really sucks, to the point you quit and go play something else.

[genocyde]

I think blizzard could bring this whole game back to life if they took the same seriousness with 5 mans as they did with raids. Where are my hard modes?!? Where is my progression? Where are my gear checks? RAIDS!

No, to hell with raids. You want to make this game casual and elitist friendly make 5 man bosses with a hard mode option that can only be beat by people of intelligence or skill. Make these heroic 5 man hard modes drop Ulduar 10/25 quality gear. Give me solo content that is class specific designed and rewards legendary's for the one crazy fool that completed some ridiculous 2-hour event designed to be 99.9% impossible for his class. Put an achievement tracker on it so I can link my closest attempt was 3%

I have never understood why this "elite" mentality of wow is paired with raids. Yes, they are excellent designs and encounters. Yes, they should have their sets of best in slot gear. As should arena, and rated BG's, hell even the crafting recipes that are awarded for the Loremaster of Northrend achievement that give you awesome epics for completing achievements that you can sell in the AH and ruin their own value.

Why is the whole world rewarded BiS gear because they "brought more guns to the fight" (10/25 man instead of solo/5 man) I mean in all honesty i feel like the progression difficulty is based around getting 24 other complete failures at common sense and teamwork to stop standing in the god damn fire!

The only thing in this game that rewards skill is arena, and it is itself a poor example because proper team comps and gear are more important than player skill when considering the goal of getting the top arena gear. Yes you may not rank #1 with an idiot on your team, but you can achieve the rating required for best in slot PvP gear.

Lets all go to the suggestion forums and request something that requires player skill of the solo / 5 man quality.

They used to exist in the forms of lvl 60 epic quests for hunter / priest weapons with raid loot requirements and all kinds of legendary events. These are the things referred to as the glory days... They are currently only referred to in the World of Warcraft... no longer experienced.

[genocyde]

No, I did enjoy MT heroic a lot though. Now that you say it. Yes that kinds of thing. Only add hard modes like sartharion with multiple drakes, stuff that those in top content gear wouldn't have breezed through going so whats the big deal didn't we already kill that guy once this year?

Thanks for an example. I think I might actually hit up the suggestion forums later today with a thought out post. I want us hardcore 5-man only content people to have something else to do :P

[Tombs]

Group composition is the biggest hurdle to Sarth3D style hard-modes in 5-mans. For instance, any dps burn fight would be too easy because they'd have to balance the fight so that it could be done without bloodlust/heroism.

[Bigfish]

Why am I reminded of old school Strat, BRD, LBRS, and Scholo? Man I miss the glory days...

[jettzypher]

I don't need the top tier of loot, and I don't like to raid.

What I do need is progression, which is what I'm paying Blizzard for.
I'm confused. You want to do progression type things...but dont like raiding? Thats 90% of the game. Make lvl cap, gear through heroics, then do raids for story, gear, and achievements. Progression=Raids. 5-mans may give you some story and progression, but only so much. Most will and does come out of raids. I'm willing to go as far and say that youve wasted your time (and money) if you dont like doing what the game is built around.

[Bigfish]

I don't need the top tier of loot, and I don't like to raid.

What I do need is progression, which is what I'm paying Blizzard for.
I'm confused. You want to do progression type things...but dont like raiding? Thats 90% of the game. Make lvl cap, gear through heroics, then do raids for story, gear, and achievements. Progression=Raids. 5-mans may give you some story and progression, but only so much. Most will and does come out of raids. I'm willing to go as far and say that youve wasted your time (and money) if you dont like doing what the game is built around.

Hold on there, maybe 10% of the game is raid based. There is a TON of story and lore, a whole world to interact with outside of boss dancing, dps racing, and moving out of the fire. The game isn't built around raiding. Raiding is just the thing people inevitably end up doing at cap (that or PvP). Many players find themselves exploring and questing just to see what's out there, only to have so many story lines inevitably end at a door that says "No casual's allowed". Just because some people have tunnel vision and all they can see is how fast they can get to 80 and how fast they can get purples doesn't mean the rest of the game doesn't exist.

[mmcookies]

I pay 75 bucks a month to do the things I love to do in WoW.
Now that it's no longer satisfying my needs, I've opted not to play.
It's not that complicated.

[mmcookies]

Oh, well, in that case... here's the story of what's going on in my head.

A long time ago, I was young and used to play Asheron's Call (AC). It made me think that MMO's were the next big thing, virtual worlds where people could cast aside their real life differences and work towards common goals, maybe even for the betterment of mankind if the content was properly directed (read, government run MMO's, or in China's case, brain-washing grind fests for children). Now this was back in the 90's, when there were a lot less teenagers and trolls on the internet. That's not to say they weren't numerous, it just wasn't an ocean of piss. Impromptu fellowships (PUGs) in early AC were generally quite good. People were courteous and honest. Theft was low despite a lack of secure trading. There was even a distinct absence of elitism. But all of that came to pass as the internet grew increasingly mainstream, and the relentless pettiness began to pervade everything. I came to realize nothing technology has to offer (within acceptable ethics) can change mankind's evolutionary legacy, and the thought depresses me.

That's the main reason I avoid raids, PUGs, and running guilds. Every time I see the factionalism, drama, and loot whoring, it still leaves a bitter taste, which incidentally makes any game quite unenjoyable. While it's possible to assemble a group of great players who are also great people to play with, the failure of humanity is inevitable.

[Khatovar]

Hehe, I started with AC, too. LC. I actually went back for a while after I quit WoW the first time.

And I agree with you. The second things like greed, ego and drama start seeping in, the things you enjoy suddenly become a hassle.

[Kaelika]

I understand where the OP is coming from, and Khatovar has made some very valid points herself concerning some of the issues those of us who like to 5-box only have to currently contend with. For this reason, my friend and I are shelving our team for the time being and either going back to "solo" boxing or we're moving to another game.

You see, I used to dual-box just so that I could help my guild with quests and gain more gold while doing dailies/quests/grinding/etc. (I've been dual-boxing since pre-TBC, actually); however, I left my guild with the intention of multiboxing because I grew tired of the raid loot drama, social drama, etc., and decided to EXCLUSIVELY play with my real-life friends, with whom I actually enjoy playing in a stress-free/drama-free environment for the most part. But we never intended to raid with the exception of perhaps taking on VoA at some point, and while I PvP, I don't multibox in PvP, nor do I intend to at any point (WHY doesn't matter -- I just don't want to).

After seeing what we, as 5-man players, have to look forward to with 3.1, I'm now considering returning to dual-boxing or even soloing, as I said at the beginning of my post. Achievements? Yeah, but I sure as hell won't set out to obtain most of these on more than one character, thanks. PvP? See my above statement.

My point? Everyone's playstyle is different, but I can most certainly understand why those who exclusively play to progress through the 5-man content are becoming disheartened with the latest patch. Maybe the multi-tiered badge system is working "as intended," which is fine; nevertheless, unless you're an avid PvPer, there is little reason to 5-box once you've cleared the heroic content if you don't intend to raid (ahievements not included in my case for the reason stated above), and if I'm going back to raiding -- and this is where I differ from a number of you -- I'd rather go back to soloing and just dual-box for a few perks here and there as I used to do. I guess that I just made the false assumption that Blizzard would add more items that were purchasable with Emblems of Heroism -- not necessarily items of a higher "i-level," but at least give us some variety to spice up our selection to an extent.

I'm beginning to think that I jumped the gun when I decided to leave my old server and start taking multi-boxing seriously, but I'm inherently an impulsive person, so I'm no stranger to making rash decisions. Heh.

I don't think the OP is bitching, and ultimately, it's his/her decision as to why he/she wishes to quit multboxing. Some of you may not agree with it, or some of you may think that the OP needs to venture into other areas of the game/experiment with other playstyles, but that's your PREFERENCE and just might not be the OP's cup of tea, so there's no reason to condemn him/her for making the decision to quit, even if you don't agree with it.

In conclusion, if 5-man progression is the only reason the OP plays, then, yes, it might be time for an extended break from the game. I'm not going to digress by offering other suggestions for content; I'll just wish the OP good luck instead. I'm sure there's something out there that will suit the OP's playstyle in the end, and as WoW is always receiving updates, maybe there will be something to come back to in the future in relation to 5-man content.

[mmcookies]

Hehe, I started with AC, too. LC. I actually went back for a while after I quit WoW the first time.

And I agree with you. The second things like greed, ego and drama start seeping in, the things you enjoy suddenly become a hassle.

I used to play MUDs before AC, so it was my first experience of a game with multiple servers.
Tried out different servers for about a year, poked around the most on MT, but eventually settled on TD.

It's fun how different AC servers had distinct cultures and lingo.
WoW feels pretty homogeneous across servers, probably thanks to the intarwebs, cept for the political scene.