irritated by zone phasing

[valle2000]

I'm very irritated by all these different phases in all the new cataclysm zones. Because the zones changes depending on which quests you've completed different parts are in different phases and follow is broken every time those borders are crossed. Sure Jamba warns when it happens but it is still very irritating.

Also it complicate things a lot when wanting to help a friend who hasn't done all the exact same quests yet.

And also regardless of being a boxer or a solo player I don't like the fact that Blizzard made the story/quests so linear like this. Sure the story is great but the way they've made it now limits the player.
A mmorpg should in my opinion be an open free game world where people can do whatever they want. Now you are being forced to play certain quests with all your chars because if you don't, not all options or npcs in that zone will be unlocked. This is very bad in my opinion, this behavior is used in solo play rpgs and do not belong in an open world mmorpg like WoW...

What do you think?

[Hivetyrant]

I think phasing is the best thing they have ever brought to the questing world, it actually makes me feel like I'm having an impact.

[Bigfish]

I don't think phasing is really being used to it's potential. I would rather it were used to display server wide efforts, or potentially for sliding stagnate. For example, a town that fluctuates between being sacked, abandoned, repaired, and controlled by another faction. Everyone is in the same phase, but the phase itself changes based on what the server as a whole has accomplished.

Right now, the way it is implemented makes sense for low traffic areas, but large groups of friends makes it very inconvenient.

[valle2000]

I think phasing is the best thing they have ever brought to the questing world, it actually makes me feel like I'm having an impact.
But this is exactly why (in my opinion) it shouldn't be implemented like this in a MMORPG. In a MMORPG all players live in the same world and can login at the same time, therefore should be able to interact which each other and be able to see the same npcs at all times.
Now blizzard have added a kind of "time travel" were players are in different phases of time itself. In the new zones there aren't any "ingame real time" anymore, since players can be in different stages of the phasing. This is a very illogical behavior in a game like WoW (but excellent in a single-play-rpg).


I don't think phasing is really being used to it's potential. I would rather it were used to display server wide efforts, or potentially for sliding stagnate. For example, a town that fluctuates between being sacked, abandoned, repaired, and controlled by another faction. Everyone is in the same phase, but the phase itself changes based on what the server as a whole has accomplished.
Now that would have been a nice way to do it. Love that idea.:)

[birdbleed]

It's annoying when follow breaks because of phasing but other than that it doesn't really bother me. I do, however, agree that everyone should be in the same world. That's what I liked about Eve Online, at least when it first came out, I don't know how they do things now.

One of the reasons Age of Conan flopped (imo) was because there were 8 instances of each zone. You could enter a different one from a graveyard or whatever but that was a pain when you were trying to quest AND pvp.

As far as different parts of quests, I do the same ones in all 5 guys at the same time anyway. So, that hasn't been a problem.

[Bollwerk]

What I don't understand is why Blizzard couldn't just make everything in the same "phase" after you finish all the zone's quests. This would eliminate the majority of the /follow breaking issues. I suppose we are too small of a segment for them to care about. =)

[Tonuss]

I'm of mixed feelings about it, and I think it's been covered by the replies. It's cool to see the world change as you progress through your quests. It's annoying to have your team break follow because the lead character entered a phase. And with so many quests creating a phase for you when you approach a quest location (the wolf cave in Hyjal, for example) you find your group suddenly becoming separated more often. You can work around it, but it's still a pain.

[Multibocks]

As a single boxer I hate it. My friend and I are often in this conversation:

"hey what ya doin?"
"leveling, come help me"
"ok, I'll bring my mage"

5 minutes later....
"shit I can't see you"

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Breaking follow is a minor annoyance to me. My biggest gripe is that by design it separates an MMO into a single-player "story" with a few other folks playing at the same time. I also detest that I can't help out my friends on their solo pet projects because my 85s aren't in the same phase. Or how if my buddy who is usually on from 4pm-7pm can't group with me because he finished up 10 more quests before I logged on at 6pm so he's now in a completely different phase. They could surely have figured out a way to do this phasing stuff so that people in the same group would always be in the leader's phase to prevent this. Just seems half-assed to me. But then again, I like grouping, and WoW is becoming a huge single-player Warcraft 4 with online towns, dungeons and PVP.

/whine
/gripe
/qq

And another thing: what is with this do-two-quests-then-two-more-then-two-more-then-a-boss progression? The last time I was roped into this linear of a plot was when I played a FPS/RTS campaign. Hell, even Stalker (FPS) didn't have this much stovepiped gameplay.

Yeah, I'm QQ'ing. So sue me. It bothered me some in BC but at least I could skip zones. It bothered me more in WotLK but I could smash instances until I bypassed a zone and then go do something else. It bothers me a LOT more in Cata because it's much more phasing, even more linear questing and my choice of group compositions are having a really hard time in dungeons.

Thinking maybe it's time I take a break. ;)

[TeamGrizzly]

What I hate most about phasing is this.

1) See a mineral node a short distance away.
2) Approcah said node. Mineral disappears right before my eyes when I step closer to mine.
3) Step backwards and node reappears.
4) Cry :mad::mad::mad:

[Ualaa]

The mechanic "phasing" rocks, as far as having it in the game.
But it is an enormous pain in the ass, anytime you use follow, which boxers rely upon constantly.

Like vehicle quests (I play Warcraft for Druids, Shamans or Death Knights, not for Tanks, Chariots or Helicopters), phasing is an annoyance that has to be lived with.

[Tyval]

I like the concept of phasing ok.

I think they should have done it as another mentioned so when done with all quests, you are in the case of "NO PHASE", which just makes sense, as everyone eventually ends up there, why not have the final stage be the base case.

I don't mind the break in autofollow to much, have gotten use to seeing it happen, then stopping and hitting slave key to move them up to me, and i continue on. Irritating but can deal with it.

I hate hate hate hate the new linear nature of quests though. I hate not being able to jump ahead if I feel like it or an area is crowded.

And the quest designers that put in stupid ass quests that are required to continue, yet have a low drop rate or very few mobs should be slapped, a lot...

Yes lets funnel everyone on the exact same path, yet have a quest that only 1 person can complete per 5 -10 mins. SO others have to simply wait or worse yet becomes a ninja fest.

[Ualaa]

There is very limited choice as far as quest progression.

We do one of Hyjal/Vashj'ir.
Then we can do the other, or Deepholm.

We basically get the choice of advancing to the current zone (having skipped one zone)...
Or in doing both starting zones, and being free to skip a different zone.

My first team to 85th (with basically no rested), has done five or six quests in Twilight Highlands.
With rested, they would have been 85th still in Uldum.



Well, can also do instances or battlegrounds or mining/herbalism for experience too.

[Kel]

I can see how it's a nice idea (and liked the quests I've done where the town you're in suddenly comes under attack or stops being attacked after a quest), but like the abundance of cinematics (I got extremely angry with Uldum first time through) I don't like things which interupt my gameplay. Deepholm seemed really bad phasing wise on my first team and not being able to help friends is also a problem (they could at least add some sort of flag in for quests that you can't help people with because of phasing) and I had a quest where both my toons flew of to kill an npc but I didn't realise until halfway through that they both had their own version of the npc to attack.

Vehicle/escort quests where you only get credit for what the individual toon does (but both get credit if one stays out of the vehicle) and which remove focus once you're done (my second team was hardcoded instead of using focus). I can imagine these being a big pain for 5-man teams.

Cinematics that you either can't cancel out of or can cancel out of but won't have completed the quest if you do that. And I've had trouble with doing the quest on one toon, both having a completed message but only one of them has changed to the new phase.

The linear nature of questlines is also a bit dissapointing, removes any use/need for levelling guides but I imagine after a few times through each zone it will get really boring doing the same quests in the same sequence each time.

Lastly, whilst I really liked Vashj'ir as a zone I think it was about a third too long, I started my first duo there and felt like I would never get out.

[Ualaa]

You can press Escape (broadcast it, if need be for the entire team), to bypass the cinematic (at least I've been able to cancel any cinematic I've wanted, and have received credit).
You don't actually have to watch any of them, and will get complete credit.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

You can press Escape (broadcast it, if need be for the entire team), to bypass the cinematic (at least I've been able to cancel any cinematic I've wanted, and have received credit).
You don't actually have to watch any of them, and will get complete credit.

Unless it bugs out and ganks you. The submarine chain at the end of Vash'jir had about 4 bugs, 2 of which would kill you outright causing a failure if you didn't do certain specific things very quickly when it bugged you.

[Ualaa]

The starting quest in Vashj'ir bugged out on me.
Was at the quest npc, but nothing to turn in.

Had to hearth and do it again.
Second go worked, and I've since taken a team there and did zone stuff until I had an inn + mailbox from the questline; purely for Truegold on one team.
At least the second team did not bug out.

[Kel]

I've had several quests (only Uldum that I tried as I wasn't sick of cinematics until then) where I couldn't cancel out of the cinematic (don't remember specifics but they were in Harrison Jones movie/questline) or where cancelling via escape resulted in an incomplete quest (the one where you hide behind a potted plant).

Maybe I'll just avoid Uldum :)