Monday, July 11, 2011

Molten Burnout

I was reading a post at Kurn's about how she was getting burned out by everything that needed to be done in order for a responsible PvE raider to max out their effort every week in terms of valor points, dailies, rep, etc.

It's a lot, and I'm at the point where I'm close to throwing my hands up and saying "Screw those Molten Front dailies, screw those heroics, I don't care if I need more gear." I only raid twice a week on my druid main because I want relatively low commitment gameplay, but the Molten Front material takes almost a month to fully unlock, and I've been slavishly doing all their dailies since 4.2 landed (even on the nights I would normally be off WoW) because a day I don't do is another day's delay to the end.

Worse, I'm doing this on two characters so my engineering paladin will be able to make the Flintlocke's Woodchucker scope for my guild's hunters.

And I think it's retarded that it's more time efficient (at the moment) to get valor points from heroics than raid boss kills.

Then, like Kurn, I have a holy paladin that's occasionally running with a second guild other than the one I lead, because it's nice to go to a raid and not have responsibility.

But all this is sucking up a huge amount of time.

Now that I've unlocked the Druids of the Talon on my druid and the Shadow Wardens on my paladin, the number of dailies I do each day on both my 85s has skyrocketed and I'm doing them everyday.

I suppose I don't have to, but I feel like I should to be a good raider on my main and to get the engy schematic for my guild's hunters on my alt (because I'm sure the first few engineers to get the schematic will be gouging on the AH).

The thing is... I know the rep will come with time. As we kill trash and bosses in Firelands I'll eventually get Avengers of Hyjal rep, so I can close my eyes and say there's no need to do trash runs. Yes, it would help get gear sooner, but I can at least pretend any gear upgrades are minor enough on my main that it won't make much of a difference.

The valor points will come with time as well. I'll still be raiding twice a week and we'll kill bosses.

Both rep and valor points will come while doing pre-planned scheduled events.

But the stupid Molten Front dailies... I think the reason I'm so annoyed by them is that they aren't a fun group activity and they're mostly the same thing day in, day out and they're taking up time when I'd otherwise be doing something else that is most likely not WoW.

Previous daily quest grinds didn't seem to be such a big deal.

The Netherwing dailies weren't for gear, so I never worried about missing a day in TBC. Hodir gave shoulder enchants in WotLK, but it was relatively easy to get the blue versions and even then there was perhaps a max of seven dailies and I only was working on one character at a time. The Argent Coliseum dailies didn't even give anything to raiders. They were mostly just for fun, city rep, and titles. Gear was only really needed by alts.

In Cata, Therazane and Dragonmaw were probably best known for having dailies, but they also had tabards so dailies weren't the only way to get gear and enchants. I could combine gaining rep with heroic runs so it felt very time efficient.

But the Molten Front gives competitive gear as well as the means to craft competitive gear. I just realized there's a neck unlocked a few days ago that's better than the one I'm wearing, and there's a relic I could use while I save valor points for my tier pieces. And of course no hunter is going to want to be without the Woodchucker.

I'm just not sure how much longer I can keep this up before I'm going to want to take a step back from the game. I think if there wasn't such a clear gating mechanism, with its own story, and with competitive rewards I'd take my time and play through the sequence leisurely, but since it's not, I feel compelled to burn through it.

And the worst part is... there's all this new craftable gear, but no new engineering helm. The engineer in me is sad.

8 comments:

Elladrion said...

I've been having the same problem lately, especially now that I've opened up the 2nd set of dailys that take considerably longer than the first set does (and also on 2 characters). Serious burnout, when I've never felt burned out before in all the time I've played.

It's not just a lot to do, it's also challenging enough that you can't sit back and run on autopilot while you watch a movie, you have to really pay attention while doing the troll heroics, and they take almost an hour each + queue time just for the valor points. It's kind of exhausting.

It's become a chore and a job in the way that it hasn't in the past, and I feel like all my playtime is going to this stuff that "needs" to be done instead of what I -want- to be doing. It's just not compelling and especially it's not fun enough on it's own to do all this stuff.

Christina said...

I have a suggestion. ;) I do the Molten front dailies with my best friend or another guildie every day. (On 5 toons, eeek!)

As a result, I find them to be a fun group activity. In fact, much more fun than running heroics to cap out my main and my raiding alt. Much much more fun.

With two of us we can pull have the front at once and roflstomp, or one of us kills while the other one runs around planting and healing and whatnot. It is exponentially faster with a group.

lancore said...

Well, why are you doing those dailies anyway?

By the time you unlock the vendors, you most likely already have better equip through other sources. I doubt they are really meant for raiders.

Hana said...

@Christina - I think going with a friend of guildie would make it more bearable, but I often end up doing them late at night after most of the guild has gone to bed. I usually for the heroics with guildes.

@Iancore - I probably could skip the dailies on my main without too much impact, but my guild is engineer light and the hunters are going to need the Woodchucker at some point (and they're not engineers).

Adgamorix said...

This is why I try and only (and by try, I mean do) have one toon I focus on. Since I'm not doing dailies on my Holy Pally, I could do them on an alt and not feel the pressure. If I was actually competing for server/world firsts, I would worry about getting VP capped on multiple toons.

As it is, I'm lucky to VP cap on my main. I just don't bother with the dailies, because doing them as a Shockadin (on a PvP realm no less) sucks. Plus, I just don't care.

Now if I was seriously raiding, or trying to gear a new toon for raiding, you can bet your bottom dollar I'd be doing them all the time.

Christina said...

Try switching out and doing the dailies early for a few days. I'm working for the engineering schematics too, I know what you mean. Just another week and a bit and you'll be able to open that vendor. If they are making you crazy, do them with guildies and neglect your heroics a little for a week. Better than burnout.

Anonymous said...

I'm in a similar seat, I started doing dailies on 3 characters. My main, my second raiding character and my favourite alt who has Blacksmithing and I wanted the patterns.

But the last couple of days I've had other things to do in the evenings and I only managed to finish them on my main.

It's getting very very boring to do them on three characters, but I'm trying to bite through it - because I really want those BS patterns!

I agree that they really feel like a grind. I used to do Isle of Quel'Danas on 3 characters in TBC without blinking an eye for a looong tme. These already feel horrible.

(Btw are you aware that there is no option to write a comment using a name and URL? It means that self-hosted people without accounts can't comment)

Hana said...

ognome, I thought I'd turned out the ability to comment without logging in, but it looks like it was off. It's on now.