St0rfan wrote:
2005:
- Noone used pre-raid bis gear. Warriors in valor gear etc.
- Noone used addons (bigwigs, decursive etc)
- Noone knew how to spec efficiently.
- Noone stacked consumables
- Noone used optimal enchants.
- Noone knew the tactics and mechanics of the bosses.
- Most people who played wow had never played an MMO before.
2016:
- Pre-raid bis is required by most guilds.
- Bigwigs is required by most guilds
- Class leads of most guilds will make sure people dont have a shitty spec.
- Consumables are required by most guilds.
- Optimal enchants is required by most guilds.
- Most people know the tactics.
- Most people have played several MMOs before.
As someone who raided vanilla naxx in a server top 5 guild I have to say I agree with this more than anything else, but not all of it. Most of it is right on the dot though, at least until we started getting deep into aq40.
Pre-BiS - Agreed- My guild was full of Grand Marshals which is really good gear but our dps still lacked hit, our tanks lack defense, our healers lacked, well a lot except stamina lol. Even so, the non-r14 pretty much all had t0 when we stepped into MC, which I only realized once I came to nost (because I haven't looked at it in so long), is actually pretty much shit eh.
No-Addons: Disagree - We used boss mods for sure, I know a lot of us used cc timers among other things as well.
Specced efficiently : Agreed- Most of our dps was pvp spec. We all pvp every day for hours until raid time and then went back to pvp. Our raids consisted of many Retadins and Arms warriors. There was a point when I played a combat daggers & swords at the same time. (I had deaths sting mh, and tf in my oh)
Consumables : Agreed - I dont think we really got heavy into the consumbles until late aq or naxx. The only real times I remember farming for elixers or food was during chromag (cause we wiped on him for a few weeks) and then again for battleguard sartura and pretty much everything after because thats about when we started really becoming competitive. Even then tho, thistle tea? I farmed that shit specifically for pvp there was no way I wasted it in a raid. tsk tsk.
Optimal enchants : Agreed , Maybe? - Personally I think I just put whatever most agility or damage increase on my gear. So they were probably pretty close to optimal I'm not sure really. I think I had crusader on both my weapons so not that great tho.
Boss mechanics : Agreed - I didn't know shit. We wipe a bunch and learn. Later on when we became more competitive we would research first before but there was still little information because they were still new to everyone who didn't use ptr. I think this is probably the one of the biggest things though. Back then, it was the FIRST time doing any of these bosses. Now these bosses are 11 years old and most of you have done them by now even if it was at higher levels and a breeze you still seen and experienced what happens and its easier to deal with because of that. On top of that, the mechanics of the fights currently available on Nost are not complicated by any means. Even 5 man dungeon bosses in retail have more complicated mechanics. If you have experienced any bosses from tbc and beyond you probably have the ability to adapt to current Nost boss mechanics rather easily, even if you havent seen them before.
First MMO : Agreed - Especially for north americans I think. Although a lot of us came from lineage I did not meet many people who had played anything before wow. This probably gave our guild a slight advantage and may be why we pulled a head of many others.
I think what it really comes down to is that most of us know how to play WoW now. Back then, even if I was r14 and a naxx raider, I will now admit I was total garbage compared to my skill now. Huge noob really, but every expansion I played I got better. Wisdom comes with experience and age, and after 12 years of wow I think we can all agree that we are simply just better players now.
