Returning Player - Where Do I start? Feeling Lost

[Xenocide7 2]

Hey peeps,

Side Note: Very long post, so please see the bold below for the summary, thanks.

I played the beginning of Legion but was a complete noob; probably did the wrong things by playing the game too traditionally perhaps and saying no to the original content. I played through a lot of WoD without even touching my garrison (to be fair, I only played for nostalgia, making gold, and PvP).

Anyway, I returned last week after a 7 month hiatus, and it all feels overwhelming to jump back into it all. It's a little depressing when you see all these other ecstatic players getting excited about things I'm not even doing or am aware of.

To begin with I focused on getting gear, but then the next minute I see loads of players flying, so I feel left out yet again and start farming for the pathfinder achievement. Can you believe I had 0/11 chapters for Surumar when I stopped playing in October? Simply wasn't interested - big mistake. I thought I could grind it out like the old days, but unfortunately I have to wait for things (like WQs) to refresh or reappear. They always seem to appear at the wrong time, or disappear at the wrong time. 

And then I see pro players excited about all the legenadries they've got, while they open a tremendous amount of bags that drop loads of gear and nethershards and possible legendaries. So now I'm like, great, so should I be doing the legionfall campaign instead and sack the Suramar content and whatnot altogether? Especially with all this mage tower business and 7.2 artifact stuff - no idea what it all means. 

Then there's the question of mythic+, which I've never done. Not to mention normal, heroic and mythic raids I haven't done at all which probably requires a guild. I'm completely overwhelmed right now and have no idea what I should be doing. I don't like feeling left out and I can't dedicate all the time I have available (which is actually what I consider a lot right now) to every single thing I can do.

I've (somewhat proudly) managed to get from something like 835 to 883 just by doing WQs and Hc dungeons with the occasional LFR (though a lot of my gear is crafted 8/8). I have two legendaries; one I bought on the AH cos I felt embarrassed to not even have at least one and another I got today which turns out to be the worst in slot for my class (brilliant).

TL;DR: Essentially, I don't know what I should be doing first. I feel lost. I can't do everything at once. I've enjoyed playing solo on and off for the past few years, but I'm at a point now where I feel like just joining a guild to make life easier. But there's no way I can guarantee 3 and a half hours for a raid without being interrupted where I'll have to stop. I also can't guarantee the normal raid nights.Usually Tuesdays and Wednesdays, right?

So my questions are: What do you guys think I should be doing, and what have you found to be the quickest way to catch up and lessen the feeling of being really left behind? I had the raiding experience back in cata, and feel like I've 'been there done that'. But there's a lot to Legion that's making want to be back up there again. Perhaps I'm wrong, but maybe I'm playing the game too traditionally, where you used to just do normal dungeons, to HCs, to then getting in to raids. Now there's so many other possibilities I feel overwhelmed by it all - especially knowing a lot of it is time-gated.

 

P.S Apologies for the long post and ranting. I'm such a noob now it's unbelievable, haha.

Thank you for your time and I appreciate any help on the matter.

Edited May 6, 2017 by Xenocide7

[Blitz 1]

So, I feel for ya.  I came back to wow after 6 years away (left prior to Panda), and was completely overwhelmed (didn't even know what this artifact weapon thing was).  All I can say, is after playing hard core (I only work 3 nights a week), I am iLvL 897, flying, and am doing Mythic 10+.

The secret... just do the quests, run through the story (even if thats not your thing), you will get geared as you go.  When you have time, do some companion quests/class hall (because you want to gain there levels for later).  

When (if you are not) lvl 110, do a few LFG dungeons until your ilvl is high enough for heroics, then jump right into mythics (they are really easy when you know the fights and are geared min. for them.  

Literally a couple weeks of hardcore playing (or months at casual), and you can be back on top.  At least that was my experience, and I think I was behind you (I did't even know what a garrison or class hall was).  

Good luck!

 

Edit: 

P.S. Icy-Veins is your friend.  You may still need to use wowhead from time to time for quest help, but it is laggy as s*** with all their scripts/adds.

Edited May 6, 2017 by Luthixx
Language

[Tehzoi 1]

The red thread throughout years of BlizzCon is that theyre disappointed people don't get to see their content. So pretty much play the content. Do the storylines, do the class quests, the world quests, etc, all these things will eventually contribute and unlock the wanted things, gear, flying, etc, because I think in the end they realized this was the only way to 'force' people to see all the things they worked so hard on.

So basically don't try and farm or focus on one thing. If you do the zone/faction wq every few days, you can get chance for legendaries from the boxes, contribute to rep, and all other quest rewards. If you do the hc/m you get quests for from your class hall, you get a bit of gear and progress your AP. Also things related to latest patch content or latest raid content, is often good. It's just a little bit of everything, and do it in moderation. Get out of the mind set of mass farming or doing just one thing.

Also in the adventure guide, you can find suggested content.

[Xenocide7 2]

I see. So what I gather from your post is I should carry on with the Surumar stuff and generally all the 7.1 stuff, and then move onto Legionfall after?

And yeah, I'll have to do Mythic+! In fact, I might make it a priority tonight. I do have a +2 key, so I might start with that. I'm wondering if my skills as a player have waned mainly because I'm doing easy content. HCs aren't challenging anymore like they were in Cata and Wotlk.

Thanks for the tips!

[Stan 5,240]

@Xenocide7 I wrote a guide for Returning Players & Alts that may be helpful. It's updated for 7.2 and talks about Artifact Knowledge, gearing up and more.

[Xenocide7 2]

Yeah I read that guide you made, Stan, and it kind of made me more undecided on what to do first, haha. But I think that's just me being silly, rather than your guide.

Have to give props to Blizzard for making me play through so much of the main quests and content. It's certainly worked. Even if you wanted to just do PvP (my main objective in the beginning of Legion) you had to do the main stuff. I've got a little more direction thanks to you all! I'm having fun in Mythic + and rep grinding to eventually fly. Though I feel like I've seen pretty much everything of the content and Broken Isles, so I'm not sure what they're trying to gain by making me grind the same WQs for 20,000 more rep to continue the Surumar questline so I can fly. I get that in order to fly you should have to see everything first, but I think that happens way before near-exalted with Surumar. Perhaps they should make the quests in Surumar come available earlier.

I've completely left Legionfall and only done the invasions for nethershards so I might have to jump into that sooner rather than later.

Anyway, thanks again, peeps.

Edited May 8, 2017 by Xenocide7

[Akanos 0]

Hey, I just went through the same thing as you! Only difference is when I played Legion for the first month or two I did PvE, so I got some of the areas done. Anyways, my guild is made up of people like you! If you would like to play with us you would fit right in, a lot of us are a bit behind and are still learning a lot of legion stuff.

I'm also on the same boat as you, trying to grind out my Sarumar quest line. I want that flying though...

Anyways if you are interested in playing with us let me know, some of us are as lost as you are. We are on Alliance, and we do raid on weekends if you are interested in that!