Patch 5.4 is really not the greatest patch released, for me at least. The new Siege of Orgrimmar raid is more tedious than something I look forward to and LFR has been in the pits. I find the Timeless Isle to be draining rather than an exciting spot to hang out. Most of the time, I’m waiting for a queue to pop while running around chasing rares. The few quests offered on the Timeless Isle are nothing more than grinds and depend on your timing. In short, I’m already bored of this patch.
My experience with the Siege of Orgrimmar mostly has been through flex. I’m glad I was able to join my friend’s guild for some progression in that manner since LFR has been more or less poisoned with all the nutcases remaining who are filth scraped from a sewer. But even with that, the big problem with the Siege of Orgrimmar for me is that it still feels more of the same. You’re locked into an instance which you farm continuously for loot. While I understand the concepts behind raiding, I feel that the Siege of Orgrimmar was handled completely wrong.
The problem is that it’s instanced. It’s such a stupid concept because it forces you into another Disney funneled-like experience. All the encounters inside are mostly with meaningless bosses except for maybe 3-4. The rest are just walls you must shoot through in extremely excruciating ways. Take Spoils, Siegebreaker or Thok for instance. They might make for interesting encounters to the developers but why are they even there? They feel out-of-place in terms of rhythm and just so randomly inserted like an experiment. Also, what the hell was Immerseus? It might be an easy encounter but most people already hate it after being around for a few weeks.
The other problem is that Blizzard once again put their eggs into a single basket for handling this encounter by making it a raid. It just feels so stupid because you have Orgrimmar when it’s not instanced and Orgrimmar when it’s instanced. Why should it change because you enter into a little portal? The fact that they want you to continuously grind through heavily controlled/funneled experiences is what makes me hate this game and get burnt out at times.
I would’ve handled Siege of Orgrimmar completely different by actually making it a real siege. Blizzard already has the perfect model in Wintergrasp. So I’m terribly surprised they didn’t do something like that for this encounter. I mean, why not make it into a combined PVE/PVP event and try something new? If you took Wintergrasp but added elements from the original Alterac Valley into it (the one that lasted for days), you could’ve had a really epic encounter.
So my idea would’ve be to join either Garrosh’s faction or the opposing faction. Battles would be endless and horde players would be forced to go to other cities to do things like auctions, etc. unless they sided with Garrosh, at which point they would be considered enemies of the opposing factions and treated with a PVP flag similar to the flag on the item. Similarly, for alliance, you could possibly choose to betray the opposition and the alliance in the ultimate backstab by siding with Garrosh. By doing this, you would be able to communicate with other Garrosh horde players while non-traitorous alliance players could communicate with traitorous horde players. I mean, why should only two NPCs get recognition by King Varien for opposing Garrosh’s horde?
On either side, you would get normal resources like ore, herbs, etc. which provides XXX number of points. Once you reach a certain amount of points, you can use those resources for healing troops, creating weapons like siege machines or armor. Certain daily quests might allow you to utilize those points in commanding skirmishes. With better armor, weapons and supplies, you can do more damage against Orgrimmar and their forces (or vice versa), in turn behaving like a mini warcraft 3 type of scenario/game. You could maximize your resources by extending your participation in the event, thus being able to accumulate other points over time.
Orgrimmar would be destructable so the walls would have hit points and can be permanently torn down (or until someone on that side would spend resources to rebuild it). Once enough of the infrastructure is weakened, you would be able to invade, facing waves of Garrosh horde forces as well as being able to fight key NPCs. The key NPCs would act like world bosses where anyone can assault them or defend them (depending on which side you take). You could even make Garrosh an instanced boss, but I’d prefer to keep him in the open where boss sides could defend or assault him. Although you can technically “kill” Garrosh, he would be resurrected by his priests, allowing a sensible flow to farming him. Only by whittling down his priests can you extend his defeat.
For each type of event and world boss you’d kill as well as downing mobs, you would obtain points similar to Timeless Coins. The points you get would allow you to purchase either PVP or PVE gear. It would be completely up to you. Of course, vanity gear, pets and mounts would be included.
Some other things that could occur are ranks that you would build up. Ranks would permit you to perform more feats over time. They might behave in a similar fashion to how the Molten Front operated where you would complete the dailies to receive points in order to unlock the next section. In this case, you would start as a grunt and make your way up to a commanding officer similar to the Horde quests in Stonetalon Mountains. Ranks allow you to do other activities such as handle catapults and siege weapons, increase the number of soldiers you’d receive, give your more purchasing power for better equipment for your soldiers. The higher ranking activities would provide more points over time.
One possible feat of strength would behave similar to the insane title where you can rep grind on both sides. This would allow players to switch back and forth and experience both factions’ point of view.
The siege would last roughly a week where you can take down walls and work your way towards Garrosh. You could kill Garrosh on the first day as well but each time you make your way inward, he grows more powerful. Every week there will be a reset where Garrosh manages to obtain more supplies somehow (beyond what the people on his side provide). Eventually, he’ll create a fully functional Death Star-like citadel while the opposing faction would be able to create their own counterweapon. When the citadel reaches this level, Garrosh too will assume his ultimate form (the one you see in the actual Siege of Orgrimmar raid) and will be really difficult (but not impossible) to kill.
It’s a shame Blizzard wasn’t creative enough to see the opportunity in front of them for this type of encounter. Instead, they went with their so-called safe route and just created another boring “avoid shit on ground, do rotation” raid that you’ll farm until the expansion comes out. Eventually, that raid will because nothing more than a static dance whereas my idea makes the Siege come to life with it’s dynamic nature.