Remove Stealth from Stonetalon Environmentalist

[Akalix]

My suggestion is simple: Remove (or make much weaker) the stealth on the Stonetalon Environmentalists around the Goblin starting area. They are too difficult for a starter area, as new players can easily be caught off guard and overwhelmed while still acclimating to a new character. Additionally, they just feel bad to play again.

If it would be possible to make their stealth a LOT weaker to keep the appearance but remove the danger, that would be best in my opinion.

[Lahire]

getgud

Danger is part of the core objectives of vanilla wow design. These mobs are as stealthed as STV panthers. That's a neat detail and surprised me. With the goblin racial it's easy to not die to them anyway. So I don't think this qualifies as a real problem, as it is aligned with the design objectives and is part of a race that can flee. "Remove the danger" is never an option if you want vanilla to stay vanilla.

You could even say these mobs are here to "teach" goblin players how to run from an encounter. And they teach caution too. They are good teachers.

[Tarluk]

Danger is part of the core objectives of vanilla wow design.

No other starting 1-5 zone has stealthed mobs. Hell, no other starting zone has hostile mobs outside of a very specific, isolated area quite a distance away from the main hub. Yet the goblin starting zones not only has hostile mobs very close to the hub and neutral mobs, not only has them in extremely close proximity to each other so that pulling 2 mobs at once is not only likely but inevitable, but also has them stealthed. And you're expected to be able to deal with that when the only spell you have is Fireball or Heroic Strike. Ok.

These mobs are as stealthed as STV panthers. You could even say these mobs are here to "teach" goblin players how to run from an encounter. And they teach caution too. They are good teachers.

The STV panthers are actually spaced quite far apart so that if you aggro one, there aren't gonna be 4 invisible panthers within a 15-yard radius of it that you'll also aggro. Not so for the Stonetalon environmentalists. Why is a midgame level 35 area with very similar types of enemies much easier on the player than a level 3 area for people literally just starting on playing the game? Probably because the level 35 area had more thought put into it and wasn't flooded with enemies just for the sake of it.

And besides, the whole bloody "Classic is some super dangerous hardcore MMO" idea is so bloody overplayed. It was literally designed to be the casual MMO, and that's why it's so good. Hell, it's honestly way more casual-friendly than Retail is, contrary to popular opinion.

What, would it be a good idea to just double the amount of mobs in every single mob area so that you need to take a 4-man group everywhere you go just to be able to quest, for the sake of being "super dangerous hardcore" or whatever? Surely not.

And obviously, I'm not trying to blame the Turtle devs for the goblin starting zone not being the most well-designed. The little 1-5 zone that you get past in 40 minutes isn't the important part, it's the cool new races. But I think that outright praising the idea that swarming new characters with tons of stealthed hostile mobs which have no right being there because "muh difficulty" is dumb and really misses the point of Vanilla design.

[Rytz]

It was a bit jarring my first time leveling in the goblin starter area with those mobs but after a couple levels and a bit better gear, they weren't really a big deal. You learn where the spawn points are. This was as a warrior, so I can't speak for the other classes. I actually laughed my first time through when I realized they were environmentalists.

I think those mobs and their stealth mechanic add a bit of flavor to the rest of the mobs in the starter zone. Just my two cents. Perhaps the first row of those environmentalists (closest to the vendors) could be removed, moved back, or have their count reduced so that you have easier access to that first row of plant mobs.

[Markuis]

I died to them a few times as a rogue. I suggest reducing their move speed, so that if you pull too many you can run away. Makes sense to just let you run away and reset, then plan again the approach method. Also, there are points where you can pull 3 at a time without noticing until it's too late.