For many players, Monday the 26th is Launch Day for the War Within, the tenth World of Warcraft expansion. Got your checklist?
I’m ready with 15 level 70s thanks to the Radiant Echoes event. There were three more characters I would have liked to level up, but I have run out of time, and patience with doing the event. They will just have to saunter through the world in the usual way.
I’ve been reading the World of Warcraft General Discussion forums, keenly interested in what the early access players think of the War Within.
Much of the discussion has been about how horrible it was to split the opening of the expansion based on monetary considerations. Some from the Whales (such a funny term) who bought it, and are playing now, some from customers who couldn’t afford it.
It’s not the sort of thing a company is going to go back on, making more money, so next year it will be made available again, but won’t be such a topic of discussion, is my prediction.
Lots of people saying it’s too fast and easy.
Comments on the quality of the writing.
There are players out there having a great time, which I think will be representative of most people Monday evening onwards.
If you haven’t watched this interview, it’s entertaining and informative, two old friends sitting down for a chat. I’ve not heard of Scott Johnson or The Instance Podcast before this. It is making a comeback as The Instance 2.0.
What’s not to like when the podcast starts off saying “let’s rebirth this corpse”. I listened to all but about fifteen minutes of it (it got late). It covers World of Warcraft alone, though it seems it used to cover other games as well. These guys are huge enthusiasts of the game, and knowledgeable. It will be out once a month. Enjoy.
Thanks to the dreamy days spent in Classic Wrath and now Cataclysm, I’ve spent almost no time in the Dragon Isles.
I created a Dracthyr, did the intro sequence, which I liked, then I landed, plunk! in the starter area where my Dracthyr stands, awaiting a successful run at the quest that teaches you how to COAST. Or, how to be sucked down to the ground before you can say Dragonblight.
The character who got the farthest questing in the Dragon Isles has made it to the Ruby Life Pools.
I can’t think of another expansion area where I just never felt like I was getting anywhere, no matter how hard I tried. Have not crafted a single item. I of course have lower levels who will eventually come to this land, maybe it will all seem easier then.
Apparently happy with the Gul’dan re-tread idea, Shadowlands put Sylvanas, recently of Battle For Azeroth Big Bad stature, into the fore for the new expansion.
We can’t get enough of her, can we? As an all Alliance player, I was so disappointed to see her again. If there is an explanation for why she opened the veil between life and death, what she gained, I can’t find it. As far as I could see, via cinematics as we went along, looking at forum posts and Reddit, her purpose was to be a mustache twirling villain in service to The Jailer.
I found myself railing against the game version of an Afterlife, even if it was specifically Azeroth’s afterlife. It made no sense. What exactly was the purpose of each zone? Wowhead’s explanation is as good as any:
Just thinking of writing this post got me in a bad mood. I wrote of the zones:
Bastion: Twisted Angels
Maldraxxus: Traditional chest beating warriors
Ardenweald: Fricking squeaky fairies
Revendreth: Cartoonish torment
One the plus side, this expansion is where I kept my top five main characters in step with each other, level by level, and I enjoyed that.
I was heavily into the tradeskills of the game, and kept everyone in the best armor I could make, potions were plentiful. Here’s another expansion where I thoroughly enjoyed fishing and cooking.
The real big bad of the expansion, one that ranks as the worst thing Blizzard has done, is the LEVEL SQUISH. These characters who had been adventuring for years dropped overnight from level 120 to level 50.
It stills rankles, of course, as Cataclysm Classic gets you to level 85, while you are about to start the newest expansion to date at level 70.
Luckily for those who love World of Warcraft, World of Warcraft Classic was released on August 26, 2019. Shadowlands released November 23, 2020. Once you’d played through as much Shadowlands as you could stand, there was Classic, in all of its upcoming iterations to see you though.
Skipping over the horror show that was the destruction of Darnassus, and the battle zone that is now Darkshore, Battle For Azeroth was a fun and immersive expansion for me.
Each zone was distinctive, and I really enjoyed Talia as an enthusiastic guide. A character I disliked was Flynn, particularly in the torturous segment when he sways and swaggers drunkenly in a circle forever in Tiragarde Sound. Loved the city of Freehold though and he wasn’t quite as obnoxious there.
Loved Drustvar with its witchy storyline so much. The Waycrest Manor dungeon was so great the first time I was in it, so much like Disney’s The Haunted Mansion. After the 80th run through, it’s not so entertaining.
I of course hated Mechagon, and saw a post pop up recently that I think showed how wrathful the place made me every time I went there. It’s the only Alliance Allied Race I don’t have. It bugs me not to have it, but grrr! I can’t find the post now, of course, but I see looking at BFA posts I was unhappy about character model changes and the Stat Squish. Ha, if only we’d known just how squished we would be soon enough! Maybe moving into BFA and Shadowlands Classic versions, they’d say to themselves ” we were wrong to do this” and they don’t. I have to say they play awfully fast and loose with the Blah Blah “with some changes”
I liked the crafting system here. Cooking was particularly fun to do. There were Tradeskill Quests!
Boralis itself is the best designed city that Blizzard has done, I think. It’s nice to sit in the tavern and swill some brew and have a boardgame set up. Such nice touches. Great music every time you enter the city.
After the opening scenarios, and great cinematics (I’m including my two favorites) which proposed a Battle For Azeroth with Alliance vs Horde, the battle went away and you were in a dreamy pirate themed game where no one cared about your allegiances and alliances. As it should be.
I love this cinematic for Sylvana’s incredible moments leaping to the catapult tower, firing down and destroying it, then leaping down and inspiring her Horde troops. That moment when they see her, and pick up arms again. Way cool
Also, Anduin’s mass rez of his allies! That’s what I’m talking about, Boy King!
There are many fine cinematics for this expansion, but the other I’m including is from this same battle sequence, when Jaina appears out of a cloud in a flying ship, frosts the blight, then turns the ghost ship’s cannons on the walls of Lordaeron. Shivered me timbers, it did. 🙂
For some reason, I really disliked Legion and only came back to it after Blizzcon announced Battle for Azeroth to level and gear up my main characters.
I think it had mostly to do with crafting. I hated that you had to go into the PvP zone of the Underbelly to advance in tradeskills. You also had to go in dungeons and raids. This is where I actually tried LFR, because I had to.
Another drawback for me was being locked into using a single weapon for the entire expansion: The Artifact Weapon. It really bothered me that if you were a Beast Master Hunter, which I always am, your weapon was a gun. No bow for you. Ever. You’d grind and grind to add xp to the Artifact weapon to make it more powerful, getting nowhere, so it seemed to me.
I was no fan of the return of Gul’dan, not to mention that the Burning Legion seemed a close re-tread of Draenor’s The Iron Horde.
My favorite Legion zones were Stormheim, Azsuna and Suramar. Val’sharah and Highmountain were largely unenjoyable.
In Highmountain, Mayla Highmountain just drove me crazy with her mopey Eeyore imitation. Wah wah wah, endlessly. Only the Nesingwary quests there were fun to do.
A huge plus for the expansion were Demon Hunters, with a great backstory and a play style unlike any other.
Argus was a huge disapointment after hearing Drenai talking about it longingly for so long. An absolutely hellish place. I hated that no matter where you went, Argus hung in the sky. What a relief it isn’t there anymore. Now the Sword Looms.
Here is the cinematic for Legion. The expansion was originally announced at Gamescon in Germany in 2015 but the announcement and ceremony were awkward, I thought, though the audience was massive. The cinematic made me like Varian Wrynn for the first time.
Hope you weren’t expecting some long droning post about my favorite expansion, but I don’t roll that way. I have always hated writing essays, and I rebel against them even now when no one can make me write them. What I do have is trouble writing about things I really love. Book, TV Show, game. Poof goes my ability to say a thing. This post is a rambling mess, but hey, it’s my rambling mess.
Draenor! You meet traveling companions early on, Yrel, Thaelin Darkanvil, Khadgar, Vindicator Maraad, Shelly Hamby, Foreman Zipfizzle. These may not be the “main” characters of the expansion except Yrel, but they go right with you from zone to zone to help you establish an Outpost. You feel like you’re not in it alone.
Garrison: From a humble outpost…
To a huge castle:
You can build and customize your first home in World of Warcraft to a great extent. Everyone wanted more, including Guild Halls, and for me, please add on that Pandaria like farm. They ignored all that and moved on, didn’t they?
Another fine feature was the Mission table, which used to have really good rewards, including monetary ones. So much fun. Better yet, as you adventured through Draenor you met characters from previous travels, going all the way back to Elwynn Forest. These companions walk through your garrison, chatting, eating and drinking. Always nice to come home to your old pals.
The Shipyards were fun for quite awhile, I loved getting access to new ships.
It took me awhile to appreciate the Tanaan Jungle, but once I embraced it, I spent a lot of time there with my characters.
The crafting system was my favorite (except the bizarre rule you could only wear three pieces of crafted gear.) Cooking with the “discovery” of new recipes is the best ever. I loved fishing and went out to the zone where the daily quest was rather than standing around in my garrison fishing once that was available. I had my favorite spots.
Inscription got drop kicked in this expansion though, suddenly you were just making Darkmoon Cards, and a couple of other things. No scrolls or Glyphs.
This expansion had more memorable quests than any I can think of. Every zone was different and packed. Shadowmoon, Talador and Spires of Arak are my favorites.
While I’ve been away playing Classic, my characters who have Garrisons have all gone there to sit snuggly in front of their fires. One thing that Classic did was make me very tired of setting my characters down in taverns, sometimes awakening them to find someone also sitting in their chair, eew.
Note: Draenor is currently buggy, you can get trapped there, or stuck in the landscape trying to re-enter the Garrison. Hot tip, fly in from another flight spot rather than trying to go in the front or back door. How a ten year old expansion became so bugged when no work at all should have been done on it to change anything is bizarre. On the plus side, if they do a Classic version of it, it should be fine. Also, last thing, early on the tons of treasure chests in each zone had TREASURE in them! Weapons, armor, gold! At some point all they had in them were Garrison Resources. Shame on whoever made that change. Scrooge!
I’ve been working this week to level first my Warbands “favorites” aka The Campfire Girls. Then I listed my highest level crafter from whatever realm they might be on, and leveled those.
Next up the Tailor, Blacksmith, and Leatherworker from the Guild Realms (Blackwater Raiders, Earthen Ring, Proudmoore) if they haven’t been done yet. I’m guessing I will be able to get all the main crafting characters from those Guild Realms (as I’m now calling them) done before the 26th.
Eight characters to 70 so far. I got them what gear they could get from their time in the Event, prioritizing head, chest, weapon first.
I’m loving power leveling this way. Should be in great shape for The War Within.
We alternate hosting a game day with my son and his wife. All board games till we were at their house last time and it was Mario Cart. Racing games have never been my strong point though I always admire the tracks.
Hosts pick the game and offer snacks. For some reason we haven’t picked one yet but will by the time you read this, as I write the night before.
I can say that some games have been banned, usually because of random rule changes by a member of the party.
Pictionary
Settlers of Cataan
Spy Alley
Sorry
Clue, perhaps, there was some hinkiness last time.
Ha Pandemic which we never really got to, but now nobody could tolerate it.
Can’t get anyone to play Betrayal At House on the Hill because it’s mean for one of the players to betray the others.
Could be more.
On the plus side, there will be cake:
Homemade Mac and Cheese, Lil’ Smokies in BBQ sauce, Hot Queso and Tostitos, Rice Krispy Treats, Cheese and Crackers, pumpkin pie, green grapes. Gotta snack to play.
Technical Difficulties galore. Also need more time to do Draenor, my favorite expansion, some justice. Expect a couple of fuzzy posts. Ya, ya, they’re all fuzzy.
I will put here the traditional Blizzcon announcement for the expansion. It features a Chris Metzen cheered wildly by the crowd, but by the end they all look sleepy. I actually was so bored by the rambling presentation I fast forwarded it to see if it got better. Zzzzz. Weird sound issues too. Echoey.
Additionally, the cinematic for Draenor doesn’t do it justice, or tell you what it’s about at all.
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