Yes, I went there.
So, Meghan and I grabbed the new WoW expansion sometime during the Christmas break. Mostly, we weren't happy playing Warhammer, and just wanted that lovin' feelin' back in our lives. I wanted to have fun playing my character again, and I wanted to do 5 mans. I love doing 5 man dungeons in WoW, and it is something I missed in Warhammer. I was not a big fan of the public quest/raid dungeons in Warhammer.
So, first impression of the expansion zones was basically /meh. In The Burning Crusade, I was blown away when I first stepped through the Dark Portal. It really felt like you stepped into a war zone, and you were now in the shit. In WotLK, you take a zep/boat from the main city, and are unceremoniously dropped into a new quest hub. Not quite the start I was expecting, coming from BC.
Anyway, we started into the old questing routine on our Horde Shaman/Mage combo. Mostly things were the same, but now it seems Blizzard has finished its process of quest polishing it got mostly right in TBC. What I mean is, gone are the annoying quests from classic WoW. No grinding the same mobs over and over for one quest item drop. No stupid, pointless fetch quests that just waste time. the vast majority of quests are worth your time, and offer a painless experience. They have also thrown in questing with vehicles, which could be anything from siege engines to being held in the hand of a giant while you the player control the giant instead of your actual character. The vehicle concept/interface can be slightly buggy at times, but it was nothing that got in the way of completing the quests. Usually, the vehicle quests were a nice, fun diversion from the typical quest grind.
The zones themselves, aside from the first blah impression, are pretty big, and diverse. The Borean Tundra, our first zone, feels like 6 different zones in one, as there are many different areas with their own theme. This is a nice change of pace from Hellfire Peninsula, the first zone in BC, which is a large zone of bland. Also, this zone has a total of 4 flight paths in it, which makes getting around a breeze, and this is certainly a welcome change of philosophy from the 1 flight path per zone idea in classic. The next zone we entered, Dragonblight, is another HUGE zone, and its mostly snowy, but breaks up the whiteness with the various dragonshrines throughout the zone, which are all pretty cool.
Dragonblight also introduces one of the coolest new features in WotLK, which is instancing within a non-instanced zone. (Maybe a good name would be "micro-instancing" ?). I'll give an example to explain. One area in Dragonblight is a gate that at first appears to be loaded with elite mobs. Then, as you go through a quest line, you actually get this awesome in game cut scene of the Horde and Alliance storming the gate, to kill off the Lich king's minions. but then the Lich King himself shows up, and the shit hits the fan. After the cutscene, the area around the gate is in ruins, things are on fire, and it is just generally messed up. Now, there are two instances of this area. One pre-cut scene, and one post-cut scene. Which one you enter depends on if you have gone through the quest line and saw the cut scene or not. And these instances are not just held for your character alone. Other players who have gone through the cutscenes with you will be able to see and interact with you like normal. But, you will not be able to see or interact with other players who have not yet gone through the quests, even though they are in the same area on the map. In order to see these other players, you need to exit the instance area. This is all done without load times or anything. It is not like entering a dungeon. it is all done seemless. It is a really cool feature. This eventually hist center stage in the Icecrown zone, where you basically have to unlock the entire zone in order to use it. You need to go through various quest lines to unlock towns and flight paths. And here, the progression takes various stages, not just 2 like in the Dragonblight event.
Instances in Wotlk are generally much easier than we have seen in the past. BC dropped us into Hellfire Ramparts to start, which has multiple 5 and 6 mob pulls throughout the instance, requiring a lot of CC and general mob management. In WotLK, however, CC is basically thrown out the window. Pretty much every pull now is an aoe pull, with the tank taking all 3-4 mobs at once, and everyone just killing the mobs aoe style. No CC or careful consideration required. This certainly makes things easier, and cuts down on group wipes in instances. Also, most instances now require around 45 minutes to complete. We don't see endless amounts of trash mobs like in classic and even BC instances. Bosses come almost in rapid succession in some instances, like Azjol Nerub, which can be cleared in about 30 minutes. So, basically 5 mans are a very casual friendly environment now, which end quickly and require little strategy. Heroic dungeons take the same form as the did in BC, with all dungeons being ramped up to lvl 80, and having a couple more surprises. Though again these are much easier than in BC. In BC, you really had to be on your game for heroics it seemed, and have some decent gear in-order to complete them. Now, heroics are basically just the next step once you hit 80. Even if you are undergeared for a heroic, if there are a couple geared people, they can basically pull the scrubs through until the end. So again, a much more casual approach to gameplay in WotLK.
Now we arrive at endgame. You hit 80, have some heroics under your belt, and now want to jump into doing raids. Again, this is much more casual friendly than in BC. Naxx is pugged all the time now. I could never imagine a pug doing MC in classic. I don't have much BC raid experience, but I couldn't imagine even then pugging Kara. Naxx is pretty easy, and again pretty much all trash pulls are aoe. Once you figure out the boss tricks, 2 out of 4 wings are basically trivial. Two of the wings are a bit tougher, and a coordinated guild is nice to have, but not required if people know the fights.
So, the basic consensus from the WoW community, especially hardcore raiders, is the WotLK is very easy. I mean, back in the day, if you were in a raiding guild, you were basically an elite on the server. Now, I see unguilded people running around in 25 man gear all the time. They just jump in pugs and do their thing. I personally went from fresh 80 to having almost all the gear I could want for my char in just 4 weeks of raiding. Granted, I jumped into a really good situation with a good guild, but others are doing it too. It doesn't take too much time or effort to get the phat lootz. Blizzard's philosophy seems like it is going like this now: don't exclude everyone but the most hardcore from seeing content. They want the majority of of players to be able to see the things they are developing. I mean, how many people have cleared the Black Temple? Not the majority of players, I can assure you. The new Tier 8 dungeon, Ulduar, seems like it is going to keep with this philosophy be having a "hard mode" for most bosses. This means to me that the content with be easy enough to get through for most people. Then, the elitists can do "hard mode" for bragging rights and a bit of extra loot. This is fine with me. I don't care about accomplishing every single thing in the game, as long as I can SEE the new things. I like having the experience of it all, I personally don't need to have completed it all 100%. As long as I have BEEN there, I'm happy as could be. Hopefully this will be possible as WotLK, and WoW itself, moves forward.
I can't comment too much on PvP, as I haven't done much endgame yet, but I'll make a few points. The new battleground, Strand of the Ancients, is fun as all hell. It is basically a mile gate/keep siege affair seen in DAoC/Warhammer, only sped up. Strand is really fun, and while not perfect, I can't knock it for what it is. Mythic wants to be the RvR king, with its keep warfare, but it forgot to add in the fun. Blizzard is all about the fun factor, and at the end of the day, that is what keeps me coming back. Wintergrasp is basically one big keep siege, and while it has a lot of technical issues, it again is fun. Attaching it to the Vault raid instance is also a good idea, and Vault offers another quick and easy way to get raid and pvp gear. If only my class/spec wasn't worthless for arena. But, Enhance Shaman have alsways been the bastard children of WoW, so I am used to it.
So, I am really happy with WotLK. I really have nothing to complain about. Blizzard has really listened to feedback, and has also thought ahead for itself, and the result is a great game experience. Mythic and Warhammer is missing the parts about thinking ahead, and thinking for itself, but of course Blizzard has always been known to release great products. It is hard to compete with that level of polish in a game. I am currently taking a break from playing so much WoW, but it is not a break of dislike, just a realization that I need some separation time before I got too sucked in. But, is it just too good, and I know I'll keep coming back after these breaks.
WoW remains king of MMOs, for better or worse.
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