Been playing wow on and off since vanilla. I have canceled my account twice, came back for wrath, canceled and came back for this expansion. I have been playing on and off since the expansion came out and overall this is how I rate the game at this time. Note that if you have never played wow - it is a highly evolving game. The game now is much much different in look and feel than it was six years ago.
First impressions:
New zones - including all the new low level zones are a big plus. Leveled up a toon from level 1 (first time in years I have done so) just to see the new content. A big five out of five for the efforts in creating a new environment in the old world. The new 80-85 zones overall are very well done, there is a zone like a giant fish tank where you ride around on a sea horse and quest, there is a zone like ancient Egypt, and there is a zone in the depths of the earth like a monstrous cave. The zones are all well done, the only gripe I have is that of the 80-85 stuff, there really isn't much of it. It seems kind of claustrophobic compared to wrath. (To note I had 5 toons at level 80 when I came back, and have leveled three of them to 85). Overall is a 4.5 out of 5 for this new content.
Quests - the questing mechanics have been refined with this expansion. No more random - go kill 12 of these for loot - and it doesn't link into any type of story. They have gone through great lengths to build stories for zones - including the revamped low level ones. These are done fairly well - there is a new Indiana Jones rip off story in the Egypt zone which is fun to play through, and most of the others are generally entertaining. Overall a 4 out of 5.
Leveling - very, very easy compared to what it used to be. You level up so fast now that you will probably not finish the quest lines in the zone you are in before you can move on to the next one. Not a bad idea - a lot of players that have been playing a long time have many alts, and it sucks when it takes a long time to level them up through the same zones you have quested through before on other characters. Possible downside for new players, but overall I think it is a plus. You also level as a guild now, which I think may be one of the best additions to the leveling, group scheme. As you level, you contribute to your guild level. As your guild levels, you get perks to all of your toons in that guild - faster mount speed, faster cooldowns to hearth stones, less money to pay for repairs, etc. Very good addition. Overall a 4 out of 5.
New racials, talent trees, etc. The worgens (werewolves for alliance) look fairly good, and their new starting zone is really well put together. The goblins are the humorous addition to the hoard, and again their starting area is well done. The talent trees have been revamped for what must be the 10th or more complete overall. This is a really good thing for those of you who may never have played - you get talents for your class (paladin gets talent trees in healing, damage dealing, and tanking) and as you level up you are able to put talent points in these trees and get new abilities. Blizz is very keen on trying for balance - that paladin tank should be about the same in capability as other tanks (warriors, druids and death knights) so you don't get ostracized if everyone thinks your class sucks at something. Blizz constantly tweaks talents and classes to try and keep everyone at a fairly even level. So if your paladin tank can't tank very well, its probably your skills as a tank versus just being a paladin. Not much really fundamentally new here except the trees have been revamped, the skill points come a little slower, and balance has been reworked. Is it perfect? no - probably never will be. But its an improvement and overall a 4 out of 5.
New dungeons - If you played in wrath, you remember the zergfest it became. ZOMG!! spam aoe (area of effect damage spells) over and over and over and kill the boss and get epic loot. Was fun for about a week then became very stale. Healers had infinite mana and it was no challenge. They listened to the player base and made the new 80+ dungeons more difficult. The normal setting really isn't that bad. Its a challenge to a new group of players, perhaps that have never been in the dungeon before. They may actually wipe a few times, and you have to learn a few fights to do them well. On heroic however, the challenge has been ramped up significantly. You really have to know your job (i.e. tanking, healing, or damage dealing) to succeed. You also have to understand the mechanics of the fight - where to stand, where to tank, if there is something you have to do (like interrupt a boss spell, stand in a beam, don't stand on spawning bombs, etc.) then the whole party must do it and do it well or you will fail. There was a random group generator implemented in wrath that has worked reasonably well, however there are several mechanics that blizz has not been able to resolve. They are the following: bad players, bad players, bad players, and que times. First, I will overview the que times since it directly impacts the first three. Of the three jobs (heals, tank, and damage), the jobs that are generally looked at as more difficult are tanking and healing. Tanking you generally have much more to do than damage dealing so its looked at as harder. Plus, if you suck as a tank, the rest of the group cannot carry you like they might be able to do for a bad dps. Secondly, healing is much harder than in wrath. There is no infinite mana pool anymore, so if your party is taking a lot of damage (which happens a lot) you will run out of mana and the party will wipe. The pro of either of these two jobs is your que times in the random generator are very fast, from instant to maybe 5 minutes. DPS on the other hand can wait anywhere from 40 minutes to over an hour just to get one spot to run a dungeon. So, what you end up having are players that are of a class that can either be a tank, heal, or dps. They tire of the dps que so que up as a tank or heals - and suck at it. They don't know the dungeon or they dont know the mechanics of the new job or even how to play their new spec well. The real negative here is that you can run 5 dungeons off the random generator and not finish any of them. To complete with a semi-competent group (one that knows their jobs and knows the dungeon and has decent gear) it can take 2-3 hours to finish. SO you can invest quite a bit of time... for pretty much nothing. Overall rating of this area at this time of gameplay - dungeon running - is 3 out of 5. There is another option - run with guildies only, but if you work and are not one of those people that play 12 hours a day, it may be difficult for everyone to do this.
Progression. Here is my real gripe with the new expansion and why I have quit previously in burning crusade and wrath. There are numerous ways to get loot to increase the power of your character once you reach max level of 85. You can grind faction rep (a faction is a group that generally gives quests in a zone, as you gain reputation with that faction, you can buy increasingly good loot from them as you gain reputation with them) for epic level loot at exalted status. You can run heroic dungeons for very good loot (not epic but just below it) and you can craft it. (you can also raid for the best loot in the game, but at the moment I think most people aren't there yet) Reputation is probably the easiest way to get a few decent epic items, you wear a tabard and as you run dungeons you gain reputation as you kill monsters. You can also quest in the zone that reputation is affiliated with and gain reputation. The second is heroic farming where you get loot from boss kills, justice badges, and valor badges. Valor badges you can only get 70 of per day, regardless of how many heroics you successfully complete. Justice badges you get approximately 200 of for each heroic boss kill or 70 per day for a regular dungeon completion. With the justice badges you can get very good loot (the same level you get from completing a heroic dungeon). With valor badges you can get epic gear, including a few pieces of tier gear. The third way is crafting items. It can take a lot of farming materials to level your blacksmith, alchemist, or tailor all the way up to max level and make the few epic level recipes allocated to each crafting profession. Some people hate it, I liked it. It gives you something to work on - chip at a little each day and a week or two later you have a nice piece of gear. You can also sell many of these items for a lot of gold (prices are way over inflated at the moment in game). The whole downside to this is after you reach a certain point - there is nothing to do. My main toon has exalted rep with every faction, has completed enough heroic dungeons to buy one piece of tier gear, and has very good or epic gear on all slots. My guild I have my toon in is not raiding yet (these are the hardest 10 or 25 man dungeons in the game) and are doing heroics, but I am really not much of a raider. Did that in wrath hardcore for about 2 months and just stopped. It was a job and got to be not very fun.
But this pretty much boils it down for me. I like starting out fresh with the expansions, they are great fun for about 2 months. Then you start to slow down. Your toon is maximum level, you have gotten to the point in wow where the non-grind stuff is over, and it becomes the same thing, day after day, to get any upgrades for your toon. You can make alts, level them up through the same content, but again that gets old after a bit. whether raiding the same bosses over and over or doing (or trying to do) the same heroic dungeons over and over for those 70 valor badges, it becomes a mind numbing grind.
Read more ›