Image: Activision Blizzard
World of Warcraft’s tenth expansion has been out for a little over a month now, so we take a look at the highs and lows of the latest release.
When it comes to World of Warcraft (WoW), almost every aspect of the game is always either greatly appreciated or extremely hated by different sections of the community. For the latest expansion, The War Within (TWW), it has been the same – but this time it does seem as though Activision Blizzard is taking the time to make changes, fixes, and listen to the player base.
With a month down and all Season 1 content now released, we take a look back at what has happened, the ups and downs, and if the future of the expansion is promising.
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The lows
Delving without purpose
TWW came with a ton of new content, one being Delves, where you can go it alone, or take a party of up to five into a cave labyrinth filled with dangers and loot rewards. Brann Bronzebeard also joins these adventures and is just one of the reasons players absolutely hate it.
As it stands, Blizzard did make some changes and fixes – but decided to make Delves far harder than they should be only a few days after they released at their highest level. Adding in mini-bosses and scaling things far too high, they quickly reverted some of the changes, but it was still a failure on their part.
Patron system resembles players
Since Dragonflight, the previous expansion, professions in WoW have definitely taken a turn for the better, and this remains true in TWW. However, a new feature added to this system has been the “Patron Orders” – which are essentially game-generated work orders that players can complete. Whether it is an oversight on their end, or a subtle dig at players never giving crafting mats or a tip, the Patron Order system leaves a lot to be desired, especially with many unable to afford the high Auction House prices for materials.
The highs
The light at the end of a Delve
While there were some issues with Delves, albeit caused by the developers feeling the need to buff things, the all-around feeling of the content is magnificent. In the lower levels, you’ll find a decent challenge, but nothing that a few items can’t overcome. The challenges really kick in from Tier 8 and upwards, with players either needing to group up or play it perfectly to get through. Although rewards from Tier 9 through 11 are merely cosmetic or achievements, players have found them rewarding either way.
Warbanding it all together
If it has not been said enough, I will say it again – Warband is the absolute best system implemented into WoW. For years players have been asking, even begging, for account-wide progress and finally, Blizzard listened. Warbands combine your entire account into one, making a lot of progress count towards all characters. While some currencies and items remain locked to each character (like PVP Conquest or Class sets), reputations and many items are unlocked for your account.
Not only that but as a collector, this makes farming transmogs an absolute pleasure. Over and above this, “Warbound until equipped” items now drop from the vast majority of rare monsters, as well as a chance to drop during raids and at the end of dungeons. All of this combined makes Warbands an amazing feature which is set to be expanded at a later stage too.
Story mode
Another new feature is Story Difficulty, which was only released last week, saw Blizzard adding in a new way to do the final raid boss, albeit without raid loot. While the Looking for Raid feature leaves a lot to be desired, still relying on others to clear a very tuned-down section of the raid, Story Mode lets you fight Queen Ansurek alone, basically. You have followers, akin to the follower dungeons, and you basically go through an extremely simplified form of the final boss fight and acquire some rewards which can help you craft rather decent gear. While this may not be the pinnacle of the endgame, it certainly gives far more “casual” players a chance to gear up and experience the boss fights.
Every time a new World of Warcraft expansion releases, players have to wonder if Blizzard will hit the mark or completely miss. But, after 20 years, it seems that they have finally started to pay more attention to the community. Although there is still a long way to go, and balancing needs to be done on multiple fronts, a month in, we are seeing the Worldsoul Saga get off to quite a strong start – and if it is anything to go by, WoW is making the turn back to its far more illustrious times.
