Guild Forums: Lightbringer/Mazrigos EU

Wonderful levelling experience again, at least up to WoD and Legion standard plus excellent voice acting. Zandalar story is thin but that highlights all the extra horde content. WQs plus emissaries seem least bad option so far.

Dungeons good with 10 at launch and M+ seasons, but the must-interrupt trash gets wearying.

Extremely OS and alt friendly at this stage of the expac. My guardian is virtually at the same level as resto. For alts one rep to grind seems reasonable, and they have said Champions will get a catch up. Gear wise it's crazy: heroic dungeon and basic crafted gear is already obselete. My monk will probably ding, go to Arathi, do gear WQs and four M0, LFR, done.

Professions are bad: thin (I liked doing the Legion chains once each), too small a barrier to cap, some stuff is way too expensive to make. I really wish they would stick with one good set of mats and professions instead of messing about. Alchemy badly needs an Expulsom to Anchor Weed route. Warfront contributions may give a nice twist to AH/professions.

islands have a lot going on but I haven't felt any need to explore the space so far - just going for easy AP rather than challenge. The new rewards may help. I prefer them to doing a daily heroic. Warfronts may be ok a few months in (30 mins of content popping up every couple of weeks) but the schedule sure looks rough now.

The Azerite trait system is fine by me so far, I prefer it to the all or nothing of tier or BiS legendaries. Might feel different when all the M0 azerite gear is obselete and it comes down to 5 probably heroic raid bosses and the M+ cache for 3 slots. Not being able to warforge means luck in normal won't help, unlike for tier.

Raids seem ok, I haven't thought "oh this boss again" and Easy is already at the sweet spot of downing a boss every 1-3 nights.

Balancing/bugs/changes like CDs on GCD all seems within the normal range to me (but trees are remarkably stable 8-)).

BfA generally feels rich to me which I value i.e. there's more to do if I want but I don't feel I have to. And overall I thought they were screwed after putting everything into Legion so I think Blizzard have nailed the faction-conflict-with-old-gods-lurking theme really well.

My review of the story of BfA is still:
"Would you like to skip this cutscene?"

Uldir is a dark and miserable place currently - there have been times I've felt that I needed to crank the brightness up as I just couldn't see what was going on in my screen in 5 mans, may do it on Taloc and MOTHER too. Also framerate. That is all.

Finding weapon drops. 1) They're a nightmare 2) They're really important 3) If you need two then life is twice as hard

[quote="Essa"]Seriously though, I predict that they'll tie it to another new rep grind instead of an existing one. That'll really be a low blow.[/quote]

I expect that you are correct there. I was really interested in them because their forms are disgustingly cool.

Generally I've found questing really good, however I can see Stormsong being meh now that I've finished the main questline, and having to go find and help random farmers etc. The other 2 zones the majority of the chain either coincided with the side quests you needed to finish the zone or were pretty close. Also I would generally only get the final dungeon quest near the very end of zone completion. I've only done half of Stormsong and I already have the dungeon quest...

Profs and rep are a pretty shit to me, better than the long quest chains we had in Legion and the non epic gear does come in handy, especially on alts. The mats for epic gear are ridiculous for the ilvl, rep rewards too. I feel like its the Legion class hall set which was suggested for raid/my start gear, but you could get better in a shorter time from other activities. Basically, not worth the time. There are some who will say its all fine, but many of us don't have the time/motivation to dedicate to it.

I've largely ignored islands and war campaign except where there is gear as I have no interest in grinding rep to access new content, that by large people seem disappointed by, so blizzard can go fly. Also largely ignored WQs except where there is gear, due to gearing for raids. I have found the dungeons I've been in fairly cool and interesting, the actual ambience and backdrops have been really cool in many places. Can't attest to the new raid as I haven't been yet, I hope to poke my head in tonight.

I've enabled warmode and been doing a fair bit of pvp when I'm on the last couple weeks, and on an entirely new main, I think were it not for these and wanting to see what the fuck Sylvanas' deal is, I would probably not have bothered continuing. The lead up to the expac seemed very horde/alliance focused but outside of warmode, the odd quests and warfronts I'm seeing very little of that which is a little disappointing.

Overall, I'm pretty disappointed thus far.

My main gripe is *inhales*:

WHY DID WE NOT GET KUL'TIRANS ALLIED RACE ON LAUNCH, WHY?! I WANT TO BE A FAT MAN DRUID, NOT A SILLY ELF!

Seriously though, I predict that they'll tie it to another new rep grind instead of an existing one. That'll really be a low blow.

Overall, I'm enjoying BfA. :D

1. I've found questing and storylines to be fun (granted, I haven't finished Stormsong yet but I do agree it seems the weakest zone). I've particularly loved Drustvar and Nazmir (on horde side). Zones are beautiful, as always.

2. I insanely love Boralus, the look, feel and layout of it! As Fagan mentioned once, it reminds us a lot of Ankh-Morpork from the Discworld books. There are so many hidden places to explore and I know I haven't seen the half of it yet. I also have maritime blood so I have a soft spot for anywhere that has a harbour and boats! Along similar lines, Freehold is like a huge version of Booty Bay (my favourite classic town) and I'm sad there is no way to become "friendly" there and use it as an actual town.

3. Professions are great now. Compared to the horror story that was leveling professions in Legion, BfA is fantastic. The separate expansion feature is a huge improvement and so is the lack of dungeon quests (which made professions on alts a nightmare in Legion). The scrap feature is also useful when you have crafting profs.

3. Dungeons seem fun and varied. Some interesting mechanics on some fights and I particularly like the silly stuff like the greased pig in Freehold. Uldir also looks promising from the brief look I've had and the videos I've watched.

4. I'm currently reserving judgement on the Warfronts. It potentially has the chance to be good and I like the general idea of it.

5. Reputation grinds have been a bit of a pain (and still are as I'm not exalted with anyone yet!).

6. Island Expeditions. Now I actually enjoy these and find them quite fun. However, I do have issues with a) having to queue at the table and not through group finder, b) the insanely low drop rates for EVERY possible reward, no matter which difficulty you're on and c) the fact that Blizz didn't really seem to have any idea what to do with doubloons (making the current drops purchaseable would make the islands more attractive, I think).

7. Achievements and secrets. Two of my favourite parts of the game. Lots of fun achieves across the zones plus the usual rares and treasures. There has been a couple of good secrets so far too. Really enjoyed getting the pet and the cosmetic belt [Waist of Time]. :lol:

8. Pets. My number one thing in game, obviously! :lol: It's been a bit of of hit and miss. Lots more new pets compared to Legion, which is good, but fewer wild pets. Blizz also seem to be trying to use pets to coerce players into various content. There are 28 pets from Island Expeditions, for example, with one of the worst drop rates in the history of pet collecting. They've also taken the new stance of only selling reputation pets for the pet currency instead of gold. Overall, 5000 pet charms are required to buy all vendor pets (Pet WQ's give around 12 - 19), many of which are also gated behind quest storylines, most likely to slow people down and keep them doing content for longer. Quite a lot of single faction pets too, requiring people to play both factions (that's something I do by choice anyway though). Overall, my only complaint is the drop rate for the islands. It's brutal.

[quote="Erian"]All I can say is that alliance is lucky to have Boralus as a hub. The hub in Zandalar is awful beyond description: a 3D nightmare of stuff where the cooking trainer is a fp from cooking supplies, endless running up and down stairs, salvage yard a good 30 seconds riding away from the Inn (great Seal), and the mission table a fp and a long ride from the Great Seal. Plenty of comments about that on horde US forum if you care to look.[/quote]
I hate hate hate the horde hub!! I'm leveling my horde rogue at the moment and that place is an absolute NIGHTMARE!. Constantly getting lost, and like you said, everything sooo far apart. Did I mention how much I hate it there??

I'm a week or two behind the curve but so far to me it's more of the same, some good things some bad, the usual really. I found the best way for me to play is not to do any pre-expac research and generally make mistakes (wrong areas, then realise I needed footholds etc.....) and get on with it. Things I've not done include but not limited to (Arathi/war fronts, expeditions beyond the initial quest, levelling professions).

Given the choice to no longer support older graphics cards I expected to be amazed by the 'new' graphics, but that's conspicuous only by it's absence.

Context is everything:

Vanilla of course is what got me hooked, BC was a treat, Wrath was a peak of enjoyment for me (I had more time to play too which probably helped) - I disliked Cataclysm, Pandaland continued the downward spiral (mostly through the excessive grinding and killed the enjoyment of alt levelling) although this was recognised by Blizz and it got better toward the end. WoD I literally just hid in my Garrison and plodded on casually with a decent level of enjoyment. I really enjoyed Legion only exception was that I wished I could of raided regularly.

When I look back at it like that and then look at where we are today, it's doesn't feel groundbreaking or very new, compared to Legion, it feels like a side step rather than progress. However, like sitting in your favourite chair, I feel comfortable and happy playing BFA.

Got to agree with a lot of Essa's points - the new features have been pretty underwhelming, and the prospect of grinding Revered CoA rep on every alt isn't a pleasant one. Levelling, WQs, Island Expeditions, Warfronts... all felt very lukewarm very quickly. For me this has all been buoyed by the novelty of playing a fresh toon, alts might not be so lucky :roll:

Azerite traits need to offer more breathing room imo; right now many specs are in a position of Haves vs Have-Nots where someone at your ilvl can sim 10-20% higher just due to the strength of their azerite pieces.

On the plus side I think the new AP hits the right balance, where it somehow feels meaningful to acquire yet not worth your time to grind :D

Ultimately, I've found the new M+ and raid content is worth the price of admission alone. I like Uldir's aesthetic, quite a unique feel from my experience, and some interesting mechanics for the xpac's first raid. New dungeons are fun and varied and look set to keep us occupied for a long time, thanks to M+ magic.

[quote="Erian"]The hub in Zandalar is awful beyond description: a 3D nightmare of stuff[/quote]

I still prefer the look and feel of Zuldazar, it's quite stunning. But it really is obnoxiously inconvenient :lol:

I haven't played for a while till BfA hit, so in that respect I have a little more patience with the game. So far I'm not more or less impressed than I was with Legion. The balance of the classes is pretty lopsided and even the difference between specs in a class is off, but that happens every expansion.

What's going to be an issue:
- Azerite needed for upgrading items. If I get a good Azerite head/chest/shoulder, I will not be enthousiastic because I will need to level my neck for 3 more levels and then 4 more after that to get the last trait. That beforelast trait is usually not even worth it as a DPS, so that's like 7 levels before I get my 5 iLvl upgrade. Whoop-tie-fucking-do.
- Worldquest grind. Reputation needed to unlock things. VERY MUCH GREAT FUN. Seriously.
- Professions aren't worth it it seems. Costs way too much (if you don't have a gathering prof) to get either JC or Alch to max and the rewards for it are meh.

A.

I found the leveling quite fun, gearing up was lots of fun, however, the gear catch up felt bad after running mythics to be raid ready. I'm really enjoying the dungeons and mythic plus again. The raid I'm not impressed with, I'd even go as far as saying I haven't enjoyed it so far, I don't think its anything to do with mechanics, but the feel of the place and the storyline feeling lacking. At least with Ten, I wanted to go clear it after the storyline in Val. The neck is ok, I don't feel like I have to go farm ap like I did with my weapon. Rep isn't too bad, with wq's, missons, emissaries, contracts etc. Overall I'm enjoying most things apart from the raid. Islands are awful and so boring, to the point I don't want to do them anymore.

1) Replace artifact weapons - Yeah, this is the expansion's character development but it's tied to throwaway pieces of gear this time around rather than an item you keep with you at all times (the neck is just a stat stick)
2) The legendary system should never have existed and not having legendaries is a nice change, especially with the prevention of swapping gear in M+
3) Replace tier sets - I prefer this system to tier sets as 4 of your items aren't locked down with badly statted rubbish and the vast majority of head/shoulder/chest pieces are Azerite anyway.

My complaint about the levelling is the opposite of Erian's - I think there are too many vehicle sections and the old style quests are far better.

The 5-man dungeons are really good. The bosses in there are where all the creativity seems to have gone (although Waycrest and Tol'Dagor suck on Sanguine)

Uldir... Not sure about this place yet. Hated it on the warrior, need to get a view from the DH before I definitely say that. MOTHER is one of the most annoying bosses I've seen in a while.