World of Warcraft: Dragon Desperation

[BlizzardStockholmSyndrome]

Worgen's starting zone is still one of the better ones in my opinion. Really good atmosphere, pacing and the quests are for the most part well designed and scripted. It also takes itself more seriously unlike the goblin one which is full of "LUL SO RANDUM". If I recall correctly they even explain a little bit of the worgen curse which I was surprised by as I usually expect them to leave that for the novels/comics.

I wonder how the devs will adress how PROBLEMATIC the goblin starter zone is. After all, if you chose a male goblin his love interest will be female and vice versa. These regressive views have NO PLACE within our modern sensibilities.

But seriously, the starting zone was a mess. The whole, CEO of a cola company was dumb but I like their an-cap fantasy island that gets destroyed by deathwing. Then getting shipwrecked and getting the shaft by the alliance when gobbos were usually neutral to the horde/alliance business makes sense they join the Horde. But fighting alongside green Jesus was another dumb point. And not killing the asshole in charge of the goblin faction was what led us to BFA, so another dumb moment.

 

[Cryomancer]

Is possible to run out of mana in retail wow? Like in vanilla till WotLK, if I spam spells like Blizzard I can ran out of mana in about a minute(and deal devastating damage), at lv 72 with decent gear. In retail, seems like I can spam spells 24/7 and cooldowns are the unique limitation...

This not mentioning that AoE frost spells like Blizzard and Cone of Cold where only available at lv 21/26 and now, seems like any noob can use it. Mirror image is also another low lv spell...

 

[Kem0sabe]

Is possible to run out of mana in retail wow? Like in vanilla till WotLK, if I spam spells like Blizzard I can ran out of mana in about a minute(and deal devastating damage), at lv 72 with decent gear. In retail, seems like I can spam spells 24/7 and cooldowns are the unique limitation...

This not mentioning that AoE frost spells like Blizzard and Cone of Cold where only available at lv 21/26 and now, seems like any noob can use it. Mirror image is also another low lv spell...

I don't think its even possible to die while in the open world doing PvE content. I've been completing each zone with my vengeance demon hunter (tank spec), and the health bar doesn't even move, it's the most trivial difficulty of any MMO I have ever played.

Even in normal version of dungeons it has been too easy.

 

[Cryomancer]

I don't think its even possible to die while in the open world doing PvE content.

Yep. I was AoE farming mobs, took DC, reconnected and still survived...

BTW, I tried to play as a frost mage in vanilla but decided to go warlock exactly cuz I could't AoE farm in vanilla. 350 ping...

 

[Cryomancer]

Other thing. Is impression or low level nobodies can summon a freaking Felguard? And demon which could only be TEMPORARELY controled in classic, required fully specialization into demonology in TBC and seems like you can get it at lv 10 in retail + dreadsteed. Is this truth?

 

[Myobi]

Other thing. Is impression or low level nobodies can summon a freaking Felguard? And demon which could only be TEMPORARELY controled in classic, required fully specialization into demonology in TBC and seems like you can get it at lv 10 in retail + dreadsteed. Is this truth?

It has been like that since... cataclysm? Also, wasn't the temporary summons doomguard & infernal?

https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Summon_Felguard

• Hotfix (2016-09-23): Felguard attack power increased by 10%.
• Patch 7.0.3 (2016-07-19):
  • Now costs 1 Soul Shard instead of mana. Cast time reduced to 2.5 seconds, down from 5.
  • Now learned at level 40.
• Patch 6.2.0 (2015-06-23): Model updated.
• Patch 5.0.4 (2012-08-28): Now learned at level 42.
• Patch 4.0.1 (2010-10-12):
  • Now a Demonology specialization ability available at level 10.
  • No longer costs a Soul Shard to summon.
• Patch 2.1.0 (2007-05-22): This pet will periodically check to see if you know the talent which allows you to summon it, and die if you do not know the talent.
• Patch 2.0.1 (2006-12-05): Added.

 

[Cromwell]

I don't think its even possible to die while in the open world doing PvE content. I've been completing each zone with my vengeance demon hunter (tank spec), and the health bar doesn't even move

its possible if youre not a tank. the fun thing is that the only thing you do quicker than a tank as a dd is dying.

 

[BlizzardStockholmSyndrome]

My Stockholm Syndrome is kicking in because I'm looking at the questlines for the zones and they are not all that terrible. Take the Centaur plains one. You have the khans of all centaur tribes meeting; one of the tribes says, "fuck the dragons, they went away for 10,000 years and now that they are back we need to bow to them? I say no and will kill anyone who stands in my way"; centaur civil war kicks in and you side with the dragons and dragon-adjacent centaurs.

What was the catch? The side quests where you organize a marriage between two male centaurs. This was a painfully retarded questline because first you give gifts between the families, the elders, etc, etc. It's all played as very formal until....you do the summoning ritual where you ask for the blessings of the ancestors for these 2 MALE centaurs to marry. The ancestor of course goes, "love is love, blah, blah" and the two MALE centaurs are married. I kept thinking about it: unless centaurs have some sort of handmaiden or polygamy system, this ghost ancestor just fucking killed 2 bloodlines. Like literally, she will have no one to worship her in the future because there are no more descendants to be had. Then I started making world-building scenarios: both male centaurs were high ranking warriors/hunters, so theywere a higher caste, so they could afford to have concubines for progeny and mates for love; and the lower tribes had to pump out more babies to maintain the speicies; and what of the concubines, is there a concubine caste? She is the mother of the future of the bloodline, does she get burried alongside the family?

Being the retard that I am, I gave it more thought than anyone at Blizzard did. Nu-blizz wanted to make a LOVE IS LOVE, TAKE THAT YOU BIGOTS quest and called it a day.

 

[Kem0sabe]

My Stockholm Syndrome is kicking in because I'm looking at the questlines for the zones and they are not all that terrible. Take the Centaur plains one. You have the khans of all centaur tribes meeting; one of the tribes says, "fuck the dragons, they went away for 10,000 years and now that they are back we need to bow to them? I say no and will kill anyone who stands in my way"; centaur civil war kicks in and you side with the dragons and dragon-adjacent centaurs.

What was the catch? The side quests where you organize a marriage between two male centaurs. This was a painfully retarded questline because first you give gifts between the families, the elders, etc, etc. It's all played as very formal until....you do the summoning ritual where you ask for the blessings of the ancestors for these 2 MALE centaurs to marry. The ancestor of course goes, "love is love, blah, blah" and the two MALE centaurs are married. I kept thinking about it: unless centaurs have some sort of handmaiden or polygamy system, this ghost ancestor just fucking killed 2 bloodlines. Like literally, she will have no one to worship her in the future because there are no more descendants to be had. Then I started making world-building scenarios: both male centaurs were high ranking warriors/hunters, so theywere a higher caste, so they could afford to have concubines for progeny and mates for love; and the lower tribes had to pump out more babies to maintain the speicies; and what of the concubines, is there a concubine caste? She is the mother of the future of the bloodline, does she get burried alongside the family?

Being the retard that I am, I gave it more thought than anyone at Blizzard did. Nu-blizz wanted to make a LOVE IS LOVE, TAKE THAT YOU BIGOTS quest and called it a day.

You read quest texts?

 

[mediocrepoet]

My Stockholm Syndrome is kicking in because I'm looking at the questlines for the zones and they are not all that terrible. Take the Centaur plains one. You have the khans of all centaur tribes meeting; one of the tribes says, "fuck the dragons, they went away for 10,000 years and now that they are back we need to bow to them? I say no and will kill anyone who stands in my way"; centaur civil war kicks in and you side with the dragons and dragon-adjacent centaurs.

What was the catch? The side quests where you organize a marriage between two male centaurs. This was a painfully retarded questline because first you give gifts between the families, the elders, etc, etc. It's all played as very formal until....you do the summoning ritual where you ask for the blessings of the ancestors for these 2 MALE centaurs to marry. The ancestor of course goes, "love is love, blah, blah" and the two MALE centaurs are married. I kept thinking about it: unless centaurs have some sort of handmaiden or polygamy system, this ghost ancestor just fucking killed 2 bloodlines. Like literally, she will have no one to worship her in the future because there are no more descendants to be had. Then I started making world-building scenarios: both male centaurs were high ranking warriors/hunters, so theywere a higher caste, so they could afford to have concubines for progeny and mates for love; and the lower tribes had to pump out more babies to maintain the speicies; and what of the concubines, is there a concubine caste? She is the mother of the future of the bloodline, does she get burried alongside the family?

Being the retard that I am, I gave it more thought than anyone at Blizzard did. Nu-blizz wanted to make a LOVE IS LOVE, TAKE THAT YOU BIGOTS quest and called it a day.

You read quest texts?

He plays WoW and then cries about how much it sucks and that's what surprises you?

 

[Dadd]

My Stockholm Syndrome is kicking in because I'm looking at the questlines for the zones and they are not all that terrible.

Pathetic.

 

[BlizzardStockholmSyndrome]

He plays WoW and then cries about how much it sucks and that's what surprises you?

Wrong, I get my info from youtube channels with 34 subscribers, friends who stayed subbed and the wow wiki. To be honest, I cheated, this one was shared in the telegram group as "the gay-furry agenda strikes again" so it would have slipped under my radad and that's why I searched for videos like this looking for the details (another questline that was shared was where you help a Tibetan Mastiff become a rescue dog. You spend 30 minutes brushing a big dog, teaching him to hunt and herd, failing, the owner having to make a tough choice of sacrficing him; then like lassie he smells fire and pulls centaurs out of a burning building. The village chief allows the medic to keep the dog. The end):



I just don't want to pay Blizzard 60 Eurobucks for the expansion + 12 a month. In any case, from what I've seen it is giving me Pandaria vibes:

• You get to a strange and foreign land
• There is no greater threat or existential threat, you just explore and do whatever
• You meet new (old actually) races and tribes and bond with them
• All problems, although serious for the residents of the island, are localized so Azeroth is not in danger of being wiped out if the player does anything

For example, from what I've seen in the blue dragon's zone: Kalec, the de facto patriarch of the blue dragonflight is looking around his father's library; he asks for help from the locals (walrus people); they are being assaulted by gnolls that are using plague magic to corrupt the land; the MC does a dungeon to stop it; the Walrus people invite Kalec and you to attend the funeral of his chieftain; the dragon warms up to the tribe and realizes that what his flight needs the most is family and unity; the end.

It's saturday morning cartoon story but after Shadowlands? A story that isn't an incoherent mess will already head and shoulders above the competition. I have no expectations that WoW writers are able to pull off another Culling of Stratholme simply because they lack the nuance and worldview to do it.

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

from what I've seen it is giving me Pandaria vibes

This is an insult to MoP.

You get to a strange and foreign land

Pandaria introduced completely brand new cultures and races. Pandaren, Jinyu, Mogu, Grummles, Saurok, Mantid, etc, and they were cool. There is nothing strange and foreign about the Dragon Isles. It's just just a rehash of stuff you've already seen before. Dragons (omnipresent in WoW), Proto-Drakes (Wrath), Centaurs (seen in vanilla), Tuskarr (WotLK), etc. The only new stuff is Dracthyr, and the consensus among the fandom is that Dracthyr are not a good fit for Warcraft.

There is no greater threat or existential threat, you just explore and do whatever

Pandaria had a greater threat right out of the gate: the escalating world war between the Horde and the Alliance. An Alliance city was just wiped out in the prepatch event, and now there is a lot of untapped resources ripe for the taking, which could swing the war if acquired. And then the first zone, the Jade Forest, has you and Lorewalker Cho realizing that the curse of a dead old god is now resurfacing and will expand beyond Pandaria and destroy the world if nothing is done about it. The only zone in MoP where you just explored and did whatever with no sense of urgency was Valley of the Four Winds. All of the other zones either deal with the hunt for the white pawn, expanding war operations for your faction, defeating the Sha, or the fallout of the faction war and the return of the Sha.

All problems, although serious for the residents of the island, are localized so Azeroth is not in danger of being wiped out if the player does anything

Garrosh wanted to wipe out all non-Horde on Azeroth, whilist empowered by the heart of a dead old god. Also, the Thunder King came back from the dead and tried taking over the world again.

 

[BlizzardStockholmSyndrome]

This is an insult to MoP.

My bad, you are right on all accounts and I just can't defend my postion.

Let me just say that I'm comparing early pandaria with early dragonflight and as my name indicates I want to try to find something to like in the new expansion.

If you remember the Jade Forest you start off with a bang, then you regroup with your forces and get new allies and then your MC goes to different villages, saves one from a Mogu force, saves another from a witch that turns children into jade statues, you reunite two pandaren that eloped and even join a kung fu school. You left your Horde and Alliance people to do the heavy lifting of the faction war while you are left to your own devices. That's what I mean by "explore and do whatever".

MoP was actually my favourite expansion or, at least, the one I remember spending longest time subbed (farming the Timeless Isle). You just can't beat this score:

 

[mediocrepoet]

Lies and cope zzz...

Um, ok.

 

[BlizzardStockholmSyndrome]

Anyways back on track, class sets: they are underwhelming to say the least. Look at what we are promised

https://www.wowhead.com/guide/raids/vault-of-the-incarnates/tier-sets

Take the retribution paladin for example, 15% single target damage increase for the 2 piece and 10% for AOE spells with the 4 pieces. Now compare it to HellFire:

https://www.wowhead.com/news/patch-6-2-armor-models-and-set-bonus-preview-247360#tier18-paladin

2 piece reward doubles your wings time and 4 piece gives you an additional buff to your wings that increases your damage by 5% every second for 10 seconds before looping around. You had to time your templar strike around those loops to really make the most of your rotation.

That was a game changer. A flat increase to your spells is just lazy.

 

[Reever]

https://www.wowhead.com/guide/raids/vault-of-the-incarnates/tier-sets

They look terrible. What the fuck is this artstyle

 

[Tyrr]

https://www.wowhead.com/guide/raids/vault-of-the-incarnates/tier-sets

They look terrible. What the fuck is this artstyle

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

The shoulders and gloves on these two actually look pretty nice. Could be mixed and matched with past pieces to make a cool transmog set. It's a shame that retail WoW doesn't allow you to mix and match transmog pieces from across different armor types, ie cloth and mail and plate.

 

[Cryomancer]

The artstyle is the lesser problem.

Soloing elites in classic till wotlk was relatively hard. I mean, is doable if you are smart, as an mage, I need to constantly kite and spam snares into the enemy to kill elites. As an warlock, is more complicated, you need to manage your pet health, your aggro, dots and so on, cuz if your pet died, you have to run. Many times I had to sacrifice my voidwalker cuz I missmanaged something and barely won vs the elite mob. Elite mobs above my level also tends to resist a lot my spells.

And in retail?

Well, I as an affliction warlock can just send my Succubus to the enemy, cast 3 DoTs(unstable affliction, agony and corruption) and shadow bolt him to death, with no need to worry about anything. Unless there are like 20 wolves attacking you, you are not in danger.

https://www.wowhead.com/guide/raids/vault-of-the-incarnates/tier-sets

They look terrible. What the fuck is this artstyle

WoW`s low and mid tier armor doesn`t look that bad. Only high level ones looks bad.

My Affliction Warlock in WotLK

He plays WoW and then cries about how much it sucks and that's what surprises you?

"I have 5000 hours in Skyrim/WoW retail/Wathever and it sucks" is RPG Codex in nutshell. About retail, I have about 20 hours on it. Now, classic wow/tbc/wotlk, I have wasted a lot of time.

 

[Tyrr]

 

[Maculo]

I returned with 2 friends. So far, I am enjoying DF more than Shadowlands or BFA, but the cracks usually don’t show immediately. I can invest in alts without falling behind though.

All the Mythics dungeons felt interesting to tank, and I look forward to the higher keys except for Brakenwood (gnoll dungeon) and Halls of Infusion. Those will be cancer due to the amount of interrupts, dots, and/or tankbusters. Also, seriously fuck that bridge bottleneck in Halls of Infusion.

The questing screams of overcompensating though, especially the Centaur zone. I get blizzard was seeking easy PR points, but god damn. For example, why would a society that has remained isolated and unchanged for 10,000 years entrust a two-legged alien-freak with a gay marriage proposal? The Nohkud/bad guys are a realistic reaction to outsiders after 10,000 years, whereas the other centaur missed the turn to Disney land.

Better yet, the ancestral ghost shows up just to say “fuck tradition”…wtf all the centaur talk about is tradition, bloodlines, etc. I actually read the quest text and regretted it.

 

[J1M]

Centaurs were clearly a containment zone for the furry game designers and artists.

Sadly, I think the best game loop right now is mining with dragon riding.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Centaurs were clearly a containment zone for the furry game designers and artists.

Sadly, I think the best game loop right now is mining with dragon riding.

The best gameplay loop is playing something else.

 

[Keshik]

So far has been pretty fun, mostly spending time with professions and zooming about on the dragon harvesting this and that. I do like the herbs that can blow you off a cliff, expect those to be nerfed soon I guess. Was expecting something more along the tones to MoP at least from the start and it does seem that way.