Just as I finished the last sidequest in The Ringing Deeps, I hit level 80. I hope I'm going to get something from questing besides just gold and rep.
The only standout sidequests in The Ringing Deeps were #1 the one where you worked with the Mistweaver Pandaren to track the fog beasts and
the reveal of flying around the corner and finding the hidden alcove of gigantic fog beasts. #2 Magni's mace Fearbreaker (which predictably he gave to Moria...). and I guess #3 the group of Earthen who agreed to die striking a fighting pose was neat.
I am enjoying the dragonriding races. It's more visually stunning when you have cave walls all around you and a ceiling above you, rather than in Dragonflight where you only have land below you and nothing else to the left/right/above you. Just wish that the game could facilitate racing against other players.
Music: I'm really liking this Jake Lefkowitz guy. He did many of the tracks that I liked from Shadowlands and Dragonflight too. Need to check out what else besides WoW he has done.
@15:03
Part of the problem with WoW's music post WoD is that it changes too often, so you don't get to listen to the whole thing and become absorbed in it. The zones are subdivided into many small areas and the music changes whenever you cross one of these small area borders, and the nature of the gameplay (particularly once you finish the story) is that you are on your mount travelling across the continent across all of these different little area borders to reach these daily world quests spread out across the world. Or even while doing questing, you cross all of these borders to get to the next quest, which stops the current track before it has even started getting to the good part and begins playing a new track, which is then abrupbtly cut off before it reaches the good part, and so on. FF14 and GW2 don't have this problem as they just have a track that plays for the whole big zone and isn't constantly being cut off as you travel around in it.
As nice as the outdoor environments are to look at, it is a shame how neglected the interior houses are. Almost every Earthen building interior is the exact same layout, and you enter a lot of them.
I am overall fine with the Deathbringer hero talent tree (-10% damage taken is also nice), though it is a little finnicky to use. Basically, you get an ability to plant a DoT/bomb on an enemy (45 second cooldown). After a few seconds (or when the enemy reaches <30% HP and there are no other enemies around), the DoT/bomb will explode. This will then turn your Obliterate ability into two charges of a double scythe attack called Exterminate, which looks neat. Nowhere near as spectacular as Reaper's attacks in FF14, but still neat.
The finnickyness is:
- #1 Exterminate is not represented on your hotbar (you would think that the Obliterate icon would flip over into Exterminate and show the 2 charges), but is instead represented by two buffs up on the top right of your screen.
- #2 when you press Obliterate (with your two charges of Exterminate ready), the double scythe attack Exterminate will only activate if the Obliterate did not kill your enemy. So you can be running around with 2 charges of Exterminate ready and pressing Obliterate, but Exterminate may or may not go off.
- #3, if you apply the bomb to a mob but the mob dies immediately afterward (as in less than a second), then the bomb won't go off and you won't be able to use Exterminate.
Another odd thing about Deathbringer is that when you use Exterminate, the double scythes are actually staff weapons (Frostscythe of Lord Ahune) that your class cannot wield, and there are no polearm versions. Also interestingly, the visual size of the scythes scales to your target, so if you use Exterminate on a small enemy (as in smaller than you) than the scythes will be tiny, but if you use it on a big boss than they will be quite large and you can see them despite all of the other players and their effects.
Hallowfall
Gorgeous zone, good color palette with the azure blues and greens and bright golds and brownish reds.
The story catches your attention right away with you and Anduin immediately meeting Faerin and then fighting back an invasion.
Faerin has a nice voice, is very pleasant to listen to. Total mismatch with her character design. Should have looked like a cute girl. She is thus far the only expansion character I kinda like, besides maybe Baelgrim (rip).
This is the most engaging zone storyline thus far, with only a couple of parts making me facepalm. Anduin, we are at the bottom of this void cave. Our very souls are being erroded by void magic! We need to get up and out of this cave! Why are you slow walking and pouting for the Nth time about when you were mindcontrolled by the Jailer and shanked someone who survived? Why are you and Faerin stopping to have a discussion about hope and light and darkness? WE ARE TURNING INTO TENTACLE MONSTERS! I wish I could have slung these dumbasses over my should and hoofed it out of there.
I feel these paladin people should be tilting their head at Anduin being escorted by a zombie panda who is dressed in skull armor, rides a skeleton dragon, and performs necromancy to raise corpses as minions.
Mereldar has nice music, looks good, and is very pleasant, and has a gorgeous backdrop. Should have been the capital city for the expansion. At least it has profession trainers. I just did a sidequest writing a letter of recommendation to the trading post NPCs to come set up shop down here, but I don't think there is a bank or an AH down here. If it did I would set my hearthstone here.
This book stand wheel inside the Mereldar Church is neat.
Once again, a lot of the sidequests that feel like they're part of the main story, such as the Faerin and Anduin quest. Sometimes it's difficult to tell whether or not a sidequest is just throwaway filler or something you really should be doing.
I should have done all of the Hallowfall sidequests once the party reached Mereldar. A little after that, the plot becomes urgent and seamlessly goes down to Azj-Kahet and it doesn't make sense to stop and turn around and finish up stuff in Hallowfall, which canonically takes place earlier in the story.
Anduin, if you really want to help these people, you could do a lot more than continuing to pretend that you are a lone grunt adventurer doing tasks for other people, trying to bail out the ocean with a bucket. You are a king. Grab a radio or a mage and call up Stormwind and bring in the armies and airships. If the Horde and Alliance were able to get their airships down into Deepholm then they can just as easily get down here.
Azj-Kahet
Hold up. Blizzard confiscates my MoP remix tinker gems so I can't use Heroic Leap as a Death Knight anymore, but Anduin gets to leap as a paladin? What?
I like this warm glowing plant that is used as a substitute for a burning campfire.
Orweyna (the dancing troll lady) is insufferable. The girlboss I thought Faerin was going to be.