World of Whorecraft: Battle for Asseroth

[GreyViper]

The end fight was more interesting then the previous stuff. I was hoping pvp map with raid vs raid, but that did nit happen. We did get briefly to play chemical trooper "My life for KANE, sorry Baine!" so there was that. Also Jaina looks like Elsa and Greymane like "Beast" from beauty and beast.
Also Sylvanases speech to Saurfang taunting him about leaving him die and about his son. All I could think was man Lich King and Ebony Blade must be having a field day with all the new recruits. And if he did become a death knight, he would finish Sylvanas permanently.
But alas its not to be and I think one new dungeon is going to be Saurfang rescue.

 

[Maculo]

For those that have warmode on, remember to initially turn it off for the introductory quest. Apparently, the introductory quest takes both factions to the same place in Silithus, and so you can expect enemy raid groups to be waiting (e.g., opening of Dark Portal). After you obtain the Hearth of Azeroth (whatever it is called), you return to Stormwind/Orgrimmar anyway and can turn it back on.

They got rid of the permanent Infernal / Doomguard pets and Destro can't even summon a Doomguard anymore (not sure if any spec can).

That talent always was in a strange place. It either became the default passive choice or ignored.

At least Destruction and Affliction has a central pet that interacts with the play styles. I am still holding out on Pitlord for Demo. A man can dream.

 

[DragoFireheart]

WoW has been shit since Wrath. What the fuck are you guys doing here still?

 

[Seari]

Chasing that first high ofc, even tough we'll never experience it again.

 

[Hoaxmetal]

 

[RK47]

nice doujin fren

 

[Hoaxmetal]

Bought it but can't play because I can't decide which class to play

 

[Revenant]

This expansion is going to be shit even by comparison when WoW itself is shit. Classes have been gutted to oblivion, everything's on global cooldown, there are no legendaries and artifact traits to add to gameplay complexity and without the artifact power grind the world quest system will collapse. There will be absolutely nothing to do 1 month into the expansion, 2 tops, and Codexers actually bought this crap. Lmao

 

[Lacrymas]

Except the new artifact grind they implemented to replace the old one.

 

[Maculo]

Bought it but can't play because I can't decide which class to play

Looking for a particular role?

If healing - disc priest is amazing. The focus on damage makes the dungeons go faster, and the self-healing through damage makes solo/questing easier. Plus, disc has good cooldowns with pain suppression and Power Word: Barrier. Honorable mentions go out to Holy Paladin for its cooldowns and Druids for all the HoT spells.

If DPS - Demo warlock is awesome, but mage is a safe and consistent pick. I can think of one or two tiers where mage did not have at least one good spec. Otherwise, Outlaw rogue can be enjoyable. There is an RNG component with roll the bones (uses combo points) to obtain random buffs, but it is a rare instance where I found RNG somewhat enjoyable (see early Legion Afflic for terrible RNG based spec).

This expansion is going to be shit even by comparison when WoW itself is shit. Classes have been gutted to oblivion, everything's on global cooldown, there are no legendaries and artifact traits to add to gameplay complexity and without the artifact power grind the world quest system will collapse. There will be absolutely nothing to do 1 month into the expansion, 2 tops, and Codexers actually bought this crap. Lmao

Arguably the new armor tier system replaces artifacts. Instead of one main artifact, you equip and and spec your helm, chest, and shoulder slots. The traits from these armor pieces are equivalent to legendaries or artifact traits. For example, my shoulder slot grants a buff to penance at level 1 and provides the passive shield every 30 seconds similar to the legendary neck piece at level 2. The traits tied to each piece of armor is random to my understanding.

Personally, I think it is a given that Blizzard will add more traits and levels to each equipment piece with each patch. Currently, the first two levels can be significant, but level three is a plain ilevel buff.

 

[Revenant]

Except the new artifact grind they implemented to replace the old one.

Not really since the Azerite Power is shared by all specs, unlike each artifact you had to grind for individually in Legion.

 

[Lacrymas]

Maybe they'll make it three times as slower. The individual grinds was one of the biggest criticisms of how the new system worked, so I think that's what they are trying to avoid this time.

 

[Maculo]

Except the new artifact grind they implemented to replace the old one.

Not really since the Azerite Power is shared by all specs, unlike each artifact you had to grind for individually in Legion.

Correct me if I am wrong, but the grind is not from Azerite level (at least not in 8.0), but rather obtaining the best traits similar to the Netherlight crucible slots. There may be 6 optimal traits, but you armor slots are not guaranteed to have those traits.

 

[Revenant]

New tiers of traits are likely to be introduced with every raid tier, so overall Azerite level will probably matter eventually.

 

[Maculo]

Yes, but if leveling is any indication, you obtain the initial traits fast. The issue, or the need to grind really, may come from obtaining shitty traits on your armor. Similar to obtaining "utility" legendaries in early Legion, some of those traits are too amazing to pass up, whereas others are complete shit.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Except the new artifact grind they implemented to replace the old one.

Not really since the Azerite Power is shared by all specs, unlike each artifact you had to grind for individually in Legion.

You are still speccing loot for specific specs so yeah you don't have to grind Azerite but you need to find a new chest, shoulder and head piece for each spec.

I'm already 50% on my way to level 117 lol. Man you level up fast in BfA. It's gonna be ridiculous with heirlooms and flying.

 

[Hoaxmetal]

Fuck levelling, it's not like it matters nowadays because pre-endgame is scaled anyway.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

Fuck levelling, it's not like it matters nowadays because pre-endgame is scaled anyway.

The way they report player retention to inverstors is by number of hours played. That's why everything's an insane grind.

WoW's designed to be a trap for addictive personalities.. Which is why even though the player count isn't super high, WoW youtube channels/streamers are disproportionately successful. When WoW players aren't at their computers playing WoW all they can think about is the next time they get to log in to farm that +1 stam cockpiece or add one useless item to their transmog collection.

 

[Maculo]

I nearly reached 113 last night, but then the server went offline. I hope to reach 120 by the weekend, but ultimately I plan to just take my time. I am really blown away by Drustvar, the music and aesthetic is nice. It has a decent mix of humor (stabbing people with a needle to see if they are a witch) and serious moments (zombies with the pig heads attacking villages in mass). Furthermore, I get the sense the designers were inspired by the Witcher. You bounce between villages infiltrated or under siege by witches, wanted posters for monsters/creatures, killing ghosts/wraiths, druid circles, and/or farmers trying to get by.

It is not a grand story line (see the Horde zones), but rather you follow a loose main story and just explore and/or help villagers along the way.

 

[Lacrymas]

Legion is probably the most grindy expansion to date, though, at least if you want to keep up in power. The grinds in other expansions could be skipped with gold, not be done because they award non-essential things or are fairly non-time-consuming (like reps for heroics in TBC). I'm not exactly sure about this, however, as I haven't played since the start of Cata, so I wouldn't know first hand. From what I've read, it's true that Legion is the most grindy one. MMOs introduce grind as a necessary thing when nothing else seems to work, and everyone who stays are those with addiction-prone personalities.

 

[Maculo]

Yes and no. In my mind, the necessity of grinding in Legion was nowhere near the level of vanilla or TBC. You could get by with minimal grinding to access content in Legion. Where Legion could get out of hand is the volume or number of ways to optimize or stay cutting edge. If I recall correctly, artifacts had no gating mechanic and so you could devote weeks to hit the actual cap, even though few players truly needed to hit the artifact level cap that early. To hit the cap, you could grind raids, mythic, heroic, world quests, rewards from the mission table, world quests, rare mobs, etc. Furthermore, each patch introduced a new resource to grind, such as nether shards or argunite.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

Yes and no. In my mind, the necessity of grinding in Legion was nowhere near the level of vanilla or TBC. You could get by with minimal grinding to access content in Legion. Where Legion could get out of hand is the volume or number of ways to optimize or stay cutting edge. If I recall correctly, artifacts had no gating mechanic and so you could devote weeks to hit the actual cap, even though few players truly needed to hit the artifact level cap that early. To hit the cap, you could grind raids, mythic, heroic, world quests, rewards from the mission table, world quests, rare mobs, etc. Furthermore, each patch introduced a new resource to grind, such as nether shards or argunite.

WoW has always been stupidly grindy and every system in the game has been a skinner box designed to trap addicts and keep them logged on. A normal person wouldn't even get to level cap before they die of boredom from the endless 'two-shot 30 bears' quests but if they did, they'd have run each dungeon once or twice, been satisfied, and unsubbed within a month.

Blizz's design goal is to trap the people who will mindlessly grind the same 5 dungeons every day for 3 years in return for a .0001% chance to get a rare mount or some bullshit. High return on minimal development effort.

 

[Maculo]

Yes and no. In my mind, the necessity of grinding in Legion was nowhere near the level of vanilla or TBC. You could get by with minimal grinding to access content in Legion. Where Legion could get out of hand is the volume or number of ways to optimize or stay cutting edge. If I recall correctly, artifacts had no gating mechanic and so you could devote weeks to hit the actual cap, even though few players truly needed to hit the artifact level cap that early. To hit the cap, you could grind raids, mythic, heroic, world quests, rewards from the mission table, world quests, rare mobs, etc. Furthermore, each patch introduced a new resource to grind, such as nether shards or argunite.

WoW has always been stupidly grindy and every system in the game has been a skinner box designed to trap addicts and keep them logged on. A normal person wouldn't even get to level cap before they die of boredom from the endless 'two-shot 30 bears' quests but if they did, they'd have run each dungeon once or twice, been satisfied, and unsubbed within a month.

Blizz's design goal is to trap the people who will mindlessly grind the same 5 dungeons every day for 3 years in return for a .0001% chance to get a rare mount or some bullshit. High return on minimal development effort.

Grind is certainly a part of WoW, but it has changed in quantity and nature. In my mind, vanilla and TBC would award you a trophy at the end of the finish line. Wrath would just give you the trophy, with bonus trophies if you jumped some hoops. Legion was more akin to a trophy hunt where you collect as many miniature trophies as humanly possible. You get a trophy no matter what, but you needed 20,000 trophies to show a noticeable edge.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

Bought it but can't play because I can't decide which class to play

Death Knight - Braindead easy. People will tell you Unholy is more complex but those people think understanding Tetris is a real brain teaser.

Demon Hunter - Never played one, they look really dumb. They only have two specs, one of which goes down the classic "new class, let's try to shoehorn it into a tank role" route.

Druid - You have four specs, but you have to be a gay furry. That's a steep price to pay.

Hunter - Like DK, but for ranged users. Survival is kind of fun though.

Mage - Will never be weak in this game because Blizzard has a gay fixation with this class being great.

Monk - Virgin Rogue DPS. Can heal or tank if you can stand Japanophile animations.

Paladin - Played by that kid who used to disconnect your controller before you beat them in Street Fighter. Total faggot class beloved by fat boys and ugly girls.

Priest - A highly respected and prestigious class, Shadow gets shit on every expansion but has a cult like following, Discipline is the funnest healer spec in the game.

Rogue - You piss off people by merely existing. Great class.

Shaman - Played by whiners and transsexuals.

Warlock - Played by whiners and latent homosexuals.

Warrior - Call themselves a chad class but they will use their leap to run away from things. Sounds like a pussy to me. Fury is the coolest spec they have.

 

[Hoaxmetal]

I decided on Monk (my main from Legion), mostly just so I can do tanking/healing/dps on the same character.