BFA - Was is really that bad? (Spoiler: Yes, but...)

Community General Discussion
1

To be honest, I do like BFA… … … for the most part.

It was my first expansion (Started playing a few months before the Nazjatar Patch), that would probably be my major reason why I would say that. It let me experience what WoW had, throwing me into a heated feud between the two factions and how I should try to resolve it, while trying to save the planet from dying. I had a soft spot for its concept plot, especially when I was still new to the whole Horde and Alliance premise.

And Yes, I am aware of the awful gimmicks of BFA. I can for sure agree with everyone that the Borrowed Power was a letdown and the Azerite gear was a pain. I did not enjoy that, and the ending of the expansion was a let down, by throwing an Old God at us to resolves the war instead of having us learn at the last minute when Azeroth is threatened.

And the less I talk about Shadowlands, the faster I can make my point.

Yes, BFA, was bad, but it had some redeeming things underneath the burning tree. (…Too soon?) The new areas were fun to explore, the allied races were nice and some of the Cinema cutscenes are some of the most stunning videos I see. The Trailer for BFA gets me so hyped to fight For the Horde, and Saurfang is the best part of the Expansion. He was always a favourite character of mine and his story line I thought was great. Sad that he’s gone and we won’t be able to see what Metzen would’ve had for him in the saga expansions.

Long story short, it had the guts, but it didn’t give us the glory, as it caused a massive split in the community I felt. I felt like I was pushed away from other players, especially from the opposing faction. It wasn’t about adventuring and meeting up with others who are also exploring where you are, it was about hating and fighting the other faction. I was never a PvP player, so I always felt dirty having to show hatred to the other faction. So I was satisfied that we could somewhat bring the two factions together to finish up this roller coaster of a story.

I guess to give a conclusion, I have a soft spot for BFA, like having a soft spot for McDonalds, it may not be good, but sometimes the experience give a good taste. (Don’t ask why I made this expression, I’m just saying whatever comes in my head.)

So that’s my take on BFA. What about you?
Do you agree with me? You think I’m wrong?
Feel free to reply and let me know what you think about BFA. I would love to hear Why you think BFA was bad or if you had things you liked from it.

4 Likes
2

I don’t think it was terrible as it is often portrayed as. The main issue is the lack of consequences for various characters involved in various atrocities - particularly Sylvanas, Vereesa and Jaina.

That’s an issue that extends far beyond the expansion itself, though. Anyone who wanted to see Garrosh pay for what he did to the Alliance and his own allies in the Horde saw him perish first hand.

Anyone who wanted Sylvanas to pay for her various atrocities such as the murder of Liam Greymane and effectively ushering in the second coming of the Scourge was out of luck.

The same can be said of anyone who wanted to see Vereesa pay for the murder and torture of innocent Blood Elves during the horrific Purge of Dalaran.

BFA was the perfect expansion to let all those plot-lines pay off with the justified elimination of such characters. Alas!

Yet as far as the zone stories and designs are concerned, Drustvar is incredibly atmospheric and remains one of my favourite in-game areas to date.

3 Likes
3

It was a huge exp pack with many things going on.

As i remember the raids were not something that i personally liked. Previous Exp packs tend to give some nostalgy to some though. The grinding of your azerite pieces could be very tedious and boring, if you were a raider it felt like a 2nd job.

Other than that there are far worse exp pack in my oppinion, like shadowlands, catalysm.

4

BFA wasnt bad tbh, Cata now that was really bad warlords wasnt good either

5

BFA was bad till Blizzard change HoA. After that was fun, for me.
Also the dungeons were pretty fun.

6

Obviously I missed the bad stuff, considering I started in 8.2.5, but it’s the most fun I’ve had in the game in a single expansion. Obviously part of it is that I was new, but honestly, Azerite armor allowed for customisation that I liked. Also you could stack similar powers and get some ridiculous haste. Corruptions, especially if you got lucky were wildly fun to me(but the if you got lucky part I dislike). Sure, I had to grind for essences but the same patch with corruptions allowed alts to get all these items I was obtaining by playing my big girl. Also I still think essences were really fun and allowed for customisation despite having some BiS options, I still found some more effective than others.

Obviously the same can be said about the talent trees but honestly I haven’t done much customising. When the talents were simple choice nodes you didn’t have to use points on interrupts, your class had everything and you could choose how certain abilities would work, an additional stun or maybe more survivability and each of these talents felt like it actually mattered to me rather than 50 out of 60 points feeling like there’s absolutely no reason to ever not use them the way others do.

Visions are still some of my favourite content, although torghast and delves are a good replacement and the return of the mage tower is appreciated.

The zones and music are fabulous even today.

Class design of certain classes was simply better, for others it was worse. I just happened to have been playing the ones that were much much better.

I think that I liked world content a bit more. Obviously it got repetitive by the end but I feel like more effort was put there then than now. Also no timed events.

I still don’t want to go back though. Despite all the many pros I listed, the cons are just as many. Like the disappointing warfronts. We only go forwards.

7

Not sure why we now start about BFA. But BFA wasn’t bad. The systems with borrowed power were bad. Like in the first place obtaining them.

2 Likes
8

No it was not bad. Atal and Freehold are all time great dungeons.
AP grind didn’t existed in BFA.
World quest were fun, quick and rewarding.

3 Likes
9

The only bad stuff i can remember about bfa were

  • zultazar was a terrible hub area as you spawn at the docks while everything important was on top of the pyramid.
  • the expansion was all about allied races & you had to be exalted with specific reps inorder to unlock the races you wanted. I remember it taking about a month of grinding with a contract just to unlock kul tirans.
  • nazjatar was a terrible zone before flying got introduced, remember getting lost in there all the time.
  • nazjatar also has the worst rares in the game with stuff like soundless with an 2-8h spawn timer & a 1% chance to drop a mount. This rare made me give up on the red crab mount & just wait for the trading post one.
  • nyalotha’s raid portal swapping places between zones was super annoying as you’re on your way to pandaria only to realize that portal is in the desert place this time around.
10

BFA wasn´t a “bad” expansion in and of itself, though the multiple starting zones made the story feel somewhat disjointed.

IMO it´s biggest issue was the systems bloat (they obviously learned the wrong lessons from Legion), that resulted in an ever growing circus of RNG that ultimately found it´s pinnacle when corruptions were added and >50% of your performance could be completely irrelevant of what buttons you actually pressed.

if the HoA and Azerite Armor had never been introduced but they had just stuck to tier sets, BFA could arguably be remembered as one of the better expansions… but the constant AP grind semi-mirroring the one in Legion and the Azerite Powers, together with a story progression that felt like it was rushing to throw in every big name they could remember were ultimately it´s downfall.

11

BfA ‘The good’

  • The original 6 zones. Some of the best Blizzard has ever made.
  • Boralus as the Alliance hub.
  • Saurfang storyline and how it was presented.
  • Mechagon. I liked it.

BfA ‘The bad’

  • Azerite system, including the Heart of Azeroth. It was just so boring and grinding for it wasn’t fun as a result.
  • Corruption. I absolutely hate kiss/curse type systems. It also completely ruined class fantasy (except for a small number of classes, I guess).
  • Horrific Visions. No. Just no.
  • Nazjatar. It looked cool, but man I hated that place.
  • Dazar’alor, the horde main hub. I really don’t like it.
  • N’Zoth, the raid boss fight. One of the most frustrating fights I’ve ever had in LFR.
  • Corruptions and Horrific visions. Yes they were so bad I had to put both of them on the list twice.

BfA ‘The ugly’

  • They ruined Vale of Eternal Blossoms and Uldum with that ugly N’Zoth stuff.
  • N’Zoth’s aesthetic. I hate tentacles and eyes and black/purple nonsense.
3 Likes
12

I think you can talk to a NPC and the zone is back to the old?

1 Like
13

Yeah I know. I have, since.
But at the time I had to go there for my progression.

14

I enjoyed BFA for every reason people hated that expansion. :smiley:

1 Like
15

BFA was bad because it butchered the story, that’s its legacy. All the systems from back then are irrelevant by now, but the awful story is still there and you can still experience it first hand. The continuous humiliation of the night elves (not just burning the tree but also what comes afterwards), horde leaders just being dumb and following Sylvanas, their rebellion arriving too late.

I get that BFA was about faction conflict and they had to deliver something, but BFA is the reason the faction conflict died.

1 Like
16

I liked the dungeons, but I didn’t hate it, or I have stopped playing.

I also liked SL, but at the end I was like, if they do THIS again, I will skip the expansion ( mandatory Thorghast with expensive Legendaries on AH)

17

BfA had a lot of expectations after Legion’s success. Sadly, I feel nothing has quite lived up to it since.

By the end of BfA I was ready for something different but now I am able to go back and re-experience the storylines and zones with a better appreciation. Especially since I can fly!

2 Likes
18

The zones and stories were really good in my opinion.

Azerite Power and the sets were and having to do islands was truly jank trash, but if you look past that, which is hard I admit but if you do, there’s actually a pretty decent expansion hiding under that pile of rubbish. 90% of the work was truly excellent. All the zones are absolutely breathtaking for all the right reasons, and while the story fails to tell the grander scope of the conflict, what is there is really cool.

But when Nazjatar came in we ran into some trouble. Very small zone compared to what it should have been, and Azshara’s apparent powers to instantly smite you if you offended her really undermined the feeling of her using her strength and being a serious threat. She turned into a joke. Also, that raid in general was way, WAAAAY too hard.

Then came the last patch, which actually had some good merits to it as well but ultimately became boring, and Nyalotha was very disappointing.

But that 8.0-8.1.5 cycle? Absolute banger.

If they hadn’t done that Azerite Power malarky, they would’ve had a smash hit.

The problem with BfA is that it is full of dozens of mandatory, repeatable (but with timegating), and easy to complete activities. It was the penultimate expression of “World of Chorecraft” and it seeped into everything, destroying it. We didn’t like islands because islands were too easy and we had to farm them a lot, and what could have been an amazing PvP feature, Warfronts, were turned into a joke of a PvE feature that literally completed itself if just one singular person out of 40 did anything at all, which of course means that all the mechanics were a complete waste of time to actually use.

So yeah - great Warcraft content, AWFUL game design.

2 Likes
19

The whole thing was misserable. End of story.

1 Like
20

Basically my retrospective as well. There were glimmers of potential thrown into the mix along the way, but all in all, what little potential remained for the faction-war narratives was utterly dismantled due to BfA’s writing.

Looking back and asking the question “what did BfA contribute with long term?”, the answers are just about universally negative for my part.

It once again made the Horde out to be a collective of sheep, following some obviously nefarious Warchief right down the path of war crimes. It finally brought about Azshara in person, only for her and the naga to be a matter resolved in a single patch. Oh and N’zoth, the Old God that drove Deathwing insane and has orchestrated devious events in novels? Same story, dealt with in a patch.

As for the faction war? Nothing came of it. Players lost two cities (because all things must be balanced for the fans, naturally), but all in all, the status quo didn’t change an inch.

The zones and music were solid though, I will give Blizzard that. As someone who doesn’t even care all that much for the Kul Tiran aesthetic, Boralus still remains an incredibly vibrant city.

3 Likes