I’ve only levelled one character, brought another through the Maw, and haven’t really done anything. I have a great lack of enthusiasm so far.
They mostly fixed the scaling problems of BfA. By making each zone have a narrow range of levels, they removed most of the awful effects of getting weaker as we level that were all over the forums in BfA.
Questing on Rails is BAD. Bad, bad, bad. I didn’t like having no choice the first time, and I dread doing the same quests, in the same order, again - but I hear that ToF is worse, so that’s a problem. Need to investigate further.
XP tuning was pretty good. I had heard that the mandatory campaign was just enough to get you to 60. So I did no dungeons, hardly any side quests, and just a few herbs along the way, and completed the campaign in Revendreth half a level short of 60. That’s pretty well measured!
There is no Zone I want to be in. Ambiance is a big thing for me. I find Ardenweald and Revendreth tolerable, but I’m not enchanted by them as I am by so many Warcraft zones. I actually had to turn the Gamma down to quest in Bastion, and yet Bastion has an inappropriately regretful, nostalgic feel. I have no idea how any team could have come up with that for the pinnacle of the afterlife. I would say the music was phoned in for everything but Revendreth, except that would be giving it too much credit; it has no conviction at all. Oribos is a bus station.
The Maw intro was fine by me. I see a lot of complaints about it, and about having to go through it again. I get that, but it didn’t and won’t bother me. It’s not that long, and gives good XP. It’s also kind of funny, having Thrall tank, Jaina DPS, and Anduin heal, in their escort quest of making sure you reach your destination.
The story and the world doesn’t feel like WoW to me. First content in the game where I would say that. I’m not sure that I can analyse it; maybe it will come to me later on.
The story didn’t make me care. So Baine and Tyrande are left behind. We have no need to worry about Tyrande in the Maw. She’s not locked in with them - they’re locked in with her! We knew Baine was going to be OK, because story. There was no Runas the Shamed for us to relate to, and while they did have to pack 4 stories into those levels, they never approached the involvement of Suramar. It wasn’t outright bad, like the BfA pre-story, but it didn’t hook me. My impression is that they depended far too much on cinematics for effect, and that’s not a good thing - like the writers said: “Get players invested in the characters??? You what? Not my job, mate!”
Mob density around the zones was good. There are some denser and many open areas, nothing likle the grid-paper layout of the mobs at Ashhvane in BfA.
Danuser and his pronounts just will not go away. For those of you who didn’t notice, I will say no more. Once you do notice, you can’t un-notice. Not important, just a constant reminder of his personal need to virtue-signal while making the world a little worse.
Questing proper felt weak. Not outright bad, just a bit tedious. I do not like gimmick quests. Not Kirin Tor, not Turtles, not Mad Whoozis, not Bejeweled. Our job is to kill things and take their stuff, not play whatever favourite childhood phone or console game some rookie designer wants to force on the rest of the world. And, thankfully, there were few gimmicks. Several places where the quest was unclear. I miss being told where to go, and just looking for an arrow instead. Ratio of messy kill-and-collect to straight questboss-kill was too high, though. This seems to follow through into WQ, from what I’ve seen.
I could go on, with good and bad points, but I already hear the piteous cries to stahp!