It has to be said, the Danuser-era of Warcraft isn’t too popular on this forum, not without justification.
However, a broken clock still strikes right twice a day.
Was there anything lore or storywise in the span of BFA-Dragonflight that you thought: ‘Actually, that’s a pretty decent idea’? Moments, perhaps, you felt clicked properly.
It ended rather quickly, I suppose.
Patently untrue in this case.
On a more serious note, I’ll have to give it some thought. Danuser himself didn’t blow me away, but the Danuser era did produce good stuff.
I’m honestly drawing a blank. Anything that skirts close to being “right” comes with a heaping side of “but”. Castle Nathria being the prime example but I am so, so tired of hearing people talk about how good Castle Nathria was.
First half of BFA was fine, I enjoyed the faction war and how both Kul Tiras and Zandalar were pulled into it sans Sylvanas being reduced to a Saturday Morning War Criminal-tier clown of a character.
Kul Tiras worldbuilding was generally pretty solid.
While Zandalar was a bit of a let down design-wise, the concepts in the quest chains (integration of loa like Pa’ku and Akunda, the Sethrak+Vulpera) were pretty decent. The vulpera introduction - balancing Kiro, Nisha, and Meerah (the latter of which ended up overused unfortunately) worked well.
I liked the little sidequest chain with the squad of undead in Nazmir.
The Waycrest story, pretty fine+dandy!
Zul in the Stormwind jailbreak was fun. Shame how it all turned out.
It’s difficult to appreciate any part of Shadowlands but I still like Revendreth a lot, both stylistically and narratively. As a purgatory, a bunch of soul-vampires works well (and Renathal’s voice 
). That’s not much on the writing side, admittedly. More art.
The Baine/Tauren questline in DF was pretty basic but it worked well and gave Baine a solid redeeming moment after his complete waste of an existence in Slands.
The origins of the DF centaur are stupid, but I did appreciate them trying to flesh the race out a little more, even if it was relatively surface level (“This is the magic clan, this is the evil clan, etc.”). Ditto for giving more to the Tuskarr.
BfA’s problems were less that the ideas were in themselves bad but more that they were mushed into one single expansion with no space to breathe or be elaborated on. Like almost every individual element of that expansion is actually fairly cool but we hammered through them at such a pace that none of them really got the space they needed making their endings feel abrupt and forced.
Shadowlands has a fair bit less. I quite liked Denathrius as villain but at lot of that is art direction and voice performance. I thought the devourers were kind of neat. De Other Side was good fun. The subplot of Odyn’s eye being used for evil and being a raid boss was kinda cool, pity it was in service to a complete nothingburger. I like the Zones Revendreth and Ardenweald as spaces, though don’t really care for their stories.
Seconding the Tuskarr in Dragonflight being fun. Actually most of the 10.0 patch content was pretty decent.
Okay so Danuser can’t be credited for things done by the art team and what not but the different transmogs across those three expansions are (in my opinion) some of the best Blizzard have ever done. Especially all the seafaring stuff that got put into BFA on the kul tiran side of things.
Heritage quests were a mixed bag too. Some really good ones (Orc!), some not at all (Tauren 
) but we can definitely agree that some of them were good.
BfA’s first half was mostly peam, though there are things done throughout BfA that I miss in expansions after. It’s sort of unclear to me how much of BfA was Danuser? It seems so starkly different from the 
three expansions following it as well as the strong differences between the first and last half of BfA.
What I did appreciate though was that enemies were given substance- even trash mobs. A lot of (voiced!!) lines on aggro, some abilities, on death. It made it feel a lot more alive.
Voice acting especially is something that I feel has gone down the drain after BfA, but during it? Stuff was good.
Basically what I’m saying is that Danuser did half of BfA right and that’s kind of it.
It should be noted, the operative word here is ‘Era’. Danuser himself doesn’t have to be the developer in question, as every game project is the result of a team effort. The director is only one part of the greater whole. It just will have had to have happened between Metzen’s initial retirement and his return for The Worldsoul Saga.
Dragonflight rocked honestly.
I think BFA had bunch of great ideas none of which had good execution.
Kul Tiras and Zandalar being zones that people had been wanting to see for over a decade and I have to say they are some of my favourite zone designs, vibes, quests etc. But looking back I think having the zandalari being a presence that keeps messing with our stuff but is out of our reach like in vanilla, cata and mop was better, especially since the mighty empire turned out to actually be just 1 zone. But all 6 leveling zones were great.
I think Xalatath showing up in BFA didnt have a good reason? I may be wrong though, dont really remember. But either way even if I dont find her as good of a villain as other people do, I appreciate having a villain that doesnt come from WC3 and sticks around for multiple expansions.
I love my factions, so faction war was cool idea, only we didnt see it, came kinda out of nowhere and ended badly.
The night warrior was cool idea, only it didnt lead to anything.
Vol’jin’s urn was cool idea, only it too didnt lead to anything. (The optimist in me thinks this one can yet be salvaged)
In SL some souls describing basically void or the burning legion attacking their worlds was cool. I dont necessarily want us to travel there in space ships but I like the acknowledgement and theorising of other places in the great dark beyond.
There was literally nothing good about DF. I dont know exactly when Danuser stuff begins and ends so not sure if I can blame him for that one.
Honest-to-God question: what about Dragonflight, in your view, was so good?
I ask because I feel so utterly disconnected from the perspective. At best I tend to perceive it as kind of middlingly-neutral and at worst moderately offensive in how basic it was.
People hate Dragonflight for various reasons and like
Okay, even if you don’t like the plot or the theming or the sometimes Marvel-esque writing, it should still be noted that Dragonflight did all of the following:
Oh and something else, what am I forgetting…
Oh yeah, making flying actually fun and not just something you AFK and forget anymore.
And while the arguement can be made “well these are just things that should’ve been in the game for a while back” - yeah, maybe, but they weren’t. Dragonflight changed that.
I really, really enjoyed Nazjatar (what small microcosm of it we saw), but I regret that it will never get an expansion of its own. Azshara is an iconic character who had the potential to be an Illidan or Arthas-tier box art villain - N’zoth was an enjoyable piece of spectacle (ex. in the Warbringers cinematic), but the most memorable Warcraft villains have always been high-camp, classically tragic figures like her.
I’m not sure I could earnestly say Danuser ‘did it right,’ because the developers could have gotten a lot more mileage out of these ideas, and they ended up sort of squandered. But what’s there is pretty great. I could have played that patch forever.
Tbh I don’t think the talent system is particularly better. WoW is fundamentally a game where the mathematically best options for specific situations will be worked out within hours of being testable so really all we’ve now got is a slightly more annoying interface for picking between a handful of viable options.
Crafting overhaul was sick. PvE content was wonderful in general, IMO (I love the mega dungeon so much, awesome storytelling throughout just a dungeon).
The lower stakes in comparison to the past expansions was much needed, IMO.
Also, the way they built up future plot points in smaller quests or activities so everything felt connected. I really liked that the Fyrakk assaults were basically the prelude to the crafting of the axe that’d tear into the Emerald Dream.
One downside was them, at launch, locking story quests behind renown.
Oh! There are a few side quest NPCs that show up in later patches so things felt a lot less static.
There’s a lot more stuff I can go into detail for, but overall my impression of the expansion is very positive!
Thats effort on the level like the half-elven ears which can be done in blender within 5 minutes of actual work.
Not very strong points in favor of Dragonflight. They are minor points at best.
Them killing Ursoc in the ardenweald shadowlands cinematic was a crime beyond redemption. The only part of the storylines invoking an emotion in me. Might also be because I love druids and their gods, even when I find their depiction of the emerald dream to be a bit too tame for the supposed ancient realm of untamed life. Still, Ursoc being now entirely gone after we had to kill him in Legion is painful to this day.
Though some parts about the stories were good, even when the emotions werent there. Zuldazar was good as you got to know alot about the Zandalari, their people and culture as they are very different than the other trolls we have encountered (Unlike the Kul Tirans who were mostly just depicted as seafaring humans with ocean-religion-quirk).
The Vulpera were a waste of time, Sethrak had alot more stuff going for them and should have been allied race. Vol’dun was about the snakes, not the foxes.
The whole witch-things in Drustvar was also quite interesting, seeing that a now-extinct tribe of Vrykul settled there, waged war and went to an offshoot of the emerald nightmare. Though unfortunately Thornspeaker were ruined for me, thanks to all the thornspeaker roleplayer who think that the Kul Tirans use death magic.
Still, some of the stuff was good. Its just sad that it wasnt nearly enough of it nor that it was necessary to cramp material of three expansions into one alone. Faction-war, Naga and Old Gods? Yeah, enough material for three expansions.
They’re major to me! I loved being a highmountain priest (yes I was genuinely one of probably five people excited for that exact class/race combination)