What Exile's Reach taught me about WoW, and why I want a "dumb" expansion

Community General Discussion
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Exile’s Reach isn’t perfect, but it’s damn good content. In several ways, it recaptures some of that Vanilla magic.

You’re an adventurer, and really a nobody. You’ve been shipwrecked on a strange and unfamiliar island (which is beautiful and immersive, by the way), and you have to progressively make your way across the island and through the story. A journey in every sense of the word.

There are typical Azerothian elements present, such as Murlocs, Harpies, Ogres, and even simple spiders. Whimsical gnomes and their inventions, shamanistic totems, and, and… the list goes on.

This has me thinking.

Dragonflight is pitched to us as a return to the norm. Traditional fantasy and Warcraft. In a way, that’s true! But Dragons are still, well, mythical creatures. And in Dragonflight, they’re everywhere. To the point where there’s little room left for more simple things, like Murlocs and Gnolls.

So whether Blizzard has decided to revamp Azeroth, or they’re bringing some type of super content (Avaloren) on the other side of Azeroth with the next expansion (11.0), I’m happy with either as long as they’re simple.

Just let me roam around little villages and forests, and solve common problems. Give me basic weapons and armour (in HD), and a story that’s easy to digest. We kill the leader of the local cult in a nearby cave, or fish out a dropped locket on the bottom of a lake.

This all just sounds so incredibly stress-free. Fun. Immersive.

Let’s go! Back to the basics.

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Plenty of Murlocs and Gnolls all over Dragon Isles.

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your already playing a dumb expansion about lizards doing lizard things
I on the hand want a smart expansion about fixing the giant sword problem but that’s beyond ion the clown and daunser the creatively inept

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There is also plenty of grass on the Dragon Isles, just as there is in Elwynn forest. Doesn’t mean the two offer remotely similar experiences.

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Well as i and other have pointed out cata did so poorly that by the devs own word they will never do another world revamp and the bean counters would most likely never green light such a expansion

which is a shame i’d love to see all the old armor in HD :smiley: as someone who really liked Quel’delar from Wolk i’d love to see quel’serrar get a better model too

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I don’t like Exile’s Reach much. It has no roots in the game, no sense of origin, tradition, or history. It also feels to me like Warlords, because … well, it’s largely made of recycled Draenor packaging.

But - and this is a serious question - if simple and hearty is to your taste, have you tried Wrath, or even Classic?

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As an altoholic and trying out so many race/class combinations I’ve started to hate exile’s reach with a vengeance. Yet it’s still better and faster than 95% of the starting areas so I keep doing it and hating every second of it!

God I’m a masochist, too.

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Faster? Up to 10 … umm…mmaybe.

Better? How better?

But as an experienced altoholic, I’m not concerned about you. You know the ropes, you know the zones, you know the game. You can choose.

I’m concerned for new players who are forced to start there and never get the sense of what their race is about, or how their starting zone feels.

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Idk, Exile’s Reach felt so generic, soulless and sterile compared to all real starting zones.

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Tbh, even though I think it’s fine as an introduction for new players, I’d like to see the real starting zones like durotar get updated including the leveling in the “home” of the game on the main continents. Afaik, they said they will use AI in the future to make art, so maybe AI could do this lol

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Having played each starting zone at least two times, Exiles Reach beats them all in turn of playing to lvl 10 the fastest. May I remind you of the time it takes to complete such zones like Pandaren, Worgen and worst offender of all Goblins? Now if they haven’t played any of them, then by all means people should be able to start there, I do not dispute that but my verdict stands.

Having played exile’s reach over 30 times, I can finish it in around 20-25mins. Which original starting zone can beat that?

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20-25 minutes. With or without looms? (Even without their XP buff, they make a difference.)

I might be tempted to try, and see.

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Without looms. I don’t bother with them I just rush through after so many times. It’s just the repetation that gets to me of doing it over and over again.

A new player will take longer, but not by much, the quests are extremely streamlined, no back tracking just going ahead. You get good starter gear and you learn the basics of the game as well as your class. Imho, that’s what makes it better and faster, too.

Edit: the payoff is though that the lore goes under. So I’m in favour of every race needing to do their starting area at least once before exile’s reach opens up as an option.

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Not really 95%, like 10-15 minutes faster than original race zones. Probably if you have this mount with driver it will be about the same time.

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PErsonally my opinion is, Dragon Islands is actually way better for starting with as a newbie then Kul Tiras/Zandalar.
On the Dragon Island you are a mere adventurer under many.
You are also starting with a bad version of flying which is another selling point of WoW.
And the expansion is basically starting a new story arc.
In BfA you are in the mid of a big war about resolving ancient hates which you should know but have as a newbie no idea.
You also go from being the new recruit to being the biggest champion which makes sense for existing players but not for newbies.
So on the DI the new players could slowly get acclimated to Azeroth without feeling overloaded or lost.

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Yes to your whole post, but especially this part. It summarizes what the game should be again, and what makes it so different from the RTS games.

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Looms only have longer lasting rested exp now, not a buff to exp.

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