My first impression was I liked it, although I’m already bored of it and I’m playing classic fresh servers. The raid didn’t hook me and I stopped after 5/8 HC. Gearing, even though fast, still feels tedious. I was trying to get into PvP this expansion and everything feels horrible in that regard also, battles too long, immortal healers, way too many CCs, etc (I’m a PvP noob but I’ve heard plenty of complains from more experienced people). Performance also is terrible, sometimes I think it’s me, but no, it’s the game. And professions have potential but they’re just way too complex and the lack of a respec option breaks everything and can potentially screw that character for you. Story didn’t hook me, also, but then again I haven’t been hooked to WoW’s story since MoP, their storytelling methods have become stale and the writing doesn’t help
I played Dragon age Veilguard , going to play stalker 2 and the new Indiana jones on gamepass when I get time off around during the Christmas holidays.
I don’t enjoy the lack of exciting character progression.
I’m the kind of player who was very fond of the Artifact Weapon, the Netherlight Crucible, the Heart of Azeroth, Corruption items, Soulbinds, and legendary items.
I like to work toward ways that make my character more powerful in meaningful and exciting ways, which the above were.
The War Within only has the gear grind, and it is the most boring gear grind WoW has ever had. It’s just passive stats and nothing else. Do a lot of Mythic+ Jito and get item level 636!
Why? It’s just a bunch of extra Stamina and Intellect. It’s the most boring item design in the entire gaming industry. It is simplified beyond belief. And it’s boring. It does not inspire me to do anything in the game.
The gameplay loop is a skinner box that would kill even the most optimistic of rats.
What is there to do at this point?
Well if you’ve done world quests for a little bit of time by now, then the rewards have become completely meaningless. More Valorstones? Ah, you shouldn’t have. Really, you shouldn’t. I don’t want more freaking Valorstones!!
In the past I felt like doing world quests was a lot more rewarding, be it in terms of gold or gear or useful currency or meaningful progression. In The War Within the Renown tracks are totally uninspiring and the rewards are so lame that all the currency you earn feels worthless.
Raids and Dungeons and Delves are so conservative in their design that it’s just auto-pilot from start to finish. Kill trash, kill more trash, there’s a boss – kill it. Don’t stand in the fire. Do your usual spell rotation.
I realize that it’s because these activities have a competitive aspect tied to them that the design has to conform to a certain mould, but it’s freaking boring to be presented with the same gameplay experience again and again, but with a different paint job. It’s so unimaginative.
I’m playing the same character I’ve always played.
Because the Hero talents were crap and because the game doesn’t really have any meaningful character progression, then then my character plays 95% as it did in Dragonflight, and 90% like it did in Shadowlands.
That’s 4 years where my character has basically operated the same. I can play my Priest in my sleep at this point. Like what the hell?! In other games with this kind of third-person, gear and spells and talents and so on, you’re constantly evolving your gameplay and getting new cool enhancements and powerful ways to kill your enemies even faster.
In WoW there’s nothing. The prospect right now is that barring any major re-design from Blizzard, my Priest will play exactly the same at the start of The War Within as it will by the end of The War Within.
That is crazy boring.
The rewards are plentiful, like garbage is.
I got hundreds and hundreds of mounts and pets and toys and transmogs and titles, and I honestly don’t give a hoot about any more of them.
I like the way my character looks. I have the pets and mounts and toys that I like to use, so what on earth am I supposed to do with more? Throw it in the pile? Sure. But why should I bother getting any of it in the first place? It’s meaningless.
There’s nothing in the game right now that I look at and go: “I want that and I’ll do whatever it takes to get it!”
The world of Khaz Algar is lame as hell.
I’m sorry, but it is. Blizzard’s formulaic approach to inventing another unexplored land with never-heard-of-before races and an entirely isolated game experience that is completely detached from the rest of the game, is getting incredibly tiresome. And for the life of me I do not understand how you can have such a rich fantasy world as Warcraft and then constantly reduce it to so little as recent expansions have done. I do not feel as if I am playing World of Warcraft when I am playing The War Within. At best it’s a small generic fantasy experience that mildly resembles Warcraft.
I’m starting to rant, so I’ll end here.
I mean, I reviewed the expansion a couple of months ago and gave it a fairly scathing verdict. And for all the patches and hotfixes Blizzard have added since, and the roadmap and upcoming content, it doesn’t look one bit better to me. It’s pretty crap.
I am going to chime in on this one. I really believe it needed an overhaul but what we got is just plain annoying and gets boring fast. Now with TWW fishing became just as convoluted. Spend an hour searching for pools to catch 10 of one to fish literally just one and the buff is poof rinse and repeat. Whoever is behind the crafting is actually destroying it and only those so attached to their characters are actually torturing themselves to do it. I betcha they too wish for certain changes too like lets get rid of this stupid ranking system and gated points system.
Story, it’s better than Shadowlands or Dragonflight but that’s not impressive.
Class Balancing, PvP is always a mess but it seems even with PvE they doing an awful job.
Bugs, so many of them. It feels like they don’t care anymore or they can’t work this “fast”. Didn’t they said Classic will not harm Retail? The quality says otherwise.
I have more points like professions, automatic report system / support, bots, Blitz Bg etc. but those are my biggest dislikes.
The Siren Isle looks boring too, will not come back for that but for Plunderstorm next year.
Housing. It’s the Housing that’ll come with Early Access. I feel like that was kind of teased on the Roadmap, because it appears ahead of the Midnight expansion release.
100% Agree with you. I don’t for one second believe the EA was a failure and if offered with midnight there will be more of an uptake. I have heard more positive feedback than negative with the exception to the wait for season 1. Perhaps this they might rethink.
Well it likely is. When would it otherwise get patched in?
And it fits with the roadmap as well, with Midnight releasing afterward.
So if you’re Blizzard you’ll open access to Housing during pre-patch for Early Access buyers.
Same as when Battle for Azeroth gave early Access to Allied Races if you bought the expensive expansion version.
The only ones looking at The War Within “on paper” would be Blizzard. And for them it can’t be pleasant reading.
The Mythic+ runs per week are at a similar level to where Dragonflight was by the end of the expansion. I mean, the numbers only go down over the course of an expansion, so if this is the level The War Within starts at, it’s a worrying outlook.
The PvP participation is on life support. There was like 1.5k Battleground Blitz runs last week IN TOTAL!
I think Belullar had a video where he deducted around 500k retail subscribers right now (minus China). Even with huge statistical uncertainty, those subscriber numbers are terrifyingly low. I mean, Shadowlands sold 3.7 million copies on day 1 and evidently had around 500k subscribers by its end. If the War Within is anywhere close to that ballpark after only 3 months…holy moly.