TL;DR: if you like easy-in fun, quick 5-mans, exploration for fun and profit,
and choices with consequence you should give this a go. Longer update
follows.
I bounced off WoW a long time ago. The grind for mats, the focus on raiding,
the gearscore-dependent PvP were all designed for folks with a bunch of spare
time, which isn't me :) I sank my teeth into Guild Wars and ESO in the
meantime, but on a friend's urging (FML) I gave this a go.
Everything is different for someone who's been out of things since
Cataclysm, this game feels tailored to ALL WoW's players. There's still a
raiding game if that's your thing, but improvements across the board make it
more accessible for us dirty casuals.
They’re making it much more like (IMO) Warcraft 3, not just in the vein
that Alliance and Horde are fighting a war (that’s back, baby) but they’ve
put in mini games that are far more like MOBAs or RTS games if you want a break
from the grind. There’s a mission type which allows you to go to an island
(contested) and gather resources from random mobs. It’s pure rondo-killing
fun, all while jacking up one of the precious resources you need (Azurite).
MOBILE The mobile app’s seen an overhaul, and much like
Assassin’s Creed games, you can now collect heroes/followers and send 'em on
missions. These are hard-linked to the game, in that playing WoW gives you
“War Resources” (found in chests all over the map, in inconvenient locations
that promote exploration – so much fun just “walking west” and finding
stuff). These WR are used to power missions – level 4 missions might need
20, and so on. You get heroes that are permanent, and followers that burn out
after a number of uses – followers are also replenished with WR.
All this can be done in-game, too, BUT.
It means you play WoW, get funky resources, and not care about dealing with
turn-ins and whatnot. Then, when you’re on the train in the AM, you can send
your minions on missions, deal with loot, and so on (which all gives, you
guessed it, Azurite).
LIMITING CHOICE FOR FUN AND PROFIT I’d read about this and thought
“They’ve porked it.” Back in the good ol’ days, playing say a Warlock,
you’d unlock your affliction, demonology, and destruction spells as you
leveled, You would then configure your spec based on the three talent trees, and
have a cast bar with 11,002 spells on it.
Now, they limit you: pick ONE. This means choices have consequences –
demonology warlocks don’t get high-end nuke spells (that’s destro).
Affliction don’t get massive minions. And destruction doesn’t get all the
dots ever.
Sounds a bit pants, until you play, because they’ve also made each class
have proc mechanics that give fun and variety. You don’t have all the
resources anymore like soul stones (or reagents for mages, or… all that
painful fun-stopping micro is gone). While out doing your warlock thing,
you’ll get procs of various kinds based on soul shards you magically get just
by killing, and those will unlock more powerful spells you can introduce in your
rotation for amazing pushback.
It means the classes are far less roll-your-face-across-the-keyboard, and
more alert, waiting for the procs, maximizing your tank/healer/dps roles. You
don’t have low-power spells to worry about, and you also don’t get the thing
where fighting a rogue, you’re fighting the rogue with all abilities. Once you
work out their spec, counters are more meaningful.
I’m playing a frost mage atm, and for the first time ever it’s fun. The
procs are killer, you’ve got slow-and-steady wins the race for the most part,
but a fun set of procs and skillful use of ranged snares and ION CANNON DEATH
FROM ABOVE will yield massive aoe or single target burst. It’s situational,
it’s risky, but it’s rewarding. There’s a huge amount here that changes
it from “watching the cast bars” to “playing the game and your
opponents.”
FIXING QUEUES One of the things that Destroyed Richard’s Fun™ was
queues. You want to do a 5-man- You’re DPS- So sad, Jojo, so sad. You’re in
a 45 minute queue just to play the game.
Now, the queues implement two neat mechanics.
- Level scaling. The dungeons and players are scaled, so instead of LFG for
say 110–112 players, you’re LFG for all eligible players (110–120). The
game has a random dungeon finger that encourages you by (wait for it) Azurite
etc. Rewards, so if you’ve cleared the dungeons, you can rando it up and get
better rewards. The loot is scaled for you (as far as I’ve sen).
- Cross-region PUGs. You’re now in queues with the Americas etc. So,
it’s not just Oceanic realms, it’s the entire planet, which might mean
your latency is up and down a bit, but you’ll get a game. I’ve never had a
queue time for more than a minute as DPS.
Now the bit of the game I like (5-man) is immediately, and always,
accessible. No waiting, straight in. I don’t need to manage my game time,
I can do what I want, when I want. I can open-world it, or MOBA it, or 5-man
it, and just enjoy it when I want to, on my terms.
SOCIAL INTEGRATION The Blizzard app is now one of the best IM applications :)
It’s cross-game, which it’s always been, but it’s now also supporting
groups. I can set up a group of WoW people wanting to murder on Aman’Thul,
and we can check in and see who’s up for murder at any time. The mobile app
is exceptional, better than Skype IMO :) Push notifications work, etc. It is a
nice quality of life feature that keeps you connected with your friends whether
you’re in WOW or on the train. You can plan, if that’s your thing, without
being in the game.
STORY AND QUESTS Oh, man. They’ve really doubled-down on this.
The Horde are definitely the bad guys (I play Horde and love it). They’re
bad for all the right reasons. Sylvanas is now Warchief, and rules with an iron
fist. The Forsaken are her homies. The Tauren and Orc are grudging allies,
because all other roads have been cut off. And the blood elves are like
“Whatevs, she’s all powerful and that’s our music.”
The first mission you get after popping your 110 level boost cherry is the
siege of lordaron. You go in there, it’s a faux 20man raid that teaches you
about your class mechanics (there are tank/healer/dps NPCs for the scenarios).
But aside from that, it’s rich with story, where Sylvanas sacrifices most of
her army to bring Lordaeron down on the heads of the Alliance. It sets the tone,
you know-
The game is filled with these little cinematic-heavy side quests,
interspersed with the questing. It leaves me feeling hungry for the next one,
and provides a guiding purpose for the main open world game other than killing
ten rats.
MINI GAMES These are great. I mentioned the island one, right- So basically
it’s a short mission where you can just go hog wild, but there are
others.
For e.g., there are lots of scenarios with mechanics. Night before last
I had to raise a baby triceratops, which would normally make me claw out my
eyes. The mini games in the set involved feeding her steroids, growing her,
racing her, and fighting a massive t-rex, all with changeable cast bars at the
bottom.
Now, in Guild Wars, when they take away your primary weapon set and give you
a magical mystery one, it’s almost always painful. Your spec is tuned for
your cast bars, and you don’t WANT to play a different way. This feels
different, these are all fun, there’s no jank or troublesome mechanics that
make you pound the keyboard in frustration.
GFX AND SOUND Bliz have always had great sound, but their music and sound
stage feels better, more optimized for spacial sound (caves have echo, if
you’ve got surround cans or speakers audio is very positional, etc.).
The GFX is the unsung hero tho. The 2004 game was fugly. This one isn’t,
it’s much more like Heroes of the Storm or Diablo 3 in graphical fidelity.
I’ve played it on my gaming PC and Mac laptop, and even though the Mac is
quite a bit lower in visual spec it still looks great. When you play on the PC,
it looks greater than great, but in subtle and non-specific ways, mostly about
lighting and particle effects.
It doesn’t feel crusty or grungy.
THE DOWNSIDE Coming back in from what, seven years away, I had a lot to
relearn. Macros to edit, castbars to change, rotations to learn. The best thing
is to use your 110 level boost, get the training from the dude, and then just
wing it. It’s a good time but you’ll need to unlearn a few old
memories.
Also, the monthly fee. I'm enjoying it, but I will probably grind my way
through content and opt-out. I don't mind being a content tourist, but a
monthly sub ensures I'll be an on-again, off-again player. It limits diving back
in like ESO or Guild Wars with their forever-free mechanics.
Well done, worth your time.