(WoW) Legion p2
The fight against the Legion continues! With an extended weekend, I didn't have too much trouble getting my paladin to the new level cap of 110 and get into Suramar (though I haven't finished out Stormheim yet). Suramar quests start dropping artifact power like candy. Just like candy, however, it's not very fulfilling to get 100-300 power when your next artifact trait is 7000 points away. Pretty much all my quest chains at this point (class hall, professions, etc.) involve delving into dungeons for various things. That's a little bit of a roadblock to me until guildmates are ready, though I might try to dust off my Retribution skills and PUG as DPS. We'll see there.
Technically, this has been a pretty darn smooth expansion launch. I had some disconnection issues one evening, but no queue times logging in. There have been crowds in a few places, but I never felt overwhelmed and rarely have had to wait for target spawns. That's all good.
Also, though Blizzard has pushed the "players are epic" thing in the past, this is perhaps the first time I've felt this much of a badass. It's not because my character is mechanically more powerful compared to the enemies. But rather because of the weight of history and lore. When a quest target cackles and says, "You shall never defeat me!" I don't question that because I know I'm a player and the game is geared for me to win. Rather, I find myself thinking through my character, "Look, I've taken part in defeating the Lich King, Deathwing, Old Gods, Sha's, and the entire Iron Horde. You aren't even a bump in the road, buddy." Wielding a titan artifact and pulling together the Silver Hand again feels important.
I can even picture my character acting out on the urges I've had to smack a couple major lore figures. At this point, Sashayla has been fighting to protect Azeroth and the Alliance for longer than the leaders of about half the Alliance faction leaders.
I've also run through initial artifact quests on my other level 100 alts - DPS feral druid, DPS demon hunter, Frost DPS death knight, Affliction warlock, and DPS priest. In general, they're all okay. Frost DK was by far the hardest for me - and I don't know if that's a reflection of me or that spec, but I died at least half a dozen times there getting the shard of Frostmourne to put back together. So, there's a little bit of odd overlap - shadow priests delve into Tyr's Fall, confronting several Old God cultists in order to retrieve a dagger (that talks to you, and seems decidedly evil) and later (from what I've read) holy paladin's show up at the same location to retrieve a titan-connected mace and collapse the tomb. I imagine there are some other shared locations/events, but that's what I've seen.
Things are being painted as pretty bleak, and the Idiot Ball is being shared by a great many. While the pre-Legion content pushed the "we need to work together against the Legion" theme, people are failing at that across the board.
Jaina bails before the expansion - which is pretty weird, as... where can she go if not Dalaran? And Kalec is still there in the Kirin Tor.
Genn, who has plenty of reason to hate Sylvanas, seems to be pushed over the edge by a retreat from the Broken Shore that wasn't really her fault. He then coopts Sky Admiral Rogers into sending the airship pride of the Alliance into a suicidal run against the Forsaken's fleet. Senseless waste of resources there.
Velen is justifiably broken up by events surrounding the Light's Heart. The apparent disintegration of a naruu and death of his corrupted son is a big blow. But "rev up the engines, we're outta here" is not the correct response. It seems especially impulsive for someone who'se been struggling against the Legion for thousands of years.
Even Malfurion, Ysera, and several lesser characters make some pretty stupidly ballsy moves here and there, running off without support and the like. Fairly early in the order hall campaign, we get a message from the long-missing Turalyon that says essentially, "You know how the Titans have been fighting the Legion for ages? Yeah, about that - the Titans really lost a looong time ago, and it's just us remnants of their Army of Light left. So... yeah. Sucks, huh?"
And on top of all that, there's really been very little talk about how we don't even know how to really kill a demon. I'm not sure it applies to all the species of the Legion, but most of the big guys at least return to the Twisting Nether when slain. So taking out Legion commanders is a temporary solution at best until that little wrinkle gets figured out.
So, yeah, things are looking kind of bleak on a grand scale, but it mostly makes me want to see where things are going at this point.
Technically, this has been a pretty darn smooth expansion launch. I had some disconnection issues one evening, but no queue times logging in. There have been crowds in a few places, but I never felt overwhelmed and rarely have had to wait for target spawns. That's all good.
Also, though Blizzard has pushed the "players are epic" thing in the past, this is perhaps the first time I've felt this much of a badass. It's not because my character is mechanically more powerful compared to the enemies. But rather because of the weight of history and lore. When a quest target cackles and says, "You shall never defeat me!" I don't question that because I know I'm a player and the game is geared for me to win. Rather, I find myself thinking through my character, "Look, I've taken part in defeating the Lich King, Deathwing, Old Gods, Sha's, and the entire Iron Horde. You aren't even a bump in the road, buddy." Wielding a titan artifact and pulling together the Silver Hand again feels important.
I can even picture my character acting out on the urges I've had to smack a couple major lore figures. At this point, Sashayla has been fighting to protect Azeroth and the Alliance for longer than the leaders of about half the Alliance faction leaders.
I've also run through initial artifact quests on my other level 100 alts - DPS feral druid, DPS demon hunter, Frost DPS death knight, Affliction warlock, and DPS priest. In general, they're all okay. Frost DK was by far the hardest for me - and I don't know if that's a reflection of me or that spec, but I died at least half a dozen times there getting the shard of Frostmourne to put back together. So, there's a little bit of odd overlap - shadow priests delve into Tyr's Fall, confronting several Old God cultists in order to retrieve a dagger (that talks to you, and seems decidedly evil) and later (from what I've read) holy paladin's show up at the same location to retrieve a titan-connected mace and collapse the tomb. I imagine there are some other shared locations/events, but that's what I've seen.
Things are being painted as pretty bleak, and the Idiot Ball is being shared by a great many. While the pre-Legion content pushed the "we need to work together against the Legion" theme, people are failing at that across the board.
Jaina bails before the expansion - which is pretty weird, as... where can she go if not Dalaran? And Kalec is still there in the Kirin Tor.
Genn, who has plenty of reason to hate Sylvanas, seems to be pushed over the edge by a retreat from the Broken Shore that wasn't really her fault. He then coopts Sky Admiral Rogers into sending the airship pride of the Alliance into a suicidal run against the Forsaken's fleet. Senseless waste of resources there.
Velen is justifiably broken up by events surrounding the Light's Heart. The apparent disintegration of a naruu and death of his corrupted son is a big blow. But "rev up the engines, we're outta here" is not the correct response. It seems especially impulsive for someone who'se been struggling against the Legion for thousands of years.
Even Malfurion, Ysera, and several lesser characters make some pretty stupidly ballsy moves here and there, running off without support and the like. Fairly early in the order hall campaign, we get a message from the long-missing Turalyon that says essentially, "You know how the Titans have been fighting the Legion for ages? Yeah, about that - the Titans really lost a looong time ago, and it's just us remnants of their Army of Light left. So... yeah. Sucks, huh?"
And on top of all that, there's really been very little talk about how we don't even know how to really kill a demon. I'm not sure it applies to all the species of the Legion, but most of the big guys at least return to the Twisting Nether when slain. So taking out Legion commanders is a temporary solution at best until that little wrinkle gets figured out.
So, yeah, things are looking kind of bleak on a grand scale, but it mostly makes me want to see where things are going at this point.
I think writers need to have their stories checked by someone who's trained to find the idiot ball. Then the editor can say 'no', and they can work to make people stop carrying that thing.
ReplyDeleteWould be nice. I place high value on story, but I prefer a story that doesn't require people getting carried away with justifications which (to me) are insufficient for radical, often against-type, actions.
ReplyDelete