WoW: BfA (Continued)
The Battle for Azeroth continues!
Over the weekend, I've run a bunch of world quests, managed to get blacksmithing to a half-useful level (unlocking all current patterns), and run three of the four leveling dungeons for Alliance while pursing the Pride of Kul Tiras quest line to get Jaina back. For all that, I've got an average item level of 320 now, which appears to be sufficient for mythic dungeons and probably the not-yet-released raid.
Island Expeditions: Meh. You need to run at least 5 different maps (three of which available every week) to advance some war (? not garrison or order, but same sort of thing) benefits. Beyond that, they reward some azerite and there may be some possible cosmetic rewards, but they don't seem very rewarding. Maybe on higher difficulties? I did, at least, experience some victories.
The leveling dungeons are pretty easy if you run them in normal mode at 120. I'm sure I'll have to try harder modes at some point. I'm a little mystified why the storyline to get Jaina back then runs immediately into Siege of Boralus, which is a mythic-only dungeon. That means both that there's a baseline of difficulty that's notably higher and that you cannot use the finder tool to throw together a random group. It seems like story, so I don't know why it's being gated like that, but I'll probably try the manual group finder at some point if necessary.
I'm still disappointed by blacksmithing at this stage. I've been able to craft a couple minor upgrades to get to a baseline of item level 300. Higher than that requires a random proc (to 310) or epic patterns that look like they require dungeon/raid-dropped material. They might be worth it later. The entire first stage monelite gear, however, was useless to me. Part of that is coming out of being pretty well geared from the last expansion, but I didn't have they sense anything I could make while leveling was better than quest rewards.
A few recommendations:
- If you have a gathering profession that has efficiency-increasing ranks to the skills, do the quests to learn those. I didn't until level cap, and thus missed out on some materials I could have gathered along the way through mining.
- Do the war campaign missions that unlock every couple levels to establish outposts in Zandalar. They're required to open up world quests at level 120 anyway, so may as well do them. Each outpost has a portal/boat/mole machine to take you back to Boralus and talking to the Grand Admiral at the helm of the 7th Legion's ship will let you return to opened outposts on Zandalar.
- The Pride quests that open up after finishing the bulk of the three zone stories require doing Tol Dagor, Shrine of the Storm, and Waycrest Manor. Not that multiple runs are necessarily bad, but when you get the dungeon quest for each of those, you can then wait and do it when you get the Pride-related one as well for efficiency sake.
- Some silver-bordered rares in the world are level 122 and don't scale down. While level 120/scaling rares seem usually soloable, these guys (either in Kul Tiras or Zandalar) will probably wreck you if you charge in blindly.
- Reputation grinds are still here. Friendly with the three mains ones is needed to unlock world quests at 120. That's easily doable through the main quests. Honored offers a choice of rare ilevel 320 cloak that'll probably be an upgrade. Most groups offer an epic piece at revered and exalted. Some have recipes. Champions of Azeroth has fewer quests, so will take longer, but upgrades the necklace at each step.
- Boralus does not have an auction house or void storage. It does, however, have portals to capital cities and one back to Magni in Silithus for Champions of Azeroth turn-ins.
Over the weekend, I've run a bunch of world quests, managed to get blacksmithing to a half-useful level (unlocking all current patterns), and run three of the four leveling dungeons for Alliance while pursing the Pride of Kul Tiras quest line to get Jaina back. For all that, I've got an average item level of 320 now, which appears to be sufficient for mythic dungeons and probably the not-yet-released raid.
Island Expeditions: Meh. You need to run at least 5 different maps (three of which available every week) to advance some war (? not garrison or order, but same sort of thing) benefits. Beyond that, they reward some azerite and there may be some possible cosmetic rewards, but they don't seem very rewarding. Maybe on higher difficulties? I did, at least, experience some victories.
The leveling dungeons are pretty easy if you run them in normal mode at 120. I'm sure I'll have to try harder modes at some point. I'm a little mystified why the storyline to get Jaina back then runs immediately into Siege of Boralus, which is a mythic-only dungeon. That means both that there's a baseline of difficulty that's notably higher and that you cannot use the finder tool to throw together a random group. It seems like story, so I don't know why it's being gated like that, but I'll probably try the manual group finder at some point if necessary.
I'm still disappointed by blacksmithing at this stage. I've been able to craft a couple minor upgrades to get to a baseline of item level 300. Higher than that requires a random proc (to 310) or epic patterns that look like they require dungeon/raid-dropped material. They might be worth it later. The entire first stage monelite gear, however, was useless to me. Part of that is coming out of being pretty well geared from the last expansion, but I didn't have they sense anything I could make while leveling was better than quest rewards.
A few recommendations:
- If you have a gathering profession that has efficiency-increasing ranks to the skills, do the quests to learn those. I didn't until level cap, and thus missed out on some materials I could have gathered along the way through mining.
- Do the war campaign missions that unlock every couple levels to establish outposts in Zandalar. They're required to open up world quests at level 120 anyway, so may as well do them. Each outpost has a portal/boat/mole machine to take you back to Boralus and talking to the Grand Admiral at the helm of the 7th Legion's ship will let you return to opened outposts on Zandalar.
- The Pride quests that open up after finishing the bulk of the three zone stories require doing Tol Dagor, Shrine of the Storm, and Waycrest Manor. Not that multiple runs are necessarily bad, but when you get the dungeon quest for each of those, you can then wait and do it when you get the Pride-related one as well for efficiency sake.
- Some silver-bordered rares in the world are level 122 and don't scale down. While level 120/scaling rares seem usually soloable, these guys (either in Kul Tiras or Zandalar) will probably wreck you if you charge in blindly.
- Reputation grinds are still here. Friendly with the three mains ones is needed to unlock world quests at 120. That's easily doable through the main quests. Honored offers a choice of rare ilevel 320 cloak that'll probably be an upgrade. Most groups offer an epic piece at revered and exalted. Some have recipes. Champions of Azeroth has fewer quests, so will take longer, but upgrades the necklace at each step.
- Boralus does not have an auction house or void storage. It does, however, have portals to capital cities and one back to Magni in Silithus for Champions of Azeroth turn-ins.
Thank you for the reccomendations, I'll be sure to refer to them for whenever I get around to grinding out level
ReplyDeleteThose mostly came from Yeen talking about "when I unlock world quests" and me thinking "I did that almost immediately after 120, what's the hold-up for you?" I think yon hunter gets distracted with tracking down rares and Legion transmogs. ;)
ReplyDeleteStory-wise, I think I most enjoyed Drustvar. Maybe it's the paladin in me, but you get to do some witch hunting and reform an inquisition while dealing with history of the vrykul-like native inhabitants who attacked the early Kul Tirans (though they ended up losing badly). Tiragarde deals with political scheming and pirates. Stormsong involves finding out why the tidesages have withdrawn and looking for the missing fleet, with a helping of Horde invasion and naga attacks.
The war campaign missions have you setting up bases on Zandalar, starting with one in each zone there. You help out some snake people getting attacked by the more zealous of their own kind, but that hasn't reached anything like a satisfying conclusion that I've seen (yet). Then there's carving a place in swamps near blood trolls (which I think are hostile to Horde too). And there's a base to establish relatively close to the major city. At higher 7th Legion reputation, you can unlock some additional outposts, though those don't seem to be quest hubs so much as just small spots with flight masters and an inn or repair vendor. There are quests to be found there outside of the war campaign missions themselves - I don't know if it's worth exploring pre-120, but there are a few quest hubs, including one involving Nessingwary.
I don't have hard facts, but I would say a lot of areas in all the zones feel more dense with mobs - I don't recall it being quite so difficult to get around without pulling things. That's a bit more dangerous on enemy soil, as (at a glance) it can be difficult to tell what's a PVP troll that will flag you versus a non-PVP troll you can kill freely when you're riding around exploring.
I wonder a lot about the faction dichotomy. Zandalar seems to have the bulk of the "other" races, too: setherak, vulpera, even mogu. Kul Tiras has some distinctive enemies (like the witches and wickermen of Drustvar), but no real enclaves of races save the Tortollans who have spots on both island groups. I don't know how the stories compare or if the Alliance are depicted coming and cartpet-bombing their way into a beachhead like the Horde is (though that seems unlikely).