WoW: BfA
So, what's it been like working through levels and zones in BfA? Not that unlike other expansions, really.
Story-wise, it seems my totally-uninformed choices made the faction conflict drop almost completely off the map for my leveling play. The Alliance has three zones to quest through. The Horde only really makes an appearance in about a quarter of one of those zones. It just so happens I didn't hit that area until after reaching level 120 (even without any XP boosting tricks beyond some rested XP here and there). Along the way, you open up three excursions to establish beachheads on the Horde island. Only one of those really deals with confronting Horde soldiers (the others deal with native snake-folk and some serious cannibal trolls that I don't think are specifically Horde-aligned), and guess which one I happened to do last? So, while other players may well see things differently, I hit Kul Tiras and promptly didn't worry much about the big, central conflict for all ten levels. Go figure. And I presume the experience on the Horde side has some similar parity.
While I've found pockets of quests to continue in the zones, I've played through the primary story of all three now. I think I liked Drustvar most - dealing with witches, curses, and wickermen in a gothic setting. Tiragarde sound deals with internal politics and pirates. Stormsong Valley gets into naga, corruption at the hands of the Tidemother, and a Horde assault (which starts with bombing a town, naturally). It's all fine. Some of the stories and interesting and some feel like busywork. I find it a little odd to not be getting back to Jaina until after completing the main stories for the zones (at least, that's when that appears to have unlocked).
Mechanically, leveling feels weird in a way that isn't necessarily new. I don't mind the stat-squish so much - I perceive survivability and time-to-kill more than I do raw numbers. Starting out, I felt pretty darn powerful, easily able to pull large groups (it's what tanks do) and work through them without even touching my instant self-heal. As I leveled up, though, I could really feel a loss of power. It probably started around 116, where old legendaries lose their special effects and my artifact weapon became obsolete. I really felt it around 118, though, as the scaling of defensive stats kicked in and I was actually having to heal myself and pay attention more. That's all an odd side effect of how the game is designed to account for equipment-based stat progression at the level cap. Characters end up being less effective starting out level 120 than they were at level 110. After gearing up for a while at max level, that will change back, but for now it's an annoyance.
There's little explanation, but my Flight Master Whistle starts working again at... errr... either max level or when you unlock world quests (which requires a short quest or two after max level). It's good to at least have that again.
I'm disappointed with professions currently. Mining is fine. I mean, it's mining - there's not really much to say about that. I capped it at 150 last night from pinging nodes while questing. Blacksmithing has been a disappointment thus far, because I have yet to be able to craft anything remotely useful. Even with the scrapper that allows you to get some material back for destroying items, it's been a struggle to get enough material to reach level 30 or so in smithing. At that level, the stuff I can craft is still worse than most of what I started the expansion with. While I know there are recipes for things that would be upgrades now, they feel a looong way off. Cooking is similar - I'm sitting on a pile of ingredients, but the initial recipes require things I haven't come across in regular play, so I can't level the profession up enough to do anything with what I do have.
I tried an Island Expedition, and the jury's out on that. The three-person scenario to gather azerite before an opposing AI team does felt both frantic (from the pressure of watching azerite counters) and slow (from trying to kill elite/rare mobs). Increased item level/power might make it feel a little better, but as it was... we "lost," the reward felt lackluster, and I didn't seem much to the experience that makes me want to do it again. The semi-randomization holds potential and some of the "enhanced" AI was interesting to see. I'm sure I'll try it again at some point.
I haven't tried any dungeons yet. Which reminds me that I should probably make sure I can play Retribution half-decently. Protection is familiar in principle, but is utterly lacking in the rhythm it has had at some points, and I miss that a bit. Too much now is "just hit one of these buttons as they come off global cooldown." It's not terrible, just could be better.
And... I think that about covers it for now, almost a week in. We'll see how things go.
Story-wise, it seems my totally-uninformed choices made the faction conflict drop almost completely off the map for my leveling play. The Alliance has three zones to quest through. The Horde only really makes an appearance in about a quarter of one of those zones. It just so happens I didn't hit that area until after reaching level 120 (even without any XP boosting tricks beyond some rested XP here and there). Along the way, you open up three excursions to establish beachheads on the Horde island. Only one of those really deals with confronting Horde soldiers (the others deal with native snake-folk and some serious cannibal trolls that I don't think are specifically Horde-aligned), and guess which one I happened to do last? So, while other players may well see things differently, I hit Kul Tiras and promptly didn't worry much about the big, central conflict for all ten levels. Go figure. And I presume the experience on the Horde side has some similar parity.
While I've found pockets of quests to continue in the zones, I've played through the primary story of all three now. I think I liked Drustvar most - dealing with witches, curses, and wickermen in a gothic setting. Tiragarde sound deals with internal politics and pirates. Stormsong Valley gets into naga, corruption at the hands of the Tidemother, and a Horde assault (which starts with bombing a town, naturally). It's all fine. Some of the stories and interesting and some feel like busywork. I find it a little odd to not be getting back to Jaina until after completing the main stories for the zones (at least, that's when that appears to have unlocked).
Mechanically, leveling feels weird in a way that isn't necessarily new. I don't mind the stat-squish so much - I perceive survivability and time-to-kill more than I do raw numbers. Starting out, I felt pretty darn powerful, easily able to pull large groups (it's what tanks do) and work through them without even touching my instant self-heal. As I leveled up, though, I could really feel a loss of power. It probably started around 116, where old legendaries lose their special effects and my artifact weapon became obsolete. I really felt it around 118, though, as the scaling of defensive stats kicked in and I was actually having to heal myself and pay attention more. That's all an odd side effect of how the game is designed to account for equipment-based stat progression at the level cap. Characters end up being less effective starting out level 120 than they were at level 110. After gearing up for a while at max level, that will change back, but for now it's an annoyance.
There's little explanation, but my Flight Master Whistle starts working again at... errr... either max level or when you unlock world quests (which requires a short quest or two after max level). It's good to at least have that again.
I'm disappointed with professions currently. Mining is fine. I mean, it's mining - there's not really much to say about that. I capped it at 150 last night from pinging nodes while questing. Blacksmithing has been a disappointment thus far, because I have yet to be able to craft anything remotely useful. Even with the scrapper that allows you to get some material back for destroying items, it's been a struggle to get enough material to reach level 30 or so in smithing. At that level, the stuff I can craft is still worse than most of what I started the expansion with. While I know there are recipes for things that would be upgrades now, they feel a looong way off. Cooking is similar - I'm sitting on a pile of ingredients, but the initial recipes require things I haven't come across in regular play, so I can't level the profession up enough to do anything with what I do have.
I tried an Island Expedition, and the jury's out on that. The three-person scenario to gather azerite before an opposing AI team does felt both frantic (from the pressure of watching azerite counters) and slow (from trying to kill elite/rare mobs). Increased item level/power might make it feel a little better, but as it was... we "lost," the reward felt lackluster, and I didn't seem much to the experience that makes me want to do it again. The semi-randomization holds potential and some of the "enhanced" AI was interesting to see. I'm sure I'll try it again at some point.
I haven't tried any dungeons yet. Which reminds me that I should probably make sure I can play Retribution half-decently. Protection is familiar in principle, but is utterly lacking in the rhythm it has had at some points, and I miss that a bit. Too much now is "just hit one of these buttons as they come off global cooldown." It's not terrible, just could be better.
And... I think that about covers it for now, almost a week in. We'll see how things go.
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