Tag: World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth

Last week the pre-patch event for Shadowlands began. As we embark on our journey into the afterlife, let’s reflect on Blizzards 7th expansion. Battle for Azeroth had a tough act to follow. Legion, in my opinion, is the second best expansion since Wrath of the Lich King. Unfortunately BfA didn’t quite live up to the same level as Legion and Wrath. Personally, I would rank this expansion around the middle of the pack. Now that the Battle for Azeroth is over, what ruminations do I have from the past 2 years?

Honestly, the first half of the expansion was pretty good. I enjoyed meeting Jaina’s family and restoring her people’s faith in her and meeting Taelia Fordragon and learning her story. I hope Blizzard will pursue a possible love interest between her and Anduin. It has been a long time since there has been a Queen in Stormwind. The real story is told by the raids and I’m pretty split on that.

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We are about six weeks into the eighth World of Warcraft expansion. The Battle for Azeroth has begun; the Horde and Alliance are engaged in fierce warfare to control the Azerite. The first raid, Uldir, is available and Blizzard has already announced the first content patch, Tides of Vengeance. Therefore, by this point in time we have experienced everything that is new to the game. While there is more to come, here are my Battle for Azeroth Impressions thus far.

Battle for Azeroth: The Good

I know why Blizzard doesn’t allow flying in new expansions. I “complain” about not flying quite a bit but it’s only to be an irritation (*cough* “Tony” *cough”). However, in all honesty I do enjoy using ground mounts exclusively at the beginning, for two reasons.

1. The artists put so much work into the landscape and scenery I feel that flying, right out of the gate, would negate all that effort.
2. I rarely get to use my ground mounts when flying is available. It’s nice to have a reason to see all my favorite ground mounts.

The story arc I’m looking forward to most is Queen Azshara. We saw her briefly during the Court of Farondis questline, but heard very little of her after that. She’s clearly involved in this expansion so I’m excited to see if she will be a raid boss. It’s time she is put down!

Battle for Azeroth: The Bad

While I don’t think this expansion is starting out as great as Legion, I couldn’t think of a lot of things I think are “bad”. The one item I’m still not happy about are dungeon quests required for professions. Granted I have not reached the max level in all the crafting professions, however Anchor Weed, the rare herb in this expansion, has a dungeon quest required to reach rank 3. It also appears that herbalism is the only gathering profession that has a dungeon component to it.

I don’t mind using quests to reach ranks 2 or 3, but I do not like profession quests that require a dungeon.

Battle for Azeroth: And The ‘Meh’

The Story

As much as I do like that Queen Azshara is mentioned a lot, I’m still not as into the story as I was in Legion. Granted, I don’t think it’s as weak as the story for Warlords of Draenor but the whole “Horde vs Alliance” feels a bit cliche. Perhaps the reason I’m not as into the story is that I actually like Sylvanas and the fact that she’s lost her mind is fantastic. Unfortunately, 98% of the community disagrees and they all hope she dies (btw, I even play Alliance). I’m sure I will be labeled a traitor when I say, I really hope we don’t kill her; in fact I think she’s under the influence of Queen Azshara. While I don’t think she makes a good war chief, I would rather over throw her than kill her (thus killing another Horde leader).

Treasures and Rares

This expansion is inundated with treasures and rare mobs and they have really lost their value. I have opened hundreds of treasures and killed hundreds of rare mobs and 99% of the time I only get Azerite power and vendor trash. Perhaps we were too spoiled in Legion and now expectations are too high to get more out of rares and treasures.

Island Expeditions and War Fronts

The two new world mechanics in Battle for Azeroth are Island Expeditions and War Fronts. These are essentially the evolution of scenarios. Island Expeditions is a race to farm Azerite; that’s it. They developed an algorithm so each time you enter an Island Expedition it’s different, however its only different in terms of terrain and mobs. The objective is still ALWAYS the same. Island Expeditions feel so lackluster that I’ve been renaming them to “Island Adventures”. There is good news. I believe Blizzard has plans to make some changes so they are not so terribly bland.

Honestly I think these Island Expeditions should feel more like War Fronts where the action is immersive. While the objective in a War Front is the same, you can get there by doing other things (i.e. farming iron/wood, attacking clinch points, etc). The downside to the War Front, especially when you can’t enter the battle, once you complete the quests, there is nothing else to do for several days. If you’re still trying to increase your item level or you have alts, they are a great way to get some decent pieces of gear.

Final Thoughts

All in all, Battle for Azeroth is off to a decent start. It has more going for it than Warlords of Draenor. I also suspect that there are more surprises coming for players (not just story but game mechanics as well). I feel like Blizzard is intentionally holding something back, and perhaps BlizzCon is when we will find out what else is coming.

FOR THE ALLIANCE!

We are a week away from the Battle for Azeroth worldwide launch. Our magnificent raid team completed what we set out to do (Ahead of the Curve and Violet Spellwing mounts for all raid members). We still had several weeks between the last AOTC run and the BfA launch. Kudos to the team leadership for finding things to do to keep us all hanging out over the last several weeks. This is the most fun I have had in WoW since Wrath of the Lich King. Aside from the group events, I set out to complete a list of toon-specific goals to complete before the expansion. There are less than 8 days left, how are my Battle for Azeroth pre-expansion goals looking?

Character Goals Progress Update

Quite a while ago I posted a little chart about the goals I made for my alts before Battle for Azeroth drops. At the time of that post I still had 3 alts that had not reach level 110. Of those three, two of them are now at level 110 (the remaining Alliance warlock may get the free 110 boost because I don’t think I am going to try to hit 110 over the next week). Be that as it may, that does mean that I do have a level 110 of every class (including a level 110 Horde character). So having all classes/alts at level 110 before launch … check.

Now the more daunting task is completing the Order Hall, Class Mount and at least one hidden appearance for each of those classes. So here is an updated chart:

As you can see I have made quite a bit of progress, unfortunately I am not finished yet. I am working on the hidden appearance quest for the warlock. The hidden appearance for the warrior requires an exalted reputation with Valarjar before the pieces drop, so, in essence I am working on that as well. The important item of note is that I FINALLY got the hidden appearance to drop for my shadow priest! I hate being at the whim of the RNG, which is why I worry about the Rogue and Warrior hidden appearances. I think I will be able to finish the Order Hall and Class mount quests for the Monk and Warrior, however I don’t know about completing the remaining hidden appearances.

Speaking of Artifact Appearances

Aside from trying to get the hidden appearances, another thing I set out to accomplish was working on a couple challenge appearances. I particularly focused on my paladin and shadow priest. Their gear scores gave me the better advantage. The protection challenge appearance is no joke, just as all the posts said. It is difficult but, in all honesty, it was fun. So I managed to complete the protection and retribution paladin challenge appearance and the shadow priest appearance. Here are some screenshots:

Prot Challenge Appearance

Ret Challenge Appearance

Shadow Challenge Appearance