Be real... How is MoP? Be 100% honest

[Flaks]

I'd say Cataclysm questing and zones were a lot more interesting and breath-taking than MoP. The quests had major relevance to the overall storyline since vanilla WoW.

Temple of Kotmogu though is amazing. Cata bgs sucked compared to just that one and I haven't even stepped foot in silvershard mine yet. Dailies I'm meh about. Obviously none of the MoP dailies are at the level of the Molten Front but that's to be expected. I just need to get into the grind mindset. The rewards the new dailies offer are unmatched by anything seen in this game before.

PvP balance overall seems a lot better than at the start of any other expansion despite the lack of MMR reset. Tweaking is still needed here and there for things like healing and fire/frost mage and warrior burst.

The dungeons are...interesting to say the least. They're definitely nothing comparable to the tBC dungeons or even WotLK dungeons. Maybe not even the Cataclysm dungeons. But then there's scenarios that I prefer doing anyways so that's great. I'll get around to challenge modes eventually when I at least surpass the ilvl that you're balanced to.

Haven't touched pet battles yet.

Lorewise the game is new and completely irrelevant so far to the Warcraft story which is a huge turn off.
PvP-wise it's looking pretty good but nothing to write home about.
In all honesty I can't say this is any better than the start of Cataclysm at all (which was great mind you). The coming weeks with new raids may change my mind.
It all comes down to if the expansion will have true staying power in the long run which is where Cataclysm was horrible.

I do think though that since they've been attempting to add a "gating" feel to the game again that they'd might as well just flat out add attunements quests back in. Hell, attunement dungeons would be fine too just because LFD is in the game.

[Tekkommo]

It's great so far, but I've not raided yet.

If raids are crap, then the expansion is crap.

[roeliekt]

it is AWESOME!

[Akumasama]

I'd say Cataclysm questing and zones were a lot more interesting and breath-taking than MoP. The quests had major relevance to the overall storyline since vanilla WoW.

Uhm... of course this is a very subjective area and it's no use denying it. But while it's true Cata's quests tried to put together some loose ends of old vanilla questlines, the overall experience felt very bad.

1) Too much separation between areas
2) Some areas were insanely tedious (Vash'ir anyone? I could name more)
3) Too much phasing
4) Too much linear

Especially levelling a second time was incredibly boring.
Now I can't speak for MoP since it's too early, but while I overall didn't like WotLK much, the questing there was good. It was fun and gave you a lot of options.
Fast, slow, branching (not as much as TBC, but still), areas to go to etc.
I've said it already, it's too early to make a final judgement, but for now MoP questing feels so much more fun, more feeling of "adventuring", exploration, more freedom of choice, options, paths, branches to follow and a much better storytelling (more voicedub, more NPCs telling stories, way more cinematics) without abuse of phasing or too-linear questlines.
So far so good, imho, and I haven't even talked about the huge variety. It's incredible how each time I think Blizzard has done everything they could have possibly done quests-wise and that it will be impossible to create new ones that will surprise me with a feeling of "fresh", "new", yet every time they manage to surprise me.
It happened again.
I don't remember feeling this much in Cata, at least not as much as I did in WotLK and MoP (for now)

Haven't touched pet battles yet.

I was so skeptic and biased, but I was surprised to find such a level of depth and fun within pet battles (I'm only level 10 btw).
Dunno how this will hold up on the long run, but so far I was really surprised, didn't expect it to work out so good.

---------- Post added 2012-10-05 at 08:27 AM ----------

It's great so far, but I've not raided yet.

If raids are crap, then the expansion is crap.

Only tried first 2 fights, but so far it's much harder than I expected, and really lots of fun.

[miffy23]

So far (reserving final judgement for a few weeks down the line) I consider this the best content Blizzard has ever produced. And before the trolls come running "OMG noob TBC was the pwn" - I've played em all, raided in em all, seen em all. They were all fun.

However, I personally did not enjoy TBC outside of raiding - at all. The raids were wonderful, true. The progression system was not. Forced tiered progression for 25 man made the majority of the population never see endgame content and so on and so forth. You think grinding heroics is annoying? Try doing it in TBC because you couldn't get a guild that was doing anything beyond Kara and some T4 due to lack of progressed players. It was literally the only thing to do. So while a very vocal hardcore minority loved the raid content, the majority never even got to see it until later. And I'll go out on a limb here and say the majority of players clamoring for TBC now never even experienced all they are gushing about back in the day.

That being said, MoP is the first expansion since then that gave me that amazing feeling of "wooow" (literally) when entering the Dark Portal for the first time. The story is amazingly produced and immersive (a first for this game), the world breath-takingly beautiful (if you want the maximum of technical possibility today, you're in the wrong game), and the soundtrack is hands down the best yet. I catch myself humming certain Pandaria tunes all the time now, which I haven't done since again, Classic and TBC.

MoP has so far taken all the great innovations - no matter the rest of the content - that WOTLK and Cata brought such as hard modes, phasing, LFR and much more and matured them. Imo the first LFR in DS was too easy to get into, especially with a wealth of easy gearing options available to get there. This is no longer as easy. You actually have to do a minimum of progression and play before getting the ilvl. I hope to god that this stays in place because i hope it will up the overall quality of LFR gameplay by a large margin. No more PVP items in bags, picking their nose trolls

In short:
Visuals 10/10. They've really gotten the maximum out of this engine, it is just beautiful.

Sound 10/10. Sound design as well as orchestral soundtrack are without a doubt the best in the business, once again.

Solo Gameplay 8/10. Personally, I really enjoy dailies (much more than the agony of enduring morons in LFD) for VP, the leveling process was more fun than it has ever been. Quests still feel a tad too repetitive at times and could use just a bit more innovation, yet it is enough to not feel mind-numbing.

Group Gameplay ?/10. Heroics, while easier than TBC or Cata release HC, are fun and well designed. The achievements for the Glory meta are well balanced between interestingly challenging and simply fun/easy. Challenge modes are..HARD. If you're one of those complaining about easy dungeons and nothing to do, you are simply avoiding the truth of what's out there. And just because a few hundred players globally have made it to silver and/or gold does not mean it will be easy for the majority of raiders. By - no - means. I predict gold times will remain among the upper 5% of the playerbase for a looong time bar the introduction of instagib exploits, which i doubt. So there you have your highly challenging content added to heroic raiding, which I am sure will be challenging once more.

A final word on the overall whining about difficulty and things being to easy. We saw this in Cata a lot as well. Now, the fact of the matter is, however, that the hardest content of each tier is to this day only being cleared at its release by a tiny, minuscule portion of the playerbase. The majority of raiders don't clear the hardest heroic raid content of a tier until shortly after a new gear tier is out or even later. People focus way too much on how quickly absolute hardcore players, who spend literally 90% of their awake time working on the race for progress when new content is released, clear and less on how challenging it is for their actual raid team. These two realities are usually brutally separate. Of course that stops noone from rushing to forums and spewing their "knowledge" Anyway, the challenges are out there. I'll wager they are more challenging than they ever were.

And MoP is the culmination of WoW so far. If you don't like it at least in some way, you never truly liked WoW. Which is fine too

[Akumasama]

The progression system was not. Forced tiered progression for 25 man made the majority of the population never see endgame content and so on and so forth.

I dissent with that.
It wouldn't work nowadays of course and it would be foolish to bring that back in THAT form.
But it was good back then.

Player base was different, the game was different, MMO standards were different and for THAT time and THAT world with THOSE standards, I'd say it was a very good system that gave an insane sense of "achievement" and really contributed to the world community (there were no cross-realm stuff back then and a lot of same-world related stuff on a social level).


Edit:
Don't mean to say it was perfect and didn't need anything different, of course. Main issue I can think of that system is the fact that guilds were often "forced" to do old content again to get new members access to latest content, for example when they were recruiting new members etc.
That was good in a sense (it allowed all people to follow the same progression line and experience all content), but it was bad in the sense that it was boring for guildies to re-do the same content over and over and over with no level of difficulty change.
It would have been different if for example they implemented a system that allowed for a Buff (like Dragon Soul or ICC) where once a tier gets old, it also gets easier to complete. That way those guilds could have rushed new members much faster through that old content, and it would have felt much less of a tiresome thing to do.

[det]

Yesterday I sat in a glowing ballon and descended into a valley in Kun Lei Summit and thought "Man, this IS amazing". Game looks absolutely gorgeous again. The temples are fantastic (I will eventully get annoyed at the long ways to travel in there). The quests and the phasing in many of them works like a charm.

I wish I had more time so I could be 90 by now, I probably would play 10 hrs a day straight, but alas, for now I just enjoy the questing and the scenery. 8/10 I'd say since I so far cannot comment on raids and don't do Pvp. Oh yeah. Pet battles are fun and have a decent strategic element.

[Kesandri]

Up till this point the expansion for me has ticked all the boxes I hoped it would and the amount of things to do is nice for now.

My biggest annoyance so far is the level of 5 man diff, heroics are simply a gearfest now with no challenge at all and are simply aimed at LFG diff. If I want a 5 man challenge they have implemented the challenge modes which tbh having done 2 are very nice indeed, loved running both and loved how hard they were however, at this point I worry that friends/guildies will grow out of interest with them over time due to lack of rewards, something I hope blizz keep up pace with when they release new content, to keep giving an incentive to keep running them after you have achieved that go

Raiding so far, having done 2 bosses has impressed me, we killed 2 bosses last night but I can see many many guilds having problems with those 2 bosses at this point which is nice, just because its normal doesnt mean it should not be a challenge. We are a guild bordering on realm top 10 and the diffaculty for us so far seems nice.

Inbetween Raids and Dungeons there are still a number of things to get your teeth into, and so far I personally have not logged on any night and not found something to do. Again time will tell and I hope they keep pace with this level of content otherwise things might get a bit worrying following cata etc.

Finally the continent is impressive imo, I was glad to see them keep things more simple, like a proper continent you would find on azeroth and that they have accomplished.

As a world of warcraft fan and player, I would give this expansion so far 8/10, there are always things to improve upon but so far for launch they have pretty much got it right.
Btw for interest, I gave end game content in cata 7/10 at this same stage last time so take that as you will (tho by t13 it had gone down to more 5/10)

[KtN]

Levelling is great, dungeons are great, raids look fun. Crafting's been improved (from my perspective), more achievements to get, questing is very smooth in pandaland.

All in all, having skipped BC and Cata (best and worst according to some), this is a worthy evolution of the game.

[Aldoran]

worst leveling experience in my live. 0/10

boring areas

forest - attack of the fucking monkeys? seriously?
next area - fucking farmers with their carrots and other crap.
the Big Tiger let me enter to their sanctuary and says that we can help to save their fucking pandaria(my char do not give a fuck about their iceland).. and what i hear from 1st npc - "come back later, when you get more experience" BULLSHIT!
next area.. fucking farmers again!

level up gives nothing - no new spells, no new talents, no new dungeons..

i am 89 now and first interesting thing i've enocuntered - zandalari and thunder king

4 dungeons, i've seen are ok, but nothing impressive.

[Akumasama]

worst leveling experience in my live. 0/10
level up gives nothing - no new spells, no new talents, no new dungeons..

Ehr woot?
While I can agree with the spells/talents thing (but that's more a consequence of the new system and the "just" 5 levels of increase, an issue partially shared by Cata as well) you got it wrong with the dungeons thing. You get 2 new dungeons every 2 levels.
2 at 85, 2 at 87, 2 at 89 and then you get all of those plus more at level 90 in heroic form.

You seem to be very very biased to me, honestly.

[miffy23]

I dissent with that.
It wouldn't work nowadays of course and it would be foolish to bring that back in THAT form.
But it was good back then.

Player base was different, the game was different, MMO standards were different and for THAT time and THAT world with THOSE standards, I'd say it was a very good system that gave an insane sense of "achievement" and really contributed to the world community (there were no cross-realm stuff back then and a lot of same-world related stuff on a social level).


Edit:
Don't mean to say it was perfect and didn't need anything different, of course. Main issue I can think of that system is the fact that guilds were often "forced" to do old content again to get new members access to latest content, for example when they were recruiting new members etc.
That was good in a sense (it allowed all people to follow the same progression line and experience all content), but it was bad in the sense that it was boring for guildies to re-do the same content over and over and over with no level of difficulty change.
It would have been different if for example they implemented a system that allowed for a Buff (like Dragon Soul or ICC) where once a tier gets old, it also gets easier to complete. That way those guilds could have rushed new members much faster through that old content, and it would have felt much less of a tiresome thing to do.

I don't agree. I personally only ever saw the first few bosses of BT and Sunwell when they were current due to my guilds always lagging behind, and this was the case for the vast majority of guilds on my server and others' as well. It was of course further compounded by the fact that 25 mans were harder to keep uptodate than 10 man. Don't get me wrong, i actually loved 40 man, so the more the better for me. But in terms of keeping a guild cutting edge and staying current with the content, TBC was a nightmare. Was my raid group not great back then? Hell yeah ofc they weren't. Later on i made my own in Wrath and Cata and got what I wanted, with the change of gated progression as well of course. However, that was the case back then. Guilds that cleared all the content before the next tier released were unbelievably rare. Now ofc that gives it a halo of awesomeness in retrospect, and it did feel awing indeed back then. It was just frustrating for the majority of the rest of the raiders who, while loving the content, weren't able to progress. Was it fun? Yes. Could it have been better? Doubly so, without a doubt.

All that being said, MoP reintroduces a form of gated content with rep requirements for VP gear as well as the highest raid content (Terrace) being gated. I agree with this. It will not impact the next tier unless you plan to race for firsts, and it will give good raid teams that sense of achievement. It's the perfect balance between "everyone gets to do it all" (Cata) and "sms break up with your gf to make the requ for BT" (TBC). Ofc we'll have to see how it plays out on live.

[sTyLnK]

worst leveling experience in my live. 0/10

boring areas

forest - attack of the fucking monkeys? seriously?
next area - fucking farmers with their carrots and other crap.
the Big Tiger let me enter to their sanctuary and says that we can help to save their fucking pandaria(my char do not give a fuck about their iceland).. and what i hear from 1st npc - "come back later, when you get more experience" BULLSHIT!
next area.. fucking farmers again!

level up gives nothing - no new spells, no new talents, no new dungeons..

i am 89 now and first interesting thing i've enocuntered - zandalari and thunder king

4 dungeons, i've seen are ok, but nothing impressive.

Doesn't sound like Mists is for you based off your opinion of it. Why play it then?

[Exroyal]

0.5/10 Not Vanilla even though i never played Vanilla. To bic queues, cant handle it. Huehuehue BR.

[KtN]

Doesn't sound like Mists is for you based off your opinion of it. Why play it then?

I doubt he even played it, or he's playing so badly he's running into issues the rest of us don't have. I personally was too busy enjoying myself that I didn't have time to get petty about "fucking farmers with their carrots and crap" but then I'm not one to argue with kids' logic.

[Myci]

Im loving it atm. I think pvp balance is pretty bad atm thou, but i havnt done much arena ( 2s dont really count)
Hunters, warriors , and locks to an extent are pretty op/ ( especially the first 2).
Based on this and the fact that mmr wasnt reset, and locks can still soulstone in arena it feels like pvp has taken an even lower spot on their priority list. x

[Aldoran]

Ehr woot?
While I can agree with the spells/talents thing (but that's more a consequence of the new system and the "just" 5 levels of increase, an issue partially shared by Cata as well) you got it wrong with the dungeons thing. You get 2 new dungeons every 2 levels.
2 at 85, 2 at 87, 2 at 89 and then you get all of those plus more at level 90 in heroic form.

You seem to be very very biased to me, honestly.

2 new at 89? i dinged yesterday, looked in the dungeon finder and did not saw it, a bug?
but yes, i did expected something much more epic from quests in this expansion.

Doesn't sound like Mists is for you based off your opinion of it. Why play it then?

because it is a wow, lol. "Shut up and take my money" (c)

[Tojara]

No idea about arena yet as we haven't done it yet.

I've been really excited about the expansion and there are lots of things I still haven't even experienced yet. I haven't tinkered with a monk, touched pet battles or really done any of the scenarios. The farm thing is actually kind of fun, dailies really aren't that bad and the experience of being on a PvP server has been a blast. Challenge modes are amazing and the 5 encounters I've seen in MV have been really good.

As far as things to do and being occupied it feels a lot like the burning crusade to me. Probably not as good as it because it was the first expansion, but certainly better than WoTLK/Cata for me.

[Brazorf]

great so far. I love how the dailies are structured and the funny mood that you can feel around some zones.
The lore is nice, and also pretty much new so quests text and cutscene are a pleasure to read and follow.
The overhaul of crafting is pretty nice and took away most of the frustration of raising the profession, while maintaining consistency and purpose. (also Engineering <3)
The new system of "personal" reputations is pretty interesting and a nice mini-game optional/addition to the game

Scenarios are kind of fun and I think that a couple of them if made without healer can be also a little bit less faceroll than expected.
Still ahve not bitten into heroics/challenges or raid and can't wait. ^^

[Flimsy]

Im going to give it an 8/10 at the moment and that's without trying any raid dungeons yet so that score may go up or down depending on how good they are.

Iv been really impressed with the expansion so far, the new continent looks great and and the quests were pretty good. At level 90 iv found there's lots to do with the numerous daily quests and heroic 5 mans, I really like the fast pace of the hc's compared to Cataclysm.

The one thing iv found frustrating is the justice point system, iv run over 50 dungeons (probably close to 90) and still find myself short of 2-3 pieces of gear needed for LFR, it's an annoyance and to be honest im starting to feel burned out from the dungeons all ready due to this, I don't understand why they couldn't make the justice gear 463ilvl considering this gear will be vendor trash in a matter of weeks, it's not like they are handing us epic's.