Warlods of Draenor is without a doubt the least hyped expansion. There are no new classes or races. The Garrison has been a lackluster experience, there was the whole Ashran-as-your-factions-home city disappointment. Even early beta testers have been slightly underwhelmed. I am currently in the beta and while there are some issues, there is a huge diamond buried in here, and with some more polish, I think this will be the best expansion since Wrath. In fact, I know it will.
I took a tour of the world. You see, I was worried. I was worried because some of the early screens shots of the trees and flora reminded me of MoP. I was worried that this would not FEEL like Draenor. Boy was I wrong. I traveled through Talador into the rolling green hills and open spaces of Nagrand and yes, although different, it felt like an earlier version of Outland.
Frostfire Gorge is a massive, frozen wasteland. I was so surprised to see that mobs were so spread out here, and the area was so open. I hope that doesn’t change. Giant spiked mountains and looking at the neighboring brownish Gorgrond, it is easy to see how Blades Edge Mountains in Outland was formed. I assume that western left half of Frostridge was blown out into space and the eastern half was violently thrown against the western half of Gorgrond. My mind bought it all. It feels like another planet. I think this is a big deal.
Early intro and garrison questing is definitely the dreaded Dave Kosak questing on rails machine we have become accustomed to in Cata but after that the game opens up. I mean it really opens up. I am sitting here with my Orc Warrior, in the middle of a wide open snowy space as open as the Barrens in all directions, with some nice ambient music, with quests in all four corners of the map, and some objectives on the map and I am not forced to go anywhere. This is gaming bliss for me. It is freedom.
Garrisons have massive potential, and I feel that they are limitless with what can be later added to them. I like them so far. I am having fun, which is the whole point.
My issues with Cata was that so much time was spent on revamping the old zones only turning them into the worst case of questing on rails I have ever seen in an MMO. God forbid you strayed off the beaten path; you literally could not even accept a quest unless you found and talked to the “bread crumb” quest giver. The old music was redone (I have no idea why) and in a brutal twist of irony the expansion designed specifically to attract new players actually led to a decrease in players.
My issues with Mists was that the Asian influence in its music and art was so cliché and heavy handed you get the feeling Blizzard was literally hitting you over the head with it.
Warlords of Draenor feels like Blizzard is intentionally pulling back a bit. Like an aged veteran athlete who knows that his prime is past him, and he has to pick and choose when to step on the gas, but still feels like he has two championships left in him (Warlords of Draenor, and please send us to Argus).
What you have to understand is that Blizzard has never settled. Whether for right or wrong they still take their chances and don’t rest on their laurels. Think about how many times they have changed whole core systems like the talent trees, removing core stats, and now pruning the abilities. While I am sure they are aware of the whole Star Wars Galaxy fiasco, they do not let other bad past examples influence them.
I do not agree with their stance on mob tagging. I think it should be removed in favor of a Guild Wars 2 style system along with herb and mine nodes too. I also do not agree with Ashran being the home cities with the gorgeous artwork of Karabor and Bladespire, sites that are just begging to be home cities.
But with this, I still feel Blizzard likes being the underdog right now, and I feel that this expansion when all is said and done, will be widely viewed as a brilliant one.