Honest Reviews of Draenor?

[Comp]

Everyone is mostly reading the text on the quests again.

That says it all really.



Of course Blizzard uses smart techniques to do it: Garrisons let you think about orders/builds/crafts/quests/patrols.

So adding some voice over stuff and some elementary puzzling along with the renewed motivation of actually reading through the quests/orders, you get a nice questing flow.

The music is also excellent and sets the mood mostly correct.

WOD questing and story telling is superior to all previous expansions. They learned a lot by looking at the past expansions.

I was reading all the quests and working through zones. Made it through the starting area before I gave up. The launch issues, and now the queue times just made me want to get to 100 while I could, since going back to work means I won't have the luxury of sitting in a queue all day just to play.

Once things either stabalize (or I shell out the cash to transfer to a playable realm) I'll go though all the quests and story on my Pally, because I do really want to see it.

[Laerrus]

I have really enjoyed the questing so far on Alliance and Yrel is one of my new favorite NPCs. When the queues moderate I'd really like to check out Frostfire Ridge on my Horde.

Zones are well designed and absolutely stunning, especially SMV!

Totally digging the garrison. I just hope that once it is maxed out, we don't have to spend a great deal of time maintaining it. I would like to have one on several of my key supporting alts.

Stormshield turned out better than I expected. I can see myself going there instead of Dalaran or SWC when I need to take care of my banking, transmog, etc.

[willowe]

Minus Server Issues:

Shadowmoon Valley: 10/10
Gorgrond: 8/10 (Loved the jungle areas, didn't love the barren areas. Haven't finished this zone though!)
Talador: 10/10
Spires of Arak: 9/10 (Layout is pretty much a clusterfuck, but the story has been fun! Not done yet!)
Story: 10/10 (So far.)
Dungeons: NA/10 (Haven't done one, don't know)
Garrisons: 10/10
Followers: 8/10 (Pissed I can't see my follower's HP Bar like she's my pet when she's out with me as a bodyguard. She keeps dying, and with the 1H wait when she dies it's pretty annoying. I'm a Warlock, btw, so I already have a pet summoned. Hopefully there's an addon for this....)

Overall: 9/10. Small issues, but nothing terrible. Overall, though, has massive promise, and is easy the best level-up of any of the Expansions to date, by far!

****I am only Level 98. So I'm not done yet!

[xenogear3]

Just go to Amazon.com.

Reviewed by the real players, not by bribed "prof".

[Laerrus]

Just go to Amazon.com.

Reviewed by the real players, not by bribed "prof".

Those reviews are biased by their experience with the launch state of the realm hardware.

Most are either 5 stars or 1 star, there's barely anything in between.

[Xar226]

Well, here are my thoughts, in no particular order.

Questing

Overall, good. I don't find them radically more engaging than previous expansion like some people who have commented seem to, but there's nothing wrong with them. I do like that sometimes when you help somebody out they become a follower; it gives a kind of organic feel to the people in your Garrison.

That said, I find the bonus objectives strange. They're nearly always of the "go kill things" variety which makes them far less engaging to me, but at the same time they award around five times as much experience as a normal quest without five times the effort. I'm not complaining, it just feels strange that the least story-driven, most boring and generic quests are given the best XP rewards.

Garrisons

Overall I like the concept. I like the follower missions even though they don't have a huge practical impact for me yet. I like building it up, I like the idea of it as an outpost in a new world.

There is quite a bit I don't like, however. My major issue is all the gating. Garrison resources are largely gated, even with the Lumber Mill. I have plenty of Lumber to get where I want to get, but when it takes four hours to do a single conversion of lumber to resources that's a huge gate. (Rares and treasures do offer some resources, so there is a bit more available than I choose to pursue, but it's still a gating mechanism.) Likewise, professions are gated. As an example, Engineering recipes all require an item which I can get ~5 per day of with a daily CD, and ~2/4 hours via a work order. Likewise, recipes are all* locked behind a currency only available via a daily cooldown. As far as I am aware, there is nothing to speed this up. Trying to supply enchants for your guild right now? Too damn bad. It takes X days to make the mats you need and that's that. There is no degree of extra work you can put in to get things up and running that will speed this up.

Not related to Garrisons specifically, but I also do not like how badly they gutted professions in general.

* I haven't checked every profession so this is somewhat of an exaggeration. Also, Inscription research is not gated in this manner.

Dungeons

I'm a DPS main, so I don't have the greatest insight to say this, but it seems like tanks are getting absolutely steamrolled. Our guild tank was talking about having to blow some of his biggest defensive CDs on trash packs, even when we were only pulling one pack and even CC'ing one or two of the mobs. He and I were the only guildies in those dungeons so it's possible we had a poor healer or something that made it worse, but it seems somewhat overtuned to me, especially for a normal dungeon. I just got the ilvl to enter heroics this evening, but I'm going to wait for more guildies to be geared to come with me before I try those out.

Visually the ones I have seen are very nice. There is a nice variation of mechanics (that aren't always explained well to the players, which makes you feel like you need to read a guide to play a game). Some instances feel like there is entirely too much trash. Overall, good but slightly overtuned.

Ashran

I've only tried it once and I'm not a huge PVP guy in general, so take it with a grain of salt. That said, I hated it. They spent so much time and effort trying to get PVP to a place where fights lasted more than a second and players had time to react, yet Ashran proper is little more than NPCs and picked-up player abilities that one- or two-shot you. There are some side things to do away from the main battle that I don't understand terribly well.

Zones/Artwork/Story/Misc

Overall, I think the zones look really great. I'm very pleased with things visually. The story is pretty good as well. They've done a good job of making some of the Warlords into absolute badasses, like Blackhand. Others, eh, not so much. And if I hear another variation on "lieutenant, take care of this for me while I leave" I'm going to cry. Pre-introducing the Warlords is only a good thing if they don't come off at least as incompetent as dangerous.

I liked following some of the stories of the races like the Arakkoa a little bit. I also think their seamless use of scenarios was very well done. The confrontation with Garrosh at the end of the Nagrand quest chain was also very cool to me.

The technical issues are largely solved. I understand there are still realms with huge queues (mine is a medium population realm that doesn't have that problem), but beyond that the servers themselves are now running smoothly after the first two days were horribly unstable, with Garrison instances dropping every couple of hours and screwing lots of players and lag spikes where it would take 3-4 seconds to loot a corpse.

[Deleted]

Commander !

Garrisons: 10/10, everywhere my underlings are running around, they are even pleased to see me, I'm obviously a good boss, uh commander.

Quests: 10/10, first time in ever I enjoyed questing in WoW. The cutscene in Shattrath with Blackhand is my favorite so far. There you go angry, resolute Draenei paladin lady. Some NPCs are FINALLY voiced, god why did that step take so long. It's so much more engaging and atmospheric if you can hear concern, joy or anger from a character. This is still an rpg after all.

Dungeons: 6-?/10 (I'm only 99), short, mechanics aren't complicated but can still cause hazard if overlooked.

Treasuresssss: 10/10. YES. LOOT. MORE LOOT. LOOOOOOT. Ah and funny loot too. I really like, that some stuff is very well hidden. Like super hidden. Like where the f-ck is it ?

[Deleted]

Honestly:

Not massively impressed.
Though to be fair I will have to have another look at my experiences in a few weeks when the launch issue debacle is not colouring my impressions.

Launch:
Fucking terrible, on so many levels. The worst launch since Bliz fucked up the D3 launch.

Aesthetics:
Good, the zones look nice, Outland style but distinct in their own way. No flying is great, exploration is back! fun of discovery is back, trying to get places others dont is fun.

Questing:
Bad. Individual quests are ok, but too many bottlenecks, too much linearity and the non-linear sections like bonus objectives etc just feel phoned in content not well designed. Repeating quest rewards and similar things just make it feel rushed.

Instances:
Mixed bag. Some good, some boring as hell> Some bosses interesting, some just totally lacking in mechanics. Again, feels rushed and unfinished in places.

PVP:
Not really my things, but I liked open world zones like WG and even TB, but Ashran is not overly impressive right now. its got no real balance mechanic as far as I can see so its just one sided, and its a PVE zone effectively not a PVP one.

Garrisons:
Meh, very very meh. A rather annoying timesink thats forced on you to an extent i feared but did not think would actually happen. very disappointed in this as it adds very little in terms of actual customisation or in fact any gameplay, it could have been done off a menu screen and have the same impact. I feel its a rather pointless feature that feels forced and artificial. They seam to take some of the worst "features" of mobile games, designed to get people to pay for convenience, and have applied them to a sub game....and it just does not work. its make work at best, and just bad design in my opinion.

Overall:
New content is always nice. I'm glad they are trying new features. I'm not overly impressed, but its not bad. Garissons are disappointing to me, and a lot of things just strike me as being unfinished and rushed and really stand out as other features are really well done.
Half arsed is a phrase that comes to mind. Though I dont think its entirely fair, as half great could equally apply. its the striking difference in quality that different parts of the expansion has that is what is so striking to me.

Its no WotLK, but then again its not Cata or MoP, so not bad, not great. have to see how it will develop.

[Deleted]

My reaction wasn't negative.

Neither was mine.

[Raldazzar]

Incredibly impressed, been here since before bg's were even in the game, back when druids could hibernate anything! and ive seen and played through a large amount of changes. for reference, my faves in order were;

BC
wotlk
mop
cata



Launch:

Not great and to be fair I expected better from them. But at the same time, these forums are a prime example. filled with people who claim to hate wow, have quit, gone on to better things.. but come launch.. they whine instead about queues. because they are right there. what i mean is, I don't think even blizz anticipated how many would come back.

Aesthetics:
The zones are gorgeous, nice and diverse, and every single one has great nods to its outland counterpart, artistically speaking.

Questing:
I really enjoy it, there was very few points where I felt I had nowhere to go. or only one option. I didn't even manage to finish the zones, did SMV fully then gorgrond, then spires.. and hit 100 easily in there without even finishing the main story. so there is plenty of content right there.

Instances:

after ten years, the mere fact they can still think up fun and new bosses is a mystery to me, but they do it. and i have no complaints here, its too early on to tell if the tanks are bad/healers bad or dps sucks.. or if a boss is under/overtuned etc. so too soon.

PVP:

Spent over 60-70 hours in ashran alone on beta. I love it. my only issue is being on Ravencrest EU.. its totally devoid of hordies!

Garrisons:

Love my garrison, it feels like my little home, my wife and i share a bnet, so its been quite fun to realize that we can help each other. i.e any draenic stone we get benefits both of us for lvl 3 blueprints etc. really like the idea, and ive found tons of things in the world that make it more fun.. such as Sappy (http://www.wowhead.com/npc=82493 ) you find him out there..you feed him.. he follows you back to the garrison as he likes food. just a cute touch. my only gripe with garrisons is the somewhat finite 'cap' on resources. I have a level 2 lumber mill at the mo and its stacked up with work orders, and i have 250 lumber ready for more.. and aside from treasure hunting/rare killing.. there doesnt seem like much i can do to raise my resources.

so im stuck slowly ticking and waiting for my lvl 3 garrison resources.

Overall:

II'm very happy, I have a certain amount of nostalgia for BC as it's the expansion that changed my life personally. (met wife late vanilla) and however many years on, has yielded a wife + child. we both still play. and we both agree, this is our fave expansion yet, it makes me want to play and want to be in the world. honestly, the only negative i have, isn't even about the game, but the community is just.. toxic. maybe its because i'm getting older/grumpier, but its just filled with idiots. thankfully my guild, i managed to talk 10 or so friends into coming back is filled with others around our age range. so we get to avoid the stupid most times.

[Deleted]

not bad so far, however

Waaaaay too much emphasis on garrisons. Ok I get that they are an important part. but they are tied into far too much and feel like they are there just to slow people down.
Travel is a pain in the arse, really hope that they bring flying back soon as possible.

Everything else is to be decided, looking good though.

[Mawnix]

You're not going to find many honest reviews on this website. Better luck somewhere else.

Because *gasp* people here actually like the game and appreciate it due to playing it for so long, and thus have a better understanding of if its well done or not?

You don't choose what dismisses a person's thoughts on a game. Derp.

Most reviewers have no idea what they're talking about when it comes to WoW or any other MMO, especially when they don't even raid and judge the game before raiding begins.

[Deleted]

After have leveled both a horde and an alliance the first weekend I can say that I think it is way to short and fast to level.

Only the first zone (Shadowmoon / Frostfire) is really well done and have good quest chains with lot of voice overs and mini cinematics, after that they almost doesnt exist.
Rest of the zones doesnt come up to the standard in either quests or aesthetics. The outpost thing is a nice idea, but I fail to see the benefits.

Havn't tried any dungeons yet.

Havn't put so much time in the garrison, but the initial feel is that its only a time sink like the farm in MoP. I might be wrong.

Together with all the launch problems and no flying at max level, I am not at all impressed and my guess is that I will have stopped playing before my month of subscription runs out, but I have almost four weeks more to change my mind..
I do think it has not been a waste of money, I had quite some fun leveling.

[Deleted]

Meh, it's alright a solid 7/10, most of it's good but it feels rushed in places and I can't shake the distinct feeling Blizzard tried to save as much money as possible inn certain areas and cut corners. Some aspects like the Garrison blueprints being gated behind achievements which are literally just do x 50 times are a very repetitive grind. The zones feel really small to me except for Frostfire and Shadowmoon, they do have a lot of atmosphere but I can see why there's no flying you really don't need a flying mount to traverse them.

It's confusing alright, I think after reflection I would of waited to buy it once I was sure they would be releasing more content, because I've already experienced a good percentage of it in three days. I'm very pessimistic as you can tell, I don't trust Blizzard at all these days. If they told me the grass was green I'd fucking check just to be sure.

It's relatively "decent" expac but not entirely satisfying, it left me with a profound feeling that there wasn't quite enough content considering the huge gap we've had. After 14 months of no new content, it feels very much like the bare minimum to pass the player checklist.

[Deleted]

yesterday I've entered Spire of Arakk for the first time, with only ambient sounds, no music. And with headphones. It is amazing.

[Pua]

How are the queues at the moment?

I'm Argent Dawn EU and pretty much gave up until the queues go down. There are so many better things to be doing than sitting in queues.

[khalltusk]

Enjoying it so far. Aside from the lack of loot from dungeons ZzZzzzZ Did multiple runs last night and got like 1 item from level 100 dungeons :/

[tratra]

Honest review:

Best Questing I've ever done.
Zone: Amazing.
Leveling: Smooth and nice (I hate leveling)
Dungeons: Some of them good

I like it so far, it feels like the best expansion I've played since TBC, if you leave all the queues and the terrible lags at the start.

I am a bit dissapointed though cause I am already 643ilvl and by wednesday i might even be around 650ilvl and there is no raid around. I've done all heroics and I am bored of them + I have all the gear I need from them, I have done only few CM's focusing on the rest and just questing around farming apexis crystals etc.

Atm it feel like they should have done what TBC had as an expansion and Wotlk, they had raids already there for the people that wanted to rush into them.

[Deleted]

Another quality point: WoD probably has the most poo quests/poo lying around than any other addon. Yesterday I fed doggie treats to a ghost pug and he awarded me with a necklace hidden in his poo. It's that good.

[Cybran]

They learned a lot by looking at the past expansions.

You mean by ripping off their competitors? The bonus objectives are just like in GW2. The scattered chests/bodies encourage exploration and platforming just like in Dark Souls.


Also the fact that I will be stuck in queue for 2 hours this evening negates the positives of this expansion. Blizzard should fix high population realms.