Genuine Opinion on BfA?

[Hey There Guys its Metro]

The perfect predecessor to Legion.
Everything Legion did well, BFA eventually seems to do better.
Problem was, at the start, it seemed to do everything worse.
But by the time 8.2 comes out, I will comfortably be able to say everything I loved about Legion is just better in BFA.

That goes for story and setting as well.
Absolutely LOVE the zones we are in this expansion, where Legion I really only liked Suramar and parts of argus.
More so, I used to never care about the story. I started caring when we were in tomb, and Argus events really caught my attention, but now with all the Old God and Dragon stuff in 8.2, I am hook line and sinker.

The horde v alliance stuff is poor, but it seems trivial honestly.
The more important storylines are unbelievable though.

[Dormie]

Objectively good game. Middle of the pack relative to other WoW expansions, better than WoD and Cata.

But I'm guessing this thread is a mess.

[Stooned]

Gameplay: 6/10
I don't subscribe to the endless ranting about classes, but there are some things that could use work. Azerite atm feels bad, but in 8.2 it's looking good and will raise this score to a 7.5/10. Dungeons are pretty good, but the raids are fantastic. BoD has some incredibly fun fights.

Art and Sound: 9/10
It's Blizzard, the game will always look and sound nice, even with its old as shit engine that's been updated over time.

Story: 2/10
Too much nonsense, lots of shit happening for no reason. It's a character drama instead of a hard-hitting war story, which is what the expansion was billed as.

Expansion features post-launch:

Azerite: 2/10
It's a mess, but 8.2 will improve it significantly imo.

Islands: 7/10
I actually enjoy them as a side-piece. They felt sad in 8.0 because there wasn't a lot else, but after some improvements and other content added, they feel great to me.

Warfronts (scenario): 1/10
Wait 30 minutes, get your free loot. They're time-gated by boring as fuck waiting phases where you have to wait for catapults to break a gate or turrets to go down with nothing to do but AoE down meaningless packs of mobs.

Warfronts (open world): 7/10
Lots of collectables! I enjoy these sort of things, so I've spent a lot of time in the Warfront zones killing rares for pets, toys and mounts.

Allied Races: 6/10
I think they're great and enjoy how there's some minor exclusivity (if you didn't play at the time, you have to go back and unlock them). That being said, a lot of them don't have the best customisation options which tanks this rating.


Overall: BfA at the current moment gets a 5/10 from me. The improvements in 8.2 and beyond will likely increase my opinion of it, I'm just miffed the story is a complete wash.

This. This is accurate and I feel exactly the same way.

My only amendment is the story part. I'd give it a 4/10. It isn't WoD, and the "nether" "time-travel" concepts, which were quite frankly very, very, poorly executed. I think this story is shaping up nicely, but you are right, it is a character drama and it relies on the narrative elements that would drive such a story - its almost a parody of Wacky Racers, but with genocide (Dick Dastardly (Sylvanas); Penelope Pitstop (Jaina); Peter Perfect (Anduin) etc.). The Old God story line is moving along nicely, but anything OG related is a winner for me, personally. I also am enjoying the Baine story (unpopular opinion, I know). The fact is, the story isn't horrific...but it is far from good. It drives through motif and character rather than relatable, interesting, developmental narrative that focuses on the world, character and revolution of concept. That being said, the ire towards this story can arguably be attributed to the fact that the Legion story was fairly good, and this is not when compared directly.

I've played maybe 6 hours this month so far, and it is simply to check in on any of the necessities. My biggest issue with the game is the community, though. Sadly, that is nothing that can be changed, so I'm starting to walk away from the game, and ultimately that is not something that can be fixed as the community toxifies more.

[Katchii]

The reputation grind for the War Campaign sucks. The leveling experience was fantastic IMO, I think World Quests are a great idea and overall I think the expansion is strong. I personally just got to the point of boredom way faster than before. I enjoy the story (not saying it's good or bad, I'm just along for the ride, and so far the ride is good IMO) and overall the experience is fun.

Azerite Power is boring AF and Island Expeditions are useless as a result. The fact that island Expeditions were one of this expansions main attractions is disappointing. I went on one and never touched them again.

Class design isn't terrible, but it's not great either. Overall I think they're nailing the class aesthetic, but the game play is super boring on many of them simply due to how few abilities they are, and how little growth there is over time. My warrior's game play largely didn't change at all from level 40 onward. Sure there were some talents thrown in every 15 levels but that didn't change the core game play

[schwarzkopf]

No more artifact traits, no more artifact, no more artifact ability, no more class specific legendaries. All in all it feels like we got a lot weaker compared to Legion and that fucking sucks.

So - as I said, not class problems.

- - - Updated - - -

The reputation grind for the War Campaign sucks.

There is no grind for any reputations these days, the War Campaign least of all. 7th Legion reputation just falls into your lap doing almost everything.

[Dizson]

Legion was better; zones, story, quests, combat everything felt better. This expansion is really weak so far the raids are the only things on pair with legion.

[JustRob]

So - as I said, not class problems.

- - - Updated - - -



There is no grind for any reputations these days, the War Campaign least of all. 7th Legion reputation just falls into your lap doing almost everything.

They are class problems tho. Rather than new rows of talents, the last couple of expansions Blizzard has used these systems as an extension of your class. Except in Legion it was way better than in BfA, so they fucked up.

[Dadwen]

So - as I said, not class problems.

I think it really is a class problem, they should not need those outside items to feel complete or more powerful.

[Erous]

I felt it was one of the better expansions early on. Upon hitting 120, there was a crap ton to do. Now, however, it's become really boring and is following the same development cadence and release ideas for content that Legion had so it seems unoriginal and less eventful. Once the final raid is released, we'll be sitting on it for at least a year to a year and a half which I'm not looking forward to.

[Philomene]

Awful class design, broken reward system, mobile phone game mechanics (timegating), new game modes that are just endless brainless mob-bashing, useless professions, lack of care about PvP. BFA is just the pinnacle of all the hard work to butcher WoW made since Warlords of Draenor gameplay-wise.

Glad the art department and all the legacy from pre-WoD expacs remain, but if WoW would have been launched in 2018 with BFA as bare content, it would be dead already.

Unless people nowadays play a MMORPG to enjoy its lootbox reward system and its absence of real character customization.

[Ridley]

The colossal drop in subscription numbers says more than anything I could.

[Dormie]

The colossal drop in subscription numbers says more than anything I could.

Go ahead and link them for us then.

[Ridley]

Go ahead and link them for us then.

"Heheh, that account is new so they can't link the API leak. Got 'em!"

[krouger]

It feels like Legion 0.5 where they mostly share the same features but also make them worse. The new features (allied races, island expeditions, warfronts) ended up very lackluster while they all had great potential to shake the game up. Most content isn't fun to do, and the loot system is all RNG now. Hopefully the major patches will patch up the game that it badly needs. So far I'd rate every expansion from best to worst:

1. WotLK
2. TBC
3. MoP
4. Legion
5. BFA
6. WoD
7. Cata

Atleast i enjoyed playing my class back in cata even though cata was the worst expansion for a raider, but all the classes in BFA feel so boring and dead.

[Weeps]

1. Legion
2. BC
3. WotLK
4. MoP
5. WoD
6. Cata
7. Classic
8. BfA

For me, BfA is genuinely the worst expansion because of 3 simple reasons. The play style of all the classes are extremely homogenous and the GCD makes it feel real shitty. And lastly, the content sucks.

[Katchii]

There is no grind for any reputations these days, the War Campaign least of all. 7th Legion reputation just falls into your lap doing almost everything.

Grind may be a bit of an overstatement, but I know for a fact that I have to spend time specifically going after 7th Legion reputation to unlock the next stages of the War Campaign. I don't play my Alliance character as anything other than an alt to see the story and I have to "work" at getting that rep. Granted it's not THAT much, but it is a specific task I have to perform for no other purpose than to get that reputation.

Honorbound rep was similar, but not as targeted as 7th Legion was because, yes, if you play the game and are playing a character you'll earn your faction rep pretty much by default, but there was still a reputation wall for each stage of the War Campaign.

The main story of the expansion, and your ability to accept the quests, shouldn't be tied to a reputation level.

[dacoolist]

1. Legion
2. BC
3. WotLK
4. MoP
5. WoD
6. Cata
7. Classic
8. BfA

For me, BfA is genuinely the worst expansion because of 3 simple reasons. The play style of all the classes are extremely homogenous and the GCD makes it feel real shitty. And lastly, the content sucks.

As someone who's played awhile, I agree with your listing of expansions besides WOD/BFA - I think WOD was semi ok with PVP and some aspects of Challengemodes/raids - but WoD overall besides that badass leveling was HORRRRRIBLE. BFA is close but I personally believe BFA is better than WoD based on the simple fact that LEGIT: The first BIG PATCH of the entire game like 4 months in was a FUCKING SELFIE PATCH lolooooo

On Topic: Don't come back right now, if anything - wait on 8.2/8.25 or 8.3
I mention this because I'm actually happy with the playerbase right now, and I don't need the old jerk off fam back yet - please keep playing fucknite and don't come back yet

[Gratlim]

One of the worst. Up there with Cata / WoD. But gameplay was at least better back then. To elaborate a bit

On the positive side:
- PvP was better than Legion at start but got bad now in 8.1.5. So they almost did something good.
- Dungeons are pretty cool
- The questing and story was good.
- Music / art team did a really good job.

On the negative side:
- RNG to the extreme
- Gating as much as possible for both cosmetics, flying, gearing
- Raids are pretty bad
- Azerite system / Islands / Warfront are a failure. And they are basically BFA "new" content / systems
- Boost and carry has never been that rampant. I blame the token system.
- Many specs got butchered loosing even more talents / flavor
- GCD change made the game feel slower.
- They put back twinks in their own dead bracket (8.1.5). Killing queues / further reducing low level pvp participation on both sides.

Conclusion: If i were you I would either wait for 9.0 or Classic (if you're a vet and miss it).

[dacoolist]

One of the worst. Up there with Cata / WoD. But gameplay was at least better back then. To elaborate a bit

On the positive side:
- PvP was better than Legion at start but got bad now in 8.1.5. So they almost did something good.
- Dungeons are pretty cool
- The questing and story was good.
- Music / art team did a really good job.

On the negative side:
- RNG to the extreme
- Gating as much as possible for both cosmetics, flying, gearing
- Raids are pretty bad
- Azerite system / Islands / Warfront are a failure. And they are basically BFA "new" content / systems
- Boost and carry has never been that rampant. I blame the token system.
- Many specs got butchered loosing even more talents / flavor
- GCD change made the game feel slower.
- They put back twinks in their own dead bracket (8.1.5). Killing queues / further reducing low level pvp participation on both sides.

Content drought in Cata and Wod were so bad that we lost players at a rate that compare to HOW MANY ACTUAL WOW PLAYERS still play NOW (2-3 Milli)

[schwarzkopf]

Grind may be a bit of an overstatement, but I know for a fact that I have to spend time specifically going after 7th Legion reputation to unlock the next stages of the War Campaign

Indeed - one has to actually do stuff for a reputation to advance the reputation, however 7th Legion is by far the easiest reputation to get (Tortises the slowest).

I don't play my Alliance character as anything other than an alt to see the story

Yep - I did the same (an alt on Horde to see the story) and did the Horde campaign with bugger all work. The other reputations were all lagging way behind whilst the Honourbound was miles ahead.