Originally Posted by
GabrielKnight
You know, it's interesting, I ask myself the same question sometimes. I loved Battle for Azeroth and consider it my favorite expansion, so I try to compare Dragonflight to it. I will try to be as precise as possible:
* After Tuesday reset, right know I can complete a few tasks, mainly for reputation that brings nothing to my character, and after a couple of hours, there's not much else I can do to progress except M+ or raiding. In BfA I felt there were more activities to gain gear, and even when it wasn't better than mine, it allowed me to try different builds with Azerite Armor, a system that I loved. I also enjoyed both Island Expeditions and Warfronts immensely.
* Most of the world quests are quite boring, like climbing and racing, which I hate because I can't stand dragonriding. And you could say that it was the same in previous expansions, but at least there the content was fun and lively. During BfA I absolutely loved assaults, and the PvP was thriving, especially in Nazjatar. The amount of World Quests was much larger, and allowed me to pick whatever I wanted to do with more freedom. I never felt that there was any grinding involved, as people claim. AP came naturally by just doing content.
* Some side activities feel absolutely abandoned, as if they did it just to say "there, it's done". Pet Battles, for example: in BfA, we had dungeons, and the trainers all had special dialogs and themes. A lot of them were also quite challenging, especially the achievements. Right now, the trainers are a joke, and I can complete the achievements with any team I pick at random. They barely tried. Also, the events are bugged as hell since launch, mainly the new one with the crucibles, which shows how little they care about quality.
* I loved the story of BfA. Yeah, it wasn't peak writing, but the whole theme appealed to me, as a long time fan of the franchise; just looking at the cover of the Grunt and Footman facing each other pumped me like crazy. Right now, I don't even know why I'm on the isles. The villains are insanely bland, and most of the time I don't even spend it facing them, it's just taking photos and doing other stupid stuff. I don't care at all what happens in Dragonflight, I have zero expectations about the story and its characters. The overall artistic direction feels extremely cheap, childish, and politics driven, but I guess we discussed that enough in its proper thread.
* I hate the fact that they changed PvP gear to only work in battlegrounds. This forces me to constantly change my gear for no reason, but that's just a pet peeve of mine. Didn't had this problem before.
* I can't stand how they're managing inventory now. Not only we have a million of crap on our bags for no reason, but, if you want the rewards for your reputations, then you have to bring random pieces to buy each. Meanwhile, I have a million expedition resources that serve no purpose, yay. I haven't even bothered in making a shop list to buy each transmogrify for a hat, it's an absolute pain. In BfA, we had AP, but it was done right, unlike Legion and SL: you grab it, it goes right into the neck, that's it. It felt satisfying seeing that glitter, knowing that I was immediately rewarded for my actions and becoming stronger, even just a little.
* I despise dragonriding, and the fact that I have a million mounts that I can't use. I don't get why regular flying it's not an option. Maybe because they're afraid that most people will use it and it'll show what a failure the new system is, I don't know. All that time spent in BfA getting my bee, guess what, it's a waste.
* Professions are a disaster. I don't even waste my time trying to decipher it, I think it would be easier to become a smith in real life. For the first time in years, I'm just letting the Darkmoon Faire to raise them. I miss professions World Quests too; just ask me to fish 10 somethings and reward me, why is that so hard? What's this fishing net garbage? It doesn't matter anyway because prices are so low that it's not even worth the trouble.
* On the positive side, I like the new talent system, and the classes still feel fun to play. They all felt much better during BfA to me, especially Holy Paladin, but I guess that won't return. Dungeons are all right I guess, although M+ is getting more and more annoying, to the point I stopped doing it because it became stressful instead of fun. Never cared for raiding, but I did like it during BfA because I was interested in the settings and story. Now the raids are so bland that I don't even waste my time going. The new weekly quest of 5 heroic dungeons is a huge step in the right direction for casuals, and I welcome it with open arms.
I'm still enjoying the game, but that's because I changed my mentality. WoW is gone to me, I still relive it by playing Classic Era, which luckily is thriving right now. Dragonflight is a completely different game, I just get in, do a few tasks that I like, and that's it. I don't care anymore about progressing my character or waiting for the next chapter of the story, all that is in the past. I actually removed my subscription this week and just playing on borrowed time, tokens will do the rest.