Alpha: New Questing Content - News worthy or Snooze worthy?

[Bacon is the Answer]

So, a quick question for those testing alpha:

How compelling has the content been so far? Is it a VAST improvement over Vanilla and prior expansions, or does it feel clunky and lackluster?

[Real World]

That's a great question. I would be curious to know the quality level of the new questing content.

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

You're not going to get many people who are in the alpha to comment on this. It's all F&F at this point and there are at most 10 here.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

I haven't really seen anyone actively test quests, just classes and these rare events.

From what I've seen, the Frostfire Storyline sucks big time.

[Real World]

I haven't really seen anyone actively test quests, just classes and these rare events.

From what I've seen, the Frostfire Storyline sucks big time.

I would be curious to receive honest input about the questing itself. It is streamlined, linear, engaging? That sort of thing. What have you seen about the Frostfire Storyline that "sucks big time"?

[Vigilate]

I would be curious to receive honest input about the questing itself. It is streamlined, linear, engaging? That sort of thing. What have you seen about the Frostfire Storyline that "sucks big time"?

1. There is a central zone storyline that is somewhat linear but does offer some choices in the order you complete them.
2. There are also extra quest hubs that exist that provide their own stories, seperate from the main storyline.
3. World Events and Rares help make the questing experience feel less linear.

My only gripe about Frostfire Ridge is that I'm not emotionally invested in the fate of the Frostwolf orcs because I do not play Horde. Really looking forward to testing Shadowmoon Valley.

[Real World]

1. There is a central zone storyline that is somewhat linear but does offer some choices in the order you complete them.
2. There are also extra quest hubs that exist that provide their own stories, seperate from the main storyline.
3. World Events and Rares help make the questing experience feel less linear.

My only gripe about Frostfire Ridge is that I'm not emotionally invested in the fate of the Frostwolf orcs because I do not play Horde. Really looking forward to testing Shadowmoon Valley.

Would you say, given the state of Alpha, that Blizzard is producing very engaging and immersive storylines within those quest hubs? I understand those are personal, subjective concepts, but I would be curious to know how others view it. It helps set an expectation prior to trying it myself.

*btw - Really love the avatar

[Sj]

Honestly, what I've experienced so far is that most of the questing has been pretty run-of-the-mill WoW questing, but the atmosphere is really great. I have thoroughly enjoyed Frostfire Ridge and what I was able to experience of Shadowmoon before the servers went down. The pace of leveling felt pretty good (not too slow, not too fast), and the story seemed cohesive enough. Visually, both zones were incredibly stunning and felt very organic and open, and I felt a pang of nostalgia as it had been a very long time since WoW had me in awe of my surroundings.

Of course this is all my personal opinion, and your experience may vary; whether or not it's "newsworthy or snooze-worthy" is up to you.

[Erolian]

Honestly, what I've experienced so far is that most of the questing has been pretty run-of-the-mill WoW questing, but the atmosphere is really great. I have thoroughly enjoyed Frostfire Ridge and what I was able to experience of Shadowmoon before the servers went down. The pace of leveling felt pretty good (not too slow, not too fast), and the story seemed cohesive enough. Visually, both zones were incredibly stunning and felt very organic and open, and I felt a pang of nostalgia as it had been a very long time since WoW had me in awe of my surroundings.

Of course this is all my personal opinion, and your experience may vary; whether or not it's "newsworthy or snooze-worthy" is up to you.

Honestly makes me sad. I've never liked WoW questing. Not even the first time I played the game it was all about getting to max level to raid from the start. Straight up I just can't find anything fun about kill X amount of Y or loot Z. It just isn't creative past level 15 and we're going to 100 at this point. My friend had promised me I would like raiding at max level and she was right but god was it painful the first time and now every expansion its such a letdown to know I'm going to be doing that again. Nearly the exact same quests in a different looking zone. Again. I wish they would do something different for questing or at least buff dungeons/BGs enough to where it wasn't such an obvious waste of efficiency in comparison to questing in the world.

[Sinryu]

Honestly makes me sad. I've never liked WoW questing. Not even the first time I played the game it was all about getting to max level to raid from the start. My friend had promised me I would like raiding at max level and she was right but god was it painful the first time and now every expansion its such a letdown to know I'm going to be doing that again. I wish they would do something different for questing or at least buff dungeons/BGs enough to where it wasn't such an obvious waste of efficiency in comparison to questing in the world.

Well then good news, they are doing something different with instance quests..."Yes, that's another benefit. We're moving a lot of the dungeon XP from one-time quests to repeatable objectives."

https://twitter.com/WatcherDev/statu...10366294241280

[Sj]

Honestly makes me sad. I've never liked WoW questing. Not even the first time I played the game it was all about getting to max level to raid from the start. Straight up I just can't find anything fun about kill X amount of Y or loot Z. It just isn't creative past level 15 and we're going to 100 at this point. My friend had promised me I would like raiding at max level and she was right but god was it painful the first time and now every expansion its such a letdown to know I'm going to be doing that again. Nearly the exact same quests in a different looking zone. Again. I wish they would do something different for questing or at least buff dungeons/BGs enough to where it wasn't such an obvious waste of efficiency in comparison to questing in the world.

The quests are pretty much structured the same, but they are more in tune with the story instead of the usual "collect 5 beers and kill 5 bears" stuff. Honestly, we're not going to see much different in WoW because that's how the game is built. That's not to say the questing is bad at all; I actually enjoyed it quite a bit because most of the quests were actually related to the overall story arc, which made the process much more interesting. Having the levels spread out over 10 instead of 5 made it feel a lot less tedious because you could actually see a noticeable XP gain on your bar. I hit 92 in about 3 or 4 hours, for reference.

[DarthMonk79]

Considering almost every mmorpg out there has the same kill X amount of Y or loot Z frame to it, its not really that different. It is a roleplaying game, you are supposed to be a "Hero" of that world and whatever faction, helping anybody and everybody. You get rep (wish this did more than just give gear/mount/tabard) with different factions as you become this hero till you get to a point where you can do harder things that the common folk in the game can't do.... dungeons/raids. IF you actually get into it, everything from the story to realizing the above it is actually quite fun leveling and makes leveling more interesting then endgame raiding. If all you are doing is burning through the leveling process to get to endgame raiding then yes... it all seems boring and the same.

[Ryken]

Spoilers ahead so be warned. Like really, spoilers, if you don't want to read what happens, then don't, but its hard to get into it without saying what the story is. TLR, story is there, still in standard quest form which IMO you can't expect to change dramatically.

At the moment, there doesn't seem to be a overarching story that you can summarize. What you don't get to experience is the pre-event, getting to work with Durotan, Khadgar etc. You get a little summary by a clickable object that states "The Story So Far". But you basically end up with Durotan, thanking you and not overly trusting strangers, but you've given him enough to go on. You start off making your garrison, which doesn't take long, a few quests to clear the area, get resources, deal with local problems. After that is done, you get thrown into the orc's problem, namely pesky ogres taking over your lands, and having to deal with Durotan's hotheaded brother, being reckless but more decisive, so you can't end up hating the guy because he gets results. Plus hes sorta driven by revenge. Revenge in the form of dealing with another clan of orcs responsible for deaths against his family. So you help out getting some revenge, and fighting back one specific clan. You're sort of exposed to a larger threat (The Iron Horde), and you start out to do something about it, but the questline isn't fully finished.

So the broader scope so far is helping out the Frostwolves getting rid of their enemies because they remain neutral, you've helped them out, so they don't see the need to join with the Iron Horde to wipe you out. Story-wise, I think you have to be paying attention to the sub-questlines, which are entirely optional. They're not part of the achievement to do the zone storyline, there are often not even breadcrumb quests to go there. And lastly there are bonus objectives, which don't overly tell a story, or really only touch on a micro-problem. There's one that touches on Drek'Thar dealing with problems that the elements of Draenor (some bad things are happening to some fire elementals, and Drek'Thar joins his soul with a dying elemental lord), and this ties into another storyline, which doesn't exactly have a "Go here and do stuff" mission, one where you work with Khadgar and a night elf Warden to deal with Gul'Dan and his warlocky ways, which culminates in you seeing a few familiar faces (Teron'gor, who is sent to reside over Auchindon, Cho'gall who is sent to disrupt Oshu'gan in Nagrand, Gul'dan who flees and leaves behind his trusty side kick Gisellda, who is no longer the Crone, but the beautiful, who is warped into a Shivarra by Gul'dan).

So really, you have the option of doing the main storyline, you'll get to 92 well before you finish even the main storyline (At which point you can go to Gorgrond), which focuses on building a relationship with the Frostwolves, helping out Durotan and his brother taking down some bad orcs, where you find out its the beginning of a united orc opposition. You can stay and finish off the zone and get into some other meaty storylines dealing with elements/warlocks. You can do other mini-quests dealing with ogres and orcs and elementals and the native beasts. All in all, there is a coherent storyline, but there is nothing revolutionary in terms of quests, its hard to reinvent the wheel. But if you're looking for a story, there's one, but don't expect more than the established questing type.

All this is set against a neat backdrop, rocky, frosty, fiery, orcish, ogreish scenery. I spent more time jumping up rocks and exploring hidden pathways to find chests and objects and different Shamanstones to give you zone-wide buffs, than I did leveling, but I fear the majority of people will just look up a list of them and follow the guidelines. Nothing wrong with that, but I encourage to explore yourself. Chances are you won't find all (or even most) unless you're truly dedicated, and will probably end up comparing it against a list to make sure you got 'em all. If you spend an extra 15 mins in a questing area while you're already there, you will find a fair few anyway

[Sj]

All this is set against a neat backdrop, rocky, frosty, fiery, orcish, ogreish scenery. I spent more time jumping up rocks and exploring hidden pathways to find chests and objects and different Shamanstones to give you zone-wide buffs, than I did leveling, but I fear the majority of people will just look up a list of them and follow the guidelines. Nothing wrong with that, but I encourage to explore yourself. Chances are you won't find all (or even most) unless you're truly dedicated, and will probably end up comparing it against a list to make sure you got 'em all. If you spend an extra 15 mins in a questing area while you're already there, you will find a fair few anyway

Frostfire definitely warrants some exploring. That's what I was talking about when I said it felt organic; there aren't quest hubs every 50 meters like it's felt for the past two expansions. Frostfire feels open and dangerous, which is definitely a nice change.

[Sul]

Honestly makes me sad. I've never liked WoW questing. Not even the first time I played the game it was all about getting to max level to raid from the start. Straight up I just can't find anything fun about kill X amount of Y or loot Z. It just isn't creative past level 15 and we're going to 100 at this point. My friend had promised me I would like raiding at max level and she was right but god was it painful the first time and now every expansion its such a letdown to know I'm going to be doing that again. Nearly the exact same quests in a different looking zone. Again. I wish they would do something different for questing or at least buff dungeons/BGs enough to where it wasn't such an obvious waste of efficiency in comparison to questing in the world.

Everyone is different -- I love questing and I do read the quest text the first time through a zone to get the story . One of my guildies is like you Turkey One , he doesn't like questing so he levels through dungeons and manages to keep up with the rest of us who level through combined questing and dungening.

[Ryken]

Frostfire definitely warrants some exploring. That's what I was talking about when I said it felt organic; there aren't quest hubs every 50 meters like it's felt for the past two expansions. Frostfire feels open and dangerous, which is definitely a nice change.

And rewarding too... There are a bunch of "rares" in the zone. I say "rares" because they have the same icon as a rare, but they offer a one-time bonus experience and bonus loot, and all subsequent spawns for your character are the same mob. A lot you'll see out and about around questing areas you're in, and some you'll come across by wandering around the zone. These really are the distinctive new feature in the expansion, along with the treasures found. A lot of testers will have killed them at the level cap of 92, so it might not be apparent to how much these one-time-rares (and hidden chests) give in experience, but it is a noticeable jump in the XP bar. They offer exploration while leveling. The items are largely better-than-quest rewards which are intended for leveling (which if you have ToT+ gear, you won't really find a use for), so the joy in these rares/chests/treasures are the XP. Going back at max level with a list won't feel like a joy, though there are some items that will be fun/toylike, but the majority will be useful for your level, and the XP is the draw here.

Going up a mountain and finding a rare to kill, or jumping across some rocks to find a chest, or going up all the towers in an ogre area with a dozen towers in the hopes of finding something is a new and exciting way to go places and get XP other than your typical "Go here and kill X mob". If you want to stick to the path, that's cool too, and quite honestly you'll likely level faster too, if your goal is to get to 100 asap, the tried and true go here do XYZ, then continue to ABC. It's foolproof, albeit simple. But there are options now, and options that aren't affected by other people. Rares in MoP were fun leveling up IF you came across one alive. This way its fun for all

[Sul]

Thanks for the rundown Ryken and Sj. Hope the ally zones are just as good , almost makes me want to actually level one of my Horde toons so I can do this zone

[Ryken]

Thanks for the rundown Ryken and Sj. Hope the ally zones are just as good , almost makes me want to actually level one of my Horde toons so I can do this zone

I main as Alliance, but I've always done every quest on Horde too just to get the full story. I'm not -overly- fond of Orcs and their story, but you get to see Thrall working with his dad, you get to make parallel's between Outland's elemental story to this one (The initial effects of Gul'dan's warlocky, combined with the new Iron Horde, probably influenced by Garrosh, and we know how he treated the elements via the Dark Shaman). You get to see what set the Frostwolves apart from the other orc clans. The story is there for sure

I did as much of the Alliance line in Shadowmoon before the servers went down, which was as far as building your garrison and up to sending out the follower. I love the scenery of Shadowmoon for sure. The garrison was distinctly different, Horde's felt like a larger total area but felt almost too big. Alliance's felt more enclosed, reminded me of camp hubs in Grizzly Hills sort of! But I'm sure Alliance will start feeling more fortified once we upgrade it, where Horde's will probably look more filled Different styles mayhaps!

[Mormolyce]

I'm interested to see how the main quest/side quest structure they talked about works out.

Is it a VAST improvement over Vanilla

Erm, it'd be quite a challenge for a game made in 2014 to be worse than Vanilla questing. If it's even remotely on par with Wrath/Cata/MoP questing it'll be vastly superior.

[Arbs]

SJ & Ryken Thank you for the feedback .