A lot of players claim the Art is the best of BFA

[Worgenmaniac]

I think the art design in BFA is overrated. The tier sets are awful. Compare the tier sets to Vanilla or TBC tier set. The zones are way too cluttered and the layout in zones like Nazjatar is terrible. There is actually too much detail in the zones. This was an issue in Legion as well. You can't see 10 yards in front of you without being impeded by some piece of terrain or object. Part of the reason it is hard to see other players in the zones is because of how detailed they are and designed. There is too much going on. Think of a zone like Shalozar Basin or Nagrand. There are a lot of wide open flat spaces, which makes it easy to find other players. There are so many elevation changes and roadblocks in BFA zones that it just isn't fun to walk around on them. There is also no sense of scope in the zone design anymore. Blizzard tried to make every encampment, building, or gate look grandiose. When all the quest hubs and landmarks in the zones look so imposing it ends up having the opposite effect than what is intended.

Warlords of Draenor for example added a lot of dumb features to the game, but Draenor itself was quite well designed. Compare the revamped Nagrand or Gorgrond to what we got in Legion or BFA. They were way better zones.

[MrCool]

You are talking about level design, not art tho

[Redroniksre]

Yeah that is a level design problem. The thing is i agree there are not enough field like areas. That said the reason why level designers use more z variated terrain is because you get a lot more freedom to make things unique. Vanilla and TBC zones felt more like long treks of boring compared to Nazjatars beautiful but frustrating terrain.

[Nefarious Tea]

You’re talking mostly about environmental design, rather than about artwork. Also, WoD and GARBAGE zone layout design because it was a convoluted mess that was difficult to navigate (or worse) without flying.

I do agree that having no tier sets generall means every class except one per armor type gets shafted but the sets are objectively well made, even if you don’t like the design. The art, world design, and sound teams pour their hearts and souls into this game.

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You are talking about level design, not art tho

Cuso is that you?

[Hitei]

I think the art design in BFA is overrated. The tier sets are awful. Compare the tier sets to Vanilla or TBC tier set..

:thinking emoji:

[guisadop]

the armor is not great, but the zones are really pretty IMO.
what I don't like though is how they constantly change established designs (like what they did to frost wyrms back in WotLK - man, what a disappointment!)

[Azerate]

Art is possibly the most subjective thing in the world. Visuals in zones in BfA had a pretty positive reception overall, you just happen to have a different visual taste. No one is wrong, not you, not them.

[Bigby]

I agree with the OP with regards to Zandalar, but I do feel like all the Kul Tiran zones were the right amount of scenic, without too much clutter. Stormsong is pretty expansive, as is Tirisgarde Sound. Drustvar is a forest - a haunted one at that - so it's an acceptable exception.

I do think the tier sets have been trash though. It's ridiculous they claimed it was so each raid could have a thematic set, when just about every tier previously had themed-to-that-raid class sets. Warfront sets have been okay.

[Muajin76]

Blizz is pretty bland in the raid gear department. With the exception of mythic stuff, everything else is just crappy. Even the stuff you get outside raid looks better. When you compare gear models to Diablo, wow just plain sucks. *Why oh why won't the WoW gear design team either borrow, steal or convince the Diablo gear design team to make make gear models for WoW.*
I do like the overall bfa scenery and artwork, the towns match the theme very nicely, on both islands.

[Th3Scourge]

Completely subjective but I don't like the art style of BfA. The colours are too de-saturated and bland, and some of the models and designs are less Warcraft-themed in their art style.

I prefer the more cartoonish styles of Vanilla - Wrath with keeps true to the artistic style of the Warcraft III

[Irian]

Zones are forgettable, armor is forgettable, Drustvar is pretty cool I guess but otherwise the zones feel bland and washed out to me.

I miss stuff like Pandaria, when WoW's style was more vibrant and fantasy. WoW isn't a gritty game and it should stop trying to pretend to be, both in story and art. I realize this is all subjective but I really have not been feeling BfA's art at all, in fact it's pretty ugly and uninspired to me.

[Worgenmaniac]

Completely subjective but I don't like the art style of BfA. The colours are too de-saturated and bland, and some of the models and designs are less Warcraft-themed in their art style.

I prefer the more cartoonish styles of Vanilla - Wrath with keeps true to the artistic style of the Warcraft III

I agree. The art style doesn't even feel like Warcraft anymore. I think they outsource the raid gear design.

[Skorpionss]

I don't like the art-style since the revamp overall... I hate the revamped skins for all races(mostly), they made them too comically cartoony... I mean they were always cartoony, but now they look like every other cartoony mmo that is trying to copy wow.

I do however like most of the zones (at least horde side, ally side are uninspired). As for tier sets, I haven't liked one (like truly liked) since WOTLK*.

*single exception being warrior set from Dragon Soul, that looked kinda like Deathwing.

[Th3Scourge]

I agree. The art style doesn't even feel like Warcraft anymore. I think they outsource the raid gear design.

That's what it feels like. It's soulless and leaves no lasting impression. I've done thousands of WQ in Zandalar and Kul Tiras and I could barely name a handful of landmarks because the zones are devoid of any inspiration

[GreenJesus]

That's what it feels like. It's soulless and leaves no lasting impression. I've done thousands of WQ in Zandalar and Kul Tiras and I could barely name a handful of landmarks because the zones are devoid of any inspiration

I think part of it is Kul'tiras is mostly just bland human land. It's not an alien land with the bones of giants etched into the landscape with volcanoes flowing to contrast against the white snow or an arcane elf city untouched for millenia.. There isn't going to really be any divine inspiration for "grassy mountains that fat humans live on". The problem with Isle of Zandalar is that like 10% of the island is actually inhabited. Seems kind of weird that the seat of the troll empire is just basically a pyramid and maybe a couple villages around it and that's it. It just felt really underwhelming to me that 2/3 of the island is a desert that only exiles go to and Naz'mir where bad troll are.

[Muajin76]

I think part of it is Kul'tiras is mostly just bland human land. It's not an alien land with the bones of giants etched into the landscape with volcanoes flowing to contrast against the white snow or an arcane elf city untouched for millenia.. There isn't going to really be any divine inspiration for "grassy mountains that fat humans live on". The problem with Isle of Zandalar is that like 10% of the island is actually inhabited. Seems kind of weird that the seat of the troll empire is just basically a pyramid and maybe a couple villages around it and that's it. It just felt really underwhelming to me that 2/3 of the island is a desert that only exiles go to and Naz'mir where bad troll are.

So...kinda like say...Montana?:P

[Tziva]

I haven't heard anyone say BfA has the best art, much less "a lot," but I do think the art is overwhelmingly very good in the game. In fact, I think the work that the art team puts out is some of the strongest and most consistently high quality of any other aspect of WoW. I wouldn't say it is the best this expansion, but it's still pretty good.

However, I do think the armor design for raids this expansion has been very disappointing. There were sets in the past that were not my taste, but I still felt like they had a lot of work and love put into them. Between my personal aesthetic preferences and the fact that there's just one set per armor class in the raids this expansion, I haven't been excited about any of the appearances. Nothing has even inspired an enthusiastic "I hate that"; it's all been a resounding "meh." It is forgettable and uninteresting. I don't know the inner workings of the company, but it feels a lot to me like a cut in resources to the art department / diverting their attentions elsewhere, rather than some issue with the artists' quality declining since there's plenty of other stuff that still looks sharp.

But art is inherently subjectively. I'm sure there are plenty of people for whom Warcraft's bright, colourful, cartoony look is not attractive at all, in any era.

[Th3Scourge]

I think part of it is Kul'tiras is mostly just bland human land. It's not an alien land with the bones of giants etched into the landscape with volcanoes flowing to contrast against the white snow or an arcane elf city untouched for millenia.. There isn't going to really be any divine inspiration for "grassy mountains that fat humans live on". The problem with Isle of Zandalar is that like 10% of the island is actually inhabited. Seems kind of weird that the seat of the troll empire is just basically a pyramid and maybe a couple villages around it and that's it. It just felt really underwhelming to me that 2/3 of the island is a desert that only exiles go to and Naz'mir where bad troll are.

Yes in a sense it might just be because it's just bland human land, but if i contrast these zones with, say, Elwynn Forest or even Westfall, both bland human lands, there's just much more of a sense of appreciation and enjoyment. The colours are vivid and vibrant and the design is cartoonish and Warcraft-like. The BfA zones don't project that sense of emotion and appreciation that other zones in the past have (even recently up to Broken Shore)

It's all very subjective and I'm sure there's plenty of people that like the new, darker and more serious-looking zones and models.

[Hitei]

Yes in a sense it might just be because it's just bland human land, but if i contrast these zones with, say, Elwynn Forest or even Westfall, both bland human lands, there's just much more of a sense of appreciation and enjoyment. The colours are vivid and vibrant and the design is cartoonish and Warcraft-like. The BfA zones don't project that sense of emotion and appreciation that other zones in the past have

People get so weird with their rose-tinting. Like it's fine to like older zones better, but at least come up with real reasons for it.









There's definitely no lack of color or cartoony style in recent expansions. Nor are Vanilla zones particularly vivid or vibrant, they actually tend to be very muted and desaturated on top of often being very one-note to the point of near monochromatic. There's a lot of vanilla zones I like, but to pretend they somehow handle color better, or more liberally is just outright laughable.

[Ticj]

https://i.imgur.com/9JKusJx.png

https://i.imgur.com/aUbdZ52.png


:thinking emoji:

Awesome, a set that one really makes sense for shadow priests and locks. Also,



I can't believe people are even trying to suggest that the quality of gear hasn't gone down.