I'm questing in Drustvar for the very first time and I am VERY impressed so far

[Deferionus]

As with WoD levelling in BfA was fine. It was the rest of BfA that was sub-par. Well, not all, but large chunks of it. Warfronts and Islands just didn't work right, and were basically abandoned (especially warfronts). Class mechanics were awful, and using azerite powers to prop them up meant if you couldn't get the right pieces your character just sucked. Necklace and then corruption powers that were the same for every class and spec, and were so powerful that they overwhelmed everything else. So on and on it goes...

I liked Drustvar a great deal, but there's only so many times I can level through a place an not get bored (and for me that limit is fairly low), and that can't carry an expansion by itself.

I will always maintain that BfA would have been more with less. If you remove the Azerite grind entirely and don't have the Azerite gear, I think the expansion immediately becomes better. I honestly liked the zones, the world quests we okay, the patches had good content. Visions of N'Zoth was solid, though I understand the burn after doing it a lot. But, every expansion that has had AP locks me out of doing content I want to.

I think island expeditions ended up in a fine place. The warfronts were weird, should have just made them into rotational battlegrounds with NPCs on your side similar to Wintergrasp or Tol Barad during their respective expacs. But end of the day, BFA was a big step down from Legion, and SL fell off even more, solely due to how tired the AP BS got.

[Pheraz]

Bfa was poisened by two things:
- sylvanas swirling her mustache
- "oyyyy champion..... azeroth is dyyyying, gather more azerite"
Zones were top notch. Even horde zones (imo)
Drustvar is ofc outstanding

[Aurabolt]

I'll add a word of appreciation for Boralus, which is a fantastically well-designed zone. The level of detail (and cohesion) is staggering.

Well-designed, yes. Good cohesion no and especially in contrast to Zuldazar. The Canal Ferries system could've really shone through there. It felt like a missed opportunity for me and more so given how many more landing spots there could have been in Kul Tiras.

[arkanon]

It's obvious they did their homework with the zone's design and storylines. I can see where the inspiration for a LOT of stuff came from. Well played.

I know it's a soon to be two expansions-old zone but like I said, I'm going through it for the very first time (I did Tiragarde Sound first, will do Stormsong Valley third).

I'm the kind of person who doesn't like to skip story content I haven't done yet. I haven't done Zandalar yet either and I plan to do that and unlock the BFA-era Allied Races before I move on to doing Shadowlands (I unlike the Legion-era Allied Races over the last two months). I'm in no hurry. Kul Tiras first though =P

Without a doubt, that was (for me) the best thing about BFA hands down, and the best zone they have done for a long, LONG time. Its very subjective, i get that, but i fucking LOVED that zone, and figured we were in for an amazing expansion. Then it went horribly down hill after that, and hasnt stopped going down.

[khazmodan]

I will always maintain that BfA would have been more with less. If you remove the Azerite grind entirely and don't have the Azerite gear, I think the expansion immediately becomes better. I honestly liked the zones, the world quests we okay, the patches had good content. Visions of N'Zoth was solid, though I understand the burn after doing it a lot. But, every expansion that has had AP locks me out of doing content I want to.

I think island expeditions ended up in a fine place. The warfronts were weird, should have just made them into rotational battlegrounds with NPCs on your side similar to Wintergrasp or Tol Barad during their respective expacs. But end of the day, BFA was a big step down from Legion, and SL fell off even more, solely due to how tired the AP BS got.

I totally agree with you on Azerite gear, but island expeditions were just so empty of story or any sort of immersive reasoning. Warfronts just felt so contrived and boring, and I agree that BFA was a big step down from Legion. BfA, like even the worst expansions (WoD), always have a few good points though, which we would hope that Blizzard would not throw out with the bath water. The problem is, that ideas, like people, can be guilty by association and banished from consideration.

[damonskye]

The single best thing about BFA was the leveling zones. Drustvar is magnificent. The only problem I had with any of the zones is when Stormsong Valley takes a hard turn toward the gnolls (which are just about the least interesting NPC race ever in this game), but it all comes together later on.

I don't get the negativity toward the Zandalar zones because they were equally engaging.

BFA just suffers from everything released AFTER launch, but the launch stuff was terrific. Much more engaging and interesting than Shadowlands.

[Boricha]

I visually and thematically liked Drustvar, but the story didn't work for me. It felt like there were more witches than normal citizens, and not enough men confused about where there daughters/wives/girlfriends went. I would have liked it if there were a small coven of like 3-6 more powerful/intelligent witches who we picked off one at a time or something. Nazmir was my favorite zone.

[Aurabolt]

I visually and thematically liked Drustvar, but the story didn't work for me. It felt like there were more witches than normal citizens, and not enough men confused about where there daughters/wives/girlfriends went. I would have liked it if there were a small coven of like 3-6 more powerful/intelligent witches who we picked off one at a time or something. Nazmir was my favorite zone.

You know, that's the one thing I expected to get touched on that hasn't so far. Aside from the Lumber Mill Owner's wife and Lady Waycrest obviously. It would have added a bigger and deeper emotional impact to say the least. More so if the Coven leaned deeply into their decision to forsake all they knew for power.

[Varolyn]

It's funny, because I remember during the BFA alpha and beta, Drustvar got a lot of criticism. Especially during early alpha when enemy variation was pretty much nonexistent, but blizz added more new creatures to spice up the zone and make it a little better. I remember Preach in particular being critical of the zone and felt that Nazmir had a far better main questline.

Anyway, I loved the look of Drustvar but I felt the questline slogged at some points. I know questing in wow is repetitive by nature, but it did get a bit tiring going from town to town basically just doing the same thing over and over. Wish Blizz would have gone with their original vision of Drustvar, with the Drust themselves having a much larger presence and the Coven being far more isolated. Think that would have done wonders for the mystique of the zone.

[Kallor]

Drustvar was great. But as always with the newer expansions, the leveling experience would be so insanely much better if you actually leveled with players only on your server (in a world where Blizzard were good at administering and balancing servers).

[BraveNewWorld]

Moreover, it's also never really clear why the rest of the zone decided to throw their lot in with Gorak Tul.

I was really hoping we'd get more of the Drust, specially that we encountered them in Ardenweald. With Thros having a connection to the Shadowlands and all that.

- - - Updated - - -

Drustvar was great. But as always with the newer expansions, the leveling experience would be so insanely much better if you actually leveled with players only on your server (in a world where Blizzard were good at administering and balancing servers).

They might not be good at "balancing" servers, but administering them ? They are the king of any MMO. Have you played FFXIV ? Their whole server infrastructure is garbage. Patches take 24 hours of maintenance, they had to use a PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT MACHINE to help with login queues at endwalker launch. In 2021.

Blizzard's backend (the stuff we don't actually see playing the game) is actually pretty amazing.

[Kaleredar]

Just because the player can run across the zone in a matter of minutes, that's not representative of what things would actually be like. I always assumed that Corlain was one of the first places to fall, and that word simply hadn't reached other areas before it was too late. And this was clearly not the first time the people in that region had heard of/dealt with witches, so it makes sense that if they see strange stuff happening, and an unfamiliar woman shows up...they'll just assume she's a witch.

But even then, like... 2/3rds of the zone has basically come under the enchantment of the Coven, and they aren't exactly "subtle." And we've no reason to believe that these events are sort of transpiring while we progress through the zone; it's very much presented as if all this basically already happened, and we're just seeing it... apparently along with every other single person in Boralus, because no one in Drustvar seems to have much of any idea, and everybody outside of Drustvar seems to know basically nothing has happened other than the fact that they've "lost contact" with the Waycrests.

Lucille Waycrest isn't aware of any of this happening, or even her parents having become horrific monsters and her own house turned into a freaky haunted mansion, which we're lead to believe has been going on for some time now.

Again, not a deal breaker story-wise, I found it overall enjoyable, but something that sort of undercuts the supposed intrigue.

[arkanon]

I was really hoping we'd get more of the Drust, specially that we encountered them in Ardenweald. With Thros having a connection to the Shadowlands and all that.

I dont have a lot of good things to say about wow these days, and very few positive things to say about BFA, but holy shit the Drust were just right up my alley, i REALLY enjoyed everything they were involved in. I remember that bloody zone inside out, i 100% it on every toon, and i leveled 15+ toons through BFA. Yes, i know i say i hate bfa but lvld 15+ toons - thing is that was about all i enjoyed in BFA, so.....outside of mythic on my main 2 toons, thats what i did....i lvld toons. I also injured my back so was chair-bound for much of the day, and i found it relaxing.

I am often amazed that the same people (in theory) that made that zone, that race, those quests and stories, also made the rest of bfa and SL.

[Highlord Hanibuhl]

On one hand it makes me glad to see people so positive about something in the game; Drustvar.
While on the other hand it boggles my mind people are so positive about the most uninspired, boring and incoherent zone in BFA; Drustvar

[Aurabolt]

Ok so I checked about an hour ago after logging out of WoW and Blizzard gifted me Shadowlands Base Edition (includes level 50 Character Boost). It was totally unexpected but is appreciated.

As for why they did it, last week I bought the Shadowlands + Dragonflight Heroic Edition Bundle. I found it kinda odd all the in-game goods (except the boosts + game time obviously) applied to both the account I used it on and my primary account (I'm a shameless altoholic as a reminder). I opened a ticket to inquire and they explained Expansion upgrades only apply to the specific WoW account it's used on but Accountwide stuff like mounts, pets, Transmog and Allied Races apply to all current and future WoW accounts so...yeah.

Blizz read the feedback notes I left and even though they didn't have to, they gifted me a Base Edition copy of Shadowlands. I was respectful in my commentary but I did say at this point in the game's life, Expansion purchases and upgrades should apply to all current and future WoW accounts. It makes no sense to make people buy the same copy of an expansion or expansion tier twice (or more). I'll probably reopen my ticket to inquire about future SL + DF upgrades though. I want to know if they can upgrade my SL Base Edition copy ( + DF when I get it) to Heroic since I bought them once already. It's not an unreasonable request since I bought them Heroic once already. I'll make my case after I buy DF Base though, not before. That way they can check and see on their end I do own a Heroic Edition copy of SL + DF on their end.

The account I do all my progression on was the one that got the SL Base upgrade. The other account, I'll be using mainly for Transmog hunting eventually. I'm elbows deep in BFA content and am in no rush to move on to SL. When I bought the SL + DF Heroic Edition bundle and used the level 60 Boost on a character from my other account, I was able to buy the Map of Shadowlands Toy from the Heirloom Vendor right after that (Which I did!). Not gonna lie, it felt weird to get the Explorer and Loremaster Achievements for SL despite never having actually them just because I used the Level 60 boost (Don't worry, I'll do SL properly eventually). When I get the second Level 60 boost, I'll use it on a Hunter so I can later buy the Dark Ranger Transmog set.

[Nymrohd]

I will always maintain that BfA would have been more with less. If you remove the Azerite grind entirely and don't have the Azerite gear, I think the expansion immediately becomes better. I honestly liked the zones, the world quests we okay, the patches had good content. Visions of N'Zoth was solid, though I understand the burn after doing it a lot. But, every expansion that has had AP locks me out of doing content I want to.

I think island expeditions ended up in a fine place. The warfronts were weird, should have just made them into rotational battlegrounds with NPCs on your side similar to Wintergrasp or Tol Barad during their respective expacs. But end of the day, BFA was a big step down from Legion, and SL fell off even more, solely due to how tired the AP BS got.

Slap the better azerite traits as choice nodes on the +% health points the necklace UI had. Launch with Essences, the best of the three systems. Develop Island Expeditions as an exploration mode instead of an inherently time limited mode. If possible squeeze in Southern Barrens Warfront, Dwarves vs Tauren, Baine actually doing something that makes him a Horde character. End with Siege of Stormwind. Have a proper Old God expansion after with corruption as its max level system.

[Lodidop]

Drustvar was really good, even its dungeons were great.
The gloomy atmosphere was caught perfectly there.

[Tyrannica]

Do Nazmir, too another lovely place in BfA.

And you should have seen faction assaults and Nazjatar with warmode on, when it was populated, more world building and good ole WPvP, everyone mostly in PvE gear from raids and mythic+.

I actually really miss this!

btw, go to: https://drustvar.com/

- - - Updated - - -

On one hand it makes me glad to see people so positive about something in the game; Drustvar.
While on the other hand it boggles my mind people are so positive about the most uninspired, boring and incoherent zone in BFA; Drustvar Stormsong Valley

Fixed it for you.

[Highlord Hanibuhl]

Do Nazmir, too another lovely place in BfA.

And you should have seen faction assaults and Nazjatar with warmode on, when it was populated, more world building and good ole WPvP, everyone mostly in PvE gear from raids and mythic+.

I actually really miss this!

btw, go to: https://drustvar.com/

- - - Updated - - -



Fixed it for you.

hey man, it's all personal!

I for one loved Vashjir, but I know almost everyone hated that zone. I don't mind :-)

I was just glad that I could also level in Zandalar with my horde character.
I just hope they don't divide up the team to work on seperate zones.

[Tyrannica]

hey man, it's all personal!

I for one loved Vashjir, but I know almost everyone hated that zone. I don't mind :-)

I was just glad that I could also level in Zandalar with my horde character.
I just hope they don't divide up the team to work on seperate zones.

Vashjir is my favorite Zone, too, but i respect Hyjal, it was very well designed for the time of the release, both were starting zones, for me it was quality vs creativity.

Still waiting for that underwater raid and the Neptulon/Ozumat conclusion, apparently they can both be spotted just outside the waterbarrier in Nazjatar. Its lovely to see a direct link between Cataclysm and BfA!