BFA is done. Time for your official review

[Stevano]

As always, the game got carried by the music and the art team. I'm seriously torn between giving WoD actually a slight edge over BfA. Why? Even though the content of WoD was almost non-existent, the classes (even gutted to death) were way more enjoyable than in BfA. In BfA they are in the worst state they've ever been. And speaking of content, BfA had tons but besides of dungeons and raids it wasn't really enjoyable either. Let's not talk about the story, especially what they did with 8.2 and... ooh lord, 8.3. What did they do with my baby 8.3...

[Nuciek]

So, I think there's two different things to look at here: Quality of the actual expansion, and enjoyment of expansion. Usually these two things are closely related, but in an MMO I think people forget that how much you enjoy it is based just as much off of your community as it is on the actual content itself.

I haven't really raided this expansion, but I'm an "alright" PVPer and have done some pretty extensive arena every season up to around 2200 rating.

For the most part, I'd say that PVP is the 2nd most balanced it's ever been - I think WOD felt a bit better (classes in WoD had more variance but I really liked that version of scaling compared to BFA's version). I really, *really* disliked how you basically had to do PVE in order to excel in PVP. In this most recent season, I got lucky and got a Drest'agath in my weekly 4 dungeon quest, and within a week boosted 300 rating. It's no coincidence.

I think the world design is some of the best they've ever done, but I don't think anyone would really disagree with me here. Kul Tiras and Zuldazar are some of the most realized zones we've had in WoW yet, so that's definitely a plus. And while I haven't raided, I've done all the dungeons in M+15 or higher, and I can at least say the dungeon content has been pretty solid this expansion.

The problem with this expansion IMO was that all of the good changes it brought were baseline mechanical changes to the entire game that aren't really associated with the expansion. For example, war mode and the current leveling system (the precursor to Shadowland's improved leveling system) were widely hailed as some of the most important changes the game has seen in years for quality of life, but as they were introduced in a pre-patch I think people kind of disassociate them with BFA.

Azerite has really been a disaster. I think the base concept could have perhaps been neat, but they vastly misjudged what made the artifacts in Legion popular. I think many will disagree with me on this, but I actually don't mind an "infinite grind" in an MMO... but it's *incredibly* hard to find the right balance between making people feel like they're obligated to constantly grind and giving them something to do when they're free. They clearly failed at that in BFA. I'm also someone who used to play all 3 specs on my classes in every expansion - I completely stopped doing that in BFA. I really hated the azerite respec system and more or less stuck to one spec/class the entire expansion, which felt awful.

Overall, this expansion has definitely been the second weakest expansion in WoW (yes, you already guessed the worst was WoD), but it changed enough to keep my interest. I stopped playing for a few weeks at a time here and there but overall I'm still subbed. On a 1-10 scale, where 1 is trash you should never waste money on, 5 is a mediocre game that might be worth putting some time into, and 10 is the perfect game, I'd probably rate it a 6. It's heavily flawed, but if you enjoy WoW it didn't do anything to really destroy that experience.

That's partially true. While you had a lot of viable specs this expansion it was mostly due to the fact how strong Essences, Trinkets and Corruptions are. You wrote it yourself with an example of Drest and while balance is important, it doesn't matter if the game is not fun to play. I mean, my spec shouldn't be viable because I stacked BiS corruptions, grinded BiS Essences and Trinkets and it all combined gives me more power than my class skills. In comparison TBC or WotLK PvP was highly imbalanced compared to this but it was way more fun and in my opinion required more skill.

I strongly agree with a lot of thing that you have mentioned but I wrote it somewhere else that I think this is an expansion of missed opportunities. A lot of systems and features were good on paper but were terribly implemented. We did get a lot of content in BFA but for the most part it was boring. Island Expeditions could've been better, Warfronts could've been better, Azerite could've been better, Essences could've been better etc. A lot of development time was spent on doing things that most of players didn't enjoy for those last two years and that only collectioners will do after 27th of October.

[Topornic]

Levelling: S+ tier. I liked the ones in BFA more than in Legion and WoD, not even mentioning previous xpacs.
Story: Levelling zones were fun and with the additional cinematics really A tier. Campaign - mediocre at best, usually dogshit messy piece of hot garbage. The finale was a big disappointment. E tier.
Warfronts: D tier. I love the revamped zones and music there, if you immersed yourself it felt cool the first few times, however the gameplay itself is just boring af with no possibility to loose and no coordination required.
Islands: F- tier. Absolute dogshit ass gameplay. Loosing braincells whenever doing them.
Dungeons: C- Tier. I really liked Waycrest Manor, Mechagon, Temple of Sethraliss, Atal'Dazar and King's Rest. I hate Tol Dagor and Shrine of the Storms. M+ meta in earlier tiers was also really bad.
Raids: B+ tier. I have skipped whole BoD so can't say much about it but I like the idea. Uldir was cool looking and quite ok gameplay wise. I liked Eternal Palace and Ny'alotha. Overall good raids although really unfriendly for melee classes, especially on fights like N'zoth. N'zoth ending was dogshit.
Mechagon: C- tier. I'm not a fan.
Nazjatar: D tier. Battle for Nazjatar is a shitshow. The zone before flying was a nightmare. Nice gimmicky world quests. Nice looks although I expected something more like the night elven ruins in Vash'jir.
PvP: Haven't done much. World PvP is a fuckfest 40v5 most of the time, you either get or get got. Whenever it comes closer to any balance the servers become a lagfest and it's unplayable. E- Rated PvP - got to like 1600 and I can't stomach it anymore, especially with Corruptions rolling now. PvP scalling makes me think that actually PvP is F- tier. I liked the new battleground though so maybe E/D tier.
Itemization: F-. First Azerite Armor. Then essences which were shitty but still kind of a relief after regrinding AP for new pieces. Then Corruptions and Horrific Visions grind with some stupid vendor rotation. Absolutely terrible and forcing to sim every single drop because you can't possibly know what is better.
Horrific Visions: Fun until you make that 5 mask run and then you have to grind 5 mask runs 1231512312 times for sockets and corruptions. C+. The visions are a cool idea but the itemization makes me puke whenever I have to do them anymore.

[Samuraijake777]

it made me want shadowlands more

[salate]

I would call it a mediocre xpac.

The very beginning was really cool, we had a blast with my bestfriend and girlfriend. We played pretty much alot until 1st season of M+ arrived, geared up really fast, tried to get neck levels and stuff.

But then my GF just left after killing Mytrax, my friend started to minmax his character and I just did something I dont know, did some heroic raids. Then Nazjatar came out and dailies really ruined everything. I gave up for a month, then returned, completed this stupid cycle of making the crab mount, and then left.

Dunno, at first i thought it could be a good addon, then.. you know, everything became boring and sad.

[different]

Lorewise etc this expansion was pretty decent for me.

But items.... In Bfa i played the less out of all expansions. I like to play my alts, but everytime i feel bad cuz i dont have proper azerite, i dont have proper essences, no coruption... Jesus. I cant just go mythics and farm gear, cuz gear is shit without this adds (essences, corruption, proper azerite). Now i get decent coruption... And i cant use it cuz i have to grind this freakin legendary back. I have no fun at all playing my alts. I just once a week log in as a main and do some stuff in this game and thats all.

This itemization stuff in bfa is pushing me away from playing this game.

[Krothar]

Found a guild of people I actually like. 7/10

[Adam Jensen]

BFA was like that guy who trains and trains and trains all his life to win the 100 meter dash. And you have high hopes for him. But when the gun goes off he trips on his shoelace and breaks his nose on the asphalt.

[Estherna]

BfA was, at least for me, kind of a let down. I liked Legion quite enough, feeling it brought interesting new systems that were rewarding enough and allowed you to do things outside of raiding that was the main core of the game during WoD. You could gear yourself through several ways, such as expeditions, mythic dungeons and then raiding. I felt kinda refreshing at the time, and kept me invested in the game.

So when BfA arrived, I was kinda optimistic. I mean, Legion story wasn't the greatest but it wasn't bad either. It had it's quirky moments, but it was mostly okay. They announced BfA, going around the War between factions, and I was "Oh, please, don't make the Horde start the war again or it will be very difficult to not have a very bad ending in writing quality".

And then they did it. All the lore and story trainwreck that was BfA. Hear me now, I do like Zandalar and Kul Tiras' zones questlines. But the story of this expansion? Since day one it was doomed, when they decided to make Sylvanas go all Saturday morning cartoon villain. To be clear, I don't mind her being the villain, I'm not attached to this character. But having yet again another warchief starting a war against the Alliance because it had gone cuckoo was not only a rehash of the whole Cata/MoP storyline, it was a big mistake.

Because whatever you do after, endings will not be satisfying for either faction. Not for the Horde that has to lose the war in order for the Alliance to survive, but not lose too much or you will have to erase it, ending thus in the same situation that at the end of MoP : the Horde survives because the Alliance allows it. For an expansion that was supppose to play on the pride of belonging to a faction, that a strange way to do it. The Horde was humiliated at the end of MoP, and it is humiliated once again here in BfA.

Alliance side, it is not better. Because once again, they have to win so they are not destroyed by the Horde, but not too much or it is the Horde that would be destroyed. So, they are once again the very nice guys that don't strike their ennemies on the ground. That goes all "No, this time, they understood the lesson, the chiefs of the Horde will look after that it doesn't happen again". Except that all of this happened before. TWO expansions before. At this point, it is not being nice, it is being stupid.

So, since the beginning, since they decided to do MoP 2.0, it was doomed to be bad. Because it was impossible for them to create a satisfying ending. And the rest followed. How a team of trained writers didn't see that come if another mystery for me.

But the overall issue I would have with BfA is more large. Sometimes, I have the feeling that the dev team is not working for me to have a great time, but somehow against me. There is all of these systems all around the place, that asked you to grind or that slow you down in your grinding. I don't understand this decision to not allow flight until mid-expac. Sure, flight isn't necessary, it is a commodity, but still, a nice one.

Pass the first weeks, doing expeditions on the ground lose its appeal. I mean, apart from being dismounted from time to time, and it is still quite rare, we just rush on ground from point A to B without thinking much about it. In flight, you do the same, but faster. So keeping you on the ground just make me feel that they are just trying to make things slower for you to stay logged. Doesn't feel like a very fun thing.

For the rest... expeditions were interesting but pretty much useless quickly. Some dungeons were nicely organized, and arts and musics are still really good. Raids were okay. But nothing of that towers above what was done in previous expansions. I mean, Blizzard knows how to make good and interesting dungeons and raids, that's for sure. But all the rest? There is too many things that feel like a chore you have to go through before getting to play the actual fun content.

So in the overall, my feelings on BfA, outside the trainwreck of its story and lore, is that it is a pretty bland expac, with gameplay loops made somewhat tedious by devs to keep you logged longer. So, not a very good expac, I would say a mediocre one, and in a larger picture, kinda worrisome for the following. I'm under the impression that Blizzard lost their mojo, and that they are not anymore able to deliver fun and practical new systems. They continue to produce quality content on their strong points, such as art, music and PvE encounters, but they don't innovate that much. And when they do, it is always half-baked cluncky content, such as warfronts or islands.

Let's see what's Shadowlands will be like. But I haven't seen something yet in the systems that could bring me back to it.

[sephrinx]

So, everything was terrible.... yet class design, dungeons and raids were ok? at least try and make sense

Reading is hard. "raids were ok" is isolated, it does not include the other items listed.

[Derpleton]

New Features (Islands and Warfronts) - 2/10: Complete and utter unchallenging, brain-dead garbage

Story/War Campaign: 3/10: Complete and utter unchallenging, brain-dead garbage full of deus ex machinas and the complete waste of N'zoth. Somehow we went from N'zoth being this cold and calculating manipulator to "REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Garbage. Blizzard clearly has no idea how to write intellectual villains into this games story, Kil'jaedan is another example of this in ToS, at least there he didn't get completely shit on by his death cinematic.

Systems (Azerite Armor, Essences, Corruption) - 4/10: All of these systems add to "sim or die" ilvl has no meaning, Azerite traits aren't interesting and add no new gameplay just frustration when having to explain to new players that their new +5 ilvl upgrade is actually worse than what they have. Corruption causes a similar issue, this could've been a fun system but it ultimately falls flat because it determines too much of your characters output and should've been on a vendor since day 1. That said, the random effects/enchantments can be kind of fun as a means of creating gear variety but this system is simply too broken to be worth it.

Art/Music - 6.5/10: The art team is whats boosting this score as they do a fantastic job as always. However, I found most of the music in BfA to be forgettable and I can't stand the reuse of music in raids that's been going on since WoD hearing the same boring Uldum track in Ny'alotha is yet another thing that adds to my disappointment with that raid.

Zones - 7/10: Drustvar and Stormsong are my favorites but even they don't beat out some of my Legion favorites such as Stormheim or Suramar. Overall zones felt like a step down from Legion, nothing in particular that was wrong with them but they didn't invoke the same awe or mystique that their Legion counterparts did imo.

Raids - 7.5/10: In general the raids were good, but this score is ultimately brought down from an 8+ by Ny'alotha which was a crushing disappointment. The end cinematic was hot garbage and a horrific waste of a villain who had years of build up. Furthermore, this raid simply felt unfinished in its environments Ra-Den and Vexiona are effectively in the same room +- some pillars. Ny'alotha imo should have rivaled Suramar in its "beauty" or at least in the effort put in to make it feel like a city but instead what we got was featureless purple room after featureless purple room. The bosses for the most part were ok but I found N'zoth himself to be a dissapointment, the fight was difficult sure but I felt that it was missing a central antagonist and instead felt like a huge trash fight.

Dungeons - 9/10: In general I liked the dungeons and they provided interesting challenges in M+ that said, some of the affixes clearly weren't designed for BfA dungeons and made some of them more intolerable, something that can be addressed easily enough yet holds BfA back in this regard.


Overall - 4.5/10: Well below a passing grade of 6.5/10 BfA would tie with WoD for the worst expansion in my book if not for WoD being totally devoid of content. This may not be rock bottom for WoW but we can definitely see the bottom of the barrel from here.

[Bisque]

I'll say that BFA is the first expansion in which I quit/took a break after 1 month. Now I have never stayed subbed throughout a whole expansion (more like popping in and out) but I have never unsubbed after 1 month, until BFA... Azerite armor was just a nightmare and not something I wanted to deal with.