While flipping through Stopgame, I noticed that there is almost no material on one of the best MMORPGs – World of Warcraft – and I decided to correct this misunderstanding.
Attention! The review contains such scary words as mobs, rares, specs, locals, buffs, etc.d. If you are not familiar with these words, or you have never touched World of Warcraft, then you risk not understanding this review!
Hi all. Quite unexpectedly for myself, I got access to beta testing of the new World of Warcraft add-on and decided to share my impressions with you.
To begin with, it’s worth pointing out that in BFA, which is what people call the new addon, the developers decided to make quite a few changes regarding the confrontation between the horde and the alliance. Both factions have their own starting zones for leveling up, and accordingly, plots unique to the faction; throughout the expansion, the factions will face each other in island expeditions and on the fronts, and a new “War” mode will be introduced, which will destroy the division of servers into PvE and PvP.
We are offered to start with a character of any class and race, including allies. the character is created immediately at level 110, immediately from the quest giver, which will send us to the “Siege of Lordaeron” scenario. You won’t be able to copy your character from live servers, at least not yet.
The scenario itself is currently very boring, and you are unlikely to go through it several times, just like it was in the legion with the landing on the broken shore.
After completing the scenario, the hero will be invited to a meeting with the leader of the faction, where a decision will be made on the need to expand his army and go to new lands. The Horde goes to the Zandalari Islands, and the Alliance goes to the island of Kul Tiras – the homeland of Jaina Proudmoore.
Upon arrival, the player will immediately be told that everything is not so smooth, and in order to add new allies to your faction, you need to help them deal with the problems. this is where our adventures begin in new locations.
It’s worth noting that leveling up has now become somewhat more interesting in terms of quests, but it feels incredibly drawn out. If in the legion one location took two to four hours to complete, then in BfA the passage of a location can take a whole day. This is due to a different approach to questing. In the legion we were led by the hand throughout the entire location. Now the quests have branches connected to the main history of the location, but not required to be completed. This approach makes questing a little more fun. In addition, the quests themselves have become more interesting. Either you need to climb onto a burning house, then you need to help the girl gather guests for tea, or prove that the girl on the scaffold is not a witch. In general everything is cool.
Another find that the game has is side or random quests. It may happen that you are walking through a location and bump into, for example, a teacher. He will say that his students ran into the forest for adventure and need to be saved. There are many such quests in the game and it is very interesting to stumble upon them and receive interesting rewards. Among other things, such quests show small plots that are not related to the plot of the location, but are very suitable for it.
During the process of leveling up, the player opens a military company. Many compare it to the garrison company in Draenor, but this is an incorrect comparison. Essentially, a military campaign is forays into enemy territory in order to gain a foothold and find new allies. In total, the military campaign is divided into 4 stages. The first 3 stages consist of choosing the location of the opposite faction where we will land. We complete a dozen quests there, after which we return. The first stage opens at level 112, the second at 115, the third at 118. The fourth stage opens upon reaching level 120 and offers to continue the expedition into enemy territory.
Speaking of expeditions. The so-called island expeditions appeared. This is another innovation designed to show the confrontation between the Horde and the Alliance. The essence of these is that we, within the framework of a scenario for three people, we go to an island overflowing with Azerite, and we need to collect it.
The problem is that we have competitors in the form of NPCs with advanced intelligence who also want to collect Azerite. The task is to collect 6000 units of Azerite before the opposing team. Where to get Azerite? Yes everywhere. You can literally get it from everything on the island. Azerite growths are scattered throughout the island and you can simply take it. Many chests and dead travelers contain Azerite. Killing mobs gives you Azerite. Moreover, the stronger the mob, the more Azerite they will give. Killing the opposing team gives Azerite, and its amount is determined by how much Azerite he collected. But it is worth remembering that for your death Azerite will be awarded to enemies.
The artificial intelligence itself is quite good. NPCs love to jump, throw traps, place totems, polymorph, knock down castes and generally behave like players, which makes skirmishes with them interesting.
The reward for completing an expedition is the power of the artifact and nothing more, so the value of such expeditions is very questionable. It seems like they say that other rewards may be added in the future, but for now only the power of the artifact.
By the way, events, https://haha777casino.co.uk/withdrawal/ mobs, items and other similar things on the islands are constantly changing, so you shouldn’t feel like you’re going through the same thing over and over again. But for me personally the problem is different. Islands are boring. in a general sense, this is a competition to see who can kill more mobs and faster. I doubt I’ll do this very often.
The gameplay has also received some changes. First of all, this is war mode. At its core, this is a mode where you can fight other players in an open world. At the same time, PvP talents become available to you. most of which flowed into the game from the previous addition. There are 2 groups of PvP talents in total. The first group consists of three talents that allow you to remove control or reduce its duration. Second group – all other talents from the previous expansion. From the general pool of abilities, you choose any three. So that PvE players also have a reason to turn on war mode, the developers have added various goodies. For example, while leveling up, all the experience you receive will be increased by 15%.
By killing enemy players you will receive conquest points, and if you make 10 kills in a row without dying, you can become a “killer” and deal 15% more damage. Killers are displayed on the map and have a bounty on their heads, so open world PvP will come to life again.
But in fact, in the open world you will have to survive without PvP. Currently the open world is very cruel to the player. While I was leveling up the mage, I made it a rule that I should always hit only one enemy, because even a couple of mobs can demolish my mage in a couple of seconds. In any case, this was definitely observed in the first couple of weeks, and perhaps now it has become easier. Rars (particularly strong enemies in the open world) also force one to tense up and before each battle with a rarer I had to make some preparations.
For example, apply buffs to yourself. And yes, they were returned to the game. Mages should again give out intelligence, priests should roll fortitude, warriors should shout at attack power, and so on. According to rumors, all classes in the raid will provide something useful, but at the moment this is not the case. For example, hunters do not give any buffs.
Since the opening of access to the beta, I have been able to play with only two classes – a mage in the fire specialization, and a hunter in the shooting specialization. I liked playing in the open world for both characters, but in something more serious, the hunter is much inferior in terms of convenience to the magician.
There are no classes at the maximum level yet. There is access to local quests, but there is nothing new here. Everything is exactly the same as in the legion. There is a task to complete 4 local challenges in Drustvar. You go and do them, you get a reward.
The “scrambles” themselves are not very different from what we saw in Legion. Everything is the same. Kill a rarnik, kill 10 enemies, find 10 items, and so on. The reward is the power of the artifact, gold, items and a new currency – military resources. In general, this is an analogue of class stronghold resources. Used for the same purposes – recruiting slaves and sending them on missions. By the way, there are even fewer comrades themselves. They are also subject to pumping and also have different skills. You can’t take such a comrade-in-arms with you. Now they are only needed for quests.
One of the most important changes is, of course, Heart of Azeroth. Here, in general, I would like to say that the very acquisition of this artifact was staged very poorly. Magni comes to us and says “There is no time to explain, get up on the platform”. You teleport to some titan building and just take the necklace. All. No battles, no scenarios. Just grab it and go do some quests.
The artifact itself is pumped up, absorbing Azerite. The leveling mechanics are no different at all from what we have now in Legion. You do a quest, in exchange you receive an item that gives you the power of an artifact. The only thing that has changed is that the necklace itself will absorb the power of the artifact, so you won’t have to spend 10 minutes squeezing out the power of the artifact.
In addition to the necklace, we have three more important items: a helmet, a breastplate and shoulder pads. These items of equipment can be the so-called Azerite armor. It differs in that it contains 3 tiers of talents. Tier 1 – talents for specializations. Contains only 4 talents that passively improve abilities. One talent for each character spec, and a fourth talent is general, working in all specializations. The second tier has only 2 talents aimed at increasing the character’s survivability. the last tier simply increases the item level by 5 units. Tiers are unlocked upon reaching a certain level of the Heart of Azeroth, and the required artifact level depends on the item level. So, for example, if you just started playing and you immediately got an uber item, then you will not be able to choose talents from it, since your artifact is of too low a level.
At the moment, it’s too early to say how well the idea of talents on items will go, since no real talents have been shown yet, however, in the future this feature could become very important for the game. Although… there are a couple of talents that I liked. For example, a talent that spawns spheres, and if you step on them, the main characteristic increases. Or a talent that increases the damage of an aimed shot if you fire a well-aimed shot first.
Another important change is GKD. and here I see a serious problem. The official answer on GCD from the developers is this: GCD allows you to set the pace of the game, allows players to think about their decisions, and not act on instincts. In general everything is correct. The game now has a tempo, players actually have time to think about their actions… Because a second should pass between keystrokes, or even more. In the end, it turns out that the game is just insanely slow, sometimes I didn’t even understand why I couldn’t press this or that button… And the answer is simple – it’s on CD. As a result, even instant shots feel like casts, simply because you have to wait for the GCD to roll back. But the real juice is the bursts. If you have more than one burst, brace yourself, because for about three seconds you will be sequentially pointing at bursts and waiting to launch an attack. Otherwise everything plays quite well.
It is worth noting that many interesting things have appeared in the game, for example, animations. NPCs can now act like they’re drunk, lean against walls, hold helmets, and much more. Hostile NPCs now indicate that they can see you and turn towards you. In general, the game has become a little more lively.
There is also a working voice chat in the game. Well, in general, it seemed to exist before, but I’ve never seen it in working condition. Now there is some kind of discord with communities and the ability to talk. Now, if you find yourself in a difficult situation while mastering a boss in a dungeon, you can simply enter the group channel and explain to your comrades what needs to be done. overall a good thing.
The locations themselves are also pleasing in their elaboration and beauty. Either we find ourselves in the lands of pirates and see references to pirate songs and legends, then we gallop through fields and meadows similar to the Shire or Pandaria. Either we find ourselves in endless steppes, or we even find ourselves in dark forests with an atmosphere reminiscent of the Witcher.
This monster is actually an exact copy of the devil from The Witcher 3.
For the first time in many expansions, small settlements have appeared, and there are many of them. in such settlements you can relax and take an order from a particularly dangerous and powerful monster. And the cities generally amaze the imagination with their elaboration. they are comparable to current capitals such as Stormwind and Orgrimmar. In general, everything is cool.
The dungeons are just as satisfying, both from the point of view of the surroundings and from the point of view of mechanics and tactics. There are currently ten dungeons available, two of which are Mythic only. Moreover, for the duration of leveling, four are available for the Alliance and the Horde. Interesting mechanics are shown not only by bosses, but also by ordinary trash. Not everything is working smoothly in dungeons at the moment. somewhere the mob kills in one cast, somewhere the boss just hits and doesn’t show the mechanics. and in general the difficulty is not calibrated.
The game is once again experiencing a flattening. The numbers in the legion have reached some incredible values. But in BfA we will go back to normal numbers. Damage is again measured in thousands, and the number of lives has returned to normal. But in my opinion this will not affect the gameplay much. The level of items was also compressed. if at the moment a less dressed player has a gear level of 950,960, then now the gear level is a little more than 300. How all this will play out at low levels is unknown, but players remember that the previous flattening made low-level players suffer.
Asking about old content, I’ll say this. I’m a big fan of farming old raids and dungeons, and at the moment I noticed that even Icecrown at 25 ger. it takes sooooo long and sooo difficult. Literally the first boss was able to almost kill me twice in 3 minutes of battle. I couldn’t even kill the spider in the Firelands because it’s too strong. So perhaps the farming of old raids in BFA will be killed. Well, or the numbers will be tweaked. This is not the first time this has happened. On the other hand, players will be able to once again experience the mechanics of old bosses.
Since the game is in beta, it is clear that there are problems with it. For example, you can walk along the road and fall under the textures, you can come across a quest that doesn’t work, you can walk near some lake and crash out of the game.
So that players can help catch all these bugs, the developers allow you to write a comment describing the problem for each quest, killed rarnik or killed dungeon boss. In general, if you want a key to the beta just to play, then know that you may not get pleasure.
And finally. Over the last 3 expansions I’ve been playing as a hunter and I’m incredibly upset that Blizzard are literally burying one of the specializations right before my eyes. The fact is that shooting hunters are encouraged to use an aimed shot as the basis of rotation, which is cast for three whole seconds. Moreover, this ability can be played both at one target and at several. As a result, there is almost always a problem that various void zones and boss mechanics prevent you from casting for all three seconds. And in AoE it takes a full four seconds to cause damage at least once, which is too long. Enemies have time to die by this time. This is not to mention the fact that in general the game as a shooting hunter has become incredibly boring and slow. The only advantage of this specialization is a more or less painless leveling up to level 120, because a targeted shot demolishes mobs in 2 shots, and sometimes even in 1 shot. I really hope that the developers will come to their senses and change the casting time to at least 2.5 seconds, and ideally just to 2 seconds.
To summarize, it should be noted that the game has not changed much since the previous addition. Essentially there is nothing new here. There are only new dungeons and raids, and even then there is no free access to the raids. There is also no free access to the fronts, only on certain days at certain times. Island expeditions look boring and don’t make much sense. however, even with these problems the game looks quite interesting and tasty. There is always a quest you need to complete or an achievement you want to get. There are a huge number of different references. Essentially, Blizzard is getting closer and closer to the perfect MMORPG formula.