A review of Dragonflight

Community General Discussion
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Now that we have come near the end of the expansion, I feel it’s a good time to draft a review I’ve been planning to make of my impressions of Dragonflight as a WoW veteran player of over 17 years of gameplay.

Overview: It was in general a very good expansion, we got new, evergreen features that a lot of players enjoyed and welcomed, and the theme and environment generally fit the spirit of WoW decently.

PROS:
The quests and zones were amazing. Getting Loremaster of the Dragon Isles was one of my very first goals and that was not just for completion purposes. Favourite zones were Azure Span, Waking Shores and Thaldraszus. Favourite quest campaigns were those for the Gnolls, Tuskarr, the Blue Dragonflight, and all the quests for Wrathion.

Dragonriding was a game changer. I’ve never had SO MUCH FUN flying and soaring through the skies on my drake mount, and participating in those flight races. Can’t wait for Dynamic flight in TWW and hope it’ll be similar to Dragonriding, but extending to all mounts.

The Trading Post was also a huge addition. We now have something to look forward to every month that incentivizes us to play with nice rewards. All we used to have was just the weekly vault, which often ends in complete disappointment. Can’t wait for more cool and unique additions to the Trading post, I hope it will eventually include hairstyles and tattoos as rewards for tender.

Raids were even better this expansion than in Shadowlands. They were vibrant, lively, chaotic, void-infused, everything we love was in the theme of those raids. Keep up the good work with raid environments team, you always nail it! Can’t wait to see more vibrant and interesting, colourful raids like this in TWW. My favourite was Amirdrassil and I can’t wait to try Aberrus in S4.

Dungeons were also very well designed, vibrant and lively just like the raids, truly magical. They were very much on the overtuned side though, which I’ll get to in the cons section.

**Plunderstorm ** was a breath of fresh air. PVP lovers needed some love for a long, long time! As a mainly PVE player, I did also enjoyed Plunderstorm! It could’ve been a permanent event or plunder could’ve been buffed even more for those of us who were mostly just interested in the rewards. I hope this will be the case in the future.

Dracthyr / Evokers had a great concept, background story, a lovely starting zone, and amazing customization. Devastation and Preservation were also generally very fun specs to play. Some big misses on Dracthyr though which I’ll get to in the Cons below.

CONS:

The DF Dungeons unfortunately remained largely overtuned even until now when we’re approaching the end of DF. Ruby Life Pools for example, despite being a beautiful and vibrant dungeon, is overshadowed by an explosion of demanding and complex mechanics such as purging mobs and killing/interrupting spinning adds that can quickly wipe the entire group if not managed.

The Great Vault was a HUGE fail and disappointment. Weeks upon weeks of no rewards, waiting 7 days a week just to be met with disappointment is NOT a good feeling. The sockets we could buy with coins certainly helped alleviate the pain a bit, but how many weeks can you go without any loot and still remain optimistic? Imo, bad luck protection should be developed to expand to work on recognizing what BiS items players are still missing, and automatically increase the drop chance of these with each passing week.

The Main Campaign surrounding the Dragonflights was very Disney-like, and while the Dragon Isles, drakes and dragon theme really fit the world of WoW, the main campaign story itself was far too positive and low impact to create any sort of sock, or suspense, or impressive factor. A good example of this is the Amirdrassil end raid cinematic where the Aspects are simply too passive. There was no peak to that story other than the cinematics with Tyrande and the tree seed. Any good story writer knows that some proper chaos, suspense, agony and tears serve to secure the focus of the crowd and leave people breathless.

Dracthyr had different models for males, and different ones for females. I flat out don’t understand why this happened. If men were designed to use the elf model, it would’ve been sensible for the women to use the female elf model. Whatever complex thinking went into this, I can say was totally unnecessary. The human representation is already FULLY covered by the human and Kul’tiran races.

Augmentation Evoker really needs a LOT more love imo. Most of the abilities seem to be incredibly boring. Or am I the only one to think so? For a spec that can barely do any damage whatsoever on its own, can’t heal and can’t tank, imo there should be a HUGE redeeming factor and incentive to play it, and using earthquake attacks is not enough for me tbh.

Healers seem to have been overly simplified (other than majorly nerfed) in this expansion. Resto shaman has never been more boring and unrewarding to play. Druid had its treant glyph form upgraded to look even worse than the old treant form. Please bring the old treant glypg form back, I actually liked the old one better. Resto Druid and Resto shaman are both majorly overdue for an ability animation overhaul, their abilities are very boring and underwhelming and are barely visible. Where is that visible wowness that belongs to year 2024?

Professions, what happened there? The profession overhaul had amazing potential, but somehow got shafted by the unnecessary complexities of Knowledge points and gear. You could’ve simply allowed Knowledge points to be farmed much easier from drops so players could max those quickly and get all the points needed to max out their professions of choice so they could catch up with others.

Tuskarr, Gnolls and Furbolgs received new models. Not allowing any of them to be playable races where imo a missed opportunity.

Character Customization in DF was just some hair colours? That’s very poor, sorry but it is. Imo some chats should be held with the directors to hire character artists specifically for character customization purposes, or delegate customization responsibilities because clearly that part of the game is NOT being focused on at all. I don’t know if it’s some marketing strategy to dangle the carrot and never give it, or there is just a genuine lack of focus and omission in that area, but we’ve made numerous threads asking for player customization and we don’t feel that we are being heard in that regard. I have decided to resign in accepting what we have and if I’m not happy with that I cancel my sub.

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I suggest starting YouTube channel.

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I have one but my discipline totally sucks so I keep omitting to sit down and put in the effort lol

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Bro what

They’ve been gutted

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Some good points in there myself I don’t care much about the fluff, I just want to have fun playing a game. I’ve not had much fun in DF, hence I took almost a year break after launch. DF feels slightly better now but it’s not good enough so I hope the next expansion gets better.

Plunderstorm… I’m not even going to waste more time talking about that, hit renown 40 and I hope I never have to play that again. I should note it has nothing to do with the pvp, I really like pvp hence I play some older(still active) games even to this day because they’re superior to many modern ones.

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DF is not that bad. Better than BFA. Just mainly wish the Evokers were more powerful that’s all.

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Aug isn’t designed to do damage it’s self. It’s designed to buff other dps at the correct times and basically with an Aug in the group, the dps meter doesn’t matter anymore because nobody knows how much impact the spec is actually bringing because Blizz refuses to let anyone know.

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I think I’m only like Renown 12 in Plunderstorm I honestly want to play it till I have full red set but it can get very tiring very quickly when you’ve had several matches in a day and don’t really have anyone to play with! My husband hates it!

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Here’s my own from last year:

  1. NARRATIVE: With a Story which leaps about and lacks much depth in the beginning. Dragonflight attempts much in a short time, and while it bares brief moments, those moments are mismanaged. Adding a seeming leaning toward references and an easing of story elements. We’re offered a horribly mediocre, uncompelling narrative which tries too much, and accomplishes little. Missing out on opportunities as well which could’ve made it masterful!
  2. GAMEPLAY: With the Return of the Extended Talent Tree, The Introduction of Outdoor Endgame Content, and Timewalking Dungeons entering the Mythic Plus Pool. This is the strongest section for Dragonflight. The Talent Tree allows for excellent customization and adaption. With Outdoor Endgame content, there is never a lack in things to do. But, if you’re not on it when it’s relevant in the first few weeks, you will struggle to see an end. Where this category descends though, is with Expansion Dungeons and Raids, which managed to reiterate past dungeons and raids. The Continued Rehashing establishes a lack of creativity on the Dev Teams Part. Furthermore, while Outdoor Content is boast-worthy, there is little variety. And while the first few weeks of the expansion’s outdoor content prevailed in variety. Patch after patch, variety gave way. But, a saving grace will be Dragon-Riding! One of the best additions I believe to be added to the game. Adding Depth to one of the most simple aspects of the game.
  3. ZONE/WORLD: Once more, Blizzard couldn’t nail it this time. While the Zones are beautiful, Azure Span, Zaralek Cavern, and the Emerald Dream which are pivotal zones are the detriment. The First is simply a massive Grizzly Hills, and while it is ginormous, the quests within, both main story and side quest leave much to be desired and help not in fleshing out the zone. Zaralek Caverns seems like a New Deepholm, but even smaller somehow, and with the Sniffen who… Well, we’ll just say the zone’s introduction made the Emerald Dream’s Introduction seem masterful. Each of the Zones bares this size, but there is still something lacking. And lastly The Emerald Dream is the largest let down of all. Betraying Old Lore for a Smaller Version of the Fabled Realm. It’s Size and Quests within are a stones throw far away from similar Nature Vs Destruction Zones we’ve had in the past Such as Hyjal, which’s Endgame Phase managed to change from burned, to lush with each effort.
  4. MUSIC: With one of the Shortest Menu Themes of Modern Expansions, the Soundtrack is a first for WOW. It is Unmemorable, save the Tedious Dragon-Riding Theme which sounds unoriginal. But, that does prove our Unmemorable bit wrong. Some of the Instance music is memorable, as in the last raid, but as can be told by my lack of knowledge toward the name of the particular track, it was not interesting enough for me to look for it; Which is a pity since they’ve always done well here when it comes to Music.
  5. LENGTH: This’ll be a heavy hitter for certain. An MMO Such as WOW has never a lack of things to do, new and Old. From Requesting in Old Zones. To running Dungeons and Raids with Friends. This is where an MMO Shines, and WOW does not fail. You can see many examples as me and my family run dungeons every now and then. It is because of this that WOW is such a large part our lives, and games in general. With perhaps 450+ (Well over 600 now) Hours in this expansion alone, not figuring alts or other characters doing past content. It is surprising to say there is still more to do, and if I’m doing it for long, it is most definitely fun. (That sounds wrong, but it’s staying).
  6. CONSTRUCTION: Dragonflight, while not lacking in Bugs, Has seen the least amount of crashes to date of any of my wow experiences. Weekly Maintenance Sees to most bugs we never see. And we haven’t passed anything game breaking all year! Ignoring the Archivist Content which was utterly in shambles on it’s first week.
    Not looking good… 3/6 points.
    EDIT: I like your review better though; I forgot the Trading Post came out this expansion. It’s actually a Plus for me, though I suppose that falls under Gameplay and Length categories somewhat.
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I agree with you but I don’t like the ability animations I think they’re pretty boring / unappealing?

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That one is hard because aesthetics, playstyles and what is fun is very subjective. There is nothing wrong with and I would argue it is actually healthy that not every spec in the game appeals to everyone. It is what makes us different and makes us human.

Edit: I do agree is does look plain and not exciting.

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I remember the days when gear just had sockets…sad that they try to sell us this garbage as a fix for bad luck with the vault.

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one of the expansions ive played

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I would rate BFA higher than DF. BFA without rental systems is vastly superior.

:surfing_woman: :man_surfing:

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Personally I’m holding out hope that they drop the support angle and just rework it to be a standard dps spec. I love their spells. I think they look cool as heck. I just find maintaining their empowerment buff utterly tedious.

Anyway i rate DF very highly. One of their better expansions. Never a shortage of stuff to do. Good, if simple, story. Albeit told in a very tedious way.

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Frankly I think they need to keep going with this model. They’re dead-set against everyone being a crafter so I’d rather it be the people who work at it, then them deciding like they did in BFA that no raid = no craft, with specific materials that only drop in group content.

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It’s better than the nothing we could get at Shadowlands but they could make it so we can pick which gear slot to have a Vault for! That would help and still retain an RNG element

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Pros: No temporary throw away systems that have nothing to do with your character that you have to go grind.

Cons: Buffed, nerfed, buffed, nerfed, reworked, nerfed into the ground, buffed, nerfed, NERF NERF NERF NERFED INTO THE GROUND, reworked. Congratulations, if you received a rework you are Eatin’ Good in The Neighborhood, if you were nerfed into the ground, oh well I guess.

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Agreed, as long as it doesn’t set us back for not farming Knowledge points from day 1 I’m all for it

Also RIP Cutting Edge, S4 arrives too soon with half kills on Fyrakk than Rasz. Still progressing darn Tindral…

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One huge con was having far too many currencies that needlessly took up bag space.

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