Hey y’all, it’s ya goat Azhaar. Been a while. I can’t seem to post on my customary forum character due to having given Activision no money in three years.
So how’re we liking this expac? I ask because I didn’t buy the last one, either, and people felt positively about it around launch and we all know how that turned out. I’ve heard a lot of good things about Dragonflight from people whose opinion I respect, though. It’s been out long enough to be on sale, so I figured it’s a good time to take a straw poll.
Definitely better than last expansion and worth the buy i say. I can’t give warnings because I’ve not played past the base DF game. Not because it got boring or anything like that, I just prioritize RP with the little time i have to play.
Having slogged through Shadowlands and played all of Dragonflight so far, Dragonflight is definitely the more fun of the two expansions. Dragonriding is the shining highlight, once you soar around the Dragon Isles regular flying will forever feel lackluster. The story is far more grounded than Shadowland’s was, though it still has some flaws, like not fleshing out the Primalists the best. Good questing, good leveling, really fun World Quests that I go out of my way to do (dragonriding especially). And if you haven’t tried out the Trading Post, highly recommend collecting tender for some neat cosmetics.
The major complaint I have with Dragonflight is that we’re burning through content too quickly. Zaralek Caverns is already abandoned and we haven’t even gotten to the new zone yet. Time Rifts and Dreamsurges have made much of it obsolete during its own season. The breakneck speed of new content is a double edged sword in this way. I definitely prefer more content to less, but Blizzard needs to find that balance.
In total, Dragonflight is an enjoyable expansion! Blizzard is definitely giving it their all this time around, in many ways it feels like an apology for Shadowlands.
I find it odd that after all my years of complaining about each expacs lack of content that they are basically throwing it at me, every 6 weeks. I hesitate to say…too much, too fast. I’m trying to keep moving through the content and before I know, MORECONTENT.
That said, I will take more content than I can handle, as opposed to the typical Land of No Content that usually happens long before now in a Warcraft expac.
I’m not sure who their intended audience was with DF, but this expac is my jam. It’s pure adventure, which is what I want. It will probably end up as second only to Wrath, for me.
Pandaria has held that spot all this time, but so far it looks like DF will be surpassing it.
Best expansion because there’s an achievement to pet all the dogs!!!
Also agree with Thomas and Norman. Good expansion but feeling burned out on the rapid fire content they are pumping out. It’s great but if you’re not a die hard that collects and does everything in the first two weeks, you will find it harder and harder to complete things as people burn through and move onto the next thing.
I’ve also been having a lot of fun with PVE and Mythics. It looks like they’re going to make LFR/M+0 start at 441 this next season and I’m wondering if that’s because people who had Mythic level gear in Season 1 blew through KSM and KSH super fast the first few weeks of season 2? So that might make the Mythic rush not feel so crazy.
There is a new gear leveling system, it does come off convoluted and messy at first glance but once you play around with it, you’ll figure out. What I really like about it is if you get a slot to say 441 but get a new item that has better stats or something. You can upgrade it to 441 at a discount. So it’s really nice for off-specs, like this season I got my weapons to 441 as Brewmaster, which means if I get some off-spec Mistweaver weapons I can upgrade them at a discount to 441.
However, the crest system could definitely use some improvements. For example, my priest I have all the Wyrm and Drake Crests to upgrade to 437 gear but because I don’t do enough other weekly/daily content on them, I have very little Flightcrests and unable to upgrade my gear.
The other downside is the Veteran/Hero/Adventurer tiers and being capped. I ended up getting a buncha my Best in Slots at the Champion tier so I can’t get them to 441 despite sitting on a pile of Aspect Crests that I can use to upgrade them.
Otherwise RP is going well! Vigilants is always recruiting, we got three weekly events and Mythic plus nights. So if you like table top style RP adventures with some light casual PVE content, you can hit me up in game or Rufaic.
Rufaic and others are re-starting the Mead Hall as well, going to be lots of RP during Brewfest so if you’re out and about come hang out with us outside Iron Forge! Brewmoot is my favourite public RP event! Always encourage folks to come out and it’s cross faction friendly!!
Also agreeing with the patch cadence. I was too injured to keep up with the last three things, so the dreamsurges are the first new patch thing I’ve been healed up enough to fly around on my own for.
Hey Azhaarder, welcome back, even if only in this form.
In regards to the expansion, I would say buy it on discount. It is less 80’s Metal and 90’s Early 2000’s Edge that Battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands were, and more Disney and Pixar-themed this expansion.
Everybody talks about their feelings. Dragon Riding is cool. The Aspects wrestle with what it means to be an Aspect now, and what they and their predecessors did to attain that vaunted position.
In terms of content, raids are fun, PvP remains an unbalanced mess on greased up roller-skates, and catch-up has never been easier. It is kind of criminal that the Forbidden Reach and Zaralek Caverns have been rendered effectively worthless for gearing up now, but at least Time Rifts and Emerald Nonsense allows alts to quickly get into 402 and higher gear very damn quick.
Hmm, World of Pixarcraft does kinda sound like my jam.
I dusted off the ol’ starter account and did some footling around in Eversong on a fresh alt. I’m a BC baby; that and Azuremyst are my nostalgia zones. I dig the interface upgrades.
Man, though, Silvermoon is abandoned. On an RP server! Game not doing so hot, I guess?
I played Dragonflight for a month or two after not playing WoW for a couple years during the whole of Shadowlands.
I think it is pretty fun, and the trading post gives you some outfits each month if you (like me) prioritize that sort of thing. Dragonriding is cool too. I didn’t like evoker much as a class but I’m not really into non-melee classes in general.
The story didn’t really grab me particularly, because other than maybe Wrathion and Chromie I don’t think the dragons are all that fun as characters, and I can’t play one anyway so my character is just a random outsider to these events.
But the thing about current wow that bums me out the most is that leveling is almost nonexistent now. Shadowlands, with its level squish, shortened the leveling experience to maybe 12 hrs, and dragonflight didn’t undo that. I’ve never engaged deeply with the PvE/PvP endgame in WoW, so collecting alts and dressing them up in funny costumes was my main content, and it feels sort of shallow now that any member of my alt collection could be replaced so quickly.
That might be a niche complaint though, idk.
And yes, WrA experienced a population collapse during Shadowlands.
Dragonflight is similar to Mists of Pandaria + Legion in terms of new content, raid qualities and roleplay. If you didn’t enjoy those, might not be for you.
Man’ari customizations came out very recently; I think it was the partial patch before this most recent major one. I think you need to do a questline to get access to them, similar to the night warrior eyes for Night Elves that came out in BfA. Darkfallen customization became available for Blood/Void/Night Elves at the end of Shadowlands and similarly requires a questline completion to unlock.
Also, welcome back. Hope you’re doing well.
The RP population on WrA took a hit during SL overall, for more than one reason. At this point, though, I think one of the main reasons why Silvermoon is abandoned is because everybody knows it’s abandoned. There are enough people who want to RP there to populate it, but it’s very hard to get enough people to show up at once to convince anyone that it’s “worth it” to go there.
Part of that, I think, doesn’t even have anything to do with WoW. I think a lot of people right now are overwhelmed and low on energy and time, and they have a lot of things competing for the energy and time they do have, both in-game and out.
There’s also tbis question to be asked: How much do you care about the dragon lore of Warcraft?
I personally have never cared for the dragon lore so while the quests were good and the zones were fine, there just wasnt enough there from a story perspective to keep me hooked (or even all that interested). Dragon riding is fun but its also a bit gimmicky and Evokers are lackluster and desperately need a spell based tanking spec. The voice acting quality is also…questionable. Like in terms of voice acting for modern expansions, Dragonflight ranks really low.
Its so so so much better than Shadowlands, but its probably that least favorite of the expansions I’ve enjoyed.
i never really cared for the dragon stuff in WoW and always side eyed the people that got real extra about dragons.
Yet let me tell you, dragons are way more fun and a huge breath of fresh air than whatever the heck we were doing in shadowlands or the weird butt pull 180s they were doing in BfA to justify the story.
My character doesnt really have anything to do with dragons but I can work with this.
The dragon scale expedition is a great way for people to insert their characters into the story. You might not be bffs with Alexstrazza or w/e but maybe you’re just hanging out in camp no where painting pictures of the local wildlife to document for study.
Hmm…it is on sale. Oh, apparently I get Shadowlands free now if I just buy some game time, too. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to dip my hooves in the nostalgia.
Anywho, thanks for the input, Accordians! Your answers were uniformly helpful and constructive. Also I’m glad to see more of you than otherwise.