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This NPC guardian at the entrance to Tazavesh should’ve been the guardian to Zereth Mortis, and we use the the rune matching system from within Zerethis Mortis now, on the door entrance as a sort of how did we get here and how do we get inside?
Everything thus far since Shadowlands has launched has been a no story Forest Gump run on sentence void of any content at all
You’ve setup 9.1 as this The First One’s NPC joining the player on some silly adventure in Korthia, shocked about all this hidden knowledge, and we’re just there in Zereth Mortis in 9.2
You’ve setup all of Shadowlands as a Choose Your Covenant, and if your Ven’thyr, Night Fae, or Maldraxxus, this greek-like Bastion NPC aids you coming into Zereth Mortis for absolutely no mindless reason at all
Maybe your trying to say that the Covenants are uniting, lighting up the runes of the Infinity Gauntlet, but your not focused on the Covenants, Bind on Account systems, and class rewards specific to those Covenants where they should help you if you’ve helped them
Take for example the quest grind in Suramar in WoW Legion and becoming exalted with the Nightfallen for their Allied Race; everything the player does, affects the size of cosmetic appearance and amount of Nightfallen citizens from within the cave, clearly becoming a safe haven
Meanwhile in Shadowlands anima farmville; upgrade a Covenant Sanctum, tier by tier, and it doesn’t do anything; upgrade transport network and it doesn’t do anything, the zones are small, and with flying mounts it’s pointless, just as Renown with alts; the mounts are freebies, and reskinned mounts aren’t worth 5,000 anima each
Suggestion: from a design perspective for player’s time invested, each mob killed could drop X amount of anima, or we inhale the soul like Kain from Soul Reaver from Legacy of Kain, or Shang Tsung from Mortal Kombat
Through this, the player could have the further option of dipping into Maw Corruption or First Ones Light
But anyway…
Currently in Zereth Mortis when we enter, it’s very God of War like, in that we click on 2 things to gain entrance and feel like we’re the smartest players ever
And you have to developers have to realize that coming off of 9.1.5, there already wasn’t anything to do in the game, and patch 9.2. just launched right after the Valentine’s day event, where “new” = boring content, is players farming for the Love Rocket mount on 50 alts a day with no success
In 9.2 Druids are given a new cheetah travel form that looks a lot like a Vulpera version which strikes me as another odd game design decision, as all the “new” methods to ride mounts in Zereth Mortis appear to look either robotic (rustic bronze, silver, gold), or polygonal squares and circles
As such it says that your still not focused on content versus class versus story, that if the mounts are Polygons, then the Druid travel form should be as well, as this is the oddity that stands out to everyone; Polygons versus The Fox
I would’ve personally chosen a Druid travel form summoning a White Power Ranger wolf akin to those creatures seen in Star Wars Episode 8:
Plenty of shining glittery polygon pixels, it hasn’t been in the WoW game before, and further alludes to: “well if The First Ones created the Titans, this druid travel form COULD HAVE been there since the beginning of time itself, The First One arch druid”
Another not connecting the dots, void of any story, is that as a Hunter going into Zereth Mortis, looking over the loot table, there’s not any Bind On Account transmog loot gear in terms of ranged weapons:
Hunters could’ve gotten an M95 Sniper Rifle with the big dps Aimed Shot with a 24 hour cool down
And all those Humanoids in game such as Ogres, Hozen, Kobolds, Furbolgs, and Gnolls, could’ve been trainable, just because The First Ones bestowed their knowledge on us
The Zereth Mortis World Bosses drop - what seem to be crafting mats - and coming off of Korthia’s could-drop-an-epic, it’s very lackluster; kill the world boss, get 10 reputation. and save all of these mats because we don’t know what is for what which is all locked behind a forge that needs the tier 3 Daelic talent to potentially even futher the 3/7 Campaign story arc, just to use these silly things
You don’t engage the player base with a short intro, do some quests, then gain access to World Quests which only provide a few minutes of “new” content, and with nothing more to do, there’s a skull-head World Boss icon located on the far right island of Zereth Mortis which nobody cares about so why even show it, that we get there some day?
Players are attracted to the fancy water graphics, and the little things like Treasure Chests sunk under water, luring mounts up, and random skinning mats that appear to be a new currency with vendor prices of 50g each; is it inflation or is it just cool?
In Zereth Mortis, there appears to be a general 3/7 campaign story that everyone is locked into via Time Gating, but after the few minutes of World Quests, farming for treasure boxes are cumbersome because some players for-whatever-reason, can dig up crushed boxes and others can’t; especially if your not a Warrior with heroic leap or a Warlock with a jumping portal, then bubble hopping loses further interest and less boxes to check out
The development thought seems to be there, like: “oh wow, I found another box”; can’t reach it without the right class spell, don’t have flying mounts yet, this thing needs a key, where does it drop?" At least in Korthia there might be a light blue key nearby
You could make the zone more fun and witty like a bullfrog burping up a key or a bee carrying one, or rune activate/deactive puzzle screen to open it
But instead, you kind of leave it up to the player to just use assuming judgement and logic: “whelp, maybe I craft those keys for treasure boxes with the Daelic talent tree in the forge with who-knows-what-mats”
Not connecting the dots further are all those other reasons in the previous patch of Korthia to keep the Shards; maybe could be used to build a glass bridge to Sepulcher of the First Ones island
Portal toys for quests and pushing boulders are fun and new, but there’s nothing on the island other than reputation and mats for who-knows-what-is-needed mounts and toys to craft in the future, just collect everything, when the Time Gate passes, you could be golden
Ion Hazzikostas implied that 9.2 was going to be the M.O.T.H.E.R. of all content patches, and when I think The Jailer vs. The Rune Carver, or Azeroth and his twin brother Zeth 'Mortis, patch 9.2 comes around, and this new place appears to exist, but it’s in no way executed like it should
It doesn’t have to be an entire mirrored instance of Azeroth, where everything is inverted, but it kind of feels like running around Zereth Mortis and it has every season but winter; the northern part is an Uldum-An’Qiraj, but alas, where’s the time changing Oribos that the expansion pack city is named after?
It, Zereth Mortis, could’ve have a constantly changing wheel of time Oribos setting, where the Covenant zones of current are the seasons, and Zereth Mortis is constantly changing; like the out of place treasure boxes are accessible now with snow drifts
There’s so many c0ck jokes run a’muck on Social Media like Twitch, just because of the amount of bird mounts and the design directions this game is taken because no reasons
The First Ones are “supposed” to be the ancients, like a fish being a symbol of fertility due to the amount of eggs it lays, and this current image of what The First Ones are vs. not connecting the story dots are kodo dung
