Here is a place to remark on your first impressions of visiting a dragon island
I’m still in the first zone myself so I don’t have a whole lot beyond thinking dragonriding is fun
It is the first mechanic since, what, archaeology (rip) that is just for fun and doesn’t directly tie into player power and it addresses the long-standing grievance about timegated flying in a pretty elegant way–it makes flying a real mechanic rather than just a hacky noclip mode, so zone design can still be interesting but you can get around fast!
As for the story I feel like I need a dragon primer so I can get how they work straight. We got:
Drakonids, non dragon races that are transformed into dragon-like things through service to dragons? Is that right?
the four-legged dragon guys, same deal? Just with some more legs?
Do either of these species ever talk about being humans/orcs/elves earlier in life?
Proto-drakes: some of them like hanging out with dragons, like the one we get as a mount? Do the flights eventually evolve friendly proto-drakes into full dragons, or what? Where did my mount come from? Some northrend drake dude whose ancestors missed out on being titan-ascended but decided to come join the flights rather than the primalist drakes? Also is proto-drakes being intelligent a retcon? I don’t remember them ever being capable of speech in their Northrend incarnation but maybe I missed this earlier
Dragon lore is kinda complicated, lots of different types of reptilian people
There are some cool RP-heavy quests and mini dialog trees, and NPCs that acknowledge your race and stuff
I am absolutely loving it. I suck at dragonriding but I fully acknowledge that it’s a skill thing, not a feature thing. And, holy Maw, the questing is just-- man, some of it hits hard. The quest you referenced, the one with the ‘old orc’, & the ones that aren’t emotional gut punches are just fun.
Dragonriding feels great, and I think it’s just wonderful to have that actually play into the leveling experience instead of just being some convenience you unlock after you’ve done most of the world content. I seem to consistently get silver on every single course that I attempt, and then get gold on my second try — which feels so much better than pretty much anything I managed to “achieve” during Shadowlands.
Most of the characters I’ve encountered so far have been fun, and I’m really enjoying the lighthearted tone compared to the previous two expansions. It’s honestly nice to get sidetracked by a group of kids who are trying to help a sick proto-drake, or to fix a stuffed animal for a tiny whelpling.
One thing I’m a little underwhelmed by so far is how playing as a Dracthyr doesn’t seem to have that much flavor. I’ve encountered a few of the other ones that you fight with in the starting zone for them, but all of the dialogue. I just hope that we get to see more involvement from them in some of the other three zones, because they really need a chance to get fleshed out.
Yeah I get that, I haven’t really met many Dracthyr yet and their starting zone was a bit too exposition-light… I still don’t really know what they are beyond “amnesiac dragon military genetic experiment”
Contrast with, say, Draenei or Belf starting zones where you got two whole leveling areas portraying their culture and who they are to get “acquainted” with the new race, in addition to a heavy presence in their expansion’s higher level zones. But maybe they get more attention later on.
Also, I loved Sabellian and Wrathion’s simultaneous “We’ll discuss this later” moment. I’m levelling my Horde main through the zone again, and it still made me crack up the second time I heard it.
I’d argue Legion or - gods save me, WotLK. It’s the anticipation of a brand new adventure and we’re not being thrown from the OLD GODS to HAHA SUPER HELL IS THE REAL THREAT.
Going back to basics of dragons feels like fantasy again, and I’ve been messing with the skill trees to find how to make a lot of classes more fun.
Is it optimized? Nah. But it is fun.
Also I know the talent revamp is old news at this point but for warrior at least everything feels great, especially with a couple more points. Being able to charge in and do a dumb explosion of damage with ravager + shield charge is great. Few more keybinds than I’ve had in the past but it isn’t unmanagable.
I would say Mists of Pandaria in terms of spirit, if you took a cleaver and carved out a Garrosh-shaped hole and filled it with more dragons instead. It’s very lighthearted and adventurous, where an NPC even apologizes for making you kill a single enemy because he’s not a soldier and sending you on a kill mission (even if it is meant to prevent that enemy from corrupting a bunch of wild dragons) makes him uncomfortable because he isn’t some veteran warrior who is trying to save reality itself from bald shirtless blue men.
Legion. This is almost Legion quality for me. Leveling was easy - very smooth. Quests were enjoyable (except that 2 quests that are sad. I don’t like sad, but I appreciated the one with the dwarf). Voice actors good. Cut scenes good and not overwhelming. Area is pretty. I found a toy. And dragon riding was the bomb diggity!
They brought in a lot of fun stuff from other expacs. There are caches all over the world, area quests pop up with bonus objectives. I like the storyline having an environmentalist feel. And best of all, this feels like an Azeroth zone.
Other than the launch hiccup, I can’t think of anything that I didn’t like. I’m excited to get home tonight and keep going. Unless you’re someone who can’t live without the faction conflict, I’d say this content is worth a play through.
I am pleasantly surprised by all the race specific dialogue. I’ve been getting a pretty good amount on Dracthyr, and have heard other races get some too.
The zones are gorgeous, music lovely, cinematics look way better, mostly cosmetic rep grinding.
Unlike Shadowlands where I felt so drab and bored that I quit very early on.
I feel like I could do an entire essay on how the opening couple hours of this expansion nail a kind of feeling missing from WoW for years so I’ll sidestep that trap and just state that getting to ask npc’s for random flora / fauna facts is unironically and unequivocally my FAVOURITE thing, beyond dragonriding and all.
I found a trinket on a random elite Mammoth, that when taken to a specific point in the Waking Shores allows you to commune with 4 elemental turtles and choose which blessing you want.
Fire give you a damage proc
Water gives you a healing proc
Earth gives you a shield proc
Air gives you a mastery proc
I feel like there was a lot, and I mean a lot of care given to how they shaped the land and made it feel more alive. This isn’t just like, yo there’s more creatures naturally about and interesting things to find, this is the land tailored in so many places that makes the dive and momentum gain from dragon riding feel so good in a way I really wasn’t expecting. And then you have the ambient sounds that are so much more than I remember them even being in bfa zones. Glad I turned sounds and music on for this expansion after how shadowlands only had a few notable songs and doldrum.
