honestly, if this expansion keeps on this new track it might feel like the first one to not actively despise its playerbase since Mists of Pandaria
if you want to fly around for 30 minutes and collect all of the dragonriding glyphs and fully max out the talent tree before you do anything else, you can do that without any timegating and that’s a surreal experience after dealing with Blizzard’s methods for the last couple of expacs
I’ve never been so glad as I was to have sounds on this time. It really added to the atmosphere. Except I kept hearing a fog horn from a lighthouse or something. I never saw the lighthouse.
Got in. Ran some quests. Enjoyable enough. Got to the dragonriding and it’s exactly as horrible as I expected it would be.
NOW, I say that because as I’ve hinted/implied/said before - I have some physical issues. Pretty severe nerve damage in my hands and forearms, (mainly right), missing a couple fingers, scar tissue sucks, etc.etc. TBI residuals, coordination problems, blah blah. Some other matters. It is what it is.
I’m glad people seem to be enjoying it. It definitely feels like Blizzard worked hard on it and I can appreciate something even if it’s not for me.
I’m not sure I’m personally motivated enough by dragonriding to look for a device or something that would assist with making it easier, so I may just do the bare minimum to get through it. That said, I barely just learned it and it wore me out. So, I may just go fishing with the dragons for awhile.
While trying to learn the riding, I got caught in an endless loop of disconnects. I logged out just after hitting 62 last night and spent the evening playing Valheim instead.
Hopefully tonight goes smoother.
From what I’ve heard dragonriding gets significantly easier the more glyphs you get.
I have not gotten them yet so I can’t say for certain how different it is, but I hope it makes it easier on you.
And if getting them would be an issue they have the follow along feature with dragonriding, so maybe someone could taxi you to the glyphs?
Shame they don’t have better options for people who have a hard time with it.
Just got through Azure Span, and Emmigosa is absolutely adorable.
The sheer amount of adorable dragonlets in this expansion already make this expansion far more enjoyable than the last… two? three? expansions. I love how a bunch of previous WoW characters (and not just dragons) are getting appearances that build on and continue their own story and make it feel more like a world. I love seeing the Cenarion Circle and Kirin Tor show up, and I hope this is a trend that continues.
My impressions thus far (I’ve finished the first zone)
I adore the adventure vibe. It has an almost carefree homey element that hasn’t been captured since MoP. I love that there’s even kids around, with expedition members bringing their families.
I kind of wish there was a little more faction enmity. Just a LITTLE bit. I feel like we’re all holding hands just a smidge too much. Would be fun if the Reliquary and Explorers League kept pranking each other or something. Or maybe glaring across the room. Idk. We seem TOO okay with several years of violent conflict 
But that’s a minor grievance.
#TeamSabellian. Wrathion sucks. Enough said.
Dragonriding is fun but I wish we could use any mount for it tbh. Because the RED DRAGON CLASHES with my TRANSMOG! 
I love that one dwarf dragon who has a big chat to you. What a sad old man. That said I kind of also hate him because my partner is leveling with a blood elf and he said something along the lines of “You’d know a lot of war, with Arthas Menethil having carved a bloody swath through your lands”. But to me, an UNDEAD DEATH KNIGHT he was just like “yeah you’ve probably seen some war in your years idk”. Not a SINGLE Arthas reference. Not ONE. I feel spurned, I’m way more Arthasy than my Partner’s Blood Elf Paladin 
Ahem. Moving on.
Anyway I’m absolutely loving it and I want to do more! It feels like a grounded expansion with connections to Azeroth but also a place where “normal people” can actually RP. We don’t need to be a Maw Walker. We’re just part of the Expedition. I think that’s cool. Absolute 9/10 thus far.
big time shout out to the person who keeps describing the music in the subtitles in defiance of what any other subtitle-maker does you keep addin’ [dramatic orchestral music] do it your own way.
On the subject of music the bgm is quite good, Shadowlands’ soundtrack was a big step down to the cool jungle tunes and sea shanties of BfA so I’m glad its good again
I haven’t had this, but I have noticed quite a few times that my dragon will endlessly roar. And the sound is unreasonably loud vs everything else, unfortunately. I thought this was because there was a glyph around, or I was sitting at a location that I got a glyph from, but it’s just random when it bugs out.
This is something that I also was concerned about, because on beta up to launch I was getting motion sickness and headaches from eye strain. That doesn’t seem to be the case now, but it does bother me when other people want this feature for all riding going forward.
The accessibility for it mainly relies on having someone ferry you through the glyphs (you don’t need to grab them on your own mount, thankfully), and the ferry points from place to place, not flight paths, are there but seem like they could’ve used a bit more.
Wrathion explaining to Sabellian why he is the rightful heir
Lol I was on the fence about Wrathion and Sabellion until about 2 seconds through the quest where you consult with their followers, and one of Wrathion’s followers says Wrathion was right to free Garrosh and cause WoD because “we needed a war” to prepare to fight the Legion. Absolute brainlet
Seems like there is a passenger feature where a friend could help you get some of the perks so riding isn’t as abysmal. Idk if I can do that as a Horde player, but I’m down to try.
I’m enjoying the expansion. As was said before, this feels like a game where someone put a lot of love and care into its creation. Dragon riding is a little tricky and I wish vigor would recharge faster when you stall out mid flight and hit the ground, but I love the race circuits, the side quests, the dialogue, and even the attempts at friendship between the Alliance and Horde…… mostly because that didn’t feel forced, I suppose? Even though Grimaxe and the human lady basically tell you to stop being a coward and go say hi. I dunno. Felt like my mom was scolding me.
I’ve cleared the main story of the first zone, but still want to go around to all the side quests just to see what they’re about. Normally I’m fine with skipping those, but this is more interesting than tea time with weird shirtless vampire dude. This is a new era of WoW, and it feels like I need to go around and learn what has changed, otherwise I’m missing out on something I care about.
Wrathion might be a smooth talker, but his henchmen named Left and Right? I’m giving the writers some credit on this one. You get a dumb answer from the lackeys, and decent answers from the lorekeeper dragon lady.
My only complaint on my dragon, Emmasindre, is being called “Commander”. I just woke up from a supposedly 20k year nap, what exactly am I a commander of?? Adventurer would be a welcome reprieve from all the neo-itis of the last few expacs.
I haven’t made it past the Embassy on any of my characters because I keep logging out to re-do it on the others lol. So far I’m not sure I like s-priest anymore.
I am absolutely loving this expansion so far. Dragonriding fills me with so much serotonin, I’m loving the characters, the interactions, the entire world around me. I know we’re only a couple days in so I won’t try to say it’s on par with like Legion or anything yet, but for these first few days, I AM enjoying it more than I even enjoyed the first few days of Legion. This is just my sort of vibe, I guess, just exploring a new land with my new dragon buddy and meeting new buddies.
A few storylines have actually made me laugh. Like, genuinely, intentionally laugh out loud. And not in the mocking way either. Many jokes have actually landed and the dialogue in general feels more like characters interacting based on background and personality instead of the lawful good robot exchanges Shadowlands has given us.
Talking to the old dwarf dragon by the Ruby Life Pools felt like I was RPing with a WoW writer for a brief moment. They nailed the character’s brief interaction in a way that conveyed age, guilt, and sorrow. I was even able to imagine how Altielle would respond to it.
Everything has flavor too. A background. Even the rares have personality. I killed a forgotten experiment elemental in Occular II and it was shouting the whole time in distress about forgetting its name and purpose. Then when you kill it it goes “Oh… I remember… my name is…” That made me feel emotions 
Cross faction doesn’t seem enabled for this so far, not sure why. My alliance friend wasn’t as far along with glyphs as I am, and he never had the ride along option pop up despite me enabling it.
Could have been bugged though, so hope someone else tries it again to say
When you hear the constant dragon roars, check your chat log because it does that when there is a Dragonriding glyph nearby. When I hear it I stop and look up at all the high places and BOOM I see one.
Little handy tip for my draconic friends in terms of the glyphs.
If you see one up high and you currently don’t have enough vigor to get up there and don’t feel like waiting, use your own two wings and grab it.
Soar is actually really good for snatching them up quickly since you get a free skyward boost, and another after that. Now if only the abilities could recharge like normal dragon riding.
Is anyone else getting crazy keypress input lag? I push key 1 or others, and sometimes I have press it 2 or 3 times just to get it to fire off.
I’ve noticed this on and off for the whole experience, but have been killing things so quickly that it usually does not feel terrible. I’m sure I’ll start to really feel it when my gear starts to match the content difficulty