I’m trying to understand if I’m enjoying the current expansion’s story or it’s me convincing myself not to give up on this game.
How do you guys feel about the characters?
Leveling and main story?
Secondary quests?
Zones?
2 Likes
I really felt nothing going through it, positive or negative. The entire storyline never got more than a “oh that’s kinda neat” or “oh that’s kinda lame” out of me, and I can’t remember any new characters’ names except Faerin.
It’s even blander than Dragonflight was, but it’s not outright bad either.
15 Likes
Its mostly been a meh story, basically just following anduin around and if you don’t like anduin then there isn’t much for you
4 Likes
It feels like filler before we get to the real story. Only interesting part has been the nerubians.
It’s not outright bad like BfA/SL, but it’s more like Dragonflight where it’s just kind of boring.
4 Likes
at least bad stories make you feel something. even the nerubians are a solid 2/5 from me just on account of how much pointless retconning happens to force them into being. blizz is just carrying on with some of their most insipid writing habits.
1 Like
I feel like TWW had a good first chapter, and a few good later chapters, but the middle bits that would make them connect are missing.
Dalaran getting destroyed was neat. I liked the quests about evacuating everyone, seeing the wreckage on the shore, meeting survivors across Dorne, and rescuing some of the kidnapped victims from Azj’Kahet. But, honestly, I forgot they were Dalaran victims by the time I got to that quest in Azj’Kahet, as references were so sparse. (I quite liked the flavor text in Hallowfall where you could tell the mage there that the sudden teleportation powerrs of the local crabs were because of Dalaran’s crash. I’d like lots more beats like that to really tie it into the setting better.)
The nerubian resistance was great. It was fun ‘sneaking’ around the city and helping the nerubian characters set up their plans, and see the first few encounters with Xal’atath there.
Then bam we march into Ansurek’s palace and gank her. And then bam we help the Arathi repel a nerubian invasion, where Alleria knows what’s going on with the Black Blood and knows that it’s the trail Xal’atath left, so we confront her, break her toy, and she runs away.
But, uhh… I kinda wanted to have two or three beats between ‘start a rebellion’ and ‘complete the rebellion’. A set of stages where we take over more of the city, where the NPCs who will be raid bosses show up and toss us around a bit so that it’s personal when we fight them later, where we see Xal’atath pull off some grand reversal using that ‘mind-controlling the Ascended’ ability they seeded in the existing questline. But it doesn’t feel like that went anywhere - it was like we spent a lot of time setting up the dominoes, then a scene change later and they’ve already fallen over. I wanted to spend time to enjoy pushing them over, to see how that played out one piece at a time.
The end of the current campaign felt fun, but I was hoping for a longer setup where we establish faction bases to help the Arathi in a long-term WQ/daily/gameplay-tied way, not have them show up in one single quest (which was good, just too little) and then largely disappear. And it felt like Alleria knows more about the Black Blood than I do even after doing every quest - and not in a ‘ooh, it’s a mystery to solve’ way, but in a ‘huh, did I miss a chapter, because no one else (NPCs) seem confused’ way.
I do like the various Stay Awhile and Listen events, so I like what story they have written. I just feel like it’s lurching from one event to another without the kind of buildup that makes me care and feel invested in the story.
The one plotline that does linger on the in-between beats is Anduin’s journey to find faith in himself again, and I think it was pretty well done. Unfortunately, I as a player am simply sick of Anduin by this point. It’d be one thing if I at least had plenty of opportunities (and mild player choice) to either try to guide him through his funk or show no empathy and just try to kick him into gear, so that I still feel like a character in that story and not just a camera trained on Anduin, but there isn’t any such meaningful player interaction until the epilogue where I get to chat with him and Faerin over chess. Good scene, but that kind of interaction should be earlier. And include some options for PCs who aren’t very supportive and friendly to him.
Frankly, I think there’s a reason there’s more discussion, interest, and passion in the ninety-bajillionth Purge thread than there is about TWW story speculation. The Purge of Dalaran has stakes, possible personal connections to groups that players identify with, ties with stories the player has experienced, and plenty of emotion behind it - the TWW is mild. Not very good, not very bad, just mild.
15 Likes
I do not like the Windrunners, and TWW hasn’t changed that. Anduin is a narrative singularity and TWW hasn’t changed that. Faerin was good. Merrix was good. Magni, Moira, and Dagran bits were fun (although I’m the odd one out in that I don’t really like Dagran—very much Team Stereotypical Dwarf over here).
Loved the artistic design and locales. Ringing Deeps gets a little meh over time, but the other zones are spectacular. I liked what The City of Threads was aiming for, but I feel like it fell very short of the goal. Espionage, foaming a rebellion, overthrowing some void-plump spiderpeoples? Didn’t translate super well into the questing, though there were a couple of high points (mostly General Anub’azal, excepting the awkward ending).
Beledar and Xal’atath are doing a good enough job of keeping me curious about where things are heading next, and in a way that feels like classic Voidy-Woidy-Warcraft-Mystery, that I haven’t bounced off of like I did with Dragonflight. I’m really hoping we see a return to form in some of the broader storytelling, as there still feels like a lot of light hearted/slice of life in the pot for my taste.
I’d give this expansion a solid C overall, so far. There’s enough to keep me invested, but not enough to blow me away.
8 Likes
probably mentioned it somewhere before, but i do feel like the nerubian stuff is a lot of maldraxxus upcycling, resource-wise
1 Like
It is a bit sad that no one in the building pointed out how dumb it was for Maldraxxus to have Nerubian style buildings.
8 Likes
my understanding goes, originally it was supposed to be that the nerubians had that architecture, and arthas admired them enough to adopt it for the scourge. but then when shadowlands dropped they retconned it so that the lich king got all his ideas directly from the shadowlands? which then raises the question of how the nerubians were inspired. i think they just really like the sinister pseudo-egyptian look, but it’s just kinda whatever by now
2 Likes
I don’t think the art team thinks of lore implications, the design goal of maldraxxus was just to make the place look like the scourge.
5 Likes
Earthen are the bit I like. The rest I don’t care about, yet another alliance only story with no payoff for anyone who has no feelings for Anduin or Alleria.
1 Like
It’s perfectly fine. Not amazing like Legion, not horrific like Shadowlands. It’s just an adventure in a new place. It’s not exceptional, but there’s nothing wrong with it.
I will say, I really enjoyed the ending of the current campaign. Watching Xal’athath get the smug grin wiped off her face after spending the entire story one step ahead of us was so satisfying. I also thought it was cute that the story began and ended with Thrall and Anudin sitting down for a chat.
Also, on the Maldraxxus question: my theory is the Lich King was inspired by the Nerubians, but the Nerubians were inspired by Maldraxxus. Everything loops around into a perfect circle.
TWW kinda resembles DF in that the actual MSQ is severely outclassed by the side quests. I will say though, even the MSQ is frankly better than it was in DF. Nothing particularly amazing but nothing truly horrendous either. The worldbuilding however feels much more refined this time around, and the various groups you get to quest with are fleshed out and engaging. Kobolds especially made the Ringing Deeps a very enjoyable moment for me.
The main cast kinda sucks though. I don’t care about Anduin and Alleria, I don’t think they’re good characters, I’m not invested in whatever chardev arcs they’re going through, and I don’t exactly find the idea of following them around through the zones to be very appealing, lol. But as a Horde player I’m also used to the stuff I actually like not being considered MSQ-worthy by the writing team (except when there’s a need for a new villain/raid boss), so I wasn’t really expecting anything in that area
12 Likes
I liked DF for the most part. It was a nice palette cleanser after the disaster that was SL. Felt like it existed entirely to clean up the damage it did.
My biggest complaint about it is that it feels too much like Steven Universe. A bit saccharine and goofy, even ending with a “lesson of the day” speech about family and friendship. Thank goodness nobody ever broke out in song. Don’t get me wrong, levity, cheerfulness and sentimentality is good, but there’s always a balance that you need to strike.
2 Likes
Main characters & MSQ? 
Aside from Xal’atath being a cool villain and the main Dwarves of the MSQ narrative (which I feel they tied up really nicely with Moira, Magni & Dagran), I’m really not interested in following Anduin around while he feels bad about himself. I was excited for Alleria’s potential but she was stubborn and insufferable. Faerin fell a bit flat for me, she was another bland and uninteresting human character that didn’t spark joy despite the Lamplighter thing being a really cool idea. Glad to have Khadgar back, even though his return was a little premature. I think they should’ve hung onto that for a bit to really have it land better.
Minor characters, Side-quests & Zones? 
All of the Earthen, Nerubian, Haranir and Kobold are awesome. The zones are a perfect mix of whimsical, stylistic, spooky and interesting. The music scores are lovely and the worldbuilding in general of this expansion is a big stand out for me. As always, WoW typically shines in it’s storytelling when it comes to side-quests. There was a lot of really great story moments that were funny, sad and engaging especially with a lot of ‘Stay awhile and listen’ moments that I truly loved. I also have enjoyed the presence of Goblin towns, because I just really like the levity they bring to the story and I’m excited to see more from them as well as some potential story with the Haranir at some point.
Despite the pacing being a bit off for the Nerubian story, I’ve quite enjoyed it and I hope they cap that off after Ansurek’s fall and we see something with Neferess taking back the regency or some kind of Council form with the Weaver and the Vizier (and Anub’azal, if he’s not dead? That was kind’ve unclear.) If not, at least the Black Blood and Beledar storylines have me invested in what’s to come.
4 Likes
It’s difficult to see where the story is going after Ahj’kahet
We dealt with the queen, we foiled the Beledar plot… but now what? There is still the loose thread of the Harronir, but even they just rocked up for a super brief time period
1 Like
Everything is good but Earthen. Unfortunately, the Earthen (in Dornugal and the Ringing Deeps) are so aggressively boring to me that I felt it ruined the fun zones like Hallowfall and Ajz’kahet. I knew objectively those two zones were good and I should have enjoyed it, but I was already corrupted and jaded from the first two zones.
Maybe Dornugal was fine for some, but double-Earthen in a row with Ringing Deeps is a major design fumble.
Honestly have to agree with you
I rolled a earthen warrior, got him to 70 for the heritage armor, and then lost interest and went back to my dark iron
I know they aren’t meant to be, but they just don’t feel like dwarves to me.
The only thing that saved Ringing Deeps for me were the kobolds we befriended. They’re the only saving grace of the zone.
4 Likes