I keep hearing people say “They tried to make Suramar 2.0 with Ahn’kahet, and it didnt work out.”
I looked into what Suramar was for people and OK, i can see why Ahn’kahet isnt Suramar. But then why the comparison.
Overall i like the zone. Flying in looks beautiful, and theres a ton going on down there. And while i do think the map being divided up between the city/zone is weird, overall i think it’s pretty great albeit monochrome.
Are people as disappointed as they seem or am i reading the cranks exclusively?
Edit: i meant the final zone in TWW. I cant win for trying.
You know, i googled it to make sure i spelled it right, and it looked off but i just thought i was wrong all this time…
It’s a large city with hostile guards and a plot by local elites to undermine leadership.
The comparison leaves the City of Threads somewhat lacking mainly because
Flying being available and unrestricted in the city right out the starting gate means that the guard/sneaking aspect is completely ignorable and
The fact that the plot there is resolved in the first patch means that there was no build-up of story and intrigue and it was pretty much over as soon as it began.
Really? I mean it’s pretty clear to me. There’s a lot of parallels.
I like the city well enough but it could have had a lot more impact like Suramar did, which will always be one of my favorite places in-game. I think gameplay conveniences and patch story planning kind of undercut that opportunity, though.
The most I see is infiltration. But it was set up entirely differently, imo. I don’t think it was weekly timegated either. Nor an end game zone, it’s a leveling zone. I also don’t remember individual reps within Suramar where I had to work for someone in particular. But it’s been so long. I’m also not phasing an area to grow or change something.
There was never going to be a Suramar 2.0 if players had their flying mounts. Ahn’kahet is a decent quest area but it’s probably less a fixture of the expansion than Blizzard was hoping.
This thread is so confusing. Ahn’kahet vs Azj Kahet
My biggest disappointment with City of Threads outdoor is you can’t explore the underbelly Ara-Kara area. They could’ve done so much more with that outside of the instance.
Narrativly the “they’re just people!” story beat was hollow. They’re cannibal spider monsters. The only reason they’re not killing us because the big bug musked us up. Which is gross.
The Weaver wants to eat us, the General constantly threatens to kill us. The Vizier, while somewhat affable, has an evil mad science laboratory.
The “good” Queen of the subterranean spider-monsters was already midst a war of agression against the Arathi prior to Xalatath’s arrival.
The City of Threads is in a remote corner of a deep dark cavern while Suramar was the crossroads of the Broken Isles. That immediately gives Suramar an advantage.
Not a fan of there being a PVP-area in the back of the city. Why do such things even exist any more? They only serve to make me want to avoid exploring that the whole area.
But I’m also not a fan of areas full of elite mobs and although Suramar was beautiful, it was actually rather miserable place to play in half of it. The spiders are mildly more fun to drop by and visit (the guards aren’t quite as iconic but the queen’s pheromones are an interesting unlock)
I miss the density of WQs that Suramar had. The rumours are an interesting idea, but not quite a home run for me.
Blizzard has a consistent problem of introducing Big Scary New Threat and then Not Encountering Them At All.
The Nerubian Empire hype for TWW was pretty high, understandable as ATP the Nerubian people(s) have 20+ years of history behind them and there’s the hidden hype from the Nerubian zone never being implemented in WoTLK.
So…when TWW kicks off, you 1 shot the Nerubians with a Bad Flying Minigame after they Literally Destroy Dalaran. The Nerubians aren’t presented as a real threat and you barely even interact with the Nerubians while leveling. You spend the whole of Isle of Dorn 1 shotting any pop up Nerubian factions including Bad Cinematic At the End where the Only Interesting Character Dies In a Convoluted and Stupid Plan to kill unnamed NPCs.
Additionally, there aren’t any real stakes created for the Nerubians. Every named NPC is introduced in the final zone and you interact with them for a total of <30 minutes.
The entire zone felt like it was wasted to me, personally.
We fly in, basically immediately make friends, do a couple story quests and we kill the Queen. End of story. There was no build up, there was very little development, and I feel we’re already done with the Nerubuans for the expansion and we don’t really have an outcome for who now leads them and what they intend to do to change their ways.
