And because of that, I’m not going. the Intro forces us in there, then the storyline in Moldy sends us there again, and Ve’nari fails at hiding me EVERY TIME on the walk over and blithely ignores me fighting for my life from the mob that it walks right though and ALWAYS sees me. Torghast isn’t interesting enough to overcome the sheer displeasure of the Maw.
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I don’t even do the Maw stuff anymore. I go there for my weekly souls, and to get to Torghast and that’s it. The idea of having sockets doesn’t intrigue me enough to want to torture myself in that zone.
With that being said though, I do think flying or any implementation of pathfinding is going to include Maw stuff so I’m 100% gimping myself.
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The intro does a great job in showing you that it’s a hostile and unpleasant place, helps to establish it to every player right out the starting gate. So when they have to go back, they know what to expect. That they need to prepare and be ready for a fight as they are entering a zone where they are completely unwelcomed.
That’s everywhere in Shadowlands. We’re not ghosts, so we’re unwelcome everywhere. The Maw is bleakly uninteresting and pointlessly unpleasant.
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I agree - as a signature feature of this expansion, it has missed the mark for me. It’s drab, quests are uninspired and navigation is tedious. The Jailers Eye promotes daily logging-in and punishes any gameplay outside of that. That’s not how people’s lives are set up. I just feel this game is designed for some demographic that’s outside of my tick-box.
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i dunno about your covenant, but I feel pretty welcomed in the Night Fae covenant. Even the winter queen has thanked me and welcomed me on numerous occasions, not to mention all the nice and friendly npcs who are constantly thanking me and seeking me out for assistance and expressing that they are glad I am there.
Noobs should not post until they played the whole content. Maw is designed to be unpleasant. Beating Torghast thru Twisting Corridors would get people rewards that would make Maw pleasant. It’s the game feature.
It should be highlighted to Blizz the phasing problems. Blizz could fix this. Not sure if someone has reported this yet to them.
I just wish the maw had less people in it. Too many people are tapping into my Ore mining empire and my profits are taking a hit. I’ve made close to 2 million gold so far this expansion in the maw.
Bad on purpose is still bad. Understanding why it’s bad doesn’t somehow magically make it okay.
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It’s hell, blah style. Where are the ghosts of interesting characters? Aside from the intro quest and some Torghast who do we meet that we know? It could have been more inspired in its design. Like Dante’s circles of hell. Different areas - we could have bumped into Varian Wynn or some of the night elves that burned up - It needs some imagination - it should be frightening and varied. This is a tedious burnt-umber fest. Sterile and bleak in the boring sort of way.
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Lots of confusing “bad design” with "I don’t like this. My only complaint with the Maw is how gated the areas are… (Beast area was cordoned off for weeks, and the Desmotaeron eastern area gives you an insurmountable frost damage dot because it’s simply not opened yet. We wont talk about how much stygia I lost trying to be clever there)
Not really sure what people expect of this place, it’s an oppressive end game playground that is supposed to reward group play. This is evident in the mobs, the quests you eventually get, everything. I don’t see much difference between this and Argus, or The Broken Shore, or even parts of Suramar until it was easy to outgear.
The game provides ways to get around as you like, from portals to speed boosts to temporary mounts to grappling hooks. The rewards are pretty clearly defined, and if none of that interests you, there’s simply no reason for you to go there.
If this is their end game-play, yeah but no thanks. It’s not interesting. There’s little longevity in it - for me - speaking only for myself here.
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Varian isn’t in the maw. he died before the machine of death was broken. He’s most likely in the other zone which has been hinted at, and probably will make an appearance to help us save Anduin if he’s forcefully turned evil by sylvanas and the jailer’s domination.
Also there may be more layers. you gotta keep in mind this is barely 9.0, we’re not even anywhere close to dealing with Sylvanas or the Jailer… we barely got the preview/intro of the zone… I personally have a feeling the zone will expand out, as there are those gates/pathway in the upper corner of the beastwarrens area that look like they can lead to another area that we can’t access. So there will definitely be additional new zones/areas added through the next patches for the Maw since it’s barely 9.0 and a ways to go until we neutralize the threat.
Hold the phone. Are you sure? I mean, hang on. That’s legion, and apparently Sylvannas had already long negotiated some sort of deal with the jailer by then. I’m not sure when the orbiter got axed. Anyway, you know what I mean about that.
Thanks, but I think I’m a little past the noob stage. I’ve played Warcraft long enough to have experienced pretty much all the content–both from this expansion and from earlier.
And it’s still baffling to me that Blizzard goes to the effort of making zones that punish the players for doing the content. It feels at odds with the entire concept of “game.”
Surely there’s a way to make a zone that’s challenging and entertaining, unpleasant and unforgiving, without being downright -bad-.
Look, here’s one example of why it’s not all that fun. The other day, the Calling was “Go to the Maw and kill some rares or special encounters.” Okay, I did so. And because there were actually more people in the Maw than usual, I hung around to kill a few things. My Eye of the Jailor steadily rose.
And then someone called for help in doing the final boss of the Beastwarrens encounter. Cool, I thought. I need that. I run over, and join up and we… wait. Two people. One very big stompy boss. So my new friend opens the group to the group finder. Cue 15 minutes of people joining and leaving because of phasing issues. And we finally get people who join… go to Oribos… and then have to run all the way back into the Beastwarrens.
Meanwhile, those of us standing around waiting for the others, must deal with our varying Eye of the Jailor debuffs. Sidestep a meteor. Spawn and kill an assassin. Beat up the flying kidnappers.
FINALLY we get the whole team in one place. Beat the monster. And everyone promptly hearths out.
What could have been a several minute experience took -ages- because the Maw discourages you from hanging around long enough to pursue objectives, ensures there aren’t enough people in the elite-packed areas to help fight the elites, and makes you jump through hoops just to join groups.
Certainly, Blizzard could have designed a Hell for the -characters- that isn’t a Hell for the -players-.
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While she may have been in league with the jailer as soon as post wotlk, since tossing herself off ICC and experiencing the maw and making a deal to come back to azeroth… the machine of death wasn’t broken until sometime during Legion, possibly when Argus was defeated (it’s speculated that Argus is the red thing that broke the arbiter).
We also get a general idea of the timeline when it was broken by the spirits we meet in the Shadowlands, for example Ysera. Ysera died during Legion, after Varian, but we help her to be reborn in Ardenwield. Same goes with numerous other characters from azeroth who died during Legion and are in the shadowlands which help to establish the timeline that the machine of death broke sometime during or after the events of Legion.
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Your comment about Ysera is quite true. I hadn’t thought about that. That’s an excellent point. That does give us a sketchy timeline of when the orbiter got hit.
And Blizzard could have chosen to make those areas the focus of their expansion. We could have tried to find soul ash in Maldraxxus. Instead we’re grinding through Torghast (i.e. a Diablo mini-game) for it. We could have added gem slots via Heroic Dungeon currency. Instead we’re farming rep and Stygia in the Maw on a daily basis. Add a zone whose sole theme is punishment to the game? Fine. Punish players by effectively forcing them to grind in there day in and day out to unlock core features? Not so fine.
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Just pointing out locking core content behind a daily grind though such a zone is a stupid design decision.
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It’s supposed to be designed as a zone that you visit on occasion (like once or twice), not one that you’re forced to visit daily.
Alternately,