My Favorite 3
1. They Fixed Herbalism
TWW has corrected some of my biggest complaints about DF herbalism (I made a huge herbalism thread back in season 1 of DF). Everything I was upset about in Dragonflight’s herbalism was repaired, as far as I can tell, for The War Within.
I was part of early access, and I used that time to work hard on fishing, cooking, and herbalism. I have 40 points in the main Bountiful Harvest ring for skill and am now working on the main Botany ring for Finesse. Already, I can see the difference in yield when I pick herbs, and the other problems I talked about last expansion are also not present or appear to be balanced far better than in DF. It’s early, yet, but it’s looking good.
2. Story
I love the main campaign story, and the side quests I’ve done (still working through those) have been very good. The orphan in Hallowfall? Brilliant, y’all. Anyway, I see the general angst on this forum, but I really like the new characters. I like the Magni, Moira, and Dagran line. I was suspicious of the Anduin line, but by the end, I really liked what they’d done. I think Faerin is a wonderful addition, and if I hadn’t seen the complaints on the forum, I never would have guessed anyone could find her upsetting.
I’m not too keen on the very clear Anduin/Faerin ship they’re trying to launch, but we’ll see where it goes, I guess. Compared to Shadowlands and Dragonflight, the story of TWW is miles ahead in quality, and it feels much more grounded and reasonable in the game world.
3. Static Flight/Sky Riding Option
I like that I have the choice to go back and forth now. Sometimes, I just want to fly the old way and farm for four hours, go afk mounted in the air, or search out an area with precision. I think it was perfectly implemented, with only completion of the initial campaign as a requirement for the option. Everything about it feels good, and I don’t think it could have been handled any better.
I’m also delighted by the addition of all flying mounts into the Sky Riding family. My Iskaaren kite doing barrel rolls over the green hills is just…perfection.
My Least Favorite 3
1. Battle Pet Additions
For those who don’t use battle pets in this game, it likely doesn’t matter much, but to those of us who do, it’s a top-of-the-list issue for any new expansion. The pet models they’ve added for TWW are wonderful, but there are very few of them and the ability sets are underwhelming. There are more repeated models (8 slightly different colors of one model) in this expansion than I’ve seen since the crab parade of BfA, but in BfA, there were far more unique models added to make up for the repetitive “35 different crabs” situation.
Copper the Kobold isn’t even a battle pet, and I didn’t know that until I’d already taken the time to farm up huge piles of wax globs to purchase one. We have a dearth of good Humanoid battle pets, with a ton of “the best ones” appearing as murlocs that are special offers many of us can’t get (like Con rewards or limited time offer pets from other game crossovers, etc.). It was exciting to think we were getting a really well-rendered, totally new model Humanoid battle pet. But nope. He’s just a companion, not a battle pet, and has no abilities (not even cosmetic ones for flavor).
It’s still early, so maybe I’m missing something, but it’s looking pretty grim in the battle pet realm. It feels very much like they treated the pets as an afterthought for this expansion…again.
2. Cooking is Atrocious
I’ve already participated heavily in the negative discussion of cooking in TWW, but it really is a colossal disappointment so far. You can easily look up the larger discussion of cooking, but what it boils down to is prohibitive mat requirements for very little yield and food buff bonuses that are frankly insulting given the work you put in for them.
A lot of people play pandas for the double food buff racial, and they’ve tied the food buff thing in with the Earthen being able to bypass actual food to get one. Clearly, the people making this stuff understand how important cooking and food buffs to a lot of us for gameplay, and yet…the profession is an imbalanced, anti-fun, steaming pile right now.
They can fix it by tweaking some numbers here and there, and I hope they do.
3. Druid Talents
As a Restoration main who does world content in Balance, the forced catweaving in the main Druid tree and the burying of raid utility down the feral side is…disappointing. I am a Soul/Swiftmend/Wild Growth healer as opposed to a Tree Form healer, and the new talent situation tries very hard to force both being a tree and tossing trees all over the place. I’m not having it.
We’ll see how it gets adjusted as things go on, but you don’t get to force me to catweave and play Tree Shepherd. I’m not a tree. I’m not a tree-tosser, and I have always healed with Soul of the Forest and empowered Wild Growth. I’m a HoT-stacker, not a melee-loving Mistweaver with shrubbery, and if you make the soul/wild growth playstyle non-viable, it will alienate a lot of druid mains. Just don’t do it.
Again, this can be fixed with a tiny bit of talent shuffling, and I hope they do that.
Final Remarks
I’m one of those OG players who’s been around from the start, takes breaks but always comes back, and has a generally positive attitude about WoW in general. I’m not looking for things to be upset about, and I don’t make complaining about the game a sport for dopamine hits. I think TWW looks really good right now, and I’m having a good time with it. The good far outweighs the bad I see right now. I think TWW is about five large steps in the right direction. I hope that trend continues.