World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth Review - MMORPG.com

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World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth Review - MMORPG.com

Battle for Azeroth is World of Warcraft’s 7th expansion. It’s been nearly a decade and a half since we all first walked through the gates of Ironforge or Orgrimmar, and the big question is: does WoW still have that magic? It’s an argument as old as the game itself at this point, but if the 3.4 million first day sales are any indication, the answer may be yes. This is our World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth review.

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Avanah

Rep Grinding is Blizzards way to keep people subscribed. Simple Fact. The longer something takes, the more they make.
A common business approach that works for Blizzard, but is starting to be realized by many that it's not fun anymore grinding and using our time to make Blizzard more money.
It's like we are their employees, grinding for them and eliminating our fun slowly but surely.

Octagon7711

Avanah said:

Rep Grinding is Blizzards way to keep people subscribed. Simple Fact. The longer something takes, the more they make.
A common business approach that works for Blizzard, but is starting to be realized by many that it's not fun anymore grinding and using our time to make Blizzard more money.
It's like we are their employees, grinding for them and eliminating our fun slowly but surely.

Seems to be the business model most companies have adapted.  Instead of being a service orientated company it's more like, "... and you shall adapt to service our bonuses, resistance is futile..."

DijonCyanide

Nice reasoned-out review. I don't play WoW anymore except for an occasional free trial offer from Blizzard which nowadays I don't even take advantage of that all of the times, or to hop-into WoW via that free to level 20 just to scratch the itch. Of the Pros & Cons these seem to be very similar to other peoples'/sites' list. Especially that soundtrack seems to be receiving high praise. It just seems like such a task & burden to begin playing WoW now or again with so much to catch-up to for a subscription game with so many non-subscription games out there now. Do they even have Collector's Editions anymore? The last I bought was Mists of Pandaria.

ScottJeslis

Agree. The soundtrack is great from my standpoint and I'm a Heavy Metal guy!

Scorchien

Nice write up Bill ...

MadFrenchie

Great write-up. Introducing a GCD and nerfing Haste at the same time has turned out to be a bad idea imo. Because of the GCD, no build that was previously stacking Haste will stop because of the nerf, but it makes 116-120 seem like your character is regressing badly. They simultaneously nerfed it and made it more important.. does not compute.

sgel

Warmode has been my highlight of the expac.

Every WQ is a potential PvP-fest.

Love it.

RemyVorender

I just can't quest hub grind anymore. I tried. I cannot do it. I'm done..

Panther2103

I've actually been enjoying this expansion way more than Legion and Warlords. The rep grinds do suck, but there's enough other content to do that isn't just straight up rep grinds that makes it a little easier to deal with. I agree with this review.

btdt

Where's the war? I mean, we start out with this epic battle and then get shipped off to another continent where the war is hardly even mentioned. We in the military have a saying for this... in the rear with the gear.

The war itself if non-existent after the starter scenario. I've learned much about the plights of the trolls but nil about the war itself. I feel like all my comrades are off fighting a war somewhere and I am back home filing paperwork where it is nice and safe an not a chance in hell of ever seeing the war itself.

Leveling is actually upside down. I boosted a toon to 110. I waltzed in to the new stuff with ilvl 136 gear on whereas someone who actually did all the content in Legion was much closer to 220. I killed things with apparent ease. Solo'd silvers and even 3 player elites all by myself... that was, until I hit 120. Then at 120, I started getting face rolled by everything. All of a sudden my abilities felt sooo slow when I was like a whack-a-mole previously. I was waiting for abilities I wasn't waiting for before. I couldn't take on a group without popping everything I had to stay alive. Now I feel like I should have felt like at 110 stepping foot into the new expansion.

No wonder it only takes 3 days to hit 120. You're going to spend the rest of your time leveling your artifact yet again. Trying to get back all that strength you felt at 110 and don't feel at 120. Doing world quests which are just dailies that are spread far apart from one another.

Dungeons seem to drop zilch. If they do drop something it doesn't feel like an upgrade because you don't have enough azurite power to fully unlock it. So you go from a fully unlocked item to one that you can only unlock one aspect of it. Thereby nerfing yourself if you equip it before you have upped your azurite level to say 20 from 13.

The game is an endless grind to make you feel like you did at 110. That is what this expansion is about to the casual player.

JeffSpicoli

, I wasn’t really swept up in a WoW expansion until Warlords of Draenor.

For me it was pretty much the exact opposite. Draenor was the expansion that had me most disconnected from the game than any expansion before. From the Blizzard half ass housing & follower mini game to the linear rat in a maze type design of the zones, Just horrible . It's shocking to hear someone say they were "swept away" in Draenor but hey, Good for you.

   As far as BFA goes it is without question the most graphically impressive and immersive zone designs wow has created to date, Hats off to the artists and music team cause they really nailed it. I feel like the whole azerite thing is a step up from the legendary weapon nonsense in legion, The quests are decent and even the story (not a story guy) has me somewhat interested . With that said I am struggling to log in . Its weird cause i feel like this is one of the better xpacs yet i have no desire to play, something feels really shallow about the game. Whether that is lack of new skills, or challenge when fighting mobs or this whole war mode crap, Maybe its the pointless crafting i use to love, i cant put my finger on it. Maybe im just sick of MMO's, I dont know. 

titanofdoom

Revamp the title to Legion mark 2...disappointing is the word for it.

MadFrenchie

thunderC said:

, I wasn’t really swept up in a WoW expansion until Warlords of Draenor.

For me it was pretty much the exact opposite. Draenor was the expansion that had me most disconnected from the game than any expansion before. From the Blizzard half ass housing & follower mini game to the linear rat in a maze type design of the zones, Just horrible . It's shocking to hear someone say they were "swept away" in Draenor but hey, Good for you.

   As far as BFA goes it is without question the most graphically impressive and immersive zone designs wow has created to date, Hats off to the artists and music team cause they really nailed it. I feel like the whole azerite thing is a step up from the legendary weapon nonsense in legion, The quests are decent and even the story (not a story guy) has me somewhat interested . With that said I am struggling to log in . Its weird cause i feel like this is one of the better xpacs yet i have no desire to play, something feels really shallow about the game. Whether that is lack of new skills, or challenge when fighting mobs or this whole war mode crap, Maybe its the pointless crafting i use to love, i cant put my finger on it. Maybe im just sick of MMO's, I dont know. 

You'll be happy to know the challenge per mob rises as you get into the later levels of the expansion.  However, it never reaches antthing resembling vanilla, but that's probably a good thing at this point in WoW's life cycle.  Sort of like why I give them a pass on providing boosts: the old expansions have pretty much been abandoned.  Forcing players to go through abandoned content for 100 levels as a new player is just asking folks to walk away.

Arskaaa

8/10 for new players.
6/10 for WoW veterans.

+story
+new zones pretty
+music

gonna check wow after 10 month if its have finally "open content/races/flying".

Albatroes

The actual zone storytelling for the alliance was hot garbage, but then again this entire thing is subjective.

TweFoju

i will play BFA, like the last 3 expansions, which is to complete all main story and the new feature, and then quit after i completed the 1st raid that expansion has to offer

3 or 4 months is usually the maximum i play on each expansion.

Pandrax

TweFoju said:

i will play BFA, like the last 3 expansions, which is to complete all main story and the new feature, and then quit after i completed the 1st raid that expansion has to offer



3 or 4 months is usually the maximum i play on each expansion.

Sounds like me. Except I last about 6 to 9 months. Been playing since Beta and I don't plan to stop anytime soon though.

Rukushin

I am absolutely in LOVE with the story and do feel the tension, but I think I have that feeling more because of the Before the Storm novel than from the game itself. The one thing I absolutely hate is the World Quests and Rep Grind. I haven't been able to play that much after the 1st week of launch and my head start I had from taking that whole 1st week off from work has all but evaporated. All of my guildies have caught up to me easily and actually surpassed me. The World Quests just make me feel like if I don't log in then I'm missing out on something.

I vaguely remember Ion Hazzikostas saying something maybe a few months ago about how players should not feel like they are losing out if they can't log in every single day for at least 5-8 hours, but that is exactly how I feel. I've hated rep grinds since MoP and they are taking massive center stage this xpac the way they did in MoP when you couldn't even level up Enchanting because all the enchants were stuck behind rep gates.

I was having fun the 1st week of launch, but I think it was more due to being at a LAN party that whole week with a bunch of friends. Now that it is all over and I'm going on another vacation which prevents me from playing of course when the first raid goes live my excitement level has tanked. This is actually the first xpac where one of my IRL friends who usually plays all the time and is a massive achievement hunter is actually considering quitting and we are only 2 weeks in. He usually has even lasted through the infamous content droughts.

All the while I still keep hearing the rumblings of many, many people (including myself) whispering about Classic Servers and waiting for Classic. This gives me the impression that this xpac may really spell the last time that the Hype train will make a stop at the WoW station.

Gutlard

MadFrenchie said:

Great write-up. Introducing a GCD and nerfing Haste at the same time has turned out to be a bad idea imo. Because of the GCD, no build that was previously stacking Haste will stop because of the nerf, but it makes 116-120 seem like your character is regressing badly.

They simultaneously nerfed it and made it more important.. does not compute.

They nerfed Haste, but may've added a buff to the new Armors to compensate? I have one buff that I chose where with each Bone Shard I have up on my DK, my haste is increased. Is that just a DK thing or does everyone have that as an option tied to a skill if their armor piece gets that in the buff pool?

I'd hate to have to grind the armor pieces until that buff was on there, but I haven't looked too much into the new systems myself.

Drustvar was my favorite lore so far on Alliance. I'm finishing the quests in the last zone before flipping to my 110 Horde to read the quests from that angle...

I get my money's worth out of an expansion, but as soon as it starts to feel like a chore I move on for a while.

Gut Out!

MadFrenchie

Gutlard said:

MadFrenchie said:

Great write-up. Introducing a GCD and nerfing Haste at the same time has turned out to be a bad idea imo. Because of the GCD, no build that was previously stacking Haste will stop because of the nerf, but it makes 116-120 seem like your character is regressing badly.

They simultaneously nerfed it and made it more important.. does not compute.

They nerfed Haste, but may've added a buff to the new Armors to compensate? I have one buff that I chose where with each Bone Shard I have up on my DK, my haste is increased. Is that just a DK thing or does everyone have that as an option tied to a skill if their armor piece gets that in the buff pool?

I'd hate to have to grind the armor pieces until that buff was on there, but I haven't looked too much into the new systems myself.

Drustvar was my favorite lore so far on Alliance. I'm finishing the quests in the last zone before flipping to my 110 Horde to read the quests from that angle...

I get my money's worth out of an expansion, but as soon as it starts to feel like a chore I move on for a while.

Gut Out!

All of them have Azerite armor passives that can buff Haste from my experience.  They generally require significant spin up time for anything that makes a noticeable difference, and require constant fighting to keep the buff up.

On top of it, getting a new piece of Azerite armor 10-15 iLvls higher that's missing that passive is like a big slap in the face when you're 120, stacking Haste as fast as you can, but still suffering from a 10-11% Haste stat until you get into 320+ gear.

druez

Any feedback on PVP?

SBFord

What I continually grind my teeth over is the dearth of weapons on BfA. I got a 315 2-handed sword for my BDK early on. Since then, the only weapons that have dropped have been green and the only ones available so far in world quests have been 1-handed.

FFS...if they can make Azerite Armor & Caches drop spec-specific gear, why the hell can't they make World Quests drop spec-specific weapons? It's ridiculous.

I also think that, at least in their current incarnation, Island Expeditions are terrible. The same basic premise regardless of island or mobs (far too many crocs) with little or no rewards. Hell, I can go run 3-4 WQs and get 5x the amount of Azerite power. They're just not worth the time at the moment and that further makes me nervous about Warfronts.

Ozmodan

You missed a con, a bit pricey for an expansion.  Skill design is still horrible.  There is little difference in classes.  When you get down to it, the 2004 version was MUCH better as we had far more differentiation than today.

I probably give the new expansion a try when they drop the price, just not throwing my money on a badly designed game any more.

MadFrenchie

SBFord said:

What I continually grind my teeth over is the dearth of weapons on BfA. I got a 315 2-handed sword for my BDK early on. Since then, the only weapons that have dropped have been green and the only ones available so far in world quests have been 1-handed.

FFS...if they can make Azerite Armor & Caches drop spec-specific gear, why the hell can't they make World Quests drop spec-specific weapons? It's ridiculous.

I am also not so sure about the current dual-tiered system of "primary stats geared to your spec, secondary is a grab bag!"  In the way they're using it here.  Azerite armor doesn't even have secondaries anymore outside of short-duration buffs, so the remaining slots are precious in stacking your needed secondaries.

GeezerGamer

So......
How's "Classic" coming along?