Now that it's been a few weeks, how do you feel about Warlords of Draenor?

[fjellse]

I hadn't played since early Cataclysm, so I was really apprehensive to dip my toes into the game again. Character development felt like it had become very bloated back then, and each successive expansion felt more and more linear, with less freedom to explore and choose. Things I loved about the classic game.

Warlords left me awestruck with its changes, as simple as they are.

There is a reason to explore again. While they give you a breadcrumb quests to move through a zone, it's a very rewarding to go off the trail. Nooks and crannies of the zones have their own quests and stories that unfold before you. There is random, rare monsters that give great loot.

I love what they have done with skills as well. The original game, from what I remember, had about 40 skills per class. By Mists of Pandaria, each class had around 80. That's absurd.

They have now consolidated skills, keeping and combining the most interesting. It's down to about 50 per class.

The game is moving in a great direction again, I think. I'm cautiously optimistic about its future.

What have your experiences been so far?

 

[Skan123]

It is enjoyable, but still not as appealing to me as it was before. However, I'm aiming to give it another try this summer.

 

[Akhaim]

I haven't quit playing since I started back in TBC so I'm what you call a loyal player. Warlords of Draenor is fun, it's new and exciting but it also has some negative sides.

I can't shake the feeling that this expansion is really hostile to new players. It was heavily marketed and the marketing succeeded in bringing a lot of new players but it's very hard for them to get started, even with the level 90 boost. You definitely need a guild to make progress now, you need a lot of gold make way in the game let alone get some good gear and the veterans aren't really bothered to help the newbies.

I personally think that WoD is just a stepping stone for something way bigger. They're using it as a test, to help them define their strategy for the next expansion which is going to be huge.

You might want to check out this video:

 

[Pudge]

It's fun, but to me, the garrison system is nothing but a bother. WoW has enough menus already, in fact, at least 50% of the time you're just navigating menus instead of actually playing. LFR, crafting, the dungeon finder, the auction house, and now the garrison. Sending your followers on missions and accepting the rewards is too much of a bother for me. I can understand why people like it though.

 

[tournique]

I will pass on as being one of the greatest expansions. Garrisons are a time sink and are pretty well made with future tweaking in progress. Also, I would rather afk in my garrison than in a city. The quest line is very well written and it really is a nice experience to follow.

 

[BluBird]

I'm really loving almost everything about WoD so far. Zones are beautiful, questing to 100 was fun and interesting. The garrison adds a lot of variety to the game and diffucult but fun mechanics in heroic and even nromal dungeons is making it a ton of fun. However there is one HUGE problem I have so far, and I'm not sure this is the place to voice this but here goes. The Shaman class is by far the weakest class in the game at the moment. From dps to healing, it's abysmal. Ele is by far the worst of the three specs, with zero damage on movement which it turns out is required for practically every fight, long cast times and being forced to use earthquake make the spec while fun to watch incredibly unrewarding. Enhance and Resto aren't much better off but aren't in quite the bad spot that Elemental shamans are in.

 

[Epicfied]

This is actually the first expansion that I've played except for maybe a couple levels on someone else's account.
So far, I like it. Plenty of feathers like the garrisons are nice. The graphic update was nice as well.

Being the first expansion I've actually played, this was my first launch to experience as well.
Quite frankly, it sucked. They had a ton of server issues.
My husband, who's played since vanilla WoW, said it's the worst launch yet.

 

[tournique]

@Epicfied I must disagree on that, they fixed the servers pretty fast. Cataclysm had huge issues, MoP as well. MoP had a gateway entrance and it sucked for a few days.

 

[Bluesman]

I absolutly loved this exp. It was very refreshing. Ever since they fixed the queues problems I was really hooked up. It also seemed very polished. And I love the fly ban, makes the game so much better!