World of Warcraft Mad World

With that I’m basically done with WoW until Shadowlands. I ended up levelling my original Druid up to 120 and gearing them up for visions. Guardian Druid was around five to tens times easier than Destruction Warlock, my alt caught up to my main within a couple of weeks. I am seriously considering swapping main for Shadowlands, incase Torghast ends up being similarly unbalanced between classes and also tank dungeon queues are instant.

At this point in Legion I was still leveling and gearing alts and running the mage tower, BFA at this point just feels empty. The double experience event should be tempting me but it just isn’t, I was considering doing balance of power one more time – the beastmaster artifact looks really cool – but so far I’ve done nothing about it. I still haven’t decided which four characters to take through Shadowlands to cover the four Covenants, it’s likely to be Warlock, Druid, probably Priest and one more.

Kyrian: Priest probably.

Venthyr: Maybe Priest (my Priests are Undead and Void Elf)?

Night Fae: Druid

Necrolords: Warlock (bonus of being Forsaken)

Still I have plenty of time to decide.

World of Warcraft 8.3

So while 8.2.5 didn’t bring anything to keep me interested in WoW I did at least finish of the 8.2 content, I really liked my crab mount but it was a pain that such a cool land mount was introduced at the same time as flying. Thankfully with the anniversary event I got plenty of use out of it. Thanks for the event I levelled ten alts to 120 meaning I once again have every class at the level cap, sadly the event ended a few hours early as I was levelling my original Druid.

After the dissapointment of 8.2.5 I had high hopes for 8.3, which sadly have not been met. I enjoyed finally trying out Mechagon which left me which just the achievement for crafting 250 items left to complete the meta achievement, which I finished today. I unlocked the Vulpera and Mechagnomes, I really like the Vulpera but I really struggled to choose a class for them, I eventually settled on Shaman. So far I’ve done a couple of sessions of LFD as Restoration. Onto the main bulk of 8.3 the invaisons for me are dull while the horrific visions while flawed are fun, it’s just a shame that you get so few opportunities.

I know the mage tower challenges were not all equal but the divide in a class’s ability to solo horrific visions is staggering. I’ve failed three so far, the first time I did a bonus objective I ran out of sanity against Thrall who was on about 10% HP. The second time I disconnected and couldn’t reconnect for several minutes which was really frustrating. The final time was my first Stormwind run, I went straight for an objective being as in Orgrimmar I could clear a bonus area and defeat the boss with ease. The madness effect was horrific and it didn’t help that I hadn’t understood that the fire only hurt me when it became a patch, so I wasted so much time moving and then jumping and then moving again when I could have stood still and cast spells, then the boss fight against Alleria  was much longer than Thrall and I ran out of sanity just before I could kill her. I am very tempted to just save my runs for Orgrimmar weeks as it seems to be much easier and I know my way around much better. So over all I don’t rate 8.3 and it’s already wearing thin for me in its second week, on the plus side I guess I’ll have more time for game dev.

World of Warcraft: Taking The Air Out

In it’s second appearence in almost two months!

So I’m still enjoying 8.2, it’s been a lot of fun. The joy of Mechagon is beginning to wear a bit thin but I’ve spent a huge amount of time there, I’m virtually done with the meta, probably easiest just to show it:

Mechadone
The Mechagon Threat	Sadly my guild is basically all gone so I haven’t had anyone to do it with but hopefully they’ll split the dungeon into two heroics soon.
Rest In Pistons	Done. Last one was the Caustic Mechaslime, in the end I camped six hours for the correct drill to finally spawn.
Outside Influences	Done as of today, had been waiting for the last quest for weeks.
Junkyard Architect	Two to go, Microbot XD and the Perfectly Timed Differential which I hope we’ll be able to get from Heroic when it’s hopefully added. The blue print from Sea Spit caused me the most grief, after about the 40th daily kill I was beginning to lose hope of ever getting it.
Junkyard Apprentice	67/250 I just haven’t got around making enough Canned Minnows yet, won’t be fun but shouldn’t take too long.
Junkyard Apprentice	67/250 I just haven’t got around making enough Canned Minnows yet.
Junkyard Machinist	96/100 should be done any day now.
Available in Eight Colors	The only one that caused me any grief was the colour from Rumblerocks but camping him daily eventually delivered after a week.
Junkyard Melomaniac	I was really lucky with this, Triumph of Gnomeregan dropped from Freza for me which seems to be really rare. The recycling one was the one that took me the longest to get, I was over the moon when I found out I could just buy the parts on the auction house and never needed to farm for them myself again.
Making the Mount	Done. Was a cool little quest line.
Armed for Action	Done. I missed it the second time it was up as I hadn’t clocked it was what unlocked the armory options at the time.

As for Nazjatar I’m not as far along but at the same time there is no dungeon or raid blocking progress.

Undersea Usurper
Tour of the Depths	Done.
Nazjatarget Eliminated	Done. Happened naturally while I was playing.
I Thought You Said They’d Be rare?	Eurgh, still seven to go, sad part is I’ve seen nearly all of the last ones die as I got there.
Aqua Team Murder Force	Assuming the murlocs aren’t kind I have about 25 days to go.
Trove Tacker	Done. I did this and the cat figures on a rainy day.
A Fistful of Manapearls	793/1000 should be done soon.
Terror of the Tadpoles	50/100, I love Murlocs, why do I have to do this 😦
Periodic Destruction	I wasn’t very savvy in the beginning, 6/13. Seven weeks to go.
Nothing to Scry About	3/100, I just haven’t been motivated to do it yet but I have a big stash of scrying stones ready when I do feel like it.
Mrrl’s Secret Stash	Done. Pretty sure I got it the first day it was up, very happy with it, it’s currently my go to underwater mount.
Back to the Depths!	9/10, if I’m just doing the daily follower stuff then I only spend about fifteen minutes in Nazjatar so I don’t regularly see a lot of the events.
Puzzle Performer	Missing the easy Red and Green chests and then I’m done, hopefully they’ll be up soon.
Explore Nazjatar	Done but not sure why it’s in the meta, explore Mechagon wasn’t in its meta.
The Unshackled	Done, did hold out a little hope that I’d get my first level four essence from the supplies but it wasn’t to be.
Subaquatic Support	8/30 I’ve been slacking.
Unfathomable	Done.
Feline Figures Found	Done.

So hopefully in seven weeks today I’ll have my exciting new Crab mount! As for alts in 8.2, my Human Deathknight is at 120 and working towards the allied races, nearly finished the rep for the Dark Iron, Kul Tirans feel a long way off. I decided not to bother with the Ankoan rep as there doesn’t feel like there is much evidence of them being an allied race in the future Speaking of allied races, I’ve been levelling two of them so far, my Zandalari Druid is upto 111 and my Void Elf is upto 68.I have two zones left on Loremaster both from Cataclysm which my Void Elf can do, though I’ll need to swap to a Horde character to actually unlock the Loremaster of Cataclysm and Loremaster achievements because I did all faction specific zones on Horde naturally.

Over to wow classic I still don’t know 100% what I’m going to do, my real life friends haven’t fully decided yet and even when they do, I have way more time to play than they do. I’m leaning towards:

Undead/Warlock with Tailoring and Enchanting.
Undead/Priest with Herbalism and Alchemy.
Tauren/Druid with Skinning and Leatherworking.

I’m thinking I’ll probably do Warlock solo and level the Priest with my friends and probably pick the Druid up later, mostly I just want to redo the class quests on Druid. Then again this could all change.

World of Warcraft 8.2

So 8.2 arrived two weeks ago, before that I had largely stopped playing, only logging in to complete Warfronts once per cycle (and more recently just Darkshore). I kept planning to level up my alliance alt to unlock the other allied races but once I discovered that incursions had to be unlocked for both alliance and horde seperately I quit that idea until I could fly. It’s not that I especially want to make a Dark Iron Dwarf or Kul Tiran but I would like to unlock them at least. I was particularly put off by having to essentially farm the same reputations twice.

Anyway onto 8.2, I don’t particularly like Nazjatar but I love Mechagon. I apparently did something wrong as I got my Mechagon reputation to revered several days before the Unshackled (and I didn’t even do the Mechagon pet battles) and apparently most people had it the other way around. I found Nazjatar difficult to navigate and the weirld blend of dailies and world quests just felt awkward, I would preferred one or the other. I do think I must have missed some of the notes about changes to Nazjatar as the last couple of days it didn’t seem as long or tedious as it originally did. Today I managed to farm the last 6000 rep I needed to reach revered, finally doing the pet battles. I was tempted to wait for the next emissary but given that the last one was only yesterday I perservered.

Mechagon on the other hand has so far been a delight, I might even complete the meta achievement for it, I’m enjoying it that much. So far I’ve killed all but one rare, got the spider tank mount, done most of the daily visitor quests and collected about half of the gameophone songs. I’m falling behind on alternate colours for my cat mount but glad I found lemonade as it was the colour I preffered. Besides getting to Rustfeather in a timely fashion when people call him out, Mechagon has been really pleasent to navigate and explore, the single world quest that really just rewards you for playing has been a good use of the world quest system and dare I say it I quite like the Mecha-gnomes, I wouldn’t be upset if they ended up as an allied race (so long as my horde reputation counts).

As for how long this patch will last me and keep me playing, I’m not sure. I feel done with Nazjatar already but will get my followers to level 30 and reach exhalted with them (albeit mainly through the emissary and not dedicated farming). Mechagon I would like to finish the meta, so as long as it stays fun I’ll still be there. However the thing that is likely to keep me playing now that I can fly is levelling alts. I’m definitely starting with the Human I boosted to work on the alliance side for the last two current allied races. After him, I’m not sure, I’ll just work through getting everyone upto 120. Hoping I don’t need to do the Nazjatar reputation again on the alliance but I guess Blizzcon will probably be when we find out about any final allied races (next expansion pre-order bonus maybe?). I’d be happy with Vulpera and Mechagones but that allied race screen really does look like it was built for another couple of races. If the next expansion ends up being light and void then Lightforged Undead could be a thing and then something else for the horde.

World of Warcraft – Blizzcon Blues

So my wishlist went virtually unfulfilled, though two things came up in Q&As since, firstly that there would be more allied race but not before 8.2 and secondly that we might be able to fly in the new areas added in 8.2 which will be great if we need to rep grind on both sides though I’m hoping we won’t. Given the lack of announcement I wonder if perhaps we’ll only be getting two more allied races after Zandalari and Kul Tirans. Which I would guess to be Vulpera and Sethrak. Currently there is a lack of obvious counterpart to the mechagnones so I wonder if we’ll get a new customisation option with mecha-parts similar to the night warrior.

Thinking back to 7.3.5 and the pre-order bonus I wonder if Blizzard are going to do something similar again. The next expansion would if it followed tradition add a new class, some sort of tinker class is perhaps the most obvious but I wonder if we’ll get something a little different, maybe hero specialisations? Where a couple of classes get a new specialisation, maybe an earth themed tank spec for Shaman, or some void themed specs (assuming the next expansion is void themed) e.g. a Shadow Hunter. Back tracking a bit they could potentially release a new class early like they did with Demon Hunter and perhaps if it was the tinker hero class they would want new allied races to be additional options being as goblin and gnome are some of the least played races. Vulpera? Mecha-gnome? I guess time will tell.

Also last monday I finally finished my final battle for azeroth horde reputation, I think I will just wait for the incursions in 8.1 to level my alliance alt and even then will probably just wait for flying before grinding essentially the same reputations again. I would level a Void Elf or Maghar Orc except the experience required for levels is set to be reduced significantly in 7.1 so that puts me off levelling for the time being. I suppose now is as good as time as any to take a short break, and who knows I might even finish something for IGMC.

World of Warcraft – Looking forward (2)

So I’m already getting pretty bored of BFA, I’m hoping I’ll enjoy it more when I don’t feel compelled to do the emissionaries every few days. I’m currently two reputations at exhalted (Honorbound and Champions of Azeroth) and the other four are very nearly there (Tortollan is about 800 to go). I’m hoping the Zandalari will be unlockable soon as then I can amuse myself levelling one. I’ve still not gotten around to actually levelling an Alliance alt yet – mostly because I didn’t want to have to do the two lots of emissionaries for reputations. I’m tempted (unless Sethrak are going to be an allied race very soon) to wait until flying for beginning the alliance reputation grinds.

So with Blizz-con imminent what would I like to see? I can’t see the core systems and structures changing much during the expansion but I’d be quite happy levelling some exciting new allied races especially if there’s more quality of life for alts. So with that in mind I would like a date for 8.1 and some hint as to how long before raid opens and we can unlock the next two allied races. Then I’d like to hear about the future allied races, I’m hoping they’re coming sooner rather than later, it feels like they want a set of allied races for each of the major patches: Mag’har and Dark Iron for 8.0, Zandalari and Kul Tiran for 8.1/.5 and then I’m guessing Vulpera and Sethrak for 8.2/.5 and then maybe another pair for the drought between expansions (maybe Mecha-Gnome and something else). I’d also love for flying to come out sooner this time, it felt and possibly was only just over eleven weeks last time where we could fly in current content.

So I’ll guess I’ll wrap this up with what I consider a realistic-ish wish list:
□ Zandalari Trolls (before Christmas)
□ Sethrak announed as allied race
□ Flying in 8.1(.5) rather than 8.2
□ More quality of life for alts
□ Vulpera announced as allied race
□ More allied races!

Legion Experience: The Orders

So the order halls were one of the original main features of the expansion and played a huge part in the beginning of Legion. On the whole I loved them, I really enjoyed the focus on class fantasy but not all of them were created equal. Here I’m going to go through the order halls and rank them by how much I enjoyed them.

12th: Hunter – Unseen Path
Order Hall: Trueshot Lodge
Perks: A few extra flight paths I never used and being able to fly over High Mountain without being attacked by eagles.
As far as I am aware this is one of the orders that was completely new to legion. The story was really dull as well, you stop a new type of Felhunter that is really strong against mages from causing havoc in Dalaran. Felt like this one was done as quickly as possible, your final mission even takes place in the Violet Hold. The only saving grace was that you get a couple of cool champions like Hemet and Rexxar.

11th: Warrior – Valarjar
Order Hall: Skyhold
Perks: Flashy entrances.
I feel like I would have enjoyed this more had it not been so Valajar heavy, when we were defending the keepers and assisting them against the legion the story was good and enjoyable. When we were committing suicide on the broken isles it was neither.

10th: Monk – Order of the Broken Temple
Order Hall: Temple of Five Dawns (the Wandering Isle)
Perks: None
Monks already had an order hall effectively, so for Monks the story begins with the destruction of Serenity’s Peak and it has to be one of the strongest openings to any of the campaigns. Sadly from there it goes way downhill, with our ultimate goal being to make the ultimate brew. It also struggles for champions besides Chen and Li Li, I guess because of how few non-panderan monks there are in lore. However it does have one of the nicest order halls, revisiting the wandering isle was definitely a highlight.

9th: Mage – Tirisgarde
Order Hall: Hall of the Guardian
Perks: Teleport to order hall
This one felt very Mage-y, and we spent the campaign effectively saving Dalaran which was themantic, perhaps I would have enjoyed it more if I had played it sooner – it felt like everyone was saving Dalaran. Some of the characters we met during the campaign were cool though.

8th: Paladin – Knights of the Silver Hand
Order Hall: Sanctum of Light (hidden beneath Light’s Hope Chapel)
Perks: None
This one felt like it had the most missed opportunities, with the finale being shared with the Priests and also the complete lack of Death Knights. Also I feel like the story did a diservice to the non-light Paladins, had I been playing a Sunwalker I would probably have been quite dissapointed. I think I would have enjoyed it more had we been announced the leader of a new organisation which merged the old organisations into one, rather than simply having everyone join the Silver Hand. Otherwise besides the ending I quite enjoyed the campaign. Also now I’m expecting Night Elf paladins in the future.

7th: Rogue – The Uncrowned
Order Hall: Hall of Shadows (Dalaran Sewers)
Perks: None
The order hall being in the sewers not withstanding, Rogues have quite a cool spy story going on, you have to infiltrate the some of the capitols and assassinate various targets. In the end you save Mathias Shaw and the SI:7.

6th: Priest – Conclave
Order Hall: Netherlight Temple
Perks: None
I’m pretty sure I’m biased due to Alonsus Faol being the leader, my original character was a forsaken priest and I’ve always loved priests. The campaign is largely what you would expect from Priests.

5th: Demon Hunter – Illidari
Order Hall: Fel Hammer
Perks: None
I don’t think you can say you have had the full legion experience without having played through the Demon Hunter campaign. You lead the elite Demon Hunters in conquering a legion world, retrieve the sargerite keystone and complete a load of stuff for Illidan.

4th: Shaman – Earthern Ring
Order Hall: Heart of Azeroth (Maelstrom)
Perks: Some mini-games and you get to meet the Hearthstone Murloc Shaman
In theory we united the elemental lords to fight with us against the legion, in practice it felt like a second half to the cataclysm expansion. If you like Shaman odds are you’ll enjoy it, I certainly did. On top of that Shamans had one of the coolest order halls and you get to lead one of the oldest in game organisations.

3rd: Warlock – Council of the Black Harvest
Order Hall: Dreadscar Rift
Perks: None
Probably biased for a whole set of reasons but I absolutely loved the campaign story. Like the Illidari you take over a Legion world and you also enslave powerful demons including a past raid boss. My only complaint is that I have to go to the sewers to get there. Couldn’t we get some other Warlocks to summon us? Or at least couldn’t they have put the entrance somewhere easier to get to? Another minor complaint, your followers are the wrong specs!

2nd: Druid – Cenarion Circle
Order Hall: Dreamgrove
Perks: Lots of portals.
This really felt like it led straight into the Emerald Nightmare in parts so lore wise it was quite cool Also you get to relive some of the war of the ancients which was fun to see.

1st: Death Knight – Knights of the Ebon Blade
Order Hall: Acherus
Perks: None
I doubt this is a surprise to anyone who has played through it. Death Knights work with(/for?) the Lich King and rebuild the four horsemen, our final mission has us actually attack Light’s Hope and the Paladins to try and raise Tirion as the final horseman. All in all it was for me the strongest campaign.

Legion Experience: The Mage Tower (Part 1)

So I’ve just finished what is almost certainly my last Mage Tower, so it seems like now would be a good time to write this blog post. I ignored the Mage Tower for quite a while when it first came out and only really got around to seriously trying it after 7.3.5 when I had finished most of my alts (sorry Mage). In the end I really enjoyed most of them. I was quite under geared when I first tried my first challenge and it was really off putting. In fact I had intended to just do the one for my main spec and then ignore them but then I ended up doing a second one and then I really wanted to complete all three challenges on my Warlock. After that I decided I really wanted the bear form. Once I had that it was like the flood gates were opened.

To start with I decided I would try and do all the Druid challenges and also Enhancement Shaman and Shadow Priest. After a point I realised there was one challenge none of the characters I planned to complete the Mage Tower with would end up doing. So I added Survival Hunter to my planned list. In the end I completed 15 Mage Tower challenges. I typically would end up completing the other challenges (bar healing) for the classes that I geared. I also decided I would quite like to do Retribution right before the final weekly reset before the Tower closed forever.

Anyway here are my characters with their weapons in the order I did them, sadly I didn’t screenshot my Warlock’s weapons at the time.

1. Destruction

Item level: ~900 might have been a bit lower
Tries: ~20
I’ve grown to love the appearence but originally I really wasn’t keen especially with it being so different to the rest of the appearences. All I remember was trying to time my Infernals to land at the exact right moment to interrupt when all my other interrupts were on cooldown and then the next time they were on cooldown I had to use fear which was even harder to time. I ended up swapping it around and doing fear first as then I lost sooner if I mistimed it.

2. Affliction

Item Level: ~920
Tries: Not sure, I think I did 3-5 tries before I found the ring and then 5-8 tries once I had the ring.
I was really lucky to get the ring, had I have not got the ring I might never have completed it and then wouldn’t have done Demonology and everything else since.

3. Demonology

Item Level: ~930
Tries: 8-10
I had heard this was one of the hardest challenges, all of the 36/36 things I read put it as one of the hardest. So it was almost a pleasent surprise, I think it took me five goes at 930 and it wasn’t too bad, there was just that one section between 3:30 and 4:00 where everything happens at once. Once I got past that I completed the challenge.

4. Guardian

Item Level: 920
Tries: ~20
The first phase was way harder, I think I thought Kruul five or six times, three of which ended with him being on <5% HP. Which was infuriating at the time.

5. Feral

Item Level: 925
Tries: 6
I had intended to restoration next (I kept intended to do it next) but I wasn’t sure I would use the staff where as Feral gave a new transformation. So I decided to do Feral, a relic titan forged (which in hindsight I wish I’d used on the Restoration artifact) so it was a push to choose. After dying to boulders five times when I could have sworn I wasn’t in them I went and googled the fight again. The best advice I read was to treat them like they were twice their size and then I did it on my next attempt.

6. Balance

Item Level: 923
Tries: 3
This was my first repeated challenge, it felt like the Druid toolkit was much better for dealing with the challenge. It also helped I had two great legendaries for the challenge.

7. Enhancement

Item Level: ~920 (918 I think)
Tries: ~5
Another repeat and it was the same as Demonology in that once I got past 4 minutes I did it. Mostly I was motivated to do this one because it was the Doom Hammer.

8. Elemental

Item Level: 925
Tries: ~10
I only did this one because my Shaman was geared, I don’t like the weapon and can’t wait to not use a claw on my Shaman. The challenge was harder than Feral but once I got into the hang of when to use my lightning rod cooldown it wasn’t that hard.

9. Discipline

Item Level: 925
Tries: 3
I hadn’t intended to do any of the other Feltotem challenges but I was really strugling with my Shadow challenge and read online that Discipline was basically a free appearence, so I gave it a go. All I remembered before that was all the Priests complaining they had to do a DPS challenge on a healer.

10. Beast Mastery

Item Level: 911
Tries: 2
Emboldened by Discipline I decided to try Beast Mastery, I was really cross with myself when I died the first time because I hit the wrong button and wasted my heal when I meant to interrupt. Anyway second time around no problem.

11. Survival

Item Level: ~920
Tries: ~10
I really enjoyed this challenge, the way it was designed was really cool. My only issue was never having played Survival and not knowing what I was doing. Eventually I got there though. This was the first of the five challenges I completed in the last week, where I ended up doing one a day.

12. Marksmanship

Item Level: ~915
Tries: 5
I was having a terrible time trying to do the Shadow challenge, at some point I decided to try it on Marksmanship to see if it gave me any new insights. It didn’t other than the hands have too much HP for the Shadow version. I nearly did it in four tries but I ignored the rune because I thought I would finish it in time, I didn’t.

13. Shadow

Item Level: 928
Tries: 26
I know I had terrible haste but I simply couldn’t find gear with it. I tried the surrender to madness methord many times but could never get the boss down to less than 15%. In the end I changed tactic. I popped surrender to madness when I got to the hands but didn’t enter void form until the third hand, doing it this way took me four tries, one of which I was only one or two seconds off killing the boss – I ignored the rune and the demon got me.

14. Retribution

Item Level: ~915
Tries: 32
I decided very last minute to attempt this challenge. My Paladin was effectively a fresh 110 who had just gotten his class mount. I had two sets of weeklies to gear him. I did manage to get two legendaries one of which was from Velen for killing Argus. I never expected any trouble from this challenge having already completed it twice. Needless to say this was the challenge that took the most attempts. The other times I completed this challenge once I got past four minutes I completed it that attempt. I think I got past four minutes about fifteen times. Dying after 9,10 minutes was really soul crushing. I can’t honestly say why I had such trouble with it other than being melee and having to deal with shields in fel pools.

15. Restoration

Item Level: 935
Tries: ~25
I tried this challenge several times over a couple of months without ever really getting anywhere. I once got past phase one and then an ally died during the heal adds phase. So I decided to leave it until I was better geared. After an abysmal two attempts this morning I decided to install more mods. Every video I had seen of this challenge used addons which showed your allies buffs etc and better name plates. After doing that my experience improved massively, out of the seven remaining goes, four times I got past phase one, I lost once more on the add phase and then finally the final boss took me three goes. Kind of sad it just took a better interface to clear the challenge but I’m just glad I finally cleared it.

 

Battle for Azeroth Initial Thoughts

I can’t make my mind up if I’m excited for it or not. The two things I was hoping for most was a new race and level scaling for the rest of the game. The level scaling is coming in 7.3.5 which I am very excited about. As for a new race we got zero or six depending on how you look at it. Allied races are a nice idea in a way, without the need for a starting zone the amount of work involved in making them must be much less. Though the Goblin and Worgan starting zones are some of my favourites. Looking at their classes they do seem to be treating them as new races.

Race

Druid

Hunter

Mage

Paladin

Priest

Rogue

Shaman

Warlock

Warrior

Death Knight

Monk

Demon Hunter

Tauren

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

Highmountain Tauren

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

Blood Elf

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

Nightborne

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

Draenei

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

Lightforged Draenei

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

Night Elf

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

Void Elf

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

Sadly no news on Zandalari Trolls or Dark Iron Dwarves.

The Void Elves are the only one when viewed as a sub-race to offer a new class/race combo. Though if you view them as six new races then so far it’s balanced in race/class combinations. I think had it just been the four that leaked I would have been dissapointed but for some reason upright trolls have my attention, the news about upright orcs also interests me (please can we have upright Forsaken?).

I’m sad to lose the undercity if once we’ve progressed far enough it really is gone, how will Hallow’s end work!? Though it could just end up been an instance or maybe chromie will turn up and let us visit the past version, who knows? As for horde vs alliance I’m not overly interested in it, I’m hoping the probably old god influence is found soonish as I’m more interested in it but having said that had we have gone straight into old gods and void it probably would have felt rushed.

One thing I hope is that allied races don’t replace or don’t just use existing races going forward in expansions but I guess time will tell. Hopefully we’ll find out more soon enough (also legendaries are gone \o/ – also thankfully we get 6 new character slots).

World of Warcraft – Looking forward

Note I will mention the leaks at some point incase that is something you’re trying to avoid.

Blizzcon isn’t far away and I think we can all be pretty sure that the next expansion will be announced. Exciting for a lot of reasons and also we might finally find out some answers e.g. what happens to our artifact weapon? I thought I would take the time to say what I would like from the next expansion. I think the general consensus is that we’ll be getting a race, if you’re reading this you are probably already aware that only one expansion didn’t add a new race or class and we have just had a new class hence why race seems most likely.

There are lots of possible races the question is who will they choose. WoW also already has a large number of races and there is an idea that they could add sub-races which would give us more customisation options e.g. A Forsaken Elf and potentially a few new class/race combos. While some new customisation would be nice without maybe some new starting areas to explain the sub-race faction joining the alliance/horde I would feel dissapointed. Though it would add the issue of post starting area being dropped back in time to the cataclysm – though is that a big deal? We still time travel for Outland and Northrend.

If we are to get a whole new playable race the candidates that strike me as more likely are either some of the races we’ve helped/worked with this expansion e.g. the Nightbourne who could easily become a neutral race and open up Demon Hunter slightly. We could also get a new Suramar starting zone where we see the city post our insurrection. Presumably like the pandaran they would end up at the capitols to join up like the pandaren did and then play through the old content. I’ve seen Vrykul mentioned which could work but I don’t think we’ve invested in them as much, though it would give horde players who don’t like being more monstrous another option. Then there are the non-legion felguard race – do they have a name? The ones we have met on Argus.

Other options could be based more on what the expansion is, it seems pretty much certain that we are getting an old god expansion with probably Queen Azshara and N’Zoth, whether or not we’ll make it directly to the void lords seems unlikely to me – I feel that could easily fill a whole expanion, then again people said the same of Argus. Queen Azshara seems far more likely to be the initial antagonist of the expansion even if like Guldan we don’t finally deal with her until the second major raid. Given this if Naga were ever going to be introduced this feels like the time, people always cite with Naga the issues with no legs for gear and mounts but they could easily have alternate mount poses or less desirably only use certain mounts. Moving onto gear as with Tauren I don’t get to see my boots and it doesn’t bother me, the issue might be worse with Naga as it would probably also be leg armour and you would have less transmog options but if you want to play a Naga then I don’t think it’s an unnaceptable trade off that you can’t see legs or boots. Given the potential watery setting there is also maybe a chance of Murlocs which would be my absolute favourite of potential races they could add. If we are to advance to the Void lords then there is always the Ethereals who I would be happy to play. For the record I would also be quite happy with Arakkoa but am in no way expecting them.

As for other features I would love from the expansion it’s worth reviewing what Legion brought us. One of the biggest things and something I pray they continue with and potentially expand is the new level scalling. I really hope they go and apply it to the core game, even if it was just the 1-60 content that would still be awesome, I like to level alts via questing and slowly tick off zones for lore master and with heirlooms etc you always out level the zones you are in before you get to wrap up the storylines in the zone. With level scaling this would be gone, you could just head wherever you want and quest. When leveling alts the current biggest disconnect is when you hit 60 and head to Outland, not only would it be confusing to new players I imagine suddenly travelling back in time but also the experience is worse for example you are doing a quest collecting drops from enemy corpses and you know how when you hover over an enemy it tells you if it’s involved with a quest of yours, in Outland the enemy won’t list the quest unless it’s a kill that enemy, if it’s a collect x from y then it won’t show up and with the seemingly lower drop rates of the quest items I have several times gone and checked that I am actually hunting the correct enemy. One way to solve this would be to make the scaling core game perhaps go 1-70 or 1-80 and make Outland and Northred optional – hopefully not too controversial. As for the later expansions I’d be happy if they scaled within their level range, though all none-current expansions scalling 1-110 would be awesome.

I’m not expecting a class but with order halls there is now potentially a problem with adding non-hero classes but why wouldn’t they just make hero classes now? They could also add new specs (which unlock at 110 – to avoid class hall issues) which could be fun e.g. Warlock or Hunter who minion/pet could tank, or perhaps a time magic spec for Mage which maybe could rewind your injures to heal or something. If we’re getting a new class soon a Tinkerer class might be fun, hopefully without too much of an overlap with engineering. I’ve seen people mention Necromancer but with Death Knight and Warlock the only thing not really covered is blood magic, I could possibly imagine a two spec Necro with blood magic and something else, would also be the first ranged caster they’ve added. Also potentially we could get something new perhaps Void themed but that would fit in better when we are going against the void lords more directly. Part of me feels like a new class should wear mail to even the armour spread out. One other possibility could be to add a hero race/class combo e.g. adding Forsaken paladin which doesn’t currently fit in with the lore but with a strong story like the demon hunter’s starting story could work.

I guess we shall find out within two months, the expansion might even be coming sooner than expected if they can keep up the eleven week schedule they’ve been pushing. I’m crossing my fingers for level scaling and playable Murlocs, until then back to levelling alts, just finished Nagrand Slam (outland nagrand lore master) and it was the worst lore master achievement so far by a lot, I am hoping that was the worst one.