I do like that a lot of the daily crap is completely optional, and particularly that the crappy mission table is optional too. It’s not a bad expansion.
The Maw is downright awful, Torghast is a huge missed opportunity, leveling alts is problematic because the threads of fate is boring and grindy and the campaign has tons of escorts and RP, and there’s tons of annoying ground travel without the flight whistle, so it isn’t perfect by any means, but not a bad one.
I am leveling an alt thru the campaign with Azeroth Auto Pilot and though I’ve not measured it, it feels very fast. Certainly feels faster than Threads leveling. Just hit 59 and am going to Revendeth. When I get close to 60 I’m going to pick Threads and skip having to complete the storyline.
At first I thought I made a big mistake with the Threads leveling but I quickly found out that Zygor guides has a threads of fate walkthrough and the experience is much more enjoyable. The combo of side quests and Bonus quests (to me anyway) is more enjoyable for my alts because I can start them in any zone I want.
I did threads leveling with my hunter. I liked it. I did a lot of world quests and often jumped into quest chains in a given area. Some of the quest chains you can knock out fast and get the better part of a level done. It also helped that I alternated between characters so my hunter got a lot of rested XP.
I switched my lock from affliction to demon and I’m having fun with the different abilities. I may switch my hunter from beast to markmanship just to get a different experience.
I am enjoying Torghast still, though it would be nice if the final boss dropped an epic piece of gear or rare recipe. I’m basically playing for soul ash, which is like playing for monopoly money. At some point players will have all the legendary gear they can get with soul ash. What will be the incentive to play Torghast at that point?
Where would you rank it compared to the other expansions?
With BfA being last, of course.
BFA isn’t last on my list. It was far better than Cataclysm or Draenor. I’d probably rank them:
** Great expansions
WOTLK
Legion
** Fine
Pandaland
Shadowlands
TBC
** Poor
BFA
** Execrable
Cataclysm
WoD
That is pretty much my ranking.
I’d rank TBC higher, but only because it was the first and we were thirsting for new content. It had the new 30-minute 5-mans too.
Hrm, I agree that time-travelling orcs and the so-called “Iron Horde” were some epic levels of retarded bullshit. I would swap Cata with BfA, though. At least Cata gave us two new races* and like WotLK had a final boss that spanned the whole expansion.
* BfA’s fat humans are dumb, though I suppose if you roll horde dino trolls would be cool.
Ha, that’s funny, because the one thing I find I like on my return to WoW is Draenor… Of course, that is just based on the levelling process and the early garrison stuff, not on any end-game raiding, lore or whatever… Oh well, I guess my tastes are different (or non-existing)…
WoD leveling was fine, that’s great in every expansion. Problems came in at max level.
Wasn’t WoD the first time they locked flying behind a later patch? I remember that being a big source of angst as well.
Yes, but I didn’t include the debacle where they lied about flying and were forced to capitulate in my evaluation.
I do feel – for a lot of reasons – WoD was the second worst expansion. The worst for me is Cataclysm. Which is funny because originally I thought that not having a new continent to explore, and using new zones in the old world was a bonus. But, the leveling experience was really disjointed. The only zone I have fond memories of is Uldum with the Harrison Jones questline. That one is still one of my favorite quest lines ever.
WoD, I think is worth doing solely for the extra hearth to your Garrison. I don’t use it often, but it’s nice having an extra cooldown. i hated the story, the leveling, and really the entire attitude the devs had towards players with the flying debacle, and how it was truly a punishing grind to unlock. WoD is also the one the devs just punted on and gave up.
Pandaria, other than the massive content drought at the end, was a fun expansion. I still think it’s worth leveling through.
Also, WoD had that stupid proving grounds you had to finish before you could queue for heroics. A proving ground that didn’t really show you knew how to play your class.
Actually, I am going to put WoD down for worst. Cataclysm at least had the vanilla revamp which was needed at that point.
Cata added flying to the old world.
Which expansion had the underwater stuff? I hated those zones.
You actually make a strong point. Cataclysm is the worst leveling experience, a real downgrade from WOTLK before it. For that alone, I could be persuaded to drop it to the bottom of my list. Not that my list means anything to anyone, anywhere, anywhen.
Underwater zone was Cataclysm. I liked it but most people agree with you Mark.
I enjoyed Legion, WoTLK, and Shadowlands so far. I came the closest to quitting WoW during BFA. The rest are a murky grey mix of meh. Panda-land was silly. Some raids I really liked in the meh group.
So I’m thinking about dipping my toe back into WoW. Last time I tried it was the release of BFA and I felt that BFA was poor, plus the overall gameplay had become, IMO, less tactical and more twitchy. More reliance on timing and reflexes and less reliance on tactical decision making compared to the classic WoW.
I’m specifically wondering if there is a class or classes that are less timing/reflex/APM/rhythm based in the modern game. I’m old and slow and don’t really have the reflexes or the desire to handle a twitchy, micro-management heavy game. As an example, when I played last, I played my Hunter, which had mostly been a fairly low-twitch / low-micro class (although that did vary over the years). When I played in BFA I felt the Hunter was a bit less twitchy than some classes I tried, but still far too twitchy for my tastes and I quit after a couple of weeks.
Is there any class option which provides hope for an aging and sluggish player who has little (or no) desire to develop Mad SkillZ of timing and rhythm?
As an aged and sluggish player, I find Ret Paladin allows you to smack away at enemies w/o having to worry about the timing / gambits / etc, provides self-heals and pally shield/lay on hands to bail you out of trouble should it be needed.