Good Morning Friends! I tweet-threaded some thoughts yesterday that I thought I would expand into a proper blog post. As we slide into the launch of the Dragonflight World of Warcraft expansion, I have to admit that I have some complicated thoughts about it. I immensely enjoyed my time spent in both Alpha and Beta testing. More specifically I thought the directed testing that took place prior to the start of Beta was extremely valuable because it set a clear focus for every play session. With those constraints, I set my focus on completing a single zone at a time and each week finished the task on at least one character. As a result at this point, I have largely seen all of the leveling content and enjoyed most of it.
Unfortunately without that direction and drive… when the game effectively turned over control to me, I struggled to find traction. Previously I was playing with a clear mission of testing the content and now that I was left to my own devices, I really didn’t have much forward momentum. I think on some level I just don’t find the World of Warcraft style of gameplay nearly as engaging as I once did. Over the last few years, my personal preferences have shifted more towards action combat and away from more strictly hotbar combat. I think this is also why my whole “level everything to 80” burnt me to a crisp in Final Fantasy XIV and why after finishing the main story there I have not really returned other than the stalk housing properties.
I think this is more a tale of shifts in my own tastes and less a tale of expansion quality. What I was able to experience and play through, makes me feel deeply like Dragonflight is going to go down as one of the better World of Warcraft expansions. I don’t think it will rank up there quite as high as say Legion, which now sits at the pinnacle for me, but I do think it is going to be better than a Shadowlands or Battle for Azeroth. The only thing that still concerns me is that the zones don’t feel anywhere near as intricate. Part of what I liked so much about Legion is that it took everything that Warlords of Draenor attempted and expanded upon them. I like zone events, treasures, and minibosses that all reward good stuff. Maybe there has been a micro objective pass that I have not fully experienced in-game, but last week when I was playing the world still felt very spartan.
I think there are a lot of interesting things happening with the expansion. While everything goes really hard on the whole Dragon thing, and you pretty much have to like Dragons to enjoy that deeply… there are enough fringe world-building things going on that make me wonder about the direction the entire game is going. I’ve never particularly cared about the Dragon Flights, and my interest in them cratered with Cataclysm, and how Alexstraza did not remember us from Wyrmrest temple when we were questing for her in Twilight Highlands. I feel like there are a lot of plot threads once thought resolved… are about to become unresolved again. What World of Warcraft has lacked is a clear story that carries forward from expansion to expansion and I hope this might be the beginning of that.
Mechanically I think the new talent trees are excellent. While they did not give me back my previous gladiator stance, left enough on the table for me to build a really fun protection warrior. I enjoyed Blood Deathknight and Protection Paladin as well, so it was going to be one of those expansions where I had trouble deciding upon a main. I probably would have landed back on the Warrior since it has such a special place in my heart. The bigger challenge would have been to determine if I was going to play the OG Belghast which is a Human, or the more modern Belghast which is an Orc. While I like the general community Horde side quite a bit better, I have to say I will probably always have strong Alliance leanings.
This time around there is this interesting staggered launch, where as of this past Tuesday the pre-patch landed featuring the new talent trees and a precursor questline. On the 15th, in a few weeks the new race/class will be playable. Then the 28th the official launch day happens with the gates opening on the Waking Shores. This all makes me realize that I will not be playing Dragonflight at launch, in spite of largely enjoying myself in testing. I know that with a World of Warcraft expansion there will be a certain measure of FOMO associated with it. My entire social timeline will likely erupt in nothing but Warcraft talk for a few weeks, and honestly, I look forward to seeing everyone geeking out on the game. I also know that it is highly unlikely that I will be joining them.
Even if we push past my complicated feelings about Blizzard, I am just not sure this is the game I want to be playing right now. I have a lot more games that I would rather be devoting my time towards, given that it is very unlikely that I would want to be raiding anyways. I have a long list of things that I would like to accomplish in Guild Wars 2, and I would like to give Final Fantasy XIV a chance to enspell once again with the post-Endwalker story. I am just not really connected to the World and story of Warcraft anymore, and while I have guild families that would accept me back… I also don’t really feel that longing to join them right now. I do know enough people who are wrapped up in the game though that I truly hope this is the good expansion that I think it is going to be for them.
In the short term, I am still deeply engaged with my New World reroll. It features that action-style combat that I seem to be favoring right now, and last night I dinged 60 and started working on gearing. I also ran through a dungeon with the guild which was extremely fun, and I am hoping as folks level we can do some of the interesting outdoor content that is focused on a single team. I think on some level I need to reach a place where it is okay for me to wave from the sidelines as the float goes by. There is a version of me that would absolutely be trying to claw my way up onto the float to keep the excitement rolling… but instead, it is probably way more healthy to set my own interests and my own pace.
So for now as we approach the Dragonflight launch, I will be waving at you all from the sidelines.