World of Warcraft: Retail, Classic and Private

[Finarfin]

I stopped playing FFXIV sometime after Stormblood if I recall correctly. When you would join a 'party' for a dungeon or trial there was some update where you'd see 'gamer cards/displays' at the beginning where people could customize a character profile thing. 8/10 of those things were plagued with pronouns in the description and such. I played from 'vanilla' and did every dungeon on a Roegadyn Tank, until original level 50 cap. Unlocked all option Dungeons/Trials and did them all at least once for completion to say I at least did it all. Finish Story/MQ up to original cap and just couldn't stand the bs people were saying or displaying. Never joined a guild. Like the Dungeons, good challenge/fun but I had enough. It's a weirdo haven and I haven't touched it since.

I quite liked the adventurer plates and wish WoW would copy that. It's neat presentation, though it is irksome how often you see stupid or slutty plates rather than more immersive character portraits like you would see in a JRPG.

I think if WOW would copy them, they would do a better job since they are not japs and stuck in the 1990 of programming and tech.

[Classix]

** Farming in Silithus. Group of 3 tried to squash the Light. **



** Arrive in Winterspring for some Furbolg farming. Another 3 tried their luck. Not today. **

[Finarfin]

► Show Spoiler

► Show Spoiler

Well, seems like the High Speaker was conspiring with Xal'atath and wanted to turn his people into Skardyn ( Mutated Earthen), we went to confront him but it was too late as he was done with his "ritual" and the stuff that infects the inactive earthen was already spreading, Magni lost hope but Dagran said that only he can save these earthen. Azeroth/World Soul said "Magni.... it is time" and then he told her to give what is inside him to these people. Which worked and the corruption was gone but so was Magni... or atleast it looked like that. The stone shell cracked and good old Magni is back now.

[Vergil]

Lol WoW "story"

[trurebel1]

i finally deleted my battle net account, what's a good non woke mmo?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

i finally deleted my battle net account, what's a good non woke mmo?

There is none. The one with the highest production values and the least amount of overt wokeness is FF14, however once you get 300 hours into the story you begin to realize just how atheistic and bleak the world view of the writer(s) is and the narrative begins leaning towards globalism after Stormblood.

[Finarfin]

i finally deleted my battle net account, what's a good non woke mmo?

There is none. The one with the highest production values and the least amount of overt wokeness is FF14, however once you get 300 hours into the story you begin to realize just how atheistic and bleak the world view of the writer(s) is and the narrative begins leaning towards globalism after Stormblood.

I'd rather keep playing warcraft tbh. So far "The War Within" is ok, there is more going on in the first 10 minutes than in 10 hours of yawntrail. Oh and the possibility of using the dynamic flying is great. I might even consider changing race and name of my female belf paladin to a earthen male

[Manny V]

i finally deleted my battle net account, what's a good non woke mmo?

There is none. The one with the highest production values and the least amount of overt wokeness is FF14, however once you get 300 hours into the story you begin to realize just how atheistic and bleak the world view of the writer(s) is and the narrative begins leaning towards globalism after Stormblood.

I'd rather keep playing warcraft tbh. So far "The War Within" is ok, there is more going on in the first 10 minutes than in 10 hours of yawntrail. Oh and the possibility of using the dynamic flying is great. I might even consider changing race and name of my female belf paladin to a earthen male

please do

why were you playing a foid

[Val the Moofia Boss]

World of Warcraft: The War Within

I have been playing for 2.5 hours. I finished the Isle of Dorn questline and was at the part where you go underground, but I decided to turn back and go complete the sidequests up above on the surface.

My current chief complaint is that the expansion is braindead easy. Be it fighting overworld mobs or delves or doing the first dungeon. I don't think my HP has ever gone below 90%, not even when I was mass pulling everything in sight as a DPS spec. For the story delve, you are FORCED to pick the tier 1 difficulty. And then for the dungeon, you are FORCED to go through the dungeon with NPC followers, and again I could pull everything in sight and just not care, and the bosses died so fast I didn't even get to see all of their mechanics or RP. Even FF14 Dawntrail was more challenging than this, when mass pulling FATE mobs while levelling up my other jobs, or the threatening and engaging dungeon bosses where you have to be paying attention and can't be absent mindedly playing. That being said, the moment to moment gameplay of TWW is a little more engaging than Dawntrail was, as Dawntrail was hours and hours of a visual novel with a very boring, low tension story occasionally punctuated by an exciting dungeon or boss fight, vs WoW The War Within where you are constantly running around clicking on objects in the game world and constantly killing stuff.




The story had me engaged early on with the tension of the sudden devestating attack on Dalaran with people dying in the streets, people being kidnapped and carried away by evil spiders, buildings collapsing, etc. And then you and the survivors fighting for your lives on a beach, and then when Baelgrimm arrives it seemed he was going to arrest us and throw us in prison and we were going to have to break out. But after that it turns out that the Earthen are chill with us, and the tension dissipates and the story becomes kinda boring as you run around doing whatever.




The destruction of the Cinderbrew Meadery was underwhelming. I was expecting a huge, devestating explosion that would leave nothing but a smoking crater left, but then in the cutscene the stonework and even the wooden barrels that supposedly exploded are still intact. EDIT: upon rewatching the scene, apparently Baelgrimm actually kills the Nerubain lieutenant with just his leap, and there weren't any other living Nerubians around, so why did we blow up all of this mead again?

I finished the prologue AND the first zone storyline in only 2.5 hours? We only have three more zones to go and then the raid? How short is this expansion's campaign?

It is disappointing that we haven't heard word about what is going on the rest of the world at this moment. Dalaran - one of the most advanced cities/nations of the world and the world's center of magical learning, and a pillar of the world's infrastructure - was just wiped out in 20 minutes. There should be world wide panic and every nation going on red alert and mobilizing their flying cavalry, airships, mage portals, etc, and sending an immediete punitive expedition. Not just the nations, but also military orders such as the Ebon Blade, the Silver Hand, the Tyr's Guard, etc.

There is a moment in the storyline when a character says "Storm" three times in a row. "The stormborn" and "the stormriders" and "the storm something".

Aggravating feminist writing where the strong man who does his job and protects everybody gets shat on in favor of the woman girlboss who deserted her post. Also, women with beards. Won't waste more words on that.









I like how verdant the new city of Dornogal is, and I like the celtic knot designs in the trim. I do not like how overall blocky/square the architecture is, though. So Valdrakken and Oribos was preferrable in that regard. There was some neat stuff such as gardeners spraying water magic to water the plants instead of using a watering can or a hose.






It's cool how the Earthen do the Utawarerumono thing and have use crystals for lighting, embedding it into their walls or having it in place of candles on top of stables or on lampstands, but the glow/lighting effect is not very strong/good.




I find it unbecoming that Madam Goya has set up shop in a small room in a dilapidated alleyway filled with litter and rats and common ruffians. The same Madam Goya who ran the Black Market Auction house out of a nice house on a mountaintop next to a hot springs resort in Pandaria, and was using a palatial stone alcove house in Valdrakken. She has been exchanging highly coveted magical weapons and dragons that sell for millions of gold each for 10 years. She can afford some place nicer. It's like a bank. Going to an auction house is like going to a bank; it needs to look nice and prestigious so when you feel confident about handing over lots of your hard earned money. This is bad form.



Music: haven't heard anything that would make it onto my favorite's playlist so far. I noticed that they are using a hammered dulcimer which is nice, but it isn't Timothy Seaman tier music. There was a playful sounding part around the Cindebrew Meadery, will have to look that up later. The inn music is okayish.

I have been mining and picking herbs and thus far haven't found any cool fantastical stuff like in Dragonflight like the air herbs that blew you back or the frost herbs that froze you.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I have finished all sidequests up on the surface, and then finished the main storyline of the second zone, the Ringing Deeps. I am now level 77, half way to 78.




The sidequests are overall much more engaging than usual. Sure, you have your usual filler chores with the locals you don't give a hoot about (though some of them were neat such as the above one with the rock giant), but you also have sidequests with prior characters you do care about, such as Rannan, or sidequests with the Bronzebeards. I have also come across two sidequestlines that seem to be somewhat plot important foreshadowing conspiracies within the leadership and history of the Earthen.




The fungal treant and the candle monsters look cool.




I like this fantasy plant with a crystal growing out of it.




I came across an ore that was wrapped in magical webs, and when I tried to mine it I got caught by webs and slowed down. Neat.

I like the Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles-esque Kobold delve where you have to carry the candle/air purifier around or you will die outside of it. The candle/air purifier runs out of fuel the more steps you take, so you have to actually stop and plan out your route around the room. And there are tough enemies who can knock you back, further expending your candle/air purifier, so you have to burst down that mob/stun him/use knockback prevention abilities.



Story:




They're doing that stupid thing again from the Zaralek Cavern storyline where you confront a villain, and then your character just stands there doing absolutely nothing while this villain does whatever he wants be it picking up a magical artifact or attacking the guy you are supposed to be protecting or running away to do evil things another day. How many more people would I have saved from being zombified had I cut him down as he ran past me?




The narrative is making Magni out to be some deadbeat father who "failed" Moira and Dagran. Huh? It was Moira who chose to say "screw you dad!" and have a baby with an evil demon worshipper who then got killed and left Moira a widow and Dagran without a father. It was Moira who decided to continue living with the evil demon worshipping dwarves rather than come home to the safety of her people. But Magni is getting blamed for the foolishness of his daughter, and she's thrusting the responsibility of her actions on him? What a joke.





Haha


The sanctimonious prerendered cutscene dialogue and presentation continues to be awful.

The Ringing Deeps story ends with Moira Bronzebeard (a foreign royal) unilaterally appointing Brinthe as the Earthen's new High Speaker. Not only is this an ergregious violation of sovereignty, but Moira has only known Brinthe for a couple hours at most, as we know that Brinthe has been away from the Speakers for several years, possibly decades or centuries. There could very easily be other Earthen speakers who didn't desert who would have more experience than Brinthe and more understanding and would be better qualified. Sure, the Speaker NPCs come running in cheering for Brinthe at the end, but you would think they would be rooting for one of their own who had been with them for the past however many years through thick and thin, rather than some deserter who hasn't been with them for however long and just came slinking back right when a position opens up.

Not a fan of the moral relativism "do what feel goods, there is no objective right or wrong" messaging. I think it started in Legion but has become heavyhanded throughout Shadowlands and Dragonflight. Often times when I click on an NPC, the greeting I get is some variation of:

"The Arbiter seeks to preserve all truths"
"Find your truth"
"Follow no directives but your own"
etc

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Just as I finished the last sidequest in The Ringing Deeps, I hit level 80. I hope I'm going to get something from questing besides just gold and rep.

The only standout sidequests in The Ringing Deeps were #1 the one where you worked with the Mistweaver Pandaren to track the fog beasts and the reveal of flying around the corner and finding the hidden alcove of gigantic fog beasts. #2 Magni's mace Fearbreaker (which predictably he gave to Moria...). and I guess #3 the group of Earthen who agreed to die striking a fighting pose was neat.

I am enjoying the dragonriding races. It's more visually stunning when you have cave walls all around you and a ceiling above you, rather than in Dragonflight where you only have land below you and nothing else to the left/right/above you. Just wish that the game could facilitate racing against other players.

Music: I'm really liking this Jake Lefkowitz guy. He did many of the tracks that I liked from Shadowlands and Dragonflight too. Need to check out what else besides WoW he has done.

@15:03




I think part of the problem with WoW's music post WoD is that it changes too often, so you don't get to listen to the whole thing and become absorbed in it. The zones are subdivided into many small areas and the music changes whenever you cross one of these small area borders, and the nature of the gameplay (particularly once you finish the story) is that you are on your mount travelling across the continent across all of these different little area borders to reach these daily world quests spread out across the world. Or even while doing questing, you cross all of these borders to get to the next quest, which stops the current track before it has even started getting to the good part and begins playing a new track, which is then abrupbtly cut off before it reaches the good part, and so on. FF14 and GW2 don't have this problem as they just have a track that plays for the whole big zone and isn't constantly being cut off as you travel around in it.

As nice as the outdoor environments are to look at, it is a shame how neglected the interior houses are. Almost every Earthen building interior is the exact same layout, and you enter a lot of them.




I am overall fine with the Deathbringer hero talent tree (-10% damage taken is also nice), though it is a little finnicky to use. Basically, you get an ability to plant a DoT/bomb on an enemy (45 second cooldown). After a few seconds (or when the enemy reaches <30% HP and there are no other enemies around), the DoT/bomb will explode. This will then turn your Obliterate ability into two charges of a double scythe attack called Exterminate, which looks neat. Nowhere near as spectacular as Reaper's attacks in FF14, but still neat.

The finnickyness is:

• #1 Exterminate is not represented on your hotbar (you would think that the Obliterate icon would flip over into Exterminate and show the 2 charges), but is instead represented by two buffs up on the top right of your screen.
• #2 when you press Obliterate (with your two charges of Exterminate ready), the double scythe attack Exterminate will only activate if the Obliterate did not kill your enemy. So you can be running around with 2 charges of Exterminate ready and pressing Obliterate, but Exterminate may or may not go off.
• #3, if you apply the bomb to a mob but the mob dies immediately afterward (as in less than a second), then the bomb won't go off and you won't be able to use Exterminate.

Another odd thing about Deathbringer is that when you use Exterminate, the double scythes are actually staff weapons (Frostscythe of Lord Ahune) that your class cannot wield, and there are no polearm versions. Also interestingly, the visual size of the scythes scales to your target, so if you use Exterminate on a small enemy (as in smaller than you) than the scythes will be tiny, but if you use it on a big boss than they will be quite large and you can see them despite all of the other players and their effects.



Hallowfall

Gorgeous zone, good color palette with the azure blues and greens and bright golds and brownish reds.

The story catches your attention right away with you and Anduin immediately meeting Faerin and then fighting back an invasion.

Faerin has a nice voice, is very pleasant to listen to. Total mismatch with her character design. Should have looked like a cute girl. She is thus far the only expansion character I kinda like, besides maybe Baelgrim (rip).

This is the most engaging zone storyline thus far, with only a couple of parts making me facepalm. Anduin, we are at the bottom of this void cave. Our very souls are being erroded by void magic! We need to get up and out of this cave! Why are you slow walking and pouting for the Nth time about when you were mindcontrolled by the Jailer and shanked someone who survived? Why are you and Faerin stopping to have a discussion about hope and light and darkness? WE ARE TURNING INTO TENTACLE MONSTERS! I wish I could have slung these dumbasses over my should and hoofed it out of there.

I feel these paladin people should be tilting their head at Anduin being accompanied by a zombie panda who is dressed in skull armor, rides a skeleton dragon, and performs necromancy to raise corpses as minions.






Mereldar has nice music, looks good, and is very pleasant, and has a gorgeous backdrop. Should have been the capital city for the expansion. At least it has profession trainers. I just did a sidequest writing a letter of recommendation to the trading post NPCs to come set up shop down here, but I don't think there is a bank or an AH down here. If it did I would set my hearthstone here.




This book stand wheel inside the Mereldar Church is neat.




Once again, a lot of the sidequests that feel like they're part of the main story, such as the Faerin and Anduin quest. Sometimes it's difficult to tell whether or not a sidequest is just throwaway filler or something you really should be doing.

I should have done all of the Hallowfall sidequests once the party reached Mereldar. A little after that, the plot becomes urgent and seamlessly goes down to Azj-Kahet and it doesn't make sense to stop and turn around and finish up stuff in Hallowfall, which canonically takes place earlier in the story.

Anduin, if you really want to help these people, you could do a lot more than continuing to pretend that you are a lone grunt adventurer doing tasks for other people, trying to bail out the ocean with a bucket. You are a king. Grab a radio or a mage and call up Stormwind and bring in the armies and airships. If the Horde and Alliance were able to get their airships down into Deepholm then they can just as easily get down here.



Azj-Kahet



Hold up. Blizzard confiscates my MoP remix tinker gems so I can't use Heroic Leap as a Death Knight anymore, but Anduin gets to leap as a paladin? What?




I like this warm glowing plant that is used as a substitute for a burning campfire.

Orweyna (the dancing troll lady) is insufferable. The girlboss I thought Faerin was going to be.

[J1M]

Don't worry about the heroic leap thing. Anduin is a priest.

(Actually they seem to be cycling him through as many classes as possible: Child playing on his dad's account, priest, paladin, death knight, warrior, depressed 30-year-old wishing he didn't spend his life playing WoW, etc)

EDIT: Wouldn't be surprised if they had him ditch the plate armor to do some espionage to cover rogue next. Or finds an animal companion and his dad's hunting rifle for a couple of patches.

[Finarfin]

@J1M I stand corrected btw regarding the earthen. The Blizzard **** even screwed over the normal players not just the early access people. The Earthen will be available to unlock on the 3rd of September since not all chapters of the "War Within" Campaign are out.

[J1M]

@J1M I stand corrected btw regarding the earthen. The Blizzard **** even screwed over the normal players not just the early access people. The Earthen will be available to unlock on the 3rd of September since not all chapters of the "War Within" Campaign are out.

I wouldn't be surprised if the reason for the timegating was partially because the content wasn't done yet. The buggiest quests so far have been those campaign steps after the zones. They don't even have mailboxes or guards outside the horde/alliance embassies you establish. Also, the 4th chapter of the level 80 campaign was painfully long. Felt like half of the Ringing Deeps zone was lifted and shifted into that chapter.

[Finarfin]

@J1M I stand corrected btw regarding the earthen. The Blizzard **** even screwed over the normal players not just the early access people. The Earthen will be available to unlock on the 3rd of September since not all chapters of the "War Within" Campaign are out.

I wouldn't be surprised if the reason for the timegating was partially because the content wasn't done yet. The buggiest quests so far have been those campaign steps after the zones. They don't even have mailboxes or guards outside the horde/alliance embassies you establish. Also, the 4th chapter of the level 80 campaign was painfully long. Felt like half of the Ringing Deeps zone was lifted and shifted into that chapter.

Still scummy saying that you can unlock them when the full game is out

[J1M]

@J1M I stand corrected btw regarding the earthen. The Blizzard **** even screwed over the normal players not just the early access people. The Earthen will be available to unlock on the 3rd of September since not all chapters of the "War Within" Campaign are out.

I wouldn't be surprised if the reason for the timegating was partially because the content wasn't done yet. The buggiest quests so far have been those campaign steps after the zones. They don't even have mailboxes or guards outside the horde/alliance embassies you establish. Also, the 4th chapter of the level 80 campaign was painfully long. Felt like half of the Ringing Deeps zone was lifted and shifted into that chapter.

Still scummy saying that you can unlock them when the full game is out

They know this and it is why they refunded the early access fee to me without protest.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I have finished the Hallowfall sidequests. Overall pretty decent, most engaging sidequests of the zones thus far.




I was disappointed in how the cathedral dungeon was handled, though. It gets very little buildup. You're in the cathedral grounds preparing a funeral when suddenly the people on the grounds start attacking you, and then you go back to the general in Mereldar and says "there is a schism!" (between what? What is it about?) and then she sends you into the dungeon, and you just kill a lot of people and then fight a prophetess/priestess at the end who is talking about how the Arathi are going to take over the world, and then you get a floating NPC head saying "we must be tolerant of others and not adhere to dogma" and the end. ???

Also, demonization of the resurrection, with them rezzing people as shambling corpses and the designated "good guy" NPC crying out as to how that is wrong. Why can't they actually rez people like what Inquisitor Whiteman did in Scarlet Monastery?

It is also interesting how none of the prior zone storylines or sidequests have taken me to the other dungeons besides the Rookery. No quest to go to Cinderbrew Meadery, or the Ringing Deeps dungeons.




Teha is correct. The stuff the Steelstrikes carted out on display (spices, weapons, and ****) are nothing special, and the surface merchants would probably lose money having to pay for that stuff to be transported up to the surface. I'm surprised no one called out the many Arathi airships flying around in the background. The Alliance propeller gunships are probably fuel guzzlers and too expensive to build and operate for merchants, but these gasbag airships would probably be cheaper, and probably safer and more sophisticated than the Horde goblin airships. Perhaps the surface merchants could commission the Arathi to build more of them. The Alliance and Horde managed to get their airships down into Deepholm so it doesn't seem preposterous that airships could be built down in Hallowfall and then flown up to the surface people and handed off. Or if they can't be done, then perhaps the Arathi could buy/rent a shipyard on the surface and begin building their airships for clients from there.




We formed a raid group and spread out across the map looking for a rare spawn that drops a mount. Goodness gracious, I have never seen this much bitching about a rare before. Back in 2013 when we were camping Huolon, if people missed it, they shrugged. No biggie, he'll respawn in an hour. But here people in /general chat wanted to have a congressional hearing about "people doing full DPS and not waiting for others" and asking people to get blacklisted.



Azj-Kahet

I have finished the Azj-Khat storyline. Haven't done all of the sidequests yet as the story was urgent, and I really wanted to finish the levelling campaign ASAP I so Sparks of Life would start dropping from War Mode, which need to buy PvP gear. War mode seems to pair nicely with gathering professions as you spend most of your gameplay out in the world anyway.

Missed opportunity to have intestinal, organic "black blood" areas be a full zone unto themselves, with the player travelling down through old god organs and intestines. Feels like a waste to have it only be a small part of the Azj-Kahet zone.


The City of Threads is pretty cool. Spent a lot of time wandering around looking at the doodads and talking to the NPCs.




You already shot at Xal'atath at the start of the expansion and it did nothing to her. Should have aimed one foot to the left instead and shot the enemy commander and demoralized the army. Worst of all, Anduin, why are you (*sigh* once again...) trying to save our enemies? You are sabotoging our team and a liability to the war effort. Get out of here. You might have honor, but your enemies do not. Anything goes for them, and you can't hold back at that point.




Why didn't she think of her son? Also, another cutscene with no build up and bad dialogue.

Too much dramaqueen stuff going on with Anduin, Alleria, and Xal'atath.

I am pleasantly surprised that the questing hasn't ended here. After finishing Azj-Kahet, it sends you back to Dornogal to start the levelcap storyline. In Dragonflight, you finish Thaldrazus and then that was it besides doing the raid.

[Finarfin]

Thanks for the Reminder that I should post some more pictures from WW.

► Show Spoiler

On another note. I think I am the only one who likes Xal'atath, both lookswise and voice. I also had a fun little bug that had those dialogue windows with talking heads for her and it had her old model (the one you can see in Tiragarde Sound)

[Finarfin]

Why didn't she think of her son? Also, another cutscene with no build up and bad dialogue.

This was something that bothered me too. She kept talking about her son prior to this cutscene yet he wasn't in that scene, but those ******* people she maybe knew for a short time...

[rusty_shackleford]

her face looks kinda fat

[Finarfin]

her face looks kinda fat

Alleria or Xal'atath?

[J1M]

Ringing Deeps dungeons are tied to the questing experience. Kobolds and Machine Speaker stuff.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Ringing Deeps dungeons are tied to the questing experience. Kobolds and Machine Speaker stuff.

I remember doing two scenarios, one where you stealthed around with a disguise one and another with the three Bronzebeard, but not any of the 5 man dungeons like the Rookery on the Isle of Dorn.

[J1M]

Ringing Deeps dungeons are tied to the questing experience. Kobolds and Machine Speaker stuff.

I remember doing two scenarios, one where you stealthed around with a disguise one and another with the three Bronzebeard, but not any of the 5 man dungeons like the Rookery on the Isle of Dorn.

The solo quests establish the confrontation with the Candle King and where he lives, etc. I guess technically you aren't required to do a follower dungeon to complete the quest chain.

[Finarfin]

Btw, am I the only one that seems to notice that the Alliance side is full of cringy memes, references to pop-culture be it scenes or characters? And also the horde is always stereotypically portrait as some mustache twirling villain, yet I don't see the same on the horde side. Alliance behaves somewhat normally considering the circumstances

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Btw, am I the only one that seems to notice that the Alliance side is full of cringy memes, references to pop-culture be it scenes or characters?

I only remember that during Cata, with the Rambo questline in Redridge Mountains and then the Indiana Jones parody in Uldum.

the horde is always stereotypically portrait as some mustache twirling villain

The Horde is not "always" villainous. There are a few good Horde questlines. TBC Nagrand about the redemption of the Orcs, Cata Azshara with the fun Goblin stuff, almost any Tauren story, etc.

yet I don't see the same on the horde side.

There is no moral equivalency between the Horde and the Alliance. You play Horde because you like the aesthetics, not because you are under the illusion that you are a squeaky clean good guy hero like the paladin faction. The Horde was morally compromised as soon as Thrall allowed the Forsaken in, evil zombies who eat people's corpses, they kill and dig people up from the grave and tell them "serve or die", capture humans and perform horrific live experimentation upon them to brew a blight that to wipe out all life, etc. The Forsaken were the player last race to be added in Vanilla WoW and were not originally intended to be part of the Horde, but some of the devs really wanted the undead in but they couldn't justify building them as their own third faction, so they got lopped in with the Horde which infringed upon the Horde's WC3 redemption story. And then you had players from both factions being shoehorned down the same generic "you are a hero fighting against evil" storylines with Ragnaros, the Burning Legion, the Lich King, etc, where the NPCs insist that you are a do-gooder hero. Which leads to the schizophrenic Horde experience as you keep alternating between evil Horde questlines where you split open the heads of human farmers with a shovel and poison dogs, to being "the champion" saving Azeroth from the raid boss of the week. In Dragonflight, it was really awkward for Malfurion and Tyrande to be calling me "friend", when just two expansions prior I committed perfidy marching into Ashenvale, massacring villages, and torched their civilization, but that's what happens when everyone gets rammed down the same questlines.

[Unhelpful Contrarian]

Is WoW a good game to play for someone who never played it?

[rusty_shackleford]

Is WoW a good game to play for someone who never played it?

No. You had to be there.
The people who control it now have very little to do with the original game, and generally hate the people who played it at that time.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Is WoW a good game to play for someone who never played it?

Kinda. There are pros and cons to starting out retail now.

The pro is that it has far and away the most character customization of any high fantasy game I can think of, with 20 years of different armors, cosmetic effect items/toys, mounts, pets, etc to customize your character with, as well as a dozen different very different racial models that aren't just reskinned humans. It has the most responsive combat of any MMO. There are a lot of quality of life features now. The game looks great and has some decent music. And there is 20 years of quests to do. The raid boss fights are pretty fun.

That being said, retail has some issues. Most obvious is that the story is near impenetrable to people who weren't keeping up with it. The story doesn't actually begin in WoW, but in an RTS game called Warcraft 3, and then a lot of the major story moments happen outside of the game in out of print books and in short stories that aren't on the website anymore. Thrall appointing Garrosh Warchief and Garrosh killing Cairne. Why Garrosh is popular with the Horde and why he started the war with the Alliance. The nuclear bombing of Theramore. Anduin and Baine's friendship. Sylvanas' motivations for starting yet another war with the Alliance. Why the Primal Incarnates hate the Titans. Etc. For people who weren't keeping up with all of these books and short stories, they had to either read WoWpedia summaries or watch 2 hour long Nobbel youtube vidoes. You can still hop in and have fun doing the questlines, but you will be thrown into a 20 year ongoing soap opera in which your character is in the inner circle with all of these world leaders and did all of these things and presumes you are already invested in the story. I saw a let's play of summon starting retail for the first time and the game dumps him in the BFA expansion (the 7th expac) and he had no clue what was going on.

Second issue is that retail does not facilitate the natural formation of friendships. In Vanilla, the game was hard. You needed other people to do dungeons with, and you added them to your friend's list and formed guilds and then did the raids together. In Retail WoW, you don't need friends to do anything. Levelling can be done solo, and you have a group finder menu that automatically puts you into a party with other players and teleports you to a dungeon, you do it in 15 minutes, and then everyone teleports out and never sees each other again. The game is a lot more fun when you're playing with friends, so you have to put in the extra effort to find friends, be it doing M+ dungeons together or joining a PvP community and doing battlegrounds with them. Or joining the RP community.

Third issue is how Retail works: it is very, very fun to play when a next expansion releases, as you tour through the beautiful new high fantasy zones and do the questline and then tour through the fun boss fights. But after a week or two, you've seen all of the content, and the things left to do aren't as fun:

• Do old expansion content (questlines to see the story, raids for transmogs/armors, etc) by yourself.
• Do endgame aka farm the same current raid over and over for 6-9 months, speedrun the same half dozen mythic+ dungeons on increasingly higher difficulties with higher timers
• Do the same 10 vs 10 rated battleground maps until you get the cosmetics you want/get bored.
• Or join the RP community and show up to campaign events to /roll 20 against generic evils and fluff chat with the other RPers.

So what most people tend to do is resub when a new expac comes out, play for a couple months, and then unsub for two years until the next expac.

[Finarfin]

Is WoW a good game to play for someone who never played it?

I'd say try out the trial and if you like it enough to get to the trial max level, you can keep playing. Something that is also worth mentioning is, that you can go to the main cities (Orgrimmar and Stormwind) and talk to Chromie and choose your timeline (this means you can go back in time so that everything in the world is reset to that point.) from 8(?) different ones. Each of them represent a past expansion.