It's been some time from my last update so I thought I'd journal my initial impressions of the second WoW expansion pack (XP). Being only 1 month in to the XP, I'll limit my thoughts mostly on PVE. At the time of this writing I've only been able to hit 75 so my experiences thus far are limited. I'll defer my comments on PVP since I am waiting to hit 80. I've rated each of the categories below on a scale of 1-5 (5 being the best, 1 being abysmal)...
The quests themselves are much improved from the first XP. There seems to be much more integration between the storyline and quests available. A stellar example of this is the quest line that starts in Dragonblight and ends at the gates of the Ice Crown followed by a fantastic assault on Undercity. There are, I will add, cut-scenes which are really enjoyable to watch and enhance the overall pve game experience. I was living out my MJ dreams during the Undercity assault. Aside from the DB quests, there seem to be a LOT of PVP based daily's in Grizzly Hills which provides some much needed variety. Without giving things away, there are notably many more quests that involve mounted creatures on land/air. In Borjean Tundra, there's even a group of Druids that seek the elimination of Nesingwary (the hunter from Nagrand) which is kind of interesting - continuing a storyline between XP1 and XP2.
I would have given it a solid 5 but I did come across a few quests that were completely ridiculous - namely the "Riding the Red Rocket" and one other that I can't recollect the name where you need to either drop 20+ gp on an engineer'd part of know someone who can make it.
Landscapes and Creature Modeling (rating 5):
in one word..fantastic! The folks at Blizzard did a remarkable job at creating beautiful landscapes... if you look closely at the details, they made a lot of enhancements around fire, smoke, waterfalls, magics, etc... The layouts of each zone is unique but in some way has a feel as if they are part of the same land mass (Northrend). Creature modeling seems to be much improved. Mob's have more facial detail and seem less toon'ish. The most important thing for me was that it didn't require me to upgrade my hardware but improved enough to take notice.
Class Diversity: (rating 1):
Having played many online RPG's and MMO's (including an extensive paper and die RPG run), I have found some things that were fairly consistent: In a group setting, spell caster/Healer classes were relatively weak in melee range, had exceptionally low durability and armor, but were ultra-powerful when defended properly in the backdrop. Then you had your close range melee classes, which had medium to exceptional armor, were ultra powerful in close range single point melee. And then you had your hybrid classes, that were either a combination of ranged/melee or melee/casting which had greater utility in small group settings.
This to me, translates to tighter integration and a more enjoyable playing experience as you are dependent upon your other classes to do what they are supposed to do. You see this to some extent in group/dungeon/raid settings in WoW, however Blizzard took this in what I think is the wrong direction. Blizzard decided to blend class attributes from class to another. For example, several classes have the ability to do *single-point melee* DPS that equals or exceeds some top end raiding rogues. A great example of this are the new Death Knight's (DK's) or Retribution Pallys. Lots of DPS potential, great defensive capability - no down side. Even on the rogue side I've seen another manifestation with the introduction of Cloak of Shadows, giving them some magical defense capability, followed by Killing spree - what now rogues have multi-target AOE capability? I realize that Blizz is trying to give classes better play survivability in PVP but I don't think it was done correctly.
Conclusion:Having played many online RPG's and MMO's (including an extensive paper and die RPG run), I have found some things that were fairly consistent: In a group setting, spell caster/Healer classes were relatively weak in melee range, had exceptionally low durability and armor, but were ultra-powerful when defended properly in the backdrop. Then you had your close range melee classes, which had medium to exceptional armor, were ultra powerful in close range single point melee. And then you had your hybrid classes, that were either a combination of ranged/melee or melee/casting which had greater utility in small group settings.
This to me, translates to tighter integration and a more enjoyable playing experience as you are dependent upon your other classes to do what they are supposed to do. You see this to some extent in group/dungeon/raid settings in WoW, however Blizzard took this in what I think is the wrong direction. Blizzard decided to blend class attributes from class to another. For example, several classes have the ability to do *single-point melee* DPS that equals or exceeds some top end raiding rogues. A great example of this are the new Death Knight's (DK's) or Retribution Pallys. Lots of DPS potential, great defensive capability - no down side. Even on the rogue side I've seen another manifestation with the introduction of Cloak of Shadows, giving them some magical defense capability, followed by Killing spree - what now rogues have multi-target AOE capability? I realize that Blizz is trying to give classes better play survivability in PVP but I don't think it was done correctly.
So far I am enjoying the overall game experience of PVE, barring a few minor quest annoyances. Blizzard is one of those game companies that I have no regrets plunking down loot on - despite our gross differences in class diversity, I found the second XP well worth trying out. I'll post an update, when I go full PVP - there are some general concerns with aforementioned classes however I'll give it a go.
