The patch is upon us tomorrow, and today is a rest day from WoW.
Needless to say, I’m rooting for the new content, although the longest content drought and playing other games dulled the anticipation a bit. Am I ready for the patch and what am I eager to do there?
First of all, I deliberately ignored related PTR news concerning all the system changes and new gameplay stuff. I’m a filthy casual, so sockets this, conduits and class changes that do not bother me at the very least. I’ll just let the game educate me about the new stuff, and pick the options I find suitable for my gameplay. Current mood: full of wonder and ready to accept whatever changes come – but also eager to waive away anything I find annoying and not worth attention.
Second, Torghast. Maybe – just maybe – I’ll give it another try, as one of the major changes development direction was to make it less frustrating and more rewarding. They removed a death counter, added a star rating, ensured rewards for the attempt, made it 5 layers per run instead of 6 and what not. At this point and after my previous grind I’m more than ready to dismiss the whole thing and swap legendaries to a higher ilvl, non-legendary item at will. But who knows, maybe it’ll be my goal later in the patch. At this moment I’m not excited at all, although thanks Blizzard for the effort of saving the sinking ship.
Taza’vesh the Mega-Dungeon. As I understand, there’s not so much motivation as with Mechagon – it’s rather a completely side story like we had with the Legion’s version of Karazhan. A couple of lead-in quests, go. Still, it’s a piece of new content, and Brokers are an intriguing and kinda a comic-relief race, so I’ve no doubt that the dungeon will be hilarious. I think sometime soon in the patch – in the first month – I’m planning to gear up a bit, cobble up my own group as I did with Mechagon, and sit through the event once.
Flights. Ah yes, that’s always one of the most welcome additions in every expansion. The thing is spoiled a bit by Shadowlands zone monochrome design which I ranted about previously, so there’s no actual exploration in order. But still, but still: it’s an easier and less annoying navigation, especially in Revendreth and Bastion departments, a number of sights and screenshots from above, and I would finally be doing exploration/rare/treasure achievements. Well, later in the patch, but it adds a new angle and a new business during lulls. Besides, it will ease anima farming through the world quests.
Korthia and the Maw. Needless to say, I’m most excited about the new content, exploration, achievements and story development. Even if Korthia is rumored not to be a large zone, there will be a lot of daily and weekly stuff to do, treasures, secrets, boss and field events, reputation and rewards to care about – in short, many-many short-term and long-term goals. And the patch story will unravel by chapters for a while too – I still think that Suramar-style weekly chapter updates are one of the best ideas they implemented ever since Legion. If only the raid was woven in gently in the story. People will only see the quest story resolution in 1,5 months, and by then they’ll be farming the raid for a month already, even the LFR audience like myself. So if raid by lore follows the quest events, not happens simultaneously, that’s gonna be weird.
The Raid. Well, obviously, it’s the big attraction. New encounters, the bulk of my gameplay on multiple characters, new transmogs to farm, and of course, the bridge to the next patch. Whatever happens to Sylvanas, the WoW community will burst with the attitude, opinions and theories, yours truly included! Lore discussions and predictions of a big picture / sequels are one of my ever-favorite things in WoW. So I’m watching the raid finale cinematic as soon as it becomes available, and I’ll be discussing it at once!
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What else to say? My toons shook the dust off their weapons, all went to Tomb of Sargeras, Nighthold and Nightmare to remember how to walk and fight and WoW, and are now parked in Oribos, totally prepared for the next World of Warcraft chapter.
As much as I don’t like the weird realms in WoW as a main course, we sail that ship to the end, and well, the ship is frankly not bad. Let’s hope that 9.1. is entertaining and long enough to keep us afloat, and content drought will not exceed the usual timings in the future :) Cause even if I’m happy that I tried, walked through and liked so many single player games in the last couple of months, I’d rather have WoW as the game to play and live in. Like it’s always been.
Gnomecore 