Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Mists Day One Impressions

In a word: magnificent!

Admittedly, I've only done two or three questlines in the very first zone. But so far it has been Blizzard at the very top of their game. Fun, enjoyable quests. An interesting storyline. Killing lots of Horde. Gorgeous scenery. Lots of excellent small touches.

The SI:7 mini-questline was superb.

Now, it is a bit crowded with tons of people running around. Truthfully, I think Blizzard intended to use the Cross-Realm Zone techniques to split up the crowded zones into multiple ones. But since the outcry against CRZ is harsh, they've just let the zones be.

But still, it's the same as every expansion at release.

The gear rewards are interesting. If it's a green reward, you only get the reward appropriate for your current spec. But if it's a blue reward, you can choose the item for whichever spec you prefer. I think that's a reasonable way of keeping your dungeon set up to date if it is different from your questing set.

I really hope Blizzard can keep this up for the rest of the continent. If they do, it will be--by far--the best expansion of WoW.

8 comments:

  1. Doesn't that mean that you have to pick the blue items for your dungeon spec because your quest spec will always be more up to date because of the green rewards?

    That's kind of... interesting. The good rewards you have to take for the spec you use less.

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  2. There are also vendors with green gear for every spec in the leveling zones. Good to patch up the occasional hole if you skipped quest hubs or something like that.

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  3. That's not entirely true on the gear. I've done the first few hubs on my DK (Blood) and my Shaman (Elemental). The DK was offered several 1H weapons which, per Blizzard, do not work for the spec. He does have a Frost off-spec so that could have been detected but that isn't what was advertised.

    The Shaman has been offered a mix of Spirit and non-Spirit gear, which is less interesting as Spirit does translate to hit for Elemental. However, he was also offered the choice of an AGL mace or and INT mace for one reward.

    It looks like a work in progress but the direction is fairly clear. I still wish they would just offer a choice of any gear your class could use rather than trying to limit it to the current spec.

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  4. Kring, your dungeon spec may be the one you use less (at least initially). But it's arguably the spec which is more important. The spec you use for more difficult content, and thus needs to be better quality.

    I guess the argument is that greens are good enough for questing, your secondary spec, but you use to bolster your primary dungeon spec.

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  5. I do have to say, the Alliance opening was very good once not every person on the server was trying to do it.

    After about 20 minutes of trying to hit barrels on a ship that I couldn't see due to explosions and other gyrocopters, I jumped off the side of the Skyfire and rode inland to mine.

    Missed server first mining by about 10 minutes...to a guildie who'd *also* jumped off the ship about 10 minutes before I did. :)

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  6. I am at this very moment on hold with Blizzard support so I can try and remember what my Battle.net password is. Then I'm going to buy Pandaria, and it's pretty much all your fault. :)

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  7. Heh, I hope you like it, Liore.

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  8. That is some fairly gushing praise my friend. But I think we should give it time until you get to the endgame before we throw a party!

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