Friday, July 31, 2015
If you could skip Draenor, would you?
Let me start out by saying, I know this won’t happen. While on one hand I like the idea, it isn’t practical for numerous reasons.
That said, imagine the next expansion comes out and instead of leaving Draenor and adding 10 more levels from 101-110, it actually adds 20 levels, but they run from 91-110. What would happen is that when you were done with Pandaria, you could choose to go to Draenor in pursuit of Garrosh or you could head to this new area. Obviously, those that were already 100 could just start in the new expansion at 100 and go from there
Now, given the choice between an old storyline and a completely new, unknown one, of course you are going to choose the new one. But for alts after that? Yes, it’s going to be dictated by the quality of this new expansion, but what I want to get at is: is there enough of an enjoyable experience in Draenor to return there if you had other options?
Part of this is related to my last post about Warlords of Draenor and how all of the things I associate with it are going to stay with it. The other part of it is that as an altoholic, I like having leveling options. One of the things that Vanilla WoW had great about it was leveling options. Two continents and often multiple areas on those continents that were close enough in level to quest in. As it got to the tail end of things there were less options but still, overall, a lot of choice.
Burning Crusade had one single starting area but you could leave Hellfire Peninsula pretty early on and start questing in Zangarmarsh or you could finish Hellfire Peninsula and move over to Terokkar Forest.
Wrath had one of my favorites. You could start on either side of the continent and bounce around the various equivalent level areas. In the end, there were basically two max level areas too.
Cataclysm had Mount Hyjal or Vashj'ir as your initial level 80 questing. Although the starting quest to Vashj'ir was such a terrible wait that sometimes it felt like you only had one. Still, you could quickly move to new areas again or finish the original areas and skip to the "third" zone.
Mists of Pandaria was pretty railroad in the beginning. It wasn't a lot, but a few quests were required to get things set-up but then after that it opened up pretty well.
Warlords of Draenor has continued on this strong on-the-rails trend for the starting area and then ostensibly opens up. But our "optional" garrison becomes vital and a fair amount of the quest hubs won't open up unless you progress the story. Which is great for storytelling, but it feels a little too linear at times.
With all of the caveats of new story and quality of the story and etc out of the way, I do think that if I had the choice I'd probably avoid Draenor on most alts. Part of it is likely due to the Orc-exhaustion I've been diagnosed with (much of Blackrock Foundry and Hellfire Assault feel so much like Siege of Orgrimmar to me.) Part of it is of course would be going with the new & exciting thing. But just overall, I'm just not very enamored of Draenor.
There are some beautiful sights and interesting things, don't get me wrong. And the leveling can be very smooth with good story and not too much fluff (although perhaps a tad too fast relative to the areas). But something about it just feels very...claustrophobic? I'm not sure what word I'm looking for here but when I think of Mists of Pandaria I think of very open and the feeling of wide lands. Very interesting and engaging. Despite how pretty Draenor can look, I just don't feel that same way. I wish I knew why. I'll be curious if having flying changes my thoughts on leveling and experiencing the content.
But back to you, what are your thoughts?
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I have found levelling in Draenor to be an absolute pleasure so far, that's on four Alliance and one Horde character.
ReplyDeleteYou can follow the quests and progress through the zones and enjoy the storyline it presents (this is particularly strong for the Horde in Frostfire Ridge, but I'd also include the Elementals quest line in Nagrand too). I did this on my first Alliance and Horde characters as I was enjoying levelling so much, and I wasn't in any great rush to hit 100 with either of them.
Want to level up fast? No problem, pop a xp bonus potion and hit the bonus areas. I did this with my subsequent Alliance alts. And of course your future alts will all have flying, so it can be *very* fast now.
The only mechanism missing is a good variety of dungeons to level through: our GM uses this technique to incredible effect, especially when she levels up Healers. She has a rate of climb that rivals the Lightning. I know she found it a bit tiresome when she levelled her Druid up as it was her 6th to level 100 and once she hit 90 her progress slowed noticeably.
In a year or so I confidently predict that new-comers to the game will be posting comments such as "This xpac is briliant! Why did you all hate it so much?".
The problems started at level 100 for me, but we'll be straight into xpac 6 then.
I am curious to see what they do with Professions, and whether any fix they attempt is applied retrospectively to WoD. Similarly with your Garrison: will it just level up with you so it hits level 3 when you hit 100 and the Shipyard also magically appears? No one is going to want to bother with spending all that gold and accumulating GR are they?
See, I think it is really interesting hearing these different view points and experiences, so thanks for that.
DeleteIt will be interesting to see what people coming to this expansion late think about it. What stands out to them and what they don't notice.
Having stuff to do at 100 does seem to be a standard complaint, not wrongly I'd rush to add. I think Blizzard expects everyone to raid, go to Tanaan, PvP, or at least try for the legendary ring. Maybe not everyone but that really seems like the key content they are pushing and I'm not sure it applies to a wide swath of the players.
Your thoughts on the garrison and shipyard are similar to mine and about Tanaan as well. When the next expansion comes out, will people spend any time in Tanaan? As soon as you hit 100, you'll likely want to start the new areas, so you won't work on the reps needed for flying. Obviously if you've done the Pathfinder achievement on other characters that's a non-issue, but someone new to the game will not really be flying in Draenor or putting much effort into their garrison.
That's an intriguing idea! All the alts I already have in Draenor would finish out leveling to 100 there, I think, but some of my lower level alts (most of whom aren't even in Outland yet) just might skip it.
ReplyDelete"Is there enough of an enjoyable experience in Draenor to return there if you had other options?"
If there were alternate level 91-100 content available, whether I would choose to do that or Draenor would most likely depend on the specific alt in question -- would it fit my internal sense of her RP-self better for her to go to Draenor, or to go to the other place? -- just like my choices of which zones and questlines to do in the existing content do. There are some things that I do with everyone, but the rest of each character's XP gets dictated by RP and which quest rewards I want for Transmogrification.
I enjoyed the leveling experience with Kamalia, but I've had some real trouble getting up the motivation to go through it again with my alts. Most of that is a serious case of Orc Fatigue, accentuated by the feeling of being on rails that you discuss -- you have to do certain things if you want to add certain followers to your entourage or get the books to upgrade your garrison buildings for "free".
I'm getting enough free XP from herbing and mining in the Garrison and from follower missions, however, that I will be able to skip some of the Draenor content with my alts. I've started making mental lists for myself -- this alt wants these followers so she has to do these questlines but can skip those questlines; that alt wants those followers so she has to do those questlines but can skip these questlines.
I've had trouble motivating myself to go questing with my Alliance Mage, too, even though there shouldn't be quite so much orc overload in those storylines and I've heard that they're excellent. I thought that I'd be keen to learn more about the Draenei culture, to see them in full flower and all that... but apparently just seeing their scenery mostly satisfies that desire.
(Maybe my interest in the game in general is just waning?)
The Bonus Objectives were supposed to provide an alternate leveling path, for those who didn't care about their Garrisons or following a main storyline, right? I'll probably mostly ignore them because I want the followers or the construction notes and I'm getting enough XP for doing those things. I might try taking a later alt through Draenor purely on Bonus Objectives, though.
If the next expansion provides a sufficient relief from orc overload, if it gives us a nice break from orc-centric storylines for awhile, then I think I could enjoy coming back through Draenor with a later alt. I'd definitely need a break of some sort, though!
I feel like I say this often, but I'm a lot like what you describe. That I would choose where characters would go based on RP ideas. Well, all things being equal, I'd probably default to the new expansion but opt for Draenor when it felt "right".
DeleteI completely understand that lack of motivation to get more alts through and the possible waning of interest in the game. What I'm beginning to think is the problem for me is the Pathfinder hanging over my head. I want flying back and I want to have Pathfinder done so that when it drops I'm ready to go. So that means I've been focused on anything and everything that relates to it, which for me wears quickly. I don't mind working towards a task or long term goal, but I like doing it at my pace.
I think once I have Pathfinder out of the way (and am actually able to fly) I'll really feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders and I can get back to the way I like to play. I can avoid the Orc Fatigue, I can avoid what feels like rails to me, that sort of thing.
The Alliance story had some good points although I think there is just less to work from. The Horde side has some pretty clear stories to follow - track down Garrosh, learn about the Orcs they descended from, revisit their "great sin" etc. The Alliance has a fine story, don't get me wrong, but this particular over-arching story is more Horde centric. Or at least, has more paths to follow.
Doing just the bonus objectives to level could be interesting, although would you do the bare minimums to unlock outposts, flight paths, and other basic stuff?
Like I said earlier, I think I need a break too, but it might not be from the game so much as the style I'm playing right now.
Oh, I'd do the bare minimums to get at least the flight paths, too :) I like to have my travel options all unlocked. For example, in Cataclysm, I typically do Hyjal up to the point that unlocks the Molten Front, enough of Vashj'ir to get the portal open, Deepholm until I get to level 83, Uldum until 84, just enough of Twilight Highlands to get the portal open, and then back to Uldum to get the rest of the way to 85. I'd probably have to keep reminding myself, though, that this character was just in Draenor for the level 90 to 100 XP, and didn't really want or need all that Garrison-related stuff.
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