World of Warcraft: Midnight

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

This review mirrors my feelings about the expansion so far.

Hearing that Harandar may be like the half-assed K'aresh zone from last expansion is disappointing. Hopefully it's not that bad.

World of Warcraft: Midnight is a welcome homecoming for WoW fans

This is WoW at its WoWiest

www.polygon.com

 

[Distracted DM]

Zul'aman's been the best so far. Eversong was fine, arator's journey was good, Zul'aman has had some strangely impactful sidequests. Feels like some people were working through some personal experiences with them or something. The estranged brother and sister reuniting to arrange their abusive mother's funeral, and the autistic girl wanting to see her dead sister again were both pretty heavy stuff.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Zul'aman's been the best so far. Eversong was fine, arator's journey was good, Zul'aman has had some strangely impactful sidequests. Feels like some people were working through some personal experiences with them or something. The estranged brother and sister reuniting to arrange their abusive mother's funeral, and the autistic girl wanting to see her dead sister again were both pretty heavy stuff.

I really liked the Lyanna Mormont energy of the tween troll leader, although hearing the Zul'aman raid was us killing the grandparents of the current NPCs made me age several decades. (Although, to be fair, I long ago turned my dwarf's hair white and gave him readers to wear in his in-town and in-delves transmogs.)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Well, they nerfed the key to the Arcantina. It still has a 90 second cooldown, but like the housing teleport spell, it just takes you back to where you were when you first used it, so it's no longer a shortcut to Silvermoon.

That said, the portal to the new version of the city is in the first area of the main portal room in both Stormwind and Orgrimmar, so if you're near a portal to either city, you're good.

 

[Campbell]

We've done two dungeons and two delves so far that the quest storylines have led us to. Valeera is a terrible delve companion, so I may have to set her to tank so she actually runs into melee, instead of hanging back with my hunter and my wife's priest, never actually doing anything other than voice emotes. Windrunner Spire is way too long as a dungeon, although for people who love the Windrunner sisters, maybe the lore will balance that out. The Murder Row dungeon in Silvermoon is great and fits beautifully into the storyline. I don't remember the names of the delves, but they were both fine, other than Valeera making us miss Brann.

Otherwise, that's it. Later tonight, we'll try and polish off Eversong Woods' sidequests and rares before moving on to Zul'Aman.

I personally have found Valeera mostly fine as a healer and a tank. I have not used her as DPS though. She did struggle a little bit as a tank doing some 6s and 7s (I was playing holy paladin), although some of that might have been how low-geared I was when I made the attempt. Way better than Bronzebeard in similar roles though at a similar level of progression.

I would have to see if it might be an issue with the pairing. Have not done any delves as a ranged DPS yet. My main is a paladin (at end game stuff - did my first Mythic 0 this morning) and my main alt is a monk (only 82 right now) so I'm rushing in regardless.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I personally have found Valeera mostly fine as a healer and a tank. I have not used her as DPS though. She did struggle a little bit as a tank doing some 6s and 7s (I was playing holy paladin), although some of that might have been how low-geared I was when I made the attempt. Way better than Bronzebeard in similar roles though at a similar level of progression.

I would have to see if it might be an issue with the pairing. Have not done any delves as a ranged DPS yet. My main is a paladin (at end game stuff - did my first Mythic 0 this morning) and my main alt is a monk (only 82 right now) so I'm rushing in regardless.

Yeah, I think DPS + ranged DPS is the issue. She -- and Brann -- when in DPS mode don't seem to sense when combat is happening unless they're very close to it.

In contrast, when running follower dungeons -- which my wife and I do for quests instead of dealing with random jerks sprinting through them -- those NPCs figure out what's up much sooner than Valeera or Brann do. Someone needs to tweak a variable in the delve companions.

 

[TwoSix]

I personally have found Valeera mostly fine as a healer and a tank. I have not used her as DPS though. She did struggle a little bit as a tank doing some 6s and 7s (I was playing holy paladin), although some of that might have been how low-geared I was when I made the attempt. Way better than Bronzebeard in similar roles though at a similar level of progression.

I would have to see if it might be an issue with the pairing. Have not done any delves as a ranged DPS yet. My main is a paladin (at end game stuff - did my first Mythic 0 this morning) and my main alt is a monk (only 82 right now) so I'm rushing in regardless.

I did a few delves with her as tank while leveling for my holy priest; she seemed inordinately squishy, even though the delves were just Tier 1s. She's up to rank 8 or so now, and she has some curios, so she's doing better now. But I definitely think that she's a superior healer compared to tank.

 

[Campbell]

I have to say as someone who has flipped back and forth between a Blood Elf Priest and Blood Elf Paladin as mains since Burning Crusade the lore in this expansion so far really hits. The end of Arator's journey in particular.

It's also just really nice to see the world move forward and Blood Elves start change a bit, but not too much.

I am also really liking Prey so far but ask me again once World Quests are otherwise irrelevant.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I have to say as someone who has flipped back and forth between a Blood Elf Priest and Blood Elf Paladin as mains since Burning Crusade the lore in this expansion so far really hits. The end of Arator's journey in particular.

It's also just really nice to see the world move forward and Blood Elves start change a bit, but not too much.

I really like that the Silvermoon NPCs have strong opinions about warlocks, night elves, void elves, etc. All of that history is in the expansion without being an overload, but just a context for what's happening now.

I am also really liking Prey so far but ask me again once World Quests are otherwise irrelevant.

I think the Prey system will be most easy to engage with when leveling alts and grinding out world quests for lesser-geared characters.

 

[Campbell]

One of the things I am really appreciative in the dungeons so far is how healer centric they are. Loads of different healer checks, different sorts of damage patterns, absorbs to heal through, ticking damage, effects that reduce maximum health, etc. It feels like it's been a very long time since they have taken healers into account like this from a mechanical design standpoint.