I'll be restarting my wow sub in the upcoming week. Probably not on release day, but soon. I got a lot of shit going on right now. But, when I do play, I've got 4-5 characters. Honestly, I don't remember. I think it's shaman, mage, warrior and druid. I've also got my friend on Frostmane which I think is still part of the Nerzhul server cluster, and a bunch of our old friends are there, so that will probably be my main's guild, so either my shaman or mage will be there while I'll have everything else with you guys.

Also, random note. I haven't looked at any expansion notes. I had a similar blackout method with the previous expansion, and it did improve my enjoyment of it. But, I've got to ask - is there another garrison gimmick?

 

The part of the garrison where you have followers and send them out on missions was brought forward from WoD into Legion. AFAIK we have followers too in BfA, and they do quests and the like. In legion you could also get fun followers like Moroes from Kara or Meatball from the brawlers guild.

 

I should clarify that I did play Legion. Somehow with as many times as I've quit, I've yet to miss an expansion. I stopped a bit before tomb of sargeras came out. Got burnt out on the AP grind, which apparently got fixed like 3 days after I quit.

 

Good news, the Azerite Grind is less exhausting. The threshold for leveling your Azerite Neck lowers each week to give a chance for alt and people who join in the middle of the expansion. As such, it might take 140k AP to reach ilvl 20 the first week, and 112k the second week.

 

Ugh. Been Gold farming all week. Finally have 2 tokens. >_>
I've added you @Airilife. My char is a Orc DK named Deathflayer.
Also, created a community Project DLP.
Invite Link (Alliance): https://www.worldofwarcraft.com/invite/vPgrKVLh3pX?region=US&faction=Alliance

^ That one is obviously for alliance. Good for 50 uses.
Also, guys please mention your Id's or Char names (whatever is displayed to me) here if you've applied to the community here. So that I know its you and not a random troll...

I'll create one for the Horde and edit this post.

Edit: Horde invite Link, same name community.
https://www.worldofwarcraft.com/invite/m4PyY2YTBob?region=US&faction=Horde

Links are active for 24 hrs. If people are actually interested then I'll create a permanent link

I'm leveling a Blood DK on Ner'zhul. Level 62 atm.
My main is a DH DPS on Dalaran and I'm not moving him. And a Lvl 45 Void Lock as well. ^_^

I have a ilvl 217 DH Tank(Horde) or Fresh Boosted ilvl 204 Beast Hunter (Alliance) on Aerie Peak which I could transfer.
Which would be more useful do you think, guys?
None of my toons have a guild atm. XD

 

So, doing my usual "oh cool, new expansion, I'll check it out" thing. I've played priest for the last age, but haven't really enjoyed the feel of it lately. How are warriors these days? I'll probably only want to level once, so I'd hate to choose a class that isn't viable. But yeah, wouldn't mind tanking, or playing dps now and then.

 

Warriors are pretty decent. They're pretty meh as tanks, but that's more because the playstyle is pretty bland rather than any viability issues. And as dps they're pretty great. Fury is one of the fastest paced and most fun melee builds in the game, and while i don't believe they're in the top 5, if memory serves they're not very far off.

 

I would suggest Demon Hunter. Switching between Tank and DPS on a single toon is the simplest on DH.
But they've got a pretty limited kit. Not much thought needs to go in to do damage. As in, an hour after playing, you're gonna feel like you're playing a 3rd person Hack and slash lol. Also, leveling will be easier from lvl 98.

Warriors are brilliant if you want to try out different damage strategies. Different builds, etc, etc. Basically if you have time to explore. DH is simple point and hit. XD

 

Monks are pretty great at the moment. WW were doing well on beta, MW have the highest consistent throughput of any healer (but lack strong CDs) and general consensus is that BM are top 2 raid tanks (debate reigns over best or second best) and 2nd or 3rd best M+ tank (Blood DK reigns supreme, of course).

Viability may change, of course, but Monks have as far as I remember never really fallen too far behind as DPS, though healers and tank experiences haven't been as consistent.

Personally, I'm playing on Barthilas as Horde, playing a Brewmaster Monk. I got the Scythe of the Unmaker for last week which was absolutely amazing and caused a great deal of swearing at me.

 

ummm Anyone planning to enjoy all the quests apart from the main ones and taking their time exploring...

Get Goblin Glider kits. Lots of em. Or anything that lets you glide. I'm playing as DH and I can already see how hard and frustrating this would be on some of my alts.

 

What are you not liking about the Priest? FYI Shadow is getting reworked in 8.1 - they admitted they didn't get time to do anything to it.

I'd be way more annoyed, but I'm Disc, so it's less annoying. Disc is, without a doubt, the best healing spec in the game in terms of fun and viability.

As for straight dps, I played a lot of DH in Legion, but the GCD changes really hurt DH a lot for me, given how spammy their rotation is. Warrior and Rogue are the two that feel the best/smoothest post GCD change. WW Monk close too, given the nature of their rotation being anti-spammy and rhythmically weaving strikes together.

OH, BY THE FUCKING WAY, HOW GREAT IS BOREALIS?! The music is amazing and it's so damn gorgeous. Really feel like I'm in one of the main cities in Pirates of the Carribean, lol.

 

First impressions, hm. As I said before, I went into this expansion completely in the dark. But, getting caught up didn't actually take that long. Not much I can really say, but meh. The pre-patch scenario felt kind of shoddy, like something right out of warcraft 3, but maybe that's just me. Doesn't feel like something made in 2018. As for the lore, lol. Like, I long for the days of Mists of Pandaria, and I never thought I'd say that. It's just kind of a mess. I haven't liked Jaina in what's felt like a decade, and Sylvanas feels like she's just turning into a rehashed plotline (which seems to be Blizzard's specialty). Just about the only character I like that is more than an expansion old is Saurfang. Nearly all of my other favorites have been killed off over the years, except for Sylvanas, but I have a feeling neither of them are making it to the end.

Onto the gameplay itself. Coming back after a 1.5 year long hiatus is tough, but not as tough as a decade long haitus I guess. But still rough. I logged into my shaman first, and unsurprisingly, it looked like the class got revamped once more and I had no talents. So I swapped to my mage, and it looks like frost mage is pretty much exactly the same. So, frost mage as my main it is. Then, setting up the UI. that took forever. I went with elvui which seems to be the low hanging fruit of UIs. I don't like it at all, so I guess I have to mess with the customization settings a bit. I don't like the bags, and I don't like the lack of character portraits, and I have no idea where the menu bar went, so definitely need to do something.

Anyways, after I got home from work, downloaded the expansion, updated my UI, played through the opening scenarios, I was finally in Zandalar. I like the zone. It feels primal, and it's got some pretty cool music. I usually play without any sound but I figured for a thing I probably should. Playing my frost mage is pretty much exactly as I remember it, though I'm not as crisp as I was, and it took forever to figure out hotkeys. I didn't quite make it to 111, but almost, so by all accounts, I've barely started. I killed my first rare within like 2 minutes of getting there, which was cool. And it looks like all my old Nighthold gear is getting upgraded immediately, which is also pretty cool. Found the tailor and enchanting teachers, but as soon as I left, I realized I forgot to find the portal trainer, so I'll have to remember that for the future.

I guess I'm kind of lucky I even got to play at all. Release days are usually pretty rough on the servers. Though, the simultaneous release day is kinda weird (but it makes sense). My friend did not have as much luck, and was having constant server issues on Zul'jin.

So overall, I'm not addicted yet, but once I get the feel for the UI and the game again, I probably will be. At least this time I picked the expansion up from the beginning unlike Legion where I wasn't really feeling it and waited 2 months. Hopefully I won't have that constant feeling of being behind, though I don't really have that much time to play every day.

 

RELEASE THE VOID KRAKEN.

So cool.

 

Honestly, what you've said to me about warriors makes me want to play the class even more now haha. The main reason for the switch, is I got a bit tired of the multi-dotting play style last time I played. I haven't played warrior for a long long time now, since ICC I think, and I'm feeling nostalgic. I also really like all the mobility mechanics.

I haven't really played Monks, DKs or DH yet, apart from the legion Beta, where I played DH, but I want to play something I know, so I don't have to learn a whole other class. Muscle memory for hotkeys still remains!

 

I have a warrior, and pretty much the only reason for its existence is so I can solo old content and get gear like Sulfuras and the Warglaives of Azzinoth on one character.

 

Warrior is pretty great right now.

Playing DH right now, and going into a Mythic guild as one, but my alt is going to be a rogue cause seriously they feel awesome. Their rotation feels smooth as compared to DH which has been hit so hard by the GCD change. The zones are awesome. I would suggest making sure to switch to the third zone at around 117-118 if the questline is not making you do so. I ended up making 116-120 in Tiragarde; the War Campaign requires you to be friendly with all the major faction and the only way to do that is to do the main questline so yeah.

Other than that, Boralus is fucking amazing, and what little I've seen of Zandalar seems pretty dope.

 

I only played a lot of the classes toward the end of Legion to get as many MT transmogs as possible. The difference between pre and post GCD DH is... Startling. Especially since chaos strike seems even more spammy now.

Though Monks technically have the better manoeuvrability, nothing beats double jumping and fel rushing though. At least that still feels great.

Do NOT play DK if you want a high mobile class.

In terms of feel, from what I've tried in the pre-patch for melee, it's probably:

Fury
Sub
Assassination
Arms
Outlaw
Windwalker

Don't be surprised if enhance has a demo lock style boost in 8.1 though. They, Ele and Spriests are first for rework.

Ranged is a bit trickier, note that it's entirely subjective. I don't think any of the ranged classes feel great. Lots love demo luck, but I hate pet classes (thus subjective).

I liked Fire best I think, mainly because they feel the least gutted...


Oh just, and Boralus hype. I can listen to that music all day. And it's pretty clear where Jaina gets her Hot from... Lol

 

Did a fair amount in the 4 hours I played yesterday. Gained around 3 levels worth of XP and nearly finished the entirety of Voldun. Not as bad as I was expecting. The day actually started of in a bit of a panic mode because when it logged in, it said all realms were incompatible. After some digging, I realized there was a patch, and that the launcher had some chicanery going on. The wow tab still had an advertisement for the game up despite having bought it, and behind it was the update and play button, so you had to close the ad to get to it. Annoying.

Anyways, the zone is ok. It’s actually a bit dull to look at to be honesty. Everything is brown and grey, stone and sand. It reminds me a bit of Uldum, but not as exciting. So maybe more like Tanaris then. Generic quests as well, though I did manage to solo the various 3-man quests. At least the music was pretty good. I get a Warcraft 2 vibe from it.

Also, fun fact. I vaguely remember skill trees getting removed and replaced, but couldn’t remember by what. So, I made it to 112 without having any talents, essentially just using frostbolt, ice lance and flurry. I couldn’t remember if splitting ice was an AP thing or not, but the main one I forgot about was glacial spike. But once I figured all that out again, it was gravy.

Ran into a couple of bugs when I was playing, nothing too major. The first was a random quest turn in person not showing up. I think the zoning or instancing or whatever its called these days was bugged a bit. I went back like 2 hours later and it was fine. There was also this rare snake mob in the east of Voldun that I couldn’t get to spawn at all. You could see the rumbling earth where it was, and it was marked on the map, and the comments said you had to kill snakes around it for it to pop up, but nothing I did worked. Not a big deal though.

Lastly, apparently I had 5 level 110 characters. In addition to the shaman, mage, druid and warrior, I apparently also have a monk. I didn’t even notice it yesterday, but when I logged in today and saw it, the memory of levelling it up and trying to gear it up before tomb of sargeras came out slowly came back to me. I have hunter/priest/warlock in various degrees of levels, and ignoring demon hunter and deathknight, that just leaves paladin to use my 110 boost on, though I suppose I could just do one of the others anyway. I have had a max level paladin before, but I am kind of curious as to how things have changed since then. Last time I played it would have been at the beginning of Cataclysm. I think for now though I'm just going to sit on the boost. I'll probably level my shaman next, since that was my main last time, though I don't know if I'll stick to enh with that or go resto.

 

Yeah Boralus is pretty dope to look at. But I had Suramar Flashbacks when I went round and round trying to find that damn scrapper. I can't wait for flying.
Freehold tho... Freehold is the real pirate town. And flynn, the Jack Sparrow. XD
Haven't done any dungeons even though I'm at 117. I'll do all of em together at 120.

Also, my dumb ass forgot to go to all the trainers before going into the lvling zones. Have 50 of all the ores and herbs and I just noticed my mining/herbal-ism/fishing skill wasn't going up. Lol just went and got that done. Dope.

So yeah, if you haven't visited a trainer, you need to do that to lvl professions.