It is difficult for me to believe that I have been playing World of Warcraft for 20 years come November. And even though I have had a mixed feeling about it, I believe I can state with confidence that The War Within is the greatest it is ever been. This is World of Warcraft at its best—the tale, the settings, the soundtrack, and the new features are all excellent.
Philosophically speaking, the largest improvement is that Blizzard appears to genuinely want everyone to be able to experience the entire expansion this time around. This has never happened before, as someone who started playing this series in Warcraft II and is deeply immersed in the narrative, but who also does not enjoy interacting with randos and does not have any friends from the original group I played this game with back in 2004.
The meaty story details were only accessible by joining an endgame guild, which can be considered a side gig, or by waiting in line for pick-up groups, which, let us be honest, has nearly always been a horrible experience that I am not even sure can be fixed. The goal of random groups is always to complete a dungeon as quickly as possible. They want you to take the idiotic shortcuts, like jumping across a one-pixel ledge to skip a pull. Furthermore, they ruin any surprises if it is your first time through by assuming that everyone should have previously mastered every boss fight mechanic before even trying it. Inadvertently, WoW’s game design has fostered this kind of sour society.
On the other hand, I am not exaggerating when I say that I nearly cried the first time I played through one of The War Within’s follower dungeons, which allow you to experience the story alone and at your speed with a group of NPC assistance. This is the most attentive these developers have ever been to a player like me who has been abandoned for twenty years. It goes beyond the monotonous follower dungeons as well. You may even be treated to a well-executed cutscene after some of the five-man instances, which have a distinct, customized tale version with modified enemies and mechanics that you go through with significant lore characters by your side.
It is impossible to stress how much World of Warcraft has changed for me now that I can pause and admire something cool that an artist has worked so hard to create for as long as I want without worrying that four other people will be upset with me. Upon reaching a boss, I may take my time reading their journal entry without having to ruin the entire instance by getting acquainted with fights I have not yet seen.
I can practice these fights on my own, as many times as I want, without ever getting screamed at or wasting anybody else’s time, should I decide to run with others in the future. I can wake up in the middle of a dungeon and go prepare a sandwich, use the lavatory, walk the dog, or stop by the bar for a beer. I am living every Hunter’s dream: I can pull every garbage group whenever I want to, and I know that the tank will gladly comply and make things work. since she is not genuine. The primary character is me. Not to mention the most fascinating female on the planet and Azeroth’s favorite princess.
For me, there is just no comparison to how much more fun this is when playing video games. And in the two decades I have been playing WoW, it may be the largest design advancement the game has seen. In a future version, they are even going to introduce a story mode for raids. I am a little bummed that it will only showcase the last boss and not the entire instance, but at least you will get to see the goddamn conclusion. I have had to look it up on YouTube for practically every previous expansion, which is ridiculous because I paid for the entire expansion.
I believe that Dragonflight was primarily an addition for fans of the original World of Warcraft, which is why I did not enjoy it as much as many die-hard fans did. For those like myself who have always wanted to enjoy the finale but were never quite able to, The War Within is an expansion. For those who love these characters and this world, and perhaps even grew close to them during their introduction through a single-player role-playing game, but are unable or unwilling to fit a raid schedule around their other obligations or put up with the nerve-wracking, enjoyable-destroying hassle of pick-up groups.
Delves, the new solo dungeons that are intended to serve as a sort of stand-in for raids and Mythic+ in the endgame, are another example of the overt indulgence in my play style. They have the same crazy and ridiculous temporary power-ups that I loved so much from Torghast, like a double leap and a damage boost that increases damage significantly as long as you do not lose more than half of your health. I am Torghast’s lone fan, if there is one. I am off this planet if Torghast has no admirers. Therefore, it is wonderful to see some of the solutions that made a difference returning.
At the upper ranks, delves get incredibly, gratifyingly challenging.
I played a couple of Delves. One included what is essentially Sonic the Hedgehog’s jump mushrooms, which let you explore vertically in a different way. The other had wall-mounted ledges that you could zip up to with a grappling hook. At the top tiers, they also get hard. However, I find that several features, such as inevitable AoEs that can one-shot less tanky characters, are a little annoying because they only consider the player’s gear and do not take player’s ability into account. However, it felt tremendously satisfying to work my way up the gear ladder to the point where I could perform high-level Delves with more ease.
I overachieved by taking on a task meant for players significantly higher up on the item level than I was, and after getting better equipment, I was able to do it more easily. High-quality content ought to feel like this. In theory, that is how it operates, anyway. Blizzard recently released a hotfix that disrupted scaling in high-level Delves for all players and made them nearly difficult to finish, as I write this. And this is only one of the numerous bugs I have come across.
Unfortunately, the final experience is not very well-polished. There are a lot of things that feel like they could have used more testing until you hit 80, from voice lines missing in some cutscenes to max-level global quests with spawn rates so low, that they have groups of players flying over the region on soaring mounts like condors and rushing into battle over one goal. By the time you read this, some or all of this may have been handled, but it is still disheartening where things stand in the lead-up to launch.
Calling All Hunters
As a single human with a certain amount of time on Earth, I definitely cannot speak to every specialism when it comes to class design. However, since Battle for Azeroth in 2018, I have been a Marksmanship Hunter, so I can speak with much familiarity in this class. We are also fortunate in that, at least since I joined the archery team, I do not think the developers have ever truly let us down. I have been playing it for so long because it is always one of the most enjoyable and interestingly themed specs in World of Warcraft, and The War Within is no exception. The foundations remain sound.
Regarding our hero abilities, I have played both the Sentinel with a night elf theme and the Dark Ranger with a tortured soul and Sylvana’s influence, and I have not fallen in love with either one yet. Thematically, Dark Ranger is stronger than the other, and it certainly satisfies your desire to play as Sylvanas if that is your dream. However, it introduces Black Arrow, a brand-new single-target strike, which, to be honest, makes the rotation a little too complex for my liking. I think these two changes—tying it to Kill Shot and making Precise Shots a single-charge ability—will help to streamline the rotation in the 20th Anniversary patch that will be released later this year. But just now, juggling can be somewhat demanding.
Sentinel uses passive effects to alter my perception of my current attack buttons rather than adding any new ones. Everything is going OK so far. That is precisely what I would like hero talents to achieve, in theory. The ultimate, Lunar Storm, increases your damage to anything inside a glistening circle that appears at your target’s feet when you use Rapid Fire. In earlier expansions, this served as a model for endgame Marksmanship abilities, and generally speaking, I think it works rather well. Saying, “I am going to slaughter those fools just over there,” you point to a specific region.
Lunar Storm’s drawback is that it is limited to Rapid Fire, and the area it produces is fixed to the target’s position at the time of usage. I have very little control over the location of the area of enhanced damage because of this. As a result, it will essentially land wherever my target was when Rapid Fire went off cooldown. Delaying the casting of Rapid Fire to better position Lunar Storm is rarely worthwhile. That can be a significant drop in damage dealt, and that is if you can even tag an adversary in a favorable position.
Verdict
In many ways, The War Within is the greatest World of Warcraft has been in a long time—possibly perhaps ever. Chris Metzen, the creative director of the returning franchise, was not playing games when he announced on stage at BlizzCon that it was time to return home. The writing is well-written. The gameplay is excellent. Even by Blizzard standards, the zone design and music are superb. There are a ton of fulfilling ways to advance in the endgame loop, which feels great and includes more suitably challenging and gratifying solo content than before. There are a few irksome problems and erratic tuning in the level 80 experience, but I have faith that Blizzard will fix those eventually. This twenty-year-old massively multiplayer online game feels exciting and new again.
