Before I run out of weekend I just wanted to post a really quick update to my last WoW Journal post. No sooner had I posted that than I logged into WoW and turned in a quest (I’d already completed the work but I sometimes like to quit just before a quest turn-in to get that boost when I start my next section) and it turns out it was the last quest of the main campaign.
So Dragonflight is completed though I’m guessing maybe there is a Raid or something to put the absolute final period to it because the Dragon Queen mentioned there was one more rock to be activated but didn’t ask me to help.
Anyway with the quest line completed WoW now unlocks something they call Adventure Mode which as far as I can tell is similar to what classic used to be. You are now free to move about the cabin. World quests unlock, faction quests/collecting seems to unlock. It’s now a matter of going out and doing what you want.
I pretty much IMMEDIATELY started having more fun. Did some world quests, did a Follower Dungeon (which I love and which maybe deserve their own post) and did some “little guy” quests which I often find fun and charming. At the top of this post is a screenshot from the last quest I did this weekend. These two little Tuskarr (walrus-people) kids are trying to befriend a lost, starving gnoll pup and they needed some fish to befriend him with. So I went fishing. And the gnoll cub got a new home. Hope that all works out for them.
But I enjoy these kinds of street-level heroics.
Anyway, that’s it. Just wanted to say that for me at least, WoW gets WAY more interesting once you finish the campaign. I’ve got about 15 levels to get through before I can move on but I suspect they’ll go quick. I made I think 5 since I posted earlier today.
It’s been nearly a month since Part 2 of this journal. I bet you thought I’d given up on it, or given up on World Of Warcraft. I’ve come close a few times, but not yet. Having pre-paid for 3 months of time has done what I’d hoped it would do and kind of convinced me to keep going.
The reason I’m back writing is that finally, just in the past couple of days, I’ve really started to enjoy myself. My character is about level 50 now and around 23 hours old.
So in my last journal I talked about how WoW hadn’t really been grabbing me and as mentioned, that continued to be the case up until just recently. I think I’ve finally figured out why and it is partially self-inflicted by FOMO and partially just the way Dragonflight is structured. (Maybe all the expansions have been structured like this but Dragonflight is the first I’ve played (almost, so far) all the way through.)
So quick refresher, I started a new character, and did Exiles Reach to get to level 10. That was fine and fun and really short. Then I wound up in Stormwind and from there headed off to Dragon Land. The fact that I have no idea what the correct name of Dragon Land is, and that I can’t name a single zone there, is our first clue.
I first started playing Dragonflight the same way I used to play what we now call “Classic WoW.” I took every quest I saw and got ready to grind levels. But there are a LOT of quests and what I really wanted to be playing was The War Within which folk kept sharing stories about. I also heard from friends who’d hit level 70 in Dragonflight and then just got shunted over to The War Within against their will.
I figured if I was going to invest in Dragonflight I wanted to see all of it before level 70 happened so I stopped doing side quests and just did the main campaign quest. That started a whirlwind tour of Dragon Land. I moved through the various parts of the island so quickly that I had no sense of place and no connection to the land or the story. Once I got a flying mount, I just took to the skies and flew from quest giver to quest location, did some super trivial content, and flew back.
The story so far is…there are dragons and they come in various colors and some are good and others are bad and we’re helping the good dragons fight the bad ones. I’m not sure why the bad ones are bad exactly. There are 6 limbed dragons (4 legs, 2 arms) and 4 limbed dragons (4 legs, no arms.) I’m not sure why. And there are dragons that we just ride on and they seem to just be beasts? The 4 limbed intelligent dragons are only dragons sometimes, other times they take on the form of one of the WoW races though I’m not sure why. I guess to get arms? The main characters are… I have no idea. I can’t name a single one. There’s a queen and her I recognize because she is WoW-hot and then some dudes with multi-syllable names that go in and out of my head like the wind. Our goal is to awaken some stones which I think then awaken more dragons? I have no idea.
Myself and a 6-limbed dragon watch a 4-limbed dragon doing something nefarious
There is very little challenge to the gameplay and I’ve never had to grind at all, or do side missions to keep my level up. I guess they’ve moved all the challenges to the dungeons, which I haven’t done. New gear is granted from doing quests. I at first struggled with trying to put together some kind of “build” because there are a lot of talents to pick from, but then someone pointed out there’s a built-in build system you can follow so I’ve been letting the game tell me what to pick. There are random buffs that you get just from being in the zone to make things even easier.
So essentially for the first, I dunno, 30 levels of Dragonflight, it kind of all felt like an elaborate game of solitaire. Something kind of mindless to do to kill time.
Then finally things started to change. Right around the time you (finally) get to the Dragon home city (and can finally access your banks and optionally leave the Dragon Island to go do other things if you wished) I started having to do a few quests in the same region, which meant I was fighting the same kinds of enemies more than once and learning which ones did what and how best to combat them. And I was getting a sense of place. It still was damned easy but at least it felt a little like exploration.
Then that whole questline seemed to stop and I was shunted over to a time travel questline which I understand is eventually used to go back and play through earlier expansions. But THAT was fun and interesting. There were some boss fights, the story was neat, we visited different times in WoW history and learned some lore about the world. This section was over all too fast. I did learn that Chromie the Gnome is actually a dragon. Apparently they’re everywhere hiding in plain sight.
So that brings you up to speed. I’ve probably played more in the past 2-3 days that I have in the rest of the month since I was finally getting interested in the world. I think I’m almost done with the Dragonflight campaign and it looks like I’ll need to make up some levels somewhere before I can move on to The War Within. Presumably I can go back and do side quests or move back to the mainland. Whatever I do I’ll pick a spot and focus on it because my nature is more completionist than fast-tracker and being fast-tracked through this content hasn’t felt super fun.
Really looking forward to getting to The War Within and finally feeling like there’s no rush and I can just work on what I want, when I want. Hoping to get there soon.
I have to admit I’ve not really been playing World of Warcraft as much as I had anticipated, but I do pop in now and then. I’m not sure why I don’t play more. There’s nothing about it that bothers me or anything. I mean partially it is just due to playing so many games at once, but it’s partially that it hasn’t REALLY grabbed me yet. I am not playing through The War Within since I don’t have a level 70 character. I’m playing the last expansion, Dragonflight.
So far it has been a pretty chill experience, and maybe that is actually part of the issue? When I log in I play for a while and then I tend to get a little sleepy and so I log out. Mind you recently almost everything can make me feel a little sleepy (I need to talk to my doc about tweaking my meds so I’m not borderline narcoleptic). I started out doing every quest I saw but then decided instead to focus on the main questline to see how far that would take me and to see what it will unlock.
I have the new (?) dragon flight system that gives you skills to boost speed and height and a stamina bar. That’s pretty fun. And of course the area is new to me, though I’m not sure I appreciate it as much as some might. It is clearly intended to nudge you towards using the new flight tools since there’s a lot of vertical movement, but it’s also your typical fire and brimstone type biome. All lava and barren rock. At least the part I’m in now is. I honestly tend not to use mounts in games too often; I kind of like running around taking my time. And while I think you CAN get anywhere in this area by running to it, you’d spend a LOT of time circling spires looking for staircases.
I also don’t have any history with the characters so even though they talk about the years we’ve spent fighting side by side, I have no idea who they are. Without any context it’s a little hard to care about them.
I feel like a lot of this comes down to me becoming refamiliarized with the game and the lore to some extent. This should get better as I build some history with the NPCs I’m interacting with. There is nothing in the plot or the gameplay that I can point to and say “I’m not playing because I don’t like THIS.” It is all fine. It’s just not super compelling yet.
Huh, I didn’t intend to write such a ‘down on WoW’ post. OK not ‘down’ on it but maybe apathetic? Anyway, in fact I wanted to write this post because of something I really did enjoy! I did my first Dungeon yesterday using the new “Dungeon Diving with NPCs” system (not the actual name) that I think was added with Dragonflight? It was Neltharus, a Dragonflight dungeon, anyway. This NPC was loitering about outside the dungeon and offered to help. I said “OK let’s go” and the game asked me what role I was going to fill. I said DPS and bam, there I was inside with 4 NPC companions including a tank, a healer. a DPS and honestly not sure what the last was. Support? I dunno. [I of course forgot to take any screenshots.]
You can choose to lead the party or you can ask an NPC to lead. I did the latter and Captain Garrick, one of the NPCs and someone I know from Exile’s Reach, bellows “I’ll keep you safe” and takes off running. I have to say it was really just like playing with a PUG but without any attitude. Garrick ran from boss to boss. I struggled to keep up and follow everything that was happening, so just like playing with people! I felt awkward and dumb but I kept reminding myself “these are NPCs, they don’t care” and that was pretty nice. And at any time I could click a button to take back the lead and everyone would stop and wait for as long as I needed. No judgement from the NPCs!
I LOVE LOVE LOVE! this system. I let the NPC lead this time, but I might go back and do it again with me leading. The fight wasn’t really challenging at all but I definitely need practice with targeting and resource management and getting back the knack of watching the enemy, the party, and my own skill bars all at once. Being able to practice this without worrying that I’m irritating other people is amazing. And my assumption is that if I was playing with a friend, we could do the same thing and just get 3 NPC companions? I am not 100% sure on that, but Gwyn in case you are reading and are thinking of going back to play with Glo! (Though my understanding is this system only works on some of the newer dungeons.)
I know it’s a little weird to choose to play an MMO and then be delighted that I don’t have to play with other people, but that’s me in a nutshell. FF XIV has a similar system and I remember loving it there, too. I like being able to actually take my time and look around and appreciate the work that goes into these dungeons!
Got this 2-handed mace — they call it a mace, I’d call it a maul — as a drop during my first visit to a dungeon
For my trouble of doing the dungeon I got a couple of nice gear upgrades, so it was worth it from that point of view too. I’m looking forward to doing more of these and generally it made me excited to get through this content and into The War Within where I know they’ve really leaned into this system.
Meanwhile I hit level 25 with my new character, putting her at the same level as my once-upon-a-time level-capped pre-smush characters.
So I continue to push forward. Once I get these dragons sorted I look forward to going to fight the mole men or whomever lives in the bowels of the world in The War Within!
