Battle for Azeroth as homework. Battle for Azeroth is like doing homework
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Horrific Visions is nothing more than a miniature dungeon that takes place in the capital of our faction. We decide how many opponents we want to beat, we can make the game more difficult for ourselves by increasing the level of difficulty, and for this we have to reckon with the time limit – in the form of our mental health. All this adds to the system of talents that we buy with the new currency, as they make it easier for us to make it through the Horrific Visions.
A rare opponent with special requirements.
This actually is an excellent element of Battle for Azeroth, which Blizzard has brought to the role of Island Expeditions – participate when you want, that is. Expeditions to the Islands also promised to be interesting, but in the end turned out as simple grind heavens. Horrific Visions has lost its potential due to the requirement to have the keys that are difficult to get.
The fact that exping the legendary cloak is also time-restricted – the maximal level is unlocked only once a week, so there's no point completing Horrific Visions too often, because that just means losing the keys, and there's virtually no reward. So instead of having fun, we have to wait.
And honestly? The whole Battle for Azeroth is like this – there's no shortage of interesting ideas that were just curbed. It seems that Blizzard doesn't exactly want players to enjoy the game – only go into the game every day, do their homework, and leave. If we don't want to be left behind, we need to check off the activity list, which takes about an hour and a half a day on average.
Sometimes longer if some daily task doesn't work or is extremely tedious. Having done your duty, you can already do whatever. Spending more time in the game doesn't make it easier – consistency matters, which doesn't exactly feel like quality fun, but rather obligation.
Lesser Visions are a totally flunked idea.
Update 8.2 worked on an identical principle, but introduced two new zones and also tempted with flying. It offered a goal, gave you essences along the way, which were really useful if anyone planned raids, dungeons or even PvP. It is a pity, however, that the essences were not assigned to the accounts, but only to a specific character – if we wanted to start all over again, the pain-staking grind begun anew.
Limited grind, or how Blizzard keeps players
Take my word for it, I wouldn't mind this if it collecting reputation didn't consist of doing the same thing every day for two or three weeks. If they were more interesting, more diverse, and didn't force me to stay in the same locations, I would enjoy them more. However, the reality was simply boring.
N’Zoth was promising, but in the end misfired.
The final straw was the raid in Ny’alotha, the Waking City. The twelve bosses presented an interesting challenge, and I understand that the real fun only begins at the Mythic level. However, the final video after the victory over N'Zoth and the animation concluding Battle for Azeroth were both underwhelming. At first glance, you can see that the production was rushed, and they just had to wrap it up at some point. The result is the weakest ending in the history of World of Warcraft expansions! Even Warlords of Draenor were better!
Worst of all, the Battle for Azeroth had huge potential. Corrupted Gear, which replaced the Titanforging system after the 8.3 update, is a great solution. Inventory provided additional bonuses, but also contained a new stat – corruption. It determined different debuffs. From simple immobilization to summoning a dark creature from the void to kill us. It was up to us to decide how much corruption we wanted to have; it was also possible to clear it completely, but it also took away our bonuses.
WHY?
Why was this fantastic solution that had real impact on the game was only introduced in patch 8.3? Why did Azeroth Heart essences appear in patch 8.2? Why were elements with real potential added so late, and why is it that when they already appeared in the game, it was in a stripped-down form that doesn't encourage using them?
A mediocre addition with potential
During the entire Battle for Azeroth I was under the impression of dealing with an unfinished product, and every subsequent fix seemed hastily put together and often ill-conceived. This leads me to actually lend credibility to the rumors stating that Activision is putting pressure on Blizzard, and as a result, the fixes to WoW are not only not properly tested, but also released in incomplete form (some say as much as 40% of content goes down the drain due to haste). In any case, the first week of the 8.3 update was a real festival of glitches and flaws that eventually resulted in several positive changes, such as an increase in reputation growth ration, or additional currencies.
Hopefull Battle for Azeroth was a necessary sacrifice to make Shadowlands special...
However, this was only a reaction to the harsh criticism of the community, which is also tired of the constant grind that World of Warcraft recently serves. The Allied Races are a cool diversion, and in theory they encourage you to start from scratch – provided you don't remember the essences or the legendary cloak.
I understand that grind is a key concept in MMORPGs, but this is only bearable when we're fooled into thinking otherwise, or at least distracted by the envelope. In this case, however, Blizzard leaves not doubt. And that's why Battle for Azroth is ultimately such a lukewarm experience. We can only hope that Shadowlands will be at least as good as Legion was. Otherwise, World of Warcraft will have start coming to terms with the fact that everything must come to an end.
