WoW

World of Warcraft

This is such a fascinating thing. All of the older expansions have their ups and downs but still have value and enjoyability, but from Dragonflight onwards it’s just a completely different game. I can easily recommend starting with Dragonflight without any asterisks (it’s worth noting this is the default leveling path), and maybe try out the older content if you’re particularly invested in them.

Total Story Score: +2605
Total Gameplay Score: +780
Platinum Number: 2043.21
Burning Crusade Bronze Number: -299.09
Wrath of the Lich King Bronze Number: 90.22
Cataclysm Bronze Number: 489.66
Mists of Pandaria Bronze Number: 650.99
Warlords of Draenor Bronze Number: 197.8
Legion Bronze Number: 384.22
Battle For Azeroth Bronze Number: 632.29
Shadowlands Bronze Number: -71.87
Dragonflight Bronze Number: 1777.3
War Within Bronze Number: 2611.38
Cheats: Nope
Total Play Time: 134 Days // 867.89 Hours
Time Reviewed: 12-16-2025

Spoiler Story Positives+

Animation: So this is being added after the fact here at the top of the list even though these qualify for individual expansions and the scores reflect that, but for the sake of my sanity I’m just putting it all up here. Each playable race has their own custom animations of varying quality that adds to the flavor of playing, and lord knows I’m not the only person who would roll a specific race gender combo because I want that combo’s animations. So we’ll start off with an aggregate for many of the vanilla races

Animation: Then we give one to the Night Elves. Primarily Night Elf females who have some really cool attack and casting animations

Animation: We move on to the Orcs who, once again, really feel orcish in how they swing and move

Animation: Taurens are no slouches here either (I love how they have to wield the two handers almost delicately)

Animation: Trolls get obvious mentions, especially as casters

Animation: The forsaken honestly have some of the best animations in the game, even now, so we’re splitting them up into one positive for the male and his punk rocker styling

Animation: And one for the female and her more wild, acrobatic animations

Animation: Moving on to the BC races we mention the Draenei. Draenei females in particular have cool attack animations, great move animations, and some of the best casting animations in the game (I love the ‘ripping apart reality’ one in particular)

Animation: And I’d be remiss if I did not mention Blood Elves. THE reason I have so many Blood Elves (of both genders) is because their animations are baller. So consider this one for the males

Animation: And one for the females as well

Animation: In the Cata era we introduce the Worgen. The Worgen males have absolutely amazing animations and they’re the ones carrying this positive, particularly with how low to the ground they get

Animation: The Goblins, too, are just generally solid, no specific notes here

Animation: Then the Pandarens are… fine? I was expecting better but honestly after going back through them their animations don’t really click the way several others do. They’re still good, mind

Animation: Finally, and this is a bit of a gimme, but a positive for all the Allied Races. Most of these are just cribbed from their base race but enough have uniqueness (Kul Tirans, Dracthyr) that they count

Storytelling Mechanic: Talent pictures. No, seriously, it’s a great way to get a nice thing to look at that indicates the type of role the spec is

Background Lore: Mount flavor lore and pet flavor. Lots of tiny little tidbits

Brickwork: Onyxia’s Lair. Unlike several other, lesser caves I could mention, the molten crags and jagged rocks stylized to look like teeth do an excellent job of selling the ‘dragon’s lair’ look

Visual Storytelling: Blackwing Lair. Unusually colored eggs, alchemy labs, thresher rooms where dragons are harvested and then strung up for all to see, all selling the ‘chromatic flight’ story arc

Prime Opt: Old Hillsbrad. Everything to do with this is surprisingly well done. Tons of references, smart completion of the events in between Warcraft 2 and 3, Kel’Thuzad and his interacts with Helcular, the creation of the Ashbringer and the initial establishment of the Scarlet Crusade…

Prime Opt: …it’s great stuff

Prime Opt: The entire Bronze / Infinite arc in BC. Surprisingly well written for what it is, and laying down bricks for a story arc that will continue multiple expansions in the future

Brickwork: Karazhan. The lovely, seemingly pristine ballroom and tailored hallways…

Doodads: …alongside the food, details, seats… all seem fine at first glance but if you look closely you start to see just how messed up this place is

Brickwork: Karazhan gets more and more ruined and messed up as you get closer to the apex, where it starts to split into the Twisting Nether

Visual Storytelling: Karazhan, nether portal, burning books, Ethereals, ghosts

Music Direction: Karazhan. Haunting, appropriate, changes per area

Cutscene: Burning Crusade’s opening cinematic. I’ve seen better, but this is surprisingly good as is. Showcasing of the characters from vanilla, the new races and a bit of characterization for them, the new class stuff, new locations, and of course Illidan and his now-memed line…

Cutscene: …an easy double positive

MSQ: Dreanei tutorial zone (the crash site). The immediacy of the crash combined with the damage being done to the terrain we have inadvertently caused

Brickwork: Azuremyst Isle. It’s a fairly standard Blizzard forest, but that’s still a good forest. The dominantly blue motif and the crystals add to the atmosphere of an island we unintentionally intruded upon

Music Direction: Draenei, general. Azuremyst, Bloodmyst, and several Draenei towns in Outland all have this wonderfully peaceful, almost ethereal quality to them

Moment: The Night Elf priestess and the significance thereof. This is a surprisingly understated moment for how big of a deal it is, but the Night Elf seeing the ‘eredar’ and reacting appropriately makes perfect sense, and also sends the Draenei on a collision course…

MSQ: …with the Alliance. There’s two major plot threads going through Azuremyst, the incidental incursion and the consequences thereof, and the greater plot thread of dealing with Kael’Thas’s minions

Brickwork: For all its flaws, I do have to mention that the Exodar is quite pretty

Background Lore: Exodar (tours, visual storytelling, barely put together)

Brickwork: Eversong forest. The autumn look looks good even to this very day, with emphasis on warm colors and gorgeous ambers and auburns

Brickwork: Blood Elven architecture. A combination of stylized and functional, heavy emphasis on spires, and lots of magically sustained structures (including some objects that are literally hovering in the air)

Music Direction: Blood Elven music. The swelling to somber strings

Visual Storytelling: Quite a bit in the Blood Elven lands. The magic-propelled furniture and servants, their over-reliance on servitors (because so many of their people were massacred), the Wretched who literally jam mana crystals into their bodies, the clearly crafted plants and trees (because they were constructed with magic). All of it tells the tale of a people who used to be at the height of civilization who have been brought low

MSQ: The overall story of Eversong Forest. The ruins of a once peak society brought low, the survival mentality of those left behind, the dangers posed by everything nearby, all of it

Foreshadowing: Eversong, quite a bit actually

Atmosphere: Eversong, again. The music and visuals tell the tale by themselves

Brickwork: Ghostlands. Rotten forests and broken villages

MSQ: Ghostlands (internal consistency, presence of the military, mages, and Forsaken, contrasting approaches, etc.)

Plot: Sylvanas’ reason for assisting the Blood Elves, and their ‘ace in the hole’ to Thrall

Background Lore: Silvermoon. There’s the roaming emissaries, the paladin quarter, the tiny plot of land with the druid and shaman, the band, the reprogrammed golems, good stuff all around

Moment: Walking through the Dark Portal. Even now, 17 years later, it’s still a great moment. It really sells walking into another world, a completely alien one

Brickwork: Hellfire Peninsula in general. Broken, cracked terrain, floating rocks, dilapidated ruins, and blasted hellscape

Atmosphere: Hellfire Peninsula’s entire initial arc is very atmospheric, and helps carry the much weaker second half. The demons, the portals, the forces desperately trying to push back against the tide

MSQ: Hellfire Peninsula, the entire Fel Orcs chain. There’s red skinned Orcs belonging to multiple different clans, are all here and fighting against us for some reason, but how are they Fel? Where are they getting empowered? This quest chain flows through the entire first half of the zone, into the dungeons, and concludes with Magtheridon’s raid

MSQ: Hellfire Peninsula, the Pilgrimage. The Blood Elves slowly but surely making their way across the blasted hellscape to their ‘promised land’. This follows the story arc from Eversong Forest, and will continue in the future, but also works well considering…

Visual Storytelling: …Falcon’s Watch. This place is a bare-bones outpost (it’s literally two buildings plus some tents) serving as a waystation for said pilgrims. The vast majority of which are civilians with no real combat capabilities to speak of, who are dying in unknown quantities. Falcon’s Watch itself is dominated almost entirely by a medical and recovery facility. It makes you wonder how many have died just getting this far… and how fortunate they were to not make it to the Netherstorm

Visual Storytelling: Honor Hold. Broken, beaten, bruised, but with just enough fortifications and walls to hold their own for the last 18 years

Brickwork: Shatter Point, for the Alliance. This ties into the visuals of the entire zone, but I absolutely love the idea of an outpost on a literal chunk of floating rock and they just kind of live with it periodically swiveling upside-down

Prime Opt: The Broken of the Hellfire Peninsula. We see a few of them in the temple, but the real gold is the story arc in the Ruins of Sha’naar. The Broken, them being sold into enslavement, the demons (that, if you kill, immediately cause nearby Broken to go friendly), helping the traitor redeem himself, it’s a great little contained story

Music Direction: The Hellfire Peninsula. A low, groaning, deep guitar which builds on the devastation and lament of the zone itself

Visual Storytelling: Blood Furnace. The alchemy labs, the nascent orcs being converted into fel in the tubes, it all helps sell that this is the beating heart of Illidan’s Fel Horde factory

Brickwork: Blood Furnace, again. This place looks wonderfully atmospheric, and it leads of course to a big moment…

MSQ: …when you first see what the Fel Horde has contained within; an Annihilan lord, Magtheridon. This is cool in itself but also serves as the culmination of the Fel Orc chain in Hellfire

Brickwork: Zangarmarsh. Mushrooms, spores, swamp, rain, and more mushrooms. This place really gets across how wet it is… and serves as the beating heart of Outland

Prime Opt: I do like the chain about how displaced everything in the Zangarmarsh is. One reason is the water (we’ll cover that in negatives) but the other is the ogres who’ve come down from Blade’s Edge… though we don’t find that out until the very end of the chain. It’s a nice insight into how the Cenarion Expedition operates, and how committed they are to a long term solution instead of just patch fixes

MSQ: The Mana Bomb, the druids, and Shattrath (and Patheleon)

Brickwork: Terokkar Forest. Placid green, lots of low-hanging trees creating the canopy, with periodic shines of light peaking through

Music Direction: Terokkar Forest, again. Mystical, morose, haunting

World Building: Outland, general. It’s very intermittent but it’s there, and helps flesh out this alien and hostile world

Prime Opt: The dead of Auchindoun. The entire quest chain is surprisingly interesting, and I rather enjoyed the entire deal with Maladaar and the Auchenai. So many dead displaced, and they just lost it

Music Direction: Auchindoun. Sure it’s Diablo 2 music (or basically a remix of it) but it’s still really good, and it really helps with the ‘mausoleum tomb’ vibe

Visual Storytelling: Everything about the Bone Wastes. The bones scattered everywhere, the crater, the destroyed mausoleum, bits of debris and scaffolding everywhere, and the knocked back trees

Brickwork: Nagrand, again. Wonderful visuals, honestly probably the most visually impressive zone so far in Outland, between the seemingly normal hills dotted with odd canyons, cracked earth, and floating islands. It’s a wonderful uncanny valley and it works great…

Brickwork: …for two positives

Music Direction: Nagrand, of course. Love the music out here

MSQ: Thrall and Garrosh and us. The final MSQ chain of Nagrand, and the beginning of Garrosh Hellscream’s path

Secondary: The Ogres and the Troll quest chain in Blade’s Edge. I’ll give it this, it’s the only good quest (chain) in the entire zone, and it’s almost entirely on this one troll and how casual he is about death. And it’s not even a joke, it’s actually a great insight into how trolls operate

MSQ: The Cipher of Damnation chain in Shadowmoon. Sure it introduces a plot element we’ll basically never see again, but it’s a well told story, and it’s weirdly engaging following the Orc and his sons as they try to right the sins of the past

Character: Ladies and gentlemen, our very first character positive in the entire game. Akama’s story gets a lot of attention in Shadowmoon and the subsequent attunement chain for Black Temple. The complexity of his situation, of how hard he works to maintain his position and duplicity, and to subvert his overseers, all while carrying the weight of guilt that implies

Brickwork: Shadowmoon Valley. This is right up there with Nagrand in sheer quality. The blackened, burning husk of a zone, all that’s left as the constant Fel fires have burnt the life out of it…

Brickwork: …making an easy double positive

Music Direction: And, as usual, the dead and mournful wails for the music

Brickwork: Black Temple itself deserves some notice for similar reason. Absolutely horrifying place, from sewers to battlements to brothel

Humor: Goblins and their cutscenes in Area 52 are far funnier than they have a right to be, especially for BC era cutscenes

Brickwork: Netherstorm. Just… Netherstorm. This is probably the single most visually impressive zone in BC. The combination of the crags, the crystals, the storms, the flows, the skybox, it all just absolutely pops…

Brickwork: …for a double, but hang on there’s more…

Visual Storytelling: …because Netherstorm’s visuals also tell a story. The Manaforges, the pipes, the paths where the rivers used to be, the giant swaths of rock that are slowly disintegrating into the Nether. We can see just how bad things are here, and how much worse they’re going to get if we don’t do something immediately, and the signs of it are all around us…

Visual Storytelling: …so that’s another solid double

Music Direction: Netherstorm. It’s a nice mix of Hellfire Peninsula’s style of music, but somehow even more appropriate and alien

Brickwork: Everything about the Eco Domes…

World Building: …and the Ethereals. In this one zone we get the bulk of our Ethereal lore for the rest of the game. Their lost homeworld, their incredibly advanced tech in specific ways (like, say, holding a chunk of a broken world together), how they operate (both with each other and others), it’s great stuff

MSQ: The entire Manaforge chain works weirdly well for how flat the big plot twist is. We start off knocking over a well equipped, well staffed Manaforge pumping at full capacity. The second one we see they’re under attack periodically and there’s far fewer elves there. The third one is completely overrun by monsters and barely functioning. The fourth one is being staffed almost entirely by demons. And the fifth one exploded. It’s great

Visual Storytelling: Kirin’var and the horror of yet another deployment of a Mana Bomb

Secondary: Laying the ghosts of the Kirin Tor to rest, one by one

Visual Storytelling: Arcatraz. The literal first thing you see is Sunfury desperately holding the line against encroaching waves of monsters, nevermind the whole rest of the dungeon being a cavalcade of ‘we lost control’

Visual Storytelling: Magister’s Terrace again tells a story with its trash. Ethereals, demons, and the last of the Sunfury loyalists… which happen to include elves which have jammed fel crystals into their bodies

Outro: MSQ: The final chapter, and the final cutscene. The significance of the Sunwell, Velen’s speech, and Liadrin’s reaction. It’s actually pretty legit, especially for a BC cutscene

Architecture: Wrath in general has… decent architecture. Honestly Dalaran earns this by itself. Very tight buildings, all of which can be entered, good sightline breakers, and visuals in all directions to help flesh it out

Spritework: BC Warrior. Some good variety in sets, but ultimately just decent

Spritework: BC Priest. Tier 4 is surprisingly decent, but tier 6 is what really shines here. The blindfolded thing just sells it

Spritework: BC Shaman. Opal looks, flowing water lightning, and looks great on several races

Spritework: BC Mage. Some classic stuff here, some of the best suits in BC actually. I’m especially fond of Tier 4 (basic yet fundamental) and Tier 5 (classic ‘warlocky’ look)

Spritework: BC Others. This is more of an aggregate for all the other suits across BC… except for the crayola gear

Spritework: BC Weapons are just wildly good looking, it’s weird. There’s some of these I use in transmogs to this very day…

Spritework: …for a solid…

Spritework: …triple positive

Spritework: Bosses and enemies in general. The older models and textures hurt it, but there’s still some cool looking stuff here

Voice Acting: Very rare, but there are some gems here

Dialogue: We’re not at the point where it’s good enough on like a per-zone level yet, but we can already start to see how good the WoW quest writers really can be. Good dialogue, good indication of tone and accent, and good number of ‘voices’…

Dialogue: …for two positives

NPC Set Dressing: General. Shattrath, Silvermoon, and Exodar being the big ones

NPC Set Dressing: Culling of Stratholme, outskirts (lots of named people from all sorts of story beats)…

NPC Set Dressing: …and the city falling apart inside, even before Arthas shows up

Brickwork: Culling of Stratholme. The lush countryside, the city before the fall

Doodads: Culling of Stratholme, again. The city, the countryside, the inside of the manor, the burning street, and the Scourge base

Prime Opt: The Culling of Stratholme. The sheer brilliance of the Infinite’s plan here, and how subtle they get this time

Music Direction: The Culling of Stratholme. Just the right amount of ‘hurry’ in its agency, while remaining morose and somber

Brickwork: Sholazar. This zone is gorgeous, with tons of variety of trees, colors of grass, bushes, cliffs, and the pillars…

Brickwork: …for an easy…

Brickwork: …triple positive

Doodads: Sholazar, again. There’s better, but this is still excellent doodad usage

Prime Opt: Wolvar and Gorloc chains. Obvious Horde / Alliance parallels aside, both sides are cute in their own ways and it’s amusing going through them…

Atmosphere: …and the Gorlocs are just adorable

Cutscene: Writing: Double meanings and significance in the Wrath opening cinematic

Cutscene: Music Direction: Literally everything about the Wrath opening cinematic. The song itself, the timing, the perfect synching with the video

Cutscene: Sound: Amazing usage of sound design. The metal, the wind, the stomp, the slam, the breaking of the dragon, it’s top notch

Cutscene: Animation: Some truly excellent animation in this one. Blizzard has a tendency to ‘go big’ and Hollywoodize their cutscenes, to their detriment, but every now and again they know how to nail it…

Cutscene: Animation: …’stirring the hearts of your people’ oh my gawd

Cutscene: Voice Acting: “Arthas, my son…”

Visual Storytelling: What’s the first thing you see as a new Death Knight? The Second Lich King front and center, flanked by ghostly angels, in a giant fortress of death where the recently dead are churned out into the grinder

Storytelling Mechanic: Acherus books… there’s a lot conveyed in a short order here and it’s legit

Humor: Acherus books. Good lord

Cutscene: Sort of, it’s actually a book, but damn it counts. The Decree Of The Scourge

Theme: The DK Starter Zone does a wonderful job of showcasing how the Scourge operates, and why

Foreshadowing: DK Starter zone has… a lot, actually. The ‘filter’ of the Scourge, the movement of Naxxramas, even the Wrathgate all get mentioned…

Foreshadowing: …but special mention to Mal’Ganis being mentioned as well

Internal Continuity: Quite a bit in the DK Starter Zone and across the Ebon Blade arc

Music Direction: Acherus. Mournful and military in equal measures

Cutscene: For all its issues, I do enjoy the Light’s Hope Chapel cutscene. The live flashback of Darion, Tirion’s speechifying, the unification of the Scarlets and Argents and the Ebon Blade

Visual Storytelling: Valiance Keep in Borean Tundra. The in-construction nature of it, the tiny foothold feels, the lines of people (almost all civilians) lining up to enlist, the soldiers wanting one last drink before deployment,

Brickwork: Valiance Keep is of course a standard fantasy fortress, but it’s a well designed one. Bespoke for the area, and helps sell the vibe…

Doodads: …alongside a host of local doodads fleshing it out even more

Brickwork: Farshire deserves its own positive for its own vibe and feeling

Prime Opt: Farshire’s entire chain is great stuff. The peasants rising up against insurmountable odds, delivering the last bit of ore, the infiltration of the Cultists…

Prime Opt: …which dovetails perfectly into Thassarian’s chain, which goes a lot into the realities of being a Death Knight in normal society, in addition to having some solid moments

Brickwork: Tuskarr towns in general. I love the look of their tents and the materials they use

Doodads: Tuskarr towns, again. This is a general one for Wrath, we might revisit this in Dragonflight

Brickwork: Azjol-Nerub, the wonderful mix of caverns, underground foliage, and stone effigies

Brickwork: Ahn’Kahet, the old kingdom. Aptly named, as you can see just what kinds of cities the nerubians had back in the day

Brickwork: Warsong Hold gets its own point, just like Valiance Keep did, and for the same reason. A completely unique, bespoke airship dock fort with a quarry around it, and very Horde

NPC Set Dressing: Warsong Hold, again. Smiths working the forges, people recovering in the lounge area, wolves patrolling the stables

Foreshadowing: Saronite, general. Quite a few zones build up this mysterious ore across our trek north

Secondary: DEHTA. Just everything to do with DEHTA. These guys are hilarious and, sadly, entirely too on point

Secondary: Mrrgl Mrrgl’s chain. This is another semi serious, semi silly chain and also serves as further build up to the Nexus War arc

Brickwork: Naxxramas. Though old (Vanilla stuff really) it does get across the undead factory

Music Direction: And of course the music sells it. Each wing has its own themes and styles too

Prime Opt: The entire Scarlet Onslaught arc in Dragonblight. This is some great follow through on both the Death Knight Starter Zone and Vanilla in general, arguably one of the last hurrahs for the Scarlets. (Yes I know they still show up like cockroaches in the future, but this is the last time they were a major power). The revelation of how they operate, the outside perspective of not really being able to puzzle what’s really going on without the information the player has, the slow dissection of what little forces they have here, it’s all great stuff…

Prime Opt: …easily deserving two positives

Brickwork: Colderra. This place looks amazing to this very day. The frost-capped, mis-shapen chunks of terrain hovering around the nexus, the chains of ice and magic holding it together, the portal to the Eye up top, the cracked and broken terrain down below from what Malygos has been up to…

Brickwork: …it’s one of the better looking zones

Brickwork: The Nexus. The archaic arcane look, with runes, magic droplets, and arcane stylings everywhere

Visual Storytelling: The massive road going from Ulduar down to Dragonblight, to the Wyrmrest Tower, and south into the ocean… broken where the continent split off during the Sundering

Music Direction: The Howling Fjord. The echoing instruments, the reverberations, the vibes

Brickwork: The Howling Fjord. One of the overall prettier zones so far, with thought put into its rivers, cliffsides, and glacial climate. Lovely trees, great sweeping greens, and dense canyons…

Brickwork: …earn a full…

Brickwork: …triple positive

Brickwork: Crystalsong Forest. It’s very pretty, if ultimately meaningless, and thus earns its point. I love the look of the magically infused foliage floating serenely above violet crystals

Brickwork: Dalaran, Wrath. It’s more or less exactly what you’d expect from the city of mages

Secondary: Pirate chain in Fjord. This is some fun seemingly side stuff, but also has little tidbits of hints of other story arcs maneuvering throughout

Secondary: Ta’zinni in Dragonblight (and the letter). This one quest has insight into how brutal the Blues are about their war, how oppressive Hellscream’s forces have gotten as they march across Northrend, and how much a simple kindness means to a mourning troll back home

MSQ: The entire Forsaken chain in Howling Fjord. Military and apothecaries both, and their continued quest to perfect the Blight

Brickwork: Grizzly Hills. It’s amazing what they manage with such relatively simple assets. A rolling series of hills, with variant colors of grass and greenery, tons and tons of trees but thoughtfully placed, and of course the remains of Andrassil…

Brickwork: …earning an easy…

Brickwork: …triple positive

Doodads: Grizzly Hills also deserves special mention for doodad usage. The towns, of course (both Alliance and Horde) but also the furbolg village in Andrassil’s remains, the placement of flora throughout the zone…

Doodads: …great stuff

MSQ: Warlord Krenna and her sister Gorgonna. This arc is integral to the upcoming Hellscream War, and a great insight into why Hellscream was both reviled and revered by his own people

MSQ: Drakuru and his chain across the Grizzly Hills. He’s clearly up to something, but also surprisingly pleasant and willing to work with us

Visual Storytelling: Drak’Tharon Keep. The fight between the Drakkari and the Scourge, and the slow shift in the tides as we progress through the dungeon

Brickwork: Drak’Tharon Keep, again. Love the troll aesthetic

Moment: Drakuru’s revelation is a great twist. He comes across as consistently suspicious all the way up to the reveal in Drak’Tharon where he reveals… that he’s not against us at all, in fact he wants to recruit US to the Scourge

Brickwork: Zul’Drak. I absolutely love the visuals of this place. The architecture, the tiers and staircase making the extended ziggurat, the thorned and hostile foliage, the vaguely gray and red rotten look of a long dead empire…

Brickwork: …an easy…

Brickwork: …triple positive

Doodads: Zul’Drak, again. The specific placement of everything at every tier is phenomenal, from the little town areas, to the farmsteads, to the military quarter, to the temples, to the walkways, it’s great stuff…

Doodads: …and again…

Doodads: …an easy triple

MSQ: Drakuru chain in Zul’Drak. Everything about this chain is fantastic, follows through amazingly from Grizzly and Drak’Tharon, and includes…

Character: …our first character positive for Wrath. Drakuru is just such a fascinating example of a character who’s very obviously and clearly evil, but in such a pragmatic and affable way that he’s imminently likable. Despite all the build up of him being suspicious, he never once betrays us (indeed, WE betray HIM) and he really does think what he’s doing is the right option. All of this culminates…

Cutscene: …in Drakuru’s final cutscene. “Anywhere but here”

Plot: Zul’Drak, entire. The people who damned themselves to save themselves, and us helping the few remaining Loa in dealing damage control

Visual Storytelling: The Valgarde beachhead in the Howling Fjord. The Alliance forces are just barely holding on by a thread, are on the verge of being pushed back, and it shows in their ramshackle camp

Visual Storytelling: The ‘filter’ going throughout Northrend. Less and less and less territory held by less and less people who are far more elite the further into Northrend you get. We go from multiple towns and swaths of territory to a single airship floating overhead, and fortresses devolve into fields of tents

Secondary: Dwarven archeologists, deaths, and the quest for more root stew. It’s a great little side quest chain going through the Howling Fjord

MSQ: Valgarde entire. As usual the initial arcs tend to be the strongest ones. The fight against the vrykul, learning about how things work up here, how desperate things really are, pushing into hostile territory, flying around on harpoons…

MSQ: …and the Iron Dwarves, whatever they’re doing up here. They’re definitely up to something, and we can’t even properly communicate with them… they talk, but they don’t react like they should. And they’re not only burying archeological sites, they’re enslaving the local earth giants

Doodads: Utgarde Pinnacle has some really solid doodad design. Special mention to the treasury right up front (you know, the trapped one)

Brickwork: Utgarge, in general. We see a few tidbits of their architectural style here and there, but Utgarde really personifies it properly. Big, crude stone, slammed onto each other while still being stylized enough to have design to it

Prime Opt: Grizzly Hills has this wonderful build up to the reveal of the wolfcult. It’s gradual, has just enough hints that something’s wrong without going too far into it, that the payoff is actually a legit moment

Brickwork: Iron Dwarf architecture, general. We mostly see this further south, in their outposts, but I love it. Very faux dwarven, coated in cold iron and blue runes

Music Direction: Grizzly Hills, of course. The forest, the hills, the ambiance

Music Direction: Storm Peaks absolutely nails this, probably our first zone to really get multiple music direction positives. The mournful howls of the women, the deep thrumming of the horns (the Titans and their Forged), the quiet and morose strings, it all adds wonderfully to the ambiance…

Music Direction: …and earns an easy…

Music Direction: …triple positive

Brickwork: Storm Peaks, again. Massive swaths of snowcapped mountains and wonderful Titan architecture abound, what more even is there to say? This earns another…

Brickwork: …easy…

Brickwork: …triple positive…

Visual Storytelling: …but wait, there’s more! The way the Titan engineering so seamlessly exists in and around the more archaic stone architecture, all while quietly implying just how much of this mountain chain is actually hollowed out and machinery inside. It’s some of the best visual storytelling to date…

Visual Storytelling: …and it gets…

Visual Storytelling: …another triple positive

MSQ: The Storm Peaks, full stop. This is easily the first really, really good MSQ chain in the game. Hints of it exist all the way back in the Fjord, with Loken being revealed to be behind the Iron Dwarves. Then we see how they’re enslaving and attacking all those around them. And finally we get a quest from a goblin to save her brother, leading to a chance encounter, which has us infiltrating Thorim’s people, and eventually breaking him out of his stupor (in a way that even makes sense!), and then the chain winds around to us helping and fixing Thorim’s problems. This all earns…

MSQ: …an easy…

MSQ: …triple positive, but I have to give mention to what it all leads to…

Moment: …the Loken reveal. With Yogg awake and active and us present, Loken is making moves, and uses us to trick Thorim into a position of weakness so he can control him like he does all the others, and that’s just an awesome twist

Character: Brann. Dude’s just kind of weirdly legit, even back here in Wrath. Decent amount of screen time (has an entire quest arc, a dungeon, and a raid to him) and he’s mostly just interested in figuring out what’s actually going on and not all this stupid HvA bullcrap. Oh and he also is one of our best sources of intelfor the situation in Ulduar

Cutscene: The meeting of the three bronzebeards is similarly awesome. First time we see all three in one place, and follows immediately in the wake of the reveal of Muradin’s fate

Visual Storytelling: Ulduar. The broken toys, the forges, the spawners, Algalon’s entire deal, each area tailored to the given Keepers (special mention to Mimiron’s which has no stylings at all), and of course…

Visual Storytelling: …everything to do with the descent into Yogg Saron’s realm

Cutscene: Algalon’s cutscene in Ulduar is actually really cool. The actor helps sell it, and really gets across just how impartial and horrifying the Titans really can be

Cutscene: Mimiron gets a general plus for being delightful across his entire fight

Moment: Call me a weirdo, but the moment Yogg-Saron arises deserves its own positive. It’s also one of the extremely few examples of great voice acting in Wrath

Atmosphere: So much of Wrath is quite atmospheric. The gloom of Northrend is omnipresent, from the dying empire of Zul”Drak…

Atmosphere: …to the cold machinery of the Storm Peaks…

Atmosphere: …to the endless, hopeless tracks of Icecrown

Dialogue: The general tone and dialogue thing WoW is so good at continues. Dialect, variety, presentation, it’s all there…

Dialogue: …and earns an easy…

Dialogue: …triple positive

Visual Continuity: A decent amount in general, but what really nails this is Icecrown Citadel, visible from everywhere on the entire continent

Cutscene: Sound: Wrathgate. This scene has issues, but sound design is not one of them. The gasps in the crowd, the Lich King’s tightening his grip on his sword, the shing of the deflected shield

Cutscene: Storyboarding: Wrathgate is also surprisingly well storyboarded for its age. Good placement, camera, etc.

Music Direction: Icecrown. I was originally going to put this one higher but in hindsight I don’t think I shall. The zone is so, so long that you end up hearing the song entirely too long, and that drags it down

Secondary: Bridenbrad and the Scourge Plague. While the meta side of this quest sort of ruins it, that has no impact on the review nor the quest itself, which is just awesome

MSQ: Arthas’ Soul and the Second Lich King’s heart. Finally interacting with Arthas (the real one, not the Death Knight one), seeing how he descended over the years, the nature of our foe, great stuff

Doodads: The Argent Tournament. Lots of touches and details here… so much in fact it actually makes it make no sense

Humor: Wilfred Fizzlebang, grand warlock!

Visual Storytelling: The Forge of Souls, and the soulgrinders

Storytelling Mechanic: Loading screens. Some really lovely stuff, especially for the dungeons

Music Direction: Pit of Saron. This might be some of the most quietly horrifying music in the entire expansion, perfect for a slave pit where people are worked to death, and then raised to keep working

Brickwork: Pit of Saron, again. The pit, the saronite, the slaves, the ghouls, the overwhelming presence of the eye

MSQ: The filter across the triad of dungeons, as we go from an army to a few survivors to just us and Jaina/Sylvanas

Music Direction: Icecrown Citadel, good lord. The quietly horrifying music, the usage of boss music, the San’Layn section, the finale

Brickwork: The architecture of Icecrown. It’s all over the zone, but best presented in the Citadel itself

Voice Acting: The Second Lich King, full stop. McConnohie is as awesome as he always is. The only reason he’s not even more positives is due to the inconsistent voice mixing. This is appropriate considering…

Character: …the Second Lich King also deserves his own character note. This is back when they were still experimenting with main villains and didn’t know how to present them very well, so he shows up periodically across several quests (Alliance in Valgarde, Horde in Agmar’s Hammer, etc.). But all we really get from him is his showboating and his endless filter. Which is interesting, but sadly only really a single positive worthy

Visual Storytelling: I have to give an extra mention to the usage of visuals in the Citadel. The frozen glacier, the armaments and wings, the theming

Cutscene: Okay, weirdly enough, I’ll give you this one. Of all the story negatives in the Citadel, Varok’s confrontation of his dead son is good stuff

Cutscene: For all its issues, I really do love the final boss fight with the Second Lich King. His taunts, the spectacle of it…

Plot: …and the revelation of exactly what’s been going on this whole time. The endless Filter, designed to find the absolute best, strongest, and most skilled fighters in the entire world… and then claim them as his own, securing his reign, and his eventual war against the Legion. All of this then leads nicely into two great things…

Cutscene: …first, Arthas’ death, finally re-united with his body in its final moments, along with Tirion’s near-mistake of picking up the Crown. We almost lost everything in those final moments. And it all leads to…

Moment: …the Third Lich King. “Tell them only that the Lich King is dead, and that Bolvar Fordragon died with him

Moment: Rhonin’s speech in Dalaran still hits to this day. “That our lives are worth living”

World Building: Titans and Titanforged. The sheer quantity and quality of Titan lore that got dumped on our face this expansion really fleshed them out (no pun intended) and added to what we now think of as Titanthink…

World Building: …for an easy double positive

World Building: This also ties into the origins of the dwarves, the gnomes, and most surprisingly of all… the humans

World Building: We also get more insight into how the Kirin Tor operate as a polity (probably because it’s the first time we’ve actually had access to Dalaran)

World Building: The dragonflight, their connection to the Titans, and Wyrmrest are also all established here

World Building: Tuskarrs and their culture is introduced here

World Building: A weird amount of world building for a lot of side stuff too. The Sons of Hodir, the stone giants, the pirates, the taunka, etc.

External Continuity: Everything to do with the Lich Kings is neatly tied up here, and used quite well from Warcraft 3

Spritework: Warrior, Wrath. Gotta say, Wrath really drops the ball compared to BC on its set designs. There’s a few ‘decent’ stuff but really only Warrior manages anything worth a damn

Spritework: Wrath generic gear is weirdly good throughout, so I’ll give you that one

Storytelling Mechanic: Cataclysm load screens. Honestly the best ones are the dungeons, but they’re legit…

Storytelling Mechanic: …an easy double

Brickwork: Gilneas architecture is just fantastic. We’ve moved forwards into Cata and things are starting to get good, and we really see the remains of this formerly advanced and powerful nation

NPC Set Dressing: Gilneas tutorial. The soldiers, the injured, the fleeing civilians, and the slowly escalating tide of worgen

Writing: Gilneas, sentence structure and word usage. There’s some really tight writing in the quests throughout the Worgen starter zones, varying between languished, morose, terse, and hurried

MSQ: Everything about the initial Gilneas tutorial is some of the best story beats in the game. You have a quick and dirty insight into just how bad things already are…

Visual Storytelling: …you see how bad things get around you on as you…

Atmosphere: …retreat. In fact it’s a running retreat, barely keeping ahead of the worgen tide…

Atmosphere: …and the whole thing just feels exactly as tense and horrifying as it is

Cutscene: The Worgen infection and fall of the player character. It’s a great transition, and does a good job of covering the time passing, and why we in particular deserve the special chance at being temporarily cured

Writing: Gilneas, quick and dirty lowdown on a lot of concepts (the Wall, the Northgate Rebellion, the time variance)

MSQ: Gilneas, recovery at Duskhaven, and of course…

Moment: …the Cataclysm actually happening right in front of you as you’re desperately trying to evacuate Duskhaven. In fact this happens twice. It’s one of the only times in the game’s history they’ve done terrain layering, and they use it very well here (the camera even shakes more and more leading up to it)

Brickwork: I have to give mention to everything about the Gilnean surrounding area. This whole place perfectly encapsulates the gloomy victorian era vibe…

Doodads: …and the little details really help sell it (the gas lamps in the street, the stylings on the windows, the sheafs of paper blowing in the wind)

Music Direction: Did I mention the Gilnean theme? As usual this is something used for most Worgen areas going forwards, but they do some great stuff with it here during the slow rotation around Gilneas itself

Cutscene: Music Direction: Cataclysm’s cinematic music usage is essentially perfect

Cutscene: Voice Acting: Deathwing’s voice acting is essentially perfect here

Cutscene: Sound: The sound is amazing for this cinematic

Cutscene: Animation: The showcasing of the various lands and how they’ve been changed by the Cataclysm is fantastic…

Cutscene: External Continuity: …and how it follows through on so many Vanilla zones and dungeons

MSQ: The evacuation of Duskhaven, Gilneas (Granny, the fishermen, the horses, the Forsaken fleeing to shore)

Dialogue: Gilneans, general. The flavor, style, and tone

Brickwork: Kezan. The unique, uh, style of the Goblins is present even in their architecture. Crudely plated cardboard, wood, and metal all bolted together

Doodads: Kezan really works from a doodad perspective though. Trash everywhere, barely thrown together items (like the flamingos, or the ‘grass field’). The whole thing is amazing for how short it is…

Doodads: …and that’s an easy double

Visual Storytelling: Kezan, again. This entire zone just screams ‘Goblin’ from stem to stern. The haphazard way the highway is built, the barely functional reactor core, the awful beach, the artificial pool, it’s great

NPC Set Dressing: This is probably where Kezan nails it the most. Just roaming around Kezan you will find over a dozen little stories in the NPCs. People watching the game, supermodels spraying gasoline on each other, the trolls lazily avoiding work, dozens of people lined up for the bank, scammers down in the slums, the rich elite all hanging out at Gallywix’s place, it’s amazing…

NPC Set Dressing: …an easy double positive

Music Direction: The Goblin theme itself, best used here in Kezan itself (but also in every Goblin area going forwards)

MSQ: Everything about Kezan’s quests. The vibe, the tone, the flavor, the story of the up-and-coming CEO (that’s us) and our push to become Trade Prince…

World Building: …everything about the Goblins themselves. How they operate, their culture, their view on everyday interactions, even the environment they have near total control over and yet only bother to change the bare minimum

Dialogue: Goblin dialogue is, as usual, well constructed and unique in its coarse accent and crude usage of portmanteaus

MSQ: The initial wake-up on the beach up to finding the orcs. This entire arc is solid, going from being literal refugees on the beach, dealing with the local wildlife (monkeys, raptors, and ravenous plants) until we stumble into the orcs

MSQ: The town quests. First some breather quests (the eggs), then things escalate with the naga, then the pygmies, and finally…

MSQ: …the voodoo zombies, culminating in the volcano erupting

Brickwork: Lost Isles, general. I mean it’s hard for a Cata-onwards zone to not get this one, and they do some good job with the wild jungle vibe

Visual Storytelling: Lost Isles also does some surprisingly good stuff with its visuals. The caldera, and subsequent explosion of the volcano, is surprisingly visceral (and goes down a path we’d walked up just minutes earlier)

MSQ: Dealing with SI7 and Gallywix, and coming full circle with the crew

MSQ: Troll starter. Zuni, the revelation of Garrosh, everyday life now for the Darkspear, and the slow escalation of the encroachment of the naga

External Continuity: Also the usage of the Sea Witch (Zar’jira) and the naga works really well for a tutorial Darkspear villain

Cutscene: Vol’jin’s discussion with Thrall is actually very well written, and is a good insight into how terrible of a mistake Thrall’s decision really was

Doodads: Echo Isles, general. This place is really dense in Troll paraphernalia and it’s awesome

Brickwork: Mulgore. Enjoy what is quite possibly one of the only vanilla zones that still looks gorgeous to this day. The rolling plains, the canyon walls fencing it all in, the lake, the well laid out roads, it’s just beautiful and easily sells the wide open plains better than entire other games do…

Brickwork: …earning a double positive

World Building: Tauren culture. The way they deal with their dead, how they organize tribes and roles, their rites and passages, a huge amount of time and effort is spent on the Tauren even just in Mulgore on fleshing them out as a people

Music Direction: Mulgore. One thing you can definitely say about Vanilla zones is the music direction. The winding whistle of the towns, the open winds of the plains

Brickwork: Tauren Architecture. Love the look of it. Wish it had a more modern texture to it, but it’s still unique and distinct and well done

Atmosphere: Mulgore and Thunder Bluff. This is a weird one because Thunder Bluff is very much a Vanilla city, but man does it just nail that vibe check

MSQ: Teldrassil, the follow through of Vanilla. So many of the quests here are functionally identical to Vanilla ones with a polishing pass,

World Building: Teldrassil, and the Night Elves. A lot of establishment of Elven culture here, along with their new place in the world

Music Direction: Teldrassil, as with many Night Elven zones, just nails it on the music side of things. This absolutely feels like a mystical living forest rest atop a giant tree…

Music Direction: …and easily earns two positives

Internal Continuity: Darkshore does a tremendous amount of continuity with itself and, weirdly, Vanilla. Lots of connections here

MSQ: Darkshore, the initial rescue, is a great sequence by itself. Just rushing through and doing everything in our power to save the survivors of Auburdine… and failing more than half the time

MSQ: The fate of the survivors, and their follow through, is nice too. As Darkshore progresses we go back to Lor’danel periodically, and as we do we see their stories

Humor: Kezan! I mean… do I need to make this point? This place is one of the funniest spots in the game…

Humor: …earning an easy double positive

Humor: Lost Isles is somehow even better in the humor category. Big references, direct jokes, general tone, moments of whimsy, moments of nonsense…

Humor: …it’s all great stuff…

Humor: …and earns an easy triple

MSQ: There’s not a lot of meat on the bones of most of the quests in Azshara… unless you’re paying attention. There’s some early hints of the Hellscream / Horde divide, the Goblins trying to ‘earn their keep’ in Hellscream’s eyes feeding into that, and some nice follow through on the events of Coldarra in Wrath

Atmosphere: Azshara is also frankly hilarious, in both the sense of the general atmosphere…

Humor: …and straight up jokes and amusements

Prime Opt: I also have to give credit for the entire Kalecgos chain, as it winds through Xylem and Azuregos

Secondary: Durotar, slice of life and world building quests

MSQ: Durotar, the Hellscream and Horde divide

Music Direction: Durotar, of course. Love the ambiance here

Brickwork: Durotar, again. The red, blasted plains now pockmarked by the encroaching tides

Brickwork: North Barrens. The rolling savannah

Doodads: Azshara! Bits and bobs and elven ruins and trash

MSQ: Ashenvale Horde initial. For all its later issues, the initial arc is pretty solid; We’re here to conquer this from the elves, they’d rather not, and despite our efforts we’re slowly losing ground

Music Direction: Ashenvale, of course. Iconic and elven, of course, but also some wonderful usage of BFA music for certain areas

Visual Storytelling: Ashenvale. This is one of the main battlefronts of the Hellscream War and it shows

Doodads: Ashenvale, again. They did a nice polishing pass of several areas here

Internal Continuity: Ashenvale, both sides. The Alliance story arc very clearly follows the Horde one, and while it’s not super amazing like some other zones, you do get more of the overall picture doing both sides

Secondary: The child of Ashenvale chain, which also results in a Satyr redeeming themselves

MSQ: Ashenvale and the reclamation from Hellscream’s forces…

MSQ: …as well as the first overt reference to The Bomb (which also showed up in Azshara)

MSQ: Stonetalon initial quests for both sides. The initial push in, the Krom’Gar forces trying to defend against a counterattack while the Alliance forces are desperately trying to prevent deployment of the bomb

MSQ: Stonetalon assault phase. The Krom’Gar forces recruit the local kobolds to deal with the Grimtotem while the Alliance investigate a nice ruin Highborne ghosts still living out their final days

MSQ: The entire lead up through the zone, again on both sides. The Krom’Gar trying to move the bomb, the Alliance trying to sabotage it, leading to…

MSQ: …and deployment of the bomb, on both sides

Internal Continuity: As with Ashenvale, the two sides of Stonetalon are two halves of one story that compliment each other nicely

Music Direction: Stonetalon Mountains. A bit different from the normal music direction positive, here it’s all about how it compliments the path through and lead up to the bomb’s deployment

Visual Storytelling: South Barrens. The sudden swampy jungle, the chasm of lava hell, the battlefields, and the quagmire…

Visual Storytelling: …an easy double positive

MSQ: Taurajo, Horde. The civilian outpost torched and massacred by the Alliance is a large portion of the initial story arc in the South Barrens

MSQ: Everything centered around the Horde version of the quagmire. It’s very clear that this is just a bloody, brutal line in the sand filled with corpses and blood

MSQ: Northwatch Hold, South Barrens, Alliance. Holding the line and seeing how bad the Hellscream forces have gotten in their assaults

Internal Continuity: South Barrens. This is one of the best zones for self-referencing and keeping track of its own continuity, and it really adds to the entire zone and serves as a fantastic capstone on the Kalimdor War MSQ…

Internal Continuity: …earning a double positive

MSQ: Taurajo, but this time on the Alliance. We learn more about what was happening here, and why exactly the Alliance forces were so uncharacteristically violent and merciless here

MSQ: The South Barrens Quagmire is the perfect encapsulation of the Hellscream War. Two forces stumble into each other in a spot with no inherent strategic value and then it quickly turns into a grinder. Both sides pour resources and manpower into it, and neither side gets anywhere. This whole zone and plot point does something most of WoW in general fails to do; it writes the HvA conflict well. It’s made very clear how much of a tragedy this entire thing really is, perpetuating a cycle of violence for no gain or benefit to either side. This earns…

MSQ: …an easy…

MSQ: …triple positive, but I have to also give credit to…

Moment: The devastation of Bael’gun. We see this from the Horde side, and it’s mostly just a quick sabotage against an invading force, but then we see on the Alliance side how the dwarves (the aggressors here, mind) are treating the Tauren (the most kind, peaceful, and well meaning members of the Horde by far) and that leads to us doing a simple flyby… at which point the sabotage goes off. Twinbraid’s final moments are legitimately powerful…

Moment: …and his father’s reaction even more so. We are immediately sent to kill a bunch of completely unrelated goblins (who are arguably civilians) for the crime of being the same race as one of the saboteurs, leading to the cycle of vengeance circling onwards

Secondary: Mankrik and Mahka. It’s such a small line, but it’s astonishingly well written for what it is, and it’s the beginning of these little quiet moments that later WoW will be so good at

Background Lore: The Quillboar in general are a fascinating story arc across Durotar, the North Barrens, and the South Barrens. The Scourge push the Quillboar out of their ancestral home, so an opportunistic crone sends them to cause violence, displacing some of their number north and leaderless, which throws them against the forces further north. It’s small to the point where it doesn’t deserve more than a single positive, but it is a neat story domino

Visual Storytelling: Desolace and the terraforming efforts thereof.

MSQ: For all the meandering leading up to it, the actual main chain of the centaurs learning to work together in the face of the demonic threat with you as their ally is pretty legit

Brickwork: Feralas, the dense layered canopies of a thick forest

MSQ: The Cho’Gall chain. We start off seeing a magical orb, trace that back through the spreading Gordunni, and end up face to face with Cho’Gall who requires an actual small army of elites to fight. It’s our first shot of Cho’Gall and it’s a nice chain regardless

Internal Continuity: Feralas. Lots of references to itself, to the events of Gilneas, and to vanilla

MSQ: Goblins, Gnomes, and what’s left of the Speedbarge

MSQ: Tony Two Tusk’s chain is, as usual, fun stuff and a great insight into Troll culture (and amusing to boot)

MSQ: The charge back through the Grimtotems is full of good continuity, intrigue, and good writing

MSQ: Magatha’s chain (pridelings!) and her obvious awfulness

Visual Storytelling: The Thousand Needles. The flooding is the most obvious thing, but when you go below the surface you really see how much of a number that tidal wave really did on this zone

Music Direction: Tanaris. The haunting echoes and vocals, the troll drums, great stuff

Internal Continuity: Tanaris, but especially Gadgetzan. Lots of follow through and callbacks (the three principle NPCs are all from previous works)

Prime Opt: The Goblin and Gnome rivalry across the Tanaris quests

Secondary: The Goblin (Gus Rustflutter) desperately trying to save his belle from poisoning

Brickwork: Tanaris. There’s better (in this game, even) but this is still your textbook example of how to make a desert look interesting

Doodads: Tanaris actually manages to have weirdly good doodad design. The trails, the bones, the little stories here and there

Brickwork: Maraudon. This place is interesting. Orange half is gross, just completely overgrown and rotten. The purple half is very culty, and swarming with demons. But what really sells it is the final segment, with white marble and blue waterfalls… an interesting hint of what Desolace now became in Cata

Prime Opt: The tragedy of Diremaul West is a fascinating story in and of itself. The highborne, locked away in their city, summoning a demon to sustain them… and slowly falling behind the energy efficiency curve, all the while bleeding citizens out (literally)

Visual Storytelling: The one (one!) room of living highborne in Diremaul West deserves its own mention. It’s got like… a dozen people, mostly named, and mostly very spread out… as if they can’t even stand each other

Secondary: Un’Goro quests in general. They’re not the best, but there’s a lot of fun story here spread out around the zone

Humor: Maximillion of Northshire is, I’m sorry, hilarious for all the wrong reasons

Doodads: Orgrimmar. There’s a lot of doodad design here, quite good and probably the best we’ve seen as of this point in capital city design…

Doodads: …for two positives

NPC Set Dressing: Orgrimmar, again. There’s so, so many characters roaming around and adding to the flavor and vibe and tone of Orgrimmar. There’s even little events and tiny mini stories. It’s an easy…

NPC Set Dressing: …triple…

NPC Set Dressing: …positive

Secondary: Furbolg and the kids in the totem. Everything around these initial quests is just adorable

Secondary: The fight against the satyrs continues to be fun, as we deal with the imp and take the fight to the Shadow Council

World Building: It’s small but it’s there; the logic and application of how Order (arcane) and Chaos (nature) can work well to purify and cleanse corruption (Fel in this case)

Secondary: The fate of Winna Hazzard is a tragic one, and wonderfully contrasted by how cheery and bright and happy the quest giver is

Secondary: The Demonhunter and infiltration chain in Felwood. Some good history, some good insight, and a good conclusion

Secondary: The tale of Kel’Theril is a fascinating one, and weirdly ties in nicely with both the Blue Dragons and the old vanilla quests that abruptly terminated in Winterspring

Brickwork: Winterspring. It’s simple, but it’s well designed, and it does a good job with that ‘arcane snowfield’ aesthetic

Writing: The truly insidious nature of the fate of a newly born Forsaken. This is some of the most interesting and messed up lore for the Forsaken as a whole. These people are all victims (to start), who have already died (which is of course horrible), and raised back as undead (also horrible), and this is in a world where simply being undead means being marked as a monster (due to the still semi-recent Scourge invasions… yes, plural). So. You have a few choices. Kill yourself, take your chances in a very hostile world, or sign up. It’s messed, and it informs a huge portion of the Forsaken quests and lore…

Writing: …earning a wonderful…

Writing: …triple positive

Cutscene: The three fates of the newly risen in Tirisfal. They flee in mindless fear and rage, they immediately commit suicide, or they serve

MSQ: The very first few quests in Deathknell are just fantastic. They do a wonderful job of conveying exactly what’s going on, how it affects people, and how many people are here to help the newly risen. Which is simultaneously heartwarming and horrifying

MSQ: The second bundle of quests in Deathknell continue to do so much good stuff with the Forsaken and their nature, plight, and mentality

MSQ: The final bundle of quests in Deathknell (look, it’s some good story). The ‘peasant rebellion’ and the implications of how common of a problem this is, and the interesting take on this mundane concept

Brickwork: Tirisfal Glades. Gloomy, rotten, but in a morose way

Moment: The revelation of Lilian’s connection to the Scarlet’s, the reveal of her powers, and her refusal to be rescued

Visual Storytelling: Tirisfal, and the Lilian trail. This goes throughout a fairly large portion of the zone, especially areas you frequent as part fo questing

Visual Storytelling: Silverpine, the front of the war. The fortifications, the areas under fire (literally!), the battlefields

MSQ: Silverpine, early war. The worgen and the Forsaken pushed back north

Brickwork: Silverpine. The cursed forest, slowly recovering, while still stained by war

Cutscene: There’s actually a surprisingly good number of cutscenes in Silverpine. Garrosh and Sylvanas butting heads, the people accepting the Worgen curse and our flight from them, and Sylvanas doing a good (and biased) recount of the relevant events of Warcraft 3

Writing: Silverpine does the best job overall of really emphasizing the plight of the Forsaken. Good, bad, and in between

MSQ: The entire ‘war’ arc of Silverpine does a great job of getting across how far behind the curve we really are, constantly fighting on the back foot

MSQ: Everything about the Godfrey arc is fantastic. The way he becomes an even worse person after he’s risen is a great insight into just what being a Forsaken is really like, and his character in particular

Prime Opt: Shadowfang Keep is another good Cataclysm dungeon (sadly lacking in voice acting though). The follow-through of the events of Silverpine, the continued stress between Hellscream and Sylvanas

Humor: Welcome To The Machine, and being a quest giver to three archetypes of bad WoW players

Secondary: The spider mines of Hillsbrad. Murlocs, humor, Dumass, foreshadowing, and “supplies”

Prime Opt: Warden Stillwater’s chain. We start to see that not all Forsaken are deranged monsters, and we see an insight into Forsaken culture (one of their biggest taboos is removing the right to choose, and one of their biggest punishments is true death)

Internal Continuity: Hillsbrad, weirdly enough. Every story is running more or less concurrent with every other story and they all dovetail nicely

Visual Storytelling: West Plaguelands. The partially healed land, the reclamation of the region, and the war in Andorhol, and Lilian’s trail

Humor: Zen’kiki and his little druid mishaps are just weirdly adorable

Prime Opt: Everything to do with Andorhol is pretty engaging. The stark contrast between Forsaken and Sylvanas, her flagrant violation of their most sacred principles, and the eventual fate of Thassarian and Koltira

Character: Gidwin, Tarenar, Fiona, and the rest of the caravan personalities. Some delightful stuff here

Moment: Gidwin and Tarenar fighting during the first leg of the trip across the East Plagues

Prime Opt: Darrowshire. Also very technically our first introduction to Chromie, but the tragedy of Darrowshire and our role in changing it is a nice sequence

Moment: The second leg of the journey. Argus, Gidwin, and Tarenar playing off each other as usual

Prime Opt: The entire idea of the mostly jokey paladin duo suddenly getting serious as they get in over their heads is surprisingly engaging

Prime Opt: The conclusion of this arc works surprisingly well too. Everyone coming together to help us out, the lead ins to Stratholme, and the general fun factor

Music Direction: I’ll give Elwynn this; it nails things musically. To this day I can think of this zone when hearing this song…

Brickwork: …which brings me to brickwork. It’s not much (really) but they do a lot with what they had, and the dense forest surrounding small outposts and placid lakes is a nice vibe

NPC Set Dressing: Westfall. Transients, homeless, drifters. The moment anybody dies, the kids are on them in seconds to loot what’s left

Consequence Storytelling: Westfall. For arguably one of the only times, a zone is devoted almost entirely towards really acknowledging the events of the series and following through on them nicely

MSQ: Westfall initial, up to the mine. There’s a lot going on in a short amount of time here, as they’re setting up a seemingly nothingburger situation while laying bricks for the eventual mystery

Moment: The murder of the quest giver, the only one who’d been willing to talk to you

Visual Storytelling: We go from the extreme poverty (the richest guy in the area has two shoes… and nine people share a barn for shelter) to an expensive military outpost where…

Visual Storytelling: …they literally keeping the poor outside of the walls. Forcing them to protest silently or squat against the walls for shelter

MSQ: The development and increase of intrigue across the Westfall MSQ

Bablyon 5 Effect: Westfall. Quite a bit, most of it very quiet and in the background, but a lot of this lines up differently the second time through

Moment: VanCleef’s final moments are well done for what they are, the revelation thereafter is even better

Moment: The final Westfall cutscene. The revelation of the kingpin and the fate of Sentinel Hill

Plot: Everything to do with Westfall. The tragedy of it, the avoidability, the insight into the post war situation back home, Varian’s total lack of ability to lead, the whole thing is just fantastic…

Plot: …and still engages me to this day

Writing: Westfall, general. There’s just some really solid quality here. It’s even more obvious when compared directly to, say, Redridge

Brickwork: Lakeshire and Redridge are, for what it’s worth, quite well designed

Brickwork: Duskwood was surprisingly good for a vanilla zone at conveying the haunted forest concept

Prime Opt: Duskwood, Ladimore chain. Some fun things going on here, and by fun I mean absolutely horrifying… but it does end in a nice way, and finally concludes the arc

MSQ: Oghan’aka and their escape. The entire arc, really, but this one sequence does so much to invest me in the fate of this raptor

Brickwork: Booty Bay! The ramshackle, thrown-together, barely-functioning shanty town. I love it

MSQ: Bossy! Poor Bossy… I cannot believe how much this one tiny quest made me care about this poor cow

MSQ: Everything about the attack on Booty Bay is fantastic. The NPCs hiding in the corner (with the weaponsmith defending them!), the worgen hanging out on the roof drinking, all kinds of great moments

MSQ: Everything about Jin’Do rebuilding the Gurubashi up as we fight against the Zul Confederacy. Recruiting Zanzil, resurrecting the former priests, bringing back Hakkar, and Zul’Gurub itself

Visual Storytelling: Zul’Gurub. There’s a lot going on here. Trolls fighting each other, being inspired by the Zandalari ‘consultants’, snakes all over Venoxxis’ area, just… lots of details

Character: Kezan, supporting cast. Lots of memorable, interesting, and fun gobbos here. Your crew, your ex girl/boyfriend, your head of marketing, even the class trainers. And of course the sports coach

Character: Gilneas, supporting cast. Again, lots of good supporting cast here. Godfrey and his cronies, Greymane himself, Crowley and his daughter

Character: Darkshore, supporting cast. The man who lost his wife, the bear who lost his master, the gnome insistent on using technology to help the night elves, the cultists, the vengeful elves down south, the patient ent

Character: Westfall, supporting cast. Some real bangers here, mostly bosses from the dungeon, but also points to Two Shoes, the military personnel, the halfway house family, and of course one of our very first appearances by Amber Kearnen

Character: Kalimdor, supporting cast. There’s usually only one or two memorable characters per zone (Magatha and Tony Two Tusk from Thousand Needles, the feuding gnome and goblin in Tanaris, etc.) but there’s enough to warrant it

Character: Tirisfal, supporting cast. Lilian is obvious, but we also see some memorable alchemists (both helpful and evil), the poor leper gnome, aboms just trying to help, and a decent insight into some of the basic civilians of the Forsaken

Character: Silverpine, supporting cast. In contrast to Tirisfal, this is almost entirely military Forsaken. This is on top of Sylvanas, Garrosh poking his head in, the Godfrey crew making a re-appearance, and our first real showcasing of Cromush

Character: Hillsbrad, supporting cast. I mean come on. The initial three questers speak for themselves

MSQ: Burning Steppes, initial infiltrations. The hilarious assassinations, the bonking the sergeants

Foreshadowing: Burning Steppes. The zone does a pretty good job of laying down bricks that pay off later

Plot: Burning Steppes. This is an interesting one. We’re (canonically) much higher level here than in Redridge, but we still can’t take on an army by ourselves (not yet), and the entire military of both factions is off fighting each other. So what do we do? Troteman and Ariok both help us to sabotage, infiltrate, and demolish the Dark Horde from within. And unlike a lot of plots like this, this works really well and is tightly written, leading up to…

Moment: …te big reveal of the Burning Steppes, which is just joy. After doing so much to completely screw with and destroy everything, they run fleeing towards their salvation… which is us atop a dragon, there to kill them. Poetry

Internal Continuity: Burning Steppes and the logic thereof. Lots of connecting threads here

Brickwork: Blackrock Spire, interior. This doesn’t really go in any given zone but I have to give credit to the design of this. The edges of Shadowforge City, the dwarven statues holding up the central mass with the giant iron chains, it’s great stuff

NPC Set Dressing: Stormwind. More or less exactly like Orgrimmar, the NPC Set Dressing of Stormwind is legit. Statics, interacters, roamers, all kinds of great stuff…

NPC Set Dressing: …for an easy…

NPC Set Dressing: …triple positive

Doodads: Stormwind is one of the better doodad’d capital cities in the game, once again alongside Orgrimmar…

Doodads: …for another…

Doodads: …triple positive

Music Direction: Stormwind music is so, so good. It’s iconic, sets the theme and tone, and has good variety to it even…

Music Direction: …so there’s a double positive

Brickwork: I have to give special mention to the Stormwind Docks by themselves. These are absolutely gorgeous…

Doodads: …and have tons of amazing details throughout

Doodads: While we’re talking generic positives, I have to mention the portal rooms for both Orgrimmar and Stormwind. The details showcasing which portal leads where are just delightful

Music Direction: Gnomes! Adventurous, boisterous, very gnomish

Visual Storytelling: Gnome start. I love how busy this whole area this is, and how many little stories are going through it

MSQ: Gnome start is another of those simple but solid things. You’re freshly rescued from Operation Gnomeregan, get a quick update on the events thereof, and then you’re off to the races

MSQ: Dun Morogh. The entire zone is a series of escalations following the (recent) events of the cataclysm, culminating in the Dark Irons staging a large scale assault on the Ironforge Airfield. And Moira gets a moment to shine and showcase why she is who she is at the end

Brickwork: Dun Morogh. One of the better snowy areas, and with enough nice details and good design to it to sell the frozen mountainsides

World Building: Weirdly enough, Uldaman. Obviously most of the relevance here is AFTER the dungeon, but it’s wild to think about how much of this was seeded this early on

Visual Storytelling: The Scar of the Badlands. It really sells the player on the scale and scope of what Deathwing can really do

Secondary: The Day Deathwing Came is a weirdly amazing quest. In fact…

Secondary: …it’s actually…

Secondary: …three quests

MSQ: Rhaestrasza’s entire chain…

Moment: …and her final moments

Brickwork: Searing Gorge. The gorge itself, the mining equipment, the blasted crags

Secondary: Lunk! Delightful, amusing, and appropriate

MSQ: Searing Gorge, and helping non combatants against Twilight incursions

Visual Storytelling: Blackrock Caverns has some solid visuals showcasing what the Twilights are up to and why

Moment: Poor Atramedes’ creation. It’s a good cutscene, and properly messed up

Prime Opt: Nefarian’s continued experiments (up to and including his sister!) and the conclusion of the Blackwing story arc from all the way back in Vanilla

Visual Storytelling: Vashj’ir, the sunken ships. The ship you start in is already great, the ship graveyard around you really sells how badly the navies took it in the pants

Music Direction: Vashj’ir. I absolutely love the music here, and it does so much for the atmosphere and tone of the zone…

Music Direction: ….for an easy double positive

Atmosphere: The atmosphere of Vashj’ir is top notch…

Tone: …and it perfectly frames the horrible losses we suffer constantly. We are always on the back foot, the entire zone, and barely keeping up, and it’s great

MSQ: The initial loss of Vashj’ir is a fantastic moment. Everything we do to gear up and get set and it’s all for nothing as we’re just over-run

Internal Continuity: Vashj’ir is very good about its internal continuity. From Budd to the distress call to how they help us recover to the secondary ships, it’s all great

Visual Storytelling: Vashj’ir, little details. So, so many little details. The soldiers gain armor after you grab it, Adarrah gains a chest of gold after you recover it, the shaman summoning a fire totem to warm a survivor

Brickwork: Kel’thar forest. This is one of the most gorgeous subzones we’ve seen so far, with absolutely insane attention to detail…

Doodads: …and lots and lots and lots of effort put into selling the area

MSQ: Just as we start to recover and recoup, we see a vision of the scale of the threat, and when we wake up we’re under attack again

Brickwork: Shimmering Expanse, the initial shot. The first thing we see is a gorgeous vista with tons of doodads and a giant… thing in the distance

Doodads: The Shimmering Expanse really deserves…

Doodads: …double positive for how crazy detailed this entire area is, including the city of Vashj’ir itself

MSQ: Breather segment with Nespirah, and another victory for the team as we secure an advance point

Brickwork: Vashj’ir itself, the underwater city, long since lost to the waves, and absolutely huge

Moment: The loss of the forward post while we were in the vision is a wonderfully chilling moment as we quite literally have to retreat to a previous quest hub to progress

Character: Vashj’ir, supporting cast. The goblin shaman, the taunka dark shaman, Erunak, Taylor, Nazgrim, the doomed admiral, the Battlemaiden

Pacing: Vashj’ir’s pacing is fantastic. For every step forward we get hit back another step, and it moves between more intense segments and breather sections seamlessly

Humor: Putting the merciless one on our head… and then a second time

Brickwork: The lightless depths of the abyss are exactly as terrifying as they should be

Brickwork: Ramkahen is gorgeous. Lovely city and architecture alongside a lush river delta

Plot: Ramkahen line of Uldum in its entirety is simple but solid. The threat of a militant tribe fighting a tribe consisting mostly of farmers and fishers, and our work to turn things around is pretty engaging

Secondary: Gnomebliteration is just… fantastic. It’s the whole line up to it, but it’s still solid

Humor: Okay, I’ll give you this, several of the jokes in Uldum actually land pretty well

Brickwork: Uldum architecture in general. We see it in the cities, in the ruins, and in the dungeons

Doodads: Tol’Vir, and the marketplace, and the stalls, and the details, oh my

Brickwork: Skywall is just gorgeous. The pearls, the marble that looks like it’s made out of cloud, the layers of cloud cover that changes based on height, the stylized architecture, it’s amazing…

Brickwork: …easily earning two positives

Music Direction: The primary Twilight theme is really, really good stuff. It has multiple layers, and different mixes that we hear depending on the zone, and it’s fantastic…

Music Direction: …earning a double positive

Brickwork: Deepholm. This is one of the best representations of an earth elemental plane I’ve ever seen. The magnetics, the floating pebbles, the rock covering glittering gemstones, the colors, it’s fantastic…

Brickwork: …it’s an easy…

Brickwork: …triple positive

Visual Storytelling: Deepholm, again. There’s so much going on here, from the shattered pillar, to the remains of Deathwing’s operation, to the destroyed pillars

MSQ: The Horde and Alliance gunships… and the eerie Alliance one (great music choice!)

Foreshadowing: The build up to the Twilight infiltrators in Stormwind. This isn’t just a Deepholm thing, this shows up here and there, but it’s good foreshadowing (despite… issues later)

Writing: Deepholm, and the Earth Elementals. The way they talk is just fantastic and so indicative of their alien nature

Voice Acting: Deepholm in general. Some great stuff here for the Stone Lords…

Character: …who are a fascinating insight into how the Earth Elementals actually work. Each one is a facet of her, and thus represents a part of her viewpoint

Moment: Therazane’s introduction is actually really, really good. It shows their nature, and it’s a great indicator of who she is and how she operates

MSQ: The entire Earthen chain is weirdly legit. It’s a seemingly standard frontline story, but it has enough little tidbits of cool stuff for the Earthen and some memorable characters (like the cantankerous old Earthen who

MSQ: Stone Lord chain and their variety of personalities, and the tasks they set you upon, all of which…

World Building: …does a great job of fleshing out Earth and the elementals therein

MSQ: The opening to the Twilight Highlands, for the Horde. The gobbos, the logistics, the war profiteers screwing over the ships…

Humor: …and Hobart and Greely’s opening presentation

MSQ: Zaela and her initial orc supremacy dogma, the continuity with Outland and Mor’ghor, it’s solid stuff

Humor: I’m sorry, I do like Flintlocke, even though most of his jokes are references, they still land regardless

World Building: Dwarves, and especially Wildhammers. Cantankerous and hostile… until you become friends. Then you’re drinking buddies for life

Visual Storytelling: Twilight Highlands. The way the earth is cracked and ruined where the Twilights brought up their fissures, the dried up riverbed, the beachhead, great stuff

Brickwork: Twilight Highlands, general. This whole zone is fairly simply (it’s mostly just rolling mountains and forests) but it’s very well executed…

Brickwork: …especially the Twilight Citadel area. The chaotic, unnatural way this whole place looks is fantastic enough for its own positive

Brickwork: Wildhammer architecture… almost entirely underground, but great stuff here

MSQ: The entire southwestern dwarven chain. Having to meet and help and fight and rescue, it’s all fun and interesting stuff…

Character: …and adds to the character positive for the Wildhammers as a whole. We see this even more in a later quest too

Doodads: Wildhammer towns, homes, and the like…

Doodads: …and Dragonmaw fortresses, outposts, and… skinning areas

MSQ: The wedding, in its entirety. Good build up, good pay off (and it was ultimately her decision instead of just a political thing)

Moment: The Iso’rath nightmare is a great moment of characterization for the player character; The one thing we fear most is being unable to do anything, being unable to help. And the full cutscene is playable as we stand there, unable to DO anything

MSQ: I have to give props to the entire Iso’rath sequence. It’s exactly as horrifying as it should be

MSQ: The entire Dragonmaw chain about enslaving and dominating dragons. Yikes

Character: Sylvanas, circa Cata. I’m sorry but I find this character legitimately engaging. This is a woman who was never a good person, died, and was then forced to do horrible things. Upon reconnecting to her soul (later retcons aside) she had only one real goal; Revenge on Arthas. A defined, specific goal that everything she did for a game (Frozen Throne) and three expansions (Vanilla, BC, Wrath) focusing all of her efforts, resources, armies, and allies towards. Upon succeeding she immediately commits suicide…. And then realizes that what’s after death is even worse. So now her main focus is simply to survive. Thus the massive military buildup and expansion of the new Forsaken Empire, all to build more and more barriers of safety around her. Looking at all she does across Cataclysm in this lens really shines a fascinating light on her character and her actions

Writing: Forsaken defiance. They consistently are pushing up against basically everything and everyone and it shows

Voice Acting: Garrosh. Patrick Seitz just kind of nails this. Garrosh doesn’t have as much dialogue or screen time as I’d like (or as he will later in Pandaria) but he’s still fantastic

Voice Acting: General quality for several characters, including Vol’Jin, Cho’Gall, Sylvanas, and Deathwing

Dialogue: Trolls, in general. Very distinct way of speaking and well spoken to boot

Dialogue: Forsaken dialogue. Lots of short, brusque structure and brutal word choice

Dialogue: Gotta love how the dwarves talk. I don’t care if it’s typical, it’s great

Writing: Quest text in general is really starting to come into its own in Cata. In later expansions we’ll see this per-zone but here it’s still solid in general…

Writing: …and so earns…

Writing: …a triple positive

MSQ: Twilight Bastion entire. Cho’Gall’s rantings, the bosses as we go through, and the eradication of the Twilight’s Hammer as a functioning military

MSQ: The initial Hyjal chain. The mountain is under attack, fire elementals are everywhere, and we’ve been pushed right back to the tree itself before we show up

MSQ: Goldrinn’s shrine. Goldrinn himself, the revelation of the Twilight plan (replace the Loa with other, evil variants), and the humor of the Eye and the poor guy on the hook

MSQ: The entire arc around Tyrus and the flame front

Plot: The entire first half of the Hyjal chain is fantastic. Rejuvenating, re-awakening, or re-summoning the Ancients as we are slowly pushed back up the mountainside, up until…

Moment: …Aessina makes her big appearance. The most powerful of the (known) Loa finally making her presence known, to us (personally!), is just such an awesome moment…

Visual Storytelling: …and it leads to half the zone being renewed and washed in her power

MSQ: The entire infiltration chain is gold. I love getting this insight into the Hammer and how it operates…

MSQ: …earning a double positive

Brickwork: Hyjal. Gorgeous place, both hellscape and greenery

Doodads: Hyjal, especially the Twilight camps

Atmosphere: Mt. Hyjal in its entirety. The onslaught against an incoming army, followed by the counter charge back into their most elite units. The whole thing really does feel like the finale

Music Direction: The Firelands. It’s so wonderfully chaotic and insane

MSQ: Firelands, and everything about it. Alysrazor, Rhyolith, the infernal politics, Fandral, and of course the final end of Ragnaros

Prime Opt: Thrall’s wind… doubt, failure, and depression

Prime Opt: Thrall’s water… his desire. The peace and family he never had

Voice Acting: Thrall’s elemental fragments. Thrall himself, of course, but Aggra kind of nails it

Moment: Cairne WAS MY BROTHER

Visual Storytelling: The End Time. The dead lands, the cockroaches, but most importantly of all…

Visual Storytelling: …is Deathwing’s corpse, impaled upon the Wyrmrest Temple

MSQ: The various, tragic tales of the champions of Azeroth in the End Time

Brickwork: The Well of Eternity. It’s simple, but it’s good for what it is

Visual Storytelling: The endless armies of the Well of Eternity

MSQ: The Well of Eternity. Aszhara and her total disinterest in you (she literally sends her handmaidens with gifts), Illidan’s self centered hero complex, Mannoroth’s great lines, and the collapse of the Well

Brickwork: Ironforge. It’s Vanilla, but it’s solid for Vanilla, and I admit I love the atmosphere of it

Brickwork: Endgame skyboxes (Most especially Twilight Highlands and Mt. Hyjal)

Spritework: General. There’s some solid stuff in the leveling gear, and a few individual suits…

Spritework: …plus, as usual, Mage suits

Visual Storytelling: Loading screens, especially the dungeons (as usual)…

Visual Storytelling: …so that’s…

Visual Storytelling: …a triple

Prime Opt: Scarlet Halls, general. Lilian’s quest to root out the Scarlet, the showcasing of how bad and desperate the Scarlets have gotten in the intervening years

Doodads: Scarlet Halls, again. Some solid stuff, though a bit below Pandaria standard it’s still good

Visual Storytelling: Initial Scarlet Monastery courtyard. A few living, barely keeping up with burning the dead, INSIDE the Monastery. And the undead are rampant, including their own number (the first boss). And of course right inside the gates? The super elites… drunk

Brickwork: Scholomance. This is a wonderfully creepy, horrifying place…

Doodads: …with tons of details throughout

Moment: Lilian’s initial confrontation with Darkmaster Gandling is a brilliant and fun way to progress a scene (each major add in the area procs a new scene)

Moment: And Lilian’s… ‘death’ in her confrontation with Gandling

Voice Acting: Scholomance, general. Some great stuff in here, especially between Gandling and Lilian

Writing: The precise, simple, awesome writing of the Pandaria cinematic

Music Direction: Incredible usage of music. The initial, the quiet, the build up, the pay off…

Music Direction: …literally brings me to tears to this day

Sound Design: Outstanding sound design throughout said cinematic

Animation: This is some of the best animation we’ve seen. The difference in movement between the Orc and Human, and Chen of course, the mist, it’s all fantastic…

Animation: …an easy double positive

Voice Acting: Chen is fantastic, what do you want from me

Storyboarding: Some truly excellent storyboarding. The battle scene alone deserves this one…

Storyboarding: …so that’s an easy double positive

Visual Storytelling: Absolutely all over the place in the cinematic. The two banners falling together, the differing approach between the Orc and Human, them bumbling when fighting each other, Chen being pushed back as they unite, and the final big reveal…

Visual Storytelling: …masterclass storytelling…

Visual Storytelling: …easy triple

Theme: The theme of the entire expansion is perfectly encapsulated in the cinematic. What do we fight for?

Music Direction: Pandaria, general. A lot of its music plays all over the place, so not a lot of ‘zone identity’ stuff yet, but it’s still fantastic and perfectly encapsulates the scene, tone, and atmosphere…

Music Direction: …earning an easy…

Music Direction: …triple positive

Brickwork: Wandering Isles, in general. This is Pandaria era so of course it’s completely gorgeous. I absolutely love the stylings…

Doodads: …and the simple but solid doodad usage throughout

Brickwork: Pandaren architecture is just so well designed, it’s beyond words. This is just for the ‘generic’ architecture too, the stuff we see all over the place, we’ll be giving more positives for individual areas. For now…

Brickwork: …enjoy…

Brickwork: …triple positives

Architecture: Consider this a general for the whole island. Honestly there’s a bunch of little towns that practice good architecture that earn this alone

Writing: Lots of natural, well written exposition in the Wandering Isles

Prime Opt: Initial introduction to Aysa and Ji, as well as…

World Building: …informing us about several concepts, such as the mists, the way of life of the Pandaren, the Hozen, their unique elementals, things like that

Plot: The Wandering Isles primary plot is fascinating, and builds up beautifully. It starts off as a lesson, and we help the local elemental, but soon we realize things are serious and we’re actually here to figure out what’s wrong with the island itself

NPC Set Dressing: Wandering Isles. There’s better elsewhere, but there’s a lot going on around here to keep it lively and immersive

Tone: Wandering Isles. Peaceful, harmonious, humorous, and fun

Moment: The final send-off to the elder Shang Xi, and the entire Wood of Staves

Prime Opt: The entire introduction of the thorn, the Horde, and the Alliance. And note who we first meet from the Horde; a friendly tauren

Prime Opt: The finale of the Wandering Isle. Working together to fight against the thorn and the saurok, unifying, returning home in peace, good stuff

Theme: The Wandering Isles itself is very theme-centric to the entire expansion, and the direction the story is going in general all the way up to Legion; Unifying, working together, complimenting one another

Dialogue: Pandaren. Slow down, life is to be savored

Storytelling Mechanic: Tooltips on quest items. Like… ALL of them. And there’s some great stuff here…

Storytelling Mechanic: …earning an easy…

Storytelling Mechanic: …triple positive

NPC Set Dressing: Honeydew Village, and the Horde vets at various places

MSQ: The charge up the Thunder Hold, and…

Moment: …Nazgrim being consumed by Doubt, before Taran Zhu rushes out, tells them to chill out… and they do

Pacing: The initial Jade Forest pacing is fantastic. Intense action sequence, light-hearted breather segment, build up to another big encounter, another boss battle, and another breather for the introduction of Lorewalker Cho

Background Lore: The Alliance soldier (who’s from Stranglethorn!) and his journal detailing his descent into madness, and why he was willing to go to such lengths such as enslaving the local civilians

Moment: Family Tree, aka the moment where he acknowledges your race. Most of these are good, the Forsaken one is the best though (showcasing humans… and vrykul)

Dialogue: Hozen. Just… Hozen. Their dialogue is unique and brilliantly written…

Dialogue: …and easily deserves its own…

Dialogue: …triple positive

MSQ: The initial foray into recruiting the Hozen into the Horde. Bribing them with food, helping them against the Jinyu, all leading to…

MSQ: …the flashback quests. These deserve individual positives. First we have Riko’s amazingly badly told recounting of events as he’s entirely too distracted thinking about Kiryn to even remember it properly (“Let’s go do girl stuff!” and they frolic off). Then of course we see our first hint of the Jade Witch, and Gorrak joins her retinue

MSQ: Then we kill that poor, defenseless raccoon and capture Anduin…

MSQ: …then Riko is amazing (again) and rescues Kiryn…

MSQ: …only to return at the last moment to save her! It’s so romantic

Character: Riko deserves his own character positive. He’s more or less the ‘face’ character for the Hozen; Immature, but not ultimately that bad, and rude without leaning into crude. He’s wonderfully written…

Voice Acting: …and brilliantly voice acted

Character: Gorrok, Shokia, and Kiryn serve as excellent supporting cast across the Jade Forest (and beyond)

Voice Acting: Lots of voice acting in the Jade Forest, and good acting too

Brickwork: Jade Forest, the forest proper. Absolutely gorgeous zone, it even has variety in the types of trees in it, and the grass! Oh my goodness the grass…

Brickwork: …amazing stuff

Doodads: Jade Forest. The trees, the rocks, the flowers, the hills, it’s crazy detailed for such a large area

Brickwork: Jade Forest, the bamboo biome deserves its own mention for being just as fantastic as the others but even more so…

Brickwork: …easy double positive

Doodads: Jade Forest bamboos similarly have tons of details and doodads throughout

Doodads: Dawn’s Blossom! I love Pandaren towns, my goodness

Doodads: The Arboretum is lovely. The trees, the petals, the painting supplies

Doodads: Tian Monastery! Another wonderful place with lots of details helping to flesh it out

Character: Jade Forest Alliance supporting cast (mostly Sully, if I’m honest, but Kearnen is cool again)

MSQ: Sully’s part of the tale. Poor Gizmo…

Plot: The entire initial arc of fighting against the local Hozen tribe for the… frankly racist Jinyu is fascinating in how it portrays all the groups involved (Jinyu, Hozen, and Alliance) and how it showcases how all the surface level comparisons are all wrong

MSQ: Of course Lorewalker Cho is amazing on the Alliance too, and it provides weirdly interesting insight into OUR character, in fact it’s arguably the first bit of characterization we’ve ever received

MSQ: The search for Anduin, the foreshadowing of the Vale, and Anduin’s… ‘escape’ from Sully

Secondary: The Nectarbreeze Orchard, and our first insight into the patheticness of the Mogu (also some small but critical details here, like them being fleshy Mogu, or them having no weapons)

Prime Opt: The Tian Monastery. It does a great job of showcasing everyday life amongst the Pandarens, and feels comfy besides. That’s ignoring the great humor…

Prime Opt: …an easy double positive

MSQ: The Jade Quarry, the loving couple, and the humorous details

Secondary: Terrace of Ten Thunders is yet another Mogu world building area, and with a fascinating quest with a vastly superior spirit weaver in our long-dead pandaren host

Background Lore: The stories of the Jade Temple. There are many and they add some wonderful flavor lore

Cutscene: The reveal of the Sha of Doubt is great. Older models aside, the storyboarding and symbolism are on point. There’s also plenty of fascinating details (the two captains pushing each other to safety, the ferocity of the two sides)…

Cutscene: …it’s great stuff

MSQ: Everything about the Jade Forest finale is fantastic. The Prime Sha, the fallout of the battle, and Yu’Lon’s final speech to us as she literally carries us to the next zone

Brickwork: Temple of the Jade Serpent, watery area. Amazing architecture, beautiful reflecting pools, incredible tiles and bricks

Doodads: Temple of the Jade Serpent, library area. Lovely library, and some incredible detail here…

Visual Storytelling: …including in the trash, which are different enemies based on the stories found inside the library

MSQ: The entire story of the Temple of the Jade Serpent. First we go through when it’s at peace, and meet all of the bosses and their roles in said dungeon, before having to deal with them more permanently

Brickwork: Temple of the Jade Serpent, exterior. Absolutely friggin’ gorgeous architecture, nothing more to add to that

MSQ: Krasarang, Zhu’s Watch. This section does a great job of selling the despondency of the people under the influence of the Sha of Despair

Prime Opt: The elven and tauren stories in Krasarang compliment each other quite nicely. On the tauren side we have a bad pregnancy with children who are sickly and threatening to be stillbirth. On the Alliance we seek a pool of healing waters. On the Alliance, we find out the pool is of life transference… and on the Horde we… don’t. So she drinks of the waters, and her children live at the cost of her life. It’s a brilliant sequence, and only truly complete if you see both sides

MSQ: The entire sequence of the Red Crane, Anduin, and Despair. Another great insight on the Shado Pan, the followers of the Celestials, and the Sha

Moment: I’m sorry, for all its flaws, I like the conclusion of the Krasarang Wilds, as Vaeldrin gives his life for his daughter

Prime Opt: Mogushan Palace. The voice acting, the light humor, the smart flow through the palace, great stuff

Brickwork: Probably our best look at Mogu architecture is in the Mogu’shan Palace, and it’s gorgeous. Exactly as over-designed and ostentatious as the Mogu would build…

Brickwork: …easy double positive

World Building: Mogu in general. It’s spread throughout most of the expansion but we get a good bit during the Mogushan Palace dungeon. These people are big, strong, and immensely proud… and thus are juvenile as a species. Any innovation or development is jealously guarded to give the individual who claimed it advantage, leading to stagnant technology and magical progression. They plunder and raid and pillage and never get anywhere, and they’re so much stronger and more durable and have ‘more stats’ than ‘lesser’ races they never see the need to bother. And so they… don’t. And thus the Mogu are never really a threat…

World Building: …it’s awesome. It’s some of the best written cultural morons I’ve ever seen

Character: Ken Ken is one of those short but sweet characters. Well meaning, amusing, and helpful (and well voice acted)

Character: Chen Stormstout. Just the right mix of affable and cantankerous, friendly and responsible while also being a bit crazy

Character: Li Li only gets a few bits to herself to flesh her out, but she’s good when she’s there. Just enough of a kid without being annoying

Prime Opt: Following Chen and Li Li across the early parts of the zone, until we actually link up later, is a nice way to get us involved in each other’s stories… leading up to…

Prime Opt: …Li Li’s Day Off. Some great branching and amusement and characterization

Moment: Chen RUSHES off when he hears about the brewery… and slowly mopes back when he’s back

Writing: Generally high quality foreshadowing, dialogue, and presentation in Chen’s flashback in the brewery

Pacing: Valley of the Four Winds. This is an amazing sequence of events; We start off slow, meet the duo, join up with

Humor: Dammit Mudmug, why do you manage to be this awesome in just one zone

Brickwork: Valley of the Four Winds. This is basically Mulgore, but even better…

Brickwork: …an easy double positive…

Doodads: …with amazing detailing

Doodads: Silken Fields! These deserve their own notes for being fascinating and interesting

Doodads: Halfhill is, as with most Pandaren towns, awesome (special mention to the nearby cooking area and farm)

Doodads: The farms! My goodness, the farms. The Heartland is amazing… the giant produce, the variety, the fields of fantastic…

Doodads: …easy double positive

Background Lore: The Stormstout Brewery and its awful, bland, mass produced beer

MSQ: The Brewery… no not the dungeon, the first time through

Prime Opt: Stormstout Brewery in general. Funny, delightful, enjoyable, PEPPERS

Visual Storytelling: Stoneplow, the crack in the Serpent’s Spine, and the spilling out of the Sha

Cutscene: The montages. Clever, quick, funny, enjoyable

Cutscene: Everyone from the last two zones gathering together to aid us in the defense of Stoneplow is still a fantastic scene

Moment: Our moment to finally shine as we take down the Kunchong

Prime Opt: Unga Ingoo is fun, funny, and silly

Prime Opt: Brewmoon Festival. Again, an enjoyable little side romp, and a nice party… RIGHT before the main plot kicks in (in fact, it’s our first hint of what’s going on)

Brickwork: Kun-Lai. Gorgeous, rolling plains and multi-layered grasslands…

Brickwork: …easy double positive

Brickwork: Kun-Lai Summit and snowy areas are excellent in design and wonderfully visually detailed for how singular the biome is…

Brickwork: …another double positive

Doodads: Binan Village is, try to be surprised, excellently designed in terms of doodads

Doodads: Temple of the White Tiger, or more accurately all the surrounding buildings and land, is similarly well constructed

Secondary: Inkgill Mere and the Jinyu fallen to Anger. This is another excellent zoomed in look at how serious the threat of the Sha are, and a great introduction to one of the main plot threads of both the zone, and the dominant plot thread of Pandaria

World Building: Grummles get a lot of development in Kun-Lai. We learn about their fixation on scents, luck, their insistence on not fighting, their demeanor, and a lot of their culture

Secondary: Grummles and Hozen. We protect several caravans, and help the grummles deal with ravaging hozen. We also get even more development for the primary plot thread; the Hozen, weirdly, are actually being quite smart here in that they see how bad things are getting and are preparing accordingly (in their own flawed way)

Secondary: The Zul Confederacy attack is already fantastic (and leads directly to the Isle of Thunder) but…

Secondary: …the funeral in reaction thereto

Brickwork: Mogu’shan Vaults, and that amazing Mogu architecture. Incredible detail, but even better…

Brickwork: …when we get to the actual vaults, seemingly at the end of it, right before the secret passageway (which looks completely different and much more dilapidated)

Prime Opt: Mogu’shan Vaults. The reveal of the Titan origins of the Mogu, the progression of Cho, and the revelation of the Will of the Emperor

Moment: Petitioning Xuen for entrance to the Vale (problem aside). Good moments with Anduin, good foreshadowing with Taran, good moment for Dezco

Doodads: The dual Shrines. Lots of detailing here, lots of variety to vary up the individual areas

MSQ: The entire Monastery arc is very important, and a great moment for several characters. Those fallen, those not, and the fleeing of Hatred.

MSQ: Pushing into the Townlong Steppes. The initial arc here is on point, and really shows how Taran Zhu is recovering, his changing attitude to us, and how the Yaungol operate

Music Direction: Townlong Steppes. Triumphant at the battlefield, and morose at the slaughter

Plot: Suna Sunstrike’s entire arc. It has problems (and its own negatives) but it’s honestly very legit while it’s there. Very well acted and, more importantly, it drags the camera down to a single individual (who’s voice acted!) that really puts a face on the suffering the main plot arc has been causing across Kun-Lai and Townlong

Secondary: Orbiss and his arc against the Yaungol dark shaman. Weirdly tragic for such a side quest

Plot: The hunt for the Sha of Hatred, and (more importantly) the lead up to the Mantid problem

Moment: The turn moment for the Mantid at the beginning of the Dread Wastes. After an entire expansion of build up, it’s time to really start paying off these mysteries

Integration: Paragon buffs in Dread Wastes, of course

Voice Acting: Mantids in general. They do a great job with it across the Dread Wastes

Secondary: Chen, the Stormstouts, the loss of Evie. We never even know her, she’s just a corpse, but we get all we need to from Chen himself

Prime Opt: The sapmasters arc and the… ‘beer recipe’

Dialogue: Mantid dialogue is fantastic. Really helps convey how hive-focused they are

Prime Opt: Korven’s awakening. Some surprisingly personal moments for the first of the paragons

Characters: The Paragons in general. They don’t get a lot of screen time, but it’s memorable each time

MSQ: The entire arc through the Dread Wastes is when the plot really comes into its own, and while it peters out a bit, it’s fantastic for the zone itself and the first raid…

MSQ: …an easy…

MSQ: …triple

Visual Storytelling: The Dread Wastes. The dead and the dying, of people and of the terrain both, it’s horrifying. It’s even better immediately alongside the Townlong Steppes, which so clearly look like the Dread Wastes used to

Moment: The Klaxxi finale. A big reveal for many things, and quietly terrifying in its own right

Moment: The fight with the Empress, her sounding emotionless (drone like) as Fear takes direct control, and of course him escaping to cause havok

Brickwork: Heart of Fear. Mantid architecture at its finest, some truly brilliant and beautiful designs here…

Brickwork: …an easy double positive

Voice Acting: Also love the voice acting of the Heart of Fear. We really get an insight into the minds of those who still support the empress, despite everything

MSQ: Alliance Landfall, the RTS mission, the bargaining, the setup. It’s some good stuff, and a good introduction to New Varian

MSQ: Horde Landfall is much better though (surprise). First we see how Garrosh handles an orc vs. a goblin and the vast difference therewith, second is his interaction with Vol’Jin which is basically perfect. The two still bickering, Garrosh openly calling him a traitor (knowing he’s amongst like minded individuals), the direct reference to ‘starving in the desert’ which started this whole mess, and of course sending us with Vol’jin…

MSQ: …easy double positive, and it leads to…

MSQ: …the Dagger In The Dark. The origins of the Saurok, and…

Moment: …Vol’jin. The knife wound, the blood promise, and the main plot going forwards; We are now infiltrators of Hellscream’s forces

MSQ: Thrall and us freeing the Darkspear from the Kor’kron

MSQ: Jaina’s speech about neutrality and the Horde and Alliance working together is honestly a really good scene… which you need to remember for later

Moment: Lor’themar’s speech about the Horde, and the Alliance

MSQ: Alliance and Horde dovetailing and playing with expectations

MSQ: The Divine Bell scenario is honestly legit. The speechifying from Garrosh, the aspects of the Sha from Ishi,

World Building: Mantid. They really have a fascinating culture for, really, only being in Pandaria

World Building: Everything to do with the Pandarens themselves. They have a shockingly in depth and rich history and culture…

World Building: …some of the best world building in the entire game…

World Building: …for an easy triple

World Building: Then there’s Pandaria itself. Words do not convey, but again…

World Building: …some of the best stuff in the business…

World Building: …for another easy triple

Voice Acting: Lorewalker Cho deserves mention alone. He’s a common fixture, and he’s awesomely done…

Voice Acting: …an easy double

Voice Acting: Taran Zhu is another great example of adding some layers to his character, and even changing his tone (literally) as his arc progresses

Voice Acting: I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out how awesome Chen Stormstout is

Voice Acting: Lor’themar does a lot with what screen time he’s given (of course it’s Gideon Emery so…)

Voice Acting: Generally high quality. Some great stuff here, a definite step up from previous expansions

Character: Taran Zhu. The seeming jackass who mostly just didn’t want to deal with us, and who turns around over the course of the expansion

Character: Lorewalker Cho. Probably the most ‘face’ Pandaren we meet, and an ideal lorewalker to boot

Character: Lor’themar, again, does a lot in a very small period of time. Only two patches flesh him out more than most entire expansions do

Character: General supporting cast. Nazgrim, Taylor, Taoshi, Ban, lots of individuals here

Character: Also Anduin (hey!) is actually a character for the first time (since he lost out on his quest in Cata)

Cutscene: Taran Zhu, Jaina Proudmoore, and Lor’themar. This is just… one of the best scenes in the damned game. Everything about this is amazing. The details, the order of events, the thought put into who reacts to what, it’s just…

Cutscene: …absolutely…

Cutscene: …amazing. But also…

Voice Acting: …I have to give a separate positive for how much the acting nails it in this scene, for everyone involved

Character: Garrosh Hellscream. Probably one of the best, if not the best, villains we’ve ever had in WoW. There’s too much to summarize here, but he really comes into his own in this expansion. The brutish idiot who refuses to accept blame or consequence and is forcing the Horde to be worse around him…

Character: …an easy double positive character, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention…

Voice Actor: …his actor, who just aaabsolutely nails it in Pandaria…

Voice Actor: …our first double positive voice actor

Character: Lei Shen, the Thunder King, is another of those really engaging villains. The perfect pinnacle of the Mogu, the central pillar of their entire society and history

MSQ: Throne of Thunder. The unintentional main plot relevance here; Lei Shen (and Ra) are a world threatening problem, and we’re just here to help out our Pandarens (and find new tech for the Blood Elves) and, of course…

Moment: …Ra. The revelation of the scope and scale of the threat, and his wonderful, wonderful line. “I do not believe you can correct this doomed course, but you have earned the right to try.”

Visual Storytelling: Throne of Thunder. Still carrying underwater flora and seaweed, and barely held together in places… and of course the lightning pouring out from it

Prime Opt: Blood in the Snow and Moira’s politicking. And a nice little outro for the Zul Confederacy (for now) as well as tying up a dangling plot thread from all the way back in Cataclysm

MSQ: Emperor Shaohao’s quest. This is one of the most interesting quests in the entire expansion, especially for how it ties everything in together, because it finally unveils several truths

Babylon 5 Effect: The nature of the Sha, the Mists, Pandaria, Shaohao’s ultimate fate, all these reveals completely change how a huge portion of Pandaria’s expansion hits as well as its story beats…

Babylon 5 Effect: …great stuff

Foreshadowing: Also you can really tell they had started planning things out from this point onwards, and there are a LOT of quiet and fun little details and hints throughout. In fact my personal favorite is the nature of the final Sha…

Foreshadowing: …easy double positive

MSQ: Secrets of Ragefire. The Dark Shamans, the Gob Squad, and what Garrosh is up to

Visual Storytelling: Siege of Orgrimmar, the Vale, and the Sha

MSQ: Siege of Orgrimmar. The loss of the Vale, Taran Zhu’s barely surviving, the fight against Pride

Visual Storytelling: The nazi police state of Garrosh’s Orgrimmar… civilians forced to kill for fun, caged merchants, people cowering in their homes and shops, the warlocks hung up and burned… it’s horrifying…

Visual Storytelling: …and an easy…

Visual Storytelling: …triple positive

Atmosphere: Valley of the Four Winds. Peaceful, beautiful, productive, friendly

Atmosphere: Jade Forest. When most people picture Pandaria this is probably what they picture, and for good reason

Atmosphere: Dread Wastes. Horrifying, as is appropriate

Spritework: General quality, especially some of the dungeon groups

Spritework: Paladin. Surprisingly solid stuff here

Spritework: Mage. As usual, mage tends to have some of the best outfits in the game

Spritework: Weapons. Some really, really cool stuff here. Sha weapons, mantid weapons, mogu weapons, pandaren weapons, and zandalari weapons. Great things…

Spritework: …and an easy double positive

Visual Storytelling: Loading screens. Entirely dungeons this time

Visual Storytelling: Blackfathom Deeps. The horrible tentacles, the portals to the void, and the sacrifices

Voice Acting: Blackfathom Deeps have quite a bit of amusing voice acting

Prime Opt: Blackfathom Deeps, and the push to stop the summoning of Aku’Mai

Prime Opt: Though part of the overall Quillboar ‘chain’ (if you could call it that) I’m still with the individual story beats inside Razorfen Kraul

Music Direction: Try to be shocked, but the opening cinematic of Warlords has excellent music usage, just like they all have really…

Animation: …but what pushes this one above the ones before it is its animation. The sheer quantity of quality details is shocking. Little expressions, the extra effort in moving the ironstar launcher, the heavy weightiness of Mannoroth, the way the demon blood pours out, it’s all crazy good…

Animation: …an easy…

Animation: …triple positive

Storyboarding: Then there’s everything about how it’s blocked. The shots, the attacks, the camera angles, brilliant stuff…

Voice Acting: …and of course some fantastic acting from Gul’Dan, Mannoroth, Garrosh, and Grom

Cutscene: And a general positive for all the aggregate points not covered

Cutscene: Storming the portal. It’s short but VERY well done for its screen time. The army at their back, the artillery shots through the portal blocked by Maraad’s paladin shield, Thrall and Maraad comboing the orcs, the push through, and the long shot of the Iron Tide

MSQ: The initial melee on the other side of the portal. The war, the nameds, the sounds

MSQ: The jungle. Horrible, terrifying, voodoo, sacrifices, and Bleeding Hollow, Ariok’s sacrifice

MSQ: The torture rooms and arena of the Shattered Hand. The sadism just oozes from every inch, from what they do to the prisoners (for no good reason) to the architecture itself

MSQ: The caves of the Shadowmoon. We go from mostly loud areas (in music and atmosphere) to a place so quiet you almost can’t hear anything, where orcs toil with void in darkness

MSQ: And finally the Blackrock segment. Forges, weapons, lava, and enslaved giants

Moment: Khadgar taking out the dam is awesome, I’m sorry

Moment: Fleeing the countless faces of our demise…

Atmosphere: …and that initial vibe. The feeling and statement of being cut off from home, stuck in a very hostile land, with a very hostile and unified army hunting you. It’s ruined 10 minutes later of course, but it’s awesome while it lasts

Prime Opt: Khadgar v Gul’Dan. There’s an initial arc about this in Shadowmoon and it’s fascinating, especially watching the two ‘mage duel’ via us (and Garona) as a proxy

Doodads: Draenei, Embaari Villages. Love the details here

Music Direction: Alliance Garrison! Wolf at the Gates is just fantastic and is so very Alliance

Brickwork: Alliance Garrison. I still wish it was draenei base but it’s still really, really cool looking

Doodads: Alliance Garrison, again. Tons and tons of details

Brickwork: Karabor. For all that it isn’t, it’s still gorgeous as a background element

Brickwork: Elodar. The draenei city, their architecture, the layout…

Doodads: …and the amazing doodads. Seriously, walk in a random room and you will see a small story in doodads…

Doodads: …easy double positive

Music Direction: Shadowmoon, of course, especially when you add in the Black Temple remixed music

Prime Opt: The Elodor chain (farmer escort, defending the crystal tower, and revealing Socrethar). I love this chain

World Building: Draenei culture in general. We learn quite a bit about their struggles with the eredar, their technology, their culture, their hierarchy

Doodads: The Zangar in general. I love the detailing of the larger mushrooms, the smaller ones at the stalks, the ‘grass’

Cutscene: The reigniting of the Dark Star is a fantastic cutscene in general…

Cutscene: …an easy double positive by itself, but then…

Character: …we get some great stuff for Alternate Velen. What really makes this work is that he’s not just a great character here, but this does a great job of adding characterization to OUR Velen (which will be relevant in Legion)

Music Direction: Also absolutely love the usage of the music for this scene. Man it hits

Spritework: General (plate especially!)

Spritework: Warrior get some pretty solid sets in Warlords

Spritework: Rogue, weirdly enough, too

Spritework: Weapons! There’s some really solid weapon designs in Warlords…

Spritework: …easy double positive territory

MSQ: The Spires of Arak’s opening is legit. Swarms of refugees fleeing the zone, and then a giant sun laser burning the trees below. Great moment, and very much sets the stage. Also showcases the end of the zone right off the bat; Skyreach

Doodads: Arak outposts. Good lord, there’s only so many ways I can say ‘these doodads are amazing’ but here we are

Character: Reshad is weirdly engaging for only really being in a single zone, but damned if he doesn’t manage it. Frank Welker helps

Secondary: Pinchwhistle Point and Gearworks. For all the issues this has, it’s still a solid quest chain. The fun zaniness, the gobbos dedicated to something other than profit for once, it’s nice stuff…

Secondary: …easy double positive territory

Brickwork: Spires of Arak (in general) but also the lovely lighting variance. The dark canopy and the bright upper areas are great contrast

Brickwork: Pools of Sethe. Good lord these areas are so terrible, it’s great

Brickwork: Spires of Arak, the spires themselves and, of course, Arrakoa architecture

Visual Storytelling: Veil Akraz and the fallout of the sun weapon. The molten rock from the focused sun weapon says it all

World Building: Arrakoa and the Apexis. The ancient arrakoa empire that long since fell, the consequences of Anzu and Sethe and Rukhmar, and how it led to the current religious schism

MSQ: The tales of Terokk are a great big of history and are generally well presented and voiced

MSQ: The whole plight of the arrakoa in general. The religious schism which is strangling the Highs (as they lose people, control, and resources) and the Low (who are literally cursed and suffer). I really wish they followed through on this more than just in Tanaan cuz it’s weirdly engaging how both groups are effectively trapped in this tragedy

Brickwork: Gorgrond, breaker side. My God this is gorgeous. I spent several minutes going into this on camera. The sheer quality of this zone and the detail going into the terrain and the visuals and the harsh blasted lands is insane…

Brickwork: …easy…

Brickwork: …triple positive territory

Doodads: Then there’s southern Gorgrond, the jungle. The trees, the flowers, the grass, the underbrush, everything…

Doodads: …an easy double positive

Doodads: Also the breaker north has good doodads too

Secondary: The Zangar chain in Gorgrond is legitimately horrifying. In just a handful of quests we get to see exactly what the Zangar threat is first hand, and it is brilliantly written and presented…

Secondary: …easy double positive

MSQ: The botani of southern Gorgrond. Their attempts to defeat the Breakers to the north, to push back the invaders (that’s us), and of course…

MSQ: …the horror of what they do and what they’re attempting to do

MSQ: The backfoot of southern Gorgrond, culminating in us finally fighting and defeating the same genesaur we saw when we entered

Music Direction: Frostfire Ridge is… sort of crazy for how good its music and music usage is. This is also one of my favorite songs in the game, and it does so much for the atmosphere of the zone…

Music Direction: …matching the previous crown holder of Storm Peaks…

Music Direction: …for a solid triple

Brickwork: Frostfire Ridge is one of the most gorgeous zones to-date. The rolling frozen tundra over molten crags, the amazing contrast in color usage, the complexity and depth of the zone, it’s brilliant…

Brickwork: …an easy…

Brickwork: …triple positive

Doodads: Wor’Gol and the brutal but effective settlement of the Frostwolves

Brickwork: Bladespire Citadel deserves its own mention. It is a shame we never got to see it as the capitol as it should have been, because it would have been fantastic

MSQ: The charge into Bladespire is fantastic. Everything lines up almost perfectly; Ga’nar rushing ahead, which forces Durotan’s hand, and as we advance they’re taking more and more damage and more and more losses, culminating in nearly losing Ga’nar if not for US being there personally is great stuff. This is on top of some great animations and voice acting, both during and after the battle…

MSQ: …easy…

MSQ: …triple territory

Foreshadowing: Lots regarding the Thunderlords and the methods of the Iron Horde

MSQ: Ga’nar’s charge through the sons is great stuff by itself…

Moment: …and leads to a fantastic moment. Durotan and Ga’nar at the garrison. Ga’nar challenges Durotan, Durotan throws his weapons to the ground, and the two reconcile as brothers

MSQ: Lokra and Karg’s arc. The loss of Asha, the revenge charge, the simple but sweet presentation thereof

Dialogue: Special mention to the Frostwolf dialogue. It’s a bit different from typical orcish, a lot blunter but still well thought out, reminds me a lot of Worf over in Star Trek

Animation: So, let’s talk about the Frostfire Ridge finale. First, the whole thing is brilliantly animated. The hand on Ga’nar’s shoulder, Durotan’s face when he realizes what he’s going to do, Drek’thar reaching out to the elements, and of course…

Storyboarding: …the fight itself, which does a great job of making Ga’nar feel like a badass without overdoing it. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention…

Music Direction: …the music. I love this song and it’s… just… it’s perfect, I don’t know what else to say…

Music Direction: …it helps to contribute to why I hold this scene so high on the list…

Music Direction: …for an easy triple. But then…

Character: …there’s how this plays into their characters. Of course Durotan is willing to lay down his life for his people, and of course Ga’nar would be willing to die in his stead…

Moment: …Lok’tar. And just to explain this slightly… “Lok’tar o’gar” means ‘victory or death’. Thus, this is just ‘victory’… because death is certain. Victory AND death

Consequence Storytelling: And all of this is a fantastic way to follow through on everything. It really is the Frostfire Ridge Finale; the character arcs, the plot, and the theme of the expansion as a whole come to a head here. It’s arguably the best fulcrum point of the entire expansion and deserves recognition for what it is

Cutscene: Siege of Shattrath finale. Okay, yeah, for all the bullcrap and awfulness before it (and the… awkward dialogue in the scene) this is still a damned good scene. Y’rel wielding Durotan’s axe as he wields her mace, Khadgar on top of things the whole time, Maraad having the reflexes to save Yrel’s life, and some excellent voice acting and music…

Cutscene: …easy…

Cutscene: …triple positive

Brickwork: Talador is gorgeous, I know I say that a lot but what do you want from me, we’re circa Warlords now. Wait until we hit Dragonflight and start giving multiple positives per subzone! Anyways, Talador is gorgeous…

Brickwork: …for two…

Brickwork: …and special mention to the Shattrath area…

Brickwork: …and Auchindoun, of course

Doodads: Shattrath honestly probably deserves more positives for this, but it’s not going to get them. So, so much detail is spent on this area which is… completely devoid from the game itself due to the cut content. Damned shame

Doodads: Talador in general is pretty well designed visually too

Secondary: Talador, the draenei and the arrakoa. It’s a simple side quest, meant to lead into Arak, but it’s solid and a good insight into the Arrakoa

Moment: I’ll give you this. Us fighting a pitlord with Liadrin, Maladaar, and an army of ghost ogres is pretty badass and a good culmination of this arc

Secondary: Bloodmaul Slag Mines in general. The cutscenes, the brickwork, the vibes

Music Direction: Dungeons in general have some pretty solid, atmospheric music

Brickwork: Auchindoun interior is just gorgeous. I love the aesthetic here

MSQ: Auchindoun reveal and follow through, and conclusion of the Legion arc. The reveal of Nyami (from Shadowmoon and from Talador), as well as

Cutscene: The death of Garrosh Hellscream is a great cutscene. My favorite thing about it is probably…

Storyboarding: …the storyboarding. It’s exceptionally rare I see a fight in a game or a show or a movie that actually looks like a damned fight, rather than a stupid back and forth or a heavily edited crapfest, but this is solid…

Animation: …definite praise to it. But that’s on top of…

Dialogue: …the dialogue. I’m actually with most of this writing. Garrosh brings up valid and true points… while simultaneously hiding his own culpability and, as he always does, pushing all of his decisions onto others. This is all sold…

Voice Acting: …by arguably Patrick Seitz’s best work as Garrosh, good lord. The rage, pain, and raw emotion in his voice

Brickwork: Highmaul is fantastic looking. This place just screams ‘old, dying ogre empire’ and I love it

Visual Storytelling: Highmaul also does a great job of having a roaming story as we go through it. The Pale overwhelming the outer fronts, to the upper castle, to finally storming Mar’Gok’s throne itself… all while the Zangar is slowly creeping in

Brickwork: Nagrand. Sure it’s ‘just Nagrand again’, but it’s still beautiful, and really sells the ‘lush plains hellscape’ even better than back in Outland

MSQ: This is a very aggregate positive. Nagrand does several things right, but only a little bit in each case. The Pale and Cho’Gall’s betrayal of Gul’Dan, the ogres and the development of Breaker technology, the variance between the elemental Furies and the Azerothian Lords, it’s good stuff just spread a bit thin

Voice Actor: Troy Baker as Gul’Dan really deserves his own mention, good lord

Voice Actor: Ditto for Tony Amendola as Khadgar

Voice Acting: General. There’s really some solid stuff throughout the whole expansion…

Voice Acting: …easily earning…

Voice Acting: …a third positive

World Building: Ironstar tech in general is honestly a fascinating bit of world building. It’s a super power source, which can be repurposed as an explosive, that also functions as a tank. It’s brilliant, and a huge portion of Iron Horde technology sits upon it. It’s the same as suddenly introducing fusion to the setting and the game does a good job of acknowledging and working with that

Brickwork: Ladies and gentlemen, we did it. We’ve finally reached the point of a brickwork positive for skyboxes! And there’ll be more in the future muwa ha ha

Storytelling Mechanic: Grey flavor text is here to stay. Some great background lore in these…

Storytelling Mechanic: …easy double positive

Humor: Koramar and Zoggosh. I’m sorry, this still gets a laugh out of me. “That’s what I do, I think good”

Brickwork: Iron Docks in general. Good lord I love the Iron Horde aesthetic, and this dockyard is gorgeous

Brickwork: Grimrail is fantastic in general, but what really sells it for me…

Visual Storytelling: …is the frickin’ train section. I know I know, but I stand by it. Actually watching the terrain fly by is great

Cutscenes: Grimrail is kind of great for its little flavor cutscenes

World Building: Gruul, Thogar, Kromog. These three (plus the rest of the Blackrock Foundry) do a great job of building up the Blackrock Clan and how they’ve been able to ‘cheat’ the tech tree and operate things that should by all accounts be far beyond their advancement

Brickwork: Blackrock Foundry, of course. The forges, the giant pallets of ore, the superheated rock

Brickwork: Tanaan is honestly gorgeous. Multiple sub zones, great visuals…

Brickwork: …wonderful selling of the (utterly vacuous) zone…

Doodads: …with great attention to detail, particularly in the Demonic Iron Horde area

Brickwork: Hellfire Citadel, of course. I’ll give it this, it really does look like a former Iron Horde stronghold which has been conformed to whatever the locals wanted it to look like

Theme: The central theme of Warlords, despite everything in this mess of an expansion, is something I really enjoy.

Character: Khadgar. Khadgar finally, finally becomes a character, and I am so here for it. I just wish

Character: Supporting Cast. Too many to mention, but a lot of legit characters who only get a scene or two

Storytelling Mechanic: Loading screens! Some decent stuff… entirely in dungeons and raids. They carry hard though, cuz that main load screen sucks…

Storytelling Mechanic: …for a double

Cutscene: The Demonhunter Starter opening. We see the attack on the Black Temple (the one WE’RE leading in the past on other characters), Illidan’s arrogance, and our initial plot points

Internal Continuity: There are several loyalist Illidari and, honestly, that tracks. People of each group would have a few that would remain loyal to the Illidari (not Illidan, mind) because they agree with the overall goal of the organization; Victory against the Legion at all costs. Thus we see a fascinating group of Ashtongue, Naga, Demons, and Demonhunters

Voice Acting: Some really great voice acting across the board in the Demonhunter starter. This is a trend; lots of voice acting going forwards

Brickwork: Mardum is exactly what it should look like; a blasted hellscape floating in the Nether…

Brickwork: …easy double positive

MSQ: So the quest chain going through Mardum is top notch. The initial charge, ripping powers out of demons, losing our own as we go, using our unique advantages against the demons, grabbing the keystone and bailing. It’s frenetic, fast paced, and awesome…

MSQ: …an easy…

MSQ: …triple positive

Cutscene: Coming back only to find Illidan dead at our (past) hands, the traps immobilizing us, and the six year time skip to Cordona (who??) and Gul’dan leading the assault on the Wardens. And of course Maiev does nothing but spit venom at us but, as is going to be a very dominant theme in Legion, now is NOT the time for that crap, so she lets us out and we fight together against the Legion…

Cutscene: …great stuff

Characters: I should also mention all the named Demonhunters, Naga, Demons, and Ashtongue are great supporting cast, especially Altruis

NPC Set Dressing: Lots and lots of details going on during the Legion attack on the Vault

Animation: So, here we are. For the very first time we can review one of these vignettes, and good lord is that a good thing. These have always been fantastic cutscenes. The first one we see is the Illidan one, following Kor’vas as she doubts Illidan, and let me just say the animation in these is bonkers good. I can’t give these anything less…

Animation: …than a full…

Animation: …triple for animation.

Music Direction: Then there’s the music, wonderfully queued and perfectly positioned

Voice Acting: Very well voice acted, try to be shocked

Theme: The central theme here is one of the first major themes of Legion as a whole; Sacrifice. In this case, the sacrifice of their souls, selves, and futures in service of Azeroth

Storyboarding: And of course I love the storyboarding, even if the main battle against the pit lord goes by a bit too quickly

NPC Set Dressing: Stormwind Harbor. Similar to some previous ‘invasion’ events, there is a lot going on here. Lots of NPCs doing lots of things (and interactable!) all leading into the charge to the Broken Shore…

NPC Set Dressing: …easy double positive

NPC Set Dressing: Dranosh’ar Port has the same general quality as Stormwind Harbor, but managed to be distinct and still good stuff…

NPC Set Dressing: …for a solid double

Cutscene: Now we reach the Legion cinematic itself. There’s a couple of issues here but man…

Animation: …the animation is amazing (I know, shocking) and does a really good job of conveying how chaotic of a beachhead this really was, while still retaining time for tiny little details (the eye movements, the scribbling of the quill)…

Animation: …easy double

Storyboarding: Then the sequence of events, the flow…

Theme: …and the central theme, another of the big themes of Legion. All that other petty bullcrap is tossed into the wind, as Sylvanas and Varian show each other respect and fight together against their common foe…

Theme: …for Azeroth

NPC Set Dressing: Then we reach the Broken Shore. The usage of the actual ‘armies’ to help sell the battle is great on both sides…

Voice Acting: …and the quantity and quality of voice acting definitely helps

Foreshadowing: How are the Legion here in such numbers…? Hmmm… We also seem totally unprepared for them, which is also odd

Cutscene: Vol’jin’s fall (love the animation of him breaking his tusk). Love this scene, really sells how badly we lost

Cutscene: Varian’s fall is great stuff. The introduction of the Garothi Worldbreaker, Greymane’s mad ravings against Sylvanas, little details in the background like Mekkatorque saving that one soldier, Varian going out like a boss knowing his situation is hopeless, and finally Gul’dan actually obliterating him rather than simply killing him…

Cutscene: …easy…

Cutscene: …triple positive

MSQ: The loss at the Broken Shore is a great moment. I honestly wish we lost more this expansion, but I’ll take this big one. We get BODIED at the Broken Shore and, as we’ll find out later, we should have. This is a great story beat and informs everything going forwards…

MSQ: …as well as everyone’s reactions to it

Cutscene: Vol’jin’s death. This is a fantastic scene… we see everyone’s reactions to it, we see Sylvanas pulled in, Vol’jin even spits at her with his last breath, but then he dubs her warchief… and her reaction is legitimately surprise, shock even (remember, this is before the Jailer was ever invented)…

Cutscene: …it’s a great scene…

Animation: …with amazing details in animation…

Music Direction: …and perfect music usage

Doodads: Dalaran. It’s the same general Dalaran it used to be, but good lord did they up the details. The whole city is overflowing with details everywhere…

Doodads: …I love it…

Doodads: …easy triple

NPC Set Dressing: Dalaran also has a lot of roaming NPCs who are just going about their business (and several of which are the objectives of some quests)

MSQ: So! Turns out some of the launch event is still in the game, holy crap. First we head to Ulduar to meet with Magni, who reveals that Azeroth is a titan and Magni is speaking with her (and is now active and alert)… interesting

MSQ: Then we head back to Karazhan to try and fight off Legion forces while simultaneously researching our macguffins of the expansion; the Pillars of Creation, which we apparently need to seal away the Felstorm currently raging over the Broken Shore (which, in addition to aiding the Legion assault, is causing increasing damage to the surrounding terrain so, yeah, we want that gone)

Cutscene: This leads immediately into Khadgar’s Harbinger. Man, this is a damned good one too

Music Direction: First we have some amazing music direction…

Storyboarding: …incredible storyboarding, as ‘Medivh’ and his constant positioning right next to Khadgar, subtly pressuring and pushing him the whole time, all while Khadgar wrestles with his own doubts…

Storyboarding: …easy double there

Animation: Then there’s the usual vignette animation quality which I cannot possibly do justice in words…

Animation: …save to say…

Animation: …triple positive

Voice Acting: Then Khadgar and ‘Medivh’s amazing voice acting really helps sell things, especially when we get to…

Theme: …the central theme. Once again this touches on a major theme, not of Legion, but all of WoW; the central pillar vs. the many pillars philosophy. Khadgar firmly believes that there should not be one supremely powerful person in charge, whereas he is being offered exactly that. He resists it, of course, but it’s amazing how they showcase the benefits of both concepts here (which makes sense)…

Theme: …easy double there, but what really makes it work…

Character: …is what it does for Khadgar as a character. He IS tempted, he DOES want this… and he refuses it anyways, because he knows better. In this Khadgar is, in many ways, the foil to Illidan, a man who insists on being the singular savior of everyone and would not hesitate to augment his own power and prestige at the expense of others. No, Khadgar wants Azeroth to fight together, and by golly we’re going to get there kicking and screaming

Cutscene: So, let’s talk about Gul’Dan’s Harbinger. First of all, this is one of my favorite cutscenes in the entire game, lemme just get that out there, and a lot of why…

Character: …is the titular character himself. This is such a great way to characterize him. We get additional backstory, reasoning, motive, and personality, all while making him more sympathetic and understandable, and all while making him even worse of a person than we already knew. He is a horrible, horrible monster, and both sides of him play off each other beautifully…

Character: …easy double positive

Music Direction: Then we have the incredible music usage here. The deep throat chanting, the quiet whispering, the horror…

Music Direction: …great stuff

Storyboarding: And of course the vignettes have great storyboarding (I particularly love the transition from the tribe, to the desert, to the Throne)…

Storyboarding: …for an easy double

Animation: And naturally it’s some of the best animation in the business, like all of these are…

Animation: …so that’s an easy…

Animation: …triple positive

Voice Acting: And I adore Gul’Dan’s narration here. Normally I’m not a fan but he says it well…

Writing: …and what he’s saying is very tightly written

Theme: And it all ties into that wonderful theme again. The one versus the many, a path Gul’dan has trod many times, and trods again throughout the expansion

External Continuity: The Warrior Arms quest, for Throm’Kar. First, it sets up the dominos for the Priest and Paladin (and also is the very, very first step in a long chain introducing Xalatath), second it’s a great tie-back to Throm’kar itself and Stromgarde, as well as the Troll Wars and Thoradin himself

Prime Opt: The Warrior Protection quest for the Scale of the Earthwarder is a weirdly good quest despite being almost entirely new material. The mad, dead vrykul raging at his own son, lost to his grief, while his son desperately tries to reach him

External Continuity: Alonsus Faol and Calia Menethil. The priest from Warcraft ONE (there’s a long reference for you) and the founder of the paladin Order of the Silver Hand, and Arthas’ long lost sister. And both make perfect sense, not only here but as priests (both have been in hiding for a long time but the Legion is too great to ignore)

MSQ: So the Shadow Priest seeks the Black Blade… Xalatath. Man. It’s a nice build up, we get aid from Moira and her ally, and… then from Xalatath herself, who is more than happy to switch to our side. Huh

Internal Continuity: Also there’s a lot of connective continuity in the Xalatath quest, to Grim Batol, the stragglers of the Twilight’s Hammer, and even Bishop Farthing

World Building: Efficiency of Legion tech. They consume souls, so they need to claim new worlds, so they can claim new fuel, so they can claim new worlds…

Plot: Cordana as the first domino. I know this is mostly absent the game now (sigh) and I’ve given negatives for that, but I LOVE this plot point. Cordona is just one Warden who falls to Fel like so many others do, but because of her inviting Gul’dan and the Legion into the Warden’s Vault, a sea change to the setting has been set into motion, and I love how unassuming it all begins

Spritework: Warrior! Great warrior stuff here, especially the Tier 6 rework

Spritework: Paladin has some truly excellent stuff, especially in Nighthold

Spritework: Priest too. Seriously, Nighthold has some scary good armor

Spritework: Death Knight! I wasn’t sure about this, but honestly that Nighthold armor earns it by itself

Spritework: Shaman is just kind of generally good across the board

Spritework: Mage has a couple of dips (that friggin’ Order Hall outfit) but man I love the rest

Spritework: Druid is in more or less the same place as the Mage

Spritework: Artifact Weapons, of course. Many of them, with many great graphics…

Spritework: …a wide and high quality way to customize your characters…

Spritework: …for an easy triple

Internal Continuity: The Paladin Holy artifact quest for Tyr’s Silver Hand is our final step of Tyr’s tomb, and some nice connecting threads to Jotun, Loken, Galakrond, and of course Tyr…

Prime Opt: …which is just a solid quest in general

Prime Opt: Priest Holy artifact quest. Invading Niskara (…again…) with a full group of allies while having to pour healing light into a void naaru to redeem them? Yes please

Storytelling Mechanic: Talking heads! I know this sounds weird but the talking heads from Warcraft 3 are back, and they do a good job of helping keep up with who’s saying what and when

Prime Opt: Priest Discipline artifact quest. I don’t know, this is kind of a twofer because Arcane Mage is functionally the same quest, but they do some really cool stuff here. The Blue Dragonflight pieces, saving Azuregos, fighting a rogue Ethereal, it’s solid…

Prime Opt: …easy double

Internal Continuity: Priest Discipline (and Mage Arcane) also have some tight continuity (as so many of these do)

Prime Opt: Survival Hunter! This one manages almost entirely on atmosphere and vibes, but it’s near perfect. We hunt a deadly animal which slowly picks apart our group as we go, until the only survivor… is the Survival Hunter. It’s great stuff…

Prime Opt: …another easy double

Prime Opt: Beast Hunter! Getting to go back to Ulduar with Mimiron and Thorim, the rogue Vrykul, and poor Hati…

Internal Continuity: …and some great continuity as is becoming quite common

Internal Continuity: Speaking of, Fire Mage! (and Frost Death Knight) Icecrown is looking a bit more… melty than it used to be, and the roaming dead are barely under control. Interesting

Prime Opt: Fire Mage is honestly one of the more interesting quests so far. Aethas trying to bargain position back in to Dalaran, the fallen fire mage who’s corpse still roams Icecrown, the Third Lich King directly interacting with us, and the roaming damned…

Prime Opt: …easy…

Prime Opt: …triple positive

Prime Opt: Frost Mage is no slouch either. Gathering ingredients is usually a pain but I like how they go about this one, and the trap and final confrontation are solid…

Prime Opt: …more double positive territory

Internal Continuity: Rogue Outlaw and its connections to Booty Bay, the Bloodsail, and even Talgath

Prime Opt: Rogue Outlaw is also just a generally fun story. Good atmosphere and vibes with the ‘cursed pirates’ theme, and a consistent push against the dagger in the dark the Dreadblades were intended to be

Prime Opt: Assassination Rogue continues the trend of excellence. I know there’s some… iffy things about choosing Darkshire for this, but honestly I love this approach. An old Alliance town, one many of us are probably familiar with, giving in when the skies burn red makes perfect sense (though it should have been Goldshire instead). And having us assassinate their leadership one by one while infiltrating Stormwind? Good stuff…

Prime Opt: …easy double range

Prime Opt: Subtlety Rogue is a simple but fun story, chasing down a Legion infiltrator into Dalaran before hunting her down in her very lair

Prime Opt: Warlock intro is one of the very, very few class intros that gets positives right out of the gate. First we’re recruited by the Black Harvest to summon a demon, it goes badly and we have to rescue our allies, all of whom we lose before we successfully bail. But Calydus (who is awesome by the way) sticks with us (not like he has any choice) and now, NOW that we’ve LOST our Order Hall and been defeated twice, is when we decide to claim the artifacts… to gain more power to reclaim the Dreadscar. I love it…

Prime Opt: …easy double

Prime Opt: Demonology Warlock continues that quiet bit of world building in Warcraft; those who are convinced are stronger than those who are coerced. And so we convince an artifact to join us

Prime Opt: Destruction Warlock is a bit silly at times but I love it. We sabotage (openly!) our way through the Shadow Council remnants, gain approach to Gul’Dan himself, and snatch the scepter (though not before using it to annihilate an entire army)…

Prime Opt: …fun stuff

Internal Continuity: Also points to how each of the members we fight are contiguous one way or another (such as most of the cultist leaders being from Vanilla cults)

Prime Opt: Paladin Retribution. There’s… a problem here I’ll note later, but the failing assault on the Shore, leaving just us alive as we reach Balnazzar, and the trap, as well as the boss fight, I’m with that. Balnazzar being our thematic villain for paladin just makes sense and it’s a good lead-in for the paladin campaign

Prime Opt: Bear Druid. It’s nice to be back in Grizzly Hills, and reconnecting with Ursoc and Ursol, as well as an early sneak peak of what the Grizzly Nightmare will be like

Prime Opt: Restoration Druid is another simple but solid one (a bit better in gameplay, I think); Us healing several high tier druids as they hold back a friggin’ pit lord

Prime Opt: Death Knight intro. Yes, just like Warlock, before we even reach the artifact quests we have some solid stuff here. The reveal of the Third Lich King’s activities, and his… pact with the Ebon Blade. ‘Our ally’ indeed

Prime Opt: Death Knight Blood is another fun one. Mostly interesting in how differently the Ebon Blade operate, even to this day, but also another tidbit of the ‘soul hunger’ addiction problem we see crop up here and there

Prime Opt: Death Knight Frost is just fantastic. A return to Icecrown to reclaim Frostmourne, erasing echoes of Arthas and Ner’zhul in the process…

Prime Opt: …great stuff, but also…

External Continuity: …great callbacks to Frozen Throne and Warcraft 3

Prime Opt: Enhancement Shaman. It’s good to be back in Deepholm, and dealing with the surprisingly difficult problem of a high tier demon being down there…

Internal Continuity: …and some great stuff with Therazane and Deepholm itself

Prime Opt: Elemental Shaman is simple but fun…

World Building: …but really fleshes out the Mogu and Ra, as well as the nature of the elemental planes

Internal Continuity: Restoration Shaman. The Naga, the Throne of Tides, and Vash’jir

Prime Opt: The horror of the Legion invasion of Pandaria during the Monk intro

Prime Opt: Brewmaster Monk is legit story wise. The fun of making the brew is immediately contrasted by the assault on the Jade Temple, and we see tiny snippets of the Legion’s invasion of Pandaria

Prime Opt: Windwalker Monk is a mostly fun, simple romp, but it’s good at what it’s trying to be

Moment: The loss of Amber Kearnen

Background Lore: The Second Lich King, speaking to the Deathlord through the Blades of the Fallen Prince

Moment: Raising Nazgrim as the first Horseman is weirdly great, especially how he acts and reacts to it

MSQ: The central plot of the Rogue chain as we fight against Shaw…

MSQ: …and finally realize what was being hinted at earlier. That the Broken Shore was always a trap, and we knew it… but that word never reached us thanks to Detheroc

Prime Opt: Velen’s Vision for the Priest and related foreshadowing leading to…

Prime Opt: …the big battle against Balnazzar, finally ending him (in the Nether, even!) and his long career of corrupting followers of the Light

Prime Opt: The Battle for Ulduar… first part. Charging in to save the Keepers from mass Legion invasion, hell yes

Secondary: It’s such a little thing, but I love taking Baron for a walk during the Hunter Order Hall

Prime Opt: Death Knight Order Hall, and the purging of Stromgarde of the child who plays at king, and the raising of Thoras

Prime Opt: Mage Order Hall, rescuing the mages with mana food, and of course working with Millhouse

Prime Opt: Both Paladin and Priest as they merge, show two sides of the fight against Balnazzar, and of course swap skills and characters

Prime Opt: Chasing the imp through Dalaran as the Demon Hunter Order Hall

Prime Opt: The invasion of the Scarlet Monastery. Nazgrim choking a bunch, bored… Thoras butchering an entire hallway while ranting about how awful they are

Moment: Sally Whitemane’s fate. “We do not come to offer peace, we offer you a chance at atonement.”

Prime Opt: I’m kind of with the Druid finale, for all the slog it involves. A remix of the War of the Ancients battle and a fight with Archimonde

Prime Opt: It has issues, but damn I love the Death Knight finale. The regretful charge into the Light’s Hope Chapel, the confrontation with Liadrin, and that wonderful line. “Death is for the living”

Cutscene: The Greymane assault at Stormheim is honestly very well done…

Writing: …but honestly I actually love this plot beat (in a vacuum). Greymane torpedoing their last gunship, who knows how many troops, all on a vengeance spree while the sky burns? It fits shockingly well, is very in character, and is a great insight into why the Legion does what it does

Character: Odyn. He’s just… he’s SO evil and so Titan. He’s the most titanthink character in the entire franchise and I love it

Plot: Stormheim, Odyn and Skovold. Odyn is such an awful person that the mentality he encourages is fully being followed by his enemy (Skovold), up to and including the fact that Skovold is listening to… a Titan! I love it

Brickwork: Stormheim is gorgeous. The trees, the cliffsides, the rivers, the waterfalls…

Brickwork: …great stuff

Music Direction: Stormheim has fantastic music in general…

Music Direction: …easy double positive

Brickwork: Helheim deserves its own noteworthiness for really looking like an underwater, rotten hell…

Doodads: …with tons of smart, well done doodads

Visual Storytelling: Tideskorn Harbor also looks exactly as awful as you’d imagine

MSQ: Escaping Helheim is a great sequence, especially screwing over Helya

Cutscene: Sylvanas v Greymane is a shockingly good cutscene…

Character: …good character (Sylvanas just can’t help but gloat, while Greymane is hyperfocused on her and not on the real problem)…

Animation: …and great animation (the fight itself, the blows, the total lack of hesitation on Sylvanas when she realizes he has the lantern)

Internal Continuity: Lots. Just… so much, everywhere, and this is all the tiny little stuff I’m not specifically notating

Storytelling Mechanic: Grey flavor text is back and better than ever…

Storytelling Mechanic: …for a big…

Storytelling Mechanic: …triple positive

Sound Design: Honestly Legion has some great sound design

Brickwork: Skyboxes, general. Stormheim, High Mountain, Val’Sharah…

Brickwork: Azjuna, and the Broken Shore

Brickwork: Special mention to both Suramar (which is gorgeous) and Suramar City (which has literal mana rain)

Architecture: Good time to bring up Legion Architecture. Suramar, by itself…

Architecture: …is an easy double. It helps that there’s the whole friggin’ city here, but even then the style and design and layout all practice the good design elements. But then a bonus point…

Architecture: …for the other towns and areas across Legion

MSQ: The Battle for the Netherlight Temple, the arrival of the Army of the Light, and the final death of Balnazzar…

MSQ: …great moment, great sequence

Brickwork: Highmountain is, as per usual for the era, fantastic. Lovely visuals, lovely variety, and great usage of verticality without becoming overwhelming…

Brickwork: …easy double

Music Direction: Also Highmountain probably has some of my favorite zone music in Legion…

Music: …another easy double

MSQ: The lead up to riverbend in Highmountain. Lots of quick and dirty good exposition and establishment

Moment: The annihilation of Riverbend is a great moment…

Plot: …and perfectly gets across the stakes, as well as the problem. Dargul is using a terraforming tool, poorly, and has no idea what he’s doing, and he’s causing mass devastation with it

Pacing: Highmountain has wonderful pacing. It starts off very low key and low tier, races up in escalation, and then keeps that pace until the conclusion

Moment: The death of Warbrave Oro

MSQ: The Ebonhorn chain has some great world building, exposition, recontextualization, and characterization. It’s short, but it’s very sweet…

MSQ: …and well acted and presented

Moment: And it leads to a great moment; the reveal of Ebonhorn

MSQ: The entire buildup to the Feltotem reveal is well telegraphed, but appropriately tense and I love how it neatly ties us into Navarogg and the Drogbar

Character: Highmountain (Ebonhorn, Lasan Skyhorn, Jale, Mayla, Navarogg). Fun supporting cast

Secondary: Kobold chain in Highmountain and implications of the void

Voice Acting: Enemy dialogue, in general. Enemies just… talk to you, as you’re fighting them, and it’s fully voiced. Great touch

Brickwork: Dargrul City in the background of Neltharion’s Lair and the technology it uses to keep running

Brickwork: Maw of Souls, the ship. The Nagalfar is great, but what really sells the dungeon…

Brickwork: …is that roving sea storm in the distance

Brickwork: Halls of Valor. I admit I’m not a huge fan of this place visually, but it is still well designed (even if it looks nothing like Ulduar)

Brickwork: Val’sharah, of course. The lush forests aren’t exactly a new thing to WoW, but they look as great as they always do…

Brickwork: …for an easy double

Doodads: Lovely doodads too, especially in the towns

Pacing: Val’Sharah has… weirdly good pacing. Similar to Highmountain, the main plot starts slow, but as the nature of the threat is revealed it escalates, until finally it’s basically a race to the finish line

MSQ: Thaon Moonclaw’s segment is a great example of that great pacing. You show up, we see immediate visual signs of a very feral druid who is on edge and losing his temper and patience, and within just a few minutes we have to kill him because he succumbed to the Nightmare

Moment: Ysera corrupted by Xavius. They build up to it quietly, and it’s a great moment that hits damned hard

Brickwork: The partially corrupted Shala’nir at the roots of Shaladrassil really sell just how horrifying this is

Cutscene: The fall of Ysera. I could break this down, but we’re going to just lump it all into one big aggregate triple. The significance of Elune’s direct intervention (for the very first time!), the music choice, the animation, the purification of Ysera’s body, the loss itself, it’s amazing…

Cutscene: …earning an easy…

Cutscene: …triple positive

Brickwork: Darkheart Thicket looks really, really good, continuing that look of partially corrupted

Brickwork: The Emerald Nightmare, full stop. This is one of the most horrifying looking raids in the game in all the right ways. It looks and feels so cloistered and contained, just ephemeral enough to be recognizable but somehow uncanny valley, and all while tinted that horrible red. I love it…

Brickwork: …easy triple…

Brickwork: …positive

Music Direction: The Nightmare music in general. There’s three or so major ‘tunes’ they play for the Nightmare, and they’re all great. My personal favorite is the one with the whispers you just barely can’t hear in the background

Visual Storytelling: The Rift of Aln is absolutely terrifying. This is essentially a perfect showcasing of what it looks like to be at the very, very, very bottom of the Dream

Prime Opt: Emerald Nightmare in general is just solid. The events, the characters, the narration by Malfurion, the significance of whom we fight and where, and the overall push against Xavius and his final end. And it all ends with that tiny little void remnant…

Prime Opt: Jarod and Maiev’s story arc is weirdly engaging for what it is. It helps that it’s one of the only times we ever really do anything with Jerod

Brickwork: Blackrook Hold is… just… weirdly unique. Most dungeons are recycled concepts or textures or something but this is just straight up Castlevania and I’m here for it…

Brickwork: …easy double positive

Moment: The Dantalionax fight is actually a great moment. The dreadlord abandoning his slave, which then causes that slave to freak the hell out… before snapping out of it because he’s frickin’ Ravencrest, whereupon he then empowers US the heroes with the souls of the entire fortress we JUST freed, letting us blast the damned dreadlord into ash

Visual Storytelling: Vault of the Wardens. This is mostly follow through from the Demonhunter Starter but it’s still great stuff

Brickwork: Vault of the Wardens also has great brickwork because, y’know, duh

Internal Continuity: Vault of the Wardens almost directly follows through on the events of the Demonhunter Starter. Like, directly, it’s great

Brickwork: Hunter Order Hall. This really does just scream ‘hunting lodge’, and is perfectly positioned in the mountains. But what really works here…

Doodads: …is the attention to details, with trophies and food and workbenches and all kinds of lovely stuff…

Doodads: …for an easy double

NPC Set Dressing: Hunter Order Hall also has some really good NPC set dressing. Plenty of recognizable and referential hunters from all over

Doodads: Love me the details in the Warlock Order Hall. The background is mostly ‘just’ another floating rock in the Nether, but they really make this place homey

NPC Set Dressing: Warlock Order Hall also has a nice army motif going on, alongside the endless demonic research

Character: Warlock Order Hall supporting cast. Calydus, Ritssyn, Kira, and of course Jubeka

Brickwork: Mage Order Hall is reasonable in its brickwork (it really does feel like a mage tower which… I mean, it is)

Doodads: But the doodads are top tier…

Doodads: …between the scrolls and the flying books and the artifacts and the pens and just…

Doodads: …a crazy amount of detail

NPC Set Dressing: Mage Order Hall has plenty of this. Mages training, summons working, research happening… fun stuff

Character: Mage Order Hall supporting cast. Meryl, Alodi, Modera, and of course Millhouse

Brickwork: The Shaman Order Hall is fantastic. We’ve seen the Maelstrom before of course but this is really touched up, and tons of additional details added. I especially like how at least part of it is dedicated to each of the four elements…

Brickwork: …easy double positive

Brickwork: The Rogue Order Hall does a nice job of feeling like a sewer, an underground bar, and a secret society all at once

Doodads: And between the fighting arena, the tavern, the shops, and the command area, alongside Noggenfogger’s vault…

Doodads: …you’d better believe it’s got good detailing too

NPC Set Dressing: Rogue Order Hall has some of the best around. There’s so, so many people here from so many walks of life, all doing their own little things and interacting and generally making the sewers feel alive…

NPC Set Dressing: …easily…

NPC Set Dressing: …triple positive territory

Character: Rogue Order Hall supporting cast. Griftah, Vanessa, Noggenfogger, Taoshi, Valeera, Tethys, Tess, and Jorach…

Character: …easy double

Brickwork: The Druid Order Hall is no Amirdrassil but man, they do some great stuff with this…

Brickwork: …easy double positive

NPC Set Dressing: Love the roaming animals, ents, spirits, and druids in the Druid Order Hall

Character: Druid Order Hall supporting cast. Hamuul, Brightwing (who is as terrifying as usual), Remulos, Mylune… great stuff

Brickwork: So it’s mostly the same as it was back in Wrath but I mean, they still do some good stuff with the Death Knight Order Hall…

Doodads: …and, as with Dalaran earlier, they really touched this place up in terms of details

NPC Set Dressing: Death Knight Order Hall is exactly what you’d expect from a dark militant fortress

Character: Death Knight has one of the stronger supporting casts of the Order Halls so far. Amal’thazad, Rottgut, Koltira, Thassarian, and of course the Four Horsemen themselves…

Character: …easy double positive

NPC Set Dressing: Sadly the Monk Order Hall gets no points on Brickwork on Doodads for they are too identical to the Wandering Isle, but I do like the added monks practicing and… feasting

Brickwork: The Priest Order Hall might be some of the best brickwork of the Order Halls. A massive, brilliantly designed cathedral, with aesthetic styles from various sources, one half devoted to shadow, one to holy, and a nice silver line in the middle…

Brickwork: …this is some great stuff…

Doodads: …with some nice doodad support

NPC Set Dressing: And tons of different types of priests roaming and interacting with each other

Brickwork: The Paladin Order Hall is probably the best one overall. The brickwork is absolutely amazing. The underground cathedral, the holy magic providing light, the carpetry, the alcoves…

Brickwork: …great stuff, but…

Doodads: …this is right up there with the Mage Order Hall in terms of doodad design. Books, weapons, armor, equipment, just… it’s crazy…

Doodads: …for an easy…

Doodads: …triple

NPC Set Dressing: Also tons and tons of great NPCs in the Paladin Order Hall. The only thing holding this back from a triple is the fact that most of the recognizable NPCs are just hanging out in the cathedral…

NPC Set Dressing: …still a double though

Doodads: Of course the Demonhunter Order Hall has great doodads…

NPC Set Dressing: …and some really great NPC Set Dressing

Character: Demonhunter Order Hall. We’ve got Altruis (or the blood elf boy), Mother Malevolence, Loramus, Kor’vas, Asha, Allari, Jace… good stuff

World Building: Everything about the Legion is massively fleshed out here. Their organization, their motives and goals, their operations, their technology, their magic

World Building: Everything to do with Odyn, Helya, and the Loken incident many years ago

World Building: Some great culture and world building for the Tauren of Highmountain in general

Prime Opt: The descent into Karazhan’s insanity. First we flip, then we shrink

Brickwork: The new parts of Karazhan do a wonderful job of conveying how messed up Karazhan really is…

Visual Storytelling: …and then there’s everything to do with the finale…

Plot: …and the second domino of the plot. Medivh giving advice to Khadgar about the easy path (closing the door) and the hard one (walking through it)

Moment: Turalyon’s reveal to Khadgar is a hell of a moment, especially given the implications and where it’ll end up going

MSQ: The Battle for the Exodar is just fantastic top to bottom. The NPCs, the assault, the voice acting, the significance of it, it’s a great moment in the story…

MSQ: …an easy double positive moment

Moment: Rakeesh’s death and the climax of the Battle for the Exodar is just… poetry. Velen’s voice actor nails it, and you really feel how badly things have gotten here…

Moment: …great stuff, but what makes it even better…

Plot: …is how this is our third domino of the main plot. Velen finally putting his foot down, and being angry enough to be foolish

MSQ: The reveal of Xera, Illidan, and the death of the Titans

Cutscenes: Illidan’s birth, and his rejection of druidism

MSQ: The Illidan scenario. Illidan is so consistently, fascinatingly villainous despite being ‘correct’… all while being told to do ‘whatever it takes’ to win

Character: And this is when we talk about Illidan. I love him here so much. He is so wrong, and so correct. He is a hero who understands the scope of the problem, while being a monster who doesn’t give a crap about anybody but himself. It’s laid on a bit thick, but it makes him wonderfully sympathetic without for a moment making him less villainous…

Character: …and I love him for it

Voice Acting: God I love Liam O’Brien as Illidan

MSQ: The ‘play as Illidan’ segment is great and all but it’s also…

Humor: …hilarious

Atmosphere: The front lines of Azsuna. I love this whole vibe, and it’s probably one of our best insights into what the front lines of the Legion invasion actually look like across the rest of the world

MSQ: The initial arc. Khadgar, Illidari, the search for Illidan’s soul, and a chance meeting with a blue drake

Brickwork: Azsuna, front. The fel corrupted area, the ruins, the devastation…

Brickwork: …which is good contrast to the rest of the zone. It looks the most like an island that was literally lifted up from the sea of the various, and has some lovely setup and design…

Brickwork: …bonus points to the arcane nature areas near the Azurewing

Visual Storytelling: Zarkhenar. The cracked ley line, and the half-morphed foliage and terrain

Internal Continuity: The Azurewing chain and the fall of Deathwing significance. This is one of the last times this comes up like this but it’s still good here

Character: Runas the Shamed, full stop. It’s so weird giving a character with so little screen time his own plus but damned if he doesn’t nail it. The actor helps

Prime Opt: The entire Azurewing chain is great stuff. New characters, a local plot, foreshadowing for the future

Moment: The final moments of Runas the Shamed. I’m sorry, this entire sequence made me cry, even this time around. I love this, and Jim Cummings just nails it…

Moment: …easy…

Moment: …triple positive

MSQ: The very smart exposition of early Farondis. We get bits and pieces of what’s going on and why very naturally, no awkward exposition dumps

MSQ: Nar’thalas Academy is good, fun, and horrifying

Moment: Farondis rescuing is is hilarious from our perspective…

Moment: …but his defiance of Azshara is critical, and recontextualizes everything about the ghosts and their opinion of Farondis himself

NPC Set Dressing: Azsuna, of course. Mostly at the Front but also in the Academy

Characters: Val’Sharah supporting cast. The druids, the gilneans, the ghosts

Characters: Azsuna supporting cast. Farondis himself is noteworthy, as is his guard, but we also see Senegos and Stellagosa here

Brickwork: Suramar proper. A beautiful vista, marred by cracked ruins

Brickwork: The entire shield itself is just such a cool thing, the way it shows just what was being done to the land with that barrier up the last few millennia

MSQ: The initial setup of Suramar. The introduction to Thalyssra, the interplay of past and present…

Cutscene: …and Thalyssra’s cutscene where she explains the brief history of Suramar, and the Nightborne

Foreshadowing: The Arcandor. Banshees, mana crystals, a strange pedestal, and a burnt tree

Background Lore: Unused to living outside the city due to basic things like food, water, and noise

MSQ: Kel’danath’s legacy, research, fate…

World Building: …and wonderful world building for what withered and nightfallen are, and how fast they descend

Secondary: The would be warlock king in Suramar. Give a starving man crack and it does not go well

Moment: Thalyssra eradicating Theryn’s memories to find the one about the Arcandor is exactly as horrifying as it should be

Visual Storytelling: The failed Arcandor. The arcane tendrils, the room almost identical to our base

Plot: Theryn’s memory, and Farodin’s help, leading to the Arcandor

Visual Storytelling: The Waning Crescent of Suramar. There are demons roaming freely and threatening civilians, people huddled in fear and hunger, a child asks for food which the adult cannot give, it’s fantastic

Doodads: The Waning Crescent, again. I’m going to not be as verbose with some of these visual positives as I usually am because it’s always going to boil down to just some CRAZY good visual design, so let’s just say the Waning Crescent has great doodads…

Brickwork: …and great brickwork

MSQ: Forcing the player to feed the locals is a great scene, it’s very powerful, and it absolutely forces the player down to the absolute ground level to sympathize with these poor citizens

Doodads: Evermoon Bazaar. Again, it’s really… really good…

Doodads: …easy double

NPC Set Dressing: Evermoon Bazaar also has a great ‘crowd’ roaming and interacting with each other

Plot: The arcwine is being severely rationed, which is assuredly going to cause a rebellion so… why? But for once it’s not bad writing, it’s because those in charge (read: the Legion) want the excuse

Integration: So there’s starving civilians you can feed Mana to (keep in mind how irritating farming Mana is). I did this for the heck of it and they actually gave me a frickin’ stacking health buff called… Empathy. Damn

Visual Storytelling: The Terrace of Order, where citizens (and children…) are locked in see-through cages to slowly wither for all to see. Jesus Christ

Background Lore: So, each Order Hall has entire pages of narrative lore as well as snippets from the history of those artifacts. I’ve been perusing them and I will give credit, they’re damned well written, even for the artifacts that are new. This is SO much Background Lore I’m having trouble deciding how many positives to give it, so I decided to be nice and clean about it and give each class two. So here’s for Warrior…

Background Lore: …for two positives

Background Lore: Priest…

Background Lore: …for two positives

Background Lore: Warlock…

Background Lore: …for two positives

Background Lore: Shaman…

Background Lore: …for two positives

Background Lore: Rogue…

Background Lore: …for two positives

Background Lore: Paladin…

Background Lore: …for two positives

Background Lore: Mage…

Background Lore: …for two positives

Background Lore: Druid…

Background Lore: …for two positives

Background Lore: Hunter…

Background Lore: …for two positives

Background Lore: Death Knight…

Background Lore: …for two positives

Background Lore: Monk…

Background Lore: …for two positives

Background Lore: And Demonhunter…

Background Lore: …for two positives

World Building: Arcwine production. Everything about this I adore. It’s a great insight into the creation of arcwine sure, but what makes it stand out (like so much of Suramar) is how much thought was put into it. It reminds me of Blackrock Foundry because they technically punch above their weight, tech wise, by using the setting creatively

MSQ: The Arcwine arc and conclusion is amazing. It’s so everyday, so banal, it feels like a breather episode… until we see a soldier try to kill a laborer for the crime of taking a break. Then it goes RIGHT back to banal everyday… until the leader of that soldier shows up and murders the leader of the vineyard in cold blood. Aaaand then we kill their faces off. The whole thing is perfectly paced and does amazing ‘everyday horror’…

MSQ: …easy double positive

MSQ: Playing at politics. First we save a hostage, then we spread a few strategic rumors, and then we fight a duel to the death

Doodads: While I’m here, the Vineyard area has amazing doodads…

Doodads: …easy double

Brickwork: The vineyard of Suramar, again. I love the layout of this place, and the vines, and the storehouses

Doodads: The entire rich district is a weird one because there’s a lot going on here that’s mostly there for the dungeon but it’s still very solid

MSQ: The Manastorm, and Arluin’s sacrifice. Simple, short, impacting, and it leads to the sea change…

Plot: …of the Arcandor fruit. This is a permanent cure for magical dependency for the nightborne (and, logically, High Elves and Night Elves as well). This will be a bit of a sea change, is a great turnaround moment, and the only reason it’s not more positives is that it hasn’t REALLY had impact past this point

Moment: Starcaller Retreat suddenly isn’t a save haven anymore. We arrive at what was previously the safest part of the city and it is literally on fire and swarmed with demons and felborne

MSQ: Evacuating the Waning Crescent… and the loss of Lunette, the very first person we helped in Suramar City

MSQ: The reality of what the Legion is doing with the… ‘undesirables’ of the Nightborne

Music Direction: This feels like a good time to mention I love the Suramar music direction. It’s just the right combo of elegant, aristocratic, and sorrowful…

Music Direction: …easy double

Prime Opt: The Arcway has a few interesting story beats. The visuals, the Legion’s backup invasion plan if Ellisande hadn’t capitulated, some leftovers of what used to be Suramar society, all lost in the depths

Prime Opt: Ditto for the Court of Stars. The nobility playing and feasting while the lower class starve, watched and guarded over by demons the whole while. And all while infiltrators do everything in their power to subvert the party for their own ends. Also one of our very few interactions with Elisande

MSQ: The rescue of Vanthir, with the assistance of our allies

Writing: The Blood Elves come in force to aid the Nightborne. The Night Elves… do NOT. And Tyrande is a total twat to the Nightborne… because of course she is! For once this makes perfect sense and is in character

MSQ: Valtrois and Stellagosa’s brief but delightful leyline adventure

Brickwork: This is a general visual positive for the rest of Suramar City. It’s just so good, it’s easily the best designed zone in the game to-date…

Brickwork: …an easy…

Brickwork: …triple

MSQ: The Nighthold in general. The charge, the resistance, the progression

Moment: Star Augur Atreus, space, Fel… and the Void

Cutscene: Gul’dan’s final end. It’s not super amazing, but it’s a nice capstone to Gul’dan’s character, and a very appropriate end for him

Cutscene: The cinematic leading to the invasion of the Broken Shore….

Animation: …the incredible animation on Kil’Jaeden…

Voice Acting: …the fantastic voice acting from Kil’Jaden and Sargeras

MSQ: The retaking of the beach on the Broken Shore is so damned awesome…

MSQ: …and I love it

NPC Set Dressing: Deliverance Point has varied NPCs per class for the upper area…

NPC Set Dressing: …for a full…

NPC Set Dressing: …triple positive

NPC Set Dressing: The lower area is very well designed too…

Doodads: …and great doodad usage

Cutscene: Anduin’s big scene. This is one of his only surviving Anduin character, but it’s good stuff. Anduin is of course drowned in doubt, has no idea what to do…

Animation: …crumbles at the mere memory of his father…

Music Direction: …as his theme rises

Prime Opt: Kanrethad and the Warlock arc. Some good continuity, some good personal stuff, and a nice showcasing of loyalty from the usually ‘muwa ha ha’ Warlocks

Character: Gul’Dan. It’s the most characterization we get for him, and he is consistently awesome. The bitter, hateful jackass who will watch the world burn to see it kneel before him

Character: Khadgar is just awesome, as he usually is. Reasonable, intelligent, charismatic, and also just a bit mad. And who doesn’t love his terrible sense of humor?

Character: Stellagosa and Valtrois are weirdly good characters for how little screen time they get. And then they’re on screen together and them geeking out is just delightful

Character: Thalyssra is awesome. Great early look at the Nightborne and a wonderful face character, with just enough snootiness left in her from her backstory

Character: Oculeth is amazing. Mad scientist who is enjoyable, delightful, and very on top of his game

Voice Acting: Oculeth, he really sells the role

Voice Acting: Khadgar, of course

Voice Acting: Half of Gul’Dan’s enjoyableness is his voice acting

Voice Acting: Velen nails it

Voice Acting: This is kind of an aggregate for Kil’Jaeden, Sargeras, and a few other specific demons

Dialogue: Legion’s dialogue slaps. Some very, very well written stuff in here, especially in the quest text…

Dialogue: …easy…

Dialogue: …triple

Prime Opt: Monk! I can’t believe it but the Monk secondary chain is weirdly good stuff

Prime Opt: Monk again, what the hell! The mount quest is a good followthrough of both Pandaria and the Monk quests in general

Prime Opt: Priest Mount chain. A unique Titan facility underwater, Brann being awesome, good characterization for Magni (and Azeroth)

Prime Opt: Death Knight Order Hall finale. Killing our ALLIES and raising them in death as a secret weapon to fight the demons is just so appropriately horrible

Prime Opt: The Death Knight mount quest is just perfection. The horror, the Third Lich King asserting control both overtly and with subtlety, the reaction of the red drakes, the quiet and abandoned north…

Prime Opt: …love the whole thing…

Prime Opt: …easy triple

Prime Opt: Demonhunter finale is actually pretty legit, strangely enough. No not the stupid thing with Kil’jaeden, I mean the charge on Mardum and the mount quest

MSQ: Cathedral of Eternal Night. The bickering, the progression, the background fighting, and the Aegwynn reveal…

MSQ: …some very cool stuff going on here and a direct lead in to…

Brickwork: Tomb of Sargeras just has generally fantastic visuals to it…

Brickwork: …between arcane elves, drowned temple, fel corruption…

Visual Storytelling: …and titan mechanisms, the temple was built upon…

Visual Storytelling: …going down, down, down into the depths

Plot: So we beat the Avatar go to use the pillars to seal the gateway… and the dominos finally line up. Velen’s anger, Illidan’s resurrection, and Medivh’s warning… so instead we FOLLOW Kil’jaeden through

Cutscene: The death of Kil’Jaeden. The realization of the wise choice vs. the fool’s hope, the big showcasing of Argus, that last moment of peace as Velen finally decides to move on, all of that is great stuff…

Cutscene: …but what I love most is these three people, who are so poised to finally stop kicking the can down the road, are the ones present when Illidan does his stupid, dumb maneuver and forces the issue. It’s SO in character for Illidan (of course he unilaterally decides the fate of the entire world, why wouldn’t he?) and would have fallen completely flat if not for Velen’s efforts prior to this

MSQ: Magni’s warning from Azeroth

Cutscene: Love the charge to Argus. Love Velen calling Illidan on his crap. Love Illidan pushing Velen even further. Could do without the trailer fodder line but…

Cutscene: …still…

Cutscene: …a great cutscene

Brickwork: Argus skybox. Everything about this skybox is absolutely terrifying, as you watch Azeroth slowly turn in the distance…

Brickwork: …and they went the extra mile to make the whole world visible up there

Brickwork: Argus, the planet in the distance. No not Azeroth, ARGUS. You can see bits and pieces of what uses to be the crust jutting up at odd angles

Brickwork: Argus, planetside. This is exactly what a fel-destroyed world should look like

Visual Storytelling: The first ticking clock; the armada is moving

Atmosphere: The initial push into Argus is amazing on so many levels…

Writing: …Our troops barely holding the line, enemies so powerful we can barely fight them, and us (the strongest force in our army) doing scalpel strikes past enemy lines to sabotage them to give us breathing room…

Moment: …culminating in a fight against an Antaen artillery boss

Theme: Betrayal… or rather, not

External Continuity: Alleria and Turalyon in general, finally seeing them again (they’ve been teased as far back as Outland) and seeing them as a part of the Army of the Light

World Building: Naaru and the Light… and the Lightforged

Theme: The recurring theme of free will, and enslavement

Animation: Of course the animation is amazing

Music: Of course the music is amazing

Sound Design: Of course the sound design is amazing

Storyboarding: Of course the storyboarding is fantastic

Voice Acting: I’m sorry, the way he says that line is actually perfect. “I am my scars”

Plot: This is also a sea change for… everything, really

Theme: And finally, we must determine our own fate

Character: I Am My Scars is a great character moment for Xera, the naaru in general, and Illidan. Xera is NOT evil or malevolent here, and is acting instead out of what can only be called… the same mentality as Illidan’s. SHE wants HER big success with HER at the forefront

Visual Storytelling: Everything about this moment also pops. The sparkles of light, his scars being burned into light, the glow fading from Turalyon’s eyes, great details

Tone: The absolute horror of Argus’ torment

MSQ: The charge into the Legion fortress…

Moment: …the approach of Aggramar, and us distracting him just long enough to escape

Brickwork: Eredath, floating above the surface of Argus, so ruined and cracked it tilts UP into the sky

MSQ: Velen’s return to Eredath. There’s just… SO much power in this moment. Velen’s actor, the animation, the endless battle, the horror

Doodads: Eredath, again. So much wonderful detailing here

Characters: Eredath. Quite a few, quite memorable…

Voice Acting: …and well voice acted across the board

MSQ: Archimonde’s trials. Interesting of course, but some fascinating characterization for Archimonde, long after his death (both of them)

Moment: “Forgive me, my son” “Are you hurt?” “I am unharmed” DAMN

Visual Storytelling: The three statues. Archimonde, Kil’Jaeden, and a broken statue that Velen just stares at silently

MSQ: The final fall of Talgath, Velen’s refusal to deal with this bullcrap any longer, and the build up to the Seat

Atmosphere: The Void, full stop. The visuals really got an update, and they do some great stuff with it here

Brickwork: The void, again. The way it seeps and pours over everything, as if the ground is slipping away into nothingness

Prime Opt: The destruction of poor L’ura… and the first Void Elf

Brickwork: Telogrus Rift. This is Absolutely gorgeous, it’s insane… the rocks, the veins, the shadows, the distant darkness…

Brickwork: …incredible

Music Direction: The Void Elf theme, also played for Telogrus

Spritework: Lightforged, Void Elf, Highmountain, and Nightborne sets…

Spritework: …are really good stuff

Visual Storytelling: The burning cloud engulfing Azeroth

Visual Storytelling: Antorus is fascinating. It doesn’t get full credit (because so much of this comes out of nowhere) but we really see exactly HOW the Legion has always been able to operate the way it does here. The operators of the portals, the high command directly controlling forces, the garothi industrial yards

Brickwork: The Burning Throne itself. It’s just so… quietly, darkly horrifying

Outro: Everything about the finale. Just… everything. We even die (for the second time!) and have to be brought back by the Titans themselves

Outro: Velen’s sigh is one of the most understated, best moments in the entire game. It’s just a few seconds but it says SO much

Outro: Illidan’s final message. It’s still all about him (of course), and it’s a pretty effective end to his character

Storytelling Mechanic: Good zones, good dungeons, good stuff…

Storytelling Mechanic: …easy double

Spritework: Arathi Warfront armor, Alliance (okay okay, and Horde)

Spritework: Ny’alotha armor. I’d never wear any of it but damned if it isn’t on brand

Spritework: Mag’har & Dark Iron heritage armors. Both extremely cool, and Dark Iron comes with weapons to boot

Moment: Okay you win, the arcane floating ship is cool

Cutscene: The BFA opening cinematic is, try to be shocked, extremely technically impressive, as all Blizzard cutscenes are…

Cutscene: …so that’s…

Cutscene: …a triple

Animation: The final Battle For Lordaeron cutscene is actually quite well animated. Jaina listening in the background and processing (she hadn’t heard about Teldrassil), Sylvanas’ villainous monologue, etc.

Animation: Of course the Sylvanas vignette is well animated…

Animation: …but I have to give special mention to Sylvanas’ reactions

Cutscene: I also have to give special mention to the whole Sylvanas vignette. It has a couple of issues but it does a good job of showcasing the cruel, vindictive, and petty villain Sylvanas is developing into

Animation: Jaina’s vignette is, as with all of these, extremely well animated. It feels silly to even go into details so…

Animation: …we’ll just give it…

Animation: …a triple

Music Direction: Jaina’s vignette has an entire song dedicated to her, Kul Tiras, and the tragedy of the Second War and Daelin’s genocidal charge on Durotar. It’s a great song that perfectly accents the two major themes of the work, but they also use it effectively perfectly (the wave crash as an accent, the gunshot at the climax, great stuff)…

Music Direction: …an easy…

Music Direction: …triple positive

Theme: Jaina vignette and the significance of her being buried in the past. She’s buried in guilt, and the Kul Tirans (in ignorance and national pride) vilify her for her role (perceived and otherwise) in the death of their ‘great’ king…

Character: …which firmly establishes where Jaina’s arc will be going this expansion

Visual Storytelling: I also have to give credit to how well they use the visuals to paint the (heavily slanted) story of Frozen Throne

Cutscene: Jaina’s nightmare on the ship. The guilt just crushing her

MSQ: For all my irritations, the prison break with Flynn is appropriately amusing

Background Lore: The war actually progresses off in the background during mission boards

Brickwork: Boralus, rich district. We’re well into the ‘incredible visuals’ era of WoW so forgive me for being verbose but I love the usage of colors and tones and details. It really does feel like a wintery area combined with the vague impression of being made out of the inside of a ship…

Brickwork: …easy…

Brickwork: …triple positives

Doodads: And of course it has good doodads (love the hedge maze)

Architecture: Boralus, similar to Suramar before it, deserves a double for architecture design. The layout, the connecting threads, the sightlines, the interiors…

Architecture: …it’s all great stuff

Architecture: While I’m here I will also mention Zuldazar. It’s not as good as Boralus (especially due to a lack of interior spaces) but it does do everything else right

Architecture: Also the entire rest of the islands. The valley, the creepy mountain, the desert ruins, the towns…

Architecture: …for its own solid double

NPC Set Dressing: And of course, plenty of soldiers and nobles roaming around

Brickwork: Boralus, poor district. This area isn’t quite as well designed in terms of raw brickwork…

Doodads: …but absolutely nails it in terms of doodads. There are so, so many details here it’s crazy…

Doodads: …easy…

Doodads: …triple

NPC Set Dressing: And of course the poor district nails it in terms of roamers and NPCs…

NPC Set Dressing: …another…

NPC Set Dressing: …fantastic triple

Doodads: Boralus, trade district. As usual, fantastic doodad design throughout…

Doodads: …another easy…

Doodads: …triple positive

NPC Set Dressing: And of course, lots and lots of great, manually designed and hand crafted NPCs throughout the trade district…

NPC Set Dressing: …so that’s another…

NPC Set Dressing: …triple

Brickwork: Tiragarde Sound. Of course I love the visual layout of this entire area. The frozen drifting into waterfalls drifting into rivers pouring out into the sound itself, and the whole zone designed around the sound. Love it…

Brickwork: …easy…

Brickwork: …triple

Doodads: And of course some great doodads, especially amongst the interiors

Visual Storytelling: The big, powerful, military fortifications? Run down, rusting, and exposed to the elements. There’s lots of indicators like this which showcase the nature of exactly how down on their fortunes that Kul Tiras really is

Dialogue: Kul Tiran dialect. I absolutely love this but what really makes it pop…

Voice Direction: …is how they have distinct voice direction for each ‘region’ and the different accents and dialects for the Kul Tirans…

Voice Direction: …earning…

Voice Direction: …an easy triple

Music Direction: Tiragarde Sound. I love this music and how it flows and works, we’re getting into motif territory here and it’s working very well…

Music Direction: …so that’s another easy double

Dialogue: Tortollans. Seriously, these are basically the only ancient race in the game that actually talks like it

Secondary: Tiragarde Sound, world building and down to earth stuff. I love the insight into the nobility and the Drust

Secondary: Majo, Joma, and helping an old tortollan ride new tricks is just REALLY wholesome and adorable

Secondary: The entire Anglepoint Wharf chain. This is a shockingly good quest chain, probably qualifies as Primary Optional technically, at least a regional quest. This sucker has it all. Good build up and pacing, good establishment for N’Zoth’s movements, good setup for the tidepriests, and good lead into Stormsong

Background Lore: Grey texts are back! And they’re fantastic…

Background Lore: …as they…

Background Lore: …always are

Music Direction: The Siren music. I’m sorry, this is fantastic for all the right reasons

MSQ: Flynn’s infiltration of Freehold. It’s hard to put it into simple words but

Music Direction: Freehold and general piratey music

MSQ: The push through Freehold, dealing with Harlan, and the reveal of the attack on the Daelin Gate

Moment: Poor Flynn. Rescued by Taelia, and wakes up hanging from a gryphon

MSQ: The Battle for Daelin’s Gate is wonderful. The ash, the music, the sound design, the fleeing refugees, the cutscenes, great sequence

MSQ: Okay so, there’s a few issues with it, but I do like how Katherine more or less immediately twists against Ashvane, and her consideration of her emotional state, and finally opening up the doors to the Alliance

Music Direction: Drustvar, overworld. The perfect combination of gothic morose

Music Direction: Drustvar, the coven. The perfect combination of absolutely horrifying

Secondary: Initial approach to Drustvar oozes atmosphere, and opens up strong as hell with a very creepy, well laid out, well acted chain about a witch child and the whole thing is fantastic…

Atmosphere: …easy double positive

Doodads: Fallhaven, the frozen town…

Visual Storytelling: …food long spoiled, ravens still pecking at their forms

MSQ: The initial quest in Drustvar does a lot of heavy lifting in establishing the zone. Gorak Tul is mentioned by name, we see the coven, mention a Mother, all while maintaining a wonderful atmosphere

MSQ: I adore Lucille’s initial quest. She is in a position to free herself by force (via us AND her soldiers) and chooses to placate her people instead

Spritework: Drust in general. Wicker and bone

MSQ: Drust, general. This is essentially an aggregate for a lot of the in between MSQ quest chains

MSQ: Forming the Order of Embers and getting our kill squad for the main chain…

Characters: …good time to mention the good supporting cast while we’re here

Characters: Also good supporting cast for Tiragarde Sound

Prime Opt: I can’t believe this is not a main chain but as the MSQ heads north to Waycrest Manor, there’s a side quest that heads south and keeps going for quite a while as it deals with the realities of the people on the ground floor and their dealings with the coven…

Prime Opt: …culminating in a big confrontation with Gorak Tul. And this all contains lots of good world building and otherwise for the zone and cultures

Secondary: The Wedding quest chain. I love this sequence, from the realities of the Warcraft 2 era nobility, to an insight into all three Waycrests, to seeing how recently things fell apart…

Secondary: …easy double

Music Direction: The wedding! The happy, major key usage of the Drustvar theme here is brilliant

Atmosphere: Down to earth. Drustvar is VERY down to earth and it honestly makes the whole thing much, much more engaging. We’re literally fighting a local coven of witches with onions

Brickwork: Waycrest Manor. Good lord, this place is phenomenal looking. It’s shocking that a single dungeon can look this good

Visual Storytelling: Everything about this place sells how awful and horrible things have gotten here

Plot: One last positive for Lady Waycrest. Selfish, greedy, foolish, who was so obsessed with saving her husband that she made a pact with Gorak Tul. And everything, the entire arc of Drustvar, boils down to that

NPC Set Dressing: Freehold. There’s too many to possibly list, and it really fleshes out the ‘city’ aspect of the dungeon…

NPC Set Dressing: …easy double

Doodads: The gold pile, alone, deserves it

Visual Storytelling: Tol Dagor. The monsters, followed by the prisoners, followed by the guards, followed by Ashvane

MSQ: The initial reception of and flavor of the Stormsong

Secondary: Deadliest Cache. I’m… weirded out by how GOOD this is in such a lackluster zone. The comedy, the voice acting, the visuals, the escalation, the culmination quest. This is four amazing quests, so…

Secondary: …we’re going to give each one…

Secondary: …it’s own…

Secondary: …positive, plus…

Humor: …a bonus, for sheer quality

Secondary: The Tortollan quests are just weirdly good. At first they were merely fine but no, this is legit. They even all gather to thank you when you get back! Love it…

Secondary: …enjoy the double

Secondary: Bonus points to the Granny quests in the southwest. It’s not much, but I do love how she asks you to get a bunch of stuff… to then bake cookies… oh and give you high grade explosives

Brickwork: Stormsong Valley is absolutely gorgeous. Real thought and effort is put into the low tides, the farms, the valley, the peaks, the shrines…

Brickwork: …easy…

Brickwork: …triple

Brickwork: I love the skybox of Stormsong Valley. The wisps, the clouds, the storms over the shrine

Brickwork: Drustvar does a great job with seemingly simple. The overcast storms, the tints of void blue, the aurora borealis, the colored night sky

Doodads: As usual, Drustvar does fantastic doodad design across the board…

Doodads: …easy double

Doodads: Ditto for Stormsong

Music Direction: The abyssal depths of Stormsong Valley

MSQ: The attack upon the shipyards…

MSQ: …the charge into the rebellious Stormsong city…

MSQ: …and the final charge up the Shrine of the Storm are all great stuff

MSQ: Chasing through Freehold with Flynn and crew while we try to find Jaina

MSQ: The Blighted Lands are an appropriately horrifying hell

Animation: So, the Jaina and her mother cutscene. This thing is amazingly well animated…

Music Direction: …the music direction is top notch…

Sound Design: …the sound design is near perfect…

Sound Design: …for a second positive…

Theme: …the theme of consequences of the past…

Character: …the character significance for Jaina who is (finally!) a character in WoW…

Storyboarding: …the amazing storyboarding (the way Katherine just swishes away the phantom of herself)…

Visual Storytelling: …and the visual storytelling of how Katherine reaches through all the years of guilt to Jaina

Visual Storytelling: Siege of Boralus. The assault, the burning, the fleeing, great stuff

Cutscene: Katherine reaching out to Jaina at the end of Boralus is great but…

Moment: …I have to give special mention to the sound and music as the dread of Ashvane’s fleet arrives, but then…

Moment: …the Kul Tiran fleet appearing from the storm is fantastic. The size of it, the dread of it, the automatic power implied…

Moment: …absolutely great stuff

MSQ: Zul’s showcasing during the escape from Stormwind…

MSQ: …culminating in his gamble with Jaina, laid out well in advance, of course

Doodads: Dazaralor docks. Good lord, the food, the goods, the harbor…

Doodads: …amazing stuff

Brickwork: Dazaralor docks also really, really immediately sells the visuals of the Zandalari. That mesoamerican amazingness of clay, glass, and gold

Visual Storytelling: The Dazaralor Terrace, and it’s… ‘zoo’. This is not only a great insight into how they think of the ‘lower tribes’, but also a damning showcase of how far the Zandalari themselves have fallen

Visual Storytelling: The coasts, and the consequences of the Cataclysm

Brickwork: Dazaralor. Good lord, Dazaralor. The same visual excellence of before but even better, with the jungle, the waterfall, the golden ziggurat atop a clay one…

Brickwork: …easily earning…

Brickwork: …triple

NPC Set Dressing: So much it’s easy to miss it all. The hozen, the tortollans, the kids playing, the roaming dinosaurs, the casteless children being raised to one day ‘have a place in society’…

NPC Set Dressing: …great, terrible stuff…

NPC Set Dressing: …another easy triple

Doodads: The jungle spilling over into the architecture…

Visual Storytelling: …the empire of old. It’s so obvious even at a glance that this is an empire that’s been on its last legs for some time

Brickwork: The jungle of Zuldazar itself is phenomenal. This might be one of the best designed jungles in all of WoW, even into the modern era…

Brickwork: …an easy…

Brickwork: …triple

Doodads: Ditto for the doodad usage and placement. You wouldn’t think there’d be that many (trees, maybe some underbrush) but no, there’s so much, and it’s amazing…

Doodads: …for another…

Doodads: …triple

Doodads: Zanchul city. Mostly the same architecture as before, but even more details and doodads and oh my gosh…

Doodads: …I love everything about this…

Doodads: …another triple

Secondary: Holy crap is this a good story in a Nesingwary quest, of all things? I think it is! It starts off bog standard, but by the time you turn in they’re all dead, and it’s all been a trap for YOU. It’s great

Secondary: The Gral chain! This is functionally a tortollan quest but still, helping them and helping Gral (the shark Loa) is just fantastic, and includes some great foreshadowing and writing…

Secondary: …I have to give a second positive for the sheer quality of the writing on display here

Secondary: It’s brief, but Jani’s quests are legit. And I absolutely love Jani himself… Loa of salvage, sure, but also of the poor… damn

Secondary: Great side quest with voodoo science and the brutosaurs, just the right amount of humor

MSQ: Zul only gets one major quest to shine, but damned if he doesn’t nail it. We also get a lot of great foreshadowing here, and much of Zul’s actual character

Dialogue: Zandalari dialogue is brilliantly written. You can even tell the different dialects and speech patterns…

Dialogue: …easy double

Dialogue: Also special mention to the Loa who sound essentially perfect. Not ancient and rhyming, but not modern either, an interesting (almost alien) mix

Music Direction: Zuldazar. The wild jungles, the tranquil drums

Music Direction: Dazaralor. Big, bombastic, proud… Zandalar forever

Internal Continuity: Significance of the Cataclysm to … basically everything happening in Zandalar

MSQ: The purging of Zanchul. Nice foreshadowing set as a backdrop to the bickering couple

MSQ: The betrayal (gasp), the assault on Zanchul, and saving the Loa…

MSQ: …which leads immediately into saving Rastakhan, and some great Loa interactions with Rezan and Bwonsamdi…

MSQ: …and culminating in Zul’s trap

Brickwork: Atal’Dazar. This is exactly what I’d expect from the tomb of kings… the excessive amount of gold, the glass beadwork, the rushing waterfalls and beautiful valley… all on top of a giant pile of corpses…

Brickwork: …great stuff

Brickwork: The MOTHERLODE. I mean, come on, it’s actually like four subzones back to back

Doodads: The MOTHERLODE also does great stuff with its doodads…

Visual Storytelling: …really emphasizing what a mess this whole operation is

MSQ: Nazmir introduction. You walk in, see the blood trolls being horrifically evil, and you see just how fortified they are around that strange, definitely-not-Titan device, and then promptly start swarming you. It does a great job of establishing the tone, but our initial arc makes sense too; We need Loa (because we lack the backing of the Horde, and Zandalar has barely anything to offer) so… let’s get to ally making

Secondary: Sur’jan. The crazed troll who helps us kill an undead monstrosity, but it does two things well. First, he’s funny, and second, we help power him up and he… actually keeps his word with us and helps us stop the problem

Secondary: Da’jul, Kal’dran, and Zardrax. This is weirdly grounded for a quest all about despair and how easy it is for people to fall to void

Secondary: The exiles of Vol’Dun. The one exile who refuses to leave behind his own guard, and the guard who refuses to let his charges die

Secondary: The undead squad. These guys are just… perfect. Very mundane and banal as they talk about their mission here (and serve as foreshadowing for the Sethrak quests in Vol’Dun). But what I love is how they all recognize us (on sight, no less) and all act pretty accordingly for having brushed up with the hero of the world…

Secondary: …great stuff

Brickwork: Uldir exterior. This entire area, the fortified Blood Troll encampment, all surrounding a massive and imposing troll edifice

Brickwork: Nazmir, the definition of ‘blood swamp’. Seriously, whatever you’re picturing with the words ‘blood swamp’, this is it…

Brickwork: …it’s horrifying

Visual Storytelling: Nazmir also gives a great insight into the Zandalar that once was. There are ruins EVERYwhere, and we see the remnants of big, expansive highways and structures scattered here and there, long lost to the swamp

Music Direction: Nazmir’s music is just phenomenal, just the right amount of horror

Brickwork: Nazmir’s skybox, particularly over Bwonsamdi’s temple

MSQ: Bwonsamdi’s initial requests (the widower, the child, the undead)

MSQ: The Hir’eek chain is appropriately amusing, interesting, and horrifying. I love our ally, I love how we out maneuver a Loa and bring them low, and I love how this…

Visual Storytelling: …foreshadows. The mould that’s filling Hir’eek’s lair

MSQ: Poor, poor Torga… and Bwonsamdi, and the tortollans, and Talanji getting a chance to shine…

MSQ: …great sequence

Brickwork: The Frogmarsh is almost the total opposite of the blood swamp. Lush, green, and vibrant. It makes you wonder what the whole region used to look like

MSQ: Krag’wa’s sequence. Simple but solid, as we help the loa rejuvenate, earning us a stalwart ally

MSQ: Keeper Hezre (wonderfully robotlike in its operations)l…

Moment: …and the reveal of G’Huun

Plot: Gathering the forces across Nazmir. Crazies, tortollans, loa, goblins, and titanforged

MSQ: The big charge against Uldir and the blood troll fortifications, with the aid of all the people we’ve helped across the zone

Character: Some wonderful, memorable, enjoyable characters in Nazmir. The couple and their son, the guard and his charge, the undead squad, the crazed man, the man paying off his debt to Bwonsamdi, I could keep going (there’s THREE distinct cool tortollans this zone)…

Character: …easy double for great supporting cast

Brickwork: Underrot. Good lord, the Underrot. This might actually be one of the best designed dungeons, visually, in the game to this point. As I said on camera it’s ‘perfect’, aka without flaw, in how it represents everything…

Brickwork: …from the obvious mould itself, and how it clings to the air…

Visual Storytelling: …to how you can see the remnants of troll civilization underneath…

Doodads: …to the tidbits of titantech and corpses long rotted…

Music Direction: …to the horrifying music…

Theme: …to how it literally shows what Zandalar really is. This is the rotten heart of Zandalar, unmasked and laid bare for all to see. The layers further up (the blood swamp, the jungle, the oppression) are all just surface level compared to this, and it’s a nice bit of symbolism for the zandalari people themselves

Animation: The cutscene between Rastakhan and Bwonsamdi at the end of the Blood Gate is almost perfect, and one of the best cutscenes in the game. The movement on Bwonsamdi himself deserves its own positive…

Animation: …the expressions and flow of Rastakhan and his daughter…

Storyboarding: …the fantastic transition shots and storyboarding in general…

Sound Design: …the sound in general (I love the clacking of Bwonsamdi’s fingers)…

Music Direction: …the music, which drifts between themes as it goes…

Plot: …the significance of this to the plot (this is Rastakhan making a very stupid decision in desperation)…

Writing: …which, for once, is well written and logical, and leads into…

Theme: …the thematic core of it (‘we do what we must’)…

Voice Acting: …and the voice acting of all involved

MSQ: Vol’dun intro. The initial flight, the intrigue, the immediate comparison of the Sethrak as the villains working with Jakra’zet, the crash, and the escape with Meerah

Brickwork: Vol’Dun might actually be the single best looking desert in video gaming. The brickwork is shockingly good…

Brickwork: …for a full…

Brickwork: …three positives

Doodads: Vol’Dun, again. There are so many tiny details you probably would never notice across the dunes. Footprints, bones, foliage, wind…

Doodads: …amazing stuff…

Doodads: …an easy triple

Visual Storytelling: Vol’Dun, and what’s left of the ancient troll cities (plural!)

Brickwork: Bonus positive for the ruins and the settlements therearound

MSQ: The vulpera are established early and well with them being helpful, but clear-cut; a trade for a trade, no free handouts. It quickly establishes their survival bent in the dunes

Moment: Dolly and Dot are my best friends

MSQ: The entire arc around Akunda is actually quite solid. The quiet horror of lost memory, one troll (quietly foreshadowed) taking advantage of that

Secondary: Several fun quests in Vol’Dun. The Ashvane promotion and the Tortollans (who reach out to the local tiger loa for protection)

Secondary: The Goldtusk Inn is kind of brilliant. At first glance it’s just ‘hey here’s another crazy quest giver’ (We just had one in Nazmir if you’ll recall) but then we find out, nope, they’re legit. And then we help set up the place and… honestly the whole quest chain is just kind of bizarrely fun, wholesome, and enjoyable…

Secondary: …easy double just for this chain

Secondary: There’s an interesting quest where the vulpera are looting a ruin guarded by golems powered by souls. Lots of implications here, especially about what did this to them and why

Characters: Vol’Dun’s supporting cast. The vulpera, the exiles, the rebels, the Akundas

Story Sequencing: Zandalar as a whole. Zuldazar establishes the scene, Nazmir establishes the stakes, Vol’dun reveals the linchpin of the enemy’s plans

Music Direction: Vol’Dun… or more accurately, Sethrak

MSQ: Rescuing the slaves and disrupting the lines of the Faithless

Brickwork: The Sethrak canyons are nice, but the architecture of the temples is what sells it. I also love their crystal, jade vibe

MSQ: The final charge is nice, but the final exchange between Vorrik and Korthek is fantastic

MSQ: The Battle To Save Dazaralor…

MSQ: …which is good in general, but serves as a great capstone of the whole zone

Animation: As usual, animation is on point. Bwonsamdi, ‘our kingdom’, Rastakhan’s realization, his rage at Zul, it’s all on display

Cutscene: Consider this an aggregate for an otherwise excellent cutscene between Rastakhan, Zul, and of course Mythrax…

Cutscene: …for a double

Brickwork: General quality of Expeditions. There’s so many islands and it’s rehashed tilesets but they do good stuff with it

MSQ: The search for Derek’s corpse is wonderfully atmospheric and horrifying

MSQ: Going after Gallywix and just… the quest dialogue absolutely railing on how awful of a human being Bobby Kotick really is

Internal Continuity: The War Campaign does some solid stuff in staying congruent with itself. Even Zelling’s book is retrieved from Reid, whom we killed on the Alliance

Brickwork: Uldir. It’s mostly the same general stuff we’ve seen but my do they do a lot with it

MSQ: M.O.T.H.E.R. is delightful in general, and I love her dialogues as we go through Uldir

Visual Storytelling: The cysts, the rot, the descent down into the soft, sickeningly sweet decay of G’Huun

Prime Opt: Gideon Emery, solid writing, appropriate dread, walking the dead scar, the path of Death Knight Arthas, great characterization for Liadrin, great moments for Death Knight Arthas. Continuity with Warcraft 3, consequence storytelling for how it follows through on events that we’ve heard about but never seen. This whole sequence is crazy good for what it is…

Prime Opt: …and easily earns a double by itself for the significance

Prime Opt: The charge into the Sunwell, and its final failed defense

Prime Opt: The efforts to restore the Sunwell, and of course the fascinating foreshadowing of Maldraxxian death magic

Spritework: And yeah, that Blood Elf Heritage Armor is damned nice looking

Prime Opt: The Dwarven Heritage quest isn’t at the level of quality of the Blood Elf one but it’s still damned good

MSQ: Okay, the G.M.O.D. flightpath was hysterical… but the whole chain is fantastic. It only stumbles twice (why exactly is there this big rivalry thing between Gallywix and Mekkatorque?) but I still love the awful, awful humor…

MSQ: …so that’s an easy double

Storytelling Mechanic: So they’ll use it better later but I still have to give credit for inventing the Stay Awhile And Listens

MSQ: The Heist of Dazaralor is weirdly fun, engaging, and humorous…

MSQ: …easy double positive

Cutscene: Okay, it has issues, but I do like the invasion cutscene for the Battle For Dazaralor

Visual Storytelling: Bwonsamdi’s blood moon looming over the Battle For Dazaralor

Music Direction: Good music for the Battle For Dazaralor…

Music Direction: …but dynamic music for fights? Heck yes

Doodads: Detailing, murals, and Bwonsamdi on the throne. The layout is very temple, in a good way

Cutscene: Rastakhan dies. As he’s dying he is, desperately…

Animation: …reaching out for his daughter, who can barely contain her grief. She’s so recently nearly lost him and now she’s losing him again, and it’s all over her face and hands…

Animation: …and he can barely move at all, as he realizes the enormity of what he’s done to her…

Voice Acting: …and all who follow in her line

Cutscene: For the negative attached, I still do love Baine’s reaching out to Jaina. Her rising fury, his tranquil resignation, and what both believe is his final act hits exactly as hard as it should…

Cutscene: …easy double

Moment: Jaina and Derek. They get a nice moment after him being handed over by Baine, and for once she recognizes that he’s not a monster

Prime Opt: Xalatath. This is a lengthy chain, and a lot of it is backtracking, but the meat is fascinating. We find her, grant her a host body, and she heads off to do… who knows what…

Prime Opt: …here’s hoping we’ll never see HER again

Brickwork: Crucible of Storms. Goodness this is horrifying. As with Zandalar and G’Huun, this is the rot at the center of Kul Tiras

Brickwork: Mechagon. It gets bonus points for how it looks like a salvage yard on top of a junk heap

Doodads: Mechagon also really, really nails a lot of its specifics…

Doodads: …to a crazy degree

Brickwork: The interior of Mechagon, a rusted pile of trash

Doodads: The mechanical flowers! The detailings!

Brickwork: Mechagon city proper. It’s so metallic, it’s basically Gnomeregan but with a modern touch

Cutscene: The Darkshore Warfront trailer. This is sort of ‘generically good’ but it’s still damned good

Cutscene: Aszhara’s big opening cutscene. This woman lives underwater, and has hollowed out a large chunk of the room so she can then run a waterfall through it continuously so she can gaze at her reflection while stroking it. This is a masterclass of showing not telling, and that’s before we get to all the other awesome stuff…

Cutscene: …pretty easy…

Cutscene: …triple

Visual Storytelling: It’s obvious, but I love the sight of the Forsaken and Kul Tiran ships trapped and beached on the wreckage of Nazjatar

Brickwork: Nazjatar in general. Good lord, the effort put into this zone is sort of crazy for a patch zone. The whole place screams a network of caves grown up around what used to be a city…

Brickwork: …and it earns…

Brickwork: …a full triple

Doodads: The ‘underwater’ tileset. So much foliage, everywhere, growing in and on or draping off of the terrain…

Doodads: …easy double

Doodads: The old city tileset. What’s left of the capital of the Night Elven empire

Visual Storytelling: Lots. The statue of Azshara (untouched), the mountain sized statue to her new form, the pathways and passages

Brickwork: Bonus points for the Naga architecture (first time we really see it). We see it outside and in the raid as well and both rock

Atmosphere: Nazjatar, and the water held… right there

MSQ: Brann, MOTHER, and Magni in our adventures to heal Azeroth, alongside Ebonhorn

MSQ: The rescue of Baine. The choices offered the (Horde) player, the banter, the loyalists, the acknowledgement of Dalaran, the effort to rescue them, it’s all great stuff…

MSQ: …an easy…

MSQ: …triple section

Animation: So, they rescue Baine. Of course the animation is fantastic (just look at Jaina’s expressions as she listens to Thrall)…

Animation: …easy double

Theme: The HvA ending… finally. Finally finally finally

Visual Storytelling: Dawn at Thunder Bluff

Music Direction: Great music choice

Writing: I love the connecting thread between Jaina and Thrall here. Jaina’s arc across BFA has been her being buried in guilt for all the events of her life, going back to Warcraft 3. And Thrall admits on camera (finally) how much of a mess he’s made of things. And the way the two dovetail each other is fantastic…

Plot: …and pretty well informs the plot of, honestly, the next three expansions right here. It’s time to finally move past this and get on with it

Character: They’re not new, but they do good stuff with the supporting cast of Nazjatar. Plus the gilblins!

Prime Opt: Thalyssra’s walk through memory lane, which leads to…

Cutscene: …Azshara’s Warbringer. My God. Where do I even begin?

Animation: This is probably the single best animated of these shorts. The amount of detail in expressions, background events, people moving over each other, the way N’Zoth’s avatar flickers in and out, the eyes, the panning over the Black Empire, it’s just amazing…

Animation: …such an easy…

Animation: …triple

Voice Acting: We mostly just hear from the two, but she’s amazing and of course Darin DePaul nails it

Sound Design: Perfect, absolutely perfect sound design. The screams, the underwater muted burbling, the quiet horror…

Sound Design: …again…

Sound Design: …three positives

Music Direction: I mean, come on. The music is fantastic. Starts calm, turns into horrifying, then another pause segment, then the drums of the Black Empire…

Music Direction: …it’s so damned good. And it all serves a great function…

Atmosphere: …the atmosphere of the entire piece. The work oozes it…

Pacing: …along with being a near masterclass in tension and the creation thereof…

Pacing: …for which alone…

Pacing: …it deserves a double

Moment: Azshara’s doubt whispering through the fish. Is it N’Zoth? Is it her own doubt? It doesn’t matter, because she just cannot hold an ocean by herself, and she falls

Moment: Azshara twisting N’Zoth on himself, recognizing his weakness in HER desperation

Moment: Azshara… so self confident, so assured… and then…

Moment: …the slow descent…

Moment: …into DOUBT

Character: Which is also great characterization for both. Azshara is haughty, self assured, and supremely on top of things… until she isn’t…

Character: …and N’Zoth, even recognizing that she is correct and making the deal willingly, just wants her to drown just a bit more out of spite (and possibly to help fuel her transformation)

Brickwork: The Eternal Palace. Naga architecture, around a deep, depthless, empty abyss

Lighting: The Eternal Palace does some truly good things with its lighting. It’s very visible, despite looking horribly cast in shadow

Music Direction: The Eternal Palace. Love the music choices down here

Visual Storytelling: Down, down in the depths, a huge chasm of eggs

Sound Design: The Eternal Palace, of all things. The chitters, the blurps, the waters

Atmosphere: The depths down, down below the Eternal Palace

Cutscene: Azshara’s fight is extremely good spectacle. It’s hard to even put into words how well designed this is. The Titan architecture, the chains, the crowd, amazing

Moment: The end of Eternal Palace. Azshara is claimed by N’Zoth as he is freed… and now matters are worse

Writing: There’s a lot to say about this cutscene, but it all boils down to the excellent writing. Varok finally admitting and acknowledging so much (the Path of Glory, the bloody legacy of Blackhand)

Music Direction: The music perfectly lingers as it emphasizes just how quiet and despondent things really have gotten

Animation: As is going to just sort of keep being the norm for a while now, the animation is absolutely amazing…

Animation: …for a double

Voice Acting: Varok, Jaina, Anduin, and Zekhan all sort of nail it here, but special mention to Varok’s tone

Storyboarding: The camera angles, the movement, the panning

Internal Continuity: The significance and events of WoW…

External Continuity: …and of Warcraft 1, 2, and 3

Visual Storytelling: The empty camp, the ruined tower

Theme: All of it boils down to the same basic point, something that’s been building for years to come at this point

Theme: Building bridges, common understanding, and all of it is summarized by a single line

Moment: “Where is our home?”

Consequence Storytelling: The Alliance and Horde forces are bled, spent, and dry by the time we charge Orgrimmar. We really are, finally, out of gas

Visual Storytelling: The charge up to Orgrimmar, at the head of what’s left

MSQ: The Siege of Orgrimmar preparation (and Ji’s comment)

Writing: Okay, this is, without exaggeration, the best cutscene in the game to-date. Let’s try to discuss why. First and foremost; this is brilliantly written. Little dialogue that says a lot, with nearly perfect variance and presentation of word choice and sentence structure. Also, and this is important, the whole lead up to this has been built up, so it does a great job of paying off how important this is…

Writing: …so there’s…

Writing: …a triple

Music Direction: Did you catch Orgrimmar’s theme? How about the Alliance and Horde themes blending? How about the Warcraft theme itself? Yeah this is essentially perfect…

Music Direction: …another…

Music Direction: …triple

Sound Design: The hits, the crackled dust, the splitting of the sword, the one hit on Sylvanas, the clank of the banner, even Saurfang’s final moment…

Sound Design: …another easy…

Sound Design: …triple

Animation: This is some of the best CGI they have literally ever done. I don’t know what else to add to that…

Animation: …easy…

Animation: …triple

Storyboarding: This is some of the best combat storyboarding we’ve seen since the Pandaria opening cinematic. Big, lazy swings with the axe to put her off guard for the reverse low to high swing with two weapons…

Storyboarding: …great stuff…

Storyboarding: …easy triple

Internal Continuity: The threads this pays off are not insubstantial. Warcraft 1, 2, 3, and a huge swath of WoW itself, and all of this will be significant past this even…

Internal Continuity: …easy…

Internal Continuity: …triple

Visual Storytelling: So much. It’s everywhere, really. Saurfang dual wielding Anduin and Thrall’s weapons, the human king being allowed inside Orgrimmar while carrying the body, the glance…

Visual Storytelling: …easy…

Visual Storytelling: …triple

Theme: United we stand…

Theme: …the old soldier…

Theme: …and true victory is not necessarily in battle

Plot: This is a sea change for the entire setting. Truly, finally, and (as of writing) forever the end of the HvA…

Plot: …and setting the stage…

Plot: …for all to come

Moment: I have to give a special bonus positive for that glance. That friggin’ glance is so amazing, it says so much without a single line of dialogue. It serves as the ground-level viewpoint for the Sylvanas loyalists, the sudden and very unpleasant realization of exactly how little she always thought of them. And the significance of this is huge; these people have used her as their identity for YEARS now, and it was always a lie

MSQ: Calia and Lilian reaching out to her for aid

MSQ: The chase for Wrathion and acknowledgement of his actions

MSQ: The quest for the green dragonflight shard and the follow through on the tiny sliver of the void left in the Dream

World Building: Kul Tiran rich. The nobility is better than it could be, but still definitely nobles, and it says a lot about Kul Tiran society the divides, especially considering…

World Building: Kul Tiran poor, the more working class who keep the port moving and who kind of don’t question anything. This is part of the greater world building around Kul Tiras; they are super stuck in the past, circa Warcraft 2 to be precise, and the world has long since moved on past them

World Building: Tortollans, weirdly enough. Their ancient culture is just the right amount of old without being irritating, and the way they handle artifacts, knowledge, stories, and scrolls is great

World Building: Pirates! No, seriously, the pirates are weirdly well fleshed out here and we actually see them do something with them for once

World Building: The Tidesages. There’s a lot of thought and depth that goes into these people, their connection to the sea, and how that can be subverted, as well as hints and details of decades of culture…

World Building: …easy double

World Building: Zandalari, the dying empire. There’s… so much done here I have trouble summarizing it, but we really really sink our teeth into the Zandalari people

World Building: They refuse slavery (only the weak employ slaves) they have a friggin’ zoo (for ‘lesser’ tribes), they are deliberately stagnant (status quo is king), and the whole empire sits on the backs of the past

World Building: The Vulpera, the Sethrak, and the Exiles (and Blood Trolls) are all further indicators of just how rotten Zandalar has really become

Voice Acting: Nathanos Blightcaller. I hate his guts but man he nails it

Voice Acting: Sylvanas, for basically the same reason. She is a wonderful villain

Voice Acting: Anduin! He’s always been good, but he gets a lot of time to shine here

Voice Acting: Jaina Proudmoore, ditto honestly. This is one of her bigger expansions (and it helps that she’s an actual character this time)

Voice Acting: The Tortollans, in general. It’d be so easy for them to sound irritating, but no

Voice Acting: The Kul Tirans! No, seriously, the accents are fantastic. In fact you can tell where someone’s from just based on their accent

Voice Acting: The Zandalari! A wonderful mix of troll and a southern african style

Voice Acting: Bwonsamdi gets his own mention because of course he does

Voice Acting: Gazlowe is amazing as he always is

Voice Acting: Varok doesn’t get time to shine until later but he nails every scene he speaks in

Voice Acting: Azshara is sort of perfect as a villainous voice

Voice Acting: General quality across the board. Lots and lots and lots of side characters get voiced in this one…

Voice Acting: …for an easy…

Voice Acting: …triple for supporting cast

Character: Nathanos. Yes, really, the man is so pathetic and simps so hard for Sylvanas and it’s awful

Character: Sylvanas, again. The villain who just does not care past causing as much death as possible

Character: Flynn and Taelia make a fantastic duo (especially against Ashvane)

Character: Brother Pike deserves his own mention. A true believer and, frankly, a crusader

Character: Lucille Waycrest is weirdly engaging for how little screen time she gets in Drustvar

Character: Zul! Good lord. He only gets like five sequences but each one is pure gold

Character: Talanji. She’s pragmatic, progressive, and fantastic

Character: Rastakhan is such a weirdly fascinating character. They did a great job for someone who’s been a part of Warcraft lore for years now, he is just as smart as he is stupid. Short sighted and desperate, but also thinking long term and legitimately cares about his people… and yet so stuck in his desire to stagnate that he just keeps falling behind

Character: Bwonsamdi. “Creepy Good” as it’s referred to, he is just amazing in every scene he’s in

Character: Zelling. A Tidesage (so already pragmatic), and a very zoomed in perspective on the plight of the Forsaken

Character: Gazlowe is just kind of awesome. Actually cares about his people and gets quality and results as a consequence

Character: Varok Saurfang. Sadly a chunk of his story isn’t in the game, but what is is amazing

Foreshadowing: The Tauren Heritage quest is probably the single best bit of Shadowlands foreshadowing in all of BFA

Prime Opt: There’s a general humorous vibe to the Gnomish Heritage quest that I rather appreciate

Prime Opt: I also like the continuity, smaller stakes, and characters

Spritework: Gnomish (and I guess Tauren) Heritage armor. But mainly gnomish!

Prime Opt: Goblin Heritage is one part explosive, one part silly, one part horror…

Prime Opt: …and all parts awesome

Visual Storytelling: The Dream slowly bleeding out into the dream of Gilneas

Prime Opt: Tess’ journey through the worgen curse is fascinating and honestly quite personal. We see exactly what it’s like being both gilnean and worgen in a very zoomed in way

Prime Opt: Recruiting the dragonflights. Each of these are relatively simple, short affairs but as a whole the entire chain is pretty cool. It’s nice to see the flights involved again

MSQ: Lorewalker Cho helping us to find the Mogu (and his usual excellent voice acting and mist shows)

Storytelling Mechanic: N’Zoth talking to us periodically, with his eyes covering the screen

Moment: When N’Zoth first truly reaches out to us and shatters our mind into pieces

MSQ: Good Wrathion stuff in Nefarian’s Lair. Character moment, foreshadowing, legacy

Moment: It’s a bit out of nowhere but… I do actually like Ra sacrificing himself for us. The Keeper who gave up hope giving us hope is just poetic enough to deserve a positive

Visual Storytelling: Azeroth, consumed by void, first thing

Brickwork: The interior of Nyalotha’s first temple…

Brickwork: …the scale, the scope, the colors, the distinction…

Lighting: …the lighting! A wonderful combination of very dark blue and burning red

Visual Storytelling: The literal brickwork of Nyalotha’s temples. Flesh carved in the shape of stone

Atmosphere: Nyalotha, of course. My goodness

Writing: The overall goal and purpose of N’Zoth, and all Void; to make all like itself

World Building: The Black Empire, ultimately, containing just a few true individuals in it… everything, everywhere, is just the flesh of the old gods, down to the very ground

Moment: The final death of N’Zoth. All the Azerite we’ve been gathering, allowing us to serve as a focusing lens for the Reorigination Beam…

Moment: …and the final step forward for the Horde. Finally walking away from having a Warchief, and moving into the Horde Council

Cutscene: So, of course the Shadowlands cinematic looks amazing. I’d be silly if I said anything else

Sound Design: And the sound design, alone, deserves mention for being fantastic

Visual Storytelling: Quite a bit actually, for what it’s worth. His color changing from his (red) to the undeath (blue), his shock at her starting to destroy the helm (as he expected her to claim it), his big slow attacks (Bolvar was never a fighter like Arthas), her holding the helm like Arthas did, her having to unleash her full power just to shatter the helm, the shattered mirror of Azeroth…

Visual Storytelling: …some damned good stuff here…

Visual Storytelling: …an easy triple

Moment: And, even though it’s not followed up on at all, the shattering into the inverted Icecrown Citadel is a great moment

Doodads: Exile’s Reach, the shore and the nearby woods both…

Doodads: …lots of great design here for such a small area

Brickwork: Exile’s Reach, skybox! The storm in the distance! And of course great usage of the ogre architecture

Music Direction: Exile’s Reach, again. Both sides get lovely remixes of Warcraft 2 music

Foreshadowing: For how simple of a story it is, they do a good job of building it up from basically the very beginning

Visual Storytelling: Lots. The storm, the ogres as rares, the (Maldraxxian) undeath magic early on

Voice Acting: All solid, across the board…

Characters: …from a surprisingly solid supporting cast

Prime Opt: The whole Exile’s Reach arc is very solid. Simple, introductory, and most importantly of all very down to earth (we escalate from Murlocs to Quillboar to Harpies to Ogres, and a single dragon is a major threat) but it all fits together very nicely…

Prime Opt: …great intro zone

Tone: The Maw. The Maw is one of the best, most horrifying Hells I have ever seen in fiction, and all of this is self apparent even our very, very first time here. From the broken, rebar landscape to the crystallized and bleeding soul essence, to the grey and black motif, it’s horrifying…

Tone: …and an easy…

Tone: …triple

Brickwork: The brickwork of the Maw is simple, but very well done

Doodads: And it does so much with its detailing

Pacing: The entire intro sequence (going through the Maw) is very well paced. Starts off with a bang, a rush, and a retreat, with a breather segment before we start to push back, culminating in a frenzied hold the line segment. It’s pretty classic pacing

Moment: The River of Souls is absolutely horrifying. The screams, the blinding white, the souls flying past all yelling about whatever just happened to them. Lost, confused, and in pain

Storytelling Mechanic: Stay Awhile And Listens are back, and are good as usual

Brickwork: Bastion. The geometric architecture, the feather motif everywhere, the rolling fields, the broken cliffs and hills…

Brickwork: …easy…

Brickwork: …triple

Brickwork: Golden fields. Seriously, the color usage here is crazy good

Brickwork: Skybox! The clouds, the feathers, the weather, the portals of anima

Visual Storytelling: Lots. Broken mechs, lingering souls, lingering souls who have lost their identity

Doodads: Feathers! Seriously look around sometime, the feathers are everywhere

Doodads: Stalls and foodstuffs

Plot: The Anima Drought, Kyrian edition. We see constantly in every level of Bastion, microscopic and macro. In addition…

Writing: …there’s a really great story beat here. The way that the people are slowly descending into torment and madness makes perfect sense, and is brilliantly showcased. Imagine all the steps that go into flying a plane somewhere. Now imagine you’re stuck, unable to progress or regress through that process, for two friggin’ years. The sobbing, the deranged, the angry, it all lines up perfectly with this horrible feeling

Visual Storytelling: The quiet horror of people across the assembly line of Bastion. From reflections of theirselves, to indistinct spirits, to all of them looking the same… all Kyrians

MSQ: Purity’s Pinnacle, and the showcasing of what the Bastion is all about

MSQ: After lots of establishment of how things operate and how bad things have gotten, and upsetting the status quo

Atmosphere: The awful horror of what the Kyrians really are; a good idea taken to an extreme

MSQ: Maldraxxi invasion and slanting, but also logical in hindsight

Brickwork: Necrotic Wake. A ruined and smashed temple with Maldraxxi anima all over it

MSQ: Maldraxxus intro. You land RIGHT into the battle arena, and when you jump into it you get a bunch of quick, dirty, and well written exposition on exactly what’s going on here. The nature of Maldraxxus (fight for glory and honor, cull the weak), the reason for the previous attack (two houses stand against the other), and the civil war that is now the backdrop of the zone

Animation: As usual, the Afterlives vignette is very well animated…

Animation: …and pretty much defaults to a double positive therefore

Brickwork: Maldraxxus, general and architecture. The coloring, the spires and bone

Spritework: The lich motif. I’m sorry, the liches look SO COOL in Shadowlands

MSQ: Helping Vashj gain vengeance, and leaning about the Houses and Maldraxxus in general

MSQ: Marileth’s chain is a weird combination of tragic and wholesome and he manages to be awesome the entire time

Character: Maldraxxus, supporting cast. Several weirdly memorable characters this time around

Brickwork: So, Ardenweald. One of the best looking zones in the entire game. Let’s start by talking about the floor textures. There’s this wonderful work done to make it look like we’re constantly walking on the top of a very tall tree, basically what Teldrassil was probably supposed to look like, with juts of bark and branch here and there, usually pouring glowing water out into the fields…

Brickwork: …so that’s a double

Brickwork: Or should I say Grasswork. The grass layering here is legit, with blues and greens and dirt and bulbs of flowers and just… really, really well done styling…

Brickwork: …for another double

Brickwork: Then there’s the visuals that all scream ‘living, magical forest’. The glowing petals, the curved branches and leaves, the circular patterns (mimicking the Dream from Legion), the spiral trees, and all of it serves as wonderful contrast…

Brickwork: …for the dead areas, which have blowing leaves, dust storms, and much drier and dead grass

Doodads: So the water, by itself, deserves mention for doodad design. Reeds, bioluminescent flowers, lilies, it’s great stuff

Doodads: Then there’s the stuff on the roads! Ropes of magical, flowing anima, charms, stylized signposts made of shaped tree bark

Brickwork: Did I mention the skybox? The stars flicker in and out, and you can see constellations that also are found in the roaming wildlife

Brickwork: Hibernal Hollow by itself deserves mention, for being just a wonderful showcasing of ‘sanctuary’. The whole area looks as peaceful and fantastical as it can, with a heavy water motif and a light blue glow over everything

MSQ: Early quests in Ardenweald showcase tone; positively inclined fae

MSQ: Then, silly goofy antics…

MSQ: …then, the drought, and the reality of it…

Visual Storytelling: …WHILE we go from the beatific forest to a dead autumn husk

Music Direction: Ardenweald, peaceful music (and great renditions of Night Elven and Dream songs)

Music Direction: Ardenweald, horror (dreadful, terrifying, and dead)

Dialogue: Ardenweald has some really solid dialogue choices, most especially for the ‘ents’ who have a completely different speech pattern than anything else

Foreshadowing: The final wildseed is built up pretty well across the MSQ

Pacing: Ardenweald actually has really solid pacing. Intro segment is peaceful, then it becomes gloomy, then we have to deal with problems, then another breather section, then everything goes to hell, and so on

Character: Ardenweald has, as usual, a solid supporting cast

MSQ: The Heartwood Grove (which we passed earlier) we finally go into… and it’s a MESS.

Secondary: The desperation of the Crumbled Ridge

Plot: The drought, and the personal perspective. This is even better emphasized by the cutscene I’m about to rate, but the whole zone gives us a very in-person viewpoint on everything happening, while never losing the impact and significance of the greater events

Animation: Excellent animation, as always…

Animation: …an easy double

Visual Storytelling: The Queen says nothing, the contrast between bountiful and drought, the savagery of Ara’lon in comparison to Ursoc

Internal Continuity: Ursoc… and the Legion. And the part that makes this hit so hard is we did that, WE killed Ursoc

Music Direction: Of course the music works perfectly for it

Cutscene: So this is a general category to give this to, but this is that perspective thing again. Ara’lon is just one person, tending one seed… someone we, the players, know, and thus we see that micro and macro once more. The whole of the forest rotting and desiccating around them, and the (permanent) death of Ursoc in sacrifice to sustain it…

Cutscene: …powerful damned stuff…

Cutscene: …and an easy triple

Dialogue: Also plus to the Stewards dialogue (their sentence structure is based on sign language!)

Spritework: Earthen heritage sets (all three of them) are REALLY good

MSQ: The final walk with Ysera’s… corpse… is exactly as powerful as it needs to be. It’s a perfect culmination of the zone and, in many ways, of the drought itself. So many people try so hard to save but one life; significant, to us (the character… WE killed her), significant to the player (should they choose), and significant to the Ardenweald (they have already lost so many, they cannot bear to lose one more). During the walk…

Music Direction: …we get a custom song…

Visual Storytelling: …and throngs of people joining us on our march to beseech the Queen

Cutscene: And then the people beg her favor. And though she has naught to give, she grants from herself…

Visual Storytelling: …visibly wilting from the effort

Visual Storytelling: The first sight of Revendreth… a graveyard, ruins, and a castle wrought in bloodied fog

MSQ: Graveyard, tour, escort by the local heraldry on behalf of the Eternal One, aaand then flung immediately into the Mire

Theme: Stone; not truly permanent. It looks permanent, it may even feel it, but over time it wears down… and this is how Revendreth operates (people slowly rehabilitating themselves) and this is how the whole zone reflects its master; He who believes himself wrought in stone, worn down by time

MSQ: Revendreth keeps firing on all cylinders; Immediately after escaping the Mire we’re tossed into insight into the rebels from the outside, and see just how bad things have gotten with the tithing

Atmosphere: And I’m sorry I have to comment on this. The poor are being taxed to worse-than-death while the rich sip anima. This is a special evil I struggle to elucidate upon

Visual Storytelling: Castle in the center (visible from everywhere), statues with visible anima wasted on decor, ruined stone worn down

Secondary: I do love how, when we gather tithe from the people, we see all walks of said people. Some willingly give so others don’t have to, some refuse to hinder their charges, some immediately and without question drain their charges (damning them to the Maw), it’s great… and horrible

Brickwork: Architecture! I mean come on, castlevania vibes aplenty…

Brickwork: …easy double

Brickwork: The Mire serves as its own uniquely awful biome

Brickwork: The Ember Ward must get mention for being even worse than everywhere else. The ash rising up from the ground, the blackened and blasted terrain…

Brickwork: …another easy double

Doodads: Towns in general

Doodads: Everywhere else

Visual Storytelling: Revendreth ruins! This place is falling apart, and it shows

Character: Revendreth! (Chamberlain, the dredgers, Nadjia, Theotar, the Accuser, Renethal)

Secondary: Nadjia, Dredgers, and beasts oh my

MSQ: Theotar and Ember Ward. Everything about this sequence is essentially perfect…

MSQ: …an equal amount charming and horrifying

Atmosphere: Ember Ward and the open door. The elevator leading out is wide open and working, buuut at the very top the light is SO concentrated it will instantly kill you. So, suffer in the ward, or escape and perish. Your choice

Animation: Our third vignette for Shadowlands; Revendreth. This is, as usual, extremely well animated…

Animation: …earning the usual double positive

Voice Acting: Ray Chase absolutely nails it here

Tone: Horror. The horror of what’s being shown is hard to over-emphasize

Visual Storytelling: The Venthyr who skipped on tithes… not for his own selfish purposes, but to feed the starving and homeless…

Cutscene: …who is then cast into the Ember Ward to burn for his ‘crime’

MSQ: The Theatre segment at the beginning of the Ardenweald campaign is exactly what it needs to be. A refresher (for new players and old), an informer (for Ysera, who missed most of this), and a good insight into how horrible it all really has been…

Humor: …with a few well positioned jokes along the way

Moment: And Ysera… poor Ysera. My goodness she has been through a lot

Moment: Okay, you got me, rescuing the night elves in the Ardenweald campaign is a nice moment

Brickwork: De Other Side! The paint, the brick, the different dimensions…

Brickwork: …great stuff

Prime Opt: Millhouse and Millie deserve special mention for their boss fight

MSQ: Thiernax and Qadarin do some really good quick and early exposition, and a lot of generally good writing around them

Moment: Alexstrasza held onto the keepsake from Ysera, which is just extraordinarily touching

MSQ: I’ll give you this, dealing with Bwonsamdi to rescue Loa alongside Voljin from the Maw is a great sequence

Moment: Mograine gets a moment to reflect on himself, and the nature of the FOUR afterlives.

MSQ: Maldraxxus… and Bastion working together. It’s not much, but it adds to the connectivity and vibe of the campaign

MSQ: Revendreth initial. Having to approach each lord differently is nice, seeing how differently Renethal approaches them is interesting. Surprisingly smart dialogue in general

MSQ: The Countess quests. These are fantastic. The infighting, the variety of nobles doing their own things for their own reasons. It’s well written courtly intrigue…

MSQ: …and I’m here for it

MSQ: The Curator’s quests. These are a bit sad, but shine a light on the level of backbiting Revendreth faces in the wake of the loss of its ruler…

MSQ: …another double

MSQ: The cleansing of Kael’Thas from the abject horror Denathrius subjected him to. This is legitimately horrifying to think about

MSQ: Empowering the disenfranchised and the poor to rebel against the remnants of Denathrius’ reign, and establishing a republic instead of a dictatorship in Revendreth. Good moments, good progression, generally pretty solid

MSQ: Ben. The setup and build up are honestly very good…

MSQ: …and the tension just keeps ramping up, as we KNOW there’s a bomb under the table (metaphorically)

Moment: The horror of what the mechanisms of death being broken REALLY means on a very personal, individual level. It’s a shame this comes so late or else it’d be even better

Brickwork: So, hey, the Spires of Ascension is absolutely gorgeous…

Brickwork: …for an easy…

Brickwork: …triple

Doodads: …plus great doodad utilization…

Doodads: …across the board

Music Direction: Spires of Ascension, again. It’s just perfect for what they’re going for here

Animation: Some really, really good animation in Uther’s vignette…

Animation: …so that’s…

Animation: …an easy triple

Voice Acting: Michael McConnohie has always been a great actor, but he really does absolutely nail the subtleties necessary for the pain he’s experiencing here…

Voice Acting: …double for that

Writing: The significance of the right AND wrong of the Kyrian way

Writing: The significance to Uther and his blind hurt…

External Continuity: …the followthrough of Warcraft 3

Writing: And the tragedy of vengeance

MSQ: The foray into Revendreth with Kaelia and Pelagos is just the right amount of funny and serious

Spritework: Covenant suits. Enough there to warrant it across them (special mention to plate and mail Maldraxxus, and all of Bastion)

Spritework: Sepulchre has weirdly good stylings to it across several classes

Spritework: Weapons. A lot of these are in Nathria and Domination but it still counts

MSQ: I love how they make the Countess intimidating yet reasonable as we deal with her as both Revendreth and Bastion

MSQ: Damn. The build up to Willowblossom’s sacrifice is exceptionally well written and foreshadowed…

MSQ: …and we spend almost the entire time just having… fun. Doing little light hearted little activities. All so their final day is an enjoyable one…

Moment: …before they are gone forever

Theme: Choice. So much of Shadowlands’ overall theme is about choice, and how many people don’t have it

Cutscene: I really, really like Anduin and Sylvanas’ scenes. The first one does a LOT of legwork in establishing who and what Sylvanas really is; her motives, her perspectives, her pain…

Cutscene: …easy double

Animation: Sylvanas. I actually type up more thoughts on this later but you can really see the nuance and details in her presentation here

Character: Sylvanas. Yes, really. All masks dropped, all hesitation removed. She starts off doing the typical villainy game and then moves on to try to, legitimately, convince Anduin of the validity of her side. This is fascinating in its own right, because this is really all about her own internal struggle. All the wonderful, terrible things she’s done all to fix a horrifically broken system that she hates and was permanently scarred by. And all of this is, of course, completely ruined by the Jailer, but her own part of it is still fantastic

Animation: The facial acting alone deserves this. It’s crazy how much characterization Sylvanas gets just in how aggrieved she is, how painful this is to her

Voice Acting: Anduin and Sylvanas’ verbal sparring is essentially perfect

Cutscene: This is functionally a bonus positive but it deserves it. These scenes are, frankly, fantastic

Brickwork: Castle Nathria. I know it’s Castlevania, and I don’t care, because it’s very well done…

Brickwork: …easy double

Prime Opt: Sanguine Depths, and breaking Z’Rali out

Prime Opt: Halls of Atonement, general

Prime Opt: Theater of Pain and crawling up the ranks

Visual Storytelling: Plaguefall. You really get the idea of this entire area

Prime Opt: Plaguefall and the tragedy of its victims is just as morose as it should be…

Prime Opt: …easy double

Brickwork: Tazavesh, general

Brickwork: Tazavesh, market

Brickwork: Tazavesh, club (love the club)

Doodads: Tazavesh has absolutely bonkers doodad visuals…

Doodads: …with stuff and characters from all over the place…

Doodads: …easy triple

NPC Set Dressing: Love the people roaming about too (especially in the market)

Storyboarding: Battle for Ardenweald finale cutscene. Of COURSE it’s well animated as Tyrande and Sylvanas fight

Voice Acting: Tyrande and Sylvanas both kinda nail it here

MSQ: Okay I can’t believe it. Somehow Moonberry is just kind of legit as a therapist (y’know, Revendreth’s real purpose) in the middle of an otherwise AWFUL quest chain. Moonberry is absolutely delightful, both in Revendreth and when she profers her flower crown to the Stonewright

Voice Acting: I HAVE to give credit to Tyrande’s actress during the Night Warrior chain. She absofrickinlutely nails it

External Continuity: Uther’s coronation and the Purging of Stratholme

MSQ: Uther’s pain at these events is palpable, but while this is all about the Bastion changing their ways and the afterlives fixing themselves…

Character: …ultimately this is just about Uther. Whether he could have ever saved Arthas is totally irrelevant, what matters to Uther is that he did not even try. And it is that guilt that laid hidden behind all his pain that we help him to face and process

Plot: Genuine, lasting change to Bastion…

Plot: …and an honest to goodness epilogue

Brickwork: Torghast, and the Sanctum of Domination. It’s honestly crazy how well designed this is…

Brickwork: …an easy…

Brickwork: …triple

Music Direction: Lovely music too, my goodness

Cutscene: So, hear me out. There’s some very, very stupid parts of this scene, but it also does several things very, very right. In many ways it’s a perfect encapsulation of Sylvanas as a character. Her hesitance (the glance at Anduin), her reaction to ‘serve’, her unhesitating act of defiance, and the implications of her having a split soul. I won’t zoom in on this one but it’s still a great character moment…

Cutscene: …and deserves its positives

World Building: Okay so, I’ll give you this, even though it doesn’t work FOR WARCRAFT, a lot of the afterlives have good world building. Kyrians and their soul binding, memory erasure, and the concept of Service

World Building: Ardenweald and the cycle of life and rebirth, as well as a careful management of anima

World Building: Revendreth, the good. The very concept of a place devoted to helping souls slowly but surely repent after death is actually awesome

World Building: Revendreth, the bad. Similarly the very concept of this place being converted into a den of sin and horror works neatly and really adds to how awful this place really is

Voice Acting: Of course there’s tons of amazing voice acting. The supporting cast in general…

Voice Acting: …deserves…

Voice Acting: …a triple

Voice Acting: Special mention to Ve’nari, love her actress

Voice Acting: Niya is weirdly good for her sections

Voice Acting: Revendreth has just great characters across the board

Voice Acting: Denathrius deserves his own mention too

Character: Despite everything, I like a lot of characters this expansion. Kleia, and her slow but steady journey to help redeem and restore Bastion

Character: Pelagos, and his everyman perspective on things

Character: Ve’nari, of course. The amoral ruthless merchant who never betrays us and goes out of her way to keep us happy (so we keep HER happy)

Character: Denathrius, ego incarnate. It takes something to rival Azshara but here we are

Character: The Accuser! I love The Accuser, she’s honestly one of my favorite venthyr

Character: Too many supporting characters to list across the endgame zones

Moment: First walking into Zereth Mortis. I have issues with this place, visuals are not one of them, and they knew exactly what they were doing in how they framed our first shot of this place

Brickwork: The water! It’s not droplets, it’s patterns

Brickwork: The sky! Literal fractals making up the light

Brickwork: Despite how much I dislike it, Zereth Mortis is truly brilliant. The objects, the math, the patterns, it’s legitimately brilliant…

Brickwork: …easy…

Brickwork: …triple

Visual Storytelling: I must also mention that the enemies, characters, terrain, doodads, all of Zereth Mortis gets across the idea of what this place is

Character: Firim, weirdly enough. Dude’s legit consistently

Cutscene: Patty Mattison sort of frickin’ nails Sylvanas in the split soul scene. It’s hard enough to have to voice two people arguing with each other, but she absolutely nails the pain and horror

Visual Storytelling: The recycling chasm, the tomb world filled with dust, the massive craftworks of the genesis cradle

Brickwork: The Sepulchre. This place is wonderfully alien

Cutscene: The spectacle of the Anduin fight is… really, really legit

Moment: Anduin breaking free with the memory of Varok and his father

MSQ: Anduin’s pain and anguish is so, so well portrayed in the creation of the Crown of Wills

Cutscene: Yeah okay I’ll give it to ya game. Pelagos becoming the Arbiter is legit

Animation: As we finally start to see the really good animation in the in-gameplay cutscenes, it has to be mentioned. Even here, at the very beginning, these are legit

Cutscene: Tyrande’s sentencing of Sylvanas; Absolutely right call, for all the wrong reasons

Cutscene: SAWAL, the sisters Windrunner in the wake of her sentencing

Cutscene: SAWAL, Lor’themar, Baine, and Graymane

Cutscene: SAWAL, Bolvar and Darion… and the implications of Scourge Warlords

Prime Opt: Our first Scourge Warlord in the Blood Elf Heritage follow up…

Internal Continuity: …and the continuation of several elven threads (including Salandria)

Prime Opt: The Reclamation of Lordaeron! Aside from Belmont (sigh) we get the return of Velonara and Faranell, and of course the always awesome Lilian, as well as Calia. Faranell is delightful, Merelith is amazing, the entire arc is a great capstone to the events that kicked off BFA (ironically) and a way to wrap this particular issue up…

Prime Opt: …double positive

Plot: The formation of the Desolate Council and finally, finally, making the real Forsaken instead of a cult of personality under Sylvanas

Cutscene: Calia and Lilian’s cutscene is damned good stuff. Calia’s fears and pain, Lilian’s sympathy and empathy, and the two confirming that they are part of the Forsaken… the real Forsaken…

Cutscene: …easy double

Animation: Sylvanas and Anduin have one, very very last cutscene at the very end together. She is roaming the Maw, freeing souls, when he finds her. Their animations are essentially perfect, conveying so much in their conversation…

Voice Acting: …bolstered by both actors absolutely nailing it

Cutscene: The significance of the scene isn’t lost on me either. Of course Anduin goes to her, someone who directly and personally understands what he’s going through. His fears about himself and his identity, suffering from the knowledge of what he could become (and what part of her HAD become), all while admitting to the doubt that is eating at him (and is preventing him from even TRYING to use the Light, a magic channeled by faith)…

Cutscene: …fantastic stuff

Brickwork: Throne of Tides. This is our one real glimpse into the Plane of Water, and they do some beautiful stuff with it

Animation: The Watchers and their Titan-esque movements, very stone-like

Visual Storytelling: Near total absence of dialogue, everything is conveyed visually. The broken stone giants, the flowers blooming

Visual Storytelling: His determination, his directive, driving him as his body was literally breaking down

Moment: When he does it, he falls… and is at peace, having accomplished all he set out to do

Moment: And then she catches him. It wasn’t all for nothing…

Atmosphere: And then the rest of it just enthuses. The entire trailer has been slogging, crawling, bleeding and broken out of a pit, but now it is nothing but joy. The visuals, audio, storyboarding, all comes together to radiate this feeling…

Atmosphere: …an easy…

Atmosphere: …triple

Theme: And it’s all about the significance of it. No big bad, no threat of the week, just people overcoming adversity together, which Warcraft has been about since Warcraft 3

Music Direction: I mean of course

Animation: I mean, yeah. The close up shots really get this across too, but between the dragons themselves and their riders…

Animation: …easy double

Visual Storyteling: HvA is OVER. Everything about this indicates this. The dwarf and troll, how they interact with each other, the friendly rivalry, flying together in the sky. Great stuff

Cutscene: The shots of the Green Flight and the devastated forest, the dwarf and troll fleeing Razageth (who even looks impressive here), the showcasing of the Evoker and the dracthyr, the two cheering at each other, the look of wonder at Alexstrasza’s arrival, Alexstraza restoring the forest with her flame… all of this is crazy good looking…

Cutscene: …an easy…

Cutscene: …triple, but also…

Theme: …really on point for that wonderful Dragonflight theme again. Love it

Atmosphere: The general atmosphere of the first handful of quests really quickly and efficiently gets across the vibe here. Exploration! There’s no big threat, no real issue to solve, just a new place to go check out

Cutscene: SAWAL, Stormwind docks. Turalyon ingratiating himself into Stormwind command structure, Anduin is still missing, Greymane has had time to chill a bit, we find out how much time has passed

Intro: Great new intro for new players, narratively. Real effort is put into quick and well written summaries of relevant events as they become relevant

Writing: Smart exposition in the Dracthyr opening

MSQ: The Forbidden Reach. Character, establishment, mystery, all very densely done

Cutscene: Good indication and implication in cutscenes too

Voice Acting: Love how these characters handle the mess that is their abrupt awakening

Character: And great supporting cast

Dialogue: Forbidden Reach, Dracthyr version. Already some tight dialogue and writing here

NPC Set Dressing: Lots. People gathered having just evacuated, recovering from the spores, fighting against oncoming forces, prepping for evacuation, lots of good stuff here

MSQ: Razageth’s release as a regional threat, and our evacuation. While I have issues with Razageth and the Primalists in general, I do rather enjoy how much of a threat they are to the dracthyr here, now. And our flight makes perfect sense

Spritework: Good lord, the Warrior stuff is just fire this time around. Really great sets…

Spritework: …for a double

Spritework: Also plate gear in general is just strangely good…

Spritework: …for a double

Spritework: …and mail…

Spritework: …and cloth…

Spritework: …and leather!

Spritework: Paladin also manages to just kind of nail the templar look…

Spritework: …for two positives

Spritework: Generally decent Rogue stuff

Spritework: Priest is absolute fire this time around. This is some of the best stuff they’ve ever had…

Spritework: …easy…

Spritework: …triple

Spritework: Love the Shaman stuff too

Spritework: Honestly the Mage stuff is a bit lacking compared to previous expansions, but it’s still good

Spritework: Warlock stuff is strangely good

Spritework: Ditto for Evoker

Cutscene: SAWAL, Lor’themar and Thalyssra, their dynamic, and their happiness

Cutscene: SAWAL, Baine and Mayla… talking of Anduin, and little character for Greymane

Storytelling Mechanic: SAWAL mechanically. Hear me out; These are essentially perfect. They are well indicated, well constructed, voice acted, optional, and repeatable…

Storytelling Mechanic: …enjoy…

Storytelling Mechanic: …the triple

Cutscene: I actually rather like the cutscene leading into the campaign proper. Good voice acting, storyboarding, animation… all the usuals, but also good character moment for Khadgar, nice continuity with the window…

Cutscene: …so that’s already a double, but then…

Writing: Natural and smooth exposition of who the Incarnates are, and a wonderfully natural mention of Iridikron (our first introduction of him)

Brickwork: Skyboxes for Dragonflight. They’ve been good for a while, but we’re really starting to peak in what kind of awesome visuals these have and how much they add to the zones…

Brickwork: …easy…

Brickwork: …triple

Cutscene: Actually showing Galakrond on camera, and how the Aspects would eventually overcome him

Animation: And of course the artistry of of the first vignette is fantastic

Writing: Very good, specific dialogue choices here

Animation: Of course the second vignette still has good animation and artistry

Cutscene: Once again, showing story that’s often absent and hidden in Warcraft lore; the creation of the Demon Soul, his betrayal, and his conclusion at the end of Cataclysm…

Cutscene: …easy double

Brickwork: Waking Shores, beach. Craggy rocks, blasted foliage, lava flows, great stuff…

Brickwork: …easy double

Doodads: Also love all the lovely placements, both with the camps and the protodrake nests

Doodads: Waking Shores, Wingrest Embassy. This place is absolutely dripping doodad design, it’s fantastic. There’s so many details here I struggle to recite them…

Doodads: …so just enjoy that double, but they’re also complimented by…

NPC Set Dressing: …the NPCs everywhere, doing their little things, interacting with each other, the vibe of the expedition is everywhere…

NPC Set Dressing: …love it

Secondary: Waking Shores, Wingrest Embassy. Some good introduction quests here, quickly establishing the tone and characters

Secondary: Waking Shores, Wetlands ecologist chain. I love this side chain. The two lovers and their attempt to fix the very local, small scale issue had me really invested in them and their efforts

Brickwork: Waking Shores, wilds. This area is technically a ‘badlands’ area but it’s absolutely overgrown with greenery and life, and it really does look like ‘wilds’ to me. The spires, the canyons, the ruins, the rivers…

Brickwork: …it’s…

Brickwork: …top notch…

Doodads: …and filled with great doodad design

MSQ: Wrathion losing his cool when his home is attacked (very in character), and Sendrax’s final quest chain (of course she lays down her life to save a child)

Brickwork: Ruby Life Pools. The layout, the colossal pit with the structures on the walls, the egg creches

Doodads: Really great doodad design here too. Tons of trees, flowers, bushes, grass design, workshops, craft areas…

Doodads: …easy double, but then…

NPC Set Dressing: …it’s all tended by a huge variety of people going about their business, taking care of their and theirs…

NPC Set Dressing: …easy double

Visual Storytelling: The eggs, and the cross-flights. The Blue flight has a few eggs, the Black has NONE. And the others? Overflowing

Secondary: Veritistrasz’s first quest. This quest is famous for a reason, and it’s because it’s such a powerful and personal look at events that have been part of the lore for a very long time, told simply and properly by someone who’s just… tired…

Secondary: …easy double

Secondary: Duroz, Kolgar, and the echoes of the Dragonmaw. This Orc, now well past his prime and dying of old age, wants simply to sit by the pools in the final days of his life. He washes his hands, but cannot remove the stains… and yet, despite his disappointment at how easily accepted he is, despite the guilt that he cannot rid himself of, a tiny ruby whelpling curls up to his leg and sleeps, peacefully, knowing he means it no harm…

Secondary: …easy double

Writing: These two side quests, almost back to back in placement, are scarily well written. So much so I felt I had to notate it separately. This is the beginning of Modern WoW Storytelling, right here, and I am HERE for it

Secondary: Happy Duck and Lucky Duck. Jesus Christ, having this quest right alongside these two heavies was brilliant. You run around helping a whelpling rebuild her plushie duck. Yes, please

Secondary: Akora, Keshki, and the song of life from the long-dead ruby dragon

Music Direction: The Waking Shores, especially the Life Pools

Secondary: General (elemental disagreements, rearing, tending, gardening)…

Secondary: …great stuff

Brickwork: The Flashfrost Assault. Great shot that does a great job of indicating what the Primalists really want

Cutscene: Storyboarding with the fight between Raszageth and Alexstrasza. I don’t like this cutscene, but I do like this fight

Cutscene: Wrathion’s argument with Alexstrasza. It’s a great example of character for both; Even on the back foot

Cutscene: Of course Neltharion would use a control chip on his loyal and diligent soldiers. Of COURSE he would. And of course the moment he loses that control he would seal them away. Christ that’s so in character it hurts

Foreshadowing: The buildup for…

Moment: …the return of Sabellion

MSQ: The reclamation of the fortress and the rebuilding of the Oathstone of the Black Flight

MSQ: Wrathion and Sabellian squabbling as we escort the eggs is hilarious, but also ultimately very in character for everyone involved (Sabellian is too focused on legacy, and fumbles at diplomacy. Wrathion is a child, who can’t stand his pride pricked. And Alexstrasza isn’t putting up with any of it)

Foreshadowing: Early Azerothian energy hints

Secondary: Cooking with dracthyr… and goblins… and nightborne… and zandalari!

Secondary: Photography quests. Delightful little things, and well written

Secondary: Bob the proto whelp, and the Kickoff Initiative for Dragonscale Scholars

Characters: Waking Shores. So, so many memorable, fun, interesting, well written characters here…

Characters: …easy double

Doodads: Timberstep Outpost! So many good doodads

Secondary: Timberstep Outpost, and establishing the centaurs. We learn about their hunts, their plentiful lifestyle, and of course their association with good dogs

Music Direction: Ohn’ahran Plains! Wonderful plains music (of course, I guess)

Cutscene: The extremely optional cutscene of the caravan leading to Maruukai is a fantastic sequence. We get themes here (legacy, of course), world building (culture and history of the Maruuk), and a great way to enjoy the vista. Speaking of which…

Brickwork: …the plains are so, so good. Rolling greens, layers of grass, great river usage, fantastic forests… this entire place is bonkers gorgeous…

Brickwork: …so that’s an easy…

Brickwork: …triple

Doodads: And of course they nail it on the doodads

Doodads: Maruukai, of course. Lovely place, lots of great details, especially accenting…

Brickwork: …the centaur architecture

Secondary: Emberwatch, Neltharion’s legacy, and the Black Locus

NPC Set Dressing: Quite a bit, as per usual for this era of WoW

Background Lore: Random NPC dialogues. Wonderful flavor lore just sitting there in towns and villages

Dialogue: Centaur across the Ohn’ahran Plains

Doodads: Also the forestry and oases! I have to comment on the layers and grass and bushes and flowers

Secondary: Gracus, the ducks, and the cycle of life

MSQ: For all its stumblings, the MSQ does two things very right. First, the Primalists are exactly what they should be; minion-tier local threats. The centaur tribes, plus the beleaguered green dragons, plus us, manage to push them back the moment we unify properly. And frankly, that’s exactly how that should be

MSQ: Second, I like how positively the zone ends, especially given how the rest of the zone ends. And it’s a nice introduction to Merithra (who hasn’t had a lot of screen time to develop yet)

Secondary: Taivan. Trying to be forced into a job he doesn’t want or fit, or being told he’s going to be discarded… all while being the bestest of boys

Moment: Taivan’s reveal of his skills in saving the centaur of the burning village…

Moment: …and Taivan successfully reaching out to Chimei, and successfully breaking the barrier of trauma

Secondary: Theramus, at least 9 years of depression, and facing the loss of a loved one (in Ysera). This is essentially a perfect little quest, from the escalation, to the smart exposition, to the dryads’ and their behavior, to his own grief not being ‘settled’ merely ‘getting better’…

Secondary: …great stuff

Secondary: The Worldbreakers. A fascinating insight into a Naltharion cult, and a wonderful showcasing of what’s become of the Twilight’s Hammer

Secondary: A child and his toy (which is an arcane bomb) and a great way to introduce us to the Tuskaar and the Kirin Tor

Secondary: Glania (the Lightforge who cannot catch a fish) and the Furbolg (who do not speak our language)

Brickwork: Azure Span, forest! Love the grizzly trees and rolling hills

Brickwork: Azure Span, frozen forest! Even better, this time with snow!

Doodads: Camp Antonidas. Ruins plus Kirin Tor equals lots of lovely magical devices

Secondary: Callisto and Steria, and the case of the ley-sick kits

Brickwork: Iskaara. They really did pick this one plop of frozen land to plunk themselves down on didn’t they?

Doodads: It also all perfectly looks very Tuskarr, but also helps showcase how recent of arrivals they really are here…

Doodads: …great stuff

NPC Set Dressing: And of course they’re all fantastic. The kids fishing, the crafters, the storyteller

Secondary: The entire Frostbite chain is a fascinating way to do a quest; It’s at the very end of THEIR story, just the first time we intersect it. It’s well done, and it’s a great showcasing of the idea of the world turning regardless of us

Secondary: The artifact chain and the Nope Cave. A cursed artifact that consumes souls, Tuskarr who are weary of it, another hint of what the Sundered Flame is up to (second time they’re after Titan artifacts specifically), and of course the Nope Cave

NPC Set Dressing: Three Falls Lookout. Love these people, playing Hearthstone or mining or just peering through an eyeglass

Secondary: Three Falls Lookout quests… especially the dwarf hiding the flowers, very wholesome

Secondary: The Hearthstone quest. It could have been awkward, instead it was adorable

Secondary: Good lord. Rannaon’s introduction quest is wonderful in how silly, light hearted, and absolutely tragic it is. It pulls not a single punch and Rannan has to now live with his friend being dead because HE failed…

Secondary: …great stuff

Visual Storytelling: Kalecgos literally spreading himself thin (with his Mirror Images) trying to take care of the Azure Archives all by himself

Brickwork: Azure Archives! Imagine the Crystalsong Forest, but better in every way…

Brickwork: …and you’ve got it

Doodads: Love the trees, the elementals, the details

Music Direction: I love the music choices for the Azure Archives

MSQ: The introduction of Sindragosa 2 and the deep loneliness and sorrow of Kalecgos just kinda hits

MSQ: The wonderful build up to the decay Gnolls

MSQ: Everything about the lead up to the funeral is fantastic…

Moment: …and pays off with an amazing moment. Gral personally coming out to carry the dead onwards, the Ardenweald coding, but most importantly of all how much this impacts Kalecgos, who has lost so much of his family so often and so recently

Plot: Azure Span finally nails the plot element of Dragonflight. Sure, we’re here to reignite the Oathstone, same as in every other zone, but here it’s woven into a much more down to earth, well written, and believable story. The abandoned Archives, the troubled Dracthyr, the friendly Tuskarr, and the troublesome Gnolls. It’s all so wonderfully constructed

Writing: The familiarity of some of the big, named characters

Secondary: Gnoll pup! He’s adorable, hungry, and happens right after we dealt with the gnolls

Secondary: Toejam the Awesome. This absolutely adorable yeti and his desire to help us help the orphaned Tuskarr is wholesome enough for a positive by himself

Story Sequencing: Azure Span. The side quests that unlock after main quests actually works really well here. Small example; Immediately after rescuing survivors from a gnoll raid, we get a side quest to save a gnoll pup and one of the orphans of that raid

MSQ: The charge up against the Primalists is suitably epic and fun and interesting but…

Moment: …the (cliche’d, but good) moment where Senegos swoops in to save Kalecgos just frickin’ nails it

Brickwork: Towers! Wonderful tall, scaley towers, that look just enough like clutches or nests without being too organic. It literally looks like it was carved from the mountain it rests upon

Brickwork: Actual brickwork, that is to say textures. Absolutely amazing design here, nice and rough without being crude

Brickwork: Titan affixes! The nearby Titan architecture is so immediately and visibly different it serves as great contrast

Brickwork: Layers and flow to the entire area. There’s obvious pathways and curves and ‘racing lines’ throughout

Brickwork: Skybox! More specifically, the NPCs roaming the skybox. Those dragon swarms in the distance add a lot visually

NPC Set Dressing: Roaming dragons in the sky and spires also deserve an additional positive for actually roaming up, down, and otherwise perching or taking off or whatever periodically

Doodads: Okay so let’s get this out of the way, this is the second best doodad’d city in the game. So we’ve got the Auction House…

Doodads: …the center courtyard…

Doodads: …the bank (and that wonderful vault!)…

Doodads: …The Roasted Ram, which is one of the best inns in the entire game…

Doodads: …for a full…

Doodads: …triple

NPC Set Dressing: Also I love the NPCs hanging out in the Roasted Ram!

Doodads: The Market! Good lord, the market. The food, the crafts, the tools, the benches, the tents, the furniture, the foliage! It’s another…

Doodads: …easy…

Doodads: …triple

NPC Set Dressing: The Market also has a great selection of NPCs roaming such a small area! They even have dialogue and tidbits as you go through, and clear thought was put into who was where and how (the Troll with the Draenei, the Pandaren and Night Elf and Drakonid, etc.)…

NPC Set Dressing: …easy double

NPC Set Dressing: Backend of the city. Lots and lots and lots of details back here in who and what and where…

NPC Set Dressing: …an easy…

NPC Set Dressing: …triple

Doodads: And of course everything on the back end has tons and tons of amazing doodad design as well…

Doodads: …an easy…

Doodads: …triple

World Building: Food! And Rumiastrasza. (To elaborate; There are a series of quests from Rumiastrasza to sample different foods from different cultures and it always comes with a little bit of world building for said culture)

Secondary: Segallia, Harleen, and the poor harpies. They just wanted to have a seat at the table, but they went about it the worst possible way, so… we had to deal with them

NPC Set Dressing: The Spa! There’s so many little micro stories here

Doodads: The Spa also has lovely doodading supporting it

Secondary: The Spa arc is exactly the type of silly fun it needs to be

Secondary: Venderthvan and the children is actually back in the Azure Span but holy crap it’s a good one. It’s a soldier of the Sundered Flame who’s here to rob a place of artifacts, who finds a bunch of unguarded children who are here because HIS forces are attacking THEIR parents. That goes about how you’d expect, but there’s lots of tiny little details here too, like how he goes from orange to green (and loses his tag) to how quickly he reacts (instinctively) when one of the kids gets hurt…

Secondary: …this is great stuff

Brickwork: Thaldraszus gardens! This feels like a weird one to double up on but I need to mention that this is THE gold standard for grass design. Like, in video gaming, in general…

Brickwork: …so enjoy that double

Brickwork: Temporal Conflux, aka the Bronze area

Brickwork: Tyrhold, aka the Titan area

Secondary: The Gardens of Unity, and helping poor old Grympech

Brickwork: Thaldraszus, mountainous terrain in general. I really, really like these mountains. They’re also the most ‘mountains’ in the game. Looking back at places like Kun-Lai or Highmountain is kind of funny in comparison…

Brickwork: …so enjoy the double

Secondary: Mara and Zuttiki and understanding each other as they cope with the Primalist attack

MSQ: The path of Velomir, a simple surviving soldier, to the betrayal, to the reveal of elemental primalists, to saving the gate, is surprisingly solid

MSQ: Yanked back to your race’s starter zone. It varies based on your species but they do some fun stuff with it

Humor: Azmeroth’s map deserves its own positive

MSQ: For real though, the sheer amount of time and effort put into Azmerloth deserves its own positive

Story Sequencing: The Primalist Future to Azmerloth to three deep lore cuts in a row (Gnoll War, War of the Shifting Sands, and the Pandaren Revolution) to…

MSQ: …the Black Empire

Foreshadowing: N’Zoth speaking to us in the distant past is… fascinating, to say the least. Especially since this means he knew us before we knew him

Cutscene: Chromie and Nozdormu is exactly as wholesome and light hearted as it needed to be

Brickwork: Vault of the Incarnates, a wonderfully designed cave that manages to look elemental without looking boring

Brickwork: The Vault… no the ACTUAL vault, where the last fight looks. A weirdly large amount of work was done into just this room and it deserves mention

Storytelling Mechanic: Load screens! Back and in full force…

Storytelling Mechanic: …easy…

Storytelling Mechanic: …triple

Brickwork: Lifepools! Lovely visuals down here, but also helping to sell the scene

Prime Opt: I’ll give you this, the Lifepools dungeon does a good job of zooming in the threat of the Primalists (since their entire goal is to capture eggs and twist them before they’re even born). This is some of the best characterization the Primalists ever get, and how earnest and heroic-sounding they are as they’re trying to ‘save’ the whelps (by reverting them to animals and occasionally murdering them as a mercy killing) is wonderfully horrific…

Prime Opt: …for a double

Brickwork: Neltharus, of course. We’ll see more like this later in Aberrus

Visual Storytelling: Brackenhide Hollow. The Rot that slowly gets worse the further in we go

Brickwork: Azure Vault is, of course, gorgeous. I really feel like this is what the Nexus should have looked like…

Doodads: …complimented by amazing doodads…

Music Direction: …and great music

Prime Opt: The purpose of the Vault; Exactly what it says on the tin. A location of wild magic, study and repository, sealed away by the War of the Ancients. And we see this throughout, up to and including its final denizen

Brickwork: Halls of Infusion. Titan architecture at its finest

Visual Storytelling: Halls of Infusion, and the pools. The background story element of the Titan-Blessed waters (likely a combination of arcane and life energies) really begins here, and you can see how and why

Music Direction: Halls of Infusion, and its callbacks

Brickwork: Algeth’ar Academy, of course

Doodads: Really great doodad design throughout Algeth’ar too…

Doodads: …easy double

Prime Opt: Nice breath of fresh air and general lightness with Algeth’ar Academy

Secondary: Hudson, Rauvros, and Ranpiata. Happy little accidents…

Prime Opt: Saving Uktulut Backwater… and saving the Chieftain from his grief. This quest is quiet and soft, exactly how it should be, dealing with loss of something personal

Secondary: Chromie dailies. Yes, really, a plus for dailies, shush. These are varied and awesome

MSQ: The initial mystery of Tyr, and additional revelations related thereto. Also our first time (finally) seeing Tyr on camera

Secondary: Hollow. It’s small, just a conversation really, and it doesn’t even conclude it just… ends. But it says all it needs to, and says it well

Cutscene: The planting of the seed in the Dream, and some actual friggin’ character for Tyrande, and good foreshadowing for what is to come…

Cutscene: …solid double

Moment: “I am so tired Malfurion” Holy CRAP an actual, honest character beat for Tyrande. About Goddamned time

Moment: Okay, yeah, I’ll give you it. Merithra seeing Ysera was a good damned moment (lot of these here)

MSQ: A general positive for quality across the Emerald chain. Voice acting, spell effects, quality of dialogue, pacing, and theme

Prime Opt: The implications of Tyr’s experiments and insights into Aspects and dragons

Cutscene: So the opening cutscene for the Incarnates is fantastic characterization for all three. And it’s our lead-up to Sarkareth’s role in the story

Animation: Good animation

Storyboarding: Good fight scenes which help indicate…

Character: …the characterization of all three

Voice Acting: Lovely voice acting too

Cutscene: Emberthal and Sarkareth’s initial confrontation is a masterclass. His refusal to face reality, his desperate clinging to his failing ideals, his inviolate need for purpose. And she shows she is already better than him by being willing to walk away

Animation: Ebyssian and Emberthal. Facial acting, movement…

Music Direction: …music choice…

Voice Acting: …voice acting…

Theme: …core theme of legacy and burden…

Cutscene: This is just… wow. This is great characterization for Ebyssian, and Emberthal. His patience, her fury, and both completely tied up in their legacy… there’s a lot of legacy in Dragonflight, but for the descendants of Neltharion there is nothing good to be found there. And so we see two people’s lives ruined by it, holding each other up in the face of that terrible burden. This is amazing…

Cutscene: …and an easy…

Cutscene: …triple

Internal Continuity: The sheer quality and quantity of callbacks in the Orc Heritage quest are bonkers…

Internal Continuity: …easy double, but not just within WoW…

External Continuity: …but to Warcrafts 1-3 as well

Moment: Shokia. This one surprised me. Someone willingly admitting they were a willing Garrosh supporter, don’t regret it, AND admit they were wrong? That’s a hell of a moment

Writing: The choosing of the Clans is already good…

Writing: …the bravery to offer both Dragonmaw and Warsong, unabashed about their past, is honestly quite brave

Prime Opt: How in God’s name did this quest chain make me sad about cactus apples? The apples themselves are even their level 1 equivalent when you get them

Prime Opt: Earning the blessing of Thunder Ridge tracks so well. The Loa, the seeds, the foreshadowing, the idea that we’re establishing a new tradition that will help terraform Durotar (which is even followed through on in War Within!)

Prime Opt: I need to give a bonus positive for just how much time and effort was spent on the Orc Heritage quest. There are so many tiny details here…

Prime Opt: …for an easy…

Prime Opt: …bonus triple

Spritework: Orc Heritage! Love this stuff

Cutscene: Onyxia summary. Quick, well edited, well showcased summary of the Onyxia chain back in the day

Internal Continuity: Legion callbacks (and… y’know, Vanilla and Cata)

Prime Opt: This is technically an aggregate, but there’s just… a lot of really great quality in the Human Heritage chain. Great character for Shaw, Vanessa, even our new character Cecilia. And acknowledgement of the nobility and their issues in the past

Moment: SAWAL, Shaw and Vanessa. Great moment of acknowledgement (he really was the one who gave the ‘kill VanCleef’ quest back in the day), and how awful a father he really was to Vanessa

Character: Vanessa. They… REALLY do some good stuff with Vanessa here (and Cecilia)

Moment: Okay I’m sorry, Marshal McBride’s naked pride at seeing us again after we’ve become the PC is just awesome

Prime Opt: So, just, wow. The quests, the theme of legacy, the follow-through of Onyxia, the foreshadowing and significance of doubt and the Void. The connections to the Onyxia chain and Windsor and VanCleef, just… wow. Great stuff here…

Prime Opt: …easy…

Prime Opt: …triple

Spritework: Human Heritage is, of course, fantastic

Prime Opt: Followthrough in Saldean. They didn’t have to do this, but if you go to Saldean’s Farm in Westfall you’ll find a bunch of people following through on the Human Heritage, including potential longterm change, and a new purpose in life for Vanessa and Cecilia

Prime Opt: Baine’s arc. This is hard to summarize, and honestly probably could have been a bit longer, but it’s still a banger while it’s here. The callbacks are real (the actual quest names corresponding to Warcraft 3, as well as the same NPCs), and tying in to Tauren history and why they’re a part of the Horde at all, great stuff…

Prime Opt: …easy…

Prime Opt: …triple

Moment: Baine’s charge through the Nokhud in a rage

Moment: The funeral, and moving on. Slowly but surely

MSQ: Rolling up the bugs… and gaining some very personal insights into the Blues, Senegos, and the War of the Ancients

Background Lore: The gravestones of the Blues. Lots of deep cuts here, and horrible reminders of how badly they got smashed by Deathwing

MSQ: The last, lingering memories of Sindragosa and Malygos

MSQ: Sindragosa’s motherly reprimand of Azuregos, Kalecgos and Azuregos’ verbal parrying, and of course when Sindragosa cuts to the heart of the matter Azuregos not only does not deny it, but immediately takes her council

MSQ: The Crystalsong Forest, the tragedy of Shandaral, and the hellscape of the Unbound Thicket…

MSQ: …and Lanigosa, a great insight into modern Blues

MSQ: Haleh, once again, is dedicated to cleaning up dangerous and problematic magical items across Winterspring

MSQ: And I love the simple, down-to-earth approach here. Haleh is dealing with local issues and frustrated because she’s been working nonstop without rest, and Sindragosa 2’s solution is just… go rest for a bit

MSQ: Theramore. Again, Theramore. Surigosa, who acts violently towards violent mages. Azuregos, who has no tolerance or patience. And Kalecgos, determined to do things differently this time. And once again we see the truth of the scar Garrosh left on the world, wrought true in the voice of Turi as she breaks under the grief of it…

MSQ: …easy…

MSQ: …triple

MSQ: Dawn’s Blossom. Kirygosa is a deep cut to begin with, the quest itself involving just helping out around town is fantastic (and how she’s using magic to add to the villagers’ lives), and her being excited about her tiny little house is just heartwarming. All of this is powerful, impacting, and perfect, but…

MSQ: …what really adds to it is the performances. Kalecgos’ pain, Kirygosa feeling at home for the first time (possibly ever), and the wholesome way they still support each other and he offers her the choice…

MSQ: …this is phenomenal top to bottom. It even ends in a hug!

MSQ: While silly and fun, Zeros’ antics in Booty Bay are fantastic. It’s also a great character moment for several characters, an insight into the internal workings of Booty Bay, and some great moments…

MSQ: …another solid…

MSQ: …triple

MSQ: Proper emphasis is placed on the horror of the fates of Sindragosa and Malygos. Quotes, visuals, even the animation of their essences shudder in rage

MSQ: The horror in Sindragosa 2’s voice as she sees what became of her original self, Malygos and Sindragosa letting go at last. This of course leads into…

MSQ: …the final, long-awaited farewell to Senegos. Built up, arguably since Legion, and across the entire chain. His admittance (he could live, if he chose to), his reasoning (his promise to his daughter), his pride (at what we’ve accomplished), all culminating in him choosing to peacefully spread his essence upon the arcane…

Moment: …and so passes Senegos, last of the old, having seen the beginnings of the new

Cutscene: I love how they present Fyrakk here, and we get to see some of the elemental power of the Incarnates on display… but there’s another interesting layer here. Vyranoth is going along with things, and Iridikron is scheming, and he more or less deliberately throws Fyrakk at us. Fyrakk’s reaction is of course, ‘hell yes’, and he just leaps into it. This is more characterization for both, and helps line up things to come…

Cutscene: …and of course the cutscene is amazing on top of everything else

Secondary: The farewell to Shalkeel, first to stand against Fyrakk

MSQ: Early foreshadowing (Wrathion is the first one to hear the voices, the bickering getting noticeably worse between the two, but also honest fondness)

MSQ: Wrathion is of course cognizant enough to recognize Void influence on himself and even outright apologizes for it to us

Character: Zaralek Caverns supporting cast (especially the Niffin)

Secondary: The expedition, and continuation of all their stories. A mechagnome, a goblin, an orc, an elemental, a black dragon, and a red dragon. Hell of a team…

Secondary: …who quickly starts unravelling what Aberrus was really like, and portrays it in wonderfully horrific fashion

Secondary: I have to give special mention to how hard Voraxion takes it all. He’s so obviously been clinging to the idea that only the Old Gods made his people awful… to see what Neltharion was like before shakes him to his core

Visual Storytelling: The dumping grounds are a wonderfully horrible showcasing of what Neltharion was really up to

Voice Acting: The Niffin in general deserve special mention. I’m honestly shocked at how good these sound

Dialogue: And their accents and flavor is fantastic

Tone: Niffin and hellscape. To be clear, this is brilliant. This is the horror zone, where we find the ancient laboratory filled with abominations and aberrations. This is also a zone all about family, and our nearby city is the friggin’ Niffin. This is brilliant contrast and really helps keep things in just the right tone

Brickwork: Loamm! Love this place. The architecture, the smells, the roadways…

Brickwork: …and of course…

Doodads: …the usual Blizzard standard of quality in doodad deisgn…

Doodads: …which is also accompanied by…

NPC Set Dressing: …lots of great, vibrant, and interacting NPCs (love the Niffins!)…

NPC Set Dressing: …for two positives

Brickwork: The crystal caves of Zaralek. I love this place, from the foliage, to the crystals, to the crags, to the glittering gemstones…

Brickwork: …easy double

Brickwork: Aberrus, that is to say the external lava area. Dark, dark red stone covered in a burnished gold plating, all stylized like draconic architecture…

Brickwork: …for another double

Music Direction: Mystical and foreboding music of Zaralek

MSQ: Sarkareth has just the right layers of broken and lost that he needs to make him interesting, especially as he blindly pits his own people against themselves

MSQ: Sabellian and Wrathion both stuck in the past, contrasted by Ebyssian who long ago rejected it (though he, too, has his baggage)

Moment: Fyrakk bathing in Shadowflame…

Moment: …and the significance of the Shadowflame blasting Sabellian. Not to establish Fyrakk, not even to establish Shadowflame (though it does that as well), but to establish Sabellian and his relationship with his family

Internal Continuity: Also everything about this entire chain has very tight continuity with WoW as a whole

MSQ: Fyrakk, Sabellien (desperate to stop him), and that leads to…

Moment: …an astonishingly understated establishing scene for Fyrakk. One, lone niffin, who does not even FLINCH in the face of a building-sized shadowflame dragon, killed by him. THAT is how you establish, right there…

Moment: …Goddamn

Cutscene: This is immediately followed by Ebyssian and Sabellien and their interactions and just… yeah

MSQ: The entire sequence of rescuing Loamm is exactly what it needs to be. Every single dead individual we find across this sequence is someone we were introduced to and named during our tour quest (which is MSQ so we did do it) and it really hammers in the point and motives of both ourselves and Fyrakk

Secondary: I love it. Some dude wants to take over Loamm with two drogbar thugs

MSQ: The Blacks and Emberthal uniting against Sarkareth and the loyalists of Aberrus

Visual Storytelling: Everything about Aberrus. The draconic laboratory

Brickwork: Love Aberrus’ visuals

MSQ: I love Neltharion trying to tempt Wrathion, and Wrathion just questioning… and Neltharion IMMEDIATELY discarding him on the most surface-level question

Visual Storytelling: The Djaradin assaulting alongside our assault and the Sundered Flame pouring in right before us

MSQ: Neltharion and Sabellien! I love how Sabellien absolutely refuses to enslave even his most hated enemies

Brickwork: The Edge of Oblivion…

Visual Storytelling: …the crack. The mural of an Old God Deathwing…

MSQ: …and Sarkareth standing amidst it, taking in the void, lost to his own lack of purpose

MSQ: I absolutely LOVE Wrathion and Sabellian’s walk back through Aberrus as they finally… FINALLY talk it out and let the barriers down. Wrathion assures Sabellian he’s not a monster like his father, Sabellian assures Wrathion he is not just another abomination. And both finally apologize to each other, something that’s been building up since we first hit Zaralek

Cutscene: This is a great capstone on Dragonflight so far, but also on Cataclysm and, honestly, on a lot of Warcraft lore. The Dracthyr, acknowledging the poison of the legacy of Neltharion (regardless of the madness of Deathwing), acknowledging Wrathion’s role in things going forwards, acknowledging Ebyssian’s role and relevance as Aspect, and ensuring that people do not forget the past and instead mark it in history to ensure the future is a new one, not trapped in old cycles. This is a great cutscene…

Cutscene: …easy…

Cutscene: …triple

MSQ: Actually seeing Tyr’s Fall (in… Tirisfal) was legit. Showcasing such a monumental event on camera is always nice, and it’s also yet another insight into how the Void operates; 4 truths, and 1 lie. All Zakajz really wants is for Tyr to doubt

Writing: Future Chromie writing is exceptionally well written. You can tell immediately that it’s not her just by her writing

Brickwork: Dawn of the Infinite is gorgeous, top to bottom. The sands, the architecture, the skybox, the timeways…

Brickwork: …easy…

Brickwork: …triple

MSQ: Iridikron’s xanatos gambit of working with the Infinites to empower the Dark Heart. This is nicely dovetailed, and does good stuff with laying the bricks for War Within

MSQ: I love the idea of the Four Horsemen of Tyr, and the way they specialize and characterize each of them is great

Moment: Give me three!

MSQ: Also the way these four work with each other and more or less immediately bond over shared strife is great

MSQ: So… the Shamans of the Flame are back. We also get a nice callback to them and their usage here makes a lot of sense

Cutscene: It’s a good cutscene in general, but my favorite part of the Alesxtrasza and Vyranoth cutscene (the… second one) is that Alexstrasza just… impulsively reaches out to Vyranoth, in a way she arguably shouldn’t have. But the earnestness and sincerity of that is what makes Vyranoth pause, and gets her to listen. Funny

Secondary: Dezran, Emberthal, and the follow through of the Sundered Flame. It’s a bit fast, but I like this little epilogue

Character: Night Elf Heritage. Arko’narin (nice callback by the way) and Lysander are GREAT and work great alongside…

Character: …Maiev. Holy crap Maiev gets some great characterization AND growth here, which works even better as it services the overall theme…

Theme: …progress. Maiev says it flat out. “Traditions should adapt to our lives, not define them”

Moment: “The world gifts us with means to move beyond this pain. You prove nothing by choosing to dwell in it.”

World Building: And that dovetails into one last point… the very identity of the Night Elves. As Lysander and Maiev both state throughout the quest, the Night Elves have spent a great deal of time wallowing in their mourning. Oh don’t mistake, they have much to mourn… but they have fallen into a spiral of JUST mourning, nothing else. And this, combined with the upcoming patch (Amirdrassil), shows how they need to move past this

Spritework: Of COURSE the outfit looks amazing too

Secondary: The final farewell to Tarecgosa. Good lord that’s some fantastic writing here, managed by amazing voice acting. “Clinging to an unchangeable past in hopes that fate may be kind is a fruitless dream. It will be the memories I have of you that will define my own future.” Good lord

Prime Opt: Gosh, where to begin. The smart usage of a new wave of Neo Crusaders…

Prime Opt: …the callbacks and the humor and seriousness side by side…

Prime Opt: …the moments of very realistic horror at the fascism on display by the Scarlets (if you replace ‘Forsaken’ with any minority group of the last few millennia, it fits neatly and horribly)…

Prime Opt: …and finally the reaffirmation of what the Forsaken mean. Good, bad, and in between

Spritework: Good lord the attention to detail on the Forsaken Heritage Armor is crazy

Prime Opt: The reclamation of Gilneas is an interesting follow through. The Neo Scarlets (who have devolved into being human supremacists instead of just living), the Forsaken and Gilneans working together to drive them out. It’s great stuff…

Prime Opt: …easy double

Cutscene: Okay so here we are, our first War Within style cutscene. Custom models, and incredible animation. Greymane acknowledging he is lost in the past, and passing the torch on to Tess, is a fantastic moment in and of itself…

Animation: …but good lord, those details…

Voice Acting: …that voice acting…

Theme: …and the continuance of theme. The legacy of Gilneas… and of the Forsaken

Character: Special mention to Tess and Lilian’s dynamics

Internal Continuity: Great usage of callbacks (and some deep, deep cuts)

Character: Great character moments with the Troll Heritage

World Building: How bargains are struck with loa, the nature of the contract and communication

Voice Acting: Great voice acting for the Troll Heritage

Prime Opt: I just love this whole sequence. Bwonsamdi, Jani, Lukou, Kevo ya Siti, and Rokhan all get moments to shine. Great showcasing of what it means to be Darkspear, why their loa are their loa, and some great usage of older characters and story points…

Prime Opt: …solid…

Prime Opt: …triple

Writing: Eredar chain quality. There’s just… some really tight writing here. I’m especially fond of how Arzal isn’t looking for redemption or forgiveness, just trying to do good instead of evil

Prime Opt: Eredar chain is also some great stuff in general. The absent Azeroth, the connections with Hatuun, the whispered voices, those desperate to follow the past

Prime Opt: Draenei Heritage. Jesus Christ. Where do I even begin? Let’s start with the basics; a powerful story about overcoming the grief and trauma of the past

External Continuity: Then there’s it’s strong connections to Warcraft lore…

Internal Continuity: …and WoW in particular

Character: Some truly amazing character pieces for these one-offs. You really get a lot of personality in a very dense, short period of time

Prime Opt: I also absolutely love the connected threads being moved forward, and actually acknowledging time and development passing forward. The reclamation of Auchindoun, the rebuilding of Shattrath, etc.

Moments: The individual draenei… eredar… of the Tishamaat. They all have their stories

Moment: Velen reaching out to Hatuun. Earnest, sincere, and backed by action

Background Lore: The memory stones. Good GOD the memory stones

Moment: …our memory stone. Whatever it is we wish it to be

Theme: The revelation of New Shattrath (or whatever they call it), the unified people, the future beckoning

Cutscene: So, the trailer where Fyrakk carves open a path to the Dream. Everything is fantastic about this whole sequence. People’s connections, arming up, coordinating with each other, Fyrakk’s speech, his animation as he moves, whole thing…

Cutscene: …is an easy…

Cutscene: …triple

Brickwork: The Emerald Dream’s skybox. Just enough of a starry sky while still being completely alien

Visual Storytelling: Overgrowth seamlessly growing into and around architecture

Brickwork: The floating islands

Brickwork: The floating foliage

Brickwork: Actual brickwork (the floor and scaled stones, complete with spiral patterns)

Brickwork: Or rather, grasswork. This is the best looking grass to-date and it deserves special mention…

Brickwork: …and an easy double

Brickwork: Color usage! Lots of dominant greens, but heavily accented by pinks, blues, violets, reds…

Brickwork: …another double

Doodads: The initial area! Rugs of leaves, instruments of bark, tables of stone, plates of foliage

Doodads: The central base hub area

Brickwork: Shallow Crossing, the water, the patterns, the foliage

Brickwork: Charred Dream. The same general patterns and foliage, but burnt and thorned…

Brickwork: …another double

Brickwork: Kaldorei and dragon architecture. This is absolutely lovely, clearly looking like a combination of the two at their heights…

Brickwork: …another double

Visual Storytelling: The Firelands invading the Dream, literally encroaching on the ground

Brickwork: The sunnier areas, in the west and southwest portions. Much brighter yellows and lighting…

Brickwork: …another double

Brickwork: The Ardenweald segments in general look as gorgeous as they always do…

Brickwork: …another double

Visual Storytelling: The Ardenweald drifting in to the Dream

Brickwork: Then there’s just… the Dream itself. The trees, the rolling hills, the spirals, the amazing flowing terrain…

Brickwork: …an easy…

Brickwork: …triple

Brickwork: The tree itself (Amirdrassil) deserves special mention. This huge, gorgeous, navigable tree with life energy pulsing through it

Architecture: Weirdly Dragonflight isn’t super great on Architecture, at least not compared to BFA or Legion. Valdrakken is fantastic of course but most of the island is ruins (for obvious reasons). Still, there’s some nice design and layout, particularly in Maruukai…

Architecture: …for an aggregate double

Music Direction: Emerald Dream, in general (it also has a combat track!)

Cutscene: Fyrakk and Vyranoth. This cutscene is brutal and brilliantly done. Everything about…

Animation: …Fyrakk’s animation, by itself, showing so much of how he thinks and operates…

Animation: …the animation of Garithus and Vyranoth…

Storyboarding: …how the scene progresses between Fyrakk and Vyranoth…

Visual Storytelling: …the indicators of him losing himself to his sadism (and the Shadowflame), as well as his being disturbed at how he interacted with his sister

Pacing: We’re under attack almost immediately, rally several forces, and then are immediately pushed onto the back foot

Plot: The entire goal of the Tree arc. Built up for a long time, and wonderfully paying off. The whole goal here is to make the world better, to connect the dream more, and to make the sacrifice of those Kaldorei lost to the Banshee War worthwhile

Consequence Storytelling: The Druids of the Flame, weirdly enough. Desperation, burned, and anger towards the dragons for being robbed of their immortality

Secondary: Q’onzu! The chain here is exactly what it needs to be. A quest to go see that you’re an interloper which… doesn’t help. A quest to answer a hundred questions which… doesn’t help. A quest to go deal with intruders… finally they just get sick of you and leave

Theme: The overall theme of legacy is everywhere. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad, but it’s always something to deal with

Theme: The other major theme that recurs a lot is renewal. Bad things have happened, and now it’s time to move on

Camera: So, this is a weird one, but consistently good camera usage is across multiple swaths of cutscenes in multiple zones, as cutscene design really starts to shine. So we’ll start off with the Forbidden Reach

Camera: The Waking Shores

Camera: The Azure Span

Camera: The entire Emerald chain in the Ohn’ahran Plains

Camera: The Obsidian Chain in Zaralek Caverns

Camera: And of course, the Emerald Dream

Animation: Similarly, both bespoke and carefully utilized canned animations really are starting to get good. Same places; Forbidden Reach

Animation: Waking Shores

Animation: Azure Span

Animation: Emerald chain

Animation: Obsidian chain

Animation: And the Emerald Dream

Character: Emberthal. Talk about coming out of the gate running, this one brand new character has a lot going for her…

Character: …easy double

Character: Neltharion, weirdly enough, even though he’s been dead for a while. It is fascinating how much different, and worse, he was before being Deathwing

Character: Kalecgos. He’s really grown into the role and, while he hasn’t stopped being himself, he is officially done dealing with crap at this point

Character: Sindragosa 2 is a fascinating example of a character, considering what she is

Character: Eternus! Her introduction and usage is fantastic, and is a great side-look at the Infinites

Character: Chromie continues to be as awesome as she always was and will be

Character: Merithra finally comes into her own here as well

Character: Sarkareth, the foolish would-be despot seeking purpose in his pride

Character: Rannan Korren. What, I stand by it, he’s pretty interesting for being a two note character

Character: Wrathion. He is brilliantly characterized, more so than ever before, and manages to be a child, an adult, charismatic, petulant, sincere, and has a consistent soft spot for other abominations like himself…

Character: …another double

Voice Acting: As per usual, lots of great voice acting. Emberthal

Voice Acting: Nozdormu (I know some prefer his old one, but no, he does some good nuance here)

Voice Acting: Alexstrasza (always awesome)

Voice Acting: Wrathion (layers and complexities)

Voice Acting: Kalecgos (subtlety and brilliance)

Voice Acting: Sindragosa 2 (I can scarcely believe this is the original Sindragosa’s actress)

Voice Acting: Chromie (of course, but with a nice boundless layer of optimism built in)

Voice Acting: Tyr (just enough compassionate while still being robotic)

Voice Acting: Merithra (I mean it’s Jennifer Hale, come on)

Voice Acting: Sarkareth (you really hear his panic under his fanatacism… what a viable target for the Doubt of the Void)

World Building: The Tuskarr! Fishing, food, soup, interactions, trade, culture

World Building: The Drakthyr, and their heavily structured military culture as the Clone Troopers of Warcraft

World Building: Dragonkin and Drakonids, both fleshed out far more than usual

World Building: The Dragons and their Flights in general. Everything from food to sleeping to birthing to…

World Building: …Visages, which deserve their own positive for how they worked with this

World Building: The Centaur, for all their faults and negatives, are still well built up and fleshed out

World Building: The Niffin! My God, an entire culture built around an incredible sense of smell! This is everywhere but I want to highlight one tiny little detail; at one point a Niffin has just survived an attack. They can see just fine, there’s nothing impeding their vision, but they wander and act as if they’re blind… because there’s so much smoke inhibiting their sense of smell. Love the Niffin…

World Building: …easy double

Secondary: The poor sleeping druids

Secondary: Dionaessa and mentoring the dryad

Secondary: Q’onzu, Aviana, and the Druids of the Flame

Prime Opt: Lilian and Shandris. This is… shockingly good. Lilian, Shandris, their shared torment, their connections to each other, there’s not even a real ‘bad guy’ here it’s just them hashing out the tragedy…

Prime Opt: …this is…

Prime Opt: …great stuff

Prime Opt: The Netherwing chain is a great, satisfying, and oddly wholesome affair…

Prime Opt: …with great potential for the future and good callbacks…

Prime Opt: …and dovetails seamlessly into rescuing the Thorignir from Odyn…

Moment: …which, yeah, everything about this was awesome. Her dealing with Eyir…

Moment: …Wrathion and Vyranoth…

Moment: …and Vyranoth owning Odyn

MSQ: The Tyr finale, and some fascinating implications with Elisande and Tyr

Character: Tyrande. I know, I’m shocked too. They do very good stuff with her, especially in the Dream

Character: Lilian Voss is consistently awesome (as usual), but what really makes her work in Dragonflight in specific is her capacity for basic empathy. She knows exactly what hell feels like and she feels for others going through it, and that helps her forge bonds with others as well

MSQ: The Claws of Vyranoth and some divisions amongst enemy ranks

Cutscene: Fyrakk, the flame druids, and their reactions to him murdering his loyal cultist

MSQ: So there’s a mostly nothingburger quest involving the djaradin, but the reason it works is because it serves as a character point for Merithra, and her coming into her own and truly becoming the Aspect of the Dream

Secondary: The one flame druid who decides to bail, the notes and ramblings of the cult, and the one member of her family who survives

MSQ: The lead up to…

Moment: …the avengers assemble moment. I’m sorry, I rather liked this, cheesy though it is. And of course…

MSQ: …the follow through of us just barrel rolling through the primary enemy force with the heroes of Azeroth is damned fun

Music Direction: The incredible, and hopeful, music of Amirdrassil

Visual Storytelling: The first shot (and general) of Amirdrassil. Ardenweald colors, Dream colors, light blue of the Night Elves, and encroaching flame

MSQ: Fyrakk’s comments are honestly pretty amusing, the Firelands encroachment is great, Smolderon (probably permanently dying) is great, and of course it all leads to Fyrakk

Outro: MSQ: The group of peoples coming from across the isles to see the new tree

Outro: MSQ: The Kaldorei gathered together… lots of great moments here. This is absolutely what Internal Continuity looks like. The power of this moment is so much stronger when you realize what is being offered. Hope, from Delaryn, soil, from Rensar, love, Cerellean…

Outro: Internal Continuity: …good lord

Outro: Cutscene: Tyrande is, at long last, able to be the priestess again, as she dedicates a new moonwell to Amirdrassil

Outro: Animation: Goddamn that animation quality

Outro: Camera: Goddamn that camerawork!

Outro: Okay so I don’t… even know how to quantify this. The after-party is gigantic. Tons and tons and tons of dialogue, callbacks, bookends, and background lore…

Outro: …wonderful…

Outro: …amazing stuff

Outro: NPC Set Dressing: Special mention to the clear thought put into who should be where and how. Lilian and Tess, Shandris reaching out to the outcasts, Emberthal sitting with the leaders of the dragons, etc.

Outro: Cutscene: Several great SAWALs

Outro: Cutscene: Ysera’s final goodbye is fantastic in its own right…

Outro: Music Direction: …but deserves special mention for the amazing usage of that music

Outro: Secondary: Kelestra… and Koroleth. Yes, THAT Koroleth. The follow through here is heart wrenching and beautifully written…

Outro: Secondary: …easy double

World Building: The Sixth Aspect… and the Aspects imbued by Azeroth herself. There’s some… serious implications there

Cutscene: SAWAL, with Khadgar and Kalecgos. Foreshadowing, character, wholesomeness, bookends

Cutscene: SAWAL, Wrathion and Sabellian. Wrathion finally being fully open to Sabellian, about himself and his fears and anxieties

Outro: Cutscene: I don’t even know where to start with this. For the first time… literally ever… I actually feel the romance between Tyrande and Malfurion…

Outro: Cutscene: …followed immediately by Shandris, their adopted daughter, being welcomed into their embrace

Outro: Animation: The animation here is crazy good

Outro: Music Direction: The music is absolutely perfect

Outro: Voice Acting: The voice acting is spot on

Outro: Visual Storytelling: Did you notice her literally going weak at the knees? Or the intensity of that hug? Or how happy Shandris was to see them? All without a single word of dialogue

Secondary: Mon-Ark provides! Okay for real this is a delightful little side quest

Secondary: As a post follow up, Emberthal’s visage choice is wonderful. Talking to various peoples who’s pasts are set in both the history of Azeroth and in the Dragon Isles themselves, seeing who and how and why, it’s great stuff…

Secondary: …double territory

Cutscene: Khadgar is just so comfortable around Alleria… and thus accidentally steps on her toes, more than once. It’s a great insight into what she’s going through, and how far back they go

MSQ: Tons of foreshadowing and connecting threads in the Telogrus Rift

MSQ: Galakrond’s bones, Ulduar’s follies, and then back in Eredath… as we get a refresher of who Alleria is

MSQ: This is immediately followed by an amazing series of deep cuts to those touched by Xalatath in the past, culminating in a great moment where we see Alleria’s greatest Doubt; Turalyon. Even the literal attacks he uses are indicative

Tone: I love the… quiet dread that Dragonflight ends on. It’s so appropriately… quiet

Prime Opt: Earthen unlock, initial. Some great, fun, interesting quests that…

World Building: …do some really smart stuff with developing how Dornogal works and operates

Dialogue: Earthen dialogue is absolutely amazing. They sound just robotic enough without going too far, with very unique and fantastic word usage…

Dialogue: …easy…

Dialogue: …triple

Humor: Earthen unlock, weirdly enough. Never expected it but it made me laugh

Character: Merrix. Good lord, I really like this guy. The mayor and biggest smuggler in the city, very Batmanesque, and in all the right ways

Prime Opt: The transference of the caretaker quest chain

Character: Korgran, who is… a scarily well written example of both real life alzheimer’s and the very well designed in universe fate of all Earthen

Visual Storytelling: The Mourning Rise, and the final poses of the Earthen present there

Prime Opt: The escalation of the caretaker quest chain. This is just… poetry in motion. As Korgran gets worse, as we learn more about them and the caretakers… did you know caretakers’ first job when they take it is to make their own mourning stone? This is amazing stuff…

Prime Opt: …an easy…

Prime Opt: …triple

Moment: Korgran’s final moments. All Earthen choose, if given the luxury, the final pose they shall have as they shut down. And so Korgran stands, his lantern out, wading into the ocean. A guiding light for the future that will one day cross the sea…

Moment: …and good God this hits like an absolute truck…

Moment: …for three positives

Writing: “Lies become truths through repetition”

Writing: “You are not flawed”

MSQ: The entire Earthen opening sequence is sort of perfect, my goodness…

MSQ: …the writing, the dialogue, the voice acting, the significance, the polish…

MSQ: …fantastic Intro

Animation: War Within’s racial trailer is, of course, brilliantly animated

Animation: So, the actual War Within trailer. This is, bar none, the best animation in pre-rendered CGI they’ve ever done…

Animation: …so just on a technical level…

Animation: …this is a triple

Music Direction: The very precise, amazing usage of music…

Music Direction: …and swelling at just the right time. Anduin’s theme finally finishes right at the end, after several false starts… it’s fantastic

Camerawork: The amazing camerawork…

Camerawork: …and focus on their reactions

Voice Acting: The fantastic voice acting by Thrall and Anduin…

Voice Acting: …really sells the scene

Visual Storytelling: The literal scars on Anduin’s face, the way he can barely hold it together

Writing: The fantastic dialogue, telling everything it needs to, at the right time, in the right way

Moment: The hand… the reaction… even the way he holds the sword, just like Arthas did, but in pain instead of malice

Moment: Thrall calmly walks forward, letting the tip of Anduin’s sword rest on his chest, so that he can help steady his friend’s trembling. Good GOD that’s amazing…

Moment: “I trust you”

Theme: The central theme of War Within, right on display. Mental health, trauma, and healing from it with the help of friends…

Theme: …another…

Theme: …triple

Internal Continuity: “That sword was aimed at someone”

Cutscene: The recap is actually quite well done, and is greatly positioned to get players up to date (especially considering how Dragonflight is functionally a new beginning for new players). Surprisingly effective Captain’s Log

MSQ: Magni’s character is immediately on display, just from the way he talks

MSQ: Moira is right there, at his side, immediately, and is almost immediately characterized in just a single, very well written paragraph

Cutscene: SAWAL, Moira and Magni’s sleeping form. Her pain, her realization of both good and bad of her relationship with Magni. By the way, SAWALs are REALLY going to be good from here on out so enjoy…

Cutscene: …our first…

Cutscene: …triple

MSQ: The Dalaran tour. Nice, efficient, helps refresh old players, and impart to new ones

Cutscene: Dalaran’s arrival, Xalatath’s reveal, Alleria’s reaction. Everything about this is a fantastic sequence. The animation, the voice acting, the reveal, the reaction, good lord…

Cutscene: …firing on all cylinders…

Cutscene: …right out of the gate

MSQ: Rescuing the city. Some are captured, some are saved, some are dead…

MSQ: …and the entire city is over-run and on fire

Moment: I’ll give you this. The destruction of Dalaran was a very effective way to start the expansion

Music Direction: Dalaran’s music, in lower key, playing over its ruins

MSQ: Noggenfogger making antidotes as quickly as he can, Moira rushing to Dagran’s side immediately, Aethas drained of mana… this whole sequence is fantastic. And we’re very much on the back foot the entire time, immediately in the wake of losing Dalaran

Doodads: The Ruins of Dalaran

Cutscene: Lots of really smart, foreshadowy exposition by Baelgrim almost immediately

Cutscene: Smart and efficient writing when acknowledging Khadgar’s loss, but my favorite part is Jaina’s reaction. “We will grieve later”, but said with all the nuance and history that implies. She is well accustomed, after all

Writing: So this is a very effective writing. Jaina and Thrall being sufficient to recruit entire armies, lots of very well done establishment and exposition about the Earthen and how they operate. Memory gems, edicts, functions, directives, the acknowledgement of free will alongside directives…

Writing: …great stuff

Doodads: The Archive, the memory gems, the ‘vault’

Cutscene: SAWAL, Dagran and Brinthe. Dagran is amazing of course, but we get some VERY relevant information here. First, the Sundering broke the Titan machinery (yeah that makes sense). Second, the nature of the problem with the Awakening Machine. And of course, the fact that each Earthen functionally dies when they recharge

Cutscene: SAWAL, Magni and Anduin. Foreshadowing, but also some really good characterization or Magni. Despite his extensive experience, he dismisses all the ‘nonsense’ of the Earthen, because of how familiar and unpleasant it is

Cutscene: SAWAL, Anduin and Magni. Anduin’s character, Magni’s resentment, and Magni’s obvious fondness for Anduin seeping through. Also a small detail; Magni is even MORE upset than usual because his FAMILY is in danger, not just himself

Brickwork: Dornogal. It’s no Valdrakken, but it’s still a damned pretty city. Nice, angular, almost alien architecture, and all wonderfully patterned, like a colossal set of gears interlocking one another…

Brickwork: …easy…

Brickwork: …triple

Doodads: I love Earthen doodads. Cinderbrew, gemstones, rough thick plates, lots of warmth…

Doodads: …easy double

NPC Set Dressing: The NPCs in general are excellent, but what really makes it work…

NPC Set Dressing: …is how much they’re doing across the cityscape

Visual Storytelling: There’s so, so many Earthen just… sitting, recovering in their down time. This makes sense for robot people, but also…

Visual Storytelling: …for a dying people, who cannot recharge properly and cannot renew themselves

Brickwork: Khaz Algar, Skybox. Big blue and wispy clouds

Cutscene: SAWAL, Moira and Adelgonn. The story of the Oathsworn… and the reality of how risky and difficult of a choice that was. Also indicators of the Droid Effect the Earthen have, and still are, undergoing

Brickwork: Freywold Village, built into the hills and under the trees…

Doodads: …and wonderful detailing…

Doodads: …inside and out

Secondary: Basalteous, and the fate of the greedmonger

Secondary: Hope, an Anomaly

Secondary: The Pearl Farmers. We see the perspectives of several different Earthen at several different points of personal development, and how they all react to the situation, taking what should be a fairly banal quest and turning it into something strangely existential…

Secondary: …and the final fate of Aggartha

MSQ: Seeing Baelgrim trying to cope with his programming, which in turn causes Adelgonn to question hers, is great. It’s like watching Droid Effect live in front of us

Visual Storytelling: Anduin using just his sword… because it’s all he can use

Secondary: Helping the Mountain Giant, and seeing an Earthen geek out over them

Brickwork: Golgrin’s Reach! The sands, the coast, the debris

Brickwork: Isle of Dorn, general. Rolling hills thrust against very carved and artificial looking outcroppings, making for a wonderfully broken vista…

Brickwork: …easy…

Brickwork: …triple

Architecture: So I’m going to jot down all the Architecture stuff here. First, the Isle of Dorn and Dornogal itself deserve mention. The massive array of NPCs, interiors, and layout design

Architecture: Then there’s Hallowfall which is fantastic. Multiple towns that each feel like full fleshed out townships…

Architecture: …for its own double

Architecture: Then we have Azj-Kahet which I will gush more about later but once again…

Architecture: …so that deserves its own double

Architecture: I’ll mention Tazavesh in advance because while it’s partially cribbed from Shadowlands, they do much better stuff with it here

Architecture: And finally Undermine. Holy crap Undermine. Enjoy our first triple Architecture positive. Tons of NPCs, tons of interior spaces, great visible backdrops, amazing density, great sightline blockers…

Architecture: …easy…

Architecture: …triple

Secondary: The tale of the former Watchers, and our slow unveiling of what was happening with them back in the day. Some fascinating implications here about the relationship between Earthen and Watchers

Internal Continuity: Consequences of Dalaran’s fall echo in several zones

Doodads: Rambleshire! The Earthen ranch, love it

Secondary: The expedition and the gorloc artifacts (and some returning characters!)

Prime Opt: The reasoning behind Earthen giving in to Void in the Rookery

Brickwork: The Rookery! Love the look of an Earthen barracks and storm perch

Secondary: Rambleshire’s ram quest chain. Proper stakes instead of scale, and helps accent a regular plot thread…

Plot: …the Nerubians’ initial attack (which lost, remember) and them having to pull back hard as a result

MSQ: The Meadyard setup…

MSQ: …and payoff. Baelgrim acknowledges that he cannot move past his programming, but he is sentient enough to want to do something in spite of it. And so he fulfills his programming his way

Cutscene: SAWAL, Adelgonn after the loss of Baelgrimm. She is already Unbound… and it shows. She can barely process the pain of his loss, and is still coming to grips with the idea of this kind of loss

Cutscene: SAWAL, Alleria and Anduin. Alleria is… harsh towards Anduin. Still burying her Doubt by anger, she can’t stop being angry, and so while he’s just starting to process his trauma (even joking about it lightly), she slams right back down. And even when he apologizes she doubles down

Cutscene: SAWAL, Moira and Dagran. This is just plain wholesome, but also a great insight into their relationship, and just how hard Moira has been striving to be a better parent than she had

Music Direction: Rambleshire! The way they manage Dwarven sounding music combined with folksy farm is fantastic

Cutscene: Absolutely perfect introduction to the High Speaker. Literally carried forward on his giant railway throne by several obedient Earthen. Then when Brinthe STARTS to explain what’s going on, he interrupts her mid sentence. When she tries to escalate, he interrupts her after just two words! And then he has himself carried off again…

Cutscene: …great stuff

Brickwork: Overgrowth! The amount of foliage just flowing around the Ringing Deeps is great

Brickwork: Natural and artificial side by side is a great vibe and Ringing Deeps nails it

Brickwork: Cave. Okay hear me out; how often do you see good cave design? No I don’t mean ‘something underground’, that’s fairly common, I mean CAVE. Boring brown, dirt, and rock. Somehow they actually manage this in the Ringing Deeps and I’m honestly shocked

Doodads: Lost Mines, and candles. So many candles

Writing: Good, smart early exposition and introduction of ideas, which also follow through on what’s already established

MSQ: Initial introduction to the kobolds, and Skitter

Dialogue: Kobolds, of course, have nicely designed writing…

Dialogue: …as is becoming the norm

Music Direction: Kobold music! It’s essentially perfect, even the instruments sound scavenged, and it has just the right vibe of whimsical and light hearted

MSQ: The liberation of the Warrens! I love how we go through here systematically knocking over the Candle King’s power base

Pacing: Overall. We go from losing, to winning, to… kobolds! It’s a great pacing

Moment: “More friends means less doom”. Ain’t that the truth

Cutscene: SAWAL, Magni and Dagran. Dagran is so… completely oblivious to danger, and Magni is a seasoned combat vet. And Magni is so terrified for his grandson (it’s why he’s HERE right now after all)… but all of that’s obvious. What I love is how Dagran turns this back on him, because of course Dagran notices how much Magni is hurting right now. And he tries to use this to bargain with Magni. It’s great

MSQ: Taelloch atmosphere. Good lord this place is horrifying

Doodads: Taelloch, horror. Sure, it’s smashed, but there’s also recent signs of activity

Cutscene: The reveal of the Skardyn, and Magni rushing to his grandson’s defense

MSQ: The doomed logs of Taelloch

Pacing: So after a fairly substantial break (most of two zones) and a trip through both light hearted and horror, we very suddenly see Xalatath… and how she’s behind yet another side problem…

Internal Continuity: …and I love how much sense this makes. The High Speaker’s Edict is to get the machine running, and that’s what she offers; of COURSE he takes the deal. And this is almost exactly how the Forge of Wills spread the Curse of Flesh back in the day

Cutscene: SAWAL, Moira and Magni. Magni laying out his grief at his burden, and his desire to be a grandfather… and I love the usage of Dun Morogh’s music for this

Background Lore: Is Your Morale Declining. Brilliantly written (the sentence structure!), brilliantly subversive, and it’s right in front of Foreman Uzjax… the only Foreman who doesn’t attack us on sight…

Background Lore: …good lord

Brickwork: The Earthenworks. Exactly what I’d imagine a molten factory area would look like

Doodads: The Earthenworks, again. Love the detailing here

Cutscene: Us actually doing something holy hell (cool scene too)

MSQ: The charge into the Awakening Machine. Great moments for Dagran, Brinthe, and the acknowledgement of Eirich’s overall mentality, all summarized by a simple quote; “Better to live as Skardyn than die as Earthen”

Cutscene: Dagran figuring out what Magni has to do… and Magni doing it without hesitation. His own personal connection to these people (“converted into something against their will”), and his self sacrificing spirit (even if he didn’t die, he laid his head on the metaphorical block)… and all of it culminates in him pouring out the blessing he’d been burdened with since before the Cataclysm into all the Earthen of the Awakening Machine. Even when it pulls the switcheroo, it works strangely well because of how much sense it makes. It’s also a great showcasing of the difference between Azeroth and all the other external powers; she gives a damn. This is a great scene…

Cutscene: …an easy…

Cutscene: …triple, but…

Writing: …I have to give special props for how it helps characterize Azeroth herself

Cutscene: SAWAL, Moira and Magni (again). They’re still not over their issues (nor should they be)

Secondary: Granny Scribbles and her stories are just delightful. They are well written (designed to showcase commonplace concepts from the viewpoint of a kobold) and to tell lessons

Secondary: Granny Scribbles and the negligent Chomps

Secondary: Granny Scribbles and the mean Stoneheads

Secondary: Granny Scribbles and the Wickless Candle

Brickwork: Cinderwold! Good lord, Cinderwold

Music Direction: Cinderwold also has absolutely amazing music

Secondary: The Kobold chain, establishing the local candle seller, dealing with the bees, and undoing the supply chain

Secondary: The Batzvara Caretaker, and more insight into how Earthen view death

Brickwork: Shimmermist Falls. Gorgeous place, alongside most of the visuals of the deep waters

Secondary: Berrund, Moira, and Fearbreaker

Secondary: Brennok, a reciter who actively experiences little so as to not overwhelm his harddrive, and wants desperately to experience life for himself. This is a nice sequence in general, but it’s great for the very concept; People being reminded of stories they’ve probably forgotten

Brickwork: Obsidian Hollow (bioluminescent!)

Secondary: Orsenth, Munderut, and limited harddrive space

Secondary: Scrit! Also some good, fun quests here, and a nice followup to Fearbreaker

Secondary: Danagh and the wayward golem. A tragedy, once again showcasing how easy it is to slip and cause issues, and how they can’t be undone afterwards

Doodads: Cinderbrew Meadery, good lord. The tavern, the alehouse, the bee barn, everything…

Doodads: …easy double

Music Direction: Also I love the music in here

Humor: Also I… have to give special mention to just… everything. The puns, the light hearted presentation, the Yes Men… yikes

Humor: …easy double

Humor: The Totally Real Adventure of Alekk the Elekk

Cutscene: The Pantheon’s original goal; Finding the Prime World Soul, helping it to become the greatest Titan, and using it to order the universe. And this is… well. There’s a lot of implications here

Cutscene: The significance of Azeroth, the revelation of the Manifold (which explains a lot), and yet another quiet implication, brought up so simply by Dagran; “What would the Titans need to study about it?”

Cutscene: So… Beledar, clearly Beledar, is ‘calcified World Soul Essence’… and, once again, implications

Cutscene: Earthen with extended interaction with Azeroth’s World Soul leads to… sentience. And some of them are specifically empowered by Azeroth herself, making them thraegar… just like Magni

Voice Acting: Debra Wilson NAILS the robotic fury in Brinthe’s voice as the final cutscene plays

Cutscene: The final big reveal of just how far Titan influence goes…

Moment: …”Damn the titans.”

Secondary: So this is a weird one. Usually dungeons sit in Prime Opt, but Delves tend to be more Secondary. Thing is, while most Delves have some story, and it’s interesting, it’s also generally the equivalent of a single quest. So while few individual Delves really stand out narratively, all of them do combine to have an overall positive to the story axis

Humor: I absolutely have to also give credit to quite a few Delves for somehow being absolutely hysterical. Pink Elekks aside, almost all the Goblin ones are just great…

Humor: …for an easy…

Humor: …triple

Writing: Hallowfall, in general. Very smart, well done, efficient writing

MSQ: Faerin and Steelstrike immediately get a vibe on us and who we are and that we’re a friendly (We’re clearly walking in wide eyed and non hostile, we’re not Nerubians or Kobyss, we’re friendly with each other in a way hostiles wouldn’t be, and Anduin clearly has Light in him). I hate to call attention to this but it’s indicative of the sheer quality of writing here. There is no NEED for the usual wheelspinning here because all the information necessary is right there

Visual Storytelling: The devastation of the Aegis Wall

Music Direction: Hallowfall is weirdly boisterous and adventurous given the overall vibe of the zone

Brickwork: The airships of Hallowfall. JUST the airships, these things are amazing

Visual Storytelling: All four zones are a merger of natural and artificial, but all four do it for different reasons TYPE UP MORE LATER

Doodads: The Airship docks of Tenir’s Ascent

Brickwork: Arathi architecture in general. Steampunk and elven at the same time, somehow…

Brickwork: …easy double

MSQ: The initial pacing of Hallowfall is fantastic. We show up, they’re in trouble, and we help them immediately. It’s more or less the Orcs finding the Tauren besieged by the Centaur and it works for the same reason

Cutscene: Alleria continues to fight her Doubt with anger as Xalatath openly taunts her…

Moment: …but that moment honestly pales to the first time Beledar shifts into Void. It’s a moment that should be truly horrifying, but what’s interesting is…

Moment: …Faerin is barely phased by it. She explains it, briefly, calmly, and adds a simple line. “The light always returns”

Writing: The exceptionally smart writing and exposition on Beledar, the first shift, and the threats of the dark. Also, ‘That was a small one’, WHAT?

Brickwork: Beledar itself, both forms…

Brickwork: …and the clouds and ‘sky’ surrounding it

Cutscene: SAWAL, Faerin and Anduin… and the name Lothar. This is a nice tidbit but what really works here is Anduin’s continued rejection of the crown

MSQ: Anduin tries to draw on the Light… and can’t. He’s stuck in the Doubt loop…

Writing: …which, by itself, is so logical and so easily explains so much of how the Void operates and how people get stuck in it. We say ‘fall to darkness’, but what we really mean is people getting stuck in the Doubt loop. The very nature of it is reinforcing; You Doubt, so things happen in a certain way, and that reinforces the Doubt. It is, ironically, the exact same reinforcement loop that Faith has. And it’s why it takes so little to swap between one or the other, despite being so difficult to break out of it. Because there are only three options. You reinforce the loop, you stop Doubting (via internal or external choices), or you… pause. And that’s where Anduin is right now, paused, just… waiting. This perfectly sets up…

MSQ: …the introduction of the Order of Night. We hear from him, both directly and via Faerin, how Doubt crept in (probably with the very first shift in Beledar), and how he continues to recruit new people. And it’s so obvious why they’re so active now; Xalatath is actively prodding them. This leads to…

Moment: …a fascinating moment with Intent Shadow. “What are you?”

Moment: Shortly thereafter, Anduin, in combat, reaches out for the Light and, naturally, nothing happens. How could it? He is drowning in Doubt. And so he responds to it the exact same way Alleria has been; anger

MSQ: What follows is Faerin revealing, unintentionally, exactly how much she relates to Anduin and all he’s been through. We see snippets of this in her missing eye, her missing arm, and her voice acting. And having already been through such crap she knows exactly where Anduin’s at, and responds to him exactly how he needs

Moment: “What if the Light goes out? What if you fail your people?” Her immediate response: Of COURSE she’s failed her people, many times. She has chosen to not stop as a result of that

Moment: “I’ve hurt people.” “…part of me enjoyed it.” And her response? “Enjoyed hurting people? Or no longer being able to agonize over every thought and action? Having doubt, making mistakes… none of these make you unworthy, Anduin. They light your path forward.” This hits the nail on the head so hard it’s hard to even put it into words…

Moment: …love this…

Moment: …entire sequence. Oh, and the Aegis Wall theme playing while it goes works pretty well too, I guess

Cutscene: So, Faerin offers for Anduin to join her in relighting the beacon… not to contribute his power, not to cast magic upon it, just to… be there. And so he just… breathes. And as he feels the Light, from her, his reaction… that connection, for the first time in a very long time. It’s terrifying, if temporary, and of course this is all framed…

Cutscene: …against Alleria who walks away, contemplative

Doodads: Mereldar, herbalism area

Brickwork: Mereldar, the layout itself. This is so clearly a fortress of an expedition, complete with outer bailey, inner bailey, and keep

Background Lore: When Beledar shifts, the towns have a warning clank, people armed draw weapons, citizens flee

Secondary: The absolutely Grade-A horror of the fish that’s not a fish in the sea beneath the sea. It’s honest, it’s open, and it implies many things, and states more…

Secondary: …one of the best individual side quests…

Secondary: …in the expansion

Brickwork: Veneration Grounds, and the scope and care with which they memorialize the dead

Visual Storytelling: The nature of which walls are defended, by how much, in what direction (also the stuff to do for the bored guards)

Doodads: Barracks and airship docks section of Mereldar

Brickwork: Consistent airship coding everywhere

Doodads: Strategy room

Doodads: Cooking area

Brickwork: Church of the Sacred Flame, interior

Visual Storytelling: The orphanage. They have beds, they have warmth, they have food, they have toys. These kids are well taken care of, as they should be

Brickwork: The tavern! Defensible, detailed, brilliant

Moment: Some dialogue with Alleria (who’s freaking out about her failures and losses), Faerin (who gives insight into the Arathi), and Anduin (who is CRUMBLING under the weight of his PTSD, and even confronts us about it directly)…

Moment: …great stuff

Cutscene: SAWAL, Anduin and Alleria. Her being the big sister, him freaking out about his visions (and making excuses), and of course the timeline revelation. We know these people warped here during the Cataclysm, and now we know the first time Beledar shifted was at the end of Legion, when Sargeras stabbed Azeroth. Huh

Cutscene: SAWAL, Faerin and Raen, talking about improving her prosthetics. And of course the central theme there; accepting who you are

Cutscene: SAWAL, Steelstrike and… us. Finally laying out how they got here, during the Cataclysm. And the Day of Darkness (Legion). But also her voice as she talks about how she’s struggling with the fact that they have children here now, and how they need more than just holding the line

Pacing: Hallowfall. We’re here to help, we see the nature of the threat, we fight against the dark, we have our breather

MSQ: Faerin insists we stop retreating, Steelstrike admitting to her faltering to fear, Anduin trying to grapple with everything, and Faerin grateful it worked

Secondary: Scout Wayshelm and his lost party. A very zoomed in, down to earth look at what a normal person deals with in the dark

Secondary: Dolena, the hermit

Secondary: The light hearted humor and world building of the one mage who doesn’t know teleportation magic trying to learn it is great…

Secondary: …and find him very dead, murdered by cultists. The very same he was trying so hard to help

Secondary: Alyza the orphan, and a rare well written child

Secondary: The trade deal. It’s a series of quests but it’s wonderfully grounded. The Arathi desperately need external connections, and thankfully they’re dealing with traders and earthen who want to trade

Secondary: The man exhausted and weary, who seeks to simply spend time fishing, and takes up arms again for the sake of children

Secondary: The Brothers quest starts off so simple and so easy and then one of the brothers dies. And it very quickly ramps up after that into something legitimately horrifying. And can I just say…

Pacing: …I love the pacing of this. We go from just another day to tragedy to horror back to back

Storytelling Mechanic: Loading screens are back and are as awesome as they’ve been in recent memory…

Storytelling Mechanic: …so enjoy…

Storytelling Mechanic: …a triple

Music Direction: Priory of the Sacred Flame

Brickwork: Priory of the Sacred Flame

Music Direction: The other music of the Ringing Deeps

Music Direction: The wonderful vibes of both the priory and the town of Hallowfall

Moment: Anduin deciding to hold back the siege weapons to save the Reckoning…

Cutscene: …and the spectacle of the Reckoning assaulting the Nerubian front, and being captured in their web

Theme: I HAVE to point out how on point this is thematically. Alleria gives us a void attack, but it does very little damage… but it DOES yank and hold enemies in one spot for the other attacks to defeat them. This is so on point; void and Light working together, and Void doing what it does best; indirect manipulation rather than direct assault

Atmosphere: The Breathing Pit. The stretched, rotten flesh / fungus, the sounds, the slurping, the breathing

Pacing: The initial Azj-Kahet MSQ is absolutely brilliant in its pacing…

Story Sequencing: …and sequencing. We start off counter-attacking nerubians, charging down to save Anduin, being distracted by eldritch horror, gaining a new ally, and that new ally leads us… to a wonderful vista of the City of Threads, our first deliberate shot of this place. This leads immediately to a cute, adorable little nerubian showing up with a quest. Keep in mind the ENTIRE expansion the nerubians have 100% been the bad guys, and anybody who’s not paying attention or doesn’t know the greater lore is probably going to be shocked at this point. So naturally it’s the most innocent, childlike thing it could be. This leads immediately to…

MSQ: …the lead up to the Weaver. Voices, our first shot at Ascended (we’ve had them foreshadowed since the very beginning, in Dalaran), a giant facility shaped like a web with one individual at the center. And welcoming us with open arms

Dialogue: The Weaver, by herself, is one of the best written characters in the entire game

Foreshadowing: The whole expansion does great build up to the reveals in Azj-Kahet

MSQ: Flynn! And survivors of Dalaran! Oh and our first insight into Ascended, and why the Nerubians have been failing so hard so far

MSQ: Anub’azal, Gazlowe, and the wonderful pragmatism of his wanting us on his side

Humor: Katy, Savor, and Meerah’s big escape. I wonder if singing about how miserable they all are would have worked…?

MSQ: Once again the sequencing is fantastic here. We go straight from the general to the vizier, almost immediately. And this leads to us finding Anduin, and another wonderful sequence…

Cutscene: SAWAL, Anduin and Alleria. We find out Anduin’s actions were so interesting that Nizrek (The Vizier) rescued him out of sheer curiosity. And this lead to Anduin doing what he really is truly best at; helping people. And I love the line… “And you feel unworthy of the Light”

Writing: The Nerubians have a mental health clinic! And each patient has their own, very relatable mental health issue that they convey in a single line!

Secondary: Mr Sunflower is back! And is not just wholesome, but immediately connects with the theme of the area and the recurring problem of the Ascended lacking empathy…

Secondary: …great stuff

Cutscene: So they see the Queen there and Alleria is starting to really knuckle down on her anger. Anduin notices and, correctly, says they need to get out. Xalatath realizes her prey is slipping its net and so tosses an illusion (or a mirage, it barely matters) to Alleria, who cannot see past said anger and attacks her problem head on… the thing Void is WORST at by far. This trips the trap, alerts the Queen, and now they’re on the run. This whole sequence does so much so quickly and so well. A personal favorite is Alleria’s expression after she realizes how badly she’s screwed up. Great stuff…

Cutscene: …easily worth…

Cutscene: …a triple

MSQ: The escape sequence in general is fun and intense, especially as Anduin is still trying to reach out to Alleria as they’re escaping

Cutscene: Alleria tempted by Xalatath. Brilliantly animated, but it’s also interesting because of two reasons; Xalatath massively over-plays her hand here trying to tempt Alleria. She, of course, repeats Alleria’s own mistake back to her. She either is not as good as she thinks she is, she is entirely too invested in recruiting Alleria… or both. Either way she says exactly what Alleria needs to hear, leading immediately into…

Cutscene: SAWAL, Alleria and Anduin. Alleria finally opens up about the fear that’s been driving her the entire expansion, and beginning to realize the truth of accepting who and what she is. The great irony; by accepting void instead of being afraid of it, she is far more likely to not be corrupted by it

Secondary: Nope Cave 2.0. This entire quest is absolutely goddamned horrifying. No further notes

Secondary: Haranir quests and development thereof. We learn about how they’re actually pretty cool with you, they just are different, and will require dealing with differently

Secondary: Assisting the remaining survivors of Dalaran around Faerin’s Advance

Secondary: The dyeworks, and the politics thereof. This is fantastic. You help one faction, help the other faction, kill both, and assist your own ally in taking over. This crude summary barely does it justice, it’s wonderfully political and nuanced…

Secondary: …easy double

Brickwork: Webbing bricks! The bricks are literally webbed!

Brickwork: Lakebed, or what’s left of it

Brickwork: Nerubian Architecture in general. I absolutely love the pseudo egyptian stylings, and the clear connections with Scourge architecture…

Brickwork: …easy double

Music Direction: Azj-Kahet in general

Music Direction: Nerubians have their own theme, and I love how sophisticated it sounds. Lovely usage of violin (a string instrument, of course)

Brickwork: The Weaver’s Lair. I love how it’s all a massive web in style and construction

Doodads: Weaver’s Lair! Books, scrolls, rotators, printers, details upon details…

Doodads: …easy double

Brickwork: Caves. For the second time in the same expansion, Blizzard nails plain old caves

Brickwork: Oh yeah, and then there’s everything to do with the void crap in and on the ceiling. It’s gradient, even. Some void fungus, some void holes, some void space

Music Direction: City of Threads, lovely pizzicato. Strings, again!

NPC Set Dressing: The City of Threads, Bazaar. This is easily the best looking part of the entire city. Tons of NPCs going about their business, ordering food, chatting, hanging out, patrolling, hiding, tons and tons of interactions…

NPC Set Dressing: …for an easy…

NPC Set Dressing: …triple

Brickwork: Then there’s the layout and design of the Bazaar itself…

Brickwork: …which is probably the best designed part of the city…

Brickwork: …another triple

Doodads: And you’d better believe it’s absolutely covered in details and doodads absolutely everywhere…

Doodads: …so that’s…

Doodads: …another triple

Visual Storytelling: There’s a nerubian pet store!!

Brickwork: The Skeins, a nice garden looking area…

Doodads: …with nice foliage and fronds

Brickwork: Battlements and webbed towers of the High Hollows

Doodads: The Burrows. Horrifying, horrifying burrows

Brickwork: I have to give special mention to the hanging structures

Brickwork: The absolutely horrifying depths of the spider lairs

Brickwork: The absolutely disgusting depths of the chaos-mutated land and foliage by the Black Blood

Secondary: Faerin, Anduin, and Light’s Gambit. A wonderful breather moment of character development…

Secondary: …world building…

Internal Continuity: …and continuity

Background Lore: So, the Arathi Empire has territories… and they have uprisings. Interesting

Secondary: The Steelstrike family, and a home cooked meal. Good lord I love these little moments…

Secondary: …and how well done they are

Prime Opt: Orweyna and the Black Blood. This is almost entirely foreshadowing, hints and inferences, potential for later. But it’s great stuff. The Unseeming, the Haranir, and the ‘fuel’ for the Ascended…

Prime Opt: …easy double

Prime Opt: The Vizier’s quests, and the lead up to the raid

Cutscene: SAWAL, Alleria, Jaina, and Thrall. Her opening up about her pain and trauma, Jaina and Thrall immediately empathizing, and her reaffirming that she is not alone. Void or no

Cutscene: SAWAL, Turalyon and Alleria finally get a moment to talk. His unyielding faith in her (yeah), and her reliance on him to steady her in her Doubt. Doubt with an anchor is a fascinating concept, and here we are

Cutscene: SAWAL, Dagran and Brinthe. “We have a future, and we will also have a past”. The quietly hopeful way Brinthe (Debra Wilson) says that is fantastic. And the implication of the new Earthen dispersing into the world like dandelions is a great thing (and actually is true! After you’ve unlocked Earthen, they show up all over the place in older zones)

Cutscene: SAWAL, Moira and Magni. He’s been through a lot lately and decided to come out of it with the best of himself, so the first thing he says to his daughter that he’s proud of her. That she is fantastic in SPITE of him, not because of him. He also flat out states that she’s a better parent than him. And she is appropriately gobsmacked and angry about it.

Cutscene: SAWAL, Lufsela and Thrall. Simple, sweet, indicative, well acted

MSQ: The build up to the summoning of the Stormrooks is fascinating for two big reasons. First, Thrall, who’s been having trouble with his shamanism for years, helping someone else practice it… which is more important considering what Baelgrim and the Riders used to do was functionally Dark Shamanism. Thus, a new era for the Earthen, and Thrall helping people to work in unity with the elements. It’s nice stuff, simple, down to earth, and heartwarming

Cutscene: SAWAL, Lufsela and Olbarig. Some interesting history and character post mortem for Baelgrim… and yet another indicator of how awful the factory reset machine is. Also some good moments for Lufsela

NPC Set Dressing: The beach with the multi-species armies, and a lot of returning named characters

MSQ: The rookies, their varying personalities, their reactions to the training

MSQ: The legacy of Baelgrim, and the simple realization of how one does not have to be compelled to serve

MSQ: I absolutely adore the victory lap fight against the Titan war machine. First, this is actually foreshadowed (twice even) about how the Titans have a failsafe in case the Earthen get too independent. Second, the atmosphere, tone, music, and voice acting all confirm the same thing. This could have been a big, doomy fight for existence, but no; this is a victory lap. This is, we already won, let’s bring this sucker home. And it succeeds so well

MSQ: The initial foray into the Ascended Transformatory. The horror of what Ascension is, and how it warps people before it’s concluded

Visual Storytelling: The mural. Clearly an old god, mind controlling nerubians into walking into its open maw, while n’raqi watch and corral them

Animation: Of course the latest vignette is fantastic…

Animation: …on the animation front

Voice Acting: It also really nails the tone for all characters present

Writing: As usual, Xalatath is right on point. Over-eager, over-playing, and over-confident, and thus she moves. The way she pulled Ansurek to her side, the quiet cruelty of her actions, the way Neferess resisted to the last… wisely, and correctly

Internal Continuity: The history of Azj-Kahet, their refusal of Azjol-Nerub, their refusal of Nyalotha

MSQ: So the reveal itself is whatever, but the way Xalatath just effortlessly controls Ytekhi, Lilian’s immediate reaction to it, our escape… but the really smart part is how Lilian STILL manages to bring them down peacefully so work can be done to save them

MSQ: I really like how down to earth and homey the dealing with local Earthen leftover facilities is. Getting them working again with Dagran, Brinthe, and ZOE is a great breather after the intensity of the infiltration of the City of Threads

Cutscene: Turalyon and Alleria as she realizes the feint, and he has faith in her, just as she in him

MSQ: The charge through the Priory has exactly the right intensity it needs for what is functionally the final dungeon of the launch MSQ

Animation: Of course the animation on the finale cutscene is fantastic, but…

Animation: …it’s the details that really sell it. The lines on Khadgar’s face (which fade when he’s healed)

Animation: The fact that, when Alleria attacks Xalatath, she doesn’t hesitate at ALL to try to protect the Dark Heart

Character: This is such a perfect character piece for everyone involved. Khadgar, Alleria, Xalatath, Anduin

Theme: So… the central themes (BOTH of them) are completely on point in this cutscene. Alleria and Anduin accept who they are, and the light (metaphorical and literal) returns

Moment: I’m sorry, both major moments here are just… goosebump inducingly good. First, Alleria finally, finally embraces who she is and what she does. And so rather than trying to attack and kill her enemy, she bypasses her entirely and focuses on something else; Damage the Dark Heart (and release Khadgar). Xalatath was completely unprepared for this, and it’s the first time in the entire game she actually sounds upset, as we’ve finally managed to actually harm Xalatath…

Moment: …great moment. Also foreshadowed a bit (the last time Alleria punched at Xalatath she punched the Dark Heart, not Xalatath herself)

Moment: But the next moment is even better. My God. Khadgar dies, Alleria weeps openly on his chest, and Anduin looks up and sees the Light returning to Beledar. And he just… closes his eyes, and breathes. One hand on his big sister, the other on Khadgar’s chest, and again he just… breathes. And the Light seeps into Khadgar, healing him… this moment is hard to overstate. Anduin has been unable to use the Light for YEARS now, and his entire journey from Shadowlands’ finale to here has been about this moment. And when he really, really needed it… when his friends needed him, when a life was on the line, it was right there. And that’s Anduin in a nutshell, someone who helps others. This moment…

Moment: …actually bypasses the usual…

Moment: …triple line…

Internal Continuity: …by being such a culmination…

Internal Continuity: …of so much

Cutscene: SAWAL, Anduin and Thrall, epilogue. Varian’s letter, Anduin’s music, and Anduin’s search for… identity. For accepting who he is. Anduin’s struggle with his kingdom, his father, and his legacy, all boiled down to expectations that he never actually had to live up to

Cutscene: Aranak’ai (the Weaver) and Neferess. Their firm devotion to each other, and their struggle to continue on despite everything

Cutscene: SAWAL, Alleria… and Khadgar. Khadgar’s outmaneuvering of Xalatath, his faith in Alleria, and his gratitude to and faith in us to rescue him… and of course, consequences. He’s clearly not doing great afterwards, but still doing his best with what he has

Internal Continuity: Okay so, something War Within does VERY well is it keeps a consistent amount of general internal continuity. Characters, plot points, logistics, these things matter for… one of the first times in WoW’s history really. When an army is knocked over, the force that had it acts like it lost an army. I know that sounds weird to point out but A: It really does add to the enjoyment of the narrative (the very definition of a Story Positive) and B: It’s a very welcome change for how things were before. So this one’s for all that continuity in the Isle of Dorn

Internal Continuity: The Ringing Deeps does this too of course

Internal Continuity: Hallowfall does it even more…

Internal Continuity: …so that’s a double

Internal Continuity: And Azj-Kahet does it a bunch too (I mean, how many Dalaran survivors do we rescue here, alone?)…

Internal Continuity: …so that’s a double

Background Lore: There’s a weirdly large amount of completely optional dialogue characters have alongside quests. As in you can just talk to them and they comment on what’s going on. It’s great

Camera: You know the drill. This is modern WoW, so the camerawork is fantastic. So we have good camera in the Isle of Dorn

Camera: In the Ringing Deeps

Camera: In Hallowfall

Camera: And in Azj-Kahet

Animation: And you better believe those cutscenes are just firing on all cylinders now, in the Isle of Dorn

Animation: In the Ringing Deeps

Animation: In Hallowfall

Animation: And in Azj-Kahet

Character: Moira is fantastic in this. I’m honestly shocked they took someone like this and did so much with her, and she serves as a great fulcrum for a lot of what’s going on…

Character: …easy double

Character: Anduin is, naturally, amazeballs. He’s easily the main character of the piece, and his arc and journey are phenomenal and I just want to hug and protect my little brother. This is…

Character: …an easy…

Character: …triple

Character: Dagran! What a breakout role, Dagran the slightly autistic geek serves as a wonderful counterpoint to Moira and Magni both…

Character: …I waffled on if he’s a double or not, but I think he qualifies

Character: Magni is just so good here. His arc wraps up by the second zone, but he’s still fantastic all the way through it. All his resentment, his pain, and his willingness to improve and move on…

Character: …love it

Character: Faerin! Speaking of breakout characters, this woman comes out of NOwhere and is almost entirely focused on a single zone and yet still nails it. This is exactly what a real Light practitioner should be like, and she is such a great counterpoint to both Alleria and Anduin…

Character: …easy double

Character: General Steelstrike! How the hell did they take this archetype and make her this engaging?

Character: Orweyna, the Haranir who’s breaking tradition

Character: The Weaver. A spymistress who is legitimately and personally devoted to her queen

Character: Anub’azal. Pragmatic to a fault, and startlingly intelligent for someone of his position

Character: Nizrek. Intelligent, curious, and ultimately very good-aligned. What a wonderful subversion of the treacherous vizier archetype

Character: Xalatath herself. She doesn’t get much screen time, but she uses all of it very well

Voice Acting: Hoo boy. So I’m just going to go down the list here. We have Moira

Voice Acting: Anduin

Voice Acting: Dagran

Voice Acting: Magni

Voice Acting: Faerin

Voice Acting: Orweyna

Voice Acting: The Weaver

Voice Acting: Xalatath

Voice Acting: And everyone else in general…

Voice Acting: …for a solid…

Voice Acting: …triple

Voice Direction: Here’s a weird one. Each individual Earthen sounds a specific amount ‘robotic’ depending on how developed they are. Someone somewhere put some real thought into this and it REALLY adds to their characterization and culture…

Voice Direction: …so enjoy a double for that

World Building: So, so much world building for the launch content. The Earthen are a very well fleshed out, in depth race with tremendous ties to Azeroth, the Titans, the Keepers…

World Building: …for an easy…

World Building: …triple

World Building: Kobolds! Of all things, Kobolds! Kobolds now join the ranks of several other ‘creeps’ races and get their own development and culture

World Building: The Arathi, weirdly. Yes I still think this is an asspull but at least they flesh out the expedition nicely

World Building: The Haranit, also weirdly. Isolationist, to the point where other people aren’t even supposed to know they exist

World Building: And of course, the Azj-Kahet Nerubians. There’s so much culture here I struggle to even summarize it, from the classes to the economics to the food to the architecture to the politics to the fact that bribes are considered normal to the military… it’s fascinating how in depth they go here…

World Building: …no pun…

World Building: …intended

Theme: Two big themes are throughout the entire piece. The first is absolutely everywhere; Accepting who you are. From the Earthen (You are not flawed), to Faerin (She doesn’t want a prosthetic arm), to the Nerubians (Ascension is not worth the price), to our principle characters. It’s a good theme, it’s well threaded throughout the work, and it’s powerful…

Theme: …earning…

Theme: …a triple

Theme: A slightly lesser theme but still there is that the light always returns (notice lower-case L). This is an interesting theme to present right before an expansion called Midnight, but it too is all over the place. As bad things happen, things do get better

NPC Set Dressing: Dornogal! Lots and lots of people roaming and doing their thing…

NPC Set Dressing: …easy double

NPC Set Dressing: Hallowfall in general but especially Mereldar…

NPC Set Dressing: …for a full….

NPC Set Dressing: …triple

NPC Set Dressing: Ringing Deeps, in general

NPC Set Dressing: Azj-Kahet, the City of Threads

NPC Set Dressing: Azj-Kahet, the Weaver’s Lair

Prime Opt: Stonevault! The final fall of Eirich, the last of the Skardyn and the loyalists

Prime Opt: Darkflame Cleft. It’s mostly whatever, until we take out the Candle King, at which point the atmosphere and mood goes straight into horror, and then terror. It’s great stuff…

Prime Opt: …easy double

Prime Opt: Ara-Kara, atmosphere and creepy horror (and implication)

Prime Opt: City of Threads deserves a plus JUST for all the NPC Set Dressing as you roam the city

Prime Opt: And how awesome Nizrek is. The change in his tone alone

MSQ: The final confrontation with Ansurek is really fantastic. Her insanity and descending mania is audible in her voice, and the spectacle is fantastic

Cutscene: And Xalatath’s final confrontation to her is interesting. Of course she mocks and belittles, but most interestingly of all she actually ‘lands’ for the first time to inform her of how irrelevant she was, and to give her a bit of her philosophy; Only the strong survive

Doodads: Exile’s Reach, the shore and the nearby woods both…

Doodads: …lots of great design here for such a small area

Brickwork: Exile’s Reach, skybox! The storm in the distance! And of course great usage of the ogre architecture

Music Direction: Exile’s Reach, again. Both sides get lovely remixes of Warcraft 2 music

Foreshadowing: For how simple of a story it is, they do a good job of building it up from basically the very beginning

Visual Storytelling: Lots. The storm, the ogres as rares, the (Maldraxxian) undeath magic early on

Voice Acting: All solid, across the board…

Characters: …from a surprisingly solid supporting cast

MSQ: Exile’s Reach, as usual, has great animations in its cutscene design

Writing: Good exposition in Exile’s Reach too! Nothing super amazing but I do enjoy how things line up and how quickly and easily things are exposited to a new player

World Building: Siren’s Isle. The mythos building and world development here is pretty solid, and ties neatly into Wrath, the Winterskorn War, and the War of the Ancients

Brickwork: Obviously the Siren Isle looks good. It’s circa BFA stuff but it’s still good

Storytelling Mechanic: The very existence of Lorewalking is such a great idea. Being able to play significant portions of Warcraft history, part storytelling, part reading, part playable dungeon, part playable quest, part playable cutscene. It’s phenomenal and an amazing idea…

Storytelling Mechanic: …just by itself the very concept deserves a double

Prime Opt: Arthas visiting the Scarlet Monastery in his training. Uther and his terrible advice, the burden of leadership, Arthas’ friendship with Muradin… and Arthas’ great chemistry with Jaina

Prime Opt: Aethas’ chain is so damned good. Let’s just start with the obvious; his voice acting, his focus (salvaging and rebuilding and asking for help), and most importantly of all his doubt just… drowning him

Voice Acting: I need to give a separate positive for Jim Pirri for just absolutely nailing it with Aethas

Moment: Aethas’s doubt, Kalecgos’ arrival, and his IMMEDIATE turning to help his friend

Cutscene: Aethas’ SAWAL. The raw pain in Aethas’ voice, the comfort Kalecgos offers, the very grounded reality of what Aethas fears most of all…

Cutscene: …for it all to be nothing. For it all to be his fault. For him to be alone… as he should be. It is entirely too appropriate that as he speaks this doubts he has two people right there with him, for if we were not he would surely fall

Prime Opt: Kel’Thuzad. His origins, his motives, his mentality. But more to the point this isn’t just fan service, but also connects directly with the story arc; the Kirin Tor were good. The Kirin Tor were bad

Prime Opt: There’s a moment during Farewell, City of Magic where you can talk to about two dozen NPCs who all have very varied takes and perspectives on the tragedy and it’s just brilliant stuff

Cutscene: The final send-off of the lost of Dalaran… and Dalaran itself.

Theme: The whole expansion does this to some extent but the Dalaran quests really follow the positively inclined theme of Warcraft as a whole. When at his worst, Aethas had people there for him. When lost to his grief he fell to doubt. But in the end, in Azeroth at least, you are not alone

Secondary: Lamplighter Kaerter and Peacekeeper Lief make a great two act

Secondary: The new Arathi ‘welcome back’ tutorial is primarily a gameplay thing, but the vibes and usage of the locals are exactly what they should be for a brand new/returning player; Something nice and low tier while still being relevant

Cutscene: When we get to Arathi we see Faerin is just giddy at the sight of Thoradin’s Wall, and Danath STARTS to try and talk her down from getting too much into it. He mentions ultra-nationalism (in brief) and starts to talk about how this can lead to problems… and before we go any further, I love this. It’s well animated, it’s brilliantly shot, and it’s a powerful moment and a good message…

Storyboarding: …but then I have to praise the camera and composition as well. My favorite little detail is how, the MOMENT we get interrupted by someone crying for help, we (as in the player) go rushing down to help. I mean instantly too, no hesitation. Immediately behind us is Geya’rah

Visual Storytelling: Also when we get there a lot is immediately conveyed. Danath is talking to the farmer (the leader), Geya’rah is axe ready having killed the bandit (warrior), Faerin is kneeling by the child (paladin / helper). And Clarabelle watches all

Prime Opt: The multiple perspectives from people in Stromgarde in regard to the (artificial) crisis is great. We see actual racists, situational racists, and people who are just angry, hurt, scared, and hungry

Prime Opt: The sheer temerity of Marran and her mercantilism isolationist bullcrap is honestly wonderfully written and really sells how mind blowingly stupid she is

Cutscene: SAWAL, Captain Brewston and the backstory of the Defias. Nothing really new here, but a good summary for people who hadn’t played Vanilla or Cataclysm

Visual Storytelling: The framing of the Refuge Pointe escape point. Great immediate showcasing. Karga is defending the refugees, who have an overturned wagon, sandbags, guns, and wounded

Cutscene: Another short but effective SAWAL with Karga, explaining what the Scarlet Crusade was to people not familiar with them

Cutscene: Yet another SAWAL with Eitrigg (lot of those in Arathi!). This is yet another bit of backstory tidbit from the internment camps prior to Warcraft 3. Also, all of these moments are part of Faerin’s overall character arc in Arathi. This is her first time seeing things that aren’t, no pun intended, Black and White

Prime Opt: Consider this a bit of an aggregate for the remainder of the Arathi chain. There’s better quests, but this is still fantastic. Faerin’s arc, helping the locals, connections to the past, Warcraft 2 continuity, laying bricks…

Prime Opt: …it’s all fantastic…

Cutscene: …and leads to the final scene. Danath and Faerin staring at the wall discussing the nuanced take on the theme…

Theme: …legends, myths, and stories. Good and bad and everything in between, it’s what we do with them that really matters

Spritework: Let’s get this out of the way early; War Within has some of the best spritework in the business. I’m just going to rapid fire these a bit so we’ll start with the Arathi gear…

Spritework: …which is a solid…

Spritework: …triple across the four armor types

Spritework: Nerubar Paladin raid

Spritework: Nerubar Priest raid

Spritework: Nerubar Warlock raid is really damned good

Spritework: Nerubar Demonhunter raid

Spritework: Nerubar Evoker raid is just so damned good…

Spritework: …especially the colors they picked

Spritework: Goblin gear which, like the Arathi, has a different style per armor type…

Spritework: …for another…

Spritework: …triple

Spritework: Gallagio Warrior is unironically one of the best suits in the game…

Spritework: …solid double

Spritework: Gallagio Paladin raid

Spritework: Gallagio Death Knight raid

Spritework: Gallagio Shaman raid

Spritework: Gallagio Mage raid

Spritework: Gallagio Druid raid

Spritework: Weapons. So, so many great weapons. Arathi weapons, goblin weapons, nerubian weapons, ethereal weapons…

Spritework: …absolutely…

Spritework: …fantastic stuff…

Spritework: …and great variety too

Spritework: Manaforge Warrior raid set is another shockingly good suit…

Spritework: …easy double

Spritework: Manaforge Paladin raid set

Spritework: Manaforge Hunter raid set. Yes, that’s right, an unabashedly good Hunter set. I’m as shocked as you are

Spritework: Manaforge Rogue raid set

Spritework: Manaforge Priest raid set

Spritework: Manaforge Shaman raid set

Spritework: Manaforge Mage raid set

Spritework: Manaforge Warlock raid set

Spritework: Manaforge Druid raid set

Spritework: Manaforge Demonhunter raid set

Spritework: Manaforge Evoker raid set

Secondary: The Knights of the Brown Table! This is fun, well researched, well written, and funny…

Secondary: …great mini chain

MSQ: Undermine lead-up pacing is just damned good. There’s an explosion, so we check it out. There’s people, okay. There’s over-worked equipment, sure. There’s… horrible abominations? Okay we can deal with that. There’s… eldritch fields of old god corpses?! Okay, this is getting worse. And it all culminates, at the bottom of a pit of literal corruption, in realizing we have to go to Undermine

Visual Storytelling: The descent into the Writhing Fields is wonderful. The green and grass and animals and plants just slowly gives way to more and more and more rot

Brickwork: The Writhing Fields. Gluck, brack, coated Titan tech, it looks exactly like what it is; putrefied Old God sludge

Theme: Gazlowe facing his own personal void… the Undermine, his own personal hell that he escaped long ago

Brickwork: Undermine skybox. I love it; the fake clouds, and sky, and sun… and stars!

Cutscene: Storyboarding: Everything about the Gallywix introduction cutscene. The framing, the expressions, the camera angles…

Cutscene: Voice Acting: …the brilliant voice acting

Cutscene: I absolutely love how the sequence goes. He walks in all pomp and power, bullies the others into submission by mere threat of fear, then brutally murders a cartel boss in front of witnesses and gets away with it. This is already brilliant stuff…

Cutscene: …but then Xalatath shows up, an ACTUAL big fish, and he immediately cowers. He’s just smart enough to recognize how much smaller he is than her and to act appropriately

MSQ: The Undermine starts us off with an extended walk-and-talk. Er, ride-and-talk. Very GTA style. Introduces the cartels, their problems, and does some foreshadowing, character building, and establishment of both major threats (the blood and the Blackfuse). This is all fantastic stuff

Brickwork: Okay okay okay we need to talk about Undermine. Let’s start by discussing the amazing architectural style of the entire city. It’s a wonderful mish mash of crudely bolted on things that still looks solid and sturdy rather than rickety and falling apart. And that’s on top of lots of jagged edges, flashing lights, and periodic pieces of junk smashed here or there. This style is phenomenal…

Brickwork: …easy…

Brickwork: …triple

Brickwork: Then there’s the Vatworks. It’s a lot more open than most of the zones, with lots of ooze and pipes and rivers which are laid out in the same way you would brooks and streams but, y’know, a bit more green and a bit more glowy

Doodads: Vatworks doodads are amazing of course. Slime, pipes, different types of pipes, even different pipes, and of course the entire cooking district…

Doodads: …easy double

NPC Set Dressing: Vatworks. The pandaren restaurant, the destitute roaming, the salvagers, the slimes, the sous chefs, the tourists…

NPC Set Dressing: …tons…

NPC Set Dressing: …of praise

Music Direction: The Vatworks sounds nicely… experimental. Like an underground laboratory

Brickwork: The Heaps and Golf Course are some of the better visual design in the Undermine. The slopes and pits of the trash, the pooled water, the mulchers and processors, and of course who could forget the golf course? This whole area is such a wonderfully meshed contrasting vibe…

Brickwork: …for…

Brickwork: …a triple

Doodads: The Heaps. The trash piles, the trash heaps, the trash cans, the trash on fire… oh and golf (mention the fake wind sock)

NPC Set Dressing: People playing golf, salvaging, and burning

Music Direction: Nice, almost chain-gang worker camp vibe to the song

Doodads: Pleasant Heights. Food, drink, luxury hotel, fancy accommodations…

Doodads: …easy double

NPC Set Dressing: Pleasant Heights. People luxuriating, eating, yelling, lining up for things, chilling at the hotel

Doodads: Tailgate Park. Frozen fish, lots of open area outdoorsy stuff like fake palm trees and hangout spots

NPC Set Dressing: Plenty of people just chilling around the park

Brickwork: The Blackwater Marina. The crude lake, the awful fake beach, the harbor

Doodads: The trash, the food, the stalls, the trash cans, the dance party accouterments…

Doodads: …another double

NPC Set Dressing: Beach goers, cosplayers, hungry people, dancing people, buying people, chilling people…

NPC Set Dressing: …great crowds…

NPC Set Dressing: …easy triple

Music Direction: The Blackwater Marina is such a great poiratey take on the goblin theme

Brickwork: Hovel Hill, the residential section, and it shows

Doodads: This is probably the actual best doodading in the entire zone, and that is saying something. It would be impossible for me to summarize the designs here, inside and out, it’s bonkers good…

Doodads: …easy…

Doodads: …triple

NPC Set Dressing: So, so many people going about their daily lives here. Painters, cleaners, church goers, mechanics…

NPC Set Dressing: …another…

NPC Set Dressing: …triple

Music Direction: Classic Goblin sounds here. Very big band

Brickwork: Slam Central Station! The first thing we see, appropriately chaotic and brilliantly laid out

Doodads: Slam Central Station and the various stalls and debris

NPC Set Dressing: People coming, people going, people waiting in line, people training rats, people selling cola…

NPC Set Dressing: …a solid double

Cutscene: SAWAL between Gazlowe and Renzik. It’s short, but it’s beautiful. Gazlowe hated being in Undermine and it shows in his voice and his words. But then Renzik responds to why HE left…

Moment: …he was tired of being the boot

MSQ: So, we find out why they’re using Kaja’mite (and lovely deep cut there, given the connections between the Dragon Soul and the Dark Heart. This leads immediately into a great shift in tone as we return to Undermine, the music is low and threatening, and Shadowguard Ethereals are now attacking goblin civilians in the Vatworks

Moment: Gallywix has successfully repaired the Dark Heart, the Shadowguard steals it,

Moment: Gazlowe is defeated and done with all of this. He just wants to go home…

Moment: …Renzik takes the shot for Gazlowe…

Moment: …and now Gazlowe is, for the first time, angry. Actually, REALLY angry. And now we have a revolution on our hands

MSQ: And can I just say I love how all of this is set up? Gallywix had won (really) but he couldn’t stop himself from poking the bear. He did so with Black Blood weapons which quickly and efficiently conveyed how dangerous they were in how they disintegrated Renzik, but also they ensure he doesn’t even have a body to resurrect (or bury). It adds permanence to the scene while also establishing the threat. And all of that while just generally being high quality stuff

Atmosphere: The revolution itself. People fighting in the streets, the music changing, people swapping sides, the works

MSQ: Everything about the revolution is fantastic. The catharsis, the bookend of hitting the zones and fixing their issues, us steamrolling through…

MSQ: …I love this chain. They even show that each of the minibosses has their own reasons and mentalities for going along with Gallywix

MSQ: But then there’s the moment when the crowd really gets going. And in addition to some wonderful visual storytelling we have all the variety of people being convinced (including the debate bro!)

Moment: I LOVE ripping down the statue. They started it, we start tugging, and the moment we do everyone is inspired to join in. This is perfect construction. We didn’t do this, they did, but we helped inspire them to do it

Moment: Gallywix is abandoned by Xalatath. Great scene (as usual she bails the literal second she’s done with you) but can I give some special praise…

Animation: …to Gallywix’s facial animation. He goes from disbelieving to uncertain to scheming to afraid to relieved in just a few seconds

Moment: Of course Gallywix dies to his own stupidity. Kicking something he shouldn’t have out of pure ego

MSQ: Shaw’s final send off to Renzik. The tiny details are what really sell it for me; the very well worn daggers, and the completely pristine fishing gear

Cutscene: Undermine’s finale cutscene. A near perfect bookend. The lighting is different, the music, the smiles….

Cutscene: …but my favorite part? Gazlowe pushes away the big boss chair, and doesn’t sit in it. Just takes his place at the tables

Secondary: Sammy, Mite, and the patent infighting… that it turns out they repeat. Every week. Like clockwork. Wah wah

Secondary: Barrelbottom housing and cleaning up the trash

Secondary: Helping Old Man Lowe and Pitz see eye to eye (and helping the community while we’re at it)

Secondary: Alice the rat who gets much better at cooking thanks to her, ah, condition

Secondary: The Heist is fantastic. Good continuity with Cinderbangs and Goldmine (and Magmatooth!), good fun, and doesn’t outstay its welcome

Secondary: The wedding is another fun romp with some cute stuff and surprisingly sweet, but what I really love about it…

World Building: …is how much it develops the culture of the goblins as a whole. Honestly the whole patch has been doing that, as is normal everytime a new race gets the spotlight for a while (see the kobolds this very expansion!)

Prime Opt: The Undermine finale, the detective case. Starts off fun, has some good flavor, some great character bits…

Prime Opt: …develops well, manages to have even more insights into Goblin society, strong focus on continuity…

Prime Opt: …and concludes satisfyingly and very, very gobliny

Character: Gazlowe has pretty much always been legit, and that hasn’t changed here

Character: Renzik was kind of the stand out star here, and they did some great stuff with him

Character: Pamsy sort of needed to land hard to make it work (our very first nice Venture Co character in like 20 years) and she comes across as pretty legit

Character: Gallywix, of course. Honestly one of the best villains in Warcraft history. A smart idiot who has way more ego than he can check but is also aware of how small of a fish he really is, who ultimately screws himself over more than anyone else does…

Character: …great villain

Character: Undermine supporting cast. There’s… a lot of named characters down here…

Character: …a whole…

Character: …lot. The detective and his family, the rat chef, the trash hauler, the guy who invented boom golf, the dude hanging out in his trash can, just… a lot

Voice Acting: Gazlowe has some fantastic voice acting this time around. Good nuance, good tone…

Voice Acting: …hell of a standout performance

Voice Acting: Further praise to Gallywix’s actor for continuing to be awesome

Voice Acting: Lots of great supporting cast in Undermine…

Voice Acting: …for another…

Voice Acting: …aggregate triple

Voice Acting: Lorewalker Cho does a phenomenal job with the Lorewalking sequences. Perfect tone to match the story in question

Prime Opt: The Lorewalking quests are cool, as always, but they really get good when we go back to the days of the Black Empire. Great moments, voice acting, visuals, but also this entire sequence…

Writing: …is REALLY well written. There’s a lot of fantastic exposition on display here. Xal’atath’s minions being pure void, to contrast the void plus life of the old god minions. The info that the Old Gods constantly fight each other. The variance in their speech styles. The fact that Xalatath was ‘embraced’ by the darkness. Her disdain for them, the fact that she isn’t working for them. There’s a lot going on here in a very short period of time

Prime Opt: Hannan and Orweyna. The consequences of blind adherence to tradition, the amazing cutscene quality, and more development of the Haranir and Orweyna in particular

Prime Opt: I love the bookending of Orweyna’s quest. We set up Undermine, say goodbye to Moira and Magni

Music Direction: The leitmotif of the Ethereals. Clockwork percussion, light, whimsical, fantastical

Storytelling Mechanic: War Within loading screens are legitimately some of the best in the entire game…

Storytelling Mechanic: …easy…

Storytelling Mechanic: …triple

Cutscene: SAWAL, Locus Walker at the entrance to the city. Nice little mention of the Maw Walker (y’know, us) as well as a bit of explanation for what the Trust is and some usual good acting. This dovetails into the next one, where we start to learn about what the Ravel were, and a quick and efficient retconning of the BC quests

NPC Set Dressing: Okay so Tazavesh is mostly just the same (incredibly well designed) city from Shadowlands, but the increased and newly designed NPC Set Dressing really helps it a lot

Cutscene: The Xalatath reveal is nicely done… to an extent. She is overt, duplicitous, and vaguely seductive in how she talks without losing her mocking tone

Brickwork: Karesh’s skybox. That is to say, Karesh itself. There’s a lot of visual techniques being used to make this look as good as it does, and it shows

Brickwork: Karesh, the glassy sands which reflect translucent void

Brickwork: Karesh, and the absolutely beautiful void glass. It even blends seamlessly into the adjacent sands

Brickwork: The Eco-Domes themselves. That is to sigh, the interiors. Gorgeous, varied, and yet still mixed

Doodads: The Eco Domes also have wonderful foliage and detailing

MSQ: Xalatath does a wonderful job of putting a crack between Alleria and Locus Walker, and she does it with a truth. But my favorite part about all of this…

MSQ: …is she asn’t focused on Alleria at all, but Locus Walker. She effectively breaks him here by forcing him to face his greatest failure, and reminding him of the burden he cannot bear

Cutscene: This leads to Xalatath pushing Alleria away to hurt Locus Walker, but really… HE’S the one to blame here. His sin and flaw is not the mistake he holds guilt for these long years, but rather in lying about it to Alleria. Alleria, someone who ALREADY has major trust issues, who is already skirting the line of Doubt. When confronted he has a chance to come clean but he… doesn’t. And that’s the problem right there, the fact that she cannot trust him because he LIED to her. And when confronted he doesn’t own up

Camera: The camera in these scenes is brilliant by the way…

Storyboarding: …as is the storyboarding

MSQ: And then we see Xalatath’s modus operandi first hand; She engineers a problem with a built-in solution. Then she offers the solution

Cutscene: And good lord, she even uses different vocabulary and tone depending on who she’s talking to

Writing: And I LOVE how honest she is. She is SO honest with us, consistently. It’s such a fantastic part of her character. She openly tells us how she’s going to manipulate everyone else, and then shows it

Moment: So here’s the question. Did the Soul Scribe actually connect with Karesh? Or was it all a lie? There’s room for both

MSQ: So. We take down Dimensius (GREAT spectacle by the way)…

MSQ: …and Locus Walker is erased. This was expected, but well executed, and honestly Alleria’s reactions to it are what sell this. This all leads to us taking the tiny sliver of Karesh we found inside Dimensius to Venari

MSQ: The Soul Scribe is still madly posturing, blinded by her oath, but Venari cuts through it effortlessly. And then with Soul Scribe’s willing offering, she restores Karesh to the world

Character: Xalatath. Most of the points I’d make about her I already have, so I shan’t repeat them here, but she’s still an amazing villain

Character: Venari. She was the best part about Shadowlands and she’s still legit here, willing to cut through bullcrap and remain positively inclined without losing her pragmatism

Character: Locus-Walker. The man who portrays himself as pragmatic but in truth is drowning in his own guilt

Voice Actor: Xalatath, of course

Voice Actor: Locus Walker, definitely

Voice Actor: Karesh, general

Character: Supporting cast of Karesh. It’s not at the Undermine levels but we still get the brother and sister, the outcast, the one fleeing…

Character: …still some great stuff

Secondary: The bad boss of Xy Imports, a unique and fun insight into how Oaths work, and revealing the insidiousness with which they operate

Secondary: Om’taha and the priests. This quest is so damned good. Her very real emotions of guilt and fear and duty, the tragedy of the discarded toys of Xalatath, and her sacrifice to prevent catastrophe…

Secondary: …great quest

Secondary: Om’fennad and his sister… and the remains of their mother. Insight into their culture, the dangers of the waste, the contrast, the plight of coming home, and…

Secondary: …a powerful emotional gutpunch on top of all of it when they really do finally find the tree. Or what’s left of it

Music Direction: Karesh itself. Mournful, peaceful, quiet, empty

Music Direction: The Manaforge Omega and, of course, Dimensius’ themes. Bombastic, horrifying, almost screeching. Perfectly befitting a sentient black hole

Music Direction: One more! The Eco Domes themselves. Uplifting, almost victorious

Secondary: Driruj’s quest is a nice subversion. At first it seems a typical ha ha greedy X of Y quest, and then we see the friend he’s leaving behind, and their regret at the unpleasantness of that passing. The former leaves behind seeds, the latter goes to plant them immediately

Secondary: The simple, heartfelt characterization of Hizfran and his path from exile to priest because we inspired him. Also as an aside a side character had an honest to goodness prophecy about us

Secondary: General for Karesh. Just some really solid stuff out here…

World Building: …also finally really fleshing out the Ethereals as a people (it’s their turn, after all)

Prime Opt: The different brews for the Pandarens and a lot of call backs to our past

Prime Opt: The Hozen misunderstanding (and adorableness!) Seriously this is just so damned cute, even if it’s a bit obvious

Prime Opt: Good lord, I love how down to earth all of this is. I really do. It’s all about a festival and everyday life

Prime Opt: Okay god damn, Li Li visiting her family at the graveyard, and being visited by her father, and the sincerity in their dialogue is just… powerful

Moment: Lorewalker Cho being flown in to Shen Zin Su (for the first time, I think), practically dragged by Yu’Lon… there’s a wholesome joy to all of it

Tone: The Pandaren Heritage quest manages the uplifting and grounded tone fantastically…

Tone: …an easy double

MSQ: Oztan Isle general quality. Animation, quests, voice acting, and that shockingly well storyboarded cutscene

MSQ: Alleria… poor, poor Alleria is not doing well at all. Her loss of Locus Walker (in the worst possible way; Losing him after a big fight, after a betrayal she saw coming, and without any possible closure). She is sounding more and more like Arthas, among others

MSQ: There is a fantastic moment when Alleria is interrogating a Shadowguard and he threatens Arator. Alleria then immediately kills him rather than try to extract more information. It’s a great moment

Visual Storytelling: The Void is invading the Maw, but also… flowers bloom on the river of souls

MSQ: Sylvanas is noticeably different, which is good, because she is. It honestly feels more like the, for lack of a better way to put it, real Sylvanas instead of the banshee monster

MSQ: I LOVE the characters we meet in the Maw, the lost souls. Some we can identify personally (Zelling), some generally (a tauren, a night elf, a forsaken). The variety and the reactions to each of them are amazing

Cutscene: Animation: The sheer detail on Sylvanas strumming her music to soothe the damned…

Cutscene: …setting them adrift UP river, that they might escape the Maw… brilliant stuff

Moment: …so… Sylvanas drops some very interesting tidbits that hint at a major retconning of the Shadowlands. That itself is not the positive, but rather the care put into the craft of her words. This is very precisely, very well written, and it provokes a lot of thought

Cutscene: And we see Xalatath’s purpose for the Dark Heart, and the beginnings of her final goal… claiming her prize (Azeroth, most likely)

Animation: Generally fantastic animation in cutscenes. There’s a couple of odd exceptions (one in Arathi and one in Karesh) but overall the cutscene quality is just top notch…

Animation: …so here’s an aggregate…

Animation: …triple

External Continuity: The Bronzebeards! Moira is a deep cut, and frankly so is Dagran, but finally connecting those threads left dangling since Vanilla and Cata is great

External Continuity: Nerubians in general, but also its connections to the Old Gods as well as the Ahn’Kahet Nerubians up in Northrend

External Continuity: Dalaran, Khadgar, Aethas, Kalecgos, Jaina. Everything about this is a follow through of all we’ve seen thus far

External Continuity: Thrall and Anduin (mostly Anduin). As much as I prefer to ignore Shadowlands, it’s really worth noting that this follow through on his trauma is appropriate and very well done

External Continuity: Ethereals and Brokers. We finally see the follow through of plot threads left since BC (hinted at many times since, but never really explored)

External Continuity: Bonus positive in general. War Within sits on the shoulders of what came before and it shows

Spoiler Story Negatives+

Writing: The consistent insistence upon the very existence of ‘beast tribes’ or, let’s call it what it is, ‘lesser’ races is a huge flaw in Warcraft lore we’re only very recently starting to dig ourselves out of. The quilboars and murlocs and harpies and gnolls and a dozen others *

Brickwork: Molten Core. There are caves, then there are bad caves, and then there’s Molten Core. This place is dull, boring, and bland…

Brickwork: …and absolutely huge, so enjoy those basic textures and lack of design for hours

Music Direction: Vanilla raids in general. While overworld zones tend to have better music application, the raids are the same dull ‘gloomy’ songs played aud infinitum, and it gets very old

External Continuity: NE joining the Horde, Forsaken joining the Alliance at launch (and in general)

Internal Continuity: So… it’s only periodic, and it varies based on expansion and quest and layer, but sometimes you just see some WEIRD stuff. Like multiple ‘warchiefs’ (there is no warchief of the Horde as of now), or NPCs being in the wrong space, or multiple of them, or not being there at all, thanks to how things have changed over the years

External Continuity: Everything to do with Stormwind. The city being there is… questionable. The kingdom being a huge, powerful kingdom with tons of resources sufficient to be a world superpower is nonsense. This is ridiculous…

External Continuity: …for several reasons, but especially because…

World Building: …of everything to do with the humans. The humans are the head of the Alliance, take the lead in all matters and affairs both economic and military (oh and cultural), and let’s be clear the only reason this is is because the first game on the franchise was called Orcs Vs. Humans, even though we’ve long since moved past all that nonsense. It’s stupid, poorly thought out, and actively makes the world make less sense…

World Building: …for a full…

World Building: …triple negative

External Continuity: Speaking of which, why did the Night Elves join the Alliance? This makes no sense on basically any level, and you get the vibe it’s just because the Alliance are the ‘good’ races and the Night Elves look ‘good’ instead of ‘monstrous’… oh speaking of which…

External Continuity: …the Horde being the ‘monstrous’ people. There’s far too much writing of them just straight up being ‘the bad guys’ for far too long…

Writing: …which leads to me hating the HvA thing. There is absolutely no reason for the Horde and Alliance to be at war at WoW’s launch, and for it to be a constant story thread for 15 goddamned years. This is the single worst element of the entire game to me, narratively…

Writing: …so let’s start…

Writing: …by giving that three general negatives, but then…

World Building: …there’s the fact that it flies in the face of logic (how do these people manage a state of cold then hot war for literal years despite everything else going on?)…

Pacing: …this also leads to some wonkiness in basically every expansion where we start off killing each other then going after our real enemies…

Plot: …which gets extremely old by the fifth time it happens…

Theme: …and also flies completely in the face of the themes of the franchise…

External Continuity: …Warcraft 3, it’s immediate predecessor…

Internal Continuity: …and its own internal storytelling. Seriously HOW many times do we make peace only to go back to war over the years?

Abandonment: So WoW, as a whole, has this problem with removing plot critical story. Each individual iteration gets its own negatives but I HAVE to give bonus negatives to the entire game for this, because it means the flow of plot (not STORY, but MAIN PLOT) across FOUR expansions gets muddled and confusing, and it’s all because they outright REMOVED quests from the game. I’m actually angry as I type this because of how awful this is…

Abandonment: …screw this…

Abandonment: …screw it hard

Prime Opt: Mt. Hyjal. Like, seriously, why are we here? The answer is: There is no answer. This is the one and ONLY instance in the ENTIRE game with ZERO lore to it. We’re just here to rehash the events of the final Warcraft 3 mission, nothing else. It’s completely pointless narratively

Voice Acting: Inconsistent voice acting in BC. This is probably the single worst expansion for the inconsistent voice acting problem. In some cases there’s like, an entire dungeon where only one boss has dialogue… or worse, bosses only talk certain lines out loud…

Voice Acting: …so that earns…

Voice Acting: …three negatives

Voice Acting: Bad voice acting in general. They clearly dragged a few people in from the office here, and every other voice actor is the same three people…

Voice Acting: …for two negatives

MSQ: The initial Draenei stories lack of storytelling

Secondary: Bloodmyst side quests are somehow worse than usual, and it’s not like they were super great to begin with

MSQ: Bloodmyst. Okay seriously, what is even going on here? The IDEA of the plot is engaging (the dovetail problems from Azuremyst; consequences of the crash and pushing back against the Blood Elves), but nothing really manages to get into the game and support it on camera. Worse…

Cutscenes: …Bloodmyst manages something several older cutscenes do; they suck. WoW tends to lean on in-gameplay cutscenes, and that can (and does) work, buuut it also looks really… really rough early on. Oh and while I’m here…

Story Sequencing: …Bloodmyst has no idea how to layer or present its quests in any logical order. So you not only get weird random chunks of like five separate story threads simultaneously, but you can quite literally finish a major arc, then get a quest that’s earlier in the same arc afterwards

MSQ: Sunstrider Isle. This is a weird one because, honestly, I rather like most of the story threads of the Blood Elven starter zones but… well, they’re just badly written. There’s an insane amount of repetition (we must survive by retaining control to survive our control survive control survive control) and that leads into another problem…

Plot: …the murder of the dwarven inspector. This is… ridiculous, especially when one zooms in the metaphorical camera on events. So the Alliance is spying on the Blood Elves (okay) and so the Blood Elves order the… assassination of the Alliance representative. What? The whole point of this is to contrive a reason why the Blood Elves don’t join the Alliance, which is already stupid for many reasons but most especially because that’s an EASY thing to write, but no, we go for this ‘because plot’ reason

Plot: So the Night Elven stuff in Ghostlands is… nonsense. The problem is it’s presuming the Blood Elves are Horde (they are not) and the Night Elves are their enemies (they are not) and that they’re in a state of war (still not true). Thus rather than earning any enmity we just start murdering night elves on sight (literally on sight by the way, even in lore). Sure

Padding: Ghostlands. Okay so the central plot is fine but good lord does it meander

Secondary: Hellfire Peninsula. Did you know the Blood Elves are EVIL. Cuz they’re EVIL. Seriously they’re frickin’ Sith here, it’s stupid

MSQ: Zangarmarsh, the water quest chain. This is the closest thing to an MSQ Zangar has and it just goes absolutely nowhere. Okay so the Naga are stealing the water aaaand that’s it, enjoy that plot thread

Brickwork: This is an aggregate negative for the three Zangarmarsh dungeons, but they all just look… bad. I get the idea (literally underground swamps don’t look fancy) but it crosses past ‘visual storytelling’ and into ‘dull green mess that’s hard to look at’

Brickwork: Speaking of ‘unpleasant to look at’, look at Shattrath. No, really look at it for a second. It’s two colors almost entirely (muddy yellow and muddy green) and the whole thing looks like a giant pile of bleck

Architecture: Good time to mention that BC in general has pretty bad architecture. Shattrath itself sucks (it’s entirely too large and FEELS small), but this also applies to every other town in the expansion (if you can call them that)

Internal Continuity: Why are there so many two headed ogres everywhere?

MSQ: I don’t like giving a negative for boring slog… but here we are. The Blade’s Edge quests (all of them, really) are so wallpaper paste that, no joke, everyone I talked to independently who did the zone barely remembered any of its story. This is on top of the fact that there’s a fair bit of quantity of said story here, and that it should (logically) be engaging. We have Rexxar’s return home, the Mok’Nathal in general, Ogre culture, the legacy and final fall of the Gronn empire, the Legion being more active in the region, and the attempts to revitalize the region and it’s all just bleeuaurgghgh….

MSQ: …for two negatives

Music Direction: Blade’s Edge. Absence of music for huge, huge swaths of it, and the rest of the time it’s a generic drumbeat

World Building: Shadowmoon Valley and consistency issues. There’s just… a lot of holes here, a lot of consistency problems, and a lot of things that sort of break down the world building. This is probably one of the zones hit hardest by Illzheimers

Plot: The Blood Elf pilgrimage is a major story arc, an MSQ even, across three friggin’ zones (Eversong, Ghostlands, and Hellfire Peninsula) aaaand the moment you leave Falcon’s Watch, the arc just STOPS dead. It’s only even REFERENCED one more time. This could have worked, could have been a great moment even, but instead we just skip right over it to ‘everyone knows Kael’thas is evil’. Please keep in mind that the previous three zones all painted him as the savior of our species, who’d been sending help back, and we have zero gaps between this and him being our enemy. This really, really hurts one of the biggest plot threads in the entire expansion…

Plot: …and earns a double negative

Character: Kael’Thas. Okay so ignoring the above problem, Kael’Thas is completely assassinated and, just like Vashj, turned into a boss and barely given any screen time. But I think it’s worse for Kael because he’s supposed to be such a major plot character and he…

Character: …isn’t

Character: So hear me out; Patheleon the Calculator. This guy is, literally, more of a main villain than Kael’Thas is and he’s so mishandled most people don’t even notice that fact

Character: Lady Vashj, and the absence of character. Seriously she gets one line of dialogue that does anything, and otherwise she’s just relegated to raid boss status

Character: Illidan. What in God’s name were they thinking with this? Ignoring the obvious problem (writers literally forgetting who he is) and other related issues, he has no… character here. They took one of the more interesting and nuanced characters in Frozen Throne and turned him into Muwa Ha Ha Evil Demon Overlord. Dude has the most bog standard dialogue too (“Do my bidding or I will flay the flesh off your bones” kind of stuff)…

Character: …for a double character assassination negative, as it has a lot to do with…

Plot: …Illzheimers. BC in general has a very serious ‘absence of mainliner’ problem in its central plot, as it forgets threads, misremembers who people are and how they interact with each other, and is generally a giant jumbled mess…

Plot: …for this alone…

Plot: …it deserves a triple

MSQ: Dimensius. I say without hyperbole that it takes 3 quests to find out about, weaken, and defeat a so-called Void Lord who supposedly destroyed an entire planet. We literally spent more time building up the friggin’ elephant boss in Nagrand

External Continuity: BC has a… lot of issues in how it doesn’t connect with the rest of Warcraft lore. The Draenei thing is a retcon, sure, but it’s a bad retcon (completely unnecessary among other issues). Then there’s what they did to Outland in general, the main characters from Frozen Throne, and the entire Horde Alliance thing still being a thing…

External Continuity: …so that’s…

External Continuity: …a full three negatives

Padding: BC has some of the worst story padding in the series. Lots and lots of quests which do essentially nothing…

Padding: …so that’s…

Padding: …a three negative problem. But it gets even worse because it effects…

Story Sequencing: …the sequencing. It’s way, way too easy to accidentally do quests completely out of order thanks to how they chain into and out of each other…

Story Sequencing: …so that’s…

Story Sequencing: …a full three negatives, but wait, it’s even worse, because…

Storytelling Mechanics: …the whole format of questing design. There’s some solid story here (as the positives show) but you’d go multiple long, padded quests in between actual plot beats, which just makes the whole thing hard to keep track of and follow across not just individual zones, but across the entire expansion. Most people never even notice the Patheleon thread from Hellfire to Terokkar to the Mechanar, just to name a single example…

Storytelling Mechanics: …for a solid…

Storytelling Mechanics: …three negatives

Pacing: I’m going to admit, this isn’t an issue for me personally. The thing is, that’s not what a review is (at least not a good one, like this hopefully is). And the truth is, for a huge portion of WoW’s existence, it mandated that you have to keep pretty good memory of events (or literally take notes… or use a wiki) to keep track of things. There are a LOT of moving parts in WoW’s stories, and they keep fairly consistent and good track of them across the expansions. But in practice what that means is a big reveal moment happens, or a payoff, and the last time you saw the character in question was real life days or weeks ago in an unrelated zone. The nature of the game means there’s large swaths of gameplay in between story arcs, and even when playing it back to back in the manner I did for the review some of my viewers were still losing threads as we went. So we’re going to score this on a per expansion basis and call BC’s…

Pacing: …a full…

Pacing: …triple negative

Prime Opt: Violet Hold. This whole ‘story’ is stupid at best. So the Blue Flight wants to attack Dalaran from within, sure… so they attack the mage prison, which is about the size of a basketball court (uhhh) and there’s apparently no real defenses in place to prevent this? Also even ignoring all that nonsense, fact is the story of the Violet Hold is almost totally detached from the entire rest of the game, even the arc (the Nexus War) it’s ostensibly connected to

Cutscene: The Battle for Light’s Hope Chapel has a lot of issues with construction. It’s vague and ill explained, to the point where a lot of people walk away from it with either no idea what’s going on or, worse, the wrong idea. It also…

Plot: …while it connects to the main plot, it’s very… forced. The whole thing is just weird and awkward (as a lot of older scenes are)

Voice Acting: Inconsistency returns. It’s just about as bad as BC…

Voice Acting: …and so earns…

Voice Acting: …three negatives

Music Direction: Borean Tundra. Vague, irritating, and hard on the ears… and boring

Prime Opt: Everything to do with how they introduce a major massive lore thing and then solve it in three quests (the Curse of Flesh)

Padding: The dull bleck of the gnome quests in the Borean Tundra

Padding: Okay let’s be real, it’s not as bad as before but there are large swaths of padding in zones. Almost every zone starts strong and then devolves into meaningless X of Ys. So that’s…

Padding: …an easy…

Padding: …triple negative

Music Direction: Dragonblight. Awful, awful song that meanders and pierces and has that irritating piano, totally ruins the tone of the dragon’s graveyard

MSQ: Over-emphasis on Wrathgate…

MSQ: …and some nice tie-ins to content most people never even knew about or are aware of (also narrative cheating of Bolvar having to come rescue us from a basic ass lich)

Character: Kel’Thuzad. They don’t do much with him (he shows up for a cameo in the Borean Tundra and then he’s a boss in Naxxramas) and… that’s it. And that’s the point. They took one of the biggest, most important characters from Warcraft 3, who is one of the most important characters of the Scourge, in the Northrend expansion, and did NOTHING with him. This is honestly worse in its own way than what happened with Illidan…

Character: …and deserves its own double negative

Storytelling Mechanic: Why is the main Wrath load screen not only bad but a giant friggin’ spoiler for no reason? Regardless of where you’re at in your own questing and adventures

World Building: So, 10,000 years ago Malygos got severe trauma… and he’s insane, now, because of it. Sure

Story Sequencing: The Nexus War. So this is how most players are introduced to it; You enter Borean, get a quest to go to the Colderra, and then it just… stops after you do those quests and the first dungeon. Then you go to the second zone (Dragonblight), find out the Blues are tampering with ley lines (which we already knew?) and are killing innocents (again, already knew) oh and now they’re fighting the rest of the dragonflight and Dalaran combined (which by the way, almost all of that story is interspersed all over the place, in dailies and the like)… so you’re just left going huh? But then it gets even worse as the story just stops dead there with the dailies, and doesn’t pick up again until you suddenly go do the max level dungeon (Oculus) and the raid (Malygos)…

Story Sequencing: …this is all pretty bad, and horribly out of order…

Story Sequencing: …for a solid triple negative

Story Sequencing: This is a good time to mention that the various major plot threads of Wrath (Nexus War, HvA, Ulduar, and Lich King) all get advanced every single zone and in some cases entirely out of order, so hope you’re keeping track of all that

Prime Opt: Malygos, consequently, is barely a character in all of this, as is so common with early WoW villains

Prime Opt: The Nexus War itself is just kind of stupid. It’s either a light skirmish or an end of the world existential threat and they can’t seem to decide which one it is. Even if you seek out and do all of its content, it’s only 3 dungeons, 1 raid, and parts of 2 subzones. And that’s it, that’s the whole Nexus War. It should either be more, or less. This is the kind of content that later WoW expansions would devote an entire major patch to (see the Throne of Thunder for an example of this). As is…

Prime Opt: …it’s a wet noodle

MSQ: Why exactly are the Forsaken and Alliance fighting in the Derelict Strand?

Prime Opt: Why does Gundrak… exist? It not only doesn’t connect to the rest of Zul’Drak, it actively contradicts it (notably in the snake and mammoth loas)

Writing: Okay I like what they did with him but for real, why didn’t Muradin die?

Storyboarding: Plenty of attempts at cutscenes in Wrath. Emphasis on attempts, they’re not great…

Storyboarding: …and idle animations tend to get in the way. (Sometimes animations wouldn’t play at all!)

Voice Direction: We know this is direction because we’ve heard this woman do actual voice acting, but there’s this one woman (you know the one) who sounds… just… awful in every voice she does in Wrath, and she voices well over half the female characters in Wrath…

Voice Direction: …it’s awful

Writing: Icecrown, the HvA in general but especially at the Broken Front. Ignore for a moment how sick I am of the HvA by this point (even historically, I was tired of the HvA in VANILLA, nevermind Wrath) and just focus on how stupid this all is. The Alliance are attacking the Scourge, so the Horde ambush them, leading to everyone dying. This is already awful but also the Horde are actually proud of this action! This is probably the definitive moment they stopped being the Horde and became Hellscream’s forces, but even regardless of all that this is just bad ‘because plot’ writing. The writers didn’t want the Horde or Alliance involved in the finale, so they wrote them out in the cheapest way possible. This sucks…

Writing: …and earns…

Writing: …an easy triple negative

MSQ: Icecrown also kind of… sucks story wise. A lot of the quests here are your basic X of Ys, some introduce cool concepts but never develop them, and frankly it also suffers because…

Plot: …they really wanted Tirion to be a ‘dark mirror’ or foil to Arthas and they failed miserably at it. Tirion is barely a character here

Plot: So why… just… everything about the Argent Tournament is a gigantic ‘why’

MSQ: Tirion allowing the HvA in the colosseum

Character: Sylvanas really is just straight up evil in the entire

Plot: “There must always be a Lich King”… could have been done well. It was not

Writing: HvA in Citadel. I’m sorry WHY is this happening HERE of all places? This is THE final dungeon of this expansion, so thematically it doesn’t work, and it also makes absolutely no sense in universe to be killing each other HERE…

Writing: …for an easy double negative

Cutscene: The post-Deathbringer cutscene for the Alliance is… really really stupid. Muradin (of all people) being this weirdly antagonistic towards Varok, Varian’s decision to have BASIC DECENCY being treated like some big grand gesture, and Jaina crying over the whole thing…

Cutscene: …this is awful melodrama…

External Continuity: …and nonsense besides

Plot: There’s some handwavy’ness about how the Second Lich King just straight up kills us (I Win button) and how the finale lines up

Pacing: So, as with BC, the swath o gameplay problem is here too, and honestly it’s just as bad as in BC. The quests are (barely) better but the story is still lilted and all over the place…

Pacing: …for, again…

Pacing: …three negatives

Voice Direction: Darius Crowley. What in the world was going on with this? Dude sounds like he’s mumbling and drunk

Character: Sylvanas in Gilneas. This will bleed over to a few other zones, but she’s just… uniquely stupid and evil here. Despite being here to claim an outpost, she insists on using the Blight. Despite being ordered not to use it she plans to, despite being in hot water with Hellscream and his forces (which she also cares about for… some reason). She’s just pointlessly evil here, along with almost all the Forsaken (I mean, they’re literally just Scourge 2.0 here)

Plot: Thrall’s Third Big Mistake. He decides to make Gallywix the leader of the playable Goblins. What? Okay so this is awful for basically every reason. First, it’s in direct contradiction to everything that’s been happening the entire Goblin story arc…

Writing: …second it’s very ‘because plot’, as a way to ensure Gallywix would be an issue going forwards…

Character: …and finally it’s honestly out of character for Thrall himself. He is naive, not STUPID. This is a Goblin who literally just threatened him and all his allies with death, and has a very insincere sounding turn of heart at the last second. Come on

MSQ: Durotar and the human invasion. Like, I’m sorry, the Alliance is launching a beachhead right

Writing: Why are the Horde keeping slavers for the gladiator pits?

Secondary: Boring dull pointless questing in Dustwallow Marsh. Seriously this whole thing is just a narrative slog

Internal Continuity: Just because we know why doesn’t change the fact that Garrosh’s big scene at the end of Stonetalon functionally doesn’t exist

Character: Thrall’s complacency in several elements of the Horde is a bit much even for the smoothing over of it we’ve received over the years

Voice Acting: The voice acting problem is arguably worse than it was before, but in the inverse direction. Because Cata actually has a decent amount of voice acting which… is the problem really, because it makes the inconsistency stand out all the more…

Voice Acting: …thus earning another…

Voice Acting: …triple negative

World Building: So… the Explorer’s League, and the Reliquary Problem. Originally in vanilla there was just the Explorer’s League, a neutral organization focused entirely on (surprise) exploration but, no, now they’re an Alliance centric org and this new one we invented directly out of the contents of our ass is the evil version for the Horde. This is stupid…

Internal Continuity: …and internally inconsistent

Music Direction: Bwom… bwom… bwom… BWOOOOM

Cutscene Incompetence: Total bullcrap of Sylvanas dying in one shot like a punk to Godfrey

Prime Opt: The entire Hearthglen / traitor / Argent Crusade line is just… weird. It’s actually quite strong and well written, until it very abruptly stops dead in its tracks

Music Direction: Welcome to the East Plagues, population: BWOOOOM

Writing: Arathi… is unchanged from vanilla. Normally this would be ‘fine’ except in several cases it literally makes no sense anymore (for example, a quest about quelling a nearby demonic artifact because it causes her… orcish blood to boil…)

MSQ: Northshire butt licking. Seriously it’s… really weird how much they worship the ground we walk in, just in the tutorial zone. They call us the hero of the Alliance like four separate times, and it never stops being awful

Writing: Redridge is… flat. Noticeably and obviously worse written across the board

Writing: Okay I take it back, Redridge has a really… really weird, BAD writing problem. Juvenile dialogue, excessive references to scatalogical stuff, weird formatting, it’s… awful

Humor: Okay seriously, what is with Redridge’s fixation on poop? One character, ALONE, makes THREE references to it in a single quest chain…

Humor: …by the way the entire zone doesn’t let this stupid thing go

Plot: I’m sorry, why were these people allowed to be captured and abandoned for God knows how long without even a hint of effort to help them despite how ludicrously easy it was to do so?

Humor: Okay so, references are a thing in WoW, I get that. But the ENTIRE main story quest of Redridge is one long, drawn out, out-stays-its-welcome Rambo reference. Now even that I could tolerate if it was done well. It is not

Secondary: STV, doldrums. There is… nothing going on in the early part of this zone. Pure padding dreck

Character: Redridge, supporting cast. These yahoos are abrasive, irritating, and fling poop jokes

Prime Opt: The entire Gilnean reclamation of the Blasted Lands arc is… very strange. It’s a huge, visible sea change to the zone that boils down to three quests that just abruptly stops at a point in time

Music Direction: Loch Modan. Seriously, what is going on here? There’s this one song that plays ooover and ooover and ooooover for huge swaths of the zone. I was quite literally already sick of it before we even finished entering the zone proper

Consequence Storytelling: There is, really, ONE zone in the game that acknowledges the reality of how costly and terrible the two preceding expeditions were is Westfall. Now that’s great, and I like it, but it really shines a light on how no where ELSE does so. This is a constant issue, especially given just the sheer quantity of manpower being bled out in Andorhol and the South Barrens…

Consequence Storytelling: …so that earns…

Consequence Storytelling: …a full three negatives

Brickwork: Skyboxes in vanilla are… really, really, really bad…

Brickwork: …it’s just blurry pixels…

Brickwork: …and vague colors

Internal Continuity: Zandalari retcon

Cutscenes: So, Cata has started actually having more in gameplay cutscenes. The problem here is they… kind of suck. We have bad cutscenes like the conclusion of Stonetalon Peak (which completely deflates the significance of the moment)

Cutscenes: Or how about basically everything in Gilneas. Bugs, interruptions, confusing spots (like Crowley’s fate, or the crash of the ship)

Cutscenes: Or everything to do with Kezan. Like the crazy run through the town in the car, or Deathwing’s arrival (and his weird angle movements)

Cutscenes: How about half the Lost Isles? Lotta big cinematic moments, or ones that try to be

Cutscenes: Then there’s Azshara. Remember Kalecgos swooping in to safe you, awkwardly flying at a perfect straight line?

Cutscenes: How about the entire conclusion of the Mulgore chain being totally ruined by awkward and janky animations?

Cutscenes: Thousand Needles literally had cutscenes that didn’t even play

Cutscenes: Stranglethorn Vale North and the entire ‘Aka chain! Also several bits of the pirate arc

Cutscenes: Dun Morogh. There’s a few here and they like to glitch, overlap, or just fall flat

Internal Consistency: Timelines in capital cities. Stormwind and Orgrimmar both have this issue

Prime Opt: Wetlands. How do you make a zone all about consequences from the Cataclysm, including massive flooding… boring? Wetlands is how

MSQ: Wetlands finale. What the hell was this? Each of the NPCs of the zones earlier (except the elves, hah) shows up for a big ‘avengers assemble’ moment which falls flat, and then it very abruptly ends with no fanfare or follow through

Cutscenes: Some really excellent scenes are ruined in Cata by virtue of the usual problems

Writing: The HvA flattening problem. So Cata (and several other bits of WoW) have this problem where they treat both the Alliance and the Horde like monoliths. As in, every single member of each race (regardless of political affiliation) is treated as a member of that side, and the motives of the two sides completely overwhelm and override all other possible realities. So tons of races and culture and politics and personalities are all flattened into just being Horde and Alliance. This is reductive at best and in some cases completely ruins scenes, areas, and characters. To wit, we see this in Azshara…

Writing: …Feralas…

Writing: …Tanaris…

Writing: …Silverpine…

Writing: …and probably most egregious, Blasted Lands, which even calls this out IN the quest text then plays it straight

Cutscene: They… they just RIPPED the entire opening to Vashj’ir out entirely…

MSQ: …which totally ruins half the context and lore of what’s going on…

MSQ: …earning a triple negative

MSQ: Wow. They straight up skipped the cutscene in Vashj’ir where we see Neptulon lose and Erunak get kidnapped. This is critical context and literally the climax of the entire zone…

MSQ: …and deserves…

MSQ: …a full three negatives

Internal Continuity: Curing the Curse of Flesh by air elementals… somehow…

Plot: …which is a major plot element of all of Uldum, and dovetails into…

Character: …the air elementals (and Al’Akir himself) being non characters, who…

Writing: …join N’Zoth’s forces for absolutely no explored or explained reason

Cutscene: Uldum, and the eternal bugs. Especially noteworthy considering how many of them there are

Humor: Okay so… while some of the jokes land pretty well, the Indiana Jones references aren’t… jokes. That’s the problem, really, they’re just direct references. Time and effort was spent on, for example, the NINE joke, but then Harrison Jones just shows up and is Indiana Jones and that’s… it

Music Direction: A weirdly large portion of Uldum has no or bad music

Story Sequencing: Cataclysm has… a few issues. There are story arcs, and it is possible to view a lot of them out of order. There ARE guidances in vector quests and the like, but it’s also easy to see the zones out of order…

Story Sequencing: …and this gets especially bad in the endgame zones, which have a fairly linear order but are ‘told’ completely out of. (Hyjal is first, but leads directly to Firelands, which is way later… Twilight Highlands is last, but the next raid is Blackwing… etc.)…

Story Sequencing: …earning a triple negative

Plot: As is so often with these things, the conclusion of the Halls of Origination arc is a complete wet noodle. We (literally) save the entire planet… after a joke chain, in like a minute cutscene which just shows the pyramid slowly rotating. And that’s… it…

Plot: …what a deflating ending

MSQ: So! They completely gutted the entire Anduin story arc leading into the Twilight Highlands. This is of course referenced in game (repeatedly) but also means we lose the beginning of Anduin (this is his very first time ever being a character) and the start of Varian’s character arc, in addition to more foreshadowing for the Twilight infiltration plot, AND lots of good internal consistency with how much of a hotbed of Twilight activity Stormwind is (thanks to events in Northrend and Westfall)…

MSQ: …so this is an easy…

MSQ: …triple negative

Cutscenes: Sigh. Of course several of the amazing cutscenes in the Twilight Highlands are completely ruined by the Cata cutscene problem

Pacing: So this is for Cataclysm as a whole. I honestly don’t think it’s fair to give negatives to the New World quests, for example, but even when you hit the Endgame Cata zones the pacing is very off, especially considering each of them is directly tied to the expansion’s MSQ. This is especially true if you do it in intended order (which nothing indicates, btw)…

Pacing: …thus earning…

Pacing: …a full triple

MSQ: Locking the friggin’ Molten Front behind dailies is stupid, as it always is

Cutscene Incompetence: So Fandral stunlocks and defeats four Aspects, Thrall, Malfurion, and US, all at the same frickin’ time. Then we all stand around talking rather than doing anything. Sure…

Cutscene Incompetence: …this is bad, even by WoW’s standards…

Cutscene Incompetence: …and deserves a triple by itself

Cutscene: Also, as usual, the animation just sucks

MSQ: The entire Hour of Twilight dungeon feels very thrown together. Random enemies as bosses with no real thematic significance…

MSQ: …and the total flop of a ‘twist’ around Benedictus. Some of the major foreshadowing for him is literally ripped out of the game (another consequence of removing Anduin’s quests), most people don’t even know who he is to begin with (so hard to be impacted by it), and even people who actually are paying attention are like… okay and…? This entire ‘reveal’ is awful…

MSQ: …made even worse by having been built up across half the expansion…

MSQ: …and paid off terribly

Internal Continuity: Okay hold up. We charge into the bottom of Wyrmrest, with Thrall, kill Benedictus, theeen we attack from out on the snowy fields outside and above?

Cutscene: Well of Eternity issues, as usual

Cutscene: Of course Dragon Soul still sucks in cutscene bugs

Outro: Everything about the final cutscene sucks. Lackluster animation, re-used assets, dull theme that is unearned, total lack of explanation on what’s going on, and saccharine drivel about Thrall’s child…

Outro: …this sucks…

Outro: …and deserves three negatives

Pacing: So here we are again. Cata’s a weird one, because most of its narrative pacing is actually fine (most of the New World zones are self contained, and most of the endgame ones are pretty back-to-back with plot focus) but there’s still a few issues here and there and that still deserves mention

Fake Drama: Aysa and Ji’s arguing and drama over the fate of Shen Zin Su. This flies directly in the face of the entire rest of the zone and is a weird outlier

Cutscene: Sigh. Jade Forest cutscenes are straight up bugged… sigh. I thought we were done with this after Cata

Story Sequencing: So uh… the Vale is already destroyed, despite us being several MONTHS before it’s destroyed. This is an issue several times but it starts off being an issue in the Valley of the Four Winds with the vision of the Vale and they even acknowledge it’s screwed

Story Sequencing: And there we are, in Kun-Lai, and once again the Vale of Eternal Blossoms is completely out of sequence. This is arguably worse than back in the Valley of the Four Winds because it completely breaks any logic…

Internal Continuity: …and internal continuity

Writing: There’s just a bit too much repeat info. I get why (it’s because people might not do story relevant quests, so they repeat themselves) but dammit

Moment: So, Suna’s death is… weird. Why exactly she died is not made very clear, and it takes a fascinating and very personal story that crosses two zones and ends it very abruptly. While the Hatred line continues, the torch is passed to Taran Zhu and much of his arc is mostly dealing with the upcoming story about Fear…

Plot: …so this is a bit of a weird, awkward situation…

Plot: …earning three negatives

Pacing: It’s better than BC and Wrath, but the pacing issue still plagues Pandaria a bit. The primary plot of the leveling zones starts in the Jade Forest, then remains background for two full zones before only starting to get going again in Kun-Lai

MSQ: Sadly, as with so many other stories, the finale of the Sha of Fear is just kind of… there. We knock him out of the Heart of Fear, chase him to the Terrace, then… kill him. The End. And that’s it

Character: Varian… he just does this very, very sudden shift into a new character. I do like his new character, for the record, but wow is this janky

Writing: Also they really… really over-correct on Varian’s lines to showcase that he’s not a warmongering idiot anymore

Writing: Tyrande is just… excessively stupid here, but even ignoring that she also licks Varian’s boots entirely too much here. I get that this is them course correcting Varian (hard) but good lord…

Writing: …this is bad

Padding: Okay we get it game, Christ, stop beating us over the head with it

Consequence Storytelling: Cata dipped its feet into this, but Pandaria really starts to make it very clear that Garrosh is evil, and actively threatens and angers his own people, and everyone just… goes along with it. This would be believable back in Cataclysm, but by Pandaria this has just gone on entirely too long and breaks logic and reasonability…

Consequence Storytelling: …an easy double negative

Internal Continuity: Jaina unilaterally having dictatorial control over Dalaran is… weird

Character: Jaina. This is the beginning of what’s semi-jokingly referred to as ‘Dreadlord Jaina’. She’s got plenty of reason to be angry here and there, but she is just wildly out of character for huge swaths of time and, just like Tyrande, it’s almost assuredly just to prop Varian up as a more reasonable authority figure

MSQ: Forcing the (Alliance) player to participate in the Purging of Dalaran…

MSQ: …is awful…

MSQ: …and should be acknowledged as such

Dialogue: Jaina’s dialogue is honestly awful. Also, “The game has changed”??

Storyboarding: There’s several things in Siege that have some general illogic to them

Outro: Appointing Vol’Jin warchief is stupid even here, in Pandaria, doesn’t really work. It’s very token…

Outro: …and then there’s Jaina and her nonsense, which is its own problem…

Outro: …THEN we get into pointless dick measuring posturing (actually this happened earlier but bear with me)…

Outro: …and finally Varian’s final scene is really, REALLY stupid…

Outro: …worthy of two negatives by itself

Cutscene: One-shotting Mannoroth. This kind of hollywood bullcrap has always bothered me, since the 80s, and it bothered me in Warcraft 3, and it bothers me here. They even had a way to make it work (artillery plus iron star plus axe) but no, it’s the axe to the head that one shots. Sure

Writing: Nethergarde Keep’s lost. Yeah so the Iron Vanguard apparently just bulldozes over one of the most defensible fortresses on the planet, which not only makes no sense to begin with but flies in the face of the overall theme of the expansion

Prime Opt: I’m sorry but the severity and lack of attention both paid to Zaela’s plot to kill millions of civilians and reshape half the continent is given far too little attention and focus. It might have worked if it was well executed, but instead it just feels like some stupid side quest

Atmosphere: The great vibe of being alone and abandoned in a hostile death world is immediately destroyed the first second you set up your garrison. We’ll consider how worse this gets in future zones but there’s several iterations of this problem

NPC Set Dressing: Garrisons and sharding. This was a terrible idea. Seeing other players is, like it or not, part of making areas feel lively and active. Nobody wants to see the ‘capital city’ be an abandoned wasteland. And that’s what Garrisons were. Even Blizzard acknowledges this because they fixed this in Legion with the Order Halls. So this contributes massively to the ‘loneliness’ problem Warlords has…

NPC Set Dressing: …and thus earns…

NPC Set Dressing: …a full three negatives

Abandonment: Karabor, the city that never was. We literally go through this MASSIVE area… once, for one quest

Writing: …why, exactly, is Fiona’s caravan just… here, in Draenor, in the past? Oh right, because it’s Outland

Writing: There’s… entirely too many memberberries in general, so this is an aggregate. We’ll see if any individual examples deserve negatives later

Internal Continuity: So quests, as in an individual quest chain, in Shadowmoon alone, references how alone and without backup we are and at the same time how we’re pouring people in from Azeroth daily

Character: Ner’Zhul is… super duper evil. And it’s stupid. Ner’zhul was never evil, and the only reason he’s evil here is because of the First Lich King, which has nothing to do with any of this. This is awful in general…

Internal Continuity: …but then there’s the fact that even within these quests, Ner’zhul isn’t super evil, but he is. Oh also there’s this great thing where the rest o the Shadowmoon are super torn over being evil right alongside Ner’zhul who’s just cackling over there

Internal Continuity: Also they went into necromancy. Why? Because the First Lich King

External Continuity: Khadgar is… weirdly focused on Gul’dan here. I know, you’re thinking ‘but he’s a threat’, and yes of course he is, but Khadgar is fixated on him beyond logic or reason, ignoring other very tangible threats in favor of it. He endangers his own life and those around him just to get to Gul’Dan. Which makes sense because Warcraft 2… right?

Internal Continuity: So just about every zone will get a smattering of internal consistency problems because … well because of all the mess behind the scenes with Warlords (thanks Titan) so… Shadowmoon doesn’t do TOO badly, but it still gets the general aggregate

Prime Opt: Shadowmoon Burial Grounds. We already commented on the issues with Ner’Zhul, but this whole thing narratively does not work at all

Prime Opt: The Taylor chain…

Prime Opt: …the total lack of connective tissue…

Writing: …and what they did to poor Taylor

Internal Continuity: So yeah, we have an entire camp of Goblins just… here, in Arak. An entire friggin’ base of them. Sigh

Internal Continuity: It’s even worse than that! Because they have a SECOND much larger base where they’re just drilling for oil!

Consequence Storytelling: Okay so, hear me out. I like the Ironstar and what they do with it (really) but… Garrosh came here with the tech… how? Don’t tell me Garrosh had the technical know-how to replicate what is functionally a fusion reactor from memory…

Consequence Storytelling: …this is, mind you, a MAJOR plot point for the Iron Horde and, consequently, the entire expansion…

Consequence Storytelling: …and earns an easy triple negative

Internal Continuity: An entire expedition of dark irons in Draenor… because of course there are. (It’s worse, there’s an entire dwarven base)

Internal Continuity: The Kirin Tor have an ENTIRE base in here. Because of course they do

Internal Continuity: Oh and they have a DIRECT portal to Stormwind (which is never followed through on). Uh huh

Moment: omg the Iron Wolf is their brother! And it comes out of no where, means nothing, and goes nowhere

MSQ: The entire initial Iron Horde quest chain in Talador is awful. It rushes entirely too much, clearly references cut material, and wraps up way too fast (even for me!). The chain by itself…

MSQ: …deserves…

MSQ: …three negatives, but hang on we’re not done…

Character: …because they did Orgrim dirty. First and foremost, having a character (a major character, mind) get three cutscenes (total!) is already weird but he goes from “I’m evil” to “Kill them all” to “no I won’t hurt civilians” across the three scenes. It’s jarring as hell…

External Continuity: …and, again, is a massive disservice to a major Warcraft character

Internal Continuity: Goblin shredders (among other things) are just… here, along with all kinds of gobbo tech. Sure

Internal Continuity: So much of the Blood Elf quests make more sense if this was Outland. Again

Cutscene: The Auchindoun lead up finale is janky, musicless, and weird

Abandonment: Loss of Shattrath. This is probably the single most egregious and obvious cut content in the game. While there’s signs of this everywhere, and in some cases entire zones and arcs lost (like Faralon and the Gorian continent) the fact is, Shattrath is RIGHT there and we have an entire story arc about saving it which involves going through it… once, briefly, during a scenario, and then there’s a daily there later. That’s… it. It’s horrible…

Abandonment: …and an easy…

Abandonment: …triple negative

Internal Continuity: So a bunch of goblins are running an archeological dig AND an arena in Nagrand…

Internal Continuity: …and Nesingwary and his safari are here! In the past!! IN ANOTHER DIMENSION

Writing: The false surrender at Lok-rath. It’s such a stupid plot point (and goes nowhere too!)

Plot: Okay so this needs to be emphasized. First, the main plot of Warlords is bonkers level stupid. I won’t even recount it here…

Plot: …so first we’ll just give…

Plot: …three negatives, but hang on it gets better…

Consequence Storytelling: …it’s a direct follow through on the events of a quest chain from Pandaria that is NOT IN THE GAME ANYMORE. So that’s awful…

Consequence Storytelling: …and an easy triple…

Consequence Storytelling: …for nonsense, but it’s all made EVEN worse because…

Abandonment: …they frickin’ removed the quest from Warlords too!! I cannot freaking believe this. The Ring Legendary chain is PLOT CRITICAL for both understanding what the hell is going on here AND as a lead into a major plot point in Legion! What kind of braindead moron actively removes plot critical elements from their frickin’ game! Christ!

Abandonment: Enjoy three more negatives…

Abandonment: …you assholes

External Continuity: …also all of this is covered in a goddamned book, and normally I’m more willing to let the ‘books have stories’ thing slide because most of the plot critical stuff is actually in the game (Theramore and Jaina’s reaction to it, for example, is actually in the 5.1 quests) but there is no info on what the hell is going on or why in Warlords…

External Continuity: …so, uh…

External Continuity: …screw you Blizzard

Prime Opt: Kargath deciding to fight us in Highmaul. This makes no sense on any level. Dude hates the arena, and the Iron Horde barely has a presence here (remember canonically this is after Garrosh is dead and we’ve pushed the ogres back to Highmaul) so… what?

Abandonment: So the entire Ogre arc and possibly zone is completely axed from the game and it’s… pretty obvious. We just suddenly deal with an Ogre Empire who has breakers and arcane stones and… they exist in one sub-zone and one raid and that’s it

Story Sequencing: Warlords’ story sequencing makes no damned sense. If you shove the quests into an order that makes more sense, they cross reference each other wrong. And if you do it as designed, there’s no logic to when events happen relative to each other. The whole thing is a mess (and probably indicative of how much content is supposed to be there that isn’t)…

Story Sequencing: …earning an easy…

Story Sequencing: …triple negative

Abandonment: Tanaan. Just… Tanaan. There is NOTHING to do here, and virtually no story at all. Hey did you notice some of the Arrakoa joined the Legion, while some reunited with their lost brethren? Yeah where’s that story arc? Oh it’s probably off on Faralon

Internal Continuity: Inconsistency of Kilrogg vision. This is a long one so I’ll summarize; the game emphasizes repeatedly that visions are accurate, so we get a vision of our own deaths and (spoilers) nope, doesn’t happen. Narrative cheating

Abandonment: Iskar. Seriously, what is this guy’s story? Why is he suddenly with the Legion?

Character: Grom Hellscream, Alternate. This is a weird one because he SHOULD be an interesting and good character, and could have been. Unlike our Grom, who had a chance to grow and wanted to better himself, A-Grom is a MONSTER. He is an absolutely horrible, evil man who does everything in his power to torture, enslave, and mass murder his way across his entire continent. The problem isn’t that… the problem is that the game portrays him as … Grom. OUR Grom. The Grom he is not. In short, this is the Ner’zhul problem all over again…

Character: …and that…

Character: …sucks

Moment: But then we meet him and he says thank you (we’ve never met by the way) and asks us to give him a minute to hack away at his captor and we just go along with it cuz we’re bros now

Internal Continuity: So… Gul’dan can just summon Archimonde, by himself, with no real prep time. Keep in mind what it took Kel’Thuzad to accomplish this same feat

MSQ: Archimonde is here. I’m sorry, lemme try that again, WHY is Archimonde here? He’s just… in charge now, and present, at the end of Warlords. What?

Outro: Archimonde also dies on Draenor. I know that sounds weird but lemme try that again, Archimonde is permanently dead here because he drags us into the Nether and dies there to us. That is a HUGE plot point, and helps shape half of how Legion goes, and he just… dies on the ground like a doofus, IN a cutscene even… but not before…

Outro: …he forces Gul’Dan through the portal, to crudely lead into Legion. Why? Gul’Dan could’ve just, y’know, bailed, no need for this. This is even worse because this is clearly the reason why he died here and not where he actually died

Outro: Then… frickin’ Grom… God I don’t even know where to start with this. Lemme just put this the way I put it on camera. Imagine if Hitler cheered about Germany being free at the end of WWII. Or Palpatine was like “The Republic is FREEE” after Return of the Jedi. It’s nonsensical, and part of why Grom fails so hard as a character. This is probably the single worst cutscene in the entire game…

Outro: …and this single moment gets…

Outro: …three negatives, but it gets worse because…

Outro: …everyone celebrates it! Everyone cheers this asshole on!

Cutscene Incompetence: Far too often we just sit there and stare while the enemy slowly powers up the doom portal or whatever

Abandonment: Cordana. The long domino chain of quests ripped out of the game, from the Wrathion chain in Pandaria to the Ring chain in Warlords, all of which line up things and help to explain what the hell is going on and why… all gone. What’s worse, this isn’t just a ‘oh that sucks cuz it’s not in’ thing, it was a legitimately fascinating plot point too

Cutscene: Slanting. I want to give this more negatives, but most of the slanting was actually outside the game (thanks Brack), but the game itself still really tries to bias Alliance players on the angle of Horde = evil…

Writing: …even when the other characters are like ‘let’s not go fight the Horde’ it’s said as ‘we’ll get vengeance LATER instead of now’, making it implicit that they think the Horde really did betray them to the Legion. Sigh

Writing: “For the Alliance” is another line that goes into this slanting thing (and literally contradicts everything happening up to this point)

Theme: The HvA rearing its ugly head again is just tiresome and unwelcome at this point

Character: Jaina. I’m sorry, I know she only gets three cutscenes, but that’s the bloody point isn’t it? In each one of these she is unreasonable to the point of insanity, and the ‘Dreadlord Jaina’ continues. Screw this…

Character: …for a full…

Character: …triple negative

Internal Continuity: Jaina is also nearly totally absent from Legion for no good reason

Internal Continuity: Wrathion is COMPLETELY absent from Legion for even worse reason. Remember his entire arc has been prepping for this fight and now he’s just… gone?

Prime Opt: So there’s some story reuse in some of the Artifact quests. It’s not super often (Disc and Arcane, and the three in Karazhan) but it is weird enough to be worthy of note, and it’s clearly an issue of running out of time and re-using assets

Fake Drama: Orestes. This dude decides to pick on Vareesa for daring to want to rescue her sister, which is already dumb, and then gets himself killed in the dumbest way possible

Consequence Storytelling: How often do we just casually infiltrate Dalaran…?

Prime Opt: Tirion’s death on the Broken Shore is… very, very abrupt and feels done purely for shock value. Worse, it has no real impact on anything…

Prime Opt: …for two negatives

Prime Opt: Then they kill him off AGAIN in the Paladin Retribution artifact quest! Again, for no reason! It’s not even a better send off, he just asks us to take up Ashbringer then dies

Padding: Karazhan. I’m sorry they re-use this too much, and it really is the same story beats with barely any alteration at all. This might have actually worked if they leaned into the idea that all three specs are here simultaneously, but instead the events actually contradict that idea, even though it would make sense…

Padding: …and then they repeat it!

Padding: Nexus does the same thing, with Discipline and Arcane both. Same damned quest, same damned events

Atmosphere: The Warrior Order Hall… has NOTHING to do with being a Warrior, on basically any level. Worse, it has nothing to do with us either, in an expansion where Order Halls are all about the player character being the leader of an… order, all we are is Odyn’s sandwich bitch

Prime Opt: The Battle for Ulduar, everything else. The way they just absolutely lick Odyn’s boots here is… irritating…

Internal Continuity: …the way they totally ignore US and our prior interactions with Thorim is criminal

Padding: Warrior Order Hall spends way, WAY too much time building up to rescuing Hodir (half the entire campaign!)

Internal Continuity: Koltira has been imprisoned for years (his own words!). Sure

World Building: There’s a bit of awkward and weird flattening of paladins. This is especially jarring when you consider that priests, by contrast, still have some legitimate variety between the shadow cultists, the holy priests, and of course my personal favorite, one of the few Scarlet survivors

Prime Opt: The Warrior Order Hall finale is awful. It’s a huge build up for no payoff (made worse by it being Niskara), we just rush up to save Hodir, do, and then Odyn says he’s awesome. That’s… it…

Prime Opt: …it’s very deflating…

Prime Opt: …and not super great

Prime Opt: The Hunter Order Hall finale is also pretty lackluster. We finally lure in Hakkar, kill his ass, and we done

Voice Direction: What in God’s name is going on with the direction in this expansion? We have good actors doing bad takes alongside great acting, and it’s just… bizarre… but we all know why, there’s VA production issues, and boy howdy does it show…

Voice Direction: …for a full…

Voice Direction: …three negatives

Voice Direction: I have to give a bonus negative to Val’Sharah for just having… weirdly bad and inconsistent voice acting. Seriously, individual characters will literally pronounce names differently just a few minutes apart, and of course some of it is very obviously first readings

Characters: Warcraft in general has this problem where it has some villains which are great, and then there’s the rest of them. And Legion in particular has a lot of ‘the rest of them’. You can only hear a demon lord go muwa ha ha so many times before it loses impact

MSQ: …….so Tyrande wants us to go get books, weapons, and kill ghosts in Blackrook Hold. Thing is… this canonically happens after the story quest (and dungeon) that occurred, during which we freed these people. So they’re… not here, guarding books that should have long since rotten, wielding weapons that should be long since gone. Sure

Pacing: The Suramar finale just lurches back and forth in tempo wildly and it’s awful

Padding: The Suramar finale also takes way, way too long to actually go anywhere

Character: Tichondrius. We’ve given this negative before; this is a major lore character who’s just some random raid boss for no good reason. This is the last time he’s in the franchise too so that’s cool

Prime Opt: So first we enslave the Kvaldir (uhhh) then we get either Eitrigg or Crowley for… some reason. This has nothing to do with anything and feels incredibly tacked on

Music Direction: The ‘mount get’ music is bad to begin with and doesn’t fit the scenes at all

Prime Opt: Magatha, illogic (she should be dead. Seriously, this woman is someone who is well known as a murderer of a very universally beloved person, and she has openly admitted it. She is dead)

Prime Opt: Magatha, they do nothing with it (Okay so you introduce a terrible, evil character like this and force us to work with them, lots of potential there… that they do absolutely nothing with)

Integration: And then they force us to group with her by making her the ‘best’ bodyguard… cool

Writing: No conclusion to Magatha. Seriously she shows up, snarks at us, and that is the END of her as a character

Prime Opt: Demonhunter Order Hall finale just falls flat. We body Niskara, obliterate our two rivals, and Kil’jaeden just peaces out while saying meaningless threats

Writing: The game makes it pretty clear Illidan is a narcissistic evil jackass who almost screwed everyone over forever by his desire to be The Hero at all costs. And yet the slanting is constantly portraying him as… the hero. And that sucks

Cutscene Incompetence: Rears its ugly head periodically and throughout. No real excuses anymore, this is Legion era cutscene design…

Cutscene Incompetence: …so that’s a double

Theme: So… the big theme of, I mean, the ENTIRE expansion (and game, really) is the difference between the one and the many. And there’s some really weird… slanting with Illidan that makes him, the ONE hero, seem like he’s THE hero saving everything. He isn’t, of course (even in the narrative he only manages what he does with everyone’s help) but the scenes keep trying to slant him

Writing: So… the Thousand Year War. This is awful for two reasons. First and foremost; It’s STUPID. 1000 years is an arbitrary way to say ‘a long time’. Keep in mind that it’s been 26 years in-universe, which is (surprise surprise) A LONG TIME. 26 years of endless war is insane. But no, it’s a thousand years, which completely breaks the setting and continuity…

Writing: …so enjoy…

Writing: …these three negatives

Writing: But wait, there’s more! They introduce this entire plot point for ABSOLUTELY no reason. It has no impact on anything and is treated like it’s been a week…

Writing: …so enjoy…

Writing: …another triple

Writing: Bad presentation of the Nether bypassing mechanic

Internal Continuity: So… why is the burning cloud never mentioned again? Ever?

Dialogue: Yooour crusaaade… iiis… OOOVEEEER

Cutscene: The BFA opening cutscene is… vacuous. Visually and technically very competent, but ultimately devoid of any substance or meaning…

Cutscene: …and it’s all just ultimately dumb, irritating, player-insulting…

Cutscene: …fluff. This is the exact opposite of, say, Pandaria’s opening cinematic. Or hell, Old Soldier, in this very expansion

Consequence Storytelling: So they launch a massive assault on Lordaeron immediately after taking it in the pants for about a year in Legion and in immediate reaction to a massive, debilitating attack. So… how can they actually… DO any of this? This is a naval invasion on an enemy in an extremely fortified position and will lead to even MORE losses

Character: Okay so… Jaina’s back, out of absolutely nowhere, somehow knew where to go, for some reason brought a ship, and somehow countered the Blight (effortlessly). This whole battle is very Yugioh

MSQ: The entire Battle for Lordaeron tempo and pacing

Writing: Multiple characters during the Battle for Lordaeron are… how to put this. They’re HvA. They have no personalities or perspectives or insights, they are H or they are A and they are against each other, period

Cutscene: Bugs during Battle For Lordaeron

Writing: Honor honor honor honor

Cutscene Incompetence: I’m sorry, why do they all talk with Sylvanas as she villain pontificates and provokes? I could live with that, honestly, but then they let her get within inches of Anduin so she can be dramatic with her trap… sure

Story Sequencing: BFA’s entire introduction is extremely easy to skip over massive plot points

Animation: I have to give mention to the damned powerslide in the Sylvanas Warbringer vignette

Character: Special negative to everyone just being fine with the Atrocity of Teldrassil. The only person I could honestly believe being okay with this is Simp Nathanos

Internal Continuity: The Atrocity of Teldrassil. There’s… so many holes here. The attack itself, the justification, the fact that anybody went along with the attack…

Internal Continuity: …the fact that we’ve been through this all before…

Internal Continuity: …and the fact that this is coming right on the heels of Legion…

Writing: …and the fact that this is being pushed as the primary thrust of the entire expansion…

Writing: …and the execution of everything is so terribly done that even if it works conceptually (which I do not agree with) it does not properly support itself…

Writing: …and then there’s the big elephant in the room…

Plot: …this is the primary plot of the expansion. THIS is their big push. Immediately after Legion, LEGION, the big conclusion to the story started in Warcraft 3, we’re going ‘back to basics’ with Orcs vs. Humans. This… is not how you reset the board after the big endgame expansion. This is a terrible plot…

Plot: …and it deserves…

Plot: …all of my scorn

Atmosphere: One last bundle of negatives, then I’ll let it go. The problem here is the Atrocity of Teldrassil is SO bad (in universe and out) that it paints every single interaction thereafter. There is no escaping or avoiding the reality of that terrible event, as much as the game tries very hard to move past it…

Atmosphere: …and so gets one final…

Atmosphere: …triple negative

Abandonment: Old Soldier. This is, unironically, one of the best designed cutscenes in gaming history, and it’s NOT IN THE GAME

Plot: So… the excuse plot of using Zandalari and Kul Tiras as the aces in the hole for both sides and their ONLY way to win? Bullcrap

Fake Drama: Katherine’s initial refusal of Jaina is, let’s be honest, very fake drama

Writing: So… we just let them imprison us (along with Jaina) in the BFA intro. Now, this could have worked, and could have been explained, and it isn’t. There’s a fade to black and we’re in prison. Cool

Internal Continuity: No acknowledgement of the recent and massive worldwide invasion of the Burning Legion…

Internal Continuity: …I mean come on…

Internal Continuity: …it’s ridiculous

Moment: Okay so, I do like the conclusion of Tiragarde Sound, but there is NO pacing in between “I will hand over the entire kingdom to my best friend” to “you betrayed us all!”. There’s ways to smooth this over and it’s overall a good arc, but man, that execution

Pacing: Jaina’s arc and the split into endgame

MSQ: Zandalar invasion disgust and racism. But also, and this is very vague and hard to describe but…

MSQ: …it’s just sort of… vacuous. You’re just here to mass murder a bunch of Horde, no judgment and no thought put into it, they’re the bad guys so kill them all

Cutscene Incompetence: Drustvar conclusion. We’re just… standing there, watching. This is going to be a recurring problem by the way

Internal Continuity: So the ENTIRE PLANET got covered in a giant flaming fog at the end of Legion. Why is this never brought up? At all? Ever?

Writing: Why is Brann for the Alliance? Again?

Character: Brann is… WEIRDLY out of character here

MSQ: The entire Nazmir invasion chain is, as usual, awful. Ignoring that it’s just yet another (bad) Apocalypse Now reference (that’s our third in this game alone, by the way) it also throws away any potential for any storytelling on any level and, as usual, flattens all characters and sides to just the two…

MSQ: …screw this quest

Secondary: So… there’s this massive Horde force which is suddenly attacking Brennadam. Like, indiscriminately slaughtering a civilian village

Secondary: Also there’s absolutely no reason for the Horde to be attacking here in general

Secondary: Also also it’s… pretty clear these were supposed to be the Quillboar. There’s even a follow up quest which directly references it

Secondary: So, uh, the pirate quests kinda… suck. It’s literally them badmouthing you and threatening you to get their treasure for them, and when you do so they try to scam you out of your share

Secondary: The naga quests are… weirdly bad. They start off bland and go nowhere. The Naga are just… here, to attack, for no reason. The quest then just ends abruptly when it’s done

Secondary: So I mentioned Quillboars earlier right? My favorite part about the quest, other than how nothingburger it is, is that when you’re done the quests just… end. Done, poof. I actually had to double around to make sure I didn’t miss anything

Cutscene Incompetence: So okay, I know we don’t exist and all that, but we literally let Victoria sacrifice herself (for no good reason) then just watch while Samuel is converted and our troops killed right in front of us. Come on game

MSQ: So Talanji was captured by the Alliance and imprisoned because… why?

MSQ: Why is Thalyssra going along with this? And putting up with Nathanos as her superior? The argument has been leveled that other members of the Horde go along with it because ‘that’s what you do in the Horde’ but Thalyssra has no such excuse. Furthermore, she literally just got out of heading up her own rebellion against a tyrannical dictator, yet she’s completely fine with all of this?

Character: By the way, why is Thalyssra not IMMEDIATELY joining the anti-Sylvanas rebellion? The Atrocity of Teldrassil shouldn’t have been tolerated by Baine or Varok, but Thalyssra? Inexcusable…

Character: …an easy double negative

MSQ: By the way they give the leader of the Darkspear and the leader of the Nightborne SUICIDE POTIONS. Because death would be preferable apparently? And we go ALONG with this? I’m not even going to mention doing this to the PC, since we don’t exist after all

MSQ: Then Varok flat out tells us we’re just kind of going along with an evil action and we’re like welp, okie

Dialogue: So there’s this issue both sides have, where the other side (when we talk to them) just sounds… evil. I’m not joking, they just come across as typical evil Warcraft villains. This is regardless of who it is, be it Greymane, Jaina, Rexxar, or

Secondary: Several of the Zuldazar quests just… sort of drag. They’re the worst kind of filler

MSQ: Why is Eitrigg here? Why is he afraid of witches? Why is he totally ignoring the blatantly evil Gallywix?

MSQ: Rexxar and his defending ‘our’ land in the Kul Tiran valley

Internal Continuity: It’s a little thing, but randomly having some cthraxxi we body over in Nazmir kind of ruins the Cthraxxi as a whole. They should always be a big deal (in fact THE main plot of the entire island is all about a single Cthraxxi)

Dialogue: So, BFA is the first expansion which has honest to goodness repetition problems. A quest will say something as a turn in, then the follow up quest will repeat it, then sometimes the character will say (in chat or in voice acting) the same thing. It’s constant and it’s bizarre, and another sign of the polish issue BFA has…

Dialogue: …very irritating…

Dialogue: …across the entire launch campaign

Story Sequencing: The Horde zones are very linear in how they should be told, and it’s very possible to do them completely out of said order, to the point where it’s comical

MSQ: The initial quest with Lilian. Why is she so bloodthirsty and evil all of the sudden?

MSQ: The initial quest with Nathanos and being hilariously evil. Seriously, why are we just… we just killed a woman, so we can raise her as a minion against her will, so we can find someone else to raise HIM against his will, and by the way at every step we threaten these people into compliance

MSQ: Rexxar and Lilian, of ALL PEOPLE, are just… AWFUL to Zelling (and his family). We show up, threaten him outright and openly, and that’s the START of this quest chain…

MSQ: …what in the world

Dialogue: I’d like to add a bonus negative for how all the Horde characters here talk like villains. No, seriously, this is 101 villainspeak here. I honestly relate it to how the Horde mission briefings would go all the way back in Warcraft 1 and 2

MSQ: Why are we assassinating archeologists? Why are we robbing literal exiles starving in the desert? Why is Shandris murder happy? Why do we then blow up a ton of archeological sites (and the CIVILIAN diggers, and the artifacts in them) ‘just because’? Christ almighty this is worse than the Horde crap under Nathanos…

MSQ: …this is just awful

Dialogue: Okay so I already dinged the ‘evil speak’ dialogue but check this out, the ALLIANCE does this too! There’s a quest where they talk about how horrible, evil, and depraved the Horde are right alongside doing things far worse themselves! And this could have worked if not for everything else surrounding it

MSQ: So anyways, we’re going to go mass murder Horde troops in Bwonsamdi’s necropolis because… …I have no idea why

MSQ: Also Talanji is full on Horde, and the Horde is working with Sanlayn (which the Horde didn’t even see a HINT of btw) oh and also flattening in general

Internal Continuity: For how good the War Campaign dovetails with the other one, it has weird glaring holes. Like where the hell were the sanlayn in the Horde campaign?

Character: Straight up ruining Zul’s character in classic Kel’Thuzad Syndrome

MSQ: So uh. Both sides think that with just ONE BIG VICTORY (against the Zandalari or Kul Tirans) the war… the WHOLE global superpower war… will be over! I’d buy it if idiots thought this but we hear this from Shaw, among other people…

MSQ: …and Talanji (twice in a row!)

Dialogue: I’m sorry, what’s with all the racist dialogue in the Battle For Dazaralor?

Consequence Storytelling: Baine sees Derek as the final straw. Cool! What about all the awful stuff before now?

Cutscene: Okay so… what I often consider the worst cutscene in the game plays when Sylvanas goes full Bond villain, with a crowd, and a bunch of leaders, all just sort of… staring while she executes people in cold blood out in the open. This scene has everything wrong with it…

Internal Continuity: …NONE of these people would go along with this. I mean they literally say so IN the scene in question…

Consequence Storytelling: …also they friggin’ have a crowd (who paid tickets to watch this!)

Writing: Also the dialogue itself is frankly pretty bad, especially for this era of the game

Theme: It also flies in the face of everything

Character: And serves as massive character assassination for literally everyone present

Story Sequencing: …it’s out of place. A small bit of polish and replacement of where it sits in the story would smooth this over substantially

Plot: The Night Warrior’s dick is SO BIG you have no idea. Just WITNESSING the ritual can kill you! It’s super amazing no really

Writing: Azerite. I’ve been chewing on how much this bothers me, but ultimately since we’re just reviewing what’s in game, they consistently treat it like it’s… well, oil. It explodes, and serves as fuel. That’s it. Now that’s pretty stupid, and I still dislike that Azerite is just straight up Titan blood (considering we already know what Titan blood is and have interacted with it more than once) but most of the more egregious nonsense about Azerite is outside the game, so it merely gets this one negative

Consequence Storytelling: Or a total lack thereof. The whole game has actually been pretty consistent with a few things, riiight up until BFA when there’s just airships all over the place and massive armies, even in an expansion where ‘getting a fleet’ is a huge plot point for BOTH sides. It’s aggravating

Character: Rexxar. This… is not Rexxar. In fact if he was some random Orc, he’d work a lot better

Character: Baine. Oh he gets better, but he spends a huge portion of the campaign doing absolutely nothing and just sighing a lot

Character: …aaand then there’s Lilian Voss. Yeah I know, but man she spends a weirdly large amount of the campaign just being a kill crazy mafia boss

Cutscene: This is sort of an aggregate but at some point or another all the cutscenes, and I do mean all of them, were broken and have bugs in them. While it’s amusing to watch (and it is) it’s still pretty bad…

Cutscene: …so enjoy…

Cutscene: …that triple

Cutscene: Even more bugs! Talking over Wrathion, animations not playing, bah

Cutscene: This is mostly an animation thing but Sylvanas completely bodies the Third Lich King. Like, too much, it’s no contest. He’s straight up Worfed to establish her and it hurts the scene

Plot: So… the Scourge. This was a whole plot point in Wrath, and Legion, AND HERE where they absolutely needed there to always be a Lich King to be the jailer (ha ha) of the damned. The Helm is broken and… no acknowledgement of this plot point exists. Yes I know it was (barely) in the pre launch event but that does not count (not the least of which because it’s not in the GAME anymore). So this is a huge plot point just abandoned like a hot potato, while simultaneously relying upon said point…

Plot: …so that…

Plot: …sucks…

Consequence Storytelling: …and is the opposite of consequence storytelling. Wrath might as well not have even happened, Bolvar could’ve taken off the helmet at any time. What in the world

Moment: SYLVANAAAAS! (Okay let me unpack this a bit; The problem here is that Genn automatically assumes it’s Sylvanas coming for Anduin. Why? Because during the cutscene there’s a narration saying that Sylvanas is coming for Anduin. But GENN has no way of hearing the narrator)

Cutscene Incompetence: Also the mawsworn just sort of effortlessly abduct people who are warned and know they’re coming. Seriously they bother to show people seeing the attack coming (Thrall literally readies his weapon) but no, these super high level raid tier heroes are just nabbed like that

Writing: The Jailer was behind the Helm all along. Okay. It’s hard to put into words why this doesn’t work for me, but the ultimate answer boils down to; It establishes a brand new character in place of an existing story beat (the Essence of the Lich King has been mentioned since forever ago) and it automatically presumes their importance without any legwork needed

Internal Continuity: So if the Third Lich King has known about the Jailer all this time why has he never said… ANYthing, ever? Apparently several other people had regular contact with this guy, actually (Helya, Mueh’zela, all the Nathrezim, Odyn, to name a few) but NOBODY had ever even MENTIONED this guy. I’ll get more into that as we go but it really does need to be mentioned that this yahoo, who’s THE villain of the entire setting (remember, he set the Burning Crusade into motion as part of his plans) is some guy who has ZERO hinting until he’s suddenly in the narrative. Pax called this something appropriate; an asspull. And let me tell you…

Internal Continuity: …this is one hell…

Internal Continuity: …of an asspull

Visual Storytelling: The Jailer. He’s… dumb looking. I have no better way to put this, he’s just some friggin’ dude

Spritework: The Jailer deserves special mention on a different axis. Final bosses are supposed to look good. They can be creepy or intimidating or terrifying or powerful or cool but they have to be SOMEthing other than ‘some guy in khakis’

Writing: The Jailer’s introduction. I’m sorry, I know I just mentioned this but the very first mention of the main villain of the entire setting is just casually name dropping him in a cutscene…

Writing: …that is full of dry, bad exposition

Character: Why does Helya work for the Jailer? NOT ANSWERED

Writing: PITIFUL MORTAL. This is the first line of dialogue the Jailer ever says and it… REALLY speaks to his character

Humor: “Too much blade, not enough haft”. I’m sorry, did Thrall just pull a dick joke? In Warcraft? In THE MAW?

Writing: We are the chosen one of the First Ones, which is why we can do anything. This is not hyperbole, the First Ones (which we’ll get to in a second) had a prophecy about the super amazing chosen one and it’s US! Be thankful I can’t ding the game for stuff the devs said in interviews or this’d be a lot more than one negative

Internal Continuity: Sylvanas’ power. So she’s empowered by death, somehow. How is never… really explored or explained. They make specific mention that they (Jaina and Thalyssra) couldn’t detect it. This is done as a cheap way to talk her up, but really there’s no logic here. It’s either death magic (which they know quite well) or Domination magic (which Jaina would at LEAST be familiar with), but no. Super powers ahoy

Writing: Time dilation. As usual, it means nothing and is just here to make things more shocking

World Building: Not one but TWO ancientier precursor races in Shadowlands (the Eternal Ones and the First Ones). I’m sorry, adding the Titans in WoW (and later Wrath) worked for several reasons, but the Eternal Ones are already a bit much to swallow (remember, they’re each stronger than Titans!) but then we get introduced to the First Ones BEFORE the Eternal Ones. This is already eyebrow raising just for introducing two precursor races we’ve never heard of before in an expansion…

Writing: …but then you get to the fact that they’re both super amazingly powerful no really just trust us…

Writing: …and then there’s the basic problem of their names. They are incredibly generic, and entirely too similar to each other. I know many people who get both confused cuz their names are Eternal Ones and friggin’ First Ones

Dialogue: There’s some… really rough, first draft dialogue in the Intro

Voice Direction: The Attendants talk too slow and too boring

World Building: So! There’s constructed afterlives. This contradicts Warcraft as a setting on multiple levels so I’m just going to go ahead…

World Building: …and slam…

World Building: …a triple on its face. Seriously, this very concept doesn’t even fit with something like Warcraft, this is more the domain of something like Forgotten Realms, but wait, it gets worse!

Internal Continuity: Because ALL OF WARCRAFT up to this point (and after it!) has the afterlives function completely differently, in a way that’s fundamentally incompatible with how the constructed afterlives operate…

Internal Continuity: …so there’s another…

Internal Continuity: …triple. Hang on I’m not done yet, because…

Writing: …did you know there’s ONE afterlife (the Shadowlands) for the entire multiverse? Really think about that for a second

Internal Continuity: But wait, it gets better! Because guess who we see across Shadowlands? That’s right, AZEROTH dead. Yes I know there’s the two in Ardenweald, but TWO people who aren’t from Azeroth? Come on

Internal Continuity: Man I’m giving a lot of these aren’t I? So let’s talk about the five afterlives. There are (clearly) five afterlives, each of which fits and has its own purpose. There is a lot of emphasis on this (the gates in Oribos, the map also in Oribos, the five Eternal Ones, each of the five serving as one step of the same overall process of the mechanism of death). Thing is, they insist (multiple times) that there are INFINITE afterlives out there. This breaks down the more you think about it, and I’ll ding that in a second, but it just does not fit with what we’re shown in the game itself

Writing: Also, infinite afterlives

Brickwork: Oribos. Yes, that’s a Brickwork NEGATIVE for WoW, what have you done Shadowlands?! You monster!

Architecture: And another Architecture negative, our first one since friggin’ BC. This is obviously for Oribos but also for the whole of Shadowlands because each ‘afterlife’ takes forever to traverse and doesn’t really… feel large. The worst part? Revendreth. Yes, really, Revendreth. Sure it looks great but it’s also completely empty and absolutely enormous…

Architecture: …deserving of a second negative

Doodads: For real, Oribos LOOKS awful. It’s an empty dull combination of three colors repeated endlessly, which has its own problems (listed in gameplay), but just means that as you’re roaming around there’s NOTHING worth looking at. Even if you’re navigating Silvermoon or Exodar you have something cool to look at but here? Nah. Screw you, enjoy the nearly copy-pasted hallways over and over

Brickwork: So let’s double that brickwork negative…

Brickwork: …no, let’s triple it

Plot: So it’s important to remember that Shadowlands, ultimately, isn’t a separate game. It’s a new chapter in the same story. The reason this is important is because it means there’s a few patterns you can follow to keep the pacing and stakes of the plots across expansions interesting. We defeat Deathwing in Cataclysm only to walk around the Jade Forest in Pandaria. But here we go directly from defeating N’Zoth to… world ending stakes, which are almost immediately afterwards upped to REALITY ending stakes. You do not START a new chapter like this, it’s nonsensical on every level. Because ignoring the obvious fact that you have now destroyed the pacing of the entire chapter, there’s only two possibilities here. Either you buy into the threat (in which case it’s not more or less enjoyable, it just is) or you DON’T because you just dealt with this nonsense (meaning it is LESS enjoyable). This is an awful idea…

Plot: …and deserves…

Plot: …its own triple, but hang on, it gets worse! Because see…

Pacing: …the Intro (which, remind, was actually pretty good) then leads to a MASSIVE breather section in Bastion. Everything about Bastion involves taking things at our own pace and zooming the camera down. The problem here is this is a breather section after we were just given TWO ticking clocks (the Jailer’s overall plans, and the fact that our friends are actively being tortured right now). Seriously, really think about Jaina or Baine being like “It’s okay, they’ll save us soon!” and we’re off picking flowers in Bastion. This is nonsense…

Pacing: …and gets worse…

Pacing: …the more you think about it

Segregation: It also serves as massive gameplay/story segregation

World Building: Kyrians. Let me explain a bit. The entire idea of the constructed afterlives doesn’t work (as considered) and I chewed on this for a while cuz… I LIKE the world building here, but it doesn’t FIT at all. So any positives must also include a negative for being yet another chunk of world building that does not belong

Plot: The mechanism of death being broken by a dead Titan. What? The more you think about this the less sense it makes. It’s not a minor point either, this is THE integral element to the Jailer’s overall plans, but why was the Arbiter permanently damaged by Argus’ soul? While I’m at it, why can’t she be repaired, or restored? She never is, by the way

World Building: Constructed afterlives, and how that messes with a setting that includes resurrection and undeath. This is an issue in any setting, really, but when you can physically travel from one to the other, and you can be resurrected from the afterlife, AND people are regularly raised from the afterlife into undeath, it sort of… breaks the setting. You can write around it of course, but it’s such a massive sea change and as you might imagine, Shadowlands barely acknowledges it. I mean there’s a moment where Khadgar visits the afterlife… just cuz. He’s literally a tourist. So…

World Building: …let’s just give this…

World Building: …a full triple

External Continuity: Maldraxxus… and retroactive worfing of the Scourge. So the idea here is that Maldraxxus was always the ‘real’ Scourge and the Scourge was Maldraxxus lite. This might have worked if done well actually but it super is not, in fact Maldraxxus comes across as the Scourge Lite instead, and so it sort of ruins things

Pacing: Once again, our allies are just off being tortured in the worst hell imaginable while we’re off doing the rounds in Maldraxxus. This is even called out at this point

Secondary: The entire Pride or Unit chain drags pretty hard. It’s an entire chain, a pretty long one, and nothing of note or interest happens across it…

Secondary: …for a double

Internal Continuity: Perma death? Or no? Depends on the moment. In fact Maldraxxus is pretty bad about this. By the time we’ve reached here, we know that people who die in the afterlife dissipate (which is also a very long standing rule that Warcraft is pretty consistent about) and all of the sudden in Maldraxxus there’s corpses and body parts and souls that get reborn somehow and… whatever

Visual Storytelling: Scourge aesthetic. So, Maldraxxus looks like the Scourge. I’m SORT of okay with this (and gave some positives for it) buuut then there’s the fact that it really is just straight up Scourge 2.0. Even when that makes absolutely no sense. To list another specific example of this…

Visual Storytelling: …the whole region has piles of corpses, especially in the Construct Quarter. Remember, body parts are valuable and a huge part of their culture and literal economy and internal progression. So why are they all in a giant pile, slowly rotting away and being consumed by fungus? Well, because it’s just the Scourge 2.0, with no further thought put into it

Plot: So, Krexus dies… off camera, to an extremely obvious betrayal that anyone could see coming from a mile away. Nobody calls him on this. So this is a double; a dude who’s so important he’s literally on the loading screen is killed off early and off camera, and it’s pointless and barely changes the story…

Plot: …so, y’know, that sucks

Consequence Storytelling: So our second visit to the Maw actually calls attention to the fact that the people in here are suffering so badly they’ve lost track of time… while we’ve been off picking flowers (sometimes literally)

Character: The Jailer, part 1. Okay so hear me out, cuz we have to REALLY zoom in on the Jailer to understand how awful he is. This first sliver is specifically about how stupid he is. The entire plot revolves around the idea that he is super smart and is three steps ahead of absolutely everyone constantly, something we are TOLD. Yet every time he’s on camera we are SHOWN how much of a typical negligent idiot villain he is. And this is not just self contradictory, it diminishes him as a character AND as a threat

Consequence Storytelling: Okay so people can just… casually journey to the afterlife now. Not even like big super powerful people like Khadgar, Taelia (who is canonically pretty low level) just waltzes on in

Writing: Sssoooo why the Drust? No, really I’ve been thinking about this, they really do not fit here. It doesn’t help that Thros is cut content, but these barbarian assholes from Drustvar feel very out of place in an otherwise pretty good story arc

Plot: I’m sorry but our friends are STILL being tortured horribly while we roam Revendreth helping the bad guy

Plot: Also we are stuck helping the INCREDIBLY obviously evil bad guy for entirely too long in Revendreth

Writing: So why are our friends being tortured horribly instead of the actual two things that should be happening to them (fuel or domination) because… well, because plot. It’s so we can go rescue them later

World Building: True names in Revendreth (there is no rules magic in Warcraft). This is already irritating for the retcon, but what makes it worse is you KNOW the only reason it’s here is cuz vampires

World Building: Okay so… what is Anima? It’s never been mentioned before (no, the Pandaria thing is different) and it’s super important. It’s SO important that it’s…

Internal Continuity: …incredibly inconsistent on what it is at any given point in time and what it can be used for. With the advantage of analysis and hindsight it’s pretty obvious there were originally five resources the various afterlives used that got smashed into one resource (or let’s call it what it is, a currency for the player tab) because it functions differently in each zone. I don’t just mean they have different uses for it, the very fundaments of how it operates vary from zone to zone

Theme: The mere existence of the Maw does not belong in Warcraft. This is right up there with the Path of Glory and for the same reason. Warcraft can be serious, horrifying, and dramatic, but it never dips this far down into something this truly atrocious. And yet here we are

MSQ: Why do we go along with Denathrius for SO long? Seriously, it’s made obvious inside of 5 minutes this guy is evil, but even then by the time we actually meet the guy it’s very clear he’s extremely The Bad Guy, and we KEEP working for him. What’s worse, when we finally, FINALLY turn…

Pacing: …it’s the end of the zone. This makes the pacing of the zone bizarre. We spend so much time building up, and then oh quick rescue Renethal, and then we attack Denathrius (all inside of three quests, right at the end)

Writing: Light burns vampires cuz tropes. Look, I like the Ember Ward, but the only reason this is this way is because they’re vampires

MSQ: Finally go to rescue Baine and it’s basically a joke. Why did we wait this long again?

World Building: Night Warrior issues continue. To re-emphasize; This setting has plenty of super powered sources of, uh, power that are costly and arguably foolhardy to tap into, why is the Night Warrior being treated like some big super amazing thing? (Side note: This was even funnier for me doing this quest on a DEMON HUNTER, who has a demon’s soul inside theirs to gain power)

Character: Why is Mueh’zala loyal to the Jailor? NOT ANSWERED

Writing: This is worse than usual because a LOT of plot points sit on Mueh’zala. Sylvanas taking the Horde, Helya’s turn, and Vol’jin’s death

World Building: Rules magic, again! Curses like this do not exist argh

Plot: Sorry, I skipped over a beat there, let’s rewind a second. So, Denathrius is a loyal servant of the Jailer. This is stupid on basically every level. The problem, really, is that we have two plots that were not intended to coincide that are in fact colliding with each other; The Drought, which Denathrius is behind, and the breaking of the mechanism of death, which the Jailer is behind. Problem is the drought is caused by the Jailer, but the game insists Denathrius is actually the one behind it (also the moment we defeat Denathrius the drought ends, despite the Arbiter not being fixed). So this is already a problem…

Internal Continuity: …and, yes, is yet another inconsistency problem, but then…

Writing: …we have to zoom the camera out and examine why this is so damned stupid. All across the zone people are super loyal to the Jailer for no good damned reason, and each one deserves a negative for how handwaved it is, but Denathrius is the worst by far. He’s AT the Jailer’s level, and free with an entire realm at his beck and call, yet he without hesitation hands over his Sigil (not even mentioned yet btw, that’s a patch retcon) and betrays everyone and everything to serve the Jailer. There is no ‘why’ here, he’s doing it because the Jailer is the big bad so everyone must serve him. This is probably the single biggest piece of evidence that the Jailer was tacked on after the main story was already outlined, because if you look at it as all of this is Denathrius’ fault (he engineered the death of Argus, and the anima storing exacerbating the drought) then all of this suddenly lines up much more neatly. But no, we had to crudely bolt the Jailer on here. So right off the bat…

Writing: …we’re giving this…

Writing: …full negatives. Because, you see…

Character: The Jailer, part 2. This deserves its own bonus negative because it is the ur reason why the Jailer sucks so badly; He’s not merely a bad character and bad villain, he warps and distorts the narrative around him. The world literally adjusts to fit him. There’s a definition for that; a Mary Sue. This is not the last time I will complain about this particular point either

Writing: So! The Drust curse is SO powerful that even despite doing an ENTIRE quest chain of efforts, including asking two Drust themselves to help with it (one living and one dead), at the end the answer is… nope! The Drust curse is just too much, can’t cure it. Wee! I remind you this is a setting where we’ve cured blighted lands (Plaguelands), Fel (satyrs and land alike), and the frickin’ Nightborne but no, the Drust are too much…

World Building: …so that’s nonsensical for this setting in particular

MSQ: Ardenweald doldrums. Good lord there’s some serious spinning of wheels padding here

MSQ: So… we go to fight the Drust for the Ardenweald finale (for… some reason?) Before I go even one more step forwards, negative for the Drust being the big bad of the campaign

MSQ: Then we kill Aralon. Permanently kill Aralon. For no damned reason, really. It doesn’t support the narrative much, it feels pointless immediately before the big finale, but all of that’s purely thematically…

MSQ: …it also makes no sense logically. We have MULTIPLE people nearby (including US) who could’ve seen through what is functionally a basic glamour (in fact one of our party members DID notice something was off) but no, we kill him

Writing: The build up to the ‘reveal’ that it’s Kel’Thuzad is horribly handled…

Pacing: …on multiple levels

Character: Why is Kel’Thuzad working for the Jailer? NOT ANSWERED

Plot: Also why did the Arbiter sort Kel’Thuzad into Maldraxxus instead of any better option (like Revendreth or THE MAW?) The answer is of course; Because Plot

World Building: Kyrians. So, Kyrians’ whole thing is about ferrying the dead around. Okay, sure, okay. Why does Oribos exist then? In fact what are they doing while all the souls are just pumping into Oribos and then directly into the Maw? This is already nonsensical…

Internal Continuity: …but then you realize the whole expansion treats both as true. Oribos is the pipeline and the Kyrians are the… other… pipeline. Their ENTIRE JOB is ferrying the dead around! This is yet another consequence of the many plots of Shadowlands being smashed into each other

Pacing: Kel’Thuzad’s arc. So okay, after the halfway point in Maldraxxus we have a few quests in short succession. Follow with me here. So we beat the main villain of Maldraxxus, Margrave Gharmal, who’s been built up since the main campaign all the way back in Bastion and Maldraxxus. So we have this nice, long, properly paced build up to this. Then we get a quest about how Kel’Thuzad is behind everything (see previous negatives), then we go infiltrate his forces, then we find out he’s working for the Jailer (gasp), then we fight him. Inside of like… an hour of real time. Why is this part of the chain paced like this?

Character: Why is Kel’Thuzad randomly just… a dick here? Nevermind the other stuff, we’ll cover that later, this is completely not in character for him

Cutscene: The Maldraxxus finale is… awful. Even at a construction level, like the storyboarding and animation is bad. And Kel’Thuzad gets yanked out to the Maw, but has nothing to say about it, and acts like it’s a bad thing, but is being rescued? Also Kael’Thas is like rawr vengeance in the middle of a battle. I… what is this nonsense? This deserves…

Cutscene: …a full…

Cutscene: …triple

Storytelling Mechanic: The load screen, THE load screen for Shadowlands, is… bad. It emphasizes the Arbiter (barely a character) the Jailer (obvious problems) it hints at Krexus being a big villain (he isn’t, and he dies off frickin’ camera after two scenes), it’s… bad

Padding: Literally repeating the finale for Maldraxxus and Revendreth

Story Sequencing: Bastion Maw issues. So, here’s the deal; the first Bastion quest is REALLY good, buuut it also happens at the beginning of the Bastion campaign… which is by definition AFTER the main campaign, hours and hours after we already learned all of this. Why is this reveal HERE exactly? It completely saps what is otherwise a fantastic sequence

Writing: The Eternal Ones who don’t communicate but can instantly. No, re-read that a second. The Eternal Ones do not talk to each other at all and act like they have no idea what’s going on in the other realms, but they quite literally have a holocomm they can just use to call each other. In fact you don’t even have to be an Eternal One to use it! Later, Prince Renethal does!

Internal Continuity: Uther inconsistencies. So at an absolute minimum there are three Uthers, because the Uthers we encounter cannot coincide properly (the one in West Plagues, the one in the sword, the one in the Maw, and the one in Bastion)

Padding: …literally repeating the finale for Maldraxxus and Bastion

Character: Devos serves the Jailer. Why? NOT ANSWERED

Character: The Forsworn in general are such a waste. An entity with a positive inclination which is completely ruined by just being friggin’ nazis

Character: The Jailer, part 3. So, the thing is, Sylvanas is actually interesting and engaging here. Well visualized (animation), well acted (voice acting), and her motives line up neatly with her past, history, and how she’s been presented even recently… except for the inclusion of the Jailer, someone who actively uses something called capital d Domination magic. This is yet another way in this the Jailer ruins the narrative around him; Her motives go from a good, fascinating continuation of her descent into villainy into… complete nonsensical idiocy. And this is why so many people can’t stand her this expansion

Character: The Jailer, part 4. Yes, MORE Sylvanas, because she is so clearly torn on all of this and is pushed to the brink. Her and Anduin have some REALLY good scenes together and it’s clearly eating her up ‘having’ to do all this and it only works if… she’s not working for the Jailer. There will be more on this later, don’t worry

Writing: Sigils, out of nowhere! Never even MENTIONED before. Literally just invented wholecloth and are now the Jailer’s entire plot and always has been (just like his last two grand schemes, one of which we haven’t even fixed yet)

Dialogue: That repetition problem from BFA is back… and worse than ever. The lack of editor is VERY obvious here…

Dialogue: …an easy…

Dialogue: …triple

Moment: Worfing us… US… to Sylvanas. Worfing is never good, supposed-to-lose fights are never good, having us one shot by Sylvanas is ridiculous

Cutscene: The Jailer and Anduin cutscene. So… yeah the Jailer is Anduin. This is his big reason for needing Anduin the entire time, so he could send an infiltrator (remember, the Maw is just a revolving door now) to get in melee range of a friggin’ Eternal One, which he then effortlessly bodies. Question. If he could so effortlessly take out her AND her guard, why the need for the infiltration? (the answer is probably because they needed to justify the Anduin being kept chained thing)

Moment: The ENTIRE Battle for Ardenweald builds up to this big reveal of this big super doom death doom and when it’s finally revealed it’s… pretty eh, same elites we’ve seen for hours. But wait, it’s even worse…

Moment: …because it gets worfed in ONE hit by Tyrande. ONE HIT. This is so stupid…

Moment: …good lord…

Moment: …this is awful

Cutscene: So then Tyrande is super awesome, my goodness she’s so powerful that she can barely keep up with Sylvanas… aaand falters when she has her at her mercy. Keep in mind this woman can barely think straight for the Night Warrior curse AND her own rage

Cutscene: Then she gives it all for One Last Push but that fails seconds later because ping pong drama

Cutscene: Then she tries to strangle Sylvanas instead of… ANYthing else she could be doing, aaand…

Cutscene: …then the power starts fading, Sylvanas taunts and flees, and this all accomplished absolutely nothing

Writing: Right, sorry, forgot to mention this earlier. So people can just… leave the Maw now (they do so regularly and have since the Covenant Campaigns). The ENTIRE point of the Maw is it’s inescapable but they just revolving door in and out

Writing: So the Jailer can just fling chains out to drag places into the Maw

Writing: The Eye cannot pierce Korthia. But his Mawsworn can. These two plot beats are literally said one sentence apart

Plot: I’m sorry, HOW did the Jailer find Korthia again?

Visual Storytelling: Good lord I’m actually giving a second visual negative to WoW. So, Korthia is the City of Secrets, something emphasized constantly. Why, then, is it a big drust-looking foresty area?

Brickwork: Oh yeah and it looks AWFUL too. Like, literally, the actual grass is worse than WoW standard, it’s wild

Character: Okay I’m sorry, Helya is completely mis-used in general here. She’s here and evil basically ‘because’

Internal Continuity: Also we killed her! In her own realm! Two expansions ago! Why and how is she suddenly here? NOT ANSWERED

Writing: Oribos and net

Writing: Also River of Souls and net

Writing: Okay so, we know the Jailer wants the Infinity Stones… I mean the Sigils, and we know he’s missing one, and he just dragged Korthia into the Maw, and we spend HOURS of quests finding out that, gasp, he wants the Sigil which is hidden in Korthia

Plot: Doldrums of Korthia. This is all a macguffin hunt and a very dull one

Cutscene: MAN we get bodied by the Jailer easily. But also…

Character: The Jailer, part 5. He Kai Lengs us and that never feels good in general, but it’s made worse because he does so after having already done so like four times in a row. He just Worfs us over and over and over and effortlessly stomps over all obstacles in his path. Almost as if the universe twists around to suit him. This hurts…

Pacing: …the pacing of the main plot…

Consequence Storytelling: …and makes it ridiculous that we can even stand against this guy. Let me try to explain by comparison. During Legion we, barely and by the skin of our teeth, manage a victory that honestly wouldn’t have even mattered if not for the fact that several critical dominos were lined up just so. In other words, our victory there was EARNED. It’s something we worked very hard for, and had the opportunities to capitalize on. Here we just get consistently crushed by the Jailer until it’s time for us to beat him

Pacing: Thrall and Draka. You get one bit of dialogue per quest progress which can happen minutes apart

MSQ: We did it! We avenged whatshisface on whatshisface and banished whatsherface! Yaaay

Plot: Alright, let’s talk plot. The Jailer’s plan is to get a bunch of people loyal to him, most critically Denathrius, leading to him having the Nathrezim as his agents, to manipulate all of the cosmos, to ensure that three things happen; He gets the drought, he gets the souls, and he gets the sigils. All three of these plots are kind of stupid and have nothing to do with each other, really, but what really gets me is how he, Denathrius, and the Nathrezim are behind everything. Lemme say that again; they are behind EVERYthing in the entire franchise. This is so awful…

Plot: …I’m going to START…

Plot: …by giving a triple negative

External Continuity: This is one of the worst examples of a retcon I have seen in my entire life, and I’ve seen some whoppers. This recontextualizes everything from Warcraft frickin’ 2 all the way to Shadowlands. This actively poisons the soul of Warcraft and I don’t know how else to put that…

External Continuity: …so…

External Continuity: …normally I’d give three negatives here, but I’m breaking my ‘three’ rule because I really mean it when I say…

External Continuity: …that this is THE worst retcon I have seen in my professional career. So let’s just…

External Continuity: …give that…

External Continuity: …a six, and move on to our next problem

Character: The Jailer, part 6. Yes, really, but hear me out. See, he’s a Threat Of The Week. For those unaware, this is a term from television where a bad guy or threat shows up for one week, has never been heard of or hinted at before, and is never heard of again after their passing. Threats Of The Week can be good, but are often bad because the story is twisted around to make them more threatening then they really should be. Sound familiar? They couldn’t just make him some threat, he has to be THE threat, and the entire setting was sacrificed for this, but that’s my final point

Writing: Because, really, this is just bad writing. Sacrificing your entire franchise’s lore and history to prop up a Threat Of The Week is a special kind of insulting and makes it even worse somehow…

Writing: …so…

Writing: …enjoy that

Internal Continuity: The 9.1 Covenant quests are so clearly not intended to be strung together like this

Writing: The Primus is supposed to be this super brain genius who plays 5D chess, however he is constantly outplayed and gets bodied repeatedly, and things constantly pass by his attention until it’s too late. In short, we’re told, not shown

Writing: Elune apparently was completely unaware that souls were going into the Maw. I’m sorry, how? And even if this is excusable, it’s ultimately just another ‘excuse plot’ thing to wrap this crap up

Writing: So… there’s a bunch of souls we free from the Jailer. These presumably came from Frostmourne after they were freed from said sword upon its destruction. A few things. First, are these fragments? Because if they are that has huge implications. Second, how did they end up in the Jailer’s care? Frostmourne was destroyed and its souls freed WAY before the mechanisms of death were broken. Third…

Writing: …why don’t we rescue those other souls on the spot?!

Cutscene: Garrosh’s… third final cutscene now

Writing: Also like… why is Garrosh here? What is this weird follow though?

Character: Kel’Thuzad. I’m sorry, we’ve already covered this, but even ignoring how bad his character gets blasted here (and his voice acting is just… weird), on top of that the dude is just another raid fight. Again

Internal Continuity: So he can suddenly drag Zereth Mortis into Torghast well before he gets the sigils?

Cutscene Incompetence: Okay so I already gave this scene two positives for how awesome Sylvanas is in it. Let’s talk about how much it screws up! First, and most obviously, everybody just… stands there and lets this all play out rather than doing… ANYthing. (Seriously, what are WE doing over on the side while this is happening?)

Writing: Second, and this really needs to be stressed, Sylvanas is an IDIOT here. No not the defiance (that’s very accurate), no not her being bothered by serving (extremely in character), it’s the fact here, NOW, is the big reveal moment for who she’s working for. What in the world? No book or elsewise is going to smooth this over, she is clinging to the Idiot Ball as hard as possible to be loyal to this guy…

Writing: …and that really…

Writing: …needs to be emphasized, but I’m not done yet

Character: The Jailer, part 7. Soooo, let’s talk about what a Mary Sue is. It has a few recognizable traits but there are two that really rise to the top when it comes to analyzing and reviewing. First is they twist and warp the setting around them to accommodate them, something I’ve been giving him negatives for this entire expansion. That’s awful, of course, but there’s another facet; they’re just BETTER. Not in ways that matter, it’s always some stupid little flashy or showy thing that just goes above and beyond to show just how much more they are than everyone else. Casually having a perfect holographic presentation in your enemy’s meeting room, somehow being the first and only human to overwhelm a Protoss’ mind, or (the immediate example) so casually and effortlessly catching the act of defiance arrow without even looking. In fact he also very casually grabs her soul to shove into her too. It’s not like the arrow would have hurt, but he just had to be that extra little bit BETTER, because the Jailer is a Mary Sue to a T

Writing: Instant Domination of Thrall, Jaina, and frickin’ Bolvar

Moment: You have found me out! My machinations lay undetected for years!! (Seriously how did a nathrezim infiltrate this group? THIS group?)

Cutscene Incompetence: Okay so, a few mawsworn attack and they’re fighting against several high tier heroes, leaders from each covenant, and a frickin’ Eternal One (the Primus) and they’re actually a problem for us… somehow? This is honestly pretty bad by itself…

Cutscene Incompetence: …but the you factor in the fact that WE’RE there (and nearly died, cuz of course)

Cutscene Incompetence: …but then, and this pisses me off most, there’s this moment where the mawsworn finally stop screwing around and attack the portal we’re aiming for (what took them so long?) and instead of doing… literally anything else, the Primus just tells us to book it

Cutscene: And I’m sorry, this is legitimately awful. A last minute rush under the door before it seals (metaphorically) can be fine but this is really, really badly done, especially by WoW’s standards

Cutscene: So the Mawsworn are defeating Haven, and then the Jailer himself shows up, and they could effortlessly kill us, aaand he just leaves

Atmosphere: So, Zereth Mortis just… does not belong in Warcraft. It is entirely too metaphysical and high concept for a setting this grounded. I will admit that I personally HATE this, but from a review perspective it is merely bad

MSQ: Us being infiltrated by Dreadlords. This isn’t terrible by itself but you know what is? In a time when EVERYONE knows the Nathrezim are infiltrating, ‘we’ show up and start giving stupid orders, and NObody expects a thing

Cutscene: I have to point out that the Jailer, as usual, ruins this scene between Uther and Sylvanas

Pacing: I’m sorry, what is with the Zereth Mortis arc? We lurch and stop in spurts and it’s super awkward. One of the very first quests has the Jailer make his way into his goal… theeen we spent THREE entire quest arcs spinning our wheels so we can then follow him, at which point it’s like ‘oh hey do the raid’… it’s… wild…

Pacing: …and awful

Cutscene: Okay so, Arthas’ final scene. Don’t mistake me, I like the first portion, about Anduin, and how he uses his memories of Varok and Varian to help him out. That’s awesome. But then we see what’s left of Arthas’ soul after the battle (and being forged into the sword to begin with) and this whole scene kinda… sucks. The writing is crude (the dialogue is just… bad), the characters present (who should have plenty to say or do) say nothing, and then Arthas is permanently cessated because… sure. This is legitimately awful, and honestly just comes across as a spiteful way to remove a beloved character from the game…

Cutscene: …so that’s…

Cutscene: …a triple

External Continuity: But I have to emphasize how awful this is as a way to capstone Warcraft 3. This is the opposite of a satisfying conclusion. Even IF you do the battle (which is awesome, remind) it entirely concerns the Second Lich King, not Arthas. This feels dirty in how it spits on Warcraft as a whole…

External Continuity: …like so much…

External Continuity: …of Shadowlands

Internal Continuity: So the Soulgrinders and Icecrown and the sword AND BFA were all the Jailer’s plans all the time forever. So that’s, y’know, cool…

Internal Continuity: …and makes no sense…

Internal Continuity: …and is awful

Cutscene: *rubs eyes* So. First we see a flashback of Zovaal’s original banishment, and we finally (finally) get his big motivations… and… it’s just so, so bad. His dialogue is amazingly generic, and the presentation is fractured and disinteresting. So the cutscene itself…

Cutscene: …gets a double

Writing: Also I’m sorry. I’m sorry. The Jailer is the bigger, worser bad behind the big bad that was Sargeras (and arguably the Old Gods). Okay so that’s… already bad, for obvious reasons. It can work, it has worked, but it fumbled. No problem. But then we find out that the Jailer is actually just the lead in to the biggier worsier threat past him. This… is legitimately terrible and I hope to God above that they never, ever follow through on this

Character: The Jailer, part 8, final. This is it. 8 individual character negatives for this asshole, and I stand by every one of them. This is part of him being a Mary Sue again but here’s the deal; they pulled the old ‘he was doing evil things for a good reason’ trick. This is a very difficult trick to pull off with a villain and doing so at the very, very, very end of their arc with no hinting, build up, foreshadowing, OR follow through is not great. The cosmos divided cannot withstand… the Jailer’s terrible character

Internal Continuity: So WHY did the Primus invent Domination magic again? No, really, think about this for a second. They cast Zovaal into the Maw (where he can’t escape) and hopes he’ll redeem himself and alongside that INVENTS a whole new form of magic for absolutely no reason to… do… what exactly?!

Writing: Why is Taelia here, exactly? NOW? We are in the math realm of the cosmos and the girl who had issues with pirates is here, helping us fight. What in the world?

Moment: Okay hear me out. I was torn on this one but the absolutely terrible Burger King crown we get completely ruins the moment of it

Character: Bolvar. Why is he even here? They do NOTHING with him except for a few brief snippets with his daughter

Cutscene: Hokay. I… struggle to type this out. We have an entire sequence building up to building a new Arbiter and then a literally unnamed dreadlord pops in out of absolutely nowhere and … does… something? I’m STILL not 100% sure what happens here except that the new Arbiter isn’t made and instead Argus is here. This is so nonsensical, even for a Warcraft cutscene. Usually I can at least divine what’s going on. But near as I can tell the entire purpose of this scene was just to confirm that Argus dying was A: What stunned the Arbiter and B: That literally all of Warcraft history was the Jailer’s plan. So…

Cutscene: …enjoy…

Cutscene: …this nonsense

Consequence Storytelling: Also this makes so little sense I legitimately struggle to even understand what the actual plan is being portrayed here

Cutscene: Razageth’s reveal. Wrathion (a guy who toe-to-toe’d N’zoth for God’s sakes) is just worfed by a single rock, and cowers before this twit who rants about the end of the world. We’ll see how she plays out as we go, but this was not a good opener for her or the Primalists

Cutscene: Raszageth just leaves for some reason. I… don’t like this scene, but even if I ignore my personal bias against it, the fact is that Razzy has a big fight with Alexstrasza, wins, goes for the killing blow, gets hit ONCE in return, and decides to monologue before bailing. I get the idea, but this felt crudely put together

World Building: So, the Maruuk centaur have been here on the Ohn’ahran plains for… ten thousand friggin’ years. This doesn’t work for quite a few reasons. Their society hasn’t moved an INCH in development or culture in a friggin’ eon, and the plains are still super lush and rich in resources despite their methods, and they’ve stayed contained in a relatively small space the entire time, and it just… does not work

Cutscene Incompetence: Okay so Balakar shows up, openly threatens everyone, and very slowly kills the emissary and we all just… watch. Including US I feel like pointing out

Consequence Storytelling: But honestly the follow up is even worse if you think about it. So this dude walks in, threatens and boasts, murders an emissary, then fade to black and he’s gone. What… happened across that fade to black? Did he just meander off? Was there an awkward stare? Did he call ‘safe’ so we couldn’t kill him on the spot?

Cutscene Incompetence: Why did we just… sit there and let them trap and fling us away like we’re dirty laundry?

Consequence Storytelling: I’m sorry, some random nobody regional bad guy effortlessly captures and drains a Loa and, while maintaining that, bodies us? Give me a break

MSQ: So we see the Primalist Future, and they’ve destroyed the entire planet with their nonsense and it just adds more fuel to the fire of trying to hype up these local bandits as a large scale problem

Internal Continuity: Acknowledging the Shadowlands in Uldaman. Yes, really, screw it

MSQ: It’s relatively minor, but honestly we are entirely too trusting of Rymek and he is not particularly subtle about his infiltration. And when he finally powers up he takes SO long it’s sort of silly

MSQ: Insistence on Ysera being back for the Emerald chain. They do good stuff with her, but they spend too much time insisting she MUST come back to face this GREAT enemy, which is some random dude we just met and clobber minutes later. No, she’s back Because Plot

Internal Continuity: Rebels. So here’s the deal; they wanted this whole shtick with the rebels (Dragonkin and Drakonid) being suppressed and abused by the Dragons. Problem is… they AREN’T. I was paying attention this time around, not even a PEEP of this anywhere. If you want this kind of arc it has to come from somewhere, not just suddenly show up. Speaking of which…

Prime Opt: …the first Rebels quest comes out of absolutely nowhere and starts off with us saving Valdrakken from a civilian bombing. Now I can… SORT of forgive this given the influence of the Primalists, but it’s a bad place to start…

Prime Opt: …especially given the SECOND quest chain, which is right after it, is all about how they’re totally oppressed (no they aren’t) and how they’re totally justified in violent revolt (no they aren’t) and also is deliberately attacking the Titan-blessed aqueduct. Which would cause so… so many issues. It’s hard to sympathize with these assholes

Writing: Comes out of nowhere, goes nowhere. Seriously, this arc feels completely out of place

Cutscene: The PSA cutscene at the end of Amirdrassil is just… what? It’s bad writing, bad exposition, and cringy

Cutscene: So here it is… the first negative to War Within. Enjoy it! Khadgar gets bodied by Xalatath (which… whatever, honestly), Atiesh is destroyed (…what?!) and then Khadgar is killed. Frankly the loss of Dalaran hit harder

World Building: So there’s this entire empire on the other side of the world that’s never been so much as hinted at or mentioned, at any point in time, ever, including the many times we’ve literally been to space, and even ignoring the fact that we literally have space ships and planetary scanners, people can… interact with each other regardless of friggin’ space travel. An entire empire with AIRSHIPS and a world filled with steampunk technology would prooobably have at least SOME interaction with each other. I may remove this negative later but… no, this is ridiculous

Atmosphere: So, on alts Beledar follows its normal cycle, not the story cycle. This… sort of ruins the experience any further times you go through Hallowfall

Secondary: A truly rare bad quest. Arax’ne asks us to find her husband, which we do… who then begs us to help him. We then IMMEDIATELY betray him, drag him to her, she KILLS him, then we kill her for his stuff. What in God’s name

Voice Acting: Outright missing lines for Geya’rah

Voice Acting: Outright missing lines for Renzik

Writing: 100,000 years. I’m not going to bang on about it, everything acts like it’s been maybe one generation since the Devouring. It’s actually been 100,000 years. That’s… stupid

Spoiler Gameplay Positives+

Mod Tools: Some of the best mod support in the business, with tools and API being publically available and some of the major modders literally being able to talk to Blizzard devs about specific changes. Plus patches contain necessary info to help adjust, and tons of support for said mods…

Mod Tools: …earning a solid…

Mod Tools: …triple positive

Mod Accessibility: Not the best around, but still decent. Drop mods into the Retail/Interface/Addon folder and otherwise set up in game. What pushes this into positive territory instead of a wash is the fact that you can enable and disable mods on the fly (and per character) in game

Mod Depth: There is a… lot you can do with mods in this game. It’s not at the point of total conversion insanity that, say, Skyrim can do, but it is bonkers…

Mod Depth: …and deserves a double positive

HUD: Character selection has been vastly improved, and showcases a lot of info at a glance. Character, realm, mail, gold, and if they can do the gear upgrade

Minimap: This is a very good, customizable minimap, which can zoom in and out, and shows a ton of good info which also supports mouseover tooltips…

Minimap: …for a solid double positive

HUD: Buffs, debuffs, interactables, all quick and easy to parse and see

HUD: Quest tracker. This is the single best quest tracker in the business. First it’s not limited in how much it tracks, second it allows for categories in tracking, third it allows for tracking MSQ, secondaries, world quests, and achievements separately, and all of that is collapsible and sortable on the fly., with options to auto track or not depending on preference…

HUD: …for an easy…

HUD: …triple positive

Map: This is one of the best maps in the business. There’s better individual maps (Metroid Dread comes to mind) but this one is still indicative and helpful for navigating, well stylized and color coded to still be readable, but also has built in filters and options, as well as the ability to mouse over certain types of things to highlight, AND good iconography to indicate what’s what…

Map: …for a full…

Map: …triple positive

Inventory: Being able to search your inventory (and your banks…) is already a great feature. But the fact that it will also search smartly (so partial searches) and you can search for TYPES of things (like ‘cooking’ or ‘quest items’ or ‘axes’) just pushes this into next level territory. This is extremely well designed…

Inventory: …and is another easy double positive

Inventory: The Sort, spread, and ease of bags and upgrading thereof is great…

Inventory: …earning a second positive

QoL: Crafting from Reagent Bank. No need to drag that crap to your inventory

Inventory: The very existence of the Reagent Bank is a nice feature, good way to keep that all in its own thing, plus there’s a ‘dump all’ and a separate ‘sort’ button

Inventory: The Warbound bank is exactly what it sounds like; an account bank, and it’s awesome…

QoL: …and it’s summonable via ability wherever you are (big cooldown though)

HUD: Spell tooltips are generated dynamically and on the fly depending on your spec, talents, and current gear, and that’s awesome. Also just generally readable

QoL: Spellbook in general. It’s good, readable, you can filter passives out, and it highlights which abilities aren’t yet on your bar…

QoL: …for a good double positive

Visual Distinction: Icons are very visually distinct even at a glance

Mod Accessibility: Macros! So these aren’t teeckchvnically mods, but they might as well be. You can edit and adjust macros on the fly, drag them into bars, layer them, all kinds of stuff, and they’re super accessible and you have account macros as well as character macros…

Mod Accessibility: …so that’s an easy…

Mod Accessibility: …triple positive

Mod Depth: Macros also can do… a lot. Like, so much I had trouble summarizing it. You can accomplish so, so much with macros that it almost equals out what you can do with mods…

Mod Depth: …so that’s an easy…

Mod Depth: …triple positive

Options: HUD customization options, also known as Edit Mode. You can move things, change how things are positioned on frames, change their size, change their width/height, change whether you see guidelines or other elements, change how they lock to other elements, and whether they’re visible at all. You can also use default options, create your own presets, and import and export presets for other people or yourself…

Options: …so that’s an easy…

Options: …triple positive

Options: General options positive. This is exactly what an options menu should look like, with options out the wazoo for gameplay, keybindings, sound, visuals, etc…

Options: …making for an easy…

Options: …triple positive

QoL: Being able to search the entire options menu (including addon options, if they support it) is a great quality of life feature all games should have…

QoL: …and so that’s an easy double positive

Options: Also, there’s the ability to set graphics options as different automatically whether you’re in a raid or not, which is helpful to people who either have worse computers, connections, or just different preferences

Options: Accessibility options. There’s better out there, but these are quite solid, and offer quite a variety and range for a lot of people…

Options: …earning a solid double positive

Respec: Just like, say, Diablo 3, this game has amazing respec support…

Respec: …so that’s an easy…

Respec: …triple positive by itself, but then…

QoL: …you can respec per point, per side, or the whole thing, and undo at will. It also shows you changes and what your previous ‘build’ was for comparison…

Interface: …and it also has the amazing loadout system. So that’s a default build baked in, you can save your own of course, you can import and export, and that’s all awesome…

Interface: …so that’s an easy double positive

Interface: Searching on talents is a fantastic system, for basically the same reason it was amazing up in Inventory. You can search for talents of course, but also abilities (which will show all talents that have an effect on that ability), but can also search for anything currently not on your bar, and it has smart search and auto complete options…

Interface: …for an easy double positive

Visual Distinction: Interface in general. Icons, highlighting, color usage, it’s all great stuff

Interface: Calendar and events. These are sortable, filterable, and you can create your own…

Interface: …events, which invites, indicators on who’s responded and their class, as well as related details. These are invaluable tools for group coordination

Info In Game: Mouseover tooltips contain a ludicrous amount of information across the board, but the whole game is like this really. There is very, very little info that is not in game…

Info In Game: …so that’s an easy…

Info In Game: …triple positive

Interface: The Group Finder tool in general is neat, well organized, and very informative. What you can queue for, as what, any bonuses, rewards for doing so, as well as options for different types and categories, as well as a search filter for custom groups

Visual Distinction: Chat color design. This is a minor thing but I absolutely love how the game colorizes different types of text in general, but most especially the character names. It makes it so, so much easier to read

Options: Chat filters, and options, and being able to change colors based on the channel

Options: Chat Tabs, and being able to position and customize each of them individually

Guidance: Suggested Content! Coming back to the game after a break? New to the game? Just feel like going in a random direction? The Suggested Content is exactly for that, and also knows what types of things you have access to and what’s in your ‘range’

Interface: Then there’s the Dungeon Journal. This will actually get separate pluses per expansion (because it varies in quality) so THIS is just positives for the interface thereof itself. It’s very sortable; Sort based on expansion, differentiating raids vs. dungeons (also covering overworld bosses), shows what they look like, the layering of abilities (so there’s an overview, then a per-role overview, then a specific listing of what abilities do what), also there’s the icons of the abilities themselves AND indicators for types of abilities to watch for. Oh you can also see what loot they drop, for what specs, at what difficulty levels. This is great interface…

Interface: …an easy…

Interface: …triple positive

Info In Game: Death recap. It’s not much, but it’s super useful to know what damage you took, from what attacks, from which enemies, at which time, up to and including what killed you

Info In Game: Mount tab. These indicate where these drops, vaguely, allowing you to come up with a wishlist without having to rely on WoWhead (for the most part)

Interface: Also the Mount tab is generally good interface as usual. Sorts, filters, favorites, and searching

Traversal: Dragonflying. This is another one of those amazing features that has a knock-on effect on making the entire game better. I’ll cover some of these individual effects later, but Dragonflying (I think they call it dynamic flight now) is great. It’s faster, it’s more involved (there’s stamina, abilities, and actual gameplay to it), and best of all… it’s optional. I love dynamic flight…

Traversal: …so that’s an easy…

Traversal: …triple positive

Traversal: Flight and mounts is, in general, a great feature (especially given the toggle)

Interface: Pet interface. As usual, good interface. Filters, searches, filters, and sorting

Cosmetic: Toys. There are so, so many of these I honestly can’t even begin to discuss them so we’re just going to give these…

Cosmetic: …a blanket…

Cosmetic: …triple positive

Cosmetic: Barbers! Don’t like your setup? No problem. Change at will for a bit of gold…

Cosmetic: …plus druids can change their forms…

Cosmetic: …and plus warlocks can change their pets

Itemization: Heirlooms. They’re honestly not as good as they used to be, but they’re still a good sort of gradient upgrades (and of course are fully BoA) for alts

QoL: Transmog. There’s so much good transmog in this game that it’s sort of bonkers to even start to discuss. So let’s try to cover this rapid fire style. Transmog is unlocked, not kept. It is per account, so anything unlocked is yours forever. Transmog is unlocked regardless of your ability to equip it at the time. Any time you have to pick an item you gain all the subsequent appearances. All of this is supported by…

Interface: …the transmog tab. It shows what you have and what you don’t. It’s searchable. It’s filterable. You can see items for other classes. It’s sorted by slot…

Info In Game: …it shows you where you can get items you don’t currently have. It’s organized by ‘era’ (modern is far left, and the further right you go the older it is). And this all coincides with…

Interface: …the actual transmog interface. Here you can, as usual, search and sort and filter and all the good stuff. You can replace things on a per item basis, you can set outfits to auto-cast onto specs and/or loadouts, you can save loadouts of outfits, and of course you can just disable appearances on an individual basis (oh and you can also show only one shoulder, and/or transmog each shoulder individually)…

Interface: …for a solid…

Interface: …triple positive

Interface: Achievements are, try to be shocked, a good interface. Searching, organizable, linkable, and a bunch of fun optional stats

Cosmetic: Titles. These are nice, fun optional rewards like any other cosmetic, and there are many… many of these with many ways to earn them…

Cosmetic: …for an easy…

Cosmetic: …triple positive

Controls: Name an MMO that controls better than this one…

Controls: …and I…

Controls: …will call you a liar

Starting Options: Some generally good options. The only reason I put this slightly ahead of some of its contemporaries is due to the sheer quantity of races and, thus, options…

Starting Options: …for two positives

Info In Game: Okay so let’s talk design. The overwhelming majority of RPGs have this problem where you have to get a ways into the game to start being able to have fun with it. This problem is MUCH worse for MMORPGs, because in those you have to invest dozens of hours to get a class to the point where you can decide if you actually enjoy that class. The common way around this is to have a class trial, which lets you try it out at higher level and get a feel for where it will eventually be. WoW has a GREAT version of this, probably the best I’ve ever seen. You pick a class, it’s shoved to the point where you have most of your talents and decent at-level gear, and access to dungeons, quests, and target dummies. And you just… go screw around, seeing if you like a class. This is fantastic…

Info In Game: …for an easy…

Info In Game: …triple positive

QoL: So if a given character is offline for a set period of time, you get this feature called Gear Update. It will (optionally) let you update their gear to their current level, clean up their log and skillbar, and default their talents. All of this is optional individually, and it’s also something you can completely skip, and it’s a nice feature for someone who’s let go of a class for a while, or left the game for a while

Level Scaling: This is probably the best level scaling in gaming. It has issues now and again (they’re still fiddling with it periodically across expansions) but it’s still amazing. It allows players of different levels to group and still contribute, it helps with dungeon queues and making them shorter, and it helps new players (who get a hint of what they’ll be like eventually) and old players (who get a bit of a boosty with the newbie). It could be slightly better…

Level Scaling: …but this is still…

Level Scaling: …the best scaling around

Co-Op: Mouseover progress indicator. If you mouseover the quest it tells you which party members are on which quest and at what progress, AND it tells you if you mouseover a quest enemy or item. This is great for keeping a group together and coordinating…

Co-Op: …and it’s awesome

Interface: Crafting’s interface is… I just… it’s amazing I don’t know what you want from me. It’s not my fault this game has fantastic search and filter and visual indicators and color design and all kinds of crazy good interface design…

Interface: …so that’s another…

Interface: …triple positive

Minigame: Pet battles are astonishingly well fleshed out for what they are. The whole Pokemon system is present; team of 3, three abilities each, swapping, terrain, debuffs, buffs, it’s surprisingly in depth…

Minigame: …for a full…

Minigame: …triple positive

Minigame: Bonus points for all the extra Pet Battle content, such as the quest chains…

Minigame: …legendary fights…

Minigame: …and dungeons

Customer Support: Some of the best in the business. An easy…

Customer Support: …triple…

Customer Support: …positive

Interface: The new and improved Auction House is just the best. Searching, sorting, filtering, categories, the ease and convenience of buying in bulk…

Interface: …it’s an easy…

Interface: …triple positive for buying…

Interface: …but then also there’s selling! And it’ll help you out with existing pricing, how much is at what price and where, how to undercut, bulk selling, and it’s all doable from just a simple right click interface so if you don’t care to really min max it you can just unload everything in seconds…

Interface: …for another…

Interface: …triple positive

Core Combat: The best in the business. Most of the specifics of why and how boil down to the individual classes, dungeons, encounters, enemies… so here we’ll just put…

Core Combat: …the solid…

Core Combat: …triple positive

QoL: So there’s this change they put in some time ago where you take less and do more damage based on the gap between your level and the enemy’s. This sounds simple but this is a GREAT feature, as it’s the reason we have the ability to go back and do 25 and 40 man raids with 2 or 3 people. This is a fantastic system, but then it also knows how to skip some (some!) mechanics based on group size…

QoL: …so that’s a solid…

QoL: …triple positive

Difficulty Options: Mutators in achievements. These will be on a per-expansion basis for the most part, but several expansions have optional achievements that make fights harder and reward you with cosmetics for it.

Minigame: PvP talents and how they change how you play…

Minigame: …as well as War Mode and keeping PvP fully opt-in for all players

Kit: Left Warrior. This is the golden standard of what a left tree should look like. Lots of options, good branching, great spread of attack, utility, single target and AOE, and a good amount of live. And it opens up immediately, so right off the bat you’re getting useful talents…

Kit: …an easy…

Kit: …triple

Kit: Arms Warrior Lowbie. Amazing start. Get the two signature abilities immediately (Mortal Strike and Overpower), and dip right into bleed or execute focus…

Kit: …easy double

Kit: Arms Warrior Middle. This is when we branch a little more, focusing on big hits, bleeds, or AOE potential. This is also when Arms starts to drift a bit behind its contemporaries, like Frost (DK) or Fury, so only a single positive here

Kit: Arms Warrior Final. This is an interesting one. Because it’s mostly passives, but each of them change up your playstyle pretty substantially, boiling down to a focus on buffs, procs, or the big hit (either Bladestorm or Ravager). This is, nonetheless, very solid…

Kit: …easy double

Build: Arms Warrior. All Warrior specs benefit from that excellent left tree, but Arms lags a bit in actual Build capacity. You have three rough branches you get to pick from and you can fill out two. Still some good build possibility here

Kit: Protection Warrior Lowbie. Starting off very strong, with multiple active abilities; Three live, one dps, and the ability to remove Devastate from the bar. This gets you into your kit and build extremely early…

Kit: …easy double

Kit: Protection Warrior Middle. This is fascinating, because we’re thrown a lot of abilities to pick from, and a full three branches, and we can only really fill out one. There’s mutators (merging buffs), procs, the all-important bleed and Shield Wall, and some utility to boot…

Kit: …very strong tier…

Kit: …for a triple

Kit: Protection Warrior Final. Once again keeping the three branches, with one notable cross across them. This contains an extremely good ability (Ravager) which is a combination dps / live button, a second charge (which also does damage), and a bunch of great health and rage modifiers to help with live…

Kit: …probably one of the better final tiers…

Kit: …for a triple

Build: Protection Warrior. A bit more build potential than Arms, having to really pick and choose across the three tiers (and only really being able to get about 1 and a half of them), with lots of viable options and no real waste…

Build: …solid double

Kit: Fury Warrior Lowbie. Starting off strong, as most Warrior specs do, with Bloodthirst and Raging right up front, but after that it comes down to where you want to go in the middle tier more than anything. Still very solid

Kit: Fury Warrior Middle. This is where things get fun. We have a lot of great AOE mutators, Rampage and Recklessness, and an entire tree dedicated to various ways to add dots to your attacks. This tier is mean, and is exactly where Fury gets its name…

Kit: …for an easy…

Kit: …triple

Kit: Fury Warrior Final. Coming home strong, there’s a lot going on here. Obviously we have Bladestorm and Ravager (which in this incarnation actually generate rage), Onslaught (which is a short cooldown buff to Rampage), a buff to every cooldowns (as a choice so you can pick your style), and Odyn’s Fury (big friggin’ hit which is also an AOE DOT, and can buff you for single target or AOE). Super good stuff…

Kit: …easy…

Kit: …triple

Build: Fury Warrior. Still not at the levels of the best, but still great. This is one of those ‘pick two of three’ types of trees, with no bad options and good malleability in how you play your Fury warrior in particular…

Build: …so that’s a double

Kit: Left Priest First tier is mostly utility, but some solid stuff. Second tier is somewhat middling, a few live buttons but also the all important Power Infusion. And finally some really solid stuff towards the bottom, with Halo and Divine Star, a healing version of Execute, and some great synergies. This is exactly what a Left tree should be…

Kit: …for an easy…

Kit: …triple positive

Kit: Shadow Priest Lowbie. Pretty basic stuff, but still reasonably interesting loop of dot, nuke, channel

Kit: Shadow Priest Middle tier is when things really get interesting. You start to see synergies in how abilities and talents work alongside each other, ways to vary up your combos and flow, and gain access to all important AOE dots…

Kit: …for two positives

Kit: Shadow Priest, Final is when it truly comes into its own. Some obvious good design is here, but what really pushes this up is the four Old God talents. One gives you options based on when you use it (and rewards synergy), one is all about trying to spread dots around as much as possible (different synergies), one gives you a periodic super nuke from maintaining dots, and one rewards you for leaning on Mind Flay/Spike. Each of these are great talents, change up your playstyle substantially, and compliment an already excellent end game suite…

Kit: …for an easy…

Kit: …triple positive

Build: Shadow Priest has a ton of options for viable builds, and there’s a bit of mix and match, and multiple of these substantially change how you play the class entirely. This is some awesome stuff…

Build: …and worthy…

Build: …of three positives

Kit: Discipline Priest Lowbie. Atonement is right out of the gate, and you quickly have to choose between leaning hard into healing or damage… or going down the middle for more bubbles. This is surprisingly good for such an early setup…

Kit: …earning a double positive

Kit: Discipline Priest Middle. Continuing the theme, we have simple but solid stuff here. Spreading dots, increased Atonement time, better bubbles, and some synergy AOE healing

Kit: Discipline Priest Final. Switching things up a bit here, as the central line becomes all about Penance and Atonement (and contains the very cool Ultimate Penitence), left line is all about boosting and mutating bubbles, and the right line becomes heavy damage / mana recovery. This is a very solid tier…

Kit: …for an easy double positive

Build: Discipline Priest has at least three distinct paths you can emphasize, with notably different playstyle for each…

Build: …for an easy double positive

Kit: Holy Priest Lowbie comes out swinging. Multiple activatables, including most of your bread and butter Holy Word spells. You also can lean towards damage if you’d like to, or heavy AOE healing, or recovery utility. This is one of the better lowbie tiers…

Kit: …earning…

Kit: …triple positives

Kit: Holy Priest Middle. Lots of great utility here, such as restoring party members’ resources and cooldowns, smarter AOE heals, ramping up or down heals, and lots more ‘bouncing’ or duplicating heals. This is quite solid…

Kit: …for an easy double

Kit: Holy Priest Final. Lots of great stuff here. Lightwell for some additional smart healing, the final Holy Word which is a ginormous heal but has a 12 minute cooldown… which as with all Holy Word spells is reduced (in this case by OTHER Holy Words), procs, self-rezzing, timing-based buffs like Divine Word or Apotheosis… lots of very, very good things here…

Kit: …earning a solid…

Kit: …triple positive

Build: Holy is definitely one of those specs where you just kind of want everything, so there’s no real bad options. There’s not quite as much malleability in playstyles, but there’s still good stuff here…

Build: …for two positives

Kit: Left Warlock. This is a pretty mixed bag, but there’s still a decent amount of variety and options here. Live, utility, some traversal thrown in for good measure…

Kit: …it’s decent

Kit: Affliction Warlock Lowbie. Nothing super fancy here, just dipping your toes into DOT gameplay

Kit: Affliction Warlock Middle. Here’s where we get our bread and butter. Darkglare (to enhance and elongate DOTs) and Haunt (which is a great debuffer and nuke), and we start to really dig into the proper rotation for Affliction…

Kit: …so this is an easy double

Kit: Affliction Warlock Final. This is just fantastic. Now we have Oblivion, Soul Rot, and lots of options to boost these or Malefic Rupture. This is great fun…

Kit: …and an easy…

Kit: …triple

Build: Affliction Warlock. Lots of Build possibilities here, which fundamentally change how you play…

Build: …so this is an easy…

Build: …triple

Kit: Destruction Warlock Lowbie. Simple but solid. Some good AOE options with Rain of Fire and Cataclysm, as well as buffs to Conflagrate

Kit: Destruction Warlock Middle. Starting to get into some fun stuff. Demonfire, Soulburn, and of course the Infernal, all while starting to get into the meat of build / proc gameplay…

Kit: …for an easy double

Kit: Destruction Warlock Final. Three very good options here; heavily buff existing abilities, lean into one huge supernuke, or a great generator which happens to do damage. This is where Destruction comes into its own…

Kit: …for an easy…

Kit: …triple

Build: Destruction Warlock. Good, decent, variety, but not too much. No bad options

Kit: Demonology Warlock Lowbie. Opening very strong here. Bread and butter abilities you’ll use the entire playthrough are right up front; Demonbolt (big hit spender of procs), Implosion (burn imps to do damage), and Felstalkers (regular rotated pets). This also comes with buffs to pets, the passive imp spawn, AND the choice between a big aoe summon or a pet buff. This is a fantastic early tier…

Kit: …easy…

Kit: …triple

Kit: Demonology Warlock Middle. After a strong intro, we have a strong middle too. A second Felguard on cooldown, a big dude who buffs all existing minions (encouraging proper timing), the ability to burn imps into procs, and lots of great mutators, buffs, and synergies…

Kit: …easy…

Kit: …triple

Kit: Demonology Warlock Final. And you’d better believe it sticks the landing. Yet another summon which is even better (and has two options to mutate it to your preferences), Doom (great debuff / DOT), Doomguards on proc, great pet buffs, and amazing synergies. Try to be surprised…

Kit: …at the third…

Kit: …triple

Build: Demonology Warlock. Not the best Build around but still very good, mostly letting you focus on really buffing existing minions, summoning lots and lots of minions, or turning minions into your own nukes…

Build: …so that’s a double

Kit: Restoration Shaman Lowbie. It’s fascinating how many primary heals are right up front here, including your HOT, bread and butter, and fire-and-forget AOE. Also quite a few talents synergizing with Riptide (the HOT). Either way you get a lot of tools very quickly and lowbie healing on Restoration is legit…

Kit: …an easy double

Kit: Restoration Shaman Middle. We get the super healing totem, a mana totem, Spirit Link (always fun), and a whole lot of options to increase crit (chance and effect), gain more procs, or otherwise smooth out healing…

Kit: …so that’s another solid double

Kit: Restoration Shaman Final. This is where Restoration really comes together. Lots of options, all of them good, and well interconnected to encourage build variety. Ascension is down here (cooldown super heal and buff), we really buff up Earthliving (buff), a wave heal, a big heal that also drops your HOT (which can also do procs), it’s great stuff…

Kit: …easy…

Kit: …triple

Build: Restoration Shaman. Similar to Shadow Priest, there’s not much Build potential up top, but even by the middle tier you’re already seeing a whole lot of options, and all of them viable. Lots of activatables too, giving you a choice between having more buttons or more passives and procs. And some great synergies…

Build: …solid…

Build: …triple

Kit: Elementalist Shaman Lowbie. This starts out fascinating; an ability choice right out the gate. Do you want something to use your buff on instead of Lightning, or a Maelstrom spender? We then see several other choices in quick succession; Which type of elemental to summon, style of AOE (also a Maelstrom spender), and a type of proc to either give you random resources or mutate your abilities. This is a very solid low tier…

Kit: …an easy…

Kit: …triple

Kit: Elementalist Shaman Middle. Almost no activatables here (in fact the only real one is a buff), but LOTS of options when it comes to procs, buffs, debuffers, and synergies. Amazing middle tier…

Kit: …another…

Kit: …triple

Kit: Elementalist Shaman Final. Try to be surprised, Elementalist comes in strong with its final tier. Ascension is of course here, alongside Primordial Wave (which is a DOTer as well), and a Liquid Magma Totem (which is exactly as fun as it sounds), but also tons of mutators for how your bread and butter spells work. Elementalist brings it home…

Kit: …with another…

Kit: …triple

Build: Elementalist Shaman. Not as build heavy as several others, lots of good options but ultimately it boils down to ‘do you want to focus on Lightning Bolt or Elemental Blast’, and a lot of additional talents that support one or the other. Still good though

Kit: Enhancement Shaman Lowbie. Windfury, Lava Lash, and Stormstrike right out of the gate, and an early decision to prioritize AOE (via DOT spreading or changes to Frost Shock) or heavy single target throughput. Solid lowbie tier…

Kit: …for a solid double

Kit: Enhancement Shaman Middle. Starting to get some good options here, especially with several activatables like Crash Lightning (big AOE which enhances single targets and spreads), Doom Winds (big hit that also buffs single target), and Sundering (giant AOE stun). This is on top of some good buffs and mutators…

Kit: …another solid double

Kit: Enhancement Shaman Final. Primordial Wave, Ascension, and the wolves all on the same tier? God yes. I’m also particularly fond of how you can mutate each (turning wolves into a proc, for example, or making Ascension auto cast Maelstrom). Continues the trend and styles of quality…

Kit: …for…

Kit: …a triple

Build: Enhancement Shaman. This is where Enhancement edges out Elementalist a bit. There’s a lot of Build potential in Enhancement, with lots of good options and a pretty differing playstyle depending (entire kit not even being useful if you don’t talent into it, for example)…

Build: …for a good…

Build: …triple

Kit: Left Rogue. This is a weird one… there’s a few irritating requirement talents, and some nonsense in how it’s laid out, but there’s still good utility throughout. Some optional poisons, lots of movement tech, stealth boosters, and a few energy boosters as well…

Kit: …I’ve seen better, but I’ve seen worse too

Kit: Subtlety Rogue Lowbie. So, gonna be honest, lowbie Subtlety kinda sucks. It’s still ‘fine’ enough, and there’s enough variety in the early talents, but overall playing a low level Subtlety rogue isn’t the best

Kit: Subtlety Rogue Middle. This is where Subtlety starts to shine. Gloomblade, which flat replaces Backstab, Secret Technique, which is a great finisher, energy gainers, more combo points, and really starting to let the player decide their playstyle…

Kit: …for an easy…

Kit: …triple

Kit: Subtlety Rogue Final. Really bringing it home here. Massive buffs to either Shadow Dance or Symbols of Death, damage echoing, and the amazing Goremaw’s Bite (next three finishers are free). I’m failing to describe how well designed this final tier is, so just trust me when I say this is when it really comes together and makes Subtlety Rogue the Shadowblade it really is…

Kit: …for another…

Kit: …triple

Build: Subtlety Rogue. Good Build potential here, as mentioned earlier you can lean heavily into Dance or Symbols (or both), and lots of options for customizing which synergies you pick up…

Build: …easy double

Kit: Assassin Rogue Lowbie. Similar to Subtlety, Assassin takes a while to really get going. Honestly if not for the energy regen from poisons AND the plus 100 energy talent, this probably wouldn’t even get a single point

Kit: Assassin Rogue Middle. So, Assassin Rogue is really an Alchemist, and here’s where you start to really feel that. Lots of buffs and changes to your poisons, including the mean Amplifying Poison, as well as several new bleed options…

Kit: …so this is a solid…

Kit: …triple

Kit: Assassin Rogue Final. Now we get the ability to have two poisons on at once of a type (which is a game changer), Kingsbane (which is a medium nuke that also poisons and buffs your existing poisons), as well as really buffing your poisons or your bleeds…

Kit: …for another…

Kit: …triple

Build: Assassin Rogue. Not quite the Build potential of Subtlety (basically you’re either all in on bleeds or poisons) but it’s still there and there’s still good options

Kit: Outlaw Rogue Lowbie. Outlaw is in such a weird space. Low level is a lot of energy starvation (this is despite having TWO talents to improve this) and not a lot of kit

Kit: Outlaw Rogue Middle. Killing Spree is amazing of course, and this is when you can start to focus on really pushing Sinister Strike (a lot of talents focus on the double-strike nature of it) or your pistols

Kit: Outlaw Rogue Final. Only at the end does Outlaw start to find itself a bit, with Blade Rush (closer that generates energy), massive combo point generation, debuffs, and cooldown removal…

Kit: …for a double

Build: Outlaw Rogue. For its issues, Outlaw is pretty decent on the Build angle. As mentioned earlier it likes to make you pick between your blades or your guns, but also a few different varieties of AOEs

Kit: Left Paladin. As with several other classes, it’s fine. There’s some traversal and utility stuff here, but it feels like it peters out by the bottom of the tree

Kit: Protection Paladin Lowbie. Starting right off with shield, and a tree focused on AOE and one focused on single, with one really good cooldown (Ardent Defender). Decent, and feels decent to play…

Kit: …double positive

Kit: Protection Paladin Middle. This is when you start to really be able to change your style of play, really focusing on procs, shield, buttons, Consecrate, or Word of Glory. This is also when this starts to feel very fun to play, as you have lots of buttons to hit for lots of situations…

Kit: …for a solid…

Kit: …triple

Kit: Protection Paladin Final. This really nails it, easily working alongside the best tank specs. The options are good, the flow is great, the procs and ability synergy is fantastic, especially with Moment of Glory (Shields ahoy), Eye of Tyr (big hit and debuff), or Bastion of Light (Holy Power generator which also reduces cooldowns). This is super solid…

Kit: …easily earning…

Kit: …a triple

Build: Protection Paladin. Good options here, good variety, lots of synergistic options as well as playstyle variances…

Build: …easy…

Build: …triple

Kit: Retribution Paladin Lowbie. Starts off decent, especially getting Blade of Justice so early, but thanks to cooldowns and nothing to mitigate them, Holy Power generation is a big weak

Kit: Retribution Paladin Middle. Starts to come into its own here, in fact its arguably stronger than the final tier. Crusader Strike options, Avenging Wrath or Crusade, the immensely important Wake of Ashes, options to increase charges (mitigating cooldown issues), and options to really dive into improving one of your three central spokes of damage (Crusader, Judgment, and Divine Storm)…

Kit: …solid…

Kit: …triple

Kit: Retribution Paladin Final. Weirdly this dips a bit in overall quality. It’s still good, don’t mistake me, but it’s mostly buffing existing kit, not very many mutators or options…

Kit: …still good stuff

Build: Retribution Paladin. A few decent options here, mostly in which of your three spokes you focus on

Kit: Holy Paladin Lowbie. Nothing super fancy here, an instant cast and an AOE, but otherwise just picking some flavor and improving your Holy Power throughput

Kit: Holy Paladin Middle. Almost nothing but synergies and procs here, but also starting to encourage the paladin to stay in melee and do damage

Kit: Holy Paladin Final. Several fun, cool abilities and really encapsulating where the build can go and how well it can heal, especially if you’re DPSing the entire time…

Kit: …for two positives

Kit: Left Mage. Not the best, but still some solid stuff. Iceblock buffs, lots of CCs are over here, traversal tech, and rotating buffs

Kit: Arcane Mage Lowbie. Low level Arcane is a bit bad honestly. Arcane is very combo heavy, all about what to use and when to really pour that power out, and you just don’t have most of that early on. What salvages it is Arcane Familiar, lots of Clearcasting buffs, and Arcane Surge (which burns ALL your mana to turbo nuke someone, buff yourself, and buff your mana regen)

Kit: Arcane Mage Middle. Starting to get more pieces of the combo here. Touch of the Magi (it’s a debuff that sits there storing the damage you do, using it when it runs out), Evocation (to just make your mana come back), and lots and lots of buffs…

Kit: …for some solid kit

Kit: Arcane Mage Final. Arcane really comes into its own here, as the final pieces of the combos are here and you can pour an absolutely insane amount of power out in this sort of elongated rotation….

Kit: …for a solid…

Kit: …triple

Build: Arcane Mage. Weirdly, good Build design here. Even early on you have a few choices of how you build your setup, and by the end you’re focusing pretty hard on a few of several great options…

Build: …for a solid double

Kit: Fire Mage Lowbie. Fire comes out heavy and hard; Starts with Pyroblast, immediately gets the Fire Blast that you can use WHILE casting other spells, and Phoenix. This immediately buys into the frenetic playstyle of Fire; You are encouraged to weave your casts inside your other casts very precisely, to maximize your crits (which is what Fire is all about)…

Kit: …this is a shockingly good early kit…

Kit: …and thus gets a triple

Kit: Fire Mage Middle. Now we’re getting even more options to buff and proc off our existing kit. Fire Blast, Pyro buffs, even more crit pushing (such as crit protection), and of course Combustion (which literally gives you 100% crit chance, among other things)…

Kit: …continuing…

Kit: …the triple

Kit: Fire Mage Final. Yeah Fire comes down hard in its final too. Meteor (obvious), even more Combustion buffs, cooldown reducers, and straight up Execute style spells…

Kit: …for a final…

Kit: …triple

Build: Fire Mage. You only really have a few options here, but they’re still good. Do you want Living Bomb? More Flamestrike? Hot Streak varieties? Good options here

Kit: Frost Mage Lowbie. Ice Lance (instant cast that does no damage… unless target is considered frozen), Frozen Orb (great AOE which gives Fingers of Frost, buffing Ice Lance), and Flurry (also buffing Ice Lance), and all of this right up front. This is on top of Frostbolt actually slowing, buffs to said slow, and chances to freeze on frozen effects…

Kit: …Frozen is a very solid…

Kit: …low tier

Kit: Frost Mage Middle. Brings it hard, of course; Icy Veins (a great buff which also brings a water elemental), Comet Storm (enough said), and lots of buffs to either slows, freezes, or even more ways to buff Ice Lance…

Kit: …for another…

Kit: …triple

Kit: Frost Mage Final. Try to be surprised but Frost lands hard in the finale. Some VERY good synergies here, buffing basically everything, but also Glacial Spike (which totally changes how you play) and Ray of Frost (which is MUCH meaner than it sounds, and can be turned into an AOE)…

Kit: …so that’s another…

Kit: …triple

Build: Frost Mage. One of the better Mage specs for Builds, considering how many activatable options you have here. Building heavily into focusing on procs with Ice Lance, buffs to your big hits, or buffing Frostbolt to the hilt…

Build: …easy double

Kit: Guardian Druid Lowbie. Some basics (do you want to hit harder or have more live buttons)

Kit: Guardian Druid Middle. Decent survival options and the ability to lean into bleeds and other damage boosters, as well as the trifecta of Berserk

Kit: Guardian Druid Final. Several good activatables here, and each with their own uses (heavy hits for threat, buffs to help live, straight survivals)… very solid stuff…

Kit: …for a double

Build: Guardian Druid. Actually weirdly decent choices going down Guardian. Lots of choices between wanting to do direct damage, improve bleeds, improve live capacity, or improve ranged ability…

Build: …for a double

Kit: Feral Druid Lowbie. Fascinating choice to start with Tiger’s Fury (buff and energy regen), giving the lowbie druid something to do to avoid that ever present energy drought problem early on. We also get an AOE Rip, Clearcasting (a staple), combo buffs, and energy buffs… surprisingly solid early tier…

Kit: …easy double

Kit: Feral Druid Middle. Do you like bleeds? We got bleeds. Also the Berserk triad, and a bunch of buff and proc options really fleshing things out…

Kit: …for another double

Kit: Feral Druid Final. Avatar (super buff), Convoke (super nuke), a gigantic hit combo finisher, and Adaptive Swarm (DOT and HOT) all in the final tier, plus several additional bleed and buff options…

Kit: …very solid stuff, and really completes the kit

Build: Feral Druid. This is another of those simple Build options; Do you want bleeds, or do you want buffs? Good stuff of course

Kit: Balance Druid Lowbie. So we get Eclipse right out of the gate (of course), and a few early options (more DOTs? Pets that taunt? Interrupts?)… pretty solid stuff…

Kit: …easy double

Kit: Balance Druid Middle. This is another simple but solid tier; Almost no activatables, but lots of ways to buff your existing kit, especially your DOTs and/or your Eclipse cycle…

Kit: …another easy double

Kit: Balance Druid Final. This is where the fun abilities are. Pets to assist? A super buff? A mega nuke? Or the amazing New Moon (which drops a frickin’ moon on the enemy). Great stuff…

Kit: …easy…

Kit: …triple

Build: Balance Druid. As with so many of these, there’s really only two ‘lines’ to build into (do you want buffs, or more DOTs?) but there’s still good options here, and you get to pick which of the final three spikes you go into

Kit: Restoration Druid Lowbie. Lifebloom, an auto heal, Clearcasting, and lots of options mean you’re good to go right out of the gate….

Kit: …surprisingly good for an early build

Kit: Restoration Druid Middle. Efflorescence, Tranquility, Ironbark, and lots of ways to customize how your HOTs interact with your heals and vice versa… this is already fantastic stuff, and so filled with great talents you just sort of want everything…

Kit: …easy…

Kit: …triple

Kit: Restoration Druid Final. Only a few activatables this far down, but lots of ways to make your existing heals even better in very custom ways. There’s a reason I list Restoration Druid as one of the best healers in the business…

Kit: …and…

Kit: …it shows

Build: Restoration Druid. Weirdly lots of build potential here. You’re probably always doing HOTs, but how you’re doing them, if you’re consuming them or extending them, spreading or buffing with them, that’s all down to build, and there are MANY good talents to choose from…

Build: …probably some of the best build variety in a healer class…

Build: …for a triple

Kit: Left Hunter. This tree is a weird one. It’s not bad by any mark, and has a whole lot of situational utility, but there’s just not a lot of synergy or ‘wow!’ stuff in it. It’s decent for what it is

Kit: Survival Hunter Lowbie. This is probably the most vanilla tree I’ve seen so far. It’s not bad, not really, but it’s structured such that you literally have to pick all but one talent to progress so there’s… not a lot of decision making here. There’s still some fun stuff as part of progression though. A stacking filler attack, Kill Command synergizing with every other attack, and some neat cooldown reduction

Kit: Survival Hunter Middle. Still not a ton of choices, but they do make you decide between two fairly different lines of thought. Both sides have a lot of synergies which, as usual, alters how you play in what order, but the big thing is if you want to focus on AOE and cooldowns, or layering dots. Either way we have some fun stuff here…

Kit: …for a double positive

Kit: Survival Hunter Final. Three very strong activatables and multiple motivations to delve past them to improve it even further. The class finishes itself nicely…

Kit: …for a solid…

Kit: …triple

Kit: Marksman Hunter Lowbie. Starts off with your bread and butter (and getting Rapid Fire so early is nice), along with your big rotaters (Precise Shots and Lock And Load)

Kit: Marksman Hunter Middle. Now we really start to see what the build can do, as it starts to build itself around procs and counter procs, making for branching weaves across abilities

Kit: Marksman Hunter Final. As usual, this is where Marks finds itself. Good options, good mutators, the core abilities barely change but we do see substantial changes to how you can prioritize what and where…

Kit: …for a solid double

Build: Marksman Hunter. Only a few choices here, but some usual things I’ve noticed as trends (AOE focus, single target focus) but still some Build potential here

Kit: Beast Hunter Lowbie. This is a weird one. Would you like a slightly better spender? A much better builder? Or some AOE? You can pick two of these so pick wisely. It also feels very strange at low levels, similar to Survival. A bit too few buttons for what it is. Still good though

Kit: Beast Hunter Middle. It’s a little interesting they put Bestial Wrath so far down this tree, but it also has good company here with Dire Beast (and it’s THREE buffs). Choices are starting to become better here thanks to the layout and spread of talents…

Kit: …so that’s an easy double

Kit: Beast Hunter Final. So, three general options here, which again you can choose about two of them. Cooldowns and even more pets? Really big debuffs and more bleeds? Or just tons of synergies buffing your existing rotation. There’s some very fun stuff here and end game Beast is when you start to roam around with a small animal army, and it’s a ton of fun…

Kit: …earning a full…

Kit: …triple

Build: Beast Hunter. Much more so than its Survival cousin, Beast has a lot better options and mutators available. Early on it’s fairly simple, but by the middle tier there’s so many talents that connect to other talents that there’s hardly any ‘wasted’ points spent. It’s all about what you want and how you want to play it, and it’s awesome. There’s even a way to build Beast to not be ‘pet army’, if you can believe it. I’d call this…

Build: …an easy…

Build: …triple positive

Kit: Left Death Knight. Left DK is strange. A lot of what could be considered default abilities are over here (Asphyxiate, Wraith Walk, Death Strike, Icebound Fortitude) but there’s enough cool stuff too to help out a bit. It’s also helped that Abomination Limb is still here and still awesome

Kit: Blood Death Knight Lowbie. Starting in with Heart Strike (aggro and generator), Marrowrend (active mitigation), Blood Boil (AOE DOT), and Vampiric Blood (live button) all right off the bat really helps solidify early Death Knight tanking. A low level DK can tank quite well and can handle large groups pretty easily, while having good survivability…

Kit: …for a solid…

Kit: …triple

Kit: Blood Death Knight Middle. Dancing Runeblade is the star here, but we also get AOE yanks, Rune Tap (another live button), and a lot of options to either increase active mitigation or active health regain…

Kit: …for a solid double

Kit: Blood Death Knight Final. This is just plain good. Consumption (great AOE generator and live button), Bonestorm (combo live and AOE threat generator), and fantastic cooldown reduction options…

Kit: …make for an easy…

Kit: …triple

Build: Blood Death Knight. Not great Build options really, mostly it’s about which buttons you want on your bar and which passives you’d rather have instead

Kit: Unholy Death Knight Lowbie. Immediately get abilities to have permanent pets and dots, as well as empower those DOTs and/or pets. Very strong opening…

Kit: …easy…

Kit: …triple

Kit: Unholy Death Knight Middle. So now we get what is arguably the best Unholy ability; Apocalypse (summon lots of minions), as well as lots of abilities to either pop our DOTs, add DOTs more/faster, or buff the heck out of our pets…

Kit: …easy double territory

Kit: Unholy Death Knight Final. Unholy comes in strong here, with true minion swarming thanks to the Gargoyle and Army of the Dead, and even more pet (or DOT) buffs…

Kit: …really turning it…

Kit: …into the chipper shredder ‘death by a thousand cuts’ spec

Build: Unholy Death Knight. There’s two very different focuses you can do with Unholy, both of which have their own subdivisions. Do you want more DOTs, or to use those DOTs to do damage? Do you want more pets, or stronger pets? This is good stuff…

Build: …easy double

Kit: Frost Death Knight Lowbie. As usual, DK comes out swinging. Frost Strike (big spender), Obliterate (big builder), and Howling Blast (AOE builder) all right out of the gate, and the beginnings of the proc-based setup Frost will have…

Kit: …easy…

Kit: …triple

Kit: Frost Death Knight Middle. Lots of great options here, and even more abilities to either nuke, buff, or restore resources, all while leaning heavily into that proc gameplay…

Kit: …easy…

Kit: …triple

Kit: Frost Death Knight Final. Good lord. This is one of the more subtle final trees, as it only has one activatable (the frost breath), but gives you tons of passives that massively boost your output and change your playstyle (rewarding you for using abilities at the right time kind of stuff). If I may, Frost Death Knight is exactly what I wanted Arms Warrior to play like; lots of really big, slow, heavy hitting slams…

Kit: …making for the trifecta…

Kit: …of a third triple

Build: Frost Death Knight. So many good options, most of which are activatables, and options to build into disease utilization, proc control, buffs, or just more nukes…

Build: …great stuff

Kit: Left Monk. This whole tree is weird; lots of filler abilities and some strange connectors. Still enough good stuff to qualify for a single though, especially since so many of the healing talents are passives and thus all three specs benefit

Kit: Brewmaster Monk Lowbie. So, we open with Keg Smash and Purifying Brew (the Stagger clearer), as well as unlocking an integral element of Brewmaster; Shuffle. Between Shuffle and Stagger we have the basics of what a Brewmaster tank is

Kit: Brewmaster Monk Middle. Lots more activatable options here, including a bunch of brews. These aren’t straight live buttons like most tanks get, rather Brewmaster is all about chaining combos of abilities and buffs across each other and then using things at the right time. Pop Purifying at the wrong time and you’ve wasted a cooldown accomplishing nothing. This combined with further improvements to Shuffle and Stagger, as well as some more ‘leeway time’ to stretch out incoming damage, make Brewmaster challenging but fun and well designed in this tier…

Kit: …for a solid…

Kit: …triple

Kit: Brewmaster Monk Final. Similar to some other specs, your Build determines a lot of your end game Monk setup, with options to change basic attacks, buffs, and brews…

Kit: …making for some solid tanking

Build: Brewmaster Monk. Really leaning into the Builds here. There’s seemingly only a few options, but they change a lot in your playstyle and how you prioritize what…

Build: …making for a solid double

Kit: Windwalker Monk Lowbie. Early Windwalker suffers a bit from the dreaded energy drought problem (which also causes a chi drought problem), taking pretty far in to get the first talent to help with this. Similarly, most of the early talents benefit things you either don’t have yet, or barely changes your rotation

Kit: Windwalker Monk Middle. This is when Windwalker suddenly hits the ground running (uh, no pun intended). The sudden inclusion of the clones is a massive game changer, and options for Strike of the Windlord (big hit AOE) and Xuen (summon that does a bunch of fun stuff), along with really changing up what our abilities do…

Kit: …makes for a sudden increase in enjoyment

Kit: Windwalker Monk Final. Believe it or not, Windwalker gets even better here. Even more buffs, Jadefire (big AOE hit and heal that can be a button or a proc), Whirling Dragon Punch (great combo ability you can only use while other abilities are on cooldown), and some fantastic synergy abilities…

Kit: …makes for an easy…

Kit: …triple

Build: Windwalker Monk. Some fantastic build potential here. Lots of activatables to choose from, lots of abilities you can change how they work, and very substantially different builds by the end…

Build: …make for…

Build: …a solid triple

Kit: Mistweaver Monk Lowbie. Mistweaver is in a strange place in general; It doesn’t really specialize in anything in particular, and like all Monk builds benefits from doing so at the right time and/or in the right order. Thus it’s no surprise we open with an insane FIVE activatables, including Enveloping (take more healing), Renewing (HOT that bounces), Mana Tea (regen), Thunder Focus Tea (empower next specific ability in a specific way), and Life Cocoon (oh crap live button). This actually starts pretty strong all things considered…

Kit: …and earns…

Kit: …an easy triple

Kit: Mistweaver Monk Middle. This is where we get our statues, but past that it’s all about mutating your initial kit you got in the low levels. Lots and lots of options here which fundamentally change how your heals and buffs work…

Kit: …solid double

Kit: Mistweaver Monk Final. Some seemingly minor game changers here, such as Jadefire Stomp (which does too much to summarize here), letting your Soothing Mist split, faster cast times, boosting existing effects, all kinds of great stuff…

Kit: …another…

Kit: …solid triple

Build: Mistweaver Monk. Lots of good build options here. Early on you’re pretty locked in, but by the end you’re really picking and choosing how you want to play your Mistweaver. Lots of passive and synergy options which change how you play, and which activatables you use and when can change based on build…

Build: …for an easy…

Build: …triple

Kit: Left Demonhunter. One of the best Left trees, up there with Warrior or Priest. Mobility, CC, mutators, buffs, cooldown changers, and some great activatables…

Kit: …call it an easy…

Kit: …triple

Kit: Havoc Demonhunter Lowbie. Getting Eye Beam to start is a choice, and immediately getting choices to expand our resource generation really helps, followed by a recurring motif in choices. This is on top of starting with a dash that does damage, a backflip, and the double jump and glide. Demonhunter feels great even at low levels…

Kit: …so that’s an easy…

Kit: …triple

Kit: Havoc Demonhunter Middle. This is when your given build starts to crystallize; Are you into mobility and range, or really stacking those cooldown reductions and buffs? Either way the Demonhunter goes an interesting route by having very few activatables, instead focusing on very tight design on adjusting the existing core kit (which is fantastic)…

Kit: …making for…

Kit: …a triple

Kit: Havoc Demonhunter Final. Of course it’s amazing. More modifications and synergies, but now two fun Activatables; Essence Break (AOE debuffer nuke) and Fel Barrage (big AOE nuke that consumes Fury). This is on top of just flat increases to core abilities like Eye Beams and literally all the damage you do, and my favorite talent in the game; A Fire Inside (allows Immolate to A: Refund a charge and B: Stack)…

Kit: …making for…

Kit: …another triple

Build: Havoc Demonhunter. Some good build potential here, again focused on either glaives or buffs or debuffs and mixing and matching a bit between the three, with no wrong choices and good pathing, plus lots of cross connecting…

Build: …making for…

Build: …a triple

Kit: Vengeance Demonhunter Lowbie. Opening with an AOE nuke that also heals you is a bold choice, following it up with the first Frailty debuffer (Frailty makes you heal when you hit someone with that debuff), Fiery Brand (big nuke and DOT which is also a live button), and several buffs to either live, healing, or both. This makes Demonhunter tanking fantastic from word go…

Kit: …and earns…

Kit: …a triple

Kit: Vengeance Demonhunter Middle. Branching a bit more than Havoc, you have a ton of options here, including more activatables. You can focus on buffing existing live buttons, threat gen, resource gen, or gaining whole new control and utility…

Kit: …so that’s…

Kit: …another triple

Kit: Vengeance Demonhunter Final. And of course it sticks the landing. Two final buffs to Frailty (letting it stack and acting as a vuln), buffing Fel Devastation, more cooldown reduction based on smart usage, tons of options to spread AOE even more, and of course Soul Carver which is a fantastic nuke, DOT, and heal…

Kit: …all make…

Kit: …a solid triple

Build: Vengeance Demonhunter. Different approach than Havoc, but with far more choices, and those choices substantially change how you play and how the moment to moment decision making operates, making this…

Build: …another…

Build: …triple

Kit: Left Evoker. So I was torn on this for a bit, but we get a lot of functionality over here, and basically all of it is optional. Renewing Blaze (healing bubble), Rescue (it’s not just for memes), Source of Magic (great support buff), Unravel (bubble nuker), Zephyr (speed buff and live cooldown), but the standout one for me is Tip The Scales, which automatically makes your next Empower spell max and instant. This is a game changer in how much you can use it for, and where, and why. This is on top of some generally smart design and flow to the tree…

Kit: …for a solid double

Kit: Devastation Evoker Lowbie. Making our initial ability an AOE spender is a very interesting choice, giving us access to another AOE cooldown so early is another one. And of course Eternity Surge is right there. The two Essence Bursts being so early on also pretty much guarantees the build gets its basic combo right out of the gate…

Kit: …for a solid double

Kit: Devastation Evoker Middle. Starting to get into some mutators here, such as Blues buffing Reds, nukes increasing rate of DOTs, nice big AOE nukes, good stuff overall

Kit: Devastation Evoker Final. As usual, this is where it comes together. Empowers being able to go up to another step, procs to help rotation flow, faster DOTs, free nukes in the middle of other casts, mutually beneficial buffs, all kinds of fun stuff down here…

Kit: …for an easy…

Kit: …triple

Build: Devastation Evoker. Not as much build potential as you’d think, it’s mostly about what flavor of procs, free spells, and AOEs you want. Still some decent stuff here

Kit: Preservation Evoker Lowbie. They really come out swinging here, almost the entire primary build is available right off the bat, making for almost no decision making in the lowbie levels, but giving the player a lot of options in how to heal…

Kit: …easy double

Kit: Preservation Evoker Middle. Continuing the trend of excellence, this tier is all about how what interacts with what in its other spells…

Kit: …another double

Kit: Preservation Evoker Final. Lots of good procs and mutators down here, can actually pretty solidly vary up how you play the spec…

Kit: …yet another double

Build: Preservation Evoker. More Build potential than Devastation had, lots of options as you go down the tree. Mostly a decision about how exactly you want your heals to operate; targeted AOEs, rewinds, buffs, preventions, it’s all here…

Build: …easy double

Kit: Augmentation Evoker Lowbie. So… this is an interesting one. Unlike some, uh, people I actually understand what the phrase ‘support spec’ means, so yes this entire build only really works in a group. But man it excels at that. Right off the bat we get our bread and butter (Ebon Might) which a lot of other abilities chain off of, buff, and increase the duration of. This is on top of a new AOE Empower (which buffs Ebon Might) and a change to Breath…

Kit: …really solid stuff

Kit: Augmentation Evoker Middle. Getting crazy here, with stances, tank buffs, healing buffs, even a buff to reduce threat. This is really good stuff…

Kit: …easy…

Kit: …triple

Kit: Augmentation Evoker Final. What can I say about this except that it is fantastic. Nukes, buffs, procs, ways to spread even more buffs, ways to provoke free buffs, ways to spread buffs…

Kit: …let’s call this what it is…

Kit: …another triple

Build: Augmentation Evoker. Surprisingly large number of options here. I should mention that for my own testing I deliberately picked a lot of the buff and group focused abilities, but there’s quite a few things that are just ways to convert yourself into a DPS spec, alongside different ways your abilities interact with each other

Enemy Design: Generally good enemy design throughout. It’s mostly ‘just’ enemies that use player abilities, but it works

Enemy Variety: And there’s decent variety to them to boot

Guidance: Weirdly enough, several quests in BC actually have honest, in-lore yet useful in-gameplay directions for players

MSQ: Sunstrider Isle is, weirdly enough, a pretty solid sequence of quests. Not a lot of X of Ys that don’t share, everything is fairly close to each other, good experience curve, solid stuff

Cosmetic: Mounts. There are so… SO many mounts (over a thousand) in this game. Now there’s a lot of recolors, but still this is bonkers level of cosmetic design. So we’ll be covering this on a bit of a per-expansion basis. BC didn’t have a ton, but Attuman’s horse, the wyverns and gryphons, the nether drakes and rays, plus all of vanilla’s stuff is still a decent spread

Itemization: While there’s better, we still have some unique and fun set and trinket design

Pacing: Overworld, dungeon, boss. This format works well and the gameplay pacing remains good

Guidance: The game consistently shows !’s on the map to indicate where quests, quest hubs, or progress spots are, even in older content…

Guidance: …and that earns…

Guidance: …a solid triple positive

Enemy Design: Same general quality as BC overall…

Enemy Variety: …with the same general variety thereto

Itemization: Wrath started to really figure out how to do item budgets and item progression…

Itemization: …while still having some fun on the side

Difficulty Mutator: Dungeons, and the beginnings of the Hero chain. These are some fun mutators, mean too…

Difficulty Mutator: …and easily deserve two positives

Difficulty Mutator: Ulduar’s stuff, both versions, also really makes you rejigger how you do several of these fights (and also involves a lot of the optional hard versions)…

Difficulty Mutator: …for two positives

Difficulty Mutator: And of course Icecrown Citadel deserves its own mention, though it lags a bit behind the previous two in quality and variance

Guidance: Writing directions again! Even better written than last time honestly…

Guidance: …earning a solid double

Music: Stratholme, Storm Peaks, Icecrown dungeons and raids

Prime Opt: Sholazar, Wolvar chain. There’s a few related quests around this but they do some fun things and the addition of the quest NPC being with you helps (this continues for the Gorlocs as well, but man their quests suck)

MSQ: There’s enough interesting vehicle and gimmicky quests in the DK Starter Zone to make it at least a little enjoyable, especially the early bundle of quests which are smooth and fun

MSQ: Borean Tundra, Alliance Initial. Smooth, fast, interesting, varied…

MSQ: …and Thassarian chain, which continues it and concludes in a legitimately challenging fight with the san’layn

Prime Opt: Borean Tundra, Coldarra. I wasn’t sure about this at first, but these quests were more fun than I thought they’d be, and are noticably improved with the inclusion of flight

Prime Opt: Dragonblight, Scarlet Onslaught quests in New Hearthglen (Horde). Bulldozing through the Scarlets, infiltrating to torture, ‘rescue’, and finally chop off the head of the beast

Hub: Dalaran, Wrath. Most of what you need is well laid out and easily accessible

MSQ: Howling Fjord, Vengeance Landing Horde. Though the story side of these quests sucks, the gameplay is still solid. There’s fun stuff here, multiple quick quests with good drop rates and a fun push into a fortified position

Prime Opt: Howling Fjord, Vrykul, pirates, and tuskarr. Everything to do with this chain is fun; you start off seeing the disturbed bones, then the Tuskarr and their plight, which leads to you infiltrating the pirates, and then there’s a bunch of fun little side jaunts (including finding a ‘croaker…’)

Secondary: Howling Fjord, general (Taunka, wolves, dryads, and Vrykul of Skorn)

Overworld: Howling Fjord. The whole zone is functionally clockwise, with the two starter areas (depending on side), and flows quite smoothly from hub to hub

Prime Opt: Grizzly Hills, Gorgonna and Krenna and the arena fights actually being worth a damn

MSQ: Drakuru chain pick up and quests (unique gimmicks and playing with stealth and limitations of ghoul form). This is weirdly engaging for what it is, and easily earns…

MSQ: …a double positive

MSQ: Valgarde initial (as usual). There’s some fun stuff here, with tight quest design (not too many drops or kills, drop rates are good) plus some good old fashioned ‘have fun’ quests (like the harpoon stuff)

Prime Opt: Arugal’s entire chain in Grizzly Hills. Vehicle sections, unique mechanics, and actually hard bosses

Flow: Grizzly Hills has some fantastic flow to its quest design, really starting to see what would become the standard later on here. You start off with a few quests that are basic things, but they lead to an area where you see something odd, and that drops a new quest, and that takes you to a new area, and that leads to a vehicle quest going to the next area, and so forth

Secondary: Goblin quests in Storm Peaks. The minefield, the bombing incoming enemies, even chasing down mammoths to blow them up, it’s all good fun

MSQ: Some of the primary chain through Storm Peaks is legit to play through. Lots of playing around with unique gimmicks and vehicles, and while there’s a few bumps, it’s still fun to play

Cosmetic: They really started to up their mount game in Wrath, with the proto-drakes and things like the unique mounts of Ulduar and Icecrown…

Cosmetic: …for an easy double positive

Boss: Icecrown bosses are still decently legit even to this day, I’ll give you this one. Lots of group quests here

Tutorialization: The entire Gilneas tutorial area is good stuff. It conveys all the basics of playing the game smoothly and in a short time

MSQ: The follow through continues what is, at long last, the modern WoW style of quest design and will begin an endless cavalcade of quest design positives. Quick, snappy objectives requiring relatively few interactions, drops, and/or kills, all while continuing to…

Flow: …flow forwards throughout the tutorial area

Overworld: Generally good overworld design across Gilneas proper, helped by the…

Flow: …flow of the entire zone. We start down by the shore, but as it falls to the Cataclysm we traverse east, take a few jaunts nearby before heading to the nearby foresty area, and finally a rush back through the city proper

MSQ: The quests themselves also continue to be good stuff, only really stumbling thanks to a few bugs. Kill 4 enemies instead of 14, drop rates that drop regularly, lots of vehicle and interactable quests…

MSQ: …easy double territory

MSQ: Kezan is just… weirdly good for what it is. Vehicle quests, fun little minigames, they give you a frickin’ car to get around faster, you can run over civilians with it, the whole thing just pops…

MSQ: …an easy…

MSQ: …triple by itself

Tutorialization: And I have to give credit for how well it tutorializes the entire experience

MSQ: Lost Isles. In fact, while more spread out, this is on the same general level of quality as Kezan. The frequent usage of fun gimmicks like the lawnmower section, or the jetpack, it’s great stuff…

MSQ: …earning an easy…

MSQ: …triple positive

Flow: Lost Isles also has just amazing flow. The way the zone seamlessly slides from the beach to the overlook to the second island, in and out of the pygmy camp, then in and out of the volcano, it’s great…

Flow: …an easy double positive

Guidance: There’s also almost always something to help guide you past the usual quest text

MSQ: Echo Isles. Simple yet solid, with good fundamentals, some nice usage of an ally (Zuni!) to help you out, and of course the big climactic showdown where you play support

Tutorialization: Echo Isles also, as most zones do now days in Cata onwards, does a good job of tutorializing new players on how to play the game

Tutorialization: Mulgore is, as per basically all Cata tutorial areas, has good tutorialization. Yellow mobs, red mobs, looting, etc.

Secondary: Mulgore has some weirdly engaging quest design in its side quests. Almost every one of them got a polishing pass and is streamlined to be far more enjoyable, despite having a very different zone design to most Cata zones (almost every quest in Mulgore is done from a single hub, as opposed to flowing through the zone)

Hub: Thunder Bluff is actually a really solid hub town. Small yet not too small, hearth is right next to the bank and auction house, and it’s quick and easy to traverse…

Hub: …an easy double positive

MSQ: Teldrassil, remastered. The thing that holds this zone back is these, really, are just the Vanilla quests again. The thing that pushes it into positive territory is the remastering pass done on them. Quests that used to involve lots of padding or backtracking don’t anymore, and there’s a definite flow to things that wasn’t there before

MSQ: Darkshore. As with always, quests are fun and interesting to go through, with some good variety and fun stuff to do. It suffers in a few areas, but it’s still solid…

Prime Opt: …and benefited by a whole bunch of seemingly unrelated branching quests throughout

MSQ: As you might imagine for a Goblin-centric zone, almost all the initial quests are great. Hop in a shredder with an ever expanding utility of attacks and abilities, culminating in defending against an enemy attack. Then we run around salvaging what we can from the quarry before it’s off to the next area

Prime Opt: Azshara, Bilgewater Battalion quests. These are a blast, literally and elsewise, and as usual keep things fun and fresh

Prime Opt: The Xylem chain entire is experimental, but still fun. The whole thing really stretched what the game could do with quest design at the time and I still enjoy several of these now

Flow: Some great flow to Azshara in general. No need to run back to the quest giver, they’re either right there, where you’re doing the quest, or literally give you a teleport back option! And the way we hit the southern half, fly to the city, then hit the northern half works very well

Tutorialization: The Valley of Trials, Durotar. I’m sorry to keep repeating myself but every Cata tutorial area so far is, in fact, a good tutorial. I’m getting more and more convinced that Exile’s Reach isn’t all that

Flow: Durotar, as per usual for Cata zones, has wonderful flow to it. Start down south, shuffle north, get several vector quests to branch out and hit those spots before heading further north. It also contains natural branches to Azshara or North Barrens

Secondary: Durotar quests. As is pretty much standard for Cata, these are good stuff. Tight, smooth, fast, fun

Flow: North Barrens and just… everything really. By memory it’s all on the backs of the caravans but actually you go all over the place in North Barrens, but despite the seeming criss-crossing it works really well. Usually with a caravan or a literal rocket to vector you to the next area. Later on it’s a boat! It’s fun

Prime Opt: North Barrens, Ratchet quests. These are even better than the norm; very tight questing area

MSQ: The entire North Barrens primary chain. There’s a bunch of quests… like, a whole lot, and at first I thought it was sloggy but when I sat back and thought about it I realized not only was it not sloggy or boring, but I was still having fun despite being like five hours in…

MSQ: …so that’s an easy double

MSQ: Ashenvale initial

MSQ: Ashenvale Alliance is just weirdly better than most of the Ashenvale Horde stuff. This ultimately means it still only gets the one positive, but is absent the many negatives

MSQ: Stonetalon initial, again on both sides. Shooting down riders, burning supplies, prepping mines. Even the ‘backtrack’ through the mine on the Alliance wasn’t as bad as I feared (most of the enemies don’t aggro you, despite being red mobs)

MSQ: Stonetalon defense quests. For the Krom’Gar army this is about defending the outpost and clearing out the lower mine, from the Alliance side this is about capturing ghosts and rescuing elven soldiers

MSQ: The Krom’Gar forces have a ‘breather’ section in Stonetalon where you go help the front against the Grimtotem. Good drop rates, requiring few items, and quick and easy interactions make for a fun experience

MSQ: Stonetalon later quests follow a similar but solid pattern. Rescue people, use siege weapons to clear the fields, etc.

Flow: Stonetalon, general. Both sides follow a very smooth flow up to and concluding with the bombing of the druid school

MSQ: South Barrens, general. The quests here aren’t bad but they’re a bit lower than the usual Cata quality, and only have a few moments of cool or interesting quests

MSQ: In Desolace, weirdly, several of the late centaur quests are pretty solid. Some good chaining and relatively low padding, plus the hyperbeam moment at the end with the centaur squad

Flow: Feralas. The slow arc through is smooth as is the Cata norm, and of course I’m rather fond of how each new area leads naturally into discovering quests for the next one

MSQ: Early Feralas quests. We do some quick and well designed quests to figure out the forest is sick, before heading off to help against the Naga, and finally leading naturally into the Ogres

MSQ: Thousand Needle’s Speedbarge quests are better than they have any right to be. “Go loot a bunch of stuff underwater” should be a pain, but it’s pretty solid. Then you start a bar fight, put out a fire, and go knock over some pirates, all of which leads naturally into Tony’s quests…

Flow: …which is where I mention Flow, because those quests also naturally lead to you being sent to the Grimtotem chain. And DURING the Grimtotem chain (discussed shortly) you naturally segway into the Magatha chain

MSQ: The entire chain of Grimtotem stuff is weirdly good. Good pacing, good flow, good mini bosses, a roaming quest giver with you who also helps in combat for players who need it, it’s all just… really solid…

MSQ: …an easy double positive

MSQ: Also another bonus positive for the entire Magatha and Twilight chain. Really solid, fun stuff here

Secondary: Lots of surprisingly solid quests in Tanaris. Nothing too stand out, but general quality Cataclysm design

Prime Opt: The primary chains are weirdly legit too. I rather liked convincing the Ogres and knocking over the pirates

Flow: Tanaris, again, really follows the Cataclysm model of flow

Secondary: Un’Goro has some solid stuff for the most part

Flow: As is quickly becoming standard, Un’Goro’s flow is fantastic and moves smoothly through the zone

Prime Opt: The final Maximillion quest alone deserves mention for sheer fun and amusement

Hub: Orgrimmar’s Tauren hub alone deserves mention here

Secondary: Felwood initial quests. Quick, snappy, fun, and flowy

Secondary: Felwood and the imp and satyr chain are also neat and fun to play with, especially the poor imps

Flow: Felwood flows wonderfully south to north, and each quest chains neatly into the next

Secondary: Felwood just really has really solid quests throughout. All the right hallmarks of good quest design throughout. NPCs roaming with you, short turnaround, low backtracking, fun encounters, actual boss fights, gimmicky side sections…

Secondary: …it deserves an additional double positive

Flow: Winterspring, as per the usual. Great interlocking and movement through the zone

Tutorialization: As usual, Deathknell continues the trend of being a solid tutorial for new players

MSQ: Early Silverpine is a lot of fun. Good X of Ys, good pace, and of course mass killing to convert into new forsaken

Flow: Silverpine Forest continues the Cataclysm standard of quality for flow. Very north to south, plus

MSQ: Silverpine, Gilneas quests. These are such fun, quick, and properly paced quests

MSQ: Silverpine, Ambermill and Forsaken Front quests which continue the overall fun

MSQ: The Gilnean Nobles quests finishing up the zone keep the pace going wonderfully. Having your own private kill squad while fighting elites that are entirely above your pay grade, and of course plenty of generally fun side quests

Secondary: Early Hillsbrad quests are pretty fun all things considered

Flow: Hillsbrad has really great flow. The initial quest giver (that’s you) leads to the mines, then the warden, then that leads smoothly into what’s left of Southshore, and finally Tarren Mill

Minigame: The Plants vs. Zombies minigame. If it was longer it’d probably be pretty boring, but it’s fun and a neat little diversion

Prime Opt: West Plagues has a few interesting and fun quests, mostly with ‘adds’ who help you out, like Zen’Kiki or the val’kyr

Flow: Eastern Plaguelands. There’s several things the zone does right in terms of flow. First is the usual; You start off in one corner, and quests naturally progress throughout. This is awesome of course…

Flow: …but what really works out well here is the caravan, which naturally segways each quest hub and also provides additional cutscenes and lore as you go. Oh, and one last benefit…

Overworld: …as you progress, the caravan gains more buffs you can swap between to customize your setup for the zone

Prime Opt: Some very simple but very fun quests in the East Plagues. Starting with the entire Darrowshire chain…

Prime Opt: …and as we knock over what’s left of the Scarlet Crusade in Tyr’s Hand

Tutorialization: Northshire Abbey, as is the norm, does a decent job of tutorializing

MSQ: Westfall, general. There’s nothing super fancy here, but there’s still good quest design

Flow: Westfall, again. The flow of this zone is, honestly, Cata standard, but that’s still solid

MSQ: The first several quests in Redridge are polished, smooth, and fun

Flow: Redridge has some of the better flow for the New World zones. The way it lines you up and shuffles you to new areas, and the specifics of how it conveys new quests…

Flow: …it’s good stuff

Overworld: Redridge, Bravo Company escort squad. As with Azshara and Silverpine, the inclusion of a squad really adds to how this plays. They let you fight larger mobs and elites (including a dragon!) thanks to this, and it’s a nice safety barrier elsewise

MSQ: The entire stealth segment in Redridge is really good. It’s short enough that it doesn’t overstay its welcome, and it’s unique enough to vary things up

Hyperbeam Moment: Tank! This is one of the best designed vehicle quests we’ve seen so far honestly. You’re in a tank, sure, and you can kill dozens with a single attack, but Keeshan is in the turret picking up the stragglers (which are usually an annoyance in these types of quests) and, if you go towards your quest destination, you will get all 200 kills right before you make it there, so… perfectly designed length

MSQ: The escape sequence of Oghan’aka. Good vehicle quest, well designed stealth section, actual mid mission checkpoints

MSQ: Okay, I’ll give you this STV. The pirate quests are actually really good stuff

Overworld: Swamp of Sorrows, entire. It’s basic, but still generally good designed stuff. Quests don’t drag, good usage of items, some buffs to help out, and good flow

MSQ: The entire Razelikh chain in the Blasted Lands is fascinating. Lots of good shortcuts, good design, and general fun

Overworld: Burning Steppes Keeshan escort. As with previous zones, this is a good move to help smooth things out and keep things interesting

MSQ: West Burning Steppes. Gathering, killing, looping, and moving on

MSQ: East Burning Steppes. The sabotage is really getting more interesting here, especially with the sabotage quests

Hyperbeam: Burning Steppes finale. After all the build up, the enemies are all charging towards you (in tight, large groups) and you have a nice big AOE attack on a friggin’ dragon

Hub: Stormwind. There’s actually a couple of decent ones, and they work quite well for what they are

Traversal: Stormwind portal hub. Better designed than Orgrimmar’s, in general

Tutorialization: Dun Morogh in general. Both the dwarves and the gnomes do some good stuff here, as per basically every other starter zone

MSQ: Gnome quests are short but sweet, much better designed than their counterparts and fun (especially when they give us an orbital cannon)

Guidance: Quest text returns. The standard of quality hasn’t budged an inch…

Guidance: …and continues to deserve…

Guidance: …three positives

Secondary: The Day Deathwing Came is weirdly fun. The rushing punching, roaming Badlands as a mountain sized gnome, and of course a flying motorcycle

MSQ: Badlands, puzzles. Some pretty creative quests here

Overworld: Badlands, Lost Vikings. This is even better than the normal because there’s some interesting tech here in that despite having three ‘pets’ you control all three with the same bar. And there’s some cool stuff they do with it, requiring us to fight large groups and elites…

Overworld: …for a double positive

Flow: Searing Gorge has some solid flow to it. Start off on the eastern end, Lunk helps out periodically, flow to the town, then the tower, and finally a nice flow through the caverns

MSQ: Searing Gorge, general. There’s nothing super fancy here but there’s still good stuff, especially with Lunk’s quests

MSQ: Vashj’ir, initial. Some very smart placement and requirements for the first few quests, just enough of a taste of how big the zone is so you can appreciate it when you get the first buff (and later, the second one)

Overworld: Vashj’ir. Sea Legs and the seahorse were a great idea, and really make the zone work. Without these this place would suck

Flow: Vashj’ir is an excellent zone for flow. Quests lead to new areas lead to new quests lead back to new areas, but now you get rocket boots to zoom to the next area, it’s all great…

Flow: …an easy double positive

MSQ: The Battlemaiden quests in general. Fun, interesting vehicle quests only held back by how overpowered you are (thanks to vehicle scaling)

MSQ: The RTS segments are weirdly good for how simple they are

MSQ: The entire RTS mission of Ramkahen. This is a fairly long sequence but it all is structured and designed as if it was an RTS mission, and that works surprisingly well even from the perspective of us (functionally a hero unit)

Secondary: The build up to…

Secondary: …Gnomebliteration. The build up quests are well designed (good layout, good interactions, smart quest items) and the sheer fun of Gnomebliteration speaks for itself

MSQ: The entire latter chain of Uldum is actually quite well designed. Cutscenes acting as a bridge instead of backtracking, the artillery sequence, and some fun boss fights

Flow: Deepholm. One of the truly rare Cata and onwards examples of the flower design to quests; You get all the major chains right at the bat, and can go pursue any of them at your leisure, which branches outwards, until all lead back to the center… whereupon you start the final chain

Overworld: General quest and design quality to Deepholm. It’s VERY designed around flying, but that works in its favor

MSQ: The entire initial chain for the Hellscream attack into the Twilight Highlands. Rooting out problems in Orgrimmar and Bilgewater, dealing with the fel Dragonmaw, good stuff

MSQ: The Wedding quests weren’t great… until the wedding itself, which was awesome

MSQ: The entire Iso’rath sequence is fantastic. A supposed to lose fight that’s well disguised, a playable helpless segment, and then some fun and mean gimmicky fights with the squad concept being back to help

Difficulty Mutator: Achievements are back and here to stay. Honestly I doubt any given expansion from this point onwards won’t get the full marks here because they’re very fun and a great way to add replay and challenge. So, here’s the triple for the dungeons…

Difficulty Mutator: …giving…

Difficulty Mutator: …a triple

Difficulty Mutator: And here’s for all the raid stuff…

Difficulty Mutator: …earning another…

Difficulty Mutator: …triple

Enemy Design: Though there’s a couple of unique ones, it’s mostly still the same quality of enemies…

Enemy Variety: …and same variety we’ve gotten used to

MSQ: Hyjal initial. Some creative stuff, some fun stuff, and some cool stuff

Secondary: The mid-air jousting quests in Hyjal are weirdly fun for what they are

Flow: Hyjal has fantastic initial flow. The slow push down the mountainside to counteract the oncoming invasion force

Secondary: Many fun vehicle-based quests in the Hyjal chain

MSQ: Love the infiltration and the speech minigame section

MSQ: The Hyjal finale in its entirety. Freeing Jarod, using the rescued Ancients to fight the forces of the Firelands, and the final battle with Ragnaros

Prime Opt: Wandering Isles, initial. Great flow, great quest design, short requirements, no backtracking

Prime Opt: Wandering Isles, the water elemental chain. Lots of great design here; the reeds above the pools, the good distance and moving quest markers, and some creative pseudo vehicle sections

Prime Opt: The entire earth elemental chain is wonderfully designed, as usual. Good interactions, well designed quests, good flow

Prime Opt: Rescuing the survivors, and excising the thorn is already good…

Prime Opt: …but the entire healing quest is some good stuff

Flow: The Wandering Isle, again. Every step has a vehicle or a clear path to the next one, and even when it backtracks it does so via a different method or a different path

Level: A Brewing Storm. Generally fun level across the board. Putting out the fires while dodging lightning, pushing down the hill, using the brew to kill the adds, fun stuff

Level: Greenstone Village is similarly amusing, if simple. Fighting off the initial waves, rolling the booze back home, clearing out the jade monsters

MSQ: Initial charge up the Thunder Hold for the Horde in the Jade Forest is short and sweet. Quick turret section, then waves of well spread out objectives everywhere, followed by the charge back down clearing things out again

Pacing: As with narrative, the pacing of the initial Jade Forest Horde quests is good stuff. Kill, then loot, then roam, then explore, then kill again, and loop

Flow: The early Jade Forest quests have fantastic flow to them. Quests literally lead to other quests, with turn ins constantly urging you forwards rather than requiring backtracking, and almost always guiding you to new areas to find new things to explore and, of course, more quests

MSQ: The initial volley of quests taking down the airstrip, followed by an actual boss fight, and then having to deal with the ookin’ Hozen

MSQ: Another bundle of good quests dealing with the Hozen (freeing them, feeding them, and helping them) before getting down to the really good stuff

MSQ: Sadly gameplay wise each recollection quest doesn’t deserve a positive each, but the whole bundle is still fun and interesting to do. The sniper mechanic on Shokia deserves special mention, as well as defending Kiryn as Riko

MSQ: Early Alliance chain. Very similar stuff to the Horde, but with a few interesting twists once we reach the Jinyu

Prime Opt: Dawn’s Blossom has a wonderful series of quests, and surprisingly great sequence of branching…

Flow: …leading to unique flow to the middle section of the Jade Forest. We’re back to the flower design; a central node that leads to many adjacent nodes, and each one serving as its own micro story and chain

Prime Opt: Of these, the Tian Monastery is probably the most interesting and fun of these. Lots of variety of quests in a tight area, and good design overall

Secondary: The Terrace of Ten Thunders and our second real introduction to the Mogu quests… which are neat story wise but still fun gameplay wise, especially the boss at the end

MSQ: Zhu’s Watch of the Krasarang Wilds. Some basic but decent quest designs here

MSQ: The Sha quests (hard hitting elites but each kill buffs and heals you)…

MSQ: …and the boss fight against Despair (which uses the same mechanic but meaner)

Flow: As usual, Krasarang has solid flow in its design as you navigate east to west. And if you’ve already done the Valley, it dovetails perfectly at the end there

MSQ: Early Valley of the Four Winds is another example of simple yet solid. Quick and dirty quests, some inventive ones, some unique interactions

Flow: Li Li’s Day Off is an amazing approach to ‘flower’ quest flow. You get three quests to hit nearby quest hubs (ALL of which are optional) and they’re always pushed by someone who’s actually with you (and commenting) as you do said quests

Flow: The second ‘flower’ sequence with gathering materials for Chen is another great segment…

MSQ: …and related quests

MSQ: The entire first Stormstout Brewery sequence is fun stuff

Guidance: As per usual, very well written directions throughout Pandaria to help the player play…

Guidance: …for a usual…

Guidance: …triple positive

Guidance: Quest markers! It’s not much, but they did backport it a bit

Level: Unga Ingoo. A simple but fun gimmick; Go find the booze, avoid having yours stolen

Level: Brewmoon Festival. Variety of defenses and attack waves, and some neat trash design

Hub: Shrines of the Golden Vale. This applies to both basically equally because they’re just barely different from each other, but most of what you really want is right next to each other and as such very convenient to navigate

Level: Crypt of the Forgotten Kings is yet another simple yet fun scenario romp

Level: Assault on Zan’vess has some fun vehicle bombing sections, a couple of fun bosses, and a lot of optional trash in between

Level: The Arena of Annihilation is a quick and dirty fun series of bosses, plus a randomized boss at the end

Overworld: General quest and flow design in Kun-Lai. The MSQ follows most of the southern zone, it branches up into the Zul Confederacy sequence for one arc, and then there’s a fairly large amount of secondary quests in all directions which are reasonably fun

Integration: Paragon abilities…

Overworld: …and their usage in the Dread Wastes as a playground concept

Flow: Flower flow is back, and honestly one of the best ones we’ve seen so far. Everything anchors around Klaxxi’vess, and then branches out, and then back

Level: A Little Patience. This is a fun scenario; Go do whatever, build up base, but it rewards you for splitting up and spreading out your efforts, it’s fun…

Level: …an easy double

Level: Dagger In The Dark is a much better scenario. The initial fights are well designed, but the boat ride is even better. You have a hyperbeam moment for the people on the shore and the person in the boat gets a friggin’ flamethrower. Both sides get something fun to do, and it culminates in two interesting and surprisingly intense boss battles…

Level: …an easy…

Level: …triple positive

MSQ: The first Thunder Isle scenario. Quick rush inwards, good usage of terrain, fun boss fights

MSQ: Second Thunder Isle scenario. The hopping between riders, and again a fun boss (two, actually)

MSQ: Third Thunder Isle scenario. This one’s the really fun one; first a quick (buggy) stealth section, then rewarding the player for strategizing about placement of avoidance to clear a path, then a fun if simple boss fight

Level: Blood In The Snow. The out of combat sniper charges, the healing spots, the patrol routes, the mini boss, and the final boss brawl…

Level: …great stuff

Level: Dark Heart of Pandaria. The last boss alone is worth it, very mean coordination fight

Level: High Seas is a fun and simple romp but what I love most is the little silly side buffs. Like the citrus barrels, and the parrying final boss, it’s fun stuff

Cosmetics: Still lots of cool, interesting options in this one… especially some neat mounts…

Cosmetics: …easy double positive

Co-Op: We’ve finally made it. We’ve reached the point where the game finally starts really fully supporting co-op play… and does so better than anything else in the business. This standard will remain for Legion, dip again in BFA and Shadowlands, and then come back and stay back from Dragonflight onwards…

Co-Op: …so enjoy these…

Co-Op: …three positives

MSQ: Intro, general. Most of these are basic quests, but well designed, and good tempo…

Pacing: …the whole thing is brilliantly paced, which is partially a story thing but also applies in gameplay. This is at least partially because of…

Flow: …the flow. The whole intro has fantastic flow to it. My personal favorite example is when we’re given a quest to kill three nameds, but one of them is dead at the hands of Y’rel, who has another quest for us instead

MSQ: Blackrock segment, and a good turret sequence. Great finale to things

Music: Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve finally gotten to the point where the music deserves gameplay positives instead of just story. Holy crap

MSQ: Shadowmoon Valley, general. Honestly some fairly basic quests here, but it’s still the post Cata standard of quality and deserves mention

MSQ: The Defense of Karabor is some fun stuff. Nice, quick, enjoyable scenario

Overworld: Shadowmoon Valley, and the garrison followers ability. A 5 minute cooldown that summons what are effectively an elite mob squad to help you out

Secondary: Pinchwhistle Gearworks. The story here is nonsense but I do rather enjoy the quests for what they are

MSQ: Sethekk Hollow. Fascinating quests here, good little details to help smooth out the questing experience

MSQ: The Tales of Terokk are some great hyperbeam moments, up to and including when we take on Kargath

Overworld: Spires of Arak and our first Garrison choice; We can have a vendor on demand, or we can have a very short cooldown hearth (and increased exp)

Overworld: Gorgrond. As is the norm, the Garrison ability is legit. You can either get a 10 minute cooldown either way, one gives a super nuke vehicle that destroys everything in its path, the other gives a 1 minute ally who (upon leaving) buffs you based on how many things you killed in that minute

Secondary: The entire Zangar chain escalates smoothly and quickly, and flows beautifully. Honestly…

Flow: …the entirety of Southern Gorgrond flows really really well. We start on an old ogre road before watching a genesaur knock a tank off of our path, and we follow a trail across the zone until we end up back where it began at the dwarven base

MSQ: Southern Gorgrond, general. Good stuff here. Good efficiency, good kill rates, good everything…

MSQ: …easy double positive

MSQ: The Bladespire quests are swift, fun…

MSQ: …and include a fun boss fight at the end even

MSQ: The Garrison invasion is also a neat pseudo minigame. Your soldiers actually help (and can be rez’d after falling, but slowly bleed out if you don’t), and there’s a lot of variety to enemy attacks from all directions

Flow: Frostfire Ridge has the more ‘rollercoaster’ style flow, but it does so very well. We basically hit the ground running once we hit Wor’Gol, and don’t stop until the finale

Secondary: Frostfire Ridge also has a bunch of just generally well designed, fun quests

Overworld: Talador, Arsenal or orb choice. A big cooldown, triple charge stun, or a mega nuke for 20 seconds in an area? Your pick

MSQ: Usual quality flow through the Shattrath chain (such as it is)

Secondary: The Morketh quest chain in Talador is honestly quite legit. Each quest leads further in, the mobs and bosses are fun, the drops are good, the final boss has his own unique gimmick…

Secondary: …easy double

Overworld: Nagrand! Yeah I know, try to be shocked. Do you want to fight while mounted? Or have a 10 minute cooldown super death tank?

Flow: Nagrand has really solid flow, as per usual. Quests that lead to other quests that lead to other quests

Enemy Design: Across the expansion in general, but Warlords really started pushing what they can do with enemies. More general design, more attacks, more abilities (a wolf chaining you and dragging you around, or someone literally picking you up to throw you, or a guy hopping on your face to eat you)…

Enemy Design: …getting better as we go

Enemy Variety: This also adds to the increased enemy variety…

Enemy Variety: …for another double

MSQ: Lord I love the Demonhunter Starter area. We have tons of great, fun quests here, and we’re starting to see something we’ll see a decent amount of in Legion. Since some quests are class specific, the designers know you’re that class and can design the quests around that. So we get a lot of Demonhunter themed and use quests here, in addition to the usual high quality stuff…

MSQ: …so that’s…

MSQ: …easy triple territory, but I have to also mention…

Flow: …the flow is fantastic…

Pacing: …and the pacing is breakneck (as it should be). Even the six year pause, from our perspective, happens in mere seconds, so there’s no real pause in the action before we hit…

MSQ: …the Vault of the Wardens preview. This continues to be excellent quest design across the board…

MSQ: …so that’s another easy…

MSQ: …triple, but I have to give credit for…

Boss: …the bosses! These are functionally tutorials for the actual dungeon bosses we’ll fight later, and they’ll kill you if you’re not careful. Love it

MSQ: The Loss on the Broken Shore scenario. There’s nothing super fancy here, just a generally well designed level, with good variety of objectives, and good scaling, alongside some really smart NPC tech (they actually help, heal, buff, etc.)…

MSQ: …so that’s an easy double

Hub: Dalaran is probably the single best hub in the game from a purely gameplay perspective. A special hearthstone just to come here, very small layout with smart location of relevant shops, banks, and whatever else you’ll need. And of course, a closeby portal straight to a portla network…

Hub: …so that’s…

Hub: …an easy triple

MSQ: So, hey! The pre launch quest is still in! It’s nothing super fancy (it’s mostly heavy on the story axis) but it’s still fun

Prime Opt: Protection Warrior. As mentioned above, they know you’re a prot warrior, and they play with it. Keep stuff off him while he talks to his dad, jump or charge through wind, fling at barrels you otherwise couldn’t reach, and huge swaths of enemies to hold while your ally kills them

Prime Opt: Shadow Priest. Again, smart usage of priest abilities, and even the big boss fight at the end (which was meaner than I thought it’d be) makes for a fun mirror battle

Prime Opt: Holy Paladin, and actually having an honest to goodness party you heal! Also some nice dispel / healing interactions

Prime Opt: Holy Priest is another fun one, giving us ANOTHER party to work with and infiltrating Niskara (…again…)

Prime Opt: Discipline Priest & Arcane Mage are still fun, even if they’re functionally the same quest. Terrain to avoid, and a fun boss fight catered to our spec

Prime Opt: Marksman Hunter is another simple but solid romp

Prime Opt: Survival Hunter is fun too. Look I’m sorry there’s only so many times I can say ‘this is good quest design’ okay? I’ll try to do better, I swear

Prime Opt: Beast Hunter, for example, is interesting in how it’s primarily not combat focused, but also encourages us to use our pets to bypass terrain and traps

Prime Opt: Fire Mage is similar. Having to dodge blocks of ice while destroying a frost mage

Prime Opt: Frost Mage, by contrast, mostly involves some really cool puzzle design, several fun side quests, and an interesting boss fight after a ‘hold the line’ mission…

Prime Opt: …easy double

Prime Opt: Outlaw Rogue! Stealth is encouraged, but also having to fight down the curse piece by piece before fighting a boss with a giant friggin’ gun

Prime Opt: Assassin Rogue is one of the better Artifact quests. Infiltrating Darkshire is fun enough (and very assassiny)…

Prime Opt: …but the infiltration of Stormwind is where it goes from good to great. I love routing this out, and I love the design on hand…

Prime Opt: …easy triple

Prime Opt: Subtlety Rogue! Hope you like sneaking, pickpocketing, and doing other roguey things. As with several of the better Artifact chains, this one ties right in to being a rogue…

Prime Opt: …and I love it

Prime Opt: The Warlock intro is weirdly fun for what it is. Escaping (by enslaving a demon), fighting, fleeing, it’s good stuff

Prime Opt: Demonology Warlock likes to use its warlock stuff too, but really encourages you to just fling enemies at the boss (which makes sense)

Prime Opt: Destruction Warlock is another simple but solid dungeon crawl (technically three of them). Enemies keep trying to ambush you and it just does not work out for them

Prime Opt: Protection Paladin. As usual, some fun terrain trap stuff, and tanking for a party

Prime Opt: Feral Druid wasn’t much narratively, but I rather enjoyed the stealth approach, and the romp through Suramar early

Prime Opt: Guardian Druid is another good ‘you can tank, right?’ quest, both in the lead up and pay off

Prime Opt: Restoration Druid is probably one of the better healer artifact quests. Fighting a pitlord while keeping the party up, and of course healing your allies while questing…

Prime Opt: …good stuff

Prime Opt: Frost Death Knight is solid. It’s already great on the story axis, but it also has several fun minibosses and a nice gimmicky boss with Arthas and Ner’zhul

Prime Opt: Elemental Shaman’s artifact quest is solid. Fun mini dungeon, fun mini bosses, fun boss…

Prime Opt: …good stuff

Prime Opt: Try to be shocked but they do great stuff with Restoration Shaman too

Prime Opt: And of course, Mistwalker Monk, which even lets you decide the difficulty of the healing

Prime Opt: Brewmaster Monk is back to basics, but still fun for what it is (and holding the line against waves of enemies works for a tank)

Prime Opt: I also have to mention Windwalker Monk because, again, simple but fun

Co-Op: As per the standard established in Warlords, the co-op is very legit…

Co-Op: …easy…

Co-Op: …triple positive

Prime Opt: Warrior Order Hall, the Battle for Ulduar

Prime Opt: Rogue Order Hall, infiltrating Gallywix’s pleasure palace

Prime Opt: Monk Order Hall, saving Tian Monastery

Enemy Variety: This is about when this peaks, I think. From here on out this is going to just dominate…

Enemy Variety: …for a solid double each

Enemy Design: Because there’s some really great stuff…

Enemy Design: …throughout the expansion

Guidance: Legion, strangely, isn’t as well guided as many of its predecessors. We’ll have to pay attention to this as we progress further, but Legion has a few quests that are like ‘they’re in this zone’ with no further direction, and you’re left at the mercy of the quest marker. Thankfully some quests are still properly written

Prime Opt: Chasing the imp through Dalaran for the Demon Hunter Order Hall chain, the charge through the Scarlet Monastery as the Death Knights, and the fight against Akama as the Illidari, and of course invading the Firelands (again), and while we’re at it, fighting the War of the Ancients for Druid. It’s all fun, just… too shallow for individual positives

MSQ: Stormheim, battle on the airship. Good scenario, as usual

MSQ: Stormheim, the first Trial (also interwoven with bonus events)

Flow: Generally good Stormheim flow and quest design

Hyperbeam Moment: Stormheim and the assault on the Halls of Valor (the three cycling super abilities from each group we’ve helped across the zone)

MSQ: The Battle for Netherlight Temple. It’s mostly a standard scenario (so good), but the big battle against Balnazzar, followed by the reinforcements moment, good stuff

Flow: Highmountain has some great flow to it. Quick, snappy, and drifts seamlessly from the initial rollercoaster design up to the choice segment

MSQ: Highmountain, lead up to the branch. Fun, quick, well designed

MSQ: Ebonhorn branch is another fun segment

MSQ: Skyhorn branch works really well too, as you fight your way up the mountain

Secondary: The quest giver (and turn in!) and other quests for the Kobolds in Highmountain

MSQ: Battle for Snowmane Village, and using the powers from each of the tribes

Flow: Val’sharah tries the same trick Highmountain does in reverse; starts with choice then rollercoasters, but it still does both well

MSQ: The early choice quests for Val’sharah are all fairly short and quick but are all very well designed for what they are

MSQ: The charge through the Nightmare infested lands has some fun stuff (Ysera escort, the bombing mission, finding the fake Malfurions)

Prime Opt: The entire chain with Jarod and Maiev works better than it really has any right to

MSQ: Battle for the Exodar. The whole mission is structured like an RTS map and is brilliantly designed. Each portal gains you helpful NPCs to help kill (if you need it), there’s far more objectives than you need (letting you choose your interactions), and has an optional boss (for bonus rewards) and an optional quest (to save Nobundo), and it’s just fantastic…

MSQ: …easy…

MSQ: …triple positive

Prime Opt: Also the final fight with the Garothi (oh and the Nobundo quest)

MSQ: Faronaar Front. These are simple but solid quests, with support and backing to help new players

MSQ: The entire Azurewing chain. I love this arc. Starts off fairly basic (heal, kill adds, kill boss) and quickly evolves as it goes

MSQ: Nar’Thalas Academy. Sorry, but I love this stuff. The academy quests are fun variety…

MSQ: …easy double

MSQ: Suramar initial with Thalyssra. Arguably the best escort quest in the game to date (the bubble helps you, but wears thin if you don’t venture out, but also can be restored, it’s a great balance)

MSQ: Building up the base of Shal’Aran. This is most of the initial quests, really, but I still like them

MSQ: Suramar is primarily story focused but there’s enough fun gameplay here to qualify for sort of a generic ‘early Suramar’ positive

MSQ: I love that the game actually has you feeding the locals. It’s a very simple quest mechanically, but it FORCES the player down to their level, and we have the option of seeing their reaction to our kindness

Integration: Suramar, in general, but special mention to the Empathy buff (10% health buff, stacking to 5)

MSQ: The wine tour… and the savagery after it

MSQ: The assault on Suramar itself is fun

MSQ: The retaking of the beach at the Broken Shore is shockingly well designed. All you ‘have’ to do is kill a boss mob, take down three portals, another boss, then hit the ship before damaging Mephistroth. Thing is there’s a lot of very natural extra stuff you can do for fun or assistance. Every group of NPCs you help joins the main mob as soon as their target is dead, and they’re all very helpful…

MSQ: …it’s great stuff

Prime Opt: Mage mount final. Three bosses, each one themed after its element, and it’s actually quite fun

Prime Opt: Shaman mount final. Fighting the three Council members again

Prime Opt: Monk, of all things! The charge through the brewery, and the fight with Ban-Lu

Prime Opt: The big defense mission during the Priest mount quest

Hyperbeam Moment: Death Knight mount quest. As you slay the swarms of undead you get stronger and faster and it stacks, culminating in raising your own frost drake

Prime Opt: For its issues, the Demonhunter Order Hall finale is legit gameplay wise. The bombardment, the invasion, the bosses, the allies

Prime Opt: Demonhunter finale. The battle on Mardum, and to retake our ship

Cosmetics: Mounts and the like, as usual. Really great stuff here..

Cosmetics: …this’ll probably be a triple from now on…

Cosmetics: …at least until Dragonflight, muwa ha ha

Overworld: Stormheim and its hooks, roads, bridges, and flow

Overworld: Highmountain and its paths, cliffs, and caves

Overworld: Azjuna and the smart usage of islands and water

Overworld: Suramar City itself is incredibly smartly laid out gameplay wise…

Overworld: …easy double

MSQ: Defending Azeroth (the… soul not the planet) from the visions and nightmares

Overworld: Argus. Wonderfully designed terrain

Overworld: The Vindicaar abilities, which you unlock more of as you progress

MSQ: Destiny Point (bombs, spires, and mechs)…

Hyperbeam Moment: …and one of the best Hyperbeam Moments in the game. A fully powered Lightforged Warframe against a demon army and lord…

Hyperbeam Moment: …love this

MSQ: The Trials of Archimonde. Fun, varied

MSQ: The big fight with Talgath

MSQ: The march through void infested Eredath

MSQ: The entire Battle for Lordaeron. It’s fun (if buggy) and still has some actual mechanics and gimmicks to it which are still fun to this day, go figure

MSQ: The prison break with Flynn is fun and enjoyable to play through

Hub: Boralus. The actual hub area is pretty small, well laid out, and well contained…

Hub: …easy double

Flow: Branching Tiragarde Sound quests. I didn’t think I’d like this at first but it’s actually… really good. There are quests EVERYwhere, and lots of vector quests and natural flow to the overworld design, and I must give it proper praise…

Flow: …for a full…

Flow: …triple positive

Secondary: The side quests in Tirigarde Sound are just solid, good, and fun

Secondary: Bonus points just for the Anglepoint Wharf chain

MSQ: And the entire MSQ. Short, sweet, and fun

Flow: Drustvar has amazing flow to it. Starts off with a Secondary quest, of all things, chaining easily into our first MSQ hub, which has vectors to a bunch of nearby side quests, and dovetails nicely into the main one. This pattern is then interrupted halfway through where the MSQ functionally branches into the Prime Opt south and the MSQ north, but both are great stuff…

Flow: …continuing to have fantastic flow…

Flow: …for an easy triple

MSQ: Yeah, of course I like the MSQ stuff. First we have the stuff down south, where we end up knocking over an entire conquered town partially with the help of their own (more on that later)

MSQ: Then we have the northwestern segment, where we have a good variety of vehicle, kill, loot, interact, and gimmick quests…

MSQ: …all of which are fun and smooth and generally well designed

Overworld: Drustvar, design. The overworld is very well designed here, with good thought put into placements, paths, locations, etc.

Overworld: Drustvar, slowly increasing buffs against the Coven. It’s not quite the ‘gob squad’ concept but it’s close, and serves the same function

Prime Opt: Drustvar, Gorak Tul chain. This follows the same general quality of the rest of the zone, so forgive me for not repeating myself…

Prime Opt: …and merely giving it a double. But here’s the thing, both the MSQ and Prime Opt share something in common…

Hyperbeam Moment: …and that is some well designed Hyperbeam Moments. Kudos, Drustvar

MSQ: Nazmir invasion, Alliance. Weirdly this one was pretty fun to play, even if it had some issues on the story axis

Secondary: Deadliest Cache. I’m sorry this was just good. Oh sure it’s funny, but it’s also actually FUN to play through, as each character has their own kit and… ‘challenges’ as you go through

Secondary: I also have to give credit to the Granny quests (giving us rats and explosives is a nice touch)

Secondary: And the Tortollan quests. Remove the water negative? Check. Give us a vehicle section with a giant explosive cannon? Check

Flow: Zuldazar, as usual. Lots of good quest chaining, optional navigation, and other good unlocking…

Flow: …for a double

Secondary: Several good secondary quests in Zuldazar. Gral’s quest, Jani’s, and the Mogu come to mind…

Secondary: …as well as reclaiming the harbor from the Mogu

MSQ: The assault upon Zul’s forces through Zanchul and up to Atal’Dazar

Secondary: The undead squad… and the gem of lightning

Flow: Wonderful flow to Nazmir. Almost every MSQ takes us counter-clockwise around the zone, and either goes through or nearby all the secondary quests…

Flow: …an easy double

Overworld: I love the buffs we get in Nazmir, and I love the general layout of the swamp

Pacing: Consider this a general positive for quests in Nazmir and having better design than most other zones had so far. Good X of Y numbers, good drop rates, good pacing

MSQ: Torga chain. The initial lead in, the Hand of Fate, and the big fight with the n’raqi

MSQ: Gob Squad stuff. Rescues, rocket launchers, and a chance at piloting the mech

MSQ: Krag’wa. Simple, quick, and of course then we stomp on everything

MSQ: Keeper Hezrel. Again some solid stuff, culminating in an interesting fight

MSQ: The big charge through Nazmir deserves its own mention, as we work with and through the people we’ve united (giving us different abilities and encounters)

MSQ: The Battle of Blood Gate is fine, but what really makes it work is piloting a friggin’ direhorn that can trample everything in its path

Overworld: Vol’Dun is brilliantly laid out. Seemingly easy to navigate, but with lots of signposting and landmarks to help navigate, and a clear…

Flow: …flow to the whole thing. As with so many other BFA zones, each MSQ leads into an area littered with Secondaries, and the whole zone follows this clockwise route as you start and end with the Faithless up north

MSQ: Basically everything about the initial quest chain, leading up to Akunda, is solid

Secondary: Lots of generally good quest design in Vol’dun, consider this a general aggregate. A few jump out in specific though

Secondary: Such as everything around the exile’s camp (especially Jani’s of course)

Secondary: And the Goldtusk Inn quests, these deserve their own mention

Secondary: Disrupting the Faithless while Vorrik prepares. Burning tents, freeing slaves, releasing monsters, and charging through enemy lines on a giant bug

MSQ: The search through the depths for the corpse of Marshal Valentine is fantastic stuff. The light mechanic, the usage of the minimap, great stuff

MSQ: The Alliance War Campaign, bizarrely enough. Void powers, allies summoned at will, bombs that home in on enemies? Yes please

Prime Opt: Blood Elf Heritage. Fun interactions, Arthas instantly killing you, and an interesting trip back

Prime Opt: And the Sunwell scenarios, great stuff here. Great fights, great trash, great progression…

Prime Opt: …easy double

MSQ: Piloting a giant azerite mech? Blowing up an airship? Yeah, I’m with it

MSQ: General quest design quality in the War Campaign quests. I have issues with them on a story axis, but not a gameplay one

MSQ: The Heist of Dazaralor is great fun. Traps, unique bosses, and fun interactions…

MSQ: …easy double

MSQ: The assault on Nazmir, as the Alliance, is good

MSQ: The defense of Nazmir, as the Horde, is just as good

MSQ: While it has that… other problem, Nazjatar still has some good quest design

Overworld: Some really good overworld design too, one of the better ones. There’s clear ‘roads’ despite everything, and even though it’s very vertical there’s a good flow and patterning to it

Cosmetics: As usual, some good cosmetics in mounts and elsewise…

Cosmetics: …for a double

Enemy Design: At this point this is a gimme, but enemy design continues to be good…

Enemy Design: …for two positives

Enemy Variety: And enemy variety is still great stuff…

Enemy Variety: …for another double

Music: BFA finally breaks free and starts to have a truly legit soundtrack…

Music: …earning a solid…

Music: …triple

Song: Classic Battle E. Such a simple title for such a fantastic song. Just the right mixture of sorrow, military, and triumphant…

Song: …solid double

Boss: Of all things, the Tauren Heritage chain has a legit interesting boss. Buffs to heal and, uh, buff you, allies who help tank and spread damage, and a boss with multiple avenues of avoidance

Level: The obstacle course of the Gnomeregan for the Gnomish Heritage sequence

Prime Opt: Gnomish Heritage, in general. Good quests, good mechanics, good fun…

Boss: …and another fun boss, wow

Prime Opt: Goblin Heritage quests…

Prime Opt: …which are great…

Prime Opt: …and Goblin heritage bosses

MSQ: The Mogushan infiltration Indiana Jones segment…

MSQ: …and the Vaults immediately after

Tutorialization: So let’s get this out of the way, Exile’s Reach is a fantastic tutorial. It presumes you’ve never played a game before (let alone an MMO) and treats the situation accordingly. It tells you basics like looting and interacting with enemies and the world around you, but also does a good job of indicating through game design things like flower quest design, group quests, flow of zones, enemy types, and all kinds of other little things…

Tutorialization: …for an easy…

Tutorialization: …triple positive

Prime Opt: Good quest design across the board…

Flow: …and good flow

Overworld: The layout and design of Exile’s Reach is fantastic in general, with group NPCs who help periodically, ways to shortcut to prevent unnecessary backtracking, and an honest to goodness run buff to help with navigation

Unskippable Cutscenes: Or rather, skippable! The entire expansion, gradient even

MSQ: The initial Maw intro is actually really damned good on both axis (go figure). Some initial easy quests, which then unlock a mechanic to help us fight other things, several optional objectives as we progress, good pacing, and even a decent stealth section…

MSQ: …so this is all…

MSQ: …a solid triple

MSQ: Bastion, Aspirant’s Crucible. Some basic side quests, some interactables, and generally well designed objectives

MSQ: Maldraxxus intro. The arena, the escape, arming local scavengers to fight a nice big elite

MSQ: House of Rituals, House of Constructs. Both quest arcs are fine, and reasonably enjoyable, but stumble enough to not really qualify for individual positives

Flow: Ardenweald. While there are several issues with individual quests the flow of MSQ to Secondary to MSQ is solid

MSQ: Initial, up to the first town. Good, fun, varied, simple

MSQ: Tranquil Groves and Heartwood Grove… what’s left of it

Secondary: Crumbled Ridge. The only area with good side quests in the whole zone (so far), but good stuff here as we work our way into and then out of the Crumbled Ridge

MSQ: The Ardenweald finale. Some good snappy missions, good assaults, and a good hold the line, followed by some fun bosses

MSQ: So the early Revendreth quests are a bit simple but surprisingly solidly designed. First we have a basic tour, which immediately turns into several nearby quests in a region with a new effect…

Overworld: …the Mire, which drains you and makes you take more damage, but there are ways around it (which there’s a Secondary quest RIGHT there to help)

Secondary: Then we spend some time learning about the, shall we say, internecine politics of the venthyr as well as doing some quick and fun quests in town

Flow: Unlike several other zones, the Flow of Revendreth is pretty legit… so long as you have flight (which, given how this is being reviewed, you do)

MSQ: Generally good quests, especially in the Ember Scar. Some nice ‘lava avoidance’ style mechanics and mini bosses

MSQ: The entire Revendreth finale, including the Assault on Nathria, is good stuff

MSQ: Ardenweald theatre. This one quest chain deserves its own positives, even on the gameplay axis, for being unique and fun to play

MSQ: Torghast 2, this is when we rescue Baine. This is our second foray into Torghast but probably our first ‘real’ showcasing of what it is, and it’s a good tutorial for what to expect; not too long, not too short, and a nice portrayal of each

MSQ: Bwonsamdi’s quests. Fun in general, but the ‘keep the followers alive’ minigame was legitimately well designed

MSQ: The Ardenweald finale. First we get Ysera bombing, then super empowered, then we get a turbo nuke, all while having well designed mass crushing then objective based mission…

MSQ: …good stuff

MSQ: Early Maldraxxus campaign. Simple but solid quest design

MSQ: Honestly, the infiltrations of the House of Rituals aren’t too shabby. Stealth, options, and general quality

MSQ: Revendreth initial. Stealth, flight, and a fight to garner a court. Fun stuff

MSQ: The Countess quests! Having to go about and deduce and coerce

MSQ: The Curator quests. More of the ‘simple but good’ stuff here

Minigame: Torghast. Yes I know people hate it, but I firmly believe that’s due to how it’s forced on the player thanks to the legendary crap (ash grind and weekly), not due to Torghast itself, which is kind of friggin’ awesome. First it’s a great, surprisingly well designed mini rogue styled game with both reset and progression mechanics (big upgrades at Venari are permanent as well as a few other things, most of the stuff you get in-mission are reset). It also is just difficult enough to remain engaging, and is generally a fun playground area…

Minigame: …so that’s a solid…

Minigame: …triple, but hang on I’m not done yet…

Kit: …So, you get new abilities in Torghast. Some are passive stats, most are cool interesting things, and these vary based on your class. These are almost universally fun, interesting mutators which add some wonderful kit to the playstyle…

Kit: …so that’s a double…

Builds: …but they also have a lot of internal synergies (both with yourself and with a friend)…

Builds: …offering a lot of build opportunities, but also…

Co-Op: …it works wonderfully with a group. Scales to group size, all the way down to 1, great stuff (and probably a prototype for Follower Dungeons)

MSQ: Ben’s quest. It’s very simple but it forces you down to seeing what it’s like being a level 1 nobody and it’s great

MSQ: Uther in his memories. Some fun quests here

Cosmetics: Some really cool mounts in Shadowlands

Enemy Design: Some usual good stuff

Enemy Variety: With some usual good variety

Prime Opt: The Reclamation of Lordaeron was actually pretty fun. Navigating the ever shrinking bubble, bombing the giant blob of Lordaeron Blight, fun stuff

Character Creation: The character creation options for dracthyr are honestly extremely impressive…

Character Creation: …deserving their own…

Character Creation: …triple

MSQ: Forbidden Reach. The initial Evoker starting area is tight, well tuned, introduces abilities properly and at a good pace, and gives you plenty of options to dynamically or hesitatingly try them out. In short…

Tutorialization: …it’s a damned good…

Tutorialization: …tutorial

MSQ: The final few quests of the Forbidden Reach kinda nail it too. Good quest flow, good progression, no irritations in quests, and generally fun

Skippable Cutscenes: We are officially at the SAWAL golden era, which leads to a bundle of positives here. These are well indicated and highlighted, avoidable, and repeatable. They are essentially perfect…

Skippable Cutscenes: …so…

Skippable Cutscenes: …enjoy the triple

Secondary: Wingrest Embassy quests. Simple, fun, well designed

Co-Op: Oh yeah, proper co-op is back. And as of this writing, is back to stay…

Co-Op: …so enjoy…

Co-Op: …that triple

Secondary: Waking Shores, Wetlands chain with the ecologist couple. Love this, sure, but it’s also pretty well designed gameplay wise. Drops and enemies both give the necessary items, they drop in large numbers, and the bosses are well laid out at the end of a ‘path’ which has other objectives in them. In short, a well designed series of quests

Flow: Even early on the Waking Shores has fantastic flow to it. From the beach to the ruins to the wilds to the Life Pools

Overworld: This is one of the best designed zones to date in terms of sheer zone layout, right up there with the Jade Forest. The flowing routes designed for dragonflying, the visuals helping to indicate where to go and what to do, the great mix of terrain, the rewarded exploration, the landmarking, it’s great stuff…

Overworld: …easy double

Tutorialization: Dragonflying tutorial! I’ve seen better, but this gets across what dragonflying is very well

Cosmetics: Functionally character creation but… the customization options for your dragonflying mounts (of which there are many)…

Cosmetics: …easy…

Cosmetics: …triple

Secondary: Frogs and plants, oh my

Secondary: Elementals and orbs, and a few gorloc related issues…

Secondary: …all very solid quest design

Trash: Hey… check it out. It’s… it’s a plus for a dungeon design! Okay it’s not much but I do enjoy the trash design in Life Pools. The first bundles give some hints of the adds in the first boss, and there’s a clear distinction between the heavies and the miniboss and the… uh, trash. Then there’s the second bundle of trash, which actually have the same abilities as the next boss, so that’s some nice tutorialization. And the final bundle is nicely laid out without being too much

Unskippable Cutscenes: Skips… but even better skips!

MSQ: Some fun quests as we invade the Obsidian Citadel

Secondary: Timberstep Outpost chains. Forgive me for repeating myself, but there’s just some good, solid quest design here. A vector quest which dovetails into a kill quest, culminating at the next quest giver who leads to another cave (with objectives on the way), into a boss kill and a return quest

Secondary: Emberwatch and the encroachment. I’m going to try to stop describing all the individual good design here because it’s going to get repetitive, but this is another really good one. In this case they literally tier things; lower tier for the first bundle, higher tier for the second, the quest giver moves up with us, and then the boss at the top

Overworld: Not as good as the Waking Shores, but still good…

Flow: …with a different approach to quest design. Very Flower; Here’s a hub, it has several vector quests, and those bloom and usually circle back

MSQ: Maruukai. Cooking, fighting, gathering, simple and well designed as usual

MSQ: I also enjoyed the finale rush. We had a kill squad, a lot of options to progress, and as we did so we gained even more options (like Green Dragon artillery) to make it even better

Minigame: Race UI, times, nearby races, general design around the racing itself

Minigame: So for the very first time I want to give a positive to some of the World Quests. Most specifically, climbing and cataloging (the camera stuff). These have their own progression to improve your kit, they’re fun, they’re snappy, they’re worthwhile, and they’re creative…

Minigame: …for a solid…

Minigame: …triple

Secondary: Taivan, Selbekh, and Chimei

MSQ: Defending Camp Antonidas, and the immediate follow through and clean up

Secondary: The Furbolg chain is actually pretty legit. Enemies that de-aggro at a health percentage, hints as you go through, and a nice escalation to a layered boss fight

Secondary: Steria and Callisto, and rescuing the ley-infused Kits

Secondary: There’s some wonderful quest overlapping to the Three Falls Lookout quests. About 4 or so all in the same area with dovetail and inform each other nicely

Secondary: Also the big build up to the Frostbite fight

Secondary: And the sentient artifact chain

MSQ: The Tuskarr and the Gnolls

MSQ: The build up to and pay off with the frickin’ awesome spellbook mount (arcane explosions just by moving, big hits for fun and on bosses)

MSQ: The charge through the Primalist forces, the buffs to help with the boss, and final escalating vehicle segment…

MSQ: …great stuff

Overworld: Wonderful zone design for the Azure Span. Hills, valleys, racing ways, paths, flow, love it…

Overworld: …two positives

Flow: We’re back to Flower design with the Azure Span, wonderful spreading of quest designs

Hub: Valdrakken! This is a weird one cuz in many cases this would actually suck as a hub, but the (essentially mandatory) inclusion of dragonflying suddenly makes this place make sense. Each mini-hub is well connected and everything is nicely accessible, but the routes between each minihub have the same general overworld design that each of the zones have had so far…

Hub: …so that’s an easy double, but also…

QoL: …the whole city is pretty high up (one of the highest points on the island) and there’s a friggin’ teleporter to the top of the tallest tower so you can dive down. This is a great way to encourage players to dragonfly to wherever they’re going, since you can pretty much guarantee good speed and good height for the system

Secondary: The harpies and the rocs quests. Usual variety of ‘simple but fun’ here but I also love how there’s two quests that require dozens of items that take less time than a similar quest in another expansion that requires 1 or 2. Also lots of optional steps to smooth things over if you want to

Secondary: The spa! They really are just kind of nailing the proper X of Y approach here

Secondary: Caring for the gardens and helping to clean things up

Secondary: Alvi, Nori, and the watchers of the pass

Overworld: Thaldraszus continues the trend of overall good zone design

Secondary: The rebel scum quest. At this point I’m just going to say ‘good quest design’ and move on

MSQ: The initial Shifting Sands good quest design

MSQ: The initial fight against Eternus and tumbling through time good quest design

Secondary: These are technically secondary quests but I love saving Azmerloth from Deathwingurlugull

Interface: Follower Dungeons in general. Quick, easy, part of the party, and locks in smoothly with addons

QoL: Followers being party members. I know this is a weird thing to point to but this took some real work, and is more or less necessary for the whole system to work

QoL: Follower dungeon dynamically adjusting on the fly to party size. This is such an amazing feature. If you swap specs, the group adjusts around you. Invite a new player? Group adjusts. Player leaves? Group adjusts. And it happens basically instantly, it’s fantastic…

QoL: …easy…

QoL: …triple

Guidance: Follow or lead mode for tank. Relevance? If you don’t know where you’re going, the tank does. Great for new players or people who aren’t sure where to go

Guidance: Tips from NPCs as you go through, to help with mechanics and navigation

Party AI: So let’s get this out of the way, this is the best AI I’ve ever seen in an MMO. It is absolutely bonkers how good it is. So we’re going to divvy this up into roles. First, DPS, who will do everything in their power to be smart about cooldowns, focus-firing, AOEing when necessary, and pulling the right targets…

Party AI: …for…

Party AI: …three positives

Party AI: Then Healers, who will prioritize tanks and players, know how to manage their mana and cooldowns, and know how to reposition when needed…

Party AI: …another…

Party AI: …triple

Party AI: Finally, tanks. Tanks will absolutely laser-focus anything they don’t have aggro on, know how to keep ranged cooldowns ready to pull, know when to hit live buttons, and do a great job holding aggro in general…

Party AI: …for a final…

Party AI: …triple

Difficulty Options: Follower Dungeons as easy mode. Sadly the lack of a hard mode still sucks, but it’s still a good easy difficulty and deserves mention thereof

Level: Lifepools. General quality across the board. As will be common, most individual trash and fights won’t get positives due to being on easy mode, but there’s still some decent stuff here

Trash: Neltharus trash is better designed than most

Boss: Neltharus has some reasonably fun bosses, and you can even see a few mechanics

Level: Nokhud Offensive, flying and level design. Love the open ended nature of it, the flightpaths, the wind gusts, and of course being able to dragonfly around

Level: Nokhud Offensive, trash and bosses. General quality of trash and boss fights

Boss: Brackenhide Hollow, some fun bosses here, if only briefly

Level: Azure Vault has a weirdly good flow to it, and I like several of its gimmicks

Boss: Azure Vault also has the general aggregate positive for decent bosses

Level: Halls of Infusion has some weirdly good stuff, with the Frogger corridors among others

Boss: Halls of Infusion, which also employs the aforementioned Frogger corridors

Level: Uldaman, Legacy of Tyr, nice layout, decent trash, decent bosses

Level: Algeth’ar Academy, gaining buff pins and general fun in navigation

Boss: Algeth’ar Academy has the best bosses of the Follower dungeons in Dragonflight. Still not individual positive worthy (easy mode woes) but still good…

Boss: …for a double aggregate

Prime Opt: Soup! Oh don’t look at me that way, Soup is fun but ultimately simple… a great first Event

Prime Opt: Timeways protection quests

Minigame: Time Rifts! Love this event. Good variety of types and styles of events, good rewards (tons of cosmetics), and very rewarding to do in a group…

Minigame: …easy double event

Minigame: Traveler’s Post. A simple, cosmetic way to reward players for playing the game

Secondary: Dragonracing is legit, fun, interesting, and varied. Reviewing it is going to take a while as I’ll have to hit each zone’s each race and each variant of each race. So far we’ve managed a bit, so let’s talk about the Waking Shore. You can honestly tell this was the first zone they did races on, as while they’re fun and good they’re just blown out of the water by later ones. They also go a bit too obstacle-spammy on the Advanced races, which is a shame. Still good stuff though…

Secondary: …worthy of a double

Prime Opt: Orc Heritage! Simple, fun, well designed

Prime Opt: Human Heritage, again, is simple and solid

Prime Opt: Baine’s arc. This is mostly talking, but there’s some good stuff here

Hyperbeam Moment: Baine’s rampage is a weirdly good Hyperbeam Moment, especially because of how his abilities compliment yours

MSQ: The Blue grave cleaning. Nanananana

MSQ: Crystalsong Blue quests

MSQ: Blue quests in general are well designed, with no padding and no irritations

MSQ: Special mention to the general flow of each quest within their respective zones

Secondary: Dragonracing, Ohn’aran plains edition. They do some fun stuff with terrain here, smart usage of trees and rivers, and arguably some of the better ‘vanilla’ races…

Secondary: …another easy double

Minigame: Digs! These arguably should be more, but the limitation in actually doing them drags them down a bit. Still, these are fun mini puzzles and have some neat little tidbits

Overworld: Zaralek Caverns. It’s hard to see some of the times, given how ‘for flying’ the whole zone is, but there’s some very clear design here. It’s most obvious when you do the races

Secondary: The expedition team quests. Fun, well designed, and well paced

MSQ: Sort of a generic aggregate, but a lot of the quests in Zaralek are solid. Fun, simple, well streamlined, the usual Dragonflight quality…

MSQ: …for a double

Secondary: Azure Span races! You’d think they fumble a bit with the hilly terrain but no, these work quite well…

Secondary: …easy double

Secondary: Thaldraszus races are finally a little bit lacking compared to several of the other zones, but they’re still solid and still enjoyable

Secondary: Zaralek races are when they’re starting to really find themselves with these. These are creative, fun, and just the right kind of mean…

Secondary: …our first…

Secondary: …triple

MSQ: I’m sorry, but saving the Loamm town and citizens (and failing to) works surprisingly well even on the gameplay axis

MSQ: Assisting the Tyr’s Guard in Brackenhide Hollow

Secondary: As usual, good quest design in the Drakthyr epilogue

Prime Opt: Night Elf Heritage. Some basic stuff, but the encroachment through the den is still good stuff

Prime Opt: Forsaken Heritage is another trend of well designed side quests. Good objectives, good flow, good shortcuts, good escalation, good fun (and kit), and good boss…

Prime Opt: …easy double

Prime Opt: Reclamation of Gilneas. Simple but solid

Prime Opt: Surprisingly well designed quests through most of the Draenei Heritage. Shortcuts, teleports, clear indicators, even a minigame with candles, and a satisfying boss at the end…

Prime Opt: …solid double

Overworld: The Emerald Dream has phenomenal overworld design. The flow, layout, usage of terrain, of FLYING terrain, of drifting in and out of burning and living areas and changing how you deal with what enemies…

Overworld: …it’s all…

Overworld: …very well designed

Secondary: Seeds are weirdly well designed for what they are. Rewarding, encouraging, easy to find, intuitive, good stuff

Secondary: Events in general tend to be good in the Dream

Minigame: Superblooms! These are one of if not the best events in Dragonflight, and it’s all down to the details. I won’t bore you with specifics but very well designed stuff here…

Minigame: …easy double

Secondary: Q’onzu’s quests are weirdly well designed for being quests, in lore, to make you go away

Secondary: Emerald Dream races. These are the best races in Dragonflight, mean, fun, engaging, varied…

Secondary: …easy…

Secondary: …triple

Prime Opt: I’m going to go ahead and jot down a positive for the Daycare quests now. They’re nothing fancy, but they’re still good

Prime Opt: Lilian’s chain. It’s simple, but there’s good flow and design here

Prime Opt: Netherwing chain. Again, simple, but solid

Secondary: The one recalcitrant flame druid and what’s left of her family, and the quests around it

MSQ: Crushing the primary enemy force with the heroes of Azeroth, and literally knocking enemy drakes out of the sky

Enemy Design: As usual, great stuff…

Enemy Design: …for a double

Enemy Variety: And great variety…

Enemy Variety: …for a double

Music: Yeah I think it qualifies

Outro: Believe it or not, the party is pretty well designed gameplay wise. Lots of options for progression, completely optional and fast if you just want to rush it, and small little fun interactions

Secondary: Mon-Ark provides… fun slime segments!

MSQ: Fighting Alleria’s memories, saving Telogrus Rift, and a surprisingly fun boss fight with Turalyon

MSQ: Short but efficient Dalaran tour

MSQ: Rescue of Dalaran. Lots of enemies, good variety of enemies, good escalation, and lots of people ot rescue

Boss: Even an interesting fight with the Crypt Lord at the end

Music: So for one of the only times in WoW’s history, the music… just… the music is really good, right off the bat. Dornogal, Dalaran, and Khaz Algur

Hub: Dornogal. Nice big circle with basically everything you need across said circle. It’s like Dalaran but a bit worse…

Hub: …still good though

Itemization: Delves, itemization. So, you can get gear, good gear, and improvements to gear in Delves. This makes it relevant for casual players, players who want progression, and higher end hardcore players alike…

Itemization: …so that’s…

Itemization: …an easy triple

Unit: Brann and customization thereof. It’s not extensive, but that’s actually a good thing. Choose a spec, choose mutators (gear), and you can level him. That’s it, and that’s all it really should be…

Unit: …easy double

Party AI: Brann, again. This is basically Follower AI which, naturally, means it’s amazing…

Party AI: …so that’s a double

Level: Earthcrawl Caves; grapples and webs (and flamethrowers!)…

Level: …double positive

Trash: Good variety and good design for Earthcrawl Caves

Guidance: So, they’re back to doing quests on the map. ALL the quests. It’s fantastic…

Guidance: …easy double

Flow: Isle of Dorn has absolutely fascinating quest flow. The MSQ races through the zone, rather quickly in fact, but at each ‘stop’ on the MSQ we see a huge bundle of side quests, and each of those bloom out in typical flower design, allowing for some great combo of both styles of quest design…

Flow: …easy…

Flow: …triple

Overworld: Isle of Dorn, general. Hills, forests, beach, swamp, great layout, distance, and structure

Music: Isle of Dorn. I know, it’s weird, but I think the music here finally deserves its own gameplay positives

Secondary: Freywold quests, in general. Some basic but solid stuff here

Secondary: Helping the mountain giant (seemingly irritating, but well designed circumvents in the necessary loots)

Secondary: The wold and boss sequence, lovely stuff

Pacing: Isle of Dorn in general has weirdly good pacing. Highs, lows, and very smooth

QoL: Warbank, mobile Warbank, and you can craft from it

QoL: Currencies, reps, transmog unlocks. All warbound across account (and getting better over time)…

QoL: …for two positives

Trash: Storm’s Roost has weirdly good trash design, even on easy mode

Boss: Storm’s Roost, general. Three simple but fun bosses

MSQ: The random ‘tower defense’ of the Meadyard is strangely fun, dynamic, and well designed

Skippable Cutscenes: Lots! Like, lots of skip options

Co-Op: Yes, we’re back to good co-op design, with everything sharing freely in party and across factions…

Co-Op: …easy…

Co-Op: …triple

MSQ: The Kobold quests! They’re all simple stuff, but well designed for what they are. They also flow very nicely into…

MSQ: …Taelloch. Once again, the flow of these quests and how they guide you through the area is great. This of course leads us into…

MSQ: …the Earthenworks area, which has fun, dynamic objectives, good flow, and leads to…

MSQ: …the Awakening Machine scenario, with good trash and good bosses (plus a decent ‘hold the line’ sequence)

Overworld: Ringing Deeps. As with so many zones, there’s just good general layout and…

Flow: …flow to the zone. They repeat the trick from Isle of Dorn here, where the MSQ is a quick and guided tour, while the secondary quests branch out substantially

Secondary: Granny Scribbles’ quests are weirdly fun. Each one’s a simple scenario, usually with a few extra gimmicks…

Secondary: …and each one is neat, quick, and enjoyable

Secondary: Kobold establisher quest and supply chains. We see and talk to several kobolds, perform a lot of different types of actions, and finally line everything up (also good drop rates; We loot a thing, it gives a thing and spawns an enemy which gives a thing, effectively doubling up)

Secondary: Caretaker quests. I’m going to take a page out of Hoothor’s book here and just start saying these are good quests, because they are

Secondary: Nibelgaz Mine quests fulfill their Edict of being good quests

Minigame: The Awakening the Machine minigame mode has surprisingly good enemy design and is neat for what it is. It’s very barebones, but the inclusion of the ability to change which ‘mode’ you’re in mid stream helps push this up above neutral territory

Minigame: I forgot to mention this earlier, but the Theatre event is legit. It’s basically like the Superbloom but even better, as there’s better individual design around objectives, how they share, how long it takes, and how it varies…

Minigame: …easy…

Minigame: …triple. Probably my favorite event in the game thusfar

Trash: Stonevault. Lots of variety of enemies, and fun ones to boot

Boss: Most of Stonevault’s bosses (in Follower mode anyways) are pretty vanilla, but there’s enough cleverness (the Machinists and fighting the terrain, Eirich and the black holes) to still be fun

MSQ: Generally good Edict-fulfilling quest design in the initial Hallowfall defense quests

MSQ: More good quest design around the defense of the airship docks and freeing the people from the Kobyss

MSQ: Special mention for the ‘do and cutscene’ approach to the Cliffside Beacon and Anduin and Faerin’s big moment

Secondary: The quests surrounding the fish that’s not a fish are really great, even gameplay wise. Quick drops initially, smooth flow between the relatively small area, and the elites can be handled solo and without aid (as I showed) but also gave you an item that gives you a leg up in case you can’t, or don’t want to, fight them normally

MSQ: Bothering to have a quick and easy assault on the graveyard followed by a longer, more involved quest to clean up after

Secondary: Dunelle’s Kindness

Secondary: Dolena’s quests. A quick hop, followed by more interaction, followed by looting one (then 5 more nearby), and finally a nice cooking interaction which also includes talking (optionally) in said game that happens WHILE gaining progress. Weirdly well designed stuff

Secondary: Kobyss and orphan

Secondary: The brothers and the lead in to the Priory dungeon

Level: Okay so a lot of these positives are going to be kind of template’y because of the nature of Delves. This is a result of doing several on camera, several off camera, and researching the rest. So let’s start with Kriegval’s Rest, which gets…

Level: …two level positives for creativity of mechanics and gimmick

Trash: Two positives…

Trash: …for some of the better trash design (Kobolds, I swear)

Boss: And one positive for boss designs

Level: Fungal Folly and its explosive interactive spores

Trash: Excellent trash design centered around said spores…

Trash: …for a double

Boss: And general boss design

Level: One of the plainer ones, Waterworks is decent enough with its level design

Trash: And trash

Trash: Dread Pit is another relatively simple one

Boss: With a decent boss setup

Level: Mycomancer Cavern has some legitimately fun stuff…

Level: …for a double

Trash: Good trash setup

Boss: And fun bosses

Level: Nightfall Sanctum is another good one for level design…

Level: …for a double

Trash: Some of the best trash design of the Delves…

Trash: …for a double

Boss: And great bosses

Level: Skittering Breach and some fun obstacles and platforming

Trash: Decent trash

Boss: And some of the better boss designs…

Boss: …for a double

Trash: Sinkhole has a few issues, but trash…

Trash: …is not one of them

Boss: Nor is…

Boss: …the boss design

Trash: The Spiral Weave has a few level areas, but decent trash

Boss: And a surprisingly good boss selection…

Boss: …fo ra double

Trash: Tak-Rethan is probably one of the worst Delves in the game, and it says something that it still has good trash design

Boss: And it still has good boss design

Level: Meanwhile the Underkeep is one of the better Delves…

Level: …great stuff in the level

Trash: Good, fun, mean trash…

Trash: …for a double

Boss: And some fun alchemy-themed bosses

Trash: Cinderbrew Meadery has some really fun, inventive trash fights

Boss: Brew Master Aldryr by himself is a great and creative fight

Boss: I also have to give credit to Goldie Baronbottom, with the cardinal directions maneuvering

Trash: Priory of the Sacred Flame has some really mean trash. Even in this mode (Follower, aka easy mode) it’s still good stuff

Boss: Priory of the Sacred Flame has some generally good boss design, but the one that really worked for me was Prioress Murrpray. The area denial, the chase upwards, the beam, good stuff

MSQ: The Reckoning vehicle section might be the best one they’ve ever designed. Escalating tutorial in what abilities you get (filler attack, huge nuke on cooldown, and void yank), the ability to swap sides, and the synergy between abilities…

MSQ: …this is honestly fantastic and deserves its own double

Overworld: Azj-Kahet, mines. The mere fact that these are here and an environmental hazard we have to deal with is great

Flow: Azj-Kahet has amazing flow, the best in the game really. MSQ rushes through, but at each spot you visit peppers you with Secondaries, which flower bloom out and back in, effectively covering the entire map…

Flow: …absolutely…

Flow: …great stuff

Pacing: The pacing of Azj-Kahet is fantastic too

MSQ: The escape from Azj-Kahet and the gauntlet

Secondary: Faerin’s Advance quests in general, but especially…

Secondary: …the charge into the elite area, with Gazlowe and Faerin backing you up

Secondary: Dyeworks and politicking… and killing… and dye buffs

Secondary: The Nope Cave and surrounding quests

Enemy Design: Of course there’s great enemy design (Crypt Lords alone…)

Enemy Design: …for the usual double

Enemy Variety: And great variety…

Enemy Variety: …for the usual double

Secondary: Rak-Ush chain. The Edicts are satisfied with these quests

Prime Opt: Black Blood

Prime Opt: The Vizier’s chain. Do things, kill nameds, talk to peoples

MSQ: A quick tour to indicate and tutorialize end game progression, which is good (and something that’s been weirdly lacking for years in WoW)

MSQ: Love the flight training races (and they’re optional!) These are great; the race, the fight…

MSQ: …great stuff

MSQ: The victory lap against the titan war machine!

MSQ: The entire Lilian section pops. Good flow, good layout, good requirements, good conclusion

MSQ: Stealth segments with ZOE!

MSQ: The charge through the Priory is fantastic. The shadow mechanic, the maintenance of the light, the miniboss with Neferess, great stuff…

MSQ: …easy double

Secondary: So, they’re definitely meaner, but the design of the new zones’ races is definitely a step up from Dragonflight (ironically, I suppose). They really like to play with the terrain too. So even though I spent some time doing the races themselves, ironically this’ll be an easy thing to jot down, because each zone gets a triple for races. So, we have the Isle of Dorn races…

Secondary: …for…

Secondary: …three positives

Secondary: The Ringing Deeps races…

Secondary: …for…

Secondary: …three positives

Secondary: The Hallowfall races…

Secondary: …for…

Secondary: …three positives

Secondary: And Azj-Kahet races…

Secondary: …for…

Secondary: …three positives

Boss: Darkflame Cleft, Ol’ Waxbeard. Simple but fun stuff; minecarts, adds, and charges

Boss: Darkflame Cleft, Blazikon, again a surprisingly simple but fun fight. Candles to maintain, fire to avoid

Level: Darkflame Cleft, in general, but especially the dark segment. Having to navigate the candle, then the rush down the corridor

Boss: The Candle King. This is a great fight, with lots of moving parts, light to manage, and player choice in how to place avoidance blockers

Boss: The Darkness is another great fight. The light mechanic (tutorialized in the great section earlier), the cone attacks, the adds, refilling the light, great stuff

Itemization: Upgrading gear within ranges

Interface: Upgrade interface and tooltips

Level: The Dawnbreaker, general. Flying around to avoid and mount and dismount airships? Yes please

Boss: Speaker Shadowcrown and her shadowy bomb mechanics

Boss: Anub’ikkaj and choice in how hard he is, as well as having to navigate lots of player-aimed avoidance mechanics

Boss: Rasha’nan! The acid mechanic, the bombs, the web spots… the only weakspot is his intermission

Trash: Ara-Kara has weirdly good, mean trash

Level: City of Threads, and the navigating the city to sus out the traitors section (which is also static, and therefore semi optional)

Trash: City of Threads has some really fun trash design

Boss: City of Threads, general. Mostly simple but still fun stuff

Boss: Ansurek, the very first gameplay plus to raid in the entire game. Even on story mode this is still a fun fight, with lots of moving parts and spectacle

Tutorialization: So let’s get this out of the way, Exile’s Reach is a fantastic tutorial. It presumes you’ve never played a game before (let alone an MMO) and treats the situation accordingly. It tells you basics like looting and interacting with enemies and the world around you, but also does a good job of indicating through game design things like flower quest design, group quests, flow of zones, enemy types, and all kinds of other little things…

Tutorialization: …for an easy…

Tutorialization: …triple positive

Prime Opt: Good quest design across the board…

Flow: …and good flow

Overworld: The layout and design of Exile’s Reach is fantastic in general, with group NPCs who help periodically, ways to shortcut to prevent unnecessary backtracking, and an honest to goodness run buff to help with navigation

Guidance: Exile’s Reach now leads immediately into the Dragon Isles, which then follows through with a short tutorial chain on how the rest of the world works. This is fantastic, especially since (if you really want to) you CAN turn right around and head back to Orgrimmar/Stormwind

Prime Opt: Aethas and the Kirin Tor

Prime Opt: The War Within Catchup quest is fun by itself and has the usual good quest design…

Itemization: …but also just straight up gives you gear, guides, tutorialization, and bags to help you get… caught up

Tutorialization: Arathi catch up and kick tutorial

MSQ: Initial quests in the lead up to Undermine are the usual well crafted, well designed variety

Secondary: The Knights of the Brown Table. Smart objectives, quest usage, even the option to cheat! (and it kills you)

Boss: Seasonal Delve Bosses. They’re only really valid while leveling but they’re still well designed, fun fights

MSQ: Undermine in general is some fantastic quest design. Not a lot of stand outs here but just good quests throughout…

MSQ: …for a solid double

Option: The optional nature of the Revolution. (Once you start it side activities cease for you, BUT you get warned of this, also you can just cancel and restart it at will later)

MSQ: More solid quest design. I love how Nikki serves as a mutator for the minibosses, and how so much of the march on the Gallagio is optional

Overworld: The Undermine is actually REALLY well designed. Big open roads, good layouts, good connections, good visual navigation…

Overworld: …one of the better designed zones in recent memory, but then…

Traversal: …you add the car. The car was such a brilliant bit of tech. Customizable, fast, fun to use, has actual gameplay to it (drifting gives boost power, boost is… exactly what it sounds like), and again the zone is designed around it. This is pretty much the only way I could have ever been okay with them getting rid of flying, and they nail it…

Traversal: …for an easy double on the car itself

Boss: Chrome King Gallywix. Simple, fun, decent

Secondary: The Vatworks side quests

Secondary: Springing Cinderbangs was great. The ‘stealth’ (cuz no one would look at us next to Crog), the vehicle sections, the totems

Prime Opt: I love the detective quest, even gameplay wise. Fishing, gathering various sources of review tickets, mining bit coin, beating up bosses, the final triangulation of the bomb, it’s all solid stuff…

Prime Opt: …easy double

Prime Opt: Generally good quest design, as always, with the Lorewalks and Orweyna quests. I’m especially fond of the vehicle quest for Nyalotha and where you play as Orweyna

Overworld: Karesh. Good interconnected designs, good layout, good stuff all around

Traversal: Karesh and the warp points. This actually changes up movement more than you’d think, letting us partially warp, partially fly, all warp, or all fly. And it’s our call because it’s optional

Boss: The Dimensius fight is… rather nerfed in Story Mode (of course) but is still fun for what it is. I’m especially fond of the spectacle

Secondary: For the various bugs and flaws, the core quest designs are still solid throughout Karesh

MSQ: Same thing with the main quests leading up to the finale…

MSQ: …especially the final charge

Cosmetics: Some of the best choices of mounts and visuals we’ve had in quite a while…

Cosmetics: …only really matched by Dragonflight…

Cosmetics: …easy triple

Replayability: For what I believe is the first time I feel comfortable giving a WoW expansion a Replayability positive. This is the best expansion for replay for a number of reasons (the multitude of skip options, the general quality, no ‘irritating parts’ you have to skip over, ease of replay) so I think it’s earned it

Kit: Warrior, Colossus. A very solid hero tree, with Demolish forming a new crux of the rotation and several abilities to encourage really building up towards that big hit

Kit: Warrior, Mountain Thane. This is so good for a tank (and okay for dps), really buffing Thunder Clap and basically everything about it. If you looked at warrior and thought ‘man I want more lightning in my warrior’, this is it

Kit: Warrior, Slayer. No new fancy ability, but instead a recontextualization of existing abilities (something we’ll see a lot of as we go through these). So your attacks can do bonus damage but also applies a Mark, which buffs Execute stacking 3 times… which is already a decision for the player to make (do I spam, or build up to a full 3 stacks). Then we have Unrelenting Onslaught which reduces cooldown of Bladestorm, stacks more Overwhelmed per stack, and thus makes playing a lot more about using what and when…

Kit: …good tree

Kit: Priest, Oracle. The only flaw in Oracle is it rotates around a new ability in an already bloated bar. This is a shame because that ability is fantastic. It buffs one of your next abilities based on what you do, and then you later get another ability that buffs the next one even more, meaning each rotation you get one big spike in capability. This is a nice, high skill ceiling tree…

Kit: …for a second

Kit: Priest, Archon. So this one makes your Halo better, gives you more control over its positioning, and lets you echo it multiple times, which really helps you focus around the spell

Kit: Priest, Voidweaver. This is bloody mean. It starts off with a basic thing, one of your abilities provokes a new AOE. But then you can trigger that AOE with another ability. Also some of your spells are improved and you gain even more recurrent throughput and the whole thing suddenly flows brilliantly…

Kit: …very solid tree

Kit: Warlock, Hellcaller. I know it gets overshadowed by its frankly superior cousin but Hellcaller is still a very good tree. So it starts off with a new ability which is a simple DoT, but it also makes them take more damage, and has a chance to increase soul shard generation. Then we add in another ability that makes it pop for even more damage, stack higher, and increase shard generation even more. This loops really well into itself and makes for a near constant waxing and waning cycle of shard generation while doing bonus damage…

Kit: …for a solid double

Kit: Warlock, Soul Harvester. Another of those simple passive ones that adds some depth to your rotation, as now you have the possibility of Succulent Souls which boost your abilities when burnt, and you can also use it to super nuke something which then also generates even more Succulents

Kit: Warlock, Diabloist. This is a style of hero tree we’ll see later, but it’s a damned good one. You gain the chance to spawn additional super minions who all have their own effects. Further talents empower each of those to do even more cool stuff, relying on the player to utilize them properly. But finally you gain a looping talent which makes you hit even harder and cycle back around. This looks, feels, and plays fantastically…

Kit: …so that’s a solid…

Kit: …triple

Kit: Shaman, Totemist. I wasn’t sure about this at first but lemme tell you if you want totems, this is it. It buffs your totems, gives additional ability, gives you new stuff to do with them, and lets you cycle them to do even more stuff…

Kit: …it’s a solid double

Kit: Shaman, Farseer. This is a fun one. You start off with some passives that let you occasionally twin your spells, but then you start to gain the ability to work with that AND to provoke said twinning at will

Kit: Shaman, Stormbringer. I wasn’t sure about this at first but the thing is this is just a fantastic tree. Both Ele and Enh benefit from the lightning focus, and Tempest is one of those seemingly eh abilities that quickly proves to be awesome. It does a bunch of damage of course, can be increased in speed by Maelstrom, gives buffs, hits harder, provides a free and instant Chain or regular Lightning bolt (with 2 charges), and also your basic spells have a chance to do a proc super nuke which also procs another Tempest. This makes for rolling Tempests which fit seamlessly into the rotation…

Kit: …so this…

Kit: …is fantastic

Kit: Rogue, Trickster. Rogue is definitely a bit behind the others (don’t even get me started on Fatebound) but Trickster is at least solid. Your builders do a debuff and additional damage. That debuff then has a bunch of other synergy interactions, culminating in a big spender, which also provides the debuff again

Kit: Rogue, Deathstalker. So stop me if you’ve heard this before. Your main attacks provide a debuff which provides synergies and new attacks which then can do a big nuke which itself casts the debuff again

Kit: Paladin, Lightsmith. This suffers the same issue that Oracle does for Priest; a new button on a very bloated bar. It’s still a solid button though; One for live, one for damage, and multiple ways to buff them and provide further buffs

Kit: Paladin, Herald of the Sun. This is so good. Some of your basic rotation attacks (Prism or Ashes) provoke spenders to do a new DoT / HoT. Lots of fun new buffs and mutators centered around this, culminating in the ability to create beams between you and them which heals/damages everything in the middle…

Kit: …fun, visceral, and rewarding

Kit: Paladin, Templar. On a purely personal level this might be one of my favorite hero talent trees in the game. So your main abilities provoke Hammer of Light, which is an expensive and extremely powerful turbo nuke. This nuke also makes hammers start flying down around you. You also gain a lot of additional abilities to make more hammers flying around, oh and also those hammers buff you… which you can burn to do ANOTHER turbo nuke…

Kit: …easy…

Kit: …triple tree

Kit: Mage, Sunfury. You get orbs which… kinda suck actually. BUT they can be used to make phoenixes happen, which do super powerful spells. When those phoenixes happen they also buff you. Further you get buffs that give you instant casts of your main nukes based on how many super powerfuls you cast…

Kit: …so this one’s pretty solid

Kit: Mage, Frostfire. Another simple but solid build, with your spells generating stacking buffs (and Frostfire itself generates both, of course) alongside some sweet visuals and the ability to deliberately provoke an empowerment, which itself gives you other buffs, starting the cycle again…

Kit: …easy double

Kit: Mage, Spellslinger. This one’s mean. Your abilities jam needles into the enemy, which function as a stacking DoT. Upon hitting 8 they then explode, which then hits everyone nearby, shoving more needles into the enemy. And you have many synergies which work with or add even more needles. This turns what is already a wood chipper class (Arcane or Frost) into an even bigger one…

Kit: …easy double

Kit: Druid, Elune’s Chosen. This is more arcane (in fact you can spec out of nature entirely), to really emphasize the lunar side of things. Also works well for Guardian, who can use their beams to even better effect

Kit: Druid, Keeper of the Grove. Again, focusing on one individual skill and emphasizing it. This buffs your treants, makes them do additional abilities based on your spec, and that just makes the cooldown even more useful

Kit: Druid, Druid of the Claw. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before; A druid hero tree emphasizes a single ability to the point of buffing it substantially and making it so it changes when in your rotations you use it

Kit: Druid, Wildstalker. While it’s still somewhat simple this is my personal favorite of the Druid hero trees. Your DoTs do more DoTs which make you do more damage, and your HoTs do more HoTs which make you do more healing. It’s a great way to keep the freight train going

Kit: Hunter, Sentinel. This is probably the most insane AoE focused of all the Hero Talents, with a debuff that explodes into more debuffs that explode. Staggered properly this is just a giant wave of death

Kit: Hunter, Dark Ranger. Gives you more uses of Kill Shot, which itself is buffed and changed, which lets you do even more nuking

Kit: Hunter, Pack Leader. So like the Diabolist for Warlock this lets you summon special pets with unique abilities, talents that make those even better and reward skill in using them, and finally a way to make all of it happen on player command…

Kit: …which looks and feels fantastic

Kit: Death Knight, San’Layn. Where do I even start? While obviously tank focused this also benefits dps for the same reason; It makes you live through basically anything. It also rewards skill a great deal as almost all of this is active mitigation. This leads to you being able to heal (based on health) and increase haste, but also rewards positioning, debuffs enemies, and gives you a friggin’ Blood Beast which also does AoE damage and healing. And that’s before buffing the hell out of Dancing Rune Weapon which, as usual, puts the procs in the player’s hands. This turns you into an immovable wall…

Kit: …rewards skill…

Kit: …and feels awesome

Kit: Death Knight, Deathbringer. This doesn’t have the cool factor of Riders nor the endurance of San’Layn, it’s just damned good. You can beat the hell out of something which stacks a debuff, which explodes if it gets full enough (spreading the debuff). There’s plenty of other really fun abilities that synergize here, but also you gain the ability to (at player choice) time two subsequence massive frost scythe attacks, each of which does different things (a huge nuke which provokes a proc, or an AoE which provides DoTs). This has a great skill ceiling and is really rewarding when pulled off properly, in addition to just being mechanically fantastic…

Kit: …one of the best…

Kit: …of the hero trees

Kit: Death Knight, Riders of the Apocalypse. This is cool factor personified. You can roam around fighting while mounted, summon the Four Horsemen periodically, each of them do cool things, and gain an ability to summon all of them. Yes this is yet another of this style of Hero Tree but I honestly think it’s the best designed of all of them. It rewards skill, positioning, timing, and feels great when pulled off properly…

Kit: …easy…

Kit: …triple

Kit: Monk, Conduit of the Celestials. Abilities centered around each of the August Celestials, and some VERY good ability to proc each of these abilities while doing a ton of AoE damage or healing…

Kit: …very solid double

Kit: Monk, Master of Harmony. You more or less gain a second storage bar that holds damage/healing which you can then draw on or spend to do other fun stuff. Also a chance to do more or do AoE, and plenty of synergies…

Kit: …make a solid double

Kit: Monk, Shado-Pan. This is a simple but solid. Your attacks generate charges, your spends unleash charges. Every so often you gain a bonus for having done so. It doesn’t change the rotation much but the side talents help add choices to when to use what in the rotation

Kit: Demonhunter, Aldrachi Reaver. This is a seemingly simple but fun tree that gives you multiple ways to buff your Glaive throw (and obviously benefits greatly from already being spec’d into glaive related abilities), and makes said glaive do WAY more damage and into more of an AoE, all while having other abilities that benefit from it which can seriously alter your rotation…

Kit: …great mutator tree

Kit: Demonhunter, Fel-Scarred. This one’s very well designed. It’s one of those ‘if you just spam buttons you’re fine, but if you’re skilled you can squeeze performance’ trees. Your Metamorphosis is more available and lasts longer, but also when you proc it you reset all your major cooldowns and they gain a thing which lets you do massive damage when using an ability… which also stacks into doing even MORE damage the further down the chain you go. You can do an insane amount of burst with this build and it’s all on the player to stagger it properly…

Kit: …a very good…

Kit: …tree

Kit: Evoker, Chronowarden. Try to be shocked, the recent class’ hero talents are legit. So Chronowarden gets the ability to make your filler ability do additional damage/healing based on what you’ve just done prior, which has obvious applications in rewarding proper timing of cooldowns relative to filler, but then we have the fact that Empower also works like this, giving the Evoker TWO abilities to provoke this twinning. This is powerful on both specs…

Kit: …easy double

Kit: Evoker, Flameshaper. After a much needed buff it’s in a much better place. So you gain a new ability which functions as a DoT that feeds off your Fire Breath, but also a bunch of abilities that reduce the cooldown on Fire Breath, and make it hit more, and make it debuff, and then buff Engulf even more into a massive AoE. This is another ‘rewards skill’ tree…

Kit: …and it’s legit

Kit: Evoker, Scalecommander. This is another one that’s kind of weird because it actually has three things it hinges on instead of one. First it makes your Disintegrate substantially more useful (doing AoE damage or, if focused down to less targets, just hitting harder). Second it buffs Deep Breath substantially and gives you control over it. And finally you get Bombardments, with several other abilities that synergize with that. This changes up the spec really well and honestly makes an already great spec feel even better…

Kit: …an easy…

Kit: …triple

Level: Operation Floodgate. Nice open ended layout, with multiple routes to get along, and the last boss is fun for what it is

Level: Excavation Site 9. I love this Delve’s level design. Nice flow with a bit of an open ended path forward, lots of terrain and positioning requirements, plenty of traps and other crap to deal with…

Level: …very fun stage…

Level: …easy triple

Trash: Excavation Site 9 also has some really great trash design. Lots of enemies, lots of varieties of enemies, and those enemies work well with each other (which also encourages you to focus fire more)…

Trash: …solid…

Trash: …triple

Level: Sidestreet Sluice. I know it’s a bit convoluted and easy to get lost in and that’s why this isn’t a triple, cuz otherwise this is a very well laid out delve. Layers that flow into each other at regular intervals make for a nicely interlocking setup, with rewards for jumping around things or just bypassing thanks to shortcuts, and that’s all on top of some nice hazards…

Level: …solid double

Trash: Sidestreet Sluice also has some solid trash design. Fun Gobbos who all work well in general and also synergize nicely into each other…

Trash: …another double

Boss: Sidestreet Sluice has a simple but fun boss

Level: Archival Assault. While it’s re-using a dungeon from Dragonflight they do good stuff with it. Lots of side platforms, portals, shortcuts, traps…

Level: …great stuff…

Level: …for a triple

Trash: Archival Assault also has some solid trash design

Boss: Archival Assault also has a nice two phase boss fight

Prime Opt: The Pandaren Heritage quests in general are the usual solid quest design…

Prime Opt: …but special mention to the elemental quest(s?) and the fun usage of hyper buffs

MSQ: The finale quests are the usual solid and smooth quality…

MSQ: …easy double

Hyperbeam Moment: Several, and very fun for what we have

Mid Mission Checkpointing: Delves and dungeons both have some really solid checkpointing now days, both for transiting between them and for respawning at…

Mid Mission Checkpointing: …so that’s…

Mid Mission Checkpointing: …a triple

Visual Navigation: Absolutely fantastic landmarking and signposting to help players figure out where they are, even in caves or the abyss of the void, figure out where you are and where to go almost immediately…

Visual Navigation: …for a solid…

Visual Navigation: …triple

Viscerality: Arms Warrior Visuals. Nice big chonky hits and well animated smashes

Viscerality: Arms Warrior Audio. It’s an unusual sound approach, mostly keening metal, but it gets across the idea of metal slicing against metal

Viscerality: Arms Warrior Impact. While there’s better, Arms Warrior does feel like you’re really smashing into them

Viscerality: Protection Warrior Audio. I know it’s silly but I love the sound of our shield which, y’know, is basically what we’re doing. Almost all our abilities sound like smashing a shield into things

Viscerality: Protection Warrior Impact. Tanks are slightly different on Impact than most classes, it’s mostly about what you can do to avoid and to utility. And lemme tell you, tanks tend to rock in this game, Protection Warriors being no exception…

Viscerality: …easy…

Viscerality: …triple

Viscerality: Fury Warrior Visuals. Wonderful animations, fantastic little visual flairs, and frenetic movement to it…

Viscerality: …for a solid double

Viscerality: Fury Warrior Audio is nice and meaty, nice bassy attack sounds

Viscerality: Fury Warrior Impact. This is a weird one because this is what I would call good impact, it’s just… not nearly as good as the other classes that do similar things, such as Unholy or Retribution

Viscerality: Shadow Priest Visuals. These honestly pop. The void tentacles, the errant eyes, the beams of blue death, and all brilliantly designed to ‘look’ devoid while actually being quite present (which is harder to do than it sounds)…

Viscerality: …really damned…

Viscerality: …solid

Viscerality: Shadow Priest Audio. Most casters sound kind of weak (including the other two specs for Priest!) but for Shadow we have this faintly flowing wind, which just stacks and stacks until it’s actually loud, all on top of periodic whispers…

Viscerality: …great stuff

Viscerality: Shadow Priest Impact. There’s just something satisfying about really getting the freight train going, and seeing all that damage pouring into something

Viscerality: Discipline Priest Visuals. The blasts, the wings, and the buffs

Viscerality: Discipline Priest Impact. So this is our first time covering a Healer’s Viscerality really. While Visuals and Audio are obvious, Impact is different. How much do you feel like you’re that lynchpin of the group? How much do you feel like you’re making that impact? For Discipline it’s actually pretty high, though only if you’re really paying attention. Seeing the amount of damage that’s NOT happening, watching the Absorbs pop up everywhere, all while doing damage to pump more healing into people…

Viscerality: …solid stuff

Viscerality: Holy Priest Visuals are just so satisfying. This is quintessential healer, but the art team didn’t hold back. Varied effects of light, flashing without being eye searing, having concentric waves of holy energy around you…

Viscerality: …good stuff

Viscerality: Holy Priest Impact. This is sort of the inverse on Discipline. You see those big heals just completely refill bars, little ticks as you’re refreshing cooldowns, and watching people just not die…

Viscerality: …good stuff

Viscerality: Destruction Warlock Visuals. I’ll be honest, Warlock sort of falls behind the other casters in Viscerality (which is a damned shame, it’s a great class mechanically). Destruction at least still manages to differentiate itself from Fire Mage

Viscerality: Destruction Warlock Impact. It really does feel nice to get your Soul Fires and Chaos Bolts off and just watch enemies melt

Viscerality: Demonology Warlock Visuals. This is just so fun. Watching a few, then a lot, then actual dozens of demons just swarm all over your enemy as you summon more and more and more…

Viscerality: …wonderful visuals…

Viscerality: …easy triple

Viscerality: Demonology Warlock Impact. As with a lot of chipper-shredder specs the real impact is in just getting that train going and then watching the metaphorical machine gun fire barrage the enemy, and you can really feel it once you get things rolling…

Viscerality: …for a solid double

Viscerality: Restoration Shaman Visuals. I wasn’t sure about these at first, but the updated water effects work really well. You get that vibe that you’re washing over your allies, cleansing them of their wounds…

Viscerality: …solid double

Viscerality: Restoration Shaman Audio. I wasn’t sure about this even more but really sitting and listening it’s… really well designed. There’s this flowing water sound of course, with good variety across the moves, but the thing that clinches it is how… peaceful the water sounds. It’s not a torrent or a flood, it’s someone lightly washing a wound, and that’s just perfect isn’t it…

Viscerality: …for a double

Viscerality: Elemental Shaman Visuals. This is our first caster that just nails it on visuals. Globs of magma dripping as they zoom across the air, broken crags of earth, lightning arcs and crashes…

Viscerality: …this is really good…

Viscerality: …for a triple

Viscerality: Elemental Shaman Audio. This is some of the best audio viscerality in the game. Each hit sounds fantastic and varied, with the blorping lava, the explosive fire, the crackling thunder, the rock smashing into itself, it’s just so satisfying…

Viscerality: …that it’s our first…

Viscerality: …triple audio

Viscerality: Elemental Shaman Impact. Also really solid here. Each of your spells feels impacting, and the built-up procs feel even better…

Viscerality: …for a double

Viscerality: Enhancement Shaman Visuals. Not QUITE as good as Elemental but in the same basic vein. Lightning, crackling earth, scorching fire, and smashing ice…

Viscerality: …for a double

Viscerality: Enhancement Shaman Audio. This is still some excellent crackling, whooshing, burning, explosions, and general awesome…

Viscerality: …solid double

Viscerality: Enhancement Shaman Impact. I wasn’t going to give this at first, but then I realized I was an idiot. Once playing the class PROPERLY there’s some solid build/payoff impact here, with those big hits feeling about as good as they need to for how often they hit

Viscerality: Subtlety Rogue Impact. I want to like Rogue more but its visuals are weak and its audio is pathetic. But at least you legitimately feel like you’re doing something when playing Subtlety

Viscerality: Assassin Rogue Impact. Same deal as Subtlety really. The stacking bleeds and poisons and just watching the enemy slowly melt

Viscerality: Outlaw Rogue Visuals. I’ll give it this, there’s some decent visuals here (now if only they’d fix the gun sound)

Viscerality: Protection Paladin Visuals. I mean come on. Circling hammers, brilliant flashes of light, consecrated ground, all of this is great stuff…

Viscerality: …for that double

Viscerality: Protection Paladin Audio. In a similar vein to Protection Warrior, the clashing of steel and smashing of plates

Viscerality: Protection Paladin Impact. As mentioned earlier with tanks Impact has a lot to do with how much it feels like you’re in control of the situation. Avoiding damage, having cooldowns, keeping enemies in a group together, etc. And Protection Paladin absolutely shines at that. I know people who don’t even like tanking who play Prot because they love the impact it imparts on them…

Viscerality: …great stuff…

Viscerality: …easy triple

Viscerality: Retribution Paladin Visuals. This just looks so damned good, I even put it on the thumbnail for the vod where we tested all this stuff. Big smashing hits, holy damage flying everywhere, giant chonky swords erupting beneath the enemy…

Viscerality: …just great stuff

Viscerality: Retribution Paladin Audio. Again, really solid audio design. Nice high tinted metal slicing and deep bassy smashes combined with a little fwoosh of the holy damage…

Viscerality: …solid double

Viscerality: Retribution Paladin Impact. This is some of the best impact of the game I’d say, at least amongst the melees. You really feel each of those hits as they smash into the enemy, and you have tons of AOEs and semi-ranged abilities and a great movement kit to close if you want to…

Viscerality: …fantastic…

Viscerality: …triple positive

Viscerality: Holy Paladin Visuals. I wasn’t sure about this one at first since it shares so many of its animations with the other two specs, but then I played around with it a bit and saw all the Holy unique stuff and… yeah no this looks great. It’s no wonder people like playing Holy (aside from all that mechanical stuff)…

Viscerality: …easy double

Viscerality: Holy Paladin Impact. You’re right up front, smashing things and healing things left and right, solid impact

Viscerality: Arcane Mage Visuals. The amount of cool, flashy, awesome looking stuff in Arcane is fantastic. Flinging orbs of arcane doom, the classic arcing missiles, and the giant explosions…

Viscerality: …great stuff

Viscerality: Arcane Mage Audio. Again more impressive than I was expecting, there’s a nice almost mechanical sound to it

Viscerality: Arcane Mage Impact. This is where Arcane really excels. You absolutely feel the kind of raw damage you’re pouring into the enemy with Arcane, especially once you get into the groove. Dumping your entire mana pool to do a gigantic hit, then spending the recovery time rapid-firing them in the face…

Viscerality: …it’s…

Viscerality: …great stuff

Viscerality: Fire Mage Visuals. I mean of course. It’s impressive how many different types and styles of fire they came up with though. The little shocks, the big explosions, the giant fireballs, the burning phoenixes, it’s all great stuff…

Viscerality: …for an easy…

Viscerality: …triple

Viscerality: Fire Mage Audio. It’s a little more muted than I would like, which pulls it down to MERELY being excellent. The explosions, fwooshes, and burning rumbles…

Viscerality: …earn up to a double

Viscerality: Fire Mage Impact. Again once you get into the groove you just feel like you’re this cavalcade of frenzied burning fire. The only reason this doesn’t hit a triple is because it’s relatively easy to stumble in the rotation which completely ruins the vibe, but other than that…

Viscerality: …it’s still great

Viscerality: Frost Mage Visuals. I wasn’t sure about this one at first either but no, once you really get everything layered and all the icicles and winds and snow going, you just see this moving hurricane of death…

Viscerality: …and it…

Viscerality: …feels awesome

Viscerality: Frost Mage Audio is another one I wasn’t sure would do well. But they manage good usage of icicles cracking and light, pelting sounds, like hail or snowballs hitting the window. I’d give it more if they’d give us a really thick, bassy cracking of ice on the big hits (like Glacial Spike)

Viscerality: Frost Mage Impact. Between the barrage of damage and the slowing / freezing effect, there’s no way to play Frost without feeling like you’re really laying into the enemy…

Viscerality: …and it still feels…

Viscerality: …fantastic

Viscerality: Guardian Druid Visuals. Color me surprised, I didn’t think they could turn bear into something interesting, but the big colored slices across the air and the effects accompanying roaring, it really works really well…

Viscerality: …for a double

Viscerality: Guardian Druid Impact. Of course, as with all tank specs, there’s some impact there. You can really feel when you’ve got everything under control and pulled to you (and Guardian has fantastic AOE potential). The only thing that pulls it down at all is the relative lack of flair to the cooldowns…

Viscerality: …still a double though

Viscerality: Feral Druid Visuals. Again, color me surprised. Similar slices as Guardian, but now we have blood all over the place! No, seriously, there’s tons of bleed effects, which fits really well…

Viscerality: …easy double

Viscerality: Feral Druid Audio follows the visuals concept. Very wet sounding, like claws ripping through meat…

Viscerality: …solid double

Viscerality: Feral Druid Impact. I wasn’t sure about this either (Feral has had a weird career of how good its Impact feels) but right now you’ve got tons of bleeds, buffs, and nice big hits so you can really feel that feral vibe…

Viscerality: …for a double

Viscerality: Balance Druid Visuals. Speaking purely personally I think this is THE best looking spec in the game. I’ve always been a fan of the arcane lunar look, and between the various dots, nukes, procs, throwing a moon at people…

Viscerality: …it’s still…

Viscerality: …one of the best

Viscerality: Balance Druid Audio. Flashes, smashes, sparks, and keens

Viscerality: Balance Druid Impact. This is a weird one because it varies a bit based on your build, but whether you’re going for big nukes, rotations, or dots, you still feel like you’re nuking something in the face

Viscerality: Restoration Druid Visuals. This might be some of the best visual viscerality of the healer specs. Green blooms, flashes of healing energy, swirls, flowers, blooms…

Viscerality: …it’s all…

Viscerality: …fantastic

Viscerality: Restoration Druid Impact. Again, this might be some of the best impact of the healers, because at all times you can feel how much your rolling HoTs and procs are doing. Looking up and seeing green splash everywhere across the screen as people’s health bars all slowly tick up (or don’t move at all)…

Viscerality: …just…

Viscerality: …feels great

Viscerality: Survival Hunter Impact. While it’s lacking in every other field, Survival feels great. Absolutely barraging the enemy with attacks while doing big sweeping swings and landing explosive traps on their faces…

Viscerality: …feels great

Viscerality: Marksman Hunter Impact. For all that I have issues with this spec, the rapid fire / sniper combo works well

Viscerality: Beast Hunter Visuals. Similar to Demonology, flinging pet after pet onto the enemy’s face, to the point where you can barely even see said enemy, just looks great…

Viscerality: …for a double

Viscerality: Beast Hunter Audio. The roars, the crashes, the smashes, the claws

Viscerality: Beast Hunter Impact. Similar (again) to Demonology, just smearing your enemy with waves of your own beasts as they swarm all over it, stomping and beating the crap out of them…

Viscerality: …feels solid

Viscerality: Blood Death Knight Visuals. Boy it’s labeled well, as you are going to see a lot of red playing this class. But I’m impressed with the variety in said visuals, between runes, blood, slices, and explosions…

Viscerality: …easy double

Viscerality: Blood Death Knight Impact. A properly played Blood Death Knight is basically invincible. It’s incredibly satisfying to just stand there and just… hang. And it feels…

Viscerality: …so damned…

Viscerality: …good

Viscerality: Unholy Death Knight Visuals. Yes I know we’ve covered several pet heavy classes but here we are. The fun part is even if you’re going for a more tall build, more focused on DoTs, or more on mass pets, it all looks fantastic…

Viscerality: …it really captures the Necromancer vibe

Viscerality: Unholy Death Knight Audio. The smashes, keens, wet DoTs, and swarms of enemies…

Viscerality: …sound great

Viscerality: Unholy Death Knight Impact. I mean, yeah. Executing a good explosion of all your diseases, properly timing summoning your big dude and then buffing him, or just swarming the enemy with mass undead…

Viscerality: …all…

Viscerality: …feels great

Viscerality: Frost Death Knight Visuals. From a purely personal standpoint I’d say this is the second best looking spec in the game. Just to zoom in on one cool thing; Your major spender (Frost Strike) swings one direction and your major builder (Obliterate) swings the other. So done properly your character literally does a big, weighty, well animated smash one direction, then the other. Benefits from a recent overhaul and it shows, a lot of these effects are varied, well designed, and look flipping awesome…

Viscerality: …easy…

Viscerality: …triple

Viscerality: Frost Death Knight Audio. Imagine everything good about Arms Warrior and Frost Mage combined and you get how this sounds. It keeps the keening frozen sounds, adds the big bassy hits, and don’t forget Sindragosa roaring as she zooms by…

Viscerality: …solid…

Viscerality: …triple

Viscerality: Frost Death Knight Impact. Few specs feel as good as Frost does. Your attacks hit like a truck and are spaced enough that it doesn’t get old, so you always feel like you’re just destroying whatever’s in your way…

Viscerality: …another…

Viscerality: …triple

Viscerality: Brewmaster Monk Visuals. Smashing kegs, burning flame, swooshing attacks

Viscerality: Brewmaster Monk Audio. Some middling stuff, but where it really shines is in the flame breath and keg abilities

Viscerality: Brewmaster Monk Impact. So Brewmaster is probably the weirdest tank in the game (and frankly probably has the highest skill floor), but good lord it feels satisfying when you manage it. Sloughing off damage thanks to Stagger, properly using your brews, and doing tons of damage on top of it all…

Viscerality: …feels damned solid

Viscerality: Windwalker Monk Visuals. I wasn’t sure here at first but, no, it’s awesome. This kind of zigs where Fury zagged, still looking like just as many hits flying out every second but with far more precision to it (and less hand clenching!). The rapid fire punches, sharp jabs, literally attacking into the air…

Viscerality: …it all looks…

Viscerality: …great

Viscerality: Windwalker Monk Impact. You’re heavily incentivized to not spam anything, and some of your abilities literally only work (at all, or better) if you use them when having used other abilities first. All of this leads to a very natural combo system which feels really fluid once you get into the zone…

Viscerality: …and earns a double

Viscerality: Mistweaver Monk Visuals. This class seems simple at first, it’s just green mist right? But there’s SO much design in its moves, and variety to those designs. The runes of healing, the floating mists, the beams, it all looks amazing…

Viscerality: …for…

Viscerality: …a triple

Viscerality: Mistweaver Monk Impact. It’s in a really weird space in between other healer specs, but it still feels really satisfying to have bouncing HoTs, buffs that make them take more healing, and then to just pour healing into people

Viscerality: Havok Demonhunter Visuals. I feel almost silly discussing why this is a triple. Everything about this class oozes viscerality. Sharp swings, rapid fire cuts, dashes and backflips, charges across a whole arena, all while on fire and capped off by beams of fel death coming out of your eyes…

Viscerality: …of course…

Viscerality: …this is a triple

Viscerality: Havok Demonhunter Audio. Again, of course. The burning, the roar, the smashing, the snick of metal…

Viscerality: …it’s a…

Viscerality: …solid triple

Viscerality: Havok Demonhunter Impact. You have a lot of mobility, a lot of fast attacks, and several really big attacks that just absolutely melt things. Everything you’re doing constantly feels like you’re this whirling ball of death, probably because you are…

Viscerality: …so that’s a perfect…

Viscerality: …triple

Viscerality: Vengeance Demonhunter Visuals. Not quite as good as Havok, but no slouch for that. Slicing soul shards off the enemy, nice big waves of fel death, multiple runes of different colors…

Viscerality: …a solid double

Viscerality: Vengeance Demonhunter Audio. Again, same basic thoughts as before. The combination of flame, impact (no not that kind), and metal…

Viscerality: …make for a solid combination

Viscerality: Vengeance Demonhunter Impact. This is probably only rivaled by Blood Death Knight in terms of tanking impact. You have so much kit and utility for controlling the fight. You have mez’s, movement, buffs, debuffs, and heals. At all points in time you’re rotating active mitigation…

Viscerality: …and it feels…

Viscerality: …fantastic

Viscerality: Devastation Evoker Visuals. This surprised me but in hindsight it shouldn’t have. Of course the most recent class has the best visuals. Everything about this class looks amazing. Different types and styles of flame, beams, explosions, wind, hell even the ground cracking as you do some attacks…

Viscerality: …a very easy…

Viscerality: …triple

Viscerality: Devastation Evoker Audio. I mean, yeah. Everything here just sounds fantastic. I’m especially impressed with how they made fireballs, bigger fireballs, and arcing fireballs all sound different…

Viscerality: …so…

Viscerality: …enjoy that triple

Viscerality: Devastation Evoker Impact. Again, no shock here, modern class. Devastation feels aptly named, as everything you’re doing just absolutely destroys everything in your way, and with the charge ability thing you get a choice in what flavor of destruction you do too…

Viscerality: …so that’s…

Viscerality: …a triple

Viscerality: Preservation Evoker Visuals. Lots of big healing circles (and healing explosions, if you can believe it), on top of the usual array of flaming goodness…

Viscerality: …for a solid double

Viscerality: Preservation Evoker Audio. Again, some really solid audio design here

Viscerality: Preservation Evoker Impact. Honestly some of the weaker impact for the healer specs, but you do still feel good when you really get those heals staggered properly

Viscerality: Augmentation Evoker Visuals. Big, rocky, craggy earth. Earthquakes, spikes, all kinds of great stuff here…

Viscerality: …for a double

Viscerality: Augmentation Evoker Audio follows the same earthy vibe (in fact it reminded me of Shaman in a few ways)

Viscerality: Augmentation Evoker Impact. This one’s a weird one, because it’s situational. Your damage isn’t great, your healing less so, but when you really get things going (especially in a raid) you really feel like you’re pushing everyone else up, and it feels great

Spoiler Gameplay Negatives+

Overly Skippable Cutscenes: There’s like… no pause button for WoW cutscenes, since the overwhelming majority are in gameplay. For some there’s a pseudo replay (abandon and re-accept the quest) but elsewise, sucks to be you. This is a nonstop issue through the entire game…

Overly Skippable Cutscenes: …and deserves a full…

Overly Skippable Cutscenes: …triple negative

Bug: Inability to automatically close LUA errors

Bug: Pre-existing character not getting dragonflying for some reason

MTX: Mounts and general microtransactions. They’re not great…

MTX: …and they deserve two negatives

Itemization: In game economy issues. I’ve seen worse MMO in game economies, but that doesn’t make this one good. There’s issues, and a lot of it is in the hands of the devs to fix, and they refuse to do so

Options: For all the dozens of amazing options, you cannot do anything with font size in quest text for some reason

QoL: Hassle of experiencing content at-level in general. It is entirely too frustrating and essentially requires already knowing what to do to be able to do so…

QoL: …and that deserves an easy double negative

Itemization: Heirlooms are too expensive, and upgrading them is entirely not worth it

Padding: Bullcrap achievements. There’s a lot of them and they are bullcrap, grindy, and sloggy…

Padding: …and they deserve…

Padding: …a full triple negative

Bug: Periodic layering issues, mostly in areas with too many layers (looking at you, Undercity)

QoL: So, Chromie Time. First and foremost this should be a damned menu button…

QoL: …but second, the way it screws with layering is just unforgivable. Having issues even seeing other players in this mode, even when synched correctly, is nonsense…

QoL: …and deserves triple negative

Seconds In Minutes: Transmog. No, seriously, the fact that you have to talk to an NPC to transmog is a weird oversight that really needs to go away. The fact that you have to either go to town, or dump 150,000 gold on a mount to bypass this is silly

Seconds In Minutes: Crafting. Bulk crafting is just… a thing, and takes entirely too long…

Seconds In Minutes: …for a solid…

Seconds In Minutes: …triple negative

Bug: So Quest Syncing is… I don’t know if ‘bug’ is appropriate but it’s janky as hell and clearly unfinished of a mechanic. It has great potential but as is tends to be unclear (we’re STILL not 100% sure how it works depending on circumstances), and it doesn’t always do what it should and needs to…

Bug: …so that’s…

Bug: …a full three negatives

QoL: Also Quest Sync doesn’t work across faction (despite the fact that you can group across faction for several bits of content where it’s helpful to sync)

Core Mechanic: Okay so it’s been getting better over the years, but the lack of proper cross faction support can suck a lemon

Launch: BC and the Hellfire Bottleneck. At launch, BC kiiinda sucked because every single 60 who wanted to hit the new expansion was in the same zone doing the same quests (on both sides, even) and that sucked exactly as much as it sounded…

Launch: …worse, multiple individual quests bottlenecked progress periodically across the zone

Traversal: Daze. This is a bit of a compromise but the way this works out is, thanks to there being an in-game method to bypass Daze (the mount gear), this means an in game method exists to bypass an irritating mechanic. Thing is, that still requires knowledge (what the gear is, what it’s called, how to get it) and so isn’t a TOTAL wipe of the negative, but instead of the planned negatives we will be giving one negative per expansion to the Daze mechanic

Abandonment: So there is… no way to actually enjoy older raids. And by ‘older’ I mean ‘any raid that isn’t current-expansion’ older. That’s awful, so we’re going to gauge this on a per-expansion basis and partially based on the quality of said raids. So in BC in particular we have Magtheridon, Battle for Mt. Hyjal, Serpentshrine Caverns, and The Eye all of which are whatever. But then there’s also Gruul’s Lair…

Abandonment: …for two negatives…

Abandonment: …Karazhan…

Abandonment: …for two negatives…

Abandonment: …Black Temple…

Abandonment: …for two negatives…

Abandonment: …and the Sunwell…

Abandonment: …for two negatives…

Abandonment: Usual double for every dungeon, including Hellfire Ramparts…

Abandonment: …double

Abandonment: Blood Furnace…

Abandonment: …double

Abandonment: Slave Pens…

Abandonment: …double

Abandonment: Underbog…

Abandonment: …double

Abandonment: Mana Tombs…

Abandonment: …double

Abandonment: Auchenai Crypts…

Abandonment: …double

Abandonment: Old Hillsbrad…

Abandonment: …double

Abandonment: Sethekk Halls…

Abandonment: …double

Abandonment: Shadow Labyrinth…

Abandonment: …double

Abandonment: Shattered Halls…

Abandonment: …double

Abandonment: Botannica…

Abandonment: …double

Abandonment: Mechanar…

Abandonment: …double

Abandonment: Steamvault…

Abandonment: …double

Abandonment: Magister’s Terrace…

Abandonment: …double

Abandonment: Black Morass…

Abandonment: …double

Abandonment: Arcatraz…

Abandonment: …double

Abandonment: Also all the Heroics…

Abandonment: …so that’s…

Abandonment: …another triple

Padding: Rep Grinds, totally unnecessary except for Ogrilla and Netherwing, but still some pretty long sloggy rep grinds (almost all dungeon oriented though so that’s nice)

Co-Op: So, BC is the single worst expansion in the game for co-op. It’s right up there with FFXIV, though for a different reason. The overwhelming majority of quests don’t share at all (basically everything but ‘direct interactions with mobs’, and even some of those don’t share) and this just means every quest done with a friend increases the amount of slog you have to do per friend. This is on top of the other issues with BC quest design. So the way we’re going to cover this is we’re going to bundle smaller zones together based on how many no-share quests they have per said zone. So let’s start with the first few zones, like, say, Azuremyst and Bloodmyst…

Co-Op: …then there’s Eversong, which is alright… but Ghostlands is terrible. Lots of quests with lots of requirements which don’t share

Co-Op: Hellfire Peninsula is actually one of the worst for this…

Co-Op: …earning its own double negative

Co-Op: Zangar and Terokkar are weirdly fine

Co-Op: Blade’s Edge can continue to go to hell

Co-Op: Aaaand Shadowmoon Valley and Netherstorm

MSQ: Azuremyst flow and drop rates. As per usual for older quests, these are… not great. So first we have to address the quest design; it’s your typical Vanilla/BC awfulness. Go kill X of Y or loot X of Y and they’re spread all over the place, don’t share, and of course the drop rate sucks. This zone takes entirely too long to get through just based on quest design alone…

MSQ: …and might actually be one of the worst quest zones in the game right now, but then…

Flow: …there’s the flow problem. See, there’s two plot threads weaving through the zone, but the way the quests are unlocked isn’t guided or linear, meaning it’s possible to get very disjointed progress in each alongside each other, all while also doing the random…

Secondary: …side quests, all of which have the same problem as the other quests in the zone. This is all compounded by…

Overworld: …the overworld design, or lack thereof. It’s mostly a smooth plain (though the central hill does help with flow), and the irritations are minimal, but this is still a dull and badly designed zone

Hub: Exodar. The Exodar might legitimately be the worst city (gameplay wise) in the game. It’s too big, it’s too vertical, everything is far too spread out, and none of its layout makes sense on what is where. Even the flightpath is weirdly out of the way, and it’s annoying to get in or out of…

Hub: …giving it…

Hub: …triple negatives

MSQ: Bloodmyst. Just… wow. Terrible quests that barely chain properly, are done literally out of order, with old MMO drop rates. This is on top of…

MSQ: …the aggravation of how frustrating a lot of these quests are to do in general

Secondary: Bloodmyst secondaries are even worse because they’re almost exclusively old MMO drop rate quests…

Secondary: …so that’s fun

Flow: Bloodmyst also has what I can only refer to as ‘inverted flow’. As in there is none. There is no patterning to how quests are laid out and progress, not in and out, not through, not anything, there’s just… no design here, which naturally leads to…

Backtracking: …a lot of backtracking. Like, a LOT of backtracking, wow. Keep in mind this was designed for pre mount… which thankfully doesn’t apply here, but man. It doesn’t help the…

Overworld: …overworld design. Unlike Azuremyst (which is mostly just big empty nothings) this is actively hostile. Hills, cliffs, having to walk around frustrating areas, just… wow

Flow: Eversong. There really is now flow at all to Eversong. And quests just drag you all over

MSQ: Endless dull quests of Ghostlands. These have the same problem as Azuremyst and Bloodmyst…

MSQ: …but for sheer quantity and drop rate…

MSQ: …work their way up to a triple

Encounter: Ghostlands, again. Too dense, too irritating

Secondary: Most Ghostlands secondary quests are not great…

Secondary: …but then there’s those three damned quests. They require specific drops which are zone drops, meaning far too small a drop rate

Padding: Ghostlands. This is functionally an aggregate, but the whole zone is padded. Distance, quests, health, number of enemies, the whole thing takes forever…

Padding: …for two negatives

Overworld: Ghostlands is another one of those zones with a single quest hub that branches, but just navigating this place is irritating. Everything is too far from everything else, and there’s a single grave here at the middle meaning lots of run back if you die

Audio Spam: General, but the Blood Elves are notably bad about it. They just shout so much, so angrily

Hub: Silvermoon. I waffled on this one for a bit but, while it’s not as irritating as the Exodar, it’s a lot more tedious. Long, wide, empty streets and everything spread way, way out…

Hub: … makes for…

Hub: …three negatives

MSQ: Blood, metal, and wood. These initial quests were absolute hell, and they’re STILL boring as dull to this day. Almost half an hour killing to get all of this done, on a modern character with almost no competition. Screw these quests

Secondary: The Goblin mine quests. First they require us to traipse around through padded areas (especially the mine), but also getting the damned keys is just such a randomized pain (and it’s our very first poop quest so… thanks for that)

Secondary: Bleeding Hollow orc blood. This one quest can go directly to hell. You have to loot blood (and a lot of it, and it’s not a guaranteed drop) and then you have to boil it, slowly, one by one at a special cauldron which everyone shares, and each boil spawns dozens of little enemies. Screw you game

Secondary: I should mention the entire Zeth’Gor area. These quests are just not fun to do, and it’s officially the point at which I stop enjoying myself in Hellfire, because from here on out…

Encounter: …it’s some truly awful, dense, easy-to-aggro-too-much bullcrap…

Secondary: …alongside plenty of quests that take entirely too long to finish. But it’s okay! Because then…

Padding: …it gets even worse. Between the irritatingly random quests, quests with bad drop rates, long travel times, slow escort quests, and entirely too many mobs to kill…

Padding: …the whole zone really starts to drag for a good chunk of it

Flow: Hellfire. Or lack thereof

Flow: Zangarmarsh, or lack thereof

Secondary: Zangarmarsh, lots of drop quests. Far, far too many drop quests

Prime Opt: Zangarmarsh and the Lost potion. This ONE quest (which is part of one of the zone’s regional primaries) requires lots of rare drops off mobs all over the place and it sucks

Hub: Shattrath. Too big, too spread out, too inconvenient… but it’s no Silvermoon or Exodar, so I’ll give it that

Secondary: Terokkar Forest; seeds, feathers. Screw these super rare, entirely-too-much quests

Secondary: Terokkar, filler quests (wolves, arrakoa, warp stalkers). All of this makes for…

Padding: …doldrums. Terokkar isn’t super bad, not really, but good lord is it boring

Encounter: Bone Wastes. There’s just… way too much crap here and it’s entirely too arduous to slog through. But that’s just the enemies! Wait until you see…

Padding: …the quests! I mean this is honestly a pretty standard negative for BC zones at this point, but good lord does the Wastes take too long. It’s even worse than normal honestly because there’s these multiple chains, all of which used to be elite quests, but now are just kind of ‘all over the place, oh and also kill 20 mobs to summon me’ quests

Seconds In Minutes: Why do BC quest items have a cooldown to use them?

MSQ: Nagrand’s main Garrosh chain. This quest sticks out weirdly in an otherwise pretty chill zone, gameplay wise. First it has you traipsing all over the place just to unlock it (fine, I guess), then it sends you to four other zones entirely (not fine), then going and doing an entire dungeon (okaaay) then go do another overworld micro dungeon absolutely swamped with demons (and at the other end of the zone) before finally being able to move on…

MSQ: …and the whole thing takes bloody forever. About a quarter the length of the entire zone

Itemization: BC itemization is… wonky. It’s almost entirely drops, and that’s exactly as random as it sounds

Overworld: Okay so, Blade’s Edge Mountains absolutely sucks. First the overworld design is actively bad; it’s Tiered, which is only tolerable as is thanks to flying, but there’s no real logic to how the various quest hubs and questing areas connect to each other

Backtracking: Then there’s the fact that every single frickin’ quest involves going a bit away, coming back, going further away, coming back, going even further away, etc. This gets so bad that even WITH dragonflying…

Backtracking: …it’s a double negative

Guidance: Then there’s the fact that the generally good guidance BC has for quest directions is very intermittent here, which is made even worse because the quest tracker wasn’t adjusted properly for several quests here (the only quests in BC with this problem, by the way, to date)

MSQ: I haven’t even talked about the quests themselves. Would you believe a main story quest chain here literally involves killing 95 ogres? In a row, mind, it’s like kill 30, then kill 30, then kill 15, and so on…

MSQ: …it also requires you to fight literally dozens of mobs to get rare quest drop items

Secondary: I haven’t even talked about the actual side quests, which are honestly mostly BC standard but almost exclusively involve drop items or getting drops to use on enemies or getting drops to use on enemies to get drops…

Secondary: …so that’s another pile of awful

Prime Opt: Then there’s the Wyrmcult chain which can go directly to hell, especially since that entire chain involves more random drop and use screwery and, on top of everything else, there’s a final bit of screw you…

Prime Opt: …see, you have to get 5 random drops, use them, go in and talk to a guy. Sure. Problem is if you for any reason accidentally walk out before talking to him, you lose the costume, and have to start over from scratch

Overworld: Shadowmoon Valley, 1 graveyard (and only 2 flightpaths). I should mention this is a problem in several zones, but Shadowmoon is the worst

MSQ Legion Hold repetition (kill demons, destroy source of demons, repeat 3 friggin’ times)
MSQ Arrakoa and old god thing. The drop rates are atrocious, and the egg quest is literally misleading (there’s ONE actual quest item, the rest are fakes and will never give it, but nothing indicates that so you’ll run around doing nothing rather than looking for the correct egg)

MSQ: Element chaining (far too much irritating quests where you have to drop an item to even get credit)…

MSQ: …and tubers (screw the tubers quest. Screw the tubers quest)

Prime Opt: Friggin’ Eclipse and bugs and cooldowns on quest items AND drop problems

MSQ: Frickin’ City of Light and the endless escort quest from hell. 8 minutes and 20 seconds of this crap, and no skip or avoid options, AND it’s mandatory to join a side which is mandatory for doing the Aldor and Scryer quests later on

MSQ: Good lord the Altruis quest is a goddamned waste of time. Literally go from Shadowmoon to Nagrand to Zangarmarsh to Netherstorm to Shadowmoon to Nagrand to Shadowmoon

Secondary: Max A Million escort. There’s actually several escorts in Netherstorm but this one takes the cake. It’s very slow (over 7 minutes long) and very dull… and easy to screw up at the end, meaning redoing the whole thing

Bug: Music in Netherstorm. It just does not play, and that’s a damned shame considering how good it is

MSQ: Ethereum quests. Screw the Ethereum quests. Vague directions, irritating terrain, rare drops for the items you need, and janky usage of said items. Oh and another damned escort quest

Secondary: Ethereal quests. There’s a lot of these basic x of y quests and they’re all pretty bad

Launch: Wrath’s launch was one of the worst, if not the worst, in the entire game. Whole swaths of zones didn’t work, characters would get permanently stuck logged in, and that’s ignoring how absolutely crammed the Death Knight starter zone was. This sucker gets a full…

Launch: …triple…

Launch: …negative

Abandonment: Heroic dungeons in Wrath are functionally abandoned, requiring entirely too many hoops to jump through to access properly…

Abandonment: …for a full…

Abandonment: …triple negative

Abandonment: Abandoned Raids negatives. First for the bundle (Sartharion, Archavon, Malygos, Onyxia, Halion)…

Abandonment: …for a double

Abandonment: Naxxramas…

Abandonment: …for a double

Abandonment: Ulduar…

Abandonment: …another double

Abandonment: Trial of the Crusader…

Abandonment: …double

Abandonment: And Icecrown Citadel…

Abandonment: …double

Abandonment: Two negatives per every dungeon lost to old content. So that’s Utgarde Keep…

Abandonment: …double

Abandonment: Nexus…

Abandonment: …double

Abandonment: Azjo-Nerub…

Abandonment: …double

Abandonment: Ahn’Kahet…

Abandonment: …double

Abandonment: Drak’Tharon Keep…

Abandonment: …double

Abandonment: Violet Hold…

Abandonment: …double

Abandonment: Gundrak…

Abandonment: …double

Abandonment: Halls of Stone…

Abandonment: …double

Abandonment: Halls of Lightning…

Abandonment: …double

Abandonment: The Oculus…

Abandonment: …double

Abandonment: Utgarge Pinnacle…

Abandonment: …double

Abandonment: Culling of Stratholme…

Abandonment: …double

Abandonment: Trial of the Champion…

Abandonment: …double

Abandonment: The Forge of Souls…

Abandonment: …double

Abandonment: Pit of Saron…

Abandonment: …double

Abandonment: Halls of Reflection…

Abandonment: …double

Prime Opt: Nesingwary, Sholazar. This is the usual Nesingwary fare, though no where near as bad as the norm, but it still slows questing down to a slog early on

Secondary: Sholazar, booze. Random drops off random spawns followed by slowly and boringly flinging fruit into a still

Prime Opt: Just the Gorloc ‘get shiny’ quest (in Sholazar) 7by itself is a negative. So you have to have an NPC with you and they have to be unengaged, otherwise it despawns your items. You have to find these vague sparkles that literally are only visible for about 1/3rd of the time. And they don’t have 100% drop rate (our success rate was literally 60%). Screw this quest

Prime Opt: The 10% drop rate on Gorloc quests in Sholazar! Seriously, the next quest after this had less than a 10% drop rate! What the hell

Hyperfail Moment: The Etymidian in Sholazar. I’ve used this as an example of what Hyperfail means for years. “Here, go run around in this giant death machine… which is slow, takes forever to recharge, has a short range on attack, and we require you to kill way too many enemies”

Co-Op: Death Knight Starter Zone is VERY co-op hostile. This zone actively gets worse the more players involved, grouped or otherwise

Co-Op: Wrath is slowly starting to improve the co-op experience, but it’s still bad enough for…

Co-Op: …a flat…

Co-Op: …triple negative

MSQ: DK Starter Zone, the ‘interrogate an enemy’ quest. Let’s talk about this. So first, you have to equip a crap weapon, then fight mobs that CAN and will kill you without killing them (also you have little source of healing). Then you have to hit someone and it has a proc chance to make them have a chance to give you what you need. That last chance is VERY low, taking around 30 minutes or so in bad cases (and that’s normal for me). That’s all while struggling to both not die and not kill. This quest sucks…

MSQ: …and is in the running for one of the worst quests in the entire game

MSQ: DK Starter Zone, general. There’s a lot of janky, weird, pseudo broken quests in the entire chain, up to and including the last one

Bug: Audio balancing and timing issues

Secondary: Borean Tundra, gnomish quests. Endless… endless gnomish quests…

Secondary: …which are very boring…

Guidance: …and literally have issues in progression

Prime Opt: The Mists of the Horde Borean Tundra. A tight area with too many mobs and too rare a drop rate with enemies that knockback and also a slow escort quest

Overworld: While not as bad as some previous stuff, the graveyard runback problem rears its ugly head again

Secondary: Horde Borean Tundra quests. The usual here; very low drop rates and irritating spawns

Backtracking: Dragonblight quests in general. They are absolutely all over the place and almost all of them rotate around Wyrmrest Tower which is a ways from any of them

Secondary: Dragonblight, again. Tons of X of Y quests, or worse, loot random drop to use on random enemy quests

Bug: Balancing bug, Wrath of the Lich King edition

MSQ: Fuel for the Fire, the abom quest for Drakuru. This whole chain is legit, which makes this stand out all the more. What in the world were they thinking? Killing SIXTY mobs, like 5 at a time, with a pet that dies almost immediately upon aggroing more than a couple of things, and you have to traipse all the way down the hill to get a new one at a slow movement speed? Bleh

Secondary: Zul’Drak, Pa’Troll chain. This entire chain is just awful. There’s nothing overtly bad about it, but each quest is designed to be as time wasty as possible. The places where quests happen is irritating, the drop rates are bad, the amount you need is too much, and it’s spread far too out. The whole thing makes for a brick wall of fun when questing through Zul’Drak, and I’m not the only player who hits this stuff and just… stops questing in Zul’Drak…

Secondary: …thus earning itself a second negative. Why only two? Well…

MSQ: …Zul’Drak’s entire zone has the same general issues post Drakuru. Bad drops, bad quest design, many irritations…

MSQ: …and that sucks

Secondary: Howling Fjord, the rest. Seriously, lots of bleck quests here

MSQ: What in the world is going on with the Dun Argol quests? We just go back and forth and back and forth multiple times, which is semi normal but please keep in mind, we go back to not only the exact same places, but kill the exact same mobs to do these damned quests

MSQ: As usual, entirely too many requirements (kill 3 things? No no no, kill 30!) and padding (go do the same task, without issue, several times in a row)

Padding: As with the narrative, in gameplay each zone starts strong and then peters off pretty hard. There’s a lot of doldrums here…

Padding: …earning an aggregate…

Padding: …triple negative

Abandonment: The Battle for the Undercity. A critical story component and an interesting gameplay sequence completely lost to the world forever. Thanks Kosak…

Abandonment: …enjoy that double negative

Secondary: Jotunheim. Good God these quests suck. Kill entirely too many things, while looting entirely too many things, that drop entirely too infrequently…

Secondary: …so enjoy that double negative

Padding: Icecrown also suffers this more than any other zone in Wrath; it is a slog. Every quest hub is twice or three times longer than it really should be, and so everything gets smeared to the point of being aggravating…

Padding: …earning a solid two negatives, but also tainting…

MSQ: …the Arthas chain. This chain SHOULD be awesome, and still has some good moments narratively, but in gameplay you just want it to be over at the halfway point. Quests that involve slowly killing 183 enemies should probably not devolve into bleh

Music: Or lack thereof, in caves. Like, why is this a thing still?

Launch: Let’s talk about Cataclysm’s launch, shall we? It didn’t have the bottleneck issues of BC or the supreme bugginess of Wrath… instead it had one of the two worst changes to tanking and the worst change to healing the game had ever seen, side by side. There was an attempt to make dungeons hard again, which sounds fine honestly, except they did it by massively slashing threat generation while making healer’s mana regen terrible, all while making enemies hit very very hard. This was such a terrible change it literally made every single person I knew quit Cata inside of a month, leaving me alone with the expansion. They reverted it of course… but it still sucked

Abandonment: So here we are, Cataclysm. Let’s just make our way down the list shall we? There’s the Deadmines…

Abandonment: …which gets a unique negative for having an entire story arc (which is significant, AND referenced in future stuff) locked behind Heroic only

Abandonment: Wailing Caverns

Abandonment: Shadowfang Keep

Abandonment: Stockades

Abandonment: Gnomeregan…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Uldaman…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Razorfen Kraul

Abandonment: Maraudon

Abandonment: Razorfen Downs

Abandonment: Diremaul

Abandonment: Stratholme…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Zul’Farrak

Abandonment: Blackrock Depths…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Sunken Temple

Abandonment: Lower Blackrock Spire

Abandonment: Blackrock Caverns…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: The Stonecore…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: The Vortex Pinnacle…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Grim Batol…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Halls of Origination…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Lost City of the Tol’Vir…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Zul’Aman…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Zul’Gurub…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: The End Times…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Well of Eternity…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Hour of Twilight…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: And of course the raids. Bastion of Twilight…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Blackwing Descent…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Firelands…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: And Dragon Soul…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: And then there’s the Heroics. This is especially bad in Cataclysm because Cata Heroics are legit, and in addition to having new mechanics, in at least one case has new story relevance. This is thus pretty bad…

Abandonment: …and so of course…

Abandonment: …earns triple negatives

Abandonment: Been chewing on this one, but while I try not to comment too much on launch events, the fact is that Cata’s were legit. The elemental invasion, the lead up to Magni, the Twilight hints (Cho’Gall himself showing up even), and of course…

Abandonment: …retaking the Echo Isles and Operation Gnomeregan. Both just… gone from the game now

Guidance: Good luck knowing what zones to do in what order nowadays in Cataclysm. If you fire up a new character and choose Cataclysm, you’re directed to the nearest mission board. This was a great thing back in the day, when the mission board worked. It does not work anymore with the new scaling system, meaning it will give you three very, very random suggestions for what to do, making it worse than useless but actively detrimental to experiencing Cata…

Guidance: …earning it…

Guidance: …three negatives

Guidance: I have to give a bonus negative just for the Endgame Cata zones. There’s a definitive order here (they even reference each other) but good luck figuring that out on your own

Co-Op: Probably our very last co-op negative. Cataclysm was more or less the end of regular quests that didn’t share properly for quite some time

Co-Op: It’s worse in some zones than others

Bug: Gilneas, general. Quite a few that ruin a bunch of cutscenes and make some of the more involved quests either unclear or problematic

Bug: Lost Isles, of course. There must always be bugs

Padding: Mulgore, walking. While we, as always, review these from the perspective of having flying, the fact is this is a very spread out zone with objectives all over the place, and it’s a good while before you get high enough to use said mount

Guidance: Darkshore. There’s some weird issues in Darkshore with several quests not really being clear or showing up properly

Padding: Sadly Darkshore hasn’t quite had the polishing pass some other zones have and so there’s still too many kill targets and too many loot drop quests

Bug: Durotar quests. New players probably do not want to fight mandatory MSQ enemies which can literally one shot them due to a bug

Secondary: North Barrens, Zhevra hooves. No, really. No memes, the drop rate still sucks

Secondary: Several North Barrens quests are still too padded. Too many things to loot, too many things to kill, and it drags the whole zone down

Bug: North Barrens, as usual, is buggy. I’m starting to sense a trend

MSQ: Ashenvale, Warsong Lumber Camp, Horde. The assassin, the excessive X of Y quests, the unclear directions

Secondary: Ashenvale, drop rates, hard to find mobs, and too many X of Ys…

Secondary: …for two negatives

MSQ: The entire Hellscream’s Watch chain sucks. Entirely too many kills, entirely too irritating areas to navigate, and a long ass boring escort

Flow: Dustwallow Marsh. Of course it’s a BC zone, and it acts like it. (At one point I literally got a vector quest to a quest chain I was already on). They also really like…

Backtracking: …forcing you to traipse all over the zone with no real rhyme or reason to it

Secondary: Dustwallow Marsh, again. Hope you like rare drops and killing too many things per quest

Secondary: I hope you like unnecessary timers on quest items, irritating mobs to kill, literally evade bugging enemies, and awful escort quests!

Secondary: My God, they keep finding ways to make irritating quests in Dustwallow. I’m honestly kind of shocked

MSQ: Desolace drop rate, kill rate, and broken vehicle quests. Guh

Secondary: The last bundle of Feralas quests suddenly dive into heavily grindy, excessive backtracking, and general boredom

Padding: Silithus. Seriously the whole zone doesn’t even have real quests, it has ‘go grind’ quests which are repeatable. Also some of them are literally broken

Bug: Zul’Farrak softlock. So if you die during the ziggurat encounter but while having already engaged the boss, the boss can’t kill the NPCs and they can’t kill the boss, and you can’t release so… you have to ALT+F4 out

Hub: Undercity. The layout of the entire city is honestly really terrible. There’s no real logic or reason to what is located where, and navigating is not only frustrating (especially with camera angles) but arduous

Secondary: West Plagues. They get a little experimental here but the problem is they’re just a bit too…

Padding: …padded. Entirely too many drops or kills needed in almost every major quest chain

Secondary: Sadly the final ‘leg’ of the Eastern Plaguelands fumbles at the finish line. Entirely too many requirements per quest, and too many quests to boot

Secondary: Arathi. These quests are almost completely unchanged from Vanilla, and that’s the problem. Too dense of requirements, too low of drop rates, no real flow to the zone at all…

Secondary: …whole place sucks

Secondary: Duskwood padding. As with multiple other zones, it’s basically just Vanilla again, but they made a mistake of keeping a lot of the requirements and that just drags the whole thing

Overworld: STV, layout. What in the world is with this layout? It’s actively irritating to navigate, from air or from ground

Secondary: STV, grind. Just… wow. Go kill 30 mobs… three separate times…

Secondary: …and also, while you’re at it…

Padding: …please go get entirely too rare of a drop rate of item

Hub: Booty Bay is absolutely terribly laid out and awful to navigate…

Hub: …enough said

MSQ: Why is the ‘kill ninjas’ quest involve killing FIFTEEN ninjas? By the way, a huge amount of the STV main quests are like this. Go kill TWENTY EIGHT trolls. Come on

Secondary: Swamp of Sorrows, BC quests. Too many of them remain and… well, they’re BC quests…

Secondary: …and they suck

Secondary: Blasted Lands. This isn’t as bad as some zones but it is very… off

Audio Spam: Succubi in general. Seriously, I summoned one to showcase this and in seconds she did it. Before I got a chance to de-summoner her she’d done it 5 more times

Secondary: Loch Modan and the Quest For Vanilla Drop Rates

Secondary: Wetlands, drop rates and kill requirements while underwater. Seriously, it’s only two quests but they took like 10 minutes by themselves

Secondary: Wetlands, slog. Every quest here involves killing or looting just a few too many things

Padding: Wetlands. Seriously, what is going on with this zone? There are SO many quests that chain outwards and unlike a lot of better zones they don’t flow properly (lots of backtracking, back and forth) and there’s nothing fun about them other than the usual X of Y

Bug: Vashj’ir. There is no avoiding this, this is the single buggiest zone in the entire game. Even if you somehow have a (relatively) bug free experience, there are so many other bugs. I swear each expansion new ones crop up. This zone was buggy at launch…

Bug: …and thus earns…

Bug: …a full triple negative

Prime Opt: The tank quest is really slow and odd…

Padding: …and Uldum in general has some weird padding issues

Bug: Of COURSE Uldum is buggy. At one point we literally had to relog to get a quest NPC to show up. Then it happened again later

Padding: For all its quality, Deepholm has a few sections of general padding and irritation

Padding: Goddammit Twilight Highlands just cannot end, holy crap. Worst part is…

Padding: …it just… keeps… going…

Audio Spam: Unit barks in general. It’s particularly bad in Cata for some reason

Unskippable Cutscenes: They’re few and far between, but they’re there

Difficulty: You don’t even see the final boss of Twilight Bastion (Sinestra) unless you’re on Heroic difficulty

Abandonment: Also, locking content behind daily quests is, as always, aggravating (in this case, the Molten Front)

Unskippable Cutscenes: Dragon Soul has nice long, loooong unskippable cutscenes

Launch: Pandaria probably had the single worst pre launch event in the history of WoW. There were two scenarios (which are fine, it’s worth noting) and… that’s… it. That’s the whole event. What in the world

Abandonment: Scarlet Halls…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Scarlet Monastery…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Scholomance…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Temple of the Jade Serpent…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Stormstout Brewery…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Mogu’shan Palace…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Shado-Pan Monastery…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Siege of Niuzao Temple…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Gate of the Setting Sun…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: As usual, the loss of Heroics is just awful…

Abandonment: …and continues to suck…

Abandonment: …for three negatives

Abandonment: The Mogu’shan Vaults…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Heart of Fear…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Terrace of the Endless Spring…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Throne of Thunder…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Siege of Orgrimmar…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: As usual, Heroics are lost content…

Abandonment: …for the full…

Abandonment: …three negatives

Abandonment: But this time around we ALSO lost Heroic Scenarios! So that’s neat…

Abandonment: …and still earns…

Abandonment: …three negatives

Co-Op: The very last expansion for some time with co-op issues

Traversal: You can’t mount on the Wandering Isle… for some reason

Abandonment: The entire Varian scene and quest for turning in as a new Pandaren is just gone

MSQ: The Ga’trul fight is entirely too over-tuned and badly scaled. He just spams a spell which hits too hard and there’s nothing you can do about it

Song: The kazoo song. You know the one

Flow: Townlong Steppes has… weird flow. This is especially weird in a post Cata zone. It’s very stop go stop go and it’s just awkward

Padding: Also Townlong Steppes is just… weird. Far too many quests with far too many objectives that takes far too much time. And there’s far too little meat on its bones…

Padding: …an easy…

Padding: …triple negative

Bug: Several bugs in the Gate of the Setting Sun

Prime Opt: Some quests in the Dread Wastes require too much, have poor drop rates, or both. It’s pretty rare thankfully, but it’s there

Bug: Several scenes just… didn’t play in the Heart of Fear

Bug: Use the portal! SURE! Also…

Bug: …general bugs with Landfall quests, such as them suddenly scaling wrong leading to me having to literally pause the quest chain to go level to progress it

Padding: Landfall’s kite rides are just so slow

Padding: And absolutely all over the place for the actual quests, my goodness

Launch: Warlords had some… pretty serious issues at launch. Lots and lots and LOTS of people smashing in and they were utterly unprepared for the load

Abandonment: So you know how this works. First we have the Heroics…

Abandonment: …so that’s…

Abandonment: …three negatives

Abandonment: Then there’s the raids. Highmaul…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Blackrock Foundry…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: And Hellfire Citadel…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Blackfathom Depths…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: UBRS…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Shadowmoon Burial Grounds…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Skyreach…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Auchindoun…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Bloodmaul Slag Mines…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: The Everbloom…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Iron Docks…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Grimrail Depot…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Karabor, the hub that never will be

Crafting: So… crafting was butchered, hard, in Warlords. I know I don’t comment on this on a per expansion basis usually, in any MMO, but it really must be mentioned how badly they screwed this up. Resources were plentiful in garrison (so no reason to go farm) and crafting recipes had real life timed cooldowns. What?

Minigame: Then there’s the follower board. This… had a knock on effect on quite a few things. The missions themselves are fine, ultimately, but there’s two huge issues with it. First, many of them are mandatory, forcing player participation…

Minigame: …and second, it trivialized progression in several avenues. It became ‘the game’ to play, rather than… playing the game. This makes sense given the absolute absence of content in Warlords post leveling but it still sucked

Padding: Spires of Arak. Entirely too many of these quests are just straight up padded, and frankly the whole zone is about a solid quest hub longer than it should be

Music: Gorgrond jungle. Yes I know it’s a good song but it loops badly and it plays constantly

Difficulty: Locking story behind Mythic difficulty, for the last time, with Cho’Gall and the conclusion of the Pale arc. (Seriously if you do this raid on anything but Mythic, Cho’Gall appears, the pale attack, aaaand the end. It’s jarring)

Grind: Tanaan. The whole zone is probably the worst endgame zone in the entire game, and while we generally don’t consider such things, this one was particularly bad

Abandonment: You know how this goes. Let’s cover the Heroics first…

Abandonment: …for a full…

Abandonment: …three negatives

Abandonment: And now we have Mythics, isn’t that nice? Enjoy that negative…

Abandonment: …or two…

Abandonment: …or three

Abandonment: And then there’s the raids. First is of course the Emerald Nightmare…

Abandonment: …then the Trial of Valor…

Abandonment: The Nighthold…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Tomb of Sargeras…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Antorus, the Burning Throne…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: And then there’s those wonderful dungeons. There’s a few here so let’s go down the list shall we? Eye of Azshara…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Darkheart Thicket…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Neltharion’s Lair…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Halls of Valor…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Assault on Violet Hold…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Vault of the Wardens…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Black Rook Hold…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Maw of Souls…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: The Arcway…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Court of Stars…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Return to Karazhan…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Cathedral of Eternal Night…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: And the Seat of the Triumvirate…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Padding: Karazhan. I mentioned this up in Story but it bares repeating here. The Karazhan artifact quests are straight up repetitive padding, and that might have worked if they did it right. They did not…

Padding: …so it sucks

Padding: And, again, with the Nexus. Y’know I just realized these are the first gameplay negatives for Legion. Hah! Anyways

Bug: Holy crap, an actual negative! There’s a few bugs here and there, dialogue over-writing, some cutscenes not playing right, issues with NPC group members, stuff like that

Co-Op: However, Legion started introducing solo-only quests. Which is somewhat irritating, and will only get worse as time gets on

Padding: Too many Order Hall quests mandate using their flightpath rather than just going there

Minigame: Why is there a Follower limit?

Prime Opt: Okay so let’s get this out of the way. Every Order Hall quest chain has about two real quests in it, usually at the beginning and the end. Sometimes it varies but there’s usually two ‘spikes’ of actual quests. Then there’s… the entire REST of these chains which are AWFUL. There’s a template at play here; You have to do 5 (or 10) mission board quests which mandate hours each (generally about 10 real life hours per Order Hall). This, by itself is the kind of thing that’s triple negative territory. Then there’s often either a ‘gather tons of stuff’ or a ‘kill tons of stuff’ quest, which of course suck (I’m particularly fond of how the drop quests require you fighting irritating enemies that don’t have 100% drop rates). There’s also almost always a ‘go do dungeon’ part but that doesn’t really bother me much. What this all boils down to is every… SINGLE… Order Hall gets six… SIX negatives for this padding bullcrap. So, uh, yeah. That sucks. Let’s just… get this over with. So we have the Death Knight Order Hall…

Prime Opt: …so that’s…

Prime Opt: …three negatives for the timer quests…

Prime Opt: …and then…

Prime Opt: …another…

Prime Opt: …three negatives for the mindless grind padding

Prime Opt: Then there’s the Demonhunter Order Hall…

Prime Opt: …so that’s…

Prime Opt: …three negatives for the timer quests…

Prime Opt: …and then…

Prime Opt: …another…

Prime Opt: …three negatives for the mindless grind padding

Prime Opt: The Druid Order Hall…

Prime Opt: …so that’s…

Prime Opt: …three negatives for the timer quests…

Prime Opt: …and then…

Prime Opt: …another…

Prime Opt: …three negatives for the mindless grind padding

Prime Opt: The Hunter Order Hall…

Prime Opt: …so that’s…

Prime Opt: …three negatives for the timer quests…

Prime Opt: …and then…

Prime Opt: …another…

Prime Opt: …three negatives for the mindless grind padding

Prime Opt: The Mage Order Hall…

Prime Opt: …so that’s…

Prime Opt: …three negatives for the timer quests…

Prime Opt: …and then…

Prime Opt: …another…

Prime Opt: …three negatives for the mindless grind padding

Prime Opt: The Monk Order Hall…

Prime Opt: …so that’s…

Prime Opt: …three negatives for the timer quests…

Prime Opt: …and then…

Prime Opt: …another…

Prime Opt: …three negatives for the mindless grind padding

Prime Opt: The Paladin Order Hall…

Prime Opt: …so that’s…

Prime Opt: …three negatives for the timer quests…

Prime Opt: …and then…

Prime Opt: …another…

Prime Opt: …three negatives for the mindless grind padding

Prime Opt: The Priest Order Hall…

Prime Opt: …so that’s…

Prime Opt: …three negatives for the timer quests…

Prime Opt: …and then…

Prime Opt: …another…

Prime Opt: …three negatives for the mindless grind padding

MSQ: The Rogue Order Hall…

Prime Opt: …so that’s…

Prime Opt: …three negatives for the timer quests…

Prime Opt: …and then…

Prime Opt: …another…

Prime Opt: …three negatives for the mindless grind padding

Prime Opt: The Shaman Order Hall…

Prime Opt: …so that’s…

Prime Opt: …three negatives for the timer quests…

Prime Opt: …and then…

Prime Opt: …another…

Prime Opt: …three negatives for the mindless grind padding

Prime Opt: The Warlock Order Hall…

Prime Opt: …so that’s…

Prime Opt: …three negatives for the timer quests…

Prime Opt: …and then…

Prime Opt: …another…

Prime Opt: …three negatives for the mindless grind padding

Prime Opt: And yeah, of course, the Warrior Order Hall…

Prime Opt: …so that’s…

Prime Opt: …three negatives for the timer quests…

Prime Opt: …and then…

Prime Opt: …another…

Prime Opt: …three negatives for the mindless grind padding

Prime Opt: Okay so having now FINISHED all the Order Halls, it’s even worse. Every Order Hall falls a bit of a formula, but some are better and some are worse. So we’re going to give away what are essentially bonus negatives here. Starting off with Warrior who, strangely, is one of the better ones and thus only gets one negative

Prime Opt: Similarly, Hunter was reasonably fine

Prime Opt: Then there’s Death Knight…

Prime Opt: …for two negatives

Prime Opt: Demon Hunter…

Prime Opt: …for two negatives

Prime Opt: Mage…

Prime Opt: …for two negatives

Prime Opt: Monk…

Prime Opt: …for two negatives

Prime Opt: Priest…

Prime Opt: …for two negatives

Prime Opt: Paladin…

Prime Opt: …for two negatives

Prime Opt: Shaman was only bad enough for a single

Prime Opt: But y’know who were bad enough for triples? Rogue…

Prime Opt: …so enjoy these…

Prime Opt: …three negatives

Prime Opt: And Warlock…

Prime Opt: …and there’s another…

Prime Opt: …three

Prime Opt: But Druid is special. Druid is the only class that does EVERYTHING wrong in its Order Hall, thus earning it…

Prime Opt: …the usual…

Prime Opt: …triple, but also…

Padding: …a bonus negative for sheer awfulness

Bug: Mage Order Hall finale. Like… a lot

Pacing: So, this is a weird one, because it’s actually something that affects narrative pacing, but it’s fully a gameplay problem. If you do the (rather grindy) bonus objectives as you go through the game, they give a ton of experience but absolutely destroy the narrative pacing

MSQ: Go do five dungeons! NO no not normals, Heroics!

QoL: Ancient Mana cap. Why in God’s name is there a CAP on this resource. Later on this actually prevents progress if you don’t raise it…

QoL: …easy double negative

Grind: Ancient Mana. To be clear this is a negative for just the FIRST Mana grind, which took us 40 minutes on camera with dragonflying and knowing what I was doing. This is awful…

Grind: …easy double negative

Audio Spam: The kids in Suramar

Grind: Ancient Mana, part two. 800 this time. Now thanks to a few mechanics this is about the same level of grind as the last one…

Grind: …but that’s still pretty bad

Grind: Ancient Mana, part three. This is the worst one so far. It’s so recently to the previous one, so much worse, and so little has been done to improve it…

Grind: …that even if you’re ready…

Grind: …it’s awful

Grind: Ancient Mana, part four. This time it’s to activate the leyline nodes. ALL OF THEM. This is exactly as awful as it sounds…

Grind: …and earns…

Grind: …another triple

Padding: Go do 10 world quests…

Grind: …in Suramar…

Grind: …and there’s never 10 up at one time…

Grind: …guaranteeing time gating…

QoL: …and thanks to how WQs reset, that time is totally out of your control and you are 100% dependant upon the randomness of when you’re there and when they reset…

QoL: …making for…

QoL: …a triple negative

Padding: Go do Black Rook Hold stuff! For NO reason!

Padding: Tons. Just… tons of padding in the Suramar finale lead up to the Nighthold

Grind: Go get Legionfall supplies

Grind: Go get 2500 Nethershards… sure… that’s cool…

Grind: Sentinax grind. It’s… man. It’s just straight grind, while in an area with the Sentinax, while using beacons, and good lord it sucks…

Grind: …easy double

Grind: Go do 8 world quests! Sure, that’s cool…

Grind: …and that’s bad…

Grind: …and worthy of three negatives, but then…

QoL: …there’s not 8 world quests in the Broken Shore! So you’re once again forced to rely on luck and real life waiting…

QoL: …and that continues to suck…

QoL: …as it always does

Grind: Now go kill 50 demons!

Grind: Now go find treasures!

Grind: Now go kill 3 rares! Good luck on their random spawns!

Grind: Now go kill a HUNDRED demons!!…

Grind: …for two negatives!

Prime Opt: Warlock mount quest. Grind 50 owlbeast blood, buy crap on the AH, and do an Invasion (real time limitations)

QoL: Invasions take absolutely forever to happen, AND require a group to queue for access…

QoL: …that’s…

QoL: …absolutely awful

Bug: Shaman Order Hall finale (can’t kill quest critical mobs)

Integration: Magatha. Forcing (‘forcing’) her into the party for the player is just insulting

Padding: Reaching Exodar or Silvermoon for the Rogue Order Hall quest

Bug: So… the Rogue Order Hall quest requires you to infiltrate enemy capital cities. If you’re timewalking, then the capital guards are NOT and are level 80 (as of review) which means they instantly detect and kill you. You CAN do this AT 80 but it’s actually still pretty awful even then because they didn’t design this around that concept. They really should have given us special curated instances of the capital cities rather than this…

Bug: …so…

Bug: …this sucks…

Abandonment: …and is, functionally, abandoned content

Guidance: Druid mount quest. Seriously, what is going on with this one?

Prime Opt: Okay so the paladin quest requires buying stuff on the AH, sure…

Prime Opt: …but then it requires buying an item off an NPC in Suramar which requires the mask and costs Ancient Mana…

Prime Opt: …so that, y’know, sucks

Secondary: Padding and grind in Argus. It’s all optional but it’s all awful…

Secondary: …easy…

Secondary: …triple negative

Music: There’s this one song for Argus that’s honestly really good, great ‘final dungeon’ vibes… that plays constantly and for hours during overworld sequences where you’re encouraged to spend a lot of time doing endgame activities

MSQ: So! Go do an invasion. Probably by yourself. Mandatory to progress…

MSQ: …because screw you

Abandonment: You know what time it is! It’s time (time time) for abandonments! (abandonments abandonments). For real, you know the drill. First we have the lost Heroics…

Abandonment: …so that’s…

Abandonment: …three negatives

Abandonment: Then we have the lost of Mythics…

Abandonment: …so there’s another…

Abandonment: …three negatives

Abandonment: Then there’s the raids. Uldir…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Battle of Dazar’alor…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Crucible of Storms…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: The Eternal Palace…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: And Ny’alotha, the Waking City…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: So! Dungeons. There’s a couple. For example, Freehold…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Waycrest Manor…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Shrine of the Storm…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Atal’Dazar…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Underrot…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Temple of Sethraliss…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Tol Dagor…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: THE MOTHERLODE!!…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Siege of Boralus…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: King’s Rest…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: And Operation: Mechagon…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: War of Thorns

Co-Op: Hey, guess what, the co-op sharing problems are back for some Godforsaken reason

Launch: The badly designed changes to the GCD, the OGCD, and everything connected to that. All undone now but man it sucked at level

Overly Skippable Cutscenes: All the big war stories (which there is quite a bit of, and it’s surprisingly well thought out and written and involves a lot of big changes in the status quos of the world as a global war is waging) is all locked behind the friggin’ mission boards which are entirely too spread out and… I mean, they’re in the mission board quests. Things we’ve been trained to ignore since Warlords. This is awful…

Overly Skippable Cutscenes: …earning…

Overly Skippable Cutscenes: …a full triple

Secondary: Drop rate issues in the Tiragarde Sound. I’m sorry, but what? Why are we having these kinds of basic problems this far into this friggin’ game

Secondary: Drustvar continues the drop rate issues

Secondary: What in the world is going on with the Brennadam quests? Having to go to the fountain to find increasingly rare fire spots, all while dodging fast respawning mobs you have no reason to kill. And entirely too many objective requirements

Secondary: So… for some weird reason, Stormsong really has some bad quest design. Awkward interactables with bad color distinction, far too many requirements for X of Y

Secondary: This trend continues with the Quillboar. Boring is more like it

Secondary: So then there’s the Naga quests which chain incorrectly (forcing retreading the same area THREE times) and don’t always drop the required items

Bug: Quests in Stormsong. There’s this weird bug I only saw here, where a character would give me a quest, ‘join’, then immediately be incapable of giving the second quest without finishing the first one. This made several areas more irritating than they should have been because I couldn’t do both quests simultaneously despite having synergistic objectives

MSQ: The invasion of Drustvar is entirely too overtuned. Fight wave after wave of witches who hit too hard and have too much health with no pause in between

Pacing: The same problem with Bonus Objectives from Legion exists here as well. They’re rewarding and heavily encouraged, and they just destroy the pacing of questing

Secondary: Zuldazar quests are… just a little bit off in design. Too few drops for too many requirements. It’s not awful, but it’s persistent

MSQ: Invasion quests in general have issues. Once again this is functionally an aggregate, but it persists across both sides

MSQ: Vol’Dun drop rates. Good lord

Abandonment: Expeditions… yeah I know you can still go do them, solo and at massively overleveled, and that’s… the point really, cuz I just described normal dungeons didn’t I? So consider this…

Abandonment: …the usual double

QoL: Quest chaining and the illogic thereof. Good luck figuring out which quest unlocks what

Padding: Real life time gating the goddamned MSQ. Twice! This wasn’t acceptable in Legion and it isn’t here…

Padding: …easy…

Padding: …triple negative

Abandonment: Corruption Gear. It was… really just damned good, and it’s super gone

Abandonment: You know the drill. First there’s the Heroics which are gone…

Abandonment: …for the full…

Abandonment: …three negatives

Abandonment: Then there’s the Mythics…

Abandonment: …for another…

Abandonment: …three negatives

Abandonment: On the raid side of things we have Castle Nathria…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: The Sanctum of Domination…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: The Sepulcher of the First Ones…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: And then dungeons. Amusingly we have less dungeons than usual, starting with the Necrotic Wake…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Plaguefall…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Mists of Tirna Scithe…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Halls of Atonement…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Spires of Ascension…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Theater of Pain…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: De Other Side…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Sanguine Depths…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: And Tazavesh, the Veiled Market….

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Co-Op: For the final time (as of this writing) we have an expansion where quests are co-op hostile

Hub: Oribos. Good lord this town sucks, and the more I looked at it the more it sucked. Bad landmark design, bad color usage, bad layout, the mounting issue, and the whole thing is a circle that you can’t smoothly rotate around…

Hub: …so consider this…

Hub: …a triple

Map: But wait! The MAP of Oribos sucks too! No, seriously, it’s badly labeled, has no color distinction, and is irritating to navigate

Minimap: Oribos’ minimap is actively unhelpful

Segregation: So we have this ticking clock problem but no, it’s okay, go do sidequests while our friends and allies are being tortured into submission

Bugs: Lack of polish issues are… everywhere here. So here’s one for Bastion

Bugs: More lack of polish in Maldraxxus (missing spine!)

Secondary: Bastion, lack of polish. The quests here are… not great, and it’s so obvious that it’s due to a lack of polish and additional QA time. There’s a quest chain where you have to go up, and down, a cliffside FIVE times for a single chain… and if you go up the wrong way? Quest failed

MSQ: Quest design in Maldraxxus. Yeah it’s the usual suspects here; drop rates and kill rates

Overworld: The Maw. No mount, cliffs with only one route up, and unclear directions. Great for story, awful for navigation

Guidance: Going as far back as Cataclysm there have been guidance point !’s on the map, to help players figure out where content is they may have missed. It was even pretty solid back in BFA. And it is ABSENT in Shadowlands. There are entire side quest hubs I would have completely missed if not for the fact that I happened to roam nearby. This is related to…

Flow: …or lack thereof, in Maldraxxus. What in the world? The four questing hubs are fine, but totally disconnected, and do not encourage exploration or roaming into areas where other content (like Secondaries) are

Secondary: The Banks of Life quests in Ardenweald. My goodness. Irritating objectives, bad drop rates, and entirely too spread out with ‘junk’ mobs in the way

Secondary: Growthworks general. Lots of junk quests here…

Secondary: …but also the emote quest deserves its own negative, by itself. You have to talk to someone and do the right emote at them. Okay that’s fine… but they wait an inordinate amount of time in between new things, AND if you screw up at any time you start all over from scratch. Good lord

MSQ: Covenant anima requirements. These used to be worse, and could be worse even now, buuut after your first run through it’s fully skippable. Still sucks the first time though

Overworld: The Maw, Eye of the Jailer. This is another of those ‘bad despite being optional’ things we’re about to give a bunch of negatives for. So while doing activities in the Maw (basically ANYthing, mind you) you raise your Eye level. Each level of increase makes more detriments, culminating in a timer of 200 seconds after which you are guaranteed to die. So this just straight up de-invests the player from actually engaging in the Maw (which is supposed to be an endgame grind zone), AND only resets daily, which can screw with other progress (because remember, EVERYthing progresses the Eye in the Maw)

Penalty For Failure: Also if you die in the Maw, you drop Stygia… so, y’know, that sucks

Leveling: So let’s talk systems. Shadowlands had so… so much system bloat. Now, I’ve seen system bloat work in a game before, but that requires very careful design where each system is both good and works well with each other. These systems have neither going for them. So first on the list is Soulbinds. These are characters who you can swap around to barely change your accessible ‘talent tree’ and involve grinding Renown to ‘level up’. These are fine, really, but what really makes them bad is their conjoined problem…

Leveling: …Conduits. These suck on so many levels. These are a major progression mechanic, you and your build want specific Conduits, AND you want to raise them (you start off green, then blue, then purple). All of that already sucks…

Grind: …but did I mention that the specific Conduits are drops? Off of all friggin’ over the place, including raids? Trust me when I say, this absolutely sucks. The only reason it’s ONLY two negatives is how optional it is nowadays

Grind: Stygia. Honestly, enough said. Another currency (that can drop on death) that’s in the Maw (that has the Eye mechanic)

Grind: Anima. So here’s the deal, the MSQ hardly has any anima grind. Good! It’s still a BIT irritating but honestly not even negative worthy. But if you want ANY of the optional stuff? Go grind your face off. Anima usually comes in the 5-250 range (250 is a world boss), and you need TENS of thousands to get anything. So…

Grind: …enjoy…

Grind: …that grind

Grind: Oh hey let’s talk about Legendaries next. Imagine all the randomness of Conduits, all the grindiness of Stygia and Anima, and combine that into making an awful legendary you may or may not actually want

MSQ: Okay so hear me out. When you start the Covenant campaigns there’s a crude tutorial of the many systems, including the Maw, Torghast, and legendaries. These quests are… rough. All of them. Very structured (you have to DEPOSIT anima, not procure it and not have it, but deposit it) and you have to do this step NOT the other one IN the right order, NO you can’t get the future step done in advance, and it’s all just a bit more irritating than it should be

Traversal: Oribos. You HAVE to use a flightpath to get around Shadowlands (unless you’re an engineer). That means you HAVE to fly through Oribos. Every. Goddamned. Time. And trust me…

Backtracking: …a lot of quests in general like to bounce you wherever

MSQ: The Drust quests in the Ardenweald chain. Seriously, these are boring, sure, but they’re honestly a bit badly designed compared to other quests

Secondary: Emeni’s revenge quest. Kill 57 enemies with nothing to mitigate the massive number of kills, in an area where there’s trash respawning every few seconds… what were they smoking when they designed this?

MSQ: The Aerial Advantage quest and bugginess. This quest… really sucks. You HAVE to use the ‘starter’ rocs to reach the quest ones, the quest item does not work on the objectives only the vehicle abillity, and the vehicle rocs bug out instantly unless you literally bug them out in return

Bug: Sigh. Several in the Covenant Campaigns

Guidance: So, okay. There’s this interesting problem where you need to do a few steps to progress a Covenant Campaign (any of them). One of those steps is hit Renown 5, and another is do the Torghast tutorial. The Torghast tutorial has a skip, but that skips the Renown (more on that in a sec), and leaves you with… no guidance on what to do now cuz there is no quest. The actual log tells you to SKIP the campaign entirely and go to the THIRD step in the next campaign (9.1) in order to progress

Bug: Also it skipping the Renown is almost assuredly a bug, because of how the whole chain lines up

Walkthroughitis: Also good luck figuring out what to do. I had to literally use an addon to figure this out

Seconds In Minutes: Travel time across Oribos

MSQ: Mandatory side quest to progress over in the Revendreth campaign

Guidance: NOTHING indicates this is true

Guidance: And NOTHING indicates which quest is required

Secondary: Also the quests SUCK. Go gather anima from specific items of which there’s barely enough in a hostile area where you can barely see them

QoL: Okay so turning in Anima sucks. Here’s the deal; the Anima grind is is almost entirely optional stuff now, and that’s nice, but it doesn’t change the fact that turning in Anima sucks, on top of what a grind it is (see above negatives)

Bug: Again! The same damned Maldraxxus bug exists in the Bastion campaign! Why is this relevant? Because…

Padding: …it has the EXACT same quests for the Maldraxxus finale as Bastion

Itemization: Anima. Where it drops, and how much. So here’s the deal; The Anima grind obviously sucks for how much things cost and how little cosmetics you get out of them. But what sucks even more is how the Anima itself is itemized. 140 anima from a raid boss sounds fine until you realize you only get so many of those a week, how much effort is involved, and how much things cost (thousands for even one piece of cosmetic gear, nevermind things like mounts and sets). This is nonsense even to this day…

Itemization: …so…

Itemization: …enjoy that triple

Bug: Flying into the Ardenweald covenant has a 100% chance of hitting the jump cap and kicking you out of the game

Traversal: Battle for Ardenweald and mounting. Seriously why can’t you mount here? There’s no reason for this and it drags the entire scenario down. No hang on I just realized I’m not describing this properly so lemme try again; You can mount, but the moment you do it dismounts you. Which is much worse

MSQ: First step of the MSQ in Korthia? Go talk to a few people. Normally this would be a quest to help you get the lay of the land or something but instead it’s just talking to three people unrelated to events who are like 50 feet outside the basecamp. Not where the actual critical NPCs will be, like the archivist or the quest givers, no it’s just talk to some randos outside base. THEN you get three daily quests to do. These at least have SOME design to them but it’s basically just ‘roam further and further out into the island’. This is… not great. It’s not a good introduction and it sort of puts the player in the immediate mindset of how grindy this area is really going to be. Which I guess is valid but there’s much better ways to do this. So for that first step, a negative…

MSQ: …and for the daily ‘step’, a negative

Overworld: Korthia. This is the worst laid out overworld in the entire game (I strongly suspect it was designed for a raid layout and roaming boss placement, not an actual zone). Irritating navigation, weird cliffs and paths with bad indicators of where to go and what to do, just… bad overall design top to bottom…

Overworld: …easy…

Overworld: …triple

Guidance: It’s also a zone with lots of events to do and almost no indicators what they are, where they are, when they are, or THAT they are

Flow: Also the flow of quests in the zone is gob-smacking. You actually go down a path, then up a hill, then back down, then BACK up the hill, and so on as you progress

Unskippable Cutscenes: Yeah by the way a lot of this is unskippable (long, long cutscenes too) and is required to engage in basic mechanics of the zone (you can get the currencies long before you get the ability to turn them in)

Itemization: Did I mention these, like Anima, clog your inventory?

Padding: Odyn’s quests. At one point you fight the exact same mob three times in a row with the exact same dialogue. Same intro, fight, outro. Three times

Bug: So I didn’t experience these, but several other people did, and this is a buggy expansion anyways so…

MSQ: Desmotaeron. Irritating terrain, kill an elite to kill another elite, bad spread of enemies, bad drop rate. This is legitimately one of the worst quest chains in the entire game…

MSQ: …earning…

MSQ: …that wonderful triple

MSQ: THEN there’s the slog right after. Seriously, the very next quest is another slogfest

MSQ: There’s just… a lot of very copy pasted X of Y quests in Zereth Mortis. It could be worse, but it’s not great

Pacing: Issues with the Sepulchre. Seriously, you go in, fight up to Anduin, then… you’re supposed to LEAVE and go do an entire quest chain that goes across multiple zones before coming back and finishing it

MSQ: The final Shadowlands quests are just slogs

MSQ: Issues with the Popopoc quest. Bugs, stuck in combat, and issues

Abandonment: You know the drill. First there’s the Heroics which are gone…

Abandonment: …for the full…

Abandonment: …three negatives

Abandonment: Then there’s the Mythics…

Abandonment: …for another…

Abandonment: …three negatives

Abandonment: On the raid side of things we have the Vault of the Incarnates…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: And Amirdrassil, the Dream’s Hope…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

QoL: So, almost every weekly story chain in the game unlocked across weeks once, and then is unlocked forever. What this means, practically, is that when doing the chain live you do it every week, but if you go back, they’re all unlocked and ready to go. Dragonflight didn’t do this, meaning ACTUALLY waiting a week on SEVERAL chains

Guidance: So, Dragonflight is unique in having a really bad ‘signposting’ issue. At certain points it’s legitimately difficult to tell which stories should happen in which order, especially since you’re almost guaranteed to hit 70 before you even hit Valdrakken (and 70 is when everything unlocks). This is pretty bad…

Guidance: …and deserves…

Guidance: …a full triple

QoL: Currencies (quite a few actually) that aren’t in the currency tab. Seriously, stop clogging my inventory Blizzard…

QoL: …it’s obnoxious

Grind: Renown grind and locking content behind it, Dragonscale Expedition

Grind: Renown grind and locking content behind it, Maruuk Centaur

Grind: Renown grind and locking content behind it, Iskaara Tuskarr

Grind: Renown grind and locking content behind it, Valdrakken Accord

Grind: Renown grind and locking content behind it, Loamm Niffen

Bug: Layering bugs

Bug: Hotbar wiping bugs

Bug: More layering bugs

Abandonment: So here we are, perhaps for the last time. War Within Heroics…

Abandonment: …for a full…

Abandonment: …triple

Abandonment: War Within Mythics…

Abandonment: …for a full…

Abandonment: …triple

Abandonment: And the Nerub-Ar Palace raid…

Abandonment: …for two negatives

Abandonment: Alongside the Liberation of Undermine…

Abandonment: …for a double

Abandonment: And Manaforge Omega…

Abandonment: …for a double

Level: I’ve been chewing on this for a while. I think I’m going to give a negative for the two Delves that have an underwater component. Don’t mistake me, there’s ways around it, AND it’s only for certain stories in said Delves. But there are still a few and it’s just… irritating. It doesn’t add anything to the Delve

Bug: General, but special mention to the Dawnbreaker

Tutorialization: Exile’s Reach disallows several options (noticeably the Edit mode) until you’ve basically finished it. And while I DO think this is a very good tutorial, it’s also extremely hand holdy which can put off veteran players and there’s no real option to skip it for a brand new account

Launch: Patch woes with the entire Flame’s Radiance content being totally broken for a while

Bug: For all its amazingness, there are several irritating bugs throughout the Undermine. Nothing game breaking thankfully but still frustrating

Co-Op: The Karesh quests out of nowhere suddenly have weird, wonky sharing in quests when grouping

Visual Distinction: Good luck telling what the hell you’re looking at on the minimap around the Oasis

Interface: Also the quests here are labeled as MSQ when they super duper are not. I honestly think these quests would be better received if they were just blue like everything else

Secondary: Also honestly the Eco Dome quests just kinda suck to do. Boring repetitive tasks that repeat even across chains

Launch: Karesh was actually worse (buggier and more broken) at launch, plus it was possible to (easily!) skip ahead in the story

Viscerality: Rogue Audio. This is just… anemic sounding. In fact almost every single attack uses either the same or very similar audio

Viscerality: Priest Audio. For such a cool looking class with such great impact it sure sounds pathetic

Viscerality: Hunter Audio. It’s actually not terrible for the most part… unless you’re using a gun. And lemme tell you, ALL guns sound awful

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