Quick Look: World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth

- to give the last World of Warcraft.

I cant believe GB has that stinking drake. OVER A HUNDRED BOSS KILLS AND IT WONT DROP.

Jesus...14 years? That can't be right, can it?

<quick check on Google>

Huh.

Is this game based on Duncan Jones' legendary 2016 classic film "Warcraft"?

Literally as soon as we were done with this and were talking about tired pop culture references, the next boss had a Shark Tornado attack.

On brand.

For the Horde!

Huh

@kryplixx: For Spelunky!

Wait which server/guild is the giant bomb crew?

Rorld of Runescape

As someone who is pretty casual these days, I like this expansion a lot more than the last one. In Legion you were flying around in spaceships fighting titans. This one feels like a more traditional grounded fantasy game. The zones are great, the music is always great, and I enjoy the quests.

I'm personally on Quel'Dorai with a guild that a friend invited me too, but as long as you're in the GB community you should be able to connect to everyone through that.

XD

Playing as an arms warrior in drustvar currently and having a lot of fun. Couldn't decide to level my paladin, hunter or priest but happy I went with arms since there are lots of mobs to ae in the expansion. Very excited for islands at 120.

I was getting real burnt out after legion especially broken shore grind was tedious.

@rorie: Thanks, dude. It was me that sent you that tweet btw haha. Having fun with BFA so far, glad to know you guys are mostly Alliance mwahaha.

I don't see the nostalgia-bait that Jeff assumes is in here. Besides the basic Horde vs Alliance, which has always been there, if a secondary focus to expansions, not much is trying to get you to remember the RTS or Vanilla era WoW.

Also, WoW has been about end-game content forever, and questing has always been kill 12 bears. Just like Destiny.

And you can read quests, understand the plot of zones and the grand expansion, and even walk up to dungeons (and discover them through the quest campaigns) just as you could in the old WoW. It's all still there.

Wasn't expecting this so quickly. Figured Rorie would hit max level first so he could show the most possible stuff off at once.

How's WoW as a solo game these days? I need a new casual, podcast game to unwind with.

I resubbed to WoW after being out for 9 years, and I don't regret it.

If that's what you're looking for, I seriously couldn't recommend a better game for it.

"this is my street corner!"

Not much else coming out this week! I'll definitely be streaming more when I hit max level.

Yeah, I highly recommend it for that kind of gaming.

Rorie is the best. Best QL by far since Dragon Age Origins (PC).

Great news I'm really looking forward to them. I enjoy watching all of your WoW streams.

I love how Rorie rags on the other people in the dungeon for not knowing the mechanics, and then never stands in the druid's healing circle.

Time for Breaking Brad: WoW

Doubt Brad will see this... but the dungeons do exist in the world. You get quests leading up to a dungeon in the zones, just like before. If you're paying attention, you'll know why you're there.

You can also just queue with no context. So the backstory is there if you want it, but you don't have to engage with it.

thats how it should be xD

Haven't played WoW in over a decade but it's still cool to see them covering this, proper.

Fun fact: Warcraft has always been "ridiculous anime" since Warcraft III and turning orcs from Tolkeinian...well, orcs...into the "misunderstood noble savage" tropes they are today.

I would really love to watch Brad streaming some of this and experiencing all of the new systems and changes for the first time.

@silentman0: as a tank player it can be confusing to know what is the good glowy shit and what is the glowy shit that kills me. They’ve done a better job of letting you know when you’re in the bad glowy but occasionally I still hop out of that Druid one haha

God damnit, I was gonna ignore this expansion, but after watching this I want to jump back in.. if only I had time.

Man, @brad@rorie, I've gotten by 12 years of playing this game as primarily a quest reader (and collector) the overarching story is great. I've never been in it for the loot or raiding. This video is way too dismissive. I get that questing isn't what a lot of players come to the game for. It's not worthless, as you make it out to be.

A big part of it may be how I've watched it grow and evolve over the years. Slyvanas hasn't gone crazy, she's the same character she's always been, she's just been playing the long, political game for years and now she has the chance to make her move. We've watched the little boy in the throne room of Vanilla grow into the King of Stormwind. These are complex characters with motivations and character arcs that have developed in real time since the game has come out.

But still, the individual quests are full of great character moments and usually play into a larger narrative. I haven't played the quest involving witches Brad spoke of yet, but you might not get your answers right away. Think of each area like a little hint that unveils a larger mystery. The full arc of the narrative won't be fully unveiled until the last raid of the expansion comes out. I've never seen a game world as expansive and immersive and it keeps growing.

Love this expansion so far.

Checking up on Jeffs last question was actually really interesting. Not counting for inflation WoW comes out second, beaten by Dungeon Fighter Online, which apparently is an Asian beat em up MMO. Counting for inflation they're both also beaten by Pacman, Space Invaders and Street Fighter 2, which all made stupid amounts of money through arcades.

Man, I never played WoW and I have absolutely no idea what is going on in any of these fights. But, lots of glowy things is fun to look at I guess?

In my mind I was thinking of Cataclysm as a recent expansion and then I checked the release date... turns out it was almost eight years ago. EIGHT YEARS AGO.

It sounds like what Brad is looking for and also what I play is Final Fantasy XIV, which is a very story kind of MMO that also ties in how all the dungeons come up and why you are going into them very well before they just become an item on a list like everything else.

This looks like an unfinished video game the way you play it.

High-fives to Jeff.

The abundance of awful pop culture references is one of the big things that made me quit WoW for good.

@brad If you're looking for an MMO with a stronger emphasis on story, FF14 does a pretty good job. The base game's story is pretty mediocre, but the first expansion has a great story and the second expansion is also enjoyable. It solves that "abstraction" problem you're talking about; you always get context for the content you're doing.

Loved Legion and enjoying this so far. Stormsong was a bit underwhelming (so...many...farm...quests... no more… kill wolves or pick up grain) but I LOVED Drustvar - basically MMO Witcher 3. The zones are pretty and the music is SUPERB this time around. See how long it lasts but I'm having fun.

Thank you for writing this.

I really dislike how reductive and dismissive the GB crew can be sometimes about games.
Especially so when I see people take Crew assumptions as actual facts.

@tom_omb: I agree. I've played mostly solo off and on since 2008, and I enjoy the questing and lore. I don't know if I'll ever quit permanently ha.

+1 to this

Some of the things that Brad mentions wishing for, particularly with dungeons and other stuff being more justified within the world is done by FFXIV. Although that has the problem of a weaker base story until you get to the actual good stuff.

@geirr: Yeah, that drives me up the wall about the gb crew and this community sometimes. Jeff gets that way about a handful of Nintendo games too. I tried to give a genuine answer in this WoW thread, but I think the original poster was chased away by all the negative comments from people who haven't played in years before my post was read.