World Of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor

I was very sceptical leading up to the release of World of Warcraft's latest expansion, Warlords of Draenor. While I did enjoy the last expansion (Mists of Pandaria) to some extent, I really felt like WOW had deviated from its winning formula and was heading in a bad direction. I had lost faith in Blizzard to produce exciting and immersive content for their flagship game.

The launch of the new expansion did not help to alleviate my fears. Massive lag, bugs and insane queue times were hounding the ability of players to experience the new content. Launches, especially for games with such a large number of global players, are known to be rough, but this was ridiculous. I almost came close to deleting the game and unsubscribing.

Despite the launch debacle, Warlords of Draenor turned out to be a quality product. The story/lore behind the latest expansion is not the strongest, but the actual game is fun again! Very fun, in fact, and that is mainly the reason I play games - despite my desire to escape reality and immerse myself in a different world, of course.

WOW has managed to rejuvenate and reinvent itself.

Feel free to disagree, but I would like to know what fellow WOW players think of the new expansion.

If I thought more people would have been interested I would have posted a few weeks ago in the rant section about this expansion. I had given up playing WoW, got bored, nothing really to focus on and loads of people were taking breaks from the game. I saw WoD as a chance to see if I could rekindle my interest in a game I have played for years after the disappointment of Pandaland.

On launch night, I stayed up and as the clock hit 11am UK time I think everyone was disconnected due to the high numbers of players trying to play the game. I understood that and thought I would try the next day.

Over the course of the first week or so, my experience with the expansion was less than perfect and I was not a happy bunny. I understood there would be bugs and lag - I have been through the last 3 expansions so had a little idea of what to expect - but I did expect to be able to play. I am on a high pop server so have some experience with queues - reasonable queue times that is.

Most of the launch week was spent being logged in to a 3000 player queue with a 2000 minute wait. I queued for 6 hours one day and got no where. I messaged Blizzard Customer Service on Twitter. Again I got no where. They made no comments for hours about the situation. The wait times didn't seem to have any logic to them, jumping from 700 minutes down to 125 minutes. fluctuating constantly.

My big issue at the time was the seemingly lack of preparedness by Blizz. They had a long, long time to get ready for this. They had been taking pre-orders. Should they have been known that there would be queues? The amount of players trying to do the same quest, in the same quest area - should they have been prepared for this? Well YES I think they should have been, so in that sense the launch was a HUGE fail. I know, from the forums, that people did unsubscribe and wanted their money back. I just wanted to be able to log in, with a reasonable queue time and to actually be able to play the game.

Now, we a few weeks on, the queues have gone, no lag, still some garrison issues from time to time but at least I can play and after all, that's what I wanted. By the time I had even managed to build my garrison, some people had hit 100. I am happily languishing at 95 and enjoying the game. I don't feel the need to rush, like some, as I want to enjoy and immerse myself in the game.

And, you know what? I am actually enjoying the game. In response to your point about whether WoW has managed to rejuvenate and reinvent itself? I'm not sure about that, people get bored easily but I am enjoying the content and the newness of the garrisons. I don't feel the excitement I did with Wrath or Cata. I am really into gold making (yes sad, I know) and so am playing around with a few level 90s and their garrisons but feel that whilst garrisons are great in some ways, they are limiting for what I want to do.

Anyway, would love to hear more views.

Scally

a reply to: Dark Ghost

I had not played wow in a really long time, but after KungFu Panda last time, I just lost all faith.

I hear good things about this one, but I won't be going back to WoW. It's time has passed for me.

~Tenth

a reply to: tothetenthpower

Ditto, I have 2 kids and a job now lol. Raided from vanilla-LK

Hearthstone on the other hand looks like my new time sink once it drops for Droid.

Agree , i play since 06 on and off , personally The burning crusade endgame was my favorite , this expansion however feels good.

I am really into gold making (yes sad, I know) and so am playing around with a few level 90s and their garrisons but feel that whilst garrisons are great in some ways, they are limiting for what I want to do.

makes sense , i now have 4 characters being able to mine in my garrison , so i can understand for the people that farm and sell profession resources this might be a bit unwelcome , since players are more self sufficient.

on the release week i had nightshift so i had no problem with the queue since i played in the moring , in the evening there was a 8 hour queue.

I managed to get my first lvl 100 on the Sunday after the release , even with working and doing household stuff , so it aint that much work

For those that have a few Lvl 90's i can recommend you to lvl these guys till you have a mine and a few Followers , i got like 30-40 missions running at all time on a few characters , so even though if i am not playing them activly the followers will be lvled and gold reward , character XP , and the occasion loot rewards.

But i think the smarter ones have already did that

Even though the technical issues i have to say the fresh new content is quite fun

I just started playing again a few months ago after taking a break after the Lich King. The funny thing is I didn't even know there was a new expansion coming out when I re-subscribed. I had been playing WC3 a lot at the time and was inspired to play WoW again. When I found out about the expansion I pre-ordered it so I didn't have to wait in line at midnight or the next day. I stayed up till midnight for the release and surprisingly I experienced few bugs; it probably helped that I was on a low pop server. I was able to get past tanaan jungle on the launch night, then the next few days had a couple 40 minute wait queues to log in. I had no idea the extreme wait time others were experiencing. So I'm thinking that server pop had a really big influence on whether people were able to enjoy the game or not. Currently I'm 100 and just ran MC and got my ilevel 640 helm and my sweet core hound mount =D

I have played WoW since vanilla. I must admit I always end up having periods when I get bored and leave. But in the end I always come back and I'm sure quite a few people can relate to that.

Reading the new expansion. Jesus the launch was bad. But once the teething issues were gone I do honestly love it. The fact I can now take part in all professions, I just love that feature.

The garrison. Well what can I say about that. Apart from good job Blizz. You did well. It brings back the excitement which makes me feel like a new player. It great.

On the downside. My social life has died yet again as WoW sucks my time up. Yet again... Lol

I've been playing off and on a few times a week on the draenor server.

I have not seen any queue issues. I've logged in right away with no issues.

I don't have the new expansion yet. I'm playing on my low level warlock. Giving my 2 90's a break. druid and mage.

I do like the new 10th anniversary battle pet. the molten corgi is cool.

I've never played WoW before, and this new expansion has had nothing but positive and rave reviews. Trion pretty much flopped ArcheAge, so I've been looking for something to play in the interim while other games come out that I've been waiting on.

So, I'm playing WoW for the first time, and I'm playing a Hunter (Archer). Not much different than in ArcheAge. Not sure how long I'll play, or if it will keep me interested up to the higher levels, but it's something to play for now.

I love this game and I'm spending most my free gaming timing on it now. Got a great Dre hunter too level 100 and it's really fun being able to solo things with pet and then seeing 2-3 people do it together and fail xD I think it's another game though where the guilds and social aspect is the main focus. Brilliant game though. O, and WoW tokens? Stroke of genius. Well done $Blizz$