Patch 5.2 interview with Dave Kosak
Inside an old alt's vault
The latest patch 5.2 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsAsk WoW Insider: An early disappointment?
by Mike Schramm 
Aug 11th 2008 at 6:00PM
With all the Wrath news dropping, there's been a ton of hype around the next World of Warcraft expansion. Lots of players are very excited (including yours truly), but Charles S isn't so much. He actually stopped playing the game in March of this past year (before that, he raided as a Warlock), and he is using today's Ask WoW Insider column to ask you, our readers, if anyone else isn't so hot on what they've seen so far:I've been reading your site and the news about the expansion and my question is, is it too early to be disappointed in what I am seeing for this expansion?
Unfortunately he doesn't expound much more beyond that, and I'd like to know what else he wants to see from the expansion -- we're going to get Death Knights, siege vehicles, and we're going to get to meet the Lich freakin' King, more than once. I don't know what more a Warcraft fan would want. But maybe you do -- think it's too early for Charles to be disappointed, or should he wait and see if Wrath will bring him back to the game?
And if you have a question you want to ask our readers, feel free to send it along to ask@wow.com, and you might see it up here next week for everyone else to answer.
Previously on Ask WoW Insider...
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Expansions, Ask WoW Insider, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King, Battlegrounds
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 3)
kenney Aug 11th 2008 6:50PM
It seems early to be disappointed if you had realistic expectations. If you were expecting a completely different game, then you now have enough information to realize it won't be, so feel free to be disappointed.
A lot of what will please/disappoint me will be how well they have dealt with itemization this time around, how much learning they have done in heroic instance design, and how they have balanced melee/ranged dps. I thought there was a lot of work to be done in those categories. If all of the classes stay at the same relative power throughout multiple tiers of content- that will mean a lot more to me than the addition of a death knight.
Grendalsh Aug 11th 2008 6:50PM
I'd love a functional player-based economy, but that just doesn't fit with the whole loot-based gameplay.. So i'll settle for open-seas ship-based combat. Wintergrasp is obviously just a testbed for the Great Ocean expansion, where we'll be able to take out engineer created ships and duke it out pirate style for control of Oil slicks!
yazah Aug 11th 2008 6:50PM
Honestly, I was VERY "meh" about the expansion too ... actually I even quit playing for a few months, even though I begrudgingly kept up with WoW news (thanks wowinsider!).
However, since I got an early beta invite and have been able to see much of the new content, I am actually quite amazed and impressed with what is in store. I mean, it is one thing to read it, but seeing it "in person" is completely different.
And to be completely honest, after playing through the DK quests and leveling to 71, I went back to BC full-time and am working in earnest to prepare my toons for WotLK (including leveling a new one).
So yeah, I understand what he is saying, because in reality not much new* information has come out since august of last year, which makes everything seem like "old news".
*new information just seems to add in the details to what we already know, or to what has already been announced.
Kitteh, Twilights Hammer EU Aug 11th 2008 6:52PM
There are some changes that will take some adjusting to but I think most of the stuff so far is making things a bit more logical + fun.
Removing the need to lug an entire sack of pots to a raid while hurting alchemists (to a point) DOES make more sense than making encounters around the fact casters will be chaining mana pots.
Were yet to see how that balances out. Considering TBC (2.2? i forget which patch) brought in the idea of guardian and battle elixiers they could move some of that around so there other consumables that are useful.
On druid tanks, dont have druid myself but I dont think they will remove too much of the tanking abilities. They are moving the hybrid tanks into specialisms so the druid SHOULD still be the best melee tank.
I like the look of the warrior tanking changes to consider speccing my (about to ding 70) warrior as a decent tank spec. Still having decent solo capabilities while being able to strap on shield and armour and tank 5-mans is definitely appealing.
At the moment there's little I dont like.
Tophy Aug 11th 2008 7:01PM
I am somewhat on both sides here I think....I am excited about the new continent and the new lore they are implementing. Death Knights sound pretty cool but I am not sure I am going to be switching over to playing one regularly. The one thing that I am looking forward to hearing about, which hasn't been mentioned to this point (at least I don't think so) is how arena and PvP will fit into the new expansion. I find it difficult to swallow that just by spending some time in BGs I can get gear equivalent to Tier 5 raids. Obviously I am going to take advantage of it, but when i run Karazhan, the opening raid instance that once meant something, for the second time and I don't get a single upgrade because of my T5 quality pvp gear, things are just a little unbalanced. I want to hear about how Blizzard plans to work with this....they may not change a damn thing, which will obviously keep a lot of people happy, but for me it's something that needs to be looked at.
Angus Aug 11th 2008 7:05PM
From an enhance shaman standpoint, I see where he's coming from.
They seem to be doing things with the intent on giving us buffs, but at the same point we see them nerfing us in other areas or just not doing the obvious things.
I can make a huge list, but it comes down to us being an expansion behind the other classes still and the Devs thinking it is fine, since we seem to have incredible raid representation due to their insane raid damage fights.
I'm torn, there is a lot of potential, but the Devs seem unable to let shaman have that potential.
Nick S Aug 11th 2008 7:06PM
I'm pumped.
/shrug
If you're not, that's cool. More loot for me.
Raze Aug 11th 2008 7:06PM
Too early. Admittedly, so far the only things that have me 'sold' on the expansion are the hunter pet overhaul and the prospect of exploring another stunningly designed continent. I can't help but think they could be developing some new features to the game to make it more immersive or to give you more reasons to keep coming back other than raiding or getting better gear.
The Achievements are... cute, I guess, but aside from seeing a blip every time you do something interesting, I don't see what all the commotion's about. I certainly don't play through my 360 game's again for the achievements, and I won't do likewise in WoW, especially if only a very small number actually offer any kind of reward.
Death Knights have me at a strange crossroad. On one hand, it's a new class, new mechanics, a whole new slice of the story to enjoy. On the other... they're Death Knights. Evil classes simply rub me the wrong way, Roleplaying or otherwise, the same reason I can never level a Warlock higher than 15, so they won't mean much to me.
Of course, Blizzard has a 10 million odd playerbase that still pay for their game, so I don't expect there to be any radical changes or additions to the game at all, expansion or otherwise. Now that I've realized that their idea of a gold sink is simply more PHAT LOOT, it's fairly clear what direction this game will be pointed forevermore.
Ichthus Aug 11th 2008 7:15PM
I don't see why people are 'meh'. Most of the classes are still in a state of flux, most of the professions patterns aren't in, they're playing with ideas of redesigning some game mechanics, and the high end content isn't even on the beta yet.
In short, we don't have enough info to be 'meh'. Now, if you're still 'meh' come October/November, then we'll talk.
vlad Aug 11th 2008 8:00PM
its going to be just like BC. really exciting for a day or two, then you realize its a huge grind. then you hit 80 and its still a grind. then you stop grinding and realize theres no game, so you go back to grinding...
Xephyros-Scryers Aug 11th 2008 8:09PM
I am excited about the expansion, but there is something I hope Blizzard will continue to work on, and that is variety in the kinds of quests available to do. Sometimes it gets a bit tedious gathering x of this, or killing y of that, or bringing message z to npc A.
I really enjoy the game, but please, give us more Kodo-wrangling type quests like the one in Desolace! That was the highlight of an otherwise bleak zone.
STereo Aug 11th 2008 8:28PM
It's a huge disappointment for me. I expected them to take major
steps to fix hunter pvp after those 4 seasons of arena. Just
the opposite. I love my hunter and I don't want to play another
character. For a while I was interested in trying a Death Knight but
the more I read of WOTLK the more furious I get about my favorite
class. I'm thinking about WarHammer but I'm not sure if it will be
any good. Maybe I'll have to actually pick up a book.
mizatt Aug 11th 2008 8:53PM
One of the problems I have with the game right now is the fuzzy line between PVE and PVP gear. A lot of PVP builds can carry their gear straight over to PVE and start higher up, but PVE players can't do the same in PVP. Resilience was a pretty stupid idea, I think. In my opinion they either need to allow PVE gear to perform more adequately in PVP or add some mechanic to PVE or PVP gear to make the PVP gear less useful in PVE. People always say, "you should be raiding for fun, not gear!" but if you're telling me you don't consider the gear an incentive to raiding, I don't buy that for a second
Zep Aug 11th 2008 9:03PM
It's not that gear's an incentive for me, it's that I literally cannot raid higher-up without better gear. I'm stuck PVP-ing so that I can catch up.
Ahoni Aug 11th 2008 9:30PM
Badge of Justice. Look into it. Can buy T5/T6 level gear with them. They drop from Heroics. You might have heard of them.
Eisengel Aug 11th 2008 9:06PM
pro:
- Death Knights look just too sick to be unfun
- Inscription enchanting scrolls (chant my alt ftw)
- Fun, yet useful, items (flying carpet for Tailors, Motorcycle..)
con:
- from videos Northrend seems to mirror the BC world design: less environmental and polygon work, but heavier textures and skyboxes. Frankly this looks bland as all h377 no matter how deep the textures are. STV / Ashenvale win out over Terrokar every day of the week & twice on Sundays. From the poll below most people chose Nagrand as one of their favorite areas... take a look at it.. it has polygon forming for broad, sweeping plains and gently rolling hills. Polygon forming and flavor sprites ftw!
- Classes/specs I love that are rather broken seem on the road to still not getting fixed (personal gripe, refilling my QQ reservoirs for more class crying)
- Blizzard has displayed multiple times throughout the development of this expansion a mind-numbingly powerful ignorance (or disinterest, which is even worse) of the current problems in arena and battlegrounds to the point where they are adding 'fixes' that can make things worse than they are now (Blizz: 'we need more LoS stuff in arena' Me: /e dies inside).
Final verdict: strongly in the 'meh' zone. Blizz has shown time and time again they are a creative company with lots of great innovative capability.... however... they have also shown time and time again that they have their own agenda (e-sport! wtf!?) in relation to WoW that does not exactly include addressing player concerns. In general many classes have serious issues that need fixing that have been MORE than brought to Blizzard's attention... for years... with 0 response from the big, blue B. Other things Blizzard has done are marvelous gems.. but they have been single-copy end user stuff, not a live, patchable MMORPG. It seems that if Blizzard gets the ability to procrastinate, they do it BIG time (naw, screw those minor changes 7 million customers have been asking for for years... I want to design a Death Knight! Muhahaha!).
If Blizzard was a supermarket they'd build a whole new wing instead of cleaning up the mess in aisle 2.
Badger Aug 11th 2008 10:12PM
The dang expansion ain't even on shelves yet. There are still several months of tweaks and finishing touches to make. Yes, it is too early to be disappointed.
tulu Frostmourne Aug 18th 2008 12:56AM
I like them to add new starting zones, classes , races And to add high level content into existing zones (dungeons etc).
Do the max to encourage people to create multiple alts.
And not devalue everything you have achived in getting to 60,70 etc by a new expansion.
When everyone is lvl 100 Azeroth and outlands will be barren, Nobody will want to level a char from 0 to 100.
It will be a totally boring solo experience.
Perhaps if they created servers just for lv0-60, 61-70, 71-80 and have people migrate of them to level to 61&71 &81. That way the player base playing lv 0-59 could be concentrated onto a smaller number of servers to create viable numbers of players.
People who enjoy the 0-60 experience could stay there.
obeliskdtormentor Aug 11th 2008 10:48PM
I am getting bored of playing and reading what may happen in the next expansion. I try not to get my hopes up, since a lot of stuff from BC beta did not make it at launch or released months after its initial launch. Dont get me wrong. I like the idea of battling Arthas. But it seems to good to be true on certain leaked items on various websites. Blizzard know how to throw curve balls at us at times and takes them a long time to implement.
First I am not counting on Wrath to be released 4th QT of 2008 for now, until I have a copy in my hand or my friends hands. BC got Delayed and Blizzard is not quite known for on time delivery. I am not looking forward to queued times on realms, and everyone starting a DK where Easter Plaugelands are congested with DK. Also starting a new with different factions and outdating purple gear with northrend greens. Everything that everyone worked so hard for in Outlands got thrown away for Northrend. Why cant we continue some rep to carry over to new lands. Instead of Cenarion Expedition only keep Cenarion Circle. Keep it Simple.
Iwanttobeasleep Aug 11th 2008 11:12PM
"is it too early to be disappointed in what I am seeing for this expansion"? You, my friend, are not human. Ponies indeed!