At least for monk, and probably others I'd guess but haven't looked, icy veins and wowhead have the same guide writer and same content, and I use both interchangeably.
Its definitely class specific. Wowhead seems to usually be a bit more info, but I prefer the speed and layout of icy-veins. When I am playing an alt and I just want a tldr I go to icy-veins. But really if you want the best info you have to go to the class discords. I've gotten one on ones with top 10 worlds people there and lots of super helpful people that are way better then me. Its great if your looking for encounter specific advice, or extremely niche rotation scenarios etc.
It's hilarious how they can do a good job on some parts of the UI revamp and yet completely miss the mark on some other parts of it. Like the micro bar/bag bar not being scalable nor movable, like wtf.
God damn, the micro bar is tiny now. I'm trying to click on talents and quests etc and I have to squint despite having near-perfect vision.
Looks like normal talent trees, but it auto-filled in the tree for me because God Forbid players have to think about anything with their brain more than they're comfortable with.
Anyway I un-learned everything and I'm gonna do a talent learning spree later, level 40 so 31 points to spend, wheeee.
No sign of Free Shadowlands post-patch yet...I can buy the Dragonflight upgrade though, maybe they'll roll it in with that.
It's hilarious how they can do a good job on some parts of the UI revamp and yet completely miss the mark on some other parts of it. Like the micro bar/bag bar nothing being scalable nor movable, like wtf.
They're not done with the UI revamp, I think they're planning to keep working on it during dragonflight. It's obvious the game is shipping before everything is done, but the possible upside is that they could listen to player feedback and things turn out better that way. I'm gonna keep using elvui + weakauras either way though. Most of my addons have had updates to 10.0 already, but there's definitely still bugs and adjustments that need done (on top of FPS instability they hopefully fix quickly), so I just hit the dummies some and called it a night. Even without all the talent points available to us at 60, both windwalker and mistweaver feel so much nicer to play mechanically with higher dps too, didn't test brew yet.
God damn, the micro bar is tiny now. I'm trying to click on talents and quests etc and I have to squint despite having near-perfect vision.
Looks like normal talent trees, but it auto-filled in the tree for me because God Forbid players have to think about anything with their brain more than they're comfortable with.
Anyway I un-learned everything and I'm gonna do a talent learning spree later, level 40 so 31 points to spend, wheeee.
No sign of Free Shadowlands post-patch yet...I can buy the Dragonflight upgrade though, maybe they'll roll it in with that.
I only liked leveling in a few areas out of the entirety of Shadowlands leveling zones simply because of how some of the zones are designed. So I wouldnt say anyone is missing out too much from not doing them if that ever becomes the case.
Kinda pointless, big blurb about Shadowlands, rating each zone.
I hated Ardenweald and I think that was the best designed one out of all of them. The quest layout, going from one area to the next was clear and concise. Quests werent too confusing or needing of an addon to steer you. You had fun little puzzle mechanics there that you could abuse to get through the zone quicker, or just explore. Rares were well placed and you knew when you entered a really cool area that there would be one there. The dungeon is prefaced with a mini-dungeon of sorts that has an area that exemplifies the puzzle of the beginning of that dungeon and more. Just a top notch aea.
The "THEME" was better for Revendreth and Maldraxxus though. Revendreth often had you spanning large distances just to do one quest and the quest lines would often take you areas were there was only one other quest to do - so without flying, you're just basically fighting (or pulling) tons of shit that has no purpose to you. Elites are in areas that make it difficult to get around and do objectives, and those Elites typically didnt count towards the quest goal (except for the dailies for w/e reason.) Almost 95% of what you do in that zone is in the bottom 1/3rd and the far left 1/5 of the zone. Everything else counts towards that rep, which has its own questline but has a level requirement that doesnt match the story guided level area. Much less the max lvl part of it that just has you and a group of randoms following the arrows on an addon to kill boss mobs for rep tokens. I could see the idea they had, but they failed the landing pretty hard.
Maldraxxus had tooltips on items that eluded to the entire landmass being on the back of "something" that was alive - but I dont think we ever got that story cleared up (Not that Im surprised). That would have been really cool for it to have some big "awe" moment that didnt really need to be connected to the story. But the questing had you generally going in a circle around the entire zone, but some areas - if you quested towards the right originally - you would have to see the entire area to get to the next quest section before those quests would take you into the area you just saw. The same can be said if you quested starting from the left. Never mind the quests that take you clear across the zone, or on the other side of the Arena every 10 minutes or so.
The "idea" of Bastion was there, but.. it just falls short and feels like its missing something. Blue flying faggot angels did not help that area. The only thing it did accomplish is solidify the class theme in that if you're a Paladin, you knew Bastion was probably going to be the OP spot (which it was.) You end up only using maybe 30% of the entire zone to level in - and the rest is an elite area that you use maybe 10% of for World Quests. Questing is pretty straight forward here, but.. theres just a bunch of shit you do that seems like it'll be lasting effects.. that just drop off the face of the earth when you're done.
The base of the Maw is fucking terrible, getting aids for fun type of gouge my eyes out shit. I slammed my dick into the tower's little achievement area just so I could get that fucking ground mount so I could make the 10 minutes I have to spend there from time to time enjoyable. You can really tell that they had no idea what they wanted to do with that zone to make it fun which is why it was the last zone implemented and is so shitty. Had a serious case of Druid envy here just because they could basically mount the entire time while everyone else is wheelchairing it around.
The creation area (Zereth Mortis or w/e) is just one big shitty version of Timeless Isle. Like a really shitty version. So that can sit in the dumpster for all I care. "You can walk on water" summed up the entire zone because that was how exciting, or lack thereof, that zone was. Nothing was remotely challenging and I could solo all the "bosses" in that zone except for the guys in the top right. Which just so happened to be the most interesting part of the zone. Yet you had to do allllll the boring shit just to have access to certain content there. Imo - they should have made the jailer's visit to the zone more impactful and displayed his presence as the desert there, instead of just his minions fighting the good minions in random spots. Sort of like a copied version of the Undead scar going through the Blood Elf area.
Korthia is about the only zone that I can say was legitimately fun (after they nerfed all the time sinks, anyways) to do. You run through the quests quickly. Theres shit to find every-fucking-where. You have rares walking all around the zone. Ground Travel is easy and straight forward. Quests lead you around the entire zone. It all gets fucking used and its a really cool zone to look at (even if it is too much brown.) At this point the lore had gone completely off the rails, but following that hoes story out of the Maw was cool and just overall, the grind (after it was nerfed) seemed enjoyable. The complaints I saw about the zone were its grindy factor, but once that was nerfed for Zereth Mortis release - all I thought about the zone was nice things.
If they add SL's to chromie time and make it the best exp/hour you can get - Ill still level up in a different expansion. Barely anything in SL's is worth revisiting. Hell, the cosmetics are barely worth farming.
On that same note, its so easy to tell that the devs in decision roles are making certain expansions more desirable to level up in than others. Of course they always have the "Well its overall a better experience for a player to level up in the newer stuff" excuse. But I think theyre just spitefully proud over their content, rather than the older content. Let the player decide what they want to level up and make all expansions have roughly the same rate of leveling? Or, make it an event that happens bi-weekly, or monthly - where Chromie provides an EXP buff to each time period/expansion? Maybe tie a Super low drop chance cosmetic item (Tusks of Mannoroth:MOP) for example per expansion etc.?
I just feel like the last 16 years Ive played WoW off and on and could make better, funner, decisions than the jokes at the helm. It reminds me of companies that have fantastic employees but they wont promote from within.
We need to start asking the hard hitting ... cutting edge questions on this thread ... Did you select Body 1 or Body 2 when you created a new character?
That guy is legit. Before prepatch came out I was considering this guy but don't know if he's updated everything yet. His shit is basically a huge profile of different addons including WA/Elvui/Details/Plater and is super clean. Only downside is you have to sub to his twitch. But I think you can get it from the same sites you can get Zygor from.
Yeah just installed his warrior WA earlier, good stuff.
Fury Raging Blow build is kinda hilarious right now. You'll break your keybinds trying to use all the Raging Blow charges you get and you're hitting Rampage like every 2 gcd and still risk overcapping rage.
My elvui setup was just a profile I found and liked on wago.io, I also recommend the weakauras you see here to make DBM bars look nicer, and the mouse cursor circle which is a lot easier to see when things get busy on screen. It also has a castbar and GCD bar on it, and there's some other features I think that I don't use. Not seen here but omniCD interrupt CD tracker and party cooldowns is nice too.
Fully expect them to break something internally with LUA or similar and we go back 15 steps to where addons are once again doing entire encounters for us. Come to think about it.. I honestly didnt mind that time period where a PUG group wouldnt wipe to stupid shit.
The UI changes are kinda nice, I'm surprised. I Was hoping they would limit some of the LUA API functions so WA would play a limited role in raiding in the future. Raid bosses getting 10 pages of abilities after Legion because WA exist got a bit old lately.
Anyway nice changes and if they iron out some minor problems I say mission successful.
That guy is legit. Before prepatch came out I was considering this guy but don't know if he's updated everything yet. His shit is basically a huge profile of different addons including WA/Elvui/Details/Plater and is super clean. Only downside is you have to sub to his twitch. But I think you can get it from the same sites you can get Zygor from.
Maybe I'll hold off on playing more until then, to give me more levels in Shadowlands?
42 now so it might not even matter, given that SL starts at 48 (?) and I'm nearly there.
Good to see that it's indeed free now. They did that super quietly (nothing about it on the launcher) which might mean they're hoping for some last-minute SL purchases by people who don't know they'd get it for free when they subbed, or something.
I blew through the levels WAY too fast, so I hope it slows down at 48+ in SL or I'm gonna end up spending 12 levels in one or two zones. I'd like to see all six? of the zones for at least a couple hours each, and do every dungeon once, like I did with every previous expansion. Once I hit 60 I'm done outside of running some raids though.
Gonna try a dragon evoker whenever they're available, just to give it a spin for a couple levels, but I think I'll stick with Affliction Lock for Dragonflight. It's not quite as to-the-point and fun as Mage (I really miss teleports) and doesn't capture the "EQ Necromancer" vibe I want from a DoT class, but it's still a fun caster with little trouble soloing elites and I like that.
I only liked leveling in a few areas out of the entirety of Shadowlands leveling zones simply because of how some of the zones are designed. So I wouldnt say anyone is missing out too much from not doing them if that ever becomes the case.
Kinda pointless, big blurb about Shadowlands, rating each zone.
I hated Ardenweald and I think that was the best designed one out of all of them. The quest layout, going from one area to the next was clear and concise. Quests werent too confusing or needing of an addon to steer you. You had fun little puzzle mechanics there that you could abuse to get through the zone quicker, or just explore. Rares were well placed and you knew when you entered a really cool area that there would be one there. The dungeon is prefaced with a mini-dungeon of sorts that has an area that exemplifies the puzzle of the beginning of that dungeon and more. Just a top notch aea.
The "THEME" was better for Revendreth and Maldraxxus though. Revendreth often had you spanning large distances just to do one quest and the quest lines would often take you areas were there was only one other quest to do - so without flying, you're just basically fighting (or pulling) tons of shit that has no purpose to you. Elites are in areas that make it difficult to get around and do objectives, and those Elites typically didnt count towards the quest goal (except for the dailies for w/e reason.) Almost 95% of what you do in that zone is in the bottom 1/3rd and the far left 1/5 of the zone. Everything else counts towards that rep, which has its own questline but has a level requirement that doesnt match the story guided level area. Much less the max lvl part of it that just has you and a group of randoms following the arrows on an addon to kill boss mobs for rep tokens. I could see the idea they had, but they failed the landing pretty hard.
Maldraxxus had tooltips on items that eluded to the entire landmass being on the back of "something" that was alive - but I dont think we ever got that story cleared up (Not that Im surprised). That would have been really cool for it to have some big "awe" moment that didnt really need to be connected to the story. But the questing had you generally going in a circle around the entire zone, but some areas - if you quested towards the right originally - you would have to see the entire area to get to the next quest section before those quests would take you into the area you just saw. The same can be said if you quested starting from the left. Never mind the quests that take you clear across the zone, or on the other side of the Arena every 10 minutes or so.
The "idea" of Bastion was there, but.. it just falls short and feels like its missing something. Blue flying faggot angels did not help that area. The only thing it did accomplish is solidify the class theme in that if you're a Paladin, you knew Bastion was probably going to be the OP spot (which it was.) You end up only using maybe 30% of the entire zone to level in - and the rest is an elite area that you use maybe 10% of for World Quests. Questing is pretty straight forward here, but.. theres just a bunch of shit you do that seems like it'll be lasting effects.. that just drop off the face of the earth when you're done.
The base of the Maw is fucking terrible, getting aids for fun type of gouge my eyes out shit. I slammed my dick into the tower's little achievement area just so I could get that fucking ground mount so I could make the 10 minutes I have to spend there from time to time enjoyable. You can really tell that they had no idea what they wanted to do with that zone to make it fun which is why it was the last zone implemented and is so shitty. Had a serious case of Druid envy here just because they could basically mount the entire time while everyone else is wheelchairing it around.
The creation area (Zereth Mortis or w/e) is just one big shitty version of Timeless Isle. Like a really shitty version. So that can sit in the dumpster for all I care. "You can walk on water" summed up the entire zone because that was how exciting, or lack thereof, that zone was. Nothing was remotely challenging and I could solo all the "bosses" in that zone except for the guys in the top right. Which just so happened to be the most interesting part of the zone. Yet you had to do allllll the boring shit just to have access to certain content there. Imo - they should have made the jailer's visit to the zone more impactful and displayed his presence as the desert there, instead of just his minions fighting the good minions in random spots. Sort of like a copied version of the Undead scar going through the Blood Elf area.
Korthia is about the only zone that I can say was legitimately fun (after they nerfed all the time sinks, anyways) to do. You run through the quests quickly. Theres shit to find every-fucking-where. You have rares walking all around the zone. Ground Travel is easy and straight forward. Quests lead you around the entire zone. It all gets fucking used and its a really cool zone to look at (even if it is too much brown.) At this point the lore had gone completely off the rails, but following that hoes story out of the Maw was cool and just overall, the grind (after it was nerfed) seemed enjoyable. The complaints I saw about the zone were its grindy factor, but once that was nerfed for Zereth Mortis release - all I thought about the zone was nice things.
If they add SL's to chromie time and make it the best exp/hour you can get - Ill still level up in a different expansion. Barely anything in SL's is worth revisiting. Hell, the cosmetics are barely worth farming.
On that same note, its so easy to tell that the devs in decision roles are making certain expansions more desirable to level up in than others. Of course they always have the "Well its overall a better experience for a player to level up in the newer stuff" excuse. But I think theyre just spitefully proud over their content, rather than the older content. Let the player decide what they want to level up and make all expansions have roughly the same rate of leveling? Or, make it an event that happens bi-weekly, or monthly - where Chromie provides an EXP buff to each time period/expansion? Maybe tie a Super low drop chance cosmetic item (Tusks of Mannoroth:MOP) for example per expansion etc.?
I just feel like the last 16 years Ive played WoW off and on and could make better, funner, decisions than the jokes at the helm. It reminds me of companies that have fantastic employees but they wont promote from within.
Fully expect them to break something internally with LUA or similar and we go back 15 steps to where addons are once again doing entire encounters for us. Come to think about it.. I honestly didnt mind that time period where a PUG group wouldnt wipe to stupid shit.
PUGs in WoW seem better this go-around than I remember. Maybe it's because the content is so unbelievably easy, but I haven't had any issues with groups wiping out over idiocy.
I remember playing in other expansions and watching groups wipe repeatedly because people would stand in pools of acid or randomly jump off cliffs or whatever. There were some raids in Legion where I'd witness things like a raid leader saying "everyone needs to run across this bridge" followed by 3-4 people going flying off the sides of the bridge.
Another common one was people jumping around like a spastic retard while in a dungeon, eventually aggroing all the mobs around us that we're trying to sneak past.
WoW's solution? No, don't expect anything from the players so that they need to step their game up slightly. Instead dumb everything down! Then everyone can get to the same point because there's no threshold for having skill or...any idea what you're doing.
