GameSpot Hands-On The War Within - More of the Same, In a Good Way

The War Within Posted 2024/04/18 at 1:27 AM by Archimtiros

hands-on experienceThe Goodfate of Dalaran

GameSpot

"Khadgar has in the past been that guiding figure for us, but the story of The War Within, it's not just about that," associate art director Tina Wang said in an interview with GameSpot. "We have our main characters, Alleria and Anduin, who are big drivers of the story, and so much of The War Within is about their journey as well and their discovery, them healing the wounds of the past and really delving into that layer of who they are."complete with new character model
"Something we wanted to do with her design was create something where she's elegant, she's airy, she's of the void, but also she's very intimidating," Wang said. "That was one of the balances we wanted to strike with her."
"We can really path a story to flow directly through dungeons in a way we couldn't in the past, in ways that at times was frankly awkward, because sometimes major villains die in dungeons, Hazzikostas said. "Dungeons are places of great importance to a zone but we couldn't tie them directly into the questing because we didn't want to create an obstacle for players who really just prefer to keep playing solo."

It was a sentiment lead quest designer Dani Merrithew echoed in an interview with GameSpot.

"It did allow us to in general focus more on what dungeons are really good for, which is that awesome environmental storytelling that kind of fills in the gaps," Merrithew said. "We're really excited that we can do that now going forward and it's something I believe we are going to continue going forward as well."The BadUnfortunately, at least from the two (out of a total of 12) Delves I played, it's hard to say whether or not they will be as enduring as the game's other tried-and-true forms of PvE content. Though there are some unique mechanics present, like one Delve requiring players to find candles to fend off an encroaching darkness that reduces vision and max health, or another that had players avoiding spider webs lest they summon additional enemies, they provide little challenge and felt too similar to one another to make me want to run them repeatedly. Each had me progressing through linear hallways underground, clicking on items or NPCs, battling enemies, and facing a brief boss battle at the end with little else to mix up the gameplay. Players will unlock more challenging versions of each Delve as they complete the expansion's campaign and grow in power, but it remains to be seen if Delves will be able to hold the attention of players week after week without more variety, even when faced with more challenging enemies at higher difficulties.
While it feels like Hero Talents aren't nearly as impactful as Covenants were in Shadowlands, and are thankfully free to change or swap between at any moment, it does feel like the idea is fundamentally flawed and that new talents and unique class fantasies should be two separate things for players to choose. What if a Hunter player really loves the idea of being a Dark Ranger but feels forced to pick the Pack Leader Hero Talent tree because it's simply better from a DPS perspective? I'm not sure what the solution is here, other than maybe letting players dabble between multiple Hero Talent trees. However, it seems clear something has to give, lest players find themselves in a similar, albeit less punishing, situation to that of Shadowlands' early days.The War Within Alpha Coverage

The War Within Alpha

Content Features

Classes, Dungeons, & Raids

Professions

Models

Interviews

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Comment by the9tailIs there even a "chance" that simple feedback of "Hero Talents" should have a huge aesthetic change to the character as well? If you are gonna be a Dark Ranger, all abilities should be tainted. If you are going to be a Horseman of the Apocalypse, why can't you be on your horse all the damn time?

Like the article says, this looks/feels as impactful as Shadowlands when it should be its own complete thing.Comment by ArjisajI've been saying this very thing about Hero Talents from the get go. It's like they learned literally nothing from Shadowlands. These should have just been class skins and nothing more.Comment by MyFingerIsOnCDSo TWW is delivering:

Hero Talents - flawed and uninspired, talent bloat, more of what we already have

Delves - clearly must appeal to a portion of the player base that doesn't do PvP/m+/raid, but a lot of people won't care

Dragonriding - on more mounts and given a new name, more of what we already have

Warbands - account wide stuff at last, but it's WoW so it's a feature and given a silly name

Allied race - another dwarf, nobody cares

Solo queue RBG - removing a barrier to entry for PvP, good win for a game mode that doesn't get much attention

Comment by the9tail
Delves - clearly must appeal to a portion of the player base that doesn't do PvP/m+/raid, but a lot of people won't care.Comment by Larryg121"What if a Hunter player really loves the idea of being a Dark Ranger but feels forced to pick the Pack Leader Hero Talent tree because it's simply better from a DPS perspective?"

And what if I really love Fury but feel forced to play Arms simply because it's better DPS? Guess what - I still play Fury, even though I'm pushing hard content. You know when this argument matters? When you're pushing at the utmost highest level from out the gates. This argument does not matter for the vast majority of the player-base. If Dark Ranger is worse than Sentinel, most players will probably go Dark Ranger. If Mountain Thane is worse than Slayer, most people might go Mountain Thane.

Everyone always seems to forget who the majority of the player base is and what they do, and what would happen if you try to homogenize the classes to a point where they're unrecognizable from one another outside VFX.

And they were never slated as class skins. You thought they were class skins, they didn't say they were class skins, stop *!@#$ing about your own head-canon not being true.

If for me, Mountain Thane is the best DPS one I will play it, and I will try out Slayer. If Slayer becomes the better one the next season than good! Tuning begets gameplay variety, that's what you SHOULD aim for. That's why a shifting meta should always be the goal.Comment by Shebainu123i think a big issue with classes is that they went class fantasy i feel theese hero talents may have been a better choice if they did it right with spec fantasy back when each spec felt like its own fantasy instead off class but then again i could be wrong and i see why people wanted class fantasy i just feel spec fantasy was betterComment by johntravolta342So TWW is delivering:

Hero Talents - flawed and uninspired, talent bloat, more of what we already have
Delves - clearly must appeal to a portion of the player base that doesn't do PvP/m+/raid, but a lot of people won't care
Dragonriding - on more mounts and given a new name, more of what we already have
Warbands - account wide stuff at last, but it's WoW so it's a feature and given a silly name
Allied race - another dwarf, nobody cares
Solo queue RBG - removing a barrier to entry for PvP, good win for a game mode that doesn't get much attention

That's not a lot of grand appeal to sell the xpac on.Comment by ShadowlygerSpot !@#$ing on: "While it feels like Hero Talents aren't nearly as impactful as Covenants were in Shadowlands, and are thankfully free to change or swap between at any moment, it does feel like the idea is fundamentally flawed and that new talents and unique class fantasies should be two separate things for players to choose."Comment by dreadmarblesIt's insane the amount of negativity that some people spout on these comment sections, it's like watching that old jaded aunt complaining about every single thing about her life while still being a slave to all of the behaviors that make her miserable. It's frankly quite pathetic. The game is looking more promising than it's ever looked since wrath but people will nitpick every little thing when the game is still in a state of alpha. The feedback should be about ways to improve the game during this early state. Too much arrogance and ego. For a damn game. If it doesn't make you happy what are you doing here?Comment by KahllolCan't wait to see what horrible changes they are gonna do that destroy the game even moreComment by Mystic0xThe argument that fantasy and power should be separate is just stupid. Might as well make all classes so homogenized that they play exactly the same and then you can choose your favorite fantasy. I don’t get to complain about fantasy and power if I seek to be the “best” class. FOTM changes so often and I’m not going to not play my warlock which I love the fantasy of, just so I can do more dmg as a mage. It’s a stupid argument. I’ll play whatever hero talents I want to and still push 20s easily. (Now 10s)Comment by Jinokunmy question to you guys is: are you all replaying m+ dungeons or the raids for the whole season?
I mean, they are sceptical if Delves have the replayability a m+ season or raid has, but for me personally I dont even raid or do dungeons for a whole season, so I'd be very fine if it's even just a few months each season.

also to the whole Hero talent thing. IMO this could've been a visuals-only thing. I love class fantasy a lot and I am super hyped for the hero talents but if it's just another small coventant like ability and a few passives it's gonna be very underwhelming. But gotta see how it looksComment by instigI think something Max said on his stream was interesting.

He said if you complete all Delves, you unlock a 13th Delve.

If that's true, I hope they add a reward like Mage Tower for the 13th delve, that is much more difficult, to motivate players to play Delves, and would improve delves massively if it ended up being similar to mage tower on the 13th delve, unlocking a cool reward.Comment by 2482648Can't wait to see what horrible changes they are gonna do that destroy the game even moreSo TWW is delivering:

Hero Talents - flawed and uninspired, talent bloat, more of what we already have
Delves - clearly must appeal to a portion of the player base that doesn't do PvP/m+/raid, but a lot of people won't care
Dragonriding - on more mounts and given a new name, more of what we already have
Warbands - account wide stuff at last, but it's WoW so it's a feature and given a silly name
Allied race - another dwarf, nobody cares
Solo queue RBG - removing a barrier to entry for PvP, good win for a game mode that doesn't get much attention

That's not a lot of grand appeal to sell the xpac on.Comment by PriestessAurI am looking forward to Delves but being cautiously optimistic. I am hoping they are not to rigid and just the same same all the time. I would love to see some RNG in the way you run them Torghast style. Even if they add some challenging levels, it will just end up being like a solo dungeon where you script out your whole route. I am hoping there is some way to create variety baked into these.Comment by GweenzSo, basically the narrative is good, which I hope is better quality than last 3 expansions (but I doubt), and gameplay isn't much good... because it doesn't bring anything new. Yeah, kinda expected.Comment by tupolew519In my opinion xal'atah looks similar to warcraft 3's blood mage.Comment by Raxus502"in a good way" that doesn't bode well.. why did i just spend 100$ for "more of the same"Comment by HeroicRyan816Can't wait to see what horrible changes they are gonna do that destroy the game even moreComment by felbloodsI don't really see how some of the Hero Talents do really anything for the "Class Fantasy." The mention of Dark Ranger, and looking at certain things like Trickster Rogue or what have you, there's not really anything visually that changes there. Like, getting a new spell or two and a new passive isn't class fantasy to me, it should be full on skins over all of your spells, there should be visual perks, appearances, character customizations, etc. So I don't really see how certain classes are going to struggle picking for the sake of class fantasy. It's just an extra button and more needless complex passive talents to try to remember.

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