I've played WoW for about 4 years on an off as a mage. I had leveled a shaman through the course of Burning Crusade and really fell in love with him. From 1-70 I had level as enhancement and unfortunately at the time enhancement was kind of gimped so I went resto. Throughout the BC xpac I mostly pvp'd as resto and raided on my mage and while I really like resto, I always missed enhancement. I had just spent so much time on his arena gear the thought of switching was too daunting.
With that said, WotLK was my chance to reinvent him. I had decided to retire my mage and make enhance my main.
In between a part and studying this weekend I PvP'd with the shaman. I enjoyed it, but I did feel a little outclassed. I'm not sure if its flaws in the spec, my inexperience with the new mechanics, or that I'm just not very good. I'm thinking it's a bit of a combination of all three. I can say however I thought I saw some gaping holes in the Enhancement specs ability. This has kind of got me second guessing my switch to shaman, or at least to this spec.
What I really want to talk about is the world. It's beautiful, but am I the only one who feels a little bit like... we've been here before?
The size of the zone is really incredible. They are HUGE, but I'm not so sure thats a good thing. Think about it, remember way back when you were level 30-45? Remember Stranglethorn Vale, the first time? I remember walking into that place thinking, "This. Is. AWESOME!" Then after about 8 levels and no end in site I was thinking, "LET ME LEAVE!" The same thing happened to me in Nagrand, and Netherstorm. Just an incredible amount of land, quests, and little contrast. Now I can deal with one of these zone, but Northrend is almost entirely made up of this huge plates of land.
As far as the feel of those zones, I have to say the Nordic architecture and feel is fantastic. On their own, every zone is beautiful, but as a whole its kind of like playing Gears of War. By that I mean the entire world is made up of grey, brown, and muzzle flash. Lets call Snow and the Basin Northrends muzzle flash. Couple the dreary feel with the immense size of the zones and your going to start going insane.
That's another thing. I get that you can't reinvent the bestiary completely every single xpac. Well. Actually no I don't get that but anyways... Lets talk monsters, after all, you are going to be killing them by the millions for the next year and a half to 2 years. Just roaming through zones I can count on one hand how many brand spanking new models I saw. I can count on two hands how many tweaked models I saw (mammoths for instance are just Elleks with a few tweaks) and I can't even begin to tell you how many reskins I saw. It just feels like I've done all of this before. The quests the mobs the mechanics, I don't know what I'm looking for, I just know its not more of this.
While I haven't completely written it off in just one weekend, I can tell you I'm less optimistic than i was prior to this. Hopefully diving into real content with characters I know and love will give a better understanding.
Nerd out.
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