“Almost awesome.”

That’s the the alliterative phrase I’d attribute to the current state of WoW. There are many bright points in WoW’s situation, but there are also some persisting flaws. As with any “State of the Union” address, my “State of the Game” address is largely based on opinion. Some are universally agreed upon, but most are personal. This should be kept in mind.

Playability

In general, WoW has always been easy to play. The learning curve its basic controls and actions is very small, and a tutorial guides people through its simple processes. The introduction of new abilities is gradual, so as not to overwhelm a new player with too many abilities. And the quest and leveling process ushers people through portions of the game with some increasing difficulty.

But it also takes a lot of time, practice and effort to “master” the end-game. So, while WoW is generally “easy” to play, it has a lot of potential for difficulty. Just ask any of the high-end guilds what it was like trying to kill the first versions of Vashj, Kael’thas and C’Thun, and ask any highly rated arena teams what it takes to win tournaments. More on this topic will be discussed in the PvE and PvP sections.

The UI

WoW’s UI has always been top notch. So much so that Blizzard has even felt the need to disallow certain functions, as some mods could essentially “play” the game for people. Need to decurse someone? No problem, just hit your decursive hotkey and it’ll automatically decurse anyone who needs it! About to completely overheal someone? No problem, just keep casting, and CTRaid will stop your heal with 0.1 seconds to spare! These are two examples of features for which Blizzard has removed functionality.

WoW’s UI is also extremely customizable visually. If you’re sick of screen clutter, you can typically find mods that are minimally invasive. And, hell, if you want to play with a Hello Kitty UI, have no fear… you can!

Atmosphere

WoW offers a unique atmosphere that is distinctly Warcraftian in nature. Its graphical engine caters more towards the concept art on which the game is based. For this reason, Blizzard has managed to avoid the artificially rendered feel I think DAoC and EQ2 brings to the table. Blizzard has been shameless in its attempts to shirk this faux realism. And while some people dislike this, I am one of the many people who actually appreciates it.

Visually, the game has only ever improved. The sheer amount of detail and quality in the designs for most of TBC’s zones, especially Silvermoon City, Nagrand, and Sunwell Plateau is enormous. And the percentage of quality zones when comparing the zones of TBC to those of vanilla WoW is much higher. I imagine the quality will only continue to improve with WotLK.

Musically, WoW has also made some incredible advancements since the game went live. A simple comparison to reflect this can be made by first listening to vanilla WoW’s intro music and then TBC’s. The difference is quite clear. And while I admire what Jason Hayes did for WoW and Warcraft III, I think Russell Brower is simply a better composer. Nothing yet compares to the compositions for Black Temple and Eversong.

Questing and Leveling

The questing and leveling refinements made to the content added in TBC has been nothing short of awesome. Each zones’ quests are well-concentrated into specific hubs. And the progression through each zone is fairly clear. You don’t have to hop around from zone to zone doing various quests. You can simply go from HFP, to Zangarmarsh, to Terrokar, to Nagrand, to BEM, and then to Netherstorm and SMV. There is minimal jumping between zones. Overall, leveling in Outland is a great experience. All Blizzard needs to do for WotLK is repeat the general zone design and quest hub concepts, and simply improve the quality of each quest itself to make it an even better experience.

Old World Content

Recently, Blizzard made some improvements to this content by increasing the leveling speed and adding quests and a new hub to Dustwallow Marsh. They also added some new flight points to relieve some of the problems with the way quests were scattered across the old world continents. With that said, however, I think the way in which non-60 quests are scattered is still problematic and could do with a complete revamp. But I guess I don’t have access to the statistics for player retention, and maybe that’s why Blizzard hasn’t found the need for it. I am however curious as to how many new players end up quitting before having the ability to enter Outland.

Classes

The classes have come a long way since the game went live. And TBC’s release changed the situation many classes were in. Feral druids are now viable in general for PvE, though it took a few months after TBC’s release to fix the itemization problems for the spec. Shadow priests are also more viable than they were in vanilla WoW. Discipline priests are incredibly viable for PvP. Arms warriors are overpowered for PvP and actually synergize incredibly well with a raid heavy on physical DPS. And so on. Definitely, some trees are still inferior to others. Retribution paladins (especially those of the Alliance) definitely need some work. But, overall, Blizzard has made some incredible strides.

Also, WoW’s general dynamics of interaction between classes has typically been much better than in other games I have experience with. In DAoC, I chose not to spec my shaman for healing simply because standing out of LoS and spamming group heals in PvP was incredibly boring. However, that left me with a generally weak spec as a shaman. So I’d often go back to playing my spiritmaster, which was overpowered as a PBAoE class running with healers that could AoE stun and give me a chance to wipe entire zergs.

So, in regards to general class dynamics, even if WoW has had weak specs at various points in time, it has been generally better than its predecessors. I can’t say much for the current crop of MMO’s, however, as I haven’t played them.

5-Mans

Giving every single 5-man in TBC a heroic level 70 version was a novel concept that the game desperately needed. Instead of offering level 70 players only five or so decent end-game 5-mans, TBC has sixteen. They also offer gear that is above and beyond what vanilla WoW’s blue dungeons had to offer. So this has made WoW’s PvE game much more accessible to casual players.

Dailies

Dailies are a godsend. No longer do you have to mindlessly grind or gather to make money. For those of us who found both incredibly boring, dailies are a nice added option that TBC has over vanilla WoW. And the introduction of the Shattered Sun Offensive dailies has only improved the feature.

Raiding Content

I think TBC’s raid content is generally higher in quality than that of the original WoW. While vanilla WoW definitely had a few awesome encounters, TBC has a much higher percentage of encounters that fall into at least one of the three categories I consider important: innovative, difficult, and enjoyable. Difficult encounters are not always decent, however, as the challenge could simply result from flawed or random mechanics, instead of well-crafted scripts.

What is awkward about TBC’s line of progression, however, is that two of the most difficult encounters existed dead in the middle of the “big picture,” so-to-speak. Hell, before Sunwell, I considered Kael’thas to be #1 in terms of technical difficulty, though not in terms of repeatability. And Vashj is well up there with Kael’thas, Archimonde and Illidan. However, the Four Horsemen still trump all of those encounters. Then again, that may be a result of the fact that loot yield per person was generally lower in vanilla WoW, since you needed tanks with enough T3 to decrease the possibility of having attempts screwed over by taunt resists.

Another issue is that Hyjal and BT are not generally difficult. Certainly, Archimonde is challenging, and phase two of Illidan is tricky. But the only other seemingly uphill battles we faced were getting people to do the ghosts on Teron correctly, figuring out the trash before Kaz’rogal, waiting patiently for people to figure out the reflects, interrupts and dispels on phase two of RoS, and healing Gurtogg. That’s it, really.

Sunwell Plateau has changed everything, however. Every single encounter is difficult. And I have enjoyed both Brutallus and Felmyst immensely. I don’t enjoy the Eredar Twins, however. But their difficulty serves the purpose of providing everyone with an instance that is an overall challenge. If M’uru and Kil’jaeden are equally as enjoyable and difficult as Kalecgos, Brutallus and Felmyst, it will have be the best produced raid instance the game has yet to offer. It has atmosphere and everything that makes a good raid instance.

As far as the nerfs to Kael’thas and the lifting of attunements go, I have nothing against them. As much as people like to say “they’re making an already easy game even easier,” I think it’s important to understand that the raiding game isn’t easy for some people. Sometimes, you just don’t have the time to raid enough and see the end-game content without the help of slight nerfs and increases in item quality. And most of these nerfs have been inconsequential for guilds on the bleeding edge of content, anyway.

The only recent raiding development I find questionable is the intention behind the Sunwell gates. I suppose Blizzard is concerned that people are going to clear the instance too fast, as there are so many guilds higher in quality than in the days of vanilla WoW, and gearing up is a much easier feat. Surely, unless there are encounters as difficult (read: as impossible or near impossible) as versions 1.0 of Vashj and Kael’thas, they are going to be killed quickly by the likes of Nihilum and SK Gaming. Both of these guilds have the resources to easily beat any doable encounters within several hours of release. But then this is to be expected given their sponsorship and sheer number of quality players.

PvE Itemization

I know a lot of people playing the game consider itemization to be broken. And for many their reasoning is that they feel their gear has been cheapened by the fact that decent quality gear has become easier and easier to obtain through PvP and badge gear. But I think the intention behind the increases in the quality of badge and arena gear serve a much better purpose. And that is to provide otherwise casual players with the opportunity to artificially advance in the game when their progress would otherwise stagnate. It also gives people starting fresh a chance to “catch up” and at least come close to having the quality of gear necessary to join guilds who have already progressed partially into Hyjal and BT, something that would have taken months upon months to do in vanilla WoW.

From a business standpoint, this is incredibly important. Players who naturally get stuck on Vashj and Kael’thas, because their guilds aren’t good enough to kill them, will end up eventually quitting the game as they grow more and more frustrated. And it truly doesn’t matter for those who have already moved far beyond that content, as it has already been seen and done for them.

For those already making headway in Sunwell, and those who have already killed Illidan and Archimonde, I would pose the following question: What does it matter to you that people can now obtain gear generally lower in quality than the gear you can obtain from Archimonde, Illidan and Sunwell? Certainly, with the caster haste gear, I can see why you would probably argue that you care because the pieces are overpowered for their ilvl. But can casual players also pick up a Skull of Gul’dan? Can they pick up a Tempest of Chaos? Do they have a shot at a Warglaive or Memento of Tyrande? Nope. So what does it matter in the scope of the bigger picture?

As one of the players in Sunwell (and well into it… working on the Eredar Twins), I don’t really care. I raid to kill shit. I don’t raid because I want my epics to look larger than my competition’s. And, if anything, it makes recruitment less frustrating, as I can actually look at some of these people, if the number of geared applicants remains too low. It also means I can seriously consider the decent players I know on the Horde side if they ever choose to switch factions. Overall, this new availability of decent items is a good thing. And, because Blizzard has approached the increasing quality with incremental release cycles, it doesn’t generally outpace the gear available for guilds pushing progression.

In another grain of itemization, Blizzard has gone from misunderstanding the stats classes want and need for PvE to creating items that optimally support many different roles. There are still some optimizations to be made, however. And some of these optimizations may actually be best addressed through class changes, as opposed to revamped itemization. Still, compare T1 and T2 to T3, T4, T5 and T6 for a holy paladin and you’ll see the vast improvements that have been made towards optimization since vanilla WoW. And the introduction of new types of stats have also created some situationally interesting options.

Furthermore, the new system in Sunwell where people can swap items designed for one spec or class to another is pretty awesome, as it minimizes rot. Now, if only Blizzard would do something similar for weapons.

PvP

PvP is the part of the game I have the most problems with. It definitely has a lot of potential, given the game’s fundamental mechanics. However, certain aspects of the system are incredibly flawed.

First of all, the support for various PvP systems as part of the end-game is lopsided. Arenas receive the most emphatic support from Blizzard. And the e-Sport experiment has been, in my opinion, one of the biggest mistakes Blizzard has ever made. I don’t understand how Blizzard can have had the common sense to recognize that Uwe Boll doesn’t deserve to make movies based on video games, and yet didn’t recognize the fact that attempting to meet the balancing standards of e-Sports would be problematic. WoW simply has too many mechanics encompassing too many systems and areas of the game unrelated to arenas. As with any MMO, overwhelming problems are going to be created when trying to focus the game on one area. If Blizzard really wants arenas to be made into an e-Sport, they should just make tournament realms permanent and balance the classes in isolation on those realms.

Many class balancing decisions have resulted from performance in certain arena brackets, due to the increase focus of PvP on arenas. This is a flawed approach, considering different classes perform better in different PvP settings. For example, while druids are overpowered in 2v2, 3v3 and WSG, they are pretty well-balanced in 5v5, AB or AV. Then consider mages, who are pretty damn weak in 2v2. Though they are weak in this bracket, they are well-balanced for 3v3 and overpowered for 5v5. Also, I can’t count the number of times my flag running support in WSG has been fucked over by two mages chaining novas and sheeps. Mages have also been the primary class I’ve seen excel at interrupting flag caps in AB and AV.

Also amongst all of this focus on arenas, BG’s have become neglected and have been relegated to supporting a flat system with extremely limited rewards. Perhaps this is because Blizzard has statistics suggesting BG’s are unpopular these days. But, honestly, I think the unpopularity can be attributed to the fact that arenas simply offer better rewards. I know the rewards are why I arena, but I’d actually prefer to play rated WSG games over arena any day of the week. And there are a lot of people in my guild that say the same thing. With that said, however, I like having variety, as well. Having robust systems for both arenas and BG’s would be better than having emphasis on simply one or the other.

I also believe it would be in Blizzard’s best interests to offer the option of obtaining s3-style gear from a rated BG system, as well as from arenas. They should perhaps offer some way to obtain the off-set items from arenas, as well, so people can actually choose what style of PvP to compete in. It would also give specific classes more opportunities to excel, as they will have a variety of options to choose from. That said, I’m not opposed to giving mages a new talent in WotLK that makes them more viable than they are now for 2v2 without making them even more overpowered in 5v5.

But something of concern relating to all of this discussion is the fact that Blizzard needs to fix its ratings system. Point selling and win trading has caused a myriad of problems for arenas. I absolutely loathe losing games to point selling teams raising their rating back up from 1900. It causes so many issues for people trying to climb out of mid-rated arenas into the upper tiers. So this is something that needs to be treated with urgency. Tom Chilton has stated changes are on the way, but we’ll see. Their last batch of changes didn’t fix the problem, so I’m pessimistic.

Also, given WoW’s PvP systems, I want to consider my experiences with DAoC and what I believe WoW comparatively lacks. Quite simply, DAoC’s RvR (realm versus realm) was and still is unparalleled in terms of innovation. Its only problem, really, is that the game itself is clunky and other systems terribly flawed.

To elaborate on the positives, however, DAoC had three realms (or “factions” to use WoW terminology). Each realm had their own frontier, which was set of non-instanced zones in the dedicated RvR area of the game. Each frontier was built to be primarily controlled by only one realm, and that realm would have two “border keeps” allowing entry into the frontiers. So, for example, Albion would have two border keeps for its four frontier zones, and Hibernia and Midgard would also have their own portal keeps and zones.

In order to get to the opposing realms’ frontiers, you had to take a boat and then travel on foot. This meant spies could spot you and alert the realm about your presence and muster up a defense. Also, because of the length of travel, this meant offensive units had to have a compact strategy and focus, as there were no graveyards that would pop you nearby. If you wiped, you had to spend time travelling back to your old location. This made some battles truly epic and gave defenses time to recooperate before the offensive realm returned for another attempt.

Each frontier had capturable keeps and towers, for which the mechanics were intricate and well-designed. Being on top of a tower, building or wall provided a range bonus. In addition, towers and keeps offered ballistae, cauldrons of boiling oil and NPC guards which could give defenders an upper-hand in catching large offensive groups off-guard. To give you an idea of how pivotal these were for a defense, just imagine 40 people dying simultaneously to boiling oil and the only people surviving being tank classes. So storming keeps and towers with brute force numbers proved difficult when even a small number of people remained to defend a building. However, if a keep or tower was proving difficult to capture, guilds and raids could bring catapults and rams to pummel the tower or keep to the ground before storming and taking it. It should be noted that, for some keeps within a realm’s own frontier that the realm had under their control, you could sometimes port to them from your border keeps (my memory is rather foggy on the conditions for portal, however). So this made the defense of keeps within your own realm easier than the defense of those you controlled outside of your own realm.

Furthermore, the fact that DAoC had three different realms was pivotal in balancing each faction. If one realm was proving dominant, the two other realms would often forge a temporary alliance to overpower the dominant realm. However, because what happened in RvR offered a decent amount of rewards in various areas of the game (owning a keep as a guild would give you bonuses in terms of damage done or damage taken), these alliances typically didn’t last very long. So, once the power had been taken from an overpopulated realm, alliances would usually dissolve. And these fluxuations in alliances created an RvR system in which no one realm was completely dominant.

Also, it should be noted that the most fortified zones in each frontier contained what were called “relics.” In order to take a relic, entire realms or extremely large guilds had to stage “relic raids” that would venture deep into the opposing realm’s frontier. First, you had to capture three specific keeps in order to open what was called a “milegate” that would allow you to enter the area in which a relic keep was located. Then you had to storm this relic keep and defeat both the powerful guards and players defending the keep. Only then could you capture the relic. Also, in order to capture a relic, you would have to own your own relic. So if another realm was holding your own relic within one of their relic keeps, you’d have to get it back before taking theirs. Controlling an enemy relic would give you a 10% bonus to damage.

It’s important to note that none of this was instanced. Everyone had access to the frontiers, and there was no player limit. So some battles were truly epic in scale.

This just gives you an idea of a new sort of system WoW could potentially have, and it is something I think WoW is lacking. With that said, Blizzard does plan to add a world PvP zone in WotLK called Lake Wintergrasp. This zone will also have siege engines and destructible buildings. However, I think the two faction setup of WoW will be detrimental to the experience on servers where one faction vastly outnumbers the other, unless Blizzard creates some sort of innovative mechanic that will turn the tides when one faction is at a disadvantage. Otherwise, I think people are going to try it out and then abandon it once they realize its problems. That’s if it doesn’t offer highly desired rewards, however. If it does, I think the underpowered faction will complain until Blizzard does something about it. I’m also pessimistic as to just how intricate the system was going to be. When AV was first described before its release, I was expecting something much more epic than killing NPC’s and clicking flags. The battle between players themselves is certainly awesome, at times, but that doesn’t even happen anymore.

What WoW does have over DAoC, however, is the concept of instanced battlegrounds itself. This concept gives Blizzard the option of creating experiences based on even match-ups, and this can often be much more exciting than massive zergs. WSG is definitely one of the highlights of WoW’s PvP system, IMO. I enjoy it as DAoC’s RvR.

So WoW’s PvP system has its positives, but it also has a long ways to go. And I think there’s a lot that can be done to make it worthwhile. Arenas need to stop being treated as the central focus. Variety needs to be supported on a greater scale. The destructible building and siege engine systems Blizzard is planning to introduce need to be as well-designed and innovative as those of DAoC. I would also enjoy something similar to the massive frontier-style PvP DAoC had to offer. One zone just seems so lackluster. I’d love to see an area with large zones with numerous keeps and towers. It’d be great to see my guild controlling a keep we could go and defend between raids when another attacks it (or retake if we lose it while we’re raiding). It would certainly give the game a greater sense of war, as well.

PvP Itemization

There are some flaws in PvP itemization that have had an affect on the quality of the PvP end-game. In addition to my belief that people should have more options for gearing up PvP-wise, you also have the added detriment that PvE gear brings to PvP. Certainly, PvP gear is supposed to be set on separate pedestal from PvE. However, certain PvE items are better than what you can obtain from PvP in various brackets. Simply put, a fully-geared s3 rogue in the upper tiers of 2v2 simply can’t compete with a rogue of similar skill decked in 4-piece T6 and sporting warglaives. And the issue is now compounded by the fact that these rogues, assuming they are progressing in Sunwell, can eventually have both the T6 and arena 4-piece bonuses, once they have the T6 bracers, boots and belt. So these rogues will retain the percentage increase to their core damaging abilities, while simultaneously maintaining a high level of resilience and having the ability to proc warglaives and burn people down with their 110 energy bar. Good game.

So what Blizzard could do is simply disallow certain PvE items from arenas. Another alternative, and one I prefer, is to find a way to further differentiate PvP items from PvE, especially in the weapon department. Perhaps add some kind of stats or use effects that specifically cater towards PvP healing, DPS or survivability. Otherwise, itemization will continue to be a problem.

On another issue, I’ve heard people argue that more PvP gear should have ratings requirements. And while I think this would be an okay approach to s4 gear, I think it would be a mistake to introduce these sorts of requirements for anything but items that come later in an expansion. Otherwise, new players will face an uphill battle in trying to obtain any sort of PvP gear. And this would lead to many moments of frustration and what I like to call “PvP rage.”

Conclusion

In general, I feel WoW’s playability, PvE and class systems are in a very good situation. I like the instanced style of raid content, because I absolutely hate spawn camping and competition (one of the flaws that caused me to quit DAoC). I am also glad casual players and alts have a shot at obtaining some generally decent gear, as well. However, WoW’s PvP system still needs some major advancements and tweaks. Also, unless I see a PvP system that is extremely well-designed, I can’t consider WoW truly awesome beyond merely its PvE. Until then, the game as a whole will be “almost awesome” to me.

So let’s take it up a notch in WotLK, Blizzard.

And thus ends my garrulous crusade. Posts from here on should be short and to the point on current events and experiences. My apologies for any TLDR gag reflexes.