Ian Gregoire

Most of these reviews feel like they were paid for, or are written by hate-fueled gamers that are riding the hate train. So here's probably the most honest review you'll see about WoW during it's SoD patch in the Shadowlands Xpac. I returned to WoW a bit late to the new Shadowlands release of the game after having not played it for years. I was able to have a very fresh outlook on the game. Getting into it was fun as a solo player, I played a class that interested me, there were some fancy things like conduits, covenants, and covenant halls that were appealing. I even met a great group of people that accepted me into their raiding group despite being pretty garbage at the game. Frankly I don't see the toxicity that is talked about in game much at all, but granted I don't read the General Chat hardly ever. I will say though that the player base is very elitist, though that's no fault of the players themselves but the design of the game. Now for the negatives of the game, some things conflict with my positives but bare with me. Getting back into the game I was able to get the CN AotC (ahead of the curve) achievement and after that I didn't see a reason to continue playing for several reasons. I saw no point in continuing to grind for gear in dungeons or raids since I had already accomplished my main goal, even my raiding group stopped playing for the most part afterwards for similar reasons. There is nothing to do in the game after you accomplish your raiding goal. The grind rewards nothing unless you plan on going for CE (cutting edge achievement) records, such as World First for mythic raids. Fast forward to the next raid release of SoD and my goal now is to get the CE achievement and quit until the next raid release, because after that there is nothing to actually strive for. One could go into PvP and the principal is similar to grinding out League of Legends ranked games but in the MMO format with battlegrounds, 2v2s, etc. Obviously this is a personal choice to go into PvP or not, as a PvE player in WoW my content is actually limited after a certain point, which in of itself is horrible game design. So I don't write more of a book for a review, I'll start to wrap up. Wow for a new player can be interesting & engaging depending on how they react to the quests/content available. This lasts for at most a month. Once you hit level cap the game changes drastically. Suddenly you have to repeatedly farm the same dungeons repeatedly for the chance at loot, raids are a weekly trial that can be incredibly frustrating w/o a group, and still can be with a group if RNGesus isn't on your side. After finishing the raid/dungeon achievements in the game, which frankly isn't difficult with a guild/community to help gear and provide tips. There's nothing except PvP or gearing for the next raid release. If you're a PvE player it's actually more sensible to get the achievement of AotC or CE and then quit, because while you 'can' continue grinding and getting the optimal gear available for 'parses' or 'Mythic IO' (games way of rating performance on bosses/dungeons against other players) it's incredibly easy to catch up for AotC or CE unless you join a world's first team. It's horrible design to have a game lose its players' interest after a certain point like this, though despite that the game is a fun experience if the player has a goal.