World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor

The 2014 World of Warcraft expansion reminds me of that brief and happy time when I managed to dramatically improve my physical appearance and hid all the pictures of the old me from the eyes of my romantic conquests before we didn't know each other a little better. Warlords of Draenor takes the same approach. Blizzard's resilient MMORPG may turn 10 this year, it manages to keep your focus on its latest content like no expansion has done before. Blizzard wants you to keep your attention on Draenor, and it's easy to see why. While the elements of the expansion emphasize solo play a little too much, the experience of playing the reigning ruler of MMOs has never been more enjoyable.

With this expansion, WoW places virtually all services in the new strongholds of Stormshield and Warspear, bypassing the need to frolic around decade-old items to finally place them in the Auction House. You can also indulge in expansion-specific occupation tasks, regardless of your skill level. The expansion even offers propulsion at level 90 for anyone who buys it. Thanks to new character models and other updates, WoW is really not looking its age until you leave the new content and cross the old world boundaries again.

Orcs & Humans

It's also pure Warcraft. If Warlords of Draenor comes with a strange time travel story centered on Garrosh Hellscream and his attempt to patch things up with his good old daddy for the pleasure of invading Azeroth, basically the story is about the need to kill. lots of orcs. And these orcs are downright cool too. Blizzard killed most of its real villains a long time ago, but this time-leap-based tale to the original orc world of Draenor before the events of Warcraft: Orcs & Humans finally lets us face them. again.

For Warcraft veterans with 20 years of experience like myself, this doesn't come without nostalgia. There's Ner'zhul, the orc who merged with Arthas to become the Lich King! There is Grommash Hellscream, nervous as ever! Blizzard introduces these characters and a bunch of others so quickly, in an hour-long window, that it's clearly difficult to fit in all of this information if you're new to it, but that's okay. They're really cool, the cutscenes establish their personalities in seconds, and they're fun to fight. If the simplistic story stumbles, it's only because Blizzard seems too eager to take inspiration from Game of Thrones by killing off plethora of key characters during player leveling up, even though we already got stuck with it. to them again.

But the world of Draenor itself is a compelling character. It's beautiful already, and like the rest of WoW, the environment is populated with nifty new character models for pretty much every race. The world itself is technically the same as the one we saw in 2007 with The Burning Crusade expansion, but placing Warlords before its destruction allows it to take on an entirely different appearance. The old fan-favorite area of Nagrand remains largely untouched, but you can find grassy meadows in the moonlight instead of the gruesome debris of Shadowmoon Valley in 2007, and the formerly ruined Auchindoun Dome. , regained its splendor. Warlords of Draenor enshrines Blizzard's return to the pinnacle of aesthetics, already achieved in Mists of Pandaria, but here the focus is on orc encampments and wild environments which renews the experience regarding the most significant places of Warcraft.

It is an environment that you will almost always discover on foot or on foot. Blizzard's bias in removing the flying mounts entirely from Warlords of Draenor sometimes results in the frustration of not being able to foolishly hover over a mountain range to cross it, but that only makes the trip more enjoyable. This development brings to life some idea of the exploration that had been lost since the original game, when it was necessary to inspect the surroundings for new paths, to climb isolated ridges and there. unearth seemingly inaccessible treasures. It adds a welcome touch of adventure to hunting enemies for your quests. Brought down to the character's eye level, Draenor feels like a world you live in, rather than just a topographic map.

Mr. Garrison

All of the quests associated with your choices emphasize that the story here is mostly about you. You are not just the average adventurer, you are the "commander" - the murderer of the Lich King and the bane of the Deathwing dragon - and the NPCs greet you and whisper their admiration for your exploits, while you walk strutting. This system comes to a head in the new Garrisons in Warlords of Draenor, where you can build and expand your small city to all four corners of faction starting areas in Draenor. As with the outposts, the main garrison allows you to customize your playstyle at will, and this affects just about every aspect of the gameplay. Want new mounts and immunity to stun when you mount them? Build and upgrade your stables. Want special access to Personal Banks, Guild Banks, and an Auction House? Build and upgrade your trading post. And my favorite: Do you want to increase your chances of getting Quest Gear Upgrades? Make yourself a dwarf fort.

Across three levels, the garrisons evolve in much the same way as the basics in old Warcraft strategy games, growing from dilapidated fortifications to proudly erected castles with stone walls and pikes. But, there is more than a little touch of Facebook social play here: you log on every day, reap the rewards of your mines and plantations - whether you're a herbalist or a miner - and you send out various supporters, whom you recruited during from your quests, look for resources and gold. Games such as Star Wars: The Old Republic and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood pioneered similar concepts, but in true Blizzard style, Warlords of Draenor takes the idea and makes it more fun by including it. small, brief animations, showing the results of the progress of the work off-screen, while letting your workers wander around your garrison to discuss the fat between them. It makes for an addicting fun feeling, in the same way that social games can be fun from the moment you take a bite of their hook. And like social games, garrisons can be terribly expensive if you're not prepared. Mine has already relieved me of 17,000 gold pieces, and I'm far from done.

However, I'm afraid the garrisons are focusing too heavily on the solo aspect, to the detriment of the World of Warcraft community. Garrisons transpose key services such as Banks, Herbalists, Mines, Stables, Merchants, and even Auction Houses into a single player mode, minimizing the need to go to the world and interact with them. other people. And the strengths of those interactions - if we forget the constant hateful and racist words in the general chat - have always been one of the factors that keep WoW above its ambitious competitors. A lot of us come back to WoW, at least partially, because that's where our friends are, and unfortunately garrisons potentially reduce the likelihood of making new friends.

Good quests make good friends?

That said, the traditional channels for mingling with other players remain intact, whether it's dungeons, guild raids, or the new Ashran battlefield (100 players vs. 100 players). The removal of Blizzard's airflight in Draenor also has the happy consequence of randomly provoking conversations with players around, more easily than in the days of Cataclysm or Pandaria, since we must now work together to find the path that leads to objectives or to slay rare Nagrand monsters to find reputable items.

For now, it's satisfying enough to continue to log in daily to build my garrison and complete the steps necessary to earn the Legendary Ring that all players have access to, like the Legendary Cloaks from Mists of Pandaria. The excitement of gaining experience wanes a bit once the level cap is reached, but this should be temporary. Warlords of Draenor's first raid, slated for no later than December 2, has yet to be clarified, and most current PvE clashes center around obnoxiously frustrating daily quests for Apexis Crystals that will be used as currency in order to to get a better loot. On the positive side, players are realizing that they can complete Apexis quests faster if they work in a group, contrasting nicely with the risky - albeit sympathetic - solo reframing performed by the garrisons.

Of course, Warlords of Draenor didn't stand out as the least chaotic launch in World of Warcraft, so I was able to wait up to eight hours in a queue before I could connect. Fortunately, after a few periods of emergency maintenances and server resets, the problems seem to have disappeared on this side - and Blizzard has given everyone a five-day free subscription compensation.

Warlords of Draenor is an important expansion for the Warcraft universe: not only celebrating the tenth anniversary of one of the most popular MMO games ever, but on it lie the strong expectations of a community that remains among the most impressive in the field paid MMORPGs. After the not splendid performance of Mists of Pandaria, which paid a long period of absence of content (almost a year) and some questionable game design choices, also marking a not inconsiderable loss of users, Blizzard is playing two cards for this expansion important: a plot that brings the players back to their origins, on Draenor, the home planet of the orcs and the last refuge of the Draenei, before its destruction (the Outlands of our timeline), as well as an unprecedented mechanic ... the garrison, thus aiming to celebrate the link between Warcraft and World of Warcraft.

In fact, if Cataclysm was also born with the intention of attracting new users, "renewing" the clothes in Azeroth, while Pandaria winked at the oriental public, Warlords of Draenor has the difficult task of titillating historical Warcraft fans ( after all, this year 20 years have passed since the publication of Warcraft: Orcs & Humans), recalling the old players. And to do this, Blizzard takes us back to a past era, disturbing iconic figures from the Warcraft universe (Ner'zul, Grommash, Velen, Durotan, Garona), introducing mechanics vaguely from RTS (such as the management of Garrison resources) , as well as offering the possibility to take advantage of an already level 90 character ready to start playing the new contents directly, an advantage designed specifically for those who want to return to play after years or start now for the first time.

The news, in part already introduced with the 6.0 patch which as usual precedes the launch of the new expansion by a few weeks, and those that await the players beyond the portal, go to introduce substantial changes in the game and it will be interesting to see the impact that they will have not only on the game itself but also in its community.

Furthermore, already with patch 6.0, the graphic revamp of the breeds has been introduced to finally bring them to a higher resolution, a feauture that characterizes this expansion, but which has given fluctuating results: if in fact some breeds have benefited from it (dwarves, trolls) , orcs), for others it worked less (Night elves, male humans, female draenei). Beyond the subjective "beautiful / ugly", some breeds have undergone changes that have somewhat betrayed the promise / premise of keeping the personality and spirit of the characters unaltered, sometimes with results between exhilarating and depressing, this for some faces have taken on distressed expressions which they originally did not have. More than a revamp, in some cases it looks more like a transition to the cosmetic surgeon.

But the real star of this expansion, which we all can't wait to try, is the Garrison: not a banal housing system, but an entire outpost to be built and managed, whose structure is strongly intertwined with the game itself.

Needless to emphasize, therefore, how, after a year without content and waiting artfully assembled by Blizzard, with the animated series that so admirably introduced us to the "Warlords", the comics that showed us how Garrosh convinced his father to refuse the Mannoroth's "gift", the novel that acts as an accord between the events of Pandaria and Draenor, there was great excitement on the eve of the publication of the fifth expansion of World of Warcraft.

And therefore, exactly as it happened seven years ago for the launch of The Burning Crusade, here we are piled up in front of the same portal, which, instead of taking us to the Outlands, this time will make us travel backwards in time, guided by the archmage Khadgar, through a short introductory session in the jungle of Tanaan (a sort of tutorial for new players who take advantage of the already level 90 character), and will finally bring the Horde players to Frostfire Ridge while the Alliance will arrive in Shadowmoon Valley.

Unfortunately, not everything went smoothly. With results not very different from then, indeed perhaps worse, given that in recent years the experience should have helped Blizzard to prevent certain problems, the servers have not held up, and there are still serious discomforts due to continuous disconnections and lag. Rarely, during a launch of an online title of this size, everything goes smoothly, but this time the problems seem even heavier than the usual ones. A sign of renewed enthusiasm on the part of the WoW people? We hope so. But above all, we hope that this initial phase will pass soon, because we want to continue playing!

Let's not kid ourselves. Each and every one of us sometimes cheers for an ambitious goal, celebrates an achievement and dreamily looks back on the beginnings. But then it hits us like a bolt from the blue: “What? Was that ten years ago? Impossible! «Even we computer gamers are not spared this fate, on the contrary! After all the stories, dramas and triumphs, the next adventure will fly by again.

Undoubtedly, this is especially true for the online role players among us, who invest hundreds, even thousands of hours in a single game. Even at the beginning of the millennium, some gamers ridiculed them as crazy, but the MMO genre quickly grew into a mass phenomenon - and as the Internet turned from a trend to a matter of course, online role-playing games hit the heart of our pop culture.

There is basically a single game responsible for this beautiful mess. The. Game. World of Warcraft . A name like Donnerhall. Loved by millions, mostly viewed critically by the rest or even prematurely pronounced dead - several times, but always wrongly. But in view of the number of subscribers, which has been falling from twelve to under seven million since 2011, the prophets of doom are sharpening their knives with growing enthusiasm.

The good old time

With the fifth expansion Warlords of Draenor , WoW is celebrating its tenth anniversary. Above all, the latest addon is intended to attract as many WoW veterans as possible and bring back the "good old days".

This applies to both the large community, for whom everything in Azeroth was new and exciting back then, as well as the Warcraft world, in which legendary warriors like Grom Hellscream once made history. Such historical figures can be found on every corner in Draenor, the new game world from WoW - a dream for every Warcraft fan.

Warlords of Draenor is the first addon with no new races or classes. Nevertheless, it appeals to many players more than the last expansion simply because of the reunion with familiar characters from Warcraft lore. Objectively speaking, Mists of Pandaria improved the game with numerous useful innovations, but not every WoW player was warm to the Far Eastern-themed pandaren setting.

Horde against horde

In the past, World of Warcraft was particularly fascinating because of its coherent universe. The atmospheric world with epic stories, self-sacrificing heroes and merciless villains - it all looked like a single piece in 2004. And that's exactly what Warlords of Draenor hits; After the realignment in Pandaria, we're now back to basics. And this journey is getting pretty complicated, at least as far as the story goes.

Rewind: So after the ruthless orc warchief Garrosh dug up the heart of an "old god" in Pandaria, he gained terrible power and finally went mad. Only an alliance of the Alliance and the Horde defeated him in the battle for Orgrimmar, but before his conviction Garrosh managed to escape with the help of a bronze dragon.

The latter even enabled him to step back in time, and so Garrosh traveled to the planet Draenor - a time when his people were on the verge of enslavement by the demons. In the original homeland of the orcs, Garrosh met his father Grom. Together with the other warlords they formed the "Iron Horde", fought back the demons and finally started the invasion of today's Azeroth.

The well-known horde around Thrall and Vol'jin as well as the alliance under King Varian Wrynn faced the Iron Horde at the "Dark Portal" and now start the counterattack on Draenor in the new expansion. In this alternate timeline, the planet does not split into the Outland known from The Burning Crusade . Nevertheless, some areas are a pleasant reminder of the adventures of the past or the future.

Golden era

Despite this complicated time travel story, the WoW community reacted extremely euphorically to the announcement of Warlords of Draenor, after Mists of Pandaria it is based more on the classic Warcraft realms. Although Blizzard enriched its MMO with more content and mechanics in every new addon, many players still wished for the original World of Warcraft and the times of The Burning Crusade.

The longing for this “golden era” may also result from the romantic, sometimes idealized memories of many fans. However, over the years WoW has changed from a new online role-playing game with various initial hurdles and great challenges to a well-known, beginner-friendly MMO for everyone. As understandable as this development may be, a large part of the long-established community didn't like it at all.

In terms of gameplay, Warlords of Draenor wants to go back to the origins, with challenging instances for veterans - and at the same time a lot of comfort for newcomers. WoW should feel as exciting and unadulterated as "back then". The Draenor of the past is perfect for this, after all, the orc warlords of the old horde are extremely deeply anchored in Warcraft history - characters such as Ner'zhul, Durotan or Gul'dan are only known as players from the first three Warcraft Strategy games.

A touch of housing

The planet itself again resembles the Outland from the first WoW add-on - a not inconsiderable nostalgia bonus for millions of players. Completely new, however, is the garrison, a fresh play element that provides plenty of long-term motivation even without new races or classes. "Garrison? Finally the long promised housing? «A definite yes and no!

Because shortly after the start of our Draenor expedition, we lay the foundation stone for our personal fortress, which we are allowed to expand gradually in three stages. With sufficient resources, we create various buildings of our choice, such as barracks, magicians' towers or taverns, on given spaces. Such objects grant us more and more advantages as the game progresses, such as crafting materials or character bonuses.

As a passionate furrier, we are allowed to regularly retrieve ores from our mine or pick plants in the herb garden. In addition, we send AI followers on missions in our base and receive further rewards if they are successful - Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood sends its regards. Since we in no way equip a home with an interior in the garrison, we are not dealing with real housing here. Nevertheless, we finally get a personal fortress that motivates us in the long term - and reminds us pleasantly of Warcraft 3 .

WoW goes Hollywood

Despite this new game element, the focus of Warlords of Draenor is more than ever on story and game world. Okay, a big, coherent world - WoW has always been able to do that, but in terms of presentation it shone above all with the fantastic intro cinematics. In the actual game, on the other hand, it was often quite static and wooden, which was mainly due to the aged Warcraft 3 engine. And it was precisely this Warcraft 3 that succeeded - thanks to in-game cutscenes and many dubbed dialogues - in places still the better staging.

Sure, a continuous story is much easier to tell with a single-player game than with a full-blown MMO, but the role-playing competition also demonstrated that there is a lot more to staging. And this is where World of Warcraft is finally taking a big step forward. Because with Warlords of Draenor the game is now a little more cinematic. The new quests are now accompanied by more in-game cutscenes and audio dialogues - the strong soundtrack does the rest.

Amazingly, even the game graphics provide some goose bumps here - so it doesn't always have to be cinematics! When well-known Warcraft personalities sacrifice themselves for their people and thus forfeit their own lives, it runs down our spines as ice, that's how great the event is staged. Here WoW presents itself in top form and finally uses more of the potential of its large and unique universe.

I am beautiful!

The strong staging carries the plot of Warlords of Draenor much better than the now somewhat static presentation of an outdated The Burning Crusade or Wrath of the Lich King . This is also due to the more dynamic feel of the game, because through many quests we gradually change our environment - for example when we expand our garrison in several stages or advance our troops. This phasing technology introduced with Wrath of the Lich King is now being used more generously by Blizzard.

Fortunately, the designers also modified their engine in favor of prettier graphics. Even before the release of Warlords of Draenor, the preparatory patch 6.0.2 made for significantly more stylish character models with significantly more polygons, sharper textures and new animations - in direct comparison a difference like day and night.

This welcome and long overdue visual revision affects all eight classic player races as well as the draenei. Blood elves have to wait a few more weeks, while the more contemporary worgen, goblin and pandaren models retain their familiar appearance for the time being. Incidentally, this also applies to all NPCs, not just to the character models of the players.

The song of style and color

The new game world is also a whole lot more attractive than the well-known areas. The seven diverse regions of Draenor offer crisper textures, denser vegetation, and more sophisticated objects. The landscapes, together with the increased level of detail and the usual great lighting mood, create some really beautiful panoramas.

Of course, World of Warcraft is still not a graphically outstanding game - texture resolution, number of polygons and effects are still not up to date. But the attention to detail, unparalleled sense of style and the splendid color scheme create an unmistakable role-play idyll even more than before. The bottom line is that the look remains a matter of taste despite all the objectively perceptible improvement.

Increased demands

From the atmospheric Shadowmoon Valley to the Frostfire Ridge to the paradisiacal Nagrand, Draenor can be seen throughout. The flight ban prevents careless exploration, which is why we always experience the game world up close.

The dungeons of Draenor are as varied as the open regions: In addition to mysterious vaults such as Auchindoun, we explore the wonderfully beautiful evergreen pile in the open air or even fight our way through a moving train in the Grimmgleisdepot instance.

The eight new dungeons are already considerably more crisp on the normal level of difficulty than the instances of the last expansion, without teamwork and full concentration many players will reach their limits here. The new raids are even more demanding. Two large raid instances and a total of 20 raid bosses await the start of Warlords of Draenor.

Here the level of difficulty is redistributed: All groups of ten to 30 players can choose between normal, heroic and the raid finder. On the other hand, tried-and-tested teams of 20 face the ultimate challenge in the mythical raids - the reward for the effort is the most valuable loot.

Something for everyone

The new maximum level and thus the entry ticket for all raids in Warlords of Draenor is now level 100. On the way there, we also do some unusual tasks, but there are no earth-shattering innovations in the quest design. Somewhat surprising for WoW: The addon comes with a free level boost to level 90 for any character. This gives newbies and returning players instant access to the latest content.

Incidentally, there is also a clever story tutorial waiting here that gradually unlocks more skills and offers a fair learning curve. Great for all quest lovers: each new task offers a chance for more powerful extra rewards. Passionate PvP players, on the other hand, are happy about Ashran, the new, open battlefield of Draenor. Since group players benefit from the flexible level of difficulty of the instance, the add-on is suitable for almost every type of player.

More convenience in menus and pockets, trimmed character values and some useful changes to the talent system round off the latest addon. Warlords of Draenor expands the game in every nook and cranny, but the great revolution does not happen. For WoW's tenth birthday, Blizzard delivers exactly what millions of fans want: pure Warcraft DNA with new content, optimized technology and a focus on story and game world. The next few months will show whether the great World of Warcraft staging will return to its old strength.

It is not very common for an online video game to celebrate its 10th birthday, still enjoying great popularity among the audience. What's more, we have only one case of MMORPG, which, based on the paid gameplay model, can get 10 million active subscriptions. Although there has been a trend for free-to-play productions on the market for a long time, there is no doubt that World of Warcraft still reigns supreme in many respects . Despite the fact that every time there was news of a dwindling subscriber base, many predicted his imminent death - WoW was doing well. And while the competition still could barely dream of the results that Blizzard was still achieving, it became clear that the game needed a more and more refreshment to attract new players, but also a return to the old vibes to encourage veterans. And it must be admitted that with the help of Warlords of Draenor it was possible.

Although the Mists of Pandaria expansion, the previous expansion from 2012, introduced a lot of interesting elements to the game, many players complained that the Asian atmosphere of a land inhabited by peaceful Pandaren are very far from the atmosphere of the series. All these people should like the latest expansion, because the creators have prepared for fans the opportunity to participate in a different version of key events for the Warcraft universe. The plot revolves around an intrigue by Kairozdormu - one of the brown dragons that can move in time and between dimensions. He decided to change the fate of the Orcs' homeland - Draenor. In the alternate reality that thus arose, Garrosh Hellscream was never born and the wife of the shaman Ner'zhul did not die, so the demon Kil'jaeden could not use her soul to influence her husband's decisions. The dragon brought Garrosh Hellscream into this world, knowing how the Orcs would end tragically if the sorcerer Gul'dan signed a pact with the demons of the Burning Legion. Garrosh manages to find Grommash Hellscream, then jointly kill the demon Mannoroth and unite numerous clans at that time under the banner of the new Iron Horde, additionally equipped with technological advances from the future. The goal of both Hellscreams is then to conquer the world of Azeroth, and only the heroes known from the world of Warcraft and of course the players themselves can prevent them from doing so .

When writing about what's new in Warlords of Draenor , it is worth starting with the changes that were introduced to the game in Update 6.0, preceding the expansion of the expansion pack . It introduced a lot of improvements to the gameplay mechanics, as well as a significant visual change - new character models for all old races, except for the Blood Elves, which will get their update soon. While successive expansions to Blizzard's production led players to new, better-looking lands, they were constantly traversing them with slightly angular models of heroes from the game, after all, released in 2004. The biggest difference between the old and the new was seen after the introduction of the Pandaren race, and Blizzard must have realized that. Now World of Warcraft looks much better and fresher.

In addition, the number of characters' skills has been drastically reduced, improving the operation of the others, so that the bars on the screen are no longer full of icons. It also influenced PvP - the gameplay has become more dynamic again, because although we have fewer individual abilities, we can use them more often. Several minor amenities have also been added, including an additional tab in the bank for ingredients and the ability to craft items from them anywhere without having to carry them around. Some unhelpful item stats (Hit Rating, Expertise) have also been removed, replacing them with new ones, giving a chance for interesting effects.

Warlords of Draenor is the first expansion to World of Warcraft that does not introduce new races or character classes. Instead, the developers decided to maximize the content that awaits above the 90th level of experience. Interestingly, everyone who purchases the add-on receives from Blizzard the opportunity to instantly advance one of the characters to level 90 for free, which will be appreciated by all those who create new accounts or those who want to try the game with a different character class, and do not want to break through the content of the previous add-ons again. The content that Blizzard has prepared in Draneor is pure pleasure. The vast majority of the tasks are strongly fictionalized and are accompanied by numerous cut-scenes with sound and many events, such as battles or fights with bosses.

The creators drew heavily on the legacy of Warcraft , sending players to meet numerous legendary heroes, such as Durotan, Orgrim Doomhammer and Prophet Velen. It must therefore be admitted that Blizzard has made a lot of progress in terms of making the tasks more attractive. Strong fictionalization, however, brought with it a considerable inconvenience. Due to the epic events mentioned above, players are constantly transferred to specific small instances, so that everyone who wants to play with friends is forced to complete tasks together from beginning to end, as if on a string. In the past, you could just move to a new zone and then share journal quests with latecomers to explore the area together, and in Warlords of Draenor, access to most of the missions is only possible after completing the previous ones. As a result, my paths quickly parted ways with a friend with whom I have been playing WoW for years - it was enough that one of us was two “phases” back, so that it would not pay off for us to wait for each other. So we met only at level 100 to go to the Arenas together.

The garrison is also very closely related to the process of crafting items. Interestingly, for the first time in the history of World of Warcraft, we can create various recipes without having learned a given profession. There is nothing to prevent a blacksmithing Orc warrior from building a laboratory for alchemists in the Garrison in order to prepare some useful potions there. However, it is worth bearing in mind that the list of items available in this way is much smaller than what a real alchemist will have in store. Due to the aforementioned ability to quickly advance your character to level 90 and the fact that many players gain new levels on Battlegrounds or in Dungeons, the creators decided on an interesting procedure - items from Draenor can be made regardless of the number of skill points we have. in a given profession. So nothing prevents you from forging yourself a complete armor for level 100, if our warrior neglected blacksmithing, never held a hammer in his hand and has only 1 point. However, it will take longer than with a properly trained character, because currently each profession requires a special ingredient in the recipes for individual things, which we can produce once every 24 hours, in an amount depending on the character's skill level. In addition, these ingredients can be ordered in individual buildings in the Garrison, thanks to which it is possible to use the benefits of other professions mentioned above. And if we have a building related to our specialization, we simply have twice as many ingredients every day.

When we reach the 100th level of experience of our character, we can traditionally choose between PvP or PvE activities. In both cases, Blizzard has made major changes to the player reward system, significantly reducing the emphasis on "farming" various currencies, and in return trying to give rewards immediately. Thus, when going to Battleground, we can be sure that we will always receive a box containing gold, additional honor points or an item. The quality of the reward depends on how well our team did during the game. For the victory we get the best golden box, the silver box for the loss with a small loss of points against the opponent, and the bronze box for when we are completely unsuccessful. The creators in a very clever way encouraged players to stay on Battlegrounds - in the past, when it looked like a loss, many players weakened their team even more simply by leaving the game. Of course, there were also points of honor (in Arenas) that allow you to buy good items matched with PvP statistics.

It is worth mentioning that Blizzard wanted the content in Warlords of Draenor to be equally accessible to players who prefer both types of fun. Therefore, an interesting item mechanic has been introduced. Each equipment has two levels of statistics, respectively, for PvE and PvP - when we enter Battleground or Arena, they are increased accordingly. This avoided situations where players with relatively more accessible Aren gear could go crazy with damage dealt to monsters in Raids, and PvE fans were massacred on Battlegrounds by people equipped with PvP items. Of course, the latter still have a certain advantage, but due to the fact that the statistics change a bit, the clashes are no longer mainly about who has the better equipment. Mastering the abilities of our character class is much more important.

It looks a bit worse when it comes to acquiring items in Dungeons. Blizzard found that the virtual dice roll system selecting Need and Greed was frustrating for some and encouraged them to troll and click "Need" every time. Therefore, the draw is currently taking place on the game side, which has been baptized as the Personal Loot System. If a given Boss drops an item for our class and is awarded to us, we can pick it up. Otherwise, we don't even see him. Some players did not like it, however, because having no luck in throwing, they were able to complete several instances not only without getting anything, but even without knowing that something was drawn - a bit like Blizzard was giving away items under the table. It is worth noting that in the face of a wave of complaints on the forums, the creators decided to suddenly restore the old system of giving away items. However, the criticism turned out to be even greater, and many players said that the new abuse-free system was better, so the developers decided to make another modification. In just 24 hours, they made a kind of golden mean by returning to the Personal Loot System, but now guaranteeing every player that completing the instance will receive an item from the last Boss for his class. Obviously this is a very attractive change and it has contributed to the increased interest in Dungeons.