View my post at http://2p.com/8400144_1/First-Impressions-Warlords-of-Draenor-Boosted-to-level-90-by-theophay.htm

This article will be the time when I boosted my level to level 90 in the Warlord of Draenor beta.

“Check out my funky armour. Also, I realised how ugly Worgens looked after playing them, so I’ll only post my human shot. Anyway, this is the starter armours for anyone who boost to level 90.”

I chose a Worgen Mage (simply because I have never tried both the race and the class before) and was instantly thrown into the fray of the skirmish between the Gul’Dan and the heroes of Azeroth.

Iconic faces litter the entire map. Expect the likes of Thrall, Khadgar, and plenty other familiar faces as you fight across the hordes of orcs trying to stop Gul’dan from achieving his evil ambition.

Except that I have no idea what this evil ambition is.

In the arguments for an immersive gameplay, new players will have no idea or will be unable to appreciate the likes of these iconic faces. You need to be well-equipped with WoW lore before you can even begin to understand what is happening when you are thrust into the midst of battle.

When the game begins, you find out that the Shadow Council is being used to fuel the portal. Why? What is the Shadow Council? Who is Gul’dan? What is happening? Is this just a regular dungeon?
No matter though, you’re just thrust into the heat of war and instantly being labeled as ‘The savior of Azeroth’.

Not only do you not get to know these iconic characters, you will not even get to have a sense of what they are like. When you begin a quest with characters, you get a feel of who they really are. Basic character development has been one of Blizzard’s strong points, and in WoD, they simply whisked it all away. It was quite a disappointment.

Don’t get me wrong, I know WoW. At least enough to write a review about it. WoD has been featured as players being able to cross swords with the likes of Hellscream, Blackhand and Ner’zhul. But what’s the point of doing so if you don’t know who they are? WoD does not sufficient develop their characters.

Nonetheless, you will find yourself completing quests and trying to escape the onslaught of orcs coming at you. The gameplay was well-thought through with plenty of fun instances, like a cannon mission to slay waves of orcs.

“This, and a lot of other quests, are like competing on which is the best way to kill someone twistedly.”

Personally, the entire story was a little long, but there was no better way to depict how the hero (you) manages to escape with the heroes of Azeroth into Shadowmoon Valley, before the Portal opened.

The last point would be that the tutorial was outrageously poor. The instance starts with a level 90 character, and people expect to be slowly guided into a game, especially when it’s the first time I’m playing a class. WoW could not even provide an opportunity to teach a new player how the game works, other than a few pop-ups like ‘This is what this does’. Even I had problems finding out what skill rotation to use, especially so with new talent trees available. What it provides is several very simple quests and regions that don’t really challenge you to learn much.

There’s no event leading up to assaulting the Iron Horde in the jungle; you’re just there, devoid of any sense of urgency or any reason to care.

Overall, WoD was detrimental to new players as a whole. The learning curve became remarkably steep, even for an experienced player like me. The whole early stage instance lacked character development, which was ironic given that one of the main features of WoD was to ‘cross axes with the likes of Grommash Hellscream, Blackhand, and Ner’zhul at the height of their primal power.’

Stay tuned, where I will then discuss more about Garissons.