World of Warcraft: The War Within - now you can play solo

A year ago, Chris Metzen returned to Blizzard as the executive creative director of the Warcraft universe, and the company announced a revision of its approach to the release of expansion packs. Now they will be released annually, and the first three will be combined into a single story arc - Worldsoul Saga. The first part of the trilogy is already available, so let's see if Metzen's return is good for World of Warcraft.

In November, World of Warcraft will celebrate its twentieth anniversary, and a few months after that, it will be my twentieth anniversary in the game. Of course, over the years, the amount of time I'm willing to devote to traveling to Azeroth has drastically decreased, nothing will drag me into hours-long 6/7 raids anymore, and raid leader and guild management roles are the same nightmares I have about trying to run four-horse tagged raids on a dial-up connection or practicing group synchronized jumps on Lurker.

However, this does not prevent me from returning to the game with each new expansion, although since the middle of Warlords of Draenor (2014), I have been doing it exclusively solo. On the one hand, this allows me to explore the game in peace, but on the other hand, I always felt that I was getting late or missing out on important parts of the story, which Blizzard usually hides behind multi-day grind and mandatory group activities. Try reading texts, listening to dialogues, or looking around in a dungeon or raid when a group of random people are rushing forward to get loot. It was frustrating and not very motivating to stay in the game for a long time.

Well, with The War Within, everything will change, because this expansion brings the most important change to the game, in my opinion, in all two decades of World of Warcraft's existence - the ability to complete the entire story content of the expansion solo.

Yes, dungeons with followers, which were introduced in Dragonflight in January of this year, are available in the Inland War from the very beginning. Moreover, now even the final raid boss can be killed in a group with NPCs, which eliminates the need to interact with other players if you are not interested in it at the moment. It should be noted here that you don't have to wait for a full-fledged raid for one player yet, Blizzard is still studying the feasibility of this option, but at least you can go to a simplified version of the "flipper" and watch videos without having to go to Youtube or wait for weeks for the last raid wing for LFR to open.

It's hard to convey how revolutionary this solution is and how it improves the experience of those players who don't want to turn the game into a second job. Don't want to stand in line to find random players? Do you want to explore a new dungeon in peace, try a new build or specialization? Not interested in looking at online tactics for bosses you haven't even reached yet? Suddenly tired of completing the third dungeon in a row and want to go make yourself a coffee and scroll through your social media feed? No problem, the NPCs from the Dragon Scale Expedition will be waiting for you to return.

First time in this dungeon? Turn on the guide mode and follow the non-player characters who will guide you to the very end. Of course, this mode will not offer you any challenge, dungeons are available only in normal difficulty mode, for heroic and mythical dungeons you will still need to look for people, but at least you can come there knowing what to do. In general, dungeons are quite standard for the game, although there are some interesting finds, such as the need to carry beer to the tables of thirsty drinkers so that they stop harming the group, or the need to move in complete darkness, staying close to a cart with a candle and periodically recharging it? But the most memorable moments will probably be the flights between the airships in an attempt to repel the attacks of the Nerubians.

The game has also introduced delves, another type of activity designed to be completed alone or in a small group. These are short, 10-20 minute scenarios in which the player will be accompanied by a seasonal NPC companion who can be assigned the role of a healer or fighter. In the first season, it will be Brann the Bronzebeard. Of course, you need to level up your companion and teach him new skills, so he becomes more useful over time. Unlike dungeons with followers, you can increase the difficulty level of the mines, thus improving the level of loot that can eventually be as good as the rewards for Mythic Dungeons and basic raids. And don't forget to check out the weekly Grand Vault, which now features cells with rewards for progress in mines and open-world activities instead of PvP rewards.

It would seem that fast-paced scenarios should bore players just as quickly because of the monotony, but Blizzard has a plan. Despite the fact that the general composition of the fights, monsters, and the main theme always remain the same, every week there are changes in the configuration of the scenario - the player has other goals, a different route, new threats and bonuses. And this really helps to maintain interest, but not for all games. Some of them are just too long and have too many enemies, despite the fact that they don't have any very clever tactics, in fact, they are a banal hill-climbing. I can't say that I'm thrilled with the experience these microdungeons provide right now, but I'll definitely keep an eye on how things develop further.

Another nice innovation is that Dragonflight flights are back and available almost immediately. From a comfort point of view, this is great news, because they are fast, dynamic, and just plain fun, moving between quests is easier than ever - a couple of wing flaps and you're there. This is another major improvement in the quality of life for players, at least until you want to dig for ore, for example. During such a farm, I switch back to the old system because the energy needed to fly is restored too slowly if you constantly have to take off and return to the ground.

However, I can't help but note that with the new flights, the feeling of discovering uncharted lands has somewhat disappeared. From the key hub in each location, you can fly anywhere within that location in a minute and a half at most, there are landmarks scattered generously on the map, you can take a quest, fly higher, land right in the middle of the enemy camp, kill the necessary monster, hop back on the transport and fly somewhere else. It's a great time saver, but I couldn't shake the feeling that I was just playing another viola, not seeing a location for the first time in my life.

The changes to the talent trees, specifically the new heroic talent tree that enhances or modifies your character's basic skills, also looks interesting. Unfortunately, I can't evaluate the changes in the mechanics of all classes in more detail yet, because I decided to start the new expansion as a Death Knight, which I haven't played since the days of the Lich King, and I owe it to the heroic specialization of the Horseman of the Apocalypse. Who am I to refuse the opportunity to summon the same four horsemen from Naxramas to kick some unfortunate non-Rube together? In addition, they individually join me in battle, put up unholy shields, take some of the damage that my enemies do to me, help spread disease, and generally try to be as useful as possible.

But there is a flip side to the coin. The Unholy Knight of Death doesn't seem to me to be the best choice for group content at the moment - this specialization has perhaps the strongest AoE in the game, good survivability and the ability to deal huge damage in short periods of time, which is great for open-world content, hunting rare monsters and the same fights, but the specifics of rotation and resource use make it inconvenient to switch between targets quickly, and leads to a loss of DPS. He also seems painfully clumsy, especially compared to the warrior and evoker I've been playing lately.

Combat teams are the last innovation that I would like to talk about separately. In fact, this is the only progress system that applies to the entire account. From now on, all your characters, regardless of server and faction (but within the same region), become members of the same squad, and their progress is synchronized. Shared reputation in factions; shared achievements; additional shared bank; ability to easily transfer currency between characters; shared transmogrification collection; transportation routes opened by one character are available to all others; new equipment with a link to the squad; receiving a reward for completing quests now unlocks all possible appearances, regardless of which item you choose; each level 80 character gives 5% bonus experience to other squad members, up to a maximum of +25%; the ability to track quests you have already completed with another character; even the progress of a mining companion is saved.

In short, it will now be even easier to level up your alts. And I almost forgot, there have been changes in the raid equipment draw, now you can roll for transmogrification items that do not match your class. The priority of such rolls will be lower than that of the "target audience", but there is still a chance to get the desired appearance, which is nice.

However, we still haven't addressed one more important aspect: what is the addendum about? We'll fix that now. The main enemy in the new trilogy will obviously be Xal'atat, a mysterious entity from the Abyss that has been imprisoned in the eponymous blade since the Dark Empire. One way or another, we met her in Legion, Battle for Azeroth, and Dragonflight, and now she has finally decided to come to the fore. As a result of the confrontation between the heroes and the Xal'atat, Dalaran crashes, you won't believe it, on another completely unknown island located in the southern seas between Kalimdor and Pandaria.

The island is inhabited by a new subspecies of earth dwarfs (earthlings? earthlings?), who will become the next allied race. While other races created by the titans have evolved, the earth dvorfs have strictly followed the original edicts of the creators and therefore look more like automatons than living beings. Strict adherence to the algorithms for tens of thousands of years has clearly not been good for them, their society is stagnating, and who knows how it would have ended if it weren't for the Magni and, of course, the players who can somewhat... revive this stagnant stone swamp.

Of course, it would be sad with only dwarves, so under the island of Dorne there is a hidden underground continent of Khaz Algar, divided into three separate zones, where players will meet the Arati expedition (yes, the descendants of the same Arati who built Arathor, the first empire of humans). It turns out that thousands of years ago, one of the tribes left the empire, crossed the sea and built its own empire on an uncertain continent, and 15 years before the events of the Internal War, the Arathor 2.0 expedition went "to the last war of light against darkness" and got stuck in Khaz Algar. The only surviving mage at the time of the disaster was an apprentice who hadn't yet learned how to open portals, so the remnants of the expeditionary corps were left to settle in new lands. Or under new lands.

We find them in the midst of a war with the non-Nerubians from the kingdom of Aj-Kakhet. Although the kingdom can hardly be called a single hive city. The Azh-Kakhet got rid of the influence of the Ancient Gods and stayed away from the Spider War (when King-Lich conquered Azzhol-Nerub), so for a long time these intelligent insectoids managed to keep their society intact, however, we also find them in a state of decline and forced evolution. Of course, not without the "help" of the Xal'atat. The first raid of the expansion will involve solving certain problems in the spider's den.

That's the introduction. As expected, the degree of epicness was significantly lowered, and this clearly benefited the game, because, firstly, we can finally focus on more mundane stories of relatively ordinary people, and secondly, it was impossible to bear all this trash with cyclopean creatures piercing planets with swords and practically the god of death of the entire universe, who is killed (with some help) by mortals who were chasing boars through the bushes twenty years ago.

There are plenty of the usual "fetch" quests here, and there's no getting away from that, but I'd like to point out that quests in World of Warcraft haven't been this interesting for a long time. In addition to flirting with the player's emotions, they also perfectly reveal new game factions. I was equally happy to help the dwarves, unravel the web of intrigue in Aj-Kakheti, and deal with the cult in Arat, and what's more, I was happy to collect candles for the kobolds. By the way, this hyperfixation on candles was perfectly explained here in just two phrases in one dialog, with my respect.

And it all takes place in fantastically beautiful locations, I doubt that World of Warcraft has ever looked better. I'm sure that everyone who was interested in the expansion has heard a lot of loud epithets about Hallowfall, and I want to assure you that they are all absolutely deserved, and the design, and the soundtrack, and the way the player is presented with this zone for the first time is something incredible.

My only complaint about the entire story part of this expansion, as well as several previous ones, is that as a horde player, I feel detached and somewhat abandoned. Once again. After the horrific and not-so-well-reasoned decimation of the Horde's leaders over the past ten-plus years, I'm once again forced to contemplate the heartache and drama of Alliance leaders with whom I have rather weak emotional ties. Anduin's light impotence, Aleria and Turalion's family feud over the use of the Abyssal powers, and the Taurissan family are all there. Dagran the Second, dear, the last time I heard about your family was when I killed your parents in 2005, and then again during the Cataclysm, how did you get here? Honestly, if I'm interested in getting to know the new characters, who are obviously here to stay, then the main characters are old characters... I couldn't care less.

Otherwise, the expansion turned out to be excellent, it managed to refresh and somewhat reboot the game, added new interesting mechanics, and for the first time in a long time really intrigued me with the plot. What is this crystal that acts as an underground sun? Something to do with Azeroth? The powerful Naaru? Does it live at all or not? The answers to these questions interest me even more than the discussion about the true nature of Xal'atat. More casual players have the opportunity to play at their leisure, hardcore players have their own bunch of weekly activities, another set of mythical dungeons, which include dungeons from previous expansions, and soon the first content patch will be available to everyone, which will be entirely dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the game. All in all, it seems to be a success.