World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth will only be a complete game with Patch 8.1. At least, that is the view of Cortyn.
The new WoW expansion Battle for Azeroth has been released for almost two months now, and numerous hotfixes have fixed the “teething problems” as well as larger bugs. Nevertheless, the expansion still does not feel complete. This will only be achieved by the upcoming Patch 8.1 Tides of Vengeance.
Important features are still missing
What bothered me the most is the absence of – for me personally – important features like the Paragon rewards when farming reputation or the “Incursions,” where Alliance and Horde attack the coasts of the enemy island, just like the Legion did at the Broken Shore.
The argument of some players is that both features were only introduced late in the lifecycle of Legion, so it is normal that they will also arrive late in Battle for Azeroth.
That is true to some extent, but that is not my point or expectation of a Blizzard game.
If a feature worked well in Legion, I expect it to be available immediately with the next addon. After all, the developers are not starting “from scratch” and do not have to gather the same experiences again.
Some may find it presumptuous or think my expectations are too high, but if I have come to know and love a feature in Legion, then I expect it to be included with the next expansion and not added later in a subsequent patch.
And that is precisely what I expect from an expansion: Old features that worked well should be expanded and carried over while new features are added. I do not want old features to be continually brought back “anew”.
One warfront was not enough
Another point is the “warfronts” – even though the feature at release should have been called “warfront” since there was only one. This had the negative connotation that you can only play it roughly every two weeks, then it is the other faction’s turn.
It will be significantly better with Patch 8.1 when the Darkshore becomes a warfront as well. Because then two warfronts will work in tandem, so the Horde will attack the Darkshore while the Alliance is battling for Stromgarde Keep in the Arathi Highlands. This way, there will be something to do every week, and more warfronts in future patches will improve it even further.
Three more months would have done WoW: BfA good
And that closes the circle of my argumentation as well. Patch 8.1 is set to release roughly three months after the launch of Battle for Azeroth, plus or minus a week or two. That is exactly the three months of additional development that the game needed to be truly “ready”.
I am still having a lot of fun in Azeroth and most major flaws have been fixed promptly through hotfixes. However, I hope that Blizzard takes a few more months for the next expansion in about two years. I would gladly struggle through a hellfire citadel or the siege of Orgrimmar for 12 weeks longer to have a truly “polished” expansion at launch.
Patch 8.1 Tides of Vengeance will significantly improve World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth. It may not be perfect then either, but the current expansion will be a “real game” for me, which can be called complete.
But that is just my opinion. What do you think? Are you looking forward to Patch 8.1? Or are you completely satisfied with the current state of World of Warcraft?
