Patch 10.0.7 is much more than most expected. At least WoW demon Cortyn is absolutely thrilled and sees it as the future of Azeroth.
It has only been one day since the release of Patch 10.0.7, but I believe I already have a pretty good impression of the content and want to boldly and directly praise the developers.
Because Patch 10.0.7 of World of Warcraft is clearly much more than one could hope for.
Patch 10.0.7 is actually just a small patch, yet in terms of content, it can easily compete with the major patches of previous expansions:
- A newly accessible island, packed with treasures, rare spawns, story quests, and a weekly exploration adventure.
- A new reputation faction of the furbolgs.
- A new “ring” system with many interchangeable, interesting sockets.
- Some new story quests involving Baine, humans, and orcs.
- Some hidden novelties, like old armor sets from vanilla (Zul’Gurub) that haven’t been available for a long time.
Especially the rare enemies on the island I want to highlight here. They do not feel like the typical “08/15” rare mobs that only have a single ability; rather, they are mostly small boss fights where, at least as a non-tank, you have to dodge their abilities if you don’t want to bite the dust quickly. A few examples:
- A titan guardian occasionally summons protective drones that cast a spell. If this spell is not interrupted or the drone quickly stunned, the drone flings the selected player 100 meters away into the water. If this happens to all players, the fight ends and the mob resets.
- A dragon tamer shows up with his dragon, which spins in circles and casts various effects. At the same time, you also have to dodge different attacks from the tamer and place areas well so that you don’t accidentally walk into the next fire breath.
- A naga transforms all players into small, helpless crabs. The crabs deal almost no damage – but they can attack small totems that maintain the naga’s spell, thereby ending the transformation.
In direct comparison with Shadowlands, the difference is simply striking. Although there were also mobs with special abilities in Korthia, they were few and felt dreary and boring compared to the Forbidden Island. If you think back further and compare 10.0.7 with the legendary-bad “selfie patch” from Warlords of Draenor, it is clear that the development team and the plans for WoW have evolved significantly.
The second highlight is the Zskerage vaults. Although this is a weekly adventure where you have to open around 30 doors before waiting for the next week, I am quite impressed by it.
Because the vaults are full of little puzzles that are not incredibly difficult but reward attentive players. For instance, if a chamber is completely frozen, you need to grab an empty vial from a second room and fill it with “liquid fire” in a third room to thaw the frozen room.
These little combination puzzles are not overly complex, but they always provide a positive feeling when you open a new treasure and solve another puzzle. Rewards include toys, pets, crafting materials, gold, and of course stones for the onyx ring.
Since the layout of the vaults varies from character to character, it even takes a while to truly see everything.
At least my guild had a lot of fun in the vault, as it felt like new, untapped content that exists without pressure and is simply there when you feel like it.
More “Warcraft” than all of Shadowlands combined
As YouTuber Bellular describes: The whole patch feels like beautiful, classic Warcraft. Not only are there encounters with old characters that you haven’t seen since Warcraft III, but the quest lines are really interesting.
Whether you’re traveling with Baine Bloodhoof in Ohn’ahra, exploring the story of the dracthyr on the Forbidden Island, or trying to learn the language of the furbolgs in the Azure Mountains – all of this has a classic Warcraft charm that has been missed, especially in Shadowlands.
Sure, you still need to get used to the dracthyr, but the patch significantly helps to anchor them in the “familiar” sight of Azeroth.
And the best part: None of this is mandatory. Don’t feel like farming rare mobs to grind keys for the chamber? Okay, then just don’t do it. You can also collect treasures that contain keys. Or do none of that. The ring is nice, but anyone with strong rings from the mythic raid or high M+ already has a solid alternative.
Story quests are not your thing and you find it boring? No problem, the whole thing serves only as a prequel and explanation of the motivation of some characters who will be important in the next update.
There is criticism, but it is minor
Of course, there is also criticism. After all, the Forbidden Island is “technically speaking” not really a new area, since it already served as the starting area for the dracthyr. Grumpy WoW fans might point out that this is simply “recycling”. However, a more sober look should make it clear that this “recycling” was planned from the beginning.
When the Forbidden Island was still purely a starting area, one couldn’t help but think: But this is already very large, considering that there’s so little to do here.
The starting area of the dracthyr was designed from the outset to be reusable and still have a solid size to offer enough room for the ability of dragon riding.
The second point of criticism is a handful of bugs that were primarily noticeable on launch day. If the necessary trigger at an event chest appears with a 5-minute delay or a rare mob turns all players into helpless crabs for 10 minutes without being able to cancel the effect as intended, that can be annoying, of course. But these are minor issues that can still be laughed about when it happens, and suddenly half the guild is doing a crab dance.
I am confident that these “patch day errors” will be resolved with the next hotfix.
Blizzard had big goals – and is achieving them
Blizzard set a very tight schedule for the release of new content shortly after the launch of Dragonflight. 6 patches are planned for this year, with 4 being smaller and 2 larger, each bringing a new season. But if Blizzard maintains the current level even for the “smaller” patches, long-term WoW fans will hardly know where to look.
If everything continues like this, 2023 will likely be the first year in a long time when a content drought simply does not occur. Some will progress through the content faster, and others slower, but the long droughts of four, five, or even six months without new content seem to belong to the past.
Like many others, I was skeptical before the launch of Dragonflight whether Blizzard and World of Warcraft specifically still had “it”. Now I am sure: Yes. They can when they want to. And right now they clearly want to.
Currently, World of Warcraft simply delivers and does so at a very high level. The patch serves as the perfect prologue to the next update 10.1, highlighting the key characters more and starting the stories that take place after the “vault of the incarnations” raid.
If you want to give WoW another chance, now is a good entry point – also because in the next weeks thick loot is raining, with which you can quickly catch up to friends and guild.
