We took a look at Patch 7.3 of WoW and give a first conclusion. Is it worth taking another look at the MMORPG?
The latest update for World of Warcraft has been active since this morning (August 30th). We dove deep into Argus late at night to avoid the main rush and get an initial look at the story and gameplay of Patch 7.3 Shadows of Argus.
Argus delivers exactly what older patches, like 7.2, promised and has combined it with the great elements of a Timeless Isle and other “Island Patches” – all garnished with story.
- Numerous (sometimes hidden) rare mobs
- Regular equipment tokens that can also be sent to twinks
- A vendor for strange items (like on the Isle of Giants)
- A manageable number of world quests (enough to do but not overwhelming)
There are plenty of new quests. These are, unlike the mind-numbingly boring campaign of the Legion judges, full of cool story twists. For example, there are major revelations about the Naaru. While there are also the typical “Kill 10 of these and collect 5 of those” quests, they at least have an interesting framework and are almost always rewarded with a few spoken lines of dialogue, where you see the various characters in action.
Especially cool is the Soulstone, which is sometimes left behind by rare enemies. This increases reputation with all Legion factions by 1000 points. This not only helps to quickly gain reputation with the Army of the Light but also brings us 10% closer to each Paragon reward!
More SciFi than classic Fantasy
I’m still looking for things that disturb me, but that’s nitpicking at a high level. It’s quite possible that the whole “Draenei technology” might not appeal to some players, as the storyline sometimes leans more into the SciFi realm than into a classic fantasy MMORPG. I definitely did not let that deter me, and my first impression is clear: Shadows of Argus contains everything that a good WoW patch should have.
Oh, a small point of criticism comes to mind. The bearded egghead Khadgar firmly claims that he “never would have dreamed of being on a foreign world.” It seemed that the early mage dementia had kicked in, making him forget that he had already been to Draenor.
Argus feels so far more like a “mini-addon” and not just like a small patch area. And not all content has been unlocked yet – because that occurs weekly.
Sure, it is too early to judge whether the patch will keep players engaged for weeks. But the first impression is that Blizzard has learned.
