WoW: Warlords of Draenor First Impressions – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Yesterday marked the launch of World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor, the fifth expansion in World of Warcraft‘s rich history. This is an expansion that has extremely high expectations set out for it, and it wants to not only meet but exceed them.

My first day with the expansion was quite the rollercoaster. Queues were so lengthy that I had to ditch my main character, equipped with Garrosh heirloom and all, to Level Boost a brand new one on a lower population server. While that might be for the better since I’m absolutely loving my Orc Warrior, it’s indicative of just how bad the launch of Warlords of Draenor has been.

Also See: My Epic 10 Year Journey Summarized in 50 Screenshots

The servers are down for maintenance right now, so I feel it’s a good time for me to share my initial impressions after a full day of playing, and trying to play, Warlords of Draenor.

The Good

A Grunt salutes me in my Garrison.

A tangible story – One problem I’ve always had with World of Warcraft is that while it has some of the best lore in video games, it’s mostly been delivered through text. That’s changed during this expansion. There are tons of cutscenes that show interactions between key characters in Warlords of Draenor. Even as a high speed maniac who usually skips dialog, I’ve been able to stay in-tune with what’s happening.

Introduction of characters – To make story delivery even better, major characters are introduced with their name underneath them, so I’ve been able to get a good idea of what the personalities of each are early on my journey. This means that when I encounter them later on, I won’t be scratching my head wondering who they are.

A reason to explore – The level design in Warlords of Draenor lends itself to exploration. There are some truly beautiful looking areas that are inviting, and some of these areas contain rare mobs that drop exclusive loot. I have killed three of them so far and received an upgrade in the process.

Level Boost refined – The Level Boost system is much better than before. Basically, it started me out with only three skills and no talents. As I completed quests in Tanaan Jungle, skills and talents unlocked, introducing me to the class and spec. Considering I haven’t played a Protection Warrior since Cataclysm, it was a great way to avoid overwhelming me.

Quests feel significant – I’ve actually found myself reading quest text more often in this expansions since the quests are more interesting. A lot of the tasks I’ve been sent on are related to key story elements, driving out a lot of the “errand boy” feeling of past expansions.

Surprise – There was a moment before logging out last night where I turned in a quest and although I was supposed to receive a green item, I received an epic instead. This is as intended, and adds some unpredictability to quest rewards that has led to me actually paying attention during turn-ins.

Garrisons – I am absolutely astonished by the Garrisons feature. I was expecting it to be a cool housing system that I would dabble in, but it’s much more than that. There’s a feeling that the Garrison I own is distinctly mine. Each NPC goes about their daily life, conversing with others and moving around the environment. Acquiring the resources to plot a new building, and then visiting it after is exciting. The Follower system is also very well thought out, using strategic elements to make it feel much better than the half-baked systems in games like Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and Dragon Age: Inquisition.

Music is outstanding – While the environments look great, the best part of the presentation in Warlords of Draenor is the music. I’d go as far as to say that this has the best soundtrack of any expansion in World of Warcraft history.

The Bad

I was stuck in a loading loop when I first tried to enter Draenor.

Lag – It seems that Warlords of Draenor is pretty popular. For the past day servers have struggled to meet demand. There is some delay to inputs, which in some cases has led to players nearly dying near me. Don’t worry, I saved them with Taunt.

Server issues – I experienced one of the most frustrating bugs I’ve ever encountered shortly after logging in with my brand new character. I tried to walk through the Dark Portal but no instance was available. So, what happened was my character was rooted in place, and the game tried to load Tanaan Jungle every second or so. My screen would alternate between my character trembling in fear at the gate unable to move, and a loading screen. There was nothing I could do but wait a few minutes until some enemies aggro’d me and took my life. I would then spend about 15 minutes cautiously attempting to zone through.

Also See: Long WoD Queues Caused By More Players Returning Than Predicted

Extended Maintenance – The servers have been down for more than five hours as Blizzard attempts to remedy the issues that have plagued Warlords of Draenor’s launch. There is no ETA on when they will be brought back, and there are some rumors that it might be a while. As someone addicted to the game, and trying to review it, it’s frustrating to say the least.

The Ugly

Most of my launch day was spent waiting in queues, sadly.

Queues for days – The majority of my first day was spent in queues. I made a Monk on Tichondrius US more than a month ago to play for this expansion. Unfortunately, yesterday I spent three hours in a 4800 person queue before being booted for some unknown reason. Then, I had to re-enter the queue and it was even larger with 6200 people. After waiting in the queue for seven hours I decided that was enough and used my free level boost to create a brand new Orc Warrior on Stormscale US. I never looked back.

An Early Conclusion

It appears that Blizzard was not prepared for the extreme demand of this expansion. Lag, queues, and glitches have caused headaches for players. As someone who has played during launch week for every World of Warcraft expansion, I can say with confidence that this is the worst launch that World of Warcraft has ever seen.

Nonetheless, when it is playable it becomes immediately clear that this expansion is something truly special. I haven’t had this much fun playing day one of an expansion ever before. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if this ends up being one off the greatest eras of World of Warcraft. It’s a great time to come back to World of Warcraft… once the servers are stabilized.

My World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor Screenshots