GameSpot Hands-On The War Within - More of the Same, In a Good Way

The War Within Posted 2024/04/18 at 1:27 AM by Archimtiros

hands-on experienceThe Goodfate of Dalaran

GameSpot

"Khadgar has in the past been that guiding figure for us, but the story of The War Within, it's not just about that," associate art director Tina Wang said in an interview with GameSpot. "We have our main characters, Alleria and Anduin, who are big drivers of the story, and so much of The War Within is about their journey as well and their discovery, them healing the wounds of the past and really delving into that layer of who they are."complete with new character model
"Something we wanted to do with her design was create something where she's elegant, she's airy, she's of the void, but also she's very intimidating," Wang said. "That was one of the balances we wanted to strike with her."
"We can really path a story to flow directly through dungeons in a way we couldn't in the past, in ways that at times was frankly awkward, because sometimes major villains die in dungeons, Hazzikostas said. "Dungeons are places of great importance to a zone but we couldn't tie them directly into the questing because we didn't want to create an obstacle for players who really just prefer to keep playing solo."

It was a sentiment lead quest designer Dani Merrithew echoed in an interview with GameSpot.

"It did allow us to in general focus more on what dungeons are really good for, which is that awesome environmental storytelling that kind of fills in the gaps," Merrithew said. "We're really excited that we can do that now going forward and it's something I believe we are going to continue going forward as well."The BadUnfortunately, at least from the two (out of a total of 12) Delves I played, it's hard to say whether or not they will be as enduring as the game's other tried-and-true forms of PvE content. Though there are some unique mechanics present, like one Delve requiring players to find candles to fend off an encroaching darkness that reduces vision and max health, or another that had players avoiding spider webs lest they summon additional enemies, they provide little challenge and felt too similar to one another to make me want to run them repeatedly. Each had me progressing through linear hallways underground, clicking on items or NPCs, battling enemies, and facing a brief boss battle at the end with little else to mix up the gameplay. Players will unlock more challenging versions of each Delve as they complete the expansion's campaign and grow in power, but it remains to be seen if Delves will be able to hold the attention of players week after week without more variety, even when faced with more challenging enemies at higher difficulties.
While it feels like Hero Talents aren't nearly as impactful as Covenants were in Shadowlands, and are thankfully free to change or swap between at any moment, it does feel like the idea is fundamentally flawed and that new talents and unique class fantasies should be two separate things for players to choose. What if a Hunter player really loves the idea of being a Dark Ranger but feels forced to pick the Pack Leader Hero Talent tree because it's simply better from a DPS perspective? I'm not sure what the solution is here, other than maybe letting players dabble between multiple Hero Talent trees. However, it seems clear something has to give, lest players find themselves in a similar, albeit less punishing, situation to that of Shadowlands' early days.The War Within Alpha Coverage

The War Within Alpha

Content Features

Classes, Dungeons, & Raids

Professions

Models

Interviews

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Comment by VhyeSpot !@#$ing on: "While it feels like Hero Talents aren't nearly as impactful as Covenants were in Shadowlands, and are thankfully free to change or swap between at any moment, it does feel like the idea is fundamentally flawed and that new talents and unique class fantasies should be two separate things for players to choose."Comment by carrotkekWouldn't say more of the same is good. Not this 'same' at least. Need Legion same, and not soyjak characters.Comment by KiffersAdding a timer to Delves could help with replayability. Not necessarily a count down timer, but more like a speedrun timer. And then maybe a book in game or something you could consult which shows fastest times on the realm. Then you could include 100% completion and Any% categories or w/e. Idk. Just something else to spice it up so that it's not just identical content from week to week. Because even though dungeons and raids are identical, unless you play content where you run with the same people all the time, the nature of it is going to vary depending on your group comp.Comment by BwgmonWouldn't say more of the same is good. Not this 'same' at least. Need Legion same, and not soyjak characters.wait a minute.Comment by PeacemoonThe biggest problem with hero talents is being boxed into a character theme you don’t want for performance. Especially the ones that fundamentally change your character’s style, like Dark Ranger, which should have been its own spec or class.Comment by ZtinktoofThey didnt get to the harder delves that's why they feel lackluster. Actually delve in a little deeper and it gets better because it becomes more challenging.Comment by ChanchiSpot !@#$ing on: "While it feels like Hero Talents aren't nearly as impactful as Covenants were in Shadowlands, and are thankfully free to change or swap between at any moment, it does feel like the idea is fundamentally flawed and that new talents and unique class fantasies should be two separate things for players to choose."Comment by AvelyneThe biggest problem with hero talents is being boxed into a character theme you don’t want for performance. Especially the ones that fundamentally change your character’s style, like Dark Ranger, which should have been its own spec or class.Comment by ServasusI've been saying this very thing about Hero Talents from the get go. It's like they learned literally nothing from Shadowlands. These should have just been class skins and nothing more.Comment by PeesneezeMore of the same doesn't sound good to me lmao.Comment by HranthaerExcept Hero Talents are NOTHING like covenants; they're are as far as we know a permanent addition to the game that isn't tied to endgame progression, quest lines, reputation, content, gear, and don't require an annoying amount of work to change. SO many things were locked behind your covenant choice and couldn't be changed outside of orobos to the point that you felt actively worse if you chose the "Wrong" one for your spec due to the ability, gear, Conduits and sometimes legendaries that were locked behind your choice. With Hero Talents is as simple as just a small addition to your kit that can be easy swapped on the fly if you want or need to.

The SAME EXACT argument that Gamespot is trying to use for Hero Talents can be use for the regular Specs, so that entire argument is stupid.
if you want to be a hunter who summons a ton of beasts in combat and has two pets out at once, YOU HAVE to take BM, but what if BM is worse than MM or SV? see same logic. The only way that blizz could separate fantasy and talents is by outright removing the talent system as a whole and letting players choose any ability from any spec, which would ultimately result in a SIGNIFICANT pruning of abilities and passives overall and ultimately reduce player choice AND would be a nightmare to balanceComment by HranthaerI've been saying this very thing about Hero Talents from the get go. It's like they learned literally nothing from Shadowlands. These should have just been class skins and nothing more.Comment by RockyyCan't wait to see what horrible changes they are gonna do that destroy the game even moreComment by HranthaerCan't wait to see what horrible changes they are gonna do that destroy the game even moreComment by ShuurahI see Hero Talents exactly like Borrowed Powers. However, they are directly 'in the player', instead of in some tool.

There's no way to say that they will be permanent. Blizz could remove them in future expansions, if something goes wrong.

My only concern with them is that they seem like an extra complication on top of something already complex.

Whereas in Legion and even Shadowlands, we merely received new abilities to incorporate into our gameplay.

Here, Hero Talents bring a new fantasy and mechanics, which until now I fail to understand how it will coexist with the current fantasies and mechanics...

I understand the need to include new features in the game.

But again, it just seems like a lot of complexity to something already complex.Comment by LautnerI'll be honest, if you perform 10% worse because you chose the wrong talents in my +20?

I wouldn't even notice.

Come kill Heroic Voidbug raid bosses with me in any spec and any hero talent. I don't care.

A PuG is a pug. Like, some people will be dealing 200k ST dmg, some will do 60k even on the most optimal of setups and gear. Player skill is the largest gap, and sometimes that's just because they're bad at playing what's optimal.

My friend just started this expansion and she never played any pc games before. On feral druid and Vegeance DH she leveled up with basic passive talents and somehow she can clear these dungeons with me. I just didn't overload her with 15 keybinds.

That said... I've never been hyped about the Hero Talents. I thought they should just be class skins or something. Just change my animations and spell effects but let me custom tailor my talents the way I want them.

As it currently stands, it's just 'Pick setup A or B' and there's no opting out.Comment by Arthas2183I cant see these hero talents working that well sound good as an idea on paper but cant see them working in game , so think i'll be playing war with in without picking any hero talents.Comment by HeroicRyan816Can't wait to see what horrible changes they are gonna do that destroy the game even moreComment by HranthaerCan't wait to see what horrible changes they are gonna do that destroy the game even moreComment by RobNajjarWouldn't say more of the same is good. Not this 'same' at least. Need Legion same, and not soyjak characters.wait a minute.

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