On a scale of 1 to 10.

Basically just more of the same with a few tweaks.

I was hoping for something revolutionary, like adding player ships and naval combat, or player-built castles and seiges etc.  They could have easily done both of those things in this context, but oh well.

I am definitely pre-ordering this.

Sounds like a lot more new content, and different ways to play.

Revamping all of Azeroth? Old raids brought to level 85? Worgen and Goblins? Deathwing and Azshura? Phasing in Azeroth?

Flying in Azeroth? More pvp zones? Rated Battlegrounds? Guild talent tree?

This announcement brought me back after almost two years of being gone.

Now I need to level 6 classes to 80 for this expansion and lockdown and secure a great name for a Worgen.

The first thing that hit me when viewing the trailer was how poor the graphics look. Graphics have never been a game breaker for me but they are horrible.  Having played WOW for a couple years the thing ive come to understand about it is that the more things change the more they remain  the same. Im sure the xpac will sell in huge numbers and Blizz can get along fine without me. My answer to the OP question is, not at all.

A recent obscure blog post said it better than I ever could:

There is, it turns out, a market that is even more valuable than the players who will purchase each new expansion to see what the biggest production values in the business can bring to solo questing this time out, even if they have no interest in the endgame. WoW's biggest potential growth market is in FORMER players.

I've been gone for two years now.  I looked at WoTLK and said... "Eh.. maybe next time."

Well, "next time" is here (or at least coming relatively soon), and so far I'm liking what I'm seeing - it's like Blizzard is going back to where it all started in 2004 and rebooting the whole game with what they've learned in the last five years.

• I think ranked guilds and ranked battlegrounds will give elite PvE and BG players their feeling being epic back that they largely lost over the last couple of expansions, without locking casuals out of all the interesting content like happened in classic.
• Redoing Azeroth will make the game fresh again for everyone who comes back.
• All the useless gear from classic is going away, all the dungeons are being retuned it seems.
• The Talent system revamp, it seems they're moving from your spec being a subclass to your spec being a way you can indivualize yourself, with many more viable options, which, as I seem to recall from 2004, was the original intent.
• Worgans - Blizzard has finally figured out people like playing exotic races.  Hell, the ability to play a dragon is on the only reason Horizons is still going after all these years even though it's a terrible game otherwise.

As far as castle sieges and building and all that stuff, the ethos of WoW is Blizzard tells the story and you play it.  That's never changed and never going to change - especially with Blizzard working on a new MMO which even though I know absolutely nothing about it, I do expect it to be very sandbox-y, simply because that's the exact kind of game WoW is not and thus wouldn't be competing with it.

A lot of what Blizzard has said so far (such as the repeated emphasis on 'These changes will occur for everyone' and 'We're revamping the old dungeons') seem to be pitched squarely at former WoW players, as I mentioned earlier.  Personally, the two big things I'm still waiting to hear them say are, "There will be challenging 5-mans at end-game" - I loved the original heroic mode dungeons in TBC, not the super nerfed crap they turned into, and "We'll have at least a couple of long, interesting 5-man dungeons."  I know the 5-mans in TBC (with the exception of Durnholde) were little more than hallways with bosses at fixed intervals, I'd love to see something at lv. 85 like Dire Maul or BRD.

But we'll see - so far I'm interested.  Let's see what other rabbits Blizzard can pull out their hat.

Originally posted by rikilii

Basically just more of the same with a few tweaks.

 

I was hoping for something revolutionary, like adding player ships and naval combat, or player-built castles and seiges etc.  They could have easily done both of those things in this context, but oh well.

I was hoping for boats too at some point.  This just piles on the lame as far as I'm concerned.  Is that all they could do was pull another dragon out of their asses?  And one thing I always hated about other mmo's was the humaniods with cuddly animal faces.  I mean werewolves could have been a cool enough idea but blizzard managed to mess it up.  Looking at those in-game sequences... jeez, wow sure is looking dates.  Mainly, wow is old and boring and pvp will still be crap.  Not falling for this one.

Im so excited, I unloaded  TWO pints of NUT juice onto the screen.

I didn't vote, because I'm not really excited.  I do want to check out the new version of old zones, though. 

So far I am not really excited about the information that has been released.

That is mostly due to my conception of what an expansion should include.  Ten years of buying mmo expansions and I have a mindset that right now doesn't follow with what is being shown here.  Maybe it is just outside my comfort zone and doesn't offer what I was expecting. 

On the other hand I like the concept of what it is trying to do.  Revitalizing the majority of the worlds landmass has some real potential.  Instead of creating more space that will go under used. 

People may say blizzard doesn't do this or that, but this is a rather big departure from the typical expansion mindset of mmos.  So far I am not sold that this will be a better expansion than previous expansions, but I have been wrong a few times about how I thought blizzard changes would work out.  The track record for positive game changes is rather large so I just can't buy into the complaints about this not being a good step.  Outside of speculation and those who will complain anything blizzard does in wow there isn't enough information about the changes yet to make an informed decision. 

Originally posted by Daffid011

Maybe it is just outside my comfort zone and doesn't offer what I was expecting. 

What were you expecting that it doesn't offer?

sounds interesting to me!

I'm now lvling more characters to 80 so I can choose one to lvl to 85 when the expansion comes out ^^

Moderately excited. I doubt I'll miss out on the expansion, but at the same time I worry if I'll actually reach level 85. I bought Wrath but haven't managed to even reach Northrend yet. I've gotten to Outland on 2 characters and given up, as the grind got too boring. Would love to be 80 and try out the dungeons and such, but it seems there's just too much work required before you get to the fun part. With this expansion I'll be able to enjoy new stuff in Azeroth.

Originally posted by Axxar

Moderately excited. I doubt I'll miss out on the expansion, but at the same time I worry if I'll actually reach level 85. I bought Wrath but haven't managed to even reach Northrend yet. I've gotten to Outland on 2 characters and given up, as the grind got too boring. Would love to be 80 and try out the dungeons and such, but it seems there's just too much work required before you get to the fun part. With this expansion I'll be able to enjoy new stuff in Azeroth.

It's a Myth that the fun part in WoW starts at 80.  You have tons of dungeons, quests and a number of battlegrounds to experience from 1-79.  While leveling you can get new spells and abilities its not just a gear treadmill.  The worst part of WoW is the Repetitive grind of Heroics, raids and Arenas at 80.   Running the same 10+ dungeons 100+ times each is fun? Running the same handful of arena maps for months is fun?

I enjoy WoW but this "Fun starts at Endgame" bugs me.  You really miss out on so much if you rush to the "Fun" part of the game.

This expansion changed me from: It'll be a cold day in hell before I play again. To: I can't FRAKING wait to play a Worgen

<hangs head in shame>

Not too excited... WoW's gotten a bit too "long-in-the-tooth" for my tastes.

I'm waiting for something new around the corner, ... maybe Mech Warrior Living Legends, Forged by Chaos, or Metal Black.  Or maybe even TERA Online.

Originally posted by Remii718 

It's a Myth that the fun part in WoW starts at 80.  You have tons of dungeons, quests and a number of battlegrounds to experience from 1-79.  While leveling you can get new spells and abilities its not just a gear treadmill.  The worst part of WoW is the Repetitive grind of Heroics, raids and Arenas at 80.   Running the same 10+ dungeons 100+ times each is fun? Running the same handful of arena maps for months is fun?

I enjoy WoW but this "Fun starts at Endgame" bugs me.  You really miss out on so much if you rush to the "Fun" part of the game.

The enjoyment of battlegrounds is ruined by twinks and people with powerfully enchanted heirloom items, so that's not an option for me. I do like the dungeons, but I find it very difficult to get groups together for the low level dungeons as the pre-70 areas are so empty these days.

Originally posted by Axxar

Originally posted by Remii718 

It's a Myth that the fun part in WoW starts at 80.  You have tons of dungeons, quests and a number of battlegrounds to experience from 1-79.  While leveling you can get new spells and abilities its not just a gear treadmill.  The worst part of WoW is the Repetitive grind of Heroics, raids and Arenas at 80.   Running the same 10+ dungeons 100+ times each is fun? Running the same handful of arena maps for months is fun?

I enjoy WoW but this "Fun starts at Endgame" bugs me.  You really miss out on so much if you rush to the "Fun" part of the game.

The enjoyment of battlegrounds is ruined by twinks and people with powerfully enchanted heirloom items, so that's not an option for me. I do like the dungeons, but I find it very difficult to get groups together for the low level dungeons as the pre-70 areas are so empty these days.

 

Twinks won't be bothering you anymore.

They still are. They stay in normal battlegrounds as long as they can. And even without old-fashion twinks, the heirloom players are bad enough all by themselves.

 Disappointing that not even a new hero class is coming with this expansion. Also did Metzen himself not say at some point that they would not be doing any more underwater combat as they knew it was clunky and frustrating?

Originally posted by Axxar

Originally posted by Remii718 

It's a Myth that the fun part in WoW starts at 80.  You have tons of dungeons, quests and a number of battlegrounds to experience from 1-79.  While leveling you can get new spells and abilities its not just a gear treadmill.  The worst part of WoW is the Repetitive grind of Heroics, raids and Arenas at 80.   Running the same 10+ dungeons 100+ times each is fun? Running the same handful of arena maps for months is fun?

I enjoy WoW but this "Fun starts at Endgame" bugs me.  You really miss out on so much if you rush to the "Fun" part of the game.

The enjoyment of battlegrounds is ruined by twinks and people with powerfully enchanted heirloom items, so that's not an option for me. I do like the dungeons, but I find it very difficult to get groups together for the low level dungeons as the pre-70 areas are so empty these days.

 

Well blizzard solved the twink problem and as for the grouping issue I just made sure I joine da guild with like minded Altaholics :)

I ran a ZF run last night with my 45 shaman took me about five minutes to get a group.

Originally posted by Books

 Disappointing that not even a new hero class is coming with this expansion. Also did Metzen himself not say at some point that they would not be doing any more underwater combat as they knew it was clunky and frustrating?

IMO, the things that can make underwater combat frustrating are:

1. Breath.

2. Slow movement.

3. Annoying camera sight issues when near the surface.

Breath can be taken care of with unending breath or similar buffs, swim speed increase buffs can likewise be made readily available. The camera issues can be solved by not having the combat taking place near the surface (eg. really deep down, or in a completely flooded cave). That said I wouldn't be surprised if the underwater dungeon doesn't actually have combat in the water, but more like Blackfathom Deeps where the combat mostly takes place near water, rather than in it.

Personally I'd like to see dungeon well-designed with actual underwater combat, with the annoyances taken care of.

 Or they should throw those of us hoping for ships a bone by the way of gnomish and goblin submarines :D

Originally posted by Remii718

Revamping all of Azeroth? Old raids brought to level 85? Worgen and Goblins? Deathwing and Azshura? Phasing in Azeroth?

Flying in Azeroth? More pvp zones? Rated Battlegrounds? Guild talent tree?

This announcement brought me back after almost two years of being gone.

Now I need to level 6 classes to 80 for this expansion and lockdown and secure a great name for a Worgen.

This. I'm coming back. Very excited, it's like playing for the first time with all the revamping.

Thousand Needles being flooded? Say whaaaat?