The new expansion continues to impress finally taking up the rally of the Horde. Blizzard had the factions working together a lot in the past few expansions. Battle for Azeroth sets the side apart again and allows factions to explore maps and islands apart and in contention. We started out in the Horde starting area and here is what we learned.
We began the demo in Zandalar back into the Troll territories doing quests deep in the voodoo jungle. Quests began by setting ritual components for the witch doctors to turn you into a troll and explore the local village. The disguise allows you to walk among the trolls who combine a voodoo/African theme. The village you explore is fantastic filled with skulls and blood bowls and tortured trolls being sacrificed. It was a lot darker theme than recent Warcraft zones.
)
As we explored the zone, you can play up to level 120. The format is similar to Legion that you can level up in different zones. The starting zone on the island was set for the demo. You could actually enter the first dungeon we saw. Atal’Dazar is the first dungeon we saw on the Horde side. It boasts 4 bosses. Priestess Alun-za is obsessed with gold and corruption, using blood abilities to weaken the party as you fight. We did not get to demo the bosses but went through their stats. The next is Vol-Kaal who looks like a giant undead troll zombie. Stacked with Strength he seems more like a tank and spank fight. Rezan is a giant skeletal raptor to battle. The last is a spider style Yazma who uses shadow and soul rend. The dungeon is one of many coming in the expansion. We tried to break it down as much as possible.
)
Overall having their own island to explore for the Horde brings a lot of excitement. Playing a shaman we did not go deep into leveling and abilities in the demo. The allied races are all there but the only one playable was the High Mountain Tauren. They have a solid look with moose antlers. The Battle for Azeroth brings in normal weapons and gets rid of artifacts. Players can chain maps and quests together zoned out in hubs as normal.
)
The other Warcraft announcement that got everyone excited was the mention of World of Warcraft Classic. The server wars have been going back and forth a lot between Blizzard and third party hosted worlds. However, J. Allen Brack took the stage and explained how much we like vanilla ice cream, to cheers of the crowd fans went crazy for classic. The chance to go back and play with hopefully some quality of life improvements will make a great server community for us older players who logged in on day one. Warcraft was fully represented at the show with the expansion and classic on the horizon Horde players will have endless battles regaining their glory and crushing the Alliance.
