Now that I have been running around in World of Warcraft's Undermine for almost three weeks, and Season 2 has been up and running for two weeks, it is a good time to check how things are going. As much as I wasn’t looking forward to the goblin theme of everything, I have enjoyed this update much more than I expected. That said, one area I haven’t done much with yet is delves, so I’ll wait until I have more time with those before I get into the seasonal changes with them.

New Zone & New Story

Undermine is… well, a chaotic, bustling, dirty city. Blizzard did a fantastic job capturing all that here; it’s just not my type of scene. I imagine my feelings about it mirror how some players felt during the Dragonflight patch in the Emerald Dream. Although I don’t particularly look forward to exploring Undermine or doing the weeklies for the goblins, hanging out there isn’t that bad. I also have to point out that the music in Undermine and the raid is top-notch, making my time in both far less troublesome. Everyone who had a hand in the music deserves mad props.

I hoped once I acclimated to the D.R.I.V.E. system, I would enjoy it as much as I do dragonriding; sadly, that isn’t the case. Drifting is fun, but the overall experience of using the breakneck isn’t for me. Most of the time, I run around in travel form even though it is MUCH slower. I also don’t have any interest in customizing my car at all. My bags keep filling up with random parts, and I can’t be bothered even to try swapping out parts. There’s no real reason for my disinterest in this; the system isn’t flawed.  I’m happy so many players seem to be enjoying it. This just isn’t my thing.

As far as the new story goes, I enjoyed it a lot. The main reason is we are essentially fomenting rebellion, which is very much my thing, especially when dealing with the cast of characters we are arrayed against. As much as I did enjoy sticking it to Gallywix in the raid, my favorite moment was when he realized that the ethereal who took the Dark Heart wasn’t working for Xal’atath. Watching the realization of his mistake travel across his face was priceless. 

New Mythic+ Season

I know many people have said it already, but I love this season of Mythic+. The difficulty curve feels far smoother, and I enjoy every dungeon I have done—even Theater of Pain. I know everyone hates ToP, but I’ve always enjoyed it. There are some cool things I get to do as we make our way through that dungeon, which can help a run go smoothly, and I appreciate that flexibility. Even Workshop isn’t that bad; I’m just tired of it already, and considering this is the third time it has been in the pool, that’s no surprise.

There is only one key I haven’t run yet, and it is my least favorite dungeon of this season. You may wonder, “how can it be your least favorite this season if you haven’t run it yet?” The answer is it was my least favorite dungeon both times it’s been in the pool before. In fairness, it was in the pool for the entirety of BfA, so more than two seasons. Nonetheless, Motherlode is one of my all-time least favorite dungeons, not because of any of the mechanics or boss fights. No, it’s because there is far too much trash in that dang dungeon. I will need to do it eventually, and maybe they’ve made some improvements to it, and it won’t be so bad. I’m not hopeful, though.

I do wish the change to how interrupts work would get reverted. That’s the one big frustration that is still lingering. For anyone who missed it, soft CCs will interrupt a cast from a mob that is susceptible to them. However, they won’t be locked out and will often recast as soon as they are out of the CC. Since these are usually very short in duration/effect, interrupting this way is far less helpful than it used to be. It feels aimed at making large pulls more punishing and discouraging that type of gameplay, but it also doesn’t feel good as a player. I have always loved the extra utility Incapacitating Roar gave me, but now it feels like a wasted talent point.

Liberation of Undermine

The new raid is jam-packed with goblin ambiance and my personal bane, trash. It makes sense to have all this trash because we are fighting our way through the town; there’s just so much. It’s a particular problem when players are running back after releasing. There hasn’t been a single time where someone hasn’t accidentally aggroed something—often many somethings. That said, I find the dudes zipping around on the rockets hilarious.

As for the boss fights themselves, I enjoy all of them. We’ve just started working on Heroic, so we’ll see how I feel as we progress. On Normal, though, none of the fights seem too bad. Which I can’t say was true in Narub’ar Palace. Additionally, all of the fights in Undermine feel more varied in mechanics. I can’t pinpoint a favorite boss yet, though. Maybe Lockenstock and One-Armed-Bandit, both of those fights, keep me on my toes in a fun way, but I’ll have to see how I feel after Heroic progression.

Speaking of Gallywix, I am very disappointed we fought him in a mech suit. It makes perfect sense for him; he would never ever personally fight us as himself. I can’t fault anything there. I just wanted to punch him in the face. The fight threw me off a little because most of the time when you taunt in the middle of an ability, the ability will go on whoever the boss was targeting when the cast started. Not the case with Gallywix. There’s a frontal cone that needs to be soaked by half the raid and then the other, but when we taunt during the cast, he will immediately switch over. So, that threw me off a bit. Aside from that, it was a fun fight. Fitting he was the agent of his demise though.

The Undermined patch has been a real mixed bag for me. Thankfully, I am enjoying both the Raid and Mythic+ this season because those are the areas in which I mostly enjoy spending my time. The rest of it is not my thing, which is unfortunate because everything has been so well done, and a lot of time and care has been put into things. It's very much a “not for me” update.