This expansion has received criticism for being buggy and full of issues, which has caused frustration for many players and taken some of the fun out of the game.
Locked Content in Dragonflight
One of the main issues is the locked content. When you reach level 70 on the Dragon Isles, you quickly realize that you have only accessed a small portion of the content. While this isn't necessarily a problem for most players, as they will likely reach level 70 before finishing the main storyline, some players have complained about endgame content being locked behind the main story. For example, high-end crafting gear requires completion of the entire questline to unlock it, and NPCs that are important for portals in Val Draken are also restricted to players who have progressed through the main story. This approach to content feels like a holdover from previous expansions and is at odds with the rest of the Dragon Isles, which is much more non-linear and freeing.
Buggy Ore Locations
Another issue with this expansion is the buggy ore nodes. Players have reported encountering ore nodes that are floating in the middle of the sky, or are bugged inside of mountains or underground. This bug is not pervasive enough to affect every single ore node, but it is common enough that players encounter it regularly. It is unclear how this bug has gone unfixed for so long, especially since ore nodes are a static part of the world.
Blizzard has a reputation for releasing unfinished and buggy expansions, and this issue seems to be in line with that reputation. It is frustrating for players to have to deal with these kinds of bugs, especially since they can disrupt gameplay and make it difficult to gather resources.
Something like this, albeit kind of small, needs to be addressed and fixed if WoW is going to be the best it can be. We need to demand the best from Blizzard, because after all, the last thing Blizzard needs right now is players feeling like they are being sold something that is incomplete. This small thing needs to be fixed.
Lag
Yeah, we've finally arrived at what many consider to be Dragonflight's biggest con, and that is the lag. Man, the lag! Now, in my own personal experience, despite playing on the full server of Moon Guard US (I know it's a roleplay realm, don't make fun of me), I have not encountered that much lag.
The point is, a lot of people have been complaining about the lag that has been polluting this expansion, especially in zones like the Azure Span and the Tuscar area. So much so, that people are comparing Dragonflight's lag to Wintergrasp back in the release of original Wrath of the Lich King (for those of you who might remember that). Now, what's causing all this lag? Well, we're not entirely sure, but most likely it's all the various events that are happening on the Dragon Isles. Whatever the reason, this is a glaring issue for many players in this expansion, and it needs to be fixed ASAP.
Getting Weaker
Number four: getting weaker.
This is a big one. As you go through the Dragon Isles, you will find that despite gaining talent points and better gear, higher levels, and stats, you seem to get weaker compared to the monsters around you, or at least it doesn't really seem like it's making much of an impact. But maybe to be fair, a lot of us are just too polluted and ruined by classic WoW, where gear is so impactful.
But I don't know, in dungeons, level 70 players do minuscule damage compared to scaled up level 61 players, and that's strange. To be fair, this is not exclusive to Dragonflight and has been present in almost every expansion.
In expansions since Legion, when scaling was added, at least for myself, the only time I felt like my gear was really making an impact in the open world is once I was fully decked out in heroic dungeon blue gear.
I don't know, maybe we're all just bad at the game, guys. Man, if only there was a "bad at every game" t-shirt that we could buy over on the Nixium merchandise store. Like, how crazy would that be? It would just be perfect, wouldn't it? The point is, I think quite a few people, including myself, feel that Blizzard might need to take a look at scaling again with the current World of Warcraft game because we really want that next piece of gear to really change and we want to feel it, you know?
But you know who didn't get any weaker in this expansion?
Broken Tanks
Yeah, number five: broken tanks. No doubt you guys have seen this bald-headed, addicted Goblin running around on his stream, pulling entire zones and laughing about how broken tanks are in this expansion. I mean, just listen to this smug bastard. Okay. And that's just how it's done, yeah.
It's true, tanks in Dragonflight have been broken as hell since launch, and this has got to be addressed. Now, I'm sure that Blizzard is going to be nerfing them as soon as possible, but at the time of me writing this video and narrating this, this is not yet the case. So, hopefully it's coming soon, and if they have nerfed them at the time of you watching this, well, excellent.
How the hell did this level of class and spec imbalance/brokenness whatever make it through the beta? I mean, come on, Blizzard, get your act together. But I guess if you're a tank out there, you probably weren't complaining. I guess you guys had a great time, but let's move on to the final point...
Lack of Early Game
Dragonflight is a solid expansion, and don't watch this video assuming that I am hating on the expansion or spitting on it. This is just me offering a couple of criticisms to make the expansion even better in the future. But there is one thing that I feel really is lacking in Dragonflight, something that I feel that Blizzard really should take a look at in the next expansion or maybe down the road with Dragonflight, and that is simply that the early game really was not touched with this expansion.
Friend or and I recently talked about this on our recent podcast video where we ran the Deep Run Tram a couple of times. But the thing is, although we got all these amazing new features with Dragonflight on the dragon Isles, the updated professions, the evoker class, like although we got all this upgraded stuff, if you're a new player and you just start playing the game and you're like, "Okay, I'm gonna make a level one character. I'm not ready to make some max level, you know, free boost guy and play him. I'm just gonna start at the beginning and work my way up."
If you start at level one and you're doing those early game professions and you're going through the world, none of this stuff exists. I was hoping when they said, "Oh hey, yeah, we're gonna do this big profession update system." I thought that was gonna impact the early game as well, to make professions more relevant while you're leveling up a new character, you know, your alt, to make it more fun. But unfortunately, that's not the case, really.
It's the biggest con of Dragonflight in that if you're a new player, the early game really didn't get touched at all with this expansion, and that's a shame because I've made multiple videos on this channel talking about it. I probably will make some more in the near future, but the early game of World of Warcraft is really bad right now, and I feel that Blizzard really should take an opportunity to make an expansion or a patch or something that really shows a lot of love to the alt levelers, a lot of love to the new player, because your game is not gonna grow if when the person walks in the door and makes their first character, they're presented to a bunch of garbage, a bunch of boring gameplay, right? I mean, come on.
So, that's my main negative with Dragonflight. Everything else is overwhelmingly positive, aside from some floating nodes, some scaling issues, news, and so on. So it's really not much to complain about. I'm having a great time with this expansion.
So, what about you guys? Do you love the sight of those drafter scales? Is there an OP class you want Blizzard to nerf? Or are you a classic Andy and you hate everything about this expansion and you're never going to play it? Let us know down in the comments section below to be featured in our next video.
If you want to hear my thoughts on Dragonflight, having leveled all the way to max and started to gear up, check out the video on your screen right now. In it, I go over the entire experience and how awesome it has been.
Thank you for watching, and I will see you all on the dragon Isles!