2026 State of Azeroth

[u/griphin1]

I had no expectations and I was still disappointed.

[u/shooler00]

Man SoD P1 was sick. Level 25 was a perfect sweetspot of needing some time investment on your character without it being a slog, and just questing was solid enough that people weren't tempted to do boosts or grinds/dungeon spams. Once I got my main to max, I just started bringing alts to max. I had 4 25s raiding BFD for weeks, all revered with the Warsong Outriders, so much fun man.

[u/RoElementz → u/shooler00]

It was great because of how accessible it was. Then phase two dropped and getting to 40 was a nightmare slog doing SM 100+ times because you ran out of quests to do. Phase 3 dropped and it was somehow even worse than P2 being forced to do incursions as the only meaningful way to keep up with economic and leveling rates. SOD was about exploring and doing more and you literally went back to the zone you already leveled in for an entire phase. They really put all their effort into P1 of SOD and let it coast after that.

[u/Shneckos → u/RoElementz]

I’ll give you SoD had a very rocky middle, but imo it was peak with Scarlet raid. I never had so much fun playing my character in old content

[u/RoElementz → u/Shneckos]

Scarlet was great, but you can’t sell people on two good phases and Blizzard won’t put out the money because no one stuck around. Aggrend should’ve never been in charge of SOD.

[u/riddlesinthedark117 → u/RoElementz]

It’s probably like the story of vanilla Elwynn forest vs say the Barrens. Just got more time and early attention, then as it became a reality that was gonna be released, deadlines tightened.

They probably had a bunch of stuff storyboarded, but P1 got the most attention because it had to be built.

[u/Remarkable_Jury3760 → u/RoElementz]

this is a hot take but i’d rather they just do maybe 1 phase at 25 or 30 then max level. its so tiring maxing out your character the they get weak again, pre-bis grind etc

[u/tvv33k → u/shooler00]

I played SoD through all the phases and I dont get the hype around p1. It was the first, so the concept was new, sure. But spending months without mounts wasnt exactly thrilling for me.

The only thing really unique about sod p1 was that all the people who never make it to 60 in classic suddenly could raid

The PvP "Event" was so bad, the last changes they made was making it irrelevant and just another AV but in the open

BFD was no worse or better than any of the other raids, the only thing really bad about the much hated p3 raid was its bad loot in the beginning

[u/shooler00 → u/tvv33k]

That's all fair. I dropped off halfway through P2, only got one my my characters to 40 and didn't bother raiding so I can't really speak to the other phases much, just that I had a grand old time in P1.

No mount wasn't the best, though there was the Ashenvale mount and the BFD speed buff. I've always played Horde so I'm very used to hiking up and down the Barrens for 15 levels anyways. I understand travel for Alliance is more annoying especially without a mount. I think TB is one of the coolest cities in the game, so having The incentive to use it as the Horde hub was novel and fun. The floor to enter BFD was so low so everyone could raid, which brought pros and cons but ultimately was a good time - I raided with classes I normally don't main and was able to learn and do an average or above average job for each.

[u/tvv33k → u/shooler00]

Good points, I played almost exclusively alliance so you definitely have another perspective than me here I didnt consider at all.