Documenting my return to World of Warcraft: Day Two

Day Two followed shortly after Day One, and, still unwilling to take on Highmountain, I grumpily trudged to my Order Hall, figuring I should probably be doing something there. On my arrival, I remembered that Artifact Knowledge is a thing, and that it would have been ideal if I'd picked up the two scrolls I had waiting for me before I did the Suramar questline. I definitely feel like some sort of reminder list for vital wizard chores would be a great addition to the Adventure Guide system for returning players.

In my order hall, I also discovered a Mythic Plus weekly chest, including some trousers that were a 20ilvl upgrade, and learned that I had a huge amount of traits available on my weapon. I thought I was actually able to unlock everything that wasn't maxed out, but for some unknown reason was unable to invest into Concordance. Eventually I realised that one trait wasn't maxed out - I wish the UI was clearer here.

I also wanted to add some words on why Day One focused on flying, especially when we can't fly on Argus. For me, flying is content. Especially in a situation like the one I'm in right now, where I'm so far behind that I feel I can never catch up, casual content is important. Once I have flying, not only will I happily spend many hours enjoying WoW's scenery from the air, but I will be far more inclined to quest, and to level up alts. But, Highmountain and Broken Shore stand in my way, and I need to give myself a break before I tackle those aggravatingly high... mountains...

So, instead of that, let's take the game up on its offer, and go to Argus. I take the (optional) portal to Orgrimmar and fly happily to Bladefist Bay. There, there's a short conversation piece, and my quest becomes a handin. There's a ? on my minimap, but no NPC with a ? on their head. What? Are they inside the ship? There's no inside to this ship. What's happening? I fly around for a little while...

Eventually, I realise that, on mouseover, the pointer turns into a ? on Lady Liadrin. We successfully set sail, but this is a pretty basic breakdown of quest flow, pretty early on. Regardless, we make it to the Exodar, where there's a portal, and now I'm on a Draenei ship. The Draenei have a great history of success with ships, after all, that seems a logical approach to our assault. We definitely shouldn't talk about this. It's OK though, that particular Draenei spaceship doesn't actually crash. That one.

Anyhow, pottering around Argus is moderately interesting. I have to say, it's very similar indeed to the broken shore, look and feel-wise. Looking at the general aesthetic, it feels like the Demon Hunter start zone too. Now, I'm no lore nerd, and this may make perfect thematic sense. But it doesn't really feel like another planet, at all. It feels like a continuation of the same old thing - red and green demons, fel things, dog-type things... More of the same, really. Go here, kill a few of these, free a few of these. Not really anything remarkable. All of that said, though, it's very much the standard WoW questing experience. I'm not sure why I was expecting anything different. Perhaps because the exciting green ball in the sky has such unknown promise.

So, bored, I try to do the new dungeon. I'm really happy and excited that we've seen new dungeons in Legion. But, of course, it's locked. This, to me, is enormously frustrating. I don't really care for questing in WoW, but I really enjoy group content. I wish WoW's designers would stop this new Legion idea of "do content type A to get to content type B". Yes, both dungeons and quests are PvE, but to me they're extremely different.

And I really don't want to be forced to quest if I want to do one of the few things I'm excited about in 7.3. What's worse is there's really no way in the game to know what I actually need to do quest-wise in order to get into this dungeon. There's no quest list, there's no special marker, there's no in-game indication at all beyond "you must progress further". Of course, Wowhead almost certainly has this answer, as it has almost every answer, but the point remains that this new habit is highly frustrating. 

Now, instead of pottering around, casually enjoying a new area, I will be irritated by doing the new quest content, as I feel forced to do it if I want to access the content I'm actually excited to try. That sours my whole experience, it doesn't make me want to play the game at all. I wish they'd stop it. 

I log off, irritated. So ends Day Two.