Dazar’alor Progress and… Island Expeditions?

Since BfA’s second raid came out at the end of January I’ve been having a blast running through it for the first time. The bosses are fun (for the most part) and challenging, and definitely aren’t simple fights. When I think about Battle for Dazar’alor the first thing that pops into my head is Opulence. I would think about Opulence for different reasons, depending on if we had faced it or not yet. Before fighting the giant magical golem made out of the riches of Zandalari kings, I was excited to get my hands on a very specific item from its loot table. Players first meet Opulence at the end of the war campaign leasing up to the raid’s opening, where you raid Dazar’alor’s treasure vault. To be honest I loved the idea and model design for Opulence, a monster made out of loot. Finally we succeeded in defeating Opulence and, on our second Opulence defeat, I got the shiny golden crown that I coveted so much. That isn’t to say there weren’t challenges with this boss, because for about two weeks after the raid opened, we were determined to best him.

We still have two bosses left until we clear the whole raid for the first time, but part of the fun (and frustration) has been learning each fight. It’s fun to watch as we make mistakes and learn from them, and it makes getting loot at the end of it that much better. I’ve watched videos on the Jaina fight and I can’t wait to experience it firsthand.

Like Uldir, Dazar’alor is visually awesome, and the music in the background is epic. It really gets me into the faction-warring spirit, even if the whole thing is just an Old God ploy…

As the last picture above shows, we became Horde! This raid is unique, and confusing, in that Horde and Alliance fight different bosses in different orders. For example, both factions face Grong, but Alliance face an undead Grong once the Horde have already defeated him and Bwonsamdi reanimates him. Since the picture was taken we have defeated Mekkatorque, who narrowly escapes at the end via escape pod built into his mech suit. Mekkatorque is a cool guy, which makes Gnomes somewhat ok (I guess), so I did not like fighting him and it’s still unclear whether or not he ends up surviving the fight. His fight, however, was super cool. Jaina mentions that he’s being kept alive in a machine with magic beyond her understanding, could this be a tie in to Mechagon coming in 8.2?

Discovering Major Expansion Content

Ever since BfA came out, I had avoided Island Expeditions. I had heard that they were a disappointment and not fun, and I was distracted by other things. I kept watching from the sidelines as Blizzard added more perks to the islands – pets, mounts, and toys. Aside from the fact that you get tons of Azerite, the vanity items were more than worth it to me. This past week I tried Expeditions for the first time and I had fun. I didn’t have as much fun as I do in the raid, but I am a simple Hunter with simple needs. These cute little island scenarios chock full of enemies helped fulfill that need of running around and Multishot-ing everything in the area. I even got a little crab pet that has a pirate hat, identical to the one from that Tortollan shell matching game! I was ecstatic, and I was exciting for reset day so I could try out a new set of islands. I laughed out loud when the Horde Paladin NPC bubbled and started running away at low health. As long as it makes me laugh and wanting more, then I count that as fun content.