WoW players have a lot to say about the new depths of The War Within.
Season 1 of WoW: The War Within has begun and we can finally face the big challenges. First and foremost the new difficulty levels of the depths – which apparently not everyone enjoys.
There is currently a heated debate on Reddit about whether the difficulty level of the higher levels is still reasonable, or whether it is far too difficult. As is often the case, two camps are defining themselves:
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The new WoW addon brings great improvements, but not all players are satisfied
Camp 1: The depths are great!
Many players find that the difficulty levels from Tier 7 onwards offer just the right level of challenge. User BobFreeman6969 started a post on Reddit in which he explains that he is happy about the high difficulty level. This way the depths do not degenerate into a “loot piñata”.
Link to Reddit Content
Many WoW fans agree with him and take aim at players who complain about the difficulty levels being too high and would prefer to have everything for free. User Darkwarz says something like:
“If you logged in and the mailbox was full of max-level gear, players would complain that the walk to the mailbox was too long.”
Many players also tackle the depths with an item level that is too low. For example, depths at Tier 8 are recommended to have an item level of over 600 – not everyone can complete these depths at item level 580.
Camp 2: The depths are far too difficult!
On the other hand, there are players who find the higher level depths too difficult. Many identify the scaling of the enemies as a major problem – that is, the damage they deal and their own health points. For example, user Kyuuki_Kitsune started a post on Reddit. It seems to show that some enemies have more health when you fight them alone than when you tackle them with a group.
Link to Reddit Content
There are various comments that confirm this perception. Too much damage from automatic attacks, heavy, unavoidable AoE damage and more are identified as the biggest points of criticism.
However, it seems to help if you enter a higher level depth in pairs. The scaling is still OK compared to a larger group. In addition, the depths become much easier when players enter as tanks or healers. Players who want to cause damage but cannot heal themselves or take big hits are at a disadvantage in the depths. This is stated in the commentary by Frescanation clearly:
»The Depths really tries to answer an impossible question – how do you make content that solo players can do with any of the game’s 35 or so specs without it becoming trivial for a group? The difference between content for me as a solo player vs. for me as a healer is enormous. To make the second scenario even remotely challenging, you have to introduce large bursts of damage […]. That’s great, but those big bursts make it impossible for solo DPS players. I like the concept of depths and I’ve only done them solo, so it doesn’t affect me that much, but this needs a solution.”
Many players see the solution in a change in the distribution of damage: from direct, unavoidable damage to damage from sources that players can avoid with skill. The depths would be based on skill rather than on raw health or damage reduction.
What other problems are there with the depths?
In addition to the difficulty discussion, there is another one: Many games find the AI companion Brann Bronzebeard to be useless because he doesn’t do much damage or heal much. Others, however, think that he just needs the right relics to be useful. Some users, like Zestyiguana, have managed to get Brann to about Tier 8. Zestyiguana even had Brann tank the final boss.
Link to Reddit Content
So there is plenty of potential for discussion around the depths. What do you think? Have you had similar experiences and do you find the depths too difficult or too easy? And what about your Brann? Tell us in the comments!
