wow Tazavesh: A New Hope

[Starym 3,800]

 

We've covered a lot of WoW community reactions to various things in the game, but they usually end up being either negative or at the very least controversial, so today we'll be taking a look at the other side of that coin!

Tazavesh, the new mega-dungeon, destined to become two Mythic+ dungeons in the next patch, has been a bit of a hit with players, as aside from the bugged (and now hopefully fixed for good) mailroom boss, it's all good vibes in there!

There has been a feeling brewing for a while that WoW should pull back the stakes, that all these titanic, cosmic, planet and universe ending conflicts that get magically solved by 20 "champions" are all getting a bit much. I'd wager that Tazavesh plays into this heavily, as despite being a city of otherworldly brokers that trade with death and the final boss is using a super-powerful relic, it's just a "little" adventure with weird bosses and fairly limited threats (well, at least compared to everything else going on). Another big thing it has going for it is that it's self-contained. All the other Shadowlands dungeons are integrated into the story and Covenants, while Tazavesh just sits alone off to the side and is its own little adventure, very similar to the way it used to be in Vanilla. There's a bandit uprising over in Deadmines, there's a whole lot of plague in Stratholme, oh Ragnaros has popped up, etc, etc. There's also the matter of this being a difficult (for some) and not TIMED experience, which is also a complaint that has been going around a lot related to the Mythic+ system, as there is no difficult 5-man content that doesn't involve racing and routes. And, of course, the No.1 reason players are enjoying the dungeon: the time traveling pirate dragon with a hook for a tail.

Obviously all of the above is just a part of why Tazavesh is so well-received, so let's take a look at what players are actually saying about it!

Tazavesh isn't just one of the best things I've done in WoW, it's one of the best experiences I've had in a video game. [Excerpt from the above] The city feels alive in a way that no other locations in WoW really do. After you kill a boss the NPC's will react to that and word spreads throughout the city about what you've done, with NPC's on opposite sides of the city reacting. - Mida_Multi_Tool ... If dungeon quality stays like this in the next expansion, and if blizzard cleans up their systems and goes back to simpler gearing, they might actually dig themselves out of this hole they dug. It's really really good. - Toast3179 ... Tazavesh is the most fun I've had in WoW in a long time - Nimora9 [Excerpt from the above] Every boss in Tazavesh has been so fun and creative. Even when we wiped, it never felt unfair and we still were enjoying it more than any Mythic raid we've done. The market is an interesting twist on a gauntlet concept, Soazami makes my brain burn, and Oasis had us laughing the whole time. First time using music in a battle! The dragon pirate was the first time I've seen a dragon pirate in a game and it didn't disappoint. ... Took me an my group around 4+ hours to clear it. The entire time we were having an absolute BLAST. I can't say anything bad about that dungeon, and this is coming from somebody who generally hates dungeons. MORE OF THESE BLIZZARD! PLEASE! - Peanut-Bear ... Tazavesh is the best dungeon in WoW next to BRD. I hope that Blizzard focus less on esport design of instances and give us more journeys like Tazavesh in the future. I've spent there almost four hours and 1k gold in repairs but it was best fun I've had in WoW for a long time. - Buky001 ... The opening quest chain to Tazavesh made me realize how much I crave for this kind of more mundane-everyday storyline instead of the ongoing mumbo jumbo cosmic threat. - Linino ... Dude, everything about Tazavesh is so good. From the intro quest all the way to the last boss. Getting the hardmode was even better. Hot take but m+ is going to ruin the feel of that dungeon so much. I'm fine with it cause it's relatively minor patch content rather than the focus of the entire patch. - xiadz_ ... Tazavesh is incredible - Gadrem ... I agree. I was also not sure how it would be going into it but I went into it with 4 other dudes that had also not run it yet. We just bashed our heads against it and figured it out and I felt like I was a kid again. Also all of the fights except the rune boss (I didn't realize it was a channel on the main pylon thing...oops) were extremely fun - AVeryRusticLoaf ... I did it with 4 other friends and it was such an amazing experience and a huge challenge for us. The most fun ive had in wow in years. We were all super undergeared (like, 200-205 ilvl average) so some fights were extremely challenging cause the lack of dps, mostly. The menagery (the 3 bosses fight), teleporty boy and last boss took us like 15+ tries each but it was so much fun. - blukkie ... Aesthetically, it's not my thing. The fights are dope, though. - Squeeches ... I love megadungeons, I'd like if they add more than just 1 each expansion. I like challenging content with smaller groups but also dislike content with time constraints. Megadungeons fit exactly with my tastes. - Keylus

And finally, a bit of fun:

[Arcling 898]

It's story does seem like a copy of Mechagon, which was already a copy of another small story. Can't say anything about boss mechanics yet, since it requires a group, so waiting for heroic version then.

[Migol 433]

Done it both normally and "hard mode".     It's not bad, but gushing about it being one of the best video game experiences ever is a huge stretch.    It's a competently made big dungeon, which honestly WoW needs more of.    Most of the first half bosses are forgettable but the last two are pretty good on forcing you to adapt to weird mechanics.

[durdyenglish 298]

I enjoyed this dungeon a lot and thought all of the fights were really well done. It was impressive that each fight had a clearly defined mechanic and think this place will go a long way towards getting newer (and older 😅) players ready for raiding.

It was big and open, but some how I was never lost tanking it for the first time. I didn't find it to be too difficult (my guild group cleared in about an hour and a half or so), but I already see how it was tuned around keystones.

The market scene was a bit expensive from a performance standpoint and the story was another entertaining but ultimately a bit forgettable tale of Broker shenanigans. That said, these Broker (and Fatescribe, I suppose) fights across dungeons and raids have been the quiet stars of this expansion and I am looking forward to seeing how their story plays out.

Style and substance; Shadowlands continues to be a slow-rolling juggernaut of an expansion.