14 months. That’s how long World of Warcraft players were stuck in the grind of the same content. That content drought came to an end, however, when the new expansion Warlords of Draenor was released.

Warlords brings another level grind from 90 to 100 for new raid and dungeon content. The leveling opened up with a beautiful storyline-like quest chain to take you to the starting zone of your faction. After getting to the starting zone, you unlock your garrison.

Your garrison becomes your central hub in Draenor providing you with your choice of building that will effect your experience in the expansion. The garrison is also the way you level up professions and get gear. Each zone will also have a building that will give you a benefit in the zone.

Another thing Warlords of Draenor brought is a new tier of raids called mythic, which require players at level 100 to gear up in heroic versions to complete.

While raids are locked until December 2nd as an effort to slow people to explore and experience the expansion, the dungeons got harder without the need of a higher tier of challenger. I queued for the first two dungeons that open up, which lacked dungeon quests outside of your garrison, and they weren’t your standard face roll, don’t stand in the fire dungeons, instead at every corner you have to pay attention because there are random area of effect traps that go off or timed attacks from bosses. The healing in game was made harder, so the dungeons each had a death despite being the easiest difficulty.

The big change that worried everyone about the expansion was the number crunch. People were worried about no longer being able to solo old content. Blizzard continuously reaffirmed that all mobs would receive the number crunch to prevent this. After a run through my favorite old raids on one of my level 90s, I was surprised to see that it became easier to beat the old content.

Despite the fact that you need to gain 10 levels to experience the new raid and dungeon content, it felt much quicker and much more enjoyable to level. Blizzard finally managed to tell a story perfectly through your leveling and beyond. Overall I have to say Warlords of Draenor looks to be one of the most promising expansions to World of Warcraft yet.