Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Legion Alpha: Pet Battle World Quests Ready For Testing!

Exciting news for Legion Alpha today -- World Quests will be ready for testing once the patch has been deployed!

TLDR World Quests: Once you've reached level cap (110), you'll have a variety of content to completely daily/weekly (including Pet Battle content!). It's sort of like an evolved version of daily quests, but maybe not so daily. For full description and details on World Quests, check out the official post by developer Muffinus himself!

We've already had a very small taste of Pet Battle World Quests (I blogged about their initial yet incomplete addition to Alpha here and here), and since then more encounters have been added. Presumably a few for each zone.

Why bother seeking out and completing these Pet Battle World Quests though? According to Muffinus, there will be new pet rewards for doing so. Eeep!

I'm excited yet overwhelmed with this news. Excited because YAY PET CONTENT! Overwhelmed because...

Well, for starters you must be level 110 to unlock World Quests, and I've been somewhat avoiding leveling. I'd like to save as much of the story and questing as possible for when Legion goes live so I can experience it together with the OH. Unless premade level 110 characters are made available, it looks like I'm going to have to spoil it for myself (and the OH). Bummer.

Secondly, there are still some unknowns that may impact how the Pet Battle World Quests are received by the community.

Since there's a possibility of receiving a pet reward from the World Quest loot bag, many collectors will feel it necessary to complete the quests as often as they can.

  • If the quests are per toon and not account-wide, it will give those with multiple max level characters the advantage.
  • If the quests are account-wide, it will be a longer and heavier RNG-riddled ride. (Personally, I do NOT prefer this over the former above.)
  • If the quests are random per toon/account/person, RNG will be the largest factor in which Pet Battle World Quest you get each day/week.
  • And if the reward bag loot tables are not shared and are dependent on the pet encounter, then RNG will also play a big part in which new pet you can receive. Meaning you'll need/want to check back as often as possible to ensure you're receiving the full rotation of pet objectives each day/week.

There are other things to consider as well, such as location, travel time, difficulty, etc.

The difficulty level of these World Quests should definitely be noted and considered carefully. Without a doubt some will consider this new content "too easy", while others will view it as "too difficult". Where should the difficulty level fall though?

We saw how the Menagerie's initial difficulty level was NOT favorable, especially since it was a feature that everyone kind of had to experience.

However, Pet Battle World Quests are somewhat different in that they are part of a larger pool of quests. You don't HAVE TO pick the Pet Battle content; there are other types of quests to complete to satisfy the overall objective.

So does this mean these new encounters should be on the same level as the nerfed Menagerie battles? I don't know yet. It depends, really.

Can you pick and complete the other types of World Quests (PVE, PVP, etc.) PLUS the Pet Battle quests? If so, some will definitely do so for the chance of more rewards. And if that's the case, perhaps the Pet Battle fights need to be accessible so that even beginners or "casuals" can complete them.

If World Quests are not as open choice as that and you can really only choose one "path", then the battles need not be super-easy. I mean, mainly those interested in pets will be willingly throwing themselves at legendary and boss pet challenges.

Then again, do we NEED tough Pet Battle content early on in an expansion? Difficulty should ramp up towards "end-game" right? That's assuming, of course, there is an "end-game" for Pet Battles in Legion...we still don't really know yet!

Anyway, this is all speculation and pondering on my part. Testing will reveal a lot more and hopefully some solid feedback will help make this new pet stuff awesome. :)

I'm just sad that I need to start leveling. Not only will I be behind on Alpha, I'll also be spoiling some of the questing content. #firstworldAlphaproblems T^T

Edit: Also just thought of something else -- If Pet Battle World Quests require level 110, does that mean there will be no battling content until max level? Other than collecting, what pet content will sub-level 110 players have?

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