If you've been doing dailies for either (or both) of the new factions with 5.1, you'll probably have noticed that about every two or three days, once you finish your dailies, you will see a nice yellow exclamation point back at Dominance Point or Lion's Landing. This is how the story of the faction gets progressed, though arguably it's less the story of the faction and more the story of the continuing war between the Alliance and the Horde.
After discovering that the Operation Shieldwall grand commendation would apply to Dominance Offensive as well, I've decided to focus on the former and wait until I hit revered to start up with DO again, so as a result I've mostly seen the Alliance side of things.
I've often thought that I'd like to, with new patches, simply get new quest chains with a nice reward at the end, rather than an enormous daily grind. The Thrall quests in 4.2 were pretty good (though a bit of the same thing four times in a row,) but what I had always imagined was something more akin to a full zone's worth of quests. I don't know how feasible this is for them to do, though. For one thing, they don't want you to just clear the whole thing in a day and sit around demanding more.
The way I see Operation Shieldwall and Dominance Offensive is that they are essentially gated quest chains. You get a little snippet of it, and then you have to wait for dailies to reset once or twice, and then you get the next bit.
Your battles in Krasarang are simply there to reinforce the notion that the Alliance and Horde are struggling to keep a foothold in Pandaria while attempting to push the other out. The daily quests are the background, while the one-shot quests are where the story really is.
So far, the Alliance quests have been a very slow build, but I have faith (and remember some of the MMO-Champion leaks) that things will grow more dramatic. So far, I've recruited a retired SI:7 spy, then infiltrated Garrosh's camp in Kun-Lai to set surveillance devices and steal research notes. I then traveled to Dalaran with Anduin to try to negotiate with Jaina to retract Dalaran's neutrality. It was actually somewhat odd to see Anduin arguing in favor of this. One thing I enjoyed was that I got to make my opinion known. As my Paladin's very much a proponent of peace with the Horde (though he recognizes that will never happen while Garrosh remains in charge) I basically agreed with Jaina, who, despite the horrible trauma of Theramore's destruction (and knowing that her predecessor, Rhonin, was killed in that attack) considers the Sunreavers to have earned the trust of the Kirin Tor. Dalaran, up to this point, has been a beacon of hope, showing that Alliance and Horde can get along (we see a nice little cutscene where Sunreavers and Silver Covenant guys seem to be getting along great) and so she feels a need to provide that example. Anduin, being Anduin, can't blame her, and so you leave the city the way it is. A few days later (what I did today,) you are sent to Mogujia (that place in Kun-Lai with all the statues that come to life or go back to stone periodically) and discover that the Reliquary is hard at work attempting to find something. Not only that, you discover it has something to do with the Mogu's ability to use Sha energy. This is a Really Bad Thing.
The one-shot quests are cool, though I do think it would be nice to get a little more meat to them. Most of the time it's one or two short, simple tasks. I realize they've got to spread out the chain as much as they can, and I would rather get a small quest every two days than a huge quest only when I hit the reputation levels.
Quests seem to be the best way for WoW to tell its story, which is why I'm glad they're pushing for this idea of constantly adding quests to the game. I would love to see more quests added to the raids as well - most raids have not had any quests to give you background on what you're fighting. Karazhan had a cool quest chain, but other than the now-defunct attunement quests or Legendary chains, I don't know if there are any raids that use quests (other than those items off the final boss you can turn in.)
Admittedly, Garrosh is not a villain who needs much more build-up. The Horde has been interacting with him since Burning Crusade, and the Alliance probably notices that the Horde got a lot more aggressive when he took over.
As I've said, I have not done much of the Dominance Offensive chain, but one thing I'd like to see is a closer examination of Garrosh's descent. Sure, he's always been somewhat simple-minded - either wallowing in despair in Garadar or flailing wildly in Northrend (despite the way Garrosh's supporters spun it, the Warsong Offensive succeeded in spite of him, not because of him) - but we've also seen moments where he's shown admirable qualities, such as his condemnation of the Forsaken Plague and the use of Val'kyr to raise the dead. If you do Stonetalon Mountains, Garrosh reacts in enraged disgust when Krom'gar destroys the druid school. The guy has shown that he has principles in the past, yet those seem to have faded away. I'd like to know why.
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