I think that BFA has been lacking a certain otherworldliness. Granted, that might be more of an issue for Alliance, whose continent is a human kingdom. But Kul Tiras, while it has some elements I adore (Drustvar's whole witch-hunting and Drust thing is something I hope we see built on if we ever get that Shadowlands expansion I'm crossing my fingers for this Blizzcon, and I think the whole Tidepriest story in eastern Stormsong feels very much like the right melding of Lovecraftian horror with WoW's sensibilities - though I'd love to see it revealed that the Tide Sages' "Tidemother" was actually Azshara throughout their whole history, and she's been seeding this eldritch corruption the whole time. Their main temple is built over a fragment of N'zoth, after all, so it's pretty justifiable,) ultimately winds up feeling a bit same-y. Zandalar has some cool stuff - its environments feel very different, for one thing - but nothing's been quite as different and inherently magical as Nazjatar.
Really, I love that the entire zone is surrounded by the massive walls of the ocean, held at bay by the Tidestone of Golganneth (were we seriously not guarding that thing? Likewise the Resto Shaman mace?)
Nazjatar's geography is also hostile in that the locals clearly aren't usually forced to travel by foot. Getting flying will be a nice bonus here, though for now the tangled terrain makes it feel more threatening.
Mechagon Isle is a bit of a mixed bag. The actual rusty metal aesthetic works really well (re-using some assets from the place in Tiragarde Sound - or more likely those assets were created for this pre-expansion) though the island itself is pretty generic Kul Tiran terrain - just with a lot of the mechanical junk to give it its own flavor.
So let's talk mechanics:
First off, there are a million things in Nazjatar, but it seems the most notable so far are the upgradeable combat allies. On day one you can get one to rank 2, which I think unlocks a new ability.
There are also a lot of quests to find, including one that led up to an in-game version of the Azshara Warbringers short, which I always found really cool (especially if you interpret N'zoth as secretly having the upper hand in the negotiation but letting Azshara think she does.) It's always cool to find a location from a cutscene, and so getting to that city block where Azshara held back the ocean - just a few dozen feet from where the actual ocean is being held back much more easily with the help of the Tidestone - is a cool thing to see.
So far the "assaults" from the Naga leaders are underwhelming, given that so many people are in the zones that you're lucky to even get to any of them before they die.
We do get our new catch-up gear, and when I finally found the vendor for the Benthic gear, I was pleased to discover that you can deck out an alt pretty easily in 385 gear (though no trinkets/rings/weapons, which is a shame.) But you can also pump the currency for that into your main's gear thanks to an upgrade dude, so there will be plenty of incentive to gather a lot of those manapearls.
Mechagon seems a lot less formalized - there's a lot of stuff to unlock in terms of stuff to make on the island, including BoA rings (and possibly trinkets?) My sense is that for the most part you don't really have to focus on Mechagon as much as Nazjatar, but having two big world-zones open at once feels simultaneously a little overwhelming but probably good for long-term enjoyment.
So far I haven't gotten deep into the Heart of Azeroth changes - you have to do a relatively substantial quest chain (like an hour, maybe a little less) involving, interestingly, the Dragonflights. So... that's an interesting element to reintroduce. Where the hell has Wrathion been during all this stuff?
I'll be very curious to see what the Mechagon dungeon is like - I liked Return to Karazhan, even if half of it was a remix of the existing raid. I'll be curious to see how this "5-person raid" works with a wholly original dungeon.
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