I just attempted to level from 1-10 on a female orc rogue. I only made it to 9, before giving up. These are my observations.
Quest UI changes: The new quest tracker is great, and I like the yellow dot on the mini-map to show me where I'm supposed to find a point of interest. The overlapping questing areas having brighter highlights on the mini-map is a little confusing at first, but a minor adjustment. The highlighting for quest items is a little too pale. It was very light and faded for most of the quests. On a dark background, it was visible. On a light background, it was not. It was difficult to identify the Northwatch plans we had to burn in that quest from Sen'jin. Something should be done to make these items more easily identifiable across a variety of backgrounds. At first I thought just changing the brightness or thickness of the highlighting, but it may need something more.
New models: Female orc wobbles a little when she runs, and the chest piece is a bit distorted, but otherwise, she's great. Facial expressions, emotes, and battle animations included. Male orc, male/female troll NPC's, also looked great.
Pet battles: I did the early pet battle quests as I came across them. Initiating a pet battle while in stealth results in being unstealthed while keeping the stealth buff. It's a kind of awkward state for a rogue to be in.
Combat: This is where I ran into issues. Everything was fine until I hit level 7, and had to kill a level 8 boss. Lieutenant Palliter blocked my attacks. I was already doing less damage to him than to the mobs outside, but blocking didn't help. I died. Using Evasion and Blood Fury, I was able to narrowly squeak out a victory. Then I went on to the Burning Blade Scroll quest. As a level 8 rogue, I could not kill a level 8 mob, without using either evasion or blood fury. I had to have one of them up, or I died. Facing a level 9 mob required both. I fought through it, and made it to level 9, but I couldn't take it anymore. I died 5 times trying to get 6 drops, from mobs the same level as me, and with less health. Waiting for a 2 min CD between every mob was just too much. The character was just too weak.
Quest UI changes: The new quest tracker is great, and I like the yellow dot on the mini-map to show me where I'm supposed to find a point of interest. The overlapping questing areas having brighter highlights on the mini-map is a little confusing at first, but a minor adjustment. The highlighting for quest items is a little too pale. It was very light and faded for most of the quests. On a dark background, it was visible. On a light background, it was not. It was difficult to identify the Northwatch plans we had to burn in that quest from Sen'jin. Something should be done to make these items more easily identifiable across a variety of backgrounds. At first I thought just changing the brightness or thickness of the highlighting, but it may need something more.
New models: Female orc wobbles a little when she runs, and the chest piece is a bit distorted, but otherwise, she's great. Facial expressions, emotes, and battle animations included. Male orc, male/female troll NPC's, also looked great.
Pet battles: I did the early pet battle quests as I came across them. Initiating a pet battle while in stealth results in being unstealthed while keeping the stealth buff. It's a kind of awkward state for a rogue to be in.
Combat: This is where I ran into issues. Everything was fine until I hit level 7, and had to kill a level 8 boss. Lieutenant Palliter blocked my attacks. I was already doing less damage to him than to the mobs outside, but blocking didn't help. I died. Using Evasion and Blood Fury, I was able to narrowly squeak out a victory. Then I went on to the Burning Blade Scroll quest. As a level 8 rogue, I could not kill a level 8 mob, without using either evasion or blood fury. I had to have one of them up, or I died. Facing a level 9 mob required both. I fought through it, and made it to level 9, but I couldn't take it anymore. I died 5 times trying to get 6 drops, from mobs the same level as me, and with less health. Waiting for a 2 min CD between every mob was just too much. The character was just too weak.
