First of all, I forgot how I love this Suramar-and-on model of weekly lore updates. The campaign does not dissappoint so far at the very least!

The meaning of Korthia pull by the Jailer became clear now – I wonder if he wants more secrets in Korthia, but a sigil alone hidden in the vaults was worth all the buzz! There was no wonder who the Runecarver was, but the whole scene of liberating him, only to be ripped of his sigil by Anduin and Zovaal was pure gold. Primus himself steals the attention at the moment he arrives – what a badass character.

And it was too awesome how the end of the questline sends the adventurers to the raid, quite logically and naturally lorewise. As the Covenants distract the attention of Zovaal’s armies, we strike with precision at the Torghast seat to try and snatch the sigils back, while Ebon Blade defends Oribos. Zovaal himself is not idle too, waiting for us to come like WoW villains normally do – his puppet weapon Anduin worked as intended, and now he’s coming for the last sigil.

We have many other things to solve at the Covenants – even if Zovaal won so far, we need to set things right at their zones. Vyraz the traitor, some Uther stuff, a case of the night warrior, so they are important too, and I can’t wait to see them.

***

We took to the skies! I’ve no time or utmost desire to go for world quests now, but it’ll become very handy once I do. I dismiss the new mounts so far, except for this precious:

And its /mountspecial, as it crawls and lays eggs is something. Slimy and satisfying, as Simba the Lion King said :)

***

As for gameplay, all works as intended. I focus on resolving the Fate/Anima weekly duo on alts, but with no pressure. Next week, raid queues will become my priority, and I’ll weave in dailies/assaults while waiting. No rush at all, no stretch with keeping up Renown or otherwise – it’s only main that has to follow the pace and see the lore on reset day one. The rest will catch up.

By the middle of week one, I can definitely tell I love 9.1. and what is happening here. The lore is great, logical and exciting, the session model is very alt-friendly and does not put any pressure on you, Korthia’s small size is actually is a big plus as you cross it in a jiffy for objectives, assaults are quick to complete, and the rewards/progress for even the shortest session of 15-20 minutes are soooo palpable. Besides, they fixed anima income, so I’m building like hell nowadays. Previously, it would take me a month to collect 5k – now it’s a week or two of casual, non-time consuming, normal activities.

As always, I’m ignoring Torghast now, and the new crap like conduits and stuff – I’ll just shove what upgrades feels stronger if I have slots for them, that’s all.

In general – the patch is amazing, and I rate 9.1. higher than Nazjatar, or god forbid Broken Shore – in every sense possible. Rewards, activities, lore, gating, travel, alt-friendly session model of gameplay, improvement on the borrowed power system and what not.

My verdict is: bravo, Blizzard.