Somehow Azj-Kahet and the City of Threads feels strange in World of Warcraft: The War Within. There is a reason for this, because the concept is not well rounded.
The world of The War Within was well received by players. Although people are used to World of Warcraft having new areas, Heilfall, the Isle of Thorn and the Sounding Depths are particularly appreciated by many. Azj-Kahet falls a little short of expectations.
Azj-Kahet was basically intended to fulfill the function of Suramar, which was present in the Legion expansion. The City of Threads in particular – the outside area, not the dungeon – should be reminiscent of the great city of the Nightborn. A large metropolis in which you are a foreign body, have to earn the trust of a few residents and then carry out various tasks inside in order to slowly but surely disrupt the stability and ultimately strike a blow against Queen Ansurek.
In theory, the City of Threads is exactly like Suramar. But one small detail drastically limited this experience: flying.
WoW: The War Within – Powers Within
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Flying is to blame, it “ruined” the city
An important aspect of the much-lauded city of Suramar was that in the beginning you couldn’t fly. If you wanted to get around the city, you had to walk through the various streets or swing over the roofs using grappling hooks. This forced you to get to know the city more closely. You learned which houses offered a good hiding place, where there were particularly many guards or which routes were the quickest to get to various quest givers. As a result, many small details that would otherwise have been overlooked automatically caught the eye.
It seems obvious that Blizzard originally intended to create the City of Threads with such restrictions. The whole architecture of the city is built in such a way that you should work your way through several levels. There are different vehicles or gondolas everywhere that allow you to change levels. The whole layout looks as if meticulous care was taken to ensure that everything is easily and conveniently reachable on foot.
The same goes for all the quests and rumors (small mini-missions). Many of them are designed in such a way that you actually have to try to avoid the watchful eyes of the patrols during the quest – for example when you have to smuggle goods through the city to a secret warehouse. However, this difficulty of the quest is completely irrelevant because you can simply fly over all the guards.
Rewards prove the plans
The fact that the City of Threads was originally designed as a no-flux zone can also be seen from the numerous rewards. There is a whole set of unlockable rewards to help you navigate the city more easily.
In this way, you unlock different types of pheromones with which you can make the detection radius of city guards visible, reduce their area of influence and ultimately – as the final reward for the reputation faction – even completely deactivate them. The queen’s pheromone, which costs a whopping 8,888 Kej, is actually a strong incentive.
However, these rewards only make sense in a game world in which you cannot simply fly over all the city guards and land where you need to go for the corresponding quest.
Why Blizzard decided to allow flying in the City of Threads from the start – I have no idea. What is clear, however, is that it didn’t help the experience of the City of Threads. Playing a zone that was clearly designed with the idea that you’re tied to the ground, at least initially, just loses a lot of its appeal when all the little details you’ve thought of can be skimmed over.
All areas in The War Within were obviously created with the intention of moving around with dynamic flight from the start. Only the City of Threads is the exact opposite – the fact that they finally decided to remove the flight restrictions here has ensured that the area will never reach the fame of Suramar. Too bad.
Another area is really strong – even if the mystery of Beledar was only solved late.