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The maw was a max level outdoors zone for the Shadowlands expansion, and it was one which was incredibly disliked, in fact it might be one of the most disliked zones in the entire game. Which is really weird to think about, well for me specifically, because I really liked it. In this video let’s explore why this zone had such a negative perception,and why it may have actually been a lot better than anyone might think.
Script and Editing by hiru
– #WoW #WorldofWarcraft #warcraft
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Maw is a fascinating zone
As someone who hasnt played WoW in like +15 years. This zone seems very interesting but perhaps was for the wrong audience.
Like I stopped playing WoW because it messed with my school work but tried to come back after they first simplified things and like it was a mostly a QoL improvement but felt like a step too close to the game playing itself. Then hearing about the changes over the years it all sounds like a game where the only thing is the raids where the rest of the content plays itself almost to completion.
Forgot what day it was, Hiru would be great in sales because you start to believe it whenever he does a video like this. However no amount of brainrot or salesmanship can convince me the maw wasn't garbage
This is not even April fools joke, this is fact. 🤷♂
I disliked a lot Timeless Isle. BFA mechanism I liked best. You've got a point on The Maw: it is very (more than others) challenging on max level. But in the end I disliked Shadowlands altogether. I just disagree a bit about the lore. Like everything in Shadowlands, the Lore linked nothing to nowhere, with hints of "oh this could be a good thing, stay tuned" — never became nothing
And never forget, Sylvanas is serving her eleventy billion year sentence of doing dailies in the Maw!
Maw is trash, next question.
SL got the most annoying WQ ever, here are some example
Legion/BFA WQ: Kill a rare or kill certain numbers of mobs
SL WQ(at glance): Objective 1–Kill and collect certain items from killing some mobs
(Hidden/follow up)Objective 2– Go to a NPC turn in these items
Objective 3–Apply buff/quest item to some NPC
Objective 4– Go back to the NPC
Objective 5–Kill more mobs and collect more
Objective 6– Turn the items to the NPC
Objective 7–Summon and kill a big Elite
Objective 8–Loot the elite and turn in the quest item to NPC
I recall doing some quest that looked very easy but end up spending 45 mins to finish. It was during the beginning of SL so my gear sucked and we didn't have flying mounts.
Maw was great. I LOVED how much harder that zone was, specially on launch. Everything before that was just plain farming, not much to think about. For once it felt really great to be somewhere as a tank, when ppl actually wanted to group up with you aswell.
The Maw did nothing wrong
korthia was also decent imo
Sounds a bit like dark souls.
The zone wasn't the problem it was the cancer mechanics attached to it. Oh wait, that's the zone.
As I told a friend, a very hot take is when going for the min max the S1 Maw was actually pretty fun.
Usually this type of time gated grind is spread out over a few very lucrative weekly objectives, a lot of somewhat lucrative daily objectives and a myriad of very small trickle reward non capped objectives. For the maw you had a couple weekly quests, and handful of daily objectives and another dozen or so "rares" that spawned very frequently.
The thing is the Maw was designed with the 5 star system in mind capping the amount of resources you could get, so the rewards were generous as you couldn't farm them indefinitely and would eventually kick you out. The min max was thus, having as many objectives as close to complete as possible, then hunting rares until you had your 5 star wanted meter (rares granted no resources once you were at 5 stars) , then complete every objective before having to escape/dying.
This sounds like a lot, but in reality it took around 15-20 minutes to do once you got the hang of it. The limited stay in the zone meant most rares were up no matter when you decided to do it, doing it the way I described also granted you A LOT more resources than usual and as a very simple measurement of how generous the zone was during season 1 I could afford to buy the socket item once every 3 days or so which was really the only reason to farm it other than for 1 time buy cosmetics.
Compare that to Korthia which had much longer laps (including multiple visits to the Shadow Rift dimension) and took around 40 minutes to do a complete daily lap and WAS balanced with long farming and access to mounts in mind meaning resources were nowhere as generous. and Zereth Mortis which was even worse as it had flying and was ultimately just flying circles with a rare tracker on looking for treasures for however long you decided to stay or grind elites in a 4×4.
It's ironic the extreme time gating on S1 Maw also meant it was designed around grinding for very short periods which made it a lot more tolerable for people who farmed it compared to the new zones introduced in SL S2 and SL S3.
I'm weird. I loved Shadowlands and the Maw/Torghast. It was fun. Running my gnome mage, sneaking around to get objectives, and such, it was fun. I loved doing that. I sometimes go down there just to mess with stuff. I level myself, I will only group with people I know (LFR sucks). I love the new Follower Dungeons. And I run my alts after the max is hit on my main. I liked the world quests in there too. And I am not a PvP person. I hate dying, which was a vital part of the Maw. I don't like Plunderstorm but it is FUN to watch. People who can do it well are fun…that championship was fun to watch. I LOVED the Visions thing either, it was a challenge, just like the Maw.
I would love to see more things in old areas, or fixing it so you could do max level in those things like the Maw. I do miss it.
Funny, people are complaining now that wow has gotten too cartoony and soft and yet they all complained and dipped when wow's literal hell was in the game XD
I liked the Maw it felt dangerous . Like you really shouldn't be there .made the game feel pretty serious like it had stakes man . I remember before it came out someone said "it's like dark souls" cuz of losing souls being similar
I hate April 1st 😅
I think the thing that really made me not like the maw was that it felt like i was stuck in a toilet bowl full of soupy diarrhea.
The no mount thing was also pretty bad.
I really enjoyed the aesthetics of the Maw.
Maw was ugly and not fun to be in at all + bad music
best Zone for me is timeless island
Hiru has a habit of overlooking parts that could get him in trouble with blizzard.
another major reason the Maw was so disliked was because the Dev's were telling us they knew best – that their opinion on how warcraft should be played was the right way to have fun, and there had been large push back on that arrogance from people who didn't even play the game they thought they were experts on.
the maw could've been interesting if they made it 100% cosmetic like upgrades.
The only other option would be to have another way to obtain these items easier but take longer something you could auto pilot.
But the maw could speed thing up you could gear past some of the places which would delay you otherwise, then you'd have an optional area with the benefit if you knew how to group up/play your class you could gear up faster.
They could've even made it so partying was somewhat required in the zone at the start so maybe players would band together.
But always when there is only ONE way to obtain power upgrades it always makes players unhappy, nobody wants to be forced to have fun the right way.. which is a huge part of the maw story that doesn't get covered.
Now Blizzard is listening again.. they used to lie and 'listen' for 2-3 months every 2 years of complaints so this has lasted longer so far.. but players like me legacy since TBC i've just moved on now.
love ur vids
mechagon/nazj had everything, amazing raid too.
Nah. The Maw wasn't a hidden gem, it sucked. It was tedious, long, and a drain. Everything would aggro on you from a screen away and would take forever. For a time crunched player, it was a choir I never want to do again… never mind damn April's Fool.
only reason people didnt like the maw was because there was no infinite grind / or relevant grind associated with it, sure you could get sockets and upgraded conduits but that's so minor compared to AP / essences / HoA /cloak ilvl
Yeah, your april fools videos usually convince me of something I didn't think of, but this one is gonna take me some more 5-10 years
Im one of the ppl that mostly do m+ and raiding in wow, but hearing that (I started with wow in dragonflight) makes me really excited for delves next expac. Tbh I would love some challenging outdoor content, next to the other stuff in the game. Makes the game feel more like an mmo than a "chill in town until you get in a group" game
maw wasn't even mandatory for player power the gains from it were so miniscule, sockets and conduits lmao. When compared to previous end game zones and grinds the maw was almost pointless
I find it to be very poetic, that I had to witness literal WoW-Hell to find Absolution and quit.
The title alone produced a visceral reaction that I cannot completely explain aside of absolute disgust and disdain that no other zone in the game has ever evoked…. Well played Hiru lmao
0:45 Pretty sure ogri'la was the first daily quest hub
Absolute mad lad post, even for April 1st
Somebody forgot about the timeless isle it would seem
Man i was so unpopular in my family for how much i Loved the maw when it was current
Mam was nice at first but quickly became boring and annoying
I always appreciate the Maw for what it was, WoW's Hell it is suppose to be hard and it does exactly what it set out to do.
Send the Maw to the Maw.
I absolutely loved the maw. It silenced all the people whining and crying about how easy Wow had become. I mained a Destruction warlock in Shadowlands and it was such a rarity for me to ever die until the maw. The maw offered some incredible hidden mounts and the quest lines were interesting. It reminded me a little of leveling on a pvp server back in 2006, everything at all times wanted to kill me. Great video Hiru, thanks!
I was already typing up my retort before I realized its april 1…. 💀
Forgot it was April 1st until I saw this video
the maw was the biggest pile of monkey crap blizzard ever designed.. stop smoking crack
I absolutely hated it
I actually really enjoyed the Maw. Reaching "threat level midnight" felt like a challenging yet fulfulling chore.
Yeah, no.
Since we can one shot everything in the Maw now, I think flying should be unlocked now for the Maw.
this absolute gaslight videos each same day every year….this is content bois!!