Dawntrail felt a lot more like ARR than people want to admit. The pacing was almost exactly similar in that we are watching a new world build itself around us and we are also only a little bit involved. That was obviously intentional by the writers. Only difference between then and now is having to wait months for the next part of the MSQ, where, if you started in a time after ARR was complete, you had the full and fresh context in your head to connect the dots. I see a lot of people who forgot what happened in the last patch because after some time, brain fog sets in, and they become disconnected from the story a lot easier.