WoW Expansion - Shadowlands

[Smoove_B]

For those still enjoying World of Warcraft...

[Jag]

Available for purchase now. You get a max 120 level character on purchase of the heroic edition.

https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/news/ ... wlands-now

Homepage
https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/shadowlands

SHADOWLANDS: EXPANSION FEATURES
A host of new features and activities await players in World of Warcraft: Shadowlands. When they cross into the realm-between-realms, players will be able to:

Explore the Realm of the Dead: For the first time ever in World of Warcraft, players will cross into the Shadowlands and experience the wonders and horrors of the afterlife across five new zones—the gleaming fields of Bastion, the scarred battlefields of Maldraxxus, the eternal twilight of Ardenweald, the opulent keeps of Revendreth, and the horrific Maw.

Claim a Covenant’s Power: Players will be called upon to forge a bond with one of four Covenants that rule Shadowlands’ new zones, setting the tone for their journey through the expansion with a full Covenant Campaign. As they level up, they’ll get new abilities based on their choice, including class-specific abilities for each Covenant—as well as developing

Soulbinds with specific Covenant members, which grant them access to that character’s specific traits and bonuses.

Ascend Tower of the Damned: At the heart of the Maw lies Torghast, Tower of the Damned, a cursed otherworldly prison where the wickedest souls in the universe are locked away. Highly replayable and inspired by roguelike games, heroes are invited to explore its ever-changing halls and chambers and do battle with the minions of the Jailer, Torghast’s vile ruler. Those who brave its trials can claim legendary treasures and help free the heroic spirits wrongfully trapped within.

Every Level is Meaningful: Shadowlands will introduce a new leveling system, meant to provide a meaningful sense of advancement with every level achieved. Current max-level characters will begin Shadowlands at level 50 and work toward the new level cap of 60.

A New Army of the Dead Rises: To combat Sylvanas’ assault on Icecrown, Bolvar Fordragon—the revered former paladin who took on the mantle of Lich King to keep the Scourge at bay—has raised heroes from among all the peoples of Azeroth to bolster the Death Knights of Acherus. With Shadowlands, pandaren and all allied races will now be able to become Death Knights.

Improved Character Customization Options: A host of new appearance options for all races will be made available to players when they create new World of Warcraft characters (or alter existing ones at the in-game barber shop).

Level squish to 50.

[Exodor]

No new class, race or much of anything other than the level squish and new zones.

Seems a little thin.

[Baroquen]

On the other hand, compared to Diablo, I saw nothing here of interest. It's sad because I enjoyed WoW so much, many different times over the years. But the recent expansions have left me totally cold.

[Smoove_B]

I'm just generally surprised by it's continued market presence. I tried getting back into it a few months ago and I just couldn't get over the dated look and general feel. I don't mean for that to sound so elitist, but I'm just amazed this game is making money for them. Maybe I'm significantly underestimating the player base and the fact that it runs so well on ancient hardware? I dunno. To see this announced was one of the surprises for me today.

[Sudy]

Despite enjoying the first 20 levels of Classic (just haven't had time to play more), this just underwhelms me. I want to sink my teeth deep into an MMORPG again, just something a tiny bit fresh.

[Blackhawk]

I just ended a months-long run through the current expansion a couple of weeks ago. I'm really underwhelmed. The real problem, from my perspective, is that they just keep recycling the same concept with a few tweaks. Here is the pattern:

~Speed up leveling to make it harder to enjoy past content
~Level up in a series of half a dozen zones you choose from (A, B, C, or A, C, B, or B, C, A), all of which you need to do eventually anyway.
~Build those zones with extreme veticality and winding paths so that you get frustrated because you spend so much time lost just trying to get from A to B.
~Fill those zones with highly scripted questlines that make what seems like an open world game feel very linear. It's still preferable to the Vanilla/BC approach, but for god's sake, let us wander and discover.
~Balance things so that there is zero risk to the player unless you fall asleep or wander off a cliff, and yet give the enemies enough hit points that the combat lasts just a little too long (so players don't run out of content too fast.) This creates a sense of tediousness in the action where you feel like you're cutting down trees with a pocket knife.
~Fill those zones with 'Rares' that are extremely common and not particularly special.
~Have a central faction or small group of factions with a special currency you have to get through grinding.
~Have some sort of mission system (shipyards, class hall boards, war table) that uses a resource you get through grinding and uses a long mission timer to get you to log back in every day.
~Hit max level to access 'variations on a theme' world quests that require lots of travel time to grind out resources.
~Reach the end game in order to unlock a 'max level' zone or two with very few story quests, but lots of world quests and dailies that you have to repeat every day to advance.
~Speaking of which, do all of the above, then grind more rep to unlock flying - at precisely the point that you've experienced all of the world content and flying isn't as useful.
~Have content that lets people in large guilds and regular groups see everything, but prevents people without that resource from ever seeing large swathes of content (I have yet to ever see a PvP island expedition or the Mechagon dungeon, for instance.)

It's an MMO, and they have to keep people playing and paying. I get that. But they really need to give us a different experience for a change. Every expansion feels like I'm following the same process with a different skin.

And yes, this all seems very negative. Keep in mind that I just recently reached the saturation point where I burned out and quit. I did have a lot of fun with BFA along the way, though. I still love the WoW 'vibe', and enjoy it for a while now and then. But I really don't find it the must-play joy it used to be.

[gilraen]

Last time they squished gear (item levels), and parts of old content were broken for over a year, where you couldn't solo them (either a boss ability was doing disproportional amount of damage, or you couldn't do enough damage until some point where the boss had a one-shot mechanic). Now that they are squishing levels - that's basically a squish to the entire game. I just hope it doesn't break things too badly or for too long.

My WoW gameplay basically consists of running each one of my ~15 characters through every quest in an expansion (except for dungeons and raids), and getting them to a consistent gear point that can be achieved without group content. And then I go back to running previous expansions' dungeons and raids because I pretty much stopped doing it when it's current content (yeah, I know WoW is an MMO, but I hate group content and I mostly stopped doing it unless absolutely necessary for limited-time rewards, like the WoW 15-anniversary event coming up...blech, everyone's excited, and to me it's just a chore).

At least the Tower in Shadowlands is supposed to be available to single-player mode (not just groups), so that's good enough of an "end-game experience" for me.

[Daehawk]

Always loved WOW. Its my 2nd favorite MMO ever made. I played it from beta to around 2006 or 2007 then went back for each expansion. I finally quit in 2012 or so when my last friend that played quit too. I went back for Classic for a month and had some fun but was bored to death in 2 1/2 weeks and stopped playing. Its not the same and I dont enjoy it without my friends from back when. We were all together for UO onward.

[Jag]

I have a simple approach to the game, which is my overall gaming approach these days. Only play when it's fun. Stop when it's not.

I'll play through the storylines in every expansion because I really like the lore and the world and it's still a fun single player RPG experience. I still have a soft spot for high fantasy pulpy stories. Sometimes i will try other challenges in the game that are fun, but I'll never play when it's not. Pet battles, playing the auction house game, trying old content for cool looking stuff, leveling alts to see how other classes play. I just jump in and out and I have so much gold that I probably won't ever have to pay for game time again.

[noxiousdog]

I thought there was a lot to like.

The lore sounds really interesting.

The randomized dungeon at end game is super impressive. Especially that it can be done solo or in a party.

Being able to level from 10-50 in any expansion you want is amazing. I will definitely do the full Pandaria and Draenor experience as I missed them the first time around.

Blackhawk, while I agree with your assessment, you prefaced it with "my months-long run." Think about that for a second. A fifteen year old game still kept you interested for months. I think their formula works even though I too would like to see the difficulty slider moved a bit harder. I shouldn't be able to attack rares with no risk to myself at level. Of course, their rewards are commiserate so there's that.

I'm excited about this one. Far more than BoA.

[Blackhawk]

Blackhawk, while I agree with your assessment, you prefaced it with "my months-long run." Think about that for a second. A fifteen year old game still kept you interested for months.

Which is why I included that last paragraph.

I just want to set down and do something genuinely new rather than experiencing the formula I just finished (several times over.)

[Exodor]

I'm excited about this one. Far more than BoA.

I'm reserving judgment - and I'll buy it anyway because WoW is pretty much the only game I play. But I was really hoping for something more than a level squish and some new zones. I already have 17 level 120s so re-doing the levelling process isn't all that interesting to me. The Covenants idea seems interesting but I don't like what I'm reading about mounts, pets and other rewards tied to Covenants only being usable when a member of that faction.

At least there won't be yet another new AP currency to grind.

[noxiousdog]

I'm excited about this one. Far more than BoA.

I'm reserving judgment - and I'll buy it anyway because WoW is pretty much the only game I play. But I was really hoping for something more than a level squish and some new zones. I already have 17 level 120s so re-doing the levelling process isn't all that interesting to me. The Covenants idea seems interesting but I don't like what I'm reading about mounts, pets and other rewards tied to Covenants only being usable when a member of that faction.

At least there won't be yet another new AP currency to grind.

I loved their idea of Covenants being chosen immediately on alts rather than at 60.

[Exodor]

I loved their idea of Covenants being chosen immediately on alts rather than at 60.

They do seem to be actually acknowledging that players play alts - that's a improvement over BFA. Now if we can just get shared reputation gains and more BoA currencies. The dubloons from Island Expeditions are a great example. There's no good reason for those to not be BoA and I would do a lot more IEs if they were.

They changed PVP honor to be account-wide so there's no reason they can't make other similar changes.

[Blackhawk]

I loved their idea of Covenants being chosen immediately on alts rather than at 60.

They do seem to be actually acknowledging that players play alts - that's a improvement over BFA. Now if we can just get shared reputation gains and more BoA currencies. The dubloons from Island Expeditions are a great example. There's no good reason for those to not be BoA and I would do a lot more IEs if they were.

They changed PVP honor to be account-wide so there's no reason they can't make other similar changes.

Yes, please and thank you.

[Sudy]

Looks like this is out on October 27th.

Who's planning to re-sub, and where are you playing? Does anyone still log in to the old OO & friends guild on... was it Sisters of Elune/Alliance? Where we played during Cataclysm? (Holy crap... that was 2010??)

I'm trying to convince Mrs. Nym to play with me once the pre-expansion patch/level squish goes live (no ETA yet). If that happens we'll probably roll new characters from scratch. Other than that my highest-level Alliance characters are on Sisters. (Or was it just plain Elune? I always confuse the two because I played on the other at Vanilla launch.) My Horde ones are on Wyrmrest Accord. But given we haven't played seriously since Mists, the level squish is probably going to largely make their progress irrelevant anyway. Either way, I doubt we'd be dipping into most Shadowlands content until some time after launch.

TLDR: If we roll new characters at pre-patch, I want to make sure it's on a server where we have the best chance of bumping into some OOers. What are your plans?

[Blackhawk]

Sisters of Elune. I log in from time to time when I'm subbed once or twice a year. I've actually been tempted to re-up for the launch events, although I can't get the expansion right now.

[Blackhawk]

To actually answer the question, I'd likely be playing my Horde characters most of the time unless there was a real OO push for a group type thing. I'll play once or twice a year for one to three months, burn out, and unsub until the next time I get the itch. My own Horde characters are on Thrall, and my meager Alliance offering is split between Proudmore and Sisters of Elune.

At some point I'll play the rest of the Alliance stuff just to get the other side of the story. I haven't seriously played Alliance since before Mists launched. My Worgen hunter, Eadmund, that I played with the OO Sisters of Elune group is still parked in the Mists starting zone.

[Sudy]

I always preferred Horde with the notable, scale-tipping exception: dwarves. But I have so many good memories playing both factions. My first-ever character in beta was an orc. But my first main that I played deep into the game was a dwarf.

I/we may not upgrade right away, and I know OO-folk are pretty scattered. But always nice to play together at endgame or at least have friendly names in chat when doing whatever. WoW's server system seems so archaic now, even though they've made it a little easier to play together.

[Daehawk]

My only memory off hand of beta was playing a dwarf and coming through the hill from the starting area to the town in the valley where IronForge was located.

[Isgrimnur]

Rogue Halfling for the win!

[Exodor]

I have a stupid number of alliance characters on Whisperwind and a few Horde alts on MalGanis.

[Skinypupy]

I’m sure I’ll jump in at some point, thought I’ll probably let the initial rush settle a bit before doing so.

[gilraen]

Shadowlands release has been delayed - until "later this year", no definitive date yet. Pre-patch will come out on 10/13, which is at least 2 weeks later than the most generous predictions. Personally, I'm quite happy that they are delaying the expac, I still have too much cleanup to finish on all my alts...

[Sudy]

I'm excited now that there's a pre-patch date, as that's what I was actually looking forward to given I'm not going to re-sub until then, and plan to roll a new character. Also fine with it being two weeks away as I'm still enioying Diablo 2.

Seems unusual for them to postpone so late though. But it should be a win-win, with less crunch for the developers.

[Sudy]

Pre-patch is live. (So, new common starting area and level squish are live.) Not sure if I'll check it out tomorrow or wait until next week.

[Skinypupy]

Pre-patch is live. (So, new common starting area and level squish are live.) Not sure if I'll check it out tomorrow or wait until next week.

That's actually the part I was most interested in, so I may just jump in now.

[Baroquen]

So out of curiosity - I read the Blizz email and the blurb about the new starting zone. Did that replace all of the race/location based starting zones from before? I always enjoyed those a lot (even in other games... I always liked the starting zones and the island revamp in EQII).

[gilraen]

You can still pick one of the existing starting zones, if you want. The new zone is only required for new players.

[Lorini]

I’m going for Panderia to level my character.

[Tao]

I was reading up on this today and there seems to be some dispute on what will flag new zone vs. all zone options, some folks believe it will be account age others are saying it will be based on having at least one 120 level character. So even if your account was created years ago if you don't have at least one 120 you will only be able to start in the new zone. The recommendation is everyone get at least one character to current max before Shadowlands goes live.

[Sudy]

But that's only in effect for your first character, right? As in, just get any one new character through the new starting zone to level 10 or whatever, and then you can opt for the classic starting zones for any subsequent characters. I heard it's easy to speed through the starting area in less than an hour, similar to the Gilnean and Goblin ones.

I definitely have fondness for pretty much all of the original starting areas. Human and Tauren possibly excepted, to which I'm neutral. Elwynn may be special, but I never mained a human.


Edit: Actually, a re-read of your post suggests that you might be locked in to using the new starting zone? That can't be right. Surely there will be riots.

[gilraen]

Everything that I read on the official forums suggests that you just need to have a character above level 10 (the "new" post-squish level 10). I mean, out of EVERYTHING people are complaining about right now, the new starting zone seems to be one thing that no one hates

[Skinypupy]

I played through the starter zone. I did have a couple 10+ characters on my account, and it gave me the option to start there or in the normal starting zone.

The new zone does a really good job of introducing the basics.

[Sudy]

If it facilitates playing with different-race pals from level one, it's also a win. (In-game race, weidos.) Nothing sucked more than wanting a roll a nelf while your noob friend picked a dwarf back in the day. The locked starting areas for the latter three races made it worse. Maybe they made that easier in recent years, I'm not sure. On the other hand, it was good for immersion. But I sure don't miss the death run through Wetlands back in vanilla.

[Jag]

The new starter zone, Exile's Reach is really well done. Think it might work on unsubbed accounts too, but not sure. BFA is now included in the base game.

Some of the new character customization options are amazing. They finally caught up with the times.

[Daehawk]

As an old WOW player it sounds like some of this stuff could piss players off. Like not being able to get mounts and stuff already in game and worse having an old item lose stats and such on it after the trouble to get them.

[noxiousdog]

I’m going for Panderia to level my character.

Pandaria is the best.


I have all the characters on horde Area-52 in The Wanderers guild, not that it's very active any more. I am hoping to get enough for a casual raiding group but we'll see.

[Blackhawk]

As an old WOW player it sounds like some of this stuff could piss players off. Like not being able to get mounts and stuff already in game and worse having an old item lose stats and such on it after the trouble to get them.

It's pretty much what they've done with every expansion for a long, long time. More than one set of gear has had its special powers removed, and clear back in the Burning Crusade launch you'd replace your raid gear that took you months to get with the very first quest rewards in Outlands.

Part of the reason is that it allows them to balance each expansion with all the players on an equal footing. Otherwise if you balance it for the casual players, the raiders in super gear will tear through everything in an hour and be bored, while if you balance it for the raiders, the casuals won't be able to kill anything and will just be frustrated. So they pretty much have to level the playing field. It isn't as bad as it was with Burning Crusade - raiders will generally have an advantage in the first zone, but not a huge one.