9.0 General Discussion

[BarelyLegalBear]

I think they are heavily pushing alts.

This is definitely one of the few things I am looking forward to. As a altoholic, i've had no motivation to get all my characters to 120 this expansion because of essences. It's so bad when it comes to wanting to play an alt.

[Chickat]

That's what it is. They said they want each level to unlock something. Whether it's a new dungeon, a new ability, or upgrade to an existing ability. But the nice thing is that they're also speeding up leveling by 60-70% so people can get to level cap faster as well.

What does it take to get to 120 on average? 72 hours for the average veteran player?

With a 72 hour base now, that brings us down to 20-30 hours for each toon to hit 50. That seems reasonable. New players will still probably take about 2 days of gametime which is also reasonable.

[Damien Handler]

The game doesnt need 10 new features every expansion. How the hell would that even work? There arent enough rewards and hooks to even make that many features work. End of the day admit it. You are mad about no new class.

Bullseye. There are valid arguments going around for sure, but a lot of the negativity here and elsewhere boils down to "I wanted dessert before dinner ".

[Chickat]

With 1-50 taking 60-70% less time for an average player I wonder if they'll get rid of heirlooms all together and just let us wear the gear that drops.

I hope so. They can add maybe a legacy system? Getting perks for how many 50/60s you have?

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Eh, no new class and no new garrison/island expedition. Sounds like filler.

Covenants are the Ap system, followers, mission table, and storyline all in one. The tower is islands. The new zone is warfronts.

[Raetary]

They'll probably just remove the xp gain from heirlooms but keep them as scaling non-replaceable items.

[randomnamegenerator16]

Are you guys excited for Q&A?

Can't wait to hear those ever important questions. "Does Sylvanas shit?" "When will you add new dances?" "Does Jaina have a new boyfriend?" with obligatory 10 minutes wasted on introducing yourself.

[Shadochi]

Love how they didn't give us more of the looks of other zones than Bastion before, but left it for smaller panels to show the zone design!

[Chickat]

I know exaclt why i feel this way and it is because from what i have seen, my suspicions were correct.

In BfA and Legion we were introduced to each zone with a cheat sheet of which people/faction we would encounter and what specific problem needed to be addressed before we could get help from them in the battle.
Legion for instance barely had any fighting against the Burning Legion in the levelling zones, and even Suramar. Though we still did it because we knew that it was step 1 in defeating the Legion.

Shadowlands does not really have that luxury, we are essentially jumping striahgt into the thick of it with no obvious respite in sight.
It will look cool, and the wildly imaginative zones will distract from it for a while, but in the end each zone sounds like it will play out relatively similar.


We will see, definitely not going to jump on the hate train or anything. I am definitely looking forward to this, my expectations are just being tempered by the knowledge that i might have been completely right in my prediction about a pure Shadowlands expansion, such as where in the world we go in the end other than out of the Shadowlands.

To be fair people could have said the same thing about TBC or Wrath. Each Shadowlands zone has a different environment and look. I doubt every quest will be about saving the Shadowlands either. We will still have the traditional poop quests etc. Im sure it will be fine, but I understand your worry. Let us see how it turns out.

[Grimdeeds]

Shadowlands promises us that we finally defeat Sylvanas

When was this promise made?

[Chickat]

On to more cheery matter though.

Anyone else get a sneaking suspicion the mission table is gone for good?
Might be wrong but i don't really think we will end up seeing it again, which perfectly fits with how they have phased it out more and more since WoD.

I cant remember where, but it was mentioned that there was one, or hinted at.

[Rob Haywood]

So is the majority hyped or disappointed? I don't think I've ever felt this let down after an expansion reveal and I'm extremely disappointed.

[Chickat]

Not every Covenant will have a follower. They mentioned as a perk for the Necrolords (Create your own Abomination), but said that other Covenants will have different perks.

Im sure every covenant will have at least 1 follower. Just because perks are different doesnt mean there wont be 1 for each one at least. Im sure they wont be as in depth as Legion followers, but they will exist.

[BarelyLegalBear]

What does it take to get to 120 on average? 72 hours for the average veteran player?

With a 72 hour base now, that brings us down to 20-30 hours for each toon to hit 50. That seems reasonable. New players will still probably take about 2 days of gametime which is also reasonable.

I know i'm not the average player, but it takes me less than 24 hours to hit 110. Then depending on the class and week (timewalking), 10 hours or less to hit 120. About 34 for me, so yeah, around 72 hours probably.

[FlubberPuddy]

What does it take to get to 120 on average? 72 hours for the average veteran player?

With a 72 hour base now, that brings us down to 20-30 hours for each toon to hit 50. That seems reasonable. New players will still probably take about 2 days of gametime which is also reasonable.

Yup, the new pace is going to sound very reasonable. Also, now that it's not gonna be an arm and leg to get an alt caught up, this also incentivizes the team to create more content that has replayability from a different angle - like how there are 4 different covenants with their own rewards etc. Also each covenant has a unique armor set for each armor class.

That means, if you don't want to switch characters between Covenants, it'll take a minimum of 16 characters (4 of each armor class) to obtain all a covenant's armor pieces. An obvious cosmetic reward grind, that utilizes alts, and is eased by the increased leveling speed as well as how alts can start working on end-game content as soon as they're brought into SL.

[Chickat]

And so far Covenants give you one mobility ability and one azerite-neck-ish ability. Thats about it.

Oh and that little drop down menu Mission Table improvements have, giving you small bonuses like 6% parry chance increase.

How exactly is that a big feature, again...?

I mean, dont get me wrong, I like the rewards and the armor looks and those wings and mounts looked really cool.

But is that... it...?

That 6% chance is one talent in a whole tree of talent options.



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Got art of the Arbiter

Thats definitely Elune.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Love how they didn't give us more of the looks of other zones than Bastion before, but left it for smaller panels to show the zone design!

They usually don't show the zones in the feature trailer, that was a first for them. I'm not really worried though. I think Shadowlands is going to be fun. I still think they left a lot out for us to think about.

[Puupi]

I know i'm not the average player, but it takes me less than 24 hours to hit 110. Then depending on the class and week (timewalking), 10 hours or less to hit 120. About 34 for me, so yeah, around 72 hours probably.

I think it took me like 20 hours to level from 20 to 120 on warrior some time ago.

[FlubberPuddy]

Im sure every covenant will have at least 1 follower. Just because perks are different doesnt mean there wont be 1 for each one at least. Im sure they wont be as in depth as Legion followers, but they will exist.

True that could happen. But I'd be more for each Covenant being more unique in perks while having have a subset of shared rewards (like all of them already give an ability, a mount, an armor set for example).

Gives a more unique feeling to each.

[randomnamegenerator16]

Thats definitely Elune.

Those... wings? make me think about those light-tentacly things which took Ysera's spirit to the sky in Val'sharah.

[FlubberPuddy]

Are you guys excited for Q&A?

Can't wait to hear those ever important questions. "Does Sylvanas shit?" "When will you add new dances?" "Does Jaina have a new boyfriend?" with obligatory 10 minutes wasted on introducing yourself.

I'm always excited for Q&A cuz it's like "alright we're gonna learn some gems as well as it becoming a meme and shitshow at certain parts"