WoW Shadowlands Alpha - Encrypted Build 9.0.1.33411, Battle.net App Catalog Update

[Eazy]

HEY, shadowlands armor looks like some of the best fucking gear in the game mate, especially the new back pieces coming.

This stuff is fucking sick, and is some of, if not the best gear in the game, carried heavily by the backpieces.

Backpieces are cool and all but... I'm a rogue, I don't use them!

About the concept arts - we had the same ones with warfronts and we all know how they looked in the game.

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HEY, shadowlands armor looks like some of the best fucking gear in the game mate, especially the new back pieces coming.

This stuff is fucking sick, and is some of, if not the best gear in the game, carried heavily by the backpieces.

Backpieces are cool and all but... I'm a rogue, I don't use them!

About the concept arts - we had the same ones with warfronts and we all know that they didn't looked that good in the game.

[Kel_Sceptic]

Comparing Legion and BFA to WoD/MoP is not fine cause WoD/MoP didn't had the psychological problem with Artifact/Azerite Power farming.

Comparing Legion, BFA, Shadowlands to WoD/MoP is not fine cause WoD/MoP had PvP vendors and PvP was mostly paralel to PvE, while in Legion, BFA we had to grind PvE and Artifact/Azerite Power to be able to compete in PvP.

MoP/WoD were ALT friendly, while Legion and BFA aren't. Essences need farming on every alt, Artifact/Azerite Power and so on.

Why people think Shadowlands won't have the same grinding power as Legion/BFA since they announced you will get Anima Power on a gated system, just like Legion/BFA.

"You will, during the course of your adventures in the Shadowlands, be gathering anima from various sources and you can put it towards a bunch of different ends. and one of those is powering up your soulbind. but we want it to be something that you can do at the beginning of your play session. It's something you can take a little bite out of, get yourself an additional "Talent point" or soulbind ability, and then go out and play with it for the rest of the day. The name of the game in Shadowlands is player agency. We don't want there to be an infinitely grindable system like Artifact Power or Azerite. We want you to be able to feel like you can do that, and then you can go off and do some other stuff.

Wowhead: So you don't like people farming islands for 80 hours a week?

There's no infinitely grindable system in Shadowlands. We want there to be tons of different things you can do. You can do what you want to do for anima."

I've played 2 months of BFA, and returned at 8.3 and having a great time not having to exaust my brain with the gated Azerite Power farming, but I'm still dissapointed of the ALT-UNFRIENDLY way this expansion is. Farming essences on alts is hell, farming RANKS for alts's essences is hell.

I'm eager to play 1-2 months of Shadowlands, and if it is still ALT/PVP UNFRIENDLY as Legion And BFA were, I will probably come back after another 1 year break, when they add all the catch-up systems in place and when the game is kind of fun to play.

Until BFA, in 15 years of playing wow I've never stopped subing for more then 2-3 monts in a row, but BFA was the first time I've been unsubbed for ~1year.

To think they made the game more content gated and useless with grinding azerite/artifact power to make people feel the need to stay in game, did in fact the opposite, and made me unsub for 1 year :/
To think I was tought the garrison was as bad as it can be, but still I've played PvP that whole WoD expansion, while in Legion/BFA I've never managed to have all alts/classes at max levels.

[Clozer]

Well we are looking at a late October release at the earliest and I am glad, rushing is what gets you BfA.

Why everyone saying that nonsense? If you take BFA, for example, we had Closed Beta end of April and release August. Now it's February and we soon see Shadowlands Alpha.

If everything goes the way of BFA we see a release way sooner than October.

[Unholyground]

Why everyone saying that nonsense? If you take BFA, for example, we had Closed Beta end of April and release August. Now it's February and we soon see Shadowlands Alpha.

If everything goes the way of BFA we see a release way sooner than October.

They won't, BfA beta was far too short and they took 0 feedback throughout the whole thing, just from the BfA Alpha we knew it was going to be a shitty expansion with the extreme lack of communication with the testers and community.

If they make the same mistake this time WoW simply will not recover, it will not outright kill it but it will hit a steeper decline than ever before.

[Clozer]

They won't, BfA beta was far too short and they took 0 feedback throughout the whole thing, just from the BfA Alpha we knew it was going to be a shitty expansion with the extreme lack of communication with the testers and community.

If they make the same mistake this time WoW simply will not recover, it will not outright kill it but it will hit a steeper decline than ever before.

I heard this about every single Beta so far tho. It's always the actual expansion is shit, they didn't listen to feedback and TF sucks etc... So this is really no argument.

I say a release for September is the most likely. 8 months of Nyalotha and then fresh new expansion. Especially since there won't be an 8.3.5.

[Unholyground]

I heard this about every single Beta so far tho. It's always the actual expansion is shit, they didn't listen to feedback and TF sucks etc... So this is really no argument.

I say a release for September is the most likely. 8 months of Nyalotha and then fresh new expansion. Especially since there won't be an 8.3.5.

Well October lines up better because of Halloween, they can have a spoopy release.

[Ielenia]

Why? Because you weren't forced to constantly grind your ass to be competetive in raiding?

This is false unless you're in the 0.1% doing the World First race. There wasn't any "being forced" or "must grind" at all.

[Varitok]

I heard this about every single Beta so far tho. It's always the actual expansion is shit, they didn't listen to feedback and TF sucks etc... So this is really no argument.

I say a release for September is the most likely. 8 months of Nyalotha and then fresh new expansion. Especially since there won't be an 8.3.5.

"I don't like it therefore there is no arguement"

[Snackpack]

Personally, I've never explored any alpha/beta content or participated even when I had a chance. I want the game to be fresh and new the first time I play it.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Man, people really have fickle minds.

"Please make it another WoD!!!!", meanhwhile WoD was the first time this game ever got close to actually dying...

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Marlamin says this doesn't mean a public Alpha. This is what it looks like for the friends and family take-home alpha, so it could be tomorrow, or it could be in a month. Either way its fairly soon. If I had to guess we will get some kind of event next week with public Alpha starting the following week in early March.

Ah, then I'll reign in my hype until such a time that we see word of the PUBLIC Alpha. :3

[Snackpack]

I generally just tinker with the classes so I have a better idea of what's going on but with SL beta I'm gonna be a bit more thorough just because if it's more RNG on RNG on RNG I'll prob walk away.

Good point if you're on the fence about buying.

[Ielenia]

everything is liekly going to be in, they actually did it, and BFA had everything they promised. Legion was close, sadly thaldanath wasnt added so... but everyu expansion launch before has had lies filling it, all the way back to the begining.

I remember seeing early screenshots of WoW (don't recall if they were alpha or pre-alpha) showcasing the character equipment window, and I distinctly remember seeing slots for four trinkets.

On top of that, night time and dark areas like Duskwood were actually supposed to require you to wield torches to light your way. Stormwind Stockades and Teldrassil were apparently supposed to be much bigger and detailed. That, and much more, here and here.

[FelPlague]

I remember seeing early screenshots of WoW (don't recall if they were alpha or pre-alpha) showcasing the character equipment window, and I distinctly remember seeing slots for four trinkets.

On top of that, night time and dark areas like Duskwood were actually supposed to require you to wield torches to light your way. Stormwind Stockades and Teldrassil were apparently supposed to be much bigger and detailed. That, and much more, here and here.

but yes, there was a survival skill, the tram from ironforge was supposed to go to darnasus.
necromancers, demon hunters, both planned.
outland too, they even had a hellfire map. emerald dream, etc. tons of stuff cut from every expansion. many promised, wotlk one of the worst, as a lot of the classic stuff was later revealed or super early alpha. but wotlk had tons of stuff never added.

[Tsamane]

With this, i wouldnt be surprised to see alpha by end of March

[Gravity2015]

In the old days the closed alpha was always behind an NDA, but the alpha for BfA was not, so I’m guessing that will be the case again. Streams generate interest, so there you go.

I might stream if I get in again. Is there a market for watching old guys play WoW slowly?

id tune in
ty for reply

[GreenJesus]

Comparing Legion and BFA to WoD/MoP is not fine cause WoD/MoP didn't had the psychological problem with Artifact/Azerite Power farming.

Comparing Legion, BFA, Shadowlands to WoD/MoP is not fine cause WoD/MoP had PvP vendors and PvP was mostly paralel to PvE, while in Legion, BFA we had to grind PvE and Artifact/Azerite Power to be able to compete in PvP.

MoP/WoD were ALT friendly, while Legion and BFA aren't. Essences need farming on every alt, Artifact/Azerite Power and so on.

Why people think Shadowlands won't have the same grinding power as Legion/BFA since they announced you will get Anima Power on a gated system, just like Legion/BFA.

"You will, during the course of your adventures in the Shadowlands, be gathering anima from various sources and you can put it towards a bunch of different ends. and one of those is powering up your soulbind. but we want it to be something that you can do at the beginning of your play session. It's something you can take a little bite out of, get yourself an additional "Talent point" or soulbind ability, and then go out and play with it for the rest of the day. The name of the game in Shadowlands is player agency. We don't want there to be an infinitely grindable system like Artifact Power or Azerite. We want you to be able to feel like you can do that, and then you can go off and do some other stuff.

Wowhead: So you don't like people farming islands for 80 hours a week?

There's no infinitely grindable system in Shadowlands. We want there to be tons of different things you can do. You can do what you want to do for anima."

I've played 2 months of BFA, and returned at 8.3 and having a great time not having to exaust my brain with the gated Azerite Power farming, but I'm still dissapointed of the ALT-UNFRIENDLY way this expansion is. Farming essences on alts is hell, farming RANKS for alts's essences is hell.

I'm eager to play 1-2 months of Shadowlands, and if it is still ALT/PVP UNFRIENDLY as Legion And BFA were, I will probably come back after another 1 year break, when they add all the catch-up systems in place and when the game is kind of fun to play.

Until BFA, in 15 years of playing wow I've never stopped subing for more then 2-3 monts in a row, but BFA was the first time I've been unsubbed for ~1year.

To think they made the game more content gated and useless with grinding azerite/artifact power to make people feel the need to stay in game, did in fact the opposite, and made me unsub for 1 year :/
To think I was tought the garrison was as bad as it can be, but still I've played PvP that whole WoD expansion, while in Legion/BFA I've never managed to have all alts/classes at max levels.

You'll still have to probably grind rep for your abilities from the faction and collect anima power (AP) to unlock/make your legendary(ies). It will be more of the same with a different brand. What do you expect of current Blizzard?

[Wangming]

Okay. Datamine season will soon upon us. Not yet now, but very soon.

[goldentforce]

Dont understand a lot of people saying they want wod 2.0 where wod is an expansion that had severe content cuts, one of the worst launches cause of garrisons, and huge player decline. I think a more realistic expectation is legion, which for most people is an above average expansion. Which is pretty apparent off the bat with the launch games design such as the world/anima power/legendaries. They seem to have addressed the flaws of legion in legendary acquisition, the flaws of WQ shown in bfa (wq 2.0 was said but nothing shown, doubt anything shown in first months of beta so a ways off, expansion launch quest/world content in covenant campaign which is a choice and easily accessible compared to a 2 faction system (a lot of people dont play alliance and horde especially at launch), anima power have capped weekly power gain. As some people have said about blizzcon SL news, the complaints seem to be tied to the new content such as the covenant having heavy ties to class gameplay with not only actual abilities but the conduit class talent trees, obv wq 2.0 has literally zero shown and was just a remark, the "corruption/titanforge" successor to make gear interesting probably exists, depruning is coming which is nice but no idea on actual class design (is it just covenant/conduit and legendaries for the most part), will the maw's unique gameplay be fun or annoying, how fun/repeatable is torghast. I think the inspirations are clear and the SL specific systems pan out enough (im sure there will be issues there always is) then we can have patches with unique and fun content like legion with class mounts, dungeons every patch, ,mage tower,etc. and if problems occur i pray the accept failures this time so every single patch isnt systematic reworks instead of content. 8.3 while better is pretty low in content outside of the horrific vision cycle cause it is another systematic rework.

[Cosmic Janitor]

It will be more fun to me just for the simple fact that they aren't timed like Horrific Visions. I enjoy Visions, but they stress me out.

It probably will be time limited. The "the Jailer has found you" mechanic is pretty much that imho, it remains to be seen if that means that you will get instantly squashed or if you can flee into the next tower level. They also were not sure how they want to handle limiting the runs. I wouldn't be surprised if they end up using HV as a template for large parts of Torghast, since all the white knights are currently blowing sugar up the devs' asses with how awsome one hour of grind is for a 20 minute HV run.

[glowpipe]

People who pre-ordered shadowlands should be guaranteed alpha/beta, Change my mind