Shadowlands Alpha - Exile's Reach New Player Starting Experience

[Lumy]

Exile's Reach - New Player Starting Experience
Exile's Reach is the new starting zone experience for new players in World of Warcraft. In this post, we'll quickly go over this new starting experience, highlight important events and preview the zone.

• This zone teaches players some of the fundamentals of World of Warcraft and their class, including playing through a 1-5 player mini-dungeon.
• Players can expect it will take them 30-60 minutes to complete this zone, depending on their familiarity with the game.
• If you're new to World of Warcraft and have never created or leveled a character, you will automatically begin in Exile's Reach.
• If you've leveled a character through this experience before, or are a veteran player, you will be able to opt out of this zone.

Note: As of right now in Shadowlands Alpha, the new player starting experience is available only to level 1 Alliance characters. Story Spoilers Below!


Learning Combat

• The story begins with you on a ship off the coast of Stormheim. Your faction leaders have sent new recruits, including you, to investigate what happened with a failed expedition.
• You start with no specialization and only one ability. For example, if you're a rogue, you'll only have Sinister Strike.
• You warm up by attacking a Combat Dummy and then spar with Private Cole to learn your second main spell. As a Rogue, that ability will be Eviscerate.
• The storm intensifies, an in-progress cinematic plays out and your boat crashes on Exile's Reach.

Stranded on Exile's Reach

• On the isle you will be tasked with getting first aid kits and cooking meat for the stranded survivors.
• After that, Captain Garrick teaches you how to use your abilities efficiently. For example, to complete this quest as a rogue you will have to use Sinister Strike to generate your combo points and then use Eviscerate with 3, 4 and 5 combo points on Captain Garrick.

Ogre Necromancy

• Using a flying machine to scout the island, you learn that ogres are using necromancy to reanimate a dragon.
• These ogres need sacrifices for the ritual and are using captured survivors from the previous failed expedition, including Henry, Captain Garrick's son.
• To deal with this problem, you're going to ride a giant boar to destroy the undead army.
• After that you save a few more stranded survivors from harpies and from a cave full of spider web.

Darkmaul Citadel

• Now that you have rescued most of the survivors, you will get disguised as an Ogre and bring them outside the Darkmaul Citadel.
• While on this quest, new players learn about emotes as they have to /wave at Gor'groth, the ogre leader.
• The survivors give you quests to destroy their catapults, defeat ogres in the area and retrieve ritual stones to rescue one more survivor.
• After you're done, you'll get one final quest to defeat Gor'groth in the Darkmaul Citadel Dungeon.

Dungeon: Darkmaul Citadel

• You can queue up and enter the Darkmaul Citadel without a tank or a healer, as Captain Garrick and Henry Garrick will join to fulfill those roles.
• Tunk is the first boss and he's pretty easy to deal with. Melee DPS have to avoid his Seismic Slam and Ranged DPS have to stop casting when Tunk uses his Interrupting Shout.
• Gor'groth, the second and final boss, is also an easy fight, however at 50% health he sacrifices himself to reanimate Ravnyr. The Dragon has a breath attack that teaches new players how to dodge, as well as a knockback attack that pushes players away.
• After you're done with the dungeon, the Wildhammer Clan comes to the rescue and brings you to Stormwind.
• Once you're in Stormwind you get to learn riding, choose your specialization and set your hearthstone to an inn. After that, your presence will be requested in Stormwind Keep and you can start the questline for Battle for Azeroth.

[Voidwielder]

I know they have their plate full but man does Stormwind need some touch ups. Horde had their dirthole redone, SW is still stuck in 2005 (2010-something if you count post-DW fixes).
Valley of Heroes looks so outdated.

[Chickat]

Looks like a pretty good experience. Old players will have to do it though. Its significantly faster than the 1-10 older race zones.

[Biomega]

This looks like a very solid experience tbh. It's a full tutorial with lots of prompts (rather than the somewhat freeform Proving Grounds) and covers most of the absolute basics.

Most importantly, they did it exactly right in allowing veteran players to opt out. If this had been a forced experience for every new character... But it's not. We all gucci.

[DesoPL]

My question is... This ogres and Ogron are from AU Draenor or? Because that Ogron is suggesting it much.

[Stardrift]

I know it's a super convenient thing and looks decent. But I can't help but feel this is a bit.. plastic wrapped? Just seems so unnecessary, fake. Super Korean-MMOesque.

It's not like the racial beginning zones and the levelling process doesn't teach you how to play your class.

[Naitsade]

Dont like it. So right from the start you set out to- and are capable of slaying undead dragons and evil necromancer lords and are greated with applause and trumpets when you return? Truely sets up the narrativ for the ultimate commander for your class order hall and the one and only true champion of azeroth.

I think the stakes should rise as you'd level up and not start from the moment you take your first step in the world.

[Nzx]

Dont like it. So right from the start you set out to- and are capable of slaying undead dragons and evil necromancer lords and are greated with applause and trumpets when you return? Truely sets up the narrativ for the ultimate commander for your class order hall and the one and only true champion of azeroth.

I think the stakes should rise as you'd level up and not start from the moment you take your first step in the world.

You people will literally complain about anything.

[Blysto]

You people will literally complain about anything.

Welcome to MMO-champion :P.

It looks really good imo tho.

[Wangming]

I know it's a super convenient thing and looks decent. But I can't help but feel this is a bit.. plastic wrapped? Just seems so unnecessary, fake. Super Korean-MMOesque.

It's not like the racial beginning zones and the levelling process doesn't teach you how to play your class.

They are super outdated, and creating one new shared starting zone is easier than redoing all of them beside Pandaren and Demon Hunter.

[BetrayedOf52]

Looks good!

[neik]

My body is ready.

[Stardrift]

They are super outdated, and creating one new shared starting zone is easier than redoing all of them beside Pandaren and Demon Hunter.

Seems a little lazy for a company with hundreds of workers that makes $15 a month from millions of users.

$15 a month.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Seems a little lazy for a company with hundreds of workers that makes $15 a month from millions of users.

$15 a month.

They would rather put the time and money into working on stuff past low levelling and if cata is any thing to go by most of the player base agrees with them.

[SniperCT]

Dont like it. So right from the start you set out to- and are capable of slaying undead dragons and evil necromancer lords and are greated with applause and trumpets when you return? Truely sets up the narrativ for the ultimate commander for your class order hall and the one and only true champion of azeroth.

I think the stakes should rise as you'd level up and not start from the moment you take your first step in the world.

IIRC the Drae starter zone kind of ends with defeating a pretty powerful being and returning to applause and trumpets and accolades. You even get a special tabard for it.

It just takes almost 20 levels and more time to do it.

[Ilir]

Blizzard : breathes
Random mmo-c poster : I'm so disappointed.

[Stardrift]

They would rather put the time and money into working on stuff past low levelling and if cata is any thing to go by most of the player base agrees with them.

$15 a month lol

[Lorgar Aurelian]

$15 a month lol

That they want to put towards other parts of the game, what aren’t you getting?

[Stardrift]

That they want to put towards other parts of the game, what aren’t you getting?

..$15 a month. One patch every 6ish months. Neglection in every corner of the game.

Just saying.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

..$15 a month. One patch every 6ish months. Neglection in every corner of the game.

Just saying.

Even if they were making 1000 per player each month that wouldn’t mean they would care to put time
Into content they don’t want to work on and players don’t seem to appreciate. Just look at cata they put a crap ton of effort updating old world zones and for no gain.

Sure you could say to hire more teams to work on stuff no one else cares about but that’s just not how the real world works.