Shadowlands levelling

[Tydan]

So i have read that the levelling experience in Shadowlands is linear in that both horde and alliance follow the same route of Bastian -> Maldraxxus -> Ardenweald -> Revendreath.

Unless im missing something obvious here condensing the entire player base into one zone at the start (Bastian) is going to be an absolute cluster. Doing the quests that require collect X of Y will be like masturbating with sandpaper.

Please someone tell me im wrong here.

[Amerissis]

So i have read that the levelling experience in Shadowlands is linear in that both horde and alliance follow the same route of Bastian -> Maldraxxus -> Ardenweald -> Revendreath.

Unless im missing something obvious here condensing the entire player base into one zone at the start (Bastian) is going to be an absolute cluster. Doing the quests that require collect X of Y will be like masturbating with sandpaper.

Please someone tell me im wrong here.

Phasing, sharding, or whatever they call it, exists.

[Segus1992]

So i have read that the levelling experience in Shadowlands is linear in that both horde and alliance follow the same route of Bastian -> Maldraxxus -> Ardenweald -> Revendreath.

Unless im missing something obvious here condensing the entire player base into one zone at the start (Bastian) is going to be an absolute cluster. Doing the quests that require collect X of Y will be like masturbating with sandpaper.

Please someone tell me im wrong here.

Collection quests have been personal spawns for many years now, they're literally a non-issue.

It's not 2006 anymore. If launch goes poorly it won't be because of masses of people in the same place, and most definitely won't be because of collection quests.

[MrLachyG]

So i have read that the levelling experience in Shadowlands is linear in that both horde and alliance follow the same route of Bastian -> Maldraxxus -> Ardenweald -> Revendreath.

Unless im missing something obvious here condensing the entire player base into one zone at the start (Bastian) is going to be an absolute cluster. Doing the quests that require collect X of Y will be like masturbating with sandpaper.

Please someone tell me im wrong here.

shouldn't be that bad as there will be sharding to prevent too many people being together. as for quests that require you to collect x from y, good news is that multi tagging is a thing - so unless it is tagged by someone of the opposite faction or someone in a group of 5 then you can tag it to get loot. the things you pick up from the ground (say berries from a bush) are usually single tag but they respawn fast if there's lots of people around collecting; so you can literally just grab one and stay there, collecting it as it respawns until you're done.

[LanToaster]

shouldn't be that bad as there will be sharding to prevent too many people being together. as for quests that require you to collect x from y, good news is that multi tagging is a thing - so unless it is tagged by someone of the opposite faction or someone in a group of 5 then you can tag it to get loot. the things you pick up from the ground (say berries from a bush) are usually single tag but they respawn fast if there's lots of people around collecting; so you can literally just grab one and stay there, collecting it as it respawns until you're done.

I actually remember BC just now, where everyone started in Hellfire Peninsula. *laugh*
Jokes aside, with the Tech in place, blizzard can activly controll how many Players are in each zone per phase. I bet if they want they can even have people phase between Locations in Zones if they want.

Apart from that: You just need to be faster than anyone else, then you have the next zones for yourself.

[MrLachyG]

I actually remember BC just now, where everyone started in Hellfire Peninsula. *laugh*
Jokes aside, with the Tech in place, blizzard can activly controll how many Players are in each zone per phase. I bet if they want they can even have people phase between Locations in Zones if they want.

Apart from that: You just need to be faster than anyone else, then you have the next zones for yourself.

well I started in very late Cata or very early MoP. can't remember which. so my first expansion launch was WoD and holy shit that was an absolute clusterfuck. People were trolling by covering Khadgar with their mounts at the Blasted Portal, then again at the Garrison they were mounted up over where you click to place your faction flag. should be a lot less of that bullshit this time round though as people will get de-mounted if they do that (plus hopefully teleported by a GM to Vash'jir)

[Blackmist]

I think the only bad launch in the last couple of years was WoD, where it couldn't spawn enough Garrison instances for everyone and you'd end up disconnecting or being teleported away. Since there were quests in there that were unskippable, it really cockblocked a lot of people's progress.

[Huzzaa]

I think the only bad launch in the last couple of years was WoD, where it couldn't spawn enough Garrison instances for everyone and you'd end up disconnecting or being teleported away. Since there were quests in there that were unskippable, it really cockblocked a lot of people's progress.

Not only.

The next big thing was the lag.

The fort next to the horde base, I frogot what it was called. Some Spire fortress something I think. If you were in there, your lag was so big that it took about 2 minutes to cast a spell and see the feedback.

I got past the garrison but I got stuck there. The folks to were quick enough to pass it, and make it to the zone after, where the raid was in. They were basically free to do whatever, that part didn't lag.

I can see the OPs worry, and I agree with him. The lag will probably be a thing. And IIRC, WoD already had sharding. They had just introduced it in the pre-launch patch for it. Albeit it was probably less effective as now, it was already present in the game.

[Blackmist]

I can see the OPs worry, and I agree with him. The lag will probably be a thing. And IIRC, WoD already had sharding. They had just introduced it in the pre-launch patch for it. Albeit it was probably less effective as now, it was already present in the game.

There will be lag on launch, but it'll be down to the sheer number of players and Blizzard being unwilling to pay for the extra server capacity, rather than them all being in the same zone. That wasn't the issue in WoD, so I don't see why it would be now.

There are curious pockets of lag, like Vale, but I'm entirely unconvinced it's down to the number of players in that area across all shards.

I'm pretty sure the AoE nerf is mostly a lag prevention measure as well.

[LanToaster]

well I started in very late Cata or very early MoP. can't remember which. so my first expansion launch was WoD and holy shit that was an absolute clusterfuck. People were trolling by covering Khadgar with their mounts at the Blasted Portal, then again at the Garrison they were mounted up over where you click to place your faction flag. should be a lot less of that bullshit this time round though as people will get de-mounted if they do that (plus hopefully teleported by a GM to Vash'jir)

People standing on QuestGivers is not a "Amount of Players" problem though. It takes just like 5 people for that. WoD was the first Expansion with Phasing though. (There were quite some Problems ^^)

I can see the OPs worry, and I agree with him. The lag will probably be a thing. And IIRC, WoD already had sharding. They had just introduced it in the pre-launch patch for it. Albeit it was probably less effective as now, it was already present in the game.

WoD had massive Issues with Phasing, was kinda the first Expansion with it. IIRC with legion we had almost no Problems at launch. At least I cant remember any. So I dont think there will be that many problems at Shadowlands launch.

[THEORACLE64]

So i have read that the levelling experience in Shadowlands is linear in that both horde and alliance follow the same route of Bastian -> Maldraxxus -> Ardenweald -> Revendreath.

Unless im missing something obvious here condensing the entire player base into one zone at the start (Bastian) is going to be an absolute cluster. Doing the quests that require collect X of Y will be like masturbating with sandpaper.

Please someone tell me im wrong here.

Yes, it's linear the first time you do it - for alts you can do them in whichever order.

But no, it won't be a cluster fuck. Unlike the "good old days" the areas will just shard off once they reach player capacity.

[Feral Druid ist Op]

I think the only bad launch in the last couple of years was WoD, where it couldn't spawn enough Garrison instances for everyone and you'd end up disconnecting or being teleported away. Since there were quests in there that were unskippable, it really cockblocked a lot of people's progress.

ah yes my main was locked in the garrison for 6 days without being able to get out i had to roll an alt for progress while also having a 9k que were you could go to work come back and still have a 2k que good times i used a key spam tool to not get loged out

[glowpipe]

I have gone from 50 to 60 on beta twice and there is a few spots early on that will be a giant bottleneck. It was bottlenecking with only 5 players. So unless the shards are less than 5 players or blizzard have been listening to my feedback. Expect to have a lot of grief on day 1 and 2

They have also done a few changes to some quest types. Like there is this big thing you need to weaken and control early on. Many players can control and mc the same mob now. The first player who does it get the mob, but all other players who does it in time also get the quest completed, but no mob following them

[Aphrel]

So i have read that the levelling experience in Shadowlands is linear in that both horde and alliance follow the same route of Bastian -> Maldraxxus -> Ardenweald -> Revendreath.

Unless im missing something obvious here condensing the entire player base into one zone at the start (Bastian) is going to be an absolute cluster. Doing the quests that require collect X of Y will be like masturbating with sandpaper.

Please someone tell me im wrong here.

Your absolutely right but... its so so so much worse. The introduction zone... the maw, is shared! And even on the beta when you somtimes see 1 or 2 more players theres already bottlenecks forming.

Its gonna be an absolute clusterfuck :P

Seriously, half my bugg reports on beta goes something like this "Theres barely enough mobs/Qitems for me alone here, its gonna be a big bottleneck when it goes live. Please consider either spawning alot more monsters or make the quest non-mandatory for progression"

I think ive copypasted that on almost every single Quest in the intro maw experience...

[jdbond]

So zones don't scale with players or the story progresses this way?

[bloodwulf]

So zones don't scale with players or the story progresses this way?

Not the first time. On alts they let you pick your route. They have a narrative they want to establish more than what BFA/Legion had with a bunch of zones that did not impact eachother.

[ReVnX]

Sharding says hello

[MrLachyG]

So zones don't scale with players or the story progresses this way?

the zones will continue to scale as normal so when you're level 60, the mobs in the zones will also be level 60. however the questing, at least for your first toon, is done in a linear manner

[Unholyground]

The nice thing is alts can do them in any order, it is only linear your first time through.