Challenge Mode : Play WoW like my disability has me play:
You will need two people, Brian MUST use the mouse for movement/looking and John MUST use the keyboard for casting, attacking, healing etc.
Briand and John share the same goal, same intentions - but they can't talk to each other, however they can react to each other's in game activities.
Now see how far Brian and John get in WoW.
There certainly is more lore context after you join a covenant and go through their respective campaigns. When doing in the initial campaign while leveling 50 to 60, you get a solid idea of the main area of conflict in each covenant. However, questing experience has each covenant's story end before everything is resolved (analogous to you wining a major battle when you complete each zone while leveling, but the war is still ongoing with future battles ahead). Once you join a covenant, you pick up basically where the leveling story left off, and you'll only experience it fully if you join that covenant.
No matter what you do in most RPGs, you'll get enough context to understand the overarching story, delving into the minutia being a very optional task. How that differs from some player's experience with BfA was that entire major plotpoints are missed or skipped over to where, as Alliance, you had no idea what the Uldir raid was even about. So far, Shadowlands is designed where you will get the general overarching story. Also, it's still beta, and not only are the max level campaign questlines for the covenants not all done, but also some are bugged to where you can't continue right now.
More towards the OP: Blizz cut down on a LOT of work compared to Legion because of how this system is implemented. As others have said, there's 4 central factions instead of a class hall for ever class. Furthermore, covenant spells are class-oriented, not spec oriented, cutting down number of unique abilities they have to make by 2/3. Soulbinds feel very similar to Legion artifacts, but they're class-neutral in terms of basic structure. Even the unique covenant rewards are way less than the amount of effort Legion required.
Another aspect of how this is different from 'wasting time on content that not everyone will see' is that it provides a motivation to make alts if you choose to see every storyline, or invest in covenant-hopping to do it all on one character. If you've played any RPG, you'll know immediately that you always get to experience the main storyline, but side-events or more in-depth lore/exposure to certain stories or details almost always require multiple playthroughs to see. This also applies to getting certain gear or powers, as I haven't played an RPG as of late that lets you get absolutely everything in one playthrough... and if it does, it requires a LOT of extra work. Much of the WoW population has probably gotten used to having their cake and eating it, too. In the long term, that's not healthy for the game. The direction of development that covenants demonstrate is very indicative that Blizz realizes they've made a lot of mistakes in this regard, and they're changing directions.
“Society is endangered not by the great profligacy of a few, but by the laxity of morals amongst all.”
“It's not an endlessly expanding list of rights — the 'right' to education, the 'right' to health care, the 'right' to food and housing. That's not freedom, that's dependency. Those aren't rights, those are the rations of slavery — hay and a barn for human cattle.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville
I feel it should also be noted that Shadowlands is the most alt friendly xpac to date. Leveling from 1 to 50 via questing is going to take a tiny fraction of the time it did to level from 1-120. If you really want to experience all 4 Covenants, it's a far easier task having 4 max level toons in Shadowlands than it was having 12 max level toons in Legion.
Well, if you only want to play one character, do the covenant swapping; they made it a lot easier now than it was initially. If you don't want to do that, level up one more alt. BfA required three characters to get through all the story (Alliance, Horde Rebel, Horde Loyalist). This is only slightly more work to 100% the content without using the covenant swapping (which again, you can do if you don't want alts). I don't think it's that inefficient of design in order to deliver a story with sufficient options and details, and it's very different from Legion where you had to play every spec (not just class) to see everything.
Given that alts have the ability to choose a Covenant from the minute they reach Oribos and level through the campaign, mixed with how quick leveling is now it's not a lot of extra work to experience that content if you want to. If you insist on sticking to one character then you always miss out on some things.
Quick everyone! Change covenants to (X covenant) as (Y covenant that was previously meta) is receiving some crippling nerfs!!1
-The people defending covenants a month from now, as if they aren't already redoing their sims to each and every balancing tweak Blizz makes during the beta.
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Dear god all the Wakanda references they made out of Zandalar was fucking awful.
Blizz really wishes they were Disney lmao
Well fuck me, that actually sounds interesting. So hordes got backstory on 3 of the bosses in uldir! fucking blizzard, always favoring hordes...
Meanwhile alliance got a pirate story about a fat bitch who wanted to become queen. we got a witchhunt story in drustvar that was pretty good i guess. and don't get me started on the disjointed story that was stromsong.. sure it did halfassedly lead to shrine and the old god presence of nzoth but that was rly tame al around and with alot of pointless filler content from faction conflic and later some oildrilling goblins...
None of us really changes over time. We only become more fully what we are.
Why should People who enjoy being able to play multiple different stories/aesthetics for different characters be limited because some idiots only want to play 1 character and cry about it?
Also People still crying about covenants are the absolute fucking worst types of gamers and I don't give a fuck if you quit the game.
yep, but even with class centric spells 1 player choose 1 of 48 (4 Covenants and 12 classes) abilities and miss out the other 47. not as bad as spec centric, but still a lot of abilities each player never see.
i just say this, not because i have concerns with missing the other 47 abilities and „want to see them all“. its more, like i said in opening post, that Blizz has to design, balance and maintain 48 abilities, when every player from his perspective just use 1. same base behaviour/problematics as in Legion imo and not super efficient on Blizzards side (at least when considering Ions statement).
Last edited by Niwes; 2020-08-30 at 11:48 AM.
Yeah, I play both horde and alliance. It's kinda weird this setup, and I don't think we get this again tbh. I did like Drustvar a lot though, as a standalone zone and story it's good. But seeing all 3 zones are like this, it was too much of a disjointed story for sure. Both Tiragarde and Stormsong was more related to patch 8.2 and just a tiny bit of 8.3(N'Zoth as you say) and Azshara-connection, so the Alliance kinda had that. But then you get the same issue. The Horde story was more centered on Uldir than Alliance story was on Eternal Palace/N'Zoth though, that's for sure. And both got the Ashvane relation to Azshara in Nazjatar anyway.
The Horde got a straight up connection with the raid while Alliance just have some lesser stories towards the main one. The Alliance story was more about Jaina and the Kul Tiran than anything else.
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Gaming and WoW stuff
if Blizz changed their stance or their data now shows a lot more of alt playing than after their/Ions statement before BfA (i do not believe that, especially after BfA), this totally makes sense.
that said, overall you are definetelly right here, in general. and in comparison to Legion SL , definetely seems way more alt friendly.
Last edited by Niwes; 2020-08-30 at 11:50 AM.
Amusingly, making 4 new spells per class is "more" abilities than just making one new ability per spec. They have addressed this by making most of the abilities bland and boring, and nerfing ones that randomly happen to be powerful for a particular spec - compared to making a single new ability for each spec that synergises well with existing abilities.
Inside Uldir, Bran tells you exactly why you are there.
You meet Bwonsamdi in both the Alliance War Campaign in Nazmir and in Battle for Dazar'alor.
The Sethraki are, again, a people you meet (and even quest with a bit) during the Alliance War Campaign in Vol'dun.
I get your point of how the Alliance are, kinda, in the dark regarding those things. But then again, they really aren't if you pay attention. Unlike the Horde who are stumbling blind in all of Kul Tiras, especially Drustvar.
Amazing sig, done by mighty Lokann
This kind of people are lore lovers as much as they are world first raiders. As long as story isnt shafted into theor face trough voice lines/cinematics and giant dialogs they have no idea whats going on.. They skip all quest texts, dont read npc dialogs and wonder why story isnt explained. Some people even complain about story being told in books. If you would actualy love warcraft lore you would have no problem to read those books and you would by hyped for every new books realease.
ah ye, fucking Jaina. Ive spent so much time with her now we might aswell be married. And ive still havent gotten to fuck her yet. Bitch even colored and braided her hair and shit just to tease me.
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well, a one line of "there be titan facility here" after weve entered the place and slain a big fucking constuct doesnt cut it. Thats just lazy.
But if you wanna keep living in your bubble where alliance didnt get the short end of the stick this expansion go on.
None of us really changes over time. We only become more fully what we are.