Shadowlands Pre-Expansion Patch Notes

[dalrint]

I reckon you'll still have to do the unlock quest series per race, you just won't have to grind the rep first. They're pretty quick and fun so it shouldn't be too cumbersome.

I think you also still have to get the achievement associated with that races story. So like, you don't have to get exalted with mechagon to unlock mechagnomes, but you do have to do the story quests on the island.

[Gherothar]

So now I will be forced to use a lot of spells I was very happy without on certain specs.

Like Mirror Image on my Fire mage.

Or Arcane fucking shot, Killshot and HM on my Surv hunter.

Flametongue is now mandatory, and managing holy fucking power on my Prot pally.

This just lowered my interest in ShL by a lot. Definitely not gonna play as many characters as I had been since Legion.

Ugh.

[Allatar]

If they look better than the preWrath cloth set, I'm all for it..

As I understand it they are related to the Warfront sets

[Shinagami091]

I look forward to leveling my new Spriest or Warlock since they’ve completely hosed Balance Druids. Unless they’ve got some tuning for them planned they’re going to be awful.

[Gurg]

So now I will be forced to use a lot of spells I was very happy without on certain specs.

Like Mirror Image on my Fire mage.

Or Arcane fucking shot, Killshot and HM on my Surv hunter.

Flametongue is now mandatory, and managing holy fucking power on my Prot pally.

This just lowered my interest in ShL by a lot. Definitely not gonna play as many characters as I had been since Legion.

Ugh.

1. Sadly - Yes. But correct me if im wrong, Mirrors now look like they are minor dps boost and more of defensive ability? "their power is GREATLY reduces and one mirror goes puuf! when you take direct damage"

2. No, you cant pew pew on Survival without weapon swap macro shenanigans and its only valuable to certain extend in specific situations. If even there. Hunters Mark damage component was removed so no need to cast it if you dont go against Stealth mechanics, i guess PvP only?

3. Flametongue and Windfury, yes, just two spells in the book that you click once per hour. Same with shaman shields. Same with poisons.
Poisons are actually worse since they disappear when you switch spec. Takes some time to get used to that Combat and Sub use poisons too now. Or WA aura.
Prot Pally actually feel quite sturdy, by reading "State of Prot" a while back it looks like actually few of the talents that help you generate HP lose their value since you will have steady flow of HP as prot pala.

Honestly, i get what you want to say, i was in the same boat. But after spending some time on beta, you quickly filter trough most of "unpruned" spells, you will either not use them at all (Hunters Mark, DnD as Frost DK if you are PvE player, or have them somewhere on secondary bar like Lightning Shield, Flametongue, Windfury, Poisons.. or you will simply not use them since they require macros, like pew pew on survival, shield block/bash on fury/arms..)

The game, for most classes, stay pretty much the same in their core, Covenants, conduits and legendaries are actually what will change your gameplay the most and define if expansion will be Alt friendly or not.

--- On topic. What a long list of Survival changes, blizz really listened feedback this time around --- /s

[Danvash]

Agreed. This is just plain Virtue Signaling by Blizzard.
The whole PC culture seeping into fictional fantasy is just ridiculous.

That's not why they changed it. It's more of a lore reason. Warlocks make pacts with demons. The demons are not the property of the warlock, and when they're dismissed, they just go back to doing whatever demons do in their normal lives. It's the lore reason why players cannot name their demons ingame.

And when it comes to using magic to mind control a hostile demon for a while, it's more accurate to use the descriptive verb "subjugate," which implies that the demon had a will of its own that was broken by the warlock. "Enslave" is more of a passive verb, implying that the subject had little say in the matter, which is not true for demons; and it implies that the subject was made into the warlock's property, which also is not true as the spell is temporary. You cannot subjugate a demon once and then summon it again later. Only hunters can do that with their pets.

It's a very minor change, but the beginning of expansions is the time that they sometimes pay attention to details like this. New players might see a spell called Enslave Demon and think that it means they can permanently tame the demon like a hunter can tame animals.

There are many references to slavery in the Warcraft universe, such as the Legion/Orcs/Lich King/Black Empire enslaving people, that haven't been changed. And Death Knights still enslave their undead minions that no longer have minds of their own. If Blizzard were taking a harder anti-slavery stance in light of BLM and the human trafficking problem, you'd think they'd change all that other stuff too.

[Thrackerzod]

A navigational marker will now appear on screen to direct you to quest objectives reducing the need to open and close the map.

Does that mean there's going to be an annoying arrow on the screen all the time? If so I hope it can be turned off.

[Gurg]

A navigational marker will now appear on screen to direct you to quest objectives reducing the need to open and close the map.

Does that mean there's going to be an annoying arrow on the screen all the time? If so I hope it can be turned off.

Its not an arrow. I find arrow annoying too.
Its diamond shaped marked shown in space (game-world)



Not sure if you turn it off tho, havent checked.

[Zellas]

Demonology
Wild Imps now spawn more immediately after Hand of Guldan

More. Immediately.

So let me see if I understood this properly. The imps were supposed to spawn immediately, but instead they spawned... less immediately?
Can someone please explain me what the heck could "more immediately" mean? Or rather, how in the world could such an obvious grammar mistake make it into a bluepost?

[Rocktum]

At this point this has to be a fricking joke isn't it? I mean yes Feral is strong in PvP, but giving roar to heal and boomy, where boomy already has innervate cyclone (without an expansion cast time like Guardian and Feral) treants for pug garbage tanks who can't kite on necrotic weeks and what do Feral and Guardian have now? Right nothing. So basically, if you don't play in a top 1000000000000 period 00000000000000 guild, it doesn't really matter what you play, but if you want to see the endboss and esp. on mythic and BEFORE the next PATCH hits (or rather addon/s as Feral) you just can't. What I find pretty sad is, that the boys in the NA forums (EU forums apparently don't count since nobody is reading anything there whatsoever no blue posts nothing just the walking dead as forum) have given soooooooooooo much fricking feedback you could've done a new specc for the druid. Is that so damn hard to give Guardian AND Feral LotP let it be 3-5% crit for party/raid eh voila problem solved.

[deenman]

More. Immediately.

So let me see if I understood this properly. The imps were supposed to spawn immediately, but instead they spawned... less immediately?
Can someone please explain me what the heck could "more immediately" mean? Or rather, how in the world could such an obvious grammar mistake make it into a bluepost?

there is an animation that spawns them 1 by on almost,im guessing they speed up that animation or make em spawn instantly

- - - Updated - - -

Do I need to buy Shadowlands to be able to play the pre-patch?

no,everyone gets pre patch

[kronides]

Its not an arrow. I find arrow annoying too.
Its diamond shaped marked shown in space (game-world)



Not sure if you turn it off tho, havent checked.

You can disable it, or at least you could about a month ago. When I logged in one day and saw it the first thing I did was figure out how to disable it in Interface.

But I can't even stand the gold pointer on the minimap, so, if it helps others, whatever. As long as I don't have to see it.

[mitre27]

Fan of Knives now capped at 8 targets.

Why? Assassination rogues aoe sucks as is, if you're going to cap the targets hit, buff the damage.

Cheap shot nerf is also stupid, it's given 2 combo points since forever, there's no need to change that.

[MarkTheMadMad]

All Gladiator mounts and titles, including those from previous seasons, can be used by all characters across the account the mount and titles were earned on.

Does anyone know if this includes old pvp titles from vanilla like "Master Sargeant"?

[Lulbalance]

Guessing it's because Black life's matter and that whole slavery thingy Americans are still annoyed about.

Wait, do you actually think BLM had something to do with your Warlock talent being name changed (???)... there's no way you're that stupid, lol.

[Lolsteak]

Wait, do you actually think BLM had something to do with your Warlock talent being name changed (???)... there's no way you're that stupid, lol.

Why else would it be changed after so long?

Lets hear your theory

[Katchii]

More. Immediately.

So let me see if I understood this properly. The imps were supposed to spawn immediately, but instead they spawned... less immediately?
Can someone please explain me what the heck could "more immediately" mean? Or rather, how in the world could such an obvious grammar mistake make it into a bluepost?

After Hand of Guldan is used, though they start spawning immediately, it takes 1-2 seconds for them to actually register as spawned and start casting ot able to be used for the Imp Explosion AoE ability. This change make makes them spawn faster.

As to how it could end up in a blue post.... they're human and not necessarily grammar experts. While it could have been worded differently, and better, the message was received and understood, IMO. Relax.

[Tesshin83]

Nothing about new lightning bolt animation. Its been the same for 12 years. ������

[SirCowdog]

Wait, do you actually think BLM had something to do with your Warlock talent being name changed (???)... there's no way you're that stupid, lol.

Magic The Gathering changed several card names and renamed mechanics in order to avoid "offensive implications". Card wordings that have been in the game for 25+ years. I wouldn't put it past another huge corporation, like ActiBlizz, to do the same. Virtue signaling is a thing Blizzard has done in the past.

[Zellas]

After Hand of Guldan is used, though they start spawning immediately, it takes 1-2 seconds for them to actually register as spawned and start casting ot able to be used for the Imp Explosion AoE ability. This change make makes them spawn faster.

As to how it could end up in a blue post.... they're human and not necessarily grammar experts. While it could have been worded differently, and better, the message was received and understood, IMO. Relax.

In that case they did NOT spawn immediately. The patchnote should state that 'HoG imps now properly spawn immediately after the cast'.
There is NO such construct in English language: 'more immediately'.