I’m gonna say it; I think Shadowlands has started out really well

[Kokolums]

Fourm activity has nothing to do with their decision to cancel the second expansion.

Beyond forum activity, pretty much all the D3 fan WEBSITES went dark.

That decision was mad when they decided to remove the RMAH to avoid the possibility of paying and collecting taxes on transactions due to a new law. They didn't even wait to see the reception of RoS, because they had no way to monetize the game so they moved on.

I think that BS. The easiest way to make money is pump out more xpacs if it is popular. They WOULD figure it out. I mean, its kinda the entire POINT of the company, to make money off of video games. You are trying to tell me they cannot figure out how to do that. Nah, not buying it.

[Keyblader]

It's good, I really want to level an alt, but then I think about keeping up with 2 covenants, and all the torghast stuff, and getting conduits/ legendaries I think I'm overthinking how much I actually "need" to do though.

[Dispirit84]

This expansion would be a lot better without the Maw, Torghast, legendary system, and covenants...Considering that's pretty much the entire expansion, Shadowlands is garbage.

[Cazze]

It's good, I really want to level an alt, but then I think about keeping up with 2 covenants, and all the torghast stuff, and getting conduits/ legendaries I think I'm overthinking how much I actually "need" to do though.

Legendary recipes are account-wide and there is some form of renown catch up(not sure what it is though). So 2 characters should be manageble.

[SirBeef]

Beyond forum activity, pretty much all the D3 fan WEBSITES went dark.



I think that BS. The easiest way to make money is pump out more xpacs if it is popular. They WOULD figure it out. I mean, its kinda the entire POINT of the company, to make money off of video games. You are trying to tell me they cannot figure out how to do that. Nah, not buying it.

The law may have interfered, so they chose to close it down and move on without their way to monetize it whether you agree or not. ActivisionBlizzard made $1.2B in a quarter off MTX alone, so no, selling expansions is not the quickest way to make money.

They made the decision to move on due to a lack of a monetization avenue. I also suspect the RMAH wasn't as successful as they thought it would be. You are alone talking a game designed preshop with no integration and developing that and a new monetization strategy that may not work could easily have spooked them.

Revenues missed the mark and interest dwindling, it makes since to pull the plug and move on. I would have waited to see RoS sales and activity before ?aking that decision but I don't/didn't rund a PTC and had share holders to account to. But alas, it really is easy to play backseat CEO when you don't have access to information such as revenue projections vs actualized revenue and what D3s expected profits were.

[Lightforged]

I am really enjoying the expansion so far. All of the covenants feel unique and interesting. The zone design is really great. I like how some of the dungeons are short, others long.

[Sagenod]

If you check the Diablo 3 forums, there are a tiny handful of posts per month, few play the game, but those that do will defend it as an incredible game and will call anyone who criticizes it as a troll. So, this really means nothing.

The standard for good would be something like WoD launch, where a TON of players came back and the playerbase quite obviously exploded. And even then, they quickly shed all of those players and more because endgame sucked.

Someone's opinion is none of your business so you saying it means nothing, also means nothing. Congratulations, you played yourself

[Steelangel]

It's far more enjoyable than BfA, but the endgame is sparse and not really exciting.

Pro tip: the endgame has hardly even started yet.

[Sagenod]

This is nice to see. A good start it would seem, though people were enjoying WoD at the start. I'm not being overly negative, just trying to be diligent in not having too high expectations for when I jump back in.

On the other hand, the people calling it the worst ever and quitting a week in are hilarious. From what I've heard the launch has been an absolute dream from a technical standpoint, which is itself something to be celebrated.

[Steelangel]

This expansion would be a lot better without the Maw, Torghast, legendary system, and covenants...Considering that's pretty much the entire expansion, Shadowlands is garbage.

So like.. what content do -you- enjoy? Torghast is awesome, and this is one of the few voices that seems to disagree with that.

[Queen of Hamsters]

I'm very "on top" of news and game systems etc, but I feel rather... confused. Maybe I'm getting old... It's also been the first expansion where I didn't enjoy 100% of the leveling experience. Only 50%. Hoping that'll change with Threads of Fate as they tune it to be less of a bitch-ass grind... Pardon my french, but the term fits when it comes to bonus objective completion rates.

Have been enjoying myself at max level though, and I feel so SO much less stressed, which is amazing.

[oldgeezer]

I think that's probably the right way to go. With the catch-up mechanisms they seem to have coming for Covenants, I suspect you'll have more fun leveling alts and so on for a few weeks at least, and then when you do Covenants, they'll potentially be more rewarding.

Yep, good advice there.

[Amariw]

Kinda agreed. Leveling structure, polish and story is really nice.

Covenants multi-specc limitations are annoying, but not so severe or limiting that i feel i'll have big trouble (except maybe in arena). I don't think its worth the immersion, but they seemed to have done a decent job limiting the "damage" to off speccs.

Pvpers finally can gear mostly from pvp. Could have been better but even the current system is really decent. My biggest peeve is that pure pvpers need to do some pve activity they really don't want to for their best legendary (i'm not one, but have a lot of friends who are and i value their experience). PVErs might think it weird but some people geniunely like some part of this game and genuinely dislike another.

Torghast has solid potential, thank god it has no cost of entry nor cost of failure. I would have loved if it and the Maw had some gated gear aquisition to give solo players some alternate progression (less max ilvl then mythic raid/m+/arena). But even as it stands, its pretty good.

The varied unlocks of the covenants give a lot of room for rpg choices (that don't fuck up your power, just fun immersion choices). And the covenant stories themselves add good replayability.

So far, SL first patch already seems better than any BFA patch, and possibly Legion as well.


My biggest issue, bigo issue? Affliction seems meh in arena with no baseline instant shard spenders and slow 4 global ramp time per target. But even its current status is better then bfa. Other then that, real solid.

[Nyel]

Pro tip: the endgame has hardly even started yet.

Besides Mythic+ and raids the "endgame" is there. And it's not much. Timegating doesn't help at all. You might like the upcoming endgame when you enjoy spamming Mythic+ etc., but besides that there isn't just much to do.

[Kokolums]

Someone's opinion is none of your business so you saying it means nothing, also means nothing. Congratulations, you played yourself

im not basing my views on opinion. im saying if you have less players, or websites are drying up, or they are cancelling xpacs, those are objectively bad signs beyond opinion. blizzard trumpeting a huge surge in the size of the playerbase in the first month of wod is objectively a good sign beyond my opinion. what you guys are doing is just providing personal accounts, which doesnt really mean anything. hell, during mop, players would give personal accounts that it was the best xpac ever while the playerbase was collapsing. people even made youtube videos back then speculating on how everyone could be leaving such a "wonderful xpac".

[Sagenod]

im not basing my views on opinion. im saying if you have less players, or websites are drying up, or they are cancelling xpacs, those are objectively bad signs beyond opinion. blizzard trumpeting a huge surge in the size of the playerbase in the first month of wod is objectively a good sign beyond my opinion. what you guys are doing is just providing personal accounts, which doesnt really mean anything. hell, during mop, players would give personal accounts that it was the best xpac ever while the playerbase was collapsing. people even made youtube videos back then speculating on how everyone could be leaving such a "wonderful xpac".

Well I agree that you can't use personal accounts on the forums to measure the degree of success the expansion will have. As I inferred in my own reply to the thread, it's still too early to draw any real conclusions. Many people will have a rose-tinted lens for a while, as per usual with the new expansion vibes. Positive or negative, a week in is way too early to take a permanent stance on the expansion.

Doesn't change people having a good time though. Fun is fun

[bloodwulf]

It's good, I really want to level an alt, but then I think about keeping up with 2 covenants, and all the torghast stuff, and getting conduits/ legendaries I think I'm overthinking how much I actually "need" to do though.

You are greatly overthinking. I have two 60s and it takes next to nothing to keep the important stuff up (Renown and Soul Ash). Remember reps are not tied to power really. Just log on to the alts and do the weekly campaign missions and run torghast and you are more than golden. I am in fact going to start a 3rd character soon cause its very refreshing how easy it is.

[Yuli]

yep! I love it so far!

[Pony Soldier]

I totally agree. So far I am liking it more than BfA and I actually am one of those who actually enjoyed it. The story is more epic and suspenseful this time around. The idea of going on a "suicide mission" into the Maw felt exciting. The part where you rescue Anduin just to be separated again actually left me feeling a little, I guess you could say, concerned for him and the others. And it's just in general more interesting than Legion and BfA. It just feels like there's more going on this time.

So far I have only been able to get about halfway through Maldraxxis which I have to say is an awesome zone. Bastion too. Which actually brings me to another point. So far the zones don't feel overly complex to traverse. BfA did a good job of this too but to me it just feels like they improved on it a bit more making it feel like I don't really need a flying mount or even want one to be honest.

So yeah I'd say as far as first impressions go SL left a good one. It even had one of the smoothest launches I think we ever had. I don't recall having a single issue. It's amazing the amount of good a simple delay can be. I can just imagine what it would've been like without a delay.

[Wewlad]

As someone who absolutely hates the setting and story, is it worth playing just for the endgame?