So is Shadowlands good?

[Alanar]

So afther playing since it's release, I have good understanding why Shadowlands at the moment lacks.

Sure, we can talk endlessly about whats wrong with the loot, but I think we can all agree that the main part of an mmo is getting new gear or upgrades. The game does a realy poor job at making the player exciting for any rewards/loot. I have done the raid on normal for 2 weeks straight, couple of heroic kills and 20+ m+ dung, only received HEALING conduits while I am playing Shadow(always)and a ring with wrong stats the same count for world bosses that didn't dropp a single item. It's at a depressing level right now, purely because it demotivates me.
It's not a matter of rng bad luck here.. I don't see how this is fun gameplay.

Gating of content is understandable, but the story suffers cus of it and things just feel way to slow. I can't be the only one who find it annoying they keep talking about Denathrius like hes still around(i mean cmon who didn't kill him yet?), but because the raid is already out it feels weird when doing the covenant story. There is just not enough to the covenant right now to stay engaged. Soulbinds, conduits, callings and even mission table 2.0 don't add much and feel pointless in so many ways, delaying content for features who are pointless right now, will probably not be relevant when they are available. Fire and forget.

Features such as Thorghast and the maw, these were suppose to be the new eyecatcher right? Thorghast was changed/altered and nerfed over last coupe of weeks and it has been changed into 2x layer 8 in the week and done. At this point most people are on a average of 200 ilvl which is already quite high for thorghast now and for most people it's starting to become a chore. I mean it takes to long to finnish, but you are only doing it for the 520 soulash per wing. Thorghast is in heavy need of changes and new exciting puzzels or layer and difficulty changes or else it will stay were it is right now, which is on the same level of the Maw imo.

The maw is in another need of sweeping changes and better reward structure to even be bothered honestly. I though it was a cool vibe to have no mount and realy try to stay alive... , but who knew running for 20 minutes in a map that's way to big on foot or to even get anywhere for the dailies that offer you nothing was a good idea? For the people who like their Wm spells and want to go to the maw.. well be ready for groups camping in front of the entrance, make sure you die once to get the invisible buff to run past them second try. I mean is this the gameplay? it only becomes fun or (convenient) when you have all teleports unlocked? so at the same time immersion is 100% ruined
The execution of this place and it's gameplay is absolutely jarring to me. and hopefully 9.1 will alter this or else it will stay like Thorghast where it is a failed feature. The one thing the Maw achieved well is that you realy dont want to be there. They took their selling point a bit to literal >.>

In the end I am asking myself the question.. is there realy new gameplay that the expansion offers? The honest truth is that shadowlands right now still has that cloak of being new and new lore, but we are still doing the same content like always, so the anwser is no sadly.

With that said, I have to say some specs that needed changes actually do feel better to play and pvp feels like it's in a better spot with vendors etc. It's sad to see it takes them to long to reduce the big outliners as pvp is way to bursty right now. Bad thing is that we are 100% back at being able to 1 shot some one in a lockout.

sorry.. end rent, but I had an eyeopener with some one.

[Elim Garak]

It's boring as hell right now, it might be better after a patch or two when they implement all the catch up to avoid boring grind. Playing right now is literally a waste of time.

[kranur]

It's just a recolored and slightly improved BfA.

Torghast is better than expeditions and warfronts, sure, however imo it already reached the do it once a week and gtfo chore.

Classes are very much the same.

Gated story is still there, except now you have to also complete the weekly renown quests to be able to move on (sucks if you can't play a week).

World quests are fewer, take a lot longer and are more annoying.

Emissaries and mission table are almost the same.
Artifact is now soulbinds. While you don't have to grind ap, you have to grind stygia, either for sockets or for soulbinds unlock.

It's not bad but it's just a glorified BfA.

[Sondrelk]

It's just a recolored and slightly improved BfA.

Torghast is better than expeditions and warfronts, sure, however imo it already reached the do it once a week and gtfo chore.

Classes are very much the same.

Gated story is still there, except now you have to also complete the weekly renown quests to be able to move on (sucks if you can't play a week).

World quests are fewer, take a lot longer and are more annoying.

Emissaries and mission table are almost the same.
Artifact is now soulbinds. While you don't have to grind ap, you have to grind stygia, either for sockets or for soulbinds unlock.

It's not bad but it's just a glorified BfA.

You are aware that mythic dungeons and the elite emissaries give you renown if you are behind, right?

[Alanar]

It's boring as hell right now.

It's so sad to see this happening at the start of the expansion, remember when people said when the trailer rolled out.. Are there any other features?

It's actually true right now and we are back at doing 100 dungeons/raid o pvp/arena. No new bg or ai bg features, new class or glyphs or any other NEW thing we could do. Same as always. I am actually mad I m only realising this now..

The Big features of the expansion already failed..

[ashblond]

It is essentially the same as BFA. If it continues down this road, it will end up worse than BFA.

[Angelwings]

I've been thinking about joining back retail, and the opinions i have seen so far are quite different.

[oldgeezer]

It's so sad to see this happening at the start of the expansion, remember when people said when the trailer rolled out.. Are there any other features?

It's actually true right now and we are back at doing 100 dungeons/raid o pvp/arena. No new bg or ai bg features, new class or glyphs or any other NEW thing we could do. Same as always. I am actually mad I m only realising this now..

The Big features of the expansion already failed..

It depresses me to say it, but I'm bored with SL already. There's just too much friction everywhere, too many systems, not enough engagement. So, I'm sitting it out until 9.1 arrives.

That said, I still enjoy putting new characters through legacy content, so I'll keep the sub going.

[Packmule]

Better then legion and bfa in every way.

[Zephire]

Nope. It's WAY worse then BfA. Everything is SLOWER and more time consuming. This is boring design. Class and covenant balance is joke.

What do you mean by "more time consuming"? Except for weekly quests I don't feel the need to play much or put much time in the game. I still do because I do mythic+ and PvP to some extent. During the first month or two during BFA I did almost not miss a single world quest just because I wanted reputation for gear before raid or during it and to fill that stupid azerite bar. Then I cut down on WQ to only do those that awarded azerite.

This time around I don't feel the need to do every single world quest, SL is way more relaxed and I can spend more time doing things that I like or playing other games or not play anything at all and just chill or whatever. It's great in that regard.

What are you spending your time on?

[Swnem]

So afther playing since it's release, I have good understanding why Shadowlands at the moment lacks.

Sure, we can talk endlessly about whats wrong with the loot, but I think we can all agree that the main part of an mmo is getting new gear or upgrades. The game does a realy poor job at making the player exciting for any rewards/loot. I have done the raid on normal for 2 weeks straight, couple of heroic kills and 20+ m+ dung, only received HEALING conduits while I am playing Shadow(always)and a ring with wrong stats the same count for world bosses that didn't dropp a single item. It's at a depressing level right now, purely because it demotivates me.
It's not a matter of rng bad luck here.. I don't see how this is fun gameplay.

Gating of content is understandable, but the story suffers cus of it and things just feel way to slow. I can't be the only one who find it annoying they keep talking about Denathrius like hes still around(i mean cmon who didn't kill him yet?), but because the raid is already out it feels weird when doing the covenant story. There is just not enough to the covenant right now to stay engaged. Soulbinds, conduits, callings and even mission table 2.0 don't add much and feel pointless in so many ways, delaying content for features who are pointless right now, will probably not be relevant when they are available. Fire and forget.

Features such as Thorghast and the maw, these were suppose to be the new eyecatcher right? Thorghast was changed/altered and nerfed over last coupe of weeks and it has been changed into 2x layer 8 in the week and done. At this point most people are on a average of 200 ilvl which is already quite high for thorghast now and for most people it's starting to become a chore. I mean it takes to long to finnish, but you are only doing it for the 520 soulash per wing. Thorghast is in heavy need of changes and new exciting puzzels or layer and difficulty changes or else it will stay were it is right now, which is on the same level of the Maw imo.

The maw is in another need of sweeping changes and better reward structure to even be bothered honestly. I though it was a cool vibe to have no mount and realy try to stay alive... , but who knew running for 20 minutes in a map that's way to big on foot or to even get anywhere for the dailies that offer you nothing was a good idea? For the people who like their Wm spells and want to go to the maw.. well be ready for groups camping in front of the entrance, make sure you die once to get the invisible buff to run past them second try. I mean is this the gameplay? it only becomes fun or (convenient) when you have all teleports unlocked? so at the same time immersion is 100% ruined
The execution of this place and it's gameplay is absolutely jarring to me. and hopefully 9.1 will alter this or else it will stay like Thorghast where it is a failed feature. The one thing the Maw achieved well is that you realy dont want to be there. They took their selling point a bit to literal >.>

In the end I am asking myself the question.. is there realy new gameplay that the expansion offers? The honest truth is that shadowlands right now still has that cloak of being new and new lore, but we are still doing the same content like always, so the anwser is no sadly.

With that said, I have to say some specs that needed changes actually do feel better to play and pvp feels like it's in a better spot with vendors etc. It's sad to see it takes them to long to reduce the big outliners as pvp is way to bursty right now. Bad thing is that we are 100% back at being able to 1 shot some one in a lockout.

sorry.. end rent, but I had an eyeopener with some one.

I just want to point out we are at mission table 4.0. XD

[Deadite]

Quite surprised to see a lot of negative feedback in this thread. I understand that every expansion will be criticised and not suit everyone (especially MMO Champ users), but my anecdotal experience is that it's been received well. Surprising.

It has some good but plenty bad as well imho. Being a 'Casual Andy' i really can't be bothered to spend 20-25 mins in a queue and around 30 mins in the heroic dungeon for no loot. You have to do a coulple for one bit of loot? No thanks. The rare time a WQ has some loot it is low ilevel rubbish. I have done every calling from about 5 days into the expansion and only got my first bit of loot the other day. A 187 trinket from the purple elite calling. don;t even know how many seeds i have done in my fairy garden only to get a bag with 3 meat in it. Nothing is rewarding. The Maw and Torgash are utter garbosity.

I can see people turning on this expansion pretty fast to be honest.

[Freeghost]

Imo its great.

The Maw doesnt really suck as much as ppl say it does. I dont know what those ppl do, maybe never use one of the multiple portals that lead literally everywhere and then complain about having to run. Btw there are also mounts that you can get, for a min atleast, that will bring you almost everywhere you want at mount speed.

The gearing is pretty ok imo. Id like HC lvl raid loot in M 15s but well 3 ilvl isnt bad.

Its insanely good if you are some1 who twinks a lot. Very twink friendly with renown catchup and account shared thorghast upgrades.
Plus the fact that u literally never have to do any World quest, since the only reward is some anima you can only use to get some mats/cosmetics.

The dungeons are great, in general, and they seem to fix over tuned stuff very fast so that's also a big plus in my book.

If you are in for PvP, its also great. Fast paced without the draining dampening games. Maybe a bit too bursty in some situations but they already fixed some of it. But everything is better than dampening games imo. The Conquest system is great and also very twin friendly. You never lose out on conquest.

Overall id say its a great addon, they seem to care much and patch things constantly. Of course the balance isnt perfect, especially some covenants for some spec just suck too hard imo. But they know that and will change that in between content patches so its fine by me that i can really only choose between 2 with my characters.

It has some good but plenty bad as well imho. Being a 'Casual Andy' i really can't be bothered to spend 20-25 mins in a queue and around 30 mins in the heroic dungeon for no loot. You have to do a coulple for one bit of loot? No thanks. The rare time a WQ has some loot it is low ilevel rubbish. I have done every calling from about 5 days into the expansion and only got my first bit of loot the other day. A 187 trinket from the purple elite calling. don;t even know how many seeds i have done in my fairy garden only to get a bag with 3 meat in it. Nothing is rewarding. The Maw and Torgash are utter garbosity.

I can see people turning on this expansion pretty fast to be honest.

Dont know about you but i get an item almost every dungeon i run. Imo its a conscious decision that World quest and callings dont rewards much. I hated it at first but now iam just happy that iam not forced to do any of that. And sry, but if you play an MMO solo as DPS its your fault for having que times like that. Ive seen so many guilds taking every kind of player that there is no reason to solo game this and if you do what can one say.

[oldgeezer]

The Maw and Torgash are utter garbosity.

I might be missing something about Choregash, but is Soul Ash the only loot that drops? Other than a bit of grey VT junk? That, by definition, is unrewarding, especially given the tedium of hacking through all those mobs to get it.

[Kithelle]

Or they could simply give common AND meaningful loot, there is no written law for which if you drop a lot it has to be useless loot 90% of time and if you want it not to be useless it has to be one piece from time to time.

Which fits in with the loot it common part above....if it's common you have the "free gear for doing little" crowd

[Ringthane]

I just want to point out we are at mission table 4.0. XD

And it's the worst one yet. I don't even bother with it - I regret spending the anima on it.

Then again, I regret spending money on the expansion at all... I was really hoping for something better than BfA and got this steaming pile.

[Kel_Sceptic]

Today, being reset day, I've took notes about how much time it takes to do the weekly stuff + automatically the daily stuff.

So, I've started playing at about 13:00;
-13:04 already got all quests on me and I've started doing them;
-13:23 already done the daily calling (3 rares/treasures) and the world boss is dead;
-already got 453 anima collected out of 1000 for the 2 weekly quests (1 covenant renown and 1 night fae conservatory);
-13:44 already completed the anima collection by doing 2 world quests and 2 weekly quests (maldraxxus Bet on Yourself and Callous Concoctions);
-already completed the quests that required 1000 anima to be collected;
-13:52 already completed the Return Lost souls and 1 daily are completed in The Maw;
-13:55 already rank 14 renown and started to continue the covenant story;
-14:41 the covenant story is done, rank 15 Renown;
-14:43 I'm in The Maw but I take a break for some RL stuff (feed the kids, make some coffee etc.);
-15:22 I'm back in game and continuing to do the weekly The Maw quests;
-15:46 all weekly quests are done; Jailer is dead. leftovers: The Hunt and 1 daily, because I was on maximum Tier and cannot continue in The Maw today;

-15:48 starting Coldheart Interstitia Layer 8, 17:02 the Torghast run is completed, with For the Hoarder! achivement completed; (TOTAL RUN TIME: 74minutes minus ~15mins afk for RL stuff, so it should take 50minutes);
-17:03 starging Mort'regar Layer 8 and finishing it at 17:37; (TOTAL RUN: 34minutes);
!NOTE: Because I didn't recieved the Anima Power that shows mobs who carries Anima Powers, I have done FULL KILL RUN (killed all mobs, collected all souls and cracked all vases).

BTW: got here some screenshots about this experience.


So, it took me rughfly 4hours, with RL break stuff inlcuded, to complete all weekly + daily stuff.

I'm sorry to do this, but for every post I see, saying that SL is grindy, I feel the need to put out my exact data on how much time it needs to complete ALL weekly tasks/choores/content.

You gen 1000 anima in the first 40mins of playing, after reset day, by just doing 2 WQ for the actual anima, the rest happens even if you don't want to.
People calling this a grind, have no ideea what a grind is.

My definision of a grind is to do soemthing that, after completion, will let you do what you enjoy in game.

I don't understand why people hate time gating. I love time gating.

I will say I love time gating only for the POWER PROGRESSION. I would have loved to complete that covenant story in 1 go, 2-3 hours and just get it over with and the have only the powers/upgrades/conduits discoverable by timegating.

Here's my thought, people should be equal if they don't do any gearing content, right ? I'm thinking at Legion and BFA. OR the exact opposite, make all types of gameplay reward you in the same way/same ammount/balanced way. If I do raid I get loads of artifact power, if I do M+ I get sh17 loads of artifact power, if I do pvp I get only the scent of what artifact power is.

You need to have a corelation between time played and the content you play. Let me explain:
I play M+ for 5hours a week, and I get X ammount of artifact power. Well, for the same ammount of time playied in Raid or PvP I should get the same ammount of artifact power.

While we are at this part, as a negative point for SL, I really don't fk understand why tf they made soulbinds timegated, I mean, it would have left a coice for everyone to be able to choose out of 3 soulbinds, and make the specs more divers and the character more personal o nthose choices. But they choose to make 1. soulbinds gated, and 2. conduit rows gated, when they could have only let the conduits rows gated.

NOW in Shadowlands: the POWER progression/upgrade systems (soulbinds, conduits, etc.) are gated FOR EVERYONE, and that is good.
At the same time, people raiding Mythic are still powerfull then people that raid heroic or M+10-15.
At the same time, people raiding Heroic and M+10-15 are still more powerful then people raiding Normal and M+0-10.
PvP players are capped at +184. The rest of item upgrades are gated behind weekly vault and conquest.
Power progression exists, and I would say otherwise if all people whould had cleared raid mythic and all had done M+15. But they haven't.

People who want to progress and enjoy/want/love to do M+, they do sh17loads of M+15 and you have the real posibility to get gear. LOW, as some people state it, sure, but there is still a posibility.

People who want to progress and enjoy/want/love to do Raiding, they clear NORMAL/HC/MYTHIC, where ever they are, and have a chance to gear up.

People who want to progress and enjoy/want/love to do PvP, they cannot progress on getting gear, since conquest is all timegated/weekly capped.

All people have a "bad luck" protection gear in the Greater Vault.

People who enjoy doing Raiding and M+ ar the most lucky ones, but they deserve it, since they are doing 2/3 gearing content that the system has to offer.

I really don't get people craving for gear, since the droprate is the same for everyone, so why tf do you have your mind on that LOOT all the time and not see the part that should be seen, doing the content you enjoy with your friends/guildies. Even pugging is ok if you ENJOY that content.

If you are doing all those M+15 for the sole purpuse of gearing, but don't enjoy doing them, then yeah, it is on YOU, not on the game since you force yourself to do content you don't enjoy just for .... the sake of what ... gearing ? What are you doing with that gear anyways if you don't enjoy doing that content ?

I wonder what people have been doing in the TBC<->WoD era when you didn't had the M+ dungeon system and you would gear only from raids ?
I mean, raids being on lockouts, there were weeks where I wasn't recieving and item out of the game.

Do you have a source on those numbers? Cause everything I've heard is that BfA was like......the most unpopular expansion ever. Which is why they swung so hard the other way this expansion.

He is the single person I know that puts BFA in front of all WoW existence. If I would have read his singature earlier, I would have saved myself the trouble of trying to have an objectively debate, since it is clear that most people hated on BFA.

Financial results:

2016 q1
MAUsA of 26 million


2016 q2
Blizzard had the biggest quarterly online player community in its history, with MAUsA of 33million
This reflects the successful launch of Overwatch® and strength across the broader portfolio, including Hearthstone®: Heroes of Warcraft™, which had record quarterly MAUsA, and World of Warcraft®, which had double-digit MAUA growth quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year.


2016 q3 (Legion release)
Blizzard had the biggest quarterly online player community in its history, with 42 million MAUsA.
This reflects the continued success of Overwatch® and the launch of World of Warcraft®: Legion™.
Blizzard has more than doubled its MAUsA in just two years.


2016 q4
Blizzard achieved record fourth-quarter MAUsA of 41 million.
World of Warcraft® MAUsA grew 10% in 2016 and over 20% year-over-year in the fourth quarter on the back of the successful third-quarter launch of the expansion, Legion™.

2017 q1
MAUsA of 41 million
With a regular content and feature update cadence, World of Warcraft® time spent grew year‐over‐year in the first quarter.


2017 q2
46 million MAUsB
Time spent in World of Warcraft® grew year‐over‐year in the second quarter, and the Legion™ expansion continued to perform ahead of the prior expansion.

2017 q3
42 million MAUs
World of Warcraft® released a new content update in the quarter, leading to stable MAUsB for the franchise quarter‐over‐quarter and continued participation in value added services.


2017 q4
40 million MAUs
While down sequentially, this is the 6th quarter in a row with 40 million or more MAUsC, primarily driven by Overwatch® and Hearthstone®

2018 q1
Blizzard had 38 million MAUsC.
World of Warcraft® over‐performed versus the prior expansion at this point in time, with higher engagement sequentially and strong community participation
with in‐game purchases. Preorders for the upcoming expansion, Battle for Azeroth™, are ahead of plan.

2018 q2
Blizzard had 37 million MAUsC ahead of significant content coming in the second half of 2018.
World of Warcraft® momentum remains high ahead of the upcoming expansion, Battle for Azeroth™, which is seeing strong pre‐orders.

2018 q3 (BFA releases)
Blizzard had 37 million MAUsC in the quarter
World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth set a new day-one franchise record with more than 3.4 million units sold-through.
World of Warcraft engagement grew strongly quarter-over-quarter.

2018 q4
Blizzard had 35 million MAUsC in the quarter, as Overwatch® and Hearthstone® saw sequential stability and World of Warcraft® saw expected declines post-expansion-launch.

2019 q1:
32 million at Blizzard

2019 q2:
Blizzard had 32 million MAU
Subscribers in World of Warcraft® increased since mid-May, following the release date announcement and
beta for World of Warcraft Classic and the Rise of Azshara™ content update.

2019 q3:
Monthly Active Users1 of 33M
In Q3, World of Warcraft Classic drove the biggest quarterly increase to subscription plans2 in franchise history, in both the West and East
Reach in October remained well above pre-Classic levels, with deep engagement across both Classic and modern World of Warcraft

2019 q4:
World of Warcraft exited 2019 with an active player community2 more than twice the size of its Q2-ending level
Blizzard has a rapid cadence of follow-on content planned for Classic, as well as the Shadowlands®expansion for modern World of Warcraft, in the second half of the year.

2020 q1:
Monthly Active Users1 of 32M
After doubling in the second half of 2019, World of Warcraft’s active player community2 increased further in Q1, as the team continued to deliver more content between expansions than ever before
Reach and engagement were particularly strong as regions introduced shelter-at-home measures through the quarter, with momentum increasing further in April
Increased engagement in modern WoW drove accelerating pre-sales for the upcoming Shadowlands expansion, slated for the second half of this year

2020 q2:
Monthly Active Users1 of 32M
World of Warcraft reach and engagement once again increased Q/Q, as shelter-at-home conditions further boosted the franchise’s strong trajectory, following the launch of Classic last August.
Anticipation continues to build for Shadowlands, the next expansion for modern World of Warcraft coming in Q4. Engagement in the franchise is the highest it has been at this point ahead of an expansion in a decade.
Shadowlands saw an enthusiastic response from players in its public testing, with pre-sales accelerating even further in Q2.


2020 q3:
Monthly Active Users1 of 30M
World of Warcraft MAUs1 were stable Y/Y. Anticipation continues to build for Shadowlands, the next expansion for modern World of Warcraft, ahead of its November 23 launch.
Franchise engagement is at its highest level at this stage ahead of an expansion release in a decade, with presales well ahead of any prior expansion.




You can see it everywhere that as soon as Blizzard made azerite power meaningless in WoW, players have returned in game and enjoyed it ... well untill corruption sh17storm hitted us. After corruption, alot of people leveled their alts, since the 100%exp buff, essences alt-a-little-bit-more-friendly, preparing for Shadowlands.

2. 4 hours every night isn't even a lot. I play way more than 4 hours every night.

Exactly that was the purpuse of these systems having a gate period on them. So even players that play 2-3hours for 3 nights a week, can feel like they are not left behind, finish fast with the weekly stuff and play the gearing system that they WANT, not HAVE TO.

No dude, people farmed Maw for early gear and AP that was more powerful than getting gear. This is why we got neck instead. So AP wouldn't give you so much power.

But as for loot system and gear in general it was the best expansion ever released as it was first modern exp that did fix tons of issues of previous expansions. And it was first time in wow I never said that something is retarded when it comes to gearing like in legion, having effectively minus 9 gear slot (so 6 in total).

So the azerite gear you got, without the ability to use the fk traits, was a great gearing system ? Since you keep saying BFA wasn't a grindy sh17storm like Legion was.

Want me to show you all that "gear" I got in legion, like fk 4 sholders in THE SAME DAY ?!?!!? 4 legs in the same day ?

I mean, wtf, I rather not get any then see that I got something and after checking it out: "WOW, my 4th shoulder today, at least give me an achievement like "get 5 item drops for the same slot, in 24h"

4 hours every night is a lot. That's 28 hours a week. I work 60 hours a week, brother. If I play 4 hours a night, every night, I don't get to do anything else. And WoW is nowhere near my only hobby. Maybe I could handle it in the vanilla days when you raided 30 hours a week, but I was in my 20s and slept 4 hours a night and had a throwaway job. I'm 39 now with a big job and other obligations.

See @kaminaris, most people that are actually playing this game since forever, and have been playing the grind-out-their-mind type in the first decade of this game, actually now are having a really different social status, different responsabilities, and 100% I can say that with every year passing in any manhuman's life, time is shorter.
The "hardcore-useless" grinding was at the start of WoW and diminished with every expansion, until Legion-BFA, when Blizzard tryied so hard to "get back to the roots of WoW", thinking that making the game feel as a second job, will restablish WoW's high population. But instead it did the contrary.

But th Ofc we love to have systems in place, that could let us feel we're playing the game we always loved in the last 16 years, while at the same time not being overwhelmed by people that "sleep" in game 24/7. Sure they will always be better then me because of gear, and I will never mind that, but I will not be and feel always behind.

Maybe I'm getting too old for this...or maybe, after 16 years of the same old shit with minimal effort to reinvent or update itself, the veneer on WoW is starting to wear off. I think the hamster wheel is showing through all the paint and glitz, and Blizzard simply can't be bothered to disguise it anymore.

I think it has to do with something between the player's age and the game's age altogheter. I've LOVED Marvel's Hollywood movies, and though Avengers: End Game was a masterpiect, for me, I was still glad it was all over.

Just like I've only seen Season 1 of GoW, and instantly said "man ... this is a WoW+LotR+Rome+Spartacus+ Suramar kind of story, and I can't watch it all over again".

[kaminaris]

I'm sorry to do this, but for every post I see, saying that SL is grindy, I feel the need to put out my exact data on how much time it needs to complete ALL weekly tasks/choores/content.

Thats cool and shit but even in legion you could pretty much ignore everything whenever you needed to. Simply because progress was linear and you could do things at your own pace, or not do anything actually (as long as you had leggos). In BfA there were no retarded rng leggos so you could ignore every "chore" indefinitely.

[Elim Garak]

I'm sorry to do this, but for every post I see, saying that SL is grindy, I feel the need to put out my exact data on how much time it needs to complete ALL weekly tasks/choores/content.

But what have you got from all that?

What is 1000 Anima good for?
What are 5 souls good for? (next week it will be more yay!!!)
What is Renown good for?
What's covenant story good for?
What the fuck is maw good for?
Torghast?

These so-called chores you are so fast at doing - give you absolutely NOTHING. that's where the grind part comes in

So you did all that and what? Log out for the week? Great. Shadowlands is the game for you then.

[yule goat]

Exactly that was the purpuse of these systems having a gate period on them. So even players that play 2-3hours for 3 nights a week, can feel like they are not left behind, finish fast with the weekly stuff and play the gearing system that they WANT, not HAVE TO.

If you play 2-3 hours a night, you'll run out of things to do on your first night.

You do the rescue 5 souls from the Maw and get 1000 Anima and then you're done for the week. And even if you don't get it done, you have a catchup system that allows you to burst through renown if you fall behind.

How does timegating help here? Timegating only ensures that there is something you need to do on a weekly basis. Without timegating, there is no pressure on you. You could do it all as fast as you want to, or you could wait and take a break, come back later and pick up where you left off.

As I said earlier, timegating does not exist to protect the player, it exists to ensure Blizzard can create the illusion, that there is new content coming constantly.