Why does SL feel like end of expansion time?

[NordWitcher]

Because there's little to no content coming. A new raid, and a new dungeon. Not even worth mentioning the new subzone coming to an already defunct zone that nobody does.

It'd be best for Blizz to just pull a WoD and wrap things up, and throw all their weight onto working on 10.0.

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I consider it one of WoW's low points. I was hyped to get in there, and walked out feeling the same way I felt while walking out of Batman vs Superman. That has got to be the worst expansion intro we've ever seen.

I wouldn't be surprised if the next patch is the last patch just like WOD. I think they've focus all their efforts on 10.0 with another Legion themed expansion or a Dragon themed expansion. Have not had Dragons since Cataclysm.

[Toppy]

It's always slower 4 months into a new content update. Always.

This one is especially unique in that the next patch isn't even on the PTR yet and we only know key details, nothing else.

People are out of things to do and it's still up in the air when more is coming. At least 3 months.

People have moved on to other things. There's a ton of other things to do in gaming these days.

Actually 4 months into an expansion we typically have a .1 patch.

By typically, I mean for every expansion thus far except WotLK.

[Zyky]

Shadowlands is brand new still, early on in the expansion. But for some reason 4 months into the expansion it feels more like the time between expansions, that purgatory time where the expansion is 18 months old, no more patches and still months away from a new expansion.

Because the game doesn't feel rewarding to play and everything feel like a chore. Anima is nonexistent so you can't get any of the cosmetics or upgrade your sanctum. Raid Gear is still too sparse. M+ gear is still nonexistent and the addition of Valor is more of a slap in the face than anything else. The game doesn't feel rewarding, so it's pushing players away because there's no feeling of accomplishment when you invest hours and hours into the game for no real reward.

Long story short, the game is boring and it doesn't have any feeling of accomplishment anymore.

[arr0gance]

Because the game doesn't feel rewarding to play and everything feel like a chore. Anima is nonexistent so you can't get any of the cosmetics or upgrade your sanctum. Raid Gear is still too sparse. M+ gear is still nonexistent and the addition of Valor is more of a slap in the face than anything else. The game doesn't feel rewarding, so it's pushing players away because there's no feeling of accomplishment when you invest hours and hours into the game for no real reward.

Long story short, the game is boring and it doesn't have any feeling of accomplishment anymore.

Yes, that's exactly what WoW needs: More participation trophies.

[Tiradon]

We had to rebuild our raiding team for this tier, that's why we are only still 3/10M, however besides raiding there's not much to do.. I'm not feeling very interested in playing more alts (already got 2 at 217/210 ilvl) this is the part of the expansion that I start logging in just for raid / dailies / weeklys and enjoy playing some other games...

[Otimus]

And many people complained 4 months for the opening raid tier was too short.

Now we have a 10 boss raid that is MUCH harder than EN and harder than Uldir.

9.1 now would be terrible.

Must be nice to be in a position where the entire game gets thrown under the bus just to please one part of the playerbase.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Its fair to say the patch is coming slow. Because it is. But it is also fair to say that WoW development moved from the office with all the resources and arm length levels of communication to living rooms in peoples houses. Just how it is. It wasn't expected. They weren't prepared. Obvious not to many were. Covid sucks. Probably also why some of the things came out not so polished and the need for changes to be pushed out pretty constantly. It probably is going to be the story of Shadowlands. Even if it was going to be shit or great before or in your opinion at this point it is just going to be a little off. Because it is. Because the world got fucked up. So just relax and deal with it, or you know what, don't and bounce. No shame. When the patch comes out and you want to give it another go its cool too. Because, yes, its going to slower and less polished. Even if you, believe, its been proven, or they have fallen off the wagon a little the last decade.

[Zyky]

Yes, that's exactly what WoW needs: More participation trophies.

It's not participation trophies, I like how you're trying to put words into my mouth. The game felt rewarding for YEARS before they added shit like Warforging, Titanforging, endless grinds. The game is just boring now because they took out that shit, but they didn't make the game feel rewarding or fun. They tune Mythic encounters ridiculously high for the average guild then take far loo long to properly nerf them, it's worse this expansion because loot just doesn't exist and they kept the same tuning philosophy so you can't even brute force it anymore. The game is boring, plain and simple. It's sad when I'd rather spend 10 hours a day in classic grinding honor in AV because that's more fun and rewarding than doing literally anything in retail.

[MrLachyG]

Because the game doesn't feel rewarding to play and everything feel like a chore. Anima is nonexistent so you can't get any of the cosmetics or upgrade your sanctum. Raid Gear is still too sparse. M+ gear is still nonexistent and the addition of Valor is more of a slap in the face than anything else. The game doesn't feel rewarding, so it's pushing players away because there's no feeling of accomplishment when you invest hours and hours into the game for no real reward.

Long story short, the game is boring and it doesn't have any feeling of accomplishment anymore.

Anima is not non existent. You can rack up a few hundred quite quickly if you’re efficient. Sure, upgrading to the higher tiers might take 2-3 resets but you get there all the same. You want something done instantly with no effort go play AFK Arena or something or an equally stupid mobile game

[ro9ue]

Legion was really the last time I played a lot of WoW. WoD, BFA and now SL I've basically popped in at launch to see the new stuff and went back to other games. A lot of the other MMOs released in the 2010 decade that 'failed' and people wrote off (understandably so) have been getting updates recently that make them much better games and I've been playing them more (ESO, Destiny 2 for me).

[Argorwal]

Must be nice to be in a position where the entire game gets thrown under the bus just to please one part of the playerbase.

Well, releasing fast patches leads to massive droughts at the end.

So, you prefer a large drought at the end over a better paced content patch cadence?

[Otimus]

Well, releasing fast patches leads to massive droughts at the end.

So, you prefer a large drought at the end over a better paced content patch cadence?

I'd prefer there to be relatively frequent content updates without a drought. It's feasible, they just can't do it for some reason.

[msdos]

Retail WoW sucks now compared to other games. The only thing WoW does well are raids and this expansion people don't even like the raid.

ESO: better graphics, better QoL, better customization, better store model, non-tab target combat, player housing, better questing.

Fallout 76: better graphics, better customization, better QoL, better consumes, better voice chat, better dailies, transparency and roadmaps, open world and instanced player housing.

Final Fantasy: better graphics, better dungeons, better classes, better professions, player housing, better mounts, better pets, better player customization.

BDO: better graphics, better customization, better combat

GW: more content, better combat, better classes.

WoW Classic: better open world, better PVP, better community, better consumes, better loot tables, better raid loot, better tier sets, better looking gear from a single expansion, better quests, better dungeons, better PVP gear.

Retail WoW: good raids

[NordWitcher]

Legion was really the last time I played a lot of WoW. WoD, BFA and now SL I've basically popped in at launch to see the new stuff and went back to other games. A lot of the other MMOs released in the 2010 decade that 'failed' and people wrote off (understandably so) have been getting updates recently that make them much better games and I've been playing them more (ESO, Destiny 2 for me).

The big problem with ESO was that it launched as a subscription MMO which was a big turn off to a lot of gamers. Not sure how much damage it's done to the game but I doubt subscription MMOs can survive today. WoW manages to pull through cause people have so much invested in the game already from years and years. With the option to pay your subscription with in game gold, I've not paid for an expansion or my sub with real money.

[Zyky]

Anima is not non existent. You can rack up a few hundred quite quickly if you’re efficient. Sure, upgrading to the higher tiers might take 2-3 resets but you get there all the same. You want something done instantly with no effort go play AFK Arena or something or an equally stupid mobile game

Anima is literally nonexistent lol. Coming from somebody who has everything at Rank 3 and Rank 3 in Ember Court. Anima is nonexistent because of how much there is that requires it. If you want the full transmog set, fuck you it's going to take you 8 months to get that kind of anima. You want to get the mounts and battle pets? Fuck you going to take 5 months. That's not wanting something "instantly" that's wanting something to be realistically obtainable, especially when you're talking about 4 different covenants, wanting to get things on alts because it's not possible to get everything on a single toon. There hasn't even been a major patch, there's going to be more rewards for anima moving forward that goes without saying, but I'm guess you don't know how Blizzard functions. Anima is nonexistent, you're just white knighting another garbage system that blizzard put out in their dogshit expansion.

[Stormspark]

You are probably more right than you think. Looking at how long raid tiers and expansions last, we may yet again see an expansion with only two major content patches.

WOD didn't have 2 content patches, it had 1.

[NordWitcher]

Then on the other side there are players like me and my friends, staying subbed longer, gearing alts for the first time in a while, BECAUSE the treadmill is reduced.

No idea how you can sit through alts, but not many can sit through the maw more than a couple of times or even level up through the same Shadowland zones cause the campaign gets really old after the first time. Even leveling up via Threads of Fate feels terrible. I had to chain run dungeons to level up from 50-60. Did that on my Shaman healer. Good thing I enjoyed healing but even that was frustratingly slow. So Shadowlands is far from an alt friendly expansion. What makes it worse is that you have to follow the same path every time unlike BFA where you could literally pick any zone to start of in or even like in Legion. Its so frustrating leveling every alt through the zones. I can push through Bastion and Maldraxxus but then you get to Ardenweald and I hit a roadblock. The worst part about is that I never get far into Revendrenth which is one of the best zones by which time I am level 60.

[arr0gance]

It's not participation trophies, I like how you're trying to put words into my mouth. The game felt rewarding for YEARS before they added shit like Warforging, Titanforging, endless grinds. The game is just boring now because they took out that shit, but they didn't make the game feel rewarding or fun. They tune Mythic encounters ridiculously high for the average guild then take far loo long to properly nerf them, it's worse this expansion because loot just doesn't exist and they kept the same tuning philosophy so you can't even brute force it anymore. The game is boring, plain and simple. It's sad when I'd rather spend 10 hours a day in classic grinding honor in AV because that's more fun and rewarding than doing literally anything in retail.

Yeah, fuck Blizzard for not designing the game around what Zyky, dude on the internet, thinks is best for the game.

I'll give you a gold star for effort (you like those, don't you?), but your argument sucks.

[Argorwal]

I'd prefer there to be relatively frequent content updates without a drought. It's feasible, they just can't do it for some reason.

16 years of precedent of that not happening so I wouldn’t hold your breaths

[Siraeyou]

The big thing is SL doesn't have the AP grind the serve as a carrot on a stick to force people to mindlessly grind content so people don't feel obligated to log on and do said grinds. It's a good thing and a bad thing in the manner that people (theoretically) won't burn out as quickly. A negative side though is it makes the world feel emptier since few people are doing content, because they are forced to in order to avoid falling behind a power curve.