Anyone else disappointed with how irrelevant our trip to the Shadowlands has been?

[Claymore]

I honestly had super high hopes for this expansion. From inevitably seeing Arthas again (hah!), to learning the source of Necromancy, getting to see some MAJOR Lore heavy-hitters (like Lothar or Doomhammer), and just finally getting a chance to see what the "afterlife" was all about in Warcraft.

Now don't get me wrong; I think the zones themselves -- Maw and Korthia notwithstanding -- have been absolutely beautiful.

But I also think, in an effort to try to "be smarter than we are", they tried introducing all these elements like the Brokers, and other clearly-living races and beings, hand-waving things away as "oh don't worry about all that, YOUR perspective is just too simple-minded to understand that even in the afterlife, there are all these other beings and whatnot".

And for me, it just doesn't work.

These zones are all very cool, but they literally feel more like "new elemental planes" than anything even remotely resembling an "afterlife". And the story and Lore have almost nothing to show for all our time here.

Like... are you seriously gonna sit there and tell me, NOBODY'S views on the afterlife -- or even life itself -- have changed since setting foot in the Shadowlands? Well of course not, because Blizzard just hand-waves THAT away, too, saying "oh, everybody gets their own afterlife of their dreams, at least until recently". Which is incongruent with their own story being told. Are we to believe that Draka was deemed more worthy a warrior than the likes of Lothar or Doomhammer?

Also, DA FUQ happens when I "kill" something in the Shadowlands? Since we and our allies are still living, does that mean we essentially all have "an extra life"?

Too much hand-waving things away, too much "don't think about it too much". And what's crazy to me, is that nobody even seems all that interested in the Shadowlands themselves, or what it might mean to them. I know getting Blizzard to create Class-based quests is like pulling fucking teeth, but how interesting would it be, to have EACH of the Class Halls asking questions, or having us further investigate, certain aspects of the afterlife?

For example, perhaps a Shaman losing a bit of patience, and hoping to actually meet their ancestors, rather than simply "believe they're watching over them". Maybe a Paladin whose faith is shattered when they here the afterlife is nothing like what was taught to them. Or a Mage who begins speculating that "immortality" may not be so infeasible after all, potentially leading them down a dark path.

And I still think Death Knights should've been particularly tied to this expansion, and actually learn where the flying fuck Necromancy actually originates from, how it works, who designed it and for what purpose, and perhaps give a greater purpose to the Ebon Blade now than just "make sure the Lich King doesn't return".

Like I said, not just trashing the expansion or anything, but it feels like a massively wasted opportunity.

[Varodoc]

No.

I already knew from the moment it was announced that Shadowlands was going to be filler like WOD, by virtue of taking place in an alternate dimension.

The only way I see this expansion having a semblance of worthiness is if the Janitor truly rewinds Reality or something with his dying action. Not too differently from how WoD was basically filler except for that last encounter that served to set-up Legion, with AU Gul'dan being sent to MU Azeroth.

[Kralljin]

The pessimist approach is frankly the one that protects you from disappointment.

Don't get fooled by cheap talk on the presentations where they just show fancy artwork, this whole trying to hype an expansion in terms of theme, only to fall flat on its face is nothing new.

The fact that Blizzard doubled on the extreme and chose nothing short of the Afterlife of reality itself made it just worse.
Blizzard has been putting on shoes that are too big for them, rather than buying smaller shoes or getting some shoe sole to fill them out, they just bought even bigger shoes.

[Maljinwo]

Exploring the Afterlife was a bad idea. There's no mystery. Hell, even grannies can visit Oribos like nothing

[Byleth]

I mean, you said it yourself - The zones were cool. At the end of the day, any area they dream up is going to just be new zones.

Lore went out the window years ago, it's better just to let it go, and enjoy the game for what it is now.

[Progenitor Aquarius]

Of course there is nothing to see in Shadowlands, since evething was nearly wiped out by the Jailer. Still, we keep chasing him for ages, honestly I'm glad the new raid will be up so we can finally kill him.

[oldgeezer]

Yes. As I've said before (so I'll keep it brief for now), the afterlife as revealed in SL in completely underwhelming.

It basically looks (and works) like Azeroth. Nowhere near alien enough and the philosophical ramifications of the unveiling of the afterlife for our characters, and for the rest of Azeroth's population, have not been explored in the slightest. (Other than Thrall saying 'wow' on entering Oribos).

[ChairmanKaga]

It's going to be like WoD in it's own closed off pocket that leaves some potential future breadcrumbs and one main story bridge into the next expac.

[Armael]

Oh great, another thread for everyone who hates the current state of WoW can gather together and hate on it together.

No expansion of WoW's has been perfect or even near it, this expansion included. But SL is fine and I actually enjoy it a lot. Gosh you guys are always so pessimistic and whiny.

[Feanoro]

Time travel and exploring the afterlife can only be done well by excellent writers. We all knew ahead of time SL was going to flop hard.

[Vakna]

Not sure that saving the entire universe is considered an irrelevant trip.

You can have opinions on whether the story/expansion is good or bad, but not whether it was irrelevant or not, because it objectively wasn't.

[loras]

I honestly had super high hopes for this expansion. From inevitably seeing Arthas again (hah!), to learning the source of Necromancy, getting to see some MAJOR Lore heavy-hitters (like Lothar or Doomhammer), and just finally getting a chance to see what the "afterlife" was all about in Warcraft.

Now don't get me wrong; I think the zones themselves -- Maw and Korthia notwithstanding -- have been absolutely beautiful.

But I also think, in an effort to try to "be smarter than we are", they tried introducing all these elements like the Brokers, and other clearly-living races and beings, hand-waving things away as "oh don't worry about all that, YOUR perspective is just too simple-minded to understand that even in the afterlife, there are all these other beings and whatnot".

And for me, it just doesn't work.

These zones are all very cool, but they literally feel more like "new elemental planes" than anything even remotely resembling an "afterlife". And the story and Lore have almost nothing to show for all our time here.

Like... are you seriously gonna sit there and tell me, NOBODY'S views on the afterlife -- or even life itself -- have changed since setting foot in the Shadowlands? Well of course not, because Blizzard just hand-waves THAT away, too, saying "oh, everybody gets their own afterlife of their dreams, at least until recently". Which is incongruent with their own story being told. Are we to believe that Draka was deemed more worthy a warrior than the likes of Lothar or Doomhammer?

Also, DA FUQ happens when I "kill" something in the Shadowlands? Since we and our allies are still living, does that mean we essentially all have "an extra life"?

Too much hand-waving things away, too much "don't think about it too much". And what's crazy to me, is that nobody even seems all that interested in the Shadowlands themselves, or what it might mean to them. I know getting Blizzard to create Class-based quests is like pulling fucking teeth, but how interesting would it be, to have EACH of the Class Halls asking questions, or having us further investigate, certain aspects of the afterlife?

For example, perhaps a Shaman losing a bit of patience, and hoping to actually meet their ancestors, rather than simply "believe they're watching over them". Maybe a Paladin whose faith is shattered when they here the afterlife is nothing like what was taught to them. Or a Mage who begins speculating that "immortality" may not be so infeasible after all, potentially leading them down a dark path.

And I still think Death Knights should've been particularly tied to this expansion, and actually learn where the flying fuck Necromancy actually originates from, how it works, who designed it and for what purpose, and perhaps give a greater purpose to the Ebon Blade now than just "make sure the Lich King doesn't return".

Like I said, not just trashing the expansion or anything, but it feels like a massively wasted opportunity.

I had a lot of fears about this expansion, and pretty much all of them came true.
So no, no disappointment.

Honestly they should have taken more than the tiny margin they gave themselves with their absolute answers, also the music and art have been disappoijting so far.

At least some of the smaller stories are somwhat decent, but the larger pic is just a garbage fire.

[McNeil]

Their biggest lore character Arthas is supposed to be in the Maw yet we haven't seen anything of him (might change in 9.2 but not expecting much). The death knights haven't gotten their time to shine in an expansion that is based around how they get to stick around, the Knights of the Ebon Blade are just there being a wet blanket. Bolvar hasn't really done shit other than getting his ass beat several times. Baine continues to be useless. Thrall and Jaina are continuously the lore characters that go into raids and encounter the final boss, and that while Thrall is supposed to have retired and Jaina has the entire kingdom of Kul'Tiras to lead considering she got crowned as grand admiral in like a month ago.

And I haven't even talked about the Shadowlands itself, but OP has covered it up for most part. Overall this expansion is just a huge dissapointment and its better left forgotten. I never expected to see an expansion that is even more filler than WoD.

[gd8]

It's a really dumb expansion with a very very very limited theme, there's an endless amount of things they could have done with the material yet the end product feels extremely restricted and bland. It's the same thing over and over. New patch doesn't look any better either, same exact shit we've already seen.

[Weeps]

WoW should’ve remained a feudalism-based fantasy instead of an exercise in philosophy (life, death, etc).

Even the defias in Westfall had better lore than all of Shadowlands.

Go smaller, Blizzard. Stop with the theoretical planes of existence.

[Claymore]

WoW should’ve remained a feudalism-based fantasy instead of an exercise in philosophy (life, death, etc).

Even the defias in Westfall had better lore than all of Shadowlands.

Go smaller, Blizzard. Stop with the theoretical planes of existence.

I definitely remember the Defias quite fondly. I would love to see more "low-scale" threats like that, or perhaps competing Orc clans, to even the remnants of things like the Cult of the Damned, or the savage "mongrel" races like Centaur or Kobolds. Blizzard stuff has always had a BIT of that "Superhero" vibe to its heroes, but I feel like we could use a real big power-reset. The player factions should represent just small groups of friendlies, in a world of mostly hostile threats, imo.

[Soon-TM]

Oh great, another thread for everyone who hates the current state of WoW can gather together and hate on it together.

No expansion of WoW's has been perfect or even near it, this expansion included. But SL is fine and I actually enjoy it a lot. Gosh you guys are always so pessimistic and whiny.

I'm glad that you are enjoying SL, but that in no way disproves the points raised by the OP. Quite the opposite in fact, since you went full ad hominem instead of actually making a proper counterargument.

For example, perhaps a Shaman losing a bit of patience, and hoping to actually meet their ancestors, rather than simply "believe they're watching over them". Maybe a Paladin whose faith is shattered when they here the afterlife is nothing like what was taught to them. Or a Mage who begins speculating that "immortality" may not be so infeasible after all, potentially leading them down a dark path.

And I still think Death Knights should've been particularly tied to this expansion, and actually learn where the flying fuck Necromancy actually originates from, how it works, who designed it and for what purpose, and perhaps give a greater purpose to the Ebon Blade now than just "make sure the Lich King doesn't return".

This part is especially important for me. Had they bothered to include class-specific quest series (even without those fancy artifacts and class halls from Legion), the results would have been much more RPG-y than their Meaningful Choice™ meme.

The absence of a Shamanic afterlife, the lack of insight for the other "religious" classes (priests and paladins, arguably monks as well), and especially the complete disregard for DKs in what should have been their spotlight time makes for a quite unsatisfactory (to say the least) experience when it comes to the very theme of the expansion.

[Armael]

I'm glad that you are enjoying SL, but that in no way disproves the points raised by the OP. Quite the opposite in fact, since you went full ad hominem instead of actually making a proper counterargument.

I actually did, in stating SL isn't perfect, and the same for all previous expansions (or close to it). Nitpicking things that are trivial IMO. Also, you can't say with a straight face that there aren't many people who post here, just to whine and complain about the state of WoW/SL all the time. Like it gets old, we get it you don't like it.

[Soon-TM]

Nitpicking things that are trivial.

None of the points raised in the OP is "trivial", looks like you don't have arguments or didn't actually understand the OP.

Like it gets old, we get it you don't like it.

Whether it gets old or not for you is completely irrelevant to the subject at hand.

[Armael]

None of the points raised in the OP is "trivial", looks like you don't have arguments or didn't actually understand the OP.

It's my opinion that they are trivial. Who are you to tell me that it isn't trivial to me?