Allied Races - yup lost.

[Koollan]

I never did the dungeon, so I never unlocked the Mechagnomes. And I just checked...I still can't create a Mechagnome. Sooooo...source?

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Meh....WoD levelling is fine as Alliance, I usually stay there...as Horde I find it annoying and rather kill rares in Silverpine Forest on a big daily cycle.

Shadowlands...well...I always did the Maw, because that is a quick level up in every circumstances...and then Threads of fate which is fine by me, especially with the bonus areas and some quick and easy World quests.

Maybe this only works because I am never in a rush to level an alt "NAU" but spread the levelling over sth like "2 levels per day and come back tomorrow"

Without Threads of Fate, SL would be the single worst alt-leveling experience of all time, in my personal opinion. Even just heading to the Shadowlands zones in general gives me a headache these days. It's just so incredibly jarring and always an angering experience every time I go there.

Also, for the Mechagnomes, you need to complete a short questline in Boralus. You don't need to complete the dungeon. Even if you did, you can just do the M0 version of the dungeon and solo it.

[NineSpine]

I mean, I can totally see how the definition of a themepark versus sandbox MMO is at play here, but I definitely agree people are being pedantic and missing the point I'm trying to make.

There's a difference between pre-Legion and post-Legion content in terms of how much of a theme park we're in.

I dunno I guess maybe comparing it to an on-rails experience like an African Safari versus going to Disney World makes more sense?
You're on a guided tour in Africa, but everything you see is real. Like... the stuff was there before people turned it into a Safari tour adventure.

Disney World is fake as shit with everything being cultivated to give you specific feelings even down to them purposefully releasing certain smells in the air. Everything there has a specific purpose.



I dunno if that makes any more sense than what I was saying before lol

The game is designed as a content funnel now, not as a world to explore, complete with mobile-style addiction mechanics.

[Ringthane]

I never did the dungeon, so I never unlocked the Mechagnomes. And I just checked...I still can't create a Mechagnome. Sooooo...source?

I did this less than a week ago on my main - had the achievement but never did the dungeon. I went back out and made sure I had the dungeon quest, then talked to the guy again and he had an option to skip the dungeon. Clicked on that and ten seconds later I could create Mechagnomes.

So that's my real life example.

[loras]

Hello! I am confused about something. I've just as of yesterday, came back after about 2 years gone. I wanted to see where Iam on getting the Allied Races available. It's incredible confusing so I'm trying to track the quests. For Mechagnome, I need to be level 60 to start the chain that recruits them? Why level 60? Isn't that Shadowlands? Mechagnomes are BFA?

I get ya, i recently figured i'd unlock the horde ones as i got the alliance ones when they were current.

Short version:
You need to be 50 to activate the quests that allows unlocking them, but to do those quests you need to complete various relevant storylines first. Some if those questlines require you to be 45, like the suramar ones and i imagine the argus ones too.

[Hctaz]

The game is designed as a content funnel now, not as a world to explore, complete with mobile-style addiction mechanics.

That is a much better and succinct way to put it.

Thanks lol

[Just Passing through]

I did this less than a week ago on my main - had the achievement but never did the dungeon. I went back out and made sure I had the dungeon quest, then talked to the guy again and he had an option to skip the dungeon. Clicked on that and ten seconds later I could create Mechagnomes.

So that's my real life example.

Ah, thanks, I shall try that. I stopped unlocking Mechagnomes during BfA as I never could be arsed to do the dungeon, so the skip dialogue would have been added later on.

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Without Threads of Fate, SL would be the single worst alt-leveling experience of all time, in my personal opinion. Even just heading to the Shadowlands zones in general gives me a headache these days. It's just so incredibly jarring and always an angering experience every time I go there.

I like the zones...but I like them with flying and with Threads of Fate and didn't level alts before that was implemented, so you have a bit of a point. After doing the storyline once, I never wanted to do it again, indeed.

[casecase89]

What kind of moronic idiot thinks that when WoD gave this god damn game the best leveling it ever had????

I guess we can tell you didnt like anything about wod, amirite? I hated wod myself, however, i did enjoy its leveling experience more than many expacs.

[Leyre]

I guess we can tell you didnt like anything about wod, amirite? I hated wod myself, however, i did enjoy its leveling experience more than many expacs.

If you gonna quote me make sure you arent high so you can properly read what i wrote

[Kayb]

Shadowlands was so bad that my wife and I couldn't even hit max level. Or if we did, it wasn't memorable. I haven't even logged on in a long time, so I have no idea if I ever even did hit the level cap to be honest... LOL kinda sad that's the state of leveling in WoW.

I hear that. It took me a little over six months to reach max level because everything about SL was... ugh. The story was so mind numbingly boring and uninspiring, both overall and side stories/local. Nothing in SL gave me any real motivation to want to continue on with it.

While I didn't like the overall story premise of WoD, it was great for levelling. I actually thought Legion was great to level through as well.

[Aurabolt]

The game is designed as a content funnel now, not as a world to explore, complete with mobile-style addiction mechanics.

Because that's what the WoW community told Blizz it wanted. I mean as a whole. More so after WoD. Blizz finally gave in after that.

[NineSpine]

Because that's what the WoW community told Blizz it wanted. I mean as a whole. More so after WoD. Blizz finally gave in after that.

I see why you would frame it like that, but I don't think that's accurate. I think that what actually happened is that leadership took over in the wow design team that was predominantly concerned with super high end content, world first races, and in general that type of approach to the game. That leadership was just completely out of touch and unable to interpret what players in other play style demographics wanted.

Look at Ion during the run up to Shadowlands. The types of things he said the game was getting back to were things that those other demographics wanted, but when you look at how they actually did it, it was a very warped interpretation of those things. It was a mythic raiders idea of what a casual player wants.

[George]

Use this tracker to see what you still need to do to unlock each Allied Race:

https://www.wowhead.com/attunement

[Hctaz]

I see why you would frame it like that, but I don't think that's accurate. I think that what actually happened is that leadership took over in the wow design team that was predominantly concerned with super high end content, world first races, and in general that type of approach to the game. That leadership was just completely out of touch and unable to interpret what players in other play style demographics wanted.

Look at Ion during the run up to Shadowlands. The types of things he said the game was getting back to were things that those other demographics wanted, but when you look at how they actually did it, it was a very warped interpretation of those things. It was a mythic raiders idea of what a casual player wants.

This and very, VERY much this.

I can point out several examples with most of the examples being twisted in some capacity to sound like it was supposed to be a benefit to the casual audience.

Nearly all of the systems added in Legion focused directly on making hard core/mythic raiders interact more with the game.
They said a lot of this stuff was supposed to be beneficial for the casual audience, but stuff like titanforging, artifact power, and random legendary items were all aimed at giving mythic raiders reasons to interface with activities that they wouldn't otherwise do.

World quests give AP and you need AP to raid? Guess I gotta do world quests. Mythic + dungeons give out weekly high tier rewards and are infinitely repeatable for possible titanforged gear? Guess I need to do dungeons now. Items can titanforge even on LFR all the way up to the maximum item level cap? Guess I need to do lower raid difficulties to try to get lucky.


In some roundabout way, it does end up helping the casual audience, but even the casual audience got sick of the grinds. Probably because the suggested idea (which was total BS and always was total BS) of Mythic raiders randomly interfacing with non-mythic raiders and helping carry pugs and things didn't actually end up happening.
It was NEVER going to end up happening. Mythic raiders just stuck to themselves for the most part because it was still better (faster clears- efficient loot distribution) for Mythic raiders to run normal mode as a guild rather than just sending them out to disperse into random pugs.



As for the out of touch part: You can see that clear as day as well.

"The playerbase is complaining that they don't have anything to do in the open world. What do we enjoy about WoW? Getting stronger. Let's make the open world content be about getting stronger by doing menial chores."

Like... more grinding wasn't exactly what people were asking for I don't think.

[AtomR]

The difference here is that WoD leveling is still at least marginally fun. SL never was, and never will be. Horrifying experience all around.

It's just the main storyline that is a bit iffy. Leveling in shadowlands is actually very fun and well done. Of course i'm a bit done with it for now but I don't think i'll have a problem leveling in shadowlands again. I wouldn't say the same thing about WoD but ymmv.

[Koollan]

It's just the main storyline that is a bit iffy. Leveling in shadowlands is actually very fun and well done. Of course i'm a bit done with it for now but I don't think i'll have a problem leveling in shadowlands again. I wouldn't say the same thing about WoD but ymmv.

I'm sour about Shadowlands because we more or less got 4 different theme park rides as main zones.
1. Count Dracula's Castle (but it's the whole zone guys!)
2. Zombieland (people fight here)
3. Heaven but Bad
4. The Emerald Dream, but now in Blue

Not to mention that they trivialized and basically threw out 80-90 percent of death/magic lore. Sure, you can press the buttons and the thing dies and your XP bar goes up, but... beyond that, it's unbearable. In my honest opinion. If I can help it, I'm never going back to that expansion's zones, not even once - even if there's time limited events there with rewards that you would permanently miss out on. It upset me that badly. I kid you not, the expansion makes me feel medical symptoms from the stress it induces.

The only acceptable zone is Zereth Mortis. But that's not a leveling zone. So.

[Aurabolt]

I see why you would frame it like that, but I don't think that's accurate. I think that what actually happened is that leadership took over in the wow design team that was predominantly concerned with super high end content, world first races, and in general that type of approach to the game. That leadership was just completely out of touch and unable to interpret what players in other play style demographics wanted.

Look at Ion during the run up to Shadowlands. The types of things he said the game was getting back to were things that those other demographics wanted, but when you look at how they actually did it, it was a very warped interpretation of those things. It was a mythic raiders idea of what a casual player wants.

It's much deeper than that and it's why I said what I said.

To take it a step further, it was after WoD Blizz finally accepted the fact most, regardless of playstyle will only sub for new content, consume said content and then unsub until the next content drops, repeat, etc. Lots of folks have or are coming back now to play DF for example obviously (I myself am taking some time off WoW to focus on other things). My point is Blizzard has accepted the fact people will drop in and out regularly and they are making adjustments in content accordingly.

The Dev team is as aware as the rest of us most WoW players aren't in college or high school anymore. We've gotten older, many of us have found careers, gotten married, had kids, etc. Most of us can no longer commit 60+ hours a week to WoW like we could 15+ years ago. Meanwhile, the WoW Community as a whole stubbornly refuses to change with the times. I don't get paid to play WoW and it's why I quit being a progressive raider mid-Cata. When WoW started feeling like a full time job, I had to reassess my priorities more or less.

[Pakheth]

What kind of moronic idiot thinks that when WoD gave this god damn game the best leveling it ever had????

Speak for yourself. I hated the linearity that was only rivaled by Cata and now Shadowlands. In the end I just skipped through it all with XP potions and XP events. Hated the scripted bullshit that leveling was.

To iterate: WoD had leveling which forced you through specific necessary quests to unlock hubs. This meant that if a place was crowded and buggy you could not advance the quests and therefore not unlock the hubs. WoD launch made Frostfire unplayable by creating a huge bottleneck at the Garrison. Players tried to circumvent this by leaving the area but quickly discovered there were few to no quests out in the zone because the hubs were all phased out. You would only find an empty patch of land/a wall of brambles/stone/etc instead. So you couldn't do quests, couldn't continue quest chains, and in the very beginning if you tried to leave the zone by swimming over to Nagrand you got teleported back because Blizzard wanted everyone to see the storyquests first before moving on, which was impossible due to the Garrison bottleneck.

So yeah, I hate the WoD leveling experience. It left a permanent sour taste in my mouth.

[Gurahk]

I'm not surprised to hear SL is the new WoD: A Leveling Experience no one wants to do more than once if they don't have to.

WoD easily has one of the best levelling zones in the game.

[Aurabolt]

WoD easily has one of the best levelling zones in the game.

Oh I agree personally. It's one of my favorite expansions for leveling. The problem is the vocal minority. Like Cataclysm, Blizz used WoD to revamp existing content. In this case, it was all playable races getting updated models. That took a massive amount of time and reasources, forcing Blizz to cut an entire zone they anounced in advance from the finished product.

[sam86]

What kind of moronic idiot thinks that when WoD gave this god damn game the best leveling it ever had????

it's REALLY subjective here
for me i love wrath quests even after all this time
if u talk about all bonus/treasure exp it was nerfed massively so unless u unlocked flying for WoD lvling in other zones (solo) is still better
Assume u have fly for all zones in wow BFA would be better choice because WoD seems to give even less exp due to overnerf as usual