I honestly think Shadowlands looks great

[ryanmahaffe]

I have seen a lot more apathy and bitterness towards Shadowlands than any previous expansion, and I am sure it is because of the disaster of BFA. Which is fair. I myself was not very excited at all when it was announced due to the cinematic being disappointing and the features trailer underwhelming, but over time my hype has only increased as they revealed more about what the game would have in store for us through Alpha and the like. For BFA this was the opposite.

I see a lot of complaints about system bloat but...there really aren't many systems, I dont' consider features of covenants like the anima conductor a separate system, it's just a way to access world content through the covenant system/sanctum. The legendary crafting is a "system" I suppose but it is very simple to understand.

I definitely agree Covenants will be an issue for many players, but I will pick the one I like most regardless. However, I do think Blizzard should make it so you can pick one covenant and choose to mix and match all the covenant abilities but with the covenant of your choice having a spell effect (EX: Venthyr teleport will be you falling into a grave and arriving at the target location)

The content itself looks amazing, the player agency looks fantastic to me, and BFA had obnoxious systems but my biggest issue was everything felt like Legion but worse, even the dungeons and content, it felt so low effort in comparison. I think Shadowlands look much more like its own thing with its own take on previous system ideas.

[Kyux]

Totally agree, except I liked the cinematic (different issue, I won't derail the thread with it). I am really looking forward to the expansion and I think the systems are in line with other expansions. Once we begin to play I'm sure it'll make sense. Like in Legion we had the Order Hall system, mission table system, artifact system, artifact knowledge system, legendary system, order hall campaign system. That wasn't overwhelming was it? It was awesome and well tied together. I think these ones will be too. They're all interreleated.

I honestly think the covenant balancing is a non-issue. People are getting hung up on things that will in reality make no noticeable different on their performance. They will, however, have a large impact on player enjoyment.

Can't think of many issues at all tbh. Can't wait!

[Omedon]

Count me in on the wholly positive hype train. Literally the only negative beats in my following of shadowlands is when Blizzard put me out of my misery on hoping for something like nightelf paladins. I didn't like hearing that, but I appreciate being told up front that there will be no new race/class combos in shadowlands... unlike in BFA where our hopes for faction mechanical change were met with a lot of doubletalk and "wait and see" until Blizzcon 2019.

Torghast will continue the trajectory that WQs started in making me re-purpose my many, many tank alts to do something other than trinity content when my friends aren't around. The customizations are expansion worthy and are worth more to me than a new race (but they should not stop with what they're adding at launch, and have said they won't), the barbershop is going to crash the servers with the prepatch haha! The concepts represented by the covenants fit some of my characters' concepts like a glove and I don't give a rat's ass if it means I'm "less optimal" for picking that way! That is literally the way the game WANTS US to pick and that's how I'm picking!

One **TO** five player content at the core of the expansion!

It's system heavy BUT they're frontloading and then not weighing it down. I'm so excited to see what else gets added in subsequent patches if it's not going to be more cumbersome systems!

They broke the "in case of emergency" glass of lich king feels, and I'm totally sold on it! I haven't felt this hyped since legion was introduced!

[Tente]

Dunno, I'm playing it but storywise Blizzard didn't hooked me, for some reasson when I look at it I feel like this is not WoW.
Maybe when I start playing it is great, which I hope it is.

[Caerrona]

Torghast immediately sold the xpac for me. If they can balance it properly to a true rogue like/lite then outside of m+ that is all i will be doing.

Have 2 or 3 roguelikes at 3000 hours+ on steam and was looking for another. Everything else could be complete trash and i would still be running torghast.

[Doffen]

Shadowlands looks great. The more I read about Covenant, the more excited I get. Its a new world as well, and I am tired of Azeroth so it's refreshing. On top of that, finally proper customization.

The worst thing about Shadowlands is that it is still 4-5 months to launch. But that might also be the best thing about it.

[Wuusah]

Honestly, as long as there isn't some cheese potential with any of the skills (looking at Venthyr teleport) being forced into a choice won't be that big of a deal. What sucks is that you can't really test it before you make a choice. You get the ability during leveling but leveling isn't M+ or raids or arena. You're kinda buying a pig in a poke.

But in the end it won't matter that much. It's not like these 2 abilities plus a few soulbind passives will completely change your class. Covenants are like an expansion of your racial abilities. Some already minmax their race to squeeze out the last bit of performance. Others make a tauren paladin just to call him Holycow.

[Tacos87]

I have really high hopes. There are some worries but nothing too big. My biggest probably being Torghast since I'm not sure I'll like that type of content. I really hated horrific visions and I'm a bit worried they will feel too comparable.

I already know I'll dislike some parts about SL and probably even hate some of them but that's fine. It's like that every expansion for everyone. With such a big game with some many features catering to so many different kinds of players it's inevitable that not everything will be to your palate.

I really liked Legion, after MoP it's my favourite expansion in spite of titanforging which is imo, the biggest plague this game has suffered. Legendaries was also shit for the majority of the expansion but still overall it was great and I had a lot of fun.

[dacoolist]

If youve been here since the beginning; you’ll understand that everyone’s ‘fortold the end of wow’ here on the forums. If you were here for wrath beta where everyone basically called the xpac DOA.. yet it’s remembered as the best time in the history of the game.

Welcome, to the forums OP

[faithbane]

I have zero faith in blizzard to be able to manage and balance the over convoluted system they created for Shadowlands. I mean, covenant abilities, class abilities, unpruning, soulbinds, conduits, legendary effects, tower grind, renown grind.. Who actually believes blizz will handle all this?

I am not even gonna get into the story and how they will handle it but what will happen if they add more shadowlands zones for the following patches. Willl they come with their own covenants and even more choices? In the reveal they mentioned that these 4 are only a few of the many afterlife options and we might see more of them in the following patches remember.

[Rorke]

Legion 3 looks like another new Destiny expansion on a two year cycle. Really insane how kids these days forget how nice it used to feel to have an actual new wow expansion again.

[VinceVega]

I think it looks great to.
Everything looks good. Covenants. Zones. Story. Overarching villian. Sets. New abilities. No extrem grind

The ONLY thing i a no fan off is the player power behind story choices. Because no matter what i do i am screwed. I love story an aestethic, but i also love being efficent and optimized. Fuck me right. Either i am weaker than my peers of the same class, weaker in my other specs or have to deal with a zone i don't like. *venthyrcough*

[ryanmahaffe]

Legion 3 looks like another new Destiny expansion on a two year cycle. Really insane how kids these days forget how nice it used to feel to have an actual new wow expansion again.

What exactly makes an "actual new wow expansion" besides your rose tinted nostalgia?

[McNeil]

I expect Shadowlands will be fun for a month or two, but the question remains if it will remain good. I do expect major drops nonetheless but if the expansion is good enough than at least I might have my guild left to play with.

[Amaterasu65]

It looks like rng is not a decisive part of the game, so it can get only better.

You can choose the legendary you want to craft. When I wanted to get the fire bracers in Legion, they were the last drop of fire mage's legendary pool. The penultimate drop was the TW ring. That was a big spit on my face.

You can choose your Covenant, and even though people say that most will choose according to sims, that's a really small amount of players in reality. Most players are casual trash who don't give a single fuck about minmaxing, or playing their class "properly" as in best spec, talents, corruptions etc. Most will choose what they like aesthetically and I can only be envious of that way of thinking.

Immersion through more race customizations is always a plus, doesn't add much to gameplay but still an exciting feature since immersion is kinda important in an MMO.

Torghast looks promising, there are no keys. You can spam the shit out of it, it can be a solo dungeon and still have rewards.

Raids rarely disappoint. The armor sets this time look actually good and they hope to bring class sets in future patches. Dungeons are good but I hope this time they'll add more dungeons per patch, like Legion did. BFA added one dungeon since its launch split in 2 parts for M+.

What I worry about is how my favorite classes are gonna play. If there's gonna be some depth, or if it's gonna be like BFA. That's the most important thing for me. So I'm waiting to see how beta will flesh out the classes and specs.

Overall positive vibes with a pinch of precaution to not get too excited.

[Azerox]

It seems like they took the best out of previous xpac's and re-designed it.
Also Shadowlands feels fresh and new and not something i've known of.
I love this xpac already, hope it lives up to its expectations.

- - - Updated - - -

It seems like they took the best out of previous xpac's and re-designed it.
Also Shadowlands feels fresh and new and not something i've known of.
I love this xpac already, hope it lives up to its expectations.

[Rorke]

What exactly makes an "actual new wow expansion" besides your rose tinted nostalgia?

The major qualifier is new class design which hasn't happened since Legion.

In fact, the talents and class rotations and resource systems have roughly remained the same since Legion. Each expansion before Legion always overhauled classes and even possibly added classes.

Legion will continue to be in the game for at least 6 years. Whether or not Legion 4 happens depends on whether or not Legion 3 meets sales expectations.

[Shakana]

Totally agree. I liked the trailer, just had somethings i didn't enjoy when i thought about it but it's not a big deal. I have been enjoying a lot what i have seen and i have high hopes for it.

[Swarzey]

For the most part, I'm pretty excited for it. RNG being stripped from gearing, being able to target and work towards legendaries in Torghast, I love it and that's the biggest reason why I'm going to give the expansion a chance and a really good chance at that. I'm not a top 1% player, I've got no ambitions to be a top 1% player and I play this game with people who are of the same mindset so the problems and hurdles that are coming with the Covenant systems as they currently are (firmly believe those problems aren't embedded as deep as Azerite and Artifacts were) won't impact me too much and I can adjust to whatever comes of it (inventory stacking conduits, locking to a certain Covenant, soulbind etc).

[Dimsum84]

I think it looks great too. I'll judge an expansion after I'm done with it like good reviewer should xD