First impression - Shadowlands

[Jericho21]

TL;DR before my post but I did want to post my first hour or so impression.

Definitely immersive into the storyline. Moreso than Legion, which I leaked and spoiled, and even WoD. BFA doesn't even get a mention. Within the first hour of SL I was hooked. The story and so on had me wanting to continue on and doing more than previous expansions. Legion was ok, WoD was boring, BFA was extremely boring. SL has me hooked because the storyline makes sense when you get your character into it. I felt "blah" about Legion and I really liked Legion. WoD was a tired trope. BFA was just a migraine every time I logged in.

I will say, I do not look forward to going through all the starting experience again with alts. Oribos will definitely need a quick skip thru part somewhere. I logged off (at 2AM, I started SL at around 1am) in Bastion. Up to that point, I was really engaged with the expansion and storyline. I did honestly expect slower leveling but I dinged 51 almost literally landing in Oribos. 4 more zones, I can see me hitting 60 pretty quickly.

Things I didn't/don't like:
1) walk around and go to these spots in Oribos. Blizzard, please stop these kind of handholding quests. If you didn't do it for Legion Dalaran, don't do it anywhere else. Fuck's sake.

2) I didn't feel in danger or challenged when I landed in the Maw like a boss. I fully expected the big bad guy to go "Oh shit! Go fuck them up before they ruin my plans guys!" Instead I got "Oh, look. Dude dropped out of the sky into my place. Cool story bro." I fully expected to literally almost die quite a few times in literal Hell. Nope. Never felt concerned once.

3) Someone please smack the I'm-better-than-you attitude shit out of Mograine. Dude rubbed me the wrong way.

4) Bastion (only new zone aside from Maw that I visited) Didn't get the sense of "holy shit, a real mortal is here" like I did in Oribos. Felt cheesy and fake. I'm sure this won't be the only zone I feel this way about.


Story is great and I feel compelled to log in and continue my journey on my rogue. Ya know, the player that's ended Nefarion, Ragnaros (twice), Illidan, Arthas, Deathwing, C'thun, and all the other big bads thrown my way since 2004. I think the Pantheon of Death should be cake, considering what I've handled thus far. Which circles me back to the "oh shit" feeling I should have had when I landed in the Maw. But I didn't. I felt...meh.

I do truly hope the overarching storyline picks up and by that I don't mean pulling an Old God out of their ass storyline kinda picks up. I want answers.

[GUZ]

Lets all go to the Mall!

As someone that has been in every beta since WotLK and already knew the expansions like the back of my hand on on release day, I purposely opted out of the beta for Shadowlands, and I even tried to avoid reading too much about the story and lore. I'm more of a casual player these days so felt no need to rush to level on day one to start grinding for raid gear. So all I had going in was a general idea of things like the Covenants and zones but beyond that I wanted to come in as new player, taking leveling slow, do all the side quests, etc.

So my impressions so far being (what I would guess) is about 1/2 way through Bastion, so still pretty early:

1. Kudo's to Blizzard on what was, by far, the smoothest launch I have ever seen. I logged in around 5:30 EST, other than a bit of lag in the Stormwind auction house, everything ran as smooth as butter, 6:00 rolled around, I got the quest, jumped into Shadowlands. No lag, no disconnects, enough instances that there was no feeling of being overcrowded.

2. Starter quest in the Maw was ok, I suppose. Seemed a bit too much like the WoD intro quest, with the party racing to get away from the bad guys. Also a bit long and tedious because of no mounts allowed, by the end I was thinking, "Ok...enough of this, lets get into the real game now."

3. I like the layout of Oribos, one big circle like my favorite cites Ironforge and Dalaran. Very easy to navigate. A welcome relief after Dazar'alor and Boralus, where after two years I STILL had to ask guards for direction to find some things I didn't use regularly.

4. Story so far is holding my attention. Shadowlands is the first expansion that feel like you are in alien world. Even WoD version of Dreanor felt a bit familiar since it was basically just a undestroyed version of Outland.

5. Leveling quests are about the same as always, kill eight (insert generic trash mob here), gather six widgets etc. I was hoping for a bit more variety, like they would go the Elder Scrolls Online quest chain route. But after 16 years I've pretty much resigned myself to murdering trash mobs and gathering widgets.

The Funny:

1. One of the few times I have ever laughed out loud in WoW was when my Warlock wearing his full suit of corrupted Sha armor from Pandaria, wielding a nasty look skull scythe with an unholy glow, with his Succubus by his side arrives in Bastion and the Kyrian girl runs up and say "Congratulations! Only the most pure, uncorrupt and just souls make it to Bastion". I could just picture my Warlock looking behind him and saying, "Uhh lady....you talking to me???"

2. Maybe it's because I was an 80's kid, but I can't help hearing "The Maw" pronounced as "The Mall" and every time I hear it I picture souls being trapped for all eternity in a large shopping center with generic elevator music playing. So I got a chuckle when I saw one of the designers at Blizz must have had the same idea when I got attacked by a "Maw Rat". (Mall Rat was an 80's term for teens who hung out at the mall all the time).

[Zeons]

To me: The zone in Bastion felt bland, but the characters felt more relatable. I was actually questioning why I was supporting the Bastion people instead of the "villains".
Maldraxus seems to be a really cool looking zone, but everyone is either a skeleton or wearing a mask (besides Draka who's an anti-masker). I was kind of disappointed that I wasn't able to at least see SOMEONE'S face there.

Also, isn't it established that if you die in the Shadowlands you die in real life? Why would you want to go To Maldraxus where you are in constant combat in a gladiator ring? At least in Odyn's afterlife you return to the party to drink and feast after you win/lose in battle.

You don't choose where you go to in the shadowlands.

[Biglog]

Not sure I agree on the Oribos space-feel bashing. It's a new place, it should feel different and ethereal. The world looks great and the music is also very good.

The big test will be to see how players adjust to a much more linear leveling experience. Particularly, does it stand the test of replayability on alts? I feel like Shadowlands will lean more on focusing on mains than having 20 alts at max-level. I've kind of already come to that conclusion, that this is going to be a more focus on 1-2 toons type of expansion. So for people obsessed with leveling many alts as being their preferred way to play, I'll be curious to see how it holds up over the test of time. It feels good now, but even with Threads of Fate that linear approach might get really really dull on the 50-60 adventure after a time or two through it.

[NordWitcher]

I honestly dig the art style. Its very Diablo 3 and dark fantasy like. Its not your typical "WoW" expansion and themes. If anything the game reminds me of games like The Witcher 3 and Diablo 3. A lot of similar art styles and themes. Not sure how you managed to think of sci fi and draenei. In fact am so happy I never have to see a Draenei NPC. It doesn't resemble anything Draenei.

[razorpax]

The zones are all completely unique
Bastion: Elysian Fields
Maldraxxus: like a bloody arena area kinda reminded me OG GoT with the story
Ardenweald: ok ppl will disagree here but...kinda like Farscape and DONT TRUST THE QUEEN
revendreth: we had the Witcher in BfA and here we have castlevania

The campaign story is great

The experience required is fine if you do bastion side missions you don’t have to touch any others

The rares are interesting instead of just spawning

The intro to each covenant while leveling is also pretty decent

I have only done two dungeons and the biggest negative is ppl not reading the damn journal

[Monolithi]

Ok, after first impression, here is second and third:

Since I leveled to 60 and did all dungeons, I must say my second and third impressions are much much better about SLs.

1. As long I passed story based leveling and got to 60, I am much more impressed with dungeons, really nicely done.

2. As long as I can avoid kyrian and night fae WQs, WoW feels like WoW. I just couldnt stand those winged angels and butterfly npc, I just really dislike anime of any kind.

3. Maw - well, only going there for calling, so dont have to be there much, still dislike the place

4. Thorgast - still Diablo style, not much use of it, yes, it is boring, but luckily still need to be there only for 2 runs a week, so bearable

5. Very much like both covenants with both 60s - necrolords and venthyr, both story and atmosphere, graphics, humor.

6. Oribos - still dislike it, luckily dont spend much time there, Boralus still best of cities

Overall, SL is very good expansion, so far.

[Masternap]

6. Oribos - still dislike it, luckily dont spend much time there, Boralus still best of cities

Imagine that half of all players have never experienced Boralus at all. I still feel like I would've liked BFA more if I was Alliance.

I feel like you need to ease off with the "Diablo style" comparison. In the way you're using it it doesn't mean anything.

[Monolithi]

Imagine that half of all players have never experienced Boralus at all. I still feel like I would've liked BFA more if I was Alliance.

I feel like you need to ease off with the "Diablo style" comparison. In the way you're using it it doesn't mean anything.

Yes, BfA gives different feeling playing as horde than alliance, I loved it as Alliance, not so much as Horde. And it is not about rng or corruptions, just about atmosphere.

About Diablo style, I just meant how they shamelessly copy-pasted D3 in Maw and Thorgast. Dont mind if they get their ideas inspired from another game, but when it is copy-pasted, it ruins it for me.