Rate Shadowlands (2021 version)

[neik]

World of Paypig: Rise of the Token, get's about 4/10 just for nostalgia sake.

[crusadernero]

SL started off great. I had alot of fun with several characters and did the covenant campaign. It quickly faded off though. Cant really put my finger on it, but it seems lightweith at max level. Theres stuff to do, but at the same time nothing to do.

But its ok. 9.1 might be good and in the meantime i'll just unsub, save the money and play something else.

- - - Updated - - -

I wish Blizzard had the guts to remove all these useless, boring, tedious systems no one ever asked for and barely no one enjoys (anima, stygia, The Maw, Torghast, conduits, soulbinds, etc). Can you please give us our old talents back and let us enjoy World of Warcraft instead of World of Mycrosystems?

I fully agree on this. For me, its just to much to keep track of. Get this rep, get this currency, do this and that to get X/Y. This currency does that, this currency gives you this.

I much more prefer a cleaner and easier system than this.

[Mightytasty]

I wish Blizzard had the guts to remove all these useless, boring, tedious systems no one ever asked for and barely no one enjoys (anima, stygia, The Maw, Torghast, conduits, soulbinds, etc). Can you please give us our old talents back and let us enjoy World of Warcraft instead of World of Mycrosystems?

The worst is the Renown system. Rescue 20 souls in the maw. Return 1000 Anima. Complete time-gated campaign quest. Wait one week. Repeat x8 times.

Blizz is too lazy to give us story quests starring the soulbind characters, or even some Venari-type reputation to build with them. Let them follow us in the open world! That would have been a perfect way to unlock the soulbind trees and actually become attached to the characters. Instead, my soulbind interaction is “click on this menu once per month”. Great system indeed

[T-34]

I give it 7/10:

The good:

The raid is good, except for SLG
The dungeons are good, better than the BFA dungeons
M+ is good
The vault is good as a backup gear source.
The music is nice
Legendaries aren't RNG drops
No reason for me to do LFR

And the best is that all grinds are optional and cosmetic in nature and as I don't care at all about cosmetics then it is heaven for me

The bad:
Zones seem small and the travel between them is stupid
Pots and flasks are expensive, bring back the Legion cheap pots!
Story is stupid, but that is actually just business as usual for WoW
The new storming-affix.
That tanks have to kite so much
Burst meta
Fire mages
Torghast is meh, but at least it can be done very fast

The worst is Covenants: In order to be optimal I have to be a furry and that pisses me off. Covenants are the worst mix between player power and RP-stuff. Why RP'ers should be "punished" by player power and why competitive people should be "punished" by RP is beyond me.

So to sum it up:
Good competitive group content that I can enjoy with other people
No mandatory grinding
Toxic enforcement of RP on competitive people and toxic enforcement of player power on RP-people

[odamienskii]

What if, and hear me out. What if instead of making the game an arbitrary level of difficulty locked behind player control, the game instead lowered the difficulty curve at the lower levels to bring players in, then gradually increased the difficulty on an infinite scale... you know, like mythic dungeons. What if, instead of an ever decreasing pool of 'good players' the game actually TAUGHT players how to play their game in lower difficulty levels by both widening access, whilst also allowing them a less challenging experience initially that steadily ramped up and increased the pool of potential players available to those at the higher ends of difficulty?

What if the 'solution' you suggest in fact widens the gulf between good and bad players, increasing the gap between the skilled and unskilled playerbase, and thus ends up susceptible to the very issues youre moaning about (your pool is shrinking)? What if, instead of 'balancing' the game, this actually 'unbalances' it, making players less inclined to broach said gulf. What if, instead of short termist, self serving thinking, you looked into why players are reluctant to meet you at your dizzying heights inside your ivory tower?

Rapunzel, Rapunzel! Let down your hair!
No. GTFO scrub!
Oh, guess i'll go do something else then.

"why am i so alone? Maybe if i lock myself in an even taller tower, more people will want to rescue me!"

They set up taughast bang on the money, it could of been a great success if they just made it harder in the lower levels and increased difficulty, it would of given more players something to work towards, but...they bottled it after 2 days and made layer 8 farmable by all players, so why on earth have the other 7 levels, what was the point of them?

I actually enjoyed taughast pre-nerf it was enjoyable, had to think about it, take your time be cautious, happy when get powerful buffs, soon as they nerfed it it wasnt fun anymore, just a boring grind, too easy, stealth past all mobs dont get any buffs other than those at the end of levels and gg, 15minutes of thoughtless grind x2 thats 30minutes of thoughtless grind.... what for? to grind the free 235 legendary to go along with your free 226 weekly vault that you choose the best of 3.

Games a joke for hardcore players which is why all the good players you knew? they are no longer interested in playing the game, they havent been for months. all thats left is the players that need full 226, meta comp, class buffs and content nerfs just to finally complete a 15 in time because they dont know what they are doing, they are just entering a dungeon, standing in everything, dont even know where there interupt button is nevermind how to use a defensive yet still they easily time 15s and call themselves "boosters"

The community currently is horrendous, the worst that its ever been, and the irritating thing is these players think they are good having "pushed" level 17/18/19 keys after all the buffs, all the free gear and all the nerfs.

There is nothing for top level players UNLESS your in a premade of top level players, then your in level 25+ keys and im sure the game is enjoyable and challenging up there. without the premade? you may aswell unsub.

- - - Updated - - -

I wish Blizzard had the guts to remove all these useless, boring, tedious systems no one ever asked for and barely no one enjoys (anima, stygia, The Maw, Torghast, conduits, soulbinds, etc). Can you please give us our old talents back and let us enjoy World of Warcraft instead of World of Mycrosystems?

When i think back to how different the game was, the multi tree talent system, the rotations, the tier sets, spirt, haste breakpoints, stats like armor pen, expertese, hit cap, it really saddens me how the game i once loved is legit completely gone and all thats left now is.... well....no wonder retail is bleeding subs and classic is gaining subs at the rate it is.

[Queen of Hamsters]

The entirety isn't out yet. I voted OK. Depending on future patches, it can go either up or down on the ratings ladder once I start playing again.

[Antero]

Someone should be fired for the "Rescue 20 souls" quest

[ParanoiD84]

Good start but quickly became extremely boring and lore is absolutely terrible.

The expansion i have played the least by far and i have played since bc.

I rate it a 3 so far.

[Gaidax]

It would be MUCH better if we'd have 9.1 drop this month. People are starting to get restless and another 2 months before 9.1 would be pretty hard pill to swallow for many.

[Relapses]

M+ is still interesting for me. Looks like 9.1 might push me back into raiding. Pretty satisfied with the game overall. But since I'm on this forum I have to give it a "good" score: 3/10.

[sil3ntearth]

I gave it 5-6. The leveling rework/squish is the best thing about the shadowlands launch. The content itself is...fine, just isn't exciting or particularly fun.

[Swnem]

My opinion hasn't changed since launch.
It's an average expansion that fixed some core problems by removing horrible systems they added with legion, AP grinding and excessive gear rng.

But, it has introduced new problems. They seem to be fine tuning the loot system still, but it's getting there.
Covenants, forced travel flights with pit stop on Oribos, meh maw, meh Torghast, world quest design... all current problems.

[Soon-TM]

Its even worse, they managed to produce a zone like Maldraxxus, which is most likely the worst zone thatbwas ever created visually wise.

Meh, Maldraxxus is more or less OK. The Maw, on the other hand...

And this new "annex" to the Maw coming in 9.1 looks equally dull and uninspiring. I really hope that the PTR footage I've seen in Youtube isn't the definitive version

[Syegfryed]

better than bfa and legion(by little), but bad overall like those two.

[Houle]

Meh, Maldraxxus is more or less OK. The Maw, on the other hand...

And this new "annex" to the Maw coming in 9.1 looks equally dull and uninspiring. I really hope that the PTR footage I've seen in Youtube isn't the definitive version

its rare that i have to agree with those who say the zones/art is bad, but...yeah, the zones look boring as hell.
its the second time the art team fails for me, with ny'alotha being the first.
if you want an example of how dope they coulve made ny'alotha, look at hakkars boss room in de other side:

pyramids, wrinkled stairs, obelisks, and dark trees growing from the sides or hanging from the sky. thick mist everywhere, making it hard to spot details. its like gravity doesnt exist in that place, the architecture makes no sense and it feels otherworldy and mysterious bc of that.
thats how ny'alotha shouldve looked like.

same with the shadowlands: all of the zones look like they could be random places on azeroth. nothing is "alien" enough about it. outland looks more like a potential afterlife, in terms of abnormally, than any of the SL zones do.

[Kumorii]

7-8 for me.
Less chores, great vault is a vast improvement to weekly chest.
Some gearing issues that needs to be ironed out still. I was done on my main really quickly when it comes to gear and I don't feel a need to constantly log in, I can log in when I want to.

Not sure how I feel about the valor thing, can't really get an upgrade from it at this point so I haven't used it yet.
We'll see when 9.1 is out how I feel about it, but I will probably like it more than people now since people complain they have to refarm gear.
Makes me wonder if Blizzard should have just waited with valor to 9.1 when everyone has to regear anyway due to ilvls. Now I'm sidetracking though.

Enjoying the raid so far, maybe a bit overtuned which caused a lot of guild dramas from what I could see and hear.

Torghast I love the idea of it, It's not perfect by any means and it loses value quite quickly so even if I enjoy it I don't really do it anymore. Mainly because it's a steamroll at this point. I enjoyed it more when it was more difficult, but I understand the need for nerfing due to legendaries. I do wish they implement more harder modes with vanity rewards.... and I mean really hard stuff.

The main complaint for me is the covenant abilities being way to strong. I feel like they should complement the class rather than being the main thing that drives it. How convoke got past testing is beyond me. Or well, rather my guess is that they tested it and mostly did it through group environments, dungeons, pvp, raids etc etc.. where it's balanced if it has more targets. Which results in broken single target scenarios by clever use of positioning.

I also feel like they should do something with grip, give something similar to another class as well. It's such a game changer on many mechanics and I personally don't like it when 1 class have exclusive access to a really strong spell. Being unique with more minor stuff is alright, but having done the raid with both grips and without grips I feel like it's way too strong. Anyway, side tracking again, since this has little to do with this expansion.

Overall, good... kinks here and there which makes it feel worse than it is at times so if they are ironed out I think it can become great.

[Accendor]

Meh, Maldraxxus is more or less OK. The Maw, on the other hand...

And this new "annex" to the Maw coming in 9.1 looks equally dull and uninspiring. I really hope that the PTR footage I've seen in Youtube isn't the definitive version

I am not even counting the Maw, that does not qualify as a zone for me...

[Doffen]

Meh, Maldraxxus is more or less OK. The Maw, on the other hand...

And this new "annex" to the Maw coming in 9.1 looks equally dull and uninspiring. I really hope that the PTR footage I've seen in Youtube isn't the definitive version

I think Maldraxxus looks awesome when the skies is full of souls. It might looks dull and boring when its not up, but when it is, it's truly magnificent to me.

I have never really liked those kind of zones, transmogs etc, I am pretty much on the light side(lol) but Necrolords and Maldraxxus is pretty cool imo.

Should be like this all the time.

Maw on the other hand. Now, thats boring :P

[Nyel]

I am not even counting the Maw, that does not qualify as a zone for me...

It‘s the worst zone Blizzard has ever created. It’s basically the Anti-Suramar. I hope the Maw is a once in a lifetime failure for Blizzard, but knowing Ion‘s incompetence they’ll double down on it and give us something similar in 10.0.

[draugril]

It‘s the worst zone Blizzard has ever created. It’s basically the Anti-Suramar. I hope the Maw is a once in a lifetime failure for Blizzard, but knowing Ion‘s incompetence they’ll double down on it and give us something similar in 10.0.

I mean, they perfectly executed their vision for the zone. Absolutely nailed what they were going for.

Unfortunately, they forgot that this is a video game and is supposed to be fun somewhere along the way.

It's like walking into a classroom and delivering the most insightful speech on the lasting consequences of the Vietnam War... to a kindergarten class. And then being flustered when they don't applaud.