Rate Shadowlands (2021 version)

[justandulas]

15 years playing and defending the game.

Been hard core and casual.

This is the one that made me quit. I Will still log in to complete the main story.. but the game is simply not World of Warcraft anymore, not even close.

Same dude, same. I scratched that good WoW itch during classic, and a little bit so far during TBC, but i did actually cancel my sub for the first time since vanilla. I have absolutely z-e-r-o faith in this current WoW team. I know hyperbole being what it is everyone thinks they could do better, but honest to god i COULD make a better WoW than these jokers are. It's not even half ass effort by the devs, it's barely 1/4 effort at this point.

the current d3 inspired WoW isn't for me, it seems built for people who don't like original WoW formula... forgetting that MOST of us did. Subs went up and up during vanilla-TBC... it wasn't until WOTLK that subs utterly flatlined and started falling after... and that's when Blizz changed the formula up, gave us wraith babies, LFD, and ever since then the game has devolved further and further from it's original MMORPG formula... not its just MMO ARPG. D3 wearing WoW's skin like an imposter

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I love how 9.1 reinforces what a good idea it was to quit SL almost immediately. Smugness here.

Four months without an active sub, feels great. If you get a strong gut feeling the game has gone bad, you should stop immediately, not waste time and money on a vain hope it will get better.

That's how it was for me. I knew SL was garbage for months but was having fun in classic and TBC... but all the same, i don't see myself playing retail or classic 6 months from now so i unsubbed and told them why.

It's a shame too, WoW will always be one of my favorite titles ever but i can't stand watching it get mutilated and perverted more and more each expac/patch.

[FelPlague]

I wouldn't need to buy rank 5 shoulders. Period. I would have kept them as they are. Your entire post is wrong because it assumes everyone would be dumping hundreds of thousands gold to immediately buy max rank leggo. Whereas you can simply drop a piece of gear with socket on that slot while doing ex. normal/heroic raid on alts.

Wowhead is correct.

I don't even understand how one can defend this absolute garbage of the system, is this a Stockholm syndrome?

wait so you would have kept your rank 4 legendary? why? why wouldnt you go to rank 5 or 6?
do you really fucking care about 1.5% damage but you at the same time dont care about a 30 ilvl upgrade?
in what fucking world?

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Ok, and what about the people who spend hundreds of thousands of gold, or hundreds of hours grinding, to level up their legendary to rank 4 that will now be unwanted? Wouldn't they have to re-start their grind from rank 1 if they wanted to craft it? (not to mention potentially being a different profession entirely, for those who are changing from a shoulderpad to a ring, for instance)




If they're pathetic and meaningless, why not just allow slotting shards in legendaries and avoid the problem entirely?

proof you do not know how the legendary system works... you dont need to re-start from rank 1... you can literally just craft a rank 5 right away, or even rank 6.

you can craft a legendary at rank 1, or 2, or 3, or 4, or 5, or 6.
you can then upgrade it at any time from rank 1 to 2 to 3 to 4 to 5 to 6.
or at any time from rank 2 to rank 3 or 4 or 5 or 6
or from any time at rank 3 you can upgrade it to rank 4 or 5 or 6

so on so forth.
you dont need to craft a rank 1... then upgrade it to rank 2... to upgrade it to rank 3... to upgrade it to rank 4... to upgrade it to rank 5... to upgrade it to rank 6...

you can literally just craft a rank 6 right out.

[Konteil]

1/10 would not recomend. if i could have gotten the money back on teh digital deluxe edition i purchased i would have. i stay for the classic server at this point. and when the wrath server comes out that will be where my toons stay. i may advance one to pandaria wen it comes out becuase that was inda fun but as it stands not as much.

[ChairmanKaga]

Somewhere between OK and Bad for me. I wouldn't consider any of the expansions Terrible though. WoD would likewise score OK/Bad.

[kaminaris]

wait so you would have kept your rank 4 legendary? why? why wouldnt you go to rank 5 or 6?
do you really fucking care about 1.5% damage but you at the same time dont care about a 30 ilvl upgrade?
in what fucking world?

In every world on almost any alt.

30ilvl is nothing compared to not having legendary at all.

Not to mention it will be pretty expensive at the start of patch.

Also you dont seem to understand the problem, why would I have to even chose between spending 100k and using a new piece with damn socket and not using new piece that just dropped?

This does not make game better, it makes game worse.

[FelPlague]

In every world on almost any alt.

30ilvl is nothing compared to not having legendary at all.

Not to mention it will be pretty expensive at the start of patch.

Also you dont seem to understand the problem, why would I have to even chose between spending 100k and using a new piece with damn socket and not using new piece that just dropped?

This does not make game better, it makes game worse.

holy fuck i cant this is just... too dull.
are you raiding on these alts? cause thats the only way to get the gear...
and again if its between your legendary and the gem, the legendary is by far better.
holy shit dude.

so lets get this together.

you have alts who you care enough about to raid on
but dont care enough about to upgrade your legendaries with
but you do care about enough that you NEED to have your BIS
but not care enough about to simply alter your gear settup
but do care enough about progression that 1.5% damage is a BIG DEAL to you?
Nevermind the fact you aparently play these alts enough to get them mythic BIS, cause thats the only even somewhat comparable gear.
so you care EXTREMLY about 1.5% increased damage, but at the same time do NOT care about 30 ilvl.


this is like screaming and crying about EVERYONE NEEDS TO USE CONSUMABLES, IF YOU ARNT YOU ARE HOLDING EVERYONE BACK, and you drop 8k a wipe on consumeables, but then you look at your gear and you dont have a single peice of gear enchanted, and your comeback is "i dont care about enchants"

[Kolvarg]

proof you do not know how the legendary system works...

You really don't need to adopt that attitude simply because I might disagree with you. I know writing does not convey tone, but you don't need to always assume the worst. I tried to convey that I'm not sure how it's working, since I haven't really kept up with the 9.1 news.

you can literally just craft a rank 6 right out.

Can you, though? I'm not talking about crafting the legendary itself, I'm talking about crafting the base item with professions. In 9.0 you had to craft multiple Rank 1 items in order to learn how to craft Rank 2, and then even more to learn Rank 3, and even more for Rank 4.

So if for example you grinded the shoulders recipe to Rank 4 in 9.0, and now you wanted to change your legendary to boots (by crafting your own base item), you would have to grind the boots recipe to Rank 4 from the start. Or is there some "rank recipe catchup mechanism" coming with the patch?

[FelPlague]

You really don't need to adopt that attitude simply because I might disagree with you. I know writing does not convey tone, but you don't need to always assume the worst. I tried to convey that I'm not sure how it's working, since I haven't really kept up with the 9.1 news.



Can you, though? I'm not talking about crafting the legendary itself, I'm talking about crafting the base item with professions. In 9.0 you had to craft multiple Rank 1 items in order to learn how to craft Rank 2, and then even more to learn Rank 3, and even more for Rank 4.

So if for example you grinded the shoulders recipe to Rank 4 in 9.0, and now you wanted to change your legendary to boots (by crafting your own base item), you would have to grind the boots recipe to Rank 4 from the start. Or is there some "rank recipe catchup mechanism" coming with the patch?

Buy them on AH, or get the materials and get someone to craft it for you.
Oh also there is no new ranks, its just a current recipe with optional reagent of the new crafting materials.
you can even do it with rank 1, so yes, there is a catchup, you can have rank 1 boots unlocked, and craft rank 5 or 6 boots as you wish.

[kaminaris]

holy fuck i cant this is just... too dull.
are you raiding on these alts? cause thats the only way to get the gear...
and again if its between your legendary and the gem, the legendary is by far better.
holy shit dude.

so lets get this together.

Why would i have to chose to begin with?
BECAUSE its a garbage game design. Period.

Yes leggo is better than gem, nobody said otherwise, that is not the point, but then I miss the gem which is suppose to be new feature.
To overcome that I have to hand out 100k of gold to unlock a fucking talent that I had unlocked before.

Because thats what orange craftable gear really is, a talent that costs time and money.

If you don't see a problem here then this is truly a Stockholm syndrome

[FelPlague]

Why would i have to chose to begin with?
BECAUSE its a garbage game design. Period.

Yes leggo is better than gem, nobody said otherwise, that is not the point, but then I miss the gem which is suppose to be new feature.
To overcome that I have to hand out 100k of gold to unlock a fucking talent that I had unlocked before.

Because thats what orange craftable gear really is, a talent that costs time and money.

If you don't see a problem here then this is truly a Stockholm syndrome

you dont miss the gem, there is 5 slots, you only need 3 for the full benefit.
after that the extra 2 slots are just a PATHETICALLY low bonus, like legit, are you really mad over max 1.5% increased damage?

[Okacz]

Good stuff:
1) Simpler itemization, with targetable BiS items, no more TF or corruption bullshit
2) Castle Nathria is actually pretty cool, especially a few bosses - but on HC mode. Mythic gets tedious veeery quickly.
3) Abomination Factory or whatever it's called is funny

Bad stuff:
1) Covenants simply do not work - due to shit balance (in most cases) you are pretty much unable to both pick covenant well and with the theme you wanna go with, unless you care so little about performance that you'd be doing dungeons without weapons equipped.
2) Questing is some of the worst ever - you can compare SL leveling to any other easily thanks to the timewalking leveling. Going into SL content at 50 is the worst.
3) The world is crap - at first I was kind of indifferent towards it, but after several expansions with new, interesting landmasses, disjointed "islands" feel totally disconnected from "Warcraft" feel. Oribos sucks ass too.
4) I absolutely detest Maw.
5) Lore is complete bullshit, and feels like something straight from Final Fantasy games. Legion had a simple swashbuckling story of a group of badasses kicking the ass of a bunch of space demons, ending with a titan stabbing a fucking planet like he's in Asura's Wrath. Going from that to sad, misunderstood souls, OG characters sitting around doing nothing and grand plans of "I HAVE TO KILL EVERYONE BECAUSE I WANT TO SAVE YOU ALL" bullshit is a bit of a step back for me.

Still better than BfA (maybe?), at least no Azerite Armor. I miss Zuldazar tho, Donut City just doesn't work for me.

Edit: fuck it, let's put a number on that. If WoD during Selfie Patch is 1/10, and WotLK during Ulduar is 10/10, SL is kind of 5/10.

[kaminaris]

you dont miss the gem, there is 5 slots, you only need 3 for the full benefit.
after that the extra 2 slots are just a PATHETICALLY low bonus, like legit, are you really mad over max 1.5% increased damage?

Is this a joke dude?

1.5% is equivalent of ~+20 ilvl upgrade in old notation (pre-sl, cba to calc that in new one)

Am I going to be mad that i miss not only massive upgrade in item level AND miss a socket that may be my 3rd "set" (since gear is scarce)?
Or pay 100k upfront to "unlock" that?

Fuck yes I would be.

[FelPlague]

Is this a joke dude?

1.5% is equivalent of ~+20 ilvl upgrade in old notation (pre-sl, cba to calc that in new one)

Am I going to be mad that i miss not only massive upgrade in item level AND miss a socket that may be my 3rd "set" (since gear is scarce)?
Or pay 100k upfront to "unlock" that?

Fuck yes I would be.

what massive upgrade in ilvl would you be missing?

[Kolvarg]

Oh also there is no new ranks, its just a current recipe with optional reagent of the new crafting materials.
you can even do it with rank 1, so yes, there is a catchup, you can have rank 1 boots unlocked, and craft rank 5 or 6 boots as you wish.

But I like crafting the base item, and I invested a lot of gold to learn the rank 4 recipe and would like to be able to continue selling the base items to others. Demand is going to go down quite a bit for those slots.

Isn't it only +2 ranks, so effectively you still need to grind to rank 4 in order to craft rank 6? Or can you use multiple?

Regardless, the problem is not that you *can't* craft it some other way, the problem is that effectively the patch is devaluing progress grinded in 9.0 for no good reason. You're still spending extra mats for *having* to change to a different slot.

It's not even that it's a big deal, it's just that new content and systems are supposed to be interesting and exciting, not make you go "oh well, that sucks but I can work around it I guess". I don't think we should just settle for anything that's not bad, and it's perfectly ok to voice displeasure in design choices that do more wrong than right.

[FelPlague]

But I like crafting the base item, and I invested a lot of gold to learn the rank 4 recipe and would like to be able to continue selling the base items to others. Demand is going to go down quite a bit for those slots.

Isn't it only +2 ranks, so effectively you still need to grind to rank 4 in order to craft rank 6? Or can you use multiple?

Regardless, the problem is not that you *can't* craft it some other way, the problem is that effectively the patch is devaluing progress grinded in 9.0 for no good reason. You're still spending extra mats for *having* to change to a different slot.

It's not even that it's a big deal, it's just that new content and systems are supposed to be interesting and exciting, not make you go "oh well, that sucks but I can work around it I guess". I don't think we should just settle for anything that's not bad, and it's perfectly ok to voice displeasure in design choices that do more wrong than right.

that i am not 100% actually, but demand may go down somewhat, but not "a lot" as many people like pvpers it may be the only slot they want it in because of the shards being 50% weaker in pvp.
every single patch ever has devalued progress in the last patch.

[Kolvarg]

every single patch ever has devalued progress in the last patch.

To varying degrees, sure, but this is an extra step. No crafting system has ever before "asked me" to make dozens of the same expensive item just to unlock further ranks, that I can recall in recent memory, only to potentially be devalued the following patch.

Legendaries and special items have most often been (if not always) a constant progress throughout an expansion, especially when you have long grinds attached to them - from MoP cloaks, to WoD rings, to Legion artifacts and BfA necklace + cloak. Can't quite recall if Legion legendaries were devalued with patches, but I don't think so.

[McNeil]

Right now its just barely a 5/10, but with 9.1 it might move up or down a spot. Not the worst expansion but also far from the best. Sadly a lot of good ideas fell flat like the covenants and Torghast, kinda like how island expeditions and warfronts flopped in BFA. I wish they would just improve upon already existing features rather than keep making half-baked ones that never seem tor each their full potential. Having something like an improved island expedition but taking place in other realms in the Shadowlands could have been a lot of fun.

The story is VERY bad. The Jailor is a nobody, Sylvanas is annoying, all the heroes are as bland as they can be, and worst of all are these unnecesary retcons that just insult what was already established. The content feels small (the content droughts between major patches doesn't help) and unrewarding. There is no actual world, just 5 islands and an airport in the middle of it. I guess the good stuff is as always the art and music, although music has been better in the past. Alts are rather easy to level but they need more catchup mechanics.

[arkanon]

SL is just not very good. Specifically why? No idea, im not invested enough in a video game to sit down and scrutinize every design feature, my playtime, what I like and dont like, and build a bloody spreadsheet to calculate a reason. I just dont like it. I also DONT agree with many of the "reasons" put forward, but once i stopped enjoying it, i simply moved on to something else.

Ill keep an eye on how the expac progresses, and if something takes my fancy i might jump back in. But at this stage, absolutely nothing Blizzard have shown in regards to the future of wow, both immediate and more distant, appeals to me at all. A few new shinies and a bit more content just doesnt interest me when I do not enjoy the gameplay anymore, and I do not enjoy the rewards structure and content structure anymore, AND I dont actually like ANY of the new systems.

Outside of actual content systems such as M+ etc, the last "system feature" I liked was Artifact Weapons.

[Nerovar]

With this expansion I have felt absolutely no desire to buy it. The setting, the features, the content. It's all just meh.

Yeah, same here. Even the BfA announcement trailer got me at least a bit hyped but with Shadowlands I was just thinking "what is this supposed to be?"

Weird.

[Kuntantee]

This is a good expansion, but suffering from a WoD level lack of content. I decided not to resub for 9.1 because amount of content we get isn't justified for monthly subscription. Blizzard need to give up predatory practices towards their customers, drop the greed and try to provide value for the money they ask.