Some Honest Thoughts About the State of Shadowlands

[Zorachus]

I totally agree with Zack in this video;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA_hdKHqoCs

Been playing since launch, and Shadowlands is just so disappointing and boring. These insane "systems" are just ridiculous already, they were sort of cool and fresh in Legion, and not as much in BfA, and now just aggravating to have in the game. I'd much rather have the MoP style of WoW back.

In my opinion though, the best recent expansion was easily Legion, man I loved Legion, so much fun, so fresh at the time, especially after WoD. I played Legion pretty much 6 or 7 nights a week a couple hours each time, for almost 2 years straight, loved everything about that expansion. But for some reason Shadowlands feels like a generic hollowed out empty version, boring, and tedious, and lacking all fun.

[Caerrona]

If you find "get soul ash for a hour a week" and "passively earn reknown by playing the game" too much I feel it is a you problem and should take a break.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I'd much rather have the MoP style of WoW back

The fans have been demanding a return to MoP style WoW for 7 years now. Ion doesn't give a crap and is going to go down with the ship.

If you want MoP-style WoW you should jump ship to FFXIV. At least there the devs actually listen to their customers.

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

Seriously, Asmon doesn't need to extra advertisement.

[Palapop]

MOP = the golden age of WOW (even with a bit "over the top" amount of dailies in launch patch).

Class design = better than 95% classes post-wod.
Class balance = 1000000000000x better than anything right now.
CMs = 10000000x better than M+ (since it was SKILL that matter there.... the only thing people could "tweak" is amount of gems. everything else was disabled = only your skills matter, not your gear)
PVP = it would be stupid to even compare this.

MOP alts = you ding > you farm your gear and you ENJOY THE CONTENT.

Legion, BFA, SL alts = you ding > you farm your:
RNG "legendary" item
RNG "relics" for weps (which were failed attempt to mimic FLAWLESS MOP glyphs)
RNG "azerite" gear (which were failed attempt to mimic FLAWLESS MOP glyphs)
RNG "essence" abilities (which were failed attempt to mimic FLAWLESS MOP glyphs)
RNG "corruption" gear
RNG "conduits" (which were failed attempt to mimic FLAWLESS MOP glyphs)
Soul ash for your "legendary" (lol) item (which were failed attempt to mimic FLAWLESS MOP glyphs + TIER SETS)
Renown (In order to be able to "equip" failed conduits)

AND THEN.... you are left to farm your gear and do WORST THING EVER IMPLEMENTED IN WOW- WEEKLY CHEST SLOT MACHINE! (instead of what we had back in MOP (jp/vp vendors))
RNG

[BigToast]

So many people calling MOP the "golden age." LOL! Remember the Kung Fu Panda freak outs. Lots of people quit. So many opinions, so little time to care about them. If you enjoy the game, play it, if not, stop or take a break.

[Rendark]

I like Shadowlands, i think its ok. Not great but not bad.

[Dracullus]

Asmon *bitch*
games moves in his direction with cuting titanforging (and any form of forging), giving possibility to get BiS, cuting infinite grind, etc.
Asmon *bitch harder*
his audience *Asmon is so smart he should be game director*

Yeah sure, Blizzard should listen to him more. What next of his genius ideas? Maybe remove LFR?

Seriously, stop listening to these clowns that care only about their playstyle. If he entertain you, good for you, but that should be the limit.

[Palapop]

So many people calling MOP the "golden age." LOL! Remember the Kung Fu Panda freak outs. Lots of people quit. So many opinions, so little time to care about them. If you enjoy the game, play it, if not, stop or take a break.

Because it was.

MOP gained TONS of subs. They started "bleeding" only after 6+ months of SOO (which lasted a lot longer, sadly)

But speaking about QUALITY of gameplay- MOP was ABSOLUTE BEST!

I my self was never ever fan of pandaren race. So, I didn't play them. Simple as that.
But all other chars I played- I enjoyed them every single moment. Both pvp and pve.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

So many people calling MOP the "golden age." LOL! Remember the Kung Fu Panda freak outs. Lots of people quit. So many opinions, so little time to care about them. If you enjoy the game, play it, if not, stop or take a break.

I think it's rather telling that MoP was the last time WoW held a consistent playerbase. When WoD happened, WoW's gameplay became so bad that people started only resubbing for the launch of a new expansion, and then unsubbing a couple months later. Hence why starting with WoD, sub numbers become inconsistent as subs spike during launch and then enter a freefall period a couple months later.

- - - Updated - - -

Also, remember that the freefall in sub numbers during the first few months of WoD was so bad that Blizzard stopped reporting sub numbers altogether (not that it stopped people from using databases to calculate how many people still actively played the game).

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Because it was.

MOP gained TONS of subs. They started "bleeding" only after 6+ months of SOO (which lasted a lot longer, sadly)

But speaking about QUALITY of gameplay- MOP was ABSOLUTE BEST!

I my self was never ever fan of pandaren race. So, I didn't play them. Simple as that.
But all other chars I played- I enjoyed them every single moment. Both pvp and pve.

I like mop more then the next dude but it didn’t really gain a ton of subs and pretty much bled for most of its life span.

[enigma77]

Ok boomer

/10boomers

[Lorgar Aurelian]

I think it's rather telling that MoP was the last time WoW held a consistent playerbase. When WoD happened, WoW's gameplay became so bad that people started only resubbing for the launch of a new expansion, and then unsubbing a couple months later. Hence why starting with WoD, sub numbers become inconsistent as subs spike during launch and then enter a freefall period a couple months later.

- - - Updated - - -

Also, remember that the freefall in sub numbers during the first few months of WoD was so bad that Blizzard stopped reporting sub numbers altogether (not that it stopped people from using databases to calculate how many people still actively played the game).

Mop was the first expan of spike then fall even if it wasn’t as steep as following expans it didn’t have a consistent playerbase.

[FelPlague]

I totally agree with Zack in this video;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA_hdKHqoCs

Been playing since launch, and Shadowlands is just so disappointing and boring. These insane "systems" are just ridiculous already, they were sort of cool and fresh in Legion, and not as much in BfA, and now just aggravating to have in the game. I'd much rather have the MoP style of WoW back

1. this is not a blog
2. have your own opinion and dont just link to someone elses opinion, it leads to like zero discussion...

[TheFirstOnes]

I like mop more then the next dude but it didn’t really gain a ton of subs and pretty much bled for most of its life span.

That doesn't mean it was a bad expansion.

[Soon-TM]

MoP is the only xpac I haven't played while it was current, which I regret in hindsight. But I have played a fair bit of MoP in *censored* servers, and it definitely blows everything that came later out of the water, except maybe Legion. Better classes, better zones, better PvP, better story, you name it.

[darklogrus]

Its nothing I haven't said countless times on these forums.

[TheFirstOnes]

Okay, so, adding to the discussion here, since some people here think that's impossible: I understand where Zack's coming from. And I agree with him. Overall, I think from the shitty things Ion talked about regarding 9.1 and the Conduit Energy to Torghast, to even the fact that 9.1's taking forever to release, it ruins the game for a lot of people. Doesn't help Class balance is fucked atm (Seriously, Paladins are insane...not that I'm complaining however lol), PVE gearing is worthless, and the shit Blizzard's addressing are: A. Things none of us complained about to begin with. And B. Arguably makes shit worse a lot of the time.

Granted, 9.1 has had some great changes, such as conduit energy staying when you switch covenants, etc. But Torghast, and other major things feel more of the same, and it's not at all rewarding. I do hope we get to see more going on. AND...I hope Korthia's shit gets fully added in so I could learn more of these "progenitors" of the Cosmos.

On the bright side, Art/Music are CARRYING it this Expac.

- - - Updated - - -

MoP is the only xpac I haven't played while it was current, which I regret in hindsight. But I have played a fair bit of MoP in *censored* servers, and it definitely blows everything that came later out of the water, except maybe Legion. Better classes, better zones, better PvP, better story, you name it.

Zones in MoP and Zones in SL are both equal imo. I don't really hate any zone there except for the Isle of Giants from MoP, and the Maw (Excluding Korthia) for SL.

[Cosmic Janitor]

That doesn't mean it was a bad expansion.

Which he didn't claim. But the argument presented was that MoP was the last time before the playerbase changed to the "sub at launch and at the end" model, which is demonstrably false, as can be seen in MoPs numbers. The only difference is that the base numbers were still higher back then, so it's just a bump, but the player trends were already there.

If we go by the graph then only the middle part (IoT) was actually decent, otherwise it just continued the downwards trend of cataclysm.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Zones in MoP and Zones in SL are both equal imo.

Really? I think that there is nothing in the game on the same level as the MoP zones, especially Jade Forest/Vot4W/Kun-Lai.

The Jade Forest made Pandaria feel populated. In most video games (including WoW), it feels like there are only a few dozen people living in the main towns, and maybe there is a tiny village of half a dozen or less people living in four or five buildings out in the wilderness, and that's it. That's the extent of civilization. It strains belief, and what you see (very few people) is at odds with what the story is trying to tell you (you are fighting in a war consisting of hundreds of thousands of soldiers defending cities of millions of people!). Pandaria was vast improvement, as throughout The Jade Forest, there were people and their homes EVERYWHERE! There are over 1,000 (yes, ONE THOUSAND) NPCs located in the Jade Forest. Even if you subtract 200 hostile mobs, that's still over 800 NPCs you're constantly seeing and houses everywhere. There are plenty of settlements in the Jade Forest that don't exist to be quest hubs, or even have quests in them, but simply exist! The hidden village on the cliff, the houses on the hills, and so on. It made Pandaria feel like a real country. Furthermore, Pandaria was dotted by many Mogu ruins, ancient shrines, scrolls about Emperor Shaohao, artiracts, etc, further fleshing out the feeling that Pandaria is a storied place. The only zone that comes close to that level of immersion was Suramar.