I just want to get ahead of this one before MMOC goes on it usual mongoloid forum raging. The Shadowlands alpha/beta will be upon us shortly and I want to help set some reasonable expectations, because you can already see the parade of ignorance on here. Some think the day 1 alpha build will hold the entirety of Shadowlands and we’ll just be banging out bugs of all systems for the next 9 months. Others think that if they only open with one minor feature to test on day one that’ll indicate Shadowlands has no content, is WoD 3.0, WoW is dead, and the devs are rushing it. Both of those are unrealistic. Here’s what to expect:
Day one: bare bones build. Maybe no different than the build they had to test at Blizzcon. Maybe one zone, not all the quest or cutscenes are in, and tons of bugs. Possibly the new leveling experience/level squish. Some of the new character customizations.
Maybe a month later: more zones open up. New starter zone 1-10 area to test. New abilities and unpruned abilities to test.
A month after that: covenant systems are introduced but not fully implemented. A few normal dungeons are added. All leveling zones open now.
A month after that: more covenant systems added, max level maw zone for testing.
Another month: early Torghast build and interface for legendary crafting. 90% of covenant interaction implemented.
Few more weeks: legendary crafting unlocked, world quest systems, world bosses, professions
Last few months/weeks: pvp balance, rest of dungeons implemented, m+ testing, begin to datamine cutscenes, raid encounter journal added, final character customizations added, heritage armor for a couple of races, balancing changes, bug fixes, pet battles updated.
This is about the pace and complexity that should be expected. So don’t get your hopes to high and be patient. BUT be very critical of the test so they have enough time to fix something if it happens to be shit (like Azerite armor). They’ve stated they will get the main systems to us much sooner so they don’t repeat that horrendous system that was put on beta a day before launch.