On the night of November 24, Blizzard opened the door to the Dark Lands – expansion World of Warcraft: Shadowlands became available at 2:00 Moscow time. For several hours I studied new content and I want to share with you my observations – is it worth starting to play in the new add-on and what exactly the developers have prepared for users this time.
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There is no need to prepare your character for Shadowlands. Even if you have not played since time immemorial, or have never entered World of Warcraft at all, they will direct you where you need to and show you everything. Blizzard has upgraded the hint system and added nice little things like quest indicators not only on the map, but also during the game. The player’s task is to run towards adventure, looking at the beacon. You can imagine that this is a yellow brick road compressed to a few pixels. By the way, moving in Shadowlands by air transport is prohibited, and there are no more whistles that reduce the time to return to flight controllers. All with feet.
The only thing I did during the patch was cleaned the bank and inventory from outdated ingredients for crafting and other items that are clearly not needed in the Dark Lands. As the people say, you can’t attach a cart to the coffin – and we are going to the kingdom of death. In honor of the unusual journey, I even changed the appearance of the character, delving into the new settings.
Players are divided into three categories: haters of cosmetics and ornaments for heroes, usually creating a character by randomness, ardent fans of incredible sets, ready for years to knock their favorite ax out of the old raid and pick a hairstyle for it, as well as neutral users who created one or two transmog sets and change them to suit your mood or specialization. I am rather an ardent fan: I like all these “heels, makeup and this day is ours” for elves. About Transmog Sets I already wrote, so let’s take a look at the new hair salon first, and then go directly to the new content.
Dark-skinned blonde in World of Warcraft
Out of the extravagant options, I ended up choosing the most boring one – a purple-eyed blonde with fair skin. However, people with non-white skin colors now have a place to roam. By the way, the gender can now really be changed right in the hairdresser, but there are only two of them – Blizzard did not try to the maximum, it works.
Painful dialogues in the Womb and the glorious city of Oribos
Each character starts the Shadowlands campaign at level 50, which is ten levels up to the maximum. The questline for Horde characters is issued right in the center of Orgrimmar. Do not forget to say goodbye to the capital, as you will not be returning there any time soon … Oh no, it seemed. Blizzard representatives said that do not wantso that players will return to Azeroth too often from the Dark Lands, but in fact, each of us will fly home every day – to the auction. Unless, of course, you have the Mighty Pack Brutosaur or the skills of an engineer.
The starting quest chain, which cannot be skipped on the first playthrough, will take you at least half an hour. In this case, most of the time you will have to enjoy very slow NPC dialogues. I don’t mind lore – I really enjoy reading quests. However, Jaina Proudmoore’s stopping in the middle of the battlefield for a few minutes of dialogue seems pointless, illogical and dangerous.
Army of Darkness in the Womb – Classically Waiting for Something
At the end of the introductory chain, we are transferred to the beautiful city of Oribos, which connects all the locations of the add-on. We will be given a tour, but this is not the main thing. Remember to do the following:
- tie the stone of return in the city tavern;
- learn new professions.
The hero’s path begins with leveling – bring it back and serve
Jokes about the fact that the former heroes in the new add-on again become average workers are not jokes at all. In Shadowlands, we find ourselves in a world that does not just “live by its own laws” – here our hero is also disliked. Remember how many characters you killed in 15 years in WoW – they all ended up in the afterlife.
Each user has to go through four locations. Unlike previous additions, now we do not choose the order of passage of the story campaigns on our own, but strictly follow the plan: Bastion, Maldraxus, Ardenveld, Revendreth. If you complete all the quests along the way, then the 60th level will overtake the character long before the end of the campaign. My adventures today ended at level 58 – these are only two locations passed, in which there are two side quest chains left.
It is important to know: you will have to complete all the tasks of the campaign sequentially, regardless of the character level. I advise you to pay close attention to side quests only if you do not set yourself the goal of quickly pumping, choosing a medium and starting to grind world quests. I really regretted that I did not go ahead on the main adventures and began to do all the quests I encountered on the way. However, now I can give you some advice (no spoilers). The most interesting side quest discovered in the first eight hours of the game is Safeguarding the Archives. Highly recommend.
For the side chains, you will be given a little reputation, unlike the main campaign. In Shadowlands, reputation is not very important – at first, the “Revered” level will be enough, upon reaching which it will already be possible to buy recipes for legendary items from the covenants.
The beauty of Oribos in World of Warcraft: Shadowlands
It is worth noting that Blizzard knows how to self-irony and loves to troll players. One of the main mechanics of progress in Shadowlands is called Fame. Bonuses of characteristics, the development of mediums and the range of goods from merchants depend on its level. If you are a no-name in the world of Shadowlands, especially arrogant NPCs will not talk to you.
Fame has a weekly cap, so if you miss a few days, you can easily catch up. This is similar to the usual pumping of anything in past add-ons – an artifact, Heart of Azeroth, or the cloak of Ashjra’kamas, Shroud of Resolve. Welcome to the world of grind!
Covenant – head over heart
Each player will have to select a covenant upon reaching level 60. You can change it, but it will slow down your progress, and you can return to the previous medium only after a week. The main difficulty is to choose the right one, having practically no data in the game. Therefore, use the opportunity to test the skills of the covenants during the passage of the story campaigns.
There are four covenants in total – the main abilities are given to us to test immediately upon entering the location. It never hurts to just beat the mobs for ten minutes longer to figure out which ability is right for you.
If you are not interested in a hardcore game where every percentage of the characteristics is important, do not bother with the choice – take the covenant that you liked when you met. Players who want to inflict maximum damage, tank like a tin can and heal everyone with maximum HPS – welcome to the calculator… In addition to it, I advise you to refer to class discords and guides from professional players. For example, I found information about covenants for mages in “Stronghold of the Guardian“.
Beautiful Bastion – Kyrian location
If you choose a covenant for raids, the character will still be playable in PvP or Mythic Keystone dungeons. The bonuses that the covenant gives to the character in a given situation differ from each other by 5-10% in terms of efficiency.
My favorite spec of a magician is Arcane, that is, “Arcane Magic”. In several additions, it was not considered a combat unit, only rarely hitting the top in terms of damage within a class (for example, on the first boss in Uldir in BfA). In Shadowlands, Arcana has received several new ways to deal damage, so it is no longer perceived as a misunderstanding. The covenant best suited to mages of this specialization is the Night Folk. By a lucky coincidence, they are also cute. I will turn into a chanterelle and make a fyr-fyr-fyr.
Home Sweet Home!
Covenants and Mediums are new to Shadowlands, but upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that this is similar to the return of the Artifact and Order leveling system in Legion. However, then Blizzard itself determined where our character will spend time in AFK, here we can choose a “home” ourselves.
Each covenant opens its own abode for you. In it you have to eat, sleep and complete daily tasks. In addition, by our arrival, the mediums will start repairs, so that we will have to erect four new buildings in the stronghold – three identical for everyone and one unique. In my case, this is a winter garden.
The Terrors of Maldraxus in World of Warcraft: Shadowlands
Although my personal garden will not appear soon. Each upgrade to the cloister requires a unique resource – anima. Therefore, as a joke, players have already nicknamed Shadowlands “add-on for anime”. The more anima the better. Essentially, this is a new kind of familiar garrison resource. If you want to send fighters into battle from the order table, accumulate anima. You won’t be able to upgrade the covenant for free either: take out the anima again, put it in the tank. Did I mention that you need more anima?
Anima is earned almost everywhere, except for the Womb and Torgast. For daily, local or just like that – in general, as well as the resources of the garrison. Items go into inventory, after which it is necessary to bring the anima to the stronghold and lower it into the tank, where it will be processed and used for the benefit of the night folk (in my case).
There is another resource – purified souls. They will have to be earned in the Womb. I wonder if we cleanse them in the same way as the socks of the murlocs in the previous addon when we meet with Azshara? We will spend souls on upgrading buildings in the monastery. You can get them only once a week.
It will be legendary … wait, wait … darno
Now each character can craft legendary items of their choice. No more waiting for random loot of the right item, like in Legion. And no Azerite armor like in BfA. However, there is one unpleasant limitation – one Legendary per hand.
No, you can craft a few pieces, especially towards the end of the expansion. At the beginning of the content, you simply will not have enough resources, so you will have to decide on the “strongest legendary”, focusing solely on your inner flair. The problem here is that, firstly, Blizzard can change the balance if something breaks and becomes too strong, and secondly, the players do not yet know which item will actually be the best for different specializations. In general, if you don’t want to poke your finger in the sky, wait until the middle of the second week of the supplement.
Legendary crafting is directly related to the passage of the Torgast tower. In a new endless roguelike adventure, heroes will earn ashes of souls, thanks to which you can create legendary items. You will also need a recipe that can be obtained from a variety of places – like essences in BfA.
All legendary items can be researched in the in-game journal. For self-confident players, this will be enough, but for the rest, I advise you to heed the advice of professionals. I will most likely choose Arcane Harmony.
Delightful Ardenweald in World of Warcraft: Shadowlands
Crafting isn’t everything. Legendary items will have several levels, which will require industrial-scale soul ash to be raised. Taking into account the weekly cap for this resource, Blizzard has come up with enough “hooks” for players that will make them return to WoW again and again. But there is no grind as such – I got the maximum amount of resource in a couple of hours and wait for next week.
World of Warcraft is trending again
At the beginning of each expansion, a huge number of players return to World of Warcraft, and the reasons for this are very different: someone wants to go through the story campaign and find out what happened to their favorite characters, others are waiting for a new rating season in PvP or a raid. Some gamers simply do not like to play when “everyone has everything,” and get the most pleasure in the first weeks of the patch – when everything is expensive at the auction and everyone conquers the content “with naked priests”. I am from this category of users.
Battle for Azeroth DLC is the most long in the history of the game, and the wait for a new addon was delayed – the patch turned out to be comparable in duration to a regular update. Additional anticipation fueled the interest of users who follow MMORPG constantly, and gamers who are not interested in news and just play their favorite titles, thanks to the echo of the outraged community, heard about the imminent release of something new in WoW.
To summarize: due to various circumstances, millions of people from all over the world have reached Shadowlands. The people in the Shadowlands are dark, everyone is scurrying about in new cities, studying Torgast guides and preparing to challenge the Jailer in the Womb. When there are a lot of players around, you feel like you are part of something big and it is very inspiring.
Shadowlands is a new chapter in the history of the legendary World of Warcraft. Everyone will find something for themselves in it. And if you are still tormented by the question of whether it is worth trying to play, cast aside doubts and welcome to the Dark Lands.
