Tuesday, April 21, 2020

(There's No) Planning In Shadowlands

Blizzard seems to be managing the buzz around the upcoming Shadowlands expansion for World of Warcraft rather adroitly so far. The way they finesse datamining to make it into a marketing opportunity rather than a security issue is exemplary.

They obviously could not have foreseen the extraordinary circumstances in which the run-up to launch would occur. It makes it a little difficult to unpick what's part of the original plan, what's a genuine response to the situation and what's a hybrid of the two.

Given that one of the tent-pole features of Shadowlands is the Level Squish and a complete re-write of the entire concept of levelling, including adjustments to the experience curve that "make it faster than ever", it seems somewhat odd to go for what looks likely to be several months of double xp. It seems even odder to see people jumping on it.

I've already half decided to buy Shadowlands when it launches. I have no history of buying WoW expansions. When I first played the game I bought everything that was available in a matter of a few days - first the base game, then Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, when I discovered to my immense surprise that WoW was actually not at all bad.

Those were all the expansions there were at the time. By the time Cataclysm appeared I'd already stopped playing. I never felt the need to buy another expansion after that although I did re-subscribe for the Legion pre-events. I enjoyed them so much I put Legion on my Amazon wish list and Mrs Bhagpuss bought it for me for my birthday.

I never played it. I think I left it uninstalled for a couple of years and then, when I finally got around to trying it, I lasted about two sessions. Until Classic came along I was perfectly happy with the sub-level 20 free trial whenever I felt the need for a wander around Azeroth.

I've always been mildly curious to see the changes wrought by the Cataclysm and explore the lands of the pandas. Just not curious enough to level up and do anything about it. The revamped levelling plan for Shadowlands has me very intrigued.

It sounds as if it might be possible to experience all the eras of WoW in concentrated short form. I'd like to see how that might work. It would also mean seeing quite a lot of content completely new to me, possibly in the form of some kind of whistle-stop tour through WoW's greatest hits.

There's also the extremely tempting hint that it might be possible in Shadowlands to play a Vulpera without having first to level a character to max and then jump through a circusful of hoops. I said back when the fox race was first revealed that I'd re-subscribe if I could start as one and I still feel that way.

All of which suggests to me that right now would be the very worst time to go all-in on double xp. Why would I want to level a character up before the big changes to levelling? Okay, I realize that for some people levelling an infinite number of characters is no problem but even as a confirmed and committed altaholic I do retain some small sense of perspective.

I confess I am tempted to re-sub for a month or two. There's no real clarity yet about how long the lockdown will last here in the U.K. but it's going to be a few more weeks at least. It could be even longer, especially if there's a phased return to the new normal.

That would make having access to superfast xp on Retail and also being able to return to do a bit more on my characters on Classic quite an attractive prospect. If, that is, it wasn't for the freakin' great elephant in the room that is the new levelling experience.

So I'm going to resist the siren calls for now. At least until we get a hard release date and some indications of what the pre-launch events might bring. One way or another, though, I suspect another visit to Azeroth may feature in my gaming future later in the year.

12 comments:

  1. Well, you don't really need to buy Shadowlands for revamped leveling, all content except latest expansion is available to anyone subscribed. That includes both 1-50 and Vulpera (which are BfA content).

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    1. Oh, that's a very good point. Although I'd have to stop at 50. Still, that would probably be plenty.

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  2. The thing is that the double XP isn't for your type of player, but for two types of players: the Go-Go-Go player who wants to rush to max level and then start raiding, and the altoholic who wants to complete all of their alts prior to the next expac.

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    1. Yes, I guess if you have no real limit on how many alts you want then all bonus xp is good. I've seen some of that in the blogosphere already. I love levelling and I'm tempted but I'm also pretty good on deferred gratification and I think I'll get more out of the new levelling process when it comes, so I'm going to hang on for now.

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  3. The double XP on its own, I probably could have easily passed up. But double XP *and* double influence gains? At a time when I was softening to the idea of trying out WoW again anyway?

    Yeah.

    It's got me. Unlocking flight for BFA under these conditions is too good of an opportunity to pass up. :)

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    1. I wonder if they'll keep the requirements for flying in the pre-Shadowlands expansions? It would seem a bit odd if we're going to go through them at express speed anyway.

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    2. I do wonder the same. If it even went back to simply being a gold sink ala the Wrath days, I'd be happy enough with that.

      But I suspect the requirements to unlock will remain in more or less an unadulterated form. If they reduce the reputational requirements though, through either reducing level needed to revered rather than exalted, or by improving the rep gained, that would be good too.

      Oooh; best of all -- bring back the reputation tabards from TBC that allowed for kills (in dungeons at that point in time) to go toward the rep you were currently.. well.. representing! :D

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  4. If you want to play as a Vulpera, all you'll need to do is the quest chain in Voldunai on the Horde side. As long as you have the achievement for completing the zone you'll be ready in Shadowlands -- no more Exalted reputation grind needed.

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    1. I thought I'd read something to that effect. That should suit me perfectly!

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  5. Shadowlands interests me for the story, much more than BfA did. We're leveling alts at the moment as a duo because I want a monk healer (maybe main) for the expac. The bonus XP is a bonus for us, not because we're in a big hurry, but because we've seen most of the story before so can be more choosy over what we do or skip. I imagine we'll try the new levelling at some point, but priority for me will be the new story when the expansion comes around.

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  6. Like others, I'd like to be able to focus on the new Shadowlands content when I get it (probably well after release) rather than focus on level characters. It's nice to be able level characters and get some of the prerequisites out of the way now (and do it faster than usual).

    I'd also like to get a Vulpera and have thought about using one of my character boosts to help. However, I've never seen more than the first few levels of Horde content and I'm not sure I want to consider all that content I've missed. It's almost like having another MMO to advance through and I just don't have the time or inclination for that now.

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  7. Small update as I had apparently missed this post back then (shame on me) - thanks for the link; now 2-3 weeks later I am not... pissed but a little more dismayed about how fast it goes. I reached my original goal (1 per class at max-level quite easily) but now the new one (1 per faction per class at max-level) feels a bit like a joke because I can churn them out like no tomorrow and even what little skill you needed at the tail end of the expansion is now gone because it goes even faster...

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