Shadowlands looks promising!

I know a lot of us are on the Classic WoW ride atm, but the next expansion for WoW looks very promising. The Tower for example, we will get to test this tech in the next patch for WoW Live.. the scaling by group members part. The changes to leveling sound great as well. When you complete the story on your main, your Alts can pick and covenant and do world quest right away! Alts will also be able ( and new players ) will be able to level 10-50 in ANY expansion zone! that sounds amazing! ( off topic but Diablo4 sounds great as well )

Torghast, Tower of the Damned
Within the Maw is a towering structure known as the Tower of the Damned. To uncover the secrets of the Jailer, players will need to venture into the tower. Inside, players will find an endless and ever-changing dungeon; you’ll be able to explore the labyrinthine halls either solo or with up to four friends, and the experience will scale based on the size of your party.

So, I saw all these new mounts people were riding. Yesterday the name/buff wasn't showing up, today they are. It is the Ensorcelled Everwyrm, the promotional mount from buying Shadowlands. Finding it hard to believe so many prepurchased for a release coming in December 2020.... I've seen tens.

I saw some saddening language on the expansion packs:

• and Character Boost usable only on the WoW game account on which it was purchased or redeemed as a gift

Marketing blurbs for each level:

Base Edition

Includes a pre-purchase* of World of Warcraft®: Shadowlands™ and early access to Death Knights for Allied Races and Pandaren starting with the Visions of N’Zoth content update.

Heroic Edition

Includes everything in the Base Edition, plus instant access to a Level 120 Character Boost and the Ensorcelled Everwyrm flying mount. The flying mount grants a quest for the Vestments of the Eternal Traveler transmog set.

Epic Edition

Includes everything in the Heroic Edition, plus 30 days of game time, the Anima Wyrmling pet, an otherworldly Eternal Traveler’s effect for your Hearthstone, and Illusion: Wraithchill, a cosmetic effect for your weapon. As with other Illusions, Wraithchill cannot be applied to certain weapon types.

*World of Warcraft®: Shadowlands expansion available on or before December 31, 2020

Saw the overworld map, it looks really small. Like half the landmass of the normal expansion. I dunno, maybe The Maw is larger than presented.

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Originally Posted by Brandish

Finding it hard to believe so many prepurchased for a release coming in December 2020.... I've seen tens.

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Come on, that is for legal purposes. Everyone should know that by now. They did say April beta, one would assume Aug-Sept release.

I've been mixed, I was bummed on Friday, kept an open mind and positive on Sat, then Sun/Mon I've been a mixed bag. It's a long ways out and I like the direction they are going for a lot of pieces but one of the most important is class fun factor.
Boxing you want it simple but the ability pruning has been a bit rough to say the least.
They promised us after 8.0 that all major class overhauls would have to wait until 9.0 and it didn't seem like classes were being modified again. I think because they have the dps ranges down pretty well. Balance is at an all time high it feels like.
So they could add a new class, it was time for a new one based on their track record.
They could add another talent tree to some classes. I was hoping for Shaman to have a tank talent tree (there is currently no mail tanks in the game, but we have 3 leather tanks?!)
Demon Hunter could get a ranged dps option, there hasn't been a ranged dps added to Wow since it's inception. Which would add more options to our playstyle.

It's still early but I was honestly just too hyped for the release and expected too much. The cinematics are always really good, but what I've found makes me stay subbed the longest is having the classes feel fun.
Opening up Alts as a quicker path to max level may satiate this issue.

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Originally Posted by Ellay

I've been mixed, I was bummed on Friday, kept an open mind and positive on Sat, then Sun/Mon I've been a mixed bag. It's a long ways out and I like the direction they are going for a lot of pieces but one of the most important is class fun factor.
Boxing you want it simple but the ability pruning has been a bit rough to say the least.
They promised us after 8.0 that all major class overhauls would have to wait until 9.0 and it didn't seem like classes were being modified again. I think because they have the dps ranges down pretty well. Balance is at an all time high it feels like.
So they could add a new class, it was time for a new one based on their track record.
They could add another talent tree to some classes. I was hoping for Shaman to have a tank talent tree (there is currently no mail tanks in the game, but we have 3 leather tanks?!)
Demon Hunter could get a ranged dps option, there hasn't been a ranged dps added to Wow since it's inception. Which would add more options to our playstyle.

It's still early but I was honestly just too hyped for the release and expected too much. The cinematics are always really good, but what I've found makes me stay subbed the longest is having the classes feel fun.
Opening up Alts as a quicker path to max level may satiate this issue.

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From a perspective of M+ I consider balance to be abysmal in retail right now. I'm not happy at all with how resto shamans are balanced for M+ and what they did to both DKs and warlocks all three of those are my main specs.

The MDI was a clown show with clear preference to melee comps. I get that represents a small percentage of the pop but it shows clearly that class balance is terrible for M+.

The Shadowlands deep dive said nothing about major offenders in my ballpark. Those being:

1. World Quests being mandatory.
2. Pathfinder leaning heavily on rep grinds.
3. Class homogenization, specifically how they are addressing the imbalance of dispels, movement and utility between specs.
4. AP/Anima grind and specifically how they differ.
5. Talent tree - if this is going to be another iteration of the Diablo 3 skill tree.

After BFA I am having serious reservations about Shadowlands. The lore looks great and Christy has been a great addition to the writing team but I can catch all that stuff free on youtube. I might just go that route.

the systems being put in place look very boxer accessible, not sure how friendly (that tower could have ridiculous mechanics), and this expansion is looking to be a bridge into the NEXT expansion after this one being very good and them trying to get back to a lot of classic roots gameplay. Yet as long as they discriminate against us in arenas and pvp, i'm not interested in being a hardcore player. I'll be dabbling while i play classic.

Excuse my cynicism ...

”Purchase the expansion and get back the class spells you loved, that we pruned, because we thought they were bloaty”............... :p

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The idea for a catch up mechanic with the anima system is placing a returning player or alt into a "catch-up state" until you get caught up, allowing the character to get an entire Covenant talent point from a world quest and such.

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hmmmm