Shadowlands Expansion (Megathread)

[MiRai]

Additional updates since alpha has been opened up:

• Current state of alpha testing (Blizzard | WoWHead)
• Shadowlands alpha forums are open to those who were invited
• Character level and item level squish details
• Flying now opens up at level 25
• New NPC/quest/map markers, including shareable map pins
• Shadowlands talent calculator available (expect it to change over the course of the alpha)
• Interview with Game Director, Ion Hazzikostas (additional details to come)

[ebony]

just letting you know am in alpha x2 so i have been boxing it i have been twitching some of it.

[MiRai]

More things being slowly pieced together as data-mining continues:

• Covenant ability upgrades
• Unread mail now displayed on character selection screen
• Soulbinds System (Early Alpha Preview)
• Graphics engine upgrades found in CVars (Ray-Tracing/DXR/Variable Rate Shading)
• From Ion's interview with Sloot:
  
  • No Warforging/Titanforging/Corruption systems
  • Smaller pool of loot (easier to identify upgrades)
  • No "AP" grind
  • Account-wide legendary profession recipes
  • More stuff, just hitting major points

I'll probably not be linking to any lore, art, or any non-system/QoL improvements or changes, so if you're interested in those things then seek them out yourself, and, as always, this is alpha and things are subject to change.

[tsincaat]

Not sure if this is something that has been discussed much regarding Shadowlands but I'm curious if they're going to take any steps to nerf gold farming via multiboxing in Shadowlands, like via gathering nodes or hyperspawns.

It seems like wow multiboxng has gained a lot in popularity (or at least in visibility) since people became able to pay for their subs via wow-tokens. I've seen way more posts complaining about multiboxers in various places, as well as people discussing goldmaking using multiboxing in TSM/goldmaking related communities.

I could imagine people at Blizzard being concerned that multi-boxing is becoming too prevalent of a gold-making 'strategy'.

Whether the current gold-making methods that are quite effective for multiboxers being nerfed would wholly be a bad thing, I don't know. It would certainly frustrate some people who have invested a lot of gold or money into extra WoW accounts for the explicit purposes of farming gold with their teams.

[Ellay]

The herb/ore farming came into focus recently because of Nazjatar being the only place to get the new herbs. There is little reason to go to these zones anymore unless you are working on getting flying (which is a much lower amount of players) or you are gathering the nodes. So the entire zone is now just gatherers and it exasperates the problem. A multiboxer has no effect vs a solo player on this unless the boxer is playing 10 (which is also not as common since you'd have to split to 2 bnet accounts).
The hyperspawn farming I'm assuming wasn't an intended method for farming but it has been ongoing for more than 1 expansion now. I actually even saw this on Classic.


More to Shadowlands and while I am hyped for Shamans being a potential option coming up. They are still a very turret like class and WoW has evolved so much mechanically that if a lot of bosses or events require movement Hunters will still reign.

[Lewsifur]

From the visions instances, I see Shadowlands as a mix of BFA and Cataclysm.

[MiRai]

Shadowlands Livestream (July 8th)



Shadowlands Collector's Edition Physical Box:
Blizzard Gear Store

Honestly, there wasn't a whole lot of new information in the stream, but we learned a little bit more about Covenants, in general, and that beta launches next week—with each week including new waves of invites throughout the summer—as well as Ion stating that Shadowlands is slated to launch "this fall."

[Ellay]

Shaman Theorycrafting hype!! Working on all the potential viable options we'll be getting in SL and Shamans are getting some great improvements for us.