Quote Originally Posted by nodoze View Post
So Z0k's point about taking it slower to cap have reminded me to take the time to enjoy the story line and work the developers have done and to try to better understand the goals behind the expansion. I still plan to be reasonably efficient to cap but don't plan to race...
This is really being driven by my experience with Corruption. There's a pattern Blizzard likes to follow:
1.) Release system
2.) System is kind of broken or painful to get through - lots of grinding
3.) Ok, we're reducing the pain points, but there's still SOME grinding in order to optimize it
4.) If you didn't buy into the system and do your 20 minutes of quests twice a week, you will never be able to catch up.

In Shadowlands there are 4 systems: Legendaries, Animas, Soulbinds, Conduits
These will all have some effect on play power level, which is largely unknown today in terms of how that balance will play itself out.

It used to be: go do your dungeons, get good gear, and you were powerful. I miss those days, it was straight forward. There was less to research/understand, and even less RNG involved. I totally burned myself out on parts 1/2 of corruption, didn't really understand the system very well, didn't really understand the extent that part 3 could be exploited, and now I'm somewhere on step 4, totally disillusioned by it. Hindsight 20/20 I believe I could have enjoyed corruption a lot more than I did if I had understood the system better along the way.

In closing, I will admit, Corruption is a very extreme example of this, but I definitely want to be careful moving forward. Having 4 different covenants for one team and having to duplicate efforts sounds like a great way to burn out. The pay off might not be that good, or maybe I could have done better if I had done something differently. Pivoting away from that strategy will make my old extreme strategy feel awful and I won't want to do all the work in order to pivot.