Do people really think by 10.0 all those restrictions wont be lifted?
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So itâs terrible, but not TOO terrible. A ringing endorsement if I ever did read one.
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exactly why i made this thread, itâs a guide how to get everything in the most efficient way by next expansion once those restrictions are lifted
It is alt friendly, what it isnât is multiple main friendly, which what most people actually mean when they say alt.
In Shadowlands I canât use half of what I work to obtain on my alt on my main unless both toons are in the same covenant.
In Shadowlands there are only 4 stories to experience in one patch, and then one single story to experience in this patch.
Itâs systematically alt friendly in the way that I can catch up ilvl and my legendary rather easily. Where power is concerned, Shadowlands is an alt friendly expansion. Itâs also an expansion that has very little reason to play alts.
- The leveling experience is either linear or a replay of the same 12(?) world quests that youâre stuck with at 60.
- The non-power-based rewards are heavily restricted to who can use them, such as mounts and xmog.
The overall alt experience in Shadowlands is pretty lame. I guess if you run multiple alts you can get more gold. But what value does gold have these days if youâre not buying a carry?
When I say âalt,â I mean alt. As in, I have dozens of them. I donât expect them to be raid-geared, but the process of unlocking covenant rewards - all of which Iâm not nearly as optimistic about being faction-unlocked in the next expansion - is about as rewarding as a kick in the crotch compared to previous expansions.
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You actually can skip the WoD beginning. Just pick up the quest in Org, take the port to the Dark Portal. Donât talk to Khadgar, just drop the quest, then walk through the portal.
Edit: Iâve been able to do it twice in the last few months.
itâs alt friendly because every time you play it you just wanna alt + F4
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Letâs see here⌠Is SL alt friendly?
- Able to skip Maw Intro quest (30-35 minutes if youâre quick about it) - NOPE, but at least you can turn on WM for free extra XP and if you do it during Dark Moon Faire you can get some extra XP there as well. And itâs debatable if 30-35 minutes for effectively 1 level is good or not, itâs not terrible XP/hr, just boring (I especially hate the escort quests where I have to STAY with Jaina)
- Able to Skip Campaign Leveling Experience - Yes, but than youâre stuck with 4 dungeons (ToF should give us all 8 dungeons honestly), PvP, World Quests, or a few Side Quests to level to 60
- Able to Skip Torghast Intro - Yes, but itâs new, and if you accidently turn in the initial quest, the skip disappears (Iâve made this mistake once, ONCE).
- Able to Skip Korthia Intro - Yes, but you sacrifice 750 anima, a 200 item level reward, and 10 Stygian Embers, this one is debatable.
- Able to Skip Covenant Campaign (if youâve done it before) - NOPE, Iâve done the 9/9 Kyrian campaign alone a good 6 or 7 times now
- Able to Skip the Korthia Campaign (if youâve done it before) - Again, a big fat NOPE!
- Renown - The catch up systems today are infinitely better than just a few months ago, but itâs still a grind for the sake of a grind. Heck at this point Iâd be ok with it being covenant specific, as itâd be better than nothing.
- Memories - These are actually account bound shockingly.
- Conduits - Where as these arenât, these should also be account bound. My first 4 60âs were my main class I raid on in all 4 covenants, so Iâd be ready for whatever FOTM Blizzard threw at us (it paid off). But grinding out all the conduits on each one, that was just silly.
- KSM Benefits - They were account wide in S1, not in S2 (bad choice IMO). I mean why not, I still have to grind out the valor to upgrade the gear.
Iâm sure I missed some things, but looking at it this way, there was an attempt to make things better. Itâs definitely better than some prior expansions, but it could be so much better IMO.
Name one in the last 10 years. 
IMO itâs better than both Legion and BFA (including their attempts to make things better in the final patch). WoD was realistically the last expansion where things werenât so bad.
Rofl the ampunt of sarcasm in the OP is awesome
SL is not alt friendly primarily because of the tacked on borrowed power systems.
We used to be able to just level up an alt, and all we had to worry about after that was gearing and any reps relevant to that alt (for gear or crafting recipes) for that alt. We could engage with content as we saw fit at that point.
Nowadays once we hit max level we have a host of others things (in addition to gearing and relevant reps) that have to be done before we can engage in content as we see fit.
- We have to grind out renown to access the covenant questlines, to access the soulbinds, and to access their later traits.
- We have to grind out time gated currencies for one or more legendaries (and maybe have to regrind them as patches buff/nerf legendaries).
- We have to collect all the conduits (RNG gated), and continuously upgrade their ilvl throughout the expansion (again RNG gated).
- We have to grind out anima to unlock covenant specific features (particularly in order to access the covenant specific content like the queenâs conservatory or path of ascension).
We spend as much, if not more time, grinding this or that, just to engage with the systems, before we can engage with the actual content.
Want to raid ? You used to be able to get to max level, get enough gear, and then you could raid. That held true for alts as well.
Now you have to jump through an obstacle course of hoops before you can do that. And because of those hoops, it makes engaging with endgame content with alts more unfriendly now than it has ever been before.
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Oh yeah I knew there are two skips now but I didnât know what the second one was because all my alts are level 50 and above. When I did the skip, I did the one from Timeless Isle.
But thank you for letting me know what the second one is. I hope I remember later!
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You are so welcome! I was trying to get somewhere in Draenor fast on an alt and happened across it. It sends you directly to Frostfire, which is great since Iâm not fond of doing the intro again, and again, and again either.
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I tried that recently. It ported my low level to the flight point in the Blasted Lands, which has waves of unskippable mobs she would have had to kill to get to the Dark Portal. Got there and npcâs wouldnât help so she died. Took a spirit rez, went back to Org and took the portal to Warspear. Took the fishing raft to Gorgrond and got a ride to the first quest in Frostfire Ridge from there.
I donât understand why they decided to make important quests harder for low levels than they were as current content. During wod everybody was able to fly over those mobs. Same in Legion. Most artifact quests have been streamlined, but a few have been made much harder with addition of lots of mobs that werenât there during Legion.
What level was this alt?
Level 10.
They also recently made a change to phasing which prevents a low level from being in the same phase as a higher level when in or around tanaan, which is why I used the fishing raft. Super easy to get to the Alliance garrison that way, you need a ride to get to the Horde one.
At that level I would have done the intro. That sounded like a nightmare.