It’s like the J in “Raj.” So you were correct.
Thank you. This reassures me.
It’s not too bad, actually!
The stories are refreshingly human in consequence and stakes, which is a little wild considering this is about saving the afterlife. There are a lot of themes of trauma, loss, coping and healing, as well as the consequences that come from any kind of intentions.
The characters are pretty interesting, too. The Stewards and Dredgers provide some comic relief that doesn’t try too hard, everyone has fairly decent motivations, the cast is overall pretty likable with some people being more forgettable than others, but even they’re mostly inoffensive.
Weirdly, the actual Heroes (Jaina, Anduin and friends) feel out of place here because their dialogue is still stale and overwrought epicisms that don’t feel authentic next to stories like Ardenweald’s. But thankfully, their impact is limited.
Covenants are a fine concept and I think it’s neat how you can try the abilities out. Though, I also think some of the differences in the abilities are kind of baffling in how blatant they are. Still, it doesn’t bother me too much, since I’m sure they’ll be screwing around with the powers throughout the expansion. Really, their primary allure is the aesthetic, all of which are nice.
I’m a little leery on the gimmicks of the expansion. I’m not sure the answer to base minigames was to add more of them. Sure, collecting anima to make upgrades to your covenant is a cool concept, but it’s kind of blatant in its grindy gatey-ness. The Maw and Tor’ghast are both exciting so far, and while I can see them getting old, I bet they’ll be screwing around with them both, too.
Like, I’d be shocked if they didn’t start adding loot to Tor’ghast of some kind.
Honestly, though, the best praise I can offer it comes not from this expansion, but the last one. BfA was so disappointing for me that I have more or less completely divested from the story, hence all the plot holes are hilarious now. And it’s also made it clear that I can pretty much just check out of the game if it’s boring and come back later and there’ll probably be…I don’t know, some kind of Connect Four minigame that lets you ride a squirrel chariot or some crap like that.
Not bad. Not earth-shattering. An extremely capable sandwich of a game.
12 Likes
I know you’re joshing but suddenly I want this specific thing to be real.
Fer sears tho thanks for the analysis.
I mean, this is the expansion with Actual Squirrel Heaven, there’s no reason it can’t be done.
4 Likes
leveling is painful but short, at least
2 Likes
That’s another good point. The leveling experience has been overhauled and it…weirdly, doesn’t suck? Like, it isn’t perfect, but it’s a far cry better than it used to be. Not a bad deal if you plan on being a bit of an Alton Brown.
5 Likes
One thing I like about SL is that it’s grinds honestly aren’t required at all. Like, none of the covenant upgrades actually give anything required for gameplay? The only thing anima is required for is to literally just get 1k every week to progress your covenant story. The rest is purely cosmetic rewards? Even the reputation isn’t tied to the covenants, obviously, so… yeah. Whether or not you like it, the sanctum upgrades are completely optional to your character’s overall effectiveness.
Even the mission table is just extra stuff you get like mats and gold and soul ash (which is nice but 100 soul ash isnt make or break when it costs 1250+ ash to make/upgrade your legendaries). So yeah, as much as people are complaining about the mini games, you can in fact ignore it all and be perfectly raid viable. I actually like all the mini game stuff, because it feels like there’s a lot of stuff I am keeping track of in a game I normally logged in to do emissaries, check my mission table and then logged off.
5 Likes
I have a lot going on personally in my life so it’s been a welcome distraction.
Leveling is fairly a breeze and probably the best it has been since maybe WoD.
I did the main story and skipped side quests and got 60 in about a week with only maybe an hour or two at most a night to play.
I’m doing threads of fate now on an alt which skips the story, my research which was like 3 minutes of skimming reddit and icy veins is that you might spend some wasted time on travel but no more than you would have spent waiting for NPCs to wrap up their dialog if you did the main narrative. Started threads two nights ago, maybe got to play about 20-30 minutes last night and I’m already at 55 on an alt.
The catchup mechanics for alts are also nice and able to start getting renown while I level vs getting to 60 and doing it all over again.
Also you get a floaty pod mount!!
3 Likes
TIL I’ve been pronouncing your name wrong all this time.
Anyway. Enjoying SL.
If I had a major criticism so far it would be that each of the zones feels sort of one-note. Being the afterlife rather than naturally evolving cultures (plus a second bigger reason I that’s kinda spoilery, so I’ll avoid saying it), I feel like there’s less diversity in NPCs and quest hubs per zone than a lot of WoW zones traditionally have. Like in Legion and BfA, the zones just felt a bit more populated and diverse because of things like the Gilnean settlement in Val’sharah, the shipwrecked sailor stuff in Azsuna, Hemet Nesingwary in Zuldazar, etc.
It’s sorta like going from more episodic TV shows with lots of side plots to one of those really focused series that has fewer episodes and stays with one or two big story arcs for the whole season. More depth in the main story, fewer side stories.
2 Likes
Honestly having a blast. Gearing up through PvP is viable, Mythic 0’s are comfortably – if not a little under – tuned, the content is fun and it’s just overall a great time to be a WoW player.
Someone could make the argument that being in the Shadowlands and dealing with cosmic forces and different realms is too far removed from classic Wow themes, but it’s easy to put aside that concern when what we have is just so fun to be a part of.
4 Likes
Because traveling through time into an alternate dimension wasn’t jumping the shark already.
1 Like
Well, yeah, but Shadowlands just goes further and further.
First it was time traveling.
Then it was killing entire planets in humanoid form.
Then it was BREAKING INTO HEAVEN ITSELF.
I’m not saying that Shadowlands, given the direction we were going for the past 6 years was implausible, but that it didn’t do anything to reign it in. We’re going to WoW Hell to get hats here.
And because it’s fun… that’s fine.
5 Likes
So far I’m enjoying myself. I like the zones, I love my little Steward and I want for noting more.
2 Likes
I like just about every aspect of it but imo Torghast is a sticking point because it feels like half-a-mode. maybe I don’t fully understand its purpose but it’s precisely the sort of thing that should drop gear but doesn’t, so it’s kinda like a two-wheeled trike. Also kinda disappointed in the lack of gearing options through WQs and weeklies, but it’s not anything that’s killing me too much.
On the plus side I finished my Grossbusters mog so that pack drop makes up for the 640+ kills on Rustfeather where the mount never dropped.
3 Likes
I mostly do open world stuff. There are at least ten people on my faction in every world quest area I enter. And I have Barrage, that lets me tap everything within line of sight, regardless of barriers or the space-time continuum. I also have Feign Death, so after tapping everything ever, I can let other people fight them for me and get all the quest credit.
I love Shadowlands right now.
It’s pretty good so far. At first, I was overwhelmed with how much there is to do on a daily basis until I realized that the only thing you have to do are Maw dailies.
The storyline is enjoyable and it’s pretty neat to see major lore NPCs working across the faction divide because their covenant unites them in death.
3 Likes
A tad frustrated seems to be stuck on getting Baine out, might see if I can go in and get a party and do it that way so I can progress on that part.
Working a bit on the the Nightborne back story.
Just in no real rush to progress ‘fast’ might do some time this weekend in dungeon Ques I only have ~431 points in the anima for the ‘thing’…
No more chores! And they managed to make Discipline, the only spec I enjoyed in BfA, even more fun somehow.
2 Likes
Squeaky bat.
1 Like