The game is way too checklist-centric now. The characters, progression, and combat are way too streamlined. It has been this way since WoD.
Honestly, the only way they could have saved Shadowlands would be to go back in time and prevent the current team from choosing to engage in this obnoxious, hand-holding, Ubisoft style of open world design and the crappy borrowed power nonsense that they’ve been doubling down on for the last 3 expansions.
yup yup
i voted for it. i will get it.
boogie woogie
The writing needed to be completely overhauled with far, far more foreshadowing and development before the expansion hit. They didn’t even have the Jailer’s design ready for the expansion reveal for crying out loud!
This needed a lot more time in the oven before we were even allowed a peak, never mind what we got.
"What could have saved shadowlands?"
The Maw Walker, where you been?
Honestly I’m surprised FF14 and Wow are that high on the list, MMOs are fun to play but unbelievably boring to watch.
As for what could have saved Shadowlands? I’d say a better story for one thing, with a more interesting villain. The lack of a new class was also a major disappointment, they should have either included Tinker, some kind of Blood Mage (with ties to the San’Layn), or even just new specs for existing classes. The rip cord also should have been pulled much sooner, and cross faction groups should have been a thing on day 1 of the expansion.
The story is definitely the biggest thing for me though, the idea of going on an adventure in the afterlife is just boring imo and Blizzard didn’t do enough to actually make it interesting.
Hindsight being 20/20 and all, I still feel that I’ve had more fun in Shadowlands than in BfA. A lot of that had to do with the fact that I prefer SL dungeons over BfA ones and I preferred SL individual zone questing over BfAs (I only really liked Drustvar and a part of Vol’dun, as opposed to having fun through all of SL except the tail end of Bastion) .
What do I think could have saved shadowlands? Without touching lore, because how do you unmake all that:
-Covenant free swap from the jump. You get to try out the covenant abilities while leveling, which is fine, but you didn’t get to try out the soulbinds, and normal dungeons and questing don’t really compare to an actual test drive of abilities you want to try out before making a ‘weighty choice’.
-Either they should have limited what needed to be done in the Maw a lot, or we should have been able to ride around in the Maw much, much earlier. Like, buy a barding from Ven’ari or something. I liked the bit where I had to go farm a shadehound mount but still, I would have preferred riding much sooner.
-This one I don’t have any feedback other than ‘fix it faster!’, but the gap between patches has been a tad too lengthy.
DEVs actually giving the players what they wanted. Actually listening to beta testers. That would have saved it.
Alt friendliness
What REALLY makes Shadowlands a dropped ball is when you consider it was done by the same company (Acti-Blizzard) that made the better of the Diablo games…
Then you consider the more recent Diablo games and suddenly everything makes sense…
They way they made both Sylvanas Loyalist and Haters, both hate Sylvanas by the end of the expansion was the nail in the coffin for me. The double personality nonsense is just disgustingly bad writing.
Blizzard isnt just bad at writing… they are good at making writing bad.
Nah, just relocate him to the dungeons and raids team where he belongs
Listening in the beta when people called the covenant system a broken mess instead of ignoring it for half the expansion
posting a twitch screenshot proves nothing. MMOs arent not fun to watch. thats why we dont have tons of streamers. events can be fun to watch, but watching someone grind for something while youre grinding for something. Does not make a entertaining stream.
Players: This system is broken and unfun
Developers: When the expansion launches the players will like it
Players: This system is still broken and unfun
Developers: When the next patch hits you’ll like it.
Next patch launches
Players: Its still broken
Developers: We have taken your input into consideration and are now allowing you to change your covenants with no penalty in the next patch
This is why I’m glad there will (pls) be no systems in Dragonflight like there were in Shadowlands.
We don’t need overly complicated, alt-hindering systems anymore.
ShadowLands has not been a very rewarding expac. There is very little to do outside of group content that will improve your toon.
I love raiding, solo content and epic BGs. PvP this expac has been trash(you will not change my mind) so that leaves me raiding and solo stuff.
Well, SL has, for the most part, turned me into a raid logger.
I took a year’s hiatus from WoW and returned to Shadowlands. I wish I had stayed gone.
Where is the fun? I thought that was why games existed in the first place. Instead there is the Maw. Who does Blizzard think we are, a bunch of masochists?!
The best part about the Maw is that it was even worse at launch and actively punished you for going there and you couldn’t mount. It also somehow managed to have even less content than it does now.
People pointed this out in beta and the response “well you aren’t supposed to have fun in the Maw!” which has to be one of the dumbest things I have ever seen Blizzard do.
For a start:
Not Retconning the lore & legacy of decades of WoW story that people have loved passionately, for such a terribly $#!% villain, who didn’t even get the finish that was ‘supposedly planned.’
Secondly, and to be blunt:
Better writing.
Third:
Obviously better or more content – jamming the player with a chore list to cater towards a dozen different systems isn’t content. It’s like I said - A chore list.