Shadowlands and Leveling through Chromie time

Community General Discussion
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I assume it’s because SL has a forced linear story progression that makes you go through each zone in order.

DF is the same way. Quests are designed the same way to go through each zone in order.

All previous expansions let you choose the zone you want to go through for the most part. Legion and BfA has the gables to choose your zone, Classic through WoD just let you pick from the mission board.

It’s only with SL and DF and unless they change it all expansions going forward that you don’t have this.

Honestly not just chromie time but the whole leveling system needs a complete overhaul. They should never have done a level squish. Sure tlwe would be at level 140 in DF but who cares. The way it was before the squish where you started in Classic / Cata, then as you progressed you got to pick between two expansions tolvek in next before you went in order after was much better.

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In Dragonflight, when you get to the Isles, they let you pick what order you want to level in the zones. After you get to 70 on a toon anyway, then on alts you can pick which.

But, I’d have to admit, level 140 would be a bit much, lol.

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23

i didn’t agree with the removal of threads of fate either. oh well.

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24

A lot of people didn’t buy Dragonflight, likely BECAUSE of Shadowlands. Kind of a shame, but I can’t say that I blame those people. Speaking of which, this has me a little nervous for the upcoming 11.0 news coming, but I’ll save that for another thread.

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25

There must be some irreconcilable conflict with Chromie time and Threads of Fate.

I can’t think of why that would be either, but I do know I’ve learned long ago to not second guess Blizzard an how hard stuff is to change in this game.

I think it’s some technical thing rather than a philosophical thing with SL right now.

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26

As far as I am aware, you cannot level beyond 60 if you do not have Dragonflight. So yes, I guess you could play Shadowlands once you get to 60 but you can’t go beyond that.

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27

Amg you’re so cool and getting so much clout for saying they want people to forget. Weird it’s the opposite though as they want you to play the story not random stuff like threads of fate did.

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28

If people didn’t buy it because of shadowlands then they didn’t play shadowlands. It wasn’t bad. People just claim it was because they’re trolling, sheep, or lying for clout.

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I’m not lying, I could give a crap about clout, and I played systemlands. I’m still scratching my head trying to figure out how I endured it, and honestly not being around for the entire thing (taking a break sometime around 9.1 I think it was?) probably helped me stick it out.

I’m also no sheep. This is my own opinion, not one of any streamer, and I disliked the borrowed power, the many currencies (Anima, Catalogued Research, Stygia, Tower Knowledge although Chore-ghast was okay from time to time; Soul Ash, Soul Cinders, and I’m glad I missed out on that shards of domination mess!) just to name SOME of the currencies and that’s not an exhaustive list.

So yeah, I played it. I’m not very proud of having done so, either. I know what I need to based on your reply though. Have a nice day.

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30

That was one reason. But what specifically was it about Shadowlands? A lot of players felt that promises had not only not been kept, but they were lied to repeatedly. People who raid and do mythic+ as their end game are the ones who bought the expansion, and by the end of the first month their retention was good. Casuals and solo players, not so much.

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31

fun police wee woo wee woo

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32

There’s a long way and a short way I can explain this, so I’ll try to put this somewhere as close to “medium way” as I can. Are you familiar with the term “player choice?” If so, how familiar are you with the concept? Not to be patronizing or anything; I don’t know you, but what I do know is that as of late, people are willing to accept just about anything in modern gaming.

In Shadowlands, player choice didn’t really exist. You pick a main, and you do your chores. While leveling through disconnected zones separated by an airport. The main “hook” was the legendary item, aka borrowed power, and in a far more egregious way than I recall what I played of BFA having.

It’s not really any one specific thing about Shadowlands that I feel, and many many others felt, was designed as anti-fun. It was MANY specific things. Chore-ghast. Chore-ibos airport dragging out travel time to other zones. It wasn’t until Zereth Mortis patch released that the game had any viable alt catch-up mechanics to even ENCOURAGE leveling an alt to level cap.

Compare this to Dragonflight. No borrowed power. I find dragonriding fun; some are split on this and that’s fine; even taking a FP to another zone, the zones are at least connected. Wanna level an alt? It’s fast, easy, actually fresh again due to a returning talent system with an actual tree, and when you get to the dragon isles, adventure mode feels more liberating/less restrictive than TOF, the zones themselves are just more pleasant to me.

I like that in DF, you don’t HAVE to raid or do M+ at level cap to get gear. It won’t be BIS, no, but you’ll get SOMETHING. You won’t leave the experience empty-handed. Yet endgame for raiding and M+ cliques are still there for those that are into that. Win-win.

In Systemlands, this was not the case. If you weren’t in a raid guild or in a M+ clique, you got nothing for your time and/or effort. No gear. No reward loop. If anyone here thinks reward loops don’t matter, check Diablo 4’s numbers before I have to ever explain anything else on this forum ever again; ESPECIALLY about Systemlands. That abomination of an expansion should be self-explanatory. Reward loops matter and they matter a lot.

You play the game, you get the reward for your effort. Simple concept.

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They need to add the pre cataclysm 1-60 overworld back into the game for chromie time. That would make my day.

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to get rid of the deathknights at the front of the hold thats it

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threads was not removed per se its only for the lvl 60s that did not use the portal to get to SL

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Agree, getting rid of Threads was a boneheaded decision IMO. I would have been more than happy to level some of my alts in SL if they hadn’t.

I’m one of those weirdos who actually enjoyed SL, come at me. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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37

That’s how the game has always been. If you don’t buy the new, shiny expansion, you don’t get to play that expansion. And people have always done that, continuing to pay to subscribe while playing old content, including the prior expansion. They would run dungeons and raids. When it became clear that all the DRAGONS!!! hype marketing and early promotions weren’t having the effect of dramatically increased presales, and sales would likely be way down, they changed the dungeon finder so level 60’s wouldn’t be able to queue for Shadowlands dungeons or LFR. That was a new thing, a change intended to make sure that those continuing subscribers would have nothing to do and no way to gear up. Unlike every previous expansion.

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38

It was above level 60 could get ToF. I believe it may have changed to above 61 with how they changed CT levels now.

But ToF can still bug out for some.

I’ve done ToF on three alts, ranging from 63 to 67.

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39

Is curious - those characters you mention, the 63 to 67 levels - what content did you do on them in the 50s? Because of course back when Shadowlands launched, we went 50 to 60 in Shadowlands. Did those characters do another expansion to level to 67?

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40

Chromie Time once DF launched, because they never got leveled in SL. I only leveled 6 characters during SL, because I hated the expansion.

Uh… CT to 60 and then DF. There is no other content to do to 67. :dracthyr_shrug:

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