SL is the most detached MMO experience I ever seen in a game. Everything from the zones, too leveling after 50 to World Quest feels bad. Everything in SL is compartmentalized making the game feel shallow. Leveling in this game up to 50 is great with Chromie time but once you hit 50 the game and MMO ends. Welcome to Shadowlands.
9.1.5 isn’t going to fix anything because Systemlands is fundamentally wrong at it’s core design. There is no #Pulltheripcord that will fix it, just #Pulltheplug and let this expansion go and dedicate resources to a new expansion. Live and learn on why SL is the worst expansion by a large margin.
I am not trying to bash SL or be harsh but just tell the hard cold truth. I say this because don’t waste time on something that can never be good! There is just no conceivable way to fix this expansion. You were warned in Alpha about Covenants, soulbinds and conduits. Just let Zovaal snap his finger and erase everything that happened. The zones, the maw, torghast. All of it and let us never return.
From PvP to PvE everything is unfixable. I could ramble on about what is wrong but there are countless threads already with 1,000s of upvotes that you haven’t responded too. Not even a comment saying yea that makes sense or no we don’t want to do that, just silence.
I leveled up a new character and once I got to 50 I felt sad. I knew what was next. Can I go back? 8.3 BFA was a superior product than SL in every way. Don’t get me wrong BFA got off too a rough start but every 2-3 months there was a patch that made great improvements.
Honestly for what it is worth the Essence system is the best system you ever made, acquiring the essences was a nightmare but the system itself was fantastic. You had basically a glyph system from WotLK where you could customize builds freely at any time. Then in SL you removed it. You removed the only thing you got really right in the last few years to introduce the most convoluted detached systems ever put into an MMORPG.
I know you are trying to win us back but you can’t. You made your bed and now have to lay in it. I would recommend apologizing for SL and the pain and heartache you inflicted on a community that obviously love World of Warcraft. Then just work on the next expansion. Don’t even try 9.2. Just get rid of everything associated with SL with a Zovaal snap. Let him recreate reality as he sees fit and let it be a reality without SL.
Just learn from your mistakes and never make an expansion like SL again. Don’t create a compartmentalized game with detached zones. Don’t gate-keep gear with endless RNG and resource grinds. Don’t have ranks on gear that require rating to upgrade! Just give us Valor and Conquest and let us buy BiS gear at the vendor. Remove the toxic great vault!
M+ and Arena should be only for Titles, Mount and Seasonal Cosmetics. There should be ZERO gear rewarded from them. Fix the game by removing SL have a hard reset. I wish you luck, you have a lot of work to do.