[Spoilers] Shadowlands Alpha Thread

[Fea-wyrmrest-accord]

The Shadowlands Alpha is releasing later this week, along with a preview of the changes for all 12 classes, Bastion, and the fabled PvP vendors.

Shadowlands Developer Update - WoW

Discuss.

[Greyah-wyrmrest-accord]

I’m excited

[Fea-wyrmrest-accord]

I’m cautiously optimistic. Releasing the class changes this early is a very good sign, since it means they’re trying to avoid a repeat of the situation where several classes were pushed off to the last minute in the BfA development cycle and ended up never being finished. The statement about resources changing is also interesting, because it implies that some classes are having substantial changes made to them (which they said they weren’t doing at Blizzcon).

Also, like pretty much everyone on a roleplaying server, I’m a sucker for those shiny customization options. Hopefully a good chunk of them will make it into the first build.

[Autai-wyrmrest-accord]

I’m worried about how ambigious they chose to word this:

Also of note are some changes to PvP currencies—notably, Conquest is once again a spendable currency earned through Shadowlands Rated PvP. Players will be able to use Conquest points to purchase specific items of their choice from a vendor in the capital city of Oribos (in an easy-to-find location, naturally). Conquest can also be used to upgrade that gear further (similar to how Benthic gear worked with Manapearls in Rise of Azshara). We’ll have lots more information to share on the details of this system, as well as our broader endgame itemization plans, as the alpha rolls on and we reach max-level content.

I’d like a straight answer if they’re reverting their dice system for PvP and will allow players to once again have agency on their gearing. So either gear is being lumped in the ‘item’ word or we are stuck with a dice drop system.

[Crôwlêy-wyrmrest-accord (Crôwlêy)]

This is epic

[Fea-wyrmrest-accord]

I’d like a straight answer if they’re reverting their dice system for PvP and will allow players to once again have agency on their gearing. So either gear is being lumped in the ‘item’ word or we are stuck with a dice drop system.

The next sentence says that “Conquest can also be used to upgrade that gear further,” so I think it’s pretty clear that the “items” in question are gear.

[Autai-wyrmrest-accord]

The next sentence says that “Conquest can also be used to upgrade that gear further,” so I think it’s pretty clear that the “items” in question are gear.

I disagree. Declaring there will be item upgrades under the vendor does not mean gear will be available.

It could work exactly like Benthic gear where you spent pearls to upgrade your armor, but they could be leaving out the purchase of the gear.

[Fea-wyrmrest-accord]

The key phrase is “that gear.” It’s a referent to the “items” in the previous sentence.

[Autai-wyrmrest-accord]

Still disagree. Could very well still get gear from random BG bags and then you have to upgrade it via conquest. Meaning, dice roll system still exist instead of purchasing out right.

[Topsail-wyrmrest-accord (Topsail)]

They’d really be screwing up by adding a conquest vendor who doesn’t sell gear.

[Autai-wyrmrest-accord]

They would, but removing vendors in general was also screwing up. So, I’m hesitant on their choice to leave the wording as general as possible. It could very well be a ‘compromise’.

[Ursuola-wyrmrest-accord (Ursuola)]

I’ve learned, over the last few expansion releases, that the least charitable interpretation of their phrasing is usually the one closest to being correct.

That said:

When the alpha servers go live, we will have the full level-up experience in the zone of Bastion available, along with its accompanying dungeon, the Necrotic Wake. Testers who are interested in checking out our revamped new player experience can play through the Alliance version of the new zone and tutorials.

We’re not going to end up with another BfA thing where zone stories give us two mutually exclusive versions of events for no reason, are we?

[Taalva-wyrmrest-accord (Taalva)]

I think you already know the answer to that.

Meanwhile it’s not even in Alpha yet. 8.3 released in January and there’s no 8.3.5.

[Dawnblood-wyrmrest-accord (Dawnblood)]

Very excited about the idea of pvp vendors coming back. I am hoping that Blizzard learned from BFA and we get back to a more normal expansion experience without any more silly gimmicks and straightforward gameplay

[Pourrire-wyrmrest-accord]

Blizz kinda already destroyed my hype for Shadowlands as a returning player who missed out on Legion (god, I regret so much) and came back in the tail end of 8.2 and god, BFA is a dumpsterfire but they have to fix the glaring issues with the system rn that were introduced into BFA before throwing “new” things at us.

All I hope for with Shadowlands is the removal, or less dependence on dailies. BFA was a garbage expansion (worse than Draenor imo) carried along by useless essences, character bound currencies and dailies upon dailies upon dailies for trinkets and armor that are randomly given to you by RNG that randomly gives you a % of corruption and you hope is that you get that one pvp meta as hell corruption effect and that the corruption numbers (also randomly given) dont make it unusable.

Also annoying is 0 class fantasy, every armor and trinket being [item name]: -class stat no.1 , -class stat no.2 , -extra stat 1 , extra stat 2.

example for locks: It’s Intellect 1 , Stamina 2nd , Crit/Vestitality for extra1 and Haste for 2nd extra usually. and then a spicy bonus passive effect (or corruption points for 8.3) that ironically will deal more damage usually then your own spells when you break it down by %.

I just want my class raid/dungeon tier sets back. ;_; What the point of me playing a mage, or a priest if im going to get the same cloth armor on all 3 and they all look the same? I havent seen anybody wear any of the BFA armor sets except for stats and transmogging them into older sets that fit the class fantasy more. It’s just lazy as hell and a simplification that wasn’t even needed.

tl;dr: Remove the need for dailies, give back armor sets and class fantasy, fix how armors and passives work as if this garbage keeps going into Shadowlands 9.0/9.1 and makes it past public beta because the finance team wants more people to mindlessly grind and do dailies for retention numbers, I ain’t buying it and dropping WoW again, as the only thing keeping me here is transmog hunting and the community rp.

[Topsail-wyrmrest-accord (Topsail)]

I kind of wish they’d do away with the scaling at max level for mobs. Sometimes it’s nice to be able to one shot something and feel powerful.

[Autai-wyrmrest-accord]

I kind of wish they’d do away with the scaling at max level for mobs.

Yeah, missing the power progression reflecting onto the lesser creatures of the world.

[Taalva-wyrmrest-accord (Taalva)]

BfA has taught me to expect the worst then prepare to have Blizzard manage to find a way to disappoint me anyway.

I’m burying my expectations several feet below the ground.

[Suyo-wyrmrest-accord]

I’m gonna disagree immediately that just because Blizzard has a bunch of front loaded class related junk means they actually have a plan or will remain flexible enough to actually iterate during the testing phases. It’s been like three expansions in a row of one and done class revisions.

[Dawnblood-wyrmrest-accord (Dawnblood)]

Your post about the random gear got me thinking. I wouldn’t really care if the random stuff stayed if it was just a random reward for when you’re just starting off and being whatever aspirant quality is in the next season as long as the Conquest was awarded for us to buy the actual pvp gear. It could be nice early in the season and for alts.