An extremely long 8.3 BFA or an extremely long SL launch patch?
I prefer a longer 8.3 patch as the end of BFA seemed to really be a better experience, imo than what we have now.
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SL hands down. BFA had fun parts but I’m much more happy sitting in SL then BFA warfronts and islands over and over.
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wasn’t warfronts/IE just replaced with something just as dull being Choreghast?
./yawn
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You don’t have to run torgast after you get some legendary you want.
so not really a chore until they add more we need from there. Warfronts and islands you did them as much as you could no matter what b/c of AP
I think there is a lot of content, I just don’t do so much of it.
For example, PvP? I don’t have any idea. Pet battles … I only understand a little bit, but I haven’t been getting the new pets. I never do professions and I haven’t been in Torghast in about four months. A friend invited me to do rares in bastion which I didn’t even know was a thing that people did! We went to the necrotic wake place (there’s an open-world zone for it), farmed mobs for 30 minutes, and killed a boss that came down. It was fun!
What I did this patch was raid and M+, and I am honestly still having fun with M+ (not raid, sadly) after six months of just those two things!
Also, I have no idea what anima is for or the conductors (?) so it seems like there’s still a lot to explore and figure out. I did not farm Valerie reputation at all and I have not been to the maw but it is so scary so I do not mind if my gnome doesn’t go there.
Anyway, it feels like there’s a bunch of content here, and maybe I should be trying new things (as should the people worrying about content drought).
Honestly I prefer 8.3 to 9.0. But only when you line up the length of 9.0. The problem with the comparison here, is 8.3 was a final patch and had all of the catch up mechanics added. 9.0 is a launch build with almost no catch up mechanics added.
If 9.0 was a normal .0 length and we were already into 9.1 now, I feel SL would be in a better place than BfA was at the same time in their expansion cycle. But that isnt the case. If we look at 9.0 and 8.0, I feel SL’s systems are better. But, in my opinion, they are over conceptualized, under developed character progression systems. HoA, Azerite Powers and Covenants/Legendaries/Conduits/Soulbinds/Torghast
Leveling alts, in my opinion was better in BfA. Choosing which zones to go, Spamming Island Expeditions, Spamming Dungeons ect. The leveling felt better to me. Shadowlands leveling, has the On Rails Story, or not. But for whatever reason, neither seem as fun or engaging. There is just something soulless and hollow about Shadowlands for me. It really saps my enjoyment of Retail.
BfA was severely flawed at launch. Its player progression powers/ systems, were a flop. But, I found the PvE aspects of the game better. Alliance and Horde, had different, but intertwined story archs. So right there, There was more diversity. Both sides, had strong story zones and weaker ones. The War campaigns were different for both. In Shadowlands, leveling and questing is the same between both factions. And Covenant campaign stories are the same for each faction. And they are also the same no matter the class you join the covenant with. Additionally the zones are all disconnected. It is a long Space Worm flight between them where you pass through the Airport that is Oribos each time. They just feel very disjointed. I dont feel connected or even invested in the Shadowlands. The zones are beautiful, but their disconnection to eachother just kills the immersion for me.
As bad as BfA was for a lot of people at 8.0, I think SL is better than BfA in some ways, but worse in others. If you are to ask which one I personally preferred in the .0 patch? Oddly enough, BfA. Flaws in all. I just enjoyed playing it more.
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6months into an expansion, I would expect us to be in .2 or going into .2 of an expansion…this drought is really unacceptable. All companies had to deal with covid, to give gaming industry a “permanent” break due to covid for their lack of patches and new games is beyond stupid. Blizzard needs to get focused and straight cracking out content like legion expansion if they want to save this expansion b/c this 6 month and counting launch patch is ruining the perception of Shadowlands as an expansion.
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BFA for sure. Even though BFA felt like beta at start it was sort of complete by patch 8.3. SL is still in a beta phase. Why won’t they release a finished product?
Longer 8.3 patch
Launch content in SL is meh for me.
But to be clear, both kinda suck lol
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In 8.3, I was in the best gear I was gonna get, corruptions all set. I had no room for growth. So I’d take 9.0/5 simply because there’s still room to go forward…a few more ilvls.
But that reason aside, being stuck in either for too long sucks.
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I just miss being able to farm old raids easily, really. That part hurts the most in 9.0
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great…this post just hurt my soul… 
I’m much happier now than i was in 8.3
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I like both.
It sounds like this post had nothing to do with asking people what they liked more and just a SL rant.
That’s not a bad thing but I wish you listed this better. I’d recommend taking a break (most of my guild is on hiatus until next patch)
Easily SL. I’m somewhat burned out now, but at least my damage comes from pressing buttons instead of random corruption procs.
BFA was the better expansion. I would have preferred to keep playing that even with corruption. At least the dungeons were better. Although, if given a choice, I’d rather be in legion with legendaries fixed than anything.
not a rant…its a fact that this expansion has an unacceptably long launch patch…please give me the myriad of the usual excuses to defend the delay.
The first few months of BfA made me peace out for the whole expansion. I’m almost a month into SL and I’m not tearing my eyes out yet. We will see.
Take my opinion with heavy salt since I am literally coming in super late.
small edit for an aside.
There is no anchorweed. Already a huge plus.
The delay sucks I agree but a game you’re begging for new content in to do is obviously good game you love. I hit burnout bad when they take their time in a patch so I just vanish for a few weeks or a month or two.
trust me it changes everything and makes it alot more fun when you come back.