World of Warcraft: Shadowlands - 11/23 @ 6pm EST

[Psyren]

Well, this is it - new WoW expansion, get hype etc.
Anyone else heading into the Shadowlands in a few hours?

Official Survival Guide for those who just want a brief overview of the new stuff:

[zlefin]

They're STILL making new world of warcraft expansions? Isn't it more than 10 years old at this point? It seems like they must have to really stretch the material to keep making new expansions, as sooooo many things have already been covered/dealt with.

[Psyren]

Yep! Still has the best raids in the biz too

They've also overhauled the character creator with tons of new options - skin tones, tattoos, eye colors, makeup, jewelry etc. I can finally make the Wildhammer Dwarf and Sandfury Troll of my dreams. I'll try to post a link later.

[Winthur]

Subbed to the prepatch to level up alts and maybe prepare for more, got greeted two weeks in with a message that my specs will no longer be supported (I suppose not changing much in the computer for 12 years finally caught up) I lost interest since it's all just more of the same, I'd need like three months of sub to catch up to anything I'd want to do and raiding has purged the remainder of my soul and made me genuinely depressed

I'll be happy for y'all if it turns out to be a good expansion though

[The Glyphstone]

They're STILL making new world of warcraft expansions? Isn't it more than 10 years old at this point? It seems like they must have to really stretch the material to keep making new expansions, as sooooo many things have already been covered/dealt with.

They've long since exhausted the lore of the RTS games behind. Heck, they started making up new stuff as far back as Cataclysm. By this point they're not stretching existing material, they are making entirely new material from whole cloth.

[Seerow]

They're STILL making new world of warcraft expansions? Isn't it more than 10 years old at this point? It seems like they must have to really stretch the material to keep making new expansions, as sooooo many things have already been covered/dealt with.

Today is in fact the 16th anniversary of WoW's original launch.

[Psyren]

Subbed to the prepatch to level up alts and maybe prepare for more, got greeted two weeks in with a message that my specs will no longer be supported (I suppose not changing much in the computer for 12 years finally caught up) I lost interest since it's all just more of the same, I'd need like three months of sub to catch up to anything I'd want to do and raiding has purged the remainder of my soul and made me genuinely depressed

I'll be happy for y'all if it turns out to be a good expansion though

Well, buying the expansion gets you a free max level character to dive into the new content with so there wouldn't be much catchup needed - but they did raise the hardware specs so I can understand that being a legitimate barrier.

They've long since exhausted the lore of the RTS games behind. Heck, they started making up new stuff as far back as Cataclysm. By this point they're not stretching existing material, they are making entirely new material from whole cloth.

Well, yes and no. It's new stories, but they're quite happy to dip back into the RTS roots for inspiration or to revisit old locales and characters. The most recent expansion for example took us to Kul Tiras, and a lot of the story of that zone was predicated on events that revolved around Jaina Proudmoore in Warcraft 3.

Shadowlands in particular, the expansion coming out in a couple of hours, will take us to Azeroth's afterlife - and I fully expect us to see quite a few returning faces as a result, whether they died in the MMO or even in the RTS (or both in some cases!)

I think gameplay-wise they've given up on marrying the two though - attempts at recreating RTS style gameplay in WoW have ranged from meh to disastrous, with the most recent attempt (Warfronts) having left a particularly bad taste in everyone's mouth.

[NeoVid]

Shadowlands in particular, the expansion coming out in a couple of hours, will take us to Azeroth's afterlife - and I fully expect us to see quite a few returning faces as a result, whether they died in the MMO or even in the RTS (or both in some cases!)

I've hardly even played WoW in all these years, and I still know enough to demand that if we're seeing WoW's afterlife, we'd better meet Mankrik's wife.

[The Glyphstone]

I've hardly even played WoW in all these years, and I still know enough to demand that if we're seeing WoW's afterlife, we'd better meet Mankrik's wife.

Olgra the Devastator is, indeed, a prominent NPC in Shadowlands. Do you think they'd pass up on that opportunity?

[Anteros]

I was thinking of picking up WoW again since I need something mindless I can pick up and put down easily at the girlfriend's. I was wondering if there's anyway to play through the "story" such as it is. As someone who hasn't played since WOTLK, I don't really have any idea what's going on, and the game itself does a poor job of providing direction. Is there a "correct" order to do the content in? Are some of the older storylines even available anymore? Not really sure where to start.

[Psyren]

I was thinking of picking up WoW again since I need something mindless I can pick up and put down easily at the girlfriend's. I was wondering if there's anyway to play through the "story" such as it is. As someone who hasn't played since WOTLK, I don't really have any idea what's going on, and the game itself does a poor job of providing direction. Is there a "correct" order to do the content in? Are some of the older storylines even available anymore? Not really sure where to start.

They've revamped the leveling experience, so there is a lot more direction now. The maximum level in retail was squished down from 120 to 60, and leveling in current retail takes place in three parts:

Spoiler

Show

1) A revamped new and returning player experience called "Exile's Reach." This covers levels 1-10 and is a streamlined experience for to reintroduce players to the basics of Azeroth, questing and combat. You can think of it as "Tutorial Island" essentially.

2) From 10-50, you are guided to what is called "Chromie Time." In this mode, you basically pick a past expansion to level through, and everything in that expansion is scaled to your level. This lets you experience a single expansion's story as mostly a cohesive whole, instead of the previous experience where you would get a tiny slice of each one until you outleveled it. If you're totally new however and don't have any level 50 characters already, you can only choose the latest expansion, Battle For Azeroth, in this mode.

3) From 50-60 you then level through the latest expansion, Shadowlands in this case. To do any of the endgame stuff you'll need to complete the story at least once. From then on, if you have alts, you don't have to level through the Shadowlands story again, and can instead choose an option called "Threads of Fate" where you complete endgame stuff (e.g. world quests and dungeons) to get a head start on endgame for that character instead.

As for what's going on story-wise - the very short version is, the big faction war being perpetrated last expansion by Sylvanas was a ploy to cause as much death as possible in a short amount of time, and empower her true master, who has broken the afterlife so all souls regardless of deeds in life get funneled to his domain. We're over there trying to fix it. It's still unclear how exactly this happened or why Sylvanas is doing what she's doing, but given that she's a boss in the next raid I expect we'll get some answers.

[Anteros]

They've revamped the leveling experience, so there is a lot more direction now. The maximum level in retail was squished down from 120 to 60, and leveling in current retail takes place in three parts:

Spoiler

Show

1) A revamped new and returning player experience called "Exile's Reach." This covers levels 1-10 and is a streamlined experience for to reintroduce players to the basics of Azeroth, questing and combat. You can think of it as "Tutorial Island" essentially.

2) From 10-50, you are guided to what is called "Chromie Time." In this mode, you basically pick a past expansion to level through, and everything in that expansion is scaled to your level. This lets you experience a single expansion's story as mostly a cohesive whole, instead of the previous experience where you would get a tiny slice of each one until you outleveled it. If you're totally new however and don't have any level 50 characters already, you can only choose the latest expansion, Battle For Azeroth, in this mode.

3) From 50-60 you then level through the latest expansion, Shadowlands in this case. To do any of the endgame stuff you'll need to complete the story at least once. From then on, if you have alts, you don't have to level through the Shadowlands story again, and can instead choose an option called "Threads of Fate" where you complete endgame stuff (e.g. world quests and dungeons) to get a head start on endgame for that character instead.

As for what's going on story-wise - the very short version is, the big faction war being perpetrated last expansion by Sylvanas was a ploy to cause as much death as possible in a short amount of time, and empower her true master, who has broken the afterlife so all souls regardless of deeds in life get funneled to his domain. We're over there trying to fix it. It's still unclear how exactly this happened or why Sylvanas is doing what she's doing, but given that she's a boss in the next raid I expect we'll get some answers.

So I couldn't level a single character through the story of more than one expansion? I do have my old level 80 character that's been retired since WotLK but I don't plan on using him. Especially since my account apparently got hacked at one point and all my old gear and nostalgic toys and stuff got replaced.

[Keltest]

So I couldn't level a single character through the story of more than one expansion? I do have my old level 80 character that's been retired since WotLK but I don't plan on using him. Especially since my account apparently got hacked at one point and all my old gear and nostalgic toys and stuff got replaced.

You might be able to do two expansions if you focus strictly on the story quests. And if youre just interested in seeing the stories for their own sake, theres nothing stopping you from just taking a level 50-60 character and going back and playing through the stories while overleveled.

[Psyren]

So I couldn't level a single character through the story of more than one expansion? I do have my old level 80 character that's been retired since WotLK but I don't plan on using him. Especially since my account apparently got hacked at one point and all my old gear and nostalgic toys and stuff got replaced.

You can go back to Chromie as many times as you want to switch actually.

You might be able to do two expansions if you focus strictly on the story quests. And if youre just interested in seeing the stories for their own sake, theres nothing stopping you from just taking a level 50-60 character and going back and playing through the stories while overleveled.

This too

[Anteros]

You can go back to Chromie as many times as you want to switch actually.

So my question is when exactly does this happen? I went ahead and started a whole new character on my old account, and went through exile's reach. Now I'm being told to go to Kul Tiras. Just curious how far away I am from being able to pick my own path.

[Psyren]

So my question is when exactly does this happen? I went ahead and started a whole new character on my old account, and went through exile's reach. Now I'm being told to go to Kul Tiras. Just curious how far away I am from being able to pick my own path.

Do you already have a previous-max-level (50) character? If not, you have to do BFA -> Shadowlands the first time through (see #2 in my spoilered post.)

[Anteros]

Do you already have a previous-max-level (50) character? If not, you have to do BFA -> Shadowlands the first time through (see #2 in my spoilered post.)

Oh. No. My warrior hadn't been touched since WoTLK so he was only level 80. He got squished down to level 30. I guess I could finish levelling him up and then start a new character?

Since I'm asking questions, I don't suppose there's any way to turn off the awful facial and talking animations? I absolutely can't imagine how a AAA company like Blizzard looked at something so terrible and thought it was ok for release. I get that they're supposed to be cartoony and sylistic...but holy **** they're just so bad. They completely ruin any sense of tension or immersion you might be able to get out of the story.

Then again, considering Blizzard's track record recently maybe I shouldn't be surprised.

[Psyren]

If there's a specific expansion you're set on then that would be the fastest way to access Chromie time. If you don't particularly care, I'd start with the character you want to play at max level and just level it through BFA. On the Alliance side especially, the story is serviceable as MMOs go - uniting Kul Tiras and saving Jaina Proudmoore prior to her execution.

As for the animations - This being WoW, you can skip pretty much every cutscene and voice broadcast and still know what you're supposed to do for a given quest - in the odd case where that isn't true, just look it up on Wowhead.

There are addons that will autoskip that stuff, the most prominent being Azeroth Autopilot, which also steers you to the most efficient quests, away from the least, and automatically skips quest dialogue and even text. I can't help you with configuring it though, so don't ask there should be youtube videos that will do a better job.

[Keltest]

As far as animations go, Shadowlands i think is a significant improvement in the facial engine. Some of it of course still has the WC3 esque "generic moving jaw" talking animations, but its a lot less egregious.

[Anteros]

So I finally realized the adventure guide is a thing, and apparently I can access Chromie despite not meeting the requirements mentioned in the thread. The game just doesn't bother to tell you about it.

[Androgeus]

So I finally realized the adventure guide is a thing, and apparently I can access Chromie despite not meeting the requirements mentioned in the thread. The game just doesn't bother to tell you about it.

I think the game doesn't explicitly tell you about it because they want your first max level character to level through Battle for Azeroth content

[Psyren]

It might also be counting your previous max level Wrath character as having the "you reached max level before" flag in the past, but not being 120/50 it didn't trigger the breadcrumb.

Either way, glad you got it sorted!