I think I’ll main lock, at least for this first raid tier. My main alt will likely be Paladin, because I generally enjoy the bursty playstyle and role versatility and I’m burnt out on Druid right now. I might also revive my poor priest - it was the first class I really stuck with, and it feels traditional to bring it back for the beginning of another expansion. Disc is my favorite raid healer (aside from glimmerdin, but that doesn’t really exist anymore), and the new spells they are getting are exciting.

Ultimately, I’ll play whatever’s busted, because beating people up is what provides me the most enjoyment.

 

They're a mess because we're 2 months out and they're the furthest behind developmentally. They have one usable Cov ability (though Sepsis could be interesting with Sub), they had virtually no testing in Torghast and last I checked, the legendaries were buggy too.

And early expansion Assassination has to be one of the most boring specs in the game. You hit like... what? 30 buttons a minute? It comes to life with better gear though.

Always hated Outlaw. I hate the RTB design, even with the changes. At least before you could fish for better buffs, now you're stuck with the terrible ones (like energy regen) if you're unlucky - they need to buff the shit ones.

I think that's my general issue with triple DPS classes. I need to like at least two of the specs. I was gonna main Hunter in Slands... but playing BM on live and I'm thoroughly over pet classes.

I deleted my old Warlock and I'll level another when the pre-patch comes out. If I find Aff to be fun and sufficiently 'not-petty,' I might give it a go. I want to suss out Mage too. Apparently Frost with the Frozen Orb leggo is very fun.

Edit: Yes, I'm also aware Mage covos are shit too, lol. IDC how good Necrolords are either, I hate transforming as an ability, esp into a skeleton. Rip Arcane I guess...

 

I've settled on Mage as my main for Shadowlands. I want to go Night Fae, but I need to see what happens with their cov ability and if they nerf the Ven'thyr one and its broken soul bind interaction.

Never mained Mage before (only Arcane alt), so it's exciting. I also realized that Mage is the only class of them all where I genuinely wouldn't mind playing any of the three specs.

It hurts to move away from priest (which will be my first alt), but after an expansion of playing disc, not sure I wanna heal again or play much disc.

 

I think you'll enjoy mage. Most people I've played with/spoken to enjoy mage when they try it. Right now people say frost is super fun but that might be because frost is kinda busted.

Apparently the problems on the beta with heating up/hot streak are perennial beta problems that are fixed by default when expansions drop, but I still don't anticipate fire being played until later tiers (at which point i will probably pick up my mage again because I only really enjoy fire personally)

it's looking like conduits much like azerite powers will be your spec's destiny in the coming expansion

 

I am planning on maining my Brewmaster as usual. i want to go Night Fae with it but the ability just got nerfed and it already wasn't that good. T_T feels bad. I'm also worried that after picking the BIS covenant blizz is gonna come around as usual with the nerf bat and make whatever is BIS garbage...

 

I think the players could lobby really hard for a free covenant swap if any changes they make affect the choice you made.

Frost is a bit meh on PTR, but the legendaries look REALLY fun (especially the one where nova doesn't break).

Should also be noted the changes to alt levelling makes having alts super easy this time. Will probably do Hunter, Priest, Rogue and fill out other covenants. A plate wearer could be subbed into any spot at any time if Tusks of Mannoroth drop (after 2 years of weekly farming, it's bound to drop before slands right? RIGHT?!)

 

I wish covenants weren’t tied to your power progression because I would absolutely love to play night fae or venthyr but at least at the moment necrolord is just so versatile and good for rogue that even if they were perfectly balanced lmao if I show up as not necrolord...

the problem too is that the covenant sits very well in the specs’ kits, unlike the other ones

 

I feel like Night Fae is relly strong for Sub Rogue no? Sepsis, extra vanish?

I've a feeling when live the power won't be in the abilities, but in the Soul Binds, which are much easier to tune. Look at priest, they've actually reached a point (for shadow) where it doesn't matter what you pick - because all the cov abilities are kinda shit haha

 

I'm going to be a mage main in SLands; never played a ranged class in high-end raiding, so it'll be nice change of pace for me. First alt will definitely be Spriest and I might try my hand at warlock as well. Knowing me, I'll end up tired of waiting up on tanks for my M+ and will level one for that at some point.

 

So, if there are people who don't keep up with the Warcraft news (Completely reasonable at this point lol)...

Shadowlands release date has been delayed. They've not yet given a next release date, but I'm not expecting anything before November end.

The Pre-Patch though is being released on October 13th.

So if any of you, by any chance, booked some days off to play the game, reschedule your vacation time if possible. Really shitty situation for the people who cannot do that.

From what I've heard, this is the first time after TBC (?), that Blizzard have delayed a release. Thoughts?

https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/news/23536678/an-update-on-shadowlands


Even with the delay, I personally don't think most people will be satisfied with whatever they are trying to achieve...The WoW community while generally Non-Toxic compared to MOBA games, is still not a community known for its patience, levelheadedness and non-whining demeanor. Lol.

 

I think the 'whining' is a lot better now. It's (mostly) not just people bitching because their classes didn't get a rework in the recent expansion, but well thought-out criticisms on game design combined with a lack of trust after BfA.

Tbf...The Maw just looks unfinished. They need the time.

Regardless, I'm addicted to Genshin Impact. Happy for WoW to take as long as it needs. It's gonna suck though unless it gets delayed to January. Either it'll come out Nov and raid will clash with Thanksgiving or Dec and clash with Xmas...

 

So its been around three weeks since the pre-patch released and the pre-patch event started yesterday...

And since nobody else seems interested in commenting (I completely understand though), I'll just leave my thoughts and a few things I noticed written down here.

The level squish itself is awesome. The game feels somehow tighter, which is an experience I haven't had since leveling my first fury warrior in Booty Bay. Its a nice feeling. The numbers are now readable at least, lol.

Leveling new characters is now a damn awesome feeling. Not too long, not too short. And if it gets too tedious, you can just ignore previous expac content and just do dungeons like before.

Exile's reach is genuinely fun and engaging.

Speed runners can now do the whole thing in about 6-8 hours flat. Even a lore!lover like me who reads all the quest lines took about 14 hours.

It can be better though. Especially for people like me who like the feeling of completing a full story line. And you can have that in Wow only when you finish Raids. I think it was Taleisin (?I think?), that had the idea of showing the ending of previous expacs in a Raid Scenario or a cut scene scenario... That would be excellent. And that Quest indicator for main quests and side quests is still not available. Or if it is I haven't been able to access it...
There were some kinks with Chromie not showing up initially, but they've fixed that now.

So it seems that fastest way to level is in WoD Draenor...
But if you're anything like me who enjoy both lore and the playing experience...then Legion gives a sense of completeness that you wont get in any of the other expansions. I mean you could directly go War3 > Exile's Reach > Legion > Shadowlands.
Wrath is also awesome to play but takes a far longer time comparatively. Go there if you're a pure lore lover and like to explore a full continent of an expansion, its massive (some people might've forgotten, just saying).
Pandaland is also good if you want to feel like you want to be in a completely different game than warcraft lol. But it also, curiously enough, segues nicely into shadowlands.
I found Outland torturous.
Playing Classic-path till booty bay is also so casually fun lol. Hogger is still Hogger, the music is just perfect for a chill run.

I would especially suggest legion if its the first time you're lvling that particular spec and/or armor type. The weapon transmogs in legion are absolutely worth having. And the legendary fishing pole is still valid. You can make some good gold selling the fishing rares in the AH.
Just that, I would strongly suggest doing Aszuna and Val-sharah before the other zones. The quests are nicely clumped together and short in those zones. You will miss flying in any of the other zones, especially Suramar. You can easily reach 30 at the end of Val-Sharah.

I'm loving all the class changes as well. The most broad one being that now all classes have a set of common iconic abilities regardless of the spec. This gets my rpg meter going. Pretty damn good.

So right now, I have all these at lvl 50:
Human Fury Warrior,
Havoc Nelf DH,
Nelf Survival Hunter,
Dwarf Beastmastery Hunter,
Vengeance Belf DH

and the following at anywhere between 25-45:
Belf holy preist
Human Ret Paladin
DarkDwarf Prot
Mechagnome Fire mage
Orc Blood DK

Coming to the pre-patch event...
Its disappointing to be honest. While I expected it, I'm still surprised how meh it is. Now BfA Pre-Patch event had enough story progression that it kept up the hype for a new expac. The current event does not have that progression. And it has some of the same problems that BfA one had.

The most glaring one for me is that a lot of the stuff still happens off screen. They show Anduin being taken, but only the Horde quest line has dialogue that tells you about Jaina, Baine, Thrall and Tyrande.
If you don't play a horde character in Pre-Patch, I suspect the intro quests for shadowlands are gonna be jarring lore-wise for someone who plays pure alliance (especially wrt Calia).

While I read heard the book on audible, a lot of people will not have done that. And it will probably be jarring.

Even the sado-masochistic scourge invasion feels meh. All the time I've logged in, its been pretty chill in stormwind lol.

So all in all, a mixed bag of a month.

But considering the massive changes and the pandemic, a thumbs up to the devs.

 

I absolutely agree that the numbers are a lot better, it's much more satisfying now that we actually constantly get new abilities.

I've leveled a few characters from start to finish during the pre-patch, and honestly, I'm a bit disappointed. It feels like the leveling is too fast and that I can't really enjoy the major storylines because of it. An example is how you'll hit 50 before you're even halfway through Pandaria. The speed is fine for some expansion zones like the ones in Legion where the zone design is much more self-contained, probably since the zones were intended to be playable in any order.


If I would recommend somewhere to level, I would actually recommend the original classic zones. They're fast, fun and there's a ton of variance.

 

We're so close to Slands release and... I didn't expect to feel buyers remorse before even playing?

With PS5 out now and in my hands, as well as me still thoroughly enjoying Genshin Impact as my 'daily WoW-like grindy game,' I probably would just skip slands if I hadn't already paid for it -_-

Maybe I'll feel different if/when I play it...but man, I should have seen this coming...

 

I pre-boughr BFA and didn't play a single month of Wow while it was out. No regret though. I just don't have time for WoW on any level (even the most casual). I don't mind though because it's far more fun to spend time with my son (who just turned 2 a few weeks ago,/humblebrag). This is literally the first xpac I've ever missed in its entirety.

 

So, I finally saw a scourge invasion...if you can call it that lol.
There were exactly 5 zombies, near the auction house in stormwind. Probably the tail end of the invasion or something... but yeah. I hear tell Proudmoore was swamped.

Also, there's been a weird Monday update to the quest chain. Was surprised to see a yellow quest on the map when I logged into my main, lol.

This is probably going to be the best (read fastest) week for leveling in quite some time to come. I mean damn, I lvled a subtlety rogue 0-50 in one effing day... and I'm a slow as fuck leveler.
To the people wanting to level, check your mail for the WoW anniversary buff. Gives you 16 % exp and rep buff. Get the drought of ten lands (is that the name?) from the 7th Legion/Horde War campaign Vendor. You can get ample currency by doing a single heroic warfront on your main/lvl50 Character.
That gives you an additional 10% exp per hour per drink. So a total of 26% exp buff is the same as if you had the old heirloom buffs. Ridiculously fast leveling.

Second. Its also a good week to get the catch up gear if you unlock all the dailies in IceCrown.
If you're one of those people who wants their alts to have the best gear possible without doing the full expac/raid, then do the Icecrown rares. They occasionally drop 110 gear. Nathanos drops a 100% chance 115 weapon. And rare parties, at least in my server, seem to be super fun.
The Rares spawn 20 minutes each (watch for the skull on your map), and they're un-attackable for 2 min till you get there. They also 100% drop 20-45 purple scourgestones, which help you get the 100ilvl gear as well.

And Imma just say... the Nathanos kill ...is satisfying. As advertised.

It seems a lot of older folk (in the sense that they played old wow) are rejoining in Shadowlands. Probably a carry over from peeps joining classic. Go figure.

New sorta trailer is also out. Wow Cinematics have always been top class.
On the topic of that trailer, two things I have to say.
One, thank god for that Jailer. I could not get the image of Handsome Squidward as the jailer out of my mind. Now I can. So, thank you Blizzard.
Two, from now on to the end of Shadowlands, every time the ardenweald queen appears, I have decided to name the feelings that appear as "Queen Boner". I would've called her as the Boner Queen, but she aint in Maldraxus. Lol.
The feelings are similar to the one I had when I first saw white hair Jaina.

That is all. Hype train for shadowlands. It aint the shinkansen, but it'll go choo choo in arathi. XD

 

You don't think Nathanos 'dying' is deliberate so he can be Sylvanas' utterly pointless lapdog again in the Shadowlands?

 

Oh absolutely. He's definitely showing up as probably a raid boss somewhere in Shadowlands.

I didn't mean it from a lore perspective. Just as a " I want to punch him so hard and I got to do that " point of view lol.
I just meant the kill was satisfying. Both the cinematic and boss mechanics are somehow pretty damn good.

 

Patch Day. Huzzah... I guess?

Have fun guys. You've paid for it. XD

Also wanted to leave something for the unaware here...

Seems Blizzard Set Vsync + Triple Buffering + Target FPS options in your display settings as ON from the start of pre-patch. Now you may not have noticed any difference...
But since my normal ping is 230 due to my location and that I play with a mediocre PC... It showed up as a strange lag between me pressing a key on my KB and stuff happening on screen. Like something was just a little bit off. It was annoying, but I kinda got used to it...

Turning those 3 OFF though... made me feel instantly better.
I think It has something to do with the motion sickness settings? I dunno...
But if you're in a similar boat as me... turn those 3 off and instant 60 FPS smoothness.