Last Wednesday the pre-patch to WoW Shadowlands hit and changed everything. Well, most things anyway. The big level squish hit, dividing character levels with 2.4, the new starting zone Exile's Reach is here, plenty of new character customization options and more.
Some things are still very much missing however, but I really do think they'll be added later. Some of the advertised customization options were not implemented, like being able to choose straight backed trolls and orcs and a few other quality of life things are still missing. Time will tell if and when they'll be added later.
Blizzard did say that leveling your characters will be faster than before, and they were not kidding. At least to me it doesn't really feel that fast, but that is only because my brain doesn't yet understand what the new levels mean. A level 10 is 24 in the old system and a 25 is 60 in the old way. I got my new warrior to 25 in two evenings. It used to take months to get to 60, not two evenings! So yeah, you level up crazy fast, believe me.
I had expected some server issues and Blizzard did not disappoint. On both Wednesday and Thursday evenings it was almost impossible to log in, the queues were that bad, and when the authentication servers got full you got booted just as you were about to log in. Sit in queue, check. Load times, check. Get in, nope – out you go!
These issues are now solved by and large, it just amazes me that after 16 years, Blizzard still hasn't learned to avoid this. Back in '04 it was understandable. Blizzard were new at the whole mmorpg thing, server technology was still pretty raw, there were no where near as many IT-techs as there are now, but still for some reason, the servers seem to be held together with bubblegum and scotch tape.
There is one major thing I want to bring up. For quite a while now, Blizzard has pushed the whole Exile's Reach and straight to Battle for Azeroth (previous expansion) thing. New players don't even get a choice. New and free players must do the Exile's Reach area and then straight to BfA, but I can't see how they are going to make it there.
I sent a level 10 to Kul Tiras, the Alliance part of BfA, and was shocked to find that everything the local vendors sell is level 45! All the food, the potions, everything you could perhaps craft is 45. So unless you play a class that can heal, you are utterly screwed in BfA. You can only equip quest rewards and what happens to drop as loot and you get 0% healing. I had to relog to a character in another part of the game in order to go buy food, which I could send over to my “stranded” alt.
I get Blizzards idea that this is a good story line for new players, and at least Kul Tiras is incredibly pretty and atmospheric, but why have they left everything at the old top levels? This goes for all other expansion areas as well, but the discrepancy between your character and the local consumables isn't that big, and you can choose where to go. You can get supplies elsewhere as long as you are not new. Blizzard, fix this, please!
It may seem that I'm incredibly negative towards the new changes, but I'm not. It really is a lot of fun and the new systems will be good, when they're properly done. But that's enough rambling for now. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!
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