The launch of WoW: Shadowlands took place a few hours ago. Cortyn from MeinMMO found it magnificent and has been playing non-stop.
Yes, I admit it. I stood for hours in front of the actual launch with my Draenei in front of the castle of Stormwind, so I could start right away and have a little advantage over everyone else. I felt a bit like those crazy Apple fans who camp outside the stores to get the latest version of a mobile phone.
I still have the horror stories of past expansions in mind, where players wanted to log in just before the launch and couldn’t because the servers were overloaded. I didn’t want to take that risk, which is why my Draenei stood obediently in Stormwind since 8:00 PM. Of course, together with her tree. That makes sense and is well prepared. At least, I’m telling myself that.
The launch of a new expansion for WoW is always a little Christmas for me. No, actually, it’s even better than Christmas. This year, due to the Corona pandemic, that counts double.
Every 2 years is the night of a WoW launch, where “I don’t care about anything.” There are liters of energy drinks, junk food, and we play until our eyes bleed, making my daily rhythm for the rest of the week ruined. But it has to be that way. It’s a fun ritual for me that I still maintain today.
Who is writing here actually?
Cortyn has been writing for MeinMMO for almost 8 years and has been playing World of Warcraft for almost twice as long. When the demon is not hunting for pets and mounts in Azeroth, they engage in roleplay or tackle mythical dungeons with the guild. Also, Cortyn is currently overtired and wants to go to bed.
Cortyn Nightshade
Expert demon for Azerothology at MeinMMO
This is how the launch went: Right at midnight, the quest popped up, and together with the about 100 other players, I immediately stormed through the portal.
Yes, some players complained about missing quest NPCs or chronic overcrowding. But that was to be expected. However, I was part of the “front line” anyway. I already knew the quests from the beta and therefore knew what I had to do. A small advantage that helped me have a bit more breathing room in the hours that followed.
The first hours were magnificent: Even though I already knew Shadowlands from the beta well enough, it’s always a new feeling to finally level a “real” character in the new areas. Every small quest completion that filled my XP bar felt good.
Aside from the fact that many of the errors from the beta are no longer there (anything else would be dumb) and the gaming experience was thus significantly improved.
Was it sometimes too crowded? Definitely. Fortunately, in most areas, there is a relatively quick respawn. Only rarely with certain mobs did you have to wait longer than a minute to take them down. As usually multiple players wanted the same enemy, the fights weren’t particularly hard. But then again, they rarely are in WoW during the leveling phase, unless you’re playing a character blindly.
I haven’t ventured into dungeons by the way – neither live nor in the beta. Here I promised my guild colleagues that we would do the first run together one of the upcoming evenings and get to know the dungeons together. I just hope they don’t take too long, as I’m itching to get started.
All in all: The launch was great. I had a lot of fun, and most players I’ve encountered felt similarly. There was a positive atmosphere in the public chat channels, and the one or two sourpusses who always found “everything sucks” got lost in all the positive messages. An atmosphere that makes WoW even more enjoyable.
And now please excuse me, I really need to go to bed. At least that’s what I told my colleagues who are now writing articles for you. I still have a date in Revendreth and am trying to stay awake for another hour or two…
How did you experience the launch? Did you also play nonstop or are you still playing? Or are you waiting with clenched teeth for the workday to finally end? The first player reached max level 60 in Shadowlands after just 3 hours.
