A new cinematic for World of Warcraft has been revealed. This time you see the Ardenweald – and the problems faced there.

In the lead-up to the release of the upcoming WoW expansion Shadowlands, Blizzard keeps unveiling new cinematics. After the exciting video for Bastion and Uther was released at gamescom, last week Maldraxxus featured the orc woman Draka.

This week it’s the Ardenweald – you can watch the cinematic here.

What is the Ardenweald? The Ardenweald is one of the countless realms of the Shadowlands and an important place for all beings connected to nature or druidism. Beings who cared for nature during their lives or are natural demigods return to the Ardenweald after their death. Here, they are divided into different groves and nurtured and cared for by the inhabitants of the Ardenweald until one day they have enough strength to be reborn.

This is what can be seen in the cinematic: The video shows Ursoc – a bear god that players defeated in Legion. He was corrupted by the Nightmare and had to be killed, after which his soul wandered into the Ardenweald.

Or he lands in a grove and has since been cared for, to be reborn one day. But as time passes, it becomes apparent that something is wrong. The necessary anima required to sustain the nature spirits seems to have run dry. There is a drought, and more and more of the nature spirits are deteriorating.

Even Ursoc’s essence is threatened and will someday be attacked. The guardian of the grove tries to save his soul – ultimately realizes, however, that the ruler of this realm must make decisions about which soul lives and which dies.

With a heavy heart, Ursoc is sacrificed so that other souls can continue to live.

Much emotion without great action

Although Afterlife: Ardenweald contains the least amount of action of the cinematics so far and fundamentally tells a story that can be summarized in three sentences, it has touched me.

The dilemma faced by the Ardenweald, its queen, and the various guardians of the groves has been wonderfully conveyed and provokes thought.

For me, the video is clearly better than that of Maldraxxus – but still falls short of the Uther cinematic.

Cortyn Nightshade
WoW demon from MeinMMO

What do you think of the video for Ardenweald? Does it set the stage for the most beautiful area of Shadowlands?

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With Shadowlands, Twinks in WoW receive a “Carefree” package – they can simply skip all the “annoying questing” of the story.

Unlike in previous expansions of World of Warcraft, the story in the Shadowlands is linear. You have to play the areas in a fixed order, as only then will the story of the Shadowlands unfold correctly. At least that applies to your first character. All other Twinks can simply say “Skip!” and pass everything.

What will change? In the upcoming beta patch, second characters will have a new option to choose. After they have played through the intro of Shadowlands and escaped from the Maw, they will find themselves in Oribos. However, there will be a new NPC named “Fatescribe”. When you speak to this character, you will be presented with options and can:

• Experience the entire story of Shadowlands again and quest through all 4 areas as usual.
• Skip the entire main campaign. It will be treated as if you had completed it.

Thus, second characters have the freedom to choose how they want to proceed.

More on the topic

WoW Shadowlands: No, Blizzard will not pull the emergency brake

von Cortyn

What does that mean? Those who choose the second option and skip the campaign are still level 50. However, they can immediately choose one of the covenants and join. In the areas that have been skipped, there are now new bonus objectives that can be completed for XP. Additionally, world quests, treasure chests, dungeons, and rare enemies provide opportunities to level and gear up the character.

Why did Blizzard change this? Blizzard is responding to player feedback from beta testing. The original plan was for second characters to freely quest and level in any area of their choice, while already having chosen a covenant. However, that felt strange. It didn’t make sense to experience the story in Revendreth while your own hero had already joined the Venthyr. The “wrong” order of areas also caused confusion and an unpleasant gameplay experience.

With the new variant, players have more options to decide how they want to approach second characters. You can also think about this extensively at the login screen…

What do you think about it?

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The big decision about World of Warcraft Shadowlands has been made. A major wish of the players will not be fulfilled. We reveal what this means.

In recent days, there have been wild discussions surrounding the upcoming expansion Shadowlands. The hashtag #PullTheRipcord has been making the rounds and has repeatedly caused heated debates. Now the game’s Game Director, Ion Hazzikostas, has addressed a blog post and clarified Blizzard’s position. The ‘ripcord’ will not be pulled. The covenant system will remain as it is.

What was the ripcord? The term comes from an interview with the streamer Preach. It was about dissatisfaction with the current covenant system in Shadowlands, as the abilities mean a lot of power for the player characters. Since covenants cannot simply be changed – and neither can the abilities – many players wish for the covenant abilities to function like talents and be freely exchangeable. Lifting these restrictions was the “ripcord” that was to be pulled.

No ripcord, covenants remain as they are

This is what Hazzikostas has said: In a lengthy blog post, Hazzikostas explained Blizzard’s position and justified why they will not pull this ripcord. The covenant system will largely come as the players currently know it from the beta. He stated:

None of this means that the development of covenants and their functions is complete or that we are not open to further changes. We are far from it. We understand that we are offering a selection of competing covenants with strengths and weaknesses. If we are not careful, especially with regard to pressure from the community, the weaknesses can easily overshadow the strengths. The satisfaction of having an advantage in certain content does not outweigh the frustration of being completely excluded in other content.

However, while it may seem easiest to tear down the whole system to prevent a major calamity, we are committed to working with the community to ensure that all players feel viable, regardless of which covenant they have chosen.

Why is nothing changing? Hazzikostas also elaborated on various reasons. They maintain that players do not need even more decisions to adapt before each fight. With talents, specializations, gear, and conduits, they already have a wide array. However, a covenant should be part of the character’s identity and not be permanently exchangeable.

At the same time, the covenant abilities would not be systems that could be “just released” like that. Covenants and their abilities are one of the cornerstones of Shadowlands. Each covenant ability can be changed by conduits and soulbinds. That would mean that not only the abilities but also the soulbinds of all covenants would have to be made freely selectable. However, that would mean that all players would need to play through the campaigns of all covenants, as the soulbinds are unlocked through the story. The covenant system simply could not logically survive in this form.

In short, this means: If we pull this thread (or cord), it would dissolve the entire structure of the system. Even though we would take on the necessary work to renew the covenant system in this way if we agree it would be an improvement – in the end, we do not agree with this view.

Blizzard is listening, will continue to adjust: Lastly, he explained that some community concerns are indeed being heard. If, for example, the Kyrian covenant is completely unpopular for rogues because the abilities and soulbinds are not strong enough, then changes may occur. All covenants should feel equally strong. There is still a lot of balancing to be done on the actual numbers, so the current strength of the abilities is not yet representative of the final outcome.

The covenants will therefore come as they are currently in the game. There will not be a free selection of talents – at least not at the launch of World of Warcraft Shadowlands in a few weeks.

What do you think of this decision? A good choice to stick to the covenants in their form? Or is WoW digging its own grave with this?

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