The new expansion Shadowlands for World of Warcraft has been playable for a few months now. MyMMO author Benedict Grothaus is still playing intensely. His conclusion: It’s good, but there’s just too much to do and too few rewards.
I have been a devoted WoW player for 16 years now and find Shadowlands a really successful expansion. The new covenants are an exciting new feature with interesting lore, and I think the new dungeons are all great.
Even the new raid Castle Nathria is more fun for me than any raid in BfA and even more than most in Legion. The atmosphere and mood in the instance and in the whole addon are just right.
Nevertheless, I am somewhat dissatisfied with Shadowlands. Not because it offers too little, but rather too much. I have to do something at every turn.
Ve’nari sends me through the annoying Maw, the Night Fae would like more anima from me, and Torghast beckons every week with two wings that I have to conquer. Additionally, I raid with my guild three evenings a week. And I also have to work eventually.
Too much to do, no time for fun
Here’s everything you have to do: Shadowlands is full of activities in the endgame. Many of them appear regularly – weekly or even daily. They all take a lot of time:
- the Maw with its daily quests, where you can only ride with certain mounts
- daily emissary quests and world quests
- weekly covenant tasks
- weekly tasks for PvP in arenas or battlegrounds
- two Torghast wings each week
- mythic keystone dungeons and the raid
As a reward for these tasks, there’s anima, soul ash, stygia, or loot – all useful items that I don’t want to miss out on. Unfortunately, few of the activities can be combined.
On top of that, I should actually be farming materials or gold to equip myself for PvE. Nowadays, I almost only buy tokens for real money.
That’s why it annoys me: Each of these activities rewards me, it seems, too little. For the effort I put in here, I would like to see more yield. I miss the feeling of having achieved something.
After I have checked off all my “duties” for the week, I don’t feel like I have accomplished anything. I rather inwardly groan because the whole hamster wheel starts turning again on Wednesday. There’s hardly any time to play a twink or farm something.
The worst part is that I have no choice – or at least that’s what I convince myself. Everything I do has a specific purpose. Every task rewards me with something that I can only obtain elsewhere to a limited extent or not at all.
A sense of duty
Why do I have to do all this? I need each of the activities to improve:
- Torghast provides soul ash for crafting and upgrading legendary items
- Ve’nari and the Maw grant me access to sockets for my equipment
- weekly covenant missions advance my renown and improve my soul binds
- I need anima to upgrade my sanctum
- PvP, raid, and mythic keystone dungeons improve loot for my Great Vault
- rated arenas and battlegrounds improve my rating which I need to upgrade some of my best items
Of course, some of these problems are “self-made”. As a progress raider, I have the ambition to get the most out of my character. In this case, I don’t like the limitations.
When I have more time, like on weekends or otherwise, I can’t “save up” for the next weeks, nor can I make up for lost time. If I miss something, it’s gone, and if I have extra time, I can at most improve my vault.
I don’t feel like I’m getting anything for my time. I can’t do any more or less than a “casual” player and even as a frequent player, I’m only rewarded the same way.
More rewards would help
How could it be better? It’s actually good that there’s so much to do. But the rewards for many areas should simply be larger – or at least present. This would provide greater motivation to endure the weekly grind.
- Torghast could additionally reward anima. The stuff is pumped into the Maw anyway, so why can’t we steal it from the Jailer?
- Dungeons and raid bosses urgently need more than a pitiful 35 anima as a “consolation prize”. Anima rewards in general should be higher, even if Cortyn has a different opinion.
- I would like to farm soul ash retroactively with a weekly increasing cap, similar to conquest points or renown. That would also be good for twinks.
- Sockets need an alternative source other than just Ve’nari. Those who actively raid usually neither have the desire nor the time to fight through the Maw every day.
Overall, I’m sure that it would benefit Shadowlands to not stretch the content so much as is currently the case. Moving a bit faster shouldn’t hurt anyone; many guilds are still stuck on the bosses in the raid. “Too fast” isn’t possible right now anyway.
Is everything bad? Even if it sounds like everything frustrates me, that’s not the case. In fact, it annoys me how much I have to do in a week, but many activities are also fun in themselves.
I enjoy visiting Torghast, I would like to see it more often – but it just isn’t worth it. Dungeons and even PvP are also fun, but only with a fixed group, which again limits possible time.
And ultimately, I raid because it brings me joy. I just sometimes wish that I could achieve better progress. The rewards from dungeons and raids in Shadowlands are already lower than in previous expansions – at least the surrounding content should go a bit faster. Or not?
For the future, I definitely wish to maintain my enthusiasm for WoW, even through tougher times. Others manage it too: This 78-year-old Twitch streamer is still raiding heroically.
