Season 4 of WoW: Shadowlands is causing a lot of frustration. Many players are asking: Have you actually played this yourself?
The fourth season of World of Warcraft Shadowlands has started and marks the beginning of the end for this expansion. In a somewhat experimental season, many old raids and dungeons are making a return to bring fresh ideas and shorten the wait until the release of the next expansion Dragonflight.
However, instead of praise for this interim content, criticism is pouring in on the subreddit and the official forums. The prevailing opinion is: Nobody really tested this properly in advance.
What is the criticism? The biggest points of criticism are regarding the new “Mythic+” dungeons that have been added this season. Where “new” is a flexible term, as these are mainly old dungeons from previous expansions (Battle for Azeroth, Legion, Warlords of Draenor) that are now part of the dungeon pool.
The balance and thus the difficulty level between these dungeons differs massively, according to the complaints of the community.
Especially the two Karazhan dungeons, both the upper and lower variants, are causing a lot of frustration, as MrThorto notes with much agreement in the WoW subreddit:
After I ran keys between +2 and +16 with my guild yesterday and we normally aim for keys in the range of 15 to 20, I can clearly say that the dungeons are bugged and have only been minimally tested by the developers.
I don’t know how one can play Karazhan – whether the upper OR lower – and confidently claim to have had a good time, even knowing all the mechanics.
The criticism of Karazhan is particularly harsh. The large number of mechanics that are clear “one-hits” cause a lot of frustration here.
However, some players also point out that this might be particularly due to this week. Because the affix “Inspiring” ensures that many enemies cannot be interrupted, allowing their deadly abilities to be executed without interruption.
Old mechanics do not fit with current requirements: Another point of criticism is that many of the current Mythic affixes simply do not fit with the old dungeon design, such as from “Warlords of Draenor”. In the “Gloomy Depot”, the long train ride, there is often way too little space to avoid the “Quaking” affix in the narrow corridors. At the same time, the lightning area ability of the final boss is far too strong, as one cannot dodge in advance and never knows where the area will land – at higher levels, just a few seconds are enough to kill a character.
It is certainly clear that Blizzard needs to make improvements here, as the dungeons at the same level show significant differences in difficulty. Groups that usually plow effortlessly through “Mythic+20” are already failing at low double-digit keys. The balance does not seem to be very successful here.
What experiences have you had with the new season? Can you relate to the points of criticism? Or did you enjoy the dungeons and don’t see the problems at all?
