WoW: Shadowlands is just around the corner! We’ll give you some tips and tricks on how to get started in the Shadowlands.
On the night of November 24th, it’s finally time. With the launch of WoW: Shadowlands, the 8th expansion of World of Warcraft will kick off, which brings many innovations and especially fresh content. But how do you best start the Shadowlands addon? What should you pay attention to, and what mistakes should you avoid?
MeinMMO has a range of beginner tips for you that will help make the start in Shadowlands more pleasant and save you a lot of stress.
1. Clear out your inventory
This is a tip that becomes relevant again for every addon and that many players tend to forget. Before you venture into the Shadowlands, you should thoroughly clean out your inventory.
The frustration will be great when you realize after the first 10 quests that your bag space is simply insufficient and you have so many new items that you basically have to filter out two or three at the vendor after every mission. So save yourself time and frustration by thoroughly clearing out your bag space.
Especially old set pieces should finally be removed. They have long been stored in the collection and can be used for transmogification.
This also includes the bank and especially the resource tab. In Shadowlands, you will encounter numerous new crafting materials that all require space. Those who haven’t cleaned out their bank in advance will have to destroy stacks with gritted teeth later or struggle with serious space issues.
Anyone who invests half an hour in inventory management beforehand will save a lot of time and frustration later. A second character can also help, which you can use as a bank twink.
2. Focus on one character
At the start of a new expansion, it can be tempting to try out as many classes as possible and just take a look at what each class has to offer from level 50 onwards.
However, in Shadowlands, this is not recommended, and there is a clear reason for that. Once you have played through the Shadowlands story completely, other characters on your account can skip it if they wish. You must have completed the campaign at least once to directly start at level 50 with other characters (after arriving in the new capital) and skip this whole process.
This is not mandatory, though. If you’re sure that you want to quest through all areas with every character anyway, you can safely ignore this. However, if you are looking for alternative leveling methods and less “quest pressure”, you should first focus on one hero so that you have more freedom later.
3. Don’t stress out about the covenants
There has been a lot of talk about the covenants of Shadowlands beforehand. Players must choose one of the four covenants at the end of the leveling experience and will receive a variety of tasks, abilities, and bonuses.
But here is the rule: Don’t stress out. During the leveling phase, you can calmly check out all 4 covenants and try out the gameplay of all abilities.
As a newcomer or returnee, you likely won’t be tackling mythic raids in the foreseeable future anyway. So the choice of your covenant is likely to have little impact on your suitability for group activities.
Even if you later reach a point where you think that another covenant might have been better: don’t worry. You can change the covenant later. The decision is important but not permanent. So feel free to experiment a little.
Generally, it holds true: The choice of a covenant is significant but only makes up a small part of your character’s performance. There is no “best covenant” other than on paper and in very specific situations. You can find all detailed information about the covenants in this article.
4. Find yourself fellow players or a guild
It’s actually a given in an MMORPG, but it should still be mentioned here.
While you can certainly play World of Warcraft without any issues alone, sooner or later you will encounter certain hurdles. If you want to have better equipment than what is achievable through world quests and crafting or find LFR raids too boring, you need fellow players.
After all, a large portion of the most exciting WoW activities – such as challenging raids or the “Mythic+” system for dungeons – take place in the endgame.
All content can basically be tackled through the group finder, but the fun usually suffers here. In a guild, the requirements are usually lower than in random groups that demand you to have a particular specialization or approach. No wonder, since the personal contact is usually prioritized in a guild rather than pure effectiveness.
Join friends, join a promising guild, and be generally friendly to your fellow players. Ideally, you’ll build friendships here that develop into good friendships over the years and ensure you have several fellow players every evening. The improvements will come by themselves.
World of Warcraft is still most fun even after 16 years when you play it with a group of people who understand each other.
5. War Mode – Don’t get stuck in the decision
If you want to play with maximum efficiency, you can’t avoid War Mode. After all, there’s a bonus of 10% to 30% on experience points earned depending on the player status and some rewards from world quests.
You can activate War Mode through the Talents window in your faction’s capital (Stormwind for the Alliance, Orgrimmar for the Horde).
In War Mode, however, you are permanently marked for PvP and can therefore be attacked by players from the other faction, whom you will often encounter in the Shadowlands. However, this additional danger is compensated by extra XP and allows for faster leveling. At least if you don’t keep dying in fights against other players. Especially during the leveling phase, many players act “peacefully” with each other and simply make use of the XP bonus without actually engaging in PvP. So it can be worthwhile for fans of fast leveling!
If everything becomes too much for you, you can turn off War Mode in all rest areas. Just visit an inn and deactivate the mode again in the Talents selection if the mode restricts you more than it benefits you.
Do you have any other tips and advice that you would recommend for starting in the Shadowlands?
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