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World of Warcraft: Shadowlands - New Player Guide | MMORPG.com

SystemSystem Member UncommonPosts: 12,599
edited November 2020 in News & Features Discussion

imageWorld of Warcraft: Shadowlands - New Player Guide | MMORPG.com

With the November 23rd release of World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, like any new expansion it's bound to bring in new players to the venerable MMO. This handy guide can serve to help those new players get their bearings as they start their adventure in the Shadowlands.

Read the full story here


Comments

  • Bane112Bane112 Newbie CommonPosts: 16
    edited November 2020
    Unless it was bad info, I thought I read that you can finish the BfA intro questline, then head back to your capital city to speak to Chromie to play any expansion. Didn’t think you needed to be max level or finish BfA.
  • NanfoodleNanfoodle Member LegendaryPosts: 10,875

    Bane112 said:

    Unless it was bad info, I thought I read that you can finish the BfA intro questline, then head back to your capital city to speak to Chromie to play any expansion. Didn’t think you needed to be max level or finish BfA.



    You can level is any expansion you like. Everything scales now.
  • CygiCygi Member RarePosts: 257
    Wait, so now new player must go through spoiler shortcut through the story first and then he can play missions he want?
  • NanfoodleNanfoodle Member LegendaryPosts: 10,875
    edited November 2020

    Cygi said:

    Wait, so now new player must go through spoiler shortcut through the story first and then he can play missions he want?



    There is much more freedom in the leveling process. The new starter zone is not a spoiler. Its to teach you the game in a short compact amount of time. It quickly sends you to BFA that most up to date area next to level up to 50. You can level to 50 in any expansion you wish. Once you get 50, off to Shadowlands. The curve to level 50 has been sped up as well. 50-60 is a little slower.

    EDIT: Also you dont need to do the starter area if you have leveled a char before. 
    xpsync
  • ArleeArlee Member UncommonPosts: 164
    edited November 2020

    Bane112 said:

    Unless it was bad info, I thought I read that you can finish the BfA intro questline, then head back to your capital city to speak to Chromie to play any expansion. Didn’t think you needed to be max level or finish BfA.



    You have to have a max level character (or be an already existing player when the pre-patch happened) to be able to do Chromie time. If you don't fit either of those criteria then you need to play through BfA quests until you hit level 50, at which point if you make other characters you can level through any expansion to level them up.

    https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/000275056
    xpsync
  • xpsyncxpsync Member EpicPosts: 1,854
    I think you nutshell'd the overwhelming really well. Kudos! I'm envious of new players who can start with this guide.

    I've done the new starter twice and had the same issue both times. Was at the dungeon, effectively it was a normal nag about a person left the group and i could not get it to go away, didn't try reload though, never thought about that until i read this article.

    What an interesting observation in that wow is a dimorphic MMO, i know that is the case, i know that happens but never observed it as such, nice way to "fact" that :)

    Agree people should read the start zone text, and tbh should read it everywhere. It completely transforms the game as i've recently been discovering, huge immersion value and understanding of why, when, and where you are, and knowing what is going on and doing what you're doing makes it... i dunno... awesome! Plus there much humor in there too.

    Overall on podcasts i getting the feeling that most people think the leveling is too fast.

    I couldn't be more opposite in that i find with warmode on 10% and the 16% anniversary buff, an extra 26% boost above the already faster norm to be just right if you're taking your time and reading quests.

    If you smell the roses you still feel like you're getting somewhere at the end of a play session and not punished (so to speak right) that you're taking your time. So yeah it's not a mystery for people to feel it's too fast if you're plowing through, then ofc it'll feel that way.

    I mean i kinda had to get past a few old thoughts after leveling so many alts in the old system, such as i had a hard time shaking the feeling of i'll be leaving this expansion soon, no you won't, you're able to go and do any expansion you want, including BFA, and most of all slow down and enjoy the content for a change.
    Arlee
    My faith is my shield! - Turalyon 2022

    Your legend ends here and now! - (Battles Won Long Ago)

    Currently Playing; Dragonflight and SWG:L
  • ArleeArlee Member UncommonPosts: 164
    @xpsync There's a huge divide between the playerbase who want to get through leveling as fast as possible (without buying a boost) and the players who'd like to actually be able to experience full storylines and they level and have a real experience with it. I feel like with these changes they've hit a good balance between those two, and also came up with a way for new players to experience a cohesive story as they level. There's definitely issues, but it's great leap into addressing the concerns of each group.

    I'm also really curious how this system will evolve as new expansions are added. For example, one of the disappointing things for me was you only really see the story from leveling in each expansion. You don't get to really see much of the content added throughout the expansion. Now, n the future as more expansions are added and the level cap increases, that might be a self fixing issue.
    xpsync
  • NanfoodleNanfoodle Member LegendaryPosts: 10,875
    Arlee said:
    @xpsync There's a huge divide between the playerbase who want to get through leveling as fast as possible (without buying a boost) and the players who'd like to actually be able to experience full storylines and they level and have a real experience with it. I feel like with these changes they've hit a good balance between those two, and also came up with a way for new players to experience a cohesive story as they level. There's definitely issues, but it's great leap into addressing the concerns of each group.

    I'm also really curious how this system will evolve as new expansions are added. For example, one of the disappointing things for me was you only really see the story from leveling in each expansion. You don't get to really see much of the content added throughout the expansion. Now, n the future as more expansions are added and the level cap increases, that might be a self fixing issue.
    I dont get why people are upset they want to see the whole story in any expansion. The game now scales to your level. You want to spend 3 months in an expansion. No one is stopping you. In ESO, at max level. I played almost every zone, just for the story. Thats the fun of scaling. 
  • ArleeArlee Member UncommonPosts: 164

    Nanfoodle said:


    Arlee said:

    @xpsync There's a huge divide between the playerbase who want to get through leveling as fast as possible (without buying a boost) and the players who'd like to actually be able to experience full storylines and they level and have a real experience with it. I feel like with these changes they've hit a good balance between those two, and also came up with a way for new players to experience a cohesive story as they level. There's definitely issues, but it's great leap into addressing the concerns of each group.



    I'm also really curious how this system will evolve as new expansions are added. For example, one of the disappointing things for me was you only really see the story from leveling in each expansion. You don't get to really see much of the content added throughout the expansion. Now, n the future as more expansions are added and the level cap increases, that might be a self fixing issue.


    I dont get why people are upset they want to see the whole story in any expansion. The game now scales to your level. You want to spend 3 months in an expansion. No one is stopping you. In ESO, at max level. I played almost every zone, just for the story. Thats the fun of scaling. 



    It scales to a point. So, everything in Chromie time will scale up to level 50, which doesn't matter too much because 50 is the current max level. However, once Shadowlands goes live players will still be locked at 50 in Chromie time. So you can continue playing through it, but you won't be able to play it all the way to level 60 because Blizzard wants the last 10 levels to be current expansion content. While there are certainly players who will happily keep playing the storylines at 50 with no xp even after the expansion launches, for others they don't want their leveling to be halted just because they want to finish out old storylines.
    xpsyncIselin
  • IselinIselin Member LegendaryPosts: 18,719
    edited November 2020
    Arlee said:
    ... Blizzard wants the last 10 levels to be current expansion content. 
    That's the main difference between ESO and WOW with respect to where you level. ESO is 100% scaled and where you level at any point n your leveling experience is truly up to you. They abandoned releasing content meant only for max level players after they released Craglorn in 2014. Every addition since is just as playable at low or high levels and scaled. They actually did that before they scaled the whole game. New zones (AKA "DLC") were always level scaled dating back to Orsinium in 2015.

    Blizzard has scaled everything and level squished it all to get rid of the out of control stat, damage and healing numbers that were starting to get very Diabloish (EDIT: for those who don't know what I meant by "Diabloish" in Diablo 3 at level 1 you deal damage in single or double digits, but once you're at geared level 70 pushing Greater Rifts in the 70 - 150 range, your normal attacks deals damage in the millions or billions with the better builds routinely doing trillions with occasionally quadrillion level spikes), but they still hold on to their "new content for max level" release style.

    All in all though, kudos to them for the full scaling rework everywhere but the latest expansion. 

    PS: Very nice and well written content again, Robin. Keep it up!
    Arleexpsync[Deleted User]
    "Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”

    ― Umberto Eco

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  • GrintchGrintch Member UncommonPosts: 132
    What do you all think would be the best expansion to play through after using Chromie?
  • IselinIselin Member LegendaryPosts: 18,719
    Grintch said:
    What do you all think would be the best expansion to play through after using Chromie?
    Depends a bit on whether it's an existing character or a brand new one IMO. Pre-existing characters who already had flying unlocked were level squished to levels where they technically should not be able to fly now (below level 30) or fly fast (level 40) but retained their previously earned flying ability.

    That means they can now fly in WoD and Legion which had their xpac-specific flying requirements removed but not in BfA which didn't,

    Personally I'm still leveling in BfA nevertheless because I find the story there more engaging. The gold per hour played just questing without grinding also just seems to be better there than elsewhere.

    I last played WoW regularly in Pandaria although I did flirt with WoD for a month and Legion for about the same time last year so I have many of those squished characters that can fly. But I'm not leveling those yet since I'm just trying to get reacquainted with all the classes at the moment playing them at low levels before I start playing my mid-level ones again. 1-10 just takes about an hour and taking them to level 20 about 2 or 3 more. It slows down a bit after that but it's very easy to get a feel for every class if you so wish in the pre-patch.

    I was an Afflock main through WotLK, Pandaria and Cata and so far I see no reason to change that - they're still powerful and quick to level. I must say though that I'm enjoying what they've done with Shadow Priest a lot so who knows :)

    From what I've seen on Reddit when people ask where the fastest place to level is, WoD seems to be the most popular answer. /shrug.
    xpsync[Deleted User]
    "Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”

    ― Umberto Eco

    “Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” 
    ― CD PROJEKT RED

  • xpsyncxpsync Member EpicPosts: 1,854
    Grintch said:
    What do you all think would be the best expansion to play through after using Chromie?

    Honestly, go with the flow atm , at least until chromie is polished.

    Exiles Reach, BFA... SL.

    I did a couple chromie; mop, wod, and now going through BFA, hands down the polished route.
    Arlee[Deleted User]Iselin
    My faith is my shield! - Turalyon 2022

    Your legend ends here and now! - (Battles Won Long Ago)

    Currently Playing; Dragonflight and SWG:L
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