As we come closer and closer to World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, the alpha has drawn to a close. Now, the next level of testing begins this week with the upcoming Shadowlands Beta!
The Alpha was able to give developers an incredible amount to balance and tweak. Features that were added on the fly, such as Torments, were swiftly playtested and feedback returned, as well as the obvious issues of bugs and glitches that needed to be found.
In response to the feedback, Blizzard was quick to respond. For example, the Torment system was swiftly responded to with highly negative sentiments due to its gating design and decidedly-not-fun mechanics.
Rather than try to tweak the system, Blizzard listened to fan feedback and outright removed it entirely. Fans were quite happy to see Blizzard listening to them so readily and are hoping to see more of such behavior moving forward.
But while we move forward, we’ll have an incredible amount of content to test within the new beta! Blizzard revealed some of the new content that testers will be able to explore in the beta in their recent developer update about a week ago.
The #Shadowlands beta starts this week! Here's how to opt-in for your chance at being selected #Warcrafthttps://t.co/CP7r37Fdop pic.twitter.com/Ci9ywbopO0
— Wowhead💙 (@Wowhead) July 15, 2020
One of the most interesting features we’ll be exploring is endgame content, as the alpha had the cap around 50. With the level cap changing to 60 for this upcoming expansion, players will be able to reach the max level in the beta.
In doing so, this will present a wealth of new content to test in the beta, from endgame dungeons like the Theater of Pain to the horrendous zone that The Maw presents as a whole. Players will also get to see what sort of challenge the max level presents, of course.
Additionally, Blizzard is hoping to institute a form of end-to-end testing by allowing players to copy characters over from their live servers to the beta. This will provide an opportunity to see how the expansion will be experienced live rather than as a fresh character that didn’t interact with BfA.
Of course, players will still be able to utilize a fresh character to get the experience of starting zones and the leveling system. With such drastic overhauls to how leveling works, there’s quite a bit to see from every angle.
With the beta opening, there will also be thousands more testers jumping in to see what awaits the players and helping developers along the way. If you’ve opted in, keep an eye on your email and Battle.net launcher to see if you’ve been selected to join the beta testing team!
