World of Warcraft’s upcoming Shadowlands expansion is going to be making some massive changes to the gameplay. As with each expansion, there will be unique mechanics, awards, and abilities being added.
But Blizzard isn’t content to leave the additions at expansion-specific changes. The developers intend to add a considerable shakeup with some of the changes they’re bringing in. Discussing the launch of the alpha next week, Blizzard outlined some changes alpha testers should expect to see, and it’s likely these changes will be sticking around at the full version of the launch.
The team has been hard at work bringing Shadowlands to reality.
Check out the latest Developer Update for more info, including details on the closed alpha test starting later this week.
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First, every class will see immediate changes to their spellbooks, talents, and even the resources of some classes. Blizzard doesn’t want to go too far in-depth yet, preferring to wait until they have a more concrete design, but are interested to know what we think of the changes and pruning they’ve offered so far.
They’re also making improvements to the quest log and quest interface as a whole. Their aim is to better distinguish major quests that are needed to advance the overarching narrative of the expansion versus the zone-specific sidequests that tell a more localized story.
“We’re also rolling out a system that allows players to set a personal waypoint on the map as well as share that pin in chat channels, so that you should no longer need an add-on to convey exactly where Rustfeather just spawned,” Blizzard stated. Obviously the specific example of Rustfeather extends to any other reason you may want to direct your party member’s gaze somewhere.
The final main change that’s being brought in is actually a bit of a regression to a system fans loved. Conquest is returning as a spendable currency earned through rated PvP in the Shadowlands expansion. “Conquest can also be used to upgrade that gear further (similar to how Benthic gear worked with Manapearls in Rise of Azshara),” Blizzard writes.
Overall, there’s plenty more information coming down the pipeline, but we have quite a bit to keep us going with this short developer’s blog. Knowing that conquest is returning is a huge perk for fans of the PvP systems, and alterations to quests and player UIs are great for players that are tired of having a dozen different add-ons just to keep their screen organized.
Given the huge amount of content coming with Shadowlands, it seems that Blizzard is excited to be changing things around so radically. As the alpha testing begins and chugs along, we’ll likely see a few changes to the things that have been revealed to us, so don’t take anything as set in stone just yet.
