Is it worth playing World of Warcraft: Shadowlands in 2022? (Updated for WoW Patch 9.1)

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To play or not to play

Is it worth playing World of Warcraft: Shadowlands in 2022? (Updated for WoW Patch nine.1)

Wow Sire Denathrius Source: Windows Central

Best Reply: Probably not. Earth of Warcraft is suffering from rushed evolution leaving botched storylines and weak itemization in its wake. Returning or new players have to sink potentially thousands of gold to grab up on Legendary mechanics. Professions are all simply abased, while Blizzard focuses on raids and dungeons, which lack unique art assets per class. The story has as well taken a nosedive in quality.

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Should you play Globe of Warcraft: Shadowlands? TL;DR version

World of Warcraft just got a large update, dubbed ix.ane, which brings a new raid tier and megadungeon to World of Warcraft: Shadowlands.
For returning players, Shadowlands 9.1 makes 9.0 content obsolete, and catching up to the 9.1 curve is a steep and boring hill to climb.
If you want to experience the story solitary, Shadowlands features some of the best cinematic work Blizzard has done in a quest experience yet. However, nine.1 craters the experience with convoluted character writing that makes no sense.
The large bad (every bit far every bit we know) is a mysterious entity known as The Jailer, formerly imprisoned in the Shadowlands. The Jailer has now turned that prison and all of its inhabitants into his own personal army.
The Jailer seemed like a promising antagonist at launch, only inconsistent writing makes him less compelling.
The new Shadowlands zones are interesting, with memorable characters and returning heroes (and villains) banished to the afterlife.
We have an procedurally-randomized dungeon chosen Torghast, Legion Order Hall-like Covenants to build up and bring together, and new progression systems that are arguably more interesting than Battle for Azeroth's Warfronts or Island Expeditions.
However, the timegating mechanics cake progression arbitrarily, making the ability gains a calendar week-by-calendar week drip-feed footing. You lot're consistently left with little to exercise outside of Mythic+ dungeons and raid schedules.
Endgame feels less rewarding than ever since Blizzard has reduced the amount of boodle you get from direct boss kills, with a massive accent on randomized weekly chests for a tiny take a chance to go an upgrade.
Blizzard is too beingness sued by the country of California for creating an unfair, and in some means dangerous workplace for women in the U.South.

What is World of Warcraft?

WoW is a game that is nearly and dearest to my centre. I have played it on and off for over 13 years, starting in the original game (referred to equally vanilla or classic), all the way upwards to now, the 8th expansion, dubbed "Battle for Azeroth".

An expansion is an odd mode to describe World of Warcraft's huge fully-priced content drops, which contain hundreds, perhaps thousands of hours worth of juicy gameplay, dwarfing the definition of "expansion" as we know it with other games. Of form, World of Warcraft is funded by a subscription-based model, with well over 10 million players paying $15 per month for the right to access the gargantuan open worlds that make up the land of Azeroth and the game's other planets (yes, planets).

Source: Windows Central Yes, y'all can travel to those mountains.

World of Warcraft has many imitators (and WoW itself borrowed heavily from other MMOs that preceded it), but few take managed to achieve Blizzard's level of execution. WoW is an activity RPG that is responsive, heady, and quite honestly, somehow gorgeous despite rocking an engine that'due south more than a decade old. WoW is going stiff, and while previous expansions such as Warlords of Draenor seemed to contribute to a steep drop-off in players, Legion brought many millions of players flocking back.

With Battle for Azeroth finished off, the game has been updated to version ix.0 with the release of Shadowlands. We have a totally revamped leveling feel, all-new customization features, and a smoothed out story that is far easier for newcomers to understand and enjoy.

I'm going to run through some of my findings, both leveling new characters and indulging in WoW's mod end game content afterwards indulging in Patch nine.0 and 9.1 for World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, which initially launched on November 23, 2022.

The newcomer leveling experience

Source: Windows Central

I have experience trying to persuade dozens of friends and family to get into WoW, so I know many common complaints. The last time I updated this guide, World of Warcraft'southward leveling experience was abysmal, to say the least. The overlapping timelines from over a decade of content additions made leveling an utterly confusing, convoluted experience, but Patch 9.0 for Shadowlands completely fixes many of those concerns.

When you make a new grapheme, y'all start on a make new isle out in the sea. Shipwrecked away from your faction, you'll begin experiencing the game from a far more up-to-date perspective, around the beginning of the "Fourth War," which follows the events of the previous expansion, Battle for Azeroth. This new leveling experience funnels new players direct into the Battle for Azeroth zones, bypassing content that hasn't been updated or touched in over ten years. Veteran players tin can even so go back and experience these previous expansions via "Fourth dimension Travel" with the Bronze Dragon, Chromie. Only for new players, the repositioning of the timeline makes everything a lot easier to enjoy and understand.

WoW Source: Windows Central

Blizzard has dropped a "level squish" on the game, scaling players back down to a level sixty cap. This reduces the amount of time it takes new players to level up characters through the Battle for Azeroth storyline. At level 50, yous'll enter Shadowlands, which is all-new content.

In addition, Blizzard has added piles of new customization features for all of the game'due south races (although... non nearly plenty for Goblins, ahem). This gives returning players new options for differentiating themselves from other players. Some races got boatloads of new hairstyles, skin tones, and other features, which adds further freshness to the game. The climb into endgame was relatively straight forward every bit of patch ix.0, but Blizzard's obsolecense cycle has fabricated getting into endgame for ix.1 overtly time consuming and, in large role, merely boring. Newcomers are better off waiting for the next expansion at this point for another "big reset," until Blizzard figures out how to make the game more interesting for new players. Until then, yous should probably check out Final Fantasy Xiv (FFXIV) instead.

Land of World of Warcraft: Shadowlands (Patch 9.ane)

World Of Warcraft Shadowlands Ardenweald Source: Windows Central

Nosotros're now deep into Shadowlands' full launch, which revamps all of the bones systems while injecting all-new "borrowed power" progression, endgame dungeons, and much more than. Equally such, the entire game has been thoroughly shaken upwards from its previous expansion, merely the way its playing out across patches hasn't exactly been encouraging.

Many classes take all-new spells, all-new talent skills, all-new damage rotations, and tools to use. And the way stats scale has been completely inverse, so players logging in afterward Patch 9.0 may find their damage or healing output has completely changed, fifty-fifty if they didn't purchase Shadowlands.

Some of the principal activities to undertake in Globe of Warcraft'southward endgame includes Mythic+ dungeon runs, which gives players access to increasingly powerful gear for completing increasingly difficult versions of existing 5-man dungeons within a specified time limit. Mythic+ was introduced in the Legion expansion and has proven popular, giving players in smaller groups something to practise outside of raiding.

WoW Source: Windows Fundamental Y'all tin can play equally a fox person now. For reasons.

The new Shadowlands dungeons experience shorter at offset, simply when y'all include Mythic+ keys they catamenia nicely, with quite interesting mechanics.

The new Covenants organisation caused controversy at launch, due to the differences in power betwixt each faction and form combination. Covenants are like to Legion's grade Guild Halls, in that they requite you a choice to make at the terminate of the story.

This Covenant "option" ironically feels like the lack of a option.

The Covenant you choose can take a profound bear on on your endgame potency and experience, but we haven't gotten to a point where players are losing groups due to their choices. That said, it still feels similar a contentious choice to make when you look at sims data. While the differences for some might be 100 DPS lost here and in that location, the differences for some classes seem to be far larger, meaning that you lot may be forced to choose a Covenant whose story and aesthetic you lot just don't care for.

This Covenant "choice" ironically feels like, in some cases, the lack of a choice equally a effect. You lot may demand to look deeper into whether your course lines up with your Covenant pick either on WoWhead or Icy-Veins' class guide sections, to at least get an idea of how bad a Covenant vs. Course combo might end upwardly being. Blizzard has attempted to finetune the covenant balance throughout the expansion, but the whole system feels similar layers of unrewarding busywork, given that your access to them is effectively timegated. Information technology makes World of Warcraft feel like a task/routine, rather than a video game, making WoW more slow than always.

Warcraft Shadowlands Maldraxxus Primus Source: Windows Central I joined the undead Maldraxxus Covenant, eventhough it wasn't "optimal" for my spec, and the pick felt bad as a result.

The worst thing Blizzard did for this expansion was nerfing boodle drops.

At that place's notwithstanding world PVP to enjoy, ganking other players for daily rewards, and good ol' battlegrounds, which are less gear-based than they have been in the by. Blizzard has arguably stopped innovating in this area though, as it looks to PvE as the main source of histrion retention.

Torghast is another interesting aspect of the new endgame, giving players an infinitely randomized dungeon to explore and claiming themselves with, as an extension of N'Zoth's "Visions" Blizzard experimented with previously. Torghast is far larger and far more interesting than the Visions were, that's for sure, but afterwards several weeks grinding through the tower, it has started to feel like a weekly chore you desire to go over and washed with every bit fast as possible. Every arrangement in WoW feels designed effectually the big weekly reset, which gives you lot a chest for your Mythic+ contributions while besides resetting dungeons and raids. Frustratingly, the whole arrangement feels like yous're operating on some kind of strict routine, complete with deadlines, and a weekly paycheck. Y'all know, like a job. World of Warcraft has bluntly never felt worse to play as a result. The pressure cooker of obtaining raider.io ratings and getting absolutely perfect gear from the layers of randomized systems has also degraded the sense of community the game has besides. World of Warcraft is in refuse, and there'southward no other way to wait at it.

I retrieve this current tier is perhaps one of the least rewarding endgames of recent times, since I've now gotten to a point where I'm not having enough fun to justify the time investment. The worst thing Blizzard did for this expansion was nerfing loot drops, with direct boss kills no longer rewarding items on anywhere virtually what resembles a frequent footing. The trade-off is that you go "more control" over a weekly Tuesday/Wednesday server reset reward, but it takes the joy out of boss kills in a large mode. I went through over 40 boss kills across Mythic+ dungeons and Castle Nathria raiding without getting a unmarried upgrade, which is just plain miserable. In a game that revolves around boodle and the power you gain from it, the anemic drip of items ironically mimics the plot'southward anima drought. nine.1 did introduce a new token and currency system to help you lot get the items you want, merely again, that merely reduces the thrill of actually killing bosses.

Right now, I cannot in good organized religion recommend Globe of Warcraft to newcomers. There's a reason many players are leaving WoW for FFXIV, despite this new content drop.

What does the future of World of Warcraft bring?

World Of Warcraft Shadowlands Torghast Source: Blizzard

The new raid is now fully released, alongside a new megadungeon, giving players a whole new gear curve to grind through. The gap between 9.0 and nine.1 was several months, probably affected past the pandemic. It seems probable that nine.2 will also be a relatively long wait also.

The next patch will probably be revealed in full at Blizzcon 2022, which is expected to exist a "hybrid" testify split between an online and in-person gathering. I doubt Blizzard will address the existent issues with World of Warcraft any time soon, since the programmer team hasn't really innovated since Legion several years ago. Blizzard doesn't fifty-fifty make class-based armor sets anymore due to budget cuts, and class updates are a rarity.

Shadowlands had the potential to be a great expansion, but it's noteworthy that this is the commencement expansion that didn't add a new course, or a new race. Other MMOs such every bit FFXIV are innovating far more quickly, without making previous-expansion features obsolete. Player housing, mini games, and much more exist in FFXIV, while Blizzard focuses entirely on its PvE-only formula, forgetting what it means to brand video games, rather than subscription-based work simulators.

Still, if you're playing WoW with a group of friends and enjoy PvE content, Earth of Warcraft'southward combat and boss design arguably remains the all-time in the 'biz. At that place's just then little else to do that it's hard to recommend right now. If you're not the type of person who enjoys killing the same bosses dozens of times without getting an detail, you probably aren't going to enjoy WoW's offering right at present.

Still fun (with friends)

World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft goes to the afterlife

Loot RNG, under-tuned skills, and rest bug aside, Earth of Warcraft's raids, PvP, and dungeons remain a ton of fun to experience with friends.

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Jez Corden

Jez Corden is a Senior Editor for Windows Central, focusing primarily on all things Xbox and gaming. Jez is known for breaking sectional news and analysis as relates to the Microsoft ecosystem while being powered by caffeine. Follow on Twitter @JezCorden and listen to his Xbox Two podcast, all well-nigh, you guessed it, Xbox!