Once Upon A Time, World of Warcraft was the undeniable MMORPG leader boasting over 12 million players during the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. Since then, player subscriptions have steadily dropped with Warlords of Draenor slashing subscriptions to 5.5 million and the more recent Battle of Azeroth avalanching player counts to 1.7 million. At this point, not even the highly anticipated World of Warcraft Classic could turn things around.
At this rate, all of the haters that consistently proclaim that the death of WoW is neigh will soon have their prediction come true.
Then Shadowlands was announced.
Other than a bumpy start in the prelaunch we have the ask, can this expansion set in the afterlife ironically save WoW from the grave? In honour of the expansion launch, today, Scarlett Media will share our top reasons we say yay. But before we begin, don’t forget to up your ilevel by pressing the like and subscribe buttons.
#10 It’s New
Every expansion has brought old players back to the game. Even if only for a short while, retired players who have abandoned the game in the past come back to bolster the subscription counts. Based on all of the good changes being made, many of them will likely stay and even invite friends who will bring the numbers up further.
#9 New Character Designs
Though not a deal maker, new and improved character designs adds a new dimension to the game and helps bring the game into the current decade. New skin colours, earings, faces and other physical tweaks allow players to further customize their characters, making the game more personal and engaging.
#8 The End of Corrupted Gear
Corrupted Gear was bad. Very Bad. The random and inconsistent nature around this 8.3 feature turned many players off the game. Only by trashing the idea all together really fixes this issue.
#7 The End of Azerite Gear
Azerite gear was worse than corrupted gear but is going away too. Kind of. This power up mechanic was based on the Legion artifact power design, which was fairly successful. Unfortunately, the execution of the idea was massively flawed. The only solution was to again, trash the idea. Though Azerite gear is going away, there will be the covenant feature will act a lot like the Legion system. Fingers crossed it’s more Legion than BFA.
#6 Better Bad-News Boxes
This is a substantial change. One of the worst things in the past few expansions was the weekly loot chests. Completing a Mythic+ dungeon through the week would treat players to a random, high level piece of armor or weapon. It was a treat to look forward to each and every week rewarding the player for their diligence and efforts. That is, right up until the moment where the player realized that their random gift was not one they needed and it was useless. In 9.0, players will be rewarded for completing weekly tasks, like the old loot chests, but will now have options to choose from, putting control in the players hands.
#5 Class and Spec Rebalancing
In what may be the most challenging part of game design, . As with most expansions, Blizzard will be retooling to try and to strike the right balance between character class and specs. Though not something new, Blizzard has committed to the player base that their number one goal is to revisit character powers to make them fun to play, again. #MakeWOWGreatAgain
#4 New Hunter Pets
This only applies to hunters but hunters are the best so it is being included. Hunters can now tame sky serpents as pets. So with the sky serpent mount, battle pet and now hunter pet, you can have 3 sky serpents at your command.
#3 A Straight Forward Story
WoW has a deep and rich lore behind it. The non-linear approach to the story from recent expansions means that players inevitably get lost in the story and it loses it’s importance and overall immersion. Unlike these recent expansions, Shadowlands opens up new areas that you move through one by one along with a linear and clear story.
#2 Statistics
Looking at previous expansions, there seems to be a clear pattern when looking at the quality of the expansion in relation to the order it was released.
- Vanilla was Good.
- Burning Crusade was Mengh.
- Wrath of the Lich King was Good.
- Cataclysm was only ok.
- Mists of Pandaria, Good.
- Warlords of Dreanor was Bad.
- Legion was Good.
- Battle for Azeroth was VERY BAD.
Based on this trend, players are due for a great experience with Shadowlands.
Before the r number one reason we think Shadowlands will breathe a breath of new life into the World of Warcraft, get ahead of the curve and subscribe to our channel and upgrade the like button to epic.
#1 New Players Will Actually Feel Good Starting
One of the biggest complaints from the WoW community, when it comes to keeping a healthy in-game population is that new players #feelsbadman when starting out. New players have historically started woefully under-leveled, under-geared and in a zone that was dated and void of other players. Then they started their quest towards a max level of 120 in BFA. Blizzard has finally made changes to the game to be more friendly to new users and alternate accounts with the most important being;
The Level Squish which cuts the maximum level in half for the new expansion. This means that new players only have to level to 60 before they can start enjoying the end game content – what World of Warcraft is best known for.
The Addition of Exiles Reach gives new players a leveling zone with unique quests safely away from the main player base allowing them to learn the game without fear. of the time honored tradition of ganking newbs.
All in all, a better experience for new players means more players joining the game and a possible recovery of the current population trends.
What’s next for the World of Warcraft? Is the best behind the citizens of Azeroth or is there a chance for new honor and redemption? Let us know in the comments below and thanks for watching.
Credits:
Writer: AB Scarlett
Voice: AB Scarlett
Video: @_FearOK
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