Sunday, August 23, 2020

Shadowlands Beta First Real Impressions

 After moving my Death Knight to Stormwind and then re-copying him to the beta, I've manage to play through the introductory quests for Shadowlands, and have just arrived in the first zone (for your first character): Bastion.

The intro quests actually took me with zero rested experience all the way up to 51.

Spoilers ahead, so here's a cut:

The action begins after Sylvanas sends fallen Kyrian to kidnap Thrall, Anduin, Jaina, and Baine. Darion Mograine shows up to bring you to Icecrown, where Bolvar plans to use the Helm of Domination to open the way into the Shadowlands.

You arrive in the Maw, and face the most hostile landscape we've seen since the Antoran Wastes. As you rescue Jaina and Thrall, and then eventually Anduin and Baine, you eventually find a waystone that can get you out - only it's just you that escapes, leaving the faction leaders, Mograine, and a bunch of Death Knights stranded in the Maw.

You arrive then in the city of Oribos, where the locals are shocked to see a living mortal. They explain how the Arbiter has shut down and there's a horrible anima drought due to the souls all going to the Maw. While the locals are confused as to how Kyrian could be allied with the Jailer, it's your first clue, and so they send you to Bastion to figure out what's going on.

I love the aesthetics we've seen so far, and there are some really great set-pieces and vistas that they've built into the journey into the Shadowlands.

I'm playing a 2H Frost Death Knight, which is so nice to have again, though I'm trying to figure out if the new Runeforge I picked, Hysteria, is actually the right one to go with.

Sadly, the game crashed after the first couple quests in Bastion, so I'm going to see if I can continue and hope that the character isn't locked in some crash loop.

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