What Concerns Me About Shadowlands

I've been excited about the Shadowlands expansion since it was announced. I'm really happy for WoW to go very high-fantasy in its concept, and I've always found the death/undead elements of Warcraft lore to be really interesting and aesthetically cool.

And, having played in the Beta, I'm mostly pretty happy with what I see. The zones are all really cool (I'll confess I find Maldraxxus a little dull) and the overall plot feels big and high-stakes, which makes it feel like what you're doing matters.

I also really like the idea of choosing a covenant, unlocking the story that comes with it.

But with just over a month until the expansion launches, I'll confess that I am concerned with a few things.

First off, bugs: I know it's a Beta, and thus the whole reason we're playing it is so that we can find bugs. But even this far into the beta, I'm encountering a fairly large number of game-breaking bugs. Some of these involve crashing the client (or even my computer,) some involve the "really cool when it's happening in the right moment" visual effect for the "In-between" happening forever after you take a flight path some times. And lastly, some break the Soulbind/Conduit system, which is probably the thing that requires the most testing.

There is a massive amount of stuff for you to do when you hit the level cap, which I think is mostly a good thing, but I also wonder how much of a weekly grind it will be for a character to feel "up to date."

I think they reduced the amount of XP required since I leveled my Death Knight, but I think it's crucial that a player should be able to play through the main story and get to level 60, without lingering and struggling to finish.

As has been suggested by Taliesin & Evitel's YouTube channel, I fear that conduits are going to have one of the big problems that Azerite Armor had - which was that you felt compelled to farm the same pieces over and over. Admittedly, because this won't get in the way of other gear you might find, I doubt it will be quite as annoying, but it's still a potential for some empty gameplay rewards.

The other big concern is that some covenant abilities just seem better than others. My intention is to just brace myself and pick covenants that fit with my characters' vibes, and just hope that the abilities become balanced over time, but there is a concern that if my guilt-ridden, ancient Draenei Death Knight picks Venthyr as his covenant, he's going to be putting himself at a disadvantage thanks to the fact that the Night Fae have a more powerful ability.

There is a sort of sense that the expansion maybe needs a little more time to iron out these kinks. I suppose the good news is that, given the way WoW tends to work, fixes can happen over the course of the expansion, but the general way the systems work is going to be relatively locked in place.

I think I feel invested in this expansion being good just because it's the one that I was hoping would come. Blizzard is swinging big, and I'll always respect someone trying out big ideas. I just hope that it works out, and I hope that the expansion lives up to its potential.