Rating Shadowlands' Launch Event

 Since Burning Crusade, every expansion has come with an event to mark the launch of the expansion. The scope and breadth of these events has varied considerably. I'll come right out and remind people that Mists of Pandaria had the most bare-bones event - it was purely the ability to queue for a level 85 version of the Fall of Theramore scenario, with nothing else really happening elsewhere in the world.

As I recall, the biggest was probably the one for Cataclysm, which saw four capital cities attacked by raging elementals, a plot involving doomsday cultists that were actually part of Twilight's Hammer, and other elemental invasion spots across the world.

The pre-Wrath event was the first incarnation of the Zombie plague - though it also included the Scourge Invasions, which were a repeat of the event that had preceded the launch of Naxxramas (in Vanilla they seemed to want to do worldwide events of this sort even for just patches, which is why we had the whole Ahn Qiraj War Effort prior to that.)

So, what do I think of this pre-Shadowlands event?

I think it's roughly middle-tier. Most of the action is limited to Icecrown, and while the zombie plague is fully back, I haven't actually seen many people participating in it - if you weren't playing at the end of BC during the Wrath pre-patch, you might not realize just how crazy the zombie plague was. You couldn't get anything done - I remember literally hiding in the basement of the Darkshire Inn on my level 20 Warlock so the zombies wouldn't find me.

The resurrected bosses from Wrath are fun, though mostly it's just been frustrating to not get that damned bag to drop on any of my Horde characters (in retrospect, I was extremely lucky to get it the first time on my Paladin and Demon Hunter and on the second try for my Death Knight.)

I'd also have liked there to be some mount or other major cosmetic thing to earn. While there is a battle pet, I find myself wondering: was there not already a geist pet?

Still, the thing to remember about these events is that they're only there briefly. Blizzard can only spare so much to work on them, as they're just a temporary part of the game.

I'm far more excited to get into the expansion proper, which is only a few days away!