wow Blizzard's Official Update on the Shadowlands Development for the Month of October 2020

[Stan 5,240]

Blizzard has just posted an update on the development of Shadowlands.

Highlights

• The Maw will be updated with visual distinction and combat gameplay variety across the different areas. They want to give the Maw more identity while preserving the "sandbox" nature of the zone. No other specifics have been mentioned, but the weekly Maw goals should be more apparent from early on.
• The weekly cooldown for Conduits will be removed because it limits multi-spec classes. It will be replaced with a more flexible system on the Beta.
• Balance and Conduit tuning remains a priority for future Beta builds.

(Source)

As we continue to work towards making Shadowlands worth the wait, we have an update on several changes and improvements players can expect to see coming to the Beta over the next few weeks.

The Maw

The Maw is intended to be the desolate and brutal domain of the Jailer, and not a place any soul in the Warcraft cosmos ever hopes to visit. But this is, after all, a video game, and telling that story can’t come at the expense of creating a fun environment for adventurers. We’ve heard feedback that this content is currently falling short of that mark, and we agree.

We’re working to increase visual distinction and combat gameplay variety across the different areas of the Maw, as well as exploring adding new localized events and world interactions. We also want give players who journey to the Maw a bit more direction, while still preserving the “sandbox” roots of Maw gameplay. Players will venture into the Maw weekly to rescue souls to aid in restoring their Covenants, and the mysterious broker Ve’nari offers a range of cosmetic, convenience, and power rewards in exchange for Stygia. Those goals need to be more immediately apparent early on. We’ll share more info about specific updates when these changes are ready for Beta testing and feedback.

Conduits

We’ve also received a lot of feedback about the Conduit system. Many of you have expressed concerns that the current system will unreasonably limit experimentation and multi-spec play early in the expansion. While the existing weekly cooldown may provide sufficient flexibility once players have all three soulbinds fully unlocked, we agree that it is initially too limiting. A single weekly reset also fails to draw any distinction between someone who only wants to adjust a single conduit, and someone who wants to clear and rebuild their entire soulbind tree.

In an upcoming build, we will be replacing the weekly cooldown on changing conduits with a more flexible system: When first unlocked, the Forge of Bonds will be charged with 10 Conduit Energy, and placing a conduit into a socket will consume a single charge. Conduit Energy recharges at the rate of one per day, up to a cap of 10, and adding a new conduit to your collection immediately restores one Conduit Energy as well.

Our goal with this change is to ensure that, especially when players are acquiring new conduits and only have access to a small number of soulbinds and conduit slots, all players feel free to try out new upgrades and to adjust their soulbinds to support multiple specializations or activities. After the initial collection period for a given character, 7+ swaps per week should allow for more adaptation to suit specific roles or activities, while still requiring thoughtful decisions about how to customize each Soulbind for your playstyle preferences.

Class and Covenant Balance

Tuning has been underway over the past couple of weeks, but much work remains. Our initial tuning efforts have focused on Covenant class abilities that were outliers on either end of the spectrum, including some substantial redesigns where necessary. The coming weeks will see continued iteration on these abilities, as well as the soulbinds that complement them. Balance in this area means pursuing a mix of offsetting strengths and weaknesses rather than identical capabilities, and our goal in this process is that every class/covenant combination should have something to commend it.

Alongside these specific areas of focus, we are all using this time to tune various endgame rewards, fix bugs (thousands of which continue to come from the in-game Bug Report tool - thank you!), and add the finishing touches that will hopefully make your journey into Shadowlands a magical one when the time comes.

Thank you very much for all of your testing and feedback!

[Ragingwolf 310]

This is a good step in the right direction and I'm very happy about it; however they really need to look over some of the classes and give them a proper rework before launch of the expansion. eg) Windwalker Monks and Feral Druids

[Lith 52]

7 minutes ago, Ragingwolf said:

This is a good step in the right direction and I'm very happy about it; however they really need to look over some of the classes and give them a proper rework before launch of the expansion. eg) Windwalker Monks and Feral Druids

Why would those specs need a rework?

[Ragingwolf 310]

2 minutes ago, Lith said:

Why would those specs need a rework?

Some of the rotations are somewhat clunky/not fulfilling and not competitive at all w/ other melee dps on majority of PvE content.

[SidonisAntares 290]

20 minutes ago, Ragingwolf said:

This is a good step in the right direction and I'm very happy about it; however they really need to look over some of the classes and give them a proper rework before launch of the expansion. eg) Windwalker Monks and Feral Druids

Yeah, as the beta currently stands I will remain Balance/Resto rather than returning to Feral/Guardian. Though I am wondering if they're expecting trash in mythic+ to stay alive long enough now with the AOE cap to potentially make Primal Wrath worth it? 

[SidonisAntares 290]

22 minutes ago, Lith said:

Why would those specs need a rework?

Even with a 1400+ IO score I still get asked if I'm Balance before receiving an invite when pugging M+

[Ragingwolf 310]

2 minutes ago, SidonisAntares said:

Yeah, as the beta currently stands I will remain Balance/Resto rather than returning to Feral/Guardian. Though I am wondering if they're expecting trash in mythic+ to stay alive long enough now with the AOE cap to potentially make Primal Wrath worth it? 

I was going to play around with Feral this expansion but after trying on the beta it just doesn't feel satisfying to me with their given skill set.  My offtank from BFA is still going to push his Bear for keys but we both know it may be a slow go at the start from building up from scratch again with gear and studying up on possible uses of borrowed power this expansion with the Covenant system.  We still love playing with our Tanks even though they both seem to be at the bottom of the tanking tier at the start of the expansion.

[SidonisAntares 290]

9 minutes ago, Ragingwolf said:

I was going to play around with Feral this expansion but after trying on the beta it just doesn't feel satisfying to me with their given skill set.  My offtank from BFA is still going to push his Bear for keys but we both know it may be a slow go at the start from building up from scratch again with gear and studying up on possible uses of borrowed power this expansion with the Covenant system.  We still love playing with our Tanks even though they both seem to be at the bottom of the tanking tier at the start of the expansion.

My first alt is my Paladin, so just like this xpac I'll get my tanking fix in there. The HP rework for them doesn't change things drastically, and with it being an alt that will tank mythic+ and DPS raids that are on farm, Covenant choice doesn't make or break anything.

Edited October 5, 2020 by SidonisAntares

[Starxed 0]

<quote>We’ve also received a lot of feedback about the Conduit system. Many of you have expressed concerns that the current system will unreasonably limit experimentation and multi-spec play early in the expansion. While the existing weekly cooldown may provide sufficient flexibility once players have all three soulbinds fully unlocked, we agree that it is initially too limiting. A single weekly reset also fails to draw any distinction between someone who only wants to adjust a single conduit, and someone who wants to clear and rebuild their entire soulbind tree.</quote>

I wonder why they feel the need to limit conduit changes at all?   They say once per week is "initially too limiting," but I don't understand what value is gained by restricting it.  Their plan for after launch is to gain 1-2 changes a day up to cap of 10.  Not that I would, but if I alternated my playing content every day (raid, pvp, M+, general, whatever) and wanted to swap out 2 a day, you'd still run out of swaps.  Can anyone explain why limiting it is necessary?  Just seems very arbitrary.

Edited October 5, 2020 by Starxed

[SidonisAntares 290]

3 minutes ago, Starxed said:

I wonder why they feel the need to limit conduit changes at all?   They say once per week is "initially too limiting," but I don't understand what value is gained by restricting it.  Not that I would, but if I alternated my playing content every day (raid, pvp, M+, general, whatever), and wanted to swap out 2 a day, you'd still run out of swaps.  Can anyone explain why limiting it is necessary?  Just seems very arbitrary.

There isn't really a good reason. They're basically an additional talent tree, and restricting them seems like a regression change in the fact you can change your talents in any rested area, for free. If they want to make you return to your Covenant's Sanctum to change your Soulbind similar to WM can only be turned off in Ogrimmar fine, there's some story immersion justification for that at least, but modifying your conduit nodes should be doable in any rested area, with a codex, and during PvP preparation countdown.

[Logos89 8]

23 minutes ago, Starxed said:

I wonder why they feel the need to limit conduit changes at all? 

They're trying to fight cookie cutter talents. The cause of cookie cutter talents are either:

1. One tree that you need to do everything.

2. Flexible trees that you can re-spec on a fight by fight basis.

In order to break this, you need multiple trees, and you want enough flexibility that people can play with costs/benefits without getting locked in and just looking at guides for help.

[Baharok 234]

49 minutes ago, Ragingwolf said:

I was going to play around with Feral this expansion but after trying on the beta it just doesn't feel satisfying to me with their given skill set.  My offtank from BFA is still going to push his Bear for keys but we both know it may be a slow go at the start from building up from scratch again with gear and studying up on possible uses of borrowed power this expansion with the Covenant system.  We still love playing with our Tanks even though they both seem to be at the bottom of the tanking tier at the start of the expansion.

I had the same experience when people did not want to play prot warrior some time back (just think about Legion and start of BfA until Blizzard made him the clapmaster of doom !111!!11!!!!11!).

 

And now i am rerolling to my first tank class from WOTLK - DK, even prot will surely remain strong, since i have more fun with Blood DK now. I mean after 5+ years playing prot as main and the other tankclasses just from time to time and on low m+ keys for weekly chests (no more than +17/18 usually), it is more than refreshing and welcomed. ?

Edited October 5, 2020 by Baharok

[Starseed 113]

1 hour ago, Lith said:

Why would those specs need a rework?

exactly what i thought. feral needs love but i dont think some adjustments will do the trick it may be me but i think feral needs a full rework from head to toe maybe gaoing away from the bleed playstyle goining ito a high crit proc based style or even a feast an faamine thing like frost dk.

i love everything about the fantasy of a druid changing ito this wild lion thing to rip there enemys but dots dont do the thing for me atleast in my fantasy bubble

[Mugendai 48]

"The weekly cooldown for Conduits will be removed because it limits multi-spec classes. It will be replaced with a more flexible system on the Beta."

 

I don't know why on earth it was so hard for them to finally change that, but thank god they did, hyped for Shadowlands again

[elmurufdd 45]

good stuff now just let us use mounts in the maw and ill be happy 

[Freakwent 6]

2 hours ago, Starxed said:

<quote>We’ve also received a lot of feedback about the Conduit system. Many of you have expressed concerns that the current system will unreasonably limit experimentation and multi-spec play early in the expansion. While the existing weekly cooldown may provide sufficient flexibility once players have all three soulbinds fully unlocked, we agree that it is initially too limiting. A single weekly reset also fails to draw any distinction between someone who only wants to adjust a single conduit, and someone who wants to clear and rebuild their entire soulbind tree.</quote>

I wonder why they feel the need to limit conduit changes at all?   They say once per week is "initially too limiting," but I don't understand what value is gained by restricting it.  Their plan for after launch is to gain 1-2 changes a day up to cap of 10.  Not that I would, but if I alternated my playing content every day (raid, pvp, M+, general, whatever) and wanted to swap out 2 a day, you'd still run out of swaps.  Can anyone explain why limiting it is necessary?  Just seems very arbitrary.

Choice. your actions will have reprecussions. two weeklies are a bit too much imo and just artifically inflate time. but this system seems to work well. it's a good reason alot of people like classic. every choice you make has an impact. instead of being able to switch specs and such freely. i'm fully aware this isn't classic. but it makes you think about your choices instead of mindlessly going towards whats the best.

[Arcling 898]

49 minutes ago, Freakwent said:

instead of being able to switch specs and such freely. i'm fully aware this isn't classic. but it makes you think about your choices instead of mindlessly going towards whats the best.

This is to a detriment of making any PUGs. Not many people are playing tank/healer 100% time when doing solo content, but typically some people might switch their specs for groups. Now they won't. This negatively impacts LFG. Choices in classic mattered, but in a wrong way, your build either sucked or was good (which usually meant using the most typical ones). No one wanted to play with someone who went half dps/tank talents hybrid or dps/healer etc.

Edited October 5, 2020 by Arcling

[Starseed 113]

2 hours ago, elmurufdd said:

good stuff now just let us use mounts in the maw and ill be happy 

normaly im not a fan of this you cant use your mount here stuff ether but with the whole thme of the maw and the timer thing dont having your trusty steed at your hand can produce a even more stresst feeling and that is what blizz is trying to create

[elmurufdd 45]

1 hour ago, N3ilo said:

normaly im not a fan of this you cant use your mount here stuff ether but with the whole thme of the maw and the timer thing dont having your trusty steed at your hand can produce a even more stresst feeling and that is what blizz is trying to create

and then they added a single mount that works there which u can get in the first 2 months or sooner . guess they didnt try to hard then if that was their goal  sux for such a huge zone that is empty as hell atm 

[Starseed 113]

7 hours ago, elmurufdd said:

and then they added a single mount that works there which u can get in the first 2 months or sooner . guess they didnt try to hard then if that was their goal  sux for such a huge zone that is empty as hell atm 

oh i heard that there is a mount from thorgast but i thought you will need like half a year or something to get it that sucks 

[Ragingwolf 310]

6 hours ago, N3ilo said:

oh i heard that there is a mount from thorgast but i thought you will need like half a year or something to get it that sucks 

There is a way to mount in the Maw but you have to subdue/kill a pc riding a mount.  After you can use the mount till you dismount for quest turn in or killing another pc.  Thing is this little feature pc is very few in between the last time I visited the Maw on the Beta.

[elmurufdd 45]

6 hours ago, N3ilo said:

oh i heard that there is a mount from thorgast but i thought you will need like half a year or something to get it that sucks 

just have to clear all lvls of the tower of boreghast unless tuned will be like visions and easy chore that will get old fast 

Edited October 6, 2020 by elmurufdd