Even though World of Warcraft: Shadowlands has been delayed until later this year, the pre-patch that will prepare Azeroth for the upcoming expansion is scheduled to launch on October 13th at around 9 am AEST. Here’s something of the things you can expect to see.
Level squish
When this game-changing patch goes live, players will experience what has been eloquently dubbed the “level squish”. This means that characters who have reached the level cap of 120 in Battle for Azeroth will drop down to level 50 in Shadowlands. Other characters will be proportionately scaled-down as well as a Blizzard’s “streamlined faster level experience” which aims to “lower the amount of time it takes to reach max level”.
New customisation options
Across the board, players will have access to hundreds of all-new customisation options including skin tones, hairstyles, and eye colours. Certain races will be able to enhance their look beyond the basics with unique options such as tattoos, jewellery, beards, scars, or flowers to ornament their hair. On the character creation screen, you’ll be able to more intuitively navigate between different looks with new drop-down menus. Swatches displaying colour choices for eye and skin tones will appear alongside the option number, so instead of needing to scroll between different appearances, you’ll be able to quickly click between specific eye and skin tone options.
New navigation mechanics
Additionally, Shadowlands will be introducing a revamped navigation system with new quest markers and waypoints as well as the ability to share drop pins on the map with your party members. Main storyline “campaign” quests are identified by a fancy new marker with an ornate shield around the ! and ? symbols above the quest givers head. Side quests use the old-style markers, without the shield, making it easier to differentiate between supplementary quests that will help you progress through the new zones more swiftly.
Changes to corrupted gear
Following the introduction of the patch, corrupted gear will no longer be available for purchase or via reward. Your character will keep their gear as well as their iLvl but any existing corruptions will be automatically cleansed, so say goodbye to your stat buffs and T.D. procs.
Earlier this month, Blizzard announced that they had made the difficult decision to postpone the scheduled launch of World of Warcraft: Shadowlands to iron out the expansion’s fine details and implement necessary fixes that have been requested by the player community. Unfortunately, we don’t know when to expect a new release date from the development team but we are confident that we’ll be able to enter the Shadowlands and enjoy the experience as it was intended as soon as it is ready.
