#OMG SIDE ORDER LEAKED GAMEPLAY??

[cru5h-cascades]

Buckle, buckle, buckle up for the sweetest ride And prepare to have your mind blown wide when worlds collide

Follow up to this post I made some time ago. Had to make this edit.

[katieskarlette]

WoW: What’s Next panel

This is the big one!  I’ll be watching the panel on the livestream and editing this post as it goes, so check back for updates.

[EDIT:  Panel’s over, post is finished!]

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Ion:  We are not jumping on a ship and going to a land that “mapmakers have mysteriously ignored for the last ten years.”  Ha.  It’s another plane of existence.

The Warcraft Afterlife:  Souls cross the veil between life and death Souls are brought before the mysterious female entity known as the Arbiter All the deeds/misdeeds, aspirations, triumphs and failures are laid bare to the Arbiter, who then routes the soul to one of the Shadowlands’ realms.  Each realm is ruled by a powerful Covenant.

Souls bear with them a vital force called Anima.  A quiet farmer who lived an unremarkable life has only a little Anima, while “Varian, Garrosh and Arthas had a ton.”  He mentioned those characters by name.  Hmmmmmm.

Ion joked about how the early concept art of Bastion was already leaked.

Bastion is home to the Covenant of the Kyrians, aka spirit healers.  “Souls here shed past burdens and seek virtue.”  Uther’s soul is here, and we’ll encounter him!

Kyrian are ordered and purposeful, dedicated to service.

Maldraxxus is ruled by the Necrolord Covenant.  It is the heart of the Shadowlands’ military might who defend the Shadowlands from the enemies of death.  They’re about survival of the fittest, not strictly evil.  Relentless, unyielding spirits go here, including Thrall’s mother, Draka.  It’s like EPL on steroids, aesthetically.

Ardenweald is an enchanted fairy forest.  It’s ruled by the Night Fae covenant.  This enchanted mystical forest is the Emerald Dream’s dark mirror.  It reflects fall and winter, a place of rest and rebirth.  Cenarius’ soul went here after Grom killed him.

Revendreth is a creepy, gothic zone with miasma, soaring castles and dark secrets.  Ruled by the Covenant of the Venthyr.  Flawed and prideful souls atoning for their sins end up here.  You don’t want to end up here, but it’s possible to redeem yourself and move on to another area of the Shadowlands.  We will encounter KAEL’THAS there!  Ooh!  (And, yes, Ion made a “setback” joke.)

Covenants are the four powers of the Shadowlands and are integrated into almost every feature of the game.  Each one seeks your aid, and each offers power and rewards.  Each one has a full endgame narrative campaign, akin to the two factions’ war campaigns in BFA.  Each gives you two active abilities, one of which is class-specific.

Endgame progression system:  Soulbinds.  Bind your soul to a powerful entity in the Shadowlands for unique benefits.  There is no artifact power to grind!  YAY!  Ion says they have learned from the last couple of expansions.  It’s important to have goals to work toward and ways to customize your characters’ playstyle without having it be a grind that is full of pressure and punishing to alts.

Each Covenant has a sanctum that we’ll build up and restore to glory, sort of like Shal’Aran was in Legion.

Covenants will also have rewards of mounts, transmog, etc.  They will give you items for the cloak slot that will give you ornaments like, in the case of Kyrians, a halo or angel wings, etc.

Oribos, the Eternal City is an ancient city that predates memory, and the home of The Arbiter.  Brokers and soul-traders gather here.  It will be the main player hub and sanctuary city.  “Khadgar wanted to bring Dalaran through but we figured there was already a city there, so not needed.”  LOL

The Maw is a mystery even to Shadowlands natives.  No known Covenant rules it.  It’s ruled by a dark figure known as The Jailer, who is like a boogeyman to the people of the Shadowlands.  It’s a horrific prison for the most vile souls.  Nothing has ever, ever escaped. 

In 9.0 the machinery of death is broken, and souls are pouring directly into the Maw without being routed first.  The other parts of the Shadowlands are thus starved of Anima.

“What about Sylvanas’ role in all this?” asks the slide.  Yes, Ion, do tell.

A picture of the burning of Teldrassil got a lot of booing, cheering, laughter and general excitement from the crowd.

“Arthas is dead, I’m sorry.”  SO?!?!?!  So are Uther, Draka and Kael’thas!

The Jailor in the Maw is the creepy silhouette that Sylvanas was facing in the teaser footage.  Sylvanas doesn’t have a master, but her goals align with the Jailor’s.  He’s been feeding her more power lately.

9.0 will start with Scourge marauding across Azeroth, since the Helm of Domination that held them back is shattered.  Azeroth’s heroes make for Icecrown to stop the problem at its source.  We are led by Bolvar, since he understands the Scourge best.  He has one foot in each realm and knows more than anyone about them.

We go from Icecrown into The Maw, and that’s all, we’re trapped.  Nothing’s ever escaped.  “It’s a short expansion.”  LOL!  Actually, we escape the Maw and go on, but it sounds like some lore heroes stay trapped there...for now.  Hmm.

We work with each realm’s leaders and borrow their powers, then choose a Covenant at max level.

However, once you have one character who has reached max level, your alts can pick their Covenant right away before they start leveling.  You can level in any zone, do world quests, etc....lots of choices.  You can work toward endgame progression while you level, reducing the sense that leveling and endgame are two separate games, that what you do while leveling doesn’t matter in the long run.  Interesting.

At max level we return to the Maw, a fearsome zone with freeform outdoor gameplay.  Unlike other max level zones, there are no innkeepers or friendly bases.  You have to be on your toes all the time.

At the center of the Maw is Torghast, Tower of the Damned (the upside-down thing in the sky above Icecrown in the cinematic.)  It’s an endless, ever-changing dungeon for 1-5 players.  As you ascend the tower you earn upgrades that shore up your weaknesses, play to your strengths, etc.  It looks a bit like the choices on each ring of Azerite gear.

4 dungeons to level up in: The Necrotic Wake, Plaguefall, Mists of Tirna Scithe, Halls of Atonement

4 max level dungeons:  Spires of Ascension, Theater of Pain, Sanguine Depths, and The Other Side--where Bwonsamdi is!

Castle Nathria is a 10-boss raid at Revendreth.  Think Dracula’s castle.  It’s a winged raid and “for once you’re not going in through the sewer.”

Core philosophy:  Focus on player agency.  “We want to give all of you a feeling of more control over your destiny.”  It’s something the playerbase has been asking for for years, and they’ve heard the feedback.

Profession updates:  be guaranteed to craft an item with the secondary stats you want instead of having to craft a zillion items with random stats before you get the crit/haste/whatever you needed.

The weekly loot chest is the most hated example of RNG in the game today, according to Ion.  It will now give you 5-6 items to pick from, based on the bosses you’ve used your bonus rolls on, etc.

Legendaries:  Legion legendaries were fun when you had them, but the randomness of obtaining them was a major pain in the butt.  In Shadowlands you’ll be able to work toward building a specific legendary that you want, then a second one, etc.

Shadowlands brings us a return to class identity as opposed to spec.  Some abilities that were made spec-specific will go back to being class-specific, and some that were removed will be returning.  Yay!

Shadowlands has a streamlined leveling experience.  120 characters going into the expansion will be 50 when they go into Shadowlands, and will level to 60 at the end.  Every level will now unlock something and be meaningful, instead of dinging all the time but it being meaningless.

Unprecedented flexibility for alts.  Want to just level in Pandaria?  Do it, then go to Shadowlands.  Skip everything else if you want to. 

Character customization is the focus this time instead of new races.  (YES!!!!!)  Tattoos, body paint, new skin colors (be a Sandfury troll!), undead without visible bones(!!!), horn and tusk options, eye colors, etc.  RACIALLY DIVERSE HUMAN MODELS!  OMG!  THEY LOOK AMAZING!

Every allied race will be able to be Death Knights.

Deep dive into Shadowlands at 11:15 AM Pacific tomorrow.

[felassan]

This blog & Andromeda spoilers

Since we’re now basically into March: proper spoilers are now are emerging in the form of leaked materials, story/character details from press, and long gameplay vids that are covering more than just mechanics. Also, the early access trial is looming. So here is some essential housekeeping for this blog relating to spoilers.

This is not a spoiler-free zone, so be pre-warned. I’ll understand if you have to unfollow for a while in order to be better safe than sorry, as it were. In that case, enjoy the game and see you on the other side!

However, I’ll be tagging spoilers with all of the following tags - “spoilers”, “spoiler”, “Mass Effect: Andromeda spoilers”, “Mass Effect: Andromeda spoiler”, “Mass Effect Andromeda spoilers”, “Mass Effect Andromeda spoilers”, “Andromeda spoilers”, “Andromeda spoiler”, “MEA spoilers” and “MEA spoiler” - in an effort to catch as much of them for as many of you as possible. Hopefully that list is extensive enough. Add to your blacklist as applicable. For clarity, I class spoilers as anything, minor or major, that you’d find out from playing the game or from someone who played the game, and they can take any form (text post, fanart, gifs, etc). It includes spoilers from the early trial and from associated books & comics, future DLCs, etc.

You may want to blacklist “MJ in Andromeda”, which is my personal tag for my experience playing through the game/liveblogging (including the trial), if you want to keep that crap off your dash.

I can’t make guarantees for those of you browsing on mobile.

If you have any issues, questions or requests regarding this sort of thing, feel free to send me a message.

Anon asks are turned off and will remain turned off until I feel that I’ve played the game extensively enough that stuff wouldn’t spoil me. This is because in the past, for whatever reason, people saw fit to send me spoilers for DA:I on Anon. It’s frustrating to have to do that because I love getting messages. I also have to ask that you don’t send me asks, messages or submissions that would spoil anything (if you do, I will unfortunately have to block you). That includes your reactions to stuff that happens in the game, asking me what my thoughts on [x] new lore or plot point are, etc. That goes until you see a post from me that says something to the effect of ‘omg I’ve finished playing, hit me up with all your everything guys’. Sorry about any inconvenience caused by this.

If I follow you, please tag all Andromeda spoilers with something sensible (you should do this anyway for everyone as a matter of courtesy). If you don’t I will unfortunately have to unfollow you.

I am already semi-dark at the moment in order to protect my game experience, other than my personal shit (character-building and speculation/meta etc), pre-scheduled posts and broad-strokes news from official sources, but better safe than sorry, and this post has informational value for you guys (spoiler tags to blacklist), so. I'll reblog it a time or two for people who missed it, sorry in advance for the clutter/repetition.

Thanks for reading and your help. :)