Activision Blizzard recently opened a horn of plenty when it comes to World of Warcraft: Shadowlands news. Following the first alpha details, class changes and the Bastion information revealed over the last couple of days, the blog post dedicated to the brand new starting experience also appeared on the official site.
All players new to World of Warcraft will start their journey as a part of a crew searching for an expedition that has gone missing. Your adventure will take you to the island of Exile’s Reach. It’s here that you’ll begin to face the challenges the island presents, each increasing in difficulty as you work your way through your first 10 levels. As you progress, you’ll begin to learn more about using the new skills and abilities at your disposal. At the culmination of your adventure, you’ll face two new bosses in a “mini-dungeon” designed for 1 to 5 players.
- For New Players: If you’re new to World of Warcraft and have never created or leveled a character, you will automatically begin your journey into Azeroth with the starting experience—helping you learn the basics of your class and the fundamentals of interacting with the world you’ve become a part of. After completing the adventure, you’ll move into Battle for Azeroth, where you’ll be able to level through the expansion to level 50 before moving on into the Shadowlands.
- For Veteran Players: If you’re a veteran player or you’ve leveled a character before, you can choose to opt out of the starting experience and begin instead at level 1 in the starting area for your race. Upon reaching level 10, you can either continue into Battle for Azeroth or speak with Chromie to choose the expansion that you’d like to continue leveling in before you enter Shadowlands at level 50. Players with Allied race characters, Death Knights and Demon Hunters will automatically begin at level 10 and play through their own starting experience.
Scott Jeslis
Not sure how I feel about all this. I guess they are streamlining to get directly to new content?
Catherine Daro
During BlizzCon 2019 panel, the devs pointed out that for a completely new player leveling in WoW is a convoluted mess – going back and forth in time, randomly swapping Warchiefs and Kings, etc. Not to mention the quality of life enhancements that questing has received over WoW’s long life.
So the starting experience is a way to let new players learn their skills and be gently nudged into the fitting direction – BfA, as it is the last expac, and then Shadowlands itself.
I like the idea, but I am worried about how it will age. Will it still be Exile’s Reach into BfA into Shadowlands when WoW’s next expansion drops? Because that is the way to get back to the mess Blizz already has on their hands.