World of Warcraft: Shadowlands Release
World of Warcraft is one of the world’s most popular gaming franchises. With almost countless players worldwide, the series has grown consistently in popularity and presence, and part of its success has been releasing new editions, DLC, and installations. For those who don’t know, World of Warcraft is an MMORPG. Players can create a character based on a variety of ‘classes,’ each of which has different attributes, abilities, and weaknesses.
An Exciting New Story
The newest upcoming expansion of World of Warcraft is called Shadowlands, and the update promises to build upon the existing story of the WoW universe, in addition to giving players access to other new content. Shadowlands furthers the current lore of WoW, centering around the Shadowlands realm, an area with five zones. The zones of the Shadowlands are called Bastion, Ardenweald, Revendreath, the Maw, and Maldrazzus.
A large part of the WoW universe is the covenant system. This system should have an important role in Shadowlands, too. The zones of the Shadowlands are ruled by various covenants, and players have to choose a side. This is likely to create some exciting tension and action in the storyline, forcing different characters to come into conflict with one another and battle for the side that they think is right.
Delayed Release Date
The release date of Shadowlands has been delayed, as confirmed on Twitter by the official WoW account. At Gamescom, it was announced that WoW would be released on the 27th of October, 2020. It’s not clear now when the expansion is going to be available. However, there is a tentative date for the release of the Shadowlands pre-patch. The pre-patch should be available for download from the 13th of October.
How Shadowlands Changes Gameplay
With the release of Shadowlands, some fundamental elements of WoW are going to change. This even true of the gameplay. The covenant system in WoW comes into play in Shadowlands. Once players reach a certain level, they can choose a covenant in the Shadowlands universe to align themselves with. Siding with a covenant in this region comes with lots of perks and advantages.
One major advantage is getting access to new items, buffs, and loot. For example, certain covenants allow players to win special loot from dungeons. Also, the navigation system in WoW has apparently been overhauled, with the new navigation technology being made available as part of the Shadowlands expansion.
The Shadowlands universe is also going to introduce a level squish, meaning that your character’s level is temporarily reduced when you enter the Shadowlands. This gives your character room to grow and level up while you play in the area, without you needing to worry about stagnating. There are also rumored to be new characters and corruption mechanics from other expansions that are present in the Shadowlands zones.
However, much of this is just speculation. Until Shadowlands finally comes out, we can’t know for sure what the expansion is going to include, other than what World of Warcraft has announced. We have to wait patiently until we can play it for ourselves.