World of Warcraft What’s Next Panel Recap – Blizzcon 2019

We understand that not everyone has bought a Virtual Ticket, so we are listing everything that was discussed during the panel at Blizzcon 2019.

If you haven’t seen the trailers yet, or want to watch them again. Be sure to check them out here.

Here is everything we learned about World of Warcraft: Shadowlands (and be sure to check the screenshots below):

• The Talent Calculator remains seven rows. You get a talent at level 15, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50. It seems you won’t get an extra talent after BFA.
• There will be a level squish with all players going from 120 to 50 in the pre patch, and then leveling to 60 in the expansion.
• What happens in the afterlife in Azeroth? Our souls cross the veil between life and death.
• Our souls are brought before the mysterious arbiter. All the contents of the soul will be laid bare before here and she sends the soul of.
• The souls get router tot one of the realms, each ruled by a powerful Covenant.
• All souls bear a force with them, called Anima. World Leaders like ARTHAS and VARYAN, have very strong Anima’s.
• The four major realms are Oribos, Maldraxxus, The Maw, Reveneth, Bastion and Ardenweald.
• Bastion is ruled by the Kyrian Covenant, souls here shed past burdens and seek virtue
• Maldraxxus is a very dark zone, ruled by the Necrolord Covenant. The souls here are the military of the Shadowlands.
• They are not necessarily evil, but they are more about survival of the fittest. Draka, Mother of Thrall, is one of the souls who got placed there.
• Ardenweald, is an enchanted fairy forest. The Covenant here is the Night Fae. It’s a dark mirror of the Emerald Dream, a place of rest and rebirth.
• Revendreth is a creepy gothic zone with terrors in each corner. The Ventyr are the Covenent here. Here, flawed and prideful souls are atoning here for their sins.
• One of the souls in Revendreth is Kael’Thas.
• A Covenant is the ruling power of the Shadowlands, there are four major powers. This is the major new feature for Shadowlands.
• Covenants are like Garrisons or Class Order Halls, in the fact like they are an essential part of your journey. All will seek your aid and give power and rewards.
• You have to choose what Covenant you will join.
• Each Covenant has its own endgame narrative campaign.
• They each give two active abilities, one is class specific.
• They also bring a endgame progression system named: Soulbinds. This will enhance your abilities, which sounds like the artifact system. BUT there will be no power to grind for it. Blizzard has learned their lesson, Ion says, regarding artifact power. They feel that it was bad to play alts and there was a ton of social pressure.
• Each Covenant has a home base, like Suramar in Legion.
• Each Covenant gives its own rewards like mounts and gear.
• There will be replacements for cloaks, so you can for example give your character wings.
• Oribos, the Eternal City, is the ancient city that even predates memory. The Arbiter is at its core. This will be the main hub.
• The Maw doesn’t have a Covenant. It is a very mysterious place, a swirling darkness, like a black hole. Even Shadowland natives don’t know a lot about this place. It is the domain of the Jailer, and no one has ever escaped him.
• The Shadowlands isn’t working like it used do, since the event that Sylvanas started. Souls are pouring straight into the Maw, which means it’s growing and other zones are being starved of Anima.
• The creature you see Sylvanas visiting in the Shadowlands, is the Jailer. She will partner up with him.
• How did Sylvanas get so powerful? It’s because she has an allegiance with these powers of death, and her power kept growing the more people died, since death got stronger.
• The pre patch will have scourge all over Azeroth.
• All heroes will go to Icecrown, to help Bolvar. He will offer unique insight since he has one foot in each realm. He was infused with the power of life, when he got burned. He and his Death Knights will help us cross over between the worlds.
• We will start in the Maw and then go to Oribos and explore the Shadowlands. There will be a strong narrative arc that weaves through all the zones.
• We will work together with the leaders of the Alliance and Horde, death and alive, to get powers and stronger.
• Alts in the Shadowlands will work different. You can pick a covenant right away, since you will know how it works. With an alt you can level in any zone, do world quests and more. You will even earn endgame progression while you level.
• The Maw is actually the max-level zone, with free-form outdoor gameplay. The Maw doesn’t have an inn, or a place to set your hearthstone. This helps the story and vibe of the zone.
• At the center of the Maw is the Torghast, Tower of the Damned. This is the second major feature after Covenants. It’s an endless ever changing dungeon, with halls always changing. It is based on roguelike games. You can enter solo, or bring a party. Each visit to the tower will be different, but you’ll get upgrades and enhance your powers through Anima, which wil transform your powers.
• Next to Torghast there will be 8 new dungeons, 4 during leveling up and 4 max-level dungeons (check out the screenshot below for the names).
• There will be a 10 boss raid, Castle Nathria, at launch. It’s inspired by Dracula. We are getting serious Kharazan vibes from this.
• Ion says that the core philosophy is: Player Agency, by giving them more control on their character and how they progress. This has influenced their decisions while developing.
• Professions will get updates. You can for example add a haste and crit gem to a leather working job to get the stats you want on an item. Control is back.
• The weekly loot chest is gonna change. Blizzard believes it should be a major reward moment, so they want to remove the randomness, or pull it back a bit. In Shadowlands, you can create an item out of a list, which is set-up with options based your achievements that week. In other words, players get to pick the gear they want and they can work towards getting items again.
• Shadowlands Legendaries will look a lot like the Legendaries in Legion, but in a new way. You won’t obtain them randomly, but you can work towards them while you play in Torghast.
• The team will focus on the return of class identity, as opposed to spec. (They will talk more about this during the deep dive panel). Classes might change a lot and spells might return for classes.
• There will be a streamlined leveling experience. Shadowlands will be from 50 to 60. Everything will scale back. Blizzard believes this is a better pace for content and for skills. They don’t want players to play too long, to get to max level, and every level should unlock something for you. “This is an RPG and this is what an RPG should do.”
• There will be a modern new player experience and unprecedented flexibility for alts. You can pick whatever zone you like to level in. For example, you can go to Pandaria and then do Shadowlands with your alt.
• They are improving character customization with more options than ever before (screenshots below).
• Death Knights will be available for all races.