World of Warcraft Shadowlands: Chains of Dominance - First Impressions
On June 30, the long-awaited World of Warcraft: Shadowlands patch "Chains of Dominance" was released. What's new we managed to see during the week of the friv game from Friv2Online Games Studio, we'll tell you in the review.
In my memory, there has not yet been a single large-scale WoW update that would not drag on for long hours. The first weeks of the friv game after the release of major patches are always exciting - it seems that there is just a lot of new content, the changes are global and there will be something to do for a long time to come. "Chains of Dominion", as expected, was no exception. Blizzard is basically doing a masterful job of attracting player interest in new content, time will tell how long it will be possible to keep it, because content updates are already planned for several months in advance.
Naturally, the first thing I wanted to do on the day of the release of patch 9.1 was to get to a new location, which suddenly (at least for an ordinary mortal soul from Azeroth) ended up in the Womb - Cortia. Fortunately, if you have completed at least part of the covenant campaign, you can start a campaign that will lead to a new location right away. And now you are already in Korthia carrying heavy bags for Ven'nari to help open a portal to her hideout.
The location, as promised, is original, unlike other places in the Dark Lands. I immediately got the impression that this was Ardenweald, whose appearance was modified by the Venthirs. There are mobs here that are not found in other zones, so the hunters must have immediately replenished their stables with new pets. Naturally, there are also rares with cool loot, and chests, and dailies.
In the first week after the release of patch 9.1, we got access to three chapters of the new campaign, and already on July 7, you can start the fourth chapter. After passing it, we will finally get the opportunity to fly in the Dark Lands. Thanks to Odin, in Shadowlands you don't need to earn the Pathfinder achievement and reputation to unlock flights like you did in previous expansions. Players who have recently unlocked the Battle for Azeroth Pathfinder achievement not so long ago can relax – they won’t have to suffer anymore for the sake of being able to quickly move around the map.
This is a completely justified decision on the part of the developer - the players had enough time to explore all the impenetrable wilds of the Dark Lands, using only ground vehicles, so there is no point in making them suffer further. In addition, flights will still not be allowed in Oribos, Korthia, and the Womb, although in the latter you can now use any land transport - finally, everyone will stop envying shamans and feral druids with black envy.
The Maw is now home to Covenant units and we will have to carry out attacks that will bring various rewards, including new mounts. There are also rarniki running around the Maw that can knock out mounts, and despite the fact that the drop rate is far from 100%, they are hunted around the clock.
We can also now level up reputation with two new factions - the Legion of Doom and the Archivist's Codex. Leveling these reputations will give you access to new transmogs, mounts, pets, and other goodies.
Another new currency has appeared - catalog research. For it, you can upgrade your equipment up to level 233. So now it will be easier to dress your character in good-level gear. Moreover, after leveling up the reputation, it will be possible to buy items of 200 ILVL for their alts, so that the next characters do not have to spend time farming the wardrobe.
In Torghast, by the way, now you can die more often. In addition, new currencies have appeared - soul embers (not to be confused with soul ash), for which you can upgrade your legendaries, and knowledge about the tower - used to upgrade talents in Torghast.
In regards to the new PvP season, Blizzard has made a change that could make life harder for PvP players. Now your crew will have a different level depending on what type of content you are playing.
If you put aside your personal pain about this, then this innovation will affect the friv gameplay rather well than badly. If earlier you could easily run in PvP gear and master PvE content without any problems, now it may not be so easy. It is quite logical that players who closed mythics and tried their best to feel confident in PvE should outperform those who farmed honor points on the battlefields and thus increased the level of their equipment.
I don't think it makes sense to talk a lot about buggy quests and other shortcomings. First, the fact that there are always minor or major problems with new content is not news to anyone. Second, it's obvious that the recent release of Burning Crusade Classic has robbed the developers of time that would otherwise have been dedicated to Chains of Domination.
In general, while there are much more positive impressions than negative ones, let's see what happens next - after all, since July 7, access to the Sanctuary of Domination raid has opened, at the end of which we will meet with Sylvanas, the Tazavesh Secret Market megadungeon, and now you can also try to kill the world boss Mor'geth, Tormentor of the Damned.
Actually, it's time to do all this tonight, so it's time to finish and run to new achievements.