Is this the Shadowlands Experience - even after the Campaigns?

I played wotlk and stopped after that - just returned a few weeks ago because i got some time and wanted to play the zandalari stuff.
I was really happy with the game and leveled a few alts and unlocked all new Races.

But now i am 60 with my Main and wanted to gear up.
But I HAVE TO do all the Shadowlands Campaigns?
Alright…

I am currently in Ardenwald and it already feels like it’s double the length of the 2 zones before that. And i realize I really HAVE TO do that or everything else seems to be locked for me.

But also is the fun in dungeons or doing those quests, because i can barely control my character anymore - which i am not used to. All the time i have to read and read and watch and watch - even in the stupid dungeons??? FOR REAL??

can somebody tell me how long it’s gonna take to finish the last zone and if it’s worth it for someone like me who enjoys the game - but since Shadowlands Questing began i hate the time i am logged in and i cam kind of angry about myself that i subbed 2 months and not 1…

If I have to read and watch all the time in Heroics and Raids i swear to god i am out of here in an instant. It feels like they try to hide content and fun since i started Shadowlands.

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Im not exactly sure what u need to do as new player, and what u can skip . But i would assume u need to do campaign (50-60) for each zone , then for your first covenant , some mandatory torghast runs, for campaing, then u can skip korthia , most likely whole maw too, and go to ZM .

If u are already at 60 i would say it takes like 10-12 hours to do everything if u dont real every quest and dont want every cinematic.

There is also possibility u dont have to do half of those and all u need is ZM for second lego which is like 3-4 hours , and then just grind renown in dungeons or pvp .

but can i just play the game after finishing this zone and the one after this? i don’t want to waste any more time playing when it’s like that for the next 2 days of playing… don’t want to cry here but i am so stunned how bad the last days were. i am already burned out and so pissed off by the writing and waiting all the time.

I dont know where exactly u are, but once u do those “mandatory” things u can play as u want and do whatever you want .

And by mandatory i mean those that u have to do to be on par with everyone else , like doing ZM for double legendary, u dont need to do it, u dont have to do it, but if u play with one while everyone else with two its kinda bad and u feel sad .

Why have you bought shadowlands when not interested into the expac at all? Skips are meant to be used for alt characters. If it is your first time in SL just enjoy the story until season 4 starts. If not just wait for dragonflight I guess

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Most people don’t care anymore about Shadowlands story and just want to play the content (Aka dungeons and raids).
Shoving dozens of mandatory campaign quests down our throats isn’t really a brilliant idea. If it had great story writing then that could be a justification but that’s not something Shadowlands is known for.
Meanwhile, older expansions had better story-writing and world-building but the quests weren’t mandatory. You could literally do 0 quests in Northrend and still be able to go straight into ICC raid or you could do 0 quests in Cata and go straight to any of its raid even when it was a current expansion. Compare that to the nonsense of an expansion we have today.

because i wanted to PLAY world of warcraft and back in my days you did not lose control of your character every 20 minutes.
i know the game from back then - got the key as a gift and just had to sub.
and i am not interested in reading in those games or any story stuff. i am just not into it. i am into the gamePLAY. i studied philosophy and creative writing in germany - i am fine with the amounts of texts i have to read all day long. and no offense but the storys in games like warcraft are not that great if you already read a few books in your life; i really was just hyped to grind, run dungeons, gear up, do casual raiding, some pvp - stuff like that.

i will take a break for a few days and see how its like when i log in again. but it seems i just should have downloaded dota or something like that. i am just absolutely surprised and stunned how bad the pacing is in this expansion and that i can’t do anything, not even dungeons, without being interrupted all the time.

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Comparing wotlk with shadowlands kekw

To be honest I thought the first time through the story was actually quite good. Some of the zones were a bit too light and saturated for my tastes but the rest was ok.

My issue is with the overly complex systems and the ‘minimum’ ilvl needed to enter SL dungeons on a newly dinged character that meant I was doing world and side quests before I could even dungeon run.

Edit: Anyway, what’s stopping you entering raids in the same way you did in Wrath and Cata?

Honestly, it sounds like RPG games aren’t for you then.

You’re probably right.

for the first time i guess you need to go thru this nightmare. Think just now its a way better than at the begin.
Hold your nose and carry on

who did this? i said i played wotlk the last. see, thats the point. people like you recommending reading, do not rly read. thats kekw

“Honestly, it sounds like RPG games aren’t for you then.”
the good ones are ok. i played a ton of rpgs, sry mate.

eh but in theory the “text on quests” are RPG. I always jump them (in SL) but without’em there would be RPG games.
But i agree. The story in SL is bad written, lame and nonsense (with some bright exception). Go thru it and head for DF. Nothin could be worse (perhaps).

Just play em so your character gets known to the different covenants, so you can help them with Daily Chores and obviously “learn” about their covenants so you can make a “proper” choice.

Isn’t it normal for a new character to get known to ingame chars? Like you aren’t Exalted on a new char because nobody (yes, not even NPCs) knows that new char…

Not everyone plays wow for the story dude.

I dont quite know the new player experience for obvious reasons, but Zereth Mortis is only a few hours.
Covenant compaign as an evening give or take… Korthia can be skipped …

Just like you want to to be able to skip raids and M+ without it having an impact on your character, some of us would like to skip the mindless stories in the game, you might enjoy them, and that’s fine, but like OP, i’d prefer reading LotR again if i wanted a good story, or any other good fantasy novel.

And your comment about RPG games not being for the OP would be equal to me saying MMO games aren’t for you and therfor dismissing all your complaints/concerns.

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Wow is not call of duty… U need to play some kind of rpg in an mmoRPG

mmm dunno. if is his first time maybe he must do it

yes, you should be able to team up with other people and just have fun without being forced into single player content in an MMOrpg

pretty sure you can, i took a break when 9.1 launched, i dont think i’ve completed Korthia on any char tbh.

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In shadowlands Blizzard wanted to imitate the MSQ from FF14 without a story worth immersing into