WoW: Shadowlands First Impressions Part 1

I can’t believe it’s been nearly a year since World of Warcraft’s eighth expansion pack was released. I’m honestly more shocked by the fact that I haven’t really talked about my feelings about the expansion considering how long it has been playable. That changes today, my friends. Since I’ve got so much to say about Shadowlands by this point, I divided my first impressions into multiple articles. I’ve done so primarily to avoid writing one monstrously long piece. I feel like I would be more likely to inadvertently omit potentially important details if I didn’t.

Before we jump in, I should note that you’ll be seeing screenshots that document the adventures of several of my characters throughout this series rather than just one. That is simply a matter of circumstance above all else. I recorded as much video footage of Shadowlands as I considered necessary to write this series of articles, and I took the screenshots and footage while leveling multiple different characters through the expansion’s content. I’m starting to think I dislike playing the class that has been my main for several expansions now, but we’ll get to that later.

For the sake of brevity, I’ll assume you’re familiar with the series of events leading up to the expansion’s introductory questline. Once you’ve gotten a character to at least level 48, you’ll be summoned to your faction’s capital city by Darion Mograine. However, I would advise getting to 50 if at all possible, for reasons I’ll discuss throughout these articles.

Upon your arrival in either Stormwind or Orgrimmar, Mograine informs you that a terrible fate has befallen leaders of both factions. These leaders include Lord Admiral Jaina Proudmoore, High King Anduin Wrynn, Thrall, and Baine Bloodhoof. They’ve all been abducted by the Horde’s former Warchief, Sylvanas Windrunner, and their current whereabouts are unknown. Depending on your faction, either General Nazgrim or Inquisitor Whitemane will fill you in on the details via a cinematic.

Once you’re sufficiently up to speed on recent events, Mograine summons forth a Death Gate which will transport you and the Four Horsemen of the Ebon Blade to Icecrown Citadel. There, Highlord Bolvar Fordragon (the former Lich King) awaits you. He has a plan that requires your pivotal aid. Bolvar explains that his Helm of Domination, which grants its wearer control over the undead Scourge, was shattered by Sylvanas during their battle.

The destruction of the Helm tore asunder the boundary between the land of the living and the realms of the dead, as you’ll see if you happen to look to the sky above Icecrown Citadel. Bolvar retains possession of all the fragments of the Helm, which he asks you to place in certain positions throughout the circle of runes near the Frozen Throne. Doing so will open the path to the titular Shadowlands. Bolvar warns that due to his previous tenure as the Lich King, he cannot accompany you at first for fear of being discovered by your destination’s “true master.”

To make up for this, Darion Mograine and the Knights of the Ebon Blade pledge to come along and assist you as best they can when you cross the veil. To the horror of Bolvar and the assembled leaders representing both factions, a vengeful Tyrande Whisperwind jumps into the resulting portal alongside you. Just before the Night Warrior does this, she exclaims that you should focus your efforts on finding and recovering those who were taken, but “the Banshee is [hers] to kill.”

You, Mograine, and the Knights travel through the portal and wind up in an ominous-looking locale, though there’s no sign of Tyrande after you arrive. You slay several enemies and rally as many members of the Ebon Blade as you can find. After a while, you eventually happen across several signs that Jaina must be near your current location. Following a couple of minutes of searching, you and Mograine manage to locate both Jaina and a rather seriously injured Thrall.

Jaina mentions that she knows of a nearby cave that can serve as a temporary refuge while you put your heads together and attempt to figure out where you are, what’s going on, and what your next plan of action should be. Thus, your new ragtag group fights their way to this forlorn respite, where Jaina proceeds to tell you everything she knows about where you are. Unfortunately for you, Jaina (understandably) doesn’t know all that much about your current predicament.

The Lord Admiral explains that you’ve found yourselves in a realm known as The Maw, which is presided over by a mysterious figure known only as The Jailer. It seems that this Jailer fellow is in cahoots with none other than Sylvanas Windrunner. There’s no way Jaina could currently be sure what this potentially deadly alliance’s ultimate goal might be, but she knows it can’t be good for anyone that Sylvanas has captured. Jaina also states that she has seen brief glimpses of both Baine and Anduin during her stint in The Maw, thus confirming that they’re at least still alive for the time being.

A while later, thanks to the help of Mograine, the remaining Shard of Domination, and a tormented amalgam of condemned souls, you learn that there might be a way out of the Maw in the form of something called a “waystone.” Even if that’s true, though, you couldn’t possibly leave without seeing to the safety of your remaining missing allies. Thus you set off with Jaina and Thrall to rescue Baine and Anduin from whatever horrors the Jailer and Sylvanas might have in store for them.

It turns out that Anduin is in Sylvanas’ clutches, while the Jailer has taken Baine. The three of you happen upon the chains in which Anduin is being held first, so you fight to acquire the key to said chains and set the High King free. This ends up being more fortuitous than you could have expected, as you’ll ultimately need Anduin’s command of holy magic to restore Baine to full strength once you’ve rescued him from the Jailer.

The Jailer deems Baine’s spirit unworthy and subsequently drops him from a great height. As you can imagine, this heavily damages Baine’s already-weakened body. However, that’s not the worst part of the situation. Baine’s spirit has been damaged by one of the tormentors in the Maw. This means you and Thrall will need to find the one who tore his spirit asunder and recover the blade with which the deed was done. Upon doing so, you and Anduin work together to reunite Baine’s soul with his corporeal form and tend to his wounds.

As it happens, Baine knows a bit more about that aforementioned “waystone” that might prove to be your ticket out of the Maw. He says it’s located within a part of the land known as “the Cauldron,” and that the Jailer and his minions don’t seem to consider the waystone very important. That changes rather abruptly when you show up and the waystone seems to begin awakening due to your mere presence.

I could never quite tell whether the waystone reacts to you because of your Heart of Azeroth, or just due to something about you personally, but that doesn’t seem to matter all that much. At least now you know you’ve found a means of escape. Once you activate the waystone, the Jailer turns his army’s attention toward you and your allies.

He manages to recapture everyone except you, but not before Anduin commands that you travel through the waystone out of the Maw. It is as if Anduin knows you won’t abandon anyone once you’ve left this hellish plane, no matter where you may end up. At this point, you find yourself in Oribos, the so-called “Eternal City.”

Oribos serves as the central hub city for the entirety of Shadowlands, just as Dalaran did in both Wrath of the Lich King and Legion. For anyone among our audience who might be unfamiliar, should you require any facility normally contained within a capital city such as Stormwind or Orgrimmar, you’ll likely have to return to Oribos in order to conduct your business.

This includes things like bank services, profession trainers, mailboxes, an innkeeper, and a transmogrification vendor. As has previously been the case in expansions such as Legion and Battle for Azeroth, Oribos does contain an auction house, but it can only be used by characters who have the Engineering profession. There is no specific skill requirement in that profession before such players can utilize this facility, however. I’ve always disliked the concept of auction houses like this, but I digress.

Thankfully for players like me who tend to avoid player-versus-player combat like the plague, Oribos is also considered a Sanctuary. For the uninitiated, that means all PVP combat is disabled within its sacred halls, even among those who have War Mode enabled. I don’t quite recall whether or not that was the case for either the Great Seal or Boralus Harbor in Battle for Azeroth. Either way, this is a nice return to form in my opinion.

I should mention that after you complete a couple of minor quests once you arrive in Oribos, the Ebon Blade will establish portals back to both Stormwind and Orgrimmar at the edge of the Eternal City. Both of these capitals now also contain portals back to Oribos. This ensures you aren’t stuck in Shadowlands content or back on Azeroth for any reason if you forget to bind your Hearthstone to Oribos or something.

These will come in quite handy should you need to expeditiously return to Azeroth for, say, an auction house if you’re not an engineer or a big enough spender to have your own Mighty Caravan Brutosaur mount. However, you may find players sitting idly on this mount within Oribos; in this case, you’ll be able to utilize the services of their accompanying auctioneer NPC.

I think this article is starting to run a tad bit long, so I’ll wrap things up shortly. On a final note for the first part of this series, I just want to express the hope that Shadowlands’ introductory quest chain in the Maw will eventually be skippable, as is the case with most previous expansions. Granted, this chain doesn’t feel like it takes quite as long as that of some of those other expansions, and it does provide a decent source of experience points and gold.

However, Shadowlands’ introduction grows increasingly tedious with each character I take through it. That’s one reason I’m thankful for the so-called Threads of Fate system, which I’ll explain in much more detail later in this series. For now, I hope this article has proven at least somewhat informative for you if you’re a dormant WoW player who’s considering jumping into Shadowlands content. I hope you’ll join me soon for the next installment of my first impressions of the current expansion!