Shadowlands Delay – The Climb #587

Thursday 1^st October 2020

So Shadowlands has been delayed.

As someone who books leave from the day job to play new Warcraft expansions, this screws me over somewhat. And given I have to work round other’s availability there’s unlikely to be any chance of moving it – not that I could even if it was possible as we do not know the new release date.

As annoying as this is, it’s something I support. I often have Twitch streams on in the background as I work and it’s been clear that Shadowlands needs a lot of polish. I’m not sure it’s going to be as good as Legion or Lich King but I think it has potential to be a good expansion, so I would rather they take the time to make it right.

We do have a date for Prepatch though which means I am going to have some things to do. My plan is to take my low level alts and use pre-patch with its level squish to get a bunch of them up to the new max level of 50. My plan is to do this in Draenor. Whilst XP has been nerfed, my reasoning is more to do with the fact that they’ll be establishing their garrison.

Of course, the pre-patch coming on the 16^th means that my hopes of ever getting a longboi will be gone forever (or until one comes on the Black market auction house). It probably breaks some terms of service but I would totally mentor someone’s writing for a Longboi.

They’ve also extended the reputation buff for Legion and BFA content through the whole of October. I might use this to get to exalted on a few remaining factions on my main. I should also look to see if there are any profession recipes I might need on my alts that require Legion or BFA rep.

In truth, there’s part of me that’s till feels a little flat about it all. I was working towards a date and getting excited about the new expansion and the new experiences and opportunities that would come as a result. Without a date (other than later this year) it’s difficult to focus my enthusiasm.

There’s a temptation to pull back a little, to not want to burn out on the game. But I also know that’s where I normally go wrong. I should be gathering resources ready for launch and using the delay as an opportunity.

My thinking is to switch my focus from expansion to pre-patch and focus on that 16^th October release date. Going to be lots to do getting characters up to level 50, and I have lots to do in the Garrison in the meantime.