Alright kids, strap in, time for some of Lodur's thoughts on Shadowlands mechanics that do not include any spoilers for story.

Please note this is based on current beta build and may change between now and release. -

One of the things I've been unable to put my finger on for a while is that something has been missing from the game. Something not really tangible, like a feeling. Here we are, bad-ass champions of [insert class / faction thing here] and yet...-

Raids and dungeons are fun, but started to feel a bit, formulaic to me. The only chaos you really got was wipes. Running dungeons in the Shadowlands beta has made me realize that the thing that was missing, was the heroic, epic moments of saving an encounter from a wipe-

Back in ye olden days [gets out walker] We had stories of people stepping up to help cover for a catastrophic event like main tank dying, healer dying etc. A talented, good player used to be able to pick up the slack and cover until the group could recover-

and yeah, those still happen now, but it feels like it's tied to gear mostly. Not saying good players can't do it, it's just WAY rarer now.

But it made me realize that part of it is because of how the toolkits for all the classes have changed over the years-

The removal of baseline spells and abilities really made it such a rarity tied to basically out-gearing the content.

But now, with Shadowlands, that's back! Classes have those base line spells again and it FEELS amazing when it's done right-

I've been in a dungeon group where the tank dies, and the boss is almost dead. In the past I could basically out heal the damage because I was uber geared (I mean, I'm a good healer but skill does have mathematical limits) so that a dps could tank the rest-

But now, classes that CAN tank have some of those tools available to them regardless of spec. I've had tanks die in the beta and a warrior DPS step-up to finish the fight because we didn't have a brez. It felt good. It felt heroic. It felt EPIC. -

or have a class that can heal off heal enough until a brez comes off cooldown to pick (in this case me) the healer up. It felt, again, epic.

THAT is what's been missing, at least for me. The ability to feel like a total. fucking. bad-ass. -

It is still tied to skill, it is still tied to being a good player but now players have the tools to do this.

And honestly, I'm so damn happy about it. It feels like it gives a little bit of the old identity of WoW back to the game. Something that -

I didn't realize I was missing until I had it again.

I really, truly, hope this remains. That this is embraced, because it is absolutely something I ADORE right now, and for a savior of the [insert wow crisis here] it feels 100% appropriate. -

It makes me excited for dungeons and raids with my friends in a way I haven't felt in a long while.

We get to do weird bullshit again!

I'm 100% here for it.

and it makes me optimistic about Shadowlands, as long as that feeling remains.
Thanks for coming to my WoW talk.