World of Warcraft is the most successful MMO ever made. That’s not an exaggeration and it’s no small feat. Blizzard has kept this (mostly) great game alive with nearly 16 years of additional content, whether that be in the form of expansions revolving around novel worlds or patches that add brand new dungeons and raids.
And finally, Shadowlands is out now. Blizzard’s upcoming effort to shift the state of the game with a handful of bold mechanics has seemingly been successful for fans. Be sure to also check out our World of Warcraft: Shadowlands beta impressions. And if you've never played WoW before, be sure to check out our guide on how to start playing.
For all you fellow WoW nerds out there, here’s everything you need to know about World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, including details on its gameplay, zones, customization, and level squish. And we have a separate article if you'd like to know even more about Chromie Time.
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World of Warcraft: Shadowlands Chains of Domination
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is receiving a significant update titled Chains of Domination, which includes a new zone, mega-dungeon and raid.
Korthia, City of Secrets, was pulled into the Maw by the Jailer to assist him in realizing his sinister visions of the future. Players will be able to explore this new zone to battle novel enemies and witness the Jailer uncover the "secrets of an enigmatic group known as the First Ones."
Tazavesh: the Veiled Market is the new mega-dungeon featuring eight boss fights set throughout a shady bazaar. Blizzard promises that players will face a plethora of interesting enemies. This includes an infinite pirate dragon, and although I have no clue what that means, it sounds awesome.
Chains of Domination is now live. Raid Finder Wing 1 is available, with Wing 2, 3, and 4 coming July 27, August 10, and August 24 respectively. You can also begin jumping into Tazavesh, although it requires quite a high Item Level to become viable, as it's currently only available on Mythic difficulty.
Sanctum of Domination is the new 10-boss raid located beyond the most dangerous halls of Torghast. Players will have a violent reunion with the beloved Kel'Thuzad and finally get the chance to destroy the Eye of the Jailer. However, what's most exciting about this raid is that it will give players the ability to do what they've wanted since the start of Battle for Azeroth: defeat Sylvanas.
Chains of Domination will also feature another Torghast wing, the ability to fly in Shadowlands, and new cosmetic armor sets. Chains of Domination is set to go live later in the year.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands class buffs
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands has had a few balance issues as of late, with a number of specializations lagging behind some of the best in the game. Personally, I main an Assassination Rogue, which has done quite terribly so far, so I'm glad Blizzard is finally addressing some of these issues.
Most of these buffs are simply percentage damage increases, which isn't super exciting, but hopefully it makes the underperforming specializations viable. Frost Death Knight, Beast Mastery Hunter, Survival Hunter, Assassination Rogue and Destruction Warlock have all had their damage boosted by 5%. Havoc Demon Hunter, Frost Mage, Enhancement Shaman, Arms Warrior and Fury Warrior have had their damage boosted by 3%.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands Castle Nathria
Although Shadowlands is finally playable, some of its most important content will be rolled out gradually. However, all four wings of the Castle Nathria raid are now available through Raid Finder. This raid features 10 bosses along with new weapons, achievements, items and titles. This will likely prove to be a difficult encounter, so prepare as much as you can before attempting it.
On December 15 in North America, the Mythic difficulty became available, along with a Raid Finder for Wing 1. Raid Finder for Wing 2, 3 and 4 unlocked in North America on On January 5th, January 19th and February 2nd respectively. We currently have no information regarding the next raid.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands release date
At Gamescom Opening Night Live, we were given the release date for World of Warcraft: Shadowlands. It was originally announced that we can expect to play Shadowlands on October 27. However, the game was delayed indefinitely and we were unsure when we'd see it again.
Nothing escapes the Maw. #Shadowlands arrives November 23. pic.twitter.com/5KhUM7BVfGOctober 29, 2020
The official World of Warcraft Twitter announced that Shadowlands would come out on November 23rd. This is nearly a month after its originally expected launch date, but at least Blizzard finally delivered. You can play Shadowlands right now.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands gameplay
One of the big changes that has come with World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is its addition of Covenants, which let players pledge their allegiance to a specific group in order to be rewarded with unique armor sets, special abilities, cosmetics and more. The four covenants are Kyrian (angelic guardians), Necrolords (undead necromancers), Night Fae (fairies attuned with nature) and Venthyr (gothic vampires).
One of the most exciting aspects of Covenants is that it allows players to Soulbind specific characters within them. This system gives us access to new skill trees that provide a handful of special bonuses and abilities. These bonuses can be both combat-based or practically used within the world. A skill like "Travel with Boop" allows the player to increase their movement speed for a few minutes if they remain still for a long enough period of time.
Additionally, Shadowlands adds something called Torghast, which plays similarly to a rogue-like, allowing the player to gain specific buffs as they climb higher and higher up the tower. For example, Death Knights can be given an ability called Toxic Accumulator, which increases the damage done from Death’s Due by 10%, and these modifiers are additive, allowing for this one, in particular, to stack up to 15 times.
Torghast is exciting for those who want to dungeon crawl until they drop because it’s different every time a player enters. The novelty of each run is further kept intact by modifiers that will fundamentally change how mobs and bosses should be approached.
If you’re curious about what the purpose of this tower is, it apparently holds the location of the Forge of Domination, which is where the Lich King’s infamous Frostmourne and Helm of Domination were crafted. This forge allows players to craft legendaries of their own using materials found within the tower itself.
Shadowlands is also continuing the trend of Mythic+ by adding new affixes. “Prideful” will cause every non-boss mob a player kills to slowly contribute to a “Pride” meter, which eventually forces them to battle a Manifestation of Pride enemy. “Inspiring” randomly gives non-boss enemies a buff that strengthens their allies, “Storming” causes enemies to occasionally summon a damaging whirlwind and “Spiteful” has monsters appear from the corpses of enemies to attack other players.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands zones
Shadowlands launched with five new areas and a city hub. Bastion is a gorgeous and otherworldly floating land inhabited by angelic creatures called the Kyrian. Maldraxxus is an undead-infested nightmare similarly designed to many plague-ridden Wrath of the Lich King areas. Ardenweald is an enchanting forest occupied by the Night Fae and other beautiful wildlife. The Maw is a ruined vortex of souls, inhabited by the most awful creatures in the Shadowlands. Revendre is straight out of a vampiric fantasy, with a soul-siphoning covenant called Venthyr native to the area. Yes, there are vampires in World of Warcraft, equipped with gothic castles and copious amounts of bats.
Oribos, The Eternal City, lies in the center of the Shadowlands and it will exist as a hub area bridging the rest of these worlds akin to Dalaran in Wrath of the Lich King. This list of zones isn’t including Exile’s Reach, which is a new starting area that will be released before the game’s launch in a pre-patch.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands level squish
Easily the biggest change in World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is a complete overhaul of the leveling system. In Battle For Azeroth, the max level was capped at a threatening 120. When Shadowlands’ pre-patch launched, the new cap changed to 50, and when Shadowlands released, it went up to 60. This is Blizzard’s attempt to streamline World of Warcraft and make it more accessible to new users.
As the new level cap got implemented, players now have the choice of beginning in a new starting zone called Exile’s Reach. This will act as a noob-friendly tutorial intended to take them from level 1 to 10, and when they’re ready to venture out, they can decide which area they want to explore to take them to the level 50 cap.
I’m someone who’s ridiculously nostalgic for Wrath of the Lich King, so I can make the decision to experience my leveling journey from 10-50 in Northrend. Previously, I’d have to hop around the world or queue up for dungeons to try and gain as much experience as possible to hit 120 in preparation for Shadowlands. Now I can leisurely enjoy my time in an area I love without having to worry about pushing through nearly 16 years of content.
The most exciting part about this change is that every character I roll can experience a different questline and area. I can jump through an entire expansion with one character to hit max level rather than having to go through all six.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands customization
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands made some incredible updates to character customization, including the ability for currently existing toons to change their gender for free. Outside of that, every standard race has been given new options, including additional skin tones, faces, hairdos, eye colors and more.
Most importantly, humans can now be given facial features and hairstyles of Asian and African descent. Previously, World of Warcraft only allowed players to make human characters with Caucasian facial features and just a different skin tone. This has always been problematic, and although it took Blizzard far too long to implement these changes to humans, it’s still a welcome update.
Apart from these changes, Night Elfs can add leaves to their hair, Draenei have the ability to change the size of their tail and tendrils, Dwarves can have tattoos, Blood Elves can be made with darker skin colors, Trolls can have body paint, Minotaurs can have flowers in their hair, Orcs can have war paint, and Undead can be given fully-formed bodies.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands special editions
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands comes with three editions and no pre-order bonuses for any of them. Blizzard is currently offering a Base Edition, Heroic Edition and Epic Edition. These can grant access to new mounts, questlines and pets. You can pre-order the game here.
As the name suggests, World of Warcraft: Shadowlands Base Edition comes with no additional content and will cost you $39.99. Heroic Edition costs $59.99 and provides an Ensorcelled Everwyrm flying mount, Vestments of the Eternal Traveler transmogrification set quest and one 120 Character Boost which can currently be used before the pre-patch (using it after the pre-patch will likely boost players up to level 50).
However, keep in mind that the Vestments of the Eternal Traveler questline can still be started if a player who owns the Base Edition groups up with those who purchased the more expensive options. The Epic Edition comes with everything previous mentioned including an Anima Wyrmling pet, Wraithchill cosmetic weapon effect, Eternal Traveler's Hearthstone and 30 days of game time. This will cost you $79.99.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands Afterlives Gamescom
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands has received a handful of mini-episodes going over the lore of many of the series' iconic characters. This was in the same vein as what we saw for Legion and Battle for Azeroth.
At the Gamescom show, we got a complete first look at the Bastion animated short. This showed fans what happened to Uther the Lightbringer after he was impaled by Frostmourne.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands ray tracing
Within the latest Nvidia GeForce driver update, the World of Warcraft: Shadowlands beta was dropped at the bottom of the optimization list. “Blizzard’s readying a test of their newest World of Warcraft expansion. Opt-in here, and if you’re accepted be sure to download and install our latest Game Ready Driver to experience the introduction of ray-traced visual effects to the world’s most successful MMORPG.”
Essentially, Blizzard has managed to launch ray tracing compatibility with Shadowlands. This is great news, and because it was recently featured on the latest Nvidia GeForce update, it’s currently testable for those who have access to the World of Warcraft: Shadowlands. Reddit user Weeeboss shared the screenshots above, showcasing what ray tracing will look like at its highest setting. Nearly everything projects a shadow, allowing for a much more immersive lighting system.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands PS5 and controller support
Blizzard has recently revealed that World of Warcraft: Shadowlands will be getting controller support which should allow for an expansive selection of gamepads. This could also mean that the game will eventually be coming to consoles. However, this is unconfirmed.
John Hight, Executive Producer of World of Warcraft, has confirmed to Eurogamer that they’re going to be “enabling a lot of the things required for our add-on community to build add-ons for controller support. And it isn't just controllers: we're looking at a number of different devices. But our focus was not to try and make WoW feel like a console game but rather for players with disabilities to have more accessible input devices.”
Hight seemingly made it clear that the company is not currently working on a console version for World of Warcraft, but the idea is not out of the window. Within the same interview, he says “if we were ever to do something like that [with WoW], I'd want to see a good, solid prototype that showed me we could all play our characters and feel we had good command over them, and could experience the world smoothly and things could be visually as enticing as they are on PC."
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands PC requirements
The minimum requirements to run World of Warcraft: Shadowlands include Windows 7, Intel Core i5-3450 or AMD FX 8300 CPU, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 AMD or Radeon RX 560 or Intel UHD 630 GPU, 4GB of RAM (8GB if you're using an integrated graphics card) and 100GB of SSD/HDD storage space. Blizzard warns that HDD could negatively impact the experience, though.
The recommended requirements to run World of Warcraft: Shadowlands include Windows 10, Intel Core i7-6700K or AMD Ryzen 7 2700X CPU, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 or AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 GPU, 8GB of RAM and 100GB of SSD storage space.
