#and that if your alts are at max level you can still make meaningful progress on them for your main

[aion-rsa]

Is World of Warcraft: Shadowlands Pre-Patch Friendly to New Players?

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World of Warcraft‘s Shadowlands expansion may have been delayed until sometime later this year, but the expansion’s pre-patch is already live. While you won’t be able to explore Shadowlands‘ new zones, dungeons, bosses, gear, and other upcoming content as part of this patch, many of Shadowlands‘ core upcoming changes (including changes to the MMO’s leveling structure and classes) are already in the game.

It’s around this time that many people start wondering whether or not this is a good time to return to World of Warcraft or even start playing it for the first time. After all, there’s theoretically no better time to jump into an ongoing game than around the release of a new expansion when even veteran players are navigating new content.

At least that’s the question I found myself asking. As someone who never really played World of Warcraft until I spent hundreds of hours with World of Warcraft: Classic, the idea of jumping into the “Retail” version of the game was as appealing as it was daunting. After all, is it really possible to feel at home in a game that’s been growing and changing for the last 16 years?

To help answer that question, here’s a brief look at some of the key points new players need to know before they consider starting their World of Warcraft adventure with Shadowlands.

Shadowland’s New Starting Zone is Welcome but Underwhelming

Shadowlands introduces a new starting area called Exile’s Reach that is mandatory for new players (which, in this case, means you don’t have a World of Warcraft character at or above level 10 on your account) and optional for veteran players. It’s basically a glorified tutorial area that you’ll stay in until around the time your character reaches level 10.

While it’s nice that World of Warcraft now has a proper tutorial area that offers a (nearly) universal leveling experience for new players, the results leave something to be desired. This area will teach you the bare basics (accepting quests, attacking enemies, managing equipment, etc), but unless you’re entirely in the dark about how World of Warcraft and MMOs work, you may find yourself mindlessly jumping from quest to quest waiting for the real game to start.

Exile’s Reach is a better alternative to the old system (which dropped players into unevenly designed starting areas based on their chosen race) but it may still leave you with unanswered questions regarding the more meaningful basic mechanics of the game and how to really take advantage of the playstyle of your chosen class.

Leveling By Expansion Is an Acceptable Solution to A Bigger World of Warcraft Problem

What happens if you’re past the mandatory requirements for Shadowlands‘ new starting zone? Well, you’ll always have the option of starting a new character at Exile’s Reach, but veteran players are also able to essentially “jump” to any previous WoW expansion and level their characters to 50 by following that expansion’s storyline. 

It’s a cute idea, but the execution is a bit of a mixed bag. You’ll never really be able to truly recreate the process of leveling through each of these expansions (unless Blizzard releases “Classic” versions of each of them), so this option seemingly just exists to offer a little variety to veteran players leveling their character alts as well as a way for new players to experience the basic lore of old content. 

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So far as that goes, this mechanic really works best as a novelty implemented for variety’s sake. Not only would it take quite a while for new players to go through every previous expansion just to experience the lore, but the truncated versions of those leveling processes means that you’re still probably better off reading/listening to an explainer if you want an overview of what’s happening. This change doesn’t really address the problem of new players feeling like they’ve missed out on 16 years worth of content updates and storylines. Besides, those looking to level an alt character will likely stick to the newer expansions which offer much quicker leveling experiences. 

Shadowland’s Level Squish Makes Leveling Much More Enjoyable

While it’s easy to assume that Shadowlands offers less leveling content now that the level cap has been reduced from 120 to 50 (soon to be 60 with the full release of Shadowlands), the opposite quickly proves to be true. 

This new system ensures that reaching new levels in Shadowlands feels more meaningful. There are still some levels in the game that don’t reward you with anything more exciting than a passive ability or a skill that you’ll almost never use, this new leveling system at least sustains the illusion of role-playing progress. 

That being said, it’s entirely possible that new players will feel a little overwhelmed by the number of new skills they acquire throughout the course of this revamped leveling process. After all, Blizzard revived a lot of the skills and talents from the previous World of Warcraft expansions and incorporated them into the streamlined leveling process, so you actually end up with quite a few mechanics to manage. The good news is that “problem” is addressed somewhat by the next point we should discuss…

Reaching The Level Cap Really is Faster Than Ever

For the purposes of discussion, let’s say that first time players will go from 1-50 in the Shadowlands pre-patch in about 24 in-game hours. That number is going to vary wildly from player to player, but somewhere around that mark seems to be the average. 

Honestly, that’s not bad when you consider that the average journey from 1-60 in WoW Classic typically sets you back closer to 100 hours. More importantly, the game’s relatively quick leveling time makes it clearer than ever before that modern WoW is really all about the end-game. That means that new players shouldn’t necessarily fret over whether or not they feel like they’ve mastered their character by the time they reach the max level. The reduced leveling time also means that it’s easier than ever to level multiple characters to 50 (and eventually 60), which is great for those who want to explore different classes and find what works for them.

It’s entirely understandable if you miss the slower journey of the old leveling process and the adventures you have en route to the level cap, but so far as accomodating new players go, the much-improved leveling speed is a welcome addition.

Solo Play is Easy but Limits the “Massively Multiplayer” Aspects of Shadowlands

Aside from the new starting zone, one of the most noteworthy accommodations the Shadowlands pre-patch makes for new players is a “Newcomer Chat” system in which new players can talk amongst themselves and even ask approved veteran guides for help. 

It’s a neat idea that works well enough if you just want a basic answer to a simple question, but generally speaking, the community aspects of WoW’s early game still feel weak. You can fairly easily solo your way to the level cap, which means that you probably won’t find yourself really needing to work with other players until you get into raiding and other, deeper forms of end-game content. 

I wish I could tell you what the perfect solution to this problem is, but at the moment, World of Warcraft suffers from the fact that not all max level players are made equally. Some have been playing the game for 16 years and others just started. The idea is to find a group of players that match (or accommodate) your experience, but because the game doesn’t really encourage social play until the end game, learning to find and work with other players feels more complicated than it did in the early days of WoW Classic when social play was spread more evenly throughout. Hopefully, the early days of Shadowlands‘ full release will encourage people to group up and solve early challenges together.

Overall, it’s clear that Blizzard crafted Shadowlands with the new player experience in mind. You won’t have a hard time jumping into the game at this point, but whether or not you decide to stick with it is really going to come down to the strength of Shadowlands‘ proper debut and how much you enjoy the World of Warcraft experience once you’ve hit that level cap.

The post Is World of Warcraft: Shadowlands Pre-Patch Friendly to New Players? appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[clanmccrackengaming]

Chapter 5

In this chapter you learn that a disinherited son of a noble house has stolen a Hero’s Relic and you are tasked with getting it back.

Before setting off for the first week, Byleth hit level 10 in the previous chapter and is now ready for an Intermediate class. I’ve elected to go with Thief.

Not only did I pass, but the minimum speed stat for a thief is apparently 11, and since I had a lower speed then the minimum it automatically boosted me to the proper level, It helps to offset all those terrible level ups I’ve been getting.

Week 1: Explore

Starting off with my usual explore phase ritual, I watch all the new supports I’ve unlocked, Go around and collect all of the quests and blue items scattered around the grounds. I check the garden, Asked Petra to join me this month again, asked her to tea, did choir practice, ate a meal with Petra and Lysithea, and ate another with Hilda and Lorenz. All in all nothing spectacular, accept for one minor detail…

AHHHHHH GHOST IGNATZ!?

Well to be perfectly honest when you lose a character this early in the game they are not technically ‘dead’ they just get injured and retire from combat. Apparently they still show up at the monastery, but you cant interact with them in a meaningful way. You cant give them gifts, or return their lost items. You cant invite them to meals, or observe their supports. Soooo, I’m still going to treat him as dead. This apparition is a lingering fragment of his being put here to make me feel bad for not protecting him better.

Week 2: Battle

In the second week, I chose to battle. I only have 1 action point for this phase, and I have 2 quests that need to be finished. Clearing the Way is a quests that unlocks additional merchants, and Maintaining Your Training doesn’t unlock anything meaningful. Try to guess which one I picked.

This map is the exact same map we’ve run a couple times all ready. They used it for that one fog battle. Strategy wasn’t anything special but here are the highlights

The level ups were nothing spectacular, but they were better than nothing. Byleth was the MVP

Week 3: Explore

Happy Birthyday, Leonie

Exploring again, 5 AP.

Trained Swords with Catherine, and Rhea. Choir practice then a meal with Leonie and Ingrid, and a second with Lorenz and Hilda.

  Assignment

Before starting the assignment Petra asked to join my house as a full member.

I accepted, obviously

With the assignment started, we tracked the bandits the stole the relic to an old tower in the Kingdom Territory.

This mission is unique in that there are several reinforcements that appear through out the map. Some of them will ambush you, and attack you the turn they appear. To make matters even worse, the ambushers also have Pass, meaning they can team up on your weakest members and there is generally little you can do about it. So we need to move forward with that in mind.

To help augment our forces Lady Rhea sent a knight with us. Gilbert is a Fortress Knight, and because of that carries a massive shield and axe. He is meant to be a tank of sorts.

For this I really wish I had a capture card so I could have recorded it. I’ll try to go into the strategy I used, but it is a little difficult only having screen shots.

Derp

You start off at the bottom of the map in a checker pattern. There are 3 units to the east in your immediate way: 2 to the north east and 1 on the other side of the wall in front of a treasure chest. Before you start clearing out units though, make sure you turn on the enemy danger areas. Specifically turn on the red markers for the 4 archers in the center of the map. This is important because if you (Or Gilbert) stop moving within range of one of those archers, not only will they hurt you, they will also aggro every other unit on the map to get to you. It cost me 2 Divine pulse to learn this lesson.

Do NOT stop within range of any of these archers.

My first goal was to clear out the three in front of me and bunch my self in the hallway so as to create a choke point for the first two waves of reinforcements.

By the time the first wave arrives you want to have your formation looking something like this. Put your tanks in the bottom row, pack in your mages in the second row, and your long range archers in the third row. This will make the enemies take on your tough units first instead of running though you and hitting the back rows. Strike with the achers/mages first where there is no retaliation, finish injured units off with your melee when you can kill them off without a counterattack happening. Damage the mages with high resistance units and finish them off in the same manor.

Once you move into this formation the first wave will appear and attack. If you did it quick enough, Gilbert will take the brunt of their attack. This is what you want. Sad as it may sound, you want Gilbert retreating from this battle. If he survives it he WILL aggro the archers on the hill. It’s just the way his programming works. You cant control him, and the only way to prevent him from stopping in one of those squares is to stand in them yourself, which defeats the entire purpose.

In my run Gilbert did not survive the first wave, but he did get a lucky crit and took one of them out for me.

Clearing out the initial 3 units, and the 3 remaining units of the first wave netted me the following levels

Lysithea, you are my most deadly unit, but if you keep up these levels you wont be for long.

Close up of the formation

Take the time to heal up. When you are ready, move one unit to this square to spawn the second wave

When the second wave spawns, take it the same way you took the first one. Clear out the second wave and use the key your found (or a thief) to open the chest for an Armorslayer sword. It will come in handy later.

The second wave got me these levels.

A solid level

  After clearing out the second wave I pushed forward. There was a lone mage sitting in the middle of the hallway, I baited her out with Marianne who had the best Res in the army. She was able to tank her attacks without taking a single point of damage, your mileage may vary on that. Note: The healer on top of the hill did heal this mage, and I was afraid it would agro the entire hill, but that wasn’t the case. Once we killed the mage the healer did run around the hill towards me, but he didn’t bring anyone else with him. You can start setting up for the next ambush point while you wait for him to make it to you.

Setting up in this formation is perfectly safe, the ambush will not happen until someone from the formation steps beyond this first pillar,  so watch that you don’t step past it until you are ready to engage.

Once you do engage, 2 thieves will jump out of the wall to the east and one mage will approach from the west. The mage is too far to be a threat at this point, but if you followed my formation above and moves the entire formation 1 square west to spawn the ambush then the thieves will attack your two rightmost units. In my case this was Claude and Byleth. Each thief got off one attach, ate the counter attack of both, then I was able to pick apart the ambushers. Gaining me the following:

Marianne, come on 😦

I am not sure what specifically triggered the second wave from this spot, but it involved 2 more thieves from the exact same spot without anyone having to move. At this point the mage from the west caught up to me so I had 3 units to deal with. Clearing them out got me the following levels:

Once you get past this part the rest of the level up to the boss is pretty straight forward. Just take your time, take it one mob at a time, and if you can help it do not take any damage on the player turn. Move the rest of your army forward and progress.

From this point to the boss I gained the following levels:

Not off to a great start, Petra 😦

Marianne, no.

See, this is what the rest of you should be aiming for. Good job, Leonie

Leonie took out Michlan with this shot, AND she got a superior level up

With Leonie’s arrow Michlan was defeated, but he wasn’t quite ready to let defeat claim him. He attempted to use the Hero’s Relic he has stolen, but because he didn’t possess a crest of any kind it transformed him into a giant beast.

Using the last remaining gambits, I was able to break all four of his shield plates, which rewarded me with 5 umbral steels. I also got one of his health bars down.

Byleth was able to take a second of his health bard with a crit with the Sword of the Creator

Lorenz finished the beast off with a well placed Fire Spell

46 turns? If felt like it took a lot more than that.

I went extremely slowly in this run. I basically walked around the entire arena in formation being careful of additional ambushes. I only ran into the 4 total waves, I dont know if there are others that I didn’t trigger, but even going as slow as I did I only used a bit over half of the total turns available to me.

Take it slow and you can get through this without losing anyone.

Overview

Byleth +3 Levels: +3HP, +1Str, +1Mag, +1Dex, +2Spd, +1Lck, +1Res, +2Cha

Claude +3 Levels: +2HP, +1Mag, +2Spd, +2Lck, +1Def, +3Cha

Marianne +3 Levels: +1Str, +1Dex, +3Res, +2Cha

Hilda +3 Levels: +2HP, +1Str, +1Dex, +1Spd, +1Lck, +3Cha

Lorenz +4 Levels: +1HP, +1Str, +3Mag, +4Dex, +2Spd, +2Def, +3Res, +2Cha

Lysithea +2 Levels: +1Str, +1Dex, +2Spd, +1Res, +1Cha

Leonie +3 Levels: +2HP, +2Str, +1Mag, +2Dex, +3Spd, +1Lck, +2Def, +2Cha

Raphael +2 Levels: +1HP, +1Str, +1Mag, +1Dex, +1Lck, +1Def

Petra +1 Levels: +1Spd, +1Cha

Gilbert: Retreated (Fatal)

Total number of levels gained: 70

Total number of unsatisfactory levels ( >= 2 Stat ups): 22

Total number of null levels (0 Stat ups): 0

Remembering the Fallen

    FE Golden Deer Maddening: Chapter 5 Chapter 5 In this chapter you learn that a disinherited son of a noble house has stolen a Hero's Relic and you are tasked with getting it back.