(https://images.blz-contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt3452e3b114fab0cd/blt03dc217d0e54036a/5dbb29281b83a568128c8c9d/Shadowlands_Logo.png)
And the pre-patch is finally live!
Took a while to get there, but it looks like Shadowlands is definitively on the horizon for this year.
Reflection on BfA
I didn’t particularly feel like writing up a list of our accomplishments this time around. But I do want to pick out one of them that really stands out to me in the context of what BfA was like. BfA will go down with a bittersweetness for me like no other expansion in the history of WoW. Bittersweet because IE thrived during BfA and sailed through it with an ease that we have never seen before.
In previous expansions we have proven that we can weather any storm; whether it be the black smudge on WoW’s history known as Cataclysm, the 14-month content drought of Pandaria, the absolute shitshow that was WoD - and now BfA, where seemingly all of the above came together to provide us with the ultimate and unequivocally bad expansion. And unlike those other expansions where we were forced to make concessions (quit raiding earlier than we would have liked, switched to 10-man, put bad people in leadership positions (yeah, that’s right, I’m blaming that on the expansion, fuck you). We didn't have to make any concessions to our values in BfA.
While the expansion was going on, on many occasions I felt like things really couldn’t be worse. But especially looking back at the highlight that is raiding in IE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ICo4ugyTVY) (which is (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znJbqpiYStI) a lot easier (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ibw4g62s3zI) to do with Naasty’s (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFkMB0_YfAw) wonderful videos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUO27a15m5w)), it really wasn’t bad. And I haven’t even talked about the fantastic, record-breaking meetups that we’ve had in the last two years – which all seem so far away now because of current global circumstances.
Looking ahead:
I’m not going to pretend that I’m optimistic about Shadowlands. It doesn’t look like Blizzard is backing down from their strategy of planned obsolescence and artificial time-gating, but I am optimistic about Iron Edge. On the upside; It really can’t get any worse than BfA. And besides, we also had some really big reservations about the systems they were putting in Legion and that turned out great. So, who knows!
Once again thank you all very much for the great times we’ve had together – and much more to be had in the future.
-Rash