Eben­falls vom Blizz­con kommt die Ankün­di­gung der nächs­ten Erwei­te­rung von WORLD OF WARCRAFT. Die trägt den Titel SHADOWLANDS und führt die Spie­ler ins Toten­reich, das Syl­va­nas auf Alli­anz und Hor­de los­las­sen will. Was für ein schlau­er Plan, ein­fach noch­mal eine neue Insel auf Azeroth auf­zu­ma­chen wäre auch arg aus­ge­lutscht gewe­sen … Aus den Details zu den neu­en Fea­tures (Quel­le: Bliz­zard):

A host of new fea­tures and acti­vi­ties await play­ers in World of War­craft: Shadow­lands. When they cross into the realm-bet­ween-realms, play­ers will be able to:

• Explo­re the Realm of the Dead: For the first time ever in World of War­craft, play­ers will cross into the Shadow­lands and expe­ri­ence the won­ders and hor­rors of the after­li­fe across five new zones—the gle­a­ming fields of Bas­ti­on, the scar­red batt­le­fields of Mal­dra­x­xus, the eter­nal twi­light of Arden­weald, the opu­lent keeps of Revend­reth, and the hor­ri­fic Maw.
• Cla­im a Covenant’s Power: Play­ers will be cal­led upon to for­ge a bond with one of four Covenants that rule Shadow­lands’ new zones, set­ting the tone for their jour­ney through the expan­si­on with a full Coven­ant Cam­paign. As they level up, they’ll get new abili­ties based on their choice, inclu­ding class-spe­ci­fic abili­ties for each Covenant—as well as deve­lo­ping Soul­binds with spe­ci­fic Coven­ant mem­bers, which grant them access to that character’s spe­ci­fic traits and bonu­ses.
• Ascend the Tower of the Dam­ned: At the heart of the Maw lies Torg­hast, Tower of the Dam­ned, a cur­sed other­world­ly pri­son whe­re the wicke­dest souls in the uni­ver­se are locked away. High­ly replaya­ble and inspi­red by rogue­like games, heroes are invi­ted to explo­re its ever-chan­ging halls and cham­bers and do batt­le with the mini­ons of the Jai­ler, Torghast’s vile ruler. Tho­se who bra­ve its tri­als can cla­im legen­da­ry tre­asu­res and help free the heroic spi­rits wrongful­ly trap­ped within.
• Every Level Is Meaningful: Shadow­lands will intro­du­ce a new leve­ling sys­tem, meant to pro­vi­de a meaningful sen­se of advance­ment with every level achie­ved. Cur­rent max-level cha­rac­ters will begin Shadow­lands at level 50 and work toward the new level cap of 60.
• A New Army of the Dead Rises: To com­bat Syl­va­nas’ assault on Ice­crown, Bol­var Ford­ra­gon— the rever­ed for­mer pala­din who took on the man­t­le of Lich King to keep the Scour­ge at bay—has rai­sed heroes from among all the peo­p­les of Azeroth to bols­ter the Death Knights of Ache­rus. With Shadow­lands, pan­da­ren and all allied races will now be able to beco­me Death Knights.
• Impro­ved Cha­rac­ter Cus­to­miza­ti­on Opti­ons: A host of new appearance opti­ons for all races will be made available to play­ers when they crea­te new World of War­craft cha­rac­ters (or alter exis­ting ones at the in-game bar­ber shop).

SHADOWLANDS soll laut Bliz­zard »am oder vor dem« 31. Dezem­ber 2020 ver­füg­bar sein (sie haben also über ein Jahr Zeit, ihre ver­sau­te Repu­ta­ti­on durch Unter­drü­cken von Mei­nungs­frei­heit wie­der in den Griff zu bekom­men). Und selbst­ver­ständ­lich hat Blii­zard auch wie­der ordent­lich was ger­en­dert:

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