World of Warcraft: Shadowlands

World of Warcraft: Shadowlands (from English - World of Warcraft: Dark Lands) is the eighth addition to the computer game World of Warcraft, announced on November 1, 2019 at BlizzCon and released on November 24, 2020 of the year.

Shadowlands takes place in the Shadowlands, an afterlife where the souls of the dead end up. The add-on introduced a new character development system, the maximum level was reduced from 120 to 60, the death knight class became available to representatives of all races, and at the start of the add-on, 5 new zones were added to the game world, located in the Dark Lands

Plot

In the previous Battle for Azeroth expansion, Horde warchief Sylvanas Windrunner started a war between the Horde and the Alliance, in which many warriors on both sides died; at the end of the expansion, the Horde and the Alliance managed to negotiate peace, and Sylvanas fled. According to the Shadowlands announcement trailer, Sylvanas challenged the Lich King Bolvar Fordragon and took the Helm of Dominion from him, breaking it and opening a portal to the Shadowlands in the skies above the mainland of Northrend.

The Dark Lands were supposed to serve as a well-oiled mechanism where the souls of the dead are judged by their earthly deeds, but recently all souls end up in the Maw - a place of torment for the worst sinners. The player character, having fallen into the Dark Lands in the flesh, also ends up in this place, but he manages to escape. From this moment on, the attention of the Jailer, a powerful being who rules the Maw, is riveted to him.

Characters and levels

The developers continued to expand the process of creating a new character and choosing different options for its appearance. For game characters, a choice was offered, in particular, of an individual tattoo and skin color, and for human characters, the choice of one of the races became available: Caucasian, Negroid or Mongoloid. The developers continue to work on a unique fighting style for each specialization.

For Shadowlands, a “level flattening” is provided - a transition to a new scale of character development levels for both newly created and existing playable characters. Since the release of World of Warcraft in 2004, each successive expansion has raised the maximum character level in the game by 5 or 10 points. As of 2019, the maximum level for characters was 120, while the increase in characteristics was small and almost unnoticeable. In Shadowlands, each of the new 60 levels grants a new ability, talent, or some other significant improvemen.

With the flattening, level 120 characters have been demoted to level 50 and will be able to reach a maximum level of 60 in the new Shadowlands zones; These zones are only available to characters level 48 and above. At the same time, the system for pumping up to level 50 has changed slightly: characters receive the first 10 levels in starting locations, after which up to level 50 they master the content of Battle for Azeroth or, after talking with the special character Chromie, any of the previous additions of their choice .

The Death Knight and Demon Hunter heroic classes now start at level 8, and allied races at level 10. Players can now create more than one Demon Hunter on the same server