It is time: After a cruel but much-needed four-week delay, World of Warcraft’s upcoming expansion Shadowlands will finally release on November 24th. One of the most anticipated game releases in the pandemic-ridden year of 2020 will lead players into the Shadowlands, the realms of Warcraft’s dead souls and their afterlife.
On October 13th, Blizzard already released Patch 9.0.1 in preparation for the expansion, introducing the level squish, massive class changes, and much more – but that was only the beginning! With the Shadowlands expansion release, Blizzard looks to take numerous new design routes in terms of fantasy-heavy class design combined with fresh story-telling through content like the choice between four different so-called Covenants, four completely new zones, and the rogue-like “endless” progress experience called Torghast, Tower of the Damned.
Our sister site Wowhead spared no expenses to create the most comprehensive guides about all the new content coming with World of Warcraft’s newest expansion Shadowlands!
The Lore of the Shadowlands
So why do players have to dive into the Shadowlands, a place entirely unknown to canonical Warcraft lore so far?
Well, the main reason is described with a singular name: Sylvanas. After the Battle for Azeroth has commenced, the Banshee Queen escaped by the skin of her teeth and has been “missing in action” until recently. Both the Alliance and the Horde have been hunting the war criminal since she burned down Teldrassil, the home of the night elves, and killed the Horde war hero Varok Saurfang.
However, players learned in late 2019 that all these actions only played a minor role in Sylvanas’ master plan to open up a rift to the Shadowlands:
During an epic showdown against the Lich King himself, Bolvar Fordragon, she managed to destroy the Helm of Damnation, the ancient artifact that is responsible for the creation of the Lich King as well as the Scourge, causing the opening of the afterlife dimension. Ever since then, the world of Azeroth has been in turmoil: The weakened Bolvar has been rescued by the death knights of the Ebon Blade, while mysterious dark-winged creatures have abducted several Alliance and Horde leaders. And not only that: During the pre-patch event Death Rising, the now unguided Scourge roams free across the lands.
From Tuesday on, Azeroth’s heroes need to investigate the abduction of their leaders, Sylvanas’ whereabouts, her connection to the Jailer, the antagonist of Shadowlands, and – most importantly – the unknown Shadowlands and its Covenants.
Want to read more about the upcoming lore of the Shadowlands (beware of spoilers) or a summary of “Shadows Rising”, the novel that introduced the story of the Shadowlands? Just click the highlighted links!
New Zones and the Covenant System
Similar to the world of the living, the Shadowlands are divided into different parts. For the launch of the expansion, we learn about a total of five new zones:
- In Bastion, the Kyrian Covenant governs over souls that served a life of service, offering them a chance to look over their past deeds and seek ascension to become a Kyrian themselves.
- In Revendreth, the Venthyr take over souls that were flawed or prideful in life, but can still obtain redemption. The Venthyr punish those who lived a life of sin, determining whether they are worthy of redemption in the Shadowlands.
- In Maldraxxus, the Necrolords rule over battle-hardened souls and reward strength, while weaker souls become fuel for Maldraxxus’ cosmic weapons. Those who are deemed determined, quickly rise to positions of power.
- In Ardenweald, the Night Fae accept those with a deep connection to nature, using the Anima of the Shadowlands to infuse slumbering spirits with the knowledge of old, and preparing them for rebirth.
- In the Maw, only the most impure and abominable souls will live an afterlife of pure agony. Under the terrible rule of the Jailer, they are damned to endless torment.
Once they’ve reached Level 60 and played through the main story campaign, players have to make a choice which Covenant they want to fight for. All Covenants will give players access to many different and identifying spells such as useful teleports, life-saving shields, or damaging spells, all bound to the fantasy of the respective Covenant.
Wowhead spared no expanses to create the most extensive Covenant guide arsenal for every single class specialization in the game, giving you a fair overview of the best Covenants for your choice of class and specialization.
- Blood Death Knight / Frost Death Knight / Unholy Death Knight Covenant Guides
- Havoc Demon Hunter / Vengeance Demon Hunter Covenant Guides
- Guardian Druid / Feral Druid / Balance Druid / Restoration Druid Covenant Guides
- Beast Mastery Hunter / Marksmanship Hunter / Survival Hunter Covenant Guides
- Arcane Mage / Fire Mage / Frost Mage Covenant Guides
- Brewmaster Monk / Mistweaver Monk / Windwalker Monk Covenant Guides
- Holy Paladin / Protection Paladin / Retribution Paladin Covenant Guides
- Discipline Priest / Holy Priest / Shadow Priest Covenant Guides
- Assassination Rogue / Outlaw Rogue / Subtlety Rogue Covenant Guides
- Elemental Shaman / Enhancement Shaman / Restoration Shaman Covenant Guides
- Affliction Warlock / Demonology Warlock / Destruction Warlock Covenant Guides
- Arms Warrior / Fury Warrior / Protection Warrior Covenant Guides
In addition to that, all Covenants feature different so-called Soulbinds. Think of Soulbinds as different “talent trees” of your chosen Covenant, all represented by different storyline characters. Every Covenant features three Soulbinds, three characters that you can use one of to dive deep into the affiliation of your covenant, represent by unique key abilities you can unlock within the Soulbind. Another new feature are the so-called Conduits, items that you can use as additional “talents” in your Soulbind tree. These conduits will have different passive and active effects on your class and specialization.
Check out this detailed Soulbind and Conduit Guide if you want to learn more!
The Covenant system is the main gameplay feature of the Shadowlands expansion. While players will regain a lot of their class identity thanks to the “un-pruning” of class abilities that already happened with the pre-patch, they will also be able to fully embrace the lore and unlock the well-hidden secrets of their chosen Covenant by increasing their Renown with them, or by establishing and reinforcing their respective strongholds through Anima upgrades and the revamped Mission Table filled with Covenant Adventures. As tokense of Covenant esteem, players will gain access to new souldbinds, conduits, mounts, and other rewards such as the exclusive Covenant armor sets:
End-Game Content: Dungeons, Castle Nathria Raid, Torghast, Legendaries
What would a new World of Warcraft expansion be without its end-game content! The leveling process will always feel fresh and new, but it’s really WoW’s motivational and dynamic end-game systems that made this game stay in the market for over 15 years now.
Dungeons
First of all, 5-player dungeons are the bread and butter of a new expansion’s end-game experience. A total of eight dungeons will test the worth of the players on Normal, Heroic and Mythic right away, while the highly anticipated Mythic+ mode will be unlocked on December 8th.
Check out this comprehensive Shadowlands Dungeon Overview!
Castle Nathria
The same goes for Shadowlands’ first raid experience, Castle Nathria. The château located in Revendreth accommodates the upper class of the Venthyr led by Sire Denathrius, who abuse Anima, the life-giving and scarce essence of the Shadowlands, to quench their thirst for power.
Torghast, Tower of the Damned
Besides the usual end-game experiences, Blizzard decided to give smaller player groups something particularly special to experience in Shadowlands: Torghast is an “endless” dungeon where one to five players can tackle the most vile creatures of the Maw with the help of unique class and specialization upgrades called Anima Powers which can be found throughout the run. Below you can check out all the different Anima Powers available for each class:
- Death Knight Anima Powers
- Demon Hunter Anima Powers
- Druid Anima Powers
- Hunter Anima Powers
- Mage Anima Powers
- Monk Anima Powers
- Paladin Anima Powers
- Priest Anima Powers
- Rogue Anima Powers
- Shaman Anima Powers
- Warlock Anima Powers
- Warrior Anima Powers
The main goals of visiting Torghast are tied to the new Legendary items introduced with Shadowlands. First off, you will need recipes to craft your class legendaries, and many of them drop in Torghast. For crafting legendaries you will also need tons of Soul Ash, the currency you will obtain for completing Torghast runs. With the combination of recipes and Soul Ash, the Runecarver, an ancient creature that also created the Helm of Damnation, will provide you with the finest armor in the fight against the Jailer.
Want to know where about soul ash costs and recipe drop locations? Check out this Legendary Armor Crafting Guide!
Check out this Torghast, Tower of the Damned Overview to get a deep-dive into WoW’s first rogue-like dungeon experience!
Besides these major content additions, a ton of smaller changes has already hit the servers: New character customization, a completely overhauled leveling experience thanks to Chromie Time, and much more!
Need more information about the upcoming Shadowlands expansion, its new game systems and World of Warcraft as a whole? Feel free to check out wowhead.com!
Hope they bring back the Sylvanas skin to hearthstone. 😀