World of Warcraft Shadowlands Will Enter Beta Next Week

In their stream earlier this morning, World of Warcraft EP John Hight made the announcement that its upcoming Shadowlands expansion will enter beta next week. 

At the beginning of the stream this morning, Hight went over the collector's edition goodies, showing off the box, artbook, mousepad, and more. However, after this he made the announcement that Shadowlands, while still releasing this fall even if it means shipping it from their homes, will enter beta next week. 

"You'll be experiencing more of Shadowlands very soon." Hight teased on the stream this morning. "In fact, I'm pleased to announce that World of Warcraft Shadowlands will officially enter beta next week."

Beta players will be able to jump into Shadowlands and take on what Hight calls the "max level challenges in the Maw," described as the most dangerous place - and one of the most rewarding as well - in all the Shadowlands. 

Game Director Ian Hazzikostas elaborated a bit more on the beta. First, Hazzikostas looked back on the Alpha, which launched three months ago today. As of now, over 817 thousand quests have been completed by Alpha testers, as well as 62K Torghast runs. The testers have also sent 64,440 in-game bug reports to make the experience better as time goes on.

As far as the beta, it will be feature complete, but Hazzikostas mentions that there is still a lot of work to be done. Level cap in the beta will be 60, as well as provide a first look at Shadowlands' endgame content, such as joining a Covenant, visting Covenant sanctums, and more. Hazzikostas mentions that the first Covenant in the beta will be the Venthyr in an upcoming build.

Robin has been recording her experiences so far in the Alpha, including her most recent column detailing Maldraxxus.