WoW Shadowlands: Area looting not disableableable, but limited

In the WoW expansion Mists of Pandaria, area looting was one of the many small but fine quality-of-life adjustments that many WoW players hardly want to miss today. Since then, we've been able to loot from all enemies at once within a certain radius without having to click on each of them individually one after the other. This not only saves time, but also guarantees that we don't leave an important quest item or a rare piece of loot somewhere.

Shadowlands: Area looting (not) for everyone

However, the developers have repeatedly adjusted this looting function during the alpha of the upcoming WoW expansion Shadowlands. Blizzard first added an option for players to completely disable area looting. The function, which briefly offered players more flexibility when looting, is no longer available.

Instead, the developers have decided to unlock area looting in the future only once a character reaches level 8. Before that, we have to relieve all enemies of their loot individually. What the reason for the decision is remains unclear - Blizzard has not officially commented on it yet. Vanion assumes that the developers want to make sure that new players don't feel irritated by glittering enemies lying around or are surprised that individual enemies don't give any loot once they have looted an enemy in a group. If this is indeed the intention of the developers, it also explains why area looting is unlocked at level 8 - at that point, we are still on the tutorial island with our character, which is supposed to gently introduce us to the individual mechanics of the game.

Nevertheless, Blizzard could have left the option in the game to turn area looting on or off as needed - or what do you think? Write us your opinion in the comments!

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