World of Warcraft’s been on a little bit of a roll with its patch cadence this previous yr. As Heather Newman identified earlier this week, Blizzard’s seemingly turned a nook with the sport—although whether or not it retains that momentum going into 2024 and The Conflict Inside is one other factor fully.
Whereas Shadowlands noticed a horrific 218 days between its launch and its first main patch, Dragonflight’s been on-tempo the complete time—promising issues after which… truly delivering on them. The longer term is now. It seems just like the updates will proceed as morale improves, as introduced on World of Warcraft’s official Twitter account.
Seeds of Renewal will likely be dropping January 16. Granted, we have identified about these things for some time due to helpful roadmaps—I’ve even mentioned a few of it, like how the upcoming follower dungeons function is step one to fixing the sport’s atrocious new participant dungeon expertise. Nonetheless, here is a point-by-point rationalization of what is coming.
- Dragonflight Follower Dungeons: You’ll do all of Dragonflight’s dungeons with a celebration of NPCs, quite than risking the same old toxins of the occasion finder. That is one thing FF14’s been doing for some time, so it is good to see WoW catching up: gogogog no extra.
- The Dragon Isles Epilogues: A set of recent marketing campaign chapters to wrap up Dragonflight. We may even see the beginning of narrative threads resulting in The Conflict Inside, contemplating WoW’s attempting to get all story-focused with a three-expansion narrative arc.
- The Reclamation of Gilneas: As promised, the sport’s British rep—the Gilneans, with a Worgen curse—will likely be returning to their homeland to take it again.
- Azerothian Archives: In line with some PTR adventurers, these’ll be world occasions the place you will get mounts and cosmetics by doing menial duties for the archivists. A pleasant come-down after kicking Fyrakk’s enamel in.
- Dragonriding Worldwide: Whilst you’ll be restricted to round 80% of your velocity, Dragonriding is coming to each continent. Blizzard beforehand mentioned that the cap was to keep away from making journey really feel “trivially quick”—however don’t be concerned. You may nonetheless hit high speeds of about 660%, which is blisteringly fast.
That is simply the most important stuff. We’re additionally getting Troll and Draenei customisations, visual updates to abilities from Shadowlands, entry to the Evening Elf’s new residence Bel’ameth (whose pseudo-neutral standing has been ruffling feathers) and a few new skins for demons.
Whereas it will not be launching with Seasons of Renewal, there’s nonetheless that thriller pirate flag draped over the roadmap. It’s going to be fascinating to see if my swashbuckling desires will come true—or if they’re going to sink to the underside of Mike Ybarra’s locker. Whereas I’ve loads of points with the sport (particularly its new and returning participant expertise, which nonetheless aren’t nice) the longer term is wanting brilliant towards all odds. Shadowlands was merely a setback.