World of Warcraft’s been on a little bit of a roll with its patch cadence this previous 12 months. 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 solely.Â
Whereas Shadowlands noticed a horrific 218 days between its launch and its first main patch, Dragonflight’s been on-tempo all the time—promising issues after which… truly delivering on them. The long run is now. It appears just like the updates will proceed as morale improves, as introduced on World of Warcraft’s official Twitter account.
Seeds of Renewal might be dropping January 16. Granted, we have recognized about these things for some time due to useful roadmaps—I’ve even mentioned a few of it, like how the upcoming follower dungeons characteristic 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, moderately than risking the standard toxins of the celebration 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 latest marketing campaign chapters to wrap up Dragonflight. We might 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, stricken with a Worgen curse—might be returning to their homeland to take it again.Azerothian Archives: In keeping with some PTR adventurers, these’ll be world occasions the place you may get mounts and cosmetics by doing menial duties for the archivists. A pleasant come-down after kicking Fyrakk’s tooth in.Dragonriding Worldwide: Whilst you’ll be restricted to round 80% of your pace, Dragonriding is coming to each continent. Blizzard beforehand stated that the cap was to keep away from making journey really feel “trivially brief”—however don’t be concerned. You’ll be able to 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, visible updates to skills from Shadowlands, entry to the Night time Elf’s new dwelling 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 attention-grabbing to see if my swashbuckling goals will come true—or if they will 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 vibrant towards all odds. Shadowlands was merely a setback.