For both versions of World of Warcraft
Blizzard’s development teams are in a tight spot. With leadership failing them at nearly every turn, hardly any of their actual demands met, and the current leadership putting the squeeze on them, it’s no wonder that active development on at least one game (WoW) stopped for a bit as the teams tried to get their house in order. The silence was deafening, and now it’s time for the World of Warcraft team to give us all an update.
Shared in a tweet, the response was multi-pronged, and tackled several issues from the current situation with Blizzard (although thinly veiled), as well as where Shadowlands and Burning Crusade Classic were going. With the former, version 9.15 is headed to the PTR this week, which will provide “long-asked-for changes,” mostly for alternate characters (alts). Basically, it’s going to be easier to swap covenants and conduits, and skirts the requirement to repeat covenant campaigns. I’ll pour one out for everyone who already did that.
You’ll also be able to skip the Maw intro (the zone that your first character/all alts have to finish before they truly start the expansion overworld), various talent and ability improvements are coming, and there will be more fast travel points in the Maw. Basically, a lot of quality of life stuff.
As for Classic, Overlords of Outland is coming to the game, at which point you’ll be able to take on Kael’thas and Lady Vashj in raid form, and it’ll enable arenas. Burning Crusade players might recall this moment as the period in which the expansion really kicked into overdrive, and was arguably one of the golden eras of World of Warcraft as a whole.
And that thinly veiled commentary I was talking about? It’s coming in the form of “improving the game environment,” which includes “better visibility into the impact of your in-game reports of harassment,” as well as “more serious penalties” for people who engage in said harassment. Given how many people are swapping World of Warcraft for Final Fantasy XIV, I’d say this particular development is a little late.
An update from the #Warcraft dev team. pic.twitter.com/afjFCPUXoW
— World of Warcraft (@Warcraft) August 27, 2021
