Patch 9.1.5 Content Update Preview
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker)
With the arrival of the 9.1.5 PTR, we wanted to share more information on the variety of new features and updates arriving with the content update. Not all of these features and updates will be available immediately within the PTR, but we are looking forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback as they do.

Covenant Updates
Players who reach max Renown for their Covenant will be able to freely switch among any of the four Covenants without cooldown or restriction. Cosmetic rewards, including pets and mounts, that have been earned from that covenant will thereafter be available regardless of your membership in a different one. Covenant switching and the use of cosmetic rewards will also apply to any alternate characters once the Renown threshold is reached on one character.

Conduit Energy is being removed and Conduits will be freely swappable without any restrictions.

Completing a Covenant campaign on one character will allow alternate characters the ability to skip that same Covenant’s campaign, earning the Renown and a third Soulbind unlock immediately without needing to replay the full narrative arc.

Learn more about the design decisions behind these changes in our Shadowlands Development Update.

New Character Customizations
A variety of new character customizations are being introduced for Nightborne and Lightforged Draenei along with additional updates to ear size options for void elves, new travel forms for druids, and new Soulshapes for Night Fae.





Introducing Legion Timewalking
Delve back into Legion Dungeons with Legion Timewalking and take on the challenges within, including access to Legion Mythic+ dungeons. This event will run for two weeks the first time it runs within the game and then will resume a regular one-week schedule for subsequent bonus events.

Maw Introduction Skippable
Players who have completed the introduction in the Maw on one character will be able to speak to Highlord Darion Mograine in the capital cities to skip it on their alternative characters on their account.

Island Expeditions - Queue Solo or with a Party
Players who want to take on Island Expeditions are now able to queue for them solo or with a party to enter Normal, Heroic, or Mythic difficulties. There are a bounty of awards just waiting to be plundered.

Talent and Ability Improvements
In 9.1.5 we are working on additional updates to a variety of class talents and class abilities including Conduits, Runecarving, and Covenant class ability tuning.

Allied Race Unlocks
Allied races such as the Kul’Tiran humans, Mechagnomes, and Dark Iron Dwarves, which had a dungeon requirement to unlock them, will no longer need to complete the associated quest to gain access to these races. Players will be able to skip it instead.

Additional Travel Points in the Maw
Players will be able to take advantage of additional fast travel options from Ve’nari’s Refuge to Perdition Hold and Desmotaeron within the Maw by unlocking access to them.

Remote Anima Turn Ins
Completing quests from Archivist Roh-Suir will provide access to an Anima Diverter within Korthia where Anima can be directly deposited.

Transmogrification Linking
Show off your complete transmog outfit to chat or online by easily sharing a link to it from the Dressing Room. Players will be able to mouse over these items to see how they can be collected, if they’ve already collected the appearance, or if it’s an appearance that is accessible to the character viewing it.

Alt Leveling Improvements
A variety of improvements will be introduced in support of a smoother experience leveling alternate characters through Shadowlands, such as an additional rank of Heirloom upgrades, and improvements to Threads of Fate such as the addition of Torghast as an option and Renown gains for completing bonus objectives.

PvP Gear Power Adjustments
Lower item-level PvP gear will now scale to a higher item-level in PvP situations than before. This should reduce the power level gap so that new characters can feel that they're able to compete in Battlegrounds and Arenas more readily. This change will not affect high item-level PvP gear.

Runecarving Recipes
Drop rates for Runecarving recipes will be increased to 100% drop rate in any dungeon difficulty.

Battle for Azeroth Legacy Loot Rules
Legacy loot rules will be enabled for players at level 60 in all Battle for Azeroth raids and dungeons, causing encounters to drop the number of items as they would randomly drop for a 5-player dungeon party or a 20-player raid.

Keep an eye on the official World of Warcraft site for the complete 9.1.5 content Update notes and more over the span of development.

Shadowlands Developer Update
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
In the next few days, we will be updating our Public Test Realm with a first look at Patch 9.1.5. Alongside feature updates like new Timewalking experiences (this time we’re revisiting Legion, with a couple of twists…), these “.5” patches, falling in between full content tiers, present an opportunity to focus on balance and revision of core systems based on feedback and data from the season so far. Patch 9.1.5 will include several significant changes to the Shadowlands Covenant systems in particular:

  • Once you’ve reached a high Renown threshold, you will thereafter be able to freely switch among any of the four Covenants without cooldown or restriction, as well as use cosmetic rewards that you have earned from one covenant even if you are currently a member of a different one. Both the Covenant switching and the use of cosmetic rewards will also apply to alts once the Renown threshold is reached on one character.
  • Conduit Energy is being removed - Conduits will be freely swappable without restriction.
  • When playing alternate characters, if you have already completed a given Covenant’s campaign on a different character, you will be able to immediately earn the Renown and third soulbind unlock without needing to replay the full narrative arc.

While we hope many players will be pleased at the increased accessibility and freedom for experimentation these changes will permit, we know that you might be wondering why we didn’t make adjustments like these sooner. After all, a large portion of the community has been vocal about wanting to see changes along these lines since mid-2020, when Shadowlands was still in Beta.

When it comes to the limitations on Covenant-switching, millions of players experienced Shadowlands for the first time through the lens of their Covenant of choice, and that would have not been possible had the choice carried less weight from the outset. Nevertheless, after the conclusion of the Chains of Domination campaign, the Covenants are united against the Jailer, and revisiting player feedback in that context has led us to re-evaluate our approach. In terms of the day-to-day player experience, the advantages of a rigid division between Covenants have diminished since Shadowlands launched, while the downsides (feeling disadvantaged in certain types of content, or having to choose between mechanical advantages and aesthetics) have only grown. That balance of factors no longer justifies the original limitations on Covenant-switching, so in 9.1.5 we’re looking to provide a way to circumvent them.

Conduit Energy, however, is a different story. The system simply has not played out the way we hoped it would. We should have heeded community feedback and taken a different direction a year ago. A majority of players largely ignore the system and are unaffected by it, while the minority who want to engage in multiple content types competitively feel constrained by it. Overall, that adds up to a negative experience. Conduit Energy isn’t really making the game better in any appreciable way, so we’re removing the system entirely.

As for the Covenant campaign skip for alts and the ability to freely swap Covenants on alts, that change is one outgrowth of many ongoing discussions within the development team, focused on feedback that at times players feel that the WoW content they most enjoy is locked behind experiences that aren’t nearly as appealing to them. Some of that feedback revolves around different playstyles and content types, but a consistent theme is that experiences that were fun the first time through start to lose their luster on repeat playthroughs on alts, especially when required for power progression. So just as the Threads of Fate system exists to allow players to skip the level-up zone narrative on subsequent playthroughs, we want to give max-level players a similar option to avoid having to replay a Covenant campaign they’ve already done.

As the 9.1.5 PTR progresses, we hope to roll out several other changes aimed at giving you more flexibility in choosing how you prefer to adventure in Azeroth. We’ll have more details to follow as we finalize our plans. Stay tuned for full PTR notes in the near future, and we look forward to discussion and feedback to guide us in our ongoing improvements to World of Warcraft.

–The World of Warcraft Team
This article was originally published in forum thread: Patch 9.1.5 Content Update Preview started by Stoy View original post
Comments 455 Comments
  1. Mazzic518's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by TEHPALLYTANK View Post
    It is funny, because that is the exact sentiment expressed in the first response on the official forums and it has garnered more likes than the bluepost at the moment (183 to 151). Been reading through the official thread and about 70% of the posts seem to be in this category of criticism. Plenty of people calling out the fact that they're still defending the terrible system while admitting that they're changing it because it was so terrible that it became necessary to change it.

    They still seem to have the mindset of "You think you do, but you really don't" as part of their development plan, so 10.0 is probably screwed too.
    Yeah I was going to post on their forums but : "Your account is unable to post or reply until Dec 31, 2999 7:00 pm."
  1. Tubben's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by kamuimac View Post
    and yet not a single mention of update to gearing systems for casual people.
    "Casuals" can gear up pretty easy to 233 gear, which is between normal and heroic gear. So what would you like more ?
  1. Cyram's Avatar
    Did they toss the option for Nightborne to choose different size ears to the shredder, or...?

    It's a good start, and it'd be a (more) welcome announcement, had this not been thrown out last minute just to gain some positive score during this quite disastrous year for WoW. Hell, even if this was planned, it feels like they're just doing it to have at least one positive thing going for them.

    We gotta pay attention to the bigger announcements, the ones that would actually take work and stuff. This - customization, the ripcord, easy-to-implement-alt-friendliness, Legacy tuning - was always gonna be an easy win for them. Let's see how much they listen next patches, expansions and such.
  1. Empower's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Mazzic518 View Post
    Yeah I was going to post on their forums but : "Your account is unable to post or reply until Dec 31, 2999 7:00 pm."
    I feel that. Though I think minenends a few years sooner will post then.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by bledgor View Post
    Cool, I didn't say you cant post or cant be constructive, I said if you quit and only want to be negative to leave. Enjoy ignore troll.
    You know saying your ignoring people is rather childish. No one feels like white knighting for blizzard today just ignore people don't get up on a podium and say it.
  1. bledgor's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Empower View Post
    I feel that. Though I think minenends a few years sooner will post then.

    - - - Updated - - -



    You know saying your ignoring people is rather childish. No one feels like white knighting for blizzard today just ignore people don't get up on a podium and say it.
    You know people posting on a forum for a game they dislike/don't play is childish at best and pathological more probably. Also by doing so I trigger more "quitters" to quote me and to add to the list.
  1. Mazzic518's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by bledgor View Post
    You know people posting on a forum for a game they dislike/don't play is childish at best and pathological more probably. Also by doing so I trigger more 'quitters" to quote me and to add to the list.
    I just cancelled my sub today but it doesn't expire until January. How long until I can no longer post here?
  1. Queen of Hamsters's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Lolites View Post
    cant go back to something that never existed...
    My thoughts exactly as I read that.

    I mean, my lord...
  1. bledgor's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Mazzic518 View Post
    I just cancelled my sub today but it doesn't expire until January. How long until I can no longer post here?
    I'm bored so I'll play. Like any addiction (but unlike quite a few not life threatening) you should cut yourself off completely from your addiction. If that is too hard ween yourself off or find a better construct for your time. Altogether hanging around for over a month after you give up something is a sign you have a bigger problem to look at.
  1. Azerate's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Lolites View Post
    im not sure if i misunderstand, but it seems they dont apply legacy tuning to legion raids, just legacy LOOT to bfa, could be both, but afaik legion already have legacy loot without legacy tuning (or is it tuned just terribly broken? i lost track really)
    Tuning implies that something will be done to increase the player power in the old raids. Legacy loot option in BfA is clearly not the same thing.

    And yeah, the tuning of old raids/dungeons is definitely still problematic and too harsh. It's kind of okay that we are not able to solo BfA content now (even though there were cases of past expansion content being soloable - in 7.3 of Legion you were able to solo mythic HFC for example), but all of Legion should be easily soloable by everyone almost regardless of skill. We should be able to waltz into mythic antorus and kill both aggramar and argus solo in leveling SL gear, maybe first tier SL gear. That this is not so, is an error that is overdue for fixing.
  1. Freekstarz's Avatar
    To me it seems they consistently ignore player feedback, from Alpha, closed Beta, Beta(PTR) and other channels such as the forum or in-game tickets. They could easily create a page like how they had people vote for the mount for other changes in the game.

    Heck they could even make it a feature in the Battle.net launcher for everybody to see and vote on.

    So let's say 1000 or 10000 people turn in feedback requesting a certain change, there'd be a poll for it in the Battle.net Launcher asking people if they want to that specific change implemented or not. Obviously with it being restricted to people that bought the game, have an active subscription running for x months or whatever to prevent troll votes.

    That is in my honest opinion the best way to go at it, as it gives clarity, it gives people the ability to vote on it and shows Blizzard what people want in a non-convoluted way.

    If they had something like that back during BFA, there would have been a PvP Warfront by now, but that has never been added despite the community heavily requesting it.
  1. oathy's Avatar
    anything that improves the current situation I'm going to take as a good thing.
    Still love WOW I just cant love SL. The weak story was bad enough but having to replay the same
    Maw intro over and over was the main reason not bothered with other Alts.

    It would be lovely when they mention Talents and Abilities they get a good revamp also
    that would be my main issues sorted.
  1. MrPaladinGuy's Avatar
    You know what ? fuck them, they've been doing this shit for a decade. They either admit they were wrong about everything once an expansion has ended "blah blah in hindsight we shouldn't have done xxx", or they slightly ease up with the boot on your throat 2/3 in or halfway through an expansion after they realize they can't get away with bending you over like a meth addicted whore anymore (during the current expansion because we all know they fucking do the same shit again in a new expansion). Fuck this game, fuck it's asinine way of forcing you to do so much dumb shit it feels like a job where devs don't listen. I swear a majority of people left playing that aren't hardcore raiders are only doing so because they can't bring themselves to stop farming old content for useless mounts. Since their entire company is basically internally exploding right now they're going to make every lie they can to save face, but mark my words, they'll find ways to shove it up your ass again as soon as they think they can get away with it.

    Move the fuck on, people. There are significantly better MMO's out there that handle similarly and are better in nearly every other aspect- FF14.
  1. Garretdejiko's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Hyrja View Post
    Stop saying "To little, to late" when Blizz are literally adding everything and more we have been suggesting for the past year.
    Im very happy they are starting to listen, and with the new leadership and internal changes i'm looking forward to the future of wow.
    Your post paired to your pfp are so funny to me.

    Quote Originally Posted by Hyrja View Post
    Blizz are literally adding everything and more we have been suggesting for the past year.
    Where are the tier sets? class flavor? heritage armor for trolls and draeneis? anima cap removal? anima gain increase not tied to renown?
    What about boosters? bots? multiboxers?
  1. Vakir's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by bledgor View Post
    Cool, you didn't leave, you just stopped playing and instead spend at least minutes if not hours browsing a website dedicated to the game you left because of reasons for the reason to post your opinions about a game you no longer play to people that play the game. If it has such shitty pillars it means the foundation is crap and you can have a good building from crap foundation, in that case, feel encouraged to MOVE ON.
    Nah. I don't think I will. The pillars here weren't always the ones chosen, so trying to revert from the poor systems chosen is a valid possibility, as unlikely as it is with the stupidity of the people in control at the moment. And frankly, even then, if I've lived even a moment in your head rent-free then my work here is done. As the inverse of the problems that got us to where we are now, alienating people as a gatekeeping mechanism is a valid course of action to restore things to the way they should be. Or to put it another way - your opinion is bad and you should feel bad.

    You call it toxic, I don't find conduit energy or covenant locking toxic, I find it to be the R in MMORPG, as in a role, as in a specific function that you are limited/bound to in order to successfully fulfill the ROLE you are playing. Yes sometimes it is detrimental to another aspect of the game, but that is how roles can work. Sometimes you need to compromise role for gameplay, and sometimes I think gameplay can fuck off for the roleplay aspect. Sorry you cant min max every single aspect of the game in order to cover for your shortcomings (yes you can do M+20s and mythic raid as the worst covenant with bad conduits).
    I can't believe we're still seeing these faulty talking points come up not only a year later but even after Blizzard is now walking back their decisions.

    There were no RPG elements to this. If there was, people would be feeling connections to their characters that they don't now. The reception to it proved me and everyone else in the same camp right. The complete disconnect from the story to the mechanics proved me and everyone else in the same camp right. It was a cynical grab to split the game up into 4 pieces and to limit the amount of content you can experience without investing more hours to artificially increase MAUs, with how light the amount of content the game shipped with was. They created this narrative and for some, it worked on them, because those people are simple.

    I don't give a fuck about min-maxing elements. Hilariously, enough people did anyway that people sided with the "best" Covenant anyway, completely invalidating the decision. The promise of RPG elements was a farce introduced that some people were gullible enough to eat up. I can empathize with some people who were gullible enough at the time. I wish (but will not commit, mods ) active harm on the people who still believe it.

    And it's funny since, even with this fixed, the game is still dogshit with how minimal the actual content introduced in 9.1 was.

    You can understand the problem and post constructively, you can also realize your voice isn't being heard and make your complete absence you message. Choosing to stay and enjoying/thinking different doesn't make you an apologists, but calling everyone who thinks differently than you an apologist does make you a jackass. I never said I liked the system, just I didn't find it some massive game ruining issue and easily found ways to play/enjoy the game with it you dolt. Just because someone bitches to a manager and gets a free meal doesn't make them right Karen.
    Posting constructively is an important first response and is a meaningful direction when a philosophy is first being introduced. We did. You can get people to your side on a certain level by verbalizing your opinions calmly and rationally. We did. And while most people paying attention got the point, things went exactly the way they did because enough people believed the bullshit and because Blizzard is a stubborn team of jackasses with active contempt for their player base. My constructive posting at this point is to actively deconstruct anyone who has a terrible opinion. We are past anything else. Nothing else suffices after a full year of stating the facts and still having people not only not get it, but actively present a vapid strawman argument like you just did.

    you are right, not all opinions are created equal, and the opinion that you should stay on a forum for a game you don't play to continuously read and post negative bullshit is right up there with the opinion the Earth is flat.
    Funny you mention this. Similar to flat-earthers, you can't reason with someone who chooses to continue to support a failed set of systems and continues to call other people the problem even after Blizzard chooses to walk back their decisions as a Hail Mary during a period of mass exodus. You can't actually have a mature discussion with someone who chooses to be as obtuse as humanly possible when they're blatantly wrong. This has been going on for a year. You can't use facts to change the viewpoint of QAnon types when they've committed to believing something absolutely insane. You can't talk with someone like you. You can either actively purge the cancer, or at the very least make them so uncomfortable and their response so hostile and alienated that they are not open to sharing their beliefs actively and need to go somewhere else, or at the very least have their beliefs be private.

    When it's doing the work when words have failed, shame and active scorn is a tool that should be encouraged.

    Not hard, just annoying. My ideal world is a place where people are mature enough to realize they can walk away from things they dont like and not constantly spout negative whining, cause guess what, when people are overly negative in life and constantly bitch they tend to end up alone. If I have to ignore half the idiots on this site that "quit" the game, fine by me. I have a group I raid and do M+, losing even a million people would in no way impact my fun. I do believe that you losing your audience that you can Karen it up for will cause you much anguish, so enjoy.
    I am both mature enough to realize I can walk away from something, can proceed to do so, and also be not so much a mewling coward to tuck tail when something gets ruined by smooth-brained contrarian twats.

    Seeing as how the last post apparently wasn't ignored like you said, I sincerely hope you - and anyone else with your philosophy - will continue to experience negativity in your time playing the game or interacting with the community until the game actually gets better. And I hope it really hurts. Part of it entertains me, but the bigger part of it is also because I know it's the only way things will get fixed. Blizzard doesn't need to read feedback if the people they're catering to are discouraged from their faulty belief systems.
  1. thelordymir's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Hyrja View Post
    Stop saying "To little, to late" when Blizz are literally adding everything and more we have been suggesting for the past year.
    Im very happy they are starting to listen, and with the new leadership and internal changes i'm looking forward to the future of wow.
    Because it is too little too late, it's been how long since beta feedback? Only took a massive lawsuit and plummeting sub numbers for them to listen "somewhat" and they still spin it as it was "their decision to do now with the story" and not at all because half of these issues were just blatant 'f you's' to the player base.

    How long have we heard how Conduit energy is very needed? Covenants need to stay separate because of "player choice"? This is the typical crap we see at the end of every expansion lately, it just happened much sooner because more people were leaving then usual midway through an expansion.
  1. EyelessCrow's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by bledgor View Post
    I'm bored so I'll play. Like any addiction (but unlike quite a few not life threatening) you should cut yourself off completely from your addiction. If that is too hard ween yourself off or find a better construct for your time. Altogether hanging around for over a month after you give up something is a sign you have a bigger problem to look at.
    Gotta love addicts giving advice on how to kick addiction.
  1. kiramon's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by OrangeJuice View Post
    I'm not fully convinced that this wasn't their plan from the start, to be honest. Theres so many changes that its hard to believe this wasn't preplanned months ago. I.E. before SL even launched.
    Some of this was probably in the works.

    You can bet your candy bum tho that they are having fire drills to release content FAST.

    In my world, they are going for the quick easy wins.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by EyelessCrow View Post
    Gotta love addicts giving advice on how to kick addiction.
    Literally how any addiction in the world manages addiction
  1. Eapoe's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by OrangeJuice View Post
    At this point, I just don't even care anymore. These changes would've been nice a year ago or at most 9 months ago when SL launched. But, they weren't. All of these changes come now out of desperation to bring back lost players to at least log in so their MAU count goes up. After you login, well its back to Blizzness where the game goes back on auto pilot with no more updates to anything until 9.2 or 10.0. Which means class/faction imbalances, boosting, and any other sort of headaches that players deal with every single SECOND of time that they're logged in, will be left alone for MONTHS, until their next "GOTCHA MAU COUNT" update. Remember, you only have to login once a quarter to be counted as an MAU and guess what starts next month; a new quarter. Go figure. Coincidental timing, right? (sarcasm).

    If you're still helplessly addicted to WoW then this is really hype news but the reality is that a month after the patch, they hype will be gone and you'll go back to feeling the exact same about it then as you do now- which is that it sucks. This patch is nothing more than an MAU boost for 4th quarter.
    I don’t feel that it sucks. I do content that I want to do, such as raid and do m+ with friends/guildies, do some world content and PvP from time to time, and log off and enjoy other things.
    Maybe that’s why I’m not so jaded compared to other players. I don’t expect 1 game to be my only source of entertainment and don’t feel bad turning it off. My only really major gripes about the game is when grinds are placed that you have to do to stay relevant, such as the AP grind in Legion.
    I log into the game when I want to, vs when I have to (the time commitment I made to my guild), and log out when I’m done and want to play something else. For instance, right now I play WoW a bit, then do some stuff in FF14, or maybe hop onto Skyward Sword or Bayonetta on the Switch. Hell, I’ve even gone back to have some fun playing Guitar Hero once in a while to throw something in to the mix.
    There’s also a whole world away from video games.
  1. EyelessCrow's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by kiramon View Post
    Literally how any addiction in the world manages addiction
    Do you want to take another swing at this?
  1. Grimbold21's Avatar
    Working based on community feedback, huh?

    Guess we'll have to wait and see if that flame shock spread mechanic is coming.

    Also, no. This isn't gonna make up for the past

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