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. Empower's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by rrayy View Post
    Prove it. You can't, epeically when they have done this for the past several expansions. What they said they would do it remove the system. They haven't.

    This isn't panicking or pulling the cord. This is simply changing the game to make things easier as they do every exxpansion. People call kit panicking so they can claim they were always right.
    Prove what exactly? They went in on a interview saying it wouldn't be possible while trying to hype 9.1...

    They are panicking tripping over themselves in pure terror as they whisper in hushed tones

    ...endbringers....
  1. rrayy's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Empower View Post
    Prove what exactly? They went in on a interview saying it wouldn't be possible while trying to hype 9.1...

    They are panicking tripping over themselves in pure terror as they whisper in hushed tones

    ...endbringers....
    Not what they said at all

    Again, prove it. You provide exactly zero evidence they are panicking., I present facts that this is the same thing they have done this for the past several expansions. Still waiting for proof.
  1. Sentynel's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Empower View Post
    Prove what exactly? They went in on a interview saying it wouldn't be possible while trying to hype 9.1...

    They are panicking tripping over themselves in pure terror as they whisper in hushed tones

    ...endbringers....
    What the hell is this obsession with that dogshit game that is called final fantasy.

    Do you honestly think blizz cares about that degenerate anime furry fuckfest of a game?

    Two different games for two different audiences.
  1. Mazzic518's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Sentynel View Post
    What the hell is this obsession with that dogshit game that is called final fantasy.

    Do you honestly think blizz cares about that degenerate anime furry fuckfest of a game?

    Two different games for two different audiences.
    You aren't very bright are you?
  1. Empower's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by rrayy View Post
    Not what they said at all

    Again, prove it. You provide exactly zero evidence they are panicking., I present facts that this is the same thing they have done this for the past several expansions. Still waiting for proof.
    I believe they would have done some of this during 9.3 or whatever the end patch of sl would be but no... they wanted to die on " muh choices" they would sacrifice everything for their vision. Good old Bobby though started cracking skulls.

    My fanfiction is old Bobby kicked down the door screaming " YOU COSTED ME MONEY" while firing off a shotgun.
  1. Eapoe's Avatar
    Empower is literally trolling everyone. Just stop replying to him/her/they/them.
  1. Deneios's Avatar
    Bobby should just sell the wow team to EA. Tho im not sure if even EA would want them for free.
  1. FelPlague's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Caprias1212 View Post
    Remember when Blizzard made games that where polished and worked from the start?

    I don't it's been too long.
    When was that? Cause they never did that.
  1. TheLucky1's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by FelPlague View Post
    When was that? Cause they never did that.
    Yeah all the people talking about old Blizzard polish simply don't remember correctly \s
  1. Jester Joe's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by rrayy View Post
    But many of us don't think it is zero? It's almost as if people have differing opinions than you
    Or it's almost as if that was a joke just for the post.
    Any brief knowledge of my posts around these forums would show that I still enjoy playing the game.
  1. Crazozourus's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by rrayy View Post
    No they aren't. This is the EAXCT sme things they did in previous expansions. They made things easier later in the expansion after everyone has gone through at least once. But why go with those facts when you can spin a quote from before the expansion released so you can claim you were right?
    ‘Pulling the ripcord’ was a comment used by Ion Hazzikostas with his interview with preach as the fallback plan for covenants if the systems aren’t well received. It would involve opening the systems up to (hopefully) allow swapping powers freely and not having punishing systems involved for wanting to experiment.

    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.

    In 9.1.5 by the very words of game director Ion Hazzicostas they're pulling the ripcord, it doesn't matter if it happened before (though it was reserved for .3 patches usually) or it will happen in the future. Blizzard actions, not mine, Ion words, not mine. Pulling a ripcord meant switching covenants without restrictions by Ion himself and in 9.1.5 it shall be so.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt3ezwvQ9Fg
  1. Zeek Daniels's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Kuvanet View Post
    Broken system enters PTR > feedback ignored > broken system enters game > complaints ignored > people leave game after year of being ignored > broken system fixed > new expansion released and system is removed.
    And the cycle continues.
    I think this is the main problem with blizzard right now. They keep adding and removing systems each expansion it makes it impossible to balance when you have to keep designing a new system from the ground up borrowing parts of other systems and trying to get them to mesh with the new system and trying to balance all that with a bunch of different classes/specs and playstyles.

    Its really stupid that blizzard is still doing this. They stopped building on top of previous expansions a long time ago and opted to go with this build it wreck it build it again strategy and its just not working.

    I play ele shammy and since legion they have been giving and taking away different powers, effects and abilities that would have been nice to keep. Maybe if they just brought talent trees back things wouldnt be so stupid for them.
  1. RobertoCarlos's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Zeek Daniels View Post
    I think this is the main problem with blizzard right now. They keep adding and removing systems each expansion it makes it impossible to balance when you have to keep designing a new system from the ground up borrowing parts of other systems and trying to get them to mesh with the new system and trying to balance all that with a bunch of different classes/specs and playstyles.

    Its really stupid that blizzard is still doing this. They stopped building on top of previous expansions a long time ago and opted to go with this build it wreck it build it again strategy and its just not working.

    I play ele shammy and since legion they have been giving and taking away different powers, effects and abilities that would have been nice to keep. Maybe if they just brought talent trees back things wouldnt be so stupid for them.
    Its really not that hard. New system gives you power boost of 20%.

    Code power boost to 20% for all classes. Or 18 to 25% if you want to add some RP flavor
  1. Appelgren's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by kamuimac View Post
    the funny hting - its not even little



    ofc FF!4 is obvious solution
    That game is about as fun as doing world quests in current wow.
  1. Aggressive's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Appelgren View Post
    That game is about as fun as doing world quests in current wow.

    Opinions greatly vary. Some just want to play game without a bunch of ass grabbing perverts ruining their game play experience
  1. Appelgren's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Aggressive View Post
    Opinions greatly vary. Some just want to play game without a bunch of ass grabbing perverts ruining their game play experience
    If the drama at blizzard makes wow a bad game for you then thats your problem. I would respect you disliking the game for the game mechanics more tbh...
  1. Aggressive's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Appelgren View Post
    If the drama at blizzard makes wow a bad game for you then thats your problem. I would respect you disliking the game for the game mechanics more tbh...
    You are right. It is my problem. Hence why I have move the hell on to something that is more fun and to somewhere who gives a dman about the player base.

    I would like to see WoW succeed but that has to do more with the devs then players. The devs need to know what makes the game fun. Not what makes the game hard and with boring ass chores.
  1. Appelgren's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Aggressive View Post
    You are right. It is my problem. Hence why I have move the hell on to something that is more fun and to somewhere who gives a dman about the player base.

    I would like to see WoW succeed but that has to do more with the devs then players. The devs need to know what makes the game fun. Not what makes the game hard and with boring ass chores.
    I can guarantee you that if you start looking for foul play in a company and stop using their products because of it you will soon be living naked in the forrest without any possesions at all. Either you stand up for rights all across the board without cherry picking or you just ignore it.
  1. woofpup's Avatar
    Alt leveling improvement...LOL. No XP buff means I won't be upgrading looms again.
  1. Crazozourus's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Appelgren View Post
    I can guarantee you that if you start looking for foul play in a company and stop using their products because of it you will soon be living naked in the forrest without any possesions at all. Either you stand up for rights all across the board without cherry picking or you just ignore it.
    I'll just copy my replay from another topic:
    I hope victims get justice and huge financial compensation (that will hit Bobby) but quitting WoW or boycotting other games because of current situation makes no sense. I don't see people stop using Amazon, Apple and other way worst companies or throwing away all their tech because the chipsets were made in the Foxconn City, and what's happening in that place makes ActiBli$$ looks like Hello Kitty's Garden Party. Quitting WoW is an equivalent of protesting against animal testing and later going to McDonald's for a double cheeseburger.

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