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  1. #1
    Fluffy Kitten Stoy's Avatar
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    Patch 9.1.5 Content Update Preview

    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
    Last edited by Stoy; 2021-08-27 at 05:34 PM.

  2. #2
    "The fire rises" - Bane

  3. #3
    "The ripcord is pulled" - Zovaal

  4. #4
    We have won Brothers! 8 months tolate but better late than never iguess

    https://www.wowhead.com/news/players...-pulled-323935
    I.O BFA Season 3


  5. #5
    So they finally decided to fix their stuppid covenant switching system. Too bad they took so long... probably lost alot of players because of that...

  6. #6
    Literally what we said since the beginning, So as always stubborn development team is stubborn for the sake of being stubborn because they think the ideas are king shit for some reason. Time and time again with WoW the players are better game designers than the actual game designers.

  7. #7
    Im guessing Blizzard is trying to pull another Legion. 7.1.5 did memory hole a lot of the bad from that expansion.

  8. #8
    I can do all campaigns and get all armour sets from any covenants at all times.... this is fucking content out of nowhere. I am actually happy now.

  9. #9
    Looks like they finally realized that the playerbase has had enough of their BS and are not afraid to leave the game for greener pastures. The mass exodus must be quite huge if they're finally sh***ing their pants.

    Too little too late for me, but I'm glad for those that still play and are happy about it.

    Also lol @ Velves basically having almost every customization their parent race has (and more), with the exception of maybe eye color (so far).

  10. #10
    Things must be pretty bad if they are doing all this. Still ain't enough to bring me back but I hope those still playing enjoy the changes.

  11. #11
    The Insane Acidbaron's Avatar
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    ''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.''




    I am sorry but the release could have done without this explanation what is fairly weak and to claim it was held back for so long out of -lore related issues- is not in the slightest believable. It is actually rather insulting, instead of merely admitting to bad design.

    So all of these things currently going on, none of that is impacting these changes? yes that is completely believable and honest.
    “My philosophy is: It’s none of my business what people say of me and think of me. I am what I am and I do what I do. I expect nothing and accept everything. And it makes life so much easier.
    ― Anthony Hopkins

  12. #12
    Warchief Lupinemancer's Avatar
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    OMG those Hair color options for Void Elves is what I wanted from the start.

  13. #13
    Boys and girls be careful who you trust. Please dont get cocky because of a few changes made out of pressure. They would not have done it if there was not an investigation. Important are future addons and big patches

  14. #14
    This fixes nothing, it actually makes it more pathetic and makes me more angry.

    We told you about this shit a year ago. Now after saying that no ripcord was constructed, it turns out things were extremely simple and it was a shallow ploy to create artificial scarcity of content to make people subscribed longer. But we'd rather get SOME of your money some of the time by having you crawl back rather than artificially drag it out.

    Go fuck yourselves. We all found better things to enjoy. 10.0 could be the second coming of all the best parts of every expansion mashed together - and it wouldn't change that 10.1 would be inevitably a new threat to the game filled with bullshit once everyone returns.

  15. #15
    It's worth pointing out that those tattoos are horribly low-res on all the allied races that have them and never should've been given the pass they were.

  16. #16
    something's missing......where's the "alts can now upgrade there gear with valor to the level that matches their mains score"?????? otherwise good start

  17. #17
    I am Murloc! Maljinwo's Avatar
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    Good changes all around

    But seriously, adding skin or hair colors isn't that hard.
    Hopefully they don't stop adding customization to every race


    Also, missing heritage armor

  18. #18
    So they are doing the things that wouldn't have driven half the player base away? When people told them in beta? Man.. Its like once they get over themselves and stop living in the shill echo chamber they can get on to having a good game.

    Going to be cool watching everyone that agreed the way it was made sense back track to this being the best thing ever..

    Shame I won't return until happy hands and the shredder department gets worked out.

  19. #19
    Great improvements Blizzard!

    Unfurtunately this makes me not willing to sub back even more.

    Why?

    Because these things should be there the day Shadowlands released. They deliberatly made it a lot harder and unfun. And I simply cannot support such bullshit.

    Some part of me thought that maybe the devs are really just that clueless about the game. They weren't though. They knew all to well how things should be done from the very begining and decided to fuck it up, making it tedious, unfun, or in some cases totally illogical.

    Maybe, just maybe, I'll be back for 9.2 if it convinces me that Blizz changed. I doubt it though.

  20. #20
    Welp, sad changes overall, but at least they didn't ruin the expac from the get go like the ripcord crowd wanted.

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