Rise of Azshara Preview: Navigate the Perils of Nazjatar in New Benthic Gear
Forbes Interview - Why Rise Of Azshara Is The Fix-It Patch For 'World Of Warcraft
Forbes recently interviewed Ion Hazzikostas again on the upcoming Patch 8.2.
- Heart of Azeroth and Essences
- Rise of Azshara is the fruits of a lot of Blizzard's reflection on feedback they've been hearing from the community since Battle for Azeroth first came out.
- You will unlock the first major socket for your Heart of Azeroth just by being 120 and doing the Nazjatar introduction followed by the Magni quest chain to unlock it. There is no neck level requirement for the first major slot.
- Smaller sockets on the neck will give boosts to stamina as you progress your neck between neck level 52 to 67 so that health pools stay in line with the damage and healing increases.
- Heart of Azeroth Levels 55 and 65 are the unlocks for the two minor slots.
- The Essence system functions much like the glyph system in that once you learn as essence, you are free to switch them in and out in either a rested area or by using a Tome of the Clear Mind.
- The tuning of essences is on par with the Legion legendaries.
- Nazjatar and Mechagon
- There are cosmetic perks that come with leveling up your bodyguard in Nazjatar.
- Is seems as if Nazjatar will not have any Jeremy Feasel "mad science" WoW Secret Finding Discord secrets.
- The team is aiming for more variety in Nazjatar world quests. There are still some kill quests, however.
- There is no emissary for Mechagon.
- There will be no time-gating in Nazjatar, but some reputation requirements to pieces of the major story for pacing and passage of time.
- Using reputation thresholds to advance the story feels better than rigid weekly chapters that you have to just wait until next week to unlock. There's something the player can do to speed it up.
- The Mechagon dungeon and Eternal Palace raid will not be available on day 1 of the patch, but when season 3 starts a couple of weeks into the patch.
- Season 3 Affix - Beguiling
- Beguiling is the new affix for Mythic + Season 3. It represents the minions of Queen Azshara invading the dungeons of Kul Tiras and Zandalar. There are three types of handmaidens that will be present in a variety of pulls in different configurations from week to week.
- These handmaidens can have shadow, arcane, or frost powers. They have different effects that will change the way you approach certain pulls. Certain pulls that you skip might have to be done this time around.
- Flying
- The Rustbolt Resistance reputation will be available on day 1.
- They made sure to make Pathfinder Part II tied to outdoor content. There are no requirements to do any dungeons or raids.
- They believe the amount of time it takes to unlock flying this time around will be on par with Legion.
- Benthic Gear
- Benthic gear will help fill gaps in gear acquisition.
- The baseline Benthic tokens are BoA so you can use them to catch up your alts.
- Rare Spawns
- The rare spawns in Mechagon that have longer timers involve hours, not days.
- Silver-bordered mobs these days have evolved into named targets, not rares. These new ones are more true rares in the style of Timeless Isle.
- They have been looking at coordinating these spawns across servers ans shards so that there isn't any shard hopping.
- These rares can have cosmetics, pieces of gear, and punch cards for the Mechagon trinket.
- Operation: Mechagon Dungeon
- The bosses in the dungeon are meant to feel more like a small raid encounter.
- There are some hidden challenges in the dungeon for the more mythic-raiding types who want a bigger challenge, much like the Nightbane run from Legion Karazhan.
- Mechagon dungeon loot is on part with the normal mode raid, and then scaled up a little bit beyond that.
- Some of the most powerful punch cards for the Mechagon trinket are found in the dungeon.
- There is an essence you can unlock from the dungeon.
- Class Changes and Revamps
- Full class overhauls are something that happens in a new expansion update and not a patch.
- Legion was an exception because it reinvented so many specs from the ground up.
- Rotational changes, removing/adding abilities, etc are a jarring experience. This is the sort of change that is best received within the broader sweeping changes of a new expansion.
- They will always address under performing talents or classes in patches.
- There are definitely specs on the radar for a rework, but nothing to announce now.
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