As predicted by yesterday’s leak, Blizzard revealed details of the first major content update for World of Warcraft: Shadowlands at its Blizzconline streaming event. The patch is called Chains of Domination and will focus on a deeper tour of Maw, the terrible domain of the Warden, the mysterious villain disturbing the balance of Shadowlands – Warcraft’s afterlife – and threatening an invasion of all reality with the help of the Horde warrior chief, Sylvanas, in disgrace.
I had the opportunity to chat with game director Ion Hazzikostas and art director Ely Cannon about Chains of Domination earlier this week. Characterizing the momentum of the update, Hazzikostas said: “Now we are starting a full frontal attack, returning to Boca, without trying to hide, but letting the Warden know that we are here … In the process, we are going to explore a variety of epic environments that are unlike anything we’ve seen or done before in World of Warcraft – and learn a lot more about the nature of death, the nature of the Jailer and the enemy that awaits us. “
The Maw has so far been a different and more difficult type of adventure zone for WOW players: you can’t summon your mount there, you need to avoid the Warden’s Eye (a type of alert or ‘wanted’ system) and you let go coin when you die. But the new Maw area added to the patch – Korthia, the City of Secrets – will, it seems, be more relaxed, “combining some of these elements and some of Maw’s themed elements with the traditional outdoor gameplay we’ve created over the years. years, “said Hazzikostas.
Along with this extension of the main Shadowlands campaign, the four Covenant campaigns will also continue (and players can win new Covenant cosmetic armor sets). There will be a new invasion of 10 bosses, The Sanctum of Domination, which will offer chances to fight Tarrague – the terror that hunts players in Torghast’s roguelike-style dungeon – as well as the “true jailer eye” and Sylvana herself, in what is being called a “fateful confrontation”. Would this mark the end of the contentious Sylvanas arc that dominated the WOW tradition for several years? Can it be redeemed? Of course, Hazzikostas did not say, but he indicated that it would be a definite moment for that character.
So exciting, perhaps, is a new eight-boss “mega dungeon” called Tazavesh, the Veiled Market. Venturing into the cross-dimensional merchant bazaar, the Brokers, players will make a “mind-boggling” assault that Hazzikostas compared to the legendary Return to Karazhan dungeon – itself a playful remix of the equally legendary 2007 Karazhan attack. “As a dungeon inspired by the theft of Harry Potter, Gringotts, “he said. “Going to [the Brokers’] The dungeon will be a quick tour of reality … it’s not just a single location, right, it will encompass the reality of Warcraft as we know it. “
As is already a tradition, the patch will also allow players to unlock the power to fly in Shadowlands, and it looks like it will be easier to achieve than in the past, “simply by continuing and completing the campaign, without the need for a reputation grind this time, just play the main story, “said Hazzikostas.
In terms of the systemic changes and balance that we can expect from the patch, Hazzikostas was cautious. “The content that you are going to see, we already knew that this would happen a while ago, right? The systems are much more reactive. They are much more of a product than I consider a conversation between us and the community. And those ideas are still coming together in our 9.05 patch which is in our public test domain now. We are seeing some evolution in terms of class balance and alliance, but also how loot is being awarded and how players who focus on dungeons can work to build items of their choice. We have a lot more things we want to address in regards to looting in general, how Torghast works and more. But these systems will develop as we enter the PTR and we can really get direct feedback from our players. “
How Torghast fits this is particularly interesting, because as a random, roguelike-inspired infinite dungeon within which players can expand and distort their characters’ powers, it’s content and system in one. Hazzikostas confirmed that “totally new layers and a completely new aesthetic wing” will be presented to Torghast. And he also admitted that there was work to be done to address this difficult balance challenge, so it was just as rewarding as other ways of playing WOW.
“What we launched was something where success and failure were very binary,” he said. “And there are probably few worse feelings in WOW than reaching the end of a Torghast race, let alone the end of, like, a Twisting Corridors race, and failing the final boss and leaving completely empty-handed. they ask you to dedicate so much time and leave you with the possibility of getting nothing. And that shaped the player’s experience, as well as kind of guided our hand in terms of fine tuning the experience, which sometimes made her feel a little flatter than the players would prefer, because failure was very punitive. We would like to get to a place where it was less binary, there was more of a sliding scale, players can always go on feeling that they have come out with some progress towards the goals that we’re working on. And that in turn allows us to have a wider range of challenges and engagement, because failure is not so painful. “
Customizing your character through specific Covenant Souls and Conduits will be extended – and although Hazzikostas did not go into detail about it, he noted that these endgame systems (as well as the creation of legendary items) were developed to be extensible, a lesson learned the hard way after the poorly planned “system soup” (his words) from the latest Battle for Azeroth expansion. “We are trying to build on the foundations of the systems that we established in Shadowlands, instead of creating entirely new systems and installing them … I think, frankly, you know, that was something that, in retrospect, was a bit of a failure of Battle for Azeroth – which looked like the systems we launched with were not extensible in the way we would like [and needed to be] adapted and almost replaced with each successive content update. “
These Covenant specific endgame progression systems – as well as the Covenant’s special abilities – were widely criticized for their effects on game balance during the Shadowlands beta test. This was one of the reasons why the launch of the expansion was delayed last year. It presents the WOW design team with a complicated challenge as they try to balance the needs of players looking to maximize their character for each slice of advantage and players who like to interpret and make choices for more aesthetic or thematic reasons. Hazzikostas believes that the balancing act has been successful most of the time – but where he has not been, he is cautious about making corrections too quickly.
“I think our goal is that people who are driven by aesthetics, who want to learn more about a part of history, do not feel that they are being harmed as a result of that choice. And in general, we feel that we have achieved this. where we failed, this is what our first small content update in 9.05 has been trying to address. We are hesitant to make changes to the Covenant setting via hotfix, although we have the technical capacity to do so, just because we didn’t want to suddenly undermine the choice of player if they chose one covenant versus another and then log in next week to find something different. Considering that a patch allows to warn you in advance, get more feedback and repeat the process. “
Overall, though, Chains of Domination should find World of Warcraft in a happy place when it launches later this year. Shadowlands has been a resounding success – it was briefly, before the release of Cyberpunk 2077, the best-selling PC game of all time – and while there is always a complaint, players seem as happy as ever. This is perhaps surprising for an expansion that is conceptually as distant as Shadowlands. The previous two expansions, Battle for Azeroth and Legion, with their faction wars and invasions of demons, swamps and forests and mountains, have traversed a much more comfortable familiar terrain for Warcraft, while Shadowlands explores a multidimensional realm beyond death.
Art director Ely Cannon, for example, thinks that’s exactly why it worked – especially at the moment. “I think the visuals are really interesting and different … and not only that, but I feel that we tried to approach them in a way similar to what the more classic areas did, where they were a little more prude about the way they presented the themes … It had a very clear character, and then coupled with the Covenant fantasy … everything seemed so strong a fantasy in such an interesting place to be transported. At least to me, as an RPG player, as someone who likes the opportunity to enter a world that is not our real world – especially in a year like the one we just had. A game like this that allows you to be in that fantasy space, and especially one that is so moving, of course and focused as Shadowlands, I think, ended up being really powerful. “