World of Warcraftrecently announced Embers of Neltharion, the first major content patch for Dragonflight. The new update brings players to a new subterranean zone called Zaralek Cavern, where they will discover new allies, dangerous enemies, and long-forgotten secrets of Neltharion locked away in Aberrus, the second raid in Dragonflight. However, one of the biggest features coming in Embers of Neltharion is the long-awaited ability to make cross-faction guilds inWorld of Warcraft.
Game Rant spoke with production director Patrick Dawson and lead quest designer Maria Hamilton about some of the things coming in theEmbers of Neltharion update forWorld of Warcraft. The developers gave players a taste of some of the quality-of-life and gameplay features players could look forward to in the content patch. The features they showed off are just a few of the waysWorld of Warcraftis making the game easier to play with Embers of Neltharion.
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Cross-Faction Guilds are Coming to World of Warcraft
Last June,World of Warcraftpulled the ripcord and finally added cross-faction gameplayin Shadowlands Patch 9.2.5. This unprecedented move allowed Alliance and Horde players to party together, clear most dungeons and raids, and participate in PvP with one another. By doing so,World of Warcrafteffectively doubled its player population overnight simply by allowing its previously-divided users to finally party with one another.
In Embers of Neltharion, cross-faction play is reaching a whole new level with cross-faction guilds. Soon, players will be able to have Alliance and Horde characters in the same guild. “As the game has evolved over time,” Dawson explained, “the ability to play with your friends is a thing that has been addressed in different ways, but this is probably one of the more fundamental changes we’re making to that.” Though Shadowlands let players party and raid together, Dragonflight will allow them to share their bank, chat, events, and all other functions forWorld of Warcraftguilds, regardless of faction allegiance.
“Cross-Faction Guilds are something we wanted to feel normal and comfortable, and not something you had to jump through hoops to do or that’s difficult in any way.”
Cross-faction guilds are still in testing, but the new feature is working well so far. Bank access, chat, and invites are working without issue, butWorld of Warcraft’sbiggest fears with cross-faction guildsare the unexpected problems. “This game was not developed with [cross-faction guilds] in mind,” Dawson said, “so the challenges we’re experiencing around it are mostly related to edge cases, things you don’t expect.”World of Warcraftis looking forward to allowing players to test out this new feature in the Patch 10.1 Public Test Realm, which recently began rolling out its first builds.
With cross-faction guilds finally coming toWorld of Warcraft, there are only a few things left that players can’t do together with both Alliance and Horde players. Obviously, the nature of worldPvP inWorld of Warcraftmakes cross-faction play impossible. Likewise, characters affiliated with the Alliance and Horde still won’t be able to visit faction cities without NPCs attacking them. Perhaps some day, players will have the ability to flag themselves as friendly with the opposing faction, allowing Horde players to visit Alliance cities and vice versa.
Making Good Things from Dragonflight Even Better
Embers of Neltharion seems to be building uponWorld of Warcraft’sphilosophy of focusing on evergreen content. Rather than focusing on single-expansionWorld of Warcraftfeatures like Garrisons, Dragonflight has concentrated its efforts on improving features it can carry forward indefinitely. Talent trees, UI improvements, and the improvements to Shadowlands’Renown system in Dragonflightare a few of the features that have been well-received.
Among these features,Dragonriding has been one ofWorld of Warcrafts’most popular. Unsurprisingly, Zaralek Cavern will add tons of new content involving Dragonriding. “It’s not just new Dragonriding races which exist in there,” Dawson said, “but there’s also new glyphs and customizations we’ll be offering as well. But the glyphs are really cool because they allow you to obtain some new abilities.” At least one of these new abilities increases the vigor players earn while flying at high speeds close to a surface, which players can get in addition to the air brake ability unlocked with the upcoming Return to the Forbidden Reach patch.
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Dragonflight is also adding a new Dragonriding Drake in Embers of Neltharion. Players will earn the lithe, cloud serpent-inspired Winding Slitherdrake as a part of completing the Embers of Neltharion campaign for the first time, after which they will unlock it for their account. According to Dawson, the Winding Slitherdrake will have access to the customizations shared by allDragonriding drakes inWorld of Warcraftin addition to some new options unique to them.
Players will also have a much easier time improving their gear in Embers of Neltharion. While they will still be able to get special gear drops from dungeons, raids, and other content,World of Warcraftis simplifying the gear improvement process.World of Warcraftcurrencies like Valorand Storm Essences are being combined into a single one called Flightstones. This new currency will be obtainable through almost every PvE activity, and is used to upgrade the item level of gear. Likewise, Shadowflame Crests are a new reagent that can be used to increase a piece of gear’s maximum item level, allowing further improvement with Flightstones.
The countdown to Patch 10.1 officially begins when Patch 10.0.7 releases on March 21. It is too early to have an official release date planned for Embers of Neltharion, but Dawson was keen to remind players thatWorld of Warcrafthas a schedule to keep. “We’re committed to doing six content updates for the year,” he asserted. This aggressive release schedule is at a faster pace than it was for Shadowlands, butWorld of Warcrafthopes to follow its roadmapand make sure players always have something new to do in Dragonflight.
“That’s quite a bit to do, but that’s also more frequent too. You’re already seeing with Return to the Forbidden Reach that’s happening only eight weeks after the prior one, which happened only eight weeks after launch!”
While that’s far from official confirmation, it does lay out an approximate schedule for when players might expect Embers of Neltharion to go live. If Patch 10.1 launches eight weeks after Patch 10.0.7, Zaralek Caverns will open on May 16, give or take a week or two. If it hopes to keep its ambitious patch schedule outlined inWorld of Warcraft’s2023 roadmap, it will have to launch around that time to leave space for the next three updates it has planned before the end of the year. Players can expect to hear more about Embers of Neltharion in the coming weeks leading up until its release - especially as players explore Zaralek Cavern on theWorld of WarcraftPTR.
World of Warcraftis available now on PC.
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