Guardians of the Dream Patch 10.2 Interview with MrGM - Story, Upgrade System Revamp, Dragonriding Mounts

Posted 2023/09/07 at 2:04 PM by Archimtiros

MrGM Story Updates

Fury Incarnate are leading us into Guardians of the Dream, continuing the curveball thrown by Vyranoth in the recent cinematic.

There will be a new renown track for The Dream Wardens, featuring (we believe) 20 ranks, similar to the Niffen from Zaralek Caverns.

No planned updates for previous renown tracks, though that may change in the future. Right now the focus is on the Emerald Dream & Dream Wardens.

Players may have noticed that each major patch focuses on both a specific Primal Incarnate and Dragonflight to tell a deeper story, such as Iridikron and the Bronze Dragonflight being the focus of Fractures in Time. Though Vyranoth is starting to play a larger role, Guardians of the Dream is very much focused on Fyrakk and the Green Dragonflight.

New players may have missed some context if they haven't leveled older renowns though, such as the unlockable Green Dragon questlines in the Ohn'ahran Plains, so the team is looking at what can be done to help them catch up.

Devs won't confirm if Patch 10.2 is the last major content patch, but have firmly stated that it isn't the end of the story either - there's more to tell after Guardians of the Dream and the devs are really excited for us to see where that takes us.

Despite widespread rumors that the patch may release around the time of BlizzCon, the devs do not have a release date to share yet.

Superbloom events are collaborative multistage public events similar to Research Under Fire in Zaralek Caverns or the Soup in Iskaara, featuring whacky powers like an army of rescued baby moonkins bombarding your enemies with lasers.

Taking feedback from Researchers, players will always get the biggest reward after doing the event the first time, so you'll want to do it at least once a week, but continuing to do it after that will continue to provide additional rewards.

Dreamsurges will continue to happen in Patch 10.2, similar to how previous Storm and Assault events have continued to be available.

The portion of Emerald Dream that players will explore in Patch 10.2 is very large and Dragonriding capable, said to be at least as large as the Ohn'ahran Plains. It will be a very different space from regular WoW, with features players may not expect. It's just a portion of the Dream though - players are just visitors here and those that try to fly too far out of bounds will get sleepy and be gently placed back where they belong.

Dragonriding

There will be new Dragonriding Glyphs and abilities to discover in Patch 10.2, as well as new Dragonriding traits which enhance Thrill of the Skies and Aerial Halt.

There will be several new Dragonriding mounts, including a new Faerie Dragon awarded from the campaign, and the first not-dragon Dragonriding mount, a fiery owl from Mythic Fryakk. Players who earned the Grotto Netherwing Drake from the Trading Post will also find new customizations available to it.

At least for now, the Fire Owl is a full Dragon Isles Dragonriding mount, not capable of normal flying outside of the expansion zones. That may change in the future though.

The Kalimdor Cup has been one of several experiments to bring Dragonriding to the old world. The datamined Outland Cup is still TBD.

PvP

Battleground Blitz solo queue rated battlegrounds will have its own rated system similar to the Solo Shuffle introduced at the end of Shadowlands. It's still an experiment, involving several important technical changes under the hood.

Upgrade System and Rewards

Embers of Neltharion added a universal upgrade system, which can be seen as a first draft. Patch 10.2 will smooth out the experience by removing Fragments entirely, with Crests being contained to the currency tab. Content that will reward Crests that players are already cap on will instead award the next level down so that players don't need to drop to lower levels of content.

On the other side of things, the rate of upgrades will be decreased, with weekly caps reduced from 10 to 6.

The Hero and Myth track will be expanded, so the expectation is that players will get initial upgrades slower than in Embers of Neltharion, but upgrade to a higher overall level by the end.

More dungeon availability to the Great Vault - Heroic or Mythic+0 dungeons will also populate the Great Vault for players, which synergize with similar weekly quests asking players to do minimum level dungeons.

In this system, doing a Timewalking dungeon will help populate your Great Vault, but you'll still get items from the current season - players shouldn't worry about different dungeons resulting in different pools of items in their vault.

Class Race Combos

No new Class/Race combos coming in Guardians of the Dream. The devs are passionate about letting players experiment and express themselves as it fits within the ongoing story of the game, but nothing coming in Patch 10.2.

With that said, there many cool class things coming in the patch - Druids will have their own Warlock Green Fire-like customization unlocks, featuring new Moonkin forms and fiery customizations. Some of these will be secret unlocks, but others come from the raid itself, such as a certain penultimate boss with a special fire Druid form that players can earn as a drop!

Comment by saphirondim so ready for the druid civil war when some specs get more or better skins than other specsComment by alexkon3Really hope the fire owl isn't the only owl mount of the patch. The model looks cool I want a normal themed one.Comment by dariXczeIt is honestly kind of disappointing that we are not getting new atleast druid / race combos when the patch is literally based around emerald dream and being a druid kind of. What a wasted opertunity but i guess they have their reasons.Comment by Sayosin99Why are they afraid to state that patch 10.2 isn't the last patch?

Why not just say we plan on 10.2 not being the last patch and leave it at that.Comment by Gamemage Devs won't confirm if Patch 10.2 is the last major content patch, but have firmly stated that it isn't the end of the story either - there's more to tell after Guardians of the Dream and the devs are really excited for us to see where that takes us.Comment by Rellyne"New players may have missed some context if they haven't leveled older renowns though, such as the unlockable Green Dragon questlines in the Ohn'ahran Plains, so the team is looking at what can be done to help them catch up."

Simple fix: never lock the story behind arbitrary reputation/renowns. Just let players enjoy the story at their pace.

Also, keep renown for cosmetics only, stop trying to push for some player power on it (with "minor" stuff like the profession knowledge, etc.). If Blizzard is not interested in keeping things fair and correct, by allowing players to exploit their systems like they did in DF for knowledge/story unlocks, just don't use it as a source for it.Comment by Rellyne Devs won't confirm if Patch 10.2 is the last major content patch, but have firmly stated that it isn't the end of the story either - there's more to tell after Guardians of the Dream and the devs are really excited for us to see where that takes us.Comment by LahisIt is honestly kind of disappointing that we are not getting new atleast druid / race combos when the patch is literally based around emerald dream and being a druid kind of. What a wasted opertunity but i guess they have their reasons.Comment by ExtremelyCrustyIf they're excited why can't they just tell us if there is a 10.3 Stop $%^&*footing aroundComment by WinzuDruids for all races when?
Maybe 10.2.5? :oComment by gleepottzWhy are they afraid to state that patch 10.2 isn't the last patch?

Why not just say we plan on 10.2 not being the last patch and leave it at that.Comment by EdlarelIt is honestly kind of disappointing that we are not getting new atleast druid / race combos when the patch is literally based around emerald dream and being a druid kind of. What a wasted opertunity but i guess they have their reasons.Comment by TyneicIt is honestly kind of disappointing that we are not getting new atleast druid / race combos when the patch is literally based around emerald dream and being a druid kind of. What a wasted opertunity but i guess they have their reasons.Comment by gusttNo new races for Druid? A Druid-themed patch, and Druids was completely forgottenComment by LahisIt is honestly kind of disappointing that we are not getting new atleast druid / race combos when the patch is literally based around emerald dream and being a druid kind of. What a wasted opertunity but i guess they have their reasons.https://www.wowhead.com/news/fandys-patch-10-2-guardians-of-the-dream-interview-morgan-day-and-patrick-334885Comment by MagnificentMadThat explains why BFA was terrible. 90% of the workload was spent designing Kul'tiran druid forms, 9% of the work was spent on Zandalari Troll druid froms and the rest went to the rest of the expansion. Makes sense.

Making new Glyphs or customizations available for druids is the exact same amount of work, I don't think your argument will hold up any amount of scrutiny.

You seriously think the KT druid forms were better than the ZT ones? The KT moonkin is literally just a moonkin with a hood and green glowing eyes. At least the ZT moonkin was a reptilian arrakoa. The ZT "bear" was also a armored turtle whereas the KT "bear" was just a wicker-bear. ZT druids were by far the superior forms winner.Comment by Flanell"Fire Owl is a full Dragon Isles Dragonriding mount, not capable of normal flying outside"
Not interested anymore. Sadly, it was so cute.
Just give us normal flying finally. I cant stand this zoom crap as disabled person. Its too fast and the constant button smashing hurts my already damaged wrists. Blizzard never heard of inclusion.Comment by RaynuruIt is honestly kind of disappointing that we are not getting new atleast druid / race combos when the patch is literally based around emerald dream and being a druid kind of. What a wasted opertunity but i guess they have their reasons.https://www.wowhead.com/news/fandys-patch-10-2-guardians-of-the-dream-interview-morgan-day-and-patrick-334885Comment by pilek01Why are they afraid to state that patch 10.2 isn't the last patch?

Why not just say we plan on 10.2 not being the last patch and leave it at that.