Patch 10.1 Developer Interview with MrGM

Posted 2023/03/08 at 11:59 AM by Archimtiros

Patch 10.1 Campaign

Patch 10.0.7 serves as a prologue to the Patch 10.1 campaign, which will primarily take place within Zaralek Cavern. Patch 10.1 will also feature new quest-story content for the Blue Dragonflight which will occur elsewhere. Players will also continue exploring the story of Tyr.

One of the advantages of doing more and more frequent content patches in Dragonflight means the developers can put increased focus on side stories and content adjacent to the main expansion storyline.

Because we're traveling to Neltharion's old lab, we'll get a good idea of what went on there to drive him mad and turn the aspect into Deathwing. We'll also see the impact of Deathwing's presence on the Cavern itself.

Wrathion, Sabellian, and Ebyssian will all be involved in the Patch 10.1 story campaign, as well as Scalecommander Emberthal of the Adamant Vigil.

The Zaralek Cavern

There are multiple entrances to the Zaralek Cavern throughout the Dragon Isles, some burrowed straight into the earth that you can dragonride directly into without transitioning through any kind of loading screen.

Blizzard developed all new "air locked" technology to allow a zone to be placed under a zone without instancing - allowing players to fly directly from the above ground zones into the underground cavern.

The Zaralek Cavern is a classic cave with stalactites and stalagmites, but includes a lot of different biomes and interesting environments to traverse. It's also quite massive, so dragonriding is very important.

The Niffen renown track is still being worked on, but it won't necessarily go up to Level 25 just because the existing ones do.

One unlocked activity will include cave diving with a Niffen buddy, using their superior sense of smell to seek out hidden treasures. Internally, they're cleverly calling it Sniff & Seeking.

The Cavern Drogbar also enjoy snail racing, and the developers are working to include fun content with it. Players will even be able to unlock their own snail racer mount, which starts out quite slow, but can be trained over time.

Primal Blazes and Storms

Although the narrative has moved on, Raszageth's Primal Storms aren't going away and will still be around in the Dragon Isles for achievement hunters and collectors.

Patch 10.1 will include new assaults from the Primal Incarnate Fyrakk the Blazing. While we fight his allies on the ground, Fyrakk will unleashing his hate in the form of fire from above, burning the area around him, very reminiscent of Deathwing flybys in Cataclysm. Over the course of these assaults, players will learn that he is looking for something.

Dragonriding

Patch 10.1 will include new Dragonriding abilities including a momentum stop (this is actually coming in 10.0.7), and the ability to regain vigor while skimming above the ground at low altitudes. There will also be new customizations for both the existing dragonriding models and the new Cloud Serpent type.

The new drake works similar to existing ones and should utilize many of the same cosmetics that players have already unlocked.

Mythic+

The world is open in terms of what dungeons should make their Mythic+ debut. Vortex Pinnacle was a team favorite that feels open, airy, and fun, and they were really excited to update a dungeon that never had a Mythic+ version before. They're very interested to see how it's received by the community.

Pat is most excited about the new Mythic+ dungeon rotation shaking things up. Another point of interest for him is the revamped upgrade system - instead of collecting a unique currency and point-threshold for each activity (M+, PvP, Storm), players will collect two currencies used for every activity type.

Misc

No new race/class combos planned for 10.1, but they're definitely open to it, having recently added several in Patch 10.0.5.

Orcs just got new hair colors and more customizations will be coming over time, though nothing specifically planned for Patch 10.1.

Although some things still slip through, the developers have been trying to encrypt more things to avoid spoiling some of the major story beats. Most of them will unlock day one, but as we've seen so far in Dragonflight, others will unlock over time as players gain renown or reach other in-game milestones (such as clearing the raid). Sometimes they want the community to experience things together post-launch, the heritage armor questlines being one of them.

Maria is excited for Sniff & Seeking, as well as the new raid bosses. She's always careful not to test the raid beforehand in order to preserve surprise, though she can't wait to encounter the Elementium Dragon Deathwing Prototype.

She also emphasized that Patch 10.1 PTR testing will be very very soon!

Patch 10.1 Reveal

Interviews

Patch Content

Season 2

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Comments

Comment by birdnorf

New Endgame: Snail Racing!

Comment by dotaffs

you can see MrGM light up at the end when they told him PTR very very soon :D

Comment by lovelywaz

As long as it doesn't add further into grinding or makes it mandatory to do activities that currently we don't have to (M+ VP vs Outdoor Storms currency), then I am ok with this revamp.

Knowing HOW they do things from past experience, however, I am very skeptical if it's not gonna be worse than what it is now. Fingers crossed! 🤞🤞