As predicted by yesterday’s leak, Blizzard has revealed details about the first major content update for World of Warcraft: Shadowlands in its Blizzconline streaming event. The patch is called Chains of Domination and will focus on a ride deeper into the Maw, the terrible domain of the Jailer, the mysterious bad guy who disrupts the balance of the Shadowlands – Warcraft’s afterlife – and an invasion of all reality threatens using disgrace Horde warchief Sylvanas.
I had a chance to chat with game director Ion Hazzikostas and art director Ely Cannon about Chains of Domination earlier this week. Hazzikostas characterized the core of the update, saying: ‘Now we start a full assault on the front, we return to the Maw and try not to hide, but let the jailer know that we are here … In the process we are going to explore a variety of epic environments that are no different from what we have seen or done in World of Warcraft – and learn more about the nature of death, the nature of the Keeper and the enemy that we wait. ‘
The Maw has so far been a different, tougher kind of adventurous zone for WOW players: you can not summon your mountain there, you must avoid the Eye of the Jailer (a kind of warning or ‘desired’ system) currency when you die . But the new Maw area that has been added – Korthia, the secret city – will, it seems, be more relaxed, to combine some of the elements and the thematic elements of the Maw with the traditional game outside that we built . over the years, ‘said Hazzikostas.
In addition to this expansion of the main Shadowlands campaign, the four Covenant campaigns will also be continued (and players can earn new Covenant cosmetic armor). There’s a new 10-man raid, The Sanctum of Domination, that offers the chance to fight the Tarrague – the terror that players in the roguelike prison Torghast hunt – as well as the “true eye of the jailer” and Sylvanas himself , in what is called a “fatal confrontation”. Would that put an end to the controversial Sylvanas arch that has dominated WOW lore for several years? Can she be saved? Of course, Hazzikostas would not say, but he indicated that it would be a definite moment for that character.
Just as exciting, perhaps, is a new “mega-dungeon” of eight bosses called Tazavesh, the Veiled Market. If they venture into the bazaar of transdimensional traders, the Brokers, they would take a ‘mind-bending’ heist who compared Hazzikostas to the legendary Return to Karazhan dungeon – itself a playful remix of the equally legendary Karazhan attack from 2007. “Think of it like a Harry Potter, Gringotts heist inspired well,” he said. [the Brokers’] Dungeon is a whirlwind tour through reality … it’s not just a single place, it’s going to stretch the reality of Warcraft as we know it. ‘
As it has become a tradition, the patch will also enable players to unlock the power of flight in Shadowlands, and it sounds like it will be easier to achieve than in the past, ‘simply by continuing the campaign and to complete, this time no reputation has been honed, just play through the main story, ‘Hazzikostas said.
In terms of the systemic and balance changes we can expect from the patch, Hazzikostas was cautious. ‘The content you’re going to see, we know it’s going to be a while, right? Systems are much more responsive. It’s much more a product of what I think than a conversation between us and the community. And these ideas are still coming together in our 9.05 patchwork that is currently on our public testing ground. We see some evolution, in terms of the balance of the class and the covenant, but also how loot is allocated and how players who focus on dungeons can work on building articles of their choice. We still have a lot more to address about shoot, how Torghast plays out and more. But these systems are going to unfold themselves as we get on the PTR and can really get instant feedback from our players. ‘
How Torghast fits into this is particularly interesting, because as a random, roguelike-inspired infinite dungeon in which players can expand and twist the powers of their characters, it is both content and system in one. Hazzikostas has confirmed that “new layers and an entirely new aesthetic wing” will be introduced to Torghast. And he also acknowledged that there is work to be done to rectify this difficult balancing challenge, so it was just as rewarding as other ways to play WOW.
“What we started with was something where success and failure were very binary,” he said. “And there are probably few feelings in WOW worse than coming to the end of a Torghast run, let alone the end of, like a turnaround, and failing the final boss and completely empty. There are very few activities that require you to give up so much time and give you the opportunity to get nothing, and the shaped player experience as well as our hand has led when it comes to the experience, which led to it sometimes feeling a little flatter than players would prefer, because failure was so punishing.We like to come to a place where it is less binary, there is more of a sliding scale, players can always feel that they get away with some progress with the goals they are pursuing. And in turn, we can have a wider range of challenge and engagement, because failure is not quite as painful. “
Customizing your character via covenant-specific Soulbinds and Conduits will be expanded – and although Hazzikostas did not go into detail about this, he noted that these endgame systems (as well as legendary items) are built to expand, have a lesson on the hard way learned after the poorly planned “system soup” (his words) of the last expansion Battle for Azeroth. ‘We’re trying to build on the foundations of the systems we’ve laid out in Shadowlands, rather than creating new ones and sticking to them … I honestly think it was something that, in retrospect, was a bit of a failure for Battle for Azeroth. – that it felt that the systems we were launching were not as extensible as we would have liked [and needed to be] redesigned and almost replaced with each successive content update. “
These covenant-specific endgame progression systems – as well as the special covenant abilities – have been widely criticized for their effect on game balance during the Shadowlands beta test. This was one of the reasons why the launch of the extension was delayed last year. It presents the WOW design team with a difficult challenge in trying to balance the needs of players trying to maximize their character for every bit of benefits and players who like to make role play and make choices for more aesthetic or thematic reasons. . Hazzikostas believes that the balancing effort was mostly successful – but where not, he is wary of making corrections too quickly.
“I think our goal was that people who are driven by aesthetics, people who are driven by wanting to know more about a piece of the story, do not feel that they are hindered because of the choice. And about the in general we feel we have succeeded. And in the places where we fall short, this is what our first small content update in 9.05 is trying to tackle. We are reluctant to make changes in the Covenant Voting. via hotfix, although we have the technical ability have to do it, just because we do not suddenly want to undermine the choice of the player if they choose one covenant over another and then sign up next week to find something else.to give us a little more advance notice , get a little more feedback and reproduce the process. ‘
Overall, Chains of Domination World of Warcraft should find a happy place when it launches later this year. Shadowlands was an incredible hit – it was shortly before the release of Cyberpunk 2077, the fastest PC game ever – and while it’s always gripping, gamers seem about as satisfied as ever. Perhaps this is surprising for an extension that is as conceptually distant as Shadowlands. The previous two expansions, Battle for Azeroth and Legion, with their factional wars and demon invasions, swamps and forests and mountains, have trodden much more comfortable ground for Warcraft, while Shadowlands explores a multidimensional empire beyond death.
Art director Ely Cannon thinks at the moment that it works exactly – especially at the moment. ‘I think the footage is really interesting and different … and not only that, but I feel like we tried to approach it in a similar way as the more classic zones did, where it’s a little more puriteins were about the way they presented the themes … It had a very clear character, and then linked it to the Covenant Fantasy … everything felt like a strong fantasy in such an interesting place to to be transported. At least for me, as an RPG player, as someone who enjoys the opportunity to step into a world that is not our real world – especially in a year like ours. A game like this that enables you to be in that fantasy space, and especially one that is so gripping and bright and focused, since Shadowlands, I think, has finally become really powerful. ‘