This week Manny and Joce talk about the imminent pre-patch, last minute beta changes, Mike Morhaime’s new company Dreamhaven, and then take your emails. All that and more on this week’s For Azeroth!
Congratulations Contest Winners
The For Azeroth Beta Access Key Giveaway has concluded. All winners were announced in the FAZ Discord and have been DM’d. Congratulations to the 11 winners (yes 11 we threw in an extra key because of all the great entries).
March of the Ents
One mount has won out in both North America and Europe. Supporters of the caterpillar are left disappointed; and, people who supported the slime kitty are left to look up at the sky and wonder why.
- The Wandering Ancient: A large and leafy mount, the Wandering Ancient invites you to climb aboard and grab ahold of its branches as you embark on a lumbering expedition.
No word on when or if we will see any concept design; but, the mount will arrive some time in Q1 2021.
PTR gets a Release Candidate
The latest build on the PTR is a release candidate. Which means that a release could come as early as next week. Adding to the speculation of imminent release is an official article detailing all the updates coming with the prepatch and warning that time is running out.
Reminder of things coming with the prepatch:
- Corruption is disappearing (Ny’alotha and M+ rebalanced)
- Level and ilvl Squish
- New Starting Player Experience
- Chromie Time
- New Customizations
- Pathfinder no longer needed for WoD and Legion
- Item and Profession changes (Relics of the Past/ Potion Nerfs)
Raid Weapons are Covenant Specific
The weapon tokens obtained in the Castle Nathria raid are turned in at your characters covenant and each covenant provides weapons that match their armor sets. Analogous weapons have the same stats so this is strictly a cosmetic difference.
Loot System Expanded
Several areas of loot have been developing on the beta servers.
- Bonus Rolls are gone in Shadowlands.
- The Maw and Ve’nari reputation has upgrades for:
- Tor’ghast runs
- Adding gem sockets to gear
- Upgrading Conduit ranks
- A legendary recipe
- Tertiary stats? Can we retire them?
Quick Adjustments
Quickfire changes on the beta
- Monks Received several changes to the base rotation including taking Energizing Elixir coming off the GCD.
- Several themes and music are now in the game files!
- Shaman Legendary, Deeply Rooted Elements” will no longer proc from bonus lava burst
- Arms Warriors received additional ways to apply Deep Wounds increasing the value of mastery
- Covenant abilities have been revised for Death Knights, Demon Hunters, Hunters, Mages, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlocks
- Tor’ghast is back open for testing
Mike Morhaime starts a new company, Dreamhaven
- New company with two studios, Moonshot and Secret Door
- Moonshot will be doing the big/innovative stuff, Secret Door will be doing little stuff with a focus on social experiences
- Made up almost exclusively of former Blizzard employees
- They are already playtesting, at least at Moonshot, according to Hadidjah
Podcast (faz-pod): Download (Duration: 1:34:42 — 86.8MB)
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