The Starting Zone Patch 9.2 Interview with Morgan Day - Anduin Encounter, Sepulcher Shortcuts, & Personal Loot

PTR Posted 2021/11/19 at 8:19 PM by Archimtiros

Spencer DowneyJason LucasThe Starting ZoneNew Zone: Zereth Mortis & The Cypher of the First Ones

Going to Zereth Mortis was always the plan and the story the team wanted to tell - the unique looking gateway in the Arbiter's room used to get there has been around since Shadowlands launch, players just didn't know what it would be used for until now.

Very early on, you'll earn a customizable Automa named Poke-Poke. Very customizable with different looks, he's part of how you interact with Zereth Mortis, almost like a rosetta stone to the cypher language.

The Cypher of the First Ones is a very big system, which will drive a majority of outdoor content, and will be available week 1. The major goal is to incentivize exploration, though raiders should be able to ignore the system if they want to - no raid player power will be bound to it.

The talent tree is comparable to Torghast's Box of Many Things - you'll have agency of what you'll want to unlock, but eventually you'll have the entire talent system unlocked. Some of the researches have a timed element, but they are separate, so you can research multiple things at the same time.

Cypher content will award currency with no weekly caps, which will be spent on it's own talent tree. One of the goals with the system is to add difficulty to outdoor content and they felt the talent system would be a good way to have players gradually explore and eventually defeat harder outdoor content. The Cypher will unlock buffs, interactable items and much more.

New quests related to the Cypher will also unlock as you advance the Zereth Mortis storyline. These will be account-wide unlocks similar to those seen in 9.1.5. The team will also look into ways of adding ways to speed up content progression on alts, such as ways to earn more Cypher currency as time goes on.

You'll be able to find gear, treasure, and rares within Zereth Mortis, with an item level range of ~229-249. The gear will have special set bonuses like increased mobility outside of instances.

No plans for any new gold sink mounts, but there will be two forges for collectors - the Synthesis Forge, where you'll collect automa/construct pieces and combine them to make pets and mounts - all using resources collected from Zereth Mortis.

Raid Design: Sepulcher of the First Ones

They always try to not repeat mistakes from one raid to another, using "Tomb of Soakgeras" as an example of a failure in design that they dont want to repeat.

They feel like in SoD raid teams are strategizing too much around the availability of raid cooldowns (or having to hold cds), and that falls on the same level of design failure as soaking was in Tomb.

Regarding the length of Sylvanas' encounter, they wanted to tell a story with end bosses and given Sylvanas' history with WoW as a whole, they had a lot they wanted to get across. They knew from the get go it would be a long fight. They felt like it was a good opportunity to do that on Sylvanas, but no fights in the Sepulcher should last that long.

There is a flight network within Sepulcher, and the raid is competition for being the biggest raid size-wise in WoW history. They want to convey the grandiose of raiding the place where entire afterlives are created. Flight networks are unlocked as you defeat bosses and these will reset when the raid is reset, but shortcuts are being planned.

On boss timegating, the Anduin encounter itself could be the end boss of every other raid in WoW and the encounter is supposed to be super epic. They want the timegating to serve as a breather for history reasons, and they also feel the majority of the playerbase won't be affected by the timegating. They want to use this opportunity to try something special with storytelling.

Still being discussed (not decided yet), but there are plans to not test the final bosses at all on the PTR.

They want to focus on delivering a quality raid with no bugs so a lot of ongoing discussion on making that happen.

Gear - Tier Sets and Legendaries

There will be a new rank of legendaries, but to upgrade it will require Cosmic Flux, a new currency is inspired by Echoes of Nyalotha, which is obtainable from nearly every endgame activity including Raid, M+, World Quests, and even Torghast.

Previous legendary ranks will still require older materials, but those are far easier to farm than they were when current.

Cosmic Flux will also be used alongside Creation Catalyst to create tier set pieces from other activities such as Mythic+ or raid.

When you upgrade an item into tier sets will have static stats, so you don't need to fish for items with perfect secondaries to transform into tier.

Tertiary stats are currently not planned for Tier gear as they dont want a repeat of benthic gear.

Tier pieces and bonuses will be the same no matter where you get them from, whether its dropped from raid or crafted.

Tier bonuses will also work on all zones, there's no Domination shard-like limitation.

Domination Shards were thought of as a way to give exclusive bonuses to the raid, but they recognize they failed on that regard. They still want to give raiders some sort of early advantage, hence why tier set gear will initially be from the raid only, with the Creation Catalyst coming later.

They want set bonuses to serve as a path to catch up to other players. As far as unique loot goes (like KT sword or Sylvanas dagger), there will be "a thing" in Sepulcher, but it won't be a big part of your player power, it should serve just as a fun side bonus.

Personal Loot & Great Vault

They recognize personal loot has problems for both guild groups and casual pugs, but it would be something to be addressed between expansions, not a patch.

They like how the Great Vault has expanded upon the system from BFA, it should feel like Christmas every reset. Rerolling items in the vault has been brought up in discussions, but no plans on that end yet.

Tier set pieces can drop from the great vault.

Requirements for great vault chests are not being changed, raid loot will still be limited by what bosses you kill.

Conduits

They heard a lot of community feedback on conduit acquisition, with how much effort it takes to upgrade them and how you can't target specific conduits, so they've added steps to address some of the problems, but haven't decided how to properly address others. They're discussing if a conduit upgrade item like the ones from Korthia will be in the patch or not, but there will be new conduit levels in Patch 9.2 - he has to double check but he believes only one more rank for conduits.

Currently unsure if there will be a for minimum conduit item level "floor" for catch-up purposes, but Morgan acknowledged that it's a good idea.

Torghast Updates

Torghast will recieve new content, floors and creature types, along with a new wing: The Jailer's Guantlet.

Cosmetic rewards only, less traditional open floors and more of a boss-rush kinda scenario where you slam bosses back to back to back.

No new upgrades for Box of Many Things.

Tazavesh

They felt like Operation: Mechagon was in a good spot when it was added to Mythic+, and they want to try a similar approach with Tazavesh.

It should be testable very early on the PTR, though like Mechagon, the Hard Mode is currently not planned to be added to M+.

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Comment by AedionMorrisThere has to be something added to get conduits much faster on alts. Even if it means a vendor and buying them.Comment by CyraptorINTJInteresting?Comment by leowowAnd what will happen with shards of domination they will not work anymore in zereth mortis and new raid?Comment by icemanjmwAnd what will happen with shards of domination they will not work anymore in zereth mortis and new raid?Comment by FedoraFridayThe conduits are, and always have been, a bad and unnecessary system. It feels like they tried to make a vanilla-style talent point system, but it just never seemed to work. None of the conduits themselves were that impressive, and you could probably get through all the content without selecting a single conduit outside of Mythic raiding. Maybe heroic would be challenging without conduits, but doable with gear.

The real issue I take out of this is, the outdoor content. It feels like they're spending WAY too much time on pointless outdoor systems, when instead they could focus on outdoor content. Side quests, lots of them, not dailies. Hidden quests, things of that nature, spark way more joy in exploration than anything a "system" could ever hope to achieve. WoW needs mysteries to solve, not more daily chores, there's already enough of that. We also REALLY don't need a second Korthia, I'm afraid thats what Zereth Mortis is turning in to.

Also, high doubts on "no bugs" on raid release. There will be bugs, exploits, or balance issues, but that shouldn't stop you from attempting to deliver a quality product.Comment by Dunes32Gauntlet*Comment by PKitojoyAnd what will happen with shards of domination they will not work anymore in zereth mortis and new raid?There will be a new rank of legendaries, but to upgrade it will require Cosmic Flux, a new currency is inspired by Echoes of Nyalotha, which is obtainable from nearly every endgame activity including Raid, M+, World Quests, and even Torghast.Comment by LostartesThe question I have for Tazavesh is, will there be a heroic?Comment by maxdeepzAnd what will happen with shards of domination they will not work anymore in zereth mortis and new raid?Comment by ThorWowHeadThe vault "should feel like Christmas".

It feels more like S7ven - "What's in the box?"Comment by Mystic0xI really hope they don't test those last few bosses on PTR, it would be really cool to watch from a story side of things live with others. Zerith Mortis sounds like the progression isn't going to be timegated which is always a good thing.Comment by NagasshNice to see them acknowledging some of their %^&*ups with raid design - just hope they deliver. Praying that comment about personal loot means we might finally get ML back for full guild mythic raids next expansion.Comment by Dranightthere are plans to not test the final bosses at all on the PTR.Currently unsure if there will be a for minimum conduit item level "floor" for catch-up purposes would be something to be addressed between expansions, not a patch. will require Cosmic FluxThey like how the Great Vault has expanded upon the system from BFAComment by SkyreiI think it would be interesting to see the world first race with bosses that haven't been seen before but the pessimist in me thinks it would be more dealing with bugs than actually enjoying good fightsComment by BahskaYes please, no player power. I would do the new zone still but it would be nice to not feel like i have to spend my life in that zone just to grind out a new conduit rank for the 3rd time like korthia...and instead for...fun!
Burning people out because of forced content they dont enjoy before they even get to the fun bits (as a person who just wants to raid, pvp and/or do dungeons even casuals tbh) obviously isnt the best.
Most people liked timeless isle. Most people hate Korthia, maw, islands etc The main difference? One was optional while the others arent.
Imagine if you had to fully complete argent tournament, achieves and all, in order to make your character the best it can be >_< basically how its felt for awhile now.

Im fine with it being in game of course, should be stuff to do for every type of player. Im less ok with being told i have to do content i hate before or in order to get to the stuff i really play the game for.Comment by hamhelth213Nice to see them acknowledging some of their %^&*ups with raid design - just hope they deliver. Praying that comment about personal loot means we might finally get ML back for full guild mythic raids next expansion.Comment by donovan4893 New rank.. assuming crafters will once again climb the rank ladders to craft the base rank 7/8 legendary equipment?
Very important information to find out.Vestige of the EternalComment by LykaiosAnd what will happen with shards of domination they will not work anymore in zereth mortis and new raid?Comment by aldar45My main problem with the great vault was that I could and had better loot from open world and crafted items than the vault gave. As a casual the most I raid is LFR and even that wasn't worth doing more than once to see the story line. Same with the raid encounter loot drops. The only version I care to run drops lower gear than I already have so why spend the time in there?Comment by TOMRUSThey like how the Great Vault has expanded upon the system from BFA, it should feel like Christmas every reset.The major goal is to incentivize exploration, though raiders should be able to ignore the system if they want to - no raid player power will be bound to it.Still being discussed (not decided yet), but there are plans to not test the final bosses at all on the PTR.
They want to focus on delivering a quality raid with no bugs so a lot of ongoing discussion on making that happen.

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