wow Shadowlands Flying Aka Pathfinder Won't Require Reputations, but Covenant Renown

[Starym 3,787]

 

Some probably good news for flying enthusiasts! No, we're not getting flying right off the bat in Shadowlands, it's not THAT good news. But, the pathfinder achievement(s) in Shadowlands will be getting a change, as we found out in HazelNuttyGames' interview with John Hight. The pathfinder achievement(s) will be based off of renown with your Covenant of choice, instead of requiring specific reputations, and from what Hight said in the interview, it may be the only thing required. That part seems unlikely, but it could be interpreted that way, as he specifically said that developing your renown will unlock flying eventually. No direct comments on when flying might happen, but it won't be in the first patch.

Now, regardless of whether that's the only thing needed, it still seems like an improvement over the rep grinds, as renown will be a very important part of the Covenant experience and we'll probably want to get as much of it as possible anyway (and it also has catch up mechanics, unlike reps). Whether it will be slower or faster than the rep grinds remains to be seen (and will be different for different players), but so far it seems like a positive change, as it's connected to a base activity in the game instead of reputations, which you might have to grind for separately. This also might be a big issue for players that will be switching Covenants after a while, as presumably renown won't be following you from Covenant to Covenant, so this might be another sticking point with the players that have issues with Covenants and their limitations as it is.

Here's the part of the interview related to fyling, but you can check the whole thing out as well:

[kurdi 20]

I've never really minded not flying at the beginning of an expansion, or at all, if I can't fly I get used to it really quickly, and make my own ways of going from point A to point B as quickly as possible.

I do mind farming the pathfinder achievement, I mean, if they desingned the world to fly in, say, patch 9.2.5. Why just don't unlock it? Why the grind?

I've enjoyed Mechagon way more when I didn't had the pressure of farming the rep.

[Lithari 194]

11 minutes ago, kurdi said:

I've never really minded not flying at the beginning of an expansion, or at all, if I can't fly I get used to it really quickly, and make my own ways of going from point A to point B as quickly as possible.

I do mind farming the pathfinder achievement, I mean, if they desingned the world to fly in, say, patch 9.2.5. Why just don't unlock it? Why the grind?

I've enjoyed Mechagon way more when I didn't had the pressure of farming the rep.

I am not against being grounded at the start of the expansion and having to do exploration and quest achievements to unlock flying, but grinding reputation was a VERY bad idea........getting racial mounts, sure its understandable, but to enable flying??? no, rep should have nothing to do with it.

[Valhalen 1,484]

14 hours ago, kurdi said:

I've never really minded not flying at the beginning of an expansion, or at all, if I can't fly I get used to it really quickly, and make my own ways of going from point A to point B as quickly as possible.

I do mind farming the pathfinder achievement, I mean, if they desingned the world to fly in, say, patch 9.2.5. Why just don't unlock it? Why the grind?

I've enjoyed Mechagon way more when I didn't had the pressure of farming the rep.

I think flying should be automatically unlocked once you finish all the major quest lines for all the zones. It is fair to the developers, that spent months carefully crafting the zones, and for players, who are rewarded with flying once they finish everything.

Gating flying behind stupid reputation achievements is severely outdated. Unnecessary grind. Blizzard knows that. Maybe this change in Shadowlands will be significantly better since it'll revolve around one of the core systems of the expansion.

[Grumar 186]

Mood

[Arcling 887]

On 7/10/2020 at 6:07 PM, Valhalen said:

I think flying should be automatically unlocked once you finish all the major quest lines for all the zones. It is fair to the developers, that spent months carefully crafting the zones, and for players, who are rewarded with flying once they finish everything.

Gating flying behind stupid reputation achievements is severely outdated. Unnecessary grind. Blizzard knows that. Maybe this change in Shadowlands will be significantly better since it'll revolve around one of the core systems of the expansion.

It could have been that or simply unlocking it for gold, just like it used to be.