wow Patch 10.2 Interview with Morgan Day and Patrick Scarborough

[Staff 1,060]

We interviewed Assistant Game Director Morgan Day and Senior Game Designer Patrick Scarborough about Patch 10.2. Find out more about the significant class/healing changes and exciting content planned in the update!

Interview Highlights

Is Patch 10.2 The Final Major Content Patch of Dragonflight?

Guardians of the Dream is certainly the next big chapter in the story and a big turning point. You are seeing the culmination of a lot of characters that have waited for their chance to step into the limelight (Merithra).

They don't want to reveal whether Patch 10.2 is the final major content patch of the Dragonflight expansion.

Are Any New Race/Class Combinations Coming in Patch 10.2?

No new race/class combinations are coming in Patch 10.2, but we will have new Druid customizations. New Moonkin customizations and some other fiery Druid customizations that players can earn from the new raid.

Which Classes Are Getting Sizable Class Changes in Guardians of the Dream?

All 3 Rogue specs are getting sizeable updates in Guardians of the Dream to encourage variety and player choice.

Broad healing changes are being made. There are discrepancies between healing in raids vs. Mythic+. As a result, the team looked at healing as a whole and they are increasing the power of single-target healing and looking at big cooldowns and AoE healing.

To ensure decision-based healing instead of pushing your highest input AoE healing spell, they are making some pretty significant Mana adjustments.

Quite a few Druid specializations are being looked at.

They are looking to simplify the Discipline Priest rotation so it's not so heavily reliant on stacking modifiers.

Power Infusion is being looked at. Some of it is tuning and how it interacts with very specific specs like Demonology Warlocks or Unholy Death Knights that benefit more from it than other classes.

How Are Superblooms Going to Work? 

Superblooms are a new public event where you aid the growth of Amirdrassil. It will have multiple stages similar to what you may have seen in Zaralek Cavern, but much more mobile. You move around the tree. It's very combat-focused. Not only are you fighting against the Druids of the Flame, but you also earn some fun powers (similar to the Cobalt Assembly). One of them is called Moonkin Mayhem where you save moonkins and they just follow you around and spam Moonfire.

From the rewards site, they were happy with the Niffen in Patch 10.1. Superblooms will be a new source of outdoor gear that you can upgrade. They are not on the same level as Time Rifts in terms of the rewards and 

How Will The Netherwing Faction Will Be Involved in Patch 10.2?

Vyranoth is going to become an unlikely ally as we embark on a questline with Wrathion who are both misfits of their dragon families. She is going to gain new allies, the Netherwing and Storm Drakes to defend Amirdrassil.

Are You Planning to Change the Gear Upgrading System?

Crests are staying, bit crest fragments are being removed. They have a swath of quality-of-life improvements planned for the gear upgrading system. The goal is to trim down the complexity of the system. The new upgrade is clicking with people, and they're happy about that.

Crests will become a currency and won't take up inventory space in 10.2.

Flightstones are going to stay. New Dreamborne crests are coming in Season 3. The old crests are still going to be tied to Season 2.

Are There Any Plans to Update the Brawler's Guild in Dragonflight?

Nothing to announce for Patch 10.2. Everyone loves Brawler's Guild, they've heard a lot of feedback from players. When they bring it back they want to do so in an evergreen way, so they don't need to turn it off and on again. They want it to be like the Mage Tower.

Is Outlands Cup Coming in Patch 10.2?

Both have no information about Outlands Cup coming in 10.2.

Can We Expect Any New Dragonriding Mounts / Customizations in Guardians of the Dream?

There are definitely some amazing Dragonriding updates in Guardians of the Dream, including new race /glyphs, so you can learn new traits.

There's also a new Faerie Dragon mount from the campaign. Another unique mount is the Fire Owl from Mythic Fyrakk, which is the first non-drake mount with dynamic flight.

Fyrakk will drop 2 flavors. The base flavor which will work just like Raszageth, the appearance has a small chance to drop in all difficulties.

A special shadowflamey version of Fyrakk is coming from Ahead of the Curve.

Can You Tell Us More About the New Dragonriding Traits?

We have 2 new passives, one of them relates to upgrading Ground Skimming: While you are at your max speed, you can ground skim. Wind's Respite is the second one which acts as an air brake.

Throne of Tides and the Everbloom Are Going on Rotation in Mythic+ Season 3. What Are The Biggest Challenges When Updating Old Dungeons to Modern Day Standards?

Something the team is still getting used to is how to itemize all dungeons. The older you go the more you find trinkets or base items that exactly do not fit with the modern era of WoW. In Shadowlands Season 4 they left all items in as an experiment to see how they will work. 

Can you briefly talk about PvP changes and the new PvP Brawl?

The class reworks (outlined above) usually have big PvP changes too. 

They are adding a new brawl called Battleground Blitz. Those familiar with Solo Shuffle from Shadowlands know this is an experiment to see how a Solo Queue experience for Rated Battlegrounds may look like.

Battleground Blitz adds a solo queue for existing rated battlegrounds.

For this specific brawl, they went with 8 players instead of 10 and we're looking at a 10-15 minutes match length.

The addition of the ping wheel will make the solo experience for battlegrounds more manageable. They think having the tool is great for solo queue coordination.

[Garutar 1]

Fyrakk will drop 2 flavors. The base flavor which will work just like Raszageth, the appearance has a small chance to drop in all difficulties.

A special shadowflamey version of Fyrakk is coming from Ahead of the Curve.

so you get a mythic one and a AOTC...Im taking the Special Shadowflame version is the mythic and base one is AOTC. not the other way around.....