Patch 11.1.5 launched on April 22, but many players were left frustrated. Instead of a content-rich experience, the update arrived with a buggy Renown grind and most of its featured delayed for weeks. Horrific Visions, one of the patch’s key features, are only going live today in the NA region, nearly a month later.
Now, just as players are gearing up to dive in, a new concern is emerging: Are cosmetic rewards from the 
Displaced Corrupted Memento vendor locked behind yet another multi-week grind?
What the PTR Revealed About the Horrific Visions Talent Tree
On the Patch 11.1.5 PTR, unlocking cosmetics like mounts and pets from the vendor required players to fully unlock all talents in the Hourglass of Horrific Visions.
The issue? It took 3 weeks on the PTR to unlock all talents in the tree and get the 
We Have the Memories achievement!
This means that even if a player farms enough Displaced Corrupted Mementos to buy cosmetics on Day 1, they still can’t, because it takes 3 weeks to max out the Hourglass of Horrific Visions.
Hazzikostas: “It’s Not What Players Deserve”
In an interview with PC Gamer, Senior Game Director Ion Hazzikostas was candid about how Patch 11.1.5 failed to meet expectations. He acknowledged the community’s frustration over the delays and bugs.
“The patch didn’t go as planned… That’s not the experience our players are expecting or deserve.”
He also addressed Blizzard’s internal reasons behind the timegating:
“We thought it made sense to space out features so players wouldn’t feel overwhelmed. But it’s quite possible we got the balance wrong this time, and that there’s too much being delayed and not enough upfront.”
Despite reaffirming Blizzard’s commitment to improving content rollout:
“We’re going to listen, we’re going to learn, and we’ll try to do better next time,” Hazzikostas said.
Well, next time is today, and based on PTR data, it appears players may be staring down another artificial delay just to access cosmetics. If the Hourglass system remains unchanged on live servers after maintenance, Blizzard risks repeating the same mistake it just apologized for.
All Eyes on Live Servers
As maintenance ends in the NA region and servers come online, players will be watching for one key thing:
Is the cosmetic vendor still locked behind a three-week progression grind?
If the answer is yes, it would confirm that the timegate seen on the PTR has made it into the live version, contradicting the intent Blizzard publicly communicated just days ago.
We’ll keep you posted!
