wow No Mythic-Only Phase for Sylvanas, the Jailer Is the Shadowlands Endboss, Increased Soul Ash, and More: Morgan Day Sloot Interview on Patch 9.1

[Staff 1,488]

 

Sloot just interviewed Lead Game Designer Morgan Day and we'll be recapping the highlights! You can check out the full interview at the bottom of the article.

There is no Mythic-only phase for Sylvanas, as there is a lot of new and cool stuff happening throughout the encoutner anyway. The Jailer seems to be confirmed as the endboss of the expansion with a "who else could it be, I want to punch the Jailer" comment.

Soul Ash gains increased by 50% and even further if you can get repeat wins and the new Covenant legendaries will be received via Renown.

The Mythic+ score system will pave the way to introduce new rewards to M+, even a Hall of Fame and similar later down the line. There will also be bonus Valor awarded when a player in the run improves their M+ score! 

Torghast was a big topic, as there's a lot coming to it in patch 9.1, including mounts, pets, cosmetics and 12 new achievements. There will be no additions to the Twisting Corridors in the patch, nor will there be leveling in the tower, at least for now (but the team likes the idea). Torghast Knowledge (the currency you get to by the tower talents) works the same as Valor or Conquest - it has a cap that increases throughout the season. They also want there to be more to the runs than just "pass/fail", some depper levels of mastery (but not just based on speed), and there will be bonus objectives and more added to the PTR this week.

They want to only nerf class things in the first few weeks and then buff underperforming specs later on, and there are changes coming to Holy Paladins, Mistweavers, the PvP side of Death Knights (mostly talents), as well as AMZ in general (and Ashen Hallow for Paladins). 

There should be fewer BoEs covering slots in future raids (2-3), as the Nathria balance was off. There will be no weapon tokens in Sanctum of Domination, just actual weapons (as we've seen already), since the tokens were there in Nathria to provide Covenant-specific looks. The team is happy with the amount of loot in raids at the moment (even saying it may be a liitle too much). There are also no mini-raids planned as of now. 

There are 5 Domination sockets that can be acquired, with the gems having 3 types (blood, frost and unholy). The stat bonuses from the gems will work anywhere, while the 3-set bonus is Maw/raid-only.

 

[Dreamcatcher 66]

1 hour ago, Staff said:

Soul Ash gains increased by 50% and even further if you can get repeat wins and the new Covenant legendaries will be received via Renown.

This + BoA Soul Ash chest is a nice change IMO. More relaxed alt experience is nice.

1 hour ago, Staff said:

Torghast was a big topic, as there's a lot coming to it in patch 9.1, including mounts, pets, cosmetics and 12 new achievements. There will be no additions to the Twisting Corridors in the patch, nor will there be leveling in the tower, at least for now (but the team likes the idea). Torghast Knowledge (the currency you get to by the tower talents) works the same as Valor or Conquest - it has a cap that increases throughout the season. They also want there to be more to the runs than just "pass/fail", some depper levels of mastery (but not just based on speed), and there will be bonus objectives and more added to the PTR this week.

All of this is a good idea and a few steps in right direction. Torghast needs to be richer and better with lots of amazing rewards for players and more fun mechanics. On some classes and specs Torghast is so fun but on some others its Meh. Cosmetics and Mounts specially pretty and epic ones really can boost Torghast popularity.

[Migol 433]

Quote

The team is happy with the amount of loot in raids at the moment (even saying it may be a liitle too much).

...really?    Ominous that they say this despite the backlash toward loot rewards being decreased so much.     9.2 may be a long, long way off.

Also I'm kinda worried that The Jailer is the big bad and yet we still know almost nothing about him other than he's some ancient guy whose power was taken away by the arbiter (or used to create the arbiter), and now he's collecting seals and whatnot to get out.    We have no idea what happened in ancient times to turn him into an enemy, what his over arching plan is, or anything.    Hope that changes sooner rather than being crammed in 9.3 or worse, an out of game book.