Below you can find a summary of the interview, but be sure to check out the full VoD for the complete context.
Lorewalking
- Such a long and rich history in World of Warcraft, there’s always a lingering question of how we highlight stories that we have already told sometimes literally decades ago. Lorewalking let’s us leverage those stories and bring them to a modern audience.
The K’aresh Zone
- How can we tell that story of a shattered planet and show that to the players while building upon the foundations we created in Burning Crusade? We tried to take all these inspirations and bring them up to the high fidelity and design expected in modern WoW.
- Tried to differentiate Ethereal wrappings a bit more and show what it would be like to have a more heavily armored or spiky Ethereal wrappings.
- Manaforge Omega built to pull in the lingering energies of K’aresh in order to reform Dimensius. Invested a lot of work to make Dimensius a truly epic final boss encounter.
- Hints at how we get to K’aresh from the end of the Undermine campaign, but Alleria’s mentor Locuswalker returns to alert players to the new threat of the Shadowguard and the resurrection of Dimensius.
- Expect lots of familiar faces to return including, Alleria, Locuswalker, Ve’nari, and so many more. Expect a few surprises with such a major threat like Dimensius.
Tazavesh Player Hub & Flying
- Tazavesh did undergo a lot of modifications in order to make it a viable player hub such as modeling that filled in the space to allow for flying and really build out the space.
- Expect a new shield surrounding Tazavesh that should protect the new hub from all the void energies coming off K’aresh.
- Flying, including Skyriding, will be enabled in K’aresh to allow players to hop from all the various shattered islands.
Manaforge Omega
- When building Manaforge Omega, we wanted it to feel like more of a factory with the purpose of resurrecting Dimensius rather than a traditional boss castle.
- Wanted to explore the lore of the Ethereals and build out their culture through many of the bosses, such as exploring the nature of their wrappings.
- Always there’s a balance between making a space feel organic and lived-in while still having a space for players to complete the encounter.
Archival Assault Delve & Ecological Succession
- Wanted to explore the nature of Ethereals and Brokers to collect and store curious objects and artifacts. For the Delve this is done in the return of the Azure Vaults and the collection of magical objects while Ecological Succession has players build out their own zoo with various stolen flora and fauna.
- Expect that even with returning to familiar zones that there will be changes to the environment and maybe a few surprises.
Ecodome Al’dani
- Expect a narrative switch up from previous patches, where the dungeon actually is the end story beat of the patch rather than the raid due it’s major importance in the Worldsoul Saga going forward.
- Wastelanders are a tribe of Ethereals that swore an oath to stay and safeguard K’aresh despite its shattered destruction.
- Ecodomes build upon the original Burning Crusade designs, but also are a recreation of what K’aresh might have been before its destruction. Think, a recreation of Elywynn Forest if Azeroth were to be destroyed.
- Dungeon waypoints will now be available across all Season 3 dungeons allowing players a way to view exactly where they’ll release after death.
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