"I think we can go all over the place": Maria Hamilton and Pat Dawson talk World of Warcraft Patch 9.2

Patch 9.2 of World of Warcraft, called “Eternity’s End,” is coming on February 22, 2022, and promises to be a massive update to the game. It will provide players with the final raid of the expansion, “Sepulcher of the First ones,” where they will battle the Jailer once and for all.

In the new zone, Zerith Mortis will offer a wealth of new quests, new allies, and of course, new rewards.

I had an opportunity to sit down with Activision Blizzard's Pat Dawson (Product Director) and Maria Hamilton (Lead Quest Designer) to talk about the new content that’s coming to World of Warcraft in just a few days.

Here is an excerpt from the conversation.

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Pat Dawson and Maria Hamilton on what awaits players in 9.2 of World of Warcraft

Q: With the revelation of Zerith Mortis and all of its deeper meanings into WoW Lore in mind, is it still possible to go back to a simpler time where heroes of Azeroth are felling dragons and exploring new areas? Will these larger, cosmic storylines interfere with some of the more simple and nuanced stories that could be told with things like rival street gangs in Ratchet?

Maria: I don’t think so. I think we can go all over the place. We have a vast world and a lot of fantastic characters to explore, yet not all stories have to be cosmic and epic stories, so I feel like we have a lot of room to go to, to go to all sorts of places.

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Q: Will the new tier system be a way for returning players who may have skipped Castle Nathria and Sanctum of Domination to come back into raiding? Will those set bonuses be enough to offset some underlying meta-gameplay from those who have been keeping current with Mythic+ content and gear?

World of Warcraft's art team sure knows design awesome-looking tier sets (Image via Activision Blizzard)

Pat: I think with any new season change comes a whole new set of rewards for players to enjoy and pretty quickly, unless you were a part of that “cutting edge” of raiding, you’ll be able to quickly catch up to what the expected gear level is for this content update.

That way you can jump right into Normal Mode Raiding, Heroic Raiding, if you’re looking to get into high-end Mythic Raiding, and I think there are avenues to do that as well, to catch up on gear. But yeah, the idea here is that within a pretty short period of time, you will have gear from this content update and be running the hardest of the hard content if you wish.

I think another thing that’s important to talk about, when we talk about tier sets as well, is that you can get them from more than just the raid. In the past, it was always locked to the raid, and specific bosses that would drop it, but now you can get it from other activities, like Mythic+, or Rated PVP, so that everyone can enjoy the tier sets, regardless of what high-end content you choose to do.

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Q: What sort of content can players expect with the new progression feature, Cypher of the First Ones? What is the overall focus of the progression, i.e., gear, currency, reputation?

Journeying to Zerith Mortis heralds the end of World of Warcraft's latest expansion (Image via Activision Blizzard)

Maria: Yeah, one of the exciting things about Cypher of the First Ones is you’re learning about Zerith Mortis. When you first come to Zerith Mortis, it’s very mysterious. It’s a very strange place. You can’t understand what’s going on around you, there’s a language that’s very musical, that is represented in these “cyphers,” rune-shapes, but as you learn more and more, you become able to translate those, to understand them.

This will allow you to speak to and understand quests from creatures that only speak in those languages. So there is a little bit of questing associated with Cypher of the First Ones. Alongside the big exploration involved in it too. Cypher is intended to help you explore and learn about the First Ones and Zerith Mortis, so everything is very much focused on that.

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Q: I have to do my due diligence here. It wouldn’t be fair not to ask it. Will there be any hints on what players will be doing in the upcoming expansion, during the story of 9.2? Will fans who watch every bit of the cutscenes and read all of the quest text get something extra as far as a teaser?

Maria: Well, of course, you have to do your due diligence. And of course, I can’t tell you! I’m sorry!

Jason: I had to try!

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The World of Warcraft developers discuss the acquisition of flight in 9.2

The developers said during the discussion that they have been listening to feedback on Reputation gains in World of Warcraft, and having rewards tied to it - like flying. Instead of tying flight to reputation, as it has been in the past expansion or two, this was being changed.

Instead, going into 9.2, flight will unlock after completing an achievement instead of directly being linked to Reputation. This will have players doing a great deal of exploring in the new zone, as well as completing a quest chain.

This came as a direct result of feedback from the playerbase, concerning how flight worked in the game and how it should work in the future.

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“Timegating” in World of Warcraft for alts in “Eternity’s End”

Timegating is a term used to describe having to wait on a certain amount of time to pass in-game in order for events to occur. This can often be frustrating when it comes to alternate characters for a player.

When it comes to alts during Cypher of the First One's content, a concern about timegating was discussed. One major change between the Public Test Realms (PTR) and the live game is that feedback led to reducing the research time on the cyphers themselves.

The Blizzard developers wanted to make sure the players have enough to do all at once, which should hopefully eliminate some of the timegating concerns going forward. The devs made it clear they’re constantly listening to feedback about this and other things.

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The World of Warcraft developers held back the final bosses of the raid from PTR

One nice change when it came to the World of Warcraft PTR was the raid itself. In the past, players could jump into the Public Test Realms and try the raids to get ready for the live content. This was still the case in Eternity’s End, except for the last three bosses.

The developers wanted it to be a surprise, and to have everyone learning about the fights and the actual mechanics for them at the same time. For that reason, the final three battles were removed, to make them more of a surprise to the audience.

Patch 9.2 of World of Warcraft, “Eternity’s End,” is coming on February 22, 2022, and brings a ton of new content for players to explore as the final major patch of the Shadowlands.