We’ve summarized some of the more interesting talking points, but feel free to check out the full interview below.
Patch 10.2 Interview with MMORPG.com
The Emerald Dream
- We’re only traveling to one small part of the Emerald Dream, but in a more complete way than we have in the past.
- It’s vast and would otherwise encompass multiple zones, though the part we visit is roughly the size of the Ohn’ahran Plains.
Lead UX Designer Crash Reed
“I am super pumped. Playing WoW since the beginning, even in Warcraft III, just all the discussions of the Emerald Dream and how cool it can be. My wife plays a Druid; it’s all she ever talks about. It’s just one of these amazing experiences, that I think we are lucky to be able to share with the players right now. With that, it’s gonna come with some really cool things for the player to do. Like, diving into protecting both the world tree and helping it to grow, depending on what event you are participating in.
- Players will help Druids in the new Superbloom public event, in which a wandering ancient named Sprucecrown will assign various activities to complete. While fighting off Druids of the Flame and helping nurture the growing tree, players will gain temporary power-ups to make them feel much more powerful than normal.
- While saving Amirdrassil from Fyrakk, we’ll also work on the new renown track with the Dream Wardens, similar to the Niffen in Zaralek Cavern. No confirmation if this will contribute to the Valdrakken weekly renown quest, but it doesn’t sound like it.
Storylines
- One storyline in 10.2 involves Vyranoth and Wrathion “forming a kinship with one another, this feel of they are almost misfit dragons, you know they don’t necessarily fit in, so they form this really nice bond with each other” as they reach out to new allies in the Thorignir Storm Dragons of Stormheim and the Netherwing of Outland – two groups who also remain apart from the primary dragon flights.
Season 3
- The fledgling tree Amirdrassil serves as the setting for the new raid, which will include dragonriding elements during one of the raid encounters.
Assistant Lead Encounter Designer Taylor Sanders
“It was only natural that a portion of the raid focuses on and around the tree. We have a really cool dragonriding encounter where players will be able to fight one of our coolest characters; he’s a druid of the flame named Tendral Sageswift. Players will be zooming around the boughs of Amirdrassil using their dragonriding mounts during the encounter. So players will see a lot of Amirdrassil during the raid.”
- In addition to various dragonriding skins, there will be a mount from the final raid boss: the Fire Owl is an entirely separate and standalone Mythic only mount – the first non-dragon mount to use a new “dynamic flying” system.
- No plans to update any Mythic+ affixes for Season 3, but devs will be looking at PTR testing of the new dungeon rotation to gather more information.
