Although World of Warcraft: Shadowlands was arguably the most contentious and poorly received expansion in the game’s franchise, one of its most positively received features will be making a comeback at the end of Dragonflight.
During a BlizzCon interview with WoW coverage site Icy Veins, game director Ion Hazzikostas confirmed that Fated Raids will be returning as a feature during the final Dragonflight season next year.
Fated raids were a feature first introduced in Shadowlands season four that added Mythic+-like affixes to the expansion’s raids. They were considered an experimental, borderline for-fun feature that was implemented to keep players satisfied with a little twist on existing content in between expansions—and it’s looking like that will be the case once again as WoW transitions into its next chapter ahead of the launch of The War Within.
Shadowlands season four was one big experiment as fans were allowed to vote for the throwback Mythic+ dungeons that would make the pool, and raids were tampered with to bring new mechanics into the picture. Now that it’s clear that the experiment worked at the back half of the last expansion, players should once again prepare for a bit of funkiness toward the end of Dragonflight.
Fated raids added serious flavor and intrigue to Shadowlands’ raiding lineup by combining elements of Mythic+ gameplay with a raid setting. By bringing affixes into raids, extra mechanics were added to already difficult encounters, and as a result, the Shadowlands raid lineup got a new and refreshed feel. It’s also likely that new Fated affixes, and potentially a new mount and achievement for completing all of the Fated raids, will be added in the final season of Dragonflight.
It’s unconfirmed at this point but definitely possible that a fourth season of Dragonflight content could also imply that one last refresh to the Mythic+ pool is in the works before the launch of The War Within.
During the last season of Shadowlands, a new week was selected to receive the “Fated” designation each week, and by the time the Dragonflight pre-patch rolled around, all raids from Shadowlands were Fated. We can probably expect something similar to occur between the end of Dragonflight and the launch of The War Within, with a consistent rotation of Dragonflight’s three raids—Vault of the Incarnates, Aberrus, and Amirdrassil—all getting a Fated designation at some point. How those raids will be affected by the Fated mechanics remains to be seen, though.
WoW players shouldn’t expect any Fated Dragonflight raids to make an appearance until next year, though. Dragonflight season three will begin next week, on Nov. 14, and it will likely be at least five months until the final season of the expansion hits the live servers.
Published: Nov 6, 2023 04:16 pm