The week of March 6 was exciting for the World of Warcraft community as Blizzard Entertainment announced Patch 10.1 and everything coming in the second season of Dragonflight. This week was, by no means, less exciting than the previous week as we are slowly preparing for the return to the Forbidden Reach with the release of Patch 10.0.7 on March 21.
During the week, we finally learned about the set bonuses for the upcoming raid—Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible, heard Blizzard is planning to release Classic-era Hardcore servers, witnessed the ban of 120,000 bots in Classic, saw more nerfs for Raszageth and Mythic+ dungeons, and tons of spicy details on Blizzard class balancing philosophy and what might be next for the Dracthyr.
So, buckle up for your weekly WoW recap with Dot Esports.
Season two tier set bonuses are finally here
On March 8, Blizzard revealed the first content patch of Dragonflight. With that, we learned the next raid, where we defeat foul Neltharion’s experiments, will be Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible. Initially, we only saw how tier sets look, but we had no clue about their bonuses. On March 14, the WoW devs shared the entire list of Dragonflight season two tier bonuses. If you have some free time on your hands, you can head to the PTR yourself and test the tier-set bonuses in the capital cities.
Official Classic Hardcore servers might become a reality soon
Classic-era enjoyers couldn’t take living without the original iteration of WoW anymore and they started their own community on the old Classic servers called Hardcore. The rules are simple: if you die, you delete the character and start over, no trading, no buying items, or using resurrection abilities like Soulstones.
Related: WoW Hardcore? Blizzard might be bringing a highly-requested mode to Classic
On March 10, Twitter user Solanya tweeted the discovery from another user—Meorawr that features a new interface source code for Dragonflight Patch 10.1 and a warning for Hardcore realms. Essentially this means that Blizzard has plans to release the official version of Hardcore realms in the near future, but we still don’t know any details about it.
Blizzard banned 120,000 bots and introduced restrictions for Death Knight creation in Classic
For months now, you couldn’t queue up for a battleground or enjoy your open-world questing without seeing Death Knight bots. Thankfully, Blizzard has been banning bots for months and by March 14 120,000 bots have been banned from Classic and Wrath of the Lich King Classic.
Related: Blizzard bans 120,000 bots in WoW Classic and introduces Death Knight restrictions
To avoid history repeating itself, the WoW devs introduced restrictions for Death Knight creation and from now on, you need to have at least one level 55 character on your account to create this hero class.
More nerfs for the Storm-Eater and Mythic+ dungeons
By now, almost everyone has their AOTC and KSM achievements. But for those who didn’t have much time to grind during the early weeks of the season or are taking their sweet time, Blizzard has shipped a hotfix on March 14 that nerfs Raszageth on both Heroic and Mythic difficulty.
In addition to that, the Azure Vault—the fabled dungeon that simply couldn’t be timed by half of the players that start it—got its timer increased by a minute and a half. This will definitely help players to complete the dungeon in time and at least be less hated.
Related: One Dragonflight Mythic+ dungeon will be far easier to time after weekly reset
Blizzard outlined their class balance philosophy
So far, Dragonflight has been one of the most balanced expansions in the history of the game when it comes to class balance and viability. This, naturally, implies a lot of effort and time invested so that each DPS can be happy with its shiny DPS output.
In an interview with Wowhead on March 14, Ion Hazzikostas, WoW game director, outlined how Dragonflight has been all about aggressively balancing in the first couple of weeks of the season and then slowing it down as we near the middle and the end of the season.
The goal is to “keep the balance evolving” and give the classes and specs that need love the necessary buffs and tweaks. Currently, the WoW team is happy with the state of class balancing and plans on updating the class balance even more often in the upcoming Dragonflight seasons.
Related: Blizzard outlines WoW Dragonflight class balancing philosophy
Dracthyr might learn the art of war and magic in the upcoming Dragonflight updates
At the beginning of Dragonflight on Nov. 28, 2022, Blizzard warned us not to get our hopes up because Drathyr will most likely just be Evokers and nothing else. But it seems as if Blizzard changed its mind and further down the road we might actually see Dracthyr Mages and Warriors.
Related: Dracthyr could pick up new classes in future WoW Dragonflight updates
In an interview on March 14, WoW’s game director Ion Hazzikostas hinted there’s a “high likelihood down the line that Dracthyr can wield weapons and cast Frostbolts.” At this point in time, we still can’t say for sure what classes Dracthyr might become later in Dragonflight, but it could include universal classes like Mages, Warriors, Rogues, and Monks.
Published: Mar 17, 2023 08:23 am