Patch 9.2: Fall of Azeroth (Patreon)

Hey! Michael here again! It seems loads of you enjoyed the Class Order Halls idea that I posted a few days ago, so here's my top level proposal for Patch 9.2. Essentially, it's the direction I'd go in, if I were in charge. 

This is all done in a single day, and the intent is to be a video, so extreme depth isn't really a major focus. I'd love any feedback you've got!

Overview

On the back of the surprising changes they made in Patch 9.1.5, based off listening to the long-standing community feedback, let's explore what they could possibly do in Patch 9.2 following a similar path of community engagement feedback.

Goals

Shadowlands lore has not resonated with the broad player-base as Blizzard would have hoped. Cosmic flavor is great, but when it's all down to interdimensional war, fractals, first ones and seventh forces, it veers away from core Warcraft. This this proposed Patch, I would aim to satisfyingly resolve Zovaal's story, expand the cosmic lore via your in game experience, to return us to Azeroth for an experience that feels like the Warcraft that drew you to this game in the first place, and to end this expansion with Shadowlands neatly resolved, and put back in it's box. While certain cosmic elements will be escalated, they will be put to rest by this patches end, clearing the way for a more grounded breather expansion.

Finally: they can give us a million new zones, and 100 mounts for our journal, but if they all feel the same, why bother? Rather than focus on big new zones, the focus is on pushing the design of World of Warcraft forward, and providing more memorable rewards that emphases player fantasy and customisation.

If this seems big compared to our recent patch of 9.1 and 8.3, do remember that 8.2 continued two new zones and a megadungeon, and that 8.3 contained 3 zones, a bunch of questing, and a truly epic, massive raid. Do not settle for the lower standards of recent patches.

Narrative Fantasy - Make SHORTER / Cut

Zovaal travels to Zereth Mortis, and obtains the technology he needs to fulfil his plan, remaking reality.

This ancient First Ones technology is unusable without Azeroth. Why? Azeroth is the centre of the great cycle: to remake reality, her soul must be used as fuel. This seems to be the current canon - Zovaal has traveled to Zereth Mortis, but at the start of the expansion, he told us he was coming for the Soul of our world. Clearly, he needs both First Ones tech & Azeroth's soul.

Icecrown Citadel is the Veil between worlds, allowing Mawsworn forces to cascade down to our world! While Zovaal has First Ones teleportation magic, he isn't able to use it on Azeroth. Why? Well, a rumble is felt across the land. Old Azerite veins begin to glow, the chamber of the heart comes to life, and the scholars of Azeroth notice strange disturbances. She, now recovered from BFA and more 'awake' than ever, blocks Zovaal - hinting at her special nature, as depicted in the Grimoire of the Shadowlands cosmology chart.

So, Zovaal can't quite make it to Azeroth: but his forces can. They, led by Anduin, take Icecrown Glacier, sacking the Argent Tournament and Ebon Blade Outposts. Before we know it, the whole zone is his, and the Mawsworn begin assaulting the rest of Northrend.

Icecrown, which canonically was built to the Jailer's specifications by his agents, holds many secrets: ones he can use to further weaken the bond between worlds. That's the plan: take Northrend, fully activate what's under Icecrown, and take our world, all told through the Zereth Mortis raid, a raid which, like Antous, spans many locations, telling an epic story across the First Ones realm of Zereth Mortis, Icecrown Citadel, Northrend, and, finally, Silithus: because The Legion was manipulated by Zovaal's agents from the beginning. Because we know the death of Argus was the victory that went unnoticed, and because we know the Sword of Sargeras cannot stay lodged in our world forever.

For Zovaal, Plan A is to take all of Northrend, weakening Azeroth by using Vordrassil to infect the Emerald Dream with Death, take Ulduar to claim its' world engines, and deepest secrets. That's not all: The Nexus holds extreme Arcane power - and Arcane is the main cosmic force of Azeroth... as far as we know. Even the resurrection of Galakrond. Yes: If he can take Northrend, then he can both invade us conventionally, and weaken Azeroth enough to use his First Ones teleportation magic on us. As for plan B, well - we'll force him in to that. Wait till the Zereth Mortis raid segment.

Intro Experience

The Primus returns, and true to his word, he has forged the key to Zereth Mortis, land of the First Ones. The combined might of the Ebon Blade and all 4 Covenants travel there. Initially, all is calm. Far too calm. We explore, along with a fascinated Roh-Suir, finding relics the Broker Cartels would kill for. Soon, we come upon Zovaal and Anduin. After a classic Villain monologue, Anduin fights us, masterfully wielding Death Magic to isolate the Mawwalkers party - that's you, Draka, Bolvar, Thrall and Jaina. This is all rather amusing to Zovaal, who chuckles, stops the fight, and commands Anduin to commence their plan. Using First Ones Magic, Anduin is teleported to the Maw, replaced by a small army of Elite Mawsworn: too many for us to handle. As we fight, Zovaal's heckles us, laughing as the portal changes, showing us a telescope not dissimilar to Fatescribes, and through that portal, we see Anduin atop Icecrown, and a Mawsworn army pouring through it's gates. Zovaal taunts us.

"Time flows differently in our makers realm - not that they told us, brother. I have learned much of them, much they did not trust us to know".

The Primus immediately realises we've been had: that this is all a ruse. Without us to warn them, allied forces will be taken by surprise, and if we don't leave immediately, there'll be no telling how much destruction we'll find. Realising what's at stake, and victory cannot be found, the Primus immediately jumps to action, sending a small group, including you, to use his key and establish a second secret portal back. A risky gamble, made safe, as he's weaves his magic: the portal will open one way, only once, from Oribos to Zereth Mortis, and only with his essence. Portal established, you sneak back to find the friendly forces almost eliminated. The Primus whispers to Draka, and spending the lastof his essence, he undoes the Domiation Magic holding Zovaal's Mawsworn together. The Primus is dead, but his sacrifice lets us retreat. The Portal is destroyed behind us.

The state of affairs is dire. We have a single one use portal to Zereth Mortis that can only carry a small force, and, right as we return, we find none other than Genn Greymane, baring dark tidings. The state of affairs on Azeroth is bad: Icecrown has fallen, and Northrend won't be far behind. Even worse, the portal he travelled by stops, without warning. Sure, mages created it: but without the Veil between worlds being in our control, they're easily blocked. Yet, we are not doomed. The Primus was a tactical and strategic genius: the only thing he didn't know was the passage of time in Zereth Mortis. His final message to Draka contains all we need. First, we learn of why he wants Azeroth, and what the Death of Argus meant. Second, a request to the Winter Queen: to allow us to travel to Azeroth through Ardenweald. The Veil between worlds is weak at Icecrown, but between The Winter Queen and Elune, they can get us back home via the Emerald Dream.

The plan of team Azeroth is simple: stop the invasion at Icecrown, denying Zovaal a conventional victory. Then, while our forces hold the line, gather ourselves, returning to Oribos, from where our raid will begin. Before I talk about that raid, I must talk about what we'll do first: the content of Northrend.

Northrend Story

With the intro experience complete, we arrive at Northrend via Archerus. This force, led by Bolvar's Ebon Blade, and the Silver Hand - plus Sunwalkers, must retake key locations, and re-establish bases - setting the stage for ongoing world content, and further campaign chapters. Who is with us? Well, Bolvar, the 4 Horsemen. Jaina. Thrall. Talia. Baine. Genn. Our combined forces retake the Argent Tournament grounds, building fresh fortifications around it's perimeter - calling back to Patch 3.1's Argent Tournament construction quests. From there, we take key positions across Icecrown. We know we're going to Zereth Mortis, and that time flows strangely there, so if Northrend isn't bolstered, we may win the raid, but lose the planet while we're gone. Once our base is established, we will do world content across the continent of Northrend, and the new campaign. Campaign first, then I'll talk raid setting and story, then world content, progression, and more!

The New Campaign

Now that we've covered the intro to Zereth Mortis and Northrend, lets talk narrative content. In my head, there is a clear pre raid, post raid split, with raid completion being required for the rest of the story. There is no renown gate here. You'll have a few hours of narrative content from the get go, because damn it: week 1 of a new patch should be EXCITING. Here're a few sample pre-raid Campaign chapters! Baine & the Taunka, because poor Baine has to do something in this expansion! Nazgrim & the Orc counter attack, because dammit, we need some classic sweaty muscle bound orc action that screams Warcraft & metal album, and frankly, I'm aware that classic horde content has been sparse.

Jaina, Kalegos & the resurrection of Galakrond, because Galakrond is spooky - espeically if you listened to our Lorewalking Podcast episode on him - and this'd be a neat way of covering the Day of the Dragon book in game, as well as advancing that story, and us seeing Jaina and her partner work together.

Ideally, there'd be a 4th chapter cleansing Vordrassil with Malfurion and Tyrande: we need more classic Night Elf action.

Then, a very short chapter that leads directly into the raid - which I'm ABOUT to lay out, but first, post raid campaign & endgame!

What about after the raid? Well, narratively, we want more content, and gameplay wise, a reason to continue fighting Mawsworn forces would be neat. The Mawsworn will still be a threat, as they'll be led by a Dreadlord once Zovaal is defeated, and Anduin free'd. Not only does this make continued world content make sense, but it also teases the idea that Denathrius is out there somewhere, and he hasn't went down with the ship.

Post-raid campaign chapters include one directly epiloguing the raid, resolving immediate storylines.

Another sets the groundwork for our exit from the Shadowlands.

Another has us venture into Ulduar.

In another, we venture into the depths of Icecrown with Bolvar, seeing parts of the citadel that were hidden from us all.

There's a few ideas: Patch 9.2.5 which I'll TLDR at the end, is the true epilogue patch. Next, the raid.

Zereth Mortis Raid

The final pre-raid campaign sees the skies of Northrend blaze with light, as an ungodly torrent of dark, twisted Anima rushes to Icecrown Citadel. We don't know what's happened, but we know it is bad, and that if we don't take the fight to Zovaal, he'll simply unmake us.

This is our plan: to strike Torghast, eliminating Zovaal's ability to reinforce Zereth Mortis, and giving us our opening to, through the portal the Primus gave his life for, assault Zereth Mortis, and stop Zovaal. However... no plan survives contact with the enemy.

The combined might of the Covenants once again assault Torghast, giving us our opening. We defeat the first boss: a great First Ones construct guarding the Mawsworn's portal to Zereth Mortis. With it defeated and the portal destroyed, Zovaal temporarily can't summon reinforcements, giving us our opening. Of course, if we used the Mawsworn Portal, we'd go straight into Zovaal's hands, so we instead use the portal set up during the intro experience, travelling to Zereth Mortis. There, we face down Zovaal's closest Mawsworn lieutenants, powerful constructs of the First Ones and Zovaal, or so we think, for it's actually Mal'ganis playing the distraction game, as set up in the 9.1 epilogue. Zovaal, using his new First Ones magic, returns to Torghast, ready to ride the Anima flow down to Azeroth and claim his prize. We're stranded: sure that we've lost, until something is noticed. First One technology responds to you, the player - just as it did with the Oribos Waystone. No 'sigils needed', your connection to Azeroth is enough, and so our party gives chase, passing through a barren, anima-less Maw, to Icecrown Citadel. You see, where he's going, Zovaal won't need the Maw. All the stored anima, all the power, is channeled down into Icecrown, finally allowing Zovaal, after spending time preparing the tech of Zereth Mortis, to get the final thing he needs: the Soul of our world.

Our next boss fight? Anduin Wrynn. Atop Icecrown Citadel, using the Magic that bested Bolvar, and wielding Kingsmourne: the blade likely imbued with Arthas's spirit. As we fight Anduin, the Anima flow ceases. The Maw has been emptied, and in a flash, is fires into the distance. Straight south, and into Gorribal: Sargeras's Sword. While he set the Burning Legion into motion and shaped its direction through the Dreadlords, Zovaal couldn't predict Sargeras's final, spiteful, move - but it was a welcome one. Now reactivated, the Dark Titan's sword beings to weaken Azeroth. With her no longer able to stop his First One magic, Zovaal teleports the Engine of Creation from Zereth Mortis. This ancient machine is to the universe as the World Engine's of Ulduar are to Azeroth. A true instrument of creation, and one that can be twisted: allowing Zovaal to do what he said he would in 9.0: claim the soul of our world.

Right as Anduin is defeated, a big cutscene plays. We see the chaos in Silithus, and, with Mawsworn making air travel impossible, we teleport to Silithus, where our final two boss fights take place. Our penultimate fight is a grand First Ones being - their equivalent of a Titan Keeper like Odyn. The final fight? Zovaal himself. It's an epic multi-stage encounter where, as we fight, Azeroth's life essence is consumed by Zovaal through Gorribal, literally increasing his size. The skies darken. The toll on Azeroth throws the elements off balance. The earth bubbles. Brutal rain batters us while lightning illuminates the battlefield. This fight is a visual feast: less Sylvanas 9.1, and far more Argus 7.3. Before I explain more, a lore note.

Blizzard told us that the Pantheon of Death are just as strong as the Pantheon of Order, if not more. What size was Sargeras at full power? The size of a planet. What size was Aman'thul, at full power - when he ripped Ysharrj from the world? Massive. The size of a planet. Why then, would Zovaal not wield Gorribal, which is canonically one of the most powerful weapons in existence?

As we fight, and as the situation gets more dire, Azeroth whispers to us. A massive moment for the lore. She tells us to hold on, to keep up the fight, and to buy her time. Ushered on by her blessing, our efforts are redoubled. For while the Zovaal is distracted by us, she can work her plan. As the fight progresses, the First Ones tech gets more and more intense. Zovaal gets more and more powerful, and at 5%, it happens. The big cinematic. The Zovaal in front of us disappears as the Engine of Creation roars, and a great shadow falls on Azeroth. Using the technology of creation and Azeroth's essence as fuel, Zovaal remakes himself, taking the same gargantuan form of a Titan - like Sargeras. Victory: or so he thought.

What he didn't account for was our connection to Azeroth. That she could speak to us, and that we gave her the time she'd need to manifest her spirit. In a moment reminiscent to the end of Warcraft 3 Reign of Chaos - amped up to 11 - Azeroth herself destroys Zovaal.

When we come to, Magni has fallen dormant. Azeroth whispers a final message to us, and her spirit dissipates, leaving the skies of our world glowing a brilliant blue yellow. Azeroth is not dead, but between Gorribal and the effort to best Zovaal, her strength is spent. Azeroth spent the last of her consciousness to save us, and it will be some time before we see her again.

Yes, this essentially is a combination of the Warcraft 3 Reign of Chaos ending and the Legion ending, and it does not involve a cliffhanger or clear lead in to the next expansion. Why? Simple: this resolves Zovaals story, keeps player canonical power levels in check via Azeroth's blessing, and puts Cosmic Warcraft back in it's box. Players don't care about Zovaal, but they do care about Azeroth. This raid would take us to cool new locales, old nostalgic ones, and give us heaps of spectacle, pushing the lore forward, while keeping it's scope bounded, for after this, Azeroth is dormant and Zovaal is gone: we're back to the way things were before Shadowlands, but we've met new characters along the way, had quite a bit of shared trauma, and expanded the lore. I see this proposed raid as the final big explosion of our first cosmic arc, with the goal being to juxtapose that with a grounded epilogue and world content, setting the stage for at least 1 classic Warcraft expansion before things inevitably take a cosmic turn once more. With Gorribal also destroyed, and Azerite well and truly dormant, we in many ways set the state of Azeroth back to pre-Legion levels, finally allowing for the breather the story and setting so desperately needs.

That's the raid: let's talk world content.

Northrend Repeatable Content

Each zone is in a state of flux, and there's a key difference in the content. It is event based, not quest based. Events are similar to world quests, but progression in them is shared between all participating players. You'll see it on your map, fly to it, and join the fight, earning a bronze, silver or gold medal for participation. Guild Wars 2 has done much similar to this. Unlike regular quests, where mobs can be competed for and progression is individual, these are all shared - making WoW feel like more of an MMO, and edging us toward the big fun groups of players seen during Legion's pre-patch experience.

Here's what's core: events lead into other events. Defeat a swell of Mawsworn troops assaulting Valgarde, and two new events will spawn - perhaps 1 is to sack a base, and another is to defeat an elite. Once those are done, a further event spawns, as we push the Mawsworn forces back. If players don't help, then events despawn because the Mawsworn have WON. If that happens too much, then you'll have to retake your base - Valgarde, in this example. RNG can then be thrown in - sometimes, if you complete event A, then event B will spawn, but other times, event C may spawn, all to provide variety, and have this feeling of war span more of Northrend's zones.

These will focus on core Horde and Alliance fortifications across the continent, as well as important locations to the original Northrend factions. Why not defend Northrend with the allied Sons of Hodir & Titan-forged, or, after defending Valgarde, end up helping the Taunka lead a final push?

The design goal is to lift the best of FF14 FATES & GW2 events, and bring them a level of Blizzard polish. Look: Blizz did best when it borrowed ideas, and executed them well. This is our bread and butter content. Each zone will have it's own ebb and flow, but it will be done so that there'll ALWAYS be an active zone with events, so that players who wish to grind it out can get in their groove.

With this setup in place, we can do extra things. For example, you could spawn flavourful daily quests after you've liberated an area. Of, when you've defended the area, get a quest to stick it through to the end and complete the final event in the chain. Or... anything else. The goal is to make the world feel less static, so the more flavors the better!

Meanwhile for Icecrown, we'll have similar events: just that they're themed around us attacking! Completing them unlocks a small base, and from there you'll get daily quests to consolidate and reinforce the area. On top of that, you'll have the usual zone objectives, such as rares, and perhaps a spinkling of neat vignettes.

There's the basics: ongoing war in Northrend that doubles down on WoW as an open world MMORPG. Let's talk progression and rewards.

World Content Progression & Rewards

We have two factions: Defenders of Azeroth, and Northrend's Vengence. Hokey names... we'll get better ones later! Defenders of Azeroth is the main faction for character progression. They sell a wide range of catchup gear that comes along with rep gated upgrades that span from a lowish base item level, to just above the first 8 bosses of normal raiding. Unlike in 9.1, the rep gate is less restrictive.

They also sell a set of upgradable heirloom weapons that are designed for power levellers, and have a unique transmog appearance. Your progress with them will also unlock a temporary Argent Tournament Hearthstone, as well as a customisable Steed, where you'll be able to customise your saddle, house colour, horse type, armor colour, armor type, and even put on your guild emblem, or that of any Northrend faction that you're exalted reputation with. Lots of work for a mount, but that's what it takes: machinegunning out recolours doesn't cut it! This isn't a dipping our toes in the water like with the mechanocat: this is far more in depth.

Transmogs are another focus of this content with our second faction, Northrend's Vengeance, being heavily involved. They have ZERO player power attached ot them, and are 100% for optional rewards. They'll have a big weekly quest that'll be filled up by killing Mawsworn Rares, completing events, and so forth. This'll get you a big chunk of weekly rep! Then, if you want to grind, have at it. Events will give you rep. Killing the mobs in events will give you rep. This helps to keep them populated, lets people progress slowly and efficiently, or quickly and with grinding. Fitting with what would go on in the Argent Tournament, you'll get a new base set of transmog armor, and as you rep up, you'll unlock new tints for that armor. The whole goal is to give people new transmog tools! That's the generic set, but the faction is called Northrend's Vengeance, right? They'll also have unique cosmetic rewards representing each of the Northrend factions, from the Dragons to the Sons of Hodir to the Kal'uak. Here's the unique twist. They have 1 rep bar. It is ONLY a Paragon rep: but there's no RNG to them. Your paragon box will contain their currency, as well as a nice chunk of raw gold, and you'll earn boxes faster than you're used to for this rep. Spend that currency as you will on their vendor, unlocking pieces and dyes. Given WoW's technical limitations, this is just unlocking more colour options - like with the Legion Artifact weapons. Lets be real: an artist opening a file, changing the colour, and exporting it, does not take long! Bit wait: a final twist. Weekly boss kills in the raid, PvP wins, and M+ progress will also give you rep.

Player Power Progression

This patch takes a radically different approach to player power by reintroducing Justice Points to the game, extending Valor points to raiding, and bringing back Class Tier sets. For M+ players, things will operate as they have, just that Justice Points can be used to upgrade gear to the item level equivalent of a Normal Raid. VP can purchase M+ upgrades beyond that.

For raiders, a two set of tier gear can be purchased for Valor Points, as well as a selection of gear with item levels between Normal and Heroic, and a few pieces at Heroic.

The Great Vault will be upgraded to provide Valor Points, the cap will be increased to 1000, and you'll earn double Valor on an alt, if your main has capped for the week.

Legendary crafting materials can be purchased for JP, greatly increasing accessibility - which will need to happen, as two legendaries will be equippable per character. That's catchup - new Legendary upgrades can be purchased for a new Torghast currency, however the currency will be weekly capped, and you'll be able to work towards that cap by spending lots of JP, a small amount of VP, with the same for Conq & Honor, or a decent quantity of the new 9.2 World content currency. Why so many ways to get a single weekly capped currency? Simple: we're kinda stuck with Legendaries, but if that is the case, lets just increase the chances of you earning them by doing the content you actually want to do. Conduit Upgrades can be targeted, and high ilvl upgrade items can be purchased with VP & Conq, while catchup Conduit Upgrades can be purchased with JP.

I'll admit that perfect spending of VP will feel strange and a tad complex here, but that's the cost of Shadowlands's systems bloat, and that's bloat we're stuck with.

This patch adds in tier. Nothing else is needed, and your tier set is your tier set. No upgrades. No funny business, like with Corruptions and Domination Shards. Nice and simple.

Soulbinds will not be expanded further, Covenant Renown track has finished.

Dungeons & PvP

I'll keep this brief. If possible, a megadungeon would be great. If possible, a regular dungeon would be great. Hell, Mythic+ Wrath of the Lich King - with the ICC patch dungeons, retooled with Mawsworn that're a homage to the original bosses. There's a few ideas! For PvP, it depends on resources. At a minimum, a big PvP hub within the Argent Tournament, with an area for dueling and a Gurubashi Arena style event. It'd be awesome if we could have a new battleground in Northrend. If so, it'd be themed around a friendly wargame to train our troops.

Stay A While & Listen

Genn, Anduin, Sylvanas.

Bolvar, Talia - Talia will distinguish herself on the field of battle in Northrend.

Baine & Anduin.

9.2.5: Homecoming

Northrend Restoration

A selection of traditional reps themed around helping rebuild Northrend.

Shadowlands

We close the veil between worlds for good. The next time Thrall sees Drakka, he will be dead. The setting simply cannot have free and easy travel to the afterlife. Big character send offs. Tearful departures. Mining all the emotional depth we can, and aiding the Eternals in a reformation of the Shadowlands, for while Zovaal was an irredeemable dickhead, he had a few decent points.

Sylvanas

In going so high level, I've kinda left Sylvanas out. Whoops! She can feature in the Zereth Mortis intro, essentially acting as our informant. We can have her make a decent case that while Zovaal is evil and MUST be stopped, he did have a few decent points that we should think about. This will be important to the expansions resolution!

Another natural place to put her is the Anduin encounter.  Have her somehow follow us, and try to undo the mistake she made. That would show character development for her, and be a victory for the true Anduin. As a final parallel, she'll succumb to the very same magic she used to defeat Bolvar. If we're to keep Sylvanas around, then honestly, I think I would have her go into her own self imposed exile. If she dies, then we'll meet her again in the epilugue, and learn of her new role in the Shadowlands. It'll be a long time before we see her again. Much as some love Sylvanas, I think we know that having her drive multiple expansions in a row isn't ideal.