What we’ve seen from WoW: Dragonflight so far has looked decent across the board. The level areas looked finished, the caller works flawlessly apart from the balancing and the remaining classes are gradually being equipped with the new talent trees. There wasn’t much to see about the endgame on the Dragon Islands. While we already know there will be eight dungeons, at least four of which will be in the Mythic Plus system. Some of them are already playable – but only in one level of difficulty. In addition, there is the traditional entry raid of the expansion. In the case of Dragonflight, it will be the Vault of Incarnation with eight bosses.
But what will the rest of the endgame look like? As is well known, there should be no borrowed power and any grind systems. And as positive as this has been received, developers will be wary of breaking that promise. In interviews with Toweliee and MrGm, two well-known streamers, Game Director Ion Hazzikostas raised the issue. He not only revealed that the design of the endgame would be based on Zereth Mortis, but also that each of the areas would offer roughly the same amount of endgame. That’s an announcement. An exaggerated announcement?
Showcase zone Zereth Mortis
Of course, Zereth Mortis also had some issues and certainly wasn’t perfect. For many players, however, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Therefore, the workshop of the first is not only the forge for the prototypes of the first, but also the prototype of the modern WoW area. Lots of different content aimed at different types of players and almost all of it was optional.
In Zereth Mortis not only did the campaign continue, but there was also a lot of content apart from it.
Source: buffed
Who is in WoW (buy now ) only interested in one area of content (e.g. raids or PvP) can completely ignore the majority of the remaining content without falling behind in “their area” in a relevant way. Resources came from a variety of sources, and even hunters and gatherers had a lot to get – from rare enemies and treasure to protoform synthesis, where you could craft mounts and pets. The upgrading of Pocopoc and the complete cipher system also had many fans and brought with it a lot of content.
So far, there hasn’t been much endgame content on the Dragon Islands.
Source: Blizzard
4 times as much endgame content?
In short: Zereth Mortis had quite a lot of endgame content to offer. At least more than most other areas. According to Hazzikostas, this system should not only be continued in WoW: Dragonflight, but also expanded. The four zones of the Dragon Islands should “feel like four individual Zereth Mortis’ in terms of their scope and the planned activities” – according to Ion Hazzikostas. However, an endgame feature should not simply be stretched to all zones. Each zone is designed to focus on different things related to that area.
So far, there hasn’t been much endgame content on the Dragon Islands.
Source: Blizzard
As an example of such endgame content, Hazzikostas cited the dragon riding circuits. These should exist and be the focus in some zones, but should not play a major role or not exist at all in other areas. That actually sounds pretty good so far.
I don’t trust the roast
However, I fear that the good Ion shot a little (very far) over the mark here with his statement. It was clear to everyone that the new areas will also bring endgame content. But if these really have the scope of Zereth Mortis, and four times in different ways, then that would be extremely large.
As a reminder, until now, the areas that came into play at the start of an expansion were usually primarily for leveling. Occasionally there would be a few endgame quest lines or maybe minor events. Add the world quests and that’s it. It would be a huge leap from that content to a Zereth Mortis. So big that I can’t imagine the developers pointing it out proudly umpteen times and taking credit for it.
So far, there hasn’t been much endgame content on the Dragon Islands.
Source: Blizzard
Quite apart from dragon riding, there is not a single feature in sight in the alpha that could even remotely play this role. So we’re still a long way from four times the amount of a Zereth Mortis. In that case, wouldn’t it be high time to test such features as well, or at least to announce them?
Lots of optional things will do just fine
By the way, that doesn’t mean that I would find it bad if Hazzikostas’ announcement turned out to be an exaggeration. Hardly any WoW player needs so much different content at once. In my opinion, it is enough if you add a few optional endgame features apart from the usual content (raids, dungeons, PvP, world quests, etc.).
Dragon riding and customizable dragons and their races are a good example of this. Fun, not too complex and totally optional. If the developers would integrate a few more features of a similar quality into WoW: Dragonflight, that would be completely sufficient. Because we mustn’t forget: With the upcoming expansion, we’re getting a lot of other new content that demands our attention. If more such features then come in the further patches, that would be a great thing. Especially since the developers have announced that updates in Dragonflight will come faster, but in return they should be smaller.
How do you think about that? Would it really be desirable if each of the four Dragonflight areas offered as much endgame content as Zereth Mortis? Or wouldn’t that be overkill, because then there’s far too much to do – even if everything is still supposed to be optional? Let us know how you feel about it in the comments.
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