Just ten days after the release of the long-awaited Guardians of the Dream update (which added the Emerald Dream zone, the Amirdrassil raid, and a new season to the MMORPG), World of Warcraft fans were treated to a preview of the next major patch.
Blizzard revealed that it will be called Seeds of Renewal. While there is no release window yet, the developer outlined several major additions, chiefly the availability of follower AI to fill in missing characters during Normal dungeons. From the PTR notes:
- Follower Dungeons are available for all 8 of the original Dragonflight dungeons on Normal difficulty. Queue solo or partner up with up to four players in your party and queue into any follower dungeon. Once entering the dungeon, a follower NPC will join your party and fill any role that wasn’t filled by one of your pre-existing party members.
- Rewards given will be the same to that of running Normal dungeons with a full party of players.
This is a significant change for World of Warcraft, especially for those players who aren’t in a guild or don’t have many active friends and would still like to complete the dungeon content.
Seeds of Renewal is also poised to offer other new features. For example, Dragonriding will be extended from just Dragonflight zones to the entirety of Azeroth (where flying is available), though Dragonriding mounts will be a bit slower (80% of normal speed) outside of the Dragonflight zones to avoid trivializing travel times.
World of Warcraft players will finally be able to help King Genn Greymane reclaim Gilneas, the long-lost human kingdom located in Lordaeron. New solo and group activities will be added to Traitor’s Rest with a Weekly Public Event, offering players the chance to discover the history of the Dragon Isles and earn rewards like Battle Pets, Mounts, and a Transmog set. Last but not least, there are five new hair colors for Troll characters, one new hair style for Draenei, and new customization options for the Warlock’s Tyrant and Darkglare demons.
The World of Warcraft community has found renewed vigor after BlizzCon 2023, where the returning Executive Creative Director Chris Metzen took the stage to unveil the Worldsoul Saga that will span three expansions.
At BlizzCon 2023, we interviewed developers from both modern WoW and classic WoW to dive into what’s coming for the two versions of the MMORPG. Meanwhile, Blizzard is apparently still evaluating whether to bring the game to consoles, especially now that it is part of Microsoft.
