Shadowlands will receive another season, although no patch is planned. What does this mean for World of Warcraft? Is this good?
Actually, the big reveal of World of Warcraft and its next expansion is still a few weeks away, but Blizzard has already presented players with some changes to bridge the waiting time. Especially fans of instanced endgame content should be pleased: There will be a Season 4 in Shadowlands.
With Season 4, Blizzard will initiate several experiments. Not only will the “Mythic+” pool be significantly modified, but the Shadowlands raids will also be revamped.
What happened? Blizzard has unexpectedly announced another season for Shadowlands, which will take place after the current third season. While there won’t be any new major content patch for Shadowlands, patch 9.2.5 will likely bring numerous small adjustments, ensuring that at least raid and dungeon fans will have something to look forward to.
What will happen to the raids? The developers plan to make all Shadowlands raids relevant for Season 4. This means there will be boss fights in the raids Castle Nathria, Sanctum of Domination, and Mausoleum of the First that will still be quite challenging with current gear. Along with this, loot will be available that exceeds the item level of the current Mausoleum of the First.
In other words: In Season 4 you can obtain good loot in all Shadowlands raids that strengthens your character.
Will the raids be harder? Yes. To ensure that the raids drop better loot, the difficulty level will also be increased. This is expected to function through a “thematically tied to the Progenitor affix system.” It seems that Nathria, the Sanctum, and the Mausoleum will have additional affixes in Season 4 that will make boss fights particularly tricky and add a new twist. It is also quite likely that the general strength of the bosses will be appropriately increased.
Which affixes will be available, whether there will be multiple of them, and if they will rotate in some way – that is all still unknown.
What does Blizzard hope to achieve? Probably several things. On one hand, this is comparatively easier content to bridge the gap until the next expansion and to offer at least a part of the player base something fresh.
On the other hand, it is simply an experiment – as Blizzard itself states. They want to find out how a season in World of Warcraft can look and what changes can be made to keep the content challenging and appealing.
In doing so, Blizzard is also responding to a significant criticism from recent years. Developers have repeatedly been accused – with some justification – of devaluing old content too quickly and rendering it essentially irrelevant once a new patch is released. While this is part of the nature of an MMORPG like WoW, a revitalized final season at the end of an expansion could bring a breath of fresh air.
What do you think of this idea of a “final season” in which all raids of the current expansion are made relevant again for one last hurrah? Is this a good way to refresh the content and give all players a final look back at the expansion? Or is this just reheated content that you have long been tired of?
Let us know in the comments!
