In WoW, many players are waiting for the big patch 9.1, Chains of Domination. It is supposed to bring a lot of new content – but when is it coming?
Slowly but surely, the starting content of WoW: Shadowlands is completed. The Covenant campaigns have long come to an end, and next week, most players will have reached Glory Level 40, thus hitting the current maximum. Many are eagerly eyeing new content.
However, it will not come with patch 9.0.5, but only with update 9.1, which was presented at BlizzConline – but it will likely take a while before it arrives. We are making a prediction about when the patch might be released and compiling what is already known.
First, patch 9.0.5 must be released: Before patch 9.1 Chains of Domination can even be tested, the work on patch 9.0.5 must be completed first. This should happen in the coming weeks since update 9.0.5 already has a “release candidate” – but so far the servers are still online.
Only when patch 9.0.5 is completely “finished” can patch 9.1 also be deployed on the test servers.
What needs to be tested? Another important point is the scope of patch 9.1. It brings a total of 18 new bosses that all need to be rigorously tested. 8 of these bosses are waiting in the new mega-dungeon Tazavesh and are intended for small groups, only on Mythic difficulty.
However, it is different with the raid “Sanctum of Domination.” There, there are again 10 bosses that need extensive testing. Not just on one difficulty, but across four different ones. After all, there is not only the normal mode but also the LFR, heroic, and mythic variants. Even though the mythic bosses are often tested only in parts or not at all, the tuning for the 10 bosses must be roughly correct across all difficulty levels.
Typically, tests are always targeted and focused on individual bosses and usually last over 2-3 days. For all bosses, one should plan at least a month of testing time on the PTR – probably even longer.
But that’s not all. Patch 9.1 also wants to further develop old systems. All soul binds will receive new rows of abilities, and the glory system is set to be expanded by a whopping 40 levels.
Additionally, flying will be enabled as a feature, and as such, all areas of the Shadowlands must first be explored with flying mounts and checked for issues.
All of this suggests that the next patch will likely remain on the PTR for at least 6 to 8 weeks, and many contents will go through several versions.
Patch 9.1 – Everything we know about the release date
When will patch 9.1 Chains of Domination be released? When you take all these factors into account, you can roughly calculate when the patch will be released. A realistic release date would thus likely be late May, but probably more in June.
However, please note that there is still no official statement from Blizzard on this matter. As soon as there is an official release date for patch 9.1, we will report on it and update this article.
Can you bridge the waiting time until patch 9.1 well? Or are you already getting bored in WoW?
Why patch 9.1, despite all criticism, looks quite good, is explained by Cortyn from MeinMMO here.
