The long-awaited patch 9.1 for World of Warcraft Shadowlands is finally on its way next week! We had the opportunity to join an interview session with Johnny Cash (Lead Quest Designer) and Frank Kowalkowski (Technical Director). There, we got to dig into some of the finer details in the upcoming patch, and especially on the new and exciting raid, Sanctum of Domination – where we finally get to face off against Sylvanas Windrunner.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands Patch 9.1 Features
The new features in the latest patch coming to Shadowlands include the following:
- New Zone: Kothria—The new zone of Kothria will have new quests for players, and many new places to explore. As for the story the new zone has appeared because the primary antagonist of Shadowlands, the Jailer, pulled the zone into his domain, the Maw.
- New Raid: Sanctum of Domination— The new raid for Shadowlands will be Sanctum of Domination, featuring 10 raid bosses leading up to a fight against Sylvanas Windrunner, a long awaited confrontation players have been waiting for.
- New Mega-Dungeon: Tazavesh, The Veiled Market— Tazavesh the new mega dungeon, following a similar format from the Operation: Mechagon mega dungeon in Battle for Azeroth. It is a heist involving powerful artifacts from Azeroth. The mega-dungeon is designed around being an exotic bazaar.
- Shadowlands Flying— Players will be able to fly around Shadowlands’ covenant zones (Bastion, Maldraxxus, Ardenweald, and Revendreth) in the new update. Players can easily unlock flying by simply playing through the campaign of their covenant, there will be no pathfinding this time around.
- Mythic+ Dungeons Season 2 – Mythic Dungeons will be kicking off the second season of one of the favorite aspects of many players in end game, brining with it a new scoring system and new Keystone Affix: Tormented.
The Stage Is Set
The seven-month wait between the release of the Shadowlands expansion and the launch of Patch 9.1 is the longest that players have ever had to wait for an expansion’s first update. This means players have been waiting eagerly to take their chance at a new raid, and new content.
With this patch, players are finally going to go head-to-head with one of the most iconic characters, Sylvanas Windrunner. Over the years, we’ve seen various iterations of Sylvanas and her involvement within the Warcraft Universe. From the founder and leader of the Forsaken, to the leader and war chief of the Horde, and lately someone working with the main protagonist “The Jailer”. She’s made the player base feel many different ways emotionally throughout the game’s history, and now we finally get a chance to confront her in the new raid the Sanctum of Domination.
This will be located in The Maw, beyond the labyrinthine halls of Torghast. The Raid will consist of 10 bosses, with familiar faces such as Kel’Thuzad. During the interview the devs mentioned that the team as a whole really enjoyed the planning and execution of the raid. They also felt very strongly toward Sylvanas and said they were really excited for the players to experience the raid. With the recent success of Castle of Nathria and overall positive feedback the community gave, they wanted to expand on that and bring an even better experience this time around for the new raid. The raid unlock schedule will be as follows:
- July 6 – Normal and Heroic
- July 13 – Mythic and Raid Finder wing 1 (The Tarragrue, The Eye of the Jailer, The Nine)
- July 27 – Raid Finder wing 2 (Soulrender Dormazain, Remnant of Ner’zhul, and Painsmith Raznal)
- August 10 – Raid Finder wing 3 (Guardian of the First Ones, Fatescribe Roh-Kalo, and Kel’Thuzad)
- August 24 – Raid Finder wing 4 (Sylvanas Windrunner)
Players can look forward to new achievements, mounts, items, and other collectibles centered around the raid. Patch 9.1 is set to be released on June 29, 2021.