In MMORPGs, unlocking the ability to fly in new zones is often as liberating as it is tedious. According to a new achievement discovered in a 9.2 Public Test Realm build, World of Warcraft has taken the hint, simplifying the flying unlock for its new zone in comparison to the former, brutal requirements in past areas.
World of Warcraft's Eternity’s End patch will take players to the heart of creation within the First Ones realm of Zerith Mortis. There, they will confront the Anduin and the Jailer with the help of Uther, Sylvanas, Jaina, and others as they bring the saga of the Shadowlands to a conclusion once and for all.
Flying in Zerith Mortis is easy, especially when compared to the unlock requirements in previous expansions. The meta-achievement, “Unlocking the Secrets,” requires six achievements to complete, but each with relatively simple prerequisites, with only the final one being time-gated by the progression of the Sepulcher of the First Ones raid.
- Explore Zerith Mortis: Reveal all areas on the map.
- Curious Collections: Loot 5 unique hidden treasures.
- Path to Enlightenment: Complete all 3 side questlines.
- Tales of the Exile: Loot the pages of “Firim in Exile” across the zone.
- Adventures in Zerith Mortis: Defeat 10 unique rare encounters.
- A Means to an End: Complete the Eternity's End campaign.
Starting the third week after the release of Eternity’s End, when the final chapter of the 9.2 campaign is released, players will be able to fly in Zerith Mortis on all of their characters after completing these simple objectives.
Flying in World of Warcraft was introduced in its first expansion, The Burning Crusade. While unlocking flying was originally gated only by a gold tax and level requirements, WoW later struggled on how to handle flying in the zones of its later expansions, and eventually settled on grueling Pathfinder achievements that required intensive amounts of grinding and exploration.
Players breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing how easy it would be to fly in Zerith Mortis. The tedious reputation grinds and rare spawn farming of the Pathfinder achievement were anything but popular, and with flying still unavailable in the Maw and Korthia zones, many feared they wouldn’t be able to fly in Zerith Mortis at all. World of Warcraft made the flying unlock for other Shadowlands zones easy in 9.1, and many are relieved it continued this pattern in 9.2.
For many, however, a simple flying unlock will not be enough to entice them back for 9.2. Blizzard has lost a lot of faith from its players between corruption in its leadership and unpopular narrative and mechanical decisions in WoW. Blizzard has made its commitment towards re-earning that trust, however, and the new trend of simple flight unlocks seems to be a good step towards doing so, at least as far as gameplay mechanics are concerned.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is available on PC. Eternity's End is currently in development.
Source: Wowhead