World of Warcraft just announced Embers of Neltharion, its first major patch for Dragonflight, and the third content update for the year. This patch takes players underneath the Dragon Isles to an expansive zone called Zaralek Cavern, which was once used by Neltharion as a base of operations. Now, the Primal Incarnates and their Primalist minions, as well as the renegade Dracthyr Scalecommander Sarkareth and his Sundered Flame, have descended into Zaralek Cavern in the hope to plunder the secrets of the fallen Black Dragon aspect from Aberrus - his ancient laboratory and the second raid in World of Warcraft: Dragonflight.
Game Rant talked with production director Patrick Dawson and lead quest designer Maria Hamilton about the Embers of Neltharion update coming to World of Warcraft. The developers spoke of the environments, activities, and creatures both friendly and fearsome players can expect to encounter in Zaralek Cavern and Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible. They also shared insight into the new quality-of-life updates coming to the game, such as the ability to form cross-faction guilds. The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Q: Zaralek Cavern looks like it has three major biomes to explore. Can you tell us anything else about what players might find in each part of the zone?
Hamilton: So, the lava area - this is where the Djaradin live, but this is a group of Djaradin that have been underground for a very long time, and they’re led by their elders. They are a slightly different sort of Djaradin, but they still don’t like us very much, and they are still really happy to shoot us down off of our Dragonriding mounts should we venture too close to them. That area’s also full of creatures that love lava environments, and are primarily enemies. So, that’s a pretty rough area, it’s pretty tough, one of the more difficult areas we’ve spawned up. A bit more challenging.
In our sulfur area, we’ve got these caustic pools. The reason this place is like that is that this is where all the failed experiments from Aberrus - Neltharion’s lair - have been dumped. It is just a disgusting goop of unpleasantness with horrible, horrible experiments. The creatures there are primarily things that were experimental that have now merged with each other and formed disgusting, nasty creatures, as well as things that thrive in this kind of environment, so there are creatures that like sulfur and sulfurous areas.
In fact, the Niffen, because of their noses and scents, move through the caverns and know where they should go and where they shouldn’t go based on smells, rather than what they can see. That becomes important with some of our questing when you’re dealing with Niffen and their ability to follow scent trails and such.
In the more natural caves, we have rocky cavernous areas with those classic pointed stalactites and stalagmites. Then you also have those crystalline-style ones that are greenish and glowing. In that area, there are a lot of natural creatures that are denizens of the area. The Niffen and Drogbar have made their homes in this area, and they have a tenuous alliance within this space. Also, down toward the end of the cavern where we have the entry to the Aberrus raid, you have a lot of forces vying to get into that area, so that’s a quite difficult area to traverse.
Q: The mole-like Niffen creatures seem like an adorable addition to Dragonflight. What sort of rewards can players expect to earn from their new Renown track in Embers of Neltharion, and what kind of unique activities are they involved in?
Hamilton: One of the things you’ll unlock as an activity through the Renown track is what we’re calling “Sniffen Seeking.” You will make buddies with a Niffen who is a bit of an explorer in his own right. He uses his nose to find interesting scents in the ground, and he will burrow and take you with him to find those interesting places. These are spaces you can’t otherwise access without your Niffen buddy. To him, certain things smell interesting, and perhaps they wouldn’t to you, and similarly, things he thinks are great treasures maybe aren’t to you.
So it’s a bit of exploring with your Niffen buddy, learning a bit more about him, and building up your relationship with that particular Niffen. Learning a little bit about his story and his background, and engaging in Sniffen Seeking, which is one of our fun activities. I’m sure there will be other typical rewards we have for Renown tracks, but I don’t have a lot of specifics yet. They’re still being balanced and worked on and adjusted. But I’m particularly proud of Sniffen Seeking!
Q: How many Renown levels will the Niffen have in comparison to the other factions in Dragonflight?
Dawson: That’s actually something we’re still working on. We will find what the right amount is, and make sure we are pacing those rewards appropriately. It’s going to feel familiar. We have different variant levels of Renown tracks between the existing factions, so this one might be a little different, but the rewards will still come at the same pace. Some may be cosmetics, some may be access to different recipes, or different things like Maria was suggesting with Sniffen Seeking, could unlock different capabilities for that too. It’ll be consistent with our philosophy for Renown.
Q: The Drogbar are also back in Zaralek Cavern, and they have brought their racing snails too. Can you tell us more about them?
Hamilton: We were looking back to when we used Drogbar in the past, and what has been the hallmark of the Drogbar? There’s heavy lifting, which we have that of course, but we also have their love of snail racing! In the past, we were able to bet on the outcome of those races and encourage the snail you prefer to win.
This time around, we’re going to have the opportunity to take on a difficult snail that has been hard to train, that the Drogbar gives us the opportunity to learn how to train, and eventually, this snail can become our mount. Snail mounts are quite slow initially, so you have to teach it how to be a fast snail. We’re also looking at exactly what we want the gameplay to be with the race itself, whether we go with our previous methods to let you bet on races, or actually participate, is something we’re still discussing. Snails are very slow though, so it’s a very slow race either way. We’re still deciding there, but there’s definitely snail racing, there are definitely bunches of cheering Drogbar surrounding snails going around the track.
Q: Some new local stories are also coming with Patch 10.1. Will these all be located in Zaralek Cavern, or will some of them be found in the other zones on the Dragon Isles?
Hamilton: We have a little bit of both. We have some local stories specific to the creatures in Zaralek cavern or groups that have gone down to explore that area, so you may see some familiar faces in those local stories, people who you have met previously who have come down to explore. Drogbar, the Niffen of course, and a few other odds and ends here and there. Actually, in the Dragon Isles, we’ve added some local stories as well. Those are scattered here and there, little stories we wanted to finish up, as well as some stories that technically aren’t part of the campaign arc.
For example, we are going to find out what happened with the Blue Dragonflight. The Blue Dragonflight didn’t really show up for Kalecgos. A few did, but an awful lot of them didn’t. So we’re going to go find out why and continue that story. That was something we wanted to make sure we did, so people understood what was up with them.
Additionally, if you gained the Renown with the Valdrakken Accord, and you played the chapter about Tyr, you know we’ve created a brand-new body for Tyr. He had some sort of failsafe built-in. And now, we’re going to continue that story as well and see if we can do something with Tyr’s body to make a new Tyr or something. So there’s a bit more there, and we have a few little odds and ends, other things as well as part of those local stories.
Dawson: Another thing that happens with Embers of Neltharion in the outdoor world is the release of the other Incarnates, specifically Fyrakk is very interested in exploring more of the secrets that the Dragon Isles hold. He’ll be attacking different parts of it you’ll have to defend. You’ll get to fight some rare creatures and ward him off as he attempts to search.
Q: Can you tell us more about these Fyrakk Assaults? What will they look like, how frequently will they appear, and what sort of rewards can players earn by participating in them?
Hamilton: The Fyrakk assaults are happening because he is looking for something. He’s with allies, and those allies are assisting him. You’ll fight his allies, you’ll fight some bosses of his allies, and he will show up in what will no doubt be nostalgic for some: he will flame the area. If you recall Deathwing, well, Fyrakk is pretty mean too. So we will have that opportunity to experience what happens when a really, really angry dragon flames the place you’re standing.
These outdoor adventures we’re doing do have a new set. They’re thematically black dragonflight sets you can get from various things. We’ll have different colors for different activities. There will be gear, and there will be upgrades – Pat likes to talk about the upgrade system and how that’s going to work because we’ve got a cool new upgrade system. There will be lots of opportunities to gain new gear from these, as well as the ability to upgrade that gear.
Q: The new Dragonriding form, the Winding Slitherdrake, looks really sleek. Can you say how players will unlock this new Dragonriding mount, and how many customization options it will have compared to the other types?
Dawson: You’ll acquire the new form just by doing the campaign of Embers of Neltharion as you explore Zaralek Cavern. After you get the mount, there’s actually a lot of Dragonriding content down there. It’s not just new Dragonriding races which exist in there, but there’s also new glyphs and customizations we’ll be offering as well. But the glyphs are really cool because they allow you to obtain some new abilities.
Even before this content update, in the one that’s just around the corner in Return to the Forbidden Reach, we’re also adding more glyphs there as well, including additional abilities, such as an ability to hit the air brakes and stop in midair, and a second one that allows you to regain vigor whenever you do that at full speed.
In Embers of Neltharion, we’re also adding new Dragonriding abilities too. One allows you to regain vigor at a faster rate when skimming the surface if you maintain your threshold with the surface. For customizations, the ones that are shared, we’re likely going to take the same philosophy of the customizations there, but there will be new customizations unique to this drake as well.
Q: The concept of Dragonriding in the open world zones in Dragonflight makes sense because of how much space there is. How different was it to make an underground zone designed for Dragonriding?
Hamilton: It definitely is different. We’ve got elevation changes for the surface as well as the height of the ceiling. So like in any natural cavern you visit now in the real world, you would find elevation changes. Sometimes it compacts down, and sometimes it widens out. So it’s an engaging opportunity to use your abilities at cool times and do these cool swoopy moves and get between objects and find that great path to get where you’re going.
It’s a very big place – it’s bigger than Zereth Mortis, actually, so it’s quite large in terms of being able to fly from one end of it to the other. That’s actually really fun, being able to adjust for those elevation changes. It doesn’t feel tight or claustrophobic in the way some people think it might when they say underground. While it is underground, it doesn’t feel like a tight space.
There is one exception though; that’s when you fly in. We actually have it so you enter the zone by Dragonriding in – you could walk, but I wouldn’t suggest it, it’s a very long walk. So, you’re going to swoop down into this tunnel that’s been created, and it’s going to have twists and turns and curves and stuff, and you’re going to fly right in. And there’s no load. It’s part of some new tech we developed to allow you to fly right on in. So that’s very cool. That might feel a little constrained and might challenge your skills a little bit, but it’s actually really fun to master just like the races are, where you have those sharp corners and stuff.
When people first started off with Dragonriding, they didn’t feel as skilled. They were maybe running into objects and coming to a dead halt and falling off and so forth. But people are really good now. Some of these people are really, really good. This is a fun obstacle course activity if they want to play that way. Otherwise, you can take the really open, straight route and just fly to where you’re going. I think it’s really fun personally. I enjoy it a lot. I’m not particularly good at the races, but I really like flying in Zaralek Cavern.
Q: Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible looks fascinating. Can you share any information on bosses, mechanics, or other details players will encounter in the upcoming raid?
Dawson: You’re going into Neltharion’s laboratory. You’re going to discover a lot of stuff about what he was up to there, what he was working on. The first boss you’re going to come across is a prototype for his armor plating he developed to protect himself from all damage. So you’re going to get to fight and go up against that and try to disable the prototype version of his armor plating.
That’s just one teaser, I’m not going to go much deeper into that, but this is a very interesting place because I think the story of Neltharion is pretty well-known, but the moment of his corruption and conversion into Deathwing is something that hasn’t really been explored as much as we’re exploring now. So this is a great opportunity for us to tell some story through a raid setting for Embers of Neltharion.
Hamilton: One of the things I’m very excited about – aside from the raid itself, which is super exciting – is that we have an opportunity to go into this place with the Black Dragons. We’re going to go in and see what their reactions are to what Neltharion did. Sabellian and Wrathion are coming from very different places and perspectives, so being able to understand that and their reactions to what they’re seeing I think is a great storytelling opportunity for us. So it’s very exciting for those that are really interested in the lore.
Q: Cross-Faction Guilds are a huge addition coming in Patch 10.1. Can you share details about how they will work, if they will have any restrictions, or what issues you’ve encountered while designing them?
Dawson: Cross-Faction Guilds are something we wanted to feel normal and comfortable, and not something you had to jump through hoops to do or that’s difficult in any way. The whole idea is that as the game has evolved over time, the ability to play with your friends is a thing that has been addressed in different ways, but this is probably one of the more fundamental changes we’re making to that.
We added the ability to do cross-faction instances with your friends before now. This really is the ability to join that organizational group together so you can actually plan events better or just have it feel more normal, have access to guild banks and chat and permissions and all that fun stuff.
We’ve made a lot of progress toward getting this up and working. Any testing people can give us will certainly help because this game was not developed with this in mind, so the challenges we’re experiencing around it are mostly related to edge cases, things you don’t expect. The golden path is working right now. You can invite someone to the guild, give them the right permissions, and they can talk and participate and invite others. That all is working pretty well. Really getting it right, the things I’m worried about are those edge case scenarios we didn’t anticipate that have existed in the game for two decades.
Q: Return to Forbidden Reach is launching on March 21. Is there a projected release date for when players can expect Embers of Neltharion?
Dawson: We usually make an announcement at least two weeks before, especially with a season change. We want to make sure you have the opportunity to tie up anything you’re doing with the season. We aren’t looking to surprise anybody or have it just yanked out from under them.
When you’re looking at the release schedule for the year we shared at the end of last year, we put up that big post that showed our philosophy for our content updates for 2023. We’re committed to doing six content updates for the year. That’s quite a bit to do, but that’s also more frequent too. You’re already seeing with Return to the Forbidden Reach that’s happening only eight weeks after the prior one, which happened only eight weeks after launch!
We’re definitely at a much more rapid pace now, but the idea is that these things need to be released when it is appropriate for the player base. Obviously, some people are still working on their season content whether it be getting the highest PvP rating they want, finishing their Mythic+ dungeons, trying to get Keystone Master, or even all the portals or Keystone Hero if you want to do that. Some people are still working on Ahead of the Curve or Cutting Edge for the raid. We want to give players the opportunity to finish that, so we want to really sit at the right time, and when we decide what that is, we will certainly let the community know.
Hamilton: But we will be on PTR very, very soon.
Dawson: Very soon.
Q: Were there any small Quality-of-Life updates or other changes coming in Embers of Neltharion that you haven’t been able to talk about much yet?
Hamilton: Well, you can move the XP bar now! It’s cool.
Dawson: Yeah, it looks different too. Lots of HUD updates there. I think for me, the big one, as a pretty high-end PvE player, I’m interested in this new unified item upgrade system. We have all these different things right now, whether it’s Storm Essences that let you upgrade gear to a better Item Level, or in Mythic+ you get your Valor and you can upgrade your items to a different tier and whatnot. We want to unify that and have simply one currency instead of multiple ones.
That currency is going to be called Flightstones. You’ll be acquiring Flightstones as you do these PvE activities, whether it be world questing, Mythic+ dungeons, Heroic raiding, whatever it is, you’re going to be acquiring Flightstones, and that is actually what will allow you to upgrade your gear to a higher Item Level.
There’s a second aspect of this, too, which is the Shadowflame Crests. Crests will be obtained through completing harder challenges, so maybe the next tier of Mythic+ or whatnot. You can use these Crests to up the amount you can level your item. The Flightstones are what you use to upgrade the items, but Crests are what will allow you to get to even higher tiers as you complete more challenging things in the game.
Q: Any final thoughts on Embers of Neltharion?
Hamilton: I’m super looking forward to it. I’m a massive altoholic, so for me, this is an opportunity to level the many alts I have in new content which always excites me. I’m hoping to get in there and play around. I’m also super excited about the new Mythic dungeons we’re going to be playing. Some of them I have fond memories of; I can’t wait to get into Freehold. For me, that’s it.
Dawson: There’s something for everybody. Jump in, let’s play! Let’s do it.
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