A Deep Dive Into The First Major Patch for WoW Dragonflight: 10.1 “Embers of Neltharion”

According to the 2023 roadmap for Dragonflight, which you can see in the image above, the patch is going to release a couple of months after the release of 10.0.7, which in turn is set to be released on March 21st. If we take this as a given, then 10.1 is going to release somewhere between late May – early June. If that’s going to be the case, then all WoW fans will be extremely pressured to experience a lot of new content in less time than they’re usually given.

Now let’s go over what that massive content update is going to look like:

• New Zone – Zaralek Cavern can be found beneath the Obsidian Citadel and accessed from Azure Span, Ohn’ahran Plains, and Thaldraszus. Although the zone is located underground, players can still enjoy dragonriding to reach it, which is the most exciting way to get there. Despite being located below ground, the zone is quite expansive. In the Zaralek Cavern, players will encounter new enemies to fight and treasures to discover. The zone is inhabited by two factions, the Niffen and the Drogbar, who players will have the opportunity to meet. Additionally, the new raid that accompanies the WoW 10.1 update is located in the Zaralek Cavern.
• New upgrade system – this new system aims to replace numerous older and outdated systems that were hard to keep track of. It will persist throughout the second season, after which the developers will evaluate the results and make additional improvements where necessary.
• Cross-faction guilds – although World of Warcraft’s foundation lies in the ongoing conflict between the Horde and the Alliance, the storylines of many expansions have seen both factions unite and cooperate towards common goals. Blizzard had already begun to erode the traditional division between the factions by enabling players from both sides to join forces for certain types of group content. Now, the developers are taking this one step further by introducing cross-faction guilds, thereby facilitating even more cooperation and interaction between players of different factions.
• New dragonriding talent – Ground Skimming allows players to fly close to the ground while also replenishing their vigor. Vigor is essential for maintaining altitude while dragonriding, so any new methods of obtaining it are greatly appreciated by players.
• The new raid – Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible,  arrives as part of the second season of Dragonflight. It can be found in the newly added underground zone, the Zaralek Cavern. Unlike in previous expansions where raid difficulties were being unlocked one after another, Aberrus, the Shadow Crucible will be available in all 3 difficulties at the same time. This was first done with the Vault of the Incarnates. The community liked the availability of all difficulty levels, so Blizzard decided to do the same with the upcoming raid as well.
• Professions-related changes such as new reagents, new recipes, etc.
• Season 2 Mythic+ will introduce several new dungeons to the pool. As in the previous season, there will be a total of eight dungeons available: four from the current Dragonflight expansion and four from previous expansions.