Today marks the last major update for World of Warcraft's latest expansion, Shadowlands. Patch 9.2 is called Eternity's End and adds a whole bunch of stuff that I don't quite understand as an outsider, and other stuff that I do. The biggest add is definitely 9.2's brand new zone, Zereth Mortis, which is home to a new faction called The Enlightened.
Zereth Mortis looks like a pretty happening spot, though a few new mechanics catch my eye. Eternity's End also adds the Afterlives Forge, a "powerful instrument of creation" left behind by WoW's progenitor species that allows players to craft their own mounts and battle pets. Forgive me if this is actually a very small deal in the WoW community, but making my own robo horse just sounds like a blast.
Another Zereth Mortis activity will apparently involve learning a new language. The automatons (called automa) in Zereth Mortis speak a "musical language that is incomprehensible to mortal races." Players can team up with an automa sidekick to slowly learn their language and unlock new daily quests, events, and zone activities. I would hope this means my character can literally belt soothing tunes while having a normal conversation, but I don't think that's how WoW works.
And don't think you would get a shiny new WoW patch without a raid to go along with it. A raid called Sepulcher of the Great Ones is on the way, releasing first for Normal and Heroic difficulties on March 1 with Mythic and Raid Finder difficulties to follow on March 8.
WoW's Darkmoon Faire makes its return in March with a new attraction that has gotten me closer to installing WoW than anything else in this update: the Darkmoon Dance Competition. "Put on your dancing shoes and head to the dance party to compete head-to-head against a rival dancer," the patch notes read. "Watch them carefully as they perform a series of stylish moves then try to match their routine without tripping over your feet."
Here are some other Eternity's End highlights if you don't have time to read the massive patch notes:
- New Brawl mode: Solo Shuffle
- New Arena map: Maldraxxus Coliseum
- Shadowlands Season 3 seasonal rewards
- A boatload of class balancing changes
By the sound of it, this is pretty much a wrap on Shadowlands updates until Blizzard is ready to talk about what's next for WoW. In pre-pandemic times, we'd usually already know about the next big expansion, but presuming there will be one, the wait is probably going to be longer this time around. Considering WoW and every other Blizzard game will soon fly under the banner of Microsoft, this time next year we could be talking about WoW and all of its expansions coming to Game Pass.
