World of Warcraft gave players the first details for its next major patch, 9.2, which will be the final part of the Shadowlands expansion. Eternity’s End is the patch’s official name.
Most World of Warcraft expansions have three major updates, but it’s not unprecedented for one of them to only have two big patches. That was the case for the fifth expansion, Warlords of Draenor, which had a mild reception from fans. Shadowlands, the eight expansion, has received a similarly tepid response, plus the pandemic has slowed down development on the MMO. Shadowlands launched on November 23, 2020. At this point in an expansion’s life, we’re typically revving up for the third big patch, not the second.
Of course, Blizzard also faces ongoing investigations into toxic workplace practices. That and general player dissatisfaction have turned many off from the game. Blizzard has been trying to bring players back by introducing features that the community has been requesting for years. This started with the recent 9.1.5 patch.
Now 9.2 is continuing that trend by bringing back class tier sets. For most of WoW, the game would regularly release sets of armor tailored to each of the game’s combat classes. Starting with Shadowlands’s predecessor, Battle for Azeroth, Blizzard stopped this and instead made fewer armor sets shared across multiple classes. This was an unpopular move among the community, and now 9.2 is undoing it.
Earlier this month, I interviewed World of Warcraft director Ion Hazzikostas, and he indicated that even more big changes could be coming to WoW in the future, including cross-faction raiding. At that time, he wouldn’t comment on if 9.2 would be Shadowland’s final patch. Now we know that this is the case.
Eternity’s End is also adding a new zone, Zereth Mortis, the birthplace of all afterlives, and a new raid, Sepulcher of the First Ones, which will have players take on Shadowland’s big villain, the Jailer.