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 Warcrafthas 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 Endpatch 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 theShadowlandsto a conclusion once and for all.
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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 ofthe Sepulcher of the First Ones raid.
Starting the third week after therelease ofEternity’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 inWorld of Warcraftwas introduced in its first expansion,The Burning Crusade. While unlocking flying was originally gated only by a gold tax and level requirements,WoWlater struggled on how to handle flyingin 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 Warcraftmade the flying unlock for otherShadowlandszoneseasy 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 inWoW.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: Shadowlandsis available on PC.Eternity’s Endis currently in development.
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