Moving Around Undermine
- No Flying in Undermine.
Undermine Story
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One of the biggest goals with Goblins in Undermine(d) and even in The War Within, in general, was to move beyond the whimsy and explosions, “what makes them relatable?”
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The more frequent appearances of Goblins in Patch 11.0 were intended to create familiarity; otherwise, it could’ve felt that Undermine came out of nowhere.
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The voice-overs for the Undermine are amazing, and the team is very excited about what is being done there. If you like Cinderbrew Meadery’s voice-over, you’ll love Undermine.
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The Cartels in Undermine will be akin to the Pacts from Azj-Kahet, not like Covenants from Shadowlands. There is no player power associated with the Cartels.
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Every week, you’ll be able to pick a Cartel to complete activities for, plus other scattered activities around the zone that will always give a reputation with a specific Cartel.
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Similar to Azj-Kahet, a “zone reputation” with Undermine will progress as you aid the Cartels.
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“I’d like to apologize collectively to everyone for the Shadowlands PTSD [about Covenants]. The WoW community at this point is like the butterfly meme ‘Is this Covenants?’” - Ion Hazzikostas
Moving Around Undermine
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No Flying in Undermine.
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D.R.I.V.E. is 3 to 5 times faster than your ground mount at base top speed. Plus another 10% faster when driving skills and boosts.
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Undermine is a dense urban space unsuitable for skydiving.
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D.R.I.V.E. takes a lot of the lessons learned from Skyriding and builds upon them, adding more dynamic mechanics to riding.
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You can still use your regular ground mount if you don’t want to use D.R.I.V.E. in Undermine.
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D.R.I.V.E. won’t be used as part of a boss mechanic in either Dungeon or Raid in Undermine. But could be used later on once the system has matured.
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Your reputation with the Cartels from Vanilla won’t influence your starting standing with them.
Delves in Undermine(d)
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The “new Zek’vir” delve isn’t one of the two new ones coming with Undermine. So it is actually three new delves, two regular ones and one ‘challenge’ delve.
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Patch 11.1 will also bring new goblin-themed storylines to some of the 11.0 delves.
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The idea of Seasonal companions for Delves was scrapped in favor of continuing to progress with Brann.
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The catalyst for this decision was the notion that it would feel bad to lose the power and perks you’ve acquired for Brann already at the start of Season 2.
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You’ll be able to spec Brann as Tank in Season 2
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Midnight will offer a new delve companion that isn’t Brann
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There will be narrative differences with Brann in Season 2, but no spoilers right now
Liberation of Undermine Raid
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The team is not forcing themselves to smaller raids of 8-10 bosses, but the raid size seems appropriate to the current raiding scenario. With most guilds running a reduced raiding schedule of single-digit raid hours, a long raid with 12, 13, or 14 bosses almost forces guilds to extend in order to progress.
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Blizzard would like to, in the future, experiment more with Onyxia or Gruul’s Lair-style of raids. Nothing to announce for Undermine(d), but it is on their radar.
Dungeons
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Mega-dungeons aren’t off the table for the future of The War Within
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Blizzard decided to make a regular dungeon for 11.1 because it was starting to feel too formulaic, with patch x.1 always adding a mega-dungeon.
Goblin Goals with Undermine(d)
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The goal with Undermine(d) was to make Goblins feel more than just wacky and explosions. To show that they, like all other races of Azeroth, also have their struggles, their heroes, and their culture.
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The goal isn’t to erase anything. If people connect with the explosions, that’s awesome, and it will still be there. The idea is to expand upon the already-built lore and add more.
