David’s Thoughts on WoW’s Seeds of Renewal Patch

You know, folks, after how severely I burned out on World of Warcraft thanks largely to my disinterest in its Shadowlands expansion, I’m quite glad that its Dragonflight expansion has been so much of a breath of fresh air for me. However, the time has come to begin preparations to bid farewell to Dragonflight as the next WoW expansion, The War Within, is slated to release sometime this year. Blizzard seems intent on sending Dragonflight off with a bang, as evidenced by everything that will be added in its final major content update.

I’d like to go over all the planned changes and additions that will be coming in Dragonflight’s last major patch and offer my thoughts on this update where I see fit. To begin, World of Warcraft: Dragonflight Patch 10.2.5, officially titled “Seeds of Renewal,” is slated to go live on North American servers sometime on Tuesday, January 16th, 2024. Judging by precedent when it comes to launch days for major patches like this, I wouldn’t be surprised if WoW is down for maintenance for several consecutive hours that day, though I have been pleasantly surprised in that sense before.

The first major part of Patch 10.2.5 takes the form of a new zone adjacent to the Ohn’ahran Plains on the Dragon Isles. This zone is called Bel’ameth, and it will serve as a new home for Night Elves now that the new World Tree, Amirdrassil, has grown strong enough to leave the Emerald Dream and bloom into the physical realm on Azeroth. You might know that Amirdrassil served as the location of Dragonflight’s final raid, known as “Amirdrassil, the Dream’s Hope.”

Following the defeat of that raid’s final boss, the largest threat to Amirdrassil’s ability to flourish in the mortal realm was vanquished, hence the World Tree appearing on Azeroth. In the northwest of Bel’ameth, players will find Arlithrien Lodge. Players who are well versed in the lore of the Night Elves will recognize that as a name that pays homage to the Pools of Arlithrien, which were destroyed along with the vast majority of the rest of previous Night Elven society during the Burning of Teldrassil back in Battle for Azeroth.

The northeastern section of Bel’ameth contains the zone’s harbor that connects to Evenfall Watchtower. Another point of interest at Bel’ameth Harbor is a portal that will take players to the Feathermoon Stronghold in Feralas. The northern portion of Bel’ameth is home to a sanctuary called Twilight Watchtower, which serves as a place for those whom the game calls “the darker members of kaldorei society.” Such as dark rangers, demon hunters, Shen’dralar mages, and death knights to train and socialize with one another.

Personally, I hope this means those members of the kaldorei will no longer be treated as outcasts and that, perhaps, even the whole of the Alliance will be more accepting of them as opposed to just the Night Elves’ own people. Time will tell. Another major aspect of Bel’ameth that has me rather excited is that players will be able to interact with notable figures from Night Elf lore who now call Bel’ameth home, such as Jarod Shadowsong. Since I recently finished the audiobook versions of the War of the Ancients trilogy, I’m looking forward to seeing Commander Shadowsong in-game again.

Moving on, if you’re a fan of the in-game Archaeology secondary profession, then Seeds of Renewal offers what sounds to me like a pretty sizable treat for you. This update introduces an Archaeology event known as the Azerothian Archives, which will encourage players to (literally) dig into the history and lore of the Dragon Isles while earning considerable rewards for doing so. In order to begin making your contributions to the Azerothian Archives, you can head to Valdrakken’s Roasted Ram Inn and grab this event’s introductory quest.

Once you have that quest, you’ll be directed to make your way to Algeth’ar Academy in Thaldraszus to speak to Lead Archivist Eadward Dalyngrygge and his team at Traitor’s Rest. From my understanding, Traitor’s Rest was once the site of a colossal battle between troops led by the former Aspect of the Black Dragonflight, Neltharion (who would later become Deathwing), and many of the cultures who have long called the Dragon Isles their home. In that case, I’m willing to bet there are loads of fascinating things waiting below ground within Traitor’s Rest to be found by enthusiastic and dedicated Archaeologists.

From the sound of things, there will be three NPCs you’ll visit most often as you participate in the Azerothian Archives event: Geo-Archaeologist Roska Rocktooth, Techno-Archaeologist Zenata, and Codicological Archaeologist Nirobin. Roska will give you the means to summon an elemental companion who will follow you around Traitor’s Rest and help you locate and unearth points of archaeological interest. Zenata will equip you with a set of so-called “Technoscryers,” which are fancy goggles that have a different way of helping you discover historically significant items.

Then there’s Nirobin, who can use so-called Relics you’ll find throughout dig sites to create arcane familiars for a specific purpose. These little guys will aid in the collection of relevant information from the sites in which you found any Relics you bring to Nirobin. Provided I’ve correctly understood Blizzard’s explanation, you can follow these arcane familiars once they find some information about dig sites you’ve recently visited, collect said information yourself, and bring your findings back to Nirobin for a weekly quest.

If you want to fly solo as an archaeologist, you’ll find plenty of smaller sites that will let you do just that. Or, if you’d prefer to bring a gaggle of friends along and dig with them, there will be group activities you can join at larger sites. These group activities will reportedly last ten minutes each and feature multi-stage scenarios that might assign groups of players any number of different tasks.

In terms of what rewards you might find while you dig, Blizzard specifically mentions the following: Tomes of Uncommon, Rare, and Epic rarities that will grant you items and reputation once opened; the Clayscale Hornstrider and Explorer’s Stonehide Packbeast mounts; a set of Historian-themed items for transmogrification; a set of Explorer-themed transmog items; and a fairly lengthy list of other possible cosmetic goodies which you can read here if you’re interested. Longtime players might remember that those sets of transmog items (or at least very similar sets) were once offered as rewards obtainable from WoW’s Recruit-a-Friend system.

Personally, I’ve never had much interest in WoW’s Archaeology profession, but I have a sneaking suspicion that this event might be what really ignites my enthusiasm for this particular pastime. If I’m not mistaken, Dwarves have had a racial bonus to their Archaeology skills since Archaeology was introduced in Cataclysm, so I’m rather tempted to log in with one of my Dwarf characters and contribute as much as I can manage to the Azerothian Archives just to see if that racial bonus makes a noticeable difference.

Next up, there’s some news that might cause the ears of all you Worgen players out there to perk up. It seems the King of Gilneas, Genn Greymane, and his family have finalized preparations to wrest control of their homeland from the fanatical Scarlet Crusade, who are known for going to great lengths to exterminate every being they see as an aberration and an affront to the Holy Light. The Scarlet Crusade particularly hates the Forsaken and everyone who suffers from the Worgen curse for that reason.

As a significant sign of what seemed to be the easing tensions between the Alliance and the Horde, even the one-time mortal enemies of Gilneas and its citizens, the Forsaken, have volunteered to lend their aid toward the ultimate goal of the reclamation of Gilneas. The Forsaken have made this offer at the behest of one of their new leaders, Calia Menethil, and her co-leaders in the newly-formed “Desolate Council.” This means that the Gilneas Reclamation story event is open to Alliance and Horde players alike.

Alliance players who wish to participate in this event can speak to King Genn Greymane in Stormwind City, while Horde players can do the same by speaking to Calia Menethil in Silverpine Forest. Since this aspect of the Seeds of Renewal update was first announced, Blizzard has repeatedly dropped the hint that Gilneas “isn’t as empty as expected.” Of course, there’s no word just yet as to what that might mean, but I’m sure we’ll find out exactly what it means as soon as the patch is live.

As far as I can tell at the time of writing, it seems unclear as to whether the Gilneas Reclamation event will be a limited-time affair like the Burning of Teldrassil was back during the early stages of Battle for Azeroth. You might be interested to know Blizzard recently posted a video about the Seeds of Renewal patch to the official World of Warcraft YouTube channel, which I’ve linked below in case you can glean more concrete information from it than I can.

One thing about this event that was clearly stated in that video is that one of the potential rewards players can earn for participating is a mount of some description. However, I’m not currently sure if these mount rewards will be faction-specific as the Teldrassil Hippogryph and Undercity Plaguebat mounts were during the Burning of Teldrassil, but I’m quite interested to find out either way. Regardless, I have every intention of participating in this event on multiple characters so I can see it from the perspective of both factions.

That brings me to one of the two features coming in Seeds of Renewal that has me very excited indeed. Once this patch launches, all players who are between levels 60-70 will be able to play through all eight Normal-difficulty Dragonflight dungeons either on their own or with a small group of friends. This will be made possible with the aid of NPC followers who will accompany you through these dungeons and fill any traditional roles of a dungeon group (i.e. a tank, a healer, and damage dealers) that you might be missing.

Players can queue for these so-called “Follower Dungeons” via the Dungeon Finder interface, as is tradition. Don’t worry, you’ll still get loot and gear appropriate for your level and class specialization from Follower Dungeons as you would from regular dungeons. To quote Blizzard directly, “Your new NPC friends will help buff you and even lay out a mage table for when you get peckish for a bite or two in the dungeon.” This makes it sound to me like a good deal of thought has gone into the AI for these NPCs.

What has me so excited to try out Follower Dungeons, you might ask? Two things. Firstly, since I can experience dungeon content by myself and at my own pace through this feature, I can fill the gaps in my knowledge of Dragonflight’s story without having to come back to these dungeons too far in the future. Secondly, the presence of NPC followers will allow me to try my hand at tanking and healing in dungeon environments without putting the lives (and patience) of other players at risk, which are two things I’ve wanted to feel comfortable doing for years now.

The last thing I want to discuss today is the other of the two aspects of the Seeds of Renewal patch that has me giddy with anticipation. If you’ve played Dragonflight at all since its release, you likely know about the system it introduced as a replacement for standard flying mounts known as Dragonriding. This mechanic allows players to soar through the air at speeds much higher than have ever been possible before, though this comes at the cost of players having to manually control things like the trajectory of their mounts mid-flight.

Throughout the entirety of Dragonflight’s existence so far, Dragonriding has only been allowed within the Dragon Isles outside of limited-time racing events in Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms. However, that changes as soon as Patch 10.2.5 releases: As part of this update, Dragonriding will now be possible anywhere normal flying mounts could previously be ridden. That is to say, you’ll be able to fly your Dragonriding mounts through continents introduced in any past expansion and get to wherever you might need to go much more quickly.

There are a couple of small exceptions to that general rule, though. It sounds to me like you still won’t be able to Dragonride in areas like The Exodar, Silvermoon City, and Argus, because flying on normal mounts has never previously been permitted in these zones. I’m also not currently sure whether players will have to do anything to toggle between using Dragonriding and normal flying mounts, like talking to a special NPC or something. Either way, I can’t wait to see how it feels to fly at breakneck speeds in places other than the Dragon Isles.

On a final note, there are a few things I haven’t mentioned in this article because I don’t think they’re major enough changes to entice me to share my opinions on them. If you want to read every last detail Blizzard has shared about this patch before it goes live, I’d suggest you check out the Seeds of Renewal content roundup article Blizzard posted on the World of Warcraft website. I’ll see you in Azeroth on patch day, folks!