New Raid Layout
There were a few reasons for splitting the raid up into multiple tiers. Part of it was the story, with the Voidspire leading into new campaign quests taking us into March on Quel'Danas.
The other reason was just novelty. The past several raid tiers have been large epic areas full of bosses, but it doesn't always have to be that way. Changing their approach and splitting the raids up also affects player psychology, and so they're interested to see how players engage with them.
Introducing a new mini-raid during the midpoint of both the first and second seasons also gives players the opportunity to face another challenge after their initial progress may be over, though they're not intended to be insanely difficult on the level of Uu'nat in Crucible of Storms.
Mythic+ Philosophy
When they started, Blizzard was just building dungeons based on the principles of what makes a good dungeon, which Mythic+ got layered over top of. Over time, both the casual and competitive Mythic+ community has influenced that design, largely for the better.
The level of detail perceived by players tends to get higher with each expansion, which puts a burden on the developers to ensure that new mechanics are managed well. It's a really big game though, so ensuring that detail work is done properly is very challenging, but one that they're up for.
For the most part, good dungeon design does translate well into Mythic+, and it's philosophically about shifting places where they want challenge to exist on trash or on bosses into big moments that are visually clear in the world, as opposed to something that's just a math scaler which eventually blows players out.
They're also looking for opportunities to have variety between dungeons, while still maintaining a parity between time spent in each. All eight dungeons in a given season ought to feel like things players want to engage in. 30 minutes feels about the right amount of time to ask players to stay switched on.
The new low level Mythic+ affix is designed to be sort of a "racing line" for newer players, especially those still dipping their toes into tanking. It isn't really meant to be optimal, so much as express the general direction and cadence of the dungeon.
They certainly want a lot of agency for players in Mythic+, but they don't always enjoy the idea of players only ever engaging in a third of the content, so they'll sometimes put their finger on the scale by making some creatures more valuable or others actually mandatory to engage with.
The design space of affixes right now feels very clean. There's a lot of gradual experimentation, and they can't be super specific at the moment, but they like that the current style of affixes feels very easy to read for players just getting into Mythic+.
Before being formally titled, Labyrinths were internally referred to as giga-delves, and they fill some of the same design space as Mega-dungeons have in the past.
Mega-dungeons are awesome ways to explore big iconic areas like Tazavesh or Karazhan, and although Labyrinths fulfill some of the same feeling of a big explorable space to get lost in, it doesn't mean mega-dungeons won't come back in the future.
It's a little early to get into Labyrinth rewards, but they're closely related to Delves, so you will see cosmetics and some power rewards coming from them.
Mythic+ Rewards
Rewards changed around a few times during the beta, initially offering increased rewards at higher Mythic+ levels, but they ultimately decided to revert them, as Mythic+ has not fundamentally changed enough to warrant a new rewards structure.
Crests were also iterated on, and they have been simplified greatly since Dragonflight and The War Within. At one point they experimented with incrementing costs, but it ultimately felt too mathy, so it was streamlined back to a consistent cost.
Players have already gotten some hints as to how they'll be able to make their gear more powerful in Midnight, using the Void Forge. They'll work on it alongside a fun dominaar character called Decimus, who has a complicated relationship with Xal'atath. More details will come around the 12.0.5 timeframe.
Generally speaking, they want to keep giving players goals throughout the season. It should be possible to get best-in-slot gear, but there should continue to be small sub-goals along the way. Turbo Boost has been a pretty good way to ensure that players can continue to optimize throughout the season.
Addons Changing Encounter Design
When players know the fight timings, they know what assignments will be coming, and they can put markers on the ground, a lot of decisions can be made without players having input, minimizing the role of the shot caller or raid leader. That automation space in particular is what they've tried to target with the addon changes.
There is a mechanic during the final boss on March of Quel'Danas that they don't think they could have made as satisfying with computational addons solving it for players. The way they're able to make the mechanic easier for lower difficulties and harder for higher ones wouldn't have worked because of the number of elements and way they're adjusted in each difficulty would still boil down to the addon telling each players where to go, taking out any sense of coordination.
Now that coordination is playing a higher role, it means they can tune back other elements of the fight during that mechanic, to help focus on it. There are still going to be a lot of other opportunities to shoot bullets and put swirls under your feet to create that frenetic feeling, but it shouldn't need it to happen as constantly anymore.
The first boss of Voidspire also has a similarity to this in requiring the raid group to play tic-tac-toe. It may be the easiest game in the world, but doing it in the middle of a raid still requires players to coordinate with each other. Players still have a variety of tools to do this, from voice comms, to world markers, or the ping system, but it still requires some kind of coordination rather than just being solved with an addon.
While some players will undoubtedly find creative solutions, it's a big priority and commitment for the developers to ensure that these mechanics are still approachable for players who don't use addons.
Class mechanics are another area where they want to ensure the game is approachable even for players who don't use addons. The cooldown manager is part of that, but so is just streamlining certain class mechanics that players can't reasonably keep track of without complex solutions.
Assessing future addon changes will be done on a case-by-case basis. The ultimate goal is to create a level playing field, ensuring one player doesn't have an express advantage over another due to a particular combat-solving addon.
Not Your Grandma's World Quests
The Legion Remix Heroic world tier worked out really well and it was interesting to see how players navigated its challenges. One of the great things about a temporary self-contained system like Remix is that they can try new things to see how they might work out in the main game.
Prey sort of scratches those itches, and its also just a cool concept entrenched in the fantasy of Midnight, working alongside the Blood Elves to hunt bad guys down while they're simultaneously hunting you. Especially as you get into Nightmare difficulty, the gameplay gets much more chaotic - it's not your grandparents world quests!
Biggest Surprises of Midnight
The last boss of Quel'Danas will have some moments, even aside from the previously described mechanics, that are very visually satisfying and the pinnacle of their recent VFX work, even coming on the heels of Dimensius.
The final encounter in the Voidspire is also a huge spectacle with really fun mechanics. It's also narratively loadbearing, with a bunch of max level campaign predicated on the events that happen in and after that fight. They can't wait for players to see what comes next!
