As foretold by yesterday's leak, Blizzard has revealed details of the first major content update for World of Warcraft: Shadowlands in its Blizzconline streaming event. The patch is called Chains of Domination and will focus on a drive deeper into the Maw, the terrible domain of the Jailer, the mysterious bad guy disrupting the balance of the Shadowlands – Warcraft's afterlife – and threatening an invasion of all reality with the help of disgraced Horde warchief Sylvanas.
I had a chance to chat to game director Ion Hazzikostas and art director Ely Cannon about Chains of Domination earlier this week. Characterising the thrust of the update, Hazzikostas said: "Now we are beginning a full frontal assault, returning to the Maw, not trying to hide but letting the Jailer know that we're here… In the process, we're going to explore a range of epic environments that are unlike anything we've seen or done before in World of Warcraft – and learn much more about the nature of death, the nature of the Jailer and the foe that awaits us."
The Maw has so far been a different, tougher kind of adventuring zone for WOW players: you can't summon your mount there, you need to avoid the Eye of the Jailer (a kind of alert or 'wanted' system) and you drop currency when you die. But the new Maw area added in the patch – Korthia, the City of Secrets – will be, it seems, more relaxed, "blending some of those elements and some of the thematic elements of the Maw with the traditional outdoor gameplay that we have built up over the years," Hazzikostas said.
