Hey folks, with the 11.1 PTR cycle going strong, we wanted to shed some light on a new feature that’ll be coming alongside the new raid, Liberation of Undermine. 11.1 will feature a new Raid-Only Renown Track aimed at providing a host of power increases over time, as well as some cosmetic rewards and improving the quality of life for raiders. This Renown is earned exclusively through completing the raid, and is a pretty big experiment on our end, so let’s talk a bit about how we got here, why we’re trying it, and what it actually entails.
Raiders in The War Within will be at least somewhat familiar with Nerub’ar Finery, a currency collected from defeating bosses within Nerub’ar palace that can be turned in to gain a stacking warbound damage and healing increase. While we believed in our reasons to tackling this - namely to allow for players to more easily meet their seasonal goals as time went on, as well as providing some extra value for those who enjoy raiding long-term but may want to try it on a variety of characters - we knew the implementation relying on currencies and quests wouldn’t be perfect. In hindsight, it was a lot less perfect than we’d accounted for - with Warbands being such a new feature, there were some pitfalls that led to bugs, and an overall confusion about how much finery one should have, how you are relative to intended seasonal progress, and so on.
Despite this, we felt the reception to its inclusion was positive and that it was adequately performing its purpose - players gained power over time, allowing them to topple roadblocks that might have kept them stuck for long periods in previous seasons, and the cadence was quick enough that players felt motivated to continue clearing to see that progress play out. So when looking at how to iterate and improve based on feedback, we felt we needed something visible and already familiar to players that’s also understood as a Warband feature - and through that lens, Renown felt like the obvious next step as a possible forever home for this type of feature.
Enter the Gallagio Loyalty Rewards Club. This 20-Step Renown track aims to combine the aforementioned scaling raid buff alongside some staple comforts like Raid Skips and introduce some newer ones to see what works and what doesn’t. In an ideal world, Raid Renown should achieve the following goals:
- Supplement the storytelling and setting of the raid to improve immersion and flavor
- Easily communicate and telegraph what your efforts will yield over time
- Improve the moment-to-moment experience of raiding, notably between encounters or during breaks
- Be accessible and forgiving for players who miss weeks of raiding or start midway through a season
This is the criteria through which we’ll consider 11.1’s Raid Renown a success or failure, and feedback on everything from the above goals to how long the track should be, time to complete, and what’s available through it will help shape what it looks like in future patches, or if it should be in future patches at all.
Obtaining Renown and Cadence
Let’s talk a bit about how players will obtain reputation, and the proposed cadence in place to ensure a smooth progression over time. Like everything else covered in this post, things are subject to change, so feel free to ask questions or inquire if anything is unclear.
- As with the Severed Strands buff in Nerub’ar Palace, this Renown is fully warbound and is difficulty agnostic. It can be progressed on any character, on any difficulty, and be applied to different ones at a later date.
- Players who enter the raid will begin with Renown 1 unlocked, with a globally rising cap of 1 Renown per week able to be earned from the raid.
- For example this means that Week 1 of the Raid’s opening will allow players to get to Renown 2 and no further, regardless of how many bosses are killed. A player starting the Raid for the first time on Week 11 however will be able to rapidly progress towards that cap before joining everyone at the ‘1 per week’.
- A total of 5000 Reputation is present within the raid - twice as much is needed to get your 1 Renown level for the week, and is obtained from killing Bosses and named Lieutenant enemies within the raid. We’re trying this for a few reasons.
- Firstly is to be less prescriptive on where and how players spend their time in the raid - previously, players needed to fully clear Nerub’ar Palace before they’d obtain enough currency to turn in for the week. This should allow for more flexibility and less time spent ‘preparing’ if your goal is to obtain a buff to be used in that same week’s progress.
- Secondly, we’re hoping for this to be less punishing to groups and guilds that progress slower for various reasons. In Season 1 if your group couldn’t fully clear the raid, you were only creating more work for yourself in a future week. This should ensure that groups both skipping to later bosses, or stuck partway through the raid can still see progress for engaging as best they can without necessitating ‘homework’ between raid nights.
- Reputation is split as follows:
- Bosses 1-6 provide 450 Reputation each. Mug’Zee, the Heads of Security (Boss 7) provides 600, and Chrome King Gallywix (Final Boss) provides 1000. 7 ‘Lieutenant’ enemies throughout the raid present in trash packs provide the final 100 each, totaling 5000.
- Reputation is split as follows:
- Catchup specifics are TBD but will function very similarly to how Nerub’ar Finery did - this is to say there’ll be a sliding scale where players further behind will gain more reputation on kills, ensuring that they should rapidly approach parity with the global norm, likely in the span of a few weeks.
- For players interested in only the Cosmetic Rewards granted by this track, the Gallagio Loyalty Rewards Club is intended to remain a functional track far into the future (think Shado-Pan Assault or the Hydraxian Waterlords), and so can be earned even with at the accelerated cadence by non-raiders in future patches and expansions. Is it not necessary to complete this track within this season or on any sort of timer to obtain the mounts or toys contained within.
Track Node Contents
Lastly, we’ll briefly go over the current placements and effects of the Renown Track as-is. In the interest of brevity, we’ll be keeping these short but adding commentary where applicable to try and get ahead of some common questions. Same as before, while this represents our current intentions, all values and functionality are TBD. For those unaware, the Raid begins at the Incontinental Hotel and through this Renown will serve as a sort of Hub of useful NPCs and Vendors.
Renown 1
All Professions Tables, Vendors, and a Crafting Order Specialist now exist at the Incontinental Hotel for use.
Renown 2
Consume food 100% faster while inside Liberation of Undermine, and grants access to the Busted Rune Dispenser, and object in the hotel which has a chance to grant an Augment Rune.
Renown 3
Transmog and Item Upgrade Vendors become available inside the Hotel.
Renown 4
Gain access to your Gallagio Loyalty Rewards Card, which functions as a Hearthstone for the Incontinental Hotel, and gain 3% Damage and Healing increase while inside Liberation of Undermine.
- The Rewards Card has a 30 minute cooldown, and is only usable while inside Liberation of Undermine - it’s intended to return you to the hub between bosses if needed for crafting, upgrades, or anything else.
Renown 5
Gain access to repair stations throughout the raid that also remove ‘Sated’ debuffs, much like Temporal Attendants in Mythic+.
- These are not intended to replace the value of Engineering Hammers, and will be placed sparsely in the outdoor areas of the raid.
Renown 6
Gain a 10% Movement Speed buff inside the raid while Out of Combat, and access to a self-resurrection while out of combat.
- Tuning on the self-res is TBD, but we’re presently targeting 30m-1hr as a range for the Cooldown, aimed at being an emergency wipe recovery tool.
Renown 7
Damage and Healing buff improves to 6%.
Renown 8
Raid Skip unlocked; after defeating the first boss, an NPC will fly in with a rocket you can use to skip between bosses 7 and 8.
- As Raid Skips were previously via quest and also per-difficulty, placing this on the Renown Track is one of the many things we’re trying out.
- Even if you aren’t Renown 8, you can use this NPC to travel within the raid depending on bosses defeated, similar to the Flight Path within Nerub’ar Palace and other previous raids - the Renown is only necessary to skip ahead early while those bosses are still alive.
Renown 9
2 Vendors outside of the Cauldron of Carnage, one of the raid’s earlier bosses, will sell you miniaturized Battle Pets based on Torq and Flarendo, the Mecha Gorilla and Mechasaur found within that encounter.
Renown 10
Damage and Healing buff improves to 9%.
Renown 11
Out of Combat Movement Speed improves to 20%, and you are now granted one Counterfeit Dealer’s Chip which can be traded at the Hotel for cosmetic appearances.
- Like the Dragonflight Season 4 Vendors, one of the available vendors will provide multiple colors of weapons from the Liberation of Undermine Raid for purchase.
Renown 12
A goblin inside the raid will provide you with Hot Sauce, a fire-breathing damage-proc that scales in effectiveness based on your raid consumables.
- Professions consumables historically have an issue where they don’t often scale throughout an expansion, so this is an attempt at making the value of Well Fed, Flask, Potion, and Enchantments stronger within a raid setting.
Renown 13
Damage and Healing buff improves to 12%.
Renown 14
The Busted Rune Dispenser from Renown #2 is now fixed! It always grants an Augment Rune, and has a chance to grant more (or explode).
Renown 15
Gain a second Counterfeit Dealer’s Chip for cosmetic appearances, and the 6th Boss of the raid (The One-Armed Bandit) now has a small change of dropping one as Personal Loot on future kills.
Renown 16
Damage and Healing Buff improves to 15%.
Renown 17
Receive a Puzzling Cartel Chip, which can be traded for a Weapon, Trinket, or otherwise Special Item from the Liberation of Undermine.
- Similar again to Dragonflight Season 4’s Bullions and Shadowlands Season 4’s Dinar, these are intended to have their own upgrade track - which will mean they’ll scale to the maximum rank of 14 given enough crests and valorstones.
- This could change before launch, but the intent is for these to be fully upgradeable and usable by anyone that reaches this point, and not locked or conditioned to certain difficulties.
Renown 18
Out of Combat Movement Speed increases to 30%, Auctioneer now becomes accessible within the Hotel.
Renown 19
Receive a final Puzzling Cartel Chip, and the Damage and Healing Buff hits its maximum benefit at 18%.
Renown 20
A purely Cosmetic rank, players obtain the title ‘High Roller’, a Teleport to the Raid’s entrance (usable from anywhere), and at last access to the Furious Flarendo mount, the robot Mechasaur found within the Cauldron of Carnage fight.
We’ll stick around and do our best to clarify and answer questions where appropriate. Thanks so much for reading, and we’re looking forward to your feedback and discussion on this topic. See you in the Undermine!