World of Warcraft: Dragonflight won’t be getting a fourth raid—which is something we’ve known for a while, as per an interview with game director Ion Hazzikostas. It will however still receive a fourth season with Fated Raids, alongside a recycled tier list the community can vote on as Blizzard revealed yesterday.
“We’re going to try something new,” reads the post. “We’re preparing a remixed set of gear for each specialization. To determine what that means for each class and spec, we’re asking you to vote for your favorite class look and your favorite specialization set bonuses from the first three Seasons of Dragonflight.”
This means that Season 4’s armour sets will look like a bowl of glowy pick ‘n’ mix. Just taking a cursory look at the three tier sets up for grabs, there are some pretty stark differences in aesthetic.
While set bonuses are also being recycled, they’ll be unique to each specialisation depending on the community’s votes, as Blizzard explains: “This means that in Season 4, demon hunters might vote for a set that has the look of Season 1, with Season 2 set bonuses for Havoc and Season 3 set bonuses for Vengeance.”
There are a couple pain points of critique in the replies to the post: first off, PvP players are concerned that their versions of the set will be determined by what’s best for PvE players. Secondly, since Season 4’s just a wind-down for Dragonflight with some reused older raids, what’s the harm in making all of the set bonuses available?
From where I’m sitting, this is a really cool way to get the community in on deciding which tier sets they’d like for Dragonflight’s last hurrah—but it’s really asking for trouble. Whenever you let a player base vote on something, factions will form and people will get upset.
On the other hand, it’s a low-stakes, fun sort of trouble I’ll enjoy watching from a distance. If you don’t get the tier set bonus you exactly want, it’s not like you’ll be missing out on current raiding progression—even if it does sting for your spec to be a stinker for a while. As per the 2024 roadmap, Season 4 will begin in the spring of this year, after Seeds of Renewal and that mystery pirate patch I can’t stop thinking about.
