The World of Warcraft team is sharing a thorough breakdown of what to expect from changes to raid rewards and adjustments made ahead of raid testing for Vault of the Incarnates, Dragonflight’s first raid available in the beta.
When it comes to item levels, there's a third item level tier being introduced, and some changes to base numbers and where and when some items may drop. The new level tier is designed to make some middle ground raids feel more rewarding, instead of like you’re grinding them out and getting the same drops. This is also reflected in Blizzard's continuing desire to help players feel like they have a better chance at getting gear.
According to developer Scariizard: “Previously, the best way to target a specific piece of loot was to stack as many similar armor or weapon types as possible to increase the chances of that dropping. Now, even if you’re the only Rogue or Demon Hunter in your group, you have the same chance as anyone else of seeing an upgrade.”
On the other side of the spectrum, they are experimenting with some bosses having a single unique item that will drop at a higher item level from that boss' normal loot table. Having this might be a good long-term goal for a group or keeping earlier rates exciting instead of just being something you level up from and forget about.
When it comes to group loot, this will be the only option you get for loot distribution.There won’t be (except for things like reagents) be any option to select for yourself or for groups to return to personal loot. The Need and Greed UI will also be making a return with this decision. If you want to trade loot once it’s all distributed, there won't be any item level restrictions on trading between members of the group.
These will all be in the build for players to test out the raid in the Dragonflight beta. There are other changes that they're working on for later builds, including changes to Bind-on-Equip Epic item drops.
For more details, head over to World of Warcraft.
