World of Warcraft is outlining what to expect for Shadowlands Season 4 later this year, while the PTR for 9.2.5 is beginning cross-faction testing for features that will support it.
Blizzard’s announcement that Alliance and Horde players will be able to both play alongside one another in some instances is now moving forward into the testing phase. In new PTR notes, Players can now directly invite members of the opposite faction to a party if you have a friendship via BattleTag or RealID or if you both belong to a cross-faction WoW community. Communities now have the option to change their settings to be cross-faction, but Guild will still remain single faction organizations. Pre-made groups are also open to both factions in the Group Finder for Mythic dungeons, raids, or rated Arena/RBG. However, a group leader can restrict the listing to only the same faction. Random matchmade activities like Heroic dungeons or Skirmishes will stay same-faction. And some instances are also going to remain single-faction:
- Trial of the Champion
- Trial of the Crusader
- Vault of Archavon
- Icecrown Citadel
- Baradin Hold
- Siege of Boralus
- Battle of Dazar’alor
- Darkmaul Citadel
When it comes to Shadowlands, Season 3 is underway, but Season 4 is coming. There will be a new tier of PVP gear and other season rewards like mounts or titles. The highest-ranking title will be called Eternal Gladiator. There will be no Hall of Fame in Season 4, so as to not make this a competitive event. They are also planning to shake things up a bit in Mythic+ and in raiding. The Mythic+ dungeon pool will include eight dungeons from across the last four expansions.
The community will be able to help decide by voting to select which two dungeons from Draenor will be in the Season 4 rotation. When it comes to raiding, they are considering a progenitor-themed affix system that will add mechanical twists into some of the raids to make all three of them relevant in Season 4 and reward players who continue taking them on. These will be Castle Nathria, Sanctum of Domination, and Sepulcher of the First Ones.
For more, see the Shadowlands Season 4 update here at World of Warcraft.
