World of Warcraft: Dragonflight 10.1.5 Patch Overview

A huge new World of Warcraft update just hit live servers on July 11^th, 2023, and it came with some long-awaited new features as well as a few surprises that players are enjoying so far. Update 10.1.5 marks the midway point through season two of Dragonflight, meaning there are only a few months left to enjoy these new changes before season three comes out. It’s time to jump into what is new with this 10.1.5 update in World of Warcraft: Dragonflight and how players are reacting to them, starting from the biggest news of the update.

The New Mega-Dungeon

Called “Dawn of the Infinite,” the new mega-dungeon is effectively a raid that can only be done by five players. It is only available in one difficulty, Mythic, but there is a hardcore achievement for it that can only be earned if none of the five players die throughout the dungeon; if done successfully, extra loot and an achievement will be earned after the final boss. It has several puzzles players must work together to solve and features eight new bosses that are each difficult, unique, and visually appealing. Perhaps most important, Dawn of the Infinite adds to the story that Dragonflight has set in motion. Here is a quick summary:

At the beginning of Dragonflight, players were thrown into the mix of a civil war between two factions of Dragon-kind – the Dragon Aspects, which the players are supporting, and the Incarnates, the enemy. One of the Incarnates, Razsegath, was defeated in the first raid of Dragonflight called the “Vault of the Incarnates,” but in defeating her, three of her Incarnate siblings were released from the Vault. In the Dawn of the Infinite dungeon, players must aid the Dragon Aspects, Chromie and Nozdormu, the aspects of time, to chase the Incarnates through different timelines as they try to restore their powers and gain a new, powerful ally the Void Lords.

This likely means that the next raid in season three of Dragonflight will make players descend into the void and possibly even fight in different timelines to preserve the timeline that story is currently on. While this all seems confusing, the way Blizzard set up the story of Dawn of the Infinite makes it easier to understand after playing through it. Many players are very pleased with this new dungeon, given all the details that were mentioned above.

The New Evoker Class Specialization

Dragonflight introduced a new class to the game, Dracthyr Evokers, which are an ancient race of humanoid dragon-kin. Upon release, the Dracthyr Evoker had two specializations, Devastation for damage and Preservation for healing. However, update 10.1.5 has done something unprecedented to Evokers; not only did they add a new specialization to the class, which has never happened, but the new specialization does something that no other class/specialization in the game does. The new Evoker specialization, Augmentation, heavily buffs other players in the party, making select players in Augmentation Evoker’s group much more powerful in both damage and defensive capabilities.

While there is a lot of excitement surrounding Augmentation Evoker, there are some glaring issues with it that make the class its release controversial. The first issue is that their augments help intellect stat users much more than agility and strength users. This makes the choice of who to buff in any given party obvious but also disincentivizes the play of strength and agility using classes/specializations. A second potential issue is that it incentivizes playing favorites raid groups, which in tight-knit raiding groups, could cause unnecessary animosity. The final and most important issue is that Augmentation Evokers, even after only a week of being released, are widely known as a requirement for the hardest content in the game. This locks players out of that hard content who do not have access to an Augmentation Evoker and/or makes people required to switch to playing on to be relevant.

Overall, the introduction of Augmentation Evoker to the game is well-received by players but does come with a handful of big issues.

Other 10.1.5 New Content

With the two big parts of the update explained, here are some of the smaller pieces of new content:

• New World Events and Quests:
  • Time Rifts – with the help of Chromie and her companions, players can travel to different timelines to defeat bosses and earn gear, cosmetics, and achievements. This new world event is a great way to get gear for new characters.
  • Eon’s Fringe – Nozdormu takes players back into time to encounter old bosses in a new way. This world event is a great way to understand the overall lore of World of Warcraft.
  • Whelp Daycare – These quests have players raise dragons of infancy to earn gold, new pets, and achievements.
  • Kalimdor Cup – Dragonriding will be introduced to the continent of Kalimdor on August 15^th to 28th, and there will be a race and rewards involved.
• World, Character, and Class Updates:
  • Warlock Pet Customization – Warlocks now have the option to customize how their pets look at the Barbershop in any major city. This is a precursor to what other pet classes may be able to do in the future.
  • Art Update – Older zones have been updated to be more visually appealing up to date with 2023 graphics.
  • Character and Class Changes – Many classes and specializations received major buffs and changes to their abilities and damage/healing output. There were also some quality-of-life changes to mount riding for all characters.
  • Cross-realm Interaction – Trading, mythic raiding, and PvP has been enabled for cross-realm play.
  • UI Update – The base UI (not including add-on UI) has been updated for all classes and characters.

See all the updates in more detail here.