World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor’s patch 6.2.2, which will bring with it the new Mercenary mode and flight in Draenor, will be available tomorrow, Sept. 1, Blizzard announced today.
The new Mercenary mode is a method Blizzard is implementing in order to alleviate high queue times in PvP experienced by players playing in Battlegroups (a collection of servers in World of Warcraft that compete in PvP together) in which their faction is underrepresented. Players who use the Mercenary mode will see their character don a mask that is meant to represent a race on the opposing faction, akin to the masks available during the game’s celebration of Halloween called Hallow’s End, and allow them to play matchmade PvP matches for the opposing faction.
Additionally, patch 6.2.2 unlocks the ability for players to fly in Draenor, the new continent that was introduced in the Warlords of Draenor expansion pack. Players will need to complete the Draenor Pathfinder achievement, which was introduced in patch 6.2, in order to be able to fly in Draenor. The achievement also rewards players with a new mount, a rylak, the Soarking Skyterror.
Flying in Draenor is something fans have been asking for in Warlords of Draenor since its release last November. Opponents of flying in Draenor believe that not having the ability to fly, at least in Draenor, creates a sense of wonder in exploring an area that would otherwise be lost on players that simply flew directly from point to point without interacting with the actual world below them. The requirements for the Draenor Pathfinder achievement require a bit of work, so hopefully making the barrier of entry to flying in Draenor more than a walk in the park will appease both camps in the To Fly or Not to Fly in Draenor debate.
On World of Warcraft’s horizon is the newly announced expansion pack Legion, as well as BlizzCon in November, where fans hope more details on Legion will be unveiled. World of Warcraft: Legion does not have a release date, but the first beta is expected sometime this year.
