World of Warcraft: Dragonflight's first major content patch is just under a month away, as Blizzard has revealed players will be able to dive into patch 10.1, Embers of Neltharion starting on May 2. In addition to new content, the update will also add the ability, for the first time in nearly two decades, to join and create cross-faction guilds.

　　The update will introduce a massive new underground zone, the Zaralek Caverns, which players can organically travel to via several underground tunnels located throughout the Dragon Isles. A new faction players can earn renown with, the mole-like niffen, call the caverns home, and a new open-world activity, Fyrrak Assaults, will see players battling against the forces of the Primalists once more. The update will also introduce additional dragonriding glyphs for players to collect, new types of world quests, the continuation of the expansion's main storylines, and the aforementioned and highly-anticipated arrival of cross-faction guilds.

　　The pain Deathwing inflicted was only the beginning.

　　Patch 10.1: Embers of Neltharion arrives May 2.

　　This week in WoW: https://t.co/cssIkawGUK pic.twitter.com/N6NHGFadRj

　　— World of Warcraft (@Warcraft) April 3, 2023

　　On the endgame side of things, update 10.1 will also lead into the start of Dragonflight Season 2, which Blizzard confirmed will kick off the week of May 9. That's when the Normal, Heroic, and Mythic difficulties of the new Abberus, the Shadowed Crucible raid will be released. The raid, set in Neltharion's secret laboratory, looks to include plenty of throwbacks and references to older, Black Dragonflight-themed encounters, including vanilla's Blackwing Lair and Cataclysm's Blackwing Descent. The week of May 9 will also see the start of the new Mythic+ dungeon rotation (complete with new seasonal affixes) and a reset of the seasonal PvP ladders.

　　Embers of Neltharion is the first of two major updates coming to WoW over the course of 2023, according to Blizzard's 2023 WoW content roadmap. But just because it's the first update to introduce a new raid doesn't mean there hasn't been new content for WoW subscribers to sink their teeth into since Dragonflight's November launch. Patch 10.0.5, released in February, introduced the new monthly Trading Post feature, and March's patch 10.0.7 reintroduced a former starter zone to Dragonflight's endgame, alongside the addition of long-awaited Heritage Armor quests for orc and human characters and a major talent revamp for Retribution Paladins.

　　Based on the roadmap, WoW players can expect one more major patch and two additional minor patches to come later in 2023. WoW executive producer Holly Longdale said in a Blizzard blog post that the developer's goal for Dragonflight is "that there should always be something right around the corner, with a new update hitting our test realms shortly after the last one is live and in your hands."

　　So far, Blizzard has delivered on that promise. In a recent interview with GameSpot, WoW game director Ion Hazzikostas said the more frequent content updates, especially compared to the release cadence for patches during the game's previous Shadowlands expansion, comes as a result of the increased size of the game's development team and Blizzard's investment in WoW. Hazzikostas said Blizzard knows that the ongoing success of WoW doesn't just come from new expansions, but a steady stream of new content.

　　"When people look back at their favorite, most cherished expansions, really of lot of that has to do with the extent to which they were supported," Hazzikostas said. "That's something we fully understand."

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