WoW Dragonflight official Patch 10.1 patch notes

Jan 19, 2024

Everything waiting for us in 10.1.

The first major content update of Dragonflight, Embers of Neltharion, is sending us deep below the Dragon Isles on May 2 where we’ll explore a new zone—Zaralek Cavern, complete new assaults—Fyrakk’s Assaults, delve deep into Neltharion’s secret laboratory where he created the Dracthyr and eventually succumbed to the whispers of the Old Gods and defeat nine experiments of his in Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible, and start a new Mythic+ and PvP season.

But that’s not all. The next patch will feature a new Mythic+ dungeon pool, cross-faction guilds, and a new gearing system that will reduce the number of currencies in the game and make the gearing process more intuitive and streamlined.

These changes are a lot to digest, but we are also getting tons of profession changes, class balancing changes for PvE, and changes to PvP and how CC functions in rated Arenas and battlegrounds.

Without any further ado, here are Dragonflight‘s early Patch 10.1 patch notes.

Until April 3, WoW fans firmly believed Embers of Neltharion wouldn’t be out any time before late May or early July, but Blizzard surprised the community all by revealing they can expect to explore Zaralek Cavern on May 2 and dive into the new season on May 9.

Zaralek Cavern is an underground zone just beneath the Dragon Isles that’s teeming with new and undiscovered forms of life, world quests, objectives, rares, and new Dragonriding glyphs. The zone is located on the eastern side of the Ohn’ahran Plains, just outside of Valdrakken, and players can access it by flying through a tunnel.

The new zone, Zaralek Cavern, is also home to Neltharion’s secret laboratory where he first created Dracthyr to become his soldiers and eventually succumbed to the whispers of the Old Gods and became Deathwing as we knew him.

Raid release schedule:

Fyrakk the Blazing is one of Primal Incarnates and Raszageth’s cousin who was freed during the foul ritual in Vault of the Incarnates. In Patch 10.1, Fyrakk is gathering forces in both the Azure Span and Ohn’ahran Plains. You have to disrupt their effort and lure Fyrakk and his disciples out.

Seeing how players have to juggle between all different types of currency like Valor and Elemental Overflow to gear up, Blizzard created a unified gearing system for Patch 10.1. In a nutshell, the system is an experiment for the duration of season two and it will use two new currencies—Flightstones and Shadowflame Crests.

While Flightstones can be earned by completing world quests, killing rares, running Mythic+ dungeons, or killing a raid boss, Shadowflame Crests and their fragments will come from open-world content, Mythic+ dungeons, and raids. You’ll be able to upgrade almost any piece of gear with these currencies, except crafted, PvP, and top-end gear that already reached maximum item level and stats.

Starting Patch 10.1, players will be able to create cross-faction guilds and with joint forces complete guild achievements and all types of PvE and PvP content. The guilds will still be related to either the Horde or the Alliance, depending on the guild leader.

With the release of Patch 10.1, the new season will officially start. This means you can start grinding your Mythic+ rating and Arena rank for new titles and achievements. Mythic+ dungeons will retire seasonal affixes and most likely will feature other changes that will be revealed later in the PTR testing cycle.

The next season will feature a new Mythic+ dungeon pool consisting of four Dragonflight dungeons and four Legacy dungeons:

In PvP, Blizzard is experimenting with reducing the length of crowd control in an attempt to make the PvP fights more dynamic.

In addition to all of this, season two will feature new tier sets that are looking to expand your class fantasy instead of further exploring the theme of the patch.

On March 28, the WoW devs announced Quaking, Grievous, and Explosive are retiring, and three new affixes are taking their place—Incorporeal, Afflicted, and Entangling.

In addition to all that, level four affixes will start to kick in Patch 10.1 starting level seven, and previous level seven affixes will be moved to level 14 and higher Mythic+ keys.

At the beginning of the season, your keystones will drop by nine levels and if the highest key you ran and timed before the season reset was level 18, you’ll get a level nine key that will feature season two dungeons.

Embers of Neltharion will introduce a new Dragonriding drake—the Winding Slitherdrake. The drake will share most of the customizations as other Dragonriding drakes so you won’t have to spend too much time collecting its appearances.

The new Dragonriding ability will be called Ground Skim and it will allow you to recharge Vigor while you’re flying near the ground. To unlock this ability, you’ll have to collect Dragonriding Glyphs scattered throughout Zaralek Cavern.

Since the release of Dragonflight, Shadow Priests have been struggling with button bloat by having too many flashy buttons to press, weak single-target damage output, and niche utility. On top of that, Shadow Priests have to constantly switch their build, just to stay competitive with everything that other classes can bring to the encounter. Thankfully, Patch 10.1 is looking to fix it all.

After being at war for two decades, the Horde and the Alliance will for the first time in the history of WoW fight under the same banner. Starting Patch 10.1, it won’t matter if you’re a member of the Horde or the Alliance, because you will be able to join the same guild, enjoy the same perks, and do more than just non-queued content together. Guilds will be tied to a faction, depending on the guild masters, and will give almost all guild perks to all members of the guild, no matter their faction.

So far, you had more than one way of gearing up—via Valor, Storm Gear, PvP, and more. But this will no longer be the case as the new gearing and upgrade system looks to reduce the number of necessary currencies and make the gearing process simple and universal. Your gearing process will, essentially, boil down to Flightstones and Shadowflame Crests. While Flightstones will be obtained by completing basically any activity on the Dragon Isles, Shadowflame Crests and their fragments will be earned by completing epic endeavors like completing Mythic+ dungeons and killing raid bosses.

Frost

Unholy

Havoc

Balance

Feral

Guardian

Restoration

Devastation

Beast Mastery

Marksmanship

Survival

Arcane

Fire

Frost

Brewmaster

Mistweaver

Holy

Protection

Retribution

Discipline

Holy

Shadow

Elemental

Enhancement

Demonology

Destruction

Warrior

Arms

Fury

Hackclaw’s War-Band

Skycap’n Kragg

Council o’ Captains

Ring of Booty

Harlan Sweete

Primal Tsunami

Warlord Sargha

Bromach

Sentinel Talondras

Chrono-Lord Deios

Grand Vizier Ertan

Altairus

Asaad

Blood

Frost

Unholy

Havoc

Balance

Feral

Guardian

Restoration

Beast Mastery

Marksmanship

Survival

Arcane

Fire

Frost

Brewmaster

Mistweaver

Windwalker

Holy

Retribution

Holy

Discipline

Shadow

Outlaw

Subtlety

Elemental

Enhancement

Restoration

Affliction

Destruction

Demonology

Arms

Fury

Protection

Staff Writer & World of Warcraft lead. Izabela has a long history with writing and games like World of Warcraft, League of Legends, Fortnite, and The Sims. Before finding her home at Dot Esports in 2021, Izabela was an English teacher and a freelancer at Hotspawn, GGRecon, and Gameranx. In her free time, you’ll find her writing novels, wandering Azeroth, or inting on Summoner’s Rift.