Patch 10.2.6 is finally here, bringing with it never-before-seen content and even a game mode for World of Warcraft. This patch is absolutely filled with plenty of new rewards, cosmetics, and even mounts for you to unlock, and even features a handful of massive class changes, as well as some more prep work ahead of Season 4. Though season 4 stuff is going to be released at a much later time, for now, we are going to go over all of the major features that are launching with 10.2.6 to give you all a detailed rundown of everything you could expect with this new Dragonflight update.

1. Plunderstorm WoW Event

- The first update of the 10.2.6 will be a brand new limited-time plunderstorm pirate event which is just absolutely a wild new way to experience World of Warcraft. This event is going to be available for everybody whether you currently playing Dragonflight on retail or whether you mostly play classic. Unlike all the workout that we know, this event is going to be ran by an entirely different rule set. It's essentially wow stake at an action-based Battle Royale game mode, which allows you to play a classless character and customize your class and abilities inside of every single match, with every match presenting new different combinations. 

- This new game mode is going to be more active than passive. So even things like auto attacks will become active abilities for you to use. With slots for healing abilities basic combat abilities as well as all of the spells that you unlock throughout the match. All of the abilities that you find will come with different rarities which progress with power and can even change how they function depending on their rarity. 

- Movement will also be different inside of this new mode, players will experience no fall damage, but will also have access to movement abilities such as double jumps. You'll be able to collect spells and abilities by slaying players and monsters within this event which is going to feature a mix of PVE combat as well as objectives as well as PVP specific challenges. For those of you that like PVP, you can expect the classic PVP base combat. But for those of you that are more PVE inclined monsters inside of this area will be a bit more interactive with new telegraph mechanics. They are going to be a little bit more action-oriented, so you can't just stand still and DPS things down. With it being a pirate-themed events, you can also expect plenty of pirate-themed rewards as well. All of these rewards will be unlocked behind a new Renown system just for this event, and you'll be able to progress through this new renown track by completing a mix of objectives both PVE and PVP specific with this new mode. And in order to make sure that the playing field is as even as possible, all matches are going to be separated with solo players queuing up against solo players and Duos queuing up against Duos. There's also going to be a revive mechanic for dual players which may make it a little bit easier for new players to dive into. 

- Also no add-ons will be allowed for this event, so you can't modify your UI or give yourself any advantages from any other players. But the UI has also been streamlined and simplified to make it as easy for new players to dive right into. As of right now, Plunderstorm is an experimental feature that's planned to be a limited-time event.

Related read: Fastest Ways to Earn Plunder Renown in Plunderstorm

2. New Class Changes

Besides this, patch 10.2.6 is also going to bring with it plenty of new class sheets though a good portion of them are planned for Season 4, specifically when it comes to the tuning of the various tier sets for that upcoming season. But we do see a handful of new class changes specifically for Monks and Priests. Click here to check the complete details. https://www.icy-veins.com/wow/latest-class-changes

3. Timewalking Raid Changes

As part of the 10.2.6 update, there has also been some bug fixes specifically when it comes to timewalking raids, where they fixed a lot of bugs for some of the encounters of the Ulduar timewalking. Previously, Ulduar timewalking was completable even with the bugs involved, but they did end up fixing a lot of the interactions with an raid, which has been one of the more fun experiences of time walking especially if you got a bunch of alls that you want to catch up in gear while also going through some of the older game content.

4. New Glyphs: Covenant Ability Skins

New glyphs have been made available as of patch 10.2.6 that now restore the look of the original covenant abilities that are currently part of the Dragonflight's talent trees. Things like the hunt for Demon Hunter instead of having a fell look now can have more of a Night Fay appearance. Even abilities for Paladins instead of having a holy appearance, they can go back to that Kyrian Arcane. 

5. Battleground Blitz Brawl Changes

When it comes to PVP changes for 10.2.6, we got some adjustments to Battleground Blitz Brawls. Overall, for the most part, they're very happy with how Battleground Blitz has worked out so far. Though certain maps and certain team matchups do need to be readjusted to create a bit more of a balanced experience. Specifically, we got flag carrier maps such as Twin Peaks and Warsong Gulch, and if not, their team has a tank on their team, then it's going to allow whoever is carrying the flag a buff called empowered carrier, which will increase that player's maximum health by 10%, increase the movement speed by 30% and will allow the player to take 25% less damage for 4 seconds when they get hit by an enemy stun. This buff is present in order to help support players that don't have a tank on their team. However, if tanks are present for either of the team's sides, then this buff will be disabled. We also get some changes regarding players's movement speed while mounted. For certain larger maps such as Arathi Basin and Deepwind Gorge, player-mounted movement speed is going to be increased to help increase the pacing of the game. However, for every other map that isn't Arathi Basin or Deepwind Gorge, that movement speed is going to go down a bit to also help balance out the pacing of those matches, so players are moving too quickly through the environment. 

6. Dragonflight Meta Achievement and Mount

Patch 10.2.6 is also adding a brand new Dragonflight completionist achievement. More importantly, it also allows you to gain Taivan for this expansion. To get Taivan, you need to get the achievement called World awoken, which will require you to basically experience and complete the entire expansion of Dragonflight. From experience in all of its raids as well as dungeon content, as well as doing the main Dragonflight story, as well as Side Stories and earn reputation achievements for all of the major factions of Dragonflight but also for some of the minor faction as well. Part of the achievement also requires it to complete Pathfinder achievement as well as all of the achievements related to all of the other world events from previous patches, things like the time rifts, the dreamsurges, the Zaralek Cavern achievements and much more.

7. Dragonflight 10.2.6 Season 4

Besides all of these features, patch 10.2.6 is also going to be the patch when Season 4 will be released. However, Season 4 content and all these major features will be released a couple of weeks after this patch's launch. This means that Season 4 will likely be released around late April. Some of the upcoming season 4 content and changes is going to feature adjustments to our class tier sets for season 4. There are also going to be a lot of loot changes for both raids and dungeons in Season 4 from different adjustments to some of the trinkets, some of the power increases and power decreases for some of the party trinkets, as well as loot table adjustments for raids such as Vault, Aberrus, as well as Emeral in Season 4. As well as a brand new awakened raids mechanic, that's going to be prevalent as part of the Season 4 endgame content. This also includes all of the various boss and enemy changes within dungeons in Season 4 from Mythic+ content as well as a major overhaul to Mythic+, Heroic, and Mythic zero dungeons. Players who have earned the Fyralath legendary from the Emerald raid will be able to upgrade it for Season 4. The same thing goes for Evokers who have earned their legendary from the Aberrus raid will also be able to upgrade it for the upcoming season.