World of Warcraft Patch 12.1 launches on August 11, but anyone planning to immediately continue Arator’s hunt for Xal’atath is going to have to exercise a deeply unfamiliar MMO skill.
Patience.
Blizzard has confirmed that Arator’s new storyline will
not be available when Curse of Ula’tek first goes live.
Instead, that chapter will unlock later, after Midnight Season 2 has begun and the Venomous Abyss raid has opened.
The PTR Was Slightly Misleading
The confusion makes sense.
During Patch 12.1 PTR testing, players could access both the continuing Zul’jan storyline and Arator’s new campaign material immediately.
That apparently wasn’t representative of how things will work on live servers.
In a new group interview with Icy Veins, Wowhead and Raider.IO, Lead Quest Designer Rachel Vought explained that Arator being available immediately on the PTR was purely for testing purposes.
“The Arator part of the story will open up after the start of Season 2,” Vought explained, adding that it necessarily has to begin after Blizzard opens the Venomous Abyss raid.
So when
Patch 12.1 arrives, the main campaign comes first.
Arator waits his turn.
Patch 12.1 Starts With Zul’jan
The opening story of Curse of Ula’tek continues directly from the Revelations chapter introduced in Patch 12.0.7.
That storyline follows Zul’jan and leads players toward the Coiled Isle, which becomes the centerpiece of Patch 12.1.
Only later does the focus shift back toward Arator and his continuing pursuit of Xal’atath.
Blizzard previously described the storyline as dealing with the aftermath of the Voidspire while Arator investigates the renewed activity of the Twilight’s Blade.
That is particularly interesting because Blizzard has already spent a significant amount of Midnight building Arator into one of the expansion’s central characters.
Earlier this year,
Blizzard pushed Arator back into the spotlight with the Immolation cinematic, continuing the increasingly uncomfortable relationship between the Light, the Void and the Windrunner family.
Apparently, that thread isn't being abandoned.
It's simply being kept behind the raid curtain for a little longer.
When Will Arator’s Story Unlock?
Blizzard hasn't given an exact date yet.
Midnight Season 2 begins on August 18 in North America, with the European reset following on August 19.
Vought specifically said Arator’s chapter opens
after the beginning of Season 2 and needs the Venomous Abyss raid to be open first.
That means players shouldn't automatically assume the questline appears the moment Season 2 begins.
For now, the important distinction is simple:
August 11: Patch 12.1 and the main Curse of Ula’tek campaign.
Later in Season 2: Arator’s hunt for Xal’atath continues.
It is a staggered story rollout rather than everything arriving in one enormous quest-shaped pile on patch day.
And considering how much Patch 12.1 already wants us to do, our quest logs may quietly thank Blizzard for that.
Source: Icy Veins interview with World of Warcraft Associate Game Director Paul Kubit and Lead Quest Designer Rachel Vought.
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