To help with social distancing amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Blizzard has implemented a variety of perks into the modern version of World of Warcraft. These perks have provided an incentive for players to remain indoors and make social distancing just a bit easier.
The first of these was the Winds of Wisdom buff, which allowed players to receive double the experience from all possible sources. Not only did Blizzard implement this wonderfully helpful buff, they even extended it until the pre-launch patch of the upcoming expansion, World of Warcraft: Shadowlands.
Second came the Impressive Influence buff, which allowed players to receive double the reputation gains with most Battle for Azeroth and Legion reputation factions. This made it significantly easier to complete the necessary reputation grinds to unlock Pathfinder, which allows players to use flying mounts in these zones.
However, all good things come to an end. Blizzard will soon be removing the Impressive Influence buff, ending the period of double-reputation gains.
That isn’t to say that they’re just leaving players with only the experience buff, though! In an interview with WoWChakra, game director Ion Hazzikostas revealed that there would be a replacement buff coming in.
Impressive Influence will be ending on the next weekly reset, which occurs every Tuesday. Specifically, that means that there are five days left of the buff, with the weekly reset coming on May 19th.
Discussing Visions of N’Zoth and the rewards that the team is considering, Hazzikostas stated that “We [Blizzard] are continuing to look at BfA and what’s going on in Visions of N’Zoth right now, and considering options that may give players some more goals to pursue and new rewards within the existing content to help.”
There hasn’t been an official reveal on what exactly this new buff will be, but hints seem to point towards it targetting catching up on Legendary Cloaks and obtaining Corruptions. This is especially helpful for alts, which Blizzard has been focusing on improving the quality-of-life of recently.
“We’re looking at shifting to a different focus after this, we’ll hopefully have some news on that in the coming days when there’s some new bonuses, also maybe permanent, that give you new goals and make it easier for your alts to get caught up in particular,” Hazzikostas stated in his interview.
Going on, Hazzikostas specifically mentions Legendary Cloaks and Corruptions, two of the more grind-heavy focuses of gearing up an alt. While we don’t know exactly what’s coming, it seems like Blizzard is set on making the game as alt-friendly as possible.
