Shadowlands players are waiting for the next major patch to continue the story started last fall with the release of World of Warcraft's latest expansion. It looks like the wheels are turning to get Chains of Domination in the testing phase.
Chains of Domination, the name of Shadowlands' 9.1 patch was unveiled officially in February during BlizzConline 2021. The next major patch for World of Warcraft brings with it new story to drive the MMO onwards. With patch 9.1 we'll see a subzone of The Maw open to players called Korthia, City of Secrets, as well as a new raid called the Sanctum of Domination. 9.1 also continues the story told in Shadowlands, with the trailer showing an enslaved Anduin under the thrall of the The Jailer and Sylvanas.
For those wondering when the heck 9.1 was releasing, chances are it's still months away. However, testing on the PTR will be coming soon, in fact Blizzard is saying "in about 2 weeks." In a forums post yesterday, Community Manager Bornakk detailed the upcoming PTR release, stating that now that 9.0.5 was "behind us," the team is gearing up for the major 9.1 Shadowlands patch.
"With 9.0.5 behind us, we wanted to take a moment to update you on the 9.1 content for Shadowlands. In about 2 weeks, we will have Chains of Domination available for the community on the PTR. Also, raid testing details will be posted a week or so after the PTR is online. There will be a wide variety of content to check out for Chains of Domination, so as usual, your testing will play a key role in iterating on this update. We can’t wait to get this in front of you and look forward to your feedback soon."
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands players won't have long to wait then to dive into Chains of Domination, at least to test out the various areas and raids to provide feedback before it makes the wide launch on the live version of WoW. However, it should be noted that while the MMO's upcoming patch might be hitting the test server in a few weeks, it doesn't mean that patch 9.1 is any closer to releasing, as previous patches were also tested for months leading up to their release, as WoWHead points out.
Shadowlands' Chains of Domination patch won't be the only test the team is running as the MMO's Classic variant is currently in the midst of its Burning Crusade Classic beta, which recently saw a level cap increase in the test. Robin had some thoughts on the old its rebirth in Classic. And if you're looking to get caught up on Chains of Domination news from BlizzConline ahead of the testing phase, check out our interview with the team from the event.
