Astalor & Talebound Inspiration - Artemir Interview on Midnight: Eclipse

In an interview with Artemir, Blizzard discussed Astalor and his Nemesis boss encounter and the inspiration for Talebound!.

Artemir had an interview with:.

Paul Kubit (Associate Game Director).

Kim Flack (Senior Game Designer).

We've summarized the interview below, but you can see the original on Artemir's YouTube.

Interview Summary.

They draw a lot of inspiration from a lot of the coolest spooky locations in the game: Drustvar, Stormsong, Ardenweald.

The classes came from that and what you think of when you think of horror stories: Witch, Inquisitor, and Slayer.

Slayer has a Vampire Hunter feel to it.

These classes play very differently from each other and are very much affected by the Roguelike powers.

Talebound will be its own login mode similar to Plunderstorm, and you'll get cosmetics and rewards that you can bring back to your full account.

They're still working on Patch 12.2.7 and when Talebound will be released.

Players have been slowly learning about Xal'atath and her history over time.

We're going to learn much more about her in Eclipse. Players will see much more of her, learn more about where she came from, what she's doing, and why she's doing it.

Azeroth is not taking this silently.

Azerite is Azeroth's blood, and the zone is caked in it.

The Radiant Screams, by name alone, should tell you a lot about this activity. What Xal'atath is doing to her is not pleasant.

There will be more on Radiant Screams later this year.

The Sword is there, and they have not forgotten about the sword, but no spoilers to give right now.

Dungeon Rotation.

When choosing dungeons, they want to have a varied experience with varied boss layouts across the Season (e.g. All bosses shouldn't be council fights).

They also look at the theme of the Patch, and that's a big part of why Stonecore was chosen. They want to make sure that all the dungeons don't feel or look completely the same.

Once the dungeon rotation is chosen, the encounter team goes through and makes sure the dungeons are up to the level of modern dungeons with visuals, encounter difficulty, etc.

He was already the fan favorite internally before he became a favorite character in the community.

They love the Astalor memes.

His Nemesis boss encounter is still in progress, and the difficulty is TBD. They don't want him to be the easiest or hardest one.

Hopefully we'll be able to see the Prey Magic and the red kit stick around longer than Midnight.