Land of the Dead is sounding better and better every day.  In the latest Grab Bag, Mythic answers some pressing questions we all have about the new Live Expansion.

Q. A few articles mentioned tokens for the Land of the Dead. What kinds of items are purchasable with these? Are we looking at usable items or actual equipment?

A. With the various Tokens found throughout the Land of the Dead, you will be able to purchase new armor, weapons, cloaks, crafting materials, talismans, potions—just about everything!

Q. Will there be fights in the Land of the Dead that require more coordination than anything in the game yet?
A. Absolutely! The Land of the Dead content boasts many new mechanics, including the invasion of enemy-Realm instances, and the defense of your own instances.

Welcome to Grab Bag Number 17! This Grab Bag brings you answers to some of your most burning questions about the Land of the Dead! We're covering everything from instances to new loot to boss difficulty. So, sit back, relax, and sink your teeth into these juicy details about the upcoming live expansion. As always, thank you everyone for your contributions. Onward, to the Land of the Dead!

Grab Bag Q & A

Q. What will be the Ward requirements to do the instanced lairs and dungeon bosses? What is the Ward range in the live expansion?

A. The Land of the Dead content comes in three different flavors if difficulty: Public Quests, Lairs, and the Tomb of the Vulture Lord dungeon. The Public Quests in the Necropolis of Zandri will not require any Wards. The Lairs will require Lesser Wards (the same as city sieges and Forts), which come from Bastion Stair and Tier 4 Keeps. And the Tomb of the Vulture Lord will require Greater Wards, which are earned from Forts and capital city dungeons.

It’s important to keep in mind the changes coming to the Ward system in 1.3 that will allow for much greater gear choice flexibility; once you unlock a Ward in your Tome of Knowledge, it is applied to your character, regardless of whether you are wearing the armor that has the Ward on it or not.

Q. How many instances will there be in the Land of the Dead?

A. The Land of the Dead will boast five instances, which are comprised of four Lairs and the Tomb of the Vulture Lord dungeon.

Q. What type of NPCs will we see in the Land of the Dead starting area?

A. In your Land of the Dead Expedition Camp, you will find the same NPCs you would find in dungeons such as Bastion Stair, with a few extras: a Healer, Guards, Quest NPCs, a Flight Master, and various Token Merchants.  You’ll also find siege weapons, since the Expedition Camps can be sieged and defended when the zone control changes hands.

Q. When control flips from one realm to another, are the Land of the Dead starting areas completely attackable?  For instance, will there be Rank 55 heroes guarding each respective starting camp making it impossible to reach those within?

A. When control flips from one Realm to another, the Realm that took control is able to siege the other Realm’s Expedition Camp. The Expedition Camp that belongs to the Realm that currently holds control cannot be attacked. When an Expedition Camp is attackable, it can be sieged by both players and siege weapons, similar to a Keep siege, complete with Conqueror Gear Gold Bags as rewards. A Realm’s Expedition Camp can be destroyed only once per Land of the Dead control flip; once it’s destroyed, it’s destroyed until that Realm gathers enough Expedition Resources to rebuild and regain control of the zone.

Q. Will there be a defendable area in the Land of the Dead, like a tower or small Keep that one realm can claim and use as an outpost?

A. There are not any Keeps or Battle Objectives, per se, but there are several strategic locations throughout the Land of the Dead that you will be able to invade or defend, including lair and dungeon instances. Also, the Expedition Camps are your outpost, and can be sieged and taken over once per Land of the Dead zone control flip.

Q. What range of difficulty will the Land of the Dead bosses have? (ie. more difficult than N’kari/Butcher/Warlord fights?)

A. The Land of the Dead bosses will present many new types of challenges, game-play dynamics, and events for players to experience. The Tomb of the Vulture Lord boss difficulty ranges from just below N’Kari to well beyond.

Q. Can you cross the river that divides the two sides of the Land of the Dead, or is it completely impassable?

A. The River Mortis is, for all intents and purposes, cursed, poisonous, and very, very deadly—but you can certainly try to cross it for a fun surprise! ;)

Q. A few articles mentioned tokens for the Land of the Dead. What kinds of items are purchasable with these? Are we looking at usable items or actual equipment?

A. With the various Tokens found throughout the Land of the Dead, you will be able to purchase new armor, weapons, cloaks, crafting materials, talismans, potions—just about everything!

Q. With some sections appearing to have population limits in the Land of the Dead, will this trigger a Fort-like lockdown, or will these areas be instanced so multiple groups can run it separately?

A. The Land of the Dead is a much larger, more vast zone than the Fortress areas, so it has a much greater population capacity. That being said, we do have population caps in-place for the Expedition Camps you appear in when you first travel to the Land of the Dead. We do not anticipate that the population capacity will be reached very often, if ever. The population cap is quite high, and there just in case. If the population cap is reached, as players venture out into the Land of the Dead, more players will be allowed into the Expedition Camp. As far as instances go, the only areas that are instanced in the Land of the Dead are the lairs and the Tomb of the Vulture Lord.

Q. How will the Tyrant set be obtained (token, random drop, or Gold Bag), and which, if any, PvP set will it be closest to in quality?

A. The Tyrant set is comparable to the Warlord set that is currently in the game. It will be obtainable via Tokens and boss drops in the Tomb of the Vulture Lord, not Gold Bags.

Q. Will there be extra rewards for invading another group’s instance? What happens if the invasion fails and the original group downs whatever boss they were on? Do both groups end up with a lockout? How will instance invasions deal with lockouts in the Land of the Dead?

A. Yes, there are rewards for successfully invading and defending an instance. When one group invaders another group’s instance, the invaders are not given any kind of lock-out, nor can they earn boss drops from that instance. If the invaders are successful and purge the other group, they will earn special rewards for their victory—these rewards are different than the instance boss drops. Only defenders can successfully down the instance boss, receive loot, and get a lockout for that instance.

In the event that players from both Realms attack and kill the boss, no one will receive a lockout timer or any boss loot. The May WAR Production Video Podcast will have more details about this. Check it out here!

Q. Will there be fights in the Land of the Dead that require more coordination than anything in the game yet?

A. Absolutely! The Land of the Dead content boasts many new mechanics, including the invasion of enemy-Realm instances, and the defense of your own instances.

Q. Most of the Teir 4 Lakes are very linear.  By this, I mean that there are many choke points and places that you must pass through to get from point A to point B.  This makes small-scale RvR and roaming more difficult because you will eventually run into a zerg, and retreat options are severely limited.  Will the new zone be more open and allow for viable roaming?

A. Yes, absolutely. The Land of the Dead is a very open and expansive area with many places to hide out, including underground tunnels, among ruins, within the many rocky hills and valleys, and of course in the instances.

Q. Can you explain exactly how players will reach the new zone? Will they have to be part of a party/warband prior to entering the zone?

A.  Players will fly to the Land of the Dead after they unlock the Flight Path from the Land of the Dead Flight Master in each capital city (near the other Flight Master). Once you unlock the flight path to the Land of the Dead, as long as your Realm holds control, you can fly there from anywhere in the world. You do not need to be in a party or warband to enter the zone.

Q. If we log out in the Land of the Dead, can we log back in there later on? Meaning, can we park characters there for when the zone flips and wait for the other realm to take control?

A.  Yes, you can, but if your character dies when your Realm is not in control of the Land of the Dead, and you are not able to get a resurrection, you will be kicked out of the area until your Realm regains control.

Q. Does invading the opponent’s instance that is already progressed lock you out of creating your own until the 3-day lockout expires?

A. No, it does not. Invaders do not receive lockout timers.

Q. Are the Aviator Goggles necessary in the Tomb Kings expansion? If not, what additional benefit do they provide?

A. The Aviator Goggles are not necessary in the Land of the Dead, but using them will allow you to see certain things (what we call “Easter Eggs”) you would not be able to see otherwise. That’s all we’re going to give away—try them to see what you can discover!

Q. For traps in the Land of the Dead, does the first group in the dungeon need to be at them in order to activate them on the enemy group that is making its way through the dungeon? Or is it once you clear it, you just reset behind you?

A. Once you clear a trap, you can reset it as you pass it—you do not need to be present at the trap in order for it to work, but you do need to reset it (they don’t reset on their own). The Tomb of the Vulture Lord also has a checkpoint-based teleport system inside, so if you forget to reset a trap once your group has cleared it, you can go back and do it at a later time.

Q. Will there be a summoning stone inside the dungeon for people wanting to join groups already in progress?

A. There will not be a summoning stone inside the Tomb of the Vulture Lord dungeon, but there is a checkpoint-based teleport system inside that will work for all party members (even new ones). As a party progresses through the dungeon, they reach checkpoints and unlock more teleport locations within the dungeon. So, new party members will still need to travel to the Tomb of the Vulture Lord on their own, but once inside, they can teleport to the checkpoint nearest the group they are joining.

Q. Will there be rewards for groups making an opposing group wipe on a boss and stealing the boss kill?

A. Invaders will receive a special reward for successfully purging a defending group from an instance, but invaders cannot “steal” a boss kill. As mentioned earlier in this Grab Bag, invaders cannot get boss loot or lockout timers. When there is a clash of Realms in one of the Land of the Dead Public Quests, the winners are determined via the standard Public Quest Contribution system.

Q. When a campaign is locked and a capital city goes into a captured state, how does the losing Realm generate Expedition Resources?

A. In response to the news of their Realm's near-victory against their enemy's king, elements of the competing armies (either Order's or Destruction's) will form celebratory camps in Praag in order to partake of their spoils of war. For example, if Altdorf is captured, Destruction's forces will start the victory party a little too early. Regardless of the Realm, these festivities will always be located somewhere in Praag's RvR lake.

Members of the Realm whose capital city has been captured can raid these celebratory camps, bashing the heads of the would-be victors and claiming their ill-gotten gains as Expedition Resources.