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Author: Mezzy

Host and author of WoW Weekly podcast, guides and website. I have played WoW since classic, enjoy MMORPG’s and game design in general.

Shadowlands Season 4 Great Vault Details, Havoc Demon Hunter Concerns, Hotfixes: August 1, 2022, Introducing the WoW Variety Show!

While Blizzard doubles down on the last minute change to making the Slime Cat mount earnable on Normal mode and higher, Blizzard has released more details about the Great Vault, replied to Demon Hunter concerns and has released some last minute tuning in Castle Nathria.

Shadowlands Season 4 Great Vault Details

Quote from: Blizzard

With Shadowlands Season 4 starting this week, we want to provide extra clarification on this week’s Great Vault. Here’s what to expect:

  • Time a Mythic+ 18 to earn a +15 keystone this week.
  • Season 4 Great Vault rewards will begin with 10 August weekly resets.
  • Attendant’s Tokens of Merit selected this week can only be sold for 1000 gold each.

Havoc Demon Hunter Concerns

Quote from: Blizzard
Thank you for the post. We understand your frustration and want to take this opportunity to explain why there won’t be any changes to address the issue in Shadowlands. First, we largely view this as a preferred playstyle issue and not a balance one. Upon reviewing balance across all content formats, we didn’t see any reason to make changes to Havoc specifically. Second, the primary issue that we’re hearing is that some players do not enjoy the playstyle of maintaining Sinful Brand uptime through Eye Beam. We don’t think this point of the expansion is the appropriate time to disrupt players that have made significant investment into playing Havoc this way. However, we acknowledge the feedback you’re giving and we’ll be sure not to bring this particular gameplay forward into Dragonflight.

Hotfixes: August 1, 2022

Quote from: Blizzard

August 1, 2022

Dungeons and Raids

  • Castle Nathria
    • Stone Legion Generals
      • General Kaal’s Wicked Blade no longer triggers Wicked Blast on Heroic difficulty.
      • General Grashaal’s Reverberating Eruption cast time increased to 5 seconds on Normal and Heroic difficulties.
      • Stone Legion Goliath’s Ravenous Hunger damage increase is now 40% in Raid Finder, 50% in Normal, and 50% in Heroic difficulty (was 45%/60%/75%).
      • Stone Legion Goliath’s Soultaint Effigy is now triggered at 15% health on Heroic difficulty (was 20%).
      • Delivered large Anima Orbs now give Prince Renathal 40% mana on Heroic difficulty.
      • Delivered small Anima Orbs now give Prince Renathal 15% mana on Raid Finder, Normal, and Heroic difficulties.
      • Shattering Blast knockback has been decreased on all difficulties.

Player versus Player

  • Fixed an interaction with Demonology Warlock’s Call Observer (PvP Talent) and Balance Druid’s Fury of Elune (Talent) that was causing more damage than intended.

Burning Crusade Classic

  • Heroic dungeons now require level 70 to enter.

Introducing the WoW Variety Show!

Quote from: Blizzard

The WoW© Variety Show is a new three-event live broadcast coming to Twitch on August 24!

For glory and honor, a mix of renowned Warcraft Celebrity Contestants and chosen community members will go head-to-head as they compete in a triathlon of unique WoW activities. Players will have to show off their in-game knowledge, mastery of leveling, and speed in our specially-tailored segments for bragging rights over their fellow heroes and a slew of giveaway prizes. Read on for details of each event, and be sure to both register here and join the Variety Show Discord before the event goes live on Twitch!

Leveling

We’ve seen what some of our favorite friendly faces can do at max level, but now we’re taking them back to where it all began. Hosted on live servers, four Warcraft Celebrity Contestants will have exactly one hour to level a fresh character as high as possible, with a series of additional tasks and challenges to face along the way!

Scavenger Hunt

From lore to unsolved mysteries, the Warcraft universe is filled with all sorts of hidden items. Faced with riddles, puzzles, and plenty of things to find, teams of five will need to work together, making the most of their time as they scour the zones and complete as many scavenger tasks as possible! Register today to start your search, because spots are limited.

Footrace Through Azeroth

The final activity comes down to a test of speed and strategy, as players will fight without flight on a footrace through Azeroth! Grab your ground-mounts and go sign-up today. May the fastest hero win!

 

FAQ

Who can register?

  • The first Variety Show is limited to players from North America. Full eligibility and rules can be found here.

When does registration close?

  • Signups will be open until 11:00 am (PT) on August 15.

Who are the four WoW Celebrity Contestants?

  • The four will be revealed in the coming weeks! Make sure to follow us on Twitter to catch who will be joining the broadcast.

What prizes are being given away?

  • We will be giving away a variety of in-game goodies–Game Time, Mounts, Pets, and some special surprises–to players throughout the broadcast.

How many spots are available?

  • Spots are limited! The four Celebrity Captains will be joined by a further four registered players to join each of their teams, be sure to sign up for a chance to be selected. The Footrace Across Azeroth is open to additional players. Limiting spots allows us to ensure the best experience for everyone as we experiment with our first Variety Show.

How often will you be hosting the Variety Show?

  • Only time will tell! Let’s see how the first one goes before we plan on the second.

Dragonflight Alpha: Hunter, Evoker and Dragonriding Feedback

The WoW devs have responded to more feedback on the Alpha forums and have announced more changes for Hunter and Evoker talent trees and the Dracthyr Soar racial ability!

Hunter Feedback

Quote from: Blizzard

Hello again, Hunters.

We wanted to discuss some adjustments coming to your talents in a future build, and briefly mention a few thoughts.

Class Tree
The current design intentionally has almost all utility above the second gate, which means you have 11 points that will almost certainly be spent only on throughput choices in PvE situations. We like having a bunch of abilities located past the second gate that were previously locked to individual specs. This has also created a situation where there’s a lot of bloat of extra abilities and cooldowns that feel mandatory because they are available and likely worth pressing. The last 3 rows of the tree have been shuffled around a bit and will continue to be adjusted to try to prevent most hunters from feeling obligated to acquire multiple extra active buttons.

  • Barrage and Explosive Shot are now a choice node.
  • Stampede now replaces Chakram in the choice node vs Death Chakram.
    • Chakram has been removed from the talent tree.
  • Nesingwary’s Trapping Apparatus has been lowered to 2 points.

Beast Mastery

  • Bloodshed and Murder of Crows is now a choice node, and is where Dire Beast previously was.
  • Dire Beast has been moved to where Murder of Crows was.
  • New Talent – Bloody Frenzy – Barbed Shot has a chance to apply a second stack of Frenzy to your pets. This is located in the second gate area.
  • Beast Cleave has been lowered to 2 points, and Beast Cleave’s duration is now 3/6 seconds depending on your rank.

Marksmanship
While Rapid Fire is not a required ability, we’re trying to integrate it to the tree where it would make sense. Marksmanship has very limited passive Focus generation, and Rapid Fire should ideally help with that. We want to avoid situations where you drop Steady Shot entirely while doing prolonged combat.

  • Deathblow has been made a 1-point node. Rapid Fire casts (not damage events) can now also activate this. The chance for activation is different for Aimed Shot vs Rapid Fire.
  • Razor Fragments now also works with Deathblow procs, rather than being tied solely to Trick Shots.
  • Bombardment’s design has changed – Every 6/4 (2-rank node) Arcane or Chimaera Shots causes your next Multi-Shot to grant you Trick Shots, regardless of how many targets it hits.
    • This will likely be changed to a 1-point node, or adjusted to also boost Multi-Shot damage per rank. The location of this also needs to be adjusted as you can currently select this without Multi-Shot.
  • Lone Wolf’s spot in the tree has been moved to above the first gate.
  • More things connect to Lock and Load’s talent node.
  • Some redundant node connections have been removed.
  • Legacy of the Windrunners and Serpentstalker’s Trickery node locations have been swapped.
  • Unerring Vision’s design has slightly changed to also increase critical damage while Trueshot is active.

Survival
Spearhead and Coordinated Assault are competing for some space in the tree. We’re hoping to identify a set of abilities to that each augments in a way that feels good, and also would prefer a design that doesn’t encourage you to stack both of them at the same time. Some adjustments are being made to these abilities to try to focus on different parts of your ability sets in a manner that lets both Coordinated Assault and Spearhead hopefully feel both distinct from each other, while still feeling powerful on their own.

  • Mongoose Bite should actually replace Raptor Strike now.
  • Predator returned to 25%, rather than 8%. This was a data error when changing from a 3 point node to a 1 point node.
  • A connection between Lunge and Frenzy Strikes has been removed to prevent a dependency problem.
  • Deadly Duo renamed Quick Shot, and redesigned. When Kill Command’s cooldown is reset, you fire a free Arcane Shot at your target.
  • Coordinated Assault is back to 2 minutes.
  • Coordinated Assault no longer modifies Carve. Instead, your pet’s special attack increases the initial damage of your next Wildfire Bomb.
    • Birds of Prey will likely be adjusted in a future build to more directly work with the design tweaks of Coordinated Assault.
  • Bonded Companion renamed Deadly Duo, and redesigned. While Coordinated Assault is active, Wildfire Bomb’s cooldown is reduced by 25/50%, Wildfire Bombs generate 5/10 Focus when thrown, and Kill Shot can be used on any target regardless of the target’s HP.
  • Coordinated Kill redesigned, and is now 2 points. While Spearhead is active, Raptor Strike and Mongoose Bite Focus Cost is reduced by 5/10, and Kill Command resets increase the duration of Spearhead by 1/2 sec.

Evoker Feedback

Quote from: Blizzard

Greetings and well met, Evokers! Some big changes are coming to the Devastation specialization talent tree in the next Alpha build, and I wanted to talk through some of the philosophy behind them and how your feedback is helping to shape the tree. Please note that this is not an exhaustive list of every change, and more will be changed than just what is listed here. That said, let’s dive in!

With the current Devastation tree, a few things stood out to us amongst the discourse here and in other parts of the community. Namely:

  • The tree strongly signals that there is a “Red dragonflight build” on the left, and a separate “Blue dragonflight build” on the right.
  • Effects that scale with empower level, such as Power Swell and Tyranny, remove gameplay by indicating that it is always correct to fully empower your spells.
  • Feed the Flames & Everburning Flame are an awkward combination.
  • Scarlet Adaptation is having a larger impact than intended on builds.
  • Blue-focused single-target builds don’t flow as well as they could.

To dig in a little deeper to each of these, let’s go through them one by one.

The tree strongly signals that there is a “Red dragonflight build” on the left, and a separate “Blue dragonflight build” on the right.

Having thematic groupings on either side is a great introduction to the talent tree. It resonates as something you would expect for the specialization, and makes it easier to know where to look for modifiers to certain abilities. However, Devastation utilizes both Red and Blue magic, and the current tree isn’t celebrating that theme well enough. Builds that use both types of magic should be the norm, with all-Red or all-Blue being much more niche. To make using both colors more effective, we’ve adjusted many talents’ locations or function, as well as added new nodes. A few examples:

  • Honed Aggression now affects both Azure Strike and Living Flame, increasing their damage by 5% per rank.
  • Catalyze is a new, 1-rank passive on the left side of the tree. “While channeling Disintegrate your Fire Breath on the target deals damage 100% more often.”
  • Iridescence is a new, 1-rank passive at the bottom of the right side of the tree. “Casting an empower spell increases the damage of your next 2 spells of the same color by 15% within 10 sec.”

Effects that scale with empower level, such as Power Swell and Tyranny, remove gameplay by indicating that it is always correct to fully empower your spells.

We’re excited about the possibilities of empower spells and have experimented internally with many varied effects, including Power Swell. As a broad concept, attaching more effects to empower spells seems cool – lean into empower levels even more! What we’ve seen on Alpha, though, is that having even small effects get linearly better with empower level, without situational considerations to change up decision making, detracts too much from core empower gameplay. We see (and share) the excitement for choosing talents that make empower spells better, so Power Swell is being adjusted to not disrupt the moment-to-moment gameplay decisions of empower spell level.

  • Power Swell is now a 2-rank node that reads, “Empower spells increase your Essence regeneration rate by 50% for 2 sec or 4 sec [based on talent rank].”

Feed the Flames & Everburning Flame are an awkward combination.

Taken together, these two talents quickly push Devastation into a space of having Fire Breath off cooldown for a length of time while an existing Fire Breath damage over time effect gets extended. That said, both talents offer interesting potential gameplay and impact builds in different ways. They will now be in a choice node against each other, and Feed the Flames is being redesigned to fit into more builds:

  • Feed the Flames now triggers whenever you consume an Essence Burst effect, instead of whenever Pyre is cast.
  • Everburning Flame now triggers from all Red damage spells, instead of only Pyre and Living Flame.
    • This means that damage from Firestorm will extend Fire Breath. Damage from Ruby Embers will continue to not trigger Everburning Flame, and Fire Breath will not extend itself.

Scarlet Adaptation is having a larger impact than intended on builds.

The current value of Scarlet Adaptation causes a warping effect on how Devastation builds their talent loadouts, in particular due to the interaction with Leaping Flames – when Living Flame hits additional targets via Leaping Flames, all of the Living Flames benefit from any Scarlet Adaptation damage the Evoker has. The Leaping Flames interaction is intended, and the response to it has been one of excitement. However, it is important for there to be multiple options for how to build your character for area-of-effect damage situations.

The intent of Scarlet Adaptation is to encourage, and reward, hybridization for both specializations. Preservation Evokers who enjoy dealing damage can easily access the node, but aren’t required to pick it up in their path to other high-power healing talents. Devastation Evokers who want to help their group with additional healing can take it to be rewarded for taking action when their group is in a dangerous situation. To better meet those goals, Scarlet Adaptation’s damage cap is being reduced to 2x Spellpower, down from its current value of 6x Spellpower.

Blue dragonflight-focused single-target builds don’t flow as well as they could.

Two key talents to these builds are Charged Blast and Focusing Iris, both of which have been the subject of insightful discussion and concern.

  • Charged Blast is intended to be something that can spice up single-target gameplay for those who want an additional layer of complexity within the rotation. Many of you have expressed that the current design, requiring 2 Azure Strikes before casting Charged Blast, isn’t quite hitting the mark because although it does add complexity, it doesn’t add interaction.
  • Focusing Iris is intended to be a more passive option that accomplishes similar goals as Charged Blast. However, the combination of timing an ability immediately after finishing a channeled spell, with the relatively high uptime of the debuff, makes Focusing Iris both more burdensome & less potent than it could potentially be.

To address this, we’re combining what we feel are the best parts of both into a new ability! Charged Blast and Focusing Iris as they currently exist are being removed, and replaced with a spell called Shattering Star.

  • Shattering Star has a 15 sec cooldown, is instant cast, and does not cost Essence. “Exhale a bolt of concentrated power from your mouth for Spellfrost damage that cracks that target’s defenses, increasing the damage they take from you by 20% for 4 sec.”
  • The options in the choice node following this ability are also being redesigned:
    • Focusing Iris is a passive that increases the duration of Shattering Star’s damage taken effect by 2 sec.
    • Arcane Vigor is a passive that causes Shattering Star to generate 1 Essence.

As always, thank you for your playtesting and feedback. We’re excited to hear how about your experiences with the Devastation tree in the next Alpha build!

Dragonriding Feedback

Quote from: Blizzard
Greetings Dragonriders and Dracthyr!

With the next alpha build, we’re making a change to Soar for Dracthyr that reduces their maximum speed from (roughly) 930% to 640%. The maximum speed for Dragon Isles Drakes is unchanged. This only applies to the Dracthyr Soar racial ability.

In the Dragon Isles, all characters of all races are on similar footing in regards to their ability to traverse the terrain because everyone can summon a Dragon Isles Drake. However, this isn’t the case in other areas of the game where flying mounts are the mainstay of travel. In Eastern Kingdoms, Soar is currently over twice as fast as Epic Flying which travels at 410% speed. The result is that Dracthyr have a drastic efficiency advantage over characters of other races when doing non-Dragon Isles content, whether that’s Chromie Time quests, clearing old raids for transmog, pet battling, etc.

Soar is important to the identity of Dracthyr. From the outset of the design process we knew that Dracthyr had to be able to fly in some form, even if we didn’t know the specifics until later. But, Soar is also a Racial ability, and was never intended to be a massive efficiency or performance improvement over other races. These two goals are somewhat in conflict: Make Soar fun and fulfill the fantasy of being a flying creature, but don’t give one race an outsized advantage across large swathes of the game.

What we’ve found while playtesting these changes internally is that the speed change didn’t diminish the fun of the locomotion mechanics. The engaging control system, gameplay of conserving momentum, and challenge of navigating obstacles, are all still present, while also rewarding skillful use of Soar with being able to travel faster than Epic flying mounts. This hits both of the goals nicely – Dracthyr can engage in the dynamic, immersive locomotion of dragonriding, but aren’t able to blitz across a continent in half the time as other characters.

The Alpha period is time for experimentation, testing, and learning, and that often leads to change. Due to Soar being an evergreen feature of the Dracthyr race, we feel that reducing the top speed is necessary for the long-term health of the game. Thank you for your passion, feedback, and understanding. See you in Azeroth!

WoW Hotfixes – July 28th 2022, Shadowlands: Season 4 Begins August 3, Shadowlands Season 4 Content Update Notes

We got more Shadowlands related news and articles today with a few new hotfixes and blog posts/patch notes (including class balancing) for season 4 launching next reset!

WoW Hotfixes – July 28th 2022

Quote from: Blizzard

JULY 28, 2022

Dungeons and Raids

  • Mists of Tirna Scithe
    • Mistcaller
      • Dodge Ball no longer pierces immunities.
  • Tazavesh: Soleah’s Gambit
    • Fixed issue where Murkbrine Fishmancer’s Volatile Pufferfish was not dealing damage.

Items and Rewards

  • Sandworn Relics are now bound on account.

Burning Crusade Classic

  • Fixed an issue where the Shattered Hand Scout could prevent completion of Shattered Halls.

Shadowlands: Season 4 Begins August 3

Quote from: Blizzard

Shadowlands Season 4 includes eight returning dungeons from earlier expansions, new seasonal rewards, all-new affixes, and fabulous rewards. Read on for more details!

Fated Raids

In the aftermath of our climatic battle in Zereth Mortis, the power of the First Ones is echoing across the Shadowlands, empowering some familiar raid settings and the rewards within. Each week, one of the three Shadowlands raids (Castle Nathria, Sanctum of Domination or Sepulcher of the First Ones) will become Fated, along with any World Bosses associated with those raids. The World Bosses in Shadowlands and their associated raids are:

Castle Nathria

  • Valinor, the Light of Eons
  • Mortanis
  • Oranomonos the Everbranching
  • Nurgash Muckformed

Note that only one of these bosses will be available at a time during a Castle Nathria Fated week.

Sanctum of Domination

  • Mor’geth, Tormentor of the Damned

Sepulcher of the First Ones

  • Antros
Sire Denathrius in Castle Nathria
Sire Denathrius awaits you in Castle Nathria
Sylvanas Windrunner in Sanctum of Domination
Face Sylvanas Windrunner in the Sanctum of Domination
Shadowlands Epic Edition
End the Jailer in the Sepulcher of the First Ones

How Do Fated Raids Work?

Each week, one raid will be marked as Fated. You may enter a Fated raid in any difficulty (Raid Finder, Normal, Heroic or Mythic). Note that while a raid is marked as Fated, you cannot enter its non-Fated version until the following week when another raid becomes Fated—so plan your transmogrification and achievement runs accordingly! You can find our Fated raid schedule here.

Once you enter a Fated raid, you’ll notice that all enemies and bosses will have adjusted stats—the goal here isn’t to make your raid group go through progression again; we’re aiming to provide a proper but not insurmountable challenge for those already experienced with the encounters.

Each boss encounter will be empowered by one of four unique Fated Powers. These will vary from boss to boss and week to week, presenting challenges for your raid group that reward Fated Infusions, temporary powerful auras for your efforts. Should you conquer any boss in a Fated raid, you’ll receive rewards according to the difficulty level you’ve completed them in. The item level distribution for Fated raids is as follows:

  • Raid Finder: 265-272
  • Normal: 278-285
  • Heroic: 291-297
  • Mythic: 304-311

All gear obtained in Fated raids can be converted into set pieces at the Creation Catalyst.

Puzzling Cartel Dinars

Season 4 features a trio of broker vendors suspiciously skulking around the Great Vault. Each of these brokers has wares from one of the three Shadowlands raids. They will sell trinkets, weapons, and other special items from their respective raid. Each item will have the same price: a single Puzzling Cartel Dinar. You can obtain Puzzling Cartel Dinars by entering any Fated raid in Season 4 and completing the required 3-part questline. But there’s a catch: you will only be able to get three Puzzling Cartel Dinar for the entire season.

After spending your last Dinar, the brokers leave town and take their wares with them. Items sold by these vendors will be at the Season 4 Normal Fated item level range of 278-285, depending on the item.

Heroic & Mythic Upgrade Items

Raiders can upgrade raid loot as they move up in difficulty. In Season 4, defeating bosses on Heroic or Mythic difficulty will drop either Confounding Antique Cypher (on Heroic) or Confounding Ancient Cypher (on Mythic). Combine 20 Cyphers to upgrade gear to their Heroic or Mythic versions.

Unlike the Puzzling Cartel Dinar above, which has a quest you must complete to earn them over time, these Cyphers will begin as guaranteed drops as soon as Season 4 begins. This will allow you to capture effort progressing week over week from the get-go. These upgrade items will work on any item with a ‘Fated’ tag, including those sold by the broker vendors mentioned above.

Fated Raid Rewards

Several new rewards can be obtained by achieving the following Feats of Strength during Season 4:

  • Fates of the Shadowlands Raids – Clear all 3 Fated raids on Normal difficulty.
    • Rewards the Jigglesworth Sr. mount.
Jigglesworth Sr. mount
Jigglesworth Sr., obtained by completing all Fated raids on Normal Difficulty.
  • Heroic: Fates of the Shadowlands Raids – Clear all 3 Fated raids on Heroic difficulty.
    • Rewards the “Hero of Fate” title.
  • Mythic: Fates of the Shadowlands Raids – Clear all 3 Fated raids on Mythic difficulty.
    • Rewards three teleports to each Shadowlands raid location on the character that earned the achievement.

New Dungeon Rotation

Season 4 features a new dungeon rotation for Mythic+. New Mythic Dungeon Keystones obtained from Shadowlands dungeons will be for one of the following dungeons:

  • Tazavesh: Streets of Wonder (from the Shadowlands expansion)
  • Tazavesh: So’leah’s Gambit (from the Shadowlands expansion)
  • Operation Mechagon: Junkyard (from the Battle for Azeroth™ expansion)
  • Operation Mechagon: Workshop (from the Battle for Azeroth™ expansion)
  • Return to Karazhan: Lower (from the Legion™ expansion)
  • Return to Karazhan: Upper (from the Legion™ expansion)
  • Grimrail Depot (from the Warlords of Draenor™ expansion)
  • Iron Docks (from the Warlords of Draenor™ expansion)
Operation Mechagon
Operation Mechagon, one of the dungeons returning in Season 4

New Mythic Keystone Affix: Shrouded

Nathrezim infiltrators have disguised themselves among certain non-boss enemies in dungeons. You can see through their clever disguises if you pay close attention. Defeat these impostors, and a Cartel Ta member will capture them and allow you a choice of bounties that will enhance a secondary stat of your choice. You’ll also receive a hefty Bounty Payment that quickly restores health and mana.

Mythic+ Rewards

The following rewards can be obtained by completing Mythic Keystone Dungeons in Season 4:

  • Shadowlands Keystone Conqueror: Season Four – Attain a Mythic+ Rating of at least 1500 during Shadowlands Season Four.
    • Rewards “The Shrouded” title.
  • Shadowlands Keystone Master: Season Four – Attain a Mythic+ Rating of at least 2000 during Shadowlands Season Four.
    • Rewards the Restoration Deathwalker mount.
Restoration Deathwalker Mount
Restoration Deathwalker, one of the Mythic+ Rewards in Season 4
  • Keystone Hero: Iron Docks/Grimrail Depot/Return to Karazhan/Operation: Mechagon/Tazavesh, the Veiled Market – Completing Season 4 dungeons at Mythic Level 20 or higher within the time limit.
    • Rewards dungeon teleports to the dungeons completed.
  • Shrouded Hero: Shadowlands Season Four – End Shadowlands Mythic+ Season 4 with a Mythic+ Rating in the top 0.1% of all players in your region.
    • Rewards the “Shrouded Hero” title.

New PvP Season

A new PvP Season will also kick off, allowing heroes all over Azeroth a chance to obtain glory in the Arenas and Battlegrounds. The new item level caps for Honor and Conquest gear shakes up as follows:
Honor Gear (Eternal Combatant)

Upgrade Level Item Level PvP Item Level
1 229 255
2 236 268
3 242 272
4 249 275
5 255 278
6 262 281
7 268 285

Conquest Gear (Eternal Gladiator)

Rating Requirement Rated Rank Item Level PvP Item Level
Unranked 275 288
1000 Combatant I 278 291
1200 Combatant II 281 294
1400 Challenger I 285 298
1600 Challenger II 288 301
1800 Rival I 291 304
1950 Rival II 294 307
2100 Duelist 298 311
2400 Gladiator 301 311

Mount and Title Rewards

Obtaining the Eternal Gladiator: Shadowlands Season 4 Feat of Strength at the end of the Season will award you the Eternal Gladiator’s Soul Eater mount and the Eternal Gladiator title. In addition, a new mount—the Vicious Warstalker—can be obtained by participating in rated PvP matches (Arenas or Rated Battlegrounds).

And What About…

  • Legendary Ranks?
    • There won’t be a new Legendary Rank in Season 4.
  • Crafter’s Mark?
    • There won’t be a new Crafter’s Mark in Season 4.
  • Conduits?
    • There won’t be new Conduits or Conduit upgrades in Season 4.
  • Sockets?
    • Sockets are obtained in the same way as they were in Season 3.
  • Mythic Keystones?
    • Just like previous Seasons, Mythic Dungeon Keystones obtained from the Great Vault on the first week of the Season will be at a lower level than usual to account for the increased challenge.
  • Raid Shortcuts?
    • Any raid shortcuts you have unlocked in Castle Nathria, Sanctum of Domination, and Sepulcher of the First Ones will be available to you when you enter the Fated versions of those raids.
  • Great Vault Raid Loot?
    • Great Vault raid rewards will pull from all Fated bosses you’ve defeated across the entire Season, regardless of which raid is currently Fated.

The focus of Season 4 is earning new gear through a remixed raid and dungeon experience, and PvP. Any obligation to retread familiar Shadowlands systems in order to keep pace feels contrary to that focus, and in order to provide the best experience, we’ve decided to leave those systems unchanged.

Going Out With a Bang

Season 4 presented a unique opportunity for the WoW Development Team to try some experimental changes that might have been

Shadowlands Season 4 Content Update Notes

Quote from: Blizzard

Shadowlands Season 4 brings a new Mythic+ dungeon rotation including six returning dungeons from earlier expansions with a new seasonal affix, a brand new raiding experience with Fated Raids, empowered world bosses, a new PvP season, and fabulous rewards.

FATED RAIDS

  • Each week during Shadowlands Season 4 will feature a different Fated raid: Castle Nathria, Sanctum of Domination, or Sepulcher of the First Ones. Enemies within Fated raids are stronger and drop upgraded loot with a higher item level, while bosses are augmented with a variety of Fated Powers that offer additional risk and powerful bonuses.
  • Seasonal rewards for Fated Raids include new Feat of Strength achievements, Jigglesworth Sr. mount, the “Hero of Fate” title, and teleports to each Shadowlands raid location.
  • FATED POWERS
    • Developers’ note: Fated Raids are an experiment in giving a fresh take on an existing experience. Adding new mechanics atop pre-existing encounters is a precarious balancing act and we wanted to reward players’ efforts, and as such built powerful beneficial auras, called Fated Infusions, which are earned after executing the new Fated Power mechanics.
    • CREATION SPARK
      • Targeted players become charged with Cosmic damage over time. When this Magic-dispellable aura is removed, Creation Sparks fly off and impact the ground. This can explode if no player is there to intercept it, but if they do they’re rewarded with a powerful Fated Infusion, increasing the flow of time and the movement speed of any player within the radius.
    • RECONFIGURATION EMITTER
      • An enemy appears which continually casts, inflicting Cosmic damage to all players if successful. Over time, this enemy gains energy and increased damage done, and when defeated grants a Fated Infusion which increases mastery, critical strike, versatility, and avoidance based on the enemy’s energy value.
    • PROTOFORM BARRIER
      • Infuses a powerful enemy to inflict Cosmic damage to players. When removed this power manifests as an enemy who shields all enemies in the area for a short period of time, sharing the pool of shielded health. Players may additionally heal a secondary unit to contribute against this pool. If this shield breaks, damage and healing done to shielded enemies is inflicted upon them, and players are granted a Fated Infusion, increasing total health, damage, healing, and absorbs done based on how much that player contributed.
    • CHAOTIC ESSENCE
      • Summons an orb which defeats all players, but may be interacted with. This activates the foe, which spawns additional enemies for a short period of time. For each one slain, more spawn, and after the window of time players are rewarded with another Fated Infusion, increasing damage, healing, and absorbs done, stacking for each enemy defeated.
  • FATED RAID REWARDS
    • Entering any Shadowlands raid in Season 4 will start the quest “Crossing Fate”, kicking off a questline that will reward players for participating in Fated Raids over a number of weeks with a new currency: up to 3 Puzzling Cartel Dinar.
    • 3 New Vendors (Ko’ropo, Ta’choso, and So’turu) can be found lurking near the Great Vault in Oribos, and will gladly trade one Puzzling Cartel Dinar for any of their wares: trinkets, weapons, and unique items from across the 3 Shadowlands raids, at Fated Normal quality (item level 278-285).
    • Defeating Fated bosses on Heroic or Mythic will reward each player 1 Confounding Cypher of the appropriate difficulty. Combining 20 Heroic or Mythic Cyphers awards a Creation Impetus, which upgrades any Fated items to Heroic or Mythic quality.
      • Developers’ note: This system is an experiment for Season 4 with the goal of providing a method for players to overcome extreme bad luck scenarios when it comes to a particular piece of loot that just won’t drop, especially in a season where each raid is only Fated every 3 weeks. We’re limiting it to only 3 Puzzling Cartel Dinar over time so that players can fill the gaps in their regular gearing and protect against runs of significant bad luck, but not undercut the primary gearing experience of doing meaningful content with your group over time. Additionally, we’re trialing a method for players to upgrade raid gear as they move into harder difficulties, rewarding effort over an extended period of time. Our hope is that these two systems combine with Fated Powers to create a satisfying and well-paced progression of power through Season 4’s perilous new challenges.

MYTHIC+

  • New Seasonal Affix: Shrouded – Nathrezim infiltrators have disguised themselves among the enemies throughout the dungeon. Cartel Ta will reward you handsomely for assisting in their capture.
  • New seasonal rewards for Mythic+ include new Feat of Strength achievements, the two new titles: “the Shrouded” and “Shrouded Hero”, dungeon teleports, and a new coloration of the Mythic+ Deathwalker mount.
  • New dungeon rotation consisting of:
    • Tazavesh: Streets of Wonder
    • Tazavesh: So’leah’s Gambit
    • Operation Mechagon: Junkyard (Battle for Azeroth dungeon)
    • Operation Mechagon: Workshop (Battle for Azeroth dungeon)
    • Return to Karazhan: Lower (Legion dungeon)
    • Return to Karazhan: Upper (Legion dungeon)
    • Iron Docks (Warlords of Draenor dungeon)
    • Grimrail Depot (Warlords of Draenor dungeon)
  • Portals to Gorgrond, Karazhan, and Mechagon are now available in Oribos.
  • TAZAVESH: SOLEAH’S GAMBIT
    • Enemy Forces have been adjusted.
    • Coastwalker Goliath’s Tidal Stomp damage reduced by 15%.
    • Coastwalker Goliath’s Undertow increases the damage of Tidal Stomp by 15% per stack (was 25%).
    • TIMECAP’N HOOKTAIL
      • Anchor Shot no longer scales with Fortified.
      • Anchor Shot damage reduced by 10%.
  • TAZAVESH: STREETS OF WONDER
    • Enemy Forces have been adjusted.
    • Veteran Sparkcaster’s Hyperlight Salvo deals damage less frequently.
    • Customs Security Hard Light Baton cooldown increased to 18 seconds (was 12 seconds).
    • Customs Security Hard Light Baton damage reduced by 10%.
    • P.O.S.T. MASTER
      • Fan Mail damage reduced by 15%.

EMPOWERED WORLD BOSSES

  • While a raid is Fated, the rewards from the world boss linked to that raid will have their item levels increased.
    • Mortanis, Oranomonos, Nurgash, and Valinor are linked to Castle Nathria, Mor’geth is linked to Sanctum of Domination, and Antros is linked to Sepulcher of the First Ones.

CLASSES

  • DRUID
    • BALANCE
      • Starfall damage increased by 15%.
        • Developer’s note: Balance AoE has gradually fallen off in recent months, we believe due to Starfall not benefitting as as much as other comparable spells from increased Astral Power generation and Haste, as gear levels increase. We are looking into different solves for the future, but for now are giving it a boost to better compete in the current content.
  • HUNTER
    • SURVIVAL
      • Raptor Strike, Mongoose Bite, and Kill Command damage increased by 15%.
      • (4) Set Bonus: Wildfire Bomb bonus damage lowered to 20% (was 30%).
      • Wildfire Bomb, and any Wildfire Infusion variants of Wildfire Bomb now deal reduced damage when hitting more than 8 targets. The tooltips will be updated to reflect this in a future patch.
        • Developer Note: The Mad Bombardier set bonus boosts Wildfire Bombs in fun and powerful ways, but with the potentially frequent set bonus activation, and Wildfire Bombs not having any target cap where their damage is lowered, Survival Hunters have exceeded expectations in content where there are many targets to hit. The set bonus interactions are fun to play with, so rather than adjusting frequency or power level of the buffed Wildfire Bomb, we’re going to lower its effectiveness when pulling very high numbers of enemy targets. We’re increasing the damage of Kill Command, Raptor Strike, and Mongoose Bite to offset the loss of damage in single target scenarios.
  • MAGE
    • ARCANE
      • Clearcasting duration increased to 20 seconds (was 15 seconds).
        • Developers’ note: We’re increasing the duration of Clearcasting to minimize scenarios where the buff would fall off without the opportunity for players to gain value. This is primarily a PvP concern, but we did not feel there was a reason to make it PvP exclusive.
  • MONK
    • WINDWALKER
      • Spinning Crane Kick damage reduced by 5%.
        • Developers’ note: We’re happy with prior single target changes that have resulted in making Windwalker a powerful option in a broad spectrum of situations. However as a result, their total contribution ends up being slightly too strong in areas where their AOE strengths can be brought to bear. This change is not intended to remove those strengths, but ensure they’re not too far ahead of the pack.
  • PALADIN
    • PROTECTION
      • Armor increased by 5%.
      • Holy Shield (Talent) increase to block chance increased to 20% (was 15%).
        • Developers’ note: We are seeing Protection Paladins dying to melee damage, or mixed melee and spell damage. This change is intended to improve their performance against both those damage types.
  • PRIEST
    • SHADOW
      • Mind Sear damage increased by 30%.
      • Shadow Crash (Talent) damage increased by 25%.
      • Searing Nightmare (Talent) damage increased by 15%.
        • Developers’ note: We are looking into Shadow’s AoE toolkit for Dragonflight and want to address the concerns brought up by the community. However, in the meantime, we are implementing these adjustments to help Shadow’s performance in multi-target situations for Season 4. We’ll continue to watch Shadow’s performance as the season unfolds and make further adjustments if needed.
  • WARLOCK
    • DESTRUCTION
      • Chaos Bolt damage increased by 5% in PvE combat.
      • Incinerate damage increased by 20%.
      • Immolate damage increased by 20%.
      • Conflagrate damage increased by 10% in PvE combat.
      • (4) Set Bonus: Blasphemy no longer grants Rain of Chaos.
        • Developers’ note: In order to address Destruction’s excess soul shard generation issues, we’re removing the ability for the Blasphemy to grant Rain of Chaos. This will prevent their shard generation from getting out of control and rein in their AOE output. However, this will have some effect on Destruction’s single-target damage and to help counter the impact we’re increasing the damage of several single-target spells in the Destruction toolkit. This is a big shift so we’ll be monitoring feedback closely and will adjust in the future if needed.
  • WARRIOR
    • PROTECTION
      • Ignore Pain’s absorption increased by 30%, and the absorption cap is now 30% of maximum Health (was twice the Ignore Pain absorb value).
        • Developers’ note: We find that Protection Warriors struggle with magic and unblockable forms of incoming damage. This change is intended to help improve survivability in those situations, while the change to the cap will constrain its strength otherwise.

ITEMS AND REWARDS

  • GREAT VAULT
    • RAID REWARDS
      • All 3 Shadowlands Raid rewards will be available in the Great Vault via the Fated rotation. Once you slay a Fated Raid boss, their rewards will be added to the pool of available drops for the rest of the season.
    • Unspent Attendant’s Token of Merit left in bags will be converted to 1000 gold each.
  • Fated Castle Nathria and Fated Sanctum of Domination encounters now reward Cosmic Flux.
  • Accumulated Valor is reset, but the cap will stay removed.
  • Accumulated Conquest is reset, with a higher weekly cap than previous seasons. The cap will be removed later in the season.
  • Domination Sockets have been removed from all Sanctum of Domination items, as well as items sold by Archivist Roh-Suir and Duchess Mynx in Korthia.
  • Helms and Waists from Sanctum of Domination can now roll sockets naturally, and when Fated, can be socketed using the new socketer: Fated Matter Fractalizer.
  • Fated Matter Fractalizer socketer item can be purchased for 3 Attendant’s Token of Merit.
  • Ephemera-Infused Mesh no longer functions and can be sold to a vendor for 6,000 gold.
  • Vessel of Profound Possibilities no longer requires Season 3 achievements to purchase. It can now be purchased for 10,000 Cosmic Flux.
  • Stygian Embers no longer drop from Bosses, Lieutenants, or the Korthia Weekly Quest “Shaping Fate.”
  • The following trinkets have been adjusted:
    • Bells of the Endless Feast now stacks on the player (was target).
    • Blood Spattered Scale damage and absorb reduced by 25%.
    • Chains of Domination initial spike damage increased by 10%, and area-of-effect explosion damage increased by 20%.
    • Decanter of Endless Howling primary stat increased by 10%.
    • Heart of the Swarm damage increased by 15%.
    • Inscrutable Quantum Device secondary stat gain reduced by 25%.
    • Intrusive Thoughtcage is now more effective at reading your target’s mind; dodge rating increased by 20%, health drain damage increased by 10%, and final mind shatter damage to nearby enemies increased by 20%.
    • Macabre Sheet Music duration of the dancers increased by 25%.
      • Developers’ note:  The duration is increased to give players more time to finish the dance mini-game.
    • Manabound Mirror non-stored healing increased by 10%, and healing stored per mana spent increased by 20%.
    • Memory of Past Sins damage increased by 10%.
    • Old Warrior’s Soul Haste granted per stack reduced by 10%.
    • Pulsating Riftshard damage and absorption increased by 10%, and Rift Portal charge reduced to 1.5 seconds (was 3 seconds).
    • Relic of the Frozen Wastes damage increased by 15%.
    • Resonant Silver Bell healing increased by 15%, and Spectral Feline now appears when healing an ally below 50% health (was 40%).
    • Scars of Fraternal Strife secondary stats granted by each rune increased by 25%, and Final Rune’s explosion damage increased by 25%.
    • Shadowed Orb of Torment Mastery increased by 12%.
    • Skulker’s Wing damage increased by 10%.
    • The Lion’s Roar cooldown reduction from critical heals increased to 6 seconds (was 3 seconds), and now absorbs 30% of all damage taken in the zone of protection (was 20%).
    • Tome of Monstrous Constructions damage increased by 15%.
      • Developers’ note: The reasons for these trinket changes are that we hope to remove an advantage some players might have from obtaining a 278 version of a Shadowlands trinket from the Season 3 Great Vault, considering that Shadowlands Dungeon trinkets will be attainable at a max of 262 ilvl for anyone who starts after Season 4 begins.
        Second, with raids rotating, we want to ensure that a higher amount of items looted from a raid on given week have a chance to be satisfying upgrades for players. You could imagine a scenario where Castle Nathria for example might not be worth it if all of the ‘good trinkets’ come from a different raid you won’t be able to access for 1-2 weeks. Additionally, Season 4 is a unique opportunity for us to look at these items will a full season (or more) of hindsight, and thus able to improve ones that we felt were close power-level wise, but not quite enough to compete with popular or easier-to-acquire options.
        Lastly, given the limited Dinar currency we’ve seen a lot of fear from players that they’d be afraid to spend them, only to have that item nerfed or another item made better. We’re frontloading these changes at the start of the season and intending to stay as hands-off as possible so decisions made about which items you buy can be removed from the fear of those numbers changing dramatically.
  • The following weapons have been adjusted:
    • Slightly increased the drop rate of Edge of Night and Rae’shalare, Death’s Whisper.
      • Developers’ note: Due to a shorter season and a raid rotation, we want these items to be a bit more attainable, so we have slightly increased their drop rate. As an epic quality item, the Edge of Night will also be available via the Fated Raid vendor.
    • Genesis Lathe’s Ephemeral Effusion effects increased by 10%.
    • Sepulcher’s Savior on-use effects increased by 20%.

PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER

  • With the new season, you’ll see increased item levels for rewards and new seasonal rewards. The new seasonal rewards for PvP include a new Arena title: “Eternal Gladiator”, a new weapon illusion: Eternal Flux, new coloration of the Gladiator Soul Eater mount, and new Vicious mounts–Alliance and Horde themed Warstalker.
  • DEATH KNIGHT
    • Spellwarden (PvP Talent) now grants a 25% increased effectiveness to Rune of Spellwarding (was 50%).
      • Developers’ note: With the baseline increase to Anti-Magic Zone in 9.2.5, we’ve seen Death Knight defensives be stronger than we would like against casters.
    • Brutal Grasp (Necrolord Conduit) effectiveness reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
      • Developers’ note: Abomination Limb’s contribution in a Death Knight’s damage profile is substantial, so we are looking to bring it down.
  • DEMON HUNTER
    • HAVOC
      • Dancing with Fate (Conduit) is now 75% effective in PvP combat (was 100%).
        • Developers’ note: Demon Hunter’s damage is slightly higher than we would like, so we are reducing the Dancing of Fate conduit to tone it down.
  • MAGE
    • Deathborne (Necrolord Ability) increased spell damage decreased to 10% in PvP combat (was 15%).
    • Incanter’s Flow (Talent) no longer has a reduced effect when engaged in PvP combat (was 25% reduction).
    • ARCANE
      • Arcane Missile damage increased by 15% in PvP combat.
        • Developers’ note: Arcane Mages continue to be underrepresented so we are looking to increase damage opportunities for them through various parts of their kit, including Arcane Missiles, Clearcasting, and Incanter’s Flow.
    • FIRE
      • Blazing Soul now ignites a Blazing Barrier at 50% effectiveness in PvP combat.
        • Developers’ note: Fire Mage survivability has continued to be higher than we would like, so we are targeting Blazing Soul to address that while keeping the overall feel of Mage gameplay intact.
    • FROST
      • Ice Lance damage increased by 15% in PvP combat.
      • Frozen Orb damage increased by 20% in PvP combat.
        • Developers’ note: A substantial portion of a Frost Mage’s damage profile has come from Frostbolt, particularly around the Necrolord class ability Deathborne. We’re looking to reduce Deathborne and increase some of their base abilities to have a better distribution of damage in their kit.
  • MONK
    • MISTWEAVER
      • Rising Sun Kick now deals an additional 25% damage in PvP combat.
      • Blackout Kick now deals an additional 25% damage in PvP combat.
        • Developers’ note: We are increasing Mistweaver damage on Rising Sun Kick and Blackout Kick to better reward aggressive gameplay moments.
  • PALADIN
    • RETRIBUTION
      • Blade of Justice damage increased by 20% in PvP combat.
      • Crusader Strike damage increased by 30% in PvP combat.
      • Hammer of Wrath damage increased by 15% in PvP combat.
      • Avenging Wrath increases damage, healing, and critical strike chance by 15% in PvP combat (was 20%).
      • Crusade (Talent) effectiveness reduced by 25% while in PvP combat.
        • Developer’s note: The damage dealt in Avenging Wrath’s window can be volatile, so we would like to bring that down while increasing some of Retribution Paladins’ base damage abilities.
  • PRIEST
    • HOLY
      • Greater Fade (PvP Talent) now has a 60 second cooldown (was 45 seconds).
      • (4) Set Bonus: Divine Conversation increases the healing of your next Holy-word affecting spell by 24% in PvP combat (was 36%).
      • Flash Heal heals for an additional 20% in PvP combat (was 30%).
      • Heal heals for an additional 25% in PvP combat (was 35%).
        • Developers’ note: Holy Priests continue to outperform other healers, and we are looking to target various areas of their kit to better fit within other spec representation and performance.
  • ROGUE
    • Invigorating Shadowdust (Runecarving Power) now reduces the cooldown of your other abilities by 10 seconds in PvP combat (was 20 seconds).
    • Septic Shock (Night Fae Conduit) effectiveness reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
    • SUBTLETY
      • Eviscerate damage reduced by 10% in PvP combat.
      • Resolved an issue that caused Deeper Daggers (Conduit) to affect non-Rogue abilities.
        • Developers’ note: Rogues have been overperforming across all specs so we are looking to tone down damage within burst windows for Subtlety and Assassination while reducing Outlaw’s cooldown recovery potential.
  • SHAMAN
    • RESTORATION
      • (4) Set Bonus: Chain Heal cast by Theurgic Starspeaker’s Regalia is no longer reduced in PvP combat (was 30% reduction).
        • Developers’ note: Resto Shaman’s Tier Set bonus has not had as much impact as we initially suspected so we are nullifying the reduction of power it previously had.
  • WARLOCK
    • Health Funnel effectiveness increased by 20% in PvP combat.
    • AFFLICTION
      • Unstable Affliction damage increased by 15% in PvP combat.
      • Unstable Affliction backlash damage when dispelled deals 20% more damage, but can no longer critically strike.
      • Corruption damage increased by 30% in PvP combat.
      • Dark Soul: Misery (Talent) increases Haste by 20% in PvP combat (was 30%).
        • Developer’s note: For Affliction, we want to smooth out some of the spiky damage that results from Dark Soul windows and the occasional Unstable Affliction critical strikes, while at the same time allowing them to maintain consistent pressure outside of these windows.
    • DEMONOLOGY
      • Call Felhunter (PvP Talent) cooldown increased to 30 seconds (was 24 seconds).
        • Developers’ note: Overall Demonology has high utility potential, so we are increasing the cooldown to Call Felhunter to bring it more in line with what we are comfortable with. Additionally, Warlock pets can have difficulty with survival, especially when being focused, so we are increasing Health Funnel as a tool to help that.

Dragonriding and You: Ascending to New Heights of Skill, Dragonflight Zone Preview: The Waking Shores

Blizzard has released 2 new blog posts, one for The Waking Shores zone and one with an explanation of the basics of Dragonriding.

Dragonriding and You: Ascending to New Heights of Skill

Quote from: Blizzard

A skilled Dragonrider is a force to be reckoned with, capable of catching up to any foe, ambushing enemies from above, and soaring above the Dragon Isles with impressive speed. Becoming a Dragonrider and learning the basics will be simple, but mastering this new skill takes practice. Once you figure out its intricacies, you’ll never see the Dragon Isles the same way again.

Dragonriding Basics

Through your travels on the Dragon Isles, you’ll begin training to become a Dragonrider. Dragonriding can only be used with Dragon Isles Drakes—customizable mounts with unique abilities. Throughout your leveling experience, you’ll earn four different Dragon Isles Drakes. In the hands of a skilled rider, these imposing winged terrors are capable of masterful maneuvers.

Each drake features unlockable appearances that can be selected and adjusted to make your new drake mount uniquely your own. You’ll receive new looks for your drakes through Drakewatcher Manuscripts, obtained from quest rewards, exploration, completing achievements, and various other means. Find the nearest Rostrum of Transformation in any Dragon Isles zone to make changes to your drake’s appearance.

Vigorous Riding

The first thing you’ll notice upon summoning a Dragon Isles Drake is that your primary action bar has been replaced with your Dragonriding skills, as well as a new resource: Vigor. Vigor is spent by using Dragonriding abilities and recharges automatically over time while grounded (mounted or on foot) or in the sky, while Dragonriding at high speeds.

Gaining Speed

Once you’re ready for takeoff, mount up and find a high rise. When you jump from it, your drake will unfurl its wings and begin to glide forward, slowly losing altitude. Point your dragon’s front towards the ground, and it will gain speed rapidly. Point it upwards, and it will slow down and gain altitude.

Managing your hang time depends entirely on your ability to gain speed by descending and maximizing your altitude while ascending without losing too much momentum. Vigor skills like Skyward Ascent will help you gain altitude, while others like Surge Forward will give you a quick speed boost to keep you going. Remember that your drake’s Vigor recharges when you’re speeding up; use that to your advantage as you build momentum.

Dragonriding Progression

Dragonriding features its own progression track, unlocked when you obtain your first Dragon Isles Drake. Through this progression track, you can unlock more abilities, increase your drake’s Vigor, and more. Dragon Glyphs, symbols of power scattered all over the skies of Dragon Isles, can be collected to advance your progress track and gain access to perks. Some Dragon Glyphs will be relatively simple to procure, while others will require a bit of exploration and clever use of your Dragonriding abilities to acquire. We hope you’ll find the journey and the sights along the way as compelling as hunting all the Dragon Glyphs.

Race to the Top

Once you’ve obtained your drakes and mastered their abilities, there’s one more way in which skilled Dragonriders can stand out: Dragonriding Races! All over the Dragon Isles, you will find various Dragonriding race locations that will challenge you to complete a set course within a limited timeframe. Clearing checkpoints extends your allotted time, and once you finish a course, you’ll be rated on your performance. Your personal best times will be recorded, and whenever you repeat a course, your time will be compared against your personal best. Challenge other Dragonriders to the ultimate test of skill and speed—only the fastest rider will prevail.

The Journey is Just Beginning

There’s more coming to Dragonflight as we progress through testing, including future updates to Dragonriding. We hope you’ve enjoyed this early preview and invite you to check https://worldofwarcraft.com/news for all the latest World of Warcraft previews and information. We’ll see you in the Dragon Isles!

Dragonflight Zone Preview: The Waking Shores

Quote from: Blizzard

The Waking Shores is the starting zone for Dragonflight and the most untamed area of the Dragon Isles.

The dragonflights left their homeland and the Waking Shores remained dormant for ten thousand years. Now, with Azeroth’s world-soul revitalized, the awesome primal might of the Shores stirs anew, rousing the dragons’ ancient allies and age-old enemies from their long millennia of slumber.

Heroes of the Alliance and Horde are invited by Alexstrasza to aid the red dragonflight in this vibrant and menacing land.

This land is stirring with the reawakening of elemental energies. Long ago, the elements were present in their most primal, unfettered form; however, the resurgence of magic in the Dragon Isles has caused that energy to reawaken.

Geysers and hot springs are commonplace, and powerful streams and rivers carve grottoes into the colorful rocks and sediment. Waterways feed into the land’s heart and the Life Pools of the red dragonflight.

While millennia ago this area was populated with dragon architecture like the rest of the Broodlands, most of those structures have long since fallen into decay and become overgrown.

Volcanic areas are alive with molten earth and fire. As the elevation rises, the land becomes harsher. In these imposing mountains, Neltharus, the Obsidian Citadel was built by the black dragonflight so that the Earth-Warder could defend the Broodlands. Abandoned long ago, the imposing fortress has now been claimed by the djaradin.

Inhabitants of the Waking Shores

Elemental magic manifests everywhere, with earth, air, water, and fire taking physical form. New types of elemental beings are rising, as well as animalistic creatures infused with this magic. Here are some that you will happen upon in your travels:

The Waking Shores are just the beginning of your adventures throughout the Dragon Isles. Help your allies push back against enemies, new and old, who are bent on controlling this ancient place of elemental power.

We look forward to sharing more details as development continues on Dragonflight. Visit the Dragonflight site to pre-order. Check WorldofWarcraft.com/news for updates and follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

See you in the Dragon Isles!

Shadowlands Season 4 Fated Raids and Mythic+ FAQ/Clarifications

In preparation of Season 4 next Blizzard has posted a large bluepost answering many questions players still had about how Season 4 will work.

Quote from: Blizzard

Hey everyone! This will be the last major post regarding Season 4; patch notes (and then the season itself) will be upon us soon, so look forward to those! That said, it’s clear there’s been some lingering questions & concerns surrounding Season 4, so we wanted to take the time to respond to some of the most common questions in a sort of lightning-round. As a heads up – if your personal question hasn’t been answered yet, it’s likely it has been in the other posts in this thread, so be sure to re-read through them to avoid confusion.

Conduits

  • Conduit item levels are not increasing, meaning they will stay at a max of 278.
  • With 278 becoming the new Normal item level for Fated Raids, conduits on Fated Normal/Heroic/Mythic raids will drop 278. (LFR will drop 265).
  • Conduits aren’t being added to the non-shadowlands dungeon loot pools, but Tazavesh’s conduits will be similarly updated.
  • The Vessel of Profound Possibilities, an item available from your covenant vendors in Season 3 that upgraded all of your conduits to ilvl 278, is changing. It no longer requires S3 Endgame achievements (duelist, 3k+ m+ rating, or mythic sepulcher clear) but is instead purchasable by all characters for Cosmic Flux.

Legendaries & Crafting

  • Crafted Shadowlands Legendaries will not increase in rank, staying at a max of Rank 7 with item level 291 for the season.
  • There is no new Crafter’s Mark to create a single piece of improved item level gear like there have been with previous content updates.

Currencies

  • Cosmic Flux will remain from Season 3, and won’t disappear on season rollover
  • A reminder that since our last post, there is now an item to transfer Cosmic Flux to other characters on your account at Quartermaster Vilo in Zereth Mortis
  • Sandworn Relics will be moving to Bind-on-Account status, but otherwise receive no updates
  • Unused Attendant’s Tokens of Merit from Season 3 Great Vaults will be going away upon season start, converting into gold at the rate of 1000 gold per token.
  • Ephemera-Infused Mesh, the Season 3 socket-granting item, will also cease to function on season rollover. Players with this item in their bags can sell it for 6000 gold, the same price as the 6 Tokens of Merit would have been to purchase it.
  • Tokens of Merit are returning in Season 4, with a new Socketer item priced at only 3 tokens to account for season length. This item works on Season 4 Items from Raid, PVP, and M+, just as the ones before them did.

Mythic+

  • Mythic+ Keystone decay between seasons is -3 levels, as it has been in past seasons. For example, if your highest Timed key this week is a +18, you will receive a +15 key opening your vault or speaking to Tah’sup in Oribos when Season 4 begins.
  • With few exceptions, old dungeon items are going to retain their original stats when scaling up to Season 4. This means that Primary stats on rings from Warlords of Draenor, trinkets with no primary stats, the mechagon rings + and other unique items from these dungeons – will all be enabled. Our intent is for this season to keep as many things from these dungeons as they were, where possible.
  • Azerite Armor from King Mechagon is removed from Operation: Mechagon’s loot pool.
  • As some of you may know, Warlords of Draenor had a different loot system where over 100 items where shared between all dungeons. For Season 4, Grimrail Depot and Iron Dock’s loot table will comprise of the items unique to those dungeons, as well as a mix of items chosen from that large shared pool to bring it in line with other dungeons.
  • Mythic+ End-of-Run items won’t be capped week 1 like in previous seasons.
  • Non-Tazavesh Shadowlands dungeons are gaining an increase in baseline item level, but these items are not upgradeable with valor. Only items from the Season 4 Mythic+ pool will be upgradeable with Valor.

Raiding

  • Mythic raiding is available on launch with no delay.
  • Cross-realm raiding will stay on, as there is no Hall of Fame for Season 4.
  • Raid skips earned in previous seasons will work in the difficulties you unlocked them for. For example, if you have the Kel’thuzad skip for Heroic Sanctum of Domination, then during weeks where Sanctum is the Fated raid, you will be able to use that skip only on Heroic difficulty.
  • Castle Nathria and Sanctum of Domination now give up to 2000 reputation with the Court of Harvesters and Death’s Advance on all difficulties. When these raids are Fated, they will drop up to 2000 Cosmic Flux as well.
  • Items received from Fated Raids will maintain their ‘Fated’ tag when transformed into Class Set armor by the Creation Catalyst, meaning they will also be upgradeable via the Heroic/Mythic upgrade currency mentioned in the original post.

Raid Rewards

  • As a Legendary weapon, Rae’shalare, Death’s Whisper, will not be available to purchase on the Broker Vendor with Dinar.
  • For players that already have the bow, an item will be purchasable from the Broker Vendors that will bring Rae’shalare to item level 285.
  • Sylvanas herself will still drop the bow on Fated weeks, and like it functioned in Season 2, will drop items in place of the bow for anyone who holds it that upgrade Rae’shalare to S4 Normal, Heroic, or Mythic item levels respectively.
  • On top of this, to account for the shorter season and the difficulty to get them, both Rae’shalare and Edge of Night will have an increased drop rate in all difficulties and versions of Sanctum of Domination.
  • We’re making a series of balance changes to trinkets & special weapons obtainable from all 3 Shadowlands raids, and some from Shadowlands dungeons. While we won’t go over the specific changes here (the patch notes will have you covered soon), we’re making these changes for a few reasons:

First, we hope to remove an advantage some players might have from obtaining a 278 version of a Shadowlands trinket from the Season 3 Great Vault, considering that Shadowlands Dungeon trinkets will be attainable at a max of 262 ilvl for anyone who starts after Season 4 begins.

Second, with raids rotating, we want to ensure that a higher amount of items looted from a raid on given week have a chance to be satisfying upgrades for players. You could imagine a scenario where Castle Nathria for example might not be worth it if all of the ‘good trinkets’ come from a different raid you won’t be able to access for 1-2 weeks. Additionally, Season 4 is a unique opportunity for us to look at these items will a full season (or more) of hindsight, and thus able to improve ones that we felt were close power-level wise, but not quite enough to compete with popular or easier-to-acquire options.

Lastly, given the limited Dinar currency we’ve seen a lot of fear from players that they’d be afraid to spend them, only to have that item nerfed or another item made better. We’re frontloading these changes at the start of the season and intending to stay as hands-off as possible so decisions made about which items you buy can be removed from the fear of those numbers changing dramatically.

That’s all for this wrap-up! Sorry if we didn’t get to your questions specifically – we’re really excited to bring you Warcraft’s most experimental season, and we hope to see you there. Stay on the look out for other communication coming soon like patch notes for a more comprehensive view of everything Season 4 has to bring!

Dragonflight Alpha: Dragonriding and Paladin Feedback

With the new alpha build out, a lot of feedback has started coming in due to various changes and bugs too. Blizzard has responded to feedback on both dragonriding and paladins.

Feedback: Dragonriding

Quote from: Blizzard

We’ve just rolled out a hotfix to remedy this, which should be active in current builds. While existing characters might have trouble with this, new characters selecting these traits should no longer experience this issue.

Dragon Glyphs are account-wide. Right now, selecting traits doesn’t make selections for every character, but the amount of points available should be consistent across characters as any character claims a new Dragon Glyph.

Thank you very much for trying this out in courses and comparing your experience before/after. We’d like to make the “when” of turning matter a little bit more, but not overmuch. More feedback will help a ton as we move forward. We’re keeping an eye on feedback as we continue to iterate.

Thanks again!

Feedback: Paladins

Quote from: Blizzard

Hi, thanks for your feedback! A few Rank 2 spell upgrades were overlooked in the conversion – as noted, Divine Steed’s 15 sec cooldown reduction, and Avenger’s Shield’s silence. These will be included in the baseline version of the spell in future builds, along with fixes for some of the bugs you all have identified in this thread.

Avenger’s Shield is intentionally no longer generating Holy Power. This is part of an effort to constrain Shield of the Righteous uptime, and transfer some of protection paladins’ defensive power out of Shield of the Righteous and into other cooldowns and forms of mitigation. We want Shield of the Righteous to feel like it makes you strong, rather than an essential component of your baseline passive survivability.

As for Divine Toll, part of what has made that ability fun and impactful is its flood of resources. We’re exploring ideas for how to reincorporate this in a future version of this ability.

In general, thank you all and please keep the feedback coming! Your thoughts and opinions are helpful and valued as we continue to iterate on these trees.

Dragonflight Alpha Development Notes Updated For Phase 3, The Waking Shores, Mages, Paladins, Dragonriding Feature Updates

The Alpha has been updated for Phase 3 meaning we have plenty of new patch notes! The Waking Shores Zone, Ruby Life Pools Dungeon, Mages, Paladins and much more!

Quote from: Blizzard

Hello! Here are this week’s notes for Dragonflight Alpha:

DISCOVER THE DRAGON ISLES

  • The Waking Shores

NEW FEATURES

  • Dragonriding
    • The Dragonriding Talent Tree is now available.
    • Dragonriding now features advanced turning tech that helps the drakes feel more weighty and turning more of a decision.
    • While boosted to very fast speeds, new tech will adjust the camera’s field-of-view. This can be disabled with the “Reduce Camera Motion” option inside the “Motion Sickness” section of the “Accessibility” menu.
    • When running into objects and walls, velocity is now lost based on angle and collision duration.
    • Dragon Glyphs are hidden throughout the skies over the Waking Shores! Fly through them to unlock achievements.
    • The Dragonriding Skill Track is now accessible at the dragonriding trainer Lithragosa located in Skytop Observatory.
      • Not all skills are displayed or implemented, but the player may earn points by collecting Dragon Glyphs and spend them for progression.
    • The Renewed Proto-Drake is now customizable in the Rostrum of Transformation.

NEW DUNGEONS
Developers’ note: Throughout the testing period, character levels will be scaled when entering Dragonflight dungeons. When this happens, the amount of talent points that your character will have available will reflect the original level, not the scaled level.

  • Ruby Life Pools

CHARACTER LEVEL
Developers’ note: With each phase, we encourage players to make a new template character and avoid using their previous characters as they could potentially be in a broken state . After making a new template character, make sure to talk to Questzertauren and he will prepare you for any available content.

  • Maximum Level: 62
  • There was an unexpected issue that required us to disable Dwarves and Mechagnomes player characters in this build. New characters of these races cannot be made at this time, and existing characters will be temporarily locked. We hope to have this resolved soon.

CLASSES

  • NEW TALENT SYSTEM
    • Mage
      • Developers’ note: The Mage trees in Dragonflight are focused on offering new talents to explore, supporting underrepresented archetypes and builds, and allowing for cross-specialization abilities. We want Mages to feel like they aren’t limited to their primary school of magic, and with enough commitment, they are capable of harnessing powerful abilities from a variety of different magic sources at once. The specialization trees are built to maintain the core fantasy of each specialization while tidying up existing gameplay through talents such as a reworked Alexstrasza’s Fury for Fire Mages, Wintertide for Frost Mages, and introducing a new major cooldown, Arcane Surge, for Arcane Mages. In addition to the talent changes above, we’re making several baseline changes to spells such as Ignite spreading via Fire Blast instead of Phoenix Flames and Flurry moving to a default instant cast, charge-based design. We’re hoping these new trees and talent designs allow you to customize your character in new and exciting ways and we’re looking forward to your feedback!
    • Paladin: Protection and Retribution
      • Developers’ note: With the Paladin talent trees in Dragonflight, we wanted to embrace the class’ knight heritage and the full breadth of its group stewardship. In the class tree, Paladins will see your utility front-and-center, and whether you prefer the fantasy of the crusader or the guardian, we hope that new options such as Seal of the Templar, Recompense, and Afterimage will help you lean into your vision. Blessing of Spellwarding has additionally been made class-wide. Protection Paladins will find a returning Eye of Tyr in your spec tree, as well as an array of options to tailor and enhance many of your signature abilities (both offensive and defensive) to best emphasize your own playstyle. Retribution Paladins will find options that integrate Consecration into their core rotation, a new vision for the returning ability, Exorcism, and other ways of obtaining Holy Power depending on playstyle in addition to new and returning enhancements to their iconic abilities.In this week’s build, Paladins will have access to their new Class, Protection and Retribution talent trees. While we’re still working on the Holy specialization, we wanted to bring our other specialization trees online early so we can get community feedback as early as possible. The Holy tree currently in this week’s Alpha is the existing Shadowlands’ talent tree, in addition to containing all of their other abilities. This is placeholder and not indicative of their final tree, and we will be bringing the Holy tree to Alpha as soon as its ready.
      • Known Issue: Unlearning the Crusade talent while also having the Avenging Wrath talent from the Class tree will cause you to keep Crusade and it’s override effect on Avenging Wrath. This can be fixed via relogging and will be corrected in a future Alpha build.

PROFESSIONS

  • Jewelcrafting
    • Developers’ note: In this Alpha build, Jewelcrafting has been enabled and can be trained by the Associate Professor Instructaur in Orgrimmar and Stormwind. While cutting gems and Prospecting remain the focus of Jewelcrafting in Dragonflight, we’re also expanding the amount of novelty items that Jewelcrafting can craft, with new Statues, toys and other consumables. We’re also interested in feedback on the new Primalist gems and the Tiered Medallion Setting consumable, which will allow you to add additional sockets to your Dragonflight Necklaces.
  • Leatherworking
    • Developers’ note: In this Alpha build, Leatherworking has been enabled and can be trained by the Associate Professor Instructaur in Orgrimmar and Stormwind. In addition to feedback on the recipes and consumable items from Leatherworking, we’re also interested in feedback on the new Equip and Set effects that can be found on multiple crafted Leathworking pieces.
  • Specializations
    • Unlocking Specializations requires 25 skill in that Profession. Once unlocked, players can spend Specialization points to unlock various bonuses for their Profession.
    • Developers’ note: For the purposes of Alpha we’ve added a consumable, Professor Instructataur’s Top Secret Guide, on the Associate Professor Instructaur vendor that gives players 50 Specialization points. Below are a few Specialization paths:
      • Jewelcrafting
        • Faceting — Improve at cutting gems, gaining + 1 Crafting Skill for all gem cuts per point in this specialization.
          • Fire — Improve at cutting gems with fire, gaining +1 Crafting Skill for all fire cuts per point in this specialization.
        • Enterprising — Improve in the business of jewelcrafting, gaining +1 Crafting Skill for miscellaneous crafts per point in this specialization.
          • Prospecting — Improve in the delicate task of prospecting to increase yield and efficiency, gaining +1 Resourcefulness when prospecting per point in this specialization.
      • Leatherworking
        • Chain Armor Crafting — Improve at making mail armor, gaining +1 Crafting Skill per point in this specialization.
          • Intricate Chain — Improve at making intricate chain armor for the hands, feet, shoulders and waist, gaining + 1 Crafting Skill per point in this specialization.
        • Primordial Leatherworking — Improve at Primordial Leatherworking, gaining + 1 Crafting Skill when crafting elemental, bestial, and decay Leatherworking patters per point in this specialization.
          • Decaying Grasp — Improve at crafting decay patterns, gaining + 1 Crafting Skill per point in this specialization.
    • Known Issues
      • Existing Specialization trees will be wiped for this week’s Alpha build. Players will need to re-learn their specialization paths, which can be expedited by buying Specialization points via the Professor Instructataur’s Top Secret Guide consumable on the Associate Professor Instructaur vendor.
      • Leatherworking: Feral Hide Drums cannot be crafted. This will be fixed in a later build.
      • Jewelcrafting: Prospecting Ore does not currently differentiate between different Quality, resulting in the same prospecting output regardless of Ore Quality. This will be fixed in a later build.

USER INTERFACE AND ACCESSBILITY

  • New HUD UI — Get ready for a fully updated and customizable Heads Up Display (HUD) User Interface (UI) that’s been created with contemporary displays in mind, designed to be effective, attractive, and accessible.
    • Unit frames are now in a new default location near the player.
    • Edit Mode
      • Added the grid checkbox and slider
      • Added Player, Target and Focus frame
      • Added stance bar
      • Added “Snap to Right Side” to the right action bar settings
  • The Barbershop services are now free of cost.