Blizzard has just announced that patch 9.2.5 will be launching next week! On release the new Blood Elf and Dark Iron Dwarf heritage weapons will become available as well as the cross faction play in organized pvp, raiding and mythic+! Season 4 will not start until later this summer.
9.2.5 Content Update Arrives June 1
The Shadowlands content update 9.2.5 is slated to arrive on June 1 with a variety of features and experiences such as cross-faction play, new questlines for blood elf and Dark Iron dwarf characters, a new PvP arena, and more!
Read on to catch a glimpse of what’s coming to the Shadowlands.
Party with Players from the Opposing Faction!
Cross-faction gameplay is included with the 9.2.5 content update, giving players more grouping options and allowing them to play with their friends from the opposing faction. Read our news post for more about this feature.
Blood Elves and Dark Iron Dwarves, Get Questing!
Two new questlines will help blood elf, and Dark Iron dwarf players earn new rewards in this update.
Blood Elf players completing their questline receive the Elusive Emerald Hawkstrider mount, and blood elf Paladins earn the Blood Knight-themed Ensemble: Blood Knight’s Dedication. Dark Iron dwarf players who complete their questline earn the Grimhowl’s Face Axe mount and the Dark Iron-themed Arsenal: Lavaforge Armaments as a reward.
Test Your Mettle in the Enigma Crucible
The mysterious Enigma Crucible crafted by the Progenitors is the latest PvP arena located within the ancient wonder of Zereth Mortis and will offer players a challenging battlefield to test their skills.
Shadowlands Season 4 Coming Soon
Season 4 will be making its debut later this summer. Keep an eye on WorldofWarcraft.com/news for more details on when Season 4 will be available.
Shadowlands 9.2.5 Content Update Notes
Learn more about the latest changes coming to the Shadowlands by reading through the update notes.
9.2.5 Content Update Notes
ACHIEVEMENTS
- All Covenant Sanctum feature achievements are now visible and count towards your character’s total achievement points, regardless of which covenant your character currently belongs to. Nonetheless, all characters must belong to a Covenant to earn that Covenant’s specific achievements.
- Tower Ranger criteria now requires The Jailer’s Gauntlet: Layer 4 (was Layer 8).
- The Dancing Machine achievement text now specifies that the reward is a toy.
- Anima Cannisters required for Kaal-ed Shot now respawn after General Kaal resets and the Slammed! debuff is no longer removed by immunity effects.
- Fixed an issue that was causing The Enlightened faction to not count towards the Exalted Reputations achievements.
- Fixed an issue that caused the Azeroth at War achievements to not be obtainable by players.
CHARACTERS
- Removed the experience point reduction that is applied to level 51–60 characters while in Party Sync.
CLASSES
- DEATH KNIGHT
- Fixed an issue that caused Bone Shields consumed by Tombstone (Talent) to not reduce the cooldown of Blood Tap by the correct amount.
- WARLOCK
- Fixed an issue that caused Scouring Tithe (Kyrian Ability) to grant both the death and survive effects when used against certain enemies.
CROSS-FACTION INSTANCES
- Players are now able to directly invite members of the opposite faction to a party if you have a BattleTag or Real ID friendship, or if you are members of a cross-faction WoW Community.
- Premade Groups in the Group Finder listings for Mythic dungeons, raids, or rated arena/RBGs are now open to applicants of both factions, though the group leader may choose to restrict the listing to same-faction applicants if they so choose.
- WoW Communities now have the option to be cross-faction, while Guilds will remain single-faction.
- Random matchmade activities like Heroic dungeons, Skirmishes, or Random Battlegrounds will all remain same-faction. [LEARN MORE]
- The following instances are not cross-faction:
- Trial of the Champion
- Trial of the Crusader
- Vault of Archavon
- Icecrown Citadel
- Baradin Hold
- Siege of Boralus
- Battle of Dazar’alor
- Darkmaul Citadel (Exile’s Reach dungeon)
DUNGEONS AND RAIDS
- SEPULCHER OF THE FIRST ONES
- Cross-Realm raiding is now available on Mythic difficulty.
- MYTHIC+
- With Cross-Faction Instances becoming available, the Cryptic Hero: Shadowlands Season 3 achievement now requires a Mythic+ Rating in the top 0.1% of all players in your region.
ITEMS AND REWARDS
- Broker Mark of Distinction now increases the Renown of your currently active Covenant to 60 (was 40).
- Renown catch-up is accelerated through Renown 60 (was 48).
- These activities will now have a 100% chance to reward 1 Renown upon completion:
- Mythic and Mythic+ dungeons
- Torghast Layers 9-16
- Defeating a Shadowlands raid boss encounter
- Winning a Rated Battleground
- Reward boxes from Callings now contain twice as many Grateful Offerings, still scaling with your covenant sanctum’s Anima Conductor level.
- The Zereth Mortis weekly quest “Patterns Within Patterns” now awards Grateful Offerings.
- Fixed an issue that sometimes caused Blizzard Shop transmog cosmetics to temporarily disappear from your collection.
- Fixed an issue where Jingles battle pet would display as “Unknown” when summoned and its wreath and candy cane accessories were the incorrect size in the Pet Journal.
PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER
- NEW ARENA: ENIGMA CRUCIBLE
- SOLO SHUFFLE BRAWL
- The minimum item level requirement to queue has been raised to 252 (was 239).
- Fixed an issue that caused some abilities to not be removed from players in between rounds.
- Fixed an issue that caused a round to not reset properly if a player on each side of the brawl died at the same time.
- DEATH KNIGHT
- Anti-Magic Zone’s spell damage reduction increased to 50% (was 20%) in PvP combat.
- Dome of Ancient Shadow (PvP Talent) has been removed.
- WARLOCK
- Demonic Embrace now increases your Stamina by 20% (was 10%) in PvP combat.
- Demon Armor (PvP Talent) has been removed.
- AFFLICTION
- New PvP Talent: Shadowfall – Gain the Nightfall talent with 100% increased chance to gain its effect. If you already have this talent, you may select another in the same row.
PROFESSIONS
- Increased the experience points earned when crafting Specialized Armor and Jewelry for creating Runecarving items by 400%.
QUESTS
- Blood Elves can start a quest to earn a new mount, weapon appearance, and the Blood Knight armor set for Blood Elf Paladins by speaking to Liadrin in Oribos. Requirements: Level 60 and Exalted with Silvermoon.
- Dark Iron Dwarves can start a quest to earn a new mount and weapon appearances by speaking to Anvil-Thane Thurgaden in Shadowforge City, Blackrock Depths (accessed via Mole Machine). Requirements: Level 50.
TORGHAST, TOWER OF THE DAMNED
- All wings are now open (was 2 wings available per week).
- Layers 1–8 are now unlocked by default.
- Layers 9–12 now unlock after completing Layer 8.
- Layers 13–16 now unlock after completing the previous Layer.
USER INTERFACE AND ACCESSIBILITY
- All search filter dropdowns now have a button that lets you easily remove all active filters.
- The default hand cursor now has new, higher resolution art for its larger sizes under Interface Options → Accessibility.
- The Report Player pane has been redesigned, with new categories added.
A Look at Cross-Faction Instances
Make frenemies of your enemies when you party with players from the opposing faction!
As initially outlined in a previous post, cross-faction instances will break the faction divide by allowing friends from the opposite faction to play together. It will also expand opportunities for players to pursue their favorite group content.
Grouping Up
To invite members of the opposite faction to a party, players must have a BattleTag or Real ID friendship or be members of a cross-faction WoW Community.
Players will have the ability to find Premade Groups in the Group Finder for dungeons (Normal, Heroic, Mythic, and Mythic+), raids, rated arena/RBGs, and also Torghast. However, the group leader may restrict the listing to same-faction applicants if they choose.
Once in a party, members of the opposite faction will remain unfriendly while outside of instances, though they will be able to communicate through party and raid chat, as well as use /say and /yell within proximity of one another.
Upon entering a dungeon, raid, or rated PvP match, however, all members will be friendly and able to assist each other in combat, trade loot, earn shared achievements, and otherwise fully engage the same way members of the same faction do.
Guilds
Guilds will remain single-faction, and random matchmade activities like Heroic dungeons, Skirmishes, or Random Battlegrounds will all remain same-faction.
Legacy Instances
The functionality of the cross-faction instance feature will also apply to legacy instances and is available at all levels. However, there will be several older instances that cross-faction parties cannot enter due to faction-specific components, and they are:
- Trial of the Champion
- Trial of the Crusader
- Vault of Archavon
- Icecrown Citadel
- Baradin Hold
- Siege of Boralus
- Battle of Dazar’alor
- Darkmaul Citadel (Exile’s Reach dungeon)