New World of Warcraft patch, Visions of N’Zoth, adds new late-game activities and Allied Races

Later this year, Battle for Azeroth will turn two, and World of Warcraft players will move onto the game’s newest expansion: Shadowlands. But before Shadowlands arrives, fans have one more World of Warcraft patch to keep them busy. The Visions of N’Zoth patch is out now, and adds a ton of new content for both hardcore and casual World of Warcraft fans.

Here are the highlights of the new Visions of N’Zoth patch. Scroll down for a full list of 8.3 patch notes.

Corrupted zones and a redesigned PvP map

With Visions of N’Zoth, the Uldum and Vale of Eternal Blossom zones are getting makeovers. The Old God, N’Zoth, and his troops are attacking both of these areas, and players will need to defend them during the patch. The Deepwind Gorge PvP map also has a new redesign, inspired by Arathi Basin.

New Allied Races and Death Knight races

Blizzard Entertainment

With Patch 8.3, players can finally recruit some of their most beloved allies from Battle for Azeroth. Alliance players can now recruit Mechagnomes, and Horde players can acquire the Vulpera Allied Race. Once players unlock an Allied Race, they can create a new character as that race. And players who pre-order Shadowlands can now create a Death Knight of any race — including all Allied Races and the Pandaren.

New late-game activities

Like most major patches, Visions of N’Zoth comes with a new raid: Ny’alotha, the Waking City. This is a 12-boss raid set to go live on Jan. 21. Mythic+ players also have a new Affix called Awakened, which forces players to either seek out and fight an additional boss in the dungeon, or face it alongside the dungeon’s final boss. Players can also group up to battle through Horrific Visions, a new instanced challenge. There’s also an option to tackle it solo.

A new Legendary quest and Corrupted gear

Blizzard Entertainment

Battle for Azeroth’s final patch brings the Ashjra’kamas, Shroud of Resolve Legendary cloak into the game. Players can can craft and upgrade their cloak during the next few months.

Visions of N’Zoth also offers Corrupted items for players to earn. Corrupted gear offers a balancing act for players. Each gear piece comes with a Corruption value attached. The more Corruption a player has, the more damage or healing they deal. But there are also negative effects that come with higher Corruption — such as Void monsters leaping out of the shadows to attack you, randomly.

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Official 8.3 patch notes

Here are the full patch notes for World of Warcraft: Visions of N’Zoth, patch 8.3

Corrupted Zones: Uldum and Vale of Eternal Blossoms

The Old God N’Zoth has been freed from his titanwrought prison, unleashing destruction and terror across Azeroth. N’Zoth’s forces are gathered to lay siege on the titan facilities in Uldum and Vale of Eternal Blossoms. If these ancient defenses are ruined, N’Zoth will turn his nightmare visions into reality.

New Raid: Ny’alotha, the Waking City

Delve into where nightmares dwell in Ny’alotha, the Waking City, a 12-boss raid set in the Void-shrouded heart of the ancient Black Empire. Confront mad heralds and inscrutable horrors, and ultimately go eye-to-eyes with N’Zoth himself in a fateful battle for Azeroth’s survival.

New Affix: Awakened

Season 4 has a new affix—Awakened. While the Awakened affix is active, players will discover obelisks throughout the dungeon, which will pull players through the veil to the shadowy world of Ny’alotha. There, players will confront a powerful servant of N’Zoth which they must defeat or the servant will join forces with the final boss in the instance. Once the lieutenant has been taken down, the party will be returned to their regular reality in the location they’re currently standing in. This will enable some interesting skips that don’t involve the use of Rogues’ Shroud of Concealment or invisibility.

Assaults: The Servants of N’Zoth

Level 120 players will witness the overwhelming might of the Old Gods firsthand in new Assaults on titan facilities in Uldum and the Vale of Eternal Blossoms. Players must drive back N’Zoth’s minions by completing objectives in the area, including defeating enemies and rare foes, looting treasures, and participating in events. After making some progress, you will face the lieutenant leading the enemy’s forces and, once victorious, you will be rewarded with a powerful piece of equipment and a Vessel of Horrific Visions, a key that gives you access to a new feature: Horrific Visions.

Assault locations will rotate within Uldum in Kalimdor and Vale of Eternal Blossoms in Pandaria, so be sure to check the bottom left of your map (default hotkey: m) for the burning eye of N’Zoth to see what foes you face today.

Mantid Assault (Vale of Eternal Blossoms)

The peaceful lands of Pandaria are under siege from the mantid swarm once again. Squash Shek’zara’s insectoid servants to foil the hivemind’s plans.

Mogu Assault (Vale of Eternal Blossoms)

The warring clans of the Mogu over the Vale are surging to a breaking point, leaving devastation in their wake. Beat back their forces to put all sides this proud race on their knees.

The Black Empire Assault (Vale of Eternal Blossoms)

The restored Vale of Eternal Blossoms is once again threatened by the Old Gods. Drive back the madness of the Black Empire’s fleet to restore harmony.

Amathet Assault (Uldum)

Weaponizing their position as stewards of the titans, the zealous Amathet have taken control of Uldum to help secure their place as the sole controllers of the titanic forge. Sweep this arrogant tribe back into the sandy tombs they emerged from.

Aqir Assault (Uldum)

The Aqir plagues Uldum and threatens to obliterate the region’s titan facilities in the name of N’Zoth and the Black Empire. Crush their uprising to put an end to their mindless destruction.

The Black Empire Assault (Uldum)

As the veil between worlds fades, N’Zoth’s servants will infiltrate Uldum. Purify the desert sands of his ancient corruption.

While taking part in Assaults, you’ll also be able to earn two new reputations: Uldum Accord and Rajanni. Each faction will provide new rewards that can be purchased. Players will also be able to enter Lesser Visions of N’Zoth while Assaults are active. These can be entered solo or with a group and provide a window into the future that will put your sanity and skills to the test as you progress through it. Make sure to watch your sanity bar and work with your team.

New Feature: Horrific Visions

Horrific Visions are instanced challenges for 1 to 5 players that give you a glimpse at the twisted future N’Zoth has in store for Orgrimmar and Stormwind. While experiencing a Horrific Vision, your sanity will be under constant attack, increasing the instance’s difficulty—and forcing you to leave before you’re consumed by insanity.

Each time you’re subjected to a Horrific Vision, you’ll leave with more knowledge and fragments of N’Zoth’s corruption. Take these to Wrathion and MOTHER Silithus to strengthen your defenses and earn new tools, which will allow you to delve deeper into N’Zoth’s Horrific Visions and earn greater rewards.

To enter, bring a Vessel of Horrific Visions to the Chamber of Heart and enter the Horrific Vision of Stormwind or Orgrimmar.

Titanic Research Archive

Turning in fragments of N’Zoth’s corruption will reward you with abilities that allow you to delve deeper into future Horrific Visions, overcome greater threats, and weather the effects of N’Zoth’s sanity-draining attacks. You’ll be able to choose from a variety of passive abilities ranging from revealing treasures to mitigating the amount of sanity drained while in the instance.

Bring these fragments to Wrathion and MOTHER in the Chamber of Heart located in Silithus.

Faceless Masks

Players seeking the next echelon of rewards and challenges can adventure into bonus areas of Horrific Visions to discover Faceless Masks. Wearing these masks raises the difficulty level of Horrific Visions and unlocks improved rewards.

New Legendary Cloak: Ashjra’kamas, Shroud of Resolve

To combat N’Zoth’s corruption, Wrathion will return and work with players to craft a legendary cloak—Ashjra’kamas, Shroud of Resolve. This upgradeable legendary starts at Rank 1 at item level 470, with subsequent ranks increasing its power and adding other unique effects. Wearing this cloak will help players venture deeper into N’Zoth’s Horrific Visions, earn greater rewards, and unlock more of the mysteries behind the Old God’s power. This cloak may also come in handy when you face off against N’Zoth himself in the upcoming raid.

When you equip the cloak, you’ll immediately reduce Sanity loss while in Horrific Visions. At rank 6, the cloak will gain an on-use spell effect that dispels any effects of N’Zoth’s Corruption, and provides the wearer with immunity to any further Corruption effects for six seconds (3 minute cooldown). At rank 12, the cloak will also gain a Draconic Empowerment passive, causing your spells and abilities to have a chance to massively increase your primary stat.

Once your Ashjra’kamas, Shroud of Resolve reaches rank 15, you can begin to acquire Malefic Cores, which increase your Corruption Resistance by 3, to a maximum of 125. You can acquire one Malefic Core per week across all sources, including defeating N’Zoth in Ny’alotha on Normal, Heroic, or Mythic difficulty or by completing all objectives within a Horrific Vision.

Max-level players who have unlocked the Heart Forge will be able to begin the quests to obtain this new legendary cloak.

New Corrupted Items and Rewards

In Visions of N’Zoth, you’ll find gear tainted with Corruption. Cursed by N’Zoth, corrupted items offer truly exceptional power—for a price. As you don more corrupted gear, you’ll find your spells will do more damage, or your heals will be more potent—but the Corruption will begin to affect you in increasingly perilous ways. At low Corruption levels, you may be slowed periodically when taking damage—while at higher corruption levels, evil forces from the Void may come for you at any moment.

Deciding how much Corruption to take on is a delicate balancing act, but Corruption can be mitigated with your new legendary cloak and all new Essences. By equipping these powerful boons, you can negate some of the corruption and reap the benefits of N’Zoth’s might with fewer downsides.

You can choose to cleanse your items of Corruption through Titanic Purification, which will cost you some Corrupted Mementos—however, doing so will cause your item to lose the positive equip effect as well.

Here are a few Corrupted effects that can appear on player equipment.

Ineffable Truth

Your Spells and Abilities have a chance to show you the Ineffable Truth, increasing the rate your cooldowns recover by 50% for 10 seconds.

Twilight Devastation

Your attacks have a chance to trigger a beam of Twilight Devastation, dealing damage equal to 5% of your health to all enemies in front to you.

Deepwind Gorge Redesign

Visions of N’Zoth also brings a visual update and redesign for Deepwind Gorge. Inspired by Arathi Basin, the new Deepwind Gorge has five capture points for teams to battle over. Maintaining control over the Market, Farm, Ruins, Shrine, and Quarry will be key to securing victory as the first faction to reach 1500 points wins!

Players will find and be able to queue for the new Deepwind Gorge in the Battleground section of the Group Finder (default hotkey: i).

Pet Battles

Along with seven new battle pets and eight new battle pet World Quests, a fiery new challenge awaits your army of fierce little companions in Visions of N’Zoth.

Pet Battle Dungeon: Blackrock Depths

It’s time to marshal your menagerie and put your best battle pets forward in the volcanic labyrinth of Blackrock Depths, a new Pet Battle Dungeon with Normal and Challenge difficulties. You’ll earn an Ultimate Battle-Training Stone after defeating the dungeon on Normal difficulty. Completing it on Challenge difficulty will grant the achievement Pet Battle Challenge: Blackrock Depths along with Shadowy Disguise, a toy that turns you into a shadowy figure for 15 seconds. Completing Challenge difficulty will count toward a weekly quest that rewards Shadowy Gems, an account-bound currency that you can redeem for an Unopened Blackrock Supply Crate filled with pet supplies, or for three new pets—Wailing Lasher, Experiment 13, and Tinyclaw. Speak with Burt Macklyn at the entrance of the dungeon to add one of these powerful fiends… er, friends… to your ranks.

To get started on your journey, you’ll need to have completed the four previous Pet Battle Dungeon quests: “Wailing Critters,” “The Deadmines Strike Back,” “Gnomeregan’s New Guardians,” and “Tiny Terrors of Stratholme.” Once all four quest lines have been completed at Normal or Challenge difficulty, you’ll be able to accept a new quest from Tizzy Gearjolt in Boralus or Radek Fuselock in Dazar’alor and begin your Blackrock Depths pet battle journey.

New Allied Races: Vulpera and Mechagnomes

Visions of N’Zoth brings the resourceful vulpera to the Horde and industrious mechagnomes to the Alliance. As with other Allied Races, unlocking each race will reward you with a unique mount, and leveling a new vulpera or mechagnome from 20 to 110 will earn you their special Heritage Armor transmogrification set.

Horde players can unlock the vulpera by completing the Vol’dun level-up story line and reaching Exalted with the Voldunai. Alliance players who are Exalted with the Rustbolt Resistance and have completed the Mechagon story can embark on a quest line to create a mechagnome of their own.

Death Knights for All

With the launch of Visions of N’Zoth, players who pre-purchase World of Warcraft: Shadowlands will be able to create Death Knights as pandaren and all Allied Races—including the newly available vulpera and mechagnomes, once they’re unlocked.

Auction House Overhaul

The Auction House has been rebuilt to make it smoother, faster, and easier to use, with updated functionality built around the way players use the Auction House most frequently.

Commodities (stackable items) are no longer sold in stacks. Now, you’ll simply enter how many you want to buy and the Auction House will automatically select the cheapest available auctions. Since the cheapest auctions are always sorted to the top, you’ll never have to dig for the best deal again. You’ll also curate a favorites list so you can quickly search for and buy items you’re often hunting for.

New Quests

Many new stories and adventures are now available across Azeroth.

The Dark Prince Returns

Azeroth cries out and needs your aid to defend her against the Black Empire’s relentless invasion. Max-level players should seek out Wrathion to begin cleansing the world of N’Zoth’s forces.

Servant of N’Zoth

The whispers of N’Zoth corrupt the minds of fierce warriors across the world, filling them with bloodlust against their own brothers and sisters. If a player succumbs and accepts this quest, they will join forces with N’Zoth and do his bidding by slaying their own faction members. If they can defeat 10 players without dying, they will be rewarded with a new title, Servant of N’Zoth, an item that allows them to defect to N’Zoth on command, and earn the achievement Servant of N’Zoth.

New Heritage Armor: Goblins and Worgen

Celebrate your legacy with Heritage Armor sets for goblins and worgen.

Players with a max-level (120) goblin or worgen who are Exalted with their faction (Bilgewater Cartel or Gilneas respectively) will be able to embark on a new quest line for each race to learn more about their history. Once you complete your quest, you’ll gain a new Heritage Armor transmogrification set unique to your race.

New Warfront: Heroic Darkshore

As with Heroic Stromgarde, you’ll need to coordinate with a premade group of 10 to 20 players to win against the relentless forces of the enemy. Interact with the War Table in Boralus or in the Port of Zuldazar with your raid group to join the fight.

New Brawl: Teeming Islands

This large-scale battle brings together two teams of 10 on an island overflowing with powerful creatures. This Brawl brings an additional challenge to the shores of PvP Island Expeditions by increasing the total amount of players from six to 20 on the biggest Islands (Havenswood and Jorundall).

When the Brawl is active, players can join the fight by opening up Group Finder (default hotkey: i), selecting it from the Player vs. Player tab, and queuing up.

Darkmoon Faire Arcade

Get your tokens ready. A new attraction built by the finest gnomish engineers is now ready for you to test your mettle—the Darkmoon Faire Arcade! Play games inspired by World Quests including HexSweeper, Barrels o’ Fun, Totemic Matrix, BULL-E, Remembery, and Rune Matching.

Be sure to look for this mechanic marvel run by Lynnish Hardmode when the Darkmoon Faire is in town, just behind the Darkmoon Faire Roller Coaster.

Mounts

Traverse the corrupted lands of Uldum and Vale of Eternal Blossoms astride several new shadow- and Void-inspired mounts. Six of them are listed below, but there are even more waiting to be discovered!

Ny’alotha Allseer

This tentacled nightmare’s ghoulish looks are akin to the many-eyed Old God himself. Drops from N’Zoth, the Corrupter on Mythic difficulty.

Ivory Cloud Serpent:

Ivory Cloud Serpents are often mistaken for roaring thunder as they tear through the skies with blistering speed. Lucky players can claim their own by vanquishing the Ivory Cloud Serpent in Vale of Eternal Blossoms.

Black Serpent of N’Zoth

The black serpents of N’Zoth are the harbingers of his ultimate vision becoming reality. Only those servants—or enemies—who can tread this space have any chance of wrangling them. Obtained by earning the achievement Through the Depths of Visions.

Clutch of Ha-Li

The brood of Ha-Li are comfortable in the blue skies of Pandaria, hunting unsuspecting prey. Cut down Ha-Li in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms for a chance to bring this mount into your stable.

Shadowbarb Drone

Players can now raise their own Shadowbarb Drone mount. Be on the lookout for Voidtouched Eggs in Uldum to begin your journey!

Springfur Alpaca

The kind nature of alpacas makes them perfect companions for intrepid adventurers. Earn your own by completing the “Alpaca It In” quest in Uldum.

Holiday Updates

Lunar Festival

Embark on an adventure around Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms to complete the Rite of the Moon and help an old druid bless her Staff of Moonflowers. In return, she will enchant your flower crowns so they never die, and you can transmogrify them year-round!

Achievements

• Players who own the Mighty Caravan Brutosaur mount now earn the Conspicuous Consumption Feat of Strength.

Character Appearances

• The eyes of blood elves, night elves, and Death Knights of all races now have an updated glowing effect.
• Guardian Druids with the Mage Tower Legion Artifact appearance Might of the Grizzlemaw now have a unique dance animation.

Classes

• Death Knight
• Blood
• Mark of Blood (Talent) can no longer heal a target with a very large health pool for more than 5% of the casting Death Knight’s maximum health.
• Unholy
• Bursting Sores (Talent) now increases the healing absorption provided by Necrotic Strike.
• Risen Skulker summoned from All Will Serve (Talent) can now benefit from Path of Frost.
• The Risen Skulkers’ Skulker Shot cast time and damage increased by 25%.
• Developers’ note: By increasing the cast time and damage, this ability should no longer collide with the global cooldown at higher Haste levels.
• Druid
• Balance
• Sunfire and Moonfire damage and periodic damage reduced by 10%.
• High Noon (Azerite Trait) damage increased by 11%.
• Power of the Moon (Azerite Trait) damage increased by 11%.
• Feral Druids’ abilities now have improved sound effects.
• Finishing abilities should now audibly stand compared to other abilities.
• Dealing bonus damage against bleeding targets can now be heard.
• Restoration
• Mastery: Harmony healing bonus reduced by 9%.
• High Noon (Azerite Trait) damage reduced by 34%.
• Developers’ note: Restoration Druid has an overall package of healing, damage, and utility that is very hard to compete with in solo-healed content. Two things that stand out in particular are the efficiency of focused healing on a single target with high Mastery, and the ease of contributing DPS with very little GCD usage on Sunfire.
• Mage
• Frost
• Ice Lance damage increased by 20%.
• Developers’ note: Ice Lance damage hasn’t kept up with Icicles’ scaling, making builds that ignore Ice Lance possible. The intent of this change is to give Frost Mages a better incentive to use Ice Lance in their rotation.
• Monk
• Brewmaster
• Stamina bonus reduced to 30% (was 35%).
• Stagger percentage reduced to 90% of Agility (was 105%).
• High Tolerance now increases effectiveness of Stagger by 5% (was 8%).
• Developers’ note: Brewmaster’s extremely high effective health against Physical damage meant that they are rarely in danger against spike damage that threatens other tanks. This should still be a strength of Brewmaster, but not by such a wide margin.
• Mistweaver
• Revival healing increased by 12%.
• Renewing Mist healing increased by 15% and costs 2.5% mana (was 2.8%).
• Vivify healing increased by 6%.
• Enveloping Mist healing increased by 10%.
• Rising Mist healing increased by 33%, and now extends heal-over-time effects by 4 seconds (was 2 seconds).
• Developers’ note: This talent is currently overshadowed on its row, and we want to make sure it’s competitive enough to make its unique play style a viable option.
• Life Cocoon now absorbs for 60% of the caster’s maximum health (was 1100% of the caster’s spellpower).
• Developers’ note: This ability had gotten weaker compared to player health pools since the start of the expansion, and this will help it better maintain its value.
• Windwalker
• Rising Sun Kick damage increased by 25%.
• Blackout Kick damage increased by 10%.
• Developers’ note: These changes are intended to help Windwalkers perform better in single-target fights.
• Paladin
• Holy
• Glimmer of Light (Azerite Trait) healing reduced 12%, and may now be applied to a maximum of 8 targets.
• Developers’ notes: Over the past year, builds centered around this trait have steadily pulled ahead of all other Holy Paladin play styles, and to some extent all other healers in high-end content. This change is meant to preserve the gameplay of the trait, but limit the ability to increase its value drastically by stacking every possible bonus that reduces the cooldown of Holy Shock.
• Priest
• Discipline
• Contrition’s (Talent) base healing reduced by 25%.
• Contrition’s healing is now correctly affected by Mastery.
• Developers’ note: In the aggregate this talent gains value, due to the increase in Penance healing, reduction to Atonement healing, and Mastery bug fix.
• Penance healing increased by 15%.
• Schism now increases damage done from Priest spells and abilities only.
• Developers’ note: This change is intended to make Schism consistent with other similar class cooldowns.
• Shadow Word: Pain damage reduced by 9%.
• Purge the Wicked damage reduced by 10%.
• Power Word: Solace (Talent) damage reduced 10%.
• Atonement healing reduced to 50% (from 55%).
• Mastery: Grace effectiveness increased by 12%.
• Developers’ notes: Discipline’s ability to contribute both damage and healing is slightly too high for what one character can bring to a group composition. At the same time, we’re making their Mastery stat slightly more attractive.
• Shadow
• Chorus of Insanity critical strike bonus reduced by 25%.
• Auspicious Spirits damage bonus reduced to 25% (was 50%).
• Spiteful Apparitions (Azerite Trait) now deals the correct amount of damage if the Shadow Priest has Auspicious Spirits talented.
• Developers’ notes: The multiplicative interaction between Auspicious Spirits, Spiteful Apparitions, and Chorus of Insanity has specifically been a big part of Shadow’s damage scaling to get out of control at high target counts. This change will keep their damage output in line with its original intention.
• Vampiric Touch and Shadow Word: Pain damage reduced by 8%.
• Warlock
• Affliction
• The following pets now show up under players’ unit frames with a timer: Dreadstalkers, Vilefiend, and Grimoire: Felguard.
• Deathbolt now deals 20% of the total remaining damage of the Warlocks’ damage over time effects on the target (was 30%).
• Nightfall’s chance to trigger increased by 33%.
• Nightfall now increases the damage of Shadow Bolt by 50% (was 25%).
• Drain Soul damage increased by 50%.
• Developers’ note: One of the key concepts for Affliction Warlock is spreading damage over time spells on a number of different targets. While Deathbolt keys off these types of spells, it provides more-than-expected burst damage and outperforms the other two talents in every situation. In addition to reducing Deathbolt’s effectiveness, we’re improving the other two talents on the tier to give more options to Affliction Warlocks.

Dungeons and Raids

• Operation: Mechagon
• Operation: Mechagon has now been split into two new instances, Mechagon – Junkyard and Mechagon – Workshop.
• Developers’ note: During the Rise of Azshara content update, Operation: Mechagon made its debut as an epic and challenging mega dungeon. Now that it’s heading into the Mythic Keystone system, we’re making some adjustments to bring its difficulty in line with that of other Mythic Keystone dungeons.
• Operation: Mechagon is now available on Heroic difficulty. Players can queue for either Mechagon – Junkyard or Mechagon – Workshop through the Dungeons & Raids section of the Group Finder (default hotkey: i), or zone into the instance on Heroic and complete it in its entirety.
• Mechagon – Workshop
• Reduced variability in damage output for a number of creatures throughout the dungeon.
• Developers’ note: The main goal of these changes are to make the damage output of affected enemies more consistent by significantly reducing the variance of spell cast timers.
• Platinum Pummeler
• Now casts B.4.T.T.L.3. Mine more frequently on all difficulties.
• The missile destruction visual should now always display and warn the player before impact on all difficulties.
• Gnomercy 4.U.
• Vent Jets
• Gnomercy now turns toward the target of Fixate before its cast.
• Tussle Tonks
• Buzz Saw damage dealt reduced by 80%.
• Developers’ note: Left untouched, this fight would be lethal at higher Mythic Keystone levels with Tyrannical active. To keep the chaos of the fight intact, we reduced the damage of the Buzz Saws while retaining their knockback effect.
• Waste Processing Unit
• Mega Drill precast increased to 3.5 seconds (was 2 seconds).
• Developers’ note: Mega Drill is a dangerous ability and by slowing down its cast players will have a little more time to react.
• K.U.-J.O.
• Venting Flames
• Increased the distance at which players are safe from Venting Flames when standing behind a Junk Cube.
• Defense Bot Mk III
• Arcing Zap damage reduced by 12%.
• Short Out’s damage reduced by 20%.
• Blastatron X-80
• Capacitor Discharge’s damage increased by 40%.
• King Mechagon
• Pulse Blast’s damage has been reduced by 37%.
• Giga-Zap (Phase 1)
• Initial damage reduced by 44%.
• Giga-Zap (Phase 2)
• Initial damage reduced by 50%.
• Recalibrate’s damage reduced by 15%.
• Mechagon – Junkyard
• Scrapbone Bully
• Headbutt damage increased by 25%.
• Shockwave damage reduced by 9%.
• Scrapbone Trashtosser
• Throw Trash’s projectile now moves slightly slower.
• Scrapbone Grinder
• Skullcracker’s damage dealt reduced by 11%.
• Enrage
• Increased cast time to 2 seconds (was 1.5 seconds).
• Reduced duration to 10 seconds (was 12 seconds).
• King Gobbamak
• Cave In damage dealt reduced by 37%.
• Pistonhead Mechanic (Junkyard) and Mechagon Mechanic (Workshop)
• Overclock is now a Magic dispel for both enemies (previously one was Magic and one was Enrage).
• Pistonhead Blaster
• Ground visual of Scrap Grenade slightly reduced.
• Bolt Buster damage dealt reduced by 25%.
• Taze damage dealt reduced by 20%.
• Slime Elemental
• Slimewave damage reduced by 28%.
• Gunker
• Toxic Fumes damage dealt reduced by 25%.
• Wreck
• Reduced to 100% Weapon Damage per hit (was 150%).
• Increased stacking vulnerability to 100% (was 75%).
• Developers’ note: The net result of these changes roughly reduce Wreck’s damage output by 25% and puts a greater emphasis on tanks recognizing that this ability is happening so they can try to mitigate it before the really big hit at the end.
• Fulminating Zap’s periodic damage reduced by 20%.
• Weaponized Crawler
• Scrap Cannon
• No longer cast while Shock Coil is active.
• Scrapbone Bully
• Enrage
• Increased cast time to 2 seconds (was 1.5 seconds).
• Reduced duration to 10 seconds (was 12 seconds).
• King’s Rest
• General
• Reduced variability in damage output for a number of creatures throughout the dungeon.
• Shadow-Borne Warrior
• Gust Slash damage over time duration reduced to 8 seconds (was 10 seconds).
• Shadow-Borne Witch Doctor
• Icy Chill damage reduced by 15%.
• King Rahu’ai
• Channel Lightning’s damage reduced by 12.5%.
• Queen Patlaa
• Shoot’s damage reduced by 11%.
• King Timalji
• Bladestorm damage reduced by 15%.
• Bloodsworn Agent
• Shadow Whirl damage reduced by 7.5%.
• Spectral Witch Doctor
• Frost Shock damage reduced by 21%.
• Spectral Berserker
• Severing Blade damage reduced by 13%.
• Spectral Brute
• Ground Crush damage reduced by 25%.
• Spectral Beastmaster
• Poison Barrage
• Damage reduced by 11%.
• Duration reduced to 10 seconds (was 20 seconds).
• Developers’ note: Previously, the long duration of this effect could make it very difficult to heal through for parties who lacked the ability to cleanse poison effects. This change should make the ability more manageable to counter.
• Kula the Butcher
• Severing Axe damage reduced by 9%.
• Shadow of Zul
• Health reduced by 6%.
• Players can no longer enter King Dazar’s room before the Shadow of Zul is defeated.

Items and Rewards

CORRUPTED MEMENTOS

Defeating powerful enemies in Horrific Visions will grant you with Corrupted Mementos, which can be used to purchase several new items, including the Gouged Eye of N’Zoth which allows you to add a Prismatic Socket to one piece of eligible gear.

COALESCING VISIONS

Use Coalescing Visions to purchase a variety of different items from Wrathion inside the Chamber of Heart, including new equipment, Vessels of Horrific Visions, and a mount. You’ll be able to loot these from defeating powerful enemies, completing quests, and more.

BLACK EMPIRE GEAR

Worn by N’Zoth’s infantry, these pieces of Azerite armor and other equipment will get heroes ready to face the horrors ahead. As you face N’Zoth’s troops in Assaults on Uldum and the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, or conquer Horrific Visions, you’ll collect bind-to-account tokens. You can then use these tokens to create a piece of gear to boost your own power, or you can mail the tokens to your other characters.

• Many legendary weapons are now transmogrifiable.
• Developers’ note: The Warglaives of Azzinoth dropped from Illidan in Black Temple are the one exception, as a custom method for Demon Hunters in particular to obtain this transmog appearance already exists through Black Temple Timewalking, and we do not want to diminish the value of that unique reward.
• New Illusion enchantments are now available to collect.
• The Rustbolt Resistance Insignia now only provides reputation up to Exalted.
• Reputation requirements for Nazjatar and Mechagon vendor-sold Essences have been reduced from Honored, Revered, and Exalted for Ranks 1, 2, and 3 to Friendly, Honored, and Revered.
• Rank 1 now costs 2 S.P.A.R.E. Crates and 1 Galvanic Oscillator (was 2 S.P.A.R.E. Crates and 2 Galvanic Oscillators).
• Rank 2 now costs 8 S.P.A.R.E. Crates and 4 Galvanic Oscillators (was 20 S.P.A.R.E. Crates and 10 Galvanic Oscillators).
• Rank 3 now costs 20 S.P.A.R.E. Crates and 8 Galvanic Oscillators (was 40 S.P.A.R.E. Crates and 15 Galvanic Oscillators).
• Acquisition of Rank 4 of these Essences is unchanged.
• The follower experience requirements for Ranks 2 and 3 of Memory of Lucid Dreams have been reduced from 3,000/6,000 to 2,400/4,800.
• Players who are Revered with their respective Nazjatar reputation may now exchange Prismatic Manapearls for bind-to-account reputation tokens.
• Developers’ note: We expect the addition of account-bound reputation tokens for Nazjatar to complement the existing account-bound reputation tokens that are craftable in Mechagon, providing an option for players who have already unlocked the Rank 3 Essence on their main to speed up their progression toward it on their alts.
• Assassin Bounty Bags now contain the same loot regardless of which zone it was rewarded in.
• Lightning-Forged Augment Rune can be used infinitely to increase Agility, Intellect, and Strength by 60 for 1 hour. This reusable rune can be purchased for 50,000 gold. Character must be Exalted with the Rajani faction.
• Players can now purchase Uncommon, Rare, and Epic rarity Salvage Crates in exchange for Seafarer’s Dubloons. These crates contain at least three pieces of loot rewarded from completing Island Expeditions and contain transmogrification appearances, pets, and mounts.
• All Titan Residuum will be converted to silver.
• Nazjatar World Quests, Nazjatar World Bosses, and other Nazjatar zone events now reward more Prismatic Manapearls.
• Island Dubloon reputation items and quest turn-ins no longer grant reputation beyond Exalted. Instead, players who are Exalted with the associated faction will instead gain bind-on-account reputation tokens, consumable up to Exalted reputation.
• Azerite Gear
• Overwhelming Power (Azerite Trait)
• Fixed an issue that caused Overwhelming Power (Rank 2) to trigger more often based on your haste rating which caused this trait to benefit more from Haste than intended.
• Developers’ note: We discovered a bug with Overwhelming Power which caused it to trigger more often as a player’s Haste increased, meaning it scaled doubly with Haste. We know Overwhelming Power is a player-favorite Azerite Trait in part because of this bug, and it is not our intent to make the trait not worth taking. However, the rate at which it was growing was causing any gear without Overwhelming Power to be seen as suboptimal, so we needed to fix this issue. We’ll be keeping an eye on this trait in the future to make sure it’s still performing satisfactorily after this change.
• Heart of Azeroth
• Players can now unlock a new Minor slot on their Heart of Azeroth at level 75.
• Periodic increases to Stamina up to level 80.
• Heart of Azeroth no longer has a maximum level.
• Levels beyond 80 will grant the Heart of Azeroth increased item level and slight stat increases.
• Completing Magni’s quest chain to unlock the Heart Forge now starts your Heart of Azeroth at level 50, up from level 35.
• Bonus threat from unlocking Major and Minor slots has been removed.
• When the Heart of Azeroth is equipped in tank specialization or a Druid wearer shifts into Bear Form, threat generated is now increased by 50%. Changing specializations, shifting forms, or removing the Heart of Azeroth cancels this effect.
• Loyal to the End (Azerite Trait)
• Loyal to the End’s on-death effect can no longer stack.
• Dying while under the effects of Shamans’ Ancestral Protection Totem no longer triggers Loyal to the End’s on-death effect.
• Essences
• New Essences can be found in Assaults on Uldum and Vale of Eternal Blossoms, by delving into Horrific Visions, and in the Ny’alotha raid. Listed below are three of the new Rank 1 Essences for healing, damage-dealing, and tank specialization. In addition to their active and passive abilities, these new Essences also provide 10 Corruption Resistance.
• Spirit of Preservation (Rank 1)
• Major: Channel a beam of energy onto an ally, healing them for a significant amount over 3 seconds.
• Minor: Every 5 seconds, gain Devout Spirit, causing your next Flash Heal, Flash of Light, Regrowth, Vivify, Shadow Mend, or Healing Surge to heal for an additional small amount, stacking up to 3 times.
• Breath of the Dying (Rank 1)
• Major: Burn your target with a bolt of Azerite, dealing a high amount of Fire damage instantly. If the target has less than 20% health, the 45 second cooldown is reduced by 30 seconds.
• Minor: Your spells and abilities have a chance to strike your target for a moderate amount of Fire damage.
• Touch of the Everlasting (Rank 1)
• Major: Your next death is prevented, and you instead regenerate up to 20% of your maximum health and take 85% reduced damage for 3 seconds (this effect cannot occur more often than once per 10 minutes).
• Minor: When you fall below 35% health, gain a moderate amount of Avoidance for 15 seconds, and your next active mitigation will last 30% longer.
• Condensed Life-Force
• Damage debuff applied by your guardian’s Azerite Spikes has been reduced to 3% increased damage (was 5%).
• The guardian’s Azerite Spike cast time increased to 2.5 seconds (was 2 seconds).
• Developers’ note: With respect to Condensed Life-Force, the cast time increase was primarily intended to resolve a bug where the guardian would clip his own casts when a character gained enough Haste to bring the cast below a global cooldown. However, this particular Essence, which is largely passive, was the premier choice for most specializations on both single and multi-target situations. So, in addition to the cast time increase, we felt it was necessary to reduce the damage increase the player receives from the Essence.
• Purification Protocol
• Major Rank 1 damage increased by 15%.
• Major Rank 2 now has the potential to work on targets that are part of raid and dungeon encounters.
• Unbound Force
• Major Rank 1 damage increased by 40%.
• Minor Rank 1 duration changed to 4 seconds (was 3 seconds).
• Minor Rank 3 increase of duration increased to 2 seconds (was 1 second).
• When Reckless Force buff is applied, The Unbound Force spell icon becomes highlighted.
• Vision of Perfection
• Proc rate increased by 12%.
• Vitality Conduit
• The effects of Vitality Conduit are now accurately displayed in the combat log and scrolling combat text.
• Worldvein Resonance
• Using Major Rank 1 now additionally causes you to gain a 300% bonus to primary stats gained from Lifeblood Shards (Major slot) for 18 seconds (was 50% for 10 seconds).

Pet Battles

• Elite Pet Battle World Quests in Nazjatar and Mechagon have been reduced in difficulty, and now scale to match your highest-slotted battle pet’s level.
• Weather Abilities
• Blizzard now increases all elemental ability damage by 25%.
• Mudslide now increases all critical damage dealt by 25%.
• New weather type: Toxic Fumes
• Deals Dragonkin damage to the current enemy pet and applies the Toxic Fumes weather effect.
• Toxic Fumes increases the duration of all hostile damage over time effects by 1 round.
• All pets are considered Poisoned while Toxic Fumes is active.
• Damage reduction is now capped at –75%
• Developers’ note: This change will smooth out the challenge with some enemy bosses. Previously, if you were fighting a pet like Unit 17 in Mechagon (a Boss pet that passively takes 50% less damage), and Unit 17 used Crouch, Unit 17 became immune to damage because the two 50% damage reduction effects are added to each other. Now, in the above example, while Crouch is active, Unit 17 will take 75% reduced damage instead of 100% reduced damage. Please note that abilities like Dodge or Deflection will continue to avoid all damage and will not be impacted by this change.

Player versus Player

• Battlegrounds
• Seething Shore now has a 20-minute time limit.
• Developers’ note: This change is intended to address egregiously long games that can sometimes occur from stalemates.
• Classes
• Death Knight
• Unholy
• Bursting Sores (Talent) now also increases the healing absorption provided by Necrotic Strike.
• Necrotic Strike (PvP Talent) now applies a 4% max health healing absorb (was 5%).
• Shaman
• Lightning Lasso (PvP Talent) is now affected by Master of the Elements.
• Lightning Lasso’s damage has been reduced by 10%.

Professions

Many new items can be crafted by harvesting the corpses of those loyal to N’Zoth.

• General
• Turn N’Zoth’s power against him by creating a Void Focus, an item that will help you elevate your crafting professions. N’Zoth’s followers will drop the recipe for Alchemists, Blacksmiths, Engineers, Jewelcrafters, Leatherworkers, and Tailors.
• Alchemy
• An upgraded Alchemy Stone can now be crafted.
• Potion of Focused Resolve now benefits pets.
• Archaeology
• The assault of N’Zoth’s forces will prevent players from Surveying Digsites in Uldum. Players looking to acquire Tol’vir artifacts should speak with Zidormi in Ramkahen.
• Blacksmithing
• Forge new armor to protect yourself from the wrath of N’Zoth and the enemy faction.
• Cooking
• N’Zoth’s followers will drop a recipe book, allowing players to craft new foods that have special bonuses within N’Zoth’s Visions.
• Engineering
• Protect your eyes with the best Engineering goggles available to craft and construct gear to prepare for Season 4’s PvP combat and Mythic Keystone dungeons.
• Inscription
• Craft new Vantus runes for Ny’alotha raid bosses.
• Create Contracts for the new Rajani and Uldum Accord factions.
• Jewelcrafting
• Higher level rings can now be crafted.
• Leatherworking
• Turn hides into new pants, boots, and PvP gear.
• Skinning
• Eligible players can now skin a corpse without waiting for all other eligible players to collect their loot.
• Tailoring
• Stitch together new garments using cloth looted from troops of N’Zoth.