World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies

Lady Vashj and Kael'thas Sunstrider—the cunning Overlords of Outland—have long served Illidan Stormrage, the Betrayer. Now is the time to bring their wretched rule to an end. The Overlords of Outland content update is now live, featuring:

New Raids

Gaining access to Serpentshrine Cavern and The Eye in Tempest Keep requires preparation and a trusty band of heroes at your side. Muster your forces and get ready for battle. Learn more about the Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep attunements.

Serpentshrine Cavern

Slay the twisted Lady Vashj and her vicious fiends in her watery lair—Serpentshrine Cavern.

Raid bosses: 6 (Hydross the Unstable, The Lurker Below, Leotheras the Blind, Fathom-Lord Karathress, Morogrim Tidewalker, Lady Vashj)
Level: 70
Location: Coilfang Reservoir, Zangarmarsh


The Eye

Infiltrate the heart of a crystalline fortress to end the madness of the corrupted Kael’thas Sunstrider and his warped loyalists.

Raid bosses: 4 (Al'ar, Void Reaver, High Astromancer Solarian, Kael'thas Sunstrider)
Level: 70
Location: Tempest Keep, Netherstorm


Arena Season 2

Brutalize your faction’s enemies on the battlefield with the advent of Arena Season 2! Victorious players will earn Arena Points to exchange for better gear so they can fight against other similar-skilled opponents, as well as an exclusive Gladiator mount for the top 0.5% of all players. In addition, faction quartermasters across Outland will offer entry-level PvP gear to those who earn their trust.


Ogri’la and Sha’tari Skyguard Daily Quests

Make new allies in Outland with the Ogri’la and Shatari Skyguard factions. Complete daily quests to earn these factions’ favor and in turn receive lucrative rewards.

Guild Banks

Share raid and dungeons spoils amongst your guildmates with the Guild Bank! This in-game storage allows guild members to withdraw and deposit items and currency, making it easier to determine at glance what consumables you have available (or need to make!) for your next group activity.


Looking for Group Tool

Find like-minded players and make new friends with the Looking for Group Tool. Simply list your class and specialization so group leaders on your realm can invite you to their party or raid.

The Overlords of Outland will wait no longer, champion. . . .

Allied Races

• New character customization options for Highmountain Tauren.

Classes

• The following area-of-affect abilities are no longer maximum target capped and instead deal reduced damage beyond 5 targets:
  
  • Demon Hunter
    
    • Havoc
      
      • Glaive Tempest (Talent)
  • Monk
    
    • Spinning Crane Kick
• The following area-of-affect abilities are no longer maximum target capped and instead deal reduced damage beyond 8 targets:
  
  • Death Knight
    
    • Sacrificial Pact
    • Blood
      
      • Consumption (Talent)
      • Bonestorm (Talent)
    • Unholy
      
      • Bursting Sores
      • Reanimated Shambler (Runecarving Power)
  • Demon Hunter
    
    • Havoc
      
      • Fel Barrage (Talent)
  • Hunter
    
    • Beast Mastery
      
      • Barrage (Talent)
    • Marksmanship
      
      • Barrage (Talent)
  • Mage
    
    • Arcane
      
      • Arcane Echo (Talent)
    • Frost
      
      • Frozen Orb
  • Rogue
    
    • Assassination
      
      • Fan of Knives
      • Crimson Tempest
    • Subtlety
      
      • Black Powder
      • Shuriken Storm
  • Warlock
    
    • Demonology
      
      • Felguard’s Felstorm
  • Warrior
    
    • Arms
      
      • Bladestorm
    • Fury
      
      • Bladestorm
• Death Knight
  
  • Abomination’s Frenzy (Necrolord Runecarving Power) now applies its 10% damage increase to all enemies damaged (was enemies pulled by Abomination Limb).
• Druid
  
  • Feral
    
    • Adaptive Swarm (Necrolord Ability) will now gain a damage bonus for its initial duration when cast during Tiger’s Fury.
    • Fixed an issue that prevented certain ranks of the Carnivorous Instinct conduit from improving auto-attack and periodic damage while Tiger’s Fury’s damage bonus is active.
    • Fixed an issue that prevented the Carnivorous Instinct conduit from affecting the damage over time of Thrash and Feral Frenzy.
• Hunter
  
  • Death Chakram (Necrolord Ability) now also increases all physical damage done by you and your pet to the targets damaged by 10% for 10 seconds.
• Monk
  
  • Windwalker
    
    • Spinning Crane Kick (Rank 2) now increases Spinning Crane Kick’s damage by 18% (was 15%) for each unique target struck with Blackout Kick, Tiger Palm and Rising Sun Kick in the last 20 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times (was 6).

Covenants

• Completing the Shadowlands Campaign Unlocking your third Soulbind on any character allows alternate characters joining that same Covenant to immediately unlock their second and third Soulbind.
  
  • This feature is now available for testing.
• Sanctums
  
  • Anima Conductor
    
    • Players who have built and upgraded their covenant’s Anima Conductors will now receive Grateful Offerings from all covenant Callings, based on the highest level of Anima Conductor they’ve upgraded.

Dungeons and Raids

• Timewalking
  
  • New: Legion Timewalking
    
    • Timewalking Mage Tower (This feature will be available in a later PTR build)
      
      • In 9.1.5, Legion Timewalking will become available for the first time, and with Timewalking comes a wondrous way to return to the moments of heroism from the past: Azeroth’s champions will be able to enter the Mage Tower again. The original seven different Challenges (grouped by your specialization’s role) will be available to try repeatedly, for the duration of Legion Timewalking.
      • Each Challenge comprises a series of solo encounters that must be completely survived to earn rewards, and in Legion Timewalking, they will not require that you have an Artifact, or even that you originally played Legion.
      • Success in a Mage Tower challenge will now award a Legion-themed armor set for your class. There’s also a new Achievement coming in 9.1.5 for the most well-rounded champions of the Kirin Tor. Players who complete all seven of the Challenges on different characters across their [Battle.net](http://Battle.net) account will be rewarded with a unique flying mount: the Soaring Spelltome. Additionally, Guardian druids who complete The Highlord’s Return challenge will also receive a new fel variant of the “werebear” form.

Items and Rewards

• The Heirloom vendor in Oribos now sells the following bind-on-account items:
  
  • Traveler’s Anima Cache that allows Anima to be taken to new covenants or sent to alternate characters.
  • Valorous Equipment Chest for Valor that contains 1 piece of item level 210 Mythic 0 gear. The chest can only be purchased by a character with a 1500 or higher Mythic+ Rating.
  • Unchained Equipment Chest for Conquest that contains 1 piece of item level 220 unranked PvP gear. The chest can only be purchased by a character with a 1600 or higher rating in any PvP bracket.

Korthia and the Maw

• Archivists’ Codex Reputation
  
  • The Research Reports (item upgrades) and Treatise items (bonus drops in 9.0 content) are now available for purchase account wide if a character on their account has reached the appropriate reputation Tier.
  • Players at Tier 6 can now purchase the item “Research Report: Relic Examination Techniques”, a new bind-on-account item they can send to an alt to increase the reputation granted by Relics and Relic Fragments by 50%.
  • The quest “Relic Efficiency” offered at Tier 4 now also increases the average number of Relics that will show up as bonus drops from rares and treasures as well as how many relics show up on daily quests or in weekly reward chests. This is in addition to the current reward of a 20% chance to receive double the normal Relic Fragment drops from rares and treasures.
  • Added two new quests, “Relic Clues” at Tier 3 which starts the bonus at an initial 10% chance at double Relic Fragments, and “Relic Hunter” at Tier 5 that will set the final chance for double relics at 40%. Both of these new quests will also increase the average number of relics you will see as bonus drops, on daily quests or in weekly reward chests.
    
    • Developers’ note: We want to improve the experience on alts looking to gear up through Korthia by providing immediate access to the upgrade unlocks and a reputation increase if a player’s main character has reached Tier 6. We also understand that the end tiers of the reputation are taking longer than we intended, especially for players with limited play time or are not powerful enough yet to delve into the rifts on Korthia. To that end we have added the new quests at Tier 3 and 5 and adjusted the one at Tier 4 to increase the Relic count from the weekly and daily rewards. This along with their other bonus of increasing the Relic Fragment drops we hope will speed up everyone’s progress to restore the Archivists’ Codex.

Pet Battles

• Flawless and family-specific Battle-Training Stones now provide a flat 2,000 experience (was the amount required to gain one level).
• Fel-Touched Battle-Training Stones now provide a flat 10,000 experience (was the amount required to gain five levels).
• Battling wild pets with a team of comparable-level pets now provides double experience. Pets on your team are eligible for this bonus if no pet on your team is more than two levels higher than any pet in the wild team.
• The experience penalty for a pet dying has been reduced to 50% (was 100%). Pets still need to be active for at least one round to be eligible to earn experience from a battle.
• All pet experience earned in battles is increased by 50%.
  
  • To compensate, the Pet Battle Bonus Event buff Sign of the Critter has been reduced to 100% (was 200%). The net effect of this is that pet experience gained during the Pet Battle Bonus Event will remain unchanged from current values.
  • Developers’ note: Pet battling is a fun and exciting mini-game, but the current incentives result in esoteric strategies being the only optimal choices. This results in a barrier to entry that discourages players from engaging with this system. We believe this set of changes will widen the range of optimal behavior without nerfing any existing leveling strategies.

Player versus Player

• The Honor cost to upgrade Unrated gear reduced by around 25%, and the Conquest cost to upgrade Rated gear has been adjusted to spread across the new ranks.
• Druid
  
  • Adaptive Swarm’s (Necrolord Ability) bonus to periodic healing effects reduced to 20% in PvP combat (was 25%).
• Priest
  
  • Holy
    
    • Heal healing increased by 35% in PvP combat (was 20%).
    • Flash Heal healing increased by 30% in PvP combat (was 15%).
    • Renew healing increased by 15% in PvP combat.
• Warrior
  
  • Elysian Might’s (Kyrian Runecarving Power) Critical Strike damage bonus reduced to 15% in PvP Combat (was 25%).

Runecarving

• The Runecarver will now offer to destroy an existing legendary item and return all of the Soul Ash or Soul Cinders that were spent to create the item.
  
  • This feature is now available for testing.

User Interface and Accessibility

• Improved Chat Reporting Feedback
  
  • /ignore now blocks all characters on the ignored player’s WoW account.
• New character customization options will be marked by a “NEW” tag in character creation and the Barbershop.
• The Adventure Guide loot pane now separates normal loot from bonus loot to indicate that they don’t compete with each other as drops.

Classes

• Demon Hunter
  
  • Fixed an issue which could prevent some Demon Hunters from receiving Memory of a Burning Wound (Runecarving Power).
    
• Priest
  
  • Shadow Word: Death will no longer apply the Shard of Dyz item effect when it damages the Priest.
    

Burning Crusade Classic

• The Shartuul's Transporter event has been temporarily disabled, due to a bug.
  
  • Developers' note: We expect to have it fixed in a few days, and we'll post an update here when we do.
    

Soon after the Burning Legion invaded Azeroth at the Broken Shore, the Alliance and Horde began using the Mage Tower at Deliverance Point for high-end training of their most promising champions. When Sargeras was later defeated and dealt his final vengeful blow to Azeroth, the Mage Tower was shut, and it has been inaccessible ever since.

In 9.1.5, Legion Timewalking will become available for the first time, and with Timewalking comes a wondrous way to return to the moments of heroism from the past. Azeroth’s champions will be able to enter the Mage Tower again.

Mage Tower Basics
In Legion Timewalking, the Mage Tower will operate similarly to how it did during Legion. The original seven different Challenges (grouped by your specialization’s role) will be available to try repeatedly, for the duration of Legion Timewalking:

• “Closing the Eye” for Frost Death Knight, Havoc Demon Hunter, Survival Hunter, Subtlety Rogue, and Arms Warrior.
• “An Impossible Foe” for Unholy Death Knight, Feral Druid, Fire Mage, Outlaw Rogue, Elemental Shaman, and Fury Warrior.
• “The God-Queen’s Fury” for Arcane Mage, Retribution Paladin, Assassination Rogue, Enhancement Shaman, and Demonology Warlock.
• “Feltotem’s Fall” for Beast Mastery Hunter, Windwalker Monk, Discipline Priest, and Destruction Warlock.
• “The Highlord’s Return” for Blood Death Knight, Vengeance Demon Hunter, Guardian Druid, Brewmaster Monk, Protection Paladin, and Protection Warrior.
• “End of the Risen Threat” for Restoration Druid, Mistweaver Monk, Holy Paladin, Holy Priest, and Restoration Shaman.
• “Thwarting the Twins” for Balance Druid, Marksmanship Hunter, Frost Mage Shadow Priest, and Affliction Warlock.
• Each Challenge comprises a series of solo encounters that must be completely survived to earn rewards, and in Legion Timewalking, they will not require that you have an Artifact, or even that you originally played Legion. While the Challenges were considered quite difficult for most of Legion, we’re tuning the encounters in Timewalking to normalize player power, with the intention of providing a meaningful level of difficulty to current players.

New Rewards
The Timewalking Mage Tower Challenges may be the same as those that players experienced in Legion, but the rewards will be different. When the Mage Tower closed at the end of Legion, it was firmly established that those rewards would become unavailable. Many players pushed themselves to collect all the appearances they could before the tower closed. Reintroducing those same appearances now would diminish those players’ accomplishment, so success in a Mage Tower challenge will now award a Legion-themed armor set for your class.


There’s also a new Achievement coming in 9.1.5 for the most well-rounded champions of the Kirin Tor. Players who complete all seven of the Challenges on different characters across their Battle.net account will be rewarded with a unique flying mount: the Soaring Spelltome!

Another Special Addition
During Legion, the Mage Tower awarded most specs a new weapon appearance, yet players who missed earning those still have countless other admirable weapon transmogs to collect across the whole of the game. But for Guardian druids, the Mage Tower prize was an alternate bear form with a unique silhouette and animations. There is simply nothing else like it in the game. For years, we’ve heard feedback from druid players who are frustrated that something so transformative is no longer available, and we agree.

Therefore, in Legion Timewalking, Guardian druids who complete The Highlord’s Return challenge will also receive a new fel variant of the “werebear” form.


We’ve designed it with the goal of making sure that the original bear forms earned in Legion, with their unblemished natural coloration, will remain clearly distinguishable from this new one.

Looking Ahead
To celebrate the return of the Mage Tower, we plan to have Legion Timewalking open for two consecutive weeks when it first appears on the calendar. Thereafter, Legion Timewalking will occur for the standard one-week-at-a-time in rotation with other Timewalking events from past expansions.

You can’t hide behind these walls forever, Odyn!