World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies

Darkshore Warfront Preview - Patch 8.1
The newest addition to the Warfront lineup in 8.1 is the Battle for Darkshore between the Night Elves and Forsaken. This Warfront plays out much like The Battle for Stromgarde but with a few minor additions or changes.

What is Different?

• The intro to the Warfront is notably longer. You kill your way to the center of the map and take on two different commanders as well as many troop camps before you actually begin the collect and capture part of the Warfront.
• Wood can now be collected from fallen enemies such as Ancients and catapults/glaive throwers.
• The names and models of the familiar buildings/vehicles now have Night Elf and Forsaken flair.
• Instead of a gate to break down before taking out the final commander, you must destroy 4 cannons on ships offshore. Your vehicles will do this as normal, but there are also two spear launchers on the shore that you can pilot to help out.

New Map
The Map is very similar to what you see in the Arathi Warfront.


Stage 1: Purge Camps and Defeat Commanders
You will spend a good portion of the beginning of the Warfront killing trash and defeating two commanders on your way to you main base. Both factions start on the coast and work through Auberdine before establishing a base at Bashal'aran.


Building your Base
Once you defeat the commander in Bashal'aran you begin to establish your base as normal, creating the Barracks, Altar of Storms, and Armory. Eventually you will work on upgrading to a Stronghold, and creating catapults/glaive throwers from the Plague Works/Glaive Works.


Mine and Lumber Mill
The mine and Lumber mill are still capturable, with the mine being just to the south and the lumber mill being to the northwest.


Acquiring Wood and Iron
Wood and Iron are looted much like they are in the Arathi Warfront, with the notable addition of being able to loot wood from fallen enemies such as Ancients and war glaives/catapults.

• Iron - Iron is the most important resource in a Warfront. It is used to build/upgrade buildings, get additional support, upgrade and recruit troops and vehicles, and also in getting buffs from your base's altar.
  
  • Iron is accumulated passively once your team takes control of the nearby mine. Passive iron is collected at the main hall.
  • Iron can also be collected by mine caches at the mine.
• Wood - Wood is not as useful as Iron, but is needed for certain aspects as well. It is used to upgrade troops, buildings, and for buffs from the altars.
  
  • Wood does not generate passively. You must collect it by chopping down trees or from mobs.
  • Peons will cut down trees or you can cut them down yourself.

Constructing Buildings
You construct buildings in the same manner as you do in the Arathi Warfront, by collecting Iron and Wood and spending it at the construction stations. While the buildings might have different names, the benefits that they provide remain unchanged.


Building Benefits
Buildings still provide the means of advancing a Warfront.

• Stronghold - This building is acquired automatically at the start of the fight once you take out the opposing commander and claim the initial base.
  
  • Required to construct any other building.
  • Can be upgraded twice.
  • Upgrade 1 provides more peons, faster troop production, and commander troops.
  • Upgrade 2 provides more peons, faster troop production, increased damage from certain vehicles and allows commander troops to use special abilities.
• Barracks - Barracks is the powerhouse of troop production. Once constructed, you are able to recruit troops that will defend the keep and attack enemies as they travel along paths. There are many different troops from basic grunts to healers, some of which requires areas on the map to be captured first. You can specifically recruit 2 bodyguard units at a time to follow you into combat.
• Armory - The Armory is utilized to upgrade the armor and weapons of your troops.
• Plague/Glaive Works - This building allows you to build vehicles, which are necessary to take the enemy base. There is a limit of three active vehicles at once.
• Shrine - Grants temporary buffs at the cost of Iron.

Capturing Bases
North of your main base are several bases that need to be captured to progress the Warfront. The three center line bases are required to allow your catapults/glaive throwers to advance towards the final capture point.


Base Benefits
Certain bases, such as Gloomtide Strand, will allow for more unique benefits to be acquired. Taking these bases will allow you to recruit a powerful abomination/ancient to fight for you or provide mounted combat for a brief time by spending resources.


Ending the Warfront
Much like the Arathi Basin Warfront, the way to win is to construct your base and then take the bases up to the final capture point, Lor'danel, which is capturable only by allowing your vehicles to bombard the two towers while you kill the commander. This plays out exactly like Arathi but with Night Elf and Forsaken aesthetics. Once Lor'danel is yours, instead of a gate to break down you must destroy 4 cannons on ships offshore. Your vehicles will do this as normal, but there are also two spear launchers on the shore that you can pilot to help out. You then take a small flight to a base offshore and kill the final commander.



Changes to Darkshore
Darkshore has got a few changes with the addition of this Warfront. All of the changes from the prepatch are here, but a few additional locations have been added.



World Quests
Unlike Arathi Highlands, when your faction controls Darkshore you have access to a large amount of world quests as well as the typical rares and world boss.



Warfront Service Medal Vendor
8.1 also adds a new currency called 7th Legion Service Medal / Honorbound Service Medal. These are acquired from Warfronts as well as Incursion World quests and can be spent at a vendor near your Warfront table in your capital city.

Patch 2.6.4 PTR Preview

New Rogue Legendary Reveal - Gral, the Shark

T'zane - Nazmir Battle for Azeroth World Boss
T'Zane is the world boss for the week!

Level	Type	Slot	Name	Model Viewer
355	Trinket	Trinket	Knot of Spiritual Fury
355	Trinket	Trinket	Spiritbound Voodoo Burl
355	Trinket	Trinket	T'zane's Barkspines
355	Cloth	Waist	Cinch of All-Consuming Death	Modelviewer
355	Cloth	Legs	Wailing Terror Leggings	Modelviewer
355	Leather	Shoulders	Deathshambler's Shoulderpads	Modelviewer
355	Leather	Wrists	Bindings of Eternal Fears	Modelviewer
355	Mail	Legs	Legguards of the Barkbound Dead	Modelviewer
355	Mail	Feet	Swampwalker's Soul-Treads	Modelviewer
355	Plate	Head	Petrified Mask of the Afterlife	Modelviewer
355	Plate	Waist	Death Devouring Girdle	Modelviewer
355	Plate	Wrists	Soulplank Vambraces	Modelviewer

Weekly Bonus Event - Arena Skirmishes

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Sharpen your swords and reinforce your boards, because you’re called to the PvP Arena for the hectic mayhem of Skirmishes.

This Week: Arena Skirmishes
All week, from anywhere in Azeroth, open the Group Finder (default hotkey: i), select the Player vs. Player tab on the bottom of the window, and then under Casual, choose Arena Skirmish and JOIN BATTLE. You’ll be matched up with teammates and provided with opponents to kill in the Arena. You can also queue for a Premade group or create your own group within the Premade tab.

Look for the following all week long:

• Chronicler Shoopa in Zuldazar and in Boralus has a quest for you–The Arena Calls. Or, if you forget to pick it up there, you can start it from within the Adventure Journal.
  
  • Quest requirement: Win 10 Arena PvP Skirmishes
  • Reward: A PvP loot box
• Passive buff: +50% honor gains from Skirmishes

If you’ve been looking to make some Honor gains, this is the week to do it!






Island Expeditions for the Week of November 20, 2018
The Island Expeditions for the week are:

• Dread Chain with Kvaldir
• Skittering Hollow with Kobolds
• Verdant Wilds with Druids

Call to Arms: Nazmir
This week's Call to Arms is Call to Arms: Nazmir or Call to Arms: Nazmir. Head to Nazmir with warmode enabled to kill 10 players of the opposing faction. This will reward you with conquest and 75 reputation for either 7th Legion or The Honorbound.

Pilgrim's Bounty 2018
Pilgrim’s Bounty is coming up from November 19 to November 26 and with it comes a time to reflect upon one’s good fortune and share feasts with everyone around you!



Exclusive Transmog
With the introduction of the Appearance tab in 7.0, the non-transmoggable Pilgrim set can be saved and transmogged during the duration of the holiday.



The Spirit of Sharing
The main area where the festivities take place is right outside the capital cities for the Horde and Alliance and in a couple of smaller towns.

• Players can interact with the many foods options set on these tables and will gain a buff by eating or passing each of the servings.
• There are 5 buffs in total that you can gain that when combined together will reward the The Spirit of Sharing buff that grants 10% increase in reputation gains for one hour. This is great if you are working on Legion reputations and completing World Quests or working on other reputations for a little boost.

Cooking
Pilgrim’s Bounty is centered around cooking and there are 5 recipes to add to your cooking collection. All you need to do is buy the Bountiful Cookbook from Bountiful Barrel located at each capital city table to learn them. The recipes are used for several quests, dailies, and the Now We’re Cookin’ achievement related to the holiday.

• Spice Bread Stuffing
• Pumpkin Pie
• Cranberry Chutney
• Candied Sweet Potato
• Slow-Roasted Turkey

Cosmetic Items
5 daily quests can be found around the bountiful tables at capital cities that award a piece of a non-transmoggable Pilgrim’s set or a Pilgrim's Bounty cache.

• The cache can contain the Fine Pilgrim's Hat, the Frightened Bush Chicken battle pet and the Silver-Plated Turkey Shooter toy, along with several consumable foods and turkey shooters.
• The quests are centered around cooking so having at least a 280 skill level will help but if you do not have the skill level, you can buy the items needed from Bountiful Barrel at each capital city table.

Non-Transmoggable Set

• Pilgrim's Hat
• Pilgrim's Attire
• Pilgrim's Dress
• Pilgrim's Robe
• Pilgrim's Boots

Pilgrim’s Bounty Cache

• Fine Pilgrim's Hat - Transmoggable year-round.
• Frightened Bush Chicken - Teaches Bush Chicken.
• Silver-Plated Turkey Shooter - Covers target with turkey feathers.

Achievements
There are 9 achievements for the Pilgrim’s Bounty holiday, 7 required for the meta achievement Pilgrim that will award you with the title the Pilgrim along with the Plump Turkey battle pet and 2 that are separate.

Do note that Pilgrim is not required to complete the What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been meta achievement for the Violet Proto-Drake.



Pilgrim Achievements

• “FOOD FIGHT”- Bounce food off a player at a Bountiful Table.
• Now We’re Cookin’ - Cook up one of every Pilgrim’s Bounty dish.
• Pilgrim’s Paunch - Acquire the Spirit of Sharing from a complete Bountiful Table feast at every capital of your faction.
• Sharing is Caring - Pass one of every dish at a Bountiful Table.
• Terokkar Turkey Time - Defeat Talon King Ikiss while wearing a Pilgrim’s hat and either a Pilgrim’s Dress, Robe or Attire.
• The Turkinator - Kill 40 Wild Turkeys within 30 seconds of each other and gain Turkey Triumph. Using a macro is helpful here.
• Turkey Lurkey - Use a Turkey Shooter on each racial combo rogue.

Off-Meta Achievements

• Pilgrim’s Progress - Complete each of the Pilgrim’s Bounty dailies.
• Pilgrim’s Peril - While wearing either a Pilgrm’s Dress, Robe, or Attire, take a seat at each enemy capital’s Bountiful Table.

Join the Feast During Pilgrim’s Bounty November 19–26!

Blizzard Gear Black Friday Sale
Blizzard has posted a special Black Friday sale page on their shop. These deals run from today through November 30th.



Final Fantasy XIV's Next Expansion - Shadowbringers
Shadowbringers, FFXIV's next expansion, was announced at the Final Fantasy XIV Fan Event in Las Vegas on Friday! Some highlights include:

• Early Summer 2019 Launch Date
• Multiple New Jobs!
• Blue Mage will be a limited class coming in Patch 4.5 and will have solo scenarios to learn spells from enemies.
• Level cap raised to 80.
• Cross Realm Visit System
• New Game + to experience old story quests at current level
• A trust system to let you party with NPCs in dungeons
• New Playable Race - Hinted at Viera, a bunny humanoid race from Final Fantasy XII

Dark Legacy Comics #655 - Ancient
DLC #655 has been released!