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Rise of Azshara Preview: Heart of Azeroth Updates
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Azeroth’s need has never been greater—and now more than ever, Speaker Magni Bronzebeard and the titan watcher MOTHER need your help to heal the world’s grievous wounds.

In Rise of Azshara, we’re introducing a new system for the Heart of Azeroth that will provide additional power customization options: Essences. You’ll collect these Essences by taking part in a variety of content, and infuse them into the Heart of Azeroth using the new Heart Forge in Silithus, giving you access to new abilities and bonuses.

The Speaker’s Quest Continues
Once you’ve established a new hub in Nazjatar, one of the new areas in Rise of Azshara, you’ll receive a summons from Magni to join him at the Chamber of Heart. There, you’ll learn that MOTHER has completed her calculations related to what's plaguing Azeroth, and determined a way to heal her well ahead of her original 77-cycle estimate. New forms of power have begun to coalesce and manifest around Azeroth’s wounds, and MOTHER has discovered that these “Essences” are compatible with the Heart of Azeroth. To make use of them, she has created a new device in the Chamber of Heart that can harness that incredible power: the Heart Forge.

The Essence of the Heart Forge
The Heart Forge lets players infuse their Heart of Azeroth with Essences to grant new combat-related powers. Once you’ve collected a new Essence—obtained by participating in a wide variety of content—you’ll head to the Heart Forge to infuse your Heart of Azeroth with it, “learning” the Essence and permanently adding it to your collection. Much like Talents, once you’ve learned an Essence, you’ll be able to apply it or swap it out through a new Heart of Azeroth interface within rest areas, cities, or when using items such as the Tome of Quiet Mind.


Each Essence has both Major (generally active) and Minor (passive) abilities. Upon completing the initial quest from Magni, you’ll open a single Major slot in the Heart of Azeroth. Placing an Essence in the Major slot grants you that Essence’s Major active ability, which is added to your Spellbook. You’ll also gain the benefit of any Minor passive abilities from the Essence.

There are also two additional Minor slots in the Heart of Azeroth that will activate the Minor (passive) abilities of any Essences added to them. The first Minor slot will become available at Heart of Azeroth level 55, and the second Minor slot will become available at Heart of Azeroth level 65.



In Essence
Essences are acquired from a variety of content in Battle for Azeroth. You’ll earn your first one by completing the quest line with Magni, but you’ll be able to earn others through completing specific activities, such as PvP, raids, or World Quests.

Each Essence has four ranks that provide new effects. Rank 1 provides a unique ability based on your role (damage dealer, tank, or healer), while rank 2 and rank 3 provide enhancements to both the Essence’s Major and Minor effects. Rank 4 adds a flashier cosmetic effect to the spell, providing a unique visual that will make you stand out from the crowd. Once an Essence is learned, you’ll be able to hover your mouse over the Essence in the user interface to see what you get with the next rank. And because of how Essences are collected, it’s possible to receive and infuse a rank 3 Essence without having learned rank 1 or 2.

It’s important to note that while many Essences are role-agnostic, some of these are only usable by a specific role (tank, healer, or damage dealer). Characters who can spec into multiple roles can collect any Essences that are appropriate for those roles, but the system will restrict characters from collecting Essences meant for roles their class can’t fill—for example, a Warrior couldn’t collect a healer Essence.

More Azerite Gear Ahead?
Essences add a whole new layer to the Heart of Azeroth system, in addition to the Azerite Armor that you already have. With all the content coming in Rise of Azshara, there’s are sure to be some new Traits to discover and gear to collect along the way.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Rise of Azshara Preview: Heart of Azeroth Updates started by Stoy View original post
Comments 78 Comments
  1. Sigxy's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Echoherb View Post
    Looks cool, hopefully the abilities stick around in 9.0.
    I'm doubtful. I don't really want 'Azerite' to be a thing in the next expansion - and this stuff doesn't look very class-specific yet. Don't really want more pruning to have even more abilities everyone else shares.

    Quote Originally Posted by Teph View Post
    No idea why i thought we get class specific abilities and not this generic bandaid fix. Sad.
    Yeah, was hoping to see some class specific stuff, too. Oh well - getting closer to summer and Classic.
  1. ashpwnz555's Avatar
    Great timing. I just left this game and now they decide to improve things.
  1. blehmeh's Avatar
    Or, Blizzard could just unprune the game, revert the GCD change, and make classes fun again.

    But hey, lets just create a new worthless ability with only a minor cosmetic difference to "stand out from the crowd", because that's what truly matters!
  1. Korru's Avatar
    ... that's it?
  1. Dainah's Avatar
    Rank 4 requirement: M+100 or Mythic Azshara kill cus everyone wants to Mythic, amirite?
  1. Niffo's Avatar
    I had hoped for more class related abilities. And seeing that reforging is still a thing I won't resub. Too bad.
  1. crimsonhead's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Gasparde View Post
    Why am I not surprised that the great Heart of Azeroth revamp is so utterly... underwhelming?

    Like, they're giving us a grant total of ONE new and awesome usable ability. And not that, that one single active ability is also a super generic ability that doesn't have anything to do with your spec or even your class at all, probably meaning that it's going to have 0 interactions with anything and is just a button to press on CD or something else to line up with your other cooldowns.

    Like, if that's their big revamp, if that's what they've been working on for 6 months, maybe even longer, who knows, then holy fuck, that's just lame af. I'm a fucking Hunter, I don't want to channel stupid azerite laser beams at my enemies - gimme a new azerite shot or coat my pets in azerite or what do I know. If that's seriously the best they can come up with then there's seriously no hope that anything about the gameplay is going to change at all during this expansion. Honestly, this just looks awful.
    Look I know we have all been burned by the HoA and the way we collect traits but let us not jump to wild conclusions without even testing it. This was was but ONE of the "many" essences that exist. Who knows what the data mining will find - maybe there will be generic ones and spec specific ones. If we find out there is not I will totally recant what I've said and your complaints will be fully warranted - I am just saying we should be reserved until we see some additional essence abilities as I doubt this one can fully capture all the ones that I can imagine would exist.
  1. Frozenbeef's Avatar
    I've always wanted more trinket on use effects....... (sarcasm)

    Also that honestly looks terrible and uninteresting in general...
  1. Orby's Avatar
    For comedy's sake and seeing peoples comments I couldn't help but think of this.



    But on topic. I am excited, its something new, could it just be the same old shit with a new coat of paint? sure, but I'm gonna give it a go see what it is. Anything new Blizzard add is worth trying. And this system I hope will give me the same satisfaction the artifact system did in Legion. Fingers crossed

    I am totally in the "but she's got a new hate" group. If I get burned I'll get burned
  1. oathy's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by blehmeh View Post
    Or, Blizzard could just unprune the game, revert the GCD change, and make classes fun again.

    But hey, lets just create a new worthless ability with only a minor cosmetic difference to "stand out from the crowd", because that's what truly matters!
    totally agree.
    suspect real change will only take place when there's new faces on the team.
    If this is what Ion considers to dramatic enough for the neck its telling me he's just not getting it.
  1. Boricha's Avatar
    Ehhhhhhh, more class neutral stuff?... This isn't really what I was hoping for. Feels gimmicky and not a lot of thought. God I wish we could rewind time to pre-WoD and just start over from there. I miss when classes were fleshed out at their core.
  1. App's Avatar
    These changes make me want to quit the game even more. How anyone could think these changes are good baffles me. It's literally just more grinding.
  1. seleri's Avatar
    Looks good. I was honestly fine with azerite armor since it's so easy to unlock the levels with AK, but this is a great addition!
  1. Alcsaar's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Sigxy the Lemming View Post
    I'm doubtful. I don't really want 'Azerite' to be a thing in the next expansion - and this stuff doesn't look very class-specific yet. Don't really want more pruning to have even more abilities everyone else shares.



    Yeah, was hoping to see some class specific stuff, too. Oh well - getting closer to summer and Classic.

    It tickles me how many people are putting all their eggs into one basket with classic. None of you have any idea what you're getting into. Nostalgia is a strong force, but for those of us who can look at Classic with out seeing it through rose-tinted glasses, we know exactly what to expect.

    Classic as a game will not succeed in this day and age of video gaming. Even if it did, what do you think the plan is with classic once all the "classic" content has been consumed?

    I bet a lot of people are expecting Blizzard to essentially create a second development team "recreating" WoW, which is absurd.
  1. lonely zergling's Avatar
    Looks horrible to just shove random abiltiies on all classes / specs, glad classic comes out soon. This is horrible game design.
  1. Alcsaar's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Sigxy the Lemming View Post
    I'm doubtful. I don't really want 'Azerite' to be a thing in the next expansion - and this stuff doesn't look very class-specific yet. Don't really want more pruning to have even more abilities everyone else shares.



    Yeah, was hoping to see some class specific stuff, too. Oh well - getting closer to summer and Classic.

    It tickles me how many people are putting all their eggs into one basket with classic. None of you have any idea what you're getting into. Nostalgia is a strong force, but for those of us who can look at Classic with out seeing it through rose-tinted glasses, we know exactly what to expect.

    Classic as a game will not succeed in this day and age of video gaming. Even if it did, what do you think the plan is with classic once all the "classic" content has been consumed?

    I bet a lot of people are expecting Blizzard to essentially create a second development team "recreating" WoW, which is absurd. What will you do after having cleared MC/BWL/whatever after the 50th time? You'll be on the forums complaining about how classic content is stale and demanding new content.
  1. mojojojo202's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by City Pop View Post
    Ehhhhhhh, more class neutral stuff?... This isn't really what I was hoping for. Feels gimmicky and not a lot of thought. God I wish we could rewind time to pre-WoD and just start over from there. I miss when classes were fleshed out at their core.
    The most of the classes were, at worst, fine, during Legion. How they managed to fuck everything up so consistently during BfA deserves some begrudging respect.

    I expected nothing from this system cha he yet am still, somehow, disappointed. In less than a year Wow has gone from something I do at least 3 or 4 hours a day to something I barely think about once a month, played for an hour during the freeqekend and I'm happy that I'm not missing anything.
  1. kamuimac's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Dainah View Post
    Rank 4 requirement: M+100 or Mythic Azshara kill cus everyone wants to Mythic, amirite?
    well duh , how else mythic crybabies would be satisfied.

    and what else blizzard could make money on then on selling tokens for people who will buy booosts.

    want to bet that those rank 4 will be removed when expansion ends ? and those who got them will keep them .

    all those juicy $$$$$ from tokens yum yum yum
  1. Sigxy's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Alcsaar View Post
    It tickles me how many people are putting all their eggs into one basket with classic. None of you have any idea what you're getting into. Nostalgia is a strong force, but for those of us who can look at Classic with out seeing it through rose-tinted glasses, we know exactly what to expect.

    Classic as a game will not succeed in this day and age of video gaming. Even if it did, what do you think the plan is with classic once all the "classic" content has been consumed?

    I bet a lot of people are expecting Blizzard to essentially create a second development team "recreating" WoW, which is absurd.
    Is this what you tell to people who played Vanilla for over tens years, too?

    To me the RPG aspects were important to the game. Without them I don't care for WoW. And retail has nothing to offer in that aspect. Now, Vanilla on the other hand... clunky, sure, but fills in both the MMO and RPG aspects - and got a much more satisfying reward system.
  1. Glurak's Avatar
    More infos on 8.2

    https://youtu.be/ESs-7QXFFAo Youtuber and Twitchler already played 8.2 :-)

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