World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies

We’ve seen some questions from players who’d like to know specifics about how endgame loot and the Great Vault will operate over the next two weekly resets, so we’ve prepared the following outline.

Next Week

Following the next weekly reset on July 6 in this region, the Great Vault will offer rewards exactly as it has in previous weeks. Between now and then, defeating raid bosses in Castle Nathria, completing Season 1 Mythic Keystone Dungeons, and earning Honor in rated PvP will generate those rewards. Season 2 will begin on July 6, but the Great Vault looks back at previous efforts to determine the item levels of rewards.

With the July 6 weekly reset marking the start of Season 2, all Mythic+ Rating will be reset to 0, and all Mythic+ Keystones will be lowered by an additional 3 levels to account for the overall increase in dungeon difficulty.

Mythic+ players who wish to receive the best rewards from the Great Vault for their initial Season 2 efforts will want to complete Mythic+ Dungeons at +15 or higher difficulty the week of July 6-12.

Mythic+ end-of-run drops will cap at Mythic+10 throughout the week of July 6-12, and Season 2 Rated PvP gear upgrades are initially capped at Rival (base item level 239) until Mythic Difficulty Sanctum of Domination is available.

The Second Week of July

After Season 2 has been underway for a week, the Great Vault will offer upgraded rewards following the weekly reset on July 13 in this region. This includes rewards earned in the Sanctum of Domination raid, Unchained Gladiator’s PvP gear, and higher item level Mythic+ rewards.

As a reminder, you’re only eligible for Great Vault raid loot from bosses that you have previously defeated on the difficulty you’re looking for. For example, you must defeat Heroic Kel’thuzad before his loot will show up as a Heroic quality selection in the Great Vault.

Mythic+ Gearing in Season 2

We’ve made a few small adjustments to the item-level curve for Season 2 Mythic+ rewards, to make Mythic+ gear progression more comparable to early raiding rewards at some levels of difficulty. Here are the item levels of gear drops and rewards:

Difficulty	Season 1 End-of-Run	Season 1 Missed Timer	Season 1 Great Vault	Season 2 End-of-Run	Season 2 Missed Timer	Season 2 Great Vault
Mythic+2	ilvl 187	ilvl 184	ilvl 200	ilvl 210	ilvl 210	ilvl 226
Mythic+3	ilvl 190	ilvl 187	ilvl 203	ilvl 213	ilvl 210	ilvl 226
Mythic+4	ilvl 194	ilvl 190	ilvl 207	ilvl 216	ilvl 213	ilvl 226
Mythic+5	ilvl 194	ilvl 190	ilvl 210	ilvl 220	ilvl 216	ilvl 229
Mythic+6	ilvl 197	ilvl 194	ilvl 210	ilvl 223	ilvl 220	ilvl 229
Mythic+7	ilvl 200	ilvl 197	ilvl 213	ilvl 223	ilvl 220	ilvl 233
Mythic+8	ilvl 200	ilvl 197	ilvl 216	ilvl 226	ilvl 223	ilvl 236
Mythic+9	ilvl 200	ilvl 197	ilvl 216	ilvl 226	ilvl 223	ilvl 236
Mythic+10	ilvl 203	ilvl 200	ilvl 220	ilvl 229	ilvl 226	ilvl 239
Mythic+11	ilvl 203	ilvl 200	ilvl 220	ilvl 229	ilvl 226	ilvl 242
Mythic+12	ilvl 207	ilvl 203	ilvl 223	ilvl 233	ilvl 229	ilvl 246
Mythic+13	ilvl 207	ilvl 203	ilvl 223	ilvl 233	ilvl 229	ilvl 246
Mythic+14	ilvl 207	ilvl 203	ilvl 226	ilvl 236	ilvl 233	ilvl 249
Mythic+15	ilvl 210	ilvl 207	ilvl 226	ilvl 236	ilvl 233	ilvl 252

The most notable adjustment is that now, a Mythic+15 or higher is required to get the maximum item level from the Great Vault, while Mythic+14 or higher provides the highest end-of-run item level.

Thanks for reading. We’ll see you 'round the Vault!

Creatures and NPCs

• For those braving the dangers of Korthia, you will find that a friendly Maldraxxi Flayedwing has arrived to assist in ferrying you to the Vault of Secrets after completing “Charge of the Covenants.” The only payment is gentle head pats. (Be sure to pet both of its heads, just to be sure.)

Quests

• Fixed an issue where characters that don’t have the Shadowlands expansion were unintentionally unable to access various quests, such as some dailies and holiday quests.

Burning Crusade Classic

• You must be level 65 or higher to enter The Shattered Halls or The Steamvault.

Hello, Battleground enthusiasts!

As soon as we saw Battleground queue times go way up a few weeks ago, we got to work on our options for addressing the situation. They’ve all been discussed here and elsewhere, as you know, and in addition to following your discussions closely, we looked at game history and data. What was most evident from all of your feedback was: players want to continue to play on their chosen side of the faction conflict, players don’t want to wait in long queues for BGs, and players don’t want a highly convoluted mechanism for getting into a BG.

To solve those issues as best we can, we’ve been internally testing a configuration where the War Games system is used to bring about Horde vs. Horde or Alliance vs. Alliance Battlegrounds from the regular queue, and we’re ready to test it in the live game. Here’s the plan:

• Starting tomorrow (Friday, July 2), we’re going to enable same-faction Battlegrounds.
• You’ll queue for BGs as usual, and the matchmaker will first try to make an opposite-faction match for you.
• If an opposite-faction match cannot be quickly made, you’ll be matched against a team from your faction.
• Rewards such as Honor and Reputation will be assigned as usual.

We’ve been thinking of these like military training exercises, and to help get that feeling across in-game, we’re testing putting masks and tabards on the team playing out of the enemy faction’s base.

Please note that same-faction play won’t be available for Alterac Valley, which was never hooked up for War Games and would be particularly awkward for the team that found themselves fighting alongside a great number of enemy NPCs.

We’ll follow the action closely throughout the weekend, and with scheduled maintenance next week (July 6 in this region), we’re going to return the matchmaker to its regular configuration and analyze what happened.

When same-faction play goes live tomorrow, we’ll open a new feedback thread in this forum. After you’ve played some BGs, please come to that new thread and let us know how it went.

Thank you!