Tides of Vengeance Part 2 Goes Live January 22, Azerite Armor Updates & Changes

[Stoy]

Tides of Vengeance Part 2 Goes Live January 22

There’s plenty to look forward to when Tides of Vengeance Part 2 goes live on January 22. Watch our Survival Guide to learn more.

New Raid: Battle of Dazar’alor

The Alliance will strike at the heart of the Zandalari empire—while the defenders of the Horde will rally to their new allies’ defense—in an epic new raid, Battle of Dazar’alor. This new raid provides both Horde and Alliance players with unique encounters for their faction—along with the opportunity to play through events from the opposite faction’s viewpoint. Learn more.

PvP Season 2 Begins

PvP Season 2 will begin and introduce an updated Conquest reward schedule, mounts, and gear. Players who earn 500 Conquest points in a given week through PvP activities including Arenas, Battlegrounds, and Assaults in War Mode will be still be able to choose a piece of gear from each week’s selection; in addition, they’ll now earn a Quartermaster’s Coin, which can be collected and ultimately used to upgrade pieces from this season’s Sinister Gladiator PvP set. Learn more.

Mythic Keystone Dungeon Season 2 Begins
The new Mythic Keystone Dungeon season opens opportunities for new rewards and a new challenge with the new seasonal affix: Reaping. High-level Keystones will now summon Bwonsamdi, the Loa of Death, to wreak some spectral havoc upon players’ dungeon run. As heroes kill enemies, the vanquished spirits will continue to linger in the mortal realm. At certain points throughout the dungeon, Bwonsamdi will resurrect these twisted souls, who will swarm the unfortunate adventurers in a final act of vengeance. (Blog coming soon.)

Azerite Armor Updates

With the release of Season 2, we’re introducing new epic Azerite pieces from PvP Season 2, the Battle of Dazar’alor raid, World Quest Emissaries, and from the Mythic Keystone vendor Thaumaturge Vashreen in Zuldazar and Boralus. These new items will have a fifth ring with additional new trait options. Learn more.

Content Difficulty and Rewards Changes
With a new season upon us and the Dazar’alor raid dungeon opening, we wanted to share some additional information on the changes coming to a variety of dungeon and outdoor world encounters including increases to both difficulty and rewards.

• New Maximum Item Level: With great challenges come great rewards and the maximum possible item level will go up to 425.
  
• Battle for Darkshore Warfront: Battle for Darkshore rewards will also increase to 400 from both the outdoor boss and from Warfront quest that can be completed once per cycle. The difficulty of the Warfront will increase however, and the item level required to queue will increase to 335. These changes will go into effect after the current Warfront cycle has ended. Until that time, players will still receive Season 1 rewards.
  
• World Quest Emissary Rewards: World Quest Emissary weapon and armor rewards will also now scale up to 385 based on the player’s own item level. Rewards from the original Battle for Azeroth Launch World bosses will remain at item level 355 to stay on par with Uldir.
  
• Dungeon Rewards and Difficulty: The difficulty of Heroic and Mythic dungeons will also be increase as follows: Normal–340, Heroic–355, and Mythic– 370(baseline)
  
• Mythic Keystone Dungeons and PvP: During the first week of Season 2 Mythic Keystone Dungeon rewards will be capped at Mythic 6 quality (item level 385). PvP Season 2 end-of-match rewards will be capped at 385.
  
• Seals of Wartorn Fate: Seals of Wartorn Fate are not being reset and this same currency can be used for Battle of Dazar’alor and Season 2 bonus rolls; the cap on how many can be held at once remains at 5.

For additional insights on these changes, read the developer forum post.

Tides of Vengeance Part 2: Azerite Armor Updates & Changes

Since the launch of Battle for Azeroth, players have been empowering their Heart of Azeroth and collecting Azerite armor to gear up for the battles ahead. Since then, we’ve made a variety of adjustments to the system—and we have a few more updates coming with the second part of Tides of Vengeance on January 22 that we’d like go into more detail on today.

With the release of Battle for Azeroth Season 2, we’re introducing new epic Azerite pieces that you can acquire through a variety of methods, including Season 2 PvP, the Battle of Dazar’alor raid, World Quest Emissaries, and from the Mythic Keystone vendor Thaumaturge Vashreen in Zuldazar and Boralus. These new items will have a fifth ring with additional new trait options and is available at Heart of Azeroth level 15.

This new outer ring provides two choices of traits per specialization, giving players an opportunity to find items that have traits they particularly want—and the freedom to create new and interesting combinations that may not have been possible before. This additional ring of traits makes each item have a larger impact on your character’s overall power.

Outer Ring:
Powers that reside in the new outer ring provide two additional trait options for each of your character’s available specializations.

Example:

• Moment of Repose (Discipline)
  
  • (Passive) Pain Suppression applies Atonement to the target and instantly heals them for 15,313.

Second Ring:
Powers that reside on the second ring from the outside will often be influenced by where you collected the piece of armor they’re found on. These powers can also be associated with specific class specializations.

Example:

• Seductive Power
  
  • (Passive) Your spells and abilities have a chance to conjure Bwonsamdi’s spectral visage, beckoning you closer. If you approach him, gain 57 to all stats for 5 minutes, stacking up to 5 times. If you fail to heed his call, lose 1 stack.

Third Ring:
These powers generally benefit the performance of your in-game role—they’ll provide damage increases for DPS classes, increase damage mitigation for tanks, or bolster healing output for healers.

Example:

• Bracing Chill
  
  • (Passive) Your heals have a chance to apply Bracing Chill. Healing a target with Bracing Chill will heal for an additional 2,574 and move Bracing Chill to a nearby ally (up to 6 times).

Fourth Ring:
These are defensive or utility-oriented powers for your class.

Example:

• Vampiric Speed
  
  • (Passive) When an enemy you harmed dies, you heal for 6,361 and gain 93 Speed for 6 seconds.

Fifth Ring:
Azerite Empowerment is the power that resides at the center, and increases an armor piece’s item level by 5.

New Traits to Discover
You’ll also find new location-specific traits that scale with item level and are available on gear from the Battle of Dazar’alor raid, including:

• Bonded Souls: Your spells and abilities have a chance to trigger a Soulbond for 15 seconds. During Soulbond, every 5 seconds you and your nearest ally are both healed for 3,456 and gain 141 Haste for 5 seconds.
• Seductive Power: Your spells and abilities have a chance to conjure Bwonsamdi’s spectral visage, beckoning you closer. If you approach him, gain 26 to all stats for 5 minutes, stacking up to 5 times. If you fail to heed his call, lose 1 Stack.
• Treacherous Covenant: Your primary stat is increased by 151 while you are above 50% health. You take 15% increased damage while below 20% health.

Azerite Knowledge
With the start of Season 2, we’re also adding 10 more ranks of Azerite Knowledge over the course of January 22 through March. Each rank of Artifact Knowledge increases the speed at which your Heart of Azeroth levels up.

Tides of Vengeance Recap: Trait Updates and Additions
With the launch of Tides of Vengeance on December 11, we replaced many of the Azerite traits we weren’t happy with and continue to iterate on various elements of the system to provide variety and flexibility in player gear choices.

NEW TRAITS IN THE DARKSHORE WARFRONT
It’s a good time to keep an eye on the shifting tides of the Darkshore Warfront. We added many new Azerite Armor traits that are just waiting to be collected, including:

• Ancients Bulwark: Standing still grants you Deep Roots, increasing your Versatility by 179. Moving instead grants you Uprooted, healing you for 259 every 1 second.
• Apothecary’s Concoctions: Your damaging abilities have a chance to deal 1,262 Plague damage over 6 seconds, and your healing abilities have a chance to restore 2,415 health over 6 seconds. These effects are increased by up to 100% based on the target’s missing health.
• Endless Hunger: Your Versatility is increased by 179. Moving near an enemy’s corpse consumes their essence, restoring 1,815 health.
• Shadow of Elune: Your spells and abilities have a chance to increase your Haste by 465 for 15 seconds. At night, you also gain 10% movement speed for the duration.

HEART OF AZEROTH LEVELING AND GEARING UP
Reaching Friendly, Honored, or Revered reputation with the Champions of Azeroth faction now unlocks the appropriate quests to upgrade your Heart of Azeroth for all characters on your account.

The cost to change Azerite traits has been reduced from 72 hours to 24 hours.

We’ve also added a new way for players who participate in Mythic Keystone Dungeons to gain specific Azerite Armor. These players will be able to earn a new currency—Titan Residuum—which can be used to purchase specific items from Thaumaturge Vashreen now located in either Zuldazar or Boralus. You can read more in our forum post.

Season 2 and the Battle of Dazar’alor are just around the corner—are you ready for the challenges that await?

[Lorgar Aurelian]

I wonder how much salt there will be.

[THEORACLE64]

I wonder how much salt there will be.

It’s MMO-champ, so lots.

[EternalBany]

again with azerite..dont they get it
so much information on a system I care nothing about

[Re4leader1]

Can you at least tell us when these stupid trolls are being released....

[NoiseTank13]

... So Allied Races aren't unlocked with this?

[tru]

yawnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

[Unholyground]

... So Allied Races aren't unlocked with this?

You are looking at sometime in March, keep playing and waiting lol. My time has been up for like 2 months now and I refuse to come back until the glaring systems issues are repaired.

[NoiseTank13]

You are looking at sometime in March, keep playing and waiting lol. My time has been up for like 2 months now and I refuse to come back until the glaring systems issues are repaired.

I haven't been subbed since October lol

[Cazmosis]

Allied.
Races.
Already.
End.
This.
Madness.

[Unholyground]

I haven't been subbed since October lol

Good on you! too many people bitch and don't vote with their wallets. Until then I am playing on a Wrath private server.

[Kynreve]

I don't give a shit about any of these and I'm not resubbing. So when are the Zandalari coming out?

[Rootsbum]

I have defended BFA for quite some time. But still no allied races? Loosing faith here.
Rolling my long planned main and experiencing NEW content is what makes it magical.

[TheramoreIsTheBomb]

Part 2: One new Raid.

Thanks for your $$$$!!

[Lorgar Aurelian]

It’s MMO-champ, so lots.

Right on the mark.

[Korru]

dat like/dislike bar though

[Onikaroshi]

To everyone complaining about Allied races: We've known since Blizzcon that the races aren't until 8.1.5. They're in testing on the 8.1.5 PTR RIGHT NOW, and it has been posted on this very site. Don't expect them before march.

[Sencha]

Allied races will be released JUST before the end of the 6-month dreadwake sub. What else did you expect from Bli$$ard?

[Onikaroshi]

To this one guy defending Blizzard on not having yet released Allied Races we were baited with almost a year ago: Go away. It's taking them an absurd amount of time to release them, and it's becoming ever-apparent that they are being reserved with hopes of reigniting interest into an otherwise dying expansion.

The player-base is wilting, and they're going to wait until it's too late. The longer people stay unsubbed, the easier it will be for them to just forget about WoW altogether.

I'm not defending it, I'm just sick of people asking where they are, we know where and when they are. They should have been released months ago.

[KyleEverett]

They should have released Zandalari and Kul Tirans by now, but the state of Kul Tirans on the PTR is scary. They are so unfinished it's a joke. They've had months to work on them and helms and mounts aren't even turned on.