edit:
24th of Febuary
Added Timewalking section.
Greetings New and Returning Players!
Hopefully, this guide will help some of you find your bearings when gearing up in Battle for Azeroth. It was written specifically to accommodate patch 8.1 content and as the expansion unfolds a lot of the details might become inaccurate (hopefully it will be updated for future patches, but I can’t give you any promises :).)
Be mindful, this guide is written to accommodate New Players and some of the information might be rather basic for those with some prior experience with World of Warcraft.
Finally, this guide focuses exclusively on PvE at this point. I haven’t done PvP in World of Warcraft for about a decade and I’m not going to talk out of my bum about content I don’t do.
Right, let us begin.
Table of Content:
- Common Terms and Acronyms
- Azerite Gear
- World Quests, Emissary Chests, Faction Incursions
- Reputation Vendors
- Warfronts
- World Bosses
- Professions
- Dungeons
- Mythic + Dungeons
- Raids
- Titan Residuum
- Timewalking and other events
- Random Pieces of Advice
1. Common Terms and Acronyms:
- Dungeon - 5-men instance, design for groups consisting of 1 Tank, 1 Healer and 3 DPS players.
- HoA - Heart of Azeroth necklace.
- ilvl - Item Level. Refers to the relative power of in-game items. Can also be used to describe the character’s average item level “My Priest’s ilvl is 350, but my Druid is 375”
- M+ - Mythic+, Mythic Plus. High difficulty dungeon that requires a Keystone to enter.
- Raid - content designed for at least 10 players.
- WQ - World Quest.
2. Azerite Gear
First, lets talk about gear in general:
Most items in the game have an assigned ilvl - the higher the ilvl, the more powerful the item, as it has more Haste, Critical Rating or Versatility.
Some classes benefit more from specific statistics (for example, casters mostly rely on Intellect, while Rogues use Agility) and not every gear at the same item level is equally useful to you. Some classes work better when you stack Haste, others rely more on higher Critical Rating.
As you level up, however, generally any piece of gear that has higher ilvl is an upgrade - so don’t worry about specific stats now.
Once you reach the content of the Battle for Azeroth, you’ll be introduced to Heart of Azeroth ( a necklace ) and Azerite Gear.
Heart of Azeroth is-- for lack of a better word-- a power aggregator. As you travel around the world, you’ll be collecting Azerite which will power up your Heart of Azeroth.
In turn, necklace empowers Azerite Armor - allowing you to use its Traits.
Confusing? Let’s break it down.
Azerite Gear can be put in only 3 slots - Head, Shoulders and Chest. There is no Azerite Gear that fits any other slots.
You can wear 3 different pieces of Azerite Gear - one in each slot.
Each Azerite Gear has a list of special skills you can activate - those skills are called “Traits”.
The higher ilvl of a given Azerite Gear, the more Traits you’ll be able to activate on it.
Okay, but what are Traits?
Traits upgrade your character in a minor way-- some of them increase your basic stats, others make certain skill you use more powerful. Not all Traits are equal - some of them are more useful than others, therefore it is likely you’ll be looking for Azerite Gear with Traits that are most useful for your class and playstyle.
Hopefully, this cleared up the basics of Azerite Gear. Now, let us talk about gearing up and endgame!
Level 120 is currently maximal character level in the game. After reaching level 120 the only way to increase the power of your character, would be to find better gear!
We will go through most means of finding new gear for your character - starting from easier things you can do on your own, ending with group content that requires a lot of attention and preparations.
3. World Quests, Emissary Chests, Faction Incursions
World Quests / Emissary Chests
World Quests are quests that spawn on the world map for a specific number of hours and are eventually replaced by other missions. WQ can provide various rewards - from War Resouces, Gold and Azerite Power, all the way to various gear - be mindful that gear rewards from World Quests scale with your ilvl - the stronger gear you wear, the better rewards you’ll get from finishing World Quests.
Item level of WQ rewards goes up to 355, depending on your own ilvl
Emissary Chests are missions that require you to finish 4 World Quests for a specific faction - granting you in return a chest with semi-random rewards. Gear is possible content of the chest, but it isn’t guaranteed.
Item level of Emissary Chest rewards goes up to 385, depending on your own ilvl.
To unlock World Quests you must:
- Reach level 120
- Complete 3 foothold questchains - For the Horde it means establishing outposts in 3 zones of Kul Tiras, for Alliance, securing 3 bases in Zandalar.
- Reach Friendly with 3 factions: Zandalari Empire, Talanji’s Expedition, Voldunai for Horde or Order of Embers, Storm’s Wake and Proudmore Admiralty for Alliance.
Faction Incursions
Unlike World Quests, Faction Incursions can be done even while you’re levelling (however you’re not going to get the same level of rewards for doing them below level 120).
Faction Incursions are very similar in nature to Emissary Chests - you have to complete 4 tasks within a given zone and period of time for a chest with scaling rewards. There are however certain differences:
After completing 4 zone Incursion quests, you have to end the battle by finishing a final assault against the enemy forces - this quest will automatically pop into your questlog after finishing 4 Incursion Quests in the zone.
The second major difference is that there is only one incursion happening every 19 hours in one zone (either Kul Tiras or Zandalar).
Example: Incursion starts at 6PM server time. It lasts (always) 7hrs - ending at 1AM. At 1PM - 12 hours later - a new Incursion will start in a different zone.
Item level of Faction Incursion rewards goes up to 385, depending on your own ilvl.
4. Reputation Vendors
Earning reputation with factions introduced in Battle for Azeroth, can grant players access to gear sold by faction emissaries.
- Upon reaching Honored you may purchase ilvl 320 piece of gear (afaik, it’s always a cloak)
- Upon reaching Revered you may purchase ilvl 335 piece of gear
- Upon reaching Exalted you may purchase ilvl 350 piece of gear
- Champions of Azeroth grant only Azerite Gear upon reaching Exalted with them. Said piece of gear is ilvl 355.
5. Warfronts
Warfronts are two PvE scenarios available in the game in 8.1:
Arathi Highlands and Darkshore. Each scenario puts 15 players in charge of fighting a battle against NPCs of the enemy faction. As of now, Warfronts do not feature PvP - as all combat is done against computer-controlled forces.
Warfronts operate in a “Cycle”, with Alliance and Horde trading each zone every 20-24 days - constituting a Cycle.
Once per Cycle you can pick up a quest that will guarantee you a random piece of gear ( Arathi Highlands - 370 ilvl, Darkshore - 400 ilvl ) upon finishing the Warfront.
You can join Warfronts as many times as you want during the 7 day window within a Cycle ( when your faction assaults the zone, while the opposite faction defends it ). Each completion of Warfront Scenario guarantees as 340 ilvl piece of gear.
Furthermore, both Darkshore and Arathi Highlands are populated by Rare, powerful enemies - which you can kill once per cycle for a chance to win a various reward - from a small bit of Azerite, to mounts and gear pieces (ilvl 340).
6. World Bosses
Once a week you can win a 355 piece of gear from a World Boss. Those powerful enemies will take a large group of players to kill and provide a random reward at the end - either Gold, Azerite or Gear.
Once per Cycle, you may also slay a Warfront specific bosses:
- Arathi: Doom’s Howl/Lion’s Roar - ilvl 355
- Darkshore: Invus the Forest Lord - ilvl 400
7. Professions
While rather expensive in terms of materials, you can craft yourself new pieces of gear that will be relevant in your gearing up process - at least early on.
Problem with crafting gear is that the cost of materials is rather high, considering alternative forms of obtaining equipment. Still, it is an option for those who don’t do other forms of content.
Depending on the professions you chose, you may craft different pieces of gear, but general rule remains the same:
- ilvl 310 - requires a medium amount of fairly easily obtainable materials.
- ilvl 340 - requires a large amount of somewhat easily obtainable materials.
- ilvl 355 - requires a large amount of difficult to obtain materials (somewhat obsolete)
- ilvl 385 - requires a large amount of difficult to obtain materials (however less than the ilvl 355!)
It must be pointed out, that by the time you can craft 385 items, you are likely to be doing other content that provides higher item level rewards.
8. Dungeons
Dungeons provide a unique set of challenges to a 5 man group with various difficulties providing different level of rewards.
- On level 120 Normal instances will drop ilvl 340 from bosses.
- Heroic instances provide 355 ilvl loot.
- Mythic instances give you a chance for 370 ilvl gear.
On Mythic difficulty, unlike two previous difficulties, the gear can only be obtained once a week ( determined by the reset cycle every Wednesday morning for European players ). If you run the same instance more than once during the same week, you’ll not be rewarded loot for killing any bosses.
While Normal instances can be completed by players without much experience, Heroic and Mythic dungeons might require learning boss fights (basic information about every encounter is provided in the in-game Journal).
It is also worth mentioning that unlike Normal and Heroic, Mythic dungeons do not support Dungeon Finder tool.
You have to manually find a group (or start one) using Premade Groups -> Dungeons tool
9. Mythic + Dungeons
Upon finishing your first Mythic instance you’ll be given a special item - Mythic Keystone .
Mythic Keystones have associated numbers with them, starting from +2 and going up from there.
What is a Mythic Keystone and how does it work?
When entering a Mythic level instance, you may notice a small pillar at the entrance called Font of Power.
If you have a Keystone for the given instance you may place it within the Font of Power to increase the difficulty of the dungeon even more ( while providing the potential for even better rewards at the end ).
By placing Keystone in the Font you’re activating a Mythic + version of the dungeon.
Mythic+ instances are governed by specific rules - there is only one chest with a potential for loot provided at the end of the instance ( individual bosses don’t drop anything ).
Mythic+ dungeons also come with a timer. If you complete given M+ within the given time, you’ll be rewarded with a new, higher Keystone. If not, the Keystone will downgrade by one.
Mythic keys increase the difficulty of a dungeon in two ways:
- All Mythics above +2 have damage done and health of enemies increased by a specific percentage ( % column in the table below)
- At levels 2, 4, 7 and 10 a specific affix kicks in, providing a more difficult challenge for the group. Affixes do stack - which means Mythic+10 group must face all 4 affixes, while a group doing Mythic+6 must only deal with affixes added at levels 2 and 4.
Affixes change every week, but remain consistent within a week (if you ran into Volcanic affix on Friday, it will still be there until next reset on Wendsday, when it will be replaced by a different affix).
Loot rewards by the end of the M+ instance are not affected by the timer. If you finished the instance in 15 minutes or an hour, the same loot will await you by the end - the only difference will be the keystone you carry out with you at the end.
At the end of every week, if you finished a M+ instance, you’ll be eligible for a chest with loot based on the highest M+ you finished. It doesn’t matter how many instances you’ll do in a given week - only the highest M+ run will count for the weekly chest. It also doesn’t matter if you finished the given instance in time or not.
Weekly chests also contain a new Keystone at the beginning of each week, that will be one level lower, than the highest Mythic+ you finished ( so you don’t have to start from M+2 every week )
Finally, a weekly chest will also cointain certain amount of Titan Residuum, more about that, later.
The rewards for M+ look something like this:
M±––loot----chest—%----
+2------375-----380-----0----- [1st affix]
+3------375-----385-----8-----
+4------380-----390----17---- [2nd affix]
+5------385-----390----26----
+6------385-----395----36----
+7------390-----400----47---- [3rd affix]
+8------395-----400----59----
+9------395-----405----71----
+10----400-----410-----85---- [4th affix]
Example:
Last week, my guildmate Nick finished a +9 keystone as his highest that week - therefore the weekly chest for him contained +8 keystone and 405 ilvl piece of gear.
We ran the +8 instance with him today, but we failed to complete it in time - therefore upon finishing the instance Nick’s key was downgraded to +7.
We still got the 395 loot, and - presumably - if we don’t run any other instances this week, his weekly chest will contain a +7 key and a 400 ilvl loot reward for compliting a +8 keystone - even if we didn’t make it in time.
On the other hand, the highest instance I did last week was +10. Therefore my weekly reward was a +9 keystone and a piece of 410 gear. I choose not to do anything with me keystone this week at all.
I will still be eligible for the same rewards by the end of the week as Nick, since I ran the +8 instance with him. So in the coming week, I can expect a +7 key and an ilvl 400 piece of gear in the weekly chest.
Lastly, another friend of mine - Diana, recently hit max level on her Shaman. We took her to her first Mythic instance, where she obtained a +2 keystone. We used her +2 Keystone and finished the M+2 in time, so she received a +3 keystone. We finished that one in time as well - and she was given a new +4 key. We ran that Mythic +4 as well, but failed to make it in time and her key downgraded to +3 again. If we won’t run anything else with her this week, her weekly reward will contain a 390 ilvl piece of gear and a +3 keystone.
Those lower M+ instances have no impact on Nick’s or my weekly reward.
10. Raids
As of patch 8.1 game has two raiding instances:
Uldir and Battle for Dazar’alor (BfD in short). Raids are designed for 10 or more players and present the pinnacle of game’s content, with potentially best rewards the game has to offer ( however loot from high mythic+ instances might compete with heroic or even mythic raiding gear )
Raids - just like Dungeons are separated into different tiers of difficulty:
LFR, Normal, Heroic and Mythic.
Loot’s ilvl distribution is as follows:
Raid-------LFR-----Normal-----Heroic----Mythic
Uldir------340-------355----------370--------385
BfD------- 370-------385----------400--------415
Raids do not have M+ settings.
You can join an LFR raid difficulty using Raid Finder tool. However Normal, Heroic and Mythic difficulty raids can only be joined using Premade Groups -> Raids - Battle for Azeroth tool.
11. Titan Residuum
Titan Residuum is a resource obtainable from three sources:
-
Table Missions
Special mission to earn Titan Residuum can be obtained for completing Island Expedition Weekly. -
Weekly Mythic+ chests
They higher M+ you complete, the more Residuum you’ll find in the chest. -
Disenchanting or Scrapping Azerite Gear.
Only Epic Azerite Gear provides Residuum. Blue items will not leave any Residuum after being Scrapped/Disenchanted
All right, we know where to get this stuff but why do we need it?
Titan Residuum can be exchanged for Azerite Gear by Thaumaturge Vashreen (he is present in both Dazar’alor and Boralus Harbor)
Here are the costs of different items sold by Vashreen. First three tiers provide Azerite piece of your choice (Helmet, Shoulders or Chestpiece) but you don’t know what Traits will be present on the items you buy. Forth choice will alow you to choose from a large set of gear with specific Traits-- but for a price.
- Random 385 ilvl Azerite Gear costs 165 Residuum
- Random 400 ilvl Azerite Gear costs 675 Residuum
- Random 415 ilvl Azerite Gear costs 1725 Residuum
- Specific piece 415 ilvl Azerite Gear costs 7150 Residuum
12. Timewalking and other events
Timewalking
Roughly once a month, a Timewalking event takes place. During the week-long Timewalking you will be able to queue for instances from previous expansions to earn gear and Timewarped Badges. During the event you can acquire the following gear:
- Timewalking instances - 365 ilvl dropped by bosses
- Timewalking raid - 385 ilvl dropped by bosses [confirmation needed] (currently only for TBC and Wrath Timewalking)
- Timewarped Badges can be exchanged for various 350 ilvl gear from the Timewalking Vendors.
- Complete the quest given by Chronicler Toopa[Boralus]/Chronicler Shoopa[Dazar’alor] for a random ilvl 385 item. The quest requires finishing 5 Timewalking instances during the event.
13. Random Pieces of Advice
-
In Mythic and Mythic+ Dungeons it is expected of you to have a decent amount of gear for this level of content, as well as knowledge about the encounters. It is VERY easy to die in M+ dungeons if you don’t know what to do during a boss fight or you don’t have the gear to absorb the damage.
Same deal goes when it comes to Raids in difficulty Normal and higher. -
I strongly suggest finding a guild or a community to would help you get on your feet in the endgame. Playing with different strangers - while not as socially taxing, can be a quite unnerving thing, as those groups often fall apart if the dungeon/raid isn’t going very well.
-
Google is your friend. So is Youtube! There are a lot of smart, entertaining people who provide tactics, guides and general advices to players of every skill level.
-
Add-ons are your friends too! Deadly Boss Mods is one of the most popular addons out there - it provides basic information and timers indicating when bosses will do something deadly! It will help you stay alive longer if you’re still learning the fights.
-
Always look to improve your gameplay, but learn to differentiate constructive criticism from someone just being a bumhead.
Right. I guess that’s about it for now-- feel free to send any corrections, questions, insults and general grievances directly to me (Battlenet tag: Ionis#2574 ) or post them down below for everyone to see!
From this point, I’d like to thank everyone who will correct me on a bunch of things I got wrong. This guide isn’t an ego project - it was made to help new players. If you can help improve it - please, do so!
![:wink:](https://d1bg94bbsh66ji.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/wink.png?v=6" ":wink:")
