wow Heart of Azeroth Official Preview

[Stan 5,240]

Heart of Azeroth is a powerful legendary neckpiece gifted to players from Azeroth herself that's used in Battle for Azeroth to unlock Azerite (Artifact) traits on Azerite armor!

Heart of Azeroth is very similar to Legion Artifacts. You will collect Artifact Power to increase its item level and unlock powerful Azerite traits on your Azerite armor. The good news is that the neckpiece is shared between all specializations!

Quests

The Heart of Azeroth

You'll receive the quest by logging in when Battle for Azeroth is live. Seek out Magni in Silithus. You can get there easily by taking the Uldum portal in Stormwind/Orgrimmar.

Quote

Magni Bronzebeard: The entrance tae the chamber is this way. Come on!

Magni Bronzebeard: Ach! This chamber is in ruins, $PlayerName. It won't hold together for long!

While inside the chamber, you can view the Antorus epilogue cinematic to learn more about what caused Azeroth to become wounded (great for new players who have not experienced Legion content).

Talk to Magni and choose the "What does Azeroth want of me, Magni?" option and the following trailer will begin to play:

Transcript

Quote

Magni Bronzebeard: Azeroth calls tae ye, champion. She offers a gift... one born of her own essence.

Magni Bronzebeard: The very Heart of Azeroth!

Magni Bronzebeard: Infuse this amulet with power... it might be the only way tae save her!

Talk to Magni to receive your Heart of Azeroth.

Infusing the Heart

The subsequent quest is about infusing the amulet with power. An action button will appear and you must be close to Azerite nodes to absorb their power.

Quote

Magni Bronzebeard: The seal on this chamber protects the world's soul. But with all this Azerite burstin' through, the seal is close tae shatterin'!

Magni Bronzebeard: If ye use yer amulet tae absorb the Azerite, its power should mend the chamber's seal!

When the bar is filled to 100%, stand in the middle of the chamber and hit the action button again and wait for the quest to complete.

Quote

Magni Bronzebeard: That's it! I think it's workin'!

Magni Bronzebeard: Keep goin'! Just a wee bit more...

Magni Bronzebeard: No! The seal is shatterin'! Hold on, lass! Please hold on!

Magni Bronzebeard: Ye did it, champion! The chamber is secure!

You'll receive your first piece of Azerite armor upon completion.

Quote

Magni Bronzebeard: Keep that amulet close tae yer heart, $PlayerName. It'll see ye through the dark times ahead.

Magni Bronzebeard: I'll keep searchin' fer ways tae heal the damage done tae Azeroth. When I have need of ye, I can reach out through that talisman.

Magni Bronzebeard: I may be her Speaker, but you are her champion. And she needs ye tae fight fer her.

Magni Bronzebeard: Well hero, ye've got work tae do. The teleportation pad will take ye back tae yer allies. Good luck... tae all of us.

Use the teleportation pad to return back to Stormwind/Orgrimmar.

Heart of Azeroth Questline (Gameplay Video)

Blizzard (Source)

Recently in Silithus. . . .

Aided by the heroes of Azeroth and their powerful Artifact weapons, Speaker Magni Bronzebeard was able to stabilize the planet’s grievous wound. For now, Azeroth is stable, but the road to healing her fully will require much more than a temporary bandage.

The Road Ahead. . . .

The events in Silithus were just the first step in aiding the planet. The path to restoring her continues in Zandalar and Kul Tiras as you seek out Azerite to aid the Horde or Alliance.  Speaker Magni has a way for you to help Azeroth and empower your armor at the same time—the Heart of Azeroth. By utilizing this powerful Artifact, you’ll be able to harness Azerite to “awaken” pieces of armor that possess astounding latent powers.

CLAIMING THE HEART OF AZEROTH

After completing the Battle for Lordaeron, you’ll be directed to meet Magni once again in the deserts of Silithus. He’ll present you with the Heart of Azeroth, a powerful neck piece that you’ll take with you on your new adventures in Kul Tiras and Zandalar. The Heart of Azeroth will allow you to siphon the power of Azerite as you continue to heal of the planet, and once it’s empowered, it will level alongside you. As this Artifact increases in power, so too do its stats. It will also help you empower special helms, chest pieces, and shoulder pieces.

Each piece of Azerite-empowered armor has anywhere from three to four rings of Azerite traits available to unlock as you level up your Heart of Azeroth. As it increases in power, you’ll unlock more rings on your Azerite-empowered items. You can—and should—equip Azerite-empowered armor pieces in all three of the available slots, and you can view and change their associated powers by using Shift Right Click to open the interface.

Each ring of traits provides a specific type of benefit for you to choose from.

• Outer Ring: Powers that reside on the outer ring 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:
Pauldrons of Vile Corruption
Filthy Transfusion
(Passive)
Your damaging abilities have a chance to invoke a tainted swamp beneath the target, siphoning 8,628 health from them over 6 sec.

• Second 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: Savior: Your heals on targets below 35% health have a chance to heal for an additional 942.

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

Example: Azerite Fortification (Passive) When stunned, immobilized, or knocked back, you heal for 1,852.

• Fourth Ring: Azerite Empowerment is the power that resides on the central fourth ring, and increases an armor piece’s item level by 5.

Epic-quality gear, such as are rewards from raid dungeons, can have a fourth power tier available, which appears as the armor piece’s second ring. Lower level gear will generally only have three rings available, and won’t include this second ring.

If you change your mind on any of your power choices, you can always visit the Azerite Reforger in Boralus or in Zuldazar. While the cost is relatively low at first (5g), it will increase in cost the more times you reforge. The cost won’t stay that high forever— every two days, you’ll see your reforge cost decrease.

DRESSING FOR SUCCESS

There are a few other things to consider with Azerite-empowered armor. These pieces don’t have secondary stats, so you won’t need to worry about choosing powers with those in mind. Also, unlike the Heart of Azeroth itself, they can be enchanted. 

Another exciting thing to note for Azerite Armor is that each item has been created with specific powers on them. So, if you’ve taken a liking to a specific piece of armor’s powers, you’ll be able to hunt down the same piece of armor at a higher item level. For example, a piece of armor from Raid Finder will have the same powers as a Mythic piece of armor, but the Mythic version will have a higher item level, higher stats, and will be more powerful overall. Items have also been deliberately created and placed in the world, so if there’s a piece you have decided must be yours, you’ll know exactly how to find it. This variance in item level also applies to rewards from Mythic Dungeons and PVP.  

Here’s an example of what the same piece of gear from Tol Dagor looks like depending on the level of Mythic difficulty where it dropped:

Overseer’s Riot Helmet
Tradewinds
(Passive)
Your spells and abilities have a chance to grant you 287 Mastery for 15 sec. When this effect expires, it jumps to a nearby ally, granting them 144 Mastery for 8 sec.

Requires Heart of Azeroth level 16

Mythic 0 (340)	Mythic 10 (385)
415 Armor	552 Armor
+411 Strength	+625 Strength
+698 Stamina	+1127 Stamina

Azerite-empowered armor can come from a variety of activities, from questing, to Raiding, to PvP. Each piece you receive will have an item level appropriate to where it dropped. If you’re looking to claim top-end gear, you’ll be able to collect it from taking part weekly activities such as raiding, from the weekly Mythic cache, Raid bosses, Warfronts, World Bosses, and via the Rated PvP activities.

You’ll also want to make sure you take part in the World Quests given by Magni Bronzebeard. He’ll be an important part of empowering your Heart of Azeroth. As you build your reputation with him from friendly to exalted, you’ll be rewarded with Azerite as well as a chance to receive Azerite armor along the way.

CATCHING UP TO THE CROWD

Similar to Artifact Knowledge in Legion, the Heart of Azeroth will help players keep up with the ever-increasing power curve. Over time, the amount of Azerite required to level the Heart will decrease, allowing players the ability to catch up if they’ve fallen behind. The system should help give you a leg up if you need one, but you’ll still need to put forth an effort to keep your Heart of Azeroth’s powers growing.

There’s no shortage of opportunity to tailor your gear to match your playstyle no matter your focus as you work toward healing Azeroth.

 

[Kuarinofu 78]

An artifact, so excited 

[Rhondis 148]

Hopefully this system doesn't prove to be a disappointment. I liked the Artifact weapons but overall it didn't feel exciting mid to late legion because there was no choices to choose from! Looks to have potential!

[Prophet001 598]

I really don't understand why everyone has to tell the story before the game does.

People should just enjoy the game organically in my opinion. The problem seems to be that you have to stay off of the internet for 6 months leading up to the expansion release.

[Weltenfeind 40]

The Yawn of Azeroth.

[Rhondis 148]

1 hour ago, Prophet001 said:

I really don't understand why everyone has to tell the story before the game does.

People should just enjoy the game organically in my opinion. The problem seems to be that you have to stay off of the internet for 6 months leading up to the expansion release.

Seriously though, you're not wrong. People complain and complain before even trying out the expansion. It gets pretty old.

[Nerdkartoffl 0]

2 hours ago, Rhondis said:

Hopefully this system doesn't prove to be a disappointment. I liked the Artifact weapons but overall it didn't feel exciting mid to late legion because there was no choices to choose from! Looks to have potential!

From what i've heard from many youtubers, you will not like what is waiting for you.
There aren't really any choices to make. Other Ring has 4 traits. 1 for every spec and on universal one (which sucks most of the time). Maybe they make it good/better with the first patch (8.1), but for now its boring from what i have seen/heard.
(Preach Gaming has a very good and objectiv video about this; Vid-Name = Azerite Armor - Good or Bad?)

I really hope i'm wrong and they only used a placeholder... But i dont think this will happen. 

Edited August 2, 2018 by Nerdkartoffl

[Prophet001 598]

1 minute ago, Nerdkartoffl said:

From what i've heard from many youtubers, you will not like what is waiting for you.
There aren't really any choices to make. Other Ring has 4 traits. 1 for every spec and on universal one (which sucks most of the time). Maybe they make it good/better with the first patch (8.1), but for now its boring from what i have seen/heard.
(Preach Gaming has a very good and objectiv video about this; Vid-Name = Azerite Armor - Good or Bad?)

I really hope i'm wrong and they only used a placeholder... But i dont think this will happen. 

Why not make your own decisions and play your own game?

Don't let any of these other random people think for you. Don't even listen to what they have to say. Just play the game and decide for yourself whether or not you like it and remove the possibility of any outside taint corrupting your opinion.

[PatrickHenry 293]

24 minutes ago, Nerdkartoffl said:

There aren't really any choices to make. Other Ring has 4 traits. 1 for every spec and on universal one (which sucks most of the time).

Well, when the complaint was classes unbalanced / unfair / 'this ability is too strong for xxx' they have to numb everything, because then its just not that great for anyone, but works for everyone.  

Perfectly logical, IMO.

It'd be different if it were one specific class or ability, but there were complaints about every class and virtually every ability / buff at one point in time, too strong, too weak, too boring, etc.

Edited August 2, 2018 by PatrickHenry

[Dravixus 11]

I had beta access but 1.) I didn't really have time to engage that and try at the same time to finish up some of the things I needed to get done before release and 2.) I was more interested in being surprised when the expansion goes live.

I can honestly say I do not know a whole lot other than some of the highlights, talking points, and the general premise leading up to it. I knew of the Heart of Azeroth but my knowledge was rather limited in terms of how it functioned, what it affected, etc.

This post clarifies some points for me but doesn't really go into all that much depth, seems like a pretty simple concept. I don't really have strong feelings about it, one way or the other. I am just looking forward to playing the game.

[Rhondis 148]

59 minutes ago, Nerdkartoffl said:

From what i've heard from many youtubers, you will not like what is waiting for you.
There aren't really any choices to make. Other Ring has 4 traits. 1 for every spec and on universal one (which sucks most of the time). Maybe they make it good/better with the first patch (8.1), but for now its boring from what i have seen/heard.
(Preach Gaming has a very good and objectiv video about this; Vid-Name = Azerite Armor - Good or Bad?)

I really hope i'm wrong and they only used a placeholder... But i dont think this will happen. 

I already know all that there is to know about Azerite armor. The only reason why it's so lack luster as of now is because it's only the beginning of the expansion. People are giving Azerite armor a bad rep because of the current traits that are offered at this time. Compared to our weapons that showed you what you will be getting throughout legion (except the power increase that unlocked 4 extra traits). Overtime they could add another ring or add more interesting traits that further the development of our classes. 

But there's also a reason why these traits are lackluster. When Azerite Armor is gone for next expansion the community will feel frustrated and mad that their characters won't be as powerful as they were in BfA. Legion was a good example of this, and the reason why a good majority of classes had to have their talents or specs change because the weapons complimented the classes and even made them better (I.E Fire mage with it's phoenix's). So I can completely understand why Blizzard is going about this way. They want to make sure we enjoy Azerite armor but don't get too attached. 

Edited August 2, 2018 by Rhondis

[Nerdkartoffl 0]

On 8/2/2018 at 11:18 PM, Prophet001 said:

Why not make your own decisions and play your own game?

Don't let any of these other random people think for you. Don't even listen to what they have to say. Just play the game and decide for yourself whether or not you like it and remove the possibility of any outside taint corrupting your opinion.

I did. I got in the beta a few month ago. This system dont alter your playstyle even a little (for most classes).
It's not a bad system, but a boring one. You wait till you can click on one circle out of a few, where not really any choice exist.
You can say that it is a "long-term-motivation" for people who only want to click a box. A human being which is able to think about thinks will not be as amused like the fanboys.
 

On 8/3/2018 at 12:14 AM, Rhondis said:

The only reason why it's so lack luster as of now is because it's only the beginning of the expansion.

This is every expansion, every beta and every alpha!
"It's only alpha. They will fix it when beta hits."
"It's only beta. They will fix it when it goes live"
"It's only the first tier. They will fix it with 8.1"
This goes on till the next expansion and the circle starts to repeat itself.
Look at draenor... They instanceserver problem was known since alpha.
And since Alpha, people talk about the azerite system. It had potential, but it will not getting used.

[Rhondis 148]

9 hours ago, Nerdkartoffl said:

This is every expansion, every beta and every alpha!
"It's only alpha. They will fix it when beta hits."
"It's only beta. They will fix it when it goes live"
"It's only the first tier. They will fix it with 8.1"
This goes on till the next expansion and the circle starts to repeat itself.
Look at draenor... They instanceserver problem was known since alpha.
And since Alpha, people talk about the azerite system. It had potential, but it will not getting used.

Your argument makes no sense. I said the traits will get better and better as time goes on, Blizzard themselves stated that. And how it will not be getting used? Even if the traits are lackluster they still provide a benefit to the overall class with DPS increases and survivability.

 

 

 

[multiboxing 71]

On ‎8‎/‎2‎/‎2018 at 2:11 PM, Stan said:

It will also help you empower special helms, chest pieces, and shoulder pieces.

whoopdeedo!  we only get to empower 3 pieces of armor!  bullcrap!  I want to empower all my armor!

I WANT THE FULL MIGHT OF THE POWER OF AZERITE! 

 

nerdrage complete!