wow What's Changing (and Not!) in Season 2

[Starym 3,800]

 

Today we have Game Director Ion "Watcher" Hazzikostas diving into Season 2 of Battle for Azeroth, into what exactly is changing and what isn't and how to prepare and handle the new stuff. We'll also be getting separate posts for the raid, M+ and PvP, but for now we have details on the ilevel increase, everything new with Warfronts, world content, dungeons, PvP, Azerite armor and more!

Lots of questions swirling over the weekend, so here's a cheat sheet for what is and isn't changing next week in BfA Season 2: https://t.co/OwpdJ3x6ra

(We'll get it up on other regions' forums ASAP - I ran into some errors when trying to post on EU.)

— Ion Hazzikostas (@WatcherDev) January 14, 2019

Ion Hazzikostas (source)

Hi all,

We have a series of blogs accompanying the release of the upcoming Battle of Dazar’alor raid, the new Mythic Keystone season, and the new PvP season, offering deep dives into each of those features. But in the meantime, the community clearly has a ton of questions (and some confusion) about exactly what is and isn’t changing. Should you be spending or saving your bonus rolls? What should you expect from the weekly Mythic Keystone cache next week? What’s up with the Azerite vendor?

For those of you who played Legion, the process will largely be familiar, though in Battle for Azeroth we’re trying to align the opening of a new raid tier with the start of new PvP and Mythic+ seasons, to avoid some of the awkward item-level leapfrogging that we saw during Legion (e.g. the Mythic Keystone cap repeatedly going up to 15 and then back down to 10). Here’s a succinct summary of what is and isn’t changing next week, when Battle of Dazar’alor opens on Normal and Heroic difficulties, and PvP and M+ Season 2 begin:

Overall

• The maximum possible item level will go up by 30, from 395 to 425.

Warfronts

• Arathi/Stromgarde rewards will remain as they were previously.
• Darkshore rewards will go up by 15 item levels, so that the outdoor world boss and the once-per-cycle quest both award item-level 400 gear.
• The power of all enemies in the Darkshore Warfront will also go up by roughly 15%, and the item level required to queue for Darkshore will go up from 320 to 335.
• Special note: The two Darkshore changes will only take effect after the current Warfront cycle has ended. So if Alliance is attacking Darkshore in a given region when Season 2 begins, and has 3 days left in that attack cycle, that Darkshore will still give Season 1 rewards.
  • This is being done to avoid any unfairness to people who had already completed the Warfront or done the world boss just prior to the season rollover.

Kul Tiras and Zandalar World Content

• Emissary weapon and armor rewards will scale up to 385 (based on a player’s own item level), up from 370.
• The loot from Kul Tiras and Zandalar world bosses will remain item level 355, on par with Normal Uldir.
• The rewards for in-progress emissary quests may reroll or update when Season 2 begins, though the quests themselves won’t reset or change.

Dungeons

• The item level of rewards from max-level Normal, Heroic, and Mythic dungeons will go up by 30. Baseline rewards will be 340 from Normal, 355 from Heroic, and 370 from non-Keystone Mythic.
• Difficulty of Heroic and Mythic dungeons will also go up by roughly 30%; Normal dungeons are unchanged.
• Mythic Keystones will go down by an additional 3 levels when the season transition occurs, to account for this difficulty increase. So if you do an 11 this coming week, instead of getting a Level 10 keystone when Season 2 starts, expect a 7.
• Mythic+ rewards will also go up by 30 item levels; however, during the first week of Season 2, rewards from end-of-run chests will be capped at Mythic 6 quality (item level 385), and the chest you open next week will contain Season 1 rewards if you do a Mythic+ run this week. (So, for example, if you do a Mythic 10 during the final week of Season 1, you’ll get a Season 1 item level 385 piece and 60 Residuum from your first Season 2 chest.)
• The weekly cache that becomes available in the second week of the season will not be affected by this cap, so if a player does a Mythic 10 dungeon during the first week, they will get a Mythic 10 reward (item level 410+) from their cache the following week.

PvP

• Season 2 rewards from rated PvP sources are 30 item levels higher than they were in Season 1, including Conquest rewards and the weekly chest.
• End-of-match rewards will be capped at 385 during the first week of the season, to maintain parity with other endgame systems until Mythic Battle of Dazar’alor becomes available.

Azerite Armor

• All epic Azerite armor of item level 370 or higher, obtained from Battle of Dazar’alor, world quest emissaries, Season 2 dungeons, or Season 2 PvP, will have a fifth outer ring with additional spec-specific traits.
  • This outer ring only requires a Heart level of 15 to access.
• Titan Residuum is not reset or capped between seasons.
• The Residuum vendor will offer item level 385, 400, and 415 pieces for sale in Season 2.
  • A random item-level 385 token costs 165 (as it does today)
  • A random 400 costs 675
  • A random 415 costs 1725
  • A specific item-level 415 armor piece costs 7150
• Just as Residuum costs roughly triple with each 15-ilvl tier, so will rewards:
  • Disenchanting an item level 400 Azerite piece yields 115 Residuum
  • Disenchanting an item level 415 Azerite piece yields 365 Residuum
  • A weekly cache for a Mythic 4 in Season 2 awards roughly the same 60 Residuum that a Mythic 10 did in Season 1; a Mythic 10 in Season 2 will award ~625 Residuum

Miscellaneous

• Seals of Wartorn Fate are not being reset, and the same currency will work for Battle of Dazar’alor and Season 2 bonus rolls; the cap on how many can be held at once remains at 5.

If anything remains unclear or seems to be missing from the above, please let us know and we’ll try to clarify as soon as possible.

The Game Director talks about everything that's coming in Season 2 and how to prepare.

[Ragingwolf 310]

So basically, due to the RNG of this game, I might have enough TR saved up in 10 weeks or less (for 1 desired piece) if I am lucky with the weekly grind of doing 3-4 dungeons on a difficulty of +9 or higher.  So back to the long and tedious grindstone.

[Yridaa 490]

7 minutes ago, Ragingwolf said:

So basically, due to the RNG of this game, I might have enough TR saved up in 10 weeks or less (for 1 desired piece) if I am lucky with the weekly grind of doing 3-4 dungeons on a difficulty of +9 or higher.  So back to the long and tedious grindstone.

I haven't played since November (So before this whole currency was even live), but isn't it possible to get loot & currency from mythic dungeons as often as you like and turn the loot you don't want into even more currency?

 

Sounds a lot better than back before 8.1; there was only the weekly chest that could give you an upgrade on Azerite pieces & emissary chests had 375 at best back then. And that was absolutely it. At the mythic level I was at anyways.

 

I don't plan on coming back, I'm pretty much done with Blizzard at this point, so just wondering out of curiosity ?

[tkioz 229]

38 minutes ago, Yridaa said:

I haven't played since November (So before this whole currency was even live), but isn't it possible to get loot & currency from mythic dungeons as often as you like and turn the loot you don't want into even more currency??

No.

You get one lot of TR per week based on your highest mythic+ completed the week previously (and going over a 10 is pathetic, doing a 15 each week gives you roughly half the amount needed for a random 385 currently... and if like me you end up with four of the same damn helm that's good).

The only other way to get TR is scrap or disenchant azerite armour, at a terrible return rate, and you can not obtain azerite from mythic+ at all. Not from the instances themselves, not from the weekly cache. So if mythic+ if your main form of gameplay in order to actually get mythic+ azerite you need to raid, pvp, do emissaries, or a combination of the above.

So while the system is better than the pathetic joke it was at launch it is still a terrible bloody system.

[eXQQ2 0]

7 hours ago, tkioz said:

Not from the instances themselves, not from the weekly cache.

You can get azerite gear from the weekly m+ cache, but the rest is correct. The system is terrible as heck.

[tkioz 229]

41 minutes ago, eXQQ2 said:

You can get azerite gear from the weekly m+ cache, but the rest is correct. The system is terrible as heck.

No. No you can't. The 8.1 change that introduced Titan Residuum also removed the ability to get Azerite equipment from the weekly M+ cache.

Quote

The item contained in your Mythic Keystone weekly cache can no longer be a piece of Azerite gear. You’ll now receive an amount of Titan Residuum in addition to your weekly item.

https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/news/22824892/tides-of-vengeance-update-notes

[jinsu2301 273]

11 hours ago, Ragingwolf said:

So basically, due to the RNG of this game, I might have enough TR saved up in 10 weeks or less (for 1 desired piece) if I am lucky with the weekly grind of doing 3-4 dungeons on a difficulty of +9 or higher.  So back to the long and tedious grindstone.

Getting a specific item from a raid can take just as long. We did Heroic Uldir for 12 weeks and I never got any of the heal trinkets I wanted. It took me 15 kills to get the Edict of Argus back in WoD, and I never got my feral trinket from Argus... So getting the item you want after 10-12 weeks with 100% certainty isn't too bad in my opinion.

Also: Keep in mind that these specific 415 Azerite pieces are the best in the game. I don't raid mythic, and I don't complain about Blizz not handing me mythic raid gear in the first week (unless it's a stupid TF).

 

Edited January 15, 2019 by jinsu2301

[Koxsos 38]

so basically "everything you do in the following two weeks prior to release besides leveling alts is clsoe to irrelevant, thanks for subscribing" I mean it's all the same grinding, but it's less fun when it's painfully obvious how meaningless it is.
Let's not delude ourselves in any way that anything in wow has much meaning attached to it, but for a newbie trying to get geared it's all just "stop right there, wait couple weeks, heroics will drop better stuff than you farmed warfronts for"

[Hypersonic 119]

14 hours ago, tkioz said:

No.

You get one lot of TR per week based on your highest mythic+ completed the week previously (and going over a 10 is pathetic, doing a 15 each week gives you roughly half the amount needed for a random 385 currently... and if like me you end up with four of the same damn helm that's good).

The only other way to get TR is scrap or disenchant azerite armour, at a terrible return rate, and you can not obtain azerite from mythic+ at all. Not from the instances themselves, not from the weekly cache. So if mythic+ if your main form of gameplay in order to actually get mythic+ azerite you need to raid, pvp, do emissaries, or a combination of the above.

So while the system is better than the pathetic joke it was at launch it is still a terrible bloody system.

I haven't played since November (due this system) too but thought this system at least changed since that.. so sad to read it's not.

[Ragingwolf 310]

5 hours ago, jinsu2301 said:

Getting a specific item from a raid can take just as long. We did Heroic Uldir for 12 weeks and I never got any of the heal trinkets I wanted. It took me 15 kills to get the Edict of Argus back in WoD, and I never got my feral trinket from Argus... So getting the item you want after 10-12 weeks with 100% certainty isn't too bad in my opinion.

Also: Keep in mind that these specific 415 Azerite pieces are the best in the game. I don't raid mythic, and I don't complain about Blizz not handing me mythic raid gear in the first week (unless it's a stupid TF).

 

I understand completely and it's not bad for a 10-12 week wait.   I remember when it took me over 8 months trying to get a staff upgrade for my Chanter in Aion (and it never dropped).  But I just can't help to think the cost of over 7k is a lil steep for an item that may become irrelevant if a 4th Raid is in the works and or introduced by that time.  [3rd Raid is suppose to be similar to Trial of Valor from the Legion xpac from what I read] But, as a player, that is the chance I am going to have decide before either spending or saving TR for my main....rather disappointing that there is not a server wide wallet system in this game on select ingame currency.  What I can't use on my Main I wish I could give to my alts instead. 

But until then continue forward to pushing keys and trying to conquer the new Raid and hope that the RNG odds will be in my favor.

*In before all I get is AP from bonus rolls and keystone chests.

[PatrickHenry 293]

54 minutes ago, Ragingwolf said:

rather disappointing that there is not a server wide wallet system in this game on select ingame currency.  What I can't use on my Main I wish I could give to my alts instead. 

I actually would really welcome this change.