What's Coming in the Shadowlands Pre-Patch: A Complete Overview

The Shadowlands pre-patch goes live October 13, 2020 in the US region and October 14, 2020 in the EU region. Blizzard is delaying Shadowlands and the new launch date has not been determined yet.

The official Shadowlands Pre-Patch Notes notes contain detailed information on what to expect in the latest World of Warcraft update.

All the core-class updates will go live in the Shadowlands pre-patch. We are keeping track of all class changes throughout Alpha and Beta testing, and we have listed links to the individual class changes below.

The Shadowlands pre-patch event consists of two stages of content and you can find more details in our separate guide linked below.

It is now much easier to unlock Allied Races because the reputation requirements have been removed, and you only need to earn the achievements that come with each Allied Race in Patch 9.0.1.

Mechagnomes are an exception since you need to hit Revered to earn The Mechagonian Threat.

Here are the new requirements for Allied Races in Patch 9.0.1:

• Dark Iron Dwarves — Earn Ready for War.
• Highmountain Tauren — Earn Ain't No Mountain High Enough.
• Kul Tiran Humans — Complete the Tides of Vengeance War Campaign and earn A Nation United.
• Lightforged Draenei — Earn You Are Now Prepared!.
• Mag'har Orcs — Earn Ready for War.
• Mechagnomes — Earn The Mechagonian Threat.
• Nightborne — Earn Insurrection.
• Void Elves — Earn You Are Now Prepared!.
• Vulpera — Earn Secrets in the Sands.
• Zandalari Trolls — Complete the Tides of Vengeance War Campaign and earn Zandalar Forever!.

Allied Race Heritage Armor sets now require reaching Level 50.

The stable slot size has been drastically increased and Hunters can now tame cloud serpents including Elegon.

You can simply buy How to School Your Serpent from the Order of the Cloud Serpent Quartermaster at Exalted reputation standing.

All numbers in the game have been squished. The squish includes damage, healing, stats, item level, and character levels.

Here is a rundown of the most important leveling changes in Patch 9.0.1:

• Level 120 characters are now 50. Lower level characters have been reduced proportionally.
• leveling is now much faster, and so Heirlooms no longer provide Experience bonuses, but different perks instead.
• Exile's Reach, the new player experience is now available for new players.
• Veteran players can talk to Chromie in Stormwind and Orgrimmar to pick an expansion for leveling in the 10-50 range.
• Leveling potions will no longer offer Experience bonuses, except for Draught of Ten Lands.
• Death Knights will start at Level 8 and Demon Hunters at Level 10 in the pre-patch.

Multiple existing Keystone Affixes have been changed in the Shadowlands pre-patch:

• Bursting
  • Bursting is now a dispellable Magic debuff.
  • Bursting deals a flat amount of damage instead of a percentage based off of maximum health.
• Volcanic
  • Players are now knocked in the air when hit by Volcanic.
  • Volcanic now deals damage equal to 15% of the player's health (was 40%).
• Sanguine
  • Sanguine's duration reduced to 20 seconds (was 60 seconds).
• Grievous
  • Non-periodic heals now remove 1 stack of Grievous.
  • Grievous now deals a flat amount of damage instead of a percentage based off of max HP.
• Explosive
  • Explosive Orbs now spawn 4 to 8 yards from the unit that summoned them (was 3 yards).
  • Explosive Orb health has been reduced and no longer scale with keystone level.
  • Explosive Orbs now have a sound effect when defeated.

You can find a list of new Keystone Affixes coming to the game in our Shadowlands Mythic Season 1 Overview .

• The Corrupted Items system has been removed from the game.
• Rank 4 Essences are no longer obtainable.
• Memory of the Lucid Dreams (Azerite Essence) now affects Holy Power instead of Shield of the Righteous for Protection Paladins.
• Memory of the Lucid Dreams (Azerite Essence) now affects Mana for Enhancement Shamans.
• The PvP Talent granted with Conflict and Strife (Azerite Essence) Major Power has been changed for the following classes:
  • Mistweaver Monks now learn Chrysalis (was Way of the Crane).
  • Affliction Warlocks now learn Rot and Decay (was Endless Affliction).
  • Restoration Druids now learn Reactive Resin (was Overgrowth).
  • Discipline Priests now learn Purification (was Premonition).
  • Mages now learn Netherwind Armor (was Temporal Shield).
• All Legion Legendary items' bonuses no longer activate.
• Leatherworking drums now provide 15% Haste (was 25%).
• War-Scrolls of Battle Shout, Intellect, and Fortitude can no longer be used by characters above level 50.
• Many consumables now have a 5-minute cooldown.
• Water now regenerates mana slower in the first seconds you begin drinking, increasing to a rapid return as you drink continuously.
• Reduced the amount of value that Critical Strike, Haste, Mastery, and Versatility secondary stats provide when reaching high thresholds.
• PvP Weapon Illusions can be used by all characters across the account.
• You can no longer champion a Mists of Pandaria faction for bonus reputation.

Max level is now required to access the Black Market Auction House. New items that have become available for purchase include:

• Illusion: Nightmare, which drops from Xavius in the Emerald Nightmare.
• Illusion: Chronos, which drops from Chronomatic Anomaly in the Nighthold.
• Reins of the Mighty Caravan Brutosaur that is no longer sold by the vendor for 5 million gold.
• Fathom Dweller that drops from Kosumuth the Hungering.

Draenor Pathfinder and Broken Isles Pathfinder, Part Two are no longer required for flying in Draenor and the Broken Isles content. You can find more about the overhaul to flying due to the leveling changes in our separate guide.

A new mentor system allows knowledgeable players who want to help newcomers as they learn the game. As a Guide, your main role will be to answer questions in the Newcomer Chat channel. You will be marked with a special icon in the world so that Newcomers will be able to recognize you, and vice versa.

You must meet the following requirements to become a Guide.

• Reach Level 50.
• Earn the 3000 Quests Completed achievement.
• Earn 2 out of the following achievements — Terrific Trio, The Waking Dream, and We Have the Technology.

• Dozens of new customization options are available for existing races.
• Blizzard has greatly improved the customization option screen. The individual colors of the options can now be previewed directly by hovering over them in the dropdown.
• You can change your gender at the Barber Shop.
• Druids can customize their forms independently at the Barber Shop. The appearances include glyph options and if you obtained Fandral's Flamescythe, you can select the fire cat appearance for your Cat Form.
• Worgen can now customize their Human and Worgen forms separately.

Health and Combat Potions Health Potions will have a 5-minute cooldown and will no longer be limited to one use per encounter in the pre-patch.

Two small changes went live for mounts in the pre-patch. Unicorn or horse mounts can fly, and Gladiator mounts have become account-wide.

• Players have new options and availability for transmogrification of their Legion Artifacts. You can use the appearances regardless of your specialization, dual-wield the same weapons, or use main-hand and off-hand Artifact appearances independently.
• Wands can be transmogrified into other weapon types .

The Brawler's Guild has been temporarily disabled and will return in the future.

Ray-traced shadows are now available. Accessibility settings for motion sickness and gamepad support have been added.

Blizzard has completely overhauled the character creation and customization screen. They also added a new 3D Indicator of Tracked Quest Objectives to reduce bringing up the map in the game.

• Each class now wears a set, and new spell animations were added for all classes on the character creation screen.
• If you hover over an unavailable class, the races you must pick to play that class will be highlighted.

• The 3D Indicator of Tracked Quest Objectives of tracked quest objective locations is now available, which aims to reduce the need to bring up the map when navigating the world and help more clearly identify when an objective is above or below you.
• You can set a personal waypoint on the map and share that pin in chat channels.
• The quest interface now better distinguishes major quests that are required to advance the narrative from optional side quests that tell more localized stories.