wow Tides of Vengeance Update Notes : January 22nd

[Stan 5,020]

Battle of Dazar'alor is now open and here are the official patch notes with information about the new raid, Season 2, and item reward updates.

• We've updated all Class Guides for today's content update.
• Battle of Dazar'alor is now open. Check out our raid guides to learn more about the encounters.
• Today marks the beginning of Mythic Season 2 and the Infested affix will be replaced with Reaping. 
• PvP Season 2 starts today as well. Learn more about Conquest reward changes and the schedule in this post.
• Note: Kul Tiran Humans and Zandalari Trolls will not be available anytime soon and we'll have to wait until Patch 8.1.5 for them to come out.

Game Director Ion Hazzikostas will be answering your questions in the next Live Developer Q&A on Friday at 11:00 a.m. PST. We'll be back with a recap. Check out the official patch notes in the meantime!

Blizzard (Source)

For ages untold, Dazar’alor has stood at the center of the great and powerful Zandalari empire. Its guards have thwarted numerous attempts on King Rastakhan’s life, and it has endured trials both ancient and new. But as war reaches the shores of Zuldazar, the Alliance embarks on a daring gambit to besiege the golden pyramid and sever the Zandalari’s bond to the Horde.

New Raid – Battle of Dazar’alor

The Battle of Dazar’alor is now open. The Alliance is set to stage an attack on the heart of the Zandalari empire in a bid to sever the ties of the Zandalari and the Horde, while Horde players will begin the raid by defending against an invasion in the northern jungle of Zuldazar.

Along the way, players will get to shift to the other faction’s perspective and take on three additional bosses. For the first time in a raid, your character will transform into the opposite faction (including their associated racial abilities).

A dozen new, formidable boss encounters, including Lady Jaina Proudmoore and King Rastakhan himself, await you!

• Mythic difficulty and Raid Finder Wing 1 will open with scheduled weekly maintenance in each region the week of January 29, 2019.
• Raid Finder Wing 2 will open the week of February 12, 2019, and Raid Finder Wing 3 will open the week of February 26, 2019.

Battle for Azeroth Season 2

Both the adventures and the war being waged across Azeroth are signified by seasons: times at which many factors and measurements change. Today begins Season 2 of Battle for Azeroth, and you’ll find many new challenges and new rewards are now available in Dungeons and PvP content.

Dungeons

A new season of rewards from dungeons has begun. Complete your best Mythic Keystone each week to earn higher item-level gear, and save up your Titan Residuum to purchase new, powerful Azerite items.

• Item levels of rewards from level 120 Normal, Heroic, and Mythic dungeons have been increased by 30. Baseline rewards are now item-level 340 from Normal, 355 from Heroic, and 370 from non-Keystone Mythic dungeons.
• The difficulty of Heroic and Mythic dungeons has been increased by 30%. Normal difficulty dungeons are unchanged.
• Mythic Keystones have been reduced by an additional 3 levels, to account for this difficulty increase.
• Mythic Keystone rewards have been increased by 30 item levels. During the first week of Season 2, rewards from end-of-run chests will be capped at item-level 385, and the reward cache contains a Season 1 reward.
• Beginning the second week of Season 2, the weekly cache will not be affected by the cap, and will reward Season 2 items at the higher item levels.
• Added a new Tier 3 Mythic Keystone affix: Reaping. This bestows the power of Bwonsamdi on all non-boss creatures in the dungeon, giving them a chance to avenge their own deaths.
• The Infested affix has been removed.

Player versus Player

Battle for Azeroth PvP Season 2 is now underway. Ranks and ratings have been reset, and you can now begin earning new rewards.

• Season 2 rewards from PvP sources have been increased by 30 item-levels. This includes Conquest rewards and the weekly chest.
• Players who earn 500 Conquest points in a given week now receive one Quartermaster’s Coin and an item from that week’s selection.
• Players might also earn an additional piece of gear or Quartermaster’s Coin each week by using a weekly bonus roll token in PvP.
• Quartermaster’s Coins can be exchanged for a Warlord’s Trophy, which can be used to upgrade a piece of Sinister Gladiator gear to a higher item level.
• During weeks when the Conquest reward is a head, shoulder, or chest item, players can choose from one of four different pieces of Azerite gear. For the weeks when the Conquest reward is not an Azerite piece, trinket, or weapon, players will be able to choose gear from one of two different slots such as legs and wrists, hands and back, or finger and feet.
• The PvP reward UI now shows the criteria needed to receive your weekly chest. Elite sets (available to earn for a limited time only) can also be viewed in the Appearances interface on the Sets tab.
• Players can now work toward earning the Vicious Black Bonesteed or Vicious Black Warsaber. Once earned, fill the bar again to receive a Vicious Saddle, which can be used to purchase a mount from previous seasons.
• The Gladiator title and achievement are can now be earned by winning 50 games in 3v3 Arenas above a 2400 rating. Players in the top 0.1% at the end of Season 2 in this bracket will earn the Sinister Gladiator title.
• End-of-match rewards will be capped at item-level 385 during the first week of the season, to maintain parity with other endgame systems until Mythic Battle of Dazar’alor becomes available.

Items and Rewards Updates

New epic Azerite gear is now available from 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, starting at Heart of Azeroth level 15.

The new ring of traits provides two choices of traits per specialization, allowing players the 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.

Further changes to items and rewards include:

• Azerite Knowledge will increase weekly from January 22 through March 26.
• The maximum possible item level is now 425 (was 395).
• Seals of Wartorn Fate have not been changed or reset, and will be used for Battle of Dazar’alor and other Season 2 bonus rolls.
• Emissary weapon and armor rewards will scale up to item-level 385 (was 370).
• Loot from Kul Tiras and Zandalar world bosses will remain at item-level 355.
• Rewards for in-progress emissary quests may reroll or update when Season 2 begins; the quests themselves won’t reset or change.
• The Titan Residuum vendor now offers item-level 385, 400, and 415 gear.
• Titan Residuum is not reset or capped between seasons.

• WARFRONTS

  • Darkshore Warfront rewards have been increased by 15 item levels, and the outdoor world boss and the once-per-cycle quest now award item-level 400 gear.
  • The power of all enemies in the Darkshore Warfront have been increased by 15%, and the item level required to queue for Darkshore is now 335 (was 320).
    • Developers’ notes: These Darkshore changes will take effect after the current Warfront cycle has ended. If an attack is already underway in your region, the Warfront will give Season 1 rewards until the attack phase ends. This is being done to avoid any unfairness to people who had already completed the Warfront or killed the world boss before the start of the new season.
  • Rewards from Arathi Basin and Stromgarde Warfront have not changed.

[Koxsos 38]

On 1/22/2019 at 7:09 PM, Stan said:

This is being done to avoid any unfairness to people who had already completed the Warfront or killed the world boss before the start of the new season.

Talking about fairness, does not half of pop include horde players who do not receive *free* weekly BoD heroic raid drops for 12 kills in world pvp?