Patch 12.1 and Midnight Season 2 are nearly upon us. If you’re just starting out or coming back after a long break, here’s a list of what is worth doing to get ready for the new season.
Pre-Gearing Checklist
Before hitting gear, below are two important steps to complete before Patch 12.1, regardless of your gear level: the required campaign and the Omnium Folio for free power for Season 2.
Campaign Chapter 1 – Legacy of the Amani
The first thing to get out of the way before the patch is to complete Chapter 1 of Curse of Ula’tek, available right now. This chapter starts from Orweyna in Silvermoon with the quest Hagar’s Invitation. Completing this chapter is required to unlock the quest that takes you to Coiled Isle, the new zone of Patch 12.1.
You can check if you have completed it or not by looking at your map in Quel’thalas:
Once you unlock Coiled Isle with one character, all characters from your account can access it. Coiled Isle unlocks at the end of Chapter 2.
Omnium Folio
Another useful unlock for Season 2 and beyond is the Omnium Folio. By completing this questline, you unlock a permanent boost to your character’s power.
Check out how to complete the Omnium Folio in our in-depth guide:
Gearing Preparation
If you’re starting now or coming back after a long break, a realistic goal for you should be to get a Hero track. You can learn more about what that means in our Gearing Guide.
Shortlist
We will go over the full list in detail, but this is the shortlist if you already know what to do:
- Timewalking Weekly Quest for Hero Track Box
- World Boss in Val/Naigtal for 2x Account-wide Hero Track pieces
- Void-Touched Hero Track Gear from Field Accolades
- Rares from Val and Naigtal
- (Bonus) Tier 6 Ritual Sites for Myth Crests
- (Bonus) Coin Mythic+ for Easy Myth Gear
Goal
This close to Season 2, your goal should be to get enough gear to be able to farm Champion Track items when the Season starts. Due to changes in gearing, Champion gear will be upgrades for all players in Season 2, regardless of their current gear, so this puts you in a very strong position, able to do content with everyone else.
With this in mind, your goal should be to reach Hero Track in every slot, with some Myth items being nice-to-haves. This puts you at the Veteran Track for Season 2, the right spot to farm Champion gear. This Hero Track gear in Season 1 will enable you to complete the following when Patch 12.1/Season 2 hits:
- Tier 8 Bountiful Delves
- Nightmare Prey Hunts
- Early Mythic+ Dungeons
- Normal Raid Bosses
Gearing Sources
Now, let’s cover each of the recommended items in the shortlist above, going over details for every one of them.
Timewalking Weekly Quest
As part of the ongoing Turbulent Timeways event, you can complete the weekly Timewalking quest to earn a free piece of Hero Track gear. All you need to do is complete 5 Timewalking dungeons.
Val World Boss
Defeating the World Boss in Val this week in Heroic World Tier rewards two Hero Track Warbound pieces, one for the Heroic kill and one for the regular kill. Really quick to find a group and kill the boss.
Tip: If you have multiple characters, you can get the two pieces with the character you don’t want to gear up, then kill the World Boss again on Heroic World Tier with the character you want to gear up. This will give you 2 Warbound pieces, plus an extra soulbound piece on the character you want to gear up.
Rares in Val and Naigtal
Rares you find in the zones of Val and Naigtal have a chance of dropping Hero Track gear as well. While only a chance, it is a pretty spammable method, ideal for finishing up a character. They also drop a large number of Field Accolades, which tie in to the next gearing method.
Void-Touched Gear or Field Accolade Chests
Upon collecting 750 Field Accolades from any source, you can buy a specific piece of Hero Track gear from Maren Silverwing in Silvermoon. If you’re starting out, you can also spend 500 instead to buy a piece of Hero Track for a random slot, but it could be a slot you already have a Hero Track piece equipped.
While you can’t transfer Field Accolades between alts, you can transfer the caches after purchasing them, making this a good method for funneling gear to a specific character.
Optional Strategies: Myth Track Items
For those looking to go above and beyond, there are methods to obtaining Myth Track items, requiring little to no group interaction. Note that these methods take much longer and are way less efficient than the ones described above.
Tier 6 Ritual Sites
You are able to grind Myth Crests solo currently by using Tier 6 ritual sites. Upon completion, the Ritual Site gives you 5 Myth Dawncrests. You can use Myth Dawncrests to craft 285 item level gear by using professions or by submitting a Crafting Order to another player.
Bonus Rolls in Mythic+
If you don’t mind Mythic+, you can earn Myth Season 1 gear very fast using bonus rolls. Each +10 or higher dungeon you run will guarantee you one piece of Myth gear by using a bonus roll at the end of it.
If you haven’t used bonus rolls on your character for Season 1, you can unlock them after a quick quest chain from Decimus. Upon unlocking, you can purchase 32 bonus rolls as of this week. This means up to 32 Myth pieces from Mythic+ if you can stomach that many keys.
