The first major content update for World of Warcraft’s Battle for Azeroth expansion is upon us. Tides of Vengeance bring the fight between the Alliance and Horde to Darkshore, advances the war campaign, adds heritage armour for blood elves and dwarves and turns Gnomeregan into a pet battle dungeon, because gnomes get no respect.
As of this writing players are still eagerly awaiting the servers going back up following the extended maintenance that normally precludes a major World of Warcraft update. It’s a good time to look over what’s new and lay out a plan of attack for taking on all this fresh content.
My second most anticipated new feature in the Tides of Vengeance update is the Battle for Darkshore Warfront. It’s the second cyclical battle between the Horde and Alliance, in which each faction takes turns gathering resources, fighting in a pitched raid battle and then controlling the Darkshore zone.
In what I hope will be an improvement to the Warfronts feature, the controlling faction will gain access to diverse world quests in the zones they control, rather than the “kill x of y” quests from when it first launched.
If that’s my second most anticipated, then what is the first? Why, it’s the Gnomeregan pet battle dungeon. While I, as a long-time gnome player, feel slighted by the choice of location for this celebration of Pokemon-style battle pets, I’d be remiss if I didn’t show my hometown pride.
Plus, I am a pet collector, and there are plenty of pets to collect in the new dungeon. Completing the dungeon’s challenge mode grants players a Mini Spider Tank battle pet. Continue playing on a weekly basis to earn currency towards items like the Unopened Gnomeregan Supply Box, Mechanical Cockroach, Schematic: Mechantula, Leper Rat Tail, and Rechargeable Alarm-O-Dog Battery.
While the gnome homeland gets invaded once again, dwarves and blood elves get their heritage armour on.
Unfortunately, in order to earn this special armour, both races will have to embark on quests to learn more about themselves. Sounds pretty harrowing.
Meanwhile, on the island continents introduced in the Battle for Azeroth expansion, players level 110 and above who have unlocked world quests can participate in Faction Assaults.
These special events, alternating between Alliance and Horde territory, will give each faction a chance to band together to defend their territory or invade their enemy’s via a series of world quests. The prize? Survival! Also faction, gear and gold. Maybe even some pride.
So much new stuff. The war questline expands. Island expeditions get a couple of new locations to explore. Azerite armour gets tweaked so it’s slightly less stupid than it already is.
While we wait for the servers to go back up, Blizzard’s prepared a handy survival guide for Tides of Vengeance. I suggest looking it over, or else risk not surviving at all.
Comments
5 responses to “Battle For Azeroth’s First Major Update Arrives Today, And It’s A Doozy”
How much did they pay you to put this one up Mike? Battle for Azeroth is a terrible expansion.
Patch 8.1 is a box of bandaids for an axe wound.
The most anticipated feature if 8.1 was suppose to be the promised “Major Updates” to several classes… that after 180 days were functionally iterative rollbacks cause their class design team is so infatuated (and players infuriated) with their Azerite system they keep running out of scheduled time.
BfA is being compared to WoD as the worse expansion, cause Legion was awesone and this gas been a poor dispkay or corporate mismanagement if design and development.
Beta/Alpha went for 6+ months. They completely ignored feedback for that whole period.
BfA launches and Ion Hazzn’tgotafuckingclue apologies to the community and says several specs will launch in an unfinished and broken state. He promises reworks in 8.1.
8.1 takes 3-4 months to launch and the extent of most of their changes are hot-fix level numbers tuning. Things that literally could have been done in a hot-fix. Absolutely pathetic.
Blizzard is a disgrace now.
I was pretty underwhelmed by the patch. Yeah there’s some new stuff, but the WQs in Darkshore are pretty ho-hum. There are some fun points in the new questline but even that is still buggy. I got stuck on a scenario and you have to abandon it and restart the quest. *sigh*
I haven’t got through the questline as a result, but I’m hoping they allow it to branch so you can choose to either support Sylvanis or not (as a horde).
Blizzard
RIP 2018
I am glad I pulled my subscription when I did. I mean I am sure there are a few people enjoying the content, but dang I loathe the Azerite armour BS.