While the Feast of Winter Veil festivities continue across Orgrimmar and Ironforge, an ancient evil stirs. Blizzard has recently announced the release date for the next major patch for Battle for Azeroth. Titled Visions of N’zoth, patch 8.3 will launch January 14th and bring with it a plethora of new content for the game. We are talking about new Mythic+ Dungeons and PvP seasons, new raid, cosmetics, collectibles, Pet Battle Dungeon, reputations, Corrupted Items and much more!
When a new WoW patch is launching, players often find themselves questioning what they should do before it hits, especially if there are any items or achievements going away. Look no further, we have a handy guide on what you should tackle before N’zoth begins his assault.
Limited-time Rewards
A number of things are going to become unobtainable once Visions of N’zoth hits live servers. Those include:
- Elite Gladiator PvP appearance & Notorious Gladiator’s Proto-Drake for BfA Season 3. If you wish to lay claim to these rewards, you have to get busy with acquiring rating in Rated Arenas/Battlegrounds.
- Ahead of the Curve: Queen Azshara (Heroic) and Cutting Edge: Queen Azshara (Mythic). These achievements are granted for defeating Queen Azshara in the current patch on the respective difficulty and will no longer be available once Visions of N’zoth launches.
- Battle for Azeroth Keystone Conqueror: Season Three (Mythic level 10 or higher) and Battle for Azeroth Keystone Master: Season Three (Mythic level 15 or higher) are also going away. These achievements require you to finish all of BfA Dungeons on the respective Mythic+ level on time.
Farm time!
With rewards that are going away out of the way, let’s tackle what you can do right now to have more content, rewards and even profit available for you the day patch launches:
- Patch 8.3 introduces the feature that all transmog collectors have been longing for: the ability to transmog into Legendaries! That includes conventional legendaries from Vanilla-MoP and even Legion-daries from the previous expansion. If there is an appearance you have been particularly yearning for, now might be the time to get it.
- Visions of N’zoth adds a pair of new Allied Races: Vulpera for the Horde and the Mechagnomes for the Alliance. The requirements for these races include having Exalted reputation with the respective faction (Vol’dunai/Mechagon), finishing their storyline and finishing Mechagon Mythic dungeon for the Alliance. This week between the mix of the Anniversary Event buff and the World Quest weekly, you can get 65% extra reputation from World Quests. It might be the perfect opportunity to finish grinding the reputation if you are not there yet.
- In the same vein, two of the already existing races – Alliance’s Worgen and Horde’s Goblins – are about to get exclusive Heritage armor. To be able to access the special questline that rewards this cosmetic set, your character has to be level 120 and be exalted with the respective faction – Gilneas for the Alliance and Bilgewater Cartel for the Horde.
- If you have pre-ordered the next WoW expansion, Shadowlands, patch 8.3 will also unlock the Pandaren and Allied Race Death Knights for your account. If that is something you are interested in, you might want to unlock a variety of Allied Races so that you have a bigger choice when the time comes.
- The last but not the least is a new Pet Battle Dungeon coming in Patch 8.3. Following Deadmines, Wailing Caverns, Stratholme and Gnomeregan, the winding mystery brings our aspiring trainer to be to Blackrock Depths in a conclusion to this tiny but epic storyline. To get access to Blackrock Depths, you have to complete all previous Pet Battle Dungeons. It might be just the perfect opportunity to do so as patch 8.3 is also bringing the nerf bat to the most popular pet comps, possibly rendering all the existing strategies useless.
Pile Up the Goods!
With active farming accounted for, here is a short list of things you can accumulate passively as you play – or maybe focus a bit more actively on than you currently do.
- Instead of selling your consumables such as Augment Runes, potions, flasks, food, drums, etc. now, stick them into your bank until the patch drops and the new raid releases. Hungry raiders will be storming the Auction House for the tiniest edge on the new challenges – and the prices will inevitably go up. If you are not a crafter, there is still some profit to be made with crafting mats such as cloth and meat that you accumulate passively in your day-to-day adventuring.
- Stockpile all the currencies! Visions of N’zoth is bringing in new pets, mounts and Island Expedition crates for already existing currencies. You might want to save up on Pet Charms, 7th Legion/Honorbound Service Medals and Island Doubloons to get a head start on all the new stuff.
- Unlike the previous point, if you have any Titan Residiuum from scrapping/disenchanting your Azerite Armor, you’re better off spending it now. When Patch 8.3 releases, all of your existing Residiuum will disappear and all you will get is a meager gold change.
Check it off Before Shadowlands:
This little list consists of a few things that might be easier to do now for a variety of reasons.
- Finish off your Naz’jatar and Mechagon achievements. Once Visions of N’zoth launches, most players will flock to the latest content, leaving the previous zones relatively empty. While it might be beneficial for some achievements, it will make others harder.
- Vicious War Basilisk mount is currently available as a reward for a certain number of wins above the rating of 1400. It will not be going away per se but it will be harder to get it in the further patches as it would require you to fill the bar for the mount for that particular season and then fill another one for a Vicious Saddle to purchase older mounts.
- While the WoW 15th Anniversary experience/reputation buff is active and Korrak’s Revenge is available for your characters, it is a perfect opportunity to raise up an army of alts as the experience coming from that Brawl is simply insane.
- Brawler’s Guild – while not going away just yet, it is quite likely that the rewards for Brawler’s Guild will be going away with the pre-patch for Shadowlands – that is how it happened with the previous seasons of this feature.
- Dueler’s Guild – there is currently no information on what is going to happen to Dueler’s Guild. It might stay untouched, similar to the PvP reputation from Legion, or go away as will the Brawler’s Guild.
- Mighty Caravan Brutosaur mount will be removed from the vendors in Shadowlands. It will still make an occasional visit to the Black Market Auction House, but if you are anywhere close to the 5 Millions Gold it will cost you to rehome this sweet long boi in Battle for Azeroth… you might want to double down on your greedy goblin ways so you don’t have the competition for it.
Like all dinosaurs, the Mighty Caravan Brutosaur’s days are numbered. I can confirm that when Shadowlands goes live, the shady vendors Talutu and Tricky Nick will cease selling it. Their other offerings – the Lost Platysaur pet and the Palehide Direhorn mount, will remain available for purchase.
We will make sure that the unforgettable Brutosaur mount is added to the lists of possible items that are sold in the Black Market Auction Houses. And of course, this new Achievement “Conspicuous Consumption” is a Feat of Strength, so as such things go, it’s not actually very conspicuous.
