We are particularly looking forward to these five innovations in World of Warcraft Patch 8.1.
Next week it’s finally happening. The first major content patch for World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth is launching. Although we have already listed a large part of the changes and innovations in our Overview of Patch 8.1 Tides of Vengeance, we want to focus on five things that will benefit all players.
1. Improvements to the Reputation System
Reputation is important for all characters as it often determines what players can buy, wear, and use. This is especially important in Battle for Azeroth because a high reputation with the “Champions of Azeroth” decides what item level the necklace “Heart of Azeroth” has. For this reason, unlocking with the Champions of Azeroth will be account-wide.
So if a character is already “respectful” with the Champions, they can go directly to Magni Bronzebeard with their alt characters and collect the upgrades. Long, repetitive farming is therefore eliminated.
But even more is changing: If you have unlocked transmog items of a reputation faction, you can now use them on other characters – regardless of whether that alt character has the actual reputation for it.
2. Unlock Allied Races in Turbo
Anyone who has not yet been able to commit to unlocking the various Allied Races will also be relieved with Patch 8.1. Blizzard is doubling the reputation gain with all factions required to unlock the “old” Allied Races (Nightborne, Highmountain Tauren, Army of the Light, Argus Assault). This should make unlocking possible in just a few days.
But the unlocking of Dark Iron Dwarves and Mag’har will also be accelerated. Because the individual steps of the War Campaign now provide a large amount of reputation each time, allowing the campaign to be completed quickly and the two races to be unlocked. Combined with the next point, this should be a new incentive for many players…
3. The Faster Leveling Phase
Leveling alt characters in the current version of World of Warcraft is a pain. Due to the lack of noticeable improvements per level (such as talent points), leveling feels particularly sluggish and gives little pleasure. Therefore, with Patch 8.1, the experience needed for level-ups between levels 20 and 110 is drastically reduced! In some areas, up to 40% fewer experience points are required than before.
This should make leveling go faster and allow the desired character to reach the endgame much quicker.
Do you want to know where you can level the best? Here are our top leveling areas:
4. The New Warfront: Darkshore
The Warfront has been viewed rather skeptically in World of Warcraft so far. This is mainly because it is time-limited and only one side can have “fun” while the other side gathers resources or manages to defeat rare enemies in Arathi once.
Since Patch 8.1 adds a second Warfront (Darkshore), this issue should be resolved. Both Warfronts gather resources independently and run in parallel. For example, the Alliance could play the Warfront of Arathi while the Horde fights over Darkshore. This should ensure that there is always something to do. Especially for alt characters, Warfronts remain a great opportunity to quickly obtain solid gear and then tackle other game content, such as Mythic+ dungeons.
5. The Improved War Mode
The War Mode is also getting an overhaul, although this is mainly done “passively” through other features. So far, there have been few incentives to truly participate in War Mode and engage in PvP. Sometimes there was a dispute over a boss during a quest, but mostly the Alliance and Horde are rather scattered and encounter each other rarely.
With the new “Incursions”, where Horde and Alliance attack the enemy’s respective continent, there are numerous quests for both sides encouraging them to stay in the same environment. This promises plenty of skirmishes that should excite fans of world PvP.
In addition, a change is coming that the faction with fewer players in War Mode receives a greater incentive and can gain up to 30% more XP while leveling. This should motivate other players (mainly Alliance players) to dive into War Mode as well.
Patch 8.1 Tides of Vengeance is scheduled to be released on Wednesday, December 12, 2018.
