Realm News

The Banshee Vanguard has come for the capitals. From today, invasions are a living part of the realm: a horde overruns the land outside a capital city, and what happens next is up to you. Hold the walls and the city is defended. Falter, and the capital remains fallen until players hunt down every invader and its Commander. Watch the home page: the countdown to the next invasion, and the live state of every front, is always there.

How the war unfolds

• ✦The Siege: for 5 days the invaders hold the zone outside the gates. Cut down 3,000 of them and fell their warboss 5 times (he returns every 6 hours) to defend the city.
• ✦The Fall: fail, and the invaders pour inside, 30% tougher and hitting 20% harder. The city stays fallen with no time limit. Each invader and the empowered Commander spawns once, never respawns, and must be killed to restore the city.

Earning your share

• ✦30 invader kills qualify you for the war payout, and party members' kills near you count. Tagging the warboss adds nothing to contribution, but your first warboss strike raises your gold and honor payout by 50%.
• ✦Once the war is decided, claim your spoils from the Invasion Herald within 7 days: 2,500 gold, 20 Demon Hearts, 20 Emblems of Frost, 50,000 honor and an Invasion Warseal at the full payout, before the warboss bonus. A defended city pays in full; clearing one after it falls pays 50% plus the full Warseal.
• ✦The Warseal is the key to the realm's newest prestige gear: the Herald's quartermaster sells every Wrathful Gladiator (item level 277) armor piece for 1 Warseal plus 68,200 honor, or trade a seal for 10 Demon Hearts instead.

Read the full war guide →

Also new: reforge your set bonuses

The Master Reforger has learned her deepest art yet. She can now swap an armor-set bonus you don't want for a bonus from another set your class can wear: each threshold swaps separately, the bonus you take must come from a set of equal or lower item level, and no bonus can ever be active twice. Every change costs 2,000 gold (a PvP bonus that grants two effects at one threshold swaps as one change), and restoring the original bonus costs the same. Tooltips keep their original text, a quirk of the old client, but the swap fully applies, and she whispers you clickable links of your current bonuses after every change.

Read the Reforging Guide →

The Awakened: Lady Vashj deepens her gift

Lady Vashj now trades 10 Demon Hearts for a permanent bonus talent point, spendable in any tree or through her, and each purchase raises her awakened-point limit by one. Up to 10 purchases per character, for 20 awakened points at full depth. Your builds can now go deeper than ever.

The Season 7 Relentless Gladiator armor no longer demands an arena career. Every set piece can now be bought with honor alone: no arena points, no rating requirement, just one long, bloody grind through the battlegrounds. The classic arena and Wintergrasp routes are still in place for those who prefer them.

The honor route

• ✦All five set slots for every class, head, shoulders, chest, gloves and legs at item level 251, now cost a flat 68,200 honor each. The old honor listings charged arena points on top; that charge is gone.
• ✦Relic slot pieces, the idols, librams, sigils and totems, cost 8,000 honor with their arena point charge removed as well.
• ✦Find the goblin gear vendors in Dalaran's Underbelly, in Gadgetzan and in Area 52. They serve both factions.
• ✦The other roads still stand: arena points plus personal rating buy the set as before, and Wintergrasp regulars can keep paying 60 to 95 Wintergrasp Marks of Honor per piece. Off-set belts, boots, bracers, cloaks, necks and rings are unchanged.

Honor rate and cap

• ✦The realm honor rate is now x2, adjusted from x3 to match the new prices. Battlegrounds, Wintergrasp and honorable kills all feed the same grind.
• ✦The honor cap on this realm is 500,000, so you can bank the full 341,000 the five pieces cost before you spend a single point.

A new power broker has arrived. Lady Vashj, the Awakened, offers level 80 champions a bargain no trainer would dare: master one talent tree, and she will sell you up to 10 talent points anywhere in a second tree of your choice, no tier climbing required. Reach the deep talents of another tree and forge builds this game has never seen.

How awakening works

• ✦Reach level 80 with 51 points in one talent tree of your active spec, then speak with Lady Vashj. Your second talent spec is untouched, and it can awaken its own tree separately.
• ✦Choose ONE of your other two trees to awaken. The choice becomes permanent with your first purchase, and only a full talent reset at your class trainer clears it.
• ✦Inside your awakened tree the 5-points-per-tier rule is waived: place up to 10 points through her into any talent, however deep, without filling the rows above. True prerequisites still hold, so a talent that builds on another still needs its foundation first.
• ✦Stage your picks in her dialog, then confirm to apply them all at once. Your first confirmed session, the one that seals your tree choice, costs nothing; every later session costs 3 Demon Hearts. Nothing you already know is removed, points already placed in that tree count, and you can return whenever you have unspent points, always into the same tree, until you reach her limit of 10 awakened points. Update: she now also trades 10 Demon Hearts for a permanent bonus talent point, spendable anywhere, each purchase raising her limit by one, up to 20 at full depth.

Where Demon Hearts come from

• ✦Every boss in every classic and Burning Crusade raid can drop a Demon Heart, roughly 1 kill in 5: Molten Core, Blackwing Lair, Zul'Gurub, both Ahn'Qiraj raids, Karazhan, Zul'Aman, Gruul's Lair, Magtheridon, Serpentshrine Cavern, Tempest Keep, Mount Hyjal, Black Temple and Sunwell Plateau.
• ✦The final boss of each raid drops 1 to 3 hearts instead of 1, and characters who finished Hardmode find hearts more often thanks to their permanent magic find bonus.
• ✦Every timed Mythic+ clear pays Demon Hearts equal to the keystone level: 2 at +2, up to 20 at +20.
• ✦Hearts are epic quality, stack to 250, and they remain the coin of the Demon Heart Vendor's unobtainable mounts, pets and toys at 60 apiece.

Also in this update

• ✦Bot maintenance is back: your alt bots once again restock their own food, ammo and consumables and repair themselves between fights.
• ✦Deathbringer Saurfang in Icecrown Citadel hits harder on every difficulty. He now stands as a true gear and damage check on the road through the Citadel, so sharpen your build before you face him. Perhaps an awakening is in order.

The world now fights back. Any open-world monster that kills a player can rise as a nemesis, gaining ranks, affixes and a glowing aura with every victim, until someone claims the bounty.

The hunt

• ✦Ranks climb from 1 to 10. Each rank adds health, damage and random affixes such as Vampiric, Swift, Juggernaut or Enraged.
• ✦Zone announcements track every rise, rank-up and kill, with the zone and map coordinates. Target a nemesis to read its rank from its aura's stack count.

The bounty

• ✦Gold scales with the nemesis's level and rank, and is split across the group.
• ✦Its corpse can hold Stat-Boost Reroll Tokens (1 to 5 by rank) and a chance at a bonus epic, up to 50% at rank 10, dropped as normal loot.
• ✦Update, July 30: nemeses can now drop a Sack of Frosty Treasures, 5% per rank up to 50% at rank 10. Every sack holds 5 Emblems of Frost, with a shot at epic gems and Icecrown Citadel loot inside.

A nemesis left alone fades after two days. Happy hunting.

The old Prestige system is gone. In its place, the Leveling Manager lets you level your way: choose your own experience rate, or prove yourself with Hardmode, a no-death run from level 1 to 80.

Pick your experience rate

• ✦Speak to the Leveling Manager in any capital city, Shattrath or Dalaran, and set your experience rate to x5, x10, x15, x20 or x25. The change is instant and saved per character.
• ✦Only experience is affected. Your reputation and profession gains are unchanged.

The Hardmode Challenge

• ✦Start Hardmode at level 1 on a fresh character. Your rate is locked to x5, and you must reach level 80 without dying even once.
• ✦Die before 80 and the character becomes a permanent ghost that can never be resurrected, so you would start over on a new one.
• ✦Finish alive and you permanently keep double reputation, +10% loot drop chance, and a loyal companion of your choosing on that character.

A new custom vendor has arrived. Lady Liadrin, the Demon Heart Vendor, stands in every major city with a stock of treasures that were never obtainable in game: Trading Card Game mounts and pets, retired promotional items and more. She takes no gold. Her price is Demon Hearts, a new epic currency earned from Mythic+ keystone runs and now dropped by raid bosses as well.

What she sells

• ✦Over 50 treasures from the Trading Card Game and retired promotions: the Swift Spectral Tiger, Big Battle Bear, X-51 Nether-Rocket, Magic Rooster Egg, the Riding Turtle, the Swift Zhevra, the Arcanite Ripper guitar, plus pets, tabards and toys.
• ✦Retired and unused mounts too: the Black Proto-Drake and Plagued Proto-Drake, the Amani War Bear, and classic mounts whose looks left the stables long ago.
• ✦Every item costs a flat 60 Demon Hearts.

Earning Demon Hearts

• ✦Every timed Mythic+ clear now pays Demon Hearts equal to the keystone level, on top of the gold: 2 at +2, up to 20 at +20.
• ✦Every boss across the level 60 and 70 raids, from Molten Core and Blackwing Lair through Serpentshrine, Black Temple and Sunwell, now has a chance to drop a Demon Heart, and the final boss of each raid drops one to three. Characters who have finished Hardmode find them more often thanks to magic find.
• ✦Demon Hearts are epic quality and stack to 250.

How to buy

• ✦Find Lady Liadrin, the Demon Heart Vendor, in every major city. She welcomes both factions.
• ✦Her greeting states the price, and choosing to browse her goods opens a normal vendor window. Purchases take Demon Hearts straight from your bags.

The realm's custom legendary program has grown into a full arsenal: seven iconic weapons, each rebuilt as a true level 80 endgame prize and earned through its own custom quest or hunt. Leading them all is the saga to forge the Ashbringer, and beside it wait the Guardian's greatstaff Atiesh, the Warglaives of Azzinoth, Thunderfury, Sulfuras, Rhok'delar and Val'anyr.

The Ashbringer, reborn

• ✦The Corrupted Ashbringer now drops from the Four Horsemen's cache in 25-player Naxxramas, retuned to true endgame power. Wield it and the Scarlet Crusade hails you as one of their own, while the Argent Dawn meets you with steel.
• ✦Bring the blade to Highlord Taelan Fordring in Hearthglen to begin a journey through the darkest chapter of the Mograine family. You must be level 80, and the blade's whispers will not let you share the burden.
• ✦At journey's end the corrupted blade is unmade, and from its ashes you forge the legendary Ashbringer itself, rescaled to Shadowmourne-tier power.

The rest of the arsenal

• ✦Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian: gather the Splinters of Atiesh from the bosses of 25-player Naxxramas, then complete the questline to reforge the caster greatstaff at full power. Shaman can wield it too.
• ✦The Warglaives of Azzinoth: slay Illidan Stormrage in the Black Temple to claim the matched pair, now wieldable by Warriors, Rogues and Death Knights.
• ✦Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker: recover both Bindings of the Windseeker from Molten Core and complete the Thunderaan questline to claim the storied tank and threat blade.
• ✦Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros: claim the Eye of Sulfuras from Ragnaros in the Molten Core, combine it with a forged Sulfuron Hammer, and wield the Firelord's two-handed mace, built for Strength.
• ✦Rhok'delar, Longbow of the Ancient Keepers: a Hunter's bow that conjures its own arrows and needs no ammunition, forged through the Hunter's ancient quest against the demons summoned in Felwood.
• ✦Val'anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings: reforge the healer's mace from the Fragments of Val'anyr that drop across the bosses of Ulduar.

No races, no walls

• ✦Every one is a custom quest or hunt, permanently available, with no server-first race and no rep-grind walls. Walk the road and it is yours.
• ✦More custom quest content lands with every content drop.

See all Custom Legendaries →

The Black Qiraji Battle Tank was a one-per-server relic on retail. Here, the full Scepter of the Shifting Sands quest line is restored and permanently available, so anyone willing to walk the whole road can ring the gong.

What changed

• ✦Bang a Gong! is back: the Scarab Gong at the Ahn’Qiraj gates in Silithus is now a working quest giver, and turning the quest in rewards the Black Qiraji Resonating Crystal, the battle tank mount itself.
• ✦No 10-hour window and no server-first race: the quest is permanently available, once per character.

How to start

• ✦Speak to Baristolth of the Shifting Sands in Cenarion Hold, Silithus to begin the chain.
• ✦Recover all three scepter shards: Blue (Azuregos in Azshara), Red (Nefarian in Blackwing Lair) and Green (the Dream and the Eranikus event).
• ✦It's a long chain with raid bosses along the way, so bring friends, or bring your bot team.
• ✦Mounts are account-wide here, so one character's climb unlocks the tank for all your alts.