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The 8.2 Content update: Rise of Azshara is upon us !
You have all been patient, it is now time for us to release this huge update including a lot of new content for you to discover & enjoy.
The update will be shipped to Sethraliss on Monday, August 3rd at noon (server time). The realm will be shut down for approximately 2-3 hours beforehand in order to apply everything and make sure nothing got messed up.

There are a lot of new things that will be available with this update, and this post is here to guide you throughout everything so you don't feel lost when you'll log in for the first time after it is applied: we'll go through every change & addition with a description, and links if you feel like you need a more thorough understanding. Basically, here is a quick overview of the new content:

• 2 New Zones: Nazjatar featuring the raid Azsharah's Eternal Palace, and Mechagon featuring the Megadungeon: Operation: Mechagon
• The new Heart of Azeroth Essence System explained later in this post
• Pathfinder Part 2, unlocking flying in all of BFA's zones!
• Continuation of the War Campaign
• Mount Equipment Slots
• New ilvl cap: 455 / 445 for Azerite Gear
• New Season: In Mythic a new affix, Beguiling & in PvP the Notorious Gladiator!

Oh, and also our friend Boris 'the long-awaited' will return on all of our realms starting Monday, August 3rd at noon (server time) as well and will stay a full week so you can't possibly miss him !

Now let's get a more in-depth look at all the new stuff we'll have ! 

NAZJATAR

A whole new zone, home of the Nagas will emerge! With both the Horde and Alliance having lost a lot of their naval power, Nagas take this opportunity to strike. While Sylvanas and Jaina send members of their faction to investigate, you will uncover the ancient land of Nazjatar, filled with traps laid by Queen Azshara and will need help from local people already fighting the Nagas:

• For the Alliance, those allies will be the Ankoan, a group of water warriors
• For the Horde, those allies will be a group of former Naga slaves composed of various species: the Unshackled.

By helping their faction, you will be able each day to select a bodyguard (one out of 3 different available) which will gain experience through the content you do and progress. Each one has 30 levels that will unlock new abilities and cosmetic rewards.

Starting 8.2, Nazjatar will become your main hub, where you will be able to do the main questline, dailies, world quests, find treasures and collectibles, slay rares and even fight world bosses! New professions reagents and vendors can also be found there, as well as a new type of gear: Benthic Armor obtained through tokens looted or exchanged to an NPC for Prismatic Manapearls, the new main currency used in Nazjatar. This special gear can furthermore be upgraded, starting at 385 ilvl and ending at 430 ilvl.

A new type of event will also take place there regularly: Battle for Nazjatar, a world-sized PVP fight over the control of key locations around Nazjatar! Your job will be to fill your victory points faster than the opposing faction through various means, but mainly killing them & taking control of a maximum number of PVP locations by staying in their vicinity until they are captured. The winners will earn more Battle Commendations, the PVP currency used on this patch.

You will also be able to unlock various Azerite Essences in Nazjatar, through reputation, questing and war mode activities. You can find more information on this guide.

Last but not least, a new raid will open its doors deep within Nazjatar: Azshara's Eternal Palace!

AZSHARA'S ETERNAL PALACE

This new raid, home of the Queen Azshara herself contains 8 bosses grouped in 3 wings. You can find an overview here.
On the patch release, the first wing 'The Grand Reception' will be available in LFR (400 ilvl), NM (415 ilvl) and HM (430 ilvl) difficulties. Here are its 3 champions:

• Abyssal Commander Sivara, which will require quick reaction times to defeat
• Blackwater Behemoth, an underwater encounter!
• Radiance of Azshara, a 2-phase boss

On Radiance of Azshara (and on other last wing-bosses once they are released), you will also be awarded a number of Aqueous Reliquary, that you will be able to combine to create an Azerite Essence (1 per role available).
This number depends on the difficulty in which you slay it: 1 in LFR, 2 in Normal, and 4 in Heroic 1 extra on your first kill. You can only loot them once per difficulty per week, and killing Radiance in a higher difficulty before its lower difficulty counterparts will grant you all the reliquaries you would have gotten from all difficulties up to the one you just did. brain freeze
This sounds confusing, but is actually pretty simple: if you kill it in Heroic first on a said week, you will get 1 (from LFR) 2 (from Normal) 4 (from Heroic) 1 extra = 8 reliquaries, and won't be able to get any other this week.
You'll need 9  Aqueous Reliquary to create the Rank 1 version of the Essence, 18 to create the Rank 2 and 36 to create the Rank 3.

The release of the whole raid will happen wing by wing with a 4-week average interval: the second one, 'Depths of the Devoted' will be released around 4 weeks after the release, then the 3rd and final wing, 'The Circle of Stars' around 4 weeks after it. Once all wings are available for that same time range, the Mythic difficulty will be released on the whole raid (just like we did with Battle of Dazar'Alor).

MECHAGON

The second zone to be released with the patch, home to the gnomish society calling themselves Mechagnomes! Kul Tiran excavators managed to open a previously closed vault built in the southern mountains of Tiragarde Sound, in which a radio transmitter was found, sending out a signal pointing to this new land, Mechagon ! You can find an overview of the zone here.

Alike Nazjatar, this new zone offers many content for you to do: questlines (the intro one, plus some to introduce the zone mechanic alongside the mount and fishing ones), rotating chests, rares, rotating daily quests with visitors, new fishing points, and blueprints, an important new feature allowing you to craft many useful things with Pascal!
Mechagon also brings its fair share of customization (that what mechas are known for right ?), including relevant stuff like the new customizable trinket (via Punch Cards obtained through various sources), and irrelevant-thus-indispensable things like a Gramophone to listen to old-school music, a Beer-dispenser (cheers for the resistance !) and a pimp-able mechanocat!
On top of that, you will be able to gather a lot of new collectibles: mounts, battle pets, and toys throughout your exploration of the zone.

A new construction system will also be added: the junker gnomes try to maintain a couple of construction projects active, but since they aren't enough to keep all of them active at the same time, they have to rotate them day by day which will change possible activities! For instance, some content will only be accessible when a specific project is up, so you'll have to contribute with other players your hard-earned Mechagon materials (Spare Parts and Energy Cells) to make them work.

As if this wasn't enough, a Megadungeon will also be released in the zone: Operation: Mechagon where you will need to stop King Mechagon's evil plans of turning everything flesh into robotic parts!

MEGADUNGEON OPERATION: MECHAGON

This 8-boss dungeon, only available in Mythic difficulty will give 415 base ilvl gear, but also a lot of other cool types of loot: punch cards (for your customizable trinket), pets, mounts, profession recipes and even an Azerite Essence! You can find more information on this guide.

On top of that, you will be able to obtain on 2 of the bosses customizable set rings: On the HK-8 Aerial Oppression Unit you can get 'Logic Loop' rings, while on the Machinist's Garden you can get 'Bit bands'.

• The first type of ring sets the proc rule (for instance: "if you heal a target whose health is below 30%..., or "if you damage an enemy from behind...")
• The second type sets the proc effect (for instance: "... then you gain X haste for 15 secs" or "... then you deal X damage to a nearby enemy")

That way you can create your own 2-part set bonuses!

The fun doesn't stop here, as this dungeon also reintroduces the Hardmode on its HK-8 Aerial Oppression Unit! This boss will patrol over the first 3 bosses randomly, and you will need to fight those specific bosses! This is where the hard part starts, as the HK-8 will disrupt the course of your run and of the boss fights. Once you've cleared all 3 bosses guarded by it, you will be able to start the 'Hard' boss fight itself, introducing new trash mobs & improved spells.
All in the name of glory? Indeed, but also of improved rewards! An achievement for everyone, and an ilvl 430 Azerite Helm  a special mount for one of your group members! It seems even more rewards await those completing the hard mode without dying even once...

NEW MYTHIC  SEASON 3

New Mythic season means a new level 10 affix: say goodbye to reaping, and welcome beguiling: Azshara is sending her emissaries to disrupt your run and make you rethink your strategy! You will find more information here.
On all keys of level 10 , you will find a new kind of enemy: Emissaries. There are 3 different ones, each with its own mechanic and specificity, based on the 3 schools of magic: Arcane, Frost, and Shadow. They will be present throughout packs in the dungeon, and their locations will rotate (in a similar way to the Infested Affix of Season 1). Each week will be themed in one magic school, with its corresponding Emissary being in a much higher number.
Let's give a look at each of them:

• Enchanted Emissary (Arcane): Immune to crowd control, she gives all surrounding NPCs the Queen's Decree: Blowback aura, making them return 150% of all damage suffered back to the attacker. Your job will be to hit her (and not her close friends) as each hit knocks her back: once she's far enough your group will be safe to hit the rest of the pack. She has way too much health to be killed but only has a 20-second 'lifetime' shown by her depleting energy which doesn't reset on wipe, so you won't have to keep her busy for long.
• Emissary of the Tides (Frost): All crowd control on her will last a maximum of 8 seconds, but she has no diminishing return (meaning several stuns in a row will always have full effect on her). She gives all surrounding NPCs the Queen's Decree: Unstoppable aura, making them immune to crowd control, including interrupts. She has slightly less health than an average mob, but the fact that she has no diminishing return makes it easy to keep her away with periodic crowd controls while pulling her friends, until she's alone and easy to be dealt with.
• Void-Touched Emissary (Shadow): Immune to crowd control, but unable to move, her only mechanic is casting Queen's Decree: Hide, a 9-second cast AOE dealing 50% of the target's max health to everyone in line of sight on a 60-yard radius, and applying a debuff increasing this spell's damage furthermore... Your job will be to avoid being hit by this spell using walls and pillars present in her vicinity while hitting her whenever possible. She has a slightly higher than average health pool, but on wipe her health won't reset to full.

As with every season change, dungeons, in general, are also scaled up: all NPCs will have 30% more health to account for players' higher ilvl gear, and the scaling of damage & health per keystone level will be tougher (a 10 key in S2 gave 85% additional damage & health, while on S3 it will give 114%).
That being said, rewards of all dungeon difficulties have also been scaled up: Normal gives 370 ilvl, Heroic gives 385 ilvl and Mythic gives 400 ilvl.
Here is the table for Mythic loots:

Please note that until Wednesday, August 12 at the time of the reset, all Weekly Chest loots will still be generated according to Season 2 rewards.

Thaumaturge Vashreen, the Titan Residuum Vendor will be updated on release to sell increased ilvl Azerite gear. You will not lose any residuum you saved up, but it will require much more to get a high-end piece of gear compared to season 2.

PVP SEASON 3: NOTORIOUS GLADIATOR

The current PVP season 2 of the Sinister Gladiator will end at the time of the update, and the ladder will be frozen until Wednesday, August 12 when the new Notorious Gladiator season starts! Rewards for the season 2 will be distributed sometime during this 'preseason'.
Once season 3 has started, you will be able to earn the Notorious transmog set through normal PVP gear acquisition, while the Elite recolor will require you to reach certain ranking levels:

• Combatant (1400 - 1599): Wrist and Waist
• Challenger (1600-1799): Hands, Legs, Feet
• Rival (1800-2099): Head, Shoulders, Chest
• Duelist (2100-2399): Cloak
• Elite (2400 ): Tabard

Conquest trackers will be reset, allowing players to re-earn its rewards for higher ilvl pieces of gear: each week, you will have to participate in PVP activities in order to cap your conquest and unlock a specific item, following this table:

Each week, a new cap will be unlocked for players: if you missed one (or more), you will still be able to fill them on later weeks so you don't skip any piece of gear. Moreover, if you cap your conquest at least once during the week, you will unlock the Weekly PVP chest the following Wednesday during the reset. Its loot, alongside end of game rewards from Rated Arenas and RBG matches, will scale on your highest current rating, following this table:

Skirmish rewards will award gear based on your own ilvl, scaling from 360 to 400 ilvl.
The season 3 PVP Mount will be the Vicious War Basilisk, which you will obtain by filling the mount bar for the first time. Further fillings will give you Vicious Saddles which you will be able to turn in for mounts.

WAR CAMPAIGN 8.2

As with every content update, you will be able to continue the War Campaign storyline where you left it. This time, both the horde and the alliance have a common objective to kick things off: saving Baine Bloodhoof! Although this part of the WC isn't as long as some others, it shows a bit more of Sylvanas' dark side, and for the first time since Legion, both sides will cooperate to defeat the biggest threat at hand: Azshara!
For a recap of the war campaign storyline, you can read the Horde WC post, or the Alliance WC one.

HEART OF AZEROTH ESSENCE SYSTEM

Several times in this post has it been mentioned, the Essence System is a new type of customization for your Heart of Azeroth.
It will allow you to gain talent-like Major and Minor powers based on the essences you decide to place into your HoA, among the ones you've unlocked from a wide variety available throughout different means. You can find more info here
Things start of with a questline involving M.O.T.H.E.R., Magni, and the remaining Dragonflights giving you access to the Essence System, and your first Essence: The Crucible of Flame.

Each essence has a major active ability and minor passive effects that can be socketed into your Heart of Azeroth. You unlock the Major slot when your HoA reaches level 35: the essence socketed into it will give a major effect and minor effect. Minor slots will then be unlocked when your HoA reaches level 55 and 65, with essences socketed into them only giving their minor effect.

Each essence has 4 different ranks: Rank 1 is the base obtention level of the essence, while Ranks 2 & 3 enhance its effects. Rank 4 is a cosmetic upgrade that doesn't give any actual benefit except making you look extra cool! Each essence can be obtained in a specific way, while its upgraded ranks will require a bit more effort & time put into it. Some essences are specific to a role (dps, heal or tank), but most of them can be used by all 3. You can check this link to learn about the different ways to obtain essences: all of them will be available except the Island Expedition one, which will be obtainable once this feature is released on Sethraliss (soon™).

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

On top of everything that deserved a specific section, a few additional things will get added with the update: 

• Professions will be updated and will include new recipes!
• The Pathfinder Part 2 will be added. Completing it and part 1 will allow you to fly on all of BFA!
• Mount Equipment will be added: customize your mont with special effects purchased from reputation vendors!
• World Quests rewards will be scaled up (they still scale on your own ilvl, but their cap is increased): 400 ilvl cap for regular ones, and 415 for emissaries

BORIS RETURNS!

Boris will return on all of our realms for a full week, starting the day of this update! It is the perfect opportunity for you to get a free boost on Sethraliss to discover all this new content, or to make an alt on our other realms to try an old expansion!
Boris will be available in all races starting zones until Monday, August 10th and will give you a boost to the max level alongside gear.
Note: On BFA, the boost is to level 110, not 120. Using Boris on an Allied Race character will NOT give you the heritage armor.

We know you guys are eager to discover all those new content, and so are we! We've been working on them for a long time now, and it's really exciting to have it go live!
As with every update, we'll monitor the realm closely to spot any issue. You can help us by using our Bugtracker to report any issues you may find during your adventures in our Realms!
Our Game Masters will also do their best to assist you with any issue you encounter in the game, and our moderators on the forums & discord, but please remember that the amount of work they will have due to the update will increase a lot, so try to be extra patient

That's it for now! See you next Monday for the release!
The Firestorm Staff