Patch 8.1 Tides of Vengeance hits live servers today and brings with it a number of quality of life changes, if not masses of new content. I’ll give you a brief overview of the main features being added.
New Content
New War Campaign quests are now available for both factions.
New Missions for the War Table. Including new weekly treasure hunts.
Factions Assaults. Assaults have been added which work like the invasions in Legion but reportedly reward less EXP than their previous expansion counterpart.
New Warfront: The Battle for Darkshore. New world quests will be available to the factions that controls either Darkshore or Arathi Highlands.
Heritage Armour – Dwarfs and Blood Elves. The quest chain will be available at level 120 and requires Exalted with the race’s reputation, Ironforge /Silvermoon.
Two new Island Expeditions. Jorundall and Havenswood. New enemies,achievements,events, items and vendors have also been added to all Island Expeditions.
New Pet Battle Dungeon – The Gnomeregan pet battle dungeon has now been added and can be accessed without completing previous pet battle dungeons.
Various Changes to Items and Vendors – There have been a number of new item rewards added along with the promised Azerite Vendor. It’s now possible to buy maps to open up flight paths on alts. New heirlooms have been added to both factions BFA quartermaster.
Questing and Reputation Boosts
As part of this patch the required EXP needed to level from 1 – 110 has been reduced by 25%
Legion World Quests now reward more reputation for the appropriate faction, Highmountain, Nightfallen, Army of the Light or Argussian Reach.
The reputation awarded for early quests in the BFA war campaign has also been increased.
No New Raid Dungeons until January 2019
What is proving a disappointment to many is the delay in releasing the new raid dungeon until after Christmas, which was originally announced as part of the 8.1 patch. A further cause of contention is that Zandalari Trolls and Kul Tiran Humans are still not available and will likely not be released for a few more months. These races were advertised as a main feature of the BFA expansion and many are disappointed at the six month wait for this promised feature.
It’s not hard to see why there is a lot of disappointment flying around, as without the release of the new raid, the added content looks pretty thin. However, the levelling EXP reduction and faction reputation drop gains in Legion and BFA will certainly help those struggling altoholics and may just get players levelling again.
Is it enough to tempt me back? Not just yet. I’m settled into a new character in Final Fantasy 14 and the above additions and improvements aren’t quite enough to draw me back. However, it is good to see that Blizzard are at least listening and acting on some of the WoW communities complains and the changes and additions are a step, if a small one, in the right direction.
