Thursday, August 24, 2017

Shadows of Argus Drops Tuesday

This news is a day late - I was flying back to LA yesterday - but Blizzard has announced that patch 7.3, Shadows of Argus, will arrive on the 29th, which is this coming Tuesday.

Players will be able to travel to Argus and begin the quests there to take the fight to the Legion's homeworld.

As of yet, the major features include:

New quests and zones:

We'll be heading to Argus, which is a kind of mega-zone like Vashj'ir, with three distinct sections: Krokun, Mac'Aree, and the Antoran Wastes. My understanding is that these zones will unlock gradually, so we'll start in Krokun, and then go to Mac'aree, with the 5-player dungeon Seat of the Triumvirate, and then finally come to Anotran Wastes, which is where Legion's final raid, Antorus, the Burning Throne, is. These zones have world quests in them, which are unlocked once any character on the account has done the quests there.

Artifact Knowledge changes:

Everyone who logs on after the patch will be at AK level 41 (so one up from where fully-researched people are now.) Rather than having to spend resources on artifact knowledge, all players will automatically gain artifact knowledge over time. I don't know if this is based on when you logged in or, far more likely, just a global increase for all players over time. This should make filling out alternative artifacts very easy, as individual items will be granting absurdly high amounts of AP.

Netherlight Crucible:

Rather than giving us new artifact traits, we'll gain access to the Netherlight Crucible. Here, we can spend artifact power to buff relics. I haven't played much with this in the PTR, but I believe it's largely based on your artifact level, meaning that you won't be penalized for switching relics (I could be wrong.)

Invasion Rifts:

On Argus, we'll be able to find portals to other worlds they're trying to destroy, and we can go rescue those worlds. These will be relatively quick pick-up group content, with normal rifts working for five players while greater rifts will be for raids and contain 7.3's many "world" bosses (that drop 930 gear, equivalent to Normal mode Antorus.)

New Dungeon, Seat of the Triumvirate:

A new 5-player dungeon, Seat of the Triumvirate, will have us fighting through the ancient palace where Velen, Kil'jaeden, and Archimonde once ruled the pre-corrupted Eredar people. The dungeon will be heavy on Void beings, including a group of Ethereals who are dedicated to the Shadow.

New Raid, Antorus, The Burning Throne:

The final raid of Legion (barring some Ruby Sanctum-style instance,) Antorus will have the tier 21 sets and see us confronting the Legion at its heart. Some very big names are going to be in here.

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