World of Warcraft has just been updated with its latest Patch 8.1 Tides of Vengeance. Players can now enjoy many improvements and additions to the world of Azeroth, and we’ll list everything significant that’s come with the update. Here’s all you need to know about Tides of Vengeance.
Azerite Armor Improvements
The Azerite Armor system caused controversy among players when Battle for Azeroth launched. Feedback didn’t favor Blizzard, as many felt the system wasn’t rewarding enough for the effort required. In Tides of Vengeance, things are changing for the better. Players can now earn a new currency from completing Mythic+ dungeons that can be used to purchase Azerite armor directly. This reduces the RNG element somewhat and get straight to the best-in-slot items. While some of the traits on these armors are still boring, a January 2019 patch will replace these with better traits, so start saving up.
Less XP Per Level For Alts
The new patch also brings good news for players wanting to level alts. The experience points needed to level from 20-100 has been greatly reduced somewhat, with some levels requiring 20% less XP to ding. In level brackets like 60-80 where it was a real grind-fest, the XP reduction goes up to 40% even. This should make leveling new alts quicker, and those that want the racial Heritage Armor can now do so without hassle.
Account Wide Reputation
This is another much requested feature from the World of Warcraft playerbase, and Blizzard has finally agreed but only for one faction currently. Increased power from grinding Champions of Azeroth faction reputation for example, will now affect all your characters. Therefore, you only need to grind Champions of Azeroth dailies and quests once on your main character. This is a step in the right direction to make World of Warcraft less grindy overall.
Class Tweaks and GCD Changes
Elsewhere, class rebalancing is also in the patch, with many classes getting tweaks to underwhelming abilities, and in some cases new animations. More importantly, more skills are now off the global cooldown (GCD) which will make a lot of folks happy. This was an incredibly unpopular change when first introduced toward the end of Legion that made combat feel slower for many.
New Content
As far as content goes, players can now check out some new improvements made to Island Expeditions. One of the many new features includes being able to place and Azerite Extractor which will passively gather Azerite, but must be defended from enemies. Rewards like cosmetic pets and mounts also drop from all enemies on the island now, instead of being previously tied to a select few rare ones. This should make them more rewarding to run. There’s also a new Warfront, the Darkshore, that looks more interesting than the Arathi Highlands.
The Main World of Warcraft Story Continues
Players looking for more story content will be satisfied in Tides of Vengeance. There are new Campaign quests including the narrative threads that finally ties up loose ends from what happened in Darnassus. Expect to see more plot from Tyrande and Malfurion, Saurfang and more. Overall the new quests and stories will not take that long to finish which is disappointing, but the story itself is satisfying.
