After the release of the Shadowlands pre-patch, Azeroth will once again be invaded by the Scourge. This event, which take place for several weeks, includes a new chain of quests that will lead the heroes to the next expansion, a zombie invasion of the capitals, a meeting with famous Northrend bosses in the form of rare Ice Crown bosses that are used to get equipment for your alts, as well as the return of Nathanos Blightcaller.
Date of Pre-Patch events
The release date of the Shadowlands pre-patch has not yet been announced, but usually such updates are released about a month before the release of the add-on. Knowing this and the release date of Shadowlands, you can calculate the approximate date of installing the pre-patch on live servers. Usually, pre-release events do not start on the day of the prepatch release, but a little later, in 1-2 weeks, so:
Shadowlands release date: October 27, 2020
Shadowlands pre-patch release date: September 29th (30th for EU), 2020 (presumably)
Start date of the events of “Death rising”: October 6th (7th)/13th(14th), 2020 (presumably)
Scourge Invasion
Zombie invasion of the capital
One of the many activities of the Shadowlands pre-patch will be the famous Scourge Invasion of the major faction capitals on Azeroth – Stormwind and Orgrimmar. This event has happened twice before in the history of World of Warcraft: during the 1.11 update for the original game, before the opening of Naxxramas, and then before the release of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion before traveling to Northrend.
Plague zombies appear in key capitals that can “infect” players, and if they quickly (within 60 seconds) do not turn to the Silver healers placed in certain places, they will be turned into zombies, becoming hostile to other characters of the Horde and Alliance (and friendly to zombies, with whom they can communicate in their own language).
The player who turns into a plague zombie gets 5 abilities:
Mangle! – Deals physical damage to the enemy and increases their physical damage by 5% for 12 seconds.
Retch! – Deals damage from the forces of nature to enemies within a radius of 2 m.from the place of impact.
Beckoning Groan – Summon up to 4 zombies within a 35m radius. from you, and they should not be in battle.
Lurch! – increases the movement speed of nearby zombies by 100% for 10 seconds to help them catch food. Removes all movement-limiting effects and loss of control effects.
Zombie Explosion! – Break apart, dealing physical damage and infecting enemies within a 15m radius.
So players can either fight hordes of zombies, protecting the city from them, or join the madness, attacking the locals.
Protecting new players
The developers added a special New Recruit effect, which will be applied to all the characters of newcomers who arrived from the Exile’s Reach. This effect makes the character immune to zombie attacks and their plague during the Scourge Invasion event, even if they run directly over the plague-infested bodies of the dead.
Death Rising quest
During the events of the pre-patch, players will have access to Death Rising questline, which will link current events with the upcoming Shadowlands. The chain is divided into two gradually opening parts.
1 week
In the first week of the event, it all begins with the abduction of several Alliance and Horde leaders by the Jailer’s forces: the Alliance will lose Anduin Wrynn and Jaina Proudmoore, and the Horde will lose Thrall and Bane Bloodhoof. The tasks of the first week are unique to each faction, although, in fact, they completely repeat each other – they only involve different characters and different places. The chain will start automatically when you log in to the game, when events become available. With the completion of the storyline players open the world boss Nathanos and you will see two in-game cinematics.
2 week
Part 2 of the Death Rising unlocks In the second week and is mostly the same for the Alliance and the Horde. During this week, we head to the Argent Tournament Grounds, where we help the Argent Dawn investigate the invading Scourge, earn a lot more Argent Commendation that are able to turn in for reputation, and unlock the event’s first dailies in Icecrown. In the second week, players gain access to world quests in the Icecrown and a portal to their main capital, as well as receive the achievement of the event.
Also, during the event, players can complete a number of daily quests: some become available immediately, and some open as the storyline progresses.
Argent Commendations
During the Shadowlands prepatch, players will receive event currency from a variety of sources, Argent Commendation tokens, which are used to purchase armor sets, a pet, and a useful item that helps clear a small area of the zombie plague.
Ways to get it
You can get Argent Commendation by participating in pre-patch events, including completing the storyline of tasks, completing daily quests, and defeating rare Icecrown opponents.
Goods
Argent Commendation can be exchanged for rewards, mainly equipment. In addition to it, there is also a ghoul pet and an item that allows you to clear a small area of the plague of infectious zombies. You can purchase these items from faction vendors in the capitals or from neutral in Northrend.
To purchase all products, a total of 170 Argent Commendation will be required:
- Each piece of equipment costs 15 Argent Commendation each. A full set of 9 items would cost 135 Argent Commendation in all.
- Anti-Doom Broom costs 15
- A Putrid Geist pet costs 20
Anti-Doom Broom when used clears the selected place from the Vomit! effect, which infectious zombies of the Scourge invasion leave on the ground, which means that it slightly complicates the process of infecting new players. The item has 30 seconds recovery time and can be used anywhere, even where there is no zombie invasion, but it is not considered a full-fledged toy yet.
Putrid Geist is a very ordinary ghoul, which are found in abundance in The Icecrown and Icecrown Citadel. No special properties were found in it.
The event’s equipment is called Argent Conscript and has unused faction appearance of armor from the Arathi Highlands front or the Dread Gladiator armor from season 1 of Battle for Azeroth. These items has 100 item level (normal Ny’alotha) and require character level 50, suitable for both returning players and alternate characters.
Initially, the game files contained three versions of armor from the Arathi Highlands Front in three colors, for a total of 9 sets. A significant part of them were used in the Dread Gladiator PvP armor and the Arathi Highlands Front rewards, but several sets were not used anywhere, and now one of them can be obtained for participating in the pre-release events of Shadowlands. They use the same colors as Dread Gladiator armor, but the helmets, shoulder pads, gloves, and belts have fewer details and look simpler.
Alliance
Cloth
Leather
Plate
Horde
Cloth
Leather
Plate
Activities in the Icecrown
Most of the events of the prepatch take place in the Icecrown and include a continuation of the story, local quests and rare elite bosses. The location itself will also change.
Chilling Winds and Bonfires
Sometimes unstable weather in the location changes and Chilling Winds start to blow. Chilling Winds apply a negative effect to each player, dealing damage from ice magic every 10 seconds. Fortunately, the representatives of the Argent Vanguard near the places of their stay lit bonfires where you can warm up. Being near the fire, the player gets the Lingering Warmth effect, which is added up to 5 times and lasts for 15 minutes. This effect not only completely dispells chilling winds, but also increases the player’s total damage and reduces the damage they receive from ice magic. So during the cold weather, you should visit the campfire.
Northrend Bosses
The scourge began its march not only through the capitals, but throughout the Icecrown, attacking the Argent Tournament as well, and while battling these creatures, players can sometimes encounter old bosses from dungeons and Northrend raids. From these bosses and get various items that remind you of some of their old loot. For example:
- Papa’s Mint Condition Bag references Papa’s New Bag from the Forge of Souls.
- Miniscule Abomination in a Jar references Tiny Abomination in a Jar from Professor Putricide.
- Keleseth’s Influencer references Keleseth’s Seducer from the Blood Princes.
Almost all of these items require at least 30 character level, which in the old way is 80 (with the pre-patch 120 level will be flattened to 50), and the item level is 100 (corresponds to the normal mode of Ny’alotha), so they are not only perfectly suitable as equipment for the main or alternative characters on the way to high levels, but even as equipment for the first days of your adventures in the Shadowlands.
Rare elite opponents have level 52, and appear one at a time in order every 20 minutes. (at 00, 20, 40 minutes of each hour) at a specific location.
World boss: Nathanos Blightcaller
At the end of the questline on the first week, players receive the Nathanos Blightcaller quest, which requires them to defeat Nathanos Blightcaller and awards 5 Argent Commendation recognition badges. Then you can fight with it once a week on a local task. You can find the character near his old home – the Marris Estate in the Eastern Plaguelands.
In the pre-patch, Nathanos Blightcaller Is the world boss and his peace is once again guarded by two loyal hounds, who at the behest of the owner rush at random opponents. The he also uses AOE fire and poisons enemies with his arrows. Nathanos drops 100 level items, including weapons.
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That’s pretty much it for the brief sum-up of what you will see during Shadowlands pre-patch event. It always was prefect time to level and gear up your toons, get some achievements and have some fun. Tune in (if it will go live) next week to check all the changes, including leveling and class related adjustments!
We’ll keep you updated about all the upcoming feature, so tune in next time!
This was ShineBoost Blog, signing off! See you in the lands of Azeroth!
