Adventurers,
Dark clouds churn atop the summit of Blackrock Mountain. Wingbeats thunder from its peaks. Something sinister stirs within the keep’s obsidian halls; ancient, wicked, and scheming. The Firelord’s defeat paves the way to a greater evil, and new experiments lay in store:
Prepare for the Assault
Prepare to ascend the spire and face the new evil locked within. Leading up to Blackwing Lair's release, you’ll encounter events and updates across Ascension culminating in the release of EXPANDED Blackwing Lair.
Here’s what you can expect:
May 22nd
- Alterac Valley Call to Arms
May 25th
- Bronzebeard Balance Patch
- NEW Tank and Healer Archetypes (Warlock and Mage)
- The article for the changes are coming LATER THIS WEEK
- These changes may come earlier than May 25th if they’re ready
- Updates will roll out as soon as they are ready for live, with full release by May 25th
May 30th
- Blackwing Lair EXPANDED
- Crafting Expansion
- PvP Progression 4
Alterac Valley Call to Arms
The heat of Blackrock’s fire is matched only by the chill of Alterac’s frozen wastes: the next Alterac Valley Call to Arms event begins Friday, May 22nd.
Wage war between the savage Frostwolf Clan and the stalwart Stormpike Guard. Capture bunkers, siege strongholds, slay bosses, secure graveyards, and ultimately take down the enemy general. In Alterac Valley, you’ll pit yourself against other players in all-out-war, fighting in huge 40v40 battles. Put your unique build, spells, and Mystic Enchantments to the test as you battle other players and bring in victory.
- Alterac Valley returns 5/22
- Completely re-mastered for Cross-Faction Play
- Scales from a minimum of 20v20 to a maximum of 40v40
- Available only during Call to Arms events
The cold chill of Alterac beckons: answer the call and claim victory in Alterac Valley!
Bronzebeard Balance Patch + New Tank and Healer Archetypes
Shadows Over Blackrock brings significant buffs to several classes and specs as you prepare to face the new horrors in Blackwing Lair. These changes improve how these specializations perform in Dungeons and Raids across the board.
More information is coming this week.
- New Archetypes
- Dark Apotheosis Warlock Tank
- Mind Shift Mage Healer
- Buffs to OG 9 Classes to prepare for the dangers of Blackwing Lair
In addition, Glyph Mystic Enchantments that are underperforming compared to crossover talents will also receive buffs.
Finally, the potency of some proc-based weapons are reduced to fix some outlandish power spikes.
The Assault on Blackwing Lair - BWL Expanded
The shadows churn.
Deep within the halls stretching up to Blackrock’s peak, Nefarian, the Broodlord, concocts his sickening experiments. Fusing the blood of other dragons he aims to create a twisted flight: one with the power of all the rest. You must put an end to his machinations:
Blackwing Lair releases on Warcraft Reborn!
Bronzebeard’s Blackwing Lair features a new boss lair and a brand new boss:
Descend into the depths of Nefarian’s cruel laboratories where goblins labor to fuse the blood of all the different flights. Through the dark halls and chromatic flowing blood tubes, you’ll encounter horrors beyond imagining in the first Blackwing Lair experience EVER with the RPG Creature Overhaul! What weaknesses will you exploit facing down all the colors of each dragonflight? Where will your class outshine all others, and what weaknesses can you exploit to survive?
Enter Blackwing Lair and face the Nefarian’s first experiment:
- Custom Boss
- Custom Lair
- Custom Rewards
- New Mechanics available on EVERY difficulty
New Items in the Lair
Blackwing Lair features dozens of brand new items, many with original models that you can discover to massively empower your class. You can find these items at all difficulty levels, and even stronger versions of them as you move past normal into Heroic, Mythic, and Ascended BWL.
New Crafted Items
As you storm Blackwing Lair you’ll find more than just new gear: you’ll find brand new crafting recipes that change the way you play.
From new explosives that leave lingering elemental ground effects that change how you interact with the RPG Creature Overhaul, to brand new craftables for EVERY profession, you’ll have tons of new ways to challenge BWL and beyond.
Expanded Crafting arrives with Blackwing Lair!
Inside Blackwing Lair, you’ll find Elementium Ore. This metal normally has a specific use, but with Expanded Crafting it becomes so much more: Elementium Ore can now be used both to smelt Elementium Bars, OR broken down into Elementium Shards which are used to craft all new items. Additionally, mobs inside of Blackwing Lair can drop Elementium Shards in addition to all of its previous loot, which can then be used to improve your gear.
Forge new weapons, armor, upgrade your gear further with new Upgrade Kits, discover new enchantments, and even new PvE-focused B O M B S, these new craftables give you totally new ways to gear up and take the fight to the Broodlord. Here’s a sneak peek at some of the items you can craft: and keep in mind that when YOU craft them, they’ll have an additional affix on them as well.
These are just a few of the new BWL items you can forge.
You can also use Elementium to absolutely blast through your enemies: introducing Elementium Bombs!
These are long-lasting RPG-focused bombs that leave a burning patch on the ground, dealing a whopping amount of damage over 1 minute. This makes them powerful tools in PvE where creatures may be standing still for a longer period of time: now YOU can make foes stand in the fire!!
You can also use Elementium as an enchanting material, unlocking brand new, powerful enchantments and a wand.
Elementium previously only had one use: now this rare metal can serve you and your raid in dozens of new ways. Be sure to collect it as you climb to the peak of the Lair!
New Tier Sets in Blackwing Lair
Claim new Tier Sets to expand your class’s strengths and empower your chosen spec: you’ll find new tier sets for Druids, Shamans, and Paladins so that each class can successfully play ALL of their specs, DPS, Tank, and Heal. This makes sure you can thrive in ANY class and spec you choose to play!
- Example: Shamans now have 4 different Tier Sets so that you can gear up as a Tank, Enhancement, Elemental, or Restoration Shaman
Additionally, all tier sets have their bonuses changed to a 3 and 6 piece bonus, allowing you to mix and match with other pieces of gear to find the fit that’s right for you.
New Reputation - The Ruby Attrition
You don’t have to face Nefarian’s horrors alone: The Ruby Attrition is a new faction coming with Blackwing Lair.
The Ruby Attrition is a sanctum of the Red Dragonflight, who of all the flights are the most ferocious in pursuing Nefarian’s end. Earn their favor, unlock new items and crafting recipes, and aid the red flight in the Black Prince’s demise.
- New Weapons
- New Armor
- New Recipes
- New Enchantments
Global Tier Tokens
Global Tier Tokens replace standard tier item drops on Warcraft Reborn since there’s so many new tier sets. With Tier Tokens, every boss is ALWAYS valuable to every member of your raid, and no one spends 5 months praying to RNGeasus to get their Judgment Sabatons. Grab a Tier Token, trade it for the piece you want, and keep powering up.
Bosses in Blackwing Lair drop the tier tokens equivalent to the set items they used to drop.
There are unique Tier Tokens for each difficulty, so if you dive into Ascended Blackwing Lair, you’ll be gaining tokens to get Ascended level Tier sets.
Horizontal Tier Progression
What if you want to play multiple specs?
Horizontal Tier Progression means that once you’ve turned in a Tier Token for a set piece, you can buy pieces of ANY other tier set for that slot for gold. For example, if you’re on your Tank Shaman and you turn in Molten Handguards for your tank gloves, you can then buy gloves for your Elemental, Enhancement, and Resto specs gloves for gold.
This lets you try out and enjoy multiple specs: if you get your full Tier 2 set as a Resto Druid, you can pick up your Feral Cat set for gold and swap between DPS and Healing for your raid when they need you.
Visit Major Mattingly or Overlord Runthak, then a new option will appear once you have any of these achievements. Clicking it will allow you to purchase any of the items you’ve already earned.
Updated Itemization
Blackwing Lair is filled with iconic items: many of which are now upgraded to be wildly exciting and useful to different classes while staying true to their original theme. Below are a few examples of re-worked items:
The Denman Brothers
The Denman Brothers are a group of cunning merchants who recently established their venture to Stormwind and Orgrimmar. These jewelers sell epic rings with unique stat combinations that you can use to fill out niche aspects of your build:
For example, maybe you need just a bit more Hit and Expertise on your Fury Warrior, or Spell Penetration on your Mage. The Denman Brothers carry rings that have just the stat combinations you’re looking for.
These rings can be upgraded with each new Raid Release: and that means with Blackwing Lair you can polish up your rings even further.
Seek out the Denman Brothers in Stormwind and Orgrimmar to see if they sell a piece that’s right for you.
Worldforged Items
Upgrade your Worldforged Items even further with Blackwing Lair's release, granting new strength to your favorite weapons, armor, trinkets, and more.
With Blackwing Lair’s release, you can use Runes of Ascension to upgrade your Worldforged Items into their next tier versions, giving you even more ways to power up and gear your unique character.
With the release of Blackwing Lair, all previous Worldforged Upgrade costs are reduced.
To upgrade them, you’ll need to first take down Nefarian on any difficulty.
Base Worldforged
Blackwing Lair Upgrade
Callboard Caches
Callboard Caches begin dropping Blackwing Lair gear with the Raid’s release! As long as you have an item level of at least 69, you’ll be able to find BWL gear inside your Callboard Caches.
How to use the Callboard
The Callboard is a unique quest board located inside major cities. As you complete quests from the board, you’ll earn points towards your next chest of treasure. Complete enough quests, get a cache of spoils.
With the release of Blackwing Lair, once you have an item level of 69 or higher, two things will happen:
- The number of points needed to unlock a Callboard Cache will increase
- Your Callboard Caches will always contain a Blackwing Lair item and will have a chance for bonus items from Mythic Dungeons and items
Bloodforged and Heroic Bloodforged BWL
With BWL’s release, you will also start finding Bloodforged Blackwing Lair Items in High Risk PvP. Hover over your Treasure Hunter Buff to see if you’re strong enough to uncover these powerful items.
Romus the Redeemer
Raider’s Commendations ensure that you’re always making progress towards getting the item you want, even if it doesn’t drop in your raid. You’ll receive Raider’s Commendations each time you slay a boss in any raid. These tokens can be traded to Romus the Redeemer in capital cities for any item from a raid you’ve cleared.
Collect Raider’s Commendations to make progress towards the exact item you want and grow stronger.
In order to use Raider’s Commendations, you need to slay the final boss in the raid that drops the gear you want: for example, if you want a Shadowflame Staff, you’ll need to slay Nefarian first.
PvP Progression 4
PvP Season 4 Begins on May 30th @ 18:00 Server Time!
Join the ranks of the elite in PvP, gather Conquest Points to trade for EPIC gear, and compete against other players for new PvP weapons, armor, trinkets, enchantments, mounts, and titles.
- PvP Progression Concludes May 30th at 17:59:00 Server Time
- Those in the top 10 in any bracket get an exclusive mount unique to PvP Progression 3 and are rewarded the title “Gladiator”
- Any Conquest Points you have will be converted to Honor Points
- Honor Points persist are not reset
- PvP Progression 4 Begins May 30th at 18:00:00 Server Time
- New PvP Rewards release from PvP Vendors at that time
Once PvP Progression 4 is live, all PvP Progression 3 Gear will become available for HONOR, allowing you to quickly get the pieces you need to jump into the fray.
See you in Azeroth, adventurer!
