Winterveil is Heating up: Molten Core, Prestige Event, and More!

Winterveil is Heating up: Molten Core, Prestige Event, and More!

Adventurers!

‘Tis the month of December, and you know what that means: the spirits of Winterveil now grace our screens! Winterveil arrives on the 15th of December, so mark your calendars to make sure you remember

Prepare for a season of snow and of cheer. On Ascension, the holidays kick off hard this year:

• Molten Core releases December 13th.
  • Warcraft Reborn’s First Raid Tier
  • 4 Difficulties to Conquer
    • Normal
    • Heroic
    • Mythic
    • Ascended
  • Expanded Boss Mechanics
    • New Spell and Mechanics exclusive to Warcraft Reborn
    • Updated Spells, Visuals and encounters on all denizens found within the core.
  • Creature RPG Overhaul
  • New Reputation Rewards
  • Itemization Updates
  • New Gear Available in Molten Core
  • New Tier Sets Available in Molten Core
  • Global Tier Tokens
  • Horizontal Tier Progression
  • Legendary Items
  • Next Tier of the Denman Rings Release
  • Callboard Cache Upgrades to Molten Core
  • Find Bloodforged and Heroic Bloodforged Molten Core Gear
  • Romus the Redeemer gets Normal Molten Core Gear.
  • AND MORE
• Winterveil begins on December 15th
  • Enjoy the Feast of Winterveil
  • The Abominable Greench
  • Rare Holiday Recipes
  • Winter Wondervolt Gnome Disguises
  • Holiday Hats
  • Rescue Metzen the Reindeer
  • Grumpus, Event Boss.
    • Grumpus is found in the Open World only.
  • AND MORE
• Balance Updates
  • Follow up-patch notes from the last article!
• Prestige Event on Warcraft Reborn Starting Today.
  • Earn 2x the Runes of Ascension from prestiging.
• From now until December 10th, get the limited-time Mildly Munched Gingerboard Mount free with any DP order of $50 or more.

Molten Core Releases December 13th

Grab your snowballs and dive into the Molten Core with new mechanics, the RPG Creature Overhaul, and even brand new gear in Molten Core! The flames of the firelord rupture the caverns beneath Blackrock Mountain: Molten Core releases on December 13th!

This is Warcraft Reborn’s first tier raid: expect a sizzling challenge as you face down bosses enriched with something new. If you survive, you might leap out of the fire with epic new gear.

Molten Core features: 

• 4 Difficulties to Conquer
  • Normal
  • Heroic
  • Mythic
  • Ascended
• Expanded Boss Mechanics
  • New Spell and Mechanics exclusive to Warcraft Reborn
  • Updated Spells, Visuals and encounters on all denizens found within the core.
• Creature RPG Overhaul in full force in Molten Core
• New Reputation Rewards
• Itemization Updates
• New Gear Available
• New Tier Sets Available in Molten Core
• Global Tier Tokens
• Horizontal Tier Progression
• Legendary Items
• Next Tier of the Denman Rings Release
• Callboard Cache Upgrades to Molten Core
• Find Bloodforged and Heroic Bloodforged Molten Core Gear
• Romus the Redeemer gets Molten Core Gear

Expanded RAID Mechanics

Molten Core features all of the expanded boss mechanics that Ascension has added over the past decade, enhancing fights with deadly new spells for each boss.

Additionally, you’ll find brand new boss mechanics premiering on Warcraft Reborn, adding new excitement to existing encounters. 

The RPG Creature Overhaul in Action

The RPG Creature Overhaul brings unique strengths and weaknesses to ALL creatures on Ascension, and Molten Core is no exception. Every creature and boss features unique stats and unique spell resistances and vulnerabilities. Predictably, creatures in the core are particularly resistant to fire (don’t forget Spell Pen gear if you insist on playing a Fire Mage!).

But Molten Core has some unpredictable creature stats, too. What about the molten stone giant Golemegg or the arcane wielding Shazzrah?

For those who love to crunch the numbers for the exact resistance values and armor modifiers, this section is for you:

Attunements, Rune Dousing and New Reputation Rewards - The Hydraxian Waterlords

The Hydraxian Waterlords were once an essential part of Molten Core: traditionally you needed their oceanic power to douse the flaming runes that each MC Boss protected. On Ascension you do not need to douse boss runes: they are automatically extinguished once the boss is defeated.

• Attunements on Ascension are only required for entering on Ascended difficulty.
• You do not need to douse runes to complete Molten Core in Ascension.

The Hydraxian Waterlords are now a complete reputation with awesome rewards for gaining rep with. By vanquishing the fiery denizens of the Molten Core, you can cultivate your standing with them and secure access to formidable rewards. Here are just a few of what is offered: 

Duke Hydraxis still rules his isle in Azshara, guiding the Waterlords from afar, while a new Hydraxian operative has marched straight into the Burning Volcano of Blackrock Mountain to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Ascension’s heroes. Their mission? Extinguish Ragnaros. The Waterlords will offer you items to aid their cause. 

New Items in Molten Core

If you can overcome the new RPG elements of Molten Core and take down the savage creatures within, brand new treasure will be yours to claim. You can find these items in all levels of difficulty. Here’s a sneak peak of two brand new items that will be available.

New Tier Sets in Molten Core

New Tier Sets arrive with molten core to ensure that every unique class and role combo can perform. You’ll find new tier sets for Druids, Shamans, and Paladins so that each class can DPS, Tank, and Heal in all of their specs. This helps you gear up regardless of what 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.

Finally, Majordomo Executus now drops your Tier 2 Bracers. This is a custom Ascension feature so that you can get your tier 2 set bonus once Onyxia drops.

Global Tier Tokens

With so many new tier sets being added, finding the exact item you want as a boss drop would be a nightmare. Global Tier Tokens arrive to make sure every boss is always valuable for every member of your raid.

Tier Sets on Warcraft Reborn are now obtained by trading Tier Tokens in capital cities. Bosses in Molten Core drop the tier tokens equivalent to the set items they used to drop.

This means every boss is always dropping something useful for your raid: no more doing Molten Core for 4 months and never seeing your specific Feral Druid shoulders. Now, you can get a Tier Token, trade it for what you want, and gear up. 

There are tier tokens for every difficulty, so if you dive into Ascended Molten Core, you’ll be gaining tokens to get Ascended level Tier sets. 

Horizontal Tier Progression

Many classes want to play multiple specs: you might LOVE your Shaman and want to experiment with playing it as a Tank, Resto, Elemental DPS, and maybe even enhancement DPS. But that’s a LOT of tier sets to collect.

Horizontal Tier Progression allows you to buy tier pieces for gold once you’ve turned in a Tier Token for that specific slot. For example, if you’re on your Tank Shaman and you turn in Molten Handguards for your tank gloves, you can then get ANY of the tier gloves for gold.

This lets you try out and enjoy multiple specs: if you get your full Tier 1 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.

This helps you play different specs without needing to raid to gear up every single one, giving you the flexibility to play how you want when you need to.

Visit Major Mattingly, 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

Many items in Molten Core have been upgraded to make them exciting and useful while staying true to their original nature. Below are just a few examples of items that have been reworked to have a more meaningful place in progression.

Legendary Items

There are some items so powerful that they can only be described as legendary. These items are the pinnacle of power, weapons and necklaces so rare that it’s possible only one or two adventurers will ever claim them.

These are Legendary Items, and on Warcraft Reborn, each legendary has been overhauled to make them truly exemplary of their iconic legendary status. Whether you’re forging Sulfuras, questing for Thunderfury, or are one of the extremely rare adventurers to get their hands on the all new Legendary Necklaces available in Molten Core, when you see these items you’ll know the person wearing them stands above the rest.

And that might be you.

The Talisman of Binding Shard - A Legend Reforged

Among the many relics forged in the fires of early Azeroth, few hold the same mystique as the Talisman of Binding Shard. This enigmatic item, dropped only once in all of World of Warcraft’s history by Baron Geddon in Molten Core became an immediate legend. The Talisman was believed to be a remnant of an abandoned questline. A relic tied to the ancient struggle between the Elemental Lords. But once removed, it became unobtainable forever. 

On Warcraft Reborn, that legend is honored and reimagined. The Talisman of Binding Shard can be obtained as a very rare drop from Baron Geddon forever. This legendary that’s is able to be transformed into the custom Medallion of Binding Shard, the only neck in the game capable of doing so.

New Crafted Gear

Molten Core brings brand new crafted gear to your favorite professions. Look forward to crafted patterns like the Flarecore Robe, Fiery Chain Shoulders, and Corehound Boots that require materials from inside the core will be yours to forge with MC’s release. Remember that these items will benefit from Additional Random Affixes, making them more powerful than they’ve ever been.

These are just a few of the crafted items you can create once Molten Core is live:

The Denman Brothers

A group of cunning merchants recently expanded their venture to Stormwind and Orgrimmar: the Denman Brothers sell epic rings for gold that have unique stat combinations. You can use these rings to fill out niche aspects of your build:

For example, maybe you need just a bit more Spell Penetration on your Mage, or perhaps your healer could use a bit more haste. The Denman Brothers carry rings that have just what you’re looking for.

Additionally, these rings can be upgraded with each new Raid Release: and that means that with Molten Core, 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

With the release of Molten Core, you’ll be able to 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, once you defeat Ragnaros on any difficulty.

Base Worldforged Upgrade

Molten Core Upgrade

Callboard Caches

With the release of Molten Core, you’ll be able to find Molten Core gear inside your Callboard Caches as long as you have an item level of at least 63.

When you complete a Callboard Quest, you’ll receive points that get you closer to your next treasure chest. Fill up the bar to get a Callboard Cache filled with items!

With the release of Molten Core, once you have an item level of 63 or higher, two things will happen:

1. The number of points needed to unlock a Callboard Cache will increase
2. Your Callboard Caches will always contain Molten Core items and will have a chance for bonus items from Mythic Dungeons and Zul’Gurub.

Find Bloodforged and Heroic Bloodforged Molten Core Items

You’ll also start finding Bloodforged Molten Core Items in High Risk PvP. Grab PvP versions of your favorite MC Items like Bonereaver’s Edge and take your power to the next level. Mousing over your treasure hunter buff in high risk will let you know if you have met the threshold.

Romus the Redeemer

Each time you slay a boss in any raid, you’ll receive Raider’s Commendations, which can be redeemed at Romus the Redeemer in capital cities for any item from a raid you’ve cleared. That means each time you slay a boss in any raid, you’re making progress towards your next item. 

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 to trade them for a Choker of the Firelord, you’ll need to slay Ragnaros first. Once you do, you’ll unlock the ability to exchange your commendations for the items found within Molten Core.

Balance Changes

Mage

[Mage] [Frost Talent: Arctic Winds] This now increases your Frost damage dealt by 2/4/6%, up from 1/2/3%.

[Mage] [Legendary: Frost Bomb] Explosion damage has been increased by 20%.

[Mage] [Epic: Frozen Haste] This now grants 10% spell haste, up from 8%.

[Mage] [Epic: Stay Frosty] This now increases the chance for Fingers of Frost to trigger by an additional 3% per stack, up from 2%.

[Mage] [Glyph of Ice Lance] This now causes the Ice Lance to deal 5 times the damage to frozen targets, up from 4.

[Mage] [Epic: Rapid Shatter] This now has an additional mechanic: 

Instant spells cast immediately following a Frostbolt do not consume Fingers of Frost. This means that with this enchant, doing a Frostbolt -> Ice Lance combo with 2/2 Fingers of Frost will only consume one charge.

[Mage] [Fire Talent: Pyromaniac] This now increases your critical strike chance by 2/4/6%, up from 1/2/3%.

[Mage] [Epic: Fire Fire Fireball] The additional Fireball cast through this enchant is now guaranteed to critically strike. This means it will always trigger Ignite and contribute to Hot Streaks.

Shaman

[Shaman] [Elemental Talent: Booming Echoes] This now also increases the damage of Earth Shock, in addition to Frost and Flame shock.

[Shaman] [Elemental Talent: Lightning Overload] The proc chance of this talent has been increased to 14/27/40%, up from 11/22/33%.

Flame Ascendance

[Shaman] [Legendary: Flame Ascendance] This enchant now has a new passive effect: Your Lava Burst gains 1% spell critical damage bonus for each 1% crit chance above 100%.

[Shaman] [Epic: Lava Burn] The damage granted by this enchant now accumulates (similar to Ignite) instead of being overwritten. To account for this, its damage inheritance has been lowered from 20% to 15%. This will make the value of this enchant more consistent and intuitive especially when paired with Flame Ascendance.

Booming Thunder

[Shaman] [Legendary: Booming Thunder] The Lightning Overload effect of this enchant has been moved to Mastery of Lightning and a new effect has been added: Using Earth Shock with at least 8 stacks will cause a lightning strike, applying the Flame Shock periodic effect to the target. In addition, the bonuses to Earth Shock have been increased from 6% to 8%. These changes will make pressing Earth Shock feel far more impactful with this enchant.

[Shaman] [Epic: Mastery of Lightning] This enchant now also doubles the chance for Overload to trigger on critical strikes. This will be slightly stronger than the previous flat 20% for most Elemental shamans and will improve their stat scaling.

[Shaman] [Epic: Ungrounded] Updated the tooltip of this enchant to correctly reflect that it grants critical strike chance and not damage. The tooltip was wrong, this was always its effect.

Druid

[Druid] [Balance Talent: Dreamstate] This now regenerates mana equal to 6/12/18% of your Intellect every 5 seconds, up from 4/8/12%.

[Druid] [Balance Spells] The damage of Insect Swarm, Moonfire and Sunfire has been increased by 10% in PvE combat.

[Druid] [Balance Talent: Wrath of Cenarius] This talent now increases the spell power coefficient of Starfire and Starsurge by 10/20/30%, up from 7/14/20%, and Wrath by 5/10/15% up from 4/7/10%

[Druid] [Glyph of Starfire] This now extends the duration of your Moonfire by up to 12 seconds, up from 9.

[Druid] Due to a bug, Druid mana regeneration from Spirit and Intellect was 25% higher than other classes. This explains why Resto Druids' mana was much less taxed than that of other healers. Half of this difference has now been removed. The remainder will likely be removed at a future date, but first the impact of this change will be monitored so that other potential changes can be added if needed.

[Druid] [Legendary: Overflow] Rather than healing three extra targets when at three stacks, the extra heal triggered by Healing Touch now heals one extra target per stack consumed. The guaranteed Living Seed trigger will now also occur at any stack amount, rather than requiring three stacks. This makes this enchant more versatile and intuitive to use.

Hunter

[Hunter] [Immolation Trap] Immolation Trap now scales from Ranged modifiers instead of spell modifiers.

[Hunter] [Marksmanship Talent: Chimera Shot] Chimera Shot now benefits from the Improved Barrage and Barrage talents.

[Hunter] [Survival Talent: Master Tactician] Master Tactician now has a 30% chance on a successful ranged attack to increase your critical strike chance with all attacks, down from 100%. In addition, now increases your ranged attack speed by 5/10/15%. 

[Hunter] [Legendary: Flare Strike] Flare Strike now deals Fire damage, changed from Physical. The damage taken increase now lasts for 15 seconds, up from 10. Also, Flare Strike now correctly benefits from Mortal Shots.

[Hunter] [Epic: Charged Up] Now causes your attacks to bypass 10% of your target's armor, down from 25%.

[Hunter] [Epic: Quickfire Tactics] This enchant now reduces the cooldown of Flare Strike by 1 second whenever you deal damage with Auto-shot or Steady Shot, instead of when Lock & Load triggers.

Priest

[Priest] [Shadow Talent: Twisted Faith] This now increases your spell power by 8/16/25%, up from 7/14/20%. 

[Priest] [Shadow Talent: Misery] This now increases the benefit from spell power gained by your Mind Blast, Mind Flay and Mind Sear spells by 8/16/25%, up from 5/10/15%.

Prestige Event – Double Runes from Prestiging

When you prestige you reset your character back to level 1. Your quests reset, but you keep everything important about your character: your items, bank, reputation, skills, professions, etc. You’ll earn 275% multiplicative bonus experience during your prestige run making leveling much faster.

Hit level cap again to earn a chest of end-game rewards and Runes of Ascension. 

Starting now, you receive DOUBLE the amount of Runes of Ascension (50,000 Runes of Ascension) every time you prestige during the month of December.

Hardcore Trials

If you want to enhance your prestige you’ll earn even more Runes of Ascension doing Hardcore Trials. On these Hardcore Trials you explore Azeroth in ways that you never thought possible. Take down Gathil’zogg before level 24 or grab a partner for the Pair in the Lair challenge and dive into every single vanilla dungeon. Completing Hardcore Trials earn you some of the most stylish cosmetic rewards and END-GAME LOOT.

There are 3 broad categories of Trials:

• Hardcore
  • 1 Life Challenges
  • Succeed and win big spoils, but die and fail the challenge
  • You can group with other Hardcore players
• Ironman
  • Solo Self-Found
  • No grouping
  • No outside help AT ALL (no trading, no mail, no auction house, etc.)
• Nightmare
  • Limited Lives
  • Massively Increased Damage Taken

You begin your adventure here at the trial master within your start zone. 

Limited Time Mildly Munched Gingerbread

Mildly Munched Gingerbread is a charming (and questionably nibbled) holiday ride straight from Great-father Winter’s bakery. We’re not sure who took the first bite. Could’ve been a hungry mage. Could’ve been you. 

• With any DP donation of $50 or more, you unlock the exclusive, limited-time [Mildly Munched Gingerboard] mount.
• Added straight to your vanity collection.
• You can saddle up on this frosted masterpiece and prance across Azeroth like the world’s most festive snack.

A festive treat you can ride but certainly shouldn’t eat.

The Feast of Winter Veil

The Feast of Winter Veil returns to the show, with goblin-made cheer and the falling of snow. From Orgrimmar’s gates to where Ironforge stands, old Great-father Winter brings joy to the lands.

Throughout the wide world, festive quests will appear with recipes rare for your crafting this year. Find playful disguises and vendors around, but watch out where holiday mischief is found!

The Abominable Greench brings a fight to the fray, So rescue beloved Metzen, the Reindeer, today! And should a Winterveil Emergency arise, you’ll face down the threat underneath snowy skies.

This year’s festivities run December 15th through January 2nd, with all presents available starting December 25th

The Abominable Greench & Rare Holiday Recipes

The Greench has returned, stealing treats once again, So make for the Alterac Mountains and glen! Go look for Strange Snowman out cold in the snow, and defeat the Abominable Greench with a blow.

Since credit is party-wide when he is ended, grouping up for battle must be recommended! Completing the chain earns a prize for your lift: A Smokywood Pastures fine Special Gift.

And inside this package, is one random seasonal profession recipe:

• Alchemy: Elixir of Frost Power
• Blacksmithing: Edge of Winter
• Enchanting: Enchant Weapon – Winter’s Might
• Engineering: Snowmaster 9000
• Leatherworking: Gloves of the Greatfather
• Tailoring: Green Holiday Shirt

Winter Wondervolt Gnome Disguises

Throughout all of Winterveil, the PX-two-thirty-eight Wondervolts stands prepared to transform heroes all across the land. By stepping inside it will be swiftly seen that you transform into a gnome wearing red or wearing green. 

These disguises will last thirty minutes, and then, Just step in a machine to refresh them again!

And that ends our rhymes since it takes too much work, and our copy editor is kind of a jerk.

Locations include:

• Ironforge Gates
• Orgrimmar Zeppelin Tower
• Stormwind Flight Master
• Gadgetzan
• Booty Bay
• Menethil Harbor
• Tirisfal Glades

Winter Hats

Many dungeon bosses will be wearing and be able to drop festive 

Red

or 

Green Winter Hats

.

Wear them for style, but not for stats, because they have none.

Winter Revelers

Inside Inns, Winter Revelers offer holiday consumables when approached with /kiss once per hour:

• Fresh Holly (7-day mount transformation)
• Mistletoe (+20 Spirit buff)
• Handful of Snowflakes (cosmetic snow)

Spirit buffs are especially helpful for leveling.

Winterveil Emergency: Grumpus

As this festive season settles on Azeroth, you can look forward to cheer and celebration–and a grumpy World Monster who will absolutely try to spoil your season. Challenge Grumpus to complete a unique Daily Quest and claim exclusive cosmetic rewards!

Rescuing Metzen the Reindeer

Metzen has been kidnapped and must be rescued and earn yourself Preserved Holly, which can turn your mount into a reindeer during even the warmest months of Azeroth.

With quests, collectibles, recipes, disguises, world encounters, and holiday vendors active across Azeroth, the Feast of Winter Veil provides a wide variety of seasonal activities for adventurers of any level. Be sure to complete the limited-time quests, check vendors for exclusive items, rescue Metzen, defeat the Greench for rare recipes, and visit the holiday trees after December 25th for your gifts.

Happy Winterveil, Adventurers!