Battle for Azeroth: Azerite and the Heart of Azeroth

Posted 2017/11/05 at 1:41 AM by Squishei

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BlizzCon 2017 Coverage

This Article is part of our BlizzCon 2017 Coverage.
If you are interested in knowing more about Battle for Azeroth Reveal, check one of the articles below

You can also see our full coverage in our Coverage Recap

Heart of Azeroth

You'll carry the Heart of Azeroth throughout the entire expansion. It is the new "Artifact Weapon".

The Heart of Azeroth is empowered by Azerite and will automatically absorb any nearby Azerite. No loss of bag space or time spent clicking!

Once the Heart of Azeroth absorbs enough Azerite, it can level up. Upon reaching certain levels, it will awaken some latent properties in another piece of gear.

Upgrading Gear

The current plan is that Helm, Shoulders and Chests will be able to be empowered by the Heart of Azeroth

Each of these pieces has 3 rings; each ring has multiple traits on it. When a ring is unlocked, players will be able to choose a single trait to learn.

The outer ring unlocks first and consists of 4 possible choices. The middle ring unlocks second and consists of 3 possible choices. The inner ring unlocks last and consists of 2 possible choices.

A piece with the same name will have the exact same layout of traits -- You'll be able to see it in the Dungeon Journal. No RNG!

However, higher item level pieces will have more powerful traits, but Azerite attuned pieces cannot titanforge.

Offensive traits will also be paired on the same ring as other offensive traits. Utility traits will always be paired on the same ring as other utility traits. This will create meaningful choices.

Once you choose a trait, the ring will rotate until your choice is at the top!

Magni Bronzebeard

"The King of Diamonds is made a pawn."
“Five keys to open our way. Five torches to light our path.”
“The Lord of Ravens will turn the key.”

the Black Empire postAzerite

As the suffers and bleeds due to the Horde and Alliance conflict, her life essence bleeds onto the surface and crystallizes in to a powerful substance called Azerite.

The Goblins and Gnomes have developed technology that allows players to determine which islands have Azerite on them and allows for the Island Expeditions feature.
Azerite can be found in nodes, chests, creatures, questgivers, powerful bosses and more!

Blizzard Blog

Blizzard

The Heart of AzerothIn the aftermath of the Legion’s assault on Azeroth, the world is teetering on the brink. As the Horde and the Alliance battle, the very essence of Azeroth is seeping out. It’s up to you to not only defend your faction, but to also defend Azeroth herself.Early on in Battle for Azeroth, Magni Bronzebeard will entrust you with a powerful artifact to wear around your neck throughout your journey: the Heart of Azeroth, which represents the hopes and dreams of the world.
Over the course of the expansion, you’ll encounter Azerite, an incredible new resource that’s appeared in the wake of the Legion’s demise. As you gather this substance, you’ll use it to empower the Heart of Azeroth. Unlike the artifact weapons that heroes wielded in Legion, the Heart of Azeroth is not itself an item that you will customize; instead, it will serve as a source of power that awakens latent properties of some other pieces of armor that you’ll wear throughout your adventures.Speaking of gear, we’ll also be performing another stat “squish,” like we did in Warlords of Draenor, to bring player health and damage numbers down to more comprehensible numbers without affecting players’ actual effectiveness against the foes around them.

Battle for Azeroth at BlizzCon 2017

Battle for Azeroth, World of Warcraft's next expansion was revealed!

6 Allied Races are being added in the expansion with custom appearances and special Heritage Armor sets.
We previewed the Lightforged Draenei and Highmountain Tauren races on the show floor.

Zandalari can be druids!

Dungeon Journal was available

The Design a Dungeon Boss panel also highlighted the Shrine of the Storm Dungeon.

class changes

We also found that Class Buffs are returning in the expansion, with one for every class (except Shamans).

We also looked at all the large Talent Changes and some classes got Artifact Traits available as Talents.

Blizzard discussed these topics in some interviews.

Wowhead's interview

An item level and stat squish update is coming in Battle for Azeroth.

Legendaries and Titanforging info was revealed, including no Titanforging on Azerite armor.

The Heart of Azeroth is empowered by Azerite and can empower latent energies in pieces of gear.

Island ExpeditionsKul Tiras and Zandalar

Check out more expansion art in the Art of WoW Panel.

Stormwind and Orgrimmar also received updates!

WarfrontsWarcraft Q&A

We learned increased default bagpack slots are on the way if you use an authenticator.

At the end of the Q&A we also learned that the Battle for Azeroth Beta Opt-In is now open.

coming in Patch 7.3.5

Zone Scaling and Leveling Improvements - all pre-Legion zones will now scale up to certain levels.

Ulduar Timewalking will be the second Timewalking raid, as part of the Wrath of the Lich King Timewalking Event.

previewed at the Opening Ceremony

The events of the cinematic were transformed into a record-setting diorama for the Battle of Lordaeron.

The novel Before the Storm covers the events leading up to the cinematic. The book cover was revealed and convention-goers received a copy of the Prologue.

We speculated on the Burning of Teldrassil which directly leads to the Battle for Lordaeron.

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Comments

Comment by Nadmg1977

Wow! =D

Comment by cryptidic

I'm a bit tentative around this, but it seems promising! I hope we get some unique appearances like with artifacts.

Comment by nullKomplex

Clearly an unfinished system. Hope it turns out well though.

Comment by Batshine

Glad we're getting Scenarios again. Enjoyed them in MoP and been hoping they would return someday.

Comment by JaceDraccus

Liking that it won't use bag space or need to be consciously applied... always annoying to find you've had leftover AP items in your bags for who knows how long.

I just hope there'll be plenty of options for gear progression. I don't really want to be forced to play Mythic just to get an upgrade to the Azerite gear...

I'm a bit tentative around this, but it seems promising! I hope we get some unique appearances like with artifacts.

Appearances? For the Heart? Or the Azerite gear?

Comment by kalerender

Shame it's an amulet - hope it has something visual associated with it like the pandaria legendary cloak

Comment by darquis

Interesting that the three pieces it can upgrade are also 3 of the six set pieces

Comment by jjanchan

The ongoing character progression afforded by our Artifacts was a great system imo, and I'm very glad to see it will be continued via the Heart of Azeroth!

Comment by DestroWarlock030

I'm interested but having legendaries is way more easy :/

Comment by NODIE

I don't want to grind azerite too much please dont do like artifact powers.

Comment by Vigils

Interesting to see how it will play out.

Comment by Joshmaul

Glad we're getting Scenarios again. Enjoyed them in MoP and been hoping they would return someday.

I agree; not everything has to be dungeons and raids. Sometimes you can save the world in just five minutes. :D

Comment by Trauk

Very interested to see how this will work out. Seems unfinished, will be waiting for more info! I think other games should take notes from Blizzard and apply/try new things.

Comment by szombatibalu7

The idea of the Heart of Azeroth sounds great. I've always loved the customization, choosing among talents, so let's hope it won't be a disaster :D
Also, it is great to have another stat squish along with decreasing the itemlevel, the numbers were getting ridiculous.

Comment by 1483238

I'm assuming this azerite stuff will apply to tier pieces considering the 3 locations that will benefit from it are all tier slots.

Comment by Nehcrom

Looks interesting, still going to miss my artifact weapon though :/

Comment by Gamers334

So instead of walking back to an altar in a class hall, the neck is the altar for the other artifact items. I hope that the azerite gear can be respec'd too because if you chose trait A because it sounded good and realized that it isnt as good as trait B, then you'd need to get the piece of gear again before choosing the better one, or if they nerf a trait while you have it then it forces you to switch traits because its no longer viable

Comment by 1657808

Always love how Blizzard is trying to improve their current systems and trying something new, as all games should.

Comment by w3maniak

I actually hoped that Legiondaries (their effects) will be turned into separate progression/customization, like second talent tree, this looks like that...

Comment by Geling

Thankfully this is class based so i wont feel forced to play only one spec for the first bit of the expansion.

Looking forward to seeing how it will effect sets in raids since those are main armor pieces

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