Battle for Azeroth, World of Warcraft’s seventh expansion, has been a rollercoaster ride, to say the least!
BFA has been a polarizing expansion to say the list; including (but not limited to) the controversial burning of Teldrassil, the overall vilification of Sylvanas Windrunner, and the somewhat unsuccessful Azerite Armor system. That being said, there’s been so much good to come from Blizzard’s MMORPG over the last year, and I’m genuinely stoked for the future, and I have been for a while.
Patch 8.2 is filled with so much content, many are dubbing it a “mini-expansion”. (Blizzard)
Enter in Patch 8.2: Rise of Azshara! This patch feels like a brand new expansion all by itself, as it features more content than has ever been released in a non-expansion patch in the history of World of Warcraft. We’re getting two zones, both of which are large and filled with new foes to face, new quests and storylines to explore, new raid and dungeon encounters to tackle, and so much more. I mean, between the new Eternal Palace raid (which finally sees us facing off against Queen Azshara herself) and the Mechagon “Mega Dungeon”, that’s 16 bosses in one patch, which is incredible. And from what I’ve seen from the PTR (Public Test Realm) testing for some of the new bosses, they look challenging and unique – and I can’t wait!
Azshara’s Eternal Palace sees us facing off against a long-awaited foe in Queen Azshara, but will likely be the first reveal of N’Zoth himself. (Blizzard)
But on top of all that rad content and some of the most beautiful and involved new zones I’ve ever seen, we’re also getting a highly requested and anticipated change to the Azerite Armor system – and more specifically, to the Heart of Azeroth necklace. Up to this point, the Heart of Azeroth has leveled up via Azerite Power throughout Zandalar and Kul Tiras, and that level dictated what abilities we had access to in the three pieces of Azerite Armor we can equip – helmet, shoulders, and chest. These abilities tended to be a bit bland, and the overall system sort of fell flat and didn’t give the level of player choice that Blizzard wanted for an armor system that replaced both Legendary items and Artifact weapons from the previous Legion expansion. ]
These Heart of Azeroth changes are absolutely huge, and not only go a long way to fixing the issues people had with Azerite Armor, but also alleviate issues people had missing out on Legion’s Legendaries. (Blizzard)
Moving forward, the neck piece will level independently with its own upgrade system that will give players access to a whole new suite of abilities at our disposal, and these new abilities are on par with perks and talents available to us via Legendaries last expansion – which is a GREAT new addition, and adds so many layers to how we can build out our characters, which is something we don’t have enough of in WoW these days.
At the end of the day, I’m a World of Warcraft diehard fan, and I want nothing more than to simply have more world to explore, more content to consume, and more raid bosses to defeat. I think 8.2 is a step in the right direction for Blizzard – but what do you think? Let me know on social! And if you’re looking to get some epic loot drops before the raid starts, check out July’s JOURNEY Loot Crate, featuring items from Spider-Man, Fallout, Farscape, and Scooby-Doo!
