It would seem that some key announcements have been made public since I wrote my most recent World of Warcraft-related editorial. The day I finished working on that article, there was no public release date for Patch 8.3, entitled Visions of N’Zoth; instead, we were left with the vague general release date of “early 2020.” Thankfully, that has since changed, and we now know the vast majority of the new changes, features, and other additions coming in the patch in addition to its planned release date.

I feel compelled to get the big release date reveal out of the way first and foremost for the sake of our readers who haven’t yet heard the news. Battle for Azeroth Patch 8.3: Visions of N’Zoth will release on Tuesday, January 14th, 2020 on realms within the Americas, presumably after routine weekly maintenance concludes at some point that day.

To assist in your preparations for patch day, I suggest bearing in mind that on days which feature major patch releases like this, maintenance has been scheduled to last several hours longer than normal in the past, such as when Legion’s huge Patch 7.3 reached live servers; however, just because Blizzard says such maintenance could end up lasting that long doesn’t necessarily guarantee that it actually will. In light of that, I also advise trying to avoid feeling as though you have to rush home to play if you have any normal daily obligations simply because we can’t predict how long maintenance will actually last.

With that out of the way, I shall now provide you with a brief rundown of most new changes and additions coming in Visions of N’Zoth. If you find yourself interested in my more in-depth thoughts on many (though notably not all) of the patch’s contents, I recently published that aforementioned editorial which shall hopefully sate your curiosity as to my opinions on what this patch entails. Let the feature rundown begin.

Within Blizzard’s initial announcement of Visions of N’Zoth’s release date, they also laid out their planned unlock schedule for the new raid included in the patch. This twelve-boss raid is known as “Ny’alotha, the Waking City;” its end boss is the titular N’Zoth, the only Old God that has yet to be slain by players as far as I’m currently aware.

The raid’s Normal and Heroic difficulties are planned to open exactly one week after the patch’s release, on January 21st, 2020. A week after that on January 28th, Mythic difficulty and the first Raid Finder wing will become available. After that point, the second Raid Finder wing will open on February 11th, the next on February 25th, and the final wing will become conquerable on March 10th.

Aside from the new raid and its unlock schedule, there are several more potentially exciting facets to this patch, which I shall briefly present in no particular order. Firstly, the playable Worgen and Goblin races will receive their heritage armor, which was originally thought to be coming in Patch 8.2.5 or earlier. Secondly, a major aspect of the patch takes the form of so-called Titan Assaults, during which forces loyal to the titular Old God will attempt to gain control of titan facilities in both Uldum and Pandaria’s Vale of Eternal Blossoms.

It appears that these Titan Assaults will function at least somewhat similarly to the Faction Assaults that have been present on a daily basis throughout the vast majority of Battle for Azeroth since the expansion initially launched. Traveling to whichever of these two locations is currently under siege will reportedly have players face new enemies and complete new temporary quests until they can face the enemy leader of the assault, which certainly sounds quite a bit like how Faction Assaults operate.

On a note which appears to be similar to the Titan Assaults I’ve just described, Visions of N’Zoth will also contain three new world bosses who can be found and fought while they’re active within either Uldum or the Vale of Eternal Blossoms. Another major aspect of the patch are the so-called “Horrific Visions.” According to the venerable fan site Wowhead, these are versions of Stormwind and Orgrimmar which represent what would likely happen in the event that N’Zoth’s campaign is victorious and succeeds in corrupting the entirety of Azeroth.

These “Horrific Visions” are meant for groups of anywhere from one to five players; they’re purportedly inspired in a handful of ways by Legion’s Mage Tower that was once active on the Broken Shore. A notable departure from that reported inspiration, however, is that it seems you don’t simply fight one unusually-powerful enemy (or group of enemies, depending on both your class and specialization) within these Visions, as was the case in the Mage Tower.

Rather, your objective is to progress as far through the Vision and cleanse as much of the Old God’s corruption as you’re able before your sanity meter drains and your mind succumbs to an unseen assault by N’Zoth. It’s reported that players likely won’t be able to get very far within their first handful of attempts at these Visions; after all, hardly anyone defeated their specific Mage Tower boss(es) on their first try.

To that end, even the players who prove themselves to be extraordinarily skilled at progressing within these Horrific Visions will likely need some outside help if they want to conquer the entire scenario. Due to that, there are two main sources of the exact kind of outside intervention we’ll need. The first of these takes the form of a new currency, the “Corrupted Memento,” which can apparently be gathered while progressing through Visions.

This currency can then be brought to, spent at, and analyzed by Magni Bronzebeard and MOTHER, who will proceed to provide you with access to your choices of what are basically buffs found within ancient Titan research. Secondly, and perhaps more notably, players will work with Deathwing’s son Wrathion in order to obtain a new legendary cloak which will allow us to strengthen our defenses while within Horrific Visions.

Moving on from the entire concept of Horrific Visions, there are two remaining major aspects of Patch 8.3 which I’d like to briefly mention here. The first of these aspects takes the form of two new Allied Races which will become unlockable and playable once Visions of N’Zoth reaches live servers. The Alliance has succeeded in recruiting the ingenious Mechagnomes of Mechagon, whereas the Horde has managed to convince the resourceful and crafty Vulpera denizens of Vol’dun to fall under Team Red’s banner.

As you might expect, both of these races have different unlock requirements and unique racial traits to separate them from the existing races and, perhaps, entice players to unlock them and give these new races a fair try. I won’t be covering either race’s unlock requirements or racial traits in this article, however; you can instead find descriptions and my detailed thoughts of that particular information within my aforementioned recent editorial. I have to temper my excitement somehow, after all.

Finally, there exists the aspect of Patch 8.3 about which I can’t help but find myself the most excited, and it can be summed up in a mere six words: Allied Race and Pandaren Death Knights. This inclusion was originally planned to be delayed until (and packaged within) the release of next year’s new expansion, Shadowlands. However, it appears that Blizzard has changed course on this decision, to the rejoicing of many players from what I’ve seen.

Until the patch officially releases, though, it’s crucial to remember that only those of us who have pre-ordered Shadowlands will have immediate access to these new playable Death Knights (and their new starting scenario which features Bolvar Fordragon as the Lich King) once Visions of N’Zoth has reached live servers. It should also be noted that the Death Knight class will be available to all ten Allied Races and Pandaren, even the races that will be added in this patch.

There you have it, folks! I’ve strived throughout this article to do an adequately-thorough job of providing you with a brief rundown of each major aspect of Patch 8.3. I should note during these concluding paragraphs that there are a few more minor aspects I elected not to mention, such as certain class changes. However, I think I can justify my decision to omit those facets of Visions of N’Zoth by stating that there are other, excellent resources out there where you can learn all about everything I didn’t discuss here today.

I leave today’s final word to you, dear reader. Which aspect of this major patch are you most excited for? Which inclusion(s) might you think are questionable or outright unnecessary? Be sure to sound off in the comments below, and I’ll see you back in Azeroth on patch day!

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