WoW: Shadowlands’ Pre-Expansion Event is Live Now

Dark times have fallen upon Azeroth, fellow champions. Well, times that are at least as dark as the events of World of Warcraft’s previous seven expansions, that is. The pre-launch event for the upcoming expansion pack known as Shadowlands began on November 10th, 2020. It will continue until Shadowlands reaches live servers sometime on November 23rd in North America. I’m here today to detail a small part of what this event entails and how you can take advantage of it.

It’s important to note that this event, known officially as “Death’s Rising,” is not the same thing as the pre-expansion patch that launched on October 13th. This event is technically part of that patch, but it was stated by Executive Producer John Hight back in October that this specific portion of the pre-Shadowlands festivities would be reserved until closer to the expansion’s actual launch. It would seem that day has come.

I unfortunately don’t have time to delve into the lore and story events leading up to the Death’s Rising event. Suffice it to say that the (possibly) former Warchief of the Horde, Sylvanas Windrunner, is once again up to some serious shenanigans. This time, she and her Val’kyr have kidnapped various important figures from both in-game factions such as Thrall, Jaina Proudmoore, Baine Bloodhoof, and even Anduin Wrynn. Their whereabouts are currently unknown.

What that means for you is that upon logging in, you’ll be summoned to either Stormwind or Orgrimmar so that your faction’s remaining leaders can enlist your help in figuring out exactly what the heck is going on. They also want you to find out what (if anything) can be done about it. Since Sylvanas destroyed the Lich King’s Helm of Domination, the Scourge are running amok with no one to control them. Both factions have ultimately allied with the Argent Crusade in order to fight back against the undead.

You’ll first be tasked with collecting reports for the Crusade in areas near your faction’s capital. For example, on the Alliance side, you’ll get a quest to speak with a Crusade leader in Goldshire, Redridge, and Duskwood before reporting back to their commanding officer in Stormwind. After a short while running errands on their behalf, the Crusade and the faction leaders realize that the situation is several orders of magnitude more dire than they originally thought. It is determined that there is only one man who can figure out what to do from there: the Lich King himself, Bolvar Fordragon.

You’re eventually sent to Icecrown so that you can aid the Argent Crusade in a much more “hands-on” sort of way. This is mostly done by killing as many Scourge as the nearby quest givers tell you to. You’ll meet a fair few familiar faces along the way, in more ways than one. What I mean by that is that while you’re working alongside Justicar Trueheart on behalf of the Crusade, you’ll undoubtedly notice that there are several world bosses out and about within Icecrown.

That’s another integral part of the Death’s Rising event. Several well-known bosses from many raids in Northrend have arisen once again, and they are out for blood. Depending on which of these bosses happens to be active when you’re in their general vicinity, you can relive your past epic battles against the likes of Patchwerk, Professor Putricide, Noth the Plaguebringer, Princes Keleseth and Taldaram, and several more.

These bosses reportedly drop powerful, post-level-squish-appropriate loot. Because of that, I’d definitely recommend slaying as many of them as you’re able before the event ends. Additionally, one world boss in particular, namely Bronjahm, is especially highly sought-after. He has a relatively decent chance to drop a unique 34-slot bag.

As you complete quests for the Crusade in your faction’s capital and in Icecrown, you’ll earn small amounts of a new currency called Argent Commendations. These can be spent with various Crusade-affiliated quartermasters in exchange for various items. Most notably, you can spend Commendations at these quartermasters in order to get your hands on some new gear.

According to Wowhead, level 50 players will find that this gear is item level 100. That item level puts the gear at slightly below what you’d get from the Heroic version of the final raid of Battle for Azeroth. If you have any alts that need to get more appropriately geared before Shadowlands releases, this is a sufficient way to go about that.

Each piece of character equipment costs fifteen Argent Commendations. Therefore, a full set of nine items will set you back 135 of these Commendations. Wowhead reports that during the first week of the Death’s Rising event, completing every available daily quest in Icecrown will net you a total of eleven Commendations. This total will then increase to 17 Commendations per day during the second week of the event. In short, you’re going to be doing quite a few daily quests to get all your characters geared up well enough, but the end result should theoretically be worth the effort.