HUGE Last Minute Changes to Patch 12.0.7 - Better Rewards, More Timegating & Faster Alt Leveling

[00:00] Hey folks, this is Kalani. Patch 1207 is

[00:03] almost here. It goes live with the next

[00:05] weekly reset, but that doesn't stop the

[00:07] dev team from squeezing in some

[00:08] last-minute changes. And some of these

[00:10] updates are very significant. The way in

[00:13] which you unlock the heroic world tier

[00:15] has completely changed. The rewards from

[00:17] almost all content in the new zones have

[00:19] been increased. There are new catch-up

[00:21] mechanics for the myth track gear.

[00:23] Various vendor prices were massively

[00:25] reduced. Almost all classes will see

[00:27] significantly reduced repair bills. And

[00:29] the turbulent time race experience buff

[00:31] will be better than ever before. So,

[00:33] let's go over some very important

[00:35] last-minute changes the dev team has

[00:37] made to patch 1207 over the last week or

[00:39] so. Now, before we jump in, be sure to

[00:41] hit up that like button and subscribe so

[00:43] you never miss another video.

[00:46] To start with, the dev team removed

[00:47] almost all of the requirements for the

[00:49] new heroic world tier difficulties for

[00:52] the Val and Night Tal zones. When the

[00:54] patch first popped up on the PTR, the

[00:56] heroic difficulty was locked behind an

[00:58] achievement called heroic tendencies.

[01:00] This required you to kill the world boss

[01:02] from either zone on normal mode first,

[01:04] and then you could jump into the higher

[01:06] difficulty. In the later PTR builds, the

[01:09] achievement and requirement were just

[01:10] completely removed. So, the only

[01:13] requirement left to enter heroic mode is

[01:15] to be level 90, meaning everyone can

[01:18] jump straight into the harder mode to

[01:19] earn the better rewards right away.

[01:22] That does bring up an interesting

[01:24] question, though. Can you enter these

[01:26] zones on characters that are below level

[01:29] 90 even if it's just on normal mode? And

[01:31] the answer is yes. In fact, one of the

[01:34] latest PTR builds also increased the

[01:37] experience rewards from completing world

[01:39] quests, events, and killing rares in the

[01:41] normal modes for these zones. So, this

[01:44] could be another way to level up any

[01:46] alts that you haven't gotten around to

[01:47] yet, at least from level 80 to 90.

[01:51] Almost every activity will reward you

[01:53] with experience, so you can get a few

[01:55] thousand per treasure you loot. Each

[01:58] rare is going to reward you with around

[01:59] 20,000 experience when you take the kill

[02:02] credit and the experience token into

[02:04] account. So, that's pretty huge. World

[02:06] quests are worth about 35,000 experience

[02:09] each with the world boss quest rewarding

[02:11] you with a bit more. And then the weekly

[02:12] quest offers you about 100,000

[02:15] experience as well. So, there are some

[02:17] half decent options for leveling up your

[02:19] alts in the new 1207 zones. But perhaps

[02:22] the best part is that you can actually

[02:24] start earning field accolades from the

[02:26] rare kills while leveling up. So, if you

[02:28] level up in these new zones, you should

[02:31] be able to buy some hero gear right away

[02:33] when you hit level 90. So, even if it

[02:35] takes you a bit longer to level up,

[02:37] you'll save time overall because you're

[02:39] working towards some big gear upgrades

[02:41] in the same time.

[02:44] Something else that's going to help out

[02:45] your alts a lot is the option to skip

[02:47] over the introduction experience for the

[02:49] new zones once you've worked through it

[02:51] once. After you've established your

[02:52] little foothold in the new zones, every

[02:55] other character should be able to skip

[02:56] over that initial quest line to jump

[02:58] straight into the zones to farm up some

[03:00] field accolades or whatever rewards

[03:02] you're interested in. What's even better

[03:04] is that you can use the teleporter in

[03:06] Silvermoon right away, too, which means

[03:08] you don't even have to track on over to

[03:10] Void Storm. And with the requirements on

[03:12] heroic world tier completely removed,

[03:14] your alts can jump straight into heroic

[03:16] difficulty to get the higher field

[03:17] accolade rewards.

[03:20] Speaking of field accolades, the field

[03:22] accolade vendor was updated recently to

[03:24] offer more efficient gear boxes to help

[03:26] you gear up even faster. The most

[03:28] important is probably the new heroic

[03:30] gear boxes that contain specific gear

[03:33] slots, so you can target the exact items

[03:35] that you want on the hero track. Those

[03:38] will cost you 750 field accolades each,

[03:41] and they were introduced a couple of

[03:42] weeks back. But the most recent update

[03:45] was for the war-bound champion boxes.

[03:47] This used to just be a war-bound box of

[03:49] random champion gear that cost 100 field

[03:52] accolades, and that would have been

[03:53] nice, I guess. But, what's even better

[03:55] than that is a war-bound box of specific

[03:58] champion gear. So, you can target gear

[04:00] slots just like you can with the heroic

[04:02] boxes, and the price wasn't increased at

[04:04] all. So, each box of champion gear will

[04:07] cost 100 field accolades, and then you

[04:09] can send those to your alts to help them

[04:11] gear up much faster. I think this is the

[04:13] only source of specific gear slot

[04:16] champion gear. So, if you really need a

[04:17] belt or some boots or a weapon to round

[04:20] out your alt set of champion gear, these

[04:22] boxes should help out quite a bit.

[04:25] Another interesting change for the

[04:27] heroic world tier difficulty is that the

[04:29] special quest that rewards a piece of

[04:31] myth track gear for killing the world

[04:33] bosses four times on heroic mode has

[04:35] been updated to also include a catch-up

[04:37] mechanic. This quest requires you to

[04:40] kill the world bosses four times and to

[04:42] loot an item, and it will take four

[04:43] weeks to fully complete the quest to

[04:45] earn your shiny piece of myth track

[04:47] gear. With kill credit for the world

[04:49] bosses locked to just once per week,

[04:51] there wouldn't be any real way to catch

[04:53] up with this quest if you got left

[04:55] behind. So, with the latest PTR builds,

[04:57] if you don't keep up with the quest as

[04:59] the weeks go by, you'll be able to pick

[05:01] up the missing quest items from the zone

[05:03] weekly quests as well. I imagine this

[05:06] mainly includes the showdown on zone

[05:08] weekly quest, which is a fill-the-bar

[05:10] style quest that requires you to just

[05:12] take part in general zone activities

[05:14] like completing world quests and killing

[05:16] rares, you know, that kind of thing. So,

[05:18] that will give you at least two sources

[05:20] for quest credit per week to help you

[05:22] catch back up to everyone else.

[05:25] There were also some pretty significant

[05:27] increases for various rewards for both

[05:29] normal and heroic difficulties. Normal

[05:32] world quests and rare kills used to

[05:34] reward you with veteran crests, and

[05:36] they'll now reward champion crests

[05:37] instead. For heroic, world quests and

[05:40] rare kills used to reward champion

[05:42] crests, and that was bumped up to heroic

[05:44] crests. So, both difficulties will be

[05:46] more rewarding in general, and you'll

[05:48] have plenty of crests to upgrade your

[05:50] gear or trade up to higher tiers of

[05:52] crests for other gearing opportunities

[05:54] that will most likely make these zones

[05:56] the best farming method for both

[05:57] champion and heroic crests, depending on

[06:00] what difficulty you're on and which

[06:01] crests you actually need. Farming rares

[06:04] in heroic mode will probably be the

[06:06] go-to method for heroic crest farming

[06:08] and field accolade farming, assuming the

[06:10] rare spawn rate is at least half decent.

[06:14] Another huge change was to the vendor

[06:16] costs for specific items. Any vendor

[06:18] reward that requires an achievement to

[06:20] be purchased, which is a lot of the new

[06:22] cosmetics like mounts, pets, and

[06:24] transmogs coming in the new patch, has

[06:26] had its cost reduced significantly to

[06:28] the point where it's not really a cost

[06:30] anymore. Almost all of these items went

[06:32] from costing around 1,500 void light

[06:34] mall all the way down to just 15 void

[06:37] light mall. So, that makes those costs

[06:39] more of a formality than anything else,

[06:41] and it makes the vendors a convenient

[06:43] location to see all the rewards that you

[06:45] can pick up from the new zones and what

[06:47] achievements you might need to complete

[06:49] to buy the ones you want. This is

[06:51] significantly better, in my opinion.

[06:54] Having these rewards locked behind an

[06:55] achievement requirement and a currency

[06:57] purchase was really just double dipping

[07:00] on time investments. It really should

[07:02] always just be one or the other. Earning

[07:04] an achievement or farming a currency.

[07:06] So, I'm glad to see the dev team make

[07:08] this change. Keeping things on the

[07:09] vendor for visibility is also pretty

[07:11] smart, as it's not always easy to see

[07:14] what rewards might be on offer if

[07:16] they're just tied to earning

[07:17] achievements, especially if those

[07:19] achievements are a little bit obscure.

[07:23] It's not just changes for the new zones,

[07:25] though. One very interesting update is

[07:27] for how durability damage works for

[07:29] certain classes and specs. After the

[07:32] patch goes live, weapons and armor will

[07:34] no longer take durability damage from

[07:36] combat events, which includes things

[07:38] like attacking and blocking. This is

[07:40] going to be huge for tanks, especially

[07:43] warriors, as they are kind of built

[07:45] around the whole idea of blocking, which

[07:47] basically destroys your shield's

[07:49] durability extremely quickly, leading to

[07:51] significant gold repair costs. There

[07:53] have actually been quite a lot of

[07:55] complaints across the forums and Reddit

[07:57] about how warrior shields can break from

[07:59] just a handful of dungeon runs, even if

[08:01] they don't die at any point during those

[08:04] runs. Just being a tank with a shield

[08:06] leads to massive repair costs, which

[08:09] some of the classes just don't have to

[08:11] deal with. The other main camp that's

[08:13] going to benefit from this change are

[08:14] any classes or specs that actually use

[08:17] their weapon to attack. So, basically

[08:19] every melee, as well as the hunters. If

[08:22] weapons don't take durability damage

[08:24] when attacking, your weapons won't break

[08:26] nearly as often, which leads to lower

[08:28] repair bills overall. So, this change

[08:30] could save you a good chunk of gold,

[08:32] depending on the class and spec that you

[08:34] play the most.

[08:37] There have also been a few changes to

[08:38] the Turbulent Timewarped event bonus

[08:40] experience buff. A blue post talking

[08:42] about the event as a whole mentioned the

[08:44] Mastery of the Timewarped buff would now

[08:46] persist through death, which would make

[08:48] it much easier to keep active, and

[08:50] honestly, it should always persisted

[08:51] through death, so that's a nice change.

[08:53] But, then they also said the buff would

[08:55] be account-wide, which would mean you

[08:56] would only have to stack it up once, and

[08:58] then all of your alts should start off

[09:00] with a 30% bonus experience gains, and

[09:02] you would just need to refresh it

[09:04] periodically. Unfortunately, the blue

[09:06] post was updated rather quickly to

[09:09] specify that the account-wide part was a

[09:11] mistake, and would not actually make it

[09:13] into the game. So, that is quite

[09:15] disappointing. Honestly, I don't think

[09:17] it being account-wide would really have

[09:18] broken anything. You can stack that buff

[09:21] up rather quickly on your alts. It just

[09:23] takes four Timewalking dungeon runs, and

[09:25] chances are you'll be running a few

[09:26] Timewalking dungeons anyway, because

[09:28] they're still a quick and easy way to

[09:30] level. So, I wonder if there were maybe

[09:32] some technical difficulties with making

[09:34] this buff account-wide, but oh well. No

[09:37] account-wide mastery of the timeways

[09:38] this time, but it will still persist

[09:40] through death, so at least it's still an

[09:42] upgrade over previous turbulent timeways

[09:44] events. As an extra bonus, the meta

[09:47] achievement will only require you to

[09:49] obtain the mastery of the timeways buff

[09:51] for four weeks out of the event down

[09:53] from the five weeks we usually have,

[09:55] which means you have a bit more leeway

[09:57] for missing weeks while still getting

[09:58] your achievement, which is going to be

[10:00] pretty important this time around

[10:02] actually because the entire turbulent

[10:03] timeways event will only be six weeks

[10:06] long. So, you can only miss two out of

[10:08] those six weeks if you want your spawn

[10:09] of Virenoth mount.

[10:12] And then to round out this video, we

[10:13] also recently found out that this patch

[10:15] would have quite a staggered release of

[10:18] its content. Up until recently, the

[10:20] turbulent timeways event was scheduled

[10:21] to start on June 16th, but that was

[10:23] pushed back to June 30th in the last few

[10:26] PTR builds. So, while the patch goes

[10:29] live on June 16th, the turbulent

[10:31] timeways event won't actually start for

[10:33] two weeks after patch day. That does

[10:35] give the other patch content a bit of

[10:37] time to breathe, but if you are mostly

[10:39] interested in the turbulent timeways

[10:41] event and leveling up your alts, you'll

[10:42] have to wait a bit longer before you can

[10:44] get your experience buffs and earn all

[10:46] of those shiny new rewards.

[10:49] Something else that won't be available

[10:51] right away is the new main story

[10:52] campaign. We'll actually have to wait

[10:54] even longer for that one as the new

[10:57] story quests won't be enabled until July

[10:59] 7th. That's three weeks after the patch

[11:02] launches. I'm not too sure why they

[11:04] would delay this part of the patch

[11:05] specifically when it's only the first

[11:07] chapter of the new story campaign that

[11:09] leads into 12.1. Maybe they want to

[11:12] reveal 12.1 first and have the PTR

[11:14] testing start up before we can work

[11:17] through the story content that then sets

[11:19] the stage for the patch. That's really

[11:21] the only thing I can think of. That does

[11:23] seem a bit odd though, kind of like

[11:25] spoiling the end of the story before you

[11:26] even get to read the beginning, but I

[11:28] guess we'll see how things go. I imagine

[11:31] patch 12.1 should be announced fairly

[11:33] quickly after 12.07 goes live, so maybe

[11:36] there's another reason that will come to

[11:38] light then.

[11:39] But that's all of the last-minute

[11:41] changes to patch 12.07 that happened

[11:43] over the last week or so, so that's it

[11:45] for this video. What do you think of the

[11:47] requirements for heroic world tiers

[11:49] being entirely removed? And would the

[11:51] 30% bonus experience gains buff being

[11:53] account-wide have encouraged you to

[11:55] level up more alts? Or do you think it

[11:57] doesn't really matter? Leave all your

[11:59] thoughts in the comment section below. A

[12:01] big thank you to all of our supporters

[12:02] over on Patreon and to all of our

[12:03] members here on YouTube. You can see

[12:05] their names on screen. If you're

[12:07] interested in supporting the channel,

[12:08] you can find links in the description or

[12:10] click the join button just below the

[12:12] video. If you enjoyed the video or found

[12:13] it useful in any way, make sure to

[12:15] subscribe and ring that notification

[12:16] bell so you're always kept up to date.

[12:18] Thanks for watching, folks. Good luck

[12:20] and have fun, and as always, I will see

[12:21] you next time.