Shadowlands Season 4 Preview

Shadowlands Season 4 includes eight returning dungeons from earlier expansions, new seasonal rewards, all-new affixes, and fabulous rewards. Read on for more details!

FATED RAIDS

In the aftermath of our climatic battle in Zereth Mortis, the power of the First Ones is echoing across the Shadowlands, empowering some familiar raid settings and the rewards within. Each week, one of the three Shadowlands raids (Castle Nathria, Sanctum of Domination or Sepulcher of the First Ones) will become Fated, along with any World Bosses associated with those raids. The World Bosses in Shadowlands and their associated raids are:

Castle Nathria

• Valinor, the Light of Eons
• Mortanis
• Oranomonos the Everbranching
• Nurgash Muckformed

Note that only one of these bosses will be available at a time during a Castle Nathria Fated week.

Sanctum of Domination

• Mor’geth, Tormentor of the Damned

Sepulcher of the First Ones

• Antros

HOW DO FATED RAIDS WORK?

Each week, one raid will be marked as Fated. You may enter a Fated raid in any difficulty (Raid Finder, Normal, Heroic or Mythic). Note that while a raid is marked as Fated, you cannot enter its non-Fated version until the following week when another raid becomes Fated—so plan your transmogrification and achievement runs accordingly! You can find our Fated raid schedule here.

Once you enter a Fated raid, you’ll notice that all enemies and bosses will have adjusted stats—the goal here isn’t to make your raid group go through progression again; we’re aiming to provide a proper but not insurmountable challenge for those already experienced with the encounters.

Each boss encounter will be empowered by one of four unique Fated Powers. These will vary from boss to boss and week to week, presenting challenges for your raid group that reward Fated Infusions, temporary powerful auras for your efforts. Should you conquer any boss in a Fated raid, you’ll receive rewards according to the difficulty level you’ve completed them in. The item level distribution for Fated raids is as follows:

• Raid Finder: 265-272
• Normal: 278-285
• Heroic: 291-297
• Mythic: 304-311

All gear obtained in Fated raids can be converted into set pieces at the Creation Catalyst.

PUZZLING CARTEL DINARS

Season 4 features a trio of broker vendors suspiciously skulking around the Great Vault. Each of these brokers has wares from one of the three Shadowlands raids. They will sell trinkets, weapons, and other special items from their respective raid. Each item will have the same price: a single Puzzling Cartel Dinar. You can obtain Puzzling Cartel Dinars by entering any Fated raid in Season 4 and completing the required 3-part questline. But there’s a catch: you will only be able to get three Puzzling Cartel Dinar for the entire season.

After spending your last Dinar, the brokers leave town and take their wares with them. Items sold by these vendors will be at the Season 4 Normal Fated item level range of 278-285, depending on the item.

HEROIC & MYTHIC UPGRADE ITEMS

Raiders can upgrade raid loot as they move up in difficulty. In Season 4, defeating bosses on Heroic or Mythic difficulty will drop either Confounding Antique Cypher (on Heroic) or Confounding Ancient Cypher (on Mythic). Combine 20 Cyphers to upgrade gear to their Heroic or Mythic versions.

Unlike the Puzzling Cartel Dinar above, which has a quest you must complete to earn them over time, these Cyphers will begin as guaranteed drops as soon as Season 4 begins. This will allow you to capture effort progressing week over week from the get-go. These upgrade items will work on any item with a ‘Fated’ tag, including those sold by the broker vendors mentioned above.

FATED RAID REWARDS

Several new rewards can be obtained by achieving the following Feats of Strength during Season 4:

• Fates of the Shadowlands Raids – Clear all 3 Fated raids on Normal difficulty.
  • Rewards the Jigglesworth Sr. mount.

• Heroic: Fates of the Shadowlands Raids – Clear all 3 Fated raids on Heroic difficulty.
  • Rewards the “Hero of Fate” title.
• Mythic: Fates of the Shadowlands Raids – Clear all 3 Fated raids on Mythic difficulty.
  • Rewards three teleports to each Shadowlands raid location on the character that earned the achievement.

NEW DUNGEON ROTATION

Season 4 features a new dungeon rotation for Mythic+. New Mythic Dungeon Keystones obtained from Shadowlands dungeons will be for one of the following dungeons:

• Tazavesh: Streets of Wonder (from the Shadowlands expansion)
• Tazavesh: So’leah’s Gambit (from the Shadowlands expansion)
• Operation Mechagon: Junkyard (from the Battle for Azeroth™ expansion)
• Operation Mechagon: Workshop (from the Battle for Azeroth™ expansion)
• Return to Karazhan: Lower (from the Legion™ expansion)
• Return to Karazhan: Upper (from the Legion™ expansion)
• Grimrail Depot (from the Warlords of Draenor™ expansion)
• Iron Docks (from the Warlords of Draenor™ expansion)

NEW MYTHIC KEYSTONE AFFIX: SHROUDED

Nathrezim infiltrators have disguised themselves among certain non-boss enemies in dungeons. You can see through their clever disguises if you pay close attention. Defeat these impostors, and a Cartel Ta member will capture them and allow you a choice of bounties that will enhance a secondary stat of your choice. You’ll also receive a hefty Bounty Payment that quickly restores health and mana.

MYTHIC+ REWARDS

The following rewards can be obtained by completing Mythic Keystone Dungeons in Season 4:

• Shadowlands Keystone Conqueror: Season Four – Attain a Mythic+ Rating of at least 1500 during Shadowlands Season Four.
  • Rewards “The Shrouded” title.
• Shadowlands Keystone Master: Season Four – Attain a Mythic+ Rating of at least 2000 during Shadowlands Season Four.
  • Rewards the Restoration Deathwalker mount.

• Keystone Hero: Iron Docks/Grimrail Depot/Return to Karazhan/Operation: Mechagon/Tazavesh, the Veiled Market – Completing Season 4 dungeons at Mythic Level 20 or higher within the time limit.
  • Rewards dungeon teleports to the dungeons completed.
• Shrouded Hero: Shadowlands Season Four – End Shadowlands Mythic+ Season 4 with a Mythic+ Rating in the top 0.1% of all players in your region.
  • Rewards the “Shrouded Hero” title.

NEW PVP SEASON

A new PvP Season will also kick off, allowing heroes all over Azeroth a chance to obtain glory in the Arenas and Battlegrounds. The new item level caps for Honor and Conquest gear shakes up as follows:
Honor Gear (Eternal Combatant)

Conquest Gear (Eternal Gladiator)

MOUNT AND TITLE REWARDS

Obtaining the Eternal Gladiator: Shadowlands Season 4 Feat of Strength at the end of the Season will award you the Eternal Gladiator’s Soul Eater mount and the Eternal Gladiator title. In addition, a new mount—the Vicious Warstalker—can be obtained by participating in rated PvP matches (Arenas or Rated Battlegrounds).

AND WHAT ABOUT…

• Legendary Ranks?
  • There won’t be a new Legendary Rank in Season 4.
• Crafter’s Mark?
  • There won’t be a new Crafter’s Mark in Season 4.
• Conduits?
  • There won’t be new Conduits or Conduit upgrades in Season 4.
• Sockets?
  • Sockets are obtained in the same way as they were in Season 3.
• Mythic Keystones?
  • Just like previous Seasons, Mythic Dungeon Keystones obtained from the Great Vault on the first week of the Season will be at a lower level than usual to account for the increased challenge.
• Raid Shortcuts?
  • Any raid shortcuts you have unlocked in Castle Nathria, Sanctum of Domination, and Sepulcher of the First Ones will be available to you when you enter the Fated versions of those raids.
• Great Vault Raid Loot?
  • Great Vault raid rewards will pull from all Fated bosses you’ve defeated across the entire Season, regardless of which raid is currently Fated.

The focus of Season 4 is earning new gear through a remixed raid and dungeon experience, and PvP. Any obligation to retread familiar Shadowlands systems in order to keep pace feels contrary to that focus, and in order to provide the best experience, we’ve decided to leave those systems unchanged.

GOING OUT WITH A BANG

Season 4 presented a unique opportunity for the WoW Development Team to try some experimental changes that might have been too volatile for a regular Season. We hope you enjoy playing it as much as we enjoyed creating it. We’ll see you in the afterlife, hero!