Blizzard
In the ashen shadow of Teldrassil, the night elves prepare to strike back against the Forsaken and reclaim their ancestral homeland. . . .
With the upcoming release of Tides of Vengeance, the war between the Horde and Alliance will arrive to a brand-new Warfront: The Battle for Darkshore. Players of both factions will meet once more on the shores of Kalimdor to vie for control of this war-torn region.
A WAR ON TWO FRONTS
With the addition of the Battle for Darkshore, there will be two battles for players to fight—and many resource contributions to be made to support the war efforts in both the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor.
To help support these dual efforts, we’re making some updates to the Warfront cycles and phases, and how each faction gains access to the Battle for Darkshore and Battle for Stromgarde.
First, each Warfront’s cycle is completely independent from the other, and players will be able to contribute to either Warfront without impacting the other. You’ll be able to track the progress of contributions for each in an updated UI so you’ll be able to easily see which phase each Warfront is in.
CONTRIBUTE PHASE
With the release of Tides of Vengeance, we’re also changing the way the Contribute phase works for both Warfronts. While there were previously 11 quests available at the start of the contribution cycle, there will instead be 3 available each day during this phase. These quests will always include one to turn in either gold or War Resources, as well as two profession turn-ins.
SIEGE PHASE
The Siege phase is when your faction can queue up for the Warfront instance. And while this phase works much the same as it did with the Battle for Stromgarde, the new Darkshore Warfront offers a whole new experience—with new locations, troops, building types, objectives, and more. Players who meet the minimum item-level requirement of 320 will be able to queue for the Battle for Darkshore Warfront as often as they would like while this phase is active.
As the Alliance, your mission will be to reclaim Darkshore and undo the natural devastation caused by marauding Forsaken. On the Horde, your ultimate goal will be to wrest control of this key location in Kalimdor back from the Alliance, razing the landscape and ensuring the night elves can’t reclaim their homeland.
As players storm this new Warfront, they’ll notice some other changes that set it apart from the Battle for Stromgarde. For example: Rather than grant a buff to players, Essence of Storms will provide players with access to powerful transformations allowing them to take on alternate roles such as healing or tanking on the battlefield.
Players will also gain new gear from the new Warfront (starting at item level 340), and players can take part in a quest once per Warfront cycle to obtain a higher item level piece of gear.
PATROL PHASE
During the Patrol phase, maximum-level players of the controlling faction who have completed an introductory questline will be able to participate in multiple new outdoor activities in the newly revamped Darkshore zone. Controlling the zone will also provide access to a new faction-specific World Boss, rare creatures, and access to new gear, pets, mounts, and Warfront gear. There will also be plenty of new treasures hidden throughout the zone just waiting to be discovered.
Players will also be able to take part in a rotating series of new World Quests during this phase which provide additional opportunities to get great new loot to use in your ongoing adventures.
What’s New in the Darkshore Zone?
With the arrival of this new Warfront, the outdoor zone of Darkshore has been reshaped by the fires of war for maximum-level players and features environment updates, an all-new World Boss for each faction, and all new World Quests for the controlling faction. There will also be new rare creatures to discover along the way that have a chance to drop mounts, pets, toys, treasure chests, and new Darkshore Warfronts gear.