Zandalari, Kul Tirans, and everything else you need to know about WoW patch 8.1.5, live today

Patch day is upon us, my friends, and World of Warcraft‘s patch 8.1.5, Tides of Vengeance, will bring a lot more changes to Azeroth. Blizzard continues the goal of putting out content stuffed with exciting things for players to do, like grind reputation so you can play new alts. Which sounds tedious, but is also something I’m totally going to be doing.

But while you could read through the patch notes to find out what’s going on, we have a nice, neat summary for you. Read on to find out everything you can expect with this patch.

Two new Allied Races are joining the game

The Zandalari Trolls and the Kul Tiran Humans are just a few hours away from being in the game — assuming you’ve completed all of the requirements to unlock them. To unlock Zandalari Trolls, you must:

• Exalted with Zandalari Empire
• Tides of Vengeance achievement from finishing the War Campaign (Horde War Campaign and the 8.1 content)
• Zandalar Forever! achievement from completing the major storylines (The Throne of Zuldazar, The Dark Heart of Nazmir, Secrets in the Sands, A Bargain of Blood, The Final Seal)
• Complete the recruitment scenario (and if you don’t mind spoilers, check out our recruitment questline preview)

These new Trolls can play as Druids, Hunters, Mages, Monks, Paladins, Priests, Rogues, Shaman, and Warriors — but who are we kidding, you’re all going to be playing Druids because of the awesome dinosaur shapeshift forms, right? They also have a particularly interesting (and particularly powerful) selection of racial abilities”

• Embrace of the Loa:
  • Embrace of Akunda – Your healing abilities have a chance to heal their target (presumably heal extra, though the text isn’t quite clear how it works)
  • Embrace of Bwonsamdi – Your damaging abilities have a chance to deal Shadow damage and heal you for 100% of the damage done.
  • Embrace of Gonk – Increase movement speed by 5%.
  • Embrace of Kimbul – Your damaging abilities have a chance to cause the target to bleed over 6s. This effect stacks up to 3 times.
  • Embrace of Krag’wa – Taking damage has a chance to grant you additional Health and 66 Armor.
  • Embrace of Pa’ku – Your abilities have a chance to grant you 4% critical strike for 12 seconds.
• Pterrordax Swoop (Active) – Reduces your falling speed for 2 minutes. 15 minute cooldown.
• Regeneratin’ (Active) – Regenerate 100% of your maximum health over 6 sec, interrupted by damage. 2.5 min cooldown.
• City of Gold – Increase gold earned from creatures by 2%

To unlock Kul Tiran Humans, you must:

• Exalted with Proudmoore Admiralty
• Tides of Vengeance achievement from finishing the War Campaign (Alliance War Campaign and the 8.1 content)
• A Nation United achievement from completing the major storylines (Loremaster of Kul Tiras, The Pride of Kul Tiras, A Nation United)
• Complete the recruitment scenario (and if you don’t mind spoilers, check out our recruitment questline preview)

These new Humans can play as Druids, Hunters, Mages, Monks, Priests, Rogues, Shaman, and Warriors — but, similar to the Zandalari, I expect most of Kul Tirans will be Druids due to their awesome wickerpunk shapeshift forms. They also have a great selection of racial abilities:

• Haymaker (Active) – Wind up, then unleash your might upon your foe, dealing 20 Physical damage, stunning for 3 sec, and knocking them back substantially. 2.5 minute cooldown.
• Brush It Off (Passive) – Increases Versatility by 1%. When you take damage, heal for 2% of that amount over 4 sec.
• Child of the Sea (Passive) – Hold your breath for 50% longer and swim 10% faster.
• Jack of All Trades (Passive) – Increases all Tradeskills by 5.
• Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Passive) – Reduces Frost and Nature damage taken by 1%.

And before you assume I’m kidding about their Druid forms, just look at them (and a couple more of them). They’re magnificent. The only problem will be deciding which new Druid to level first.

A new raid with the Crucible of Storms

Though it won’t be open immediately, Crucible of Storms, a new two-encounter raid, is included in the patch. The raid will open in Normal and Heroic on April 16, with LFR and Mythic modes to follow a week later on April 23. The raid will tie up the loose ends of the Stormsong Valley quests and sends us on an adventure with N’Zoth, our new favorite old god (because we’ve killed all of our previous favorite old gods).

And if you don’t care about the story behind this new raid, you’ll be happy to know that the place has a bunch of great new loot, which has some interesting on-equip or on-use effects. (My take: a lot of these are going to annoy the hell out of your healers.)

Portals come, portals go

The good news is that Blizzard is adding new portals to Stormwind and Orgrimmar, consolidating these portals in one place. The Both portal rooms will have portals to Shattrath, Dalaran (Northrend), Jade Forest, Ashran, and Azsuna, and a nearby NPC will teleport you to the Blasted Lands if you want to visit the Dark Portal. The Alliance portal room will also have portals to Exodar, Stormshield, and Boralus, while the Horde portal room will also have portals to Silvermoon City, Warspear, and Dazar’alor. The Cataclysm portals in both cities will remain.

It’s a real timesaver to be able to run to one place to find (mostly) all of your portals, but there’s a downside, too. While Blizzard is adding portals to faction capitols, they’re removing portals elsewhere. Most old portal hubs will now only have a portal to Stormwind or Orgrimmar. Legion’s Dalaran is taking the biggest hit, losing portals to Ironforge/Thunder Bluff, Darnassus/Undercity Caverns of Time, Dalaran Crater, Karazhan, Exodar/Silvermoon City, Shattrath, Wyrmrest Temple, and Vale of the Eternal Blossoms. Farewell, Legion transport hub. You were a great way to get around… for a while.

Blizzard’s response to the matter hasn’t exactly been encouraging, telling us that they want the world to “feel alive,” apparently by making us walk places more often. TLDR: we’re pretty annoyed.

But we do have one 8.1.5 travel tip: if you don’t have it and you’re in a guild, get the Cloak of Coordination (or its like) from the guild vendor in Stormwind or Orgrimmar. Depending on your reputation with your guild, you’ll be able to pick up a cloak that will let you teleport to your faction capitol in as little as two hours. With all of the portals consolidated, this will be even more useful.

A bunch of brand new quests

You want quests? We’ve got quests. So many quests.

• The War Campaign will continue, and we suspect we’ll be getting some dramatic new cinematics to accompany the quest chain. Horde players need to talk to to Bluffwatcher Proudscar in Zuldazar and Alliance players need to talk to Halford Wyrmbane in Boralus to continue the quest chain.
• Everyone will also want to jump on a new quest from Magni that will offer their Heart of Azeroth a nice 10 ilevel boost. It has some story, but who are we kidding, we’re in it for the ilevels. Talk to Magni in Nazmir to get started.
• Unlock the tools of your trade with new quests for every crafting profession, each with unique stories and rewards. Some rewards are better than others, but they’re worth doing regardless. Crafters who are level 150 in Kul Tiran or Zandalari professions should head to their profession trainers in Boralus or Zuldazar to get started.
• Hati’s back! Level 120 Hunters should find the image of Mimiron in Boralus or Zuldazar to learn more.
• New World Quests will have us fighting Naga and killing turtles, so if you’re tired of helping sealife, now’s your chance.
• You can finally get your own mechanical parrot pet via a cute quest chain that sheds some light on an unusual pair of star-crossed lovers introduced in Before the Storm. Talk to Gazlowe in Zandalar Harbor or Kelsey Steelspark in Boralus to get started.

The Darkmoon Faire, micro-holidays, actual holidays, and more

We may be battling for the fate of Azeroth itself, but there’s no reason we can’t have a little fun on the side. Patch 8.1.5 includes plenty of silliness too.

• The Darkmoon Faire is getting roller coaster and we love it. When the Faire opens next month, you’ll find it inside and to the left, behind the Archeology area. Currently, when you run into the Faire, there is a tented area on the left. Riding will give you the same +10% experience and reputation buff as riding the carousel, so now you can choose your own doom.
• The Brawler’s Guild is back, baby. You’ll find your way inside by solving a murder mystery, which sounds pretty dang fun. And the best part of the updated Brawler’s Guild: a Bruce mount.
• We’ve spent a lot of time this expansion murdering Kul Tirans and Zandalari Trolls, which means we’ve made a bunch of Kul Tiran and Zandalari orphans. So of course they’ll be joining us for Children’s Week this year, which will have four new pets to collect. The holiday won’t be here until May, but just imagine all the fun-filled days you’ll have with your new orphans.
• Three new micro-holidays are coming, and though none of them are starting soon, they’re something to look forward to later this year. So get ready for Luminous Luminaries in July, Free T-shirt Day in August, and Wanderer’s Festival in December.
• Need more to do? Raiding with Leashes IV is here with pets throughout Pandarian raids to collect.

Draenor joins the Timewalking lineup

Warlords of Draenor dungeons will be added to Timewalking, complete with some fiery new mounts. The six dungeons in the random queue are:

• Auchindoun
• Bloodmaul Slag Mines
• Shadowmoon Burial Grounds
• Everbloom
• Skyreach
• Iron Docks

Look for the first Warlords Timewalking week in May.

Need more?

While I think we’ve covered the highlights, a lot is happening in patch 8.1.5, and you should read the patch notes if you want every last scrap of information. And if patch 8.1.5 is live when you read this, you may want to jump straight to our post-patch to do list.