Patch 8.3 Visions of N’Zoth brings Old God Assaults and Horrific Visions to test players

We’ve been wondering for a while what World of Warcraft‘s patch 8.3 would be about, especially after the end of the War Campaign in patch 8.2.5, and now we know. The latest Developer Content Update shows us that while we were busy at Orgrimmar, the fully unleashed Old God N’Zoth has been preparing for an all-out assault on Azeroth, attacking Titan facilities and even unleashing nightmarish potential futures on both Stormwind and Orgrimmar that players will have to confront. But we won’t be doing it alone — the Titan Watcher MOTHER, Magni Bronzebeard, and even Wrathion the Black Prince will all play a role in developing a defense against the corruption of the Old God and its relentless attack on our wounded world.

Ion “Watcher” Hazzikostas takes us through all of the amazing 8.3 content coming in the patch, but for now, let’s focus on the Assaults and the Horrific Visions of N’Zoth.

A World Under Siege

First up, the Assaults of the Old God focus on Titan facilities because those are the places with the best chance of helping stop the Old Gods — the Titans were the ones who locked them up, after all, and dedicated much of their efforts to understanding and analyzing their forces. Ion specifically mentioned Uldum which is home to the Halls of Origination, and the Vale of Eternal Blossoms with their Titanic shrines and the Mogu’shan palaces. We’ll get to go to a newly recovered, no longer Sha-corrupted Vale just in time to defend it against the Old Gods, but Ion made sure to mention that the place will remain clear of Sha corruption when you’re not there to defend against N’Zoth’s evil — that’s the status quo for the Vale going forward.

If you remember the Legion Assaults from Legion, it’s not an entirely new idea, but it’s a great way to get players invested in opposing the Old Gods. What’ll really shake things up are the Visions of N’Zoth themselves, however — the attacks on Titan facilities are just the first step as N’Zoth attempts to warp existence across the world, bringing the ancient Black Empire back into existence by rejecting our reality and substituting his own.

A Vision of Horror

The new Horrific Visions are 1 to 5 player content, so presumably based around scenario tech to some degree, centered on Orgrimmar and Stormwind. Ion made a point of saying that these Visions would quickly prove too much for players at first — sanity would quickly be lost and players would be forced to retreat before the overwhelming madness of the Old God. The Visions are essentially N’Zoth imposing his desires for the future on the world, and while you might be able to fight a few minions of the Old God, you won’t be able to get too far into the Vision.

At least, not until Wrathion arrives. Fresh from having helped Ebonhorn deal with the corruption of the Old Gods, he now offers us Legendary Cloaks (like the ones he helped us make in Pandaria) which will aid us by creating more resistance to the Old God’s terrifying power. Meanwhile, the more you go into the Horrific Visions, the more fragments of N’Zoth you can take out of the experience and bring to MOTHER and Magni. This will allow you to gain more resistance to N’Zoth’s power. The Visions are essentially an extension of the Mage Tower concept from Legion — content you can solo, or bring up to four friends and see the difficulty scale. As you progress through the Visions, learn more, and progress your cloaks while bringing out more and more Fragments of N’Zoth for Magni and MOTHER to study, you’ll work your way to completing the Vision and clearing it entirely. And you can do this completely solo, or bring friends of any class and role with the difficulty scaling without forcing anyone to tank or DPS.

There’s a lot of content planned for Visions of N’Zoth, and the Assaults and Horrific Visions provide you with content you can do by yourself or in a group, which is pretty exciting. It’ll be on the PTR very soon, so hop on there and give it a shot, see how you feel about the upcoming patch.