Legion Timewalking will reward recolored Tier 20 sets in patch 9.1.5

When I initially wrote this post, I said it was possible that Tier 20 sets from Tomb of Sargeras would return in some form once patch 9.1.5 goes live and Legion Timewalking brings the 2016 expansion’s content to Shadowlands. I am now pleased to inform you that there is a confirmation from Blizzard that yes, the Mage Tower is returning as part of Legion Timewalking in patch 9.1.5. And yes, the rewards are being updated to the various Tier 20 lookalikes that were datamined earlier.

In case you don’t remember, the Tier 20 sets were essentially revamps of the original Tier 6 Black Temple/Mount Hyjal raid sets, with higher detail and several color variants. And instead of rewarding special Artifact appearances from the Mage Tower, Legion Timewalking will reward these armor sets. This isn’t surprising, because those Artifact appearances were the result of a lot of hard work by players racing to complete the Mage Tower and unlock them before the end of the expansion, and just letting players come along and complete them now wouldn’t feel great for those players — thus the need for a new series of rewards, patterned after the Tier 20 Mythic difficulty armor sets but with distinctive color palettes.

The new Mage Tower will have the same content rebalanced for the current game

So what will you be doing in the new Mage Tower? Well, the encounters will be basically the same series of quests ending in the same encounters as before. According to CM Kaivax, the encounters will not require an Artifact this time around.

Rebalancing the encounters for the current game makes sense — not all current players were even playing during Legion, for example, and our Artifacts are outdated and don’t grant the special powers they once did, so the encounters need to be balanced for the abilities players actually have now, not ones they once did. But with the Artifact appearances gone, what about those recolored tier sets?

Your new Mage Tower rewards

Not all the available sets that Wowhead has datamined are listed in the official forum post — the sets we can see there are the Tier 20 Monk, Druid, Demon Hunter, Death Knight, Rogue, and Mage sets. Of these looks, I think the Mage set really works well with a solid color update, as does the Monk set, but the Druid and Demon Hunter sets both leave me underwhelmed. Death Knights get a pretty good color for their Unholy spec, while I find the Rogue Tier 20 recolor to be pretty bland overall.

But we also have the  ones Wowhead datamined, from this snazzy Warlock ensemble in a lovely blood red coloration to the Hunter eyeball set — still a bit of an acquired taste and not one I’ve managed to acquire, sadly for me — but I do think I like the colors better on the new version. The Shaman set is also pretty good.

Meanwhile, I think the Priest set, using the Tier 20 Mythic version of Tier 6, the Absolution set, is simply flawless and I agree that it feels tailor made for a Shadow Priest. And as for the Warrior set — while I really liked the LFR, Normal, and Heroic Tier 20 sets for Warriors, the Mythic Tier 20 Titanic Onslaught set always look ridiculously busy to me, especially in the head and shoulders, and I’m not sure that giving it a different color scheme does anything to make me like it more. It’s not bad but compared to that Priest recolor, it feels lacking.

Then again, ain’t nobody beating that Priest set, not even the Paladin recolors can do that. I definitely think the Priest set is the winner this time around.

Also, if you are a Druid and you never got the Werebear appearance — maybe you weren’t playing yet, or you just didn’t bother — you’ll have a chance to get a fel-corrupted Werebear. Heck, even if you do have the original Werebear appearance, it might be worth picking up this variant. In addition, if you’re an altoholic, completing all seven challenges on different characters will give you an achievement and a new mount, the Soaring Spelltome. Yes, that Soaring Spelltome. The one we all failed to vote for, seduced by gelatinous cats and giant trees. Well, now we’re getting it anyway… if you can clear the Mage Tower’s many encounters.

So that’s the news about the upcoming Mage Tower in patch 9.1.5’s Legion Timewalking. Yay for new transmog! Yay for horribly fel corrupted Druid Werebear form! Yay for flying books!

Originally posted 9/7/2021. Updated 9/21/21.