Everything we know that’s in WoW patch 11.2: Ghosts of K’aresh

For most of patch 11.1‘s run, the question on the minds of many World of Warcraft players has been: where do we go next? We kept running into mysterious Ethereals throughout our time in Undermine, culminating in them stealing the Dark Heart near the end of the story — the MacGuffin that has had us one step behind Xal’atath for most of The War Within. The inclusion of an Ethereal-focused branch of the new Lorewalking feature in 11.1.7 made it seem more obvious than ever that we were going to finally see a brand new world in the next patch, one we’d only heard about from NPCs: K’aresh, the destroyed homeworld of the Ethereals (and not just them, as it turns out). Now, at last, with 11.1.7 in the rearview mirror, Blizzard has started rolling out information on the next patch, confirming our suspicions by announcing 11.2: Ghosts of K’aresh.

However, it’s not a major content update without a lot of content, right? And Ghosts of K’aresh is a doozy. From a new base of operations that will look surprisingly familiar, some old friends back to adventure alongside us, and — of course — a new raid, a new dungeon, and a new Mythic+ dungeon pool, Ghosts of K’aresh looks to be packed with lots to keep you busy as you fight to save our world by visiting an old one. Here’s everything you can expect to find in patch 11.2, Ghosts of K’aresh.

As an aside: there are some spoilers for the new Lorewalking feature in this article. If you want to stay totally unaware until you finish that storyline, I suggest you do that first, then come back.

New zone: the shattered world of K’aresh

We’ve known about K’aresh, homeworld of the Ethereals, and as it turns out the Brokers, since The Burning Crusade. It came up again in the pre-patch for The War Within when Locus-Walker, Alleria’s void-touched Ethereal mentor, revealed that something very much like the Radiant Song — the visions that kickstarted the entire expansion by sending us all the Khaz Algar — happened to K’aresh before the appearance of the Void Lord Dimensius, and that the Radiant Song was very likely a cry for help. Now, finally, we get to go visit what remains of this world, in pursuit of the Dark Heart — and perhaps stopping an even larger threat in the process. The campaign of The War Within continues as you work alongside Alleria Windrunner and Locus-Walker to stop Phase-Thief Azir and his friends from bringing Dimensius fully back into our reality

But when you’re in a broken world, you might want an unbroken place to call home. Good news!

New base of operations: Tazavesh, the Veiled Market

It’s back! First introduced back in patch 9.1 in Shadowlands, Tazavesh always felt suspiciously like it was meant to be something else — sure, it was a two-part megadungeon, but it also had a lot of ground not covered in the dungeon and a lot of amenities usually found in cities, like working bankers. Now it’s been summoned out of the Shadowlands and into our reality to serve as our home base when exploring K’aresh, surrounded by glowing shields of energy to protect us from the dangers of the cosmos beyond.

New raid: Manaforge Omega

Do you like your bosses big? No, bigger. No, bigger than that. A faction of Ethereals is working on reviving Void Lord Dimensius, and we’re here to stop them — but also to kick Dimensius to the curb, in what is reportedly the largest boss ever featured in World of Warcraft — reportedly the size of Stormwind City. The bigger the boss, the easier it will be for your raid to accidentally pull him during the pull timer!

Other bosses teased for Manaforge Omega include a warden protecting the entrance pipes, an army of Ethereals who are still being wrapped up, a moth-like creature from which Ethereals extract silk for their wrappons, and — most mysteriously — a council of Demon Hunters. Are these the Demon Hunters we know, turned to a new purpose, or did the Ethereals discover the process of binding themselves to fel creatures, too? Maybe Demon Hunters are finally getting a third, Void-themed spec? I, for one, can’t wait to find out… and then kick their butts for loot.

New upgradeable artifact: Reshii Wraps

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: it’s the final patch of an expansion and it’s time for a new upgradeable artifact cloak that’s mandatory to enter the raid. Well, echoing the end of Battle for Azeroth, Ghosts of K’aresh brings us the Reshii Wraps, a new upgradeable artifact cloak that’s mandatory to enter the raid. It’s more than just a cloak that scales with you no matter what kind of content you’re doing — although it’s that, too — but it also enables a new kind of content, Phase Diving, by allowing you to turn into a pure energy form and see the world the way the Ethereals do. You’ll find new treasures, new rares, new World Quests, and even aid the constable of Tazavesh by hunting down notorious monsters with the Warrant system for fun and profit (let’s be fair: it’s Tazavesh, it’s mostly for profit). This energy form ability is how we sneak our way into Manaforge Omega, as well as having uses in the new Delve, making it a must-have if you intend to tackle the raid.

Progress on the Reshii Wraps is warbound, like most good things this expansion, which is a trend that should be applauded and continued moving forward. There’s also a catchup mechanic, so you shouldn’t feel bad if you miss a week or two of upgrade currency here and there, and your Reshii Wraps will also include multiple graphics as it gets stronger — similar to Ashjra’kamas in BfA or the Cloak of Infinite Potential in Mists of Pandaria Remix.

New Delve: The Archival Assault

Is it just me, or do Ethereals seem to have a weird grudge against blue dragons? The new Delve for 11.2 is not located on K’aresh, like you might expect, but instead in the Azure Vaults, back on the Dragon Isles. Ethereals, Ethereal pirates, and Brokers are all plundering the Vaults for — well, probably anything magical they can get their hands on, honestly. Using your Reshii Wraps will let you unlock challenge gateways to bosses or challenge rooms. There’s even a feature I liken to Oregon Trail gravestones or the phantoms in Elden Ring: you can catch a glimpse of your friends who are also in the new Delve, and if your friends die in there, you might be able to see their ghost where they died.

And what’s a new season without a new hard-as-nails season boss? (Hopefully more like Zek’vir than the Underpin, please!). It seems like Nexus-Princess Ky’veza is back from Nerub-ar Palace and still has a bone to pick with us for interrupting whatever it was she was doing there, and we can take her on one-on-one in Season 3.

Restore the shattered wasteland with Ecological Succession

Speaking of old faces: hi Ve’nari! Our business partner from the Maw in Shadowlands, who we last saw after she faked her death in Zereth Mortis and went off to explore the cosmos with a mysterious friend, is back on her old homeworld and working to bring life back to it with her eco-domes. In the new Ecological Succession system, you’ll help fill eco-domes with new life and help them adjust to life on K’aresh, helping restore this world to maybe a smidgen of its former glory.

New dungeon, new season 3 Mythic+ dungeon pool, and penalties for abandoning Mythic+ keys

However, I guess not everything’s hunky-dory inside the eco-domes. Eco-Dome Al’dani is a brand new dungeon for season 3 of The War Within, a three-boss affair with a variety of creatures, including another old face from Shadowlands: devourers, intent on consuming the life found there. We’ll also face the Wastelanders who have dug into the dome, and find out exactly what they’re doing in there. In an interesting storyline twist, Eco-Dome Al’dani’s events canonically take place after the raid — something fun for lore nerds. (It’s me; I’m lore nerds.)

Dungeons are also getting a nice quality of life update: the invisible checkpoints that decide when and where you respawn to, based on how far into the dungeon you’ve progressed, are becoming physical objects called Waystones. Just like in Delves, Waystones will be visible both in the world and on the map, so no guessing whether or not releasing after a wipe will send you back a minute or back to the entrance!

Lastly, it wouldn’t be a new Mythic+ season without the new dungeon pool. Prepare to see a lot of returning favorites, from both this expansion and the last, and also Ara-Kara. The list is:

• Eco-Dome Al’dani (new!)
• The Dawnbreaker (The War Within, season 1)
• Ara-Kara, City of Echoes (The War Within, season 1)
• Priory of the Sacred Flame (The War Within, season 2)
• Operation Floodgate (The War Within, season 2)
• Halls of Atonement (Shadowlands)
• Tazavesh: Streets of Wonder (Shadowlands)
• Tazavesh: So’leah’s Gambit (Shadowlands)

When patch 11.2 drops, you’ll be able to dive right into the Mythic 0 versions of these dungeons immediately to get a feel for them — and earn Champion-tier loot in the process.

This Mythic+ season also finally brings something that Mythic+ players have been asking for for a while: the equivalent of a Deserter debuff, but for Mythic+. In order to abandon a Mythic+ key, there will need to be a group vote — similar to kicking someone from a normal dungeon — and if the group largely agrees, everyone can abandon without penalty. However, if you’re That Guy who insists on bailing on dungeons early without warning (or while cursing at everyone in the group), you will be given a sort of ‘social stigma’ debuff that marks you as someone who leaves often, which presumably will appear when you apply to Mythic+ groups. If you do dungeons correctly, you can dig yourself out of this hole you dug for yourself, however. For the time being, Blizzard is taking a lot of feedback on this feature, but this should be a very nice way to help keep rude early-leavers out of your keys.

New tier sets — with a twist — and class changes

New dungeons and raids bring new tier sets of course, but this time with a twist — one that I’m frankly surprised they didn’t do to begin with this expansion! Instead of your set bonus changing based on what specialization you’re playing, this time your set bonus will differ based on which hero talents you’re playing. So if you’re playing Demonology Warlock, for example, you have two potential set bonuses — one tied to Soul Harvester, and one tied to Diabolist. This has a lot of potential to make previously less-attractive hero talents more wanted, depending on how the set bonuses really play out, and I’m really interested to see how this works out.

There are also, of course, class changes in the books. Some PVP talents will be updated, and Ghosts of K’aresh will feature updates for multiple classes that focus on new gameplay for several specializations — which sounds like a pretty big update. Specs specifically called out are Shadow Priest, Brewmaster Monk, Frost Death Knight, and Unholy Death Knight, among others, so if you’re one of those, hold on to your hat!

All in all, this sounds like yet another feature-packed major patch, and I for one can’t wait to go hang out with my new best friends, a bunch of space ghosts. Now if they can just make Ethereals an Allied Race? Pretty please, Blizzard?