The Battle for Azeroth (BfA) is the next major expansion of the World of Warcraft. I got into the BfA Alpha/Beta and I'll be reporting what I hope to be useful information in this thread.

• The Battle for Azeroth is scheduled to go live on 8/13/18 at 3PM Pacific Time.
• There will be an 8.0 pre-patch on Tuesday 7/17. Hopefully this will cover the transition from Legion to BfA.

Gear item levels have been squished. On the Beta you can create new 110 characters which start out with a full set of item level 185 gear.

Character copy is now up on the Beta and my hunter got squished from 957 down to 236. Legendaries went from 1000 to 265, and my Artifact Weapon went from 978 to 231. Interestingly, Golganneth's Vitality (the Path of the Titans trinket) went from 1000 to 280 so this would be your best piece of gear and likely the last piece replaced. Mastery and Haste gems went from +200 to +9 and the same thing happened to enchants. Overall my Agility went from 48k to 1200, Stamina 99k to 1459, Health from 5934k to 29k and armor from 3473 to 553. Percentages for Critical Strike, Haste, Versatility, etc. are slightly lower.

Artifact traits on your artifact weapons are removed starting with the 8.0 pre-patch. Any special effects that legendaries currently have will be disabled once you reach level 116.

There are two new continents in Azeroth: Kul Tiras is the starting zone for the Alliance and Zandalar is the starting zone for the Horde. (Hopefully the pre-patch will explain how the new continents have been hidden all these years).

Following a couple of quest chains, Alliance members end up in the Harbormaster's Office near Tradewinds Market in Tiragarde Sound. There is a planning map on the wall which allows you to pick one of three Alliance starting areas: Tiragarde Sound, Drustvar or Stormsong Valley. Picking one of the three areas will give you a starting quest in that area. Once you have completed questing/exploring in an area, you will need to return to the Tradewinds Market to choose another area. The areas scale to your character level so the order in which you choose them doesn't matter.

Horde characters start out in Dazar'alor in Zuldazar. Similar to the Alliance, there is a planning map on the table where you will be able to pick one of the three Horde starting areas: Nazmir, Vol'dun and Zuldazar.

You will be able to level your character(s) from 110 to 120. It requires 717,000 XP to get from 110 to 111 and 831,450 to get from 111 to 112. After that it increases slightly by 6,900 XP for each new level (subject to change).

You will gain XP by exploring, completing quests and killing things. There are a lot of quests. You will need to complete at least two of the three areas (and close to 500 quests) to get to level 120. You can also gain XP from dungeons but only four dungeons can be used for leveling, the rest open up at level 120.

At level 110 you can join the Alliance War Campaign. This will direct you to the Horde's territory on Zandalar and you can complete quests there to establish a foothold for the Alliance. Subsequent War Campaigns cover the remaining two Horde zones and they open up at level 114 and 118. The completion of each campaign will award a follower so the war campaigns need to be done at some point. Note that these initial war campaigns are not PvP battles since horde players don't seem to be present.

At level 116, you become eligible for Island Expeditions. The first of the Island Expeditions is just a training run. After that you may queue up for a PvP version where you attempt to collect 6000 Azerite before the Horde does.

As you level in your three zones, some 10 percent of the quests will award gear. You likely will be able to reach around item level 285 by the time you reach level 120 (and you will have replaced all of your Legion gear). Occasionally BoEs will drop from kills. Unless you want to jump into dungeons and raids, I would recommend that you continue to complete quests in your three zones once you reach 120 as the best gear awards can be earned at 120 (a few of them around item level 300).

Opening treasure chests will drop "Campaign Resources", a currency which is used to send your followers on missions. The mission table for the Alliance is on the ship Wind's Redemption in Tiragarde Sound.

Once you reach 120 and if you're friendly with the various factions, world quests open up and you will be eligible for all the dungeons (provided your item level is high enough). You also get a flight master's whistle.

World quests are very similar to Legion's in that you can complete three or four Emissary quests to gain rep with a given faction and to receive a reward.

When BfA goes live, you will be given a quest to meet up with Magni Bronzebeard in Silithus who will give you a neck piece, the Heart of Azeroth. The Heart of Azeroth starts out at level 280 and is upgraded with Artifact Power which you can obtain from certain quests and by killing rares (which may also drop gear). At various levels, your Heart of Azeroth will unlock new traits on other pieces of gear (helm, shoulder and chest). You will be able to choose the traits you want in a manner similar to the Netherlight Crucible.

Azerite Armor is a special type of armor (usually a quest award) that has a blue border around it. So you may want to replace your Legion gear with the Azerite armor even if the item level is lower.

Dungeons

Currently on the Beta, these four dungeons can be run on normal starting at level 110:

• Freehold - in Tiragarde Sound
• Shrine of the Storm - Stormsong Valley
• Tol Dagor - off the coast of Kul Tiras
• Waycrest Manor - Drustvar

At level 120, 6 more dungeons open up which require an average item level of 305:

• Atal'Dazar - in the horde area of Zandalar
• The MOTHERLODE!! - in the horde area of Zandalar
• Siege of Boralus - in Boralus, Tiragarde's capital
• Temple of Sethraliss - in Vol'dun a horde area
• Underrot - in the horde area of Nazmir
• King's Rest - in the horde area of Zuldazar.

The gear that drops (subject to change) is 310+ normal, 325+ heroic, or 340+ mythic. Only normal can be run prior to reaching level 120.

Fatboss has released a series of dungeon strategy guides.

Raids

Currently on the Beta, there are three raids planned for BfA:

• Uldir - 8 bosses. Loot: RF 340+, Normal 355+, Heroic 370+ and Mythic 385+
  Location: Nazmir /way 53.9, 62.7
• Zandalar - 2(?) bosses
• Kul Tiras - 3(?) bosses

These raids become available at level 120. Normal and Heroic Uldir are scheduled to open September 4th and the first wing of raid finder on September 11th. Note that there's no more tier gear (but you may get set pieces from random world drops).

The new bonus roll token is the Seal of Wartorn Fate. Note that you are now limited to 2 per week and a maximum of 5. The cost has also gone up to 2,000 gold for the first and 5,000 gold for the second. The vendor is Tezran located in the building to the left of the Snug Harbor Inn in Tradewinds Market.

Professions

They are changing the way that you learn professions. You won't have to be at level 800 in a Legion profession to learn a given profession in Battle for Azeroth. Instead all BfA professions can be learned at level 1 by visiting a trainer.

So, if you were thinking of dropping Inscription and picking up Blacksmithing, for example, it will be a good time to do that when BfA goes live. You can start out at level 1 and be on an equal footing with someone that has Legion Blacksmithing maxed out at 800.

Note that you will have to visit the various trainers to learn the Kul Tiran versions before you can mine, fish, cook, etc. in BfA. Ask a guard in the Tradewinds Market for directions to the trainers. The skill cap for professions in BfA is 150.

Also, except for some utility items like Crystal Vials and Light Parchment which you can buy in BfA, BfA comes with it's own crafting materials. That is, you won't need to stock up on any Legion materials; all the ores, herbs, leather, etc., that you need for BfA professions can be found in the new BfA zones.

Currently in the Beta, Blacksmiths, Leather Workers and Tailors are able to craft two pieces of item level 385 gear (unfortunately the gear is shown as BoP at this time). At lower levels they can craft 210-300 weapons and gear.

One nice new feature in BfA is the Scrap-O-Matic 1000 located in the Tradewinds Market. It allows you to "scrap" unneeded gear, both crafted and from quest awards, turning it into crafting materials. Unfortunately you can't scrap your old Legion gear.

Factions

There are seven factions available to the Alliance:

• 7th Legion. Quartermaster is Vindicator Jaelaana near the Wind's Redemption in Boralus Harbor.
• Storm's Wake. Quartermaster is Sister Lilyana at Brennadam in Stormsong Valley.
• Order of Embers. Quartermaster is Alcorn at Arom's Stand in Drustvar.
• Proudmoore Admiralty. Quartermaster is Provisioner Fray in the Harbormaster's Office.
• Champions of Azeroth. Quartermaster is Magni Bronzebeard at Magni's Encampment in Silithus.
• Tartollan Seekers. Quartermaster is Collector Kojo at Seekers Vista in Stormsong Valley.
• Voldunai. Quartermaster is Hoarder Jena at the Vulpera Hideaway.

Getting Ready

Check out any class changes that may affect your characters. Here's Wowhead's Talent Calculator. These changes and the item level squish will take effect with the 8.0 pre-patch.

Clean out your bags. This includes getting rid of the old gear that you are not using as it will be useless in BfA. As for your stockpile of Legendaries, they are going to be a problem. You can't vendor them, DE them, or scrap them. All you can do is delete them or place them in void storage to make more room in your bags. If you are using a Legendary neck piece, swap it out since that will get replaced on day one with the Heart of Azeroth. You might also consider swapping out any legendary helm, shoulder or chest since you will eventually replace those with Azerite gear.

Clean out your quest log. You probably have some dungeon and raid quests that you're never going to get back to and you may need the space for BfA.

Stock up on healing potions and food. For food, I would just buy a few stacks (ok, make that more than a few stacks) of Innkeeper food when you get to Tiragarde Sound. Strangely enough, food like Tiragarde Sharp actually scales with your character level, starting out with the same effects as Legion Innkeeper food.

Stat food from Legion like The Hungry Magister (+17 CS) can be useful to get started so you might want to get a couple of stacks of something like that in preparation for the release. However there are better stat foods available in BfA like Kul Tiramisu (+10 CS at 110) which scale to your character level (+41 CS at 120). They do require you to level cooking to 10/150 but you can buy all the ingredients you need to do that from a vendor.

Alchemists are able to make Coastal Healing and Coastal Mana potions at level 1/150 which are as effective as Legion potions at 110, but they scale with your character level. So, if you have an alchemist or can buy them on the Auction House, I would go with those.

Legion flasks like Flask of the Seventh Demon are pretty good if you can afford to stock up on them (but you likely won't need them for leveling). The BfA equivalent is the Flask of the Currents which yields the same benefit (+59 agility for one hour at 110 but increases to +238 agility at 120) however it requires Alchemy level 90/150 to learn.

And, in case you are wondering, BfA gems and enchants scale to your character level too.

Goblin Glider Kits can be useful at times.

See also Wowhead's guide.

So now what?

Ok you have reached 120, what do you do now? Gear up!

• Get crafted gear. You can make or buy 5 pieces of level 300 crafted gear, 2 level 300 rings and level 300 weapon(s). This should get your gear level up to around 300.
• Dungeons. They drop 310+ gear on Normal and 325+ on heroic. You need to get your gear up to 305 for heroic.
• World Quests. Some of these award gear which is appropriate for your current item level, so check for these frequently, as they can provide an alternative to running dungeons. But, in the long run, it's probably more important to do the emissary quests and improve your reputation with the various factions. That will allow you to buy 335 gear at Revered and 350 at Exalted.
• Warfronts (open September 4th). These are 20-man PvE battles that award a piece of 370+ gear and a piece of 340+ gear. It's a guaranteed win for whichever faction is attacking. They are also repeatable, but you have to wait for the opposing faction to gain control before you can get the quest for the 370 gear again.
• Raids. (See the raid release schedule, above.) The Uldir raid will award 340+ gear on LFR and 355+ on Normal.
• Professions. Note that the best crafted gear is all BoP and, worse yet, the more important materials like Sanguicell and Hydrocore are also BoP and these drop from raid bosses and mythic dungeons respectively. So, while you can craft up to two pieces of 385 gear, you have to have the right profession (to make your own gear) and you have to do a lot of farming in raids and dungeons. Update: the new Darkmoon trinkets may be BoE and level 355. So get busy, Scribes!