World of Warcraft

Rise of Azshara Preview: Heart of Azeroth Updates

Blizzard Entertainment

Azeroth’s need has never been greater—and now more than ever, Speaker Magni Bronzebeard and the titan watcher MOTHER need your help to heal the world’s grievous wounds.

In Rise of Azshara, we’re introducing a new system for the Heart of Azeroth that will provide additional power customization options: Essences. You’ll collect these Essences by taking part in a variety of content, and infuse them into the Heart of Azeroth using the new Heart Forge in Silithus, giving you access to new abilities and bonuses.

The Speaker’s Quest Continues

Once you’ve established a new hub in Nazjatar, one of the new areas in Rise of Azshara, you’ll receive a summons from Magni to join him at the Chamber of Heart. There, you’ll learn that MOTHER has completed her calculations related to what's plaguing Azeroth, and determined a way to heal her well ahead of her original 77-cycle estimate. New forms of power have begun to coalesce and manifest around Azeroth’s wounds, and MOTHER has discovered that these “Essences” are compatible with the Heart of Azeroth. To make use of them, she has created a new device in the Chamber of Heart that can harness that incredible power: the Heart Forge.

The Essence of the Heart Forge

The Heart Forge lets players infuse their Heart of Azeroth with Essences to grant new combat-related powers. Once you’ve collected a new Essence—obtained by participating in a wide variety of content—you’ll head to the Heart Forge to infuse your Heart of Azeroth with it, “learning” the Essence and permanently adding it to your collection. Much like Talents, once you’ve learned an Essence, you’ll be able to apply it or swap it out through a new Heart of Azeroth interface within rest areas, cities, or when using items such as the Tome of Quiet Mind.

Each Essence has both Major (generally active) and Minor (passive) abilities. Upon completing the initial quest from Magni, you’ll open a single Major slot in the Heart of Azeroth. Placing an Essence in the Major slot grants you that Essence’s Major active ability, which is added to your Spellbook. You’ll also gain the benefit of any Minor passive abilities from the Essence.

There are also two additional Minor slots in the Heart of Azeroth that will activate the Minor (passive) abilities of any Essences added to them. The first Minor slot will become available at Heart of Azeroth level 55, and the second Minor slot will become available at Heart of Azeroth level 65.

Artifice of Time (Rank 2)

Soulbound
Essence
Use: Infuse your Heart of Azeroth with Artifice of Time.

Major Power:
Standstill
40 yard range
Instant 3 minute cooldown
Create a time vortex around a friendly target that absorbs 398,773 damage and 398,773 healing for 6 seconds. When this expires, the absorbed damage and healing is delivered over 10 seconds..
Minor Power:
Artifice of Time
Passive
Your heals have a very high chance to grant the target 301 Haste for 8 seconds.
Requires Healer specialization.

Essence of the Focusing Iris
(Rank 2)

Soulbound
Essence
Use: Infuse your Heart of Azeroth with the Focusing Iris.

Major Power:
Focused Azerite Beam
1.2 second cast 1.5 minute cooldown
Focus excess Azerite energy into the Heart of Azeroth, then expel that energy outward, dealing 101,680 Fire damage to all enemies in front of you over 2.7 seconds.

Minor Power:
Focused Energy
Passive

Your damaging spells and abilities grant you 33 Haste for 4 seconds stacking up to 10 times. This Haste is lost if you stop using spells or abilities against the initial target.

Requires DPS specialization.

Anima of Life and Death (Rank 2)

Soulbound
Essence
Use: Infuse your Heart of Azeroth with Burning Embrace.

Major Power:
Anima of Death
Instant 2 minute cooldown
Draw upon your own vitality to sear your foes, sacrificing 10% of your maximum health to deal Fire damage to all nearby enemies and heal for 5% of your maximum health per enemy hit, up to 25% of your maximum health.

Minor Power:
Anima of Life
Passive
Azerite energy courses through your veins, increasing maximum health by 3,338 every 5 seconds, stacking up to 10 times.

Gain a stack of Anima of Life when you kill an enemy that yields experience or honor.

This effect is lost if you fall below 35% health.

Requires Tank specialization.

In Essence

Essences are acquired from a variety of content in Battle for Azeroth. You’ll earn your first one by completing the quest line with Magni, but you’ll be able to earn others through completing specific activities, such as PvP, raids, or World Quests.

Each Essence has four ranks that provide new effects. Rank 1 provides a unique ability based on your role (damage dealer, tank, or healer), while rank 2 and rank 3 provide enhancements to both the Essence’s Major and Minor effects. Rank 4 adds a flashier cosmetic effect to the spell, providing a unique visual that will make you stand out from the crowd. Once an Essence is learned, you’ll be able to hover your mouse over the Essence in the user interface to see what you get with the next rank. And because of how Essences are collected, it’s possible to receive and infuse a rank 3 Essence without having learned rank 1 or 2, but you will need to receive and infuse a rank 3 Essence before you can receive and infuse a rank 4 Essence. Please note that any activities you do toward earning rank 4 can be completed in advance of acquiring the rank 3 Essence.

It’s important to note that while many Essences are role-agnostic, some of these are only usable by a specific role (tank, healer, or damage dealer). Characters who can spec into multiple roles can collect any Essences that are appropriate for those roles, but the system will restrict characters from collecting Essences meant for roles their class can’t fill—for example, a Warrior couldn’t collect a healer Essence.

More Azerite Gear Ahead?

Essences add a whole new layer to the Heart of Azeroth system, in addition to the Azerite Armor that you already have. With all the content coming in Rise of Azshara, there’s sure to be some new Traits to discover and gear to collect along the way.