World of Warcraft – Welcome Back Weekend and Shadowlands Legendary Items Preview

World of Warcraft’s Shadowlands expansion will be going live on November 23, 2020. And in order to get some of the old players back for the big launch, Blizzard will be running a free weekend for everyone with inactive WoW accounts from November 5 to November 8. Here’s how this will work:

Shadowlands is nearly here, and you and your allies are needed back on the front lines. This weekend, we’re giving all players with inactive World of Warcraft accounts full access to the game* and all of your characters without a subscription. You’ll be able to access all expansions including Battle for Azeroth, so you can play the most recent content and be ready for Shadowlands when it launches on November 23, 2020 at 3 p.m. PST. Rejoin your guild, rally your comrades, and prepare to brave the beyond.

Return to World of Warcraft FREE from November 5 to November 8.

GET BACK IN ACTION

If you’re new to World of Warcraft or you’ve been away for a while, you can play through the new starting experience starting at level 1 to learn the ropes.

Players who have already experienced Battle for Azeroth and reached level 50 on at least one character can choose to level any subsequent characters in a different expansion using Timewalking Campaigns. This new feature makes it so content from locations like Northrend or Pandaria scales to a player’s level, so they can adventure from level 10 all the way to 50 and experience the stories in these areas at their originally intended pacing. Visit Chromie near the embassies in Stormwind or Orgrimmar to select your expansion leveling experience. If you’d like to select a different expansion to level through, simply speak to Chromie again.

Beyond that, you may also be interested in this recent article that focuses on the expansion’s Legendary items:

In the Shadowlands, you’ll need every advantage afforded to restore balance to the afterlives. Locked within the Tower of the Damned, you’ll discover the Runecarver—a powerful entity chained within Torghast’s unhallowed halls. Together, you’ll forge legendary items infused with otherworldly powers that will give you a fighting chance against the Jailer and his minions.

FORGE INSTRUMENTS OF DEATH

Once you reach level 60 and pledge yourself to a Covenant, you’ll receive a quest, “Prison of the Forgotten,” and begin a chain of events that leads you inside Torghast to help the Runecarver restore his forgotten memories. Once unlocked, the Runecarver will help you forge potent legendary items that you’ll be able to infuse with otherworldly powers. To create and customize these legendary items, you’ll need to scour the Shadowlands for a range of components.

RESOURCES REQUIRED

Legendary gear pieces are comprised of several components: a Shadowlands crafted legendary base item, two Missives, Soul Ash, and a Memory of the Runecarver. Your base item and Missives can be created with Professions, Soul Ash comes from clearing layers within Torghast; and Memory of the Runecarver recipes can be unlocked through a variety of content in Shadowlands.

For a legendary piece, you’ll need to start off with a specific base piece of armor or jewelry that can be empowered by the Runecarver. Characters with Tailoring, Leatherworking, Blacksmithing, or Jewelcrafting professions will be granted the recipe to create base pieces as part of the storyline with the Runecarver. These pieces can be crafted by players and can be traded or can be purchased from the Auction House. Each time a crafter creates a base piece, they will earn experience and over time they will be able to create those base pieces with higher item levels. There are four levels each recipe can reach, and creating higher level base pieces will require more resources to complete.

You’ll also need two Missives, which are used to empower the piece with two different secondary stats of your choosing. These Missives can be made by players with the Inscription profession and can be traded or sold on the Auction House.

Vanquishing Torghast’s unhallowed halls will reward you with Soul Ash—a crafting material that tempers the base item into a masterpiece worthy of its legendary-quality rating. You can earn Soul Ash weekly by clearing layers within Torghast. Each week two wings are available to enter, so make sure to complete these trials—for the rewards are splendid!

Imbue your legendary with the powers of Death by collecting Memories of the Runecarver, known as Powers. These memories are obtainable by doing a variety of content, including raiding, Mythic Keystone dungeons, and player vs. player activities. You can view all Powers along with how to obtain them and which base items you can Runecarve them on by opening up your Adventure Guide (hotkey: Shift-J).

Over time you may craft more than one legendary but, just as in past expansions, a character can only equip one of these items at a time so choose wisely!

Legendary items abilities and crafting requirements are still in development, so be sure to check back for periodic updates on worldofwarcraft.com as we approach the release of Shadowlands.