WoW Shadowlands Patch 9.0.5 Highlights

World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is getting its first big patch since the title released back in November. The new patch is an update to some of the systems already in place, with the patch’s main focus bringing back Valor points for the first time since the end of Warlord fo Draenor in 2016.

The patch is all about refining the systems that launched with the game. Players can expect to see some better iterations of the content they are already playing, which will also help set up future content expansions later on in Shadowlands. Here are the major highlights.

Valor Points is the major talking point of the WoW patch 9.0.5 The new update sees the currency return to the game to aid the gearing process of the Mythic+ feature. The currency is all about buying upgrades to gear dropped and picked up through Mythic+ related content. The system is the answer to one of the long time issues with Mythic+, as players constantly farm the same gear with different difficulty levels and with new season launches.

Players can earn up to 5000 Valor points in the first week, with the cap rising by 750 Valor points each week. The Valor system works similarly to the Conquest cap currently already in the game. For a more detailed guide on the inclusion of Valor Points, check our how-to article here.

Players can upgrade their gear through Valor points based on their Mythic+ rating. The ratings work are as follows.

Plenty of the legendaries for every class and spec are getting touched. The legendary tuning aims to make plenty of the effect more competitive. Every spec and class has established best in slots, meaning the community has flocked to those powers.

Fortunately, Blizzard has recognised this problem. Rather than nerfing the popular ones, Blizzard is buffing the weaker ones. Whether this changes the meta or not for specific specs remains to be seen. However, the changes offer different playstyles to be considered, meaning there are potentially more play styles or strategies to consider.

While many WoW players have farmed Torghast for their desired Legendaries, Blizzard looks to make the feature more attractive. The changes to many of the powers and the inclusion of new ones means there is a bit more fun involved in the pseudo-Rogue-like experience. 

Changes heading to Torghast should aid any player looking to do the optional Torghast for the challenge experience while offering players looking to dabble with the legendary changes. For players on lower ilvl character, every layer difficulty now has a recommended item level to communicate layer difficulties. All of this is to stop people feeling like they waste an hour of life doing content otherwise too difficult for their character while providing a better baseline experience.

Those looking for the full WoW Patch 9.0.5 notes can find them in full here. Everything in them will go live on March 9 in North America, with the content available on March 10 in Europe.

 

Images via Blizzard Entertainment.