Shadowlands Season 4 Fated Raids Survival Guide

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The time has come: Season 4 has brought Fated Raids to Shadowlands! As a rule, the release version with new WoW content is a little different from what was promised and expected. So, if you think you already know enough about the fresh mode — still, be sure to check this Fated Raids Survival guide. It summarizes all the known and updated information on a key novelty of the latest patch.

Fated Raid Affixes

A feature that makes the familiar raids Fated is Fated Affix. A sad fact that the new season didn’t bring any new raids or bosses is balanced by the attempt to spice up the old ones. Every week this or that instance is marked «Fated» — it’s shown in the Adventure guide. Once it’s marked, you can’t visit its «normal» version. The only «normal» left for you is Fated Normal.
It means that at any level of difficulty there’s no way to avoid the empowered versions of bosses which are buffed this week. So that even bosses of usually easy LFR Fated Raids may make you express a need for a fresh WoW guide. The buff that every boss receives is one of the five affixes listed below, and if you read other WoW fated guides, a new one may get you surprised:

Chaotic Essence
Creation Spark
Protoform Barrier
Reconfiguration Emitter
Replicating Essence

The difficulty of bosses in each Fated raid dungeon increases not only due to the type of raid mode but also because every boss receives different affixes from time to time. For instance, if Lady Inerva Darkvein of the Castle Nathria has Creation Spark affix, one of the next bosses, Sludgefist, can have Chaotic Essence. Each encounter gets much harder due to the major changes brought to the familiar boss mechanics. The basic numbers of HP and damage dealt by the boss are also buffed.

Besides, when the instance of a particular patch becomes Fated, the world bosses which were introduced into the game at that patch also get empowered. If the bosses of 9.2 instance Sepulcher of the First Ones have received a buff, so does the Antros — a 9.2 patch’s boss located in Zereth Mortis. And when you open Adventure Guide and find 9.1 raid Sanctum of Domination being Fated this week, beware of Morgeth, who will also cause serious troubles when you try to farm him in the Maw.

Fated Raids Schedule

Close to how it works with the release of completely new raids, Fated Raids have their schedule. However, the need for scheduling is also explained by the specifics of the new mechanic — all the instances simply couldn’t have become Fated with the very start of the patch. That would have seriously hardened the progress of players who have just returned to this type of PVE content.

However, it’s planned that after a few cycles of schedule rotation, by the end of the current WoW expansion all the raids will become open to farm in Fated mode at the same time. (It’s still unclear whether there will be an option to visit their normal versions.) In contrast to the release of new instances, the Mythic level of difficulty of the fresh mode is already open for everyone brave enough to enter it:

August 2 Castle Nathria
August 9 Sanctum of Domination
August 16 Sepulcher of the First Ones
August 23 Castle Nathria
August 30 Sanctum of Domination
September 6 Sepulcher of the First Ones

Fated Raid Rewards

Rewards for progress in the newest content can be separated into two types, and the first type of the Fated Raid rewards is the powerful equipment. The equipment is not actually new — it’s the same that familiar dungeons have already had among their loot. But the level of the looted items significantly increased, which made that gear worth fighting buffed bosses.

A comparison table of the usual ilvl of the Sepulcher loot and loot of any empowered instance remains the same as it was on PTR:

Difficulty SoFO Any Fated Raid
World Boss 259 285
LFR 239–246 265–272
N 252–259 278–285
H 265–272 291–297
M 278–285 304–311

Due to the special mechanic and mentioned schedule, the drop of the Fated items seems to be more than ever dependent on luck. That’s why new Broker vendors have appeared in Oribos right next to the place where players got used to getting new loot. They are waiting near the Great Vault, ready to sell the Fated Raid gear for a very specific price.

The latest patch has brought a new important quest into the game. It’s called Crossing Fate and is given to the player the second he steps in any Fated instance. The quest is only the beginning of a short questline, which can actually last very long. Its task is to kill various empowered Bosses: 30, then 20, then 10.

The questline must take many of the upcoming weeks to be fully completed because the bosses must be from different dungeons. That makes it impossible to just farm LFR, Normal and Heroic versions of a certain instance and progress in a questline within the first week. But the difficult experience will be followed by a fitting reward: a new token Puzzling Cartel Dinar.

One character can earn a maximum of 3 Puzzling Cartel Dinars. Completing every part of a questline gives one token, and it can be used to purchase a single item. Once any 3 pieces of equipment are bought, Broker vendors disappear. And there’s only one way to properly improve that kind of equipment — with the Cosmic Creation Impetus or Sacred Creation Impetus.

These are the consumable items made from the 20 pieces of a special Cypher that’s guaranteed to drop from the empowered Bosses. Cosmic Impetus is made from Confounding Antique Cypher which drops in Heroic Fated dungeons, and the Sacred one is created with the Confounding Ancient Cypher that’s to be found in the Mythic Fated instances. A useful tip to remember during the farm of Fated Raids: the system of item improvement is not linear. Even the loot from LFR can be enhanced with the Sacred Impetus, upgrading the gear’s ilvl from 265 to 304!

A few additional comments must be made regarding the specifics of the drop of Fated items. Even mysterious Brokers can’t get some of them. For instance, legendary bow Rae’shalare, Death’s Whisper can’t be purchased for Fated Raid tokens. Instead, one of the Brokers sells the item that updates the level of a normal bow to 285. As a sort of compensation, the chances to loot that bow became higher. The same is for the drop rate of the items that update bow’s ilvl and drop to those who already have the same bow.

New caches have appeared among the rewards for accomplishing certain weekly tasks, like different versions of Cache of Fated Treasures. They contain equipment with the ilvl that matches the version of a Cache: if it’s Normal, it will drop 278–285 gear. Finally, for the sake of proper balance the Shards of Domination system has been turned off — don’t count on finding any new equipment with slots for those mighty gems.

However, another type of Fated Raid reward in Season 4 is the fresh meta-achievements. Many players find enough honor in just completing such achievements and looking at them in the Achievement journal. But as always, Achievements contain other ways to generously reward a Hero of Azeroth for his or her hard work:

As usual, completing the Mythic achievement will give all the others. Besides, the listed achievements and their valuable prizes are planned to be obtainable only during the 4 Season of the game. But no matter how great the prizes are and how good the updated equipment is, you must have had many other plans to do both in Season 4 and in your life. And if the rewards of hard meta-achievements attract you, but there are doubts about whether you can get them by yourself — be sure to check all Fated Raid services. Some of them may serve you well!

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