July 22, 2022

Shadowlands Season 4 What’s New: Mythic+ changes, PvP, Dungeon & Raids

Shadowlands Season 4 is scheduled to start on August 2 with patch 9.2.7. Shadowlands is going to end with its ending. The closed alpha for Dragonflight has just started and the game is expected to go live before the end of the year. That means that WoW season 4 can last for many months, and players must know what to expect of it. Here is a short guide on what’s new the patch is bringing to WoW Shadowlands!

Mythic+ changes

Some seasonal changes are quite experimental this time, and so are the Mythic+ changes. A list of Mythic+ instances is unexpectedly unusual. Some of the new WoW dungeons added to the list belong to the three previous expansions.

BfA:

Operation Mechagon: Junkyard
Operation Mechagon: Workshop

Legion:

Return to Karazhan: Lower
Return to Karazhan: Upper

Since March players could choose what WoD dungeons they’d prefer to visit again in Season 4 Mythic+. That vote has resulted in the following choice:

Grimrail Depot
Iron Docks

Talking about the current expansion — Tazavesh, The Veiled Market remains on that list in the World of Warcraft upcoming season four. It means that soon heroes of Azeroth will have to farm the most difficult versions of Streets of Wonder and So’leah’s Gambit right after revisiting megadungeons from the previous expansions. Surely, that’s a twice the challenging experience!

The development of the Mythic+ system is not just about the diversification of the dungeon pool. Like it was in previous seasons, seasonal rewards are coming. Mainly they’re obtained by completing new achievements which can be divided into two groups:

Achievements for each instance:

Keystone Hero: Tazavesh, the Veiled Market
Keystone Hero: Operation: Mechagon
Keystone Hero: Return to Karazhan:
Keystone Hero: Iron Docks
Keystone Hero: Grimrail Depot

Seasonal Mythic+ rating achievements:

Shadowlands Keystone Explorer: Season Four
Shadowlands Keystone Conqueror: Season Four
Shadowlands Keystone Master: Season Four

The first group requires completing every listed instance within the given time on key level 20 and higher. The second group is about fulfilling the following criteria: reaching 750 («Keystone Explorer»), 1500 («Keystone Conqueror»), or 2000 («Keystone Master») amount of rating points in the Mythic+. Completing challenges in the older dungeons is rewarded with the portals to their entrances, just like it was with all of Shadowlands dungeons previously. Rating rewards are a little bit more valuable. They are the new title — the Shrouded — for 1500 rating, and the mount Restoration Deathwalker for 2000 points.

Remember: Keystone Hero achievement for Tazavesh duplicates the one from Season 3 and is not given again if it’s already completed by the player. While the Keystone Hero achievements for WoD dungeons are fresh, their rewards duplicate the ones for the really old experience: fulfilling the Gold times of that expansion’s Challenge Mode.

Last but not least… beware of the Dreadlords! In Season 4 of Shadowlands, these spies of Jailor can appear in every listed place. The dark affix called Shrouded is responsible for hiding them among familiar packs of mobs! But this threat can serve you well, as dealing with Dreadlords will result in gaining bounties from the Cartel Ta. Those bounties will increase your Versatility, Critical Strike, Haste, or Mastery, depending on your choice. But if you’re scared by Mythic+ Dreadlords, the choice may be to order some Shadowlands services that can help to avoid such threats.

Fated Raids

Obviously, patch 9.2.7 is not bringing any new raid with it, but at the same time, Season 4 definitely involves much of the raid farming. How so? All the current expansion raids are going to drag your attention, as they can become «Fated». Every week one of them will gain the Fated affix. At a later date, all three raids will be Fated at once. Even the Sepulcher of the First Ones. The quality of the dropped equipment increases, but so does the raid’s difficulty level.

Fated bosses will be affected by one of the dangerous Fated Powers:

Fated Power: Chaotic Essence
Fated Power: Protoform Barrier
Fated Power: Reconfiguration Emitter
Fated Power: Replicating Essence

These powers will have a big impact on the familiar boss tactics. The LFR mode doesn’t avoid the effects of the new feature. The same can be said about World Bosses, who will be affected by it depending on what Raid is affected at a given week. If it’s the Sanctum of Domination, then Morgeth gets empowered too, because this Maw World Boss was introduced in the same patch as was the raid.

As there is no need to wonder, when the new raid comes out in WoW, a better question can be asked. What are the new rewards for the old raids brought up with the upcoming patch?

To start with, the equipment with the highest ilvl. Look at the short example: the Sepulcher of the First Ones will drop 265–272 in LFR, 278–285 on Normal difficulty, 291-297 on the Heroic, and 304-311 on the Mythic one.

Furthermore, unlucky players will be given an ability to buy 3 good items in Oribos for the new currency. Puzzling Cartel Dinars are received as a reward for a new questline that is added in World of Warcraft Season 4 and requires killing empowered bosses. There is a way to enhance these pieces of equipment. Their quality can be raised to the Heroic and Mythic levels with Cosmic Creation Impetus and Sacred Creation Impetus. In turn, impetuses are made from the shards that are guaranteed to be found in the corpses of the empowered enemies in Fated raids. The kind of impetus depends on difficulty.

Finally, clearing each Fated raid grants an achievement. Meta-achievements given for completing them are greatly rewarded:

Fates of the Shadowlands Raids — with a slime cat mount Jigglesworth Sr.
Heroic: Fates of the Shadowlands Raids — with the title Hero of Fate
Mythic: Fates of the Shadowlands Raids — with teleports next to the entrances of WoW Shadowlands raids.

PVP

Shadowlands season 4 release date won’t be celebrated only by PVE players. The achievement that usually draws so much attention in every new PVP season is Gladiator. PVP season 4 will once again force thousands of competitors to fight for the title of Eternal Gladiator and the eponymous achievement. As usual, the requirement is short but challenging: to find yourself in the 0.1% of the top players in the 3v3 arena by the end of the last season. May PTR build has already confirmed that the top PVP 9.2.7 reward will be Eternal Gladiator’s Soul Eater.

Now that you know what’s new to expect in Shadowlands Season 4, you may be interested in reading other WoW Shadowlands guides. Many of them are helpful regardless of what season it is in WoW or outside!