Heart of Azeroth

Heart of Azeroth

Heart of Azeroth is in a lot of ways the equivalent of the Artifact pieces from previous expansions. In Battle For Azeroth storyline, a lot of the characters are plotting to obtain Azerite to help them defeat the enemy faction. With Azeroth still recovering from Sargerases attack, potent Azerite is leaking all over the world. Both Horde and Alliance are struggling to acquire Azerite to fuel their attacks and defenses against the enemy faction.

Azerite is used by players to upgrade their Hearts of Azeroth, which are vital for character progression and performance. The main source of Azerite is from open-world content, such as emmisarries and world quests, but also Island Expeditions.

Island expeditions is the new type of content featured by BFA. According to popular opinion, it wasn’t rewarding enough to capture the attention of the playerbase. With that said, the main rewards of Island Expeditions is Azerite, which means that the Heart of Azeroth farm is mostly based on Island Expeditions Farm, which can be very strenuos and repetitive.

Azerite Traits and Essences

Heart of Azeroth allows you to select different Azerite Traits from Azerite Gear: Head, Shoulders, and Chest, but as of patch 8.2., Heart of Azeroth grants you access to many different Azerite Essences. Essences are incredibly potent by themselves, even as a minor essence, but a Major Essence plays a part in defining the playstyle of a Specialization. Major Essences are by participating in all kinds of in-game content: from quests and reputations, to raid drops and PvP.

Essence Minor slots are unlocked at different Heart of Azeroth levels: 55, 65, and 75. Even though it is a Minor slot, their values are incredible. In 8.3., the third essence Minor slot is mandatory for any relevant character in order to perform well. Beyond the raw value of the minor essence, the most recent essences from 8.3. content grant further 10 corruption resistance. In terms of DPS, the 3rd minor slot, depending on the Essence rank that you have available and the corrupted gear, it can be a few thousand DPS on single target.

Azerite Traits are the main feature of the gearing progression in BFA, and a lot of the times they define or significantly change the playstyle of a specialization. For example, a Fire mage is not really a Fire Mage without its Blaster Master, but someone like an Outlaw Rogue can choose the predominant feature of their build: Deadshot or Ace Up Your Sleeve and select their talents accordingly.

Furthermore, all the Azerite traits and Essences directly scale with the Heart of Azeroth level. That basically means that even beyond Heart of Azeroth level 75, or even 80, the grind never really ends.