Patch 9.2 Preperation
OVERVIEW
Patch 9.2 is coming out with the upcoming reset, as such it's a good idea to catch up on a few things and set yourself up for a smooth transition into Zereth Mortis for your main character as well as alts. Here I will briefly describe the upcoming changes, and what could help you get an edge as we transition from 9.1.5, as well as moving further into 9.2 and help you plan your play time accordingly.
SET YOUR GOALS
The first thing you should do is set your goals for the patch so you know what to aim for. Do you want to simply experience the new content? Get gear to be the new big boy in town? Make money of the lucrative legendary market or new materials? Setting a goal is imperative to ensuring you do not waste time coming into the new patch. After all, there is ALOT to do.
THE NEW CONTENT
The release of 9.2 begins with a short Story Questline to unlock Zereth Mortis. In week 1, the first 3 chapters of the new Story Campaign become available. This will introduce you to the new zone, the new faction ("The Enlightened") and get you up to speed on what that naughty boy Zoval has been up to. The Enlightened are the key rep to this new area, with Revered reputation unlocking the new Unity Legendary Memory, allowing the Covenant Legendary to be crafted on any armour piece of your choosing. Exalted will also unlock an infinite Augmented Rune for players to collect, however this will be Bind on Pickup and therefore only available to the characters you reach exalted with (Also it costs a whopping 50k gold!). Other notable unlocks through this reputation are full 226 conduits at friendly, the new Crafters Mark at Honoured (as well as the powerful unique-equipped crafter's mark) and for inscriptionists the Technique: Contract: The Enlightened.
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In addition to Zereth Mortis, the new raid "The Sepulcher of the First Ones" will be released on the 2nd week of the patch with the first 8 bosses available on heroic and normal along with the new Mythic+ Season. The following week is the release of Mythic Raid difficulty as well as the last 3 bosses on normal and heroic. Week 5 unlocks our 2nd Legendary through the story campaign and week 8 will unlock the ability to craft tier pieces on tier slots rewarded through M+, Rated PvP and drops from the Raid.
GEARING UP
If your focus of the new patch is to gear up and get ready for end game content then you should look towards M+ and Zereth Mortis for the quickest spikes in item level. In week 1 of Season 3 (The week starting 01/03/2022) item level drop from M+ will be capped at 255, which is obtained by completing a level 10 Keystone. The Weekly cache will still reward items up to ilvl 278 by completing a 15. It is recommended that you complete at least 4 mythic 15s if possible to award 2 cache slots on any character you plan on playing in end game content. This may prove challenging as a Keystone level 15 in Season 3 is equivalent to a +20 in current season. A good preparation for this will be completing a +20 TIMED key in the final week of season 2 (the reset starting the 22/02/2022). By doing this you will start with a +15 in your vault for the start of season 3. It is also a good idea to run as many +10's as possible in week 1 of Season 3 to upgrade gear to the 255ilvl drops from dungeons. This can be a great way to catch up alts or preparing mains for the raid content.
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If group activities are something you wish to avoid, there is also catch up gear from vendors in Zereth Mortis. This is similar to Korthia without the reputation requirement. This gear starts at ilvl 246 however will require a decent amount of time farming the currency it is purchased for. For more information regarding this currency acquisition check out this WoWhead article: https://ptr.wowhead.com/news/item-level-246-gear-purchasable-with-sandworn-relics-in-zereth-mortis-325609.
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There is also craftable ilvl 233 gear available once players have reached honoured which will be available on the Auction House (albeit at a most likely egregious price) if you wish to purchase this to help your alts catch up. Completing daily quests and defeating rare enemies in Zereth Mortis will also reward players with some higher ilvl pieces (233-246) with some pieces even appearing to be BoE if you wish to purchase or send these from your main to your alts.
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Once the raid is released and M+ becomes uncapped (up to ilvl 262 from +14s), these will be the most efficient methods of gearing up characters. It is recommended that you try to do at least 1 or 4 M+ dungeons weekly on each alt you wish to gear as Week 8 will unlock the ability to turn some vault items into tier pieces, allowing alts a catch up mechanic that can be pre-emptively obtained.
MAKING MONEY MONEY MONEY
A new patch with new resources, craft able armour and legendary base items opens up a huge opportunity to make big $$. If you plan on trying to make yourself some money possibly to fund new gear or the rest of the expansion (here's hopeful) then doing preparation now can make a big difference. One of the most lucrative markets will surely be the Legendary Base items, these require new materials from Zereth mortis as well as some old materials from Shadowlands zones. The one issue is you need to craft enough previous base items to learn the new ones, which can be a talk ask. Each legendary base item will cost around 200-450k gold to max your skill in crafting it, so if you don't have this kind of money then it's going to be really tough to farm all the required materials in time. But this does not mean you can not profit from this absurd market. The demand for base materials like Callous Hide, Elethium Ore and Lightless Silk will skyrocket, you can farm these now in preparation for the boom or try buy them at a minimum before the patch and resell when all the big fish are going crazy. The rank 7 legendaries will also require Zereth Mortis reagents which are reasonably easy to farm once flying is unlocked in week 2 of the patch. The complication of tier sets also means players will constantly be recrafting legendries to optimize their set-up, which means this market will be around for a LONG time. If you are in a position to learn the crafting base items it will be worth to level the high stat pieces (Chest/Helm/Legs) as these will most likely be the slot of choice for the Unity legendary power for players. Rings, Necks, Bracers, Belt, Boots and Cloaks will also see some popularity as they do not inhibit tier slots.
But it is not only the base legendary items that will make crafters rich, the craft able armour pieces at 233 and 262 will be worth a pretty penny for a long time. Leveling a crafting profession to max in shadowlands is reasonably inexpensive (timewise or gold wise whichever you decide is for you) and can easily be achieved before patch. If you do choose to do a crafting alt then this alt MUST reach Honoured to learn the crafter's marks to make these items. So ensure this is a character you will be able to comfortably complete the daily content on to get reputation fast. If you really want to make good on the rush of demand for these items you should aim to kill as many rares and loot as many treasures as you can each day in Zereth Mortis to reach honoured before as many crafters as possible.
If you are going to make several alts for professions, ensure you make them double crafting or double gathering. That way only the crafting alt needs to reach honoured while the farming alt can make money regardless of reputation. Gathering professions can be levelled pre-patch in a reasonably short time (1-2 hours to max mining/herb together) and I would advise against skinning at this point, as the changes to skinning rules may impact the value of leather when compared to herbs/ore.
OTHER GOOD PREPERATIONS
With the release of 9.2, there is no increase to renown level, and through the previous patch covenant switching is now un-restricted. If you do have spare time it is worth trying to max your renown on any characters you wish to play throughout 9.2 as this will provide a significant increase in their power level. Conduits are less important, as they will become available in a complete 226 set at friendly with the Enlightened as well as dropping from the new content at 252. One of the quickest ways to level renown is spamming Torghast level 9's. The added side bonus of this is that you will acquire a large amount of Soul Ash and Soul Cinders, which will still be required in crafting new legendaries. Cosmic Flux (the new legendary resource) is not exclusive to Torghast which means if you prepare your characters now (leveling renown and farming Soul Ash/Cinders) you may never need to enter Torghast again. With double legendary and tier slots, some Covenants will become more powerful than others which may mean a lot of switching between covenants. This is something that can be mitigated by already maxing your renown in 9.1.5.
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Rift runs can be a good activity to do with spare time as we wait for the patch also. This will allow you to max the conduits now rather than wait for drops in the new content. It will also allow players to add sockets to their gear to maximise their effectiveness in new 9.2 content. While this is a low priority preparation it will be well worth it if you can find the time. These runs require a Broken Riftkey to access and will have players traverse through the maw killing elite mobs for Relic Fragment drops (most efficient in groups which are almost always available via group finder). A good successful run will offer somewhere around 7-10k Artifact Research, meaning it will not take too long to afford all the conduit upgrades and sockets you need (Keep in mind these only work on Season 2 items).
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Before the raid is released. it is a good idea to stock up on consumables. Potions, Flasks, Oils and Chest Armor is remaining unchanged in Zereth Mortis, meaning these items will see a steep increase in price once the raid is released. If you have an alt to make potions and flasks, it is a good idea to start mass buying cheap herbs and making these consumables. These can be kept for your own end game content, or simply sold on the day of raid release for a tidy profit.
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All in all, the most important thing for the new patch is to make sure you enjoy it. Try not to burn yourself out going through each and every preparation mentioned here but instead choose the ones that most appeal to what you want to do with the upcoming patch. Prep your keys, professions or alts to be patch ready, but also ensure YOU are patch ready!