Heart of Azeroth Guide for Battle for Azeroth (BfA 8.3) (2024)

Patch 8.3 introduces a new Minor slot for players that can be obtained at Level75 of the Heart of Azeroth, as well as 2 new Stamina traits at Levels 71 and 80.The Heart of Azeroth will cap at Level 80 in Patch 8.3, increasing from Level 70currently. Seven new Essences have been added for the Heart of Azeroth.

Patch 8.2 has added the Essence system to the Heart of Azeroth, which allowsplayers to collect items that can be socketed into the Heart in order to obtainnew talent-like Major and Minor powers. The socketing slots will be unlocked atdifferent levels of the Heart, which are as follows:

• The first Major slot is unlocked at Level 35, which will activate boththe Major and the Minor power of your main Essence.
• The Minor slots will be unlocked at Level 55 and Level 65 of your Heart of Azeroth.

It is also worth noting that you will unlock additional nodes on your Heartthat grant you additional Stamina (+3%) at Level 52, 57, 62, and 67.

You can find more information on obtaining and upgrading Essences in ourdedicated Essences guide for Patch 8.2.This guide contains walkthroughs of obtaining the items that grant you eachEssence, how to upgrade them, what their effects are, and which classes willbenefit most from each.

The required level for armour traits to unlock in the future will no longerincrease and will instead remain at the current levels.

Prior to starting your journey through the Battle for Azeroth zones, you willneed to have completed the Battle for Lordaeron scenario, which will unlock thequestline to earn the Heart of Azeroth. The questline will take you toSilithus, where you will meet Magni and enter the Chamber of the Heart ofAzeroth. Here, you will discover and empower the Heart, earning you your newlegendary necklace and unlocking questing in Battle for Azeroth.

When you first receive the Heart of Azeroth in the chamber, you willreceive an item level 280 piece of gear. It will always have your spec's mainstat, Stamina, and all the secondary stats, except Versatility. Just as you didin the chamber, you will need to empower the necklace with Azerite, which can beobtained in a multitude of ways throughout Battle for Azeroth, such as:

• one-time quests while levelling;
• world quests at maximum level;
• the mission table;
• Battlegrounds and Arena matches;
• Warmode caches found in world PvP;
• killing rare NPCs;
• dungeons and raids of all difficulties;
• Warfronts and the quests to complete them;
• Island Expeditions;
• weekly Treasure Mission quest.

These are just some of the ways that you can earn Azerite, but it isessentially found in almost every activity in the game, as long as you are inKul Tiras or Zandalar.

There is a table below that details the amount of experience required tolevel your Heart of Azeroth up in Patch 8.2, in order to unlock the new Essenceslots. The table assumes that you are doing this at the start of the patch,with no catch-up buffs and a Level 50 Heart of Azeroth.

As you continue to advance in Heart of Azeroth levels, you willrequire more Azerite to get through each level. In Legion, a system known asArtifact Knowledge would increase the amount of Artifact Power (now Azerite) youwould earn in order to speed up the levelling process for those that werebehind.

In Battle for Azeroth, the Artifact Knowledge system is still present ineffect, but it works slightly differently. Rather than reaching the huge numbersthat were happening in Legion, the amount of Azerite required to level your Heart of Azeroth is reduced each week. This allowsplayers that are just returning or levelling alts to quickly get their Heart upto a competitive level.

For Patch 8.2, the Artifact Knowledge multipliers are as follows:

Each level of the Heart of Azeroth gained through Azerite grantsit another 2 item levels. This means that, if you get your Heart to level 20, itwill have gained an additional 40 item levels. For each item level, the mainand secondary stats on the item will increase.

Azerite is not the only way to increase your Heart of Azeroth itemlevel; the Champions of Azeroth reputation will also increase the item level,depending on what your current reputation level is with them.

For each reputation level you reach, you will gain an additional 15 itemlevels, except for when you reach Exalted (when you gain no item levels). This meansthere is an additional 45 item levels to achieve through this reputation.

If you are only concerned with item level, then the only requirement forthis reputation is Revered. In Patch 8.1, this progress is now account-wide. Ifyou have unlocked the upgrade quests on one character, it will unlock them onall other characters on the account.

You can find out more about this reputation in ourChampions of Azeroth guide.

Once you have obtained your Heart of Azeroth, you will be able to earnand activate Azerite armour pieces while leveling and at maximum level. These piecesof gear have multiple traits on them that provide offensive, defensive, andutility bonuses that can impact the way in which your class will perform.

Depending on the piece of gear, its quality and its item level, the piece ofgear will differ in the following ways:

• If it is a rare piece of gear, it will have 4 rings of Azerite traits tochoose from. An epic piece of gear will have 5.
• The item level will impact certain aspects of the traits, increasing thepower of them to suit the increase in item level.
• The item level will change the required Heart of Azeroth level tounlock the rings of traits on the piece of gear.

Azerite armour can be obtained from a variety of sources, with item levelsvarying based on the difficulty. The current item level and loot system is asfollows:

• Dungeons
  • Normal difficulty: these will award item level 370 Azerite armour pieces at level 120.
  • Heroic difficulty: these will award item level 385 Azerite armour pieces.
  • Mythic difficulty: these will award item level 400 Azerite armour pieces.
  • Mythic+ difficulty: Azerite armour cannot drop in these dungeons, but youwill receive an amount of Titan Residuum currency from your weekly M+ chest,depending on the difficulty level completed. You can read more about thiscurrency below.
• World Quests: these will award up to item level 385 pieces of Azerite armour,with emissaries granting caches containing up to item level 415 pieces of gear.
• World Bosses: these will reward item level 355 pieces of Azerite armour, withthe Warfront bosses granting item level 370 Azerite gear in Arathi Highlands anditem level 400 gear in Darkshore.
  • The 2 new Nazjatar world bosses will award item level 415 pieces of Azerite gear.
• Raids: currently, Azshara's Eternal Palace drops Azerite gear according to the followingdifficulties and item levels:
  • Looking for Raid: 400 item level.
  • Normal: 415 item level.
  • Heroic: 430 item level.
  • Mythic: 445 item level.
• Nazjatar
  • Benthic armour tokens will allow players to obtained upgradable Azeritearmour, which will start at item level 385 and can go as high as item level 420.

Titan Residuum was introduced in Patch 8.1 and acts as a means to targetspecific pieces of Azerite gear. Players can now use this currency to purchasepieces of Azerite gear at varying item levels, from 385 to 415. The costs ofbuying the gear is as follows, with all values listed representing the amountof Titan Residuum required:

• Item level 415: 1,725 (Random)
• Item level 430: 9,000 (Random)
• Item level 445: 47,500 (Random), 200,000 (Specific)

As shown above, players can purchase tokens that generate a random piece ofAzerite gear at the chosen item level or they can save up and buy a best-in-slotitem level 445 piece of gear, which they can choose from any Mythic+ loot table.

Titan Residuum is obtained in the following ways:

• Disenchanting or salvaging Azerite gear that was obtained in Patch 8.1 orlater. This grants the following amounts of Residuum:
  • 340: 1 Titan Residuum
  • 355: 3 Titan Residuum
  • 370: 12 Titan Residuum
  • 385: 35 Titan Residuum
  • 400: 115 Titan Residuum
  • 415: 365 Titan Residuum
  • 430: 2,000 Titan Residuum
  • 445: 10,000 Titan Residuum
• Your weekly Mythic+ cache, which guarantees an amount of Residuum based onthe completed key level. A Mythic +10 weekly cache grants approximately 17,000Titan Residuum.
• The weekly treasure map mission from completing the Island Expedition Questwill grant you a mission that can reward Titan Residuum for completing it.

The traits found on Azerite armour are separated into 4 main categories,depending on which ring they belong to. They are as follows:

1. Outer Rings: these traits contain the most impactful traits for most classes,with all the content, zone and specialisation-specific traits being on thisring.
2. Middle Ring: these traits are shared between roles, with traits thatdirectly impact the output of DPS and healers, or reduce the damage intake fortanks.
3. Inner Ring: all the traits here are defensive traits, regardless of yourrole or spec.
4. Centre Ring: this trait is the same for all players, on all pieces of gear.It will be the Azerite Empowered, which will increase the itemlevel of that piece of gear by 5.

The gear will always move through the rings in the same order when assigninglevels for the Heart of Azeroth to unlock traits. The first of the twoOuter Rings will always have the lowest requirement, while the Centre Ring willhave the highest.

Each ring will have a set Heart of Azeroth level that it unlocks at.This level requirement is determined by the item level of the piece of gear andit will increase as the item level does. Currently, Azshara's Eternal Palace raid gear has thefollowing level requirements for the 5 rings, depending on the item slot.

For the helm slot, it is as follows:

• Raid Finder: Level 15, 26, 30, 34 and 38.
• Normal: Level 15, 29, 32, 35 and 38.
• Heroic: Level 15, 30, 34, 38 and 42.
• Mythic): Level 15, 31, 36, 41 and 46.

For the shoulder slot, it is as follows:

• Raid Finder: Level 15, 28, 32, 36 and 40.
• Normal: Level 15, 31, 34, 37 and 40.
• Heroic: Level 15, 32, 36, 40 and 44.
• Mythic: Level 15, 33, 38, 43 and 48.

For the chest slot, it is as follows:

• Raid Finder: Level 15, 27, 31, 35 and 39.
• Normal: Level 15, 30, 33, 36 and 39.
• Heroic: Level 15, 31, 35, 39 and 43.
• Mythic: Level 15, 32, 37, 42 and 47.

The Heart of Azeroth levels listed above are in the same order as thering list we added above this section. The Outer-most Ring requirement caps at Level15 (depending on the gear slot), which is intentional from Blizzard, as theywanted players to unlock the main damage increase from the first Outer Ringwithout needing to farm a great deal.

The required levels to unlock rings will no longer increase after Patch 8.2,as the new Essences system has replaced the higher levels of Heart progression.

If you have made a mistake in your trait selection, want to swap specs, orhave just been hit by a hotfix to a trait, you will no doubt want to change theactive traits on your Azerite armour.

In order to do this, you must visit the Azerite Reforger, located next to theTransmogrification NPC in Boralus (Alliance) or Dazar'alor (Horde). You canreset your chosen powers here and allow yourself to either swap spec-specifictraits or select completely new ones on all rings.

It is important to note, however, that the price of doing this can increasehugely if you do it multiple times. Every time you reforge a piece of Azeritegear, you will double the gold cost of doing so. The first use of the Reforgerwill cost only 5 gold, but this can quickly add up to tens of thousands ofgold.

This cost will slowly decay, halving every 3 days, but this is very slowcompared to how quickly it can increase. Make sure you pay attention when makingAzerite trait choices, so you do not waste gold on doing it again. To avoid thecost of resetting your Azerite traits, you can simply keep multiple sets of gearand swap between them when you are doing different content. This also works whenplaying multiple specs.