World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth patch 8.2, Tides of Vengeance, is over a month old. With a packed developer update, Blizzard revealed the key features coming in 8.2.5 later this year.
The Firelands raid from the Cataclysm expansion is coming back for this patch, and it’s the third returning raid being revisited with the Timewalking system. (Black Temple from Burning Crusade and Ulduar from Wrath of the Lich King are already in the game.)
Starting in 8.2.5, Firelands will be available every few months for a week. Like the other raids, players will get scaled down before entering, to simulate an old-timey World of Warcraft experience.
With 8.2.5, the Goblin and Worgen races are finally getting their long talked about model updates. Characters of those two races will look and animate much better than they currently do.
Players will also celebrate World of Warcraft turning 15 years old during 8.2.5. Players can earn a new Deathwing inspired mount called the Obsidian Worldbreaker if they complete three old raids and defeat nine bosses. Players can also earn two faction-specific mounts by playing an old PvP battleground during the event.
One of the more exciting, system-level features coming in 8.2.5 is a new Party Sync feature. While we’re not entirely sure how it’ll work, Blizzard describes it like so:
When players activate Party Sync, everyone in the party becomes aligned to the same quest state, including phases. By mousing over a quest in your tracker, you can see who is on the quest, what their progress is, and who’s ready to turn in the quest.
While players have some of this functionality now, Party Sync seems to finesse some of its rough ages, if we’re reading this right. As part of this new feature, Blizzard is also offering players the chance to repeat old quests when playing with friends for level-appropriate rewards. The Recruit A Friend feature is also coming back after a short hiatus.
There’s sure to be more in the 8.2.5 patch, but as of this writing, Blizzard has yet to update the beta environment. Patch 8.2.5 will likely come out later this year, before World of Warcraft’s anniversary in November.
