The latest update to the PTR added a vendor in the Heart Chamber that allows you to purchase corrupted raid gear for testing. This gear seems to be the new alternative to titanforging that Ion mentioned in the 8.3 reveal. This Corruption system seems to be more random than titanforging, and we will have to wait and see how it develops.
Basics of the Corruption System
- Raid gear will be able to drop with a corruption level (indicated in the item’s stats in red and also by a N’zoth eye on the items border) that seems to be random and can vary from low to high on the same piece of gear.
- Each piece of corrupted gear adds to a corruption total displayed on your character’s stat screen via a N’Zoth eye mouse-over. Your unaltered corruption level and corruption resistance are also displayed.
- Gear will also proc a randomly added benthic-like positive bonus effect. The percentage that the bonus has is increased based on the corruption level on the piece of gear. The lowest comes from the gear having a corruption level of 10 or below, slightly higher below 20 corruption, and maxing when the corruption on the item is 20 or above.
- Increases the amount of critical strike you gain from all sources by X%.
- Increases the amount of haste you gain from all sources by X%.
- Increases the amount of mastery you gain from all sources by X%.
- Increases the amount of versatility you gain from all sources by X%.
- Your avoidance is increased by an amount equal to X% of your haste.
- Reduces your damage taken from periodic effects by X%.
- Increases your leech by X%.
- X% of total health regen now continues during combat.
- Increases your healing received from all sources by X%.
- Increases the damage you deal with critical strikes by X%.
- Your spells and abilities have a chance to grant you a Flash of Clarity, reducing the cooldown of your next 3 spells cast by 2 sec.
- Your character also gains a negative debuff based on your corruption level. Going above a certain threshold adds another debuff. The new one does not replace the old one.
- 10+ Total Corruption – Grasping Tendrils – Taking damage has a chance to slow your movement speed for 0 sec. The magnitude of the slow increases with further corruption.
- 20+ Total Corruption – Corrupted Zone – Your spells and abilities have a chance to create a corrupted zone at your location, dealing Shadow damage to you every 2 sec. The size and damage of the corrupted zone increase with higher Corruption.
- 40+ Total Corruption – Grand Delusions – Taking damage has a chance to summon a Thing From Beyond, which pursues you for 10 seconds. Its speed increases with further corruption.
- 60+ Total Corruption – Creeping Death – All damage taken is magnified significantly, increasing with further corruption.
- In essence, this makes the system way more random and not so much a replacement to titanforging, but an evolution.
- A player will obviously want to get their best in slot items with the lowest amount of corruption and also their best in slot bonus.
- These pieces don’t proc item level increases.
- They also don’t seem to be able to proc a gem slot.
- Weapons cannot be corrupt.
- Your character visually becomes more and more corrupted by void the higher your total corruption.
- It is likely that the infinite progression slot on the Heart of Azeroth that Ion mentioned will increase your corruption resistance with each point placed in it.
Patch 8.3 PTR – Blizzard’s Official Corrupted Items Details and Feedback
How Corruption Works
Items from Ny’alotha, Mythic Keystone dungeons in Season 4, BfA PvP Season 4, the Heroic Darkshore Warfront, and other new sources of loot that are updated with Season 4 will not be able to Warforge or Titanforge. Items from older content will retain an effective “ceiling” of item level 455, as they do today.
There will be a chance for these new items to be Corrupted by N’Zoth. A Corrupted item has a powerful beneficial property, similar to many of the Benthic effects seen in Nazjatar, but has a new detrimental stat: Corruption. Items can have varying levels of Corruption, with the amount of Corruption present correlating directly with the power of the beneficial upside (for example: an item might give 4% Critical Strike damage and 10 Corruption, or 6% Critical Strike damage and 15 Corruption).
Corruption represents the influence of N’Zoth, which will have negative effects on the wearer. As Corruption increases, a series of drawbacks are activated. You might remember how Corruption worked on the Cho’gall encounter back in Bastion of Twilight – that was a source of inspiration here. The drawbacks currently on the PTR are works-in-progress and not-yet-tuned, and we have changes already implemented in the next PTR build. Our general intent is for low Corruption to activate a minor effect that most people can play around without too much difficulty, medium levels of Corruption to activate a couple more effects that have a higher skill cap (nd may be more situational in where and when someone can handle having them active), and high levels of Corruption to be prohibitive, and virtually never worth it.
Gear that makes your character worse when you equip it doesn’t sound terribly appealing, but fortunately there will be a few ways of dealing with Corruption. The legendary cloak that players will earn from Wrathion early on in Visions of N’Zoth will negate some Corruption, and can be upgraded through entering and completing Horrific Visions to provide even more of a bulwark against Corruption.
Early on, we expect that players might wear one or maybe two pieces of Corrupted gear at a time. Later on, three or four pieces might be manageable. The vast majority of the gear players wear, even later on, will not be Corrupted. And these perks aren’t planned to be slot-restricted, so if there’s a specific power you want, there should never be a concern that your item needs to roll with that affix to be useful.
We also never want an item that would otherwise be an upgrade to feel unusable as a result of being Corrupted, so any Corrupted items can be taken to the Heart Forge and purified without restriction . If you get that trinket you’ve been hoping for, but it’s Corrupted with a beneficial effect you don’t like, or wearing it would push you above a Corruption threshold you’re comfortable with, just purify the item and carry on.
Itemization Philosophy
With itemization, we’re always looking for opportunities to create moments of excitement and choices and options to customize your gameplay to suit your playstyle and the content you choose to play. Warforging created some of this by allowing useful rewards to come from a wide range of content, and ensuring that there was almost always at least the chance of an upgrade from any repeat boss kill or other source of loot. However, as we’ve seen and heard clearly in feedback over the past years, it has also brought significant downsides: Progression feels less rewarding, as players killing a raid boss on a new difficulty for the first time often disenchant much of the loot because they have equal or better Warforged items from lower difficulties or other sources. In addition, the feeling that a given item could have Warforged more and been even better can leave a sense of disappointment at what should have been a clear reward moment. And the sense that these systems are out of players’ direct control makes it harder to work towards a clear goal or state of completion.
The Corruption system isn’t a permanent addition to World of Warcraft, but it is an extension of the theme of N’Zoth’s pervasive and growing influence over Azeroth. As we explore this over the course of the PTR, we’d love to hear feedback about the initial round of powers showing up on items, Corruption drawbacks that may be excessively punitive, and the system as a whole.
Please feel free to reply with your feedback here in this thread. Thank you very much!