World of Warcraft news » New Legendary Cloak and Corrupted Gear Preview

The Old God N’Zoth has been unleashed from his titanwrought prison, and an ancient corruption has taken root across Azeroth. Heroes of the Horde and Alliance will need to fight back the darkness by donning a new legendary cloak and by wielding corruption-forged weapons against the armies of the Black Empire.

Heroes Wear Capes

Protecting your mind against N’Zoth requires an object of pure corruption—and Deathwing’s son Wrathion knows just where to find one. Work with the masterful Black Dragonflight to craft and upgrade Ashjra’kamas, Shroud of Resolve, a legendary cloak with the power to save your sanity and stave off the Old God’s influence.

Wearing this cloak will help players venture deeper into N’Zoth’s Horrific Visions, earn greater rewards, and unlock more of the mysteries behind the Old God’s power. This cloak may also come in handy when you face off against N’Zoth himself in the upcoming raid.

Rise Through the Ranks

Ashjra’kamas starts at rank 1 at item level 470 and with a small amount of Corruption Resistance, with subsequent ranks increasing its power and adding other unique effects. When you equip the cloak, you’ll immediately reduce Sanity loss while in Horrific Visions. At rank 6, the cloak will gain an on-use spell effect that dispels any effects of N’Zoth’s Corruption, and provides the wearer with immunity to any further Corruption effects for six seconds (3 minute cooldown). At rank 12, the cloak will also gain a Draconic Empowerment passive, causing your spells and abilities to have a chance to massively increase your primary stat.

Once your Ashjra'kamas, Shroud of Resolve reaches rank 15, you can begin to acquire Malefic Cores, which increase your Corruption Resistance by 3, to a maximum of 125. You can acquire one Malefic Core per week across all sources, including defeating N’Zoth in Ny’alotha on Normal, Heroic, or Mythic difficulty or by completing all objectives within a Horrific Vision.

Max-level players who have unlocked the Heart Forge will be able to accept a new quest, either “An Unwelcome Advisor” (Alliance) or “Return of the Black Prince” (Horde) to begin the storyline which grants this new legendary cloak.

Harness the Power of the Void

Turn N’Zoth’s dark power against him by seeking out weapons and armor tainted with Corruption, a new addition to items that provides powerful boons—with potentially deadly consequences. Seek out measures to counter these effects, or embrace its power and learn to endure the madness.

Cursed by N’Zoth, corrupted items offer truly exceptional power—for a price. As you don more corrupted gear, you’ll find your spells will do more damage, or your heals will be more potent—but the Corruption will begin to affect you in increasingly perilous ways. At low Corruption levels, you may be slowed periodically when taking damage—while at higher corruption levels, evil forces from the Void may come for you at any moment.

Deciding how much Corruption to take on is a delicate balancing act, but Corruption can be mitigated with your new legendary cloak and all new Essences. By equipping this gear, you can negate some of the corruption and reap the benefits of N’Zoth’s might with fewer downsides.

Corruption replaces Warforged and Titanforged properties on gear, with Corruption values and side effects varying on each piece, even between two of the same item.

TIP: You can choose to cleanse your items of Corruption through Titanic Purification, which will cost you some Corrupted Mementos (rewarded for slaying enemies in new Horrific Visions instances). However, doing so will cause your item to lose the positive equip effect as well.

Here are a few Corrupted effects that can appear on player equipment.

Ineffable Truth

Your Spells and Abilities have a chance to show you the Ineffable Truth, increasing the rate your cooldowns recover by 50% for 10 seconds.

Twilight Devastation

Your attacks have a chance to trigger a beam of Twilight Devastation, dealing damage equal to 5% of your health to all enemies in front to you.

An Eye for an Eye

Your equipment can be further enhanced with a Gouged Eye of N’Zoth, allowing you to add a Prismatic Socket to one piece of gear. This consumable can be purchased from Wrathion in the Chamber of Heart with Corrupted Mementos.

Purify Your World

Get ready to secure your corrupted gear and obtain your legendary cloak once the Visions of N’Zoth content update goes live on January 15.