Catch-up Gear in Midnight Patch 12.0.5

Patch 12.0.5 of the Midnight Expansion has introduced some helpful catch-up gear options, making it easier to get into Mythic+ and raiding. This also benefits alts, letting them get up to speed much faster.

The notable content released in Patch 12.0.5 is Void Assaults and Ritual Sites. Participating in these events will reward you with currency that can be spent on Champion and Hero Track gear to help catch up your character's item level.

Void Assaults and Ritual Sites

Void Assaults and Ritual Sites are new to Patch 12.0.5 and are probably the best way to get champion gear, although you need to already have a bit of gear before you can start farming here efficiently.

When you complete Void Assaults and Ritual Sites you get a chest with rewards in the end which will contain Field Accolades. You can then visit a vendor in Silvermoon and trade the accolades for either a Champion Track Cache or Hero Track Cache. These boxes contain a random item, unfortunately these items can be a duplicate of something you already received before.

The Champion Track Cache only costs 75 Field Accolades, making it much cheaper than the Hero Track Cache which costs 150 Field Accolades, so we recommend only using Field Accolades for Champion Track gear until you don’t need any champion gear. The time it takes to farm the accolades for the Heroic Cache is much better spent trying to get into dungeons or raids, unless of course you plan on only doing solo content.

Nebulous Voidcores (Midnight Bonus Rolls)

Nebulous Voidcores are new bad luck protection for Mythic+ and Raid Loot. After defeating a boss or completing a key you will get a window that will let you use Void Cores to receive an item from that boss or dungeon's loot table. You can only receive each item in this way once, so you can target specific items from specific dungeons or raid bosses.

You only get 2 Nebulous Voidcores per week, raid bosses cost 2 bonus rolls and Mythic Dungeons cost a single Bonus Roll.

The track of the item you receive depends on the difficulty of the content you are doing. Heroic Raid will reward hero track and Mythic Raid will be Myth track. In Mythic+ the reward item level track is based on the Great Vault reward for that key level. For example: using one in a +10 key will reward a Myth Track item.

For this reason we recommend using your Bonus Rolls in Mythic+ to get additional Myth Track items unless you are able to kill Mythic Bosses with specific rewards that you want.

If you’re unsure on what to spend your Voidcores trying to get, you can check our Class Guides for recommendations.

Ascendant Voidcore: Weapon and Trinket Upgrades

If you have a fully upgraded (6/6) Hero or Myth track weapon or trinket you can use an Ascendant Voidcore to upgrade it to a higher item level. This also includes crafted items that use Hero or Myth crests.

We have more information on this system in our Ascendant Voidcore Guide or if you are unsure what to upgrade for your spec, you can check our Class Guides for recommendations.

Existing Gearing Methods

We thought this was a good moment to make a short recap of everything you can do to gear up your main and your alts. You might have already done several of these things, but if you haven’t we recommend following the order we outlined below:

• Renown Rewards
• Warbound Items
• Raid Finder (LFR)
• The Catalyst
• Delves
• Prey
• Delver’s Bounty Map
• Void Assaults and Ritual Sites
• Raiding
• Mythic+

Renown Rewards

Renown Rewards are a very easy way to pick up some Champion gear. Each of the 4 Major Midnight Renowns have a champion item. The table shows how much renown you will need and which slot you will receive.

If you are just returning you may not have the renown, but you can easily reach these renown levels by just completing the side quests and weekly events in the respective zones. You can find out more in our Renown Guides.

Warbound Items

If this is not your first character you can check your other character’s bags and banks as you may have some Warbound gear you can put on your new character. It's always worth killing the active world boss as these drop warbound gear once per account per week.

Raid Finder (LFR)

We recommend you queue for the different wings of the raids in the Raid Finder as soon as you can, to try and pick up whatever Tier Set Token and Veteran track items you can get from here.

The Catalyst (Tier Set Bonus)

The Catalyst is one of the most important parts of upgrading your gear, as it allows you to convert non-set items into Tier Set items, and thus gaining your set-bonus.

One very nice change from previous expansions is that once you have obtained your four set bonus on that character, you will occasionally receive catalyst charges from doing any kind of content, such as Delves, Dungeons and Raid bosses.

This means that getting the 4-set as fast as possible, even on low item level pieces is better than holding off, as it does not really matter what you catalyse as long as it completes your 4-set. Unless you have 4 Catalyst Charges available, you should first try to get a Tier Set Token to drop, which will then let you use the default 3 charges you have to catalyse the remainder of the 4-set.

Bountiful Delves

Bountiful Delves are one of the easiest ways to gain champion track gear. The best version of this loot comes from doing tier 8 or higher. In order to do a tier 8 delve you must have already completed a Tier 7 delve with lives remaining.

If you have not already unlocked Tier 8 Delves, make sure to level your delves in the non-bountiful versions, as once you complete a bountiful delve it will no longer be bountiful for that day. There are 4 bountiful delves per day, and rotate which are bountiful throughout the week.

Important: You will need a bountiful coffer key to access the Bountiful chest at the end of the delve. You can get these and coffer key shards by participating in world events around the Midnight zones.

Prey

The Prey system is also great for picking up some early champion gear, if you are able to complete the Nightmare versions. If you are unsure how to take on this new content make sure to check out our Prey Overview Guide.

You will receive gear from the first 2 times you complete each difficulty, every weekly reset. We recommend only doing the nightmare difficulty, unless you are unlocking the system, as the lower difficulties only give veteran or lower gear.

Completing the weekly Nightmare Prey quest will reward you with Beacon Of Hope, this item when used within a bountiful delve will summon Nullaeus; after you defeat his dogs and he despawns, you can open the box he leaves behind and you will loot a Delver's Bounty Map (Delve Map).

Delver’s Bounty Map

You can use a Delver's Bounty Map before starting the final boss of a Bountiful Delve (can be the same one you looted it from) and there will be a Hero Track Delve item in the rewards at the end. This can only be done once per week per character.

You loot one of these Delver's Bounty Maps by defeating Nullaeus within the Delve, who randomly spawns or can be summoned by someone in your group using a Beacon Of Hope (a reward from the weekly nightmare Prey quest).

Normal, Heroic and Mythic Raids

Raids are a great way to pick up specific items, such as tier set items and trinkets. Some of the best trinkets this season drop from the Raids.

Normal raids drop Champion track gear, Heroic raids drop Hero track gear and Mythic raids drop Myth track gear. All of these modes are unavailable to queue for, you have to look for groups in the groupfinder or in the Looking for Group chat, and try to be invited; or start your own group.

All three modes can be difficult to get into groups for, more so the higher the difficulty. If raiding is something you want to do more frequently, joining a raiding guild is recommended.

End Game Mythic+

Mythic+ is by far the easiest way to finish your gear. You can target specific dungeons for items that you are missing. Unlike Raids, Mythic+ is highly repeatable, uses personal loot rather than rolling on loot that drops and as a bonus also rewards crests upon completion.

The table shows what key level you need to do to start earning hero track items. In order to get a Myth Track item in the vault and Myth Crests at the end of the key, you need to do a +10.

We recommend trying to do +6 or above as early as possible to start picking up those Hero Track items. Then +10 keys as soon as you’re able to, for better weekly vault, Myth Crests and higher baseline item level Hero Track Gear.

Crafted Gear & Embellishments

Crafted gear is a great way to craft a strong weapon or fill in any weaker slots. For the highest item level Crafted Gear you will need to collect some Myth crests to craft the best versions, or if you prefer more immediate power gain you can craft lower stat budget items (such as wrists and cloak) or really weak items slots with Hero Crests and re-craft them with Myth Crests later, although you want to be careful not to waste these crests.

Note: You will need to complete weekly activities to collect your Sparks to make crafted items with.

If you are unsure what to craft for your spec then check our Class Guides for recommendations.

Overall, Patch 12.0.5 feels a bit like a mini turbo boost event where players can easily catch up with gear and start jumping into all the end game activities.

If you are looking for more Patch 12.0.5 content make sure to check out our Guides Hub.