What's New

A lot has arrived in Ashenvale at once. Here is the short version, with a link to the full guide for each.

#Ember Rifts

A new endless endgame. Take a Rift Key to the Rift Altar in Emberfall (combat level 40 and up), fill the rift's bar and beat its guardian within 6:00. Clear it in time and your key climbs a tier. Tiers never end, keys roll modifiers that trade danger for loot, and a weekly leaderboard ranks the deepest, fastest clears by class and party size. Your first key is free. See Ember Rifts.

#World bosses

Every so often something enormous wakes out in the wild regions and everyone online is warned. Walk up and fight: everyone who helps gets their own loot, with a chance at the boss's own uniques and pet. They're built for a group, so bring friends.

Name	World Boss.zone Name	World Boss.level
Sandmaw, the Dune Leviathan	Sunscorch Desert	25
Ashhorn the Unbroken	Cinder Wastes	47
Skarn, the Glacier Titan	Rimefall Highlands	62

See World Bosses.

#Parties

Team up with up to 5 heroes: shared kill experience, party frames, party chat, and lairs, Depths runs and rifts that belong to the whole party. You can pass loot to a party mate, and follow a friend into another world from the Party window. See Parties.

#Rune sockets and rune words

Weapons, helms, body armour and shields can drop with sockets. Fill them with 16 runes, each carried by particular monsters and bosses, and a plain item with the right runes in the right order becomes a rune word with fixed, powerful properties. Every rune word's recipe is in the wiki, and the first hero to forge each one is announced to everyone. A Hollowing Awl adds a socket. See Runes and Sockets and all rune words.

#Gathering tools

Your hero now carries a pickaxe, a hatchet and a fishing rod in slots of their own. Better tools gather faster, and tool affixes can find extra resources, refine them as you gather, turn up rare finds or pay out gold. There are unique tools too. See Gathering Tools.

#Drop tables and signature gear

Every monster now has its own drop table, and what you find tells you what you fought: signature bases only one kind of monster carries, family drops, region drops and boss uniques. Every monster's page lists its drops with exact chances. See Drop tables.

#Loot filter, bag tools and gold

• Loot filter: choose which items get a label on the ground and which auto-loot picks up. Start from a preset or build your own rules. See Loot Filter.
• Bag tools: lock items you never want to sell by mistake, sell junk in one go from the Sell… menu, switch on auto-sell, and Identify all in one click. See Selling to merchants.
• Bank gold and Gold Pouches: deposit gold at any Bank Chest, or carry it as a pouch in your bag. See The Bank.

#Materials in the bank

Materials now go in the bank: ore, logs, bars, fish, gems, orbs, runes, sigils and the rest. A bank slot holds up to 999 of one material, and Bank materials banks them all in one tap (keeping your food, potions and scrolls on you). You can carry at most 999 of each material: at the limit, gathering stops and asks you to bank some. Banked materials are safe in the Wilderness. Anything you carried over the limit has been moved to your bank for you. See The Bank.

#Getting around

• Homeward Gates: slay a lair or dungeon boss and a gate opens by its body that takes you back to town. See Homeward Gates.
• Worlds: when lots of heroes are playing, Ashenvale runs several worlds side by side. Your hero, the Grand Market and chat are shared by all of them. See the FAQ.
• Several windows at once on a computer, and quick menu tabs on phones. See Controls.

#A warm welcome

New heroes are greeted by Brann, the Ember-Warden, who walks you through your first tasks and pays you for each one. See Getting Started.

#Balance

Monsters are dangerous again from the middle levels on, champion packs hit harder, and the late lair bosses have new tricks: fiery eruptions you must step out of, and they attack faster once they're below half life. Gear, crafting orbs and scrolls drop about half as often as before, so each good drop matters more. Bosses now hold their ground: you can't push them around. See Champions & Bosses.