Assault on Tiragarde Sound (Alliance), WoW 8.1 PTR

by Magistrate - 5 years ago     show comments

We’re returning today to another open world zone assault in Battle for Azeroth from the 8.1 PTR. Zone-wide assaults return in the upcoming patch similar to Legion assaults. Kul Tiras and Zandalar will feature timed events where you must push back against NPCs of the opposing faction for gear, rep, and experience rewards. In this post, we look at the Horde assault on Tiragarde Sound, where the player defends as the Alliance.

• Miss other Alliance or Horde assault reviews? We’ve got you covered!
• Some of this is recap of the overall assault system. Simply skip to the Tiragarde Sound Assault section if you already know the basics!

BFA Assault Overview & Rewards

• The game focuses on one of the six BFA zones at a time.
• Horde or Alliance can do the assault regardless of whose continent it occurs on.
  • Horde defend in Horde zones and attack in Alliance zones.
  • Alliance defend in Alliance zones and attack in Horde zones.
  • These assaults are not wpvp in nature unless you have War Mode on.
• New Horde or Alliance mobs, rares, and World Quests spawn with new quest mechanics.
• Complete 4 assault World Quests to move to the next stage of your faction’s defense.
• Complete the 4 World Quests and defeat or defend in the name of your faction for rewards:
  • Up to 370 ilvl gear cache.
  • XP: Great for gearing and leveling alts 110-120!
  • Reputation with 7th Legion or the Honorbound, as well as the participating zone’s major reputation (Proudmore Admirality for Alliance in Tiragarde Sound).
  • 7th Legion or Honorbound Service Medals, a new currency in 8.1.
  • Azerite Power.

Tiragarde Sound Assault

The Tiragarde Sound assault centers between Bridgeport and Mariner’s Row. You’ll encounter Honorbound Horde soldiers fighting the roads between the two areas, and will have to assist Alliance resistance up into the nearby mountain.

• Eastpoint Encounter: Exactly like Hold the Highland in the Stormsong Valley assault, you just need to slay some soldiers–this can be done either by killing combatant NPCs or “finishing off” wounded Horde that spawn on the ground nearby.
• Zagg Brokeneye: Players must kill this nearby Mag’har Orc by his cave, which is at the end of a trail of bloody Kul Tiran bodies. This rarespawn has a good amount of health, but his attacks are interruptable and he doesn’t hit too hard. Molten Weapon is an interruptable/Purge-able/Spellsteal-able ability that gives his melee some zest. Blazing Whirl is a fiery AoE that hits everything around him. Finally, Blazing Strike is a frontal, linear AoE that sends lava out in front of him, which sits on the ground for a short duration and is easily avoidable. Note: You can drag him into the nearby Alliance NPCs for some help as long as they’re not engaged in battle.
• Not Too Sober Citizens Brigade: You’re tasked with mustering the support of four Kul Tiran citizens of Mariner’s Row. Each one is pretty drunk, and it’s mildly entertaining to watch them meander behind you with the new drunken animations with BFA. There’s a lot of dinosaurs and Zandalari Troll trash, although they aren’t overly powerful–be careful what you pull. After rescuing all four citizens from the marked areas, you’ll proceed to the far side of town to take down Citybreaker Oka, a big, non-elite dino that goes down easily with the help of your NPC allies.
• Where Eagles Prey: At the top of a nearby mountain and the entrance to Greystone Keep, you’ll pick up Grizzek’s Rocket Hop. The device works identically to the one in Bird’s Eye View during the Drustvar assault. It gives you an extra action button to shoot up in the air, where you can either glide down to safety or use yet another action button to rocket to a location of your choosing. While slaying mobs, you’ll blow up several nearby canons to relieve the lower valley, as well as blow up two Horde zeppelins.
• Bilgewater Bash Brothers (not shown in video below): You’ll have to defeat an elite and a rarespawn  simultaneously. Both have a good chunk of health and hit hard, but by far the most annoying part is making sure you don’t get bashed off the cliffs, bridge, or ship with their ability Heavy Backhand. The small fighting area, combined with nearby trash that also can blow you off the cliff with bombs, combined with their high health and damage, make this challenging for some specs and classes.

After completing 4 assault World Quests, you’ll return to Boralus Harbor, mount a gryphon, and infiltrate the nearby Horde airship. A Sound Defense requires you to fill up a progress meter that feels a bit longer than the final stages for the other two Alliance assault zones. Kill Hordies, sabatoge the ship by blowing up fuel and bombs, set pressure gauges off, and kill Captain Nashashok to finish. Nashashok is a Tauren that exclusively uses wind-based spells, including a Spellsteal-able/Purge-able buff and a knockback.

When the ship goes boom, you will return to Provisioner Fray in Boralus (Harbormaster’s Office) to turn in. You’ll receive a ilvl 370 gear cache, 7th Legion and Proudmore Admirality rep, and, a seeming change from the other assaults, 5x 7th Legion Service Medals. I ran the previous two assaults before a PTR update which hit Friday night, so it may be that all assaults now award the Service Medals, a new currency for toys, mounts, and the usual stuff for both Horde and Alliance in 8.1.

Tiragarde Sound Assault Footage

Keep in mind this is PTR footage and is subject to change.

Don’t miss the rest of our patch 8.1: Tides of Vengeance coverage! The next patch lands December 11 in the US, 12 in EU, and 13 in Asia.