Greetings!
Today, we’ve begun testing Celestial Dungeons in the Mists of Pandaria Classic Beta.
Celestial Dungeons are a new optional game mode.
- Celestial Dungeons can only be entered by using the automated Group Finder tool, and they require a minimum item level of 435 to queue, the same as Heroic dungeons.
- Developers’ notes: To get the intended difficulty experience, we’d appreciate your feedback running Celestial Dungeons with the Mists of Pandaria Classic Level 90 character templates.
- Upon entering a Celestial Dungeon, players will be greeted by the August Celestials. Speaking with a Celestial allows the player to ask for their assistance, granting the player unique powers based on which Celestial they interacted with.
- Each boss in Celestial Dungeons will drop 2x of a new currency, August Stone Fragment, per player. If players have defeated all of the other bosses in the dungeon, the final boss of each dungeon will drop an extra 3 August Stone Fragments.
- Running your first Celestial Dungeon of the day will grant an additional 4 August Stone Fragments.
- Every Celestial Dungeon after the first one of the day will grant an additional 2 August Stone Fragments.
- There is also a rotating daily quest for Celestial Dungeons that can be picked up from Challenger Soong or Challenger Wuli in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, for an additional 3 August Stone Fragments.
- This daily quest will never be the same Celestial Dungeon 2 days in a row, and it will never be the same Dungeon as the Challenge Mode daily quest.
- The cap of how many August Stone Fragments a character can hold will be low at first but will increase with the release of each raid tier.
- The August Stone Fragment currency can be used to purchase items from the new NPC, Avatar of the August Celestials, in the Shrine of Two Moons and Shrine of Seven Stars.
- The original ‘Raid Finder’ items have been relabeled as ‘Celestial’ items.
- For the remainder of this article, all instances or mentions of an item being ‘Celestial’ will be referring to the old ‘Raid Finder’ version of an item but with this new updated label.
- Celestial Dungeons also brings with them new Achievements to earn.
- Celestial Dungeons add various mechanics from bosses from the current raid tier to the dungeon encounters.
- Developer’s notes: Aside from adding interesting mechanics and challenge to each dungeon, our intention is also to give newer players the chance to experience some of the current raid tier’s boss mechanics prior to entering the raids.
- Players can earn progress towards their Legendary questline with a chance of gaining Sigils of Power and Sigils of Wisdom drops from end bosses in Celestial Dungeons while on the associated quest.
- Players can earn progress towards their Legendary questline by defeating the Sha of Doubt and obtaining the Chimera of Doubt while on the associated quest.
- Players can take the route of Doubt by declining Wrathion’s request to harness Fear.
To somewhat mimic how Raid Finder content was originally released, Celestial Dungeons will become available two weeks after the release of Mogu’shan Vaults. From there, two weeks after each raid is released, the Celestial Dungeon drops and the items on the Avatar of the August Celestials will update their tables to contain items from that raid. Upon first release, items able to be purchased include:
- All ‘Celestial’ items from Mogu’shan Vaults
- Satchel of Celestial Chance, containing a handful of Lesser Charms of Good Fortune and a chance at unreleased Mounts from the original Mists of Pandaria expansion
- Commendations of Service for Justice Points
- Valor Points
Once the Heart of Fear releases, no new items will be added to the vendor or Celestial Dungeons until two weeks after that raid has been released. Upon two weeks elapsing, items able to be purchased include:
- ‘Celestial’ Tier 14 Chest Tokens
- ‘Celestial’ Tier 14 Leg Tokens
- All ‘Celestial’ items from Heart of Fear
- This includes ‘Celestial’ versions of the bind-on-equip wrist gear that can drop in the raid
Once the Terrace of Endless Spring releases, no new items will be added to the vendor or dungeons until two weeks after that raid has been released. Upon two weeks elapsing, items able to be purchased include:
- ‘Celestial’ Tier 14 Shoulder Tokens
- ‘Celestial’ Tier 14 Helm Tokens
- ‘Celestial’ Tier 14 Hand Tokens
- All ‘Celestial’ items from Terrace of Endless Spring
- When the Celestial Dungeons and vendor are updated for the Terrace of Endless Spring, players may purchase a bind-on-account Satchel of Stone Fragments.
- This costs 10 August Stone Fragments, and when used, it is consumed and grants the holder 10 August Stone Fragments.
- This will allow players to complete Celestial Dungeons on one character, while farming for another, or using that character to purchase transmog items for your account that your other cannot purchase from the vendor.
- This will also allow players to transfer August Stone Fragments to their alts, who can then open them for the currency and spend them on Lesser Charms of Good Fortune, giving players a way to get their alts this currency.
- As posted elsewhere, we have lowered the number of Lesser Charms of Good Fortune required for 3 Elder Charms of Good Fortune to 50 (was 90).
- This costs 10 August Stone Fragments, and when used, it is consumed and grants the holder 10 August Stone Fragments.