Death's Rising Event this Week

It's finally (almost) here! The pre-expansion event arrives Wednesday and marks Shadowlands arriving in under 2 weeks! The event itself has several components, from multi-week quest lines, to the Scourge invasion event, rares, dailies and more, so we're taking a look at everything you can do over the next two weeks. The event will go live with regional resets.

We'll start of with the quest and storyline content, which finally directly addresses the aftermath of Sylvanas shattering the Helm of Domination and blowing up the roof of Icecrown. We won't be going into spoilers for the quests themselves, but if you want a more detailed look at everything that happens, head on over here.

Note: Not everything below will be added in this first week.

Cinematic

We get to finally see this cinematic in-game, at the beginning of the quest line:

Death Rising: 2-week quest line, broken into 2 segments

• You will auto-receive the first quest upon logging in.
• Horde and Alliance have different but very similar quests.
• There are 7 quests available in the first week.
• The second week continues the story quests, as we move to the Argent Tournament Grounds.
• 10 quests for the second week.

Daily Quests

• There are many daily quests throughout the event.
• You will receive 1 at the start of the event, then more after finishing the week 1 quest line.
• Some require completion of the main Death Rising quest line in week 2.
• Acquired in capitals and in Icecrown.
• 9 dailies in total.

Icecrown Rares

• 20 rare mobs, including many we've already seen in Naxxramas and WotLK in general, including Patchwerk, Noth, Putricide, the Black Knight and more.
• Marked on the map as a purple skull.
• They also drop some epic quality gear like Keleseth's Influencer, item level 100.
• Also, Bronjahm, an Elite in Icecrown that you can find at 71,38 drops the 34 slot Papa's Mint Condition Bag but will most likely only be available next week.

Buffs and Debuffs

• Icecrown will sometimes get some weather, as the Chilling Winds debuff applies to players.
• There are bonfires at the Argent Tournament grounds that counteract the debuff, and also give you a 5% damage buff: Lingering Warmth.

Scourge Invasion

• A similar event to the Naxxramas and WotLK ones will also be happening, as Zombies infect players and turn them into more Zombies.
• You can become a Zombie by interacting with infectious critters or plagued crates.
• You gain new attacks and can infect others:
  •  Mangle! - Melee that adds a 5% damage taken debuff.
  • Retch! - Creates green goo on the floor that slows enemies.
  • Beckoning Groan - Calls 4 NPC zombies to help you if nearby.
  • Lurch! - 100% speed increase for you and nearby zombies.
  • Zombie Explosion! - Explode and deal damage around you. You die.
• The event has been significantly toned down and is opt-in, as you need to flag yourself for PvP to take part, so it shouldn't be too disruptive.
• New players from Exile's Reach gain a buff that protects them.
• You can remove the disease at an Argent Healer in capital cities and other settlements.

More information from wowhead:

Dailies

A variety of dailies are available throughout the event. Some are accessible immediately, others have requirements like completing the Death Rising questline.

Orgrimmar DailiesAvailable Immediately:

• The Safety of Others

Icecrown DailiesAccessible from Week 2:

• Too Many Whelps
• Evacuation Effort
• The Deathspeaker's Devout
• Cultist Captors

Accessible after you pick up a Darkened Scourgestone or a Pitch Black Scourgestone:

• Strange Scourgestones
  (Completing this quest for the first time unlocks the repeatable quests, Darkened Scourgestones and Pitch Black Scourgestones)

Accessible after unlocking Continued Effort:

• Careful Creations
• Cleaning Out the Vault
• Frozen Solid

Argent Commendations

Argent Commendation can be used to buy gear and other items from Quartermasters tied to the Scourge event. These tokens can be gathered from a variety of sources:

Sources

• The main questline rewards a total of 18 Argent Commendation.

• The quest Nathanos Blightcaller rewards 5 Argent Commendation.

• Completing all available dailies should reward a total of 17 Argent Commendation per day.

• The daily The Safety of Others unlocks from the beginning of the event, and rewards 5 Argent Commendation.
• Icecrown dailies reward 3 Argent Commendation each. Some dailies are accessible from the beginning of the second week of the main questline, with the rest are unlocked with Continued Effort after you complete the main questline. In total, four Icecrown dailies should be up every day.

• Most Scourge enemies in Icecrown drop Darkened Scourgestone and have a smaller chance to drop Pitch Black Scourgestone. Bosses drop multiple Pitch Black Scourgestone. These can be turned in to Veteran Crusader Aliocha Segard for Argent Commendation.

  • Darkened Scourgestones rewards 1 Argent Commendation per every 25x Darkened Scourgestone
  • Pitch Black Scourgestones rewards 3 Argent Commendation per every 25x Pitch Black Scourgestone.

Quartermasters

The quartermasters are Quartermaster Renick (Stormwind), Quartermaster Lungren (Orgrimmar), Crusader Adevald Ironbeard and Veteran Crusader Aliocha Segard (Icecrown). This gear is item level 100 for level 50 players, which is on par with Normal Ny'alotha loot after the item squish, so it's decent catch-up gear for fresh alts. To buy absolutely everything from these Quartermasters, you would need a total of 170 Argent Commendation.

Item	Cost
All Gear	15 Argent Commendation each. A full set of 9 items would cost 135 Argent Commendation in all.
Anti-Doom Broom	15 Argent Commendation.
Putrid Geist	20 Argent Commendation.

Death Rising Questline

Week 1

In the first week of the event, both the Horde and the Alliance will have several leaders abducted by the Jailer's forces - Anduin Wrynn and Jaina Proudmoore from the Aliance, and Thrall and Baine Bloodhoof from the Horde. Part 1 of the Death Rising questline is different for the Alliance and the Horde, though the quests mirror each other. 

Quest Order	Important Info
An Urgent Request/ An Urgent Request	Auto-begins as you log in. The daily The Safety of Others is also unlocked from when you log in.
Cause for Distraction/ Cause for Distraction	Includes a cinematic.
Return of the Crusade/ Return of the Crusade	Introduces players to the Argent Crusade presence in their capital cities, including the Argent crusade Quartermasters.
Field Reports/ Field Reports
Damned Intruders
Return of the Scourge	Unlocks the quest Nathanos Blightcaller
Nathanos Blightcaller	Includes a cinematic.

Week 2

Part 2 of the Death Rising unlocks In the second week and is mostly the same for the Alliance and the Horde. During this week, we head to the Argent Tournament Grounds, where we help the Argent Dawn investigate the invading Scourge, earn a lot more Argent Commendation that we are able to turn in for reputation, and unlock the event's first dailies in Icecrown.

Quest Order	Important Info
A Message from Icecrown/ A Message from Icecrown	Initial Icecrown dailies are now accessible.
Securing the Area & A Valiant Effort/ A Valiant Effort	First non-daily quests to reward Argent Commendation.
Scouting from a Safe Distance
A New Foothold
Cult Couture & Fighting for Attention
Secrets in Shadows
Bursting the Bubble
A Message from Above
Only Shadows Remain	Unlocks additional daily quests with Continued Effort.
With Hope in Hand/ With Hope in Hand	Opens a portal to your capital city and rewards the Feat of Strength Death Rising.

Icecrown

Many pre-patch activities are centered around Icecrown, including world bosses, dailies, and the second part of the Death Rising questline. Icecrown itself has changed.

Chilling Winds and Bonfires

Sometimes the weather will change, and Chilling Winds fill the air. This affects every player with a debuff which inflicts frost damage every 10 seconds. Thankfully, Bonfires have been lit all around the Argent Crusade. Standing near one grants the buff Lingering Warmth, which lasts 15 minutes and stacks up to 5. This buff increases the player's damage and reduces frost damage taken. Sadly, the toy Cozy Bonfire does not grant the buff.

Taking damage interrupts casts, and it occurs often enough to prevent using your Hearthstone, forcing you to stand next to a Bonfire if you want to hearth while the debuff is up.

Icecrown Bosses

Along with the Scourge invasion of Icecrown, many recognizable bosses from Northrend have returned. These special Undead rares spawn randomly and drop epic items. When one spawns, it shows up on the map as a purple skull.

Many of these bosses now drop updated versions of gear from their original loot tables:

• Papa's Mint Condition Bag references Papa's New Bag from the Forge of Souls.
• Miniscule Abomination in a Jar references Tiny Abomination in a Jar from Professor Putricide.
• Keleseth's Influencer references Keleseth's Seducer from the Blood Princes.

These items appear to only require level 30 after the leveling-squish which reduces players down from level 120 to 50. They also seem to be item level 100 (on par with Normal mode Ny'alotha), which makes the gear much better than the ilevel 75 gear available for level 50 premade characters in Bastion - this makes them not only good Shadowlands leveling gear for underplayed alts, but also inordinately powerful catch up gear for new characters still catching up to 50.

The Scourge are attacking all of Icecrown, including the Argent Tournament, which may interfere with dailies for faction mounts and pets.

World Boss: Nathanos Blightcaller

Nathanos Blightcaller serves as a weekly World Boss, located just outside his family home in the Eastern Plaguelands. From the first week, both Alliance and Horde players can pick up the quest Nathanos Blightcaller, which rewards 5 Argent Commendation on completion.

Nathanos drops ilvl 100 items, including weapons.