The long awaited announcement has finally arrived! Season 4 of Dragonflight will launch on April 23rd for NA realms, and April 24th for EU realms.
The Awakened season, as Blizzard is calling it, is coming with a lot of exciting updates, such as the Tier Set Bonuses voted by the community and all the 8 Dragonflight dungeons in the Mythic+ rotation. With higher item level rewards available from major content in Season 4, you can revisit the Dragonflight raids, try out different classes and specs, and gear up your characters in preparation for The War Within.
Keep in mind that the game version for the Awakened raids and the new dungeon rotation will still be Patch 10.2.6, with Patch 10.2.7 coming later down the line, including the WoW Remix: Mists of Pandaria game mode.
Awakened Raids
Similar to how Fated Raids worked back in Shadowlands, for Season 4 we are venturing back into the 3 epic Raids released during Dragonflight; Vault of the Incarnates, Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible and Amirdrassil, the Dream’s Hope. When the raid is Awakened, its difficulty and rewards will scale up, meaning that all of the different trinkets and other items will be available at the current Season 4 item level for you to play with.
With the release of Season 4, you will be able to jump straight back to the Vault of the Incarnates, now Awakened and scaled up in difficulty, and relive the fun (and windy) adventures facing Dathea, Kurog Grimtotem and Raszageth herself!
There will also be a set of Awakened raid rewards for completing all Dragonflight raid bosses on different difficulties whilst that raid is Awakened; defeating all normal bosses rewards the Voyaging Wilderling mount, Heroic rewards the “Awakened Hero” title and Mythic rewards portals to all 3 of the Dragonflight raids.
How Awakened Raids Work
Every week one of the 3 Dragonflight raids will be marked as Awakened, following a rotation, starting with Vault of the Incarnates, then Aberrus the Shadowed Crucible, then Amirdrassil the Dream’s Hope.
Whilst that Raid is Awakened, every boss in the raid will be scaled up to current difficulty level, making it essentially the same experience as it was when they were first released. If it's similar to Shadowlands Fated difficulty, then once you remember or get used to the bosses and get some better gear, the Season 4 raids should be easier than when they were current content.
It’s also worth noting that most bosses received changes or nerfs to their difficulty, these carry through to the Awakened versions that we will fight in Season 4.
Unlike Fated raids in Shadowlands, there is a distinct lack of mention to Affixes for Awakened Raids. We will have to see once the Season goes live, but if this is the case, the raids should feel much more inline with their original version; no need for a different strategy specifically because of a raid affix.
Tier Sets bonuses for Season 4
A very exciting feature coming to Season 4 is that the community was given the power to vote for their favourite Tier Set bonus and Transmog appearance, through an open poll on the official Blizzard forums.
You can check which tier set won for your character’s spec in our Dragonflight Season 4: All Tier Set Bonuses article.
Mythic+ Dungeon Rotation
The 8 original Dragonflight dungeons are finally coming together for a season of adventures in the classrooms of Algeth’ar Academy, the deep tunnels of Uldaman and the open plains of The Nokhud Offensive (the first dungeon to feature Dragonriding, LET FLY)!
Sadly the current Dragonflight Mega Dungeon, Dawn of the Infinites, is not coming back for Season 4 Mythic+, but it has had its hard mode scaled up in terms of difficulty and rewards, so it's quite likely it's still somewhere you will want to go.
Season 4 Mythic+ Dungeons
- Algeth’ar Academy
- Azure Vault
- Brackenhide Hollow
- Halls of Infusion
- Neltharus
- The Nokhud Offensive
- Ruby Life Pools
- Uldaman: Legacy of Tyr
Additionally, Season 4 will feature its own Keystone Hero and Keystone Master achievements, as well as another opportunity to finish off those portals for completing a level +10 (previously +20) within the time limit that you may have missed in previous seasons for the returning dungeons.
Antique Bronze Bullion (Dinars)
Similar to the Awakened predecessor of Fated in Shadowlands where we had Dinars, there will be a new Season 4 currency called Antique Bronze Bullion. It can be traded in for trinkets, weapons, special items, Transmog and even the Jigglesworth, Sr. mount if you were unable to collect it back in Shadowlands.
In terms of acquiring Antique Bronze Bullion, you will earn 1 Antique Bronze Bullion a week per character by defeating Awakened bosses; its not absolutely clear what the requirements for this are yet. Each week the cap for how many Bullion you can have increases by 1, meaning you can catch up if you don't collect a Bullion every week.
Trinkets and Weapons purchased with Bullion will be at item level 493 and level 1/12 on the Awakened upgrade track. These items can be upgraded to the highest item level possible for that item in Mythic difficulty (including the Very Rare items) using Awakened Crests and Flightstones.
What is going away in Season 4?
With Season 4 so close, the main question is what is going away at the end of Season 3. As per an official blue post from Blizzard, Season 3 will end April 23, 2024 for US realms, and April 24, 2024 for EU realms, meaning that after those dates you will no longer be able to obtain the following rewards and achievements.
PvP Seasonal Rewards
Both the unique Elite transmog set for your class and the Gladiator mount for Dragonflight Season 3 will sadly go away and will no longer be obtainable.
Ahead of the Curve and Cutting Edge Feats of Strength
The Feat of Strength for defeating the Heroic and Mythic versions of Fyrakk, the last boss encounter in the Amirdrassil raid will go away with the end of Season 3.
However, the Reins of Anur’elos mount will still be a guaranteed drop on the Mythic difficulty, with 2 mounts dropping per kill of Mythic Fyrakk, which will drop to a 1% chance when The War Within releases. Additionally, another farmable cosmetic that will still be available for Season 4 are both the Balance Druid appearance and the special item to tame Na’hqi for Beast Mastery Hunters, which will still be available for defeating Tindral Sageswift in any difficulty.
Dragonflight Season 3 Keystone Hero and Keystone Master achievements
With the end of the Season we will say goodbye to all the dungeons currently in the Mythic+ rotation, since the Dawn of the Infinite mega dungeon will not be featured in the Season 4 Mythic+ dungeon pool. With that, both the Keystone Hero and Keystone Master achievements and rewards for Season 3 will no longer be available when the Awakened content patch drops.
It is time to farm those last portals if you want to have a cool way of teleporting out when your Hearthstone is on cooldown.
What is going to be available when Season 4 releases?
With the Realm restart next week, we will be able to jump straight into the first Awakened raid, Vault of the Incarnates, in any difficulty including Mythic. These dungeons will be scaled up and reward higher item level rewards, so there will be a similar challenge to defeating the bosses once again.
In terms of dungeons the only restricted part will be the weekly cap for Crests, as per usual at the start of a Mythic+ Season (with the weekly cap adding onto the previous so your characters can catch up later into the Season).
The end of the run rewards and the Great Vault will also be uncapped and will drop equipment similar to what they do now, and you can check a comprehensive table in our Dragonflight Season 4 End of Dungeon and Great Vault Rewards article.