WoW 8.1: Assault on Nazmir (Horde)
by Magistrate - 6 years ago show comments
We’re returning today to another open world zone Assault in Battle for Azeroth. Zone-wide Assaults return in Tides of Vengeance similar to Legion invasions. Kul Tiras and Zandalar feature timed events where you must push back against NPCs of the opposing faction for gear, rep, Service Medals, and experience rewards. In this post, we look at the Alliance Assault on Nazmir, where the player defends as the Horde.
- 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 Nazmir 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 (Talanji’s Expedition for Horde in Nazmir).
- 7th Legion or Honorbound Service Medals, a new currency in 8.1.
- Azerite Power.
- War Mode grants you Conquest Points for completing Assaults.
Nazmir Assault
High Warlord Crommush continues to drive the defense of new Horde territories in this Assault. The Nazmir Assault World Quests occur mostly on the northern half of the zone, clustered like all other BFA Assaults. There is variation in World Quest spawns and availability in each Assault, so you won’t always run the same quests.
For whatever reason, I personally found that the selection of World Quests that spawned in Nazmir felt like the best gameplay out of all the other assaults we covered. A couple of them were present separately in other Assaults, and it’s important to keep in mind that Assault World Quests vary even in the same zone.
Some Possible World Quests
Skirmish at the Span: This World Quest works just like Azerfight! in Stormsong Valley. You must kill 12 Alliance soldiers here, either on your own or by picking up the Azerite globule for the insane power buff. The buff lasts 30 minutes, doubles healing and damage, and increases max health by 25%. Downside: the buff decreases health (not max) by 2-3% per second held.
This Gang of Mine: You must activate five named Crawler Mines (Roscoe, Cranky, Winona, Killzit, and Boomer) around the quest area, tangoing with Alliance soldiers while you do so. After activating all five, return to the Remote Mine Controls by the ruin steps, where you’ll take command of your bomb squad. Similar to Desert Crawl in Nazmir, Power Walk temporarily increases your run speed, and you must use Detonate on the Alliance war machine at the far end of the bridge. However, this time you also get the Command Mines ability, which will send one of your four other Crawlers out to kill a targeted NPC. Beware: you can only do this four times, and it does seem like the event is scripted to aggro NPCs at certain points.
The Blighted Touch: For this simple World Quest, you must kill 12 Night Elf Druids doing their various bear and moon magic things (or the tree elites if you’re feeling ballsy), as well as contaminate the nearby Ancient with plenty of plague. When you pick up nearby Plague Barrels, you’ll gain an action button to throw it to an aoe location. Simply run up to the tree and make sure you hit as much of its hitbox as possible. It requires five “hits”–you should be able to do this in two takes.
Thomas Vandergrief: In a cave closer to the Death Loa’s temple, you’ll find conspicuous chest. Click on the chest to summon this rarespawn–he doesn’t seem to have any special abilities, but he has a lot of health. (Myself and another clothie were able to take him out, it just took a while.) He does have a passive Poisoned Blades buff, which gives his attacks a chance to cause additional Nature damage.
Overgrown Ancient: On a nearby coast, you’ll have to kill Overgrown Ancient, who is pretty much the same as the Ancient Defender part of Receding Treeline in Zuldazar. It uses Earthen Breath, a frontal aoe attack, Bramble Ball, a ranged attack (interruptable), and Massive Stomp, a wide aoe stun. If there’s any difference between the two fights, this rarespawn might have more health to compensate for the fact that it’s only one NPC and not two, like the other quest.
Assault the Alliance Ship
Four Assault World Quests completed, you’ll head into the shallows north of the Necropolis to start one of my favorite Assault finales out of BFA. Hop on the Goblin rocket to reach the Horde naval fleet (including an Iron Horde-esque ship likely curtesy of the recently-recruited Mag’har Orcs). There, you’ll find a second (and way more fun) rocket, Pozzik’s Experimental Bomber.
The Bomber, while being a structural and safety nightmare, sports several of the usual vehicle abilities:
- Machine Gun, which channels a bullet spray hitting everything in front of you (and can be cast while moving).
- Special Delivery, which drops a huge bomb payload directly below you for a big aoe.
- Emergency Repairs, which quickly heals you to full while moving.
Once you reach the quest area, you’ll be able to fly the Bomber, yourself. You’ll have to fill a progress meter, but it goes by fast. Machine Gun is a satisfying, bullet-spraying kill spree. Most of the enemy airships travel in groups and go down quickly, but you may find an elite version that takes a bit more oomph–make sure you watch your health and heal as necessary. You can also drop Special Delivery to destroy large swaths of both Alliance war machines and soldier battalions.
After filling up the progress meter, Rokhan informs you your next target is Captain Beamwind aboard the nearby Kul Tiran ship. There’s a couple other NPCs on the ship, but you can ignore them. The Captain is located inside the rear of the ship. She buffs herself with Lightning Shield, granting her a 50% chance to inflict Nature damage on hit, and she will occasionally try to cast a Lightning Bolt spell, which you can interrupt. Overall, she’s not an elite, so she’s a quick kill.
Captain dead and Alliance forces defeated, you can either swim back to the Horde fleet (lulz) or hop back on the Bomber to return. Pop out your Flight Whistle, head to Zul’jan Ruins, and claim your rep, Horde Service Medals, and gear cache.
Zuldazar Assault Footage
Don’t miss the rest of our patch 8.1: Tides of Vengeance coverage! Questions, comments, or corrections? Feel free to drop them below or @BlizzPro!