Essential Tasks Before Patch 12.0.5 & What to Skip

Essential Tasks in Patch 12.0.5 (And What to Skip)

Patch 12.0.5 Lingering Shadows went live with the April 21 weekly reset, and the new content sits next to enough old systems to make a priority order genuinely useful. Whether you are catching up on a returning main, gearing an alt during the catch-up window, or just trying to spend reset day on what actually matters, this is the to-do list. The shape: fastest gear lifts first, the long-tail tasks that are still worth doing, and the activities that are honestly not worth the time anymore.

Key Takeaways

• Voidforge unlock is Warband-wide and the highest-priority Voidforge action: pick up Building the Voidforge from Decimus in Voidstorm (The Howling Ridge, ~51.2, 68.4).
• 2 Nebulous Voidcores per week from Decimus on reset, plus 1 from Vaultkeeper Elysa for 6 Thalassian Tokens of Merit. These are bonus rolls, not free Myth pieces.
• Field Accolades from Void Strikes (8-10 per Field Pouch) and Ritual Sites (10% of final score) buy Champion gear (75 Accolades) and Hero gear (500 Accolades) from Maren Silverwing in Silvermoon.
• Frost Mage Hand of Frost Rank 4 retains 2 charges of Ray of Frost. Preservation Evoker picks up a new Temporal Barrier talent plus a Temporal Anomaly redesign.
• Story finale rewards: Emerald Hawkstrider mount + Emerald Hatchling pet from The Battle of the Bridge; Lightcalled Hearthstone toy from March on Quel'Danas (any difficulty above LFR / Story Mode).
• Skip: alt leveling specifically for Void Assaults (they are max-level content), and avoid pretending Patch 12.0.5 ships a new Timewalking event (Timewalking is on its evergreen rotation).

Voidforge is the highest-priority unlock because it is Warband-wide and the unlock window matters, so the priority order opens there.

Priority 1: Unlock the Voidforge on Your Warband

The Voidforge is the 12.0.5 bonus-loot-roll system, and the unlock is Warband-wide. Pick up Building the Voidforge from Decimus in the Howling Ridge sub-area of Voidstorm (TomTom waypoint roughly 51.2, 68.4 within the zone). Once the system is unlocked, the repeatable quest An Elementary Voidcore turns three Elementary Voidcore Shards (drops from raid bosses, Bountiful Delves, Mythic+) into one Elemental Voidcore. Icy Veins has a fuller walkthrough if you want the full quest chain.

The mechanic from there: Decimus hands out 2 Nebulous Voidcores per week on reset, and Vaultkeeper Elysa sells 1 additional Voidcore for 6 Thalassian Tokens of Merit once the system is unlocked. That is 3 bonus rolls per week, banked into raid (2 cores per boss roll) or Mythic+ / Bountiful Delves / Nightmare Prey Hunts (1 core per roll). The total Voidcore pool a character can hold grows by 2 every week for the rest of the season.

Priority 2: Run Mythic+ for Voidcore Volume

Mythic+ is the highest-volume Voidcore farm. Each timed key feeds the per-week Voidcore allowance, and the keys themselves still feed the Great Vault on their own track. Bundle the Voidforge gearing pack if you want the Voidforge unlock and a +10 weekly cap covered together, or push a +10 Mythic+ key weekly yourself for the same Voidcore deposit. Either way, the +10 weekly is the smallest target that pulls a Myth 1/6 ilvl item from the dungeon's pool when you cash in a Voidcore.

For active raiders, the priority order tilts toward the 2-core raid roll on tier slots and boss-locked trinkets. For M+-only players, three small Voidcore deposits on three different dungeons each week is the cleanest schedule.

Priority 3: Stack Field Accolades Until You Have Hero Gear

Field Accolades are the second new currency worth chasing. They drop from:

• Void Strike Field Pouch: 8-10 Field Accolades per completion in the active Void Assaults zone (Eversong Woods or Zul'Aman, rotating weekly).
• Void Incursion Field Satchel: larger reward than a Field Pouch, varies by run.
• Ritual Sites: 10% of your final scenario score in Field Accolades. A 1,000-score run pays 100 Accolades.

Spend them at Maren Silverwing in Silvermoon City: 75 Accolades for a Champion gear cache, 500 for a Hero gear cache. Champion caches are the right buy for an undergeared slot during the catch-up week; Hero caches are the long-term goal once your character is past the gear floor.

Priority 4: Class Changes Worth Reading

A class-tuning pass shipped with 12.0.5. The two that produced the most chatter in pre-patch discussion:

• Frost Mage: a planned change was reverted. Rank 4 of Hand of Frost still grants 2 charges of Ray of Frost. If you read pre-patch coverage that said charges were dropping to 1, ignore it.
• Preservation Evoker: a new talent Temporal Barrier entered the tree, and the existing Temporal Anomaly received a redesign. Worth re-rebuilding your raid talents this week.

Beyond those two, scan the full Blizzard 12.0.5 content update notes for the spec you actually play. The class section moves fast on patch day, and the wiki guides usually take a week to catch up.

Priority 5: Finish the Story Campaign for the Hawkstrider and Hearthstone

The Midnight Season 1 campaign closes with two specific rewards worth picking up before they get buried under post-patch content:

• Emerald Hawkstrider ground mount and Emerald Hatchling companion pet: both drop from The Battle of the Bridge, the climactic story quest.
• Lightcalled Hearthstone toy: rewarded from March on Quel'Danas after defeating the Midnight Falls encounter on any difficulty above LFR / Story Mode.

Both raids in the campaign are available on Story Mode for the narrative, but the Hearthstone toy requires Normal or higher on Midnight Falls. Worth the queue if you have not done it yet.

What to Skip This Week

The shorter list:

• Leveling alts purely for Void Assaults: Void Assaults are an endgame outdoor activity for max-level (level 90) characters. They do not span 80-90 as alt-leveling content. Bring your alt to 90 first; then the Field Accolades farm opens up.
• Waiting for a 12.0.5 Timewalking event: Timewalking runs on an evergreen rotation. The patch did not ship a new Timewalking event. If you want a Timewalking week, check the in-game calendar rather than assuming the patch added one.
• Aggressively fully-upgrading gear you will replace: Field Accolades caches and Voidforge bonus rolls will replace 4-8 slots over the next two weeks for most players. Save crests and upgrade currency for items you actually plan to keep.
• Delver's Journey rank 9 is not obsolete: the rank-9 hero-track Delves path is still live and still strong. Field Accolades adds a parallel path, not a replacement. If Delves are your preferred content, keep at it.

With the priority and the skip lists settled, the questions that come up most often once readers actually sit down to play this week are next.

FAQ

Where do I unlock the Voidforge?

Pick up Building the Voidforge from Decimus in the Howling Ridge sub-area of Voidstorm (~51.2, 68.4 within the zone). The unlock is Warband-wide, so do it on one character and every character on your Warband can use the system.

How many Voidcores do I get per week?

Three: two from Decimus on weekly reset, plus one purchased from Vaultkeeper Elysa for six Thalassian Tokens of Merit after you have unlocked the Voidforge.

How many Field Accolades do I get per Void Strike?

8-10 Field Accolades per Field Pouch (the Void Strike completion reward). Void Incursions reward a larger Field Satchel with more Accolades, varying by run. Ritual Sites pay 10% of your final scenario score.

Where do I buy Champion and Hero gear with Field Accolades?

Maren Silverwing in Silvermoon City. Champion gear caches cost 75 Field Accolades each; Hero gear caches cost 500 each.

What is the Emerald Hawkstrider and how do I get it?

The Emerald Hawkstrider is a ground mount rewarded from The Battle of the Bridge, the Midnight Season 1 campaign quest. The same quest also drops the Emerald Hatchling companion pet.

Do I need to level alts before 12.0.5?

No. Void Assaults and Ritual Sites are max-level (90) content and do not assist in leveling. Bring alts to 90 the normal way, then the Field Accolades catch-up loop opens up.

The Realistic Week

If you want the priority order in one paragraph: unlock the Voidforge on your main (Warband-wide, so this also covers alts), run two or three Void Strikes in the active zone for an opening pool of Field Accolades, time one +10 Mythic+ key on reset day for a Voidcore deposit, then pick whether the next hour goes into a Ritual Site for the Renown push or into the story finale for the Hawkstrider and Hearthstone toy. If your hours are tight, the 12.0.5 catch-up bundle wraps the Voidforge unlock, the +10 timer, and the Field Accolades cap together so the heavy lifting is done before next reset.