WoW Midnight: Venomstone upgrades now favour non-crafted gear

A hotfix has changed how much item level an Ascendant Venomstone upgrade adds. Using 10 of the stones on an eligible piece of gear raises its item level. Earlier this week a crafted piece went up by 7 to 338, while a non-crafted piece went up by 6 to 340. After the fix the gains have swapped round: a crafted piece now gains 6 and ends at 337, and a non-crafted piece gains 7 and ends at 341.

In practice each side moves by 1 item level, so the change is small. What it does is tilt the balance a little further towards gear that drops rather than gear that is made: the gap between an upgraded crafted piece and an upgraded non-crafted Myth piece grows from 2 item levels to 4.

The stones come from Bountiful chests at Tier 11, in Delves and in Labyrinths, and each chest turns 1 Restored Coffer Key into an Ascendant Venomstone. A player can earn up to 600 Coffer Key Shards a week, which makes 6 keys, and Naleidea Rivergleam sells 2 more, so up to 8 keys a week. Only 4 Bountiful Delves are up each day, but the Labyrinth of Kindo'jan can be run as often as you like, and a full clear opens 3 chests.

Blizzard has not yet published notes for this hotfix, and the latest hotfix list on its site is dated 21 October, so for now this rests on a single report of what changed in the game. The Labyrinth already offers another route to a Myth track piece of your choice.