How to Catch Up with Gear, Renown, Legendaries in WoW Shadowlands

Finding yourself lagging behind in World of Warcraft can happen whether you’ve taken a break or switched to alternate characters. Content creator Kelani provides actionable strategies to accelerate your character’s progression across Shadowlands’ core systems, helping you rejoin the current content pace efficiently.

Renown

Among the most accessible systems for rapid advancement is the Renown progression track. When you’re deficient in Renown levels, supplementary Renown becomes available through nearly all max-level activities. Your daily callings represent the most dependable source since they explicitly indicate whether Renown will be awarded. Always inspect calling rewards upon acquisition – some include Renown as bonus compensation while others don’t. Make it a daily ritual to verify which callings provide this catch-up benefit.

Completing a dungeon offers another opportunity for Renown acquisition. Weekly World Boss encounters guarantee one Renown, while battleground participation occasionally provides additional progression. Essentially, any max-level activity carries potential Renown rewards, though callings and dungeon runs typically deliver the fastest advancement rates.

As you rapidly progress through initial Renown tiers, additional Campaign Quests become accessible, each providing further Renown upon completion. Maintain momentum by promptly addressing these quests as they unlock. The maximum attainable Renown through these supplementary methods correlates directly with the current weekly cap. If the maximum available Renown stands at level 21, your accelerated catch-up ceiling becomes level 19. This calculation accounts for two weekly Renown quests plus one deduction for each uncompleted Campaign Quest available at maximum Renown level.

For players aiming to maximize weekly Renown gains, delay turning in your Covenant’s two weekly quests until you’ve cleared all available campaign chapters and accumulated sufficient additional Renown from callings, dungeons, and other sources to reach two levels below the current cap.

Alternate characters benefit significantly from the Threads of Fate leveling approach, which grants four Renown during the leveling process. Each zone features a major questline delivering substantial experience rewards plus one Renown in subsequent follow-up quests. All zone-related activities – including quest completion, World Quests, bonus objectives, and dungeon runs – contribute progress toward these objectives. By reaching level 60, most players will complete at least two zones, providing an immediate Renown head start before engaging with other catch-up methods.

However, not all Covenant systems feature catch-up mechanics. Anima acquisition for Sanctum upgrades lacks acceleration methods, meaning you’ll likely trail in both anima reserves and Sanctum development temporarily.

Weekly Covenant quests involving soul recovery from the Maw initially provide five redeemed souls weekly. These souls, essential for Sanctum enhancements alongside anima, originate exclusively from this quest with no alternative acquisition methods. Consequently, redeemed souls typically become your primary progression bottleneck, with consistent weekly quest completion representing the only mitigation strategy.

A critical milestone occurs at Renown level 15, where the soul recovery quest reward doubles to ten souls weekly. Achieving this threshold rapidly through Renown catch-up methods effectively doubles your soul acquisition rate, significantly accelerating Covenant progression.

Gear

Character equipment represents another crucial progression dimension requiring catch-up attention. Shadowlands gear acquisition operates significantly slower than previous expansions, naturally extending the catch-up timeline accordingly.

Fortunately, several acceleration options exist. For players below item level 170, revisiting the Auction House offers substantial time savings despite gold costs. With the expansion’s maturation, item level 168 crafted gear becomes increasingly accessible through player markets. While pricier than earlier crafted alternatives, these purchases can dramatically reduce gearing timeframes for players with available gold reserves.

Beyond market acquisitions, you’ll join the standard gear progression cycle. I strongly advocate completing at least one mythic+ Keystone weekly. This guarantees at least one weekly Vault item, typically representing an upgrade. Maximize your Vault options by engaging diverse content – raid boss eliminations and rated PvP participation expand selection opportunities. Additional choices increase upgrade probability, ensuring weekly loot opportunities aren’t wasted. Since Vault rewards typically exceed the content’s base item level, any effort to enhance selection odds proves immensely valuable for consistent weekly improvements. Beyond this system, advancing through higher mythic+ keys or normal/heroic raiding delivers major gear advancements.

For players experiencing significant gearing challenges, I recommend hopping into some battlegrounds. Regardless of match outcomes, you accumulate honor currency. Visit Oribos’ PvP vendors to directly purchase gear, starting at item level 158. Honor gear’s upgrade system allows continuous improvement through additional honor investment, reaching item level 197 at maximum upgrades. Renown level dictates upgrade eligibility, so combining honor grinding with Renown catch-up enables progression toward 197 gear exclusively through battlegrounds. This approach works for comprehensive gearing or filling specific underdeveloped slots. The conquest vendor provides similar opportunities – rated PvP participation earning conquest currency facilitates acquisition of item level 200 gear pieces. However, upgrading conquest gear requires rating achievements, potentially limiting accessibility for casual players.

Ledendary

Legendary item creation and enhancement constitutes another vital gearing component requiring soul ash resources. Unfortunately, this system lacks substantial catch-up mechanisms. Weekly soul ash acquisition caps at 1,140 from Torghast, achievable by clearing both available wings at layer 8 difficulty. This represents the primary consistent soul ash source, meaning players behind in this category face fixed progression speeds. Ensure weekly Torghast clears at your maximum achievable layer, ideally completing both wings for optimal soul ash accumulation toward legendary crafting and upgrades.

One notable soul ash catch-up opportunity exists through Bolvar’s storyline quests. Previously limited to one weekly quest completion, developers have removed these restrictions as all quests became available. Instead of weekly limitations, you can progress continuously through the narrative. Most story quests provide substantial soul ash rewards, with total completion yielding approximately 900 soul ash – nearly sufficient for your initial legendary creation. Completing Bolvar’s entire questline delivers a significant soul ash infusion to jumpstart your legendary development.

These comprehensive strategies should equip your characters to rejoin current Shadowlands content pacing. With patch 9.1 approaching, strategic implementation of these methods ensures you’re prepared for new content releases. For additional resources, consider acquiring Gold WoW directly through MmoGah at competitive pricing. Our platform additionally hosts numerous valuable Shadowlands guides. Continue following our content for ongoing strategic insights!

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