Flying is coming to Shadowlands in Patch 9.1, Chains of Domination, and you won’t need to complete the Pathfinder achievement to unlock the skill. Unlike flying in previous expansions, you’ll take the skies with greater ease thanks to flying in Shadowlands being tied to Renown Rank. Now, that said, if your main is behind on their Renown you’ll want to at least catch them up by the time Patch 9.1 drops.
Shadowlands Flying in Patch 9.1 is unlocked at Renown Rank 44, via a campaign quest.
In Shadowlands Patch 9.1 the Covenants have banded together to take the fight to the Jailer within the Maw. You only need to clear the Torghast chapter of your initial Covenant campaign to access the first chapter in the Patch 9.1 Korthia campaign. However, if you plan to fly you’ll have to reach Renown Rank 44 to access the Korthia campaign chapter, The Last Sigil, which unlocks flying in Shadowlands.
Flying in Shadowlands is an account-wide unlock for all your characters above level 50, though characters must first learn Expert Riding to utilize it. Because flying is account-wide you won’t have to fuss over unlocking it again on your alts once you’ve cleared the Renown Rank 44 Korthia campaign quest on your main. Yes, this means you can more easily use the Threads of Fate for leveling.
Catching up on Renown is insanely simple, so if you’ve taken an extended break don’t fret over it. It will take you a couple days if you are far behind, but that beats the weeks or months some older systems used to take. To catch up on Renown you’ll want to:
- Complete your two weekly Sanctum quests (always rewards Renown)
- Save souls from the Maw, and collect 1000 Anima
- Kill the weekly World Boss (will always reward Renown up to the cap).
- Kill bosses in Dungeons and Raids
- Renown has a chance to drop from either source, but the harder the content the better the drop-rate
- Raid Bosses have the best chance to drop Renown.
- Renown has a chance to drop from either source, but the harder the content the better the drop-rate
- Complete Callings for your Covenant
- At lower Renown Ranks these will almost always reward Renown
- Win battles in PvP
- This has the lowest chance to reward Renown, but it’s still a viable catch up method.
- Complete Bolvar’s Torghast missions
- These will stop rewarding Renown around Rank 20
Once you reach Renown Rank 44 and have completed the first few chapters in the Korthia campaign you can take on the Last Sigil chapter to unlock flying in Shadowlands. If you are Renown Rank 40 when Patch 9.1 drops you won’t be able to access flying until week 2, since you’ll only be able to grab Renown from the two Sanctum weeklies and a couple of the new campaign quests. Keep in mind flying is Shadowlands only works in Bastion, Maldraxxus, Ardenweald, and Revendreth. You cannot fly in Oribos, the Maw, or Korthia.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands Patch 9.1, Chains of Domination launches June 29th (NA) and June 30th (EU).
