World of Warcraft: Shadowlands Conduits guide

Need to know more about WoW Shadowlands Conduits? Each new World of Warcraft expansion brings different systems to learn and master. Shadowlands is no different. Soulbinds will play a major part in the expansion and the Conduits placed within them will give you greater control over the customisation of your character. 

If you're unfamiliar with the new Soulbinds system in Shadowlands, I'd recommend checking out my WoW Shadowlands Soulbinds guide first. Otherwise, read on to find out about WoW Conduits and how they work in Shadowlands.

What are WoW Shadowlands Conduits?

Soulbind Conduits will be familiar to anyone who played the latter part of Legion or Battle for Azeroth. They work similarly to Artifact Weapon Relics or Azerite Essences, adding class and spec-specific bonuses to your Soulbind interface. There are several Conduits for each class and the bonus from each will automatically adjust with your spec. 

There are three types of Conduit. Potency Conduits will grant bonuses for damage or healing throughput. Endurance conduits help out with survival and defence. Finally, finesse conduits give bonuses to the utility of your character. 

How to use Conduits

Once you've acquired and selected a Soulbind from your chosen WoW Covenant at level 60, you'll gain access to the Forge of Bonds and the Soulbind interface. Along with the default abilities for that Soulbind, you'll notice empty slots into which you can place your Conduits.

Each Conduit slot is limited to hold one of the three types of Conduit—Potency, Endurance, or Finesse. The locations of these slots will differ in each Soulbind. This should provide greater customisation over your character's power, allowing you to prioritise the Conduit type (as well as similar Soulbind bonuses) that you require most for your class and spec.

Each Conduit can only be used once for each Soulbind, but you can use the same Conduit in your second or third Soulbind if desired. 

How to get Conduits

Conduits can be acquired in a number of ways. Once you hit level 60 and unlock your first Soulbind, you can acquire Conduits by taking part in endgame content such as World Quests, Dungeons, PvP, and Raids. When you receive a Conduit, you'll need to 'learn' it via the Soulbind interface at the Forge of Bonds, similar to the way Azerite Essences were collected and learned via the interface in the Heart Chamber.

It also seems that specific Conduits drops aren't locked to one type of activity and most can be acquired from multiple sources, unlike Battle for Azeroth's Azerite Essences.

How to upgrade Conduits

Conduits will drop with differing item levels, depending on the difficulty of the activity you are taking part in. As you'd expect, the higher the item level, the more potent the Conduit's bonus will be. If you already posses a certain Conduit but acquire a higher item level version from completing, say, a dungeon or a raid on a higher difficulty, you can take it to the Forge of Bonds in your Covenant Sanctum and 'learn' it as your would normally. The higher item level Conduit will replace the lower one.

You can also manually upgrade your Conduits by purchasing an item from Ve’nari, an NPC found in The Maw. This item can be purchased with the new currency Stygia, obtained from completing World quests in The Maw.

How to switch Conduits

It's likely you'll want to change your equipped Conduits at some point. Perhaps you want to try out different combinations of Conduits, or maybe you want to change your Soulbind's path entirely and need to move Conduits around to do so. Whatever the reason, this is fairly easy to do, though you should be aware that there is a time limit on how often you can switch them out.

The Forge of Bonds in your Covenant Sanctum runs on Conduit Energy, holding a maximum of ten charges. Each time you place a Conduit into your Soulbind, you'll use up a Charge. Luckily, the Charges regenerate at the rate of one per day, so there is some flexibility there. Just be aware of this restriction when deciding which Conduits you want to place initially.

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