Soul Shard Bags

To anyone who loves playing a warlock, 1.9 was a great patch. No, the class wasn’t totally revamped like the paladin (which always seems to be broken). In fact, there weren’t many changes to the warlock in the official patch notes. Nonetheless, a very significant addition was made that will forever change how warlocks are played. Now, soul shards have their own dedicated, high-capacity containers.

This may at first seem like a simple matter of convenience. A warlock equipped with a soul shard bag no longer has to sort through all of his or her belongings in order to determine how many soul shards are on hand. Like quivers, all you have to do is glance over to your packs to figure out the number of soul shards available. Granted, this is incredibly convenient, but the significance is even greater.

Primarily, soul shard bags allow a warlock to carry many more shards than he or she would have prior to the patch. Even the smallest soul shard bag (which has 20 slots) has a much greater capacity than the largest normal container (which has 16). And, since this space can only hold soul shards, it becomes a non-issue as to how many soul shards to carry around. Obviously, if you have the room and it can only be used for that purpose, you’ll be draining souls until you’re capped.

Effectively, this makes the requirement of a soul shard for the warlock’s most prized and signature spells no restriction at all. You can switch your summons, distribute healthstones to your party members, and use Ritual of Summoning to your heart’s content. Needless to say, the Shadowburn talent on the third tier of the Destruction tree is also a great deal more useful.

There are currently three different varieties of soul shard bag. The basic Soul Pouch can be created by an artisan tailor and holds 20 shards. If you’re keen on knitting one yourself, the pattern is available in Gadgetzan. This version is the smallest and the easiest to obtain, so it’s also the cheapest. I got mine for seven gold pieces at the Stormwind auction house.

The next best is a blue quality soul shard bag called a Felcloth Bag, which holds 24 shards. Supposedly the pattern for this drops from Jandice Barov in Scholomance. I’ve only ever seen one up for auction, and it was going for over 50 gold pieces (hence the reason why I opted for the Soul Pouch).

The last type of soul shard bag is purple quality and called a Core Felcloth Bag. This top-of-the-line container holds a whopping 28 soul shards. It is, however, prohibitively difficult to make or buy. The pattern can only be obtained in Molten Core, and the materials to create the bag are obscene. Thus, even the highest-level warlocks are opting for either of the lesser soul shard bags to meet their needs. As the difference between the worst and best bags is only eight slots, this choice isn’t an unreasonable one.

Whatever you elect to get, none of the bags have a minimum level requirement. Thus, it is advisable to buy yourself a Soul Pouch as soon as possible to reap the ongoing benefits to efficiency and play value. Warlocks are traditionally one of the least-played classes in the game because of the annoyance of soul shard management. Now that the problem has been laid by the wayside, you can expect to see their prevalence, and the cost of soul shard bags, increase.

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