How to Get Ethereal Crests in The War Within

Similar to all other seasons, we’ve got a new version of Crests coming together with Patch 11.2. In this guide, we’ll explain how to get Ethereal Crests in The War Within Season 3 in detail. These Crests are the main resource for pushing your item level in this patch, and farming them efficiently will save you a lot of time.

In our Ethereal Crest guide, we described all the best strategies from Mythic+ dungeons to Delves and outdoor events. Ethereal Crests are everywhere if you know where to look. We also break down how the Crest system works and what makes these tokens so powerful and desired in terms of equipment upgrades.

To skip the grind, we can help you Farm Ethereal Crests and get any amount of them in a jiffy. Trust this job to our PROs rather than spending your precious time. We guarantee the best market price and the fastest delivery.

Read our other The War Within guides:

• Gold Farming Guide
• Mythic+ Guide
• Gearing Guide
• Best Classes Guide
• Best Addons
• Leveling Guide
• Reshii Wraps Guide
• Phase Diving Guide

 

 

What Are Ethereal Crests in The War Within?

Ethereal Crests are the key currency for upgrading your gear in The War Within Season 3. You will need them to push your item levels higher, especially for activities like Mythic Plus, Raids, and Delves. They work alongside Valorstones and follow a similar upgrade system to the Crests from previous seasons. Below, we’ve given the main facts about Ethereal Crests:

• Used to Upgrade Gear – Boosts item levels through Adventurer, Veteran, Champion, Hero, and Myth tracks.
• Earned from Endgame Content – Comes from Mythic Plus dungeons, Raids, Delves, World Quests, and Events.
• Comes in Four Tiers – Weathered, Carved, Runed, and Gilded, matching different item level ranges.
• Weekly Cap System – Limits how many Runed and Gilded Crests you can earn per week.

In addition to gear upgrades, there are also Nascent and Enchanted Ethereal Crests, which are used for crafting high-end gear. These are handled through professions and play a big role in endgame crafting progression.

The weekly cap is a major feature. You can farm as many Weathered and Carved Crests as you want, but Runed and Gilded Crests have a strict limit each week. The developers stick to the same system to ensure Ethereal Crests farm speed stays more or less the same for all active players. If you missed a week, the game gives you a catch-up cap to help you stay on track.

How to Farm Ethereal Crests

Farming Ethereal Crests is how you progress your gear in The War Within Season 3. No matter what type of content you enjoy, there’s always a way to earn more Crests. The higher the challenge, the better the Crests you get. Here’s how to farm Ethereal Crests so far:

1. Mythic+ Dungeons
2. Manaforge Omega Raid
3. Delves
4. Outdoor Events
5. Delver’s Bounty
6. Vendor Exchanges

Every activity gives you different Crest tiers. For example, Delves are great for casual farming. Yet Mythic+ and Raids are the best ways to farm Ethereal Crests and remain the main source for Runed and Gilded Crests as well. Vendor Exchanges let you trade lower-tier crests up once you’ve hit certain progression milestones.

Remember, Runed and Gilded Crests have a weekly cap of 90 per tier. If you miss a week, the cap will increase so you can catch up later. Weathered and Carved Crests are uncapped, letting you farm as many as you need. Make sure to balance your farming routes so you don’t fall behind on upgrades.

Mythic+ Dungeons

Mythic+ Dungeons are one of the best sources for obtaining Ethereal Crests in The War Within. They reward large amounts of Crests, scaling with the Keystone Level you complete. The higher the key, the better Crests you’ll earn. This is the core activity for pushing your item level past the mid-tier gear upgrades. See what Crest types you can get when progressing through this activity:

• Gilded Ethereal Crests: Dropped from Mythic+7 and higher Keystone levels. Used to upgrade Hero and Myth gear up to item level 723.
• Runed Ethereal Crests: Earned from Mythic+2 to +6 Keystone levels. These enhance Champion and Hero gear up to item level 704.
• Carved Ethereal Crests: Available from Mythic 0 to +3 Keystone levels. Supports upgrades for Veteran and Champion gear between 681 and 691 item level.

The lowest-tier version of Crests, Weathered, drops from Heroic Dungeons. They’re your starting point before aiming for a higher tier. At Skycoach, we can help you with M+ Runs on any difficulty to get the rarest Crests and all other rare rewards.

The number of crests you get also depends on whether you beat the dungeon timer:

• Beating the timer grants more Crests.
• Failing the timer still gives Crests, but in smaller amounts.

Each Mythic+ dungeon you complete will contribute to your weekly crest cap. You can earn up to 90 Runed and 90 Gilded Ethereal Crests per week. If you miss a reset, the cap increases to let you catch up. This system encourages you to keep pushing higher keys, but even low-to-mid keys are viable for farming if you prefer a relaxed run. Since Mythic+ Dungeons also contribute to The Great Vault, they’re a must-do for any player serious about gearing. BLOG20

Manaforge Omega Raid

Manaforge Omega is the main raid of The War Within Season 3, and a key source of Ethereal Crests. Each difficulty level rewards a specific type of Crest, which makes this raid essential for progressing through all upgrade tracks. No matter your current gear level, Manaforge Omega has something valuable to offer. Here’s how to earn Ethereal Crests by farming a new Season 3 raid:

• Gilded Ethereal Crests: Found in Mythic Manaforge Omega, making it the best source for high-end upgrades to Myth gear up to item level 723.
• Runed Ethereal Crests: Dropped in Heroic difficulty, ideal for pushing Champion and Hero gear up to item level 704.
• Carved Ethereal Crests: Earned in Normal difficulty, perfect for mid-tier progression between item level 681 and 691.
• Weathered Ethereal Crests: Obtained from the Raid Finder (LFR) version, offering reliable upgrades for entry-level Adventurer and Veteran gear.

The last two bosses of Manaforge Omega, Nexus-King Salhadaar and Dimensius, always drop the top-tier Crest available for that difficulty. That makes them priority targets for anyone looking to squeeze out extra upgrades without having to clear the entire raid each week. Farming Crests here is not just about quantity, but efficiency. With lockouts resetting weekly, Manaforge Omega will be your go-to raid to steadily gather Crests while progressing through gear upgrades.

At Skycoach, we can help you Beat Manaforge Omega on any difficulty. This is your chance to grab the rarest Crests and other amazing rewards. We guarantee the best price and the fastest completion time for your order.

Delves

Speaking of other ways where to find Ethereal Crests – Delves are back in Season 3, and they remain one of the most flexible and repeatable ways to farm Ethereal Crests. You can tackle them solo or with a group, and the rewards scale based on the tier you choose. As you climb higher tiers, the quality of Crests improves. This makes Delves a reliable grind spot for every type of player, from casuals farming Weathered Crests to veterans chasing Gilded upgrades. See what you can expect:

• Gilded Ethereal Crests – Dropped from Delver’s Gilded Stash at Tier 11. This is the highest-tier Crest, essential for upgrading Myth-level gear.
• Runed Ethereal Crests – Found in Tier 8-11 Delves. These are vital for enhancing Champion and Hero gear as you progress deeper into endgame.
• Carved Ethereal Crests – Earned by completing Tier 6-7 Delves. Great for players working on Veteran and early Champion gear upgrades.
• Weathered Ethereal Crests – Available in Tier 1-5 Delves and also drop frequently from repeatable outdoor events. These are the go-to Crests for early gearing phases.

Using Restored Coffer Keys in higher-tier Delves is crucial. These keys guarantee additional rewards, including extra Crests, Delver’s Journey progress, and sometimes even Gilded Crests. Delves are one of the few activities that let you target specific Crest tiers based on difficulty, making them a must-farm option every week.

Just like with any other endgame activity, Delves can be a real struggle for players of any level. That’s why Skycoach is always here to assist you with Completing Delves and earning the best rewards.

Outdoor Events

As we’re moving on with our The War Within Ethereal Crest guide, we’ve got a few words to say about Outdoor Events. They might be a less obvious yet still viable option for players to gather Crests of different tiers. Here’s what you need to know:

• Weathered Ethereal Crests – Earned by participating in repeatable outdoor events, opening outdoor treasures, and completing low-tier Delves. These Crests are very common, so you will gather plenty just by doing daily world content like events, quests, and small activities around the map.
• Carved Ethereal Crests – Rewarded from weekly outdoor events and world bosses. These are more structured events, such as Spreading the Light, Theater Troupe, or Awakening the Machine. These quests usually involve completing special objectives and grant Carved Crests in bulk upon completion. Each faction’s weekly content can also give you extra Carved Crests.

Outdoor events are great for players who want to farm Crests casually while still working on world content like Renown. The weekly world events usually offer a solid chunk of Carved Crests, and by mixing them with daily outdoor activities, you’ll be able to stockpile a decent amount of Weathered and Carved Crests every week.

While Outdoor Events don’t reward the higher-tier Runed and Gilded Crests, they are a solid foundation for early and mid-tier gear upgrades, especially if you’re not running dungeons or raids frequently.

Delver’s Bounty

Delver’s Bounty is one of the best ways to earn extra Ethereal Crests while progressing through Delves. These special treasure maps unlock bonus objectives and stashes within Delves, rewarding you with higher-tier Crests depending on the map’s level. Delver’s Bounty adds an extra layer of rewards on top of your regular Delve runs. Here’s how the Crest drops work for Delver’s Bounty in Season 3:

• Gilded Ethereal Crests – Found in Delver’s Bounty Maps from Tier 8 and up. These are the highest-tier Crests and are crucial for Myth gear upgrades.
• Runed Ethereal Crests – Dropped from Delver’s Bounty Maps at Tier 6-7. These Crests are perfect for enhancing Champion and Hero gear.
• Carved Ethereal Crests – Earned by completing Delver’s Bounty Maps at Tier 4-5. Great for pushing Veteran and early Champion upgrades.

Each Bounty Map adds unique objectives inside the Delve, such as defeating rare elites, unlocking hidden chests, or completing special mini-events. Completing these will reward you with additional Crests and sometimes bonus loot like Valorstones or Delver’s Journey progress.

Vendor Exchanges

If you find yourself with too many lower-tier Crests, you can trade them up for higher-tier ones through special vendors. This system helps smooth out progression and ensures that your time spent farming never feels wasted. You’ll find the Crest vendors, Cuzolth and Vaskarn, in Dornogal, inside the Mythic Aspirations shop at coordinates [51.8, 42.1]. Here’s what they offer:

• Cuzolth handles gear upgrades, allowing you to spend your Crests to raise your item levels.
• Vaskarn manages Crest trades, letting you exchange lower-tier Crests for higher-tier ones once you unlock the necessary achievements.

Trading Crests sounds simple, but there are a few things to keep in mind. You can’t just walk up to the vendor and swap your way to the top. First, you’ll need to hit certain achievements from upgrading your gear before they’ll let you trade up to higher-tier Crests. This is the developers' way of making sure you follow the intended gear path and don’t jump straight to Myth-level upgrades on day one.

Also, trading up isn’t cheap. You’ll need a bunch of lower-tier Crests just to get a single higher-tier one. For example, turning Carved Crests into Runed Crests will drain a lot of Carved tokens, so it’s really just a backup option when you’re close to capping out or missing a few for an upgrade.

On the flip side, you can downgrade Crests, too. This comes in handy if you need more lower-tier ones for things like crafting Enchanted Crests. You can break down extra Runed or Gilded Crests into Carved or Weathered versions whenever needed.

 

Ethereal Crest Types

Ethereal Crests come in four types, each tied to a different stage of gear progression in The War Within Season 3. You’ll earn these crests from various activities, and each tier helps push your gear to the next level. See a table explaining all Ethereal Crest types below:

As you climb into tougher content like Mythic+ and raids, these Crests will be your main path to keep upgrading your gear. They are the core of your progression loop. Managing them well is key to staying ahead in Season 3. BLOG20

How to Get Enchanted Ethereal Crests

Enchanted Ethereal Crests are a special crafting material used to add powerful bonuses to crafted gear. These items are a key part of high-end gear crafting in The War Within Season 3. Unlike regular Ethereal Crests, you won’t earn Enchanted Crests by running Mythic+ Dungeons or Raids directly. Instead, they are created through the crafting system by using Nascent Ethereal Crests as the base material.

• Nascent Gilded Ethereal Crest costs x90 Gilded Ethereal Crests
• Nascent Runed Ethereal Crest costs x45 Runed Ethereal Crests
• Nascent Weathered Ethereal Crest costs x30 Weathered Ethereal Crests

To get started, you’ll first need to collect Nascent Ethereal Crests. These are crafted by combining multiple Ethereal Crests of a specific tier. For example, turning Weathered Ethereal Crests into a Nascent Weathered Crest. After crafting a Nascent Crest, you’ll need to take it to an enchanter or use the profession work order system to upgrade it into an Enchanted Crest.

This crafting process is account-wide. That means you can gather Nascent Crests on any character and craft Enchanted Crests through your profession characters or by placing a public Crafting Order.

1. Gather enough Ethereal Crests of a specific tier.
2. Craft a Nascent Ethereal Crest through a profession recipe.
3. Turn the Nascent Crest into an Enchanted Ethereal Crest using Enchanting or via a Crafting Order.

Keep in mind that crafting Enchanted Crests will also require additional materials like Valorstones and some profession-specific reagents. These items are essential for unlocking the final item level boosts on crafted gear, making them a must-have for serious crafters and players chasing top-tier item levels.

To get all the materials you need or pay for the Crafting Order you submit, WoW Gold is required. Skycoach can deliver any amount of the main in-game currency to any server you’re playing for the best market price and within a blink of an eye.

How to Spend Ethereal Crests

Once you have a good stack of Ethereal Crests, it is time to spend them. These Crests are your main currency for upgrading gear in The War Within Season 3. You will use them alongside Valorstones to raise your item levels, pushing your gear through the progression tracks like Veteran, Champion, Hero, and Myth.

To upgrade gear, head over to Cuzolth, the gear upgrade vendor in Dornogal. You will find him at the Mythic Aspirations shop near coordinates [51.8, 42.1]. This is where you’ll exchange your Crests for direct item level upgrades.

If you need to convert lower-tier Crests into higher-tier ones, or the other way around, you will also want to visit Vaskarn, located right next to Cuzolth. Vaskarn handles all Crest exchanges, but remember, you will need to unlock certain achievements tied to your gear progression before you can start trading up into higher tiers.

• Upgrade Gear: Cuzolth will upgrade your gear pieces by spending the right tier of Crest plus Valorstones.
• Exchange Crests: Vaskarn lets you trade in excess lower-tier Crests for higher-tier ones, though the trade ratio is steep.
• Craft Enchanted Crests: You can use Nascent Crests at crafting stations to create powerful Enchanted Ethereal Crests for high-end gear.
• Downgrade Crests: If you're short on lower-tier Crests, you can downgrade higher-tier ones to fill gaps in your crafting needs.

Spending Crests smartly is the key to smooth progression. Avoid wasting them on gear pieces you’ll replace soon, and always plan your upgrades around reaching key item level breakpoints for Mythic+ dungeons and raids.

Ethereal Crests Weekly Cap

Farming Ethereal Crests in The War Within comes with a weekly limit that controls how many Crests you can earn per reset. This system is designed to pace progression, so players do not rush through upgrades in the first few weeks. See how Ethereal Crests weekly cap works:

• 90 Runed Ethereal Crests
• 90 Gilded Ethereal Crests

This cap applies account-wide, not per character. That means you can farm on alts, but your total earnings are shared across all of them.

The good news is there’s a catch-up system. If you miss a week or two, your total cap increases. For example, by Week 3, you’ll be able to earn up to 270 Runed and Gilded Crests if you didn’t cap in previous weeks. This lets casual players stay in the loop without feeling left behind.

Weathered and Carved Ethereal Crests are more flexible. They do not have a hard weekly cap and can be farmed freely through outdoor content, low-tier Delves, and other repeatable activities. You’ll mostly hit soft limits based on how much content you choose to run.

Conclusion

This brings us to the end of our guide on how to get Ethereal Crests in The War Within. From Weathered to Gilded, every activity you complete feeds into your progression. You’ll farm them through Mythic+ dungeons, raids, Delves, outdoor events, and even vendor trades.

Crafting Enchanted Crests adds another layer, helping you push your gear even further. While the weekly caps slow down how fast you can farm the top-tier Crests, the catch-up system ensures you won’t fall behind. Stay consistent, plan your weekly goals, and you’ll have no trouble maxing out your upgrades this season.

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