Midnight Patch 12.0.5 OverviewRitual Sites Challenges and Rewards
Among several new activities in the Lingering Shadows update, Ritual Sites are one of the main ways of farming Field Accolades, used for cosmetics and catch-up Champion or Heroic gear. Featuring only five tiers of progression and several challenges, the progression curve can be quite challenging for players in lower gear, but the ability to group up and repeat the activity with no keys, cooldown, or lockouts means farming a full set of Heroic gear is simply a matter of determination.
The caches offer an infinite supply of catch-up gear, commensurate with what players would normally get on a weekly lockout from Prey or Delves.
Like Delves, Prey Hunts, Zone Events, Weekly Quests, and Assignments, completing Ritual Sites also contributes to the World track of rewards in the Great Vault, scaling with difficulty tier. While Tiers 1-3 reward just Champion level gear, Tier 4 and 5 Ritual Sites make a big leap up to 2/6 and 4/6 Hero respectively, making Tier 5 Ritual Sites the highest item level of weekly rewards available from World Content in the Great Vault in Patch 12.0.5. Surpassing Tier 8 Delves and Nightmare Prey hunts previous high of 1/6 Hero, this may save some upgrade crests, but without a group, they might not be quite as easy either.
Ritual Sites are also award the highest level of Great Vault gear for players who aren't interested in raiding or engaging in Mythic+ content.
Don't Disregard Delves
That said, there are still reasons to prioritizing the other events. Since the activity is split up into more tiers, Delves have a smoother progression curve, and Valeera is extremely helpful to solo players. Delves are also arguably better filling out gear, as the Rank 9 Renown vendor allows players to purchase specific Hero-track items, rather than hoping to RNG an upgrade from the Cache of Void-Touched Armaments. They're also a minor source of Myth Dawncrests, which may eventually help craft a powerful endgame piece of gear.
Without participating in raids or Mythic+, this may be the only way for some players to acquire Myth crests used for crafting.
At the same time, both activities are completely outclassed by Mythic+ dungeons, so it's all a matter of where the player is at and how they wish to approach the game. It probably won't stay this way forever, either: Ritual Sites are a piece of mid-patch content, which traditionally do offer some kind of catch-up gear that devalues previous activities, while Delves are more evergreen and the new Delve Labyrinths promise to bring an entirely new aspect to the activity in Patch 12.1.5.
