Horrific Visions, a fan-favorite feature from Battle for Azeroth in WoW, is making a dramatic return in The War Within expansion. These solo or group-based scenario challenges set within corrupted versions of Orgrimmar and Stormwind are back—revamped and more rewarding than ever. Dalaran shared a guide on his YouTube channel on how Horrific Visions work, what masks are, and how you can unlock every single one of them to maximize your rewards. Let's explore what they are. Meanwhile, if you need gold for the Horrific Visions, we can help by offering cheap and reliable WoW gold.
What Are Horrific Visions?
Horrific Visions are instanced scenarios that place players in twisted versions of Orgrimmar or Stormwind, corrupted by the Old Gods. Within these visions, players must navigate dangerous zones, manage their dwindling sanity, and defeat increasingly challenging enemies.
The content scales in difficulty but also offers significant rewards, which include mounts, battle pets, Transmog cosmetics, and currency for upgrades. The core mechanic of Horrific Visions is sanity management—players must complete objectives and survive without letting their sanity drop to zero. As you get more comfortable, you can enable masks to make the encounters more difficult but also far more lucrative.
What Are Masks?
Masks are challenge modifiers you can enable inside Horrific Visions. Each mask increases the difficulty of your run but also boosts the rewards upon successful completion. There are eight masks in total: five original masks from Battle for Azeroth and three brand-new masks introduced in The War Within. The goal is to collect and enable as many as you can to push your skill and efficiency to the limit.
How to Unlock All Masks
1. Mask of the Long Night
Your journey begins with this mask. To unlock it, you must complete all side objectives in a single Horrific Vision run.
In Orgrimmar: Complete Valley of Honor, Valley of Spirits, and Valley of Wisdom before defeating Thrall.
In Stormwind: Clear Old Town and Mage Quarter before facing Alleria in Cathedral Square.
One of the effects is that this mask can reduce your maximum sanity by 50%. But this mask sets the stage for unlocking all others, as it must be equipped to access the others.
2–5. Original Masks from BFA
Once you're wearing the Mask of the Long Night, you can begin unlocking the four other legacy masks from BFA by completing specific zones within the visions, which are easy to obtain.
Mask of the Burned Bridge
How to Unlock: Clear the Valley of Wisdom in Orgrimmar while Mask of the Long Night is active, then slay Thrall.
Effect: Spawns void zones behind you as you move. Standing in them drains sanity.
Mask of the Daredevil
How to Unlock: Clear the Valley of Honor in Orgrimmar with the Long Night mask on.
Effect: Increases sanity damage taken by 400%.
Mask of the Pained
How to Unlock: Defeat bosses in the Old Town zone (Stormwind) and complete the run.
Effect: Doubles the number of Madness affixes per zone.
Mask of Dark Imagination
How to Unlock: Clear the Mage Quarter zone (Stormwind) and finish the run.
Effect: Spawns Horrific Figments that attack when your sanity drops below 50%.
These four masks can be unlocked in just a couple of full runs and will open up the path to even more challenging gameplay.
6–8. New Masks in The War Within
These masks are entirely new and come with specific conditions tied to exploration and enemy spawns. Here's how to find each one:
Mask of Vengeance
Hint in Game: "Located between scrutiny and steel bars."
How to Unlock: Head to the canals between Old Town and the Trade District in Stormwind. Kill Vengeful Voidspeakers in the area while at least one mask is active.
Mechanic: As enemies die, they empower nearby enemies. This makes elite mobs increasingly dangerous—especially those with unavoidable sanity-draining mechanics or high burst damage.
Strategy: Focus priority targets first and avoid AoEing weak enemies unless necessary to prevent empowering strong ones.
Mask of the Nemesis
How to Obtain:
- Stormwind: Defeat Hogger (unlocked via a wanted poster near the Stockades in the Mage District) and get the Nemesis Shard.
- Orgrimmar: Defeat Gamon (found at the Broken Tusk Inn—click his axe to summon him) and get his Shard.
- Then, combine both shards to create the mask.
Effect: Every 25 kills summons a nemesis (Hogger or Gamon), an elite enemy with powerful sanity-based attacks.
Strategy: Use the nemesis strategically—if you've unlocked the trait to gain sanity on elite kills, they can actually help you. Avoid triggering them during boss fights or heavy pulls.
Mask of the Multitudes
How to Obtain: Complete a full Stormwind or Orgrimmar vision with at least three masks active.
Mechanic: More enemies spawn during visions. Trash mobs are replaced with elites, increasing pressure and potential synergy with other mask mechanics like Vengeance or Nemesis.
Strategy: Be prepared for additional spawns and pace your pulls carefully. Use AoE cooldowns wisely.
Suggested Mask Enabling Order (From Easiest to Hardest)
- Burning Bridge – Requires positional awareness; manageable with practice.
- Dark Imagination – Sanity ghosts only appear under 50% sanity; can be avoided with good sanity management.
- Nemesis – Track kills and time the nemesis spawn to your advantage.
- Vengeance – Focus kill order to avoid empowering the wrong enemies.
- Daredevil – Some sanity-draining mechanics can be dodged if you're alert.
- Long Night – Halves your sanity bar; less room for mistakes.
- Pained – Adds a damage-over-time component or similar affliction.
- Multitudes – Adds extra enemies; complicates other mechanics.
Why Run With More Masks?
- More Corrupted Mementos
- Better gear and cosmetic rewards
- Fewer total runs are needed to unlock everything
