World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies

Updated: Class Tuning - January 29

The Not So Neutral Card Design Competition

Developer Interview - Ion Hazzikostas
Ion Hazzikostas recently sat down with Vanion to talk about the state of the game and more!


State of the Game

• The team cares deeply about the state of the game. They are visiting all of the different venues where players provide feedback and talk about the game and read all of the comments.
• People love the game and have a deep connection, but it's going in a direction they don't like, and that's frustrating. Feedback comes from a place of emotion.
• One of the challenges with WoW is that there are very diverse audiences and play styles. When players accuse the team of being out of touch, it isn't that they don't understand players concerns, or what they'd like the game to be. The team has to keep in mind the other half dozen groups of players that want the game to be different things, often opposing things.
• Players have every right to focus on their own experience.
• The team wants everyone to be as happy as possible.
• The internet is a place that has become a bit more polarized, and it's become more about getting anger out there and less about finding common ground.
• There is a bright future ahead, with the majority of Battle for Azeroth's patch content still to come. If you think back to this time in Legion, there was much more to follow.
• The team is focused on learning from mistakes that were made with systems and rewards at the start of Battle for Azeroth, correcting many of those in Patch 8.1.

Progression and Catch-Up Mechanics

• It's important that progression and gear matter, but the team wants the game to remain accessible to people who are joining later or coming back. It's not just in the interest of those players, but everyone in a guild.
• Throughout Burning Crusade, guilds complained bitterly about having to go back and get people attuned and do content that was irrelevant to them. These hurdles made it harder to recruit and get into raiding.
• Patch 8.1 introduced catch-up mechanisms that were intended to get players ready for Battle of Dazar'alor. This initially felt like the game was giving you too much compared the current raid (Uldir).
• The team can probably do more towards having more guaranteed progression through currencies for Raid and Dungeon content. Conquest provides this gear track on the PvP side.

Azerite Armor

• A lot of Patch 8.1 reflects lessons learned from the launch of Battle for Azeroth.
• There are still some fundamental flaws with the Azerite Armor system that the team is looking to pivot away from with Rise of Azshara.
• The team is happy with the system in terms of the customization it allows, but the progression of unlocking those traits was a mismatch with that customization system.
• Going forward, the team wants to keep armor fully unlocked and have a different avenue of progression in the Heart of Azeroth itself.

Classes

• Legion focused on class identity as it was an important part of the story.
• The team tried to move away from mixing utility and throughput, as putting utility as an option against something that lets you do more damage isn't an interesting choice.
• The team has pulled away from talents that gave classes utility in an area that was traditionally weak for them. Someone has to be very mobile, someone has to be less mobile.
• Classes don't have too many abilities anymore, that isn't a problem they are trying to solve. The team is open to moving some talents back to baseline abilities where it makes sense.

Patch 8.2

• In the next tier, the raid will probably open within a couple weeks of the patch. This time the raid opened later due to the holidays.
• The Crucible of Storms serves as a bridge between Battle of of Dazar'alor and Rise of Azshara. It may not open with the release of Patch 8.1.5, but probably not too long after that.
• The team is going to look at where the playerbase as a whole is at to set the item level for Crucible of Storms. It's only a 2 boss raid, so it may be slightly higher item level gear than Battle of of Dazar'alor.
• Mechagon is a second, smaller zone than Nazjatar, which is the main zone in Rise of Azshara. There is a megadungeon that is similar to Karazhan. Patch 8.2 will go on the PTR shortly after Patch 8.1.5 is live.
• The goal of Nazjatar is to learn from all of the past outdoor zones and improve upon them.

Rares and Treasures

• The team would like to move back to a treasure system like Warlords that had a better story and rewards.
• There haven't been true Rare mobs since Mists. In a world where you can join cross-server groups, the right way to hunt for true rare spawns was server hopping. People would realm hop in Tanaan Jungle to find rares rather than moving around to find what's up. The team will be experimenting with rares in Rise of Azshara and beyond. There was something cool about finding a rare and being excited about it.

Mage Tower

• The team was happy with how the Mage Tower worked out and would love to do it again in the future. They don't want to make it part of the expansion formula, it needs to fit the story and world.

Warfronts

• Warfronts on live currently are Raid Finder difficulty. Heroic Warfronts will be closer to a Normal experience, tuned for a group that is coordinating together. It won't be a challenge for a Mythic raid group.
• No new Warfront is planned for Rise of Azshara.
• The Barrens Warfront was an early prototype and isn't currently planned.

Professions

• The team is looking to improve crafting professions.
• The most successful crafting professions in WoW have been ones that create consumable things to sell, such as Alchemy or Enchanting.
• Blacksmithing, Leatherworking, and Tailoring have been the more challenging ones, as the gear they create competes with every other source of gear in the game.
• If you can get crafted gear that is better than raid gear, you don't really need to raid. If crafted gear is weaker than raid gear, then it is useless.
• Historically BoP items from dungeons and raids have been used.
• There is lots of room for improvement, including allowing you to specialize in certain Blacksmithing areas so that you are different or better than other Blacksmiths.

Zone Updates

• Redoing older zones is a huge undertaking, but the team is always looking for a reason to do so, such as creating new content in those zones. It's unlikely that the team will update older zones over creating new ones, as it wouldn't be in the best interest of players.

Lunar Festival 2019
The Lunar Festival is live! This year adds a Lunar Elder's Hearthstone, as well as Green and Blue Dragon costumes that can be purchased from Valadar Starsong in Moonglade.


Toys
New to 2019 is the Hearthstone toy.

• Lunar Elder's Hearthstone - 30 x Coins of Ancestry
• Everlasting Horde Firework / Everlasting Alliance Firework - 25 x Coins of Ancestry

Heirlooms

• Timeworn Heirloom Armor Casing - 40 x Coins of Ancestry
• Ancient Heirloom Armor Casing - 75 x Coins of Ancestry

Pets
You can purchase the pets at Valadar Starsong in Moonglade.

• Lunar Lantern - 50 x Coins of Ancestry
• Festival Lantern - 50 x Coins of Ancestry
• Perky Blaster - 1 x Coins of Ancestry

Flower Crowns
You can purchase the Flower Crowns at Valadar Starsong in Moonglade.

• Crown of Good Fortune - 25 x Coins of Ancestry
• Crown of Dark Blossoms - 25 x Coins of Ancestry
• Crown of Prosperity - 25 x Coins of Ancestry
• Crown of Courage - 25 x Coins of Ancestry

Dress and Suit Transmog
You can purchase these items from Valadar Starsong in Moonglade.

• Festive Pink Dress, Festive Green Dress, Festive Purple Dress - 5 x Coin of Ancestry each
• Festive Teal Pant Suit, Festive Blue Pant Suit, Festive Black Pant Suit - 5 x Coin of Ancestry each

Dragon Costumes
You can purchase the Dragon Costume toys at Fariel Starsong in Moonglade.

• Red Dragon Head Costume - 25 x Coin of Ancestry
• Red Dragon Body Costume - 10 x Coin of Ancestry
• Red Dragon Tail Costume - 25 x Coin of Ancestry
• Blue Dragon Head Costume - 25 x Coin of Ancestry
• Blue Dragon Body Costume - 10 x Coin of Ancestry
• Blue Dragon Tail Costume - 25 x Coin of Ancestry
• Green Dragon Head Costume - 25 x Coin of Ancestry
• Green Dragon Body Costume - 10 x Coin of Ancestry
• Green Dragon Tail Costume - 25 x Coin of Ancestry
• Dragon Head Costume - 25 x Coin of Ancestry
• Dragon Body Costume - 10 x Coin of Ancestry
• Dragon Tail Costume - 25 x Coin of Ancestry

Battle of Dazar'alor Boss Guides » Glory of the Dazar'alor Raider Achievement Guide


Glory of the Dazar'alor Raider is the meta achievement for the Battle of Dazar'alor raid in Battle for Azeroth. This achievement rewards the Dazar'alor Windreaver mount, one of the only three Pterrordax mounts available in Battle for Azeroth.

This guide assumes that players attempting the achievements have extensive knowledge of the fights. If not, please check the Battle of Dazar'alor Boss Guides.

Overview

It is highly recommended that you plan your raid setup ahead of time, since there are a few factors that will make the achievements slightly easier. You can bring anywhere between 10 to 30 players as long as you have classes that can cover all buffs and debuffs, as well as some CC. There are also a few key classes which you should bring:

• 1 Warlock to fear the Lurker every 20 seconds for De Lurker Be'loa
• 1 Demon Hunter, Rogue or another class with high mobility for Snow Fun Allowed
• 1 or 2 Death Knights to grip one of the raptors for Walk the Dinosaur

You need to make sure that your raid has:

• A player that can go tank for We Got Spirit, How About You?
• The Singing Sunflower pet required for Praise the Sunflower
• The Blingtron 4000 and Blingtron 5000 toys required for I Got Next!

Can I Get a Hek Hek Hek Yeah?

Before you start the Champions of the Light boss fight, every member of the raid will have to click on the nearby Mysterious Trashpile to get Jani's Favor. Throughout the fight players will get transformed into Saurids and get an extra action button they can use to steal one shiny coin from the enemies.


For this achievement your raid group will have to steal 3 shiny coins from each of the enemy npcs, and then return them to the Mysterious Trashpile before the transformation expires. Your group will have to steal 9 coins:

• 3 shiny coins from the Crusaders
• 3 shiny coins from the Disciples
• 3 shiny coins from the Champion

Barrel of Monkeys

By the stairs before the boss fight against Grong you will find 6 clickable Heavy Barrels. The raid team should pick them up and carry them to the boss area.


You will then need to pull the boss and let him hit the Heavy Barrels with Reverberating Slam (Horde) or Deathly Slam (Alliance).

Each Heavy Barrel that is destroyed will buff the boss with Going Ape, granting Grong a 20% damage increase for 30 seconds.

Once all 6 Heavy Barrels have been destroyed, defeat the boss and you'll get the achievement.

Hidden Dragon

For this achievement you will have to pick up the hidden Jade Serpent Egg, avoid taking damage from fire spells and have the Monk cast Dragon's Breath on it.

The egg is hidden, but will become visible when you get very close to it after you start the encounter. Since the boss areas are different for Horde and Alliance, the locations of the egg are also different.


You should pick up the egg after the first set of Living Bomb has been dealt with to avoid breaking it with Explosion. The Phoenix Strike in phase 2 also breaks the egg, so be ready to dodge the fire on the ground once bosses reach 60 energy.

At 100 energy the Monk transforms into a Jade Serpent. All players should then group up or form a line with the player carrying the egg and let it get hit by Dragon's Breath. Defeat the boss and you'll get the achievement.

Praise the Sunflower

This achievement is personal. You will need to use the /praise emote on a Singing Sunflower while buffed with Brilliant Aura. The pet doesn’t have to be your own.

You can set the Sunflower as your focus target and use this macro so you can quickly praise it:
The Brilliant Aura is a buff that requires one or more players to pick up the Topaz of Brilliant Sunlight. These players need to gain 100 stacks of Incandescence by simply staying away from other players.

At 100 stacks these players will gain the Grossly Incandescent! buff. All players standing near the buffed player will be granted Brilliant Aura. You will have to /praise the Sunflower while under the effect of the aura, and then kill the boss.

Walk the Dinosaur

For this achievement you will need to leave alive at least one of the first Ravenous Stalkers until the end of the fight.

Every 20 seconds the raptor will fixate a different player with Mark of Prey. The fixated player will need to kite the raptor away from damage to avoid killing it.

Death Knight's Death Grip can help keep the Ravenous Stalker away from the raid to avoid damaging it.

We Got Spirit, How About You?

To do this achievement you will need to keep the phantom adds alive until the end of the fight.

A third tank is ideal for this achievement as that player can pick up the adds and move them away from the raid. Simply tanking them away from incoming damage and ensuring Grave Bolt is interrupted should be enough.

I Got Next!

To complete this achievement you'll need one or more engineers that have Blingtron 4000 or Blingtron 5000.

Summon the Blingtrons before starting the fight, and shortly after the boss is engaged, the Blingtron MK2 will spawn. Defeat it, then finish the boss fight and you will get the achievement.

Blingtron MK2 has only 2 abilities: Blingstorm (AoE damage ability) and Gold Chain Lightning (Chain Lightning ability, can be interrupted).

De Lurker Be'loa

This achievement required you to summon De Lurker Be'loa and then defeat the Stormwall Blockade encounter. You do not have to defeat the Lurker.

To summon De Lurker Be'loa you need to click on a fish pool to the left of the docks after the boss has been engaged. Leave one player on the docks while the rest of the raid does the boss normally.


After clicking on the pool, the player will start pulling a rope out of the water for 2 minutes. The player will be constantly pulled towards the water, and have to dodge incoming waves and swirls to avoid dying.

Once De Lurker Be'loa has been summoned, and after transitioning to the last phase, the raid will have to deal with its 2 abilities alongside the normal boss abilities:

• Hydro Blast
• Undertow

To deal with the Lurker, you will need one Warlock to cast Fear on it every 20 seconds.

If you don't have any Warlocks in the group, you will have to make a cc rotation to interrupt Hydro Blast.

Snow Fun Allowed

During the fight against Jaina Proudmoore, in the Howling Winds intermission, 3 snow mounds will spawn in the frozen area of the fight. Players need to run through the mounds before interrupting Jaina, or the snow will disappear.

Rogues and Demon Hunters are great for this because they can immune, rush through the narrow path, and start looking for the snow right away. Once all 3 mounds have been run through, players carrying the snow should stack near one of the barrels to create a Frosty Snowmon.


The player targeted with Broadside should drop this on the barrel, removing its Refractive Ice buff. Destroy the barrel, and the explosion will melt the Frosty Snowmon and grant you credit for the achievement.

Defeat the encounter and you'll get the final achievement in Dazar'alor. Congrats!

Looking for Group

Looking for a group? Then join the Achievements Discord!

There you can opt into roles to be notified of events that you might be interested in, such as Glory of the Wartorn Hero, Glory of the Uldir Raider and Glory of the Dazar'alor Raider achievement runs.

Upcoming Class Tuning - January 29