World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies

As some have noticed, we have Breaking News in the Battle.net App for WoW Classic that indicates a two-hour downtime for the content update along with the weekly raid reset tomorrow (July 29th EU).

We’re changing that to 30 minutes. We do need to make sure realms are down when the reset occurs, and we expect to finish our final checks for the content and see realms open to players at around 9:30 a.m. PDT / 12:30 p.m. EDT (9:30 CEST).

Some assorted minor changes in an upcoming build, just noting here:

–Convoke the Spirits can be channeled while moving, in all forms.

–Adaptive Swarm (damage swarm) will try to favor targets that have Moonfire or Rip active. It will not, however, merge/stack two swarms together if it can avoid it. The healing swarm was already pretty smart and there are no further changes to it right now.

–Bloodtalons: trigger changed from “use Shred, Rake, and Thrash” to “use any 3 different generators”. Continuing on from a lot of feedback on this, the goal is to make it more flexible, and cause fewer rotation clashes, while still requiring a moment of planning to trigger.

–Runecarve currently called Druid Runecarve 3 on beta (DoT/HoT tick rate): this was incomplete/ambiguous in the last build, but we are trying a version that compresses both tick rates and durations, taking from old abilities like Jagged Wounds and Glyph of Rapid Rejuvenation. That should be in and working next build for testing.

The time is nigh for the Alliance and Horde to heed the call to arms. You’ll need to band together with your allies to gather essential resources and fuel the war effort leading beyond the gates of Ahn’Qiraj.

The great desert fortress of Ahn'Qiraj, long sealed behind the Scarab Wall, is home to the insectoid qiraji, a savage race set to mount an assault to devastate the continent of Kalimdor. But something far more sinister lurks behind Ahn'Qiraj's walls: the Old God C'Thun, an ancient entity whose pervasive evil had suffused Azeroth since time immemorial.

Join the War Effort

Supplies are needed to fuel the war effort against the sinister forces of Ahn’Qiraj. You’ll need to work alongside other members of your faction to contribute the resources needed open the ancient citadel’s gates and begin your siege on the Ruins of Ahn’Qiraj and the Temple of Ahn’Qiraj.

Both Horde and the Alliance will need to bring a steady stream of supplies to the Valley of Spirits in Orgrimmar or to the Military Ward in Ironforge. Each turn-in will reward Ahn’Qiraj War Effort Supplies containing useful items and Alliance Commendation Signets or Horde Commendation Signets, which can be used to gain reputation with your faction.

While many of the necessary supplies can be obtained as loot drops or purchased from the Auction House, having a profession that helps you acquire these supplies will also come in handy. Here is a list of items you’ll need to set your sights on collecting.

Horde:

• Baked Salmon (Cooking – 275)
• Firebloom (Herbalism – 205)
• Heavy Leather (Skinning/Leatherworking – 150)
• Lean Wolf Steak (Cooking – 125)
• Mageweave Bandage (First Aid – 210)
• Mithril Bar (Mining – 175)
• Peacebloom (Herbalism – 1)
• Rugged Leather (Skinning/Leatherworking – 250)
• Tin Bar (Mining – 65)
• Wool Bandage (First Aid – 80)

Alliance:

• Arthas’ Tears (Herbalism – 220)
• Iron Bar (Mining – 125)
• Light Leather (Skinning/Leatherworking – 1)
• Linen Bandage (First Aid – 1)
• Medium Leather (Skinning/Leatherworking – 100)
• Rainbow Fin Albacore (Cooking – 50)
• Roast Raptor (Cooking – 175)
• Silk Bandage (First Aid – 150)
• Stranglekelp (Herbalism – 85)
• Thorium Bar (Mining – 250)

Both Factions:

• Copper Bar (Mining – 25)
• Purple Lotus (Herbalism – 210)
• Runecloth Bandage (First Aid – 260)
• Spotted Yellowtail (Cooking – 225)
• Thick Leather (Skinning/Leatherworking – 200)

Once the resources for the War Effort have been gathered by both the Horde and the Alliance, supply chains will make their way from Ironforge and Orgrimmar to Cenarion Hold in Silithus. Once these resources reach Cenarion Hold, players who are on the quest line to create the Scepter of the Shifting Sands will be able to undertake the “Bang a Gong!” quest in order to complete it.

Befriending Dragons

During the War Effort, players will also be able to begin earning reputation with the Brood of Nozdormu by turning in Silithid Carapace Fragments. You’ll need to turn in the Head of the Broodlord Lashlayer to begin the quest “The Path of Righteous” or be deputized by another player who has Proxy of Nozdormu before these fragments will begin to drop for you.

Who Will Rise as Scarab Lord?

Players will also be able to begin a quest series to create the Scepter of the Sands, which will enable them to ultimately ring the gong on the realm they are on. The first player on each realm who completes the quest and rings the gong will become the realm’s “Scarab Lord” and receive the Black Qiraji Resonating Crystal, which will summon a ridable Qiraji battle tank that can be used in the outdoor world as well as within the Temple of Ahn’Qiraj.

Players who complete the Scepter of the Sands quest chain and ring the gong in the first 10 hours of the gong being rung initially will also receive the Black Qiraji Resonating Crystal.

Any other players who complete the quest line past the 10–hour period won’t receive the mount, but will still receive rewards from the “Treasure of the Timeless One” quest, which includes one of four epic weapons, experience, reputation, and a little money for your pocket.

Pushing Back the Enemy

Once the gong is rung on a realm, it will mark the beginning of a 10-hour war heralding the arrival of Anubisath and Qiraji warriors, which can be found in the Barrens and Thousand Needles (for lower-level players) and Silithus, Tanaris, and Feralas (for higher-level players). Defending against these incursions will give players a chance to earn gold, experience, and reputation with the Brood of Nozdormu, along with a higher chance for rare drops.

Opening of the Gates

At the completion of the 10-hour war, the Ruins of Ahn’Qiraj (a 20-player raid dungeon) and the Temple of Ahn’Qiraj (a 40-player raid dungeon) will open, allowing players access to the dangers and treasures within.

In the coming days, the following realm connection will be made:

• The Drak’thul and Skywall realms will join the Silvermoon and Mok’Nathal realms. (NA)
• The Cairne and Perenolde realms will join the Cenarius realm. (NA)
• The Kilrogg realm will join the Hellfire realm. (EU)

We are planning more realm connections for low-population realms, and we will post further notifications like this one in the coming weeks.

Thank you!

Update 24/7: We are encountering some issues that are preventing us from performing the realm connections mentioned above for the time being. We will let you know when we have more information to share regarding their implementation.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

We’re aware of and working on a bug with taunts in the Shadowlands Beta.

We’ll confirm again here as soon as it’s fixed.

WoW Classic

• Fixed a bug that could allow stacked periodic auras such as Ignite to persist past their final tick.

As we approach the content unlock next week that will begin the events around the Gates of Ahn’Qiraj, we’ve seen several questions from players about precisely how many aspects of the events are going to work. What follows is a rundown of some of the those details.

Spoiler alert! If you’ve been hoping to experience the AQ events for the first time in-game, turn back now!

The Calendar

First and foremost, we have the exact time of the content unlock. This will occur with the weekly raid reset in each region, because the content involves Blackwing Lair.

In the US region, the content will unlock on:

• July 28 at 9:00 a.m. PDT / 12:00 Noon EDT
• July 29 at 2:00 a.m. AEST / 4:00 a.m. NZST

In the EU region, the content will unlock on:

• 29 July at 9:00 CEST / 10:00 MSK

This is the time when the War Effort will begin and each faction can turn in immense amounts of supplies that, once completed, will require five days to be transported to Silithus. Due to the raid requirements in the quest chain leading up to the “Bang A Gong!” quest, the earliest that the gong-ringing can occur in Silithus on highly-motivated realms will be just over a week later.

Once the gong is rung on a realm, the 10 Hour War begins. Once the 10 hours has elapsed, "Bang a Gong!” can never be turned in anymore, the two Ahn’Qiraj raids will open, and the “Treasures of the Timeless One” quest will become available.

The exact times for the ringing of the gong, and therefore the raids opening 10 hours later, will differ on every realm.

Becoming the Scarab Lord

Ringing the gong can only be done by players who have completed all of the steps of the Scepter of the Sands quest chain before the end of the 10-hour window. In addition to raid requirements, players are able to use the Proxy of Nozdormu to deputize other players to help them amass Silithid Carapace Fragments, so this is likely a guild-wide effort to help a chosen individual complete the quest chain.

Only the first player on a realm to ring the gong will be announced across the zone in Silithus. On realms that have multiple layers, once the gong is rung on one layer, the 10 Hour War will begin on all layers. All players who complete the questline and turn in “Bang a Gong!” before the 10 hours are up will receive the Black Qiraji Resonating Crystal mount. Any player who completes the questline up through “The Might of Kalimdor” will be eligible for “Treasures of the Timeless One,” which rewards an Epic weapon, regardless of whether they were able to complete “Bang a Gong!” in time.

Some Restrictions Apply

In original WoW, the Scarab Lord wasn’t used as a title, and that will be the case in WoW Classic. The ability for players to manage their titles came after original WoW.

During the 10 Hour War, world bosses do not only spawn in Silithus. Resonating Crystals that spawn major enemies will appear in Tanaris, Feralas, Thousand Needles, and Barrens. This is important to know because we expect there to be an overcrowding issue in Silithus on realms whenever large groups of players all go to Silithus at the same time. While the negative effects of overcrowding can’t be eliminated, we’re taking several steps to mitigate the worst outcomes:

• Thanks to players who helped us test on the PTR in June, we can support a higher number of players in the zone than we could before.
• Those PTR tests also helped us determine the maximum number of players that can be supported before “a little laggy” became “unplayable.”
• If the maximum is reached, players will be automatically removed from the zone.
  
  • First, players will be removed if they are below level 60. Alliance players will be ported to Westfall, and Horde players will be ported to The Barrens.
  • Level 60 players who are ported out will be moved to to Un’goro Crater, Tanaris, Thousand Needles, or The Barrens.
  • If Silithus is at max population, a level 60 player can only zone in when another player leaves Silithus.
  • Players who have a Scepter will never be automatically removed from Silithus.
• Zone maximums and automatic adjustments are per-layer.

There are restrictions on realm-to-realm character transfers, which are in place to prevent players of a different realm from coming to your realm and disrupting the progress of events. The quest “Bang a Gong!” cannot be completed by characters who transferred to the realm in the past 90 days, however, those players can complete “Treasures of the Timeless One”. Before the end of the 10 Hour War on a realm, there are also other restrictions on transfers for characters who have participated in significant event activities elsewhere. For example, players cannot transfer a character that has Silithus Carapace Fragments in their bags or bank.

And Then…

The initial War Effort requires a great deal of supplies to be turned in by your faction on your realm. If this is not complete 30 days after the content is unlocked, small amounts of supplies will begin turning in automatically, as they did in the version 1.12 of original WoW. The gates still require somebody to “Bang a Gong!”, but this will help ensure that all realms have the chance to unlock Ahn’Qiraj before Naxxramas is released.

We’re very excited to follow the unfolding events on WoW Classic realms around the world over the next few weeks. We’ll see you in Silithus!