World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies

The 11.1.5 content update ushers in a host of new activities rolling out beginning with the launch of the update with more to come in the weeks that follow. It all begins with the Nightfall Scenario, UI updates with the new Cooldown Manager, and the Winds of Mysterious Fortune bringing with it an in-game experience boost and reputation boost for characters levels 10 through 79.

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THE WINDS OF MYSTERIOUS FORTUNE ARE IN YOUR FAVOR


Beginning on April 22, 2025, through May 20, 2025, players can take advantage of the Winds of Mysterious Fortune 20% experience buff to get up to speed with their new or alternate characters levels 10 through 79. This buff will also provide +200% major faction renown in Dragonflight zones and +100% select major faction renown in The War Within zones.

DRAGONFLIGHT FACTIONS INCLUDED:

• Dragonscale Expedition
• Maruuk Centaur
• Iskaara Tuskarr
• Valdrakken Accord
• Loamm Niffen
• Dream Wardens
• Sabellian
• Wrathion
• Cobalt Assembly

THE WAR WITHIN FACTIONS INCLUDED:

• Council of Dornogal
• Hallowfall Arathi
• The Assembly of the Deeps
• The General
• The Vizier
• The Weaver

Undermine factions are excluded from benefitting from this buff.

During this period, players below level 80 will also have a chance to gain Mysterious Satchels while looting creatures or as a bonus reward from quests. These satchels contain a variety of fun and useful items that can grant temporary stat boosts or visual alterations. These satchels can sometimes also include bonus gear appropriate to your level and specialization, and 2 hour 10% experience potions that stack with the 20% experience buff to a maximum of 30%.

Experience potions are a Warband-bound item and can be consumed during the event or saved until after the event is over to be used on characters from level 10-79. Any stat potion effects or elemental potion effects will not work in Mythic+, Raids or rated PvP content.

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DEFEND THE ARATHI IN THE NIGHTFALL SCENARIO


Players will take up arms beside a new faction, Flame’s Radiance, to defend the Arathi against the Sureki forces following the defeat of Queen Ansurek. This faction consists of volunteer militia led veterans Thaed Pyremaker and Mylton Wyldbraun. As you rise through the ranks, you will earn up to ten levels of Renown and unlock new rewards.

Alongside the Flame’s Radiance, players will be split between task forces within the Nightfall public scenario to clear the battlefield and push back the Sureki. You’ll also be able to strike back against Sureki forces throughout Hallowfall and Azj-Kahet to continue to earn Renown and rewards with additional quests and activities available between the scenarios.

Players can expect a variety of rewards for taking part in the scenario and quests including— new armor sets, a tabard that will update visually as you progress through the ranks of the Flame’s Radiance, weapons, a new color variation of the Delver’s Dirigible, and more. As your rank increases, you can also expect to earn buffs which will help you become stronger while in Hallowfall and Azj-Kahet.

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NEW COOLDOWN MANAGER


Players can enable a new Cooldown Manager within their UI by opening the Game Menu (Escape), selecting Options, then opening Advanced Options to see the new feature Enable Cooldown Manager: Toggle on to view important cooldowns and buffs in separate customizable HUD elements for the selected specialization.

Cooldown abilities will show up automatically in the center of our screen and include a visual countdown of when your ability is available to use again.

To customize the Cooldown Manager, open the Game Menu (Escape), select the Edit Mode to access the HUD Edit Mode, then select Advanced Options. You can select “Cooldown Manager” from the options then adjust the Utility Cooldown Options bar, Essential Cooldowns bar, Tracked Buffs bar, and Tracked Bars by clicking on them and adjusting their visual elements to your preference.

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Week of May 20

HORRIFIC VISIONS REVISITED


Return to N’Zoth’s corrupted versions of Stormwind and Orgrimmar, complete objectives, and take on the challenges within. As you make your way through these encounters, you’ll need to maintain your sanity or ultimately fail.

You will be able to go it alone or create a party of allies to join you. Players who want to experience Horrific Visions alone or need an additional helping hand in their party will also be able to invite a Construct of Soridormi companion to join them. This follower will be able to Tank, DPS, or Heal and will not be affected by sanity.

For players looking for a bigger challenge, you’ll be able to activate higher difficulties of play for additional gear up to Heroic difficulty items. Horrific Vision Masks are also returning including: Mask of Pain, Mask of Dark Imagination, Mask of the Long Night, Mask of the Burned Bridge, and Mask of the Daredevil. Three additional new masks, Mask of Vengeance, Mask of Multitudes, and the Mask of the Nemesis will also be available to discover and conquer!

A new currency to collect becomes available to spend at the vendor for new and previous rewards—Displaced Corrupted Mementos. Players will be able to earn new and returning rewards in Horrific Visions such as mounts, toys, transmogs, weapon enchantments, and more.

Whether you’re playing a new max-level alternate character or experiencing it for the first time, you can experience this content shortly after the launch of the 11.1.5 update.

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Week of June 3

DASTARDLY DUOS


Later in the patch cycle, players will be able to experience a new six-week event providing a variety of cosmetics, toys, and even some dungeon items based on the bosses you encounter.

Vinnie Sweets, showrunner, and announcer, is promoting Dastardly Duos where players can step up to take on ‘animatronic’ versions of past bosses, gain powerups, and strive for higher and higher scores for bragging rights. You and your party will fight two (or more) bosses at a time to rack up your highest score.

There will be three hubs for Dastardly Duos that players can visit. One in Stormwind, one in Orgrimmar, and one in Dornogal. While Vinnie Sweets is running the show, you’ll need to speak with Xyggie Marou to queue for the fight in the Dastardly Dome. A visit with Wodin, the Troll-Servant vendor, will also get you access over the weeks to some additional powerups or items that can help you in the fight.

In week one, there will be four bosses available to fight and each week thereafter additional bosses will be added up to a total of ten total bosses to face.

Earning specific achievements will also provide additional game effects from them within the Dastardly Duo.

Earn points for kills, damage done, and much more. Rack up a high score with your party for bragging rights and see how far you can go!

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CLASSES

• Warrior
  
  • Arms
    
    • The visuals for the Warbreaker ability have been updated.

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REPUTATION AND RENOWN

• Increased the reputation gains for Bilgewater Cartel, Blackwater Cartel, Steamwheedle Cartel, and the Venture Company from rares, side gigs, weekly quests, and world quests by 100%.

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USER INTERFACE AND ACCESSIBILITY

• Guilds can now be renamed with gold at the Guild Master NPCs in major cities.
• Shopping cart functionality has been added to the Trading Post, allowing players to add multiple items into their shopping cart before confirming a purchase.
• New color blind option allows players to custom set the various Item Rarity colors.
• There is now a filter "Show Collected Only" for Warband Campsites collection.
• Fixed an issue where players cannot select "Auto and Key Press" option under the Self Cast settings.
• Flyouts for action bars should update its direction correctly.
• Using the search bar in the character select screen should no longer cause the character to visually disappear or cause issues to the campsite frame.
• Fixed an issue where the premade group dungeon filter would not save.
• Fixed an issue where the notification icon on the micromenu for Guilds and Communities would not honor filter settings.

Watch any World of Warcraft stream on Twitch.tv from April 22 at 10:00 am PDT until May 20 at 10:00 am PDT to claim the Beetriz pet.

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Eligibility

To participate, you must link your Twitch account by visiting https://account.battle.net/connections. If you have changed your password or made any changes to your Twitch or Battle.net account, you will have to relink your accounts. When you relink, there will be a 7-day cooldown before you can relink a new Twitch account. After you’ve claimed your rewards on Twitch, please make sure you’re logging into the Battle.net region you’d like to receive the drop(s) on, as the first region you log into will be where your items will be delivered. It can take up to 24 hours to receive your reward(s) in-game after claiming. Read our Frequently Asked Questions section for more information.

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How do I Earn Twitch Drops?

Start Time: April 22, 10:00 am PDT
End Time: May 20, 10:00 am PDT

Watch 4 hours of World of Warcraft content while these Twitch Drops are active on any channel to earn Beetriz the maidenbug pet.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Q. How do I link my battle.net and Twitch accounts?

A. Sign into your Battle.net account at https://account.battle.net/connections and click the Connect link for Twitch, then follow the instructions to sign in and link your Twitch account to Battle.net.

Q. What devices can I use to earn and claim drops?

A. You can earn and claim drops using your PC/Mac web browser or on the Twitch app for Android or iOS. Twitch apps on game consoles, smart TVs, and other TV apps do not support drops.

Q. Do I need to watch the same channel the entire time to earn my drops?

A. You can earn progress towards a drop on any eligible channel in the World of Warcraft category on Twitch. You can, for example, watch half an hour on one channel and then switch to another channel without losing your progress. You cannot earn progress faster by watching more than one channel at a time.

Q. Will I receive my drop rewards in-game automatically?

A. To receive your rewards, you must claim the drop on the channel you’re watching or in the Drops Inventory menu on Twitch.

Q. Do Twitch Drop rewards expire?

A. Earned Twitch Drop rewards will expire seven (7) days after they’ve been claimed if a Battle.net account has not been linked.

Q. As a streamer, how do I get Twitch Drops on my channel?

A. All you need to do is ensure your Twitch and Battle.net accounts are linked and that you’ve opted into Drops (see Drops Streamer Home).

Q. What regions are eligible for these Twitch Drops?

A. Participating regions include North America, Latin America, Europe, The Middle East, Africa, Japan, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.

Classes

• Warlock
  
  • Demonology
    
    • Fixed an issue where Grimoire: Felguard received 100% energy reduction while affected by Demonic Tyrant's Demonic Power.

Delves

• Fixed a bug preventing Brann from damaging Particularly Bad Guy.

Dungeons and Raids

• Operation: Floodgate
  
  • Addressed an issue where Leaping Spark may fail to be consumed by Dam Water.
• Theater of Pain
  
  • Whirling Blade and Death Spiral now have a rim visual to communicate the impact radius of the area effect.
  • Kul'tharok can no longer melee players.
• Liberation of Undermine
  
  • Developers’ notes: We’ve adjusted the following encounters to ensure that tuning aimed at increasing parity between healer specializations does not also make current raid encounters more challenging.
  • Stix Bunkjunker
    
    • Toxic Fumes damage reduced by 17% on Mythic difficulty.
    • Incineration damage reduced by 25% on Normal and Heroic difficulties.
  • Sprocketmonger Lockenstock
    
    • Unstable Explosion damage reduced by 10% on Heroic and Mythic difficulty.
    • Sonic Ba-Boom initial hit damage reduced by 4% on Heroic and Mythic difficulty.
  • One-Armed Bandit
    
    • Coin Magnet damage reduced by 10%.
  • Mug'Zee, Heads of Security
    
    • Elemental Calamity damage reduced by 12%.
    • Uncontrolled Burn damage reduced by 12%.
    • Searing Shrapnel damage reduced by 12%.
    • Surging Arc damage reduced by 12%.
  • Chrome King Gallywix
    
    • TOTAL DESTRUCTION!!! damage reduced by 10%.
    • Mechengineer's Canisters healing absorb reduced by 10%.
    • Canister Detonation damage reduced by 10%.
    • Venting Heat damage reduced by 10%.
    • Mechmastermind's Canisters healing absorb reduced by 10% on Mythic difficulty.
    • Mastermind's Detonation damage reduced by 10% on Mythic difficulty.

Season of Discovery

• Exquisite Spices from the Scarlet Junkbox are no longer Bind-on-Pickup. This does not retroactively apply to previously obtained Exquisite Spices.
• Condemnation will now activate its effect when abilities such as Insect Swarm and Shadow Word: Pain are cast.
• Classes
  
  • Priest
    
    • Spirit of Redemption will no longer prevent the use of Darkmoon Card: Twisting Nether.
  • Shaman
    
    • For players to adjust to the set bonus change, the Naxxramas Tier vendor for Shamans will now offer an exchange from the Enhancement Tier to the Tank Tier. This is a one-way exchange and will no longer be available after April 28.
• Scarlet Enclave
  
  • Alexei the Beastlord
    
    • Enervate and Enkindle can no longer target pets.
    • Enkindle and Enervate now ignore line-of-sight.
  • Balnazzar
    
    • Sleep now grants players damage immunity.
    • The carrier of Carrion Swarm now has a visible debuff.
  • Lillian Voss
    
    • Ambition no longer increases her casting speed.
    • Immolation Aura no longer targets pets.
    • Intoxicating Venom should no longer dispel anything other than itself.
    • Putress' Poison Bolts during berserk now ignore line-of-sight.