World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies

Dungeons and Raids

• Battle of Dazar’alor
  
  • Lady Jaina Proudmoore now drops 2 Glacial Tidestorm mounts (was 1) when defeated on Mythic difficulty.
    
• Ny’alotha, the Waking City
  
  • N’Zoth the Corruptor now drops 2 Ny'alotha Allseer mounts (was 1) when defeated on Mythic difficulty.
    
    • With these mounts becoming quite rare once Shadowlands comes out, taking 20 weeks or more for a full Mythic raid group to get the mounts felt excessive.
      

Horrific Visions

• Reduced the health of enemies for groups of 2 or more that include at least 1 healer.
  
  • Developers’ note: We expected that groups with a healer would gain efficiency by taking more risks, but we've found that this gain is offset by healers shifting focus from damage to healing as group size increases, so we're adjusting creature health accordingly.
    
• Stormwind
  
  • Alleria Windrunner
    
    • Darkened Sky now drains 40 Sanity (was 60 Sanity).
      
    • When the Trade District bonus objective is complete, Chains of Servitude is now cast once during the fight (was twice).
      

Items and Rewards

• Corrupted Items
  
  • Fixed an issue which prevented items from being forged with the +12 Corruption version of Ineffable Truth (Corruption Effect).
    

Player versus Player

• The upcoming Teeming Islands Brawl has been replaced with Temple of Hotmogu.
  
• Temple of Hotmogu Brawl’s bonus movement speed and haste have been increased to 50%.

WoW Classic

• Fixed an issue that could cause the player to disconnect from the game while waiting in a long queue for a Battleground.

Dungeons and Raids

• Mythic Keystone Dungeons
  
  • Mindrend Tentacle
    
    • Mind Flay
      
      • Damage reduced by 25%.
        
  • Ravenous Fleshfiend
    
    • Tear Flesh’s bleed damage reduced by 20%.
      
  • Samh’rek, Beckoner of Chaos
    
    • Cascading Terror
      
      • Damage reduced by 40%.
        
      • Fear duration reduced to 2 seconds (was 3 seconds).
        
      • Cast frequency reduced.
        
        • Developers’ note: This ability works well as a dispel challenge, but its damage and disruption has proven to be more punishing than we’d like.
          
  • Urg’roth, Breaker of Heroes
    
    • Spirit Breaker’s damage reduced by 20%.
      

Items and Rewards

• Corrupted Items
  
  • Rogues’ Detection no longer builds Echoing Void.
    
• Heart of Azeroth
  
  • Changing a Minor Essence while The Crucible of Flame (Essence) is equipped in the Major Slot no longer causes Concentrated Flame to go on cooldown.
    

Quests

• Saurfang is no longer present in Grommash Hold while players are on the quest "A Gift for the Warchief's Advisor".

WoW Classic

• Blackwing Lair
  
  • Razorgore the Untamed
    
    • Fixed an issue where Nefarian's troops would sometimes continue attacking the group after Razorgore's eggs were destroyed.
      

As the final season of Battle for Azeroth gets underway, we’re planning something truly spectacular for 2020 with some of the largest LANs we’ve ever held. The Mythic Dungeon International and the Arena World Championship are both bound to provide some of our best esports action yet.

The Big Change

World of Warcraft Esports is moving to YouTube! This means that all the content for the Mythic Dungeon International and Arena World Championship—our live broadcasts and our VODs—will be hosted on the same great platform to make it easier for esports fans to watch.

Tune into our MDI broadcasts starting April 11^th here: https://www.youtube.com/warcraft

• Mythic Dungeon International
  
• Arena World Championship

Welcome Back the Mythic Dungeon International

We are happy to announce the return of the Mythic Dungeon International (MDI), with a new dungeon to challenge competitors and put them through their paces. Things are going to be a little different this year with some exciting changes.

Format Changes

• The Europe and Asia (EU/Asia) division includes players from Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Korea, China, and Taiwan.
  
• The Americas (AMER) division includes players from The Americas, Australia, and New Zealand.

Teams will participate in the division based on where the majority of their team’s players reside.

It wouldn’t be one of the most exciting MDI seasons yet without an in-person LAN. This season’s final will have a massive $300,000 prize pool that our elite teams will compete for.


Moving forward, we’re also going to consider all MDI seasons as standalone events with a LAN final to cap each event. This provides us the ability to iterate quickly on changes and upgrades that we think the community will love.

Stay tuned to our MDI esports page for more information on the season beginning in April.

New Dungeon: Operation: Mechagon

We’ve added a new dungeon to the rotation this year with Operation: Mechagon. This dungeon provides 8 challenging bosses split in two separate wings—Junkyard and Workshop.

New Affix: Awakened

With the Visions of N'Zoth content update comes a new season of competitive play and a new Affix to contend with—Awakened.

While the Awakened affix is active, players will discover obelisks throughout the dungeon, which will pull players through the veil to the shadowy world of Ny’alotha. There, players will confront a powerful servant of N’Zoth which they must defeat, or the servant will join forces with the final boss in the instance.

Teams will have to push themselves to their limits (and beyond) to prove they’re the fastest team around.

Looking Ahead

We can’t wait to see how the competition this season unfolds; in the meantime, we’re preparing for future MDI seasons in Shadowlands. We’ll have more news to share as we get closer to the release of the expansion.

A new year waits for the Arena World Championship

Embarking on the thirteenth year of the Arena World Championship (AWC), we felt it was a good time to shake some things up and will be hosting one final season to close out Battle for Azeroth. There’s even more on the line than ever before.

Format Changes

Beginning in Spring, registration for the AWC’s online qualification cups will open. All eight online Arena cups will award a $10,000 prize pool and AWC Points. Anyone can sign up and test their mettle for glory and cash prizes.


Teams with the most AWC points after all four North American and European cups will be invited to compete in the AWC Battle for Azeroth Finals. There, the eight best teams in the world will compete for a share of the $500,000 prize pool—the largest AWC Prize Pool to date.

Looking Ahead

Shadows of the imminent future loom. The Arena World Championship will start up once World of Warcraft: Shadowlands has released, and Azeroth’s fiercest gladiator’s will be tested more than ever before.

The first AWC Tournament Series in Shadowlands will host two crucial competitive seasons with online cups and two in-person tournaments, including a mid-year LAN and a finals event which would occur in the Summer, similar to the Battle for Azeroth Finals this year.


All of these changes to the Mythic Dungeon International and Arena World Championship mean changes to WoW esports events that have typically taken place toward the end of the year, such as BlizzCon 2019. Don’t worry though, we still have plans in the works, and we’ll have more to share later.

This year proves to be an exciting one for World of Warcraft esports and we look forward to sharing all of the exciting news and action with you.

Be sure to follow and bookmark the Battlefy Page in order to be the first to sign up for the first cup. The upcoming schedule and current point standings can be tracked at the official esports AWC website.

In approximately two hours, we will deploy a hotfix to all WoW Classic realms that disables the exit portals from Warsong Gulch. Thereafter, players who need to exit the battleground will have to use the other means of doing so: /AFK.

We’ve seen an increasing number of reports of these portals being used in unfair ways, and we feel that taking this step eliminates the potential for unfair gameplay while making no change to the intended, legitimate flow of the battleground.

As always, we really appreciate and value all of the player feedback that raised the issue. Thank you!

Dungeons and Raids

• Operation: Mechagon – Workshop
  
  • Fixed an issue where Explosives could spawn in inaccessible locations when the Explosive affix is active on Mythic Keystone difficulty.
    
• Siege of Boralus
  
  • Ashvane Snipers’ Shoot damage reduced by 20%.
    
  • Dockhound Packmasters now gain 40% increased damage from Feral Bond while near a Snarling Dockhound (was 125%).
    

Items and Rewards

• Corrupted Items
  
  • Rogues’ Detection no longer builds Echoing Void.
    
• Heart of Azeroth
  
  • Changing a Minor Essence while The Crucible of Flame (Essence) is equipped in the Major Slot no longer causes Concentrated Flame to go on cooldown.
    

Quests

• Fixed an issue that allowed Horde players to receive credit for “Heroic Warfronts: The Battle for Darkshore” when completing the Warfront on Normal difficulty.

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Blackwing Lair opened at 23:00 UTC today, and we had the pleasure of seeing guilds from all around the world charge into Nefarian’s domain and make quick work of the 8 bosses therein. Throughout the race, we captured the names of the players involved and the timestamps of boss kills from all realms in all regions.

Razorgore the Untamed

At only six (and seven) minutes past the hour, the first guilds to complete the Razorgore encounter were:

• CN United from Huhuran (China) at 23:06 UTC
• Praxis from Zandalar Tribe (Europe) at 23:07 UTC
• For teh Horde from Heartstriker (Europe) at 23:07 UTC

Vaelastrasz the Corrupt

Basking in the glory of great power, the first three groups to end Vaelastrasz’s torment were:

• Praxis from Zandalar Tribe (Europe) at 23:08:54 UTC
• Ashes of Time from Earthshaker (China) at 23:09:08 UTC
• Shao Guang from Ouro (China) at 23:09:10 UTC

Broodlord Lashlayer

After a brief suppression, Broodlord Lashlayer went down first to:

• CN United from Huhuran (China) at 23:17:49 UTC
• RISE from Incendius (North America) at 23:19:21 UTC
• Calamity from Mograine (Europe) at 23:19:38 UTC

Firemaw

Firemaw’s Shadow Flame barely slowed down the same three leading guilds:

• CN United from Huhuran (China) at 23:22:15 UTC
• RISE from Incendius (North America) at 23:24:24 UTC
• Calamity from Mograine (Europe) at 23:24:36 UTC

Ebonroc

At this point, another guild from Europe charged into contention, and Ebonroc was first downed by:

• Calamity from Mograine (Europe) at 23:31:52 UTC
• Progress from Firemaw (Europe) at 23:32:12 UTC
• CN United from Huhuran (China) at 23:32:15 UTC

Flamegor

The same three guilds in the same order ended Flamegor at 33 minutes past the hour:

• Calamity from Mograine (Europe) at 23:32:58 UTC
• Progress from Firemaw (Europe) at 23:33:17 UTC
• CN United from Huhuran (China) at 23:33:50 UTC

Chromaggus

A dragon for all dragonflights, Chromaggus succumbed to:

• Calamity from Mograine (Europe) at 23:37:12 UTC
• APES from Gehennas (Europe) at 23:37:12 UTC
• Progress from Firemaw Europe) at 23:37:22 UTC

Nefarian

With less than 43 minutes elapsed, the first three guilds in the world to complete Blackwing Lair in WoW Classic were:

• Progress from Firemaw (Europe) at 23:42:21 UTC
• Calamity from Mograine (Europe) at 23:42:21 UTC
• APES from Gehennas (Europe) at 23:42:29 UTC

Congratulations to every guild that planned and executed this feat so well!