World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies

Patch 8.1.0 PTR - Build 28440
Build 28440 will be deployed to the PTR realms soon.

Achievement Changes



Spell Changes



Strings Changes



Misc Changes

Hearthstone Dev Interview - C'Thun / Reno / Inspire, Pirates, Spirits in Arena

Hailstone Construct - Drustvar Battle for Azeroth World Boss
The Hailstone Construct is this week's BfA world boss!

Level	Type	Slot	Name	Model Viewer
355	Trinket	Trinket	Drust-Runed Icicle
355	Trinket	Trinket	Permafrost-Encrusted Heart
355	Cloth	Legs	Frostbreath Leggings	Modelviewer
355	Cloth	Feet	Ice-Rimed Slippers	Modelviewer
355	Leather	Feet	Ice Stalker Boots	Modelviewer
355	Leather	Wrists	Chill's End Wristguards	Modelviewer
355	Mail	Chest	Hailstone Hauberk	Modelviewer
355	Mail	Waist	Freezing Tempest Waistguard	Modelviewer
355	Plate	Shoulders	Ice-Carved Shoulderplates	Modelviewer
355	Plate	Waist	Girdle of Biting Winds	Modelviewer
355	Plate	Hands	Glacial Spike Gauntlets	Modelviewer

Weekly Event - Burning Crusade Timewalking
Burning Crusade Timewalking is back this week. Don't forget to check out Black Temple Timewalking during the event! Black Temple awards base item level 355 gear.

• The weekly quest from your adventure guide rewards Azerite Power and Cache of Uldir Treasures.
• You can find Cupri in Shattrath.
• Don't forget to keep working towards Reins of the Eclipse Dragonhawk, Bridle of the Ironbound Wraithcharger, and Yu'lei, Daughter of Jade!
• Reins of the Infinite Timereaver can also drop from any Timewalking dungeon boss.

PvP Brawl - Temple of Hotmogu

Island Expeditions for the Week of November 13, 2018
Old God invasions are added to the invasion possibilities this week! The Island Expeditions for the week are:

• Rotting Mire with Jinyu
• Ungol Ruins with Hozen
• Whispering Reef with Murlocs

Call to Arms: Stormsong Valley
This week's Call to Arms is Call to Arms: Stormsong Valley or Call to Arms: Stormsong Valley. Head to Stormsong Valley with warmode enabled to kill 10 players of the opposing faction. This will reward you with conquest and 75 reputation for either 7th Legion or The Honorbound.

If you capped conquest last week, you can work towards the next reward - a 370 item level Azerite Chest Piece.

New Card Reveals - Ticket Scalper, Heavy Metal!

MMO-Champion Interview with Alex Afrasiabi and Patrick Dawson
We had the opportunity to talk to Alex Afrasiabi and Patrick Dawson at BlizzCon. Our interview was before the World of Warcraft: What's Next panel, so we couldn't ask about the new content.



Moonkin Festival Micro-Holiday on November 12
Moonkin Festival is today! Head to Moonglade and pick up Moonkin Monitoring from Makkaw.

There is a small quest line that ends with a fight against a group boss that drops Beanie Boomie. Completion of the quest line increases the number of hatchlings that are following you.


Method Interview with Ely Cannon and Morgan Day
Method sat down with WoW devs Ely Cannon and Morgan Day to discuss Battle for Azeroth.

• Battle of Dazar'alor
  
  • Boss 2 (King Grong) for Horde is Boss 3 for Alliance. Other than this, the fights happen in the same order.
  • The team may add small scenes to show the other faction raid during the events and bosses, such as seeing them fighting in the distance or Alliance players switching to the Horde perspective and seeing their own characters down with Mekkatorque from the balcony above.
  • The team wanted to justify the encounters with purpose. The reason the Alliance fights the Treasure Guardian is because it makes sense for them to break into the treasury and steal artifacts during a siege.
• Nazjatar
  
  • The team poured a lot of resources and time into Nazjatar. It will be an extensively large zone with 5 different environment types that contain full questing and end game content.
• Mechagon
  
  • They wanted the dungeon to launch feeling like Karazhan, meaning you know you will spend substantial time in there in a small group.
  • Eventually it will be split into 2 wings for Mythic +.
• Mythic + Affixes
  
  • The season two affix Reaping will do the following:
    
    • Cause all trash mobs killed every 20% of the progress bar (5 times total) to raise and rush your team no matter where you are on the map.
    • They want it to feel scary and creepy. Bwonsamdi will appear and say "rise" and a blood moon will appear in the sky whenever it happens. The dungeon will also get darker.
    • If you lose the timer something interesting also happens, but they don't want to spoil it!
    • You should be able to plan around this affix because it happens at set times.
  • Necrotic will be changed to physical instead of magical to better play to the weaknesses of tanks that heal a lot.
• Global Cooldown
  
  • DPS cooldowns were looked at to design them around having more impact or reason to not activate multiple at once. They also are making visual improvements to them to make them feel more epic.
  • Many mobility abilities are being taken off the GCD again.
  • Defensive abilities are still being discussed.
• Raid Incentives
  
  • Raids have unique traits not found outside of the raid that do fun and exciting things.

Wowhead Interview with Ion Hazzikostas and Chris Robinson
Wowhead sat down with Ion Hazzikostas and Chris Robinson for some new information!

• Heritage Armor
  
  • In regards to the Tauren Heritage Armor, the giant totem on the back is actually the cloak slot.
  • There could be more Heritage sets in the future outside of the ones being created for both the Allied races and older races.
  • The current armor worn by a lot of the Night Elf NPCs is not planned as the Night Elf Heritage Armor, but player feedback could cause designs reminiscent of it.
• Night Elves
  
  • The events of the Darkshore quests in 8.1 are setting up future lore and stories for the Night Elves.
  • The Night Elf glaive is currently restricted to Demon Hunters, but a weapon will that silhouette may become available to other classes down the line.
• Rise of Azshara
  
  • Blizzard thought it was important to capture the vibe of being underwater while not constantly being underwater.
  • They don't have finalized travel gameplay mechanics for Nazjatar, but it may involve waterfalls and currents.
  • The patch name "Rise of Azshara" is not just a turn of phrase.
• Darkmoon Faire
  
  • The Darkmoon roller coaster is a first person POV simulator.
  • The coaster was a passion project from one of the artists. It wasn't initially planned for the faire.
• Character Customization
  
  • Glowing eyes for female Worgen are planned.
  • The team is happy that the perma-scowl is gone from the female Worgen model, but still want to iterate further on facial customization for the Worgen.
  • There are no plans currently for straight-backed undead.
  • Adding different undead races to the lineup depends on where the story goes and whether or not they should just be standard members of the Horde or playable characters.
• Battleground Visual Updates
  
  • They currently have no plans to update Alterac Valley like they are doing to Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin. These two are much smaller and are part of the rotation for rated play.
• Allied Races
  
  • The character slot limit per server will increase with each Allied Race added to the game.
  • The 50 character cap per account will not increase as of now.
• Mechagon
  
  • Goblins see Mechagon as a way to salvage and create new lucrative inventions.

WoWChakra and 4Fansites Interview with Morgan Day & Shani Edwards
WoWChakra and 4Fansites sat down with Morgan Day and Shani Edwards to discuss Battle for Azeroth and its future.

• Azshara's Eternal Throne
  
  • The team is aware of the challenges an underwater fight presents, but think this raid is a time where they have to create a fight like this.
  • The team looked at the Horde quest that took place underwater for inspiration.
  • The raid designers want to try to create new fights that they have never done yet and this is the perfect opportunity.
• Story
  
  • Thrall could possibly make a return in the future, but the team doesn't want to spoil too much.
  • They admit that the Horde got more quests and context for the Uldir raid, but the Alliance might get more intimate context for The Crucible of Storms and Mechagon because they take place in their zones. They are also the ones taking the fight to the Horde in The Battle for Dazar'alor.
• Allied Races
  
  • Allied races will be added as they make sense in the story.
  • There are more coming, but the team isn't ready to announce anymore at this time.
• Warfronts
  
  • There are currently no new Warfronts after Darkshore to announce at this time, but that is not to say that new ones are not coming.
• Azerite Armor
  
  • The team has heard and agree with the feedback that having to unlock the same traits over and over is not fun and plan to use address this. They don't have any specifics to share at the moment, however.
• Class Stacking
  
  • It is important that classes have strengths where they shine, but also weaknesses. In the instance of stacking Subtlety Rogues for Zul, the team admits that the raid designers could have simply had damage shields on the adds to deter this in Mythic difficulty, which is something that they have done for the robot adds in the Mekkatorque fight in Dazar'alor.
  • The team liked giving classes time to shine in Uldir that didn't necessarily involve damage, such as mobile classes in the G'huun fight. They then realized that people just stacked Warlocks for it, and kind of negated the original intent, though Warlocks got to shine!