World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies

Phasing around the center of Nazjatar has been removed. No more phantom rares/starfish. Sorry, thanks! (Muffinus)

We agree with the many WoW Classic enthusiasts in Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia that it will be a very good thing for players in that part of the world to connect to realms that are hosted in that part of the world.

Planned it all along!

We will have Oceanic realms for WoW Classic, with game servers hosted in Australia, at launch on August 27, and we’ll let you know the names of the Oceanic realms before name reservations start on August 13. Thanks!

I’ve updated the original post in this thread with:

• “Melee leeway” is working as intended.

After careful study and testing, we’ve found that for players with low latency, the state of melee leeway is how they would have experienced the game in 2006.

There are more people with low latency now than there were in 2006, so we expect for some it might feel different, but it is working as expected.

Thank you very much to everyone who’ve helped test the closed beta for WoW Classic. Over the last seven weeks, we have reviewed over 17000 bug reports from testers. These led to our verification of hundreds of new and unique bugs. Your efforts have directly contributed to making WoW Classic a better experience for everyone when it opens to the world on August 27.

We have now reached a stage where WoW Classic is in a good state for reconciling remaining issues, and we intend to shift our focus away from the closed beta, which will end on July 12.

Internally, we’re working through the aforementioned bug fixes, testing the high-level zones such as Eastern Plaguelands, and doing our raid testing. We’ll make sure Ragnaros and Onyxia are ready to go.

As for what’s next, the final stress test is now coming up on July 25-26 (we’ve changed this date since we first announced it). During that global test, we will roll out our multi-region hardware in preparation for the worldwide release of WoW Classic. In addition to getting many more testers to play through the initial leveling experiences, it will be a test of the fixes and tweaks that we’ve made and are making to the game.

We’re planning a small in-game event to end the closed beta on July 12. We’ll see you there, and we’ll post reminders for you just before the stress test, as well as reminders in August as we gather for name reservations and ultimately for the release of WoW Classic.

Thank you!

The Queen of Tides has returned with Rise of Azshara, bringing a ton of new experiences to encounter—including many rare creatures—in Battle for Azeroth. One such creature is the elusive rare red baby murloc pet, Murgle. You can find Murgle in Nazjatar’s Bloodfin Village, but you’ll need to summon and defeat King Gakula first. Stirring up a little trouble with the village tadpoles is sure to draw him out.


Your characters aren’t the only ones who can adopt Murgle, though! You can bring this adorable little murloc home in both huggable plush and mug form. The Murgle Plush and the Red Murloc Mug can be yours as they’ll be available on the Blizzard Gear Store worldwide on July 9.


Those attending the Japan Expo in Paris July 4-7 will also be able to grab these tadpole-inspired treasures early. You’ll find them along with plenty of other Gear Store merchandise in the on-site Blizzard shop in hall 6 – Stand F716. (Full map)

The Battle for Azeroth Dungeons Bonus Event is underway!

This Week
All week, open Group Finder (default hotkey: I) to queue for any Battle for Azeroth dungeon on Normal or Heroic difficulty.

Alternatively, get a group of veteran dungeoneers together and travel to one of the Battle for Azeroth dungeons on Mythic difficulty:

• Atal’Dazar
• Temple of Sethraliss
• The Underrot
• The MOTHERLODE!!
• Freehold
• Shrine of the Storm
• Tol Dagor
• Waycrest Manor

Look for the following all week long:

• Chronicler Shoopa in Zuldazar or Chronicler Toopa in Boralus has a quest for you – Emissary of War. Or, if you forget to pick it up there, you can start it within the Adventure Journal.
  
  • Quest requirement: Complete 4 Battle for Azeroth dungeons on Mythic difficultly.
  • Rewards: One loot box containing a piece of gear from Heroic difficulty Battle for Dazar'alor.
• Passive bonus: The final boss in each dungeon drop additional loot on all difficulties (except Mythic Keystone difficulties.)

Every Week
The Bonus Events system consists of a rotating schedule of different activities, currently scheduled to run each week beginning on Tuesdays. Each Bonus Event grants a passive bonus to a particular game activity and offers a once-per-event quest with a noteworthy reward for accomplishing a related goal. The in-game calendar can serve as your one-stop reference for the event schedule. The Adventure Guide also offers a direct link to active Bonus Events, allowing you to easily accept any associated quests.

Brawler’s Guild

• Stitches' Aura of Rot stacks again fall off when players leave the affected area.

Classes

• Rage is limited to a maximum of 25 at the start of a raid encounter.
• Rogue (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  • Resolved an issue that prevented Sap from breaking when specific spells were cast on affected targets such as Concentrated Flame (Essence).
    
  • The debuff from Crucible of Flame (Essence) no longer removes Rogues from stealth.
    

Companions

• Players now retain the buffs provided by Neri Sharpfin if they log out and back in during its duration.

Creatures and NPCs

• Increased the health scaling and base health of all the lowest-health rare spawns in Nazjatar and Mechagon.
  
  • Developers’ note: With this change more players will have a chance to engage these rare spawns before they are eliminated.
    
  
  
• Vengeful Highborne’s fear ability channel reduced to 3 seconds (was 4 seconds) and its duration reduced to 4 seconds (was 5 seconds).
  
• Flight Master Gizzik Kelpears now defends against hostile creatures.
  
• Reduced the spawn chance for Enforcer KX-T57.
  
• The Dopple Gang now spawns when players use the item Pressure Relief Valve.
  
• Shirakess Overseer no longer spawns inside rocks.
  
• Rolly Gulper is no longer immune to area-of-effect abilities.
  
• Lord Hydraxis is now more powerful.

Dungeons and Raids

• Terrance of Endless Spring
  
  
  • Tsulong now respawns after a soft reset of the instance being inactive for 30 minutes.
    

Items

• Heart of Azeroth
  
  
  • Resolved an issue that caused Memory of Lucid Dreams (Essence) to break the user’s stealth when refunding resources.
    
  • Memory of Lucid Dreams’ (Essence) Major Power now correctly lasts the full duration for Fire Mages, Frost Mages, and Protection Paladins.
    
    • Developers’ note: The Minor Power on Memory of Lucid Dreams has a custom implementation for Fire Mages and how it interacts with Fire Blast charges. However, this wound up being too strong relative to other Essences’ Minor Powers. As such we’re reducing its proc rate by 33% for Fire Mages, which should keep this as a very strong option to use in the Minor Slot, but much closer to the potency of other Minor Powers.
      
    
    
  • Crucible of Flames’ (Essence) Minor Power no longer procs when casting abilities that apply crowd control to a target.
    
  • Fixed a bug preventing Purification Protocol's (Essence) Minor Power from correctly generating threat when damaging enemies.
    
  • The damage and healing granted from Omnipotence (Azerite Trait) now resets at the beginning of encounters and Arena matches.
    
  
  
• Fixed a bug that caused the Highborne Compendium of Sundering’s proc chance to increase if an allied player also had the trinket equipped.
  
• Prismatic Crystals[ now stack to 200.
  
• Shaman can now activate Anti-Gravity Packs in Ghost Wolf form.
  
• Benthic gear now displays the correct amount of Prismatic Manapearls needed for upgrades.
  
• The Volatile Blaster now can be used by Druids in Cat or Bear form.
  
• Harbinger’s Inscrutable Will now pacifies enemies struck by its projectile effect (was a silence).
  
• Druids can use Anti-Gravity Packs in all shapeshift forms, except Travel Form. Flap those wings, Moonkin!

Player versus Player

• The "Battle for Nazjatar" event is now active when there are similar numbers of players from both factions with War Mode activated in Nazjatar. When that is not the case, "Azshara's Elite Commanders" —a new event—becomes active and also rewards Battle for Nazjatar Commendations.
  
• The "Battle for Nazjatar" no longer ends prematurely.
  
• Fixed an issue that prevented Horde players who participated in Battle for Nazjatar from receiving rewards if they died when it ended.
  
• Kronus’ and Fangraal's health and damage have been increased in the Ashran Epic Battleground.
  
• Resolved an issue that could cause players in Dalaran Sewers to be teleported to the center of the Arena.
  
• Players now receive Nazjatar Battle Commendations from War Supply Chests earned in Nazjatar.
  
• Shadow Sight Orbs now spawn within the Robodrome Arena.
  
• The power coils have powered-up, and are now ready to zap shy arena players within the Robodrome starting area who linger too long.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused Rogues to die when casting Death from Above while participating in a Black Rook Hold Arena match.

Quests

• Players can again complete "Sliding with Style".
  
• Enemy players can no longer kill the opposing faction’s NPCs necessary to complete "The Missing Crew".
  
• Fixed an issue preventing players from turning in "They Made Their Choice".
  
• Pet Battle quests now give credit towards "Rustbolt Rebellion".
  
• Fixed an issue that caused the “Runelocked Chest” play area to clip into a nearby wall.
  
• Fixed an issue causing players to become unable to complete the quest, "Saving Corin."
  
• The user interface now always displays available quests for followers.
  
• Players again receive credit toward “Bounty: Dangerous Creatures” for eliminating rare spawns.
  
• The criteria for “Bounty: Dangerous Creatures” has been reduced to 1 rare spawn (was 3 rare spawns).
  
• World Quest targets in Nazjatar no longer display a silver dragon portrait, but instead show up as quest bosses or elite quest bosses.

Toys

• The Pearl of Abyss can now be obtained.
  
• Flopping Fish is now much more kickable.

Warfronts

• Addressed an issue that caused Wood and Iron resources looted from creatures to be less common.

World

• Alliance players can no longer rest in the Horde Outpost Ekka's Hideaway.
  
• Players who die in the Great Sea off the coast of Mechagon are no longer teleported to the Whitegrove Chapel graveyard.