World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies

On Thursday, August 20th and Friday, August 21st, we will be continuing our raid tests in Castle Nathria.

Once mythic testing has concluded on the 21st we will be opening the first LFR wing for Castle Nathria, the Leeching Vaults, for the remainder of the weekend.

Thursday, August 20th

Stone Legion Generals - Mythic Castle Nathria
13:00 PDT (16:00 EDT, 22:00 CEST)

Shriekwing - Mythic Castle Nathria
14:00 PDT (17:00 EDT, 23:00 CEST)

Friday, August 21st

Artificer Xy’mox - Mythic Castle Nathria
13:00 PDT (16:00 EDT, 22:00 CEST)

The Council of Blood - Mythic Castle Nathria
14:00 PDT (17:00 EDT, 23:00 CEST)

** The Leeching Vaults - LFR Castle Nathria**
16:00 PDT (19:00 EDT, 01:00 CEST)

As always, this testing schedule is very fluid and subject to the realities of a test environment. We might have to change the time of a testing session, change the bosses being tested, or cancel a test entirely, due to bugs, server hardware issues, etc. Keep an eye on this forum for the latest information, and thank you in advance for testing and providing feedback.

To facilitate testing, players who have not committed themselves to a Covenant can speak with Acquirer Ta’est inside Castle Nathria to temporarily bind themselves to one of the four factions.

Q: How do I get into the raid zone?
A: In Oribos, Dalaran, Orgrimmar, or Stormwind, you may speak to Nexus-Lord Donjon Rade IV in order to teleport into the raid zone while it is open for testing. (The option to teleport into a zone will not be available when the zone is not open for testing.)

Q: What character should I use to test the raid?
A: Whichever you prefer. We will be scaling players’ effective level to 60 for raid testing, and their item level to an appropriate threshold for the encounter(s) being tested.

Q: How long does testing last?
A: The primary purpose of testing is to give us the information we need to balance the encounters, evaluate how mechanics are playing out in practice, and identify bugs. Once we’re satisfied that we’ve received that information for a given boss, we’ll be shutting down testing. Usually this takes anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours, but there are no guarantees.

We appreciate you taking the time to test our content and look forward to reading your feedback.

Updated Aug. 18: The achievement Phenomenal Cosmic Power will no longer be obtainable once pre-patch goes live (we previously stated that this would go away once Shadowlands went live). This is due to certain Rank 4 Essences no longer being available to earn after pre-patch (e.g. Vision of Perfection).

Your Essences Preferences

If you’re trying to collect the prestigious title Azeroth’s Champion, be sure to add earning the achievement Phenomenal Cosmic Power to your list of things to do, as all Rank 4 Essences can no longer be earned once Shadowlands strikes.

To earn: Infuse the Heart of Azeroth with all available Essences from the Rise of Azshara update for any role at Rank 4. Refer to Wowhead’s comprehensive Essence collection guide to get started!

During a scheduled maintenance period planned for 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. PDT on Thursday, August 20, the following realm connections will be made:

• The Eldre’Thalas and Korialstrasz realms will join the Akama, Dragonmaw, and Mug’thol realms.
• The Korgath realm will join the Cenarius, Perenolde, and Cairne realms.
• The Blood Furnace, Mannoroth, and Nazjatar realms will join the Azgalor, Azshara, and Destromath realms.
• The Ursin, Andorhal, Scilla, and Zuluhed realms will join the Eonar and Velen realms.
• The Madoran, and Dawnbringer realms will join the Azuremyst and Staghelm realms.
• The Garona realm will join the Icecrown and Malygos realms.
• Hyjal will join Proudmoore.

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!

On Monday, August 17, the World of Warcraft forums will be taken offline for maintenance and updates, starting at 22:00 CEST.

For about two hours, the WoW forums will be in read-only mode. During this time, you may be logged out, and you may have to log back into your forum account thereafter.

Thank you very much.