World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies

Since the launch of Battle for Azeroth, we’ve noticed an increasing trend of players turning off XP gains at level 110 in order to repeatedly powerlevel other players’ characters at an excessive rate without increasing their own level. The intention of the XP-off feature is to allow alternate characters to stay in lower-level PvP brackets or relive lower-level content, not to purposefully halt progression in content relevant to the current expansion.

To curb this behavior, we plan to implement a hotfix in the coming days that will disable the ability to turn off XP gains on characters level 110 or higher. Additionally, any character of that level who already has XP disabled will find it automatically re-enabled the next time they log in.

Update
We’ve been thinking about this plan more today and agree that there are probably better ways to approach this issue. We’re going to hold off on this for the time being while we discuss.

Hi all –
We just wanted to take a moment and thank all of you for supporting World of Warcraft throughout the year of 2018. We’re grateful for your passion for World of Warcraft and we’re lucky to have such dedicated players that are always giving us feedback on what to improve. Every year is always an epic journey, another chapter in the history of this great game, and we can’t wait to keep things rolling in 2019!

Also, as you’d likely expect, our coverage on the forums will be down as we are out of the office over the holidays. We’ll be spending time with our family, friends, loved ones, animals, and we hope all of you have a chance to do the same.

Please keep the feedback and discussions going and we’ll be back and in touch with you before you know it. We have a lot of goals next year based on a lot of the feedback you’ve graciously given us as always, and we hope you guys like what we’re working on, both in game and out of game.

We hope Greatfather Winter brings you all the gifts you and your loved ones have asked for <3
-Community Team

P.S. Remember to collect this years present under your faction’s Winter Veil Tree after the 25th, as well as knock out the Winter Veil achievements before they go away!

Just to follow up - we needed to get some extra data together to do it properly, but yes, we’ll be removing the items gained and issuing suspensions for those who abused this bug (with an increasing penalty based on how excessive the abuse was). The reason it’s taken an extra few days is that we needed to make sure we were also cleaning up any extra Titan Residuum gained from this.

Weekly for 4 mythic dungeons only gives a normal cache now?? Used to say heroic historically, was this intended or should I wait to turn in?
It's still a Heroic piece - this is just a tooltip issue (which we're working to fix). (WarcraftDevs)

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 Uldir.
• 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.

New PvP Brawl: Cooking: Impossible
Nomi is back, and he wants you to bring your most dangerous pots and pans to The Valley of the Four Winds for a new brawl in the kitchen. Look to your in-game calendar for round one of this cutthroat culinary conflict.

High PvP Queue Times
We've noticed this increase in queue times as well, particularly for highly-rated players. We're currently investigating to find a fix, but this was not intended. (WarcraftDevs)

PvP Titles
the PvP title NAME the Elite CLASS, added in 8.1 will this title only last for the season, or is a title for keeps, once its earned for said character/characters of said class?
Elite titles are only active during the season in which they are earned. (WarcraftDevs)

Don Your Holiday Apparel—The Feast of Winter Veil Has Begun!
The fine folks of Smokywood Pastures aren’t letting a little thing like war between the Horde and the Alliance get in the way of spreading holiday cheer—or gaining a bit of profit. Winter Veil has begun in Azeroth, and with it come all the fripperies, fineries, and delectable comestibles of the holiday.

When: December 16 – January 2
Where: Initial holiday quests can be found in Orgrimmar and Ironforge, but festive decorations can be found throughout the world.

Let your spirit be light by stepping into one of the Giant Snow Globes^* found outside of the Ironforge Bank, in Orgrimmar overlooking the Valley of Wisdom, or in the Broken Isles in Dalaran. It’s a truly transformative experience letting your inner Greatfather Winter helper out. A little /dance will spread the joy to those around you.


The Abominable Greench is (still) a mean one, but we’re sure that once you’ve filled up on the fine foods and beverages from Smokywood Pastures, you’re bound to put a stop to his reign of terror in the Hillsbrad Foothills. The quest You’re a Mean One… is now available to players level 60 and up.

There are plenty of holiday hats to be found on a variety of bosses from dungeons in the Broken Isles, Northrend, and more. You just need to decide which color hat you want. Will it be green or red?

*May experience some shrinkage with use
**Please /dance responsibly. Side effects include joy and laughter. Wait at least 30 minutes after eating Smokywood Pastures fine festive foods to avoid unpleasant side effects.

Classes

• Note: These changes will be applied with weekly restarts in each region.
  
• Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  • Feral
    
    • Damage of all abilities increased by 7%
      
  
  
• Mage (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  • Frost
    
    • Damage of all abilities increased by 3%
      

Items

• Heart of Azeroth
  
  • (Fury Warrior) Reverted an unintended reduction to the damage of Reckless Flurry.
    

Dungeons

• Siege of Boralus
  
  • Viq’Goth
    
    • Call of the Deep should no longer damage players who are currently mounted in the cannon.
      

Player versus Player

• Monk (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  • Mistweaver
    
    • Fixed a bug that caused Way of the Crane to heal for more than intended on a critical strike.
      

Quests

• The Alliance War Campaign quest “The Big Boom” can now be completed while the world quest “Zem’lan Rescue” is active.