World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies

Items and Rewards

• Corrupted Items
  
  • A change to the interaction between Fist of Justice and Ineffable Truth has been reverted.
    
    • Developers’ note: This change was mistakenly applied with the release of 8.3.7. This was unintentional and the change has been reverted.
      

Player versus Player

• Classes
  
  • Warlock
    
    • [With regional restarts] Soul Leech grants an absorb for 4% of damage dealt when engaged in combat with enemy players (down from 8%).
      
      • Developers’ note: Soul Leech will continue to have a cap of 10% of the Warlock's maximum health.
        
    • Destruction
      
      • [With regional restarts] The effectiveness of Flashpoint (Azerite Trait) has been reduced by 75% when engaged in combat with enemy players (was 50%).
        
• Items and Rewards
  
  • [With regional restarts] The effectiveness of Lingering Psychic Shell has been reduced by 70% when engaged in combat with enemy players (was 50%).
    
• Azerite Essences
  
  • [With regional restarts] The effectiveness of Vitality Conduit's health transfer has been reduced by 30% when engaged in combat with enemy players.
    
• Corrupted Items
  
  • [With regional restarts] Fist of Justice and Ineffable Truth (Corruption Effect) no longer reduces the cooldown of Gladiator's Medallion (PvP Talent).
    
• Developers’ note: These PvP specific changes are to reduce the number of long stalled out matches in high end Arena.

WoW Classic

• Fixed an issue that caused the Rallying Cry of the Dragonslayer buff to not apply to all players in Stormwind and Orgrimmar when the Head of Onyxia or Head of Nefarian has been turned in on their realm or its connected layers.

As some have noticed, we have Breaking News in the Battle.net App for WoW Classic that indicates a two-hour downtime for the content update along with the weekly raid reset tomorrow (July 29th EU).

We’re changing that to 30 minutes. We do need to make sure realms are down when the reset occurs, and we expect to finish our final checks for the content and see realms open to players at around 9:30 a.m. PDT / 12:30 p.m. EDT (9:30 CEST).

Some assorted minor changes in an upcoming build, just noting here:

–Convoke the Spirits can be channeled while moving, in all forms.

–Adaptive Swarm (damage swarm) will try to favor targets that have Moonfire or Rip active. It will not, however, merge/stack two swarms together if it can avoid it. The healing swarm was already pretty smart and there are no further changes to it right now.

–Bloodtalons: trigger changed from “use Shred, Rake, and Thrash” to “use any 3 different generators”. Continuing on from a lot of feedback on this, the goal is to make it more flexible, and cause fewer rotation clashes, while still requiring a moment of planning to trigger.

–Runecarve currently called Druid Runecarve 3 on beta (DoT/HoT tick rate): this was incomplete/ambiguous in the last build, but we are trying a version that compresses both tick rates and durations, taking from old abilities like Jagged Wounds and Glyph of Rapid Rejuvenation. That should be in and working next build for testing.

The time is nigh for the Alliance and Horde to heed the call to arms. You’ll need to band together with your allies to gather essential resources and fuel the war effort leading beyond the gates of Ahn’Qiraj.

The great desert fortress of Ahn'Qiraj, long sealed behind the Scarab Wall, is home to the insectoid qiraji, a savage race set to mount an assault to devastate the continent of Kalimdor. But something far more sinister lurks behind Ahn'Qiraj's walls: the Old God C'Thun, an ancient entity whose pervasive evil had suffused Azeroth since time immemorial.

Join the War Effort

Supplies are needed to fuel the war effort against the sinister forces of Ahn’Qiraj. You’ll need to work alongside other members of your faction to contribute the resources needed open the ancient citadel’s gates and begin your siege on the Ruins of Ahn’Qiraj and the Temple of Ahn’Qiraj.

Both Horde and the Alliance will need to bring a steady stream of supplies to the Valley of Spirits in Orgrimmar or to the Military Ward in Ironforge. Each turn-in will reward Ahn’Qiraj War Effort Supplies containing useful items and Alliance Commendation Signets or Horde Commendation Signets, which can be used to gain reputation with your faction.

While many of the necessary supplies can be obtained as loot drops or purchased from the Auction House, having a profession that helps you acquire these supplies will also come in handy. Here is a list of items you’ll need to set your sights on collecting.

Horde:

• Baked Salmon (Cooking – 275)
• Firebloom (Herbalism – 205)
• Heavy Leather (Skinning/Leatherworking – 150)
• Lean Wolf Steak (Cooking – 125)
• Mageweave Bandage (First Aid – 210)
• Mithril Bar (Mining – 175)
• Peacebloom (Herbalism – 1)
• Rugged Leather (Skinning/Leatherworking – 250)
• Tin Bar (Mining – 65)
• Wool Bandage (First Aid – 80)

Alliance:

• Arthas’ Tears (Herbalism – 220)
• Iron Bar (Mining – 125)
• Light Leather (Skinning/Leatherworking – 1)
• Linen Bandage (First Aid – 1)
• Medium Leather (Skinning/Leatherworking – 100)
• Rainbow Fin Albacore (Cooking – 50)
• Roast Raptor (Cooking – 175)
• Silk Bandage (First Aid – 150)
• Stranglekelp (Herbalism – 85)
• Thorium Bar (Mining – 250)

Both Factions:

• Copper Bar (Mining – 25)
• Purple Lotus (Herbalism – 210)
• Runecloth Bandage (First Aid – 260)
• Spotted Yellowtail (Cooking – 225)
• Thick Leather (Skinning/Leatherworking – 200)

Once the resources for the War Effort have been gathered by both the Horde and the Alliance, supply chains will make their way from Ironforge and Orgrimmar to Cenarion Hold in Silithus. Once these resources reach Cenarion Hold, players who are on the quest line to create the Scepter of the Shifting Sands will be able to undertake the “Bang a Gong!” quest in order to complete it.

Befriending Dragons

During the War Effort, players will also be able to begin earning reputation with the Brood of Nozdormu by turning in Silithid Carapace Fragments. You’ll need to turn in the Head of the Broodlord Lashlayer to begin the quest “The Path of Righteous” or be deputized by another player who has Proxy of Nozdormu before these fragments will begin to drop for you.

Who Will Rise as Scarab Lord?

Players will also be able to begin a quest series to create the Scepter of the Sands, which will enable them to ultimately ring the gong on the realm they are on. The first player on each realm who completes the quest and rings the gong will become the realm’s “Scarab Lord” and receive the Black Qiraji Resonating Crystal, which will summon a ridable Qiraji battle tank that can be used in the outdoor world as well as within the Temple of Ahn’Qiraj.

Players who complete the Scepter of the Sands quest chain and ring the gong in the first 10 hours of the gong being rung initially will also receive the Black Qiraji Resonating Crystal.

Any other players who complete the quest line past the 10–hour period won’t receive the mount, but will still receive rewards from the “Treasure of the Timeless One” quest, which includes one of four epic weapons, experience, reputation, and a little money for your pocket.

Pushing Back the Enemy

Once the gong is rung on a realm, it will mark the beginning of a 10-hour war heralding the arrival of Anubisath and Qiraji warriors, which can be found in the Barrens and Thousand Needles (for lower-level players) and Silithus, Tanaris, and Feralas (for higher-level players). Defending against these incursions will give players a chance to earn gold, experience, and reputation with the Brood of Nozdormu, along with a higher chance for rare drops.

Opening of the Gates

At the completion of the 10-hour war, the Ruins of Ahn’Qiraj (a 20-player raid dungeon) and the Temple of Ahn’Qiraj (a 40-player raid dungeon) will open, allowing players access to the dangers and treasures within.

In the coming days, the following realm connection will be made:

• The Drak’thul and Skywall realms will join the Silvermoon and Mok’Nathal realms. (NA)
• The Cairne and Perenolde realms will join the Cenarius realm. (NA)
• The Kilrogg realm will join the Hellfire realm. (EU)

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!

Update 24/7: We are encountering some issues that are preventing us from performing the realm connections mentioned above for the time being. We will let you know when we have more information to share regarding their implementation.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

We’re aware of and working on a bug with taunts in the Shadowlands Beta.

We’ll confirm again here as soon as it’s fixed.

WoW Classic

• Fixed a bug that could allow stacked periodic auras such as Ignite to persist past their final tick.