Master of Warcraft

Don’t Use WoW’s New Zul’jarra Contract Yet — It May Switch Factions

2026-08-13T14:35:03.117+02:00

If you're trying to maximize your reputation with Zul'jarra's Forces in Patch 12.1, you may want to leave one particular item sitting safely in your bags for now. Players are reporting that the new Contract: Zul'jarra's Forces can mysteriously transform into a contract for the completely different Amani Tribe after it has been used. Which is unfortunate. Especially when you've already maxed Amani reputation months ago.

The Contract Starts Correctly — Then Changes

The new contract is supposed to give additional Zul'jarra's Forces reputation when completing eligible World Quests. And initially, that appears to work. Several players report applying the correct Zul'jarra contract, earning the expected bonus reputation and then logging out or switching characters. After returning, the active contract buff had changed to Contract: The Amani Tribe. Same character. Different faction. World of Warcraft has apparently invented reputation identity theft.

Character Switching May Be Triggering It

Blizzard hasn't explained the bug yet, but players investigating the problem have noticed a possible pattern. Contracts now interact with the Warband system, with their effects appearing across characters. The current community theory is that when another character receives the contract buff after logging in, the game is incorrectly applying the Amani version. Afterward, the original character may also have its Zul'jarra contract replaced. That explanation has not been confirmed by Blizzard, but multiple players have independently reported the same behavior after swapping characters. For now, logging onto an alt apparently carries the small risk that your brand-new troll contract forgets which trolls you actually wanted to impress.

The Weekly Contract Limit Makes This Much Worse

Normally, a reputation-contract bug would be irritating but easy enough to fix from the player's side. Buy another contract. Apply it. Continue grinding. Not here. Contracts can only be applied once per weekly reset. So once your Zul'jarra contract changes into the Amani version, you cannot simply overwrite it with another Zul'jarra contract. You may effectively lose the reputation bonus for the rest of the week. Several affected players also report spending thousands of gold on the new contract because demand is currently high. Nothing improves a reputation grind quite like spending 10,000 gold to gain reputation with a faction you've already finished.

Zul’jarra’s Forces Has Rewards Worth Grinding

That explains why people care. Zul'jarra's Forces is Patch 12.1's major new Renown faction on the Coiled Isle, with rewards spread throughout its progression track. Those include gear, cosmetics and several mounts, including the Spirit of Tok'jara, Indigo Coiled Horror and Violet-Backed Skyfang. For players trying to reach the higher Renown ranks quickly, an extra reputation bonus from every World Quest is genuinely useful. Which makes accidentally redirecting that bonus toward old Amani reputation considerably less amusing after the first five minutes.

Should You Use the Contract Right Now?

Until Blizzard confirms a fix, the safest answer is probably: No. Some players report that their contract continues working normally, so the bug clearly isn't affecting everyone. But enough independent reports now exist that using an expensive weekly-limited contract carries an unnecessary risk. If you've already applied one and it still shows Zul'jarra's Forces, avoiding unnecessary character swaps may be sensible until we know more. That isn't a confirmed workaround. It's merely better than deliberately poking the thing players suspect is breaking it.

Now We Wait for Blizzard

There is no official Blizzard acknowledgement or hotfix announcement yet. That means we don't know whether affected players will have their correct contract restored, whether the weekly restriction will be reset, or whether lost reputation opportunities will simply remain lost. Patch 12.1 has already produced several small launch bugs, and Blizzard has been fairly quick about fixing the more disruptive ones. Hopefully this joins that list shortly. Until then, keep the contract in your bag. Zul'jarra will understand. Griftah, meanwhile, would probably like to sell you another one. Source: Wowhead and player reports on the official World of Warcraft Bug Report forum.

WoW’s Pre-Season Has One Delve Exception That Drops Hero Gear

2026-08-13T13:38:12.885+02:00

Midnight Season 2 doesn't officially begin until next week, which means most Delve rewards are still politely waiting behind the seasonal starting line. Mostly. There is one rather valuable exception. Players can obtain one item level 305 Hero 1/6 piece per character this week by using a Trovehunter's Bounty and completing a Tier 8 or higher Delve. That makes the little treasure map one of the most valuable items available during the Patch 12.1 pre-season. And there is one very important rule: Do not use it too early.

Trovehunter’s Bounty Can Give Hero 1/6 Gear

After progressing through the Patch 12.1 campaign and unlocking the Vaults of Atal'Utek, players can pick up the quest Vaults of Atal'Utek: A Toxic Tour. Completing activities in the Vaults rewards several items, including a Trovehunter's Bounty. The Bounty is effectively a Delve treasure map. Activate it, complete an eligible Delve, and a Hidden Trove appears at the end containing bonus loot. During Season 2, completing a Tier 8 or higher Delve with the Bounty active can produce an item level 305 Hero 1/6 item. That is considerably better than the normal pre-season Delve loot available this week.

Do Not Activate the Map Until Tier 8

This is the important part. Season 2 resets Delve progression, meaning Warbands need to work their way back through the difficulty tiers. Trovehunter's Bounty scales its reward according to the Delve tier you complete. So if you enthusiastically click the map and immediately wander into a lower-level Delve, congratulations: You have successfully converted your Hero-track opportunity into worse loot. Wowhead specifically recommends holding the Bounty until you have unlocked Tier 8 and are ready to run a Tier 8+ Delve. This is one of those rare WoW situations where the optimal strategy is: Receive exciting item. Do absolutely nothing with exciting item.

Why Item Level 305 Matters This Week

Patch 12.1's pre-season already offers useful catch-up gear. Mythic 0 dungeons are currently dropping item level 292 Champion 1/6 gear, giving mains and alts a head start before Mythic+ opens. The Trovehunter's Bounty jumps well beyond that. At item level 305 and Hero 1/6, the reward is already sitting on the same Hero track that becomes much more common once Season 2's proper endgame systems activate. For a character still wearing Season 1 gear, that can be a very real upgrade. For an alt, it can be enormous.

You Only Get One Guaranteed Shot Per Character

This is not an endlessly farmable Hero-gear loophole. The important pre-season opportunity is the Trovehunter's Bounty provided through the Vaults quest, giving each character one reliable route to that Hero-track reward this week. Once Season 2 begins, Delves move into their normal seasonal reward structure and Hero gear becomes less unusual. Right now, though, item level 305 stands out. Which means this little map deserves considerably more respect than most objects sitting beside old Hearthstones and seventeen currencies in your bags.

Pre-Season Has Become Surprisingly Good for Gearing

This continues an interesting trend with Patch 12.1. The week before Season 2 isn't really a dead week. Mythic 0 already drops Champion gear. Season 2 Sparks are already appearing. The new dungeon pool can be learned before timers arrive. And now Delves contain one carefully hidden Hero-track reward for players who know where to look. Our pre-season checklist already covers the broader list of things worth doing this week, but the Trovehunter's Bounty deserves a special warning of its own. Get the map. Unlock Tier 8. Then use it. In that order. Because nothing says World of Warcraft quite like receiving a valuable treasure map and immediately being told that the smartest thing you can do is resist clicking it. Source: Wowhead

Some WoW Alts Can Get a Third Season 2 Spark This Week

2026-08-13T13:14:32.567+02:00

Neglecting your World of Warcraft alt for five months may finally have paid off. Some Midnight characters can currently obtain a third Spark of Tides during the Patch 12.1 pre-season week, potentially putting them one step ahead in Season 2 crafting. The strange part is who qualifies. It isn't your hardest-working main. It is characters that never bothered completing an old one-time quest from the beginning of Midnight. Apparently procrastination has entered the gearing meta.

Season 2 Sparks Are Already Available

Spark of Tides is Midnight Season 2's new crafting Spark. Most crafted items require two Sparks, while two-handed weapons require four, making the opening weeks particularly important for players planning high-value crafts. Blizzard deliberately started distributing Season 2 Sparks during the Patch 12.1 pre-season week, before the raid and Mythic+ season officially begin. We already highlighted that in our Patch 12.1 pre-season checklist. What nobody particularly expected was that some characters would apparently be able to leave the week with one more than everyone else.

The Extra Spark Comes From Midnight: World Tour

The unusual third Spark comes from Midnight: World Tour. This was a one-time quest available earlier in the expansion. If your character already completed it during Season 1, it cannot simply be repeated for another reward. But if an alt never finished the quest, that character can still have access to it now. And the quest currently awards a Spark of Tides. That means an eligible character can combine the old World Tour reward with the new pre-season Spark sources and potentially reach three Sparks this week. So this isn't really a reward for creating a brand-new character. It is a reward for having a character whose quest log spent Season 1 saying: “We should probably get around to that eventually.” Eventually has arrived.

The Third Spark Doesn't Immediately Unlock a Huge Craft

There is one reason not to panic. Three Sparks does not create an immediate major crafting breakpoint. Most normal crafted items require two Sparks, so characters with two Sparks can already make one. A two-handed weapon requires four. Having three therefore mostly becomes interesting when we reach next week's Spark distribution. If eligible characters receive another Spark normally, they could potentially reach four earlier than characters that started this week with only two. That is where the gearing advantage could become significant. A Season 2 crafted two-handed weapon during early progression is considerably more exciting than simply having one extra purple crafting object sitting in your bags.

Blizzard Hasn't Said Whether This Is Intended

This is the big unanswered question. Wowhead considers the third Spark very likely unintended, because eligibility depends entirely on whether an individual character completed a one-time Season 1 quest. Blizzard has not yet confirmed that interpretation or explained how it intends to handle the difference. There are several possibilities. The World Tour reward could be changed. Players with fewer Sparks could eventually receive a catch-up reward. Characters with three could simply receive their next Spark later. Or Blizzard could decide that an old uncompleted quest awarding its current reward is working exactly as designed. For now, we simply don't know. There are also player reports of some normal weekly quests displaying a Spark reward but not actually awarding one once a character has reached the intended weekly limit, making the current pre-season Spark system slightly more confusing than Blizzard probably intended.

Don’t Build Your Entire Season 2 Plan Around It Yet

If you have an alt that never completed Midnight: World Tour, it is certainly worth checking the character. But I would not spend a small fortune preparing a four-Spark weapon based entirely on the assumption that Blizzard will allow the current difference to carry cleanly into next week. Season 2 doesn't officially begin until August 18. That gives Blizzard several days to clarify the situation or change how the extra Spark interacts with future drops. Still, there is something wonderfully World of Warcraft about the whole thing. Main character: Completed every quest. Cleared every weekly. Did everything properly. Two Sparks. Forgotten alt sitting in Silvermoon since April: Three Sparks. Sometimes the optimal strategy really is not doing your homework. Source: Wowhead / Icy Veins

Patch 12.1 Has a Bigger Progression Bug — Blizzard Calls the Fix a Top Priority

2026-08-13T13:06:02.909+02:00

Patch 12.1 has apparently developed a more ambitious bug than simply breaking one dungeon. Blizzard has acknowledged an issue affecting multiple World of Warcraft dungeons and scenarios, causing objectives to stop advancing and leaving players trapped inside content they can no longer complete. The problem has already been reported in The Blinding Vale, Temple Strikes inside the Vaults of Atal'Utek and several other activities. Blizzard says fixing it is now a top priority.

The Blinding Vale Can Simply Stop After the Second Boss

One of the clearest examples comes from The Blinding Vale. Players running the dungeon through Heroic matchmaking report reaching the second boss normally, defeating it, and then discovering that the Pedal Wings required to continue never appear. At that point, the dungeon is effectively finished. Not because you completed it. Because the architecture has decided you live there now. The timing is particularly awkward because The Blinding Vale is already part of the new Season 2 dungeon pool, and players are currently using Mythic 0 to prepare for next week's Mythic+ launch. Learning the dungeon before the timer arrives is useful. Learning that the dungeon occasionally stops existing halfway through is slightly less useful.

Temple Strikes Are Getting Stuck Too

The Vaults of Atal'Utek are suffering from similar problems. Players report Temple Strikes becoming stuck at steps such as “Prepare the Attack” or “Access the Cursed Depths”, sometimes with timers sitting permanently at 00:00. That can become more than an inconvenience because Temple Strikes are tied into Patch 12.1 progression and campaign activity on the Coiled Isle. Some players have managed to escape broken phases by joining groups on different shards, but that is hardly an ideal official strategy. “Find another version of reality where the quest works” generally belongs further down the troubleshooting guide.

The Darkway and Older Content May Be Affected

Reports suggest the same underlying problem may reach beyond the obvious Patch 12.1 activities. Players in The Darkway Delve have encountered locked boss-room doors after completing the required objectives, preventing them from reaching Infiltrator Gulkat. Other reports include older dungeons and scenarios failing to open doors or advance objectives correctly. That broader pattern is why Blizzard isn't treating these as unrelated encounter bugs. Community Manager Kaivax explicitly said the failures are the result of a bug affecting “many dungeons and scenarios,” with developers working on the issue as a priority.

This Is More Serious Than Yesterday’s Lair Bug

Patch 12.1 already had one amusing launch problem when completed Lairs refused to stop matchmaking new players. Blizzard fixed that quickly. This one matters more. A broken Lair queue was silly. A bug capable of soft-locking campaign scenarios, Delves and dungeons can directly stop players from progressing through content. The reassuring part is that Blizzard has identified the common cause and publicly elevated the fix to top-priority status. For now, though, if a door refuses to open or an objective timer reaches zero and decides to remain there for eternity, it may not be you. Patch 12.1 has apparently discovered the ultimate dungeon mechanic: The boss is the script. Source: Blizzard Entertainment

WoW Season 2 Won’t Let the Meta Sit Still for Long

2026-08-13T12:31:22.106+02:00

If you were planning to choose your Midnight Season 2 main, copy the first tier list you see and then peacefully ignore class balance for the next three months, Blizzard has some unfortunate news. The meta is going to move. Blizzard has published its official class tuning roadmap for Midnight Season 2, with four tuning dates already pencilled into the calendar and several more expected before Season 3. The first balance pass arrives immediately when Season 2 begins on August 18. Then Blizzard plans to do it again one week later. And again the week after that. Your spreadsheet is going to need a comfortable chair.

The First Tuning Pass Arrives With Season 2

Blizzard's currently planned tuning dates are:

August 18 — Season 2 launch tuning
August 25 — First week of Season 2 tuning
September 1 — Second week of Season 2 tuning
September 22 — Fifth week of Season 2 tuning

Additional tuning passes will happen when needed, and Blizzard currently expects roughly four more between September 22 and the beginning of Season 3. The dates can change, and serious bugs or particularly unhealthy balance problems can still be addressed with hotfixes outside that schedule. But the overall message is clear. Blizzard isn't planning to launch Season 2 and then disappear until October.

Blizzard Wants Real Season 2 Data First

The reason for the aggressive opening schedule is fairly sensible. PTR testing can reveal obvious problems, but it cannot perfectly recreate millions of players attacking live content with finished gear, optimized builds and the determination of people who have just discovered Warcraft Logs exists. Blizzard says it will monitor performance across The Venomous Abyss, Mythic+, PvP, Delves and other endgame activities. The developers will also be watching what happens as players acquire their Season 2 class sets and more optimized equipment. That last part matters. Season 2's class sets already produced plenty of debate during PTR testing, and several bonuses meaningfully alter how specializations play. A spec that looks perfectly ordinary today may become considerably less ordinary once everyone has four-set.

Don’t Expect Blizzard to Swing the Axe Immediately

There is one important limitation. Blizzard says early Season 2 tuning will generally be conservative, particularly before Ula’tek has been defeated on Mythic difficulty. The goal is to avoid unnecessary disruption to competitive raid progression. That makes sense. Imagine spending days preparing a composition for Mythic Ula’tek, only to wake up halfway through progression and discover that three of your best specs have been introduced to a 14 percent damage reduction overnight. Race to World First guilds already have enough spreadsheets. Blizzard doesn't need to set them on fire. That doesn't mean completely broken balance gets diplomatic immunity. Blizzard says unhealthy trends can still trigger rapid adjustments. But marginal outliers may be allowed to breathe for a little longer while the Mythic race develops.

Season 2’s First Tier Lists May Age Very Quickly

This is worth remembering over the next couple of weeks. The first Season 2 tier lists will appear immediately. Some will be useful. Some will contain excellent analysis. Some will confidently announce that your favorite specialization is legally deceased before anybody has completed a proper Mythic+ key. And then Blizzard starts tuning. We already saw in Season 1 that popularity and actual performance were not always the same thing. Several highly popular specs were not necessarily the strongest performers, while less fashionable choices quietly climbed the rankings. Season 2 now adds regular tuning passes on top of that uncertainty. So if your spec begins week one slightly below the fashionable choices, deleting the character may be premature. Give Blizzard until Tuesday.

This Is Probably Better Than a Frozen Meta

Frequent tuning can be annoying. Nobody enjoys rebuilding talents, crafts and group compositions because a Tuesday patch moved several numbers around. But the alternative is worse. A season where one tank, one healer and three DPS specs establish themselves in week one and remain permanently mandatory until the next major patch becomes stale very quickly. Blizzard appears determined not to let that happen. Season 2 begins August 18. The first tuning happens immediately. One week later, Blizzard looks at the numbers and starts again. The Midnight meta isn't arriving as a finished object. It is arriving with a maintenance schedule. Choose your main accordingly. Or choose whatever you actually enjoy playing and accept that somewhere, right now, somebody in a class Discord is already preparing a 3,000-word explanation of why Blizzard has personally betrayed them. Source: Blizzard Entertainment

World of Warcraft: Midnight Is Already 40% Off as Patch 12.1 Launches

2026-08-12T13:19:11.012+02:00

World of Warcraft: Midnight launched less than six months ago. Patch 12.1: Curse of Ula’tek has literally just arrived. And Blizzard has decided this is apparently an excellent time to put the expansion on sale. Midnight is now available with up to 40 percent off as part of Blizzard's latest round of Battle.net deals, giving anyone who skipped the expansion at launch a considerably cheaper way into Azeroth just as Season 2 is about to begin. Subtle timing. Very subtle.

Midnight Is Up to 40% Off

The promotion covers all three editions of World of Warcraft: Midnight:

Base Edition
Heroic Edition
Epic Edition

Blizzard advertises savings of up to 40 percent across the expansion, with the Midnight promotion running through September 13 before ending the following morning according to Battle.net's regional store timing. That makes this one of the most aggressive discounts we've seen on Midnight since its March release. And the timing clearly isn't accidental. Patch 12.1: Curse of Ula’tek is now live, adding the Coiled Isle, new Housing features, Lairs, Delves and the setup for Midnight Season 2. Season 2 itself begins next week. If Blizzard wanted a moment to drag lapsed players back through the portal, this is probably it.

Character Services Are Also Discounted

The sale isn't limited to the expansion. Selected World of Warcraft Character Services are discounted by up to 33 percent through August 25. That includes services intended for modern World of Warcraft, although Blizzard notes that characters cannot be transferred between modern WoW and Classic. So no, you still cannot solve twenty years of character history by simply throwing your 2007 Warrior through a dimensional customs office.

The Old Warcraft Games Are 50% Off Too

Blizzard is also discounting several Warcraft strategy titles by 50 percent during the wider August Game Deals promotion. That gives players a relatively inexpensive excuse to revisit the games where much of Warcraft's story actually began. Which is mildly amusing considering modern WoW increasingly expects you to recognize characters, kingdoms and historical events first introduced when computer monitors weighed approximately the same as a small horse.

This Is a Smart Moment to Discount Midnight

Putting Midnight on sale immediately as Patch 12.1 launches makes a lot of sense. The expansion is no longer in that awkward early period where new players arrive months behind everyone else. The seasonal reset gives returning players a natural entry point. Season 1 gear is being replaced. Mythic+ ratings effectively start fresh. A new raid is arriving. And the new dungeon pool means everyone is relearning at least some of the endgame together. In other words, someone buying Midnight today isn't trying to catch a train that left the station in March. Blizzard has brought another one around.

Midnight Has Entered Its “Come Back, We Added Stuff” Phase

Every WoW expansion eventually reaches this moment. Launch hype has settled. The first season is finished. The people who were going to buy it immediately already did. Now the pitch changes. Look at all the things we've added. Look at the new season. Look at the 40 percent discount. Please ignore how many hours Housing will consume once you discover Blueprints. For anyone already playing Midnight, the sale obviously changes very little. But for someone who skipped launch, quit during Season 1 or has been waiting for a cheaper entry point, the combination of Patch 12.1, Season 2 and a substantial discount makes this a very deliberate invitation back to Azeroth. Blizzard has opened the door. And, for the next month, apparently marked it down 40 percent. Source: Blizzard Entertainment

This WoW Delve Boss Lets You Go Over the Weekly Crest Cap

2026-08-12T13:14:35.838+02:00

World of Warcraft spends a great deal of effort telling you how many Mistcrests you're allowed to earn each week. Azta'rec has apparently not read the memo. Midnight Season 2's new Nemesis Delve boss comes with a one-time reward that can push players beyond the normal weekly Mistcrest cap, making him considerably more interesting than another difficult solo boss with a nice mount attached. Defeating Azta'rec on `?` difficulty is designed to award 30 Hero Mistcrests that do not count toward the seasonal weekly cap. And once Season 2 properly begins, the rewards get even better.

Azta'rec Gives 30 Uncapped Hero Mistcrests

Azta'rec lives inside Venomfall Deeps on the Coiled Isle and serves as Season 2's Nemesis boss. Like previous Delve Nemeses, he comes in two special difficulty levels: `?` and `??`. The first-time reward for defeating him on `?` is 30 Hero Mistcrests. Normally, Hero Mistcrests are restricted by the season's gradually increasing weekly cap. Once you've earned your allowance, the game politely informs you that your character has consumed enough upgrade currency for one week. Azta'rec's reward ignores that restriction. Those 30 crests are additional. So if you've already reached the normal Hero Mistcrest cap, defeating Azta'rec can still push your total higher. For players trying to squeeze every possible item level out of the opening weeks, that is not a small bonus.

The ?? Version Gets Even Better

When Midnight Season 2 begins, `??` difficulty becomes the real prize. Defeating Azta'rec there awards another 30 uncapped Hero Mistcrests and 30 uncapped Myth Mistcrests. Players who did not previously defeat the `?` version can receive 60 Hero Mistcrests instead, preserving the earlier reward rather than permanently losing it. That means Azta'rec effectively contains a small stash of upgrade currency sitting outside the normal weekly economy. And early in a WoW season, when every crest has approximately the economic importance of oil, gold and clean drinking water combined, that matters.

These Are One-Time Rewards

Before anyone prepares to spend the weekend farming Azta'rec until every item is fully upgraded, there is a catch. The uncapped crest rewards are one-time rewards. You cannot repeatedly kill the boss and manufacture an infinite mountain of Hero and Myth Mistcrests. Blizzard may occasionally make questionable gearing decisions. It has not yet installed an unlimited Myth-crest ATM inside a Delve. The value comes from getting an extra injection of upgrade currency precisely when the weekly cap matters most.

Don’t Expect the Full Reward Structure During Pre-Season

There is also an important Patch 12.1 timing wrinkle. We have already warned in our Season 2 rollover guide that Delves during the pre-season week are not yet operating with their full Season 2 reward structure. And early live reports appear to reinforce that warning. At least one player who killed Azta'rec on `?` during the Patch 12.1 pre-season reported receiving Veteran Mistcrests rather than the expected uncapped Hero reward. So if you're reading this before Season 2 officially begins, don't build your entire gearing spreadsheet around receiving those 30 Hero Mistcrests immediately. The important part is what happens once Season 2's reward systems are fully active.

Azta'rec Is Becoming a Very Valuable Boss

The crests join an already impressive list of reasons to fight him. Defeating Azta'rec solo on `??` difficulty can earn the Apophic Soul Crusher mount, while the new first-week challenge also offers the Fabled Vanquisher of Azta'rec title. There is also a back transmog, another title and a seasonal quest reward tied to the encounter. Now add uncapped upgrade currency. Suddenly, Venomfall Deeps isn't just something Delve completionists will visit. Serious raiders and Mythic+ players have a reason to care too.

The Weekly Cap Has a Small Azta'rec-Shaped Hole in It

Weekly crest caps exist for a sensible reason. Without them, the most dedicated players would spend the first 72 hours of a season farming themselves into another dimension while everyone else quietly went to work. Azta'rec doesn't completely break that system. He just gives you a small, deliberate exception. Thirty extra Hero Mistcrests. Then more Hero and Myth Mistcrests from the harder version. One time only. Use them wisely. Or immediately dump all of them into a weapon that drops again twenty minutes later. This is still World of Warcraft, after all. Source: Icy Veins / Wowhead

WoW’s New Lairs Had One Problem at Launch: They Refused to End

2026-08-12T13:07:46.381+02:00

World of Warcraft Patch 12.1 has introduced Lairs, Blizzard's new attempt to turn the traditional world boss experience into something faster, cleaner and considerably less dependent on forty people standing around waiting for a rare spawn. There was just one small launch problem. Some Lairs apparently didn't understand when they were finished. Players were killing the boss, completing the encounter and then watching the matchmaking system continue to funnel fresh adventurers into an instance where there was absolutely nothing left to fight. Welcome to the raid. The boss is dead. Please enjoy the room.

Players Were Being Sent Into Finished Lairs

The issue appeared shortly after Patch 12.1 went live in North America. Players reported that completed Lair instances remained active and continued searching for replacements even after the boss had already been defeated. That created the wonderfully pointless situation where new players could queue for a Lair, enter the instance and discover that everyone had already done the thing they came there to do. One player described the system as continuing to funnel people into Lairs where the boss was already dead. Which is certainly an efficient matchmaking system if your primary objective is disappointment.

Leaving Could Give You Deserter

There was another complication. Players reported receiving the Deserter penalty when they manually left these broken instances. Normally, that makes sense. World of Warcraft doesn't want players constantly abandoning queued group content the moment something becomes mildly inconvenient. But in this case, the content was already over. There was no boss. There was no encounter. There was just a collection of confused players standing in an empty Lair wondering whether Blizzard expected them to start fighting each other. Leaving anyway could result in the usual queue penalty.

Blizzard Has Already Hotfixed the Problem

Thankfully, this particular Patch 12.1 launch bug didn't survive very long. Blizzard Community Manager Kaivax confirmed that a hotfix is now live on all realms. The fix changes how the matchmaking system behaves once the boss encounter begins. As soon as players enter combat with the Lair boss, the queue should stop searching for additional players. That means the game should no longer continue filling an instance while the boss is dying — or after it is already lying on the floor wondering why another twelve people just arrived.

Lairs Are Supposed to Fix an Old WoW Problem

The irony is that Lairs exist partly to remove exactly this sort of friction from world bosses. We previously looked at why Blizzard is experimenting with Lairs. Traditional world bosses can involve waiting around, awkward group formation, lag, enormous crowds and bosses that sometimes die before you've properly worked out which direction they are facing. Lairs put that concept inside a dedicated instance. On World difficulty, players can queue solo and automatically be matched with others while participating in a small scenario before the main encounter begins. Higher difficulties support organized groups and turn the same basic boss concept into more traditional raid-style content. It is a smart idea. Providing the instance remembers to stop.

This Is Exactly the Kind of Patch-Day Bug You Want

There are good bugs and bad bugs. A bug that deletes your character is bad. A bug that breaks an entire gearing system for three weeks is extremely bad. A new matchmaking system accidentally continuing to invite people to a party after everyone has gone home? That is almost charming. More importantly, Blizzard identified the problem quickly and pushed the fix globally within hours of the first public reports. Patch 12.1 has a lot of genuinely complicated systems that could go wrong. If one of launch day's memorable problems ends up being “the boss died but the queue didn't notice,” we can probably live with that. The Lair is closed. Please stop sending adventurers.

WoW Players Lost Their Final Season 1 Raid Trophies — Blizzard Says They’re Coming Back

2026-08-12T13:01:03.125+02:00

Some World of Warcraft players squeezed in one final Season 1 raid kill before the clock ran out. They killed the boss. They earned the reward. And World of Warcraft apparently forgot the last part. Blizzard has confirmed that an unexpected bug prevented some players from receiving their Housing raid trophies during the final few hours of Midnight Season 1. The good news is that Blizzard knows who should have received them and is preparing to hand the missing trophies out retroactively. So if your final heroic boss kill produced considerably less interior decoration than expected, don't panic just yet.

The Bug Hit the Final Hours of Season 1

According to Blizzard Community Manager Kaivax, the issue affected a small number of players who participated in raid kills during the final few hours before Season 1 ended. The missing rewards cover all three Season 1 raids:

Voidspire
Dreamrift
March on Quel'Danas

And it affects all three versions of their Vanquisher trophies. That includes the Argent, Aureate and Gleaming variants. The trophies are Housing decorations commemorating raid victories, with different appearances tied to the difficulty of the achievement. Which makes missing one particularly irritating. A weapon gets replaced. A trinket gets nerfed. A giant glowing object proving that you killed something difficult can sit in your living room forever.

Blizzard Plans to Restore the Missing Trophies Automatically

Thankfully, affected players shouldn't need to kill the bosses again. That would be slightly difficult now that Season 1 has finished. Blizzard says it is working on a fixup that will identify players who earned the trophies during the affected period and grant the missing rewards. The current expectation is that the restoration will happen within roughly the next week. There is no indication that players need to submit individual support tickets or perform any additional action at this stage. In theory, the trophy should simply arrive once Blizzard runs the correction. World of Warcraft customer service by temporal archaeology.

Which Trophies Are Missing?

Blizzard specifically listed nine affected rewards:

Voidspire Vanquisher's Argent Trophy
Voidspire Vanquisher's Aureate Trophy
Voidspire Vanquisher's Gleaming Trophy
Dreamrift Vanquisher's Argent Trophy
Dreamrift Vanquisher's Aureate Trophy
Dreamrift Vanquisher's Gleaming Trophy
March on Quel'Danas Vanquisher's Argent Trophy
March on Quel'Danas Vanquisher's Aureate Trophy
March on Quel'Danas Vanquisher's Gleaming Trophy

Argent trophies are associated with raid victories on any difficulty, Aureate versions with Heroic, and the glowing Gleaming trophies with Mythic accomplishments. So this isn't simply one broken decoration. The entire final Season 1 raid trophy structure was potentially affected during that short rollover window.

The Timing Made This Particularly Unfortunate

We already knew that the end of Midnight Season 1 would close the book on a number of seasonal rewards and accomplishments. We warned players before the season ended that a surprising amount of Season 1 content was about to change or disappear. That naturally encouraged people to squeeze in final kills before the deadline. Which makes this bug particularly unfortunate. Imagine finally getting the boss down with hours remaining, watching Season 1 disappear behind you and then discovering that the souvenir apparently missed the bus. At least Blizzard has the passenger list.

Some Players Are Also Asking Blizzard to Look Further Back

There is one wrinkle worth watching. In replies to Blizzard's announcement, several players say they are still missing raid trophies from much earlier in Season 1, including Mythic trophies they claim never arrived after previous kills. Blizzard's announcement currently refers specifically to the bug affecting the final few hours of the season. So those older reports may be a separate problem entirely. For players affected by the confirmed end-of-season bug, though, the message is straightforward. You earned the trophy. Blizzard knows it went missing. And it should be coming home. Which is fortunate. Nothing ruins a new WoW house quite like having an empty wall where your enormous glowing reminder of raid violence was supposed to go. Source: Blizzard Entertainment

WoW Patch 12.1 Is Live, and Housing Is Already Having a Day

2026-08-12T12:26:49.861+02:00

World of Warcraft Patch 12.1: Curse of Ula’tek is live, bringing a new zone, new activities and one of the largest Housing updates since Midnight launched. It has also brought a small collection of bugs. And Housing appears to have volunteered for most of them. Blizzard has published its official Patch 12.1 known-issues list, and while nothing currently looks like an expansion-ending disaster, decorators may want to be slightly careful before rebuilding half their house on launch day.

Entry Rooms Currently Refuse to Move

One of Patch 12.1's more useful Housing additions is the ability to relocate your home's entry room. At least, that is the idea. Blizzard says entry rooms currently cannot be moved to another location inside the house. That is particularly unfortunate because movable entry rooms were supposed to open up considerably more freedom when designing layouts, including the possibility of creating basements and less conventional floor plans. So if you spent the last week planning an architectural masterpiece where visitors enter through a tiny underground wine cellar, perhaps leave the demolition hammer in the bag for another evening.

Blueprints Can Import Your Exterior the Wrong Way Around

Blueprints are another major feature introduced with Patch 12.1. We recently looked at how Housing Blueprints let players save, import and share complete layouts, making elaborate builds considerably easier to preserve and move around. There is currently one important catch. Importing an exterior Blueprint from a different plot can result in the exterior having an undesirable orientation. In other words, your carefully designed front entrance may suddenly develop strong opinions about which direction is actually “front.”

Some Decor Is Having Dye Problems

Patch 12.1 also expands and streamlines the Housing dye system, but a couple of specific objects are refusing to cooperate. Blizzard lists the Spiral Wooden Stairs as currently unable to accept dye, while dye does not properly affect the Razorwind Roofer's Shingle. There is also an issue with the Stormwind Kitchen where textures from connected rooms can clip through adjoining walls. And the Plans: Ren'dorei Anvil currently cannot be refunded. None of these are catastrophic. They are, however, exactly the kind of problems that can consume 45 minutes while you repeatedly move the same staircase and quietly accuse yourself of doing something wrong.

Razorwind Shores Has Discovered Anti-Gravity

The best bug on Blizzard's list belongs to Razorwind Shores. According to the known issues, locals visiting player neighborhoods there may occasionally spawn in midair. Housing finally has flying neighbors. Whether this is a bug or simply the beginning of Azeroth's most aggressive homeowners association remains unclear.

Probably Don’t Rebuild Everything Tonight

The good news is that Blizzard already knows about these problems. The official list is precisely that: known issues the developers are working on, not a collection of mysterious bugs players have to discover and diagnose themselves. And considering the sheer amount Patch 12.1 changes about Housing, the current list could certainly be worse. Blueprints work. The new decor is here. Housing progression continues. Your neighbor may just be floating six feet above the pavement while your staircase refuses to turn blue. Patch day, then. Welcome home. Source: Blizzard Entertainment

Black Temple and Mount Hyjal Hit WoW Classic Testing This Weekend

2026-08-11T12:02:49.759+02:00

Two of The Burning Crusade's most famous raids are about to open their doors again. Blizzard has launched the Burning Crusade Anniversary Phase 3 PTR, with Black Temple and The Battle for Mount Hyjal entering raid testing this weekend. Testing begins on August 14 and runs through August 17. So if you've been waiting for another opportunity to hear Illidan explain how spectacularly unprepared everyone is, your weekend plans have arrived.

Black Temple and Mount Hyjal Testing Starts August 14

Blizzard plans to open both raids on the PTR at 1:00 p.m. PDT on Friday, August 14. Testing will remain available throughout the weekend before ending at 1:00 p.m. PDT on Monday, August 17. That gives guilds several days to test the encounters, check strategies and begin preparing for the real Phase 3 release later this month. Black Temple brings back nine bosses, culminating in Illidan Stormrage himself. Mount Hyjal contains five encounters, ending with Archimonde and one of Warcraft's most famous historical battles. For anyone who played Burning Crusade the first time around, we're now firmly entering the part of the expansion where the nostalgia becomes extremely expensive to enchant.

Phase 3 Goes Live August 27

The actual Burning Crusade Anniversary Phase 3 launches globally on August 27. Black Temple and Mount Hyjal are obviously the headline attractions, but Phase 3 includes considerably more than two raids. Players also get the Netherwing reputation hub in Shadowmoon Valley, access to Epic Gems and the next stage of Burning Crusade PvP progression. Arena Season 3 begins separately on September 1. And yes, this means Netherwing Drakes are nearly back. Some players will raid Illidan. Others will spend several weeks stealing dragon eggs from cliffs while insisting this is somehow the more relaxing option. Both are valid Burning Crusade traditions.

Blizzard Is Making Raid Testing Slightly Easier

For this PTR test, Blizzard is also making additional consumables available. Haste Potions and Destruction Potions are being added alongside the normally available flasks for testing purposes. That should make it easier for guilds to focus on encounter testing rather than spending half the evening recreating a 2007 Auction House economy on the PTR. It is worth stressing that this addition is specifically part of the testing setup. The important thing this weekend is giving Blizzard useful raid data before Phase 3 reaches live servers. And perhaps discovering which twenty-year-old mechanic your raid has somehow completely forgotten.

The Attunement Game Is Already Underway

Players preparing for Phase 3 should also be paying attention to attunements. Mount Hyjal requires completion of The Vials of Eternity, which involves defeating Lady Vashj and Kael'thas. Black Temple's longer attunement chain runs through Shadowmoon Valley, Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep before eventually requiring progress inside Mount Hyjal itself. In other words, August 27 may sound comfortably far away. Burning Crusade attunements would like a word.

Illidan Is Almost Back

Phase 3 is one of those Classic releases where Blizzard barely needs to explain why people care. Black Temple is Black Temple. Illidan is Illidan. Mount Hyjal lets players revisit one of Warcraft III's defining battles. And for a generation of WoW players, Tier 6 is permanently burned into the part of the brain normally reserved for useful information like birthdays and passwords. The raids don't officially return until August 27. But this weekend, the PTR gives us the dress rehearsal. You are not prepared. Again. Source: Blizzard Entertainment / Wowhead

Griftah Is Bringing Totally Legitimate Amani Goods to WoW Housing

2026-08-11T11:56:19.971+02:00

World of Warcraft Patch 12.1 brings four new Endeavors to player neighborhoods. There are centaurs. There are kobolds. There are tortollans. And then there is Griftah. Which means we can probably stop pretending this is going to be an entirely respectable commercial operation. The legendary troll salesman returns during the new Knock-off Amani Endeavor, offering what Blizzard describes as “traditional Amani goods.” They are almost certainly not traditional Amani goods. They may not even technically be Amani goods. But they are for sale, and that has always been enough for Griftah.

Knock-off Amani Is Available With Patch 12.1

The first of the four new Neighborhood Endeavors arrives alongside Curse of Ula’tek. During Knock-off Amani, Griftah and his travelling traders appear in your neighborhood with a selection of troll-themed decorations and other suspicious merchandise. The Endeavor also opens a direct portal from the neighborhood to the Coiled Isle, tying the Housing activity into Patch 12.1's new outdoor zone. That alone is rather useful. The fact that the portal is attached to a man whose business model has historically involved selling things like invisible shoes is perhaps less reassuring.

Griftah Has Invented Another Currency

Naturally, Griftah isn't satisfied with ordinary Community Coupons. The Endeavor introduces Griftah's Token of Appreciation. Players can receive these tokens from completing Endeavor tasks, with the amount depending on the difficulty of the task. One token can then purchase a Bag of Totally Legitimate Amani Goods. The bag supposedly contains a variety of Amani items that may be useful to your neighbors. “Supposedly” is doing magnificent work in that sentence. If anyone else sold you a mystery bag full of possibly authentic tribal artifacts using a currency they personally invented five minutes earlier, you would contact the authorities. In World of Warcraft, we call it content.

There Is Plenty of Actual Amani Housing Decor Too

Behind the joke, the Endeavor adds a substantial amount of new troll-themed decor. Players can earn or purchase items including:

Forest Troll Fences and Fenceposts
Amani Road Markers
Woven Forest Troll Rugs
Amani Wicker Crates
An Amani Anvil
An Amani Water Well
A Witch Doctor's Punch Bowl

Later Endeavor milestones also unlock shrines dedicated to Halazzi, Akil'zon, Nalorakk and Jan'alai. Those names should be immediately familiar to anyone who spent enough time inside Zul'Aman. And if they aren't, congratulations on maintaining a healthier relationship with old raid content than some of us.

Three More Endeavors Are Coming

Knock-off Amani is only one of four new Neighborhood Endeavors being added in Patch 12.1. The others rotate in afterward. Every Bakar Has Its Day brings Ohn'ahran centaurs into the neighborhood to help residents train and care for their pets. Rewards include Maruukai furniture, barricades, rugs and several bakar-themed items. Candle Culture involves the kobolds of the Ringing Deeps investigating mysterious wax deposits. As you would expect from kobolds, there are candles. Many candles. Enough candles that somebody at Blizzard apparently looked at WoW Housing and concluded the primary problem was insufficient fire hazards. Finally, Vacation Season brings tortollans into the neighborhood with travel-themed decorations, cooking equipment, storage pieces and sea-inspired furniture. A turtle has made it to your front lawn.

This Is Exactly What Endeavors Need

The more interesting thing here is what Blizzard is doing with the Endeavor system itself. Housing doesn't really need another generic weekly bar that fills because you did twelve unrelated activities. It needs personality. Visitors. Small stories. Strange vendors. Rewards that make sense for the people currently occupying your neighborhood. Griftah showing up with counterfeit Amani merchandise is exactly the sort of silly little worldbuilding that makes Housing feel connected to Warcraft rather than like a completely separate furniture simulator. The centaurs teaching people about bakar works. Kobolds holding a candle workshop works. Tortollans deciding they were technically vacationing in your neighborhood before you even moved in is extremely tortollan. None of this changes raid progression. Nobody's Mythic+ rating increases because they bought a Forest Troll Fencepost. And thankfully, not everything in World of Warcraft needs to. Sometimes Azeroth just needs a dodgy salesman standing outside your house offering you a mystery bag. Griftah has been preparing for this moment his entire career. Source: Blizzard Entertainment / Wowhead

Ula’tek Drops the One Tier Token Every WoW Player Will Want

2026-08-11T11:50:00.052+02:00

World of Warcraft: Midnight Season 2 has found a remarkably simple solution to one of raiding's oldest problems. You need one specific tier piece. The raid keeps giving you everything except that specific tier piece. Your guildmate already has four-set and somehow wins another token. You begin considering whether friendship was ever really necessary. Then Ula’tek arrives. The final boss of The Venomous Abyss drops the Slumbering Coil Curio, an omni-token that can be exchanged for any Season 2 tier piece you choose. No armor-class restriction. No hoping the correct boss cooperates. Just kill the enormous ancient snake and pick what you actually need. Progress.

What Is the Slumbering Coil Curio?

Most Season 2 tier pieces follow the usual raid structure. Bosses two through six in The Venomous Abyss each drop tokens tied to a particular armor slot:

Entombed Sentinels — Gloves
The Lost Explorers — Shoulders
Vashnik the Malignant — Chest
Sszorak — Legs
The Twin Fangs — Helm

Those tokens are divided between Cloth, Leather, Mail and Plate classes. Ula’tek ignores all of that. Her Slumbering Coil Curio can be rolled on by every class and then exchanged for the tier item of your choice. That means the final boss effectively becomes a wildcard for completing your set.

You Choose the Tier Slot You Actually Need

Once you win a Curio, take it to Kirana in Silvermoon City, next to the Matrix Catalyst. She exchanges one Slumbering Coil Curio for one Season 2 tier piece. Helm missing? Buy the helm. Still waiting for shoulders while the rest of your raid apparently owns seven pairs? Buy the shoulders. Trying to reach four-set without praying to a specific middle boss for another week? You get the idea. It doesn't eliminate raid RNG, because you still have to win the Curio. But once you do, the annoying second layer of RNG disappears.

Do Not Leave the Curio Sitting in Your Bags

There is one very important detail. Slumbering Coil Curio is unique. You can only carry one at a time. If you already have an unused Curio sitting in your inventory, you cannot loot another one. So don't win the most flexible tier token in the raid and then preserve it in your bags like a collectible sandwich. Spend it. Then you're eligible for another.

The Item Level Depends on Raid Difficulty

The tier piece you purchase inherits its level from the difficulty where you obtained the Curio. On Normal, the resulting pieces are Champion-track gear. Heroic Curios produce Hero-track tier pieces. Mythic produces Myth-track tier. There is one slightly odd detail at the top end. Ula’tek can drop extremely high item-level non-tier loot on Mythic because she is one of the raid's final bosses, but the Curio does not turn your tier piece into that same elevated final-boss item level. It uses the normal Season 2 tier-set item level instead. So the Curio is powerful because of choice, not because it secretly creates supercharged tier gear.

This Makes Four-Set Considerably Less Miserable

Season 2 already gives players several ways to complete their class sets. Tier pieces can come from raid bosses, the Great Vault and the Catalyst. The Slumbering Coil Curio adds another safety valve. That matters especially when you reach the familiar point where your character owns three set pieces and the fourth refuses to exist. We have already seen how much discussion Midnight Season 2's new class sets generated during PTR testing. Once the season actually begins, acquiring those bonuses becomes the next obsession. A universal token from the final boss won't remove every unlucky week. It does mean killing Ula’tek always carries the possibility of solving exactly the tier problem you currently have. Which is unusually civilized for World of Warcraft gearing. You still have to defeat an ancient venomous horror imprisoned for thousands of years. But at least afterward you can choose your trousers. Source: Icy Veins / Wowhead

WoW Patch 12.1 Lets You Farm Season 2 Champion Gear Before Season 2 Starts

2026-08-11T11:39:04.370+02:00

World of Warcraft: Midnight Season 2 doesn't officially begin until August 18. Apparently, nobody told the loot. When Patch 12.1: Curse of Ula’tek goes live, players can immediately start running the new Season 2 dungeon pool on Heroic and Mythic 0 difficulty. And Mythic 0 is already dropping Champion 1/6 gear at item level 292. So yes: there is an entire week where you can begin gearing for Season 2 before Season 2 technically begins.

Mythic 0 Drops Item Level 292 Gear This Week

During the Patch 12.1 pre-season week, all eight dungeons in the Season 2 rotation are available on Mythic 0. That includes:

Altar of Fangs
Murder Row
Den of Nalorakk
The Blinding Vale
Voidscar Arena
King's Rest
Temple of Sethraliss
Ruby Life Pools

Mythic 0 bosses drop item level 292 Champion 1/6 equipment. That is particularly noteworthy because most fully upgraded Season 1 Myth-track equipment stops at item level 289. There are exceptions, including some higher-level Sporefall items and Ascendant Voidforged weapons and trinkets, but for a lot of characters, Mythic 0 suddenly contains genuine upgrades. Which is not normally what you expect from content containing a zero.

There Is One Catch: Mythic 0 Has a Weekly Lockout

For this pre-season week only, Mythic 0 uses a weekly lockout. That means you cannot endlessly farm the same dungeon looking for the correct weapon, trinket or pair of trousers. Kill the bosses, receive your loot chances, and that dungeon is finished for the week. When Midnight Season 2 officially begins on August 18, Mythic 0 switches back to a daily lockout. So this week isn't an infinite Champion-gear fountain. It is more like Blizzard handing you eight lottery tickets and politely asking you not to come back until next reset.

Your Runs Also Count Toward the First Season 2 Great Vault

There is another reason to run Mythic 0 before Season 2 begins. Dungeon activity during the pre-season week already contributes toward your first Season 2 Great Vault. That means the things you do after Patch 12.1 launches aren't merely giving you immediate 292 gear. They're also preparing next week's Vault. The first Season 2 Vault rewards become available with the August 18 reset in North America. European players follow with their normal weekly reset on August 19. That makes this pre-season week considerably more useful than the traditional awkward gap where everyone mostly stands around asking when the real season begins.

Mythic+ Still Has to Wait

There is an important distinction. Mythic 0 is available immediately. Mythic+ is not. Keystones and the actual Mythic+ Season 2 begin when the season launches the following week. The Venomous Abyss raid also waits until Season 2 begins, as do rated PvP and several of the season's higher-end Delve and Prey rewards. So Mythic 0 sits in a useful little window. The serious endgame race hasn't started yet, but the new gear already has.

This Could Be Especially Good for Alts

For a well-equipped main sitting near the top of Season 1 gearing, item level 292 may not transform your character. For alts? This week could be excellent. A character that missed much of Season 1 can enter the new dungeon pool and immediately start collecting Champion-track equipment before Mythic+, Venomous Abyss and the main Season 2 gearing loop even begins. It is also an opportunity to learn the new rotation without a timer shouting at you. King's Rest hasn't been in the Mythic+ rotation for a while. Temple of Sethraliss has been waiting patiently for another opportunity to remind everyone where that snake goes. And Altar of Fangs is completely new. Learning them now while simultaneously collecting useful gear seems considerably more appealing than discovering every mechanic during your first timed key next week.

The Pre-Season Is Actually Worth Playing

That is probably the biggest takeaway from Blizzard's Season 2 rollout. This isn't merely a dead week between Patch 12.1 and the actual season. You can explore the Coiled Isle, begin the new outdoor systems, run the Season 2 dungeon pool, earn Champion gear and start filling next week's Great Vault. The raid doors are still closed. The Mythic+ timers haven't started. But the gearing treadmill? Oh, that's already running. Azeroth would hate for us to spend an entire week relaxing.

WoW Ban Wave Hits Players Mid-Raid as Blizzard Appears to Target RMT

2026-08-11T11:33:21.246+02:00

There are bad raid pulls. There are spectacularly bad raid pulls. And then there is losing roughly 80 percent of your raid because Blizzard apparently banned them while the boss was still alive. World of Warcraft appears to have been hit by a significant new ban wave, with several Eastern European guilds and boosting communities reporting account suspensions just days before Midnight Season 2 begins. The suspected target is real-money trading, or RMT. Blizzard has not yet publicly confirmed the reason for the bans, but reports from affected communities suggest some suspensions may last as long as six months. And at least one group discovered this in the most dramatic way possible.

A Rotmire Raid Apparently Vanished Mid-Pull

According to reports collected by Wowhead, a Rotmire pick-up group was fighting the boss when players suddenly began disappearing from the raid. Not one player. Not two. Approximately 80 percent of the group reportedly vanished after their accounts were hit by the ban wave. A video clip of the incident was initially circulating online but has since been deleted. Reports shared within raid-leader Discord communities also indicate that multiple guilds were affected, with players from Russian and other Eastern European communities among those reporting suspensions. There are additional reports involving Iranian and Middle Eastern players. Nothing quite improves raid mechanics like discovering that most of your DPS has just been removed from World of Warcraft.

The Ban Wave Appears to Be Connected to Real-Money Trading

The working theory within the affected communities is that Blizzard is targeting accounts connected to boosting services involving real-world money. That distinction matters. Boosting itself is not automatically against World of Warcraft's rules. Players can still sell certain services for in-game gold within Blizzard's restrictions. Real-money trading is different. Selling raid clears, Mythic+ runs, PvP rating or other services in exchange for actual money violates Blizzard's policies. Account sharing and piloted boosting can create additional problems depending on how the service operates. However, Blizzard has not yet released a public statement identifying exactly which behavior triggered this particular wave. So for now, RMT is the reported explanation rather than an officially confirmed one.

Some Players Are Reporting Six-Month Suspensions

Reports from affected players suggest that at least some accounts received suspensions lasting six months. If accurate, that is not a minor slap on the wrist. A six-month suspension would remove those players from essentially the entirety of Midnight Season 2 and a considerable chunk of whatever comes afterward. The timing is particularly brutal. Patch 12.1: Curse of Ula’tek launches this week, with Midnight Season 2 following on August 18. Anyone receiving a six-month ban right now isn't merely missing raid night. They are missing the season.

Boosting Has Always Lived in an Awkward Corner of WoW

World of Warcraft's relationship with boosting has been complicated for years. There is nothing inherently strange about experienced players helping somebody through difficult content in exchange for gold. WoW players have been selling services since someone first realized another player would pay them not to walk through Stranglethorn Vale. The problem begins when an organized gold economy turns into an actual business. Large boosting communities can involve enormous amounts of gold, third-party communication platforms, account sharing and, in some cases, transactions involving real currency. That makes the line between legitimate in-game services and prohibited commercial activity increasingly important. Blizzard has previously taken action against boosting organizations and RMT networks. This week's reports suggest the hammer may have swung again.

For Now, We’re Waiting on Blizzard

There are still important unanswered questions. How many accounts were actually affected? Were all of them connected to RMT? Were the reported six-month suspensions universal, or do penalties vary? And was Blizzard targeting specific organizations or running a broader detection sweep? Until Blizzard comments, we shouldn't pretend to know. What we do know is that multiple communities are reporting a substantial wave of suspensions, some of them appear to have landed while players were actively raiding, and the timing could hardly be worse for anyone planning to play Midnight Season 2. If the Rotmire group really did lose four-fifths of its raid during the pull, however, one thing seems certain. That boss has just recorded the most efficient raid wipe of the entire season. And it didn't even have to use an ability. Source: Wowhead

Blizzard Is Now Xbox’s Top-Performing Studio

2026-08-10T11:49:02.035+02:00

For all the doom, layoffs, strategy resets and general furniture-moving happening around Xbox, one part of Microsoft’s enormous gaming empire appears to be doing rather well. Blizzard. According to an internal company email verified by Windows Central, Blizzard ended Microsoft’s FY26 as the top-performing studio in Xbox’s studios division. Blizzard President Johanna Faries also told staff that FY26 was the company’s third-highest fiscal year ever for top-line revenue. Not bad for a studio that spent several years being discussed mostly in sentences containing words like “troubled,” “restructuring” and “what exactly happened here?”

Blizzard Has Now Grown for Two Years in a Row

The internal message contains another particularly interesting number. Faries says FY25 and FY26 were Blizzard’s first consecutive years of growth since FY17. That takes us all the way back to the period immediately following the original launch of Overwatch. In other words, Blizzard has apparently managed something it hasn't done in almost a decade: put together two straight years where the business actually moved upward. Faries specifically pointed to Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred and Overwatch as standout performers, with Overwatch reportedly delivering its strongest quarter since 2022. World of Warcraft wasn't singled out in the same way. But it doesn't exactly look like a passenger either.

WoW Has Become Extremely Consistent

Whatever you think about Midnight's individual systems, one thing is difficult to argue with: Blizzard is shipping World of Warcraft content at an extraordinary pace. Midnight launched in March. Since then we've had major patches, smaller updates, new raid content, Delves, system changes and an aggressive seasonal schedule that now takes us directly into Patch 12.1 and Season 2. We recently looked at the debate around WoW's roughly eight-week update rhythm, because that pace isn't universally loved. For some players, it is fantastic. For others, Azeroth has begun behaving like a conveyor belt someone forgot to install an off switch on. But from Blizzard's perspective, regular content keeps people engaged. And engaged players are generally preferable to players who remember they own other games.

The Result Looks Even Better Because Xbox Is Having a Rough Time

Blizzard's performance stands out because the wider Xbox business hasn't exactly been enjoying a peaceful summer. Microsoft has gone through major gaming layoffs, studio changes and restructuring, while Windows Central reports that Xbox overall finished the fiscal year down 11 percent. Against that backdrop, Blizzard becoming the top-performing studio inside Xbox's studios organization is significant. It also helps explain why Blizzard has largely avoided the most severe disruption seen elsewhere in Microsoft's gaming portfolio. Success tends to make a very effective shield when corporate spreadsheets arrive. Not an indestructible shield. But definitely better than the alternative.

Microsoft Bought Blizzard at an Interesting Moment

When Microsoft completed its Activision Blizzard acquisition, Blizzard itself was still trying to rebuild confidence after years of internal turmoil and inconsistent releases. Now the picture looks rather different. Diablo is healthy. Overwatch has found momentum again. World of Warcraft is releasing content with a regularity that would have sounded slightly ridiculous during some previous expansions. And BlizzCon returns in September. That doesn't mean every Blizzard game is perfect or that every decision suddenly deserves applause. It does mean the studio appears to have rediscovered something extremely useful: Momentum.

Being Xbox’s Best Performer Changes the Conversation

There is a larger reason this matters to World of Warcraft players. A Blizzard that is growing has considerably more freedom than a Blizzard constantly being asked to justify itself. Successful games get investment. Successful teams get opportunities. Successful studios are much easier to defend when somebody at Microsoft asks which parts of Xbox need another round of “efficiencies.” Faries told staff that Blizzard's recent performance should allow the company to invest further in its games, people and future projects. For WoW, that doesn't guarantee anything specific. No magical extra raid suddenly appears because a spreadsheet turned green. But it certainly beats the opposite scenario. After years when Blizzard frequently seemed to be searching for its identity, the company is now apparently Microsoft's strongest-performing Xbox studio. A strange sentence. But currently, a very good one to be able to write. Source: Windows Central, citing internal Blizzard emails verified by the publication.

Blizzard Is Watching WoW’s Resilient Keystones — But No Changes Are Planned Yet

2026-08-10T11:34:58.266+02:00

Resilient Keystones have quietly made one of Mythic+'s oldest punishments considerably less painful. Once you've proven you can handle a certain key level across the entire dungeon pool, your Keystone no longer has to tumble endlessly downward every time a run goes badly. Players like that. Some high-end players are less convinced. And Blizzard is now watching very closely. During a new developer interview, encounter designers Taylor Sanders and Andrew De Sousa confirmed that Blizzard is monitoring how Resilient Keystones are affecting Mythic+. For now, however, the message is simple: No changes are planned.

What Do Resilient Keystones Actually Do?

The system rewards players for completing every dungeon in the seasonal Mythic+ pool at the same level. Complete them all in time at +12, and your Keystone becomes resilient at level 12. From that point onward, failing another dungeon will not automatically push your key below +12. Complete the entire pool at +13, and the floor moves to +13. Then +14. And so on. You can still manually lower your Keystone if you genuinely want to. What disappears is the need to rebuild several levels of progress simply because one run went catastrophically wrong. Which, in Mythic+, has traditionally been approximately seven minutes after someone types “easy key.”

Why Are Resilient Keys Controversial?

For most ordinary Mythic+ players, the attraction is obvious. You have already demonstrated that you can time every dungeon at a particular difficulty. Why should one terrible group send you back to content you've already proven you can complete? Resilient Keystones remove some of that frustration. But the system also changes how high-end pushing works. Once a group has access to a protected Keystone at a sufficiently high level, failure becomes less expensive. Instead of losing the key and rebuilding it, players can potentially keep attacking the same difficulty again and again until everything finally lines up. Good route. Good execution. Good composition. Nobody disconnects. Nobody decides that the large glowing circle on the floor is probably decorative. Eventually, the run works.

Failure Becoming Cheaper Changes Mythic+

That is the interesting design question Blizzard now has to watch. Traditional Mythic+ pushing contains risk. Fail the timer and the Keystone drops. That creates pressure to perform consistently because another attempt may require climbing back up first. Resilient Keystones reduce that penalty once players have proven themselves across the dungeon pool. That can encourage experimentation and make pushing less miserable. It can also shift high-end progression toward repeated attempts. And there is a substantial difference between: “We need to play consistently enough to protect this key.” and: “We can throw ourselves at this for three hours until one attempt works.” Neither approach is automatically better. But they create very different competitive environments.

Blizzard Isn’t Pulling the Emergency Brake

The important part of Blizzard's new comment is what the developers didn't announce. There is no nerf coming. There is no removal. There is no immediate redesign for Season 2. The encounter team simply says it is paying attention to how the system functions. That seems sensible. Midnight Season 1 was enormously successful for Mythic+ participation, something we looked at recently, and Blizzard itself has credited accessibility as one of the biggest reasons players stayed engaged. Resilient Keystones fit directly into that philosophy. They make progression less punishing without making the dungeon itself easier.

Season 2 Gets Another Test

Resilient Keystones return for Midnight Season 2, giving Blizzard another full season of data. If the system helps ordinary players push slightly higher without turning top-end Mythic+ into an infinite-attempt simulator, Blizzard may have found a very good middle ground. If it produces unintended behavior at the highest levels, adjustments can always come later. For now, Blizzard appears happy to watch. Which means your Keystone gets another season with a safety net. Your group, unfortunately, does not. Source: Tettles interview with World of Warcraft encounter designers Taylor Sanders and Andrew De Sousa, summarized by Wowhead.

Blizzard Says Raid Splits Aren’t How It Wants WoW Players to Play

2026-08-10T11:27:25.164+02:00

World of Warcraft's highest-end raiders have spent years perfecting a very strange tradition. Before seriously progressing a new Mythic raid, build several raid groups filled with mains and carefully selected alts. Kill the bosses repeatedly. Feed as much useful loot as possible toward the characters that actually matter. Repeat until your raid leader begins seeing tier tokens when closing their eyes. These are split raids. And Blizzard has now said something fairly blunt about them: They are problematic, and they are not really how Blizzard wants players to play the game.

Blizzard Has Been Watching Splits for a Long Time

During a new interview with WoW encounter designers Taylor Sanders and Andrew De Sousa, the subject of raid splits came up while discussing high-end progression. Blizzard said it has always viewed splits as somewhat problematic. That is not especially surprising. Split raids exist because top guilds want to concentrate several raids' worth of loot onto a much smaller number of characters before the hardest progression begins. At Race to World First level, that extra gear can matter enormously. If one additional trinket, weapon or tier bonus helps shave a tiny percentage off an encounter, the best guilds in the world are going to chase it. They are competing. The problem is what happens next.

Race to World First Habits Don’t Stay at Race to World First

Blizzard says one of the things it is specifically watching is how far split-raiding behavior spreads down through the competitive player base. That may be the more important part of the whole discussion. Very few guilds genuinely need to copy everything Liquid or Echo does. But WoW has always had a powerful trickle-down effect. The best guilds create five characters. The next tier of guilds decides maybe they should create three. A considerably more normal guild watches all of this and suddenly Dave is being asked whether his Hunter has a raid-ready Mage alt by Thursday. Nobody remembers exactly how we got here. But apparently Dave is now enchanting four sets of boots. We have already seen a similar argument around Race to World First tuning, where regular players worried that decisions made for the very highest level of raiding were influencing how the rest of the game felt. That debate became particularly loud during Midnight Season 1. Split raids are another version of the same problem. High-end optimization doesn't remain politely contained at the high end.

Why Doesn’t Blizzard Just Stop Splits?

Because that gets complicated very quickly. Players are allowed to have alts. Players are allowed to raid with different groups. Guilds are allowed to decide who receives loot within the rules Blizzard provides. Stopping splits without creating enormous collateral damage would likely require Blizzard to change loot eligibility, lockouts or raid progression rules in ways that could hurt completely ordinary players. And Blizzard hasn't announced any such change. The developers instead said they are monitoring how prevalent splits really are and how much of the behavior is psychological trickle-down from the very best teams. That distinction matters. If twenty elite guilds are doing something absurd because millions of dollars, sponsorships and a world-first race are involved, perhaps that is simply the cost of competition. If hundreds or thousands of guilds begin believing the same behavior is required to raid properly, the game has a different problem.

Season 1 Apparently Put Splits Back Under the Microscope

Blizzard says split raids have become more of a focus following what happened during Midnight Season 1. That tracks with what we saw during the tier. Team Liquid's Midnight documentary showed just how exhausting the split phase could become, with the early part of the race dominated by preparation before the truly difficult progression began. From a competitive perspective, it makes perfect sense. From almost every other perspective, it looks slightly deranged. And that is essentially the tension Blizzard now has to solve.

The Best Strategy Can Still Be Bad Game Design

This is one of World of Warcraft's oldest problems. Players are extraordinarily good at finding the most efficient way to play. Then they do it. Then they complain because the most efficient way to play is miserable. And sometimes both sides are completely correct. Top guilds aren't wrong for running splits if splits increase their chances of winning. Blizzard also isn't wrong for looking at that behavior and thinking: We really didn't intend for you to spend Tuesday gearing six copies of the same class. The difficult part is creating a system where competitive players can optimize without making the optimal strategy feel like a second job. Blizzard hasn't solved that yet. But at least it is now saying the quiet part out loud. Split raids may be legal. They may be effective. They may even be necessary if you're trying to win Race to World First. But they are not really how Blizzard wants World of Warcraft to be played. And somewhere, an alt army just felt slightly nervous. Source: Tettles interview with World of Warcraft encounter designers Taylor Sanders and Andrew De Sousa, summarized by Wowhead.

WoW Season 2 May Have Accidentally Made Great Vault Gear the Wrong Choice

2026-08-10T10:53:06.238+02:00

Opening the Great Vault is supposed to be one of World of Warcraft's better Tuesday rituals. You do your content. Blizzard presents several shiny pieces of equipment. You stare at them for eleven minutes while Raidbots quietly judges your life choices. Midnight Season 2 may introduce a different strategy. Take none of them. Once Nebulous Voidcores become available as a Great Vault option, some players are planning to select the Bonus Roll currency almost every week instead of taking an actual piece of gear. And annoyingly, the maths makes quite a bit of sense.

Why Would You Skip an Actual Great Vault Upgrade?

The problem — or opportunity, depending on how much you enjoy spreadsheets — comes from how Season 2 Bonus Rolls work. A Nebulous Voidcore taken from the Great Vault can be saved for later. Its eventual item level is not determined by the content you completed to unlock the Vault option. That means a player could unlock the required Vault panes through relatively easy content, bank the Voidcore, and later spend it after completing significantly harder content. The reward then follows the Great Vault-equivalent item level of the activity where the Bonus Roll is actually used. So instead of taking a decent item today, you can potentially save the currency and turn it into a much stronger targeted item tomorrow. WoW has somehow transformed delayed gratification into a gearing strategy. Parents everywhere are delighted.

The Knockout System Makes It Even Stranger

There is another reason Bonus Rolls may be unusually valuable. They use a knockout system. Once you receive an eligible item through a Bonus Roll, that item is removed from future Bonus Roll possibilities for that activity. But items obtained through other sources — including the Great Vault — do not currently remove themselves from that Bonus Roll pool. Imagine your Great Vault offers the tier gloves you want. You take them. Later, you Bonus Roll the relevant raid boss. Those same gloves can still appear. Congratulations. You have successfully used two major weekly reward systems to obtain the same trousers-with-hands slot twice. This creates a weird incentive to take the Voidcore first and let the Bonus Roll system gradually eliminate unwanted possibilities.

Season 2 Makes Bonus Rolls Much More Powerful

Blizzard has already made several changes that increase their value. Raid Bonus Rolls now cost only one Nebulous Voidcore instead of two, something we recently covered when Blizzard finalized the Season 2 gearing rules. Bonus-rolled raid gear also follows the equivalent Great Vault reward level. That matters because Heroic raid Vault rewards now jump into the Myth track, while Mythic raid Vault rewards can reach Myth 6/6. So a player who clears Heroic one week could potentially decline a Myth 1/6 Vault item, save the Voidcore and later spend it after killing a Mythic boss for a much stronger Myth 6/6 reward. That is not automatically the correct decision. But for a player expecting to progress into harder content shortly afterward, it can be extraordinarily efficient.

You Should Not Literally Ignore Every Great Vault Item

There are obvious exceptions. If the Vault gives you your final best-in-slot trinket, take the trinket. If it offers a gigantic weapon upgrade that helps your guild kill the boss you're currently stuck on, taking immediate power may be far more valuable than theoretically optimal power three weeks later. And players who don't intend to progress into higher difficulties have much less reason to hoard Voidcores. This is not “never choose gear again.” It is “the threshold for choosing gear just became much higher.”

The First Season 2 Vault Is Different

There is also one important timing detail. Despite earlier plans to make Voidcores available immediately, Blizzard later clarified that Bonus Rolls will not be offered in the first Season 2 Great Vault. The first Season 2 rewards arrive on August 18. The Voidcore option begins with the following Vault on August 25, provided the player has unlocked at least three reward panes. So Blizzard has at least spared us one week of deciding whether the exciting new sword is mathematically worse than a small purple currency icon. After that? Open spreadsheet.

The Great Vault Could Become a Currency Dispenser

This is the slightly absurd consequence. Blizzard created Nebulous Voidcores partly to make bad Great Vault weeks feel less punishing. If none of the equipment is useful, you can take something that helps target the item you actually want. That is a good idea. But once the fallback reward becomes more strategically valuable than many of the actual prizes, the relationship gets strange. The Great Vault stops being: “Which piece of gear should I take?” And starts becoming: “Is any of this gear good enough to convince me not to take another Bonus Roll?” For many serious players, the answer may frequently be no. Blizzard wanted to make disappointing Great Vaults less painful. It may accidentally have invented the ultimate Great Vault strategy: Be disappointed on purpose.

WoW’s Patch 12.1.5 Raid Is Not a Side Raid, Blizzard Says

2026-08-10T10:45:20.369+02:00

Blizzard has quietly dropped one of the more interesting hints we've had about World of Warcraft Patch 12.1.5. And it came almost as an aside. During a new interview about raids and Mythic+, Blizzard's encounter designers confirmed that while Tidebound Grotto is deliberately designed as a side raid, the mysterious raid coming in Patch 12.1.5 is not. That's all they would say. Which, naturally, makes it much more interesting.

Tidebound Grotto Is the Side Raid — 12.1.5 Apparently Isn't

The comment came during an interview with encounter designers Taylor Sanders and Andrew De Sousa. While discussing Tidebound Grotto, Blizzard described the upcoming one-boss Season 2 raid as a higher-quality alternative to the traditional world boss experience. It will offer World difficulty alongside Flex Mythic and is clearly intended as a compact piece of additional raid content rather than a full traditional raid tier. Then the conversation moved briefly toward Patch 12.1.5. Blizzard offered no spoilers, but made one distinction very clear: The Patch 12.1.5 raid is not considered a side raid. That is a surprisingly important choice of words.

So What Does “Not a Side Raid” Actually Mean?

Right now? We don't know. And this is where everyone should resist the temptation to turn one developer sentence into seventeen confirmed bosses, a new tier set and Arthas appearing through a portal. Blizzard did not reveal the raid's size. It did not reveal how many bosses it contains. It did not confirm whether it represents a full new raid tier, continues Season 2 progression or sits somewhere between the traditional definitions. All we know is that Blizzard itself distinguishes it from Tidebound Grotto and specifically does not describe it as a side raid. That strongly suggests Patch 12.1.5's raid is intended to carry more weight. Exactly how much more remains the interesting part.

Midnight Has Already Been Experimenting With Smaller Raids

That distinction matters because Midnight has spent a surprising amount of time experimenting with raids that sit outside the traditional giant-tier structure. Sporefall was one of the first major examples. The one-boss encounter became a test bed for flexible Mythic raid sizes, giving Blizzard a relatively safe environment to experiment with something players have requested for years. We covered that Mythic Flex experiment when Blizzard first revealed it, and the idea has since carried forward into Tidebound Grotto. Tidebound Grotto continues that philosophy in Season 2. It is one boss. It has flexible Mythic difficulty. And Blizzard now explicitly calls it a side raid. Patch 12.1.5, apparently, belongs in a different box.

That Makes the Midnight Roadmap More Interesting

Until now, it would have been easy to assume that Patch 12.1.5 simply contained another smaller mid-season raid designed to fill the gap before Midnight's next major update. Blizzard's new wording makes that assumption much less comfortable. If the developers deliberately distinguish the 12.1.5 raid from Tidebound Grotto, then there is clearly something about its role, structure or importance that Blizzard believes is different. Maybe it is larger. Maybe it is more central to the main story. Maybe Blizzard has another raid format experiment waiting behind the curtain. Those are possibilities, not confirmations. For now, the only responsible conclusion is also the most intriguing one: Whatever Blizzard is building for Patch 12.1.5, it doesn't consider it merely another side raid.

One Sentence Has Made Patch 12.1.5 Much More Interesting

World of Warcraft developers are usually very good at saying nothing about future content while technically answering the question. This time, they said almost nothing — and somehow still gave us something useful. Tidebound Grotto is the side dish. Patch 12.1.5 apparently isn't. Now we just need Blizzard to tell us what's actually on the plate. Source: Tettles interview with World of Warcraft encounter designers Taylor Sanders and Andrew De Sousa, summarized by Wowhead.

World of Warcraft Composer Adam Burgess Leaves Blizzard After 11 Years

2026-08-09T18:07:02.378+02:00

One of the composers behind some of World of Warcraft: Midnight's most memorable musical moments is leaving Blizzard Entertainment. Senior Composer Adam Burgess has announced that his final day at Blizzard will be August 12, ending a run of more than 11 years at the company. During that time, Burgess worked across World of Warcraft, Overwatch and Diablo, helping provide music for games, cinematics and live events. And if the name doesn't immediately ring a bell, there is a very good chance the music does.

Burgess Helped Shape the Sound of Midnight

Burgess contributed extensively to the soundtrack for World of Warcraft: Midnight. His credits include tracks such as Aln'hara, A New Dawn, The Lady of Shadow, Origin of All and What Must Be Done, often working alongside other longtime Blizzard composers. He also composed Immolation, the music accompanying the Arator cinematic of the same name. That particular piece arrived during one of Midnight's more memorable story moments, as Blizzard pushed Arator deeper into the expansion's increasingly uncomfortable conflict between Light and Void. We previously looked at why the Immolation cinematic mattered for Midnight's story. Burgess helped give that scene its voice.

More Than Just World of Warcraft

His Blizzard career stretched well beyond Azeroth. Burgess also composed music for Overwatch and Diablo, including numerous pieces created for characters, locations, cinematics and other major Blizzard productions. That is one of the slightly strange things about game composers. Players may spend hundreds or thousands of hours hearing their work without ever learning the name attached to it. The music simply becomes part of the place. A city theme becomes a memory of standing around waiting for friends. A raid track becomes permanently attached to wiping on the same boss for three weeks. A cinematic score becomes inseparable from the scene itself. When it works properly, you stop noticing that somebody had to write it.

“It Has Been an Honor”

In his farewell announcement, Burgess thanked Blizzard for more than a decade of creativity, growth and friendships. He described it as an honor to have played a part in bringing Blizzard's games, cinematics and live events to life through music. He is leaving to try something new, although he hasn't publicly revealed exactly what comes next. After more than 11 years at one studio, that seems fair enough. Even composers eventually need a new expansion.

Another Piece of Blizzard History Moves On

World of Warcraft's music has always been unusually important to its identity. You can redesign classes, replace talent systems and rebuild entire continents, but play the first few seconds of an old zone theme and suddenly someone is mentally standing in Elwynn Forest again. Burgess became part of that tradition. His departure doesn't mean WoW is suddenly losing its musical identity — Blizzard's audio team includes a large collection of composers and collaborators — but it does mark the end of a long chapter for someone whose work quietly accompanied millions of players. And Midnight feels like a rather fitting place to leave the bookmark. His final WoW credits include music for one of the expansion's biggest cinematics and several pieces spread throughout its soundtrack. Not a bad way to sign off after 11 years. Source: Adam Burgess / Blizzard Entertainment

Midnight Season 1 Had Some of WoW’s Highest Mythic+ Participation Ever

2026-08-09T18:00:08.187+02:00

For a game mode that regularly inspires forum posts suggesting everyone hates it, Mythic+ appears to be doing rather well. Midnight Season 1 has seen some of the highest Mythic+ participation numbers in World of Warcraft history, according to Raider.IO — and Blizzard believes it knows why. The answer isn't a revolutionary new reward system or some secret psychological trick. Apparently, people played Mythic+ because it was accessible, the dungeon pool was good and pressing their class buttons was fun. Sometimes game design can be terribly complicated. Sometimes people simply enjoy the game.

Blizzard Says Accessibility Was the Biggest Factor

During a new developer interview, Raider.IO asked Lead Encounter Designer Andrew De Sousa what Blizzard internally attributes Season 1's unusually strong Mythic+ participation to. His first answer was accessibility. Season 1 gave players a progression path where achievable goals kept appearing just beyond the previous one. A player might begin by farming Hero-track gear from +10 keys. Then +12 suddenly seemed possible. Then +14. Rather than immediately reaching a wall where Mythic+ became the private territory of extremely dedicated groups, players had reasons to keep climbing. That matters more than it sounds. Mythic+ works best when the next difficulty level looks dangerous but achievable. If the ladder suddenly turns into a cliff, most people simply stop climbing.

Keystone Myth Gave Better Players Another Target

Blizzard also introduced Keystone Myth and the top-one-percent seasonal mount during Midnight. De Sousa says the team had wanted to add that kind of reward for some time and knew there was strong player appetite for another objective above the traditional Mythic+ reward structure. That helped solve a different problem. Accessibility keeps ordinary players entering the system. Prestige rewards give the strongest players a reason to remain there. We've already seen the consequences late in Season 1, with title cutoffs continuing to climb as players push increasingly high keys right up to the final reset. The ladder stayed busy because both ends had something worth chasing.

The Dungeon Pool Apparently Worked

De Sousa also pointed toward something refreshingly straightforward: Season 1 had a strong dungeon pool. That doesn't mean every dungeon was universally loved. We have spent the season watching Algeth'ar Academy, Nexus-Point Xenas and various individual bosses periodically become Azeroth's designated complaint departments. But the overall mix apparently kept enough players interested to support unusually high participation. Blizzard also believes class design deserves some credit. De Sousa said many classes simply turned out to be fun in Midnight. That sounds almost embarrassingly obvious, but it is fundamental. A progression system can have excellent rewards and beautifully calibrated difficulty. If playing your character feels miserable, none of it matters.

Season 1’s Numbers Make Season 2 More Interesting

The real question is whether Blizzard can repeat this in Season 2. Patch 12.1 changes the dungeon pool, class balance and several elements of the Mythic+ environment. That means Blizzard isn't merely maintaining a successful system. It is changing one. The encouraging part is that the developers appear to understand what worked. Keep the early ladder accessible. Give ordinary players visible progression. Give high-end players meaningful prestige targets. Build a dungeon pool people actually want to enter. And make the classes fun enough that pressing buttons remains enjoyable after the fiftieth key. World of Warcraft has spent years trying increasingly complicated ways to keep players engaged. Midnight Season 1 may have rediscovered one of the simpler ones. Give people something fun to play, then give them another mountain just slightly higher than the one they climbed yesterday. Apparently, they'll keep going. Especially if there's a mount at the top.

WoW’s Season 2 Raid Will Get Easier Over Time — But Blizzard Isn’t Calling It a Nerf

2026-08-09T17:51:57.823+02:00

The Venomous Abyss may look fairly unpleasant when Midnight Season 2 begins. Give it a few weeks. Blizzard has confirmed that Season 2 will once again include a system that gradually increases player power, making the raid easier as the season progresses. Technically, Blizzard would prefer that we don't call this a raid nerf. The bosses aren't necessarily getting weaker. You are getting stronger. Which is a much nicer way of telling Ula’tek that her days are numbered.

Season 2 Will Slowly Increase Player Power

During a new developer interview, Lead Encounter Designer Taylor Sanders was asked whether The Venomous Abyss would receive the kind of gradual difficulty reduction seen during Midnight Season 1. The answer was yes. Blizzard plans to introduce a system similar to those used with Voidspire, Dreamrift and March on Quel’Danas, allowing player power to increase over time. The idea is that each week eventually gives raid groups a small advantage compared with the week before. Blizzard expects the system to begin doing its work after the initial competitive period has had time to play out, including Race to World First and Hall of Fame progression.

Blizzard Would Rather Buff Players Than Nerf Bosses

The interesting part isn't really that the raid becomes easier. WoW raids have been softened over time for years. What is interesting is how Blizzard wants that process to feel. Sanders explained that the encounter team generally prefers giving players more power rather than simply reducing boss health and damage. The reason is psychological as much as mechanical. If your guild spends three weeks learning a boss and Blizzard suddenly cuts its health dramatically, the victory can feel slightly cheaper. Your raid didn't necessarily improve. The finish line moved closer. Giving players additional power instead lets the group feel as though it has progressed. Better gear, stronger characters and a seasonal power increase all push the raid toward accessibility without placing a giant “NERFED” sticker on the boss.

Some Mechanics Will Still Get Real Nerfs

That doesn't mean Blizzard refuses to directly nerf encounters. Sanders specifically pointed toward mechanics based on reaction time or execution as situations where increasing player damage simply doesn't solve the problem. If an ability is too fast, too punishing or mechanically unreasonable, giving everyone five percent more damage isn't particularly useful. You just die slightly more powerful. That is where traditional mechanical nerfs still make sense. Blizzard used L’ura's glaives from Season 1 as an example of the kind of mechanic where changing the encounter itself can be more appropriate.

This Is Good News for Normal Guilds

For Race to World First guilds, none of this matters very much. They will meet The Venomous Abyss before the seasonal catch-up system has had much opportunity to help. For everyone else, it matters enormously. A Heroic guild stuck on a late boss in week four may find that same encounter noticeably more manageable several weeks later. A Mythic guild slowly progressing through the raid gets a natural push forward without Blizzard needing to repeatedly smash individual bosses with emergency tuning. And casual groups get a raid that becomes increasingly approachable as Season 2 ages. That seems like a healthier solution than designing every boss around the assumption that everyone must kill it at exactly the same difficulty forever. We have already followed The Venomous Abyss through Normal PTR testing, where readability and difficulty were major concerns. Now we know Blizzard has another lever ready once the raid reaches live servers.

Ula’tek Is On a Timer

The Venomous Abyss is an eight-boss raid arriving with Midnight Season 2, ending with Ula’tek herself. At launch, Blizzard clearly wants the raid to bite. Later? Players get stronger. Gear improves. The seasonal power system begins stacking the odds in our favor. Blizzard may insist that technically this isn't a nerf. Ula’tek probably won't appreciate the distinction.

WoW’s Secret Project Camelot Just Hit Patch 1.60.1 — And That’s Interesting

2026-08-09T17:46:56.813+02:00

Whatever Blizzard is doing with Project Camelot, it apparently isn't standing still. The mysterious World of Warcraft build associated with Patch 1.60 has now advanced to Patch 1.60.1 on Blizzard's internal development servers. And while that absolutely does not mean “Classic+ confirmed,” it does give us another intriguing clue about how far this unannounced project may have progressed. Blizzard continues to say precisely nothing. The build numbers, meanwhile, are becoming increasingly chatty.

Project Camelot Has Moved From 1.60.0 to 1.60.1

According to build tracking reported by Wowhead, Blizzard updated the mysterious internal branch from Patch 1.60.0 to 1.60.1. That follows another interesting development only days earlier. We recently covered Project Camelot briefly appearing on a Blizzard vendor server, a move that suggested the project may be approaching some form of external testing. The build was subsequently moved back into Blizzard's internal development environment. Now 1.60.1 has appeared.

Why 1.60.1 Is More Interesting Than Another Weekly Build

Project Camelot's 1.60 branch has been receiving regular internal updates for some time. But moving from 1.60.0 to 1.60.1 is at least potentially more meaningful than another build number buried deeper in the same version. One possibility is that Blizzard is beginning to maintain separate development branches. Patch 1.60.0 could, theoretically, represent a version being prepared for testing or presentation while development continues on 1.60.1. That could make 1.60.1 an early post-launch update or content phase. Could. That word is doing quite a lot of work here. Nothing contained in the version number tells us what 1.60.1 actually includes, whether it contains new content, or whether Blizzard intends to release 1.60.0 and 1.60.1 separately at all.

This Still Does Not Confirm Classic+

It is worth repeating because the internet is currently capable of turning a decimal point into a full expansion announcement within approximately six minutes: Blizzard has not confirmed that Project Camelot is Classic+. The speculation exists for good reasons. The mysterious 1.60 branch appears to be based around Vanilla WoW, which immediately attracted attention because Blizzard's previous Classic projects used versions such as 1.13, 1.14 and 1.15. Dataminers later connected the Camelot codename with the 1.60 project, while evidence of different product editions and continued internal development has kept Classic+ speculation alive. But clues are still clues. We don't know whether Camelot means expanded Vanilla content, another seasonal experiment, a fundamentally rebuilt Classic client, or something Blizzard has managed to keep hidden despite leaving increasingly large footprints all over its own servers.

BlizzCon Is Getting Harder to Ignore

The timing does make things interesting. BlizzCon 2026 is approaching, and Blizzard has spent much of this year teasing that Classic players have more to look forward to. A build moving toward possible external testing followed almost immediately by the appearance of 1.60.1 certainly looks like a project moving forward rather than an abandoned internal experiment. That still doesn't guarantee an announcement. But Project Camelot has now spent nearly a year quietly evolving behind Blizzard's curtain. And every time we think we've spotted the shape of whatever is hiding back there, somebody apparently installs another patch. At this rate, Blizzard may eventually have to tell us what the thing actually is. Source: Wowhead

Blizzard Responds to Complaints That WoW Midnight Has Too Much to Do

2026-08-09T17:42:17.289+02:00

World of Warcraft has spent years hearing players complain that there isn't enough to do. Midnight may have discovered the opposite problem. Between reputations, currencies, Delves, Prey, assaults, weekly objectives, raids, Mythic+, professions and whatever small progression system has quietly appeared since breakfast, some players have begun arguing that WoW isn't short on content anymore. It may simply have too much of it. Blizzard has now responded to that criticism — and its answer is essentially that one player's exhausting checklist is another player's Tuesday evening.

Blizzard Says WoW Players Want Very Different Things

Speaking to PC Gamer while looking back at Midnight Season 1, Associate Game Director Paul Kubit acknowledged that some players feel overwhelmed by everything currently happening in WoW. But Blizzard is also hearing the exact opposite complaint. For every player looking at Midnight and thinking there is too much going on, Kubit says there are others wondering why there isn't something new happening this week. That's the awkward position Blizzard has created for itself. World of Warcraft now serves people who log in twice a week, people who raid three nights, collectors with seventeen ongoing projects, Mythic+ players who regard sleep as optional and somebody somewhere who has already finished all of it. Designing one content schedule for all of them was never going to be particularly elegant.

The Problem May Not Actually Be the Amount of Content

There is an important difference between having lots to do and feeling like you should do lots. A dozen optional activities are wonderful. A dozen activities attached to weekly resets, currencies, reputation tracks, temporary rewards or seasonal progression can begin looking suspiciously like admin. That's where Midnight occasionally runs into trouble. We have already seen the same tension in the debate around WoW's aggressive eight-week patch cycle. Constant updates make Azeroth feel alive. They can also make taking a month off feel like you've returned from a three-year expedition to Antarctica. The Omnium Folio is another good example. On paper, it is a relatively small progression system. In practice, it becomes another thing sitting politely beside all the other small systems asking whether you've done your homework this week. None of these systems are disastrous individually. It is the pile that matters.

Blizzard Is Trying to Serve Two Completely Different Players

And Kubit isn't wrong. There genuinely are players who consume WoW content at astonishing speed. If Blizzard slows down significantly, those players will complain that Midnight is empty. If Blizzard keeps throwing activities into the game, another group begins feeling that Azeroth has transformed into a collection of progress bars wearing a fantasy costume. The solution probably isn't simply “less content.” It is making more of that content comfortable to ignore. Let reputations sit there without urgency. Let side activities remain side activities. Give players things to discover without attaching a weekly alarm clock to everything. Because having too much World of Warcraft should theoretically be a wonderful problem. The trouble starts when the game gives you twenty things to do and somehow convinces you that twelve of them are due by Tuesday. That isn't an adventure. That's Outlook with dragons. Source: PC Gamer – WoW developers reflect on Midnight's first season