World of Warcraft: News, Events, Patch Notes

World of Warcraft: The War Within

First I’ll let you know what’s happening right now in the game’s 10th expansion, The War Within, from this week’s in-game events to the most recent content update and season. I’ll also cover some of the upcoming content that has been announced so far for 2024!

Weekly Events in The War Within: Nov 26 – Dec 2

There are plenty of limited-time events happening right now in retail World of Warcraft.

Mythic+ Affixes

Here are this week’s Mythic+ dungeon affixes:

• Xal’atath’s Bargain: Oblivion (2-11)
  • While in combat, Xal’atath manifests crystals from the void that can be absorbed by enemies or players.
• Fortified (7+)
  • Non-boss enemies have 20% more health and inflict up to 20% increased damage.
• Challenger’s Peril (7+)
  • Dying subtracts 15 seconds from time remaining.
• Fortified (10+)
  • Bosses have 25% more health. Bosses and their minions inflict up to 15% increased damage.
• Xal’atath’s Guile (12+)
  • Xal’atath betrays players, revoking her bargains and increasing the health and damage of enemies by 20%.

Wrath of the Lich King Timewalking Event

This week’s bonus event takes us back to the Wrath of the Lich King expansion for some Timewalking dungeons and the Ulduar raid! All week long, you’ll have the Sign of the Scourge passive buff, granting 50% increased reputation gains from combat and quests for Wrath of the Lich King factions. Don’t forget to grab the weekly quest from the Adventure Guide for some additional rewards!

Next week’s Bonus Event: Delves Bonus Event

Pet Battle Bonus Event

There’s a bonus-bonus event this week! You’ll have the Sign of the Critter passive buff all week, increasing your battle pet experience gains by 100%. There’s a weekly quest available in your Adventure Guide for this event as well!

PvP Brawl: Shado-Pan Showdown

This week’s PvP Brawl takes us into Tiger’s Peak Arena, where you’ll fight to control the center of the map in order to activate and defeat the other team’s boss. Be sure to pick up the weekly quest in your Adventure Guide for some extra rewards.

Next week’s PvP Brawl: Warsong Scramble

Pilgrim’s Bounty Holiday Event

The Pilgrim’s Bounty holiday event runs from November 24th through December 1st, overlapping with the Thanksgiving holiday in the US. Head right outside Stormwind or Orgrimmar to enjoy a Bountiful Feast and earn a few limited-time rewards.

Darkmoon Faire

The Darkmoon Faire returns to Darkmoon Island from December 1st through 7th. Head to Mulgore or Elwynn Forest to enter the portal and visit the Faire for all sorts of unique prizes and rewards.

November Trading Post

New items have arrived in the Trading Post for November. This month’s inventory brings back several items from the last year of Trading Post merchandise, so you’ve got a second chance to grab anything you missed. Remember that you can freeze items to save them for later. There’s a whole new batch of items arriving December 1st!

Current Patch in The War Within: 11.0.3

October 22nd marked the launch of the 20th Anniversary content update for The War Within, which is scheduled to last through January 6th.

20th Anniversary Event

There are a variety of special activities to experience outside the Caverns of Time in Tanaris, where a pop-up carnival similar to Darkmoon Faire has appeared. You’ll also be able to fight a selection of World Bosses from past expansions and participate in the Guest Relations secret-finding event.

Blackrock Depths Raid

The Blackrock Depths dungeon has been overhauled as a 15-player raid for the 20th Anniversary, offering a variety of endgame loot on Raid Finder, Normal, and Heroic difficulties.

Classic Timewalking

Classic Timewalking is active for the duration of the event, and after the event ends it will enter the weekly bonus event rotation. You can timewalk through two wings of Dire Maul, both wings of Stratholme, Deadmines, and Zul’Farrak.

The Codex of Chromie

Experience an homage to the memorable opening of the Gates of Ahn’Qiraj event with this special raid-sized scenario by speaking with Chromie at the Anniversary celebration grounds.

Korrak’s Revenge

The original version of the Alterac Valley battleground is back with Korrak’s Revenge, complete with all of the classic quests and mechanics. You’ll be able to queue for this battleground throughout the Anniversary.

Current Season for The War Within: Season 1

The first season of The War Within, Season 1, began on September 10th and brought a new Mythic dungeon rotation, a new season of ranked arenas and battlegrounds, and a new raid.

Raiding

The first raid of the expansion is Nerub-ar Palace, the stronghold of Queen Ansurek, current ruler of the Nerubian people of Azj-Kahet. The raid has eight bosses and is clearable on Story Mode, Raid Finder, Normal, Heroic, or Mythic difficulty.

Mythic+ Dungeons

There are 8 dungeons in the Mythic+ rotation for Season1, including 4 new dungeons and 4 from previous expansions:

• Ara-Kara, City of Echoes
• City of Threads
• The Dawnbreaker
• The Stonevault
• Mists of Tirna Scithe
• The Necrotic Wake
• Siege of Boralus
• Grim Batol

Ranked PvP

There’s a new season of ranked PvP for arenas and battlegrounds with a new set of ladders to climb. This season’s arena title is Forged Gladiator and the rated solo shuffle title is Forged Legend. There are plenty of other rewards to unlock as well.

Delves

Delves are a new type of instanced content for solo players and small groups. In Season 1, there’s a special limited-time Delve, Zekvir’s Lair. You’ll also be accompanied by a seasonal NPC companion, Brann Bronzebeard.

What’s Next for The War Within: 2025 Roadmap

Blizzard unveiled a new roadmap for World of Warcraft at their Anniversary Direct stream on November 13th, detailing everything we can expect for the game in the year to come!

Patch 11.0.7

The next content update is currently available on the Public Test Realm, and it adds a new zone to the game, the Siren Isle, with a new currency and an upgradeable ring. The Turbulent Timeways event will be making its return with this patch as well, bringing ups multiple weeks of Timewalking across World of Warcraft’s various expansions.

Patch 11.1

This patch is due sometime in early 2025, after 11.0.7 has been released. 11.1 will continue the expansion’s main story campaign, taking us to the Undermine, the goblin capital city. We’ll also see Season 2 for The War Within with a new raid, a new delve, and a new rotation of Mythic+ dungeons.

Plunderstorm

Plunderstorm will be making a return early in 2025, with some new rewards and no doubt a few other surprises.

Midnight Expansion

At BlizzCon last year we saw the announcement of not just one, but three expansions for retail WoW. World of Warcraft: The War Within marks the start of the Worldsoul Saga, followed by the Midnight and The Last Titan expansions. We will see more about the next expansion in the saga, Midnight, in the coming year. For now, Blizzard has teased one major feature that will be coming to the game at long last: Player Housing!

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Classic

There’s plenty going on in Cataclysm Classic, between the current in-game events and the most recent content phase.

Current Events in Cataclysm Classic: Nov 26 – Dec 2

Here are the limited-time events that are currently happening in Cataclysm Classic!

Call to Arms: The Battle for Gilneas

This week’s Call to Arms is The Battle for Gilneas. From Friday through Tuesday, you’ll get extra Honor Points if you queue for this battleground.

Next week’s Call to Arms: Twin Peaks

Darkmoon Faire

The Darkmoon Faire returns to Darkmoon Island from December 1st through 7th. This event has been changed to occur every two weeks instead of once a month in WoW Classic. Head to Mulgore or Elwynn Forest to enter the portal and visit the Faire for all sorts of unique prizes and rewards.

Pilgrim’s Bounty Holiday Event

The Pilgrim’s Bounty holiday event runs from November 26th through December 3rd in Cataclysm Classic, overlapping with the Thanksgiving holiday in the US. Head right outside Stormwind or Orgrimmar to enjoy a Bountiful Feast and earn a few limited-time rewards.

Current Phase for Cataclysm Classic: Phase 3

Phase 3 of Cataclysm Classic released on October 29th! This phase brings the Rage of the Firelands, with a new raid, a new legendary weapon, and a new dungeon difficulty.

Firelands

The Firelands raid brings us into the elemental plane of fire, the domain of Ragnaros, for some truly memorable boss encounters and a chance to earn some Tier 12 gear and build the legendary staff Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa’s Rest.

Elemental Rune Dungeons: Protocol Inferno

Protocol Inferno is a new difficulty level for Cataclysm dungeons, bringing Heroic+ to Cataclysm Classic with some better rewards for 5-player content.

What’s Next for Cataclysm Classic: 2025 Roadmap

Blizzard unveiled a new roadmap for Cataclysm Classic at their Anniversary Direct stream on November 13th, so we have a good idea of what to expect over the coming year!

Hour of Twilight

The Hour of Twilight patch introduces the Dragon Soul raid and three new heroic dungeons. It marks the last content patch for Cataclysm. Currently, this patch is currently expected to go live some time after January 2025.

Mists of Pandaria Classic

The next expansion for WoW Classic will follow Cataclysm next year! It looks like we can expect the pre-patch to arrive sometime in the summer and the expansion to launch in the fall. Mists of Pandaria will bring us to the Pandaria continent and will add the Pandaren race and the Monk class to the game.

World of Warcraft Classic: Season of Discovery

WoW Classic: Season of Discovery is shaking up the vanilla WoW meta with some new class abilities and leveling phases. Here’s a look at the latest news for this game mode.

Current Events in Season of Discovery: Nov 26 – Dec 2

Here’s a look at what’s happening this week Season of Discovery.

Phase 6 Launched

Phase 6 arrived on November 21st, bringing the War Effort event to the game as we prepare for the opening of the Gates of Ahn’Qiraj and both revamped Ahn’Qiraj raids, which will arrive on December 6th.

Raid Schedule

Lockouts for Zul’Gurub, Thunderaan, Azuregos, Lord Kazzak, and Onyxia’s Lair are twice a week, on Tuesdays & Saturdays for North America & Europe and Wednesdays & Sundays for Asia. Molten Core and Blackwing Lair have a regular weekly reset schedule.

Darkmoon Faire

Head to Mulgore to visit the Darkmoon Faire from December 2nd through 8th. You can speak with Sayge to get one of her fortunes – and one of several very useful world buffs! Be sure to store it in a Chronoboon if you want to hold onto it. Chronoboons can be purchased from a Reagent Vendor.

Current Phase for Season of Discovery: Phase 6

We’re currently in Phase 6 of this season of WoW Classic, which brings us to some new iconic endgame content.

Scepter of the Shifting Sands Questline

This epic quest chain offers some of the rarest rewards in the game, including the Scarab Lord title and Black Qiraji Battle Tank mount, for those who are able to complete it before the raids are opened on December 6th. There are many other strong rewards that can be earned from various steps in the quest chain, even after the gates are opened.

War Effort

The War Effort event precedes the opening of the Ahn’Qiraj raids, and involves gathering materials to turn in for your faction in Silithus. The rewards for this event have been ramped up for Season of Discovery while the event itself has been separated from the opening of the gates, which will happen automatically on December 4th.

Raiding

Phase 6 brings us two more of World of Warcraft‘s original raids, Ruins of Ahn’Qiraj and Temple of Ahn’Qiraj, as well as a new instanced raid, the Nightmare Grove, where players will be able to face all four Dragons of Nightmare, who were previously guarding the portals to the Emerald Dream as world bosses.

Runes

There were no new runes added in this phase.

What’s Next for Season of Discovery: Phase 7

Phase 7 will be the final content update for Season of Discovery. Blizzard has not revealed what they plan to do with Season of Discovery servers after that, but they do not have any plans to delete characters.

Naxxramas Raid

The final raid of Vanilla WoW, Naxxramas, will be released in Phase 7. We’ll likely see an updated take on the Scourge Event that leads up to this raid’s opening as well.

New End Game Content

There will be new instanced content in Phase 7, one located in Deadwind Pass and one that is Scarlet Crusade themed. Whether this will include the highly-anticipated Karazhan Crypts raid remains to be seen.

World of Warcraft: Classic Anniversary Edition

Blizzard surprised us again this year by announcing another new version of WoW Classic during their Anniversary Direct stream on November 12th! WoW Classic Anniversary Edition launched on November 21st, bringing a fresh set of progression realms for Classic Era.

Fresh Progression Servers

Players started fresh on new Classic Era realms on November 21st. Each region has one mega-realm of each type: PvP, Normal, and Hardcore. This version of WoW Classic will stay true to the original vanilla game and will not add a lot of content like Season of Discovery, but there are a few quality-of-life changes: instant mail for characters on the same account, a Looking for Group tool, a Services chat channel for summons, portals, and buffs, dual talent specialization, a removed buff/debuff cap, the ability to save world buffs, and an optional updated guild interface.

Molten Core and Onyxia’s Lair Raids

The first set of raids, Molten Core and Onyxia’s Lair, will open for these realms on December 12th.

Chinese Servers

Classic Era and Hardcore Classic launched in China on November 22nd.

World of Warcraft: Classic Hardcore

WoW Classic Hardcore is still going strong, having launched with all vanilla content already unlocked.

Fresh Progression Servers

A new set of progression servers launched for WoW Classic Hardcore on November 21st alongside the new WoW Classic Anniversary Edition! These servers will progress through the content phases alongside their non-Hardcore counterparts, but will not continue into the Burning Crusade expansion next year. The first set of raids, Molten Core and Onyxia’s Lair, will open for these realms on December 12th.

Self-Found Mode

A new self-found ruleset arrived in Hardcore on February 29. Self-found rules mean that you can only equip items you loot yourself. You won’t be able to get items by mail, trade, or the Auction House. This has commonly been used in player-made hardcore rules and will soon be officially supported in the game, although it will be completely optional.

Check out our Self-Found Mode Guide!

Chinese Servers

Classic Era and Hardcore Classic launched in China on November 22nd.