World of Warcraft

This Week in WoW: 24 May, 2024

Blizzard Entertainment

Catch up on all the latest World of Warcraft news from the last week!

Cataclysm Classic Now Live!

Explore new zones, dungeons, and raids, engage in PvP combat, and discover the mysteries of the Darkmoon Faire. With the launch of Cataclysm Classic, the adventure begins anew. Are you ready to face the challenges that await?

Cataclysm Classic PvP Season 9 Goes Live 29 May

Engage in an all new PvP season beginning with weekly resets. Gather your team to take on the challenge of Rated Arenas and Rated Battlegrounds and earn Conquest points to spend on new and more powerful PvP gear.

Season 9 also brings with it two new battlegrounds, Battle for Gilneas and Twin Peaks, and sets the stage for a dynamic PvP experience.

New Raid Dungeons: The Battle Begins 30 May

Beginning on 30 May at 3:00 pm PDT globally, level 85 players will be able to take their first steps into three raid dungeons: The Bastion of Twilight, Blackwing Descent, and Throne of the Four Winds.

The Bastion of Twilight stands as a dark symbol of the Old Gods’ burgeoning power on Azeroth. Various branches of the Twilight’s Hammer dwell deep beneath the towering form— considered the cult’s foremost command center— along with their twisted leader, Cho’gall. There he, and his servants, conspire to bring the Old Gods’ apocalyptic visions to fruition by bleeding Azeroth of all sanity, hope, and life.

Zone: Twilight Highlands
Difficulty: (10) Normal, (10) Heroic, (25) Normal, (25) Heroic
Bosses: 4 (5 on Heroic difficulty)

  • Halfus Wyrmbreaker: Imbued with unnatural power and stamina by Cho’gall the ettin Halfus Wyrmbreaker captures dragons for use as fodder in the Twilight’s Hammer’s rituals. To this end, he has enslaved a behemoth proto-dragon to aid him in hunting down his winged prey.
  • Theralion and Valiona: Magically aged to adulthood, Valiona and Theralion were to be paragons among a new clutch of twilight dragons, leading their brood in scouring Azeroth of life. Instead, they waste their incredible powers constantly bickering and fighting each other.
  • Ascendant Council: As the most powerful Twilight’s Hammer cultists to be twisted into elemental beings, the Ascendant Council members have long forgotten their existence as mere mortals. From their wicked sanctum they oversee the selection of new ascension candidates.
  • Cho’gall: Under Cho’gall’s control, the orcish Twilight’s Hammer clan was transformed into a murderous cult obsessed with the Old Gods and their herald, Deathwing. Extended contact with his dark master has hideously warped both Cho’gall’s mind and body.
  • Sinestra (on Heroic difficulty only):  Originally Deathwing's prime consort, Sinestra created the first twilight dragons, but was later obliterated by one of her terrifying creations. Now a ravaged husk reanimated by insidious magic, Sinestra oversees the creation of new twilight clutches.

Nefarian and his warped attempts to create a new breed of dragon were thought to be defeated after his death in Blackwing Lair. Yet tales have emerged that his father, Deathwing, has reanimated Nefarian and set him to work in Blackwing Descent. The gruesome experiments being conducted there are feared to be on a level of wickedness far surpassing Nefarian’s previous crimes against nature.

Zone: Burning Steppes
Difficulty: (10) Normal, (10) Heroic, (25) Normal, (25) Heroic
Bosses: 6

  • Omnotron Defense System: The Omnotron Defense System was once touted as the Dark Iron dwarves’ greatest technological marvel. When Nefarian arrived in Blackwing Descent, he repurposed the run-down system to annihilate anyone intruding on his laboratories.
  • Magmaw: Magmaw is a colossal lava worm summoned from the Firelands centuries ago by Ragnaros’ Dark Iron servitors. Nefarian largely considers Magmaw a worrisome pest but has grown fond of feeding the beast his failed experiments… and servants.
  • Atramedes: Atramedes, or Experiment 25463-D, is a failed attempt to bestow enhanced senses on a black dragon whelp. The toxic salve applied to the broodling robbed him of sight, forcing him to rely on sound and smell for survival. A tragic story… if Atramedes weren’t so evil.
  • Chimaeron: Terrifying. Ugly. Evil. Kill it.
  • Maloriak: The human Malory was a bright young alchemist until he was kidnapped by Nefarian and fused with the corpse of a dragonspawn. The result— Maloriak— is a bumbling minion who possesses only a dull glimmer of his former intelligence.
  • Nefarian’s End: Deathwing’s son, Nefarian gained infamy for his horrifying efforts to create chromatic dragons from the essences of Azeroth’s various dragonflights. After his death in Blackwing Lair, he was reanimated and charged by Deathwing to continue his insidious endeavors.

Al’Akir the Windlord’s personal lair, the Throne of the Four Winds, glides high among Skywall’s boundless vistas. Now the barriers of the Elemental Plane have been ruptured, Al’Akir is free to travel Azeroth’s winds at his leisure. He has mustered his fiercest tempests to scour Uldum of life and seize control of the mysterious titan-forged Halls of Origination.

Zone: Uldum
Difficulty: (10) Normal, (10) Heroic, (25) Normal, (25) Heroic
Bosses: 2

  • The Conclave of Wind: With Siamat, Lord of the South Wind, imprisoned by the Neferset tol’vir, Al’akir’s lieutenants are vying to fill the power vacuum that now exists in the Conclave of Wind. The remaining conclave members are Anshal, Lord of the West Wind, whose gales can heal allies or poison enemies; Rohash, Lord of the East Wind, whose tempests can grind the mightiest mountains to dust, and Nezir, Lord of the North Wind whose frigid storms have claimed more lives than all other cardinal wind lords combined.
  • Al’Akir: Gifted with great intelligence and cunning, Al’Akir the Windlord once served as the foremost tactician in the Old Gods’ horrific armies. In the wake of the Cataclysm, he has aligned with Deathwing and turned his godlike power against many of the air elementals’ ancient tol’vir nemeses.

[Update 22 May] World of Warcraft Remix: Mists of Pandaria

New! Get Wound Up in Spools of Eternal Threads

Players can now increase their thread count with four new items that grant escalating amounts of power for the Cloak of Infinite Potential.

  • Minor Spool of Eternal Thread (Grants 20 Threads)
  • Lesser Spool of Eternal Thread (Grants 50 Threads)
  • Spool of Eternal Thread (Grants 100 Threads)
  • Greater Spool of Eternal Thread (Grants 180 Threads (it’s percale!))

Please note that not all Spool of Eternal Thread sources change in quality based on the character’s level. Group finder bonuses and Infinite Bazaar daily quests increase in quality as a character levels. Achievements will always provide a spool that is equal in quality to the Bronze Cache it rewards, regardless of character level. When a Spool grants Stamina, the value is doubled.

These items can be earned and collected through a variety of solo and group activities including:

  • Infinite Bazaar Repeatable Daily Quests
  • First-Time Daily Scenario, Dungeon Finder dungeons, and each Raid Finder queue
  • World Bosses
  • Remix Achievements
  • Troves of the Thunder King scenario on the Isle of Thunder.

Remix Achievements are also available for additional characters to complete for bonus Bronze and bonus Spools of Eternal Thread.

Esports Welcomes the World of Warcraft Cataclysm Classic

Cataclysm® Classic™ is here, which means it is time for more events!

This June is the Dragonslayer Challenge, where teams race through raids and dungeons. Then, the Cataclysm Arena Tournament, where top combatants will again test their mettle in an open bracket.

Dragonslayer Challenge

While many adventurers have conquered Blackwing Descent before, few are as fast and efficient as two of the top speedrunning guilds: Progress (EU - Gehennas) and None of the Above (EU - Gehennas).

But what if they didn’t have all the best items and near-unlimited time to gear up?

The Dragonslayer Challenge gives these two guilds basic level 85 characters, limited time to gear up, and forces them to speedrun through Blackwing Descent.

Can these guilds conquer the Dragonslayer Challenge?

Watch them take on the challenge on 8–9 June live on YouTube and Twitch.

Cataclysm Arena Tournament

Prepare for the ultimate showdown in the 2024 Cataclysm Arena Tournament! This is your chance to witness the top players from Europe and North America battle for glory and a combined prize pool of $50,000 (USD). Don’t miss this event on 14–16 June, live on YouTube and Twitch.

Don’t just watch the action; be a part of it! Sign-ups for the Cataclysm Arena Tournament are open until 7 June at 18:00 am BST. Visit Raider.io for more details on Europe and North America. Stay updated with WoW Esports on Twitter, YouTube, and Twitch, and check out the WoW Classic website for all the latest news as we return to a changed Azeroth!

Warcraft Short Story: "The Calling"

Since leaving the realms of Death, Anduin Wrynn has only sought to keep his hands busy. Plagued by night terrors and grisly flashbacks, the young king finally finds the isolation he seeks in Stormsong Valley, milling flour for a local village. But while Anduin may be able to hide his identity, he cannot escape who he is or the stuff he is made from.

Wind caressed the newcomer’s bearded face as he permitted his eyes, so hungry for green openness and soft lands, to feast.

Stormsong Valley was the ancient home of the tidesages, mages whose mastery of water and wind had protected ships and sailors for generations. Yet the beauty of this little hamlet near the sparkling sea was not that of majestic monuments to powerful magic. Here, it was obvious one was in the breadbox of Kul Tiras, where a salt-spray wind whispered over barley and wheat and the only magic was that of water and windmills, creaking from morn till night, transmuting elements to energy in service of the feeding and care of ordinary folk.

The pleasant sound of the mills sang a promise of new beginnings.

And the crash of the waves below, near the cave where his belongings lay bundled and buried, spoke of an ending.

Anduin Wrynn’s recent wandering had not taken him to peaceful places. He understood that he was trying to scour himself, to purge his mind and soul, to burn away his sins in places where the landscape reflected his own suffering.

My friends . . . the ones I almost killed. They believe my hands are clean. But they don’t feel clean.

Years after that confession, they still didn’t.

Read and Download This Short Story by Christie Golden

Follow along on the official World of Warcraft news site for all the latest developments as we journey through the week together.