WoW Shadowlands’ latest patch offers last-minute Castle Nathria tuning, class and legendary bug fixes

Blizzard Entertainment is gearing up for Castle Nathria in World of Warcraft Shadowlands‘ latest update, introducing a slew of changes ahead of the game’s first raid of the expansion.

The Dec. 7 update added last-minute tuning for Castle Nathria, which is scheduled to release later today on the North American servers.

The developers targeted multiple counters in the upcoming raid, fine-tuning six different bosses and their abilities. The most notable change comes to the raid’s second boss, Sludgefist, increasing his enrage to 30 percent remaining health from 20 percent.

Blizzard also gave some attention to PvP abilities, classes, and legendaries ahead of the competitive arena season, focusing its efforts on Hunter, Monk, Priest, and Rogue, as well as the Necrolord and Night Fae Covenants.

Castle Nathria

Sun King’s Salvation

• Blazing Surge: At 100 Energy, the Shade of Kael’thas releases a massive blast of fire, inflicting 30932 Fire damage in a 40-yard frontal cone
• Fiery Strike: The Shade of Kael’thas lets loose a fiery blast, inflicting 8258 Fire damage and applying Burning Remnants to all enemies in a 12-yard frontal cone

Hungering Destroyer

• Desolate: The Hungering Destroyer unleashes torrents of energy, inflicting 14848 Shadow damage to all players
• Expunge: The Hungering Destroyer excites the life energy in all players causing them to erupt, inflicting 12992 Shadow damage to nearby players. The size of the effect increases based on the target’s missing health
• Expunge: The Hungering Destroyer excites the life energy in all players causing them to erupt, inflicting 12992 Shadow damage to nearby players. The size of the effect increases based on the target’s missing health.
• Expunge: The Hungering Destroyer excites the life energy in all players causing them to erupt, inflicting 12992 Shadow damage to nearby players. The size of the effect increases based on the target’s missing health

Council of Blood

• Drain Essence: Baroness Frieda, pulls the life energy from her targets, inflicting 7424 Shadow damage every one second for four seconds
• Drain Essence: Baroness Frieda, pulls the life energy from her targets, inflicting 7424 Shadow damage every one second for four seconds
• Throw Food: The Dredger Waiter throws fancy hors d’oeuvres at random players, inflicting 7424 Nature damage

Lady Inerva Darkvein

• Shared Suffering: Lady Inerva Darkvein links two targets together for one minute. Linked targets and any other players caught between them suffer 1650 Shadow damage every 0.5 seconds
• Shared Suffering: Lady Inerva Darkvein links two targets together for one minute. Linked targets and any other players caught between them suffer 1650 Shadow damage every 0.5 seconds.
• Shared Suffering: Lady Inerva Darkvein links two targets together for one minute. Linked targets and any other players caught between them suffer 1650 Shadow damage every 0.5 seconds.
• Shared Suffering: Lady Inerva Darkvein links two targets together for one minute. Linked targets and any other players caught between them suffer 1650 Shadow damage every 0.5 seconds.
• Sins and Suffering: Extracts the past sins of random enemies at random locations. Sins of the Past continually inflict 6 Shadow damage to the nearest player until all Sins of the Past are linked with the beams of Shared Suffering
• Sins and Suffering: Extracts the past sins of random enemies at random locations. Sins of the Past: continually inflict 6 Shadow damage to the nearest player until all Sins of the Past are linked with the beams of Shared Suffering. After the sins manifest, an Anima Web forms between them
• Lesser Sins and Suffering: Extracts the past sins of random enemies at random locations. Sins of the Past continually inflict 6 Shadow damage to the nearest player until all Sins of the Past are linked with the beams of Shared Suffering
• Greater Sins and Suffering: Extracts the past sins of random enemies at random locations. Sins of the Past continually inflict 6 Shadow damage to the nearest player until all Sins of the Past are linked with the beams of Shared Suffering. After the sins manifest, an Anima Web forms between them. The strands of this Anima Web rotate

Sludgefist

• Gruesome Rage: At 30 percent remaining health Sludgefist enrages, gaining 20% increased damage and increasing attack speed by 20 percent

Stone Legion Generals

• Cluster Bombardment: Stone Legion Commandos fly overhead, continually throwing anima bombs at players. These bombs explode upon impact for 22684 Shadow damage to players within 6 yards
• Echoing Annihilation: Unstable Ground explodes, inflicting 20622 Nature damage and applying Reverberating Vulnerability to players within 8 yards. Impacts that are not absorbed trigger Echoing Blast
• Echoing Blast: Inflicts 20622 Nature damage to all enemies
• Reverberating Eruption: Grashaal sends a shockwave at an enemy, inflicting 20622 Nature damage, and applies Reverberating Vulnerability to players within eight yards. This leaves behind Unstable Ground and causes Echoing Annihilation at all other Unstable Ground locations
• Reverberating Eruption: Grashaal sends a shockwave at an enemy, inflicting 20622 Nature damage, and applies Reverberating Vulnerability to players within 8 yards. This leaves behind Unstable Ground and causes Echoing Annihilation at all other Unstable Ground locations
• Ricocheting Shuriken: While flying, Kaal throws a shuriken at random players, inflicting 6186 Physical damage and chaining up to three nearby players. Cast Time changed from three-second cast to two-second cast
• Seismic Upheaval: General Grashaal causes eruptions at marked players every two sec for 4.5 sec, inflicting 24746 Nature damage to players within 5 yards
• Seismic Upheaval: General Grashaal causes eruptions at marked players every two sec for 4.5 sec, inflicting 24746 Nature damage to players within 5 yards
• Seismic Upheaval: General Grashaal causes eruptions at marked players every two sec for 4.5 sec, inflicting 24746 Nature damage to players within 5 yards.
• Stone Spike: While flying, Grashaal launches a stone spike at random players, inflicting 6186 Physical damage and reducing their movement speed by 30 percent for 8 sec. Cast Time changed from three-second cast to two-second cast
• Unstable Footing: Grashaal sends a shockwave at an enemy, inflicting 20622 Nature damage, and applies Reverberating Vulnerability to players within eight yards. This leaves behind Unstable Ground and causes Echoing Annihilation at all other Unstable Ground locations
• Unstable Ground: Grashaal sends a shockwave at an enemy, inflicting 20622 Nature damage, and applies Reverberating Vulnerability to players within eight yards. This leaves behind Unstable Ground and causes Echoing Annihilation at all other Unstable Ground locations
• Wicked Blade: Kaal throws a ricocheting blade at marked targets which explode upon contact with any player, inflicting 20624 Shadow damage to players within eight yards. This applies Wicked Laceration
• Wicked Blade: Kaal throws a ricocheting blade at marked targets which explodes upon contact with any player, inflicting 20624 Shadow damage to players within eight yards. This applies Wicked Laceration
• Wicked Blast: Kaal throws a ricocheting blade at marked targets which explodes upon contact with any player, inflicting 20624 Shadow damage to players within eight yards. This applies Wicked Laceration
• Wicked Laceration: Kaal’s Wicked Blade afflict players with a permanent wound, causing them to bleed for 3299 Physical damage every second second
• Wicked Mark: Kaal throws a ricocheting blade at marked targets which explode upon contact with any player, inflicting 20624 Shadow damage to players within eight yards. This applies Wicked Laceration

Uncategorized spells

• Fragments of Shadow: The life links trigger a wave an anima that fires outward, inflicting 1650 Shadow damage.
• NOT USED: General Kaal throws spinning blade that ricochets off of two players before returning to him. Upon impact with these targets, the blade explodes, inflicting 20624 Shadow damage to all enemies within eight yards. Additionally, if the blade passes through an enemy it inflicts 30 Physical damage and applies an application of Kaal’s Wicked Blade afflict players with a permanent wound, causing them to bleed for 3299 Physical damage every two seconds
• Shared Suffering: The caster links the two targets together for 1 min. Linked targets and any other players caught between them suffer 1650 Shadow damage every 0.5 seconds
• Sins and Suffering: Extracts the past sins of random enemies at random locations. Sins of the Past inflict six Shadow damage to the nearest player every three. Sins of the Past persist until they are simultaneously connected with the beams of Shared Suffering
• Sins of the Past: Inflicts six Shadow damage to the nearest player to the Sins of the Past orb
• [NEW] Teleport
• [NEW] Throw Food

PvP ability, class, and legendary hotfixes

Adventures

• The companion buff indicators now remain visible when swapping between the Companions and Adventures tabs on the Command Table

Allies races

• Resolved an issue where some players were unable to create a new Allied Race character

Classes

Druid

• Casting Nourish will no longer incorrectly cancel Nature’s Swiftness

Hunter

Marksmanship

• Fixed an issue where Wild Spirits (Night Fae ability) was benefitting from the damage increase of the mastery stat twice
• Damage of Wild Spirits has been increased by 25 percent for Marksmanship Hunters

Monk

• Fixed an issue with Tear of Morning (Runecarving) that caused Enveloping Mists to not spread Renewing Mists
• Fixed an issue that caused Tear of Morning (Runecarving) to grant Vivify additional healing on targets without Renewing Mists

Mistweaver

• Resolved an issue with the interaction between having both Summon Jade Serpent Statue (Talent) and Invoke Yu’lon, the Jade Serpent active

Windwalker

• Resolved an issue that prevented Dance of Chi-Ji from triggering from Chi spent by Spinning Crane Kick
• Resolved an issue that prevented Xuen’s Empowered Tiger Lightning from counting damage dealt by Storm, Earth, and Fire spirits

Priest

• Mindgames (Venthyr ability) will now display on nameplates to the casting Priest

Rogue

• Shadowy Duel (PvP Talent) will no longer sometimes cause the Rogue to be invisible to the target being dueled

Covenants

Necrolord

• The objectives for “Challenges in Maldraxxus” Venthyr Callings quest are now easier to locate on the map

Night Fae

• Players will no longer be able to use the Pinch of Faerie Dust item while they have the Faerie’s Blessing from a Basket of Enchanted Wings
• Fixed an issue where Podtender (Soulbind) would sometimes stun the player after dying and releasing
• Podtender now displays an icon on raid frames while the player is rejuvenating in the wildseed

Creates and NPCs

• Huntmaster Petrus now always spawns accompanied by Reza and Geza. Should he fall in battle, it’s possible his pets might be left behind and open to making new friends
• Skuld Vit’s barrier can now be bypassed by those with the right tricks.
• Feenix Arcshine in Orgrimmar has learned the art of Arcane Momentum and will offer his training to fellow mages
• Battle for Azeroth creatures that increase their health as the player’s item level increases now stop scaling at a lower, more appropriate item level
• Gorm spawned near Decayed Husks will now respawn at a more appropriate rate

Dungeons and raids

Plaguefall

Margrave Stradama

• Resolved an issue where players could inadvertently avoid Plague Crash while swimming in and around Margrave Stradama’s plague jacuzzi.

Sanguine Depths

• Fixed an issue with General Kaal where her door could become stuck and lock players out after a wipe.

Items and rewards

• Weapons sold for Conquest by Zo’sorg in Oribos will not require additional Achievements to purchase
• Corrected an issue that could allow crafted Common-quality base items for Runecarving to incorrectly affect traceability of items obtained in raids and dungeons
• Resolved an issue preventing Conduit item icons from matching in the Soulbind user interface
• Players now receive an understandable error when trying to add the Arboreal Gulper mount to their collection, if they are ineligible
• Fixed a bug that could cause some of the unique Revendreth consumables to be mailed to you when you already had one of them in your inventory
• Fixed a bug preventing Memory of the Arbiter’s Judgment from being obtainable

PvP

• The number of players on each side in Ashran has been increased to 30 (was 25)
• Resolved an issue in The Maw that caused Player vs Player deaths to incur a larger Stygia penalty than intended
• Fixed a bug that was causing PvP trinkets’ spell visuals and sounds to not play

Hunter

• Aimed Shot no longer deals 10 percent increased damage in PvP situations.
• Double Tap’s extra Aimed Shot deals 50 percent reduced damage in PvP situations.

Paladin

• Ringing Clarity (Kyrian) can now trigger up to 2 multi-casts in PvP situations (was three)
• Judgment (Kyrian) cast from Divine Toll deals 75 percent increased damage in PvP situations (was 100 percent)
• Final Reckoning increases the damage of Holy Power abilities by 30 percent in PvP situations (was 50 percent)

Rogue

• Reverberation’s (Kyrian) increase to Echoing Reprimand (Kyrian) damage has been reduced by 30 percent when engaged in combat with enemy players.

Professions

• Blacksmiths and Engineers can now use the anvil in Sinfall to craft their recipes

Torghast, Tower of the Damned

• The Empowered enemies at the end of a floor have been made more threatening
• Wing bosses Binder Baritas and Watchers of Death have been made more threatening as they were previously too easy to defeat
• Frostbite Wand’s effect now hits for a percentage of current health (was a percentage of maximum health)
• Frostchipper’s effect now hits for a percentage of current health (was a percentage of maximum health).
• Vitality Guillotine’s effect no longer reduces the health of a boss enemy. Its function is unchanged against rare and elite enemies
• Heart-Piercing Spine’s effect now reduces targets to 70 percent health (was a reduction to 50 percent health)

World

• The capitals Stormwind and Orgrimmar will once again no longer shard on Role-Playing realms

World quests

• Fixed an issue where unintended buffs would display during the Bastion World Quest “AHH! Real Monsters!”
• Fixed an issue where one of the jumps would occasionally fail to work during the Bastion World Quest “Flight School: Up and Away!”

The normal and heroic versions of Castle Nathria will be released on Dec. 8, while the mythic version will be unlocked next week on Dec. 15.