The time has come to put an end to the Burning Legion’s Crusade. We are happy to announce that Patch 2.4 “Fury of the Sunwell” will be released on Netherwing on the 17th of April, with Sunwell Plateau raid coming a week later, on the 24th!

Once again, the Isle of Quel’danas progression will depend on the number of quests all players complete, with different stages unlocking new areas and NPCs. Sunwell Plateau raid will initially offer the first three encounters (Kalecgos, Brutallus, Felmyst) while the remaining ones will become available one by one a few weeks later.

Heroic Sunwell Plateau

With Zul’Aman’s normal/heroic mode split being well received, we are planning to continue using this system for Sunwell Plateau as well. Normal mode will initially be available for the first two encounters (Kalecgos, Brutallus) with additional ones unlocking once further gates of Sunwell Plateau open. Normal mode rewards will be the same as usual, while Heroic encounters will drop one additional item.

To build upon the success of the difficulty split, we will be trying additional changes for Sunwell Plateau. Heroic mode will now feature new, additional mechanics! For the past few years and realms we were focused on increasing the health and damage of bosses, mobs, and existing mechanics. It worked pretty well, however with the player skill getting better and better, as well as due to many, many repetitions we have reached a point where the content started to get stale, while such adjustments began to make the gameplay more frustrating than rewarding with players suffering from almost unfair damage and getting bored from the much longer encounter durations. We feel that adding a few, thematically matching, new mechanics to every encounter will keep things fresh and revitalize the raiding scene. Perhaps it could be somewhat summed up as “TBC+”.

All changes will be posted beforehand, similar to retail’s Adventure Guide, but figuring out how to play around them and how to solve them will be up to the players. We are very excited to see the strategies players come up with.

For those who prefer the classic version of Sunwell Plateau, Normal mode will be available without any custom changes. Feel free to try out whichever you prefer.

End of Arena Season 3

Arena Season 3 on Netherwing will end at 06:00 PM (GMT+2) on the 24th of April. This is when a snapshot of arena teams and personal ratings will happen too. Rewards will be distributed with a short delay.

Below you can see a list of the current Arena Season rewards for the 2v2 and 3v3 brackets:

• Vengeful Gladiator (Rank 1) - Top 2 Arena Teams
• Gladiator - Top 14 Arena Teams
• Duelist - Top 3% Arena Teams
• Rival - Top 3-10% Arena Teams
• Challenger - Top 10-20% Arena Teams

To qualify for end-of-season rewards, you have to meet the following criteria:

• Your team needs at least 65 games played between the 27th of March and the 24th of April.
• You must have played 30% of the total games played on that team for the season
• Your personal rating must be within 100 rating of the team rating.

Arena Season 4

Arena Season 4 will start at 6:00 PM (GMT+2) on the 25th of April.

At the start of next season, the following PvP resources will be reduced:

• Arena Points - Players can keep up to 1000 Arena Points.
• Honor Points - Players can keep up to 12500 Honor Points.
• Marks of Honor - Players can keep up to 15 Marks of Honor from each Battleground.

You will be refunded with an in-game currency for each reduced resource, with a conversion rate that will not impact the general economy of the realm.

New Brutal Gladiator arena gear will be available from Big Zokk Torquewrench in Area 52, with only shoulders requiring a 2200 arena rating to purchase. Same as before - Librams, Idols, and Totems can be bought for Honor Points. Arena Season 3 gear price will be greatly reduced and arena Season 2 gear will now be sold for Honor Points. All arena season 1 gear will be removed from the vendors.