WoW Hotfix September 20th: Meta Achievement Fixed, Raid Tuning

Author: Baed
Date: September 21, 2021
Updated: September 21, 2021
Expansion: World of Warcraft

As this week was the first week that players were able to complete the Breaking The Chains achievement, when players finished it they did not properly receive their mount reward, but as of today’s hotfix, players will properly receive the Hand of Salaranga mount. The rest of today’s changes are set to go live with the tuesday reset, with a multitude of changes to Sanctum of Domination bosses across all difficulties. Mythic Painsmith spikes during the second phase having more consistent openings, and less travel time between them, as well as reducing the damage of the Shadowsteel Chains dot. Fatescribe Roh-Kalo will give LFR and Normal difficulty and additional ten seconds on the wheel to correctly place their runes, and Heroic will gain an extra 5 seconds.

The penultimate and final bosses have also received a rather large amount of changes, with Kel’thuzad’s changes aimed at specifically making the fight less frustrating or less encouraging of passive gameplay.

Kel’thuzad

Kel’Thuzad health reduced by 5% on Mythic difficulty.
Remnant of Kel’Thuzad health reduced by 20% on Mythic difficulty.
Unstoppable Abomination health reduced by 20% on Mythic difficulty.
Soul Reaver health reduced by 20% on Mythic difficulty.
Frozen Destruction’s initial damage reduced by 40% on Mythic difficulty.
Frozen Destruction’s damage over time effect reduced by 10% and the duration reduced to 8 seconds (was 10 seconds) on Mythic difficulty.
Fixed an issue where Kel’Thuzad would cast abilities during Howling Blizzard on Mythic difficulty.
Howling Blizzard now inflicts stacking damage over the duration of the channel on Mythic difficulty.

Sylvanas Windrunner

Domination Arrows health reduced by 15% on Mythic difficulty.
Dark Sentinels health reduced by 15% on Mythic difficulty.
Curse of Lethargy base duration reduced to 4 seconds on Mythic difficulty (was 6 seconds).
Decrepit Orb Detonation damage reduced by 10% on Mythic difficulty.
Veil of Darkness radius during Stage Two reduced to 12 yards on Mythic difficulty (was 15 yards).
Banshee’s Fury unavoidable damage reduced by 15% on Mythic difficulty.
Ranger’s Heartseeker, Banshee’s Heartseeker, and Banshee’s Blades damage reduced by 8% on Mythic difficulty.
Resolved an issue which could cause Ruin to unintentionally fail to inflict damage.

Blizzard Entertainment – (Source)

September 20, 2021

Achievements

The 9.1 world achievements On the Office and Breaking the Chains are now properly account-wide. Completing Breaking the Chains should properly award the Hand of Salaranga mount.

Dungeons and Raids

Sanctum of Domination
- Painsmith Raznal
  - [With realm restarts] Reduced the distance between floor spike gaps during Stage Two on Mythic difficulty.
    - Developers’ note: The distance between safe locations should now be more consistent with this change.
  - [With realm restarts] Shadowsteel Chains periodic damage reduced by 15% on Mythic difficulty.
- Fatescribe Roh-Kalo
  - [With realm restarts] Updated the rune locations to be more consistent with clockwise rotations and slightly less demanding with counterclockwise rotations on Normal and Heroic difficulties.
  - [With realm restarts] Players now have an additional 10 seconds on Raid Finder difficulty, 10 seconds on Normal difficulty, and 5 seconds on Heroic difficulty to realign their fate.
- Kel’Thuzad
  - [With realm restarts] Kel’Thuzad health reduced by 5% on Mythic difficulty.
  - [With realm restarts] Remnant of Kel’Thuzad health reduced by 20% on Mythic difficulty.
  - [With realm restarts] Unstoppable Abomination health reduced by 20% on Mythic difficulty.
  - [With realm restarts] Soul Reaver health reduced by 20% on Mythic difficulty.
  - [With realm restarts] Frozen Destruction’s initial damage reduced by 40% on Mythic difficulty.
  - [With realm restarts] Frozen Destruction’s damage over time effect reduced by 10% and the duration reduced to 8 seconds (was 10 seconds) on Mythic difficulty.
  - [With realm restarts] Fixed an issue where Kel’Thuzad would cast abilities during Howling Blizzard on Mythic difficulty.
  - [With realm restarts] Howling Blizzard now inflicts stacking damage over the duration of the channel on Mythic difficulty.
    - Developers’ note: As we saw the community strategies for defeating Kel’Thuzad on Mythic difficulty settle on a preferred approach that involved long stretches of time stalling, waiting for cooldowns to come back up, we started exploring ways of changing the encounter so that this no longer felt required. Players have been clear from the outset that this was frustrating and tedious gameplay, or lack thereof. But we also wanted to be careful to avoid increasing the difficulty of the encounter or introducing other issues and force guilds to re-learn the encounter. We internally tested a few different approaches, including just bypassing the waiting period by resetting cooldowns like we would at the start of an encounter (a portion of which was recently seen on the 9.1.5 Public Test Realm), but testing indicated that this benefited some specs much more than others, and caused worry that groups reaching the encounter now would feel pressure to stack those specs for an easier time. The changes we’ve settled on aim at making it impossible to stall indefinitely, while reducing the difficulty of key elements of the encounter to make it no longer feel required.
- Sylvanas Windrunner
  - [With realm restarts] Domination Arrows health reduced by 15% on Mythic difficulty.
  - [With realm restarts] Dark Sentinels health reduced by 15% on Mythic difficulty.
  - [With realm restarts] Curse of Lethargy base duration reduced to 4 seconds on Mythic difficulty (was 6 seconds).
  - [With realm restarts] Decrepit Orb Detonation damage reduced by 10% on Mythic difficulty.
  - [With realm restarts] Veil of Darkness radius during Stage Two reduced to 12 yards on Mythic difficulty (was 15 yards).
  - [With realm restarts] Banshee’s Fury unavoidable damage reduced by 15% on Mythic difficulty.
  - [With realm restarts] Ranger’s Heartseeker, Banshee’s Heartseeker, and Banshee’s Blades damage reduced by 8% on Mythic difficulty.
  - Resolved an issue which could cause Ruin to unintentionally fail to inflict damage.
The Necrotic Wake
- Surgeon Stitchflesh
  - [With realm restarts] Fixed an issue that caused the first Stitchflesh’s Creation to not increase its applications of Festering Rot.
  - [With realm restarts] Fixed an issue that sometimes caused two Stitchflesh’s Creations to be summoned in quick succession.