Maintenance update for August 17, 2026, covering everything since the last patch on July 29. Roughly 150 changes went in over those three weeks, with Ulduar taking the largest share by far — Yogg-Saron, Freya, Mimiron, Hodir and Thorim all had significant work. Crafting cooldowns are gone, several server crashes are fixed, and bot movement got another pass.

Ulduar

Yogg-Saron — Death Ray reworked, and Sara no longer opens phase two with Malady, Brain Link and Death Ray all at once. The brain room Influence Tentacle sets are complete, Constrictor Tentacles no longer grab players below the platform, and immunities now free you from them properly. Yogg’s health syncs correctly to the brain after an incomplete portal phase, and Shadow Nova no longer double-hits Sara.
Freya — The trio revive was rebuilt, the next wave now spawns five seconds after the adds die, and only later spawns can speed up the following wave. Hard mode intro restored, Lifebinder’s Gift now summons correctly, Attuned to Nature stacks are removed properly, and Storm Lasher spawn visuals were added.
Mimiron — Spinning Up cadence, arc anchoring and facing all reworked. Magnetic core summon location and pulse behaviour corrected, proximity mines now despawn on a wipe, the Aerial Command Unit holds position at Plasma Ball, and Laser Barrage is driven from the correct target.
Hodir — Icicles no longer destroy his Toasty Fires, Flash Freeze snowdrifts use proper icicle targeting, and the hard mode timer now runs off the Shatter Chest aura. His helpers spawn in the right places, and his mages no longer starve their own spell schedule.
Thorim — Sif is summoned during the intro rather than sitting pre-spawned, the Clash of Thunder mock fight is back, gauntlet immunity staging is corrected, and Thorim now despawns on evade.
General Vezax — Shadow Crash can target melee, the saronite barrier fade emote is in, and Clear Demonic Circle is cast on engage.
XT-002 Deconstructor — Void Zones deal damage again.
Kologarn — Now despawns on evade and stops closing the Shattered Walkway Door behind you.
Trash — Iron Ring Guards and Iron Honor Guards are attackable again, and Iron Rune Construct patrol routes were corrected.

Raids & Dungeons

Icecrown Citadel — Blood Quickening credit now scales with raid size, and the Crimson Hall door and darkfallen pack pull work as they should.
Naxxramas — Fixed a Gluth crash, and Gluth can no longer be held in combat by a stray add. Stalagg and Feugen feign death instead of dying outright, and dying to a Poison Cloud while out of combat no longer fails Immortal.
Halls of Stone — Tribunal of Ages rewritten.
Obsidian Sanctum — Lava Strike corrected.
Azjol-Nerub — Web Wraps are now immune to knockback.
Utgarde Catacombs — Val’kyr pathing added.
The Nexus — Saragosa’s entrance is scripted and the duplicate removed; Scalesworn Elites in Coldarra corrected.

Classes & Spells

Warrior — Sweeping Strikes no longer crashes the server when it lands on Execute.
Rogue — Savage Combat now procs from Wound Poison.
Mage — Teleport: Stormwind drops you facing the right way.
Channelling — Channelled casts hold their state correctly again, and abilities that are allowed to fire mid-channel are gated properly.
Hunters & Warlocks — New pets no longer inherit spells from a recycled pet slot.
Area-effect spells now measure their radius from the centre of the target area.

Professions & Rewards

Crafting cooldowns removed — The long daily cooldowns on crafting recipes are gone. Transmutes and cloth cooldowns no longer gate your crafting.
The Dalaran Jewelcrafter’s Token daily now rewards 5 tokens.
Thunderlord Clan Artifact drop chance raised to 10%.
The repeatable Waterlogged Recipe can drop from Bags of Fishing Treasures again.
Flesh Giant Spine now drops during Neutralizing the Plague.

Quests & World

Credit on low-health spawns — Kill credit, loot and experience are no longer lost on creatures that spawn below half health.
World events — Call to Arms and What the Cold Wind Brings are implemented.
Starting zones — Classic-tier experience restored in the starter island ocean zones.
Vehicles — Passengers can attack the vehicle carrying them, and escort vehicles no longer trail you after evading.
Eranikus no longer gets stuck during The Nightmare Manifests, and the Heart of the Mountain spawns in Blackrock Depths again.
Several quests no longer demand player damage for credit, including The Earthen Oath and a number of minion objectives.
Broken prerequisite chains corrected across Death’s Gaze, Just Checkin’, News from the East and Rifle the Bodies.
Rewrites and scripting passes for Get Me Outa Here!, Leading the Ancestors Home, A Special Surprise, Trail of Fire, Scarlet Courier, Rivenwood Captives, Nerub’ar Victims and Finding the Phylactery.
Zone polish across Borean Tundra, Howling Fjord, Icecrown, Dragonblight and the Avalanche, including Steeljaw’s Caravan, Plains of Nasam, the Horde siege tank, and the Beached Orca at Winterfin Retreat.

Bots

Slope handling — Another pass on terrain. Slope checks now use a sliding window and only test uphill, with a higher threshold so small bumps are ignored. Bots move over uneven ground far more naturally.
Bots will engage neutral and passive mobs again.
Bots no longer materialise on top of players, and no longer clear neutral NPCs on arrival.
Oculus drake and vehicle dismount handling restored.

Stability & Accounts

Crash fixes — Gluth, Sweeping Strikes on Execute, area-target checks against non-unit targets, and a crash during server shutdown.
Invalid character spell entries are cleaned up automatically on login, and action bar and skill saves are now safe to repeat.
Changing a GM level no longer wipes access on the wrong realm.
Two-factor setup now spells out the authenticator settings, and an empty realm list explains the likely causes.
Creature spawn pools track their state per map and work correctly inside instances.

As always, report anything that looks wrong on the Bug Tracker or come tell us on Discord. See you in Northrend.

Maintenance Notes — August 17, 2026