Summary
- World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Classic new content update, Rage of the Firelands, brings the Firelands raid, Protocol Inferno Dungeons, and High-Resolution Textures.
- The Firelands raid opens on November 7 with two modes offering gear rewards, while the new Elemental Rune Dungeons add a challenging mode with new currency.
- A new High-Resolution Textures graphics option lets players enhance the visuals of most game textures.
World of Warcraft has officially revealed the patch notes for Cataclysm Classic’s Rage of the Firelands update. The penultimate patch of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Classic is live in the game right now, with the iconic Firelands raid opening up on November 7.
Since it began on May 20, World of Warcraft has been speeding through Cataclysm Classic. It initially planned to release the final patch of the expansion seven months after Deathwing’s return to Classic, but World of Warcraft recently confirmed the update would be delayed by a short while.
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Now, the second-to-last content update for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Classic is now live, bringing with it a list of announcements, tweaks, and quality-of-life updates to the retro expansion. One of the most notable new features is the Protocol Inferno Elemental Rune Dungeon, which is an optional high-difficulty mode for most WoW: Cataclysm Classic Heroic dungeons. If all players in a group activate this mode, creatures within the instance will receive a powerful buff called Fury of the Firelord, but bosses will drop extra Fissure Stone Fragments, a new currency used to purchase Tier 11 gear, trinkets, and mounts. Protocol Inferno Dungeons also have a number of new achievements players can earn only while the challenge mode is active.
The 10 and 25-player versions of the Firelands raid open up in WoW: Cataclysm Classic on November 7, each featuring a Normal and Heroic mode. While combating Ragnaros and his minions, Druids, Mages, Priests, Shamans, and Warlocks will be able to begin the questline to obtain Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa’s Rest, a powerful Legendary staff with a unique flying mount attached to it. Fans should be able to obtain this weapon much faster in Cataclysm Classic than in the original run of the expansion.
The Classic expansion is also getting a brand-new graphics setting called High-Resolution Textures. This toggle enhances the visual fidelity of most game textures, but keeps the original World of Warcraft Classic models in place. Players can use this optional setting by selecting Get HD Textures on the character select screen, though they can be deactivated in the Options menu after they are installed.
Hour of Twilight will likely hit Cataclysm Classic in February or March, calling into question what is next for the retro servers. However, World of Warcraft fans recently discovered some Sha-corrupted mounts that could be associated with a theoretical Mists of Pandaria Classic. If an expansion announcement is imminent, it may happen at the inaugural Warcraft Direct planned for November 13.
WoW: Cataclysm Classic Rage of the Firelands Patch Notes
New Raid: Firelands
The Firelands raid will become available on Thursday, November 7 at 3:00 p.m. PST. Firelands is a 10- or 25-player, 7 boss raid, and has two difficulty modes – Normal and Heroic – rewarding items for iLvl 378 and 391 gear, respectively.
- Developers’ notes: Firelands is an iconic raid, but it went through several rounds of changes by the end of original Cataclysm, which significantly impacted its challenge. We have done a top-to-bottom pass and reverted many of these adjustments, to restore the "feel" of the original state of the raid and allow it to live up to its iconic status. Still, we will monitor player performance and progression in the raid and, if needed, may make additional adjustments if necessary.
PvP Season 10 Has Begun
Engage in an all new PvP season. 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.
Elemental Rune Dungeons: Protocol Inferno
Elemental Rune Dungeons are a new optional game mode, which can be activated in most Cataclysm Classic heroic dungeons by interacting with the Mysterious Elemental Device near each dungeon’s entrance and selecting “Activate Protocol Inferno”. This mode is not available in Zul’Aman or Zul’Gurub.
- Upon activating Protocol Inferno, a floating element will appear and all 5 players in the group will need to channel it.
- Elemental Rune Protocol Inferno dungeons can also be queued for by using the automated Group Finder tool, and require a minimum item level of 346 to queue for.
- Activating Protocol Inferno will grant creatures in the dungeon the “Fury of the Firelord” buff, increasing their health and damage.
- Each boss in Protocol Inferno dungeons will drop 2x of a new currency, Fissure Stone Fragments, per player. If players have defeated all of the other bosses in the dungeon, the final boss of each dungeon will drop an extra 3 Fissure Stone Fragments.
- This currency can be used to purchase many items, such as tokens for Tier 11 gear, trinkets, and mounts, from the new NPC, Kyanite Stonetender, in Stormwind and Orgrimmar.
- The Protocol Inferno difficulty also brings with it new Achievements to earn.
- Currency updates:
- Fissure Stones will now be able to purchase Valor at a conversion rate of 1:10.
- Fissure Stones will now cap at 160, allowing players to bank up to a week’s worth of Valor, if desired.
New Baradin Hold Boss: Occu’thar
A second boss, Occu’thar, will be available in Baradin Hold with each region’s weekly content reset starting November 12.
Occu’thar has the chance to drop iLvl 378 and 384 gear.
As with the first boss, Argaloth, players can raid both the 10-player and 25-player version of Occu’thar on separate lockouts, allowing both versions to be run in the same week.
High-Resolution Textures
The Rage of the Firelands update includes a way for players to turn on High-Resolution Textures as an option, providing enhanced visual fidelity to many textures in the game. This allows for a revitalized world while preserving its classic aesthetics.
- To enable High-Resolution Textures, select the “Get HD Textures” button on the character select screen. That will send you to the Battle.net App, and open the installation window with a new “High-Resolution Assets” checkbox.
- To disable High-Resolution Textures, open the Options Menu, select “Graphics” and set “High Definition Textures” to “Disabled”.
Elemental Bonds Questline
This questline begins in Nordrassil Summit in Mount Hyjal, and will earn players an iLvl 365 back item.
Legendary Item: Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa’s Rest
Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa’s Rest is an iLvl 397 Legendary Item thatcan be earned by completing the acquisition questline. Players begin by slaying a Molten Lord in the Firelands Raid or completing all of the bosses in the previous raid tier. Druids, Mages, Priests, Shaman, and Warlocks are all eligible for this questline.
- Developers’ notes: To account for Cataclysm Classic’s increased content cadence, we have sped up the average rate of acquisition of this Legendary Item. Players will be able to craft their first, and subsequent, Dragonwraths faster than in the original Cataclysm.
Bosses
- Hexlord Malacrass will no longer cast Leap of Faith if there's a priest in the group.
Guilds
- Guild Events and Guild Finder have been added to the Guilds UI.
Transmogrification Outfit System
- The option to save preselected transmog configurations has been added to the Transmogrify Window.
World of Warcraft
- Released
- November 23, 2004
- ESRB
- T for Teen: Blood and Gore, Crude Humor, Mild Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol, Violence (online interactions not rated)
- Developer(s)
- Blizzard
- Publisher(s)
- Blizzard
- Engine
- Unreal Engine
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer
- Cross-Platform Play
- pc, ps
- Cross Save
- yes
WHERE TO PLAY
World of Warcraft is an incredibly successful MMORPG that has been going strong for almost two decades. It's one of the highest-grossing franchises in history and is widely considered the most popular MMORPG ever made.
