Back in July, we reported on a World of Warcraft Shadowlands bug that allowed Hunters to one-shot kill enemy players in the PvP sphere of Blizzard’s premier MMORPG. The bug was discovered by WoW YouTuber Rextroy, who is quite the wizard (pun intended) at finding glitches and exploits. Rextroy has once again struck gold with the discovery of a bug that allows Mages to one-shot even end-game raid bosses. Let’s run down the method.
The bug is built around the Mage spell, Spellsteal, which allows the user to steal a buff from the target, and the NPC buff Fungal Bloom, which increases damage done by 25% (the buff dates back to Battle for Azeroth, so it’s somewhat of a surprise that this exploit took so long to be fixed). The method is fairly simple in theory – stack a load of NPCs who have this buff, cause them to all trigger it at once, then Spellsteal it from all of them. Thankfully, it stacks separately, or otherwise this plan wouldn’t have worked. Once all the buffs are stolen, accept a teleport into the raid, hit the boss with whatever you like, and boom. Dead raid boss.
Unfortunately, stealing this many buffs within the 25 second buff window is easier said than done – cast speed was a concern, especially considering that Icy Veins can’t be taken, as the Mage has to be Arcane to reduce the mana cost of Spellsteal. To deal with this issue, Rextroy had a Priest apply the Power Infusion cooldown, which increases a target’s haste by 25% for 20 seconds. After spell stealing, Rextroy had 18 stacks, achieving a damage buff of more than 5000%.
Rextroy also tried spell stealing Combustion from another Mage, but exiting PvP combat was impossible. An item which would have allowed him to do this, the Precious Bloodthorn Loop, had its 10% self-damaging effect buffed as well, causing him to one-shot himself. Unsurprisingly, the exploit has already been reported and fixed, so if you were hoping to cheese your way to the top of the raiding charts, that opportunity has passed. However, you can check out Rextroy’s video.
For more of the latest coming to WoW, check out our WoW Dragonflight dungeons rundown. If you’re more interested in current affairs, find out about the new WoW Shadowlands patch 9.2.7 which has reintroduced the remote auction house.