A WoW Shadowlands hotfix is a dime a dozen dropping every week, and most of the time they’re fairly minor. A bugfix here, a minor adjustment to a class ability there. On the rare occasion the venerable MMORPG receives a meatier update, however, it’s usually in response to content receiving a severe spike in difficulty, or a bunch of game-breaking exploits being discovered.
In this case it’s a result of Return to Karazhan: Upper/Lower, a pair of dungeons from the Legion expansion, making their return as Season 4 Mythic+ dungeons. The WoW devs note that they generally want “to give players a chance to relearn the mechanics before making large nerfs”, but that Lower Karazhan in particular “continues to stand out as an outlier in difficulty”. Let’s go through the changes.
In Return to Karazhan: Lower, some Skeletal Ushers have been removed, and others relocated to account for their removal. Lots of NPCs have had abilities nerfed or removed, including Spectral Valets, Coldmist Widows, Phantom Guardsmen, Forlorn Spirits, Ghostly Chefs, and Ghostly Bakers. In addition, Arcane Wardens and Skeletal Ushers now contribute more credit to the Enemy Forces tracker. In the Opera Hall, Gang Ruffians have eaten damage and ability nerfs, as has Toe Knee and Mrrgria. The boss Moroes has his Garrote damage reduced, and Attumen the Huntsman no longer casts Mounted Strike if his target is out of range. Finally, Maiden of Virtue has had her Sacred Ground damage and Holy Bulwark absorb capabilities nerfed.
The changes to Return to Karazhan: Upper are less drastic. Forlorn Spirits and Rats will no longer cast Shadow Rend and Poison Fang respectively when their current target is out of range, and Chess pieces will no longer bug out and start regenerating health during combat. The boss The Curator has been tweaked so that the Power Discharge ability has a clearer visual effect, and is thus easier to avoid.
You can check out the full patch notes on the Blizzard blog post. If you’re eager to jump into the newly nerfed Return to Karazhan, you can find out how to grab WoW Shadowlands for free. If you’re already on the bandwagon, improve your Mythic+ experience with the best WoW addons of 2022, with improvements to UI, boss tactics, and more.