The War Within Hotfixes for January 22nd - Unholy DK & Mage Tower Tuning in Pre-Patch

Posted 2026/01/22 at 6:31 PM by Jaydaa

Hotfixes

January 22, 2026

Characters

The XP buff from the Warband Mentors: The War Within set of achievements should now be applying correctly on characters below level 80.
Corrected an issue that incorrectly enabled legacy content scaling for characters who were leveling up in Dragonflight.

Classes

Death Knight

Unholy

Developers’ notes: We’re looking into the throughput imbalance for Unholy Death Knight in the pre-expansion update. These changes will not impact 12.0.1, as Unholy received substantial updates between 12.0.0 and 12.0.1.
Rider of the Apocalypse Horsemen damage reduced by 50%.
Trollbane’s Icy Fury damage increased by 100%.
Lesser Ghoul Sweeping Claw main target damage reduced by 50%.
Lesser Ghoul melee damage reduced by 50%.
Pet Ghoul Sweeping Claw main target damage reduced by 50%.
Pet Ghoul melee damage reduced by 50%.
Death Coil damage reduced by 30%.
Scourge Strike damage reduced by 30%.
Infected Claws damage reduced by 50%.
Putrefy main target damage reduced by 30%.
Morbidity now increases the damage taken by 1% per disease on target (was 2%).
Raise Abomination Disease Cloud effect reduced to 10% (was 20%).
Epidemic damage increased by 25%.
Clawing Shadows chain damage penalty reduced to 15% (was 25%).

Mage

Frostbolt is now located in the Frost Mage section of the Spellbook for easier access.

Delves

Fixed a bug causing Brann’s experience bar to also mention Valeera.

Dungeons and Raids

Fixed a bug preventing some encounters from progressing through their stages correctly (e.g. the Neltharion encounter in Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible).
Resolved an issue causing some creatures in Nerub’ar Palace and Liberation of Undermine to have very low health.

Housing

Elegant Elven Barrel can now be added as decor.
Lightly Broken Fences found around the neighborhood can now be repaired.

Mage Tower

Developers’ notes: With the Midnight pre-expansion update now live, we’re adjusting enemy health in several Mage Tower challenges to bring them back toward their intended pacing and difficulty.
Closing the Eye

Enemy health increased by 20%.

An Impossible Foe

Enemy health increased by 20%.

The God-Queen’s Fury

Enemy health increased by 15%.

Feltotem’s Fall

Enemy health increased by 20% for all specializations except Discipline Priest, for which there is no adjustment.

Thwarting the Twins

Enemy health increased by 20%.

The Highlord’s Return

Enemy health increased by 15%.

Player versus Player

Adjusted the effectiveness of Training Grounds opponents.

Quests

The Campaign header should now appear for War Within campaigns.
Resolved issues with the quest “Distilled Darkness” causing the K’areshi Fragments to be uninteractible for some players.

Developers’ notes: If any issues are being encountered, please submit a bug report of what happened prior to the quest failing and identify which fragment is causing the issues (Northern, Southern, or both).

Transmogrification

Addressed an issue causing Midnight Special Edition transmog sets to not be usable at lower levels.

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Comment by kammo12I still can't get into Vault of the Incarnates story mode as a level 54Comment by Cooferthis game is just band-aid jenga at this pointComment by GuyKopskiPeople literally meme'd that Mage Tower would be a high priority fix because Blizzard hates fun and they proved us right lmaoComment by CaeruleWell, always good to see the number of ongoing problems disappear after these big patches.

I hope they get to the big neighborhood one that's kinda been ruining the patch for me so far. I promised my Horde guildies I'd start a Charter Neighborhood for their Alliance homes. But it's still not available due to bugs, and it's costing them housing XP. Kinda stressing me out. I hope it can get sorted before the weekend.

I'm sure they're trying what they can, at least. They've been doing a lot to improve lately, and I can acknowledge that. Guess I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed for now.Comment by PixelfoxOk, progress! Getting some of the breakage remedied at least.Comment by ThatfingguyThey should fix timewalking dungeon scaling to not feel like such a slog...Comment by CmonarobOh fixed a transmog issue with a particular set, but didn’t even acknowledge the glaring fact that after faction changing you permanently can’t transmog on that toon… cmon blizzard there’s so many bugs open for this.Comment by OgdrolExploit early exploit often

they should roll back the guys that got it prebuffComment by pghcrewThey got a mountain of class bugs to fix and they're really more worried about things being too easy or attainable in a 6-week long pre-patch.Comment by unknowny33Im kinda confused I just did bear mage tower a few hours back and it took about 3-4 mins. How was it exactly "free" or massively undertuned? Am I missing something? (It always took around that time)Comment by Gleemthis game is just band-aid jenga at this pointComment by AthomanPeople literally meme'd that Mage Tower would be a high priority fix because Blizzard hates fun and they proved us right lmaoComment by GleemOh fixed a transmog issue with a particular set, but didn’t even acknowledge the glaring fact that after faction changing you permanently can’t transmog on that toon… cmon blizzard there’s so many bugs open for this.Comment by CmonarobOh fixed a transmog issue with a particular set, but didn’t even acknowledge the glaring fact that after faction changing you permanently can’t transmog on that toon… cmon blizzard there’s so many bugs open for this.Comment by Miral007"These changes will not impact 12.0.1, as Unholy received substantial updates between 12.0.0 and 12.0.1."
What does this even mean? They're not going to be nerfed in 12.0.1? Going to be nerfed worse? Play completely differently?Comment by MarkElfThey should fix timewalking dungeon scaling to not feel like such a slog...Comment by Stormfire99People literally meme'd that Mage Tower would be a high priority fix because Blizzard hates fun and they proved us right lmaoComment by Stormfire99They got a mountain of class bugs to fix and they're really more worried about things being too easy or attainable in a 6-week long pre-patch.Comment by CooferPeople literally meme'd that Mage Tower would be a high priority fix because Blizzard hates fun and they proved us right lmaoComment by Winke125Still no LFR Gallywix -.-

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