A new feature for the game’s group of challenge seekers is the WoW Shadowlands Fated affixes. Once upon a time, having only Normal and Heroic modes in the most well-known MMORPG in gaming was sufficient. The masochists in raiding guilds all over the world were still unsatisfied even after Mythic was later added. Thus, the Fated Raid concept was introduced with the release of Shadowlands Season 4. The health and damage of foes and bosses are upgraded, and each boss has a unique ability known as an affix that significantly raises its difficulty. Each week, one of the expansion’s four raids transforms into a Fated raid.
Vigilant Guardian, Lihuvim, and Jailer all gain Creation Spark. This ability inflicts a DoT that, when removed, dumps a buff on nearby players which increases their casting, attack speed, cooldown recharge, tick rate and movement speed by a significant amount. There are a couple of downsides, however. If no player is nearby when the DoT is removed, the player explodes for massive damage. Although the buff is seemingly beneficial, for bosses like The Jailer which require precise movement and positioning the speed increase will only make things harder; and needing to deal with another spell to coordinate soaking in already complex encounters is certainly a challenge.
Skolex, Prototype Pantheon, and Anduin all gain Reconfiguration Emitter. This ability creates an enemy which inflicts massive damage on the entire party, and is immune to damage either until its spell is interrupted or it casts once. The longer it stays active, the more damage it does, and when interrupted it deals a smaller amount of damage to all players. On the upside, when defeated it grants a buff to mastery, critical strike, versatility and avoidance, which scales according to how long its been active. For the bosses that already include interrupts in their sequences, like Prototype and Anduin, this is going to be painful.
Xy’mox, Dausagne, and Lords of Dread all gain Protoform Barrier. This ability creates two NPCs, one attackable, one healable, and doing so reduces their shared shield. If the barrier expires before it’s broken, it deals huge damage. If broken, it deals huge damage to the boss, and buffs all players with increased damage, healing, total health and increased absorbs. This is probably the least problematic of the four, as all it adds is an extra DPS/Healing challenge that ultimately pays off once cleared.
Finally, Halondrus and Rygelon both gain Chaotic Essence. This ability summons an essence which inflicts a small amount of raid-wide damage. When interacted with, the essence starts creating Chaotic Motes, which deal damage and split into more motes when killed. After 15 seconds, the essence disappears, and grants all players increased damage, healing, and absorbs, scaling based on how many Motes were killed. Aside from adding some additional damage to the encounter, this one shouldn’t be too tough to deal with.
For more of the latest on WoW Shadowlands, check out our article on Blizzard’s new harsher stance on WoW boosting. If you’d rather wax lyrical over what could be, read about one community member’s WoW Warlock pet makeovers.