Vanilla's CUT Content + Mounts REVOKED + Spark Chaos + WoW News
Segments
Episode Topic 1
Content Blizzard Cut From Vanilla Is Coming to Classic Plus
There's a video making the rounds arguing that content Blizzard cut from Vanilla is turning up in Classic Plus, and the community is reading it as a tell for what the whole thing is going to be.
- The pitch is that this isn't a fresh sandbox, it's the 1–60 world we already know with the stuff that never made it in getting put back. And the read a lot of people are landing on is that Classic Plus keeps the friction on purpose — the slow mounts, the long walks, the attunements, all the things that made getting anywhere feel like an actual trip. That friction is the whole reason Classic plays the way it does, and the expectation here is that they're not sanding it off.
- The precedent everybody points at is Season of Discovery, where they took dungeons and rebuilt them as raids — Blackfathom Deeps with the murloc boss doing March of the Murlocs, the Scarlet Monastery raid — and it worked. So the theory is they keep stacking content on top of the Classic base without touching the systems underneath it. No retail power creep, no dynamic flying, none of the modern quality-of-life stuff bolted on. Worth saying clearly: this is community reading of evidence, not an announcement.
On the table
- Do you actually want the friction back, or is that something we remember more fondly than we'd enjoy playing right now?
- If they do keep stacking content on top without touching the systems, how long does that hold up before people start asking for retail conveniences anyway?
YouTube — Content Blizzard Cut From Vanilla Is Coming to Classic +
Episode Topic 2
Tettles Interview With the Encounter Designers
Tettles sat down with encounter designers Taylor Sanders and Andrew De Sousa on Friday to talk Venomous Abyss and Mythic+ Season 2 — and the honest answer on splits is that they've never liked them.
- They said outright that they've always viewed splits as somewhat problematic and that it's not really how they want you playing the game, but they also acknowledged it's been part of the high-end community for a long time now. What they're actually tracking is how far down the ladder it goes — how much of it is guilds genuinely needing to split versus a trickle-down psychological thing from watching the top teams do it. Season 1's split raids put more focus on that. On Resilient Keystones, same posture: they're watching how they function, no plans to change anything today.
- Other things worth pulling out:
- Flex Mythic isn't replacing Mythic: they still see real value in a fixed raid size because they know exactly what you've got and can design around it. Flex has a place, they're figuring out how much.
- The 12.1.5 raid is not a side raid: no spoilers given, but they made a point of saying Tidebound Grotto is a side raid and that one isn't.
- Why Season 1 Mythic+ popped: accessibility is their number one reason, plus the caster and interrupt changes, a solid dungeon pool — Pit of Saron was popular — and the class updates landing well.
- On reworking old dungeons: the goal is keeping the theme and soul of the original while everything else gets modernized, and batching PTR testing weeks has made feedback and changelogs a lot cleaner.
- Nerfs are planned for: they design expecting the post-RWF and post-Hall of Fame nerfs, and they don't expect that to change.
On the table
- "Splits aren't how we want you playing the game" — do you buy that as a real position when the reward structure still makes splitting worth it?
- They're saying the 12.1.5 raid isn't a side raid. What are we expecting there, and does that change how we pace ourselves through Season 2?
Source — Tettles Interview with Blizzard Encounter Designers (Wowhead)
Episode Topic 3
Week Zero Gearing: Sparks, Renown, and Hero Gear
The gap week turned into a mess over who could get how many Sparks, and Blizzard's fix is to hand everybody four next week.
- Spark of Tides is the new Season 2 Spark, and it's supposed to be one a week — most crafted items take two, two-handers take four. Every character could get two this week, but players found a third on some characters, because Midnight: World Tour is a one-time quest from the start of the expansion, so only characters that never did it back then could still turn it in. That's clearly not intended, and rather than claw anything back, Blizzard is raising the max to four Sparks next week at the August 18 reset so everyone lands on even ground. Practical upshot: a two-handed weapon is on the table next week, which may change what you were planning to craft.
- What's actually worth doing right now:
- Renown quest rewards reset and are now item level 279: Silvermoon Court at Rank 9 for the helm, Amani Tribe at Rank 9 for the neck, Hara'ti at Rank 8 for the belt, and The Singularity at Rank 7 for the trinket. Free head start on gearing. Worth noting the Crucible of Erratic Energies trinket from that last one just took a 15% critical strike cut in Friday's hotfixes.
- One piece of Hero track gear, item level 305, from Delves: the Vaults of Atal'Utek quest "A Toxic Tour" rewards a Trovehunter's Bounty. Do not use it early — it triggers on your first completed Delve, so hold it until you've unlocked Tier 8 and are about to run a Tier 8.
- The one we're not recommending: @xerwo pointed out that the last expansion's World Soul quest is still sitting in Dornogal and still pays out a Season 2 Spark of Tides. That's a leftover nobody was meant to still be pulling from, and it's a different thing from the World Tour oversight Blizzard is already evening out. We're mentioning it because it's out there, not because you should go do it.
On the table
- Blizzard's answer to a few people getting an extra Spark was to give everybody more rather than take anything away. Is that the right instinct, or does it just reward finding the gap?
- With four Sparks next week, are either of you actually going for the two-hander first, or spending them on two regular pieces?
Source — Three Sparks Available This Week for Some Characters (Wowhead) · Source — Blizzard Allowing All Players to Acquire 4 Sparks Next Week (Wowhead) · Source — Renown Quest Rewards Reset and Now Item Level 279 (Wowhead) · Source — How to Acquire One Piece of Hero Gear This Week (Wowhead) · @xerwo on X — "Blizzard forgot to remove the last expacs World Soul quest if you need another spark"
Episode Topic 4
Bonus Rolls Reshuffled, Then Trimmed
Bonus rolls don't even unlock until August 25, and they've already had their loot tables changed once and some extras quietly removed.
- A hotfix changed who's eligible for a couple of Venomous Abyss drops, and both of them come off the second-to-last boss at Myth 344 on Mythic. Zul'jin's Guillotine Technique, the trinket, was DPS-only and has now been added to the loot table for all six tank specs — it looks strong for Protection Warriors and Protection Paladins specifically, less so for the others. And Maze-roa, Warlord's Fury, the two-handed axe, has been added for Survival Hunters. If you've been building a bonus roll priority list, or your guild has been sorting out loot rules around one, those odds have moved and it's worth another look before the 25th.
- Separately, and less fun: Friday's hotfixes removed extra bonus rolls people were sitting on. Void-Twisted Sporbits no longer grant Nebulous Voidcores, and any Voidcores obtained that way after the end of Season 1 have been taken back out for Season 2. So if you'd banked a stack expecting to open the season with a pile of rolls, that's gone.
On the table
- Opening up that trinket to every tank spec when it's really only great for two of them — does that help, or does it just dilute the table for the tanks who don't want it?
- Did either of you have Voidcores banked from Sporbits? How much does losing those actually change your first couple of weeks?
Source — Bonus Roll Loot Table Changes in The Venomous Abyss Raid (Wowhead) · Source — Extra Bonus Rolls Removed, August 14th Hotfixes (Wowhead)
Episode Topic 5
Season 2 Tier Lists, and the Hotfixes Underneath Them
The Season 2 tier lists are up for every role in both raid and Mythic+, and two rounds of hotfixes just moved a lot of the trinkets sitting underneath them.
- The lists rank specs on survivability, utility, and performance, S down through F, with the caveat that raid and Mythic+ are genuinely different problems — a raid group has all the buffs covered, a five-man doesn't, so a spec's value swings depending on who else is in the group. That's the interesting part this season: Bloodlust is called the most contested piece of utility in Mythic+, full stop, and Arcane Intellect is the second buff likely to shape comps, so there's real potential for meta groups to form around who's bringing what. Arcane Mage lands right at the top alongside Arms Warrior.
- Hotfix highlights that matter to those rankings:
- Trinket tuning went out Friday and it's a long list. Kyrakka's Searing Embers got healing up 80% and damage up 50%; Gebbo's Bottomless Bag lost 29% of its secondary stat effects; Gaze of the Alnseer lost 20% primary stat; Knot of Writhing Serpents gained 15% damage and no longer drops for healing specs at all.
- Warrior fix worth knowing: Slayer's Executioner was doing double its intended effect and has been corrected.
- Thursday's hotfixes opened up dungeon access: players who haven't finished the precursor campaign quests can now be summoned into the Vaults of Atal'Utek by Altar of Fangs groups.
- But they also locked something down: the Curse of Ula'tek campaign now properly requires finishing the main Midnight campaign on one character per account first. If you'd already started it, you're fine and can carry on.
On the table
- Tier lists this early in a season — genuinely useful for planning, or do we all just end up rerolling off them and regretting it three weeks in?
- If Bloodlust and Arcane Intellect really do shape comps this season, does that change who we're slotting into our own key groups?
Source — DPS, Healer, and Tank Tier Lists for Midnight Season 2 (Wowhead) · Source — Patch 12.1 Hotfixes for August 13th (Wowhead) · Source — August 14th Hotfixes: Bugs and Trinket Tuning (Wowhead)
Episode Topic 7
Coiled Isle Cosmetics: Tokka's Crew and Two Transformations
Captain Tokka's new friendship reputation hides a real mount grind behind a fishing pole, and there are two transformation toys out there worth going out of your way for.
- The Tokka's Crew storyline opens up after you finish the Original Sin campaign, and running dailies, the Open Sea Fishing world event, and killing Master Grenadier Birdie when he spawns fills out the reputation. Max it and you can buy The Coiled Huntress fishing pole from Second Mate Sluggs. That rod is the actual key to the mount — equipped on the Coiled Isle it gives you Coiled Blessing, which turns you into a Water Moccasin with underwater breathing and 150% swim speed, and it builds Venom stacks as you fish. Seasage Polo on Tokka's Folly cleanses those for one Coiled Filament per stack. You need 2,500 Coiled Filament for the Sea-Dwelling Isle Serpent, so this is a long one.
- Two toys, both of which stick through combat:
- Cursed Badge of the Soulcoilers: find every Lore Object on the Coiled Isle for the Student of Hissstory achievement and the toy comes with it. Turns you into a Child of Ula'tek in one of four colors, lasts an hour on a 10-minute cooldown, and does not break in combat — so you can run dungeons and raids as a snake.
- Saptor Salve is back: The Blinding Vale is in the seasonal rotation again, and the toy drops from the last boss, Ziekket, on Mythic. It persists through death, mounting, shapeshift and combat, and with a 10-minute cooldown on a one-hour buff you can basically stay a Saptor permanently.
- Timing note on that one: Mythic 0 is on a weekly lockout during launch week, so it's one attempt per character this week. Once Season 2 starts it moves to a daily lockout and you can actually farm it.
On the table
- A 2,500 currency mount grind gated behind first maxing a rep and then buying a fishing pole — reasonable long-tail goal, or too many layers?
- Transformation toys that don't break in combat are rare. Are either of you actually raiding as a snake, or does that get old by the second pull?
Source — The New Captain Tokka Friendship Reputation on the Coiled Isle (Wowhead) · Source — Turn into a Child of Ula'tek With This Transformation Toy (Wowhead) · Source — Saptor Salve Transformation Toy Now Available Again (Wowhead)
Episode Topic 8
Mounts and Pets: Two Found, One Taken Back
The secret finders cracked the first secret of Patch 12.1, a new mount got datamined with no source attached, and some players are having a mount pulled off their account entirely.
- The WoW Secret Finding & Collections Discord found Slitherfang inside the Altar of Fangs, and it takes a full group of five on Mythic to get it. After you clear to the first boss, one player picks up a Ritual Reagent from the interactables near the poison waterfalls by Rav'i and the other four take Reversal Charms. Then after the second boss there's an Ascendent Serpent surrounded by four poisonous totems — clear the trash but don't touch the totems, put your four charm players on them, put the reagent player at the serpent, and everybody gets a special action button. Reagent goes first, then the four charms. Credit to Bellzzar for working it out. One catch: the cleansed Slitherfang despawns after five people have clicked it, so nobody can hot-swap in for extras.
- The other two:
- Hearthkeeper's Wandering Caravan got datamined on live with its source listed as "In-Game Shop" — except it isn't on the shop, so we don't actually know how you get it yet.
- Mythic L'ura mounts are being removed. Players are reporting the mount pulled from their account with a mail saying rewards were connected to activity that violates in-game policy. Nobody knows the exact trigger — the suspicion is boosting communities or RMT, and notably some of the affected players say they paid in gold, not real money.
- For context: Blizzard banned boosting communities back in January 2022. Individuals and guilds trading gold for runs were always fine; organizations advertising across realms weren't. This looks like it could be going after buyers instead of sellers.
On the table
- If these removals really are hitting people who paid gold rather than real money, is that a fair line for Blizzard to draw?
- A five-person ritual with charms and totems for a hidden pet — do we go do this one, and does secret content like that survive being solved in 48 hours?
Source — Hidden Slitherfang Pet Found by WoW Secret Finders (Wowhead) · Source — New Hearthkeeper's Wandering Caravan Datamined (Wowhead) · Source — Blizzard Removing Mythic L'ura Mount from Players (Wowhead)
Episode Topic 9
Player Housing: Four New Endeavors and a Blueprints Forum
Four new Endeavors bring visitors into your neighborhood with their own vendors and decor, and one of them happens to solve the worst travel problem in the patch.
- The four, each with their own vendor and Community Coupon decor list:
- Amani Trolls — Knock-off Amani: Griftah and his traders turn up selling "traditional Amani goods" that are very obviously not. Available immediately with Curse of Ula'tek.
- Ohn'ahran Centaurs — Every Bakar Has Its Day: Roshai Lightstep, and the neighborhood pets get training tips.
- Kobolds — Candle Culture: Timicky. While it's active you get a portal straight to the Ringing Deeps.
- Tortollans — Vacation Season: Taifa. They've apparently been vacationing in your neighborhood since before you moved in.
- Most of the good stuff on each vendor is gated behind endeavor milestones, so it's a progressive unlock rather than a shopping trip.
- The one to actually pay attention to is Knock-off Amani, because it gives you a portal to the Coiled Isle right from your neighborhood. It's a long flight out there otherwise, and with Teleport to Plot on a fifteen-minute cooldown from the housing dashboard, that's a genuine travel shortcut this early in the patch. If your plot is way out from the neighborhood center you're better off using the neighborhood portal from your capital instead. There's supposed to be a second portal in Astalor's Sanctum after the Prey Season 2 intro, but that questline looks unavailable right now. And separately, the Housing Blueprints forum is live — its own forum, split off from the regular Housing one, for sharing layouts. Worth remembering exteriors and full builds are faction-specific while interiors are universal.
On the table
- Are either of you actually running Endeavors for the decor, or is this the kind of system you engage with once and then forget about?
- A whole forum for blueprints — do you think people share their good builds, or does everyone just quietly take?
Blizzard News — Undertake Four New Endeavors in Your Neighborhood! · Source — Amani Housing Endeavor Provides Portal to the Coiled Isle (Wowhead) · Source — Player Housing Blueprints Forum Now Live (Wowhead)
Episode Topic 10
Lady Liadrin's Weekly Went Missing, and Came Back Friday
The Lady Liadrin weekly never showed up on NA when 12.1 launched, then got pulled from EU too, and it wasn't fixed until Friday night.
- This one matters more than a missing quest usually would, because it's the gate on a four-week chain. The "Silvermoon City" warband campsite needs four Silvermoon Citizen's Emblems and you can only earn one a week from Liadrin's Unity Against the Void. Miss a week, the whole unlock slides a week. It also cost people one of their options for a Spark of Tides in a week where Sparks were already a sore subject. EU actually had the quest for a couple of days before it got disabled there as well.
- It's back on NA as of Friday night, but not quite the same — where players were getting four quest options to choose from, there's now just the one, the Vaults of Atal'Utek. It still grants the emblem and it still counts as a Spark option. So the chain is moving again, and it's a minimum of four weeks from here.
On the table
- Three days of a weekly missing on a four-week chain — does that warrant Blizzard extending anything, or is that just how patch week goes?
- Four quest options down to one. Do you care about the choice, or is the choice just noise on a weekly you're doing anyway?
Source — Lady Liadrin Weekly Quest Missing on NA Servers (and Now EU) (Wowhead) · Source — Lady Liadrin Quest Now Available on NA Servers (Wowhead)
Episode Topic 11
Blizzard Named Xbox's Top-Performing Studio, Plus a Sale
An internal email from Blizzard's president says the studio finished FY26 as the top performer in Xbox's studios division — which lands differently a month after the layoffs.
- Jez Corden at Windows Central got hold of an email sent to Blizzard employees from president Johanna Faries, saying Blizzard ended the year as the top-performing studio in Xbox's studios division and that it was the third-highest fiscal year for top-line revenue in Blizzard's history. The part worth sitting with: FY25 and FY26 are the first back-to-back growth years since FY17. Faries credited Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred and Overwatch, with Overwatch putting up its strongest quarter since 2022. Context for the timing — this comes about a month after Xbox announced 1,600 role eliminations, where Blizzard saw minimal reductions. The email also talks up BlizzCon on September 12th and 13th in Anaheim.
- And the Battle.net sale, if you need any of it:
- 40% off Midnight — Base, Heroic and Epic Editions, through September 13th.
- Up to 33% off game services — character transfers, faction changes, race changes, name changes, and the Enhanced Level 80 boost, through August 24th.
- 50% off Warcraft II: Remastered, 25% off Diablo II: Resurrected and the Diablo 4: Age of Hatred Collection, also through August 24th.
On the table
- Blizzard being the top-performing studio in the division a month after division-wide layoffs — does that make you feel better or worse about where WoW sits inside Microsoft?
- Two straight years of growth after eight without. What do you think actually turned that around, and is WoW carrying any of it?
Source — Windows Central Reports that Blizzard is Top Performing Xbox Studio (Wowhead) · Source — Get Up to 33% Off In-Game Services and 40% Off Midnight (Wowhead)
Episode notes
Welcome to the Last Attempt Guildcast. In this episode, Squirrelthug is joined again by guildmate Templrivanho. We dig into the community case that content Blizzard cut from Vanilla is turning up in Classic Plus — and why the slow mounts, long walks, and attunements everyone remembers might be the entire point rather than something to sand off. We also unpack a genuinely messy week for gearing, where a leftover Midnight: World Tour turn-in handed some characters a third Spark of Tides and Blizzard's fix was to give everybody four at the August 18 reset, the Season 2 tier lists landing right on top of two rounds of trinket hotfixes, and Mythic L'ura mounts being pulled off accounts for policy violations that appear to be catching players who paid in gold rather than real money. Plus the Tettles interview with the encounter designers, bonus rolls getting reshuffled and then quietly trimmed before they even unlock, the hidden Slitherfang pet the secret finders cracked, four new housing Endeavors — one of which drops a portal to the Coiled Isle in your neighborhood — and Blizzard closing FY26 as the top-performing studio in Xbox's division.
Topics:
• Vanilla's Cut Content in Classic Plus
• Mythic L'ura Mounts Revoked
• Spark Chaos & Week Zero Gearing
• Season 2 Tier Lists & Hotfixes
___
If you're looking for a Mythic team going into Midnight Season 1, we're
actively recruiting all roles. If you're a consistent raider who wants a focused-but-chill group that's still pushing, reach out.
Raid schedule:
Tuesday–Thursday, 9:00–11:30 PM Pacific
Make sure to follow our Guest-Host Templrivanho at his twitch stream
You can follow me, Squirrelthug on twitch as well. I try and fail to make a habit of streaming our raid nights, schedule above.
https://www.twitch.tv/squirrelthug_
Join the guild / apply:
Discord + application link: https://discord.gg/7hrBH5G7Hf
Blizzard Community Link:
https://www.worldofwarcraft.com/invite/5pRrZnqfXMl?region=US&faction=Horde
In-Game Community Code:
5pRrZnqfXMl