Why was World of Warcraft downtime extended today (March 11)? Possibilities explored

Modified Mar 11, 2025 15:24 IST

WoW downtime — World of Warcraft has extended scheduled downtime today - what could be the reason? (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

World of Warcraft is going to have its downtime extended today by just an hour or so, which isn’t all that unusual. WoW players have come to expect downtime approximately when Tuesday rolls around. Typically, this is where the developers perform maintenance activities, and update things, or simply when the servers must be reset. The good news for players is that this is when raids and world encounters are reset.

You might be lucky enough to see Invincible finally drop in ICC 25 Heroic. We don’t have any concrete news on why the servers will have an extended downtime in World of Warcraft, but we have a theory or two. Here’s how long they’ll be down and perhaps why.

What could be the reason for World of Warcraft’s extended downtime today?

World of Warcraft will have extended maintenance today, March 11, 2025. The WoW servers will be down from 7 am PST until approximately 9 am PST, giving the game a two-hour downtime instead of the typical 15 minutes to one hour. Occasionally the servers are only down for a small duration of time, but an hour is pretty standard.

It could be the Brann nerfs, or simply getting ready for more raid content (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

While this likely has nothing to do with the raid guild who cheated to defeat Mythic Gallywix not once, but twice, it does perhaps have something to do with Brann Bronzebeard. The developers (and players) have noticed that the tank version of Brann Bronzebeard, who is available as your companion in Delves, is just a bit stronger than normal. He was incredibly overpowered, leading to several nerfs coming today.

World of Warcraft players likely used this incredibly strong form to make getting through Delves significantly easier in Season 2, and it might have helped people get through some of their Season Objectives much faster. After we saw the lengthy changes, which are listed below, this could very well be the reason for the extended downtime:

Electro-Charged Gadgets damage buff now grants 30% increased damage per stack (was 25%).
Electro-Charged Gadgets damage buff will no longer stack with DPS and Tank specialization heal over time or passive off healing effects.
Electro-Charged Gadgets damage buff now has a 5 second Heal over Time/Passive healing internal cooldown for Healer specializations. Does not affect beneficial spell casts that are not heal over time or passive.
Electro-Charged Gadgets damage buff now stacks up to 12 times (was 20).
Tank Brann Boomstick Blitz damage reduced by 35%.
Tank Brann Boomstick Blitz deals reduced damage beyond 8 targets.
Tank Brann Electro-Charged Pistol damage reduced by 35%
Tank Brann Pistol Shot reduced by 15%.
Tank Brann receives 60% increased damage.
Tank Brann maximum health has been reduced by 20%.
Bronzebeard’s Brown Bear melee auto attack damage has been reduced by 80%
Bronzebeard’s Brown Bear second stomp damage reduced by 25%
Bronzebeard’s Brown Bear third stomp damage reduced by 35%.
Bronzebeard’s Brown Bear stomp damage deals reduced damage beyond 8 targets.
Pinged Augment Chip now grants 4%/6%/8%/10% maximum health concerning its rank.
Pinged Augment Chip now causes Brann to lose all threat if the bot hits him.
Pinged Augment Chip fixate debuff will now have a large icon display.
An issue causing Brann to double dip on the benefits of Bronzebeard’s Brown Bear maximum health and dodge chance has been resolved.

These changes were made, according to Blizzard, to keep Tank Brann in line with Healer Brann and DPS Brann, who were lagging behind the tank form significantly. This could lead to further changes later; we’ll just have to see if further updates hit World of Warcraft after the extended downtime.

One other thing to keep in mind is that the second wing of Looking for Raid difficulty drops today, as does the Story Mode version of Liberation of Undermine. These could also be factors that cause the downtime for WoW to be extended by just a little bit.

However, if you were hoping to hop on immediately after the scheduled downtime in World of Warcraft, just know it’s been extended just a bit longer - unless something else happens to extend it.

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Edited by Aatreyee Aich