WoW will be down for a 8-hour-long extended maintenance this week (Oct 22, 2024)

WoW players are going to have to deal with an extended maintenance period this week - a bit longer than usual, too. An 8-hour downtime is what is anticipated, though it’s worth pointing out that this could be longer, or shorter, depending on the developer's needs. In this case, there are three major facets leading up to this 8-hour downtime for Blizzard’s hit MMORPG.

First, there’s patch 11.0.5 going out, which would already need extended maintenance. Typically, this is around four hours. Then you add on the World of Warcraft 20th Anniversary Event, which is going to be around for several weeks. Then, at the end of this week, the Hallow’s End event kicks off, giving players a glut of activities.

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WoW will be down for extended maintenance this week (October 22, 2024)

WoW will be down for extended maintenance until all the new content's ready to go out (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

According to the Battle.net app, WoW will be down for extended maintenance today, October 22, 2024. This eight-hour extended maintenance is slated to begin at 7 am PST, and will end reportedly at 3 pm PST. Depending on internal factors, this could be increased, but Blizzard will notify fans through the Battle.net app, and likely on social media too, should this be the case.

There are quite a few activities that will kick off this week for World of Warcraft fans, such as the 11.0.5 patch. While it’s only adding a bit of balancing - notably improving the lives of Balance Druids - it’s also doing quite a lot for quality-of-life for the general populace. Dracthyr players, for example, get new classes to use, instead of being confined just to Evoker.

Changes were also made to unlocking cosmetics, whether through quest rewards, or the classic, vanilla tier sets - players will be able to unlock these regardless of what class they’re on, making the farming process much easier. Then there’s the massive 20th Anniversary Event. There’s so much going on for that.

You can unlock HD upscaled Tier 2 armor sets for all classes in WoW - even classes that didn’t exist during the Vanilla era. There’s a mountain of cosmetics to purchase with in-game currencies, at least three new and returning mounts, plenty of battle pets, toys, and more.

There’s even an updated Blackrock Depths Raid, with new rewards for players to unlock, and the Blizzard Service Reward cosmetics - in-game versions of the real-world physical items that Blizzard employees receive at career milestones. Thankfully, players will have plenty of time to take part in the event - it will be available from October 22, 2024, until January 6, 2024.

Finally, Hallow’s End begins this Friday (October 25, 2024), and is the last part likely to affect the WoW extended maintenance. The event is likely unchanged from last year’s event, except to possibly add Candy Buckets in Khaz Algar. There is a meta achievement that’s been found, as have the locations.

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