WoW Patch 10.2.5 Hotfixes — January 18, 2024

Key Takeaways

• Frostscythe now correctly triggers Bonegrinder stacks, restoring the intended AoE burst window that the broken interaction was suppressing.
• Shaman's Ancestral Defense was inverting its own tooltip, increasing AoE damage taken instead of reducing it. The sign error is corrected.
• Mythic+ Afflicted Souls were flagged as players by the server, enabling unintended player-targeting spell interactions during in-progress keys.
• Darkheart Thicket's Corruption Pool aura no longer lingers after the pool clears; Primal Rampage no longer deals damage to pets.
• Bloody Tokens from Zaralek Caverns and Emerald Dream now count toward the Bloodstained Bounty, Blood Bank, and Prosperously Bloody achievements.
• Battle for Azeroth Pathfinder is no longer required for dragonriding in Kul Tiras and Zandalar, a permanent quality-of-life change for alts.

The January 18, 2024 hotfix pass covered class bugs, four Mythic+ dungeons, two PvP issues, and a notable travel change for alts.

Class Hotfixes

Blizzard's hotfix pass for Patch 10.2.5 (Seeds of Renewal) on January 18, 2024 addressed class-level bugs affecting Frost Death Knight and Shaman.

Death Knight — Frost

Frostscythe was failing to interact with the Bonegrinder talent. The official text: "Frostscythe now works with Bonegrinder talent." For AoE Frost DK in Mythic+, Bonegrinder stacks are supposed to amplify the next Frostscythe hit; the bug suppressed that bonus entirely, reducing the talent's value in multi-target situations.

Two additional fixes shipped alongside it. Killing Machine with Fatal Fixation was displaying incorrect stack counts in the spell-alert frame. Glacial Advance had an audio issue where its cast sound was not reliably playing.

✏️ Frost DK note: If AoE damage was underperforming a simcraft target during this period, the untracked Bonegrinder stacks were likely part of the gap. The January 18 fix restored the talent to its designed state.

Shaman

The Ancestral Defense talent contained a sign error: rather than reducing AoE damage taken, it was increasing it. Shamans using Ancestral Defense for survivability in cleave-heavy content were taking more damage than counterparts who had skipped the talent. The fix restores the stated tooltip reduction.

Mythic+ Dungeon Hotfixes

Four Mythic+ dungeons received targeted fixes in this pass. Three were in the active Season 3 rotation. Players looking to run current keys can explore Mythic+ dungeon services for the live Season 1 pool.

Afflicted Souls

In Mythic+ difficulties, Afflicted Souls were being classified by the server as players rather than non-player units. That classification allowed player-targeting abilities to affect them in unintended ways, altering encounter pacing on timed keys. The fix reclassifies them correctly.

Darkheart Thicket

Inside Darkheart Thicket, the Corruption Pool debuff persisted on players after they left the affected area, dealing ongoing damage outside the intended encounter window. Blizzard corrected the persistence. A second fix stopped Archdruid Glaidalis's Primal Rampage from dealing damage to pets.

Dawn of the Infinite: Galakrond's Fall

In Dawn of the Infinite: Galakrond's Fall, the ground-targeting circle for Eon Shatter on the Chronikar encounter was sometimes failing to render entirely. Players took positional damage from an attack with no visible indicator. The fix makes the targeting circle appear consistently.

Waycrest Manor

In Waycrest Manor, an aura from one of the Heartsbane Triad sisters persisted on players after they lost the iris. The lingering debuff applied damage and effects beyond the intended window. The fix clears the aura correctly on iris loss.

With these fixes applied, the Season 3 rotation ran through the remainder of Patch 10.2.5 without further major dungeon bugs in these four encounters.

Player vs. Player Hotfixes

Two PvP bugs were corrected. Frigid Petals, a Preservation Evoker PvP talent, was not being cancelled when the Evoker entered a battleground. It carried over from open-world or arena play, providing a passive advantage that bypassed the battleground reset. The fix enforces the cancel-on-enter behavior.

Collecting Bloody Tokens in Zaralek Caverns and the Emerald Dream was not contributing to the Bloodstained Bounty, Blood Bank, or Prosperously Bloody achievements. All three track token acquisition across outdoor zones; the fix restores credit for tokens earned in both Dragonflight zones.

Quest and Travel Changes

Two quest bugs and one travel change rounded out the January 18 pass.

Players unable to pick up "A Little Hope is Never without Worth" needed to return to the grove in the Emerald Dream and wait for the plant growth phase to complete before the quest became available. The Blue Dragonflight questline "The Veiled Ossuary" had steps that failed to appear for affected characters; those steps now trigger correctly.

Battle for Azeroth Pathfinder is no longer required for dragonriding in Kul Tiras and Zandalar. Previously, alts without the BfA flying achievement were locked out of dragonriding in those zones. Every character can now use dragonriding mounts in Kul Tiras and Zandalar without completing the multi-patch Pathfinder questline.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is WoW Patch 10.2.5, Seeds of Renewal?

Patch 10.2.5 (Seeds of Renewal) was the fourth major content update of the Dragonflight expansion, released in January 2024. It introduced follower dungeons, a Dreaming Crest catch-up track, and the Bronze Dragonflight storyline continuation. The January 18 hotfixes addressed class and dungeon bugs that appeared in the build's first weeks.

Was the Frostscythe bug a significant DPS loss for Frost DK?

Yes. The broken Bonegrinder interaction suppressed the amplification bonus on Frostscythe entirely during multi-target encounters. For AoE-focused Frost DK builds running Mythic+ in Season 3, the talent's contribution to burst windows was near zero during the bug period. The January 18 fix restored the expected performance.

What class did the Ancestral Defense bug affect?

Shaman. The Ancestral Defense talent reduces AoE damage taken, but the sign inversion meant it was increasing that damage instead. Any Shaman who specced into it for survivability during this period was effectively penalized by their own talent choice.

What was the Afflicted Souls affix?

Afflicted was a Dragonflight Season 3 Mythic+ affix. Non-hostile souls appeared during encounters requiring players to dispel or heal them within a time limit; failure applied a stacking debuff to the group. The server treating them as players opened unintended interactions with player-targeting spells.

Do I still need BfA Pathfinder for dragonriding in Kul Tiras?

No. As of the January 18, 2024 hotfix, Battle for Azeroth Pathfinder is no longer required for dragonriding in Kul Tiras and Zandalar. The change is permanent.

Are these dungeons in the current Mythic+ rotation?

No. Darkheart Thicket, Dawn of the Infinite: Galakrond's Fall, and Waycrest Manor are legacy Dragonflight dungeons. As of WoW: Midnight Season 1, they are not in the active Mythic+ pool, but remain accessible as legacy and Timewalking content.

Last reviewed 2026-06-10 against Patch 10.2.5 Seeds of Renewal — Maintained by WowCarry's WoW team.