Further Dampening Adjustments in the Mists of Pandaria Classic Beta
Luxrah • Published June 28, 2025
Blizzard has been going back and forth on Dampening adjustments in the Mists of Pandaria Classic Beta, seemingly unable to decide on the best setup for this arena PvP debuff.
The latest changes have brought the maximum match time back to 20 minutes and set Dampening to begin at 5 minutes into the match by default. A new Bloodbath Orb has been added inside the starting area for each map. If at least 2 players on each team channel this orb for 2 seconds, it will activate, causing Dampening to kick in sooner. If both teams activate the orb, Dampening will begin immediately. If only one team activates it, it will begin at 3 minutes. Dampening will always begin at 0%.
Time will tell whether these changes will make it live or whether we’ll see further iterations on the Beta before the expansion launches on July 21st.
References
- Kaivax
We’ve made an update to Arenas on the Mists of Pandaria Classic Beta for some experimentation on dampening, and we’re looking forward to you trying it out and hearing your feedback.
- The longest a match can go is now 20 minutes (was 15 minutes).
- Dampening Starts at 5 minutes in all brackets.
- Every Arena starting area now has a Bloodbath Orb, and it requires at least 2 players on a team to channel it to activate.
- Activating the Bloodbath Orb casts your vote for earlier dampening in the match.
- If no teams activate their Bloodbath Orb, when the gates open an announcement will describe the match as being slower, and dampening will start at 5 minutes and at 0%.
- If one team activates their Bloodbath Orb, and the other does not, when the gates open an announcement will describe the match as having a warmup period, and dampening will start at 3 minutes and at 0%.
- If both teams activate their Bloodbath Orb, when the gates open an announcement will describe the match as a Bloodbath, and dampening will start immediately at 0%.
- Bloodbath Orbs require 2 seconds of channeling from at least 2 players on a team to activate.
- The range to channel the Orb is small on purpose, to prevent mis-clicks.
- This will allow players to always vote for the type of game they want to play against their enemies, while knowing the specs of their opponents, but not knowing how the other team is going to vote.
We’re looking forward to your feedback! Please leave it here.
Author
I've been playing World of Warcraft on and off since vanilla, usually as a healer or caster and often as a guild leader. I play both retail and classic. I also love RPGs, sandboxes, and sims.