Everything you need to know about World of Warcraft patch 10.2.5, now live!

World of Warcraft’s next patch, patch 10.2.5, Seeds of Renewal, launches today, on January 16. However, before we can play the latest content we have some downtime to go through: retail WoW servers went offline for maintenance at 7am pacific and are scheduled to be up at 3pm pacific — and they came back online just on time. That’s right: patch 10.2.5 is now live!

But if you’re one of the many people who have had trouble keeping up with the breakneck pace of content this expansion, never fear because we have a rundown the biggest features in the patch. Here are the key features coming in World of Warcraft patch 10.2.5:

• Dragonriding will be available everywhere. As we heard at BlizzCon, Dragonriding is going worldwide, and you’ll be able able to soar over the rest of Azeroth on your Dragonriding mounts. You still won’t be able to fly over Silvermoon City, but Dragonriding will be available everywhere flying is available now.
• Azerothian Archives event. Though Archeology still isn’t getting any new content, the Azerothian Archives event continues the Archeology spirit, showcasing the history of the Dragon Isles by having us dig up treasures and tomes to “hear stories of old, and witness the iconography of a time before.” There will be pets, mounts, and a transmog set to earn during the event — and let’s be honest, they had me at transmog.
• We’re going back to Gilneas! I didn’t expect this, particularly not in a .5 patch, but King Greymane is going to try to reclaim Gilneas… and apparently we’re being conscripted to help. But Gilneas hasn’t been sitting empty all these years, and it seems likely we’ll have a fight on our hands. We haven’t seen any story from Gilneas in a long time now, and there are no clear hints of who (or what) may be lurking in the city today.
• Explore Bel’ameth, the new Night Elf city. Night Elves are getting a new home” Bel’ameth, nestled below the branches of Amirdrassil. Thank goodness we didn’t let Fyrakk burn down another World Tree.
• Follower Dungeons. We heard that Blizzard was experimenting with machine learning to automate tedious tasks, like making the countless art adjustments that would allow us to see our hair under helmets. But in patch 10.2.5 you’ll be able to run any normal Dragonflight dungeon with a party of AI NPCs at your back in Follower Dungeons. That will make it easy for anyone to clear dungeon quests and play the game by yourself if you don’t feel like wrangling a PUG who might run through the dungeon at breakneck speed without letting you see what’s happening. As long as your AI party isn’t like NPC party in the healer Mage Tower challenge, I’m all for it.

There are a few more smaller changes as well. Trolls and Draenei are getting new customizations, as are Warlock demons. Pepe is getting some cool (or warm) new costumes. Dragonriding races are coming to Outland with the new Outland Cup races, giving us all another chance at some sweet dragonrider transmog. All in all, there’s a lot happening in this patch.

Last updated January 16, 2023