World of Warcraft Shadowlands will soon debut its first raid, Castle Nathria, and there are a couple of caveats prospective raiders should keep in mind. The raid is rolling out December 8th, but Castle Nathria won’t feature every difficulty off the bat. Normal and Heroic raiders can get started as soon as it goes live, but Looking for Raid and Mythic raiders will have to wait a little while.
The initial Castle Nathria unlocks begin December 8th at 7am PST.
Castle Nathria in World of Warcraft Shadowlands will open December 8th at 7am PST, but only the Normal and Heroic versions of the raid will be available. You will need to be at least item level 170 to access the Looking for Raid version, so those looking to clear Normal should work on acquiring their Mythic 0 gear.
Bear in mind that there is a scheduled maintenance from 6am PST to 2pm PST (if you are reading this on or before December 8th), so while the raid may go live at 7am you won’t be able to login. Granted, Blizzard likes to over-schedule these maintenances just in case, so there is always a chance for the servers to come back up prior to 2pm PST.
Looking for Raid and Mythic raiders will have to wait a week until December 15th for their respective versions of Castle Nathria to unlock in World of Warcraft Shadowlands, though Looking for Raid fans should keep in mind their rollout will stretch into January. Much like previous expansions, Looking for Raid will feature one “wing” a week until all the bosses become available. A full breakdown of the Castle Nathria unlock dates is listed below, as confirmed by Blizzard.
- December 8 – Normal and Heroic Difficulties
- December 15 – Mythic and Raid Finder Wing 1 (Huntsman Altimor, Hungering Destroyer, Lady Inerva Darkvein)
- January 5 – Raid Finder Wing 2 (Sun King’s Salvation, Artificer Xy’mox, The Council of Blood)
- January 19 – Raid Finder Wing 3 (Shriekwing, Sludgefist, Stone Legion Generals)
- February 2 – Raid Finder Wing 4 (Sire Denathrius)
