It’s the last day of the Midsummer Fire Festival , and that always means an explosive experience is coming your way! Fireworks will light up the skies of Azeroth tonight.
The fireworks go up over capital cities and Booty Bay every hour, at the top of the hour, all night long.
Fireworks start off July! There’s much to see and do, and we have our eye on what the community's up to, too. In this July edition of This Month in WoW, we look forward to some of the more remarkable things going on in the World of Warcraft community.
Eleven years ago, on July 12, 2005, patch 1.6 opened Blackwing Lair for the first time. Groups comprising 40 players went to Blackrock Mountain to face Razorgore the Untamed and Vaelastrasz the Corrupt.
In the dark recesses of the mountain's peak, Nefarian, the eldest son of Deathwing, conducts some of his most awful experimentation, controlling mighty beings like puppets and combining the eggs of different dragonflights with horrific results. Should he prove successful, even darker pursuits rest on the horizon.
And, yet, the Lord of Blackrock is not a mere scientist - he is a great dragon cornered in his lair. Can he truly be defeated by mortal hands?
You can keep up-to-date on all of the in-game events through the calendar on the World of Warcraft website here (log in and select Events from the drop-down menu under your character name), or simply view the in-game calendar for exact event start times for your realm.
Darkmoon Faire: July 3 – 10
Come one, come all, step up for a fun-filled week of activities that will keep you coming back for more! Participate in the games to earn special prizes! Everybody's a winner at the Darkmoon Faire! During the first week of each month, convenient Darkmoon Faire outposts with Darkmoon Portals will appear in Elwynn Forest and Mulgore, offering free rides to Darkmoon Island and the Faire.
Bonus Events:
Draenor Dungeons Event – July 6-11
While this event is active, defeating enemies in any level 100 Heroic or Mythic dungeon will award reputation with an appropriate Draenor faction.
Pet Battle Bonus Event — July 13-18
While this event is active, your pets will earn experience at triple the usual rate. Get out there and battle with your mighty minions!
Timewalking Dungeon Event: Burning Crusade — July 20-25
While this event is active, players level 71 or higher may access a special Timewalking Dungeon Finder queue, which scales players and their items down to revisit past dungeons from The Burning Crusade expansion. While Timewalking, bosses will yield loot appropriate for a player's natural level.
Apexis Crystal Bonus Event — July 27-August 1
While this event is active, Apexis Crystal gains are multiplied. Get yourself to Tanaan Jungle and cash in on the Apexis Windfall.
New Warcraft Fan Art
We have twelve new pieces of fan artwork. Would you like to share your artistic talents with the community? Submit your fan art today!
 Thrall by Vincent Turcot (Mr.Goblin) |  Blood Elf Rogue by bob lin (Amazing_Bob) |
 Blood Elf by Loreto Diaz |  Birth of Cenarius by Kylie Langton (Kanaë) |
 Ashbringer by Chen |  Garrosh by Saman Mahmoudi |
 Garrosh by Saman Mahmoudi |  The Warden by Saman Mahmoudi |
 The Tauren hunter by Saman Mahmoudi |  Ming Jiao Demon Hunter by bob lin (Amazing_Bob) |
 Dragonslayer by Thomas Karlsson |  Previous and present by Fenghao.Liu (Leopardman) |
Last but not least, we've gathered three comics submitted by Brian Christy Burke, Brian Albert, and Chris West.
Send us your comics by the end of each month to be considered. Don’t tarry; eternal fame for your art are only a few panels away!
World of Warcraft: Legion is on the horizon, but before you move on from Draenor, here’s a reminder that you may have some unfinished business to attend to – before it’s too late. Challenge Mode dungeons will no longer be available with the Legion pre-expansion patch, which like previous expansions, will arrive a few weeks before Legion’s release.
If you’re looking to make one last push for your Challenge Mode rewards– now is the time. You’ll have until the release of the pre-expansion patch to earn some very desirable rewards, including:
If you haven’t yet crossed the finish line with Challenge Modes, don’t hold back! For a nudge in the right direction if you’re having problems with any particular Draenor dungeon, check out Wowhead’s zone overviews and strategy guides.
Fight to the finish!For years, the Internet’s video game boy band from New Zealand has been putting out hits … of sorts … but only recently did they turn the full force of their video creation toward World of Warcraft. This week, we visit with Adam King of Viva La Dirt League in our Community Spotlight.
A: We were initially just planning on calling ourselves “Dirt League”, but there was already a YouTube channel called that already so the name was taken -- which we’re thankful for now. Viva la Dirt League just has such a nice ring to it.
A: I started by playing Warcraft III. I randomly picked it up in a game store and thought the description on the back sounded fun and then loved it so much that I probably played it through about five or six times.
The first World of Warcraft character I played was a Gnome warrior and I remember coming out of the starting zone and setting my eyes on Dun Morogh and Ironforge for the first time - my jaw must have dropped and hit the table! I was so enthralled. Questing my way through all of the original zones I fell in love all over again and I haven't looked back since!
A: I'm a big storytelling geek, so I get into every single nook and cranny of the story that I can. Whenever a new expansion comes out, I’m straight into the quests and the storylines. I read every single line of text that every NPC says, and I pick up every Warcraft manga, comic book, and novel. I love how the game brings people together.
I have a lot of friends to this day that I met in game, so I like to spend a lot of time in the chat, talking to people, getting to know the people that I group with.
A: Alan, Rowan, and I are gamers, filmmakers, and most importantly—nerds. We love making videos that appeal to the community. Youtube is an amazing place and we have an awesome audience that we love so much. They’re like us, and they get to know each other. They talk about the games, they talk about our videos, and the get to interact with us. It’s such a nice vibe constantly. It’s cool to see that passion they have for our channel - and we give it back to them 110%.
We’ve started doing three videos per week. On Mondays, we have our new inspired-by-WoW comedy series Epic NPC Man.
A: The idea came from playing games like World of Warcraft. Alan, Rowan, and I were thinking about how NPCs are hilarious. As soon as you focus on one, you see that they only have one line of dialogue, or they only walk between point A and point B, or they have an amazing backstory that a lot of players miss. They don’t seem to care about their safety. So we put all our heart and soul into making a first season with help from a local museum, the local LARPing society, and some dedicated. The reaction to it has been so overwhelmingly positive that we are going to make it a permanent fixture of our channel and keep it going for the foreseeable future.
A: It has to be the culmination of the story of the Legion invasion of Azeroth. This expansion is bringing together so many awesome threads of a story that has been told on an epic scale for the last 12 years. But most of all, I’m keen to try out the demon hunter!
Check out Viva La Dirt League online at these fine sites:
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/VivaLaDirtLeague
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/vivaladirtleague
Twitter: https://twitter.com/vivadirt
Songs: http://vivaladirtleague.bandcamp.com/
Viva!
This week we sat down with Lead Quest Designer Craig Amai to answer your questions on Legion Artifacts and the related Class Order Hall questlines. If you missed the live Q&A, don’t worry. We have you covered. Watch the VoD below to catch up on what you missed.
We’re really looking forward to getting the chance to dive in and answer as much as we can, so we hope to see you again next Thursday at 11 a.m. PT!
About the Legion Live Developer Q&As
Every Thursday for the next several weeks, starting at 11 a.m. PT, we’ll be going live on Twitch.tv/Warcraft to answer questions submitted by the World of Warcraft community. Each week will feature a different developer, and we’ll be looking for questions that focus on their particular role on the World of Warcraft development team.
It has been four years since the dwarf king Magni Bronzebeard was cursed as he sought to protect his world, frozen as a solid diamond statue at the center of Old Ironforge. In our new Legion digital comic, "Fault Lines," he emerges from his crystal slumber with a dire warning of dark times to come. But will his daughter, Moira, be able to set aside the pain of her past to forgive Magni and help unite her people?
We invite you to read and download the free comic here, through Dark Horse comics, or experience the action and sound of this tale through the Madefire motion book.
About
Written by Matt Burns and illustrated by Ludo Lullabi, "Fault Lines" is the first in a series of comics leading up to the Burning Legion's invasion of Azeroth.
Matt Burns is a senior writer on Blizzard Entertainment's Creative Development team. He co-authored the New York Times bestselling illustrated history book World of Warcraft Chronicle: Volume I, among other Blizzard titles.
Ludo Lullabi has more than twenty published works to his name. He has collaborated with Blizzard Entertainment many times, contributing to projects such as the World of Warcraft comic adaptation.
The Road to BlizzCon is back! Registration has closed and the teams are set to begin Cup 2 and continuing play in the North American Qualifiers for the 2016 World of Warcraft Arena World Championship.
Saturday saw the Round of 8 in this Qualifier, with a total prize pool of $6000 up for grabs, and the top two teams will advance to the Americas Regionals later this year. Cup 3, the end of the North America Qualifiers, is coming on July 16.
