Blizzard is currently investigating a cheating scandal that has emerged within the World of Warcraft community. The situation involves a Game Master (GM) who reportedly used privileged in-game abilities to help friends bypass difficult encounters in a Mythic+ dungeon.
The incident came to light when a Reddit user, Acrobatic_Pianist688, shared evidence from a combat log. The log indicated the use of a non-player ability named "Area Death (TEST)" to instantly kill a boss that was still at nearly 90% health. Further investigation by other community members uncovered a separate instance where the GM utilized a similar instant-kill ability on an earlier boss in the same run.
One of the players involved in the dungeon run later appeared on a Twitch stream, speaking with streamer Yumytv. The player explained that they were close to completing the Mythic+ dungeon within the time limit required for a seasonal title and asked their GM friend for assistance. "I go to my GM friend and I'm like bro please can you do me a solid? This thing has 20 million [health] bro, can you please just one-shot it?" the player recounted.
The player expressed that they did not anticipate the GM complying with the request and believed the act was harmless, even if it resulted in their Mythic+ run being disqualified and their title revoked. "I didn't expect him to do it," they stated. "In hindsight, he shouldn't have done it. He was just doing me a solid."
Randy "Kaivax" Jordan, a World of Warcraft community manager, acknowledged the situation in the original Reddit thread. "Thank you to those who flagged this," he wrote. "We are reviewing and will take action as appropriate." The Mythic+ dungeon ranking site Raider.io has since disqualified the run, though it remains viewable.
The player involved suggested that the relatively low difficulty of the Mythic+ run, which they described as a "homework key," led them to believe the actions would go unnoticed. However, they underestimated the practice of players regularly recording their runs for comparison and analysis.
This incident has raised skepticism among many World of Warcraft players, who question the completeness of the players' account. GMs typically only spectate runs using special tools during specific high-stakes events like Public Test Realm raid testing or world-first race investigations, not for casual dungeon runs. Blizzard has not yet provided an update on the progress of its investigation.