WoW Classic World Buff Cooldowns

World buffs are an important aspect of World of Warcraft Classic if you are trying to raid efficiently. Understanding the cooldowns of each world buff will help your guild plan accordingly so everyone can get them before raid time. In this post, we take a look at all the different WoW Classic World Buff cooldowns, including Onyxia, Nefarian, and Zul’Gurub.

WoW Classic World Buff Cooldowns

Here’s a rundown of each world buff currently active in WoW Classic, how to get them, and their cooldowns.

• Onyxia Buff: 6-hour cooldown
• Nefarian Buff: 8-hour cooldown
• Warchief’s Blessing: 3-hour cooldown
• Spirit of Zandalar: No cooldown
• Dire Maul Tribute: No cooldown
• Darkmoon Faire: 4 hours of individual playtime
• Songflower Serenade: 1 hour

Onyxia Buff Cooldown – Rallying Cry of the Dragonslayer

• Buff: Rallying Cry of the Dragonslayer
• Cooldown: 6 hours
• Effect: +140 Attack Power, +10% Critical Chance for Spells, +5% Critical Chance for Melee and Ranged Attacks
• Duration: 2 hours

First up is the Head of Onyxia, a guaranteed drop from every Onyxia kill. Turning in the Head of Onyxia in Stormwind or Orgrimmar grants Rallying Cry of the Dragonslayer to everyone in the vicinity.

For Alliance, once you get the Head of Onyxia you will need to turn it into Bolvar Fordragon in Stormwind Keep. After that, you will need to speak with Major Mattingly and he will give everyone in Stormwind Rallying Cry of the Dragonslayer as long as there is not a head already hanging from the arch.

For Horde, after getting the Head of Onyxia you need to deliver it to Thrall. After that, you will need to speak with Overlord Runthak and he will give everyone in Orgrimmar Rallying Cry of the Dragonslayer as long as an Onyxia head is not already active.

The Onyxia buff cooldown can be reset by mind-controlling Major Mattingly or Overlord Runthak with a Priest from the opposing faction. You will need to wait 5 minutes for the NPC to respawn before you can turn in the head.

Nefarian Buff Cooldown – Rallying Cry of the Dragonslayer

• Buff: Rallying Cry of the Dragonslayer
• Cooldown: 8 hours (separate cooldown from Onyxia Head)
• Effect: +140 Attack Power, +10% Critical Chance for Spells, +5% Critical Chance for Melee and Ranged Attacks,
• Duration: 2 hours

The process for turning in the Nefarian Head is similar to the Onyxia Head. Nefarian will drop his head every time he dies. Turning in the Head of Nefarian grants Rallying Cry of the Dragonslayer. This is on a completely separate cooldown from the Head of Onyxia.

Alliance players can deliver the head to King Anduin Wryn in Stormwind, who will send you to Field Marshal Afrasiabi in the Valley of Heroes. Horde players can deliver the head to High Overlord Varok Saurfang in Ogrimmar. He will send you to Overlord Natoj near the gates of Orgrimmar.

Saurfang cannot be reset before the Nefarian buff cooldown, but it is suspected that Afrasiabi can.

Rend Blackhand – Warchief’s Blessing

• Buff: Warchief’s Blessing
• Cooldown: 3 hours
• Effect: +300 HP, 15% haste to melee attacks, 10 MP5
• Duration: 1 hour

Warchief’s Blessing is a world buff from turning in the Head of Rend Blackhand, a boss in Upper Blackrock Spire. The quest is For The Horde! and is the third quest in the chain to get the Onyxia key. This buff is horde specific, and the only way for Alliance to receive the buff is to get mind-controlled by Horde while the buff goes out.

The buff cooldown cannot be manually reset by any means. You’ll have to wait until the current head expires and the cooldown is up to turn in another one and get the buff.

Hakkar – Spirit of Zandalar

• Buff: Spirit of Zandalar
• Cooldown: None
• Effect: +15% All Stats, +10% Movement Speed
• Duration: 2 hours

Zul’Gurub unlocks in Phase 4 and Hakkar, the main boss, drops a Heart of Hakkar on every death. The Heart of Hakkar starts a quest requiring the player to travel to Molthor. You will have to travel to Yojamba Isle, which is off the northwest coast of Stranglethorne Vale. Flying to Westfall if you’re Alliance is a quicker route than running from Booty Bay.

When the Heart of Hakkar is turned in, the player can choose from three trinkets. The Spirit of Zandalar buff is also cast on every player in Yojamba Isle or Booty Bay. This buff lasts two hours and is one of the strongest in the game, granting players a 10% movement speed and +15% to all stats.

Dire Maul Tribute Buffs

• Buffs: Slip’kiks Savvy, Fengus’ Ferocity, Mol’dar’s Moxie
• Cooldown: None
• Effects:
  • Slip’kik’s Savvy: +3% Critical Hit Chance with Spells
  • Fengus’ Ferocity: +200 Attack Power
  • Mol’dar’s Moxie: +15% Stamina
• Duration: 2 hours

Dire Maul Tribute buffs require running Dire Maul North and killing only the king. Once this is done, players can become the new king and grab buffs from Fengus, Mol’dar, and Slip’kik. You probably already know how to do this, so we won’t go into detail.

Darkmoon Faire

• Buff: Sayge’s Fortune
• Cooldown: 4 hours of time played per character
• Effect: +10% any stat chosen
• Duration: 2 hours

The Darkmoon Faire comes to Elwynn Forest or Mulgore for one week every month. Here’s the WoW Classic Darkmoon Faire schedule so you can check the dates. Sayge the Fortune Teller grants players different buffs depending on how you answer a series of questions.

Check out our WoW Classic Darkmoon Faire Buffs guide to find out how to answer Sayge’s questions to get the right buffs.

Songflower Serenade – Felwood

• Buff: Songflower Serenade
• Cooldown: 25 minutes
• Effect: +5% critical chance for melee, ranged, and spell, +15 all attributes
• Duration: 1 hour

The Songflower is a plant native to Felwood. There are ten total Songflower spawns in the area, with a few near the Horde and Alliance flight paths. These often spawn cleansed but if one has not been activated in a while, it will be corrupted. When corrupted, a player needs 2 Cenarion Plant Salves to cleanse it.

Multiple players can get this buff at the same time due to spell batching in WoW Classic. This means you can have a large group of people click the Cleansed Songflower at the same time so everyone can get the buff. Each Songflower respawns in ~20 minutes.