Firelands and Protocol Inferno arrive on Whitemane's Gilneas

Gilneas, Whitemane's fresh Cataclysm realm, opened Firelands on Normal difficulty on 10 October 2026 at 20:00 server time, together with Arena Season 10. Heroic Firelands opens a week later, on Saturday 17 October.

Gilneas runs the Legacy version of the raid, which keeps Magma Geyser in the fourth phase of Heroic Ragnaros. If too many players stand in one Breath of Frost, the geyser goes off, hits the whole raid and destroys the frost patch, so the raid has to split into separate groups. Whitemane calls it "the hardest version of the encounter ever released". The Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest questline lets every player collect their own materials at the same time, even when several of them are at the same quest stage.

Season 10 and a free boost

• Valor and Conquest were reset on 10 October at noon, so everyone started at 0/1,600 Valor and 0/2,000 Conquest. Both caps rise every week, as they did last season
• Arena Season 10, Ruthless Gladiator, started at 20:00 the same evening, and Season 9 rewards are being handed out
• Every player who had started on Gilneas before the announcement can claim a free level 85 boost with starter gear on the character selection screen

Protocol Inferno

The 13 October patch added Protocol Inferno, a harder mode for nine Heroic dungeons. It covers Blackrock Caverns, Throne of the Tides, The Stonecore, The Vortex Pinnacle, Grim Batol, Halls of Origination, Lost City of the Tol'vir, The Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep, and every enemy gets Fury of the Firelord, with 100% more health and 25% more damage.

• Queuing through the Dungeon Finder needs level 85 and item level 346. Premade groups can also start it at the Mysterious Elemental Device by the dungeon entrance
• Each boss gives every player 2 Fissure Stone Fragments, and the last boss gives 5 if all the others are dead. Bosses keep their normal Heroic loot
• Kyanite Stonetender, at the Command Center in Stormwind and Grommash Hold in Orgrimmar, trades the fragments for gear from Blackwing Descent, The Bastion of Twilight and Throne of the Four Winds. Weapons and Normal Tier 11 helm and shoulder tokens are item level 359, Heroic Tier 11 gear is 372, and selected Sinestra rewards are 379

Whitemane pitches it as a way to gear alts, fill empty slots and get ready for Firelands through five-player content.

Sources: Whitemane's news posts on the Firelands launch (9 October 2026) and on Protocol Inferno (12 October 2026), and the Gilneas changelog (13 October 2026).