World of Warcraft
What Is a Wipe in World of Warcraft?
When the whole group dies, or gives up, during a boss or a pull, and the fight resets for another attempt.
What does wipe mean in WoW?
A wipe is when the whole group or raid dies and the fight resets: the boss returns to full health and everyone runs back to try again. Raid leaders also call a wipe on purpose when an attempt is clearly lost, so the group can reset faster instead of slowly dying.
Why wipes happen
- A mechanic is missed: a soak, an interrupt or a debuff that someone did not handle.
- Not enough damage: the boss reaches its enrage timer or a deadly phase too early.
- Lost aggro: the tank loses aggro or misses a tank swap, and the boss kills the raid.
- Healers run out of mana or lose too many players to recover.
Wipes in raids
On new bosses, wiping is part of the process. Guilds count their attempts as pulls, and a Mythic progression boss can take dozens or hundreds of them. Each wipe costs gear durability and time, but brings information. When the raid is ready to give up an attempt, the leader calls the wipe: everyone stops using cooldowns, dies or resets, runs back and rebuffs. Combat resurrections are limited per fight, so using them well can turn an attempt that looked lost into a kill.
Wipes in Mythic+
In Mythic+, a wipe does not end the run, but every death adds time to the timer and the whole group must run back from the entrance or checkpoint. At higher keys, a single wipe often means missing the timer. Some affixes make deaths even more punishing.
Example
On pull 37 of a Mythic boss, two players die to the same mechanic in the first phase. The raid leader calls “wipe it” to save time. Everyone resets, the group discusses the positioning, and on pull 38 they get to the final phase for the first time.
Wipes and the weekly lockout
Wiping does not use up the boss for the week; only killing it does. On Mythic, the raid lockout saves the bosses you kill, so you can keep attempting the next boss all week.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does “wipe it” or “call the wipe” mean?
The raid leader is telling everyone that the attempt is lost and the group should reset immediately, without wasting cooldowns or consumables.
Is wiping on purpose bad?
No. Calling a wipe on a lost attempt saves time and resources. Wiping on purpose to sabotage a group is a different thing and can be reported.