Author: Mezzy

Hello! Here’s this week’s Fractures in Time PTR notes:

CLASSES

• Developers’ note: We’re continuing to playtest the mana economy for hybrids and feel the changes are not as limiting on off-healing as we’re intending with our upcoming changes, so we’re making some adjustments to all specializations affected by our changes.
• DRUID
  • Balance
    • Mana regeneration is now 1% per second (was 1.3%).
  • Feral
    • Mana regeneration is now 1% per second (was 1.3%).
  • Guardian
    • Mana regeneration is now 1% per second (was 1.3%).
• EVOKER
  • Scarlet Adaptation stores 40% more total power.
  • The amount of damage Scarlet Adaptation adds to Living Flame now matches the amount stated in the tooltip. For Devastation, this damage will still be amplified by Mastery: Giantkiller based on the target’s remaining health.
  • Augmentation
    • Mana regeneration is now 1% per second (was 1.3%).
  • Devastation
    • Mana regeneration is now 1% per second (was 1.3%).
  • Preservation
    • Vault of the Incarnates 2-set bonus has been adjusted – Now increases Reversion’s healing by 35% instead of increasing its critical healing chance by 25%.
• MAGE
  • Arcane
    • Arcane Barrage damage increased by 6% and no longer has a 3 second cooldown.
    • Resonance now increases Arcane Barrage damage by 12% per target hit (was 15%).
    • Arcane Explosion damage reduced by 6%.
    • Arcane Orb damage reduced by 6%.
  • Fire
    • Pyroblast damage increased by 4%.
    • Ignite damage increased by 3%.
    • Fireball damage increased by 4%.
    • Intensifying Flames is now implemented.
  • Frost
    • Ice Lance damage increased by 8%.
    • Flurry damage reduced by 6%.
    • Cryopathy now highlights Ray of Frost’s icon when at max stacks.
    • Chain Reaction now increases Ice Lance damage per stack by 2% (was 1%).
    • Brain Freeze increases the damage of your next Flurry by 50% (was 65%).
    • Slick Ice now reduces Frostbolt’s cast time and damage by 4% (was 2%). Maximum stacks reduced to 5 (was 10).
      • Developer’s note: This change is not in this week’s PTR deploy and will be in a future build.
    • Coldest Snap has been updated to require you hit 3 or more enemies to reset cooldowns and apply Winter’s Chill.
      • Developers’ note: Coldest Snap was intended to be an impactful capstone to enhance Frost’s AoE capabilities. However it was also proving to be very strong in single target which added unnecessary complexity to Frosts rotation when combined with the other updated/reworked talents. We have opted to change its functionality slightly so you only get it’s benefits when you are hitting 3 or more enemies.
      • This change is not in this week’s PTR deploy and will be in a future build.
    • Ebonbolt has been removed from the talent tree.
      • Developers’ note: After some consideration we have decided to remove Ebonbolt from the talent tree. In 10.1.5 Frost has seen a few talent updates to make existing abilities more viable in single target which in turn increased the complexity of Frost. While some added complexity in the single target rotation can be a nice option it felt like Ebonbolt was tipping things a little too much in the wrong direction.
      • This change is not in this week’s PTR deploy and will be in a future build.
• MONK
  • Brewmaster
    • The following changes have been made to Press the Advantage:
      • Second charge of Keg Smash no longer consumed by bonus casts.
      • Face Palm’s value is now correctly reduced when triggered by bonus casts.
  • Windwalker
    • Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible 2-set bonus now has as caster-only visual.
• PALADIN
  • Holy
    • Light of Dawn healing reduced by 18% (was 10%).
    • Tyr’s Deliverance healing increased by 25% (was 40%).
    • Blessed Focus increases the healing of Glimmer of Light by 25%.
    • Awakening is now a 1 point talent.
    • Awakening now stacks up to 12 times (was 10/20).
    • Sanctified Wrath has moved to a choice node with Awakening.
    • Aura of Mercy healing increased by 50%.
    • Aura of Mercy now increases its healing by 50% while Aura Mastery is active (was 100%).
    • Merciful Auras/Blessing of Seasons and Awakening/Sanctified Wrath have swapped locations.
    • Glimmer of Light’s damage increased by 700% (was 850%).
    • Glimmer of Light healing increased by 360% (was 400%).
    • Beacon of Light transfers 25% of all healing done (was 30%).
    • Beacon of Virtue can target 4 additional allies (was 3).
    • Beacon of Virtue now costs 4% base mana (was 2%).
      • Developers’ note: We are increasing the target count of Beacon of Virtue and increasing its mana cost with the goal of this spell being a way to trade mana efficiency for throughput.
  • Protection
    • Mana regeneration is now 1% per second (was 1.3%).
  • Retribution
    • Mana regeneration is now 1% per second (was 1.3%).
• PRIEST
  • Holy
    • Fixed an issue causing Holy Word: Salvation to appear in the wrong Spell Book.
  • Shadow
    • Fixed an issue causing Halo to sometimes appear twice in the Spell Book.
    • Mana regeneration is now 1% per second (was 1.3%).
• SHAMAN
  • Resolved an issue causing Nature’s Guardian to sometimes trigger before its intended health threshold.
  • Elemental
    • Lava Bursts are no longer fired at enemies affected by breakable crowd control when triggered by Deeply Rooted Elements or Primordial Wave. If the Shaman’s primary target is in breakable crowd control when casting a Lava Burst that triggers either Primordial Wave or Deeply Rooted Elements, the additional Lava Burst will still fire.
    • Mana regeneration is now 1% per second (was 1.3%).
  • Enhancement
    • Lightning Bolts are no longer fired at enemies affected by breakable crowd control when triggered by Primordial Wave. If the Shaman’s primary target is in breakable crowd control when casting a Lightning Bolt that triggers Primordial Wave, the additional Lightning Bolt will still fire.
    • Area of effect damage from a Deeply Rooted Elements proc will no longer damage nearby enemies in breakable crowd control.
    • Mana regeneration is now 1% per second (was 1.3%).
  • Restoration
    • All healing increased by 3%.
      • Developers’ note: Ancestral Guidance’s functionality is being adjusted in Fractures in Time and we are expecting this to be a slight overall healing loss. We are compensating this by increasing all healing for Restoration Shaman.

ITEMS AND REWARDS

• Self-damage from Vessel of Searing Shadow and Neltharion’s Call to Suffering no longer breaks stealth and is less likely to interrupt other actions.
• PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER
  • Field Medic’s Hazard Payout now contains a new item: Medal of Conquest. Medal of Conquest is a bind-on-account item that awards 30 Conquest on use.
  • Field Medic’s Hazard Payout now has a higher drop rate of Medals of Honor.
    • Developers’ note: We’re adding additional healer incentives to players queueing for Solo Shuffle as we’ve seen a lot of great feedback from the community that queue times for non-healer roles are too long. Updating the Field Medic Hazard Payout rewards is the first step we’re taking to make Solo Shuffle more appealing for healer specializations and we’re going to be keeping an eye on how it plays out for future patches, in addition to potentially exploring additional gameplay and rewards changes for healers specializations in Solo Shuffle.

PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER

• EVOKER
  • Augmentation
    • Ebon Might increases the Augmentation Evoker’s damage by 20% (was 14%) in PvP. In battlegrounds, damage is increased by 14% (was 10%).
    • Born in Flame increases the max stacks of Burnout to 3.
• PRIEST
  • The absorb shield from Purification is now dispellable.
  • The increased healing taken buff from Divine Hymn is no longer dispellable.
  • Power Word: Life can no longer heal battleground vehicles.

USER INTERFACE AND ACCESSIBILITY

• Updated the rested animation in the Unit Frame

One additional PTR note for the week:

ITEMS AND REWARDS

• Gear created at item level 441 or 444 can now be upgraded using the new Myth upgrade track instead of being above the upgrade system entirely.
  • The Myth track is a new track that goes from 441 (Myth 1/3) to 444 (Myth 2/3) to 447 (Myth 3/3). Gear cannot be upgraded above Myth 3/3.
  • This change is retroactive for all gear obtained in Season 2. Any Season 2 gear that was created at item level 441, 444, or 447 will now display its upgrade level along the Myth track and can be upgraded at any item upgrade vendor.
  • Upgrading gear along the Myth track requires Flightstones and an Aspect’s Shadowflame Crest for each upgrade. The usual discount rules apply here (if the character has a higher level piece of gear in the same slot, no crest is needed; if any character on the account has a higher level piece of gear in the same slot the Flightstone cost will be halved).

Here are the notes for this week’s update to the Fractures in Time PTR:

CLASSES

• EVOKER
  • Augmentation
    • Mastery: Timewalker grants Shifting Sands to 1 ally (was 2).
    • Prescience duration reduced to 18 seconds (was 20 seconds).
    • Black Attunement health bonus reduced to 4% (was 5%).
    • Aspect’s Favor increases Black Attunement to 10/16% (was 12.5/20%).
    • Ebon Might now increases all of the casting Evoker’s damage by 10%, instead of increasing Eruption’s damage by 20%.
    • Born in Flame has been redesigned – Casting Ebon Might grants Burnout immediately and every 3 seconds for 6 seconds, reducing the cast time of Living Flame by 100% (was Ebon Might caused Living Flame to be instant cast for its duration).
  • Preservation
    • All healing abilities increased by 2%.
    • Rewind now rewinds 40% of damage taken in the last 5 seconds (was 50%).
    • Exhilarating Burst now increases critical healing effectiveness by an additional 30% per rank (was 15%).
• MAGE
  • • • Developers’ notes: After several rounds of updates to the Fire and Frost talent trees, each tree has seen a significant boost in power, which in turn has put their overall throughput quite a bit higher than their live counterparts. While some gain in power is to be expected due to these changes, their current tuning has them quite a bit higher than we intend. Due to this, in the latest build we’re reducing the damage of many of their spells to get us a better baseline to work from for the two specs. This should make it easier for us to continue to iterate on tuning based on internal and external testing as the Fractures in Time PTR continues to develop. The intent with these tuning changes is not to disrupt the current flow, playstyles, or talent builds that have arisen with the updates but rather keep the relative balance and breakdown of abilities similar as the are now but with just a bit less output. Thank you for the great amount of feedback and testing during the Fractures in Time PTR. You’ve been instrumental to development of the Mage updates.*
  • Fire
    • Living Bomb damage increased by 12%.
    • Pyroblast damage reduced by 12%.
    • Fireball damage reduced by 5%.
    • Fire Blast damage reduced by 12%.
    • Phoenix Flames damage reduced by 12%.
    • Ignite damage reduced by 6%.
    • Scorch damage reduced by 10%.
    • Flamestrike damage reduced by 10%.
    • Flamepatch damage reduced by 10%.
    • Unleashed Inferno damage bonus during Combustion increased to 50% (was 45%).
    • Fixed an issue that caused the Critical Mass effect to be granted the full value at rank 1.
  • Frost
    • Glacial Assault’s chance to trigger increased to 25% (was 15%).
    • Cryopathy duration increased to 60 seconds (was 30 seconds).
    • Glacial Spike damage reduced by 4%.
    • Ice Lance damage reduced by 12%.
    • Frozen Orb damage reduced by 12%.
    • Blizzard damage reduced by 12%.
    • Comet Storm damage reduced by 12%.
    • Ray of Frost damage reduced by 12%.
    • Flurry damage reduced by 12%.
    • Frostbolt damage reduced by 12%.
    • Fixed an issue with Thermal Void’s Ice Lance extending Icy Veins longer than intended.
    • Fixed an issue with the Icicle damage double dipping with Glacial Spike’s Mastery bonus.
• MONK
  • Generous Pour’s tooltip has been updated to more accurately describe its functionality. No functionality has changed.
  • Yu’lon’s Grace now stacks up to 10% (was 20%).
  • Brewmaster
    • Blackout Combo tooltip adjusted to reflect current functionality with Breath of Fire.
    • The following changes have been made to Press the Advantage:
      • Stack duration increased to 20 seconds.
      • On-hit Nature damage increased to 20% attack power (was 10%).
      • Only triggers from main-hand attacks.
      • Triggers on attempted melee attacks, not just successes.
      • Face Palm and Counterstrike apply to all targets hit by a bonus Keg Smash.
      • On-hit Nature damage no longer buffed by Counterstrike or Blackout Combo.
      • Blackout Combo now correctly consumed by Rising Sun Kick.
    • Chi Surge effectiveness reduced when triggered by Press the Advantage.
  • Mistweaver
    • Awakened Faeline now heals for 70% of the damage done (was 75%).
      • Developers’ note: This change is part of the global damage to healing adjustments we posted about last week.
• PALADIN
  • Holy
    • New Talent: Merciful Auras – Your auras restore health to 3 injured allies within 20 yards every 2 seconds. While Aura Mastery is active, heals all allies within 40 yards and healing is increased by 100%.
    • Awestruck increases the critical healing of Holy Shock, Holy Light, and Flash of Light by 20% (was 15%).
    • Seal of the Crusader healing increased by 30%.
    • Daybreak now triggers Glimmer of Light’s healing at 200% value (was 150%).
    • Holy Shock now costs 2.4% of base mana (was 2.6%).
    • Flash of Light’s healing is increased by 35% (was 25%).
    • Holy Light’s healing increased by 25% (was 15%).
    • Blessings of Seasons now shares a choice node with Merciful Auras.
    • Tyr’s Deliverance’s base duration has been increased to 20 seconds (was 10 seconds).
    • The duration of Tyr’s Deliverance’s healing increase effect has increased to 12 seconds (was 10 seconds).
    • Boundless Salvation can now extend Tyr’s Deliverance by up to 40 seconds (was 50 seconds).
      • Developers’ note: Tyr’s Deliverance’s base duration did not feel competitive with other singular talent points within the final section of the tree. We are increasing its duration and reducing the effectiveness of Boundless Salvation accordingly with the goal of each talent point spent standing on its own merits while leaving a similar overall power level.
    • Holy Prism now radiates healing or damage to targets within 30 yards (was 15 yards).
    • Hammer of Wrath now costs 1% of base mana.
    • Glimmer of Light healing increased by 400% (was 450%).
    • The Starter Build has been updated.
  • Protection
    • Shining Light tooltip adjusted to clarify that it only removes the Holy Power cost from Word of Glory, not mana cost.
• PRIEST
  • Discipline
    • New Talent: Luminous Barrier – Create a shield on all allies within 40 yards, absorbing damage on each of them for 10 seconds. Absorption increased by 100% when not in a raid. Luminous Barrier returns as a choice node against Power Word: Barrier.
• ROGUE
  • Outlaw
    • Ghostly Strike’s effect has been changed to correctly match its tooltip description (only increasing damage of Rogue abilities).
    • All ability damage increased by 9%.
• SHAMAN
  • Enhancement
    • Maelstrom Weapon trigger rate increased to 20% (was 16%).
• WARLOCK
  • Grimoire of Sacrifice no longer has a duration and should no longer be removed when logging out, entering instances, or in between rounds of Solo Shuffle.

ITEMS AND REWARDS

• CROSS-REALM TRADING
  • Players will now be able to trade items and gold directly to characters on other realms in their region. Previously this was limited to things like conjured items or eligible raid/dungeon loot, but all those cross-realm restrictions will now be lifted. Play with your friends and trade whatever you want to whoever you want!
• Seal of Diurna’s Chosen effect damage reduced by 25%.
• PROFESSIONS
  • Precognition embellishment no longer grants a Haste bonus.

PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER

• DEATH KNIGHT
  • Spellwarden no longer reduces the duration of Anti-Magic Shell.
• EVOKER
  • Augmentation
    • Born in Flame has been slightly redesigned – Casting Ebon Might grants Burnout immediately and every 3 seconds for 6 seconds, reducing the cast time of Living Flame by 100% (was Ebon Might causes Living Flame to be instant cast for its duration).
    • Ebon Might is no longer increased in PvP combat (was increased by 45%).
    • Upheaval damage increased by 15% in PvP combat (was 50%).
    • Eruption damage increased by 50% in PvP combat (was 100%).
    • Breath of Eons is no longer magic dispellable.
    • Lava Shield has been removed.
      • Developers’ note: We were not comfortable with the number of absorbs and interrupt immunities Augmentation had, and the pool of PvP talents has a good number of options to choose from already.
• MAGE
  • The Improved Mass Invisibility PvP talent is now available for Fire and Frost Mages.
  • Diverted Energy healing reduced by 75% in PvP combat (was 50%).
  • Flow of Time reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
    • Developers’ note: This is intended to nullify the changes in the recent updates to Diverted Energy and Flow of Time in PvP combat.
  • Arcane
    • Arcane Surge now increases Spell Power by 25% in PvP combat (was 35%).
    • Arcane Blasts now deal 85% damage when cast with Presence of Mind in PvP combat.
  • Fire
    • Unleashed Inferno’s damage increase is now 33% effective in PvP combat.
    • Sun King’s Blessing damage increase is now 40% effective in PvP combat.
    • Flame Accelerant’s damage increase is now 60% effective in PvP combat.
    • Wildfire’s critical strike damage effect is now 75% effective in PvP combat.
    • Wildfire’s critical strike damage effect during Combustion is now 67% effective in PvP combat.
    • Pyrokinesis has been removed.
  • Frost
    • Glacial Assault damage increase reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
    • Cryopathy damage per stack reduced by 40% in PvP combat.
    • Ice Lance damage is increased by 15% in PvP combat (was 34%).
    • Winter’s Blessing Haste reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
    • Frigid Empowerment reduced by 33% in PvP combat.
    • Splitting Ice’s damage to secondary targets for Ebon Bolt and Glacial Spike is reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
• PALADIN
  • Holy
    • Cleanse the Weak has been redesigned – When you Cleanse an ally, 1 ally within 40 yards is dispelled of the same effects, but the cooldown of Cleanse is increased by 4 seconds. Healing allies with your Flash of Light or Holy Light will cleanse all Diseases and Poisons from the target.
    • Flash of Light’s healing is increased by 40% in PvP combat (was 50%).
    • Holy Light’s healing is increased by 62% in PvP combat (was 75%).
    • Divine Plea now reduces healing and damage done by 30% (was 50%).
    • Glimmer of Light’s damage will no longer trigger on players who are in breakable crowd control.
• PRIEST
  • The stored damage from Catharsis is now reset when an arena match or Solo Shuffle round ends.
  • Discipline
    • Purification and Purified Resolve have been merged into one talent, granting Purify 2 charges and granting your target a shield when Purify removes harmful effects from them.
  • Holy
    • Divine Hymn healing is now increased by 75% in PvP combat.
    • New PvP Talent: Seraphic Crescendo – Reduces the cooldown of Divine Hymn by 60 seconds and causes it to channel 50% faster. Additionally, the healing bonus from Divine Hymn now lasts an additional 10 seconds.
    • Purification and Purified Resolve have been merged into one talent, granting Purify 2 charges and granting your target a shield when Purify removes harmful effects from them.
    • Strength of Soul has been removed.
  • Shadow
    • Strength of Soul has been removed.

USER INTERFACE AND ACCESSIBILITY

• Added an option to replace player portraits with class icons under Options > Interface > Display.
• Added a way to report players in the Crafting Order pane for inappropriate order notes.
• Updated the ring art around role icons.
• Updated the art on various popup frames, including ready check.