Fixed a bug that caused the Leatherworking Weekly Quest “Drums Here!” to misbehave.
Developers’ notes: Valdrakken Rep, Artisan’s Consortium rep, and Leatherworking Design rewards are doubled for this week to compensate for the bug. They’ll go back to their previous reward values next week.
March 13, 2023
Dungeons and Raids
Vault of the Incarnates
Raszageth (Heroic)
[With weekly restarts] Electric Lash damage reduced by 20% in Heroic difficulty.
[With weekly restarts] Volatile Current damage reduced by 20% in Heroic difficulty.
[With weekly restarts] Stormsurge absorb shield reduced by 20% in Heroic difficulty.
[With weekly restarts] Lingering Charge periodic damage reduced by 20% in Heroic difficulty.
Raszageth (Mythic)
[With weekly restarts] Electric Lash damage reduced by 20% in Mythic difficulty.
[With weekly restarts] Volatile Current damage reduced by 20% in Mythic difficulty.
[With weekly restarts] Stormsurge absorb shield reduced by 20% in Mythic difficulty.
[With weekly restarts] Primalist Stormseeker’s Storm Bolt damage reduced by 25% in Mythic difficulty.
[With weekly restarts] Lingering Charge periodic damage reduced by 20% in Mythic difficulty.
[With weekly restarts] Fulminating Charge now snares players instead of rooting them in Mythic difficulty.
The tooltip for Fulminating Charge will still reference a root. This text will be updated at a later date.
Mythic+
Azure Vaults
[With weekly restarts] The timer to complete Azure Vaults in Mythic+ has been increased to 35 minutes and 30 seconds. (was 34 minutes).
[With weekly restarts] The cooldown of Vault Guard’s Brilliant Scales has been increased.
Azureblade
[With weekly restarts] Azureblade’s Mana drains over 60 seconds (was 50 seconds).
Here are this week’s PTR notes for Embers of Neltharion:
NEW ZONE: ZARALEK CAVERN
The Embers of Neltharion campaign is now available for testing.
NEW RAID: ABERRUS, THE SHADOWED CRUCIBLE
Millennia ago, Neltharion carved deep places in the earth where he conducted world altering experiments. After his death, these sites were lost to time, until now. Forces seeking to claim the Earth-Warder’s legacy raid his dominion in search for powerful artifacts. Now the champions of Azeroth must venture into darkness and ensure the crucible’s dangerous power doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.
Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible features nine boss encounters: Kazzara, the Hellforged, The Amalgamation Chamber, The Forgotten Experiments, Assault of the Zaqali, Rashok, the Elder, The Vigilant Steward, Zskarn, Magmorax, Echo of Neltharion, and Scalecommander Sarkareth.
Death Knight, Havoc Demon Hunter, Druid, Mage, Brewmaster Monk, Holy Paladin, and Protection Paladin class armor sets are available for testing. Visit Setzertauren in Stormwind and Orgrimmar to pick up the sets.
Class armor set details can be found in this feedback thread. Please share bugs you find via the in-game bug reporting tool and your feedback about the bonuses in the feedback thread.
DRAGONFLIGHT SEASON 2
MYTHIC+
The remaining Dragonflight dungeons will enter the fray:
Brackenhide Hollow
Halls of Infusion
Uldaman: Legacy of Tyr
Neltharus
Four dungeons from past expansions will provide new challenges to keep the Mythic+ rotation fresh:
Freehold, Battle for Azeroth
The Underrot, Battle for Azeroth
Neltharion’s Lair, Legion
Vortex Pinnacle, Cataclysm
Vortex Pinnacle will be available for testing in a future PTR build.
Seasonal affixes are in development and will be available for testing in a future PTR build.
Dragonflight Season 2 Mythic+ testing begins on Thursday, March 16. Visit the feedback thread for details.
CLASSES
DRUID
Balance
The second Moonfire cast by Twin Moons no longer generates Astral Power.
Developers’ note: With the increase in Moonfire Astral Power generation from 2 to 6 in Embers of Neltharion, this doubling of AP from Twin Moons is stronger than we intend. This change makes it consistent with Astral Power generated by Sunfire.
Feral
Fixed an issue where Sudden Ambush was not affecting Shred and Rake attacks during Berserk.
Fixed an issue where Raging Fury was not extending the duration of Tiger’s Fury.
Updated descriptions of Pouncing Strikes and Bloodtalons to specify they increase the damage of your attacks for their full duration.
Developers’ note: This copies the language from Tiger’s Fury and distinguishes effects which snapshot their benefits at the time a damage over time spell is cast (Tiger’s Fury, Bloodtalons, Rake from Stealth) from those that only increase spell damage as long as they’re active (Sabertooth, new Berserk).
PALADIN
Holy
Avenging Crusader has been redesigned – You become the ultimate crusader of light for 12 seconds. Crusader Strike and Judgment cool down 30% faster and heal up to 5 injured allies for 750% of the damage done, split evenly among them. If Avenging Wrath is talented, also increases Judgment, Crusader Strike, and auto-attack damage by 30%.
PRIEST
Shadow Word: Death now has a 10 second cooldown (was 20 seconds).
Discipline
Enduring Luminescence now also reduces the cast time of Power Word: Radiance by 30%.
Power Word: Radiance now has a spell school of Radiant (was Holy).
Shadow
Shadow Crash damage reduced by 70%.
Shadow Crash now has a 20 second cooldown (was 30 seconds).
Death and Madness Insanity generation reduced to 8 (was 30).
Death and Madness generates Insanity immediately instead of over 3 seconds.
Shadow Word: Death now generates 4 Insanity.
Deathspeaker trigger rate increased by 50%.
Deathspeaker now increases the damage of Shadow Word: Death by 25% while active.
Deathspeaker now temporarily increases the maximum charges of Shadow Word: Death by 1.
Deathspeaker no longer triggers Death and Madness’ cooldown.
New Talent: Distorted Reality – Increases the damage of Devouring Plague by 20%, but Devouring Plague deals its damage over 12 seconds and its Insanity cost is increased by 25.
Encroaching Shadows has been removed.
Devouring Plague instant damage increased by 75%.
Surge of Insanity has moved to Encroaching Shadows’ position.
Surge of Insanity now has a Spell Alert while active.
Mental Decay now updates the maximum duration of Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch so that the remaining durations are more easily understood.
SHAMAN
Elemental
Flame Shock’s dispel protection from Control of Lava (PvP Talent) is now a baseline part of Flame Shock.
Enhancement
Flame Shock’s dispel protection from Control of Lava (PvP Talent) is now a baseline part of Flame Shock.
PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER
CLASSES
HUNTER
Interlope (PvP Talent) has been redesigned – Misdirection now causes your pet to redirect the next 3 hostile spells cast on your target. Misdirection cooldown increased by 15 seconds. Your pet must be within 20 yards of the target for spells to be redirected.
Developers’ note: We’re still working on this talent, so there may be a few bugs with this ability in this week’s PTR.
MAGE
Frost
Frost Bomb (PvP Talent) explosion damage increased by 50%. Dispelling Frost Bomb before its explosion now grants a charge of Brain Freeze.
PRIEST
New PvP Talent: Phase Shift – Step into the shadows when you cast Fade, avoiding all attacks and spells for 0.5 seconds. Interrupt effects are not affected by Phase Shift.
Phase Shift has been added to the Personal Resource Display.
New PvP Talent: Absolute Faith – Leap of Faith also pulls the spirit of the 3 furthest allies within 40 yards and distributes health between you and the affected allies.
Eternal Rest (PvP Talent) has been removed.
Delivered from Evil (PvP Talent) has been removed.
SHAMAN
Elemental
Stormkeeper increases Lightning Bolt damage by 30% for Elemental in PvP combat (was 115%).
Casting Lightning Bolt with Surge of Power causes 1 additional Elemental Overload in PvP combat (was 2).
Lightning Bolt damage increased by 53% for Elemental in PvP combat.
Control of Lava (PvP Talent) has been removed.
New Talent: Volcanic Surge – Increases the damage of Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, and Lava Burst by 20%. Lava Surge instead reduces the cast time of your next Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, or Lava Burst by 25%, stacking up to 2 times.
Enhancement
Thundercharge (PvP Talent) has been removed.
WARLOCK
Bane of Fragility (PvP Talent) has been removed.
Destruction
Cremation (PvP Talent) has been removed.
Demonology
Call Fel Hunter (PvP Talent) has been removed.
Pleasure through Pain (PvP Talent) has been removed.
QUESTS
Several new side questlines are now available:
“A Swallow’s Tale” from Effervesta in Loamm (requires completing “Six Hundred Feet Under” campaign quest)
“Slime Time Live” from Elder Honeypelt in Loamm (requires completing “Future Aspects” campaign quest)
“Mouse Detective” from Yarren in Hermit’s Hollow
“This Might Sting” for Dracthyr in Zaralek Cavern.
USER INTERFACE AND ACCESSIBILITY
A ping animation has been added to the map when opened from the quest tracker, making it easier to spot the quest location.
Fixed an issue where Hunter nameplate can disappear after using Feign Death.
Fixed an issue where personal resource display and health bars can become detached or disappear.
EDIT MODE
Pet Frame can now be moved separately from Player Frame.
The Edit Mode menu has been reorganized, with several options now hidden under Advanced Options.
The visibility toggle of the Buff and Debuff frames have been combined into one checkbox, but their functionality remains the same.
Encounter Bar will stay visible if it’s already shown when entering Edit Mode.
OPTIONS
The Graphics Quality section has been reorganized into tabs.
The Auto Self Cast and Self Cast Key settings have been combined into a single dropdown.
Each Action Bar now has its own keybind section that appears if that Action Bar is enabled (they were previously grouped together under one section).
Mousing over a keybind row will now highlight the corresponding action bar button, and vice versa.
Embers of Neltharion features all new Tier Set armor for every class. We’re excited to share them with you today.
Please note that the designs and values below are a work in progress. When these sets are ready for testing, the Embers of Neltharion PTR may include values other than what you see here, and values may be updated on the PTR with changes to these sets via hotfix at any time.
Class Set Design
Set armor bonuses in Season 1 had relatively low impact on gameplay and rotations, because we wanted to give the new talent system room to shine. In Embers of Neltharion, set bonuses can have more impact on your resources, cooldowns, and talents. Some bonuses are enhanced by playing certain talents, and some build on popular talents in the middle sections of trees. Throughout these designs, we intend for players to feel able to play the overall build or strategy they prefer.
Set Bonuses
Death Knight
Blood
(2) Set Bonus: Heart Strike and Blood Boil deal 20% increased damage and have a 10% chance to grant Vampiric Blood for 5 seconds.
(4) Set Bonus: When you would gain Vampiric Blood you are infused with Vampiric Strength, granting you 10% Strength for 5 seconds. Your Heart Strike and Blood Boil extend the duration of Vampiric Strength by 0.5 seconds.
Frost
(2) Set Bonus: Howling Blast and Frost Fever damage increased by 10%. Your Rime-empowered Howling Blasts reduce the cooldown of Frostwyrm’s Fury by 2 seconds.
(4) Set Bonus: After consuming Rime 15 times you call down Frostwyrm’s Fury on your target at 100% effectiveness.
Unholy
(2) Set Bonus: Death Coil and Epidemic damage increased by 10%. Casting Death Coil or Epidemic grants a stack of Master of Death. At 20 stacks, Master of Death is consumed and you gain 15% Mastery for 20 seconds.
(4) Set Bonus: When Death Coil or Epidemic consumes Sudden Doom gain two stacks of Master of Death or increase the Mastery bonus to 25% for 5 seconds.
Demon Hunter
Havoc
(2) Set Bonus: Every 200 Fury you spend, gain Seething Fury, increasing your Agility by 8% for 6 seconds.
(4) Set Bonus: Each time you gain Seething Fury, gain 15 Fury and the damage of your next Eye Beam is increased by 12%, stacking up to 5 times.
Vengeance
(2) Set Bonus: Soul Fragments heal for 10% more and generating a Soul Fragment increases your Fire damage by 2% for 6 seconds. Multiple applications may overlap.
(4) Set Bonus: Shear and Fracture deal Fire damage. After consuming 20 Soul Fragments, your next cast of Shear or Fracture applies Fiery Brand to its target for 6 seconds.
Druid
Balance
(2) Set Bonus: Sunfire radius increased by 2 yards. Sunfire, Moonfire and Shooting Stars damage increased by 18%.
(4) Set Bonus: Shooting Stars has a 20% chance to instead call down a Crashing Star, dealing (72% of Attack Power) Astral damage to the target and generating 5 Astral Power.
Developers’ Note: The damage of Crashing Star is about 4 times the damage of a Shooting Star.
Feral
(2) Set Bonus: Your auto-attacks have a chance to grant Shadows of the Predator, increasing your Agility by 1%. Each application past 5 has an increasing chance to reset to 2 stacks.
(4) Set Bonus: When a Shadows of the Predator application resets stacks, you gain 5% increased Agility and you generate 1 combo point every 1.5 seconds for 6 seconds.
Guardian
(2) Set Bonus: When you take damage, Mangle and Thrash damage and Rage generation are increased by 15% for 8 seconds and you heal for 6% of damage taken over 8 seconds.
(4) Set Bonus: Maul/Raze damage increased by 20% and casting Ironfur or Maul/Raze increases your maximum health by 3% for 12 seconds, stacking 5 times.
Restoration
(2) Set Bonus: Rejuvenation and Lifebloom healing increased by 15%. Regrowth healing over time increased by 75%.
(4) Set Bonus: Flourish increases the rate of your heal over time effects by 40% for an additional 16 seconds after it ends. Verdant Infusion causes your Swiftmend target to gain 15% increased healing from you for 6 seconds.
Developers’ Note: The duration of the 4-piece Flourish bonus is halved if Flourish is cast by Convoke the Spirits.
Evoker
Devastation
(2) Set Bonus: Disintegrate and Pyre pierce enemies with Obsidian Shards, dealing 12% of damage done as Volcanic damage over 8 seconds.
(4) Set Bonus: Empower spells deal 8% increased damage and cause the Obsidian Shards to become supercharged, dealing 200% more damage for 5 seconds. During Dragonrage, shards are always supercharged.
Preservation
(2) Set Bonus: Spiritbloom applies a heal over time effect for 40% of healing done over 8 seconds. Dream Breath’s healing is increased by 15%.
(4) Set Bonus: After casting 3 empower spells, gain Essence Burst immediately and another 3 seconds later.
Hunter
Beast Mastery
(2) Set Bonus: Cobra Shot and Kill Command damage increased by 15%.
(4) Set Bonus: Cobra Shot, Kill Command, and Multi-Shot reduce the cooldown of Bestial Wrath by 1 second.
Marksmanship
(2) Set Bonus: Arcane Shot/Chimeara Shot and Multi-Shot deal 10% increased damage and have a 8% chance to grant you the Deathblow effect.
(4) Set Bonus: Kill Shot damage increased by 15%, and Kill Shot reduces the cooldown of Rapid Fire and Aimed Shot by 0.5 seconds.
Survival
(2) Set Bonus: Wildfire Bomb damage increased by 10% and throwing a Wildfire Bomb increases the damage of your next Kill Command by 50%.
(4) Set Bonus: Every 25 Focus you spend reduces the cooldown of Wildfire Bomb by 1 second.
Mage
Arcane
(2) Set Bonus: Arcane Surge increases Spell Damage by an additional 5% and its duration is increased by 3 seconds.
(4) Set Bonus: For every 20,000 mana spent during Arcane Surge, your spell damage is increased by 1% for 12 seconds after Arcane Surge fades, stacking up to 30 times.
Fire
(2) Set Bonus: Phoenix Flames applies Charring Embers to all enemies it damages, increasing their damage taken from you by 6% for 10 seconds.
(4) Set Bonus: When your direct damage spells hit an enemy affected by Charring Embers 30 times, gain Hyperthermia for 6 seconds.
Frost
(2) Set Bonus: Flurry and Frostbolt damage increased by 20%. Flurry causes an explosion on impact, dealing 50% of its damage to nearby enemies, damage reduced beyond 5 targets.
(4) Set Bonus: Casting Ice Lance on a frozen target has a 8% chance to trigger Brain Freeze.
Monk
Brewmaster
(2) Set Bonus: Blackout Kick damage increased by 20%. You have a 10% chance to not reset your Elusive Brawler stacks on a successful dodge.
(4) Set Bonus: Rising Sun Kick grants a stack of Elusive Brawler. When you dodge, damage and critical strike chance of your next Blackout Kick or Rising Sun Kick is increased by 5%, stacking up to 5 times.
Mistweaver
(2) Set Bonus: Renewing Mists has a chance to grant Soulfang Infusion, granting 5% of your maximum Mana over 6 seconds.
(4) Set Bonus: Drinking a Tea or gaining Soulfang Infusion increases the healing of your Vivify and Renewing Mists by 40% for 6 seconds.
Windwalker
(2) Set Bonus: Rising Sun Kick deals increased damage and has a chance to go nova, dealing Fire damage to all enemies within 8 yards.
(4) Set Bonus: Your melee auto-attacks have a chance to launch a Shadowflame spirit at your enemy that duplicates your next 3 abilities at X% effectiveness.
Paladin
Holy
(2) Set Bonus: Holy Shock’s critical strikes heal for 15% more and reduce the cooldown of Light’s Hammer by 2 seconds and Holy Prism by 1 second.
(4) Set Bonus: Light’s Hammer heals 100% more frequently and generates 1 Holy Power every 4 seconds. Holy Prism’s healing is increased by 80% and it generates 1 Holy Power if cast on an enemy target, or 3 if cast on an ally.
Protection
(2) Set Bonus: Avenger’s Shield causes targets struck to burn with Heartfire, dealing an additional 20% of damage dealt over 5 seconds. Heartfire heals you for 100% of damage it deals.
(4) Set Bonus: Judgment critical strikes can trigger Grand Crusader.
Retribution
(2) Set Bonus: Judgment and Hammer of Wrath deal 10% increased damage and 20% increased critical strike damage.
(4) Set Bonus: Judgment increases the damage enemies take from your Holy Power spenders by an additional 5%. Hammer of Wrath applies Judgment to enemies.
Priest
Discipline
(2) Set Bonus: Casting Penance on an enemy also heals a nearby injured ally at 20% effectiveness. Casting Penance on an ally also damages a nearby enemy at 35% effectiveness.
(4) Set Bonus: Every 3 casts of Penance grants you Shadow Covenant for 5 seconds and converts that Penance to a Shadow spell.
Holy
(2) Set Bonus: Prayer of Mending has a 20% chance to duplicate to another nearby target when it jumps.
(4) Set Bonus: When Prayer of Mending jumps, it increases the damage and healing of your next Holy Word by 4%, stacking up to 15 times.
Shadow
(2) Set Bonus: When consuming Shadowy Insight, Mind Blast deals 60% increased damage and generates 4 additional Insanity.
(4) Set Bonus: Every 400 Insanity spent summons Shadowfiend/Mindbender for 5 seconds.
Rogue
Assassination
(2) Set Bonus: Rupture and Crimson Tempest deal an additional 33% damage as Nature.
(4) Set Bonus: When Deathmark expires, Nature damage you deal is increased by 40% for 30 seconds.
Outlaw
(2) Set Bonus: Damage you inflict applies a Soulrip, dealing 5% of all damage you deal as physical damage over 8 seconds.
(4) Set Bonus: Between the Eyes unleashes all Soulrips, dealing 200% of all remaining damage and granting 7% Agility for 15 seconds.
Subtlety
(2) Set Bonus: Shadow Dance grants you Symbols of Death for 10 seconds and extends the duration of Rupture by 4 seconds.
(4) Set Bonus: Symbols of Death increases the critical strike damage of Eviscerate and Black Powder by 15%.
Shaman
Elemental
(2) Set Bonus: Gain Stormkeeper every 40 seconds.
(4) Set Bonus: For 8 seconds after you consume Stormkeeper, your Lightning Bolt, Lava Burst, Icefury, and Frost Shock generate 100% more Maelstrom, and your Chain Lightning, Lava Beam, and Earthquake critical strike damage is increased by 20%.
Enhancement
(2) Set Bonus: Sundering increases your Mastery by 12% for 15 seconds.
(4) Set Bonus: When Sundering hits a single target, you deal 30% increased physical damage for 15 seconds. When Sundering strikes 2 or more targets, your next Chain Lightning deals 50% increased damage and refunds 100% of Maelstrom Weapon stacks consumed.
Restoration
(2) Set Bonus: when you cast Healing Rain, all allies with your Riptide on them are healed by Tidewaters for (140% of Spell Power).
(4) Set Bonus: Each ally healed by Tidewaters increases your haste by 1% for 6 seconds and increases the healing of your next Riptide by 10%.
Warlock
Affliction
(2) Set Bonus: Vile Taint cooldown reduced by 5 seconds and Phantom Singularity cooldown reduced by 12 seconds. Vile Taint and Phantom Singularity damage increased by 60%.
(4) Set Bonus: Enemies damaged by Phantom Singularity gain Infirmity for its duration and enemies damaged by Vile Taint gain Infirmity for 10 seconds, increasing damage taken by 10%.
Developers’ note: The (4) Set Bonus technically applies Infirmity for 2 seconds every time an enemy is damaged by Phantom Singularity. Phantom Singularity deals damage every 2 seconds, so this has the effect of keeping Infirmity on targets for its duration.
Demonology
(2) Set Bonus: Demonbolt damage increased 15%. Consuming a Demonic Core reduces the cooldown of Grimoire: Felguard by 1 second.
(4) Set Bonus: Grimoire: Felguard deals 40% additional damage and empowers your active demons, increasing their damage done by 20% while active.
Destruction
(2) Set Bonus: Channel Demonfire bolts, Immolate, and Incinerate have a 20% chance to fire an additional Channel Demonfire bolt.
(4) Set Bonus: After casting 15 Demonfire bolts, your next Demonfire bolt deals (103% of Spell Power) Shadowflame damage to the target and (35% of Spell Power) Shadowflame damage to enemies within 8 yards.
Warrior
Arms
(2) Set Bonus: Deep Wounds increases your chance to critically strike and critical strike damage dealt to afflicted targets by 10%.
(4) Set Bonus: Deep Wounds critical strikes have a chance to increase the damage of your next Slam by 25%, stacking 10 times, and cause it to strike up to 4 additional targets for 50% damage.
Developers’ Note: The chance for the (4) Set Bonus to trigger its effect increases at a diminishing rate for each target beyond the first. This is similar to the effects of spells like Agony and Shooting Stars.
Fury
(2) Set Bonus: Rampage damage and chance to critically strike increased by 10%.
(4) Set Bonus: Rampage critical strikes against your primary target cause your next Bloodthirst to deal 50% increased damage and generate 2 additional Rage, stacking up to 4 times. It also has a 100% chance to critically strike.
Protection
(2) Set Bonus: Shield Slam deals 15% increased damage and reduces the cooldown of Last Stand by 0.5 seconds. During Last Stand these effects are doubled.
(4) Set Bonus: For 10 seconds after Last Stand ends, Shield Slam unleashes a wave of force dealing damage to enemies in front of you and reduces damage they deal to you by 5% for 5 seconds.
Playtesting and Providing Feedback
The bonuses above will become available for testing in the Embers of Neltharion PTR over the coming weeks. We expect the first few sets you’ll see on the PTR to be Death Knight, Havoc Demon Hunter, Druid, Mage, Brewmaster Monk, and Holy and Protection Paladin. Look for Setzertauren near the current PvP and Professions vendors in Orgrimmar and Stormwind City. Please share bugs you find via the in-game bug reporting tool and your feedback about the bonuses in this thread.
Thank you!
Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible Raid Testing Schedule
The raid testing schedule is very fluid and subject to the realities of a test environment. There’s the possibility of having to change the time of a testing session, change the bosses being tested, or cancel a test entirely due to bugs, server hardware issues, etc.
We’ll be updating this schedule with boss details as we get closer to their testing dates. Keep an eye on the PTR forum for the boss feedback threads and the latest information. Thank you in advance for testing and providing feedback.
Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible Raid Testing Schedule
The final boss of the raid, Scalecommander Sarkareth, will not be available for testing.
Thursday, March 16
Heroic
Kazzara, the Hellforged – 13:00 PDT (16:00 EDT, 21:00 CET)
The Amalgamation Chamber – 14:00 PDT (17:00 EDT, 22:00 CET)
Rashok, the Elder – 14:00 PDT (17:00 EDT, 22:00 CET)
Thursday, March 23
Heroic
Boss TBD – 13:00 PDT (16:00 EDT, 22:00 CEST)
Boss TBD – 14:00 PDT (17:00 EDT, 23:00 CEST)
Friday, March 24
Heroic
Boss TBD – 13:00 PDT (16:00 EDT, 22:00 CEST)
Boss TBD – 14:00 PDT (17:00 EDT, 23:00 CEST)
Normal
Start – 15:00 PDT (18:00 EDT, 00:00 CEST)
End – Monday, March 27 at 09:00 PDT (12:00 EDT, 18:00 CEST)
Thursday, March 30
Mythic
Boss TBD – 13:00 PDT (16:00 EDT, 22:00 CEST)
Boss TBD – 14:00 PDT (17:00 EDT, 23:00 CEST)
Friday, March 31
Raid Finder
Wing TBD
Start – 17:00 PDT (21:00 EDT, 03:00 CEST)
End – Monday, April 1 at 09:00 PDT (12:00 EDT, 18:00 CEST)
Thursday, April 6
Mythic
Boss TBD – 13:00 PDT (16:00 EDT, 22:00 CEST)
Boss TBD – 14:00 PDT (17:00 EDT, 23:00 CEST)
Boss TBD – 15:00 PDT (18:00 EDT, 00:00 CEST)
Friday, April 7
Mythic
Boss TBD – 13:00 PDT (16:00 EDT, 22:00 CEST)
Boss TBD – 14:00 PDT (17:00 EDT, 23:00 CEST)
Boss TBD – 15:00 PDT (18:00 EDT, 00:00 CEST)
Friday, April 14
Mythic
Boss TBD – 13:00 PDT (16:00 EDT, 22:00 CEST)
Boss TBD – 14:00 PDT (17:00 EDT, 23:00 CEST)
Friday, April 21
Mythic
Boss TBD – 13:00 PDT (16:00 EDT, 22:00 CEST)
Boss TBD – 14:00 PDT (17:00 EDT, 23:00 CEST)
Raid Finder
The remaining two Raid Finder wings will be added to the testing schedule at a later date.
Q: How do I get into the raid zone?
A: In Valdrakken, Orgrimmar, or Stormwind, you may speak to Nexus-Lord Donjon Rade V in order to teleport into the raid zone while it is open for testing. (The option to teleport into a zone will not be available when the zone is not open for testing.)
Q: What character should I use to test the raid?
A: Whichever you prefer. We will be scaling players’ effective level to 70 for raid testing, and their item level to an appropriate threshold for the encounter(s) being tested.
Q: How long does testing last?
A: The primary purpose of testing is to give us the information we need to balance the encounters, evaluate how mechanics are playing out in practice, and identify bugs. Once we’re satisfied that we’ve received that information for a given boss, we’ll be shutting down testing. Usually this takes anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours, but there are no guarantees.
Q: How do I report feedback or bugs?
A: We’ll be posting encounter feedback threads each week prior to the start of the raid tests. Additionally, you can also submit your feedback through the in-game Issue Reporter tool.
Blizzard has announced the first Mythic+ dungeon testing weekend in a similar way that Season 1 testing was done on the Beta! This time around 7 out of 8 dungeons will be testable already in the first weekend.
Dragonflight Season 2 Mythic+ testing begins on PTR realms Thursday March 16th. The test period will begin Thursday March 16th at 10:00 PDT (13:00 EDT, 20:00 CEST), and end Monday March 20th at 10:00 PDT (13:00 EDT, 20:00 CEST). Please note that the test period may be adjusted in the event of technical difficulties.
The first weekend features 7 of our season 2 Mythic+ dungeons:
• Neltharus
• Brackenhide Hollow
• Halls of Infusion
• Uldaman: Legacy of Tyr
• Freehold
• The Underrot
• Neltharion’s Lair
During the test period you’ll be able to acquire and customize Mythic Keystones by talking to the Keystone Vendor in Valdrakken, and the nearby Dungeon Teleports NPC will assist you with transportation.
More interviews have come out for patch 10.1 and datamining has started as well!
Below is a roundup of new information, of course you can expect some spoilers:
Classes/Races
Worgen are getting a new spell that will allow them to automatically go back to human form when leaving combat (Wowhead)
Itemization
They are looking at alternative ways to obtain set bonus items. Possible ideas are an item from the end boss that can turn into any set piece or an achievement that will allow you to get a new set piece. (Echo)
New class trinkets will be dropping in the new raid (Wowhead)
If the datamining is correct, a lot of the epic profession items won’t require a Spark of Ingenuity\Primal Chaos anymore for crafting the base item (MMO-Champion)
Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible Raid
All 9 bosses have been datamined and are in the dungeon journal: (1) Kazzara, (2) Molgoth, (3) Experimentation of Dracthyr, (4) Zaqali Invasion, (5) Rashok, (6) Zskarn, (7) Magmorax, (8) Neltharion and (9) Scalecommander Sarkareth (Wowhead)
Zaralek Cavern world quests, objectives, rares, and dragonriding are available for testing.
The new underground zone is located on the eastern side of the Ohn’ahran Plains, just outside of Valdrakken. Players may access the zone by flying through the tunnel, leading to the new zone, Zaralek Cavern.
The Embers of Neltharion campaign will become available in next week’s PTR build.
FYRAKK ASSAULTS
Fyrakk’s forces are gathering resources at Suffusion Camps located in the Azure Span and Ohn’ahran Plains. Disrupt their efforts to lure Fyrakk and his disciples out.
INVITE BOTH FACTIONS’ PLAYERS TO GUILDS
Players who have been enjoying Cross-Faction Instances now have the ability to join the same guild as their opposite-faction friends and benefit from conveniences like shared chat and guild repairs.
Guilds are still affiliated with either the Horde or the Alliance, depending on the faction of the guild leader. Guild achievements and guild vendors, for example, will still reflect the guild’s primary faction. Opposite faction members may benefit from unlocked shared perks but may be unable to contribute to certain achievements (e.g. we would not expect Alliance members of a Horde guild to be able to contribute progress towards the “Alliance Slayer” guild achievement).
This is our first step of potentially several in publicly testing this long-awaited feature, so keep an eye out for updates and we look forward to reading your experiences in the feedback thread throughout the PTR cycle.
NEW UPGRADE SYSTEM
A new upgrade system will replace many of the various upgrade systems currently in place, such as Valor and Storm Gear, with a single system that covers most of the game. This system will last for the duration of Season Two, and after that we’ll evaluate how well it’s working and whether we want to keep it.
The basics of this system are simple: you’ll earn a new currency called Flightstones from just about anything you do— complete a world quest, kill a unique creature, run a Mythic Keystone dungeon, kill a raid boss, etc. You’ll also get items called Shadowflame Crests (or fragments of them), which come in four varieties from different content difficulty levels. Shadowflame Crests and their fragments will also come from a wide range of content, including outdoor gameplay, Mythic+ dungeons, and raids. You’ll be able to upgrade almostany item in Season Two’s max-level gameplay ecosystem, whether it comes from a World Quest or a Mythic raid boss, by spending Flightstones and Shadowflame Crests.
There are three categories of gear that are not part of this system. The first is crafted gear, which will be upgraded using recrafting, much the same as it’s done now. The other kind of gear not included in this upgrade system is PvP gear. PvP gearing will continue to work as it did in Dragonflight Season One. The final kind of gear not available for these upgrades is the very top end of gear. Anything that’s at an item level comparable to a Mythic Raid isn’t going to be upgradable. If you want the very best gear and get into the Hall of Fame for the new raid, you’ll still need to earn gear from drops, the same as you do now.
The most important thing to keep in mind is that everything here is optional. You don’t ever need to upgrade gear with this system. You’ll still see gear drop at the same rates. This system is meant to augment and supplement your gearing journey, not replace it.
Worgen (New Racial): Calm the Wolf – Activate to control your worgen instincts and automatically assume human form when you leave combat. Learned when players learn Two Forms.
Shooting Stars can no longer be triggered by Stellar Flare.
New Talent: Wild Surges – Your chance to critically strike with Wrath and Starfire is increased by 15% and they generate 2 additional Astral Power. This is a choice node with Stellar Flare.
Wrath and Starfire generate 10 Astral Power (was 8).
Moonfire and Sunfire generate 6 Astral Power (was 2).
Stellar Flare generates 10 Astral Power (was 8).
Nature’s Balance generates 2 Astral Power every 3 seconds (was 1 every 2 seconds).
Starsurge and Starfall damage increased by 20%.
Astral Smolder deals damage over 8 seconds (was 4 seconds) and its damage is increased to 40/80% of spell damage done (was 20/40%).
Cosmic Rapidity increases the rate at which Moonfire, Sunfire, and Stellar Flare deal damage by 20% (was 25%).
Touch the Cosmos, the Vault of the Incarnates 4-set bonus, now reduces the Astral Power cost of your first Starsurge or Starfall after entering Eclipse by 5 and increases its damage by 20% (was free and 35% increased damage).
Soul of the Forest now increases Starfire’s damage and Astral Power generation during Eclipse by 30% for each target hit beyond the first, up to 90% (was 150% bonus to Starfire’s area-of-effect damage)
Power of Goldrinn damage increased by 75%.
Denizen of the Dream Faerie Dragon damage increased by 20%.
Friend of the Fae now increases Arcane and Nature damage by 8% for 20 seconds (was 4% for 30 seconds).
Elune’s Guidance now reduces the cost of Starsurge by 8 and Starfall by 10 during Incarnation: Chosen of Elune (was reduces the cost of Starsurge by 5 and Starfall by 8).
Radiant Moonlight also increases Fury of Elune’s damage by 50% and now reduces its cooldown by 20 seconds (was 15 seconds).
Radiant Moonlight increases the damage dealt by New Moon, Half Moon, and Full Moon by 25%.
Berserk has been redesigned – Go Berserk for 20 seconds. While Berserk: Generate 1 combo point every 1.5 seconds. Finishing moves restore up to 3 combo points generated over the cap. Shred and Rake damage increased by 50%. Combo point generating abilities generate one additional combo point.
New Talent: Thrashing Claws – Shred damage is increased by 20% to bleeding targets and Shred and Swipe apply the Bleed damage over time from Thrash. This talent is a choice with Merciless Claws.
Shred damage increased by 5%.
Thrash damage increased by 20%.
Relentless Predator reduces Ferocious Bite Energy cost by 20% (was 40%).
Restoration
Incarnation: Tree of Life and Convoke the Spirits now properly override each other on your Action Bar when swapping talents.
EVOKER
Devastation
Developers’ note: We’re thrilled with the reception to Devastation Evoker, and the excitement players have expressed for the playstyle. In Embers of Neltharion, we’re making targeted adjustments to a few key talents to address a nuance of the Dragonrage extension loop where it can be optimal to aggressively cancel and re-cast Disintegrate back to back, in order to maximize the effects of Feed the Flames and Causality. This specific behavior is fairly unintuitive, and the below changes are intended to make fully channeling Disintegrate the more rewarding way to play. Additionally, we’re looking to add more options for area-of-effect damage gameplay with the new talent Raging Inferno, and a redesigned Imminent Destruction.
Feed the Flames has been redesigned – Pyre reduces the remaining cooldown of Fire Breath and Eternity Surge by 1 second, or 2 seconds if it was affected by Essence Burst.
Causality has been redesigned – While channeling Disintegrate, Fire Breath and Eternity Surge cool down 100% faster.
Dragonrage duration increased to 18 seconds (was 14 seconds).
Animosity duration extension decreased to 4 seconds (was 6 seconds).
Engulfing Blaze’s cast time increase for Living Flame reduced to 0.3 seconds (was 0.5 seconds).
Engulfing Blaze’s damage bonus to Living Flame reduced to 25% (was 40%).
Imminent Destruction has been redesigned – Deep Breath causes your empower spells to reach maximum level in 20%/40% less time, and enemies struck by it take 10%/20% more damage from your empower spells for 15 seconds.
New Talent: Raging Inferno – Firestorm’s radius is increased by 50%, and Pyre deals 25% increased damage to enemies within your Firestorm.
Raging Inferno is located on the talent tree as a choice node with Snapfire.
HUNTER
Developer’s notes: In Embers of Neltharion, we’re looking to update some active abilities that don’t feel impactful while they are active, replace some talents that didn’t work out as well as we had hoped, and also adjust some numbers across a few talents. Several changes have been made across all three specializations that should make some talents more viable and exciting to use.
Roar of Sacrifice is now a talent in the core tree as a choice node against Hunter’s Avoidance.
Beast Mastery
Aspect of the Wild now causes Cobra Shot to hit 2 extra targets (was 1), to a total of 3 targets.
Master Handler cooldown reduction value increased to 4 seconds (was 2 seconds).
Snake Bite damage bonus increased to 75% (was 30%).
Bloody Frenzy has been redesigned – While Call of the Wild is active, your pets have the Beast Cleave effect, and Cobra Shot applies Serpent Sting to any target hit.
Marksmanship
Bombardment has been redesigned – Kill Shot now grants you Trick Shots.
Legacy of the Windrunners has been slightly redesigned – Aimed Shot now always shoots 2/4 Wind Arrows at your target. Every 24 Wind Arrows fired generates a charge of Aimed Shot and 30 Focus.
Wind Arrows from Legacy of the Windrunners have had their damage reduced by 66%.
Lethal Shots has been replaced with In the Rhythm.
New Talent: In the Rhythm – Fully channeling Rapid Fire now grants you 15% Haste for 6 seconds.
Bullseye is now 1 rank talent for the same benefit as the previous 2-rank version.
Survival
Ruthless Marauder is now a 2 rank talent for the same benefit as the previous 3-rank version.
Lunge has new functionality added in addition to its current effect – Each melee auto attack reduces the cooldown of Wildfire Bomb by 1 second.
MONK
Song of Chi-Ji has moved to the class tree on a choice node with Ring of Peace.
Mistweaver
Developers’ note: Ancient Teachings is a primary piece of Mistweaver’s healing toolkit in Dragonflight, but its previous design was unreliable – a single Rising Sun Kick’s targeting could sometimes determine life or death for an ally. That level of variance between results on healing out of your direct control wasn’t healthy for the specialization. Our goal is to land somewhere in the middle – a single Rising Sun Kick likely shouldn’t save an ally on its own, but it also shouldn’t condemn them either. This new design is more dynamic and capable of handling a variety of healing profiles, and we feel will offer greater reliability for Mistweaver’s consistent healing. We’ll be monitoring feedback on this change as PTR progresses.
Ancient Teachings has been redesigned – After casting Essence Font or Faeline Stomp, your Tiger Palm, Blackout Kick, and Rising Sun Kick heal up to 5 injured allies within 30 yards for 150% of the damage done, split evenly among them. Lasts 15 seconds.
Burst of Life no longer reduces the cooldown or effectiveness of Life Cocoon. Healing increased by 30%.
New Talent: Chrysalis – Reduces the cooldown of Life Cocoon by 45 seconds. Located on a choice node with Burst of Life.
Developers’ note: Chrysalis has been a staple honor talent for Mistweavers in PvP. We fill that this reliance on this talent has been indicative of Mistweaver’s lack of external cooldowns options in many forms of content. We are moving this to the spec tree to free up an honor talent slot and offer a new PvE relevant option in this choice node.
Developers’ note: With a redesign of Ancient Teachings that is more focused on group-wide healing, we are adjusting Vivify’s healing profile slightly to increase Mistweaver’s spot healing.
Vivify primary healing increased by 50% (was 20%).
Invigorating Mist healing reduced by 12%.
Calming Coalesence talent has been removed.
Song of Chi-Ji talent has been removed from Mistweaver specialization.
Revival and Restoral now properly override each other on your Action Bar when swapping talents.
Invoke Yu’lon, the Jade Serpent and Invoke Chi-Ji, the Red Crane now properly override each other on your Action Bar when swapping talents.
PALADIN
Holy
Light’s Hammer and Holy Prism now properly override each other on your Action Bar when swapping talents.
PRIEST
Divine Star and Halo should now properly override the other on your Action Bar when swapping talents.
Holy
The bounce radius of Prayer of Mending has been increased by 10 yards.
Shadow
Developer’s note: Greetings!We have several changes coming to Shadow Priest Talents in Embers of Neltharion that are aimed at addressing spec issues and adding new Talent options.
Button bloat: Shadow has more rotational abilities than most other specializations. We’re working to reduce this by having Mind Spike replace Mind Flay and removing Mind Sear.
Mind Sear: We feel Mind Sear as a spender was a worthy experiment in Dragonflight, but the gameplay has not been as smooth as we envisioned. We are removing the spell and focusing Shadow’s AoE kit further on Psychic Link.
Flooded rotation: There are times in the rotation where several spells are competing to be cast due to proc frequency and overall Insanity generation. We are adjusting some proc and the Insanity generation of several talents for a clearer rotational flow.
Lack of distinct builds: With updates to existing talents and some new talents, we aim for more build-defining choices such as investing in cooldowns, damage over time effects, critical damage, or Shadowy Apparitions.
PvP: In Dragonflight, Shadow has had access to more instant cast spells through procs and cooldowns than ever before. Because it was difficult to prevent Shadow Priests from scoring kills, we reduced their damage in Season 1. We’ve removed some of the problematic procs and cooldowns moving into 10.1.0, so there is more counterplay to Shadow’s offense. This allows us to ease up on some of the damage nerfs to the spec. We’re looking forward to hearing your feedback on any changes we’ve made as well as any other thoughts you have about Shadow Priest. Thank you!
Mind Sear, Dark Void, Coalescing Shadows, Puppet Master, Harnessed Shadows, Pain of Death, Surge of Darkness, and Damnation have been removed.
Shadowy Insight no longer passively grants an additional charge of Mind Blast.
Shadowy Insight no longer temporarily increases the maximum charges of Mind Blast when it triggers.
Psychic Link now affects Devouring Plague and Shadow Word: Death.
Psychic Link is now a 1-point talent and has been moved to Mind Sear’s location.
Psychic Link has been reworded – Your damaging single target spells deal 40% of their damage to all other targets afflicted by your Vampiric Touch within 40 yards. Does not apply to damage from Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch.
Auspicious Spirits now causes Shadowy Apparitions to have a chance to generate 2 Insanity instead of always generating 1 Insanity.
Maddening Touch now increases the damage of Vampiric Touch by 10%/20% and has a chance to generate 1 Insanity/2 Insanity.
Void Torrent generates 24 Insanity over its duration (was 60).
Shadow Crash generates 6 Insanity (was 15).
Shadow Crash no longer applies Vampiric Touch.
Mind Devourer now has a 4%/8% chance to grant a free cast of Devouring Plague (was 10%/20%).
Mind Devourer now increases the damage of your next Devouring Plague by 8%/15% when it triggers.
Mind Melt no longer reduces the cast time of Mind Blast.
Mind Melt is now a 2-point talent.
Mind Melt increases the critical strike chance of Mind Blast by 10%/20% (was 25%), stacking up to 4 times (was 2).
Idol of C’Thun can now trigger from Mind Spike and Void Torrent damage.
Idol of C’Thun now spawns a Void Lasher if there are more than 2 targets nearby and otherwise spawns a Void Tendril.
Idol of C’Thun Mind Flay damage reduced by 20%.
Idol of C’Thun Mind Sear damage increased by 75%.
Void Tendril and Void Lasher from Idol of C’Thun generate 15 Insanity over their duration (was 30).
Mind Sear from Idol of C’Thun now deals reduced damage beyond 5 targets.
The cast speed of Mind Sear from Idol of C’Thun no longer scales with Haste.
Mind Flay and Mind Sear from Idol of C’Thun, Echoing Void from Idol of N’Zoth, and Void Torrent now have 5% damage variance.
Mind Spike now replaces Mind Flay.
Mind Spike damage increased by 15%.
Mind Flay: Insanity has been renamed to Surge of Insanity.
Surge of Insanity generates 12 Insanity over its duration (was 16).
Surge of Insanity now empowers your next Mind Flay or Mind Spike.
Surge of Insanity now lasts 15 seconds (was 10 seconds).
Surge of Insanity can now accumulate up to 2 charges.
Mind Flay: Insanity and Mind Spike: Insanity have been added to the Personal Resource Display.
Screams of the Void has been redesigned – Devouring Plague causes your Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch to deal damage 40%/80% faster for 3 seconds.
Mental Decay now also increases the duration of Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch by 2 seconds when Mind Spike is cast.
Dark Evangelism can now also be triggered by Mind Spike.
Insidious Ire now also affects Void Torrent damage.
New Talent: Thought Harvester – Mind Blast gains an additional charge.
New Talent: Whispering Shadows – Shadow Crash generates an additional 6 Insanity and applies Vampiric Touch to up to 8 targets it damages.
New Talent: Voidtouched – Increases your Devouring Plague damage by 6% and increases your maximum Insanity by 50.
New Talent: Mastermind – Increases the critical strike chance of Mind Blast, Mind Flay, and Mind Spike by 2%/4% and increases their critical strike damage by 13%/25%.
New Talent: Phantasmal Pathogen – Shadowy Apparitions deal 75%/150% increased damage to targets affected by your Devouring Plague.
New Talent: Mind’s Eye – Reduces the Insanity cost of Devouring Plague by 5.
Throes of Pain generates 1 Insanity per rank (was 3 and 5).
Ancient Madness is now a 1-point talent.
Dark Ascension and Void Eruption should now properly override the other on your Action Bar when swapping talents.
Several nodes in the talent tree have changed position.
Updated the Shadow Priest starter build.
SHAMAN
Enhancement
Developers’ note: A few talent changes have been made in an effort to allow you to opt into a reduction of the frequency and number of keybinds that feel required to play as Enhancement. We’re hoping that the changes to Thorim’s Invocation and Static Accumulation make your Lightning spells your primary spenders and not require you to also use Elemental Blast. Changing Fire Nova to deal Flamestrike damage should help the talent feel more viable when focusing on a physical damage build.
Windfury Weapon damage increased by 50%.
Forceful Winds damage per stack lowered to 20% (was 40%).
Static Accumulation now grants Lightning Bolt/Chain Lightning a 10/20% chance to refund Maelstrom Weapon spent on Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning.
Thorim’s Invocation now also increases Lightning Bolt/Chain Lightning damage by 20%.
Elemental Weapons now increases your elemental damage dealt by 2.5% per active weapon imbue.
Fire Nova now deals both Fire and Physical spell school damage.
DRAGONRIDING
Discover 8 new Dragonriding Glyphs in Zaralek Caverns to unlock 2 new Dragonriding traits:
Ground Skimming – When dragonriding near the ground, you regenerate 1 Vigor every 30 seconds. This effect does not occur while affected by Thrill of the Skies.
Gladiator’s Distinction (PvP trinket 2-set bonus) no longer provides crowd control reduction.
INTERRUPT DURATION CHANGES – The below changes for interrupts are gamewide, not PvP specific.
Developers’ note: We feel that this change would have minimal impact in other content due to how creature spells are generally designed, as most kicks are spent on spells that have inherent cooldowns longer than the interrupt duration. We will also be keeping extra consideration of these changes for seasonal dungeons.
Pummel interrupt duration decreased to 3 seconds (was 4 seconds).
CROWD CONTROL PVP DURATION CHANGES – The below changes for the noted crowd control abilities are PvP duration changes.
Death Knight
Blinding Sleet duration decreased to 4 seconds in PvP combat (was 5 seconds).
Asphyxiate duration decreased to 3 seconds in PvP combat (was 5 seconds).
Demon Hunter
Fel Eruption duration decreased to 3 seconds in PvP combat (was 4 seconds).
Druid
Entangling Roots duration decreased to 6 seconds in PvP combat (was 8 seconds).
Hibernate duration decreased to 6 seconds in PvP combat (was 8 seconds).
Mass Entanglement duration decreased to 6 seconds in PvP combat (was 8 seconds).
Ursol’s Vortex duration decreased to 6 seconds in PvP combat (was 10 seconds).
Evoker
Landslide root duration decreased to 6 seconds in PvP combat (was 8 seconds).
Hunter
Freezing Trap duration decreased to 6 seconds in PvP combat (was 8 seconds).
Steel Trap duration decreased to 6 seconds in PvP combat (was 8 seconds).
Scatter Shot duration decreased to 3 seconds in PvP combat (was 4 seconds).
Intimidation duration decreased to 3 seconds in PvP combat (was 5 seconds).
Mage
Polymorph duration decreased to 6 seconds in PvP combat (was 8 seconds).
Mass Polymorph duration decreased to 6 seconds in PvP combat (was 8 seconds).
Ring of Frost duration decreased to 6 seconds in PvP combat (was 8 seconds).
Paladin
Hammer of Justice duration decreased to 5 seconds in PvP combat (was 6 seconds).
Blinding Light duration decreased to 4 seconds in PvP combat (was 5 seconds).
Repentance duration decreased to 6 seconds in PvP combat (was 8 seconds).
Turn Evil duration decreased to 6 seconds in PvP combat (was 8 seconds).
Priest
Mind Control duration decreased to 6 seconds in PvP combat (was 8 seconds).
Shackle Undead duration decreased to 6 seconds in PvP combat (was 8 seconds).
Psychic Horror duration decreased to 3 seconds in PvP combat (was 4 seconds).
Rogue
Blind duration decreased to 5 seconds in PvP combat (was 8 seconds).
Sap duration decreased to 6 seconds in PvP combat (was 8 seconds).
Kidney Shot duration decreased by 1 second per combo point in PvP combat:
1 point – 1 second
2 points – 2 seconds
3 points – 3 seconds
4 points – 4 seconds
5 points – 5 seconds
Shaman
Earthgrab Totem duration decreased to 6 seconds in PvP combat (was 8 seconds).
Hex duration decreased to 6 seconds in PvP combat (was 8 seconds).
Warlock
Seduction duration decreased to 6 seconds in PvP combat (was 8 seconds).
Banish duration decreased to 6 seconds in PvP combat (was 8 seconds).
Axe Toss (Stun and Interrupt) duration decreased to 3 seconds in PvP combat (was 4 seconds).
Grimoire: Felguard (Stun and Interrupt) duration decreased to 3 seconds in PvP combat (was 4 seconds).
Spell Lock (Grimoire of Sacrifice version) interrupt duration decreased to 5 seconds in PvP combat (was 6 seconds).
Warrior
Storm Bolt duration decreased to 3 seconds in PvP combat (was 4 seconds).
CLASSES
Developers’ note: In this week’s build you’ll see new PvP talents and changes to some existing ones; over the coming weeks you will continue to see more updates to PvP talents. Keep an eye on the latest PTR patch notes for details of the changes.
DEATH KNIGHT
Blood
Heart Strike damage increased by 20% in PvP combat.
Blood for Blood (PvP Talent) has been removed.
EVOKER
New PvP Talent: Divide and Conquer – Deep Breath forms curtains of fire, preventing line of sight to enemies outside its walls and burning enemies who walk through them for Fire damage. Lasts 6 seconds.
Time Stop cooldown reduced to 90 seconds (was 120 seconds).
Swoop Up range increased to 25 yards (was 20 yards).
HUNTER
Roar of Sacrifice has been removed as a PvP talent.
Roar of Sacrifice is now a talent in the core tree as a choice node against Hunter’s Avoidance.
Interlope (PvP Talent) has been redesigned – Misdirection now causes your pet to redirect the next 3 hostile spells cast on you to themselves. Misdirection cooldown increased by 15 seconds. Your pet must be within 20 yards of the target for spells to be redirected.
Developers’ note: We’re still working on this talent, so there may be a few bugs with this ability in this week’s PTR.
Dragonscale Armor (PvP Talent) has been removed.
Marksmanship
Ranger’s Finesse (PvP Talent) has been redesigned – Casting Aimed Shot provides you with Ranger’s Finesse. After gaining 3 stacks of Ranger’s Finesse, increase your next Volley’s range and duration by 50% or your next Bursting Shot’s slow by 50% and its knockback distance. Consuming Ranger’s Finesse reduces the remaining cooldown of Aspect of the Turtle by 20 seconds.
Developers’ note: We’re still working on this talent, so there may be a few bugs with this ability in this week’s PTR.
Survival
New PvP Talent: Sticky Tar Bomb – Throw a Sticky Tar Bomb that coats your target’s weapons with tar, disarming them for 4 seconds. After 4 seconds, Sticky Tar Bomb explodes onto enemies within 10 yards. Other enemies that are hit by the explosion are affected by Sticky Tar Bomb but this effect cannot spread further.
Sticky Tar (PvP Talent) has been removed.
MAGE
Netherwind Armor (PvP Talent) has been removed.
Prismatic Cloak (PvP Talent) has been removed.
Arcane
Arcane Missiles damage increased by 5% in PvP combat.
Kleptomania (PvP Talent) has been redesigned – Unleash a flurry of disruptive magic onto your target, stealing a beneficial magic effect every .5 seconds for 4 seconds. Castable while moving, but movement speed is reduced by 40% while channeling.
Mass Invisibility (PvP Talent) now has a 10 second duration, breaks if any actions are taken, and replaces Invisibility when learned.
Arcane Empowerment (PvP Talent) has been removed.
Fire
World of Flames (PvP Talent) has been redesigned – Empower Flamestrike, dealing up to 200% more damage based on enemies’ distance to the center of Flamestrike.
Glass Cannon (PvP Talent) now increases damage of Fireball and Scorch by 100% (was 40%) and now also increases the damage of Mastery: Ignite. Additionally, the maximum health reduction is now 20% (was 15%).
Frost
New PvP Talent: Icy Feet – When your Frost Nova or Water Elemental’s Freeze is dispelled or removed, become immune to snares for 3 seconds. This effect can only occur once every 10 seconds.
Chilled to the Bone (PvP Talent) has been removed.
MONK
Mistweaver
Chrysalis (PvP Talent) – Removed from PvP talents. Located on a choice node with Burst of Life on the Mistweaver specialization tree.
Thunderous Focus Tea (PvP Talent) has been redesigned – Thunder Focus Tea can now additionally cause Crackling Jade Lightning’s knockback immediately or cause Roll and Chi Torpedo to refund a charge on use and heal you.
New PvP Talent: Fae Accord – Faeline Stomp’s cooldown is reduced by 20 seconds. Enemies struck by Faeline Stomp are snared by 70% for 8 seconds.
PALADIN
Holy
Flash of Light healing increased by 50% for Holy Paladins in PvP combat (was 25%).
Holy Light healing increased by 100% in PvP combat (was 75%).
Light’s Grace (PvP Talent) has been removed.
PRIEST
Holy
The bounce radius of Prayer of Mending has been increased by 10 yards.
Prayer of Mending healing increased by 50% in PvP combat.
Cardinal Mending (PvP Talent) has been removed.
Discipline
Power Word: Barrier effectiveness increased by 100% in PvP combat.
Dome of Light has been removed.
Shadow
Mind Spike damage is now increased by 25% in PvP combat (was reduced by 25%).
Vampiric Touch damage is no longer reduced in PvP combat (was reduced by 5%).
Void Origins (PvP Talent) has been removed.
ROGUE
Dagger in the Dark (PvP Talent) has been redesigned – Each second while Stealth is active, nearby enemies within 12 yards take an additional 2% damage from you for 10 seconds. Stacks up to 6 times.
Subtlety
Distracting Mirage (PvP Talent) slow value has been increased to 60% (was 30%).
SHAMAN
Seasoned Winds (PvP Talent) is now available to all specializations (was Elemental and Enhancement).
Seasoned Winds now lasts 18 seconds and can stack up to 3 times.
Static Field Totem (PvP Talent) is now available to all specializations (was Elemental and Enhancement).
Enhancement
Ethereal Form (PvP Talent) has been removed.
Restoration
New PvP Talent: Rain Dance – Healing Rain is now instant, 20% more effective, and costs 30% less mana.
Cleansing Waters (PvP Talent) has been removed.
WARRIOR
Warbringer (PVP Talent) damage reduced by 65%. Range increased to 20 yard cone.
Rebound (PvP Talent) has been redesigned – Spell Reflection reflects the next 2 incoming spells cast on you and reflected spells deal 50% extra damage to the attacker. Spell Reflection’s cooldown is increased by 10 seconds.
Arms
Duel (PvP Talent) – Characters in a duel are now highlighted for each other.
Protection
Thunderstruck (PvP talent) duration increased to 4 seconds, now obeys Diminishing Returns and breaks on damage.
Sword and Board (PvP Talent) has been removed.
PROFESSIONS
New Optional Reagents are available for upgrading items to a higher item level.
Developers’ note: Crafting UI doesn’t currently display these new reagent slots correctly.
Non-Spark gear (Blue)
Titan Training Matrix V
Enchanted Whelpling’s Shadowflame Crest
Spark gear (Purple)
Enchanted Wyrm’s Shadowflame Crest
Enchanted Aspect’s Shadowflame Crest
Elemental Lariat duration changed to 5 seconds (was 12 seconds); increased by 1 second per elemental gem equipped.
Developers’ note: The Elemental Lariat has been one of the strongest embellishments due to its ability to grant a large amount of your desired stat based on a condition that is easy to satisfy. We knew that we wanted to bring its power back on the season boundary, but was important to us that player’s investment in acquiring the item or the recipe was respected. Rather than reduce its power directly, we opted to redesign the passive to bring it in line with all other Jewelcrafting effects by scaling an axis of power with the quantity of gems slotted. The net result is that the Elemental Lariat will be less powerful than it is now earlier in a player’s gearing phase, while preserving its place as a throughput powerhouse when players begin to round off their gear set with added sockets. We look forward to hearing your feedback.
Tooltip size for Recipe Unlearned has been increased.
Players can now purchase Crests of Honor and Trophies of Conquest from PvP quartermasters in Valdrakken. These tokens cost 525, 700, and 875 of their respective currencies and are used as Optional Reagents when crafting armor and accessories of identical costs. Items enhanced with these reagents will gain the ability to scale to their appropriate PvP item level in Arenas and Battlegrounds.
Developers’ note: Our goals with this addition are to enable a broader selection of embellishments to be viable choices for players of all ranks, offer more opportunities to customize secondary stats via the missive system, and enable the use of Tinkers in Unrated Battlegrounds without concerns of the power discrepancy.
Last season’s Crimson Combatant recipes can now be purchased from Korganar Smolderforge in the Gladiator’s Refuge for 3 Marks of Honor each.
Shadowlands scaled items can now be disenchanted in Chromie Time.
Herb nodes have been placed in the Zaralek Cavern. Mining, Fishing, and Skinning will be coming in future weeks of the PTR.
Profession recipes have been added for the following professions but not all are fully enabled. Sources and recipe costs are still being worked on. You can find these on the temporary crafting vendors.
ALCHEMY
Draconic Phial Cauldron
Stinky Bright Potion
Transmute: Dracothyst
Cauldron of Extracted Putresence
BLACKSMITHING
Hellsteel Alloy
Hellsteel Belt Buckle
Hellsteel Impact Buckler
Hellsteel Bunker Buster (This name will change)
Heat-Resistant Rescue Ring
COOKING
Rocks on the Rocks
Charitable Cheddar
Roland (Battle Pet)
ENCHANTING
Shadowflame Wreathe
Spore Tender
Spore Keeper’s Baton
Illusory Adornment: Spores
Titan Training Matrix V
Enchanted Whelpling’s Shadowflame Crest
Enchanted Wyrm’s Shadowflame Crest
Enchanted Aspect’s Shadowflame Crest
ENGINEERING
Engineering skill up treasures are now in the world!
Polarity Bomb
EZ-Thro Polarity Bomb
Quackomancy Cannon
INSCRIPTION
Winding Slitherdrake: Blue and Silver Armor
Winding Slitherdrake: Yellow and Silver Armor
Winding Slitherdrake: Curved Chin Horn
Winding Slitherdrake: White Hair
Winding Slitherdrake: Small Finned Throat
Glyph of the Chosen Glaive
Glyph of the Heaved Armament
Vantus Rune: Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible
Hissing Rune
Contract: Loamm Niffen
LEATHERWORKING
Adaptive Dracothyst Armguards
Spore Colony Shoulderguards
Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch
Lambent Armor Kit
Obsidian Combatant gear
TAILORING
Spore-Infused Combat Bandage
Reserve Parachute
Undulating Sporecloak
Explorer’s Banner of Comradery
Enormous Ball of Yarn
QUESTS
Briggul has her hands full with a star snail that is too big to race. Do you have what it takes to train him up? Speak to Briggul in Glimmerogg to start the quest “Come Snail Away.”
USER INTERFACE AND ACCESSIBILITY
Talent Loadouts can now be linked to chat through the Share menu.
Updated special resource art and animations for the following classes:
Arcane Mage
Death Knight
Feral Druid
Windwalker Monk
Paladin
Rogue
Warlock
Updated Experience and Reputation gain animations and effects.
A consistency pass has been done on scroll bars in art and functionality.
EDIT MODE
Cast Bar now has an option to show the cast time.
Minimap size can now be adjusted.
The Looking for Group Eye has been added to the Micro Menu frame, and its size can be adjusted.
Raid Frames will now show more buffs depending on the size of the frame, up to a maximum of 7 (was capped at 3).
Frames should no longer drag other elements that weren’t manually snapped to them.
The Experience and Reputation bars have been renamed to the more generic Status Bar 1 and 2, but will still be labeled Experience Bar for leveling characters.
Added a slash command for accessing Edit Mode: /editmode.
OPTIONS
Added an option to disable chat.
Added a keybind option to stop ongoing Text-to-Speech.
The Interface > Raid Frames section now shows a preview of your raid frames display.
A hover state has been added to all options so you can more easily tell which line you’re looking at.
Blue Posts on Cross Faction Guilds, Druid Changes and PvP
The ability to invite opposing faction players to a guild is available for testing on the Embers of Nelthation (10.1) PTR.
Here are a few things we’d like to bring attention to for this test:
We hope to bring this feature to the game in the Embers of Neltharion update but depending on the extent of issues uncovered during public testing, we may need to delay it in order to provide the best possible experience. We’re enabling a “work in progress” version of the functionality at the outset of this PTR to give us the most possible time to identify and address issues.
This is a focused implementation, aimed at allowing players who have been enjoying Cross-Faction Instances the ability to join the same guild as their opposite-faction friends and benefit from conveniences like shared chat and guild repairs.
Guilds are still affiliated with either the Horde or the Alliance, depending on the faction of the guild leader. Guild achievements and guild vendors, for example, will still reflect the guild’s primary faction. Opposite faction members may benefit from unlocked shared perks but may be unable to contribute to certain achievements (e.g. we would not expect Alliance members of a Horde guild to be able to contribute progress towards the “Alliance Slayer” guild achievement).
There is a current known bug where you are unable to send mail to opposing faction guildmates. This will be fixed in a future update.
Please use this forum thread to share your feedback/issues experienced on joining opposite-faction guilds, chat, etc.
This is our first step of potentially several in publicly testing this long-awaited feature, so keep an eye out for updates and we look forward to reading your experiences in this thread throughout the PTR cycle.
There are some changes coming to Feral and Balance Druids in Embers of Neltharion, and we’re here to walk you through them and the goals behind them. Let’s get started!
Balance
In Embers of Neltharion, we’re looking to address some of the pain points and unintuitive aspects of Balance’s gameplay. The 10.0 set armor bonus is also rotating out, and we’re keeping an eye on how the spec plays without it. For this round of changes, we’re targeting three specific aspects of Balance’s gameplay:
Stellar Flare and its interactions are so strong that it is best to take it in all scenarios and maintain it on large numbers of targets, which is demanding to keep track of and makes Balance’s ramp at the beginning of fights very long.
Eclipse and effects that trigger on entering eclipse are so strong that they incentivize Druids to use Lunar Eclipse in all situations because it is faster to trigger.
There are enough bonuses to Starfire splash damage that it’s optimal to target an enemy next to your focus target.
Addressing these gameplay factors will require significantly reducing the power of some of Balance’s most impactful talents and bonuse s. We want Balance to be enjoyable to play and powerful when played well and in scenarios that it is well suited for, so we will be buffing Balance elsewhere to make up for those power reductions and keeping an eye on its power and tuning.
Stellar Flare
Stellar Flare’s power is driven significantly by its interactions with talents like Shooting Stars, Cosmic Rapidity, and Waning Twilight. These interactions are strong enough that it’s taken for all fights. Our goal is for Stellar Flare to be an optional talent that you’d choose if you’re interested in a DoT-focused build. It should be most effective against small numbers of targets.
We are removing Stellar Flare’s interaction with Shooting Stars. This will significantly decrease how essential it is for generating Astral Power, especially in many-target scenarios. To compensate, we’re increasing Astral Power generation from other sources and boosting finisher damage.
We like that Stellar Flare makes it possible to maintain the Waning Twilight bonus 100% of the time on affected targets. However, we’d like it to be easier for other builds to make use of Waning Twilight, so we are extending the duration of Astral Smolder’s DoT and creating a new choice node talent with Stellar Flare that increases Wrath & Starfire Astral Power generation and crit, making it easier to trigger Astral Smolder.
Entering Eclipse and 10.0 Set Armor
The 10.0 Set Armor 4pc bonus is changing from a free finisher dealing 35% extra damage to a 5 AP discounted finisher dealing 20% extra damage. This change will make Balance’s set bonus power more comparable to other classes. It’s also the main change we’re making to reduce the importance of entering Eclipse as often as possible. If it’s still optimal to use Lunar Eclipse in every scenario we’ll investigate further changes.
Starfire AOE
Several effects increase the damage Starfire deals to nearby targets during Eclipse, even pushing it above its primary target damage. To change this, we are changing Soul of the Forest to instead increase Starfire’s damage and Astral Power generation against multiple targets.
The Rest
In addition to the above, we’re making some targeted changes to underpowered or underselected talents to make them more competitive, especially Balance’s endcap talents.
Change List
Shooting Stars can no longer be triggered by Stellar Flare.
New Talent: Wild Surges. Your chance to critically strike with Wrath and Starfire is increased by 15% and they generate 2 additional Astral Power. This is a choice node with Stellar Flare.
Wrath and Starfire generate 10 Astral Power (up from 8)
Moonfire and Sunfire generate 6 Astral Power (up from 2)
Stellar Flare generates 10 Astral Power (up from 8)
Nature’s Balance generates 2 Astral Power every 3 seconds (up from 1 every 2)
Starsurge and Starfall damage increased by 20%.
Astral Smolder deals damage over 8 seconds (up from 4) and its damage is increased to 40/80% of spell damage done (up from 20/40%).
Cosmic Rapidity increases the rate at which Moonfire, Sunfire, and Stellar Flare deal damage by 20% (down from 25%).
Touch the Cosmos, the 10.0 (4) Set Armor bonus, now reduces the Astral Power cost of your first Starsurge or Starfall after entering Eclipse by 5 and increases its damage by 20% (was free and 35% increased damage).
Soul of the Forest now increases Starfire’s damage and AP generation during Eclipse by 30% for each target hit beyond the first, up to 90%. (Was 150% bonus to Starfire’s AOE damage)
Power of Goldrinn damage increased by 75%.
Denizen of the Dream: Faerie Dragon damage increased by 20%.
Friend of the Fae now increases Arcane and Nature damage by 8% for 20 seconds (was 4% for 30 seconds).
Elune’s Guidance now reduces the cost of Starsurge by 8 and Starfall by 10 during Incarnation: Chosen of Elune (was reduces the cost of Starsurge by 5 and Starfall by 8).
Radiant Moonlight also increases Fury of Elune’s damage by 50% and now reduces its cooldown by 20 seconds (was 15 seconds).
Radiant Moonlight increases the damage dealt by New Moon, Half Moon, and Full Moon by 25%.
Feral
Berserk
Before Embers of Neltharion, Berserk worked by restoring combo points after finishers and making Rake and Shred deal damage as if you were stealthed. This seems simple enough, and it accomplishes the goal of accelerating the rate you can cast finishers and deal damage. But under the surface, it requires a bit of cross-referencing other talents (like Pouncing Strikes) to figure out what it’s doing, and an advanced degree in Feral Science to determine the best abilities to use in different situations. The value of generating exactly 3 combo points with each builder can make it optimal to ignore abilities like Rake and Thrash entirely, which is unintuitive and makes the Berserk rotation pretty repetitive.
In Embers of Neltharion, Berserk is changing to this:
Go Berserk for 20 sec. While Berserk: Generate 1 combo point every 1.5 sec. Finishing moves restore up to 3 combo points generated over the cap. Shred and Rake damage increased by 50%. Combo point generating abilities generate one additional combo point.
The new version of Berserk aims to keep the excitement of Berserk’s accelerated rotation with frequent finishing moves, while fully rewarding you for maintaining Rake and Thrash’s bleeds and generally using the same builders you’re used to in the rest of your rotation. Since the steady flow of combo points can make it easy to go over 5, using a finishing move now restores up to 3 of those excess combo points so they aren’t wasted. If you have 4 combo points, cast a builder that crits and generates 3, then cast Ferocious Bite, you’ll have 2 left over afterward.
This update also allows some talents that lost a lot of power during Berserk to maintain their effectiveness, such as Bloodtalons, Sudden Ambush, and Lunar Inspiration. Berserk still increases Shred and Rake’s damage to retain some of Berserk’s particular effectiveness against single targets.
Tuning
This is a big change, and we’ll be keeping an eye on tuning to retain Feral’s current power and specialties. Since Shred is losing some damage in Berserk, we’re increasing its damage overall to give back some of that power without changing Shred’s role in your rotation. To make maintaining Thrash more worthwhile in both Feral’s single target and AOE rotations, we are increasing the damage of its initial hit and its bleed.
We are keeping an eye on Berserk’s power overall so that too much of your damage isn’t focused in your Berserk window. For instance, in 10.0.7 we changed Berserk: Frenzy to shift some power out of your Berserk window. In Embers of Neltharion, we are reducing the effect of Relentless Predator, as it provided more Energy than we like within Berserk specifically.
Thrashing Claws
One of the things we’re always looking for opportunities to do is give players tools to play less complicated versions of classes they love. With 3 DoTs to maintain, Feral can be an intimidating class. The new Thrashing Claws talent causes your normal single target and multi-target attacks to also apply the bleed from Thrash, meaning you don’t have to press Thrash at all. It may not be for everyone, but we hope you’ll tell us what you think if you try it.
Oh, and One More Thing…
Feral Druids are one of several classes that are getting updated resource visuals in Embers of Neltharion. Check out these combo points!
Change List
Berserk has been redesigned – Go Berserk for 20 sec. While Berserk: Generate 1 combo point every 1.5 sec. Finishing moves restore up to 3 combo points generated over the cap. Shred and Rake damage increased by 50%. Combo point generating abilities generate one additional combo point.
New talent: Thrashing Claws: Shred deals 20% increased damage to bleeding targets and and Shred and Swipe apply the Bleed damage over time from Thrash. This is a choice node with Merciless Claws.
Shred damage increased by 5%.
Thrash damage increased by 20%.
Relentless Predator now reduces the Energy costs of Ferocious Bite by 20% (down from 40%).
In the Embers of Neltharion PTR, you’ll see a number of PvP changes, and we want to discuss and provide context around these changes. We’ve felt that the game pacing in Dragonflight has been close to what we’d like, apart from having health spikes that are too large in burst windows. The changes below are decisions we’re looking to make alongside each other, to move even closer to game pacing that we’re happy with.
Critical Strike PvP Value
At the beginning of Shadowlands, we increased the Critical strike damage and healing value to 175% from 150% in PvP (from the normal 200%). We will be reverting this change, so the Critical Strike value will be 150% in PvP to address our burst concern.
We recognize this will slow down game pacing, and we will keep an eye on it to ensure it isn’t too slow. Alongside class changes, we intend to adjust the primary stat gain from Gladiator’s Distinction as a tuning knob to keep PvP pacing in a healthy place.
Crowd Control
In September, we published a post that both discussed and recognized crowd control continues to be a point of concern for players in PvP. We shared that we would continue to analyze and evaluate how crowd control plays in PvP and discussed some other options for future patches to further address the concern of crowd control, one being adjusting the PvP duration on individual abilities that may have not been changed for years.
In the Embers of Neltharion patch, players will see the first step of this, as we are making targeted adjustments for crowd control durations in PvP. Our general guideline was to reduce the PvP duration of most Crowd Control abilities so that nothing should ever go beyond 6 seconds when modified (except when modified by Evoker’s Oppressing Roar). We want crowd control to remain meaningful when coordinated well, while still allowing for reasonable counterplay opportunities by the opponent.
In addition to the typical crowd control abilities that have diminishing returns, we are adjusting the interrupt duration of some abilities that are not PvP specific. We feel that this change would have minimal impact in other content due to how creature spells are generally designed, as most kicks are spent on spells that have inherent cooldowns longer than the interrupt duration. We will also be keeping extra consideration of these changes for seasonal dungeons.
We evaluated different crowd control types and each ability within each category to determine a healthy duration for them. We do not want all similar crowd control types to necessarily be unified and want to ensure there’s unique flavor to class abilities and what makes sense within their overall kit. We’ll keep a full list of the changes in our PTR Development Notes 371.
In conjunction with these changes, Gladiator’s Distinction will no longer provide 10% CC reduction and the new season’s professions items will no longer grant 5% CC reduction.
We are continually having discussions regarding crowd control in PvP to make targeted adjustments that will be healthy for the game’s state and look forward to your feedback on this.
PvP Talents
We’ve been excited to watch players utilize the new talent trees that came in Dragonflight. In previous interviews, we hinted at a PvP talent refresh in Dragonflight similar to the refresh that occurred in Shadowlands’ Chains of Domination update, and you’ll see the start of the refresh in the Embers of Neltharion PTR. Our goal with this update is to bring new and exciting talents into the game and also revitalize existing talents that may be undervalued as the game has evolved.
In this week’s build you’ll see new PvP talents and changes to some existing ones; over the coming weeks you will continue to see more updates to PvP talents. Keep an eye on the latest PTR Development Notes 371 for details of the changes.
Precognition
In Dragonflight, we introduced a new PvP talent, Precognition. We have been happy with how the mechanic has played out in practice. However, we feel that taking one of the three PvP talent slots has been too expensive. To solve this problem, we are removing Precognition as a PVP Talent and we’re going to be making it available as an Optional Reagent that can be used to apply the Precognition effect to crafted gear. This Optional Reagent will count as an Embellishment.
We recognize it has been challenging to play a healer in PvP, and we think the Crowd Control and Precognition changes are a step in the right direction to make playing healers a more enjoyable experience for the average player.
We look forward to seeing how the above changes play out and are eager to receive feedback on them throughout the Embers of Neltharion PTR cycle. We’ll have a Play with the Blues event later in the PTR cycle, for more focused playtesting, so keep an eye out for communication about that soon.
Along with the announcement of Patch 10.1 some content creatores got a preview with more details as well as some dev interviews have taken place!
Below is a roundup of new information, of course you can expect some spoilers:
World Content
(Season 1) Elemental Storms will stay available so you can keep doing achievements and collecting the items/gear (MrGM)
All new technology has been developed to put the Zaralek Cavern zone under the existing Dragon Isles zones. It’s not instanced (MrGM)
You’ll be able to train your own snail mount for snail racing with the Drogbar (MrGM)
The new Fyrakk Assault event will also take place in the current Dragon Isles zones (MMO-Champion)
Some content unlocks will be back to unlocking on a weekly basis to contextualize the new raid (Wowhead)
The item level rewards of the open world events like the community feast will increase in season 2 so that they stay relevant. (Dratnos)
Zaralek Cavern is slightly larger than Zereth Mortis (Gamespot)
Reputation
You can cave dive with the Niffen to find treasure (sniff ‘n seeking). They’ll use their noses to find them (MrGM)
They have not yet decided on how many renown levels the Niffen will have (MrGM)
The 10.0 reputations will not get new renown levels (Dratnos)
Raiding
One of the 9 bosses is an elementium dragon that was the trial run of Deathwing’s armor. (MrGM)
Normal, Heroic and Mythic difficulties will launch simultaneously again (MMO-Champion)
Mythic+
Their philosophy on what expansion to stop at in terms of dungeons they are looking to add to the M+ dungeon pool (previously MoP) has changed. They feel like the Vortex Pinnacle was a fun dungeon to add and adjust for a Mythic+ season (MrGM)
There will be no seasonal affix and the level 7 affixes will be iterated on (MMO-Champion)
They are taking a close look at Brackenhide Hollow and may even remove some dungeon mechanics that currently exist in M0 dungeons (Wowhead)
They feel that the baseline experience for the new Dragonflight dungeons was a couple of notches too high in terms of complexity for the Mythic+ system (Gamespot)
For the level 7 affixes they’re going to look at how much you can counterplay them rather than just making the healer’s life harder on them (Wowhead)
Gear/Itemisation
Gear upgrading will be streamlined into 1 system with 1 currency (MrGM)
Gear upgrading will require the currency + a modifier item. Which modifier item you get depends on the difficulty of content you do. So if you do more difficult content (any type of content) you’ll be able to upgrade the item higher (Dratnos)
The Revival Catalyst will continue in season 2 (MMO-Champion)
The team is looking to add more determinism and bad luck protection for earning set bonuses and we can expect more information on this soon (MMO-Champion)
Heirloom scaling to level 70 is being added (MMO-Champion)
Tier sets are going to be more powerful than the sets from 10.0 (Dratnos)
They are happy with the items you can craft with professions. You’ll be able to continue upgrading items to the season 2 item levels, in addition to new profession recipes (Dratnos)
Classes
Shadow priests are getting a rework and more are planned (Dratnos)
Lore
We will learn a lot about what happened with Neltharion and his influences on the Cavern (MrGM)
Ebyssian, Wrathion and Sabellian will all come with us into the Cavern (MrGM)
The 10.0.7 (encrypted) story chapters will serve as a prologue to 10.1 (MrGM)
Throughout the upcoming patches they plan to continue side stories like with Baine in 10.0.7 (MrGM)
The Blue Dragonflight and Tyr storylines will continue (MMO-Champion)
Aberrus is the place where the Dracthyr were first created (Wowhead)
The Primal Incarnates will remain a major threat going forward and much of DF’s core storyline will revovle around understanding their goals and how to stop them (Gamespot)
Dragonriding
A new dragonriding ability will allow you to regain vigor while slowly flying close to the ground(MrGM)
The new dragonriding customisations might include the previously datamined helms, but the devs were not sure about it (MrGM)
Misc
We are getting Cross Faction guilds with the launch of the patch (MMO-Champion)
There are no new race/class combinations coming with patch 10.1 (MrGM)
There are no new race customizations planned for patch 10.1 (MrGM)
The UI changes will continue with this patch (MMO-Champion)
UI changes will include group management, raid frames, quest tracking and how quests are displayed in the game. Edit mode and personal resource bars are also being updated (Wowhead)
They don’t have plans for cross faction play in the open world but might take a look at it (Gamespot)
They have no plans for cross faction LFR or random dungeon matchmaking (Gamespot)
