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Author: Mezzy

Host and author of WoW Weekly podcast, guides and website. I have played WoW since classic, enjoy MMORPG’s and game design in general.

Warcraft Short Story: “The Lilac and the Stone”

Quote from: Blizzard

Queen Regent Moira Thaurissan is exhausted. Her son, Dagran II, is rapidly coming of age and stands to inherit leadership of both the Dark Iron and Bronzebeard Clans. But Dagran is bookish and odd: He would easily choose the company of his library over leadership. Can Moira inspire her son to take up his birthright, or will her fears for his future—and the future of the clans—prove true?

Among all the great craggy, unfeeling boulders of our people, Dagran was always my flower.

For all the good it ever did him. Or me.

Few can imagine what it costs a gentle soul to grow up a dwarf. It may even be worse than to come into this world saddled with the soul of a daughter instead of a son. That one singular roll of the bones determined much of my life before my fist first found my mother’s braid. My body robbed me blind with its first breath: it was a girl’s, and therefore not what my father wanted.

I am Moira Thaurissan, daughter of Magni Bronzebeard and his bride Eimear, princess of Ironforge, widow to the Dark Iron Emperor, mother to his heir Dagran II, and I have been angry since I was old enough to walk the path set before me. Sometimes, I think my anger will outlive me. That they will close up the earth over my body, and long after I am forgotten, some brutal, black hardened jewel left from my rot will work its way up out of the moss, hissing and spitting and still scalding hot. Maybe they will use it to warm a village somewhere. An eternity of cozy hearths and ready stews fueled by this bitter fury I carried but could never fully satisfy. I like the idea of that.

For a long time, I wore my anger on my chest, glinting like one of the gems on that shield they can’t stop squabbling over. As if it could shield me, as if it could shield anyone. But in time I learned that anger shown is anger wasted. It only puts others on guard, makes them fearful or defiant, pushes them to dig into defensive positions, fuels rumors of madness and whispers of revolt, and blunts its own edge as even fear fades with overuse. So I learned to make that shield gem inside myself, pushing the rage deep down into the caverns of my heart, compressing it into a crusted geode of pain, all so that my husband’s people might like me a bit better. All my mistakes have come from that horrid boiling crushed place inside me. Sometimes . . . I wonder who I might have been without it.

Read and Download the Rest of This Short Story by Catherynne M. Valente

Mythic+ Testing 13 June – 18 June 2024, Datamined Changes

Wowhead Datamined Season 1 Mythic Dungeon Changes

Quote from: Blizzard

Greetings!

The War Within dungeon testing begins on PTR realms this week. The test period will begin Thursday June 13th at 10:00 PDT (13:00 EDT, 19:00 CEST), and end Tuesday June 18th at 10:00 PDT (13:00 EDT, 19:00 CEST). Please note that the test period may be adjusted in the event of technical difficulties.

The following dungeons are available for testing on Mythic and Mythic+ difficulty:

  • The Stonevault
  • The Dawnbreaker
  • Ara-Kara, City of Echoes
  • City of Threads
  • Grim Batol
  • The Necrotic Wake
  • Mists of Tirna Scithe
  • Siege of Boralus

A preview of some changes to returning dungeons:

Siege of Boralus

  • Players of both factions will go through the Alliance version of the dungeon in Mythic and Mythic+
  • Ashvane Spotter’s Sighted Artillery no longer damages enemy creatures.

Necrotic Wake

  • Malfunctioning Goliath
    • Disabled in Mythic and Mythic+
  • Forgotten Hammer
    • Removed
  • Bloody Javelin
    • Initial damage reduced by 90%
    • Now applies a stacking vulnerability to enemies hit.
  • Discarded Shield
    • Is no longer a channeled effect.
    • Players can now use abilities after the shield is activated.
  • Spawning locations for Discarded Shield, Bloody Javelin and Discharged Anima have been updated

Mists of Tirna Scithe

  • Vine gates and check point can now be used by Tauren, Highmountain Tauren, Night Elf, Druids and Herbalist

Affixes will rotate daily on beta realms to expedite their testing:

  • Reckless – Non-boss enemies without mana ignore 20% armor with their attacks, but their armor is reduced by 30% and they take 10% increased Arcane damage.
  • Thorned – Non-boss enemies without mana inflict Physical damage to their attackers when attacked, but take 10% increased Holy and Shadow damage.
  • Attuned – Non-boss enemies with mana inflict 20% increased magic damage, but take 10% increased Nature damage and 30% increased damage from Bleed effects.
  • Focused – Non-boss enemies with mana have 30% increased Haste, but take 10% increased Frost and Fire damage.

During the test period you’ll be able to acquire and customize the level and dungeon of Mythic Keystones by talking to the Keystone Vendor in Stormwind or Orgrimmar, and the nearby Dungeon Teleports NPC will assist you with transportation. We look forward to hearing your feedback!

The War Within Beta Delve Testing Started

Quote from: Blizzard

Hello everyone, welcome to the start of Delves end game testing on the realm, “These Go To Eleven”!

We’re very excited to have people come in and see what we have in store for our endgame difficulty.

We wanted to start things off with a layout of what we currently have, what we’re planning next, and our goals behind these decisions.

Before Season 1 begins in The War Within players will have access to Tiers 1, 2, and 3 difficulty in delves. We expect players who have been keeping up with the current season will prefer tiers 2 and 3, while newer players will begin in tier 1 before graduating up to 2 and eventually 3 when they gear up.

When Season 1 begins we will open up tiers 4 through 11 along with introducing a few mechanics in tiers 4 and above: seasonal progression, death counters, and Zekvir’s Influence.

Seasonal Progression

Seasonal progress can be obtained from any delve when the season begins. Playing at higher tiers will reward more progress, but players will still be able to complete the season at lower tiers.

We want players to be able to find the difficulty that they enjoy and focus on that without feeling that they need to push higher to complete the seasonal track.

Tiers 9-11 are planned to have a higher difficulty curve as we do not plan on giving out increased power rewards there. They will give out gear at the equivalent of a Tier 8 delve. We’re doing this so we can tune these delves to be particularly difficult without creating the assumption that all players should strive to hit tier 11.

Death Counter

In Tiers 4 and above players will start with a pool of lives. When you release after dying the counter will lower. Players who reach zero lives can still finish delves, but they will miss out on bonus rewards like cosmetics and unlocking the next tier of difficulty. Every death that happens after you reach zero lives while fighting a boss will grant players a small buff to help them with the final boss fight.

Our goal with the death counter is to give players a barometer to measure their success in a delve without being overly penalizing.

Zekvir’s Influence

We have our mysterious 13th delve that we will not be releasing to test during the beta. This includes its inhabitant, Zekvir, the Hand of the Harbinger. However, Zekvir will prove to be a threat throughout delves even if he isn’t physically there.

Random groups of enemies will receive various boons from Zekvir. As you go higher in tiers, more groups will be chosen and the boons will increase in their difficulty. Players who are able to defeat these empowered groups will earn increased seasonal progress at the end of the delve.

Our design behind Zekvir’s Influence is to add more challenges in higher tiers beyond, “number go up”. We want to differentiate this from the affix system in Mythic +, which is why this only impacts some groups in a delve as opposed to all of them.

What’s Next?

On the realm, “These Go To Eleven”, you’ll find a helpful Zandelvari in Stormwind and Orgrimmar who will port you to specific delves. You can also unlock all of Brann Bronzebeard’s curios at rank 1 and set his level to be 10.

Our immediate plans for the beta update after this will be improving the messaging of Zekvir’s Influence, both from who is being impacted by it and how much I am being rewarded for this. We are actively working on this, so expect some more fun things in next week’s update for this.

There will be ongoing balance tuning for the classes and Brann’s abilities as well. Are some tiers too hard for a class? Is tier 11 too easy? Let’s find out!

We’re looking forward to everyone’s feedback. Welcome to the endgame of Delves!

Hotfixes: June 12 2024, Increase to Bronze Cache & More

Quote from: Blizzard

June 12, 2024

Classes

  • Fixed an issue where a tiny dagger was appearing when casting a variety of spells and abilities.
  • Fixed an issue where the low noise variant of Frozen Orb was not being used inside raids and dungeons.

Player versus Player

  • Evoker
    • Fixed an issue preventing Chrono Loop from being used in some locations, including many areas in Black Rook Hold Arena.

WoW Remix: Mists of Pandaria

  • Bronze Cache values increased by 100%.
    • Minor Bronze Cache (250 → 500)
    • Lesser Bronze Cache (500 → 1000)
    • Bronze Cache (750 → 1500)
    • Greater Bronze Cache (1250 → 2500)
  • Spools of Eternal Thread stat gain increased by 200%.
    • Minor Spool of Eternal Thread (20 → 60)
    • Lesser Spool of Eternal Thread (50 → 150)
    • Spool of Eternal Thread (100 → 300)
    • Greater Spool of Eternal Thread (180 → 540)
  • Emperor Shaohao reputation increased by 700%.

Increase to Bronze Cache, Spools of Eternal Thread, and Emperor Shaohao Reputation

Quote from: Blizzard

Hello Remixers!

Thank you for all of your continued feedback on the Mists of Pandaria Remix event. We have a few upcoming changes that we hope will address some of your concerns and help make the remainder of the event even more of a blast to blast through.

First, we’ve heard repeatedly that the rate of Bronze acquisition doesn’t feel quite fast enough to allow you to comfortably collect all of the collectables you’re looking for while upgrading your gear. We investigated reducing upgrade costs and crediting players that had already upgraded their gear, but found technical limitations due to how Remix and Dragonflight interact with one another. We landed instead on doubling the value of Bronze Caches as shown below:

Bronze Cache values increased by 100%

  • Minor Bronze Cache (250 → 500)
  • Lesser Bronze Cache (500 → 1000)
  • Bronze Cache (750 → 1500)
  • Greater Bronze Cache (1250 → 2500)

In addition, we want to make powering up to overpower content easier, so we’re going to triple the effect of Spools of Eternal Thread:

Spools of Eternal Thread stat gain increased by 200%.

  • Minor Spool of Eternal Thread (20 → 60)
  • Lesser Spool of Eternal Thread (50 → 150)
  • Spool of Eternal Thread (100 → 300)
  • Greater Spool of Eternal Thread (180 → 540)

These items are both available from a wide variety of content, on both repeatable and one-time-per-character sources, so they should benefit all players whether it’s your first time entering Pandaria or your latest new Timerunner.

Once the hotfix is applied, you’ll see a new buff when you equip your cloak: Timerunner’s Mastery, indicating that the changes are active!

And because it’s a bit of a grind, we’re also increasing Emperor Shaohao reputation by 700%.

Thanks again for all of your feedback on this version of Remix. We will be applying all of these learnings to our future endeavors!

The WoW Remix Team

The War Within Beta Development Notes 11 June 2024, Developer Hunter Comments

Quote from: Blizzard

Here are this week’s updates to the War Within Beta:

CLASSES

  • DEATH KNIGHT
    • Hero Talents
      • San’layn (Unholy/Blood)
        • Infliction of Sorrow has been redesigned – When Vampiric Strike damages an enemy affected by your Virulent Plague, it extends the duration of the disease by 3 seconds and deals 20% of the remaining damage to the enemy. After Gift of the San’layn ends, your next Scourge Strike consumes the disease to deal 200% of its remaining damage to the enemy.
        • An issue with Blood Beast heal and damage values have been fixed.
    • Blood
      • New Talent: Carnage – Blooddrinker and Consumption now contribute to your Mastery: Blood Shield. Each time an enemy strikes your Blood Shield, the cooldowns of Blooddrinker and Consumption have a chance to be reset.
    • Unholy
      • Decomposition now functions with Gargoyle.
      • Ghoulish Frenzy is now a 1-point talent (was 2). Value at 1-point unchanged.
      • Improved Death Coil is now a 1-point talent (was 2). Value at 1-point unchanged.
      • Apocalypse now always summons 4 ghouls regardless of Wounds burst.
      • Defile damage increased by 200% and no longer increases Mastery when dealing damage to enemies.
  • DRUID
    • Hero Talents
      • Druid of the Claw (Feral/Guardian)
        • Aggravate Wounds now causes attacks to increase the duration of Dreadful Wounds by 0.6 seconds (was 0.4 seconds), up to 8 additional seconds (was 6 seconds).
        • Killing Strikes lasts 8 seconds (was 6 seconds).
        • Chance for Ravage to proc increased by 30%.
        • Feral
          • Dreadful Wound damage increased by 10%.
        • Guardian
          • Ravage damage increased by 20%.
          • Dreadful Wound damage increased by 10%.
      • Keeper of the Grove (Balance/Restoration)
        • Power of Nature treant melee damage increased by 200% (was 100%).
        • Dream Burst damage increased by 100%.
        • Grove’s Inspiration increases Wrath and Starfire damage by 15% (was 10%)
        • Harmony of the Grove increases damage by 6% per treant (was 5%).
        • Wild Mushroom damage increased by 25%.
  • EVOKER
    • Hero Talents
      • Chronowarden (Augmentation/Preservation)
        • Golden Opportunity has been redesigned – Prescience and Echo have a 20% chance to cause your next Prescience/Echo to have a 100% increased duration/effect (was 25% chance to be free/not trigger their cooldown).
        • Golden Opportunity is no longer a choice node with Master of Destiny.
        • Instability Matrix is now a choice against Master of Destiny.**
    • Augmentation
      • Echoing Strike now also increase Azure Strike damage by 15%.
      • Reactive Hide increases damage of Blistering Scales by 15% per stack (was 10%).
      • Fixed an issue where Molten Embers was not functioning correctly.
  • HUNTER
    • Many talents have moved locations or have had their pathing updated.
    • New Talent: Padded Armor – Survival of the Fittest gains an additional charge.
    • New Talent: Kodo Tranquilizer – Tranquilizing Shot removes up to 1 additional Magic effect from its target.
    • New Talent: Devilsaur Tranquilizer – If Tranquilizing Shot removes only an Enrage effect, its cooldown is reduced by 5 seconds.
    • New Talent: Scout’s Instincts – You cannot be slowed below 80% of your normal movement speed while Aspect of the Cheetah is active.
    • New Talent: Scrappy – Casting Aimed Shot reduces the cooldown of Intimidation and Binding Shot by 0.5 seconds.
    • New Talent: Kindling Flare – Stealthed enemies revealed by Flare remain revealed for 3 seconds after exiting the flare.
    • New Talent: Unnatural Causes – Your damage over time effects deal 10% increased damage. This effect is increased by 50% on targets below 20% health.
    • New Talent: Moment of Opportunity – When a trap triggers, you gain Aspect of the Cheetah for 3 seconds. Can only occur every 1 minute.
    • New Talent: No Hard Feelings – When Misdirection targets your pet, it reduces the damage they take by 50% for 5 seconds.
    • New Talent: Territorial Instincts – Intimidation summons a pet if you do not have one out and stuns two additional nearby enemies at 50% effectiveness.
      • Developer’s note: This talent is not fully implemented yet, but we wanted to give players access to it early for feedback. The intended vision for this spell is for Hunters to summon their pet, and then it Intimidates their target. We are not interested in circumventing a Hunter’s need for their pet to be out to access Intimidation.
    • New Talent: Tar-Coated Bindings – Binding Shot’s root duration is increased by 1 second.
    • New Talent: Serrated Tips – You gain 5% more critical strike from critical strike sources.
    • New Talent: Moment of Opportunity – When a trap triggers, you gain Aspect of the Cheetah for 3 seconds. This effect has a 60 second cooldown.
    • New Talent: Ghillie Suit – You take 20% reduced damage while in Camouflage. This bonus persists 3 seconds after leaving Camouflage.
    • New Talent: Specialized Arsenal – Kill Command, Aimed Shot, and Wildfire Bomb damage increased by 10%.
    • Lone Survivor now also reduces Counter Shot and Muzzle’s cooldown by 2 seconds.
    • Survival of the Fittest now reduces all damage you and your pet take by 30% (was 20%).
    • Improved Tranquilizing Shot now also grants 10 focus when you interrupt an effect with Counter Shot or Muzzle.
    • Quick Load now resets the cooldown of Scatter Shot and Bursting Shot.
    • Steel Trap damage reduced by 80%.
    • Born to be Wild now reduces Aspect of the Cheetah, Survival of the Fittest, and Aspect of the Turtle by 30 seconds (was 7/15%).
    • Explosive Shot now explodes early when applied to a target that already is affected by Explosive Shot.
      • Developer’s note: Survival has gotten substantially increased access to Explosive Shot, so we wanted to make Explosive Shot stacking feel more responsive and exciting.
    • Explosive Shot projectile and explosion visual effects have been updated.
    • Barrage, Kill Command, Improved Kill Command, Killer Instinct, and Alpha Predator have moved to the Beast Mastery talent tree.
    • Barrage, Master Marksman, and Hydra’s Bite have moved to the Marksmanship talent tree.
    • Kill Command and Alpha Predator have moved to the Survival talent tree.
    • Bursting Shot is now a choice node with Scatter Shot (was in Marksmanship tree).
    • The following talents are now 1 point:
      • Improved Traps
      • Pathfinding
      • Trailblazer
      • Wilderness Medicine
      • Natural Mending
      • Rejuvenating Wind
    • The following talents have been removed:
      • Sentinel Owl
      • Sentinel’s Perception
      • Sentinel’s Protection
      • Serpent Sting
      • Poison Injection
      • Stampede
      • Beast Master
      • Arctic Bola
      • Nature’s Endurance
      • Serrated Shots
    • Beast Mastery
      • New Talent: Laceration – Whenever your pets critically strike, they cause their target to bleed for 15% of the damage dealt.
      • New Talent: Go For the Throat – Kill Command deals increased critical strike damage equal to 100% of your critical strike chance.
      • New Talent: Killer Cobra – Kill Shot applies Serpent Sting for 12 seconds.
      • New Talent: Venomous Bite – Bloodshed damage bonus increased by an additional 15% and makes Kill Command deal 20% increased damage to the target.
      • New Talent: Shower of Blood – Bloodshed now hits two additional targets near the primary target.
      • New Talent: Basilisk Collar – Each damage over time effect on your target increases the damage they receive from your pet’s attacks by 5%/10%.
      • New Talent: Huntmaster’s Call – Every third cast of Dire Beast sounds the Horn of Valor to summon a legendary wolf to aid you in battle for 15 seconds, either Hati or Fenryr. Hati increases the damage of all your pets by 15%. Fenryr applies a heavy bleed on your target and grants you additional Haste.
      • New Talent: Explosive Venom – Every 5 casts of Cobra Shot or Multi-Shot makes your next Multi-Shot or Explosive Shot apply Serpent’s Sting to up to 5 targets.
      • Bloodshed is now in gate 3 and has been updated – Command your pet to tear into your target, causing your target to bleed for high damage over 18 seconds and take 15% increased damage from your pet.
      • A Murder of Crows is now passive and has been updated – Every 5 casts of Kill Command summons a Murder of Crows. Murder of Crows no longer resets its cooldown if the affected target dies.
      • Barrage, Kill Command, Improved Kill Command, Killer Instinct, and Alpha Predator are now Beast Mastery talents (was Class).
      • Killer Instinct now deals 25/50% increased damage against enemies below 35% health.
      • Barrage now also grants Beast Cleave.
      • Bestial Wrath initial damage increased by 280%.
      • Many 2-point talents are now 1 point.
      • The following talents have been removed:
        • One With the Pack
        • Sharp Barbs
        • Wailing Arrow
        • Cobra Sting
    • Marksmanship
      • New Talent: Rapid Fire Barrage – Your Barrage now instead shoots Rapid Fires at up to five nearby enemies at 30% effectiveness but has its cooldown increased to 60 seconds.
      • New Talent: Small Game Hunter – The damage of Multi-Shot is increased by 100% and the damage of Explosive Shot is increased by 25%.
      • New Talent: Penetrating Shots – Gain critical strike damage equal to 20% of your critical strike chance.
      • New Talent: Kill Zone – Your spells and attacks deal 8% more damage and ignore line of sight against any target in your Volley.
      • Legacy of the Windrunners has been redesigned – Each time Rapid Fire deals damage, there is a 5% chance to coalesce a Wind Arrow at your target.
      • Wind Arrows damage increased by 300%. Wind Arrows are longer affected by Aimed Shot modifiers. No longer grants Focus or Aimed Shot charges after firing 24 Wind Arrows.
      • Wailing Arrow has been redesigned and is now passive – Now replaces your Aimed Shot with a Wailing Arrow after generating 20 Wind Arrows.
      • Wailing Arrow only silences the primary target and it now benefits from bonuses to Aimed Shot such as Trick Shots.
      • Readiness now causes Trueshot to immediately grant you Wailing Arrow and you generate 2 additional Wind Arrows while in Trueshot. Wailing Arrow resets the cooldown of Rapid Fire and generates 2 charges of Aimed Shot.
      • Eagle Talon’s True Focus has been redesigned – Trueshot lasts an additional 3 seconds. During Trueshot, Aimed Shot’s Focus cost is reduced by 50% and Arcane Shot and Multi-Shot casts an additional time at 30% effectiveness.
      • Barrage, Master Marksman, and Hydra’s Bite are now Marksmanship talents (was Class).
      • Hydra’s Bite has been redesigned – When Aimed Shot strikes an enemy affected with your Serpent Sting, it spreads Serpent Sting to up to 2 nearby enemies. Serpent Sting’s damage over time is increased by 20%.
      • Killer Accuracy has been updated – Kill Shot’s critical strike chance and critical strike damage are increased by 20%.
      • Razor Fragments has been updated – Kill Shot damage increase to 75% (was 50%). Moved to Gate 3.
      • Lone Wolf reduced to 5% increased damage when you do not have an active pet (was 10%).
        • Developer’s note: The opportunity cost of having your pet out as a Marksmanship Hunter is so high that it can feel as though you’re locked out of all pet based utility, especially in AOE situations. Marksmanship is always going to be the Hunter spec that provides more throughput without a pet, but lowering this talent’s power should help to make those times where you’re the only lust or need an extra defensive feel a bit less bad.
      • Rapid Fire damage reduced by 8%.
      • Precise Shots now always grants 2 stacks and reduces the Focus cost of your next Multi-Shot or Arcane Shot by 50%.
      • Calling the Shots is no longer a choice node with Unerring Vision.
      • Surging Shots is no longer a choice node with In The Rhythm.
      • Many 2-point talents are now 1 point.
      • Bursting Shot has moved to the Class tree.
    • Survival
      • Mastery: Spirit Bond has been redesigned – You and your pet deal increased damage and take 3% reduced damage, increased by 100% when within 25 yards of each other.
        • Developer’s note: We’ve also implemented a “Mercy” effect to Spirit Bond that allows the proximity bonus to persist up to 10 seconds after you or your pet breaks the Mastery’s boundary.
      • New Talent: Sulfur-lined Pockets – Every third Quick Shot is replaced with an Explosive Shot at 100% effectiveness.
      • New Talent: Grenade Juggler – Wildfire Bomb deal 5% increased damage and has a 25% chance to reset the cooldown of Explosive Shot and reduce its Focus cost to 0. Explosive Shot reduces the cooldown of Wildfire Bomb by 4 seconds.
      • New Talent: Exposed Flank – Your Flanking Strike exposes a weakness in your enemy’s defenses, increasing the damage of Kill Command by 10% and allowing your Kill Command to also hit two additional enemies for 10 seconds.
      • New Talent: Contagious Reagents – Reapplying Serpent Sting spreads it to up to 2 nearby enemies.
      • New Talent: Outland Venom – Each damage over time effect you have on a target increases the critical strike damage they receive from you by 2%.
      • New Talent: Merciless Blow – Casting Butchery makes your next Raptor Strike or Mongoose Bite to hit up to three nearby targets.
      • New Talent: Sic ‘Em – Kill Shot critical strikes reset the cooldown of Kill Command.
      • New Talent: Symbiotic Adrenaline – The cooldown of Coordinated Assault is reduced by 60 seconds.
      • New Talent: Relentless Primal Ferocity – While Coordinated Assault is active, Kill Command generates 2 stacks of Tip of the Spear, you gain 10% Haste, and Tip of the Spear’s damage bonus is increased by 50%.
      • Tip of the Spear has been redesigned – Kill Command increases the damage of your next non-pet spell by 15%, stacking up to 3 times.
      • You now consume one stack of Tip of the Spear at a time and multiple stacks of Tip of the Spear no longer increase its damage bonus.
        • Developer’s note: We’re pleased with the theme and gameplay that Tip of the Spear provides and enjoy its role as a meaningful outlet for Kill Command resets. As such, we’re expanding this talent’s use case and introducing a range of effects across the tree to make it more of a core rotational concept.
      • Flanking Strike now gains double the damage bonus from Tip of the Spear.
      • Flanker’s Advantage has been redesigned – Kill Command has a 10% increased chance to immediately reset its cooldown, increased by 100% when Kill Command critically strikes a target. Tip of the Spear’s damage bonus is increased by up to 100%, based on your critical strike chance.
      • Spearhead has been redesigned – You and your pet charge your enemy target, applying a heavy bleed that increases your chance to critically strike them by 30% for 10 seconds.
      • Deadly Duo has been redesigned – The cooldown of Spearhead is reduced by 30 seconds and increases your critical strike damage against the target by 30% for 10 seconds.
      • Viper’s Venom has been redesigned – Raptor Strike and Mongoose Bite apply Serpent’s Sting.
      • Aspect of the Eagle has been redesigned – Increases the range of your Raptor Strike and Mastery: Spirit Bond to 40 yards for 15 seconds.
      • Bombardier has been redesigned – Casting Coordinated Assault grants 2 charges of Wildfire Bomb. When Coordinated Assault ends, Explosive Shot has no cooldown and costs zero Focus for 4 seconds.
      • Ruthless Marauder has been redesigned – Wildfire Bomb cooldown reduction effect is now 1 second by default and no longer is increased by the second talent point.
      • Coordinated Assault has been updated – Now also allows Kill Shot to be usable on targets regardless of Health.
      • Wildfire Infusion has been redesigned – Mongoose Bite and Raptor Strike have a 15% chance to reset Kill Command’s cooldown. Kill Command reduces the cooldown of Wildfire Bomb by 2 seconds.
      • Kill Command and Alpha Predator are now Survival talents (was Class).
      • Wildfire Bomb’s damage over time effect is now a rolling periodic.
      • Grenade Juggler and Bombardier now use an activation overlay.
      • Many 2-point talents are now 1 point.
      • The following talents have been removed:
        • Carve
        • Coordinated Kill
        • Birds of Prey
        • Intense Focus
        • Sharp Edges
  • MAGE
    • Hero Talents
      • Spellslinger (Frost/Arcane)
        • Spellfrost Teachings Orb damage bonus reduced to 20% (was 50%).
        • Spellfrost Teachings chance to trigger reduced to 2%.
        • Frost Splinter damage reduced by 66%.
        • Embedded Frost Splinter damage reduced by 66%.
        • Arcane Splinter damage reduced by 15%.
        • Embedded Arcane Splinter damage reduced 15%.
      • Sunfury (Arcane/Fire)
        • Mana Addiction now grants 0.5% Haste per stack (was 2%) for Fire Mages.
          • Developer’s note: Mana Addiction was taking up a lot of Sunfury’s power budget and was creating a powerful snowball effect with the rest of Fire’s kit. This adjustment should bring Sunfury more in line with the damage output of other Hero Talents and open us up to making the more active parts of Sunfury more exciting.
  • MONK
    • Hero Talents
      • Shado-Pan (Windwalker/Brewmaster)
        • Flurry Charges are now accumulated based on Attack Power rather than maximum health.
    • Mistweaver
      • Mana Tea no longer grants its mana reduction effect if its channel begins before a raid encounter or Mythic+ dungeon starts.
    • Windwalker
      • New Talent: Power of the Thunder King – Crackling Jade Lightning now chains to 4 additional targets and its channel time is reduced by 50%.
      • New Talent: Darting Hurricane – After you cast Strike of the Windlord, the global cooldown of your next 2 Tiger Palms is reduced by 50%. Your damaging spells and abilities have a chance to grant 1 stack of Darting Hurricane.
  • PALADIN
    • Hero Talents
      • Herald of the Sun (Holy/Retribution)
        • Retribution
          • Activating Crusade applies 4 Dawnlights onto nearby allies or enemies.
          • Activating Avenging Wrath applies 2 Dawnlights onto nearby allies or enemies.
          • Activating Radiant Glory applies 1 Dawnlight onto a nearby ally or enemy.
  • PRIEST
    • New Talent: Cauterizing Shadows – When your Shadow Word: Pain or Purge the Wicked expires or is refreshed with less than 5 seconds remaining, a nearby ally within 40 yards is healed.
    • New Talent: Phantom Reach – Increases the range of most spells by 15%.
    • Manipulation has been redesigned – Now causes you to take 1%/2% less damage from targets affected by Shadow Word: Pain, Purge the Wicked, or Holy Fire.
    • Power Word: Life healing increased by 15%.
    • Mindgames has been removed from the Priest talent tree and is now a PvP talent.
    • Shattered Perceptions has been removed.
    • Hero Talents
      • Oracle (Holy/Discipline)
        • Premonition of Insight is now the first spell in the Premonition sequence.
        • Premonition of Insight now reduces cooldowns by 7 seconds (was 5 seconds).
        • Premonition of Solace has been redesigned – Now causes your next single target healing spell to grant your target a shield that absorbs damage and reduces damage taken by 15% for 15 seconds.
        • Premonition of Piety now increases healing done by 10% (was 5%).
        • Premonition of Piety now lasts 15 seconds (was 10 seconds).
        • Fatebender now increases the effects of Premonition by 40% (was 30%).
        • Updated the spell icons for the Premonition spells.
        • Updated the tooltip for Clairvoyance to more accurately reflect its functionality.
    • Shadow
      • Mind Flay: Insanity now deals damage every 0.5 seconds for 2 seconds (was every 0.75 seconds for 3 seconds).
      • Mind Flay: Insanity now generates 12 Insanity over its duration (was 16).
      • Void Torrent damage increased by 30%.
        • Developer’s note: We’re updating Mind Flay: Insanity so that it fits into Shadow’s rotation better. There are several spells competing for the spotlight, so we’re cutting the length to create some room. Void Torrent’s damage has fallen off as we’ve increased the power of spells throughout Dragonflight, so we’re increasing its damage to return it to a high priority position in the rotation.
  • WARLOCK
    • Mortal Coil projectile has been updated with a newer visual.
    • Hero Talents
      • Hellcaller (Destruction/Affliction)
        • Mark of Peroth’arn has been redesigned – Critical strike damage dealt by Wither is increased by 10%. Wither has a chance to gain a stack when it critically strikes. Stacks gained this way do not activate Blackened Soul.
        • Mark of Xavius has been redesigned – Agony damage increased by 20%/Wither damage increased by 25%. Blackened Soul deals 2% increased damage per stack of Wither.
      • Soul Harvester (Demonology/Affliction)
        • Demonic Soul damage reduced by 50%.
        • Soul Anathema damage reduced by 50%.
        • Shared Fate damage reduced by 30%.
        • The visual for Demonic Soul and Sataiel’s Ambition has been updated.
    • Demonology
      • Pact of the Ered’ruin has been redesigned – When Doom expires, you have a chance to summon a Doomguard that casts 5 Doom Bolts before departing. Each Doom Bolt deals Shadow damage.
      • Charhound’s Infernal Presence damage reduced by 50%.
      • Gloomhound’s Gloom Slash damage reduced by 50%.
      • Doom damage reduced by 50%.
    • Destruction
      • Chaos Bolts cast by Overfiend no longer gains modifiers active on its summoner.
      • The visual for casting Dimensional Rift has been updated.
  • WARRIOR
    • Honed Reflexes has been redesigned – Cooldown of Die By the Sword, Enraged Regeneration, Shield Wall, Pummel, Intervene, Spell Reflection, and Storm Bolt reduced by 5%.
    • Sudden Death can now stack 2 times.
    • The visual for Shockwave will now properly match its radius, both with and without the Rumbling Earth talent. Impact visual has also been updated.
    • The visual for Thunderous Roar has been adjusted.
    • Hero Talents
      • Mountain Thane (Protection/Fury)
        • Call of Thunder renamed to Crashing Thunder.
        • Crashing Thunder’s bonus to Thunder Clap damage reduced to 40% (was 50%).
        • Burst of Power increases Bloodthirst damage by 35% (was 25%).
        • Strength of the Mountain increases Rampage and Bloodthirst damage by 15% (was 10%).
        • Protection
          • Thunder Blast damage bonus increased to 40% (was 20%).
      • Slayer (Fury/Arms)
        • Imminent Demise slightly redesigned – Instead of increasing Sudden Death’s chance to trigger, now every 3 Slayer’s Strikes will grant Sudden Death.
    • Arms
      • Cleave now replaces Whirlwind.
        • Developer’s note: We feel that Arms has an overwhelming number of abilities they must use in their AOE rotation, so we’re making Cleave replace Whirlwind to help alleviate that.
      • Cleave cooldown increased to 4.5 seconds (was 3 seconds).
        • Developer’s note: We are happy with Cleave’s position as the focus of Arms AOE but feel that the 3 second cooldown put too much pressure on the rotation. Increasing the cooldown will allow more room for Overpower and rotational cooldowns like Sweeping Strikes and Warbringer.
      • Dance of Death has been redesigned – When an enemy dies while affected by your Bladestorm, all damage you deal is increased by 5% for the remainder of the Bladestorm and for 2 seconds afterwards. When an enemy dies while affected by your Ravager, its duration is extended by 2 seconds. These effects can trigger a maximum of 3 times per use of Bladestorm or Ravager.
    • Fury
      • The positions and connections of the Tier 3 talents have been adjusted.
        • Developer’s note: We’ve received feedback that pathing to some abilities at the bottom of the Fury tree is difficult, so we’re repositioning these abilities to allow for more synergistic pathing.
      • Developer’s note: We’ve been seeing extremely high uptime of Recklessness, which leads to a cycle of high Rage generation and a lack of variance in Fury’s rotation. We’d like Recklessness to be an ability that is active only some of the time to create some variance to Fury’s rotation, so we’re adjusting several talents to reduce overall Recklessness uptime. We will be closely monitoring Fury’s rotational cadence and damage output and making adjustments where necessary.
      • Anger Management now reduces cooldowns by 1 second per 30 Rage spent (was 20 Rage).
      • Unbridled Ferocity no longer triggers from Onslaught and its chance to trigger is reduced to 6% (was 20%).
        • Developer’s note: Unbridled Ferocity was a major offender in Recklessness uptime, and it triggering from Onslaught added additional talent choice pressure in Fury’s Tier 3 talents. We’re reducing the proc chance to put it on par with other Tier 3 talents and removing Onslaught from the list of triggers to reduce talent choice pressure in Tier 3.
      • All ability damage increased by 15%.
      • Rampage damage increased by 10%.
    • Protection
      • Dance of Death has been redesigned – When an enemy dies while affected by your Ravager, its duration is extended by 2 seconds. This effect can trigger a maximum of 3 times per use of Ravager.
      • Dance of Death and Storm of Steel are now on a choice node.

ITEMS

  • Trinkets
    • Many item effects have had their tuning significantly adjusted due to scaling changes.
    • Fixed an issue preventing Creeping Coagulum’s burst heal from casting when reaching the healing threshold.
    • Fixed an issue causing Void Reaper’s Contract’s secondary phantoms to deal no damage.
    • Fixed various issues related to Sikran’s Endless Arsenal’s stance effects and tooltip descriptions.
    • Foul Behemoth’s Chelicera now triggers more consistently from class abilities. Tooltip updated to clarify effect behavior when leaving combat.
    • Fixed an issue preventing several specializations from triggering Aberrant Spellforge’s Aberrant Empowerment with their intended class abilities. Tooltip updated for effect clarity.
    • Gruesome Syringe’s passive Intellect changed to Critical Strike.

PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER

  • PRIEST
    • Mindgames is now a PvP talent (was a Class talent).
    • Mindgames duration increased by 2 seconds.
    • Mindgames damage, damage reversal, and healing reversal increased by 33%.

USER INTERFACE AND ACCESSIBILITY

  • For any item in the quest tracker, right-clicking and selecting “Remove Focus” will remove supertracking behavior.
  • The quest bang visual for quests that are in-progress has been updated.
  • Artwork updates and clarity improvements have been made to game service menus on the character select screen.
  • The camera will now allow for the player character to be more obstructed by the environment before colliding and pushing the camera forward.
    • Use the console command “cameraIndirectVisibility [0,1]” to turn the feature off or on, and use “cameraIndirectOffset [0, 10.0]” to modify the sensitivity.

Developer Hunter Comments

Quote from: Blizzard

Hello Hunters! We’re very excited to unveil the class and spec tree updates for Hunter today!

We had a few goals going into this update, and we wanted to communicate those so the Hunter community will have some more direction when giving feedback in the coming weeks.

Across the Hunter core tree and all spec trees, we had these goals:

  • Improve secondary stat scaling across all Hunter specializations
  • Condense existing damage effects
  • Conservatively expand on the range of Hunter utility
  • Solidify rotational gameplay and fantasy of each spec

Core Tree

The Hunter core tree had a substantial amount of throughput relative to other core trees, which all had to be generic given how differently each spec can utilize the Hunter class tools and spells. This led to a lot of passive damage instances and didn’t do a ton to expand on each spec’s gameplay.

We’ve culled a lot of passive damage procs in the core tree, added some more situational utility, expanded on Hunter defensives, and made sure that each Hunter spec can meaningfully utilize the spells available to them in their core tree.

Beast Mastery

Beast Mastery’s gameplay has remained solid through Dragonflight, and we weren’t interested in rocking the boat too violently with this update.

Beast Mastery and the Hunter class in general have had a host of passive damage over time effects across many abilities. To help add some more cohesion to all these disparate damage over time effects, we added some bonuses like Basilisk Collar to help push the damage over time gameplay in a very Beast Mastery direction.

Beast Mastery is not a damage over time spec, and we are aiming to keep it that way. Your pets will always be the primary source of your damage and the DoTs you apply will more often than not be completely passive or passive procs– but we felt the sheer number of DoT effects Beast Mastery has merited some deeper support.

Lastly, we were interested in pushing on the boundaries of Beast Mastery’s fantasy by adding talents like Huntmaster’s Call. We feel that it is important for Beast Mastery to be primarily about your tamed and summonable pets, but we’re also interested in more deeply expressing the “Wildcaller” part of Beast Mastery’s fantasy. We hope that calling upon beasts of legend and summoning swarms of crows should help to make you feel like the flavor of Hunter that can call upon the wilds to aid you in battle.

Marksmanship

At the beginning of the update process, we were feeling mostly pleased with the individual effects found across the Marksmanship tree. However, we had more of an issue with how these effects all worked in concert.

Precise Shots is a meaningful and expressive part of Marksmanship gameplay, but currently Aimed Shots has a hard time sharing the spotlight with all the other various effects found across the Marksmanship tree—especially during Trueshot. We are aiming to “unclog” the Marksmanship Trueshot rotation with a redesigned Eagletalon’s True Focus. With Eagletalon’s True Focus talented, firing an Arcane Shot or Multi-Shot will immediately fire another Arcane Shot or Multi-Shot that will benefit from and consume Precise Shots. This should help you to continue to get value out of Precise Shots in your Trueshot rotation, and you can focus on the more exciting parts of Trueshot, which are Aimed Shot and Rapid Fire.

The Wind Arrow suite of talents have been an exciting visual and gameplay component of Marksmanship for quite some time, but their effects and bonuses have gotten more complex over time. With this update, we wanted to dramatically simplify the effects of Legacy of the Windrunners and add some more exciting payoffs via a now-passive Wailing Arrow and an update to the Readiness capstone that should add some more skill expression and further increase the excitement of Trueshot.

Lastly, we wanted to ensure Marksmanship was owning its niche of burst AoE. Talents like Kill Zone and Rapid Fire Barrage are intended to not only be fantasy-forward and exciting talents in their own right, but encourage groups to try out a Marksmanship hunter if they want some sizeable burst every 60 seconds.

Survival

Survival has had a few different iterations over the course of WoW’s history, and with the addition of the Dragonflight talent tree, we saw a collision of many effects both old and new. With this talent tree update, we wanted to take a swing at making Survival’s kit more cohesive and taming some of the more complicated effects across the tree.

The more impactful core change to Survival is going to be Tip of the Spear’s new design. We really liked the story that this talent told and the gameplay behind it– the Survival Hunter and their pet working in concert to deal more damage. As such, we’re expanding its effects on the talent itself and also opening it up to be augmented across the talent tree in various ways. We hope that this new core rotational concept will help to create satisfying gameplay and help to sell the Survival fantasy a bit more.

Many of Survival’s spells were either very simple (Flanking Strike) or incredibly complex (Coordinated Assault + Supporting Talents). We wanted to take some steps to smooth out the average complexity of Survival’s talents while also honing in on the core rotational gameplay and how that might be more cleanly augmented by supporting talents. More complicated talents like Deadly Duo and Wildfire Infusion have been replaced with effects that are simpler, stronger, and have more moment-to-moment implications for your gameplay.

Explosions are a core part of the Survival experience, and alongside the core rotational changes we made, we also proliferated access to Wildfire Bomb and Explosive Shot. Grenade Juggler and the new Bombardier are working in concert to make Explosive Shot a more appealing and excitement-driving rotational spell, and we hope you enjoy blowing things up in the War Within!

Lastly, we are aware that Wildfire Infusion’s previous iteration provided a great splash of color to the Survival experience that is now lost. We are interested in exploring ways we can amp up the visual excitement of Survival in the future, but we do not have anything to share at this time.

Phew, that’s a lot of changes! We are really excited to read everyone’s feedback regarding these updates and can’t wait for you to get your hands on them!

Thank you for reading!

Hotfixes: June 11, 2024

Quote from: Blizzard

June 11, 2024

Player versus Player

  • Paladin
    • Fixed an issue that caused Blessing of Sacrifice to not break Psychic Scream.

WoW Remix: Mists of Pandaria

  • Players who are holding the Tusks of Mannoroth cosmetic item on their non-plate wearing characters will now see an option on Pythagorus at any Infinite Bazaar to trade their item for a version that they can use to learn the Tusks of Mannoroth appearance for plate characters on their account.

Nerub-ar Palace: Raid Testing Schedule 10 June 2024

Quote from: Blizzard

Hi everyone,

The time has come to test some of the upcoming raid encounters in The War Within, and the team is very excited to hear your feedback. We’d like to remind everyone that the raid testing schedule is fluid and subject to the realities of a test environment. We may have to change the time of a testing session, change the boss(es) being tested, or cancel a test entirely due to bugs, server hardware issues, etc.

Keep an eye on this forum for the boss feedback threads and latest information. Thank you in advance for testing – critical feedback is invaluable to us and helps us understand where to make iterative improvements during development.

Nerub-ar Palace: Raid Testing Schedule

Schedule Details

The final encounter of the raid, Queen Ansurek, will not be available for testing.

Thursday, June 13th

  • Heroic
    • Ulgrax the Devourer – 11:00 PDT (14:00 EDT, 20:00 CEST)
    • The Bloodbound Horror – 12:00 PDT (15:00 EDT, 21:00 CEST)
    • Sikran, Captain of the Sureki – 13:00 PDT (16:00 EDT, 22:00 CEST)
    • Rasha’nan – 14:00 PDT (17:00 EDT, 23:00 CEST)

Friday, June 14th

  • Heroic
    • Bloodtwister Ovi’nax – 11:00 PDT (14:00 EDT, 20:00 CEST)
    • Nexus-Princess Ky’veza – 12:00 PDT (15:00 EDT, 21:00 CEST)
    • The Silken Court – 13:00 PDT (16:00 EDT, 22:00 CEST)

Thursday, June 20th

  • Mythic
    • Ulgrax the Devourer – 11:00 PDT (14:00 EDT, 20:00 CEST)
    • The Bloodbound Horror – 12:00 PDT (15:00 EDT, 21:00 CEST)
    • Sikran, Captain of the Sureki – 13:00 PDT (16:00 EDT, 22:00 CEST)
    • Rasha’nan – 14:00 PDT (17:00 EDT, 23:00 CEST)

Friday, June 21st

  • Mythic
    • Broodtwister Ovi’nax – 11:00 PDT (14:00 EDT, 20:00 CEST)
    • Nexus-Princess Ky’veza – 12:00 PDT (15:00 EDT, 21:00 CEST)
    • The Silken Court – 13:00 PDT (16:00 EDT, 22:00 CEST)
  • Normal, Full Raid (except Ansurek)
    • Start – Friday, June 21st at 14:00 PDT (17:00 EDT, 23:00 CEST)
    • End – Monday, June 24th at 09:00 PDT (12:00 EDT, 18:00 CEST)

Friday, June 28th

  • Raid Finder
    • Wing 1: The Skittering Battlements – Ulgrax the Devourer, The Bloodbound Horror, Sikran, Captain of the Sureki
      • Start – Friday, June 28th at 14:00 PDT (17:00 EDT, 23:00 CEST)
      • End – Monday, July 1st at 09:00 PDT (12:00 EDT, 18:00 CEST)
    • Wing 2: Secrets of Nerub-ar Palace – Rasha’nan, Broodtwister Ovi’nax, Nexus-Princess Ky’veza
      • Start – Friday, June 28th at 14:00 PDT (17:00 EDT, 23:00 CEST)
      • End – Monday, July 1st at 09:00 PDT (12:00 EDT, 18:00 CEST)

Q: How do I get into the raid zone?

A: In Dornogal, 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 80 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.