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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.

WoW Hotfixes – Updated March 8

Early this morning the latest set of hotfixes made their way to the servers with balance changes for the raid, Mythic dungeons and more:

Quote from: Blizzard

MARCH 8, 2022

Classes

  • Hunter
    • Beast Mastery
      • (4) Set Bonus: Multi-Shot will now also light up on your action bar when the Killing Frenzy buff is active.
  • Monk
    • Fixed an issue that prevented Fallen Order (Venthyr Ability) adepts and Mistweaver’s Yu’lon effigy from gaining reduced damage from area of effect attacks similar to other pets and guardians.
    • Fixed an issue where Sinister Teachings (Venthyr Runecarving Power) would not always apply its cooldown reduction after logging in until the legendary was re-equipped.

Cyphers of the First Ones

  • Pocopoc’s Energy is now updated immediately after researching Maxlim.

Dungeons and Raids

  • Sepulcher of the First Ones
    • Vigilant Guardian
      • Force Field now reduces damage taken by exposed core by 90% on Mythic Difficulty (was 80%).
      • Slightly lowered the spawn rate of Volatile Materium and Pre-Fabricate on Mythic difficulty.
      • Reduced the damage of Radioactive Core by 12% on Mythic difficulty.
      • Reduced the damage of Fractured Core by 15% on Mythic difficulty.
    • Artificer Xy’mox
      • Reduced the energy regeneration rate of Xy Acolytes on Raid Finder and Normal difficulty.
    • Prototype Pantheon
      • Withering Seeds now spawn nearby Necrotic Ritualists on all difficulties.
    • Halondrus the Reclaimer
      • Fixed an issue causing players to be unable to mount in the Shimmering Cliffs.
      • Fixed an issue causing rogues to be unable to use Shadowstep against Halondrus.
    • Anduin Wrynn
      • 3 Grim Reflections are now summoned on Heroic difficulty (was 4).
      • Monstrous Soul Health reduced by 5% on Heroic difficulty.
      • Monstrous Soul’s Necrotic Detonation can be cast while moving on all difficulties.
      • Befouled Barrier absorb amount reduced by 25% on Normal and Heroic difficulty.
      • Remorseless Winter damage reduced by 20% on Normal and Heroic difficulty.
      • Holy Priest’s healing Anduin’s Hope with Guardian Spirit active should now reduce the cooldown of Guardian Spirit.
      • Fixed an issue causing Soul Explosion to hit pets.
    • Lords of Dread
      • Players are now protected from Cloud of Carrion for a brief moment after being afflicted with Paranoia.
  • Mythic+
    • Encrypted Affix
      • Improved the visibility of Urh’s Force Slam ability.
      • The stealth provided by the Wo Cloaking Field is now much stealthier.
      • Decreased Vy Interceptor’s teleport frequency and range.
  • Mythic Dungeons
    • Enemy damage increased by 21% and health increased by 31% on Mythic Dungeon difficulty.
      • Developers’ note: We are fixing an issue with the difficulty of Mythic Dungeons (Mythic 0) not being increased by the intended amount with the start of Season 3, which has caused an unintended difficulty gap between Mythic 0 and Mythic +2. After the change goes live momentarily, it should help make advancing from Mythic 0 dungeons into attempting Keystones feel smoother and less of a big jump in difficulty.

Player versus Player

  • Fixed an issue that caused players to gain twice the amount of credit for “Soloing Strategy” weekly quest while participating in Solo Shuffle.
  • Fixed an issue that prevented Maldraxxus Coliseum from being selected as a map for War Games.

Quests

  • With this week’s scheduled weekly maintenance, fixed an issue where the drop rate of Progenitor Essentia from the tribute rewarded from the weekly quest “Patterns Within Patterns” was not increased.
  • Fixed an issue that prevented the catapult from firing in some situations in “The Splintered Fleet” scenario.
  • Fixed an issue where Jarl Velbrand’s level was too high for the quest “To Tame the Drekirjar.”
  • Homing Robot OOX-09/HL will no longer get lost when trying to cross the water during the quest “Rescue OOX-09/HL!”

Sepulcher of the First Ones – Jailer Cinematics (Spoilers)

With the weekly reset having gone live in the US, some people have already defeated the final 3 bosses in the Sepulcher of the First Ones. This caused the final cinematics to be released. The first one plays before you fight the Jailer, the second is at the end of the encounter. Obviously these are spoilers, so watch at your own discretion!

Hotfixes: March 7, 2022, Fury Warrior Class Set Tuning, Sepulcher of the First Ones – Ruined Crest of Lordaeron temporarily disabled

Early this morning a big set of new hotfixes were released that include yet more Tazavesh nerfs, we got another update on the Fury Warrior tier set and the news that the Ruined Crest of Lordaeron shield will not be available this week due to some issues but when it returns it will get an all new look!

Hotfixes: March 7, 2022

Quote from: Blizzard

March 7, 2022

Achievements

  • Fixed an issue that prevented the achievement The Protoform Matrix from being properly awarded if the Reaving Automa: Neo was killed while casting Unrepair Armor.

Classes

  • Death Knight
    • Unholy
      • [With realm restarts] (4) Set Bonus: Your minions deal 10% increased damage (was 5%). When Soul Reaper’s secondary effect triggers, this bonus increases to 50% for 8 seconds (was 25%).
        • Developers’ note: Unholy’s Tier Set bonus is intended to differentiate the spec from Frost by amplifying one of its niches; strong windows of single-target burst and high-value execute damage. The initial tuning of the bonus was simply too low to make good on that promise, especially when compared to the baseline single-target power other similar bonuses brought to the table.
  • Druid
    • Balance
      • [With realm restarts] (2) Set Bonus: Entering a Lunar Eclipse now creates a Fury of Elune at 20% effectiveness (was 25%).
      • [With realm restarts] (4) Set Bonus: While in an Eclipse, the cost of Starsurge and Starfall is reduced by 15% (was 20%).
        • Developers’ note: The synergy that Balance’s tier set has with some options made this set perform a bit higher than intended. We want to bring Balance in-line with other tier set bonuses while still rewarding those synergistic choices. These changes should keep the power of Balance’s tier set bonus but rein in some of the higher outputs we were seeing.
    • Feral
      • [With realm restarts] (2) Set Bonus: Berserk’s cooldown is now reduced by 0.7 seconds per combo point spent (was 0.5 seconds).
      • [With realm restarts] (4) Set Bonus: Sickle of the Lion’s damage is increased by 25%.
        • Developers’ note: We really appreciate all of the feedback on the Feral set and feel that we should take some time to explain these changes. When previously tuning this bonus, we took multiple factors into account: the synergy of the set with other legendaries, its synergy with Feral’s kit, the AOE component, and more. Since we last made adjustments during PTR testing, we’ve gotten a chance to incorporate a great deal of the feedback provided and take a fresh look at the numbers and we found that – as players rightly called out – there was a disconnect in how impactful this bonus was in situations such as single-target encounters.
          Our goal with these changes is to keep Feral being a strong option in single-target encounters while increasing their AOE throughput. We will continue to actively watch discussions about this, and we want to say again: thank you for the feedback, and we appreciate the community’s patience as we take care with the tuning of this spec.
  • Hunter
    • Beast Mastery
      • [With realm restarts] (4) Set Bonus: The set bonus now reads as – Kill Command critical hits empower your next Cobra Shot or Multi-Shot, increasing the damage and cooldown reduction of Cobra Shot by 40% or causing Multi-Shot to grant an additional 6 seconds of Beast Cleave.
        • Developers’ note: We are adding additional functionality to the 4-piece bonus for Beast Mastery Hunters. When your Kill Command critically strikes, it now empowers either your next Cobra Shot with the existing functionality, or causes your next Multi-Shot to cause your next Beast Cleave to last 6 seconds longer. This should allow you to focus more on Barbed Shot, Cobra Shot, and Kill Command in AoE situations and worry less about using a Multi-Shot every 4 seconds to keep the Beast Cleave buff active.
  • Priest
    • Discipline
      • (2) Set Bonus: Fixed an issue where 2 stacks of Manifested Twilight could be consumed if Shadow Mend triggered the second application.
  • Shaman
    • Elemental
      • [With realm restarts] Storm Elemental’s Wind Gust effect gained from casting Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning now has a maximum stack of 10 (was 20). Additionally, if you cast Storm Elemental again while having a Storm Elemental active, the Wind Gust buff will be reset.
        • Developers’ note: The ability to maintain Storm Elemental at long duration and high uptime allows for extended periods of Lightning Bolts with a cast time of less than 0.6 seconds. Players have reported that this is uncomfortable to play, and we believe it might pose a significant accessibility concern. For that reason, we would rather entirely avoid having a class talent allow cast times which are this short, to avoid similar problems in the future. We are reducing the maximum cast time reduction that can be granted by Storm Elemental. In addition, recasting a Storm Elemental while a Storm Elemental is already active will reset the stacks of Wind Gust.
    • Enhancement
      • Fixed an issue where the global cooldown reduction of Frost Shock and Flame Shock were incorrectly benefitting from the effects of haste twice.
  • Warlock
    • Affliction
      • [With realm restarts] (2) Set Bonus: Malefic Rapture’s damage is now increased by 25% (was 15%).
      • [With realm restarts] (4) Set Bonus: Shadow Bolt now has a 30% chance and Drain Soul now has a 20% chance to make your next Malefic Rapture cost no Soul Shards and cast instantly (was 20% and 10% respectively).
        • Developers’ note: Affliction’s set bonus wasn’t providing enough of an impactful reward for executing its mechanic. These increases should increase the throughput of Affliction’s tier set and we hope that these changes will bring its output in line with other set bonuses.
  • Warrior
    • Fury
      • [With realm restarts] (2) Set Bonus: Raging Blow damage reduced to 10% (was 15%).
      • [With realm restarts] (4) Set Bonus: Duration of Recklessness granted reduced to 3 seconds (was 4 seconds).
      • [With realm restarts] Glory (Necrolord Runecarving Power): The amount of Rage spent to extend Conqueror’s Banner increased to 25 for Fury Warriors (was 20).
        • Developers’ note: Fury’s tier set was stronger than intended and we will be reducing the power of both the 2-piece and 4-piece to better fit within our goal for tier bonuses. In addition, we will be increasing the amount of Rage required to extend Conqueror’s Banner duration while the Glory legendary is equipped. The overall uptime of Conqueror’s Banner with the Glory legendary, Set Bonus (and conduits) was much higher than intended. We hope with these changes that the overall feel of all covenant Fury builds remain intact but with much more reasonable output.

Creatures and NPCs

  • [With realm restarts] Completing the “Antros” world quest will now award 2 Anima Matrices [500 anima] (was 1 [250 anima]).

Cyphers of the First Ones

  • Glimmercane is now available to start the quest “Mysterious Greenery” after researching Sopranian Understanding.

Dungeons and Raids

  • Sepulcher of the First Ones
    • Fixed an issue that would sometimes cause bosses to despawn immediately upon defeat.
    • Artificer Xy’mox
      • Fixed issue where the visual effect of Xy Acolyte’s Massive Blast rendered smaller than the actual area of effect.
    • Prototype Pantheon
      • Fixed an issue where Humbling Strikes could critically strike.
      • Updated the Dungeon Journal entry for Bastion’s Ward to accurately reflect the damage reduction provided to Runecarver’s Deathtouch.
    • Lihuvim, Principal Architect
      • [With realm restarts] The first cast of Synthesize now occurs much earlier in the encounter.
      • [With realm restarts] Reduced the time between casts of Synthesize slightly.
      • [With realm restarts] The damage reduction granted by Protoform Disalignment has been reduced to 50% on Normal difficulty and 20% on Heroic difficulty (was 90%).
      • [With realm restarts] The damage inflicted by Cosmic Shift has been increased by 50% on Heroic Difficulty.
      • [With realm restarts] The damage inflicted when an Unstable Mote is created has been increased by approximately 25% on Heroic Difficulty.
      • [With realm restarts] Damage inflicted by Deconstructing Energy has been increased by 50% on Heroic Difficulty.
        • Developers’ note: We have identified an issue that caused Lihuvim to do significantly less raid damage than expected on all difficulties. While we typically do not increase the difficulty of encounters after release, we do sometimes intervene to address cases where a fight would otherwise be much less engaging than intended.
          We believe intervention is warranted in this case, and so with weekly resets we will be applying a number of changes intended to increase raid damage during the Lihuvim encounter. The biggest change will be to the Cosmic damage reduction provided by Protoform Disalignment, which was incorrectly reducing damage taken by 90%. We also made adjustments to other abilities to ensure raid damage ends up in a healthy place.
    • Halondrus the Reclaimer
      • Fixed an issue preventing Theotar the Mad Duke’s Token of Appreciation ability (Venthyr Soulbind) from functioning during the encounter.
      • Fixed an issue where Priest’s Unholy Nova (Necrolord Ability) was unusable on Halondrus except in specific spots.
    • Anduin Wrynn
      • [With realm restarts] If Anduin Wrynn reaches 10% health in non-Mythic difficulty before starting the final phase of the encounter, he will now immediately begin the final phase.
        • Developers’ note: Players are hitting this threshold in lower difficulties, this should shorten the encounter for groups that overpower the encounter.
    • Lords of Dread
      • We’ve identified an issue with the Ruined Crest of Lordaeron shield and will be removing it from the loot table for one week. The shield should return to the loot table with next week’s scheduled weekly maintenance in each region.
  • Mythic+
    • Fixed an issue where Mythic+ Rating for Tazavesh: Streets of Wonder was incorrectly calculated based on a 38 minute time limit.
      • Developers’ note: This fix is retroactive. Players should see their Mythic+ Ratings for existing runs adjusted accordingly.
  • Tazavesh: So’leah’s Gambit
    • Timecap’n Hooktail
      • Fixed an issue where Cannon Barrage would pierce immunities.
  • Tazavesh: Streets of Wonder
    • [With realm restarts] Support Officer’s Hard Light Barrier is now a Magic effect.
    • [With realm restarts] Tracker Zo’korss health reduced by 20%.
    • [With realm restarts] Ancient Core Hound health reduced by 20%.
    • [With realm restarts] Commerce Enforcer health reduced by 20%.
    • [With realm restarts] Commander Zo’far health reduced by 25%.
    • The Grand Menagerie
      • Achillite
        • [With realm restarts] Purification Protocol damage reduced by 25%.
      • Alcruux
        • [With realm restarts] The damage of Grand Consumption has been reduced by 35%.

Items and Rewards

  • Players will no longer see additional unusable Revelation Keys drop if they already have two.
  • Bauble of Pure Innovation can now be looted properly by players who meet the requirements.

Quests

  • If players disconnect or leave before Hanoa’s resolution has concluded during “Jiro to Hero,” they can return to Hanoa Exile to start the event again and see the conclusion.

Fury Warrior Class Set Tuning

Quote from: Blizzard

UPDATED March 7

  • Glory (Necrolord Runecarving Power): The amount of Rage spent to extend Conqueror’s Banner increased to 25 for Fury Warriors (was 20).
Quote from: Blizzard

Thank you for all of your feedback on the recent Fury tuning changes.

Our goal with this round of changes is to curb a bit of the feedback loop created with the synergies from the new tier bonuses, double legendaries, and conduits available, especially for Necrolord. However, with these changes it’s important that we make sure Necrolord Fury still feels like a competitive choice compared to the other Covenant options.

After doing some further review, we’re updating the Glory legendary change from 30 Rage per Conqueror’s Banner extension to 25 Rage.

Given Necrolord’s ability to increase others’ throughput as well as their own, we feel like this should strike a balance between their personal output and their group buff potential.

Sepulcher of the First Ones – Ruined Crest of Lordaeron temporarily disabled

Quote from: Blizzard

Hey folks – while preparing to release the last three bosses of Sepulcher of the First Ones tomorrow, we discovered an issue with the Ruined Crest of Lordaeron, a shield that drops from the Lords of Dread encounter. This issue isn’t something we’ll be able to resolve in the next day before launch, and we don’t believe it’s worth holding back the release tomorrow, so this means that we’ll be disabling the item from the Lords of Dread loot table until the next weekly reset on 3/15.

We understand that many players have been making decisions about what raid compositions and classes to run in anticipation of the Sepulcher’s more mysterious and challenging encounters becoming available, and not having access to this higher-item level piece during that first week puts a damper on that excitement for those affected.

While we don’t believe it’ll take us the entire week to solve the issue, we’re leaving it disabled so as not to disadvantage the more cutting-edge raiders who will be clearing the Lords of Dread earlier in the week vs those who would come around to it later. It’s also worth noting that despite this unfortunate situation, the Ruined Crest of Lordaeron will still be available in 3/15’s Great Vault for eligible raiders who manage to take down the Lords of Dread this week.

Luckily, the news isn’t all bad. We’ve heard the feedback that the First-Ones visuals didn’t match up with the name and theme of the item, which many felt were ill-fitting of such an iconic Warcraft character in Mal’Ganis. When the shield is re-enabled with the 3/15 reset, it’ll be sporting an entirely new, exclusive appearance that some very old-school members of the Alliance may remember well…

We appreciate everyone’s patience as we deal with getting this issue resolved as quickly as cleanly as possible. Thanks for understanding, and we wish you the best of luck taking the fight to the Jailer tomorrow and in the weeks to come.

Hotfixes: March 4, 2022, Lihuvim Raid Damage Adjustments

Last night the hotfixes continued with another batch of big nerfs to Tazavesh Mythic+, an increase in cypher drops in Zereth Mortis, PvP trinket balancing and a lot more. Additionally something happened that doesn’t occur often – instead of balance nerfs, some buffs were announced for the Lihuvim raid encounter in Sepulcher of the First Ones. These buffs will go live with the next weekly reset.

Hotfixes: March 4, 2022

Quote from: Blizzard

March 4, 2022

Classes

  • Hunter
    • Survival
      • Fixed an issue that caused Wildfire Bomb to not deal any damage when multiple hunters with Wildfire Infusion talented tried to throw the same type of bomb at the same target simultaneously.
  • Warlock
    • Fixed several issues when applying Succubus glyphs to Summon Sayaad. Warlocks can no longer apply Succubus glyphs to Summon Sayaad and now must visit their trainer to choose Summon Succubus to apply Succubus glyphs.
      • Developers note: Succubus glyphs will be maintained, even when they have chosen Summon Incubus or Summon Sayaad.
    • Destruction
      • Fixed an issue where Destruction’s 2-piece set bonus would grant Rain of Chaos.

Creatures and NPCs

  • Otaris the Provoked’s Charged Barrage is now more melee friendly.

Cyphers of the First Ones

  • Pocopoc will now consistently engage in combat.
  • Pocopoc Energy is no longer lost when returning from an arena or rated battleground.
  • Finishing a Cypher language research will no longer take you out of stealth.

Dungeons and Raids

  • Mythic+
    • Tazavesh: So’leah’s Gambit
      • Ta’piks can now teleport you to The Gilded Landing if you wish to leave the instance during a Mythic+ run.
  • Mists of Tirna Scithe
    • Tred’ova
      • Fixed issue where the visual effect of Acid Expulsion rendered smaller than the actual area of effect.
  • Tazavesh: So’leah’s Gambit
    • Added a confirmation prompt to the instance exit portal that appears after So’leah is defeated.
    • Hylbrande
      • Increased the time it takes for Sanitizing Field to consume the room.
    • So’leah
      • So’leah’s health has been reduced by 15%.
      • Hyperlight Jolt damage reduced by 25% and now increases the damage of subsequent Hyperlight Jolts by 25% (was 50%).
      • Energy Fragmentation impact damage and damage over time reduced by 25%.
  • Tazavesh: Streets of Wonder
    • Reduced the cast frequency of Customs Security Disruption Grenade and increased the detonation time by 0.5 seconds.
    • Reduced the cast frequency of Interrogation Specialist’s Stasis Beam.
    • Reduced the cast frequency of Cartel Skulker’s Quickblade.
    • Cartel Lackey health reduced by 35%.
    • Bazaar Strongarm health reduced by 30%.
    • Fixed an issue causing Bazaar Strongarms to become very large after gaining many applications of Unrelenting.
    • Mailroom Mayhem
      • Unstable Explosion impact damage reduced by 30% and damage over time reduced by 30%.
    • Myza’s Oasis
      • Health of Unruly Patrons reduced by 20%.
      • Zo’gron’s health reduced by 10%.
    • The Grand Menagerie
      • Reduced the cast frequency of Venza Goldfuse’s Whirling Domination.
      • Chains of Damnation health reduced by 20%.

Items and Rewards

  • Cypher-Bound Chests, Avian Nests, Mawsworn Supply Chests, Tarachnid Eggs, Discarded Automa Scrap, Forgotten Treasure Vaults, and Sandworn Chests found on the main landmass of Zereth Mortis will now respawn more quickly and despawn less quickly once opened.
  • Slightly increased the quantity of Cyphers of the First Ones found in Cypher-Bound Chests, Avian Nests, Mawsworn Supply Chests, Tarachnid Eggs, Discarded Automa Scrap, and Forgotten Treasure Vaults.
  • Fixed an issue that caused trinkets awarded from World Quests in Zereth Mortis to be an item level lower than intended.

Player versus Player

  • The following items and their effects are now reduced in PvP combat:
    • Raid Trinkets
      • Brood of Endless Feast – Rabid Devourer Chomp damage reduced by 60% in PvP combat.
      • Cache of Acquired Treasures – Acquired Wand reduced by 70%. Vicious Wound reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
      • Chains of Domination – Damage reduced by 70% in PvP combat.
      • Earthbreaker’s Impact – Damage reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
      • Grim Eclipse – Damage reduced by 40% in PvP combat.
      • Heart of the Swarm – Leech and damage reduced by 70% in PvP combat.
      • Intrusive Thoughtcage – Health drain reduced by 70% in PvP combat.
      • Pocket Protoforge – Protoforged Defense absorption reduced by 55% in PvP combat.
      • Pulsating Riftshard – Damage and absorption reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
      • Resonant Reservoir – Disintegration Halo damage reduced by 55% in PvP combat.
      • Scars of Fraternal Strife – The Final Rune damage reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
      • The First Sigil – Versatility reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
    • Item Effects
      • Sepulcher’s Savior – Healing and damage reduced by 50% in PvP combat.

Quests

  • Players who die while in the Genesis Repository during the quest “A Mutual Exchange” can now enter the room in their spirit form.

Burning Crusade Classic

  • Fixed an animation issue on the goblin engineering trinket, Goblin Dragon Gun.

Lihuvim Raid Damage Adjustments

Quote from: Blizzard

Greetings! I hope you’re all having a good time exploring the Sepulcher of the First Ones!

We wanted to let you all know in advance about some upcoming changes to the Lihuvim encounter, as we have identified an issue that caused Lihuvim to do significantly less raid damage than expected on all difficulties. While we typically do not increase the difficulty of encounters after release, we do sometimes intervene to address cases where a fight would otherwise be much less engaging than intended.

We believe intervention is warranted in this case, and so with weekly resets we will be applying a number of changes intended to increase raid damage during the Lihuvim encounter.

We’ll have detailed notes to share next week, but the biggest change will be to the Cosmic damage reduction provided by Protoform Disalignment, which was incorrectly reducing damage taken by 90%. This value will be much lower next week, particularly on Heroic difficulty. We may also make small adjustments to some of Lihuvim’s other abilities to ensure raid damage ends up in a healthy place.

Keep an eye out for the full details next week, and thank you for your patience!

Tier Set Tuning Coming With Weekly Reset

Last night Blizzard posted about a bunch of tier set changes coming with the next weekly reset. Check them out below!

Shamans

Quote from: Blizzard

We’re currently working on the following adjustment to Elemental Shaman, which we intend to make live with scheduled weekly maintenance on Tuesday, March 8 in this region.

Shaman

  • Elemental
    • Storm Elemental’s Wind Gust effect gained from casting Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning now has a maximum stack of 10 (was 20). Additionally, if you cast Storm Elemental again while having a Storm Elemental active, the Wind Gust buff will be reset.

The ability to maintain Storm Elemental at long duration and high uptime allows for extended periods of Lightning Bolts with a cast time of less than 0.6 seconds. Players have reported that this is uncomfortable to play, and we believe it might pose a significant accessibility concern. For that reason, we would rather entirely avoid having a class talent allow cast times which are this short, to avoid similar problems in the future. We are reducing the maximum cast time reduction that can be granted by Storm Elemental. In addition, recasting a Storm Elemental while a Storm Elemental is already active will reset the stacks of Wind Gust.

Druids

Quote from: Blizzard

We’ve worked through the following adjustments to Balance and Feral Druids, which we intend to make live with scheduled weekly maintenance on Tuesday, March 8 in this region.

Druid

  • Balance
    • (2) Set Bonus: Entering a Lunar Eclipse now creates a Fury of Elune at 20% effectiveness (was 25% effectiveness).
    • (4) Set Bonus: While in an Eclipse, the cost of Starsurge and Starfall is reduced by 15% (was 20%).

The synergy of the Balance tier set with some of Balance’s options made it perform a bit higher than intended. We want to bring Balance in-line with other tier set bonuses while still rewarding those synergistic choices. These changes should keep the power of Balance’s tier set bonus, but rein in some of the higher outputs we’ve seen.*

Druid

  • Feral
    • (2) Set Bonus: Berserk’s cooldown is now reduced by 0.7 seconds per combo point spent (was 0.5 seconds).
    • (4) Set Bonus: Sickle of the Lion’s damage is increased by 25%.

We really appreciate all of the feedback on the Feral set and feel that we should take some time to explain these changes. When previously tuning this bonus, we took multiple factors into account: the synergy of the set with other legendaries, its synergy with Feral’s kit, the AOE component, and more. Since we last made adjustments during PTR testing, we’ve gotten a chance to incorporate a great deal of the feedback provided and take a fresh look at the numbers and we found that – as players rightly called out – there was a disconnect in how impactful this bonus was in situations such as single-target encounters.

Our goal with these changes is to keep Feral being a strong option in single-target encounters while increasing their AOE throughput. We will continue to actively watch discussions about this, and we want to say again: thank you for the feedback, and we appreciate the community’s patience as we take care with the tuning of this spec.

Death Knights

Quote from: Blizzard

We’re currently working on the following adjustment to Unholy Death Knight’s 4-piece set bonus, which we intend to make live with scheduled weekly maintenance on Tuesday, March 8 in this region.

  • (4) Set Bonus: Your minions deal 10% increased damage (was 5%). When Soul Reaper’s secondary effect triggers, this bonus increases to 50% for 8 seconds (was 25%).

Unholy’s Tier Set bonus is intended to differentiate the spec from Frost by amplifying one of its niches; strong windows of single-target burst & high-value execute damage. The initial tuning of the bonus was simply too low to make good on that promise, especially when compared to the baseline single-target power other similar bonuses brought to the table.

Hunters

Quote from: Blizzard

We’re currently working on the following adjustment to Beast Mastery Hunter’s 4-piece set bonus, which we intend to make live with scheduled weekly maintenance on Tuesday, March 8 in this region.

  • (4) Set Bonus: The set bonus now reads as – Kill Command critical hits empower your next Cobra Shot or Multi-Shot, increasing the damage and cooldown reduction of Cobra Shot by 40% or causing Multi-Shot to grant an additional 6 seconds of Beast Cleave.

We are adding additional functionality to the 4-piece bonus for Beast Mastery Hunters. When your Kill Command critically strikes, it now empowers either your next Cobra Shot with the existing functionality, or causes your next Multi-Shot to cause your next Beast Cleave to last 6 seconds longer. This should allow you to focus more on Barbed Shot, Cobra Shot, and Kill Command in AoE situations and worry less about using a Multi-Shot every 4 seconds to keep the Beast Cleave buff active.

Warlocks

Quote from: Blizzard

We’re currently working on the following adjustment to Affliction Warlock’s set bonuses, which we intend to make live with scheduled weekly maintenance on Tuesday, March 8 in this region.

  • (2) Set Bonus: Malefic Rapture’s damage is now increased by 25% (was 15%).
  • (4) Set Bonus: Shadow Bolt now has a 30% chance and Drain Soul now has a 20% chance to make your next Malefic Rapture cost no Soul Shards and cast instantly (was 20% and 10% respectively).

Affliction’s set bonus wasn’t providing enough of an impactful reward for executing its mechanic. These increases should increase the throughput of Affliction’s tier set and we hope that these changes will bring its output in line with other set bonuses.

Warriors

Quote from: Blizzard

We’re currently working on the following adjustment to Fury Warrior’s set bonuses and Glory legendary, which we intend to make live with scheduled weekly maintenance on Tuesday, March 8 in this region.

  • (2) Set Bonus: Raging Blow damage reduced to 10% (was 15%).
  • (4) Set Bonus: Duration of Recklessness granted reduced to 3 seconds (was 4 seconds).
  • Glory (Necrolord Runecarving Power): The amount of Rage spent to extend Conqueror’s Banner increased to 30 for Fury Warriors (was 20).

Fury’s tier set was stronger than intended and we will be reducing the power of both the 2-piece and 4-piece to better fit within our goal for tier bonuses. In addition, we will be increasing the amount of Rage required to extend Conqueror’s Banner duration while the Glory legendary is equipped. The overall uptime of Conqueror’s Banner with the Glory legendary, Set Bonus (and conduits) was much higher than intended. We hope with these changes that the overall feel of all covenant Fury builds remain intact but with much more reasonable output.

Hotfixes: March 3, 2022

Last night the hotfixes continued with another big batch of fixes that include Sepulcher balance changes, more Mythic+ fixes and the increased chance at getting Cypher equipment from Zereth Mortis activites.

Quote from: Blizzard

March 3, 2022

Achievements

  • Added additional safety measures to help the Traversing the Spheres achievement register correctly.

Classes

  • Hunter
    • Costumes for Pocopoc now correctly persist through Feign Death.
    • Survival
      • Fixed an issue where Wildfire Bombs would not damage player totems or Explosive Orbs in Mythic+ dungeons if the totem or Explosive Orb was the primary target of the Wildfire Bomb.

Covenants

  • Each of the four original Covenant campaign questlines now reward a total of 20 additional Renown.

Dungeons and Raids

  • Sepulcher of the First Ones
    • Several enemies now detect stealth and invisibility.
    • Skolex, the Insatiable Ravener
      • Fixed an issue where Retch was not treated as an area of effect spell in regards to all defensive abilities.
    • Artificer Xy’mox
      • Health of Xy Acolytes reduced by 15% on Raid Finder, Normal, and Heroic difficulties.
      • Resolved an issue where Interdimensional Wormholes could despawn while Genesis Rings were active when Xy’mox was below 30% health.
      • Reduced the pacing of the encounter by 15% on Normal and Heroic difficulty.
      • Improved the visual clarity of Gunship Barrage.
      • Reduced the radius effect of Hyperlight Sparknova.
    • Prototype Pantheon
      • Burden of Sin damage reduced by 25% on all difficulties except Mythic.
      • Added more time before Bastion’s Ward dispel zones despawn upon transitioning between phases.
      • The Prototype Pantheon now pause in their place when beginning Complete Reconstruction and will remain there until all members of the Pantheon are defeated.
      • Improved the visual effect for Pinning Weapon.
      • Fixed an issue where Complete Reconstruction could fail to apply to a Pantheon member.
      • Holy Priest’s Guardian Angel (Talent) will now correctly reduce the cooldown of Guardian Spirit when cast on the Withering Seeds.
    • Anduin Wrynn
      • Anduin’s health reduced by 5% on Heroic difficulty.
      • Remorseless Winter damage reduced by 10% on Normal and Heroic difficulty.
      • Fiendish Soul Health reduced by 25% on Normal and Heroic difficulty.
      • Grim Reflection health reduced by 10% on Normal and Heroic difficulty.
      • Befouled Barrier requires 10% less healing on Heroic difficulty.
      • Befouled Barrier requires 20% less healing on Normal difficulty.
  • Mythic+
    • Halls of Atonement
      • Fixed an issue that caused the dungeon’s Mythic+ Rating to be doubled in certain situations.
    • Tazavesh: Streets of Wonder
      • Bazaar Strongarm no longer triggers affixes that occur on death (such as Bolstering).
    • Theater of Pain
      • Fixed an issue where dueling Gladiators in the Halls of Might could summon their Encrypted affix relics early.
  • Tazavesh: So’leah’s Gambit
    • Updated the Tazavesh Portal Network portal in The Opulent Nexus to now transport players back to Stormheim on Heroic and Mythic+ difficulties.
  • Tazavesh: Streets of Wonder
    • Zo’phex the Sentinel
      • Reduced the health of Containment Cell by 40%.
      • Reduced the periodic damage of Containment Cell by 50%.
    • The Grand Menagerie
      • Alcruux health reduced by 40%.
      • Achillite health reduced by 20%.
      • Venza Goldfuse health reduced by 10%.
  • Hellfire Citadel
    • Gorefiend
      • Fixed an issue that would cause the encounter to reset when engaged by 2 players on Mythic difficulty.
  • Firelands
    • Ragnaros
      • Fixed an issue where The Heart of Ragnaros would not appear after defeating the encounter.

Items and Rewards

  • The following changes have been made to the Cosmic Gladiator’s Resonator trinket:
    • Damage dealt reduced by 18% and can no longer critically strike.
    • Hostile resonators now have a visual to indicate their radius more clearly.
    • Characters within a hostile resonator will now have an indicator debuff applied.
  • Fixed an issue that caused Pure-Air Sail Extensions to increase flying speed.
  • Fluidic and Crystallic Spheroids now have cast time.
  • Fixed an issue where Interrogator’s Vicious Dirk was not dropping from Iska, Outrider of Ruin, High Reaver Damaris, and Reanimatrox Marzan in Zereth Mortis.

Pet Battles

  • Disabled the “back” option for the Pocopoc battle pet.

Quests

  • Zereth Mortis daily and world quests now have a higher chance of awarding Cypher Equipment, and a proportionately lower chance of awarding gold or anima.