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Category: Warcraft

Dragonflight Feedback 4 October 2022: Season 1 Class Sets

Quote from: Blizzard

Thank you all for your feedback on and discussion around the new Class Set bonuses. It’s helpful to read your concerns as we continue to work on them, and we want to take a moment to share some clarifications and updates. The updates in this post aren’t everything we’re working on – we’ll share more as we make progress.

We’d like to start with a note on tuning. Class tuning is ongoing, and some bonuses are farther along in the tuning process than others. That said, feedback on tuning is still valuable, especially around how bonuses affect your rotation or how often they’ll be active.

Next, some corrections:

  • The Preservation Evoker (2) Set Bonus will increase the critical heal chance of Reversion by 25%, not 5%.
  • The Protection Paladin (4) Set Bonus was missing some values. It should read “Casting Hammer of the Righteous / Blessed Hammer increases your Parry by 4% for 10 seconds and extends the duration of Versatility of Light by 1.0 seconds.”
  • The Elemental Shaman (2) Set Bonus should be 2.5%, not 2-3%.
  • The Elemental Shaman (4) Set Bonus should include Elemental Blast. This has been corrected. In general set bonuses will affect talented abilities that replace other abilities.

Here are some more details about how some bonuses work:

  • The Enhancement Shaman (4) Set Bonus only affects abilities that are on cooldown.
  • We’re aware that Fire Blast does not benefit from the Fire Mage (4) Set Bonus critical strike bonus – we formatted it that way for brevity. We may revise it to separate the bonuses.
  • The Affliction Warlock (4) Set Piece grants 40% increased damage to one cast for each charge of Cruel Epiphany – the damage bonus does not stack. We’ll try to revise the description to make this clearer.
  • The Vengeance Demon Hunter (4) Set Bonus activates at the same rate whether you are using Spirit Bomb or Soul Cleave. You will not have to talent into Spirit Bomb to maximize its value.
  • The Mistweaver Monk (4) Set Bonus only extends the duration of Renewing Mist once for each Essence Font bolt – it does not trigger from Essence Font healing over time. There is currently a bug preventing Essence Font bolts from Faeline Stomp from activating the bonus, but we’ll fix that.

One of the things we’re keeping an eye on is: bonuses that have too much influence on your talent choices or build. For instance, we’re changing the Frost Mage bonus to not empower Frost Bolt so specifically:

  • (2) Set Bonus: Ice Lance and Frozen Orb damage increased by 10%.
  • (4) Set Bonus: Consuming Fingers of Frost increases spell damage by 8% for 6 seconds.

We’re looking forward to sharing more as we continue refining these bonuses. Thank you so much!

Hotfixes: 3 October 2022

A small hotfix was released last night to add the season 4 pvp gear cache to the heirloom broker in Oribos, next to the flightmaster.

Quote from: Blizzard

OCTOBER 3, 2022

Items and Rewards

  • Dara the Heirloom Broker located in Oribos sells the following bind-on-account item:
    • Eternal Equipment Chest – Contains one piece of item level 275 unranked PvP gear. The chest can only be purchased with Conquest by a character with a 1400 or higher rating in any PvP bracket.

Dragonflight Beta 30 September 2022: Season 1 Tier Sets, Vault of the Incarnates Raid Testing Cancelled, Druid & Shaman Updates

Last night Blizzard posted the tier set bonuses for all 38 specs which will be testable on the Valdrakken realm with the next beta build! They also announced that the raid testing for Normal and LFR difficulty has been postponed and they posted updates for Druids and Shamans.

Quote from: Blizzard

We’re excited to share the bonuses you’ll discover on Class Sets in Dragonflight. To add to the excitement, these bonuses will be playable in the next beta build!

Dragonflight Class Set Armor Design

We set a few goals for this round of Class Sets. First and foremost, these Class Set bonuses are not as complex as the effects on 9.2 Class Sets. The new talent trees have resulted in a lot of changes to classes in Dragonflight, and we want you all to be able to play those classes without Class Sets that significantly change your rotations or resource economies. This is not to say that we won’t make more complex or rotationally impactful Class Sets in the future. But you’ll find that these bonuses generally take a light touch on features like resource generation and cooldown manipulation.

Another goal that came from wanting you all to have a chance to get familiar with Dragonflight’s new classes is that we want these Class Sets to have minimal impact on your talent choices. We want you to be able to play the way you choose in whatever content you prefer. As a result, they generally modify core class abilities or talents that are learned near the top of the tree. They may have synergies with talents further down the tree, but they shouldn’t make you feel like specific builds or capstone talents are “required.”

Acquiring Set Armor in Dragonflight

When Sets returned as a major endgame feature in 9.2, we debuted the Creation Catalyst as a tool for players to access and complete their sets, with the following goals:

Players of all types should have access to powerful bonuses and fun appearances even if raiding is not their preferred method of engagement.

New and returning players “catching up” should not have a monumental task to become ready to fight alongside friends.

WoW can confidently carry the system forward as an evergreen feature for players to learn and understand intuitively.

We think those goals were met. And while there’s room for improvement (both in understanding the means by which charges accrue, as well tuning prohibitive currency costs for alts), we’re happy to say that the Catalyst (which will be known as the Inspiration Catalyst in Dragonflight, and just the ‘Catalyst’ moving forward) will return to the Isles as a companion system to Class Sets for the foreseeable future.

We’ll have more details to share on everything Catalyst-related in a future update, but for now it’s worth mentioning that we’re planning on keeping the unlock cadence the same to start – that is to say, the 6th week after the Mythic Raid becomes available in Dragonflight Season 1.

Playing with These Bonuses and Providing Feedback

To try these set bonuses in the Beta, log into an endgame realm and 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.

Set Bonuses

Death Knight

  • Blood
    • (2) Set Bonus: When a Bone Shield charge is consumed you have a 20% chance to generate one rune.
    • (4) Set Bonus: After 10 Bone Shield charges are consumed gain 10% damage and Haste for 10 seconds.
  • Frost
    • (2) Set Bonus: Obliterate and Frostscythe critical strike damage is increased by 15%.
    • (4) Set Bonus: Obliterate and Frostscythe have a 15% chance not to consume Killing Machine.
  • Unholy
    • (2) Set Bonus: Bursting a festering wound grants your ghoul Vile Infusion, increasing their damage and attack speed by 10% for 5 seconds.
    • (4) Set Bonus: Your primary ghoul’s attacks have a 15% chance to increase your damage and Haste by 10% for 8 seconds. This chance is increased during Vile Infusion.

Demon Hunter

  • Havoc
    • (2) Set Bonus: Chaos Strike and Blade Dance chance to critically strike is increased by 5% and their critical strike damage is increased by 10%.
    • (4) Set Bonus: Chaos Strike and Blade Dance have a 20% chance to increase damage you deal by 8% for 6 seconds. Your critical strikes increase this chance.
  • Vengeance
    • (2) Set Bonus: Shear / Fracture deals 20% more damage, generates 20% more Fury, and have a 15% chance to generate an additional Soul Fragment.
    • (4) Set Bonus: Spirit Bomb and Soul Cleave have a 12% chance to deal 50% more damage and cause targets they hit to deal 15% less damage to you for 8 seconds.

Druid

  • Balance
    • (2) Set Bonus: Starsurge and Starfall increase the damage of your next Wrath or Starfire by 50%, stacking up to 3 times.
    • (4) Set Bonus: When you enter Eclipse, your next Starsurge or Starfall costs no Astral Power and deals 50% increased damage.
  • Feral
    • (2) Set Bonus: Rip & Ferocious Bite damage increased by 5%.
    • (4) Set Bonus: Finishing moves grant 1% crit for each combo point spent for 5 seconds.
  • Guardian
    • (2) Set Bonus: Gore has a 5% increased chance to trigger. Gore also increases Mangle’s damage by 10%.
    • (4) Set Bonus: Mangle and Thrash deal 5% increased damage. Mangle heals you for 100% of the damage it deals.
  • Restoration
    • (2) Set Bonus: Rejuvenation, Lifebloom, Wild Growth, Efflorescence, and Tranquility chance to critically heal is increased by 10%.
    • (4) Set Bonus: Efflorescence critical heals increase the healing of your next Wild Growth by 10%, stacking up to 5 times. Lifebloom critical heals reduce the cooldown of Nature’s Swiftness by 2 seconds.

Evoker

  • Devastation
    • (2) Set Bonus: Increases Empower spells’ chance to critically strike by 5% and Empower spells increase your chance to critically strike by 5% for 6 seconds.
    • (4) Set Bonus: Empower spells have a 25% chance to grant you 6 seconds of Fury of the Aspects without causing Sated.
  • Preservation
    • (2) Set Bonus: Empower spells increase Reversion’s chance to critically heal by 5% for 6 seconds.
    • (4) Set Bonus: Reversion healing has a chance to cause your next Living Flame to cast instantly and deal 20% increased damage or healing. Stacks up to 2 times.

Hunter

  • Beast Mastery
    • (2) Set Bonus: Kill Command damage increased by 10% and it has a 10% chance to reset the cooldown on Barbed Shot.
    • (4) Set Bonus: Barbed Shot has a 50% chance to make your next Cobra Shot or Multi-Shot consume no focus.
  • Marksmanship
    • (2) Set Bonus: Arcane Shot & Multi Shot critical hits cause your next Aimed Shot to cast 50% faster and cause the target to bleed for 20% of damage dealt over 6 seconds.
    • (4) Set Bonus: Ranged auto-attacks have a 10% chance to give your next Arcane Shot or Multi Shot 100% chance to critically hit.
  • Survival
    • (2) Set Bonus: Raptor Strike / Mongoose Strike, Carve, and Butchery damage increased by 10%.
    • (4) Set Bonus: Raptor Strike, Mongoose Bite, Carve, and Butchery have a 10% chance to make your next Raptor Strike, Mongoose Bite, Carve, or Butchery cost no Focus.

Mage

  • Arcane
    • (2) Set Bonus: For each Arcane Charge, Arcane Blast critical strike chance is increased by 5% and Arcane Explosion critical strike chance is increased by 3%.
    • (4) Set Bonus: When Arcane Blast or Arcane Explosion critically strikes at least one target, the critical strike chance of your next Arcane Barrage is increased by 10%, up to 4 stacks.
  • Fire
    • (2) Set Bonus: Pyroblasts and Flamestrikes cast with Hot Streak deal 10% increased damage.
    • (4) Set Bonus: Fire Blast, Phoenix Flames, and Fireball deal 10% increased damage and their chance to critically strike is increased by 10%.
  • Frost
    • (2) Set Bonus: Ice Lance and Frozen Orb damage increased by 10%.
    • (4) Set Bonus: Consuming Fingers of Frost increases Blizzard damage by 25% and Frostbolt damage by 50% for 6 seconds.

Monk

  • Brewmaster
    • (2) Set Bonus: Hitting an enemy with Tiger Palm or Spinning Crane Kick grants Brewmaster’s Rhythm, increasing damage dealt and reducing damage taken by 1% for 10 seconds, stacking up to 4 times.
    • (4) Set Bonus: For each stack of Brewmaster’s Rhythm, Purifying Brew clears 3% more of your damage delayed with stagger.
  • Mistweaver
    • (2) Set Bonus: Healing from your Enveloping Mist, Essence Font, and Vivify is increased by 15% on targets with your Renewing Mist.
    • (4) Set Bonus: Essence Font and Vivify healing are increased by 10% and your Renewing Mists on targets healed by Essence Font are extended by 1 seconds for each heal.
  • Windwalker
    • (2) Set Bonus: Fists of Fury increases the damage dealt by your next 2 Rising Sun Kicks or Spinning Crane Kicks by 30%.
    • (4) Set Bonus: Fists of Fury now enhances your next 3 Rising Sun Kicks or Spinning Crane Kicks and enhanced kicks increase your Versatility during your next Fists of Fury by 5%, stacking up to 3 times.

Paladin

  • Holy
    • (2) Set Bonus: Holy Shock increases the critical hit chance of your next heal within 10 seconds by 10%.
    • (4) Set Bonus: When your direct healing spells critically strike, your next Holy Shock deals 30% increased damage or healing.
  • Protection
    • (2) Set Bonus: Avenger’s Shield grants you Versatility of Light, increasing the Versatility of you and your closest ally by 4% for 4 seconds.
    • (4) Set Bonus: Casting Hammer of the Righteous / Blessed Hammer increases your Parry by X% for Y seconds and extends the duration of Versatility of Light by 1.0 seconds.
  • Retribution
    • (2) Set Bonus: Blade of Justice and Judgment grant Crusader’s Strength, increasing the damage of your next Crusader’s Strike or Consecreate by 100%, stacking up to 2.
    • (4) Set Bonus: When you consume Crusader’s Strength, the damage of your next Blade of Justice is increased by 50% for each stack of Crusader’s Strength consumed.

Priest

  • Discipline
    • (2) Set Bonus: Casting Power Word: Shield increases the effectiveness of your next direct damage or healing spell by 10%.
    • (4) Set Bonus: Penance increases the strength of your next Power Word: Shield by 100% of its damage or 30% of its healing.
  • Holy
    • (2) Set Bonus: Casting Prayer of Mending reduces the cast time of your next Heal or Prayer of Healing by 1.0 seconds and increases their Holy Word cooldown reduction effect by 2.0 seconds.
    • (4) Set Bonus: When Holy Word: Serenity or Holy Word: Sanctify finish their cooldown, you gain 15% critical strike chance for 8 seconds.
  • Shadow
    • (2) Set Bonus: Mind Blast increases the damage of your next Devouring Plague or Mind Sear by 20%, stacking up to 3 times.
    • (4) Set Bonus: Devouring Plague and Mind Sear increase your haste by 5% for 8 seconds.

Rogue

  • Assassination
    • (2) Set Bonus: Envenom also increases your weapon poisons’ damage by 10%.
    • (4) Set Bonus: When your weapon poisons deal direct damage, you have a 50% chance to gain Septic Wounds, increasing your Bleed damage by 2% for 8 seconds, stacking up to 5 times.
  • Outlaw
    • (2) Set Bonus: Dispatch increases the damage of your next Sinister Strike or Ambush by 20% per combo point spent.
    • (4) Set Bonus: Half-cost uses of Pistol Shot granted by Sinister Strike increase the damage of your next Dispatch by 50%.
  • Subtlety
    • (2) Set Bonus: Eviscerate and Black Powder increase the damage and critical strike chance of your next Backstab, Shadowstrike, or Shuriken Storm by 2% per combo point spent.
    • (4) Set Bonus: Backstab, Shadowstrike, and Shuriken Storm critical strikes increase the damage of Eviscerate and Rupture by 15% and the damage of Black Powder by 8% for 6 seconds.

Shaman

  • Elemental
    • (2) Set Bonus: Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, and Lava Burst increase the damage of your next Earth Shock or Earthquake by 2-3%, stacking 10 times.
    • (4) Set Bonus: Casting Earth Shock or Elemental Blast or Earthquake increases your Mastery by 10% for 10 seconds.
  • Enhancement
    • (2) Set Bonus: Stormstrike increases the damage of your next Lava Lash by 10% and causes it to generate 1 additional stack of Maelstrom Weapon.
    • (4) Set Bonus: Consuming Maelstrom Weapon stacks reduces the cooldown of Stormstrike, Lava Lash, Crash Lightning, Flame Shock, or Frost Shock by 0.5 seconds per stack, chosen randomly.
  • Restoration
    • (2) Set Bonus: While Healing Stream Totem/Cloudburst Totem is active, your chance to critically strike is increased by 10%.
    • (4) Set Bonus: When Healing Stream Totem/Cloudburst Totem expires or dies, you gain 10% Haste for 10 seconds.

Warlock

  • Affliction
    • (2) Set Bonus: When Agony grants you a Soul Shard, you have a chance to gain Cruel Inspiration, increasing your haste by 12% for 6 seconds.
    • (4) Set Bonus: Cruel Inspiration also grants 2 charges of Cruel Epiphany, up to 5 charges. Each charge of Cruel Epiphany increases the damage of your next Malefic Rapture or Seed of Corruption by 40%.
  • Demonology
    • (2) Set Bonus: Demon Bolt and Felstorm damage increased by 20%.
    • (4) Set Bonus: Demon Bolt has a chance to make your next Hand of Gul’dan instant and deal 50% increased damage.
  • Destruction
    • (2) Set Bonus: Consuming Soul Shards has a chance to grant you Chaos Maelstrom, increasing your critical strike chance by 10% for 10 seconds.
    • (4) Set Bonus: During Chaos Maelstrom, your Chaos Bolt, Conflagrate, and Incinerate critical strikes explode on the target, dealing 2-10% of damage dealt to enemies within 8 yds. Damage reduced beyond 5 targets.

Warrior

  • Arms
    • (2) Set Bonus: Mortal Strike and Cleave damage and chance to critically strike increased by 10%.
    • (4) Set Bonus: Mortal Strike, Cleave, & Execute critical strikes increase your damage and critical strike chance by 5% for 6 seconds.
  • Fury
    • (2) Set Bonus: Execute’s chance to critically strike increased by 10%.
    • (4) Set Bonus: Sudden Death’s chance to reset the cooldown of Execute and make it usable on any target, regardless of health, is greatly increased.
  • Protection
    • (2) Set Bonus: Revenge grants you Vanguard’s Determination, increasing your damage done and reducing damage you take by 4% for 5 seconds.
    • (4) Set Bonus: During Vanguard’s Determination, gain Ignore Pain equal to 10% of damage you deal.

Vault of the Incarnates Raid Testing Schedule

Quote from: Blizzard

Greetings raiders,

The team has been working diligently on the full Vault of the Incarnates raid experience, but unfortunately it won’t be ready in time for the currently scheduled Normal and Raid Finder weekend play tests. We’ll be postponing Normal and Raid Finder tests at this time. Please keep an eye out on this thread for further updates and when they have been rescheduled.

We hope that you’re enjoying the Vault of the Incarnates raid experience so far and we look forward to seeing you on the Beta for the second raid test at 22:00 CEST!

Feedback: Druids

Quote from: Blizzard

Greetings, Balance Druids.

After reviewing the performance of Balance Druids during yesterday’s raid testing, we developed a number of changes we’re implementing for today’s raid testing. If you encounter issues with your Talent Tree, please relog. Here are the changes:

  • Lunar Shrapnel has been redesigned:
    • Starfall’s stars have a chance to deal an additional 25% damage to nearby enemies when they damage an enemy afflicted by Moonfire. Deals reduced damage beyond 8 targets.
  • Sundered Firmament’s Astral Power generation now correctly grants 25% of Fury of Elune’s Astral Power generation.
  • Stellar Flare no longer generates Astral Power when granted by Stellar Inspiration.
  • The chance for Shooting Stars to occur has been reduced.
  • Wild Mushrooms no longer have nameplates and are now untargetable.
  • Furor has been redesigned:
    • Protector of the Pack [Feral/Balance/Guardian] – Store 10% of your damage, up to a specific amount. Your next Regrowth consumes all stored damage to increase its healing.
    • Protector of the Pack [Restoration] – Store 10% of your effective healing, up to a specific amount. Your next Regrowth consumes all stored healing to increase its healing.
    • Note: The tooltip of Protector of the Pack will appear broken in-game. We hope to have this fixed soon.

Our main goal with these changes is to rein in the amount of Astral Power that Balance Druids are generating passively, as well as how much Astral Power is being credited to passives such as Primordial Arcanic Pulsar.

Thank you for your continued feedback and suggestions! We’ll continue to watch class performance across the board and adjust whenever the need arises.

Feedback: Shamans

Quote from: Blizzard

Hi Enhancement Shaman,

A change is coming next week to how Windfury Totem works. These changes have no impact on the Windfury Weapon imbue, nothing is changing with how that works.

For some quick context, in Shadowlands, Windfury Totem can only activate from main-hand auto-attacks, and causes a main-hand auto-attack swing when it activates.

The next build you receive should have Windfury Totem changed to work this way:

  • Main-hand auto attack interaction is unchanged, except for the miss note below.
  • Off-hand attacks can proc an off-hand Windfury attack. This is an actual real “auto attack”, which means things like Flametongue Weapon, or whatever other effects may activate from off-hand attacks, can now potentially happen from this bonus attack.
  • Windfury Totem extra attacks can no longer miss. This has very little impact on 2h users, as an Arms Warrior or Retribution Paladin almost never see a miss in their combat log, however dual-wield users have a high miss chance. In Shadowlands, this miss chance both applies to the chance to get the Windfury Totem’s extra attack, and the extra attack itself can then miss. Targets can still dodge or parry these attacks, they are just no longer able to miss.
  • Bonus bug fix: Enhancement Shaman who are under the effects of Ascendance can now benefit from Windfury Totem if they are auto-attacking from outside of melee range range with Windlash.

We will be monitoring any unintended side effects from this change, but this should help make Windfury Totem more valuable to more specs within the game.

Hotfixes 29 September 2022, The Winds of Wisdom 50% Experience Buff Returns!, Frostbrood Proto-Wyrm No Longer Earnable At Dragonflight Release

On the live retail side of things we also had a couple of bits of news. A new hotfix was deployed, the 50% experience buff is returning next week and the Frostbrood Proto-Wyrm will no longer be earnable after Dragonflight goes live!

Hotfixes 29 September 2022

Quote from: Blizzard

SEPTEMBER 29, 2022

Items and Rewards

  • The Forgotten Proto-Vault in Zereth Mortis no longer requires the World Quest “Frog’it” to appear.

The Winds of Wisdom 50% Experience Buff Returns!

Quote from: Blizzard

If you’re just returning after a hiatus from World of Warcraft, leveling another character (or two), or preparing to get ready for the Dragonflight expansion then this is the perfect time to jump into the game. Beginning the week of October 4 with each region’s local weekly reset, all World of Warcraft* players level 10-59 will gain the experience buff called “Winds of Wisdom,” which will increase experience gains by 50%!

Don’t delay. The winds will shift once more when the new dracthyr Evoker becomes playable during the Dragonflight pre-expansion patch, and the experience buff will no longer be available.

 

* Experience boost not available in World of Warcraft Classic titles.

Frostbrood Proto-Wyrm No Longer Earnable At Dragonflight Release

Quote from: Blizzard
Complete the Death Knight starting experience in Wrath of the Lich King Classic before the release of Dragonflight on November 28 and get a Frostbrood Proto-Wyrm mount in World of Warcraft.

Dragonflight Group Loot Clarifications, Dragonriding Changes

After last night’s DF release announcement and Season 1 details players expressed some concerns surrounding the way they were implementing Group Loot in Season 1, so Scariizard took to the forums to elaborate further on how it will work. The blues also highlighted some changes that were added to Dragonriding in this week’s beta build.

Dragonflight Group Loot Clarifications

Quote from: Blizzard

Hey folks, going to respond to add some clarity that might alleviate some concerns, or at the very least better communicate how things will be.

As the title says, these would be for Dragonflight Season 1 – which means the Group Loot being always on is not just for beta. That said, we’ve improved Group Loot a lot from when it was last shown in 2016, and are continuing to work to remove other edge cases. For example:

  • In the past, Need/Greed only knew if something was equippable or the right armor type, not if it was meant for your spec or not. This is now changed.
  • First off, you can never Need for anything your class cannot wear. No warriors sniping cloth robes with a need roll and giving it away or trolling.
  • We also have mainspec and offspec functionality built-in, which changes based on the current loot spec you set.
  • Main spec takes priority, then Off spec, then greed. So while a Ret paladin can’t off-spec loot a shield away from a main-spec roll from the Tank, anyone rolling greed could never win it over them. This also means that if you swap specs for a specific fight, like going Holy, you can still main spec roll for your desired items if they come from that boss without having to worry about hurting yourself by being flexible to your group.
  • Players won’t be able to win multiples of the same item – say that 2 sets of Shoulders drop. While you can roll Need on both of them, winning one will ‘remove’ your roll from the other.
  • Additionally, players can’t Need on a piece of loot if they’re wearing the exact piece at the exact item level, though in the event where this occurs but the dropped piece has a Tertiary stat or Socket, that roll would be possible (as those are upgrades).
  • Lastly, even after winning the roll, items remain fully tradeable without restrictions to any player that was eligible as a looter – as-in, if you weren’t locked to that boss previously. Inversely, this means that players who have already killed Boss 1 on Normal for the week can’t join for that boss and have loot traded to them (similarly, the need/greed pane won’t appear for that player).

As many in this thread have speculated, all players in Personal Loot were constantly ‘rolling’ behind the scenes, whether you wanted to or not. It’s not as simple as ‘with group loot you’re rolling against everyone, but in personal loot you’re rolling against fewer’. Changing to Group Loot for raids makes the process of loot acquisition and distribution more transparent and gives players more freedom to trade loot around and allocate it socially if they choose to do so.

Additionally, the current plan is for Group Loot to be active in Looking for Raid, though we’re open to taking action such as increasing the quantity of loot from LFR if the friction proves to be too much there.

On the Topic of BoEs:

Based on feedback and some further consideration, we’re likely not moving forward with Weapons as part of a BoE table just yet. It’s very possible that introducing that level of volatility would make it hard to us to verify how the other BoE changes are working (and if we’d like to support them). It’s on the table for future iteration, but might cause too much unintended chaos at the start of a period of so much systemic change for WoW as a whole.

Thanks for all your feedback thus far, and we hope this at least better clarifies how we envision this working in the near future.

Quote from: Blizzard
That’s correct, dual wielding classes are exempt from this as far as weapons are concerned (assuming the weapon itself is not unique-equipped).
Quote from: Blizzard

We’re working on this, but ideally:

  • If you control a 398 ‘Cool Dragon Ring’ with any tertiary, you cannot roll need on another 398 ‘Cool Dragon Ring’ without a tertiary. It only works one way.
  • This is a little under the hood, but we’re working towards it being so that not all tertiaries are considered equal – it’s valid for a healer to want to roll for an item with leech or some players to roll on an item with a socket, even if they have that exact item and level but it has say, Speed or Indestructible. We’ll see how this works long-term but some version of that is the idea.

And yes, Loot Spec will be set via the character pane under ‘Loot Options’ as it is currently.

Beta Dragonriding Changes

Quote from: Blizzard

Hello Dragonriders!

With the latest build, we wanted to call out a few things:

  • We’ve adjusted the default sensitivity of the pitch up/down keys while Dragonriding.
    • For those wanting to customize this further, you can now adjust the sensitivity of the pitch keys during Dragonriding by typing “/console dragonRidingPitchSensitivity 1” in the chat window. DragonRidingPitchSensitivity scales from 1 to 10 and supports decimals
  • When uncollected, glyphs shine much more brightly
  • You can now shift click dragonriding mounts in the Mount Journal and share your dragon with customizations via chat link.
Quote from: Blizzard

Hello again Dragonriders!

Another dragon glyph improvement worth mentioning:

  • When near an uncollected dragon glyph and on a Dragon Isles drake, you’ll gain a buff called “Dragon Glyph Resonance”, displaying the distance to the relevant uncollected dragon glyph

Dragonflight launching November 28th 2022! Season 1 Timetable Announced

Blizzard just officially announced the Dragonflight release date! And it is November 28th as that potentially leaked document had got the community speculating! Blizzard also posted the Season 1 schedule. Season 1 will start 2 weeks after launch! Check all the details out below:

Mark Your Calendars: The Journey to the Dragon Isles Begins November 28

Quote from: Blizzard

Gather your friends and allies and make ready to soar into new adventures when the World of Warcraft: Dragonflight expansion goes live on November 28.

The ancestral home of dragonkind—the Dragon Isles are awakening, and many long-forgotten secrets are waiting to be uncovered. Heed the call of the dragons as their ancient homelands are revealed once more, beckoning adventurers and treasure seekers alike to unravel the many mysteries waiting for them.

Discover the Dragon Isles

Discover the Dragon Isles and explore four new zones—the Waking Shores, roiling with elemental power; the vast expanse of the Ohn’ahran Plains; the frosty peaks of the Azure Span; and the majestic spires and temples of Thaldraszus—each themed around and revealing more about the ancient dragon aspects.

Meet the Dracthyr Evoker

Players will menace their foes (or empower their allies) as the new dracthyr Evoker, World of Warcraft’s first-ever race and class combination. Able to switch between a humanoid visage and a fearsome draconic form, the dracthyr are highly mobile, and their unique Evoker class can specialize in ranged damage-dealing or in aiding their allies as a healer by harnessing the mystical gifts of dragonkind.  They’ll awake from their slumber in the Forbidden Reach, where they’ll take up their training to join the forces of dragonkind in the defense of the isles.

Ascend to New Heights

Dragonflight introduces Dragonriding, an all-new skill-based method of aerial movement that allows players to take to the skies on the back of their personal Dragon Isles Drake. Players will customize their drake as they progress through the expansion, collecting more appearance options and enabling them to fly farther and faster.

New Talent System

Dragonflight contains major updates to World of Warcraft classes, centering on the re-introduction of talent trees. The new talent system empowers players to make creative and meaningful talent choices without compromising their effectiveness—and most importantly, it gives them meaningful options at every level.

Updated Professions

Express yourself with the updated profession system with new features and tools to fuel the ambitions of crafters of any skill level.

Customize Your User Interface

Customize your User Interface (UI) and experience an updated Heads-Up Display (HUD) as you take on the challenges before you. [LEARN MORE]

New Dungeons

On November 28, Dragonflight will release with eight dungeons—four level-up dungeons, which can be taken on with friends as you work toward the new level cap of 70— and four maximum-level dungeons.

Dragonflight Season 1 and Raid Schedule

Dragonflight Season 1 goes live starting the week of December 12, bringing a new raid—Vault of the Incarnates— an updated rotation of challenging Mythic+ dungeons and a new PvP Season. Mark your calendars for the road ahead, and get ready to take on all new challenges. [LEARN MORE]

The Winds of Wisdom 50% Experience Buff Returns!

It’s a great time to return to World of Warcraft, level a new character, or prepare for the Dragonflight expansion as the Winds of Wisdom buff blows into Azeroth once more. [LEARN MORE]

Pre-Purchase Dragonflight Today!

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight is now available for pre-purchase in-game and through the Blizzard Shop! Pre-purchase World of Warcraft: Dragonflight or the Complete Collection now to unlock a trove of items to aid you in your coming adventures.

The expansion is also available for pre-purchase as a boxed Collector’s Set: in addition to an Epic edition digital key, players can explore Dragonflight’s visual development with the Art of Dragonflight hardcover book, upgrade their set-up with the powerful visage of an Alexstrasza mousepad, and add iconic representations of Azeroth’s five primary dragon flights in a five-pin collector’s set. [LEARN MORE]

Visit the official site to learn more about the Dragonflight expansion and get ready to take on new adventures in Azeroth!

Dragonflight Season 1 and Raid Schedule

Quote from: Blizzard

Dragonflight Season 1 goes live starting the week of December 12, bringing a new raid, an updated rotation of challenging Mythic+ dungeons, and a new PvP Season. Mark your calendars for the road ahead and get ready to take on all new challenges.

New Raid: Vault of the Incarnates

Operation Mechagon
Unravel the mysteries of the Vault of the Incarnates

Vault of the Incarnates is the first raid players will experience in Dragonflight, featuring eight all-new boss encounters.

The Primalists breached the Titan prison used to hold the Incarnates for millennia. Within, Raszageth performs a foul ritual to unleash her siblings so together they can purge the world of the Titans’ influence. The champions of Azeroth must assault this impregnable fortress and break their defenses to end this threat. While many could fall, defeat condemns all the realms to the Incarnates’ reign of fire and blood.

Raid Release Schedule:
  • Week of December 12: Normal, Heroic, and Mythic Vault of the Incarnates will open with the weekly maintenance for each region
  • Week of December 19: Vault of the Incarnates Raid Finder Wing 1 opens
  • Week of January 2: Vault of the Incarnates Raid Finder Wing 2 opens
  • Week of January 16: Vault of the Incarnates Raid Finder Wing 3 opens
Cross-Faction Mythic and Hall of Fame Eligibility

Cross-faction Mythic Vault of the Incarnates will be available from the start. Hall of Fame entries will require at least 16 out of 20 raiders to be from the same guild and faction to be eligible for rewards.  See this support article for more information.

New Dungeon Rotation

Dragonflight Season 1 will feature a new dungeon rotation for Mythic+. Four dungeons from Dragonflight are included, and four returning dungeons from previous expansions. Here’s the full lineup:

  • Ruby Life Pools
  • The Nokhud Offensive
  • The Azure Vault
  • Algeth’ar Academy
  • Halls of Valor (from the Legion™ expansion)
  • Court of Stars (from the Legion™ expansion)
  • Shadowmoon Burial Grounds (from the Warlords of Draenor™ expansion)
  • Temple of the Jade Serpent (from the Mists of Pandaria™ expansion)
Court of Stars
Court of Stars, one of the dungeons returning in Dragonflight Season 1

M+ and PvP Season 1 will also begin the week of December 12 with regional maintenance. For Dragonflight, there will be no loot caps for Mythic+ on the first week, as Mythic Vault of the Incarnates will open at the same time.

Mythic+ Dungeon Affixes

For Season 1, we’re introducing a new affix, but the Necrotic and Inspiring affixes won’t be making an appearance. More information on this new affix will be released at a later date.

A Rewarding New Season Ahead

Dragonflight Season 1 will feature familiar exclusive rewards such as the Ahead of the Curve and Cutting Edge achievements for raids, Keystone Master achievements, rewards for Mythic+, and Gladiator rewards for PvP. Closer to the start of Season 1, we’ll share more information on seasonal rewards and how to obtain them.

Hic Sunt Dracones—”Here be dragons.”

The journey to the Dragon Isles is about to begin. We look forward to joining you in a new age of adventure in Dragonflight. See you in Azeroth!

Dragonflight Beta Development Notes 29 September 2022, Raid Rewards in Dragonflight Season 1, Learning DF Transmog Ensembles

This week’s beta build brings group loot for the new raid with no possibility for personal loot, starter builds for every spec, utility spell changes, snap to grid functionality for UI editing and much more. In addition to the way loot will be distributed the devs have provided more information about the progressively increasing item levels as you progress through the raid and a new philosophy on BoE raid items!
Lastly they reacted to the news that Ensembles would be learnable on any character regardless of your character’s armor class. While your main character will not be able to learn all ensembles, the renown unlock will be account wide so your alts will be able to purchase them without having to re-earn renown.

Dragonflight Beta Development Notes 29 September 2022

Quote from: Blizzard

Here’s this week’s Dragonflight Beta update:

CLASSES

  • Resurrection Sickness now lasts 1 minute (was 10 minutes). Characters that resurrect at a Spirit Healer below level 10 now suffer 10% durability loss, and characters that resurrect at a Spirit Healer at level 10 and above now suffer 50% durability loss (was all levels suffer 25% durability loss).
    • Developers’ note: Resurrection Sickness—the penalty that is applied to your character when you choose to be resurrected at a Spirit Healer—is to ensure that death has some consequence and players aren’t intentionally dying as a routine travel shortcut. The repercussion of the quick resurrection is that the long standing penalty of 10 minutes of greatly reduced attributes discourages you from playing the game in any capacity for that duration. With this change, resurrecting at a Spirit Healer will now result in a greater hit to your item durability (50%) but much shorter duration for the debuff (1 minute).
  • NEW TALENT SYSTEM
    • STARTER BUILDS
      • In this week’s PTR and Beta build, all specializations now have a Starter Build loadout. The Starter Build is a preset talent build created for players who prefer not to choose their own talents yet, but simply want a decent build that’s suitable for most content. This will be available to both leveling characters and max level characters.
    • UTILITY CHANGES
      • This build will have a few changes to various utility themed abilities across multiple talent trees. Based on playtesting feedback, we’ve identified a number of such talents or abilities that we feel need to be changed due to their power level, requirements on group composition or design clarity. In a few cases, these changes are a reduction in power, but we feel they are necessary to ensure a challenging gameplay experience in Dragonflight.
      • In addition to the changes below, we are also taking a second look at Restless Crew for Outlaw Rogues and the scope of Demon Hunters Crowd Control capabilities available in the new Talent Trees. For Havoc Demon Hunters, we are specifically discussing the availability for Crowd Control such as Chaos Nova, Sigil of Misery and Sigil of Silence that contributes to a large amount of control for 1 character. We do not have any additional information to share at this time, but we wanted to give the community a heads up that these 2 items are on our radar.
      • DRUID
        • Mark of the Wild has been redesigned – Infuse a friendly target with the power of the wild, increasing their Versatility by 3% for 60 minutes. If target is in your party or raid, all party and raid members will be affected.
      • EVOKER
        • Zephyr has been slightly redesigned – No longer limited to your party. It now affects you and your 4 nearest allies within 20 yards.
      • HUNTER
        • Sentinel’s Protection has been slightly redesigned – Magic damage reduction has been removed, now only grants 5% leech to your party members.
      • MONK
        • Close to Heart has been redesigned – You and your allies within 10 yards have increased healing taken from all sources.
      • PALADIN
        • Blessing of Spellwarding is now a Protection Paladin only talent, located as a choice node with Improved Ardent Defender. Additionally, Blessing of Spellwarding no longer replaces Blessing of Protection and now shares its cooldown with Blessing of Protection. Talents that reduce the cooldown of Blessing of Protection will now also affect Blessing of Spellwarding.
      • SHAMAN
        • Mana Spring Totem has been slightly redesigned – No longer limited to your party, cooldown has been removed and now lasts for 2 minutes. It now affects you and up to 4 allies nearest to the totem, prioritizing healers before other specializations. Additionally, it no longer triggers from Lava Burst for Enhancement Shaman.
        • Tranquil Air Totem has been slightly redesigned – No longer limited to your party. It now affects you and up to 4 allies nearest to the totem, prioritizing healers and casters before other specializations.
        • Stoneskin Totem has been slightly adjusted – No longer limited to your party. It now affects you and up to 4 allies nearest to the totem.
    • DEMON HUNTER
      • Class Tree
        • Precise Sigils now increases the duration of Sigil effects by 2 seconds.
        • Consume Magic – Renamed to Swallowed Anger.
        • Vengeful Restraint – Renamed to Vengeful Bonds.
        • Demonic Origins – Renamed to First of the Illidari.
        • Fae Empowered Elixir – Renamed to Relentless Pursuit.
        • Hot Feet – Renamed to Blazing Path.
      • Havoc
        • Blur is now a baseline ability.
        • Mo’arg Bionics – Renamed to Accelerating Blade.
        • The Weak-Willed – Renamed to Soulcrush.
      • Vengeance
        • Ruinous Bulwark now causes Fel Devastation to convert 100% (was 50%) of its healing (was overhealing) into an absorb shield for 10 seconds.
        • Roaring Fire increases healing of Fel Devastation by up to 50% based on missing health (was 30%).
        • Abyssal Haste – Renamed to Meteoric Strikes.
    • DRUID
      • General
        • Mark of the Wild has been redesigned – Infuse a friendly target with the power of the wild, increasing their Versatility by 3% for 60 minutes. If target is in your party or raid, all party and raid members will be affected.
      • Class Tree
        • Starsurge is now instant cast for all specializations.
      • Balance
        • The tree has undergone an overhaul. Many talents have been moved, rank amounts have changed, and several new connections have been made.
        • New Talent: Umbral Embrace – Dealing Astral damage has a chance to cause your next Wrath or Starfire to become Astral and deal 50% additional damage.
        • New Talent: Wild Mushroom – Grow a magical mushroom at the target enemy’s location. After 2 seconds, the mushroom detonates, dealing Nature damage and generating up to 20 Astral Power based on targets hit.
        • New Talent: Fungal Growth – Enemies struck by Wild Mushroom are damaged for an additional 70% over 8 seconds and slowed by 50%.
        • New Talent: Radiant Moonlight – Full Moon becomes Full Moon once more before resetting to New Moon. Fury of Elune’s cooldown is reduced by 15 seconds.
        • New Talent: Stellar Innervation – During Solar Eclipse, Sunfire generates 100% additional Astral Power. During Lunar Eclipse, Moonfire generates 100% additional Astral Power.
        • New Talent: Elune’s Guidance – Incarnation: Chosen of Elune reduces the Astral Power cost of Starsurge by 10, and the Astral Power cost of Starfall by 15. Convoke the Spirits’ cooldown is reduced by 50% and its duration and number of spells cast is reduced by 25%. Convoke the Spirits has an increased chance to use an exceptional spell or ability.
        • New Talent: Astral Smolder – Your critical strikes from Starfire and Wrath cause the target to languish for an additional 4% of your spell’s damage over 4 seconds.
        • New Talent: Sundered Firmament – Every other Eclipse creates a Fury of Elune at 25% effectiveness that follows your current target for 8 seconds.
        • New Talent: Denizen of the Dream – Your Moonfire and Sunfire have a chance to summon a Faerie Dragon to assist you in battle for 30 seconds.
        • New Talent: Friend of the Fae – When a Faerie Dragon is summoned, your Arcane and Nature damage is increased by 6% for 30 seconds.
        • New Talent: Astral Communion – Generates 75 Astral Power.
        • New Talent: Nature’s Grace – After an Eclipse ends, you gain 15% Haste for 6 seconds.
        • New Talent: Waning Twilight – When you have 3 periodic effects on a target, your damage and healing on them are increased by 4%.
        • New Talent: Lunar Shrapnel – Starfall’s stars deal an additional 25% damage to nearby enemies when they damage an enemy afflicted by Moonfire.
        • Stellar Drift – Removed.
        • Improved Moonfire – Removed.
        • Blessing of An’she – Removed.
        • Blessing of Elune – Removed.
        • Precise Alignment – Removed.
        • Fury of the Skies – Removed.
        • Improved Starsurge – Removed.
      • Restoration
        • Rejuvenation – Reduced healing by 15%.
        • Rejuvenation (Germination) – Reduced healing by 15%.
        • Nurturing Dormancy – Reduced Rejuvenation extension to 2 seconds, up to 6 seconds (was 3 seconds, up to 9 seconds).
        • Abundance – Reduced effectiveness to 5% per stack (was 6%).
        • Invigorate has been redesigned – Refreshes the duration of your active Lifebloom and Rejuvenation effects on the target and causes them to complete 100% faster. 20 second cooldown, lowered cost to 2% of base mana.
    • EVOKER
      • General
        • Hover – The prevent player casting effect now lasts 0.45 seconds (was 0.7 seconds).
      • Class Tree
        • Zephyr has been slightly redesigned – No longer limited to your party. It now affects you and your 4 nearest allies within 20 yards.
      • Preservation
        • All healing spells are now a 30 yard range (was 25 yards). Damage dealing spells remain at 25 yard across the class.
          • Verdant Embrace, Living Flame, and Emerald Blossom remain a 25 yard range for Devastation, but are increased to 30 when you are specialized into Preservation.
        • All healing spells increased by 5%.
        • Dream Breath – Cooldown increased to 35 seconds base (was 25 seconds). Charging to empower level 2 reduces it to 30, level 3 reduces to 25, and level 4 reduces to a 20 second cooldown. Healing increased by 15%.
        • Spiritual Clarity – Reduces Spiritbloom’s cooldown by 10 seconds (was 15 seconds).
        • Empath – Duration reduced to 8 seconds (was 10 seconds).
    • HUNTER
      • General
        • Freezing Trap – The trap visual has been updated.
      • Class Tree
        • Sentinel’s Protection has been slightly redesigned – Magic damage reduction has been removed, now only grants 5% leech to your party members.
        • Master Marksman – Now works with Spearhead and Coordinated Assault critical strikes.
      • Beast Mastery
        • Fixed issue where Beast Cleave Rank 2 was only using the 35% damage value from Rank 1.
        • Fixed issue where Stomp Rank 1 and 2 were dealing the same damage values and the Rank 2 tooltip didn’t update.
        • Stomps’ tooltip damage value is now more accurate and Animal Companion directly changes its tooltip damage now.
        • Aspect of the Wild’s initial and extra Cobra Shots now properly work with the Cobra Sting, Cobra Senses, and Killer Cobra talents.
      • Survival
        • Barrage – Now scales with Survival’s Mastery when a ranged weapon is equipped.
        • Fixed an issue with Serrated Shots bonus not applying to Internal Bleeding.
    • MAGE
      • Arcane
        • Improved Arcane Explosion – Renamed to Crackling Energy and now also increases Arcane Blast damage by 10/20% in addition to its current effect.
      • Fire
        • Feel the Burn – Duration increased to 5 seconds (was 3 seconds).
      • Frost
        • Icy Propulsion – Now grants 6 seconds of cooldown reduction for Icy Veins if Glacial Spike critically strikes.
    • MONK
      • Class Tree
        • Close to Heart has been redesigned – You and your allies within 10 yards have increased healing taken from all sources.
          • Developers’ note: This change will be applied over the course of the week and not immediately when the build goes live.
      • Mistweaver
        • Zen Pulse now costs 1% of base mana.
      • Windwalker
        • Tree layout has been updated.
        • Hit Combo and Jade Ignition have new locations on the talent tree.
          • Developers’ note: We discussed your feedback at length and were convinced. Jade Ignition has been moved to the left side of the tree in an accessible location, and Hit Combo has been moved to the right side of the tree, which has been slightly restructured to preserve Hit Combo as an opt-in test of player skill.
        • Forbidden Technique now correctly functions.
        • Way of the Fae now correctly applies its damage bonus.
        • Fatal Flying Guillotine now correctly functions.
        • Fixed an issue that allowed Mark of the Crane to be applied without being talented.
        • Flashing Fist now correctly reflects both ranks.
    • PALADIN
      • Holy
        • Echoing Blessings – Now increases movement speed and reduced damage taken by 15% (was 5%).
        • Boundless Salvation – Now extends the duration of Tyr’s Deliverance by 3 seconds when casting Holy Light (was 1 second) and by 1.5 seconds when casting Flash of Light (was 0.5 seconds).
        • Barrier of Faith – Now creates an absorb based on 40% of the healing done by Holy Light and Flash of Light (was 20%).
        • Divine Revelations – Now refunds 1% base mana (was 2%).
      • Protection
        • Blessing of Spellwarding is now a Protection Paladin only talent, located as a choice node with Improved Ardent Defender. Additionally, Blessing of Spellwarding no longer replaces Blessing of Protection and now shares its cooldown with Blessing of Protection. Talents that reduce the cooldown of Blessing of Protection will now also affect Blessing of Spellwarding.
          • Developers’ note: This change will be applied over the course of the week and not immediately when the build goes live.
      • Retribution
        • Developers’ note: Playtesting has revealed that the new combination of talents in the Retribution tree has flooded the spec with Holy Power. As a result, we’re reducing the frequency of some talents with a chance to grant Holy Power and repositioning Zeal to compete against Fires of Justice.
        • Zeal and Empyrean Power have swapped places in the Retribution talent tree.
        • Blade of Wrath – Art of War reset the cooldown of Blade of Justice 50% more often (was 100%).
        • Final Verdict – Chance to activate Hammer of Wrath is now 10% (was 15%).
        • Sanctification – Reduced the chance to generate Holy Power.
          • 1 target: 3% per tick down from 7%.
          • 2 targets: 5% per tick down from 10%.
          • 3 targets: 7% per tick down from 12%.
          • 4 targets: 8% per tick down from 15%.
    • PRIEST
      • Class Tree
        • Halo – Damage from the spell no longer hits enemies that are out of combat. Still hits all pets and players. No longer counts pets towards its healing target cap.
        • Divine Star – No longer counts pets towards its healing target cap.
      • Shadow
        • Mind Sear – Now ticks every 0.75 seconds for 3 seconds and does not have an extra initial tick. Requires 50 Insanity to cast unless you have a Mind Devourer triggered.
        • Voidform – No longer grants an additional charge of Mind Blast. Now grants 10% increased spell damage while active (was 20%).
        • Shadowy Insight – Added an additional effect: Mind Blast gains an additional charge. Reduced the chance for the effect to trigger.
        • Fixed an issue causing Shadowy Insight to trigger more than intended.
        • Surge of Darkness – Reduced the chance for the effect to trigger.
        • Psychic Link – Added Mind Flay to Psychic Link.
        • Fixed an issue preventing Psychic Link rank 2 from functioning.
        • Dark Void – Cooldown is now affected by Haste.
    • ROGUE
      • Class Tree
        • Added connections and pathing and moved a few talents around.
        • Leeching Poison – Now works with any Lethal poison.
        • Deeper Stratagem – Once again increases finisher damage by 5% in addition to its existing effect.
        • Shadow Dance – Base duration has been reduced to 6 seconds and no longer has a base flat damage increase.
        • Thistle Tea – Grants Mastery for 6 seconds, in addition to its current effect.
        • Kidney Shot now spends up to 5 Combo Points max, scaling up to a 6 second duration.
        • New Talent: Reverberation – Echoing Reprimand damage increased by 75%. This talent is a choice against Resounding Clarity.
        • So Versatile – Renamed to Thief’s Versatility.
      • Assassination
        • Significant pathing and talent adjustments have been made to the tree.
        • Cut to the Chase – Now a 1-point talent and extends Slice and Dice by 3 seconds per combo point spent.
        • Internal Bleeding – Now a 1-point talent for the same total effect.
        • The Shiv talent – Renamed to Lightweight Shiv in the Assassination tree.
        • Poisoned Katar – Renamed to Thrown Precision.
        • Poison Damage – Renamed to Fatal Concoction.
        • Maim, Mangle – Renamed to Systemic Failure.
      • Outlaw
        • A few new connections have been added at the top and sides of the tree.
        • Heavy Hitter has been implemented and redesigned – Now grants 10% increased damage to all abilities that generate combo points.
        • Deeper Stratagem for Outlaw – Renamed to Devious Stratagem.
        • Fan the Hammer has been adjusted – When Sinister Strike strikes an additional time, gain 1/2 additional stacks of Opportunity. Max 6 stacks. Half-cost uses of Pistol Shot consume 1/2 stacks of Opportunity to fire 1/2 additional shots.
        • Restless Crew has been implemented.
        • Activating Adrenaline Rush no longer breaks Stealth.
        • Slicerdicer – Renamed to Swift Slasher.
        • Long Arm of the Outlaw – Renamed to Deft Maneuvers.
        • Dispatcher – Renamed to Summarily Dispatched.
      • Subtlety
        • Significant pathing and talent adjustments have been made to the tree.
        • Shadow Dance is now learned baseline.
        • Symbols of Death is now learned baseline.
        • Shadow Techniques is now learned baseline.
        • New Talent: Improved Shadow Dance – Increases the duration of Shadow Dance by 2 seconds/4 seconds.
        • New Talent: Swift Death – Reduces the cooldown of Symbols of Death by 5 seconds.
        • New Talent: Improved Shadow Techniques – Energy generated by Shadow Techniques increased by 4.
        • Deeper Stratagem for Subtlety – Renamed to Secret Stratagem.
        • Shroud in Darkness – Movement speed bonus increased to 100% (was 60%).
    • SHAMAN
      • Class Tree
        • Mana Spring Totem has been slightly redesigned – No longer limited to your party, cooldown has been removed and now lasts for 2 minutes. It now affects you and up to 4 allies nearest to the totem, prioritizing healers before other specializations. Additionally, it no longer triggers from Lava Burst for Enhancement Shaman.
        • Tranquil Air Totem has been slightly redesigned – No longer limited to your party. It now affects you and up to 4 allies nearest to the totem, prioritizing healers and casters before other specializations.
        • Stoneskin Totem has been slightly adjusted – No longer limited to your party. It now affects you and up to 4 allies nearest to the totem.
    • WARRIOR
      • General Developer Notes
        • This week our focus has mainly been on bug fixing, testing and tuning. We appreciate all the fantastic feedback Warriors have been providing and will continuing to monitor, evaluate it and react to it where necessary as we progress through the Beta and through the launch of Dragonflight itself!Some of the below updates made it into last weeks build but were not documented in the update notes, so we’ve included them today for more visibility and feedback.
      • Class Changes
        • Seismic Reverberation (Protection) – Revenge deals an additional hit at 30% damage (was 50%).
        • Honed Reflexes – Now reduces Pummel by 1 second for Arms and Fury to match the reduction Protection receives.
        • Thunderous Roar – Changed tooltip phrasing to make it clear the damage increase effects your bleeds at all times.
        • Protection specialization – Now gets both stances for free as starting points.
        • Wrenching Impact – Now applies to the 5 farthest targets.
        • Unstoppable Force – Now also increases the damage of Shockwave by 50%.
        • All multi-rank talents should now be working as intended.
        • Shockwave – Fixed an issue causing it to not always crit when talented with Sonic Boom.
        • Crackling Thunder – Now reduces movement speed by an additional 20% (was 10%).
        • Avatar – Now grants 15 Rage (was 20).
        • Thunderous Roar – Grants 10 Rage (was 20).
        • Spear of Bastion – Grants 20 Rage (was 25).
        • Piercing Verdict – Now grants 100% Rage (was 50%).
        • Siphoning Strikes – Renamed to Leeching Strikes.
        • Quick Thinking – Renamed to Wild Strikes.
        • Memory of a Tormented Berserker – Renamed to Berserker’s Torment.
        • Memory of a Tormented Blademaster – Renamed to Blademaster’s Torment.
        • Memory of a Tormented Titan – Renamed to Titan’s Torment.
        • Memory of a Tormented Warlord – Renamed to Warlord’s Torment.
        • Armored to the Teeth (Protection) – Now grants 2% Strength equal to your armor (was 5% per rank).
        • Barbaric Training (Arms) – Slam and Whirlwind deal 30% more damage but now cost 5 more Rage (was 40%).
        • Immovable Object – Activating Avatar or Shield Wall casts the other at reduced effectiveness.
      • Arms
        • Fracture – Renamed to Tide of Blood.
        • Exploiter – Renamed to Executioner’s Precision.
      • Fury
        • Hurricane – Fixed a tooltip error referencing Bladestorm.
        • Bloodcraze – Fixed an issue that was causing Bloodcraze to increase the crit value of Bloodthirst by less than intended.
        • Pulverize – Renamed to Tenderize.
        • Crushing Impact – Odyn’s Fury greatly empowers Raging Blow for 6 seconds.
        • Unbridled Ferocity – Fixed an issue causing Unbridled Ferocity to trigger less often than intended.
        • Annihilator – Updated tooltip to not be weapon type specific.
        • Frenzied Flurry – Correctly deals increased attack damage not auto attack speed.
      • Protection
        • Battle-Scarred Veteran – Now correctly triggers at 30% instead of 40%. You take 80% less damage (was 75%) and can now occur every 180 seconds (was 90 seconds).
        • Enduring Alacrity and Focused Vigor now only have 1 rank.
        • Thunderlord – Now reduces the remaining cooldown of Demoralizing Shout by 1 second for each enemy hit with a maximum reduction of 4 seconds (was 1.5 seconds per enemy and a total of 4.5 seconds).
        • Spell Block – Duration increased to 20 seconds and cooldown reduced to 90 seconds.
        • Brace for Impact – Now increases the block value per stack by 5% (was 10%).
        • Disrupting Shout – Cooldown reduced to 90 seconds (was 120 seconds) and range increased to 14 yards (was 12 yards).
        • Spiked Shield – Now ignores Armor.
        • Booming Voice – Has moved to a more appropriate position in the tree for its power level. Also reverted the 10 rage reduction.
        • Instigate – Devastate deals 30% increased damage and Generates 5 Rage. Devastator deals 10% increased damage and generates 1 Rage.
        • Battering Ram – Shield Charge critical strike chance increased by 10%, critical strike damage increased by 25% and Shield Charge increases your auto-attack speed by 20% for 20 seconds.
        • Storm of Steel – Damage penalty is reduced by 40% (was 50%).
        • Last Stand – Cooldown increased to 3 minutes (was 2 minutes).
        • Bolster – Now reduces the cooldown of Last Stand by 1 minute.
        • Spiked Shield – Renamed to Tough as Nails.
        • The Wall – Renamed to Impenetrable Wall.
        • Outburst – Renamed to Violent Outburst.
        • Shield Charge – Now generates Rage and triggers its cooldown when outside of melee range correctly.
        • Shield Charge – Now displays correct animations.

DUNGEONS AND RAIDS

  • Castle Nathria, Sanctum of Domination, and Sepulcher of the First Ones now use Group Loot.

USER INTERFACE AND ACCESSIBILITY

  • NEW HUD UI
    • Edit Mode has an option to enable Snap for UI elements.
      • If Grid is enabled, UI elements will also snap to grid lines.
    • Art updated for Vehicle frame.

Changes & Experiments to Raid Rewards in Dragonflight Season 1

Quote from: Blizzard

Hey everyone! We wanted to get out a sort of primer ahead of the Raid Testing tomorrow to provide context for the sorts of changes you will (and won’t) see as you step into Dragonflight’s first raid, Vault of the Incarnates.

Before diving into what’s different – this post is going to be entirely about the Raid. We’ll have other information before long available on what’s going on with other endgame activities (like Mythic+) at a later date, so we won’t be making any mention of them here just to stay focused on the topic at hand.

Without further ado, here’s what’s in for tomorrow:

Group Loot:

  • While inside Vault of the Incarnates, Group Loot will be the only method of loot distribution. There is no option to select for yourself or your group to return to Personal Loot.
  • Some items, like professions reagents may still use Personal Loot where appropriate.
  • Need & Greed UI will return, and we’ll be monitoring feedback to make the rules around when and how players can roll on items be as intuitive as possible.

Loot Trading

  • While inside a raid, all item level restrictions placed on trading between members of that group are removed entirely. This means that even small item level increases that aren’t upgrades (as is often the case with rings and necklaces, which are budgeted high in secondary stats) won’t be locked to a player even in the case that they roll and win that item.

Item Level Tiering

  • There now exists a 3rd item level tier at which items may drop, up from 2.
  • 389 is the base item level for Normal difficulty and will drop from Eranog, Primal Council, Sennarth, and Terros.
  • 395 is a new intermediate tier (was previously final bosses) that exists now for Wing Bosses – Dathea, Ascended and Kurog Grimtotem.
  • 398 is reserved for Final Bosses – Broodkeeper Diurna and Raszageth, the Storm-Eater
  • These item level increases still stay within the +13 band for each ‘tier’ of difficulty – meaning that Heroic Base would start at item level 402, just +4 after them.

For a long while we’ve observed that while players love the challenge of powerful wing bosses and ‘mid-tier walls’ like Halondrus, Sludgefist, and Painsmith Raznal – it didn’t make much sense when overcoming those involved challenges rewarded you with the same gear as you got from defeating a Shriekwing, or similar first boss. Our hope is that by introducing new tiers of raid rewards, progressing through Vault of the Incarnates (and future raids) will feel more meaningful as you master the difficult encounters within.

Unique Drops

Additionally, we’re experimenting with a number of bosses that possess one item that intentionally drops at a higher item level – usually +6 or +7 from that boss’s normal table.
To be clear: this isn’t titanforging. It will be the same item every time, and will be very slightly rarer to compensate (and pending some new tech, we’ll have the ability to note this in the dungeon journal itself). These can be unique appearances, items with special bonus effects, or a powerful trinket that many people may seek after.

We have a few things we’re hoping to accomplish with this:

  • Retain some excitement from early bosses that groups typically master very quickly and no longer become challenging by spicing up their loot tables
  • Give more long-term goals for difficult encounters
  • Make a larger push towards having Item Level accurately reflect the power of a particular item.

While we added many strong effects to weapons in Shadowlands, it wasn’t easily communicated how good an effect actually was – for instance Edge of Night (the sylvanas daggers) were clearly much stronger than their item level indicated, but they still appeared the same as the rest of her loot table. Our hope is that by being a bit more flexible with item level, we can give ourselves better tools for tuning these effects appropriately and in a way that makes sense to all players intuitively.

For the moment it’s intended that not all 8 bosses posses one, but that’s something that could change in the future. Current examples of unique drops are:

  • A pair of special rings from Eranog and Diurna
  • An ‘Omni Trinket’ (Str/Agi/Int) from the Primal Council that gets stronger with more copies
  • A special bow from the Storm Incarnate herself, Raszageth

That ends the list of things that are exist and are implemented (though tuning for trinkets and special effects are still very work-in-progress). That said, we’d also like to share some plans that aren’t implemented. We’re interested in trying this out for a future beta build and getting your feedback on how it feels.

Bind-on-Equip items:

  • Regular non-boss enemies within raids will no longer have a chance to drop Bind on Equip Epic items. Instead, ‘Lieutenant’ enemies – named mini-bosses throughout the raid – will have chances to drop them instead. These would work like LT’s do in current WoW, where you’re only eligible to receive loot from them once per week, per difficulty.
  • BoEs would become scaled with group size like regular bosses do. This would guarantee a set number of BoEs each raid per group, assuming a full clear of the instance.
  • Lastly, we’d be placing more important items into the BoE pool. This could be anything from weapons to higher item-level pieces to make them more worthwhile to raiders.

The goal of these changes are to reimagining BoEs by making the raid environment itself a sort of ‘9th boss’, with a guaranteed amount of extra loot to reward progressing deeper into the raid or efficient full clears without the need to kill every single bat or Mawsworn off in a corner of the battlefield to get your value. Additionally, this as an opportunity to create clear and understandable rules about how BoEs work, and support them as a reliable source of gear players want, rather than feel like an afterthought.

That’s all for now – please feel free to ask questions and provide feedback both on this post, and as some of you dive into Raid Testing over the next week or so and we’ll respond and clarify as much as we can. Thanks for reading, and enjoy the raid!

Quote from: Blizzard

Previously, the best way to target a specific piece of loot was to stack as many similar armor or weapon types as possible to increase the chances of that dropping. Now, even if you’re the only Rogue or Demon Hunter in your group, you have the same chance as anyone else of seeing an upgrade.

While this does mean it’s possible for a bow to drop in a group without a hunter, the belief is that this rewards groups for playing with a diverse set of classes – as well as the normalizing factor above (mail wearers from the last few years know how hard it is to get loot comparatively).

Learning DF Transmog Ensembles

Quote from: Blizzard

Currently, there is a bug with Dragonflight vendors that are causing them to show more ensembles for sale than they should to the character viewing their wares. Ensemble unlocks are not changing in Dragonflight; the vendors should only offer them to characters with the appropriate armor type.

With that said, we recognize players don’t want to have to re-earn the ability to purchase these ensembles, but we don’t want to create a problem where a player might unintentionally purchase an ensemble of the wrong armor type, use it and then not find the armor they thought they just unlocked. So in Dragonflight, the ability to purchase the cosmetic Renown unlocks will be unlocked account-wide and can be purchased with alt characters on the account that match the ensemble’s armor type.