Last night Blizzard posted a couple of small hotfixes that include yet another Fated Raid Affix change and posted a small preview of more changes they will discuss today for Rogues in the Dragonflight Beta.
Your feedback, here and elsewhere, has not fallen on deaf ears. In hindsight, stopping by the forums sooner to say as much would probably have helped, and I hope you are willing to accept a peace offering (in the form of a previewed upcoming change to the talent that was previously Shadow Mist):
Iteration and implementation for Rogue talents continues in earnest. A handful of iterative changes and significantly more functional talents will be hitting the PTR and Beta across the next couple builds, many of which are related to topics previously discussed here, and we will be back tomorrow to chat with you about more of what’s coming.
Blizzard has posted an update on what will become unavailable when prepatch launches, when Dragonflight launches and what’ll become more difficult to obtain. Sadly they did not provide any release dates but these warnings usually come 1 to 2 months before a prepatch launches, so take that as you will! No matter the date, there’s a limited amount of time to obtain what you still need from season 4!
When the Dragonflights of Azeroth return, you’ll leave the Shadowlands behind. Before you journey back to the realm of the living, you may want to spend your remaining moments in the afterlife seeking out a few rewards that will no longer be obtainable (or more difficult to acquire) in the upcoming expansion—Dragonflight.
Continue reading for a full list, and make sure you collect what you need before time runs out.
Going Away with Dragonflight Launch
Leave the Shadowlands a Better Place
The Feat of Strength meta-achievement Back from the Beyond will no longer be obtainable, along with the Veilstrider title. Most achievement requirements can be completed solo, and you can use the Raid Finder to complete any raiding requirements. For the Mythic Dungeon achievements, you’ll want to recruit allies and have an average item level of at least 250 or higher to get it.
Meet Your Fate Before You Go
Jigglesworth Sr.
The Fates of the Shadowlands Raids achievement (along with its rewards) goes away when Dragonflight launches. Rewards for earning this achievement include the Jigglesworth Sr. mount (Normal), the Hero of Fate title (Heroic), and Shadowlands Raid Teleports (Mythic).
Grab a New Crab on the Way Out
Carcinized Zerethsteed
The Carcinized Zerethsteed mount quest item, obtained from defeating the Jailer on Heroic difficulty or above, will no longer be available. The Jailer is the last boss in the Sepulcher of the First Ones, located in Zereth Mortis. To take on Zovaal, you’ll need at least a 10-player raid with an average item level of 275 or higher if the raid is Fated.
Catch a Fallen Star
Get the We Are All Made of Stars Heroic and Mythic achievements (available on both non-Fated and Fated raids) while you still can. To attain this achievement, gather your allies and defeat Rygelon in Sepulcher of the First Ones while under the effects of Herald of the Cosmos. Everyone must stay alive throughout the encounter, or else the raid fails. But don’t worry! Unlike past Immortal achievements, you can reset the encounter and try again.
Season 4 Rated PvP Achievements and Rewards
Eternal Gladiator’s Soul Eater Mount and Title
The Eternal Gladiator’s Soul Eater mount and the Eternal Gladiator title are not long for this world. You’ll want to be the top champion and win fifty 3v3 games at Elite rank to earn these rewards.
Weapon Illusion: Eternal Flux
If you’re after the weapon illusion: Eternal Flux, there’s still time. You can earn this illusion when you reach a 2,100 rating.
Season 4 Elite PvP Armor Set
The full transmog of the Season 4 Elite PvP Armor set can be unlocked at a 2,100 rating.
Going Away with Dragonflight Pre-patch
Before the Dragonflight Pre-Patch, brave champions who have not already received Mythic+ achievements and rewards will want to do so before they fade away.
Season 4 Mythic+ Achievements and Rewards
Restoration Deathwalker Mount
Restoration Deathwalker
With the death of Zovaal the Jailer and the ascension of a new Arbiter, the Shadowlands is returning to its Great Purpose. Some deathwalkers recognize the role that mortal heroes have played and are willing to serve as mounts. Players wishing to earn the Restoration Deathwalker mount must reach the 2,000 M+ rating.
Last Stop, All Passengers Must Depart
Completing the Mythic Keystone level 20 or higher within the time limit, thus awarding portals to Grimrail Depot, Iron Docks, Operation: Mechagon, Return to Karazhan, and Tazavesh will be going away when Season 4 ends.
Difficulty Increasing When Dragonflight Launches
Before you venture back into the land of the living (and Dragons), you’ll want to make sure that you try to earn the rewards listed below before the ability to acquire them increases once Dragonflight launches.
Once the Dragonflight pre-expansion update arrives, all Shadowlands raids will become Fated for the rest of the expansion. This may make these mounts more challenging to attain, but the bosses are guaranteed to each drop two mounts until Dragonflight launches.
Upon launch, the guaranteed drop rate for Vengeance’s Reins obtained from defeating Mythic Sylvanas and the Fractal Cypher of the Zereth Overseer mount obtained from defeating Mythic Jailer will see a significant decrease. The number of dropped mounts will be reduced to one (currently two).
Vengeance’s Reins
Vengeance
Vengeance served Sylvanas well, and now the ebony dragonhawk can serve you when you take the Dark Lady down. To defeat Sylvanas in Sanctum of Domination on Mythic difficulty, you’ll want to recruit 20 of your bravest allies to enter the raid, and it’s recommended that all players are at least 278 item level or higher.
Fractal Cypher of the Zereth Overseer Mount
Fractal Cypher of the Zereth Overseer
Enigmatic and aloof, this construct of the First Ones flies on a graceful stream of perfect geometric understanding. To get this mount, gather 20 of your strongest allies and take the fight to The Jailer on Mythic difficulty in Sepulcher of the First Ones. It is recommended that players are at least 265 item level or higher.
As you ponder your stay in the afterlife and prepare to return, which rewards are you hoping to bring back with you to the realm of the living?
In this morning’s hotfix notes we have many fixes for Fated affixes in raids as well as a couple M+ fixes.
On the Dragonflight side of things, the PTR was updated with a newer version of DF than the Beta for the first time! New development notes were release including the continued changes to classes, UI updates, Rated Solo Shuffle and a new toy to take your Night Fae Soulshapes with you from Shadowlands. Check it out below:
Hello everyone! Here are this week’s development notes for the Dragonflight Pre-Expansion PTR.
CLASSES
NEW TALENT SYSTEM
DEATH KNIGHT
Frost
Frost tree has been updated to a new layout to fix dependency issues, create more depth in choice, as well as new and reworked talents.
Unleashed Frenzy – Now grants the Strength buff when any Runic Power ability damages an enemy.
Improved Frost Strike and Runic Command – Swapped positions on the tree.
Glacial Advance – Removed the cooldown. Moved higher into the tree and is now unlocked after the 1st gate.
Frostscythe – Moved higher into the tree and is now unlocked after the 1st gate.
Horn of Winter – Now Frost only and placed directly after Improved Obliterate.
Improved Killing Machine renamed to Frostreaper and has a new icon.
Enduring Strength – Now available directly after Pillar of Frost and has a new icon.
Frostwhelp’s Aid – Now available directly after Pillar of Frost.
Coldheart – No longer a choice node with Inexorable Assault. Moved to the right side of the tree below Improved Rime.
Inexorable Assault – No longer a choice node with Cold Heart. Moved below Frostreaper on the left side of the tree.
Obliteration – No longer a choice node with Icecap.
Icecap – Pillar of Frost cooldown reduction from Frost Strike/Frost Scythe/Obliterate critical hits reduced to 2 seconds (was 4 seconds). Now available directly after Frostwhelp’s Aid or Enduring Strength.
Empower Rune Weapon – Now properly grants 1 charge if you already know the spell from the core tree.
Everfrost – Now directly available after Gathering Storm and should no longer be able to be taken without knowing Remorseless Winter. Reduced to a 1 rank node (was 2).
Might of the Frozen Wastes – Fixed a bug that was causing this to not properly apply while a 2-hander was equipped. Now available directly after Murderous Efficiency.
New Talent: Shattering Strike – When Frost Strike damages an enemy with 5 stacks of Razorice it will consume them to deal an additional 60% damage. Available directly after Icecap.
Avalanche – This has been updated to also apply Razorice to your targets if Howling Blast is empowered by Rime. No longer a choice node with Frozen Pulse, and now available directly after Icecap.
Frozen Pulse has been removed.
New Talent: Icebreaker – When empowered by Rime, Howling Blast deals 30/60% increased damage to your primary target. Available directly after Empower Rune Weapon and Gathering Storm.
DRUID
Balance
Eclipses no longer occur in alternation or reduce the cast times of Wrath or Starfire.
Lunar Eclipse now increases the damage of your Arcane spells by 15%.
Solar Eclipse now increases the damage of your Nature spells by 15%.
Shooting Stars has an increased chance to occur and now has a chance to trigger from Stellar Flare damage.
Mastery: Total Eclipse has been removed.
New Mastery: Astral Invocation – Your Nature spells deal increased damage to targets affected by Sunfire. Your Arcane spells deal increased damage to targets affected by Moonfire.
EVOKER
Empowered spell cast bar visual has been updated.
Devastation
All healing spells increased by 15%.
Power Swell – Increases Essence regeneration by 100% (was 50%).
Burnout has been redesigned – Fire Breath damage has an 8/16% chance to cause your next Living Flame to be instant cast.
Preservation
All damage spells increased by 15%.
Spiritbloom’s healing increased by 30%. Targeting has been cleaned up and should more consistently heal low health targets.
HUNTER
General
Hunters can now tame a new pet type: Lesser Dragonkin.
Lesser Dragonkin are a Ferocity pet.
Lesser Dragonkin have a new pet family ability, Shimmering Scales – Reduces your pet’s magic damage taken by 70% for 8 seconds, on a 90 second cooldown.
Cloud Serpents have had their pet family changed from Serpents to Lesser Dragonkin, but the ability to tame Cloud Serpents has not been changed in any way.
Lesser Dragonkin taming is currently planned to be a reward from the Valdrakken faction.
Lesser Dragonkin includes creatures like the new Hornswogs from Dragonflight, or the Feathered Drakes in Ardenweald, or even some of the Faerie Dragons in places like Feralas.
Wing Clip Focus cost reduced by 10. This was a rank 2 upgrade that was incorrectly not baked into Wing Clip.
Class Tree
Improved Traps and Rejuvenating Wind should actually have their places swapped.
Concussive Shot will now replace Wing Clip, and no longer requires a ranged weapon.
Fortitude of the Bear should have all of its interactions properly setup now with Command Pet, Tenacity pets, as well as Lone Wolf Marksmanship Hunters.
MONK
Class Tree
Developers’ note: Additional connections have been made in several areas to allow more free-form navigation of the talent tree as a whole. We’ve enjoyed seeing your creative builds, and look forward to seeing what you can do with the increased connectivity.
Vivacious Vivification now grants an instant Vivify once every 10 seconds.
Developers’ note: We really liked the idea of pushing Vivify as a more responsive heal, but Vivacious Vivification as a 100%, always-on reduction to the cast time of Vivify was reducing the decision space for the class as a whole and completely obsoleting Soothing Mist in particular. With this change, we hope to strike a balance of allowing players a skill-testing emergency heal they’re excited to invest into, while still making more sustained with multiple Vivifies a more significant investment that will encourage using the full breadth of the toolkit.
Expel Harm moved back to baseline for all Monks.
Developers’ note: The prior positioning of Expel Harm was too restrictive and forced the selection of other abilities.
Heavy Air replaced with Vigorous Expulsion.
Developers’ note: While we were excited about offering additional range and control of the battlefield, player feedback was clear that this talent didn’t feel valuable enough to invest in.
Vigorous Expulsion increases the healing of Expel Harm by 5% and the critical strike chance of Expel Harm by 15%.
Strength of Spirit increases the healing of Expel Harm by up to 200% based on current maximum health. Moved to the Class Tree from Brewmaster.
Profound Rebuttal increases the critical healing of Expel Harm by 50%.
Developers’ note: With Expel Harm once again baseline, we’ve taken the opportunity to offer improvements to the ability throughout the tree.
Disable has been moved to Row 2.
Paralysis has been moved to Row 3.
Paralysis Rank 2 has been moved to Row 4.
Developers’ note: Players offered feedback that Paralysis and its upgrade didn’t feel optional even in situations where they would not be useful, so we’ve rearranged the tree to increase overall choice.
White Tiger Statue damage has been reduced by 75%.
Developers’ note: White Tiger Statue is intended to be a solid contributor, but was doing a little too well in some situations. We continue to tweak value to find this cat a new home.
Windwalker
Multiple talents have been updated to address issues.
Touch of the Tiger, Flashing Fists, and Hardened Soles now correctly persist through zone transfer.
Shadowboxing Treads, Jade Ignition, Xuen’s Bond, Bone Dust Brew, Attenuation, Bone Marrow Hops, Last Emperor’s Capacitor, Keefer’s Skyreach, Xuen’s Battlegear, and Way of the Fae now again function outside the Shadowlands.
Glory of the Dawn has been updated to scale with the Monk’s attack power, rather than using a flat value
Open Palm Strikes has been converted to a percentage bonus to Fists of Fury Damage.
Meridian Strikes has been converted to a percentage bonus to Touch of Death.
Resolved an issue where Power Strikes was not correctly re-applying the bonus effect.
Developers’ note: We appreciate the Windwalker community’s patience with these technical issues and apologize for the delay in addressing them.
Monitoring the interaction between Shadowboxing Treads and Mark of the Crane.
Developers’ note: The interaction between Shadowboxing Treads and Mark of the Crane is very powerful, and we’re paying close attention to the impact it has on Windwalker AOE gameplay and targeting flow when engaging groups of enemies. We’ve reduced the damage provided by talented Shadowboxing Treads in this build, but Mark of the Crane applications currently remain.
PALADIN
Holy
New Talent: Inflorescence of the Sunwell – Infusion of Light has 1 additional charge, reduces the cost of Flash of Light by an additional 30%, and has a 30% chance to generate an additional Holy Power from Holy Light.
New Talent: Divine Insight – Holy Shock’s healing and damage is increased by 5%.
New Talent: Unwavering Spirit – The cooldown of Aura Mastery is reduced by 30 seconds.
New Talent: Tirion’s Devotion – Lay on Hand’s cooldown is reduced by 1 second per Holy Power spent.
New Talent: Veneration – Flash of Light, Holy Light, and Judgment critical strikes reset the cooldown of Hammer of Wrath and make it usable on any target, regardless of their health.
New Talent: Resplendent Light – Holy Light heals up to 5 targets within 8 yards for 8% of its healing.
New Talent: Imbued Infusions – Consuming Infusion of Light reduces the cooldown of Holy Shock by 1 second.
New Talent: Boundless Salvation – Casting Flash of Light on targets affected by Tyr’s Deliverance extends the duration of your Tyr’s Deliverance by 0.5 seconds. Casting Holy Light on targets affected by Tyr’s Deliverance extends the duration of your Tyr’s Deliverance by 1 second.
New Talent: Relentless Inquisitor – Spending Holy Power grants you 1% Haste per finisher for 12 seconds, stacking up to 3/5 times.
New Talent: Empyrean Endowment – Judgment empowers your next Word of Glory to automatically activate Light of Dawn with 25% increased effectiveness. The effect can only occur every 30 seconds.
Added connections and pathing and moved a few talents around.
Divine Revelations – Now a 1-point node.
Saved by the Light – Now a 1-point node.
Protection of Tyr – Now a choice node with Unwavering Spirit.
Moment of Compassion – Now a choice node with Resplendent Light.
Removed Liadrin’s Fury Unleashed.
Removed Tyr’s Munificence.
Divine Favor moved from PvP talents to the Holy talent tree. No longer provides immunity to interrupts, now increases healing by 60% (was 40%). Cooldown increased to 45 seconds (was 30 seconds).
Empyrean Endowment – Added functionality for Holy Paladin. Slight tooltip change for both Retribution and Holy.
Divine Revelations – Now causes Holy Light to refund 2% max mana. Now increases the healing of Flash of Light by 10%.
Tyr’s Deliverance – Increased radius to 20 yards (was 15 yards). Increased healing by 5% and healing bonus increased to 25% (was 20%).
Infusion of Light is now learned baseline.
Protection
Spell Block can no longer block attacks from behind, while stunned, or while casting/channeling a spell.
Holy Shield now requires having a shield equipped to use.
Holy Shield will no longer allow you to block periodic spell damage.
Holy Shield will now allow you to block creatures that deal non-physical auto attack damage, such as if a Fire Elemental melee attacks you as Fire damage.
Holy Shield will work against attacks that deal combinations of physical and elemental damage, such as a Fire and Physical spell or attack.
The combat log will properly report Spell Blocks from Holy Shield as blocked damage, rather than absorbed damage.
PRIEST
Class Tree
Throes of Pain – Now a 2-point talent further down in the tree. Increases Shadow Word: Pain damage by 3%/5% and returns 3/5 Insanity or 0.5%/1.0% mana.
Tithe Evasion – Now in the Class tree (was Shadow tree).
Improved Mind Blast has been removed.
Translucent Image – Fade reduces damage you take by 10% (was 5%).
Dominant Mind renamed to Dominate Mind – Now an active spell as a choice against Mind Control. Mana cost changed to match Mind Control’s mana cost.
Holy Nova – Damage and healing increased by 75%.
Mind Blast – Cooldown reduced to 9 seconds (was 15 seconds).
Phantasm – No longer a choice against Translucent Image.
Twist of Fate – Fixed an issue causing Twist of Fate to not trigger.
Discipline
Balance In All Things renamed to Twilight Equilibrium.
Aegis of Wrath – Power Word: Shield absorbs 50% additional damage but the absorb amount decays by 3% every 1 second (was 30%).
Holy
Reorganized the bottom of the tree and a copy nodes early in the tree.
Holy Fire – Holy Fire now replaces Mind Blast for Holy Priest.
Burning Vehemence has been redesigned – Increases the damage of Holy Fire by 25%.
Searing Light – Increases the damage of Smite and Holy Nova by 25%/50% against targets affected by your Holy Fire (was 15%/30%).
Resonant Words – Casting a Holy Word spell increases the healing of your next Heal or Flash Heal by 25%/50% (was 15%/30%).
New Talent: Divine Image – When you use a Holy Word spell, you have a chance to summon an image of a Naaru at your side. For 15 seconds, whenever you cast a spell, the Naaru will cast a similar spell.
Miracle Worker – Holy Word: Serenity and Holy Word: Sanctify gain an additional charge.
Spirited Litany renamed to Answered Prayers – After your Prayer of Mending heals 100 / 50 times, gain Apotheosis for 8 seconds. Does not reset the cooldown of Holy Words when triggered.
Guardians of the Light – Tooltip updated. Guardian Spirit also grants you 100% of its effects when used on an ally.
Desperate Times – Increases healing by 10%/20% on friendly targets below 50% (was 6%/12%).
Shadow
The Shadow tree has been reorganized.
Dark Evangelism – Fixed a bug causing Mind Sear damage to not be increased by Dark Evangelism.
Hallucinations – Now Baseline as Shadow.
Dark Ascension – Now a choice node against Void Eruption. Duration increased to 20 seconds (was 18 seconds). Damage per stack increased to 5% (was 4%). No longer requires or consumes Dark Evangelism.
Mind Spike – No longer removes damage over time effects. Critical Strike chance bonus to Mind Blast moved to Mind Melt.
Mind Melt – The tooltip has been updated. Mind Spike reduces the cast time of your next Mind Blast by 50%, and increases its critical strike chance by 50%, stacking up to 2 times. Lasts 10 seconds.
Derangement – Increases Mind Sear damage by 20% instead of increasing its cast speed.
Mind Sear – Updated Mind Sear behavior for a better experience. Added extra initial tick. Now costs Insanity immediately and cancels as soon as the Priest doesn’t have enough Insanity.
Mind Devourer – Now a 1-point node with a 15% trigger chance. The trigger effect now affects Devouring Plague or Mind Sear.
Shadowy Apparitions – Fixed a bug that caused periodic Devouring Plague to spawn Shadowy Apparitions.
Silence – Range changed to 40 yards to offset the loss of Silence (Rank 2).
Damnation – Cooldown increased to 1 minute (was 45 seconds).
Void Torrent – Cooldown increased to 1 minute (was 30 seconds). Damage increased by 25%.
Malediction – Now a 2-point talent. Reduces the cooldown of Damnation and Void Torrent by 15 seconds/30 seconds.
Voidform – Duration increased to 20 seconds (was 15 seconds).
Ancient Madness – Now affects Dark Ascension and Voidform. Now increases critical chance by 10%/20% for 20 seconds reducing by 0.5%/1.0% per second (was 15%/30% for 15 seconds reducing by 1%/2% per second).
Surrender to Madness has been removed.
Hungering Void has been removed.
Piercing Shadows has been removed.
Lunacy has been removed.
Vampiric Insight renamed to Shadowy Insight – Now triggers from Shadow Word: Pain periodic damage instead of Vampiric Touch periodic damage.
SHAMAN
General
Stormkeeper, Healing Stream Totem, and Cloudburst Totem should now properly grant 2 charges of the ability when talenting into both nodes on the talent tree.
Enhancement
Swirling Maelstrom reduced to 1 stack of Maelstrom Weapon (was 2). Fire Nova interaction clarified that it is 1 stack per Fire Nova caused rather than per Fire Nova ability cast.
Feral Lunge is now below Windfury Weapon rather than below Stormflurry.
Windfury Totem trigger chance is now back up to 20%. This is also a rank 2 that got lost.
Crash Lightning has had the following adjustments:
Cooldown increased to 12 seconds (was 9 seconds).
Crash Lightning’s buff from hitting 2 or more targets is now 12 seconds (was 10 seconds).
Ice Strike can now also cause the bonus damage from Crash Lightning.
The initial damage, as well as the bonus damage from Stormstrike, Lava Lash, and Ice Strike has been increased.
The initial damage as well as the bonus damage from Stormstrike, Lava Lash, and Ice Strike now deals reduced damage when you are fighting more than 6 targets.
WARRIOR
Class Developer Notes
We’ve decided to remove Skull Banner, the general consensus across sources of feedback has not been particularly positive and we’ve struggled to find the right home for Skull Banner in each of the talent trees. Therefore, we’ve decided to remove it.
No other major updates, some tweaks and bug fixes as we are generally satisfied with the Warrior class tree…
We may still switch adjust talent node positions as we move throughout the Beta and monitor feedback.
Class Tree
Cruel Strikes – Now increases Critical Strike chance by 1% and increases the critical strike damage of Execute by 5% per rank.
Quick Thinking – Now increases Haste by 1% and your auto attack critical strikes increase your auto attack speed by 10% for 10 seconds per rank.
Frothing Berserker: Arms Variant – Mortal Strike and Cleave have a 20% chance to immediately refund 20% of the Rage spent.
Frothing Berserker: Fury Variant – Rampage has a 20% chance to immediately refund 20% of the Rage spent.
Frothing Berserker: Protection Variant – Revenge has a 20% chance to immediately refund 50% of the Rage spent.
Switched the positions of Frothing Berserker and Honed Reflexes positions to ensure the node that governs the left branch is more universally desired.
Fast Footwork has returned to a 5% speed increase (was 10%).
Arms Developer Notes
No major updates for the Arms tree. We feel good about the tree and are working on fixing various bugs and tweaking abilities where needed.
Deft Experience’s bonus to Rend has been integrated into Bloodborne and will have a new secondary effect in a future build.
Arms
Valor in Victory is now 1% Versatility and a 15 second reduction to the cooldown of Die by the Sword per rank.
Critical thinking – Now increase your Critical Strike chance by 1% and Execute refunds 10% of Rage Spent per rank.
Bloodborne – Now increases Deep Wounds, Rend and Thunderous Roar’s Bleed effects by 7.5% and Rend’s direct damage is increased by 50% per rank.
The Strength bonus from Hurricane should now be calculated correctly.
The Strength bonus from Test of Might should now be calculated correctly.
Test of Might reverted to 1% Strength per 10 Rage spent (was 5% per 30 Rage).
Fracture no longer causes the Bleed effects of Thunderous Roar to expire to lower cooldown alignment and allow Thunderous Roar to be used more freely.
Removed Skull Banner.
Battlelord now reduces the cost of Mortal Strike and Cleave by 10 (was 15).
Warbreaker should again work correctly with Anger Management.
Fury Developer Notes
Cruelty has historically been a very powerful talent and its position and functionality wasn’t ideal depending on your build. So, we’ve decided to split the damage and cooldown related components. This makes pathing better for various builds and also allows us to better control the power of certain abilities.
Made some changes to Annihilator to bring the damage and rage generation down.
The rage generation of various abilities such as Annihilator do not synergize with Recklessness, we will be fixing this in a future update.
We’ve done some testing internally on two-handed Annihilator builds and will update more to update on here in the future.
No other major changes, various bug fixes and tweaks to abilities.
Fury
Dancing Blades Attack speed bonus reduced to 30% (was 50%).
Deft Experience – Now increases Mastery by 1% and reduces the cooldown of Bloodthirst by 0.75 seconds per rank.
Swift Strikes – Now increases Haste by 1% and Raging Blow and Annihilator generate and additional 1 Rage.
The Strength bonus from Hurricane should now be calculated correctly.
Removed the Rage cost from the base version of Whirlwind.
Cruelty no longer grants a chance to reset charges of Raging Blow.
Cruelty now grants 15% increased damage to Raging Blow and 5% increased damage to Annihilator.
Wrath and Fury in addition to increasing the damage of Raging Blow by 5%, now grants a 30% chance to reset charges of Raging Blow while Enraged.
Annihilator now grants 3 Rage per hit (was 6).
Slaughtering Strikes increases the damage of Rampage via Annihilator by 2% (was 3% per strike).
Slam generates 10 Rage through Storm of Swords and its damage reduced to 150% (was 200%).
Annihilator damage reduced to 10% (was 19%).
Bloodborne damage bonus to periodic effects reduced to 15% (was 30%).
Protection
Removed Skull Banner.
ITEMS AND REWARDS
New Toy: Seed of Renewed Souls – Embrace the spirits of the weald, transforming into your Soulshape. 5 minute cooldown. Available from Lady Muunn in Heart of the Forest.
PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER
RATED SOLO SHUFFLE
In Dragonflight, we’re continuing our work on the Solo Shuffle game mode by upping the stakes and adding the ability for players to earn (or lose!) rating, similar to our Rated Battlegrounds and Arenas. In this week’s PTR and Beta build, players will be able to participate in the Rated version of Solo Shuffle. Just like in Rated Battlegrounds and Arenas, you’ll be able to earn seasonal rewards and achievements, credit towards Vicious mounts, weekly great vault progress, and Conquest. Solo Shuffle’s rules and 6-round format continue, with the addition of rating changes based off of the amount of rounds each player has won during the match. We’ll be monitoring and adjusting matchmaking throughout beta to facilitate testing.
Unique to this Rated game mode, players will have a rating tracked for each of their character’s specializations. Players will select which of their specialization to queue with, and participate in specialization-based ladders and end of season rewards. Players will also notice that we’ve created a minimum item level feature for Rated Solo Shuffle specifically, but we do not have it currently set to our final value for Season 1 of Dragonflight.
We’re extremely appreciative of all the community feedback we received from our brawl version of Solo Shuffle, please continue to share your thoughts with us in our forums or @WarcraftDevs on twitter. Please keep an eye out for future Play with the Blues events focusing on Solo Shuffle on Beta.
CLASSES
HUNTER
Interlope – Now available for all Hunter specializations (was Beast Mastery only).
Diamond Ice – Now available for all Hunter specializations (was Survival only).
Beast Mastery
Kindred Beasts redesigned to work with Tenacity Pet’s new ability, Fortitude of the Bear – While using a Tenacity pet: Command Pet’s unique ability cooldown reduced by 50% and allies within 20 yards of your pet gain 10% increased maximum health for 10 seconds.
MONK
Grapple Weapon – Now available for Brewmaster (was Mistweaver and Windwalker only).
Mighty Ox Kick – Now available for all Monk specializations (was Brewmaster only).
Dematerialize – Now available for Brewmaster (was was Mistweaver only).
Alpha Tiger – Now grants 20% Haste (was 30%) after using Tiger Palm. Available for all Monk specializations (was Windwalker only).
Wind Waker – Now available for Brewmaster (was Windwalker only).
PALADIN
Hallowed Ground – Now available for Retribution (Holy and Protection only).
Aura of Reckoning – Now available for all Paladin specializations (was Retribution only). For Holy Paladins: The spells empowers your next Judgement once you get to 50 stacks.
Vengeance Aura – Now available for all Paladin specializations (was Retribution only).
Divine Favor – Removed from PvP talents and moved into the talent tree.
ROGUE
Dagger in the Dark – Now available for all Rogue specializations (was Subtlety only).
Each second while Stealth is active, nearby enemies within 10 yards (was 12 yards) take an additional 5% damage from your next Shadowstrike or Ambush for 10 seconds. Stacks up to 8 times (was 10 times).
Dagger in the Dark increases Shadowstrike damage for Subtlety, and Ambush damage for Assassination and Outlaw.
WARLOCK
Call Observer – Now available for all Warlock specializations (was Demonology only).
Bonds of Fel – Now available for all Warlock specializations (was Destruction only).
WARRIOR
Rebound – Reflected spells now cause 50% extra damage back to the attacker (was 33%). Now available for all Warrior specializations (was Protection only).
Battle Trance has been redesigned – You go into a trance causing you to regenerate 3% of your health and generate 3 Rage every 3 seconds for 18 seconds after using Raging Blow twice in a row on a target or striking a target with Annihilator 8 times. Striking a new target with Raging Blow or Annihilator will cancel this effect.
Enduring Rage redesigned to also work with Annihilator:
Raging Blow functionality – Increases the duration of your Enrage effect by 1 second, and your Raging Blows extend the duration of your Enrage by 1.5 seconds.
Annihilator functionality – Increases the duration of your Enrage effect by 1 second, and your Annihilator damage extends the duration of your Enrage by 0.5 seconds.
USER INTERFACE AND ACCESSIBILITY
NEW HUD UI
UI art updates:
Experience and Reputation bars
Wyvern action bar art for Horde players
Edit Mode
PvP Arena Frames
Loot Frame
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Blizzard has announced that starting with this week’s weekly reset raiders will be able to choose to have a second fated affix active in fated raids.
On the Dragonflight beta side of things people noticed changes to item levels in leveling content. Blizzard has responded explaining that they are not squishing any stats but are changing the scaling around leveling with Chromie Time going up to level 60 in Dragonflight.
This past weekend’s esports charity event, Xy’mox’s Charity Cache, provided the players with additional Fated Powers in Fated Raids. Though this might have looked like a detriment at first glance, capitalizing on double the Fated Infusions turns out to be a boon!
We believe that this feature should be available to all organized players, and so starting with the next weekly reset, players in Normal, Heroic, or Mythic Fated Raids will be able to opt-in to one additional Fated Power at the Fated Console, located near the entrance of each of the Fated Raids. These additional powers may be disabled at any time, but that won’t affect any in-combat encounters, and will not change how loot is awarded.
We know that many players have enjoyed the twists and fun of Fated Powers, and we hope that access to more will increase the fun.
We are not doing a squish. The overall goal is for player-characters who are at level 60 today to log in at level 60 in Dragonflight with the same item level and approximately the same stats as they had before.
What we are doing: rescaling Chromie Time. In Dragonflight, Chromie Time now stretches from 10-60, so that players can choose which expansion they’d like to level in, and they can stick with that all the way to Dragonflight if they choose to.
So that’s going to require that we change some iLvls within that range to make it a smooth experience, but the endpoint isn’t changing.
There are definitely some bugs with this on the Dragonflight Beta and the PTR, such as your heirlooms, and we’re going to fix them up.
Last night was a busy night for Blizzard. Not only did the Dragonflight Beta get a new build, the 10.0 prepatch went live on the PTR as well! So now every player who wants to try out the talent revamp can do so! Furthermore there were a couple of hotfixes and we got a couple of blue posts for Druid and Warlock changes coming to the beta.
Resolved an issue where the Creation Spark fated power could negatively affect the following ability durations: Arcane Vulnerability, Azerite Radiation, Rune of Domination, Rune of Compulsion, Rune of Damnation, Torment, Imprisonment, and Death Sentence.
Resolved an issue where Rune of Compulsion-afflicted players negatively interact with movement speed increasing effects.
Wrath of the Lich King Classic
Druid
Shapeshifting into Cat Form once again automatically activates Track Humanoids.
Fixed an issue that prevented Tauren from using the Barber Shop.
It will now rain blood when Highlord Darion Mograine says “The skies turn red with the blood of the fallen!” during the Death Knight quest “The Light of Dawn.“
Dragonflight Pre-Expansion Patch Development Notes
CLASSES
New Talent System
Mage, Priest, and Rogue available for all races
PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER
All ranged spell casting and healing specializations have a new PvP Talent:
New PvP Talent: Precognition – If an interrupt is used on you while you are not casting, gain 15% Haste and become immune to control effects for 4 seconds.
We are working on the next iteration of the Balance talent tree along with some baseline changes that you should see in the coming weeks. Players will see some of our changes in next week’s build, but the full suite of changes will not be in the Beta until the following week. That said, we want to give you a quick preview in the meantime:
Druid – Balance:
Mastery: Total Eclipse has been redesigned to the following:
Renamed to Mastery: Astral Invocation.
“Your Nature spells deal increased damage to targets affected by Sunfire. Your Arcane spells deal increased damage to targets affected by Moonfire.”
The previous design of Eclipse and Mastery: Total Eclipse created a situation where the power of the spec was dictated by Celestial Alignment, allowing for double dipping the mastery bonus. While this is fun, it takes away from the power and feel of the spec outside of cooldowns. With this new Mastery our goal is to further reinforce keeping your DoTs active while continuing to allow for Starsurge, Starfall, and Stellar flare to be able to gain extra benefit from Mastery even outside of cooldowns.
Eclipse
Eclipses no longer occur in alternation.
Eclipses no longer reduce casting time.
Lunar Eclipse now increases the damage of your Arcane spells by 15%.
Solar Eclipse now increases the damage of your Nature spells by 15%.
From reviewing feedback and discussions, we found two common themes for Eclipse: 1) There is a lack of control with the rotation that can feel bad in both single target and AoE. 2) Having to cast 2 unempowered Wraths or Starfires to enter an Eclipse combined with their weaker base power and Starfire’s long cast time is underwhelming. With these changes our goal is to allow you to exit an Eclipse, say Solar, and then re-enter Solar Eclipse by casting 2 Starfires again. We’re also looking at adding talents to improve the feel of casting unempowered Wraths and Starfires between Eclipses.
Starfall has been redesigned to the following:
Instant. Costs 50 Astral Power.
“Calls down waves of falling stars at the targeted area, dealing Astral damage over 8 sec.”
We gave a cooldown version of Starfall a chance again for Shadowlands and we don’t feel it has played as well as we had hoped. Having a Starfall that moves with you is awesome and something we had hoped to keep, but for gameplay we feel it’s better to be able to choose to spend additional Astral Power for more Starfalls.
Improved Starsurge has been removed. Starsurge no longer empowers the damage bonus of active Eclipses.
Improved Starsurge encouraged pooling resources more than we would like and the mechanic was hidden enough for some players to be unaware of the gameplay it encouraged.
Shooting Stars
Has an increased chance to occur.
Stellar Flare damage now has a chance to proc Shooting Stars.
While we do not have plans to increase DoT damage, we feel we went too far in toning down Shooting Stars, so we’re looking to allow for it trigger more so that Astral Power generation from DoTs is more noticeable in AoE. Stellar Flare’s lack of gameplay hooks has made it an underwhelming talent choice, so we’re allowing it to trigger Shooting Stars.
This is only a small peek at what we’re working on and by no means a complete change list. Our goal with posting some of our larger and more systemic changes is to gather initial feedback and take that into account when continuing to implement our remaining changes. We appreciate the feedback thus far and look forward to hearing more of your thoughts regarding Balance Druid in the coming weeks.
In the next upcoming build for Dragonflight, you’ll see that Spell Lock has been removed from the talent tree and readded to the Felhunter. We wanted to take a moment to explain why we added Spell Lock to the talent tree and our decision to revert the change altogether.
Our goal was to try and de-power the Felhunter from a utility perspective to increase how often Warlocks might use different demons such as Sayaad or Voidwalker throughout endgame content. Our attempt at this was to move Spell Lock to Dragonflight’s new talent trees, first as a choice and then as a guaranteed ability. However, after playtesting, we noticed something was lost.
Warlocks have always been able to utilize demons to perform actions independent of whatever state the Warlock is currently in. Spell Lock is iconic to the Felhunter identity and has a lot of history behind it. We considered making this a choice-style node, but ultimately felt that we want to retain the gameplay of knowing what a Warlock is capable of by what demon they are accompanied by, and the unique identity Warlock has: utilizing powerful tools tied to their pets rather than themselves.
Thank you for your thoughts on this change, we genuinely appreciate the feedback, and we will continue to watch discussions as they unfold.
Hello! Here are this week’s updates to Dragonflight Beta:
CLASSES
NEW TALENT SYSTEM
STARTER BUILD
Evokers now have access to the Starter Build in their loadouts menu (this feature will be available to other classes in future updates). 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.
DEATH KNIGHT
Class Tree
Festermight maximum stacks reduced to 20 (was 30).
New Talent: Enfeeble – Your Ghouls attack has a chance to reduce the targets movement speed by 30% and the damage they deal to you by 15%.
Unholy
Eternal Agony epidemic effect now also extends the duration of Dark Transformation.
Ghoulish Frenzy effect duration is now also extended when Dark Transformation’s duration is increased (i.e. by Eternal Agony).
Death Rot epidemic effect now applies Death Rot to your primary target.
Summon Gargoyle is now off global cooldown (GCD) and generates 50 Runic Power on use. Gargoyle Strike base damage increased by 60%.
DRUID
Class Tree
Added Improved Nature’s Cure for Restoration Druids to replace Remove Corruption.
Added Remove Corruption nodes visible for Balance, Feral, and Guardian in the same location.
Feral
Rearranged various talents and created new pathways and choices.
New Talent: Protective Growth – Your Regrowth protects you, reducing all damage you take by 3% while it is on you.
New Talent: Pouncing Strikes – Grants benefits to Shred and Rake when striking from stealth.
New Talent: Piercing Claws (2 ranks) – Critical Strike chance increased by 2%.
New Talent: Double-Clawed Rake – Rake also applies Rake to 1 additional nearby target.
New Talent: Dreadful Bleeding – Rip damage increased by 15%.
New Talent: Tear Open Wounds – Primal Wrath consumes up to 4 seconds of Rip damage on targets it hits and deals 75% of it instantly.
New Talent: Ferocious Frenzy – Ferocious Bite also hits nearby enemies within 8 yards afflicted by Rip for 25% damage.
New Talent: Raging Fury – Finishing moves extend the duration of Tiger’s Fury by 0.2 seconds per combo point spent.
New Talent: Frantic Momentum – Finishing moves have a 3% chance per combo point spent to grant 10% Haste for 6 seconds.
New Talent: Berserk: Heart of the Lion – Each combo point spent reduces the cooldown of Berserk by 0.5 seconds.
New Talent: Wild Slashes – Swipe and Thrash deal 20% more damage.
New Talent: Bite Force – Ferocious Bite and Rip deal 10% more damage.
New Talent: Veinripper – Rip, Rake, and Thrash last 25% longer.
New Talent: Rip and Tear – Applying Rip to a target also applies a Tear that deals Bleed damage per combo point spent over 6 seconds.
Improved Bleeds changed to 1 rank (was 2).
Max Energy renamed to Tireless Energy, changed to 2 ranks (was 3) and grants 2% Haste per rank.
Sabertooth now increases Ferocious Bite damage by 20% and increases damage dealt by Rip by 4% for each combo point spent for 4 seconds.
Sudden Ambush changed to 2 ranks (was 3) and grants 2% chance to strike as if from stealth per rank (was 1%).
Berserk replaces Berserk: Relentlessness – Berserk now grants combo point refund on finishing moves and causes Rake and Shred to deal damage as if stealthed.
Taste for Blood changed to 2 ranks (was 3).
Infected Wounds now also increases Rake damage by 20%.
Berserk: Frenzy no longer causes combo point generating abilities to reduce the cooldown of Berserk.
Modal Cooldown Bonus is now Ashamane’s Guidance – Gives auto attacks a chance to trigger Incarnation for 6 seconds.
Rearranged various talents and created new pathways and choices.
New Talent: Flash of Clarity – Clearcast Regrowths heal for an additional 30%.
New Talent: Waking Dream – Ysera’s Gift now heals every 4 seconds, and heals for an additional 5% for each of your active Rejuvenations.
New Talent: Nature’s Splendor – The healing bonus to Regrowth from Nature’s Swiftness is increased by 50%.
New Talent: Nurturing Dormancy – When your Rejuvenation heals a full health target, its duration is increased by 3 seconds, up to a maximum total increase of 9 seconds per cast.
New Talent: Dreamstate – While channeling Tranquility, your other Druid spell cooldowns are reduced by up to 10 seconds.
New Talent: Verdancy – When Lifebloom blooms, up to 3 targets within your Efflorescence are healed.
New Talent: Budding Leaves – Lifebloom’s healing is increased by 3/6% each time it heals, up to 45/90%. Also increases Lifebloom’s final bloom amount by 3/6%.
New Talent: Embrace of the Dream – Wild Growth has a 50/100% chance to momentarily shift your mind into the Emerald Dream, instantly healing all allies affected by your Rejuvenation.
New Talent: Regenerative Heartwood – Allies protected by your Ironbark also receive 75% of the healing from each of your active Rejuvenations.
Improved Lifebloom – Lifebloom counts for 2 stacks of Mastery: Harmony.
Invigorate – Your heal over time effects on the target complete 100% faster. 45 second cooldown.
Power of the Archdruid – Wild Growth has a 50% chance to cause your next Rejuvenation or Regrowth to apply to 3 additional allies within 20 yards of the target.
Unending Growth – Rejuvenation healing has a 1/2% chance to create a new Rejuvenation on a nearby target.
Undergrowth – You may Lifebloom two targets at once, but Lifebloom’s healing is reduced by 10%.
Reforestation – Every 3 casts of Swiftmend grants you Incarnation: Tree of Life for 9 seconds.
Verdant Infusion – Swiftmend no longer consumes a heal over time effect, and extends the duration of your heal over time effects on the target by 10 seconds.
Unstoppable Growth – Wild Growth’s healing falls off 20/40% less over time.
Ysera’s Gift now restores 3% health per 5 seconds by default.
Ready for Anything now reduces Nature’s Swiftness’s cooldown by 12 seconds.
Improved Regrowth now increases chance for a critical effect by 40% by default.
Inner Peace now reduces the cooldown of Tranquility by 60 seconds by default.
Stonebark now increases healing from your heal over time effects by 20% during Ironbark by default.
Improved Ironbark now reduces the cooldown of Ironbark by 20 seconds by default.
Ready for Anything is now a choice node with Nature’s Splendor.
Inner Peace is now a choice node with Dreamstate.
Improved Ironbark/Stonbark is now a choice node. Moved to row 7.
Photosynthesis is no longer a choice node with Undergrowth.
Autumn Leaves has been removed.
EVOKER
Starter builds now enabled.
Preservation
Rewind – Heal over time now scales with Haste.
Temporal Anomaly – Now works with Mastery: Life-Binder.
Cycle of Life – Counter should no longer go away when you die, and now lasts 15 seconds (was 10 seconds).
Life-Giver’s Flame – Now only counts healing based on damage done to up to 5 targets.
Flow State – Now connects to Golden Hour in the talent tree.
HUNTER
Class Tree
Hunter’s Agility now reduces damage taken from area of effect attacks by 6% (was increases Avoidance).
Rejuvenating Winds and Improved Traps have swapped spots.
Scatter Shot is now usable with any weapon type. Survival uses a 1-hand special shot.
Binding Shot’s root effect can now break from taking damage.
Marksmanship
Windrunner’s Guidance has been redesigned – Every Wind Arrow shot has a 3% chance to grant you 10 seconds of Trueshot.
Survival
Ferocity lowered to 1 rank (was 2).
Intense Focus lowered to 1 rank (was 2).
PRIEST
General
Smite – Damage increased by 50% to offset the loss of Smite (Rank 2).
Class Tree
Rhapsody – Increases the healing done by Holy Nova by 20% per stack (was 10%).
Depth of the Shadows – Increases the healing done by your next Circle of Healing by 1% per stack, up to 50 stacks (was 2% per stack, up to 25 stacks).
Mindgames – No longer generates Mana or Insanity. Reversed damage and healing done reduced by 33%.
Halo – Fixed an issue where Halo was not dealing its maximum damage between 26-30 yards.
Power Word: Life – Renamed from Holy Word: Life to avoid confusion with Holy Word interactions.
Discipline
Corrected a missing connection between Empyreal Blaze and Searing Light.
Spirit Shell has been removed.
Exaltation no longer references Spirit Shell.
Shadow Covenant redesigned its functionality slightly – Make a shadowy pact, healing the target and 4 other injured allies within 30 yards. For 7 seconds, your Shadow spells deal 25% increased damage and healing, Shadow Mend has no cooldown, and Halo and Divine Star are converted to Shadow spells.
Holy
Slightly reorganized the middle of the tree.
Prayer of Healing – Mana cost reduced by 25%.
Healing Chorus – Increases the healing done by your next Circle of Healing by 1% per stack, up to 50 stacks (was 2% per stack, up to 25 stacks).
Prismatic Echoes – Increases the healing done by your Mastery: Echo of Light by 6%/12% (was 15%/30%).
New Talent: Divine Service – Prayer of Mending heals 4% more for each bounce remaining.
Shadow
Reorganized the top of the tree.
New Talent: Coalescing Shadows – Mind Sear and Shadow Word: Pain damage has a 4% chance to grant you Coalescing Shadows and Mind Flay has a 15% chance to grant you Coalescing Shadows, stacking up to 3 times. Mind Blast and Mind Spike consume all Coalescing Shadows to deal 20% increased damage per stack, and consuming at least 1 increases the damage of your periodic effects by 10% for 15 seconds.
New Talent: Puppet Master – Your Shadowfiend and Mindbender grant you Coalescing Shadows each time they deal damage. Damage from your Shadowy Apparitions has a 8% chance to grant you Coalescing Shadows.
New Talent: Harnessed Shadows – Increases the chance for you to gain a Coalescing Shadow when dealing damage with Mind Sear and Shadow Word: Pain by 2% and Mind Flay by 10%. You have a 100% chance to gain a Coalescing Shadow when critically hit by any attack. This effect can only occur every 6 seconds.
New Talent: Deathspeaker – Your Shadow Word: Pain damage has a chance to reset the cooldown of Shadow Word: Death and enable 150% additional damage regardless of the target’s health.
Painbreaker’s Psalm has been removed.
Pain of Death – Now a 2-point node. Increases the damage dealt by Shadow Word: Death by 13%/25%. Shadow Word: Death deals 10%/20% of its damage to all targets affected by your Shadow Word: Pain within 40 yards.
Dark Ascension – Now generates 30 Insanity.
Pain of Death – Shadow Word: Death deals 20%/40% of its damage to all targets affected by Shadow Word: Pain within 40 yards (was 10%/20%).
SHAMAN
Enhancement
Stormbringer is now a part of Mastery for Shaman.
New Talent: Storm’s Wrath – Increases the mastery bonus to Stormbringer and Windfury’s chance to trigger by 100%. Replaces Stormbringer.
Lava Lash (Rank 2) renamed to Molten Assault.
A bunch of talent nodes moved around on the right-hand side of rows 4-8
Improved Maelstrom Weapon is now a 2-rank node. Damage increased by 10% per rank.
Focused Maelstrom has been removed.
Raging Maelstrom now also increases damage and healing by an additional 5% per Maelstrom Weapon stack.
Lashing Flames has returned as a talent node on row 7.
Feral Spirits and Elemental Spirits have been slightly adjusted:
Each wolf type grants you 15% increased damage to the related element. Base wolves count as physical.
Alpha Wolf now triggers from Chain Lightning or Crash Lightning.
Alpha Wolf’s attack (Spirit Bomb) is now physical and ignores armor (was Nature damage).
Spirit Bomb damage increased by 50%.
Legacy of the Frost Witch has been redesigned – Every 10 Maelstrom Weapon stacks consumed resets the cooldown of Stormstrike and grants you 5/20% increased Physical damage dealt for 5 seconds.
WARLOCK
General
Spell Lock has been removed from the talent tree and returned to the Felhunter.
Demonic Circle has been moved to row 1 and is granted freely.
Abyss Walker has been moved to row 3.
Demonology
Borne of Blood and Shadow’s Bite have swapped places.
Nerzhul’s Volition has been updated – When Nether Portal summons a demon, it has a 15/30% chance to summon an additional demon.
Gul’dan’s Ambition has been updated – When Nether Portal ends, you summon a Pit Lord that gains power based on how many demons you summoned, up to 20 demons, while Nether Portal was active. The Pit Lord lasts for 10 seconds.
WARRIOR
Class Developer Notes
We’ve made some changes to stances; each specialization now only has one damage-based stance available to them. We might revisit this and their specific functionality later, but for now, we want players to have the intended experience when playing in the Beta and that is that Arms uses Battle Stance and Fury uses Berserker Stance and you can opt into defensive stance when you’re expecting heavy incoming damage.
There’s some under the hood changes related to auto-attack tuning that lead to the increases and reductions you’ll see.
Class Tree
Battle Stance is no longer available in the Fury class tree and Berserker Stance is no longer available in the Arms or Protection class trees.
Sidearm has been removed from the Fury tree and is now located in the class tree. There were too many talents in the Fury tree, and we feel this is a cool ability that all specs can make use of.
Fast Footwork now increases movement speed by 10% (was 5%).
New Talent: Uproar – Thunderous Roar’s cooldown is reduced by 30 seconds to better align it with various cooldowns.
Thunderous Roar’s direct damage reduced to 160% (was 175%).
Memory of a Tormented Warlord changed to the following – Activating Avatar or Colossus Smash casts Recklessness at reduced effectiveness.
Armored to the Teeth has changed position and is now 2 ranks. The Strength granted from Armor is up to 5% per rank (was 3%).
Shockwave and Thunderous Roar now have 110-degree cones (was 90 degrees) to allow for a little more error in targeting and to better align with visuals.
Ranks of Cruel Strikes for all specs should now work correctly.
All version of Sudden Death and Massacre have now returned to the specialization trees.
New Talent: Wrenching Impact – Heroic Leap pulls 5 random enemies within 15 yards to you. The cooldown of Heroic Leap will be increased in a future build to compensate for this powerful effect.
Berserker Stance – Auto attacks now deal 10% more damage (was 5%).
Reinforced Plates is now 1 rank and now increases Armor by 20% (was 15%).
Endurance Training is now 1 point and now grants 15% reduction to crowd-control effects.
Endurance Training Arms and Endurance Training Protection – Now also reduces the effectiveness of Sap, Fear and Incapacitate effects by 15%.
Endurance Training Fury – Now also reduces the effectiveness of movement impairing effects by 15%.
Arms Developer Notes
We’ve changed the pathing and location of various nodes so that Colossus Smash is located in the center of the tree to align with its importance to the Arms specialization.
Punishment – We’ve decided to remove Punishment as a talent. Execute damage can make up a very large portion of Arms specialization’s damage, which we like, want to maintain and want players to be able to choose! However, having your target in Execute range for 50% of the fight warps the original intent and identity of the ability. It also means Execute will need to be largely toned down and provide less general output than we’d like when it is intended to be used. When you press Execute, we want it to hit hard and feel good, we want you to see big numbers and even bigger crits, and some constraints here, such as removing Punishment will allow us to better deliver on that.
We’re feeling good about where Arms is at and we’ve seen people enjoying the playstyles throughout the Alpha and Beta, so our focus for Arms is now on tuning, bugs and minor changes.
Arms
Improved Sweeping Strikes removed.
Fatality was not providing enough damage output during testing, so now deals 200% damage per stack (was 100%).
Blunt Instruments no longer gives an additional benefit to Warbreaker as it is now part of a choice node with Warbreaker.
Gathering Storm renamed to Hurricane.
Exploiter should now be functioning correctly outside of the Shadowlands and has been reduced to 25% per stack (was 50%).
In for the Kill now increases your Haste by 10% and by 25% if the target is under 35% health.
Test of Might now grants 5% increased Strength for every 30 Rage spent (was 1% every 10 Rage).
Battlelord now also applies to Cleave.
Fatal Mark can now also be applied via Cleave.
Sharpened Blades now also applies to Cleave.
Exhilarating Blows now also applies to Cleave.
Rend caused by Blood and Thunder no longer increases stacks of Collateral Damage.
Moved Exploit the weakness to a later part of the tree where its power level is more in line with other talents.
Skullsplitter now generates 30 Rage.
With Storm of Swords talented Whirlwind’s cooldown is now reduced by your Haste.
Overpower’s damage reduced to 90% (was 97%).
Juggernaut now has a cap of 15 stacks.
Execute damage reduced to 220% (was 230%).
Arms auto attack damage reduced by 5%.
Battlelord chance to trigger reduced to 25% (was 30%) but the rage reduction applied to Mortal Strike has increased to 15 (was 10).
Critical Thinking now provides 5% Execute Critical Strike damage per rank (was 3%).
Fury Developer Notes
Titan’s Grip Fury builds are suffering a little from having more abilities than we’d like and are feeling a little bloated in comparison to other Fury and Arms builds.
With the above in mind, we’ve removed Siegebreaker and its follow-on node Deafening Crash. Historically this ability has not been well liked by players and has felt like a weaker version of Colossus Smash, it can also blur the identity and playstyles of Arms and Fury a little more than we’d like and removing it will allow us to put more power into Fury’s core abilities.
As mentioned previously we’re looking at opening Annihilator up to two-handed weapons.
The choice nodes for Odyn’s Fury and Ravager may see some more iteration.
Outside of the above-mentioned points, we are generally happy with where Fury is at and have seen people enjoying the updates to playstyle and abilities throughout the Alpha and Beta, in turn our focus for Fury will now be mostly on tuning, bugs and minor changes.
Fury
Removed Siegebreaker and Deafening Crash talents.
Unbridled Ferocity now has a 20% chance to trigger Recklessness (was 10%).
Frenzied Flurry is now 1 Rank and increases auto attack damage by 5% and your auto attack critical strikes have a 50% chance to enrage you.
Haste no longer reduces the cooldown of Odyn’s Fury.
New Talent: Dancing Blades – Odyn’s Fury increases your auto-attack speed by 50% for 10 seconds.
Gathering Storm renamed to Hurricane.
Cruelty is now 1 rank and increases damage by 15% and chance to reset the cooldown of Raging Blow by 30%.
Bloodborne now increases your Bleed damage by 30%.
Vicious contempt now increases damage dealt by Bloodthirst by 25% per rank (was 20%).
Cold Steel Hot Blood now deals 30% damage (was 20%).
Crushing Blow damage reduced to 90% for both main hand and offhand damage (was 94%).
Raging Blow damage reduced to 58% for both main hand and offhand damage (was 61%).
Meat Cleaver is now 1 rank and has 4 charges, deals 25% increased damage for Whirlwind.
Annihilator should correctly generate Rage from each rank of Swift Strikes.
Removed Wrath and Fury and replaced it with Massacre which is no longer present on the core tree.
Odyn’s Fury should now add to the duration if quickly cast within succession in line with other Bleed effects.
Odyn’s Fury’s periodic damage should now correctly be flagged as a Bleed effect.
Cruel Strikes now applies to Annihilator correctly.
Storm of Swords – Slam’s cooldown is now 12 seconds and damage increased by 200%. It also generates 20 Rage.
When using Storm of Swords, Whirlwind’s cooldown is now modified by your Haste.
New Talent: Ashen Juggernaut – Execute increases the critical strike chance of Execute by 10% for 12 seconds, stacking up to 5 times.
Memory of a Tormented Titan should now trigger Odyn’s Fury without incurring its cooldown.
Fury should now only have 1 form of Execute in their spell book.
Protection Developer Notes
Protection will see a larger update next week and the week following.
We’ve made some quality-of-life changes to target cones to make them a little more forgiving and to better align with visuals.
Protection
Devastate should now be baseline at the specialization level and no longer require a talent point.
Removed Never Surrender and replaced it with Skull Banner.
Revenge has a 110-degree cone (was 90 degrees) to allow for a little more error in targeting and to better align with visuals.
New Talent: Storm of Steel – Ravager’s damage is reduced by 50% but it now has 2 charges.
PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER
CLASSES
DEATH KNIGHT
Rot and Wither – Now available for all Death Knight specializations (was Blood only).
Necrotic Aura – Now available for all Death Knight specializations (was Unholy only).
Chill Streak – Removed as a PvP talent (moved into the talent tree).
DEMON HUNTER
Cover of Darkness – Now available for both Demon Hunter specializations (was Havoc only).
Rain from Above – Now available for both Demon Hunter specializations (was Havoc only).
Glimpse – Now available for both Demon Hunter specializations (was Havoc only).
Sigil Mastery – Now available for both Demon Hunter specializations (was Vengeance only).
DRUID
Malorne’s Swiftness – Now available for all Druid specializations (was Feral and Guardian only).
Reactive Resin – Now available for all Druid specializations (was Restoration only).
Reactive Resin’s triggered heal is at 75% effectiveness for Guardian, Feral, and Balance.
MAGE
Torment the Weak has been removed.
Burst of Cold has been removed.
ROGUE
Veil of Midnight – Now available for all Rogue specializations (was Subtlety only).
Control is King – Now available for all Rogue specializations (was Outlaw only).
Flying Daggers – Removed as a PvP talent (moved into the talent tree).
Intent to Kill – Removed as a PvP talent (moved into the talent tree).
Float Like a Butterfly – Removed as a PvP talent (moved into the talent tree).
SHAMAN
Traveling Storms – Now available for all Shaman specializations (was Elemental only).
Traveling Storms has been redesigned – Thunderstorm now can be cast on allies within 40 yards, reducing enemies movement speed by 60% and knocks enemies 25% further. Thundershock knocks enemies 100% higher.
Tidebringer – Now available for all Shaman specializations (was Restoration only).
Lightning Lasso – Removed as a PvP talent (moved into the talent tree).
PROFESSIONS
ENCHANTING
In this Beta build, Enchanting has been enabled and players are able to learn the profession by visiting Enchanting trainers in the Dragon Isles. In addition to feedback on the recipes and new items from the profession, we’re also particularly interested in feedback on the new weapon enchantment effects.
FISHING
Fishing has been enabled on Beta! Players can now learn Fishing from Profession trainers all throughout Dragon Isles, and are able to fish in all of the zones.
SPECIALIZATIONS
Unlocking Specializations requires 25 skill in that Profession. Once unlocked, players can spend Specialization points to unlock various bonuses for their Profession.
ENCHANTING
Enchantment – Improve at understanding magical properties and their applications, gaining +1 Skill per point in this Specialization.
Primal – Learn to harness the primal elements of the Dragon Isles, gaining + 1 Skill per point in this Specialization.
Material Manipulation – Improve at modifying equipment for your every need, gaining + 1 Skill per point in this Specialization.
USER INTERFACE AND ACCESSIBILITY
NEW HUD UI
Unit frame art updated
Player Unit frame
Common frames and panel: edges, top bar, and “x” button.
Developers’ note: Known issue with some “x” buttons bleeding out of the frame.
Last night we got another set of hotfixes that focus on nerfing the Lower Karazhan Opera Hall boss encounters. In addition to that Blizzard provided us with some update notes coming to dragonriding on the beta in one of the next builds.
Developers’ note: The Opera events in Lower Karazhan have proven to be more lethal than we’d like, particularly given the weekly rotation that makes them more challenging to master in Mythic+. We’ve made a number of adjustments here in hopes of bringing the difficulty of these events in line with our expectations.
The Opera Hall: Beautiful Beast
Silver Forks health reduced by 50%.
Silver Forks Bloody Jab damage over time reduced by 50%.
Mrs. Cauldrons’ Soup Spray damage reduced by 30%.
Luminore’s Heat Wave damage reduced by 30%.
The Opera Hall: Westfall Story
Gang Ruffian’s Poisonous Shank damage over time reduced by 50%.
Mrrgria’s Thunder Ritual damage reduced by 30%.
The Opera Hall: Wikket
Winged Assistant’s health reduced by 25%.
Winged Assistant’s Throw “Stuff” damage reduced by 30%.
A couple updates coming in an upcoming build that warranted pointing out:
The text in the tooltips for dragon isle drakes have been corrected to state more accurate values. NOTE: Actual maximum speed values have not changed from the previous build.
For those that need or want a quieter full screen effect for max speed, the accessibility option “Alternate Full Screen Effects” now lessens the dragonriding max speed effect. Please try this out and share your feedback.
Surge Forward’s effectiveness has been increased by 20%.
Last night in addition to a couple of hotfixes in retail, Blizzard posted a lot of responses on the DF Beta class feedback threads! Check it out below:
Resolved an issue where Creation Spark (Fated Power) could negatively affect the duration of Unstable Mote.
Resolved an issue where Fated Powers could occur twice at the start of the encounter.
Resolved an issue where damage taken from the Fated Powers Creation Spark, Reconfiguration Emitter, Chaotic Essence, and Protoform Barrier could be incidentally increased by Protoform Radiance.
Resolved an issue that could cause Fated Powers to spawn inside Unstable Motes.
The Jailer
Resolved an issue which could cause Fated Powers to spawn inside Defile.
Mythic+
Grimrail Depot
Railmaster Rocketspark
Explosives will no longer spawn on top of crates.
Wrath of the Lich King Classic
Classes
Weapon trail visual effects have been restored to abilities that have them.
Dungeons and Raids
Blackrock Spire can again be entered by 10-player raids.
Resolved an issue where selecting certain roles for your class in the Group Finder would not actually display them in your listing.
Fixed an issue where Group Finder listings would be removed for certain players when moving between zones.
Fixed an issue where the Talent Specialization’s role could be set to tank after changing zones.
Developers’ note: The intention here is that this role selection should always default to DPS, and can be set by players based on how they want to describe their talent builds.
Items and Rewards
Fixed an issue that prevented the auction of some items carried over from Burning Crusade Classic.
Player versus Player
Updated the current Battleground Bonus Weekend to Warsong Gulch (was Strand of the Ancients).
Random Battleground Queue no longer shows up for players below level 80.
Fixed a crash when inspecting another player and opening the PvP tab.
Quests
For the quest “Runeforging: Preparation for Battle,” Instructor Razuvious will now (begrudgingly) provide a spare Runed Soulblade for Death Knights who have managed to misplace theirs.
This is a concern we’ve heard echoed from many sources and have been thinking about as well. When it is one legendary choice among many and contained to a limited window of time as with the Shadowlands version, the divergent rotational gameplay required by it can be novel and appropriate. But we are less comfortable carrying that gameplay forward as a more permanent talent choice, and will be testing a slightly modified talent version of Burning Wound that intends to streamline gameplay and solidify an identity as an effect that is at its best in low target count scenarios.
So, the following adjustments are currently planned (and as always, are subject to change):
Burning Wound DoT applied by Throw Glaive (was Demon’s Bite)
Burning Wound DoT damage reduced by 25%
Immolation Aura bonus damage on Wounded targets reduced to 45% (was 65%)
May be applied to a maximum of 3 targets
This updated talent version will be available for testing in a future update, and we’re hoping you’ll try it out and let us know what you think. Cheers.
Some quick notes on changes coming in a future build:
Class Tree:
Hunter’s Agility is being changed from a 2-rank node down to 1 rank, and will reduce area of effect damage taken by 6%.
Improved Traps and Rejuvenating Winds will have their positions switched.
Note on Arctic Bola: The snare value is 20%, and should not be changing per rank, the tooltip showing 50/100% snare per rank is incorrect. This is not intended to be a big snare or something you are relying on to kite enemies around.
Marksmanship:
Windrunner’s Guidance is having its design changed to: Each Wind Arrow has a 3% chance to grant you 10 sec of Trueshot.
This includes Wind Arrows from either Aimed Shot, or from Windrunner’s Barrage below Wailing Arrow.
Survival:
Ferocity lowered from 2 ranks down to 1.
Intense Focus lowered from 2 ranks down to 1.
Thanks for your continued feedback and testing.
P.S. I hope you all have a nice weekend every week, even if I don’t post that here.
Some changes are coming to a build you will receive next week, and we wanted to discuss that here.
Stormbringer is now just something you know starting at level 10 as an Enhancement Shaman alongside your Mastery.
New 1-point talent in Stormbringer’s Spot: Storm’s Wrath. Increases the mastery bonus chance for Stormbringer and Windfury to activate by 100%. This is a multiplier, not additive.
Note, this only increases the bonus proc chance from Mastery, which is 0.64% without any gear, and does not affect the elemental damage bonus from Mastery.
Improved Maelstrom Weapon is now a 2 rank node, up from 1, for the same total benefit.
Focused Maelstrom has been removed.
Raging Maelstrom now increases the damage bonus to Maelstrom Weapon by an additional 5% in addition to increasing maximum stacks by 5.
A fair number of talents in rows 4-8 on the right side of the tree have shifted around in position.
Lashing Flames has added as a talent on the right side of the tree.
Alpha Wolf now procs from either Crash Lightning or Chain Lightning, rather than just Chain Lightning.
Legacy of the Frost Witch has had its design adjusted a bit and is still 2 ranks: Every 10 stacks of Maelstrom Weapon consumed resets the cooldown of Stormstrike and increases the damage of your physical abilities by 5%/20% for 5 sec.
Feral Spirits, and the Elemental Spirits talent have been adjusted:
Each Feral Spirit type now grants you +15% damage to the related element. Normal Feral Spirits count as Physical.
The extra frost damage from the frosty feral spirits has been removed, but frosty feral spirits now increase your frost damage by 15%.
The extra Lava Lash damage from fire feral spirits has been removed.
Greetings, Feral Druids! We’re excited to share that there is a new version of the Feral tree in the next Beta update. These are some meaty changes you can really sink your claws into, with new talents, lots of revisions, and changes to the tree layout. Here’s some of what we’re intending with these changes.
Identity
At its core, Feral’s gameplay is about applying and maintaining powerful bleeds on enemies, then spending additional combo points on Ferocious Bites for more damage. In 9.2.5, Ferocious Bite is extremely powerful (and extends Rips with Sabertooth), which can lead to it taking over your rotation. Our goal for this tree is to get back to bleeds, especially Rip, being the center of your damage and gameplay again, with Ferocious Bite adding additional damage when you have the combo points for it. We’ve changed or removed any effects that dynamically extend bleed duration, so maintaining bleeds will always be a part of your rotation.
We’ve added several options to make Bleeds more interesting or useful in different situations. Primal Wrath has been moved near the top of the tree to give Feral an AOE combo point spender early. There are also new talents to do things like briefly increase all Rip damage, consume part of Rip’s duration to deal some of its damage instantly, or make Ferocious Bite hit nearby bleeding targets. These new tools should also enable you to get full value out of every combo point in AOE combat.
We’ve also returned a lot of Berserk’s current power to the first point you spend in it, while keeping some additional talents to make it stronger (and adding some new ones).
Complexity
We pay a lot of attention to gameplay complexity. Feral has some talents that increase the complexity of its rotation in exchange for power. The challenge with these types of abilities, especially in Dragonflight’s talent trees, is that if they’re strong, they can feel required. In the case of Bloodtalons and Brutal Slash, we added alternatives for players who want most of the power without the complexity. In the case of Savage Roar, we removed it. We prefer Feral’s combo point spenders to focus on maintaining bleeds and weaving in Ferocious Bites when possible.
Choice
Many of the new talents are about giving Feral players tools to customize their gameplay in the direction they prefer. There are, of course, talents that strengthen AOE or single target damage (though you should always feel capable in both scenarios). But other options allow you to customize how much energy regeneration you have, how powerful your combo point builders are, how often you need to refresh your bleeds, or how powerful your Berserk & Tiger’s Fury cooldowns are.
We’re excited to hear your feedback on these changes and for you to have an opportunity to play them. Here’s what’s coming:
Protective Growth. New talent, row 2. Your Regrowth protects you, reducing all damage you take by 3% while it is on you.
Improved Bleeds. Changed to 1 rank (from 2).
Pouncing Strikes. New talent, row 3. Grants extra damage & combo points to Shred & Rake when striking from stealth.
Tireless Energy. Renamed from Max Energy, changed to 2 ranks (from 3) and grants 2% haste per rank.
Sabertooth. Now increases Ferocious Bite damage by 20% and increases damage dealt by Rip by 4% for each combo point spent for 4 seconds.
Piercing Claws (2 ranks). New talent, row 4. Critical Strike chance increased by 2%.
Double-Clawed Rake. New talent, row 4. Rake also applies Rake to 1 additional nearby target.
Sudden Ambush. Changed to 2 ranks (from 3) and grants 5% chance to strike as if from stealth per rank (up from 1%).
Dreadful Bleeding. New talent, row 5. Rip damage increased by 15%.
Berserk. Replaces Berserk: Relentlessness. Berserk now grants combo point refund on finishing moves and causes Rake & Shred to deal damage as if stealthed.
Tear Open Wounds. New talent, row 5. Primal Wrath consumes up to 4 sec of Rip damage on targets it hits and deals 75% of it instantly.
Taste for Blood. Changed to 2 ranks (from 3).
Ferocious Frenzy. New talent, row 6. Ferocious Bite also hits nearby enemies within 8 yds afflicted by Rip for 25% damage. Deals reduced damage over 8 targets.
Infected Wounds. Now also increases Rake damage by 20%.
Row 7 choice node:
Raging Fury. New talent. Finishing moves extend the duration of Tiger’s Fury by 0.2 sec per combo point spent.
Frantic Momentum. New talent. Finishing moves have a 3% chance per combo point spent to grant 10% Haste for 6 seconds.
Berserk: Heart of the Lion. New talent, row 7. Each combo point spent reduces the cooldown of Berserk by 0.5 seconds.
Berserk: Frenzy. No longer causes combo point generating abilities to reduce the cooldown of Berserk.
Wild Slashes. New talent, row 7, choice node with Brutal Slash. Swipe and Thrash deal 20% more damage.
Bite Force. New talent, row 9, choice node with Bloodtalons. Ferocious Bite and Rip deal +10% damage.
Row 9 choice node:
Veinripper. New talent. Rip & Rake & Thrash last +25% longer
Rip & Tear. New talent. Applying Rip to a target also applies a Tear that deals X Bleed damage per combo point spent over 6 sec.
Feral Frenzy and Apex Predator are now standalone talents.
Ashamane’s Guidance. Was Modal Cooldown Bonus. Gives auto attacks a chance to trigger Incarnation for 6 sec, or reduces Convoke the Spirits’ duration by 25% and gives it an increased chance to trigger a powerful ability.
Removed Talents
Improved Tiger’s Fury. Tiger’s Fury now always grants 50 Energy.
And hello, Restoration Druids! A new Restoration tree will be sprouting into the next Beta build with spell changes, layout adjustments, multi-point node reduction, and new abilities! Players can also expect many previously Not Yet Implemented (NYI) talents to be ready for testing. We would like to give our thoughts on some of these upcoming adjustments.
Build Diversity and Support
A good amount of feedback for the Restoration Druid tree has been it felt very similar to the current Shadowlands build and there weren’t many variations to playstyle throughout the tree. To open build diversity we’ve focused on adding new tools to existing builds to change their gameplay and creating spells to support new playstyles. Lifebloom, for example, is seeing more talents throughout this tree now.
Mastery Mattering
Restoration Druid’s Mastery is a very compelling stat, but generally does not have a lot of areas of the game where it gets to shine. We are looking at old bonuses and new effects to incorporate Mastery further into the spec and give players more reason to think about their Heal over Time placement as they parse their group’s damage intake.
Layout Changes
The layout of the Restoration Druid tree has changed significantly from its previous iteration. The new layout is intended to provide more options and improved pathing. Here’s what players can expect to see:
New Talent Additions
Nature’s Splendor. New Talent, row 3. The healing bonus to Regrowth from Nature’s Swiftness is increased by 50%.
Flash of Clarity. New Talent, row 3. Clearcast Regrowths heal for an additional 30%.
Waking Dream. New Talent, row 4. Ysera’s Gift now heals every 4 seconds and heals for an additional 5% for each of your active Rejuvenations.
Nurturing Dormancy. New Talent, row 6. When your Rejuvenation heals a full health target, its duration is increased by 3 seconds, up to a maximum total increase of 9 seconds per cast.
Dreamstate. New Talent, row 6. While channeling Tranquility, your other Druid spell cooldowns are reduced by up to 10 seconds.
Verdancy. New Talent, row 7. When Lifebloom blooms, up to 3 targets within your Efflorescence are healed for X.
Budding Leaves. New Talent, row 9. Lifebloom’s Healing is increased by 6% each time it heals, up to 90%. Also increases Lifebloom’s final bloom amount by 15%.
Embrace of the Dream. New Talent, row 9. Wild Growth has a 100% chance to momentarily shift your mind into the Emerald Dream, instantly healing all allies affected by your Rejuvenation for X.
Regenerative Heartwood. New Talent, row 9. Allies protected by your Ironbark also receive 75% of the healing from each of your active Rejuvenations.
The complete list of changes will be released with the next beta build. Thanks so much for your continued feedback!
