Category: The War Within

The War Within Alpha has been updated with Alpha #2, build 54361.

NEW ZONES AND DELVES

• The Ringing Deeps

NEW DUNGEONS

• The Stonevault
• Darkflame Cleft

NEW ALLIED RACE

• Earthen

CHARACTER LEVEL

Developers’ note: With each phase, we encourage players to make a new template character and avoid using their previous characters as they could potentially be in a broken state. After making a new template character, make sure to talk to Questzertauren and he will prepare you for any available content.

• Level 73 Character Template
• Maximum Level: 75

CLASSES

• The following Hero Talents are available for playtesting in Public Alpha 2:
  • DEMON HUNTER
    • Fel-Scarred
      • Fel-Scarred Demon Hunters embrace the monster within! Blasts of devastating Fel fire are unleashed while in demon form, and activating Metamorphosis greatly empowers additional Fel-themed abilities. The Fel-Scarred endure a pain that bubbles just beneath the surface, granting increased maximum Fury and a portion of their demon form bonuses at all times. Those who stand in their way will inevitably be introduced to that pain by intense fiery abilities and blades that burn with Fel energy.
  • MONK
    • Mastery of Harmony
      • Developers’ notes: Master of Harmony was accessible in the Public Alpha 1 build but several talents were still being worked on. In Public Alpha 2, Master of Harmony is now fully playtestable.
• All Fear, Silence, Sleep, Stun & Interrupt visual effects have been updated with a new visual. Additionally, all movement speed slowing effects greater than 50% will now display a universal Slow visual on the target.
  • Developers’ notes: Our main priority for this visual update is to help increase the clarity and consistency of messaging for common status effects. Slow (the status effect not the spell), for example has taken quite a few different visual forms over the years, mostly in the range of multicolored dust clouds around a target’s feet. As you can imagine this particular visual was difficult to notice from a distance and wasn’t easily recognizable. So, we did a pass on Slow and the other status effects listed to help address those clarity/messaging issues making them easier to quickly identify in combat.
• MAGE
  • Sunfury
    • Spells cast by the Arcane Phoenix no longer benefit from the caster’s secondary stats, spell damage bonuses, or talents.
    • Arcane Phoenix’s Arcane Surge damage reduced by 50%.
    • Reduced the damage of all Arcane Phoenix AOE spells by 50%.
      • Arcane Barrage, Flamestrike, and Phoenix Flames
    • Activation Overlay added for Hyperthermia and Arcane Soul
    • Memory of Al’ar – Arcane Soul buff redesigned: Arcane Barrage costs no mana, grants Clearcasting, and generates 4 Arcane Charges.
  • Fire
    • Fuel the Fire is now baseline
    • New Talent – Lit Fuse: Consuming Hot Streak has a small chance to grant Lit Fuse. Lit Fuse makes your next Phoenix Flames apply Living Bomb to up to three targets. Living Bomb explodes after 2 sec, dealing damage to the target and up to 5 nearby enemies. Up to 5 enemies hit by this explosion gain Living Bomb, but this effect cannot spread further.
    • New Talent – Explosive Ingenuity: Consuming Hot Streak has a higher chance of granting you Lit Fuse. Living Bomb damage increased by 50%.
    • New Talent – Down in Flames (Choice node with Improved Scorch): Scorch deals 300% damage to targets below 30% health.
    • New Talent – Quickflame (Choice node with Flame Patch): Flamestrike damage increased by 25%.
    • New Talent – Focused Fury: Living Bomb deals more damage the fewer targets it hits, up to 300% at 1 target.
    • New Talent – Mark of the Fire Lord: Flamestrike and Living Bomb apply Mastery: Ignite at 100% increased effectiveness.
    • New Talent – Spontaneous Combustion (Choice node with Improved Combustion): Casting Combustion refreshes up to 3 charges of Fire Blast and up to 3 charges of Phoenix Flames.
    • New Talent – Charring Embers: Phoenix Flames applies Charring Embers to all enemies it damages, increasing their damage taken from you by 5% for 12 sec.
    • New Talent – Fire’s Ire: When you’re not under the effect of Combustion, your critical strike chance is increased by 2.5%. When you’re under the effects of Combustion, your critical strike damage is increased by 2.5%. Two-rank talent.
    • New Talent – Explosivo: Casting Combustion grants Lit Fuse. While under the effects of Combustion, consuming Hot Streak has a substantially increased chance to grant you Lit Fuse.
    • New Talent – Blast Zone: Lit Fuse can now apply Living Bomb to up to five targets. Living Bombs can now spread to eight enemies.
    • New Talent – Ashen Feather (Choice node with Majesty of the Phoenix): If Phoenix Flames hits only one target, it deals 50% increased damage and applies Ignite at 100% effectiveness.
    • New Talent – Majesty of the Phoenix (Choice node with Ashen Feather): When Phoenix Flames damages 3 or more targets, your next 2 Flamestrikes have their cast time reduced by 1.5 sec and their damage is increased by 20%.
    • Fervent Flickering has been redesigned: Now reduces the cooldown of Fire Blast by 2 sec
    • Controlled Destruction has been redesigned: Damaging a target with Pyroblast increases the damage it receives from Ignite by 2%. This effect stacks up to 25 times.
      • Developers’ notes: This talent is currently stacking past 25. This is not intentional and will be corrected in a future update.
    • Improved Scorch has been redesigned: Casting Scorch on targets below 30% health increases the damage the target takes from you by 5% for 12 sec. This effect stacks up to 2 times.
    • Flame Accelerant has been redesigned: Every 12 seconds, your next Fireball, Flamestrike, or Pyroblast has a 40% reduced cast time.
    • Unleashed Inferno has been redesigned: While Combustion is active your Fireball, Pyroblast, Fire Blast, Scorch, and Phoenix Flames deal 50% increased damage and reduce the cooldown of Combustion by 1.25 sec. While Combustion is active, Flamestrike deals 25% increased damage and reduces the cooldown of Combustion by 0.25 sec for each critical strike, up to 1.25 sec.
    • Convection has been redesigned: When a Living Bomb expires, if it did not spread to another target, it refreshes its duration. A Living Bomb can only benefit from this effect once.
    • Pyromaniac has been redesigned: Casting Pyroblast or Flamestrike while Hot Streak is active has an 8% chance to repeat the spell cast at 100% effectiveness, but the copied spell cannot contribute to Hot Streak. This effect counts as consuming Hot Streak.
    • Phoenix Reborn has been redesigned: When your direct damage spells hit an enemy affected by Charring Embers 20 times, the damage of your next 2 Phoenix Flames is increased by 200% and they refund a charge on use.
    • Call of the Sun King is now in Gate 1
    • Searing Touch has been removed.
    • Searing Touch’s critical strike threshold functionality is now baseline to Scorch.
    • Improved Scorch’s movement speed increase is now baseline to Scorch.
    • Incendiary Eruptions, Firemind, and Tempered Flames removed.
    • Firestarter, Intensifying Flame, Inflame, Controlled Destruction, Wild Fire, and Flame Accelerant are now in Gate 2.
    • Flame On is now 1 point and no longer reduces the cooldown of Fire Blast.
    • Critical Mass is now 1 point.
    • Wildfire is now 1 point.
    • Conflagration has been removed.
    • Fevered Incantation is now 2 points
    • Sun King’s Blessing now grants Sun King’s Fury after consuming 10 Hot Streaks.
    • Hyperthermia now has an activation overlay.
• MONK
  • Developers’ notes: Please note that not all of the below changes will be available in Public Alpha 2, but we want to give players a full picture our next planned update for Windwalker, so we’ve opted to include all of our changes.
  • Conduit of the Celestials
    • Heart of the Jade Serpent now increases the cool down rate of affected spells by 75% (was 100%).
    • Fists of Fury now channels 50% faster during Heart of the Jade Serpent.
  • Windwalking is now a 1 point talent.
  • Some connections have been moved within the final gate.
  • Hasty Provocation has moved to a choice node with Quick Footed.
• Windwalker
  • Expel Harm no longer triggers combo strikes.
  • Chi Wave no longer triggers combo strikes.
  • Combat Wisdom now balances your Chi to 2 while out of combat.
    • Developers’ notes: With the removal of Expel Harm from the list of combo strikes triggers, we’d like to naturally smooth out Windwalker’s opener by having them start each combat with some additional Chi. This also reduces the ramp-up steps for them to get going rotationally.
  • Storm, Earth, and Fire now triggers Combo Strikes.
    • Developers’ notes: Moving forward, we’d like for Combo Strikes to not trigger from spells that aren’t intuitive to mix into your rotation or aren’t directly under your control, such as Flying Serpent Kick and Chi Wave / Expel Harm procs. Along this line of thinking, we’re also adding Storm, Earth and Fire to the list of spells that can trigger Combo Strikes. We want the initiation of cooldowns to feel as smooth as possible, and we’d like to allow for Ordered Elements to feel easier to play around (also back to back Rising Sun Kicks are fun!).
  • Ordered Elements now has a 7 sec duration (was 5).
  • Jadefire Harmony now increases damage and healing taken by 8% for its duration (was 12%).
  • Crane Vortex is now a 1 point talent and increases the radius of Spinning Crane Kick by 15%.
  • Rising Star is now a 1 point talent.
  • Vivify healing increased by 30% for Windwalker.
    • Developers’ notes: With the removal of Expel Harm as an active button for Windwalker, we’d like Vivify to better fill the on-demand healing niche for them.
  • Skytouch no longer increases the range of Tiger Palm, now increases critical strike chance by 15% (was 50%), and its lockout duration is 30 sec (was 60).
  • Dance of Chi-Ji may now stack up to 2 times.
  • Storm, Earth, and Fire clones will now copy your Tiger’s Lust casts.
    • Developers’ notes: With the removal of Serenity in mind, we’re looking to open up counter play options for Windwalkers when their Storm, Earth, and Fire clones are crowd controlled in PvP.
  • Flying Serpent Kick is now a 30 sec cooldown (was 20).
  • Shadowboxing Tread’s extra Blackout Kicks are now 80% effective (was 100%).
  • Developers’ notes: We’re adding a tuning knob to Shadowboxing Treads so we can more easily tune Blackout Kick’s damage between single target and AoE scenarios.
• PALADIN
  • Retribution
    • Highlord’s Judgment has been renamed to Highlord’s Wrath.
    • Mastery: Hand of Light has been renamed to Mastery: Highlord’s Judgment – Now also causes Judgment to have a chance to blast the target with the Light, dealing Holy damage.
    • Highlord’s Wrath has been redesigned – Mastery: Highlord’s Judgment is 50/100% more effective on Judgment and Hammer of Wrath. Judgment applies an additional stack of Greater Judgment if it is known.
    • Adjudication has been redesigned – Critical Strike damage of your abilities increased by 5% and Hammer of Wrath also has a chance to cast Highlord’s Judgment.
    • Blades of Light has been redesigned – Crusader Strike, Judgment, Hammer of Wrath, and damaging single target Holy Power abilities now deal Holystrike damage and your abilities that deal Holystrike damage deal 5% increased damage.
    • Divine Arbiter now has an additional effect – Highlord’s Judgment and Holystrike damage abilities grant you a stack of Divine Arbiter.
    • Searing Light now has an additional effect – Highlord’s Judgment and Radiant damage abilities have a chance to call down and explosion of Holy Fire.
    • Blessed Hammer from Adjudication now spawns from the target of your Hammer of Wrath.
    • Execution Sentence now causes the enemy to suffer 20% of the damage dealt during its time after it expires (was 30%).
    • Execution Sentence damage no longer counts as a damage over time effect.
    • Highlord’s Judgment damage increased by 50%.
    • Highlord’s Wrath is now a 1 rank talent. (was 2 ranks)
    • Highlords Wrath: Mastery: Highlord’s Judgment is 50% more effective on Judgment and Hammer of Wrath. Judgment applies an additional stack of Greater Judgment if it is known.
    • Vanguard of Justice is now a 2 rank talent (was 1 rank)
    • Vanguard of Justice has been redesigned: Enemies hit by Templar’s Verdict take 30/50% increased damage from your next Divine Storm.
    • Judge, Jury, Executioner has been redesigned: Divine Storm has a 40% chance to cause your next Templar’s Verdict to hit an additional 3 targets.
• WARLOCK
  • New Talent: Pact of Gluttony – Healthstones you conjure for yourself are now Demonic Healthstones and can be used multiple times in combat. Demonic Healthstones cannot be traded.
  • New Talent: Swift Artifice – Reduces the cast time of Soulstone and Create Healthstone by 50%.
  • New Talent: Demonic Tactics – Increases melee and spell critical strike chance for you and your summoned demon by 2%.
  • Fel Pact is now 1 rank and has been redesigned – Fel Domination cooldown is reduced by 60 sec.
  • Fiendish Stride is now 1 rank and has been redesigned – Reduces the damage dealt by Burning Rush by 10%. Burning Rush increases your movement speed by an additional 20%.
  • Grimoire of Synergy has been removed.
  • Inquisitor’s Gaze has been removed.
  • Summon Soulkeeper has been removed.
  • Profane Bargain has been removed.
  • Demonic Circle has been moved to row 3.
  • Soul Leech is no longer baseline and has been added to the Warlock tree.
  • Soul Conduit has been moved to row 10 and is now 1 rank.
  • Fel Synergy has been moved to row 9.
  • Soul Link has been moved to row 9.
  • Abyss Walker has been moved to row 4.
  • Affliction
    • Malefic Rapture is now baseline and has been removed from the Affliction tree.
    • Unstable Affliction has been moved to row 1.
    • Writhe in Agony has been moved to row 2.
    • Absolute Corruption and Siphon Life have been moved to row 3.
    • New Talent: Cunning Cruelty – Malefic Rapture has a chance to trigger a Shadow Bolt Volley, dealing damage to 5 enemies within 10 yards of your current target.
    • New Talent: Summoner’s Embrace – Increases the damage dealt by your spells and your demon by 3%.
    • New Talent: Death’s Embrace – Increases Drain Life healing by 30% while your health is at or below 35% health. Damage done by your Agony, Corruption, Unstable Affliction, and Malefic Rapture is increased by 5% when your target is at or below 20% health.
    • New Talent: Relinquished – Agony has 1.25 times the normal chance to generate a Soul Shard.
    • New Talent: Improved Shadow Bolt – The cast time of Shadow Bolt is reduced by 15% and Shadow Bolt deals 20% increased damage.
    • New Talent: Volatile Agony – Refreshing Agony with less than 10 seconds remaining deals Shadow damage to its target and enemies within 10 yards.
    • New Talent: Summoner’s Embrace – Increases the damage dealt or life drained by your Shadow spells and your demon by 3%.
    • New Talent: Malediction – The periodic critical strike chance of Agony, Corruption, and Unstable Affliction is increased by 10%.
    • New Talent: Contagion – Critical strike damage dealt by Agony, Corruption, and Unstable Affliction is increased by 20%.
    • New Talent: Cull the Weak – Malefic Rapture deals 5% increased damage for each enemy it hits.
    • New Talent: Empowered Unstable Affliction – Reduces the cast time of Unstable Affliction by 10/20% and damage dealt by Unstable Affliction has a 5/10% chance to generate a Soul Shard.
    • New Talent: Oblivion – Unleash wicked magic upon your target’s soul, dealing Shadow damage over 3 sec. Deals 10% increased damage, up to 30%, per damage over time effect you have active on the target. Costs 2 Soul Shards. 45 sec cooldown.
    • Siphon Life has been redesigned – Corruption deals 20% increased damage and heals you for 5% of the damage dealt.
    • Kindled Malice has been redesigned – Malefic Rapture damage increased by 4/8%. Corruption damage increased by 10/20%.
    • Malevolent Visionary has been redesigned – Increases the damage of your Darkglare by 70%. When Darkglare extends damage over time effects it also sears the target for Shadow damage.
    • Shadow Embrace has been redesigned – [Shadow Bolt/Drain Soul] apply Shadow Embrace, increasing your damage dealt to the target by [4.0%/2.0%] for 16 sec. Stacks up to [2/4] times.
    • Pandemic Invocation has been removed.
    • Sow the Seeds has been removed.
    • Soul Swap has been removed.
    • Doom Blossom has been removed.
    • Dread Touch has been removed.
    • Soul Flame has been removed.
    • Agonizing Corruption has been removed.
    • Seized Vitality has been removed.
    • Soul-Eater’s Gluttony has been removed.
    • Grand Warlock’s Design has been removed.
    • Grim Reach has been removed.
    • Xavius’ Gambit has been moved to row 6.
    • Withering Bolt has been moved to row 8.
    • Shadow Embrace has been moved to row 7.
    • Inevitable Demise has been moved to row 6.
    • Tormented Crescendo has been moved to row 7.
    • Sacrolash’s Dark Strike has been moved to row 5.
    • Grimoire of Sacrifice has been moved to column 4.
    • Creeping Death has been moved to column 3.
    • Dark Virtuosity has been moved to column 1.
    • Malevolent Visionary has been moved to row 10.
    • Summon Darkglare has been moved to row 9.
• WARRIOR
  • Protection
    • Defensive Stance no longer reduces damage dealt by Protection Warriors.
    • New Talent replacing Improved Heroic Throw – Fight Through the Flames: Defensive Stance additionally reduces magic damage you take by 5%.

Greetings Warlocks,

We’ve been very excited to see the community’s reactions to the Warlock Hero Talents, and we appreciate all of your feedback.

In the coming weeks, you’ll see multiple changes to the Warlock class and specialization trees, and we’d like to provide some context for these changes here.

Core Goals

• Ensure each capstone is interesting and exciting.
• Reduce the amount of throughput talents, to free up utility choices.
• Reduce the number of ranks for talents that don’t warrant multiple ranks.

Affliction
The Affliction specialization tree forces a choice between a single-target or multi-target profile rather than providing a viable build that is adaptable in both situations. We want to redesign, introduce, and remove talents, as well as address the tuning of Malefic Rapture to help reduce this friction.

Demonology
For Demonology, we want to address the number of long cooldowns available as well as reduce the amount of resource flooding. We’ll also look at underused talents such as Doom. The feedback provided during Season 3 was instrumental in helping illuminate a path forward for Doom, and you should expect a redesign of it in a future build.

Destruction
For Destruction, we have plans to reduce the fluctuation in power based on target count. We also want to take another look at how Destruction plays in multi-target situations and look for ways to improve underused talents such as Cataclysm and Soulfire.

More to come
As always, we’re reading feedback and discussing other changes. We’re still monitoring discussions about Hero Talents, and will make adjustments as needed.

Thank you for your thoughts thus far. We look forward to hearing more as development progresses!

Hello mages!

We have some updates coming to the Alpha in the next few weeks and want to give you an early look at a significant talent shakeup.

These changes will be almost exclusively specialization tree changes, but the goals are similar across them all. In general, we’re happy with the core gameplay of each mage specialization. These changes aim to elevate existing gameplay, provide choice, and ease frustration.

Goals

• Allow you to acquire each specialization’s core gameplay with less talent point investment.
• Simplify rotational complexity.
• Provide tools to help you adapt your damage profile to better match a given encounter.
• Provide competitive choice nodes that let you opt-out of complex gameplay.

Mage Class Tree

So far there is one change in the Mage class tree:

• Temporal Warp is being removed.

Temporal Warp has some experiential issues we aren’t happy with, like mages not being able to use it in raid fights where Time Warp is not used at the start of the fight. We’re also unhappy with the significant APM requirements it creates, and how failing those might snowball into substantially reduced damage over the course of a fight.

Mage damage overall will be tuned taking Temporal Warp’s removal into account as these changes roll in.

Arcane

The Arcane spec tree will be receiving updates aimed at providing more options for players who enjoy the fantasy of Arcane and want to play it without some of the demanding elements of its current playstyle.

Arcane has a lot of inherent complexity with mana management, and that complexity is not well represented in the spec tree. Talents that might seem simple to manage on other specs become a headache to juggle alongside Arcane’s burns and mana management. This, paired with the new elements being added by Hero Talents, make it seem like the right time to address these issues.

We’re still working on the changes, but we can share this: Radiant Spark will be redesigned to be much simpler. It will also have a competitive choice node for people who do not like the scripted style of gameplay it incentivizes. We’re also looking at increasing the power of Arcane’s procs and giving them more exciting procs, such that responding to them as they come up is almost always the best move, even in your burns.

Fire

Fire will likely be the first to test new changes. These changes are targeted at giving Fire more talent options, particularly in AOE. We want you to be able to assess the encounter and adjust your talents accordingly, and that means being able to alter how good Ignite/Flamestrike/Phoenix Flames are at different target counts. We’re also taking a look at Fire’s suite of maintenance buffs and culling a select few of them.

Frost

With the exception of a few talents, which we’re looking to address, we’re feeling good about Frost’s gameplay and tree. Our first batch of changes for Frost will be small in scope, and targeted at adding a new build that should reminiscent of the Deathborne playstyle from Shadowlands, while also freeing up some talent points.

Thank you for your continued feedback, and we’re excited to hear more from you in the weeks to come.

The War Within Alpha Development Notes

NEW ZONES AND DELVES

• Isle of Dorn

NEW DUNGEONS

• Cinderbrew Meadery
• The Rookery

CHARACTER LEVEL

Developers’ note: With each phase, we encourage players to make a new template character and avoid using their previous characters as they could potentially be in a broken state. After making a new template character, make sure to talk to Questzertauren and he will prepare you for any available content.

• Level 70 Character Template
• Maximum Level: 73

CLASSES

• Developer’s note: Hero Talents can be accessed either naturally by leveling (first point is granted at 71) or can be boosted by interacting with the Questzertauren npc in Orgrimmar and Stormwind which will immediately boost you to level 71 and also grant you all 10 Hero Talent points.
  • Please note: Doing this will give you a permanent debuff that will reduce your damage done (so you do not overpower content due to having a larger amount of talent points than intended). Additionally, this process is not reversible, so if you’d like to experience the natural flow of progression, you’ll need to make a new character.
  • Additionally, as this is Alpha, there are a few callouts we wanted to make in regards to the readiness of Hero Talents.
    • Several Hero Talents trees have not had their new visual effects or audio added. These trees are using placeholder assets for now and will be updated over the course of Alpha.
    • Power tuning of these abilities is still in the early passes and will be ongoing.
    • There might be abilities that are labeled as NYI – these are Not Yet Implemented and will likely be a little bit prone to bugs until they’re fully implemented.
    • The User Interface frame for Hero Talents is still being polished and is missing a few bits of art, animation, and other small changes.
• The following Hero Talents are available for playtesting in Public Alpha 1:
  • DEATH KNIGHT
    • Deathbringer (Blood/Frost)
    • Rider of the Apocalypse (Frost/Unholy)
    • San’layn (Unholy/Blood)
  • DEMON HUNTER
    • Aldrachi Reaver (Havoc/Vengeance)
  • DRUID
    • Druid of the Claw (Feral/Guardian)
    • Elune’s Chosen (Balance/Guardian)
    • Keeper of the Grove (Balance/Restoration)
    • Wildstalker (Feral/Restoration)
  • EVOKER
    • Chronowarden (Augmentation/Preservation)
    • Flameshaper (Devastation/Preservation)
    • Scalecommander (Devastation/Augmentation)
  • HUNTER
    • Dark Ranger (Marksmanship/Beast Mastery)
    • Pack Leader (Beast Mastery/Survival)
    • Sentinel (Survival/Marksmanship)
  • MAGE
    • Frostfire (Frost/Fire)
    • Spellslinger (Frost/Arcane)
    • Sunfury (Arcane/Fire)
  • MONK
    • Conduit of the Celestials (Mistweaver/Windwalker)
    • Master of Harmony (Mistweaver/Brewmaster)
      • Developer’s note: Master of Harmony will be accessible in the Hero Talent Tree, but there will be a handful of talents that are not fully implemented.
    • Shado-Pan (WIndwalker/Brewmaster)
  • PALADIN
    • Herald of the Sun (Holy/Retribution)
    • Lightsmith (Holy/Protection)
    • Templar (Retribution/Protection)
  • PRIEST
    • Oracle (Holy/Discipline)
    • Voidweaver (Discipline/Shadow)
  • ROGUE
    • Trickster (Subtlety/Outlaw)
  • SHAMAN
    • Farseer (Restoration/Elemental)
  • WARLOCK
    • Diabolist (Destruction/Demonology)
    • Hellcaller (Destruction/Affliction)
    • Soul Harvester (Demonology/Affliction)
  • WARRIOR
    • Colossus (Protection/Arms)
    • Mountain Thane (Protection/Fury)
    • Slayer (Fury/Arms)
• DRUID
  • Developer’s note: A core aspect of the druid fantasy is that they have 4 specializations with a variety of magical and physical powers. We want the class tree to embody druids’ ability to invest in the powers of other specializations for useful utility and defensive power. We kept the central design of there being four main sections, one for each spec. You can invest in the Guardian section to access their powerful damage resistance, or the Restoration section to unlock self-healing. Further, the talents in the bottom half of the tree are divided into “physical” and “magical” halves that you can access by investing in either Feral / Guardian or Restoration / Balance sections. More details can be found in the Feedback: Druid Updates thread.
  • New Talent: Oakskin – Survival Instincts and Barkskin reduce damage taken by an additional 10%.
  • New Talent: Fluid Form – Shred and Rake can be used in any form and shifts you into Cat Form. Mangle can be used in any form and shifts you into Bear Form. Wrath and Starfire shifts you into Moonkin Form, if known.
  • New Talent: Ursoc’s Spirit – Stamina in Bear Form is increased by 10%.
  • New Talent: Instincts of the Claw – Shred, Swipe, Rake, Mangle, and Thrash damage increased by 5/10%.
  • New Talent: Lore of the Grove – Moonfire and Sunfire damage increased by 5/10%. Rejuvenation and Wild Growth healing increased by 3/5%.
  • New Talent: Starlight Conduit – Wrath, Starsurge, and Starfire damage increased by 5%. For non-Balance, Starsurge’s cooldown is reduced by 4 seconds and its mana cost is reduced by 50%.
  • Heart of the Wild now reduces the global cooldown of affected Balance cast-time spells.
  • Cat Form now increases the range of auto-attacks and melee abilities by 3 yards.
  • Swiftmend has been removed from the talent tree and is now baseline for Restoration Druids.
  • Improved Swipe has been removed from the talent tree and its benefit added to Swipe by default.
  • Moonkin Form has been removed from the talent tree and is now baseline for Balance Druids.
  • Feline Swiftness is now a 1 point talent that increases movement speed by 15%. It’s position is moved to gate 1 under Rake.
  • Thick Hide is now a 1 point talent that reduces damage taken by 4%.
  • Natural Recovery is now a 1 point talent that increases healing received by 4%. It no longer increases healing done.
  • Astral Influence is now a 1 point talent that increases the range of all your spells by 5 yards. It no longer increases auto attack or melee ability range.
  • Primal Fury now also increases Critical Strike damage of Mangle by 20%.
  • Ursine Vigor is now a 1 point talent that increases Stamina and armor in Bear Form by 15% for 4 seconds.
  • Guardian Druid improved Bear Form Stamina bonus decreased to 10% (was 20%).
  • Lycara’s Teachings is now a 2 point talent that grants 3/6% of various secondary stats.
  • Forestwalk is now a 1 point talent. It’s bonus increases your movement speed and healing received by 8% for 6 seconds.
  • Well-Honed Instincts is now a 1 point talent, its effect can occur once every 120 seconds.
  • Gale Winds / Incessant Winds choice node removed.
  • Tireless Pursuit removed.
  • Balance
    • Developer’s note: Our top goals for Balance Druid in The War Within are to ease some of the constraints on their rotation, open up a greater variety of builds and play styles, and tune their balance and resource generation. Learn more here.
    • New Talent: Greater Alignment – Celestial Alignment lasts 40% longer. During Celestial Alignment, Solar Eclipse increases Nature damage done by an additional 5% and Lunar Eclipse increases Arcane damage done by an additional 5%.
    • New Talent: Stellar Amplification – Starsurge increases the damage the target takes from your periodic effects and Shooting Stars for 5 seconds. Reapplying this effect extends its duration, up to 20 seconds.
    • New Talent: Harmony of the Heavens – Starsurge or Starfall increase your current Eclipse’s Arcane or Nature damage bonus by an additional 1%, up to 5%.
    • New Talent: Touch the Cosmos – Casting Wrath in an Eclipse has an 8% chance to make your next Starsurge free. Casting Starfire in an Eclipse has a 10% chance to make your next Starfall free.
    • Umbral Embrace has been redesigned – Wrath and Starfire have a 20% chance to cause the next Wrath or Starfire you cast in Eclipse to become Astral and deal 100% additional damage. Now a 1 point talent.
    • New Talent: Umbral Inspiration – Consuming Umbral Embrace increases the damage of your Moonfire, Sunfire, Shooting Stars, and Starfall by 20% for 5 seconds.
    • Astral Smolder has been redesigned – Wrath and Starfire have a 45% chance to cause their targets to languish for an additional 80% of their damage dealt over 6 seconds.
    • Astral Communion has been redesigned – Maximum Astral Power increased by 20. Entering Eclipse grants 12 Astral Power.
    • Nature’s Grace has been redesigned – When Eclipse ends or when you enter combat, enter a Dreamstate, reducing the cast time of your next 2 Starfires or Wraths by 20% and increasing their damage by 50%.
    • All ability damage increased by 6%.
    • Wrath, Starfire, and Shooting Stars damage increased by an additional 15%.
    • Wild Mushrooms damage increased by an additional 25%.
    • Astral Power generation reduced:
      • Wrath: 6 (was 8)
      • Starfire: 8 (was 10)
      • New Moon: 10 (was 12)
      • Half Moon: 20 (was 24)
      • Full Moon: 40 (was 50)
      • Fury of Elune: 40 / 2.5 per tick (was 48 / 3 per tick)
    • Celestial Alignment duration reduced to 15 seconds (was 20 seconds).
    • Incarnation: Chosen of Elune duration reduced to 20 seconds (was 30 seconds).
    • Mastery: Astral Invocation value reduced by 17%.
    • Aetherial Kindling now extends during of active Sunfires and Moonfires by 3 seconds (was 4 seconds).
    • Orbital Strike damage reduced by 25%.
    • Umbral Intensity now increases Starfire’s damage as well as its area-of-effect damage scaling – Solar Eclipse increases the damage of Wrath by an additional 20/40%. Lunar Eclipse increases the damage of Starfire by 20/40% and the damage it deals to nearby enemies by an additional 15/30%.
    • Waning Twilight is now a 1 point talent increasing damage you deal to targets with 3 or more of your periodic effects by 6%.
    • Balance of all Things now increases Critical Strike chance by 10/20%, decreasing by 1/2% every second.
    • Denizen of the Dream damage increased by 50%.
    • Friend of the Fae has been removed. Denizen of the Dream moved to Friend of the Fae’s location.
    • Positions of Aetherial Kindling and Lunar Shrapnel swapped.
    • Orbit Breaker and Sundered Firmament are now a choice node where Orbit Breaker was.
    • Primodial Arcanic Pulsar has been removed.
  • Feral
    • Developer’s note: Our top goals for Feral Druid in The War Within are to slow down its rotation a little to make Energy usage more tactical and to bring more clarity to playing the spec. We’re also trying to restore more of Tiger Fury’s identity and excitement, and simplifying some talent functionality to free up more choice in where you spend points. Many of these changes will read as nerfs – the goal is to build a healthy rotation and talent balance and buff damage to make that rotation competitive. Learn more here.
    • New Talent: Resourceful Hunter – Leech increased by 2%. Versatility increased by 2%.
    • New Talent: Coiled to Spring – If you generate a combo point in excess of what you can store, your next Ferocious Bite or Primal Wrath deals 10% increased direct damage.
      • Developer’s note: This will only trigger during Berserk if you generate a combo point in excess of five while you already have 3 stacks of Overflowing Power.
    • New Talent: Savage Fury – Tiger’s Fury increases your Haste by 8% and Energy recovery rate by 20% for 6 seconds.
    • Mastery: Razor Claws has been redesigned – Now increases damage of Cat Form bleed and other periodic abilities.
    • Predator has been redesigned – No longer causes Tiger’s Fury’s cooldown to be reset when a target dies with one of your bleeds active. Tiger’s Fury lasts 5 additional seconds. Your combo point-generating abilities’ direct damage is increased by 40% of your Haste.
    • Taste for Blood has been redesigned – No longer scales with number of bleeds on a target. Ferocious Bite damage increased by 15% and an additional 15% during Tiger’s Fury.
    • Raging Fury has been redesigned – No longer increases Tiger’s Fury duration from spending combo points. Tiger’s Fury lasts 5 additional seconds.
    • All ability damage increased by 8%.
    • The direct damage of Shred, Rake, Swipe / Brutal Slash, and Thrash increased by an additional 10%.
    • Berserk duration reduced to 15 seconds (was 20 seconds).
    • Incarnation: Avatar of Ashamane duration reduced to 20 seconds (was 30 seconds).
    • Berserk no longer increases the damage of Shred and Rake. It now increases all ability and auto-attack damage by 10%.
    • Sabertooth now increases damage Ferocious Bite’s primary target takes from all of your Cat Form periodic damage by 3% per combo point spent for 4 seconds (instead of 5% damage dealt by all Rips on all targets).
    • Tireless Energy now increases passive Energy generation by 8%/15% (was 10%/20%) and total Energy by 20/40 (was 30/60).
    • Primal Wrath Energy cost increased to 30 and its direct damage increased by 50%.
    • Tear Open Wounds now consumes 6 seconds of Rip damage during Berserk.
    • Moonfire in Cat Form with Lunar Inspiration duration increased to 18 seconds and overall damage reduced by 10%.
    • Moment of Clarity now increases the rate that Omen of Clarity triggers by 30% (was 50%).
    • Berserk: Heart of the Lion now reduces Berserk’s cooldown by 60 seconds (was reduces cooldown by 0.5 seconds per combo point spent).
    • Berserk: Frenzy now causes enemies to bleed for 135% of all direct damage dealt by combo point generating abilities (was 100%).
    • Soul of the Forest restores 2 Energy per combo point spent (was 3 Energy).
    • Apex Predator’s chance to trigger on a single target is reduced, but its chance to trigger in area-of-effect increases at a faster rate.
    • The following talents have been removed:
      • Dire Fixation
      • Protective Growth
      • Rampant Ferocity
      • Relentless Predator
    • Taste for Blood moved to Relentless Predator’s old location.
    • Infected Wounds moved to Taste for Blood’s old location.
  • Restoration
    • Developer’s note: In The War Within, we’d like to reduce active keybinds, increase the base power of Rejuvenation, and offer some new Heart of the Wild gameplay. With the removal of Adaptive Swarm, we’re opting to replace it with some new Heart of the Wild synergy that both increases the uptime of the effect and enables the Druid to focus on the hybrid gameplay further for its duration. Learn more here.
    • New Talent: Dream of Cenarius – While Heart of the Wild is active, Wrath and Shred transfer 150% of their damage and Starfire and Swipe transfer 100% of their damage into healing onto a nearby ally.
    • New Talent: Call of the Elder Druid – When you shift into a combat shapeshift form or cast Starsurge, you gain Heart of the Wild for 10 seconds, once every 60 seconds.
    • New Talent: Thriving Vegetation – Rejuvenation instantly heals for 15/30% of its periodic healing and Regrowth’s duration is increased by 3/6 seconds.
    • New Talent: Prosperity – Swiftmend now has 2 charges.
    • Rejuvenation healing increased by 30%.
    • Grove Guardian’s healing reduced by 15%.
    • Wild Synthesis Wild Growth healing reduced by 15%.
    • Verdant Infusion now extends the duration of heal over time effects by 8 seconds (was 12 seconds).
    • Nurturing Dormancy is now capped at 4 second extension (was 6 seconds).
    • Abundance now increases the Critical Strike chance of Regrowth by 8% and decreases its mana cost by 8% per stack (was 5%).
    • Flourish has moved to a choice node with Photosynthesis
    • Invigorate has moved to a choice node with Embrace of the Dream.
    • Soul of the Forest and Heart of the Wild added to Personal Resource Display.
    • The following talents have been removed:
      • Adaptive Swarm
      • Unbridled Swarm
      • Luxuriant Soil
• EVOKER
  • Evokers now start at level 10 (was level 58).
  • Evokers now unlock the talent pane immediately after choosing a specialization in the Forbidden Reach, and they no longer learn “temporary” talents as they complete the Forbidden Reach experience.
  • Several base spells that were previously learned at level 58 are now learned at level 10.
  • Mass Return is now learned at level 38.
  • Fury of the Aspects is now learned at level 48.
  • Devastation
    • Developer’s note: Devastation Evoker can generate very high threat at the start of a pull due to a combination of their Mastery: Giantkiller and the burstiness of spells like Fire Breath and Pyre (particularly when used with Dragonrage and Charged Blast). As a result, we’re reducing the threat these spells generate.
    • Fire Breath threat generated reduced by 50%.
    • Pyre threat generated reduced by 30%.
  • Preservation
    • Developer’s note: In this update, our goal was to incorporate Lifespark (Season 1 set bonus for Preservation) into the talent tree and expand talent options by improving the pathing of the tree. We also wanted to keep the flavor of the left side of the tree being Green, the middle being Red, and the right being Bronze.
    • New Talent: Lifespark – Reversion healing has a chance to grant you instant cast Living Flame and increase its damage/healing by 50%.
    • New Talent: Titan’s Gift – Essence Burst increases the effectiveness of your next Essence ability by 25%.
    • Life-Giver’s Flame is now a 1 point node (was 2). Its position has been relocated at the bottom middle of the tree.
    • Grace Period is now a 1 point node (was 2). Its position has been relocated as a capstone below Timeless Magic.
    • Font of Magic and Power Nexus have been relocated to the middle center of the tree.
    • Cycle of Life has been relocated as a capstone at the bottom left of the tree.
• MONK
  • Developer’s note: Our main goals for the Monk Class tree are to introduce more optionality, refresh the cappers, and add a few new pieces of utility (such as an Enrage dispel), while still cutting down on overall keybind requirements. To accomplish this, we’ve added choice nodes to most active options that offer a passive option or changed pathing to allow more skipping of these spells. More details can be found in the Feedback: Monk Updates thread.
  • New Talent: Crashing Momentum – Targets you Roll through are snared by 40% for 5 seconds.
  • New Talent: Bounding Agility – Roll and Chi Torpedo travel a small distance further.
  • New Talent: Wind’s Reach – The range of Disable is increased by 5 yards. The duration of Crashing Momentum is increased by 3 seconds and its snare now reduces movement speed by an additional 20%.
  • New Talent: Ancient Arts – Reduces the cooldown of Paralysis by 8/15 seconds and the cooldown of Leg Sweep by 5/10 seconds.
  • New Talent: Jade Walk – While out of combat, your movement speed is increased by 15%.
  • New Talent: Pressure Points – Paralysis now removes all Enrage effects from its target.
  • New Talent: Energy Transfer – Successfully interrupting an enemy reduces the cooldown of Paralysis and Roll by 5 seconds.
  • New Talent: Quick Footed – The duration of snare effects on you is reduced by 20%.
  • New Talent: Spirit’s Essence: Transcendence – Transfer snares targets within 10 yards by 70% for 4 seconds when cast.
  • New Talent: Peace and Prosperity – Reduces the cooldown of Ring of Peace by 5 seconds and Song of Chi-Ji’s cast time is reduced by 0.5 seconds.
  • New Talent: Swift Art – Roll removes a snare effect once every 30 seconds.
  • New Talent: Celestial Determination – While your celestial is active, you cannot be slowed below 90% normal movement speed.
  • New Talent: Martial Instincts – Increases your Physical damage done by 2/4% and Avoidance increased by 2/4%.
  • New Talent: Healing Winds: Transcendence – Transfer immediately heals you for 15% of your maximum health.
  • New Talent: Chi Proficiency – Magical damage done increased by 2/4% and healing done increased by 2/4%.
  • New Talent: Lighter Than Air – Roll causes you to become lighter than air, allowing you to double jump to dash forward a short distance once within 5 seconds.
  • New Talent: Flow of Chi – You gain a bonus effect based on your current health. Above 90% health: Movement speed increased by 5%. This bonus stacks with similar effects. Between 90% and 35% health: Damage taken reduced by 5%. Below 35% health: Healing received increased by 10%.
  • New Talent: Rushing Reflexes – Your heightened reflexes allow you to react swiftly to the presence of enemies, causing you to quickly lunge to the nearest enemy within 10 yards after you Roll.
  • New Talent: Transcendence: Linked Spirits – Transcendence now tethers your spirit onto an ally for 1 hour. Use Transcendence: Transfer to teleport to your ally’s location.
  • Tiger Tail Sweep has been redesigned – Increases the range of Leg Sweep by 4 yards. Now a 1 point talent.
  • Elusive Mists has been redesigned – Reduces all damage taken by you and your target while channeling Soothing Mists by 6%. Now a 1 point talent.
  • Chi Wave has been redesigned – Every 15 seconds, your next Rising Sun Kick or Vivify releases a wave of Chi energy that flows through friends and foes, dealing Nature damage or healing. Bounces up to 7 times to targets within 25 yards.
  • Summon White Tiger Statue has been redesigned – Invoking Xuen, the White Tiger also spawns a White Tiger Statue at your location that pulses damage to all enemies ever 2 seconds for 10 seconds.
  • Ironshell Brew has been redesigned – Increases your maximum health by an additional 10% and your damage taken is reduced by an additional 10% while Fortifying Brew is active.
  • Escape from Reality has been redesigned – After you use Transcendence: Transfer, you can use Transcendence: Transfer again within 10 seconds, ignoring its cooldown.
  • Fatal Touch has been redesigned – Touch of Death increases your damage by 5% for 30 seconds after being cast and its cooldown is reduced by 90 seconds. Now a 1 point talent.
  • Clash has moved to the Class tree.
  • Improved Roll is now baseline for all Monk specializations.
  • Fortifying Brew cooldown is now 2 minutes for Mistweaver and Windwalker.
  • Many talents have changed positions.
  • The following talents are now 1 point:
    • Save Them All
    • Bounce Back
    • Resonant Fists
    • Grace of the Crane
    • Fast Feet
  • The following talents have been removed:
    • Improved Roll
    • Improved Vivify
    • Ferocity of Xuen
    • Hasty Provocation
    • Eye of the Tiger
    • Close to Heart
    • Generous Pour
    • Resonant Fists
    • Dampen Harm and Summon Black Ox Statue have been removed for Windwalker and Mistweaver.
    • Summon White Tiger Statue and Summon Jade Serpent Statue have been removed for Brewmaster and Windwalker.
  • Mistweaver
    • Developer’s note: Mistweaver is seeing a few updates including their class 2-set Chi Harmony bonus and the removal of Essence Font. We’re also adding a talent to help Mistweavers who are focused on melee to gain more value out of their Mastery stat. Essence Font’s removal will have a few outcomes, the most important of which to address will be melee Mistweavers in raid healing scenarios.
      We’re hoping the removal of Clouded Focus and consequent tuning of Vivify and Enveloping Mist will help Soothing Mist fill the gaps for them, but there are some realities around planting and casting that may feel worse than Essence Font did. Our goal here is to make the risk/reward feel worth it here through tuning, but we’re going to continue looking at this as we iterate in The War Within. Learn more here.
    • New Talent: Crane Style – Rising Sun Kick now kicks up a Gust of Mist to heal 2 allies within 40 yards. Spinning Crane Kick and Blackout Kick have a chance to kick up a Gust of Mist to heal 1 ally within 40 yards.
    • New Talent: Deep Clarity – After you fully consume Thunder Focus Tea, your next Vivify triggers Zen Pulse.
    • New Talent: Chi Harmony – Renewing Mist applies Chi Harmony to its initial target, increasing their healing taken from you by 50% for 8 seconds.
    • Zen Pulse has been redesigned – Renewing Mist’s heal over time has a chance to cause your next Vivify to also trigger a Zen Pulse on its target and all allies with Renewing Mist, healing them increased by 5% per Renewing Mist active, up to 50%.
    • Jadefire Stomp no longer casts Essence Font, its cooldown is reduced to 15 seconds (was 20 seconds), and now casts Gusts of Mist on each ally healed.
    • Gust of Mist healing increased by 20%.
    • Jade Bond now increases the healing of Yu’lon’s Soothing Breath by 300% (was 40%).
    • Invigorating Mist healing increased by 8%.
    • Vivify healing increased by 9%.
    • Vivify now costs 3% base mana (was 3.4%).
      • Developer’s note: We are increasing the effectiveness of baseline Vivify with the removal of the Clouded Focus talent.
    • Burst of Life’s icon has been changed.
    • Various talents have changed locations.
    • The following talents have been removed:
      • Essence Font
      • Upwelling
      • Font of Life
      • Clouded Focus
  • Windwalker
    • Developer’s note: Our updates for Windwalker in The War Within are intended to address a few issues the specialization struggled with throughout Dragonflight. These points of focus for us were the power levels of the Haste and Mastery stats falling behind other options, Jadefire Stomp’s usability, and the Touch of Death gameplay focus. Other areas that we are also looking at are resource bloat, evening out their rate of auto-attacks, and adding more pronounced thematics through both gameplay and visuals. Learn more here.
    • New Talent: Acclamation – Rising Sun Kick increases the damage your target receives from you by 4% for 12 seconds. Multiple instances may overlap.
    • New Talent: Flurry of Xuen – Your spells and abilities have a chance to activate Flurry of Xuen, unleashing a barrage of deadly swipes to deal Physical damage in a 10 yard cone. Invoking Xuen, the White Tiger activates Flurry of Xuen.
      • Developer’s note: This ability is still being implemented and will be added in the subsequent Public Alpha build.
    • New Talent: Martial Mixture – Blackout Kick increases the damage of your next Tiger Palm by 10%, stacking up to 12 times.
    • New Talent: Courageous Impulse – The Blackout Kick! effect also increases the damage of your next Blackout Kick by 175%.
    • New Talent: Energy Burst – When you consume Blackout Kick!, you have a 100% chance to generate 1 Chi.
    • New Talent: Gale Force – Targets struck by Strike of the Windlord are sent reeling from its impact, causing them to become vulnerable to your attacks for 10 seconds. Your abilities have a 100% chance to affect the target a second time at 10% effectiveness as Nature damage while they are vulnerable.
    • New Talent: Dual Threat – Your auto attacks have a 20% chance to instead kick your target dealing Physical damage and increasing your damage dealt by 5% for 5 seconds.
    • New Talent: Momentum Boost – Fists of Fury’s damage is increased by 100% of your Haste and Fists of Fury does 10% more damage each time it deals damage, resetting when Fists of Fury ends. Your auto attack speed is increased by 60% for 8 sec after Fists of Fury ends.
    • New Talent: Ordered Elements – During Storm, Earth, and Fire, Rising Sun Kick reduces Chi costs by 1 for 5 seconds and Blackout Kick reduces the cooldown of affected abilities by an additional 1 second. Activating Storm, Earth, and Fire resets the remaining cooldown of Rising Sun Kick and grants 2 Chi.
    • New Talent: Sequenced Strikes – You have a 100% chance to gain Blackout Kick! after consuming Dance of Chi-Ji.
    • New Talent: Revolving Whirl – Whirling Dragon Punch has a 100% chance to activate Dance of Chi-Ji.
    • New Talent: Knowledge of the Broken Temple – Whirling Dragon Punch grants 4 stacks of Teachings of the Monastery and its damage is increased by 20%. Teachings of the Monastery can now stack up to 8 times.
    • New Talent: Singularly Focused Jade – Jadefire Stomp’s initial hit now strikes 1 target, but deals 500% increased damage and healing.
    • New Talent: Communion With Wind – Strike of the Windlord’s cooldown is reduced by 10 seconds and its damage is increased by 20%.
    • New Talent: Brawler’s Intensity – The cooldown of Rising Sun Kick is reduced by 1 second and the damage of Blackout Kick is increased by 10%.
    • New Talent: Combat Wisdom – Every 15 seconds, your next Tiger Palm also casts Expel Harm and deals 100% additional damage. Replaces Expel Harm.
    • Glory of Dawn has been redesigned – Rising Sun Kick has a chance equal to 100% of your Haste to trigger a second time, dealing Physical damage and restoring 1 Chi.
    • Rushing Jade Wind has been redesigned – Strike of the Windlord applies Mark of the Crane to all enemies struck and summons a whirling tornado around you, causing Physical damage over 8 seconds to all enemies within 8 yards.
    • Jadefire Stomp has been redesigned – Strike the Ground fiercely to expose a path of jade for 30 seconds that increases your movement speed by 20% while inside, dealing Nature damage to up to 5 enemies and restores health to up to 5 allies within 30 yards caught in the path. Up to 5 enemies caught in the path suffer additional damage.
    • Inner Peace has been redesigned – Increases maximum Energy by 30. Tiger Palm’s energy cost reduced by 5.
    • Mastery: Combo Strikes is now 20% more effective.
    • Touch of Karma is now baseline for Windwalker.
    • Whirling Dragon Punch now deals additional damage to the first target struck and its damage is reduced beyond 5 targets.
    • Expel Harm no longer generates Chi for Windwalker.
    • Flying Serpent Kick no longer deals damage.
    • Mark of the Crane now only applies to the primary target of each strike.
    • Teachings of the Monastery now stacks up to 4 times (was 3).
    • Thunderfist now always generates 4 stacks of Thunderfist and additional stacks of Thunderfist per each additional target struck.
    • Transfer the Power no longer stacks from Rushing Jade Wind, but now stacks from Spinning Crane Kick.
    • Crane Vortex now increases the damage of Spinning Crane Kick by 15/30% (was 10/20%).
    • Spinning Crane Kick now cancels from using other spells or abilities, but no longer prevents auto-attacks for its duration.
    • Empowered Tiger Lightning’s effect is now baseline for Xuen, the White Tiger.
    • Invoker’s Delight now increases Haste by 20% while active (was 33%).
    • Xuen’s Bond now decreases the cooldown of Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger by 0.2 seconds (was 0.1 second) per Combo Strikes activation.
    • Dance of Chi-Ji’s chance to trigger reduced by 25%.
    • Tiger Palm Energy cost increased to 60 (was 50).
    • Chi Burst no longer generates Chi for Windwalker.
    • Many talents have changed positions.
    • Drinking Horn Cover and Spiritual Focus are now a choice node together.
    • The following talents are now 1 point:
      • Touch of the Tiger
      • Hardened Soles
    • The following talents have been removed:
      • Power Strikes
      • Fatal Flying Guillotine
      • Skyreach
      • Serenity
      • Forbidden Technique
      • Widening Whirl
      • Bonedust Brew
      • Attenuation
      • Dust in the Wind
      • Flashing Fists
      • Open Palm
• PALADIN
  • Multiple applications of Greater Judgment may overlap.
    • This also functions with Retribution’s multiple stack application.
  • Glyph of the Luminous Charger now only works while Crusader Aura is active.
  • Holy
    • Developer’s note: Our goals are to replace Light of the Martyr with a passive spell but keep the same thematic sacrifice theme, move more of their throughput from Beacon of Light into their baseline spells, and redesign Blessing of Summer to feel more specific to their role. Learn more here.
    • New Talent: Bestow Light – Light of the Martyr’s health threshold is reduced to 70% and increases Holy Shock’s healing by an additional 5% for every 5 seconds Light of the Martyr is active, stacking up to 3 times. While below 70% health, the light urgently heals you every 1 second.
    • Light of the Martyr has been redesigned – While above 80% health, Holy Shock’s healing is increased 20%, but creates a heal absorb on you for 30% of the amount healed that prevents Beacon of Light from healing you until it has dissipated.
    • Blessing of Summer has been redesigned – Bless an ally for 30 seconds, causing 20% of all healing to be converted into damage onto a nearby enemy and 10% of all damage to be converted into healing onto an injured ally within 40 yards.
    • Beacon of Light now transfers 15% of healing done (was 25%).
    • Barrier Faith now transfers 20% of healing into its absorb (was 25%).
    • Word of Glory healing increased by 25%.
    • Light of Dawn healing increased by 20%.
    • Holy Shock healing increased by 20%.
    • Tyr’s Deliverance healing decreased by 15%.
    • Sacrifice of the Just now reduces the cooldown of Blessing of Sacrifice by 15 seconds (was 60 seconds).
    • Blessing of Sacrifice now transfers 30% of damage taken (was 20%) for Holy.
    • Fixed an issue that caused Tyr’s Deliverance’s healing to not be affected by some modifiers, such as Avenging Wrath.
    • Barrier Faith is now on a choice node with Holy Prism.
    • Tyr’s Deliverance and Reclamation have changed positions in the tree.
    • Light’s Hammer has been removed.
  • Retribution
    • Developer’s note: Our initial goal is to explore how we can make secondary stats more appealing to Retribution, to allow a natural progression of scaling throughout an expansion. Due to the nature of many talents offering guaranteed critical hits, it was difficult for us to make Critical Strike a stat that felt valuable. To address this, we’ve reworked and rebalanced these talents to not automatically crit. They will instead gain value when you do crit, such as increasing their critical strike damage.
      One of the sources of frustration we’ve seen when it comes to the Retribution spec tree is that there is a large amount of friction between Single Target and AoE builds, leaving very little wiggle room for any sort of hybridization. We’ve done some restructuring to alleviate some of this tension, to create more room to explore hybrid type builds for when the scenarios might call for it. Learn more here.
    • New Talent: Burn to Ash – When Truth’s Wake critically strikes, its duration is extended by 2 seconds. Your other damage over time effects deal 30% increased damage to targets affected by Truth’s Wake.
    • Righteous Cause has been redesigned – Each Holy Power spent has a 6% chance to reset the cooldown of Blade of Justice.
    • Art of War has been redesigned – Your auto attacks have a 20% chance to reset the cooldown of Blade of Justice. Critical strikes increase this chance by an additional 10%.
    • Divine Hammer has been redesigned – Divine Hammers spin around you, consuming a Holy Power to strike enemies within 8 yards for Radiant damage every 2.2 seconds. While active, your Holy Power generating abilities recharge 75% faster, and increase the rate at which Divine Hammer strikes by 15% when they are cast. Deals reduced damage beyond 8 targets.
      • Now a 2 min cooldown. Damage increased by 300%. Divine Hammer base periodic decreased to 2.2 seconds (was 3 seconds)
      • Period scales with Haste.
    • Final Reckoning has been redesigned – Now increases the damage taken from your single target Holy Power spenders by 30%. Increases the damage taken from your other Holy Power spenders by 15%.
    • Vengeful Wrath has been redesigned – Hammer of Wrath deals 50% increased damage to enemies below 35% health.
    • Vanguard of Justice has been redesigned – Templar’s Verdict and Divine Storm cost 1 additional Holy Power and deal 20% increased damage.
    • Templar Strikes has been redesigned:
      • Charge cooldown increased by 15%.
      • Templar Slash, 2nd part of combo, overrides Templar Strike for 5 seconds (was 4 seconds).
      • Crusader Strike becomes a 2-part combo:
        • Templar Strike slashes an enemy for damage and gets replaced by Templar Slash for 5 seconds. Templar Slash strikes an enemy for damage, and burns them for 50% of the damage dealt over 4 seconds.
    • Truth’s Wake effect is now added to Wake of Ashes baseline.
    • Highlord’s Judgment has been renamed to Highlord’s Wrath.
    • Mastery: Hand of Light has been renamed to Mastery: Highlord’s Judgment – Now also causes Judgment to have a chance to blast the target with the Light, dealing Holy damage.
    • Highlord’s Wrath has been redesigned – Mastery: Highlord’s Judgment is 50/100% more effective on Judgment and Hammer of Wrath. Judgment applies an additional stack of Greater Judgment if it is known.
    • Adjudication has been redesigned – Critical Strike damage of your abilities increased by 5% and Hammer of Wrath also has a chance to cast Highlord’s Judgment.
    • Blades of Light has been redesigned – Crusader Strike, Judgment, Hammer of Wrath, and damaging single target Holy Power abilities now deal Holystrike damage and your abilities that deal Holystrike damage deal 5% increased damage.
    • Divine Arbiter now has an additional effect – Highlord’s Judgment and Holystrike damage abilities grant you a stack of Divine Arbiter.
    • Searing Light now has an additional effect – Highlord’s Judgment and Radiant damage abilities have a chance to call down and explosion of Holy Fire.
    • Blessed Hammer from Adjudication now spawns from the target of your Hammer of Wrath.
    • Execution Sentence now causes the enemy to suffer 20% of the damage dealt during its time after it expires (was 30%).
    • Execution Sentence damage no longer counts as a damage over time effect.
• WARRIOR
  • Developer’s note: The Warrior class talent tree has been significantly reorganized to allow for more player choice and build diversity in Warrior builds, as well as improve access to utility abilities like Storm Bolt and Shockwave. Rage generation for all Warrior specs in Dragonflight has been higher than we’re happy with so we’ve removed or reduced the power of several Rage-generating effects. With tuning, this will introduce more tactical gameplay around when to use Rage spenders and make those spenders more impactful. More details can be found in the Feedback: Warrior Updates thread.
  • Significant re-arrangement of many talents on the Warrior tree.
  • Berserker Rage now auto-learned at level 12.
  • Thunder Clap base Rage cost reduced to 20 (was 30).
  • Slam damage normalized across all specializations (Arms-only Slam damage bonus removed), and damage increased by 200%.
  • Blood and Thunder no longer increases Rage cost or damage of Thunder Clap.
  • Crackling Thunder also increases damage of Thunder Clap by 10%.
  • Frothing Berserker now refunds 10% Rage for Arms and Fury, and 25% Rage for Protection.
  • Shockwave no longer generates Rage on cast.
  • Champion’s Spear generates 10 Rage on cast (was 20).
  • Thunderous Roar no longer generates Rage on cast.
  • Thunderous Words now causes Thunderous Roar’s Bleed effect to increase damage targets take from all the Warrior’s bleed effects, rather than passively increasing it all the time.
  • The following talents have been removed:
    • Titanic Throw
    • Sonic Boom
  • Arms
    • Developer’s note: In Dragonflight, Arms Warriors were most impacted by Rage over-generation, and combined with Arms having several mechanics that interact with Rage spend (Tactician, Anger Management, and Test of Might) led to certain builds dominating for most of the expansion and led to Arms rotation being overwhelmed by ability resets. To address this, in The War Within, Arms is receiving significant Rage generation and Rage cost adjustments as to make Rage management interesting for Arms. Many Arms talents have also seen significant changes, with the aim to give Arms Warriors more choices for their builds and rotation based on their preferences and the content they are playing, as well as more control over how and when they generate additional Rage. Learn more here.
    • Moderate re-arrangement of several talents on the Arms tree.
    • New Talent: Finishing Blows – Overpower generates 8 Rage when used on a target below 35% health.
    • Barbaric Training has been redesigned for Arms – Now grants 20% damage and 10% critical damage to Slam and Whirlwind.
    • Storm of Swords has been redesigned – Now grants Whirlwind a 30% chance to make your next Whirlwind cost 100% less Rage.
    • Rage generated from auto-attacks reduced by 16%.
    • Whirlwind base Rage cost reduced to 20 (was 30).
    • Rend base Rage cost reduced to 20 (was 30).
    • Ignore Pain Rage cost reduced to 20 (was 40).
    • Cleave damage increased by 5%.
    • Whirlwind damage reduced by 33%.
    • Collateral Damage’s damage bonus now applies to Cleave as well as Whirlwind.
    • Unhinged now will cast Mortal Strike on your target if valid, falling back to a random target.
    • Warlord’s Torment no longer triggers from Colossus Smash. Duration of Recklessness buff increased by 50% and bonus Rage generation reduced to 25% (was 100%).
    • In for the Kill’s Haste bonus now lasts as long as Colossus Smash does.
    • Improved Overpower increases number of Overpower charges by 1.
    • Dreadnaught no longer increases number of Overpower charges.
    • Strength of Arms no longer causes Overpower to generates 8 Rage when used on a target below 35% health.
    • Tactician chance to reset cooldown of Overpower per Rage spent reduced to 1% (was 1.3%).
    • Deft Experience increase to Tactician’s chance to reset cooldown of Overpower per Rage spent reduced to 0.5% (was 0.6%).
    • Valor in Victory’s Versatility bonus increased to 2% (was 1%).
    • Battlelord no longer generates Rage when triggered.
    • Skullsplitter now accelerates Rend’s Bleed baseline.
    • Ravager is now a choice node with Bladestorm. All existing Bladestorm sub-talents updated to work with both Ravager and Bladestorm.
    • Bladestorm no longer generates Rage on cast.
    • The following talents have been removed:
      • Tide of Blood
      • Reaping Swings
  • Fury
    • Developer’s note: In Dragonflight, the Fury talent tree allowed for players to specialize heavily in either Raging Blow or Bloodthirst, to the point of eliminating one or the other from their rotation. We think Fury works best when all the core rotational abilities see regular use, so we have made several changes to the Fury tree and abilities to ensure that both Raging Blow and Bloodthirst remain valuable for Fury Warriors in all builds, while maintaining build choice and rotational diversity for Fury Warriors with the return of Bladestorm to the Fury tree and the addition of a choice of Enrage effects. Learn more here.
    • Fury Warriors now learn Defensive Stance by default.
    • Moderate re-arrangement of several talents on the Fury tree.
    • New Talent: Powerful Enrage: Enrage increases the damage your abilities deal by an additional 15% and Enrage’s duration is increased by 1 second. On a choice node with Frenzied Enrage.
    • Bladestorm is now a choice node with Ravager. All existing Ravager sub-talents updated to work with both Ravager and Bladestorm.
    • Wrath and Fury now increases the chance for Improved Raging Blow to reset Raging Blow’s cooldown by 10% while Enraged.
    • Deft Experience no longer reduces Bloodthirst’s cooldown, instead it now increases Bloodthirst’s chance to trigger Enrage by 2% per point.
    • Tenderize no longer increases the duration of Enrage.
    • Frenzied Flurry has been removed, its effects have been added to Single-Minded Fury.
    • The following talents have been removed:
      • Raging Armaments
      • Annihilator
      • Storm of Swords
      • Developer’s note: Annihilator and Sword of Swords provided an option for Fury players who wanted a lower “actions per minute” playstyle. However, we’re not happy with how they changed which abilities warriors used in their rotations. We are instead providing Powerful Enrage as a new option for a slower playstyle that synergizes with Fury’s rotation and flavor.
  • Protection
    • Whirlwind base Rage cost reduced to 20 (was 30).
    • Whirlwind damage reduced by 33%.
    • Rend base Rage cost reduced to 20 (was 30).

DYNAMIC FLIGHT

• 440+ Flying Mounts will feature Dynamic Flight active abilities, faster speeds, and new animations in The War Within.
• Known Issue: Dragonriding talent panel is not available outside of Dragon Isles. To access the talents, paste this command into the chat box:
  • /run DragonridingPanelSkillsButtonMixin:OnClick()

ITEMS

• The item levels of leveling gear have been adjusted to be rewarded at an appropriate item level through level 70.
  • Developer’s note: With this adjustment the leveling content should feel easier for all players as the items being rewarded will be a higher item level. All leveling items will follow this high item level cadence except for heirlooms. Heirlooms still have the advantage of increasing their item level as the wielder levels. In general, this should make leveling a more fluid and pleasant experience!
• The sell value of the Elegant Canvas Brush has been reduced to 100 gold.

PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER

• DRUID
  • Call of the Elder Druid has been removed from PvP talents and is now a Restoration Druid talent.
• PALADIN
  • Holy
    • Barrier Faith is now 50% more effective in PvP combat (was 100%).

PROFESSIONS

• Developer’s note: We added Inspiration in Dragonflight to try and capture the fantasy of critical hits while crafting. If you weren’t quite capped out on your gear and specializations for a given craft, or if you weren’t using max quality reagents to guarantee that max quality item, Inspiration was a way to get that lucky crit. It could save you some money (by using lower-quality reagents) and you could craft a better item than you would otherwise.
  That was the hope at least, but it ended up (understandably) becoming a situation where crafters take this luck-based system, tell their customers that they would recraft an item an indeterminate number of times, and summarily charge a specific price per recraft until their Inspiration struck. So, in The War Within, we’re removing Inspiration. In its place, we have a new ability for crafters to utilize: Concentration and a new stat: Ingenuity. Learn more about this change in the Professions Update: Concentration in The War Within feedback thread.
• New Ability: Concentration – Concentration is a resource that you have a separate pool of per crafting profession. It represents your ability to heavily focus on your recipes and exceed your normal capabilities. You choose when you want to Concentrate using a button within the crafting window, empowering your next craft(s). Doing so will cause the craft to automatically reach the next level of quality, no questions asked.
• New Stat: Ingenuity – You have a chance to have an ingenious breakthrough when you Concentrate on a craft, refunding all Concentration spent.
• ALCHEMY
  • Alchemy is in a near-complete state, beyond some polish and tuning work that will likely happen in broad strokes across all professions. Most, if not all recipes should be able to be crafted and utilized, and the specialization tree should be largely reflective of the final experience; all subject to feedback of course. Your good friend Instructaur and his cohort can supply you with the training and materials needed to experiment, and the items you make should be functional and ready for testing. Some additional notes:
    • Phials have been rebranded to be profession effects only, retaining the 30m extendable duration. Flasks make a return with 1h durations!
      • As a quality of life bonus, you can now have phials and flasks active at the same time.
    • Experimentation has been carried forward from Dragonflight but with some adjustments in effort to mitigate frustration while keeping with the theme.
      • You now select which herb to experiment with, and can only discover recipes that utilize that particular herb.
      • Experimentation now has two forms: A repeatable version that you can do with short lockouts (which can be bypassed with Formulated Courage), and a time-gated one that boasts a much higher chance at recipe discoveries.
    • Transmutation has been significantly expanded with a system called Thaumaturgy. This is a side component of Alchemy that boasts extra complexity which allows you to regularly transmute a variety of reagents found on Khaz Algar into other forms. While this process is highly destructive, specializations and clever choices in your inputs will ultimately bring you closer to transmuting Blasphemite, the elusive and highly coveted meta gem that is sure to catch the eye of aspiring Jewelcrafting entrepreneurs. Please take a look at the Thaumaturgy specialization tab and experiment with this feature with and without specializations and let us know how it feels!
    • Specializations now focus heavily on the herbs of Khaz Algar, so it is wise to evaluate the recipe list to determine which recipes appeal to you the most. Specializations for all herbs on a recipe contribute to the final rolls associated with them.
      • As a reminder, recipe difficulty tuning will happen in a later pass but you can nonetheless engage with this mechanic to observe their impact on crafts.
• BLACKSMITHING
  • Specializations are in and ready for players to dissect!
    • Developer’s note: While the hookups aren’t fully implemented, I’m hoping the Everburning Forge Specialization catches player’s attention as a way to inject a helping of profession stats deterministically.
• ENCHANTING
  • In this Alpha build, Enchanting has been enabled and can be trained by Professor Instructaur in Orgrimmar and Stormwind. Dragonflight enchantments worked well to provide players with choices and customization, so many of the available options will look familiar in The War Within. There is a new host of weapon enchants available, as well as the new Cursed ring enchants as selectable options. Weapon Oils have also made a return, and Enchanting has an additional set of fun consumables to market to other players!
  • The vast majority of the enchants have been implemented, but some of them are still in progress.
    • Developer’s note: None of the enchants have been tuned yet, a baseline tuning will be done in the near future.
  • Some of the specializations include:
    • Designated Disenchanter
      • Master your fundamental disenchanting rituals, maximizing the quality of reagents you create when destroying items. You will gain +1 Skill per point in this Specialization when disenchanting.
    • Supplementary Shattering
      • Learn the art of shattering the magical essences of Khaz Algar, temporarily empowering your Resourcefulness, Multicraft, and Ingenuity. Additionally, your studies will grant you +1 Ingenuity per point in this Specialization.
• FISHING
  • In this alpha build, the waters around Khaz Algar are populated with a single fish while we worked out a few updates to the ecosystem. However, fellow Anglers will notice a change in their Fishing Journal, namely Fishing Accessories!
  • Your existing Fishing Gear from the past will lose all Fishing stats and converting them to Fishing Accessories will permanently exchange the combat stats for the proper Fishing-related bonuses.
    • Developer’s note: We’re strictly looking out for any friction with this conversion, items we might have missed, or critical issues to fix before this is fully live.
• HERBALISM
  • In this Alpha build, Herbalism has been enabled and can be trained by Professor Instructaur in Orgrimmar and Stormwind. Specializations for herbalism have been fully implemented, and in addition to some of the fan favorites, we also have some new abilities and bonuses that you can specialize into. Finally, herbs are growing all over the Isle of Dorn, including ones that have been affected by the magics present on Khaz Algar. As always, we appreciate your time and feedback!
  • The base idea behind Herbalism specializations in The War Within is the same as Dragonflight, but there have been changes and additions to some of the bonuses.
    • The Botany specialization now has a Mulching sub-specialization, which allows you to make potent magical mulch and learn to utilize your Green Thumb.
      • Mulching allows you to consume some of the common herb, Mycobloom, to make a consumable Mulch that gives you a large Finesse bonus to the next herb you gather.
      • Green Thumb, also learned from the Mulching tree, is an activatable cooldown that doubles the amount of herbs you receive from the next herb you gather.
• JEWELCRAFTING
  • Dragonflight Jewelcrafters will feel right at home with the updates in War Within! A familiar lineup of recipes await your discovery, but with a variety of new cantrips and an updated set of gems. We felt that Jewelcrafting’s structure, particularly its vast array of gem choices, fit well under the new profession system and wanted bring that with us into the new expansion.
  • Item quality has been removed from raw gems and there is only one tier instead of two. Enjoy the reclaimed inventory space! The same lineup of gem options and their associated stats has been carried forward. For reference:
    • Amber: Stamina
    • Emerald: Haste
    • Onyx: Mastery
    • Ruby: Critical Strike
    • Sapphire: Versatility
    • Weighted hybrid combinations of all of the above!
  • Ordinary hybrid gem cuts are now entirely sourced through Specializations rather than distributed across various parts of the game, in any order you choose. Knowing your customers and the gaps in the market is critical for maximizing your profits – but eventually all invested Jewelcrafters will be able to acquire all of the gems as usual.
• LEATHERWORKING
  • Leatherworkers, your profession is available to be trained by Professor Instructaur in Orgrimmar and Stormwind! The general structure of Leatherworking remains the same as in Dragonflight, crafting a variety of armor pieces for both Leather and Mail wearers. Leatherworkers will also find that they have a new market in reagents with the ability to craft Weapon Grip Wraps and Armor Banding that is used in the high-level crafts of other Professions. We’ve also removed the specialization that granted general Skill across the board, so it should be clearer what specializations you need to focus on if you want to get max quality with a particular recipe.
  • The majority of the recipes are implemented, but a couple of the embellished pieces aren’t implemented. Please look for them to be fully functional in the near future!
    • Developer’s note: None of the effects have been tuned yet. Values related to stats bonuses, damage, or healing are very likely to change as the Alpha moves forward.
  • The majority of specializations are implemented as well, except for a couple of sub-specializations within the Learned Leatherworker tree. Some of the specializations include:
    • Learned Leatherworker
      • Master your Leatherworking fundamentals to increase your reagent efficiency, ability to Concentrate, general stitchwork, and production process.
        • This specialization tree is all about increasing your secondary crafting stats and increasing the efficacy of their effects.
    • Flawless Fortes
      • Master the techniques of Khaz Algar to craft specialty items beyond that of standard armor.
        • This specialization tree focuses on improving your crafting capabilities for embellished armor pieces, reagents, armor kits, and profession gear.

QUESTS

• The War Within campaign chapters and local stories.

USER INTERFACE AND ACCESSIBILITY

• Spellbook has been redesigned and moved to the same window as Talents and Specializations.
• Professions now has its own micromenu button.
• Mount Journal now has a button called Switch Flight Style that lets you switch between steady flight (normal flying) and Dynamic Flight.
• NEW OPTIONS
  • Option to replace spiders with alternative creatures. This doesn’t affect gameplay or difficulty. Option under Accessibility > General > Arachnophobia Mode.
  • Icon can be used to mark your player character for visibility. Option under Accessibility > General > Self Highlight.
  • Highlight your character’s silhouette when blocked by objects in game. Option under Gameplay > Combat > Show Silhouette when Obstructed.
• OBJECTIVE TRACKER
  • Updated Objective Tracker art.
  • Minimize settings are now on a new top level quest tracker header.
  • New animations on headers and objectives.
  • Icons for in progress quests have been updated.
  • Objective Tracker text size can be adjusted with Edit Mode.
    • Developer’s note: This will only apply for headers and most text lines in the tracker.
• Added new 3D quest bangs and icons:
  • Meta quests
  • Repeatable quests
  • Campaign trivial quests
• Flight map icons have been updated.
• Flightmaster icon and bang has been updated.