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Category: The War Within

The War Within Alpha Development Notes 9 May 2024

Quote from: Blizzard

Here is this week’s update to The War Within Alpha:

NEW ZONES AND DELVES

  • Azj-Kahet

NEW DUNGEONS

  • City of Threads
  • Ara-Kara, City of Echoes

NEW BATTLEGROUND: DEEPHAUL RAVINE

  • Deephaul Ravine is themed in The Ringing Deeps where the Foreman Uzjax and Architect Ruffious are tasked with collecting as much valuable ore, gems, and crystals for their respective priorities. Ruffious the Unbound Earthen has big plans for the ore and gems found in the Deephaul Ravine, but the Machine Speakers of the Earthenworks are quite possessive of such precious materials. Uzjax and his team plan to secure these materials before Ruffious and his band of misfits get their hands on it.
    • Mechanics
      • 8v8 and 10v10 Battleground that will be available in all battleground modes.
      • Hybrid map in which teams earn points by controlling either of the two active mine carts that move along the tracks on the map, or capturing a lucrative gem (the Deephaul Crystal) that is located in the middle of the map.
      • The Deephaul Crystal can be returned at either capture point located on the high ground on the opposing sides of the map.
      • Additionally, there’s a mine cart track that runs above the battleground playspace where players can hop in a cart vehicle to quickly traverse the map, allowing for quick engagements and repositioning.
  • How to playtest: open the Group Finder (default hotkey: i), then select Random Battleground and click Join Battle! Only the Deephaul Ravine map will be available as a Random Battleground map for Alpha.

WARBANDS

  • Roughly 2000 achievements from Dragonflight and earlier have been switched from character specific to account wide in order to allow your entire Warband to make progress on them. Please note, based on the quirks of implementation, any incomplete achievements that were converted will lose all progress on alpha with this change. In the live game, these achievements will go through a conversion process which will either merge progress across all characters in your Warband together, or take the furthest progress from each character in cases where merging wouldn’t make sense (e.g. Working the Isles: Obtain 100 skill points in a “Legion” category of two primary professions” ).
    • Developer’s note: Your thoughts and feedback about specific achievement changes is appreciated. Please note that this feature is still in development and there may be some adjustments in which final achievements become account wide before launch!

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 78 Character Template
  • Maximum Level: 80
  • Earthen characters have been temporarily disabled.

CLASSES

  • The following Hero Talents are available for playtesting in Public Alpha 4:
    • SHAMAN
      • Stormbringer (Elemental/Enhancement)
        • Stormbringer Shaman are all about harnessing the storms, increasing the power of their lightning spells and gaining access to a new lightning ability, Tempest.
  • DEATH KNIGHT
    • New Talent: Subduing Grasp – When you pull an enemy the damage they deal to you is reduced by 4% for 6 seconds. Located at Rune Mastery’s previous location.
    • New Talent: Osmosis – Anti-Magic Shell increases healing received by 15/25%. Located at Unholy Bonds previous location.
    • New Talent: Null Magic – Magic Damage taken is reduced by 15% and the duration of harmful Magic effects against you are reduced by 35%. New capstone choice node with Vestigial Shell replacing Soul Reaper.
    • New Talent: Vestigial Shell – Casting Anti-Magic Shell grants 2 nearby allies a Lesser Anti-Magic Shell that absorbs magic damage and reduces the duration of harmful Magic effects against them by 50%. New capstone choice node with Null Magic replacing Soul Reaper.
    • New Talent: Ice Prison – Chains of Ice now also roots enemies for 4 seconds but its cooldown is increased to 12 seconds. Available in gate 1 after Blinding Sleet.
    • New Talent: Rune Protection – Your chance to be critically struck is reduced by 3% and your Armor is increased by 3/6%. Replaces Icy Talons old position within the tree.
    • Chains of Ice is now granted baseline and learned at level 13.
    • Anti-Magic Shell is now granted baseline and learned at level 14.
    • Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle can now be Runeforged on 1-handed weapons.
    • Rune of Hysteria has been removed.
      • Developer’s note: Rune of Hysteria was a problematic design especially as it pertains to Breath of Sindragosa and the volatility of its uptime. We felt that for the overall health of the spec it would be best to remove Hysteria at this time to better enable us to meet our goals with the upcoming changes to Breath.
    • Empower Rune Weapon has been removed.
      • Developer’s note: This will still be available for Frost in their spec tree but both Blood and Unholy were often flooded with resources and a big unnecessary contributor to this was Empower Rune Weapon. To better dial in resources on Blood and Unholy we feel its best to keep Empower Rune Weapon for Frost only.
    • Abomination Limb no longer grants Bone Shield, Runic Corruption, or Rime based on specialization.
      • Developer’s note: In Shadowlands it was important for the spec hooks to exist to better balance between the other covenant ability choices. With its re-introduction in Dragonflight its added to the influx of resources/procs that can often come at inopportune times or add to the feeling of being unable to spend down the bonuses it grants. By removing this it allows the ability to “breathe” on its own and lean into its strength of AoE control and damage.
    • Rune of the Apocalypse has been updated:
      • War Effect
        • Damage taken increased to 4% (was 1%).
        • Duration increased to 10 seconds (was 6 seconds).
      • Pestilence Effect
        • Damage increased by 500%.
      • Famine Effect
        • Damage dealt to the caster reduced to 5% (was 2%).
      • Death Effect
        • Healing reduction increased to 5% (was 1%).
    • Cleaving Strikes now also retains bonus effects for being within your Death and Decay for 4 seconds when leaving its area.
    • Icebound Fortitude cooldown reduced by 60 seconds.
    • Veteran of the Third War now grants 20% Stamina (was 10%). Now a 1-rank talent (was 2).
    • Icy Talons Now increases attack speed per stack by 6% (was 3%). Now a 1-rank talent (was 2).
    • Unholy Bond now increases effectiveness of Runeforge effects by 20% (was 10%). Now a 1-rank talent (was 2).
    • Assimilation now reduces the cooldown of Anti-Magic Zone by 30 seconds. No longer increase Runic Power when absorbing damage.
    • Suppression now grants an additional 6% damage reduction to area of effects when you suffer a loss of control effect. Moved to gate 3.
    • Blood Scent Leech increased to 5%. Moved to gate 3.
    • Blood Draw now also grants a buff reducing damage taken by 10% and reducing Death Strike cost by 10 for 8 seconds when falling below 30% health. Now a 1-rank talent. Moved to the left capstone position.
    • Unholy Ground moved to gate 1 available after Cleaving Strikes.
    • Sacrificial Pact is now a choice node with Enfeeble.
    • Runic Attenuation moved to gate 1 available after Coldthirst.
    • Soul Reaper moved to gate 2 available after Unholy Blond or Death’s Reach
    • The following talents have been removed:
      • Might of Thassarian
      • Merciless Strikes
      • Clenching Grasp
    • Unholy
      • New Talent: Doomed Bidding – Consuming Sudden Doom calls upon a Magus of the Dead to assist you for 8 seconds. Now a choice node with Summon Gargoyle.
        • Ghoulish Frenzy is now available in the 2nd gate replacing Unholy Command.
      • New Talent: Raise Abomination – Summons an Abomination to attack nearby enemies applying Festering Wound with its melee attacks and infecting all nearby enemies with Virulent Plague. 90 second cooldown. Replaces Army of the Dead.
      • New Talent: Foul Infections – Your diseases deal 10% more damage and have a 5% increased chance to critically strike.
      • New Talent: Menacing Magus – Your Magus of the Dead Shadow Bolt now fires a volley of Shadow Bolts at up to 4 nearby enemies.
      • Epidemic is now granted baseline and learned at level 18.
      • Outbreak is now granted baseline and learned at level 13.
      • Sudden Doom is now learned in gate 1 directly after Scourge Strike and also causes your next Death Coil or Epidemic to critically strike
        • Sudden Doom is no longer an RPPM proc and has instead been updated to have a 25% chance on auto-attacks to proc with build in bad luck protection to provide a more consistent proc.
      • Army of the Dead cooldown reduced to 3 minutes (was 8 minutes).
      • Apocalypse cooldown reduced to 45 seconds (was 90 seconds).
      • Dark Transformation cooldown reduced to 45 seconds (was 60 seconds).
      • Vile Contagion cooldown reduced to 45 seconds (was 90 seconds).
      • Festermight now functions like Ironfur, allowing multiple instances to overlap.
      • Ruptured Viscera is no longer a choice node with Magus of the Dead.
      • Ebon Fever is no longer a choice node with Bursting Sores and is available directly after Bursting Sores. Updated to also affect Frost Fever and Blood Plague if Superstrain is talented.
      • Unholy Blight moved to gate 1.
      • The following talents have been removed:
        • Replenishing Wounds
        • Army of the Damned
        • Unholy Command
        • Feasting Strike
  • DEMON HUNTER
    • Fel-Scarred
      • Fixed several issues with Burning Blades and Demonsurge not interacting with other talents.
      • Demonic Intensity tooltip updated – Activating Metamorphosis greatly empowers Eye Beam/Fel Devastation, Immolation Aura, and Sigil of Flame. Demonsurge damage is increased by 10% for each time it previously triggered while your demon form is active.
      • Fixed an issue that prevented Souls Sunder, Spirit Burst, and Sigil of Doom periodic damage from being correctly empowered.
      • Consuming Fire now correctly functions with all other Immolation Aura talents.
      • Havoc
        • Violent Transformation now also resets the cooldown of Immolation Aura in addition to its current effect.
  • EVOKER
    • Time Spiral is now a choice node with Spatial Paradox for all 3 Evoker specializations, available in the class tree.
    • Spatial Paradox cooldown increased to 3 minutes (was 2 minutes).
    • Augmentation
      • New Talent: Arcane Reach – The range of your helpful magics is increased by 5 yards. Located in Spatial Paradox’s previous location.
    • Preservation
      • Temporal Compression reduces the cast time of Empower spells by 10% per stack (was 5%).
  • MAGE
    • Sunfury
      • Arcane Soul no longer claims to reduce Arcane Barrage’s mana cost.
      • Glorious Incandescence now procs when casting Fire Blast instead of Phoenix Flames.
    • Fire
      • Lit Fuse is now applied by Fire Blast instead of Phoenix Flames.
      • Living Bomb applications are slightly desynced to minimize overlapping.
      • Living Bomb damage increased by 100%. Damage not increased in PvP combat.
      • Kindling now benefits from Flamestrike – Flamestrike critical strikes reduce the remaining cooldown of Combustion by 0.2 seconds for each critical strike, up to 1 second.
      • Unleashed Inferno’s non-Flamestrike damage bonus increased to 60%. Flamestrike damage bonus increased to 35%.
  • MONK
    • Brewmaster
      • New Talent: Elixir of Determination – When you fall below 40% health, gain an absorb for 100% of recently Purified damage, or a minimum of 20% of your maximum health. Cannot occur more than once every 15 seconds.
      • New Talent: Strike At Dawn – Rising Sun Kick grants a stack of Elusive Brawler.
      • New Talent: One With the Wind – You have a 10% chance to not reset your Elusive Brawler stacks on a successful dodge.
      • New Talent: August Blessing – When you would be healed above maximum health, you instead convert an amount equal to 40% of your critical strike chance to a heal over time effect.
      • New Talent: Ox Stance – Casting Purifying Brew grants charges/stacks of Ox Stance, based on Stagger level. When you take damage that is greater than 60% of your current health, a charge is consumed to increase the amount you Stagger.
      • New Talent: Black Ox Adept – Rising Sun Kick grants a stack of Ox Stance.
      • New Talent: Heightened Guard – Ox Stance will now trigger when an attack is larger than 50% of your current health.
      • Chi Surge and Call to Arms are no longer a choice talent.
      • Anvil & Stave has been updated – Each time you dodge or an enemy misses, you reduce the remaining cooldown on your Brews by 0.5/1 second. Effect reduced for each recent melee attacker. Was 3 second internal cooldown.
      • Improved Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox has been updated – While Niuzao is active, Purifying Brew increases the damage of Niuzao’s next Stomp, based on Stagger level. Damage is split between all enemies. Was Stagger Purified
      • The following talents have been removed:
        • Healing Elixir
        • Clash (moved to class tree)
        • Graceful Exit
        • Bonedust Brew
        • Bountiful Brew
        • Attenuation
    • Windwalker
      • New Talent: Memory of the Monastery – Tiger Palm’s chance to activate Blackout Kick! Is increased by 15% and consuming Teachings of the Monastery grants you 1% haste for 5 seconds equal to the amount of stacks consumed.
      • Revolving Whirl now additionally reduces the cooldown of Whirling Dragon Punch by 5 seconds.
      • Fury of Xuen now increases Critical Strike chance (was haste) and Invokes Xuen, the White Tiger for 10 seconds (was 8 seconds).
      • Fixed an issue that caused Jade Ignition’s damage to be reduced during Storm, Earth, and Fire.
      • Skytouch has been removed.
  • PRIEST
    • Voidweaver
      • Void Blast base insanity generation reduced to 6 (was 8).
      • Depth of Shadows’ chance to summon a Shadowfiend reduced.
  • ROGUE
    • New Talent: Shadowheart – Leech increased by 3% while Stealthed.
    • Acrobatic Strikes has been redesigned – Auto-attacks increase auto-attack damage and movement speed by 1% for 3 seconds, stacking up to 10%.
      • Developer’s note: Acrobatic Strikes no longer increases the range of melee attacks. We are revisiting increased melee range talents across the game, and most are being removed. Default melee range has increased since these talents were originally created, allowing specs with increased range to attack from well outside where it appears they should be able to.
    • Cut to the Chase moved from Assassination talent tree to baseline all specs, triggering from Envenom/Dispatch/Eviscerate.
    • Vanish’s guaranteed stealth duration now 1.5 seconds in PvP combat (base 3 seconds).
    • Tight Spender now reduces Energy cost of finishing moves by 6% (was 10%).
    • Subterfuge is now a 2-point talent, effect duration 3/6 seconds.
    • Some talents have moved locations.
    • Without a Trace moved from Subtlety to Class tree in capstone location, replacing Shadow Dance.
    • Nightstalker has been removed.
    • Assassination
      • New Talent: Rapid Injection – Envenom deals 10% increased damage while Envenom’s effect is active.
      • Serrated Bone Spike has been redesigned – (Passive) Prepare a Serrated Bone Spike every 30 seconds, stacking up to 3. Rupture spends a stack to embed a bone spike in its target:
        • Deals Physical damage and Bleed damage every 3 seconds until the target dies or leaves combat. Refunds a stack when the target dies.
        • Generates 1 combo point plus 1 additional per active bone spike.
      • Serrated Bone Spike initial damage reduced by 24% and damage over time damage reduced by 9%.
      • Improved Garrote effect duration increased to 6 seconds (was 3 seconds).
      • Indiscriminate Carnage effect duration reduced to 6 seconds (was 10 seconds).
      • Kingsbane damage bonus per poison application now has a stated cap at 1000% from 50 stacks (was 1980% at 99 stacks).
      • Kingsbane base damage over time increased by 6%.
        • Developer’s note: Kingsbane was originally intended to be uncapped, but abilities and talents introduced in the Dragonflight expansion allowed players to reach its previously-unreachable hidden cap. Increasing or removing the cap in the current environment would reinforce poor gameplay outcomes and continue to constrain talent options, so a lower cap is being introduced with the intention of having Kingsbane remain a valuable component of any build that includes it, but not by being required as every build’s all-important main character.
      • Sepsis has been removed.
    • Outlaw
      • Ace Up Your Sleeve now grants 4 combo points when triggered (was 5).
      • Mastery: Main Gauche damage increased by 24%.
      • Adrenaline Rush has been updated:
        • No longer increases global cooldown recovery rate by 25% while active.
        • Now increases global cooldown recovery rate equal to your Haste while active, up to 25%.
        • Now increases Energy regeneration by 50% (was 60%).
      • Count the Odds effect now has base chance 10% (was 8%) and duration 8 seconds (was 5 seconds), but no longer doubled while Stealthed.
      • Underhanded Upper Hand no longer affects Slice and Dice duration and no longer grants 3 seconds of Subterfuge duration (Stealth ability use).
      • Crackshot’s Dispatch effectiveness reduced to 50% (was 75%).
      • Thief’s Versatility now increases Versatility by 3% (was 4%).
      • Some talents have moved locations.
      • Sepsis has been removed.
    • Subtlety
      • Premeditation has been redesigned – After entering Stealth, your next combo point generating ability generates full combo points.
      • Invigorating Shadowdust now reduces cooldowns by 10/20 seconds (was 15/30 seconds).
      • Shadow Dance moved from the Class talent tree to Subtlety talent tree.
      • Shadow Focus now reduces costs by 5%.
      • Some talents have moved locations.
  • WARLOCK
    • Hellcaller
      • Seeds of Their Demise has been redesigned – Blackened Soul damage increased by 30%. When Blackened Soul deals damage, you have a chance to gain Ritual of Ruin/Tormented Crescendo.
      • Malevolence, Wither, and Seeds of Their Demise icons have been updated.
    • Demonology
        • You now have a 35% chance (was 100% chance) to generate a Demonic Core from your summoned Dreadstalkers when they fade.
    • Destruction
      • New Talent: Devastation – Increases the Critical Strike chance of your Destruction spells by 5%.
      • New Talent: Emberstorm – Increases the damage done by your Fire spells by 2/4% and reduces the cast time of your Incinerate spell by 10/20%.
      • New Talent: Decimating Bolt – Hurl bolts of decimating magic at your target, dealing Shadow damage and increase the damage of your next 3 Incinerates by 40%. Decimating Bolt’s damage, and the bonus to Incinerate both increase as your target’s health decreases.
      • New Talent: Summoner’s Embrace – Increases the damage dealt by your spells and your demon by 3%.
      • Ruin has been redesigned – Increases the Critical Strike damage of your Destruction spells by 5/10%.
      • Inferno has been redesigned – Rain of Fire damage is increased by 20% and its Soul Shard cost is reduced by 1.
      • Decimation has been redesigned – Your Incinerate and Conflagrate casts on targets that have 35% or less health reduces the cooldown of Soulfire by 5 seconds and reduce its cast time by 40% for 10 seconds.
      • Chaos Incarnate has been redesigned – Chaos Bolt, Rain of Fire, and Shadowburn always gain 70% of the maximum benefit from your Mastery: Chaotic Energies.
      • Chaos Bolt has been removed from the Destruction specialization tree and is now baseline.
      • Conflagrate has been moved to row 1.
      • Backdraft has been moved to row 2.
      • Roaring Blaze and Improved Conflagrate have been moved to row 3.
      • Ruin has been moved to row 9.
      • The following talents have been removed:
        • Avatar of Destruction
        • Chaosbringer

USER INTERFACE AND ACCESSIBILITY

  • Improved clarity when enchanting items:
    • Cursor highlight when mousing over items that can be enchanted by current enchantment
    • Dimming icons of non-enchantable items
    • Animations when an item has been enchanted
  • Updates to many world map icons, including: Rare, Rare Elite, Cave Entrances, Teleporters, Great Vault, Catalyst Convertor, Digsites, Pet Bettles, Dungeon, and Raid.
  • Checkboxes for tracking have been added to the quest log for easier management.
  • Characters on the character select screen are now directly clickable within the scene.
  • The Group Manager has been updated with new art and feature improvements, including:
    • Additional options to restrict group pings
    • Easier access to both world and unit raid markers
    • UI panel reorganized so related options are together in sections
    • Added instance options previously only found in the character portrait dropdown
  • Health bars have been updated with a visualization that shows the percentage of temporary max health that is depleted.

Warcraft Short Story: “A Whisper of Warning”

Quote from: Blizzard

Khadgar has dispatched Alleria Windrunner on a dark mission, one that portends an uncertain future for Azeroth. Before she departs, she visits her lost home of Silvermoon on a mission of peace and connection. Much remains unsaid between Alleria and her son, Arator—hindered by fear and misunderstanding—but Alleria would have her son know his mother and her intentions before a new evil threatens Azeroth again.

The afternoon sun filtered through the crimson leaves overhead as Alleria Windrunner walked the path toward Silvermoon City. In times past, happier times, she might have flown or used a portal to appear inside the city walls, but as it was, she approached warily, as if nearing a sleeping beast that did not wake gently. Once, she had defended these walls, these people. But now?

Now, to many, she was the source of danger.

Read and download this short story by Delilah S. Dawson.

Read Now

The War Within Alpha Content Update Notes 2 May 2024

Quote from: Blizzard

The War Within Alpha has been updated with the following changes:

NEW ZONES AND DELVES

  • Hallowfall

NEW DUNGEONS

  • The Dawnbreaker
  • Priory of the Sacred Flame

WARBANDS

  • Class set tokens from legacy raids (Shadowlands and earlier) are now Warbound and can be transferred to characters on the account.
    • Developer’s note: Based on community feedback and to match our overall philosophy on transmog collection, class set tokens from legacy raids (Shadowlands and earlier) are now Warbound, allowing them to be transferred to alts in order to collect the transmog of your choice. For clarity, current expansion tier set tokens will remain unchanged from their previous status of bind on pickup, as they represent a large amount of power for the character who collects them.

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 75 Character Template
  • Maximum Level: 78

CLASSES

  • The following Hero Talents are available for playtesting in Public Alpha 3.
    • PRIEST
      • Archon (Holy/Shadow)
        • Archons are highly devout and deeply connected to the Light and Shadow. Archons can be blessed from higher beings to enter into an ascended state, becoming an ultimate version of themselves.
    • ROGUE
      • Fatebound (Assassination/Outlaw)
        • The Fatebound eagerly act as the Hand of Fate, sowing chaos into well-laid plans. Guided by the whims of a flipped Fatebound Coin, they deliver the ending their enemies are destined for; the ending they deserve.
        • Developer’s note: Fatebound will be accessible in the Hero Talent Tree, but there will be a handful of talents that are not fully implemented.
  • HUNTER
    • Sentinel
      • Symphonic Arsenal damage reduced by 30%.
      • Sentinel debuff damage increased by 50%.
      • Lunar Storm damage increased by 50%.
  • MAGE
    • Sunfury
      • Glorious Incandescence has been updated:
        • Now summons 4 Meteorites (was 8).
        • Increased Meteorite’s Fire Blast cooldown reduction by 100%.
        • Increased Meteorite’s Arcane Orb cooldown reduction by 100%.
        • Meteorite damage increased by 100%.
        • The timing between Meteorites dealing damage and their associated spell cooldown reduction effects have been better synchronized.
    • Spellslinger
      • Arcane
        • Controlled Instincts has been redesigned – For 8 seconds after being struck by an Arcane Orb, 30% of the direct damage dealt by an Arcane Splinter is also dealt to nearby enemies. Damage reduced beyond 5 targets.
        • Spellslingers now conjure two Splinters when they consume Nether Precision.
        • Splintering Orbs now conjures two Arcane Splinters when they strike a target with their Arcane Orb.
        • Arcane Splinterstorms now have a 20% chance to grant you Clearcasting (was 100%).
    • Arcane
      • New Talent: Energized Familiar – During Time Warp or other similar effects, your Arcane Familiar fires 4 bolts instead of 1. Damage from your Arcane Familiar has a small chance to grant you up to 2% of your maximum mana.
      • New Talent: Eureka – When a spell consumes Clearcasting, its damage is increased by 25%.
      • New Talent: Wizened Wit – The cast time of Arcane Blast is reduced by 10%. Choice node with Presence of Mind.
      • New Talent: Arcane Battery – Each time you consume Clearcasting, gain 1%/2% increased spell damage for 30 seconds, stacking up to four times. 2-point talent.
      • New Talent: Time Loop – When you gain a stack of Arcane Battery, you have a small chance to gain another stack of Arcane Battery. This effect can trigger off of itself.
      • New Talent: Aether Attunement – While at maximum stacks of Arcane Battery, your next Arcane Missiles consumes Arcane Battery dealing 150% increased damage to your primary target and also fires at up to 4 nearby enemies.
      • New Talent: Leysight – Nether Precision damage bonus increased to 30%.
      • New Talent: Leydrinker – Every 6 times you consume Nether Precision, your next Arcane Blast echoes, repeating its damage at 50% effectiveness to the primary target and up to two nearby enemies.
      • New Talent: Improved Touch of the Magi – Your Touch of the Magi now accumulates 25% of the damage you deal.
      • New Talent: Magi’s Spark – Your Touch of the Magi now also conjures a spark, increasing the damage your target receives from your next Arcane Barrage, Arcane Blast, and Arcane Missiles by 25%. Upon receiving damage from all three spells, the spark explodes, dealing Arcane damage to all nearby enemies. Choice node with Improved Touch of the Magi.
      • New Talent: Nether Munitions – When Magi’s Spark or Improved Touch of the Magi detonates, it increases the damage all affected targets take from you by 8% for 12 seconds.
      • Arcane Missiles has been redesigned – Can now only be cast when you have Clearcasting. The wording of talents that are associated with Arcane Missiles have been updated to reflect this change.
      • Nether Precision has been redesigned – Consuming Clearcasting increases the damage of your next 2 Arcane Blasts by 20% or your next 2 Arcane Barrages by 20%.
      • Arcane Familiar has been redesigned – Casting Arcane Intelligence also summons you a Familiar that attacks your enemies and increases your maximum mana by 10% for 1 hour. Now passive.
      • Illuminated Thoughts has been redesigned – Clearcasting has a 5% increased chance to trigger and spells that consume Clearcasting deal 5% more damage.
      • Concentration has been redesigned – Casting Arcane Blast has a small chance to make your next cast of Arcane Blast free.
      • Improved Prismatic Barrier is now baseline.
      • Many talents have had their positions changed.
      • Moved Charged Orb and Improved Clearcasting to the first gate.
      • Rule of Threes is no longer a choice node with Arcane Familiar.
      • The following talents have been removed:
        • Foresight
        • Nether Tempest
        • Reverberate
        • Mana Gem
        • Radiant Spark
        • Harmonic Echo
        • Cascading Power
    • Fire
      • Controlled Destruction now has a stack cap of 50 (was 99). Pyroblast increases damage the target takes from your Ignite by 1% (was 2%)
    • Frost
      • New Talent: Death’s Chill – While Icy Veins is active, damaging an enemy with Frostbolt increases spell damage by 1%.
      • Fractured Frost has been redesigned – While Icy Veins is active, your Frostbolts hit up to 2 additional targets. Now a 1-point talent.
      • Hailstones is now a 1-point talent.
      • Fractured Frost and Freezing Winds have swapped places in the talent tree.
      • Cold Front and Coldest Snap have swapped places in the talent tree.
  • PALADIN
    • Retribution
      • New Talent: Radiant Glory – Replaces Avenging Wrath/Crusade. Wake of Ashes grants you Avenging Wrath/Crusade for 10/12 seconds. Your other damaging abilities have a chance to grant you Avenging Wrath/Crusade for 5/6 seconds.
        • Wake of Ashes and Avenging Wrath/Crusade from this talent will function with Herald of the Sun hero talent tree’s keystone and capstone talents.
      • Expurgation now rolls over the remaining damage value when reapplied.
      • Templar Slash damage over time effect now rolls over the remaining damage value when reapplied.
      • Boundless Judgment now additionally increases the chances of your Judgments chances to trigger Highlord’s Judgment by 50%.
      • Templar Strikes damage increased by 25%.
      • Templar Strikes cooldown increased by 2.25 seconds.
      • Wake of Ashes now sends its cone attacks (including Seething Flames) towards where your camera is facing rather than where your character is facing.
      • Shield of Vengeance is now a choice node with Aegis of Protection after the 2nd talent gate.
      • Aegis of Protection now only increases the effectiveness of Divine Protection by 20% (was 10% and was also affecting Shield of Vengeance).
      • Avenging Wrath/Crusade moved up to where Shield of Vengeance was in the talent tree.
      • Wake of Ashes moved up to where Avenging Wrath/Crusade was in the talent tree, before the 2nd talent gate.
      • Seething Flames moved up to where Wake of Ashes was in the talent tree.
  • WARLOCK
    • Diabolist
      • Soulburn can no longer trigger Demonic Art or Diabolic Ritual.
      • Demonic Art now lasts 60 seconds for each greater demon (was 20 seconds).
    • Hellcaller
      • Mark of Xavius has been redesigned – Agony/Wither damage increased by 20%/25% and the cooldown of Vile Taint/Cataclysm is reduced by 5 seconds.
      • Channel Demonfire and Internal Combustion now function with Wither.
    • Soul Harvester
      • Eternal Servitude now reduces the cooldown of Fel Domination by 90 seconds (was 120 seconds).
      • When Soul Anathema is reapplied, any remaining damage will be added to the new Soul Anathema.
      • Shared Fate now deals reduced damage beyond 8 targets.
    • Affliction
      * Malefic Rapture now deals Shadowflame damage.

      • Inevitable Demise has been removed.
      • New Talent: Improved Malefic Rapture – Reduces the cast time of Malefic Rapture by 10/20% and increases its damage by 5/10%.
      • Relinquished now causes Agony to have 1.10 times the chance to generate a Soul Shard (was 1.25 times).
      • Volatile Agony now deals reduced damage beyond 8 targets.
      • Cull the Weak has been redesigned – Malefic Rapture damage is increased by 8% for each enemy it hits, up to 5 enemies.
    • Demonology
      • New Talent: Shadowcaster – Increases the damage of Hand of Gul’dan by 20% and Demonbolt by 10%.
      • New Talent: Pact of the Ered’ruin – When Doom is removed, you summon a Doomguard that casts 5 Doom Bolts before departing. Each Doom Bolt deals Shadow damage.
      • New Talent: Mark of Shatug – Wicked Maw causes the target to take 20% additional Shadow damage from your demons.
      • New Talent: Ferocity of F’harg – Increases the attack speed of your Dreadstalkers by 10/20% and their critical strike chance by 15/30%.
      • New Talent: Rune of Shadows – Increases all damage done by your pet by 4%. Reduces the cast time of Shadow Bolt by 25% and increases its damage by 40%.
      • New Talent: Demonic Brutality – Critical strikes from your spells and your demons deal 4% increased damage.
      • New Talent: Fiendish Prowess – Increases the attack speed of your primary demon by 25%.
      • New Talent: Improved Demonic Tactics – Increases your primary Felguard’s critical strike chance equal to 30% of your critical strike chance.
      • Doom has been redesigned – Inflicts impending doom upon the target, dealing Shadow damage and an additional Shadow damage to enemies within 10 yards after 20 seconds. Consuming a Demonic Core reduces the duration of Doom by 3 seconds. 30 seconds cooldown.
      • The following talents have been removed:
        • Demonic Knowledge
        • Nether Portal
        • Ner’zhul’s Volition
        • Gul’dan’s Ambition
        • Stolen Power
        • Heavy-Handed
      • Sacrificed Souls and Houndmaster’s Stratagem have been moved to row 8.
      • Houndmaster’s Stratagem has been renamed to Wicked Maw and its icon has been updated.
      • Doom and Summon Demonic Tyrant have been moved to row 9.
      • Dread Calling and Grimoire: Felguard icons have been updated.
  • WARRIOR
    • Slam damage normalized across all specializations (Arms-only Slam damage bonus removed), and damage increased by 200%.
    • Slam damage increased by 130%. Arms Slam damage bonus reduced to 50% (was 75%).
    • Bladestorm damage increased by 70%.
    • Ravager damage decreased by 10%.
    • Arms
      • Cleave cooldown reduced to 3 seconds (was 6 seconds).
      • Battlelord no longer resets the cooldown of Cleave.
      • Storm of Swords now triggers from Whirlwind or Cleave and reduces the Rage cost of your next Whirlwind or Cleave.
      • Fervor of Battle now also triggers from Cleave.
      • Dreadnaught damage reduced by 58%.
      • Strength of Arms now also increases Overpower damage by 15%.
    • Fury
      • Bloodthirst damage increased by 43%
      • Bloodcraze now triggers from Raging Blow instead of Bloodthirst.
      • Deft Experience now causes Bloodthirst to extend your Enrage effect by 0.5/1.0 sec if you are Enraged.
      • Swift Strikes now also increases Bloodthirst’s Rage generated by 1.0/2.0 Rage.
      • Crushing Force now increases the damage of Bloodthirst by 10/20% and critical strike chance of Bloodthirst by 5/10%.
      • Bladestorm now generates 10 Rage per damage event for Fury (20 with Storm of Steel).
      • Slam Rage cost removed.

PROFESSIONS

  • ENGINEERING
    • With this week’s build, Engineering has been enabled on Professor Instructaur. Although the profession is not entirely complete, a majority of the items should be in and ready for testing and feedback. Items with clear use or equip text present should be fully implemented.
    • Engineering’s recipe lineup is similar to Dragonflight. Single-stat, full-budget Goggles and Bracers are available to be crafted, with Goggles exclusive to Engineers and Bracers usable by everyone. Both items possess a Tinker socket which can take any of the new Tinkers added in The War Within. Additionally, popular tinkers from Dragonflight have a “Refurbished” variant you may discover with specializations which interact with Algari optional reagents. Of course, a variety of consumables and toys also await, several of which may be particularly appealing to raiders.
    • Potion Bombs are a selection of new items that possess the power budget and share the cooldown of ordinary combat potions and can be used anywhere that potions are allowed. When thrown, they deal a small amount of damage split between all enemies caught in the blast but more importantly provide a small buff to up to 5 allies also caught in the blast. The potency of this buff is the budget of the potion divided by 5 – even if fewer than 5 targets are hit. This is intended to be a considerable potion option for support-oriented players, or those who feel their personal potion for the fight is less impactful than a boost distributed between their allies.
    • Finally, there is a new recipe acquisition system for Engineering recipes for this expansion called “Inventing” from which most new recipes will be sourced from. When engaging with your profession, there are opportunities to receive or invent a Prototype item. A prototype is a unique, low-quality, consumable version of almost every on-use recipe you can acquire. You have the option to Use this prototype and attempt to learn the recipe (in true engineering fashion, it has a chance to backfire and leave you extra crispy), or you can disassemble it to acquire Hastily Scrawled Notes. Collect enough of these notes, and you will be presented with a choice UI to pick from 2 (or 3 if specialized) schematics from all of the War Within schematics you have yet to discover. As not all items can be prototyped, some are only sourced through notes, such as combat or profession equipment. Ultimately the goal is to reward engineers for engaging regularly with their profession and provide the player with the agency to make decisions about the recipes they pursue as early as possible. Eventually, once all schematics are known, you can continue to collect Warbound notes to expedite this process on your alts. We are excited to see how this system plays out and would love to hear your feedback!

USER INTERFACE AND ACCESSIBILITY

  • Areas of the Quest Log interface have been updated with new artwork.
  • A button for Professions has been added to the micromenu where the Spellbook button was previously. The Spellbook has been added to the Talents frame.
  • Minimize and expand functionality has been added to the Spellbook frame.

The War Within Alpha Development Notes 25 April 2024

Quote from: Blizzard

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%.

The War Within Alpha Interview Roundup Part 3

More interviews have come out for The War Within and datamining has continued as well!

Below is a roundup of new information, of course you can expect some spoilers:

Quests/World content

  • You’ll be able to use the LFG tool to find a group for Delves (Warcraft)
  • Once the Delve companion is high enough level you can equip them with curios, which are trinket-like effects (Warcraft)
  • The secret 13th Delve will unlock in season 1 and will contain a boss encounter (Warcraft)
  • The 13th Delve will be as difficult as they can get it, a sort of Mage Tower challenge as it were (Naguura)
  • Difficulty tiers 9, 10, 11 will stop giving better loot and are therefor the challenge (Naguura)
  • The variation of Delve objectives is unlocked at max level (Warcraft)
  • Delve objectives change on a daily cadence (Warcraft)
  • The Delve collectables purchasable with a currency can also drop directly in the end of Delve chests (Warcraft)
  • Brann is always with you in the Delve even if you have a group of 5 (Naguura)
  • Under the hood Delves use a lot of the same tech as Torghast to tune the experience properly depending on group size and role composition (Naguura)
  • They’re building new types of zone/world events. Not all of them will be like the Dragonflight world events (Iskaara Cooking/Hunts/etc) (LeystTV)
  • One example of a new zone event is putting on a play with a group of people (LeystTV)
  • When the Hallowfall crystal changes to shadow it will influence the mobs in the zone. They become a lot more aggressive, they change behavior, they do more damage and things like that (LeystTV)
  • They plan to bring the player into the raid during a quest so that the environment can be used outside of the normal raiding context (LeystTV)

Classes/Earthen

  • The Earthen will have unique racials, as they are made of stone rather than flesh (T&E)
  • When it comes to Hero Talent balance they will do what feels right for the most players. That could mean tuning a hero talent tree differently for 1 spec that uses it than the other. (Naguura)
  • They are looking at classes/specs that don’t provide a buff to raid groups. You shouldn’t have to feel like you need to exclude a class because they don’t provide a buff for the group (Naguura)

Dungeons/Mythic+/Raiding

  • They’ll be talking about Mythic+ affixes soon but they are not ready to yet (Naguura)
  • They are not really happy with high end content becoming about pressing a cooldown to survive a boss mechanic to otherwise go from 100% health straight down to 0. No big changes planned for season 1, but iterative improvements on mechanics (Naguura)
  • They like having a Fated/Awakened season at the end of the expansion but they are not ready to commit to always doing it. They are very much listening to the feedback players are giving on the Awakened season (Naguura)

Dynamic Flying/Transportation

  • They’re having conversations about potential teleportation/modes of transport so that you don’t have to always fly from the surface zone all the way through the other zones to the bottom zone. (LeystTV)

Lore

  • By mapping out a larger story over a trilogy it allows them to plan much more beforehand. Allowing for setting up arcs per expansion, as well as for a larger arc over the trilogy. (T&E)
  • They know the ending to the World Soul Saga (T&E)
  • They have already mapped out the back bone to the story. Story moments, allies, enemies. (T&E)
  • They thought a lot about the controversy of the burning of Teldrassil and do not think crashing Dalaran will be the same. It’s a shared pain among the entire player base (T&E)
  • They will make sure that players learn who characters like Xal’atath are. You do not need to play old content to learn who they are (T&E)
  • We’ll get the opportunity to learn more about Xal’atath’s motives and if you pay close attention you might see some foreshadowing as well (T&E)
  • Maria cannot give a clarification on whether the Amirdrassil ending cinematic means that Azeroth is not a titan (T&E)

Warbands

  • You’ll be able to transfer currency over to other characters directly from the currency tab (Warcraft)

Misc

  • For Last Titan the artists are working on creating concept art. For Midnight the world builders/artists are already hard at work making new maps (T&E)
  • Microsoft has let Blizzard be Blizzard. They are not asking Blizzard to do anything particular when it comes to World of Warcraft (VideoGamesChronicle)
  • They talk about the business model of Expansions all the time but for now using expansions to release/sell new content works for them (VideoGamesChronicle)
  • They are planning the future of WoW for the next 20-30 years and they will not abandon it as a project that would not make sense. It’s a vibrant game with many players (Bellular)
  • It took until mid 2023 to really see the goal of the Live team (former experimental gameplay team) come to life. To make the world feel alive and provide new content for all sorts of WoW players. They work on fun and wacky things (Bellular)
  • They’ve learned more is not always better. 10.2.5 did not have the same staying power as 10.1.5 did for example (Bellular)
  • They’ve done patches that felt like a disconnected set of additions and a problem of that is discoverability. The team has ideas on how to improve that (Bellular)
  • They’re looking at improving both the new player experience as well as returning player experience (Bellular)

Full Interviews/Sources:
Warcraft Warbands Feature Overview
Taliesin & Evitel Narrative Interview Maria Hamilton
Videogameschronicle Interview Holly Longdale
Warcraft Delves Overview
Bellular Holly Longdale Interview
Developer Interview End-Game Content Naguura
Developer Interview LeystTV

Previous Roundups:
The War Within Alpha Interview Roundup Part 1
The War Within Alpha Interview Roundup Part 2

The War Within Alpha Upcoming Class Update 19 April 2024: Warlocks & Mages

Quote from: Blizzard

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!

Mages

Quote from: Blizzard

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.

Professions Update: Concentration in The War Within

Quote from: Blizzard

Greetings members of the Artisan’s Consortium!

As we reveal much of the content coming in The War Within, we’d like discuss a new system we’re cooking up for professions.

Inspiration

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 we’re making changes, because:

  • There’s a lack of decision making and agency for the crafter.
  • There’s a lack of clarity for customers who just want items made.
  • It’s based heavily in RNG, which was never the goal of the Professions revamp.

In The War Within, we’re removing Inspiration. In its place, we have a new ability for crafters to utilize.

Concentration

Concentration is a resource, and you’ll have a separate pool of Concentration for each 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 in 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.

However, such heavy focus can take a toll, costing you some of your profession’s Concentration resource. The cost is determined by how far away you are from crafting that next quality tier and is modified by a few variables such as Profession Specializations, Finishing Reagents, and whether you are crafting consumables, reagents, or actual equipment.

For example, if you’re incredibly close to being able to craft a max-quality sword, you won’t need to Concentrate too hard to finish that project. However, if you’re just barely able to craft that same sword at quality 3, you will likely have to devote most of your Concentration to craft it at quality 4.

For those who want to focus on ingenious breakthroughs when concentrating, we also have a new stat to support your endeavors. This is Ingenuity, which gives you a chance to refund the Concentration spent on a craft. The more Ingenuity you have, the higher your chance to get that full refund. Outside of these Ingenuity-fueled refunds, Concentration will also automatically regenerate over time when you aren’t sitting at its cap.

Our goal is to provide crafters with a more deterministic way to accomplish the original objectives and intent behind Inspiration. You can use it to shore up a lack of skill, gear, or max-quality reagents while still making higher-quality crafts. Maybe you just want to save some money by using lower-quality reagents in a craft you can otherwise guarantee at maximum quality. Either way, we want to give crafters more agency over their crafting, provide more room for decision-making in the professions ecosystem, and provide a resource that you can use without having to give your customers a full statistical breakdown.

Please note that much of this system is currently being implemented, and will become available for testing in future builds of the War Within Alpha.

Thank you very much!