fbpx
Menu Close

Category: The War Within

Nerub-ar Palace: Raid Testing Schedule 10 June 2024

Quote from: Blizzard

Hi everyone,

The time has come to test some of the upcoming raid encounters in The War Within, and the team is very excited to hear your feedback. We’d like to remind everyone that the raid testing schedule is fluid and subject to the realities of a test environment. We may have to change the time of a testing session, change the boss(es) being tested, or cancel a test entirely due to bugs, server hardware issues, etc.

Keep an eye on this forum for the boss feedback threads and latest information. Thank you in advance for testing – critical feedback is invaluable to us and helps us understand where to make iterative improvements during development.

Nerub-ar Palace: Raid Testing Schedule

Schedule Details

The final encounter of the raid, Queen Ansurek, will not be available for testing.

Thursday, June 13th

  • Heroic
    • Ulgrax the Devourer – 11:00 PDT (14:00 EDT, 20:00 CEST)
    • The Bloodbound Horror – 12:00 PDT (15:00 EDT, 21:00 CEST)
    • Sikran, Captain of the Sureki – 13:00 PDT (16:00 EDT, 22:00 CEST)
    • Rasha’nan – 14:00 PDT (17:00 EDT, 23:00 CEST)

Friday, June 14th

  • Heroic
    • Bloodtwister Ovi’nax – 11:00 PDT (14:00 EDT, 20:00 CEST)
    • Nexus-Princess Ky’veza – 12:00 PDT (15:00 EDT, 21:00 CEST)
    • The Silken Court – 13:00 PDT (16:00 EDT, 22:00 CEST)

Thursday, June 20th

  • Mythic
    • Ulgrax the Devourer – 11:00 PDT (14:00 EDT, 20:00 CEST)
    • The Bloodbound Horror – 12:00 PDT (15:00 EDT, 21:00 CEST)
    • Sikran, Captain of the Sureki – 13:00 PDT (16:00 EDT, 22:00 CEST)
    • Rasha’nan – 14:00 PDT (17:00 EDT, 23:00 CEST)

Friday, June 21st

  • Mythic
    • Broodtwister Ovi’nax – 11:00 PDT (14:00 EDT, 20:00 CEST)
    • Nexus-Princess Ky’veza – 12:00 PDT (15:00 EDT, 21:00 CEST)
    • The Silken Court – 13:00 PDT (16:00 EDT, 22:00 CEST)
  • Normal, Full Raid (except Ansurek)
    • Start – Friday, June 21st at 14:00 PDT (17:00 EDT, 23:00 CEST)
    • End – Monday, June 24th at 09:00 PDT (12:00 EDT, 18:00 CEST)

Friday, June 28th

  • Raid Finder
    • Wing 1: The Skittering Battlements – Ulgrax the Devourer, The Bloodbound Horror, Sikran, Captain of the Sureki
      • Start – Friday, June 28th at 14:00 PDT (17:00 EDT, 23:00 CEST)
      • End – Monday, July 1st at 09:00 PDT (12:00 EDT, 18:00 CEST)
    • Wing 2: Secrets of Nerub-ar Palace – Rasha’nan, Broodtwister Ovi’nax, Nexus-Princess Ky’veza
      • Start – Friday, June 28th at 14:00 PDT (17:00 EDT, 23:00 CEST)
      • End – Monday, July 1st at 09:00 PDT (12:00 EDT, 18:00 CEST)

Q: How do I get into the raid zone?

A: In Dornogal, Orgrimmar, or Stormwind, you may speak to Nexus-Lord Donjon Rade V in order to teleport into the raid zone while it is open for testing. (The option to teleport into a zone will not be available when the zone is not open for testing.)

Q: What character should I use to test the raid?

A: Whichever you prefer. We will be scaling players’ effective level to 80 for raid testing, and their item level to an appropriate threshold for the encounter(s) being tested.

Q: How long does testing last?

A: The primary purpose of testing is to give us the information we need to balance the encounters, evaluate how mechanics are playing out in practice, and identify bugs. Once we’re satisfied that we’ve received that information for a given boss, we’ll be shutting down testing. Usually this takes anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours, but there are no guarantees.

Q: How do I report feedback or bugs?

A: We’ll be posting encounter feedback threads each week prior to the start of the raid tests. Additionally, you can also submit your feedback through the in-game Issue Reporter tool.

The War Within: Dungeon and Affix Updates, Mythic+ Testing 13 June – 18 June

Quote from: Blizzard

Greetings!

With The War Within beta now underway, we are excited to share additional updates regarding dungeons and the affix system.

Heroic & Mythic Dungeons

In Dragonflight Season 4, we experimented with our existing dungeon difficulty progression to offer additional endgame options for players who enjoy more methodical dungeon gameplay. This updated dungeon difficulty progression is also an opportunity for players that do enjoy Mythic Keystones to have a place to build mastery over dungeons before the pressures of a timer kick in. You can read more about those changes in depth here. We plan to continue this model of progression into The War Within with some exciting updates!

  • Normal
    • This difficulty is unchanged.
    • This difficulty always includes our 8 War Within dungeons.
  • Heroic
    • The tuning and rewards of this difficulty are increasing to be equivalent to a baseline Mythic (Mythic 0) dungeon in the previous system.
    • New mechanics and other adjustments from Mythic will not be present in this difficulty.
    • This remains a queueable experience.
    • Starting with Season 1 of The War Within, Heroic dungeon difficulty will feature our roster of seasonal dungeons.
  • Mythic
    • The tuning and rewards of this difficulty are increasing to the equivalent of a +10 dungeon with affixes in the previous system.
    • There are no timers, affixes, or limitations on changing specializations or talents while in the dungeon.
    • The goal is to create a mega-dungeon like difficulty for this experience. This difficulty should present a meaningful challenge and provide commensurate rewards without the pressure of the Mythic+ system.
    • Starting with Season 1 of The War Within, Mythic difficulty will feature our roster of seasonal dungeons.
    • Mythic difficulty will be unavailable until with the War Within Season 1 begins.
    • Mythic difficulty will now have a daily lockout, changed from weekly in the previous system.

The seasonal dungeon roster for Heroic, Mythic, and Mythic+ difficulties in Season 1 of The War Within includes the following dungeons:

  • The Stonevault
  • The Dawnbreaker
  • Ara-Kara, City of Echoes
  • City of Threads
  • Grim Batol
  • The Necrotic Wake
  • Mists of Tirna Scithe
  • Siege of Boralus

Mythic+

The Mythic Keystone system will carry forward changes from Dragonflight Season 4 with updates to the position of affixes in the system and updated affix buckets.

  • The Mythic+ system will have rewards up to level 10, with +2 starting from what would have been a +11 in the previous Mythic+ system.
  • A +5 should be as hard as a +15 and +10 should be as hard as a +20 in the previous Mythic+ system etc.
  • We intend to better align reward and difficulty increases in the Mythic+ system by updating the introduction points of affixes in Season 1 of The War Within.
    • +2 – Fortified/Tyrannical
    • +4 – A new set of passive affixes
    • +7 – Bursting / Bolstering etc.
  • Dungeon ratings should be equivalent to what they represent in the current system.
  • There should be a smaller range of Keystone levels to find groups for, and more meaningful progression between each level.

Affixes

Before we dive into the specifics of the new affixes, we would like to outline our goals and the purpose these affixes serve. Our overarching goal is to minimize the mechanical overlap between affixes and dungeon trash design in the current +4 affix bucket. We aim to achieve this through a more passive approach, focusing on the following objectives:

  • Shift the source of challenge to the dungeon itself by simplifying affix design and emphasizing creature abilities.
  • Reduce visual noise, nameplate clutter, and the cognitive load on players during trash combat.
  • Allow for varied and context-specific gameplay decisions depending on the dungeon they are applied to.

Additionally, these affixes will include a positive effect. The aim of these positive effects is to highlight different damage types each week, allowing each specialization additional opportunities to excel during the season.

  • These effects should feel like a bonus, offering an advantage for different damage profiles each week without being essential to complete a dungeon.
  • Players will have an opportunity to flex towards different talents, gearing options, and consumables to capitalize on these effects.

New Affixes

  • Reckless
    • Non-boss enemies without mana ignore 20% armor with their attacks, but their armor is reduced by 30% and they take 10% increased Arcane damage.
  • Thorned
    • Non-boss enemies without mana inflict Physical damage to their attackers when attacked, but take 10% increased Holy and Shadow damage.
  • Attuned
    • Non-boss enemies with mana inflict 20% increased magic damage, but take 10% increased Nature damage and 30% increased damage from Bleed effects.
  • Focused
    • Non-boss enemies with mana have 30% increased Haste, but take 10% increased Frost and Fire damage.

Note that these tooltips indicate whether the affixes apply to creatures with or without mana. These affixes will not affect every creature.

With our new passive affix bucket set to replace the current +4 affix bucket, the following affixes will be retired for Season 1 of The War Within:

  • Afflicted
  • Incorporeal
  • Entangling
  • Storming
  • Volcanic

To match the number of affixes in our level 4 affix bucket and align with our affix goals in The War Within we will be retiring the Spiteful affix for Season 1 of The War Within. The +7 affix bucket includes the following:

  • Raging
  • Bolstering
  • Bursting
  • Sanguine

Tyrannical and Fortified Affixes

We are still experimenting with how these affixes fit in with our updates.

We believe these changes will offer a refreshing experience for players at all levels each season and redefine how the Mythic+ affix system influences dungeon gameplay. We look forward to your feedback and discussions on these topics and we’ll see you in dungeons!

Mythic+ Testing – 13 June – 18 June

Quote from: Blizzard

Greetings!

The War Within dungeon testing begins on PTR realms this week. The test period will begin today Thursday June 13th at 10:00 PDT (13:00 EDT, 19:00 CEST), and end Tuesday June 18th at 10:00 PDT (13:00 EDT, 19:00 CEST). Please note that the test period may be adjusted in the event of technical difficulties.

The following dungeons are available for testing on Mythic and Mythic+ difficulty:

  • The Stonevault
  • The Dawnbreaker
  • Ara-Kara, City of Echoes
  • City of Threads
  • Grim Batol
  • The Necrotic Wake
  • Mists of Tirna Scithe
  • Siege of Boralus

Affixes will rotate daily on beta realms to expedite their testing:

  • Reckless – Non-boss enemies without mana ignore 20% armor with their attacks, but their armor is reduced by 30% and they take 10% increased Arcane damage.
  • Thorned – Non-boss enemies without mana inflict Physical damage to their attackers when attacked, but take 10% increased Holy and Shadow damage.
  • Attuned – Non-boss enemies with mana inflict 20% increased magic damage, but take 10% increased Nature damage and 30% increased damage from Bleed effects.
  • Focused – Non-boss enemies with mana have 30% increased Haste, but take 10% increased Frost and Fire damage.

During the test period you’ll be able to acquire and customize the level and dungeon of Mythic Keystones by talking to the Keystone Vendor in Stormwind or Orgrimmar, and the nearby Dungeon Teleports NPC will assist you with transportation. We look forward to hearing your feedback!

The War Within Beta Crafting Professions Questions and Answers

Quote from: Blizzard

Thank you for the feedback, Hambrick. While we don’t have answers to all of your questions, we can offer some clarity.

We just completed a tuning pass on all reagent difficulty and crafting difficulties and these changes will show up in the next Beta build. While still subject to change, these are real values that are representative of our intent and we would appreciate feedback on them once they are in your hands.

The design philosophy for crafting difficulty in The War Within is that a well-honed crafter who is fully specialized, equipped with the best crafting tools, and using Quality 3 reagents can guarantee maximum quality on every craft, with a few targeted exceptions on certain non-equipment crafts. Concentration is intended to offset shortcomings in any of these variables.

However, one major change coinciding with this approach is a significant increase to the difficulty curve of acquiring higher quality reagents. In Dragonflight, there was a skill threshold where you graduated out of Q1 reagents from gathering completely, defaulting to Quality 2 with the occasional Q3. Now, you will continue to gain Q1 even when fully optimized, but your progress in your profession shifts those chances gradually in favor of Q3 as expected. Additionally, intermediate crafted reagents (ingots, bolts, etc) will also have much higher crafting difficulties relative to Dragonflight.

The reagent contribution toward a recipe’s final crafting difficulty has increased relative to Dragonflight. Reagents are now 40% of a recipe’s difficulty up from 25%, so the impact of lower quality reagents will be greater.

Lastly, it’s worth noting that the recipe reagent costs have not yet been tuned. While some recipes are more final than others, you can expect significant changes to the costs of recipes across the board in a couple weeks which will better represent our intent.

Concentration’s tuning pass is still a couple weeks away, but we agree. Additionally, Ingenuity’s refund is being adjusted to a percentage rather than a complete refund. This change affords us the opportunity to provide modifiers to the amount of concentration returned in the form of specialization bonuses or finishing reagents, while ensuring that concentration remains a finite, marketable resource. This is behavior is not yet present in Beta and the tooltip does not reflect this intent.

Concentration can also be tuned separately per profession so consumable based professions will lean toward generous tuning due to their bulk crafting nature.

Profession Knowledge (and Artisan’s Acuity) acquisition are tied closely to NPC Crafting Orders, which are not yet ready for testing. Progression is indeed capped per week, however there is catch-up built into the system that turns on pretty early. We anticipate there to be some slight variance in total knowledge points across any sampling of players at any given time, but an invested crafter should be able to catch-up within a couple points as long as they have made an effort to diversify their recipe list and routinely engage with NPC Crafting Orders.

We’re excited to share more details about this feature in the near future.

Specialization trees are in their near-final state across all professions. Most of the work that remains involves fixing up some obvious data errors and some minor tuning adjustments. We do not expect any significant changes to tree layout or perk design going forward.

Regarding Alchemy, there was a third Potion node early in development that we simply weren’t happy with, and ultimately cut. We acknowledge that this left the Potion tree feeling light on content, but have no current plans to expand it.

Artisan’s Acuity will be used in greater amounts for Recrafting than in Dragonflight, as well as being used for most crafts intended to improve your profession (such as profession equipment as you mentioned). Additionally, it will be used to purchase most vendor recipes. A repeatable sink for Artisan’s Acuity is a bag that contains a random assortment of reagents and a small chance at rare drop recipes.

A small amount Artisan’s Acuity will continue to come from knowledge acquisition as before, however Thomas Bright will not be offering a weekly sum of Acuity this time. The currency’s main source will be NPC Crafting Orders. A couple large sums will be offered a week, with many smaller offerings of Acuity on a more frequent cadence.

The War Within Beta Development Notes 5 June 2024

Quote from: Blizzard

Here are this week’s updates to The War Within Beta from last week’s Alpha.

NEW RAID: NERUB-AR PALACE

  • Class sets are available for testing. To try these set bonuses in the Beta, log into an endgame realm and look for Setzertauren near the current PvP and professions vendors in Orgrimmar and Stormwind City. Please share bugs you find via the in-game bug reporting tool and your feedback about the bonuses in this thread.

BETA REALMS

  • END-GAME REALM: ‘THESE GO TO ELEVEN’
    • ‘These Go To Eleven’ is a separate Beta region that is focused on end-game content and has multiple vendors setup to allow players to quickly and easily test out content.
      • Profession Vendors and Trainers
      • Class Set Vendors
      • PvP Gear Vendors
      • Trinket Vendors
    • This environment is locked to using a max level template only, and players will not be able to access the 11.0 outdoor zones as the focus of this environment is on instanced content (eg. raid, dungeon & pvp content).
    • Character copy is not available on this realm.
  • Copied characters will be missing Dragonflight reputations, any flight points, and certain existing achievement progress.
    • Developer’s note: This is expected for now, and once we get the Warbands data conversion working with character copy, players will need to do another character copy to grab that data and roll it into their Warband data.

CLASSES

  • DEMON HUNTER
    • Vengeance
      • Sigil of Misery now disorients target for 15 seconds (was 20 seconds).
  • DRUID
    • Mass Entanglement now roots targets for 10 seconds (was 30 seconds).
    • Feral
      • All ability damage reduced by 20%.
      • Developer’s note: At the beginning of April we increased all of Feral’s ability damage by the value of their baseline passive aura (20%), but neglected to reduce their baseline passive aura at the same time.
      • Brutal Slash damage reduced by 10%
      • Moonfire damage reduced by 10%.
      • Thrash direct damage increased by 20%.
      • Dreadful Bleeding increased to 20% (was 18%).
      • Primal Wrath energy cost reduced to 25.
      • Tiger’s Tenacity also causes Tiger’s Fury to increase the periodic damage of your bleeds and Moonfire (if known) by an additional 10% for their full duration.
      • Finishing move damage (Ferocious Bite, Ravage, Rip, Maim, and Primal Wrath) increased by 10%.
  • EVOKER
    • Renewing Blaze has swapped places with Source of Magic.
    • Panacea now also heals the caster when Verdant Embrace is cast. Healing reduced by 50%.
    • Panacea is now considered a Green spell, and is improved by Lush Growth.
    • Overawe has been redesigned – Now grants 30 seconds of cooldown reduction (was cooldown reduction per Enrage dispelled).
    • Oppressing Roar cone increased to 60 degrees (was 45 degrees).
      • Developer note: Oppressing Roar with Overawe was too good specifically in Mythic+ dungeons with the Raging affix, but not really anywhere else. So, we’re reducing its effectiveness in that scenario but making it more generically useful as a talent. We’re also increasing Oppressing Roar’s cone radius since it can be difficult to aim it without a preview cone like Fire Breath or Dream Breath have.
    • Landslide now roots targets for 15 seconds (was 30 seconds).
    • Hero Talents
      • Chronowarden (Augmentation/Preservation)
        • Temporal Burst lasts 40 seconds (was 20 seconds), and ramps by 1% every second (was 2% per second).
        • Threads of Fate lasts 10 seconds (was 15 seconds).
        • Augmentation
          • Reverberations increase Upheaval damage by 50% (was 30%) for Augmentation.
          • Chrono Flame copies 25% of damage or healing done for Augmentation (was 15%).
    • Augmentation
      • Developer’s note: We’re making several adjustments to the Augmentation spec tree to create more build choices. We would like Prescience to be more easily available since it’s important for Ebon Might targeting, so it’s been moved up in the tree. We’re also rehabilitating Motes of Possibility and making large adjustments to the capstones and their pathing. Each capstone now has a synergistic node above it and has a more distinct theme. Please note that there are still tuning changes pending, and implementation is not complete on some of the newer talents.
      • New Talent: Rumbling Earth – Upheaval causes an aftershock at its location, dealing 50% of its damage 2 additional times.
      • New Talent: Molten Embers – Fire Breath causes enemies to take 20% more damage from your Black spells.
      • New Talent: Imminent Destruction – Breath of Eons reduces the Essence cost of Eruption by 1 and increases its damage by 10% for 15 seconds after you land.
      • Motes of Possibility now give a random Augmentation Evoker buff (was reduces the cooldown of your major ability by 10 seconds). In addition, the motes will spawn closer to the caster, and they will also slowly float towards the nearest ally.
      • Overlord now guarantees Motes of Possibilities will spawn from the Eruptions it casts.
      • Seismic Slam is now a 1 point talent, and is in a new location below Upheaval. The stun duration remains at 4 seconds.
      • Geomancy has been removed.
      • Timelessness is now where Geomancy was previously in the talent tree.
      • Prescience is now available in a location higher up in the spec tree.
      • Many talents have had their locations adjusted, particularly in the final part of the spec tree.
  • MAGE
    • Mass Polymorph now polymorphs targets for 15 seconds (was 60 seconds).
    • Fire
      • Burning Blood damage bonus reduced to 8% and health threshold increased to 35%.
      • Burning Blood has been renamed to Molten Fury.
      • Heat Shimmer’s proc now makes your next Scorch instant cast (was deal 25% increased damage).
        • Developer’s note: We’re being sensitive to giving Fire more instant-cast spells and will be watching this talent carefully to make sure it isn’t pushing Fire too far towards never having to cast.
  • PRIEST
    • Void Tendrils now root targets for 15 seconds (was 20 seconds).
    • Hero Talents
      • Archon (Holy/Shadow)
        • Resonant Energy now lasts 8 seconds (was 5 seconds).
        • Shock Pulse now lasts 8 seconds (was 5 seconds).
        • Resonant Energy now increases damage or healing by 2% and stacks up to 5 times (was 10%, not stacking).
        • Shock Pulse now reduces movement speed by 5%, stacking up to 5 times (was 25%, stacking 2 times).
        • Perfected Form no longer double dips its healing increase when the Priest casts Holy Word: Salvation and has Apotheosis from Answered Prayers.
  • ROGUE
    • Airborne Irritant now reduces Blind’s duration by 70% (was 40%). This gives it an 18 second duration when applied in an area.
    • Hero Talents
      • Trickster (Subtlety/Outlaw)
        • Unseen Blade has been redesigned – Sinister Strike/Backstab/Gloomblade and Ambush/Shadowstrike now also strike the target with an off-hand Unseen Blade dealing Physical damage. Targets struck are Fazed for 5 seconds. Fazed enemies take 5% more damage from you and cannot parry your attacks. This effect may occur once every 20 seconds.
          • No longer causes Feint to generate combo points and strike enemies around you
        • Nimble Flurry renamed to Disorienting Strikes and has been redesigned – Killing Spree/Secret Technique have 10% reduced cooldown and allow your next 3 strikes of Unseen Blade to ignore its normal cooldown.
          • No longer increases damage of Killing Spree/Secret Technique.
        • Flawless Form now increases damage with Finishing Moves by 3% per stack and duration increased to 6 seconds (was 5 seconds).
          • No longer grants Mastery.
        • Thousand Cuts now grants auto-attacks a chance to refresh your opportunity to strike with Unseen Blade.
          • No longer grants auto-attacks a chance to trigger a strike with Unseen Blade.
        • Flickerstrike now refreshes your opportunity to strike with Unseen Blade.
          • No longer triggers a strike with Unseen Blade upon taking area damage while Feint is active or dodging while Evasion is active. Trigger conditions and cooldown between triggers remains unchanged.
        • Elaborate Twirl renamed to Nimble Flurry and has been redesigned – Outlaw: Blade Flurry damage is increased by 10% while Flawless Form is active. Subtlety: Your auto-attacks, Backstab/Gloomblade, Shadowstrike, Goremaw’s Bite, and Eviscerate also strike up to 7 additional nearby targets for 15% of normal damage while Flawless Form is active.
        • Coup de Grace has been updated – Now causes your next Dispatch or Eviscerate to function as if it had spent 4 additional combo points.
          • No longer increases damage of the next Dispatch, Eviscerate, or Black Powder.
  • WARLOCK
    • Affliction
      • Several talents have been moved in the third section of the specialization tree.
      • New Talent: Ravenous Afflictions – Critical strikes from your Agony, Corruption, and Unstable Affliction have a chance to grant Nightfall.
      • New Talent: Perpetual Unstability – The cast time of Unstable Affliction is reduced by 20%. Refreshing Unstable Affliction with 8 or less seconds remaining deals Shadow damage to its target.
      • The following talents are now 1 point:
        • Xavius’ Gambit
        • Focused Malignancy
        • Withering Bolt
        • Improved Malefic Rapture
      • Empowered Unstable Affliction has been removed.
    • Destruction
      • The tooltip of Dimension Ripper has been updated – Incinerate has a chance to recharge Dimensional Rift.
      • The tooltip of Summon Overfiend has been updated – Generates 1 Soul Shard Fragment every 0.5 seconds and casts Chaos Bolt at 80% effectiveness at its summoner’s target.
      • The icon of Avatar of Destruction has been updated.
  • WARRIOR
    • Hero Talents
      • Mountain Thane (Protection/Fury)
        • Storm Bolts now also increases the cooldown of Storm Bolt by 10 seconds.
      • Slayer (Fury/Arms)
        • Arms
          • Cleave now also applies Colossal Might when it hits 3 or more targets.
    • Arms
      • Unhinged has been redesigned – Every other time Bladestorm or Ravager deal damage, you cast a Mortal Strike at your target or a nearby enemy.
      • Critical Thinking now restores 10% of Rage spent on Execute per point (was 5%).
      • Hurricane has been removed.
    • Fury
      • Hurricane replaced with Unhinged – Every other time Bladestorm or Ravager deal damage, you cast a Bloodthirst at your target or a nearby enemy.

ITEMS

  • DPS trinkets and items with additional effects reduced by 33% for tank and healer specializations.
    • Developer’s note: Tanks and healers choosing to wear damage trinkets have often seen them contribute a disproportionate and unintended amount of their overall damage. DPS cantrips have further exacerbated this issue. This change is intended to shift power back into players’ class kits while reducing the opportunity cost of choosing specialized tank and healer trinkets over pure damage trinkets. This change is not retroactive.

PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER

  • RATED BATTLEGROUND BLITZ
    • Rated Battleground Blitz is enabled on Beta for queueing.
      • Rated Battleground Blitz is the rated version of the Battleground Blitz brawl that came in the 10.1, Embers of Nelharion content update. It is a solo queue rated 8v8 battleground game mode with an accelerated pace and new mechanics to make the battles faster.
      • The map pool is the same as the Brawl version, with the addition of the new Battleground, Deephaul Ravine.
  • ARENAS
    • Shadow Sight now highlights enemies that are stealthed with a red outline that can be seen through walls.
  • CLASSES
    • EVOKER
      • Hero Talents
        • Flameshaper
          • Engulf damage reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
    • ROGUE
      • Shadowy Duel now applies a screen effect so it is more noticeable that you are inside the duel.

USER INTERFACE AND ACCESSIBILITY

  • Dire Beasts, Army of the Dead ghouls, Magus of the Dead, various Demonology Warlock demons, Void Tendril, Void Lasher, and Denizen of the Dream nameplates are now always hidden.

Take to the Skies with Skyriding

Quote from: Blizzard

In The War Within™, players will be able to take to the skies on many flying mounts using new flight mechanics with Skyriding.

Dragonriding is here to stay and will also be available for many flying mounts in all flyable areas even prior to the launch of The War Within. Players will also be able to toggle between Skyriding (previously known as dynamic flight) or the flying style introduced originally in The Burning Crusade (TBC) which we’re calling Steady Flight.

Skyriding will be available from the start in Khaz Algar and players will be able to unlock steady flight at maximum level by exploring the zones of The War Within and completing the campaign.  Players will also be able to collect glyphs throughout Khaz Algar as they explore.  These glyphs will be shifting to an evergreen state in which players shouldn’t feel as if they need to go back to Dragonflight to gain any they missed before. Some abilities that players have collected from their adventures in the Dragon Isles may be restricted to the Dragon Isles, but base abilities like increased Vigor will become a part of how Skyriding works and available to everyone as they level up.

You’ll be able to easily identify the mounts that are enabled for Skyriding from within the Warbands Collection tab (Shift-P) which will be noted as Skyriding. To switch between Skyriding and Steady Flight, you can do so directly in the mount collection on the individual mount you want to switch by clicking on the Skyriding icon in the middle of the interface and selecting “Switch Flight Style” in the drop-down menu. It’s important to note that any mount that doesn’t support Skyriding will be grounded if Skyriding is active. You will also be able to open your Skills Unlock here as well.

The ground mounts in your collection will continue to stay grounded, but most flying mounts will be able to be put to use for Skyriding save for a select few such as the Otterworldly Ottuk Carrier, some fish mounts, and brooms.

We look forward to joining you in the skies in The War Within!

Meet the Earthen, A New Playable Allied Race

Quote from: Blizzard

A new playable race arrives in The War Within—the Earthen. Unlock playable Earthen characters after completing their quests and the overall level-up campaign. Enlist this titan-forged race made of living stone by aiding them in their endeavors.

Champions of Azeroth must aid the Earthen and seek a way to restore their harmony and population. They can also be unlocked as a playable race, and you can choose Alliance or Horde to begin your journey starting at level 10 in their capital city of Dornogol.

The Titan-Forged Earthen

We’ve met Titan-forged Earthen before in Ulduar and other places. Still, this society of Earthen has been isolated within Khaz Algar for a long while and has developed its own manners and customs. They are ancient denizens freshly freed from the edicts that bound them; they now venture forth with limitless curiosity to ally with the Alliance and Horde and explore the world.

As you aid them in restoring the Coreway and venture below Dornogol, tread lightly—Earthen politics are complicated, and danger lurks in the shadows.

Customizations: Adorned and Imbued

Many customizations are available for the Earthen, including different gem encrustations, unique beards for all body types, a variety of vibrant skin colors, and more.

Becoming One with the Earthen

The Earthen can also be unlocked as a playable race, and you can choose Alliance or Horde to begin your journey.

Completion of the following will make them available:

Racial Traits and Class Combinations

  • Azerite Surge: The earthen draw upon their inner strength using an empowered spell that, when released, invokes the power of Azerite in a cone in front of them, dealing Fire damage. This spell is on a 2-minute timer and gains additional effects as it is empowered:
    • I: Deals Fire damage
    • II: Heals allies hit by the effect
    • III: Deals additional fire damage to the enemy’s health, most affected by the effect.
  • Hyper Productive: Increases Finesse by 2%. Finesse increases the chance of gathering additional materials when gathering.
  • Ingest Minerals: You are always Well Fed but cannot consume food. Activate to consume a Khaz Algar gem and change the benefit granted to you by Well Fed:
    • Amber (Stamina)
    • Emerald (Haste)
    • Onyx (Mastery)
    • Ruby (Critical Strike)
    • Sapphire (Versatility)
  • Titan-Wrought Frame: Base armor from equipped items is increased by 10%.
  • Wide-Eyed Wonder: When you gain experience for exploring a location, gain 200% additional exploration experience.

Once unlocked, earthen can master the following classes:

Death Knight class icon Death Knight demon hunter class icon Demon Hunter druid class icon Druid
evoker class icon Evoker hunger class icon Hunter ✓ mage class icon Mage ✓
monk class icon Monk ✓ paladin class icon Paladin ✓ priest class icon Priest ✓
rogue class icon Rogue ✓ shaman class icon Shaman ✓ warlock class icon Warlock ✓
warrior class icon Warrior ✓

Racial Mount: Slatestone Ramolith

Unlock the earthen mount, Slatestone Ramolith, upon completing the Allied Races: Earthen achievement. This mount is usable by any race and is available account-wide.

alternate-image-name
“Earthen ranchers often talk of this creature’s resilience and how the rain ricochets off its lustrous coat.”

Heritage Armor

For reaching 50 on the Earthen Allied Race, you will receive the Heritage of the Earthen Feat of Strength and the Earthen Heritage Armor. This armor can only be transmogged by Earthen characters.

Home of the Earthen

Upon arriving in Khaz Algar and the Isle of Dorn, you’ll discover a lush and vibrant island. The capital city, Dornogol, is surprisingly verdant and seemingly carved from the land.

We look forward to sharing The War Within with you—we’ll see you in Khaz Algar!