Dragonflight Beta Feedback 16 September 2022: Rogues, Monks, Druids, Shamans & Hunters

Hello Rogues,

Let’s talk talents, specifically the class tree:

 

 

There are a few notable changes here, with talent position changes being more clear, and some less clear from the picture alone, which we’ll point out.

We’ve heard significant discussion around this talent, the degree to which it isn’t very compelling (even situationally), and the ways in which it clashes with other talent on the class tree and spec trees. As a result, it’s been redesigned:

Cheat Death is certainly compelling, and players have pointed out how it puts undue emphasis on the Subtlety-themed side of the tree. The solution we’ve decided on is to move it up the tree to a more accessible spot (previously occupied by Recuperator), but now as a choice against the similarly-powerful Elusiveness. Recuperator has moved to the previous position of Elusiveness, and a reworked version of Soothing Darkness is taking the previous position Cheat Death.

There are few more positional changes.

As it turns out, neither talent is well-suited to being positioned on a main highway. Deeper Stratagem is joining Marked for Death, as a choice node:

Improved Ambush is taking the position Deeper Stratagem was in. Nightstalker and Tight Spender are swapping positions and point costs as a result, with slightly adjusted values to accommodate.

Beyond positional changes, a few talents have had costs changed.

Lethality and Alacrity have become 2-point talents. Lethality remains the same per-point value, and Alacrity has had numbers slightly adjusted to accommodate the change (most notably, granting up to 8% Haste at max stacks).

Sold. Resounding Clarity is now a 1-point talent, and causes Echoing Reprimand to Animacharge 3 additional combo points.

Something that we’re aware of as a potential knock-on effect of this and the other above changes, is Echoing Reprimand becoming more appealing to take in some builds than it was before. For those who don’t mind the one-Animacharge minigame of Echoing Reprimand but don’t want to feel forced into the full four-Animacharge version, we’re considering adding Reverberation (formerly a Conduit) with an appropriate value to go up against Resounding Clarity as a choice node.

Thank you for your feedback so far, and we welcome any continued discussion. Cheers.

Hello Mistweaver Monks! We have a few updates to the Mistweaver spec tree coming in the next beta build. We’d like to take a moment and discuss our upcoming changes and the philosophy behind them.

2 Point Node Positioning:

The 2-point node placement on this tree has been a little tricky to get into what we feel is the right spot. Overflowing Mists is a situationally powerful bonus, so we don’t want it controlling pathing in the bottom of the tree. Resplendent Mist felt like its use cases were more universal than its positioning. Peaceful Mending shouldn’t block off any pathways but should feel like it contributes to navigating down the tree if selected.

To accommodate these principles, we’ve moved Overflowing Mist back up to above gate 2, Resplendent Mist has moved to the node below Ancient Teachings of the Monastery and Clouded Focus, and Peaceful Mending is occupying a new connection on the right side of the tree that is not exclusively blocking any pathing below. This new pathing has also enabled Bountiful Brew and Attenuation to move up and directly connect to Bonedust Brew.

Jade Bond:

We’ve been steadily moving most of Jade Bond’s value to its Gust of Mist/Soothing Breath bonus. The dichotomy we’re looking for on this choice node is more frequent access via Gift of the Celestials versus more impactful access via Jade Bond. We’re hopefully continued tuning can get us there.

Unison:

We’ve made this into a choice node with Restorative Proliferation to make the middle path towards Invoker’s Delight slightly more appealing for all builds. Unison being on its own may have felt like a choice limiter to some builds who were interested in pursuing Invoker’s Delight.

Tea of Plenty:

We’re interested in pursuing this “random bag of goodies” design but felt the swing of expected value from this ability was too large, especially with the reintroduction of Essence Font to Thunder Focus Tea. In future beta builds, we’ve split Tea of Plenty’s effect into a choice node of two spells.

Tea of Serenity will give Thunder Focus Tea an extra charge of Renewing Mist, Enveloping Mist, or Vivify. Tea of Plenty will give Thunder Focus Tea an extra charge of Renewing Mist, Rising Sun Kick, or Essence Font. Hopefully this will maintain the same feel of the talent while allowing players to customize more towards their desired outcome.

Here’s the new layout you can expect to see:

• Tea of Serenity. New Talent, Row 10. Thunder Focus Tea also grants Renewing Mist, Enveloping Mist, and Vivify 1 extra charge at random.

Thanks again for all of your testing and thoughtful feedback.

Hello again, Feral Druids.

We have some upcoming changes to the talent tree to share with you. Thank you very much for all your feedback on the current version of the talent tree. There have been lots of thoughtful, informative posts in places like this thread and the Druid forums that really helped us understand your experiences with the tree and what you’re hoping to do with it. It’s very much appreciated.

Left Side and Right Side of the Talent Tree

We heard your feedback that the left and right sides of the tree feel too heavily weighted toward single target and AOE respectively. We like the two sides of the tree having a clear identity, but we want players to have paths to get talents they want from either side in either situation, so we’ve moved talents around to facilitate taking some talents from both sides in both ST and AOE.

Energy and Combo Points

Opening up both sides of the tree to both ST and AOE builds also let us give the two sides of the tree different flavors of resource generation. If you want to empower Tiger’s Fury and generate more combo points, those talents are on the left. If you want more Energy, there’s more of those talents on the right.

We want investing in Energy or combo points to be intentional choices players make, rather than something they pick up automatically on the way to other talents. With that in mind we moved Tiger’s Tenacity (formerly Eye of Fearful Symmetry) and provided alternative pathing options to reach Feral Frenzy and Apex Predator’s Craving.

Berserk

We want Berserk to be a powerful, broadly valuable, rotation-impacting cooldown. It currently suffers in AOE because none of Feral’s AOE builders benefit from Berserk, so we updated it to make Swipe generate a bonus combo point the same way Shred does. Changes to Tiger’s Tenacity (formerly Eye of Fearful Symmetry) and the new Relentless Predator also give consistent options to players who are looking for more resources during Berserk.

Tuning

We’ve made tuning changes to some talents in this revision, and while there will be more tuning to come, we want to speak to some of what we’re trying to accomplish. In general, we don’t want any talent to be so powerful or impactful that all players feel obligated to pick it. That dampens choice and build diversity. This brings us to Convoke the Spirits and Soul of the Forest.

Convoke is an extremely powerful single button to press in Shadowlands, and it remains so in Dragonflight. Its current version with Celestial Spirits is too strong for 2 talent points. Our first attempt at tuning this was to not include the cooldown reduction from Celestial Spirits, but we hear you that a 1 minute Convoke is appealing and fits well in rotations, and that the Convoke bonus in Ashamane’s Guidance is underwhelming, so we re-added it. To bring down the power of the current version, we’ve removed the ability for Convoke to cast Tiger’s Fury. There are several talents that benefit Tiger’s Fury, and removing it from Convoke allows us to keep those strong because Convoke isn’t increasing its uptime dramatically.

Soul of the Forest is a power outlier because of the massive Energy generation it provides, pushing it into “obligatory” range. We’d like investing in Energy to be something players can choose to do at multiple points throughout the tree, so we’re toning down Soul of the Forest.

Miscellaneous

Double-Clawed Rake has been moved to make it easier to pick up. Lunar Inspiration has been moved to a more natural place for a DoT cleave build. Scent of Blood’s benefit was very niche, so we replaced it with Relentless Predator, which reduces the energy cost of Ferocious Bite, to provide an energy generation option with more general value. Infected Wounds has been moved under Sudden Ambush.

New Tree Layout

Here’s the new tree layout and a list of changes in the next build:

Row 2:

• Primal Claws (formerly Piercing Claws) moved to Row 2.
• Primal Claws no longer grants crit. Each point now grants a 10% chance for combo point generators to generate an extra combo point.

Row 3:

• Merciless Strikes (formerly Improved Bleeds) now increases Swipe damage against bleeding targets by 10%, down from 20%. There are other talents to boost Swipe elsewhere in the tree, and we don’t want this to be an autopick in AOE.
• Predator moved to row 3.
• Double-Clawed Rake moved to row 3.

Row 4:

• Protective Growth moved to row 4. Damage reduction increased from 3% to 5%.
• Tireless Energy moved to row 4. No longer grants haste. Points now increase maximum Energy by 30/60 and passive Energy regeneration by 10%/20%.
• Pouncing Strikes moved to row 4.
• Lunar Inspiration moved to row 4.

Row 5:

• Rampant Ferocity (formerly Ferocious Frenzy) moved to row 5.
• Berserk now causes Swipe to generate an additional combo point during Berserk.

Row 6:

• Infected Wounds moved to row 6.
• Dreadful Bleeding moved to row 6.
• Relentless Predator is a new talent in row 6. Relentless Predator reduces Energy costs of Ferocious Bite by 20%. This includes both the base cost and the additional Energy that can be spent for bonus damage.

Row 7:

• Tiger’s Tenacity (was Eye of Fearful Symmetry) changed to a 1 point talent and moved to be part of a choice node with Raging Fury (look at that choice icon!). Now causes Tiger’s Fury to grant 1 combo point after your next 3 finishers (up from 1 for your next 2 for each point).

Row 8:

• Frantic Momentum changed to a 2 point talent and moved to row 8. Now grants a 3%/6% chance per combo point spent to increase your Haste by 10% for 6 sec.
• Cat’s Curiosity now recovers 25% of energy cost for abilities it affects for each point, up from 15%.

Row 9:

• Convoke the Spirits can no longer cast Tiger’s Fury.
• Soul of the Forest now grants 3 Energy per combo point spent, down from 5.
• Rip and Tear: Applying Rip to a target applies a Tear that deals 6% of the new Rip’s damage over 6 seconds. (Was a flat amount.)

Row 10:

• Moved Feral Frenzy & Apex Predator’s Craving to row 10 and added some routing options.
• Unbridled Swarm is now a single point talent and grants a 60% chance for swarms to split.
• Ashamane’s Guidance now also reduces Convoke the Spirit’s cooldown by 50%.

Renamed Talents

• Improved Bleeds is now Merciless Strikes
• Ferocious Frenzy is now Rampant Ferocity
• Eye of Fearful Symmetry is now Tiger’s Tenacity
• Bite Force is now Lion’s Strength

Removed Talents

• Scent of Blood

Thanks again for all of your testing and feedback. It’s especially valuable to read about the builds you create, the thoughts that go into your decisions, and what you experience when trying to build for a certain strategy.

Hello Restoration Druids!

We’ve made a few adjustments to the updated Restoration Druid tree based on recent feedback, and we’d like to discuss the upcoming changes you can expect to see.

Node Positioning:

We’ve changed the positioning of a few key nodes to better reflect their power level. For example, Nurturing Dormancy will be moving below Gate 2 and Rampant Growth will be moving above Gate 2. These shifts are also intended to open a few improved pathing options for builds that may have seen some pathways particularly limiting.

Final Gate:

The positioning of nodes in the final gate has changed quite a bit. Much of the same structure is in place, but there are more connections between nodes. We felt it was better to have nodes always leading you further down in this case. Unbridled Swarm has also been reduced to a 1-point node with its full effect.

Cenarius’ Guidance:

The last Not Yet Implented (NYI) spell on the Restoration Druid tree will be ready for testing in the next build. Like the Feral Druid tree, this restores the full functionality of the Celestial Spirits legendary as well as offering a bonus to Incarnation: Tree of Life depending on your choice in the preceding node.

Here’s a look at the new layout:

• Cenarius’ Guidance. New Talent, row 9. During Incarnation: Tree of Life, you gain Clearcasting every 6 sec. The cooldown of Incarnation: Tree of Life is reduced by 1.5 seconds when Lifebloom blooms or 1.0 seconds when Regrowth’s initial heal critically strikes. Convoke the Spirits’ cooldown is reduced by 50% and its duration and number of spells cast is reduced by 25%. Convoke the Spirits has an increased chance to use an exceptional spell or ability.

We really appreciate the feedback you’ve provided. Thanks again!

Enhancement Shaman,

A minor change is coming next week for Elemental Blast and Lava Burst interactions in the Enhancement Shaman tree.

Elemental Blast and Lava Burst on their own are not changing. If you take both talents, Elemental Blast will replace Lava Burst, and Elemental Blast will have 2 charges.

Elemental Blast and Lava burst are not changing for Elemental Shaman, they will remain separate spells. This is an Enhancement specific change.

Hunters,

We wanted to discuss some changes coming in a build next week.

Class Tree:

• Nesingwary’s Trapping Apparatus has been removed.
• Serrated Shots has moved to where Nesingwary’s Trapping Apparatus was.
• Sentinel Owl and the choice node below it have moved up 1 row.
  • Sentinel Owl and its choice node are no longer NYI, but still have some issues to be work out.
  • Sentinel’s Wisdom has changed in design. It now grants your party 5% leech and 10% magic damage reduction (everything except Physical) while the Sentinel Owl is active.
• Binding Shot is now a 3 sec stun (see earlier post about Binding Shot)
• New 1-point Talent: Entrapment. When your Tar Trap is activated, all enemies in the Tar Trap’s area are rooted for 4 sec. This root can break from taking damage, and is magic dispellable.

Beast Mastery

• Wailing Arrow silence lowered from 5 to 3 sec, and the tooltip now clarifies it only silences non-player targets.
• Qa’pla, Eredun War Order should now work.
• The pet damage reduction from Animal Companion no longer reduces the damage dealt by other summoned creatures. How Animal Companion pet damage modifier works with Call of the Wild is still being worked out.

Marksmanship

• Lone Wolf and Hunter’s Knowledge have swapped spots again.
• Wailing Arrow silence lowered from 5 to 3 sec, and the tooltip now clarifies it only silences non-player targets.

Have a nice weekend!