Hotfixes: December 12 2022, Arena Map Pools and Rotation, Dragonflight Season 1 Content Update Notes

December 12, 2022

Classes

• Death Knight
  • Blood
    • [With weekly restarts] Blood Fortification no longer reduces damage taken (was 10% damage reduction).
• Demon Hunter
  • [With weekly restarts] Fixed an issue that unintentionally permitted Fodder to the Flame’s heal effect to crit.
  • [With weekly restarts] The Hunt now heals for 10%/20% (as Havoc/Vengeance) of damage dealt to the marked target for 20 seconds (was 25%/50% for 30 seconds).
  • [With weekly restarts] Charred Warblades now heals for 3% of Fire damage dealt (was 5%).
  • Havoc
    • [With weekly restarts] Essence Break damage reduced by 8%.
  • Vengeance
    • [With weekly restarts] Demonic Wards Rank 1 and Rank 2 passives have been removed, reducing Demonic Wards total damage reduction to 10% (was 20% damage reduction).
• Druid
  • Guardian
    • [With weekly restarts] Ursine Adept no longer reduces damage taken (was 10% damage reduction).
• Mage
  • Frost
    • Fixed an issue that caused Frigid Winds to not correctly benefit Freezing Cold’s snare.
• Monk
  • Brewmaster
    • [With weekly restarts] Brewmaster’s Balance no longer reduces damage taken (was 10% damage reduction).
• Paladin
  • Protection
    • [With weekly restarts] Aegis of Light no longer reduces damage taken (was 10% damage reduction).
• Priest
  • Shadow
    • [With weekly restarts] Vampiric Touch healing reduced to 30% of damage dealt (was 50%).
    • [With weekly restarts] Devouring Plague healing reduced to 30% of damage dealt (was 50%).
• Rogue
  • [With weekly restarts] Leeching Poison leech bonus reduced to 5% (was 10%).
  • Assassination
    • [With weekly restarts] Poison Bomb chance to trigger reduced to 4/8% (was 5/10%).
    • Fixed an issue that prevented Cut to the Chase from benefitting from Echoing Reprimand’s Animacharged combo points.
    • Fixed an issue that would cause Garrote to fail to apply to all targets if one target was immune, when cast with Indiscriminate Carnage.
  • Outlaw
    • [With weekly restarts] Dispatch damage increased by 5%.
    • [With weekly restarts] Pistol Shot damage reduced by 6%.
  • Subtlety
    • [With weekly restarts] Black Powder damage reduced by 5%.
    • [With weekly restarts] Fixed an issue that caused Secret Technique to interact incorrectly with Cold Blood.
• Warlock
  • [With weekly restarts] Fel Synergy now causes Soul Leech to heal you for 15% of the absorption it grants (was 25%).
  • [With weekly restarts] Soul Leech now grants shields up to 5% of maximum health (was 10%).
  • [With weekly restarts] Demon Skin now increases Soul Leech’s absorption up to 10% of maximum health (was 15%).
• Warrior
  • Fury
    • [With weekly restarts] Gushing Wound damage and healing reduced by 10%.
    • [With weekly restarts] Bloodthirst damage increased by 1%.
    • [With weekly restarts] Bloodbath damage increased by 1%.
      • Developers’ note: Bloodthirst and Bloodbath damage has been increased to compensate for the Gushing Wound damage reduction.
  • Protection
    • [With weekly restarts] Vanguard no longer reduces damage taken (was 5% damage reduction).
    • [With weekly restarts] Defensive Stance reduced to 15% damage reduction (was 20%). Damage reduction remains unchanged at 10% effectiveness in PvP.
    • [With weekly restarts] Demoralizing Shout now reduces damage taken by 20% (was 25%).
    • [With weekly restarts] Ignore Pain now ignores 50% of damage taken (was 55%).

Dungeons and Raids

• The Nokhud Offensive
  • Fixed an issue causing the dragonriding tutorial message to appear in Maruukai after Balakar Khan had been defeated.
  • Nokhud Longbow’s Multi-Shot’s damage reduced by 71%.
  • Nokhud Hornsounder health reduced by 12%.
  • Nokhud Hornsounder’s Rally the Clan frequency slightly reduced and its cast time slightly increased.
  • Unstable Squall no longer casts Violent Dispersion on death.
  • Nokhud Defender no longer casts Bloodcurdling Shout in Normal and Heroic difficulty.
  • Nokhud Defender’s Bloodcurdling Shout frequency slightly reduced.
  • Nokhud Thunderfist’s Deadly Thunder frequency slightly reduced.
  • Batak’s Bloodcurdling Shout frequency reduced.
  • Soulharvesters’ Shatter Soul will now spawn souls closer to the players targeted with the ability.
  • Granyth
    • Reduced the spawn rate of Nokhud Saboteur on Mythic difficulty.
  • The Raging Tempest
    • Primal Stormshield’s health reduced by 23%.
    • Primal Stormshield’s Stormshield frequency slightly reduced.

Player versus Player

• [With weekly restarts] Medals of Honor can no longer be used if the honor it grants would put you over the honor cap.
• [With weekly restarts] Victorious Contender’s Strongbox is now available to Level 70 players from Seltherex in Valdrakken for 5,000 Honor.
• Classes
  • Death Knight
    • Blood
      • [With weekly restarts] Blood for Blood increases the damage of Heart Strike by 30% (was 60%).
      • [With weekly restarts] Shattering Bone damage reduced by 25% in PvP combat.
  • Demon Hunter
    • [With weekly restarts] Sigil of Misery PvP duration reduced to 4 seconds (was 5 seconds).
    • [With weekly restarts] Concentrated Sigils duration increase value reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
    • [With weekly restarts] Precise Sigils duration increase value reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
    • [With weekly restarts] Extended Sigils duration increase value reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
    • [With weekly restarts] Fodder to the Flame heal effect reduced by 40% in PvP combat.
    • Havoc
      • [With weekly restarts] Consume Soul heal effect when consuming a Demon Soul reduced by 60% in PvP combat.
      • [With weekly restarts] Essence Break damage reduced by 20% in PvP combat.
  • Druid
    • Guardian
      • [With weekly restarts] Moonfire damage reduced by 20% in PvP combat.
      • [With weekly restarts] Thrash damage reduced by 20% in PvP combat.
      • [With weekly restarts] Brambles damage reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
      • [With weekly restarts] Rage of the Sleeper reflect damage reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
      • [With weekly restarts] After the Wildfire healing reduced by 40% in PvP combat.
      • [With weekly restarts] Sharpened Claws increases the damage of Thrash and Swipe by 10% in PvP combat (was 25%).
      • [With weekly restarts] Tooth and Claw increases the damage of Maul by 20% in PvP combat (was 40%).
  • Mage
    • Fire
      • [With weekly restarts] Combustion can no longer be dispelled.
        • Developers’ note: We feel that the counterplay to Combustion, a major self-cast offensive cooldown, did not feel appropriate as it was easily dispelled. We are hoping with this change that it will prompt more creative solutions to counterplay the ability. We didn’t want to make this change previously, due to balance concerns, but now feel it is an appropriate time to bring it in line with other major cooldowns.
  • Paladin
    • Protection
      • [With weekly restarts] Word of Glory healing reduced by 30% in PvP combat.
      • [With weekly restarts] Light of the Titans healing reduced by 40% in PvP combat.
      • [With weekly restarts] Guardian of the Forgotten Queen cooldown increased to 5 minutes.
  • Priest
    • [With weekly restarts] Vampiric Touch and Devouring Plague healing are no longer reduced in PvP combat.
  • Rogue
    • [With weekly restarts] Soothing Darkness heal effect reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
    • Assassination
      • [With weekly restarts] Hemotoxin (PvP Talent) healing reduction effect reduced to 35% (was 40%).
    • Subtlety
      • [With weekly restarts] The Rotten damage bonus for Backstab and Shadowstrike reduced to 30% in PvP combat (was 50%).
        • Developers’ note: Shadowstrike was hitting too hard, leaving minimum room for counterplay for opponents and taking too much damage in a single stun.
  • Warrior
    • Fury
      • [With weekly restarts] Bloodthirst now restores 2% of your health in PvP combat (was 3%).
      • [With weekly restarts] Slaughterhouse now decreases healing taken by 3% per stack (was 5% per stack).
      • [With weekly restarts] Slaughterhouse now stacks up to 12 times (was 8 times).
      • [With weekly restarts] Slaughterhouse duration increased to 9 seconds (was 6 seconds).
      • [With weekly restarts] Slaughterhouse duration is no longer refreshed when adding stacks.
    • Protection
      • [With weekly restarts] Shield Charge damage reduced by 25% in PvP combat.
      • [With weekly restarts] Booming Voice now increases the damage you deal by 10% in PvP combat (was 20%).
• Solo Shuffle
  • [With weekly restarts] With Season 1’s start, the minimum PvP item level to queue for Rated Solo Shuffle is 408.

Professions

• Jewelcrafting
  • [With weekly restarts] Stats granted by the Elemental Lariat’s equip effect reduced by 5% and it can no longer have multiple bonuses up simultaneously. This change does not negatively impact proc rates or buff uptime.
    • Developers’ note: Many players have their sights set on the Elemental Lariat as one of their first Spark of Ingenuity crafts as it becomes available tomorrow. Upon further investigation, this turned out to be slightly stronger than intended and we have adjusted it to better match our expectations. We wanted to ensure these changes were in before players invested their valuable resources into acquiring it so everyone can make an informed decision about whether to create this item.

User Interface and Accessibility

• Fixed an issue where hidden spells in Azmerloth were being printed in the combat log.

With the introduction of Nokhudon Proving Grounds as a new Arena map in Dragonflight, we’ve hit 15 total Arena maps that are available when players queue up. We feel that this is a large number to have in the pool at once and waters down a map’s impact in an Arena experience. That being said, we think it will be interesting and fun to divide up the maps into a rotation to keep the pool dynamic for players.

We feel a weekly cadence ensures players will see their favorite maps frequently during a season. Additionally, the decision for 8-map pools was made to compact the rotation so players will be able to more easily refine strategy on certain maps with specific compositions within a week.

After working with a few combinations, the iteration we will be implementing for Dragonflight Season 1 will be a rotation of 3 buckets with 8 maps each, that captured all our current maps:

While discussing internally what the map pools should look like, there were various factors we looked at to divide the maps up to be as fair as possible. The factors we looked at within each pool included map size (large and small), map line of sight placement (symmetrical pillars, Z-axis, or other variants), and to keep the new map in each rotation, which in Season 1 of Dragonflight is Nokhudon Proving Grounds.

Note: The map pools will be available in Rated Arena and Arena Skirmishes only at this time, Rated Solo Shuffle and Solo Shuffle Brawl will not have rotating map pools.

We look forward to hearing about your experiences with this rotation in Season 1.

VAULT OF THE INCARNATES RAID

The Primalists breached the Titan prison used to hold the Incarnates for millennia. Within, Raszageth performs a foul ritual to unleash her siblings, so together they can purge the world of the Titans’ influence. The champions of Azeroth must assault this impregnable fortress and break their defenses to end this threat. While many could fall, defeat condemns all the realms to the Incarnates’ reign of fire and blood. There is no map available for this zone.

Vault of the Incarnates is the first raid players will experience in Dragonflight, featuring eight all-new boss encounters: Eranog, Terros, The Primal Council, Sennarth, the Cold Breath, Dathea, Ascended, Kurog Grimtotem, Broodkeeper Diurna, and Raszageth the Storm-Eater.

Raid release schedule:

• Week of December 12: Normal, Heroic, and Mythic Vault of the Incarnates will open with the weekly maintenance for each region
• Week of December 19: Vault of the Incarnates Raid Finder Wing 1: The Primal Bulwark (Eranog, Dathea Ascended, and The Primal Council)
• Week of January 2: Vault of the Incarnates Raid Finder Wing 2: Caverns of Infusion (Kurog Grimtotem, Sennarth, the Cold Breath, and Terros)
• Week of January 16: Vault of the Incarnates Raid Finder Wing 3: Fury of the Storm (Broodkeeper Diurna, and Raszageth the Storm-Eater)

Hall of Fame entries will require at least 16 out of 20 raiders from the same guild and faction to be eligible for rewards. Cross-realm will unlock later in the season.

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PRIMALIST CLASS ARMOR SETS

Earn bonuses to your abilities based on your specialization when equipping two Primalist set pieces and four Primalist set pieces. Class armor sets drop from certain bosses in the Vault of the Incarnates raid and are available in the Great Vault by completing the weekly raid, Rated PvP, and Mythic+ dungeon requirements.

The Inspiration Catalyst used to turn non-set pieces of the appropriate slot into a new armor set piece of the same item level will be available later in Season 1.

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FOUR NEW WORLD BOSSES

Four new World Bosses are raging through the Dragon Isles and will be on a weekly rotation: Basrikron, the Shale Wing, Bazual, the Dreaded Flame, Liskanoth, the Futurebane, and Strunraan, the Sky’s Misery.

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PRIMAL STORMS

The Primalists are calling forth the harsh elements once again and causing Primal Storms to sweep across the Dragon Isles to destroy everything in their wake.

Collect Elemental Overflow from primal storms and spend it with Mythressa in Valdrakken to earn a full set of item level 359 armor for your class and specialization, Stormie and Ghostflame pets, and the Stormhide Salamanther mount. Enemies in each storm (Earth, Fire, Air, and Water) have a chance to drop their Primal Core which can be redeemed for 1 Storm Sigil each week from Rethelshi in Valdrakken that can be used to upgrade your gear to item level 385.

Additionally, the Unstable Elemental Confluence heirloom trinket and the Bag of Furious Winds toy make their return. Defeat unique enemies in Primal Storms for a chance at the Dimmed Primeval element heirloom items and the toy.

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MYTHIC+ SEASON 1

Dragonflight Season 1 will feature a new dungeon rotation for Mythic+. Four dungeons from Dragonflight are included, and four returning dungeons from previous expansions. Here’s the full lineup:

• Ruby Life Pools
• The Nokhud Offensive
• The Azure Vault
• Algeth’ar Academy
• Halls of Valor (from the Legion™ expansion)
• Court of Stars (from the Legion™ expansion)
• Shadowmoon Burial Grounds (from the Warlords of Draenor™ expansion)
• Temple of the Jade Serpent (from the Mists of Pandaria™ expansion)
• There will be no loot caps for Mythic+ on the first week, as Mythic Vault of the Incarnates will open simultaneously.

The seasonal dungeon affix is Thundering: Enemies have 5% more health. While in combat, players are periodically overcharged with primal power from Raszageth’s unending storm. This power comes with great risk, and failure to discharge it quickly can have stunning consequences.

Seasonal rewards for Mythic+ include the two new titles: “the Thundering” and “the Thundering Hero”, the Hailstorm Armoredon mount, and dungeon teleports.

The weekly Valor cap will start at 1500 and increase by 750 per week.

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NEW ARENA: NOKHUDON PROVING GROUNDS

Within Clan Nokhud’s stronghold are their Proving Grounds, where the centaurs compete to be named the clan’s greatest warrior. Compete for glory in this new Arena that has a unique gameplay layout, utilizing ramps, pillars and a middle wall to break your opponents’ line of sight.

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ARENA SEASON 1

Dragonflight Season 1 introduces a weekly map pool rotation for Rated and Skirmish Arenas to keep matches exciting and fresh week to week.

The seasonal rewards for PvP include a new Arena title: “Crimson Gladiator”, Crimson’s Gladiator’s Drake, Dragonriding Appearance: Highland Drake: Embodiment of the Crimson Gladiator, a new weapon illusion, pennant, tabard and cloak, achievements, and new Vicious mounts–Alliance and Horde themed Sabertooth.

Just like in Rated Battlegrounds and Arenas, Rated Solo Shuffle players can earn seasonal rewards and achievements, credit towards Vicious mounts, weekly Great Vault progress, and Conquest with rewards being based on the highest rating amongst all of a player’s specializations. Players will earn all seasonal titles and achievements that they would normally in Rated Arenas, with the exception of Gladiator and its associated reward, and the top 0.1% of Rated Solo Shuffle players will earn the title “Crimson Soloist.”

The weekly Conquest cap will start at 1350 and increase by 550 per week.

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ITEMS AND REWARDS

• Kyrakka’s Searing Embers effect now triggers more often.
• Irideus Fragment’s Mastery granted per stack has been reduced.
• Tome of Unstable Power radius increased to 8 yards (was 5 yards).
• Integrated Primal Fire cooldown reduced to 2 minutes (was 3 minutes). Damage adjusted to compensate.

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To view all content update notes, click here.