This morning we have a smaller list of hotfixes for various bugs including one that should punish those who leave Rated Solo Shuffle early.
On the Dragonflight Beta side of things Blizzard announced an increase in earned rating for keys at 11 and higher to offset the increased difficulty as well as an increase in player health and creature damage at level 70.
November 2, 2022
Classes
- Druid
- Guardian
- Fixed an issue that prevented Scintillating Moonlight from reducing damage taken.
- Guardian
- Monk
- Mistweaver
- Clouded Focus now correctly buffs the Enveloping Mist healing from Tear of Morning.
- Mistweaver
- Paladin
- Fixed an issue preventing Avenging Wrath nodes from being draggable from the talent pane.
- Warlock
- Affliction
- Malefic Affliction is now applied to the caster rather than an enemy target for easier tracking.
- Fixed an issue where Dread Touch was not correctly being applied.
- Fixed an issue where Doom Blossom was not gaining an increased chance of occurring from your stack count of Malefic Affliction.
- Demonology
- Fixed an issue where Annihilan Training would not be reapplied to your Felguard if learned while your Felguard was active.
- Affliction
Player versus Player
- Players who leave Rated Solo Shuffle early now are appropriately penalized.
Quests
- Fixed an issue where the quest “A One-Way Ticket to the Heart” couldn’t be completed
Wrath of the Lich King Classic
- Achievements
- The Battlemaster achievement should now correctly grant the Battlemaster title.
Mythic+ Difficulty and Rating Adjustments
As we previously noted, we’ve increased the difficulty of Mythic+ dungeons at keystone 10 and higher in Dragonflight, to better match the quality of rewards offered by those difficulties.
Following testing and feedback, and considering how much players enjoy pursuing Keystone Master as a seasonal goal, we’ve decided to make an adjustment to grant additional Mythic+ Rating for keys above Level 10:
- M+ keys at each keystone level from 11 and up are now worth an additional 2 points of Rating. For example, in Shadowlands Season 4, completing a dungeon exactly on time on both Fortified and Tyrannical would net you a Rating of 250 for that dungeon. In Dragonflight Season 1, you will now earn 270 Rating.
This means that while keys above Level 10 will become more difficult and you may not be able to push as high as you did in recent Shadowlands seasons, you’ll achieve Keystone Master at lower keystones. We expect players who previously earned this achievement to find the challenge about the same as before.
Thank you very much for your testing and feedback!
Changes to Player Health and Creature Damage at level 70
Throughout raid testing in the Dragonflight beta, we have noticed that healing has felt too powerful in level 70 content. This has largely been the result of the impact that 10 additional talent points can have on player damage and healing throughput at level 70.
Generally, we increase player health at the same rate as throughput. This ensures that the pace of the game feels relatively consistent across all levels. One recent example is the covenant renown reward, Deepening Bond, that increased player Stamina by 10% to offset the power gains of Covenant abilities, soulbinds and conduits. After further analysis and playtesting, we have decided that in an upcoming build we will bake the 10% increase to Stamina from Deepening Bond into the base stats of level 60 characters to offset power gained from the new talent system and change Deepening Bond to an increase to movement speed in the Shadowlands.
When damage mitigation abilities and healing are too strong relative to player health, the only way to threaten players is to make enemy damage very high and spiky. If healers can very quickly top off their teammates and mana isn’t a limiting factor, enemies have to be tuned to have the capacity to do burst damage that kills players before healers can react. That isn’t very satisfying gameplay. Increasing player health gives players more time to react to incoming damage, and it make players’ choices about cooldowns and mana management more meaningful.
To address this, we are increasing player stamina and creature damage by 40% at level 70 . This has an effect on the power of healing in PvP, so we will subsequently evaluate and consider adjusting the PvP trinket set bonus values and the tuning of Dampening in Arena. We’re also looking at how this change affects the balance of percentage-based healing versus other healing spells, and we’ll make targeted adjustments there if necessary.
We look forward to your feedback and experiences with these changes on the Dragonflight beta. Thank you!