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Hotfixes: December 15 2022, A Message From Warcraft

It’s time for another round of hotfixes with some small dungeon tuning, bugfixes and adjustments in PvP. Blizzard also announced last night that the one and only Chris Metzen will be rejoining Blizzard in an advisory capacity for Warcraft!

Quote from: Blizzard

December 15, 2022

Classes

  • Druid
    • Balance
      • Orbital Strike’s targeting reticle will now match the radius of the damage spell.
      • Orbital Strike will now damage targets that are on top of or behind the Druid.
      • Umbral Embrace will now appear on the Personal Resource Display.
  • Hunter
    • Survival
      • Fixed an issue with Ruthless Marauder incorrectly affecting the damage of Fury of the Eagle.
      • Fury of the Eagle damage increased by 115%, which should keep the damage of Fury of the Eagle roughly the same as it was when talented into 3/3 Ruthless Marauder.
  • Paladin
    • Retribution
      • Fixed an issue that prevented Divine Purpose from being gained from Radiant Decree casts.
  • Priest
    • Fixed an issue causing Inner Light from Inner Light and Shadow to not reduce the mana cost of several spells.
  • Rogue
    • Assassination
      • Fixed an issue that prevented Exsanguinate cooldown from resetting after encounters.

Dungeons and Raids

  • Algeth’ar Academy
    • Echo of Doragosa
      • Adjusted the number of Overwhelming Power applications required to create an Arcane Rift to 3 (was 4).
        • Developers’ note: This ability is taking longer than expected to come into play during the encounter, making the encounter less engaging than desired.
  • Halls of Infusion
      • Proto-Dragons now have more consistent movement when positioning themselves around a player.
  • Vault of the Incarnates
    • Fixed an issue where items with a profession skill requirement could be rolled on by anyone when using Group Loot.
    • Eranog
      • Fixed an issue causing Primal Flames to sometimes turn in unexpected ways during Stage Two.
    • Terros
      • Fixed an issue that could prevent Druid’s Convoke the Spirits from striking Terros at the appropriate range.
    • Dathea, Ascended
      • Fixed an issue causing Shaman Windfury Totem and Earthen Wall Totem to not apply correctly during the encounter.
      • Fixed an issue causing Warlock’s Demonic Gateway to incorrectly change its location during the encounter.
    • Broodkeeper Diurna
      • Added a personal notification when a player is targeted by Empowered Greatstaff’s Wrath.
      • Fixed an issue where Primalist Reinforcements’ spawn location indicator may be overlapped with another.

Items and Rewards

  • Fixed an issue where Rumbling Ruby would not trigger from certain melee attacks.
  • Fixed an issue where Desperate Invoker’s Codex did not have its current cooldown reduced when gaining stacks of Hatred. Now, if Desperate Invoker’s Codex is on cooldown, gaining a stack of Hatred will reduce it by one second.

Mythic+

  • Fixed an issue with the Thundering affix that caused Primal Overload to trigger after a keystone dungeon has been completed.
  • Fixed an issue where some players were unable to loot a Mythic+ Keystone.
  • Fixed an issue where players’ saved Mythic Keystone level was not properly upgraded when running a Mythic+ dungeon that originated in a previous expansion.
  • The Nokhud Offensive
    • Balakar Khan
      • Players pulled by Static Spear are no longer affected by Quaking.
  • Shadowmoon Burial Grounds
    • Fixed an issue where a Shadowmoon Burial Grounds Mythic+ group could default to Challenge difficulty when listed in the Group Finder.
    • Shadowmoon Dominator’s Domination can now be interrupted by stun and knockback effects.

Player versus Player

  • Classes
    • Rogue
      • Assassination
        • Fixed an issue that caused poisons to be removed when entering Arenas if talented into Dragon-Tempered Blades.
    • Warlock
      • The following spells are no longer usable while silenced: Call Fel Lord, Demonic Strength, Guillotine, Inquisitor’s Gaze, Shadowflame, Soulburn, Soul Strike, Soul Swap, and Soul Tap.
      • Summon Soulkeeper is no longer castable while moving and can now be interrupted.
      • Fel Domination and Soul Strike are now classified as Shadow magic.
      • Dimensional Rift and Summon Soulkeeper are now classified as Chaos magic.
      • Burning Rush and Summon Infernal are now classified as Fire magic.
      • Guillotine and Inquisitor’s Gaze are now classified as Shadowflame magic.
  • Items
    • Victorious Contender’s Strongboxes are now awarded after every 4 wins in a given bracket.
    • Victorious Contender’s Strongboxes now correctly drop a scaling amount of Primal Chaos based on PvP rating from the match the box was earned from.
    • Fixed an issue that prevented Primal Focus and Concentrated Primal Focus reagents from having a chance to drop for players at Rival II or higher if the match it was earned from was at an appropriate rating.
    • Significantly increased the drop rate of Infurious recipes.
  • Solo Shuffle
    • Made some adjustments to Rated Solo Shuffle matchmaking to have more evenly matched games. We will continue to monitor these matches and look for ways to make further improvements as necessary.

Primal Storms

  • Elite enemies that are spawned during Primal Storms will no longer despawn if their corresponding storm ends and they are in combat.
  • The map marker for the Elemental Storm in the Cobalt Assembly has been moved to be more visible.

Professions

  • Engineering
    • Fixed an issue that caused Primal Deconstruction Charge to cost 1 Awakened Fire instead of 1 Rousing Fire.
    • Fixed an issue that prevented Grease Grenade from being craftable.
    • Fixed an issue that prevented EZ-Thro bombs from being discoverable when specialized into EZ-Thro.
    • Increased the chance of discovering new epic bracer recipes when crafting rare goggles and the P.E.W. x2 for specialized Engineers.
    • Significantly increased the chance of discovering Safety Components when a Tinker malfunctions for specialized Engineers.
    • Slightly lowered the chance to experience a catastrophic malfunction when using Tinkers.

Quests

  • Valdrakken
    • Alexstrasza will now always be available in Valdrakken for players to turn in “Moving On.”
    • “To Valdrakken” will now point you to Alexstrasza’s location if she has left Valdrakken.
    • Added paragon reputation tracking to “Aiding the Accord” quests early. We didn’t anticipate the commitment some players have to digging holes for reputation.

A Message From Warcraft

Quote from: Blizzard

Citizens of Azeroth,

It is with great joy that I announce Chris Metzen has joined the Warcraft Leadership Team as Creative Advisor. Chris’s focus initially will be on World of Warcraft, then his work will expand to other projects across this growing franchise.

Chris was one of the original team members working on the Warcraft universe back when it began in 1994, and we are so happy to be reuniting him with the world he helped create.

John Hight
General Manager, Warcraft

Hotfixes: 14 December 2022, Tailoring Cooldown Suspensions and Reversals

This morning’s hotfixes include all areas of the game again from PvP to Mythic+ and Raiding to world content, there’s something fixes for everyone! Blizzard also posted an explanation about a recent banwave surrounding Tailoring and has said most bans would be reversed.

Quote from: Blizzard

December 14, 2022

Achievements

  • Fixed an issue where the achievement All Bark, All Bite was not being granted consistently.

Classes

  • Paladin
    • Protection
      • Fixed an issue that prevented Final Stand from taunting Terros in the Vault of the Incarnates.
    • Retribution
      • Fixed an issue that caused Divine Storm to consume both Fires of Justice and Empyrean Power from a single cast.
  • Shaman
    • Fixed several issues with Totemic Recall:
      • Fixed an issue when using the Creation Core choice node talent where if you had used the same totem twice in a row after using a different totem, the talent would only reset the cooldown of the totem you most recently used twice in a row.
      • Fixed an issue where Mana Spring Totem was improperly being counted as a valid totem to have its cooldown reset.
      • Fixed an issue where pressing Totemic Recall when you had not used any valid totem spells at all would put the Totemic Recall ability on cooldown.
    • Elemental
      • Fixed an issue where the Improved Flametongue Weapon talent’s benefit could be retained without having Flametongue Weapon active on your weapon.
  • Warlock
    • Affliction
      • Soul Tap now sacrifices 5% of your Soul Leech (was 8%).

Creatures and NPCs

  • The Waking Shores
    • Fixed an issue where some of Lorena Belle’s dialogue options would sometimes disappear.

Dungeons and Raids

  • Brackenhide Hollow
    • Fixed an issue where abilities that remove roots may not remove Teeth Traps.
    • Fixed an issue where players would not get the Subscribed to Hyena Facts achievement if they were dead when the final fact is learned, because sometimes the most important hyena facts are learned through death. Such as that Spotted Hyenas successfully hunt and kill over 90% of the prey they eat and rarely scavenge.
    • Fixed an issue where some gnolls before Hackclaw’s War-Band would continue their non-combat animations while in combat.
  • Vault of the Incarnates
    • Fixed an issue where Flame Marshall’s Bulwark and Quake-Detecting Seismostaff had a significantly higher-than-average drop rate.
    • Delayed the spawn of the lava fish school until after the enemies before the Primal Council are cleared so players no longer prematurely lure out the Lurking Lunker living in lava for a less-than-lovely lead-in to the Primal Council.

Items and Rewards

  • Fixed an issue where Codex of the First Technique and Shard of Annhylde’s Aegis could scale past intended levels.
  • Fixed an issue where the Darkmoon Deck: Rime was dealing less AOE damage than expected.

Mythic+

  • Fixed an issue where Lindormi would not always grant a Mythic Keystone to eligible players.
    • Developers’ note: We are separately investigating an issue where players may occasionally not receive a Mythic Keystone when completing a Mythic or Mythic+ Dungeon, but if you are unable to acquire a keystone and have completed at least 1 Mythic+ dungeon since the launch of Dragonflight, Lindormi can assist you with a replacement.
  • Fixed an issue where several weekly dungeon specific quest items were missing from Mythic+ Challenger Chests.
  • Alegeth’ar Acadmey
    • Echo of Doragosa
      • Players pulled by Echo of Doragosa’s Power Vacuum are no longer affected by Quaking.
  • The Nokhud Offensive
    • The Quaking affix no longer affects players or their ride along passengers while on a Dragonriding mount.

Player versus Player

  • The Precognition PvP talent will no longer occasionally grant its buff even if the player was interrupted.
  • The Taivan’s Trumpet toy can no longer be used in arena.
  • Gear item level 312 or higher will be scaled up to 359 in instanced PvP.
  • Classes
    • Demon Hunter
      • Fixed an issue that prevented Extended Sigil’s tooltip from displaying correct decimal values in PvP combat.
    • Priest
      • Shadow
        • Fixed an issue causing Psyfiend to be immune to magic removal effects.
        • Fixed an issue causing Psyfiend to not be healable.
        • Psyflay from Psyfiend is now more responsive when players line of sight or run out of range of the spell.
        • The duration of Psyflay now updates based on the remaining duration of Psyfiend for situations where the target runs out of range and back in range of the spell.
    • Warrior
      • Fury
        • Fixed an issue that allowed Slaughterhouse (PvP Talent) to be refreshed by other Warriors.
  • Solo Shuffle
    • Fixed an issue that could cause players to earn less Conquest than intended when matches were played on Maldraxxus Coliseum.

Quests

  • Alternates that reach level 70 should now be able to speak with Alexstrasza in the Seat of the Aspects and accept “To Tyrhold.”
  • Fixed an issue where quest marker for starting “Second Challenge of Tyr: Might” would not appear correctly, which caused confusion when players abandoned it and went back to Valdrakken in order to pick it up.
  • Thaldrazsus
    • Fixed an issue where Patient Vaargo wasn’t always able to properly trigger the Great Shellkhan rare in Thaldraszus.
    • Fixed an error on the tool tip for the Direct Apprentice extra action during the world quest “Salamanther’s Embrace.”
  • The Waking Shores
    • Fixed an issue where was Basrikron not appropriately granting kill credit.

Reputation

  • Cobalt Assembly
    • The power “Arcane Bravery” can now be dispelled and spellstolen. In addition, it now correctly makes the player immune to all damage, rather than to all effects.

Tailoring Cooldown Suspensions and Reversals

Quote from: Blizzard

Earlier this week we fixed a bug that had allowed Tailors to circumvent a long cooldown in Tailoring, and quickly ascertained that some players had done so a great deal, so we actioned those players in accordance with how much the exploit was used. Earlier today, after further investigation, we came to understand that some of those we suspended likely didn’t have a deliberate intent to exploit and were simply doing something that appeared to be naturally available. As a result, we’ve now reversed most of these suspensions, so that only the most egregious cases remain penalized.

As a result of this, we’ve heard a lot of feedback about the crafting UI and tooltips therein, and we’re looking into improvements that we can make there in a future patch.

Thank you for your understanding.

Hotfixes: December 13 2022, An Update on Bind-on-Equip items

Today’s hotfixes is a very last list covering just about everything in the game. From bugfixes to tuning changes to professions and reputations, there’s plenty for everyone! Blizzard also posted an update on BoEs in the Vault of the Incarnates, explaining not all changes they wanted to make could be done in time for Season 1 to start.

Quote from: Blizzard

December 13, 2022

Achievements

  • Fixed an issue where The Best at What I Do could get stuck at 29/30 progress.
  • Defeating enemies empowered by elemental storms in The Primalist Future will now correctly count towards the following achievements: Thunderstorms in Thaldrazsus, Sandstorms in Thaldraszus, Firestorms in Thaldraszus, and Snowstorms in Thaldrawszus.

Classes

  • Rogue
    • Fixed an issue that caused Nightstalker to provide a damage bonus larger than intended for some skills under certain conditions.

Dungeons and Raids

  • Brakenhide Hollow
    • Fixed an issue in Brackenhide Hollow where after a soft reset, enemies would respawn and gates would be closed even if bosses linked to them were defeated.
    • Fixed an issue where Rotbow Stalker’s Bone Bolt Volley was targeting pets.
  • Halls of Infusion
    • The wave gauntlet before Primal Tsunami received multiple adjustments so that it is less punishing.
    • Primal Tsunami
      • Using Shadowstep or Shadowstrike no longer places the Rogue so close to the Primal Tsunami causing them to get them knocked back.
  • The Nokhud Offensive
    • Stormcaller’s Fury now affects a smaller space around Nokhudon Hold.
    • Players can no longer use dragonriding abilities inside Nokhudon Hold while the Nokhudon Stormcallers are active.
    • Fixed an issue causing players to sometimes be hit by Stormcaller’s Fury when double jumping or gliding.
    • Fixed an issue where Rally the Clan from Nokhud Hornsounder could incorrectly be interrupted.
    • Teera and Maruuk
      • Fixed an issue where pulling enemies to Teera and Maruuk during their roleplay sequence will cause them to reset.
    • Balakar Khan
      • Balakar Khan now moves more quickly.
      • Slightly increased the time between casts of Rending Strike, Savage Strike, Conductive Strike, and Thunder Strike.
      • Static Spear’s damage to targets in targeted area reduced by 30% and the damage dealt to all players reduced by 25%.
  • Ruby Life Pools
    • Fixed an issue that allowed Infernocore to function after Kyrakka is defeated.
    • Fixed an issue where Thunderhead’s Rolling Thunder could target distant players who are not in combat which could make running back after dying difficult.
    • The shield from Primalist Flamedancer’s Blaze of Glory is now a Magic effect and can be dispelled.
  • Vault of the Incarnates
    • Eranog
      • Increased the delay before Lava Flow inflicts damage to players.

Items and Rewards

  • Reduced Integrated Primal Fire’s cooldown to 2 minutes (was 3 minutes).
  • Rotten Rimefin Tuna no longer stacks.
  • Obsidian Collar is eligible for socket upgrades. This fix is retroactive and requires relogging.

Player versus Player

  • War Mode
    • Sparks of Life from honorable kills are no longer awarded while in a raid.

Professions

  • Reduced the chance of receiving a skill-up from recrafting by 60%.
  • Increased the number of skill points gained from crafting recipes involving Sparks of Ingenuity to 3 (was 1) to better reward you when doing so, and to make it easier to gain crafting skill beyond 50.
  • Lowered the amount of crafting orders needed for “[Profession] Services Requested.”
    • Blacksmithing, Tailoring, and Leatherworking reduced to 3 orders (was 5).
    • Engineering, Inscription, and Jewelcrafting reduced to 2 orders (was 5).
      • Developers’ note: To make it easier to satisfy the weekly crafting order quests, we have reduced the number of crafting orders that need to be fulfilled. The major armor professions have more recipes with orders, so for Blacksmithing, Leatherworking, and Tailoring, requirements have been reduced from 5 to 3. For Jewelcrafting, Inscription, and Engineering the requirements have been reduced from 5 to 2.
  • Alchemy
    • Alchemical Experimentation has received the following changes:
      • The success chance for all Experimentations has been slightly increased.
      • The failure rate for Basic Experimentation has been slightly reduced.
      • Failure now correctly grants loot, skill-ups, and consumes reagents.
      • You can no longer experience a failure twice in a row.
        • Developers’ note: One of the goals with alchemical experimentation was to present a unique and flavorful way of introducing recipes outside of usual reward outlets. We knew there would be players on either extreme (or both!) of the luck spectrum but hoped we could offer enough recipes early that players could feel able to carve out their own niche, while steadily progressing toward a broader array of products long-term. We feel that we were successful in capturing a fun fantasy, but agree with the sentiment that the gameplay needed some improvement. We will keep an eye on this topic going forward and may make additional changes in the future. Thank you for your continued feedback.
  • Engineering
      • Fixed an issue where recrafting P.E.W. x2 would not accept optional reagents.
  • Inscription
    • Fieldmaster Emberath in Valdrakken now offers scribes a set of Crimson Combatant PvP trinket recipes at the cost of Awakened Ire.
    • Fixed an issue where the Empower with Training Matrix optional reagent was not properly displayed on various Inscription weapons.
  • Jewelcrafting
    • Fixed an issue where recrafting Torc of Passed Time would not accept optional reagents.

Quests

  • Kryrian Covenant
    • Fixed some issues causing enemies in some Kyrian Covenant Campaign scenarios to not deal enough damage to level 70 players to complete the quest for a long time.
  • Obsidian Citadel
    • Osoria’s Assistance is now only usable outside of combat during “Hands Off Operation” and the damage has been reduced when targeting enemies that are not part of the quest.
    • Fixed an issue that caused “Wyrm Food” to not be completed if “Securing Our Legacy” or “Greatest of Threats” are turned in first.
  • Thaldraszus
    • Fixed an issue on the “Screechflight Scramble” quest line where Harleen Chirpsnide would phase out and block player progress.
    • Fixed an issue was fixed where changing water shoes on “Hydro Tuskarr” wasn’t working properly.
    • World Quests
      • Moved Glisteneing Salamanthers away from Eclipse Lake during “Hydro Tuskarr“ to prevent them from attacking players while on Iskaara Watergliders.
      • Fixed an issue with Iskaara Waterwalkers during “Hydro Thunder” where the extra action button for the Net quest item would not appear while using them.
  • Valdrakken
    • Fixed an issue with The Ruby Feast questline that was blocking players from advancing past the first day’s quests.
  • World Bosses
    • Basrikron
      • Fixed an issue with some players failing to receive credit for the world boss quest.
  • World Quests
    • The following reputation rewards have been increased:
      • Normal faction world quests increased to 150 reputation (was 100).
      • The larger elite world quests located at the major elite areas increased to 250 reputation (was 200).
      • The Tuskarr Fishing Frenzy world quests increased to 200 reputation (was 150).
      • The Dragonscale Expedition weekly “Wanted Poster” quests increased to 250 reputation for the non-dungeon quests (was 200).
        • Developers’ note: While we are not increasing the cadence on many of the Dragonflight World Quests, we are adjusting the reputation on some of the World Quests to help some of our players to better progress the weekly “Aiding the Accord” quests.

Reputation

  • Cobalt Assembly
    • The Cobalt Catch-Up power now appears less frequently after accumulating a certain number of powers, including stacked powers (was 100%).
      • Developers’ note: Cobalt Catch-Up (the power that refreshes duration on all powers) will never go away completely, but it will no longer be trivial to maintain insaneamounts of power by simply killing one creature every 5 minutes.
  • Iskaara Tuskar
    • Tavio in Iskaara is granting players who are 13+ renown 250 Iskaara Tuskarr reputation for each type of fishing upgrade reagent they bring him each week. He will continue to give 25 reputation for subsequent extra reagents as well.
    • Made some additional backend changes to “Community Feast” to reduce lag and improve performance.
    • Fixed an issue where the map marker for Iskaara was incorrectly showing that players can earn bonus rewards from the Community Feast after they have earned their Supply-Laden Soup Pot for the week.
    • Fixed an issue that caused Hunters to sometimes not see a reward on the quest “Cooking Utensils” offered by Lil Ki at Renown Rank 2.
    • The Tuskarr net clearing dailies now give 100 reputation (was 15).
    • Fixed an issue where “Community Feast” was not awarding credit while in a raid group.
    • Big Kinook’s recipe for soup has slightly changed, particularly when very large groups of players are helping out. As a side effect, it should be a little bit more difficult to get legendary quality soup.
    • Big Kinook is rewarding his assistant chefs more for a couple of his tasks during the Community Feast:
      • Fishing and Fetching Ingredient tasks increased to 40 reputation (was 25).
      • Protecting the soup from beasts will now give up to 60 reputation when you help defeat the beasts.
      • Luumak the Insatiable will reward 80 reputation when killed after reaching Legendary status on the soup.
      • Bisquis will now drop an additional 50 reputation each time he is killed on top of the 50 you get for killing him once each day.
      • Bisquis will give an additional 10 reputation each time you fill the legendary soup bar up to an additional 50. 150 reputation max.
  • Valdrakken Accord
    • The amount of renown required for the quest “Aiding the Accord” has been reduced to 3000 (was 4000).

An Update on Bind-on-Equip items from Vault of the Incarnates

Quote from: Blizzard

Hey folks, wanted to update you all on Raid Rewards changes we talked about a while back in this post during Beta. Unfortunately, due to a technical limitation, we had to pull Bind-on-Equip items being deterministic drops from the raid, as well as scaling with group size. While we’re still very much interested in making this happen in a future raid, there were too many risks involved for it to make it into Vault of the Incarnates. With these reversions, this is how BoEs work in the raid:

  • Bind-on-Equip items can come from regular enemies and Lieutenants like before, but have a higher chance to appear from LTs/Minibosses.
  • Enemies before the first boss, Eranog (as in enemies that can be killed from the ‘Bombing Run’ event & the Miniboss present), cannot drop Bind-on-Equip items.
  • As mentioned last week, on Mythic Difficulty only, Bind-on-Equip items are Bind-on-Pickup – this is temporary, and these items will change back a few weeks into the season.

As for everything else, we’re eager for your feedback on how Group Loot, scaling item level rewards & unique item rewards feel while raiding in Dragonflight! Good luck taking down Raszageth, and we’ll talk soon.

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

This morning’s hotfix notes include the class tuning going live with each region’s weekly reset, nerfs to The Nokhud Offensive dungeon and a nerf to the Jewelcrafting item Elemental Lariat. Blizzard also posted that in arenas maps will be on a weekly rotation aswell as gave a full overview of all content going live with the start of Season 1.

Quote from: Blizzard

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.

Arena Map Pools and Rotation

Quote from: Blizzard

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:

POOL A POOL B POOL C
Nagrand Arena Nagrand Arena Nagrand Arena
Dalaran Sewers Ruins of Lordaeron Hook Point
Tiger’s Peak Tiger’s Peak Tol’Viron Arena
Enigma Crucible Empyrean Domain Ashamane’s Fall
Empyrean Domain Blade’s Edge Arena The Robodrome
Ashamane’s Fall Maldraxxus Coliseum Mugambala
Maldraxxus Coliseum Black Rook Hold Arena Enigma Crucible
Nokhudon Proving Grounds Nokhudon Proving Grounds Nokhudon Proving Grounds

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.

Dragonflight Season 1 Content Update Notes

Quote from: Blizzard

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.

PRIMALIST CLASS ARMOR SETS

Death Knight Primalist Set
Demon Hunter Primalist Set
Druid Primalist Set
Evoker Primalist Set
Hunter Primalist Set
Mage Primalist Set
Monk Primalist Set
Paladin Primalist Set
Priest Primalist Set
Rogue Primalist Set
Shaman Primalist Set
Warlock Primalist Set
Warrior Primalist Set

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

To view all content update notes, click here.

Introducing the Trading Post!

Quote from: Blizzard

A new feature is making its way to World of Warcraft®*— the Trading Post! Complete monthly activities to earn currency toward decking out your characters in cosmetic transmogs, pets, and mounts— with new items and activities introduced every month. You’ll be able to experience this new feature soon on the PTR.

Shop at the Trader’s Corner

A new set of traders will be moving their wares into the capital cities of Stormwind and Orgrimmar—T&W (Tawny and Wilder) and Zen’shiri Trading Posts. You’ll find T&W just outside of the Mage District in Stormwind and the Zen’shiri Trading Post next to Grommash Hold in Orgrimmar. Our trader friends have pulled out all the stops and have set up their shop so you can view the new items of the month prominently on display right at their shop. They’ll have transmogs on mannequins, pets at their feet, and mounts secured in their stable. Speak to the traders to see this month’s wares.

A Home for Creative Cosmetics

There are a multitude of interesting transmog, pet, and mount possibilities in Azeroth, limited only by imagination. The Trading Post will serve as a home for many more items from across Azeroth— and beyond—and is not limited by the current game content. You can expect to see a variety of fun new items to add to your collection.

Opening the possibilities allows for a wide variety of different goods to be brought to the Trading Post and players can expect the unexpected in each month’s new catalogue!

How It Works

To obtain these unique cosmetic items, you will need to acquire a new account-wide currency called “Trader’s Tender.” This can be earned in two ways:

  • Automatically each month: Just by logging in and heading to the Trading Post, you can collect 500 Trader’s Tender every month from a chest called the Collector’s Cache.
  • By completing monthly activities in the Traveler’s Log: A monthly set of activities provides the opportunity to earn up to 500 additional Trader’s Tender.

We’ll be iterating on this new feature as we test on the PTR. The final Trader’s Tender amounts are subject to change.

Get Tender Every Month

At the first of each month, players with an active account in good standing will receive a set amount of Trader’s Tender automatically. If you don’t have active game time on your account or aren’t a subscriber at the start of a new month, don’t worry. Your Tender will be awarded the first day of the month when you do have game time or an active subscription. This will be the same amount for everyone, regardless of how you pay for your game time.

The Traveler’s Log

The second way to earn Trader’s Tender is to complete monthly activities listed in the new Traveler’s Log. Each month features a rotating, themed set of activities. There’s only a set amount of Tender you can earn each month through completing activities, so you won’t need to complete all the ones in the log each month. You’ll be able to pick and choose from a variety of fun in-game activities to easily earn Tender. Players can choose to earn by continuing to play the game as they already do such as completing quests, competing in battlegrounds, taking part in holiday activities, and even running Mythic+ dungeons. But you can also choose to take part in activities uniquely designed for the month.

You’ll be able to view these activities and your progress in the Adventure Guide (Shift-J) in the new Traveler’s Log. A bar at the top of the User Interface (UI) will show your progress in earning Trader’s Tender each. At certain thresholds, Trader’s Tender will be deposited into your Collector’s Cache for pickup. Additional Trader’s Tender is also obtained by filling the bar, but that’s not all…

Monthly Rotation

On the first of the month, the traders will obtain new items and update the activities in the Traveler’s Log for the new month. Items that are rotated out of their inventory won’t be gone for good though—they’ll rotate back into the inventory in future months—giving players who missed them the first time another opportunity to add them to their collections. The Trading Post will also include cosmetics from promotions that are no longer available as well as items normally available for cash purchase on the in-game store as purchasable items with Trader’s Tender instead. This provides an alternative way for players to obtain these items.

Getting a Glimpse of the Future

This is just the start of what we hope will be a rewarding new system for players to further personalize their character and their experiences within World of Warcraft. We’ll be looking toward additional opportunities to provide the community with even more ways to add to their collections and express themselves everywhere they go in Azeroth.

Keep an eye on the upcoming PTR where you’ll get a chance to try the new feature for yourself. We look forward to hearing your feedback as we continue to develop this new feature.

*The Trading Post feature is not available in WoW Classic titles.

Hotfixes: December 9 2022, Class Tuning Incoming 14 December

The last hotfixes of the week include a revolutionary change to the quest log from a cap of 25 to 35 quests, a teleport out of the Brackenhide Hollow dungeon, a new daily turn-in for Iskaara reputation and plenty of bugfixes! Blizzard also announced new class tuning coming with the weekly reset which includes nerfs for all tanks.

Quote from: Blizzard

December 9, 2022

Achievements

  • Fixed an issue where The Best at What I Do would lose or reset progress. Unfortunately, current achievement progress will reset for this fix.

Classes

  • Mage
    • Fixed an issue where Energized Barriers was removing auras instead of just the associated snare effect.
  • Monk
    • Mistweaver
      • Fixed an issue that caused Accumulating Mist to not apply its buff if Soothing Mist was channeled on targets other than the Monk.
  • Priest
    • Discipline
      • Fixed an issue preventing Catharsis from triggering Atonement healing.
  • Shaman
    • Enhancement
      • Fixed an issue where Static Accumulation did not always properly work for the entirety of the duration of Ascendance.
      • Fixed an issue where Hailstorm’s maximum stacks could improperly be refreshed to a lower number when talented into Overflowing Maelstrom.
  • Warlock
    • Soulburn now lasts 20 seconds and can no longer be canceled.
    • Spells affected by Soulburn are now correctly highlighted.

Creatures and NPCs

  • Fixed an issue where Brackenhide Gnolls in the Azure Span could pursue players over a much greater distance than intended.

Dragonriding

  • Fixed the target of the parachute when using ride-along. The passenger will now correctly get the parachute, not the driver.

Dungeons and Raids

  • Brakenhide Hollow
    • Sentiu now shows up to help players out of the dungeon after they defeat Decatriarch Wratheye.
  • Hackclaw’s War-Band
    • Reduced damage for Rira Hackclaw’s Savage Charge on Normal and Heroic, allowing players a better chance to survive if things go wrong. The damage is not changed on Mythic.
  • Halls of Infusion
    • Gulp Swog Toxin no longer kills creatures and can only affect players.
    • Improved the visual for the Primalist Galesinger’s Thunderstorm so it is easier to see when placed in the water.
  • Nokhud Offensive
    • The Raging Tempest
      • Fixed a bug where Orb of Power does not grant players Surge of Power if the Stormsurge Totem is destroyed.
  • Return to Karazhan
    • Opera Hall: Westfall Story
      • Corrected an issue where Thunder Ritual and Wash Away were doing an incorrectly high amount of damage in Mythic (but non-Keystone) difficulty.
  • Shrine of the Storm
    • Lord Stormsong
      • Fixed an issue that was causing Ancient Mindbender to require too much damage to break.

Items and Rewards

  • Fixed an issue where Furious Ragefeather was not triggering from various damaging spells.
  • Fixed an issue where Infurious Legrwraps of Possibility was providing the incorrect amount of Haste when triggered.
  • Fixed an issue where some Dragonflight toys were not getting added to the collection.

Professions

  • Fishing
    • With the increase in fishing activity in the Dragon Isles, the Tuskarr at the watering holes are now looking for 20 fish (was 10) to restock their best fishing holes. They will be granting the following rewards:
      • 200 Iskaara Tuskarr reputation for the first turn-in of Islefin Dorado.
      • 100 Iskaara Tuskarr reputation for the first turn-in of each type of common fish.
      • 5 Iskaara Tuskarr reputation for subsequent turn-ins of all fish.
    • The rare summoned lunkers are already immune to death grip, but the Elite lunkers are not which can make them trivial to defeat. The Elite lunkers (the ones summoned at fishing holes with Ominous Conchs) are now immune to Death Grip.
      • Developers’ Note: Normal lunkers randomly found while Tuskarr are fishing (and those available in world quests) are still susceptible to Death Grip.

Quests

  • The maximum number of quests that a player-character may have has been increased to 35 (was 25).
    • Developers’ notes: We’ve seen feedback about the quest log cap for a long time, and we agree. It’s time to increase it. Have fun taking on (up to) 10 additional adventures!
  • Fixed an issue where players were unable to see PvP world quests while in Valdrakken.
  • Ohn’ahran Plains
    • Fixed an issue that occasionally caused multiple Grand Hunts to run at the same time in the Ohn’ahran Plains.
  • Thaldraszus
    • Fixed an issue where credit was not being shared among party members during “Flying Rocs.”
    • Fixed the interact range for objectives on “Time-Locked Timewalkers.”
    • World Quests
      • Updated tooltip to include Digging Spot on “Forgotten Grotto Relics.”
  • The Waking Shores
    • Fixed an issue where Djaradin in the Burning Ascent were not correctly giving credit for the quest objective in “Make a Statement.”
    • Fixed an issue where multiple instances of NPCs would remain after turning in “The Shadow of His Wings.”

Reputation

  • Cobalt Assembly
    • Arcane Health will no longer be offered beyond 5 stacks.
    • Arcane Consumption will no longer be offered when in War Mode.

Class Tuning Incoming 14 December

Quote from: Blizzard

With the launch of Dragonflight Season 1, we’re making some tuning adjustments to classes during scheduled weekly maintenance on 14 December.

Tank Specializations

We’ve been taking a long look at Tank survivability as we prepare for the beginning of Dragonflight Season 1. In general, we’ve found that the new talent trees have introduced a lot of power across all classes and specializations. Talents that were once exclusive through systems like the Talent Rows, Legendaries, or Covenants can now be equipped at the same time. Through our recent testing, we’ve determined that the damage done to tanks needs to be increased. While we’re thrilled that players are enjoying playing tanks in Dragonflight and want the role to be healthy, there are some negative effects that can come from tanks being too strong, that we want to avoid. We want healers to play a key role in keeping tanks alive, and tanks shouldn’t be able to easily solo large portions of encounters after the rest of their group have died.

We’re adjusting the damage reduction passives on all of the tanks, effectively increasing the damage tanks take by 10%. We think tanks will still feel powerful after this change, and it will result in a more balanced gameplay experience for all players.

Death Knight

  • Blood
    • Blood Fortification no longer reduces damage taken (was 10% damage reduction).

Demon Hunter

  • Vengeance
    • 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
    • Ursine Adept no longer reduces damage taken (was 10% damage reduction).

Monk

  • Brewmaster
    • Brewmaster’s Balance no longer reduces damage taken (was 10% damage reduction)

Paladin

  • Protection
    • Aegis of Light no longer reduces damage taken (was 10% damage reduction).

Warrior

  • Protection
    • Vanguard no longer reduces damage taken (was 5% damage reduction).
    • Defensive Stance now reduces damage taken by 15% (was 20%). Damage reduction remains unchanged at 10% effectiveness in PVP.

Damage Specializations

A number of changes below are targeted at reducing the passive healing provided to several DPS specs. While some amount of passive healing can be a perk for some specializations, we think these particular abilities are providing too much benefit, particularly compared to more active options.

Demon Hunter

  • The Hunt now heals for 10%/20% (as Havoc/Vengeance) of damage dealt to the marked target for 20 sec (was 25%/50% for 30 seconds).
  • Charred Warblades now heals for 3% of Fire damage dealt (was 5%).
  • Fixed an issue that unintentionally permitted Fodder to the Flame’s heal effect to crit.
  • Havoc
    • Essence Break damage reduced by 8%.

Priest

  • Shadow
    • Vampiric Touch healing reduced to 30% of damage dealt (was 50%).
    • Devouring Plague healing reduced to 30% of damage dealt (was 50%).

##Rogue

  • Leeching Poison’s leech bonus reduced to 5% (was 10%).
  • Assassination
    • Poison Bomb’s chance to trigger reduced to 4/8% per combo point (was 5/10%).
  • Outlaw
    • Dispatch damage increased by 5%.
    • Pistol Shot damage reduced by 6%.
  • Subtlety
    • Black Powder damage reduced by 5%.
    • Fixed a bug that caused Secret Technique to interact incorrectly with Cold Blood.

Warlock

  • Fel Synergy now causes Soul Leech to heal you for 15% of the absorption it grants (was 25%).
  • Soul Leech now grants shields up to 5% of maximum health (was 10%).
  • Demon Skin now increases Soul Leech’s absorption up to 10% of maximum health (was 15%).

Warrior

  • Fury
    • Gushing Wound damage and healing reduced by 10%.
    • Bloodthirst damage increased by 1%.
    • Bloodbath damage increased by 1%.
      • Developers’ notes: Bloodthirst and Bloodbath damage has been increased to compensate for the Gushing Wound damage reduction.

Player versus Player

In addition to the above game-wide Tank changes, we felt that certain tank specializations have been over performing in PvP. Alongside this, there were several DPS specializations that had self-healing higher than we were comfortable with. Most of the listed changes listed below are meant to make adjustments to address these concerns.

Demon Hunter

Developers’ notes: With the new talent trees, Demon Hunter Sigils have become stronger than we’d like in PvP, specifically the duration Sigil of Misery, so we are targeting talents that were contributing to that. Additionally, Demon Hunters’ damage in PvP is higher than we have been comfortable with so we are reducing the damage from Essence Break, in addition to last week’s reduction for The Hunt.

  • Sigil of Misery PvP duration reduced to 4 seconds (was 5 seconds).
  • Concentrated Sigils duration increase value reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
  • Precise Sigils duration increase value reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
  • Extended Sigils duration increase value reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
    • Developers’ notes: In order to display correct PvP values, the tooltip for Extended Sigils will be changed in a future update.
  • Fodder to the Flame heal effect reduced by 40% in PvP combat.
  • Havoc
    • Consume Soul heal effect when consuming a Demon Soul reduced by 60% in PvP combat.
    • Essence Break damage reduced by 20% in PvP combat.

Death Knight

  • Blood
    • Blood for Blood increases the damage of Heart Strike by 30% (was 60%).
    • Shattering Bone damage reduced by 25% in PvP combat.

Druid

  • Guardian
    • Moonfire damage reduced by 20% for Guardian Druids in PvP combat.
    • Thrash damage reduced by 20% for Guardian Druids in PvP combat.
    • Brambles damage reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
    • Rage of the Sleeper reflect damage reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
    • After the Wildfire healing reduced by 40% in PvP combat.
    • Sharpened Claws increases the damage of Thrash and Swipe by 10% (was 25%) in PvP combat.
    • Tooth and Claw increases the damage of Maul by 20% (was 40%) in PvP combat .

Paladin

  • Protection
    • Word of Glory healing reduced by 30% in PvP combat (Protection Paladin only).
    • Light of the Titans healing reduced by 40% in PvP combat.
    • Guardian of the Forgotten Queen cooldown increased to 5 minutes.

Mage

  • Fire
    • Combustion can no longer be dispelled.
      • Developers’ notes: 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.

Rogue

  • Soothing Darkness heal effect reduced by 50% in PvP Combat.
  • Assassination
  • Hemotoxin (PvP Talent) healing reduction effect reduced to 35% (was 40%).
  • Subtlety
    • The Rotten damage bonus for Backstab and Shadowstrike reduced to 30% (was 50%) in PvP combat.
      • Developers’ notes: Shadowstrike was hitting too hard, leaving minimum room for counterplay for opponents and taking too much damage in a single stun.

Warrior

  • Fury
    • Bloodthirst now restores 2% of your health in PvP combat (was 3%).
    • Slaughterhouse now decreases healing taken by 3% per stack (was 5% per stack).
    • Slaughterhouse now stacks up to 12 times (was 8 times).
    • Slaughterhouse duration increased to 9 seconds (was 6 seconds).
    • Slaughterhouse duration is no longer refreshed when adding stacks.
  • Protection
    • Shield Charge damage reduced by 25% in PvP combat.
    • Booming Voice now increases the damage you deal by 10% (was 20%) in PvP combat.

Hotfixes: December 8 2022, An Engineering Update on the Dragonflight Launch

A new morning means a new round of hotfixes. These include most aspects of the game from class tuning, to professions to quests. Blizzard also posted a behind the scenes look, reminiscent of the old Developer Water Coolers, at the technical issues that occurred in the first hour of the Dragonflight launch!

Quote from: Blizzard

December 8, 2022

Achievements

  • Fixed the timer for completing Three Minutes or It’s Free.

Classes

  • Evoker
    • Ancient Flame now also reduces the global cooldown of Living Flame by 40%.
      • Developers’ note: We added this GCD reduction to the Ancient Flame talent so Living Flame can be smoothly cast in quick succession.
    • Devastation
      • Energizing Flame now restores 70% of Living Flame’s mana cost when striking an enemy (was 50%).
      • Living Flame now heals for 30% more and costs 20% of total mana (was 10% total mana).
        • Developers’ note: We want Living Flame to feel more impactful for Devastation Evokers when using it to heal themselves or an ally, but we also want to make sure it can’t be used indefinitely. The Evoker’s mana bar is intended to be a rate limiter on healing, similar to how Healing Surge is for Elemental Shamans for example.
  • Hunter
    • Beast Mastery
      • Fixed an issue where Call of the Wild was making Mend Pet temporarily unusable each time a pet was summoned from Call of the Wild.
  • Warlock
    • Fixed an issue where Profane Bargain was providing too high of shared damage.

Creatures and NPCs

  • Maldraxxus Abominations should now correctly help players above level 60 when adventuring in the Shadowlands.
  • Fixed an issue where Horace “Scalding” Stern would clutter players’ combat logs with his actions.
  • Players can no longer sit on the stools that Miya and her mother Plifa are sleeping on in the Gelikyr Inn. This change will allow them to get the quality of sleep they deserve.

Dragonriding

  • Whirling Surge cooldown now resets at the start of each dragon race.

Dungeons and Raids

  • Brakenhide Hollow
    • Bracken Warsourge’s Hideous Cackle chamges:
      • Reduced the duration to 4 seconds (was 7)
      • Increased the cast time to 3.5 seconds (was 2.5)
      • Added stronger visuals to the precast to draw more attention to the cast time so players can more readily interrupt it.

Items and Rewards

  • Fixed an issue where some Tuskarr Fishing Net timers were not decreasing while offline.
  • Fixed an issue where Darkmoon Deck: Watcher was giving a lower Versatility value than expected when triggering the shield.
  • Drakonid Spear is now only useable in the Dragon Isles outdoor content.

Professions

  • Fixed issues with multiple incorrect recipe bindings:
    • Technique: Renewed Proto-Drake: Predator Pattern is no longer Bind on Pickup.
    • Schematic: Tinker: Breath of Neltharion is no longer Bind on Pickup.
    • Recipe: Celebratory Cake is now Bind on Pickup.
      • Developers’ Note: Our philosophy for Dragon Isles recipe acquisition is simple – we intend for as many recipes to be tradeable as possible. The main exceptions to this rule are for recipes that come from quest rewards and from renown. There should always be a moment of excitement when you find a recipe, either because it can be sold for a pretty penny or read for your own benefit. We will continue to keep an eye out for and correct recipes that do not align with these goals.
  • Cooking
    • Cooking Seamoth Surprise now correctly has a chance to teach the Great Cerulean Sea recipe (was Thousandbone Tongueslicer).
  • Inscription
    • Technique: Weathered Explorer’s Stave now requires Dragon Isles Inscription 50 to match all other high-end recipes (was 75).

Quests

  • Dragonflight Campaign
    • Fixed an issue preventing “Open Orientation” from being available to some alts.
  • Ohn’ahran Plains
    • “Counting Argali” and “Bakar Dream of Lost Argali” should now be significantly easier to complete.
    • Fixed an issue where the Foal’s Training Ability would show when not on the world quest “Low Hanging Fruit.”
  • Thaldraszus
    • Fixed an issue where the beam in use during the “The Once and Future Team” wasn’t cancelling itself if the quest was abandoned.
    • Fixed an issue on “The Once and Future Team” where Timewalker Wardens would sometimes not join the fight against the Colossal Causality.
    • Fixed an issue where Andantenormu was forgetting to rescue Worgen and Zandalari Trolls during “Feels like the First Time.”
    • Added a waypoint for “Catching Up to Chromie.”
    • Adjusted the tooltip for the “Temporal Destabilizing Beam” to show the correct range.
    • World Quests
      • Fixed the “Hydro Tuskarr” so the net is not usable while swimming underwater.
  • The Waking Shores
    • Fixed an issue where Cygenoth could fail to transform if he was stunned during the encounter in “The Shadow of His Wings.”

Reputation

  • Valdrakken Accord
    • Fixed an issue where the “Fitting In” quest could display rewards that were already owned.

An Engineering Update on the Dragonflight Launch

Quote from: Blizzard

With Dragonflight’s recent launch behind us, we want to take some time to talk with you more about what occurred these past few days from an engineering viewpoint. We hope that this will provide a bit more insight on what it takes to make a global launch like this happen, what can go right, what hiccups can occur along the way, and how we manage them.

Internally, we call events like last Monday “content launch,” because launching an expansion is a process, not one day. Far from being a static game running the same way it did eighteen years ago—or even two years ago—World of Warcraft is in constant change and growth, and our deployment processes change as well.

Expansions now consist of several smaller launches: the code first goes live running the old content, then pre-launch events and new systems turn on, and finally, on content launch day, new areas, quests, and dungeons. Each stage changes different things so we can find and fix problems. But in any large, complex system, the unexpected can still occur.

One change with this expansion was that the content launch was triggered using a timed event —multiple changes to the game can be triggered to all happen at a particular time. Manually making these changes carries the risk of human error, or an internal or external tool outage. Using a timed event helps to mitigate these risks.

Another change in Dragonflight: greatly enhanced support for encrypting game data records. Encrypted records allow us to send out our client with the data that the game needs to show cutscenes, share voice lines, or unlock quests, but keep that data from being mined before players get to experience them in-game. We know the community loves WoW, and when you’re hungry to experience any morsel, it’s hard to not spoil yourself before the main course. Encrypted records allow us to take critical story beats and hide them from players until the right time to reveal them.

We now know that the lag and instability we saw last week was caused by the way these two systems interacted. The result was: they forced the simulation server (that moves your characters around the world and performs their spells and abilities) to recalculate which records should be hidden more than one hundred times a second, per simulation. As a great deal of CPU power was spent doing these calculations, the simulations became bogged down, and requests from other services to those simulation servers backed up. Players see this as lag and error messages like “World Server Down”.

As we discovered, records encrypted until a timed event unlocked them exposed a small logic error in the code: a misplaced line of code signaled to the server that it needed to recalculate which records to hide, even though nothing had changed.

Here’s some insight on how that investigation occurred. First, the clock struck 3:00 p.m. PST. We know from testing that the Horde boat arrives first, and the Alliance boat arrives next. Many of us are logged in to the game on our characters sitting on the docks in both locations in one computer window, watching logs or graphs or dashboards in other windows. We’re also on a conference call with colleagues from our support teams from all over Blizzard.

Before launch, we’ve created contingency plans for situations we’re worried about as a result of our testing. For example, for this launch, our designers created portals that players could use to get to the Dragon Isles in case the boats failed to work.

At 3:02 p.m. the Horde boat arrives on schedule. Hooray! Players pile on, including some Blizzard employees. Other employees wait (they want to be test cases in case we must turn on portals.) The players on the boats sail off, and while some do arrive on the Dragon Isles, many more are disconnected or get stuck.

Immediately we start searching logs and dashboards. There are some players on the Dragon Isles map, but not many. Colleagues having issues report their character names and realms as specific examples. Others start reporting spikes in CPU load and on our NFS (Network File Storage) that our servers use. Still others are watching in-game, reporting what they see.

Now that we’ve seen the Horde boats, we start watching for the Alliance boats to arrive. Most of them don’t, and most of the Horde boats do not return.

A picture emerges: the boats are stuck, and Dragon Isles servers are taking much longer to spin up than expected. Here’s where we really dig in and start to problem solve.

Boats have been a problem in the past, so we turn on portals while we continue investigating. Our NFS is clearly overloaded. There’s a large network queue on the service responsible for coordinating the simulation servers, making it think simulations aren’t starting, so it launches more and starts to overwhelm our hardware. Soon we discover that adding the portals has made the overload worse, because players can click the portals as many times as they want, so we turn the portals off.

As the problems persist, we work on tackling the increased load to get as many players in to play as possible, but the service is not acting like it did in pre-launch tests. We continue to problem-solve the issue and discount things we know aren’t the issue based on those tests.

Despite the lateness in the day, many continue to work while others take off to get rest so they can return early the following day to get a fresh start and relieve those who will work overnight.

By Tuesday morning, we have a better understanding of things. We know we’re sending more messages to clients about quests than usual, although later discoveries will reveal this isn’t causing problems. A new file storage API we’re using is hitting our file storage harder than usual. Some new code added for quest givers to beckon players seems slower than it should be. The service is taking a very long time to send clients all the data changes made in hotfixes. Reports are coming in that the players who have gotten to the Dragon Isles playing have started experiencing extreme lag.

Mid-Tuesday morning a coincidence happens: digging deep into the new beckon code we find hooks for the new encryption system. We start looking at the question from the other side —could the encryption system being slow explain these and other issues we’re seeing? As it turns out, yes it can. The encryption system being slow explains the hotfix problem, the file storage problem, and the lag players are experiencing. With the source identified, the author of the relevant part of the system was able to identify the error and make the needed correction.

Pushing a fix to code used across so many services isn’t like flipping a switch, and new binaries must be pushed out and turned on. We must slowly move players from the old simulations to new ones for the correction to be picked up. In fact, at one point we try to move players too quickly and cause another part of the service to suffer. Some of the affected binaries cannot be corrected without a service restart, which we delay until the fewest players are online to not disrupt players who were in the game. By Wednesday, the fix was completely out and service stability dramatically improved.

While it took some effort to identify the issue and get it fixed, our team was incredibly vigilant in investigating the issue and getting it corrected as quickly as possible. Good software engineering isn’t about never making mistakes; it’s about minimizing the chances of making them, finding them quickly when they happen, having the tools to get in the fixes right away…

…and having an amazing team to come together to make it all happen.

—The World of Warcraft Engineering Team