Patch 10.2 PTR Development Notes 11 October 2023

Here are the changes for this week’s Guardians of the Dream PTR update:

CLASSES

• DEMON HUNTER
  • Concentrated Sigils has been removed.
  • Havoc
    • Tactical Retreat and Unbound Chaos have swapped talent locations.
    • Burning Hatred now generates an additional 40 Fury (was 50).
    • Inner Demon now deals reduced damage beyond 5 targets.
    • Inertia damage bonus reduced to 18% (was 20%).
    • Chaotic Disposition chaos damage duplicated reduced to 17% (was 21%).
  • Vengeance
    • Darkglare Boon and Sigil of Misery have swapped talent locations.
    • Fel Devastation cooldown reduced to 40 seconds (was 1 minutes).
    • Fiery Brand now deals damage every 1 second (was 2 seconds), dealing the same total damage over its duration.
    • Burning Alive now causes Fiery Brand to spread every 1 second (was 2 seconds).
• DRUID
  • Balance
    • Amirdrassil, the Dream’s Hope (2) Set Bonus: Now increases the damage of Wrath and Starfire by 100% (was 60%).
    • Amirdrassil, the Dream’s Hope (4) Set Bonus: Now increases your current Eclipse’s Arcane or Nature damage bonus by an additional 2% (was 3%), up to 10% (was 15%).
• EVOKER
  • Devastation
    • All spell and ability damage increased by 3%.
    • Disintegrate damage increased by 15%.
• MONK
  • Mistweaver
    • Bounce Back now reduces damage by 20/40% (was 10/20%) and triggers when you receive 15% of your maximum health in damage (was 20%). Does not apply in PvP combat.
    • Clouded Focus now stacks up to 2 times (was 3) and no longer increases the healing of Vivify before its first application.
    • Vivify and Invigorating Mist healing increased by 12%.
    • Amirdrassil, the Dream’s Hope (4) Set Bonus: Chi Harmony now stores 20% of all healing done (was 15%).
  • Windwalker
    • Developers’ note: We liked the positive effect that Fangs of the Vermillion Forge had on Windwalker single target damage, and are transferring some of that power from the class set into the base specialization as players adventure into Amirdrassil and replace their existing gear. The net effect of these changes is an overall increase in character power.Additionally, we heard player concerns that the effort required to play Whirling Dragon Punch wasn’t worth the resulting increase in power. We agree, and have increased the damage it deals as a result.We have also added additional damage to the Amirdrassil (4) set as the cooldown reduction, while fun, was not entirely meeting our goals for additional power granted by the bonus.
    • Rising Sun Kick damage increased by 10%.
    • Fists of Fury damage increased by 5% and additional damage to primary target increased by 10%.
    • Whirling Dragon Punch damage increased by 10%.
    • Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible (2) Set Bonus: Rising Sun Kick bonus damage reduced to 5% (was 10%).
    • Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible (4) Set Bonus: Fists of Fury primary target damage reduced to 20% (was 30%).
    • Amirdrassil, the Dream’s Hope (4) Set Bonus: Now increases the damage of Fists of Fury, Rising Sun Kick, Strike of the Windlord, and Whirling Dragon Punch by 4%.
• PRIEST
  • Shadow
    • Amirdrassil, the Dream’s Hope (2) Set Bonus: Now triggers additional Shadow Word: Deaths at 15% effectiveness (was 20%).
    • Amirdrassil, the Dream’s Hope (4) Set Bonus: Now increases the damage of Shadow Crash by 50% per stack (was 100%).
    • Amirdrassil, the Dream’s Hope (4) Set Bonus: Now highlights Shadow Word: Pain and Shadow Crash at 12 stacks (was 10).
• ROGUE
  • Improved Wound Poison, Superior Mixture, and Atrophic/Numbing Poisons have shuffled talent locations.
  • Assassination
    • Leeching Poison now grants 10% Leech (was 5%). Does not apply in PvP combat.
    • Crimson Tempest damage reduced by 5%.
    • Blindside now causes Ambush to replace Mutilate when the effect is triggered.
    • Sanguine Blades energy consumed per tick reduced to 2 (was 3) and damage duplicated increased to 25% (was 20%).
    • Sudden Demise now has a 10 second delay after triggering before being able to trigger again on the same target.
    • Amirdrassil, the Dream’s Hope (4) Set Bonus: Envenomous Explosion’s damage is increased by 150% if it deals damage to a single target.
  • Outlaw
    • Sinister Strike damage increased by 10%.
    • Audacity now causes Ambush to replace Sinister Strike when the effect is triggered.
    • Killing Spree damage increased by 25%.
  • Subtlety
    • Eviscerate damage increased by 8%.
    • Exhilarating Execution now causes finishing moves to heal for 5% of damage done (was 3%).
    • Shadowed Finishers finisher shadow damage value increased to 30% (was 25%).
    • Shuriken Tornado Shuriken Storms triggered by Shuriken Tornado no longer generate bonus combo points from Shadow Blades.
• SHAMAN
  • Elemental
    • Fixed an issue where Splintered Elements was incorrectly granting you 4% extra Haste than intended when activating against a single target.
    • Elemental Blast can now refresh and extend the duration of the Haste, Critical Strike, and Mastery effects to up to 130% of the base 10 second duration, but will still prefer to apply a buff that you don’t already have.
    • Fixed an issue where Further Beyond would not properly extend Ascendance to the maximum duration if the extension amount would have put it beyond the maximum extension amount.
    • Fixed an issue where Further Beyond didn’t properly extend extra Ascendance activations from Deeply Rooted Elements if you were already under the effects of Ascendance from Deeply Rooted Elements.
    • Amirdrassil, the Dream’s Hope (4) Set Bonus: Fixed an issue where the 4-set bonus was being activated without having the 4-set equipped.
    • Amirdrassil, the Dream’s Hope (4) Set Bonus: Fixed an issue where subsequent Lava Bursts after Primordial Wave from the 4-set bonus were causing Splintered Elements talent to active.
    • Amirdrassil, the Dream’s Hope (4) Set Bonus: Fixed an issue where Lava Bursts benefitting from Molten Charge from the 4-set bonus were dealing 80% of expected damage rather than 100% of expected damage.
  • Enhancement
    • Fixed an issue where Splintered Elements was incorrectly granting you 4% extra Haste than intended when activating against a single target.
  • Restoration
    • Amirdrassil, the Dream’s Hope (4) Set Bonus: Now increases the healing of Riptide by 20% (was 15%).
• WARLOCK
  • Affliction
    • Soul-Eater’s Gluttony has been redesigned – Soul Rot cooldown is reduced by 15/30 seconds.
    • Fixed an issue where Umbrafire Kindling would only increase the damage of Seed of Corruption to the main target.
  • Demonology
    • Doom Brand is now more consistent with summoning a Doomfiend.
    • Doom Brand now has a chance to summon a Doomfiend when dispelled, rather than only when detonated.
    • Doom Brand is now only applied when consuming a Demonic Core.
    • Immutable Hatred should no longer be lost if your Felguard is out of range. Instead, he will use it as soon as he is within range.
    • Fixed an issue where Immutable Hatred was still functioning as its previous iteration.
  • Destruction
    • Fixed an issue where Dimensional Cinders would benefit twice from Critical Strikes.
• WARRIOR
  • Fury
    • Developers’ note: The previous design of Reckless Abandon was influencing builds and rotations too heavily, encouraging players to focus entirely on either Bloodthirst or Raging Blow at the expense of the other. We want Fury Warriors to use both abilities regularly, so we are changing the design slightly so it only affects your rotation choice immediately after using Rampage to open up more build options. These changes will be applied to the 10.2 PTR via hotfix over the course of the week.
    • Reckless Abandon now only empowers your next 1 Bloodthirst or Raging Blow (was 2).
    • Reckless Abandon’s Bloodbath and Crushing Blow bonus damage has been doubled.

PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER

• ROGUE
  • Outlaw
    • Killing Spree damage no longer increased in PvP combat (was increased by 5%).

USER INTERFACE AND ACCESSIBILITY

• To improve readability in the Quest pane, you can now choose between different background parchment colors.
• A new celebratory popup will appear when you unlock a Great Vault slot or upgrade the reward of a slot.
• In the Reputation pane, Major Factions are now grouped together at the top of the list.