The War Within Beta Development Notes 5 June 2024

Here are this week’s updates to The War Within Beta from last week’s Alpha.

NEW RAID: NERUB-AR PALACE

• Class sets are available for testing. To try these set bonuses in the Beta, log into an endgame realm and look for Setzertauren near the current PvP and professions vendors in Orgrimmar and Stormwind City. Please share bugs you find via the in-game bug reporting tool and your feedback about the bonuses in this thread.

BETA REALMS

• END-GAME REALM: ‘THESE GO TO ELEVEN’
  • ‘These Go To Eleven’ is a separate Beta region that is focused on end-game content and has multiple vendors setup to allow players to quickly and easily test out content.
    • Profession Vendors and Trainers
    • Class Set Vendors
    • PvP Gear Vendors
    • Trinket Vendors
  • This environment is locked to using a max level template only, and players will not be able to access the 11.0 outdoor zones as the focus of this environment is on instanced content (eg. raid, dungeon & pvp content).
  • Character copy is not available on this realm.
• Copied characters will be missing Dragonflight reputations, any flight points, and certain existing achievement progress.
  • Developer’s note: This is expected for now, and once we get the Warbands data conversion working with character copy, players will need to do another character copy to grab that data and roll it into their Warband data.

CLASSES

• DEMON HUNTER
  • Vengeance
    • Sigil of Misery now disorients target for 15 seconds (was 20 seconds).
• DRUID
  • Mass Entanglement now roots targets for 10 seconds (was 30 seconds).
  • Feral
    • All ability damage reduced by 20%.
    • Developer’s note: At the beginning of April we increased all of Feral’s ability damage by the value of their baseline passive aura (20%), but neglected to reduce their baseline passive aura at the same time.
    • Brutal Slash damage reduced by 10%
    • Moonfire damage reduced by 10%.
    • Thrash direct damage increased by 20%.
    • Dreadful Bleeding increased to 20% (was 18%).
    • Primal Wrath energy cost reduced to 25.
    • Tiger’s Tenacity also causes Tiger’s Fury to increase the periodic damage of your bleeds and Moonfire (if known) by an additional 10% for their full duration.
    • Finishing move damage (Ferocious Bite, Ravage, Rip, Maim, and Primal Wrath) increased by 10%.
• EVOKER
  • Renewing Blaze has swapped places with Source of Magic.
  • Panacea now also heals the caster when Verdant Embrace is cast. Healing reduced by 50%.
  • Panacea is now considered a Green spell, and is improved by Lush Growth.
  • Overawe has been redesigned – Now grants 30 seconds of cooldown reduction (was cooldown reduction per Enrage dispelled).
  • Oppressing Roar cone increased to 60 degrees (was 45 degrees).
    • Developer note: Oppressing Roar with Overawe was too good specifically in Mythic+ dungeons with the Raging affix, but not really anywhere else. So, we’re reducing its effectiveness in that scenario but making it more generically useful as a talent. We’re also increasing Oppressing Roar’s cone radius since it can be difficult to aim it without a preview cone like Fire Breath or Dream Breath have.
  • Landslide now roots targets for 15 seconds (was 30 seconds).
  • Hero Talents
    • Chronowarden (Augmentation/Preservation)
      • Temporal Burst lasts 40 seconds (was 20 seconds), and ramps by 1% every second (was 2% per second).
      • Threads of Fate lasts 10 seconds (was 15 seconds).
      • Augmentation
        • Reverberations increase Upheaval damage by 50% (was 30%) for Augmentation.
        • Chrono Flame copies 25% of damage or healing done for Augmentation (was 15%).
  • Augmentation
    • Developer’s note: We’re making several adjustments to the Augmentation spec tree to create more build choices. We would like Prescience to be more easily available since it’s important for Ebon Might targeting, so it’s been moved up in the tree. We’re also rehabilitating Motes of Possibility and making large adjustments to the capstones and their pathing. Each capstone now has a synergistic node above it and has a more distinct theme. Please note that there are still tuning changes pending, and implementation is not complete on some of the newer talents.
    • New Talent: Rumbling Earth – Upheaval causes an aftershock at its location, dealing 50% of its damage 2 additional times.
    • New Talent: Molten Embers – Fire Breath causes enemies to take 20% more damage from your Black spells.
    • New Talent: Imminent Destruction – Breath of Eons reduces the Essence cost of Eruption by 1 and increases its damage by 10% for 15 seconds after you land.
    • Motes of Possibility now give a random Augmentation Evoker buff (was reduces the cooldown of your major ability by 10 seconds). In addition, the motes will spawn closer to the caster, and they will also slowly float towards the nearest ally.
    • Overlord now guarantees Motes of Possibilities will spawn from the Eruptions it casts.
    • Seismic Slam is now a 1 point talent, and is in a new location below Upheaval. The stun duration remains at 4 seconds.
    • Geomancy has been removed.
    • Timelessness is now where Geomancy was previously in the talent tree.
    • Prescience is now available in a location higher up in the spec tree.
    • Many talents have had their locations adjusted, particularly in the final part of the spec tree.
• MAGE
  • Mass Polymorph now polymorphs targets for 15 seconds (was 60 seconds).
  • Fire
    • Burning Blood damage bonus reduced to 8% and health threshold increased to 35%.
    • Burning Blood has been renamed to Molten Fury.
    • Heat Shimmer’s proc now makes your next Scorch instant cast (was deal 25% increased damage).
      • Developer’s note: We’re being sensitive to giving Fire more instant-cast spells and will be watching this talent carefully to make sure it isn’t pushing Fire too far towards never having to cast.
• PRIEST
  • Void Tendrils now root targets for 15 seconds (was 20 seconds).
  • Hero Talents
    • Archon (Holy/Shadow)
      • Resonant Energy now lasts 8 seconds (was 5 seconds).
      • Shock Pulse now lasts 8 seconds (was 5 seconds).
      • Resonant Energy now increases damage or healing by 2% and stacks up to 5 times (was 10%, not stacking).
      • Shock Pulse now reduces movement speed by 5%, stacking up to 5 times (was 25%, stacking 2 times).
      • Perfected Form no longer double dips its healing increase when the Priest casts Holy Word: Salvation and has Apotheosis from Answered Prayers.
• ROGUE
  • Airborne Irritant now reduces Blind’s duration by 70% (was 40%). This gives it an 18 second duration when applied in an area.
  • Hero Talents
    • Trickster (Subtlety/Outlaw)
      • Unseen Blade has been redesigned – Sinister Strike/Backstab/Gloomblade and Ambush/Shadowstrike now also strike the target with an off-hand Unseen Blade dealing Physical damage. Targets struck are Fazed for 5 seconds. Fazed enemies take 5% more damage from you and cannot parry your attacks. This effect may occur once every 20 seconds.
        • No longer causes Feint to generate combo points and strike enemies around you
      • Nimble Flurry renamed to Disorienting Strikes and has been redesigned – Killing Spree/Secret Technique have 10% reduced cooldown and allow your next 3 strikes of Unseen Blade to ignore its normal cooldown.
        • No longer increases damage of Killing Spree/Secret Technique.
      • Flawless Form now increases damage with Finishing Moves by 3% per stack and duration increased to 6 seconds (was 5 seconds).
        • No longer grants Mastery.
      • Thousand Cuts now grants auto-attacks a chance to refresh your opportunity to strike with Unseen Blade.
        • No longer grants auto-attacks a chance to trigger a strike with Unseen Blade.
      • Flickerstrike now refreshes your opportunity to strike with Unseen Blade.
        • No longer triggers a strike with Unseen Blade upon taking area damage while Feint is active or dodging while Evasion is active. Trigger conditions and cooldown between triggers remains unchanged.
      • Elaborate Twirl renamed to Nimble Flurry and has been redesigned – Outlaw: Blade Flurry damage is increased by 10% while Flawless Form is active. Subtlety: Your auto-attacks, Backstab/Gloomblade, Shadowstrike, Goremaw’s Bite, and Eviscerate also strike up to 7 additional nearby targets for 15% of normal damage while Flawless Form is active.
      • Coup de Grace has been updated – Now causes your next Dispatch or Eviscerate to function as if it had spent 4 additional combo points.
        • No longer increases damage of the next Dispatch, Eviscerate, or Black Powder.
• WARLOCK
  • Affliction
    • Several talents have been moved in the third section of the specialization tree.
    • New Talent: Ravenous Afflictions – Critical strikes from your Agony, Corruption, and Unstable Affliction have a chance to grant Nightfall.
    • New Talent: Perpetual Unstability – The cast time of Unstable Affliction is reduced by 20%. Refreshing Unstable Affliction with 8 or less seconds remaining deals Shadow damage to its target.
    • The following talents are now 1 point:
      • Xavius’ Gambit
      • Focused Malignancy
      • Withering Bolt
      • Improved Malefic Rapture
    • Empowered Unstable Affliction has been removed.
  • Destruction
    • The tooltip of Dimension Ripper has been updated – Incinerate has a chance to recharge Dimensional Rift.
    • The tooltip of Summon Overfiend has been updated – Generates 1 Soul Shard Fragment every 0.5 seconds and casts Chaos Bolt at 80% effectiveness at its summoner’s target.
    • The icon of Avatar of Destruction has been updated.
• WARRIOR
  • Hero Talents
    • Mountain Thane (Protection/Fury)
      • Storm Bolts now also increases the cooldown of Storm Bolt by 10 seconds.
    • Slayer (Fury/Arms)
      • Arms
        • Cleave now also applies Colossal Might when it hits 3 or more targets.
  • Arms
    • Unhinged has been redesigned – Every other time Bladestorm or Ravager deal damage, you cast a Mortal Strike at your target or a nearby enemy.
    • Critical Thinking now restores 10% of Rage spent on Execute per point (was 5%).
    • Hurricane has been removed.
  • Fury
    • Hurricane replaced with Unhinged – Every other time Bladestorm or Ravager deal damage, you cast a Bloodthirst at your target or a nearby enemy.

ITEMS

• DPS trinkets and items with additional effects reduced by 33% for tank and healer specializations.
  • Developer’s note: Tanks and healers choosing to wear damage trinkets have often seen them contribute a disproportionate and unintended amount of their overall damage. DPS cantrips have further exacerbated this issue. This change is intended to shift power back into players’ class kits while reducing the opportunity cost of choosing specialized tank and healer trinkets over pure damage trinkets. This change is not retroactive.

PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER

• RATED BATTLEGROUND BLITZ
  • Rated Battleground Blitz is enabled on Beta for queueing.
    • Rated Battleground Blitz is the rated version of the Battleground Blitz brawl that came in the 10.1, Embers of Nelharion content update. It is a solo queue rated 8v8 battleground game mode with an accelerated pace and new mechanics to make the battles faster.
    • The map pool is the same as the Brawl version, with the addition of the new Battleground, Deephaul Ravine.
• ARENAS
  • Shadow Sight now highlights enemies that are stealthed with a red outline that can be seen through walls.
• CLASSES
  • EVOKER
    • Hero Talents
      • Flameshaper
        • Engulf damage reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
  • ROGUE
    • Shadowy Duel now applies a screen effect so it is more noticeable that you are inside the duel.

USER INTERFACE AND ACCESSIBILITY

• Dire Beasts, Army of the Dead ghouls, Magus of the Dead, various Demonology Warlock demons, Void Tendril, Void Lasher, and Denizen of the Dream nameplates are now always hidden.