wow World of Warcraft Patch 8.1 Patch Notes

[Stan 5,024]

The official Tides of Vengeance patch notes have arrived and we've updated all our Class guides for Patch 8.1!

• Patch 8.1 will go live tomorrow in Americas and on Wednesday in Europe.
• All Class guides have been updated for the latest patch.
• We also have a bunch of Battle for Azeroth guides that we're excited to share with you!
  • Patch 8.1 Summary covers most 8.1 changes in a tl;dr format;
  • Level 120 Battle Guide is here to help you determine your daily goals at max level.
  • Island Expeditions Guide has been updated with new objectives and rewards.
  • Leveling Guide has been updated with the recent 8.1 nerfs in mind.
  • Reputation Paragon is coming and for every 10K reputation beyond Exalted with BfA factions, new rewards (toys, pets) await. Check out our Battle for Azeroth reputation guide for details!
• The new raid tier, Mythic Season 2, and PvP Season 2 will be available starting January 22. Read our 8.1 content schedule for more information.

Blizzard (Source)

The war raging across Azeroth between Alliance and Horde has intensified. As the Alliance lays plans to retake Darkshore and regain a foothold in Kalimdor, both factions have redoubled their attacks across the zones of Kul Tiras and Zandalar.

War Campaign

• New Questlines

  • New chapters in the War Campaign are now available. Head to Boralus or Zuldazar to rejoin your faction’s war efforts.

• New Missions

  • Several new Missions are now available at both your War Table, as well as from new drops from various activities, such as Island Expeditions. Look for new Missions to upgrade your faction’s outposts, level up followers so that they gain access to a new equipment slot, send your followers on lucrative new weekly treasure hunts, and unlock a vendor who offers the opposing faction’s pets.

• Faction Assaults 

  • Periodically, the Alliance or the Horde will launch an assault against a hostile position in Kul Tiras or Zandalar. When an Assault is active, a group of new World Quests will be available to both factions in that area. Rally to the location to fight on behalf of your faction and earn new Honorbound or 7th Legion Service Medals that can be exchanged for a variety of rewards.
  • Players who have unlocked World Quests at level 120 on at least one character will have Assault World Quests available to any of their other characters.

Warfront: The Battle for Darkshore

The conflict over the home of the night elves has reached a fever pitch, and new questlines will lead you to the all-new Battle for Darkshore. In this new Warfront, you’ll unlock access to powerful hero transformations that give you temporary abilities themed around your role as a tank, healer, or damage dealer.

• Contributions for Darkshore as well as the Stromgarde Warfront now operate on a daily cycle. When resources are being mustered, three quartermasters will each put out a request for a different contribution each day. The requested turn-ins have also been adjusted to be more consistent in their value.
• When your faction controls either Arathi Highlands or Darkshore, world quests will now be available in those zones, in place of the once-per-cycle kill quests that were previously offered for Arathi.

Heritage Armor Questlines

New questlines to find and obtain new Heritage armor are available to two mighty races – the dwarves and the blood elves. Available at level 120 to dwarves who are Exalted with Ironforge and blood elves who are exalted with Silvermoon, look for “Keep Yer Feet on the Ground” at the Stormwind Embassy, or “The Pride of the Sin’dorei” at the Orgrimmar Embassy, and get started rediscovering your heritage.

Island Expeditions

Scouts have discovered two new destinations for Island Expeditions – the vrykul land of Jorundall and the Gilnean town of Havenswood. These, as well as the previous Island Expeditions, now feature new enemies, achievements, events, items, and vendors.

• The logic used to spawn Island Expeditions has been adjusted to favor more organic concentrations of foes, with more clear paths in between, to make it easier to navigate without being forced into combat.
• The chance for cosmetic rewards are now based on all the enemies and Azerite present on the island, and no longer tied to only the enemy camps your team defeats. Completing an Island Expedition at a higher difficulty increases the chance of receiving these bonus rewards.
• Battle pets rewarded from the completion of islands that were previously uncageable can now be caged.
• The weekly quest to recover Azerite now requires 36,000 Azerite (was 40,000).
• Mythic and PvP Islands now reward 350 Artifact Power (was 300), and PvP Islands now award 50 Conquest on a win (was 8).
• The weekly Island Expedition quest, and progress towards it, are now visible on the world map.
• The Island Expedition weekly quest now rewards lucrative new treasure map Missions for your followers.
• Look for new vendors in Boralus and Dazar’alor who offer exclusive rewards in exchange for your Seafarer’s Dubloons.

Dungeons and Raids

• You can now speak to Archmage Timear in Dalaran above the Broken Isles to access Legion Raid Finder solo or with a private group.
• Siege of Boralus and Kings’ Rest are now available on Heroic difficulty.
• Mythic Keystones can no longer be deleted.
• The new Raid: Battle of Dazar’alor, and Season 2 for PvP and Mythic Keystone Dungeons will begin with the weekly reset in each region starting on January 22, 2019.

Achievements

• Many new achievements related to the new Assaults, Island Expeditions, and Warfront are now available.
• Two new Mythic Keystone Feats of Strength are now available. To earn them, complete all available Battle for Azeroth Mythic Keystone dungeons before the time limit, at +10 and +15 difficulty, by the end of the season.
• The Family Battler achievement has arrived. Complete 10 challenging family-only pet battle achievements in Kul Tiras and Zandalar to earn your new Wicker Wraith pet.
• Progress toward the new 100 Exalted Reputations achievement is account-wide. Complete it to earn the Pureheart Courser mount and the “Esteemed” title.

Items and Rewards

• Account-bound maps to unlock many flight points on Kul Tiras and Zandalar can be purchased from the War Campaign emissary to send to your alts.
• The Tortollans have new trinkets they’re willing to share if you’ll help the baby turtles make it to the water.
• The Meat Wagon mount is now available to players who purchased Warcraft III: Reforged.

• Azerite Gear Vendor

  • You can now target specific kinds of Azerite armor by earning Titan Residuum, which can be used to purchase Azerite armor from everyone’s favorite purveyor of exquisite furnishings: Thaumaturge Vashreen.
  • The item contained in your Mythic Keystone weekly cache can no longer be a piece of Azerite gear. You’ll now receive an amount of Titan Residuum in addition to your weekly item.
  • Higher-level Keystones return greater amounts of Titan Residuum from your weekly cache.
  • Scrapping or disenchanting new epic-quality Azerite gear obtained in Tides of Vengeance (from any source) also provides Titan Residuum.
  • Thaumaturge Vashreen currently offers slot-specific tokens for Azerite gear, equivalent to item levels from Normal, Heroic, and Mythic Uldir.
  • Additionally, specific pieces of Mythic Raid item level Azerite gear may be purchased at a premium price.
  • There is no cap on the amount of Titan Residuum you may collect.
  • When Season 2 begins, Thaumaturge Vashreen will offer new, higher item-level Azerite items at higher Residuum asking prices, while the weekly Mythic Keystone chest reward and the Residuum obtained from destroying higher item-level Azerite pieces increases proportionally.

• Heart of Azeroth

  • New Azerite Traits are available from gear found in the Battle for Darkshore Warfront:
    • Ancients' Bulwark – Standing still grants you Versatility and moving grants you healing.
    • Apothecary's Concoctions – Your damaging and healing abilities have a chance to deal extra plague damage or restore missing health.
    • Endless Hunger – Increases your Versatility and grants you health when you move near an enemy’s corpse.
    • Shadow of Elune – Your spells and abilities have a chance to increase your Haste and grant you increased movement speed at night.
  • Each specialization has had one of its Azerite traits replaced with a new one. Details may be found in the Class changes section below.
  • More new Azerite Traits and armor with a new fifth tier of traits will become available in Season 2 and from Battle of Dazar’alor.
  • Reaching Friendly, Honored, or Revered reputation with the Champions of Azeroth faction now unlocks the appropriate quests to upgrade your Heart of Azeroth for all characters on your account.
  • The cost of using the Azerite Reforging services available in your faction capital has been reset to the base 5 gold. This cost now decays by 50% every 24 hours, down from 72 hours.

• New Follower Equipment

  • New basic equipment for Followers is now available from your Honorbound or 7th Legion reputation vendor.
  • Alchemists can now learn and craft a powerful new Follower item that bypasses the troop penalty on Stealth missions: Vial of Obfuscation.

• New Heirlooms

  • Honorbound and 7th Legion quartermasters in the Warfront muster area in each capital offer new Heirlooms in exchange for Medals.
  • Battle Hymnal (A trinket that temporarily increases your and your party’s Haste)
  • Bolstering War Horn (A trinket that temporarily increases your and your party’s Versatility)
  • Cloak of Hardened Steel (A cloak that increases your experience gains)
  • Dusk Powder (A Trinket that, on use, temporarily reduces the threat you generate)
  • Enchanted Warscroll (A trinket that temporarily increases your and your party’s Haste)

• Paragon Reputations

  • All Battle for Azeroth factions now offer repeatable Paragon reward caches when you earn reputation with them after reaching Exalted.
  • Rewards include toys such as the Bowl of Glowing Pufferfish and companion pets such as the Cobalt Raven .

• Gold Rewards

  • World Quests and Missions now reward more gold. 

New PvP Brawl: Cooking: Impossible

Nomi is back, and he wants you to bring your most dangerous pots and pans to The Valley of the Four Winds for a new brawl in the kitchen. Look to your in-game calendar for round one of this cutthroat culinary conflict.

Battle Pets: There’s Gnome Place Like Gnomeregan

You’re called to an all-new pet dungeon experience. Pick up your first quest to head to Gnomeregan from Radek Fuselock in Dazar’alor or Tizzy Gearjolt in Boralus. You’ll find the new vendor Micro Zoox just outside Gnomeregan, offering four new companions: Mechanical Cockroach, Leper Rat, Mechantula (a schematic for Engineers to craft and trade), and everyone’s best friend, Alarm-O-Dog.

• Completing the normal version of the pet dungeon rewards an Ultimate Battle-Training Stone , and completing the Challenge version rewards your very own Mini Spider Tank pet.

• The Gnomeregan battle pet dungeon does not require that you have completed previous battle pet dungeons.
• If you’d like to compete head-to-head with other players, the PvP pet battle matchmaker has been improved. Now, players who are new to the PvP battle pet system are more likely to be matched up against other new PvP pet battlers.

Professions

Keep an eye out for new additions to many Professions, including new gear, new feasts for your raid and dungeon groups, new Jewelcrafting rings, inscription Contracts for increased Honorbound and 7th Legion reputation, and new craftable pets.

• Learn new Sanguicell recipes for Engineering, Alchemy, Enchanting, and Cooking.
• Look out for the Enchanting new pet: Enchanted Tiki Mask.
• Level 111-120 gems can no longer be placed into the sockets of items from previous expansions.
• Darkmoon Faire quest-based skillups now apply automatically to the most recent expansion profession progress that is not at its maximum.
• Professions-related World Quests now have a chance to reward Expulsom.
• Herbalism World Quests now have a chance to reward Anchor Weed.

Character Appearances

• Night elves who complete the new Darkshore questline may earn a new custom appearance that may then be selected at barber shops throughout Azeroth.
• Partially collected transmog sets will now tell you more information about which missing appearances are relevant to your current character.
• Items with reputation requirements to acquire no longer require that reputation to apply as a transmog appearance, once acquired.
• Fist weapons can now be transmogrified over other types of one-handed melee weapons, and vice-versa.
• If your character’s race or faction cosmetically changes (such as in Battle of Dazar’alor or Mercenary Mode), any Horde or Alliance-centric armor and weapon appearances your character is wearing or has transmogrified to will update to appear as the enemy faction’s version. If you have a transmogrified appearance that isn’t considered valid for the race you change in to, the transmog will be removed and your equipped armor will show, subject to the same faction split.

Group Finder

• Dungeons from prior expansions will no longer appear when searching for Dungeon groups in the Premade Group Finder. For example, level 120 players will no longer see groups listed for Lower Blackrock Spire.
• Battle for Azeroth dungeons now automatically change you to a spec that matches the role you chose when you queued.
• Fixed issues that could prevent groups from using the Premade Group Finder to form or backfill groups for Timewalking raids.
• When an attempt to queue for an activity fails due to party member eligibility, the group leader is now informed which party members are not eligible.

Mobile Companion App

• Added new Missions and rewards.
• Added new World Quests and additional zones: Arathi Highlands and Darkshore.
• Fixed performance and disconnection issues.
• Fixed a bug where Azerite Armor Caches showed incorrect item level.

World and Questing

• Time to level from 1 to 110 has been reduced by approximately 25%.
• Legion World Quests for the Highmountain Tribe, Nightfallen, Army of the Light, and Argussian Reach now reward increased reputation.
• The initial chapters of the War Campaign now reward more reputation with the 7th Legion or Honorbound.
• Most world quests are no longer completable in a raid group, and Premade Group Finder groups for them will automatically delist upon reaching 5 players. Epic world boss quests are still raid-eligible.
• Rest areas have been added to Hook Point and The Mugambala.
• A new flight point has been added to The Mugambala.

User Interface

• The flight maps in Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor have been updated to a higher resolution.
• Reputation rewards from world quests and missions now use quality to indicate their potency.
• Bag search will now help find new things including item quality, Azerite, specific Azerite powers, and stats appearing on an item.
• Items which have stats that scale with your character’s level (such as gems in the auction house) will now show their stats at the maximum value.
• Pending summons now show on party/raid frames.
• While the scrapper UI is open, scrappable items will be marked with an overlaid icon.
• The location of the scrapper will now show on your minimap.
• The Mythic Keystone Dungeon tab now shows the highest-level Mythic dungeon that was completed in time. Higher-level completions that were not in time are still stored and can be seen when mousing over a given dungeon in the interface.
• Inbound and outbound blocks (both melee and ranged) will now show in floating combat text.
• The responsiveness of the Communities UI has been improved.
• Upcoming calendar events are now shown in Community chat.

Classes

• All Classes

  • Area damage abilities such as Chain Lightning or Avenger's Shield can now properly destroy totems or Explosive orbs in Mythic Keystone dungeons if the player targets them directly.
  • Shield users can now block ranged physical attacks.
  • Fixed pathing issues that could cause some spells such as Frozen Orb to become stuck.
  • Troll Berserking reduced to 10% Haste for 12 seconds (was 15% Haste for 10 seconds).
  • Blood Elf Arcane Torrent cooldown increased to 2 minutes (was 1.5 minutes).

  • AZERITE TRAITS

    • Ephemeral Recovery redesigned. It now provides a mana gain when you go below 20% mana.
    • Self Reliance heal now activates when no enemies are within 12 yards (was 20 yards).

• Death Knight

  • Death Strike (Rank 2) now reduces the cost of Death Strike by 10 and increases its healing by 60% (was 40%).
  • Veteran of the Third War is now learned by all specs, providing 10% stamina to Frost and Unholy, and 60% to Blood Death Knights.

  • Azerite Traits

    • Bloody Runeblade (replaces Embrace of the Darkfallen) - When Crimson Scourge activates, you gain 259 Haste for 5 seconds, and immediately gain 5 Runic Power.
    • Cold Hearted - Icebound Fortitude heals for 1908 every second and its cooldown is reduced by 15 seconds.
    • Frostwhelp's Indignation (replaces Glacial Contagion) - Pillar of Frost summons a Frostwhelp who breathes on all enemies within 20 yards in front of you for 864 Frost damage. Each unique enemy hit by Frostwhelp's Indignation grants you 35 Mastery for 6 seconds, up to 175.
    • Helchains (replaces Horrid Experimentation) - Dark Transformations links you and your pet with chains that deal 467 Fire damage every second to enemies between you for 15 seconds.
    • Magus of the Dead (replaces Festering Doom) - Apocalypse and Army of the Damned additionally summon a Magus of the Dead who hurls Frostbolts and Shadowbolts at your foes, dealing 933 each.

  • BLOOD

    • Bonestorm now heals you for a maximum of 15% of your health.
    • Purgatory no longer clears on death.
    • Will of the Necropolis now reduces damage taken below 30% by 30% (was 35% reduction below 35% health).

  • FROST

    • Breath of Sindragosa damage decreased by 10%.
    • Dreadwake Armor 2-piece bonus (Item - Death Knight T21 Frost 2P Bonus) value reduced to 3% (was 15%).

  • UNHOLY

    • All Will Serve Skulker Shot damage reduced by 15%.
    • Bursting Sores now affects all nearby targets.
    • Death and Decay ’s Necrotic Strike now also hits up to 3 additional targets.

• Demon Hunter

  • Chaos Brand now triggers from all damage (was only Fire/Chaos damage).

  • AZERITE TRAITS

    • Chaotic Transformation (replaces Unbound Chaos) - Demon Blades / Demon's Bite deals 283 additional damage. When you activate Metamorphosis, the cooldown of Eye Beam and Blade Dance is immediately reset.
    • Hour of Reaping (replaces Gaping Maw) - Lesser Soul Fragments restore 467 additional health, and every 40 Soul Fragments you consume causes your next Soul Cleave to grant you a Soul Barrier.
    • Revel in Pain now additionally causes Fiery Brand to last 10 seconds.
    • New: Thrive in Chaos - Each Fury / Pain spent heals you for 10 / 25 Health.

  • HAVOC

    • Vengeful Retreat is no longer subject to the global cooldown.

• Druid

  • Wild Charge is no longer subject to the global cooldown.

  • AZERITE TRAITS

    • Arcanic Pulsar (replaces Sunblaze) - Starsurge's damage is increased by 429. Every 9 Starsurges, gain Celestial Alignment for 6 seconds.
    • Autumn Leaves healing reduced by 25%, and now increases Rejuvenation duration by 1 second.
    • Burst of Savagery (replaces Craggy Bark) - Consuming Gore grants you 104 mastery for 5 seconds and has a 15% chance to activate Gore.
    • Early Harvest (replaces Fungal Essence) - When Wild Growth expires, it heals the target for 291 if they are injured or it reduces the cooldown of Innervate by 1 sec if they are not.
    • Gushing Lacerations damage increased by 400%.
    • High Noon now increases Sunfire periodic damage instead (was direct damage).
    • Jungle Fury (replaces Shredding Fury) - Tiger's Fury increases your critical strike by 339 and lasts 12 seconds.
    • Power of the Moon now increases Moonfire periodic damage (was direct damage), and now grants Moonfire periodic damage a chance to grant Lunar Empowerment.
    • Reawakening Absorption doubled, and now grants the target of your Rebirth a Well Fed buff.
    • New: Switch Hitter - An ability from your chosen Affinity grants an additional bonus for 20 seconds.
    • Untamed Ferocity (replaces Raking Ferocity) - Combo-point generating abilities deal 86 additional instant damage and reduce the cooldown of Berserk by 0.3 seconds.

  • BALANCE

    • Mastery: Starlight now affects Starsurge and Solar Empowerment at full value (was half value).
    • Stellar Flare damage increased by 25%.
    • Twin Moons damage bonus to Moonfire reduced to 10% (was 20%).

  • FERAL

    • Feral spec aura no longer has a hidden 25% bonus to Haste.
    • Mastery: Razor Claws now includes finishing moves.
    • Ferocious Bite no longer refreshes the duration of Rip if the target is below 25% health.
    • Maim Energy cost reduced to 30 (was 35), and damage increased by 50%.
    • New: Primal Wrath - Finishing move that deals instant damage and applies Rip to all enemies within 10 yards. Lasts longer per combo point.
    • Shred damage increased by 20%, and damage bonus from stealth reduced to 30% (was 50%).
    • Rip Energy cost reduced to 20 (was 30), combo points now increase the duration (was damage), and lasts longer per combo point.
    • Savage Roar now grants 10% damage (was 15%), and now grants 10% Energy regeneration rate.
    • New: Scent of Blood - Each enemy hit by Thrash reduces the cost of Swipe by 3 Energy for the next 6 seconds.

  • GUARDIAN

    • All damage abilities increased 12%.
    • At level 80, Guardian Druids now learn Stampeding Roar (Rank 2), which reduces the cooldown of Stampeding Roar by 1 minute.
    • Ursol's Vortex (replaces Intimidating Roar) - Conjures a vortex of wind for 10 seconds at the destination, reducing the movement speed of all enemies within 8 yards by 50%. The first time an enemy attempts to leave the vortex, winds will pull that enemy back to its center.

  • RESTORATION

    • Tranquility direct healing reduced by 10%, and heal-over-time healing reduced by 40%.
    • Wild Growth healing increased by 10%.

• Hunter

  • Beast Lore now shows spec and abilities.
  • Many creatures that were previously untamable can now be tamed by Hunters.
  • Hunter shots now visually fire from the correct attachment point.
  • The spell visuals for Barrage have been improved.

  • AZERITE TRAITS

    • Dire Consequences (replaces Pack Alpha) - Kill Command deals 525 additional damage, and has a chance to summon a Dire Beast.
    • New: Nature's Salve - Exhilaration heals you for an additional 11505 health, and its cooldown is reduced by 15 seconds.
    • Primeval Intuition (replaces Up Close And Personal) - Your maximum Focus is increased and Mongoose Bite / Raptor Strike increases your Critical Strike by 10 for 12 seconds, stacking up to 5 times.
    • Surging Shots (replaces Arcane Flurry) - Rapid Fire damage is increased per shot fired. This damage starts lower and increases per shot of Rapid Fire. Aimed Shot has a 15% chance to reset the cooldown of Rapid Fire.

  • BEAST MASTERY

    • Your second Animal Companion will now Play Dead and benefit from Mend Pet.
    • Dire Beast now properly includes beasts from Kul Tiras and Zandalar.

  • MARKSMANSHIP

    • Aimed Shot damage increased by 20% and no longer has a +50% damage bonus if it is the first shot against a target.
    • Arcane Shot damage increased 25%.
    • Bursting Shot now snares for 6 seconds (was 4 seconds), can no longer be dodged, and knocks targets back much farther.
    • Disengage can now be used while using Rapid Fire without breaking the channel.
    • Explosive Shot redesigned. Now fires an explosive shot at your target. After 3 seconds, the shot will explode, dealing Fire damage to all enemies within 8 yards
    • Lethal Shots redesigned. Arcane Shot and Multi-Shot have a 20% chance to reduce the cooldown of Rapid Fire by 5 seconds.
    • Lone Wolf now ramps up to maximum effect 20 seconds after dismissing your pet (was 50 seconds).
    • Multi-Shot damage increased 25%, and radius increased to 10 yards (was 8).
    • Piercing Shot now ignores armor and can no longer be blocked.
    • Precise Shots bonus reduced to 75% (was 100%).
    • Serpent Sting damage increased by 15%.
    • Steady Shot now also increases the duration of Concussive Shot on a target by 3 seconds.
    • Streamline additional Rapid Fire duration reduced to 20% (was 30%).
    • Trick Shots additional damage increased to 50% (was 40%).
    • Trueshot redesigned. Reduces the cooldown of your Aimed Shot and Rapid Fire by 60%, and causes Aimed Shot to cast 50% faster.
    • Volley now has a greater chance to activate and does less damage.

  • SURVIVAL

    • Harpoon is no longer subject to the global cooldown.

• Mage

  • Cold Snap can once again be used while in Ice Block.

  • AZERITE TRAITS

    • Brain Storm now also makes Evocation grant 2 Arcane Charges immediately.
    • Equipoise (replaces Anomalous Impact) - When you are above 70% mana, Arcane Blast deals 150 additional damage. When you are below 70% mana, Arcane Blast's cost is reduced by 190.
    • Flash Freeze (replaces Winter's Reach) - Each of your Icicles deals 897 additional damage, and when an Icicle deals damage you have a 3% chance to gain the Fingers of Frost effect.
    • New: Quick Thinking - Your instant cast damaging spells heal you for 784.
    • Wildfire (replaces Preheat) - Pyroblast deals 937 additional damage. When you activate Combustion, you gain 768 Critical Strike, and up to 4 nearby allies gain 96 Critical Strike for 10 seconds.

  • FROST

    • All damage increased by 3%.
    • Blizzard now applies a 50% snare for 1.5 seconds (was 50% snare for 15 seconds) and range increased to 40 yards (was 35 yards).
    • Comet Storm damage reduced by 10%.
    • Frostbolt now applies a 50% snare for 8 seconds (was 50% snare for 15 seconds).
    • Frozen Orb now applies a 30% snare for 3 seconds (was 50% snare for 15 seconds).
    • Regalia of the Arcane Tempest 2-piece set bonus (Item - Mage T20 Frost 2P Bonus) reduced to 4% crit damage (was 20%).

• Monk

  • Crackling Jade Lightning initial tick and damage per-tick reduced 20%.

  • AZERITE TRAITS

    • Burst of Life now additionally reduces the cooldown of Life Cocoon by 20 seconds.
    • Dance of Chi-Ji (replaces Meridian Strikes) - Spending Chi has a chance to make your next Spinning Crane Kick free and deal 2966 additional damage.
    • New: Exit Strategy - Rolling grants you 73 Avoidance for 2 seconds. Taking non-periodic damage in this time reduces the cooldown of Roll by 5 seconds.
    • Fury of Xuen (replaces Iron Fists) - Your Combo Strikes grant you the Fury of Xuen, giving your next Fists of Fury a 2% chance to grant 1200 Haste and invoke Xuen, The White Tiger for 8 seconds.
    • Glory of the Dawn (replaces Swift Roundhouse) - Rising Sun Kick has a chance to trigger a second time, dealing 11526 Physical damage and restoring 1 Chi.
    • Secret Infusion (replaces Invigorating Brew) - After using Thunder Focus Tea, your next spell gives 80 of a stat for 10 seconds.
    • Straight, No Chaser (replaces Niuzao's Blessing) - Ironskin Brew increases your Armor by 69, and has an 8% chance to not consume a charge.

  • BREWMASTER

    • Base Stagger amount reduced to 105% of Agility (was 140%).
    • Ironskin Brew increases Stagger by 270% (was 250%).
    • Black Ox Statue threat radius reduced to 20 yards (was 30 yards).

  • MISTWEAVER

    • Enveloping Mist healing reduced by 13%.
    • Soothing Mist is no longer dispellable.

  • WINDWALKER

    • All damage increased by 5%.
    • Good Karma redesigned - 100% of the damage redirected by Touch of Karma also heals you.
    • Rushing Jade Wind now has a 1 Chi cost, a 6 second duration, and 6 second cooldown.
    • Touch of Death damage reduced to 35% of your maximum health (was 50%).
    • Touch of Karma damage redirected is now 70% of absorbed damage (was 100% of absorbed damage).

• Paladin

  • Paladin Divine Steed glyphs from the Legion Order Hall are now accessible account-wide.

  • AZERITE TRAITS

    • Divine Revelations now additionally increases Infusion of Light-buffed Flashes of Light.
    • New: Empyreal Ward - Lay on Hands grants the target 259 armor for 1 minute.
    • Empyrean Power (replaces Divine Right) - Your attacks have a chance to make your next Divine Storm free and deal 2559 additional damage.
    • Glimmer of Light (replaces Martyr's Breath) - Holy Shock leaves a Glimmer of Light on the target for 30 seconds. When you Holy Shock, all targets with Glimmer of Light are damaged for 421 or healed for 730.
    • Light's Decree (replaces Zealotry) - Spending Holy Power during Avenging Wrath causes you to explode with Holy light for 1182 damage per Holy Power spent to nearby enemies. Avenging Wrath's duration is increased by 5 seconds.
    • Righteous Conviction (replaces Dauntless Divinity) - Your Light of the Protector heals for 1290 additional healing, and is always increased by 200% during Avenging Wrath.

  • HOLY

    • Holy Paladin spells and visuals have been updated.

  • PROTECTION

    • Hand of the Protector bonus is now based on your target’s missing health.

  • RETRIBUTION

    • Consecration damage increased by 20%.
    • Fixed a bug that prevented consecutive Divine Purpose procs. To compensate, Diving Purpose damage and healing increased reduced to 20% (was 30%).
    • Divine Storm damage increased by 20%.
    • Greater Blessing of Kings absorption increased 19% and can no longer stack.
    • Greater Blessing of Wisdom no longer restores health, only mana, and can no longer stack.

• Priest

  • Focused Will now stacks to a maximum of 1 (was 2).
  • Halo damage and healing reduced 6%.
  • Power Word: Shield applies Weakened Soul, preventing the same caster from recasting it on the same target for 7.5 seconds.

  • AZERITE TRAITS

    • New: Death Denied - Leap of Faith absorbs the next 10,736 damage to the target within 10 seconds. While the shield holds, Leap of Faith cools down 200% faster.
    • Depth of the Shadows healing bonus increased 100%, and now increases Atonement duration, when applied by Shadow Mend, by 2 seconds.
    • Promise of Deliverance (replaces Sacred Flame) - For 10 seconds after you cast Holy Word: Serenity, Heal and Flash Heal heal for an additional 472, and reduce the cooldown of Holy Word: Serenity by an additional 1 seconds.
    • Searing Dialogue now also causes Mind Sear to snare targets hit by Mind Sear by 30% for 1 second.
    • Sudden Revelation (replaces Gift of Forgiveness) - Power Word: Radiance has a 50% chance to cause your next Holy Nova to deal 1470 additional damage and reduce the cooldown of Power Word: Radiance by 3 seconds.
    • Thought Harvester redesigned. Vampiric Touch damage is increased, and each time Vampiric Touch deals damage you have a chance to increase the damage of your next Mind Sear within 20 seconds by 300%.
    • Whispers of the Damned redesigned. Mind Blast now deals additional damage and generates additional Insanity on critical strikes.

  • DISCIPLINE

    • Damage of Smite and Shadow Word: Pain reduced by 11%.
    • Damage of Shadowfiend, Mindbender, Purge the Wicked, Schism, and Power Word: Solace reduced 8%.
    • Atonement heals for 55% of damage done (was 60%).
    • Body and Soul no longer has a 6 second internal cooldown.
    • Evangelism cooldown increased to 90 seconds (was 75 seconds).
    • Power Word: Shield cost increased to 2.65% of mana (was 2.5%).
    • Rapture additionally allows you to ignore Weakened Soul.

  • HOLY

    • Benediction proc rate decreased to 25% (was 30%).
    • Binding Heal healing reduced to 67% of spell power (was 75%), and now costs 2.9% of mana (was 2.4%).
    • Focused Will (rank 2) allows it to stack to 2.
    • Greater Fade now cancels when the Priest takes a hostile action.
    • Heal healing increased to 175% (was 160%)
    • Holy Word: Salvation initial healing reduced to 110% (was 150%).
    • Renew healing increased by 15%.
    • Trail of Light now affects Heal as well as Flash Heal and replicates 35% of the initial cast (was 40%).

  • SHADOW

    • Shadow Priests now have Focused Will.
    • All damage reduced by 5%.
    • Dispersion damage reduction increased to 75% (was 60%), and now also increases movement speed by 50% for its duration.
    • New: Intangibility (replaces Mania) - Dispersion heals for 50% of your maximum health over its duration and has 30 seconds reduced cooldown.
    • Hallucinations is now a passive ability for all Shadow Priests (was a PvP talent).
    • Legacy of the Void now increases Voidform’s damage bonus by 5%.
    • Mind Bomb duration increased to 6 seconds (was 5 seconds).
    • Mind Sear damage increased by 20%.
    • Power Word: Shield no longer has a cooldown.
    • Psychic Scream damage break threshold increased by 40% against non-players.
    • Shadowform no longer provides 10% physical damage reduction.
    • Surrender to Madness cooldown reduced to 3 minutes (was 4 minutes), and Insanity generation penalty duration reduced to 15 seconds (was 30 seconds).
    • Voidform now increases spell damage by 20% (was 10%), and Insanity drain increase reduced by 7.5%.
    • Void Bolt Insanity generation increased to 20 (was 16).
    • Void Torrent damage increased by 20%, now generates 25 Insanity over its duration, and no longer requires Voidform.

• Rogue

  • AZERITE TRAITS

    • Blade In The Shadows now reduces the cost of Shadowstrike by 2 Energy as a non-stacking bonus. Damage bonus reduced by 40%.
    • Echoing Blades (replaces Fan of Blades) - Fan of Knives damage is increased by 321. For each of the first 5 critical strikes, it will fire a second spray of knives at that location, dealing 1282 damage to enemies within 8 yards.
    • Keep Your Wits About You (replaces Storm of Steel) - Each time an attack Blade Flurries, increase the chance for Sinister Strike to strike again by 2%. Additional strikes of Sinister Strike deal 1844 more damage.
    • New: Lying In Wait - While no enemy is within 12 yards, heal for 689 every second. While any enemy is within 12 yards, gain 173 Speed.
    • Nothing Personal (replaces Poisoned Wire) - Vendetta poisons the target, dealing 11049 damage over 20 seconds, and grants you 40 energy over 20 seconds.
    • Perforate now reduces the cooldown of Shadow Blades by 0.5 seconds when Backstabbing an enemy from behind.
    • Replicating Shadows (replaces Sharpened Blades) - Each combo point spent has an 2% chance to cause your Nightblade to deal 5843 Shadow damage and spread to a nearby enemy.
    • The First Dance redesigned. Activating Shadow Dance now grants you Combo Points and increases your Haste for its duration.

  • SUBTLETY

    • Shuriken Combo (baseline passive) removed.
    • Shuriken Storm damage increased by 35%.

• Shaman

  • Capacitor Totem and Earthbind Totem range increased to 40 yards.
  • Spirit Wolf is now available when you’re dead.

  • AZERITE TRAITS

    • New: Ancient Ankh Talisman - While Reincarnation is off cooldown, your maximum health is increased by 2590. While you are at full health, Reincarnation cools down 50% faster.
    • Tectonic Thunder (replaces Rumbling Tremors) - Earthquake deals 596 Physical damage instantly, and has a 25% chance to make your next Chain Lightning be instant cast.
    • Spouting Spirits healing reduced by 15%, and now increases Spirit Link Totem radius by 15%.
    • New: Thunderaan's Fury - Stormstrike deals 271.5 additional damage, and has a 15% chance to summon Thunderaan's Fury Totem, doubling the chance to activate Windfury Weapon for 12 seconds.
    • Turn of the Tide (replaces Ebb and Flow) - Both bonuses of Tidal Waves are increased 5%, and spells affected by it heal for an additional 859.

  • ELEMENTAL

    • New: Seismic Armor - Your maximum Maelstrom increased by 30, and the Maelstrom cost of Earth Shock and Earthquake is reduced by 10.
    • Earth Shock damage reduced by 16%.
    • Earthquake range increased to 40 yards.
    • Elemental Blast overloads will now always grant a separate secondary stat buff from the primary spell and the overloaded spell.
    • Flame Shock duration increased to 24 seconds (was 18 seconds).
    • Icefury now generates 25 Maelstrom (was 15), overload generates 12 Maelstrom (was 8), now causes your next 4 Frost Shocks to generate 8 Maelstrom, and bonus damage increased to 200% (was 100%).
    • Mastery: Enhanced Elements can now also buff your next Physical damage spell.
    • Lightning Bolt damage increased by 40%.
    • Stormkeeper now also increases the damage of your next two Lightning Bolts (and their overloads) by 150%.
    • New: Surge of Power - Earth Shock also enhances your next spell cast within 15 seconds (Flame Shock, Lightning Bolt, Lava Burst, Frost Shock).

  • ENHANCEMENT

    • All damage increased by 5%.
    • Boulderfist damage increase is now 35% (was 20%).
    • Crashing Storm damage increased by 40%.
    • Forceful Winds damage per stack reduced to 80% (was 100%).
    • Fury of Air damage increased by 40%.
    • Hailstorm damage increased by 50%.
    • Landslide proc chance increased to 40% (was 20%).
    • Lightning Shield overcharge no longer generates Maelstrom.
    • Overcharge cooldown reduced to 9 seconds (was 12 seconds).
    • Totem Mastery Storm Totem increased to 10% Stormstrike damage (was 5%).

  • RESTORATION

    • Chain Heal healing increased 33%.
    • High Tide redesigned. Every (40,000 at level 120) mana you spend brings a High Tide, making your next 2 Chain Heals heal for an additional 20% and not reduce with each jump.
    • Unleash Life now heals for 130% (was 110%), increases the next heal by 35% (was 45%), and costs 4% mana (was 5%).

• Warlock

  • Players can now summon other players in their group who are present in the same dungeon.
  • All Warlocks now have Demonic Embrace (passive) – Stamina increased by 10%.
  • Imp Firebolt damage increased by 25%.
  • Felhunter, Succubus, and Voidwalker damage increased by 15%.

  • AZERITE TRAITS

    • Baleful Invocation (replaces Forbidden Knowledge) - Your Demonic Tyrant's Demonfire deals 375 additional damage, and summoning your Demonic Tyrant instantly generates 5 Soul Shards.
    • Chaos Shards (replaces Accelerant) - Incinerate damage is increased by 198, and when you fill up a Soul Shard, you have a 5% chance to generate an additional full Soul Shard over 2 seconds.
    • Dreadful Calling damage increased by 30%.
    • Inevitable Demise is now triggered by Agony (was Corruption), and stacks up to 50 times (was 100).
    • Pandemic Invocation (replaces Deathbloom) - Refreshing Corruption, Agony, or Siphon Life will deal 692 Shadow damage and has a chance to grant you a Soul Shard.
    • New: Terror of the Mind - You steal 770 health every 1 second from targets affected by your Fear spell.

  • AFFLICTION

    • Unstable Affliction damage reduced by 9%.

  • DEMONOLOGY

    • Bilescourge Bombers damage increased by 50%.
    • Demonic Consumption – each Wild Imp consumed now has a chance to proc Demonic Core, and your Tyrant’s damage bonus per energy consumed has been increased by 100%.
    • Demonic Tyrant’s summon duration extension now also applies to any demons summoned from the Nether Portal.
    • Felguard spell power scaling increased by 15%, and Legion Strike damage additionally increased by 20%.
    • Nether Portal duration changed to 15 seconds (was 20 seconds), and cost reduced to 1 soul shard (was 3). All pets that can come out of the Nether Portal now deal 25% increased damage.
    • Sacrificed Souls additional damage per demon reduced to 4% (was 5%).

  • DESTRUCTION

    • Rain of Fire range increased to 40 yards (was 35 yards).

• Warrior

  • Battle Shout now correctly increases auto-attack damage by 10%.

  • AZERITE TRAITS

    • Bastion of Might (replaces Reinforced Plating) - Avatar increases your Mastery by 106 for 20 seconds, and instantly grants you Ignore Pain.
    • Cold Steel, Hot Blood (replaces Bloodcraze) - Bloodthirst critical strikes generate additional Rage and inflict a Gushing Wound that leeches health over 6 seconds.
    • Crushing Assault Slam damage increased to 10,800 (was 7,060).
    • Gathering Storm redesigned. Now while Bladestorming, you gain movement speed and strength, stacking.
    • New: Intimidating Presence - Intimidating Shout reduces the movement speed of affected enemies by 50%, and prevents the next 8109 damage they deal after Intimidating Shout ends.
    • Striking the Anvil (replaces Executioner's Precision) - The Tactician effect improves your next Overpower, causing it to deal 902 additional damage and reduce the remaining cooldown of Mortal Strike.
    • Unbridled Ferocity (replaces Trample the Weak) - Rampage deals additional damage and has a 8% chance to grant you Recklessness.

  • ARMS

    • Charge is no longer subject to the global cooldown.
    • Execute now refunds 20% of Rage spent if the target doesn’t die (was 30%).

  • FURY

    • Charge is no longer subject to the global cooldown.

  • PROTECTION

    • Ignore Pain is no longer subject to the global cooldown.
    • Intercept is no longer subject to the global cooldown.
    • Shield Block recharge time reduced to 16 seconds (was 18 seconds).
    • Vanguard now increases Stamina by 45% (was 40%), and armor by 60% of Strength (was 50%).

Player versus Player

• The reward bonuses from War Mode can now scale above 10% when a faction was outnumbered over the course of the preceding week, up to a maximum of 30% additional quest rewards and experience.
• In War Mode, an outnumbered faction now has access to a weekly quest to slay 25 level 120 players of the opposing faction, rewarding a piece of item level 370 Arathi Warfront gear and 1000 Artifact Power.
• War Mode can now be disabled in any rested area. It can still only be enabled in Stormwind or Orgrimmar.
• The Honor system reward vendor has been consolidated.
• Strongboxes rewarded for unrated PvP have been improved. They now contain Marks of Honor, gold, PvP consumables, and profession materials. Strongboxes granted on victories contain greater amounts of these rewards.
• Rated Arenas and Rated Battlegrounds now grant an additional 50% conquest for all conquest reward weeks prior to week 9.
• Honor pet rewards have consolidated to new vendors in Stormwind and Orgrimmar.

• Alterac Valley

  • The relentless snow in Alterac Valley has raised the height of Stonehearth graveyard, making it more challenging for the Horde to assault.

• Classes

  • Healing Surge, Healing Wave, Holy Light, Flash of Light, Heal, and Regrowth healing increased by 15% in PvP.
• Death Knight
  • Decomposing Aura now only applies to Blood and Unholy Death Knights.
  • Heartstop Aura now only applies to Blood and Frost Death Knights and decreases the cooldown recovery rate of abilities by 30% to enemies (was 20%).
  • Dark Simulacrum cost reduced to none (was 20 Runic Power) and cooldown decreased to 20 seconds (was 25 seconds).
  • New PvP talent (Frost, Unholy): Transfusion. Generates 20 Runic Power and reduces the Runic Power cost of Death Strike by 50% for 7 seconds.
  • Frost
    • New PvP talent: Dead of Winter. After your Remorseless Winter deals damage 5 times to a target, they are Stunned for 4 seconds, and your Remorseless Winter's cooldown is increased by 25 seconds and its radius is reduced to 5 yards.
    • Chill Streak now deals up to 6% of the target’s health in Frost damage (was 3%).
    • Deathchill reworked. It is now applied by Remorseless Winter and Chains of Ice (was Death Grip), and now roots the target in place for 4 seconds.
    • Delirium now lasts for 15 seconds (was 8 seconds).
  • Unholy
    • New PvP talent: Lichborne. Become Undead for 10 seconds, all damage is reduced by 30%, and you are immune to Stun, Snare, Fear and Root effects. You cannot move faster than 50% of normal speed.
    • New PvP talent: Life and Death. When targets afflicted by your Festering Wound are healed, you are also healed for 10% of the amount. Your Virulent Plague now erupts for 400% of normal eruption damage when dispelled.
    • New PvP talent: Necromancer's Bargain. The cooldown of your Apocalypse is reduced by 45 seconds, your Apocalypse applies Crypt Fever to the target, and Crypt Fever deals up to 8% of the target’s maximum health in Shadow damage over 4 seconds. Healing spells cast on this target will refresh the duration of Crypt Fever.
    • New PvP talent: Raise Abomination. Raises an Abomination for 25 second which wanders and attacks enemies near where it was summoned, applying Festering Wound when it melees targets, and affecting all those nearby with Virulent Plague.
• Demon Hunter
  • Havoc
    • Demonic Origins no longer increases damage outside of Metamorphosis.
    • Mana Break no longer increases damage based on missing mana, now increases the mana cost of spells by 30% for 10 seconds, and now costs 50 Fury.
    • Mana Rift now has an 8 yard range (was 20 yards), now explodes after 2.5 seconds (was 2 seconds) and now costs 50 Fury.
  • Vengeance
    • Demonic Trample now increases speed by 175% for 3 seconds, now shares charges and cooldown with Infernal Strike, and targets can only be affected by its knockdown effect once every 45 seconds.
• Druid
  • Balance
    • Deep Roots now increases the amount of damage required to cancel your Entangling Roots and Mass Entanglement by 400% (was 200%).
    • Faerie Swarm now disarms targets for 5 seconds (was 8 seconds).
    • Moonkin Aura now causes Starsurge to grant 4% spell critical strike chance to 8 allies within 40 yards for 18 seconds, stacking up to 3 times.
  • Feral
    • King of the Jungle now increases healing received (was damage done).
    • New PvP Talent: Tooth and Claw - You become further adept in Caster Form and Bear Form.
    • New PvP Talent: Leader of the Pack - While in Cat Form, you increase the melee and ranged critical chance of all allies within 40 yards by 5%. Also causes affected targets to heal themselves for 4% of their maximum health when they critically hit with a melee or ranged attack. The healing effect cannot occur more than once every 6 seconds.
    • Savage Momentum now reduces the remaining cooldown of Tiger’s Fury, Stampeding Roar, and Survival Instincts by 10 seconds.
  • Guardian
    • Freedom of the Herd is now available to Guardian Druids.
  • Restoration
    • Early Spring now also grants Full Bloom when Wild Growth heals 6 allies.
    • New PvP Talent: Master Shapeshifter - Your Guardian, Balance, or Feral Affinity is amplified, granting an additional effect.
    • Nourish has been redesigned and is now an active spell.
    • Regrowth healing increased by 15% in PvP.
• Monk
  • Eminence reduces the cooldown of Transcendence by 20 seconds (was 5 seconds), and is no longer available to Windwalker Monks.
  • Grapple Weapon cooldown reduced to 45 seconds.
  • Brewmaster
    • Chrysalis reduces Life Cocoon by 45 seconds (was 30 seconds).
  • Windwalker
    • New PvP talent: Alpha Tiger - Attacking new challengers with Tiger Palm fills you with the spirit of Xuen, granting you 30% haste for 8 seconds. This effect cannot occur more than once every 30 seconds per target.
    • Chi Burst is no longer cloned by or has its damage reduced by Storm, Earth, and Fire.
    • New PvP talent: Reverse Harm - Heals a friendly target for 8% of their maximum health and causes 100% of the amount healed to instantly be dealt to the nearest enemy as Nature damage within 5 yards. Generates 2 Chi.
    • Ride the Wind no longer increases the cooldown of Flying Serpent Kick.
    • New PvP talent: Turbo Fists - Fists of Fury now deals full damage to all targets hit, reduces all targets movement speed by 90%, and you Parry all attacks while channeling Fists of Fury.
    • New PvP talent: Wind Waker - When you or allies are snared, the snare is instantly removed, and their movement speed is prevented from being reduced below 100% for 4 seconds.
• Paladin
  • Holy
    • Cleanse the Weak now also removes Diseases and Poisons on targets healed by your Holy Light.
    • Divine Favor cooldown reduced to 25 seconds (was 45 seconds)
    • Divine Vision now also reduces Shadow damage by 15% dealt by damage over time and area of effect to allies within your aura.
    • Flash of Light healing increased by 15% in PvP.
    • Holy Light healing increased by 25% in PvP.
• Priest
  • Discipline
    • Trinity now also causes Smite, Penance, and Shadowfiend critical strike chance to be increased by 25% when you have Atonement on 3 or more allies.
  • Holy
    • Heal healing increased by 50% in PvP.
  • Shadow
    • Edge of Insanity now reduces damage taken and damage dealt by 10% and has a 15 second duration.
    • Shadowmend healing increased by 25% in PvP.
• Rogue
  • Assassination
    • Shiv now costs 35 Energy, and now applies Deadly, Wound, and Crippling Poison to the target.
• Shaman
  • Elemental
    • Earth Fury (Honor Talent) removed.
    • Lightning Lasso is no longer dispellable and deals damage of 48% of the target’s health over 6 seconds.
  • Restoration
    • Chain Heal healing increased by 50% in PvP.
    • Healing Surge healing increased by 15% in PvP.
    • Healing Wave healing increased by 25% in PvP.
    • PvP talent Rippling Waters has been removed.
• Warlock
  • Curse of Weakness now reduces attack power (was physical damage), and its effect is increased to 30% (was 25%).
  • Affliction, Destruction
    • New PvP talent: Demon Armor - Protects the caster, increasing maximum health by 10% and increases armor by 125%.
• Warrior
  • Dragon Charge is no longer subject to the global cooldown.

Game Client

• Integrated new multi-threaded performance optimizations for clients using DirectX 12 and Metal.
• All systems that are capable of DirectX 12 now default to DirectX 12.

Patch 8.1 hits live servers tomorrow and here are the official patch notes!

[tkioz 229]

Quote

Mythic Keystones can no longer be deleted.

Well that's a horrible change... Maybe Blizzard should have instead wondered why people were willing to take the downgrade hit to get rid of some keys.

[Rhondis 148]

56 minutes ago, Stan said:

Felhunter, Succubus, and Voidwalker damage increased by 15%.

It's about damn time, as a Demo lock it feels bad to lose damage because you have no interrupts. Often times I had to switch to Felhunter which led to my DPS dropping in some of the boss fights, especially in Altar of Storms.

[Rhondis 148]

4 minutes ago, tkioz said:

Well that's a horrible change... Maybe Blizzard should have instead wondered why people were willing to take the downgrade hit to get rid of some keys.

Yea, seems like a very weird change... guess people have no choice but to clear their awful keys or to wait until next week. #feelsbadman

[tkioz 229]

42 minutes ago, Rhondis said:

Yea, seems like a very weird change... guess people have no choice but to clear their awful keys or to wait until next week. #feelsbadman 

Yep back to Legion where you open your cache, get a 19 SoT and go whelp, guess I'm doing someone else's key.

[ArusVicious 156]

31 minutes ago, tkioz said:

Well that's a horrible change... Maybe Blizzard should have instead wondered why people were willing to take the downgrade hit to get rid of some keys.

Goes to prove how out of touch Blizzard is with their community.

[Rhondis 148]

48 minutes ago, Maxkitty said:

Goes to prove how out of touch Blizzard is with their community.

That is kind of a stretch to say for just one minor change, yea the change sucks. But there must be a good reason out there for it. Maybe they hoped people would re-try their keys? Who knows. Also Tkioz even mentioned that you can do someone else's key, so it's not like you were stuck forever. 

[tkioz 229]

1 hour ago, Rhondis said:

That is kind of a stretch to say for just one minor change, yea the change sucks. But there must be a good reason out there for it. Maybe they hoped people would re-try their keys? Who knows. Also Tkioz even mentioned that you can do someone else's key, so it's not like you were stuck forever. 

But the thing is it's not really a minor change when you are pushing higher keys and your normal group gets stuck with terrible keys at levels no-one wants to touch.

[Rudy199 8]

Okay , two things: BrM seems no longer will be top tank and discipline priest will be even worse for a casual player.

[Undeath 67]

3 hours ago, Rhondis said:

That is kind of a stretch to say for just one minor change

*Cough*mobile diablo*Cough*hots*Cough*bfa gameplay*dies coughing*

[Rhondis 148]

1 hour ago, tkioz said:

But the thing is it's not really a minor change when you are pushing higher keys and your normal group gets stuck with terrible keys at levels no-one wants to touch.

But it is a minor change, even when you delete your keystone you can't re-acquire a new one by doing a whole new mythic+ except from restoration services (otherwise you are going to have to wait till next week regardless). And if a key is that troublesome, you can easily go in, start the key, leave and reset it to lower the levels to where your party can actually complete it and change it to a better key. It's tedious, but it's far fetch to say that Blizzard is astray from their community because you can't delete keys. IMO the fact that they are making an effort to make BfA appealing by changing most of the Azerite traits and adding new and interesting ones show along with class changes show that they at least listen to the community. 

***EDIT: Nevermind, apparently when BFA went live they changed it to where you can delete your key and get a whole new one for the week. Which is an odd ball change, but people still have the option to lower the keys level by 1 every time they restart it and change it to a whole new key when they can manage the current one.

Edited December 11, 2018 by Rhondis

[Rhondis 148]

35 minutes ago, Jonar said:

*Cough*mobile diablo*Cough*hots*Cough*bfa gameplay*dies coughing*

Diablo Development team is a wonderful example of being really disconnected from the community. But HoTS from what I am hearing, is doing alright. And BFA gameplay is meh at it's finest. I thought it was fun, but it's far too grindy for me since I am in school full time and work. And again, with them making efforts to making BfA somewhat more appealing and fun, you have to admit that they are trying to listen to the community. Besides, the goal is to have subscribers right? 

[Allseye 96]

3 hours ago, Rhondis said:

But it is a minor change, even when you delete your keystone you can't re-acquire a new one by doing a whole new mythic+ except from restoration services (otherwise you are going to have to wait till next week regardless). And if a key is that troublesome, you can easily go in, start the key, leave and reset it to lower the levels to where your party can actually complete it and change it to a better key. It's tedious, but it's far fetch to say that Blizzard is astray from their community because you can't delete keys. IMO the fact that they are making an effort to make BfA appealing by changing most of the Azerite traits and adding new and interesting ones show along with class changes show that they at least listen to the community. 

***EDIT: Nevermind, apparently when BFA went live they changed it to where you can delete your key and get a whole new one for the week. Which is an odd ball change, but people still have the option to lower the keys level by 1 every time they restart it and change it to a whole new key when they can manage the current one.

Well, i agree it is a minor change and not wont hit many players. But thats not really the point in here. It's again something Blizzard decides over the community. tkioz brought up a very good point: instead just prevent player from deleting the key they should solve the problem on its roots. And here comes the thing with "Blizzard lost touch with community". Since the beginning of this addon (or even Beta?), Blizzard "fixes" things around the core problems and around community's perception. Some examples?

• Multiple class-design went unfinished and unmotivated into this expansions. They had feedback from community, but instead to fix the roots, they try to hotfixing numbers. Ok, lets be fair, some designs gets treated a bit more in detail, but it seems most problems aren't solved.
• Azerit-System: Its just something you activate on gear. Most of talents are passive and you don't feel a difference. There are some exceptions, but then these traits are just overpowered and not balanced. Again, there has been feedback from community, but it was released at it was. Afterwards Blizzard tries to hotfix traits (what is better than doing nothing).
• Loot of Azerit-Items: Communtity said, with the balance of traites, some classes need to farm certain slots to stay as competitive as possible. But it's not possible, we rely on RNG of a weekly cache. Instead touching the root of that problem, we'll get a new currency to buy slots. Read how much you need of it to buy a certain slot...i don't think Blizzard is in touch with community.

You see, it's not just the minor change, its the whole package. I dont think community is just bitching against Blizzard, i think community is complaining because they (or shall it call "we") "love" the game and all their friends in it. But with actions Blizzard took so far, it sheems playerbase is shrinking and shrinking...

[Evincare 39]

2 hours ago, Allseye said:

• Multiple class-design went unfinished and unmotivated into this expansions. They had feedback from community, but instead to fix the roots, they try to hotfixing numbers. Ok, lets be fair, some designs gets treated a bit more in detail, but it seems most problems aren't solved.

This. I mean IIRC they basically acknowledged Shadow and Enhancement (probably other/more specs) were about unplayable after BfA launched and quite early were like, yeah we'll fix it in 8.1. That is basically a slap in the face of the paying customer. They knew it wasn't finished, but launched it anyways. They just got lucky, BfA wasn't as f*ed up as Fallout 76 - or to a lesser extent battlefield V - were...

I know Activision Blizzard is a huge company and they don't have to please the players alone. Investors want to see earnings; they don't care about finished or unfinished products. I just think, it's kind of sad it came to this, since I always had the impression Blizz would release now Products only if they were convinced, they were finished.

6 hours ago, Rhondis said:

Diablo Development team is a wonderful example of being really disconnected from the community. But HoTS from what I am hearing, is doing alright.

As far as I can tell from my own limited experience as well as community feedback the Heroes Dev Team is indeed doing quite alright as far as listening to the playerbase goes. In fact, they recently reverted some gameplay changes they wanted to implement - and were quite fond of - because of negative feedback during ptr-phase. I completely agree concerning the D3 team though...

[Ragingwolf 286]

Band-aid from the gist of things....not really excited for most of what was mentioned in the patch notes.  The ability to prevent players deleting their Keystone is lame.  Pending on the affixes some Keystones aren't worth the hassle or the resources to even complete.  Not too mention trying to find competent pugs that don't purposely screw the group over or leaving in the middle of the dungeon to protect their i.o. score.

[Reversion 1]

War changes are joke

[Rhondis 148]

7 hours ago, Allseye said:

Well, i agree it is a minor change and not wont hit many players. But thats not really the point in here. It's again something Blizzard decides over the community. tkioz brought up a very good point: instead just prevent player from deleting the key they should solve the problem on its roots. And here comes the thing with "Blizzard lost touch with community". Since the beginning of this addon (or even Beta?), Blizzard "fixes" things around the core problems and around community's perception. Some examples?

What problem though? No matter how you chop it, the keys are RNG based regardless and both routes to changing the keys are tedious:

• Either you get a *filtered* one, then you delete it, having to do another Mythic+ to acquire a lower level one. And having to work yourself up to the same level as the key you received in the chest (assuming that you didn't get the same dungeon as well). 

OR

• You lower the key's level by 1 each time, get it to a manageable position, and change it to a whole other key (assuming that you don't get the exact same key as before)

No matter what, players are opting for other ways to changing keys through other tedious methods. It just so happened that BfA allowed people to re-acquire new keys by deleting them and re-doing a mythic. And for some reason Blizzard didn't like that. I can't say for sure as to why, wish they put more reasoning into small changes such this. But maybe someone can ask them during the next round of Developer Q&A.

 

7 hours ago, Allseye said:

• Multiple class-design went unfinished and unmotivated into this expansions. They had feedback from community, but instead to fix the roots, they try to hotfixing numbers. Ok, lets be fair, some designs gets treated a bit more in detail, but it seems most problems aren't solved.
• Azerit-System: Its just something you activate on gear. Most of talents are passive and you don't feel a difference. There are some exceptions, but then these traits are just overpowered and not balanced. Again, there has been feedback from community, but it was released at it was. Afterwards Blizzard tries to hotfix traits (what is better than doing nothing).
• Loot of Azerit-Items: Communtity said, with the balance of traites, some classes need to farm certain slots to stay as competitive as possible. But it's not possible, we rely on RNG of a weekly cache. Instead touching the root of that problem, we'll get a new currency to buy slots. Read how much you need of it to buy a certain slot...i don't think Blizzard is in touch with community.

You see, it's not just the minor change, its the whole package. I dont think community is just bitching against Blizzard, i think community is complaining because they (or shall it call "we") "love" the game and all their friends in it. But with actions Blizzard took so far, it sheems playerbase is shrinking and shrinking...

Ok, I see your point. But again, Maxkitty and Tkioz brought up that Blizzard is astray from their community because you can't delete mythic keys, not because of the reasons you have stated right above. But let me break down your points:

• Yes class design was awful, but again it was awful at the start of Legion as well with a vast majority or long range DPS suffering majorly due to lack of damage (Remember Frost mage at the start?). This apparently seems like an issue every expansion that is rolled out, so either they need to pay very close attention to PTR or they need to push back the release date of an expansion to allow for class tuning. As in the case for BfA, I'll admit that they released it a tad too early. Despite them working a long time on it, a lot of classes were suffering. But we can't discount the amount of power spike the Artifact system had on classes back in Legion, a big issue as I seem to understand is that they tuned the classes around the Artifact system rather than in the long run. For example, I main Enh Shaman. Enh Shaman heavily relied on the artifact weapon to increase the amount of SS procs as well as Maelstrom generation, but with the removal of that system with another system that is really watered down, Enh Shaman has suffered big time. WoW Dev teams need to tune classes for the future, and not so much so on the new systems that will be gone in twos years after an expansion release.
• Azerite-system was honestly lack lustered, but we all knew what was coming when they revealed the system back in Blizzcon 2017. And in my honest opinion, it needed to be lack luster so people such as myself don't get too attached to it much like the artifact system in Legion. But, I do have to agree, wish they implemented better traits or traits that actually changed your play style each time you switched different traits. Looking at the new traits right now in this patch notes, they seem to actually make the traits very interesting and appear fun but again, doesn't actually change the way you play since it doesn't add a new button to the rotation.
• As for the last bullet point, I agree. Blizzard really did drop the ball on this. Not much to say here.

Honestly BfA could have been better in the beginning, and I hope Blizzard makes it appealing. But for me, it seems far too grindy compared to the Artifact system and that is why I haven't play in some time. As I said before, I don't have the amount of time to grind out Azerite to level my necklace by one level when it doesn't actually give me a trait or something to pick until I grind two more levels. 

 

4 hours ago, Evincare said:

This. I mean IIRC they basically acknowledged Shadow and Enhancement (probably other/more specs) were about unplayable after BfA launched and quite early were like, yeah we'll fix it in 8.1.

Enh was playable, in fact when BfA first released Enh was one of the few classes actually performing well in terms of DPS. It just so happened that Enh was heavily reliant on the artifact system traits and Doomwinds to gain procs and not hit dry points in the rotation.

Edited December 11, 2018 by Rhondis

[Magnumite 0]

I am pretty pissed that MM is STILL completely unable to do any cleave damage on 2 targets.  We can only do aoe if there are 3 targets, AND we're capped at how many targets we can hit with aoe.  There are plenty of classes/specs that are able to do significant damage to all enemy targets in an area without a limitation like this.  I was finally able to do some respectable single-target damage with MGH once I got the right gear, and now even that is gone.  I'm not one of those "flavor of the month" people, so I will still play it and make the best of it, but the limitation on our aoe is completely ridiculous.  Stop favoring certain classes, Blizzard.  Give us all an equal shot and then let player ability take it from there. 

[Seksi 208]

13 hours ago, Magnumite said:

I am pretty pissed that MM is STILL completely unable to do any cleave damage on 2 targets.  We can only do aoe if there are 3 targets, AND we're capped at how many targets we can hit with aoe.  There are plenty of classes/specs that are able to do significant damage to all enemy targets in an area without a limitation like this.  I was finally able to do some respectable single-target damage with MGH once I got the right gear, and now even that is gone.  I'm not one of those "flavor of the month" people, so I will still play it and make the best of it, but the limitation on our aoe is completely ridiculous.  Stop favoring certain classes, Blizzard.  Give us all an equal shot and then let player ability take it from there. 

While I understand your point of view, MM hunter is not a class and BM / even Survival hunters are doing very well! Meanwhile entire other classes like Shaman are not, so its natural that fixing MM is not Blizzard's highest priority right now..it will come eventually! ? 

[Magnumite 0]

5 hours ago, Seksi said:

While I understand your point of view, MM hunter is not a class and BM / even Survival hunters are doing very well! Meanwhile entire other classes like Shaman are not, so its natural that fixing MM is not Blizzard's highest priority right now..it will come eventually! ? 

I'm not even quite sure how to respond to this.  I am aware that MM is not a *class* and I believe I said classes/specs, because there are multiple classes and specs within that have aoe capabilities not limited to a flat amount of targets.  I think the point of what I said was pretty clear even without you trying to point out that you didn't like my choice of phrasing.  The wowgods spent what appears to be a lot of effort going over MM and tweaking all kinds of things, but somehow they missed this glaring issue?  Sorry if I don't feel bad for wanting MM fixed, that has been my main for 9 years and I intend to continue maining a MM hunter.  This doesn't mean that other classes and specs don't need adjustments or huge fixes even, but I have just as much right to point out this huge issue for my main as others do about their class or spec.  You are really coming off as saying that fixing MM is not that important because other classes need fixed as well. 

  

Edited December 12, 2018 by Magnumite

[Seksi 208]

Ultimately Blizzard should have the budget to hire people that can look into all of the classes / specs every major expansion, I think everyone agrees with that. Until then, we'll have to take what we get ?