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Starym

Top Guilds Frustrated with Split Raid System

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Heroic split runs have been a thing ever since Mythic was introduced back in Warlords of Draenor (or, if you want to get technical about it, in Siege of Orgrimmar, but that was after the race was already over). Top guilds form many, many groups throughout which they distribute all of their characters, alts and any additional players willing to help so they can funnel the gear from the raids to their main raiding characters, focusing on the specific classes and specs that they expect will perform the best.

Usually this takes the form of 5-6 groups, huge spreadsheets detailing who goes where so that each type of drop has an already well-geared character there to pick it up. This time around the Titan Residuum disenchant mechanic seems to be making things a lot more complicated and forcing a whole lot more runs and calculations as to where to place whom and what to funnel. Most guilds are even asking fans to come help them fill out as many raids as possible so they can get the most benefit out of it, and even Normal raids are back on the table in a big way.

The residuum system has already caused headaches for the guilds during Uldir farm, and it's obvious this is one of the more irritating aspects of the race for them.

And, as we've already seen what lengths some guilds have already gone to when it comes to gear advantage, there's simply no way they'd ever pass up the amount of advantage gained with the method and no top guilds can afford not to do it, as it would basically mean them giving up any top placement, or at the very least a shot at a World First. The results of the splits are pretty insane as well, in terms of gear, as Method Priest Josh pointed out:

World First raiding already requires an extreme amount of dedication, predominantly in the weeks of the actual race (with guilds raiding up to 16+ hours a day), while the preparation stages weren't exactly a picnic before either (with each player needing to have at least 3 well geared alts), and they are now getting pretty extreme as well. And, as you'd expect, the guilds aren't too happy about it:

Method raider Cayna spoke to us about the issue in a bit more detail:

Quote

This expansion was supposed to be the expansion without split raiding. But residuum managed to screw that one up and made it worse then ever before. Feeding people was extremely powerful because they can make multiple 415 items in Mythic week. The fact the more people you could feed the better made it so splits become endless. Last week we did 9 Mythic Uldir splits, every group had 7-8 pugs in it because we lacked the characters to fill it ourselves.


Now, obviously Blizzard can't really tune the entire system with just the top guilds in mind, as they're a very small percentage of the player base, but this just further emphasizes the need for special tournament-type servers or something similar for the race, or in fact any type of involvement in the race on Blizzard's side. With Battle of Dazar'alor getting streamed by at least two of the top three guilds and Uldir having had over 200,000 viewers on Method's endboss kill alone, the race is getting a lot of attention and traction in the esports scene, so perhaps we could see some potential solutions to the many problems progress raiders face in the near future.

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I mean if thats what they wanna do then its their problem. Blizz shouldnt be trying to fix this, if they want to press every system to lits limit to get an edge in the race then thats just what they want to do. They could just as easily just not do it and not put it on blizz to fix the system theyre asking for. Like its basically saying "hey blizz we want a way to target our gear, but dont let us be able to abuse it or let any other systems be more useful"

 

I get the frustration, but honestly I dont sympathize with forcing yourself to do something you dont have to do to abuse a system in place. and after next week it wont matter anymore because everyone will have a whole season to horde the TR so when the next set of gear comes out they wont need a huge influx of gear to funnel so the problem is only a 1 time occurrence.

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4 minutes ago, Whisla said:

I mean if thats what they wanna do then its their problem. Blizz shouldnt be trying to fix this, if they want to press every system to lits limit to get an edge in the race then thats just what they want to do. They could just as easily just not do it and not put it on blizz to fix the system theyre asking for. Like its basically saying "hey blizz we want a way to target our gear, but dont let us be able to abuse it or let any other systems be more useful"

 

I get the frustration, but honestly I dont sympathize with forcing yourself to do something you dont have to do to abuse a system in place. and after next week it wont matter anymore because everyone will have a whole season to horde the TR so when the next set of gear comes out they wont need a huge influx of gear to funnel so the problem is only a 1 time occurrence.

Like I mentioned in the article, I don't think it's an issue with the system itself, it's more of an issue of Blizz ignoring the race. The last raid clearly showed a LOT of people are interested in the race so it seems strange there hasn't been any word of changes. I mean a tournament realm is an INSTANT fix for so many of the issues the race has (grinding items, time zone advantages etc etc).

To your point, however, yes they do choose to do these things, but it's because they have to. It's the price to have even a chance at World First, and they're World First raiders. The effort they put in both during farm and the race itself was already just insane, so of course they'll complain when Blizzard add systems to make it even harder on them. I dont think you said anything particularly bad or wrong yourself, but so many people respond to stuff like this with "no one cares, it's their choice, their problem", which is just so shitty it bothers me quite a bit.

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13 minutes ago, Demonpuke said:

IMO this type of behavior shouldn't be tolerated by Blizzard in any way as it sets a bad precedent for the rest of the community.

 

13 minutes ago, Demonpuke said:

Same thing with the group finder tool that, again, a very small amount of people exploited in Legion to farm mats via realm jumping, and now look at the neutered group finder system that we are left with today.

So you're saying they should do something about it and then you complain that they did.

If WF raiders follow the rules and everything works as intented (no bug exploitation etc.) then there is nothing Blizz can do about it other than changing the systems. They can't ban people for simply playing their game, even if it is not the way they intended.

Also, the reason the group finder is neutered is because people have been abusing it not just for server hopping but to finish WQs in mere seconds. It became borderline automation. 

21 minutes ago, Demonpuke said:

No, they don't HAVE to do this.

Yes, they have to. Because if they don't, the others will gain an advantage. That's how mafia competition works. 

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TLDR: "Waaaaah Waaaah Waaah"?

I mean seriously they do this to themselves, no-one is holding a gun to their head.

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51 minutes ago, jinsu2301 said:

So you're saying they should do something about it and then you complain that they did.

No, I'm saying they shouldn't tolerate it and allow it to happen at all in the first place, therefore there would be no reason to nerf a system based on the actions of a couple of hundred people. The first time Blizzard hands out two week bans for exploiting what is CLEARLY not meant to be (trading non-usable azerite to different armor classes) to Method, Limit, etc. and I guarantee that *filtered* will never happen again. 

 

51 minutes ago, jinsu2301 said:

Also, the reason the group finder is neutered is because people have been abusing it not just for server hopping but to finish WQs in mere seconds. It became borderline automation. 

No, you are wrong again. Why do you speak when you are so ridiculously ignorant? Blizzard very CLEARLY stated the reason for the changes to the group finder was cross-realm abuse, which in turn caused major server instability for the entire game, not because people were using it to complete world quests "too quickly." They made that statement several times many, many months ago when people first started seeing those changes, and Blizzard was fast to clarify the actual reasons behind it. 

 

51 minutes ago, jinsu2301 said:

They can't ban people for simply playing their game, even if it is not the way they intended.

Umm, yes they can, and they should. ANY BEHAVIOR that is not INTENDED BEHAVIOR in the game is a ban-worthy offense, again very CLEARLY outlined in the terms of service that every one of us agreed to.

Edited by Demonpuke
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Top guilds will always find ways to prepare for the World First Race ahead of time. First, we had split raiding, now this, but the problem wasn't fixed and it's still a thing. Ideally, there would be a Tournament realm (MDI/Arena Championship all have one) where you copy over your char and everyone starts at the same ilvl, but then again, anyone would be able to compete, which isn't too bad frankly. The race has been in favor of Method for a long time and this would shake things up a bit.

Top guilds wouldn't have to go through the annoying mindless farming before Mythic and skill would matter a lot more. A win-win in both scenarios?

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58 minutes ago, Hypersonic said:

Crying for this lol.. they are not forced to play like this. It's maximum 500 players.. who cares. 

But But But some stupid stream people watch... /s

Seriously I couldn't give less of a *filtered* about these people if I tried. This is a video game I play for fun, I'm sick to death of these people ruining that game by getting things nerfed by being extremists and pulling stupid *filtered* like the Azerite farming. Oh I can't give my guild mate that needs 5 TR to buy a new piece my useless chest from M0 because he's cloth and I'm leather. Whelp. Thanks Method.

It's always *filtered* like this, the ultra hardcore do something stupid and extreme and everyone else suffers because of their behaviour. Just bloody control yourselves and don't force a company trying to make games for a large audience to play Nanny.

Edited by tkioz
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4 hours ago, Starym said:

Like I mentioned in the article, I don't think it's an issue with the system itself, it's more of an issue of Blizz ignoring the race.

Wow, Blizzard is ignoring something the game community actually cares about, how effin unexpected of them lul.

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So you mean the number of raid runs sky-rocketed, people are playing the game all-day and more and more of them get to experience end-game bosses? What a terrible time to be a subscriber indeed - WoW is clearly dying (lol no, it isn't)! ??
Thank for the guy who brought this up in a developer Q&A by the way - Titan Residuum wasn't meant to be part of this expansion, it was added on player request for those who missed Azerite gear from M+ runs.

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Are they really crying about having to put in effort to be Cutting Edge? LOL What did they think they would have to do for it? Boo hoo you have to actually try to be cutting edge... phhht cry me a river.

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No sympathy whatsoever. Every guild faces the same obstacles so quit your whining just because you all have to work harder.

The game doesn't revolver around a handful of guilds nor should it.

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I feel like most of the people posting in this thread saying “*filtered* those guys I couldn’t care less about them” are missing what should be the point. 

 

Everyone keeps making arguments as if personal loot was this perfect unchangavle system, but I feel like the downfalls of personal loot affect normal guilds more than anyone. The top guilds are just a cartoonishly extreme example of issues with loot I’ve had in my own raids. (ie: 5 of the same cloak/ring dropping, not being able to trade an item with bad stats but higher ilvl, general confusion “can I trade this”) 

 

I argue that personal loot is an even more frustrating system (at least for those that raid with a guild), than the entire azerite system. The residuum system is also rng based garbage that was installed as a “bandaid fix” but using the same shady methods of randomization and limitation to force another lottery based reward. Why not just make bosses drop currency instead of cases where people want to keep non upgrades so that they can scrap for a tiny bit of currency 

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5 hours ago, Demonpuke said:

Frankly I don't give a damn about the frustrations that this very tiny minority of players experience because of "cheesing" the systems. IMO this type of behavior shouldn't be tolerated by Blizzard in any way as it sets a bad precedent for the rest of the community.

No, they don't HAVE to do this. They could choose to play the game the way it is meant to be played, instead of trying to find new ways to exploit the game in hopes of getting a leg up on others EVERY SINGLE RAID TIER!!! Who remembers when these assholes exploited name plates on Star Augur? Because of 500 players, the entire player base has been screwed over indefinitely for nameplates. Same thing with the group finder tool that, again, a very small amount of people exploited in Legion to farm mats via realm jumping, and now look at the neutered group finder system that we are left with today.

Personally, *filtered* every one of you people who screw over the rest of the players by exploiting the systems. It's unbelievably pathetic. 

To use your argument.  The stripped down group finder system is just the way the game is meant to played so play it that way.  Do what Blizz says is fun, not what you think is fun.

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Everybody slating these top guilds and players needs to take a step back and realise the bigger picture here; without top end players there is no structure to the end game raiding circuit or hierarchy and less incentive to be a raider for the fun, challenge and the competition. 

We also have the direct impact on the rest of the playerbase, as these top guilds have pushed the limits and needs for things such as DBM (which help the rest of us, the DBM coder is a cutting edge raider himself), WeakAuras and so on so that the encounters that Blizzard create become more fun, more of an accomplishment and indeed, memorable moments in gaming for any raider regardless of their prestige, rather than simple tank and spank (or spend weeks crafting resist gear...) fights that offer nothing long term for the game. 

It also demonstrates the point further that gaming companies *must* listen to their best and most experienced players when they say something is wrong or not working as well as it could do; they are often rationalised, well articulated points that they raise, often with possible solutions. 

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first world problems.. nobody forces them to do this, so get over it. look back to classic where bosses took months to kill. if they cant do it with their current gear well, than they should farm more ? no sympathy from me whatsoever for their whining

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World First (not even Hall of Fame or Cutting Edge) raiding has always been extreme and should not be considered in any discussion of normal gameplay behaviors or what's good for the health of the game overall. Any system Blizzard designs will be pushed to absurdity by specifically World First raiders, because they need every tiny advantage they can get. This is how they choose to play the game and is how it's worked since 2004. Adding a Tournament Realm removes part of the spirit of the World First race, which is not just clearing the raid but the dedication and preparation that goes into it beforehand. In other words, leave PvEsports to Mythic+ dungeons, where it works a lot better. World First raiders can stream progression if they wish, but Blizzard should make no effort to turn it into an esport. 

Blizzard will never have a solution for split raiding that does not also disproportionately impact the rest of the playerbase negatively. All they can do is disincentivize it as much as possible, but as we all know, World First raiders would rather do something they're disincentivized to do and complain about it than not do it at all. 

Edited by dembro
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1 hour ago, GorditoLOL said:

I feel like most of the people posting in this thread saying “*filtered* those guys I couldn’t care less about them” are missing what should be the point. 

 

Everyone keeps making arguments as if personal loot was this perfect unchangavle system, but I feel like the downfalls of personal loot affect normal guilds more than anyone. The top guilds are just a cartoonishly extreme example of issues with loot I’ve had in my own raids. (ie: 5 of the same cloak/ring dropping, not being able to trade an item with bad stats but higher ilvl, general confusion “can I trade this”) 

 

I argue that personal loot is an even more frustrating system (at least for those that raid with a guild), than the entire azerite system. The residuum system is also rng based garbage that was installed as a “bandaid fix” but using the same shady methods of randomization and limitation to force another lottery based reward. Why not just make bosses drop currency instead of cases where people want to keep non upgrades so that they can scrap for a tiny bit of currency 

I prefer personal loot over wasting a half hour every raid passing loot out. It hasn't set us back any in progression either.

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9 minutes ago, t3ramos said:

nobody forces them to do this

I keep seeing this pop up repeatedly. Quite a few of these raiders have jobs, family commitments, are popular streamers etc etc. During races such as this though, they want to be able to play the cutting edge content at the highest possible level they can. To try and say that they don't have to do any of this underestimates the level of dedication these players commit via 

- sponsorship deals
- maintaining an active subscriber and viewer count on their respective channels
- the friendships and loyalty they've established within their guilds 
- the desire to maintain the competition at top level play that encourages and entertains 
- beating the game at a level very few others aim for or achieve

You might as well ask them to uninstall the game. 

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4 minutes ago, Plergoth said:

I keep seeing this pop up repeatedly. Quite a few of these raiders have jobs, family commitments, are popular streamers etc etc. During races such as this though, they want to be able to play the cutting edge content at the highest possible level they can. To try and say that they don't have to do any of this underestimates the level of dedication these players commit via 

- sponsorship deals
- maintaining an active subscriber and viewer count on their respective channels
- the friendships and loyalty they've established within their guilds 
- the desire to maintain the competition at top level play that encourages and entertains 
- beating the game at a level very few others aim for or achieve

You might as well ask them to uninstall the game. 

Nothing is stopping them from doing this...it's just likely to take them longer. I see nothing wrong with that.

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2 minutes ago, Calysia said:

I prefer personal loot over wasting a half hour every raid passing loot out. It hasn't set us back any in progression either.

That's fine, but the option for Master Loot should have stayed. Personal loot helps a lot of players and guilds feel like they're getting something out of the game without having to raid for weeks before finally getting a chance to bid on something with DKP for example, and I understand that, but consistent and planned loot distribution has perks as well.  

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2 minutes ago, Plergoth said:

That's fine, but the option for Master Loot should have stayed. Personal loot helps a lot of players and guilds feel like they're getting something out of the game without having to raid for weeks before finally getting a chance to bid on something with DKP for example, and I understand that, but consistent and planned loot distribution has perks as well.  

In a perfect world it should have. Unfortunately people abused it...that's why we can't have nice things. ? 

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The following Hero Talents are available for playtesting in Public Alpha 1: DEATH KNIGHT Deathbringer (Blood/Frost) Rider of the Apocalypse (Frost/Unholy) San’layn (Unholy/Blood) DEMON HUNTER Aldrachi Reaver (Havoc/Vengeance) DRUID Druid of the Claw (Feral/Guardian) Elune’s Chosen (Balance/Guardian) Keeper of the Grove (Balance/Restoration) Wildstalker (Feral/Restoration) EVOKER Chronowarden (Augmentation/Preservation) Flameshaper (Devastation/Preservation) Scalecommander (Devastation/Augmentation) HUNTER Dark Ranger (Marksmanship/Beast Mastery) Pack Leader (Beast Mastery/Survival) Sentinel (Survival/Marksmanship) MAGE Frostfire (Frost/Fire) Spellslinger (Frost/Arcane) Sunfury (Arcane/Fire) MONK Conduit of the Celestials (Mistweaver/Windwalker) Master of Harmony (Mistweaver/Brewmaster) Developer’s note: Master of Harmony will be accessible in the Hero Talent Tree, but there will be a handful of talents that are not fully implemented. Shado-Pan (WIndwalker/Brewmaster) PALADIN Herald of the Sun (Holy/Retribution) Lightsmith (Holy/Protection) Templar (Retribution/Protection) PRIEST Oracle (Holy/Discipline) Voidweaver (Discipline/Shadow) ROGUE Trickster (Subtlety/Outlaw) SHAMAN Farseer (Restoration/Elemental) WARLOCK Diabolist (Destruction/Demonology) Hellcaller (Destruction/Affliction) Soul Harvester (Demonology/Affliction) WARRIOR Colossus (Protection/Arms) Mountain Thane (Protection/Fury) Slayer (Fury/Arms) DRUID Developer’s note: A core aspect of the druid fantasy is that they have 4 specializations with a variety of magical and physical powers. We want the class tree to embody druids’ ability to invest in the powers of other specializations for useful utility and defensive power. We kept the central design of there being four main sections, one for each spec. You can invest in the Guardian section to access their powerful damage resistance, or the Restoration section to unlock self-healing. Further, the talents in the bottom half of the tree are divided into “physical” and “magical” halves that you can access by investing in either Feral / Guardian or Restoration / Balance sections. More details can be found in the Feedback: Druid Updates 1 thread. New Talent: Oakskin – Survival Instincts and Barkskin reduce damage taken by an additional 10%. New Talent: Fluid Form – Shred and Rake can be used in any form and shifts you into Cat Form. Mangle can be used in any form and shifts you into Bear Form. Wrath and Starfire shifts you into Moonkin Form, if known. New Talent: Ursoc’s Spirit – Stamina in Bear Form is increased by 10%. New Talent: Instincts of the Claw – Shred, Swipe, Rake, Mangle, and Thrash damage increased by 5/10%. New Talent: Lore of the Grove – Moonfire and Sunfire damage increased by 5/10%. Rejuvenation and Wild Growth healing increased by 3/5%. New Talent: Starlight Conduit – Wrath, Starsurge, and Starfire damage increased by 5%. For non-Balance, Starsurge’s cooldown is reduced by 4 seconds and its mana cost is reduced by 50%. Heart of the Wild now reduces the global cooldown of affected Balance cast-time spells. Cat Form now increases the range of auto-attacks and melee abilities by 3 yards. Swiftmend has been removed from the talent tree and is now baseline for Restoration Druids. Improved Swipe has been removed from the talent tree and its benefit added to Swipe by default. Moonkin Form has been removed from the talent tree and is now baseline for Balance Druids. Feline Swiftness is now a 1 point talent that increases movement speed by 15%. It’s position is moved to gate 1 under Rake. Thick Hide is now a 1 point talent that reduces damage taken by 4%. Natural Recovery is now a 1 point talent that increases healing received by 4%. It no longer increases healing done. Astral Influence is now a 1 point talent that increases the range of all your spells by 5 yards. It no longer increases auto attack or melee ability range. Primal Fury now also increases Critical Strike damage of Mangle by 20%. Ursine Vigor is now a 1 point talent that increases Stamina and armor in Bear Form by 15% for 4 seconds. Guardian Druid improved Bear Form Stamina bonus decreased to 10% (was 20%). Lycara’s Teachings is now a 2 point talent that grants 3/6% of various secondary stats. Forestwalk is now a 1 point talent. It’s bonus increases your movement speed and healing received by 8% for 6 seconds. Well-Honed Instincts is now a 1 point talent, its effect can occur once every 120 seconds. Gale Winds / Incessant Winds choice node removed. Tireless Pursuit removed. Balance Developer’s note: Our top goals for Balance Druid in The War Within are to ease some of the constraints on their rotation, open up a greater variety of builds and play styles, and tune their balance and resource generation. Learn more here 1. New Talent: Greater Alignment – Celestial Alignment lasts 40% longer. During Celestial Alignment, Solar Eclipse increases Nature damage done by an additional 5% and Lunar Eclipse increases Arcane damage done by an additional 5%. New Talent: Stellar Amplification – Starsurge increases the damage the target takes from your periodic effects and Shooting Stars for 5 seconds. Reapplying this effect extends its duration, up to 20 seconds. New Talent: Harmony of the Heavens – Starsurge or Starfall increase your current Eclipse’s Arcane or Nature damage bonus by an additional 1%, up to 5%. New Talent: Touch the Cosmos – Casting Wrath in an Eclipse has an 8% chance to make your next Starsurge free. Casting Starfire in an Eclipse has a 10% chance to make your next Starfall free. Umbral Embrace has been redesigned – Wrath and Starfire have a 20% chance to cause the next Wrath or Starfire you cast in Eclipse to become Astral and deal 100% additional damage. Now a 1 point talent. New Talent: Umbral Inspiration – Consuming Umbral Embrace increases the damage of your Moonfire, Sunfire, Shooting Stars, and Starfall by 20% for 5 seconds. Astral Smolder has been redesigned – Wrath and Starfire have a 45% chance to cause their targets to languish for an additional 80% of their damage dealt over 6 seconds. Astral Communion has been redesigned – Maximum Astral Power increased by 20. Entering Eclipse grants 12 Astral Power. Nature’s Grace has been redesigned – When Eclipse ends or when you enter combat, enter a Dreamstate, reducing the cast time of your next 2 Starfires or Wraths by 20% and increasing their damage by 50%. All ability damage increased by 6%. Wrath, Starfire, and Shooting Stars damage increased by an additional 15%. Wild Mushrooms damage increased by an additional 25%. Astral Power generation reduced: Wrath: 6 (was ? Starfire: 8 (was 10) New Moon: 10 (was 12) Half Moon: 20 (was 24) Full Moon: 40 (was 50) Fury of Elune: 40 / 2.5 per tick (was 48 / 3 per tick) Celestial Alignment duration reduced to 15 seconds (was 20 seconds). Incarnation: Chosen of Elune duration reduced to 20 seconds (was 30 seconds). Mastery: Astral Invocation value reduced by 17%. Aetherial Kindling now extends during of active Sunfires and Moonfires by 3 seconds (was 4 seconds). Orbital Strike damage reduced by 25%. Umbral Intensity now increases Starfire’s damage as well as its area-of-effect damage scaling – Solar Eclipse increases the damage of Wrath by an additional 20/40%. Lunar Eclipse increases the damage of Starfire by 20/40% and the damage it deals to nearby enemies by an additional 15/30%. Waning Twilight is now a 1 point talent increasing damage you deal to targets with 3 or more of your periodic effects by 6%. Balance of all Things now increases Critical Strike chance by 10/20%, decreasing by 1/2% every second. Denizen of the Dream damage increased by 50%. Friend of the Fae has been removed. Denizen of the Dream moved to Friend of the Fae’s location. Positions of Aetherial Kindling and Lunar Shrapnel swapped. Orbit Breaker and Sundered Firmament are now a choice node where Orbit Breaker was. Primodial Arcanic Pulsar has been removed. Feral Developer’s note: Our top goals for Feral Druid in The War Within are to slow down its rotation a little to make Energy usage more tactical and to bring more clarity to playing the spec. We’re also trying to restore more of Tiger Fury’s identity and excitement, and simplifying some talent functionality to free up more choice in where you spend points. Many of these changes will read as nerfs – the goal is to build a healthy rotation and talent balance and buff damage to make that rotation competitive. Learn more here 1. New Talent: Resourceful Hunter – Leech increased by 2%. Versatility increased by 2%. New Talent: Coiled to Spring – If you generate a combo point in excess of what you can store, your next Ferocious Bite or Primal Wrath deals 10% increased direct damage. Developer’s note: This will only trigger during Berserk if you generate a combo point in excess of five while you already have 3 stacks of Overflowing Power. New Talent: Savage Fury – Tiger’s Fury increases your Haste by 8% and Energy recovery rate by 20% for 6 seconds. Mastery: Razor Claws has been redesigned – Now increases damage of Cat Form bleed and other periodic abilities. Predator has been redesigned – No longer causes Tiger’s Fury’s cooldown to be reset when a target dies with one of your bleeds active. Tiger’s Fury lasts 5 additional seconds. Your combo point-generating abilities’ direct damage is increased by 40% of your Haste. Taste for Blood has been redesigned – No longer scales with number of bleeds on a target. Ferocious Bite damage increased by 15% and an additional 15% during Tiger’s Fury. Raging Fury has been redesigned – No longer increases Tiger’s Fury duration from spending combo points. Tiger’s Fury lasts 5 additional seconds. All ability damage increased by 8%. The direct damage of Shred, Rake, Swipe / Brutal Slash, and Thrash increased by an additional 10%. Berserk duration reduced to 15 seconds (was 20 seconds). Incarnation: Avatar of Ashamane duration reduced to 20 seconds (was 30 seconds). Berserk no longer increases the damage of Shred and Rake. It now increases all ability and auto-attack damage by 10%. Sabertooth now increases damage Ferocious Bite’s primary target takes from all of your Cat Form periodic damage by 3% per combo point spent for 4 seconds (instead of 5% damage dealt by all Rips on all targets). Tireless Energy now increases passive Energy generation by 8%/15% (was 10%/20%) and total Energy by 20/40 (was 30/60). Primal Wrath Energy cost increased to 30 and its direct damage increased by 50%. Tear Open Wounds now consumes 6 seconds of Rip damage during Berserk. Moonfire in Cat Form with Lunar Inspiration duration increased to 18 seconds and overall damage reduced by 10%. Moment of Clarity now increases the rate that Omen of Clarity triggers by 30% (was 50%). Berserk: Heart of the Lion now reduces Berserk’s cooldown by 60 seconds (was reduces cooldown by 0.5 seconds per combo point spent). Berserk: Frenzy now causes enemies to bleed for 135% of all direct damage dealt by combo point generating abilities (was 100%). Soul of the Forest restores 2 Energy per combo point spent (was 3 Energy). Apex Predator’s chance to trigger on a single target is reduced, but its chance to trigger in area-of-effect increases at a faster rate. The following talents have been removed: Dire Fixation Protective Growth Rampant Ferocity Relentless Predator Taste for Blood moved to Relentless Predator’s old location. Infected Wounds moved to Taste for Blood’s old location. Restoration Developer’s note: In The War Within, we’d like to reduce active keybinds, increase the base power of Rejuvenation, and offer some new Heart of the Wild gameplay. With the removal of Adaptive Swarm, we’re opting to replace it with some new Heart of the Wild synergy that both increases the uptime of the effect and enables the Druid to focus on the hybrid gameplay further for its duration. Learn more here 1. New Talent: Dream of Cenarius – While Heart of the Wild is active, Wrath and Shred transfer 150% of their damage and Starfire and Swipe transfer 100% of their damage into healing onto a nearby ally. New Talent: Call of the Elder Druid – When you shift into a combat shapeshift form or cast Starsurge, you gain Heart of the Wild for 10 seconds, once every 60 seconds. New Talent: Thriving Vegetation – Rejuvenation instantly heals for 15/30% of its periodic healing and Regrowth’s duration is increased by 3/6 seconds. New Talent: Prosperity – Swiftmend now has 2 charges. Rejuvenation healing increased by 30%. Grove Guardian’s healing reduced by 15%. Wild Synthesis Wild Growth healing reduced by 15%. Verdant Infusion now extends the duration of heal over time effects by 8 seconds (was 12 seconds). Nurturing Dormancy is now capped at 4 second extension (was 6 seconds). Abundance now increases the Critical Strike chance of Regrowth by 8% and decreases its mana cost by 8% per stack (was 5%). Flourish has moved to a choice node with Photosynthesis Invigorate has moved to a choice node with Embrace of the Dream. Soul of the Forest and Heart of the Wild added to Personal Resource Display. The following talents have been removed: Adaptive Swarm Unbridled Swarm Luxuriant Soil EVOKER Evokers now start at level 10 (was level 58). Evokers now unlock the talent pane immediately after choosing a specialization in the Forbidden Reach, and they no longer learn “temporary” talents as they complete the Forbidden Reach experience. Several base spells that were previously learned at level 58 are now learned at level 10. Mass Return is now learned at level 38. Fury of the Aspects is now learned at level 48. Devastation Developer’s note: Devastation Evoker can generate very high threat at the start of a pull due to a combination of their Mastery: Giantkiller and the burstiness of spells like Fire Breath and Pyre (particularly when used with Dragonrage and Charged Blast). As a result, we’re reducing the threat these spells generate. Fire Breath threat generated reduced by 50%. Pyre threat generated reduced by 30%. Preservation Developer’s note: In this update, our goal was to incorporate Lifespark (Season 1 set bonus for Preservation) into the talent tree and expand talent options by improving the pathing of the tree. We also wanted to keep the flavor of the left side of the tree being Green, the middle being Red, and the right being Bronze. New Talent: Lifespark – Reversion healing has a chance to grant you instant cast Living Flame and increase its damage/healing by 50%. New Talent: Titan’s Gift – Essence Burst increases the effectiveness of your next Essence ability by 25%. Life-Giver’s Flame is now a 1 point node (was 2). Its position has been relocated at the bottom middle of the tree. Grace Period is now a 1 point node (was 2). Its position has been relocated as a capstone below Timeless Magic. Font of Magic and Power Nexus have been relocated to the middle center of the tree. Cycle of Life has been relocated as a capstone at the bottom left of the tree. MONK Developer’s note: Our main goals for the Monk Class tree are to introduce more optionality, refresh the cappers, and add a few new pieces of utility (such as an Enrage dispel), while still cutting down on overall keybind requirements. To accomplish this, we’ve added choice nodes to most active options that offer a passive option or changed pathing to allow more skipping of these spells. More details can be found in the Feedback: Monk Updates 1 thread. New Talent: Crashing Momentum – Targets you Roll through are snared by 40% for 5 seconds. New Talent: Bounding Agility – Roll and Chi Torpedo travel a small distance further. New Talent: Wind’s Reach – The range of Disable is increased by 5 yards. The duration of Crashing Momentum is increased by 3 seconds and its snare now reduces movement speed by an additional 20%. New Talent: Ancient Arts – Reduces the cooldown of Paralysis by 8/15 seconds and the cooldown of Leg Sweep by 5/10 seconds. New Talent: Jade Walk – While out of combat, your movement speed is increased by 15%. New Talent: Pressure Points – Paralysis now removes all Enrage effects from its target. New Talent: Energy Transfer – Successfully interrupting an enemy reduces the cooldown of Paralysis and Roll by 5 seconds. New Talent: Quick Footed – The duration of snare effects on you is reduced by 20%. New Talent: Spirit’s Essence: Transcendence – Transfer snares targets within 10 yards by 70% for 4 seconds when cast. New Talent: Peace and Prosperity – Reduces the cooldown of Ring of Peace by 5 seconds and Song of Chi-Ji’s cast time is reduced by 0.5 seconds. New Talent: Swift Art – Roll removes a snare effect once every 30 seconds. New Talent: Celestial Determination – While your celestial is active, you cannot be slowed below 90% normal movement speed. New Talent: Martial Instincts – Increases your Physical damage done by 2/4% and Avoidance increased by 2/4%. New Talent: Healing Winds: Transcendence – Transfer immediately heals you for 15% of your maximum health. New Talent: Chi Proficiency – Magical damage done increased by 2/4% and healing done increased by 2/4%. New Talent: Lighter Than Air – Roll causes you to become lighter than air, allowing you to double jump to dash forward a short distance once within 5 seconds. New Talent: Flow of Chi – You gain a bonus effect based on your current health. Above 90% health: Movement speed increased by 5%. This bonus stacks with similar effects. Between 90% and 35% health: Damage taken reduced by 5%. Below 35% health: Healing received increased by 10%. New Talent: Rushing Reflexes – Your heightened reflexes allow you to react swiftly to the presence of enemies, causing you to quickly lunge to the nearest enemy within 10 yards after you Roll. New Talent: Transcendence: Linked Spirits – Transcendence now tethers your spirit onto an ally for 1 hour. Use Transcendence: Transfer to teleport to your ally’s location. Tiger Tail Sweep has been redesigned – Increases the range of Leg Sweep by 4 yards. Now a 1 point talent. Elusive Mists has been redesigned – Reduces all damage taken by you and your target while channeling Soothing Mists by 6%. Now a 1 point talent. Chi Wave has been redesigned – Every 15 seconds, your next Rising Sun Kick or Vivify releases a wave of Chi energy that flows through friends and foes, dealing Nature damage or healing. Bounces up to 7 times to targets within 25 yards. Summon White Tiger Statue has been redesigned – Invoking Xuen, the White Tiger also spawns a White Tiger Statue at your location that pulses damage to all enemies ever 2 seconds for 10 seconds. Ironshell Brew has been redesigned – Increases your maximum health by an additional 10% and your damage taken is reduced by an additional 10% while Fortifying Brew is active. Escape from Reality has been redesigned – After you use Transcendence: Transfer, you can use Transcendence: Transfer again within 10 seconds, ignoring its cooldown. Fatal Touch has been redesigned – Touch of Death increases your damage by 5% for 30 seconds after being cast and its cooldown is reduced by 90 seconds. Now a 1 point talent. Clash has moved to the Class tree. Improved Roll is now baseline for all Monk specializations. Fortifying Brew cooldown is now 2 minutes for Mistweaver and Windwalker. Many talents have changed positions. The following talents are now 1 point: Save Them All Bounce Back Resonant Fists Grace of the Crane Fast Feet The following talents have been removed: Improved Roll Improved Vivify Ferocity of Xuen Hasty Provocation Eye of the Tiger Close to Heart Generous Pour Resonant Fists Dampen Harm and Summon Black Ox Statue have been removed for Windwalker and Mistweaver. Summon White Tiger Statue and Summon Jade Serpent Statue have been removed for Brewmaster and Windwalker. Mistweaver Developer’s note: Mistweaver is seeing a few updates including their class 2-set Chi Harmony bonus and the removal of Essence Font. We’re also adding a talent to help Mistweavers who are focused on melee to gain more value out of their Mastery stat. Essence Font’s removal will have a few outcomes, the most important of which to address will be melee Mistweavers in raid healing scenarios.
      We’re hoping the removal of Clouded Focus and consequent tuning of Vivify and Enveloping Mist will help Soothing Mist fill the gaps for them, but there are some realities around planting and casting that may feel worse than Essence Font did. Our goal here is to make the risk/reward feel worth it here through tuning, but we’re going to continue looking at this as we iterate in The War Within. Learn more here. New Talent: Crane Style – Rising Sun Kick now kicks up a Gust of Mist to heal 2 allies within 40 yards. Spinning Crane Kick and Blackout Kick have a chance to kick up a Gust of Mist to heal 1 ally within 40 yards. New Talent: Deep Clarity – After you fully consume Thunder Focus Tea, your next Vivify triggers Zen Pulse. New Talent: Chi Harmony – Renewing Mist applies Chi Harmony to its initial target, increasing their healing taken from you by 50% for 8 seconds. Zen Pulse has been redesigned – Renewing Mist’s heal over time has a chance to cause your next Vivify to also trigger a Zen Pulse on its target and all allies with Renewing Mist, healing them increased by 5% per Renewing Mist active, up to 50%. Jadefire Stomp no longer casts Essence Font, its cooldown is reduced to 15 seconds (was 20 seconds), and now casts Gusts of Mist on each ally healed. Gust of Mist healing increased by 20%. Jade Bond now increases the healing of Yu’lon’s Soothing Breath by 300% (was 40%). Invigorating Mist healing increased by 8%. Vivify healing increased by 9%. Vivify now costs 3% base mana (was 3.4%). Developer’s note: We are increasing the effectiveness of baseline Vivify with the removal of the Clouded Focus talent. Burst of Life’s icon has been changed. Various talents have changed locations. The following talents have been removed: Essence Font Upwelling Font of Life Clouded Focus Windwalker Developer’s note: Our updates for Windwalker in The War Within are intended to address a few issues the specialization struggled with throughout Dragonflight. These points of focus for us were the power levels of the Haste and Mastery stats falling behind other options, Jadefire Stomp’s usability, and the Touch of Death gameplay focus. Other areas that we are also looking at are resource bloat, evening out their rate of auto-attacks, and adding more pronounced thematics through both gameplay and visuals. Learn more here 3. New Talent: Acclamation – Rising Sun Kick increases the damage your target receives from you by 4% for 12 seconds. Multiple instances may overlap. New Talent: Flurry of Xuen – Your spells and abilities have a chance to activate Flurry of Xuen, unleashing a barrage of deadly swipes to deal Physical damage in a 10 yard cone. Invoking Xuen, the White Tiger activates Flurry of Xuen. Developer’s note: This ability is still being implemented and will be added in the subsequent Public Alpha build. New Talent: Martial Mixture – Blackout Kick increases the damage of your next Tiger Palm by 10%, stacking up to 12 times. New Talent: Courageous Impulse – The Blackout Kick! effect also increases the damage of your next Blackout Kick by 175%. New Talent: Energy Burst – When you consume Blackout Kick!, you have a 100% chance to generate 1 Chi. New Talent: Gale Force – Targets struck by Strike of the Windlord are sent reeling from its impact, causing them to become vulnerable to your attacks for 10 seconds. Your abilities have a 100% chance to affect the target a second time at 10% effectiveness as Nature damage while they are vulnerable. New Talent: Dual Threat – Your auto attacks have a 20% chance to instead kick your target dealing Physical damage and increasing your damage dealt by 5% for 5 seconds. New Talent: Momentum Boost – Fists of Fury’s damage is increased by 100% of your Haste and Fists of Fury does 10% more damage each time it deals damage, resetting when Fists of Fury ends. Your auto attack speed is increased by 60% for 8 sec after Fists of Fury ends. New Talent: Ordered Elements – During Storm, Earth, and Fire, Rising Sun Kick reduces Chi costs by 1 for 5 seconds and Blackout Kick reduces the cooldown of affected abilities by an additional 1 second. Activating Storm, Earth, and Fire resets the remaining cooldown of Rising Sun Kick and grants 2 Chi. New Talent: Sequenced Strikes – You have a 100% chance to gain Blackout Kick! after consuming Dance of Chi-Ji. New Talent: Revolving Whirl – Whirling Dragon Punch has a 100% chance to activate Dance of Chi-Ji. New Talent: Knowledge of the Broken Temple – Whirling Dragon Punch grants 4 stacks of Teachings of the Monastery and its damage is increased by 20%. Teachings of the Monastery can now stack up to 8 times. New Talent: Singularly Focused Jade – Jadefire Stomp’s initial hit now strikes 1 target, but deals 500% increased damage and healing. New Talent: Communion With Wind – Strike of the Windlord’s cooldown is reduced by 10 seconds and its damage is increased by 20%. New Talent: Brawler’s Intensity – The cooldown of Rising Sun Kick is reduced by 1 second and the damage of Blackout Kick is increased by 10%. New Talent: Combat Wisdom – Every 15 seconds, your next Tiger Palm also casts Expel Harm and deals 100% additional damage. Replaces Expel Harm. Glory of Dawn has been redesigned – Rising Sun Kick has a chance equal to 100% of your Haste to trigger a second time, dealing Physical damage and restoring 1 Chi. Rushing Jade Wind has been redesigned – Strike of the Windlord applies Mark of the Crane to all enemies struck and summons a whirling tornado around you, causing Physical damage over 8 seconds to all enemies within 8 yards. Jadefire Stomp has been redesigned – Strike the Ground fiercely to expose a path of jade for 30 seconds that increases your movement speed by 20% while inside, dealing Nature damage to up to 5 enemies and restores health to up to 5 allies within 30 yards caught in the path. Up to 5 enemies caught in the path suffer additional damage. Inner Peace has been redesigned – Increases maximum Energy by 30. Tiger Palm’s energy cost reduced by 5. Mastery: Combo Strikes is now 20% more effective. Touch of Karma is now baseline for Windwalker. Whirling Dragon Punch now deals additional damage to the first target struck and its damage is reduced beyond 5 targets. Expel Harm no longer generates Chi for Windwalker. Flying Serpent Kick no longer deals damage. Mark of the Crane now only applies to the primary target of each strike. Teachings of the Monastery now stacks up to 4 times (was 3). Thunderfist now always generates 4 stacks of Thunderfist and additional stacks of Thunderfist per each additional target struck. Transfer the Power no longer stacks from Rushing Jade Wind, but now stacks from Spinning Crane Kick. Crane Vortex now increases the damage of Spinning Crane Kick by 15/30% (was 10/20%). Spinning Crane Kick now cancels from using other spells or abilities, but no longer prevents auto-attacks for its duration. Empowered Tiger Lightning’s effect is now baseline for Xuen, the White Tiger. Invoker’s Delight now increases Haste by 20% while active (was 33%). Xuen’s Bond now decreases the cooldown of Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger by 0.2 seconds (was 0.1 second) per Combo Strikes activation. Dance of Chi-Ji’s chance to trigger reduced by 25%. Tiger Palm Energy cost increased to 60 (was 50). Chi Burst no longer generates Chi for Windwalker. Many talents have changed positions. Drinking Horn Cover and Spiritual Focus are now a choice node together. The following talents are now 1 point: Touch of the Tiger Hardened Soles The following talents have been removed: Power Strikes Fatal Flying Guillotine Skyreach Serenity Forbidden Technique Widening Whirl Bonedust Brew Attenuation Dust in the Wind Flashing Fists Open Palm PALADIN Multiple applications of Greater Judgment may overlap. This also functions with Retribution’s multiple stack application. Glyph of the Luminous Charger now only works while Crusader Aura is active. Holy Developer’s note: Our goals are to replace Light of the Martyr with a passive spell but keep the same thematic sacrifice theme, move more of their throughput from Beacon of Light into their baseline spells, and redesign Blessing of Summer to feel more specific to their role. Learn more here. New Talent: Bestow Light – Light of the Martyr’s health threshold is reduced to 70% and increases Holy Shock’s healing by an additional 5% for every 5 seconds Light of the Martyr is active, stacking up to 3 times. While below 70% health, the light urgently heals you every 1 second. Light of the Martyr has been redesigned – While above 80% health, Holy Shock’s healing is increased 20%, but creates a heal absorb on you for 30% of the amount healed that prevents Beacon of Light from healing you until it has dissipated. Blessing of Summer has been redesigned – Bless an ally for 30 seconds, causing 20% of all healing to be converted into damage onto a nearby enemy and 10% of all damage to be converted into healing onto an injured ally within 40 yards. Beacon of Light now transfers 15% of healing done (was 25%). Barrier Faith now transfers 20% of healing into its absorb (was 25%). Word of Glory healing increased by 25%. Light of Dawn healing increased by 20%. Holy Shock healing increased by 20%. Tyr’s Deliverance healing decreased by 15%. Sacrifice of the Just now reduces the cooldown of Blessing of Sacrifice by 15 seconds (was 60 seconds). Blessing of Sacrifice now transfers 30% of damage taken (was 20%) for Holy. Fixed an issue that caused Tyr’s Deliverance’s healing to not be affected by some modifiers, such as Avenging Wrath. Barrier Faith is now on a choice node with Holy Prism. Tyr’s Deliverance and Reclamation have changed positions in the tree. Light’s Hammer has been removed. Retribution Developer’s note: Our initial goal is to explore how we can make secondary stats more appealing to Retribution, to allow a natural progression of scaling throughout an expansion. Due to the nature of many talents offering guaranteed critical hits, it was difficult for us to make Critical Strike a stat that felt valuable. To address this, we’ve reworked and rebalanced these talents to not automatically crit. They will instead gain value when you do crit, such as increasing their critical strike damage.
      One of the sources of frustration we’ve seen when it comes to the Retribution spec tree is that there is a large amount of friction between Single Target and AoE builds, leaving very little wiggle room for any sort of hybridization. We’ve done some restructuring to alleviate some of this tension, to create more room to explore hybrid type builds for when the scenarios might call for it. Learn more here 2. New Talent: Burn to Ash – When Truth’s Wake critically strikes, its duration is extended by 2 seconds. Your other damage over time effects deal 30% increased damage to targets affected by Truth’s Wake. Righteous Cause has been redesigned – Each Holy Power spent has a 6% chance to reset the cooldown of Blade of Justice. Art of War has been redesigned – Your auto attacks have a 20% chance to reset the cooldown of Blade of Justice. Critical strikes increase this chance by an additional 10%. Divine Hammer has been redesigned – Divine Hammers spin around you, consuming a Holy Power to strike enemies within 8 yards for Radiant damage every 2.2 seconds. While active, your Holy Power generating abilities recharge 75% faster, and increase the rate at which Divine Hammer strikes by 15% when they are cast. Deals reduced damage beyond 8 targets. Now a 2 min cooldown. Damage increased by 300%. Divine Hammer base periodic decreased to 2.2 seconds (was 3 seconds) Period scales with Haste. Final Reckoning has been redesigned – Now increases the damage taken from your single target Holy Power spenders by 30%. Increases the damage taken from your other Holy Power spenders by 15%. Vengeful Wrath has been redesigned – Hammer of Wrath deals 50% increased damage to enemies below 35% health. Vanguard of Justice has been redesigned – Templar’s Verdict and Divine Storm cost 1 additional Holy Power and deal 20% increased damage. Templar Strikes has been redesigned: Charge cooldown increased by 15%. Templar Slash, 2nd part of combo, overrides Templar Strike for 5 seconds (was 4 seconds). Crusader Strike becomes a 2-part combo: Templar Strike slashes an enemy for damage and gets replaced by Templar Slash for 5 seconds. Templar Slash strikes an enemy for damage, and burns them for 50% of the damage dealt over 4 seconds. Truth’s Wake effect is now added to Wake of Ashes baseline. Highlord’s Judgment has been renamed to Highlord’s Wrath. Mastery: Hand of Light has been renamed to Mastery: Highlord’s Judgment – Now also causes Judgment to have a chance to blast the target with the Light, dealing Holy damage. Highlord’s Wrath has been redesigned – Mastery: Highlord’s Judgment is 50/100% more effective on Judgment and Hammer of Wrath. Judgment applies an additional stack of Greater Judgment if it is known. Adjudication has been redesigned – Critical Strike damage of your abilities increased by 5% and Hammer of Wrath also has a chance to cast Highlord’s Judgment. Blades of Light has been redesigned – Crusader Strike, Judgment, Hammer of Wrath, and damaging single target Holy Power abilities now deal Holystrike damage and your abilities that deal Holystrike damage deal 5% increased damage. Divine Arbiter now has an additional effect – Highlord’s Judgment and Holystrike damage abilities grant you a stack of Divine Arbiter. Searing Light now has an additional effect – Highlord’s Judgment and Radiant damage abilities have a chance to call down and explosion of Holy Fire. Blessed Hammer from Adjudication now spawns from the target of your Hammer of Wrath. Execution Sentence now causes the enemy to suffer 20% of the damage dealt during its time after it expires (was 30%). Execution Sentence damage no longer counts as a damage over time effect. WARRIOR Developer’s note: The Warrior class talent tree has been significantly reorganized to allow for more player choice and build diversity in Warrior builds, as well as improve access to utility abilities like Storm Bolt and Shockwave. Rage generation for all Warrior specs in Dragonflight has been higher than we’re happy with so we’ve removed or reduced the power of several Rage-generating effects. With tuning, this will introduce more tactical gameplay around when to use Rage spenders and make those spenders more impactful. More details can be found in the Feedback: Warrior Updates 1 thread. Significant re-arrangement of many talents on the Warrior tree. Berserker Rage now auto-learned at level 12. Thunder Clap base Rage cost reduced to 20 (was 30). Slam damage normalized across all specializations (Arms-only Slam damage bonus removed), and damage increased by 200%. Blood and Thunder no longer increases Rage cost or damage of Thunder Clap. Crackling Thunder also increases damage of Thunder Clap by 10%. Frothing Berserker now refunds 10% Rage for Arms and Fury, and 25% Rage for Protection. Shockwave no longer generates Rage on cast. Champion’s Spear generates 10 Rage on cast (was 20). Thunderous Roar no longer generates Rage on cast. Thunderous Words now causes Thunderous Roar’s Bleed effect to increase damage targets take from all the Warrior’s bleed effects, rather than passively increasing it all the time. The following talents have been removed: Titanic Throw Sonic Boom Arms Developer’s note: In Dragonflight, Arms Warriors were most impacted by Rage over-generation, and combined with Arms having several mechanics that interact with Rage spend (Tactician, Anger Management, and Test of Might) led to certain builds dominating for most of the expansion and led to Arms rotation being overwhelmed by ability resets. To address this, in The War Within, Arms is receiving significant Rage generation and Rage cost adjustments as to make Rage management interesting for Arms. Many Arms talents have also seen significant changes, with the aim to give Arms Warriors more choices for their builds and rotation based on their preferences and the content they are playing, as well as more control over how and when they generate additional Rage. Learn more here. Moderate re-arrangement of several talents on the Arms tree. New Talent: Finishing Blows – Overpower generates 8 Rage when used on a target below 35% health. Barbaric Training has been redesigned for Arms – Now grants 20% damage and 10% critical damage to Slam and Whirlwind. Storm of Swords has been redesigned – Now grants Whirlwind a 30% chance to make your next Whirlwind cost 100% less Rage. Rage generated from auto-attacks reduced by 16%. Whirlwind base Rage cost reduced to 20 (was 30). Rend base Rage cost reduced to 20 (was 30). Ignore Pain Rage cost reduced to 20 (was 40). Cleave damage increased by 5%. Whirlwind damage reduced by 33%. Collateral Damage’s damage bonus now applies to Cleave as well as Whirlwind. Unhinged now will cast Mortal Strike on your target if valid, falling back to a random target. Warlord’s Torment no longer triggers from Colossus Smash. Duration of Recklessness buff increased by 50% and bonus Rage generation reduced to 25% (was 100%). In for the Kill’s Haste bonus now lasts as long as Colossus Smash does. Improved Overpower increases number of Overpower charges by 1. Dreadnaught no longer increases number of Overpower charges. Strength of Arms no longer causes Overpower to generates 8 Rage when used on a target below 35% health. Tactician chance to reset cooldown of Overpower per Rage spent reduced to 1% (was 1.3%). Deft Experience increase to Tactician’s chance to reset cooldown of Overpower per Rage spent reduced to 0.5% (was 0.6%). Valor in Victory’s Versatility bonus increased to 2% (was 1%). Battlelord no longer generates Rage when triggered. Skullsplitter now accelerates Rend’s Bleed baseline. Ravager is now a choice node with Bladestorm. All existing Bladestorm sub-talents updated to work with both Ravager and Bladestorm. Bladestorm no longer generates Rage on cast. The following talents have been removed: Tide of Blood Reaping Swings Fury Developer’s note: In Dragonflight, the Fury talent tree allowed for players to specialize heavily in either Raging Blow or Bloodthirst, to the point of eliminating one or the other from their rotation. We think Fury works best when all the core rotational abilities see regular use, so we have made several changes to the Fury tree and abilities to ensure that both Raging Blow and Bloodthirst remain valuable for Fury Warriors in all builds, while maintaining build choice and rotational diversity for Fury Warriors with the return of Bladestorm to the Fury tree and the addition of a choice of Enrage effects. Learn more here 1. Fury Warriors now learn Defensive Stance by default. Moderate re-arrangement of several talents on the Fury tree. New Talent: Powerful Enrage: Enrage increases the damage your abilities deal by an additional 15% and Enrage’s duration is increased by 1 second. On a choice node with Frenzied Enrage. Bladestorm is now a choice node with Ravager. All existing Ravager sub-talents updated to work with both Ravager and Bladestorm. Wrath and Fury now increases the chance for Improved Raging Blow to reset Raging Blow’s cooldown by 10% while Enraged. Deft Experience no longer reduces Bloodthirst’s cooldown, instead it now increases Bloodthirst’s chance to trigger Enrage by 2% per point. Tenderize no longer increases the duration of Enrage. Frenzied Flurry has been removed, its effects have been added to Single-Minded Fury. The following talents have been removed: Raging Armaments Annihilator Storm of Swords Developer’s note: Annihilator and Sword of Swords provided an option for Fury players who wanted a lower “actions per minute” playstyle. However, we’re not happy with how they changed which abilities warriors used in their rotations. We are instead providing Powerful Enrage as a new option for a slower playstyle that synergizes with Fury’s rotation and flavor. Protection Whirlwind base Rage cost reduced to 20 (was 30). Whirlwind damage reduced by 33%. Rend base Rage cost reduced to 20 (was 30). DYNAMIC FLIGHT
      440+ Flying Mounts will feature Dynamic Flight active abilities, faster speeds, and new animations in The War Within. Known Issue: Dragonriding talent panel is not available outside of Dragon Isles. To access the talents, paste this command into the chat box: /run DragonridingPanelSkillsButtonMixin:OnClick() ITEMS
      The item levels of leveling gear have been adjusted to be rewarded at an appropriate item level through level 70. Developer’s note: With this adjustment the leveling content should feel easier for all players as the items being rewarded will be a higher item level. All leveling items will follow this high item level cadence except for heirlooms. Heirlooms still have the advantage of increasing their item level as the wielder levels. In general, this should make leveling a more fluid and pleasant experience! The sell value of the Elegant Canvas Brush has been reduced to 100 gold. PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER
      DRUID Call of the Elder Druid has been removed from PvP talents and is now a Restoration Druid talent. PALADIN Holy Barrier Faith is now 50% more effective in PvP combat (was 100%). PROFESSIONS
      Developer’s note: We added Inspiration in Dragonflight to try and capture the fantasy of critical hits while crafting. If you weren’t quite capped out on your gear and specializations for a given craft, or if you weren’t using max quality reagents to guarantee that max quality item, Inspiration was a way to get that lucky crit. It could save you some money (by using lower-quality reagents) and you could craft a better item than you would otherwise.
      That was the hope at least, but it ended up (understandably) becoming a situation where crafters take this luck-based system, tell their customers that they would recraft an item an indeterminate number of times, and summarily charge a specific price per recraft until their Inspiration struck. So, in The War Within, we’re removing Inspiration. In its place, we have a new ability for crafters to utilize: Concentration and a new stat: Ingenuity. Learn more about this change in the Professions Update: Concentration in The War Within feedback thread. New Ability: Concentration – Concentration is a resource that you have a separate pool of per crafting profession. It represents your ability to heavily focus on your recipes and exceed your normal capabilities. You choose when you want to Concentrate using a button within the crafting window, empowering your next craft(s). Doing so will cause the craft to automatically reach the next level of quality, no questions asked. New Stat: Ingenuity – You have a chance to have an ingenious breakthrough when you Concentrate on a craft, refunding all Concentration spent. ALCHEMY Alchemy is in a near-complete state, beyond some polish and tuning work that will likely happen in broad strokes across all professions. Most, if not all recipes should be able to be crafted and utilized, and the specialization tree should be largely reflective of the final experience; all subject to feedback of course. Your good friend Instructaur and his cohort can supply you with the training and materials needed to experiment, and the items you make should be functional and ready for testing. Some additional notes: Phials have been rebranded to be profession effects only, retaining the 30m extendable duration. Flasks make a return with 1h durations! As a quality of life bonus, you can now have phials and flasks active at the same time. Experimentation has been carried forward from Dragonflight but with some adjustments in effort to mitigate frustration while keeping with the theme. You now select which herb to experiment with, and can only discover recipes that utilize that particular herb. Experimentation now has two forms: A repeatable version that you can do with short lockouts (which can be bypassed with Formulated Courage), and a time-gated one that boasts a much higher chance at recipe discoveries. Transmutation has been significantly expanded with a system called Thaumaturgy. This is a side component of Alchemy that boasts extra complexity which allows you to regularly transmute a variety of reagents found on Khaz Algar into other forms. While this process is highly destructive, specializations and clever choices in your inputs will ultimately bring you closer to transmuting Blasphemite, the elusive and highly coveted meta gem that is sure to catch the eye of aspiring Jewelcrafting entrepreneurs. Please take a look at the Thaumaturgy specialization tab and experiment with this feature with and without specializations and let us know how it feels! Specializations now focus heavily on the herbs of Khaz Algar, so it is wise to evaluate the recipe list to determine which recipes appeal to you the most. Specializations for all herbs on a recipe contribute to the final rolls associated with them. As a reminder, recipe difficulty tuning will happen in a later pass but you can nonetheless engage with this mechanic to observe their impact on crafts. BLACKSMITHING Specializations are in and ready for players to dissect! Developer’s note: While the hookups aren’t fully implemented, I’m hoping the Everburning Forge Specialization catches player’s attention as a way to inject a helping of profession stats deterministically. ENCHANTING In this Alpha build, Enchanting has been enabled and can be trained by Professor Instructaur in Orgrimmar and Stormwind. Dragonflight enchantments worked well to provide players with choices and customization, so many of the available options will look familiar in The War Within. There is a new host of weapon enchants available, as well as the new Cursed ring enchants as selectable options. Weapon Oils have also made a return, and Enchanting has an additional set of fun consumables to market to other players! The vast majority of the enchants have been implemented, but some of them are still in progress. Developer’s note: None of the enchants have been tuned yet, a baseline tuning will be done in the near future. Some of the specializations include: Designated Disenchanter Master your fundamental disenchanting rituals, maximizing the quality of reagents you create when destroying items. You will gain +1 Skill per point in this Specialization when disenchanting. Supplementary Shattering Learn the art of shattering the magical essences of Khaz Algar, temporarily empowering your Resourcefulness, Multicraft, and Ingenuity. Additionally, your studies will grant you +1 Ingenuity per point in this Specialization. FISHING In this alpha build, the waters around Khaz Algar are populated with a single fish while we worked out a few updates to the ecosystem. However, fellow Anglers will notice a change in their Fishing Journal, namely Fishing Accessories! Your existing Fishing Gear from the past will lose all Fishing stats and converting them to Fishing Accessories will permanently exchange the combat stats for the proper Fishing-related bonuses. Developer’s note: We’re strictly looking out for any friction with this conversion, items we might have missed, or critical issues to fix before this is fully live. HERBALISM In this Alpha build, Herbalism has been enabled and can be trained by Professor Instructaur in Orgrimmar and Stormwind. Specializations for herbalism have been fully implemented, and in addition to some of the fan favorites, we also have some new abilities and bonuses that you can specialize into. Finally, herbs are growing all over the Isle of Dorn, including ones that have been affected by the magics present on Khaz Algar. As always, we appreciate your time and feedback! The base idea behind Herbalism specializations in The War Within is the same as Dragonflight, but there have been changes and additions to some of the bonuses. The Botany specialization now has a Mulching sub-specialization, which allows you to make potent magical mulch and learn to utilize your Green Thumb. Mulching allows you to consume some of the common herb, Mycobloom, to make a consumable Mulch that gives you a large Finesse bonus to the next herb you gather. Green Thumb, also learned from the Mulching tree, is an activatable cooldown that doubles the amount of herbs you receive from the next herb you gather. JEWELCRAFTING Dragonflight Jewelcrafters will feel right at home with the updates in War Within! A familiar lineup of recipes await your discovery, but with a variety of new cantrips and an updated set of gems. We felt that Jewelcrafting’s structure, particularly its vast array of gem choices, fit well under the new profession system and wanted bring that with us into the new expansion. Item quality has been removed from raw gems and there is only one tier instead of two. Enjoy the reclaimed inventory space! The same lineup of gem options and their associated stats has been carried forward. For reference: Amber: Stamina Emerald: Haste Onyx: Mastery Ruby: Critical Strike Sapphire: Versatility Weighted hybrid combinations of all of the above! Ordinary hybrid gem cuts are now entirely sourced through Specializations rather than distributed across various parts of the game, in any order you choose. Knowing your customers and the gaps in the market is critical for maximizing your profits – but eventually all invested Jewelcrafters will be able to acquire all of the gems as usual. LEATHERWORKING Leatherworkers, your profession is available to be trained by Professor Instructaur in Orgrimmar and Stormwind! The general structure of Leatherworking remains the same as in Dragonflight, crafting a variety of armor pieces for both Leather and Mail wearers. Leatherworkers will also find that they have a new market in reagents with the ability to craft Weapon Grip Wraps and Armor Banding that is used in the high-level crafts of other Professions. We’ve also removed the specialization that granted general Skill across the board, so it should be clearer what specializations you need to focus on if you want to get max quality with a particular recipe. The majority of the recipes are implemented, but a couple of the embellished pieces aren’t implemented. Please look for them to be fully functional in the near future! Developer’s note: None of the effects have been tuned yet. Values related to stats bonuses, damage, or healing are very likely to change as the Alpha moves forward. The majority of specializations are implemented as well, except for a couple of sub-specializations within the Learned Leatherworker tree. Some of the specializations include: Learned Leatherworker Master your Leatherworking fundamentals to increase your reagent efficiency, ability to Concentrate, general stitchwork, and production process. This specialization tree is all about increasing your secondary crafting stats and increasing the efficacy of their effects. Flawless Fortes Master the techniques of Khaz Algar to craft specialty items beyond that of standard armor. This specialization tree focuses on improving your crafting capabilities for embellished armor pieces, reagents, armor kits, and profession gear. QUESTS
      The War Within campaign chapters and local stories. USER INTERFACE AND ACCESSIBILITY
      Spellbook has been redesigned and moved to the same window as Talents and Specializations. Professions now has its own micromenu button. Mount Journal now has a button called Switch Flight Style that lets you switch between steady flight (normal flying) and Dynamic Flight. NEW OPTIONS Option to replace spiders with alternative creatures. This doesn’t affect gameplay or difficulty. Option under Accessibility > General > Arachnophobia Mode. Icon can be used to mark your player character for visibility. Option under Accessibility > General > Self Highlight. Highlight your character’s silhouette when blocked by objects in game. Option under Gameplay > Combat > Show Silhouette when Obstructed. OBJECTIVE TRACKER Updated Objective Tracker art. Minimize settings are now on a new top level quest tracker header. New animations on headers and objectives. Icons for in progress quests have been updated. Objective Tracker text size can be adjusted with Edit Mode. Developer’s note: This will only apply for headers and most text lines in the tracker. Added new 3D quest bangs and icons: Meta quests Repeatable quests Campaign trivial quests Flight map icons have been updated. Flightmaster icon and bang has been updated.
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