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By Staff
The Earthen Allied Race can roll Paladins and Blizzard added a new class mount for them in War Within.
Earthen Judicator's Ramolith
Beneath the stones surface beats a heart emboldened by the Light to set this world free from darkness.
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By Starym
We have more Mythic+ dungeon changes coming in 10.2.6, as well as a Feral fix, item improvements including Billion rings and amulets being able to get sockets and upgrades, and more. There's also Cata Classic improvements, with Mages and Paladins getting some attention, as well as Worgen and more!
May 2 (Source)
Classes
Druid Feral Fixed an issue preventing Smoldering Frenzy (Season 4 (2) Set Bonus) from triggering effects like Seal of Diurna's Chosen. Dungeons and Raids
Algeth’ar Academy Echo of Doragosa Arcane Rift now spawns Uncontrolled Energy 20% less frequently. Overwhelming Power now spawns Arcane Rift at 4 stacks (was 3). The Nokhud Offensive Addressed an issue where the rim visual on Static Spear and Crackling Upheaval can disappear under certain situations. Items
Fixed an issue that prevented Eye of Awakening from functioning on rings purchased from Antique Bronze Bullion vendors. Fixed an issue that prevented Tiered Medallion Setting from functioning on necklaces purchased from Antique Bronze Bullion vendors. Rings and necklaces purchased from Bullion vendors should now be eligible for socket upgrades. This fix is retroactive. Non-player Characters
Vaskarn in the Emerald Dream no longer erroneously mentions that they can upgrade your gear with the use of Flightstones. Vaskarn in Valdrakken is unchanged. Quests
While Time Rifts are empowered, Cache of Embers will now be awarded once per character per week from the quest for defeating a Time Rift Boss. Prince Farondis drank his Conjured Protein Shakes and bulked up, allowing players to complete “Save Yourself”.
Cataclysm Classic
If a Paladin misplaces the Symbol of Faith during the quest “Materials of Significance”, they may now buy a replacement from the Lost and Found vendor in Booty Bay. Fixed the Children’s Week quest “Cruisin’ the Chasm” so that it can now be completed. Boosted Paladins should now have Collective Book of Healing or Secondhand Book of Healing as expected. Fixed an issue that prevented Worgen from being eligible for some daily quests. Mage Ignite damage will no longer be counted double toward Combustion. Refreshed Ignite that now has 3 ticks over 6 seconds will do the same amount of damage on each tick. Ignite spread by Impact and Fire Blast will no longer have a missing 2nd or 3rd tick that adds damage to future Ignites. -
By Staff
Blizzard have also detailed and explained changes coming to all three Warrior specs in this week's build, with Arms' AoE rotation getting some attention.
May 2 (Source)
There are a few Warrior updates in today’s Alpha build.
After giving Arms and Fury access to both Bladestorm and Ravager, it was clear that Ravager had strong advantages in all situations. We’d like Bladestorm to be a strong pick for burst AOE, so we’re buffing its damage significantly, and reducing Ravager’s damage slightly. This should help make the choice between these abilities more meaningful and let each ability shine in different situations.
Arms
We’ve heard the feedback that the Arms AOE rotation lacks definition, so we’re making adjustments to Cleave to make it the centerpiece of Arms’ AOE rotation in The War Within. We think this will give a unique feel to Arms’ AOE rotation while bringing a classic iconic Warrior ability back to the limelight. We want Overpower to be an important part of Arms’ AOE rotation as well, but Dreadnaught was simply too strong in all situations. We’re reducing the damage from Dreadnaught and buffing Strength of Arms to put the choice between those talents on equal footing. This is not intended to be an overall reduction to Arms’ AOE damage, we simply feel that we’d rather Arms’ damage come from their direct damage abilities hitting harder and the subsequent bleeds and that will be reflected in the ongoing tuning of Arms overall.
Fury
We’ve also heard the feedback that Bloodthirst was not an exciting ability to use and that it felt disconnected from the rest of the Fury kit. To address this, we’re giving Bloodthirst a significant damage boost as well as adjusting several talents to affect Bloodthirst that did not previously, and adding new functionality with Deft Experience causing Bloodthirst to extend your current Enrage and changing Bloodcraze to introduce aa new interaction between Raging Blow and Bloodthirst. Our goal is to continue and extend Bloodthirst’s interaction with Enrage in new ways, as well as it contributing to Fury’s overall damage and survivability.
Protection
Protection Warrior has tools like Spell Reflect and Spell Block to protect it from magic, but its defensive toolkit is weak to ongoing or frequent magic damage. Fight Through the Flames is a new tool to help warriors survive that type of damage. We’ll keep an eye on its tuning. Additionally, we removed the damage penalty from Defensive Stance for Protection Warriors. Fighting defensively is what Protection specializes in, and we want to reduce the pressure on players to forego its defensive benefits for more damage.
And here are the actual changes from the development notes:
(Source)
WARRIOR Slam damage normalized across all specializations (Arms-only Slam damage bonus removed), and damage increased by 200%. Slam damage increased by 130%. Arms Slam damage bonus reduced to 50% (was 75%). Bladestorm damage increased by 70%. Ravager damage decreased by 10%. Arms Cleave cooldown reduced to 3 seconds (was 6 seconds). Battlelord no longer resets the cooldown of Cleave. Storm of Swords now triggers from Whirlwind or Cleave and reduces the Rage cost of your next Whirlwind or Cleave. Fervor of Battle now also triggers from Cleave. Dreadnaught damage reduced by 58%. Strength of Arms now also increases Overpower damage by 15%. Fury Bloodthirst damage increased by 43% Bloodcraze now triggers from Raging Blow instead of Bloodthirst. Deft Experience now causes Bloodthirst to extend your Enrage effect by 0.5/1.0 sec if you are Enraged. Swift Strikes now also increases Bloodthirst’s Rage generated by 1.0/2.0 Rage. Crushing Force now increases the damage of Bloodthirst by 10/20% and critical strike chance of Bloodthirst by 5/10%. Bladestorm now generates 10 Rage per damage event for Fury (20 with Storm of Steel). Slam Rage cost removed. -
By Staff
Here come the Paladin adjustments for this week's Alpha build, with Retribution getting all the attention.
May 2nd (Source)
Hello, Retribution Paladins.
This week’s update is about quality of life improvements.
Wake of Ashes
Retribution Paladin relies on Wake of Ashes for both of their Hero Talent trees, and it is core to Retribution’s rotation. With these in mind, we moved Wake of Ashes before the 2nd gate. Additionally, we’ve noticed that aiming Wake of Ashes caused frustrations when strafing and we’ve made changes to make it feel good while strafing as well.
Expurgation and Templar Slash
Blade of Justice and Templar Strikes are deeply connected to the Holy Power economy, and they both have talent and stat interactions that makes you press them more often. The damage over time effects from these abilities were losing value due to being reapplied in a short cadence. Which in return made pressing your core buttons feel worse. We’ve decided to make the damage over time effects roll over their remaining damage value into the next application.
Templar Strikes
We’re increasing the cooldown of Templar Strikes because it requires you to press more buttons than your usual rotation. We’re compensating by increasing its damage. We believe this change will be beneficial to the health of the rotation.
And here are the actual changes from the development notes:
(Source)
PALADIN Retribution New Talent: Radiant Glory – Replaces Avenging Wrath/Crusade. Wake of Ashes grants you Avenging Wrath/Crusade for 10/12 seconds. Your other damaging abilities have a chance to grant you Avenging Wrath/Crusade for 5/6 seconds. Wake of Ashes and Avenging Wrath/Crusade from this talent will function with Herald of the Sun hero talent tree’s keystone and capstone talents. Expurgation now rolls over the remaining damage value when reapplied. Templar Slash damage over time effect now rolls over the remaining damage value when reapplied. Boundless Judgment now additionally increases the chances of your Judgments chances to trigger Highlord’s Judgment by 50%. Templar Strikes damage increased by 25%. Templar Strikes cooldown increased by 2.25 seconds. Wake of Ashes now sends its cone attacks (including Seething Flames) towards where your camera is facing rather than where your character is facing. Shield of Vengeance is now a choice node with Aegis of Protection after the 2nd talent gate. Aegis of Protection now only increases the effectiveness of Divine Protection by 20% (was 10% and was also affecting Shield of Vengeance). Avenging Wrath/Crusade moved up to where Shield of Vengeance was in the talent tree. Wake of Ashes moved up to where Avenging Wrath/Crusade was in the talent tree, before the 2nd talent gate. Seething Flames moved up to where Wake of Ashes was in the talent tree.
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By Staff
Arcane is in focus for today's Alpha changes, as Blizzard detail their goals and thinking behind some big changes for the spec. Fire and Frost also get some changes, with two Hero trees being adjusted as well.
May 2 (Source)
Hello Mages!
We have some Arcane Mage changes hitting the War Within Alpha today, and we want to go over them here. As mentioned a couple of weeks ago, we have goals that span all mage specializations.
These are:
Allow you to acquire each specialization’s core gameplay with less talent point investment. Simplify rotational complexity. Provide new nodes that can help you adapt your damage profile to better match a given encounter’s demands. Provide competitive choice nodes that let you opt-out of complex gameplay. Today we’re talking about Arcane, so let’s dive into the specifics.
Radiant Spark
Arcane Mage has long had the reputation of being one of the most complicated and skill expressive specializations in World of Warcraft. A large contributing factor to this is the way in which Radiant Spark asks you to optimize your rotation. Radiant Spark’s damage bonus was so substantial and so dramatically punished you for using Arcane Missiles, that you had to go about your big burn in a very scripted fashion. With the introduction of Shifting Power, Arcane Mage gained access to mini-burns that can also utilize Radiant Spark, but to facilitate optimal usage of the spell those also had to be very scripted-- and worse yet-- your mini burn script was different than your big burn script.
All of that to say, we don’t think that the exciting and challenging part of Arcane should be the memorization of a large script. Arcane’s burn gameplay should support and be enhanced by the mechanics and talents you have, not circumvent them. We feel confident that the removal of Radiant Spark in its current fashion is the right path forward to achieve that goal.
The soul of Radiant Spark will live on, however, through a new talent: Magi’s Spark. Magi’s Spark accomplishes a similar goal to Radiant Spark by making Touch of the Magi more of an exciting moment, but it now rewards you for utilizing each of your core rotational Arcane spells.
Opt-In Complexity
We’re interested in preserving Arcane’s legacy as a skill-expressive specialization, but we must also recognize that there is a considerable population of Arcane Mage players who engage with the specialization for its visual identity and fantasy-- less so for the challenging gameplay. As Arcane Mage currently stands, it does not support simpler playstyles and thus, less informed Arcane Mages will produce very middling results.
Similar to other trees across the game, the Arcane Mage tree is getting some choice nodes and supporting talents that are meant to provide meaningful throughput while offsetting some of the specialization’s inherent complexity-- and maybe letting you remove a button or two off of your action bars along the way.
As with Fire Mage, we plan on tuning the more “challenging” talents to be the most competitive choices, but we will be making sure the gap between a complex talent and its simpler alternative is small enough that you don’t feel like you’re making a huge mistake by opting out of the complexity.
Arcane Missiles
Arcane Missile’s damage and excitement was difficult to balance alongside its accessibility. If Arcane Missiles ever became too powerful, it would dominate Arcane’s rotation and become its highest priority in all situations. By restricting access to Arcane Missiles to only be castable when you have Clearcasting, it enables us to increase its damage and expand its range of effects in a more healthy way without compromising the rest of your rotation.
Clearcasting Effects
We’ve observed that there has been some frustration around effects that key into consuming Clearcasting since there can rarely be long streaks where players won’t get a proc. We’re watching the discussion around these effects, and are being sensitive to the frustration these effects might cause. Sunfury and Spellslinger both grant increased access to Clearcasting, which should smooth out the rate at which you receive Clearcasting and quell some of that frustration, but if this still ends up being a large point of frustration, expect us to take action on it.
Complexity
Increasing the approachability of Arcane Mage was a big pillar of this talent tree redesign, and we hope that those of you who have been intimidated by Arcane’s complexity in the past will give the specialization another shot once you have access to these changes.
As we gather feedback and continue to iterate on these changes, keep in mind that our goal moving forward is to move the skill expression of Arcane Mage into lining various buffs and effects up in preparation for your burn. Mastering the new talents and effects, and ensuring you’re managing these in a proper fashion to best utilize them during Touch of the Magi will be the differentiating factor between good and great Arcane Mages. Expect future changes to support this vision.
That’s all for this update. We’re excited to read your feedback on this new iteration of Arcane Mage!
And here are the changes themselves, from the development notes:
(Source)
MAGE Sunfury Glorious Incandescence has been updated: Now summons 4 Meteorites (was 8). Increased Meteorite’s Fire Blast cooldown reduction by 100%. Increased Meteorite’s Arcane Orb cooldown reduction by 100%. Meteorite damage increased by 100%. The timing between Meteorites dealing damage and their associated spell cooldown reduction effects have been better synchronized. Spellslinger Arcane Controlled Instincts has been redesigned – For 8 seconds after being struck by an Arcane Orb, 30% of the direct damage dealt by an Arcane Splinter is also dealt to nearby enemies. Damage reduced beyond 5 targets. Spellslingers now conjure two Splinters when they consume Nether Precision. Splintering Orbs now conjures two Arcane Splinters when they strike a target with their Arcane Orb. Arcane Splinterstorms now have a 20% chance to grant you Clearcasting (was 100%). Arcane New Talent: Energized Familiar – During Time Warp or other similar effects, your Arcane Familiar fires 4 bolts instead of 1. Damage from your Arcane Familiar has a small chance to grant you up to 2% of your maximum mana. New Talent: Eureka – When a spell consumes Clearcasting, its damage is increased by 25%. New Talent: Wizened Wit – The cast time of Arcane Blast is reduced by 10%. Choice node with Presence of Mind. New Talent: Arcane Battery – Each time you consume Clearcasting, gain 1%/2% increased spell damage for 30 seconds, stacking up to four times. 2-point talent. New Talent: Time Loop – When you gain a stack of Arcane Battery, you have a small chance to gain another stack of Arcane Battery. This effect can trigger off of itself. New Talent: Aether Attunement – While at maximum stacks of Arcane Battery, your next Arcane Missiles consumes Arcane Battery dealing 150% increased damage to your primary target and also fires at up to 4 nearby enemies. New Talent: Leysight – Nether Precision damage bonus increased to 30%. New Talent: Leydrinker – Every 6 times you consume Nether Precision, your next Arcane Blast echoes, repeating its damage at 50% effectiveness to the primary target and up to two nearby enemies. New Talent: Improved Touch of the Magi – Your Touch of the Magi now accumulates 25% of the damage you deal. New Talent: Magi’s Spark – Your Touch of the Magi now also conjures a spark, increasing the damage your target receives from your next Arcane Barrage, Arcane Blast, and Arcane Missiles by 25%. Upon receiving damage from all three spells, the spark explodes, dealing Arcane damage to all nearby enemies. Choice node with Improved Touch of the Magi. New Talent: Nether Munitions – When Magi’s Spark or Improved Touch of the Magi detonates, it increases the damage all affected targets take from you by 8% for 12 seconds. Arcane Missiles has been redesigned – Can now only be cast when you have Clearcasting. The wording of talents that are associated with Arcane Missiles have been updated to reflect this change. Nether Precision has been redesigned – Consuming Clearcasting increases the damage of your next 2 Arcane Blasts by 20% or your next 2 Arcane Barrages by 20%. Arcane Familiar has been redesigned – Casting Arcane Intelligence also summons you a Familiar that attacks your enemies and increases your maximum mana by 10% for 1 hour. Now passive. Illuminated Thoughts has been redesigned – Clearcasting has a 5% increased chance to trigger and spells that consume Clearcasting deal 5% more damage. Concentration has been redesigned – Casting Arcane Blast has a small chance to make your next cast of Arcane Blast free. Improved Prismatic Barrier is now baseline. Many talents have had their positions changed. Moved Charged Orb and Improved Clearcasting to the first gate. Rule of Threes is no longer a choice node with Arcane Familiar. The following talents have been removed: Foresight Nether Tempest Reverberate Mana Gem Radiant Spark Harmonic Echo Cascading Power Fire Controlled Destruction now has a stack cap of 50 (was 99). Pyroblast increases damage the target takes from your Ignite by 1% (was 2%) Frost New Talent: Death’s Chill – While Icy Veins is active, damaging an enemy with Frostbolt increases spell damage by 1%. Fractured Frost has been redesigned – While Icy Veins is active, your Frostbolts hit up to 2 additional targets. Now a 1-point talent. Hailstones is now a 1-point talent. Fractured Frost and Freezing Winds have swapped places in the talent tree. Cold Front and Coldest Snap have swapped places in the talent tree.
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