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Dragonflight Beta Development Notes: September 7th

By Staff, in News

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Staff
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Today's Beta development notes are pretty large, featuring a lot of class tuning, as well as PvP, UI and profession changes.

Blizzard LogoDev Notes (Source)

Hello! Here are this week’s updates to Dragonflight Beta:

CLASSES

  • NEW TALENT SYSTEM
    • STARTER BUILD
      • Evokers now have access to the Starter Build in their loadouts menu (this feature will be available to other classes in future updates). The Starter Build is a preset talent build created for players who prefer not to choose their own talents yet, but simply want a decent build that’s suitable for most content. This will be available to both leveling characters and max level characters.
    • DEATH KNIGHT
      • Class Tree
        • Festermight maximum stacks reduced to 20 (was 30).
        • New Talent: Enfeeble – Your Ghouls attack has a chance to reduce the targets movement speed by 30% and the damage they deal to you by 15%.
      • Unholy
        • Eternal Agony epidemic effect now also extends the duration of Dark Transformation.
        • Ghoulish Frenzy effect duration is now also extended when Dark Transformation’s duration is increased (i.e. by Eternal Agony).
        • Death Rot epidemic effect now applies Death Rot to your primary target.
        • Summon Gargoyle is now off global cooldown (GCD) and generates 50 Runic Power on use. Gargoyle Strike base damage increased by 60%.
    • DRUID
      • Class Tree
        • Added Improved Nature’s Cure for Restoration Druids to replace Remove Corruption.
        • Added Remove Corruption nodes visible for Balance, Feral, and Guardian in the same location.
      • Feral
        • Rearranged various talents and created new pathways and choices.
        • New Talent: Protective Growth – Your Regrowth protects you, reducing all damage you take by 3% while it is on you.
        • New Talent: Pouncing Strikes – Grants benefits to Shred and Rake when striking from stealth.
        • New Talent: Piercing Claws (2 ranks) – Critical Strike chance increased by 2%.
        • New Talent: Double-Clawed Rake – Rake also applies Rake to 1 additional nearby target.
        • New Talent: Dreadful Bleeding – Rip damage increased by 15%.
        • New Talent: Tear Open Wounds – Primal Wrath consumes up to 4 seconds of Rip damage on targets it hits and deals 75% of it instantly.
        • New Talent: Ferocious Frenzy – Ferocious Bite also hits nearby enemies within 8 yards afflicted by Rip for 25% damage.
        • New Talent: Raging Fury – Finishing moves extend the duration of Tiger’s Fury by 0.2 seconds per combo point spent.
        • New Talent: Frantic Momentum – Finishing moves have a 3% chance per combo point spent to grant 10% Haste for 6 seconds.
        • New Talent: Berserk: Heart of the Lion – Each combo point spent reduces the cooldown of Berserk by 0.5 seconds.
        • New Talent: Wild Slashes – Swipe and Thrash deal 20% more damage.
        • New Talent: Bite Force – Ferocious Bite and Rip deal 10% more damage.
        • New Talent: Veinripper – Rip, Rake, and Thrash last 25% longer.
        • New Talent: Rip and Tear – Applying Rip to a target also applies a Tear that deals Bleed damage per combo point spent over 6 seconds.
        • Improved Bleeds changed to 1 rank (was 2).
        • Max Energy renamed to Tireless Energy, changed to 2 ranks (was 3) and grants 2% Haste per rank.
        • Sabertooth now increases Ferocious Bite damage by 20% and increases damage dealt by Rip by 4% for each combo point spent for 4 seconds.
        • Sudden Ambush changed to 2 ranks (was 3) and grants 2% chance to strike as if from stealth per rank (was 1%).
        • Berserk replaces Berserk: Relentlessness – Berserk now grants combo point refund on finishing moves and causes Rake and Shred to deal damage as if stealthed.
        • Taste for Blood changed to 2 ranks (was 3).
        • Infected Wounds now also increases Rake damage by 20%.
        • Berserk: Frenzy no longer causes combo point generating abilities to reduce the cooldown of Berserk.
        • Modal Cooldown Bonus is now Ashamane’s Guidance – Gives auto attacks a chance to trigger Incarnation for 6 seconds.
        • Removed Improved Tiger’s Fury. Tiger’s Fury now always grants 50 Energy.
        • Removed Improved Shred and Improved Prowl.
        • Removed Berserk: Jungle Stalker.
        • Removed Savage Roar.
        • Removed Draught of Deep Focus.
      • Restoration
        • Rearranged various talents and created new pathways and choices.
        • New Talent: Flash of Clarity – Clearcast Regrowths heal for an additional 30%.
        • New Talent: Waking Dream – Ysera’s Gift now heals every 4 seconds, and heals for an additional 5% for each of your active Rejuvenations.
        • New Talent: Nature’s Splendor – The healing bonus to Regrowth from Nature’s Swiftness is increased by 50%.
        • New Talent: Nurturing Dormancy – When your Rejuvenation heals a full health target, its duration is increased by 3 seconds, up to a maximum total increase of 9 seconds per cast.
        • New Talent: Dreamstate – While channeling Tranquility, your other Druid spell cooldowns are reduced by up to 10 seconds.
        • New Talent: Verdancy – When Lifebloom blooms, up to 3 targets within your Efflorescence are healed.
        • New Talent: Budding Leaves – Lifebloom’s healing is increased by 3/6% each time it heals, up to 45/90%. Also increases Lifebloom’s final bloom amount by 3/6%.
        • New Talent: Embrace of the Dream – Wild Growth has a 50/100% chance to momentarily shift your mind into the Emerald Dream, instantly healing all allies affected by your Rejuvenation.
        • New Talent: Regenerative Heartwood – Allies protected by your Ironbark also receive 75% of the healing from each of your active Rejuvenations.
        • Improved Lifebloom – Lifebloom counts for 2 stacks of Mastery: Harmony.
        • Invigorate – Your heal over time effects on the target complete 100% faster. 45 second cooldown.
        • Power of the Archdruid – Wild Growth has a 50% chance to cause your next Rejuvenation or Regrowth to apply to 3 additional allies within 20 yards of the target.
        • Unending Growth – Rejuvenation healing has a 1/2% chance to create a new Rejuvenation on a nearby target.
        • Undergrowth – You may Lifebloom two targets at once, but Lifebloom’s healing is reduced by 10%.
        • Reforestation – Every 3 casts of Swiftmend grants you Incarnation: Tree of Life for 9 seconds.
        • Verdant Infusion – Swiftmend no longer consumes a heal over time effect, and extends the duration of your heal over time effects on the target by 10 seconds.
        • Unstoppable Growth – Wild Growth’s healing falls off 20/40% less over time.
        • Ysera’s Gift now restores 3% health per 5 seconds by default.
        • Ready for Anything now reduces Nature’s Swiftness’s cooldown by 12 seconds.
        • Improved Regrowth now increases chance for a critical effect by 40% by default.
        • Inner Peace now reduces the cooldown of Tranquility by 60 seconds by default.
        • Stonebark now increases healing from your heal over time effects by 20% during Ironbark by default.
        • Improved Ironbark now reduces the cooldown of Ironbark by 20 seconds by default.
        • Ready for Anything is now a choice node with Nature’s Splendor.
        • Inner Peace is now a choice node with Dreamstate.
        • Improved Ironbark/Stonbark is now a choice node. Moved to row 7.
        • Photosynthesis is no longer a choice node with Undergrowth.
        • Autumn Leaves has been removed.
    • EVOKER
      • Starter builds now enabled.
      • Preservation
        • Rewind – Heal over time now scales with Haste.
        • Temporal Anomaly – Now works with Mastery: Life-Binder.
        • Cycle of Life – Counter should no longer go away when you die, and now lasts 15 seconds (was 10 seconds).
        • Life-Giver’s Flame – Now only counts healing based on damage done to up to 5 targets.
        • Flow State – Now connects to Golden Hour in the talent tree.
    • HUNTER
      • Class Tree
        • Hunter’s Agility now reduces damage taken from area of effect attacks by 6% (was increases Avoidance).
        • Rejuvenating Winds and Improved Traps have swapped spots.
        • Scatter Shot is now usable with any weapon type. Survival uses a 1-hand special shot.
        • Binding Shot’s root effect can now break from taking damage.
      • Marksmanship
        • Windrunner’s Guidance has been redesigned – Every Wind Arrow shot has a 3% chance to grant you 10 seconds of Trueshot.
      • Survival
        • Ferocity lowered to 1 rank (was 2).
        • Intense Focus lowered to 1 rank (was 2).
    • PRIEST
      • General
        • Smite – Damage increased by 50% to offset the loss of Smite (Rank 2).
      • Class Tree
        • Rhapsody – Increases the healing done by Holy Nova by 20% per stack (was 10%).
        • Depth of the Shadows – Increases the healing done by your next Circle of Healing by 1% per stack, up to 50 stacks (was 2% per stack, up to 25 stacks).
        • Mindgames – No longer generates Mana or Insanity. Reversed damage and healing done reduced by 33%.
        • Halo – Fixed an issue where Halo was not dealing its maximum damage between 26-30 yards.
        • Power Word: Life – Renamed from Holy Word: Life to avoid confusion with Holy Word interactions.
      • Discipline
        • Corrected a missing connection between Empyreal Blaze and Searing Light.
        • Spirit Shell has been removed.
        • Exaltation no longer references Spirit Shell.
        • Shadow Covenant redesigned its functionality slightly – Make a shadowy pact, healing the target and 4 other injured allies within 30 yards. For 7 seconds, your Shadow spells deal 25% increased damage and healing, Shadow Mend has no cooldown, and Halo and Divine Star are converted to Shadow spells.
      • Holy
        • Slightly reorganized the middle of the tree.
        • Prayer of Healing – Mana cost reduced by 25%.
        • Healing Chorus – Increases the healing done by your next Circle of Healing by 1% per stack, up to 50 stacks (was 2% per stack, up to 25 stacks).
        • Prismatic Echoes – Increases the healing done by your Mastery: Echo of Light by 6%/12% (was 15%/30%).
        • New Talent: Divine Service – Prayer of Mending heals 4% more for each bounce remaining.
      • Shadow
        • Reorganized the top of the tree.
        • New Talent: Coalescing Shadows – Mind Sear and Shadow Word: Pain damage has a 4% chance to grant you Coalescing Shadows and Mind Flay has a 15% chance to grant you Coalescing Shadows, stacking up to 3 times. Mind Blast and Mind Spike consume all Coalescing Shadows to deal 20% increased damage per stack, and consuming at least 1 increases the damage of your periodic effects by 10% for 15 seconds.
        • New Talent: Puppet Master – Your Shadowfiend and Mindbender grant you Coalescing Shadows each time they deal damage. Damage from your Shadowy Apparitions has a 8% chance to grant you Coalescing Shadows.
        • New Talent: Harnessed Shadows – Increases the chance for you to gain a Coalescing Shadow when dealing damage with Mind Sear and Shadow Word: Pain by 2% and Mind Flay by 10%. You have a 100% chance to gain a Coalescing Shadow when critically hit by any attack. This effect can only occur every 6 seconds.
        • New Talent: Deathspeaker – Your Shadow Word: Pain damage has a chance to reset the cooldown of Shadow Word: Death and enable 150% additional damage regardless of the target’s health.
        • Painbreaker’s Psalm has been removed.
        • Pain of Death – Now a 2-point node. Increases the damage dealt by Shadow Word: Death by 13%/25%. Shadow Word: Death deals 10%/20% of its damage to all targets affected by your Shadow Word: Pain within 40 yards.
        • Dark Ascension – Now generates 30 Insanity.
        • Pain of Death – Shadow Word: Death deals 20%/40% of its damage to all targets affected by Shadow Word: Pain within 40 yards (was 10%/20%).
    • SHAMAN
      • Enhancement
        • Stormbringer is now a part of Mastery for Shaman.
        • New Talent: Storm’s Wrath – Increases the mastery bonus to Stormbringer and Windfury’s chance to trigger by 100%. Replaces Stormbringer.
        • Lava Lash (Rank 2) renamed to Molten Assault.
        • A bunch of talent nodes moved around on the right-hand side of rows 4-8
        • Improved Maelstrom Weapon is now a 2-rank node. Damage increased by 10% per rank.
        • Focused Maelstrom has been removed.
        • Raging Maelstrom now also increases damage and healing by an additional 5% per Maelstrom Weapon stack.
        • Lashing Flames has returned as a talent node on row 7.
        • Feral Spirits and Elemental Spirits have been slightly adjusted:
          • Each wolf type grants you 15% increased damage to the related element. Base wolves count as physical.
          • Alpha Wolf now triggers from Chain Lightning or Crash Lightning.
          • Alpha Wolf’s attack (Spirit Bomb) is now physical and ignores armor (was Nature damage).
          • Spirit Bomb damage increased by 50%.
        • Legacy of the Frost Witch has been redesigned – Every 10 Maelstrom Weapon stacks consumed resets the cooldown of Stormstrike and grants you 5/20% increased Physical damage dealt for 5 seconds.
    • WARLOCK
      • General
        • Spell Lock has been removed from the talent tree and returned to the Felhunter.
        • Demonic Circle has been moved to row 1 and is granted freely.
        • Abyss Walker has been moved to row 3.
      • Demonology
        • Borne of Blood and Shadow’s Bite have swapped places.
        • Nerzhul’s Volition has been updated – When Nether Portal summons a demon, it has a 15/30% chance to summon an additional demon.
        • Gul’dan’s Ambition has been updated – When Nether Portal ends, you summon a Pit Lord that gains power based on how many demons you summoned, up to 20 demons, while Nether Portal was active. The Pit Lord lasts for 10 seconds.
    • WARRIOR
      • Class Developer Notes
        • We’ve made some changes to stances; each specialization now only has one damage-based stance available to them. We might revisit this and their specific functionality later, but for now, we want players to have the intended experience when playing in the Beta and that is that Arms uses Battle Stance and Fury uses Berserker Stance and you can opt into defensive stance when you’re expecting heavy incoming damage.
        • There’s some under the hood changes related to auto-attack tuning that lead to the increases and reductions you’ll see.
      • Class Tree
        • Battle Stance is no longer available in the Fury class tree and Berserker Stance is no longer available in the Arms or Protection class trees.
        • Sidearm has been removed from the Fury tree and is now located in the class tree. There were too many talents in the Fury tree, and we feel this is a cool ability that all specs can make use of.
        • Fast Footwork now increases movement speed by 10% (was 5%).
        • New Talent: Uproar – Thunderous Roar’s cooldown is reduced by 30 seconds to better align it with various cooldowns.
        • Thunderous Roar’s direct damage reduced to 160% (was 175%).
        • Memory of a Tormented Warlord changed to the following – Activating Avatar or Colossus Smash casts Recklessness at reduced effectiveness.
        • Armored to the Teeth has changed position and is now 2 ranks. The Strength granted from Armor is up to 5% per rank (was 3%).
        • Shockwave and Thunderous Roar now have 110-degree cones (was 90 degrees) to allow for a little more error in targeting and to better align with visuals.
        • Ranks of Cruel Strikes for all specs should now work correctly.
        • All version of Sudden Death and Massacre have now returned to the specialization trees.
        • New Talent: Wrenching Impact – Heroic Leap pulls 5 random enemies within 15 yards to you. The cooldown of Heroic Leap will be increased in a future build to compensate for this powerful effect.
        • Berserker Stance – Auto attacks now deal 10% more damage (was 5%).
        • Reinforced Plates is now 1 rank and now increases Armor by 20% (was 15%).
        • Endurance Training is now 1 point and now grants 15% reduction to crowd-control effects.
        • Endurance Training Arms and Endurance Training Protection – Now also reduces the effectiveness of Sap, Fear and Incapacitate effects by 15%.
        • Endurance Training Fury – Now also reduces the effectiveness of movement impairing effects by 15%.
      • Arms Developer Notes
        • We’ve changed the pathing and location of various nodes so that Colossus Smash is located in the center of the tree to align with its importance to the Arms specialization.
        • Punishment - We’ve decided to remove Punishment as a talent. Execute damage can make up a very large portion of Arms specialization’s damage, which we like, want to maintain and want players to be able to choose! However, having your target in Execute range for 50% of the fight warps the original intent and identity of the ability. It also means Execute will need to be largely toned down and provide less general output than we’d like when it is intended to be used. When you press Execute, we want it to hit hard and feel good, we want you to see big numbers and even bigger crits, and some constraints here, such as removing Punishment will allow us to better deliver on that.
        • We’re feeling good about where Arms is at and we’ve seen people enjoying the playstyles throughout the Alpha and Beta, so our focus for Arms is now on tuning, bugs and minor changes.
      • Arms
        • Improved Sweeping Strikes removed.
        • Fatality was not providing enough damage output during testing, so now deals 200% damage per stack (was 100%).
        • Blunt Instruments no longer gives an additional benefit to Warbreaker as it is now part of a choice node with Warbreaker.
        • Gathering Storm renamed to Hurricane.
        • Exploiter should now be functioning correctly outside of the Shadowlands and has been reduced to 25% per stack (was 50%).
        • In for the Kill now increases your Haste by 10% and by 25% if the target is under 35% health.
        • Test of Might now grants 5% increased Strength for every 30 Rage spent (was 1% every 10 Rage).
        • Battlelord now also applies to Cleave.
        • Fatal Mark can now also be applied via Cleave.
        • Sharpened Blades now also applies to Cleave.
        • Exhilarating Blows now also applies to Cleave.
        • Rend caused by Blood and Thunder no longer increases stacks of Collateral Damage.
        • Moved Exploit the weakness to a later part of the tree where its power level is more in line with other talents.
        • Skullsplitter now generates 30 Rage.
        • With Storm of Swords talented Whirlwind’s cooldown is now reduced by your Haste.
        • Overpower’s damage reduced to 90% (was 97%).
        • Juggernaut now has a cap of 15 stacks.
        • Execute damage reduced to 220% (was 230%).
        • Arms auto attack damage reduced by 5%.
        • Battlelord chance to trigger reduced to 25% (was 30%) but the rage reduction applied to Mortal Strike has increased to 15 (was 10).
        • Critical Thinking now provides 5% Execute Critical Strike damage per rank (was 3%).
      • Fury Developer Notes
        • Titan’s Grip Fury builds are suffering a little from having more abilities than we’d like and are feeling a little bloated in comparison to other Fury and Arms builds.
        • With the above in mind, we’ve removed Siegebreaker and its follow-on node Deafening Crash. Historically this ability has not been well liked by players and has felt like a weaker version of Colossus Smash, it can also blur the identity and playstyles of Arms and Fury a little more than we’d like and removing it will allow us to put more power into Fury’s core abilities.
        • As mentioned previously we’re looking at opening Annihilator up to two-handed weapons.
        • The choice nodes for Odyn’s Fury and Ravager may see some more iteration.
        • Outside of the above-mentioned points, we are generally happy with where Fury is at and have seen people enjoying the updates to playstyle and abilities throughout the Alpha and Beta, in turn our focus for Fury will now be mostly on tuning, bugs and minor changes.
      • Fury
        • Removed Siegebreaker and Deafening Crash talents.
        • Unbridled Ferocity now has a 20% chance to trigger Recklessness (was 10%).
        • Frenzied Flurry is now 1 Rank and increases auto attack damage by 5% and your auto attack critical strikes have a 50% chance to enrage you.
        • Haste no longer reduces the cooldown of Odyn’s Fury.
        • New Talent: Dancing Blades – Odyn’s Fury increases your auto-attack speed by 50% for 10 seconds.
        • Gathering Storm renamed to Hurricane.
        • Cruelty is now 1 rank and increases damage by 15% and chance to reset the cooldown of Raging Blow by 30%.
        • Bloodborne now increases your Bleed damage by 30%.
        • Vicious contempt now increases damage dealt by Bloodthirst by 25% per rank (was 20%).
        • Cold Steel Hot Blood now deals 30% damage (was 20%).
        • Crushing Blow damage reduced to 90% for both main hand and offhand damage (was 94%).
        • Raging Blow damage reduced to 58% for both main hand and offhand damage (was 61%).
        • Meat Cleaver is now 1 rank and has 4 charges, deals 25% increased damage for Whirlwind.
        • Annihilator should correctly generate Rage from each rank of Swift Strikes.
        • Removed Wrath and Fury and replaced it with Massacre which is no longer present on the core tree.
        • Odyn’s Fury should now add to the duration if quickly cast within succession in line with other Bleed effects.
        • Odyn’s Fury’s periodic damage should now correctly be flagged as a Bleed effect.
        • Cruel Strikes now applies to Annihilator correctly.
        • Storm of Swords – Slam’s cooldown is now 12 seconds and damage increased by 200%. It also generates 20 Rage.
        • When using Storm of Swords, Whirlwind’s cooldown is now modified by your Haste.
        • New Talent: Ashen Juggernaut – Execute increases the critical strike chance of Execute by 10% for 12 seconds, stacking up to 5 times.
        • Memory of a Tormented Titan should now trigger Odyn’s Fury without incurring its cooldown.
        • Fury should now only have 1 form of Execute in their spell book.
      • Protection Developer Notes
        • Protection will see a larger update next week and the week following.
        • We’ve made some quality-of-life changes to target cones to make them a little more forgiving and to better align with visuals.
      • Protection
        • Devastate should now be baseline at the specialization level and no longer require a talent point.
        • Removed Never Surrender and replaced it with Skull Banner.
        • Revenge has a 110-degree cone (was 90 degrees) to allow for a little more error in targeting and to better align with visuals.
        • New Talent: Storm of Steel – Ravager’s damage is reduced by 50% but it now has 2 charges.

PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER

  • CLASSES
    • DEATH KNIGHT
      • Rot and Wither – Now available for all Death Knight specializations (was Blood only).
      • Necrotic Aura – Now available for all Death Knight specializations (was Unholy only).
      • Chill Streak – Removed as a PvP talent (moved into the talent tree).
    • DEMON HUNTER
      • Cover of Darkness – Now available for both Demon Hunter specializations (was Havoc only).
      • Rain from Above – Now available for both Demon Hunter specializations (was Havoc only).
      • Glimpse – Now available for both Demon Hunter specializations (was Havoc only).
      • Sigil Mastery – Now available for both Demon Hunter specializations (was Vengeance only).
    • DRUID
      • Malorne’s Swiftness – Now available for all Druid specializations (was Feral and Guardian only).
      • Reactive Resin – Now available for all Druid specializations (was Restoration only).
      • Reactive Resin’s triggered heal is at 75% effectiveness for Guardian, Feral, and Balance.
    • MAGE
      • Torment the Weak has been removed.
      • Burst of Cold has been removed.
    • ROGUE
      • Veil of Midnight – Now available for all Rogue specializations (was Subtlety only).
      • Control is King – Now available for all Rogue specializations (was Outlaw only).
      • Flying Daggers – Removed as a PvP talent (moved into the talent tree).
      • Intent to Kill – Removed as a PvP talent (moved into the talent tree).
      • Float Like a Butterfly – Removed as a PvP talent (moved into the talent tree).
    • SHAMAN
      • Traveling Storms – Now available for all Shaman specializations (was Elemental only).
      • Traveling Storms has been redesigned – Thunderstorm now can be cast on allies within 40 yards, reducing enemies movement speed by 60% and knocks enemies 25% further. Thundershock knocks enemies 100% higher.
      • Tidebringer – Now available for all Shaman specializations (was Restoration only).
      • Lightning Lasso – Removed as a PvP talent (moved into the talent tree).

PROFESSIONS

  • ENCHANTING
    • In this Beta build, Enchanting has been enabled and players are able to learn the profession by visiting Enchanting trainers in the Dragon Isles. In addition to feedback on the recipes and new items from the profession, we’re also particularly interested in feedback on the new weapon enchantment effects.
  • FISHING
    • Fishing has been enabled on Beta! Players can now learn Fishing from Profession trainers all throughout Dragon Isles, and are able to fish in all of the zones.
  • SPECIALIZATIONS
    • Unlocking Specializations requires 25 skill in that Profession. Once unlocked, players can spend Specialization points to unlock various bonuses for their Profession.
    • ENCHANTING
      • Enchantment – Improve at understanding magical properties and their applications, gaining +1 Skill per point in this Specialization.
        • Primal – Learn to harness the primal elements of the Dragon Isles, gaining + 1 Skill per point in this Specialization.
        • Material Manipulation – Improve at modifying equipment for your every need, gaining + 1 Skill per point in this Specialization.

USER INTERFACE AND ACCESSIBILITY

  • NEW HUD UI
    • Unit frame art updated
      • Player Unit frame
      • Common frames and panel: edges, top bar, and “x” button.
        • Developers’ note: Known issue with some “x” buttons bleeding out of the frame.
      • Inventory frame
      • Looting frame
    • Edit Mode
      • Added Raid Frames
      • Added Boss Frames

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      Malefic Rapture
      In addition to becoming baseline for Affliction, we are introducing new talents that will help Malefic Rapture become the go-to spender for both single-target and multi-target situations. This should also shift Seed of Corruption to being a means to apply Corruption to multiple targets rather than what you spam in dungeons. In addition, we are redesigning Siphon Life to be friendlier to Affliction’s rotation and expect that its new design will make it easier to optimize Malefic Rapture.
      Affliction’s Adaptability
      While we do want Affliction warlocks to have a preferred talent setup for single- versus multi-target situations, we don’t want it to feel like they are powerless if they are in the opposite situation. By focusing on Malefic Rapture being Affliction’s main spender and removing talents that are only valuable in multi-target situations (Soul Flame, Soul Swap, Doom Blossom, etc.), we’re hoping that the Affliction tree feels less punishing to fill out.
      Is This It?
      Not at all. We expect to make changes based on feedback and our own playtesting. We want to get the ball rolling on changes we knew we want to make, so we could start the discussion early on and make adjustments before The War Within launches.
      Thank you all for the continued discussions and we look forward to your feedback!
      And here are the full changes from the development notes:
      Affliction (Source)
      Affliction Malefic Rapture is now baseline and has been removed from the Affliction tree. Unstable Affliction has been moved to row 1. Writhe in Agony has been moved to row 2. Absolute Corruption and Siphon Life have been moved to row 3. New Talent: Cunning Cruelty - Malefic Rapture has a chance to trigger a Shadow Bolt Volley, dealing damage to 5 enemies within 10 yards of your current target. New Talent: Summoner’s Embrace – Increases the damage dealt by your spells and your demon by 3%. New Talent: Death’s Embrace – Increases Drain Life healing by 30% while your health is at or below 35% health. Damage done by your Agony, Corruption, Unstable Affliction, and Malefic Rapture is increased by 5% when your target is at or below 20% health. New Talent: Relinquished - Agony has 1.25 times the normal chance to generate a Soul Shard. New Talent: Improved Shadow Bolt - The cast time of Shadow Bolt is reduced by 15% and Shadow Bolt deals 20% increased damage. New Talent: Volatile Agony - Refreshing Agony with less than 10 seconds remaining deals Shadow damage to its target and enemies within 10 yards. New Talent: Summoner’s Embrace - Increases the damage dealt or life drained by your Shadow spells and your demon by 3%. New Talent: Malediction - The periodic critical strike chance of Agony, Corruption, and Unstable Affliction is increased by 10%. New Talent: Contagion - Critical strike damage dealt by Agony, Corruption, and Unstable Affliction is increased by 20%. New Talent: Cull the Weak - Malefic Rapture deals 5% increased damage for each enemy it hits. New Talent: Empowered Unstable Affliction - Reduces the cast time of Unstable Affliction by 10/20% and damage dealt by Unstable Affliction has a 5/10% chance to generate a Soul Shard. New Talent: Oblivion - Unleash wicked magic upon your target’s soul, dealing Shadow damage over 3 sec. Deals 10% increased damage, up to 30%, per damage over time effect you have active on the target. Costs 2 Soul Shards. 45 sec cooldown. Siphon Life has been redesigned - Corruption deals 20% increased damage and heals you for 5% of the damage dealt. Kindled Malice has been redesigned - Malefic Rapture damage increased by 4/8%. Corruption damage increased by 10/20%. Malevolent Visionary has been redesigned – Increases the damage of your Darkglare by 70%. When Darkglare extends damage over time effects it also sears the target for Shadow damage. Shadow Embrace has been redesigned - [Shadow Bolt/Drain Soul] apply Shadow Embrace, increasing your damage dealt to the target by [4.0%/2.0%] for 16 sec. Stacks up to [2/4] times. Pandemic Invocation has been removed. Sow the Seeds has been removed. Soul Swap has been removed. Doom Blossom has been removed. Dread Touch has been removed. Soul Flame has been removed. Agonizing Corruption has been removed. Seized Vitality has been removed. Soul-Eater’s Gluttony has been removed. Grand Warlock’s Design has been removed. Grim Reach has been removed. Xavius’ Gambit has been moved to row 6. Withering Bolt has been moved to row 8. Shadow Embrace has been moved to row 7. Inevitable Demise has been moved to row 6. Tormented Crescendo has been moved to row 7. Sacrolash’s Dark Strike has been moved to row 5. Grimoire of Sacrifice has been moved to column 4. Creeping Death has been moved to column 3. Dark Virtuosity has been moved to column 1. Malevolent Visionary has been moved to row 10. Summon Darkglare has been moved to row 9.
    • Staff
      Windwalker Monk Changes in War Within Alpha: April 25th
      By Staff
      Here come this week's Windwalker changes as well, with Blizzard detailing adjustments to Tiger Palm and Combo Strikes, as well as announcing talent tree layout changes coming with next week's build.
      Monk (Source)
      This week’s Alpha build brings more updates to Windwalker and we’d like to go over the underlying philosophy and reasoning for these changes. The main changes we’ll be discussing are to Tiger Palm and its damage distribution, making Combo Strikes more consistent and intuitive, and some incoming shifts to their spec tree talent layout.
      Tiger Palm
      Tiger Palm is the most commonly used button for Windwalker, but historically it has represented very little overall damage itself. We want Tiger Palm to remain mostly about generating Chi, but also represent a more meaningful percentage of Windwalker’s damage breakdown. Our goal is not to change rotational priorities, but to make every button press feel directlymeaningful to your overall damage.
      This also helps us tackle some interesting damage profiles by increasing their priority target damage, even in AoE scenarios. We’re excited about talents like Martial Mixture for this reason, which could offer some additional support to this profile.
      Combo Strikes
      We’ve removed Chi Wave and Expel Harm from the list of spells that trigger Combo Strikes for Windwalker Monks in The War Within. Since these are now automatically triggered, we didn’t think it was intuitive for these to trigger Mastery. Our intent for Combo Strikes is that the main focus should be directly on the action bar and relying on direct spell casts rather than auras to determine your next spell to cast.
      Alongside this, we’re making a couple adjustments to Combat Wisdom and Storm, Earth, and Fire to support these changes.
      Combat Wisdom will now rebalance Chi to 2 while out of combat instead of the default depletion. We think this will help both Windwalker’s opener feel more intuitive (only one required Tiger Palm before entering cooldowns with max Chi when playing with Ordered Elements) and also improve the experience of traveling between packs in Mythic Plus or the open world.
      Storm, Earth, and Fire is being added to the list of spells that triggers Combo Strikes. Our goal here is to make the transition to bursting feel as smooth as possible – both when maximizing Rising Sun Kicks with Ordered Elements and in the cases a Windwalker may choose to Storm, Earth, and Fire immediately before using other globals to set up Combo Strikes.
      Windwalker Tree Talent Layout Adjustments
      In next week’s Alpha build, we’re repositioning some nodes in the Windwalker tree to free up some builds we’re excited about. The main change is moving Teachings of the Monastery to Flying Serpent Kick’s location and moving Flying Serpent Kick baseline. Teachings of the Monastery is a talent we’re now considering core to the spec’s design in all scenarios, and moving it to a more centralized location frees up a talent point to increase optionality elsewhere.
      Thank you very much for your testing and feedback!
      And the changes from the development notes:
      Windwalker (Source)
      Developers’ notes: Please note that not all of the below changes will be available in Public Alpha 2, but we want to give players a full picture our next planned update for Windwalker, so we’ve opted to include all of our changes.
      Windwalker Expel Harm no longer triggers combo strikes. Chi Wave no longer triggers combo strikes. Combat Wisdom now balances your Chi to 2 while out of combat. Developers’ notes: With the removal of Expel Harm from the list of combo strikes triggers, we’d like to naturally smooth out Windwalker’s opener by having them start each combat with some additional Chi. This also reduces the ramp-up steps for them to get going rotationally. Storm, Earth, and Fire now triggers Combo Strikes. Developers’ notes: Moving forward, we’d like for Combo Strikes to not trigger from spells that aren’t intuitive to mix into your rotation or aren’t directly under your control, such as Flying Serpent Kick and Chi Wave / Expel Harm procs. Along this line of thinking, we’re also adding Storm, Earth and Fire to the list of spells that can trigger Combo Strikes. We want the initiation of cooldowns to feel as smooth as possible, and we’d like to allow for Ordered Elements to feel easier to play around (also back to back Rising Sun Kicks are fun!). Ordered Elements now has a 7 sec duration (was 5). Jadefire Harmony now increases damage and healing taken by 8% for its duration (was 12%). Crane Vortex is now a 1 point talent and increases the radius of Spinning Crane Kick by 15%. Rising Star is now a 1 point talent. Vivify healing increased by 30% for Windwalker. Developers’ notes: With the removal of Expel Harm as an active button for Windwalker, we’d like Vivify to better fill the on-demand healing niche for them. Skytouch no longer increases the range of Tiger Palm, now increases critical strike chance by 15% (was 50%), and its lockout duration is 30 sec (was 60). Dance of Chi-Ji may now stack up to 2 times. Storm, Earth, and Fire clones will now copy your Tiger’s Lust casts. Developers’ notes: With the removal of Serenity in mind, we’re looking to open up counter play options for Windwalkers when their Storm, Earth, and Fire clones are crowd controlled in PvP. Flying Serpent Kick is now a 30 sec cooldown (was 20). Shadowboxing Tread’s extra Blackout Kicks are now 80% effective (was 100%). Developers’ notes: We’re adding a tuning knob to Shadowboxing Treads so we can more easily tune Blackout Kick’s damage between single target and AoE scenarios.
    • Staff
      Fire Mage Changes in War Within Alpha: April 25th
      By Staff
      Blizzard have detailed the changes coming to Fire Mages in this War Within build, as we as their intentions behind them. There are many talent tree changes, with new talents aimed at more choices being available, especially in the AoE department.
      Fire (Source)
      Hello Mages!
      We have a lot of Fire Mage changes hitting the Alpha today, and we want to take some time to go over what changes were made and why. As mentioned in our update post last week, we have a few 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. Since we’re talking about Fire only, we can get a bit more granular:
      Fire’s AOE
      The biggest issue we were looking to address with this iteration was giving you more ways to adjust your talents and rotation to better suit different profiles, which goes hand-in-hand with increasing the effectiveness and excitement of Flamestrike, Phoenix Flames, and Living Bomb. We’re excited to see what Fire Mages can cook up with the new talents. Our goal with these changes is to push Ignite-spreading out of the default playstyle in higher forms of content, especially above 3 targets-- but retain and add talent support for it so its still exciting to utilize when it makes sense.
      Sun King’s Blessing
      Sun King’s Blessing is a powerful and exciting capstone that Fire Mage players have been utilizing heavily for quite a while. We like the Sun King’s Blessing / Unleashed Inferno capstone choice node, but recognize that Unleashed Inferno still has some gaps to close, particularly in AOE.
      By increasing the stack requirement of Sun King’s Blessing to 10 and increasing Unleashed Inferno’s effectiveness in AOE, we’re hoping that the two talents can better coexist as a meaningful choice when going into an encounter.
      Maintenance Buffs
      Fire’s array of maintenance buffs has been a sore spot in Dragonflight, and its something we’re looking to address moving forward-- especially given the addition of the Aberrus tier set as talents in the Fire tree.
      Firemind is our first removal, but we’re also being sensitive to the fact that Firemind didn’t require you to play around it very much, so its removal might not be doing much to simplify the landscape of Fire’s maintenance buffs.
      We’re also simplifying Improved Scorch’s damage amplification effect to be less punishing when its dropped, but also allowing it to be opt-in complexity. Fire Mages who want increased execute damage without the addition of another maintenance buff should look towards Down in Flames, a new choice node against Improved Scorch.
      Feel the Burn is on our radar, but its output is impactful enough that it serves as a great way to express skill for Fire Mages who have mastered its gameplay. New talents along with effects from the Frostfire and Sunfury trees are increasing player’s access to Fire Blast and Phoenix Flames, so keeping Feel the Burn up should be easier than ever before.
      That’s all for this update. We’re excited to read all of your feedback on the new Fire talents!
      And here are the specific changes from the development notes:
      Fire (Source)
      Fire Fuel the Fire is now baseline New Talent - Lit Fuse: Consuming Hot Streak has a small chance to grant Lit Fuse. Lit Fuse makes your next Phoenix Flames apply Living Bomb to up to three targets. Living Bomb explodes after 2 sec, dealing damage to the target and up to 5 nearby enemies. Up to 5 enemies hit by this explosion gain Living Bomb, but this effect cannot spread further. New Talent - Explosive Ingenuity: Consuming Hot Streak has a higher chance of granting you Lit Fuse. Living Bomb damage increased by 50%. New Talent - Down in Flames (Choice node with Improved Scorch): Scorch deals 300% damage to targets below 30% health. New Talent - Quickflame (Choice node with Flame Patch): Flamestrike damage increased by 25%. New Talent - Focused Fury: Living Bomb deals more damage the fewer targets it hits, up to 300% at 1 target. New Talent - Mark of the Fire Lord: Flamestrike and Living Bomb apply Mastery: Ignite at 100% increased effectiveness. New Talent - Spontaneous Combustion (Choice node with Improved Combustion): Casting Combustion refreshes up to 3 charges of Fire Blast and up to 3 charges of Phoenix Flames. New Talent - Charring Embers: Phoenix Flames applies Charring Embers to all enemies it damages, increasing their damage taken from you by 5% for 12 sec. New Talent - Fire’s Ire: When you’re not under the effect of Combustion, your critical strike chance is increased by 2.5%. When you’re under the effects of Combustion, your critical strike damage is increased by 2.5%. Two-rank talent. New Talent - Explosivo: Casting Combustion grants Lit Fuse. While under the effects of Combustion, consuming Hot Streak has a substantially increased chance to grant you Lit Fuse. New Talent - Blast Zone: Lit Fuse can now apply Living Bomb to up to five targets. Living Bombs can now spread to eight enemies. New Talent - Ashen Feather (Choice node with Majesty of the Phoenix): If Phoenix Flames hits only one target, it deals 50% increased damage and applies Ignite at 100% effectiveness. New Talent - Majesty of the Phoenix (Choice node with Ashen Feather): When Phoenix Flames damages 3 or more targets, your next 2 Flamestrikes have their cast time reduced by 1.5 sec and their damage is increased by 20%. Fervent Flickering has been redesigned: Now reduces the cooldown of Fire Blast by 2 sec Controlled Destruction has been redesigned: Damaging a target with Pyroblast increases the damage it receives from Ignite by 2%. This effect stacks up to 25 times. Developers’ notes: This talent is currently stacking past 25. This is not intentional and will be corrected in a future update. Improved Scorch has been redesigned: Casting Scorch on targets below 30% health increases the damage the target takes from you by 5% for 12 sec. This effect stacks up to 2 times. Flame Accelerant has been redesigned: Every 12 seconds, your next Fireball, Flamestrike, or Pyroblast has a 40% reduced cast time. Unleashed Inferno has been redesigned: While Combustion is active your Fireball, Pyroblast, Fire Blast, Scorch, and Phoenix Flames deal 50% increased damage and reduce the cooldown of Combustion by 1.25 sec. While Combustion is active, Flamestrike deals 25% increased damage and reduces the cooldown of Combustion by 0.25 sec for each critical strike, up to 1.25 sec. Convection has been redesigned: When a Living Bomb expires, if it did not spread to another target, it refreshes its duration. A Living Bomb can only benefit from this effect once. Pyromaniac has been redesigned: Casting Pyroblast or Flamestrike while Hot Streak is active has an 8% chance to repeat the spell cast at 100% effectiveness, but the copied spell cannot contribute to Hot Streak. This effect counts as consuming Hot Streak. Phoenix Reborn has been redesigned: When your direct damage spells hit an enemy affected by Charring Embers 20 times, the damage of your next 2 Phoenix Flames is increased by 200% and they refund a charge on use. Call of the Sun King is now in Gate 1 Searing Touch has been removed. Searing Touch’s critical strike threshold functionality is now baseline to Scorch. Improved Scorch’s movement speed increase is now baseline to Scorch. Incendiary Eruptions, Firemind, and Tempered Flames removed. Firestarter, Intensifying Flame, Inflame, Controlled Destruction, Wild Fire, and Flame Accelerant are now in Gate 2. Flame On is now 1 point and no longer reduces the cooldown of Fire Blast. Critical Mass is now 1 point. Wildfire is now 1 point. Conflagration has been removed. Fevered Incantation is now 2 points Sun King’s Blessing now grants Sun King’s Fury after consuming 10 Hot Streaks. Hyperthermia now has an activation overlay.
    • Staff
      Earthen Allied Race Added to War Within Alpha + Official Preview
      By Staff
      The Earthen join the Allied Race roster in this week's War Within Alpha build! Blizzard detail their current Alpha experience, as well as their racial abilities and future plans.
      Earthen (Source)
      Greetings, Alpha testers!
      With today’s Alpha update, testers can all rock the Earthen first hand.
      First, some context.
      To get right into the action, new Earthen on the Alpha bypass their starting quest experience. We also have abilities that are in the final stages of design but aren’t quite ready in terms of visuals or corner-case functionality. If you’d like a higher level experience, you can create a template character using an Earthen, but in this release, we’re particularly looking for your impressions of the extensive customization options the Earthen have to offer. Feel free to show us your awesome creations!
      We’re also looking for your thoughts on the set of racial abilities we’ve imbued in our rocky friends.
      Earthen’s active ability is Azerite Surge, an empower spell which has the following effects:
      (We’re still working on the visuals for this spell, so expect to see changes in the near future as we refine it.)
      Azerite Surge–
      Draw upon your inner strength. Release to invoke the power of Azerite, dealing $s1 Fire damage. Empowering has the following effects: Stage 1: Deals Fire damage to enemies. Stage 2: Heals allies for a moderate amount. Stage 3: Deals additional Fire damage to the highest health enemy. Additionally, Earthen have four other characteristics/traits:
      Ingest Minerals – You are always Well Fed, but cannot consume food. Activate Ingest Minerals to consume a gem and change the benefit granted to you by Well Fed. Hyper Productive – Increases Finesse, which increases the chances of gathering additional materials. Titan-Wrought Frame – Base armor from items is increased by a moderate amount. Wide-Eyed Wonder – When you gain experience for exploring a location, gain additional exploration experience. Please let us know what you think in this thread. Thank you!
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