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Updated: Hybrid Healer Buffs, Class Tuning: Midnight Development Notes, January 21st

Starym's Avatar by Starym

Update: Blizzard have added some more notes to this week’s beta build. We have some new text-to-speech options, nameplate improvements, and a small transmog addition.

Additional notes for this week’s 12.0.1 beta build:

USER INTERFACE AND ACCESSIBILITY

  • TEXT-TO-SPEECH UPDATES
    • New Combat Audio Alert options were added:
      • Say Your Debuffs
        • Format
        • Voice
        • Min Duration
        • Volume
      • Debuff Self Alert (announces when a debuff is applied to the player that they can dispel)
  • TRANSMOGRIFICATION
    • Added the ability to use arrow keys to navigate through appearance items.
  • NAMEPLATES
    • The background color of Raid Frames can now be customized with a color picker. This can be found in Options > Gameplay > Interface > Raid Frames > Background Color
    • Boss Abilities now have an Edit Mode option to be displayed as timer bars rather than a timeline.
    • Boss Abilities and Boss Warnings now have Edit Mode options to anchor tooltips to the cursor location.
    • Fixed an issue where raid marker icons were not showing in friendly player nameplates.

Original Post

Another new beta build has arrived and this one focuses entirely on class tuning. Hybrid healers are getting some buffs in particular, as the increase to player health affected their capabilities pretty severely. The buffs are pretty big, with some getting as much as as 70% bump. Devourer Demon Hunters also got a big change to Collapsing Star, as it will now consume its cost only once the cast is complete.

There’s plenty more changes as well as almost all classes got tuned to some degree.

Hello testers! Here are this week’s changes to the 12.0.1 beta:

CLASSES

  • Developers’ notes: In Midnight, player health was increased to help address the pace of incoming damage and healing. As a result, hybrid spec healing became far less effective than intended. We are taking a pass at the hybrid specs to increase the effectiveness of their healing spells so they are more useful both in and out of combat.
  • DEATH KNIGHT
    • Hero Talents
      • Rider of the Apocalypse
        • Frost
          • Trollbane’s Obliterate now correctly becomes Frost when consuming a Killing Machine with One-Handed weapons.
    • Unholy
      • Necromancer’s Cunning explosion damage increased by 100%.
      • Virulent Plague damage increased by 15%.
      • Clawing Shadows now reduces the damage of each subsequent chain of Scourge Strike by 20% (was 25%).
      • Superstrain now causes Dread Plague to deal 75% of its damage to a nearby enemy (was 50%).
  • DEMON HUNTER
    • Devourer
      • Developers’ notes: We’ve been getting feedback that Collapsing Star’s resource consumption happening at the start of its cast is too punishing, especially in uncoordinated groups. We still want proper planning and execution of Collapsing Star to be a meaningful part of maximizing Devourer Demon Hunter’s damage, but we agree that there is too much tension surrounding an ability that should feel exciting and epic. As such, we’re updating Collapsing Star to now only consume its stacks when the cast is completed. We’re also adding an internal cooldown to Collapsing Star to prevent edge-cases where players may want to cast and cancel Collapsing Star repeatedly to extend their Void Metamorphosis duration. This cooldown will trigger when Collapsing Star begins its cast. Our goal with this change is to make Collapsing Star more forgiving when canceled due to forced movement or crowd control, while giving us some room to avoid abuse cases. We’ll be closely watching the impact of this change and make tweaks if necessary.
      • Collapsing Star has been updated – No longer consumes the required Souls at the start of its cast. Now has a 5 second cooldown and triggers its cooldown at the start of its cast.
      • Collapsing Star now generates 50% less threat.
  • DRUID
    • Hero Talents
      • Keeper of the Grove
        • Balance
          • Fixed an issue that caused Sylvan Beckoning’s Dryad to cast an incorrect, more powerful version of Starfall than intended.
          • Fixed an issue for Durability of Nature causing the tooltip to display a value of 50% for the amount it increases treant health, when it is actually 100%.
      • Wildstalker
        • Bloodseeker Vines grow at an increased rate when multiple targets are afflicted by your bleeds.
        • Rampancy causes Bursting Growths to have a 30% chance to trigger (was 20%).
        • Patient Custodian increases bleed damage by 8% (was 6%).
        • Fixed an issue that caused Patient Custodian to not increase Bloodseeker Vine damage.
    • Balance
      • Meteorites damage reduced by 10%.
      • Power of Goldrinn damage increased by 25%.
      • Denizen of the Dream damage increased by 40%.
      • Solar Bolt damage increased by 40%.
      • Lunar Bolt damage increased by 20%.
      • Wrath damage increased by 20%.
      • Starfire damage increased by 20%.
      • All ability damage increased by 6%.
      • Wild Growth healing increased by 30%.
      • Rejuvenation healing increased by 30%.
    • Feral
      • Fixed an issue that caused Unseen Attacks to often fail to find a target when not fighting dummies.
      • Focused Frenzy increases the damage of Feral Frenzy by 20% (was 40%).
      • Cat form Swipe damage increased by 20%.
      • All attack damage increased by 8%.
      • Wild Growth healing increased by 100%.
      • Rejuvenation healing increased by 100%.
  • EVOKER
    • Fire Breath’s total (instant + periodic) damage should now be consistent at all Empower ranks, with all combinations of Fire Breath-affecting talents.
    • Panacea healing increased by 60%.
    • Augmentation
      • Ebon Might can no longer be aura canceled.
      • Ebon Might extension range now matches Ebon Might’s application range.
      • Sense Power now dynamically updates its duration if a cooldown is extended.
      • Sense Power and Prescience have been updated to correctly detect all major throughput cooldowns, and will no longer activate on tank or healer specializations.
      • Verdant Embrace healing increased by 50%.
      • Emerald Blossom healing increased by 50%.
    • Devastation
      • Verdant Embrace healing increased by 50%.
      • Emerald Blossom healing increased by 50%.
  • HUNTER
    • Beast Mastery
      • Fixed an issue that caused the Bestial Wrath granted to your Nature’s Ally Animal Companion to trigger Bestial Wrath effects and procs an additional time.
  • MAGE
    • Frost
      • Icicles visual effects now automatically hide and reappear based on whether you’re in combat or not.
      • Fixed an issue that caused all Water Elemental glyphs to not be properly applied to the Water Elemental spell.
  • MONK
    • Windwalker
      • Developers’ notes: This round of updates is targeting a few underperforming and overperforming talents, increasing Windwalker’s AoE damage, tweaking Rising Sun Kick’s damage contribution in single target versus Fists of Fury, and adjusting its chi economy in a few ways to be a smoother experience.
      • Fists of Fury damage decreased by 10%.
      • Rising Sun Kick damage increased by 20%.
      • Spinning Crane Kick damage increased by 50%.
      • Jadefire Stomp damage increased by 25%.
      • Flurry of Xuen damage increased by 40%.
      • Airborne Rhythm now generates 1 Chi (was 2 Chi).
      • Rushing Wind Kick no longer has a Chi cost.
      • Sunfire Spiral now increases Mastery: Combo Strikes by 40% (was 20%).
      • Universal Energy increases magical damage done by 8% (was 15%).
      • Memory of the Monastery now increases Combo Breaker’s effect chance by 75% (was 25%) and increases Tiger Palm’s damage by 30% (was 15%).
      • Communion with Wind increases the damage of Strike of the Windlord and Whirling Dragon Punch by 20% (was 10%).
      • Tigereye Brew has been updated – Now only reduces its stacks down to 10 while out of combat in a raid instance and now grants 10 stacks or reduces stacks down to 10 at encounter start and mythic+ start.
      • Vivify Healing increased by 100%.
      • Vivify Healing is reduced by 33% in PvP combat (was 66%).
      • Expel Harm healing increased by 30%.
  • PALADIN
    • Holy
      • Light of Dawn’s healing effect is now capped at 5 targets. Healing increased by 10%.
      • Liberation now causes 12% of Word of Glory and Light of Dawn’s healing to be transferred into damage.
      • Beacon of the Savior now functions with Commanding Light, Beacon of the Lightbringer, and Moment of Compassion.
      • Hammer of Wrath now costs the same amount of mana as Judgment.
      • Hammer and Anvil healing now increased by Mastery: Lightbringer. Healing reduced by 30%.
      • Holy Light healing increased by 25%.
      • Divine Resonance added to the Cooldown Manager.
      • Divine Resonance now correctly activates from Holy Bulwark and Sacred Weapon.
    • Retribution
      • Flash of Light healing increased by 85%.
      • Word of Glory healing increased by 100%.
      • Haste now correctly reduces the global cooldown after a Templar Strike or Templar Slash.
      • Fixed an issue that caused Empyrean Power to trigger more than intended in AoE scenarios.
      • Fixed an issue that caused Quickened Invocation to reduce the cooldown of Divine Toll by 15 seconds instead of 30 seconds.
  • PRIEST
    • Discipline
      • Atonement heals for 45% of damage done (was 50%).
      • Searing Light applies a damage over time equal to 20% of Penance damage (was 30%).
      • Shadowfiend chance increased to 100% (was 40%).
      • Twinsight Penance no longer applies Atonement to allies.
      • Holy Ray can no longer be chained between multiple Penance casts.
      • Shadow Mend healing increased by 45%.
      • Borrowed Time and Harsh Discipline have swapped locations.
      • Borrowed Time grants 5%/10% Haste (was 4%/8%).
      • Developers’ notes: Please note that this change will be applied as a hotfix, so it might not be immediately data-minable.
    • Shadow
      • Flash Heal healing increased by 70%.
      • Power Word: Shield absorption increased by 50%.
  • ROGUE
    • Hero Talents
      • Fatebound
        • Fixed an issue that caused Ravenholdt Mint’s benefit to not be applied or even reduce overall damage.
        • Assassination
          • Fate Intertwined increases the percentage of damage spread by Caustic Spatter by 5% (was 10%).
          • Fatebound Coin damage increased by 10%.
        • Outlaw
          • Fate Intertwined’s increase to the percentage of damage caused by Blade Flurry reduced to 6% (was 8%).
    • Assassination
      • All damage increased by 10%.
      • Caustic Spatter causes 15% of your Nature damage to hit nearby enemies (was 35%).
    • Outlaw
      • All damage increased by 15%.
      • Blade Flurry causes your abilities to strike nearby enemies for 25% of damage dealt (was 35%).
      • Menacing Rush increases Adrenaline Rush’s damage bonus to affected abilities by 20% (was 15%).
      • Heightened Rush increases Adrenaline Rush’s duration by 4 seconds (was 3 seconds).
      • Midnight Season 1 2-Set Bonus – Updated the tooltip to more accurately reflect the increase to Blade Rush’s damage to your primary target. The displayed number has changed to 15% (was 25%), though the power of the set has not changed.
      • Fixed an issue in Precision Shots’ tooltip. The correct damage percent increase of 20% is now shown, instead of 10%.
  • SHAMAN
    • Elemental
      • Heailng Surge healing increased by 130%.
      • Healing Stream Totem healing increased by 50%.
      • Earth Shield healing increased by 50%.
    • Enhancement
      • Healing Surge healing increased by 130%.
      • Healing Stream Totem healing increased by 50%.
      • Earth Shield healing increased by 50%.
  • WARLOCK
    • Affliction
      • Haunt duration increased to 18 seconds (was 15 seconds).
      • Only 1 application of Haunt can be active at a time.
    • Demonology
      • Fixed an issue where Grand Warlock Alythess and Lady Sacrolash would not continually attack enemies.
    • Destruction
      • Apex Talent: Embers of Nihilam (Rank 4) has been updated – Casting Chaos Bolt, Shadowburn, or Rain of Fire evokes an echo of the Dark Titan’s at 50%, 50%, or 60% effectiveness respectively. If no target is found, a random target suffering from your [Wither/Immolate] will be selected.
  • WARRIOR
    • Hero Talents
      • Colossus
        • Colossal Might increases damage of your next Demolish by 5% per stack (was 10%).
        • Demolish damage increased by 33%.
          • Developers’ notes: We want Demolish to feel satisfying to use even at low or no Colossal Might stacks, so we’re moving some of the Colossal Might damage into the ability’s baseline damage.
    • Arms
      • Apex Talent: Master of Warfare – Chance for Slam to be upgraded to Heroic Strike increased by roughly 50%.
      • Apex Talent: Master of Warfare – Heroic Strike reduces the cooldown of Colossus Smash by 2 seconds (was 5 seconds).
      • Master Tactician now increases Tactician’s chance to trigger by 5% (was 10%).
      • Battlelord now also reduces the Rage cost of your next Heroic Strike by 33%.
    • Fury
      • Midnight Season 1 4-set Bonus – Rampage reduces the cooldown of Odyn’s Fury by 2.5 seconds (was 1 second).

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