Patch Class Changes, Two More Expansion Reps Warbound! Full 12.1.5 PTR Development Notes

STORY CAMPAIGN: “THE PROMISE OF TOMORROW”

Ula’tek’s defeat has awoken a long-slumbering terror. Temper an uneasy peace between Quel’thalas and Zul’aman, descend to the deepest depths of the Coiled Isle, and make a final stand against the Amani’s ancient foe—the C’Thraxxi general, Kith’ix.

THE LABYRINTH OF KINDO’JAN

For players who love Delves and are looking for a deeper adventure, welcome to Labyrinths.

While they maintain the spirit of exploration, discovery, and overcoming challenges alongside a companion, Labyrinths are sprawling, mega-dungeon-like experiences designed to be conquered on your terms, with their own dedicated progression systems, powerful unlocks, and rewards that reflect the scale of the challenge.

Venture through them in a single epic session or tackle them piece by piece over time, progressing at your own pace. The further you go, the more opportunities you’ll uncover to advance your character and claim treasures worthy of the risks ahead.

Like Delves, Labyrinths send you into danger with a trusted companion at your side. Valeera Sanguinar will guide you as you push deeper into the unknown.

AQIR INVASIONS

Charge into Aqir Invasions—new zone-wide public events that will occur in Eversong or Zul’Aman.

For ten minutes every hour, champions will complete a series of public events across the entire area one after another before facing an intense boss fight. Whether you’re fending off aerial assaults or rallying defenders on the ground, the aqir forces won’t stand a chance against the champions of Azeroth.

Each invasion has six types of scenarios, three combat-focused and three non-combat-focused, with eight possible affixes to go with the combat scenarios. Champions who band together will be rewarded for completing as many objectives as they can before the ten-minute window closes.

Affixes

• Void Protection: Chance for an Aqir Voidweaver to appear, creating a protective barrier around all other Aqir.
• Aqir Burrower: Several aqir aggressively burrow through the area. They will knock anyone into the sky if they get close.
• Void Sphere: Void Spheres move around the area to try to trap anyone within them.
• Astalor’s Anguish: Astalor’s experiments continue. He has sent his Anguish Crystals to help, which will cause damage to the aqir and any adventurers caught in their blast.
• Swarms!: All aqir enemies are replaced with swarms of smaller aqir.
• Aqir Elites: All aqir enemies are replaced with fewer but more powerful aqir.
• Void Infestation: Some aqir are infested with the void and will explode after a few seconds in combat, dealing damage to players and infecting other aqir.
• Web Weavers: Chance for an Aqir Webweaver to spawn in. If their channel is not interrupted, they will cover a player in webs.

NEW SINGLE-BOSS RAID: THE UNBINDING OF KITH’IX

Hidden beneath the Vaults of Ula’tek, Kith’ix was bound in his subterranean lair. With the defeat of Ula’tek, the restraints keeping Kith’ix at bay have weakened, unleashing the monstrosity the Amani locked away so long ago.

Face Kith’ix alongside Lady Liadrin in a focused one-boss raid encounter that brings the escalating threat of the campaign to a decisive confrontation. Gather your allies and prepare for a battle that caps the story of Quel’thalas and Zul’aman.

UNLEASH NEW POWER WITH ASCENDANT VENOMSTONES

Following the launch of the 12.1.5 content update, Ascendant Voidcores will return as Ascendant Venomstones, allowing players to push their power to new heights.

To gather Ascendant Venomstones, chat with Orin Straylight near the Catalyst in Silvermoon City to start the quest “Ancient Depths, Ancient Venom.” Once this quest is completed and Orin has had time to do his research, he will empower players to acquire Ascendant Venomstones that will drop from every Heroic or Mythic raid boss, Mythic+ Keystone dungeons +10 and above, Tier 11 Bountiful Delves, and Nightmare Prey Hunt Champion gear chests.

When you’ve collected 10 Ascendant Venomstones, use them to boost the item level of a fully upgraded Season 2 Hero, Mythic, or highest-quality Tidal Crafted weapon, trinket, or necklace.

• Ascendant Venomstones can be purchased from Trinketaur on the PTR for testing.

WARBAND REPUTATION

• Legion and Battle for Azeroth reputations are now shared across the warband.

CLASSES

• DEMON HUNTER
  • Devourer
    • Collapsing Star now has increased range after it starts casting, reducing the circumstances where it will fail from the target moving out of range.
    • Collapsing Star no longer goes on cooldown for 5 seconds when its cast is cancelled.
    • Collapsing Star will now only slow Fury drain during its cast for a limited time.
      • If Collapsing Star’s cast is cancelled then cast again, it will only be able to slow Fury drain for a total time of approximately 1.5 full casts.
      • After that time limit has been reached, Fury drain will resume in full regardless of whether or not a cast is interrupted or starts again.
    • Void-Scarred
      • Demonic Intensity now causes Collapsing Star to reset the cooldown of The Hunt.
      • Demonic Intensity’s empower effect for The Hunt now increases its damage by 30%.
      • Violent Transformation now resets the cooldown of Soul Immolation.
      • Violent Transformation no longer resets the cooldown of The Hunt.
      • Violent Transformation no longer increases the damage of The Hunt (was 25%) or causes it to reset the cooldown of Soul Immolation.
      • Monster Rising now increases Intellect by 10% while not in demon form (was 15%).
      • Monster Rising now increases Collapsing Star damage by 20% (was 15%).
• HUNTER
  • Marksmanship
    • New Talent: Blood Fletching – Aimed Shot critical strikes now cause the Master Marksman bleed effect at 20% of the damage dealt. For 4 seconds after a critical Aimed Shot, the target will take additional bleed damage any time your abilities damage that target.
      • Developers’ notes: We’re replacing Unload with a talent focused more around Aimed Shot, giving a window of opportunity when you get an Aimed Shot critical strike.
    • Unload has been removed.
• WARRIOR
  • Protection
    • Developers’ notes: Protection Warriors are hard-pressed to incorporate Execute into their rotations, especially due to the high Rage cost. We’re removing the optional Rage cost from Execute, and increasing its base damage by an equivalent amount, so it will deal damage as if it had the full optional Rage spent every time.
    • Execute no longer consumes additional Rage for additional damage.
    • Execute damage increased by 100%.
    • Colossus
      • Developers’ notes: Colossus is intended to reflect a Warrior’s innate prowess and skill, and this represents itself for Protection by being more efficient with Rage. We feel that Colossus will benefit from having more efficient access to Revenge and Execute for a more unique rotation and better threat management tools.
      • Practiced Strikes now has an additional effect – Execute and Revenge Rage cost reduced by 10.

HOUSING

• UI UPDATES
  • There are now keybinds for going up and down floors in floorplan edit mode (default page up/page down).
  • There’s now a shortcut to get to your blueprint collection from the Housing Controls blueprint button.
• ENDEAVORS
  • It was previously possible for Public Neighborhoods to receive the same Endeavor as the one they had previously been given. We’ve since fixed this so that Public Neighborhoods won’t get repeat Endeavors back-to-back.

PREY

• Added catch-up mechanics to increase renown gains. Players below rank 3 will receive 4000 Journey progress (a full rank) per hunt which takes precedence over and does not trigger the Journey progress earned from your first four hunts a week. Players between ranks 3 and 8 will receive 2000 Journey progress from each of their first four hunts a week.
  • Developers’ notes: We want to make it easier with the 12.1.5 update for new players, returning players, or those who simply didn’t invest heavily into running Prey so far during Season 2 to engage with the content without feeling like they wouldn’t be able to catch up. These changes make it substantially easier for a player to complete their Prey Journey and receive the associated rewards, including decor and Hero track equipment in conjunction with Delves.

USER INTERFACE AND ACCESSIBILITY

• Added player coordinates below the minimap, an option to disable it, and an option for displaying map coordinates as integers or decimals.
• Adding an option to display “ants” (an animated dash border) around raid frames when there’s something the player can dispel on the unit.
• Added an option to make the raid frame dispel overlay animate with a pulsing alpha effect.
• Pinging a macro now shows information from #showtooltip in the ping alert.