Significant Holy Paladin and Resto Shaman Changes, Class Tuning, and More: Midnight Beta Dev Notes, January 28th

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

CLASSES

• DEATH KNIGHT
  • UNHOLY
    • Fixed an issue that caused Festering Scythe’s debuff effect to stop functioning when diseases get extended from any source.
    • Forbidden Knowledge rank 4 will now stop summoning a Lesser Ghoul to Putrefy when the pet is set to passive.
    • Midnight Season 1 Set Bonus – Scourge Strike now grants its Runic Power when the Class Set 4 piece makes it cost no Rune.
• EVOKER
  • Hero Talents
    • Scalecommander
      • Devastation
        • Developers’ notes: We’re reducing the number of times Deep Breath is available through Wingleader for Scalecommander to lessen the amount of time spent airborne which can be difficult to play. We’re offsetting the damage losses with buffs to other Scalecommander talents.
        • Wingleader now causes Bombardments to reduce the cooldown of Deep Breath by 0.5 seconds (was 1 second), up to 1.5 seconds (was 3 seconds).
        • Might of the Black Dragonflight increases Black spell damage by 30% (was 20%).
        • Refined Essence now increases Essence ability damage by 25% (was 15%).
  • Preservation
    • Temporal Anomaly no longer shows on raid frames.
• HUNTER
  • Beast Mastery
    • Dire Command and the Pack Leader Bear will now properly advance Huntmaster’s Call.
    • Dire Command now benefits from bad luck protection.
    • Huntmaster’s Call has been updated – Now summons Hati or Fenryr at 8 stacks (was 6).
    • Fixed an issue where Fortitude of the Bear’s damage reduction effect would persist when switching Pets or Pet Specializations.
• MAGE
  • Arcane
    • Expanded Mind has been updated – Now additionally causes Arcane Orb to grant 2 stacks of Arcane Salvo.
• PALADIN
  • Holy
    • Developers’ notes: We’re returning Crusader Strike as a baseline spell for Holy Paladins in this update with the intention of increasing moment to moment decision making and adding more variety to their rotation. We are introducing a second charge to Crusader Strike and look forward to your feedback on how that feels to play alongside Midnight’s other updates.
    • Holy Shock no longer overrides Crusader Strike.
    • Judgment cooldown increased by 83%.
    • Crusader Strike’s charges are no longer decreased.
    • Crusader’s Might now causes Crusader Strike to reduce the cooldown of Holy Shock and Judgment.
    • Holy Shock’s cooldown is now 9.5 seconds (was 6 seconds).
    • Avenging Crusader no longer overrides itself with Crusader Strike.
    • Crusader Strike damage increased by 20%.
    • Crusader Strike cooldown increased by 25%.
    • Shield of the Righteous now reduces the cooldown of Crusader Strike by 1.5 seconds (was Holy Shock by 2 seconds).
• PRIEST
  • Discipline
    • Piety redistributes 15% of overhealing (was 20%).
    • Preventive Measures increases damage of Smite, Penance, and Holy Nova by 15% (was 20%).
    • Divine Aegis no longer shows on raid frames.
  • Holy
    • Fixed an issue causing Benediction (Apex Talent) to heal for less than intended.
  • Shadow
    • Fixed an issue causing the damage over time effect from Shadow Word: Madness to not properly account for damage modifiers when casting the ability while the debuff is already present.
    • Fixed an issue causing Tentacle Slam to engage enemies before it deals damage.
• SHAMAN
  • Hero Talents
    • Farseer
      • Restoration
        • Primordial Capacity once again increases the maximum stacks of Tidal Waves by 1.
    • Stormbringer
      • Surging Currents now increases the effectiveness of the next Healing Surge or Chain Heal by 16% per stack (was 20%).
  • Enhancement
    • Healing Surge healing reduced by 20%.
    • Raging Maelstrom now causes Healing Surge and Chain Heal to gain 50% of Maelstrom Weapon benefits (was 100%).
    • Chain Heal healing increased by 100%.
    • Fixed an issue that caused Maelstrom Weapon spending abilities to incorrectly do damage as if they consumed 10 stacks of Maelstrom Weapon when Raging Maelstrom is talented without Overflowing Maelstrom.
    • Rolling Thunder now grants the Nature Feral Spirit when Doom Wind activates while Ascendance is talented.
  • Restoration
    • Developers’ notes: We’re aiming to add more interesting decisions to Restoration which has felt lacking in Midnight as well as addressing a core talent issue pushing gameplay towards a repetitive playstyle. To accomplish this, we’re returning Tidal Waves to the talent tree, updating Ascendance with a different set of mechanics, and removing Whispering Waves. We feel this will be more exciting to play with and prevent current and future issues with Whispering Waves pushing gameplay too far towards an unfun playstyle. Thank you for your continued feedback!
    • Ascendance has been redesigned – Immediately heal allies within 20 yards and transform into a Water Ascendant for 15 seconds. While ascended, Chain Heal jumps to 3 additional allies with 10% healing reduced for all jumps, Healing Wave always critically heals and heals 1 additional ally at 50% effectiveness, and the mana cost of Chain Heal and Healing Wave is reduced by 25%.
    • Tidal Waves returns and has been updated – Each cast of Riptide grants 1 stack of Tidal Waves, reducing the cast time of your next Healing Wave or Chain Heal by 20%. Can accumulate up to 2 stacks.
    • Lava Surge can no longer trigger when Lava Burst is not talented.
    • Echo of the Elements and Primal Tide Core have changed positions in the talent tree.
    • Whispering Waves has been removed.

PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER

• DEATH KNIGHT
  • Unholy
    • Stitchmaster now heals for 2% of the Lesser Ghoul’s maximum health (was 5%).
    • Fixed an issue that caused Life and Death healing to not function.

USER INTERFACE AND ACCESSIBILITY

• NAMEPLATES
  • Important cast highlighting is now more obvious.
  • Under “Enemy NPC Buffs/Debuffs,” the “Shared CC” checkbox is now enabled by default.
• The Endeavors progress bar in the Housing Dashboard now has percentage text on it.
• The Item Sets tab in the Adventure Guide has been removed.