Dragonflight Alpha Development Notes - PHASE 6 - July 17

DISCOVER THE DRAGON ISLES

  • The Forbidden Reach (Dracthyr Starting Zone)
  • All Dragonflight zones are available

NEW FEATURES

  • NEW RACE AND CLASS: DRACTHYR EVOKER
  • DRAGONRIDING
    • The Dragonriding Talent Tree is now available.
    • Dragonriding now features advanced turning tech that helps the drakes feel more weighty and turning more of a decision.
    • While boosted to very fast speeds, new tech will adjust the camera’s field-of-view. This can be disabled with the “Reduce Camera Motion” option inside the “Motion Sickness” section of the “Accessibility” menu.
    • When running into objects and walls, velocity is now lost based on angle and collision duration.
    • Dragon Glyphs are hidden throughout the skies over the Waking Shores! Fly through them to unlock achievements.
    • The Dragonriding Skill Track is now accessible at the dragonriding trainer Lithragosa located in Skytop Observatory.
      • Not all skills are displayed or implemented, but the player may earn points by collecting Dragon Glyphs and spend them for progression.
    • The Renewed Proto-Drake is now customizable in the Rostrum of Transformation.
  • FOUR MAJOR FACTIONS
    • Major Factions are a new way of experiencing outdoor progression – an iteration on previous reputation-based gameplay. Participating in content throughout the Dragon Isles grants reputation toward these Major Factions. Earning reputation unlocks renown ranks. Each Major Faction’s progression is different, with content fitting a variety of playstyles. Importantly, major factions are not exclusive – you can be a member of all four factions at once.
    • VALDRAKKEN ACCORD – The faction of the unified dragon flights working together in harmony for the protection of the Dragon Isles.
      • Professions: A variety of activities, Work Orders, and exploration catered towards professions and progression within the system.
      • Dragon Racing: Complete races on your dragon for glory and renown
      • Outdoor Elite locations: Cobalt Assembly, Obsidian Citadel, Tyrhold
      • Lay siege to the Djaradin of Dragonbane Keep within the Waking Shores
    • DRAGONSCALE EXPEDITION – The Explorers’ League and Reliquary have come together and formed this expedition to explore the Dragon Isles.
      • Discover treasure maps scattered throughout the Dragon Isles
      • Lots of Treasures, unique minigame-style World Quests (Climbing, Cataloging)
      • Progression
        • Expedition Supply Kit: Unlock bonuses for climbing and cataloging. Unlock tools to help find treasure and mark your discovery of areas in the world.
    • ISKAARA TUSKARR – Become a member of the Iskaara Tuskarr, a tribe renowned for their skills in fishing and feasting.
      • Fishing: New ways to fish. Unlock fishing holes. Fish in 3 difficult and unique biomes. Fish up lunkers with friends using harpoons. Collect fish offline with a net.
      • Contribute to a Tuskarr Feast at the village in Iskaara. Complete the event to reward hungry adventurers!
      • Outdoor Elite locations: Imbu, Brackenhide Hollow
      • Progression
        • Fishing Work Bench: Gather reagents for tuskarr craftsmen to improve the capability of harpoons, nets, and biome fishing.
    • MARUUK CENTAUR – The faction for the unified centaur clans across the Ohn’ahran Plains.
      • Join a hunt among the Maruuk centaur and your closest allies as you traverse the zones within the Dragon Isles
      • Explore the nomadic lifestyle of Clan Aylaag as their caravan makes its way across the Ohn’ahran Plains. With each stop comes a new adventure, quests, rewards, and more!
      • Progression
        • Train with the Shikaar clan to prepare yourself for the hunt!
    • Known Issues
      • You will most likely encounter placeholder rewards, especially for treasures and rare creatures.
      • Not every permutation of every type of content is available yet.
      • Some areas of the world may have temporary enemy population.
    • Developers’ note: We appreciate any and all feedback. For this release, we’ve reduced some of our barriers to entry for a number of pieces of content. We’d love to hear how these experiences feel and how you spend your time in the Dragon Isles. Alpha is an environment for testing and change. Though some of these barriers and values may be temporary, we will be monitoring feedback and making adjustments as needed to ensure your experience in these new lands is enjoyable and rewarding.
      Please let us know your thoughts. We’ll be adjusting content throughout the days and weeks to come.

NEW DUNGEONS
Developers’ note: Throughout the testing period, character levels will be scaled when entering Dragonflight dungeons. When this happens, the amount of talent points that your character will have available will reflect the original level, not the scaled level.

  • Neltharus
  • Uldaman: Legacy of Tyr
  • Ruby Life Pools
  • The Azure Vault
  • Brackenhide Hollow
  • The Nokhud Offensive

CHARACTER LEVEL
Developers’ note: With each phase, we encourage players to make a new template character and avoid using their previous characters as they could potentially be in a broken state. After making a new template character, make sure to talk to Questzertauren and he will prepare you for any available content.

  • Level 58 Dracthyr Template (The Forbidden Reach starting experience)
  • Any Level Character Template
  • Maximum Level: 70

CLASSES

  • Mage, Priest, and Rogue available for all races
  • NEW TALENT SYSTEM
    • Switching Talents and Talent Loadouts no longer requires being in a rested area.
      • Developers’ note: In this Alpha build, we’ve removed the rested area requirement for changing Talents and Loadouts. Players are now be able to change their talents anywhere out in the world, as long as they’re not in combat. Additionally, previous restrictions such as not being in an Active Mythic+ instance or in a Rated PVP match still apply. In tandem with loosening this requirement, we’re adding a 5 second cast time when players change their existing talents/loadouts to prevent players from immediately swapping between different builds. This cast time does not apply to any new Talent points gained, those can be spent and activated immediately. Please let us know your thoughts on this change.
    • Death Knight
    • Druid
    • Evoker
      • Racials
        • Soar – Cooldown reduced to 4 minutes (was 5 minutes).
        • Familiar Skies now reduces Soar’s cooldown by 1 minute on continents that you have fully explored.
      • Class Tree
        • Developers’ notes: We want to add additional utility-focused talent choices to the Evoker class tree to diversify talent builds. With that in mind, some additional control and self-healing options are now available:
        • New Talent – Grovetender’s Gift: Emerald Blossom instantly heals you for 125% spell power when cast.
        • New Talent – Walloping Blow - Wing Buffet and Tail Swipe knock enemies further and daze them, reducing movement speed by 70% for 4 sec.
        • New Talent – Regenerative Magic: - Source of Magic forms a bond with your ally, causing 20% of their healing to also heal you while you are below 50% health.
        • Ancient Flame moved to a new location in the tree, next to Attuned to the Dream.
      • Preservation
        • Developers’ notes: These latest talent changes for Preservation are aimed at improving Temporal Anomaly’s synergy with the rest of the kit, and balancing Bronze-based builds against Green-based ones. We were also unhappy with some talent nodes (Essence Strike and Grove Tender) and replaced them with talents that should encourage a wider variety of spell usage.
        • Life-Giver’s Flame is now a 2 point node, and moved down one slot in the tree.
        • Essence Strike has been removed and replaced by Essence Attunement.
        • New Talent: Essence Attunement – Causes Essence Burst to stack twice.
        • Temporal Anomaly now heals every 2 seconds (was 1 second). Healing doubled to compensate.
        • Convergence has been removed and replaced by Resonating Sphere.
        • New Talent: Resonating Sphere – Causes Temporal Anomaly to apply Echo at 15%/30% Effectiveness (2 point node). Does not apply Echo’s direct heal. Affected by Time Lord to become up to 60% Echo effectiveness.
        • Temporal Disruption now causes Temporal Anomaly to tick twice as fast (was healing for more).
        • Grove Tender has been removed and replaced by Ouroboros.
        • New Talent: Ouroboros – Eeach person healed by Emerald Blossom increases healing of next Echo by 15%, stacking 15 times.
        • Time Keeper has swapped positions with Time of Need in the talent tree.
    • Hunter
      • Class Changes
        • Survival of the Fittest removed from Tenacity pets.
        • New Tenacity active button – Fortitude of the Bear: Increase the maximum health of you and your pet by 20% for 10 seconds.
      • Class Tree
        • Improved Traps now also reduces cooldown of Steel Trap.
        • Removed connection between Rejuvenating Winds and Improved Tranquilizing Shot.
        • Added a connection between Tranquilizing Shot and the Intimidation/Explosive Trap choice node.
        • Lone Survivor’s cooldown reduction has been lowered 30 seconds (was 60 seconds).
        • Death Chakram now increases all damage taken instead of just physical damage taken.
        • Hunter’s Agility changed from Avoidance to 4/8% Dodge per rank.
        • Thick Hides removed.
        • Fogged Crystal removed.
        • Born to be Wild now works with Survival of the Fittest and is now a 2-rank talent, reducing cooldowns of affected abilities by 10% per rank.
        • Improved Tranquilizing Shot changed to a 1-point node.
        • Survival of the Fittest added to the tree.
        • New Choice node for Survival of the fittest:
          • Reduce the cooldown of Survival of the Fittest by 60 seconds, and increase the duration by 2 seconds.
          • Increase the amount of damage reduction from Survival of the Fittest by 20%.
        • Several talents on the class tree have had their positions adjusted due to Thick Hides and Fogged Crystal being removed, as well as Survival of the Fittest being added.
        • New (NYI) Talent – Sentinel Owl: Call forth a Sentinel Owl to the target location, granting you unhindered vision. Your attacks ignore line of sight against any target in this area. Every 200 Focus spent grants you 1 second of the Sentinel Owl when cast, up to a maximum of 12 seconds.
          • New Choice node for Sentinel Owl:
            • Sentinel’s Perception: Sentinel Owl now also grants unhindered vision to party members when active.
            • Sentinel’s Wisdom: While Sentinel Owl is active, your party gains 5% Leech and 3% Avoidance.
      • Marksmanship
        • The talent locations of Lone Wolf and Killing Blow have been swapped.
        • The talent locations of Black Arrow and Legacy of the Windrunners have been swapped.
        • Legacy of the Windrunners changed from 1 rank to 2 ranks. Each rank adds 3 potential arrows. Bonuses to Aimed Shot now also apply to these bonus Wind Arrows.
        • Windrunner’s Guidance changed from 2 ranks to 1 rank. It now also guarantees a critical strike for the Wind Arrows, and increases their critical strike damage up by 50%.
        • Salvo now works with Volley or Multi-Shot.
        • Bombardment changed to a 1 rank talent and is now right below Multi-Shot.
        • New Talent: Bulletstorm – Extra ricochet targets from Trick Shots grants a stacking buff to Multi-Shot damage.
        • Calling the Shots has had its design adjusted to grant cooldown reduction for Trueshot from Focus Spent, rather than require specific shots.
        • Improved Arcane Shot has been to renamed Crack Shot.
        • Serpenstalker’s Trickery is now a 1 point talent.
        • A large amount of talents in the bottom left of the tree were adjusted to fix dependency problems.
      • Survival
        • Explosive Expert changed to 2/4 second reduction per point.
        • Kill Command for Survival only now has an innate 10% chance to have its cooldown reset.
        • Predator’s Kill Command chance reduced to 15% (was 25%).
        • Fury of the Eagle lowered to 30% crit chance bonus against targets below 20% health.
        • Fury of the Eagle now deals reduced damage beyond 5 targets.
        • Tactical advantage had its tooltip split to a separate number for Wildfire Bomb and Flanking Strike. Wildfire Bomb’s values reduced to 4/8% per point, Flanking Strike values unchanged.
    • Mage
      • Developers’ note: The Mage trees in Dragonflight are focused on offering new talents to explore, supporting underrepresented archetypes and builds, and allowing for cross-specialization abilities. We want Mages to feel like they aren’t limited to their primary school of magic, and with enough commitment, they are capable of harnessing powerful abilities from a variety of different magic sources at once. The specialization trees are built to maintain the core fantasy of each specialization while tidying up existing gameplay through talents such as a reworked Alexstrasza’s Fury for Fire Mages, Wintertide for Frost Mages, and introducing a new major cooldown, Arcane Surge, for Arcane Mages. In addition to the talent changes above, we’re making several baseline changes to spells such as Ignite spreading via Fire Blast instead of Phoenix Flames and Flurry moving to a default instant cast, charge-based design. We’re hoping these new trees and talent designs allow you to customize your character in new and exciting ways and we’re looking forward to your feedback!
    • Monk
      • Developers’ note: In today’s build, you’ll see an early-access version of the Monk talent trees. Our goal with the class tree is to allow a player to construct different visions of their character and play with the hybrid nature and cheerful mobility that exemplifies a Monk. For Brewmaster, our primary goal was to allow players the flexibility to lean into different flavors – to emphasize a brew-heavy playstyle, or go the way of the wily martial arts master – while also providing situationally-interesting decisions for survivability. For Mistweaver, we want to offer support for both the caster and melee playstyles while maintaining a variety of choices for both builds. We also wanted to take a look at Mistweaver’s multi-target damage profile through returning and new talents such as Zen Pulse and Ancient Concordance. And for Windwalkers, we wanted to allow players the flexibility to focus on different styles of damage dealing, as well as offering opportunities to customize their ability loadout in ways that bring back old friends or lean into focus on specific abilities. We’re excited for Monks to be joining the Dragonflight Alpha and we look forward to hearing your feedback!
      • Known Issues
        • There are several talents that are not fully implemented yet. These are tagged with NYI (Not Yet Implemented) in their Talent name.
        • The Talent Frame background for Mistweaver is incorrectly using Windwalker art. This will be corrected in a later build.
    • Paladin
      • Holy
        • Developers’ note: The Holy Paladin Talent tree is now enabled in this Alpha build. For Dragonflight, we want to give Holy Paladins more options for caster-focused playstyles by bringing back the Power of the Silver Hand passive effect from the Legion Artifact, in addition to the active button Tyr’s Deliverance.
      • Class Talents
        • Afterimage now correctly only triggers on a Word of Glory cast.
        • Incandescence damage increased by 300%.
          • Developers’ note: This talent was extremely under tuned and did not feel rewarding as a point investment in the talent tree.
      • Protection
        • Changed positions of Strength of Conviction, Resolute Defender, Faith’s Armor, and Guardian of Ancient Kings.
        • Added several additional node connections in center section of tree.
        • Faith’s Armor increased to 10% (was 5%).
        • Blessed Hammer now correctly overrides Crusader Strike.
      • Retribution
        • Divine Protection has been added as a choice node with Shield of Vengeance. Cooldown increased to 2 minutes.
        • Justicar’s Vengeance now costs 3 Holy Power and deals 7% less damage.
        • The talent locations of Ashes to Ashes and Divine Toll have been swapped.
        • Removed Talents
          • Last Rites
          • Deemed Unworthy
          • Swift Crusader
          • Long Arm of the Law
            • Developer’s note: We recognize that movement is fun and feels good when attached to short cooldown buttons. That said, our goal for Retribution Paladin is to keep their strengths in removing things that hinder their mobility, or to charge into battle on their Divine Steed, not to give them a short duration burst of movement on a very short cooldown.
          • Liadrin’s Fury
        • New Talents
          • Holy Crusader – Increases mastery by 2%.
          • Seal of Wrath – Judgment has a 25% chance to cast again and deal extra Holy damage to its target.
          • Empyrean Endowment – Judgment empowers your next Templar’s Verdict to automatically trigger Divine Storm with 25% more effectiveness. This effect can only occur every 30 seconds.
          • Executioner’s Wrath – Execution Sentence now instead deals 15% of the damage taken from your abilities to the target and nearby enemies within 8 yards.
          • Sanctified Ground – Your Consecration is 15% larger, and you cannot be slowed below 80% of normal movement speed within Consecration. This effect lasts for 2 seconds after leaving Consecration.
          • Sealed Verdict – Your Holy Power spending abilities increase the damage of your next Blade of Justice by 8/16%.
        • Modified Talents
          • Highlord’s Judgment now has 2 ranks and increases Judgment damage by 8/16% per rank.
          • Calm Before the Storm now causes enemies hit by your Divine Storm to take 100% more damage from your Consecration for 8 seconds (was 50%).
          • Inner Power now grants Holy Power every 12 seconds while you are in combat (was 10 seconds).
            • Developers’ note: This is aimed to tune the Holy Power generation overall and to balance against Sanctification.
        • Developer Notes
          • The area before the 1st gate has been restructured in a way that allows players to bypass the talents that they do not want and save a talent point while trying to go down all 3 sides of the tree. Also, the importance of the new talents such as Timely Judgment and Condemned Blade has been heightened so that players consider them more often when creating a build.
          • Zeal and Blade of Wrath have been moved up and put before the 1st gate.
            • Zeal and Blade of Wrath positional changes are aimed to solidify the foundation of Retribution Paladin. The new positioning will allow the players to get these talents in a simpler and more satisfying way for both leveling and end game content.
          • Crusade and Avenging Wrath: Might choice node has been moved up and put before the 2nd gate. This choice node is now located where Execution Sentence was in the previous build.
          • Execution Sentence and its improvement node has been moved down and put after the 2nd gate.
            • The positional changes to Crusade/AW: Might and Execution Sentence are aimed to provide gameplay defining options after the 2nd gate. The change to Execution Sentence will allow new gameplay options and is now heightened with its improvement nodes aimed at both single target and AOE situations.
          • The area after the 2nd gate has been reconstructed in a way that aims to increase build diversity and choice.
      • Known Issues
        • Not all rank upgrades are implemented.
        • Unlearning the Crusade talent while also having the Avenging Wrath talent from the Class tree will cause you to keep Crusade and it’s override effect on Avenging Wrath.* This can be fixed via relogging and will be corrected in a future Alpha build.
      • Developers’ note: With the Paladin talent trees in Dragonflight, we wanted to embrace the class’ knight heritage and the full breadth of its group stewardship. In the class tree, Paladins will see your utility front-and-center, and whether you prefer the fantasy of the crusader or the guardian, we hope that new options such as Seal of the Templar, Recompense, and Afterimage will help you lean into your vision. Blessing of Spellwarding has additionally been made class-wide. Protection Paladins will find a returning Eye of Tyr in your spec tree, as well as an array of options to tailor and enhance many of your signature abilities (both offensive and defensive) to best emphasize your own playstyle. Retribution Paladins will find options that integrate Consecration into their core rotation, a new vision for the returning ability, Exorcism, and other ways of obtaining Holy Power depending on playstyle in addition to new and returning enhancements to their iconic abilities.

        In this week’s build, Paladins will have access to their new Class, Protection and Retribution talent trees. While we’re still working on the Holy specialization, we wanted to bring our other specialization trees online early so we can get community feedback as early as possible. The Holy tree currently in this week’s Alpha is the existing Shadowlands’ talent tree, in addition to containing all of their other abilities. This is placeholder and not indicative of their final tree, and we will be bringing the Holy tree to Alpha as soon as its ready.
    • Priest
    • Rogue
    • Shaman
      • Elemental
        • New Talent – Heat Wave: Casting Primordial Wave triggers Lava Surge immediately and every 3 seconds for 12 seconds.
        • Primal Storm Elemental no longer moves slower than other Elementals after engaging in combat.
        • Earthquake damage reduced by 40%.
          • Developers’ note: This is not intended to be a nerf, but a damage profile adjustment. Earthquake dominates Elemental’s AoE damage profile in Shadowlands. We’ve also added talents in Dragonflight that improve Earthquake’s output such as Unrelenting Calamity, Eye of the Storm, and Mountains Will Fall which would have continued this trend. The goal is to allow for abilities like Chain Lightning, Lightning Rod, Frost Shock (with Electrified Shocks), Flame Shock, and Lava Burst to contribute more towards Elemental’s AoE.
        • Rolling Magma’s Lava Burst and Lava Burst Overload damage now reduces the cooldown of Primordial Wave by 0.2 seconds/0.5 seconds (was from 0.5 seconds/1 second).
          • Developers’ note: The interactions are with Primordial Wave and Ascendance are intentional, but the cooldown reduction was initially tuned too high.
      • Restoration
        • Cloudburst Totem now converts 30% of stored healing (was 20%) and cooldown increased to 45 seconds (was 30 seconds).
          • Developers’ note: With some new talents that interact with Cloudburst Totem like Call of the Elements, Totemic Surge, and Totemic Focus, we feel its effectiveness needs to be decreased. We started with its healing effectiveness initially but after some feedback believe it’s more important for each totem cast to feel meaningful rather than having more uses of the totem.
      • Developers’ note: With the Shaman talent trees in Dragonflight, we wanted to hone in on some core concepts that are unique to the class. Totems have long been a special thing for Shaman, and we’re giving some new options to manipulate your totems position, radius, duration, cleanse poisons, or even potentially reset the cooldown. We’re bringing back Alpha Wolf for Enhancement Shaman, spreading some Stormkeeper functionality to Restoration Shaman, and trying out a new variation of Elemental Blast for Elemental Shaman, where it replaces Earth Shock as a more expensive Maelstrom Spender. All three of the Shaman specializations have a distinct style of play, and we’re hoping the new talents allow you to focus on your important totems, utility, and style of damage or healing you enjoy.
    • Warlock
      • Soul Conduit refund chance reduced to 10% at max rank (was 15%).
      • Destruction
        • Backdraft now affects Soul Fire.
      • Developers’ note: In this Alpha build, we are unveiling the talent trees of our favorite curse slinging, shadow bolt hurling, demon summoning class: the Warlock. These trees were built to emphasize the strong thematic and rotational gameplay that is already present with each specialization.

        That said, we are making a few changes to address the pain points we’ve experienced while playing and concerns that have been brought up by the community. You can read more about these changes down below and our thoughts regarding why the change was made.
        • Core Changes
          • Spell Lock in the Talent Tree
            • With Dragonflight, we’ve removed Spell Lock from Felhunters and Spell Lock is now available for Warlocks to learn themselves. With this change, we are aiming to allow for more pet diversity in content where Felhunters feel required like dungeons and PvP.
          • Dark Soul is not in the talent tree for Dragonflight intentionally. There are a few reasons for this:
            • All Warlock specs have access to a powerful summon cooldown that interacts with the rest of their spells where Dark Soul increases a stat by a large amount. We prefer to keep the interactive spell.
            • With cooldown stacking, a high percentage of overall damage is boiled down to the cooldown window. While this can be useful for bursting, but damage output outside of this window tends to be lackluster.
            • Across the classes there are new active spells which we are both excited about and equally cautious of causing keybinding issues by adding. Finding times to pull back on active spells is something we’re on the lookout for.
          • Shadow Bolt and Incinerate base damage has been increased
            • We’ve increased the damage of Shadow Bolt and Incinerate significantly and lowered modifiers from various talents. Our goal is for these spells to feel more powerful without having to ramp to see benefits from casting it.
          • Shadowflame
            • Shadowflame is returning; however, we don’t want a short-ranged cone spell to be a rotational for a caster, so we’ve removed the damage from the ability.
        • Affliction
          • Vile Taint revamp
            • Vile Taint has been reworked – Unleashes a vile explosion at the target location, dealing Shadow damage over 10 seconds to 8 enemies within 10 yards and applies Agony and Curse of Exhaustion to them.
            • With this change, we aim to allow Affliction to ramp up faster in dungeon gameplay especially in combination with talents like Agonizing Corruption and Sow the Seeds.
          • Deathbolt is now a base talent
            • Through Deathbolt and its modifying talents we aim to give Affliction an interesting alternative to Malefic Rapture when the situation calls for single target damage.
        • Destruction
          • An Alternative to Havoc
            • We are exploring an alternative to Havoc called Mayhem. It’s a passive that gives your single target spells a chance to deal 60% of its damage to a random nearby target. The goal with this talent is to give a more passive two-target option for players who would like to opt out of Havoc gameplay. For tuning, we intend for active Havoc gameplay to be rewarded over playing with Mayhem.
        • Along with these changes you’ll see both new spells and some old friends returning. Soul Rot and Decimating Bolt will be coming with us from the Shadowlands, Dimensional Rift returns from Legion, and many more.

          While the core rotations of each specialization will remain familiar, these talents offer new options that will allow you to modify your gameplay and choose what’s important to you.

          Welcome back to Azeroth, Warlocks. We look forward to hearing tales of the chaos you’ll rain down across the Dragon Isles. Be sure to let us know your thoughts, our Eye of Kilrogg will be actively watching your discussions.
    • Warrior
      • Class Developer Notes
        • We’re feeling pretty satisfied with the class tree structure but are still experimenting with placements and the content of specific talent nodes while taking onboard internal and community feedback.
        • We’ve seen a new iteration of the class tree each week during the three weeks since the first release of the Warrior tree. In the version going live today there’s the most options due to more pathways and interconnectivity. We’d love to hear from you if you prefer this, or the more streamlined simple tree with obvious pathways that released initially.
        • We want to spend a little more time with stances to try to achieve a version where each feel useful and desirable for different reasons, but we have had a fallback plan since embarking down this path of having an offensive and defensive stance. Fury and Arms would both start at the offensive node and Protection would start at the Defensive node.
        • Thunderous Roar – We are working on this and the subsequent talent node, which will be a choice node internally and we hope to update on this soon.
        • Signet of Tormented Kings – As above, we’re working internally on this, and we hope to have an update soon. We have ideas but haven’t implemented them yet.
        • Shockwave – There has been some feedback about wanting Shockwave to be lower down the tree and easier to obtain. We’re quite confident that if we put it before the 20 points requirement that every Warrior both DPS and Protection would have it. That isn’t our intention, an AOE stun on fairly short cooldown is a powerful ability and we feel there needs to be some opportunity cost to obtain this. We’d like Shockwave’s subsequent node to be a choice so expect a new modifier here in the future.
        • Rend - Our intention with the introduction of Rend to the class talent tree was that Arms and Protection would likely often choose it and that Fury would very rarely. We’ve seen higher uptake and reliance on Rend than we’d like so for this week we’ve moved it to the Arms and Protection trees as a test. We’d like to hear your feedback on this change.
        • There are several very simple nodes on various talent trees, including those of other classes. These serve multiple functions, and we’ll briefly detail some of the reasoning behind their existence.
        • When looking at the talent trees for a class there’s a huge amount of information to absorb and learn. Beyond that, there’s also many choices for players to make. Having some talents that are simple and obvious in their effect helps to lower the overall complexity and functions as a guide for what abilities and stats are important for each specialization.
        • However, we’ve heard your feedback about the secondary stat nodes and have been working to make them more interesting. There are some examples of this in the Fury tree this week.
      • Class Updates
        • Changed some pathing and node positions to encourage more flexible build choices.
        • Spear of Bastion – Should now work correctly outside of the Shadowlands.
        • Elysian Might – Should now work correctly outside of the Shadowlands.
        • Honed Reflexes – Now reduces cooldowns by 1.0 second (was 1.5 seconds) and reduces the cooldown of Raging Blow (was Bloodthirst).
        • New Talent: Menace – Intimidating Shout will knock back all nearby enemies except your primary target and cause them all to cower in fear for 15 seconds (was flee).
        • Crushing Force has been redesigned – Slam deals an additional 30% damage and it has a 10% increased critical strike chance.
        • Concussive Blows – Now reduces the cooldown of Pummel by 1.0 second (was 1.5 seconds).
        • Titanic Throw – Correctly applies deep wounds to all targets when combined with Improved Heroic Throw.
        • Impending Victory – Heals for 30% (was 40%).
        • Thunder Clap – Costs 30 Rage for Arms or Fury (still costs 0 Rage for Protection).
        • Rend – Removed from the class tree.
      • Arms Developer Notes
        • We’re feeling confident in the general structure, but we will likely add some extra talents to the middle of the tree where it feels a little bit sparse.
        • Sharpened Blade and Blunt Instruments – As with the simple talents mentioned earlier in this update, having some guidance from talents rather than everything being wide open can be helpful for some of our less knowledgeable players. We’re aware of the polarizing feedback here, but we want to get this in front of more players throughout the Alpha and Beta before we decide if it needs to be removed. If it doesn’t work out as we hope, we’re happy to change it.
        • We’re looking at changing the Bladestorm subsequent talents into choice nodes to give some more options for players to experiment with.
        • Colossus Smash and Warbreaker – We’ve seen some feedback regarding why these are separate talents and require an investment of two talent points. 30% increased damage with the option to apply to multiple targets on a fairly short cooldown is a massive effect. It is worth far more than the average talent, especially for those located before the level 20 gate and we feel it is fair to be split into separate components as it currently is in the live game.
        • There are quite a lot of survivability options and improvements for Warriors in the class tree, but each DPS spec has historically had a major cooldown. For Arms it is Die by the Sword, so you are now purposely forced into pathing through it and one of its subsequent nodes in order to ensure you have a minimum of some survivability.
      • Arms Updates
        • Changed some pathing and the position of some nodes so that players are much more likely to take some healing/utility nodes.
        • Warbreaker – No longer incorrectly replaces Execute and does not require 20 talent points to unlock.
        • Storm of Swords – No longer incorrectly requires 20 talent points to unlock.
        • Fracture – Now causes Rend, Deep Wounds and Thunderous Roar’s Bleed effects to instantly expire and deal all remaining damage over time.
        • Skullsplitter – Cooldown increased to 30 seconds (was 21 seconds).
        • Bloodletting – Also increases the critical strike chance of bleed effects by 10%.
        • Die by the Sword – Should now correctly cost a talent point.
        • Bloodborne – Now 2 ranks and each rank increases the damage of Deep Wounds, Rend and Thunderous Roar’s Bleed effects by 10%.
        • Barbaric Training – Removed from the talent tree.
        • Skull Banner – Should now correctly cost a talent point.
        • Deadly Calm – Removed from the tree for now, iterating on a better version that will be more desired by players.
        • Fueled by Violence – Increased heal amount to 50% (was 30%).
        • Reaping Swings – Lowers the cooldown of Cleave by 3 seconds (was 2 seconds).
        • New Talent: Storm Wall – Whenever you Parry, you heal for 10% of your maximum health.
        • Rend – Added to the Arms tree.
        • Exploit the Weakness now increases Tacticians’ chance to trigger by 1.6% (was 2.6%).
      • Fury Developer Notes
        • We’re doing something fairly experimental with Single-Minded Fury. We’re unsure if it will work out as intended, but we feel it there’s an important issue to try and address here. For a good deal of time there has been a consistent complaint that some players cannot continue to play Fury due to the intense nature of it. Our goal with Annihilator and the related talents is to create a sub spec that would provide a lower APM build that would still allow players to have fun, be competitive and feel like a Fury Warrior.
        • We’ve made Titan’s Grip baseline for various reasons, but primarily because it makes many things much simpler. It will be something players gain as they level up.
        • As with the Arms tree, you are now forced to take Enraged Regeneration to ensure you have a minimum amount of survivability. A dead Warrior deals no DPS.
        • Annihilator is intended to work with most of the Raging Blow modifiers (except those related to cooldown and charges), it is currently working with some, and we hope to have this fully functioning and detailed in tooltips by the next Alpha build.
        • We’re working on the subsequent nodes for Odyn’s Fury and Ravager, these will be choice nodes and we’ll have more to share here in the future.
      • Fury Updates
        • Rearranged various talents and created new pathways and choices.
        • Titan’s Grip – Now baseline for all Fury Warriors.
        • Hack and Slash – No longer incorrectly requires 20 talent points.
        • Onslaught – Removed the Enrage requirement to use, cooldown reduced to 14 seconds (was 16 seconds) and Rage generated reduced to 20 (was 25).
        • Pulverize – Now increases Enrage by 1 second and causes Onslaught to Enrage you.
        • Odyn’s Fury – Now generates 20 Rage temporarily. We plan for this this to generate Rage based on the targets hit in a future update.
        • Crushing Blow – Removed the auto charge component.
        • Swift Strikes – Now also causes Raging Blow and Annihilator to generate 1 additional Rage per rank.
        • Critical Thinking – Now also increases the critical strike damage of Raging Blow by 5% per rank.
        • Depths of Insanity – Ranks reduced from 2 to 1 and changed to, Recklessness lasts 5 seconds longer.
        • Ravager – Cooldown increased to 90.0 seconds (was 45.0 seconds) but damage increased to 84% (was 42%) and now correctly awards 10 Rage when dealing damage.
        • Siegebreaker – Duration increased to 12 seconds (was 10 seconds), now generates 15 Rage (was 10) and damage increased to 120% (was 110%).
        • Deafening Crash – Now also increases the critical strike chance of Raging Blow and Annihilator during Siegebreaker by 10%.
        • Slaughtering Strikes – Now correctly costs a talent point and correctly improves all Rampage Strikes when caused by both Raging Blow and Annihilator.
        • Slaughtering Strikes damage bonus reduced to 8% per strike (was 10%).
        • Frenzied Flurry – Reduced to 25% (was 50%) chance to trigger Enrage per rank and auto attack damage bonus reduced to 5% per rank (was 10%).
        • Annihilator – Correctly no longer works with the chain effect of Whirlwind.
        • Raging Armaments – Now correctly costs a talent point.
        • Skull Banner – Now correctly costs a talent point.
        • Vicious Contempt – Now 2 ranks at 20% per rank.
        • Storm of Swords – Whirlwind and Slam have a 6.0 seconds cooldown but deal 100% increased damage and Slam generates 5 Rage.
        • Annihilator – Damage reduced by 15%.
        • Unbridled Ferocity – Now correctly cost a talent point.
        • Deft Experience – Partial implementation and not labeled on the tooltip is that each node is intended to also reduce the cooldown of Bloodthirst by 0.5 seconds.
      • Protection Developer Notes
        • Shield Charge – The intention for this ability is that it would be used to charge into packs in dungeons or raids as an opener. Shield Charge isn’t competitive enough currently and we’ll be looking into this. We are toying with the idea of no minimum range so that it can be used at any time and would function more as a shield smash when you’re within a certain distance.
        • There are some technical complications with Devastator and Devastate that stopped us from merging them as a node for this week, we are likely to either make them a choice node or have Devastate be baseline.
        • We’re working on subsequent nodes for Ravager and hope to have updates here soon.
        • Battle Scared Veteran - We want this to remain powerful so in terms of changes we’re hopefully going to be able to balance this ability around the lockout period. Protection Warriors are performing well in the game currently but more so than some other tanks there’s a low margin for error. Battle Scared Veteran is intended to be a fall back in case you make a mistake.
      • Protection
        • Moved the position of a few nodes around to create some different options and added some new pathways.
        • Improved Heroic Throw – Now also increases the damage of Heroic Throw and Titanic throw by 100%.
        • Bloodborne – Now 2 ranks and each rank increases the damage of Deep Wounds, Rend and Thunderous Roar’s Bleed effects by 15%.
        • Spiked Shield – Damage increased by 10%.
        • Rend – Added to the Protection tree.
      • Developers’ note: As the Warrior trees were just recently put on Alpha, we’re still processing the large amount of great feedback being provided, so please keep giving us your thoughts as we’re collecting feedback from a wide variety of sources and it all helps!

        Even though we’re still processing the feedback we’ve received, we did want to take some time to respond to a few points of feedback:
        • Multi-level stat nodes in the Warrior tree serve as gates that you need to spend into in order to access the classes ultimate abilities. The intention of the Talent system is that there are choices and not that you can obtain every point. Using multipoint nodes is a way to control that, but also to direct the flow of certain specializations towards groups of talents that are likely better for them. However, we’ve been reading your feedback and are endeavoring to make them more interesting and varied where we can.
        • Players have expressed some negativity around buying back components of old abilities. We’re trying to keep this to a minimum where we can in the warrior class, for example Rampage’s full functionality now comes from one talent. However, in some cases these talents are used for teaching new players during the leveling up process to play their class correctly.
        • We also wanted to clarify some concerns Fury players have regarding needing to obtain 4 weapons to perform optimally in the game. Current tuning aside, our expectation and plan is for Titan’s Grip to be the most competitive specialization for those that engage with progression related content of all forms at the highest levels. However, for those looking for a more relaxed playstyle that is less stressful and skill dependent but still competitive then they have that option also.
      • Class Talents
        • New Talent: Concussive Blows – Reduce the cooldown of Pummel by 1.5 seconds and successfully interrupting an enemy increases the damage you deal against them by 5% for 10 seconds. This may only occur once every 30 seconds.
        • Rearranged some talent nodes and created more interweaving paths to try and create more build variety.
        • Removed Die by the Sword from the Class tree and returned it to the Arms tree.
        • Improved Heroic Throw should correctly override Heroic Throw.
        • Reduced ranks of Two-Handed and Dual-Wield Specializations to 1.
      • Arms
        • New Talent: Skull Banner – You throw down a Skull Banner at your feet, empowering your allies. Increases critical strike damage by 20% for party members within 20 yards of the war banner. Lasts 10 seconds. Removed Concussive Blows from the Arms tree.
        • New Talent: Die by the Sword – Increases your parry chance by 100% and reduces all damage you take by 30% for 8 seconds.
        • Changed some pathing to try and make synergy groups clearer.
        • The Aura applied to enemies by Fatality is now named Fatal Mark and now lasts 60 seconds, refreshing by new stacks.
        • Fatal Mark caused by the Fatality talent can no longer critically strike.
        • Cleaned up the tooltip for Exploit the Weakness.
        • Built old ranks of Colossus Smash into Colossus Smash correctly.
        • Built old ranks of Sweeping Strikes into Sweeping Strikes correctly.
        • Reduced ranks of Improved Mortal Strike and Improved Overpower to 1.
        • Updated Icon for Martial Prowess.
      • Fury
        • New Talent: Unbridled Ferocity – Rampage has a 10% chance to grant you Recklessness for 4 seconds.
        • New Talent: Slaughtering Strikes – Raging Blow causes every strike of your next Rampage to deal and additional 10% damage. Stacks up to 5 times.
        • New Talent: Raging Armaments – Raging Blow gains and extra charge.
        • New Talent: Skull Banner – You throw down a Skull Banner at your feet, empowering your allies. Increases critical strike damage by 20% for party members within 20 yards of the war banner. Lasts 10 seconds.
        • Removed Concussive Blows from the Fury tree and moved to the Class tree.
        • Changed some pathing and node positions to try and make synergy groups clearer and add build diversity.
        • Titan’s Grip and Single-Minded Fury is now a choice talent.
        • Moved Rampage closer to the top of the tree.
        • Fixed a dependency issue with Meat Cleaver.
        • Cold Steel, Hot Blood should now generate 4 rage and references this in the tooltip correctly.
        • Bloodcraze’s Aura tooltip should now display the correct values.
        • Improved Rampage is now built into Rampage.
        • Reduced ranks of Improved Bloodthirst and Improved Raging Blow to 1.
      • Developer’s note: We feel that all three Warrior specializations have excellent foundations for both their class fantasies and with regard to how fun their rotations are to play. So, our goal for the class in Dragonflight has been to evolve and enhance each specialization rather than to revolutionize or rebuild them.
        We’re trying to strike a balance between existing things you know and love, exciting new talents and greatest hits from that past such as Blood and Thunder, Odyn’s Fury and Cold Steel, Hot Blood.

        With this in mind, players should expect core rotations to feel comfortable and familiar but with a much wider variety of choice in terms of which elements they can enhance. In addition to this we’re also attempting to build in support to enable players to experiment with more varied playstyles if they desire, such as the Arms being able to heavily investing in damage over time abilities and Fury being able to double down on auto attacks.

        We are excited for Warriors to be joining the Dragonflight Alpha look forward to hearing your feedback!
      • Known Issues
        • Some talent overrides are not working correctly, and you are able to use both spells (E.G. Annihilator doesn’t replace Raging Blow).
        • Some talent dependencies and combinations are not working correctly. (E.G. Combining Titanic Throw and Improved Heroic Throw doesn’t apply Deep Wounds to all affected targets)
        • Stances are currently a work in progress and undergoing internal iteration. A large part of their goal is to guide the fantasy of each spec but mechanically, the goal for these is not to encourage frantic stance shifting. But rather switching at certain major points in an encounter, such as For DPS Warriors during a painful AOE damage phase, or for Protection Warrior that are off tanking they may temporarily switch to deal more damage.
        • A handful of talents will be getting a choice-node option in a later Alpha build (E.G. Rumbling Earth and Thunderous Aftershocks).
        • Fury has some issues with Execute related to the new player experience that causes you to have both the Arms and Fury versions of Execute (players should use the variant that attacks with both Weapons).
        • Multi Rank nodes are not always awarding full values.
        • We’re still working on the background art for the Fury talent tree, it will be added in a later build.

PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER

  • RATED ARENA SOLO QUEUE
    • Observant Alpha testers will notice that there is now a Solo Rated PvP option in the Player vs. Player UI. Players will not be able to queue for this mode yet as its still being worked on, but we will have more information to share in a later build.

PROFESSIONS

  • User Interface
    • The recipe panel has been updated for better ease of use and clarity:
      • Unlearned & pre-Dragonflight recipes are now found via filters.
        • Favorite recipes are unchanged and are expansion agnostic, so you’ll always see them even if the expansion is not filtered.
      • Recipe skill up chance is now represented through icons instead of recipe name text color. This change is more in-line with the new Recipe frame design while being more accessible to individuals with color vision deficiency.
      • Unlearned recipe names now show a gray color instead of a white color.
      • Recrafting Equipment has its own dedicated section in the recipe panel.
        • Please note that for this Alpha build, Recrafting is not yet implemented.
      • Art and animations added for the Professions Specialization frame.
  • Gathering Nodes
    • In this Alpha build, players might notice that there are a large amount of mining & herbalism nodes spawned in the Ohn’ahran Plains. While we’re eager for feedback on how these feel, we’re still in the process of setting up the Mining & Herbalism professions and players will not be able to gather these nodes until the Professions have been enabled. In the meantime, please let us know if there are any nodes in unusual positions and are not easily accessed!
  • Alchemy
  • Blacksmithing
  • Cooking
    • Developers’ note: Firelord Nomi is back and well versed in all of the new Cooking recipes in Dragonflight. He is located next to the other Profession Trainers in the Valley of Strength in Orgrimmar and the Trade District in Stormwind. Players can interact with Firelord Nomi to both train their Cooking skill and obtain reagents for Cooking recipes.
  • Engineering
    • In this Alpha build, Engineering has been enabled and can be trained by the Associate Professor Instructaur in Orgrimmar and Stormwind. There are a few new concepts that we’re exploring for Engineering in Dragonflight:
      • Engineers are able to craft Wrists for each Armor type, which can be socketed with different Tinkers that have a variety of on-use effects (such as temporary invisibility or summoning an Alarm-O-Turret).
      • We’ve added a combat resurrection consumable for non-engineers: the Convincingly Realistic Jumper Cables. These are weaker versions of the engineering variant, the Reusable Jumper Cables, and we’re very interested in hearing feedback on how they play out over the course of Alpha.
      • Various Safety Components can be used as Optional Reagents for crafting Engineering items - these Safety Components can reduce the chance of tinker malfunctions or outright prevent catastrophic malfunctions.
      • Speaking of malfunctions, the chance for engineering items to blow up in the users’ face now scale their success chance with Engineering specialization traits and Engineering Skill level. There will be a meaningful difference in success rate between new engineers that have lower skill and specialization traits and engineers that have maximized their knowledge of the profession.
    • In addition to the above, there’s a plethora of new bombs, tinkers and consumables that the Engineering profession can make. Please send us your feedback!
  • Inscription
    • Developer’s note: In this Alpha build, Inscription has been enabled and can be trained by the Associate Professor Instructaur in Orgrimmar and Stormwind. In addition to the traditional Inscription recipes, we’re introducing a new system to Inscription: the Darkmoon Deck Box. Scribes that have fully unlocked the Darkmoon Mysteries specialization tree will be able to make Darkmoon Booster Packs that contain the cards necessary to create traditional Darkmoon Decks much like before. However, Scribes can now use these Darkmoon Decks to craft Darkmoon Deck Boxes, which are higher item level and are able to be inscribed with Scale Sigils that allow them to customize their Darkmoon Deck Box with different attributes, such as removing all Even cards from the deck, shuffling faster or only shuffling when the player jumps. We’re very interested in feedback on this new system, so please let us know how it feels once you’re able to playtest with it!
      Please note that for Alpha purposes, the Darkmoon Ace cards can be bought from Reagent Lord Herbataur. The other remaining cards will need to be crafted by Scribes.
  • Jewelcrafting
    • Developers’ note: In this Alpha build, Jewelcrafting has been enabled and can be trained by the Associate Professor Instructaur in Orgrimmar and Stormwind. While cutting gems and Prospecting remain the focus of Jewelcrafting in Dragonflight, we’re also expanding the amount of novelty items that Jewelcrafting can craft, with new Statues, toys and other consumables. We’re also interested in feedback on the new Primalist gems and the Tiered Medallion Setting consumable, which will allow you to add additional sockets to your Dragonflight Necklaces.
  • Leatherworking
    • Developers’ note: In this Alpha build, Leatherworking has been enabled and can be trained by the Associate Professor Instructaur in Orgrimmar and Stormwind. In addition to feedback on the recipes and consumable items from Leatherworking, we’re also interested in feedback on the new Equip and Set effects that can be found on multiple crafted Leathworking pieces.
  • Skinning
    • Developer’s note: In this Alpha build, Skinning has been enabled and can be trained by the Associate Professor Instructaur in Orgrimmar and Stormwind. While the core gameplay of Skinning remains largely unchanged for Dragonflight, we are adding a new consumable that aims to give Skinners a new form of gameplay: Creature Baits. Skinners will be able to create and place Creature Baits to lure elusive creatures out of hiding.
      Please note that for Alpha purposes, the cooldown on Creature Baits has been removed so that players can use the item and give feedback. These items will have a medium length cooldown in their final version, which can be reduced by Bait Crafter Specialization traits.
  • Tailoring
    • In this Alpha build, Tailoring has been enabled and can be trained by the Associate Professor Instructaur in Orgrimmar and Stormwind. Tailoring, much like the other armor-crafting Professions, has a plethora of new set & item equip effects and we’re particularly interested in hearing feedback about how these new effects feel. Spellthreads are also making a comeback as leg enchants for Intellect users.
  • Specializations
    • Unlocking Specializations requires 25 skill in that Profession. Once unlocked, players can spend Specialization points to unlock various bonuses for their Profession.
    • Developers’ note: For the purposes of Alpha we’ve added a consumable, Professor Instructataur’s Top Secret Guide, on the Associate Professor Instructaur vendor that gives players 50 Specialization points. Below are a few Specialization paths:
    • Alchemy
      • Potion Mastery — Improve at crafting potions and related alchemist stones, gaining +1 Crafting Skill per point in this specialization.
        • Batch Production — Master the art of producing potions more efficiently, gaining +1 Multicraft per point in this specialization.
    • Blacksmithing
      • Weaponsmithing — Improve at making weapons and large tools, gaining +1 Crafting Skill per point in this Specialization.
        • Long Blades — Improve at making long bladed weapons and tools such as swords, glaives and sickles, gaining +1 Crafting Skill per point in this Specialization.
    • Engineering
      • Explosives – Improve in the production of bombs of all types, gaining +1 Skill when crafting bombs per point in this specialization.
        • Short Fuse – Specialize in the creation and use of bombs without safety fuses. Gain +1 Skill when crafting bombs in this specialization.
      • Optimized Efficiency – Specialize in the general precautions and techniques that are invaluable skills for all Engineers. Gain +1 Skill to all engineering crafts per point in this specialization.
        • Scrapper – Specialize in making the most of seemingly useless junk. Gain +5 Multicraft for all Engineering crafts per point in this specialization.
    • Inscription
      • Archiving - Improve at the art of archiving various texts, gaining + 1 Skill per point in this specialization.
        • Darkmoon Mysteries - Improve at understanding the complex mysteries behind Darkmoon Cards, gaining +1 Skill per point in this specialization.
      • Rune Mastery - Improve at the art of Inscription and utilizing various reagents, gaining +1 Skill per point in this specialization.
        • Understanding Flora - Improve at milling various herbs in the Dragon Islands, gaining +1 Resourcefulness per point in this specialization.
    • Jewelcrafting
      • Faceting — Improve at cutting gems, gaining + 1 Crafting Skill for all gem cuts per point in this specialization.
        • Fire — Improve at cutting gems with fire, gaining +1 Crafting Skill for all fire cuts per point in this specialization.
      • Enterprising — Improve in the business of jewelcrafting, gaining +1 Crafting Skill for miscellaneous crafts per point in this specialization.
        • Prospecting — Improve in the delicate task of prospecting to increase yield and efficiency, gaining +1 Resourcefulness when prospecting per point in this specialization.
    • Leatherworking
      • Chain Armor Crafting — Improve at making mail armor, gaining +1 Crafting Skill per point in this specialization.
        • Intricate Chain — Improve at making intricate chain armor for the hands, feet, shoulders and waist, gaining + 1 Crafting Skill per point in this specialization.
      • Primordial Leatherworking — Improve at Primordial Leatherworking, gaining + 1 Crafting Skill when crafting elemental, bestial, and decay Leatherworking patters per point in this specialization.
        • Decaying Grasp — Improve at crafting decay patterns, gaining + 1 Crafting Skill per point in this specialization.
    • Skinning
      • Bait Crafter - Improve your skinning efficiency, gaining +1 Finesse while skinning in the Dragon Isles per point in the Specialization.
        • Elemental Infusion - Hone your eye for detail, gaining +1 Perception while skinning in the Dragon Isles per point in the Specialization.
      • Tanning - Improve your capabilities at gathering general materials from creatures, gaining +1 Skill while skinning in the Dragon Isles per point in the Specialization.
        • Leather Mastery - Bolster your knowledge of leather skinning, gaining +1 Skill while skinning leather creatures in the Dragon Isles per point in the Specialization.
    • Tailoring
      • Draconic Needlework – Source the magic of the Dragon Isles to craft exceptional clothwear with reagents such as Azureweave and Chronocloth, gaining +1 Skill per point in this specialization.
        • Azureweave Tailoring – Focus on the Arcane nature of the Blue Dragonflight in your tailoring, gaining +1 Skill per point in this specialization when making and using Azureweave.
      • Garmentcrafting – Improve at tailoring Cloth Armor to take on the most powerful foes in the Dragon Isles, gaining +1 Skill per point in this specialization.
        • Outerwear – Improve at tailoring the major aspects of an outfit, such as Chest and Leg pieces of armor, gaining +1 Skill per point in this specializations.
  • Known Issues
    • Existing Specialization trees will be wiped for this week’s Alpha build. Players will need to re-learn their specialization paths, which can be expedited by buying Specialization points via the Professor Instructataur’s Top Secret Guide consumable on the Associate Professor Instructaur vendor.
  • Inscription: Draconic Treatises are infinitely consumable, this will be fixed in a future build. They will be single-use items that refresh each weekly reset for a small boost to your Profession Knowledge.
    • Leatherworking: Feral Hide Drums cannot be crafted. This will be fixed in a later build.
    • Jewelcrafting: Prospecting Ore does not currently differentiate between different Quality, resulting in the same prospecting output regardless of Ore Quality. This will be fixed in a later build.
    • Skinning: A few of the Specialization trees are missing description text. This will be fixed in a later build.

USER INTERFACE AND ACCESSIBILITY

  • New HUD UI — Get ready for a fully updated and customizable Heads Up Display (HUD) User Interface (UI) that’s been created with contemporary displays in mind, designed to be effective, attractive, and accessible.
    • Unit frames are now in a new default location near the player.
    • Unit frame art updated
      • Party frame
    • Edit Mode
      • Added the grid checkbox and slider
      • Added Player, Target and Focus frame
      • Added stance bar
      • Added “Snap to Right Side” to the right action bar settings
      • Added Pet Bar
      • Added Possess Bar
      • Added Cast Bar
      • Added Minimap
      • Added Encounter Bar
      • Added Extra Action Ability
    • Tracking drop down list added back to the minimap area.
      • Developer Note: Class based and professions tracking will rejoin the list soon.
  • The Barbershop services are now free of cost.
  • Equipment sets, guild bank, and macro icon selection can now be chosen with a drag and drop from certain sources (items, spells, mounts, battle pets, macros).
    • Known issue: Macros do not display their spell icon when the question mark icon is used.
  • Player interactions with NPC and game objects that open UI windows has received an update, changing the way these interactions are handled on the back end.
    • Developers’ note: There is no player facing design change, but we’d like alpha testers to help report bugs if there are any issues with UI dialogues from NPC and game objects.
17 Aug 2022