Dragonflight Beta Development Notes - Phase 1 | World of Warcraft GamePlay Guides

Hello everyone! Take a look at what you can find in this week’s Dragonflight Beta update:

NEW DUNGEONS

Algeth’ar Academy
- All Dragonflight dungeons are now available.

CHARACTER LEVEL

All player-characters have been deleted for testing purposes. Please copy or create a new character to continue testing.

CLASSES

NEW TALENT SYSTEM
- SAVED ACTION BARS
  - By default, each Talent loadout will now have its own saved set of action bars. However, if you would like certain loadouts to share the same action bars, there is a loadout option called “Use shared action bars.” All loadouts that have this option enabled will share the same action bars.
- TALENT SEARCH
  - There is now a search bar in the new Talent UI. Players can search for specific spells, talents, or words, and any matches will be highlighted on the UI. It will also highlight talents that don’t directly match the search term, but are related to the searched talent (E.g. searching for “tidal waves” will also highlight Riptide, Healing Wave, and Healing Surge since they are mentioned in Tidal Waves’ description).
- INSPECTING
  - Inspecting another player now offers a button to open their talent trees.
- LOADOUT SHARING
  - Players can now share loadout talent builds with each other. To share your current loadout with another player of your same specialization, players can click the Share button in the Loadout dropdown. This will copy a series of letters and numbers that can be shared with other players. To import a talent loadout, players can click the Import Loadout button in the same dropdown to paste the talent loadout text.
  - We hope that this feature makes it easier for players to share talent loadouts with their friends and members of their communities.
- DEATH KNIGHT
  - General
    - Death’s Advance is now learned at level 9.
    - Lichborne is now learned at level 9.
  - Class Tree
    - Developers’ note: The Death Knight core tree is being updated to better increase talent choice. In order to do this, we’ve made several abilities baseline and cut talents that were proving to be problematic for the overall health of the resource economy for the specs. The left side of the class tree had 4 talents all dedicated to resources, which felt a little excessive. This has been reduced 2 (specifics noted below). In addition to the resource talents being shifted around, we’ve also made Death’s Advance and Lichborne baseline.
    - Unholy Endurance – Now positioned where Lichborne was previously located in the talent tree.
    - New Talent: March of Darkness – Death’s Advance grants additional movement speed over the first 3 seconds. Now positioned where Death’s Advance was previously located in the talent tree.
    - Horn of Winter – Cut from the class tree. This will return as a Frost talent.
    - New Talent: Insidious Chill – Your auto-attacks reduce the target’s auto-attack speed by 5% for 30 seconds, stacking up to 4 times. Positioned where Horn of Winter was located.
    - Runic Corruption and Runic Empowerment – This choice node has been removed. These two talents will be returning to their respective specs baseline (Unholy – Runic Corruption and Frost - Runic Empowerment).
    - Runic Attenuation – Now positioned where the Runic Corruption/Runic Empowerment node was located.
    - New Talent: Gloom Ward – Absorbs are 15% more effective on you.
  - Blood
    - The talent tree for Blood has undergone significant updates to its pathing and connections.
    - Blood Boil – Now has 2 charges baseline (was 1).
    - Improved Blood Boil removed.
    - Rune Tap – Now has 2 charges baseline (was 1).
    - Improved Heart Strike – Reduced to 2 max ranks (was 3). Damage per rank increased to 15% (was 10%).
    - Blood Fortification – Removed from the talent tree. Now learned at level 11.
    - Everlasting Bond – Death Strike and Heart Strike no longer increase the duration of Dancing Rune Weapon. Now increases the duration of Dancing Rune Weapon by 1 second.
      - Developers’ note: While the act of extending your Dancing Rune Weapon with Heart Strike and Death Strike can be fun it quickly can overshadow the rest of Blood’s kit making any other abilities used within that window the wrong choice. In an order to address this we will be changing Everlasting Bond to be a flat duration increase in addition to its existing mechanic of summoning one extra copy of Dancing Rune Weapon. Our goal here is to open up more options throughout the tree as well as not make one style of gameplay feel mandatory permanently moving forward.
    - Improved Boneshield – Reduced to 1 max rank (was 2). Now increases Haste by 10% while Bone Shield is active.
    - Vampiric Blood – Now available above the first gate. Directly below Marrowrend.
    - Improved Vampiric Blood – Now available above the first gate. Directly below Vampiric Blood
    - Death’s Caress – Now available above the first gate.
    - Dancing Rune Weapon – This has moved higher into the tree and is available immediately after unlocking the 1st gate.
    - Hemostasis – Max ranks reduced to 1(was 2).
    - Hasty Bargain – Renamed to Perseverance of the Ebon Blade. Now grants 3/6% Versatility when Crimson Scourge is consumed (was Haste).
    - Voracious and Bloodworms are no longer a choice node.
    - Gorefiend’s Grasp – Now centrally located within the tree with multiple pathing options to reach it.
    - Tightening Grasp – Can now only be obtained directly after Gorefiend’s Grasp. Max ranks reduced to 1 (was 2).
    - Heartrend – Max ranks reduced to 1 (was 2).
    - Shatterning Bone – Damage now correctly scales with rank upgrades.
    - New Talent: Blood Feast – Anti-Magic Shell heals you for 100% of the damage it absorbs.
    - New Talent: Iron Heart – Blood Shield’s duration is increased by 2 seconds and it absorbs 20% more damage.
    - New Talent: Bloodshot – While Blood Shield is active, you deal 25% increased Physical damage.
    - New Talent: Sanguine Ground – You deal 5% more damage and receive 5% more healing while standing in your Death and Decay.
    - New Talent: Coagulopathy – Enemies affected by Blood Plague take 5% increased damage from you and Death Strike increases the damage of your Blood Plague by 25% for 8 seconds, stacking up to 5 times.
    - New Talent: Umbilicus Eternus – After Vampiric Blood expires, you absorb damage equal to 5 times the damage your Blood Plague dealt during Vampiric Blood.
    - Unquenchable Thirst has been removed.
      - Developers’ note: This talent has been cut and replaced with Umbilicus Eternus. Unquenchable Thirst had a bit of design overlap with both Bonestorm and Shattering Bone on the opposite side of the tree. The choice to replace it was done to add what we hope is a more interesting decision point as you navigate toward the capstones especially factoring in the synergy of the new Blood Plague talents and existing Vampiric Blood talents.
  - Unholy
    - Developers’ note: In addition to Unholy’s latest changes we have a few updates we’d like to make to their talents that affect resource generation. The changes to the class tree should be a step in the right direction for better balancing Unholy’s resource economy, but we also want to target a few Unholy specific talents as well. Unholy has been a class with a higher downtime and while we think some downtime can be okay, it’s important to find a balance between too high and too low. The current alpha version swung that pendulum too far in one direction and we are looking to find a better middle ground that both feels fun and rewarding to play. Resource tuning will continue to be on going as we head into Dragonflight. As mentioned last week we are making efforts to prepare for tuning in Dragonflight as such Unholy will be receiving a few tuning tweaks to their talents.
    - Plaguebringer – Disease damage now ticks 100% more quickly (was 150%).
    - Feasting Strikes – Removed Scourge Strike’s chance to refund 1 rune, and now chance to trigger increased to 20%.
      - Developers’ note: Having both Festering Strike and Scourge Strike trigger a Rune refund left us very little room to tune around and also made this something that just always happened. In an effort to give us more ways to tune this and also add a little more gameplay thought we are changing this to only work on Festering Strike.
    - Replenishing Wound – Reduce Runic Power gained from popping a Festering Wound to 2 (was 3).
    - Improved Death Coil – Damage increase reduced to 15/30% (was 20/40%).
    - Plaguebearer – Cooldown increased to 90 seconds (was 45 seconds). Status changed to implemented.
    - Unholy Assault – Buff duration increased to 20 seconds (was 12 seconds).
    - Ghoulish Frenzy – Attack speed and damage increased to 6/12% (was 4/8%).
    - Morbidity – Damage per disease reduced to 2% at rank 2 (was 3%).
    - Death Rot – Reduced to 1% per stack up to 10% (was 2% per stack, up to 20%). Increased the duration to 10 seconds (was 8 seconds).
    - Fixed an issue preventing Death Rot from being applied by multiple Death Knights.
    - Commander of the Dead – Damage to Gargoyle and Army Ghouls reduced to 30% (was 40%).
- DEMON HUNTER
  - Developer’s note: Today’s build includes the final spec talent tree to be updated to its Dragonflight version: Vengeance Demon Hunter. The Vengeance tree allows players to customize their offensive and defensive gameplay to conquer the game’s challenges as they see fit. Talents include opportunities to unlock familiar skills like Spirit Bomb and Elysian Decree, to choose bonuses for core skills like Demon Spikes and Sigils, and to invest into spec systems like Soul Fragments and an expanded/reworked ‘Frailty’ debuff exclusive to Vengeance talents. In additional to the talents themselves, there are two notable changes to the base function of Souls and Soul Fragments. The first change is that non-demon Souls and Soul Fragments will require more precision to pick up manually, now requiring moving within 4 yards (down from previous 6 yards) with the intention that the circumstances where players accidentally pick up Fragments will occur less frequently. The second change increases the radius that nearby Soul Fragments will remain available for consumption via skills to 100 yards (up from previous 25 yards). We hope you’ll enjoy your experiences with the new Vengeance spec talents, and be willing to provide feedback about those experiences with us!
- EVOKER
  - General
    - New Ability: Fury of the Aspects – Increases Haste by 30% for all party and raid members for 40 seconds. Allies receiving this effect will become Exhausted and unable to benefit from Fury of the Aspects or similar effects again for 10 minutes.
- MAGE
  - Class Tree
    - New Talent: Sloooow Down – Slow applies to all enemies within 5 yards of your target.
    - Blast Wave – Cooldown increased to 30 seconds (was 25 seconds).
    - Temporal Warp – Now causes Time Warp to not trigger its cooldown if cast without a sated or equivalent debuff.
    - Time Manipulation – Now requires Clearcasting Arcane Missiles. No longer decreases the cooldown of Blast Wave.
    - Shatter – Removed from class tree.
    - Added additional connections to Ring of Frost.
    - Frigid Winds – Effectiveness reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
    - Tempest Barrier – Effectiveness reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
    - Diverted Energy – Effectiveness reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
  - Fire
    - Split up the Firestarter and Searing Touch choice node above gate 1.
  - Frost
    - Shatter – Replaced Shatter Rank 2 and includes both effects.
- MONK
  - General
    - Heavy Air – Moved to NYI, redesign coming soon.
    - Resonant Fists has been redesigned – Now simpler to activate and deals area of effect damage to nearby enemies.
    - Bounce Back – Now correctly triggers only on hits of 20% or more.
  - Mistweaver
    - Rearranged various talents and created new pathways and choices.
    - Zen Pulse – Cooldown increased to 30 seconds (was 15 seconds). Damage increased by 80% and healing increased by 50%.
    - Yu’lon’s Whisper – Healing reduced by 25%.
    - Spirit of the Crane – Adjusted mana refund to 0.45% (was 0.65%).
    - Misty Peaks – Enveloping Mists procs now last 2 seconds (was 3 seconds).
    - Enveloping Mist – Healing reduced by 20%.
    - Ancient Teachings of the Monastery – Healing reduced to 125% of damage done (was 200%).
    - Ancient Teachings of the Monastery healing increased by 60% in PvP combat.
      - Developers’ note: Mistweaver Monk’s damage capabilities have gone up by a significant amount due to the Dragonflight talent system. This adjustment to Ancient Teachings reflects that increased damage potential and is not intended as a large nerf compared to Mistweaver’s current Shadowlands experience with Ancient Teachings. It is likely that further adjustments are needed (for example, some damage going down and Ancient Teaching’s healing going back up), but this should get us in the ballpark for now.
    - Clouded Focus – Now increases the healing and reduces the mana cost of Enveloping Mist and Vivify by 15% (was 20%).
  - Windwalker
    - Multiple talents have been moved to allow better flow and decision-making throughout the tree.
    - Gale Burst has been removed.
    - Rushing Jade Wind – Damage increased by 33%.
    - Meridian Strikes – Cooldown reduction increased slightly.
    - Hit Scheme – Replaced with Hit Combo as intended.
    - Spiritual Focus – Now works with Serenity.
    - New Talent: Hardened Soles – Increases critical strike chance and critical strike damage of Blackout Kick.
- PALADIN
  - General
    - New Ability: Intercession – Petition the Light on the behalf of a fallen ally, restoring spirit to body and allowing then to reenter battle with 60% health and at least 20% mana. 2 second cast time for Retribution and Holy specializations, instant cast and requires 3 Holy Power for Protection specialization.
  - Class Tree
    - Rearranged various talents and created new pathways and choices.
    - Seal of the Crusader damage bonus reduced to 10% (was 15%).
    - Seal of Reprisal damage bonus reduced to 10% (was 20%).
  - Protection
    - Rearranged various talents and created new pathways and choices.
    - Developers’ note: This week we focused on pathing adjustments for the Class & Protection trees. In the coming weeks, we will be transitioning towards talent iteration and tuning.
  - Retribution
    - Final Verdict damage reduced by 6%.
    - Righteous Verdict damage bonus reduced to 5% (was 15%).
- PRIEST
  - General
    - Power Word: Shield – Now a 7.5 seconds cooldown reduced by Haste. Absorption increased by 80%. No longer applies Weakened Soul.
  - Class Tree
    - Rearranged various talents and created new pathways and choices.
    - New Talent: Depth of the Shadows – Purge the Wicked / Shadow Word: Pain increase the healing of your next Shadow Mend by 2%, stacking up to 25 times.
    - Death and Madness has been redesigned – Resets the cooldown of Shadow Word: Death if the target is not killed while below 20% health. Generates 30 Insanity over 4 seconds if the target dies within 7 seconds.
    - New Talent: Inspiration – Critical heals from Flash Heal, Penance, and Heal grant Inspiration, reducing physical damage taken by 5% for 15 seconds.
    - New Talent: Void Tendrils – Roots all enemies within 8 yards for 20 seconds (6 seconds in PvP combat). Void Tendrils can be killed to break the root.
    - New Talent: Blessed Recovery – After being struck by a melee or ranged critical hit, Blessed Recovery heals you for 20% of the damage taken over 6 seconds. Additional critical hits taken during the effect increase the healing received.
    - Translucent Image – Now lasts the full duration of Fade. Buff consolidated into Fade to reduce aura squares.
    - New Talent: Phantasm – Fade removes all movement impairing effects when used.
    - New Talent: Angelic Bulwark – Anytime a damaging attack brings you below 30% health, you gain an absorption shield equal to 20% of your total health lasting for 20 seconds. Cannot occur more than once every 90 seconds.
    - Shadow Mend – Now a 15 second cooldown. Healing amount increased by 20%.
    - New Talent: Move with Grace – Leap of Faith’s cooldown is reduced by 30 seconds.
    - Throes of Pain – Now restores 1% mana for Holy/Disc and 5 Insanity for Shadow.
    - New Talent: Rhapsody – For every 5 seconds that you do not cast Holy Nova, the healing and damage of your next Holy Nova is increased by 10%. This effect can stack up to 20 times.
    - New Talent: Sheer Terror – Increases the amount of damage required to break your Psychic Scream by 100%.
    - Cleric’s Armaments – Removed and merged into Tools of the Cloth.
    - Tools of the Cloth – For 12 seconds after casting Power Word: Shield, you deal 10% additional damage and healing with Smite and Holy Nova.
    - New Talent: Manipulation – Your Smite, Penance, Holy Fire, Mind Blast, and Mind Spike casts reduce the cooldown of Mindgames by 0.5/1.0 seconds.
    - Holy Word: Life – No longer gives backlash to the player. If a target is healed below 35% health, the healing amount is increased by 400% and the cooldown of Holy Word: Life is reduced by 25 seconds.
    - New Talent: Shattered Perceptions – Mindgames lasts an additional 2 seconds, deals an additional 25% damage, and reverses 25% additional damage or healing.
    - New Talent: Improved Purify – Purify additionally removes all Disease effects (Disc/Holy only).
    - New Talent: Spell Warding – Now also reduces all magic damage taken by 3%.
    - New Talent: Apathy – Your Mind Blast critical strikes reduce your target’s movement speed by 75% for 4 seconds.
    - New Talent: Improved Fade – Reduces the cooldown of Fade by 5 seconds/10 seconds.
    - Shadow Word: Death – Cooldown reduced to 20 seconds (was 30 seconds).
    - Psychic Voice – Cooldown reduction reduced to 15 seconds (was 30 seconds).
    - Void Shield – Moved from PvP Talents to talent tree.
    - Improved Mass Dispel – Moved from PvP Talents to talent tree.
    - Void Shift – Moved from PvP Talents to talent tree.
    - Psychic Scream – Cooldown reduced to 45 seconds (was 60 seconds).
    - Purify – Baseline for Holy and Discipline. Only dispels Magic effects.
    - Shadow Word: Pain – Duration increased to 16 seconds to offset the loss of a rank 2 spell (was 12 seconds).
    - Eternal Rest – Reduces the cooldown of Shadow Word: Death by 12 seconds.
      - Developers’ note: Was Shadow Word: Death Rank 2. Repurposed as a PvP Talent.
  - Discipline
    - Rearranged various talents and created new pathways and choices.
    - Rapture – Causes Power Word: Shield to have no cooldown and increases its absorption by 30% (was 200%).
    - Atonement – Can now be applied by Renew and Flash Heal.
      - Developers’ note: Now that Power Word: Shield has a cooldown, we’re promoting Renew to an Atonement applicator.
    - New Talent: Make Amends – When Penance deals damage, the duration of Atonement on yourself is increased by 1 second and when your Penance heals, the duration of Atonement on your target is increased by 1 second.
    - New Talent: Divine Aegis – Critical heals create a protective shield around your target, absorbing 8%/15% of the amount healed. Lasts 15 seconds. Critical heals with Power Word: Shield absorb 8%/15% additional damage.
    - New Talent: Aegis of Wrath – Power Word: Shield absorbs 30% additional damage, but the absorb amount decays by 3% every 1 second.
    - Exaltation – Increases the duration of Rapture and Spirit Shell by 3 seconds (was 1 second).
    - New Talent: Bright Pupil – Reduces the cooldown of Power Word: Radiance by 5 seconds.
    - New Talent: Enduring Luminescence – Power Word: Radiance applies Atonement at an additional 15% of its normal duration.
    - New Talent: Painful Punishment – Each Penance bolt extends the duration of Shadow Word: Pain and Purge the Wicked on enemies hit by 0.7 seconds.
    - New Talent: Improved Shadow Word: Pain – Increases the damage of Shadow Word: Pain and Purge the Wicked by 8%/15%.
    - New Talent: Borrowed Time – Casting Power Word: Shield increases your Haste by 4%/8% for 4 seconds.
    - New Talent: Train of Thought – Flash Heal, Renew, and Shadow Mend reduce the cooldown of Power Word: Shield by 1 second. Smite reduces the cooldown of Penance by 0.5 seconds.
    - New Talent: Balance in All Things – Your damaging Shadow spells increase the damage of your next Holy spell cast within 6 seconds by 15%. Your damaging Holy spells increase the damage of your next Shadow spell cast within 6 seconds by 15%.
    - New Talent: Resplendent Light – Light’s Wrath deals an additional 2%/4% damage per ally affected by your Atonement.
    - New Talent: Fiending Dark – Your Smite, Mind Blast, and Penance casts reduce the cooldown of Shadowfiend by 3 seconds/6 seconds and Mindbender by 1 seconds/2 seconds.
    - New Talent: Expiation – Increases the damage of Mind Blast and Shadow Word: Death by 10%/20%. Mind Blast and Shadow Word: Death consume 3 seconds/6 seconds of Shadow Word: Pain or Purge the Wicked, instantly dealing that damage.
    - New Talent: Wrath, Unleashed - Reduces the cast time of Light’s Wrath by 1 second and increases its critical strike chance by 15%. Smite deals 40% additional damage for 15 seconds after casting Light’s Wrath.
    - New Talent: Weal and Woe – Your Penance bolts increase the damage of your next Smite by 8% or the absorb of your next Power Word: Shield by 3%. Stacks up to 7 times.
    - Power of the Dark Side – Increases the effectiveness of Penance by 30% (was 50%).
    - Light’s Promise – Name changed (was Power Word: Radiance Rank 2).
    - Protector of the Frail – Reduces the cooldown of Pain Suppression by 3 seconds (was 2 seconds).
    - Pain Transformation – Heals for 12% of maximum health and applies Atonement (was 8% of max health).
    - Malicious Scission – Increases the duration of Schism by 3 seconds (was 50%).
    - Purge the Wicked – Now deals Radiant damage (was Fire).
    - Penance – Now a baseline ability.
    - Atonement – Removed Shadow Word: Death from the Atonement blacklist, meaning it can now Atone.
  - Holy
    - Rearranged various talents and created new pathways and choices.
    - New Talent: Revitalizing Prayers – Prayer of Healing has a 15%/30% chance to apply a 6 second Renew to allies it heals.
    - New Talent: Prayerful Litany – Prayer of Healing restores an additional 30% health to the most injured ally it affects.
    - New Talent: Empowered Renew – Renew instantly heals your target for 10% of its total periodic effect.
    - New Talent: Rapid Recovery – Increases the healing done by Renew by 35%, but decreases its base duration by 3 seconds.
    - New Talent: Desperate Times – Increases healing by 6%/12% on friendly targets at or below 50% health.
    - New Talent: Spirited Litany – After your Prayer of Mending heals 80/40 times, gain Power Infusion for 10 seconds.
    - New Talent: Archbishop Benedictus’ Restitution – After Spirit of Redemption expires, you will revive at up to 100% health, based on your effectiveness during Spirit of Redemption. After reviving, you cannot benefit from Spirit of Redemption for 10 min.
    - New Talent: Holy Mending – When Prayer of Mending jumps to a target affected by your Renew, that target is instantly healed.
    - New Talent: Everlasting Light – Heal restores up to 15% additional health based on your missing mana.
    - New Talent: Say Your Prayers – Prayer of Mending has a 15% chance to not consume a charge when it jumps to a new target.
    - Divine Word – Sanctuary can no longer be moved.
    - New Talent: Healing Chorus – Your Renew healing increases the healing done by your next Circle of Healing by 2%, stacking up to 25 times.
    - New Talent: Orison – Circle of Healing heals 1 additional ally and its cooldown is reduced by 3 seconds.
    - New Talent: Crisis Management – Increases the critical strike chance of Flash Heal and Heal by 8%/15%.
    - New Talent: Prismatic Echoes – Increases the healing done by your Mastery: Echo of Light by 15%/30%.
    - New Talent: Prayers of the Virtuous – Prayer of Mending gains 1/2 additional charges.
    - New Talent: Pontifex – Critical heals from Flash Heal and Heal increase your healing done by your next word spell by 10%, stacking up to 2 times.
    - New Talent: Harmonious Apparatus – Circle of Healing reduces the cooldown of Holy Word: Sanctify, Prayer of Mending reduces the cooldown of Holy Word: Serenity, and Holy Fire reduces the cooldown of Holy Word: Chastise by 2 seconds/4 seconds.
    - New Talent: Lightweaver – Flash Heal reduces the cast time of your next Heal within 20 seconds by 30% and increases its healing done by 15%. Stacks up to 2 times.
    - Heal – Now a baseline ability.
    - Guardians of the Light – Guardian Spirit summons a spirit to watch over you in addition to your target.
    - Sanctified Prayers – Casting Holy Word: Sanctify increases healing done by Prayer of Healing by 10% for 15 seconds.
    - Benediction – Your Prayer of Mending has a 15% chance to leave a Renew on each target it heals (was 25%).
    - Renewed Faith – Your healing is increased by 8% on targets with Renew (was 10%).
    - Miracle Worker – Holy Word: Serenity gains an additional charge.
  - Shadow
    - Rearranged various talents and created new pathways and choices.
    - New Talent: Mind Spike – Blasts the target for Shadowfrost damage, but extinguishes your shadow damage-over-time effects from the target in the process. Mind Spike also increases the critical strike chance of your next Mind Blast on the target by 30%. Stacks up to 3 times. Generates 6 Insanity.
    - New Talent: Mind Flay: Insanity – Casting Devouring Plague transforms your Mind Flay spell into Mind Flay: Insanity for 5 seconds. Mind Flay: Insanity deals 80% more damage than Mind Flay.
    - Mind Sear – No longer generates Insanity. Now costs 25 Insanity per tick to channel.
    - Tithe Evasion – Shadow Word: Death deals 75% less damage to you.
    - Mental Fortitude – Devouring Plague now triggers this. Is now capped at 10% maximum health.
    - Rot and Wither renamed to Mental Decay. Now guaranteed to extend Vampiric Touch and Shadow Word: Pain.
    - Psychic Link – Now also occurs from Mind Spike.
    - Monomania – Also increases the critical chance of Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch.
    - New Talent: Painbreaker’s Psalm – Shadow Word: Death consumes 4 seconds/8 seconds of Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch, instantly dealing that damage to the target and generating up to 10/20 Insanity.
    - New Talent: Lunacy – Reduces the Insanity cost of Devouring Plague by 10. Reduces the Insanity drained when Mind Sear deals damage by 5.
    - New Talent: Dark Void – Unleashes an explosion of dark energy around the target, dealing Shadow damage and applying Shadow Word: Pain to your target and 7 nearby enemies. Generates 20 Insanity.
    - New Talent: Tormented Spirits – Your Shadow Word: Pain damage has a 5% chance to create a shadowy version of yourself that floats towards all targets afflicted by your Vampiric Touch. Critical strikes increase the chance to 10%.
    - New Talent: Mind Melt – Mind Spike reduces cast time of your next Mind Blast by 50%, stacking up 2 times. Lasts 6 seconds.
    - New Talent: Surge of Darkness – Your Vampiric Touch and Devouring Plague damage have a chance to cause your next Mind Spike not to consume your damage over time effects, be instant, and deal 50% additional damage. Stacks up to 3 times.
    - New Talent: Dark Evangelism – Your Mind Flay, Mind Sear, and Void Torrent damage increases the damage of your periodic Shadow effects by 1%/2%, stacking up to 5 times.
    - New Talent: Dark Ascension – Consumes Dark Evangelism to increase the damage of your non-periodic Shadow abilities by 4% per stack consumed. Lasts 18 seconds. 2 minute cooldown.
    - New Talent: Maddening Touch – Vampiric Touch has a 50%/100% chance to generate 1 Insanity each time it deals damage.
    - New Talent: Whispers of the Damned – Your Mind Blast and Mind Spike critical strikes generate an additional 3/5 Insanity.
    - New Talent: Piercing Shadows – Your Shadow damage spell casts increase the Shadow damage you deal by 0.5%/1.0% for 25 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times.
    - New Talent: Pain of Death – Increases the damage dealt by Shadow Word: Death by 25%. Shadow Word: Death deals 20% of its damage to all targets affected by your Shadow Word: Pain within 40 yards.
    - New Talent: Derangement – Increases the initial damage of Devouring Plague by 75%. Mind Sear deals damage 20% faster.
    - New Talent: Fiending Dark – Critical damage from Mind Spike and Mind Flay reduces the cooldown of Shadowfiend by 3 seconds/6 seconds and Mindbender by 1 seconds/2 seconds.
    - New Talent: Mastermind – Increases the critical strike chance of Mind Spike and Mind Blast by 3%/6% and increases their critical strike damage bonus by 15%/30%.
    - Mind Flay – Now overrides Smite.
    - Vampiric Touch – Now a baseline ability.
    - Shadowform – Holy spells no longer cancel Shadowform.
    - Mind Sear – Damage increased by 80%.
    - Dispersion – Now also heals the player for 25% of their maximum health over its duration.
    - Intangibility – Dispersion heals you for an additional 25% of your maximum health over its duration and its cooldown is reduced by 30 seconds.
    - Shadow Crash – Now applies Vampiric Touch to 4 targets.
    - Void Eruption – Cooldown increased to 2 minutes (was 90 seconds).
    - Surrender to Madness – Cooldown increased to 2 minutes (was 90 seconds).
    - Void Bolt – Cooldown increased to 9 seconds and damage increased by 23% (was 4.5 seconds).
    - Hungering Void – Debuff duration increased to 12 seconds (was 6 seconds). Damage over time extension increased to 2 seconds and 4 seconds on critical strikes (was 1 second and 2 seconds).
    - Vampiric Insight – No longer gives a charge to Mind Blast passively.
- WARLOCK
  - Destruction
    - Rearranged various talents and created new pathways and choices.
    - Combusting Engine – Replaced with Explosive Potential.
    - New Talent: Explosive Potential – Reduces the cooldown of Conflagrate by 2 seconds.
    - Chaos Shards – Replaced with Scalding Flames.
    - New Talent: Scalding Flames – Increases the damage of Immolate by 13%/25%.
- WARRIOR
  - Class Tree Developer Notes
    - This week we have a fair number of bug fixes as we start to get to a point where the class tree is mostly complete.
    - We’ve customized a few talents to be more spec specific, so they are clearer and more useful in their intention, such as Honed Reflexes, Barbaric Training, and Crushing Force.
    - We’ve heard your feedback regarding Massacre and Sudden Death, so we’ve reverted these changes and made adjustments elsewhere to ensure DPS is still in line with intentions.
    - Massacre is now located on the spec tree for Arms and Protection where there’s a higher opportunity cost per talent point with regards to damage throughput that in the class tree.
    - We have some work to do on the nodes beyond the 20-point gate still, specifically related to Shockwave, Spear of Bastion, and Thunderous Roar.
    - We’re also looking at customizing a few more talents based on your spec to make them clearer in their function and purpose for each spec.
  - Class Tree
    - Removed the lockout period from Concussive Blows.
    - Fixed the various Tormented memories procing themselves and granting extra durations. They should all be working as intended now.
    - Weapon specialization nodes now only appear relevant to their related specialization (e.g. Two-Handed Specialization only appears on the Arms version of the class tree).
    - New Protection Talent Variant: Crushing Force – Shield Slam deals and additional 5% damage and deals 5% increased critical strike damage per rank.
    - New Talent: Barbaric Training (Arms Variant) – Slam and Whirlwind now deal 40% more damage but now cost 5 more rage.
    - New Talent: Barbaric Training (Fury Variant) – Slam and Whirlwind damage increased by 20% and their critical strike damage is also increased by 10%.
    - New Talent: Barbaric Training (Protection Variant) – Revenge deals 40% more damage but now costs 10 more rage.
    - Rumbling Earth now also increases the range of Shockwave by 6 yards.
    - New Talent: Sonic Boom – Shockwave deals 350% increased damage and will always deal critical strike damage.
    - New Arms Talent Variant: Honed Reflexes – Cooldown of Overpower reduced by 1 second and cooldown of Pummel reduced by 0.5 seconds.
    - New Fury Talent Variant: Honed Reflexes – Cooldown of Raging Blow reduced by 1 second and cooldown of Pummel reduced by 0.5 seconds.
    - New Protection Talent Variant: Honed Reflexes – Cooldown of Shield Slam and Pummel reduced by 1 second.
    - For Arms and Protection specializations Massacre and Sudden Death have switched places between the class and spec trees and increases the execute threshold up to 35% again.
    - Sudden Death procs per minute is now 1.7 (was 1.5).
    - Sudden Death should now refund rage again.
    - Quick Thinking – Now also increases your auto-attack speed by 2.5% per rank.
    - Cruel Strikes – Now also grants an 2.5% critical damage per rank for Overpower, Raging Blow, and Revenge respective to the relevant specialization.
    - Arms and Protection Execute damage reduced by 5%.
    - Spear of Bastion cooldown increased by 50% but instant damage also increased by 50%.
    - Thunderous Roar Damage no longer has a hidden undocumented crit damage bonus.
    - Thunderous Roar now ticks every 2 seconds (was 3 seconds) and has a duration of 8 seconds (was 9 seconds). It now also deals a total of 160% attack power (was 135% across its duration).
    - Thunderous Aftershocks has been redesigned and renamed: Thunderous Words – Now increases the duration of Dragon Roar’s Bleed effect by 4 seconds and increases the damage of your bleed effects by 20%.
  - Arms Developer Notes
    - Generally happy with where Arms is at, moving forward changes are likely to be small and/or tuning based.
    - Fixed various bugs and triggers so more things should be working correctly in conjunction with each other.
    - We’ve added some extra nodes to try and allow Bladestorm to feel more useful in various situations.
    - The left side of the tree had too many 2-point nodes, so we’ve reduced this to allow for more choices.
  - Arms
    - New Talent: Gathering Storm – While Bladestorming every 1 second you gain 5% movement speed and 5% Strength, stacking. Lasts 6 seconds.
    - New Talent: Dance of Death – If your Bladestorm kills an enemy your next Bladestorm lasts 3 seconds longer.
    - Unhinged now correctly triggers outside of the Shadowlands.
    - Unhinged, Gathering Storm, and Merciless Bonegrinder now trigger correctly from various Whirlwind sources.
    - Impale is now 1 point and grants 10% increased critical damage (was 7.5% per point).
    - Critical Thinking now grants 2.5% Execute critical damage per rank instead of Cleave and Whirlwind.
    - Juggernaut now lasts 12 seconds (was 8 seconds).
    - Fatality should now always hit unless the target is immune or due to specific encounter mechanics.
    - Bloodsurge chance to trigger increased to 20% (was 10%).
    - Bloodletting now causes your Bleed effects to last for 6 seconds long.
    - Removed Weapon requirements from Sharpened Blades and Concussive Blows.
    - Concussive Blows now correctly effects the damage dealt by Warbreaker.
    - Concussive Blows now correctly increases the duration of the Colossus Smash effect by 3 seconds, and Warbreaker gain and additional 20% damage.
  - Fury Developer Notes
    - Generally happy with where Fury is and do not expect to make large scale changes in the future. As with Arms, changes are likely to be small/or tuning based.
    - As stated previously, we’re looking at if Annihilator can work for multiple weapon types and if we can open this playstyle up for everyone.
    - Working internally on Odyn’s Fury subsequent nodes and expect to have them functioning shortly.
  - Fury
    - Maximum Frenzy stacks increased to 4 (was 3).
    - Cadence of Fujieda has been redesigned – Now increases your auto attack speed by 5% per stack instead of your Haste and stacks up to four times.
    - As a Fury Warrior if you do not have improved Whirlwind, Whirlwind should now correctly cost 30 Rage.
    - New Talent: Gathering Storm – While Ravager is active, every 1 second you gain 5% movement speed and 5% Strength, stacking. Lasts 6 seconds.
    - Deft Experience decreases the cooldown of Bloodthirst by 0.75 seconds per rank (was 0.5 seconds).
  - Protection Developer Notes
    - As we wind down attention and focus on Arms and Fury, we’re now putting more focus on Protection internally. Protection will undergo a tuning pass similar to Arms and Fury soon.
  - Protection
    - Fixed another issue with Seismic Reverberation and Revenge, hopefully the last one!
    - Bloodsurge chance to trigger increased to 20% (was 10%).

PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER

CLASSES
- DEVELOPERS’ NOTE
  - In today’s build players will notice changes to some classes’ PvP talents, and we wanted to share our thoughts on PvP Talents going into Dragonflight. In addition to being one of our tuning knobs for PvP, a general goal for PvP talents is to provide interesting gameplay mechanics unique to PvP while also maintaining classes’ fantasy and combat feel.
  - The talent revamp has a large impact on PvP in multiple ways. Firstly, players will have access to new abilities that are in the class and spec trees as well as the option to customize their builds tailored for specific PvP content and team compositions. These options and talent changes will provide new and exciting gameplay opportunities in PvP at the start of the expansion.
  - Additionally, the talent revamp inherently affected PvP talents for all specs, but to varying degrees – some talent trees integrated existing PvP talents into the core and spec trees, some classes had abilities redesigned that impacted specific PvP talents and many PvP talents require dependencies from the talent trees. After an assessment of the PvP Talents available to each spec we have some notes and changes going into Dragonflight.
  - The new Dragonflight talents trees have made a number of abilities available to an entire class that were previously only available to a single specialization. So, several PvP talents based on these abilities are also now available to the entire class. In the upcoming alpha build, Priests and Mages are the first classes we have updated with this philosophy. At the same time, several PvP talents are now being used Dragonflight talent tree or no longer work due to class changes. In cases where a spec does not have enough PvP talents to meet our minimum criteria, we will be adding new abilities. We will be continuing to evaluate PvP talents when the expansion launches and we intend to take a broader look to PvP talents later in the expansion life cycle, similar to what was done in Shadowlands’ Chains of Domination update.
  - As noted above, PvP talents shine when they lean into gameplay scenarios that are very unique to PvP. One example of a new PvP talent is one Shaman players may have already noticed, Precognition - If an interrupt is used on you while you are not casting, gain 15% Haste and become immune to control effects for 4 seconds. In this week’s build, all caster DPS and healer specializations will have Precognition as an available PvP talent. This talent is intended to elevate the importance of fake-casting gameplay. We look forward to your feedback on it.
- All ranged spell casting and healing specializations have a new PvP Talent:
  - New PvP Talent: Precognition – If an interrupt is used on you while you are not casting, gain 15% Haste and become immune to control effects for 4 seconds.
- MAGE
  - General
    - New PvP Talent: Precognition – If an interrupt is used on you while you are not casting, gain 15% Haste and become immune to control effects for 4 seconds.
    - Ice Wall – Now available for all specializations.
    - Ring of Fire – Now available for all specializations.
  - Fire
    - New PvP Talent: Glass Cannon – Increase Fireball and Scorch damage by 40%, but reduces your maximum health by 15%.
  - Frost
    - New PvP Talent: Snowdrift – Summon a strong Blizzard that surrounds you for 6 seconds that slows enemies by 70% and deals Frost damage every 1 second. Enemies that are caught in Snowdrift for 3 seconds consecutively become Frozen in ice, stunned for 4 seconds.
    - New Talent: Frost Bomb – Places a Frost Bomb on the target. After a 5 seconds the bomb explodes, dealing Frost damage to the target and Frost damage to all other targets within 10 yards. All affected targets are slowed by 70% for 4 seconds.
- PRIEST
  - General
    - Eternal Rest – Now available for all specializations.
    - New PvP Talent: Precognition – If an interrupt is used on you while you are not casting, gain 15% Haste and become immune to control effects for 4 seconds.
    - New PvP Talent: Catharsis – 20% of all damage that you take is stored in the Catharstick. The stored amount cannot exceed 15% of your maximum health. The initial damage of your next Shadow Word: Pain or Purge the Wicked deals this stored damage to your target.
  - Discipline
    - Delivered from Evil and Cardinal Mending PvP talents now available for Discipline.
  - Holy
    - Purification, Purified Resolve, and Strength of Soul PvP talents now available for Holy.
  - Shadow
    - Cardinal Mending, Strength of Soul, and Delivered From Evil PvP talents now available for Shadow.
NEW ARENA: NOKHUDON PROVING GROUNDS
- Within Clan Nokhud’s stronghold are their Proving Grounds, where the centaurs compete to be named the clan’s greatest warrior. Players will be able enter the Nokhudon Proving Grounds to battle for glory by queueing up for Arenas.
- The Nokhudon Proving Grounds is a new Arena map being introduced in Dragonflight that has a unique gameplay layout, utilizing ramps, pillars and a middle wall for line of site within the map. During the testing period, The Nokhudon Proving Grounds will be available to queue for as the only map in the pool for queued arena, including Solo Shuffle. So queue up Gladiators - we look forward to your feedback and we’ll see you in the arena!

PROFESSIONS

HIGH END CRAFTING UPDATE
- In this week’s build, we have changed how limits on high end crafted gear works. Instead of limiting you to equipping 5 pieces of high item level crafted gear, you can now equip an unlimited amount of basic high end gear. Some of the more special crafted gear which includes special effects, or has a special effect added through an optional reagent will have a equip limit of 2 though to help limit overall gear complexity.
The Profession trainer and vendors in Orgrimmar and Stormwind have been disabled temporarily.
HERBALISM
- Herbalism trainers have now been enabled across the Dragon Isles. Gatherers in Dragonflight can now pick herbs that can be found all over the the Dragon Isles, and also focus on how they want to grow as a Gatherer through specializations. A large addition to both Herbalism and Mining is the ability to Overload special nodes (such as Windswept and Frigid nodes), which will cause a unique effect based on your rank in Specializations and the node itself. Overload only works on these special herb nodes, it does not do anything to normal nodes. To access the Overload ability, you need unlock it via the Mastering the Elements specialization path.
- Please note that herb nodes are still a work in progress for the Azure Span and Thaldraszus. Both of these zones will be getting additional node spawn locations in the coming weeks.
SPECIALIZATIONS
- Unlocking Specializations requires 25 skill in that Profession. Once unlocked, players can spend Specialization points to unlock various bonuses for their Profession.
- HERBALISM
  - Bountiful Harvests – Improve at your general harvesting skills, gaining + 1 Skill per point in this specialization while gathering herbs.
    - Floriculture – Study the anatomy of Saxifrage, gaining +1 Skill per point in this specialization while gathering it.
  - Mastering the Elements – Study the intricacies of the awakening elements within the Dragon Isles and their effects on the plant life, gaining +1 Skill per point in this specialization while gathering elementally-charged herbs.
    - Windswept – Specialize in Windswept herbs, gaining +1 Skill per point in this specialization while gathering them.

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.
- Edit Mode
  - Added Talking Heads
  - Added Chat Frame
- Updated container/bag display art.
NEW OPTION: DISPLAY NAME SIZE ADJUSTMENT
- Players can now adjust a minimum on-screen text size to keep it legible.
- The text will also fade to indicate distance rather than shrinking in size.
- Enable this feature by typing “/console WorldTextMinSize 16” in chat. An interface option will be added later into the Accessibility options.
  - Set to 0 (off), 8 (minimum viable), and 16 (bigger for low vision use).

Other posts