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by Published on 2023-03-08 09:51 PM

Dragonflight 10.0.7 PTR Development Notes - March 8
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Here are the changes that you can find in this week’s 10.0.7 PTR update:

Classes

  • Druid
    • Guardian
      • Thorns of Iron is now affected by the Guardian Druid specialization passive, and its damage values have been adjusted accordingly.
        • Developers’ note: This is a net neutral change to the Thorns of Iron ability.
      • Fixed an issue that was causing Bristling Fur’s global cooldown to not be reduced by Haste.
      • Fixed an issue that was causing Circle of Life and Death to incorrectly reduce Pulverize’s duration.
  • Evoker
    • Preservation
      • When Lifebind is applied through a lower value Echo with Temporal Anomaly, its healing value is reduced to match the value of the Echo.
      • When Golden Hour is applied through a lower value Echo with Temporal Anomaly, its healing value is reduced to match the value of the Echo.
  • Hunter
    • Beast Mastery
      • Cobra Shot damage increased by 50%. Does not apply to PvP combat.
      • Kill Command damage increased by 10% (was 25%).
      • Barbed Shot damage increased by 12% (was 25%). Does not apply to PvP combat.
      • Kill Cleave now transfers 60% of Kill Command’s damage (was 50%).
  • Paladin
    • Of Dusk and Dawn has been redesigned – When you cast 3 Holy power generating ability, you gain Blessing of Dawn. When you consume Blessing of Dawn, you gain Blessing of Dust.
      • Blessing of Dawn has been redesigned – Your next Holy Power spending ability deals 20% additional increased damage or healing (10% for Retribution specialization). This effect stacks 2 times.
    • Divine Purpose proc chance reduced to 10% (was 15%) and bonus damage reduced to 10% for Retribution Paladin only (was 15%).
    • Blinding Light will now be removed from the target if they suffer Holy damage. Consecration damage will continue to not break Blinding Light. Tooltip will be updated at a later time.
    • Unbound Freedom is now located on the class tree for Retribution and Protection specializations only.
    • Healing Hands is now a shared node with Afterimage for Retribution specialization only.
    • Holy
      • Afterimage’s Holy Power tracking now has a cap of 39 Holy Power.
    • Protection
      • Fixed an issue that caused Divine Resonance to sometimes interrupt players’ casts.
      • Fixed an issue that was causing the Consecration debuff to fade from targets prematurely.
    • Retribution
      • Improved Crusader Strike is now granted when choosing Retribution specialization.
      • New Talent: Crusading Strike – Crusader Strike replaces your auto-attacks and generates 1 Holy Power every 2 attacks.
      • New Talent: Heart of the Crusader – Crusader Strike and auto-attacks deal 10% increased damage and have a 10% increased critical strike damage.
      • New Talent: Blessed Champion – Crusader Strike and Judgment hit an additional 2 targets for 60% damage . 2 ranks.
      • New Talent: Divine Retribution – Haste increased by 2% and Divine Storm and Blade of Justice deal 5% increased critical strike damage.
      • New Talent: Holy Crusader – Blade of Justice and Expurgation now deal Holystrike damage.
      • New Talent: Commanding Judgment – Judgment hits an additional 2 targets for 50% damage. 2 ranks.
      • New Talent: Divine Arbiter – Abilities that deal Holystrike damage deal 10% increased damage and your abilities that deal Holystrike damage grant you a stack of Divine Arbiter. At 25 stacks your next damaging single target Holy Power ability causes Holystrike damage to your primary target and Holystrike damage to enemies within 6 yards (was 50 stacks).
      • New Talent: Vanguard of Justice – Your damaging Holy Power abilities cost 1 additional Holy Power and deal 25% increased damage (was 33%).
      • New Talent: Templar Strikes - A 2 part combo that deals increased damage with each strike. If you successfully cast the second part of the combo within the time limit the second strike has a 100% increased critical strike chance.
        • Templar Strike slashes an enemy for Radiant damage. You have 3 seconds to continue the combo with Templar Slash.
        • Templar Slash strikes an enemy for Radiant damage and has a 100% increased chance to critically strike.
      • Expurgation has been adjusted – Your Blade of Justice causes the target to burn for 70% of the damage dealt over 6 seconds.
      • Art of War has been adjusted – Your auto-attacks and Crusader Strike have a 20% chance to reset the cooldown of Blade of Justice (was 15%).
      • Wake of Ashes damage reduced by 18% and its cooldown reduced to 30 seconds (was 45 seconds).
      • Justicar’s Vengeance now heals for 6% of your maximum health instead of healing based off damage dealt.
      • Justicar’s Vengeance now deals 25% increased damage to stunned targets (was 50%).
      • Final Reckoning now lasts 10 seconds (was 9 seconds), and now causes your target to take 30% bonus damage from your next Holy Power ability.
      • Final Reckoning damage reduced by 4.5% (was 13%).
      • Execution Sentence now causes 20% of the damage you deal to be added to Execution Sentence (was 10%).
      • Crusading Strikes now generates 1 Holy Power every 2 attacks (was every attack).
      • Empyrean Power now causes Crusading Strikes to have a 5% chance to make your next Divine Storm free. Divine Storm damage bonus reduced to 15% (was 25%).
  • Priest
    • Dispel Magic now costs 2% of base Mana (was 1.6%).

Dragonriding

  • Dragonriding traits can now be refunded by using right click.
  • Dragonriding traits no longer require a confirmation to unlock.

Player Versus Player

  • Hunter
    • Beast Mastery
      • Piercing Fangs now has 40% reduced effectiveness in PvP combat.
  • Paladin
    • Divine Protection no longer reduces damage by an additional 10% in PvP combat.
    • Protection
      • Flash of Light no longer deals increased healing in PvP combat (was 15%).
    • Retribution
      • Law and Order (PvP Talent) has been removed.
      • Flash of Light no longer deals increased healing in PvP combat (was 15%).
      • Final Verdict no longer deals increased damage in PvP combat (was 10%).
      • Templar’s Verdict no longer deals increased damage in PvP combat (was 10%).
      • Blade of Justice no longer deals increased damage in PvP combat (was 20%).
      • Crusader Strike no longer deals increased damage in PvP Ccombat (was 80%).
      • Healing Hands effectiveness reduced by 50% in PvP combat (was 30%).

Professions

  • Legion Rank 3 Shoulder recipes originally sourced from Rated Battlegrounds can now be purchased from PvP quartermasters in your faction’s hub in Dalaran at a cost of 3 Marks of Honor.
  • Fixed an issue that caused incorrect difficulty for recrafting order with changed optional reagents.
  • Crafting Orders
    • Added text log output when filling Crafting Orders.

User Interface and Accessibility

  • The Revival Catalyst now displays how many charges you have stored.
  • The chat command button now has arrows for menu items that have flyouts.
  • Fixed an issue where the Raid Self Highlight setting didn’t work.
  • Fixed an issue where calendar invites were still displaying after the player removed or reported it.
  • Fixed issues with inaccurately displayed Rogue combo points and Arcane Mage charges.
by Published on 2023-03-08 08:13 PM

Secrets of the Reach In-Game Cinematic
Blizzard has released the in-game cinematic for the Forbidden Reach zone coming in Patch 10.0.7.

by Published on 2023-03-08 07:25 PM

Patch 10.1 - Dragonflight Roadmap Update
Blizzard has updated the roadmap for World of Warcraft this year. You can see the old one here. Changes include:

  • Patch 10.1
    • Added zone name and raid name
    • Fryakk Assaults added
    • Niffen Renown and Rewards added
    • New Dragonriding Drake added
  • Patch 10.2
    • Story content added
    • New open world challenges added
    • New renown track and activities added



Patch 10.1 Developer Interviews
Lots of people had the chance to do interviews for Patch 10.1 and we've recapped them for you below:

Dratnos's Interview

Classes
  • Shadow Priest is getting a bit of a rework in Patch 10.1.
  • There are other significant class changes coming in Patch 10.1.
  • A new season affords the opportunity to make more significant class changes, such as moving talents around in the tree.

Mythic+ Dungeons
  • Adding Vortex Pinnacle was an opportunity to see how far back they could go when adding new dungeons. Is Cataclysm too far? How much work had to be done to bring it up to par with today's gameplay expectations?
  • The team has done older dungeons in the past and doesn't want a repeat of Shadowmoon Burial Grounds where there is one outlier in terms of the challenge.

Story
  • The team considered how antagonists played out in previous expansions and wanted to set the table with multiple antagonists that could play out in a less predictable way than before.

Zones
  • Zaralek Cavern should feel additive, not replacing the existing outdoor world.
  • The outdoor world has it's own progression track, which gives people who don't want to do group content a progression system.

Items
  • The new item upgrade system should be easier to understand. Base currency is Flight Stones, which you'll get from lots of activities.
  • There are also crests, like Shadowflame crests. These will be a high water mark of the content you've done. Do higher Mythic+ and get a higher tier of item upgrades.
  • The tier sets are visually evocative of tier sets from previous expansions, as we are heading into Neltharion's facility, which came before Blackwing Lair.
  • The team is being careful with set bonuses, they don't want to be in a place where once you have your 4pc set bonus, there is only one viable talent build.
  • The team was happy with how the rare rings played out in Vault of the Incarnates, as well as the other rare items. They give you an opportunity to be excited about an item and impacts your Great Vault choices.
  • Having granular tiers of rewards as you progress through the raid worked out well. End bosses and wing bosses are more difficult, so you get slightly more powerful rewards.

Misc
  • There are no plans to expand the existing Renown tracks.

Gamespot
  • The Primal Incarnates will remain a major threat going forward, and that much of the remainder of Dragonflight's core storyline will revolve around understanding their goals and how to stop them.
  • Players will learn some of the secrets that led to the Earth Warder's corruption by the Old Gods and his descent into madness
  • The team wants to make sure players who have real-life or other out-of-game bonds with folks on the opposite faction can play with them.
  • The team doesn't want to make complete unity the default experience or tear down Alliance and Horde as entities in Warcraft.
  • There are no plans right now, but the next logical cross-faction step would be making it so members of opposing factions could team up in the open world, but that comes with lots of technical and logistical challenges.
  • There are no plans for cross-faction matchmaking for dungeons or Looking For Raid anytime soon.
  • Some of the baseline complexity of Dragonflight's dungeons were a couple of notches higher than really makes for a healthy Mythic+ ecosystem.
  • The Ret Paladin rework was an exceptional circumstance and players should not expect it to happen again in future Dragonflight patches

sportskeeda

  • Deathwing is dead. And if World of Warcraft has taught Ion anything, it's that once you defeat someone and you extract loot from their corpse, there's no chance they would ever come back.
  • It's unlikely that legendary weapons are going to be the sort of thing that find their way onto the Trading Post
  • It is likely that we will see more race/class combos continue to unlock in the future, which is great content for smaller updates later in the year.
  • Undead Paladins and Goblin Druids should technically be possible, but you to have some world integrity from a narrative perspective. There needs to be story to build up to them.
  • There are three tiers of balance changes: Numerical balancing, fixing mechanical weaknesses, and changing how a spec works.
  • Usually large balance changes would happen with an expansion, but Ret Paladin got a more substantial rework because waiting for the next expansion was too long.
  • This kind of rework is very disruptive and not something the team did lightly.
  • There are people who play WoW as their lifestyle game and people that dip in and out, and the game should be welcoming to both types of players. Patch sizes, content types, and more will all take both groups into consideration.
  • Dragonflight gave players more agency and options. Play the content you want, with less content that feels mandatory.
  • If you log in and feel like you have to do something that you don't enjoy, what's the point?

Polygon

  • Engineers have done lots of work to undo old assumptions that there would never be game terrain below or above other terrain.
  • The work on underground area support will likely pay off in future patches and expansions.

PCGamesn

  • The Niffen society is built around scent trails and the scent of home.
  • Players will go Sniffen Seeking with a Niffen buddy to go find caverns that you can’t reach without burrowing with your Niffen friend.
  • There’s also some puzzle gameplay to reach whatever the treasures might be in that place, or fight the enemies in that place

esportsmag
This interview was translated, so we can't be certain of the accuracy.

  • It will be possible to trade between the Alliance and the Horde if the two players are part of the same guild.

SoulSoBreezy

  • Zaralek will be loading while you fly through the tunnel. No loading screen, just a background load.
  • No plans for any guild enhancements right now beyond adding cross-faction support.
  • There are some profession related things you'll run across in the new content, but the team isn't ready to talk about them just yet.
  • No changes to existing Renown tracks.
  • Kalecgos won't be super available for Zaralek, he's investigating why the Blue Dragonflight didn't return in greater numbers. He'll call for help when he needs it.
  • Anything that you earned that works in the Dragon Isles should work in Zaralek as well.
  • The team heard player feedback about the unlock speed for caps and the Revival Catalyst. Nothing to announce right now.
  • Primal Storm events aren't going anywhere.
  • There's a Dragonriding ability in the Forbidden Reach that is like an air brake, you can come to a stop. If you do that while going really fast, you'll get a Vigor point back.
  • In Zaralek Cavern there are some glyphs, one will modify the Groundskimming glyph behavior, allowing you to change how fast you regain Vigor.
  • Class resources like Arcane Charges, Holy Power, and Combo Points will get a visual overhaul in the UI.
  • The XP bar is getting a visual overhaul and you'll be able to move it.
  • Some of the cursors will be updated to be higher resolution as well.
  • The smaller updates between seasons allow the team to add some prologue for the new season's content.
  • The prologue will be encrypted until release so that everyone can play it at once. It won't be too long, as the team wants everyone to be able to experience it.
  • The team continues to work on encryption so that everyone can experience something for the first time, at the same time.
  • Nothing to announce today for Brawler's Guild, but it is one of the highly requested features.


Free Level 60 Boost for Inactive Players
We got a report of free boosts being offered to players that have been inactive for a long time. It appears the boost offer is valid from today through March 12th.

by Published on 2023-03-08 06:29 PM

Dragonflight: The 10.0.7 Content Update Goes Live March 21
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Prepare to journey back to the Forbidden Reach for new adventures, collect two new Heritage Armor sets for the orcs and humans, embrace a new journey as a new goblin, Lightforged draenei, or worgen Monk, and more.

Return to the Forbidden Reach


With the defeat of Raszageth secured, a new opportunity to seek out and find answers about the dracthyr Evokers arises within the Forbidden Reach. This max-level experience introduces new bosses and objectives, additional storms, new loot, and more. Find out more about what is in store in our news article.

Embrace Your Orc or Human Legacy with New Heritage Armor Sets


Embrace your legacy with two new Heritage Armor sets—one for orcs and one for humans—with the release of the 10.0.7 content update. Read more on acquiring these new sets in our news article.

New Winterpelt Furbolg Faction
The Winterpelt furbolg speak a language no one seems to understand. Learn to understand and eventually speak their language as you help Sonova Snowden crack their peculiar dialect and earn their trust.

Start the “Academic Assistance” quest by accepting it in the Adventure Guide (Shift-J). This quest will become available after completing the “Winterpelt Hollow” and “Rustpine Den” quest chains in the Azure Span.

Players can access their language progress in the Spellbook (P).

The Monk Class Expands to New Races


In the 10.0.7 content update, the Monk class will be available to the goblin, Lightforged draenei, and worgen races.

New Quests: Baine's Search


Mayla Highmountain is worried—Baine Bloodhoof has traveled to the Ohn’ahran Plains in search of an old friend who has gone missing but insisted on making the journey alone. Help Baine solve the mystery of the missing tauren — and come to terms with old hatreds — with the help of an unlikely ally. Speak to Mayla Highmountain in Valdrakken to begin your journey.

Recruit A Friend Refresh

All new rewards are arriving to the Recruit A Friend (RAF) program, letting you bring in new (and returning) friends to World of Warcraft. Stay tuned to the official site for more details when we get closer to launching the update. To learn more about the current RAF program, you can visit our previously published article here on the official site.

10.0.7 PTR Development Notes
Learn more about class changes and updates, bug fixes, and more in our PTR Development Notes. Jump on to the PTR to experience the content update before it goes live!

Keep an eye on the official World of Warcraft news site for the official release date.
by Published on 2023-03-08 06:14 PM

Recruit A Friend: Fetch Your Friends for Fresh Rewards
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Ready to make memories with your friends and share magical adventures with them across Azeroth and beyond? The Recruit A Friend program is perfect for showing them the ropes. Earn the latest goblin tech with a shorter reward cadence when you recruit new players or returning players in good standing who have not had active game time on their account for the past two years.

The Recruit A Friend (RAF) program retains fan-favorite features, and it introduces a bounty of brand-new rewards. Like the previous program, you can teleport to each other with Friend-to-Friend Summoning (which works on a 30-minute cooldown)—because Azeroth is best experienced with friends at your side.

More Recruits, More Rewards
The Recruit A Friend program allows you to be linked with up to 10 friends and earn game time and other unique rewards—like mounts, pets, and more—the longer they play. Players new to WoW and veteran players who have not purchased game time on their account in the past two years can be enlisted in this program. Recruit four players every 30 days, and each time one of your recruits adds game time to their account, you’ll earn progress toward a new reward. The more friends you invite, the faster you’ll earn the rewards, as one friend adding multiple months of game time earns the same rewards as multiple friends adding one month of game time each.

See all the rewards you can get below!*

  • Volatile Self-Driving Toolbox Pet - 1 Month
  • Shredderizing Glove Cosmetic Item – 2 Months
  • Sappy Buddy Cosmetic Item – 3 Months
  • 30 Days Game Time – 4 Months
  • S.C.A.N.N.E.R. Mk3 Cosmetic Item – 5 Months
  • Rocket Shredder 9001 Mount – 6 Months



Rewards shown from left to right: S.C.A.N.N.E.R. Mk3, Rocket Shredder 9001. Not pictured – Volatile Self-Driving Toolbox Pet, Shredderizing Glove Cosmetic Item, Sappy Buddy Cosmetic Item..


  • Volatile Self-Driving Toolbox—Teaches you how to summon and dismiss this companion.
  • Shredderizing Glove—Cosmetic fist weapon not recommended for those whose love language is physical touch.
  • Sappy Buddy—A cosmetic buddy that goes where you go; be very wary of making them emotional.
  • S.C.A.N.N.E.R. Mk3—You won’t just be cool with the Scanning Contraption Armed with Nightsight, Neuro-reading, and Encasing Reticle, you’ll look cool too.
  • Rocket Shredder 9001—Way better than 9000, by one. Teaches you how to summon this mount. This mount changes depending on your Riding skill and location.


Game Time
Every 3 months after your 6-month reward, you’ll be rewarded with 30 days of game time.

Recruiters must have active game time to earn and claim rewards.

Go it Together
Time flies when you’re having fun, and it goes even faster when you and your recruits play together. You can also summon each other once every 30 minutes. Furthermore, our new Party Sync feature makes it easier than ever to level with friends. When activated, everyone in the party becomes aligned to the same quest state and phase. You’ll also have access to a “replay quest” feature that allows players who’ve already completed certain quests to replay them with their friends for rewards that are appropriate to their current level, regardless of the quest’s original level. Quests can be replayed for rewards once per day.

If you’d prefer to play with your friend using a current character rather than starting a new one, you now can. By using Party Sync, you can choose to have your level adjusted so you can quest and experience outdoor content with your friends as they level up. And, If you want to queue for instanced content (such as Battlegrounds and dungeons) in their level range, you can choose to join them by having your level scaled down.

Please note that unlike Timewalking, when your level is scaled, you will temporarily lose access to abilities and powers (such as Azerite Traits and over-level spells, abilities, talents, and trinket effects) with requirements that exceed your reduced level.

Lead with Confidence
To help you help your friends, we’ve created a brand-new RAF panel in-game to help you know when to expect your next reward and given your access to Party Sync. The RAF panel also lists special activities available to players who participate in the program. Complete these in-game challenges with your recruits to earn even more rewards.

Start Your Journey
The new Recruit A Friend lets you generate a custom link in-game that you can send to your friends. This link will help you and your recruit connect in-game, and you’ll be able to see if they’ve purchased game time, which will lead to rewards for you! For each month your recruits have active game time, you’ll earn a new reward, such as unique pets, mounts, game time, and more. These rewards unlock each month and scale with the amount of time your recruits have subscribed for. And, of course, with Party Sync, you’ll be able to journey with your friends on any of your characters.


Adventure Awaits
When you’re ready to bring your friends to Azeroth, simply log in to WoW and generate an invite link through the Recruit A Friend interface, then send that link to your friends. Up to four friends can use it to link their accounts to yours. To recruit more friends, you’ll need to generate a new link, which you can do once every 30 days.

*In-game rewards not available in World of Warcraft® Classic titles. Free game time earned through Recruit A Friend provides access to both World of Warcraft and WoW Classic titles.

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