Shadowlands Developer Update Livestream - July 8th

Get the Shadowlands Collector’s Edition

Shadowlands Alpha - Build 35078

FEEDBACK: Demon Hunter Class Changes
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
In the next Alpha build, we’ve made this change to Unbound Chaos:

  • Activating Immolation Aura will cause your inner demon to slam into nearby enemies at the end of your next Fel Rush, dealing Chaos damage.
    • Developers’ notes: We like the feeling of Immolation Aura empowering your Fel Rush, but requiring Fel Rush to be cast while Immolation Aura was active placed too much pressure on that particular window. We want this talent to be for occasionally weaving Fel Rush into your rotation for a big payoff, so we’ve changed the talent to Immolation Aura buffing your next Fel Rush, which means you can find the right time to fit it in.

FEEDBACK: Warlock Class Changes
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Thanks for all of the detailed feedback! While there are still some planned changes coming for Warlock, we’ve made a few recently that you should be seeing in the Alpha:

Affliction
  • Agony base damage increased by 12%.
  • Inevitable Demise increases Drain Life’s damage by 12% per stack (was 5%).
Demonology
  • Axe Toss now interrupts stun immune targets, such as dungeon or raid bosses. This does not affect PvP combat.
Destruction
  • Soulfire damage increased by 40%.
  • Infernals summoned from Rain of Chaos no longer trigger Infernal Awakening.
  • Rain of Chaos Infernals now have some bad luck protection built in. Chance also increased to 20% (was 15%).

FEEDBACK: Paladin Class Changes
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Some changes in an upcoming build:

Protection: Holy Power generation rearranged somewhat. Hammer of the Righteous is on a shorter recharge again, and Avenger’s Shield has a new effect whereby it generates an additional HP the first time it hits a given target (i.e. on the pull), but Judgment no longer generates.

The Protection rotation had gotten a little bit emptier with the longer recharge on Hammer, and this puts it back closer to BFA. Also, one particular time when Prot really wants Holy Power is the moment of engagement with a large group (but in a way that doesn’t flood the rotation in longer combats). Avenger’s shield will now conveniently start you with some HP when pulling packs of multiple enemies. Finally, with all this added Holy Power, we had to pull some back out of the rotation, and chose to do that on Judgment, since it currently serves a separate important purpose with the Shining Light mechanic.

A few ancillary changes to this are increasing the duration of Redoubt, and making Sanctified Wrath generate 2 HP (so Judgment still gives 2 in total while it is active).

Blessing of the Seasons: Keeping this short for now, since we are considering further updates to this in subsequent weeks that make this change obsolete. But in this week’s build, the Seasons will be in sync for all Paladins within a party, and their effects are stronger if there are multiple Paladins in the party.

FEEDBACK: Druid Class Changes
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Various changes in an upcoming build:

Feral: Various talents are buffed numerically, to try to open up some choices a bit (Feral Frenzy, Lunar Inspiration, Savage Roar), as well as a baseline buff to Rip that’s related to the below discussion.

One notable talent is nerfed: Sabertooth. This has been the subject of much discussion in feedback. While we like the idea of a talent in this slot that simplifies the rotation somewhat, we generally agree that infinite Rip extension has a lot of downsides. It additionally tends to cause balance problems, as an infinitely-extended snapshot-buffed Rip tends to outpace other options for sustained damage. Sabertooth will extend Rip by a smaller amount–keeping a similar mechanic to now, but requiring it to still be occasionally used on a single target.

Relatedly, we’re adjusting Bloodtalons to make it easier to proc–we’ve seen a lot of feedback that sequencing Rake, Shred and Thrash that tightly is a big hassle when you have competing interests of when you need to refresh your Bleeds, when you have a lot of energy, when you need to use a finisher, and so on. Trying to find the sweet spot where it’s not too onerous to use, but still provides a reward for planning your rotation.

Balance: Notably in this build, starting Eclipse requires 2 spells rather than 3. Doesn’t require a big explanation, but should be strongly felt. In particular, the windup at the start of combat is much shorter (especially when you can precast 1 of the 2 spells).

We’re also trying a version of Celestial Alignment that’s not extendable to arbitrary duration; it was simply going to cause nearly certain balance problems later on. It is now a fixed-duration cooldown that still provides a large damage increase.

Thanks for any feedback, please let us know how this all goes.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Shadowlands Alpha - Demon Hunter, Warlock, Paladin, and Druid Changes started by Stoy View original post
Comments 35 Comments
  1. Pandragon's Avatar
    Man, loving all these awesome monk changes... Oh, wait.
  1. ParanoiD84's Avatar
    Feral needs hell of alot more changes then the sabertooth talent blizzard keeps focus on.
  1. Saltysquidoon's Avatar
    • Demo gets the interrupt people have been REEEEing about for ages
    Cool I guess
    • It's a total monkey's paw and the spec is still a broken buggy mess with all its damage tied to tyrant and doom is STILL bugged
    Forever the redheaded stepchild of lock.

    I really hope they do big passes on the classes that haven't had any major work done yet.
  1. Echeyakee's Avatar
    Oh look, another round of feedback and another round of silence for priests.
  1. Schattenlied's Avatar
    Paladins finally get a blue post.

    Literally addresses none of our feedback.
  1. Biomega's Avatar
    Windwalkers, Subtlety Rogues, all the unloved niche specs of WoW are finally seeing the sweeping changes they need!

    Oh wait it's Warlocks and Paladins, because that's what new players pick immediately.
  1. Relapses's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Biomega View Post
    Windwalkers, Subtlety Rogues, all the unloved niche specs of WoW are finally seeing the sweeping changes they need!

    Oh wait it's Warlocks and Paladins, because that's what new players pick immediately.
    Ah yes, it's about time we saw the "why does Lux keep getting new skins" argument on WoW. Man, fuck those developers for worrying about the specs people actually play first. I'm sure all 11 Subtlety Rogues are firing off harshly worded e-mails to J Allen Brack as we speak.
  1. Blowmeup's Avatar
    Shadow still looking like poo poo.
  1. Relapses's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Blowmeup View Post
    Shadow still looking like poo poo.
    When "looking like poo poo" has been the status quo for Shadow for the last 7 years, it isn't an observation any longer. It's the spec's preferred state.
  1. Onikaroshi's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Biomega View Post
    Windwalkers, Subtlety Rogues, all the unloved niche specs of WoW are finally seeing the sweeping changes they need!

    Oh wait it's Warlocks and Paladins, because that's what new players pick immediately.
    What's the issue with windwalker? I've seen MULTIPLE people say it was one of their favorite specs on alpha along with BrM being in top 3.
  1. Relapses's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Onikaroshi View Post
    What's the issue with windwalker? I've seen MULTIPLE people say it was one of their favorite specs on alpha along with BrM being in top 3.
    Clearly you haven't been paying attention very closely. The issue is that the rotation has yet to be diluted into a single button which allows the WW Monk to be the top DPS in every scenario.
  1. Schattenlied's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Biomega View Post
    Windwalkers, Subtlety Rogues, all the unloved niche specs of WoW are finally seeing the sweeping changes they need!

    Oh wait it's Warlocks and Paladins, because that's what new players pick immediately.
    LOL

    The post for paladins addresses exactly none of the feedback we've given them and is the opposite of "sweeping changes", which we do in fact sorely need as well.
  1. Relapses's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Schattenlied View Post
    LOL

    The post for paladins addresses exactly none of the feedback we've given them and is the opposite of "sweeping changes", which we do in fact sorely need as well.
    Those darned devs and their propensity for listening to only the wrong feedback. If only there were a way to flag relevant feedback so that the developers know that the person giving the feedback is more important than every other player in the game. Maybe we should work on a system like this for the future?
  1. Onikaroshi's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by otaXephon View Post
    Clearly you haven't been paying attention very closely. The issue is that the rotation has yet to be diluted into a single button which allows the WW Monk to be the top DPS in every scenario.
    I see! Well I hope they get on that so that these people don't get carpal tunnel haven't to press more than one button.
  1. Schattenlied's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Onikaroshi View Post
    I see! Well I hope they get on that so that these people don't get carpal tunnel haven't to press more than one button.
    No I mean they listened to none of our feedback, the shit they changed, no one was asking for. These changes address none of the problems with our class.
  1. Navenowsky93's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by otaXephon View Post
    Ah yes, it's about time we saw the "why does Lux keep getting new skins" argument on WoW. Man, fuck those developers for worrying about the specs people actually play first. I'm sure all 11 Subtlety Rogues are firing off harshly worded e-mails to J Allen Brack as we speak.
    Wow, maybe people would play those specs if they were actually decent, but I guess your tiny brain didn't think about that lol. Maybe changes to Subtlety rogue would made a lot of people play it? Such a hard concept to grasp WOW
  1. lunethzero's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Schattenlied View Post
    Paladins finally get a blue post.

    Literally addresses none of our feedback.
    Paladin treatment in a nutshell. "meh its fine, clunky is class fantasy"
  1. Onikaroshi's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Schattenlied View Post
    No I mean they listened to none of our feedback, the shit they changed, no one was asking for. These changes address none of the problems with our class.
    Like literally the only only thing i've heard out of WW and BrM is positive, so I don't know what to say. A lot of people were saying ww monk was the the most fun spec on alpha.
  1. Relapses's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Navenowsky93 View Post
    Wow, maybe people would play those specs if they were actually decent, but I guess your tiny brain didn't think about that lol. Maybe changes to Subtlety rogue would made a lot of people play it? Such a hard concept to grasp WOW
    I doubt this will resonate with you because you're so busy being angry that Blizzard doesn't include every single spec and class combination in every single class update but I'd like to encourage you to re-read my post and really think about what I actually said. I never said Blizzard wasn't going to work on underplayed specs/classes, I mentioned that the feedback we see for certain classes may seem disproportionate because Blizzard wants to make sure they are touching on feedback which is most relevant to the largest portion of the playerbase.
  1. thunderdragon2's Avatar
    im a bit worried, i main a hunter and i haven't seen a single thing on hunters

Site Navigation