World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies

Enhancement Shaman,

Several changes are coming in the next build you receive, in addition to several bug fixes. We also removed a -35% damage and healing modifier to your spells that benefit from Maelstrom Weapon in an effort to make your spells more impactful, but may have to reintroduce this as tuning goes on.

Talent Changes:

• Primal Primer is no longer an option in the tree.
  
  • Primal Primer and Primal Lava Actuators were two different ways of making Lava Lash better. We opted to keep Primal Lava Actuators.
• Hailstorm now provides your next Frost Shock a bonus for up to 10 Maelstrom Weapon charges spent to better work with Overflowing Maelstrom. The maximum bonus targets is still limited to 5.
• Stormstrike now replaces Primal Strike.
• Doom Winds now does some immediate damage when you activate the ability.
• Ice Strike’s Frost Shock buff now highlights Frost Shock.
• Alpha Wolf now works with Chain Lightning, rather than Crash Lightning so you do not have to take Crash Lightning to get the benefit.
• Ascendance now is now a choice node vs Deeply Rooted Elements.
• Thorim’s Invocation now remembers whether you most recently cast Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning, and uses that spell when you use Windstrike, rather than always using Lightning Bolt.
• Chain Lightning (rank 2) functionality baked into Crash Lightning/Chain Lightning interactions.
• New 1-point talent: Crashing Storms: Crash Lightning damage increased by 40%, and Chain Lightning strikes 2 additional targets.
• Gathering Storms has been consolidated down to a 1-point talent.
• Hot Hand has been converted to a 2-point talent with the same total values.
• Feral Spirit cooldown has been reduced to 90 seconds.
• Elemental Spirits no longer reduces the cooldown of Feral Spirits.
• Several talents have shifted around due to the above changes.

Thank you all for the continued feedback and testing.

Hello Death Knights,

We’ve got an info drop for you. Here’s what we’ve been working on, and what you can expect to see in the next Alpha build for both the Class and Unholy trees.


Class Talents

In an effort to further increase choice, we’ve updated some talent positions, added two additional connections from Might of Thassarian and Merciless Strikes toward the center section of the class tree, reduced 3 rank talents to 2, and updated the lead-in talent to Abomination Limb with a throughput talent.

The following changes are not everything you’re going to see in the next build. Rather, these are highlights of the bigger changes (and a few more-subtle position changes with existing talent nodes).

Rune Mastery

• Max ranks increased to 2, up from 1.
• Now leads into Abomination Limb (replacing Improved Death Strike).

Icy Talons

• Max ranks reduced to 2, down from 3.

Unholy Bond

• Max ranks reduced to 2, down from 3.

Unholy Endurance

• New talent: Increases Lichborne duration by 2 sec and while active damage taken is reduced by 15%.

Death Pact

• Now has a new connection from Might of Thassarian

Asphyxiate

• Now has a new connection from Merciless Strikes.

Clenching Grasp

• New talent: Death Grip slows enemy movement speed by 50% for 6 sec.

Improved Death Strike

• Max ranks reduced to 1, down from 3.
• Now available much earlier in the tree.

Here is a look at the updated tree with the new structure:




Unholy

As we mentioned previously, we have updates to both the baseline and talent tree for Unholy. These will be available in the next Alpha update. The baseline changes focus on helping reduce the cooldown desync as well as baking in existing talents to help the flow and feel of the spec. Additionally, the Unholy tree itself experienced substantial iteration and has been mostly redesigned and restructured with 11 new talents.

Below is a list of changes previously mentioned, as well as new talents. The below list does not document each individual restructuring of existing talents, as that’s quite substantial, but we do have a screenshot of the tree below to help contextualize what can be expected.

Abilities

Death Coil

• Runic Power cost reduced to 30, down from 40.

Epidemic

• Damage increased by 20%

Scourge Strike/Clawing Shadows

• Damage increased 20%

Talents

General

• All 3 max rank talents have been reduced to max 2 rank (where applicable)

Deadly Coil

• Cut

Unholy Command

• No longer reduces the CD of Dark Transformation when dealing damage with Death Coil
• Now reduces the cooldown of Dark Transformation by 8/15 seconds.

Army of the Damned

• Now reduces the cooldown of Apocalypse by 45 seconds (No longer reduced by Death Coil)
  
  • Death Coil still reduces the cooldown of Army of the Dead
• No longer summons a Magus of the Dead when Apocalypse or Army of the Dead are cast

Summon Gargoyle

• Duration reduced to 30s, down from 35s
• Now gains 1% damage per 1 runic power spent (down from 1% per 2 runic power)
  
  • At first read this can be confusing but it is a buff to the damage ramp for Gargoyle.

Improved Scourge Strike – Increases the damage of Scourge Strike by 10/20%

• Cut

New Talent – Feasting Strikes: Festering Strike and Scourge Strike/Clawing Shadows have 15% chance to generate 1 Rune.

New Talent – Runic Mastery: Increases Maximum Runic Power by 10/20.

New Talent – Plaguebringer: Scourge Strike causes your disease damage to occur 150% more quickly for 5 sec.

New Talent – Magus of the Dead: Apocalypse and Army of the Dead also summon a Magus of the Dead who hurls Frostbolts and Shadow Bolts at your foes.

• Magus of the Dead’s Shadow Bolt damage increased by 20%.
• Magus of the Dead’s Frostbolt damage increased by 10%
• Magus of the Dead’s Frostbolt slow duration increased to 6 sec and 60% slow (up from 4 seconds and 50%)

New Talent – Ruptured Viscera: When your ghouls expire, they explode in viscera dealing Shadow damage to nearby enemies.

New Talent – Commander of the Dead: Dark Transformation also empowers your Gargoyle and Army of the Dead for 30 seconds, increasing their damage by 40%.

New Talent – Eternal Agony: Death Coil increases the duration of Dark Transformation by 1 sec.

New Talent – Coil of Devastation: Death Coil causes the target to take an additional 35% of the direct damage dealt over 4 sec.

New Talent – Rotten Touch: Sudden Doom causes your next Death Coil to also increase your Scourge Strike damage against the target by 30% for 6 sec.

[NYI] New Talent - Plaguebearer: Inflict disease upon your enemies spreading Festering Wounds equal to the amount currently active on your target to 8 nearby enemies (45s cooldown, 30 Runic Power).

• This ability may not make it into the next Alpha build.

New Talent – Superstrain: Your Virulent Plague also applies Frost Fever and Blood Plague.

• Currently grants full effectiveness for the other diseases. Tuning is always likely to change in future builds.
• Please note: Morbidity will now also scale damage from FF and BP because of this the damage per rank has been reduced.

The new and updated Unholy tree looks like this:



Thank you very much for all of your discussion and feedback.

We look forward to hearing more from you about the updated trees.

We’re aware of a bug that caused the current Season to initialize with the incorrect MMR scaling for this region.

We’ve been working on a fix for this, and while we don’t know when we’re going to be able to apply it, once we do, you should see players move to the MMR that you expect for them.

Sorry for the confusion. Thank you for your patience on this.

You know the score. The Lich King, perhaps Azeroth’s most infamous villain, is returning. The last time he set his eyes on a goal, it didn’t end well for anyone involved—just ask Illidan Stormrage. But before you can take the fight to Northrend, first you must deal with more pressing matters. The Lich King is already making his first move, eager to stop Azeroth’s greatest heroes dead in their tracks—quite literally—with a fresh variant of the Scourge plague. It is up to you to survive it if you hope to journey to the frozen wastes of Northrend to stop him.

The Zombie Infestation

Starting the week of September 6, astute observers will notice shipments of Conspicuous Crates arriving at less than reputable ports like Booty Bay. These highly contagious containers will infect anyone who touches them with a deadly variant of the Scourge plague. If you need assistance to avoid a grisly death, look for a nearby Argent Healer to cleanse yourself. Player characters capable of dispelling diseases can also help you recover… for now.

Zombified!

If you’re unable to get rid of the disease, you’ll become a Plague Zombie. While you’ll still have control of your character, you will no longer have access to any abilities you had while living (or unliving, if you were Forsaken). Instead, you’ll gain new abilities that will help you accomplish your new goal as a servant of the Lich King: to infect as many people as possible! As a zombie, you can use the following skills against players and NPCs alike:

• Melee: Infects the target with the plague and heals you.
  
• Mangle!: An instant attack that shortens the time the infection takes to zombify the victim.
  
• Retch!: Retches on the ground, creating a gas cloud that heals zombies and slows living targets, infecting them after a certain period.
  
• Beckoning Groan: Calls up to 4 non-player zombies to aid you.
  
• Lurch!: Increases the speed of nearby zombies (including yourself).
  
• Zombie Explosion!: Burst into pieces, destroying yourself but infecting those around you.

Any targets you infect will eventually become Plague Zombies if not treated. In time large populated areas will become too dangerous to dwell in. If you’re looking to avoid infection, it is best to avoid these places *ahem* like the plague.

If you get killed as a zombie, you can be resurrected by another player, by the spirit healer, or by running back to your corpse. Once you return to life, you’ll be back to normal, but you can still be re-infected, so be on your toes!


It gets worse…

As the week progresses, more Conspicuous Crates will be delivered to every capital city in the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. Beware of vermin like Plagued Roaches as they can spread the plague, even when dealt with from a safe distance. The infection’s incubation time will become shorter and shorter, and harder to overcome. Plagued Residents, former common citizens unable to fight off the plague, will also terrorize starting areas, bringing additional challenges for fledgling heroes to overcome.

Over time, the once plentiful Argent Healers will see their forces spread too thin to contain the infestation, and the plague will become more and more resistant to magic. And this seemingly unstoppable disease is just the beginning….

The Scourge Invasion

Starting the week of September 13, the Scourge Invasion will begin. Having survived the assault on Naxxramas (you wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?) Kel’Thuzad is ready to once more advance the Lich King’s efforts by striking at strategic locations all over Azeroth. The dread citadel Naxxramas has left the Eastern Plaguelands for good, absconding to the icy continent of Northrend.

In addition to dealing with the ever-growing Zombie Infestation, you’ll be tasked with investigating the Scourge activity within the major cities and thwarting invasions throughout Azeroth. Keep your eye on your map (M) to locate activity hotspots and put a stop to them.

In each invasion point, you’ll engage with rare undead who each have a chance to drop various helpful items. Find the Argent Quartermaster, located outside of Light's Hope Chapel in Eastern Plaguelands to exchange items obtained from invasion points for various goods, including parts of the epic Undead Slaying and Undead Cleansing sets.

Additional foes can be found in the Dire Maul, Razorfen Downs, Scarlet Monastery, Scholomance, Shadowfang Keep, and Stratholme dungeons:

• Revanchion inside Dire Maul
  
• Lady Falther'ess inside Razorfen Downs
  
• Scorn in Scarlet Monastery
  
• Lord Blackwood in Scholomance
  
• Sever in Shadowfang Keep
  
• Balzaphon in Stratholme

Level 70 players can obtain a raid quest in any capital city in Azeroth (Chamber of Secrets) to hunt down and destroy Prince Tenris Murkblood in Karazhan. The prince can drop the Vampiric Batling pet and the coveted Arcanite Ripper. This two-handed axe is guaranteed to rock the casbah.


The Aftermath

All good(?) things must come to an end. Eventually the Alliance and the Horde will work together to find a cure for the Zombie Infestation and push the Scourge back to where they came from. The Lich King’s plans will be temporarily halted as the pre-expansion events end and Wrath of the Lich King Classic launches—just in time for you to hop on the nearest langskip to Northrend. Savor your victory, hero… while you still can.