World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies RSS Feed

by Published on 2023-06-26 07:33 PM

Augmentation Evoker Official Preview
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Emberthal and Ebyssian are working together to release the Black dragonflight essence that had been siphoned from the Dracthyr during their long stasis, unlocking memories and powers forgotten to them.


The result of their efforts will be felt by all Dracthyr Evokers as they'll gain access to a brand-new Specialization: Augmentation, available immediately with the release of the Fractures in Time Update!



What is the Augmentation Spec?


Augmentation is a new Damage Dealer role with a twist: they use the essence of the Black and Bronze dragonflights to amplify the abilities of nearby allies. The playstyle for this new specialization involves empowering your allies with a variety of beneficial effects. Some can be cast directly on your allies, while others are tied to using your damage-dealing abilities effectively.

Augmentation Evokers deliver their damage in a wholly unique way. They act as force multipliers, increasing their group's capabilities (and damage output) significantly.



Augmenting Allies

Certain Augmentation abilities (see some examples below) buff either your whole party or specific members. Many of these have smart or proximity-based automatic targeting, enabling you to maintain focus on the battlefield and enemy selection. You will still be able to target specific party members if you desire; however, there is plenty of freedom to bolster your allies as you see fit.

Like the other Evoker specs, Augmentation makes use of familiar capabilities like spending Essence, using your mobility to navigate the battlefield effectively, and making use of empowered spells.


Upheaval in action!




The Power of Black and Bronze


These sample abilities for Augmentation should give you an idea of what each aspect of magic brings to the table. Black dragonflight magic focuses on raw power increases and forceful outbursts of earthen might. Bronze dragonflight magic is all about bending time, changing fate, and shifting timelines to tremendous effect.

Ebon Might

  • 1.5 second cast, 30 second cooldown.
  • Increase your 4 nearest allies’ primary stat by a percentage of your own, and cause your Eruption to deal more damage for 10 sec. Some of your other spells extend the duration of these effects.

Eruption

  • 2 second cast. Costs 3 Essence. Replaces Disintegrate.
  • Cause a violent eruption beneath an enemy’s feet, dealing Volcanic damage split between them and nearby enemies. Increases the duration of your active Ebon Might effects.

Upheaval

  • 2.5 second empower, 40 second cooldown.
  • Gather earthen power beneath your enemy’s feet and send them hurtling upwards, dealing Volcanic damage to them and nearby enemies. Empowering expands the area of effect. Increases the duration of your active Ebon Might effects.

Breath of Eons

  • 1.5 minute cooldown. Replaces Deep Breath.
  • Fly to the targeted location, exposing Temporal Wounds on enemies in your path for 10 sec. Temporal Wounds accumulate a portion of damage dealt by your allies, and then critically strike the enemy for that amount at the end of the duration. Increases the duration of your active Ebon Might effects.



A Great Display of Talent


With access to a brand-new spec tree, Augmentation Evokers can choose to further specialize in Bronze or Black magic, as well as discover new ways to power up their allies.

Draconic Attunements (Passive)

  • Learn to attune yourself to the essence of the Black or Bronze dragonflights:
    • Black Attunement grants you and your 4 nearest allies increased maximum health.
    • Bronze Attunement grants you and your 4 nearest allies increased movement speed.

Blistering Scales

  • Protect an ally with explosive dragonscales, increasing their Armor by a percentage of your own. Melee attacks against them cause a scale to explode, dealing Volcanic damage to enemies near them.

Bestow Weyrnstone

  • Conjure a pair of Weyrnstones, one for your target ally and one for yourself. A weyrnstone can be activated by the bearer to transport them to the other Weyrnstone's location if they are within 100 yds.



Expand Your Horizons

Augmentation Evokers offers a unique opportunity to delve into a playstyle never seen before in World of Warcraft. While we're still working on some aspects of this new paradigm (like introducing some new combat log hooks so that addons and community websites can effectively measure your performance, for example), we hope you've enjoyed this early look at it. We'll see you in the Dragon Isles!
by Published on 2023-06-26 12:41 AM

This Week's Scheduled Maintenance for Diablo IV and World of Warcraft - June 27
Blizzard has released the scheduled maintenance for the week of June 27. Diablo IV is scheduled to have two maintenance windows, on June 26 and June 27, both lasting approximately 5 hours from 9:00 AM PDT until 2:00 PM PDT.

Please note that due to Diablo IV's Global Play, the maintenance will occur during prime time in Europe, from 6:00 PM CEST to 11:00 PM CEST. For further updates, you can follow Blizzard CS or Blizzard CS EU on Twitter.

Update: The maintenance schedule has been updated with the following notice: During this time, players may experience interruptions of service including disconnects, but should be able to log back in.

by Published on 2023-06-24 05:50 PM

Arena World Championship Dragonflight Season 2 - Cup 2
Arena World Championship is back for Dragonflight Season 2! Watch teams compete to advance through the tournament, which features a total prize pool of $400,000 across the entire season.


by Published on 2023-06-24 02:55 AM

Class Tuning Incoming with the Weekly Reset - June 27
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Working from player feedback and internal data, we’ve developed the following class tuning changes to address several over- and under-performing classes. These adjustments will be applied to the live game with scheduled weekly maintenance on Tuesday, June 27 in this region.

Classes

Death Knight
  • Blood
    • All damaging abilities increased by 6.5%.

Demon Hunter
  • Havoc
    • Chaos Strike/Annihilation damage increased by 15%.
    • Melee autoattack damage increased by 15%.
    • Demon Blades damage increased by 15%.
    • Demon’s Bite damage increased by 15%.
    • Felblade damage increased by 15%.

Druid
  • Feral
    • All damaging abilities increased by 3%.

Hunter
  • Beast Mastery
    • Kill Shot damage increased by 10%. This does not apply to PvP combat.
  • Marksmanship
    • Aimed Shot, Kill Shot, and Rapid Fire damage increased by 10%. Kill Shot damage increase does not apply to PvP combat.

Monk
  • Windwalker
    • All damaging abilities increased by 3%.

Priest
  • Shadow
  • Developers’ notes: Shadow has been overperforming in AoE environments. We’re bringing down some of its sources of AoE and increasing the damage of some direct damage to offset this in single target.
    • Mind Blast damage increased by 10%.
    • Shadow Word: Death damage increased by 10%.
    • Mind Spike: Insanity damage increased by 10%.
    • Mind Spike damage increased by 10%.
    • Mind Flay: Insanity damage increased by 10%.
    • Mind Flay damage increased by 10%.
    • Void Bolt damage increased by 10%.
    • Void Spike damage from Idol of Yogg-Saron reduced by 35%.
    • Psychic Link now causes direct damage spells to inflict 25% of their damage onto all other targets with Vampiric Touch (was 30%).
  • Holy
  • Developers’ notes: Holy Priests have continued to trail behind other healers in DPS output, so we’re increasing the damage of a variety of spells to bring them more in line.
    • Holy Fire damage increased by 10%.
    • Smite damage increased by 15%.
    • Holy Word: Chastise damage increased by 35%.
    • Shadow Word: Death damage increased by 25%.

Shaman
  • Restoration
    • Aberrus (2) Set Bonus: Tidewaters healing increased by 40%.
    • Aberrus (4) Set Bonus: Duration of Rainstorm increased to 8 seconds (was 6 seconds).

Warrior
  • Protection
    • Defensive Stance increased to 20% damage reduction (was 15%).

Player Versus Player

Items
  • Gladiator’s Distinction primary stat bonus reduced to 20% (was 25%) for all damage dealing and tank specializations.

Druid
  • Balance
  • Developers’ notes: The cast time on Cyclone is too fast for enemy players to deal with, so we’re reducing its cast speed from Owlkin Adept and also reducing Precognition’s haste in Fractures in Time. Solar Beam’s duration lasting 8 seconds was an oversight, as it should have been reduced in the crowd control reduction pass in Embers of Neltharion.
    • Owlkin Adept reduces the cast time of Cylcone and Entangling Roots by 15% (was 20%).
    • Solar Beam lasts 6 seconds in PvP combat (was 8 seconds).
  • Restoration
    • Reactive Resin’s snare duration increased to 8 seconds (was 5 seconds).
    • Verdant Infusion now extends heal-over-time effects by 4 seconds (was 8 seconds) in PvP combat.
    • Master Shapeshifter now refunds 2500 Mana from Ironfur (was 1250), 3500 Mana from Wrath / Starfire / Starsurge (was 2000), and 10000 Mana from spending 5 combo points in Cat Form (was 5000) at level 70.

Monk
  • Mistweaver
    • Enveloping Mist healing is now increased by 12% in PvP combat (was 5%).

Priest
  • Catharsis now stores 15% of damage taken (was 20%) and the stored amount cannot exceed 12% of the Priest’s maximum health (was 15%).
  • Discipline
  • Developers’ notes: Discipline damage and Atonement healing continues to be lower than we’d like in PvP, so we’re increasing them to allow Discipline to be more offensive.
    • All damage increased by 10% in PvP combat.
    • Atonement healing is now increased by 70% in PvP combat (was 50%).
  • Shadow
  • Developers’ notes: Instant damage from Catharsis and Unfurling Darkness is accounting for more of Shadow’s burst damage than we’re aiming for, so we’re bringing their power down. Shadow is also getting PvE damage buffs that affect PvP, which puts some of this power loss back into rotational spells.
    • Unfurling Darkness now deals 25% reduced damage in PvP combat.

Rogue
  • Subtlety
    • Secret Technique damage is now reduced by 40% in PvP combat (was 33%).
    • Thief’s Bargain (PvP Talent) damage penalty increased to 10% (was 6%).

Shaman
  • Developers’ notes: We’re redistributing the amount of healing from instant cast sources for all Shaman and increasing the power of cast heals, so that cast heals are both more frequent and more meaningful.
    • Healing Stream healing is now increased by 20% in PvP combat (was 30%).
  • Elemental
    • Earth Shield healing is now reduced by 60% in PvP combat (was 70%).
    • Healing Surge healing is now increased by 20% in PvP combat.
  • Enhancement
    • Earth Shield healing is now reduced by 60% in PvP combat (was 70%).
    • Healing Surge healing is now increased by 4% in PvP combat (was reduced by 13%).
  • Restoration
    • Earth Shield healing is now reduced by 15% in PvP combat.
    • Healing Surge healing is now increased by 27% in PvP combat (was 6%).
    • Healing Wave healing is now increased by 56% in PvP combat (was 30%).
    • Water Shield’s melee attack Mana refund is now 20% effective in PvP combat (was 50%).
    • Water Shield now regenerates 75% more Mana from its passive effect in PvP combat.

Warlock
  • Developers’ notes: We’re targeting the defensive power of Demonology with these changes as they are often a difficult target to take down relative to other DPS specs. We’re also lowering the healing from Mortal Coil to lower overall self-healing from Warlocks in PvP.
  • Mortal Coil healing is now 50% effective in PvP combat.
  • Soul Link’s shared damage with the Warlock’s pet is now 50% effective in PvP combat.
  • Profane Bargain’s increase to the effectiveness of Soul Link at low health is now 40% effective in PvP combat.
by Published on 2023-06-23 08:45 PM

Upcoming Zskarn Changes with the Weekly Reset
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Hi all,

We have seen some concerns regarding the difficulty of the Zskarn encounter and wanted share some changes that are planned for after next week’s resets:

The Vigilant Steward, Zskarn

  • Dragonfire Traps now activate consistently based on Zskarn’s location.
  • Elimination Protocol damage reduced by 20%.
  • Elimination Protocol damage amplification reduced to 300% (was 500%).
  • Salvage Parts duration increased to 120 seconds (was 60 seconds).

If any further changes are planned, they’ll be posted about next week. Thank you for your feedback!

Site Navigation