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by Published on 2023-01-06 08:44 PM

Dragonflight 10.0.5 PTR Development Notes - January 6
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Classes

  • Druid
    • Balance
      • Astral Communion, in addition to its active effect, also passively increases your maximum Astral Power by 20.
    • Guardian
      • Added a tracker buff for After the Wildfire to indicate remaining rage expenditure until a trigger occurs.
    • Restoration
      • New Talent - Forest’s Flow: Nourish extends the duration of your Lifebloom, Rejuvenation, Regrowth, and Wild Growth effects on the target by 2 sec. Choice node with Wild Synthesis.
      • New Talent - Wild Synthesis: Regrowth decreases the cast time of your next Nourish by 25% and causes it to receive an additional 25% bonus from Mastery: Harmony. Choice node with Forest’s Flow.
      • Forest’s Flow/Wild Synthesis choice node connection added below Nourish.
      • Nourish’s tooltip has been updated to reflect its bonus healing from Mastery Harmony numerically.
  • Monk
    • Classes
      • Fixed an issue that caused the Awakened Faeline and Faeline Harmony talents to grant less chance to reset Faeline Stomp than intended.
      • Faeline Stomp now always spawns with a minimum of 1 branch.
      • Faeline Stomp now has a 100% increased chance to spawn circles within its arc.
    • Mistweaver
      • Awakened Faeline and Ancient Concordance now linger for 8 seconds after leaving Faeline Stomp.
      • Sheilun’s Gift has received some additional changes:
        • Healing increased by 15%.
        • Now stacks to a maximum of 10 clouds of mist (was 12).
        • Now triggers Mastery: Gust of Mists on all targets hit.
        • Now costs 3.5% of base mana (was 4.5%).
        • Now prioritizes its primary target for healing.
      • Rising Mist now extends Renewing Mists applied by Rapid Diffusion.
      • Vivify now costs 3.4% of base mana (was 3.8%).
      • Invoke Yu’lon, the Jade Serpent now reduces the cost of Enveloping Mist by 50% (was 33%).
      • Echoing Reverberation now only requires Enveloping Mist to trigger an additional Zen Pulse (was Enveloping Mist and Renewing Mist).
      • Zen Pulse now triggers Mastery: Gust of Mist.
    • Brewmaster
      • New ability - Spirit of the Ox: Your Rising Sun Kick and Blackout Kick have a chance to summon a Healing Sphere.
      • Stagger is now a baseline ability for the Brewmaster specialization.
      • Quick Sip now purifies 5% of damage delayed by Stagger (was 2%).
      • Gift of the Ox is now a 1 rank talent (was 2).
      • Graceful Exit is now a 1 rank talent (was 2).
      • Quick Sip is now a 1 rank talent (was 2).
      • Staggering Strikes is now a 1 rank talent (was 2).
  • Paladin
    • Classes
      • Added a tracker buff for Afterimage to indicate remaining Holy Power expenditure until a trigger occurs.
    • Holy
      • Tyr’s Deliverance healing increased by 25%.
      • Afterimage no longer triggers Awakening or Divine Purpose.
      • Avenging Crusader can now trigger and consume Divine Purpose.
  • Priest
    • Classes
      • New talent: Sanguine Teachings - Increases Leech by 3%.
        • On a choice node against Vampiric Embrace.
      • Vampiric Embrace is no longer on the global cooldown.
      • San’layn now also causes Sanguine Teachings to grant an additional 2% Leech.
      • Manipulation can now be triggered by Discipline’s Power Word: Solace & Mind Blast and Shadow’s Mind Flay and Mind Flay: Insanity.
    • Shadow
      • Psychic Link now also functions with Mind Games, Void Bolt & Void Torrent (Not Yet Implemented).
  • Rogue
    • Classes
      • Feint is now baseline for all Rogue specs, learned at level 12.
      • Elusiveness/Cheat Death - This choice node has moved up to row 2, taking the position where Feint used to be.
      • New Talent: Unbreakable Stride (Passive) - Reduces the duration of movement slowing effects by 30%.
      • Sepsis now grants 1 use of a Stealth ability immediately, in addition to its previous effects.
      • Fixed an issue that prevented Improved Garrote’s cooldown removal from taking effect when casting Garrote using Sepsis’ Stealth ability effect.
    • Assassination
      • Kingsbane has moved and now shares a location with Dragon-Tempered Blades as a choice node.
      • Dashing Scoundrel now costs a maximum of 2 points, down from 3.
      • New Talent: Arterial Precision (Passive) - Shiv strikes 4 additional nearby enemies and increases your Bleed damage done to affected targets by 20% for 8 sec.
        • This talent is positioned in Kingsbane’s previous location.
    • Outlaw
      • Killing Spree now reduces damage taken by 65% while active.
      • Fan the Hammer’s additional Pistol Shots now generate 1 fewer combo point.
    • Subtlety
      • Invigorating Shadowdust now reduces affected cooldowns by 15/30 sec (was 10/20 sec).
      • Effectiveness reduced by 50% in PvP Combat.
  • Shaman
    • Classes
      • Mana Spring Totem has been renamed to Mana Spring and is a passive effect. (Not Yet Implemented).
  • Warlock
    • Demonology
      • Felstorm, Guillotine, and Demonic Strength now place one another on cooldown:
        • Felstorm places Guillotine and Demonic Strength on cooldown for 5 seconds.
        • Demonic Strength places Felstorm and Guillotine on cooldown for 5 seconds.
        • Guillotine places Felstorm and Demonic Strength on cooldown for 8 seconds.
          • Developers’ note: This should have no impact on Demonology’s overall throughput. This change exists to help alleviate confusion on when the Felguard is able to cast Felstorm, Guillotine, or Demonic Strength by providing a visual tell through the UI.
    • Destruction
      • Ashen Remains now causes Chaos Bolt, Incinerate, and Shadowburn to deal 5/10% increased damage to targets afflicted by Immolate.
      • Eradication now causes Chaos Bolt and Shadowburn to increase the damage you deal to the target by 5/10%.
      • Burn to Ashes now causes Chaos Bolt and Rain of Fire to increase the damage of your next 2 Incinerates by 15/30% and Shadowburn to increase the damage of your next Incinerate by 15/30%.
  • Warrior
    • Arms
      • Improved Sweeping Strikes now lasts 6 sec (was 5).
      • Improved Mortal Strike has been removed from the tree.
      • New Talent: Strength in Arms - Overpower has a 10% increased critical strike chance and on enemies below 35% health Overpower generates 8 Rage.
      • Fatal Mark duration increased to 120 sec (was 60 sec).
      • Storm of Swords causes Whirlwind to cost 20 more Rage (was 30).
    • Fury
      • Onslaught damage increased by 40% and now generates 30 Rage (was 25).
      • Tenderize now causes Enrage to last 2 sec longer (was 1 sec).
      • Storm of Steel now reduces Ravager damage by 30% (was 40%) and Rage granted increased to 20 (was 15).
      • Frenzied Flurry increases auto-attack damage with one-handed weapons by 30% (was 5%).
      • Unbridled Ferocity - Onslaught now triggers Recklessness in addition to Rampage.
      • Storm of Swords now increases Whirlwind damage by 80% (was 70%).
      • Anger Management now also decreases the cooldown of Ravager.
        • Developers’ note: With this update we are looking to increase the effectiveness of talents that are seeing less use.

Mage Tower

  • The Mage Tower is now available for testing.

Player Versus Player

  • Paladin
    • Reckoning (PvP Talent) now highlights Judgment when active.

Professions

  • All professions have had the requirements to unlock specializations reduced. Professions with 3 specialization trees have had their final unlock reduced from profession level 100 to 75. All professions with 4 specialization trees have had their final two unlocks reduced from profession level 75/100 to levels 60/75.

Trading Post

  • The Trading Post is currently disabled on the PTR. Thank you again for your testing and feedback!
by Published on 2023-01-06 06:16 PM

Solo Shuffle Update - January 6
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Happy New Year champions!

Before the holidays, we posted an update about future improvements that we’re working on for Rated Solo Shuffle, and we want to provide additional information on those updates. For additional information about Rated Solo Shuffle, please refer to the FAQ about Rated Solo Shuffle that was previously posted.

Coming with Weekly Restarts

Next week, we will make an update so that leaving a match will impact both Matchmaking Rating and Current Rating. We’ve received a great deal of player feedback indicating that losing only current rating has not been enough of a deterrent to leaving, and leaving is highly disruptive to the Solo Shuffle experience.

10.0.5 Improvements

We have several changes coming in 10.0.5 to improve how our system handles players who leave matches:

  • Rating will be calculated per-round in games with leavers.
    • This has been a recurring point of feedback that we agree with. The format of Solo Shuffle is intended to have all 6 rounds completed, as there can be composition or skill imbalances between individual rounds. Now, when rating is calculated for incomplete matches (matches with leavers), gains and losses will be scaled linearly based on the number of rounds completed.
  • Matchmaking Value for each player in a match will be displayed on the scoreboard.
    • We want to provide additional visibility to matchmaking. Matches are made based on the matchmaking rating of players, not their current rating. When a player enters a match, we determine the expected performance of players in the match based on player matchmaking rating (MMR). We take all the rounds into account, considering who was on each side and who won, so it matters which specific rounds the player wins, and not just the total number of rounds won, in calculating impact on MMR. We hope this helps players to better understand the matches they’re placed in, as well as rating changes of individual players based on the results of the match.



  • A warning prompt will display the penalties for leaving if a player attempts to leave a match.
    • If a player attempts to leave a match in progress, they will be prompted with a warning that indicates the repercussions of leaving including penalties and forfeiture of rewards. The warning will have a 5 second countdown and the player will be required to hit ‘Accept’ to leave. Our intent with this change is to make the leaver punishments more visible, as well as requiring additional acknowledgement from the leaving player.





Players who leave excessively will be subject to account review and suspensions, as abandoning matches repeatedly is a violation of the terms of service via exploiting functionality to the detriment of the game environment and the intended player experience.

Beyond 10.0.5

Looking to the future, we’re actively discussing options we might take to incentivize more healers to queue for Solo Shuffle to reduce the queue time for the damage role. This includes ways to make Solo Shuffle gameplay a more fun, rewarding experience for healers. We do not have anything to share about that right now, but in addition to leavers, it’s a foremost concern for the team.

We’re also looking into improving the UI further for both those in-queue and those who are about to queue.

As a team, we’re excited about Rated Solo Shuffle and we’re looking to iterate and improve on it in future patches. Your feedback has been valuable and greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much!
by Published on 2023-01-06 04:38 PM

Wrath Classic PTR - Testing a Death Knight Gargoyle Adjustment
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
We’ve just pushed a hotfix to the Wrath Classic PTR that will adjust to how the Summon Gargoyle spell inherits Haste from the Death Knight.

To help explain this adjustment and why we feel it’s needed, let’s take a quick look at how the Gargoyle currently functions.

Currently, a Gargoyle inherits the Haste and Attack Power stats from the Death Knight controlling it. One of the things that makes the Gargoyle particularly strong is that, for its entire duration, the Summon Gargoyle spell uses whatever Haste and Attack Power values the Death Knight has at the instant it’s cast. This is referred to as “snapshotting”, and savvy Death Knights who know to maximize their Haste and Attack power statistics via buffs, consumables, spell procs, and items can create a scenario where the Gargoyle benefits from massive gains to Haste and Attack Power for the entire duration of the spell. Some of these effects may only last a few seconds on the Death Knight, but it’s possible for players to snapshot over 370% Haste (and well over 400% for DKs who are also Trolls using Berserking) which reduces the cast time of Gargoyle Strike from 2 seconds all the way down to around 0.35 seconds for every cast while the Gargoyle is summoned.

The change we are testing will cause the cast time reduction on Gargoyle strike to be re-evaluated every time it is cast during the Summon Gargoyle duration based on the Death Knight’s current Haste, not the Haste value at the time of the initial spell cast. This change will not affect Attack Power.

We don’t make changes like this lightly, and indeed, we hoped not to make any changes like this one in Wrath Classic. However, the current data we have demonstrates that if left untouched, Death Knights stand to scale up significantly more than any other DPS class in the game for the remainder of Wrath of the Lich King Classic. Players have picked up on this of course, and the class is already starting to become over-represented in many raid groups across a variety of skill levels. As time goes by and more power is acquired, the more that groups will likely push to stack the class further.

Even after this change, we expect that Death Knights will still be producing the highest overall DPS in the game, but we hope that this will help curtail future scaling issues. We will be watching DK performance closely in the coming days and will make additional adjustments if we feel that this change ends up going too far.

We want to make it clear that we are not planning any further adjustments to any other classes for patch 3.4.1. We feel the class representation in raids is in a fairly good place right now across all classes, and we have no plans or desire for any further tuning adjustments. An adjustment like this one is for the sole purpose of preventing a specific class from becoming dramatically over or under-represented. We stated before that we will use the patch 3.3.5 class balance, with as few adjustments as possible, and we intend to stick to that.

Thank you all and we hope to see you over the weekend in Ulduar with us! Happy new year!
by Published on 2023-01-06 03:58 AM

Dragonflight Hotfixes - January 5, 2023
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Classes

  • Druid
    • Swiping Mangle now triggers from Mangles cast by Convoke the Spirits.
    • Mangles cast during Convoke the Spirits now consume Gore.
  • Evoker
    • Preservation
      • Fixed an issue where Mass Return was castable in arenas and battlegrounds.
  • Paladin
    • Retribution
      • Fixed an issue preventing Radiant Decree and Justicar's Vengeance from benefiting from Seal of Order.

Dungeons and Raids

  • Vault of the Incarnates
    • Terros
      • Reduced the damage of Rock Blast by 44% on LFR difficulty.

Items and Rewards

  • Fixed an issue that was causing the drop rate of various special reagents to be lower than intended from Elite creatures, and higher from normal creatures.
  • Added a small chance for Glowing Titan Orb to drop from the Titan Forged Refti and Uldaman Golems in addition to the Titan Watchers, Keepers, and Golems of Tyrhold.

Quests

  • Ohn’ahran Plains
    • The guards at the Fields of Ferocity have remembered the rules of engagement and will no longer attempt to assist players with the fight.
  • Valdrakken
    • Multiple issues have been fixed for The Ruby Feast questline that were blocking players from advancing to the next quests.
by Published on 2023-01-06 01:19 AM

Naxxramas Achievement Rewards to Remain Available Throughout Wrath Classic
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
As we approach Wrath Classic 3.4.1 and the release of Ulduar, we want to make sure all players know that the Glory of the Raider Black Proto-Drake, Plagued Proto-Drake, the Immortal title, and the Undying title will remain available to be earned throughout Wrath Classic.

Good luck earning these rewards in the months to come!

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