World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies

With scheduled weekly maintenance on February 7, we intend to deploy a number of tuning adjustments to specializations based on their performance in endgame content.

Due to the nature of our internal testing, some of these changes will also appear in the 10.0.7 PTR between now and February 7. This thread is for changes that will go into the live game on version 10.0.5 next week.

Druid

• Guardian
  
  • Armor from Ironfur increased by 20%.
  • Reinforced Fur now increases Armor from Ironfur by 15% and Barkskin’s damage reduction by 10% (was 8% and 5%).
  • Ursoc’s Fury now grants an absorb shield based on 50% of damage dealt by Thrash and Maul (was 30%).
  • Reinvigoration’s Frenzied Regeneration cooldown reduction increased to 20/40% (was 15/30%).
  • Layered Mane chance to proc increased to 10/20% (was 5/10%).
  • Lunar Beam healing increased by 130% and cooldown reduced to 1 minute.
• Developers’ notes: We are keeping a close eye on variances in survivability across tank specializations. These changes are intended to alleviate some difficulties Guardian Druids have been experiencing with certain damage types, as well as targeting some underperforming talents which were not delivering meaningful survivability improvements.

This is a work in progress, and we intend to add more tuning adjustments to the list above over the next few days.

Return to the Forbidden Reach

In a future PTR build, players return to the Forbidden Reach to learn more of the story of the dracthyr Evoker awakening now that the defeat of Raszageth has been secured. This zone includes new content for max-level players delving into the troubles left behind by the meddling of the Primalists and the chaos they’ve left behind among the elements. Players will discover hidden Treasure Rooms with the Dragonscale Expedition, encounter new bosses and objectives, more storms, new loot to add to their arsenal, and more.

More information on what to expect in the Forbidden Reach as the new content becomes available in later PTR builds.

The Monk Class Expands to New Races

• Lightforged Draenei, Worgen, and Goblin races have learned how to harness their Chi and can now become Monks.
• Lightforged Draenei and Worgen Monk NPCs have made their homes in Stormwind, Goblin Monk NPCs can be found in Kezan, Bilgewater Cartel, and a Goblin Monk NPC now sells sage advice in Orgrimmar.

Classes

• Death Knight
  
  • Unholy
    
    • Epidemic has swapped places with Unholy Blight within the talent tree.
    • Pestilence implementation has been updated to better reflect the functionality of the tooltip.
    • Rotten Touch duration increased to 10 seconds (was 6 seconds).
    • Runic Mastery now also increases Runic Corruption’s Rune regeneration rate by an additional 10/20%.
    • Commander of the Dead has been updated to always buff your nearby Gargoyle (or Dark Arbiter) and Army of the Dead Ghouls for 30 seconds after using Dark Transformation.
      
      • Developers’ note: The previous implementation of Commander of the Dead had too many edge cases where it would not always buff your minions or the window was too tight and created less than ideal rotational impact. We have instead updated it to be an aura around the Death Knight for the duration that will always buff their Gargoyle or Army of the Dead ghoul regardless of when they were spawned in after Dark Transformation was used.
    • Developers’ note: There are additional changes for Unholy Death Knights coming in future 10.0.7 PTR builds that aim to address some quality of life concerns and underperforming talents.
• Druid
  
  • Protector of the Pack’s cap now stores up to 400% of the Druid’s spell power for Balance, Feral, and Guardian and 300% spell power for Restoration (was 240% for all specializations).
  • Restoration
    
    • New Talent: Tranquil Mind – Increases Omen of Clarity’s chance to activate Clearcasting to 5% and Clearcasting can stack 1 additional time.
    • New Talent: Deep Focus – When Moonfire, Rake, Rip, or Rejuvenation are active on a single target, their effects are increased 40%.
    • Embrace of the Dream now also triggers on targets with the Regrowth heal over time effect.
    • Regenerative Heartwood now also extends the duration of Ironbark by 4 seconds.
    • Natural Wisdom is now a baseline effect on Innervate for Restoration Druids. No longer increases mana regeneration by 5% and the additional Innervate’s effectiveness has been reduced to 50% (was 100%).
    • Improved Wild Growth has moved to a new location one slot to the right.
    • Cultivation has moved to Improved Wild Growth’s previous location.
    • Nourish has moved to Cultivation’s previous location.
    • Tranquil Mind occupies Nourish’s previous location.
    • The Forest’s Flow/Wild Synthesis choice node has moved to a new location directly below Nourish’s new location.
    • Embrace of the Dream and Budding Leaves have swapped locations.
    • Germination and Power of the Archdruid have swapped locations.
    • Invigorate is no longer on a choice node with Power of the Archdruid and has moved locations to directly beneath Overgrowth.
    • Power of the Archdruid is now on a choice node with Undergrowth.
    • Circle of Life and Death is now on a choice node with Deep Focus.
• Evoker
  
  • Dracthyr’s racial ability Chosen Identity will now also cause Dracthyr to automatically assume their Visage form when they resurrect.
  • Dracthyr now know the Aerial Halt ability, like Dragonriding drakes, that allows them to significantly reduce their forward movement.
  • Draconic Legacy now increases Stamina by 3%/6% (was 2%/4%).
  • Foci of Life has been redesigned – Renewing Blaze restores you more quickly, causing damage you take to be healed back over 4 seconds.
  • Ancient Flame has been redesigned – Casting Emerald Blossom or Verdant Embrace reduces the cast time of your next Living Flame by 40%.
  • Ancient Flame has been moved to Roar of Exhilaration’s location in the talent tree.
  • Roar of Exhilaration has been removed.
  • Devastation
    
    • Verdant Embrace healing increased by 35%.
• Monk
  
  • Mistweaver
    
    • Thunder Focus Tea now causes Enveloping Mist to become instant cast in addition to its current effect.
• Paladin
  
  • Protection
    
    • Faith in the Light’s block value increased to 15/30% (was 5/10%).
    • Focused Enmity has been redesigned – When Avenger’s Shield strikes a single enemy, it deals additional Holy damage.
    • Corrected a tooltip error with Light of the Titan’s heal over time effect.
  • Retribution
    
    • A major rework to Retribution Paladin is underway and more changes will be coming in future PTR builds. For details on the changes, visit this forum post: Retribution Paladin Design in 10.0.7
• Priest
  
  • Discipline
    
    • Fixed an issue causing Expiation to deal more damage than intended and ignore damage reduction effects.
• Shaman
  
  • Earth Elemental and Primal Earth Elemental no longer taunt or pulse threat to enemies the Shaman is not in combat with.
  • Earth Elemental and Primal Earth Elemental no longer taunt or pulse threat to enemies that are attacking a player with a tank specialization.
  • Astral Shift duration increased to 12 seconds (was 8 seconds).
  • Planes Traveler no longer increases the duration of Astral Shift.
  • Astral Bulwark now reduces damage taken by an additional 20% (was 15%).
  • Improved Lightning Bolt removed.
  • Thunderstorm has been moved to Improved Lightning Bolt’s position in the talent tree.
  • Lightning Bolt damage increased by 20% for all specializations.
  • Go With the Flow now reduces the cooldown of Spirit Walk by 10/20 seconds (was 7.5/15 seconds).
  • Thunderous Paws can now trigger once every 20 seconds (was 60 seconds).
  • Poison Cleansing Totem now removes all Poisons effects from the target (was 1).
  • Enfeeblement now applies during Hex and lasts for 6 seconds after Hex ends.
  • Ancestral Wolf Affinity has moved to the class tree and removed from all specialization trees.
  • Focused Insight has moved to the Enhancement and Elemental specialization trees in place of Ancestral Wolf Affinity.
    
    • Developers’ note: This is intentionally being removed from Restoration to avoid having too many talents that modify heal values.
  • Swirling Currents has been redesigned – Increases the healing done by Healing Stream Totem and Cloudburst Totem by 10%/20%.
  • Several talents have moved positions in the class tree.
  • Healing Stream Totem has swapped positions with Spiritwalker’s Grace in the talent tree.
  • Swirling Currents has swapped positions with Graceful Spirit/Spiritwalker’s Aegis in the talent tree.
  • Ancestral Guidance has swapped positions with Nature’s Swiftness in the talent tree.
  • Nature’s Guardian has swapped positions with Totemic Surge in the talent tree.
  • Earth Shield has swapped positions with Earth Elemental in the talent tree.
  • Elemental Orbit has been moved under Earth Shield in the talent tree.
  • Starter builds have been updated for all 3 specializations.
  • Restoration
    
    • Lightning Bolt damage has been increased by 35%.
    • Chain Lightning damage increased by 35%.
    • Wellspring healing reduced by 30%.
    • Water Shield has been removed from the talent tree and is now learned at level 12.
    • Resurgence has moved to Water Shield’s position in the talent tree.
    • New Talent: Current Control – Reduces the cooldown of Healing Tide Totem by 30 seconds.
    • New Talent: Tide Turner – The lowest health target of Healing Tide Totem is healed for 30% more and receives 15% more healing from you for 4 seconds.
    • A choice node has been added below Mana Tide Totem:
      
      • New Talent: Temporary Name [Name Not Final] – Increases the duration and radius of Mana Tide Totem.
      • New Talent: Spiritwalker’s Tidal Totem – After using Mana Tide Totem, the cast time of Healing Wave and Chain Heal is reduced and the mana cost of Healing Wave and Chain Heal are reduced for 10 seconds.
    • Flow of the Tides now grants an additional bounce of Chain Heal in addition to its current effect.
    • Unleash Life now converts 40% of Wellspring overhealing to an absorb shield (was 25%).
    • Ever-Rising Tide has been removed.
    • Downpour has been moved to Ever-Rising Tide’s position in the talent tree.
    • Nature’s Focus has been removed.
    • The PvP Talent Tidebringer has moved to Nature’s Focus’ position as a 2-point talent.
    • A connection has been added between Tidebringer and Primal Tide Core/High Tide.
    • Chain Heal’s tooltip has been updated to indicate its jump distance to give more context to the Tidebringer talent.
    • Call of Thunder has been removed.
    • Stormkeeper has been moved to Call of Thunder’s position in the talent tree.
    • Acid Rain and Overflowing Shores are no longer on a choice node together. Acid Rain remains in its position and Overflowing Shores is directly below Healing Rain.

Dragonriding

• Discover new Dragonriding Glyphs in the Forbidden Reach to unlock 2 new Dragonriding traits:
  
  • Aerial Halt – Flap back, reducing forward movement.
  • Airborne Recovery – Activating Aerial Halt while affected by Thrill of the Skies generates 1 Vigor.
• 16 new customization manuscripts have been added.
• Put your dragonriding skills to the test in 6 new races.
• Dragonriding racing world quests have a new icon.
• Fixed an issue where player spell visual effects such as Shadowform and Glyph of the Stars Moonkin Form were being applied on the dragons while customizing in the Rostrum of Transformation.

Enemies and NPCs

• Orc, Tauren, and Highmountain Tauren Priest NPCs are now located in Orgrimmar, and Thunder Bluff has welcomed their first Highmountain Tauren and Tauren Priest NPCs.

Items and Rewards

• Item levels on legacy raids in the Dungeon Journal should now properly reflect the dropped items once more.
• Vendors have found a use Dragonflight enchanting materials and are now interested in purchasing them:
  
  • Chromatic Dust: 1g 50s
  • Vibrant Shard: 7g 50s
  • Resonant Crystal: 20g
• The Balance of Power questline artifact appearance rewards are now account-wide. After unlocking the base appearance, the criteria for additional color variants (such as the Glory of the Legion Hero and Unleashed Monstrosities achievements) may be completed on any character to earn the appearances.

Player Versus Player

• Druid
  
  • Restoration
    
    • Tranquility healing is now increased by 100% while in arena combat with 5 or less allied players.
    • Keeper of the Grove’s (PvP Talent) healing increase has been reduced to 20% additional healing (was 100%).
• Monk
  
  • Mistweaver
    
    • Revival healing is now increased by 100% while in arena combat with 5 or less allied players.
    • Restoral healing is now increased by 100% while in arena combat with 5 or less allied players.
• Shaman
  
  • Restoration
    
    • Healing Tide Totem healing is now increased by 100% while in arena combat with 5 or less allied players.
    • Living Tide reduces the cooldown of Healing Tide Totem by 60 seconds (was 90 seconds) and it heals for 25% more each time it pulses (was 100%).

Professions

• Added a new Profession Specialization summary screen which can be viewed for any unlocked profession specializations (artwork is not final).
  
  
  
  
  • Developers’ note: The intent of this is to summarize what each specialization is about and make it easy to pick which ones you want to go with. For those of you that want more detail, you can always jump to the full specialization tree. As always, feedback on this change is very much appreciated!
• Engineering
  
  • Zapthrottle Soul Inhaler has received several quality of life improvements:
    
    • The device can now be used while moving.
    • The channel time of the device has been reduced to 4 seconds (was 12 seconds)
    • Channeling the device for its full duration now marks the target elemental for 30 seconds. Slaying it during this window will also grant its soul.
    • The cooldown for a successful soul capture has been reduced to 5 minutes (was 15 minutes).

Later today, we intend to reduce the difficulty of XT-002 Deconstructor on Hard Mode via a hotfix.

We’ll let you know the details of the tuning here when it goes live, and you’ll find it in our hotfixes update thereafter.