Blue Posts - Conduits, Legendaries, Rogue and Hunter Changes, Torghast Bug

[Stoy]

Shadowlands Beta - Build 36165

Shadowlands Conduits Update

In this week’s Shadowlands Beta build, Soulbinds have had their tree layouts changed in a small, but important, way. All Soulbinds now have access to 2 Potency Conduit sockets, whereas previously all trees had 3 Potency sockets. The goal of this change is to increase the flexibility of Soulbinds, and make it more viable to use one Soulbind for multiple specializations.

Due to Potency Conduits’ effects being mostly spec-specific, they are the Conduits most likely to make a Soulbind layout feel locked-in to one specialization. While we expect this to be a natural way for many players to engage with Soulbinds –- picking one Soulbind per spec, and building them out accordingly –- we want to make sure there is room to discover other setups that work for you, based on the content you prefer to participate in.

The removed Potency sockets have been replaced with either an Endurance or Finesse sockets which, by virtue of primarily being class-wide effects, are easier to justify using across multiple specializations.

We’re looking forward to seeing how you choose to build out your Soulbinds, and your continuing feedback on this system!

Shadowlands Legendaries -- October 7

We are currently in the process of tuning Legendary items, so in this latest Shadowlands Beta build, you may see many a number of Legendary effects have had their power reduced.

We’ve recently had internal discussions about our tuning targets for Legendaries and concluded that we were aiming too low with respect to their power. We’re working through another tuning pass on all of these items, and you should see further adjustments in an upcoming build.

FEEDBACK: Rogue Class Changes

Thank you for all of the feedback about Shadow Vault. We set out to create a cool new AoE finisher for Subtlety Rogues, but heard your feedback that Shadow Vault was frustrating due to its knockup effect.

Additionally, the visual similarity with Shuriken Storm was bound to get repetitive as you alternate between the generator and finisher. We created a new visual kit based on the idea of launching an explosive black powder over the heads of your enemies.

Please let us know what you think about this version of the finisher.

FEEDBACK: Hunter Class Changes

Hello.

In this week’s PTR and Shadowlands Beta builds, the 5% bonus damage component has been removed from the Hunter’s Mark ability.

Hunter’s Mark is a cool Hunter class ability with unique functionality that we don’t want to get rid of, so we’re adjusting it to be solely for utility as its core functionality.

Hunter’s Mark will remain on the GCD, and it will still provide visibility against a stealthed target.

FEEDBACK: Torghast, Tower of the Damned

We have a known issue with the new build of the Shadowlands Beta that is going up today. Players in a group may encounter an issue when queuing for Torghast.

When you encounter this bug, the “Climb” button for queuing will displays an error that reads, “Please gather your party before queuing.”
To avoid this issue, form your Torghast party before entering the Torghast portal.

If you’re already in a group, this issue can be resolved by remaining grouped, exiting the Torghast lobby, and re-entering the Torghast portal. Doing so should display a red button for “Climb”, and the party leader can now queue the group.

Thanks!

[taishar68]

Interesting change on the conduits. I had just noticed that 2 of the 12 possible Soulbinds had 3 Endurance conduits, and no soulbind had 3 Finesse conduits, so now that’s changed.

Now the sims will tell us if one soul bind is best in all specs or not for a given class, here’s hoping that’s not the case, it’ll be less frustrating for folks who are trying to be ultra optimal.

[Pury]

Yay for hungers, good change =)

[thilicen]

So one good change for conduits: Every soulbind now gets their last potency conduit on the same row. Used to be that some would offer the last slot one row further in thus time-gating access for some soulbinds longer than others. That's done with.

For people who enjoy playing more than one spec for pvp / pve / m+ / raids / open world however they are still as dogshit as they were yesterday.

[Zorachus]

Here's a solution, just get rid of Conduits altogether. Go back to WoW era of MoP and earlier.

No artifact gear. No Azerite gear or Essences, or Corruption. No Conduits. Don't use anything like that in WoW, go back to earlier expansions that never had that stuff.

Raid to get the best gear. Do Dungeons for second best gear. That's it.

Casuals can do World Quests for third best option.

[Az0na]

sadly gonna be nother expansion or 2 before they realize they had already had goose lay the golden eggs and was no need to change it. all they had to do make good content.

[taishar68]

So one good change for conduits: Every soulbind now gets their last potency conduit on the same row. Used to be that some would offer the last slot one row further in thus time-gating access for some soulbinds longer than others. That's done with.

For people who enjoy playing more than one spec for pvp / pve / m+ / raids / open world however they are still as dogshit as they were yesterday.

I get that for some people, ultra optimal is the ONLY way to play, as I mentioned above, but I think there is too much doom and gloom about having to respec the conduits. A little bit of "talking out of both sides of my mouth", I guess, but I don't see the crippling issue here.

[Harbour]

Most legendaries have already felt like a crap blue items, and now they nerf the even more. They dont feel legendary at all. Just a scuffed passives introduced as another goal to grind for.

[jellmoo]

Here's a solution, just get rid of Conduits altogether. Go back to WoW era of MoP and earlier.

No artifact gear. No Azerite gear or Essences, or Corruption. No Conduits. Don't use anything like that in WoW, go back to earlier expansions that never had that stuff.

Raid to get the best gear. Do Dungeons for second best gear. That's it.

Casuals can do World Quests for third best option.

Or, alternately, and hear me out here, we have multiple paths to high end gear.

[Eapoe]

So they nerfed everyone and the people so far in this thread are...happy?

[Crysis]

Here's a solution, just get rid of Conduits altogether. Go back to WoW era of MoP and earlier.

No artifact gear. No Azerite gear or Essences, or Corruption. No Conduits. Don't use anything like that in WoW, go back to earlier expansions that never had that stuff.

Raid to get the best gear. Do Dungeons for second best gear. That's it.

Casuals can do World Quests for third best option.

Agreed on the borrowed power, really not liking the suggestion theres only raids, dungeons and world quests. I think content is king. Torghast is awesome, Mage Tower was a blast. Lets have multiple ways to progress our characters, hell, even crafting could be fun again.

If they returned to new talent rows and new abilities based on purely class / spec, Id be absolutely fine with that.

[Oneirophobia]

The removed Potency sockets have been replaced with either an Endurance or Finesse sockets which, by virtue of primarily being class-wide effects, are easier to justify using across multiple specializations.

We’re looking forward to seeing how you choose to build out your Soulbinds, and your continuing feedback on this system!

Hm, well, that was my favourite part of the old talent system. Maybe I won't hate this after all. I hope we see some stupid shit reminiscent of PoM Pyro, SL/SL locks and whatever the hell the half-unholy-half-frost DK nonsense was.

[Peacemoon]

Great changes. Can’t wait for Shadowlands!

[Redroniksre]

Or, alternately, and hear me out here, we have multiple paths to high end gear.

This is the way to go in my opinion. As it stands right now queue-only andys really don't have any content in Shadowlands so either you get a group for M+ (or group finder) or you raid, otherwise your done in a couple weeks.

[Beet]

This hunter change bothers me. I don’t understand why we can’t have old school RPG buffs and debuffs like that. I’ve mained Hunter most of my time playing WoW since 2004, and I was super excited to dive back into it with Shadowlands. I liked iconic abilities such as this being used all the time. It’s cool and provides flavor. Blizzard needs to stop listening to the people who complain all the time about every little thing. It’s what got them in the situation they’re in now where they bleed players every year. They should go with their gut on these things and stop back tracking every damn time. It’s the same with the GCD changes they reverted on.

- - - Updated - - -

Here's a solution, just get rid of Conduits altogether. Go back to WoW era of MoP and earlier.

No artifact gear. No Azerite gear or Essences, or Corruption. No Conduits. Don't use anything like that in WoW, go back to earlier expansions that never had that stuff.

Raid to get the best gear. Do Dungeons for second best gear. That's it.

Casuals can do World Quests for third best option.

Yeah it would be nice wouldn’t it? I’d have thought they’d have learned by now that the game was at its peak during a specific time because the majority of players liked the way it was then. Just give us new stories, new raids, new abilities, etc but with the old fashioned MMO systems.

[Relapses]

Here's a solution, just get rid of Conduits altogether. Go back to WoW era of MoP and earlier.

No artifact gear. No Azerite gear or Essences, or Corruption. No Conduits. Don't use anything like that in WoW, go back to earlier expansions that never had that stuff.

Raid to get the best gear. Do Dungeons for second best gear. That's it.

Casuals can do World Quests for third best option.

What a brave comment.

[jellmoo]

This is the way to go in my opinion. As it stands right now queue-only andys really don't have any content in Shadowlands so either you get a group for M+ (or group finder) or you raid, otherwise your done in a couple weeks.

I dunno, it just seems to me that Blizzard could easily find ways to offer meaningfully difficult content with high end rewards for people that enjoy different aspects of the game. The "Raid or die" mentality is just so weird in a game that has changed so much in the last decade.

[SinR]

the thing that bothers me about the hunter change, are they buffing everything to compensate for that 5%?

[kinetk]

How can I quickly grab legendaries in beta to test ?

[Lucetia]

Hmmmmm ... did I read the Legendary blue post incorrectly? I thought they said they realized they were aiming too low on their power, and were planning to adjust them accordingly ( which I'm reading as them getting buffed ). Am I misreading that somehow?

It has a weird wording. It says that some were nerfed, but then later mentions that they realized they were aiming too low. So I would assume based on their wording is that some were getting nerfed while others were getting buffed and both probably reach a middle ground in terms of power. Some of the legendaries people felt were required and a bit overpowered and these are probably the targeted ones.