wow Patch 7.2.5 PTR Patch Notes

[Stan 5,240]

The official PTR Patch Notes have been updated with even more class changes.

The Patch 7.2.5 PTR Patch Notes have been updated with the latest changes implemented in Build 23958. We've highlighted them in red.

The initial 7.2.5 Patch Notes can be found here.

Blizzard

Patch 7.2.5 Public Test Realm Patch Notes

New Features

Timewalking: The Black Temple

The time has come to join a raid of 10-30 adventurers and venture back in time to The Black Temple in Outland. You’ll be scaled to player level 70 and item level 141 on your way into this memorable highlight of the Burning Crusade expansion.

• To queue for Black Temple Timewalking on the PTR, Speak to Vormu in Shattrath.

All New Story Scenario

In this new scenario, you’ll use the time-twisting powers of the Bronze Dragonflight to help Chromie prevent her own assassination.

New Events

• The Trial of Style
  • The Blood Elves have teamed up with the Ethereal transmogrifiers to put on a grand Azerothian fashion tournament. Compete against five other players to determine who’s the best dresser. On the public test realm, speak to Flaskataur in Dalaran to queue for this extraordinary runway experience.
• Moonkin Festival
  • A wondrous celebration of all things moonkin is happening in Moonglade. Stop by and see what you can learn!
• Auction House Dance Studio
  • The main auction houses in Orgrimmar and Stormwind have been cleaned out and turned into dance parties for the day. Crowd on in and show some faction pride!
• The Great Gnomeregan Race
  • More details coming soon

Changes

Classes

• Multiple Classes
  • Demon Spikes, Shield of the Righteous, Ironskin Brew, and Shield Block can only be extended to a maximum of three times their base duration.
  • Smart heals such as Wild Growth and Holy Word: Sanctify now favor player targets over non-player targets, regardless of their health.
• Death Knight
  • Death Coil now costs 45 runic power (was 35).
  • Death Coil damage increased by 29%.
  • Death Strike damage increased by 10%.
  • Heart Strike damage increased by 10%.
• Demon Hunter
  • Prepared now generates 100 Fury over 10 seconds (was 40 Fury over 5 seconds).
  • Havoc
    • Demon Blades’s proc chance increased to 100% (was 60%).
    • Demon Blades’s Fury generation is now 6-12 (was 12-20).
    • Demon Blades now does 50% weapon damage (was 85% weapon damage).
    • Fel Barrage no longer uses charges, and now has a 1 minute cooldown (was a 30-second recharge time). Your damaging abilities now have a chance to reduce the cooldown by 5 seconds.
    • Fel Barrage damage increased by 100%, and now deals damage over 2 seconds (was 1 second).
  • Vengeance
    • Last Resort will not absorb a killing blow of more than 200% of the player’s maximum health.
    • When Demon Spikes is activated and a Demon Spikes buff is already present, the values of the two buffs are now correctly averaged.
• Druid
  • Balance
    • Stellar Drift now increases Starfalls damage by 50% (was 60%).
    • Starsurge damage increased by 11%.
  • Guardian
    • Gore is now also activated by Maul.
    • Maul damage increased by 400%.
    • Maul cost increased to 30 Rage (was 20).
    • Maul is now on the global cooldown, and has no self-cooldown (was 3 seconds).
    • Maul damage not increased in PvP.
    • Mark of Ursol removed.
  • Restoration
    • Cultivation healing reduced by 16%.
• Hunter
  • Beast Mastery
    • Wild Call (Passive) - Your auto shot critical strikes now have a 40% chance to reduce the remaining cooldown of Dire Beast/Dire Frenzy by 3 seconds.
    • One with the Pack grants Wild Call 60% increased chance to reduce the cooldown of Dire Beast.
• Mage
  • Frost
    • Cone of Cold damage increased by 170%.
    • Thermal Void redesigned: Increases Icy Veins’ duration by 10 seconds. Your Ice Lances against frozen targets extend your Icy Veins by an additional 1 second.
• Monk
  • Brewmaster
    • Brewmaster passive armor bonus increased to 25% (was 15%).
    • Blackout Strike now has a 14 second cooldown (was 3 seconds, modified by Haste).
    • Breath of Fire now has a 20 second cooldown (was 15 seconds).
    • Tiger Palm also now reduces the cooldown of Blackout Strike by 5 seconds.
    • Fortifying Brew increases Stagger by 10% (was 20%)
    • Ironskin Brew increases Stagger by 35% (was 40%).
    • Rushing Jade Wind's duration has been increased by 50% for Brewmasters only.
    • Special Delivery proc chance increased to 100% (was 30%).
    • Special Delivery damage reduced by 70%.
    • Spitfire chance reduced to 20% (was 30%).
    • Staggered damage cannot exceed 1000% of your maximum health.
    • Mastery: Elusive Brawler is now also triggered by hitting with Blackout Strike and Breath of Fire.
    • Chi Burst has been replaced by a new talent, Spitfire, for Brewmasters:
      • Spitfire: Passive. Tiger Palm has a 30% chance to reset the cooldown of Breath of Fire.
  • Mistweaver
    • Essence Font now has a 12 second cooldown and a duration of 8 seconds (was 6 seconds).
    • Essence Font cost reduced by 10%, and direct healing increased 23%.
    • Vivify healing increased by 9%.
  • Windwalker
    • Damage of most abilities increased by 5.5%.
    • Rushing Jade Wind now applies Mark of the Crane to up to 2 (was 4) nearby targets.
    • Spinning Crane Kick’s Mark of the Crane’s damage bonus per target reduced to 40% (was 50%) per target.
    • Fists of Furys range increased to 8 yards (was 5) and damage reduced by 20%.

• Paladin
  • Repentance and Blinding Light no longer deal damage.
  • Holy
    • Light's Hammer cost reduced by 20%.
  • Protection
    • Ardent Defender will not absorb a killing blow of more than 200% of the player’s maximum health.
  • Retribution
    • Blessing of the Ashbringer now grants 4% strength (was 2000 strength).
• Priest
  • Discipline
    • Developers’ notes: One of our goals for 7.2.5 is to give Plea and Power Word: Radiance a more straightforward purpose and allow for more opportunities to use both based on the situation. Radiance allowing an immediate Penance heal on more targets more quickly should help with some of Discipline’s difficulties in responding promptly to damage. Plea being an always-available Atonement applicator without having to constantly evaluate the mana cost should help with overall flow of the spec.
    • Divine Star cost reduced by 20%.
    • Halo cost reduced by 25%.
    • Plea now costs 2% of base mana (was 0.36%), but no longer costs additional mana per Atonement.
    • Power Word: Barrier mana cost reduced by 37% and radius increased by 23%.
    • Power Word: Radiance now has 2 charges and a 15 second recharge.
    • Power Word: Radiance now applies 5 Atonements (was 3) at 50% normal duration (was 100%).
    • Smite damage increased by 11%.
    • Smite now costs 0.5% of base mana (was 1.0%).
    • The Penitent’s effects have been made baseline.
    • The absorb effect from Smite (Rank 2) has been removed and reworked into a new Level 15 talent: Sanctuary. The amount absorbed has been increased by 33%.
  • Holy
    • Circle of Healing healing increased by 15% and cost reduced by 20%.
    • Divine Star cost reduced by 20%.
    • Halo cost reduced by 25%.
    • Smite damage increased by 11%.
• Rogue
  • Assassination
    • Exsanguinate now causes your Bleed effects to bleed out 125% (was 100%) faster.
    • Exsanguinate now costs 20 Energy.
  • Outlaw
    • Developers’ notes: Our overall goals here include smoothing out Energy regeneration and reducing the frequency of both resource drought and Energy capping.
    • Adrenaline Rush increase reduced to 60% (was 100%). Duration increased to 20 seconds (was 15 seconds).
    • Ambush damage increased by 33%.
    • Combat Potency proc rate increased to 30% (was 20%), and Energy per proc reduced to 10 (was 15).
    • Curse of the Dreadblades (Artifact trait) now works with Ambush.
    • Fortune Strikes redesigned. Now increases Combat Potency’s proc rate by 2% per point (was +1 Energy per Combat Potency proc per point).
      • Developers’ notes: The net result of the two Combat Potency and Fortune Strikes changes is that Combat Potency should generate half as much Energy, twice as often.
    • Restless Blades has returned. Finishing moves reduce the remaining cooldown on Adrenaline Rush, Between the Eyes, Sprint, Grappling Hook, Cannonball Barrage, Killing Spree, Marked for Death, Death from Above, Vanish by 0.5 seconds per combo point spent.
    • Roll the Bones
      • Developers’ notes: The distribution of the number of buffs you get from Roll the Bones has changed. On average, you will get fewer buffs. Our goal is to significantly reduce the desire to frequently recast Roll the Bones when you get 1 buff.
      • Broadsides now also increases the damage of your combo-point generating abilities by 20%.
      • Buried Treasure increases Energy regeneration by 30% (was 25%).
      • True Bearing causes Finishing moves to reduce the cooldown of many abilities by 1.0 seconds (was 2.0 seconds) per combo point.
  • Subtlety
    • Developers’ notes: Our overall goals are to remove uncontrolled player teleport from the baseline DPS rotation, to reduce the frequency of teleporting in PvP, to allow players to choose between more frequent or more impactful Shadow Dances, which equates to more frequent CC/utility or damage in PvP, to keep the PvE rotation engaging, and to make Symbols of Death more engaging.
    • All damage dealt increased by 20%.
    • Backstab base damage increased by 35%.
    • Backstab damage bonus from being behind the target reduced to 20% (was 30%).
    • Dark Shadow is a new talent at level 90: While Shadow Dance is active, all damage you deal is increased by 30%.
    • Deepening Shadows now causes your finishing moves to reduce the remaining cooldown on Shadow Dance by 1.5 seconds (was 3 seconds) per combo point spent.
    • Energetic Stabbing (Artifact trait) now has an increased proc chance of 50% (was 25%), now refunds 2 Energy per point (was 5), and now also works with Backstab.
    • Enveloping Shadows redesigned. Deepening Shadows reduces the remaining cooldown of Shadow Dance by an additional 1.5 second per combo point spent. Shadow Dance gains 1 additional charge.
    • Etched in Shadow (Artifact trait) is now named Weak Point: Increases the critical strike damage of Backstab and Shadowstrike by 5% per point.
    • Gloomblade damage increased by 33%.
    • Marked for Death’s cooldown reduced to 40 seconds (was 60 seconds) for Subtlety
      • Developers’ notes: This is to balance it against Premeditation, which is now on the same row. It’s a buff in a raid setting, where the talent was very weak.
    • Master of Shadows moved to level 90 row: Gain 40 Energy over 4 seconds when you enter Stealth or Shadow Dance.
      • Developers’ notes: Pooling energy going into a Shadow Dance has long been the way to play Subtlety, and we’d like to bring that back. This design still gives you more energy for a Shadow Dance, but in a way that allows the Rogue to fully utilize pooling gameplay.
    • Nightblade now increases your damage dealt to the target by 15%, with damage over time component reduced by 35%.
      • Developers’ notes: Further pushes Subtlety away from maintaining Nightblade on all secondary targets and instead into focusing their damage into 1 target. Additionally, gives Nightblade a mechanical interaction with the rest of the core rotation that fulfills the “setup” feel of Subtlety.
    • Premeditation moved to level 100 row.
    • Relentless Strikes now causes your finishing moves to generate 5 Energy per combo point spent.
      • Developers’ notes: This improves Energy capping situations and an issue where with Deeper Stratagem (talent), you would sometimes get 80 Energy back on a 6-combo point finisher.
    • Shadow Dance is no longer on the global cooldown.
    • Shadow Dance now has 2 charges (was 3).
    • Shadow Dance’s base duration increased to 4 seconds (was 3 seconds).
    • Shadow's Whisper (Artifact trait) now increases Energy gain by 8 (was 5).
    • Shadowstep now has 2 charges for Subtlety.
    • Shadowstrike now hits at melee range (was a 15 yard range).
    • Shadowstrike, when used out of combat, now deals 30% increased damage and teleports you up to 25 yards behind your target.
    • Shuriken Combo is a new passive talent available at level 70: Shuriken Storm increases the damage of your next Eviscerate by 10% for each enemy hit beyond the first. Stacks up to 5 times.
      • Developers’ notes: This aims to remove maintaining Nightblade on every target from your AOE rotation on 4+ targets. Instead, Subtlety will deal increased damage during AOE by focusing it into one target.
    • Sprint now allows Subtlety Rogues to run over water. This is only possible when running forward.
    • Subterfuge’s duration increase to Shadow Dance reduced to 1 second (was 2 seconds).
    • Symbols of Death redesigned. Costs 25 Energy and has a 30 second cooldown.  Invoke ancient symbols of power, empowering the next cast of several of your abilities:
      • Shadowstrike: Generates 2 additional combo points.
      • Nightblade:  Deals 30% increased damage.
      • Eviscerate: Critical strike chance increased by 35%.
    • The Quiet Knife (Artifact trait) now increases damage dealt by Backstab by 5% (was 3%) per point.
• Shaman
  • Earth Elemental has 600% of the Shaman's armor (was 400%) and 150% HP (was 100%).
  • Earth Elemental has 6% melee crit reduction.
  • Enhancement
    • Rockbiter damage increased by 77% and Maelstrom generation increased to 25 (was 20).
    • Rockbiter now has 2 charges, with a recharge time of 6 seconds.
    • Landslide moved to level 15 talent row, replacing Boulderfist.
  • Restoration
    • Wellspring cost reduced by 43%.
• Warlock
  • Affliction
    • Malefic Grasp damage bonus reduced to 40% (was 70%).
    • Haunt now costs 1 Soul Shard, and no longer costs Mana.
    • Haunt instant damage increased by 25%, and cooldown reduced to 20 seconds (was 30 seconds).
  • Demonology
    • Hand of Gul'dan impact damage increased by 180%.
    • Infernal Furnace (Artifact trait) damage increase per point reduced to 8% (was 10%).
  • Destruction
    • Developers’ Notes: Soul Shards are now divided into 10 Soul Shard Fragments for Destruction Warlocks, in order to provide more reliable, granular Soul Shard generation, prevent random overcapping of resources, rein in Soul Shard generation slightly, and reduce the number of Chaos Bolts being cast.
    • All damage increased by 10%.
    • Cataclysm cooldown reduced to 30 seconds (was 45 seconds), cast time reduced to 2.5 seconds (was 3 seconds), and damage reduced by 25%.
    • Channel Demonfire damage increased by 56%, and cooldown increased to 25 seconds (was 15 seconds).
    • Chaos Bolt cast from the Chaos Bolt rift now deals 60% increased damage.
    • Chaos Bolt’s damage increased by 40%, and projectile speed increased by 25%.
    • Conflagrate now generates 6 Soul Shard Fragments (was 1 full Soul Shard/10 Soul Shard Fragments).
    • Conflagrate now generates double resources from hitting a second Havoc target.
    • Dimensional Rift (Artifact trait) now generates 3 Soul Shard Fragments
    • Eradication’s damage bonus increased to 15% (was 12%), and duration increased to 7 seconds (was 6 seconds).
    • Fire and Brimstone now causes Incinerate to generate 1 Soul Shard Fragment per target.
    • Havoc’s duration increased to 10 seconds (was 8 seconds), and cooldown increased to 45 seconds (was 20 seconds).
    • Incinerate now generates 1 Soul Shard Fragment.
    • Incinerate now generates 2 Soul Shard Fragments on a critical strike.
    • Incinerate's mana cost reduced by 16%.
    • Immolate’s periodic damage critical strikes have a 100% chance to generate 1 Soul Shard Fragment (was: periodic damage critical strikes have a 30% chance to generate 1 Soul Shard).
    • Immolate’s periodic damage has a 50% chance to generate 1 Soul Shard Fragment (was: periodic damage has a 15% chance to generate 1 Soul Shard).
    • Rain of Fire’s damage increased by 25%.
    • Reverse Entropy redesigned slightly: Chaos Bolt and Rain of Fire restore 35% of your maximum mana and deal 5% increased damage.
    • Shadowburn now generates 6 Soul Shard Fragments and an additional 6 if the target dies within 5 seconds.
    • Soul Conduit now causes every Soul Shard you spend to have a 12% (was 20%) chance to be refunded. (exception: Demonology remains at 20%)
    • Soulsnatcher (Artifact trait) now causes Chaos Bolt to have a 3% (was 5%) chance per rank to refund 1 Soul Shard.
    • Wreak Havoc no longer removes the cooldown of Havoc.
• Warrior
  • Arms
    • All abilities damage increased by 10%.
    • The effect of Mastery has reduced by 20%.
  • Protection
    • Revenge damage reduced by 12%.

Dungeons

• Added Group Finder activities for Mythic Trial of Valor and Nighthold.
• Mythic Trial of Valor and Nighthold can now be entered by cross-server groups.

Legendary Items

• Demon Hunter
  • Havoc
    • Anger of the Half-Giants generates an additional 1 to 3 Fury when Demon Blades is talented (was 1 to 6 Fury).
• Warlock
  • Destruction
    • Feretory of Souls
      • Casting a damaging Fire spell has a 6% (was 10%) chance to generate a Soul Shard.
    • Odr, Shawl of the Ymirjar
      • Enemies marked by your Havoc take 15% (was 8%) increased damage from your single target spells.

PvP

Mage

• Frost
  • Burst of Cold damage bonus to Cone of Cold reduced to 400% (was 800%).

Professions

Cooking

• Added Nomi Snacks, a new item that can be used to complete the next 5 Nomi recipe researches instantly. Nomi Snacks can be obtained from any Nomi research, and it is tradeable.

Mining

• Significantly increased the proc chance to start each of the rank 3 questlines.

Herbalism

• Significantly increased the drop/proc chance to start each of the rank 3 questlines.

Skinning

• Significantly increased the drop chance to start each of the rank 3 questlines.

UI

• Arsenal: Armaments of the Silver Hand now includes the Silver variant of the 1H mace. This will be added retroactively to characters who have purchased the armament.
• Pandaria Challenge Dungeon sets have been added to Appearances.
• The Appearance Collection now includes Holiday cosmetic items, which can be transmogged during the holiday.

[Wuzy 0]

so that 6% buff to fire mage is not coming after all? 

[Stan 5,240]

27 minutes ago, Wuzy said:

so that 6% buff to fire mage is not coming after all? 

It should be live after your region's maintenance. These are PTR Patch Notes that do not contain hotfixes and should not be confused with hotfix patch notes.

[Arkpit 101]

Rip Affliction with all the incoming nerfs. Read on other notes they are reducing the Soul Conduit to 12% on Affliction and now Grasp down to 40% from 70%?

I agree Affliction is bit too strong but this feels very harsh.

[Orbit555 0]

Hey, i read http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/6547-Patch-7-2-5-PTR-Build-23910?page=4#comments site, where i found very nice buffs for my feral druid, but now ... nothing :O How is that possible ? :((( Are these official changes, or ... and will my feral ever get buff ? :D

Edited April 19, 2017 by Orbit555

[Nazamber 38]

Quote

Rip Affliction with all the incoming nerfs

Its not as bad as how they murdered Demo in the last patch of WoD. That was pretty harsh.

[Munky 5]

8 hours ago, Arkpit said:

Rip Affliction with all the incoming nerfs. Read on other notes they are reducing the Soul Conduit to 12% on Affliction and now Grasp down to 40% from 70%?

I agree Affliction is bit too strong but this feels very harsh.

As soon as I acknowledged the tier 20 bonus for affliction I had abandoned my lock in favor of elemental as my DPS toon.

These changes just reinforce I was right.

Edited April 19, 2017 by Munky
Better explanation

[Bigornotobig 0]

LOL
Blizzard really love affliction warlocks...
I think they should nerf a bit more...

[Blitzfury 0]

Really... enha... NEEDS more then that... seems like Enha. shamans are left out from tweaks for so long...
n pvp viability, where is enha. love? :(

[Orbit555 0]

On 19. 4. 2017 at 9:46 AM, Orbit555 said:

Hey, i read http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/6547-Patch-7-2-5-PTR-Build-23910?page=4#comments site, where i found very nice buffs for my feral druid, but now ... nothing :O How is that possible ? :((( Are these official changes, or ... and will my feral ever get buff ? :D

 

[Valks 2,375]

On 4/20/2017 at 11:26 PM, Orbit555 said:

Are these official changes, or ... and will my feral ever get buff ? :D

Things do keep changing - there might still be a buff coming for feral in the future :D

[Sharksbreath 1]

On 4/18/2017 at 10:34 PM, Wuzy said:

so that 6% buff to fire mage is not coming after all? 

They gave fire mages that buff already. But it didn't seem like enough then and proved not to be enough. It's sad to see all the tuning and adjustments good or bad to specs like frost and affliction among others while less popular specs get completely ignored. (Unless of course they are performing well, in which case you get the nerf bat...)

[Valks 2,375]

7 hours ago, Sharksbreath said:

They gave fire mages that buff already. But it didn't seem like enough then and proved not to be enough. It's sad to see all the tuning and adjustments good or bad to specs like frost and affliction among others while less popular specs get completely ignored. (Unless of course they are performing well, in which case you get the nerf bat...)

I do wonder if they aim to just make sure that one spec is competitive for a class and then pay less attention to it.

[Sharksbreath 1]

2 hours ago, Blainie said:

I do wonder if they aim to just make sure that one spec is competitive for a class and then pay less attention to it.

Agreed. The problem is that with the way AP is set up, switching this late in the xpac you will be behind either way. Oh well maybe Blizzard will still show fire a little more love before it's all said and done.

[Valks 2,375]

1 hour ago, Sharksbreath said:

Agreed. The problem is that with the way AP is set up, switching this late in the xpac you will be behind either way. Oh well maybe Blizzard will still show fire a little more love before it's all said and done.

Fire did always seem to shine so much in the final patch of the expansion, but not sure if we're at that point yet!

[Weltenfeind 40]

On 8/5/2017 at 5:45 AM, Sharksbreath said:

They gave fire mages that buff already. But it didn't seem like enough then and proved not to be enough. It's sad to see all the tuning and adjustments good or bad to specs like frost and affliction among others while less popular specs get completely ignored. (Unless of course they are performing well, in which case you get the nerf bat...)

Of course they're focusing their time on Warlocks now, because they were basically a shitshow at launch. Which took them half a year to acknowledge, and even more time to remotely fix. Most warlocks weren't asking for damage number boosts, but for them to fix their class. It's the laziest class design I've seen in the entirety of my time playing WoW.

Anyway, with so many systems in place for Legion, balancing it will be nigh impossible, until the very end of the expansion.

Edited May 18, 2017 by Weltenfeind