wow Shadowlands Alpha 9.0.1 Build 34714: Class Changes

[Stan 5,240]

This week's Shadowlands Alpha build comes with substantial changes for Elemental/Enhancement Shamans and Affliction/Demonology Warlocks. Arcane Mage's  Shimmer now has 2 charges, and more, Death Knight's Rune Tap has been moved off the global cooldown, and more.

Death Knight

Blood

• Rune Tap has been moved off the global cooldown.

Unholy

• Outbreak AoE range increased to 10 yards (was 8).
• Outbreak's Virulent Plague now lasts 27 seconds (was 21).

Mage

• Fire Ward and Frost Ward were removed for all specializations.

Arcane

• Mastery: Savant - Arcane Charges increase the damage of Arcane Blast by an additional 4.8% and Arcane Barrage by 2.4%. Increases all other Arcane damage by 8.0%.
• Touch of the Magi - Applies Touch of the Magi to your current target, accumulating 50% 25% of the damage you deal to the target for 8 sec, and then exploding for that amount of Arcane damage to the target and reduced damage to all nearby enemies.
• Shimmer - Recharge time changed from 20 to 25 seconds. Now has 2 charges.

Fire

• Alexstrasza's Fury (Level 60 Talent) - Dragon's Breath always critically strikes and contributes to Hot Streak. Additionally, damage done by your next Pyroblast or Flamestrike is increased by 35%.

Monk

• Chrysalis (PvP Talent) - Reduces the cooldown of Life Cocoon by 45 25 sec.

Priest

• Power Infusion can only be cast on yourself.

Rogue

• Pick Lock - Allows opening of locked chests and doors that require a skill level of up to 1,440 600.

Shaman

Elemental and Enhancement Shamans received significant changes on Alpha. Here is a summary of all changes posted by Blizzard.

Shaman Changes (source)

In an upcoming build of Shadowlands, several changes have been made for both of the DPS Shaman specializations.

One quick note before discussing the specific changes to each spec, Searing Totem is being removed as a baseline button to all Shaman. Searing Totem was brought back in Shadowlands with the intention of Totems being a cool and iconic part of the Shaman class, but without significant redesign to the button to give it mechanical interaction and feeling impactful to press, it wound up feeling like just another cooldown you had to manage that didn’t have any excitement behind it.

Elemental Shaman:

• Fulmination has been changed to be a guaranteed proc from Lightning Bolt and Lightning Bolt Overload .
• Chain Lightning has been decoupled from Fulmination entirely, but still grants Seismic Thunder stacks.
• Earthquake’s base damage has been reduced significantly, but Seismic Thunder now also increases the damage of Earthquake for each stack of Seismic Thunder consumed when cast.
• Fire Elemental’s previous interaction with bonus Fulmination proc chance has been redesigned. While Fire Elemental is active, the period of Flame Shock is reduced, which increases the DPS of any active Flame Shock debuff and also increases the chance of gaining the Lava Surge effect. Additionally while Fire Elemental is active, any newly cast Flame Shock will have its Duration increased by 100%.
• Lightning Shield will now grant the Shaman a charge of Fulmination when it deals damage to an enemy.
• Echo of the Elements no longer grants a second charge of Healing Stream Totem for Elemental Shaman. This is more of a bug fix, but noting here as it is a moderate change to available utility of the Echo of the Elements talent. This talent is unchanged for Restoration.

The changes above should make Elemental Shaman feel quite a bit more control over what will happen as the result of pressing their abilities.

Enhancement Shaman Core Ability Changes:

• Rockbiter has been removed from the spec.
  ** This is a big change we’re trying out. Rockbiter in Shadowlands basically only serves as a GCD filler. With the removal of  Maelstrom, and Flame Shock and Frost Shock becoming class-wide abilities that are also on a short cooldown to fill empty spots, there was a lot of competition in the ~6 sec cooldown space of available buttons. Without Maelstrom, Rockbiter didn’t have any strong interaction with the rest of the Enhancement toolkit, and shock spells are much more iconic to Shaman. This is an experimental change, please try things out in combination with the changes below and let us know how things feel.
• Lava Lash is now learned at level 11, down from level 22. Base cooldown increased to 18 sec (was 12 sec)
• Lava Lash now gets upgraded at level 22 to have its cooldown reduced to 12 sec (was 18 sec)
• Stormstrike ’s cooldown has been reduced to 7.5 sec (was 9 sec)
• Maximum Maelstrom Weapon stacks have been increased from 5 to 10.
• Each stack of Maelstrom Weapon now grants increased damage and/or healing to the abilities Maelstrom Weapon effects in addition to the cast time reduction.
• Abilities that are altered by Maelstrom Weapon have had their baseline damage or healing values reduced.
• Stormbringer no longer causes your next Stormstrike to not incur a cooldown.
• Feral Spirit now grants one stack of Maelstrom Weapon immediately when pressed, and an additional 5 stacks over the duration of Feral Spirit.
• Each target that you hit with Chain Lightning now both increases the damage of, and reduces the cooldown of your next Crash Lightning .
• Windfury Totem radius increased from 12 to 30 yards.
• Windfury Weapon and Flametongue Weapon no longer require you to click the button, then click a weapon on your character sheet. They automatically apply their effects to an appropriate equipped weapon.
• Lightning Shield now has a 50% chance to grant you a stack of Maelstrom Weapon when it deals damage to an enemy.
• Flame Shock and Frost Shock have their cooldowns shortened with your current Haste.

Enhancement Shaman Talent Changes:

• Boulderfist (talent) has been redesigned and renamed to Lashing Flames (Passive). Lava Lash now increases the damage of your Flame Shock on the target by 100% for 12 sec.
• Landslide (talent) has been redesigned and renamed to Stormfury (Passive). Each time Windfury Weapon activates, the cooldown of Stormstrike is reduced by 1 sec.
• Hailstorm (talent) renamed to Cycle of the Elements.
• Searing Assault (talent) redesigned and renamed to Hailstorm (Passive). Each Stack of Maelstrom Weapon consumed increases the damage of your next Frost Shock by 50%, and causes your next Frost Shock to hit 1 additional target per stack of Maelstrom Weapon consumed. Maximum 5 stacks.
• Overcharge (talent) redesigned and renamed to Fire Nova. 15 sec cooldown. Cause all of your Flame Shocks to erupt in flames, dealing Fire Damage to up to 6 targets near your Flame Shock Targets.

The above changes to Enhancement Shaman are a lot to take in, but we feel that the combined list of changes will make your abilities feel like they have a purpose and interact with your toolkit in meaningful ways instead of just dealing damage.

The spell changes are as follows:

• Frost Shock - Chills the target with frost, causing [ 22.5% 45% of Spell Power ] Frost damage and reducing the target's movement speed by 50% for 6 sec.
• Flame Shock - Sears the target with fire, causing [ 22.75% 19.5% of Spell Power ] Fire damage and then an additional [ 105% of Spell Power ] Fire damage over 18 sec.
• Flametongue Weapon - Imbue your weapon with the element of Fire for 30 60 min, causing each of your attacks to deal [ 2.6% of Attack Power or 1 ] additional Fire damage.
• Lightning Shield - Surround yourself with a shield of lightning for 30 min.
  • Elemental: Melee attackers have a 100% chance to suffer [ 3.6% of Attack Power ] Nature damage and have a 100% chance to generate a stack of Fulmination. Only one Elemental Shield can be active on the Shaman at a time.
  • Enhancement: Melee attackers have a 100% chance to suffer [ 3.6% of Attack Power ] Nature damage and have a 50% chance to generate a stack of Maelstrom Weapon. Only one Elemental Shield can be active on the Shaman at a time.
  • Restoration: Melee attackers have a 100% chance to suffer [ 3.6% of Attack Power ] Nature damage. Only one Elemental Shield can be active on the Shaman at a time.
• Chain Lightning
  • Enhancement: Hurls a lightning bolt at the enemy, dealing [ 34.5% of Spell Power ] Nature damage and then jumping to additional nearby enemies. Affects 3 total targets. Each target hit by your Chain Lightning increases the damage of your next Crash Lightning by 20%.

Elemental

Abilities

• Fire Elemental - Calls forth a Greater Fire Elemental to rain destruction on your enemies for 30 sec. While the Greater Fire Elemental is active, Lightning Bolt Flame Shock deals damage 25% faster, and Chain Lightning have a newly applied Flame Shocks last 100% chance to generate a stack of Fulmiantion longer.
• Earthquake - Causes the earth within 8 yards of the target location to tremble and break, dealing [ 172.5% 69% of Nature Spell Power ] Physical damage over 6 sec and sometimes knocking down enemies. Each time Chain Lightning hits more than 1 target, the cast time of your next Earthquake is reduced by 20%, and the damage of your next earthquake is increased by 0%, stacking up to 5 times.
• Fulmination - Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning, and their overloads, Lightning Bolt Overload have a 50% 100% chance to generate a stack of Fulmination, up to 8 stacks. Earth Shock will discharge all stacks of Fulmination on the target, causing an extra [ 10% of Spell Power ] Nature damage per stack of Fulmination.

Talents

• Elemental Blast (Level 15 Talent) - Harnesses the raw power of the elements, dealing [ 63% 80% of Spell Power ] Elemental damage and increasing your Critical Strike, Haste, or Mastery by 131 for 10 sec.
• Echo of the Elements (New Level 15 Talent) added.
  • Lava Burst now has 2 charges. Effects that reset its remaining cooldown will instead grant 1 charge.
• Totem Mastery (Level 30 Talent) removed and replaced with Totem Mastery.
  • Drop a Searing Totem, Healing Stream Totem, and Earthbind Totem at your current location. 

Enhancement

Abilities

• Feral Spirit - Summons two Spirit Wolves that aid you in battle for 15 sec. They are immune to movement-impairing effects. Feral Spirit generates one stack of Maelstrom Weapon immediately, and one stack every 3 sec for 15 sec.
• Stormbringer - Your special attacks have a 5.1% chance to reset the remaining cooldown on Stormstrike and trigger no cooldown Stormstrike.
• Enhancement Shaman - Decreases damage/healing by 50%: Chain Lightning, Elemental Blast, Lightning Bolt, Swelling Waves.
• Stormstrike - Cooldown down to 7.5 seconds (from 9).
• Maelstrom Weapon - When you deal damage with a melee weapon, you have a chance to gain Maelstrom Weapon, stacking up to 10 times. Each stack of Maelstrom Weapon reduces the cast time of your next damage or healing spell by 20% and increase the damage or healing of your next spell by 20%. A maximum of 0 stacks of Maelstrom Weapon can be consumed at a time.
• Lava Lash - Cooldown increased to 18 seconds (up from 10.5).
• Windfury Totem - Summons a Windfury Totem with 5 health at the feet of the caster for 2 min. Party members within 12 30 yds have a 10% chance when they auto-attack to swing an extra time.
• Lava Lash (Rank 2) added.
  • Lava Lash cooldown reduced by 6.0 sec.
• Chain Lightning (Rank 2) added.
  • Each target hit by Chain Lightning reduces the cooldown of Crash Lightning by 1.0 sec.

Talents

• Elemental Blast (Level 15 Talent) - Harnesses the raw power of the elements, dealing [ 63% 80% of Spell Power ] Elemental damage and increasing your Critical Strike, Haste, or Mastery by 131 for 10 sec.
• Boulderfist (Level 15 Talent) removed.
• Lashing Flames (Level 15 Talent) added.
  • Lava Lash now increases the damage of Flame Shock on its target by 100% for 12 sec.
• Totem Mastery (Level 30 Talent) replaced with Totem Mastery.
  • Drop a Searing Totem, Healing Stream Totem, and Earthbind Totem at your current location. 
• Landslide (Level 30 Talent) removed.
• Stormfury (Level 30 Talent) added.
  • Each time Windfury Weapon activates, the cooldown of Stormstrike is reduced by 1.0 sec.
• Searing Assault (Level 60 Talent) removed.
• Overcharge (Level 60 Talent) removed.
• Hailstorm renamed into Circle of Elements (Level 60 Talent)
• Hailstorm (Level 60 Talent) added.
  • Each stack of Maelstrom Weapon consumed increases the damage of your next Frost Shock by 75%, and causes your next Frost Shock to hit 1 additional target per Maelstrom Weapon stack consumed.
• Fire Nova (Level 60 Talent) added.
  • Erupt a burst of fiery damage from all targets affected by your Flame Shock, dealing [ 25% of Attack Power ] Fire damage to up to 6 targets within 8 yds of your Flame Shock targets.
• Sundering (Level 90 Talent) - Shatters a line of earth in front of you with your main hand weapon, causing [ 187.2% 140% of Attack Power ] Flamestrike damage and Incapacitating any enemy hit for 2 sec.

Restoration

Abilities

• Restoration Shaman - Chain Lightning, Crashing Storm, Cycle of the Elements, Earthen Rage, Earthquake, Elemental Blast, Elemental Spirits, Feral Lunge, Fire Nova, Flametongue Attack, Frost Shock, Hailstorm, Icefury, Lashing Flames, Lava Burst, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Shield, Searing Assault, Stormstrike, Stormstrike Off-Hand, Sundering, Windfury Attack, Windstrike, Windstrike Off-Hand

Talents

• Echo of the Elements (Level 30 Talent) specialization changed to Restoration/Initial (was Elemental/Restoration/Initial)
  • Riptide, Healing Stream Totem, and Lava Burst now have 2 charges. Effects that reset their remaining cooldown will instead grant 1 charge.

Warlock

Another class that received pretty notable changes recently are Warlocks.

Warlock Changes (source)

Hello!

In this build of the Shadowlands Alpha, we’ve made some changes to Affliction Warlocks, based on your feedback. We want to address concerns with pet summoning, Curse of Doom, and Affliction’s single target rotation, among other things.

Thank you for all your posts!

Warlock

• Fel Domination is now a baseline ability, learned at level 34, with a 3 minute cooldown. Fel Domination reduces summoning cast time by 5.5 seconds.
  • Summoning your pet shouldn’t be always easy, but sometimes you need a new pet in a pinch.
• Curse of Doom removed for Affliction and Destruction.
• Curse of Exhaustion is learned at level 58 for all three specializations.
• Curse of Exhaustion slows the target by 50% for 8 seconds.
  • Developers’ notes: We love Curse of Doom, but it wasn’t working out well at a 60-second period. Also, we feel that Curse of Exhaustion will provide interesting choices when deciding which Curse to use.

Affliction

• Shadow Embrace is now baseline as a part of Shadow Bolt (Rank 2), learned at level 52 for Affliction.
  • Developers’ notes: Shadow Bolt for Affliction was falling by the wayside in the rotation. This should encourage Warlocks to use it more often, and provide more gameplay while fighting a single target.
• Unstable Affliction no longer has a limit of 1, and no longer amplifies damage on your target.
• Unstable Affliction’s damage backlash on dispel increased substantially.
• At level 56, Unstable Affliction is ranked up to gain an additional 5 seconds of duration.
  • Developers’ notes: This is a more of an experimental change than the rest, but we feel that Unstable Affliction is not meeting player expectations at a limit of 1. This change allows Affliction to focus more on spreading dots to many targets at once.
• Corruption now ranks up at level 54 to gain an initial period, dealing .12 coefficient damage instantly.

Talents

• Writhe in Agony now also causes Agony to start at 4 stacks, in addition to increasing its maximum stacks to 18.
• New Talent: Inevitable Demise. Damaging an enemy with Agony increases the damage of your next Drain Life by 5%. This effect stacks up to 50 times.
• Nightfall now activates slightly more often as Corruption spreads to more targets.
  • Developers’ notes: Previously, Nightfall was not occurring more often as you spread Corruption to multiple targets. This felt counter-intuitive, so we added functionality to increase its rate with multiple Corruptions. Similar to Agony, its increase is not linear, but you will see more Nightfalls multi-target.
• Deathbolt is now a PvP talent.
  • Developers’ notes: With Unstable Affliction stacking gone, the instant burst single target damage from this felt more appropriate as a PvP talent, to act as a finisher.
• Tongue Tied Removed. Replaced with–
• Howl of Terror: Fears 5 targets within 10 yards for 20 seconds. Has a 1.5 second cast time and 40 second cooldown.
• New talent: Dark Caller (in place of Shadow Embrace ). Reduces the cooldown of Summon Darkglare by 1 minute.
  • Developers’ notes: This talent should allow Warlocks to specialize further into keeping lots of dots on many targets at once, and give them more room to use Malefic Rapture in that window.

PvP Talents

• Soulshatter removes all active Corruptions, dealing 10% of their maximum HP and grants 10% Haste, stacking 5 times. Lasts 15 seconds, and is magic dispellable.
  • Developers’ notes: This talent was very under-utilized due to the heavy cost of removing all dots, so it now removes Corruption instead, and no longer generates soul shards.
• Deathbolt now deals 60% damage equal to remaining duration of your dots, has a 0.5 second cast time, and a 45 second cooldown. Deathbolt missile is slower and more apparent.
• Amplify Curse now affects Curse of Exhaustion, causing it to slow the target by 70%.

Demonology

Talents

• Curse of Doom reverted to Doom, with damage increased.

Abilities

• Fel Domination new baseline ability added.
  • Your next Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, Felhunter, or Felguard Summon spell has its casting time reduced by 5.5 sec.
• Curse of Exhaustion new baseline ability added.
  • Reduces the target's movement speed by 30% for 8 sec.

Affliction

• Shadow Embrace is now baseline as part of Shadow Bolt Rank 2. 
• Unstable Affliction - Limit of 1 removed. The ability no longer amplifies damage on your target. The damage backlash on dispel has been substantially increased. At Level 56, the ability earns Rank 2 to gain an additional 5 seconds of duration (Unstable Affliction).
  • Afflicts the target with [ 120% of Spell Power ] Shadow damage over 16 sec. If dispelled, deals [ 135% of Spell Power ] damage to the dispeller and silences them for 4 sec. Generates 1 Soul Shards if the target dies while afflicted.
• Corruption (Rank 2) available at 54 added.
  • Corruption now instantly deals [ 12% of Spell Power ] damage.

Talents

• Inevitable Demise (New Level 15 Talent) added.
  • Damaging an enemy with Agony increases the damage of your next Drain Life by 5%. This effect stacks up to 50 times.
• Writhe in Agony (Level 30 Talent) - Agony's damage starts at 4 stacks and may now ramp up to 18 stacks.
• Dark Caller (Level 90 Talent) added.
  • Reduces Summon Darkglare's cooldown by 60 seconds.

Demonology

• Summon Demonic Tyrant - Summon a Demonic Tyrant to increase the duration of all of your current lesser demons by 15.0 15 sec, and increase the damage of all of your other demons by 15%, while damaging your target.

Talents

• Improved Curse of Doom (Level 30 Talent) removed.
• Doom  (Level 30 Talent) added.
  • Inflicts impending doom upon the target, causing [ 175% of Spell Power ] Shadow damage after 20 sec. Doom damage generates 1 Soul Shard.
• Howl of Terror (Level 75 Talent) added.
  • Let loose a terrifying howl, causing 5 enemies within 10 yds to flee in fear, disorienting them for 20 sec. Damage may cancel the effect. (1.5 sec cast, 40 sec cooldown 10 yd range)
• Soulshatter (PvP Talent) now consumes all of your Corruption effects on the 5 nearest enemies, dealing up to 10% of their maximum health in Shadow damage. For each enemy hit by Soulshatter, you gain 10% Haste for 15 seconds.

More Shadowlands Class Changes

Death Knight	Mage	Rogue
Death Knight 9.0.1 Class Changes	Mage 9.0.1 Class Changes	Rogue 9.0.1 Class Changes
Demon Hunter	Monk	Shaman
Demon Hunter 9.0.1 Class Changes	Monk 9.0.1 Class Changes	Shaman 9.0.1 Class Changes
Druid	Paladin	Warlock
Druid 9.0.1 Class Changes	Paladin 9.0.1 Class Changes	Warlock 9.0.1 Class Changes
Hunter	Priest	Warrior
Hunter 9.0.1 Class Changes	Priest 9.0.1 Class Changes	Warrior 9.0.1 Class Changes

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• New Character Poses on Shadowlands Character Creation Screen
• PvP Power Stat Returning in Shadowlands
• Death Elemental Mounts in Shadowlands
• Purple Vulpin Mount in Shadowlands
• Spirit Cradle Mount in Shadowlands
• Oribos Travel Network
• Shadowlands Alpha Build 34714: New Anima Powers
• Shadwlands Alpha Build 34714: New Creature Models
• New Tauren Male Customization Options in Shadowlands

[Rhondis 148]

4 hours ago, Stan said:

Maelstrom Weapon - When you deal damage with a melee weapon, you have a chance to gain Maelstrom Weapon, stacking up to 10 times. Each stack of Maelstrom Weapon reduces the cast time of your next damage or healing spell by 20% and increase the damage or healing of your next spell by 20%. A maximum of 0 stacks of Maelstrom Weapon can be consumed at a time.

Well I can definitely see why they are tuning down some abilities... definitely answers my question on the last blog post about Shaman changes.

 

[Guest]

I'm excited for Enhancement, it looks as though it might go back to how it was in MoP

[Astirus9911 0]

Zero love for the feral still......

 

[Rinsick 2]

Holy crap. Shamans finally are getting some changes. Especially Ele. Curious to see how all specs play out with said changes though. Lets hope to quality shaman class testers and their feed back. Why Blizzard/WoW team are amazing, they actually listen to fans/players and even though it make take a year or two, they squeeze it into their timelines. Here's hoping to shamans getting back on the class boards in Shadowlands!

[Ragingwolf 310]

4 hours ago, Astirus9911 said:

Zero love for the feral still......

 

I believe it's still a work in progress; compared to most melee oriented specs Feral deserves some love and attention and should not be pushed on the back burner.  

[Astirus9911 0]

19 hours ago, Ragingwolf said:

I believe it's still a work in progress; compared to most melee oriented specs Feral deserves some love and attention and should not be pushed on the back burner.  

Yes, I agree. I hope they do not put it on the back burner, feral hasn't been that great for a while now. Compared to to other melee classes, they really slack, poor energy resource and just simply a shadow of a rogue. Fingers crossed, they do get a decent lift, and sort out that new blood talons talent.