wow Shadowlands Alpha 9.0.1 Build 35078: Class Changes

[Stan 5,240]

We're looking at the latest class changes that went live on the Alpha. Demon Hunter's Unbound Chaos has been reworked, Balance Druid's Eclipse has changed, Felguard's Axe Toss can now interrupt dungeon/raid bosses, and more. 

Demon Hunter

• Fodder to the Flame pool now lasts 30 seconds.
• Unbound Chaos has been reworked: Activating Immolation Aura will cause your inner demon to slap into nearby enemies at the end of your next Fel Rush, dealing [ 165% of Attack Power ] Chaos damage.

(Source)

In the next Alpha build, we’ve made this change to Unbound Chaos:

• Activating Immolation Aura will cause your inner demon to slam into nearby enemies at the end of your next Fel Rush, dealing Chaos damage.
  • Developers’ notes: We like the feeling of Immolation Aura empowering your Fel Rush, but requiring Fel Rush to be cast while Immolation Aura was active placed too much pressure on that particular window. We want this talent to be for occasionally weaving Fel Rush into your rotation for a big payoff, so we’ve changed the talent to Immolation Aura buffing your next Fel Rush, which means you can find the right time to fit it in.

Druid

Balance

• Eclipse - Casting 3 2 Starfires empowers Wrath for 10 sec. Casting 3 2 Wraths empowers Starfire for 10 sec. These Eclipses occur in alternation.
• Celestial Alignment - Celestial bodies align, beginning maintaining both Eclipses and granting 15% critical strike chance while they persist for 20 sec.

Feral

• Shred - While stealthed, Shred deals 30% 100% increased damage, and has double the chance to critically strike.
• Rip
  • 1 point : [ 50% 56% of Attack Power ] over 8 sec
  • 2 points: [ 75% 84% of Attack Power ] over 12 sec
  • 3 points: [ 112% of Attack Power Power ] over 16 sec
  • 4 points: [ 125% 140% of Attack Power ] over 20 sec
  • 5 points: [ 150% 168% of Attack Power ] over 24 sec
• Sabertooth (Level 15 Talent) - Ferocious Bite deals 20% increased damage and increases the duration of Rip on your target by 4 1 sec per combo point spent.
• Savage Roar (Level 75 Talent) - Finishing move that increases damage by 10% 15% and energy regeneration rate by [ 10 + 25% of Spell Power ]% while in Cat Form. Lasts longer per combo point.
• Bloodtalons (Level 100 Talent) - When you use Shred, Rake, and Thrash within 3 5 sec, the damage of your next 2 Rips or Ferocious Bites is increased by 30%.
• Feral Frenzy (Level 100 Talent) - Unleash a furious frenzy, clawing your target 5 times for [ 25% 37.5% of Attack Power ] Physical damage and an additional [ 150% 225% of Attack Power ] Bleed damage over 6 sec.

(Source)

Various changes in an upcoming build:

Feral: Various talents are buffed numerically, to try to open up some choices a bit (Feral Frenzy , Lunar Inspiration, Savage Roar ), as well as a baseline buff to Rip that’s related to the below discussion.

One notable talent is nerfed: Sabertooth. This has been the subject of much discussion in feedback. While we like the idea of a talent in this slot that simplifies the rotation somewhat, we generally agree that infinite Rip extension has a lot of downsides. It additionally tends to cause balance problems, as an infinitely-extended snapshot-buffed Rip tends to outpace other options for sustained damage. Sabertooth will extend Rip by a smaller amount–keeping a similar mechanic to now, but requiring it to still be occasionally used on a single target.

Relatedly, we’re adjusting Bloodtalons to make it easier to proc–we’ve seen a lot of feedback that sequencing Rake , Shred and Thrash that tightly is a big hassle when you have competing interests of when you need to refresh your Bleeds, when you have a lot of energy, when you need to use a finisher, and so on. Trying to find the sweet spot where it’s not too onerous to use, but still provides a reward for planning your rotation.

Balance: Notably in this build, starting Eclipse requires 2 spells rather than 3. Doesn’t require a big explanation, but should be strongly felt. In particular, the windup at the start of combat is much shorter (especially when you can precast 1 of the 2 spells).

We’re also trying a version of Celestial Alignment that’s not extendable to arbitrary duration; it was simply going to cause nearly certain balance problems later on. It is now a fixed-duration cooldown that still provides a large damage increase.

Thanks for any feedback, please let us know how this all goes.

Paladin

• Consecration cooldown reduced from 12 to 9 seconds.
• Seraphim - The Light magnifies your power for 15 sec, granting 359 308 Haste, Critical Strike, Mastery, and Versatility.

Protection

• Judgment no longer generates Holy Power.
• Avenger's Shield generates 1 Holy Power, and 1 additional when it damages a target for the first time.
• Redoubt (Level 15 Talent) - Shield of the Righteous increases your Strength and Stamina by 2% for 6 10 sec, stacking up to 3.
• Moment of Glory (Level 30 Talent) - During Ardent Defender, every melee attack against you triggers Grand Crusader. Reset the cooldown of Avenger's Shield. Your next 3 Avenger's Shields have no cooldown. (Instant, 1.5 min cooldown)
• Sanctified Wrath - Avenging Wrath lasts 25% longer and causes Judgment to generate 1 additional 2 Holy Power.

Retribution

• Empyrean Power (Level 30 Talent) - Crusader Strike has a 20% 15% chance to make your next Divine Storm free and deal 50% 25% additional damage.

(Source)

Some changes in an upcoming build:

Protection: Holy Power generation rearranged somewhat. Hammer of the Righteous is on a shorter recharge again, and Avenger's Shield has a new effect whereby it generates an additional HP the first time it hits a given target (i.e. on the pull), but Judgment no longer generates.

The Protection rotation had gotten a little bit emptier with the longer recharge on Hammer, and this puts it back closer to BFA. Also, one particular time when Prot really wants Holy Power is the moment of engagement with a large group (but in a way that doesn’t flood the rotation in longer combats). Avenger's Shield will now conveniently start you with some HP when pulling packs of multiple enemies. Finally, with all this added Holy Power, we had to pull some back out of the rotation, and chose to do that onJudgment, since it currently serves a separate important purpose with the Shining Light mechanic.

A few ancillary changes to this are increasing the duration of Redoubt, and making Sanctified Wrath generate 2 HP (so Judgment still gives 2 in total while it is active).

Blessing of the Seasons : Keeping this short for now since we are considering further updates to this in subsequent weeks that make this change obsolete. But in this week’s build, the Seasons will be in sync for all Paladins within a party, and their effects are stronger if there are multiple Paladins in the party.

Priest

Holy

• Holy Words - When you cast Prayer of Healing, the remaining cooldown on Holy Word: Sanctify is reduced by 6 sec and by 2 sec when you cast Renew.

Shaman

Elemental/Enhancement

• Elemental Blast (Level 15 Talent) - Harnesses the raw power of the elements, dealing [ 80% of Spell Power ] Elemental damage and increasing your Critical Strike, Haste, or Mastery by 131 112 for 10 sec.

Restoration

• Water Shield - The caster is surrounded by globes of water, granting 100 86 mana per 5 sec. When a melee attack hits the caster, the caster regains 2% of their mana. This effect can only occur once every few seconds.

Warlock

Affliction

• Agony - Inflicts increasing agony on the target, causing up to [ ceil(10.8% 10.08% of Spell Power + 2) * (6) ] Shadow damage over 18 sec. Damage starts low and increases over the duration. Refreshing Agony maintains its current damage level.

Demonology

• Axe Toss now interrupts dungeon and raid bosses.

Destruction

• Rain of Chaos (Level 90 Talent)  - While your initial Infernal is active, every Soul Shard you spend has a 15% 20% chance to summon an additional Infernal that lasts 10 sec.

(Source)

Thanks for all of the detailed feedback! While there are still some planned changes coming for Warlock, we’ve made a few recently that you should be seeing in the Alpha:

Affliction

• Agony base damage increased by 12%.
• Inevitable Demise increases Drain Life ’s damage by 12% per stack (was 5%).

Demonology

• Axe Toss now interrupts stun immune targets, such as dungeon or raid bosses. This does not affect PvP combat.

Destruction

• Soulfire damage increased by 40%.
• Infernals summoned from Rain of Chaos no longer trigger Infernal Awakening .
• Rain of Chaos Infernals now have some bad luck protection built in. Chance also increased to 20% (was 15%).

All 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

[Teufel 331]

Still liking PvP-talent design of Demo's interrupt a ton more. Fits with the theme, can have a cool animation if one puts their mind to it and does not cause stun DR in dungeons.