wow Dragonflight Alpha Development Notes: August 24th

[Staff 1,488]

We have some truly gargantuan development notes for this week's DF Alpha build, with a new dungeon,  Dragonriding changes, base DH and Havoc talent tree, a massive amount of class tuning, War Mode World Quests, mining, recrafting, UI changes and much more.

Dev Notes (Source)

Hello Adventurers! Here are Dragonflight’s development notes for this week:

NEW FEATURES

• DRAGONRIDING
  • Updated the double jump Launch and Skyward Ascent to both be more reliable in their directionality and movement.
  • Re-tuned the turn rate for dragon isle drakes to be more lenient, including a feature wherein the player’s turn rate scales with speed - lower speeds feature quicker turns, while top speeds still come with a need for slightly more planning.
  • Updated the Dragonriding trait window, bringing the zone unlocks and basic skills into the same pane as the unlockable traits for Dragonriding.
    • Developers’ note: We discovered early in Alpha that we’d need a solution for players who rely on /follow or similar features to engage with World of Warcraft, as following wasn’t immediately compatible with Dragonriding. To address this, we’ve added “Ride Along”. Dragonriders can speak with Lithragosa (the Dragonriding Trainer) to opt into this new functionality. With Ride Along on, a player in your party may interact with your Dragon Isle Drake to transform into a whelp that will follow alongside your drake. If you are someone who has relied on /follow or have other players help guide you around Azeroth (or find Ride Along to be an interesting accessibility option for other reasons), please try this feature out and share your feedback with us!

NEW DUNGEONS
Developers’ note: Throughout the testing period, character levels will be scaled when entering Dragonflight dungeons. When this happens, the amount of talent points that your character will have available will reflect the original level, not the scaled level.

• Halls of Infusion

CLASSES

• NEW TALENT SYSTEM
  • CLASS TUNING
    • This week’s build has a number of adjustments to various talents and abilities across many specializations. These changes are the result of ongoing efforts to tune the damage and healing of characters. More changes should be expected in the coming weeks. Your feedback is appreciated.
  • DEATH KNIGHT
    • Class Tree
      • Rearranged various talents and created new pathways and choices.
      • Rune Mastery increased to 2 ranks. Duration increased to 8 seconds (was 6 seconds) and now grants 3% Strength per rank.
      • Icy Talons reduced to 2 ranks (was 3). Melee attack speed per rank increased to 3% (was 2%).
      • Unholy Bond reduced to 2 ranks (was 3).
      • Will of the Necropolis increased to 2 ranks (was 1). Damage reduction below 30% health is now 20/35% (was previously 30%).
      • Blood Draw increased to 2 ranks (was 1). Cooldown now reduced by 60 seconds at rank 2.
      • New Talent: Unholy Endurance – Increases Lichborne duration by 2 seconds and while active damage taken is reduced by 15%. Located directly below Lichborne.
      • New Talent: Clenching Grasp – Death Grip slows enemy movement speed by 50% for 6 seconds. Located directly below Brittle.
      • Improved Death Strike max ranks reduced to 1 (was 3).
    • Unholy
      • Rearranged various talents and created new pathways and choices.
      • New
        • Feasting Strikes – Festering Strike and Scourge Strike/Clawing Shadows have 15% chance to generate 1 Rune.
        • Runic Mastery – Increases Maximum Runic Power by 10/20.
        • Plaguebringer – Scourge Strike causes your disease damage to occur 150% more quickly for 5 seconds.
        • Magus of the Dead – Apocalypse and Army of the Dead also summon a Magus of the Dead who hurls Frostbolts and Shadow Bolts at your foes.
          • Magus of the Dead’s Shadow Bolt damage increased by 20%.
          • Magus of the Dead’s Frostbolt damage increased by 10%.
          • Magus of the Dead’s Frostbolt slow duration increased to 6 seconds and 60% slow (was 4 seconds and 50%).
        • Ruptured Viscera – When your ghouls expire, they explode in viscera dealing Shadow damage to nearby enemies.
        • Commander of the Dead – Dark Transformation also empowers your Gargoyle and Army of the Dead for 30 seconds, increasing their damage by 40%.
        • Eternal Agony – Death Coil increases the duration of Dark Transformation by 1 second.
        • Coil of Devastation – Death Coil causes the target to take an additional 35% of the direct damage dealt over 4 seconds.
        • Rotten Touch – Sudden Doom causes your next Death Coil to also increase your Scourge Strike damage against the target by 30% for 6 seconds.
        • Superstrain – Your Virulent Plague also applies Frost Fever and Blood Plague.
        • Plaguebearer – Inflict disease upon your enemies spreading Festering Wounds equal to the amount currently active on your target to 8 nearby enemies (45 second cooldown, 30 Runic Power). Not yet implemented, but coming in a future build!
      • Removed
        • Deadly Coil
        • Improved Scourge Strike
      • Changes
        • Death Coil – Runic Power cost reduced to 30 (was 40).
        • Unholy Command – Now reduces the cooldown of Dark Transformation by 8/15 seconds (was reduces the cooldown of Dark Transformation when dealing damage with Death Coil. ).
        • Epidemic – Damage increased by 20%.
        • Army of the Damned – Now reduces the cooldown of Apocalypse by 45 seconds (no longer reduced by Dark Transformation). No longer summons a Magus of the Dead when Apocalypse or Army of the Dead are cast.
        • Summon Gargoyle – Duration reduced to 25 seconds (was 35 seconds). Now gains 1% damage per 1 runic power spent (was per 2 runic power).
        • Scourge Strike/Clawing Shadows – Damage increased 20%.
        • Morbidity – Damage per rank reduced to 1/3% (was 3/6%). Festering Wound no longer increases the damage of Morbidity and now also increases damage from Blood Plague and Frost Fever if Superstrain is talented.
  • DEMON HUNTER
    • Havoc
      • Developers’ note: After 10,000 years… today’s build includes early versions of Demon Hunter’s class and Havoc talent trees.
      • The class tree houses many of the familiar utility and defensive abilities associated with each spec and arranges them in spec-themed sections to the left (including modifiers to Fury and movement speed) and right (including Brands and options to empower them), with shared damage bonuses centered (including The Hunt and modifiers to Metamorphosis). We hope to see players take advantage of the new talent system to make choices that match their preferences, that can be tailored to meet the challenges they will face, and that create new gameplay opportunities by combining effects in ways not previously possible.
      • The Havoc tree takes abilities from the spec’s past and present, then puts them alongside reworked and all-new talents to provide multiple gameplay and damage output styles to invest in. Notable among them are talents that provide incentives for secondary stats like Critical Strike Chance and Mastery, as well as talents that grant significant bonuses to the skills of your choice like Chaos Strike, Eye Beam, and Immolation Aura. We hope the new trees provide opportunities to make talent builds that feel custom and distinct.
      • While we’re still working on the Vengeance specialization, we wanted to bring the Class & Havoc trees online so we can get community feedback as early as possible. The Vengeance tree currently in this week’s Alpha is the existing Shadowlands’ talent tree, in addition to containing all of their other abilities. This is placeholder and not indicative of their final tree, and we will be bringing the Vengeance tree online as soon as its ready. Regardless of whether you’re checking out these Demon Hunter class and Havoc talents online or trying them out in the Alpha, we hope you’ll enjoy and share your thoughts with us!
      • Known Issues
        • There are several talents that are not fully implemented yet. These are tagged with NYI (Not Yet Implemented) in their Talent name.
  • EVOKER
    • Class Tree
      • Damage of all abilities reduced by 8% except Azure Strike, Shattering Star, and Unravel.
      • Disintegrate damage reduced by an additional 5%.
      • Living Flame damage reduced by an additional 12.5%.
      • Enkindled reduced to 3% per rank (was 5%).
      • Scarlet Adaptation damage cap reduced by 19.5% (matches total Living Flame damage reduction).
    • Devastation
      • Pyre damage reduced by an additional 14%.
      • Azure Strike damage increased by 5%.
      • Shattering Star damage increased by 7%.
      • Arcane Intensity reduced to 8% per rank (was 10%).
      • Might of the Aspects reduced to 7.5% per rank (was 10%).
      • Volatility reduced to 10% per rank (was 15%).
      • Charged Blast reduced to 5% per stack (was 7%).
    • Preservation
      • Temporal Anomaly absorbs damage, rather than healing. Absorb shield stacks up to 3 times and lasts 15 seconds. Now only shields 2 allies at a time (was 3).
      • Temporal Anomaly will immediately slow down upon reaching an ally, even if they are full health. Speed adjusted to 10 yards per second base, 2.5 yards per sec when reaching an ally.
      • Temporal Anomaly mana cost reduced to 7.5% base mana (was 11.5%).
      • Temporal Disruption removed.
      • Flow State renamed to Rush of Vitality.
      • New: Flow State – Empower spells cause time to move 5/10% faster for you for 5 seconds. In Resonating Sphere’s old position.
      • Nozdormu’s Teachings causes Temporal Anomaly to shield 1 additional target, for a total of 3 targets each pulse.
      • Resonating Sphere now an A/B choice against Nozdormu’s Teachings. Causes Echo to be applied by Temporal Anomaly at 30% value.
  • HUNTER
    • Class Tree
      • Survival Hunters: Corrected a missing connection between Kill Command and Improved Mend Pet on the class tree.
      • Alpha Predator’s value has been lowered to 15% (was 30%).
      • Improved Traps now also lowers the cooldown of Hi-Explosive Trap.
      • Stampede now snares targets hit by 30%, and you and your pets gain 10% increased critical strike chance against targets hit by your Stampede.
      • Hunter’s Agility is once again Avoidance.
      • Camouflage no longer links directly to Improved Traps. The choice node below Survival of the Fittest now links to Born to be Wild.
      • New Talent: Serrated Shots – Serpent Sting and your bleed damage is increased by 10/20% damage. This value increases to 20/40% against targets below 30% HP.
      • New Talent: Arctic Bola – Aimed Shot/Cobra Shot/Raptor Strike/Mongoose Bite have a chance to fling a bola out at your target that bounces 2/4 times and deals increased damage per point. Targets struck by the bola are snared by 20% for 3 seconds.
    • Beast Mastery
      • The top of the Beast Mastery tree has been shuffled around a bit, and now starts with Cobra Shot rather than Barbed Shot.
      • Barbed Shot damage has been increased by 75%.
      • Loaded Quiver has been removed. Barbed Shot is now always 2 charges.
      • Barbed Wrath is now 1 point (was 2) and it no longer affects Aspect of the Wild.
      • Wild Call has been reduced to 1 rank.
      • Call of the Wild cooldown has been increased to 3 minutes.
      • The Bloody Frenzy that adjusted Barbed Shot Frenzy stack generation has been removed.
      • New Talent: Brutal Companion – When Barbed Shot causes a 3rd stack of Frenzy, your pet automatically uses their special attack (Bite/Claw/Smack) with increased damage.
      • Aspect of the Wild has been redesigned – Aspect of the Wild now fires a Cobra Shot at your target and another nearby target. While Aspect of the Wild is active, Cobra Shot’s Focus cost is reduced by 10, and each Cobra Shot fires a Second Cobra Shot at a nearby target.
      • New choice node below Aspect of the Wild:
        • Each temporary beast summoned reduces the cooldown of Aspect of the Wild by 5 seconds.
        • Cobra Shot damage increased by 30% while Aspect of the Wild is active.
      • Several talents shifted around past the first gate due to the above changes, but the tree’s structure is very similar.
    • Marksmanship
      • Dead Eye now also reduces the cooldown of Kill Shot.
      • Windrunner’s Guidance has been lowered to 25% critical strike damage bonus.
      • New choice node below Wailing Arrow:
        • Wailing Arrow resets the cooldown of Rapid Fire and grants a charge of Aimed Shot.
        • Wailing Arrow now fires 5 wind arrows at your primary target, and up to 10 split between any secondary targets.
      • Crack Shot lowered to a 1-point talent.
      • Calling the Shots and Eagletalon’s True Focus have swapped spots.
    • Survival
      • Coordinated Assault, Spearhead, and related talents should be working.
      • Explosive Expert tooltip updated, it has no interaction with Kill Shot and is just some cooldown reduction to Wildfire Bombs.
      • Birds of Prey has been redesigned – Kill Shot now strikes up to 3 extra targets while Coordinated Assault is active.
      • New choice node against Birds of Prey: Bombardier – The cooldown of Wildfire Bombs is reset when Coordinated Assault is activated, and when it fades.
      • Guerilla Tactics increases the initial damage of Wildfire Bombs by 50% (was 100%).
      • Fury of the Eagle once again grants 50% critical strike chance against targets below 20% HP.
      • Ruthless Marauder increases the HP threshold for increases critical strikes by 5% per rank rather than increasing critical strike chance.
  • MAGE
    • Class Tree
      • Rearranged various talents and created new pathways and choices.
      • New
        • Volatile Detonation – Greatly increases the effect of Blast Wave’s knockback. Blast Wave’s cooldown is reduced by 5 seconds.
        • Reflection – Teleports you back to where you last Blinked. Only usable within 8 seconds of Blinking. 45 second cooldown.
        • Energized Barriers – When your barrier receives melee attacks, you have a 10% chance to be granted 1 Fire Blast/1 Fingers of Frost/ 1 Clearcasting charge. Casting your barrier removes all snare effects.
        • Freezing Cold – Enemies hit by Cone of Cold are frozen in place for 4 seconds. Your spells will not break this effect.
        • Time Manipulation – Casting Fire Blast/Ice Lance on Frozen targets/Arcane Missiles reduces the cooldown of your loss of control abilities by 1 second.
        • Temporal Warp – While you have Temporal Displacement or other similar effects, you may use Time Warp to grant yourself 30% Haste for 40 seconds.
      • Class Talents
        • Cone of Cold – Now learned baseline for all Mages.
        • Meteor – Now deals 20% additional initial damage for Frost/Arcane Mages.
        • Shifting Power – Now reduces spell cooldowns by 12 seconds (was 10 seconds).
        • Arcane Warding – Now reduces magic damage taken by 2/4% (was 3/6%).
    • Arcane
      • Rearranged various talents and created new pathways and choices.
      • Arcane Bombardment – Now increases Arcane Barrage damage to enemies below 35% health by 100% damage (previously was 50/100% but has been reduced to a 1 rank node).
      • Arcane Echo – Damage increased by 60% and max ranks reduced to 1 (was 2).
      • Arcane Surge – Now grants a burst of mana on cast so that the player can immediately start casting an Arcane Blast.
      • Rule of Threes – Now a choice node with Arcane Familiar, both have moved to row 5 (swapped with Arcane Tempo).
      • Evocation – Cooldown reduced to 90 seconds (was 120 seconds).
      • Improved Evocation has been removed.
      • Siphon Storm – Converted to a single node (was previously choice node with Improved Evocation).
      • Orb Barrage – Converted to a single node (was previously a choice node with Orb Barrage).
      • Orb Barrage – Now also reduces the cooldown of Arcane Orb by 2 seconds when Clearcasting is consumed.
      • Prodigious Savant – Increased value to 20/40% (was 10/20%).
      • Nether Tempest – Damage increased by 15%.
      • Nether Tempest – Position on the tree has moved toward the center of the talent tree as a choice node with Reverberate, connecting from Mana Adept and Improved Arcane Barrage.
      • Reverberate – Position on the tree has moved toward the center of the talent tree as a choice node with Nether Tempest, connecting from Mana Adept and Improved Arcane Barrage.
      • Conjure Mana Gem – Now restores 25% mana (was 10%), and grants 5% increased spell power for 10 seconds baseline.
      • Cascading Power – Now grants up to 2 stacks of Clearcasting when consuming a Mana Gem (previously granted Spell Power).
      • Presence of Mind – Cooldown reduced to 45 seconds (was 60 seconds).
    • Fire
      • Rearranged various talents and created new pathways and choices.
      • Hot Streak has been moved to be baseline.
      • New Talent: Fervent Flickering – Ignite damage has a 5% chance to reduce the cooldown of Fire Blast by 1 second.
      • Fire Blast – Now always crits.
      • Incendiary Eruptions – No longer a choice node.
      • Pyromaniac – Swapped positions with Pyroclasm, now a choice node with Molten Skyfall.
      • Fiery Rush and Kindling no longer a choice node.
      • Improved Blazing Barrier has been removed.
      • Fire Blast Rank 2 talent has been removed.
    • Frost
      • Ice Lance – Damage reduced by 10%.
      • Wintertide – Now a 2 point node. Ice Lance damage increased by 20% (was 30%).
      • Chain Reaction – Now a 1 point node. The Ice Lance damage increase effect is now 1% (was 1.5%).
      • Arctic Piercing – Empowered Ice Lances deal 5% damage (was 10%).
      • Fractured Frost – Frostbolt has a 25/50% chance to hit up to 2 additional targets (was 20/40%).
      • Icy Propulsion now reduces the cooldown of Icy Veins without requiring Icy Veins to be active. Now a 1 point node.
      • Icy Propulsion single target ability cooldown reduction is now 2 seconds (was 1 second).
      • Snowstorm – Now a 2 point node.
      • Winter’s Chill functionality is now granted by default when Flurry is learned.
      • Winter’s Chill talent has been removed.
  • MONK
    • Class Talents
      • New Talent: Summon White Tiger Statue – Summons a White Tiger Statue at the target location for 30 seconds, pulsing damage to all enemies every 2 seconds for 30 seconds.
        • Developer note: This medium-duration area of effect cooldown is designed to bring the pain to enemies who dare doubt the wrath of the White Tiger.
      • Roll Rank 2 now correctly communicates that it grants an extra charge.
      • Windwalking tooltip now correctly displays speed increase instead of size change.
      • Generous Pour, Close to Heart, and Save Them All talents are now implemented.
    • Mistweaver
      • Unison – Soothing Mist heals a second injured ally within 15 yards for 100% of the amount healed (was 50%).
      • Awakened Faeline, Misty Peaks, Rapid Diffusion, Invoke Yu’lon’s Enveloping Mist mana reduction, and Ancient Concordance are now implemented.
      • Zen Reverberation triggers a second Zen Pulse at 50% effectiveness (was 30%).
      • Accumulating Mist increases Zen Pulse’s damage and healing by 15% per stack (was 10%).
      • Invoker’s Delight now scales its duration down to 8 seconds when talented into Gift of the Celestials.
      • Jade Bond’s Gust of Mist buff increased to 25% (was 12%).
      • Known Issue: Ancient Concordance’s tooltip displays the incorrect target count for Blackout Kick’s cleave. The intended functionality of this is to hit 2 targets with 1 point and 3 targets with 2 points.
  • SHAMAN
    • Elemental
      • Earthquake – Damage reduced by 25%.
      • Chain Lightning – Damage increased by 25%. (Elemental only)
      • Lava Beam – Damage increased by 25%.
      • Lightning Bolt – Damage reduced by 20%. (Elemental only)
      • Lava Burst – Damage reduced by 20%. (Elemental only)
      • Earth Shock – Damage reduced by 20%.
      • Elemental Blast – Damage reduced by 20%. (Elemental only)
      • Lightning Rod – Deals 20% of Chain Lightning and Lightning Bolt damage (was 25%).
    • Enhancement
      • Rearranged various talents and created new pathways and choices.
      • Stormstrike now replaces Primal Strike.
      • Doom Winds now does some minor damage when you activate it.
      • Ice Strike’s Frost Shock buff now highlights Frost Shock
      • Alpha Wolf now works with Chain Lightning, rather than Crash Lightning.
      • Improved Stormbringer renamed Stormblast.
      • Unruly Winds chance raised to 100%.
      • Ascendance is now a choice node with Deeply Rooted Elements.
      • Thorim’s Invocation now remembers whether you last used Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning, and will use that spell instead of always Lightning Bolt.
      • Chain Lightning Rank 2 has been added into the Chain Lightning/Crash Lightning interactions and is no longer a talent.
      • New Talent: Crashing Storms – Chain Lightning jumps to 2 additional targets, and also increases Crash Lightning damage by 40%.
      • Forceful winds is now 45% damage per stack (was 35%).
      • Gathering Storms is now a 1-point talent (was 2). Value increased to 15%, and there’s a maximum of 10 stacks of Gathering Storms.
      • Hot Hand is now a 2-point talent (was 1).
      • Elemental Assault adjusted to be 10/20% Stormstrike damage (was 7/15%). Maelstrom weapon chance is now 50/100% per rank.
      • Lava Burst is affected by Enhancement mastery.
      • Primal Primer is no longer an option on the tree.
      • Hailstorm now gains bonus damage from up to 10 Maelstrom Weapon charges spent to work better with Overflowing Maelstrom. The bonus targets is still capped at 5.
      • Nature’s Fury now works correctly with the immediate damage from Ascendance.
      • Feral Spirits is now a 90 second cooldown.
      • Elemental Spirits no longer reduces Feral Spirit cooldown.
    • Restoration
      • Water Totem Mastery – Consuming Tidal Waves reduces the cooldown of Cloudburst, Healing Stream, Healing Tide, Mana Spring, Mana Tide, and Poison Cleansing Totem by 0.5 seconds (was 0.25 seconds).
  • WARLOCK
    • Class Talents
      • New
        • Abyss Walker – Using Demonic Circle: Teleport or your Demonic Gateway reduces all damage you take by 4% for 10 seconds.
        • Gorefiend’s Resolve – Targets resurrected with Soulstone resurrect with 40% additional health and 30% additional mana.
        • Fel Synergy – Soul Leech also heals you for 25% and your pet for 50% of the absorption it grants.
        • Resolute Barrier – Attacks received that deal at least 5% of your health decrease Unending Resolve’s cooldown by 10 seconds. Cannot occur more than once every 20 seconds.
        • Soul Armor – When your health drops below 35%, the percentage of damage shared via your Soul Link is increased by an additional 5%.
        • Demonic Resilience – Reduces the chance you will be critically struck by 4%. All damage your primary demon takes is reduced by 15%.
        • Summon Soulkeeper (was Summon Jailer) – Summons a Soulkeeper that periodically blasts nearby enemies.
        • Inquisitor’s Gaze– Summons an Inquisitor’s Eye that attacks your enemies.
      • Removed
        • Pact of the Annihilan
        • Pact of the Eredar
        • Pact of the Imp Mother
        • Decimating Bolt
        • Dimensional Rift
      • Changes
        • Rearranged various talents and created new pathways and choices.
        • Claw of Endereth is now a 1-point talent.
    • Affliction
      • New
        • Malefic Affliction – Malefic Rapture causes your active Unstable Affliction to deal 10% additional damage, up to 30%, for the rest of its duration.
        • Doom Blossom – If Corruption damages a target affected by your Unstable Affliction, it has a 10% chance per stack of Malefic Affliction to deal Shadow damage to nearby enemies.
        • Dread Touch – If Malefic Affliction exceeds 3 stacks, the target instead takes 20% additional damage from your damage over time effects for 6 seconds.
        • Grim Reach – When Darkglare deals damage, it deals 50% of that damage to all enemies affected by your damage over time effects.
        • Soul-Eater’s Gluttony – Whenever Unstable Affliction deals damage, the cooldown of Soul Rot is reduced by 0.5 seconds.
      • Removed
        • Malefic Wrath
        • Deathbolt
        • Death Dealer
        • Pact of the Nathrezim
        • Deliberate Malice
      • Changes
        • Rearranged various talents and created new pathways and choices.
        • Sacrolash’s Dark Strike now extends Curses by 0.5/1 second (was 1/2 seconds).
        • Creeping Death no longer decreases the duration of Agony, Corruption, Unstable Affliction, or Siphon Life.
        • Soul Flame’s icon has been changed.
        • Vile Taint’s cooldown is now 30 seconds (was 20 seconds).
        • Calamitous Crescendo is now a 2-point talent.
    • Destruction
      • Infernal Brand – Your Infernal’s melee attacks cause its target to take 3%/6% increased damage from its Immolation, stacking up to 15 times (was 15%/30%).
      • Rolling Havoc – Now stacks up to 5 times (was 10) and lasts 5 seconds (was 8 seconds).
      • Backdraft – Now affects Soul Fire.
      • Chaos Bolt – Damage reduced by 30%.
      • Incinerate – Damage reduced by 30%.
      • Dimensional Rift – Damage reduced by 30%.
      • Immolate – Damage reduced by 17%.
      • Rain of Fire – Damage reduced by 17%.
      • Shadowburn - Damage reduced by 50%.
      • Conflagrate – Damage reduced by 15%.
      • Soul Fire – Damage reduced by 25%.
      • Fire and Brimstone – Incinerate now hits all enemies near your target for 13%/25% damage (was 7%/15%).
      • Mastery: Chaotic Energies – No longer reduces the Warlock’s damage taken.
        • Developers’ note: With its access to powerful defensive talents in the class tree, Destruction Warlocks do not need additional survival bonuses.
    • Demonology
      • New
        • Reign of Tyranny – Active Wild Imps grant 1 stack of Demonic Servitude. Active greater demons grant 2 stacks of Demonic Servitude. Demonic Tyrant deals 3% additional damage for each stack of Demonic Servitude active at the time of his summon.
        • Guillotine – Your Felguard hurls his axe towards the target location, erupting when it lands and dealing Shadowflame damage every 1 second for 8 seconds to nearby enemies. While unarmed, your Felguard’s basic attacks deal damage to all nearby enemies and attacks 50% faster.
      • Removed
        • Demonic Consumption
      • Changes
        • Ner’zhul’s Volition has been updated – When Nether Portal summons a demon, it has a 2/4% chance per Soul Shard spent to summon an additional demon.
        • Nether Portal’s cast time reduced to 1.5 seconds (was 2.5 seconds).
        • The Expendables and Stolen Power have swapped places and moved to row 9.
  • WARRIOR
    • General Developer Notes
      • Warrior has undergone a tuning pass to bring it more in line with the other classes.
      • This week we’ve experimented a bit more with the Warrior class tree, trying to build in more flexibility and choices throughout the middle of the tree. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this comparative to previous weeks.
      • Stances – No update here, still working on some ideas on our end.
      • We’re experimenting with nodes specific to specs within the Warrior class tree. So, for example, War Machine has different values per spec, this gives us better control of balance and grants more tools to enhance what makes each specialization unique.
      • Signet of Tormented Kings - We’ve added four new nodes in place of Signet, two for Arms and two for Fury and Protection will get its own variants in a future update. These are not final but we’re feeling good about the general approach and would like to hear your feedback on these new talents.
      • Added a few placeholder nodes where there will be new choices in the future to give players an idea of what the complete tree will look like.
      • We’ve had a couple of weeks of big updates for Warriors and want to set expectations that next week’s update will be light.
    • Class Tree
      • Changed some pathing and node positions to allow for more flexible choices.
      • Cruel Strikes now grants 1.5% Critical Strike chance per rank. This will be changed in a future build.
      • Quick Thinking now grants 1.5% Haste per rank. This will be changed in a future build
      • Reinforced Plates now increases your armor by 15% per rank (was 30% of your Strength).
      • Removed Dauntless Duelist from the talent tree.
      • Frothing Berserker now applies to only Rampage, Mortal Strike, Cleave and Revenge.
      • Overwhelming rage is now 2 ranks that grant 15 max rage each.
      • Crushing Force is now 2 ranks and grants 30% damage and 7.5% crit chance to Slam per rank.
      • Removed Signet of Tormented Kings.
      • New Fury Talent: Memory of a Tormented Berserker – Activating Avatar or Recklessness casts the other at reduced effectiveness. Effects lasts 4 seconds.
      • New Fury Talent: Memory of a Tormented Titan – Activating Avatar or Reckless casts Odyn’s Fury at reduced effectiveness. Effects last 4 seconds.
      • New Fury Talent: Memory of a Tormented Warlord – Activating Avatar or Thunderous Roar casts Recklessness at reduced effectiveness.
      • New Arms Talent: Memory of a Tormented Blademaster – Activating Avatar or Bladestorm the other at reduced effectiveness. Effects last 4 seconds.
      • War Machine is now split into different versions per spec to allow for different values for each.
      • Massacre now adds 5% to execute range rather than 15% for Arms and Protection to allow for more execute modifiers.
      • Massacred now reduces the cooldown of Execute for Fury by 1.5 seconds.
      • Avatar now generates 20 rage.
      • Elysian Might should now correctly work outside of the Shadowlands.
      • Shattering Throw is now a choice node so players can choose between the existing immunity break ability and a lower cooldown variant that is instant but no longer breaks immunities.
      • Honed Reflexes changed to reduce cooldowns by 0.5 seconds rather than 1 second.
      • Two-Handed Weapon Specialization now grants 5% increased damage (was 10%).
      • Dual Wield Specialization now grants 5% increased damage (was 10%).
      • One-Handed Weapon Specialization now grants 5% increased damage (was 10%).
      • Armored to the Teeth now grants Strength equal to 3.5% of your Armor.
      • Furious Blows has been redesigned to now give 5% auto attack speed.
    • Arms Developer Notes
      • We did a lot of work this week on rage generation, we want this to feel a bit different that it does in the current live game, we generally don’t want you to feel rage starved but we also don’t want you to be overflowing with it. So, we’ve taken steps to ramp down how much rage you are obtaining while still trying to allow you to use your abilities when you want and need.
      • We’re still planning to put some more time into the central branch of the tree which is still a bit sparse.
      • We’ve also added some placeholder nodes to the Bladestorm choices to give players an idea of what’s to come.
    • Arms
      • Mortal Strike damage reduced to 174% of attack power to allow for talents modifying it (was 194%).
      • Sharpened Blades now deals 10% increased critical damage and increases Execute’s chance to crit by 5%.
      • Sharpened Blades now only effects the critical damage of Mortal Strike and Execute.
      • Impale now grants 7.5% increased critical damage per rank instead of 10%.
      • Exploit the Weakness modifies Tactician by 1% (was 1.6%).
      • Battlelord – Rage reduction changed to 10 (was 15) and now a 30% chance to reset Mortal Strike.
      • Lowered the chance for Bloodsurge to trigger to 10% (was 25%).
      • Bloodborne now grants 7.5% increased bleed damage per rank.
      • Bloodletting now increases the duration of your bleeds by 3 seconds and increases critical strike chance of bleeds by 5%.
      • Sudden Death procs are no longer free and now cost rage.
      • Chance to trigger Sudden Death reduced slightly.
      • Overpower reduced to 97% of attack power to allow for talents modifying it (was 117%).
      • Dreadnaught damage reduced to 31% of attack power (was 46%).
      • Execute’s damage has been reduced to 132% attack power to allow for talents that improve it (was 170%).
      • Rend reduced to 115% of attack power to allow for talents that improve it (was 133%).
      • Deft Experience – Now increases Mastery by 1.5% and also increases the damage of Rend’s initial strike by 50% per rank.
      • Valor in Victory – Increases Versatility by 1.5% and now reduces the cooldown of Die by the Sword by 15 seconds per rank.
      • Critical Thinking – Now increases critical strike chance by 1.5% and now also increases the critical strike damage of Whirlwind and Cleave by 10% per rank.
    • Fury Developer Notes
      • As a result of our tuning pass using two-handed and one-handed weapon builds should now have more similar damage numbers.
      • We’re not happy with Cadence of Fujieda as it is sharing a very similar space with Frenzy and we’re looking at other designs which would probably bring Frenzy back up to four stacks.
      • We’ve also added some placeholder nodes to a few places to give players an idea of what’s to come.
      • We are experimenting internally with the idea of letting the auto attack / Annihilator build not be weapon type specific.
    • Fury
      • Added some pathing and moved some nodes to make for more flexible options.
      • Slaughtering Strikes now grants 10% damage per stack for Raging blow and 3% per stack from Annihilator.
      • Deft Experience now gives 1.5% Mastery per rank, and also reduces the cooldown of Bloodthirst by 0.5 seconds per rank.
      • Swift Strikes now grants 1.5% Haste per rank (was 2% per rank).
      • Critical Thinking now grants 1.5% Critical Strike Chance per rank (was 2% per rank).
      • Depths of Insanity now makes Recklessness lasts 4 seconds longer (was 5 seconds).
      • Dual Wield Specialization now grants 5% increased damage (was 10%).
      • Deafening Crash now increases the duration of Siegebreaker by 2 seconds (was 3 seconds) and increases the critical strike chance of Raging Blow by 5% (was 10%).
      • Cruelty is now 2 ranks and grants 10% increased damage and a 15% chance to reset its own cooldown during enrage, per rank.
      • Frenzy now stacks up to 3 times (was 4).
      • Unbridled Ferocity now works correctly with Reckless Abandon.
      • Odyn’s Fury is now correctly improved by various damage modifiers.
      • Ravager cooldown is now correctly 90 seconds.
      • Gushing wound damage increased to 20% of attack power (was 10%).
    • Protection Developer Notes
      • We’ll be putting more focus on the Protection tree in the coming weeks, so for now there aren’t large changes in this week’s build.
      • We’re looking at doing a tuning pass for Protection in the future both in terms of survivability and DPS output.
    • Protection
      • Battle-Scared Veterans are no longer scared. They are now Battle-Scarred, as it should be!
      • Ravager cooldown is now correctly 90 seconds.
      • Increased damage of Shield Charge to 275% of attack power (was 200%) and increased the area of effect damage to 110% of attack power (was 50%).
      • Fixed another issue causing Seismic Reverberation to trigger many Revenge casts.

PET BATTLES

• Added a questline that helps new players learn about the pet battle system.

PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER

• WAR MODE
  • Pull out your swords and bows, champions, and turn War Mode on. In this week’s build you’ll be able to see world quests that you’ll only be able to find in war mode. On Alpha, the availability of them will rotate daily for testing purposes. Players can enable and disable War Mode by visiting Stormwind or Orgrimmar depending on their faction, and there are portals in the Seat of the Aspects in Valdrakken you can take to your respective faction’s capitol.
  • Additionally, within Valdrakken you may have spotted Malicia, a Drakonid part of the Black Dragonflight who enjoys chaos and conflict amongst those not in the Dragonflight. She offers valuable goods in exchange for Bloody Tokens, which you’ll only be able to find in War Mode. Keep an eye out in future builds on how to acquire Bloody Tokens.

PROFESSIONS

• MINING
  • In this Alpha build, Mining has been enabled and can be trained by the Associate Professor Instructaur in Orgrimmar and Stormwind. Intrepid miners can now mine ore that can be found in the new Dragonflight zones, and also focus on how they want to grow as a Miner through specializations. A large addition to the Mining is the ability to Overload special ore nodes (such as Molten and Earthen nodes), which will cause a unique effect based on your rank in Specializations and the node itself. Overload only works on these special ore nodes, it does not do anything to normal ore. To access the Overload ability, you need unlock it via the Master the Elements specialization path.
  • Please pick up your pickaxe and mine some ore, and let us know how the Profession feels! We’re particularly interested in hearing about how ore node density feels in the zones, if there are areas that are too sparse or too generously spawned and overall thoughts on the new Overload mechanic.
• SPECIALIZATIONS
  • Unlocking Specializations requires 25 skill in that Profession. Once unlocked, players can spend Specialization points to unlock various bonuses for their Profession.
  • Developers’ note: For the purposes of Alpha we’ve added a consumable, Professor Instructaur’s Top Secret Guide, on the Associate Professor Instructaur vendor that gives players 50 Specialization points. Below are a few Specialization paths for Mining:
  • Mining
    • Mining Process – Study the understanding of proper mining techniques to increase your efficiency in mining and allow for new mining opportunities. Gain +1 Skill per point in this specialization.
      • Surveying – Improve your ability to find deposits and rare materials found within them. Gain +1 Skill per point in this specialization.
    • Mastering the Elements – As elemental chaos runs rampant across the Dragon Isles, experiences miners have discovered new techniques to tap into remnants of these magics found with these precious metals. Gain +1 Skill on all elemental nodes per point in this specialization.
      • Molten – Specializing in Molten Nodes will allow you to acquire additional Rousing Fire and improve your efficiency in mining these nodes. Gain +1 Skill on Molten Nodes per point in this specialization.
• RECRAFTING
  • Recrafting has been enabled in this week’s build. Recrafting allows players to change out existing item’s Optional Reagents and potentially improve the quality of the crafted equipment. Crafters can learn the Recrafting Recipe from the Associate Professor Instructaur. Please play around with this system and let us know your thoughts!
• KNOWN ISSUES
  • Factors that influence item Quality and optional reagents that add additional effects to a crafted item will not be properly represented in the final preview of the item. This affects the preview for the Crafting & Recrafting result, the item in the Crafting Complete log and when the item is linked in a chat channel. This is only a display issue on the item preview, the resulting item should still craft properly (let us know if it doesn’t!). This will be fixed in a future build.
  • Items that have a limited amounts crafts per day, such as Azureweave Bolt, cannot be crafted if the remaining Uses Available is below the max capacity.

USER INTERFACE AND ACCESSIBILITY

• NEW HUD UI
  • Edit Mode
    • Added Buffs & Debuffs
    • Added Party Frames
  • Class and Professions tracking added back to the Minimap tracking toggle.
• Added new Campaign Quest cursor when hovering over an NPC offering a Campaign Quest.
• NEW OPTION: PRESS AND HOLD CASTING
  • If enabled, allows the player to press and hold a keyboard hotkey to continually cast a spell on an Action Bar without having to repeatedly press the button.
  • This only supports keyboard hotkeys, clicking a spell with the mouse will still cast the spell a single time.
  • Will not work with macros and items.
  • Enable this option under Options > Gameplay > Interface > Combat
• NEW FEATURE: INTERACT KEY
  • Press the Interact Key to interact with NPCs and objects with a keypress instead of your mouse.
  • Interactive NPCs and objects will highlight as you enter interact range. An icon will appear above NPCs.
  • The default Interact Key is F. If F is not working or is bound to something else, go to the Keybindings menu and make sure “Interact With Target” is bound to a key.
  • Enable this feature by typing “/console SoftTargetInteract 3” in chat. An interface option will be added later.
• NEW TARGETING SYSTEM: ACTION COMBAT
  • Automatically targets enemies as you approach them, allowing you to start casting abilities immediately.
  • Dynamically switches targets based on where you’re looking.
  • Works alongside the standard targeting system. If you need to lock on to a target, simply press Tab to enter Tab Target Combat.
  • Enable this feature by typing “/console SoftTargetEnemy 3” in chat. An interface option will be added later.

[Ragingwolf 310]

This is quite promising for DH.  I was reading this last night on WoWhead and was really intrigue with the possible bonus set up for Immolation Aura and Blade Dance down the tree along for potent dmg/critical dmg from a Demonic Setup.  They also included a few of the SL Legendary armor abilities and a few Covenant based skills into the tree.   

Now I'm eager to see what they have instore for Vengeance.

[Q 200]

The loss of dimensional rift for locks is unfortunate, having a source of shard generation when you need to move was great for destro and demo.