wow War Within Beta Development Notes: June 18th

[Staff 1,488]

We now also have the Beta notes for this week, with additional cross-realm guild functionality, some new battle pets to test out, Conquest rewards and other PvP changes, as well as the usual giant batch of class tuning.

Beta (Source)

Hello everyone! Here are this week’s updates to the War Within Beta.

NEW FEATURES

• WARBANDS
  • Known Issue: A Warband conversion popup may appear when you log in, however Warband conversion is not yet implemented for Beta characters.
• CROSS-REALM GUILDS
  • Guild functionality has been extended to allow for recruitment and management of Guild members across all realms in their respective regions.
    • Developer’s note: Guild banks are currently restricted to the realm the Guild is located on for initial testing. Guild bank functionality will be included in a future Beta release.
      To facilitate testing we have spun up a second level-up realm, “Turnip’s Delight”, so players can create Guilds and invite members across multiple realms in their region.

CLASSES

• DEATH KNIGHT
  • Hero Talents
    • Deathbringer (Blood/Frost)
      • Death’s Bargain renamed to Pact of the Deathbringer.
      • Exterminate now deals reduced damage beyond 8 targets.
    • San’layn (Unholy/Blood)
      • Visceral Regeneration renamed and redesigned: Visceral Strength – When Crimson Scourge/Sudden Doom is consumed, you gain 5% Strength for 8/5 seconds.
      • Infliction of Sorrow now deals 100% of the remaining damage of the consumed disease (was 200%).
      • Fixed an issue that prevented Blood Beasts from spawning.
      • Unholy
        • Infliction of Sorrow now only functions with Virulent Plague for Unholy Death Knight.
  • Blood
    • New Talent: Bloodied Blade – Parrying an attack grants you a charge of Bloodied Blade, increasing your Strength by 0.5%, up to 4% for 15 seconds. At 8 stacks, your next parry consumes all charges to unleash a Heart Strike at 200% effectiveness, and increases your Strength by 10% for 6 seconds.
    • Several talents have moved around on the Blood tree.
  • Frost
    • Obliteration now has an additional effect – While Pillar of Frost is active it will now also increase the cost of your Frost Strike by up to 15 Runic Power to deal up to 52.5% additional damage.
  • Unholy
    • Foul Infections now correctly increases disease crit chance by a flat 5% (was previously multiplicative crit chance).
    • Unholy Blight is now passive and now surrounds the ghoul instead of the Death Knight. New Tooltip – Dark Transformation surrounds your ghoul with a vile swarm of insects for 6 seconds, stinging all nearby enemies and infecting them with Virulent Plague and an unholy disease that deals damage over 14 seconds, stacking up to 4 times.
    • Sudden Doom no longer causes Epidemic to burst Festering Wound on targets.
    • When talented into Harbinger of Doom, Sudden Doom now displays the activation overlay images separately, left and right, for each stack.
• DEMON HUNTER
  • Illuminated Sigils now grants an additional charge only to Sigil of Flame (was all Sigils) and also reduces Sigil of Flame cooldown by 5 seconds.
  • Hero Talents
    • Aldrachi Reaver
      • New Talent: Fury of the Aldrachi – When enhanced by Reaver’s Glaive, Blade Dance/Soul Cleave deals 3 additional glaive slashes to nearby targets. If cast after Chaos Strike/Fracture/Shear, deal 6 slashes instead.
      • Art of the Glaive has been redesigned – Begins a well-practiced pattern of glaivework and enhances your next cast of Chaos Strike and of Blade Dance. The enhanced ability you cast first deals 10% increased damage, and the second deals 20% increased damage.
      • Intent Pursuit has been redesigned – When enhanced by Reaver’s Glaive, Chaos Strike/Fracture/Shear applies Reaver’s Mark which causes the target to take 15% increased damage for 20 seconds. If cast after Blade Dance/Soul Cleave, Reaver’s Mark is increased to 30%.
      • Casting The Hunt allows you to cast Reaver’s Glaive.
      • Incisive Blade always increases Chaos Strike/Soul Cleave damage (was only when enhanced).
      • Adjusted positions of Incisive Blade, Keen Engagement, and Preemptive Strike.
      • Escalation has been removed.
• DRUID
  • Hero Talents
    • Elune’s Chosen (Balance/Guardian)
      • Moondust now slows enemies by 20% (was 30%).
      • Stellar Command now increases Full Moon damage by 25% (was 15%).
• EVOKER
  • Hero Talents
    • Chronowarden (Augmentation/Preservation)
      • Temporal Burst now increases Haste, movement speed, and cooldown recovery rate by 30%, decreasing over 30 seconds (was 1% increasing up to 40% over 40 seconds).
    • Scalecommander (Devastation/Augmentation)
      • Unrelenting Siege now increases the damage of Disintegrate/Eruption, Living Flame, and Azure Strike by 1% every second, up to 15%. Stacks are now also used to communicate the value (was Living Flame and Azure Strike stacking up to 50%).
• HUNTER
  • Trailblazer and Pathfinding have swapped locations in the Hunter class tree.
  • Fixed an issue that was causing Posthaste to only grant 25% movement speed. It now grants 50% movement speed.
  • Fixed an issue that was causing Born to Be Wild to falsely claim to reduce the cooldown of Survival of the Fittest.
  • Hero Talents
    • Sentinel (Survival/Marksmanship)
      • Symphonic Arsenal damage reduced by 40%.
      • Symphonic Arsenal target cap reduced to 5 (was 6).
  • Beast Mastery
    • Thrill of the Hunt now properly stacks up to 3 times.
    • War Orders now properly grants a 50% chance to reset the cooldown of Kill Command.
    • The position of Hunter’s Prey and Wild Call have been swapped.
    • Killer Cobra in Gate 2 has been renamed to Venom’s Bite.
    • Developer’s note: Huntmaster’s Call is providing a substantial amount of damage despite how easy it is to access.
    • Huntmaster’s Call has had the following adjustments:
      • Fenryr’s Ravenous Leap damage reduced by 30%.
      • Hati now increases all pet damage by 8% (was 15%).
      • Hati and Fenryr attack damage has been normalized and reduced.
    • Hunters have new visuals and sound effects when Huntmaster’s Call summons Hati or Fenryr.
    • Kill Command damage increased by 8%.
    • Dire Beast damage increased by 10%.
    • Dire Beast now grants 20 Focus.
  • Survival
    • Harpoon and Aspect of the Eagle are now baseline to Survival Hunter.
    • Fury of the Eagle will now properly benefit from Tip of the Spear.
    • Fury of the Eagle does not consume a stack of Tip of the Spear until the channel ends.
    • Contagious Reagents no longer plays the Serpent Sting animation or audio multiple times.
    • Terms of Engagement is now located where Harpoon used to be on the Survival Spec tree.
    • Exposed Flank has been redesigned – Flanking Strike exposes a weakness in your enemy’s defenses, causing it to strike 2 additional targets at 100% effectiveness and causing Kill Command to hit 2 additional nearby enemies for 10 seconds.
    • Explosive Shot now benefits from and consumes Tip of the Spear.
    • Developer’s note: The following changes are targeted at smoothing out Survival’s rotation, such that you can reasonably maintain a spell priority, aren’t munching procs, and will have to more actively manage your Focus economy. We will continue to read feedback and adjust Survival’s action and focus economy as necessary.
    • Fixed an isasue that was causing Flanker’s Advantage to substantially increase Kill Command’s chance to reset its cooldown and substantially increase Tip of the Spear’s damage bonus.
    • Flanking Strike damage increased by 40%, now costs 20 Focus, and generates 2 stacks of Tip of the Spear.
    • Wildfire Bomb now costs 10 Focus.
    • Explosives Expert now reduces Wildfire Bomb cooldown by 1/2 seconds (was 2/4 seconds).
    • Wildfire Infusion now makes Kill Command reduce the cooldown of Wildfire Bomb by 1 second (was 2 seconds).
    • Grenade Juggler now makes Explosive Shot reduce the cooldown of Wildfire Bomb by 2 seconds (was 4 seconds).
    • Grenade Juggler now causes Wildfire Bomb to have a 25% chance to also fire an Explosive Shot at your target at 100% effectiveness (was 25% chance to reset the cooldown of Explosive Shot).
    • Bombardier now grants two free charges of Explosive Shot after Coordinated Assault ends (used to make Explosive Shot have 0 cooldown and cost 0 Focus for 4 seconds).
• MAGE
  • Hero Talents
    • Spellslinger (Frost/Arcane)
      • Splintering Orbs updated for Arcane only – The first enemy damaged by your Arcane Orb conjures 4 Arcane Splinters.
      • Spellfrost Teachings updated for Arcane only – Spellfrost Teachings now automatically launches an Arcane Orb when it procs, rather than resetting the cooldown of Arcane Orb.
        • Developer’s note: The difference in effectiveness between Arcane Orb and Frozen Orb in single target versus AOE is stark. These changes should help Arcane Mages to feel as though they’re still getting full benefit out of their Hero Talents in single target relative to Frost Mages, who can much more easily get full benefit.
    • Sunfury (Arcane/Fire)
      • Lessons in Debilitation no longer casts a crowd-controlled spell when you summon your Phoenix.
        • Developer’s note: Mages having access to a free, off global cooldown crowd-controlled spell every time they use their cooldowns was proving to be too problematic in all forms of content.
      • Gravity Lapse now benefits from Time Manipulation in the Mage Class Tree.
        • Fixed an issue that was causing Spellfire Spheres to be removed from players upon starting an encounter.
      • Meteorites will now properly benefit from damage amplification effects and proc on-damage effects.
      • Codex of the Sunstriders has been redesigned – Over its duration, your Arcane Phoenix will consume each of your Spellfire Spheres to cast an exceptional spell. Upon consuming a Spellfire Sphere, your Arcane Phoenix will grant you Lingering Embers, increasing your spell damage by 2%. Stacks up to 5 times.
      • Spellfire Spheres now properly increase periodic spell damage.
      • Arcane
        • Glorious Incandescence has been redesigned – Consuming Burden of Power causes your next cast of Arcane Barrage to grant 4 Arcane Charges and call down a storm of 4 Meteorites on its target.
        • Mana Cascade has been redesigned – Casting Arcane Blast or Arcane Barrage grants you 1% Haste. Stacks up to 10 times. Multiple instances may overlap.
        • Spellfire Spheres are now generated by casting 6 Arcane Blasts or Arcane Barrages (was consuming Clearcasting).
      • Fire
        • Sun King’s Fury-enhanced Pyroblasts and Flamestrikes will correctly grant Combustion when you gain Hyperthermia during the Sun King’s Fury hard-cast.
  • Arcane
    • The position of many nodes on the Arcane spec tree has changed.
      • Developer’s note: We’re making some updates to the Arcane tree this week but some extra talent nodes didn’t quite make the build. Expect to see them in the coming weeks.
    • Nether Munitions has been redesigned – When your Touch of the Magi detonates, it increases the damage all affected targets take from you by 8% for 12 seconds.
    • Improved Touch of the Magi is no longer a choice node with Magi’s Spark.
    • Magi’s Spark and Nether Munitions are now a choice node.
    • Magi’s Spark explosion damage increased by 300%.
    • Magi’s Spark echo damage increased to 100% (was 50%).
    • Magi’s Spark’s explosion will now properly benefit from spell damage amplification effects and will contribute to Touch of the Magi.
    • Arcane Blast damage increased by 10%.
    • Arcane Barrage damage increased by 12%.
    • Arcane Missiles damage increased by 10%.
    • Leydrinker chance to trigger increased to 15% (was 10%).
    • Leydrinker now echoes for 50% damage (was 15%).
    • Arcane Missiles, Arcane Barrage, Supernova, and Shifting Power can now properly generate Clearcasting.
    • Wizened Wit removed.
    • Nerub-ar Palace Class Set
      • (2) Set and (4) Set Bonus updated – Now benefits Arcane Barrage instead of Arcane Explosion.
      • (4) Set Bonus proc chance reduced to 5% (was 10%).
      • (4) Set Bonus damage buff increased to 20% (was 10%).
  • Fire
    • Pyromaniac procs now count as consuming a Hot Streak, and this is now communicated in the talent tooltip.
    • Pyromaniac Flamestrike and Pyroblast echoes can no longer contribute to Hot Streak.
    • Living Bomb damage reduced by 30%.
    • Sparking Cinders damage bonus reduced to 10% (was 15%).
    • Sparking Cinders will now trigger at most 3 times a minute, increased with Haste.
    • Phoenix Flames damage reduced by 10%.
    • Pyroblast damage reduced by 10%.
    • Intensifying Flames Ignite damage bonus reduced to 20% (was 25%).
  • Frost
    • New Talent: Permafrost Lances – Frozen Orb increases Ice Lance’s damage by 15% for 15 seconds.
    • Ice Caller is now located at Snowstorm’s previous location.
    • Fixed an issue that allowed Frost Spellslingers to generate Splinters with other player’s Winter’s Chill.
    • Snowstorm removed.
    • Nerub-ar Palace Class Set
      • (2) Set Bonus has been redesigned – Ice Lance damage increased by 8%.
      • (4) Set Bonus has been redesigned – Damage from Fingers of Frost enhanced Ice Lances invoke a Frigid Pulse, dealing Frost damage to nearby enemies. Damage reduced beyond 8 targets.
      • Developer’s note: The previous Frost Mage set bonuses were benefitting Spellslinger far more than Frostfire, which contradicted our stated goals for the 11.0 Tier Sets. We’re glad everyone liked the designs of the previous iterations of the tier sets and are investigating implementing them into the Frost tree.
• MONK
  • Brewmaster
    • Heightened Guard reduced to 40%.
  • Windwalker
    • Chi Burst has been redesigned – Your damaging spells and abilities have a chance to activate Chi Burst, allowing you to hurl a torrent of Chi energy up to 40 yards forward, dealing Nature damage to all enemies, and healing to the Monk and all allies in its path. Healing and damage reduced beyond 5 targets.
    • Fixed an issue that caused Chi Burst to deal more damage than intended while Storm, Earth, and Fire was active.
• PALADIN
  • Hero Talents
    • Herald of the Sun (Holy/Retribution)
      • Holy
        • Sun’s Avatar healing reduced by 40%.
        • Dawnlight healing reduced by 20%.
        • Sun’s Avatar now activates 1 Dawnlight when Awakening activates Avenging Wrath (was 4).
        • Second Sunrise can no longer active Divine Purpose.
        • Sun’s Avatar will now always pick players when applying its friendly Dawnlights.
        • Fixed an issue that caused Awakening to stack from Second Sunrise.
        • Fixed an issue that caused Sun’s Avatar to not activate when Awakening extends an Active Avenging Wrath.
      • Retribution
        • Sun’s Avatar now triggers 1 Dawnlight when Avenging Wrath is triggered by Radiant Glory (was 4).
    • Lightsmith (Holy/Protection)
      • Sacred Weapon now deals area of effect damage/healing.
      • Shining Light stacks to a maximum of 2.
  • Holy
    • Divine Favor has been redesigned – Now a passive that triggers automatically after you cast Holy Prism or Barrier of Faith.
    • Several talent locations have moved to facilitate Divine Favor’s choice node moving below Holy Prism’s choice node.
• PRIEST
  • Cauterizing Shadows can now trigger from enemies dying with Shadow Word: Pain or Purge the Wicked active regardless of the duration of the effect.
  • Added 5% spell variance to Power Word: Shield and Luminous Barrier.
  • Hero Talents
    • Voidweaver (Discipline/Shadow)
      • Void Blast damage reduced by 25%.
  • Discipline
    • Fixed an issue causing Dark Reprimand to consume 2 charges of Premonition of Insight.
  • Holy
    • Fixed an issue causing Holy Fire with Empyreal Blaze active to consume Premonition of Insight.
    • Fixed an issue causing Holy Word: Chastise to consume 2 charges of Premonition of Insight.
  • Shadow
    • Fixed an issue causing the range of Psychic Link to not be increased by Phantom Reach.
• ROGUE
  • Hero Talents
    • Deathstalker (Assassination/Subtlety)
      • Deathstalker’s Mark damage increased by 100% and it now applies 2 marks baseline (was 3).
      • Hunt Them Down damage increase by 100%.
      • Lingering Darkness increased to 30 seconds.
      • Flensing Knives damage increased by 100%.
      • Darkest Night now grants 40 Energy (was 60), applies 2 stacks of Deathstalker’s Mark (was 3) and its damage has been increased by 100%.
      • Developer’s note: These changes were applied via hotfix during last week’s Beta testing.
• WARLOCK
  • Hero Talents
    • Diabolist (Destruction/Demonology)
      • The cast time of Infernal Bolt has been increased to 2 seconds (was 1 second).
      • Ruination damage is now reduced beyond 8 targets.
      • Overlord, Mother of Chaos, and Pit Lord are now visible to other players at a reduced scale and will retain their original scale for the summoner.
      • Overlord now charges its target rather than leaps.
      • Mother of Chaos’ Chaos Salvo visual has been updated.
    • Hellcaller (Destruction/Affliction)
      • Seeds of Their Demise has been redesigned for Destruction – Blackened Soul damage increased by 30%. When Blackened Soul deals damage, you have a chance to gain 2 stacks of Flashpoint.
      • Zevrim’s Resilience healing increased by 90%.
    • Soul Harvester (Demonology/Affliction)
      • New Talent: Gorefiend’s Resolve – Targets resurrected with Soulstone resurrect with 40% additional health and 80% additional mana.
      • Spirited Away has been removed.
  • Affliction
    • Death’s Embrace has been redesigned – Increases Drain Life healing by 30% while your health is at or below 35% health. Damage done by your Agony, Corruption, Unstable Affliction, and Malefic Rapture is increased by 10% (was 5%) when your target is at or below 35% health (was 20%).
    • Malediction has been redesigned – Increases the critical strike chance of Agony, Corruption, and Unstable Affliction by 10%.
    • Malign Omen has been moved to row 9.
    • Dark Harvest has been moved to row 10.
  • Demonology
    • Blood Invocation has been redesigned – Power Siphon increases the damage of Demonbolt by an additional 25%.
    • Doom is now passive and has been redesigned – When Demonbolt consumes a Demonic Core it inflicts impending doom upon the target, dealing Shadow damage to enemies within 10 yards of its target after 20 seconds. Damage is reduced beyond 8 targets. Consuming a Demonic Core reduces the duration of Doom by 2 seconds.
    • Impending Doom has been redesigned – Increases the damage of Doom by 30% and Doom summons 1 Wild Imp when it expires.
    • Doom Eternal has been redesigned – Demonic Cores reduce the duration of Doom by an additional 2 seconds.
    • Infernal Presence damage reduced by 50%.
  • Destruction
    • New Talent: Unstable Rifts – Bolts from Dimensional Rift deal 25% of damage dealt to nearby enemies as Fire damage.
    • Chaos Incarnate has been redesigned – Chaos Bolt, Rain of Fire, and Shadowburn always gain at least 70% of the maximum benefit from your Mastery: Chaotic Energies.
    • Dimension Ripper has been redesigned – Incinerate has a chance to tear open a Dimensional Rift or recharge Dimensional Rift if learned.
    • Raging Demonfire now extends Immolate by 0.5 seconds (was 0.2 seconds).
    • Summon Infernal has been moved to row 6.
    • Crashing Chaos has been moved to row 7.
    • Rain of Chaos has been moved to row 7.
    • Crashing Chaos and Rain of Chaos now share a node.
    • Ruin has been moved to row 8.
    • Dimensional Rift has been moved to row 9.
    • Diabolic Embers has been moved to row 9.
    • Improved Chaos Bolt has been moved to row 9.
    • Dimension Ripper has been moved row 10.
    • Infernal Brand has been removed.
• WARRIOR
  • Reverted an unintentional change to Intervene’s tooltip.
  • Hero Talents
    • Arms
      • Reap the Storm now also triggers from Cleave for Arms.
  • Arms
    • Blademaster’s Torment has been redesigned – Activating Avatar casts Sweeping Strikes and while Avatar is active the cooldown of Cleave is reduced by 1.5 seconds.
      • Developer’s note: With recent updates to Bladestorm, this talent went from strong synergy to a near-lock-in, particularly for Slayers. Total Bladestorm uptime was also becoming disruptive, so we’ve redesigned this talent to be useful in AOE situations and provide a different rotational cadence during Avatar.
    • Warlord’s Torment tooltip updated with detailed information. No functional changes.
  • Fury
    • Berserker’s Torment tooltip updated with detailed information. No functional changes.
    • Titan’s Torment tooltip updated with detailed information. No functional changes.
    • Odyn’s Fury damage increased by 133% overall.
    • Reckless Abandon now buffs your next Bloodthirst and Raging Blow.
  • Protection
    • Immovable Object tooltip updated with detailed information. No functional changes.

PET BATTLES

• Added a gossip to Questzertauren so that players can unlock 3 battle pets from The War Within as well as 3 ultimate battle pet training stones to test the new pet battles.

PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER

• CLASSES
  • DEATH KNIGHT
    • Strangulate (PvP Talent) now overrides Asphyxiate, but its cooldown is decreased to 45 seconds (was 60 seconds), its duration is increased to 5 seconds (was 4 seconds), and its range is increased to 20 yards (was 15 yards).
  • DEMON HUNTER
    • Cleansed by Flame now cleanses 1 magical effect (was all).
  • DRUID
    • New PvP Talent: Tireless Pursuit – For 5 seconds after leaving Cat Form or Travel Form, you retain up to 40% movement speed.
    • High Winds has been redesigned – Increases the range of Cyclone, Typhoon, and Entangling Roots by 5 yards.
  • HUNTER
    • Tranquilizing Darts (PvP Talent) has been removed.
  • MAGE
    • New PvP Talent: Fireheart – Blazing Barrier’s damage is increased by 500%.
    • Flamecannon (PvP Talent) has been removed.
  • MONK
    • Grapple Weapon (PvP Talent) range reduced to 20 yards (was 30 yards).
    • Mistweaver
      • New PvP Talent: Rodeo – Every 3 seconds while Clash if off cooldown, your next Clash can be reactivated immediately to wildly Clash an additional enemy. This effect can stack up to 3 times.
    • Windwalker
      • New PvP Talent: Rodeo – Every 3 seconds while Clash if off cooldown, your next Clash can be reactivated immediately to wildly Clash an additional enemy. This effect can stack up to 3 times.
      • New PvP Talent: Rising Dragon Sweep – Whirling Dragon Punch knocks enemies up into the air and causes them to fall slowly until they reach the ground.
      • The following PvP talents have been removed:
        • Mighty Ox Kick
        • Alpha Tiger
  • PALADIN
    • New PvP Talent: Wrench Evil – Turn Evil’s cast time is reduced by 100%.
    • Judgments of the Pure (PvP Talent) has been removed.
  • SHAMAN
    • Skyfury Totem has been redesigned – Now triggers when casting Primordial Wave (was actively cast).
  • WARLOCK
    • Call Fel Lord damage increased by 80%.
    • Fel Obelisk (PvP Talent) has been removed.
  • WARRIOR
    • Master and Commander now reduces the cooldown of Rallying Cry by 90 seconds (was 60 seconds).
    • Battlefield Commander (PvP Talent) now increases the radius of Piercing Howl by 50% (was root targets for 2 seconds).
    • Death Sentence (PvP Talent) has been removed.
    • Arms
      • Storm of Destruction has been redesigned – Now reduces healing on affected targets by 25% for 10 seconds (was reduce the cooldown of Bladestorm and Ravager).
      • Duel (PvP Talent) duration increased to 12 seconds and its sound effect has been changed to be more noticeable.
    • Fury
      • Enduring Rage (PvP Talent) can now activate Recklessness without Enrage active and the duration of the Recklessness granted has been increased by 1 second.
      • Slaughterhouse now stacks its effect if another healing reduction effect is active and overrides its effect once its effectiveness would surpass the active healing reduction effect or the active healing reduction effect is removed.
      • The following PvP talents have been removed:
        • Bloodrage
        • Storm of Destruction (Fury only)
• REWARDS
  • Developer’s note: In conjunction with the conquest earned update, we wanted to provide additional context on how players will earn their weapons. In 11.0 Season 1, players can earn a set of Conquest weapons suitable to their specialization without having to spend Conquest. Players can pick up the quest, “Weapons of Conquest” either by entering a Rated PvP match or by going to Dornogal to speak with the Conquest Quartermaster, Lalandi. This quest will task them with earning 2500 Conquest, which is achievable on Week 3 of the season. Players can then complete this quest by speaking with Lalandi. She will give you weapons, shields, and off-hands appropriate for your specialization. After completing this quest, players will be able to use Conquest to purchase weapons from Lalandi as normal.