wow War Within Pre-Patch Development Notes: June 21st

[Staff 1,488]

Blizzard just released new development notes for the War Within pre-patch.

(Source)

The War Within Pre-Expansion PTR has been updated with the following:

CLASSES

• 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.
• 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.
  • 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 issue 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
  • 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.
  • 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.
    • Snowstorm removed.
• 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
  • 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.
  • Shadow
    • Fixed an issue causing the range of Psychic Link to not be increased by Phantom Reach.
• WARLOCK
  • 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.
  • 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.

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.
    • Feral
      • Wild Attunement (PvP Talent) has been removed.
  • 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).
    • 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)