by Magistrate - 10 years ago     show comments

The latest batch of Warlords of Draenor beta notes were posted last night, with significant attention paid to Hunters, Warriors, and Warlocks.

We encourage you to read the complete beta notes on the Warlords blog for a full list of upcoming changes.

Reading Notes

• Note updates and additions are denoted in bolded text
• Removed sections are denoted with strike-through text.
• Only updates since the last note list have been included for ease of reading. See the official blog post for more.
• Some larger sections, sentences, and subtitles have been retained for context reading.
• Click to navigate via the Changes Index

Changes Index

• Game System Changes
  • Racial Traits
  • Crowd Control and Diminishing Returns
• Classes
  • Death Knight
  • Druid
  • Hunter
  • Mage
  • Monk
  • Paladin
  • Priest
  • Rogue
  • Shaman
  • Warlock
  • Warrior

Game System Changes

Racial Traits

• Pandaren
  • Epicurean now increases the benefit of Well Fed effects by 75% (down from 100%).

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Crowd Control and Diminishing Returns

• Druid
  • Typhoon now has a range of 15 yards (down from 30 yards).
• Hunter
  • Wyvern Sting now has a 1.5 second cast time.
• Priest
  • Silence is now available to Discipline and Shadow Priests
• Rogue
  • Deadly Throw now requires 5 Combo Points in order to interrupt spell casting (up from 3 Combo Points).
• Warrior
  • Safeguard no longer removes movement-impairing effects.

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Classes

Death Knight

Ability Consolidation and Refinement

• Pillar of Frost now increases Strength by 15% (down from 20%).

Frost Changes

• Icy Talons now increases attack speed by 20% 35% (down from 45%), and haste by 5% (up from 0%).
• Might of the Frozen Wastes now increases the damage of Obliterate by 50% (up from 40%) and melee damage by 35% (up from 30%) while wielding a two-handed weapon, and increases the damage of Frost Strike by 50% (up from 35%) while dual-wielding.
• Razorice now deals 4% additional weapon damage (up from 2%), and increases Frost damage by 2% 4%per stack (down up from 3%).

Blood Changes

• Improved Blood Presence now increases all damage dealt by 15% 20%, instead of increasing rune regeneration rate.
• Veteran of the Third War now increases your critical strike chance, Multistrike chance, haste, and Stamina by 10% (up from 9% to Stamina only), reduces the chance for attacks to be parried by 3%, increases the damage of Death Strike by 100%, and grants 1 Runic Power per second while in combat.

Miscellaneous

• Conversion no longer has an initial tick, and now costs 30 15 Runic Power/second for Blood, 10 Runic Power/second for Frost, and 20 Runic Power/second for Unholy.

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Druid

Ability Consolidation and Refinement

• Barkskin’s no longer provides pushback protection, but its cooldown has been reduced to 30 seconds.

Talents

• Nature’s Vigil, while active, increases single-target damage and healing caused by healing spells by 30% (up from 25%), and all single-target damage spells also heal a nearby friendly target for 40% of the damage done (up from 25%). Its healing now targets allies within 40 yards of the Druid (instead of within 40 yards of the target).

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Hunter

Ability Consolidation and Refinement

• Cobra Strikes now has a 20% chance to trigger (up from a 15% chance), but now only grants 1 charge each time it triggers (down from 2 charges).
• Lock and Load’s effects have been incorporated into Black Arrow.
• Black Arrow’s cooldown is reset if it is dispelled.
• Thrill of the Hunt now has a 6% chance to trigger for every 10 Focus spent (instead of a flat 30% chance). has a 20% chance to trigger (down from 30%).

Rotation Depth and Talents

We’ve changed the combat rotations of each Hunter specialization (primarily through Ability Pruning) with the goal of them being a platform to build upon with talents. To facilitate this, we’ve modified several talents to add additional rotational depth. Hunters had many talent options which added abilities to their rotation, but most of them had quite simple usage, with little interaction with your rotation or other abilities. Now, there should be more of a variety; still some simple talents, but also some talents that create a more engaging combat rotation.

• Barrage now has a 20 second cooldown (down from 30 seconds), costs 60 Focus (up from 30 Focus), and its damage has been increased by 100%.
• Murder of Crows has been changed. Its duration, cost, and cooldown have been reduced by 50%. It no longer has a shorter cooldown when used on low health targets. Instead, its cooldown is reset if the target dies.
• Fervor has been replaced with a new passive ability, Steady Focus.
  • Steady Focus increases Focus Regeneration by 50% for 10 seconds after using Cobra Shot or Steady Shot twice in a row, or after using Focusing Shot.

Survival Changes

• (Line moved to Ability Consolidation and Refinement.) Black Arrow now deals 60% more damage, inflicts Shadow damage every 3 seconds (up from every 2 seconds), has a duration of 18 seconds (down from 20 seconds), and triggers Lock and Load on Multistrike hits.
• (Line moved to Ability Consolidation and Refinement) Lock and Load’s effects have been incorporated into Black Arrow and have been redesigned.
  • Lock and Load now causes the next Explosive Shot to not trigger its cooldown, but no longer causes it to be free or reset the ability’s current cooldown. This effect can stack up to 5 times.
• Survivalist is a new passive ability learned by Survival Hunters at level 10.
  • Survivalist increases Multistrike damage by 20% the chance to Multistrike by 10%, and causes the Hunter to gain 15% health over 10 seconds after killing a target.

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Mage

Ability Consolidation and Refinement

• Frostbolt can no longer be used to heal the Mage’s Water Elemental

Frost Changes

• The Brain Freeze effect now increases Frostfire Bolt’s damage by 25% 15%, and can now stack up to 2 times. It also no longer triggers from the Bomb Talents, and instead has a 10% chance to trigger from Frostbolt casts. Each Multistrike of Frostbolt increases that cast’s chance by an additional 25%. (Total of 60% on double-Multistrikes).

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Monk

Ability Consolidation and Refinement

• Power Strikes now triggers every 15 seconds (up from every 20 seconds), and also triggers from Surging Mist (for Mistweavers only), but no longer triggers from Crackling Jade Lightning.

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Paladin

Ability Consolidation and Refinement

• Selfless Healer no longer causes Bastion of Glory to apply to Flash of Light. For Holy Paladins, it now increases the healing of Flash of Light on others by 35% per stack (up from 20%). For Retribution and Protection Paladins, the effect on Flash of Light remains unchanged.
• (Moved to Holy Changes) Tower of Radiance’s effects have been merged into baseline Beacon of Light.

Holy Changes

• Beacon of Light now has a small Mana cost.
• Tower of Radiance’s effects have been changed and merged into baseline Beacon of Light.
  • Tower of Radiance now causes Flash of Light and Holy Light on a Beacon of Light target to refund 40% of the spell’s Mana cost instead of generating 1 Holy Power.

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Priest

Ability Consolidation and Refinement

• Shadow Word: Pain’s initial damage is now considered direct damage, not periodic damage.
  • Shadowy Apparitions and Shadowy Insight are no longer able to trigger from this initial direct damage.

Holy Changes

• Divine Providence is a new passive ability for Holy Priests.
  • Divine Providence increases the amount of the Multistrike stat gains from all sources by 5%, and increases the damage and healing of Multistrikes by 20% 25%.

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Rogue

Combat Changes

• Revealing Strike now grants Sinister Strike a 25% chance to generate an extra Combo Point (up from 20%) deals 20% more damage, but no longer advances Bandit’s Guile.

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Shaman

Ability Consolidation and Refinement

• Rolling Thunder has been removed.
  • Fulmination now causes Elemental Blast, Lightning Bolt, and Chain Lightning damage and multistrike damage to always generate an additional Lightning Shield charge, up to a maximum of 15. Earth Shock will consume any charges beyond 1, dealing their total damage to the enemy target.

Elemental and Enhancement Changes

• Magma Totem’s damage has been increased by 100%, and now ticks faster with Haste.
• Maelstrom Weapon’s chance to trigger has been reduced by 20%.
• Searing Totem’s Searing Bolt now has a 2-second cast time (up from 1.5 seconds), but casts faster with Haste, and its damage has been increased by 120% 65%.

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Warlock

Raid Utility

• Healthstone’s cooldown will now not reset until the player leaves combat. Healing from this ability is now a flat amount (instead of a % of maximum health) and can no longer be a Critical Effect.

Affliction Changes

• Haunt now increases periodic damage by 30% (down from 35%).

Demonology Changes

We were unsatisfied with Grimoire of Sacrifice for Demonology. Fundamentally, it did not fit Demonology’s theme to sacrifice their pet, full time. We had toyed with ideas where it acted as a temporary cooldown for Demonology, but have decided to replace it with a new talent, which is more theme-appropriate, and fits well against the competition in that talent row. We also tweaked the design of Master Demonologist, in order to solve some edge cases, and simplify and clarify its effects.

• Mastery: Master Demonologist has been slightly changed. It now passively increases all damage by 6% regardless of form. While in Metamorphosis, it further increases the damage of Touch of Chaos, Chaos Wave, Doom, Immolation Aura, and Soul Fire while by 12%.

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Warrior

Ability Consolidation and Refinement

• Crazed Berzerker now increases all damage by 30% (up from 20%) while using one-handed weapons.
• Seasoned Soldier now increases damage by 10% (down from 15%).

Talent Changes

• Staggering Shout has been removed and replaced with 3 new talents that vary by specialization.
  • Protection: Heavy Repercussions: Shield Slam deals 50% additional damage while Shield Block or Shield Charge is active.

Enrage and Deep Wounds

With the introduction of one of the level-100 Warrior Talents, which deals Fire damage, We also expanded Enrage to affect all damage, not just Physical damage, and increased its duration slightly so that it can cover burst windows like Colossus Smash adequately. We’re also making a change to the design of Deep Wounds, to try to limit is effectiveness in PvP, without hurting its effectiveness in PvE.

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(Source)