12.0.5 PTR Development Notes
INCOMING VOID ASSAULTS
The forces of the Void are vying for position and control amongst themselves in a bid for more power. As they seek every opportunity they can, attacks begin in the Eversong Woods and Zul’Aman zones.
Void Strike
Void Strikes take part in Eversong Woods or Zul’Aman on a weekly rotation. Once completed, a new one will begin in another part of the zone and continue to rotate through the zones.
Void Incursion
These larger scenarios occur when enough Void Strikes have been completed in the zones and will take the might of many of Azeroth’s champions to defeat them.
- Developers’ notes: Zul’Aman Void Assaults are available this week and will rotate to Eversong Woods Void Assaults next week.
RITUAL SITES
Put a stop to rituals meant to empower the ambitions of power-hungry naga and Twilight’s Blade cultists in small one to five player instances. As you take on greater challenges, you’ll be able to receive greater rewards.
In Ritual Sites, you’ll choose some of the challenges you’ll face as you climb through the tiers. Players will also unlock Great Vault rewards for the World content row alongside Delves and Prey.
Players will earn Field Accolades from both Void Assaults and Ritual Sites as currency they can use to purchase Champion and Heroic quality gear and rewards.
- Developers’ notes: Daggerspine Ritual Site is available this week and will rotate to the Broken Throne Ritual Site next week.
THE VOIDFORGE
As Midnight Season 1 begins, players will assist the domanaar Decimus with the construction of the Voidforge as they explore the nature of mysterious Voidcores. This progression is warband-wide. With the Voidforge’s initial completion in this content update, Decimus gains the ability to transmute Void energy into powerful Nebulous Voidcores every week that can be used to acquire additional loot every week and chase specific items over time. After players help acquire a new tool that will allow Voidforge’s power to reach new heights, Decimus will return the favor by infusing weapons and trinkets with greater power from rare Ascendant Voidcores.
Nebulous Voidcores
Players can use Nebulous Voidcores to more easily obtain specific equipment whether they’re chasing best-in-slot items on their main character or looking to quickly gear up their alts later in the season.
Upon defeating a Midnight Season 1 raid boss or completing a Mythic+ Dungeon, Bountiful Delve, or Prey Hunt on Nightmare difficulty, players may choose to spend their Nebulous Voidcores to receive a random item appropriate for their Loot Specialization from that activity. After receiving an item in this way, it is removed from that loot pool until all eligible items have been obtained on a per-difficulty basis. For example, receiving the Ranger-Captain’s Iridescent Insignia trinket from the Crown of the Cosmos encounter in the Voidspire on Normal difficulty will not remove it from consideration on Heroic or Mythic difficulty. The item level of Mythic+ rewards from Nebulous Voidcores is equivalent to Great Vault rewards from that Keystone level, i.e., Myth 1/6 at Keystone level +10 and above.
Upon completing the Voidspire Crown of the Cosmos encounter on Normal difficulty while carrying Nebulous Voidcores, a Marksmanship Hunter would be offered the following Bonus Loot prompt:
Similarly, upon completing Windrunner Spire on Mythic+ Keystone level +10 or above while carrying Nebulous Voidcores, the same player would see the following:
Some of you may be wondering why some items are missing from these examples. This is because, despite the common misconception, not all loot is Hunter loot.
Decimus will offer Nebulous Voidcores to the player in exchange for a choice of valuable resources including gold, Voidlight Marl, and Veteran Dawncrests. The total number of Nebulous Voidcores available to a character increases by two every week for the remainder of the season. Due to the smaller loot pools and the exceptional power of raid items, these rewards will require two Nebulous Voidcores upon defeating a raid boss. Other endgame content, such as Mythic+, will cost only one. As a result, acquiring a particularly desired trinket, weapon, or ring is likely to require a similar total of Nebulous Voidcores regardless of source. For example, a player chasing a trinket from a raid boss with three total items matching their Loot Specialization is likely to receive that trinket in the same amount of time it would take to acquire a trinket from a Mythic+ dungeon with six total items.
Ascendant Voidcores
Following the Voidforge’s construction, Decimus will ask players to assist him in crafting the Ascendant Nilhammer, a powerful tool capable of manipulating Ascendant Voidcores to empower worthy equipment. Upon completing this warband-wide journey, players may begin acquiring Ascendant Voidcores from Midnight Season 1 endgame content including raids, Mythic+ dungeons, Bountiful Delves, and Nightmare difficulty Prey Hunts. Consuming an Ascendant Voidcore infuses an eligible weapon or trinket with additional power to increase its item level. Only fully upgraded Hero, Myth and maximum quality Radiance Crafted weapons and trinkets are eligible to become Ascendant Voidforged.
DECOR DUELS (available in a later PTR build)
Amidst all the danger that swirls above Azeroth, there’s something to be said about having a little fun. Players can join in a team vs team hide-and-seek style game taking place in Silvermoon City through the Group Finder Tool (PvP tab) to either hide as various Housing decor items or seek out those who have donned the guise of an item. You’ll earn new rewards such as a mount, toys, and Housing decor through this bite-sized event.
NEW ACTIVITY: ABYSS ANGLERS
Dive deep into the shimmering waters off Zul’Aman’s rugged coast, where schools of exotic fish swarm just beneath the surface. Team up to spear as many as you can and rack up points to unlock fishing rewards and upgrades to your diver gear, allowing you to venture deeper into the abyss where the greatest treasures await.
Abyss Anglers is a new repeatable event arriving just off the coast of Zul’Aman.
Seek out Depthdiver Jeju to suit up and enter the Depths. Zip through whirlpools, catch creatures with your harpoon, and discover treasures amidst the underwater steam vents.
Prove your mastery to earn dive equipment upgrades and cosmetics.
CLASSES
Developers’ notes: With the first 12.0.5 PTR build, players will see several class changes included in this update. These are just the first round of changes; additional class changes are planned and will be added in future PTR builds over the coming weeks.
- DRACTHYR
- Chosen Identity
- Savvy spell-sleuths may notice a spell called Battle Visage in this week’s build data. While this feature isn’t ready for testing just yet, we wanted to give a heads up and set a few expectations.
- Battle Visage is intended to be a toggleable spell for Evokers like Chosen Identity, that while active causes your character to automatically switch to their Dracthyr form for spells that require their draconic physique. After the spell is finished, they will automatically return to Visage form.
- There are some technical hurdles we’re working through with Battle Visage specifically in regards to the camera positioning, as switching quickly between the forms can cause discomfort as the camera moves up and down.
- We look forward to your feedback on Battle Visage in a future PTR build!
- Chosen Identity
- DEATH KNIGHT
- Frost
- Apex Talent: Chosen of Frostbrood (Rank 4) has been updated – The ability used to recall Frostwyrm’s Fury is no longer on the global cooldown.
- Deathbringer
- Echoing Fury secondary effect redesigned – Casting Reaper’s Mark grants 1 stack of Exterminate with 100% first scythe and 100% second scythe effectiveness.
- Exterminate has been updated – After Reaper’s Mark explodes, your next 2 Obliterates or Frostscythes cost 1 Rune and summon 2 scythes to strike the enemies. The rest of the effect remains the same.
- Unholy
- New Talent: Cycle of Death – Putrefy reduces the cooldown of Death and Decay by 1 second. Death and Decay reduces the cooldown of Putrefy by 0.3 seconds for each enemy it damages, up to 3 seconds.
- Raise Abomination has been updated – Disease Cloud no longer causes enemies to take increased damage from minions. Now deals Plague damage periodically to nearby enemies.
- Soul Reaper has been updated – No longer consumes all available charges to cast Putrefy. Instead, grants 1 charge of Putrefy when it is cast. Moved up to the 2nd gate in the talent tree.
- Putrid Echoes has an additional effect – Putrefy now consumes up to 2 available charges on cast.
- Lesser Ghoul damage reduced by 17%.
- Pestilence renamed to Blightfall and now overrides Dark Transformation instead of Outbreak.
- Some talents have changed locations in the talent tree.
- The following talents have been removed:
- Blightfall
- March of Madness
- Scythe of Decay
- Rider of the Apocalypse
- Unholy Armaments has an additional effect – Your Ghoul and skeletal archer deal 10% and Lesser Ghouls deal 20% increased damage.
- A Feast of Souls has been updated – While you have 2 or more Horsemen aiding you, your Death Coil deals 20% and Epidemic deals 20% increased damage.
- San’layn
- Frenzied Bloodthirst has been updated – Essence of the Blood Queen increases the damage of your Death Coil and Death Strike by 3%, and Epidemic by 3% per stack.
- Thrill of Blood has an additional effect – Dread Plague deals 5% and Virulent Plague deals 5% increased damage.
- Desecrate has been updated – Death and Decay deals its damage 100% faster.
- Frost
- EVOKER
- Blessing of the Bronze is now castable on friendly players who are not in your party or raid group, similar to other group buffs like Arcane Intellect.
- Augmentation
- New Talent: Mighty Inferno – Inferno’s Blessing’s damage is increased by 40%, and your effects that extend Ebon Might also extend Inferno’s Blessing. Replaces Molten Embers.
- Inferno’s Blessing will now correctly always apply to the casting Evoker, and will no longer apply to pets.
- Regenerative Chitin has a new icon.
- Molten Embers has been removed.
- Chronowarden
- New Talent: Chronal Dynamo – Living Flame’s cast time is reduced by 0.2 seconds, and it deals 50% increased damage or healing when it is a non-instant cast. Replaces Energy Cycles.
- Energy Cycles has been removed.
- Preservation
- Developers’ notes: The following changes are intended to help Preservation heal spread out targets, particularly in dungeons. Temporal Anomaly is now a more reliable spell that you can fall back on to keep your party safe and Emerald Blossom now has better talent support to heal allies even if they are not stacked.
- Temporal Anomaly has been redesigned – Now instantly applies an absorb to your target and up to 4 allies within 40 yards, rather than being an area trigger that travels forward.
- Fluttering Seedlings has been redesigned slightly – Emerald Blossom sends out 1 / 2 flying seedlings when it bursts, plus up to 2 / 4 additional seedlings if Emerald Blossom heals fewer than 5 allies. Each seedling heals an ally up to 40 yards away.
- Fluttering Seedlings healing increased by 67%.
- Fluttering Seedlings is now considered a Green spell and its healing is increased by Ouroboros.
- Life-giver’s Flame now also functions with Deep Breath, causing the first 5 targets hit to heal nearby allies for 80% of damage done.
- Chronowarden
- New Talent: Chronal Dynamo – Living Flame’s cast time is reduced by 0.2 seconds, and it deals 50% increased damage or healing when it is a non-instant cast. Replaces Energy Cycles.
- Energy Cycles has been removed.
- HUNTER
- Survival
- Developers’ notes: The following changes are intended to help underperforming talents and provide a damage bonus to dual-wielding Survival Hunters.
- Sic 'Em has been updated – Now triggers from Strike as One critical strikes (was Kill Command).
- Lunge has been updated – No longer grants Wildfire Bomb cooldown reduction. Now additionally grants 2% Agility, increased by an additional 2% while dual-wielding.
- Pack Leader
- Hogstrider has been redesigned – Each time your Boar deals damage, the damage of your next Boomstick is increased by 5%, up to 20%.
- Hoof and Blade has been redesigned – Now increases Hogstrider’s damage bonus by 2%.
- Sharpened Fangs has been updated – Now additionally increases the damage Wildfire Bomb deals to its primary target by 15%.
- Lethal Barbs now grants 1 Focus (was 2 Focus).
- Survival
- MAGE
- Arcane
- Developers’ notes: We’re adjusting Arcane Pulse to behave identically to Arcane Blast to reduce the decision-space around which spell should be cast at different times.
- Arcane Pulse cast time is now 2.25 seconds (was 1.75 seconds) and its cast time is reduced by 8% for each Arcane Charge you have.
- Fixed an issue where Arcane Missiles with Aether Attunement talented or an Overpowered Missiles proc would target critters and pull them into combat, but not deal damage to them.
- Frost
- Developers’ notes: We’re making some cosmetic and clarity-related changes to Glacial Spike so that players can easily find Frostbolt in their spellbooks. We’re also adjusting the 4th rank for Hand of Frost to help make Ray of Frost feel like more of a moment and help ease the decision point on its best use-case while we also look to distribute the power of the 2nd charge elsewhere. We’ll be monitoring the throughput impact of these changes and make adjustments as necessary.
- Icicles has been updated – No longer generates rapidly out of combat.
- Glacial Spike now has a duration of 60 seconds (was unlimited).
- Apex Talent: Hand of Frost (Rank 4) – No longer grants an additional charge of Ray of Frost. Now causes Ray of Frost to generate 8 Hands of Frost over its duration (was 4). Ray of Frost damage increased by 30% (was 25%).
- Arcane
- MONK
- Windwalker
- Crashing Fists has been redesigned – Fists of Fury damage is increased by 20% (was extends duration by 1 second).
- Apex Talent: Tigereye Brew (Rank 1) has been redesigned – Every 3 Chi spent generates Tigereye Brew. Zenith consumes up to 20 Tigereye Brew stacks to increase your critical strike chance for its duration by 2% per stack. Generates quickly up to 10 stacks while out of combat and may generate up a maximum of 30 stacks.
- Apex Talent: Tigereye Brew (Rank 3) has been redesigned – Zenith now grants access to 2 additional Zenith Stomps.
- Xuen’s Battlegear may now additionally trigger from Spinning Crane Kick, reducing the cooldown of Fists of Fury by 0.5 seconds for each unique target struck, up to 2.5 seconds.
- Zenith Stomp now generates 2 Chi.
- Zenith no longer generates 2 Chi on cast.
- Windwalker
- PALADIN
- Holy
- Apex Talent: Beacon of the Savior (Rank 4) now causes Flash of Light and Holy Light to move Beacon of the Savior to their target once per 5 seconds.
- Herald of the Sun
- Walk Into Light has been redesigned – Now increases the chance for Infusion of Light to occur by 100% during Avenging Wrath.
- Lightsmith
- Holy Armaments now generate 3 Holy Power.
- Holy
- SHAMAN
- Enhancement
- To better reflect their effects, the names of Raging Maelstrom and Overflowing Maelstrom talents have been swapped.
- Overflowing Maelstrom secondary effect has been updated – Each Maelstrom Weapon stack consumed grants Overflowing Maelstrom, reducing the cast time and increasing the healing of your next Healing Surge or Chain Heal by 10%. Overflowing Maelstrom can accumulate up to 20 stacks, benefiting each cast by up to 10 stacks.
- Enhancement
- WARRIOR
- Arms
- Mortal Wounds now triggers from Mortal Strike and Slam (was Mortal Strike and Cleave).
- Colossus
- Practiced Strikes now increases Mortal Strike and Slam damage by 15% and Cleave and Whirlwind damage by 15%.
- Slayer
- Reap the Storm now triggers when Whirlwind or Cleave hits 3 or more targets. Chance to trigger changed to 15% (was 20%).
- Imminent Demise no longer causes Sudden Death to trigger Reap the Storm.
- Unrelenting Onslaught now also increases damage dealt by Bladestorm by 20%.
- Fury
- Hack and Slash has been redesigned – Rampage has 100% chance to refund a charge of Raging Blow.
- Improved Whirlwind now causes Whirlwind to apply Rend to all targets if Rend is known.
- Slayer
- Reap the Storm now triggers when Whirlwind hits 3 or more targets. Chance to trigger changed to 15% (was 30%).
- Imminent Demise no longer causes Sudden Death to trigger Reap the Storm.
- Unrelenting Onslaught now increases damage dealt by Bladestorm by 20%.
- Protection
- Colossus
- Practiced Strikes now increases Shield Slam damage by 15% and Revenge and Thunder Clap damage by 15%.
- Colossus
- Arms
HOUSING
- If a guild member currently in the guild neighborhood is kicked or leaves the guild, they will now be teleported out of the guild neighborhood during their eviction. Their eviction notice should be visible after teleporting.
- HOUSE EXTERIOR EDITOR IMPROVEMENTS:
- Added a popup to warn about Decor attached to your House when swapping types.
- Added a hide/show Decor toggle while editing your House Exterior.
- We now prevent position and rotation from resetting when swapping exterior House types.
- Updated Exterior House Editor button to use a unique button icon.
- Implemented new budget icons for House Upgrades.
- You can now click Decor links in chat to open the Decor Catalog. Shift+Clicking Decor will also link it in chat.
- Decor and Houses now fade in, rather than simply popping in at distance.
- Added a friendlier message when you try to enter a House that you are not allowed in.
- Updated the chat message when acquiring Decor to include links to the Decor in the Catalog
- Your Dyed versions of the same Decor are now shown on one card instead of multiple cards in the Decor Catalog, with the ability to cycle between your owned variants in the preview window.
- In the Cornerstone pane, updated the confirmation dialogs for Buy and Move to include the plot number, Neighborhood, and price.
- Added a new tutorial helptip for how to switch Endeavors. Added a reminder in the inactive Endeavor’s page that only one Endeavor can be contributed to at a time.
- Added a tooltip for the Endeavors completion reward that displays the House XP and Community Coupons earned.
PROFESSIONS
- Cooking and vendor refreshments now restore health and mana based on a percentage, rather than a fixed amount.
- Developers’ notes: World of Warcraft offers a wide variety of food and drink items, so there are some food and drink items that are still being updated.
- The Deftness stat now scales at a slower rate for Dragonflight, Khaz Algar, and Midnight professions.
- Developers’ notes: As a side effect of squishing stats and item levels, Deftness scaled disproportionately faster than other professions stats, making it trivial to reach 100%+ Deftness in Dragonflight and Khaz Algar professions. This change brings Deftness back in line to expected values.
USER INTERFACE AND ACCESSIBILITY
- Damage Meter windows now have a minimize/maximize button, leaving only the header bar when minimized.
- Previously, certain features needed to be enabled in game options before being accessible in Edit Mode. Now, you can shift click the feature’s checkbox in Edit Mode to enable the feature directly. This applies to features including Cooldown Manager, Damage Meter, Boss Warnings, External Defensives, and Loot Window.
- The default size of raid frames and arena frames has been increased.
- Added the ability to invite cross faction players to a party from the Recent Allies window.
- There is a new icon for “stay a while and listen” NPCs.
- TRANSMOGRIFICATION
- Added a /outfit command to change outfits. Use /outfit x, with x being the outfit’s order number in the transmogrification pane. Using /outfit with no number or /outfit x with that outfit already equipped will clear all transmogs instead (use /outfit !x to avoid this behavior). Trial of Style outfit uses /outfit 0.
- Added a Sheathe Weapon toggle to the transmog preview pane.
- Two Situations have been added: Weather and Time of Day.
- The Sets and Custom Sets section now have a more detailed tooltip that shows the collection status of the set and its appearances.
- When there is an outfit discount in effect, the cost is now green with a tooltip showing the source of the discount.
- Added a glow to the “Save Outfit” button when there are pending changes.
- Fixed an issue where certain items with special visual effects, such as Forest Lord’s Antlers, would be displayed incorrectly when applied as a transmogrification.
