Midnight Alpha Test Development Notes

In Development Midnight Alpha Test
4
  • MAGE
    • Hero Talents
      • Frostfire
        • Developers’ notes: The Frostfire Hero Talent tree added many auras, most of which you were incentivized to track and play around. It was also filled with damage procs, many new damage events, and provided an influx of Brain Freeze and Phoenix Flames charges to Frost and Fire respectively. In Midnight, we’re reworking the Frostfire Tree completely to let its gameplay more directly enhance and elevate the gameplay that exists within the Fire and Frost trees instead of overwhelming it. We’ve also moved Isothermic Core to the capstone location and integrated it more deeply into the tree’s talents, since the community has made it very clear that it is a fantastic visual spectacle and an exciting moment gameplay-wise. In Midnight, Frostfire Mages should have more intuitive rotational priorities, less auras to track, and punchy, big moments of damage and excitement with Frostfire Empowerment and Isothermic Core.
        • New Talent: Duality
          • Frost: Casting Glacial Spike also casts a Pyroblast, dealing moderate Fire damage.
          • Fire: Casting Pyroblast has a 25% chance to fire a Glacial Spike, dealing heavy Frost damage.
        • New Talent: Molten Chill
          • Frost: Your Frostfire spells apply Ignite, dealing an additional 15% of their damage over 9 seconds.
          • Fire: Your Frostfire spells apply Ignite at 10% increased effectiveness.
        • New Talent: Elemental Conduit – Comet Storm, Glacial Spike, Pyroblast, and Meteor now apply Ignite. Ignite’s critical strike damage is increased by 10%.
        • New Talent: Heat Sink – Flurry and Fire Blast now deal Frostfire damage and their damage is increased by 30%.
        • New Talent: Dualcasting Adept – Your Frost/Fire spells deal 20% increased critical strike damage. Pyroblast and Flamestrike/Ice Lance and Blizzard damage increased by 10%.
        • New Talent: Blast Radius – Comet Storm damage increased by 20%. Meteor damage increased by 20%.
        • Frostfire Infusion has been updated –
          • Fire: Frostfire Bolt’s critical strike chance is increased by 15%. The damage of your Frost and Fire spells are increased by 8%.
          • Frost: Frostfire Bolt has a 5% increased chance of granting Brain Freeze. The damage of your Frost and Fire spells are increased by 8%.
        • Flash Freezeburn has been updated – Casting Combustion or Ray of Frost grants Frostfire Empowerment. The cooldown of Ray of Frost is reduced by 15 seconds. The cooldown of Combustion is reduced by 30 seconds.
        • Severe Temperatures has been updated – Frostfire Empowerment stacks 1 additional time and it causes Frostfire Bolt to explode for an additional 20% of its damage.
        • Flame and Frost has been updated – Now triggers from Ice Block and Ice Cold for Frost Mages (was Cold Snap).
        • Isothermic Core Meteor and Comet Storm damage increased by 35%. Now the Frostfire capstone talent.
        • Isothermic Core tooltip updated to show the actual damage values of the Meteor/Comet Storms summoned and is now conditionalized based on your specialization.
        • Frostfire Bolt initial and periodic damage increased by 50%.
        • Frostfire Bolt keystone now has two specialization specific versions that only can be seen and selected by Frost or Fire. They now override only Frostbolt or Fireball based on your specialization.
          • Developers’ notes: This will fix situations where Fire Mages would have Frostfire Bolt revert to Frostbolt when talenting out of Frostfire Hero Talents.
        • The following talents have been removed:
          • Excess Fire
          • Excess Frost
          • Frostfire Mastery
      • Spellslinger
        • New Talent: Attuned Familiar – Your Arcane Familiar/Water Elemental has a 50% chance to conjure a Splinter alongside its Arcane Assault/Waterbolt.
        • New Talent: Infused Splinters – Direct damage from Splinters has a 25% chance to grant 1 stack of Arcane Salvo/apply 1 stack of Freezing.
        • New Talent: Polished Focus – Casting Arcane Barrage while at 20 or more Arcane Salvo stacks refunds 5 Arcane Salvo stacks/Ice Lance consumes 1 additional stack of Freezing.
        • Look Again has been redesigned – While in combat, Blink summons a Mirror Image at your previous location.
        • Shifting Shards has been updated – Gaining Clearcasting/Brain Freeze conjures 2 Splinters. Now a choice node with Attuned Familiar.
        • Force of Will has been updated –
          • Arcane: Casting Arcane Barrage conjures an Arcane Splinter for every 5 Arcane Salvo stacks consumed.
          • Frost: Ice Lance conjures a Frost Splinter for every 2 Freezing stacks Shattered from its primary target.
        • Signature Spell has been updated – Casting Touch of the Magi conjures 4 Arcane Splinters. Casting Glacial Spike conjures 2 Frost Splinters.
        • Reactive Barrier absorb amount reduced to 25% (was 50%).
        • Embedded Splinters are no longer tracked on nameplates.
        • Unerring Proficiency has been removed.
        • Arcane
          • Controlled Instincts has been updated – Splinter cleave percentage increased to 40% (was 20%).
        • Frost
          • Splintering Sorcery has been updated – Casting Frostbolt or Flurry generates a Frost Splinter.
          • Augury Abounds has been updated – Each time Ray of Frost damages one or more enemies, it generates 1 Frost Splinter. For 10 seconds after casting Ray of Frost, conjuring a Frost Splinter has a 100% chance to conjure an additional Frost Splinter.
      • Sunfury
        • New Talent: Ashes of Inspiration – When your Arcane Phoenix expires, it grants you Lesser Time Warp (20% Haste) for 10 seconds.
        • New Talent: Spellfire Salvo – Arcane Salvo can stack 5 additional times. Fire Blast gains 1 additional charge. Meteorite damage increased by 15%.
        • New Talent: Pyrocosm – Damage from Arcane Missiles/Fireball has a 10%/20% chance to summon a Meteorite. When a Meteorite lands, gain 2 stacks of Arcane Salvo/reduce the cooldown of Fire Blast by 0.5 seconds.
        • New Talent: Explosive Potential – After casting Arcane Surge/Combustion, your next Blink will cause a Blast Wave at your previous location, dealing Fire damage, knocking enemies back 2 yards, and slowing them by 70% for 6 seconds. Choice node with Lessons in Debilitation.
        • New Talent: Time Twist – The cooldown of Alter Time is reduced by 10 seconds. Choice node with Merely a Setback.
        • Codex of the Sunstriders has been redesigned – When your Arcane Phoenix is summoned, it consumes all your Spellfire Spheres. Each Sphere consumed increases your spell damage during Arcane Surge/Combustion by 2% and causes your Arcane Phoenix to cast an exceptional Arcane or Fire spell over its duration.
          • Developers’ notes: We’re focusing the effects of Codex of the Sunstriders and Memory of Al’ar to make them easier to understand, create more immediate impact, and reduce the number of auras present in the Sunfury tree.
        • Merely a Setback has been redesigned – The bonuses provided by your Barrier spells persist an additional 8 seconds after your Barrier is removed. Additionally, Cauterize no longer deals damage to you.
        • Glorious Incandescence has been updated – Now granted upon generating a Spellfire Sphere. No longer causes Fire Blast to hit additional targets. Tooltip updated to better reflect the damage value of Meteorites.
        • Memory of Al’ar has been updated – No longer extends the duration of Arcane Soul or Hyperthermia based on the number of exceptional spells cast. Base duration of Arcane Soul and Hyperthermia increased to 6 seconds (was 2 seconds).
        • Arcane Soul has been updated – Now grants 5 Arcane Salvo stacks per cast and Arcane Salvo is not consumed by casting Arcane Barrage (was increased Arcane Barrage damage per cast).
        • Sunfury Execution has been updated –
          • Fire: Now increases Scorch’s threshold to 40% (was 35%).
          • Arcane: Now causes Arcane Barrage to deal 15% increased damage to enemies affected by your Touch of the Magi.
        • Burden of Power has been updated – Now increases Pyroblast, Flamestrike, Arcane Blast, and Arcane Pulse damage by 15%.
        • Several talents have changed positions in the talent tree.
        • Ignite the Future has been removed.
    • Class
      • Developers’ notes: We’re taking a pass to reduce button and aura bloat in the Mage core tree. We’re also consolidating defensive power to simplify the landscape of Mage defensives and make them more approachable. In Midnight, Barrier spells should be potent, consistent, and reliable. Mirror Image and Invisibility spells should now be able to be used for their utility instead of tacked on defensive benefits. We’re also removing Shifting Power. Shifting Power was uniquely powerful for Fire Mage and substantially less interesting for Arcane and Frost but it came with its own set of tuning challenges that made it difficult to balance their cooldowns appropriately with its existence. Fire Mage will be getting some spec-specific adjustments to make Fire Blast more accessible to compensate for the loss of Shifting Power. We’re also reducing Shimmer’s power to help make the decision between Blink and Shimmer feel like more of a meaningful choice. Players who want to maximize uptime and display mastery over an encounter and its mechanics should feel empowered to express that through Shimmer, whereas progression and more reactive Mages should enjoy the increased availability of Blink.
      • New Talent: Improved Conjuration – Mirror Image’s cooldown is reduced by 30/60 seconds.
      • New Talent: Time Walk – Alter Time resets the cooldown of Blink and Shimmer when you return to your original location. Choice node with Temporal Realignment.
      • New Talent: Spatial Manipulation – Blink gains an additional charge.
      • New Talent: Temporal Realignment – Upon dropping below 25% health, your past self corrects your timeline, casting Alter Time and instantly returning 50% of your maximum health.
      • New Talent: Improved Ice Barrier – Ice Barrier’s absorb is increased by 5% of your maximum health and it now reduces your physical damage taken by 10%. Frost Mage only.
      • New Talent: Improved Blazing Barrier – Blazing Barrier’s damage is increased by 200% and it now cauterizes your wounds, healing you for 15% of the damage it absorbs. Fire Mage only.
      • New Talent: Charm of Aegwynn – The critical strike damage of your spells is increased by 5%.
      • New Talent: Charm of Medivh – Mastery increased by 3%.
      • New Talent: Improved Blink – Blink’s cooldown is reduced by 2 seconds. Choice node against Shimmer.
      • New Talent: Permafrost Bauble - The cooldown of Ice Block and Ice Cold is reduced by 30 seconds.
      • New Talent: Master of Escape – Reduces the cooldown of Greater Invisibility by 45 seconds.
      • Master of Time has been updated – Reduces Alter Time cooldown by 5 seconds/10 seconds. No longer grants an additional charge of Blink/Shimmer after casting Alter Time.
      • Overflowing Energy has been updated – Now increases the critical strike chance of Arcane Barrage, Fireball, and Ice Lance only.
      • Quick Witted has been updated – Counterspell’s cooldown is reduced by 5 seconds.
      • Time Manipulation has been updated – Now reduces the cooldown of your loss of control spells by 5 seconds.
      • Incantation of Swiftness has been updated – Invisibility now increases your movement speed by 30%/60% for 6 seconds.
      • All Mage Barrier spells have had their cooldowns increased to 30 seconds (was 25 seconds).
      • Mirror Image has been updated – No longer reduces the damage you take. Tooltip now correctly communicates its threat reduction effect.
      • Mirror Image duration reduced to 15 seconds (was 40 seconds).
      • Blink cooldown increased to 15 seconds baseline.
      • Greater Invisibility no longer reduces damage you take by 60%.
      • Shimmer cooldown increased to 30 seconds (was 25 seconds) and no longer has 2 charges baseline.
      • Barrier spells now have a reduced global cooldown and now shield you for 25% of your maximum health (was 20%).
      • Counterspell cooldown increased to 25 seconds (was 24 seconds).
      • Ice Nova is now a choice node against Freezing Cold. Ice Nova now replaces Cone of Cold.
      • Mass Polymorph is now a choice node against Ring of Frost.
      • Improved Ice Nova and Ice ward are now on a choice node.
      • Flow of Time is now a 1-point node.
      • The following talents have been removed:
        • Accumulative Shielding
        • Blast Wave
        • Displacement
        • Diverted Energy
        • Frigid Winds
        • Ice Floes
        • Incanter’s Flow
        • Mass Barrier
        • Reabsorption
        • Rigid Ice
        • Shifting Power
        • Slow
        • Supernova
        • Tempest Barrier
        • Temporal Velocity
        • Volatile Destruction
    • Arcane
      • Developers’ notes: In Midnight, our biggest goal with Arcane is simplifying the decision-making around when to Arcane Barrage by reducing the number of effects and folding the remaining ones into a new resource called Arcane Salvo. Arcane Mages can talent into different ways to generate Arcane Salvo and should expect their Hero Talents to provide some unique behaviors that might augment their cadence of Arcane Barrage drastically. We’re also removing all effects that refund Arcane Charges when you Barrage while adding some new and unique ways to regain charges throughout the tree to help reinforce the Arcane Charge climb as a core part of the Arcane Mage experience. Lastly, we’re introducing a new area damage spell called Arcane Pulse that will replace Arcane Explosion when learned. This spell features a 40 yard range, ramping damage, mana cost, and area effect per arcane charge, and should feel like an intuitive and powerful option when doing rotational filler in AOE.
      • Apex Talents: Touch of the Archmage
        • Touch of the Magi accumulates an additional 5% damage and has 1 additional charge.
        • Arcane Charges further increase the damage of Arcane Blast, Arcane Pulse, and Arcane Barrage by 15/30%.
        • When Touch of the Magi explodes, it leaves behind a pulsing rune at its targets location, dealing 25% of its damage over 6 sec to nearby enemies. Damage is increased by 100% on your initial Touch of the Magi target.
      • New Talent: Arcane Salvo – Casting a damaging spell increases the damage of Arcane Barrage by 3%, up to 60%.
      • New Talent: Focusing Crystal – Each wave of Arcane Missiles grants 1 Arcane Salvo stack; Arcane Missiles damage increased by 15%.
      • New Talent: Arcane Singularity – Arcane Salvo damage bonus increased by 2%.
      • New Talent: Arcane Pulse – Replaces Arcane Explosion. A pulse of Arcane magic erupts from underneath your target, dealing Arcane damage to all enemies within 2 yards. Damage reduced beyond 5 targets. Each Arcane Charge increases damage, radius, and mana cost.
      • New Talent: Arcing Missiles – Consumes Arcane Charges to increase Arcane Missiles damage by 80%. Choice node with High Voltage.
      • New Talent: Orb Mastery – Casting Arcane Orb with Clearcasting fires 2 additional orbs. Arcane Orb now consumes Clearcasting.
      • New Talent: Aegwynn’s Technique – Casting Touch of the Magi grants Clearcasting. Choice node with Arcane Echo.
      • New Talent: Overflowing Insight – Arcane Blast and Arcane Pulse deal 15% increased damage but their mana costs are increased by 25%.
      • New Talent: Expanded Mind – Gain 1 additional stack of Arcane Salvo from casting a damaging spell.
      • New Talent: Electrostatic Orb – Arcane Orb has a 50%/100% chance to grant a stack of Arcane Salvo, up to 5 times.
      • Aether Attunement has been updated – Now a 2-point talent. Arcane Missiles hits 2/4 additional targets at 50% effectiveness.
      • Orb Barrage has been updated – Now causes Arcane Barrage to have a 3% chance per Arcane Salvo stack to launch Arcane Orb.
      • Reverberate has been updated – Arcane Pulse has a 50% chance to repeat its explosion at 30% effectiveness.
      • Arcane Tempo has been updated – Now grants 2% Haste passively. No longer a stacking aura.
      • Surging Urge renamed to Mana Bomb and has been updated – Arcane Surge’s damage is increased by an additional 50% based on your mana spent.
      • Arcane Orb and Mana Adept are now located in the Arcane talent tree (was learned automatically when specialized as Arcane).
      • Improved Prismatic Barrier is now located in the Class talent tree (was learned automatically when specialized as Arcane).
      • Arcane Barrage now replaces Fire Blast upon activating the Arcane specialization.
      • Arcane Barrage damage increased by 25%.
      • Resonance’s Arcane Barrage damage increased by 5% per target beyond the first (was 12%).
      • Arcane Blast now replaces Frostbolt upon activating the Arcane specialization.
      • Arcane Blast no longer has increased Clearcasting chance.
      • Clearcasting’s chance to trigger increased to 12%.
      • Evocation no longer grants Clearcasting or stacking Intellect bonus.
      • High Voltage chance to trigger increased to 30%. No longer increases chance on failure. Now increases Arcane Missiles damage by 10%.
      • Impetus now causes Arcane Pulse and Arcane Blast to generate 1 additional Arcane Charge. No longer grants spell damage.
      • Electrostatic Orb can now trigger up to 5 times per Arcane Orb.
      • Orb Barrage chance per Arcane Salvo stack reduced to 3% (was 5%).
      • Concentrated Power no longer affects Arcane Explosion.
      • Arcane Surge deals reduced damage beyond 8 targets (was 5).
      • Amplification’s Arcane Missiles now fires 2 additional missiles (was 3).
      • Arcane Missiles now dynamically retargets during multi-target casts.
      • Arcane Missiles tooltip updated to reflect talent-based behavior.
      • Touch of the Magi’s icon, sound, and visual effects have been updated.
      • Eureka is now a 2-point talent.
      • The talent tree layout has been updated and several talents have changed positions.
      • The following talents have been removed:
        • Aether Fragment
        • Arcane Bombardment
        • Arcane Debilitation
        • Arcane Harmony
        • Improved Touch of the Magi
        • Intuition
        • Leydrinker
        • Leysight
        • Magi’s Spark
        • Nether Munitions
        • Nether Precision
        • Static Cloud
        • Time Loop
    • Fire
      • Developers’ notes: With the reintroduction of Phoenix Flames and the addition of Hero Talents, Fire Mages have had an easier and easier time generating Hot Streak. This impacts the tuning of Pyroblast and Flamestrike and the pace of Fire’s combat in extreme ways. In Midnight, we are heavily increasing the damage of Fire Mage’s premier damaging spells like Pyroblast, Flamestrike, and Meteor while reducing their access to guaranteed crits by removing Phoenix Flames. We’re also changing Kindling to be a flat cooldown reduction on Combustion to reduce how punishing imperfect uptime can be. We’re increasing the cost in the Fire talent tree to access Ignite spreading functionality to help make the Ignite spread playstyle more distinct from Fire’s other builds and damage profiles and also make it easier to tune around. In Midnight, Fire Mages should be casting Fireball more often, and in exchange, will see significantly increased damage coming from their Hot Streak consumers, Meteors, and Combustion windows.
      • Apex Talents: Fired Up
        • While Combustion is active, consuming Hot Streak has a 15% chance to grant you Fired Up, increasing your Fire damage by 5% until Combustion ends.
        • Gaining Fired Up reduces the cooldown of Fire Blast by 2.5 seconds/5 seconds.
        • Consuming Hot Streak has a 15% increased chance of granting you Fired Up. Additionally Fired Up now extends Combustion’s duration by 1 second.
      • New Talent: Ignition – Fire Blast now spreads 100% of your target’s Ignite to 1 nearby enemy. Flamestrike applies 50% more Ignite.
      • New Talent: Slow Burn – Combustion grants mastery equal to 75% of your Critical Strike stat. Combustion causes your spells to apply Ignite at 15% increased effectiveness.
      • New Talent: Burn It All – Grants you 10% increased spell damage plus an additional 20% of your critical strike chance as spell damage.
      • New Talent: Frenetic Speed – When Fireball damages an enemy below 30% health, you gain 30% movement speed for 3 seconds.
      • New Talent: Pyroclasm – Consuming Hot Streak has a 15% chance to make your next non-instant Pyroblast or Flamestrike cast within 15 seconds to deal 230% increased damage. Stacks up to 2 times.
      • New Talent: Cinderstorm - Casting Pyroblast or Flamestrike has a 8% chance to summon a storm of 5 cinders that pursue your target. Upon reaching your target, each cinder deals moderate Fire damage, applies Ignite at 100% effectiveness, and spreads 50% of your Ignite to up to 1 nearby target.
      • Mastery: Ignite has been updated – Effectiveness reduced by 25% and no longer causes Fire Blast to spread Ignite baseline.
        • Developers’ notes: Ignite-spreading as a baseline functionality for Fire has proven to be too powerful and very cheap to acquire in the talent tree. Rather than remove the ability to spread Ignite or heavily nerf the playstyle, we’re instead going to be asking players to rebuy some of the power in the talent tree to present more opportunity cost across builds and ensure the two playstyles feel distinct.
      • Fuel the Fire has been updated – Now additionally causes Flamestrike to deal 5% increased damage for each enemy it damages, up to 25%.
      • Flame On has been updated – Now a 2-point talent. Grants 1 charge/2 charges of Fire Blast.
      • Critical Mass has been updated – Now grants 4%/8% increased chance to deal a critical strike. You gain 10/20% more critical strike stat from all sources.
      • Molten Fury has been updated – Now grants 15% increased damage on enemies below 30% health (was 7%).
        • Developers’ notes: We’d like to better lean into Fire’s execute niche in Midnight.
      • Scorch has been updated – Now passive. When Fireball damages an enemy below 30% health it always critically strikes.
        • Developers’ notes: Scorch and Fireball were constantly competing for the same spot in Fire’s rotation as your casted filler. By removing Scorch we aim to reduce a keybind and a point of confusion. The cast while moving benefit of Scorch significantly creeped Fire’s mobility relative to other casters, which we’re also looking to correct.
      • Flame Accelerant has been updated – Now reduces Pyroblast and Flamestrike cast time by 20%.
      • Inflame has been updated – Ignite bonus increased to 25% (was 10%).
      • Kindling has been updated – Now reduces Combustion’s cooldown by 30 seconds.
        • Developers’ notes: Kindling was one of many effects that heavily punished Fire Mages for losing uptime, which could snowball heavily into less Combustions and less damage over an encounter.
      • Scald has been updated – When Fireball damages an enemy below 30% health, it deals 50% increased damage.
      • Feel the Burn has been updated – Now grants 4% Mastery per stack and each stack has its own duration. Multiple applications may overlap and it no longer has a stack cap. Duration increased to 8 seconds (was 6 seconds).
      • Wildfire has been updated – Now a 2-point talent. Fire Blast spreads Ignite to 1/2 additional targets. Additionally increases Fire Blast damage by 10/20%.
      • Blast Zone has been updated – Flamestrike and Meteor deal 10% increased damage.
      • Controlled Destruction has been updated – Now triggers from Ignite damage (was Pyroblast and Fireball).
      • Master of Flame has been updated – No longer increases the number of targets Ignite spreads to during Combustion. No longer increases Fireball’s damage.
      • From the Ashes has been updated – Fire Blast damage increased by 15%. Your direct-damage spells reduce the cooldown of Fire Blast by 0.5 seconds.
      • Surging Blaze has been updated – Now increases Pyroblast and Flamestrike damage by 8%. No longer reduces cast times of either spell.
      • Flame Patch has been updated – Damage increased by 200% and duration reduced to 6 seconds (was 8 seconds). Now applies Ignite. Enemies can no longer be damaged by multiple Flame Patches at once. Instead, nearby Flame Patches will unify into one larger Flame Patch.
      • Fireball now replaces Frostbolt upon activating the Fire Mage specialization.
      • Fireball damage increased by 100%. Damage unchanged in PvP.
      • Flamestrike, Fuel the Fire, and Cauterize are now located in the talent tree (was learned automatically when specialized as Fire).
      • Flamestrike damage increased by 70% and no longer slows affected enemies by 20%.
      • Flamestrike now has a unit-targeted variant accessible via a choice node on Flamestrike.
      • Meteor direct damage increased by 25% and its damage over time increased by 200%.
      • Pyroblast damage increased by 45%.
      • Cauterize cooldown increased to 6 minutes (was 5 minutes).
        • Developers’ notes: We’d like to bring Cauterize more in line with existing cheat death effects.
      • Intensifying Flame is now correctly treated as a periodic effect.
      • Combustion’s tooltip and aura tooltip have been updated to better reflect its various bonuses.
      • Intensifying Flame damage bonus increased to 30% (was 20%).
      • Firestarter is now a choice node with Scorch.
      • The following talents have been removed:
        • Alexstrasza’s Fury
        • Ashen Feather
        • Call of the Sun King
        • Convection
        • Cratermaker
        • Explosive Ingenuity
        • Heat Shimmer
        • Hyperthermia
        • Improved Scorch
        • Lit Fuse
        • Majesty of the Phoenix
        • Mark of the Firelord
        • Phoenix Flames
        • Phoenix Reborn
        • Pyromaniac
        • Pyrotechnics
          • Developers’ notes: Functionality has been moved to the Class tree via Overflowing Energy.
        • Quickflame
        • Sparking Cinders
        • Sun King’s Blessing
        • Unleashed Inferno
    • Frost
      • Developers’ notes: Frost Mage is receiving a gameplay overhaul in Midnight targeted at simplifying their rotation by removing competing spell priorities and giving each spell a much clearer place in Frost’s rotation. In Midnight, Frost Mage features building and spending debuff gameplay centered around two reimagined mechanics: Freezing and Shattering. Frostbolt and Flurry apply stacks of Freezing and Ice Lance consumes them to deal significant bonus damage. Alongside this core mechanical change, we’re doing an overhaul of Frost’s talent tree targeted at reducing button bloat, reinforcing rotational clarity and priorities, while also removing a significant number of auras. One such change is the removal of Icy Veins as Frost Mage’s burst cooldown, now being replaced with Ray of Frost. Our vision for Frost Mage in Midnight involves a consistent damage profile with smaller peaks relative to the burstier specializations of Arcane and Fire, but a higher consistent damage output. We feel that Frost Mage has historically been deemed as the more approachable of the 3 mage specs and we like that for Frost’s identity, Our goal for the rework is for that perception to continue while also offering new Mastery for those players who heavily invest in playing Frost.
      • Apex Talents: Hand of Frost
        • Shattering an enemy has a 10% chance to summon a Hand of Frost to pursue your target. Upon reaching your target, it explodes, dealing moderate Frost damage to its target and applying 2 stacks of Freezing.
        • Each stack of Freezing you Shatter increases your chance to summon a Hand of Frost by 1%/2%. Damage from Hand of Frost increases your spell damage by 2/4% for 8 seconds. Multiple applications may overlap.
        • Ray of Frost gains 1 additional charge. Additionally, Ray of Frost summons 5 Hands of Frost over its duration and its damage is increased by 25%.
      • New Passive Ability: Shatter – Damage from Frostbolt and Flurry applies Freezing to their targets. Stacks up to 3 times. Damage from Ice Lance shatters your enemies, consuming all 3 stacks of Freezing and dealing Frost damage for each stack removed.
      • New Talent: Glacial Bulwark – Ice Block and Frost Barrier now have an additional charge. Choice node with Cold Snap.
      • New Talent: Summon Water Elemental – Summons a Water Elemental to follow and fight for you.
      • New Talent: Cone of Frost – Cone of Cold/Ice Nova now applies 3 stack of Freezing to up to 5 enemies.
      • New Talent: Icy Hand – Increases the maximum charges of Fingers of Frost by 1/2.
      • New Talent: Crystalline Refraction – Ray of Frost generates 2 stacks of Fingers of Frost over its duration.
      • New Talent: Winter’s Whisper – Ice Lance damage increased by 8%. Fractured Frost now causes your Ice Lance to damage 2 additional Freezing enemies.
      • New Talent: Heart of Ice – Ice Lance shatters 1 additional stack of Freezing.
      • New Talent: Master Lancer – Casting Ice Lance increases Shatter’s damage by 10% for 8 seconds. Multiple applications may overlap.
      • New Talent: Rimecaster – Frostbolt and Glacial Spike damage increased by 15/30%.
      • New Talent: Glaciate – Over its duration, Ray of Frost generates 5 Icicles and reduces the cooldown of Flurry and Frozen Orb by 16 seconds.
      • New Talent: Frigid Focus – Ray of Frost damage increased by 100%.
      • Mastery has been redesigned – Mastery: Freeze and Shatter – Now increases the damage of spells that Freeze your enemies and increases the damage of spells that Shatter.
      • Fingers of Frost has been updated – No longer procs from Frozen Orb baseline. Now has a maximum of 1 charge baseline. Now causes Ice Lance’s Shatter effect to Shatter without consuming Freezing stacks.
      • Icicles has been updated – No longer Frost’s Mastery. Frost crystallizes around you, generating an Icicle every 6 seconds. Upon generating 5 Icicles, Frostbolt upgrades to Glacial Spike for its next cast. Icicles generate rapidly out of combat. Now located in Gate 1.
      • Everlasting Frost has been updated – Damage from Frozen Orb has a 6% chance to grant Fingers of Frost.
      • Deep Shatter has been updated – Shatter’s critical strike damage is increased by 50%/100% of your critical strike chance.
      • Hailstones has been updated – The time it takes to generate an Icicle is reduced by 1 second.
      • Wintertide has been updated – Damage from Frozen Orb has a 50% chance to apply Freezing.
      • Glacial Assault has been updated – Damage increased by 30% and no longer applies a damage received bonus. Now applies 1 stack of Freezing. No longer affects Comet Storm.
      • Freezing Winds has been updated – Blizzard has a 8% increased chance to apply Freezing. Blizzard applies 1 additional stack of Freezing.
      • Winter’s Blessing has been updated – Now grants 3% Haste and grants 5% additional Haste from all Haste sources.
      • Splitting Ice has been updated – Your Flurry and Frostbolt spells strike 1 additional target at 100% effectiveness.
      • Ray of Frost has been updated – Damage increased by 11% and damage tick rate increased. Each time Ray of Frost deals damage, it applies a stack of Freezing. No longer grants Fingers of Frost baseline.
      • Freezing Rain has been updated – Now increases Blizzard damage by 20% (was 60%).
      • Comet Storm has been updated – Temporarily replaces Blizzard with Comet Storm upon casting Ray of Frost, calling down a series of 7 icy comets that deals Frost damage to all enemies within 6 yards of its impact. Comet Storm damage increased by 50% and each Comet in a Comet Storm now Shatters 1 stack of Freezing.
      • Flash Freeze has been updated – Casting Glacial Spike has a 100% chance to grant you Fingers of Frost.
      • Frostbite has been updated - When Frostbolt critically strikes, it applies 1 additional stack of Freezing. Damage from Blizzard has an 8% chance to apply 1 stack of Freezing.
      • Fractured Frost has been updated - Your Ice Lances fracture on impact, dealing additional Frost damage to up to 3 additional Freezing enemies. Damage from Fractured Frost Shatters.
        • Developers’ notes: Your Freezing application rate is significantly higher on your primary target, thus, Fractured Frost should almost eliminate the need to target-swap in AOE scenarios. If players do or do not feel that this talent is achieving that goal, please let us know!
      • Blizzard and Cold Snap are now located in the talent tree (was learned automatically when specialized as Frost).
      • Ice Floes is now a passive talent and moved to the Frost talent tree (was in the class tree).
      • Ice Lance now replaces Fire Blast upon activating the Frost Mage specialization.
      • Ice Lance damage increased by 35%.
      • Frostbolt damage increased by 50%.
      • Flurry damage increased by 30%.
      • Frozen Orb damage increased by 100% and no longer grants Fingers of Frost when cast.
      • Frozen Orb now slowly follows its target shortly after being cast.
      • Blizzard damage increased by 35%.
      • Blizzard now has a choice node with a unit-targeted version of itself.
      • Haste now reduces the cooldown of the following spells:
        • Flurry
        • Frozen Orb
        • Ray of Frost
      • Cold Snap is now a Frost school spell.
      • Water Elemental Water Jet no longer grants Brain Freeze.
      • Many talents have changed locations in the talent tree.
      • The following talents have been removed:
        • Icy Veins
        • Lonely Winter
        • Bone Chilling
        • Subzero
        • Splintering Cold
        • Chain Reaction
        • Cryopathy
        • Glacial Spike
        • Slick Ice
        • Thermal Void
        • Coldest Snap
        • Cold Front
        • Death’s Chill
        • Ice Caller
  • MONK
    • Hero Talents
      • Conduit of the Celestials
        • Windwalker
          • Celestial Conduit now overrides Xuen, the White Tiger when Xuen is cast.
      • Shado-Pan
        • New Talent: Shadow Over the Battlefield – Flurry Strikes deal Shadow damage to all enemies within 6 yards.
        • New Talent: Stand Ready – Activating Weapons of Order instantly grants 10 stacks of Flurry Strikes that trigger at 70% effectiveness.
        • New Talent: Weapons of the Wall – Flurry charge generation is increased by 50% and Flurry Strikes activates every 150 energy spent during Weapons of Order.
        • Windwalker
          • Wisdom of the Wall has been redesigned – Now causes Weapons of Order to summon a Shado-Pan veteran for its duration. The Shado-Pan Veteran’s damage is increased by 2% per stack of Flurry Strikes you’ve consumed since your last Weapons of Order cast.
          • Against All Odds has been redesigned – Now grants 5% Agility.
          • Flurry Strikes now triggers after casting Fists of Fury and Keg Smash.
    • Class
      • New Mistweaver Talent: Jade Infusion – Thunder Focus Tea summons a Jade Serpent Statue at your location. Choice node with Jade Serpent Statue.
      • Save Them All has been redesigned – Now increases your healing by up to 10% based on your target’s health. Lower health allies are healed for more.
      • Diffuse Magic has been redesigned – Now causes activating Fortifying Brew to transfer all currently active harmful magical effects on you back to their original caster if possible.
      • Soothing Mist healing increased by 50%.
      • Vivacious Vivification no longer increases the healing of Vivify and now functions with Sheilun’s Gift.
      • Replaced Rising Sun Kick with Stagger for Brewmaster only.
      • The following talents have been removed:
        • Chi Burst (removed for Mistweaver and Windwalker only)
        • Clash
        • Rising Sun Kick (removed for Brewmaster only)
    • Brewmaster
      • Developers’ notes: Brewmaster’s kit contains a number of very niche cooldowns and abilities, as well as a number of talents which have a highly-transformative impact on gameplay. In aggregate these can cause the specialization to be difficult to learn, especially in combination with developing intuition surrounding Stagger. We are aiming to broaden some of these niches while narrowing the impact of transformational talents. In addition, some abilities have been removed in order to better concentrate both power and gameplay focus on a more manageable core. Finally, many tooltips have been adjusted to improve clarity on their function or how they are expected to impact play.
      • Apex Talents: Bring me Another!
        • Drinking a Brew has a 20% chance to leave you with an Empty Barrel, which is tossed along with your next Keg Smash to deal Physical damage to your target
        • Physical damage dealt increased by 5%/10%. Empty Barrels now ricochet to strike 3/5 total targets, dealing 20% reduced damage on each bounce.
        • When you cast Fortifying Brew or Celestial Brew/Celestial Infusion you tap a fresh keg, granting yourself and 2 nearby allies a refreshing drink, and leaving you with an Empty Barrel.
          • Refreshing Drink: Upon taking damage, automatically consume a refreshing drink to heal over 8 seconds.
      • New Talent: Keg Volley – Exploding Keg resets the cooldown of Keg Smash.
      • New Talent: Jade Flash – Crackling Jade Lightning deals its damage 75% faster, costs 75% less energy and chains to 5 additional targets, but has a cooldown of 60 seconds.
      • New Talent: Fuel on the Fire – Exploding Keg also causes your next 2 casts of Keg Smash to summon a whirl of flame which spirals outward, dealing additional Fire damage to each enemy struck.
      • New Talent: Empty the Cellar – Exploding Keg can be reactivated within 20 seconds to throw 5 additional kegs at nearby targets, each dealing Physical damage and reducing the cooldown of your Brews by 0.5 seconds.
      • New Talent: Awakening Spirit – Purifying Brew also surrounds you with protective energies for 15 seconds. When Staggered damage would be dealt to you, you instead absorb up to 50%, until has been prevented.
      • New Talent: Vital Flame – Heal for 50% of all Fire or Nature damage dealt by your spells and abilities.
      • New Talent: Heart of the Ox – Gain 5% additional Mastery. Double this effect while Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox is active.
      • New Talent: Swift as a Coursing River – Drinking from a Brew increases your movement speed by 15% and your auto-attack speed by 10% for 15 seconds.
      • New Talent: Improved Blackout Kick – Blackout Kick deals 20% increased damage.
      • Celestial Flames has been redesigned – Drinking from Brews has a 30% chance to coat you with Celestial Flames for 6 seconds. While Celestial Flames is active:
        • Special Delivery: Kegs thrown by Special Delivery are ignited and splash upon landing, dealing Fire damage to up to 5 nearby enemies.
        • Rushing Jade Wind: Rushing Jade Wind becomes a firestorm, increasing its radius by 30% and causing it to deal Fire damage.
      • Fast Feet has been redesigned – Increases damage of Blackout Kick by 20% and Spinning Crane Kick by 10%.
      • Stormstout’s Last Keg has been updated – Keg Smash deals 50% increased damage to its primary target and now additionally increases the range of Keg Smash by 10 yards.
      • Purifying Brew has been updated – Clears 50% of your Stagger, or a minimum of 8% of your maximum health.
      • Highlight Behavior for Purifying Brew has been updated – No longer highlights at Red/Heavy Stagger; instead highlights for a short duration when your Stagger amount increases by a large amount in a single hit, or when the amount of damage you are Staggering is the highest it’s been in the past 10 seconds/15 seconds with Bob and Weave.
      • Added floating combat text to show Stagger removed by Purifying Brew and other Stagger-clearing effects.
      • Dragonfire Brew has been updated – Now increases Breath of Fire damage by 100%. Breath of Fire’s damage is no longer affected by Stagger levels.
      • Blackout Combo has been updated – Blackout Kick empowers your next ability: Tiger Palm deals 100% increased damage. Keg Smash reduces the remaining cooldown on your Brews by 2 additional seconds. Combo effects removed for Celestial Brew and Celestial Infusion, Purifying Brew, and Breath of Fire.
      • Bob and Weave has been updated – Increases the duration of Stagger by 5 seconds, causing Staggered damage to be dealt to you more gradually.
      • Anvil and Stave has been updated – Effect reduced by 50% for each additional recent attacker, up to 5.
      • Celestial Brew and Celestial Infusion have been updated – Base absorb value increased by 100%. Purified Chi has been removed.
      • Staggering Strikes has been updated – When you Blackout Kick, your Stagger is reduced, increased up to 200% based on your missing health.
      • High Tolerance has been updated – Stagger is 2%/4% better at delaying damage. Purifying Brew refunds 3 seconds/6 seconds of its cooldown if cast at Elevated Stagger.
      • Press the Advantage has been updated – Your main hand auto attacks reduce the cooldown on your Brews by 0.5 seconds and deal additional Nature damage. After 10 attacks, the next casts Tiger Palm at 100% effectiveness.
      • Walk with the Ox has been updated – No longer reduces Invoke Niuzao’s cooldown.
      • Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox’s cooldown reduced to 2 minutes (was 3 minutes).
      • Ox Stance and Clarity of Purpose are no longer increased with Stagger level.
      • Keg Smash adjusted to deal additional damage to your primary target.
      • Spirit of the Ox no longer activates from Rising Sun Kick.
      • Vivacious Vivification and Chi Wave now activate from Keg Smash (was Rising Sun Kick).
      • Overwhelming Force and Way of a Thousand Strikes updated to remove Rising Sun Kick.
      • Pretense of Instability now also activates from Black Ox Brew and Fortifying Brew.
      • Many talents changed have changed locations in the talent tree.
      • The following talents have been removed:
        • Call to Arms
        • Chi Surge
        • Dampen Harm
        • Heightened Guard
        • Hit Scheme
        • Ox Adept
        • Rising Sun Kick
        • Strike at Dawn
        • Weapons of Order
    • Mistweaver
      • Developers’ notes: Mistweaver’s Midnight updates are focused on simplifying moment to moment decision making/tracking and streamlining their cooldown moments. We’re also removing Jadefire Stomp’s positional gameplay as we felt this did not match our combat approachability goals. Way of the Crane and Way of the Serpent is a new choice node worth highlighting as well, which is something new we’re trying to highlight different aspects of Mistweaver’s toolkit in particular, based on a player’s preferred playstyle. Our hope is that both options have relevant situations in which they are useful and therefore encourage solid build diversity between content and also a player’s individual preferences.
      • Apex Talents: Spiritfont
        • Rising Sun Kick and Vivify have a chance to activate Spiritfont, causing your next Enveloping Mist to channel Soothing Mist from you onto up to 5 allies at 50% effectiveness for 8 seconds. If Spiritfont’s Soothing Mists heal a full health target, they will jump to another injured ally or split its healing into your remaining Soothing Mists.
        • Rising Sun Kick damage increased by 10%/20% and Enveloping Mist healing increased by 10/20%. These bonuses are increased by 50% while Spiritfont is active.
        • Thunder Focus Tea activates Spiritfont and Spiritfont applies Chi Cocoons at 50% effectiveness to allies targeted.
      • New Talent: Serene Vitality – The healing of Vivify and Sheilun’s Gift is increased by 60% on yourself. Overrides Expel Harm.
      • New Talent: Battle Meditation – Mastery and Versatility increased by 3%.
      • New Talent: Flowing Spirit – Haste and Critical Strike chance increased by 3%.
      • New Talent: Mist Dispersion – Allies healed by Sheilun’s Gift receive 1% additional healing from all sources for 15 seconds per cloud of mist consumed.
      • New Talent: Way of the Serpent – Soothing Mist may be channeled while moving, but movement speed is reduced by 40% while channeling. Vivify healing increased by 15% and Renewing Mist’s healing is increased by 30%. Choice node with Way of the Crane.
      • Tear of Morning has been redesigned – Your Invigorating Mist/Sheilun’s Gift healing is increased by 20% and your Enveloping Mist also heals allies with Renewing Mist for 8% of its healing. The duration of Enveloping Mist is increased by 4 seconds while you have a celestial summoned.
      • Uplifted Spirits has been redesigned – Now reduces the cooldown of Revival by 30 seconds and increases its healing by 15%.
      • Sheilun’s Gift has been updated –
        • Overrides Vivify when learned.
        • Healing increased by 25% and mana cost now matches Vivify.
        • Sheilun’s Gift can be cast without any clouds present and can be cast during Soothing Mist.
        • Functions with all talents that interact with Vivify.
      • Renewing Mist is now learned automatically when specializing as Mistweaver.
      • Vivify primary healing increased by 60% and no longer reduces its healing beyond 5 targets.
        • Developers’ notes: We are looking to carve unique niches for Vivify and Sheilun’s Gift based on group size.
      • Vivify now tracks the amount of active Renewing Mists you have active on its action bar bind.
      • Chi Harmony now increases healing by 25% (was 50%).
      • Lotus Infusion now increases healing by 6% (was 10%).
      • Enveloping Mist’s heal over time effect has been increased by 60%, but its healing increase has been decreased to 10% (was 30%).
      • Awakened Jadefire has been renamed to Way of the Crane and is now a passive effect that does not require to be within Jadefire Stomp.
      • Soothing Mist now follows the target of your Enveloping Mist and Vivify/Sheilun’s Gift by default.
      • Invigorating Mist now also increases the healing of Sheilun’s Gift by 75% on its primary target.
      • Thunder Focus Tea can no longer be used on Expel Harm or Vivify.
      • Mana Tea’s cost reduction functionality has been removed, but its mana return has been increased by 25%.
      • Jadefire Teachings is now always active and no longer lasts 15 seconds.
      • Celestial Harmony no longer causes you to cast Enveloping Breath but causes your next 2 Enveloping Mists to be instant cast after invoking Yu’lon and you to instant gain 4 stacks of Teaching of the Monastery after invoking Chi-Ji.
      • Invoke Chi-Ji, the Red Crane now always causes Enveloping Mist to be instant cast and cost 20% less mana.
        • Developers’ notes: We are simplifying the preparation for Invoking Chi-Ji and removing the stack management gameplay to streamline the experience while within its effect.
      • Tea of Serenity now grants a stack of Enveloping Mist or Renewing Mist.
      • Tea of Plenty now grants a stack of Enveloping Mist or Rising Sun Kick.
      • Mending Proliferation’s activation chance has been increased to 100% (was 50%).
      • Jade Empowerment is now on a choice node with Mending Proliferation.
      • Unison and Dance of Chi-Ji are no longer on a choice node.
      • The following talents have been removed:
        • Invoker’s Delight
        • Jadefire Stomp
        • Peer into Peace
        • Shaohao’s Lessons
    • Windwalker
      • Developers’ notes: Windwalker Monk’s Midnight updates primarily focus on removing conditional modifiers and making sure the base damage of spells feels impactful. Critical strikes will be the main way their damage changes values and otherwise each spell will remain largely consistent between in and out of cooldowns. Our goal is that this will reduce the rotational overhead and allow more focus on procs, resource management, and Mastery: Combo Strikes to drive gameplay.
      • Apex Talents: Tigereye Brew
        • While in combat, you gain Tigereye Brew every 8 seconds, causing your critical strike chance to be increased by 2% during your next Weapons of Order, stacking up to 20 times. Generates quickly up to 10 stacks while out of combat.
        • Your critical strike damage is increased by 8/15%.
        • You have a chance equal to your critical strike to increase the damage of your current Fists of Fury by 15% each time it deals damage.
      • New Talent: Airborne Rhythm – Slicing Winds now generates 2 Chi when cast.
      • New Talent: Hurricane’s Vault – Slicing Winds now costs 2 Chi to cast, but its damage is increased by 100%.
      • New Talent: Sharp Reflexes – Blackout Kick reduces the cooldown of Rising Sun Kick and Fists of Fury by 1 second. No longer a passive ability.
      • New Talent: Crashing Fists – The duration of Fists of Fury is increased by 1 second.
      • New Talent: Combo Breaker – You have a 8% chance when you Tiger Palm to cause your next Blackout Kick to cost no Chi within 15 seconds. No longer a passive ability.
      • New Talent: Weapons of Order – Chi costs are reduced by 1, and Blackout Kick reduces the cooldown of affected abilities by an additional 1 second. Activating Weapons of Order resets the remaining cooldown on Rising Sun Kick and grants 2 Chi.
      • New Talent: Harmonic Combo – Fists of Fury’s Chi cost is reduced by 1, but its damage is reduced by 10%.
      • New Talent: Skyfire Heel – Rising Sun Kick’s critical strike chance is increased by 4% for each nearby enemy, up to 5 enemies. 10% of Rising Sun Kick’s damage splashes onto nearby enemies. Damage is reduced beyond 5 targets.
      • New Talent: Cyclone’s Drift – You gain 10% more Haste from all sources.
      • New Talent: Echo Technique – Casting Strike of the Windlord and Whirling Dragon Punch grants Blackout Kick!.
      • New Talent: Obsidian Spiral – During Weapons of Order, Blackout Kick generates 1 Chi.
      • New Talent: Stormspirit Strikes – Casting Rising Sun Kick summons a Storm Spirit to focus a secondary target for 20 seconds, which will mimic your Blackout Kicks, Tiger palms, and Rising Sun Kicks that do not also strike the target for 15% of normal damage.
      • New Talent: Rushing Wind Kick – After consuming Blackout Kick!, Rising Sun Kick has a 40% chance to become Rushing Wind Kick.
      • Dual Threat has been redesigned – Now has a 30% chance to kick your target and damage increased by 300%, but no longer increases damage by 5% for 5 seconds when activated.
      • Drinking Horn Cover has been redesigned – Now increases the duration of Weapons of Order by 5 seconds.
      • Spiritual Focus has been redesigned – Now decreases the cooldown of Weapons of Order by 20 seconds.
      • Xuen’s Battlegear has been redesigned – Now increases the critical strike rate of Rising Sun Kick by 20% and decreases the cooldown of Fists of Fury by 4 seconds when Rising Sun Kick critically strikes.
      • Meridian Strikes has been redesigned – Now decreases the cooldown of Touch of Death by 45 seconds and increases Touch of Death’s damage by 15%.
      • Spinning Crane Kick damage increased 80%.
      • Fists of Fury damage increased 30%.
      • Rising Sun Kick damage increased 30%.
      • Touch of the Tiger now increases the damage of Tiger Palm by 15% (was 40%).
      • Crane Vortex now increases the damage of Spinning Crane Kick by 15% (was 30%).
      • Dance of Chi-Ji no longer increases the damage of Spinning Crane Kick.
      • Jadefire Fists now triggers after every Fists of Fury cast.
      • Thunderfist, Revolving Whirl, Rushing Jade Wind, and Knowledge of the Broken Temple now triggers from both Whirling Dragon Punch and Strike of the Windlord.
      • Communion of Wind now reduces the cooldown of Strike of the Windlord and Whirling Dragon Punch by 5 seconds and increases their damage by 20%.
      • Whirling Dragon Punch cooldown is now 35 seconds and no longer scales with Haste.
      • Dance of Chi-Ji no longer increases the damage of Spinning Crane Kick.
      • Memory of the Monastery no longer increases Haste and instead increases the damage of Tiger Palm.
      • Mastery: Combo Strikes now displays a tracking buff after each cast that displays your previously cast spell.
      • Strike of the Windlord is now on a choice node with Whirling Dragon Punch.
      • Ferociousness and Hardened Soles are now 2-point talents.
      • Flurry of Xuen is no longer on a choice node with Hit Combo.
      • Combat Assistant’s rotation has been updated.
      • The following talents have been removed:
        • Acclamation
        • Courageous Impulse
        • Fury of Xuen
        • Gale Force
        • Invoker’s Delight
        • Jadefire Stomp
        • Jadefire Harmony
        • Last Emperor’s Capacitor
        • Martial Mixture
        • Ordered Elements
        • Storm, Earth, and Fire
        • Transfer the Power
  • PALADIN
    • Hero Talents
      • Herald of the Sun
        • New Talent: Walk Into Light – You have a 100% chance to gain Blessing of An’she and generate 2 Holy Power after casting Avenging Wrath.
        • New Talent: Endless Gleam – Dawnlight’s duration is increased by 0.5 seconds when it heals an ally with full health. Dawnlight’s duration is increased 0.3 seconds whenever struck by Divine Storm or Templar’s Verdict.
        • New Talent: Born in Sunlight – Dawnlight’s critical strike chance is increased by 15% during Avenging Wrath.
        • Blessing of An’she may now accumulate 2 charges and now increases the damage or healing of your next Holy Shock or Judgment by 50% (was 200%).
      • Templar
        • New Talent: Seal of the Templar
          • Protection: Judgment damage increased by 30%.
          • Retribution: Templar’s Verdict damage increased by 15%.
        • New Talent: Divine Hammer – Divine Toll summons Divine Hammers that spin around you for 8 seconds. Now a passive ability (was a Retribution talent).
        • New Talent: Light’s Judicator – Empyrean Hammer deals 20% increased critical strike damage and its critical strikes have a 50% chance to grant an additional stack of Light’s Deliverence.
        • New Talent: Divine Exaction – Divine Toll casts 2 additional times on your target at 150% effectiveness.
        • Endless Wrath has been updated – Empyrean Hammer has a 10% increased chance to critically strike.
        • Wrathful Descent now deals 50% of the damage to nearby enemies when it critically strikes (was 100%).
        • Sanctification now increases the damage of Empyrean Hammer by 5% per stack (was 10%).
    • Class
      • New Talent: Brought to Light – Killing an enemy that yields experience or honor causes you to explode with holy energy, healing up to 5 nearby allies and yourself, split evenly among them.
      • New Talent: Fear No Evil – Fear duration on you reduced by 20%. This effect is increased to 60% during Avenging Wrath.
      • Holy Ritual has been redesigned – No longer functions with Blessing of Freedom, no longer triggers when a blessing fades, but healing increased by 2000%.
      • Vengeful Wrath has been redesigned – Hammer of Wrath deals up to 25/50% additional damage based on its target’s health. Lower health targets receive more damage.
      • Blessing of Dusk has been redesigned – Damage taken reduced by up to 10%, increasing as your health decreases.
      • Blessing of Dawn has been redesigned – While you are above 85% health, 5% of all damage taken by allies within 20 yards is redirected to you, up to a maximum of 5% of your health every 5 seconds.
      • Shield of Vengeance has been updated – Retribution only talent: Divine Protection reduces damage taken by an additional 10% and casts Shield of Vengeance. Shield of Vengeance remains the same. Moved from the Retribution talent tree.
      • All Holy Power spending ability healing and damage has been increased by 20%.
      • A Just Reward and Obduracy are now 2-point talents.
      • The following talents have been removed:
        • Judgment of Light
        • Of Dusk and Dawn
        • Seal of the Crusader
      • Holy
        • Holy Prism has moved to the Class tree from the Holy tree and is now a choice node with Divine Toll. Cooldown increased to 45 seconds (was 30 seconds).
        • Quickened Invocation now reduces the cooldown of Divine Toll, Holy Prism, Barrier of Faith, or Holy Armaments by 15 seconds.
    • Holy
      • Developers’ notes: Holy Paladin’s updates are focused on removing various inconsequential healing sources and cutting secondary tracking buffs. We are also reducing the amount of mid-range cooldowns they have access to as we felt there were a few too many in that space and making sure Aura Mastery is a satisfying and impactful button press instead. Light of Dawn is also getting an update to its targeting, now being a circular radius around the paladin rather than a frontal cone. Getting the perfect angle for Light of Dawn could sometimes be difficult, and we don’t feel like it matched our combat approachability goals.
      • Apex Talents: Beacon of the Savior
        • While in combat, apply a Beacon of the Savior to the lowest health ally within 30 yards that causes your direct healing on others to also heal that ally for 30% of the amount healed. Beacon of the Savior transfers to the lowest health ally within 30 yards if it heals a target past maximum health.
        • Beacon of the Savior transfers an additional 10%/20% of the amount healed.
        • Every 5 seconds or when Beacon of the Savior transfers to a new injured target, they are granted a small absorb shield that also reduces damage taken by 10% for 15 seconds.
      • New Talent: Ringing of the Heavens – Activating Aura Mastery also casts a Divine Toll at 100% effectiveness.
      • New Talent: Seraphic Barrier – Word of Glory and Light of Dawn grant allies an absorb shield equal to 10% of their healing.
      • New Talent: Call of the Righteous – Avenging Wrath’s cooldown is reduced by 15 seconds/30 seconds, but its duration is reduced by 2.5 seconds/5 seconds. Avenging Crusader’s cooldown is reduced by 7.5 seconds/15 seconds, but its duration is reduced by 1.5 seconds/3 seconds.
      • New Talent: Glistening Radiance – While at maximum health, targets with Beacon of Light generate an absorb shield equal to 5% of their health every 3 seconds, up to a maximum of 15%.
      • Liberation has been redesigned – Word of Glory and Light of Dawn have a chance equal to your haste to convert 20% of their healing into damage onto a nearby enemy.
      • Saved by the Light has been redesigned and no longer triggers a visual – When an ally with your Beacon of Light is damaged, they absorb damage, increasing by up to 300% based on their current health. Lower health allies are shielded for more.
      • Tyr’s Deliverance has been redesigned – Now triggers after activating Avenging Wrath. Choice node with Hand of Divinity.
      • Hand of Divinity has been redesigned – Now triggers after activating Avenging Wrath. Choice node with Tyr’s Deliverance.
      • Inflorescence of the Sunwell has been redesigned – Infusion of Light has 1 additional charge.
      • Veneration has been redesigned – Now provides an absorb shield and no longer resets the cooldown of Hammer of Wrath on Judgment critical strikes.
      • Breaking Dawn has been redesigned – Now increases the radius of Light of Dawn by 5/10 yards and increases its healing by 5/10%.
      • Tower of Radiance is now learned at level 10 (was a talent).
      • Infusion of Light is now a talent (was learned at level 23) and increases the healing of Flash of Light and Holy Light by 45% (was 30%) and increases Greater Judgment’s effect by 250% (was 200%).
      • Divine Toll’s cooldown reduced to 45 seconds (was 60 seconds).
      • Tirion’s Devotion now reduces Lay on Hands’ cooldown by 50% (was reduced per Holy Power spent).
      • Righteous Judgment now replaces Consecrate.
      • Beacon of Virtue’s duration increased to 9 seconds (was 8 seconds).
      • Light of Dawn now heals in a 15 yard radius around the paladin and reduces its healing beyond 5 targets (was capped at 5).
      • Divine Favor may now trigger from Divine Toll or Holy Armaments.
      • Shining Righteousness now activates with a 20% chance (was after 4 casts).
      • Awakening now activates with a 5% chance (was after 15 casts).
      • Empyrean Legacy now activates from Judgment critical strikes (was 20 second cooldown).
      • Hammer of Wrath now overrides Judgment during Avenging Wrath.
      • Holy Armaments now overrides Holy Prism.
      • Many talents have changed positions in the talent tree.
      • The following talents have been removed:
        • Barrier of Faith (now a PvP talent)
        • Blessing of Seasons
        • Boundless Salvation
        • Merciful Auras
        • Relentless Inquisitor
    • Protection
      • Developers’ notes: We’re addressing some pain points Protection Paladin has been experiencing at the start of combat with competing priorities and abilities clashing. Protection Paladins were subject to significant pressure and tension between defensive abilities, Holy Power generation, generating and maintaining threat, and an immediate need to place Consecration. We are also aiming to streamline by paring back on the number of layers of short-duration or low-impact defensive abilities in order to concentrate power into fewer moving parts.
      • Apex Talents will be available for testing in a future build.
      • New Talent: Undying Embers – You are healed for 100% of the damage dealt by Refining Fire.
      • New Talent: Searing Sunlight – Casting Avenger’s Shield causes Consecration to deal damage or healing again immediately at 100% effectiveness.
      • New Talent: Sweeping Verdict – Judgment chains to 2 additional targets. Replaces Moment of Glory.
      • New Talent: Empyrean Authority – Guardian of Ancient Kings has 1 additional charge. Replaces Eye of Tyr.
      • New Talent: Valiant Crusade – While out of combat, Divine Steed grants Shield of the Righteous for its duration and an additional 2 seconds after it fades.
      • New Talent: Vision of Sanctity – Consecration deals 100% increased damage when it strikes a single target.
      • New Talent: Solace – Consecration heals you for 100% of the damage it deals.
      • Sanctuary has been updated – While in your Consecration and for 4 seconds after leaving it, your damage taken is reduced by 5%. Replaces Bastion of Light.
      • Resolute Defender has been updated – Ardent Defender lasts for an additional 2 seconds.
      • Righteous Protector has been updated – Avenging Wrath and Guardian of Ancient Kings have 50% reduced cooldown and 40% reduced duration.
      • Templar has been updated – Eye of Tyr replaced with Divine Toll.
      • Light’s Guidance has been updated – Hammer of Light is now activated by and replaces Divine Toll.
      • Refining Fire has been updated – Enemies struck by Avenger’s Shield burn with holy fire, suffering 20% additional Radiant damage over time. Now located in row 4.
      • Mastery: Divine Bulwark: Increases your chance to block melee attacks by Mastery%, and your chance to block spells and harmful periodic effects by 2x Mastery%.
      • Word of Glory mana cost increased by 100%. Now refunds 100% of the mana spent when cast on yourself.
      • Undisputed Ruling updated: No longer grants Holy Power.
      • Consecration in Flame is now a 2-point talent.
      • Sacrosanct Crusade now references and is activated by Divine Toll.
      • Light’s Deliverance now references Divine Toll.
      • Many talents have changed positions in the talent tree.
      • The following talents have been removed:
        • Barricade of Faith
        • Bastion of Light
        • Eye of Tyr
        • Faith in the Light
        • Holy Shield
        • Improved Holy Shield
        • Inmost Light
        • Moment of Glory
    • Retribution
      • Developers’ notes: As we head into Midnight, we’re taking a close look at a couple of things such as how Retribution Paladin generates Holy Power, the amount of spells needed to cast for setup, the Hero Talent balance and the design of the third gate in the spec tree.
        Currently, we feel the choices in the 3rd gate are too limiting, forcing players to pick between single-target and AoE effectiveness with little flexibility. To address this, we’re redesigning some abilities while removing some others. The most impactful change here happening with Execution Sentence and Final Reckoning. In Midnight, we’ve decided to combine these two abilities into one powerful ability that is useful both in AoE and in single target situations.
        For Holy Power generation, we’re looking into the amount of passive over time effects. A key focus here is Crusading Strikes. While it has served Retribution very well in some areas, over time it has become an invisible, passive Holy Power generator that’s difficult to track and lacks meaningful interaction. We’re shifting emphasis toward Templar Strikes. Another important change will be coming to Divine Resonance, with the aim of giving players more agency and clarity in their Holy Power generation.
        Going back to the amount of spell casts, one change we would like to address is Divine Hammer. We know many enjoyed its interactions with the Templar Hero Talents. But on the other hand, many found it stressful to manage on top of other abilities such as Execution Sentence. In Midnight, with approachability in mind, we decided to find a different place for Divine Hammer inside the Templar Hero Talent tree as a key AoE component. This change will allow us to be more flexible with the tuning of Empyrean Hammers and Hammer of Light and find a healthier balance between Herald of the Sun and Templar Hero talent trees.
        We’re also exploring ways to make Art of War and Righteous Cause feel more impactful and distinct, while shifting more power back into Holy Power spenders like Final Verdict and Divine Storm to reinforce their importance in the rotation.
      • Apex Talents: Light Within
        • Art of War or Righteous Cause increases the damage of your next Blade of Justice by 150%. Avenging Wrath grants you Art of War or Righteous Cause.
        • Avenging Wrath further increases the damage of Final Verdict and Divine Storm by 10%/20%.
        • Art of War further empowers Blade of Justice to unleash a wave of Holy energy, dealing Holy damage to its primary target and Holy damage to all other enemies in its path.
      • Execution Sentence has been redesigned – Unleash a heavenly blast around the target, dealing Holy damage to all enemies nearby, and call down a hammer that slowly falls from the sky upon the target. After 10 seconds, target suffers 10% of the Holy damage you dealt to all targets affected by the initial blast during that time. Now a 1 minute cooldown.
      • Divine Resonance has been updated – Divine Toll causes your next 3 Judgments to cast again at 100% effectiveness.
      • Templar Strikes has been updated – Crusader Strike loses a charge but now strikes twice. Templar Strike slashes an enemy for Radiant damage and gets followed up by Templar Slash that deals Radiant damage. Templar Slash always critically strikes.
      • Boundless Judgment no longer causes Judgment to generate an additional Holy Power.
      • Divine Wrath is now a 2-point talent, that increases the duration of Avenging Wrath by 2 seconds/4 seconds. Moved to the 3rd gate in the talent tree.
      • Radiant Glory no longer has a chance to activate Avenging Wrath for 4 seconds on Holy Power spent and now functions with Divine Wrath.
      • Blades of Light is now a 2-point talent that causes Crusader Strike, Judgment, and Blade of Justice to deal 10/20% increased damage.
      • Judge, Jury and Executioner is now a capstone talent after Execution Sentence that causes your next 2 Holy Power abilities to refund their Holy Power cost after casting Execution Sentence in addition to passively causing Holy Power spending abilities to deal 5% increased damage.
      • Empyrean Legacy now causes Avenging Wrath to empower your next single target Holy Power ability to cast Divine Storm with 25% increased effectiveness. Now a 3rd gate talent after Divine Wrath.
      • Crusade now a passive talent that causes Avenging Wrath to grant 2% Haste, increasing by 2% per Holy Power spent during Avenging Wrath, up to 20%. Now a capstone talent after Empyrean Legacy.
      • Holy Flames no longer increases Divine Storm damage, no longer causes Divine Storm to spread Expurgation, and is no longer in a choice node against Blade of Vengeance.
      • Art of War now causes auto attacks to have a 15% chance to reset Blade of Justice cooldown (was 20%), critical strikes increase the chance by 15% (was 10%).
      • Rush of Light causes critical strikes from Holy Power generating abilities to grant 5% Haste for 10 seconds.
      • Final Verdict secondary effect has been updated – Now has a 15% chance to reset the cooldown of Judgment.
      • Templar’s Verdict damage increased by 25%.
      • Divine Storm damage increased by 25%.
      • Blade of Justice damage reduced by 50%.
      • The following talents have been removed:
        • Aegis of Protection
        • Crusading Strikes
        • Divine Arbiter
        • Divine Auxiliary
        • Divine Hammer (moved to the Templar hero talent tree)
        • Executioner’s Will
        • Final Reckoning
        • Guided Prayer (moved to the class talent tree)
        • Inquisitor’s Ire
        • Justicar’s Vengeance
        • Light’s Celerity
        • Searing Light
        • Shield of Vengeance (moved to the class talent tree)
        • Vanguard’s Momentum
  • PRIEST
    • Hero Talents
      • Archon
        • Halo now has a 40 yard range and moved to the keystone node of the tree.
        • Empowered Surges now increases the healing of Flash Heals affected by Surge of Light by 15% (was 30%).
        • Power Surge no longer increases the radius of Halo.
        • Concentrated Infusion has been removed.
        • Holy
          • New Talent: Archon – Ascendant Prayers: Surge of Light can now be consumed by Prayer of Healing in addition to Flash Heal.
      • Oracle
        • New Talent: Piety – 20% of overhealing done is redistributed to up to 4 nearby injured allies.
        • Discipline
          • New Talent: Guiding Light – Penance gains an additional charge.
          • New Talent: Prompt Prognosis – The first bolt of each Penance cast damages or heals for 200% more.
          • Waste No Time has been redesigned – Now reduces the cooldown of Power Word: Shield by 1.5 seconds.
        • Holy
          • New Talent: Guiding Light – Prayer of Mending gains an additional charge.
          • New Talent: Prompt Prognosis – Casting Prayer of Mending heals your target immediately.
          • Waste No Time has been redesigned – Now reduces the cooldown of Prayer of Mending by 1.5 seconds.
        • The following talents have been removed:
          • Clairvoyance
          • Fatebender
          • Miraculous Recovery
          • Perfect Vision
          • Premonition
    • Class
      • New Talent: Focused Power – Increases the damage of your spells by 3%.
      • New Talent: Everlasting Light – Surge of Light occurs up to 50% more often based on your remaining mana.
      • New Talent: Twin Disciplines – Increases the damage and healing of your Holy and Shadow spells by 2%.
      • New Talent: Painful Invocation – Increases the damage of Shadow Word: Pain and Holy Fire by 10%.
      • New Talent: Mindpierce – Increases the damage of Mind Flay and Smite by 15%.
      • New Talent: Strength of Soul – Increases your Stamina by 4%.
      • New Talent: Spiritual Guidance – Increases your Intellect by 3%.
      • New Talent: Dark Enlightenment – Increases your Haste by 3%.
      • New Talent: False Autonomy – Increases the duration of Mind Control and Dominate Mind against enemy creatures by 15 seconds.
      • New Talent: Lightburst – Increases the damage of Holy Nova by 200%, its healing by 300%, and its cooldown by 30 seconds.
      • Void Tendrils has been redesigned – Roots enemies for 4 seconds when Psychic Scream ends.
      • Mind Blast moved to the class tree (was learned at level 5). For Holy, this talent node is altered to Holy Fire.
      • Psychic Scream moved to the class tree (was learned at level 7).
      • Desperate Prayer moved to the class tree (was learned at level 8).
      • Fade moved to the talent tree (was learned at level 9).
      • Sheer Terror now increases the damage required to break Psychic Scream by 25% (was 75%).
      • Psychic Scream cooldown is now 40 seconds (was 45 seconds).
      • Psychic Voice now reduces the cooldown of Psychic Scream by 10 seconds (was 15 seconds).
      • Light’s Inspiration is now a 1-point talent that increases the maximum health granted by Desperate Prayer by 10%.
      • Binding Heals and Angel’s Mercy are now on separate nodes.
      • The following talents have been removed:
        • Apathy
        • Cauterizing Shadows
        • Death and Madness (moved to the Shadow talent tree)
        • Divine Star
        • Essence Devourer
        • From Darkness Comes Light
        • Halo (moved to the Archon hero talent tree)
        • Manipulation
        • Power Word: Life
        • Prayer of Mending (now Holy only and learned at level 11)
        • Renew
        • Rhapsody
        • San’layn
        • Shadowfiend (moved to the Shadow talent tree)
        • Throes of Pain
        • Vampiric Embrace (now Shadow only and learned at level 25)
        • Void Shield
        • Void Shift
        • Word of the Pious
    • Discipline
      • Developers’ notes: The primary aim of these changes is to consolidate and remove cooldowns and damage/healing modifiers to make base spell casts feel strong. With removing Schism, Shadow Covenant, and several supporting talents, we can focus on Mind Blast, Penance, and Shadow Word: Pain dealing solid consistent damage, so you can access chunky burst healing on a more consistent cadence. Evangelism has also been redesigned as a way to quickly apply Atonements to allies in raids, providing a much snappier way to ramp up your area of effect healing. The result should be a smoother gameplay experience that requires a little less planning and aura tracking, but still retains depth.
      • Apex Talents: Master the Darkness
        • Penance has a high chance to upgrade Power Word: Shield into Void Shield, causing it to absorb additional damage and apply to 3 nearby allies.
        • Shadow damage and Atonement healing increased by 5%/10%.
        • Void Shield reflects 50% of damage taken to enemies, causing Atonement healing.
      • New Talent: Shadow Tap – Mind Blast deals 150% more damage, but costs 40% more mana.
      • New Talent: Holy Ray – Each successive Penance bolt during a single channel deals 5% increased damage or healing. Originally placed where Revel in Darkness was.
      • New Talent: Shadow Mend – Shadow Word: Pain damage has a chance to upgrade your next Flash Heal to Shadow Mend, which heals an ally for 1100% spell power, but at a price.
      • New Talent: Greater Smite – Casting Smite increases the casting speed and damage of your next Smite by 20%, stacking 2 times. Lasts 2 seconds.
      • New Talent: Inner Light and Shadow (was a PvP talent) –
        • Inner Light: Healing spells cost 10% less mana.
        • Inner Shadow: Spell damage and Atonement healing increased by 10%.
        • Activate to swap from one effect to the other, incurring a 6 second cooldown.
      • Evangelism has been redesigned – Immediately Power Word: Radiance your target at 200% effectiveness, and cause Power Word: Radiance to have no cooldown and 40% reduced mana cost for 10 seconds.
      • Purge the Wicked has been redesigned – Increases Holy damage by 15% and has been moved to where Encroaching Shadows was.
      • Shadowfiend has been moved in place of Void Summoner (was in the class tree).
      • Dark Indulgence now increases Mind Blast damage by 20% (was reduces the mana cost of Mind Blast).
      • Developers’ notes: We would like Atonement healing to scale down smoothly when healing a lot of allies at once, rather than being increased by 125% outside of raid environments. This allows Atonement healing to be more impactful when healing a lower number of targets, even in raid environments. Note that the amount of total healing should still be increased for each additional Atonement target, so you never feel punished for spreading Atonements.
      • Atonement now heals all targets for 60% of damage done (was 28%).
      • Atonement healing is now reduced when healing more than 5 allies. Full health allies are discounted when calculating Atonement’s healing.
      • All damage increased by 20%.
      • Sanctuary absorption increased by 80%.
      • Mind Blast damage increased by 40%.
      • Shadow Word: Pain damage increased by 30%.
      • Many talents have changed positions in the talent tree.
      • The following talents have been removed:
        • Luminous Barrier
        • Malicious Intent
        • Overloaded with Light
        • Schism
        • Shadow Covenant
        • Sins of the Many
        • Twilight Equilibrium
        • Twilight Corruption
        • Void Summoner
    • Holy
      • Developers’ notes: In Midnight, we are removing a few medium cooldown spells and tracking aura from Holy and increasing the power of existing spells to improve consistent healing. We’re aiming for individual spell casts to feel powerful even outside of cooldowns.
        We are also removing some longstanding casted spells, Renew and Heal. Renew is now only triggered through talents like Benediction and Lasting Words. It hasn’t been an ability that is a priority cast outside of talents like Empowered Renew, so we felt it was a good time to depart with the casted version. We are adding talents for mana management in cases where mana management is important like in raids and PvP. Outside of a couple talents, it was often more of a rotational decision to use Heal over Flash Heal so we feel this is a good consolidation for the specialization.
        We’re redesigning the Oracle tree with the intent to provide a more approachable experience by removing Premonition and replacing it with a second charge of Prayer of Mending and other bonuses to the spell. We want Holy to continue to feel like one of the most approachable healers, so these changes are aimed at accomplishing that.
        We’re excited to share a new talent that replaces Holy Word: Sanctify to cause Holy Word: Serenity to also heal nearby allies within 40 yards when cast and causes all Holy Word interactions with Sanctify to apply to Serenity instead. We feel this will be helpful for situations where allies are often spread out or wanting one less ability to manage.
      • Apex Talents: Benediction
        • Prayer of Mending healing has a chance to upgrade your next Flash Heal to Benediction, healing the target for 30% more and causing a Cosmic Ripple.
        • Cosmic Ripple healing increased by 75%/150%.
        • Each pulse of Divine Hymn emits a Cosmic Ripple at 75% effectiveness. During Apotheosis, Flash Heal is upgraded to Benediction.
      • New Talent: Efficient Prayers – Reduces the mana cost of Prayer of Healing by 15%.
      • New Talent: Healing Focus – Reduces the mana cost of Flash Heal by 15%.
      • New Talent: Cosmic Wave – Increases Cosmic Ripple healing by 60%.
      • New Talent: Restored Hope – Your healing critical strikes are 230% effective instead of the usual 200%.
      • New Talent: Uplifting Words – Increases the critical strike chance of your Holy Word: Serenity and Holy Word: Sanctify by 10%.
      • New Talent: Angelic Touch – Your healing spells critically strike for 220% of healing done instead of the usual 200%.
      • New Talent: Radiant Plea – Increases Prayer of Mending healing by 15%.
      • New Talent: Ultimate Serenity – Increases the healing done by Holy Word: Serenity by 10% and causes it to heal 4 nearby injured allies within 40 yards for 15% of its healing done. Replaces Holy Word: Sanctify. Talents that affect Holy Word: Sanctify instead affect Holy Word: Serenity.
      • Eternal Sanctity has been redesigned – Increases the duration of Apotheosis by 12 seconds.
      • Mastery: Echo of Light now additionally affects Renew. Mastery value reduced by 5%.
      • Prayer of Mending now replaces Power Word: Shield when learned.
      • Holy Fire now replaces Shadow Word: Pain when learned and is now learned through the class tree (was learned at level 12).
      • Crisis Management now also affects Prayer of Healing.
      • Light in the Darkness now increases the healing of Holy Word: Serenity and Holy Word: Sanctify by 13%/25% (was 20%/40%).
      • Prayer of Healing mana cost increased by 10%.
      • Prayer of Healing’s healing increased by 40%.
      • Flash Heal mana cost increased by 10%.
      • Flash Heal’s healing increased by 10%.
      • Voice of Harmony has been updated to clarify its interaction with Halo.
      • Benediction and Lasting Words now reference Renew in their descriptions.
      • The following talents have been removed:
        • Answered Prayers
        • Divine Word
        • Everlasting Light
        • Heal
        • Holy Mending
        • Lightwell
        • Prayer Circle
        • Symbol of Hope
    • Shadow
      • Developers’ notes: The following changes are focused on simplifying some of the cooldown launch sequence as well as the frequent number of high priority procs in the rotation for Shadow. We are also updating the fantasy and visuals of their core spells to create a consistent theme of using the power of the Old Gods to haunt your enemies.
      • Apex Talents: Void Apparitions
        • When an effect from an Idol is activated, conjure Shadowy Apparitions.
        • Shadowy Apparitions have a 15%/30% chance to spawn as Void Apparitions that release a Void Bolt at their target and deal 50% increased damage.
        • Tentacle Slam has a 100% chance to activate an effect from one of your Idols.
      • New Talent: Improved Voidform – Causes Voidform to generate 60 Insanity and increases your spell damage by an additional 5%.
      • Void Eruption renamed to Voidform to reduce confusion between the ability name and active effect. Tooltip updated to explain that it increases your spell damage by 10% for 20 seconds. Voidform no longer resets Mind Blast charges when cast.
      • Devouring Plague renamed to Shadow Word: Madness and has been redesigned – A word of madness haunts the target’s mind, dealing Shadow damage instantly plus additional high Shadow damage over 6 seconds and conjuring a Shadowy Apparition that floats towards your target. Costs 50 Insanity.
      • Shadow Crash renamed to Tentacle Slam and has been redesigned – Tentacle Slam summons a massive shadowy appendage to slam the ground, dealing damage and applying Vampiric Touch to up to 6 targets to all enemies between you and the target, as well as 8 yards around your target. Max 2 charges, 15 seconds recharge.
      • Surge of Insanity has been redesigned – Now increases Mind Flay’s damage by 60% and Insanity generation by 30%.
      • Ancient Madness has been redesigned – Now causes Shadow Word: Madness to extend Voidform by 2.5 seconds.
      • Dispersion is now learned at level 13 (was 16).
      • Vampiric Embrace is now learned at level 25 (was a class talent).
      • Silence now has a 30 second cooldown (was 45 seconds) and is learned at level 26 (was a talent).
      • Shadowfiend is now located in the Shadow talent tree (was a class talent).
      • Death and Madness is now located in the Shadow talent tree (was a class talent).
      • Shadowy Apparitions damage increased by 100% and no longer triggers from Mind Blast or Void Bolt.
      • Spectral Horrors is now a 1-point talent that increases the damage of Shadowy Apparitions by 100% against targets affected by Shadow Word: Madness.
      • Maddening Touch is now a 1-point talent that increases Vampiric Touch damage by 20% and gives it a chance to generate 1 Insanity each time it deals damage.
      • Insidious Ire now also affects Mind Flay.
      • Void Volley is now the replacement spell during Voidform instead of Void Bolt.
      • Phantasmal Pathogen renamed to Spectral Horrors and its icon has been updated.
      • Several talents have changed positions in the talent tree.
      • The following talents have been removed:
        • Dark Ascension
        • Last Word
        • Psychic Horror
        • Void Torrent

Midnight Alpha Test development notes continued in the next post.

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