Dragonflight Patch 10.1.5 Development Notes – Class Changes, Evokers, Mages

The Fractures in Time PTR has been updated with the following changes:

THE WARLOCK CLASS EXPANDS TO NEW RACES

The Warlock class is now available to Night Elves, Draenei, Lightforged Draenei, Pandaren, Kul Tiran, Tauren, Highmountain Tauren, Mag’har Orcs, and Zandalari Trolls in this week’s update.

CLASSES

• DRUID
  • Balance
    • Astral Smolder duration is now 6 seconds (was 8 seconds).
  • Guardian
    • Untamed Savagery now also increases maximum Thrash stacks by 1 per rank.
    • Thorns of Iron moved to row 6.
    • Galactic Guardian moved to row 9.
• EVOKER
  • Augmentation
    • Developers’ note: This week’s changes are intended to make it less trivial to achieve 100% uptime on Ebon Might, to ensure there’s room for player growth and mastery. Additionally, tuning is ongoing, and we will continue to adjust spells and values throughout the PTR cycle.
    • Vault of the Incarnates set bonus has been implemented:
      • 2-Set Bonus: Blistering Scales increases Armor by an additional 10% of your own.
      • 4-Set Bonus: Your damage done is increased by 8%.
    • Interwoven Threads cooldown reduction reduced to 10% (was 15%).
    • Dream of Spring is now a choice node with Prolong Life.
    • Sands of Time now causes your empower spells to extend Ebon Might by 2 seconds (was 3 seconds).
    • Breath of Eons cooldown increased to 2 minutes (was 1.5 minutes).
    • Breath of Eons damage no longer contributes to other classes’ “damage accumulator” abilities, such as Execution Sentence or Bonedust Brew.
    • Blistering Scales, and Inferno’s Blessing damage can now critically strike and uses the applying Evoker’s spell critical strike chance.
    • Chrono Ward absorption is now capped at 30% of the Evoker’s maximum health.
    • If you are casting as Spatial Paradox expires, you may still finish that cast while moving.
    • Spatial Paradox range increase now affects more spells, including Divine Hymn, Dream Breath, Rewind, Tranquility, Revival, Light of Dawn, and various other spells it was not increasing before.
  • Devastation
    • Developers’ note: The changes below are aimed at compressing the difference in damage that Devastation deals to high health vs. low health targets, while retaining gameplay texture and Mastery’s value as a powerful secondary stat. For characters with moderate amounts of Mastery, these changes will be neutral to overall damage dealt. Characters with high Mastery will see a slight reduction to damage dealt, and players with low Mastery will see a slight increase.
    • Mastery: Giantkiller reduced by 20%. For example at level 70, 180 Mastery rating now grants 2% Mastery (was 2.5%).
    • All damaging abilities increased by 6.5%.
• MAGE
  • Mass Barrier is now cast on yourself and 4 allies (was 3).
  • Fixed an issue with Prismatic Barrier applying to more than 4 allies.
  • Mass Invisibility duration increased to 12 seconds (was 10 seconds).
  • Diverted Energy’s barriers now heal you for 20/40% of the damage absorbed (was 10/20%).
  • Flow of Time reduces the cooldown of Blink by 2/4 seconds (was 1/2 seconds).
  • Temporal Velocity’s movement speed duration increased to 3 seconds and 5 seconds after using Blink and Alter Time, respectively.
  • Temporal Velocity’s movement speed after Blinking increased by 10/20% (was 5/10%).
  • Incantation of Swiftness now increases movement speed by 40/80% for both Invisibility and Greater Invisibility.
  • Ice Cold can no longer be dispelled.
  • Fixed an issue that caused Displacement to replace Invisibility and Greater Invisibility.
  • Fire
    • Flamestrike has been removed from the talent tree and is now learned at level 12.
    • Flamestrike cast time reduced to 3.5 seconds (was 4 seconds).
    • Cauterize has been removed from the talent tree and now learned at level 19.
    • Pyroblast cast time reduced to 4 seconds (was 4.5 seconds).
    • Mastery: Ignite now causes Fire Blast to spreads Ignite to 3 targets (was 4).
    • From the Ashes now increases Mastery by 2% for each Phoenix Flames charge on cooldown (was previously for each charge off cooldown).
    • Pyrotechnics is now located on row 2.
    • Improved Flamestrike has been renamed to Surging Blaze.
    • Surging Blaze now increases the cast speed of Pyroblast and Flamestrike by 0.5 seconds and their damage by 10%.
    • Surging Blaze is now located on row 3 after Pyrotechnics.
    • New Talent: Fuel the Fire – Flamestrike has a chance equal to 100% of your critical strike chance to contribute to Hot Streak.
    • Fuel the Fire is located on row 4 after Surging Blaze.
    • Pyroclasm has been removed.
    • Sun King’s Blessing now also increases the damage of your next Pyroblast or Flamestrike by 300% in addition to granting Combustion.
    • The temporary buff granted by Sun King’s Blessing that increased damage and Combustion has been renamed to Fury of the Sun King and it now has new icon to better differentiate between the stacking buff and actual buff.
    • Fury of the Sun King duration increased to 30 seconds (was 15 seconds).
    • New Talent: Unleashed Inferno – While Combustion is active your Fireball, Pyroblast, Fire Blast, Scorch, and Phoenix Flames deal 40% increased damage and reduce the cooldown of Combustion by 2.5 seconds.
    • Unleashed Inferno is located as a choice node with Sun King’s Blessing.
    • New Talent: Intensifying Flames – While Ignite is on 3 or fewer enemies it deals 15% increased damage.
      • Developers’ note: This is not yet implemented but will be selectable in the talent tree.
    • Intensifying Flames is located on row 5, replacing Cauterize.
    • Fervent Flickering is now located on row 4 after Phoenix Flames.
    • Improved Scorch max ranks reduced to 1 (was 2) and damage dealt to targets with the debuff increased to 4% per stack at rank 1 (was 2%).
    • Call of the Sun King now also increases Phoenix Flames damage by 15%.
    • Firefall’s number of Fireballs and Pyroblasts required to call down a Meteor reduced to 15 (was 30).
    • Firefall no longer grants double benefit from hitting players.
    • Firefall is no longer a choice node with Pyromaniac.
    • Pyromaniac is no longer a choice node with Firefall. It’s now located after the Feel the Burn and Improved Combustion choice node.
    • Conflagration damage over time increased by 12% The chance for enemies to flare up increased to 15% (was 10%).
    • Master of Flame now spreads Ignite to 2 additional enemies during Combustion (was 4).
    • Master of Flame is now located below the Firemind and Improved Combustion choice node.
    • Fevered Incantation max ranks reduced to 1 (was 2) and critical strike damage increased to 2% per stack (was 1% at rank 1).
    • Fevered Incantation is now located on row 8, replacing Pyroclasm in the tree.
    • Wildfire no longer increases Ignite damage. Instead, it now grants 4/8% critical strike damage and an additional 3/6% critical strike damage when you activate Combustion.
    • Hyperthermia’s duration increased to 6 seconds (was 5 seconds).
    • Hyperthermia is now located on the final row.
    • Fiery Rush is now located on row 9 directly after Kindling.
    • Living Bomb’s cooldown increased to 30 seconds (was 12 seconds), damage over time increased by 30%, and explosion damage increased by 20%.
    • Kindling now causes Scorch critical strikes to reduce Combustion’s cooldown in addition to its current effect.
    • New Talent: Convection – Each time Living Bomb explodes it has a 35% chance to reduce its cooldown by 2 seconds.
    • Convection is located on row 7, directly after Living Bomb and Incendiary Eruptions.
    • Meteor is now located on row 9 of the Fire tree.
    • Meteor no longer splits damage evenly between targets hit by default and its damage is reduced when hitting beyond 8 targets.
    • Meteor’s damage increased by 10%.
    • New Talent: Deep Impact – Meteor’s damage is increased by 20% but is now split evenly between all enemies hit. Additionally, its cooldown is reduced by 15 seconds.
• PALADIN
  • Holy
    • Second Sunrise has been removed.
    • Breaking Dawn is now a 2 point node and has moved to Second Sunrise’s previous location.
    • New Talent: Reclamation – Holy Shock and Crusader Strike refund up to 15% of their Mana cost and deal up to 50% more healing or damage, based on the target’s missing health.
    • Imbued Infusions now reduces the cooldown of Holy Shock by 2 seconds.
    • Hand of Divinity now reduces the mana cost of Holy Light by 50% (was 100%).
    • Divine Favor now additionally reduces the mana cost of Holy Light or Flash of Light by 50%.
    • Tirion’s Devotion now also causes Lay on Hands to restores 5% of your mana.
    • Faith’s Armor now triggers from Word of Glory instead of Shield of the Righteous.
    • Glimmer of Light now triggers its healing or damage on its current target at full value if dispelled.
    • Awakening can now trigger its stacking buff while its Judgment empowerment is active.
    • Daybreak now restores 25% less mana.
    • Avenging Crusader now additionally costs 18% base mana.
    • Word of Glory now additionally costs 6% base mana.
    • Light of Dawn now additionally costs 6% base mana.
    • Crusader Strike now costs 8% base mana (was 10%).
    • Holy Shock now costs 13% base mana (was 16%).
    • Divine Revelations now refunds 0.5% of your maximum mana (was 1%).
    • Flash of Light healing increased by 25%.
    • Holy Light healing increased by 15%.
    • Fixed an issue that caused Judgments empowered by Awakening to not trigger the healing from Avenging Crusader.
• PRIEST
  • New Talent: Benevolence – Increases the healing of your spells by 3%.
  • Power Word: Life now shares a choice node with Benevolence.
  • There is now a connection between Light’s Inspiration and Benevolence/Power Word: Life.
  • New Talent: Essence Devourer – Attacks from your Shadowfiend and Mindbender siphon life from enemies, healing a nearby injured ally.
  • Void Shift now shares a choice node with Essence Devourer.
  • Shadow
    • Developers’ note: We’re adjusting the mana economy of hybrid DPS, starting with Shadow. The current flow can feel restrictive during combat with how quickly mana depletes. Our goal is to allow for more continuous casts of utility and healing spells while maintaining limits on how much hybrids can contribute to healing or offensive dispels. In short, this is a deeper mana pool with less regen.
    • Mana pool at level 70 increased to 250,000 (was 50,000).
    • Mana regeneration increased by 150%.
    • Flash Heal now costs 10% of base mana (was 5%).
    • Power Word: Shield now costs 10% of base mana (was 5%).
    • Dispel Magic now costs 14% of base mana (was 2%).
    • Mass Dispel now costs 20% of base mana (was 11%).
    • Renew now costs 4% of base mana (was 1.8%).
    • Prayer of Mending now costs 4% of base mana (was 2%).
    • Divine Star now costs 2% of base mana (was 0.5%)
    • Halo now costs 4% of base mana (was 1%).
    • Power Word: Life now costs 4% of base mana (was 0.5%).
• SHAMAN
  • Developers’ note: We’re making some more adjustments to Ancestral Guidance this week to allow it to once again work with all of your abilities but with a cap on how much can be healed per second. This should keep AoE damage or healing scenarios stronger than single target with regards to healing throughput, but should lessen the power of individual abilities doing tremendous amounts of healing in a single moment.
  • Ancestral Guidance has been reverted to work with all damaging abilities (not just single target damaging abilities), but it now caps the amount of potential healing per tick at 20% of your maximum health, to up to 3 targets.
  • Ancestral Guidance can no longer cause healing from non-class abilities (such as trinkets, weapon enchants, potion, etc.).
• WARLOCK
  • Added 2 new Imp color customization options in this week’s ptr update.
    • Developers’ note: Customizing your demons in the Barbershop is still under development and will be available in a future PTR update.
  • Affliction
    • Developers’ note: The number of casts required for Affliction to be properly setup is high and something that can feel especially punishing in multi-target situations and PVP. We are replacing Malefic Affliction and implementing changes to Dread Touch and Doom Blossom to make Affliction’s rotation more accessible and less punishing.
    • Malefic Affliction has been removed.
    • New Talent: Xavius’ Gambit – Unstable Affliction deals 15/30% increased damage.
    • Xavius’ Gambit is located in Malefic Affliction’s previous location.
    • Dread Touch has been redesigned – Malefic Rapture causes targets suffering from your Unstable Affliction to take 30% additional damage from your damage over time effects for 8 seconds.
    • Doom Blossom has been redesigned – When Seed of Corruption damages targets suffering from your Unstable Affliction, they explode for Shadow damage.
  • Demonology
    • Developers’ note: We’re working to reduce the peaks and valleys of Demonology’s throughput by depowering Call Dreadstalkers. This will allow us to compensate by increasing the throughput of Demonology’s other rotational spells. We hope to have those tuning adjustments soon.
      Lastly, the Demonic Core economy has been too generous in Dragonflight. We want to return Demonology to a place where Shadow Bolt is frequently cast, Demonbolt damage feels impactful, and the number of instant casts available is a bit more limited.
    • Ripped through the Portal, Demonic Knowledge, Shadow’s Bite, Demonic Meteor, and Fel Might have been removed.
    • Fel and Steel has been redesigned – Your primary Felguard’s Legion Strike damage is increased by 10%. Your primary Felguard’s Felstorm damage is increased by 5%.
    • New Talent: Heavy Handed – Increases your primary Felguard’s critical strike chance by 10%.
    • Heavy Handed is located in Fel Might’s previous location.
    • New Talent: Cavitation – Your primary Felguard’s damaging critical strikes deal 10/20% increased damage.
    • Cavitation is located in Umbral Blaze’s previous location.
    • New Talent: Shadowflame Acolyte – Shadow Bolt deals 15% increased damage and Demonbolt deals 10% increased damage.
    • Shadowflame Acolyte is located in Demonic Knowledge’s previous location.
    • New Talent: Imp-erator – Increases the critical strike chance of your Wild Imp’s Fel Firebolt by 5/10%.
    • Imp-erator is located in Demonic Calling’s previous location.
    • New Talent: Dirty Hands – Hand of Gul’dan deals 8/15% increased damage and the critical strike chance of Hand of Gul’dan is increased by 8/15%.
    • Dirty Hands is located in Inner Demons’ previous location.
    • Fel Covenant has been moved to Shadow’s Bite’s previous location.
    • Fel Covenant is now 1 rank (was 2 ranks).
    • Umbral Blaze has been moved to Fel Covenant’s previous location.
    • Dread Calling has been moved to Ripped through the Portal’s previous location.
    • Dread Calling is now 2 ranks (was 1 rank).
    • Demonic Calling has been moved to Demonic Meteor’s previous location.
    • Demonic Calling is now 1 rank (was 2 ranks).
    • Inner Demons has been moved to Dread Calling’s previous location.
    • Inner Demons is now 1 rank (was 2 ranks).

PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER

• EVOKER
  • New PvP Talent: Dreamwalker’s Embrace – Verdant Embrace tethers you to an ally, increasing movement speed by 40% and causing enemies who pass through the tether to be damaged and slowed by 50% for 3 seconds. The tether lasts up to 10 seconds or until you move more than 30 yards away from your ally.
• MAGE
  • Arcane
    • New PvP Talent: Improved Mass Invisibility – The cooldown of Mass Invisibility is reduced to 1 minute and it can affect allies in combat.
• PALADIN
  • Holy
    • New PvP Talent: Divine Plea – After casting Daybreak, you regenerate mana over 12 seconds, but your healing and damage is decreased by 50%. Daybreak no longer restores mana from each Glimmer consumed.
    • Cleanse the Weak has been redesigned – When you dispel an ally within your aura, 1 ally within your aura is dispelled of the same effect. Healing allies with your Flash of Light or Holy Light will cleanse all Diseases and Poisons from the target.
    • Flash of Light now heals 50% more in PvP combat (was 80%).
    • Holy Light now heals for 75% more in PvP combat (was 100%).

USER INTERFACE AND ACCESSIBILITY

• Arena unit frames have been updated:
  • Arena frames now gray out if players are stealthed or invisible.
  • Fixed an issue where battleground flag carriers were not showing.
• While in a scenario, minimap blobs are now yellow instead of blue to increase visibility.
• Added a new quest icon to indicate important quests.

WORLD EVENTS

• KALIMDOR CUP
  • Rediscover Kalimdor’s skies with a new dragonrider racing world event. Challenge 16 races across Kalimdor in Normal, Advanced, and Reverse variations to earn Riders of Azeroth Badges to exchange for rewards with Maztha.
  • Head to the Holiday Enthusiast outside Valdrakken’s bank to pick up the initial quest.