Season 8 Chapter 3 Complete Overview

Heroes,

Season 8 Chapter 3 is a brand new start into The Burning Crusade: one that focuses on massively improving the expansion by bringing all the major updates from Season 8 and League 4 into TBC. Additionally, the major focus of this chapter is helping you get more powerful than ever so you can tackle Outland any way you want. 

One of the most crucial parts of Ascension is the basic RPG power fantasy: the idea that as you’re adventuring, you’re getting stronger in a ton of different ways. Chapter 3 achieves this by improving the ways that you can power up. For Draft Heroes on Thrall, that means massively increasing your Gem Cap so you can build some of the strongest Heroes you’ve ever been able to before on Ascension. For Free Pick Heroes on Area 52, that means introducing polished, expanded Build Draft options so you can explore dozens of different powerful builds and conquer brand new dangers like the newly release Hyjal Summit.

What’s more, both realms can benefit from a HUGE Mystic Enchantment overhaul that transforms the system into a slot-based one, removing friction and letting you apply Mystic Enchantments straight to you. Here’s the overview:

• League 4 Upgrades to Live
• Mystic Enchantment Redesign
  • Enchantments are now slot-based
  • Mystic Enchantments Update
    • Scrolls
    • Enchantments placed in the Open World
• New: TBC Worldforged Enchantments
  • They’ll be released in batches
• Draft Improvements
• Area 52 Improvements
  • Build Draft Improvements
  • Mastery Updates
    • 1AE Masteries
    • AE Cost Lowering on many Abilities
      • https://ascension.gg/news/build-draft-arrives-on-area-52/427
• Prestige Mode Hardcore Trials
  • No longer permanently kills your character.
  • Dying causes you to fail the challenge, but you can still continue leveling and finish your prestige.
  • Buffed Mark of Ascension rewards on challenge completions.
• Heirloom Upgrades
  • Heirlooms for Marks of Ascension
  • New Heirloom Shield
• New Raid: Hyjal Summit
  • Hyjal Summit Overhaul
• New: Arena Maps
• Action Camera
• Recovery Service Improvements
• Highrisk Overhaul #237

Launch Day Notes

At realm launch, the following items will be disabled to provide a fair race to 70!

• Potion and Aura of Experience are disabled until your race hits 70. This includes:
• Heirloom Item experience and Recruit a Friend are disabled until all races reach 70.
• Tradesmans Scrolls are disabled until someone achieves max rank in that profession
• Flying Riding Tomes are disabled until your race reaches 70
• Twisting Presence receives a change since the RE is no longer on your gear
  • Twisting Presence now reduces your damage and healing by 3% at level 70 for each piece of gear equipped. This effect displays, but is only active at max level.
  • It will no longer disable your REs
  • This debuff is necessary to ensure Naxxramas Epics are not used throughout early TBC content.

League 4 Updates to Live Realms

First, both Area 52 and Thrall (Free Pick and Draft) receive all of the updates tested during League 4. This includes:

• 15 New Spells from League 4
• 15 New Downranked Spells
  • Play the way you want sooner
• Hardcore Trials come to both realms
• Open World Improvements
  • Improved Draw Distance
  • Upgraded Level Scaling Zones
  • Stronger Open World Monsters
• Crafting and Gathering Overhaul
• Mythic+ Vanilla Dungeons
• Mythic+ Affix Overhaul
• Group Finder
• Power Creep Improvements
  • See the League 4 article: https://ascension.gg/news/league-4-complete-overview/410
• AoE Visualizers
• Tamable Dragon and Elemental talents
• Woodcutting!

Improving your Adventure

The major focus of Season 8 Chapter 3 is polishing existing features and expanding the ways you can play the way you want and tackle Azeroth, Outland, and beyond. Whether you’re leveling for the first time and charging through Azeroth to get through the Dark Portal, or Prestiging to improve your Draft Hero, many new features arrive to improve your experience.

New Spells

15 new League 4 spells arrive on both realms so you can more fully realize your fantasy Classless Hero. Call down Meteors to smite foes, grappling hook after foes, ascend into an Avatar of Flame and lava-smite people: whatever your fantasy, you’ve got 15 more spells to make it happen.

Here are all the new spells available to Draft on Thrall when TBC launches and available on Area 52 right now:

• Flame Ascendance
• Cloudburst Totem
• Frozen Orb
• Divine Star
• Meteor
• Mass Invisibility
• Angelic Feather
• Grappling Hook
• Roll the Bones
• Ironfur
• Gloomblade
• Light of Dawn
• Flourish
• Sundering
• Void Eruption

Additionally, 15 new Downranked spells bring abilities like Crusader Strike and Stormstrike to level 1, so you can play these archetypes early. Whether you’re leveling for the first time or prestige a brand new build, these downranked spells open up both Archetypes and Mystic Enchantments earlier, so that you get to do what you want sooner.

These downranked spells are available on Area52 and can be dfrafted right now on Thrall to prepare your build for Outlands:

• Ferocious Bite can now be learned at level 10.
• Mangle can now be learned at level 20.
• Ice Lance can now be learned at level 40.
• Crusader Strike can now be learned at level 1.
• Divine Storm can now be learned at level 30.
• Penance can now be learned at level 30.
• Mutilate can now be learned at level 20.
• Stormstrike can now be learned at level 1.
• Lava Lash can now be learned at level 20.
• Riptide can now be learned at level 20.
• Feral Charge can now be learned at level 1.
• Tranquilizing Shot can now be learned at level 44.
• Lacerate can now be learned at level 10.
• Incinerate can now be learned at level 28.
• Devastate can now be learned at level 10.

A Better Open World

Open World improvements like upgraded level scaling zones, stronger open world monsters, improved draw distance, and High Risk leveling improvements arrive with Chapter 3. This greatly improves your adventure, whether it’s your first time exploring classless Azeroth, or you’re a Prestige God. Open World Improvements bring this exciting way to level on-par with Dungeons and PvP.

Hardcore Trials

As Hardcore Trials come to both realms, you now have access to dozens of new challenges to spice up your leveling adventure. Whether you’re becoming the ultimate single-life crafting artisan, or trying not to suffocate on land because you’re actually secretly a fish, Hardcore Trials imbue danger, excitement, and fun to your adventure. You can now tackle them on both Thrall and Area 52

Additionally, Hardcore Trials can now be undertaken as a Prestige Mode Hero! 

Attempting a hardcore trial as a prestige Hero will CHANGE the rewards you receive into Ascension specific rewards, meaning you can now use Hardcore Trials to gather essential items like Marks of Ascension, Mystic Orbs and Runes, and Prestige Tokens. For Draft Heroes, you can now use Hardcore Trials to spice up your prestige runs, collect Marks of Ascension, and have dozens of new adventures both solo and with friends. This change is one more way of ensuring you can play the way you want, opening up variety in your adventure and offering dozens of new ways to prestige outside of Dungeons and Battlegrounds to keep the adventure fresh.

Chapter 3 also introduces a Daily Prestige Trial: this gets prestiging Heroes focused on the same Hardcore Trial, and is a great way for groups of Heroes to team up and try for big rewards. Additionally, Mark of Ascension rewards have been given a significant buff.

See everything else League 4 brings to core realms in the League 4 article here: https://ascension.gg/news/league-4-complete-overview/410

Slot Based Mystic Enchantments

Mystic Enchantments being gear based presented several unfortunate problems:

1. Enchantments being tied to your gear meant that you had to micromanage your gear to stay powerful
2. Problems with continuing to play how you want when Prestiging
3. Friction with trying new builds at max level because you not only had to get gear and enchantments, but continue applying them immediately when picking up new gear

You should be able to harness Mystic Enchantments without hassle so you can play whatever crazy builds you can imagine: which is why a transformational update arrives for Mystic Enchantments: 

Mystic Enchantments are now Slot Based.

All Heroes now have 17 slots to apply Mystic Enchantments to regardless of the gear you wear: meaning 2h users can now equip an additional enchantment. Apply one, and it stays with you forever: no more worrying about reapplying res to new gear, no more carefully looking through loot you find to make sure the enchantments on it don’t conflict with what  you’re already wearing, no more needing to have a dozen gear sets while prestiging just to keep playing how you want: get your enchantments, slot them, go.

This drastically reduces friction from the Mystic Enchantment system so that you can use it easily and more effectively.

• With this change, you won't have to use Mystic Orbs to reapply enchants all of the time when you get new gear, drastically reducing orb cost here.
• With that in mind, applying enchants to scrolls that are intended to be sold now will now require more orbs than before to balance it out and encourage going out in the world for mystic scrolls 

With this change, Mystic Scrolls also go through a redesign, and many Epic and Legendary Enchantments now have additional ways to obtain them.

First, a new UI lets you get Mystic Scrolls and reroll them just like you used to reroll gear. Second, you can now apply, extract, or reroll enchantments straight from the altar: so things stay familiar and easy to use.

Discover Mystic Scrolls

The big changes come with how you find Mystic Enchantments. Not only can you continue to roll them like before, but 1000’s of Mystic Enchantments have been hand-placed across Azeroth in thematic locations, off of thematic monsters, and more. 

Uncommons and Rares: Monsters that use certain abilities will drop Uncommon Mystic Scrolls related to that ability: for example, the Twilight Cultists who use Shadowbolt can drop any Uncommon Shadowbolt related Mystic Scroll.

Additionally, there are tons of new ways to discover Epic and Legendary Mystic Scrolls during your adventure:

• 53 Discoverable Objects
• 24 New Rares
• 9 New Vendors
• 8 New Scripted Events

This integrates finding Mystic Enchantments into your adventure so that you can continue to grow power along the way: doubling down on the adventure.

TBC Worldforged Enchantments

Outland is rich with iconic lore, locations, and themes. From the corruption of the fel to the unstable magic of Netherstorm, there are tons of opportunities for interesting archetypes to emerge. You deserve to delve into the Open World and discover new power to stand against the greatest enemies of Outland: and with Chapter 3, you can. Brand new TBC worldforged enchantments arrive!

With Chapter 3, new TBC Worldforged Enchantments release in 4+ batches throughout the season for you to discover and harness. They’ll be thematic to the various locations and powers of Outland, and will help expand existing builds (Epic Enchantments) as well as create entirely new ways to play (Legendary Enchantments).

Additionally, the way you obtain Worldforged Enchantments is improved to rely less on RNG and more on your adventure: they now either have dedicated drops from monsters or puzzles, or they have a Worldforged Cache with a 100% chance to drop the RE if you unlock it. This keeps the focus on the adventure, discovery, and mastery of these enchantments rather than farming them. Look forward to harnessing the power of Outland!

Thrall Draft Improvements

Draft Mode is the ultimate adventure of discovery, refinement, and limitless potential: of drafting a crazy build and refining it until you’re crazy powerful. With Chapter 3, Draft Mode focuses in on expanding that essential RPG power fantasy.

First, Ability Gem Caps are MASSIVELY expanded with Chapter 3: meaning you can have WAY more Legendary, Epic, Rare, and Uncommon abilities than you’ve ever been able to have at once before. Heroes you build during Chapter 3 will be some of the strongest Ascension has ever seen, and if you’re dedicated to improving your Hero, you’re going to get crazy strong.

Second, you can improve your Hero any way you want during Chapter 3: with Chapter 3, there are over 1000 Hands of Fate available at level cap. This makes sure that if you prefer playing at end-game to prestige, you can still continue to improve and refine your hero.

Third, Card Swaps are now 3 by 3 exchanges baked right into hands of fate: when you get one, you’ll draft 3 cards of the same rarity. You choose the one you want, and then have a chance to swap it with one of 3 cards you already know of that rarity. This gives you more control over what cards you swap and when, as well as making it more appealing to choose rare skills when they appear, because that means you’ll have more options to swap out later.

Fourth, Heroes can now choose to Prestige back to level 1 at level 60 or 70. This provides a break in your adventure to wind up your prestige if you’re through with it, while still providing additional rewards for Heroes who go all the way to 70. 

Finally, Heroes who are further along in their draft adventure can now make use of specific options in the interface to customize their experience and speed up the more immersive elements of draft to keep moving forward fast. Options like ignoring the click to reveal, making the cards spawn faster, and other such functions can now be toggled in the Draft Interface. Look forward to more granular control of your experience with chapter 3!

Area 52 and Build Draft

Build Draft introduced complete, viable, hand-curated builds to League 4 that allowed Heroes to instantly jump in and play exciting archetypes right from level 1. Now, Build Draft arrives on Area 52 to put complete, powerful archetypes in your hands, so you can keep playing however you want. In addition, it’s received a lot of refinement since the League 4 launch including bug fixes and a more polished early game for some specs. 

As Build Draft comes to Area 52, heroes can enjoy over 75 classless builds and archetypes. Each one has been adapted to level 70, so you can play them from level 1 all the way through TBC. Heroes can even make use of the Featured Builds tab to pick specific builds, giving you more control to play the way you want to play. Both Build Draft and Featured Builds can earn Build Draft Trophies in Chapter 3, so whichever you choose, you can progress towards getting awesome cosmetics.

Additionally, you can now find a long-form text field in each Build Draft build that better explains how to play each build. This gives creators more space to explain the ins-and-outs of their build, and heroes who use the builds a better explanation of how it works. Finally, thanks to the new Mystic Enchantment system, leaving build draft no longer affects the RE’s you have slotted. Since they’re on YOU and not your gear, you can exit build Draft at max level to customize the build and make it uniquely yours, while still keeping every enchantment you need to make it work. Play the way you want, get comfortable with the build, and make it your own with Build Draft!

Mastery Updates

One of the most exciting parts about adventuring is being able to deal with different situations in new and unique ways: having a versatile arsenal is essential for surviving in Outlands. But many builds encourage tackling all situations the same way. Mastery Updates arrive to fix that!

All spells within a mastery are now 1AE down from 2AE, and Masteries now cost 1 AE each. This creates space to learn multiple spells within a mastery at a much more desirable cost, so you can pick up different options to deal with different situations. Doing so, you can prepare to handle unique situations, rather than tackling every obstacle the same way–and if you only want 1 ability within a mastery, the cost is the same as before. Enjoy picking up multiple Judgments, Auras, Wards, Blessings, and more to handle unique situations!

AE Cost of Many Skills Reduced

The AE cost of MANY skills and abilities on Area 52 have been drastically reduced. Check the bottom of this article for a big list of what’s changed:

+ Reduced the AE cost of Eyes of the Beast from 2 AE to 1 AE. 

+ Reduced the AE cost of Aquatic Form from 2 AE to 1 AE. 

+ Reduced the AE cost of Soothe Animal from 2 AE to 1 AE. 

+ Reduced the AE cost of Eagle Eye from 2 AE to 1 AE. 

+ Reduced the AE cost of Shackle Undead from 2 AE to 1 AE.

+ Reduced the AE cost of many common utility abilities on Area 52 from from 2 AE to 1 AE. 

+ Reduced the AE cost of Eye of Kilrogg from from 2 AE to 1 AE. 

+ Reduced the AE cost of Slow Fall from from 2 AE to 1 AE. 

+ Reduced the AE cost of Water Breathing from from 2 AE to 1 AE. 

+ Reduced the AE cost of Levitate from from 2 AE to 1 AE. 

+ Reduced the AE cost of Safe Fall from from 2 AE to 1 AE. 

+ Reduced the AE cost of Teleport: Moonglade from from 2 AE to 1 AE WOAH

+ Reduced the AE cost of Resurrection from 2 AE to 1 AE. 

+ Reduced the AE cost of Ancestral Spirit from 2 AE to 1 AE. 

+ Reduced the AE cost of Mind Vision from 2 AE to 1 AE. 

+ Reduced the AE cost of Totemic Recall from 2 AE to 1 AE. 

+ Reduced the AE cost of Mind Soothe from 2 AE to 1 AE. 

+ Reduced the AE cost of Revive from 2 AE to 1 AE. 

+ Reduced the AE cost of Water Walking from 2 AE to 1 AE. 

+ Reduced the AE cost of Conjure Water from 2 AE to 1 AE. 

+ Reduced the AE cost of Astral Recall from 2 AE to 1 AE. 

+ Reduced the AE cost of Unending Breath from 2 AE to 1 AE. 

+ Reduced the AE cost of Conjure Food from f2 AE to 1 AE. 

+ Reduced the AE cost of Call of the Elements from  2 AE to 1 AE. 

+ Reduced the AE cost of Call of the Ancestors from 2 AE to 1 AE. 

+ Reduced the AE cost of Call of the Spirits from 2 AE to 1 AE. 

+ Reduced the AE cost of Redemption from 2 AE to 1 AE. 

+ Reduced the AE cost of Health Funnel from 2 AE to 1 AE. 

+ Reduced the AE cost of Pick Pocket from 2 AE to 1 AE.

+ Hand of Protection now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Hand of Freedom now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Gouge now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Blink now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Blind now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Bash now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Intimidating Shout now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Howl of Terror now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Fear now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Death Coil now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Hand of Sacrifice now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Psychic Scream now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Berserker Rage now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Deterrence now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). +

 Intercept now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Maim now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Barkskin now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Cloak of Shadows now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Cyclone now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Ice Block now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Blast Wave now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Cold Snap now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Concussion Blow now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Last Stand now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Preparation now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Survival Instincts now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Wyvern Sting now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Readiness now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Bestial Wrath now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Intimidation now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Repentance now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Shadowfury now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Dragon's Breath now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Scatter Shot now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Deep Freeze now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Shockwave now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Psychic Horror now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Dispersion now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Typhoon now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Thunderstorm now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Feral Spirit now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE).

+ Skull Banner now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Heroic Leap now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Avatar now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Blinding Light now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Smoke Bomb now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Demonic Leap now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Solar Beam now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Dancing Rune Weapon now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Summon Gargoyle now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Anti-Magic Zone now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Alter Time now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Ring of Frost now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Petrification Totem now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Hypnosis now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Polymorph now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Kidney Shot now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Divine Protection now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Divine Shield now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Disengage now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Travel Form now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Hammer of Justice now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE). 

+ Shield Wall now costs 3 AE (down from 4 AE)

Upgradable Heirlooms

Heirloom Items can now be obtained for both Prestige Tokens and Marks of Ascension. Additionally, Heirlooms now have upgradable versions that grant bonus experience. This means Prestige loving Heroes can now get gear that drastically improves their prestige runs, both by making it faster and making sure you don’t have to micromanage your gear. If you love Prestiging and the leveling adventure, these new upgradable heirlooms will ensure you can keep going fast.

Hyjal Summit

https://ascension.gg/news/hyjal-summit-awaits/426

Hyjal Summit has been completely revitalized in an overhaul worthy of one of the most iconic moments in Warcraft History: Band together to stop Archimonde. New mechanics, new voicelines, items, events, and spell visuals bring Hyjal Summit into the modern age. These new features expand upon the raid’s existing mechanics, items, and design to make it feel like a truly upgraded experience.

• Waves reduced from 8 to 5
• Hyjal Summit now saves your progress after every successful wave
• Introduced a Glorious Hyjal Raider achievement

Hyjal Summit has been completely overhauled with wild new mechanics, new challenges to overcome, and additions that bring it into the modern age. Get ready for an epic fight against Archimonde and the Scourge!

Flex Normal and Heroic Hyjal Summit released on August 5th! Mythic and Ascended release dates will be announced after that. Hyjal will release first on Area 52, and then Thrall once Season 8 progresses into tier 6 content. Look forward to exploring its secrets, unlocking new epic items, and banding together with the Heroes of the past as you defend Azeroth against the legion!

PvP

PvP Updates

As the first step of a bigger PvP update, the new chapter brings hundreds of PvP changes aimed at balancing some oppressive spells and talents while buffing many currently underused and underpowered spells. The focus on this first update is to strengthen variety in pvp, giving you the tools to play the build you want and to play it the way you want it. The updates coming now can be categorized into the following:

 

First of all, lots of and lots of underused abilities and talents are being buffed for PvP. This goes for abilities such as Grappling Hook and Fear Ward, Legendary enchants such as Harbinger of Pestilence which struggled ramping up against players and talents that simply weren't powerful enough in PvP.

Oppressively powerful counter tools that have been adjusted, including for example Abolish Curse which was too powerful against builds relying on Curses.

Dispel Protection effects have been added in about a dozen more places. These new effects work similarly to the Silence from dispelling Unstable Affliction (though not quite that powerful), and are placed on spells and abilities that otherwise get heavily countered by dispels.

The most oppressive tools are being brought into line. These changes are aimed at the tools that allowed builds to stack burst to the point of almost one-shotting their opponents with no counterplay on one end, or stack defensives and heals to the point of being unkillable on the other. These extremes contribute to a narrowing on the meta, and reigning in their power means more room for new builds and playstyles to emerge.

Interrupt mind-games are back! This staple of Wow PvP is being propped up by effects that encourage casters to hardcast, a buff to the talents that encourage fake-casting and some tweaks to interrupt and silence effects and buffs to melee range interrupts such as Kick and Pummel. All of these changes mean that PvP will be more about carefully timing your interrupts to punish your opponent.

New tools for melee mobility. There are some new specialized tools to help you get to your target. Instead of most people just using the usual gap closers, some builds can make good use of a few new ways to get to their target, making it feel more unique to play and face them. For example, while Recklessness is active your affected Warrior abilities are usable from 8 yards and will cause you to charge toward your enemy. Oh and by the way, Slam is now usable while moving.

Powerful but over-specialized tools are becoming more versatile! For example: Cloak of Shadows is a really cool ability, but it's only good against casters. So if you pick it up instead of a more generic spell you'll do better against casters, but struggle more against melee. As a result it rarely gets picked. With this patch, tools like that that are too specialized get buffs to make them better against a bigger variety of opponents while still retaining their flavour. For example, Cloak of Shadows will now clear Bleeds and make you immune to Snares and Roots while active.

This update is the first step of a focused effort to make PvP more fair and fun, and will be followed up with further changes. While these updates are focused around PvP many of them should be very desirable in PvE as well! 

Here are just some of the changes you can look forward to:

• Staggering Shout now has a 20 sec cooldown, changed from 25. 

• The Capstone effect of Amplify Curse allowing you to have multiple Curses active at the same time is now baseline.

• Amplify Curse now has a new Capstone effect: If any of your Curses are dispelled, your next Curse of Agony will deal bonus Shadow damage to the target after 3 seconds.

• Mongoose Bite and Counterattack now require weapons, meaning they can no longer be used while disarmed.

• Unrelenting Storm now also stacks up from Elemental Blast and Lava Burst.

• Lightning Discharge now stuns for 2.5 seconds, up from 1.5.

• Lightning Overload now stuns for 2.5 seconds, up from 2.

• Hydromancer Electrocute now has a 30 second internal cooldown, up from 20.

• Thunderstorm now deals 10% more damage.

• Angelic Feather now costs 10% of base mana, down from 16%. It now grants 50% increased movement speed up from 40%.

• Shadow Strikes no longer triggers from on-hit effects such as Heroic Strike or Cleave. This makes it in-line with other proc effects, which as a general rule do not trigger from spells/abilities that do not have a global cooldown.

• Netherwind Presence procs on spell cast instead of hit.

• New Capstone: Netherwind Presence - Casting Slow while Netherwind Presence is fully stacked increases your movement speed by 30% for 3 seconds.

• Unfurling Time ERE now has an additional effect: Casting Slow on a target within 15 yards of you that is already afflicted by Slow roots them for 2 seconds.

• Missile Barrage now also has a 8/16/20% chance to trigger from Slow.

• Temporal Shift now has a cast time of 2 seconds, down from 2.2.

• The New Moon epic Enchant now has an additional effect: Dealing periodic damage with Moonfire reduces the cast time of your next Arcane Blast by 5%, stacking up to 5 times.

• Improved Disarm: Change to the target taking +10% damage from you while disarmed. [This also fixes an issue with PvE]

• Disarm now lasts for 6 seconds, down from 7.

• Dismantle now lasts for 6 seconds, down from 7.

• Grip of Horror now increases the disarm duration of Psychic Horror by 0.66/1.33/2 sec, changed from 1/2/3.

• The Disarm duration reduction effect on Improved Counterattack has been moved to Survivalist, making it more accessible to more builds.

• Weapon Mastery now grants 2% critical strike chance per stack, changed from 1%.

• Combat Readiness now also triggers against spells. It now provides 3% damage reduction per stack in PvP (still 5% against monsters).

• Cloak of Shadows now has a 2 minute cooldown, down from 3 minutes.

• Cloak of Shadows now also removes all Bleed effects when used and grants immunity to Snare and Root effects.

• Hand of Protection also clears Stun effects when used.

• Blessed Hands no longer increases the duration of Hand of Protection. Instead it makes Hand of Protection reduce Magic damage taken by 30%.

• Evasion now costs 2 epic gems.

• The Endurance talent now also makes Evasion reduce Magic damage taken by 10/20%.

• Purge - Reduce to 20y range, Give it 3 charges, 12s recharge timer. Remove the Imp Purge talent.

• Incanter’s Absorption has been reworked: Dealing damage with non-instant Arcane spells have a chance to grant you a shield absorbing a small amount of damage. In addition, the cooldown of Spellsteal is reduced by 1/2/3s. Capstone bonus: Spellsteal steals an extra spell from the target.

• Absolution capstone - Dispel Magic can now be used on enemies to dispel 1 beneficial effect.

• Pummel no longer costs rage.

• Pummel now has a 12 second cooldown (down from 18).

• Brutal Pummel is now a 2 point talent.

• Instead of reducing the cooldown of Pummel, Brutal Pummel now gives Pummel a 50/100% chance to apply two stacks of Sunder Armor to the target.

• ‌Kick no longer costs energy.

• Kick now has a 12 second cooldown (down from 18).

• Improved Kick is now a 2 point talent.

• Instead of reducing the cooldown of Kick, Improved Kick now gives Kick a 50/100% chance to prevent the target from fleeing and limiting their movement speed for 3 seconds. [Same effect as Judgement of Justice]

• Shield Bash no longer costs rage.

• Shield Bash now has a 12 second cooldown (down from 18).

• Gag Order no longer reduces the cooldown of Shield Bash.

• The Silence effect from Gag Order now also triggers from using Disarm. It no longer triggers from Shield Bash.

• The Daze effect of Shield Bash now lasts for 3 sec, changed from 6.
  
   
• Burning Determination Capstone: Being hit by an interrupt effect while not casting makes you immune to the next Crowd Control, Knockback, Silence or Interrupt effect against you and gives you 20% spell haste for 5 seconds. This may only occur once every 20 seconds.
  
   
• Frozen Core Capstone: This effect now also makes you immune to the next Crowd Control, Knockback, Silence or Interrupt effect against you for 5 seconds.

• Celestial Focus Capstone: This effect now also makes you immune to the next Crowd Control, Knockback, Silence or Interrupt effect against you for 5 seconds.

• Spiritual Focus Capstone: This effect now also makes you immune to the next Crowd Control, Knockback, Silence or Interrupt effect against you for 5 seconds.

• Harbinger of Pestilence stacks are now granted by both Wrath and Haunt.

• Harbinger of Pestilence stacks are now gained two at a time when used against players.

• Master of Subtlety now increases your damage by 4/8/12%, up from 4/7/10%. This damage increase no longer stacks with Death Wish or similar cooldowns.

• Deadly Brew now has a 4 second internal cooldown.

• Gale Winds Capstone has been removed and is now added baseline. 

• Premeditation now has a 15 second cooldown (down from 20).

• Death Mark Now has a 50 second cooldown (down from 60)

• Beast Mastery is now an Epic ability costing 1 gem, changed from a 2 gem Rare.

• Roar of Sacrifice is now in the final tier of the Tenacity pet talent tree, reflecting how powerful this ability is.

• Bloodbath now slows the target by 30%, changed from 40%

• The Snare effect and periodic damage of Bloodbath are now coupled in the same way that the root effect and the periodic damage of Entangling Roots are. This means that if you break the Snare, you will also not take damage.

• Bloodbath now lasts for 5 seconds, down from 8. 

• The Bloodsurge talent now also increases Bloodbath duration by 1/2/3 seconds. This change fixes an issue where this tool was too powerful for too many builds, especially in PvP.

• Bloodbath no longer resets the cooldown of Siegebreaker.

• The scaling of Bloodbath has been increased by 7%

• Assuaging Shadows now increases the duration of your Shadowstep movement speed by 2 sec.

• Fanaticism Capstone has been reworked: Capstone Bonus: Your Crusader Strike marks the target for 8 seconds, increasing the damage they take from your Seals by 10%. Judging a target that's marked or affected by Execution Sentence grants you 35% increased movement speed for 3 seconds.

• Exorcist’s Slash now has double the cooldown when used against a player.

• While Recklessness is active your affected Warrior abilities are usable from 8 yards and will cause you to charge toward your enemy.

• Slam is now castable while moving.

• Astral Shift now also increases critical strike chance by 1/2/3%. Its damage reduction has been reduced from 4/8/12% to 4/7/10%.

• Astral Shift now has a Capstone effect: If stunned, feared or silenced while casting a damaging Nature spell you gain an empowered Astral Shift reducing damage taken by 25% for 6 seconds.

• Cheat Death now also resets the CD of Vanish.

• Increased the healing of the Nature’s Guardian Capstone effect. In addition this will now also guarantee your next Nature spell to critically strike.

• Blazing Speed now procs from any direct damage, instead of only melee damage.

• Blessed Resilience now has a 5 second duration and a 20 second internal cooldown. It now increases your resilience rating by 14/27/40% of your Spirit, up from 10/20/30%.

• Aura Mastery now also grants 50% duration reduction to Fear, Incapacitate, Polymorph and Disorient effects on the caster while active.

• Unyielding Faith no longer reduces the duration of Polymorph and Disorient effects, but now gives 1/2/3% Holy critical strike chance.

• Cyclone now counts as a Disorient effect. Its mechanics have not changed - it still makes the target immune to damage and healing. This change means that its duration is affected by modifiers to Disorient effects.

• Evasion now also reduces the duration of Disorient effects by 50% while active.

• Blood Horror has had its range increased to 15 yards.

• Moonfury now has a Capstone bonus: If your Insect Swarm or Moonfire are dispelled, your next Moonfire cast within 5 seconds apply both Insect Swarm and Moonfire (if known).

• Desperate Prayer now also removes all healing reduction effects when used.

• Molten Core now gives you a 50/100% chance to gain one stack of Molten Core when your Corruption is dispelled.

• The periodic damage of Conflagrate can now critically strike without requiring the Improved Immolate talent capstone.

• The capstone on Improved Immolate has a new effect: If your Immolate is dispelled, your next Immolate cast will be protected from Interrupt and Silence effects and has its cast time reduced by 50%.

• Fear Ward now has two charges with a 20 second recharge timer. Its duration has been reduced to 3 seconds, but it now protects against both Fear and Horror effects. This should make this spell a more versatile and powerful anti-CC tool, provided that you time it correctly.

• Hasty Fear Ward has been removed.

• Into Darkness no longer breaks fear effects. Instead it places an absorb shield on you that absorbs all periodic damage taken while the stealth effect holds.

• Disarm now lasts for 6 seconds, down from 7.

• Mass Entanglement no longer benefits from Inescapable Roots, since that interaction was too powerful and offered too little counter-play. Instead, Mass Entanglement now applies a 30% Snare for 3 seconds after the root breaks. This effect is baseline.

• Ward of Light now reduces damage taken from Periodic magic damage effects by 10% for 5s instead of dispelling a magic effect.

• Grappling Hook can now be recast at your target to pull you toward them. This also roots the target for 1 second.

• The Daze effect from Blade Twisting now also triggers from Grappling Hook's recast effect.

• It now has a 40 sec cooldown, changed from 30.

• The 30% increased movement speed after using Disengage in the Survival Tactics talents has been moved and merged into the Survivalist capstone

• Feign Death has been added to Survivalist capstone, making it give 30% movement speed for 3 seconds after used

• The Daze effect from Brambles now slows by 50% slow and lasts for 6 seconds. It no longer triggers from Treant attacks. These changes are intended to make it a meaningful part you can choose to incorporate into your kit. (silence is now in capstone for more clear tooltip)

• Mass Dispel will now prioritize targets that have magic debuffs over targets that don’t. This means that Mass DIspelling an entire 25-player raid where 10 people have Magic debuffs will dispel those 10 people, instead of randomly choosing 10 players and dispelling them if they happen to have a magic debuff.
• Mass Dispel can now dispel Cyclone.

• Focused Power now reduces the cast time of Mass Dispel by 0.3/0.6 seconds (down from 0.5/1s).

• Cold Blood has been updated: In addition to increasing critical strike chance and damage, Cold Blood now also increases the range of your next Rogue ability, making it usable from 10 yards.

• Seal Fate Capstone: With the final rank of this talent, consuming Cold Blood with a finishing move has a 20% chance per combo point to increase your movement speed by 70% for 4s.

• Fixed a bug causing Cold Blood not to work properly with the instant damage of Crimson Tempest or Dispatch.

• Sundering now Incapacitates for 3 seconds, up from 2.5. In addition, it now also resets the cooldown of your Lava Burst. Its cooldown is changed to 35 sec, from 45.

• Enhanced Weapon Mastery now reduces its cooldown by 4/7/10 sec, changed from 5/10/15.

• The Incapacitate effect from Sundering no longer breaks from Flame Shock periodic damage.

• You now need the Stormhammer buff active (which is triggered by Thunder Clap or Hammer of the Righteous) for Concussion Blow (Stormhammer) to grant you to Stormshield.

• Nature’s Grasp now lasts for 3 seconds and roots the enemy for 5 seconds. It now only has a 20 second cooldown. It can now also trigger versus spells and ranged attacks up to a maximum of 15 yards. Now also works with Providing for Nature

• Wind Shear now has a 22 second cooldown (down from 25).

• Wind Rush now reduces the cooldown of Wind Shear by 2/4/6 seconds, down from 3/6/9.

• The Wind Rush Capstone gives you 15% haste for 3 seconds after successfully interrupting a spell with Wind Shear.

• Pain suppression now only offers 35% Damage reduction (down from 40%) and the dispel protection only works on itself.

• Pain suppression now has a 2.5 Minute cooldown (down from 3) 

• Shadow and Flame now also reduces the cooldown of Burning Rush by 10/20/30 sec.

• Devastation Capstone now also increases the duration of Burning Rush by 2 sec.

• Hypnosis now costs 2 epic gem, changed from 3. 8s duration, 20s cooldown. 1.5 second cast time. Inc dmg taken to 10%, from 5.

• Hypnosis is now castable while moving and has a 20 yard range. 

• Providing for Nature also makes Natures Grace proc from Hypnosis and Nature’s Grasp.

• Seals of the Pure and Judgements of the Pure now also increases the damage of Execution Sentence.

• Increased the damage of Execution Sentence by 25%.

• Fiery Payback has been reworked. It now increases your damage done by 3/6% while below 35% health. The Capstone now reads: While below 35% health, your Fire spells have a chance to reduce the damage the target does by 15% for 3 seconds. This effect can only occur once every 10 seconds and only works against players.

• Natural Perfection has been reworked. It now reads: Being critically struck by a spell or ability has a chance to reduce the damage you take from the next 3 attacks by 10% [5s dur]. This effect can only occur every 30 seconds. 

• The periodic damage of Serpent Sting can now critically strike without requiring the Improved Stings talent capstone.

• The capstone on Improved Stings has a new effect: If your Serpent Sting is dispelled, the target is afflicted by Serpent’s Kiss for 3 seconds. Casting Chimera Shot on a target afflicted by your Serpent’s Kiss deals bonus Nature damage and applies Serpent Sting.

• The Languish epic enchant now has an additional effect. If your Curse of Exhaustion is dispelled, the dispelled target is slowed by 80% for 1.5 seconds.

• Charge now has 2 charges instead of the current recast mechanic.

• Bloodsurge now also triggers from Intercept.

• Unending Fury now also increases the duration of the stun effect of Intercept by 0.33/0.66/1 second.

• The cooldown of Siegebreaker is now reset by Heroic Fury instead of being reset by Blood Bath.

• To curb the extreme power these spells could give to non-healers in certain scenarios, Cleanse Spirit, Abolish Disease, Abolish Poison and Abolish Curse now all have a 10 second cooldown. This cooldown is removed if your Primary Stat is Spirit.
  
   
• Abolish Disease, Abolish Poison and Abolish Curse now last for 3 seconds when used in arenas unless your Primary Stat is Spirit.

• Improved Berserker Rage has been renamed to Raging Berserker. It now has an updated Capstone effect: Using Berserker Rage or Heroic Fury generates 50 rage and reduces the duration of any active Disarm effect by 50%. If used while below half health, your melee abilities are empowered for 5 seconds, causing them to drain life from your enemies.

• Vanilla PvP Weapons now have normalized weapon speeds, as their TBC counterparts already do.

And with all of these PvP changes, you’ll need some new epic arenas to compete for glory.

New Arena Maps

New Arena Maps let you take the battle to different locations across Azeroth and beyond. These maps not only offer a nice change of scenery, but also new obstacles to play around, new terrain to challenge, and new opportunities to let your build shine. They’re coming to both realms with the release of chapter 3, so look forward to seeing them while playing Arenas as you continue your climb to the top!

Ashamane's Fall

10,000 years ago during the War of the Ancients, the mighty Wild God Ashamane fought relentlessly against a mighty demon known as Ronokon. Ashamane was able to defeat Ronokon, but in his death, a magnificent amount of fel energy exploded from his body that killed Ashamane and altered the landscape forever. Her sacrifice saved countless lives, and to honor her, a great shrine was built in Val'sharah at the site of her demise.

Tol’viron

A savage arena in the desert heart of Uldum, scavengers and scoundrels alike challenge each other in combat here.

Black Rook Hold

Black Rook Hold was carved out of the mountain to be an unassailable fortress. This elven structure served as a bulwark against the Legion during the War of the Ancients, until a shadow fell upon it.

High-Risk Overhaul #369

No release is finished without a complete High-Risk Overhaul. 

1. HR Materials drop rate is no longer tied to the event being active.

• Increased material drop rates across all high-risk material areas.
• Herb and Meat drops have been further increased to ensure availability of consumables on the auction house and increased materials for those farming their own.

2. Green HR materials will not drop on death, and will now stack to 200.

• This guarantees potential for profit even if you get ganked.
• You can still loot Blue and Epic materials from slain players.

3. High-Risk Events now enable bonus loot drops.

• Bonus Loot is shared party loot, meaning you and everyone in your party can loot the item! (Does not work in raids)
• Bonus Loot stacks to 200.
• Bonus Loot is no longer tied to [For the Alliance] or [For the Horde] and is now available to all players, including Mercenaries.
• Encourages farming with your guild and friends.
• You can still loot the normal materials and other loot that will be dropping from slain players.
• This is designed to balance the risk of broadcasting your location with the reward of guaranteed profit. Events attract the most dangerous PvPers to your location, but now you are guaranteed to spawn with spoils, even if you drop some of those spoils if you fail to fend off or flee from attackers.

4. All High-Risk tier zones can drop Twisted and Void materials now.

• This allows you to play the way you want and farm the enchants and consumables you need most with a level of risk you find acceptable.
• Ensures that the greatest rewards still require the greatest risk
• Allows anyone to dip their toes into High-Risk without losing equipped gear or felcom gold they cannot afford to lose, while still acquiring the materials needed to turn a profit or craft their needed items.
• T1 Terokkar, Nagrand and Zangarmarsh 
  • High chance to drop Twisted materials
  • Lower chance to drop Void materials
• T2 Shadowmoon and Blade’s Edge 
  • Increased chance to drop Rare and Epic Twisted materials
  • Moderate chance to drop Void materials
• T3 Netherstorm
  • High chance to drop Void materials
  • Lower chance to drop Twisted materials
  • When Twisted materials do drop, their chance to be Epic quality is greatly increased.

5. Call Board Caches can now drop Rare and Epic High-Risk Recipes. This will ensure greater availability of crafters capable of creating the most in-demand enchants and consumables.

6. PvP Power now grants increased damage against creatures and reduced damage taken from creatures in the High-Risk Open World. 

• This bonus is equal to the bonus received from PvE power. 
• Previously players had to pick between PvP Power and the ability to defend themselves while farming or PvE Power and the ability to farm quicker.
• You can still farm as effectively in PvE gear as before. This enables the option of using PvP power to both farm and PvP effectively, instead of being forced to pick one or the other.

7. Heroic Bloodforged events can now drop Heroic Bloodforged gear from previous tiers without an event scroll active. 

• Event Scrolls will still be required to obtain the most recent Heroic Bloodforged tier gear. 
• This means when Serpentshrine Cavern is released previous tiers like Karazhan will drop Heroic Bloodforged from the Event Areas even without a scroll active.
• Allows for farming Heroic Bloodforged gear even after the realm has progressed past a tier.

8. Crafting High-Risk Consumables and Item Enchants have had their material costs improved to ensure availability and reasonable prices and farming time to acquire these enchants and consumables.

• Cobra Strike Gambeson now requires 1 Cobra Scale from 10.
• Mastercraft Cobra Strike Gambeson now requires 2 Cobra Scale from 20.
• Fel Strike Gambeson now requires 1 Fel Hide from 10.
• Mastercraft Fel Strike Gambeson now requires 2 Fel Hide from 20.
• Wind Gambeson now requires 2 Wind Scales from 10.
• Mastercraft Wind Gambeson requires 4 Wind Scales from 20.
• True Strike Gambeson now requires Heavy Knothide Leather.
• Mastercraft True Strike Gambeson now requires Heavy Knothide Leather.
• Clefthoof Gambeson now requires 5 Thick Clefthoof Leather from 10.
• Mastercraft Clefthoof Gambeson 10 Thick Clefthoof Leather from 20.
• Subtle Gambeson now requires 5 Nether Dragonscales from 10.
• Mastercraft Subtle Gambeson now requires 10 Nether Dragonscales from 20.
• Removed all Rare uncut gems from HR Jewel Crafting Pendants. Recipes will now require 5x2 Uncommon Gems for Rare Crafts and 10x2 Uncommon Gems for Epic Crafts. This should add value to green gems and make blue gems more affordable.
• Impure Flask of the Warsong now requires 2 Nightmare Vine from 5.
• Pure Flask of the Warsong now requires 4 Nightmare Vine from 10.
• Impure Flask of Butchery now requires 2 Netherbloom from 5.
• Pure Flask of Butchery now requires 4 Netherbloom from 10.
• Impure Flask of the Unyielding now requires 5 Terocone from 10.
• Pure Flask of the Unyielding now requires 10 Terocone from 20.
• Impure Flask of Unrelenting Power now requires 5 Mana Thistle from 10.
• Pure Flask of Unrelenting Power now requires 10 Mana Thistle from 20.
• Impure Flask of the Executioner now requires 5 Mana Thistle from 10.
• Pure Flask of the Executioner now requires 10 Mana Thistle from 20.
• Previously, High-Risk Rare and Epic cooking recipes both required 10 common quality meat. Now Rare High-Risk cooking recipes will require 5 common quality meat.
• Cooking recipes that require Serpent Flesh have been reduced to 2 for Rare and 4 for Epic, from 10 each.
• Cooking recipes that require Raptor Ribs have been reduced to 2 for Rare and 4 for Epic, from 10 each.
• Cooking recipes that require Warped Flesh have been reduced to 3 for Rare and 6 for Epic, from 10 each.

Miscellaneous

Action Camera

The Action Camera shakes up the way you enjoy your adventures in Azeroth and beyond! This brand new camera angle is an optional toggle that you can switch on and off in your interface Though a simple change, it adds a whole new fresh style of immersion to your adventure. Your next journey might just be a completely new experience. Ascension will continue to find new ways to shake things up as we move into Outland and beyond.

Recovery Services

The new recovery service UI makes recovering deleted items, characters, disenchanted gear, vendored equipment, and everything else like that easy and simple to reverse. No more waiting for a ticket response before you can jump back into the action: just head to Ameer, reverse what you did, and get back to your adventure. This super straightforward UI is just one more way that Ascension puts the tools to curate your experience in your hands, meaning no matter what happens, it’s less waiting and more fun.

You can find Ameer Greatluck in all major cities, standing with the other ethereals who call these places their home. Simply speak to him to open the recovery UI menu. 
 

Seasonal Collection Updates

To round off the Chapter 3 Overview, new vanity and cosmetic items make their way to the Seasonal Collection, expanding on rewards you can collect while exploring the Outlands! Here’s a few teasers on what’s to come: 

Three total variants of Fel Tattoos are available within the Milestone rewards, and for Seasonal Points!

Show off your faction pride with the Stormwind & Orgrimmar Allegiance Armor sets. Additionally, you’ll also be able to pick up a shield, weapon, and tabard to match the sets! This is just a taste of what’s coming with Chapter 3, so look forward to these and many more new cosmetics once Thrall hits TBC.