League 4 Week 1 Updates

Heroes!

League 4 has surpassed all prior releases to become the biggest release in Ascension history. Tens of thousands of Heroes are playing, and over the past week HUNDREDS of updates rolled out to fix issues and improve the game. There are way too many updates to cover here, so if you’re interested in specifics, head over to the Ascension Changelog to see the full list of changes:

https://ascension.gg/changelog/1

https://ascension.gg/news/league-4-complete-overview/410

But if you’re interested in a more general overview, here’s a summary:

Miscellaneous Improvements

• Build Draft Improvements
  • Improved dozens of Build Draft Builds to make them feel better to play
    • Hand-tweaked the abilities, talents, and Mystic Enchantments of many builds to improve their flow, pacing, mana, and power
    • Added Rare Mystic Enchants to many Build Drafts where Legendary and Epic enchants did not unlock until higher level spells became available to give more power during early levels.
  • Reaching level 60 for the first time with ANY Build Draft build (including from the Hero Architect) will now reward a Build Draft Trophy.
    • Rather than just from Build Draft
  • Cleaned up text for many Build Draft and Featured Builds to improve clarity
  • You will now see the level you gain Mystic Enchantments when looking at Build Draft builds
  • Added a scale to show how complex Build Draft builds are to play at a glance

• Heirloom Updates
  • Heirlooms can now be purchased, and upgraded for Marks of Ascension at Nozdormu

• Original 9 Class Improvements
  • Fixed issues regarding the original 9 classes failing to learn specific spells and abilities
  • Fixed issues where the original 9 classes could not use Ascension cosmetics such as Incarnations
  • Added NEW Epic RE’s for all Original 9 Class Glyphs
  • Continuing to monitor the power of the OG Classes in various parts of Ascension

• Improved Scourge & Legion Invasions
  • Fixed various issues that could cause Invasions to get stuck
  • Cleaned up Invasion mechanics that were unclear/causing issues
    • i.e. bosses spawning so many ads that the server lagged
    • Gargoyles continuously lifting you up into the air and dropping you
  • Invasions now scale 1-60, rather than 1-59 OR 60. 
    • Opening up all invasions for level 60s.
    • Loot for low level invasions will still be a 1-59 cache, as these invasions are easier. 
    • You still get argent dawn commendations
  • Invasions now give a 3 minute warning before spawning
    • Helpful heads up for Hardcore players to escape while they can!
    • Let’s everyone head to the location so it doesn’t end by the time you get there!
  • Reworked AI of bosses and creatures based on feedback
    • Looking at you gargoyles!

• Hardcore Trial Improvements
  • Individual Challenges now reward Marks of Ascension
    • Corresponding with the difficulty of the challenge
  • Cleaned up text to make Hardcore Trials clear
  • Added difficulty ratings to Hardcore Trials so you know how hard they are
  • Hardcore Players are now teleported to a safe zone after a server restart or crash to prevent uncanny deaths.
    • This was further tweaked to not teleport hardcore players already in safe zones.

• Buffed Battleground Experience
  • Battleground Experience has been increased by 25% from where it began on the league
  • Battleground Experience buff from Potions of Experience has been increased from 3% per stack to 5%.

• Improved Woodcutting
  • Various improvements make woodcutting woodier than ever
  • Orgrimmar and Stormwind Guards will now give directions to Sawmills for the Wood Cutting
  • Fixed various tree spawn locations
  • Fixed various loot nodes

• Arena Buffs
  • You now gain 100% more Arena Points from playing in the Arena
    • To better match the pacing of the League
  • Heroes now take 10% less damage in the Arena

• Misc Improvements
  • Improved the clarity of many menus, UIs, Trials, Tooltips,  and event text so that Heroes better understand what’s going on
  • Weighted PvE/PvP power more towards weapons
  • Fixed an issue where buildmaster deck expansions caused heroes to see roles they didn’t select
  • Hardcore Heroes can now only receive invites from other hardcore players
  • Fixed TONS of just weird, random issues that were plaguing players. See the Changelog.
  • Fixed profession experience to feel better when crafting during Hardcore Trials

• Quality of Life
  • Orgrimmar and Stormwind Guards will now give directions to Build Draft and Trial Vendors
  • Preserved hotbars when swapping Build Draft Specs
  • Players now automatically enter PvE mode when they hit 15, and can switch into PvP any time
• Stability
  • Fixed several crashes and have increased server uptime substantially. Yesterday, realm was up for 16 hours without issues, this work will continue as needed.

Mystic Enchantment Updates

Below are just a FEW of the recent Mystic Enchantment improvements made over the past week.

[Circle of Life] - New Legendary Enchantment - Transforms Halo into Halo (Circle of Life) an empowered version of Halo that has a reduced cooldown based on spell usage, also increases the power of circle of healing.

[Edge of Fury] - New Legendary Enchantment - Increases your max Rage to 500, and Backstab now grants you 100 Rage. Your Revenge is transformed into Blind Revenge. and becomes usable after using Backstab. Spiteful Strike is a finishing move that deals damage to all enemies in front of you, and grants you a stack of Edge of Fury. Heroic Strike is transformed into Spiteful Strike and deals instant damage to the enemy and grants Edge of Fury, costs 500 rage and if cast when Edge of Fury is fully stacked it will trigger a short Killing Spree(if known). Edge of Fury increases the damage of your next Killing Spree by 20%, and stacks up to 5 times.

[Wind Rager] Now has a Hurricane spell transformation called Hurricane Strike, Hurricane Strike can be used with charges you gain from dealing any physical hit damage. These stacks/charges last indefinitely in fight, but are removed upon leaving combat. Hurricane Strike has a 0.9 SP and AP coefficient. Wind Strike can now proc Rising Winds, Hurricane Strike can also proc Rising Winds. Rampant Tornado now requires 12 stacks to proc instead of 15, and it now deals Physical damage instead of Nature damage.

Hasty Stormstrike and Empowered Stormstrike are no longer half as effective. 

Wind Strike has had its scaling reduced from 0.54 AP and SP to 0.44 AP and SP.

[Curse of Arugal] - + Reduced the scaling of Arugal's Gift from 0.1 SP and AP to 0.08 SP and AP.  Reduced the Shadow damage increase on Goldrinn's Fury from 20 to 10%.

[Snowblind] Increased damage and scaling of Ice Prism and Ice Prism Shatter by 30%.

[Cauterizing Flames] Cauterizing Fire has had it's base heal increased by 12% at all ranks to account for the loss of Spell Impact RE's and Talents.

[Cobra Strikes] - The talent can now also be procced with Frenzy Shot.

Strength now gives 1 Ranged Attack Power, in addition to its other functions. 

[Perforating Shots] - Is a newly added talent, it only functions when Strength allocated and provides 10/20% Armor Penetration on targets affected by Piercing Shots.

[Expunge] - Mongoose Bite can now add stacks to a target already affected by Cobra Venom.

[Holy Ascension] - Can now only empower Exorcism and Holy Shock. Empowering one spell removes the other one if you hit a player with it. The AOE damage portion from Exorcism now gives you a buff that increases the damage of your Holy Fire and Smite for each target struck, lasting for 5 seconds and can have up to 5 stacks. Additionally after consuming either of the Empowerments your next Surge of Light can critically strike, and Smite will deal 30% more damage when ffected by it.

[Burning Darkness] Burning Darkness was slightly reworked, now it reads: Increases the duration of your Shadowflame ability by 6 seconds and Pyroclasm by 5 seconds. While Pyroclasm is active your Shadow Bolt deals 20% increased damage. In addition, your critical hits from Corruption and Unstable Affliction generate a stack of Shadow Born and Flame Born. 

[Exorcist's Slash] - Transforms your Heroic Strike into Exorcist's Slash. Exorcist's Slash deals 260% weapon damage(reduced damage against players) and reduces the cooldown of your Crusader Strike, Divine Storm or Judgement. This ability requires Art ofWar to be used and scales with modifiers to Exorcism. It can trigger Sanctity of Battle and Righteous Vengeance.

[Bloodmage's Beast Shot] - Duration has been increased from 9 > 12 seconds.

[Blood for the Blood God] - Fixed a bug where you would gain double stacks upon the first finishing move that gives you Bathe of Blood.

[Eldritch Knight] Fixed an issue where the damage on Eldritch Explosion was too low, and as a result generated very little threat.