Ascension Changelog

[Pending Restart] [Druid] [Epic: Shifting Bark] This has been slightly reworked. It now increases the damage reduction granted by Barkskin by an additional 10% and makes Barkskin reduce the duration of Interrupt and Silence effects by 50% while active.

[Pending Restart] [Hunter] [Master's Call] Cooldown reduced to 45 seconds (from 60) and range increased to 30 yards (from 25).

[Pending restart] [Warlock] The damage of Shadow Crash has been reduced by 8% in PvP combat.

[Pending restart] [Rogue] The damage of Ambush has been reduced by 8% in PvP combat.

[Pending restart] [Priest] The healing of Penance has been reduced by 10% in PvP combat.

[Pending restart] [Shaman] The damage of Windfury has been reduced by 5% in PvP combat.

[Pending restart] [Shaman] The damage of Lava Burst has been reduced by 8% in PvP combat.

Winter's Veil has been enabled and will begin on the 15th, various changes have been made so the holiday can work cleanly in a Classic world and so the Merrymaker achievement can be obtained.

Holidays:

The "Caretaker's Key" used in the quest "The Caretaker's Behest" can now only be used in its intended location.

Tidepriestess Aquila now properly respawns for the quest "The Shattered Strand Commander".

Darai Moonbough is now found both in town and in Hive'Zora at the same time, fixing issues where she would sometimes not move on the correct day, this will be properly fixed in the future when the underlying issue is resolved.

The eggs required for the quest "Egg Smash!" now spawn every day, fixing an issue where they would sometimes not spawn on the correct day.

The objects required for the quest "Recover the Lost" now spawn every day, fixing an issue where they would sometimes not spawn on the correct day.

Fixed an issue where the Glowing Seed provided by "Striking at the Heart" gave credit for "Starve Them!" instead.

Paladin Dungeon Set boots now properly unlock on Mokvar's vendor list after completion of "Anthion's Parting Words".

Fixed an issue where the quest "Staying Frosty" did not allow you to loot Frost Crystals.

Quests:

The following items now have 1% Alacrity: Chief Architect's Monocle, Dustfeather Sash, Starfire Tiara, Crimson Felt Hat, and Girdle of Insight. More existing items may be adjusted with this stat in the future, with care to not ruin an item players are likely currently using.

*Developer's note: As people get more geared spells become cheaper by proxy of your stats increasing, allowing players to cast spells more frequently as they get more gear allows mana to continue to be an important resource in the long-term. The reason why the stat is not named Spell Haste is because it is unique in its interactions with periodic effects such as Shadow Word: Pain, so to avoid confusion this stat was given a new name. As for why effects such as Bloodlust or Power Infusion does not affect periodic effects, this is due to the fact that these specs weren't tuned around being able to have such large snapshottable buffs like that, and tuning them around that niche could negatively affect their general performance.*

A new stat can be seen in the Spell section of the character panel named "Alacrity". This stat functions similarly to Spell Haste from later expansions, however it also affects damage over time and healing over time effects. Damage over time and healing over time effects are still not affected by spell casting speed increasing effects such as Bloodlust.

Stats:

Millhouse Manastorm can no longer be accidentally killed if you deal too much damage.

Bosses:

Leatherworking soulbound armor kits are now applies to Legs instead of Bracers, and they are now permanent enchantments. We have plans for addressing how this will work with Arcanums and ZG style enchants in the future.

Fixed an issue where Crimson Felt Hat had significantly too few stats.

Libram of Liberation is now properly considered a Libram and can be equipped by Paladins.

Skullbore's chance on hit has been reduced from 2 Procs Per Minute to 0.7, its duration has been reduced from 60 seconds to 35 seconds, additionally fixed an issue that allowed the spell to stack, but it has been partially retained and can stack up to 2 times.

Verdant Benediction's proc chance has been reduced from 75% to 20%.

Stormhowler's range has been reduced from 30 yards to 10 yards, it can no longer proc effects, and it now only benefits from 50% of spell damage.

Items:

Bless Water now blesses 5 waters at a time.

Pious Robe (Dungeon Set 2) has had its stats adjusted, you will find that it has a new stat described further below named Alacrity.

Circle of Healing has been reduced by 5%.

Shadow Power (talent) now also increases the critical strike chance of Psionic Overload's effect.

Shadow has received a new 2 point talent left of Shadowform named Psionic Overload. This talent activates from generating mana through Vampiric Touch and after you surpass a value based on your spell damage and spirit your next Mind Flay will also launch 3 bolts of shadow damage.

Priest:

Elemental Shields now also gives the Shaman a 5%/10%/15% chance on receiving damage to gain the Focused Casting effect for 6 seconds, which prevents spell pushback.

Fire Elemental Totem now also provides the Totem of Wrath effect if you have Totem of Wrath learned.

Elemental Mastery now also restores mana equal to the original cost of the spell that you use with it.

Elemental Overload damage is now treated as if it isn't a proc, allowing it to proc spells such as Judgement of Wisdom.

Elemental Devastation now increases your critical strike by 2%/4%/6%, down from 3%/6%/9%.

Primal Wielding reduces the damage dealt by Lightning Bolt and Molten Blast by an additional 15%.

Shamanistic Rage's aura tooltip now reflects the current version of the spell.

Shamanistic Focus now has a 6 second internal cooldown.

Shaman:

*Developer's note: Fire Mage changes are planned, but due to the immunities of Season 1 these changes are not a high priority and will be applied in the hopefully near future.*

Damage dealt by Rank 1-6 Arcane Blast has been decreased and mana cost has been increased by varied amounts, Rank 7 is unaffected.

Mage:

Fixed an issue where Overgrowth did not share a cooldown between its ranks.

*Developer's note: The intention with these changes is to give Balance druids more of a rotation without following in the footsteps of Eclipse like in later expansions. Whether you choose to deal Nature damage or Arcane damage depends on your stats, set bonuses, and the fight you are in.*

Force of Nature's treants now take 20% reduced damage, 70% reduced Area of Effect damage, and while any treant is alive the Druid gains 10% increased intellect.

Moonkin Form now also reduces your threat generation by 20%.

Moonglow now also affects Enervate.

The following talents were updated to include Enervate and Zenith: Focused Starlight, Vengeance, Nature's Reach, Celestial Focus, Nature's Grace, and Moonfury.

Balance has received a new talent next to Nature's Grace named Zenith. Zenith deals a little more damage than a Starfire to the target and half of that damage to all targets around the enemy, it has a 2.5 second cast time. Zenith can only be casted after 3 casts of Starfire.

Druids have received a new ability trained at level 32 named Enervate. Enervate deals a little more damage than a Wrath to the target and reduces their spirit based mana regeneration by 15% for 12 seconds, it has a 2 second cast time. Enervate can only be casted after 3 casts of Wrath.

Druid:

Soulforge Armor's 8 set bonus effect now triggers off of Verdict instead of Crusader Strike.

Improved Seal of the Crusader is now named Improved Crusader Strike and received a new icon, it is otherwise unchanged.

Sanctified Seals now also affects Crusader Strike.

Retribution has received a new capstone talent, Verdict. This deals instant weapon damage as Holy and empowers your next Holy spell or ability with a duration of less than 20 seconds by 25%, this has a short cooldown.

Sanctified Judgement now also gives Crusader Strike a 33%/66%/100% chance to refresh all Judgements on the target.

Crusader Strike is no longer a talent and is instead trained at level 6, replacing Seal of the Crusader. It no longer refreshes judgements, but it causes the target to take additional holy damage with values identical to the removed Judgement of the Crusader.

Seal of the Crusader has been removed.

Paladin:

Beastmaster's Boots (Dungeon Set 2) now also increases pet damage by 3%.

Beastmaster Armor (Dungeon Set 2) has had its 6 set and 8 set bonuses changed. The 6 set bonus now increases the level contribution of Aspect of the Viper by 20%. The 8 set bonus now causes Steady Shot to increase the damage of your next Serpent Sting by 3%, stacking up to 10 times.

Hunter:

Improved Expose Armor and Poisoned Knife have swapped locations in the Assassination talent tree.

Deadly Poison's tooltip now reflects the damage it deals with your current Attack Power.

Envenom now deals set damage based on Attack Power instead of being based off your Deadly Poison damage.

Master Poisoner now gives a 50%/100% chance to cause Envenom to not consume Deadly Poison.

Rogue:

Shield Slam now also generates a small amount of threat based on shield block value to all enemies in a short radius around you.

Updated the tooltip of Devastate to make it clear that Expose Armor is treated the same as a 5 stack of Sunder Armor.

Fixed an issue that caused Sunder Armor to be able to stack with Expose Armor.

Warriors can now train a new ability at level 1 named Strike, this is an instant cast basic attack to smooth out low level gameplay, it shares a cooldown with Bloodthirst, Mortal Strike, and Shield Slam.

Fury has received a new capstone talent named Single-Minded Fury. This passive increases your movement speed by 10% and causes your attacks to increase your attack speed by 2%, stacking up to 10 times, the stacks reset if you change targets. This effect is only active while dual wielding.

Rampage (fury capstone talent) has been removed.

Warrior:

*Developer's note: The overall hope with these changes is to keep each specialization feeling distinct and different while also making some tuning adjustments to a class that was overperforming, especially with soon to be had raid gear.*

Increased the flat bonus damage dealt by Felguard Cleave by 50%.

Fixed an issue where the talents Ruin and Devastation did not benefit Rain of Fire as intended.

Seed of Corruption's explosion can no longer critically hit, this is to bring it more in-line with other Affliction abilities while also bringing its damage closer to other forms of Warlock AoE.

Siphon Life now deals additional damage equal to the amount that it drains, meaning its damage is doubled but the healing to the warlock is unchanged.

*Developer's note: Soul Siphon was changed so that you can no longer get the full benefits of the talent by having 3 warlocks cast a Curse, Bane, and Corruption, instead you will need an Affliction warlock fighting the target to reach the full buff percentage.*

Soul Siphon now only counts each unique Affliction effect on the target. For example, two warlocks both applying Corruption will only count as 1 Corruption.

Contagion's damage increase to Corruption, Bane of Agony, and Seed of Corruption has been increased from 1/2/3/4/5% to 2/4/6/8/10%, and it now affects Siphon Life and Bane of Doom.

Damage dealt by Seed of Corruption reduced by 5%.

*Developer's note: A Warlock meta arose involving using Drain Soul as the main filler as a deep Demonology build using Felguard. This shows that Drain Soul was too powerful and replaced Shadow Bolt entirely. Drain Soul is meant to be the main filler spell for Affliction, while serving as an execute type ability for Demonology and possibly Destruction depending on various factors such as talents or stats. These changes should bring Shadow Bolt back into use while allowing Drain Soul to continue to be a powerful ability especially against low health targets.*

Improved Drain Soul has had its damage increase reduced from 12%/24% to 6%/12%.

Drain Soul's spell scaling coefficient reduced by 50% to match the new tick speed.

*Developer's note: For those that don't know, Dark Pact scales very heavily with spell damage on Epoch. Affliction has a much stronger mana sustain than the other specializations, yet they also used less mana in their rotation previously.*

Drain Soul's mana cost has been increased by 32% at rank 4, lower ranks are affected by varying amounts.

Drain Soul base damage reduced by ~33%.

Drain Soul now ticks every 1 second, down from every 2 seconds.

Warlock:

[Pending Restart] - Fixed a bug where all pets and guardians were not inheriting spell penetration (Wild Imps, Imps, Felhunter) from the owner.

Fixed a bug where the Deceiving Refractor (When Active) could cause Ardent Defender to not trigger.