A Bounty of MASSIVE November Updates #2

A Bounty of MASSIVE November Updates #2

Adventurers, 

Pilgrim’s Bounty brings the citizens of Azeroth together in a time of harmony, food, and turkeys. Let the following updates heat up your oven:

Updates for ALL Realms:

• Pilgrim’s Bounty Begins!
• Massive Black Friday x4 DP Event until December 1st
• Continue enriching the Open World

Updates for Warcraft Reborn:

• Mythic 0 Dungeons Release
  • Including Vault of the Inquisition and Road to the Other Side
• Balance Changes
• Worldforged Item Refunding for Balance Changes

Pilgrim’s Bounty

Pilgrim's Bounty is a festival of food and sharing (and the sharing of food) which can be celebrated outside of each of the major cities. There, you’ll find feasting tables full of wonderful seasonal cuisine which you can help yourself to. You can also grab the Spirit of Sharing buff to get an extra 10% reputation and experience–perfect for sharing the season. 

The main Pilgrim's Bounty festivities take place at bountiful tables which can be found throughout many zones in Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms. Various seasonal vendors and quest givers surround the major cities' tables, offering special cooking ingredients and related daily quests.

At any festival site you’ll find tables stocked with food. In major cities, these tables sit amid vendors, cooking trainers, and quest NPCs. You can take a seat at any table, including those placed inside the opposing faction’s settlements: in fact, doing so even counts toward an achievement.

Each bountiful table is built around five labeled chairs, one for each dish served there. Sitting in a chair grants access to that food’s actions, replacing your normal bar with a set of vehicle-style abilities. The five seats correspond to cranberries, pie, sweet potatoes, stuffing, and turkey.

Every chair provides options to either eat or pass its dish:

• Pass abilities: Pass the Cranberries, Pass the Pie, Pass the Sweet Potatoes, Pass the Stuffing, Pass the Turkey
  
   
• Single-serving abilities: A Serving of Cranberries, A Serving of Pie, A Serving of Stuffing, A Serving of Sweet Potatoes, A Serving of Turkey
  
   
• Multi-serving abilities (granting the feast effect): Feast on Cranberries, Feast on Pie, Feast on Stuffing, Feast on Sweet Potatoes, Feast on Turkey
  
   

These actions are used to consume five helpings of one food to gain its individual buff, to pass dishes for the Sharing is Caring requirement, and to fling food for the FOOD FIGHT! achievement.

Eating five portions of all five dishes at the table grants The Spirit of Sharing, a one-hour buff that increases reputation and experience gains by 10%. You can refresh it at any time by sampling all five foods again. With players passing dishes back and forth, collecting every buff takes only a moment.

You’ll also find both exclusive recipes and the exclusive ingredients required to make them only during the event. Stock up on Autumnal Herbs, Honey, Mulgore Sweet Potatoes, and more during the Bounty!

Finally, for adventurers who really want to dress the part, you can get the Pilgrim’s Attire cosmetic set only during the event!

There’s also tons of seasonal quests and achievements, so set off into Azeroth and spread seasonal cheer! 

Continuing to Enrich Azeroth’s Open World

There’s nothing better than expanding and getting bigger. Part of making the world better is to enrich it with big, sweeping changes like the RPG Creature Overhaul–but it’s important not to neglect the smaller, more immersive elements that make it fun to just look around the world.

With the release of Warcraft Reborn, Azeroth received new points of interest, places to explore, and things to see. The November update continues the spirit of that expansion, adding new buildings, enemies, and helpful NPCs to existing locations to further enrich Azeroth’s nostalgic world. You can expect to find new things added to existing locations like more fleshed out buildings or enemies, new NPCs with dialogue that might point you in the direction of a new Point of Interest or Worldforged Item, or even just funny guys saying funny things that hopefully make you crack a smile. Whether it’s big upgrades or small ones, every bit of polish no matter how small is part of Ascension’s commitment to making Azeroth the best it can be.

These additions will gradually be added to ALL LIVE REALMS throughout the month of November and December when they are polished and ready. Keep an eye out for new things in classic places.

Expanded Auberdine

The Thorium Brotherhood might actually stand a chance against those dragons now.

Camp Taurajo gets a little more reinforcement from Orgrimmar

x4 DP - Black Friday Cybermonday Event until December 1st

Claim your bounty with x4 DP until December 1st! Stock up on Bazaar Tokens, Convenience Items, new Transmog sets, Mounts, Pets, Khadgar’s floating head for some reason, Books of Ascension, and more. If Black Friday and Cyber Monday had a baby with your desire for a giant armored turkey mount and big dp, it would be this x4 DP Event. Pair it with Ascension’s daily item shop sales, and you’re well on your way to having a great pilgrim’s bounty.

And speaking of large birds, there’s one more bonus: With any DP donation of $100 or more, you’ll unlock the exclusive, limited-time [Prized Turkey Saddle].

• Extra Rare 4x DP until the 1st of December
• Exclusive Prized Turkey for donations over $100

Updates for Warcraft Reborn

Mythic 0 Dungeons

Storm into your favorite dungeons to challenge terrifying versions of your favorite classic bosses, earning Epic versions of your favorite gear: Mythic 0 Dungeons arrive on Warcraft Reborn!

Mythic 0 Dungeons are more difficult versions of your favorite classic instances. They are not yet available in the Dungeon Finder, so put a group together and set out for the portal the old fashioned way. Once inside, however, you’ll find the challenge is far from old fashioned: tougher enemies, new mechanics, and new rewards await you if you can overcome these dangerous dungeons!

• Mythic Dungeons will not be in LFG to start.
• Mythic Dungeons will start with a 1 day loot lockout
• They will arrive to LFG in a future progression update alongside the 1 day loot lockout being removed.

Mythic 0 Dungeons release at 18:00 Server Time on November 22nd.

All Vanilla Dungeons have a Mythic version, and each dungeon has level 60 versions of classic loot. Find empowered level 60 versions of  Smite’s Reaver or Robe of Doan, or even more powerful items like Ironfoe, Hand of Justice, or Baron Rivendare’s Runeblade. 

Additionally, Ascension’s NEW Dungeons–The Vault of the Inquisition and Road to the Other Side–are available as Mythic Dungeons. If you haven’t had a chance to try these new custom dungeons, now is your chance to find the treasure locked inside.

Class Balance Updates

November brings balance updates to each of the Original 9 Classes. This includes updates to the base class itself and to Mystic Enchantments. 

These changes are being applied to live realms over the next 24 hours.

Mage

Mage has seen consistent experimentation by players since Reborn’s launch. Frost remains the most popular PvP spec for both solo and small group play, though many adventurers are playing Fire in larger group fights like Crow’s Cache and World Boss PvP. Arcane has achieved some of the highest single-target DPS in raids, with Fire pulling equally impressive numbers. Frost has not found its niche in PvE yet, but with several enemies in Molten Core being vulnerable to Frost damage, that is likely to change.

Baseline

[Mage] [Ice Lance] Damage has been increased by approximately 10%.
[Mage] [Glyph of Fireball] This glyph no longer removes the damage-over-time effect of Fireball.
[Mage] [Fireball] Damage increased by 5%.

Legendary

[Mage] [Legendary: Arcane Mastery] Rather than reducing the mana cost of your Arcane spells by 4%, this now increases your Intellect by 8%.
[Mage] [Legendary: Frost Mastery] Now grants 5% increased Frost damage, up from 4%.
[Mage] [Legendary: Ice Barrage] Icicle damage increased by approximately 20%.
[Mage] [Legendary: Frost Bomb] Cooldown increased from 12 to 15 seconds. Damage increased by approximately 25%.

Epic

[Mage] [Epic: Frozen Haste] This now grants 8% haste for 5 seconds, changed from 6% haste for 8 seconds. The duration is increased by 3 seconds for each target hit, up from 1. The maximum duration is now 20 seconds, up from 12.
[Mage] [Epic: Icy Slaughter] The cooldown reduction granted to Icy Veins when killing an enemy no longer has an internal cooldown.
[Mage] [Epic: Brand of the Pyromaniac] In addition to making your next three Pyroblasts after using Combustion jump to 3 additional targets the secondary effect of this enchant has been tweaked. It now reads: Dealing direct damage with any Fire spell reduces the cooldown of Combustion and Cremation by 1.5 seconds.

Warlock

Warlock commands a dominating presence: Destruction is popular in both PvE and PvP, while Demonology produces some of the most AoE damage on Reborn. Affliction offers some of the most consistent sustained damage in the class, but hasn’t been as popular as the other specs. These balance changes temper their most excessive strengths to bring all three specializations into clearer balance, ensuring each has a defined purpose without overshadowing the others.

Base

[Warlock] [Chaos Bolt] now has 20% less base damage but 15% more scaling. This will be a slight (~4-8%) nerf to Chaos Bolt damage at current gear levels. This change fixes an imbalance with Chaos Bolt causing it to be too powerful at lower gear levels but to quickly drop off in later progression tiers. With these changes Chaos Bolt will stay roughly equally strong within the Destruction Warlock kit at all gear levels.

[Warlock] [Incinerate] The damage of Incinerate has been reduced by approximately 7% at level 60. The downscaled version of this spell was a little overtuned, which is part of the reason why Destruction Warlocks have been overperforming.

[Warlock] [Hand of Gul'dan] Hand of Gul'dan now grants you an aura marking the duration of your summons for easier tracking.

[Warlock] [Immolation Aura] The damage of Immolation Aura has been reduced by approximately 9%. This spell was significantly performing across many types of content.

[Warlock] [Unstable Affliction] Unstable Affliction no longer has a single target limitation. It can now be up on several targets simultaneously.

[Warlock] [Nightfall] This talent has been reworked so that the chance starts at 1/2% (from 2/4%) and then increases by 1/2% each time Corruption or Drain Life deal damage without triggering Nightfall, resetting when it occurs. In practice this will means that procs will be much more consistent and you won’t go for long windows without seeing any procs at all.

Legendaries

[Warlock] [Legendary: Bane of Havoc] The cooldown of this spell has been reduced to 35 seconds, down from 45.

[Warlock] [Legendary: Nether Portal] The demons summoned by this portal now last for 30 seconds, up from 15. In addition, the cooldown of this spell has been reduced to 90 seconds, down from 120.

[Warlock] [Legendary: Soul Erosion] This enchant no longer has an internal cooldown (was 8 seconds) and makes the empowered Drain Soul impervious to spell pushback. The enchant tooltip has also been clarified.

[Warlock] [Legendary: Soul Swap] Damage over time-effects applied with this enchant will now apply with their full duration (instead of inheriting the duration from the copied DoT).

Epics

[Warlock] [Epic: Decisive Decimation] This enchant now grants 30% cast speed reduction to Soul Fire, down from 40%.

[Warlock] [Epic: Dusk Till Dawn] Now increases the damage of Shadowburn by 10% per stack, up from 5%.

[Warlock] [Epic: Unstable Void] In addition to triggering Backdraft, this enchant now also makes Shadowfury and Shadow Crash trigger Backlash when dealing damage to monsters.

[Warlock] [Epic: Twilight Reaper] This enchant now also makes your Nightfall Shadowbolts heal you for 50% of the damage dealt.

[Warlock] [Epic: Pure Shadow] This enchant now triggers from casting any Shadow spell, instead of only triggering from Shadow Bolt and Shadowburn.

[Warlock] [Epic: Doomcaller’s Wrath] This enchant now also increases the damage of Curse of Doom by 30%. In addition it extends the duration of Eradication by 5 seconds, up from 4.

[Warlock] [Epic: Heretic of Guldan] Now also triggers from Soul Fire in addition to Incinerate.

Priest

Priest stands as one of the most versatile classes on Reborn, with Discipline rising to prominence over the past month due to its potent shields and Penance. This patch brings some adjustments to Discipline’s most dominant tools while strengthening weaker aspects in service of diversity across the priestly paths.

While Holy spec sees fewer devotees, its group-wide mending remains a potent force in both PvP and PvE. Meanwhile, Shadow’s various legendary enchants empower multiple distinct and potent niches.

Base

[Priest] Fixed an issue causing Penance to have the wrong damage and healing values. This fix will reduce the effectiveness of Penance by approximately 15%. 
[Priest] Inner Focus now has a 2 minute cooldown, down from 3 minutes.

Legendaries

[Priest] [Legendary: Void Eruption] Now also slows targets hit by 50% for 5 seconds.
[Priest] [Legendary: Armor of Faith] The AoE portion of the heal has been increased from 8 to 15 yard radius.
[Priest] [Legendary: Holy Radiance] The heal transfer from Heal and Greater heal to your Renew targets has been increased to 30%, up from 20%.
[Priest] [Legendary: Discipline Mastery] Also reduces the mana cost of Penance and Flash Heal in addition to Power Word: Shield.

Epics

[Priest] [Epic: Energizing Prayer] Now also refunds half the cooldown of Desperate Prayer if used while out of combat.
[Priest] [Epic: Spirited Penance] No longer increases the cooldown of Penance. Increases Penance channel time by 33% instead of 25% (meaning the extra bolt increases the channel time accordingly).

[Priest] [Epic: Good Fortune] Also allows you to gain a stack of Serendipity by casting Renew.
[Priest] [Epic: Power of Generosity] Now also reduces the cooldown of Power Infusion by 30%.
[Priest] [Epic: Overflowing Light] Buff tooltip has been slightly clarified.
[Priest] [Epic: Psychic Infusion] Also makes the Fear effect from Psychic Scream prevent affected targets from moving.
[Priest] [Epic: Vampiric Death] Now reduces the damage you take from your own Shadow Word: Death by 40%, up from 30%.
[Priest] [Epic: Prayer Circle] This has been reworked to: Casting Holy Fire halves the cast time of your next Prayer of Healing and makes it cost no mana.
[Priest] [Epic: Renewed Through Absolution] When Renew is consumed with this enchant, the duration of Weakened Soul on the target is reduced by 3 seconds. Also clarified the tooltip to show the target cap.
[Priest] [Epic: Divine Symmetry] This has been slightly reworked. The new tooltip reads: Dealing damage with Penance empowers your next healing Penance, and healing with Penance empowers your next damaging Penance. Empowered Penances are 30% more powerful and each hit reduces cooldown of Penance by 0.75 seconds.
[Priest] [Epic: Shattered Renewal] This now restores 7% base mana, down from 10%, and can only trigger once per second. This enchant was effectively reducing the mana cost of Power Word: Shield by nearly half, which was a bit over the top.

 

Hunter

Hunter’s Beast Mastery and Melee Survival specializations are by far the most popular and powerful Hunter specs in the game. Both currently sit among the most overperforming damage specs on Reborn, with Marksmanship taking a back seat due to mana issues and weaker sustained output. This patch focuses on narrowing those internal gaps: tuning down the strongest outliers, strengthening weaker specs, and improving overall quality of life.

Traps

The damage of Explosive Trap is currently so high that it is better than Immolation Trap even when hitting just one target. This leads hunters to use Explosive Trap in both Single Target or AoE Situations. With this patch come some changes to address this and restore use-cases for both of these traps:

[Hunter] [Explosive Trap] The damage of Explosive Trap has been reduced by about 25% 

[Hunter] [Immolation Trap] The damage of Immolation Trap has been increased by roughly 250%. 

[NEW] [Hunter] [Glyph of Immolation Trap]: Your Immolation Trap effect causes your auto-shot to deal an additional 25% damage as Fire.

[Hunter] [Glyph of Explosive Trap] This now makes the periodic damage of both Explosive Trap and Immolation Trap capable of critting. It has also been renamed to Glyph of Fire Traps.

With these changes, Explosive Trap will still be great in AoE, but Immolation Trap will become worth using when fighting only one target.

Trap Launcher

In addition to these changes, Trap Launcher is now an Artifact enchantment instead of being Epic. This means it will be far less of a performance sacrifice to pick up this ability, making it easier for Hunters to enjoy the quality of life improvement of being able to launch their traps from a safe distance.

Baseline

[Hunter] [Rapid Fire] The cooldown of Rapid Fire has been reduced from 5 minutes down to 3. 

[Hunter] [Rapid Killing] This talent now reduces the cooldown of Rapid Fire by 30/60 seconds, down from 60/120 seconds. Before this patch Rapid Fire had 3 minutes cooldown when this was talented, and now it will be 2 minutes.

[Hunter] [Rapid Recuperation] The mana regenerated by this talent when Rapid Fire is active has been increased to 6%, up from 4%, and after killing has been increased by 3%, up from 2%.

[Hunter] [Master Marksman] This talent now reduces mana cost by 10/20/30%, up from 9/17/25%.

[Hunter] [Efficiency] This talent now reduces mana costs by 4/8/12/16/20%, up from 3/6/9/12/15%. 

[Hunter] [Invigoration] This now grants 2% mana per point, up from 1%.

[Hunter] [Piercing Shots] Fixed a bug where the damage from Piercing Shots would be the value of only the most recent critical hit and would not roll over the remaining damage. (Buff)

Artifact

[Hunter] [Flanking Strike] Range has been increased to 25 yards, up from 20. The cooldown has been reduced to 25 seconds, down from 30. 

Legendary

[Hunter] [Legendary: Expunge] Expunge now restores 20% of your base mana when it explodes.

[Hunter] [Legendary: Flare Strike] This now fires three barrages at the enemy. The overall damage of this ability has been increased by approximately 50% from previously.

[Hunter] [Legendary: Barbed Shot] This now grants 10% attack speed, down from 20%. The damage of the shot itself has been increased by 25%. 

[Hunter] [Legendary: Blood Tracker: Deadly Bite] The damage of the Deadly Bite damage-over-time effect has been reduced by approximately 15%. This will result in an overall nerf to specs using this LRE of around 1-2%.

Epic

[Hunter] [Epic: Power Through] This now increases the damage of Power Shot by 35% against creatures, up from 25%.

[Hunter] [Epic: Concussive Trauma] This enchant now makes your Concussive Shot target take 12% increased damage from your ranged and melee abilities, up from 10%.

[Hunter] [Epic: Trick Shots] This enchant now always triggers when casting Multi-Shot (no longer requires hitting three targets). In addition the duration has been increased to 8 seconds, from 6, and damage has been increased by 20%.

[Hunter] [Epic: Combat Rhythm] This now causes our Mongoose Bite and Counterattack to increase the damage of your next Arcane Shot, Quick Shot or Explosive Shot by 10%, down from 15%. 

[Hunter] [Epic: Savagery] This enchant no longer removes the snare effect from Wing Clip.

[Hunter] [Epic: Quickfire Tactics] Now reduces the cooldown of Flare Strike by 5 seconds, up from 4.

[Hunter] [Epic: Molten Ammo] This now makes Explosive Shot empower your next two steady shots, up from just one. The effect is unchanged - makes Steady Shot deal an additional 70% damage as Fire.

Warrior

Warriors have a wide range of strengths on Reborn, with each spec finding a different niche on the battlefield. Protection remains one of the sturdiest tanks on Reborn, while Gladiator Stance opened up new ways to DPS from that same foundation. Though less impactful in coordinated play, Gladiator Stance is currently one of the most fearsome 1v1 playstyles in the game. Meanwhile, Arms is a defining force in competitive PvP encounters while proving equally capable in both Dungeons and Raids. Finally, while Fury shines in sustained PvE encounters, its current kit appears to leave it outmatched in the Arena.

This patch delivers focused adjustments to improve Warrior’s weaker points while reducing the power of their more overwhelming skills to make buffs elsewhere possible. These changes come with the knowledge that Reborn’s upcoming armor penetration changes will empower Warriors more than most.

Baseline

[Warrior] [Bloodthirst] now makes your next three attacks heal you for 2% of your maximum health, up from 1%. Glyph of Bloodthirst further increases this by an additional percent, up to 3%.

[Warrior] [Furious Attacks] The proc chance of this talent has been increased from 5.5/7.5 PPM (for ranks 1 and 2 respectively) up to 6/12 PPM. This means it will be significantly less likely to fall off as long as you keep attacking the target. It now also triggers Heroic Strike and Cleave in addition to regular melee swings.

[Warrior] [Enraged Regeneration] Now has a 2 minute cooldown, down from 3.

[Warrior] [Deep Wounds] Fixed a bug where Deep Wounds damage did not get reduced by Resilient Constitution. This will be a fairly significant nerf to the burst damage of all types of Warriors in PvP, especially at high gear levels.

[Warrior] [Sudden Death] Fixed a bug where Sudden Death only would proc from auto-attacks. It now properly procs from abilities too. Proc rates have been adjusted to reflect this change. This bugfix will overall result in a very slight buff to how often Sudden Death procs.

Legendary REs

[Warrior] [Legendary: Storm Bolt] now has a 40 second cooldown, up from 30. The buff granted by it now also increases the critical strike chance of your Thunder Clap by 50%, and now lasts for 20 seconds (up from 15). 

[Warrior] [Legendary: Raging Blow] now deals 150% weapon damage, up from 120%.

[Warrior] [Legendary: Fury Mastery] Now also increases your chance to critically strike by 3%.

Epic REs

[Warrior] [Epic: Raging Onslaught] This buff now also makes your next Raging Blow cost 10 less rage. In addition, the buff duration is refreshed when using Raging Blow. 

[Warrior] [Epic: Overwhelming Rage] Now also increases Rage generated from dealing damage by 20%.

[Warrior] [Epic: Power Slam] Proc chance increased from 40% to 50%.

[Warrior] [Epic: Cleaving Slam] In addition to making Slam hit an additional nearby target, its rage cost is also removed.

[Warrior] [Epic: Desperation]: This enchant now adds up to +40% damage (from 33%) and up to +100% healing from Bloodthirst based on how much health you are missing. 

[Warrior] [Epic: Revitalizing Revenge] This has been updated. The new tooltip reads: Using Revenge while Enraged Regeneration is active extends its duration by 2 seconds and heals you for 8% of your missing health. While not active, Revenge reduces the cooldown of Enraged Regeneration by 5 seconds. These effects do not work when fighting players.

[Warrior] [Epic: Roar of Dread] Cooldown reduced to 15 seconds, down from 20.

Paladin

Paladin has been defined by their blend of survivability, utility, and adaptable strength across all roles. Whether striking down foes, protecting allies, or channeling holy power to heal, they consistently deliver reliable performance across all types of content. While mostly tempered, Paladin’s self-sustain is currently a little too strong, allowing them to combine survivability tools with heals to become nearly invincible. These balance updates bring down the more extreme self-sustain tools to reasonable levels while buffing their core identity.

Self-sustain Changes

Paladins are defined by their tanky nature and access to powerful heals, able to keep themselves and allies alive. However, a few Mystic Enchantments were being combined with an overturned Seal of Light spell to make Paladins nearly unkillable in solo gameplay. 

The following changes limit these enchantments being used with the Protection spec without compromising their individual power, keeping them strong while eliminating the one situation where they were too much. Seal of Light receives a slight re-tune to keep it reasonable without sacrificing the Paladin’s core identity. 

[Paladin] [Epic: Sacred Light] This enchantment now requires 20 points in the Holy Paladin tree.

[Paladin] [Epic: Divine Reprieve] This enchantment now requires 20 points in the Holy Paladin tree.

[Paladin] [Seal of Light] Healing has been reduced by 25%. This effect can now only trigger once per second.

Baseline

[Paladin] [Divine Favor] No longer costs mana.

[Paladin] [Promise of the Crusader] Now increases the critical strike chance and chance to hit of Exorcism by 10%, up from 3%. This change will only be a slight overall damage increase, but will help Exorcism reach the spell hit cap against bosses.

[Paladin] [Glyph of Holy Light] Fixed a bug where this glyph was also healing the main target of Holy Light. It now works as intended, healing up to five targets around the main target of the Holy Light.

Artifact

[Paladin] [Artifact: Blinding Light] Now has a 1 second cast time, down from 1.5 seconds.

Legendary

[Paladin] [Legendary: Gift of Light] You can now store up to three charges of Gift of Light.

[Paladin] [Legendary: Blessing of the Divines] Now has a 5 second internal cooldown, down from 10. In addition, the healing of the triggered heals has been increased. ((Double their healing))

[Paladin] [Legendary: Execution Sentence] Damage increased by approximately 20%. Cooldown reduced to 40 seconds, from 45.

[Paladin] [Legendary: Crimson Defender] The buff granted from consuming stacks with Avenger’s Shield now gives 15% increased threat, up from 10%. It also lasts for 15 seconds, up from 10.

Epic

[Paladin] [Epic: Sacred Unity] The damage transfer from this enchant now lasts for 10 seconds, up from 5.

[Paladin] [Epic: Swift Execution] Now makes Crusader Strike reduce the cooldown of Execution Sentence by 3 seconds, up from 2

[Paladin] [Epic: Armor of Wrath] This enchant now also reduces the cooldown of Holy Wrath by 5 seconds.

Druid

Druid continues to embody adaptability, with each specialization finding its place in the wilds. However, Restoration has grown a little too potent with its powerful Rejuvenations and seemingly endless mana dominating the healing landscape. This patch refines their healing toolkit including a slight rebalance Glyph of Healing Touch and a few other outliers, and brings many targeted improvements to underperforming areas. The result is a clearer, more balanced expression of druidic power.

Healing Touch, Glyph of Healing Touch and Nourish

Glyph of Healing Touch currently makes Healing Touch strictly outperform Nourish, leaving no real reason to use both and pushing the glyph into a mandatory slot. These adjustments aim to bring back that choice by strengthening Nourish and tuning the glyph’s power.

[Druid] [Nourish] Base healing increased by 25% and coefficient by 20%. In addition, Nourish gains 30% additional healing when a Healing over Time effect is on the target, up from 20%.
[Druid] [Glyph of Healing Touch] Now reduces the cast time of Healing Touch by 1.25 seconds, down from 1.5 and reduces the mana cost by 20%, down from 25%.

With these changes Nourish becomes a strong, efficient core heal, while Glyphed Healing Touch remains the faster, higher-throughput option at a higher mana cost. This restores two distinct tools and makes the glyph a meaningful choice rather than an automatic one.

Idol of Rejuvenation

There was a bug where items that grant spell-specific spell power were applying a flat bonus instead. For example: 

Idol of Rejuvenation should make your Rejuvenation scale as if you had +53 spell power (resulting in +13 healing per tick), but instead adding 53 flat healing to each tick. Fixing this bug will be a nerf to Rejuvenation for Druids. 

Artifact

[Druid] [Artifact: Stampeding Roar] This now has a 20 yard radius, up from 10. Its cooldown has been reduced to 90 seconds, down from 120.

Legendary

[Druid] [Legendary: Balance Mastery] Now gives 5% damage/critical strike chance, up from 4%.
[Druid] [Legendary: Overflow] The cast time reduction and mana cost reduction is increased to 15% per stack, up from 10%. In addition, the Overflow from Healing Touch now has a 15 yard range, up from 8.
[Druid] [Legendary: Spirit of the Forest] Increased the healing of the Rejuvenation effect by approximately 30%.
[Druid] [Legendary: Flow of Life] The duration of the Tranquility-like spell taught by this enchant has been reduced to 8 seconds, down from 12. Its base cooldown has been reduced from 4 minutes down to 2. With the Improved Tranquility talent, this will now have a 48 second cooldown.
[Druid] [Legendary: Efflorescence] The mana cost of this spell has been increased to be more reasonable with what it does. It previously cost less than a single cast of Rejuvenation, in spite of doing AoE healing and applying five stacks of Rejuvenation. It will now cost 2.5x as much as Rejuvenation.
[Druid] [Legendary: Feral Mastery] This now also affects Rake.
[Druid] [Legendary: Fury Unleashed] This enchant was barely ever picked and has been reworked to have a more clear identity. The new version reads: Your Mangle has 15% increased critical strike chance and extends the duration of Rip on your target by 1 second. Using Tiger’s Fury unleashes a ferocious swipe on up to 5 enemies in front of you. Each enemy hit reduces the cooldown of Tiger’s Fury by 2 seconds.

[Druid] [Legendary: Predator’s Wrath] Wraths cast through this enchant now gain additional damage equal to 30% of your attack power, up from 20%.

[Druid] [Legendary: Guardian Mastery] now grants 4% health and critical strike chance, up from 3%.

[Druid] [Legendary - Ironfur] The duration on the buff granted by Ironfur is no longer separate. This will not only make this enchant more powerful, but also significantly easier to understand and track.

Epic

[Druid] [Epic - Surging Eclipse] This enchant has been tweaked slightly and now reads: Dealing damage with Starsurge while no Eclipse is active, guarantees that your next Wrath or Starfire triggers Eclipse. Eclipse grants 25% damage and critical strike chance instead of 40%. The biggest change is the removal of the 30 second internal cooldown, which will make this enchant feel much more natural to play with.

[Druid] [Epic - Elune’s Fury] The haste granted by this enchant now lasts for 18 seconds, up from 12.

[Druid] [Epic - Moon’s Wrath] This now grants 8% spell critical strike chance, up from 6%.

[Druid] [Epic - Blooming Power] This enchant now grants 50% increased critical chance to Regrowth and Nourish, up from 30%.

[Druid] [Epic - Nature’s Abundance] This now restores 2% base mana, down from 3%.

[Druid] [Epic - Razor Sweep] The energy restored from this enchant no longer requires your Claw or Mangle to hit two targets.

[Druid] [Epic - Bash and Thrash] The threat generated by Bash with this enchant has been significantly increased. With this enchant, Bash hits the threat table like a charging ursine freight train.

Shaman

Shaman's performance on Warcraft Reborn has been shaped most noticeably by the outsized impact of Fire Elementals. Enhancement remains the most popular spec with strong burst and good all-round performance. Elemental is in-line with other specs, and Restoration performs especially well in PvP but has so far fallen behind in raid. Enhancement tanks stay popular due to their utility, though threat and consistency have been challenges. This patch focuses on correcting the Fire Elemental imbalances that have defined recent performance and then reinforcing the Shaman’s own toolkit across all roles.

Fire Elementals 

Greater Fire Elementals have been overperforming due to an unintended bug with their stat scaling, which then was dramatically amplified by the Leader of the Elements enchant. This resulted in a situation where the Elemental's damage could be even greater than what actual players are capable of, which obviously undermines core combat balance.

[Shaman] [Greater Fire Elemental Totem] Fixed a bug where the scaling inheritance of the Fire Elemental was too high. This bug fix will result in a 8-20% reduction to the Elemental’s damage, depending on the gear/stats of the Shaman.

[Shaman] [Epic: Leader of the Elements] The buff granted to your Greater Elementals by this enchant no longer grants 15% haste. The 15% damage per stack is unchanged. In addition, this enchant no longer triggers from Elemental Blast, but the per-spell internal cooldown has been reduced from 20 seconds down to 15. Taken together that means that this enchant will provide less power to the Elemental, but also be more smooth to maintain. 

With these changes Leader of the Elements will be far smoother to play with, and the performance of Fire Elementals will be a lot more reasonable. This will be an overall nerf to Shaman builds, particularly to the Enhancement variants that really leaned in to squeezing the most damage possible out of this bug. This nerf will be offset by several buffs that add power back into the Shaman's own toolkit. 

Shamans already bring a tremendous amount of utility and support to their groups, providing a great amount of value beyond the damage they contribute. Nonetheless, this patch includes several changes to bolster up Shaman damage and make sure they remain powerful. Here are some of the most notable ones:

[Shaman] [Mental Quickness] The conversion of attack power into spell power from this talent has been increased from 8/16/25% up to 10/20/30%. In addition it reduces the mana cost of instant cast Shaman spells by 4/8/12%, up from 2/4/6%.

[Shaman] [Mental Dexterity] now also increases your chance to hit with spells by 3/6/9%. This means Enhancement Shamans who cap their hit chance for melee abilities (8% vs raid bosses) also will cap their spell hit chance at the same time.

[Shaman] [Feral Spirits] The attack power scaling of Feral Spirits was lower than intended and has been fixed. This will result in about a 20% buff to Feral Spirits when you are fully buffed.

[Shaman] [Legendary: Lava Sweep] Now deals 50% increased damage when Flametongue Weapon is active, up from 25%.

[Shaman] [Epic: Lava Ignition] This enchant now makes your Lava Lash or Lava Sweep deal 30% increased damage on targets affected by your Flame Shock (up from 20%). In addition, using Lava Lash or Lava Sweep on a target affected by Flame Shock refreshes its duration and spreads it to up to 4 nearby targets.

[Shaman] [Legendary: Air Ascendance] Air Ascendance now lasts for 12 seconds (down from 15) and has a 60 second cooldown (down from 90). This will make it line up better with other cooldowns like Shamanistic Rage. In addition, the extra Stormstrike damage has been increased significantly (roughly doubled) in PvE.

[Shaman] [Epic: Stormborn] The 2 second cooldown reduction this enchant gives to Air Ascendance now also reduces the cooldown of Shamanistic Rage by the same amount. This ensures these spells will line up properly, making this feel more natural.

The Fire Elemental changes have a limited effect on Elemental compared to Enhancement. This patch also brings a number of improvements for Elemental itself, though its DPS will shift only slightly as part of the Fire Elemental changes.

Base 

[Shaman] [Healing Stream Totem] The base healing of this spell has now been increased by approximately 50%. 

[Shaman] [Mana Tide Totem] The cooldown of Mana Tide Totem has been reduced to 3 minutes, down from 5. 

[Shaman] [Chain Lightning] This spell is now available at level 24, down from 30.

[Shaman] [Earthen Guardian] Now increases your threat generation by 180%, up from 140%.

[Shaman] [Tidal Focus] This talent now reduces the mana cost of your healing spells by 2/4/6/8/10%, up from 1/2/3/4/5%.
[Shaman] [Concussion] This talent now increases the damage done by your Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Thunderstorm, Lava Burst and Shock spells by 2/4/6/8/10%, up from 1/2/3/4/5%

Artifact

[Shaman] [Artifact: Sundering] The cooldown of Sundering has been reduced to 30 seconds, down from 35. Its damage in PvE has been increased by approximately 45%.

[Shaman] [Artifact: Windwalk Totem] This totem has been slightly reworked. Rather than giving movement slow immunity, this totem now increases the movement speed of affected targets by 40%. Its duration has been reduced from 6 seconds to 5 and radius increased from 20 to 40 yards so that you won’t constantly be running away from its benefits.

[Shaman] [Artifact: Spiritwalker’s Grace] Spiritwalker’s Grace now has a 90 second cooldown, down from 120. In addition, activating Spiritwalker’s Grace gives interrupt/silence immunity for your next spell cast. 

Legendary

[Shaman] [Legendary: Transcendental Embrace] This has been significantly improved. The new tooltip reads: Healing with Lesser Healing Wave or Healing Wave reduces the cast time of your next Chain Heal by 20% and makes it lose only 20% healing per jump. Holds up to 3 charges.

[Shaman] [Legendary: Cloudburst Totem] This totem now also reduces your spells' mana costs by 40% while active.

[Shaman] [Legendary: Restoration Mastery] This enchant now increases the healing of Healing Wave, Lesser Healing Wave and Chain Heal by 6%, up from 4%.
[Shaman] [Legendary: Booming Thunder] This now increases the chance to trigger Overload by an additional 20%, up from 15%.

[Shaman] [Legendary: Elemental Mastery] In addition to increasing the damage of Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning and Lava Burst by 5%, this enchant now also reduces their mana cost by 8%.

[Shaman] [Legendary: Stormbound Instinct] This enchant now also makes your Shock spells deal 30% of their damage to all enemies within 10 yards of the target. This change will help Shaman tanks pick up targets in dungeons significantly, which is something they have struggled with compared to other tanks.

Epic

[Shaman] [Epic: Charged Tides] You can now gain multiple charges of this when hitting multiple targets with Chain Lightning.

[Shaman] [Epic: Elemental Harmony] This effect can be stored up to 3 times. The buff duration has also been increased to 30 seconds, up from 12. 

[Shaman] [Epic: Mastery of the Tide] This enchant now also reduces the cast time of Chain Heal by 10%.

[Shaman] [Epic: Crackling Flames] The buff granted by this enchant now also triggers from Chain Lightning. The buff now grants +15% damage and -15% mana cost per stack, from only granting +20% damage.

[Shaman] [Epic: Converging Elements] This enchant now stacks up to 10 times, up from 5. It still grants 5% damage per stack, and now also grants 0.3 seconds CDR to your Shock per stack (instead of giving 1 second CDR when cast at 5 stacks). These changes will make this enchant more powerful and also a bit more intuitive.

[Shaman] [Epic: Zephyr] The buff granted by this now lasts for 20 seconds, up from 15.

[Shaman] [Epic: Totem Master: Fire] This has been reworked. The new tooltip reads: Your Fire totems cost 30% less mana. All your Fire totems now apply the effect of Flametongue Totem or Totem of Wrath (if known) when placed. 

[Shaman] [Epic: Healing Tide] This enchant has been slightly rework, the new tooltip reads: Placing Healing Stream Totem will release an initial pulse, instantly healing nearby allies. Your Healing Stream Totem healing is also doubled for 20 sec after being placed, but Healing Stream Totem now has a 20 second cooldown.

[Shaman] [Epic: Cataclysmic Sundering] This enchant now makes dealing damage with Flametongue weapon reduce the cooldown of Sundering by 1 second. In addition, a bug was fixed where the incapacitate effect could be broken by the burning ground also triggered by this enchant.

[Shaman] [Epic: Molten Outburst] In addition to its current effect, this enchant now removes the mana cost from Earthquake.

[Shaman] [Epic: Primal Tide] The buff granted by this enchant now lasts for 60 seconds, up from 10.

Fire Nova

Fire Nova is a spell with incredibly powerful investment. Its cooldown can be reduced from 10 down to 3 seconds, and when mana allows using it this frequently it is really really strong. Without full investment, the spell is not much to write home about. With this patch we are shifting some of the power from the mandatory-feeling Fire Nova investment options into the base spell itself:

[Shaman] [Fire Nova] This spell has had its cooldown reduced to 8 seconds, down from 10. In addition, its base mana cost has been reduced by 20% and damage by 10%.

[Shaman] [Improved Fire Nova] This now increases the damage of Fire Nova by 15/30%, up from 10/20%, reduces the cooldown of Fire Nova by 1/2 seconds, down from 2/4, and also reduces its mana cost by 15/30%.

These changes mean Fire Nova will cost less mana for everyone, but especially for those picking up the Elemental talent to improve it. The spell is also a more powerful baseline, making investment in it still powerful but less mandatory.

Rogue

Rogue is currently the class with the widest gap between PvP and PvE capabilities. They perform well in PvE, but their limited area-of-effect options and modest single-target edge made it harder for them to secure a clear role in many encounters. In contrast, Rogues in PvP stand as one of the most impactful classes with strong control, burst, and the ever-present advantage of stealth in both open-world skirmishes and organized arena play. This patch provides Rogues with a bit more PvE presence by providing more AoE, while at the same time refining each of their spec paths and ensuring their PvP pressure stays sharp without becoming overwhelming.

Crimson Tempest 

[Rogue] [Crimson Tempest] This now is a baseline Rogue ability, instead of being acquired through a Legendary enchant. It has also been slightly retuned, making sure it is a strong ability to use when fighting several enemies.

[Rogue] [Legendary: Crimson Hunger] With Crimson Tempest being taught baseline, the Crimson Tempest Legendary enchant has been reworked to enable a new bleed-oriented playstyle. It is now called Crimson Hunger and its tooltip reads: Crimson Tempest deals double damage to your main target. When Wound Poison strikes a bleeding enemy, it deals additional physical damage and puts you into a Crimson Hunger, increasing your bleed damage by 2% for 20 seconds, stacking up to 30 times.

Base

[Rogue] [Envenom] The buff granted by this finishing move now grants a 15% additional chance to apply Deadly Poison (up from 10%) and 30% increased frequency of applying Instant Poison (up from 20%).
[Rogue] [Cut to the Chase] This talent now also triggers from Crimson Tempest, in addition to Eviscerate and Envenom.

Artifact

[Rogue] [Artifact: Smoke Bomb] The cooldown of Smoke Bomb has been increased to 3 minutes, up from 2. This will remain an incredibly powerful tool that now needs to be used a little bit more strategically.
[Rogue] [Artifact: Grappling hook] The cooldown of Grappling Hook has been reduced to 30 seconds, down from 40.
[Rogue] [Artifact: Recuperate] This now restores 3% health every 3 seconds (down from 4%), but now lasts twice as long. In addition, killing an opponent that yields experience or honor extends the duration of Recuperate to its 5 combo point maximum. This is an experimental change aimed at giving Rogues more tools to use while leveling and may be followed up with more tweaks as needed.

Legendary

[Rogue] [Legendary: Kingsbane] The damage of Kingsbane has been increased by approximately 20%. It also now grants 3 combo points, up from 2.
[Rogue] [Legendary: Assassination Mastery] This enchant now increases the damage of your poisons by 8%, buffed from increasing their critical strike chance by 5% (which works out closer to a 3% poison damage increase). It still also increases Envenom damage by 5%.

Epic

[Rogue] [Epic: Murder Rush] This enchant has been changed, the new tooltip reads: Killing an enemy that yields experience or honor gives you Sprint for 5 seconds. If Sprint is already active, its duration is fully refreshed. In addition, while Sprint is active you deal 10% more damage.

[Rogue] [Epic: Energy Surge] This now increases the damage of any Rogue ability when used on a Gouged target by 30%, up from 20%.

[Rogue] [Epic: Massacre] The cooldown reduction to Killing Spree when using Sinister Strike with this enchant has been increased to 2 seconds, up from 1.

[Rogue] [Epic: Prison Tactics] This now grants 20% attack speed, up from 15%. It also extends the duration of your Adrenaline Rush when using Shiv by 6 seconds, up from 4. 
[Rogue] [Epic: Assassin’s Rush] This enchant has been reworked. The new tooltip reads: Adrenaline Rush now also increases your attack speed and movement speed by 30% while active.

[Rogue] [Epic: Bleeding Edge] This has been slightly reworked. The new tooltip reads: You gain 4 energy whenever you deal bleed damage with Garrote or Rupture or instant damage with Crimson Tempest.

[Rogue] [Epic: Bloodshed] This no longer has a 20 second internal cooldown. The Bleed damage increase has been reduced from 20% to 15% and now lasts for 10 seconds, up from 8. In addition to removing the energy cost of Hunger for Blood, it also makes it generate 10 energy when used..

[Rogue] [Epic: Combat Proficiency] In addition to increasing the proc chance of Combat Potency, this enchant now also passively grants 10% Armor Penetration.

Worldforged Item Changes & Refunding

Worldforged Items premiered for the first time with Warcraft Reborn, and in the excitement of placing powerful items with desirable effects out in the Open World, some of those items ended up a little too strong. These changes aim to bring these outlier items more in line with other items to keep them desirable but not overperforming. There is a future patch planned to bring up and buff underperforming Worldforged Items. 

One Ring to Flame Them All

• The self-damage on the upgraded version of this ring was bugged and was being reduced further than intended.
• In addition the damage numbers were far too high in general for this ring, making it a huge outlier compared to other rings.
• The overall damage of this ring has been reduced by around 30%, and it now also deals 30% reduced damage in PvP.

Arcane Glinting Shard 

• Now absorbs up to 750 damage, down from 1000.
• Duration has been increased from 10 seconds to 20 seconds.

This will make the item more useful in a wider range of scenarios, while making it less mandatory in situations where its short-duration burst absorbs created huge value.

Necklace of the Sunken Empire 

The mana regen effect averaged out to nearly 60 mana per 5 seconds, making it a huge outlier when compared to other similar items in the same slot. 

To address this: 

• The mana regenerated has been reduced from 105 to 75 per tick.
• In addition, in order to make the value of this item more consistent, its proc chance has been increased from 10% to 20% and its internal cooldown raised from 35 seconds to 50 seconds.

The Blight Bomber

• Now summons the same amount of Plaguehounds in the upgraded version as it does in the base version, staying consistent with how other similar Worldforged items work.
• A bug has also been fixed with this where the upgraded version summons had the wrong damage modifier applied and dealt more damage than intended.

Refunding Worldforged Upgrades

Anytime a Worldforged Item undergoes changes you can return it for the full Runes of Ascension value if they get changed. 

You have 2 weeks to log-in and refund a Worldforged Item after it gets changed.

This ensures that you never miss out on Runes of Ascension if an item you recently upgraded happens to undergo some balance changes.

You can find this option in the Help menu under Recovery Services.

Armor Penetration Updates

Armor Penetration (ArP) has been reworked to make it a more intuitive and consistently powerful stat.

Until now, Armor Penetration has been complex and unintuitive. Armor Penetration reduced a target's armor in a way that led to wildly unpredictable power spikes, hidden effectiveness caps, and counter-intuitive performance against heavily armored targets. 

Here were some of the core issues: 

• Armor Penetration could only reduce a certain amount of armor, meaning that many high-armor creatures introduced against the RPG overhaul actually had too much armor for Armor Penetration to be good against them.
  • Dumb as a hell
• Armor Penetration was only really good if you were able to get incredibly high amounts of it: until then it was mediocre
• The actual value of Armor Penetration was notoriously difficult to understand

To make Armor Penetration better, it’s being re-worked to now penetrate a percentage of the target's armor-based damage reduction, rather than a percentage of their armor.

Example:

Your have 50% Armor Penetration

Your target is a  Level 60 with 5000 Armor, which gives it 45% physical damage reduction

How it used to work:

Your ArP would remove half of the target's armor. The target's effective armor became 2500, which provides roughly 30% damage reduction. A raw 100 damage hit would deal 70 damage.

How it now works:

Your ArP now removes half of the target's damage reduction. The target's effective damage reduction becomes 22.5%. A raw 100 damage hit will now deal 77.5 damage!

This makes Armor Pen a great stat for ANY physical based damage dealer. 

• Armor Penetration is good regardless of how much Armor Penetration you have.
• Armor Penetration is now good where you expect it to be: against High-Armored targets

With these changes, the amount of rating required for 1% Armor Penetration has also been updated. You now need 5 Armor Penetration Rating for 1% Armor Penetration at level 60. 

Here are some approximate values for how much physical damage increase you can expect to get at level 60 from 10 Armor Penetration Rating (2% Armor Penetration), depending on what you are fighting:

As with any major changes, the impact will be closely monitored and future adjustments may be made to ensure that Armor Penetration truly delivers on its promise of being a powerful and intuitive stat that feels great to specialize into at every stage of progression.

Snapshotting

A bug with how snapshotting works accidentally led to some EXTREME snapshotting behavior like losing out on a ton of DPS unless you perfectly timed a troll racial with Bloodlust and a perfect Eradication proc while popping an on-use Haste trinket.

This patch restores the original, intended behavior for all damage-over-time effects that refresh their duration without being fully recast—such as Corruption with the Everlasting Affliction talent, or Shadow Word: Pain with the Pain and Suffering talent.

How it works:

• Spell Power and Haste are recalculated each time the DoT is refreshed, setting a new base value and tick speed.
  • So if you gain haste and SP and then refresh a DoT that was already on the target, it will now tick faster and for more damage.
• Critical Strike chance and flat %-damage bonuses are snapshotted when the DoT is first applied and remain fixed for the entire duration, even as the effect is refreshed.
  • So if you gain critical strike chance and +10% damage done and then refresh a dot that was already on the target, its critical chance and damage will not change.
  • Inversely, if you use effects that increase your critical strike chance or % damage done before applying the DoT in the first place, you will keep the benefit as long as you keep the DoT from falling off.

The bug fix returns this system to its intended, authentic behavior.

Upcoming PvP changes

While this patch is broader in scope and does not lean heavily into PvP-specific adjustments, several important updates are on the way that we want to highlight.

• Arena matchmaking improvements: Work is underway to strengthen the matchmaking experience for solo-queue Arena. These changes aim to significantly reduce the chances of healer imbalances, odd class stacking, and other frustrating matchups, creating a more consistent and competitive environment.
• 3v3 group queue: A 3v3 Arena group-queue mode is coming with the next Arena season. It will be active during focused time windows designed to support and incentivize healthy queue activity.
• Next PvP progression: The current arena season will end and the next major PvP progression will launch alongside Molten Core and will feature upgraded set pieces and new PvP weapons. Going forward, every PvP progression will introduce new gear to keep the reward track exciting and meaningful.
• Arena point adjustments: We are also revisiting how Arena points are earned, with the goal of ensuring that PvP gearing having a longer-lasting sense of progression. These adjustments will go live with the next PvP season.