Heroes!
The time has finally come for another Classless Update. Over the past weeks we’ve made an unprecedented amount of changes to the game - so many that for the last big update we didn’t even have time to write a news post! Before getting into today’s changes we want to highlight how important your feedback is to us. Going forward you can expect more frequent communication from us, both in articles like these and on our Discord. We look forward to seeing you there!
Now, let’s get into today’s update.
Melee, Unto the Breach!
- Divine Storm can now hit up to 6 targets, changed from 3.
- Whirlwind can now hit up to 6 targets, changed from 4.
- Bladestorm can now hit up to 6 targets, changed from 4.
- Swipe (Cat) now costs 40 energy, changed from 50.
- The Feral Instinct capstone now also reduces the cooldown of Tiger's Fury.
- Berserk now allows your Mangle (Cat) to hit up to 3 targets, and no longer prevents usage of Tiger's Fury, but it is no longer usable while feared.
There are moments when being able to deal damage to multiple targets at the same time is paramount to success. There are other times when it might not be necessary, but still feels flippin’ great. In this update there are a lot of changes to level the playing field and let you deal serious area damage even if your build wasn’t designed for it - and to look damn cool while doing it.
- [New Epic Enchant] Massacre - Your Killing Spree now also damages up to 3 additional nearby targets and weakens the defenses of all targets hit, increasing the damage you deal to them by 3% (1% against players) for 10 seconds, stacking up to 5 times. In addition, killing an enemy that yields experience or honor reduces the cooldown of Killing Spree by 10 seconds.
- [New Epic Enchant] Blade Vortex - While Blade Flurry is active your melee finishing moves have a 20% chance per combo point to trigger a Blade Vortex on the target location, dealing physical damage to all nearby enemies every second for 3 seconds. In addition, your one-handed melee auto-attacks reduce the cooldown of Blade Flurry by 2 seconds.
- [New Epic Enchant] Sweeping Swings - Transforms Sweeping Strikes into Sweeping Swings. While active your Physical damage is reduced by 20% but your auto-attacks strike up to 3 additional nearby enemies for 40% weapon damage, increased further by Attack Power. This ability costs no rage and lasts for 15 seconds with a 20 second cooldown. It cannot be used together with Blade Flurry.
- [New Legendary Enchant] Dragon Warrior - Death Wish is transformed into Dragon Roar which slows nearby enemies for 2 sec and deals armor-piercing damage. Also increases your physical damage done by 15% for 10 seconds.
Your Bloodthirst and Execute hits empower your Slam to be instant cast and trigger extra weapon-based damage. These empowered Slams also reduce the cooldown of your Dragon Roar by 5 seconds and increase the damage of your Dragon Roar by 25%, stacking up to 3 times. On 3 stacks, your Dragon Roar also stuns nearby enemies for 2 sec.
If you know Intercept you also learn Dragon Charge, which propels you forward at 100% increased speed and makes you immune to movement impairing effects for up to 2 seconds or until you impact with an enemy. Upon impact you deal Fire damage in front of you.
Shields and Paws
- Fixed an issue where the Deflection Capstone would not reduce the proper amount of direct spell damage. This will make this talent significantly more powerful than previously.
- Toughness (Protection Warrior) has been renamed to Firm Grip. Instead of giving 2/4/6% increased armor, it now increases the armor contribution from your equipped shield by 10/20/30%.
- Redoubt now increases your Block Value by 4/7/10%, changed from 7/14/20%.
- Shield Mastery now reduces the cooldown of your Shield Block by 5/10 seconds, changed from 10/20 seconds.
- [New Capstone] Tenacity - With the final rank of this talent, your Armor is increased by an amount equal to your Strength.
- Increased the damage of Swipe (Bear) by up to 100% for ranks usable under level 60, and increased the damage of Swipe (Bear) by 4% for ranks for level 60 and above.
- King of the Jungle now increases damage while in Bear Form with Enrage active by 5/10/15%, up from 3/6/9%.
- Carnage Incarnate now allows Taste for Blood to empower your next Swipe to generate additional threat, in addition to its previous effects.
- [New Capstone] Brutal Impact - Using Bash on a monster that is permanently immune to stuns causes you to deal damage (increased by AP).
- [New Epic Enchant] Bash and Thrash - When you interrupt a spellcast with Bash its cooldown is reduced to 14 seconds and your Mangle (Bear) will hit an additional 2 nearby targets for 6 seconds. In addition, using Bash triggers your Enrage for 6 seconds. This ignores the cooldown of Enrage. These effects can not trigger against players.
With these changes, shield-wearing tanks will have more options to beef themselves up particularly against hard-hitting Raid bosses. Compared to other tank archetypes, Shield tanks have historically been very strong against weaker enemies (for example in dungeons) but have had a tougher time against big bosses. That gap is becoming smaller, and with the direction we’re headed it will be easier for you to make a Shield tank that can compete with other tanks for all kinds of content.
Bear tanks have a different challenge - their lack of good AoE threat and utility. With the buff to Swipe damage leveling a bear tank should now be significantly smoother than before. While you’re leveling, be sure to look out for Bash - with the appropriate investment it packs some real power.
For the other tanks out there: We know you exist and while the updates in this Tank section didn’t revolve around you this time, there is so much fun stuff from the other changes that you can incorporate into your build. Have fun with it!
Hunting Variety
- Multi-Shot now deals 130% weapon damage, up from 120%.
- Steady Shot now deals 125% weapon damage, up from 115%.
- Compound Shot now deals 130/145/160/175/190% weapon damage depending on combo points, up from 130/140/150/160/170%.
- Master Marksman talent now increases the critical strike chance with ranged attacks by 2%, up from 1%, but no longer affects melee critical strike chance.
- Marked for Death now also increases the critical strike damage bonus of Multi-Shot.
- Expunge's Cobra Venom will now explode if the target dies before reaching 3 stacks. Its explosion damage is now increased by 20% of your spell power.
- Wild Wrath allows Wraths casted through its effect to also restore 12% of base mana.
With these changes, two of the biggest weaknesses of the Locust Ranger Legendary enchant - its AoE damage and its mana sustain - are being remedied. With the other fairly general buffs to Marksmanship abilities and talents, builds that make use of the Marksmanship kit will pack some extra punch. Altogether, while Explosive Shot isn’t being nerfed, these changes will make a variety of alternative builds more attractive.
No matter how you want to play, it will come with pros and cons; strengths and weaknesses. It’s up to you to figure out which of the strengths you want, how to best leverage them, and how to deal with the weaknesses. This is true not only for these builds, but for all of Ascension.
Prayers have been answered
Let’s start by getting some simple buffs out of the way.
- Increased the base healing of Healing Wave by 5%, and it's healing power scaling by 3%.
- Increased the base healing and healing power scaling of Chain Heal by 5%.
- Increased the base healing and healing power scaling of Lesser Healing Wave by 3%.
- Increased the base healing and healing power scaling of Flash Heal by 3%.
- Tidecaller now increases the healing the target takes from your periodic Nature healing spells by 20% per stack, up from 15%. In addition, Tidecaller's Boon will no longer be removed with immunities like Divine Shield.
- Low Tide now increases the critical effect chance of Healing Wave on targets affected by Riptide by 20%, changed from 10%.
- Revitalize now also triggers from the direct heal of Regrowth at 33/66/100% chance.
- [New Capstone] Improved Flash Heal - Your Flash Heal casts reduce the cooldown of your Inner Focus by 2 seconds.
- [New Epic Enchant] Everliving - Healing an ally with any direct or periodic Nature heal while your Swiftmend is ready to use reduces the cooldown of your next Swiftmend by 1 second, stacking up to 15 times. When fully stacked, your next Swiftmend does not consume Rejuvenation or Regrowth when used.
These buffs are aimed at some of the less popular spells and build types. With these nudges, you now have more powerful options to choose between when making a healer.
- Reduced the base healing of Holy Light by 7%. The healing power scaling is unchanged.
- Growing Light now also gives you a buff when you heal the target of your Beacon of Light. This buff increases the healing transferred to your Beacon of Light by an additional 20% for 6 seconds, stacking up to 3 times.
These two changes go in tandem. For a while now, Holy Light has been overperforming relative to other heals in certain types of content and for certain playstyles - most obviously in PvP, but also as the go-to heal for any non-healer builds. With a reduction to the base heal amount, its edge over other heals won’t be as big, and with the buffs to those other heals it’ll be easier to find a good healing spell to complement your build.
For healers that focus more heavily on Holy Light, this will only be a small hit since so much of their healing typically comes from the healing power scaling (which is untouched). The Growing Light buff will make it easier to leverage Holy Light and Beacon of Light to heal multiple targets - something that these builds previously struggled with. This buff is relatively simple, but it adds a lot of depth to gameplay - if you can anticipate damage and choose who to heal well, your healing potential will now be seriously impressive.
- Overflow now heals the lowest percentage health ally within 8 yards for 20% of the amount healed by your Healing Touch, changed from healing a random target for 30% of the amount healed. The triggered heal can no longer proc additional effects.
Instead of choosing the closest target Overflow is now upgraded with smart targeting, making it target the lowest health ally within range. Since that change is a pretty significant buff to its effectiveness, the percent healing transferred has been reduced. In addition, a bug that caused the extra Healing Touch triggered by Overflow to be able to trigger procs (which is inconsistent with our proc mechanics) has been fixed.
- [New Legendary Enchant]: Prayer of Preservation - Transforms your Prayer of Healing into a channeled healing spell that when placed reduces the damage all allies inside the effect take from area of effect attacks by 30% and heals up to five low health allies every second for three seconds. The heal scales with modifiers to Prayer of Healing and has a 12 second cooldown.
The final heal is extra powerful and grants a buff to its targets giving your next direct heal on that target 20% increased critical effect chance, making it trigger an additional heal and reduce the cooldown of your Prayer of Preservation by 3 seconds.
If you can predict incoming AoE damage and pre-emptively place your Prayer of Preservation on allies in the area, this spell is exceedingly powerful. There are a lot of options for how to build around this Legendayr enchant - it is up to you to decide how you want to make the rest of the build. Will you go for a more single-target oriented Holy approach? Or will you cross over into Nature spells? The choice is yours!
Casters too
- Increased the base damage values of direct damage and damage over time of Immolate (rank 9) by 6%.
- Eternal Water now also makes your Water Elemental's Water Bolt spell increases your spell haste by 1% for 10 seconds, stacking up to 10 times.
- The buff from Evoker now increases your critical strike chance with Fireball and Arcane Missiles for 3% per stack, changed from 2%.
- Combustion now has a 90 second cooldown, changed from 120, and increases critical strike damage bonus by 75%, changed from 50%.
- Controlled Blast now reduces the cooldown of Blast Wave by 15 seconds, changed from 10.
- Increased the spell power scaling of Temporal Blast by 5%.
- Shooting Stars now also increases your spell critical strike chance by 5% while Starfall is active.
Look. More buffs.
- [New Epic Enchant] Chaos Meteor - Transforms your Inferno spell into Chaos Meteor. Calls down a meteor which lands at the target location after 2 seconds, dealing Fire damage and disorienting enemies for 3 seconds. Any damage will break this effect. This ability scales with Chaos Bolt modifiers. Its cooldown gets reduced by 1 second from the Emberstone Capstone.
- [New Epic Enchant] Illuminated Judgement - Your Infusion of Light now empowers your next Judgement spell to deal 100% increased damage but gives it a 1 second cast time. Requires the final rank of Infusion of Light.
- [New Epic Enchant] Deconstruction - Transforms your Devastate ability into Deconstruct, which deals Arcane damage based on your weapon damage, further increased by your spell damage. Deconstruct applies Sunder Armor and scales with modifiers to Devastate. When Deconstruct is used on a target with Sunder Armor, you gain spell damage equal to 120% of your level for 1 second per stack of Sunder Armor.
And Lightning hybrids
- Stormhammer now lasts 8 seconds, up from 6 seconds, and dealing damage with Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning while Stormhammer is active will now reduce the cooldown of Concussion Blow (Stormhammer) by 8 seconds, up from 5 seconds.
Thundering Blow now deals 15% extra damage as Nature, up from 10%. - Thunder Clap no longer has a stance requirement.
- Thundering Blow now deals 15% extra damage as Nature, up from 10%.
- Fixed an issue where Voodoo Power would not properly apply to Stormstrike.
- Fixed an issue where Thunderstruck would not apply its effect properly.
These changes and bugfixes pave the way for a variety of Lightning melee-caster hybrid builds. Whether you choose to approach them from a Melee, Caster or Tank archetype is up to you. A lot of synergies and investment options already exist, but this patch also brings two new building blocks:
- [New Epic Enchant] Thunder and Lightning - Your Lightning Shield orbs increase the damage of your Thunder Clap by 3% per active orb. Dealing damage with Lightning Shield reduces the cooldown of your Thunder Clap by 2 seconds.
- [New Legendary Enchant] Stormborn - Elemental Mastery now also increases your melee haste by 15% and halves the cooldown of your Stormstrike. While Elemental Mastery or Shamanistic Rage are active, your Stormstrike deals additional Nature damage to all enemies in front of you. In addition, the damage of your Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning spells is now increased by 20% your attack power, and your Lightning Shield orbs by 10% of your attack power.
Proc Mystic Enchant buffs
- The Unbounded Deathbringer Mystic Enchant now heals you for 50% of the damage, down from 70%, but now deals 50% more damage.
- The Deathbringer Mystic Enchant now heals you for 50% of the damage, down from 70%, but now deals 50% more damage.
- Unbounded Spell Slinger now reduces the mana cost of your next ability by 20%, up from 10%. In addition, its damage has been increased by 30%.
- Amal'thazad's Curse has been reworked. It now reads: Your damaging abilities have a chance to call forth Amal'thazad's Curse, chilling yourself but granting you 1% critical strike chance per stack. Amal'thazad's Curse also deals frost damage to your target and chills enemies near the target, reducing their movement speed by 5%, stacking 5 times.
- Harbinger of Flame now also increases your Fire damage done to the targets affected by Flame Burst by 3%, and Flame Burst now lasts for 5 seconds.
- The Stormbringer Legendary Mystic Enchant has been reworked, it now reads: Your damaging abilities have a chance to strike your target's location with lightning, dealing additional Nature damage to the target and leaving an electrified area slowing enemies by 50% and dealing damage every second for 4 seconds.
Some old legendary mystic enchants from a different era have fallen out of use. Redesigning existing enchants means that while you get something new you also lose the option of using something you may have liked, even if it wasn’t popular. That’s the reason you typically see more new enchants than reworks of old ones, and also why these changes above aren’t redesigns - they are buffs!
Talent investment tweaks
- Blink now has a 45 second cooldown, changed from 40. Improved Blink now reduces the cooldown of Blink by 4/8/12 seconds, changed from 3/6/9.
- Spell Lock now has a 60 second cooldown, changed from 40. Devour Magic now has a 40 second cooldown, changed from 20. Improved Felhunter is now a 3 point talent, changed from 2. It now reduces the cooldown of Spell Lock and Devour Magic by 7/14/20 seconds.
- Slow now reduces casting speed by 15%, changed from 30%. Arcane Instability now also increases the casting speed reduction effect of your Slow spell by 5/10/15%.
- Ghost Wolf now also reduces damage taken by 15%. Toughness (Enhancement) no longer reduces damage taken while in Ghost Wolf.
- Hand of Protection now also makes its target immune to Interrupt and Silence mechanics for its duration, has a 3 minute cooldown, changed from 5 and shares a 30 seconds cooldown with Divine Shield and Ice Block.
- Improved Travel form is now a 3 point talent, changed from 5.
- Psychic Horror now disarms the target for 4 seconds.Grip of Horror now also increases the duration of Psychic Horror's disarm by 1/2/3 seconds, and had its capstone reworked:
- [New Capstone] Grip of Horror - Psychic Horror's disarm effect also reduces all damage dealt by the target by 20%.
The last big update we did saw some serious changes to how the most iconic spells and abilities work on Ascension. We’ve seen players experiment both with deep investment to make these abilities truly powerful and with using them without paying the price of specialization. Generally the result is that toolkits vary more widely from player to player, and there’s an increased variety of spells and abilities that are successful at the highest levels of play.
With this update we’re making a few additions and adjustments to the system. Some powerful spells that were powerful due to not requiring investment (like Slow) now do, and some investment options (such as Improved Travel Form and Grip of Horror) that were too expensive have had their costs lowered or their effects buffed.
Resistance formula rework
The way Resistance works has been adjusted in a way that will make this stat be more consistent and make gauging the power of additional Resistance easier. Previously, each point of Resistance gave you the same amount of damage reduction. This meant that going from 0% to 1% damage reduction took the same resistance gain as going from 50% to 51%. That also meant that the marginal value of Resistance was twice as high if you already have 50% damage reduction. With the new formula two issues are resolved, these are:
- The marginal value of resistance is now fixed, making it equally effective at reducing your overall damage taken no matter how much resistance you already have.
- Resistance now has a more appropriate level scaling, making it more valuable at lower levels but requiring higher resistance to reach the 75% cap at max level.
Altogether, this will mean that Resistance is more consistent and that it will be more difficult to stack it to the point where Resistance lets you completely ignore encounter mechanics or create negative gameplay experiences in PvP. You can find more detailed information about this change on our wiki.
Coming soon: You will want one of these 2v2 Arena Tabards
Starting soon(™) there’ll be a whole new way to show off your PvP prowess! There are brand-new Tabards that not only look cool, but also trigger a visual effect on players you kill.
There are six of these tabards in total. Two of them are Competitor’s Tabards, which are found in Arena Frenzy caches. The remaining four are Gladiator’s Tabards, purchased with arena points and requiring a 2v2 arena rating of 2200 or above.
If a few days from now you find a strong opponent in the world and after a hard struggle see your corpse freeze solid, your spirit fly out of your body or your remains explode into a pile of flesh... you’ll know what struck you.
