By
Staff
Blizzard have posted this week’s first 10.1.5 PTR notes, and we get to find out about the Time Rifts! There’s also plenty of class tuning and UI changes, so let’s take a look.
Notes (Source)
TIME RIFTS
The time streams have become a bit more unstable with recent events and as the boundaries between the timelines weaken, minions from other timelines have begun making their way into Azeroth. Players will join together to take on Time Rifts, push back against the waves of minions, and plug the hole to set the timeways straight again.
CLASSES
Developers’ note: We are updating player totems and pets that are immune to buffs and debuffs to now only be immune to buffs. This is primarily a PvP change to allow damage over time effects to apply to totems so that all specializations have reasonable means to damage them.
DRUID
Nature’s Vigil duration is now 15 seconds (was 30 seconds).
Developers’ Note: We are reducing the effectiveness of group healing from DPS from damage-to-healing conversion sources. The abilities affected are Vampiric Embrace, Nature’s Vigil, and Ancestral Guidance. While we want hybrid DPS to be able to contribute healing to the group, these spells have become powerful enough to temporarily alleviate a healer’s role without interrupting the hybrid’s DPS rotation. The Nature’s Vigil change above will be coming in a future PTR build.
Balance
Developers’ note: The following changes are working toward providing more build diversity for Balance Druids, though we’re happy with the current builds and want them to remain popular. We’d like Stellar Flare to be a competitive option against a small number of targets, so we’re reducing the duration of Astral Smolder to make Stellar Flare or Wild Mushrooms more competitive at maintaining Waning Twilight. We’re equalizing New Moon and Fury of Elune a bit and easing up on the importance of entering Eclipse with a Nature’s Grace change. Since many of these tweaks involve pulling back the power of current popular options, we’re increasing Balance’s damage across the board to compensate.
All spell damage dealt increased by 5%.
Waning Twilight damage and healing increased to 10% (was 8%).
Astral Smolder duration is now 4 seconds (was 8 seconds).
Wild Surges bonus to Wrath and Starfire critical strike chance reduced to 12% (was 15%).
Warrior of Elune now starts its cooldown as soon as it’s activated, but the bonuses to your next 3 Starfires must be used within 25 seconds.
Lunar Shrapnel has been redesigned – Starfall deals 20% increased damage and is now a 1 point talent.
Umbral Intensity increases damage dealt by Wrath by 20% per point (was 10%) and the damage Starfire deals to nearby targets increased by 15% per point (was 10%).
Nature’s Grace now only triggers after an Eclipse ends, not when extending an Eclipse with Celestial Alignment.
Fury of Elune damage reduced by 10%.
Radiant Moonlight Fury of Elune cooldown reduction is now 15 seconds (was 20 seconds).
New Moon damage increased by 100%.
Half Moon damage increased by 45%.
Full Moon damage increased by 15%.
Orbit Breaker’s Full Moon power is now 60% (was 80%).
The Primordial Arcanic Pulsar tracking buff now counts up to 100, instead of 15 (this is a cosmetic change only).
EVOKER
Emerald Blossom’s flower now grows immediately on cast and heals after 1.5 seconds (was 2 seconds).
Augmentation
Pupil of Alexstrazsa now only launches 1 additional Living Flame when Leaping Flames is active (previously, it was casting an extra Living Flame for every Leaping Flames charge).
New Talent: Dream of Spring – Emerald Blossom no longer has a cooldown, deals 35% increased healing, and increases the duration of your active Ebon Might effects by 1 second, but costs 3 Essence. Emerald Blossom will now benefit from and consume Essence Burst.
Developer’s Note: In a future PTR update, Dream of Spring will be moved to be a choice node with Prolong Life.
Activate Weyrnstone is now usable while moving.
Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible Set Bonus has been implemented:
2-Set Bonus: Ebon Might increases the damage of your empower spells by 30%.
4-Set Bonus: Ebon Might grants an additional 1% primary stat to each ally.
Developer’s Notes: Augmentation’s set bonus for Vault of the Incarnates will be added in a future PTR update.
Preservation
Life-Giver’s Flame now heals up to 5 injured targets, split evenly amongst them (was 1 injured target). Range increased to 40 yards (was 25 yards).
PALADIN
Holy
New Talent: Blessed Light – Glimmer of Light’s healing and damage is increased by 10%, but it can only affect 1 target at a time.
Divine Revelations has been redesigned – While empowered by Infusion of Light, Flash of Light heals for an additional 20%, and Holy Light or Judgment refund 1% of your maximum mana.
Tyr’s Deliverance now also increases the healing of Holy Shock by 25%.
Boundless Salvation now also triggers from Holy Shock to extend the duration of Tyr’s Deliverance by 2.5 seconds.
Boundless Salvation’s tooltip has been updated to be more succinct.
Daybreak now triggers Glimmer of Light for 150% value and no longer costs Mana.
Avenging Wrath: Might now increases critical strike chance by 15% (was 20%).
Avenging Wrath now increases healing and damage by 15% (was 20%).
Avenging Crusader now transfers 400% of damage dealt (was 500%).
Touch of Light healing increased by 700%.
Crusader Strike cooldown increased by 30% (was 50%).
Infusion of Light now causes Flash of Light to cost 70% less mana (was 30%) and causes Holy Light to generate 2 Holy Power (was 1).
Hand of Divinity now reduces the mana cost of Holy Light by 100%.
Shield of the Righteous damage increased by 30% and now reduces the cooldown of Crusader Strike by 2 seconds.
Shield of the Righteous now obeys the global cooldown and no longer increases Armor.
Fixed an issue that caused Holy Shock’s cooldown to not scale with Haste.
PRIEST
Shadow
The duration of Vampiric Embrace is now 12 seconds (was 15 seconds).
Developers’ Note: We are reducing the effectiveness of group healing from DPS from damage-to-healing conversion sources. The abilities affected are Vampiric Embrace, Nature’s Vigil, and Ancestral Guidance. While we want hybrid DPS to be able to contribute healing to the group, these spells have become powerful enough to temporarily alleviate a healer’s role without interrupting the hybrid’s DPS rotation.
ROGUE
Outlaw
Grand Melee, one of the buffs granted by Roll the Bones, has been redesigned – Blade Flurry deals 10% additional damage to nearby enemies, including your primary target.
SHAMAN
Brimming with Life now increases your maximum health by 8% at all times (was while Reincarnation is off cooldown).
Developers’ note: This talent change should allow Shaman to use their Reincarnation ability without worrying about their health being lower for subsequent pulls or the rest of a dungeon where the lower maximum health might be a liability.
Ancestral Guidance now only converts single target damaging abilities into healing (was all damage abilities). The conversion of healing spells into healing has been unchanged.
Developers’ Note: We are reducing the effectiveness of group healing from DPS from damage-to-healing conversion sources. The abilities affected are Vampiric Embrace, Nature’s Vigil, and Ancestral Guidance. While we want hybrid DPS to be able to contribute healing to the group, these spells have become powerful enough to temporarily alleviate a healer’s role without interrupting the hybrid’s DPS rotation.
Ancestral Guidance is a powerful hybrid tool, but it was providing too much healing to your party when combined with big bursts of area damage. Abilities such as Primordial Wave that change your single target damage spell into something that hits multiple targets will be adjusted to only work from the initial Lightning Bolt or Lava Burst cast, any subsequent targets will not count as damage dealt to convert to healing.
Elemental
Earthquake’s tooltip now states that multiple Earthquakes can overlap.
Developers’ note: This is not a change in functionality, only a clarification on the spell’s tooltip.
ITEMS AND REWARDS
PROFESSIONS
Cooking
Roland, your befriended Recipe Rat, will now train a player’s other characters the recipes for Deviously Deviled Eggs and Charitable Cheddar without needing to locate him again in Zskera Vaults or Zaralek Cavern.
PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER
EVOKER
Augmentation
New PvP Talent: Born in Flame – Ebon Might causes your Living Flame to become instant cast while it is active.
USER INTERFACE AND ACCESSIBILITY
Action bar icons have updated animations for:
Cooldowns
Action bar icons now show a cast bar while casting or channeling, and a green targeting circle when placing a targeted ability.
Arena unit frames have been updated:
Arena frames will always show debuffs.
Arena frames will now show loss of control debuffs in a larger icon next to the unit frame.
