A new build has hit the public test realms for the upcoming 20th Anniversary Update. Blizzard has posted their development notes for this build, and it contains a bunch of new class changes as well as a few UI adjustments.
Most classes have one or two changes in the mix, which you can see in the complete list below. Restoration Druids and Enhancement Shamans are both getting some new talents, and so are Rogues, who seem to be getting the most significant changes overall.
There’s also a change included for Dracthyr: Tail Swipe will no longer be a racial ability, but will instead be a baseline ability for the Evoker class.
Linxy – (Source)
PUBLIC TEST REALMS
- Character copy is now available and character templates have been turned off.
THE DRACTHYR SPREAD THEIR WINGS TO NEW CLASSES
- Dracthyr Racial Updates
- Tail Swipe is no longer a racial for Dracthyr. Tail Swipe is now learned baseline for Evokers.
CLASSES
- DEATH KNIGHT
- Blood
- San’layn
- Gift of the San’layn has been updated – While Dancing Rune Weapon is active you gain Gift of the San’layn (was Vampiric Blood).
- San’layn
- Blood
- DRUID
- Restoration
- New Talent: Twinleaf – Nature’s Swiftness now has 2 charges.
- New Talent: Wildwood Roots – Abundance now also reduces the cast time of Regrowth by 5% per stack. Cenarion Ward’s cooldown is reduced by 10 seconds and its duration is increased by 2 seconds.
- New Talent: Renewing Surge – The cooldown of Swiftmend is reduced by up to 40%, based on the current health of the target. Cooldown is reduced more when cast on a lower health target.
- New Talent: Forest’s Flow – Consuming Clearcasting now causes your Regrowth to also cast Nourish onto a nearby injured ally at 60% effectiveness, preferring those with your heal over time effects.
- Dream of Cenarius has been redesigned – Wrath and Shred transfer 50% of their damage and Starfire and Swipe transfer 33% of their damage into healing onto a nearby ally. This effect is increased by 200% while Heart of the Wild is active.
- Omen of Clarity is now a passive ability learned at level 12 (was a talent).
- Harmonious Blooming is now a 1-point talent.
- Flourish’s visual effect has been improved.
- Restoration
- EVOKER
- Unravel damage increased by 25%.
- Tail Swipe is now learned baseline for Evokers.
- Devastation
- Unravel now benefits from and consumes Iridescence: Blue.
- HUNTER
- Hero Talents
- Pack Leader
- Scattered Prey duration increased to 20 seconds (was 15 seconds).
- Pack Leader
- Survival
- Grenade Juggler has been updated – Now resets the cooldown of Explosive Shot instead of automatically firing it.
- Developer’s note: By allowing you to manually fire Explosive Shot, we can open up this talent’s ability to synergize with existing effects (like Grenade Juggler’s own cooldown reduction) while also eliminating some frustrating edge-cases.
- Relentless Marauder has been updated – Now also increases Fury of the Eagle’s damage by 10%.
- Frenzy Strikes Wildfire Bomb cooldown reduction per target hit increased to 3 seconds (was 1 second).
- Merciless Blow duration reduced to 8 seconds (was 12 seconds).
- Killer Companion now increases Kill Command’s damage by 10/20% (was 5/10%).
- Sentinel
- Symphonic Arsenal damage increased by 200%.
- Grenade Juggler has been updated – Now resets the cooldown of Explosive Shot instead of automatically firing it.
- Hero Talents
- MAGE
- Hero Talents
- Frostfire
- Excess Fire has been updated – No longer generates Living Bomb. Instead generates a Frostfire Burst, dealing moderate Frostfire damage in an 8 yard radius. Damage reduced beyond 8 targets.
- Frostfire
- Arcane
- Sunfury
- Glorious Incandescence has been updated – Now causes Arcane Barrage to deal 30% increased damage in addition to its previous effects.
- Memory of Al’ar’s Arcane Soul extension amount increased to 1 second (was 0.5 seconds).
- Ignite the Future now also increases the maximum stacks of Mana Cascade to 15.
- Burden of Power no longer affects Arcane Barrage.
- Fixed an issue that was causing Mana Cascade to grant 0.5% Haste per stack to Arcane instead of 1%.
- Sunfury
- Fire
- Sunfury
- Glorious Incandescence has been updated – Now causes Fire Blast to hit up to 2 nearby targets in addition to its previous effects.
- Memory of Al’ar’s Hyperthermia extension amount increased to 1 second (was 0.5 seconds).
- Sunfury
- Hero Talents
- MONK
- Mistweaver
Crackling Jade Lightning damage increased by 100%.
- Mistweaver
- PALADIN
- Fixed an issue that caused Seal of the Crusader to display the incorrect heal value.
- Fixed an issue that caused Faith’s Armor to appear multiple times in the talent tree for Protection Paladins.
- Hero Talents
- Herald of the Sun
- Dawnlight’s activation stacks now appear on the personal resource display.
- Dawnlight now appears on enemy nameplates.
- Herald of the Sun
- Holy
- Divine Favor now appears on the personal resource display and no longer has a visual effect.
- Awakening’s judgment buff now appears on the personal resource display.
- Protection
- Gift of the Golden Val’kyr is now a 1-point talent.
- Uther’s Counsel is now a 1-point talent.
- Several talents and connections have changed locations.
- ROGUE
Thistle Tea now automatically triggers when energy is reduced below 50.- Thistle Tea now automatically drinks when Energy falls below 30 (was 50).
- New Talent: Supercharger – Shiv/Roll the Bones/Symbols of Death supercharges [1/2] combo points. Damaging finishing moves consume a supercharged combo point to function as if they spent 2 additional combo points. 2-point talent.
- Developer’s note: It is intended that Supercharger’s bonus count towards any ability that scales with combo points spent and not just the damage value of finishing moves. Examples include Rupture’s duration, Poison Bomb’s effect chance, Restless Blades’ cooldown reduction, and Flagellation’s lashes dealt.
- New Talent: Forced Induction – Increase the bonus granted when a damaging finishing move consumes a supercharged combo point by 1. Choice node with Echoing Reprimand.
- Echoing Reprimand has been redesigned – After consuming a supercharged combo point, your next Mutilate/Sinister Strike/Backstab strikes with an Echoing Reprimand dealing Physical damage. Choice node with Forced Induction.
- Cheap Shot duration increased to 6 seconds. PvP duration has not changed (4 seconds).
- Subterfuge now also grants duration to combat bonuses that require Stealth and also have a duration that persists after breaking Stealth, including:
- Take ’em by Surprise (Outlaw)
- Improved Garrote (Assassination)
- Master Assassin (Assassination)
- Indiscriminate Carnage (Assassination)
- The following talents have been removed:
- Resounding Clarity
- Reverberation
- Hero Talents
- Fatebound
- Edge Case now flips a Fatebound Coin on its edge when you activate Deathmark/Adrenaline Rush instead of your next finishing move after activation.
- Trickster
- Coup de Grace now correctly attributes its combo point bonus to abilities that are affected by number of combo points spent, including numerous finishing moves and passives, similar to the function of the Supercharger talent.
- Activating Coup de Grace no longer grants 1 second of immunity that prevents player actions for the duration.
- Fatebound
- Assassination
- Master Assassin duration increased to 6 seconds (was 3 seconds) and bonus to critical strike reduced to 25% (was 30%).
- Iron Wire silence and damage reduction durations reduced to 5 seconds (was 6 seconds and 8 seconds). PvP duration of the damage reduction effect reduced to 3 seconds (was 4 seconds). PvP duration of the silence effect has not changed (3 seconds).
- Outlaw
- Blade Flurry’s initial damage effect radius increased to match the area of its primary effect.
- Subtlety
- The First Dance has been redesigned – Remaining out of combat for 6 seconds increases the duration of your next Shadow Dance by 3 seconds. In PvP combat, the effect requires 10 seconds out of combat and increases Shadow Dance duration by 2 seconds.
- Flagellation cooldown reduced to 1 minute (was 1 minute 30 seconds), lash damage reduced by 25%, initial effect duration reduced to 10 seconds (was 12 seconds), and trailing buff duration reduced to 10 seconds (was 12 seconds).
- SHAMAN
- Elemental
- All damage reduced by 8%.
- Lava Burst damage increased by 20%.
- Earthquake damage increased by 17%.
- Elemental Blast damage increased by 12%.
- Erupting Lava now also increases Flame Shock damage by 25%.
- Stormbringer
- Fixed several issues with interactions between Tempest and other specialization talents.
- An issue with Arc Discharge granting 1 instant cast Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning instead of 2 has been resolved.
- Enhancement
- New Talent: Voltaic Blaze – Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning has a 18% chance to make your next Flame Shock become Voltaic Blaze. Voltaic Blaze instantly shocks the target and 5 nearby enemies with blazing thunder, causing Nature damage and applying Flame Shock. Generates 1 stack of Maelstrom Weapon.
- New Talent: Unrelenting Storm – When Crash Lightning hits only 1 target, it activates Windfury Weapon and its cooldown is reduced by 40%. Choice node with Converging Storms.
- Stormblast has been updated – Stormstrike has an additional charge. Stormsurge now also causes your next Stormstrike to deal 25% additional damage as Nature damage, stacking up to 2 times.
- Stormblast’s additional Nature damage now functions for both Main-hand and Off-hand attacks.
- Arc Lightning has been updated – Tempest causes your next Chain Lightning or Lightning Bolt to be instant cast, deal 40% increased damage, and cast an additional time.
- Thorim’s Invocation has been slightly adjusted – If Thorim’s Invocation is slated to use Chain Lightning, it will no longer cast a 5-stack tempest as a replacement of Chain Lightning when using Windstrike.
- Thorim’s Invocation’s old effect has been added back – 20% increased Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning damage.
- Deeply Rooted Elements now activates from Tempest, Lightning Bolt, or Chain Lightning.
- The damage effect of Doom Winds is no longer considered a melee weapon attack and does not generate Maelstrom Weapon or trigger Flametongue Weapon.
- An issue causing Primal Maelstrom to still grant 5/10 tacks Maelstrom Weapon instead of 3/5 has been resolved.
- Ice Strike is now a choice node between a new ranged version and the existing melee version.
- Ice Strike no longer highlights Frost Shock on the action bars.
- Ice Strikes’ Frost Shock buff is now on personal resource display.
- Lightning Spark has been removed.
- Stormbringer
- Fixed several issues with interactions between Tempest and other specialization talents.
- Elemental
- WARLOCK
- Hero Talents
- Diabolist
- The cycle of Diabolic Ritual is now reset when entering an arena, entering a battleground, starting a raid encounter, or starting a Mythic+ dungeon.
- Overlord will now use an alternative attack if there are no available paths for charging. There should be no difference in throughput between the alternative attack and his current attack.
- Diabolist
- Hero Talents
ITEMS
- Fixed an issue where collecting certain Dragonflight Season 4 appearances would not unlock their alternate versions despite using the Gleaming Incarnate Thunderstone, Obsidian Aspectral Earthstone, or Emerald Blossom Dreamstone.
PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER
- DRUID
- Restoration
- Nature’s Swiftness healing bonus is now 40% less effective in PvP combat.
- Cenarion Ward healing is decreased by 20% in PvP combat.
- Renewing Surge is 75% effective in PvP combat.
- Forest’s Flow is 50% effective in PvP combat.
- Restoration
USER INTERFACE AND ACCESSIBILITY
- WARBAND BANK
- “Deposit All Warbound Items” will now also deposit refundable items.
- The confirmation that displays when cleaning up the Warband Bank can now be marked as “don’t show again.”
- Errors that display when attempting to restore a deleted character will now give more detail on what problem occurred.
- Various character select screen icons have been updated: character has mail, character locked, and character transfer in process.
- Various map icons have been adjusted for better visibility: flightmaster, teleporter, meta quests, and repeatable quests.