The following changes will be released in the 12.0.1 update that launches a few weeks after the Midnight pre-expansion update, but before the launch of Midnight.
CLASSES
DEATH KNIGHT
Hero Talents
Deathbringer
Frost
Deathly Blows now has an additional effect – Reaper’s Mark grants 3 stacks of Bonegrinder if it is known.
Frost
Apex Talents: Chosen of Frostbrood rank 2 and 3 now have an additional effect – Enduring Strength increases your Strength by an additional 4%/8%.
Apex Talents: Chosen of Frostbrood rank 4 now has an additional effect – Additionally increases all Frost damage by 10%.
Breath of Sindragosa and Frostwyrm’s Fury cooldowns are no longer reset after an encounter.
Unholy
Developers’ notes: In this week’s build, we’re looking at a couple of topics that we’ve seen a lot of feedback around. Overall, we’re focusing on the power distribution between abilities and the talents that empower them. Some abilities such as Army of the Dead lacked baseline power and relied heavily on other talents to make them feel impactful. Another example is the Apex Talents. While the first node provided a good amount of power, the rest of the nodes did not add much. With this power redistribution in mind, we are also aiming to resolve some rotational quality of life issues such as the permanent Outbreak override, button bloat during cooldowns, the reduced global cooldown of Apex Talents, and some talents that are feeling like they should be baseline such as Rapid Variant and Necromancer’s Cunning.
New Talent: Scythe of Decay – Festering Scythe casts a Death and Decay at the target location. Can only occur every 30 seconds. Reduced to 15 seconds with Death’s Echo. Replaces Death and Decay.
Superstrain has been redesigned – Dread Plague deals damage to an additional nearby enemy at 50% effectiveness and has a chance to grant you 4 Runic Power.
Reanimation has been updated – Putrefy now summons a Magus of the Dead for 15 seconds (was 8 seconds).
Pestilence has been updated – Dark Transformation upgrades your next Outbreak to Pestilence. The rest of the effect remains the same.
Pestilence now deals 150% of the remaining damage of Plagues instantly (was 100%).
Magus of the Dead has been updated – Army of the Dead now again also summons a Magus of the Dead for 15 seconds.
Army of the Dead has been updated – Summons a legion of 8 empowered Lesser Ghouls that last for 15 seconds. Generates 40 additional Runic Power. Reduced to 4 Lesser Ghouls in PvP combat
Raise Abomination and Gargoyle no longer putrefies 2 Lesser Ghouls.
Forbidden Knowledge rank 1 now lasts for 25 seconds.
Forbidden Knowledge rank 2/3 has been redesigned – Putrefy causes your next Scourge Strike to summon a Lesser Ghoul and grants 3/6% Mastery for 12 seconds. Multiple applications may overlap.
Forbidden Knowledge rank 4 has been redesigned – Each Magus of the Dead under your command increases the damage of Necrotic Coil and Graveyard by 8%. Dread Plague has a 15% chance to rouse the dead, causing a Lesser Ghoul to unearth and leap at the target to Putrefy at 60% effectiveness.
Soul Reaper increases Putrefy damage.
Soul Reaper debuff tooltip updated to show disease damage increase.
Soul Reaper now consumes all available Putrefy charges to cast Putrefy at its target.
Unholy Devotion now lasts for 12 seconds (was 5 seconds).
Rapid Variant is now an inherent effect for Dread Plague and now takes enemy bounding box into account for distance calculations.
Putrefy now summons a Lesser Ghoul inherently. The rest of Necromancer’s Cunning’s effects remain the same.
Dark Transformation now lasts 15 seconds (was 12 seconds) and is extended by Death Coil and Epidemic by 1 second (was 0.5 seconds).
Necrotic Coil and Graveyard now costs 30 Runic Power (was 20).
Necrotic Coil and Graveyard no longer have a reduced global cooldown (was 1 second).
Graveyard damage increased by 40%.
Blightfall now increases all disease damage by 5% (was 10%).
Sudden Doom now reduces the cost of Death Coil and Epidemic by 15 Runic Power (was 10).
DRUID
Restoration
Renewing Surge has been updated – Swiftmend cooldown is reduced by 15%, increasing up to 30% on lower health targets. (Benefit is maximized when healing a target at 50% or below.)
Renewing Surge no longer reduced by 25% in PvP combat.
Fixed an issue where the Abundance tooltip would say Regrowth’s cast time is reduced by 0%.
HUNTER
Beast Mastery
Developers’ notes: Our goal with this iteration of Beast Mastery’s Apex Talent is to add more rotational direction and depth. We’re also having it pull an Animal Companion from your Stables to help the Apex Talent synergize with more builds, playstyles, and player fantasies.
Apex Talents: Nature’s Ally have been redesigned –
Bestial Wrath summons an Animal Companion from your Stable to fight alongside you for 15 seconds. The summoned Animal Companion obeys your Kill Command, Wild Thrash, and Stomps alongside your other pets.
Damage dealt by your pets is increased by 5%/10%. Bestial Wrath strikes 2/4 additional targets.
Barbed Shot and Cobra Shot damage increased by 30%. Barbed Shot, Cobra Shot, and Black Arrow increases the damage of your next Kill Command by 30%.
PALADIN
Hero Talents
Herald of the Sun
Retribution
Developers’ notes: In this week’s updates, we’re focusing on rotational bloat during major cooldowns, tuning and Herald of the Sun updates. For Herald of the Sun we are aiming to make quality of life changes that have tuning implications such as the Sun’s Avatar effect width and the way Dawnlight’s are applied by Divine Storm. For Herald of the Sun’s rotational clarity, we are making Hammer of Wrath clear choice as the Holy Power builder to use during Avenging Wrath. Our ultimate goal is to have Herald of the Sun be a viable option against Templar for those who enjoy its playstyle or are looking for a change of pace.
Walk Into Light now has an additional effect – During Avenging Wrath, Hammer of Wrath consumes an available charge to pierce the enemy with Blade of Justice.
Endless Gleam now has an additional effect – When 2 Dawnlights are struck by Divine Storm, their durations are extended by an additional 0.3 seconds.
Dawnlight radiates 5% of the its damage and healing to nearby allies or enemies.
Sun’s Avatar damage spell now takes enemy bounding box into account for distance calculations.
Sun’s Avatar damage spell rectangle is now 5 yards wide (was 3 yards).
Sun’s Avatar period increased to 1 second (was 0.5 seconds).
Sun’s Avatar damage increased by 20%.
Divine Storm will now apply the second Dawnlight to an unaffected enemy hit.
Fixed an issue that caused Blessing of An’she to not activate from Judgment casts.
Fixed an issue that caused Blessing of An’she to not increase the damage of Hammer of Wrath.
Fixed an issue that caused Divine Toll to grant 2 additional charges of Dawnlights.
Templar
An issue causing Divine Toll to grant Hammer of Light has been resolved.
An issue causing Divine Resonance to extend the duration of Divine Hammer with each cast of Judgment has been resolved.
Holy
Fixed an issue that caused Veneration to now grant absorb shields from Hammer of Wrath casts.
Retribution
Midnight 4-set bonus has been updated – Final Verdict now applies Expurgation at 100% effectiveness (was 50%). Divine Storm now applies Expurgation at 50% effectiveness (was 25%).
Quickened Invocation now reduces the cooldown of Divine Toll by 30 seconds (was 15 seconds).
PRIEST
Class
Shackle Undead has been renamed to Shackle Horror and can now additionally be used against Aberrations.
Holy
Benediction (not the Apex talent) has been renamed to Light’s Resurgence.
SHAMAN
Enhancement
Surging Currents now grants a charge per cast of Tempest.
Raging Maelstrom stacks no longer reset with each Maelstrom Weapon spender casts.
Restoration
The final rank of Stormstream Totem has been redesigned – Casting Ancestral Swiftness or Nature’s Swiftness grants a use of Stormstream Totem and Stormstream Totem no longer consumes a charge of Healing Stream Totem when used.
The second and third rank of Stormstream Totem now increase the healing done by Healing Stream Totem and Stormstream Totem by 20%/40% (was 30%/60%).
Healing Rain healing increased by 40%.
WARLOCK
Demonology
Dominion of Argus no longer has a chance to summon a Doommaiden but now has a chance to summon Grand Warlock Alythess or Lady Sacrolash.
WARRIOR
Arms
Apex Talent: Master of Warfare – Middle node now increases Mortal Strike, Cleave, and Overpower damage (was only Mortal Strike and Cleave) by 2.5%/5% per stack (was 5%/10%).
TRANSMOG
With the introduction to the updated transmog system, Venthyr Covenant members who have unlocked the Bewitched Wardrobe will receive a discount on outfit changes while participating in the Ember Court feature.