- Author: Luxrah
- Date: August 30, 2024
- Updated: August 30, 2024
- Expansion: WoW Classic
The Blackwing Lair and Zul’Gurub raids arrive on the public test realm today for Season of Discovery. In preparation, Blizzard has created a testing forum and posted their development notes for the patch. No doubt there is additional content that will be included in Phase 5 which is currently being kept under wraps, but we now know a bit more about the two revamped raids that will be coming as well as some of the impending class and rune changes.
Blackwing Lair will be a 20-40 player instance, while Zul’Gurub will be a 10-20 player size. Both raids will be tuned for the low end of their size with no scaling and no extra loot for additional players. Essentially, groups will be able to bring additional players for an easier clear, but each individual player will have a slightly lower chance at loot. There are no indications of varied difficulty levels like we saw with Molten Core’s Heat mechanic.
There are adjustments coming for every class, with some runes once again moving to a different slot. And mana users rejoice: there will be a skill book added for mages to learn rank 8 Conjure Water, which was previously not available until Burning Crusade.
Two new utility runes are inbound for the ring slot for healers: a Healing Specialization rune, which increases healing by up to 26, and a Meditation Specialization rune, which increases mp5 by 5. So there will be two new runes to discover in Phase 5, finally giving healers something useful to put in those slots.
The development notes also include a list of known issues for players who plan to test the content on the PTR. Raid testing begins today at 10 AM PDT.
Welcome to the public test for Season of Discovery.
Version: 1.15.4
Build: 56400
Date: Aug 29, 2024
Testing Focus
Blackwing Lair and Zul’Gurub
In Season of Discovery, Blackwing Lair is a 20-40 player raid dungeon and Zul’gurub is a 10-20 player raid dungeon. Blackwing Lair is tuned for 20 players but will allow up to 40 players inside the dungeon, and Zul’Gurub is tuned for 10 players but will allow up to 20 inside. The difficulty will not scale or change, and the number of loot drops does not increase or decrease based on the number of participants in the raid.
You will be able to speak with an NPC to port directly into Blacking Lair or Zul’Gurub from Stormwind or Orgrimmar. For raid testing, we’ve enabled character copy from live Season of Discovery realms, as well as having added Molten Core loot, consumables, and other helpful items to the NPC vendors in Stormwind and Orgrimmar.
Class Adjustments
Druid
- Wild Strikes: The tooltip on the Wild Strikes rune now states it applies to raid.
- Dreamstate: Now always triggers from Starsurge, regardless of being a critical strike or not. In addition, it now also increases Arcane damage taken by the target by 20%.
Hunter
- Beast Mastery: This rune is now a chest rune. Existing Beast Mastery engravings will appear as a “Damaged Rune”.
- Cobra Slayer: This rune is now a gloves rune. Existing Cobra Slayer engravings will appear as a “Damaged Rune”.
- Lone Wolf: The bonus damage from this rune has been decreased to 30% from 35%.
- Improved Volley: This rune now also increases Volley damage by 100%.
- Hit and Run: This rune now increases movement speed after using Raptor Strike by 30% for 15 seconds, up from 15% for 8 seconds.
- Catlike Reflexes: This rune no longer mentions the removed ability Kill Command.
- Lock and Load: This rune’s effect now has an 8 second cooldown.
Mage
- Conjure Water (Rank 8): Mages can now learn to summon Rank 8 water without crossing through the Dark Portal. It can be learned via a skill book found somewhere in the world.
- Mana Gems: Mana Gems in Season of Discovery now cost no mana to summon.
- Regeneration: Mana cost reduced by approximately 35%.
- Mass Regeneration: Mana cost reduced by approximately 35%.
Paladin
- Horn of Lordaeron: This ability is back and now available as a skill book to Paladins, Testament of Horn of Lordaeron. It can be acquired via a new Paladin quest.
Priest
- Vampiric Embrace: In Season of Discovery, Vampiric Embrace now converts 10% of Shadow spell damage done into healing, down from 20%. It can still be improved by up to 10% via the Improved Vampiric Embrace talent.
- Despair: Now also increases critical strike damage to 200% for all Priest spells. It previously only increased the critical strike damage of periodic spells.
Rogue
- Just a Flesh Wound: Now also decreases Physical damage dealt by 20% while Blade Dance is active. Threat bonus increased to 165%, was 111%.
Shaman
- Power Surge: This rune has been slightly redesigned. Flame Shock periodic damage can no longer make the Shaman’s next Chain Heal instant, and Riptide periodic healing can no longer reset the cooldown on Lava Burst and Chain Lightning and can no longer make those spells instant.
Warlock
- Demonic Grace: The dodge chance and critical strike chance bonuses from this ability have been reduced to 20% from 30%.
- Metamorphosis: Now also decreases all damage done by the Warlock by 20%. Threat now increased by 85%, up from 50%.
Warrior
- Quick Strike: The percentage of Attack Power deal as damage by this ability has been increases to 25% to 35%, up from 10% to 20%.
- Frenzied Assault: Attack speed increase from this rune increased to 30% from 20%. In addition, it now also causes the Warrior to gain 2 Rage each time they hit with a melee attack.
- Devastate: The damage dealt by this rune now generates 50% increased threat while the Warrior is in Defensive Stance (does not apply while in Gladiator Stance).
- Fresh Meat: Now also triggers from Mortal Strike and Shield Slam.
- Rampage: No longer triggers or is limited by the global cooldown.
Ring Engravings
- Ranged Weapon Specialization: This ring rune now also increases the chance for Beast pets to hit by 2%.
- Healing Specialization: This new ring rune increases Healing by up to 26. It can be found via a new discovery.
- Meditation Specialization: This new ring rune increases Mana regenerated every 5 seconds by 5. It can be found via a new discovery.
Known Issues
User Interface
- Characters copied from live realms are missing flight paths.
- The Dropdown menus present on the Auction House frame are incorrectly overlapping other areas within the UI.
- There are missing and stretched textures present in the Options menu.
- There is an issue preventing you from being able to adjust anti-aliasing settings.
- The In-game Audio/Text language option menu is not displaying text.
- Interface errors may occur in some areas of the outdoor world.
- The “friend of friends” background window is missing.
- Enabling and disabling visible action bars has several issues:
- Action bar settings may not be remembered after reloading UI or relogging.
- Action bar check boxes may hide or reveal the incorrect action bar.
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