PTR Development Notes for Phase 4 of Season of Discovery

WoW Classic Season of Discovery Phase 4 PTR Development Notes – June 12th, 2024

Welcome to the WoW Classic Season of Discovery patch 1.15.3/Phase 4 PTR. Below you’ll find a list of notable changes available for test as well as information about how to access testing vendors, the test raid boss, and more.

Testing Focus
The focus of our first round of PTR is to evaluate level 60 classes with all runes available and an initial round of class and rune adjustments. Please note that we do not currently consider any class to be in its “final” state and expect many classes to continue to change throughout the PTR process, and we are eager for class feedback as we move forward towards the release of Phase 4. Please note that while new raid content, rune discoveries, and most other new content (including new dungeon drops) will not be available, the Sunken Temple as well as all normal dungeons will be available should you wish to test dungeon runs or the previous raids with the current round of class adjustments.

Accessing the PTR
Once you’ve launched the WoW Classic Era PTR from your dropdown, you’ll want to find the “Seasonal” Tab on realm selection. You can find the Classic Seasonal PTR realm there.

Level 60 Character Templates

• In order to access Level 60 Character Templates you simply need to create a new character on the Classic Seasonal PTR realm. When doing so, your newly created character will be automatically leveled to 60 and have gear in their bags.
• Level 60 Templates are equipped with the newly revamped Dungeon or “Tier 0” sets. These characters also have a selection of other gear and supplies in their bags, including the new Dungeon Upgrade or “Tier 0.5” sets. Please note that these sets and set bonuses are currently a work in progress.
• Additionally, all characters have access to all rune abilities up through level 60, as well as any abilities that are learned from skillbooks, including any former rune abilities which have been made baseline in Phase 4

Phase 4 Vendors and Test Dummies

• Three new vendors have been set up in Stormwind and Orgrimmar selling basic supplies such as consumables, enchants, and gear from the Sunken Temple raid should players choose to utilize them.
• Target dummies may also be found just outside of the main entrances to Stormwind and Orgrimmar.

Accessing the Searing Basin Test Raid
We’ve set up a test instance called the Searing Basin which may be accessed by speaking with Gurgthock in Stormwind and Orgrimmar to teleport to the instance.

• You may enter The Searing Basin solo or with a raid group of up to 20 people.
• The Boss “Testwerk” is available for you to test with. Please note that Testwerk will require tanks and healers to engage.

Phase 4 Class Adjustments
Please note that these notes are not comprehensive nor final and we anticipate making additional adjustments to various classes throughout the PTR period. Please also note that many new spells have unfinished audio and visual effects at the current time.

Druid
New Runes – Cloak Slot:

• Improved Swipe: Adds the Swipe (Cat) ability and causes Swipe in Bear form to cause 100% increased damage and hit 3 additional targets.
• Tree of Life: Transform into a Tree of Life. While active reduces the mana cost of all Heal over Time abilities by 20%, increases healing received by all party members by 10%, increases the Druid’s spirit by 25% and increases the Druids armor by 200%, but the druid may not cast any harmful abilities.
• Starfall: The druid calls down a rain of up to 20 falling starts over 10 seconds hitting enemies within 30 yards of the druid for Arcane damage. 90 second cooldown. Cancelled by loss of control effects, mounting, and shapeshifting.

Other Adjustments

• Wild Growth healing reduced by ~50% and mana cost reduced by ~20%. The Tree of Life rune increases Wild Growth healing by 60% while the druid is in Tree Form.
• Rake and Rip damage contributions from attack power increased by roughly 50%.
• Gore’s chance to trigger from Mangle (Cat) and Shred increased to 15% (was 5%).
• The Crusader weapon enchant will now proc for feral druids while in Bear, Dire Bear, and Cat forms.

Hunter
New Runes – Cloak Slot:

• Improved Volley: Increases Volley damage by 3% of attack power each time it deals damage. Volley also no longer has a cooldown and no longer suffers pushback from damaging attacks against the Hunter and the mana cost of Volley is reduced by 50%
• Resourcefulness: Reduces the mana cost of all traps by 100% and their cooldowns by 6 seconds.
• Hit and Run: Raptor Strike increases movement speed by 15% for 4 seconds.

Other Adjustments

• Melee Specialist no longer reduces the base cooldown on Mongoose Bite and Raptor Strike. The rune now also causes Mongoose Bite to have a 30% chance to reset the cooldown on Raptor Strike.
• Heart of the Lion is no longer a rune ability but is now learned as a baseline ability from a skill book
• A new rune has been added in place of Heart of the Lion—Cobra Slayer:
  • Your Mongoose Bite now activates when an enemy dodges your attack, and Mongoose Bite deals additional damage equal to 40% of your attack power.
• The Kill Command Rune has been removed and replaced with a new rune–Kill Shot:
  • You attempt to finish off a wounded target, firing a ranged attack dealing 100% weapon damage plus X. Kill Shot has no minimum range. Kill Shot’s cooldown is reset if used on an enemy that has 20% or less health.
• The Invigoration Rune has been removed and replaced with a new rune—Wyvern Strike:
  • Your Wyvern Sting talent is replaced with Wyvern Strike. A stinging strike that deals 100% weapon damage and poisons the target with a sting for (60% of Attack Power) Nature damage over 6 sec. Only one Sting per Hunter can be active on the target at a time”. 12 second cooldown.
• Chimera Shot resets the cooldown of Wyvern Strike when used on a target afflicted with the Wyvern Strike sting effect.
• The T.N.T. rune now also causes Explosive Trap’s initial damage to be increased by 50% of melee attack power, and Immolation Trap’s total damage to be increased by 50% of melee attack power.
• Lock and Load can no longer benefit Scatter Shot.

Mage
New Runes—Cloak Slot:

• Arcane Barrage: An instant attack dealing high arcane damage. 3 Second Cooldown.
• Overheat: Fire Blast is now castable while casting another spell, is unaffected by the global cooldown, and always crits.
• Frozen Orb: The Mage launches a frost orb that damages nearby enemies and snares them. Can trigger fingers of frost.

Other Adjustments

• Temporal Anomaly’s shield now stacks if players remain near the orb after the initial hit.
• The cooldown of Temporal Anomaly has been reduced to 30 seconds.
• Advanced Warding has been redesigned and now also allows you to apply your Mage Armor shield buffs to friendly targets as well as causes your Remove Lesser Curse ability to also remove harmful magic effects from your friendly target.

Paladin
New Runes—Cloak Slot:

• Shield of Righteousness: Slam the target with your shield, causing Holy damage based on your block value. 6 second cooldown.
• Vindicator: Your Vindication talent now also decreases the targets Attack Power and increases the Paladin’s Strength, Agility and Attack Power by up to 20% for 10 seconds.
• Righteous Vengeance: Your Judgement, Crusader Strike, Divine Storm, and Holy Shock abilities now deal an additional percentage of their damage dealt over 8 seconds.

Other Adjustments

• Seal of Martyrdom is no longer a rune ability but is now learned as a baseline ability from a skill book.
• The mana return granted by Seal of Martyrdom is now based on 65% of the damage the paladin takes from the seal (down from 133%).
• A new rune has been added in place of Seal of Martyrdom—Divine Light:
  • A powerful, expensive heal that causes 50% of any excess healing from Divine Light to be converted into an absorb shield for 15 sec. The Absorb shield does not accumulate from multiple casts. Divine Light benefits from most talents and abilities that affect Holy Light.
• Exorcist is no longer a rune ability but is now learned as a baseline ability from a skill book.
• A new rune has been added in place of Exorcist—Aura Mastery:
  • Doubles the magnitude of the paladin’s current Aura for 6 sec.
  • Aura Mastery is not affected by the Global Cooldown.
• Beacon of Light duration is now 1 hour
• Sheathe of Light no longer grants bonus healing
• The damage done by Hammer of the Righteous reduced by 50%, but threat was increased by 100% to compensate
• The bonus healing effect from critical heals was moved from the Sheathe of Light rune to the Fanatacism rune
• Infusion of Light has seen several adjustments:
  • Infusion of Light now increases damage and healing of Holy Shock by 50% (up from 20%, and previously was only healing)
  • Infusion of Light now reduces the cooldown of Holy Shock to 6 seconds
  • Infusion of Light no longer resets the Exorcism cooldown
• Art of War has seen several adjustments:
  • Art of War now only applies cooldown reduction and mana cost reduction to Exorcism
  • Art of War now reduces the remaining cooldown of Exorcism by 1 second for each critical hit rather than fully resetting the cooldown
• The Horn of Lordaeron rune has been removed and replaced with a new rune—Hallowed Ground:
  • Your Consecration now also heals party members within its area for 200% of the damage it deals to enemies.
• The Aegis rune has been redesigned.
  • Now Requires the Redoubt talent to have any effect.
  • Aegis grants 30% increased block value and now also grants redoubt to the paladin on a successful melee critical strike, as well as having a 10% chance to grant redoubt to the paladin when receiving a melee critical strike.
• The Enlightened Judgements rune has been removed and replaced with a new rune—Malleable Protection:
  • You can now take actions during Divine Protection and its duration is increased by 50%, but it only reduces damage you take by 50% instead of granting full damage immunity.
• A new baseline ability has been added from a skill book: Avenging Wrath
  • Increase damage and healing done by 20% for 20 seconds. 2 Minute Cooldown. Causes forbearance.

Priest
New Runes—Cloak Slot:

• Binding Heal: A fast heal that heals a friendly target and the Priest and deals a low amount of Threat. This spell benefits from and triggers all effects associated with Flash Heal.
• Soul Warding: Power World: Shield has no cooldown, a reduced mana cost, and increased magnitude.
• Vampiric Touch: A Damage-over-time effect that grants 2% of damage dealt as mana returned to all party members.

Other Adjustments

• The Void Plague rune has been moved to the boots slot from the chest slot. Any Void Plague runes previously engraved on a Chest or Robe will appear as “faded rune” and will need to be engraved with a different rune to gain a rune effect.

Rogue
New Runes—Cloak Slot:

• Blunderbuss: Fire a musket blast at enemies in a cone in front of the Rogue, dealing physical damage.
• Crimson Tempest: Finishing move that hits all nearby targets with a damage-over-time bleed based on Attack Power. Increased duration and damage per CP.
• Fan of Knives: The Rogue instantly throws both weapons at all targets dealing area effect damage.

Other Adjustments:

• A new Poison has been added—Sebacious Poison:
  • A poison effect that applies an armor debuff (roughly equivalent to Sunder Armor)
• A new poison has been added—Numbing Poison:
  • A poison effect that applies an attack speed debuff (roughly equivalent to Thunderclap)
• A new poison has been added Atrophic Poison:
  • A poison effect that applies an attack power reduction (roughly equivalent to Demoralizing Shout)
• A new Poison has been added—Occult Poison:
  • Occult Poison behaves exactly the same as deadly poison but also increases non-physical damage by 2% per application to a max of 10% bonus damage.
• Deadly Brew will also apply Occult Poison in place of Deadly Poison if you know Occult Poison. The tooltip has been updated to reflect this new interaction.
• Shadowstep is no longer on the Global Cooldown.

Shaman
New Runes—Cloak Slot:

• Storm, Earth, and Fire: Chain Lightning cooldown is reduced by 100%, Earthbind Totem immediately immobilizes all enemies when cast, and Flame Shock deals 60% increased periodic damage.
• Feral Spirit: Summon a pair of temporary spirit wolf guardians for 45 seconds. 3 minute cooldown.
• Coherence: Chain Heal effectiveness only reduced by 35% per jump, Chain Lightning effectiveness only reduced by 20% per jump, and each spell now jumps to one additional target.

Other Adjustments

• The Intellect to Attack Power conversion from Mental Dexterity has been reduced to 65% (from 100%)
• The AP to spell damage conversion from Mental Dexterity has been reduced to 20% (from 30%)
• Mental Dexterity no longer grants any +healing
• Maelstrom Weapon reduced or instant cast procs may no longer be used to cast Chain Heal or Healing Wave with a reduced or instant cast time
• Shamanistic Rage is no longer a rune ability but is now learned as a baseline ability from a skill book
• Shamanistic Rage now grants 10% of mana to the party (down from 20%)
• Burn now grants 2 spell damage per level (down from 4)
• A new rune has been added in place of shamanistic rage–Greater Ghost Wolf:
  • Ghost Wolf is now usable indoors and reduces all damage taken by 10% while active.

Warlock
New Runes—Cloak Slot:

• Decimation: Shadowbolt, Shadow Cleave, Incinerate and Soul Fire damage on targets below 35% health causes your next Soul Fire to not cost a Soul Shard and cast 1.5 seconds faster. 10 Second Duration.
• Mark of Chaos: Shadowburn causes your next single-target spell or ability to have a 100% increased critical strike chance.
• Infernal Armor: For the next 10 seconds, all non-physical damage is reduced by a percentage of your damage reduced from armor. 60 sec cooldown.

Other Adjustments

• Demonic Grace is no longer on the Global Cooldown

Warrior
New Runes—Cloak Slot:

• Fresh Meat: Damaging a target with Bloodthirst has a chance to enrage you, activating abilities which require being enraged and cause you to deal 10% increased damage for 12 seconds. 100% chance to proc on first Bloodthirst hit against a target. 10% chance for subsequent hits against that same target.
• Sudden Death: Your melee crits have a chance to activate sudden death for 10 seconds. While Sudden Death is active, you may use Execute on any target, and you always have 10 rage remaining after using execute.
• Shockwave: Cone attack that deals physical damage and stuns all affected enemies for 4 seconds. Requires a Shield and Defensive Stance. 60 sec cooldown.

Other Adjustments

• Single-Minded Fury no longer increases damage dealt but now increases movement speed by 15% (up from 10%) and reduces threat generated by the Warrior by 10%.
• Blood Frenzy has been redesigned. Now increases rend damage by 100% and causes Rend to gain increased damage equal to 3% of attack power per tick, and Rend may be used in any stance.
• Flagellation has been redesigned. Now causes the Warrior to gain Rage from physical damage taken as the warrior was wearing no armor.
• Rampage has been redesigned. Now instantly increases the Warrior’s attack power by 10% for 30 seconds and no longer stacks or costs rage to activate. Requires being enraged. 2 minute cooldown.
• Wrecking Crew now causes an enrage effect that lasts 10 seconds and increases damage done by Mortal Strike, Bloodthirst, and Shield slam by 10%.
• The threat reduction in Gladiator Stance is now 30% (was 10%)
• Consumed by Rage now activates when exceeding 60 rage and now always lasts 12 seconds regardless of the number of attacks, but no longer grants a damage bonus.
• The Booming Voice talent now increases Battle Shout duration by 30/60/90/120/150% and reduces its rage cost by 20/40/60/80/100%.
• Commanding Shout’s rage cost was removed and its duration was increased to 5 minutes.
• Recklessness now increases critical strike chance by 50% (was 100%) and the duration is reduces to 12 seconds, but the cooldown is reduced to 5 minutes.
• Retaliation and Shield Wall have had their cooldowns reduced to 5 minutes (was 30 minutes).
• A new baseline ability has been added from a skill book: Meat Hook
  • Throw out a hooked chain to restrain the target and pull them towards you. Costs 15 rage, 30 yard range, and has a 35 second cooldown. This may not be used on enemies more than 1 level above the Warrior or which are marked as “boss” enemies.

General

• All tanking classes now gain additional damage output benefit from the defense skill in some way.

Thank you for participating in the WoW Classic Season of Discovery PTR. We plan to continue to make adjustments during this PTR period and we will update this thread as changes continue to roll in.

(second post)

Additional Upcoming Class Adjustments – Coming Soon

We have another round of changes that we are already working on that didn’t quite make this first PTR build but will be present in a future build. Again, to be clear, the changes listed below are not live on the PTR, yet, but we wanted to let you know that these changes were coming, likely early next week (sometime the week of 6/17).

Here’s a peek at the next round of changes:

Mage

• The Hot Streak rune has been moved to the helm slot.
• The Rewind Time rune has been moved to the wrist slot.

Paladin

• The new Divine Light rune that replaced Seal of Martyrdom has been moved to the Cloak slot.
• The additional damage shield from Divine Light overhealing will now also apply to Beacon of Light targets

Rogue

• Poisoned Knife now refunds a portion of its energy cost, increasing depending on the number of stacks of deadly or occult poison on the target.
• Shuriken Toss now grants 1 combo point per enemy hit. A cooldown has been added to Shuriken Toss to compensate for this significant adjustment.

Warlock

• The Felguard has gained the Demonic Frenzy ability, causing the Felguard’s damaging melee attacks cause a demonic frenzy, increasing attack power for 10 sec. This effect can stack up to 10 times.
• Lake of Fire has been redesigned. We will publish details on the full redesign with our next round of PTR notes.