WoW Hotfix March 14th: Raid Tuning and Great Vault Token Vendor

Author: Baed
Date: March 15, 2022
Updated: March 15, 2022
Expansion: World of Warcraft

Before the new reset goes live, Blizzard has hotfixed more raid encounters, and added additional non-loot rewards to the Great Vault. The hotfix also brings the usual class fixes, M+ tuning, and nerfs to overperforming PvP specs.

Raid and Mythic+ Tuning

Several encounters have received more fixes to various issues in the fight, and a couple have received adjustments to make them more feasible, most notable among these is Halondrus receiving a 10% health reduction on Mythic, and Planetcracker and Seismic Tremors should spawn in more consistent locations. Anduin Wrynn’s Grim Reflections should no longer receive Wicked Star until 5 seconds after spawning, and Befouled Barrier will no longer affect pets and guardians. Of the issues fixed, Vigilant Guardian should no longer break stealth based abilities, Skolex should be similarly less punishing to pets as Anduin, and Empowered Chrysalis should no longer kill Infiltration of Dread targets when unmasked. Rygelon’s Celestial Terminator warning should properly show even when Projected Textures is disabled in the settings.

In Mythic+, the two Tazavesh halves received a few nerfs each. Hylbrande in So’leah’s Gambit is having his health reduced by 5%, and his Vault Purifier will have 30% less health. In Streets of Wonder, Myza’s Oasis encounter is receiving a 50% damage reduction to the Crowd Control ability, 40% nerf to Security Slam damage, and drum-set players are receiving an immunity to Rotten Food and the Crowd Control ability.

Great Vault Tokens

The Great Vault is receiving several changes to its extra currency, the Attendant’s Token of Merit. The tokens have a carrying cap of 12 now, up from 3; and you will receive increasing quantities of them based on how many segments of the Vault you’ve unlocked when you choose the token reward instead. 2 tokens for 1 segment, 4 tokens for 2 segments, and 6 tokens for 3 or more segments unlocked. Ko’tul, the token vendor, is also receiving additional items on realm restart:

Ephemera-Infused Mesh will grant a socket to a Season 3 item that doesn’t already have one, as long as it is in helmet, necklace, bracer, belt, or ring slot, and costs 6 tokens.
Overflowing Chest of Riches will reward an average of 3000 gold and costs 3 tokens.
Certified Vouchsafe will increase Renown with the player’s current covenant by 1, up 80 and is bound on account while costing only 1 token.

The last three all involve Zereth Mortis:
Bottled Night Sky will reward 25 Genesis Motes, the resource used in Protoform Synthesis in Zereth Mortis, and costs 1 token.
Treatise on Patterns in the Purpose will reward 40 Cyphers and also costs 1 token.
Tribute to the Enlightened will reward 150 reputation with the Enlightened faction, and costs 1 token.

PvP Nerfs

Enhancement Shaman is healing a little too much due to the recent buff to the Focused Lightning conduit. As a result, Enhance is receiving a 70% nerf to Focused Lightning’s effectiveness in PvP. Fire Mage on the other hand has been overperforming as a whole in PvP and is receiving several nerfs to various elements of their kit. The conduit Tempest Barrier is receiving a 50% reduction in PvP, along with three different PvP talent nerfs. Flamecannon getting changed to a 3 second duration down from 5; Pyrokinesis now lowers Combustions cooldown by 2 seconds, down from 3; and Tinder now reduces Fireball cast time by 30% instead of 50%. The changes to fire are intended to keep the feel similar, while lowering it’s power.

Blizzard Entertainment – (Source)

Hotfixes

March 14, 2022

Classes

Priest
- Discipline
  - (2) Set Bonus: Fixed an issue where Shadow Mend would consume 2 stacks of Manifested Twilight.
Warlock
- Demonology
  - Fixed an issue where Implosion would not deal damage to Explosive Orbs (Mythic+ Affix) or totems if the Explosive Orb or totems were the primary target of the Implosion spell.
Warrior
- Protection
  - (4) Set Bonus: Fixed an issue with Avatar not gaining an additional 10% damage while active.

Covenants

Venthyr
- Fixed an issue where using The Mad Duke’s Tea item without Theotar, the Mad Duke as your active soulbind would incorrectly place The Mad Duke’s Tea on cooldown.

Creatures and NPCs

Added a delay between casts of Creation Catalyst Overcharge on the Nascent Servitors in the Catalyst Gardens.

Dungeons and Raids

Sepulcher of the First Ones
- Vigilant Guardian
  - Fixed an issue that broke stealth abilities when the encounter begins.
- Skolex, the Insatiable Ravener
  - Fixed a targeting issue on Riftmaw and Rend that could be overly punishing towards pets that happen to be in the area-of-effect and are not primary targets of those abilities on Heroic and Mythic difficulty.
  - Fixed an issue that caused the Rend tooltip to not properly display information.
- Halondrus the Reclaimer
  - Reduced Halondrus’ health by 10% on Mythic difficulty.
  - Planetcracker Beams now spawn in a more consistent location.
  - Seismic Tremors now targets more consistent locations.
- Anduin Wrynn
  - Grim Reflections are now immune to the effects of Wicked Star for 5 seconds after spawning.
  - Befouled Barrier no longer applies to player pets and guardians.
- Lords of Dread
  - Fixed an issue where Empowered Chrysalis could cause an Infiltration of Dread target to die when unmasked.
- Rygelon
  - Fixed an issue which caused the warning visual for Celestial Terminator to not show when Projected Textures are disabled in System settings.
- The Jailer
  - The release location after the encounter ends has been moved closer to The Jailer.
Tazavesh: So’leah’s Gambit
- Hylbrande
  - Hylbrande health reduced by 5%.
  - Vault Purifier health reduced by 30%.
Tazavesh: Streets of Wonder
- Myza’s Oasis
  - Crowd Control damage reduced by 50%.
  - Security Slam damage reduced by 40%.
  - Players using the drum set cannot be targeted and are now immune to the effects of Crowd Control.
  - Players using the drum set are now immune to the damage effects of Rotten Food.

Items and Rewards

Great Vault
- [With realm restarts] The Attendant’s Token of Merit has been updated.
  - You may now carry 12 tokens (was 3).
  - You will now receive 2 tokens if you unlocked one Great Vault segment and choose the token reward.
  - You will now receive 4 tokens if you unlocked two Great Vault segments and choose the token reward.
  - You will now receive 6 tokens if you unlocked three or more segments of your Great Vault and choose the token reward.
- [With realm restarts] Ko’tul in Oribos now offers many new items.
  - Ephemera-Infused Mesh – Add a socket to a Shadowlands Season 3 helmet, necklace, bracer, belt, or ring that does not already have a socket. Costs 6 Attendant’s Token of Merit.
  - Overflowing Chest of Riches – Rewards an average of 3,000 gold. Costs 3 Attendant’s Token of Merit.
  - Certified Vouchsafe – Increase your Renown with your current covenant by 1, up to the cap of 80. This item is bound to Battle.net account. Costs 1 Attendant’s Token of Merit.
  - Bottled Night Sky – Rewards 25 Genesis Motes, used for Protoform Synthesis. Costs 1 Attendant’s Token of Merit.
  - Treatise on Patterns in the Purpose – Rewards 40 Cyphers of the First Ones. Costs 1 Attendant’s Token of Merit.
  - Tribute to the Enlightened – Rewards 150 Reputation with the Enlightened. Costs 1 Attendant’s Token of Merit.
- Developers’ note: These changes are aimed at improving the feeling of opening your Great Vault even on weeks when, for whatever reason, you don’t see a direct upgrade in the other items you can choose among. We’ve also heard feedback that, as a consolation prize, Attendant’s Tokens of Merit haven’t really felt rewarding enough to erase that frustration. Now in Season 3, we’re making the number of Tokens scale with the number of Vault slots you unlocked, up to a maximum of 6 Tokens per week (from 3 or more unlocked Vault slots). Furthermore, we’re adding additional options to the vendor, including an item that will add a socket to any eligible piece of Season 3 gear.
Old Warrior’s Soul trinket now only affects allies within your party and raid.

Player versus Player

Mage
- [With realm restarts] Tempest Barrier’s (Conduit) absorb value reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
- Fire
  - [With realm restarts] Flamecannon’s (PvP Talent) buff duration reduced to 3 seconds (was 5 seconds).
  - [With realm restarts] Pyrokinesis (PvP Talent) now causes Fireball to reduce the cooldown of Combustion by 2 seconds (was 3 seconds).
  - [With realm restarts] Tinder (PvP Talent) now reduces the cast time of your next Fireball by 30% (was 50%).
    - Developers’ note: In Season 3, Fire Mages have been overperforming across all skill brackets in rated PvP, and we will be reducing the power of commonly picked talents to better fit within other spec representation and performance. Additionally, we want to address Fire survivability, as stamina has increased with item level between seasons, and the absorb from Tempest Barrier has scaled higher than we’d like. So, we will be reducing the effectiveness of the conduit. We hope that these changes keep the overall feel of Fire in PvP intact, with a more reasonable power output. We look forward to seeing players unlock Class Set and double Legendary bonuses, and we will continue to monitor PvP balance as the season progresses.
Shaman
- Enhancement
  - [With realm restarts] The healing increase to Maelstrom Weapon provided by Focused Lightning (Conduit) has been decreased by 70% while engaged in PvP combat.
    - Developers’ note: During the development of Eternity’s End, we provided a substantial increase to the effectiveness of the Focused Lightning conduit, targeted at bringing it in line with the damage potential of other potency conduit options. However, the healing provided by this conduit has increased Enhancement Shaman’s instant healing capabilities beyond what other similar non-healer specializations can bring to the table in PvP. A change to the healing portion of the conduit should allow other parts of the Enhancement Shaman healing kit to remain strong, and not affect the recent damage throughput increase to Focused Lightning.