Level 30 build goes live: a new dungeon, dungeon quest XP cut in half, and class tuning

The Blackfathom Deeps loading screen from the WoW Forever client

· ForeverDB

The WoW Forever beta is back up with a new build. The level cap is now 30, there's a new five-player dungeon in the Wetlands, Razorfen Downs and Uldaman have opened, dungeon quests now give 50% less extra experience, and almost every class got tuned. Later on October 2 Blizzard added a second round of Warrior changes.

The build Blizzard trailed on October 1 is now live. Kaivax posted the full development notes as a reply in the ongoing beta notes thread. Below are the main changes, with every number kept exactly as Blizzard wrote it.

These are beta changes. Anything here can still change before launch.

Level 30 and a new dungeon

The beta opened with a level 20 cap. This build raises it by ten levels:

Players can now level up to a maximum of level 30. Kaivax, Blizzard community manager

There is a new five-player dungeon, Excavation Site: Wetlands, which Blizzard lists at levels 26-31. In the beta client's files it has four bosses: Saltspine, Shadetooth, Highland Horror and Relic Guardian. Two more dungeons have also opened: Razorfen Downs (25+) and Uldaman (30+), on top of the dungeons already available.

Dungeon quest XP cut by 50%

Earlier builds gave dungeon quests a large experience bonus while cutting the experience from killing mobs, and players had argued about it on both sides. This build pulls the quest bonus back. Blizzard says: "Dungeon quests now reward 50% less extra experience beyond normal quest values."

We’ve heard a great deal of feedback about playtesterse leveling too fast. In this build, we’re reducing the experience granted by dungeon quests. Developers’ notes, posted by Kaivax (Community Manager)

Druid

  • Bear Form and Dire Bear Form now generate 75% increased Rage when they land a Critical Strike.
  • Swipe now correctly scales with Attack Power (3% of it). The tooltip won't update yet.
  • Tiger's Fury has been removed.
  • Faerie Fire no longer resets your swing timer.
  • All Shapeshift Forms are now immune to Disarm effects. If a Druid is disarmed before shifting, the form won't remove it, and they deal reduced damage for the duration.
  • Feral: Primal Bite's threat is roughly doubled. The King of the Jungle talent has been removed.
  • Feral: a new talent, Shifting Power (Cat Form only), sits off Shredding Attacks in the 4th row. It's a 16-second cooldown that costs 55% of base Mana and instantly turns that into 40 Energy. A second new talent, Improved Shifting Power, in the 5th row, reduces its cooldown by 4/8 seconds.

Shifting Power and Improved Shifting Power aren't in the datamined client files yet, so the numbers above come from Blizzard's notes, not the game data.

Hunter

  • Marksmanship: the 31-point talent Sniper Shot now has a 45-yard range and increases the range of your next 3 shots made within 10 seconds by 10 yards. Improved Stings gets a more Vanilla-feeling icon.
  • Survival: Deflection's Parry increase is now 1/2/3/4/5% (was 2/4/6/8/10%). Predator's Edge gets a new icon.
  • Pets: Aggressive Mode is back, in the pet tab of your spell book. Some tameable beasts had pet abilities ranked too high for their level; those are fixed.

Mage

  • All Mage scrolls from Comprehension had another balance pass and can no longer be cast while moving.
  • Fire: Hot Streak is renamed Heating Up, since it no longer depends on a 'streak'. Combustion is back to 3 charges (was 4). Improved Scorch's Fire Vulnerability no longer rolls a second time to see if it resists.
  • Frost: Winter's Chill no longer rolls to see if its application is resisted.

Paladin

  • Protection: Redoubt's chance to Block is now 4/8/12/16/20% (was 6/12/18/24/30%). Holy Shield's chance to Block is now 30% (was 20%).
  • Retribution: Champion of the Light's Intellect-to-Spell-Damage ratio is now 20/40/60% (was 33/66/100%). Its tooltip wrongly mentioned Healing; that wording has been removed.

Priest

  • Devouring Plague can now critically strike. Shadow Word: Death no longer always benefits from Early Demise regardless of the target's health.
  • Discipline: Inner Focus no longer applies its Critical Strike increase to periodic effects.
  • Shadow: Shadow Weaving can no longer fail to apply.

Rogue

  • A missed Expose Armor no longer makes you lose all of your combo points.
  • Subtlety: Setup now only adds combo points to your current target if that's the one you dodged or resisted a spell from.

Shaman

  • Ghost Wolf should be more visible in well-lit areas.
  • Disease Cleansing Totem is back to a 5-minute duration, and Totemic Recall now restores Mana again.

Warlock

  • Drain Soul is now interrupted if you start casting another spell. Hellfire can now critically strike. The Incubus pet now uses a lower resolution model.
  • Affliction: Soul Harvesting is renamed Soul Harvest and now correctly grants its 50/100% increase to Mana regeneration.
  • Pets: Aggressive Mode is back, in the pet tab of your spell book.

Warrior

  • You now generate 100% increased Rage when you land a critical strike with a basic attack. (The first notes set this at 75%; a second set of notes later on October 2 raised it to 100% - see below.) Rend and Sunder Armor now instantly tap enemies to you. Queueing Heroic Strike no longer increases off-hand hit chance.
  • Arms: Spearing Strike no longer needs a two-handed weapon, but now requires Battle Stance.
  • Fury: Dual Wield Specialization no longer gives a 20/40/60/80/100% increase to your off-hand weapon's Rage generation. Unbridled Rage's proc chance is fixed.

Warrior: a second round of changes

Later on October 2, Kaivax posted a second set of Warrior notes that also went into today's build. Two changes apply to every Warrior: the extra Rage from landing a critical strike went up from 75% to 100%, and a bug that let Dual Wield Specialization add its hit chance bonus to both weapons was fixed.

Additional Rage generated from landing Critical Strikes increased to 100% increased Rage (was 75%). Fixed a bug that was causing Dual Wield Specialization to grant its increase to Hit Chance to both weapons. Kaivax, Blizzard community manager

Blizzard says the bug fix meant it had to re-test and re-tune Fury, so the tree got another pass:

Because of the above bug, our tests needed some correcting, so we did another pass on Fury Warrior. Developers’ notes, posted by Kaivax (Community Manager)

Fury. Blizzard's goal is more utility and real choices early, with fewer forced points later:

Our goal here is to give Fury more access to utility and meaningful choices early in the tree for leveling, and free up points later for more choices instead of being stuck placing points into Enrage to get Flurry. Developers’ notes, posted by Kaivax (Community Manager)
  • Booming Voice now increases the area of effect of your Shouts by 10/20/30/40/50% and reduces their Rage cost by 5/10/15/20/25%.
  • Unbridled Wrath no longer grants twice as much Rage with two-handed weapons.
  • New talent, Lingering Rage (Row 2): your Rage takes 2/4/6/8/10 seconds longer to start decaying after you leave combat.
  • Blood Craze no longer activates off Bloodthirst casts.
  • The Improved Cleave and Boundless Rage talents have been removed.
  • New talent, Furious Precision (Row 3): increases your chance to hit with off-hand attacks by 4/7/10%.
  • Raging Blows now reduces the Rage cost of your Cleave and Whirlwind by 3, and no longer makes Whirlwind strike with your off-hand.
  • Whirlwind now always strikes with both weapons, with no talent point needed. Dual Wield Specialization no longer grants hit to your off-hand attacks.
  • Enrage is no longer required to reach Flurry; Death Wish is now required instead.
  • New talent, Gore Drinker (Row 6, requires Enrage): your Enrage, Berserker Rage, Bloodrage, Death Wish and Bloodthirst abilities make your next 3 melee attacks each restore 0.5/1% of your maximum health.
  • Improved Berserker Rage moved to Row 5 (was Row 6). Berserker Rage is now available at level 30 (was 32).
  • Bloodthirst's Attack Power ratio is now 45% (was 35%).

Protection. Blizzard wants non-shield users a clearer route into the middle of the tree, so Protection can work as a PvP secondary spec:

Our goal is to give non-shield users a clear path to the middle of the tree, where Protection could serve as a PvP tech secondary specialization, with more access to Improved Bloodrage, Iron Will, Improved Disarm, Last Stand, and Improved Shield Bash. Developers’ notes, posted by Kaivax (Community Manager)
  • Iron Will moved to Row 1 of Protection (was Row 2 of Fury). Anticipation moved to Row 2 (was Row 1).
  • Toughness has been removed.
  • Improved Bloodrage moved to Row 1 (was Row 2). Improved Revenge moved to Row 2 (was Row 3). Improved Disarm moved to Row 3 (was Row 4). Improved Shield Bash moved to Row 4 (was Row 5).

These Fury and Protection changes reorganise the talent trees and add new talents (Lingering Rage, Furious Precision and Gore Drinker). The new talents and the moved rows aren't all in the datamined client files yet, so the details above come from Blizzard's notes, not the game data.

PvP, professions and the world

  • PvP: Honor costs for PvP gear and upgrade tokens are up, with most item costs rising by about 50%. The Honor cap is raised from 15,000 to 25,000 to match.
  • Skinning: "Creatures can once again only be skinned a single time before disappearing." That reverses the behaviour behind the group 'skinning raids' we wrote about on September 28.
  • Enchanting: all crafted common and uncommon wands now sell to vendors for 1 copper. Mining: fewer Poor Copper Vein nodes in starter areas.
  • Professions: Shenthul in Orgrimmar now trains Windshaper Skyborne, and a number of Blacksmithing and Leatherworking recipes are now available as random dungeon drops.
  • Camping: campfires no longer damage players below level 5, and deal reduced damage to players below 90% health. The Boosted Rest debuff has a clearer icon and tooltip.
  • Quests: respawn rates are up across Hillsbrad Foothills, Ashenvale, Wetlands, Duskwood and Thousand Needles, with many individual quest fixes. A new quest, "Kyle's Gone Missing!", has been added in Mulgore.

Races, items and interface

  • Gnome: Eureka no longer benefits periodic effects at all. Channeled spells don't count as periodics.
  • Undead: Cannibalize can't be used while the caster is immune to Physical damage.
  • Items: selling a BoE item with an appearance you haven't collected now makes it soulbound (was Bound to Account). Savory Whimsyfin Delight now uses an orc version of the Ninja and Pirate outfits.
  • Cooldown Manager: racial abilities and the Rogue class are now supported, and duplicate entries for each spell rank are gone.
  • Barbershops: there are now barbershops in Darnassus and Thunder Bluff, all barbershops have barbers at them, and city guards will give directions.

How we got here

On October 1 Kaivax posted that the beta would go offline for maintenance and return with this build:

Tomorrow morning PDT, we will take the WoW Forever Beta offline for maintenance. Several hours later, the Beta will resume with an updated build that includes changes and fixes, with the level cap raised to 30. We’ll have all the details here tomorrow. Kaivax, Blizzard community manager

Blizzard sets the beta level cap on the server, so it isn't something we can read from the client files. We've checked the new dungeon and the renamed abilities against the datamined data where it exists, and flagged above where it doesn't yet.

Sources