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October 16 beta build: raid-wide buffs and racial tuning

The Zul'Gurub loading screen from the WoW Forever client

· ForeverDB

Blizzard's October 16 beta build makes a set of group buffs reach the whole raid instead of just your party: Druid Moonkin Aura and Leader of the Pack, Hunter Trueshot Aura, four Shaman totems and Warrior Battle Shout. The same build retunes many racials, including new flat critical strike passives for Humans and Orcs, a stronger Plainsrunning and another Gnome Eureka change, plus five bug fixes. We quote Blizzard's notes word for word.

Blizzard put a new build on the WoW Forever beta, with development notes posted by Kaivax (Community Manager). Blizzard titled the thread "Updated October 15"; the post went up on our feed on October 16. The headline change is that several group buffs now reach the whole raid, not just your party. The same build retunes a long list of racial abilities and fixes five bugs. We have Blizzard's own development notes and quote them word for word below. Wowhead reported the build in two parts: raid-wide buffs and racial tuning.

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

Buffs that now reach the whole raid

In Classic Era, buffs like a Warrior's Battle Shout, a Hunter's Trueshot Aura, the Druid auras and several Shaman totems only reach your party, the group of up to five players. In this build Blizzard makes them raid-wide, so one caster can buff the whole raid (up to 40 players). Under the class changes, the notes list:

Moonkin Aura now only increases Spell Critical Strike chance, and is Raid wide. Leader of the Pack now only increases Melee and Ranged Critical Strike chance, and is Raid wide. Trueshot Aura is now Raid wide. Grace of Air Totem, Strength of Earth Totem, Windfury Totem, and Flametongue Totem are now Raid wide. Battle Shout is now Raid wide. Kaivax, Community Manager

What this means for players: a single Warrior with Battle Shout or a single Hunter with Trueshot Aura can now cover a full raid, so you no longer need one in every party for the buff to reach everyone. The two Druid auras now split by crit type, and the client's new tooltips no longer call them exclusive with each other: Moonkin Aura gives spell critical strike chance, and Leader of the Pack gives melee and ranged critical strike chance. The word "only" in the notes means each aura now covers just that one kind of crit.

The Shaman changes also adjust which totems can run together:

Grace of Air Totem is no longer exclusive with Windfury Totem and Flametongue Totem. Windfury Totem and Flametongue Totem retain their exclusivity. Kaivax, Community Manager

So Grace of Air can now sit alongside Windfury or Flametongue, but Windfury and Flametongue still cannot be up at the same time. For how the last build changed Shaman totems (Flametongue Totem losing its duration, and totems from different Shamans no longer stacking), see our September 24 notes write-up.

Wowhead's write-up also lists Fire Resistance Totem among the changed Shaman totems. Blizzard's post names Grace of Air, Strength of Earth, Windfury and Flametongue in its raid-wide line, so we quote only those four here. Our datamined client at the time (build 1.60.1.70374) predated this build, so we could not yet confirm the totems' new ranges in the game files. (Update, 27 October: build 1.60.1.70425 confirms them. Grace of Air, Strength of Earth, Windfury and Flametongue Totem now read party or raid members instead of party members.)

Racial ability updates

Racials have had several rounds of tuning on the beta, and this build has another. Blizzard writes "Racial abilities have been updated." Among the changes, quoted word for word under each race:

Tauren Endurance: Now grants 2% increased critical damage and healing (was 1% hit chance). Plainsrunning: Also grants 3% increased mounted movement speed. This increase stacks with other mounted movement speed increases. Human Sword Specialization: Replaced with Ruthless: 2% increased critical strike chance. Orc Axe Specialization: Replaced with Savage: 1% increased critical strike chance. Blood Fury: Cooldown increased to 3 minutes (was 2 minutes). Gnome Eureka!: Now an 8 second buff with no charges. Same effect on damage and ability costs. Now also benefits Power Word: Shield. Night Elf Quickness: Movement speed increase now stacks with other movement speed increases. Kaivax, Community Manager

What this means for players: Human Sword Specialization becomes Ruthless and Orc Axe Specialization becomes Savage, flat critical strike passives that no longer name a weapon type. Wowhead, which reported the build, notes that reworks like these move away from specific weapon bonuses and can make players feel less locked into certain race and class pairings. Tauren Plainsrunning now also boosts mounted speed, and Gnome Eureka becomes a simple 8 second buff instead of charges on your next few spells. This is another round of Eureka tuning after the September 24 change that made it a 10% discount on Mana, Rage or Energy abilities.

Player analysis of the weapon-specialization reworks (that they unlock more race and class combinations) is Wowhead's reading, not a Blizzard statement. We are quoting Blizzard's numbers, not yet confirming them: our datamined client at the time (build 1.60.1.70374) predated this build, so values like Ruthless and Savage were not in our game files yet. (Update, 27 October: from build 1.60.1.70425 the client has Ruthless at 2% and Savage at 1%, as the notes say. Blizzard's October 26 notes then cut Ruthless to 1%, removed Savage and brought back Command.) The full racial list is in Blizzard's post.

Bug fixes

Blizzard's change log lists five fixes. Here they are word for word, under the "Bug Fixes" heading:

Resolved an issue with extra bright fog at lower shadow settings. Fixed an issue allowing Horde players to gain Kirin Tor reputation. Creatures will now properly regenerate health when out of combat. Fixed an issue with various Horde characters holding the Night Watchman’s Torch. Fixed an issue with various drink tooltips that were not displaying the correct amount of total Mana regeneration. Kaivax, Community Manager

What these mean for players: the Kirin Tor fix stops Horde characters gaining reputation they should not have. The Night Watchman's Torch named in the torch fix is a Forever quest item in the client's files, and various Horde characters were holding it by mistake. The creature-regeneration fix matters when you fight through a camp: wounded enemies should now heal back up properly once they leave combat, rather than staying low. The drink fix corrects the Mana regeneration shown in drink tooltips.

Other changes

  • A new tutorial experience has been added for new players.
  • Lighting 'Bloom Intensity' is now controlled by a slider, which has moved to the 'Advanced' graphics section.
  • A new 'Auto Attack/Auto Shot' setting has been added. If enabled, Hunters will automatically switch between auto attack and auto shot. This is now also supported for gamepad.

Sources

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