Season of Discovery Hotfixes - Updated 12 January

February 12, 2024

WoW Classic: Season of Discovery

• You can now get a new Squall-breakers Potion from Rau Cliffrunner in Freewind Post upon accepting the quest “Calm Before the Storm”.
• Recipe: Lesser Arcane Elixir is now bind-on-pickup.
• The Battle for Ashenvale weekly quests “Clear the Forest!” and “Repelling Invaders” now grant full XP and reputation rewards, through level 40.
• The Ashenvale Rallying Cry world buff is now usable through level 39.
• The Spark of Inspiration world buff now correctly increases +healing.
• Item requirements for the quests “Power of da Wind”, “Power of da Earth”, and “Power of da Water” have been reduced.
• Druid
  • Starsurge base damage reduced by 35%, and its benefit from bonus spell damage effects reduced to 42.9%, matching other instant spells.
  • Starsurge now provides a new effect: your next Starfire cast within 15 seconds deals 66% increased damage.
  • Fixed an issue with Enhanced Restoration preventing Nourish from gaining increased healing from Rejuvenation and Regrowth.
• Paladin
  • Fixed an issue where the Sheathe of Light spell power proc wasn’t correctly activated by melee attacks.
• Shaman
  • Fixed an issue where Ravaging Tempest could sometimes not lose its protective aura when Ailgrah Splittusk was killed.
• Stranglethorn Vale PvP Event
  • Players who resurrect in Stranglethorn Vale during the Blood Moon event and gain Drained of Blood will now be immune to attack during its duration, but unable to cast spells or attack. They can mount and move to another location and are invisible to players outside their party.
  • Drained of Blood duration reduced to 20 seconds (was 60 seconds).
  • Drained of Blood now has a visual.
  • Players who wish to opt out of Blood Moon should now more easily notice the Zandalarian Emissary.

January 8, 2024

Season of Discovery

• [With weekly restarts] The Battle for Ashenvale now has minimum and maximum times between battles. It will now never restart sooner than about 2 hours after its last start, and will not take longer than about 3 hours since its last start. If player activity is very low or very high, the percentage progress will be sped up or slowed down to match those time constraints.
• [With weekly restarts] Battle for Ashenvale quests “Clear the Forest!” and “Repelling Invaders” now award 1000 reputation (was 200).

January 8, 2024

Season of Discovery

• [With weekly restarts] The Battle for Ashenvale now has minimum and maximum times between battles. It will now never restart sooner than about 2 hours after its last start, and will not take longer than about 3 hours since its last start. If player activity is very low or very high, the percentage progress will be sped up or slowed down to match those time constraints.
• [With weekly restarts] Battle for Ashenvale quests “Clear the Forest!” and “Repelling Invaders” now award 1000 reputation (was 200).

January 2, 2024

Season of Discovery

• Two additional Spirit Healers will be present during the Battle for Ashenvale in the northwest of the zone.

December 21, 2023

Season of Discovery

• Druid
  • Lacerate base cost reduced 10 Rage (was 15).
  • Mangle (Bear) base cost reduced to 15 Rage (was 20).
• Priest
  • Shadow Word: Death base damage increased by 103% and the bonus damage it receives from spell power has been increased by 50%.
• Shaman
  • Shamanistic Rage now always grants 6% of the caster’s spell damage as mana, as intended.

December 19, 2023

Season of Discovery

• Mage
  • Living Flame now benefits from and consumes Arcane Blast.
• Paladin
  • Avenger’s Shield’s movement slow is now properly considered a Snare and can be removed by effects that remove movement impairing effects.
  • Mana granted by Seal of Martydom to party and raid members has been increased. Seal of Martyrdom now grants all party and raid members 20% of damage the Paladin takes from the seal (was 10%).
• Rogue
  • Blade Dance has been updated to grant 10% parry at all ranks, rather than increasing parry chance per combo point. The only effect of more combo points is now increased duration.
• Shaman
  • Mana granted by Shamanistic Rage to party and raid members has been increased. Shamanistic Rage now grants party and raid members 20% of the mana gained by the Shaman (was 10%).

December 18, 2023

Season of Discovery

• The Battle for Ashenvale will now progress about 50% faster than previously.
• The reputation gain for participating in killing an enemy Keeper of the Grove or Blade Master has been increased to 400 (was 200).
• Fixed an issue that caused the Shadowy Figure in Alterac Mountains to not be seen by players who should otherwise be able to see them.

December 14, 2023

Season of Discovery

• Healing Rain will no longer interrupt the auto-attack swing timer of the casting Shaman every time it heals.
• Living Flame will now cease to spread and deal damage if the Mage caster no longer has the rune equipped.
• Regeneration and Mass Regeneration will now properly consume Arcane Blast when they benefit from it, regardless of the Mage’s healing targets.
• Mage Temporal Beacon will now also heal based on damage done by Arcane wands.
• The radius of healing for Mass Regeneration has been increased to 30 yards (was 15 yards).
• Battle for Ashenvale
  • The Priestess of the Moon Felore Moonray and Far Seer Kazragore are now spawned in Ashenvale while the Battle for Ashenvale is inactive, and are available to turn in quest items. Felore Moonray can be found in the inn in Astranaar, and Kazragore can be found in the inn in Splintertree Post. During the battle, they will move to their respective battlefield positions.
  • [With realm restarts] Fixed an issue where progress for the Battle for Ashenvale could be reset repeatedly by battles ending at different times on different layers.

December 13, 2023

Season of Discovery

• Population adjustments have been made to layers in the Ashenvale PvP event which should result in an improved experience for players.
• Ashenvale progress should be much more consistent.
  • Developers’ notes: In a future hotfix, the Battle for Ashenvale progress will no longer reset to 0% when the final layer on the server finishes their battle.
• Runes sold at the Honored tier of Azeroth Commerce Authority and Durotar Supply and Logistics reputation are now sold at the Friendly tier.
• Drop rates for higher-level Waylaid Supplies have been slightly raised and unfulfillable Waylaid Supplies have been removed.
• The gold prices of several runes and rune related items have been reduced.
• Blackfathom Deeps
  • The waterfalls at the entrance to the Lorgus Jett encounter now properly despawn after he is defeated.
  • Dream Eater should no longer kill you if you’re pulled into the second phase of the Twilight Lord Kelris fight while still afflicted by the aura.

December 12, 2023

Season of Discovery

• Druid
  • Starsurge rune ability damage increased 182%.
  • Starsurge cooldown reduced to 6 seconds (was 10 seconds).
  • Starsurge mana cost reduced to 1% of base mana (was 3% of base mana).
• Hunter
  • Flanking Strike now gains the benefit of weapon enhancements like sharpening stones, is now on global cooldown, and is now properly treated as a melee attack, letting it benefit from attack power and combat modifiers to dodge, parry, block, crit, hit, etc.
  • Flanking Strike is now prevented by Pacify.
  • Flanking Strike now requires a weapon equipped.
  • Flanking Strike pet damage is now properly treated as a melee attack, with same benefits as listed above for the hunter’s damage.
  • All damaging Hunter pet abilities now gain damage from Attack Power based on their Focus costs. Hunter pets no longer gain any spell damage.
    • Developers’ notes: Pets that cast spells such as scorpid poison or Lightning Breath were scaling too well and pets using physical abilities were scaling too little. We’ve now normalized the amount of attack power gained, to scale with the focus cost of individual pet abilities. This means that abilities with a higher focus cost, that are cast less often, will receive more benefit from attack power per attack than abilities with a lower focus cost that can generally be used more often. Overall this should level out the damage and reduce situations where some abilities were scaling too much or too little with hunter attack power.
  • Scorpid poison now distributes the additional damage it gains from attack power evenly over each stack of Scorpid Poison on the target.
    • Developers’ notes: Previously, Scorpid poison received most of its benefit from the Hunter’s attack power in the very first stack. Now the additional damage gained from the controlling hunter will not be gained until the full 5 stacks of poison are on the target. This increases the ramp time a bit and makes it less immediately deadly in PvP.
  • Pets now gain 30% of the hunter’s armor (was 45%) and 20% of the hunter’s stamina (was 45%).
    • Developers’ notes: Hunter pets were gaining far too much durability from hunter stats, to the point where some pets could get more than double the health and armor of a well-geared level 25 player. We still want dedicated hunters to have the ability to tank certain dungeon and raid encounters, but pets shouldn’t be so effective that they become the objectively correct choice.
  • Aspect of the Lion has been redesigned and will now function as an Aura.
    • Developers’ notes: This means that it is possible to have Aspect of the Lion up in addition to another aspect, such as Aspect of the Hawk. As an offset to the lower amount of damage that some hunter pets will deal, and to make talents such as Improved Aspect of the Hawk more attractive to Hunters using Aspect of the Lion, we’re shifting Aspect of the Lion into an aura rather than an aspect. This change will go into effect with scheduled weekly maintenance tomorrow, but the tooltip will not yet change. In a later hotfix, we’ll rename relocalize Aspect of the Lion to “Heart of the Lion” and update the tooltip.
• Priest
  • Priest Homunculi damage increased by 100%.
  • Void Plague damage increased by 200%.
  • Twisted Faith now increases damage done by Mind Blast and Mind Flay by 50% (was 20%) on targets afflicted with Shadow Word: Pain.
• Rogue
  • Saber Slash, Shiv, and Main Gauche will now properly consume Remorseless Attacks.
  • Saber Slash’s tooltip fixed; damage not reduced.
  • Saber Slash damage is now properly considered a Bleed and benefits from the Mangle debuff. Note: Bleed-immune creatures will no longer be affected by it.
• Shaman
  • Lava Lash damage increased to 150% weapon damage (was 100% weapon damage).
  • Lava Lash mana cost reduced to 1% of base mana (was 4%).
  • Overload now has a 50% chance to trigger (was 33%).
  • Dual Wield Specialization now grants 10% increased chance to hit while dual-wielding.
• Boon of Blackfathom world buff adjusted. It now provides 3% spell hit and 25 spell power buff addition to the other physical damage and movement speed effects (was spell crit).
  • Developers’ notes: Spellcasters in general are struggling a bit in BFD, mostly due to poor scaling without spellpower and a higher requirement of spell hit to reliably hit creatures 2+ levels above the caster. Keep those Chronoboons handy and don’t stand in the fire and lose your buff!
• Blackfathom Deeps
  • Elemental Resistances lowered in Blackfathom Deeps to levels more appropriate for a level 25 Raid.
    • Gelihast Shadow Resist lowered to 25 (was 75).
    • Lorgus Jett Nature Resist lowered to 25 (was 75).
    • Twilight Lord Kelris Shadow and Arcane Resist lowered to 25 (was 75).
      • Phantasmal Priestess all Resist lowered to 0 (was 75), so it’s no longer bad news if double casters are sent down to the dream in Phase 1.
    • Invading Nightmare Shadow and Fire Resist lowered to 25 (was 75).
    • Void Elementals Shadow Resist lowered lowered to 25 (was 75).
    • Corrosive Droplets Nature Resist lowered to 25 (was 75), and Frost Resist lowered to 0 (was 25).
• Battle for Ashenvale
  • Battle for Ashenvale camps will no longer delay their spawn if players are nearby.

December 7, 2023

Season of Discovery

• Ashenvale PvP
  • When a player makes any hostile action against an opposing faction Lieutenant (e.g. Keepers of the Grove, Blademasters) or faction leader in the various objective areas, they will receive reputation when that enemy dies.
    • It must be an offensive action (harmful spell, harmful ability, melee attack, or ranged attack) against an enemy to receive reputation.
    • Players will receive reputation even if they are dead or no longer nearby as long as they are still in the zone when the enemy dies.
  • Players now receive 200 reputation for killing a Lieutenant and all members of the winning faction will receive 200 reputation when the faction leader dies.
  • The winning team will also receive 100 reputation per friendly Lieutenant remaining.
  • Players now have 60 minutes to complete the Ashenvale PvP event (was 30 minutes).
• The Trainee’s Sentinel Nightsaber and Trainee’s Outrider Wolf now require Friendly reputation with the Silverwing Sentinels and Warsong Outriders respectively (was Honored).

December 6, 2023

Season of Discovery

• Grizzby will no longer rob you of your extra quest items.
• Ashenvale PvP
  • The lieutenant and general NPCs in the Season of Discovery Ashenvale PvP event now have much higher health.
  • Generals are now immune to damage until all of their lieutenants have been defeated.
  • While no lieutenants are dead, generals and their nearby allies gain 1000% increased damage.
  • The Horde general’s chain lightning will now hit up to 40 targets.

December 5, 2023

Season of Discovery

• Seal of Martyrdom will no longer grant mana to nearby allies who are not in the Paladin’s party or raid.
• Shamanistic Rage will no longer grant mana to nearby players who are not in the Shaman’s party or raid.
• It is no longer possible to have two copies of the Mangle debuff active on a target.
• Multiple Rogues can now have the Saber Slash bleed active on a target. If the Rogues have the Deadly Brew rune, they can each have a Deadly Poison periodic damage effect active on the target.
• Pattern: Phoenix Bindings temporarily removed from the merchant faction vendor while we work to resolve an issue with the recipe.

December 4, 2023

Classes

• Warlock
  • Demonology
    • Fixed an issue where Soul Strike would sometimes cast multiple times.

Dungeons and Raids

• Throne of the Tides

  • Fixed an issue where Mindbender Ghu’sha would prevent players from releasing spirit when defeated.

• Amirdrassil, the Dream’s Hope

  • Tindral Sageswift
    • Fixed an issue where multiple players can benefit from the same Fallen Feather buff.
    • Fixed an issue where Diffuse Magic can cause Tindral to be inflicted with Fiery Growth.
    • Fixed an issue where Dream Essence does not get removed if Tindral finishes casting Supernova during intermission.
    • Ride Along disabled on players with the Fallen Feather debuff on Mythic difficulty.
    • [With weekly maintenance in each region] Seed of Flame duration increased to 5 seconds (was 3 seconds) in phase two on Mythic difficulty.
    • [With weekly maintenance in each region] Fallen Feathers damage reduced by 15% and Fallen Feathers will now spawn around the boss (was spawning behind the boss) on Mythic difficulty.
  • Fyrakk the Blazing [with weekly maintenance in each region]
    • Blaze now hits fewer targets on Mythic difficulty.
    • Fyrakk no longer hits all targets with Aflame when casting Incarnate on Mythic difficulty.
    • Searing Screams damage increase reduced to 100% (was 300%) on Mythic difficulty.
    • Reduced the health of Burning Colossus and Dark Colossus by 15% on Mythic difficulty.

Items

• Fixed an issue where the Shadowflame Rage effect from Fyrakk’s Tainted Rageheart could deal increased self-damage due to damage taken modifiers.

Player versus Player

• Resolved an issue that caused War Mode Supply Drops in the Emerald Dream to occur in the same location repeatedly.

Professions

• Cooking
  • Mages who Conjure Desserts will no longer draw the attention of all hungry creatures within 40 yards.
• Tailoring
  • Attempting to craft for the Legion quest “Inspire Me!” should no longer result in Invalid Target errors.

Season of Discovery

• Players questing for “The Orb of Soran’ruk” will now find that The Twilight’s Hammer have invaded the shores of The Zoram Strand near Blackfathom Deeps.
  • Developers’ notes: It wasn’t our original intent for discoveries to take you into raid instances. Now, the enemies needed for completion of a pre-requisite quest for a rune are both in the outdoor world and inside the raid.
• The quest to discover the Earth Shield shaman rune is now properly available to players. (Was previously not visible due to a bug). Happy hunting!
• Fixed an issue with the Bael Modan Blunderbuss gun item that caused it to only be usable with arrows rather than bullets.
• Fixed an issue where Sadistic Fiend would not properly reset when players died.
• Fixed an issue preventing progress on the Priest quest chain “Secrets of Elune”.
• Fixed an issue where “Allegiance to the Old Gods” quest was not completable while in a raid group.
• Carendin the Undercity Warlock will now discreetly dispose of any Acolyte’s Notes stuck in warlocks’ bags. He apologizes for the inconvenience.
• Your bags can now carry multiple filled Supply Shipment crates.
• Blackfathom Deeps
  • Fixed an issue on Twilight Lord Kelris when players would incorrectly die if they took a Dream Portal while under the effects of the Dream Eater debuff.