Dragonflight Fractures in Time PTR – Sweeping Class Talent Changes

dragonflight fractures in time ptr sweeping class talent changes

The PTR offers a place of experimentation that isn’t really possible with the live environment, and this expansion Blizzard has been making full use of that freedom to make class changes outside of just number tweaks.

This patch primarily focuses on class tuning with Druids, Augmentation Evokers, Mages, and Holy Paladin all receiving attention. Augmentation is the new Evoker spec that will become playable when Fractures in Time hits and it’s expected that making not only a new spec from the ground up, but also a new spec focused on a niche that WoW has not previously focused on (Support rather than heals) will be seeing lots of iterations.

Holy Paladin changes should make the spec a bit more smooth to play as it wasn’t bad, per se, but more just awkward to play.

Mage has seen a lot of focus both on the PTR and the live servers with tons of changes, such as removing Rune of Power. Mages have notoriously been tough to balance as they lean towards the “unfairly good” side of the spectrum, but if not good they’re often enough in a rough spot when compared to other classes.

For the rest of the changes and the breakdown for them check out the full set of notes below!

Linxy – (Source)

Hello! Here’s this week’s changes to the Fractures in Time PTR:

CLASSES

  • DRUID
    • New Talent: Rising Light, Falling Night – Increases your damage and healing by 3% during the day. Increases your Versatility by 2% during the night.
    • Improved Sunfire has been moved to row 3, connected to Sunfire.
    • Rising Light, Falling Night occupies Improved Sunfire’s previous location.
    • Restoration and Balance Druid starter builds have been updated.
    • Feral
      • Developers’ note: Dire Fixation is a new talent Feral Druids can take to focus on single target damage. The changes to Rampant Ferocity allow its value to be tuned independent of Ferocious Bite’s damage.
      • New Talent: Dire Fixation – Attacking an enemy with Shred fixates your attention on it for 10 seconds. You can fixate on a single target at once. Your attacks deal 5% increased damage to your fixated target.
      • Primal Claws has been removed.
      • Dire Fixation is located in Primal Claws’ previous location. It is a 1 rank talent.
      • Rampant Ferocity has been redesigned – When you attack an enemy with Ferocious Bite, you also deal damage per combo point spent to all nearby enemies affected by your Rip. Damage reduced beyond 5 targets.
    • Restoration
      • Developers’ note: We are shifting power out of Nature’s Vigil and into Restoration Druid’s active spells.
      • Damage of all abilities increased by 15%.
  • EVOKER
    • Augmentation
      • Ignition Rush reduces the cast time of Eruption by 40% (was 30%).
      • Enemies can now only be affected by Upheaval’s knockback effect twice within 3 seconds.
      • Shifting Sands from Mastery: Timewalker reduced by 26%. For example, at level 70, 180 Mastery rating now grants 0.4% Versatility via Shifting Sands (was 0.54%).
      • Nourishing Sands now causes your next Emerald Blossom to cost no Essence if talented into Dream of Spring.
      • Momentum Shift now lasts 6 seconds (was 8 seconds) and duration is now increased by Mastery: Timewalker.
      • Essence Burst and Leaping Flames now have their duration increased by Mastery: Timewalker.
  • MAGE
    • Fire
      • Phoenix Flames now only generates 1 stack of Feel the Burn.
      • Feel the Burn increases Mastery per stack by 2% (was 4%).
      • Searing Touch increases Scorch damage by 175% when the target is below 30% health (was 150%).
      • Firemind increases Intellect per stack by 1% (was 2%).
      • Fevered Incantation critical strike damage increases up to 8% (was 10%).
      • Wildfire now increases critical strike damage by 3/6% (was 4/8%) and increases critical strike damage by an additional 2/4% when you activate Combustion (was 3/6%).
      • Sun King’s Blessing increases your next Pyroblast or Flamestrike damage by 275% (was 300%).
      • Hyperthermia will no longer trigger while Combustion is active. The tooltip has been updated to reflect this change.
    • Frost
      • Icy Veins cooldown reduced to 2 minutes (was 3 minutes) and Haste reduced to 20% (was 30%).
      • Icy Veins Water Elemental abilities can be controlled again.
        • Water Jet cooldown increased to 20 seconds (was 15 seconds).
        • Freeze now applies maximum stacks for Frigid Exposure.
        • Frigid Exposure now increases damage taken by 4% per stack (was 2%) and maximum stacks reduced to 5 (was 10).
      • Winter’s Blessing Haste increased to 8% (was 3%).
      • Thermal Void increases Icy Veins duration by 5 seconds (was 10 seconds).
      • Thermal Void causes Ice Lance to increase Icy Veins’ duration by 0.5 seconds (was 1 second) and causes Glacial Spike to increase Icy Veins’ duration by 1.5 seconds (was 3 seconds).
      • Frozen Orb radius increased by 15% and damage increased by 25%.
      • Frostbolt’s chance to gain Brain Freeze reduced to 25% (was 30%).
      • Coldest Snap has been slightly redesigned – Cone of Cold’s cooldown is increased to 45 seconds and resets the cooldown of Frozen Orb, Comet Storm, and Blizzard. In addition, Cone of Cold applies Winter’s Chill to all enemies hit.
      • Snowstorm increases Cone of Cold’s damage by 18/36% per stack (was 12/24%). Maximum stacks reduced to 15 (was 30).
      • Frozen Touch now grants Fingers of Frost 25% more often (was 20%) and now grants Brain Freeze 15% more often (was 20%).
      • Glacial Spike cast time reduced by 0.5 seconds and damage increased by 10%.
      • Mastery: Icicles damage of icicles reduced by 25%. Mastery now also increases the damage of Blizzard, Comet Storm, Ice Lance, Glacial Spike, and Ray of Frost.
      • Frozen Orb’s damage from Mastery: Icicles has been reduced to account for the newly added abilities that gain Mastery scaling.
  • PALADIN
    • Holy
      • Echoing Blessing’s location has moved to below Holy Aegis.
      • The starter build has been updated.
      • Crusader’s Might is now a 1 point talent and grants 1.5 seconds of cooldown reduction to Holy Shock.
      • Relentless Inquisition is now a 1 point talent and can stack up to 5 times.
      • New Talent: Awestruck – Holy Shock, Holy Light, and Flash of Light critical healing increased by 15%.
      • Holy Infusion now shares a choice node with Awestruck.
      • Glorious Dawn now increases the healing and damage of Glimmer of Light by 10%.
      • Awakening now triggers Avenging Wrath for 12 seconds (was 10 seconds).
      • Fixed an issue that caused Relentless Inquisitor to not stack its effect from Avenging Crusader.
      • Fixed an issue that caused Light of the Martyr to cost less mana than intended.
  • WARLOCK
    • Affliction
      • Xavius’ Gambit no longer increases the damage of Unstable Affliction’s backlash damage.

ITEMS AND REWARDS

  • PROFESSIONS
    • Leatherworking
      • The patterns for Deviate Scale Cloak, Deviate Scale Gloves, and Deviate Scale Belt can now sometimes be found within Stuffed Deviate Scale Pouches which drop from Druids of the Fang inside Wailing Caverns.
      • The patterns for Girdle of Insight, Mongoose Boots, Swift Flight Bracers, Chromatic Cloak, Hide of the Wild, and Shifting Cloak can now sometimes be found within Knot Thimblejack’s Cache for players who acquire the Gordok Shackle Key within Dire Maul.
    • Tailoring
      • The pattern for Belt of the Archmage can now sometimes be found within Knot Thimblejack’s Cache for players who acquire the Gordok Shackle Key within Dire Maul.

PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER

  • EVOKER
    • Dreamwalker’s Embrace heals you and your ally for 100% of damage dealt to enemies struck by the tether.
    • Time Stop cooldown reduced to 1 minute (was 1.5 minutes) and duration increased to 5 seconds (was 4 seconds).
  • PALADIN
    • Holy
      • Searing Glare’s cooldown reduced to 45 seconds and radius increased to 25 yards.
      • Glimmer of Light now deals 50% damage in PvP combat (was 75%).
  • WARLOCK
    • Affliction
      • Deathbolt (PvP Talent) has been removed.
      • New Talent: Oblivion – Unleash wicked magic upon your target’s soul, dealing Shadow damage over 3 seconds. Deals 10% increased damage, up to 30%, per damage over time effect you have active on the target.

USER INTERFACE AND ACCESSIBILITY

  • Updated the “open hand” interaction cursor with high resolution art.
  • Updated unit frame art for totems.
  • Added a “Sell All Junk” button to vendors.
  • Updated “Repair” and “Repair All” button art on vendors.
  • EDIT MODE
    • Added Archaeology bar.
    • Added width and height sliders to the Chat Frame.

About the Author

Shadostruct

I've been playing WoW since beta with some breaks here and there. I'm a semi-hardcore to hardcore raider that focuses on retail mainly. I'm a big fan of giant dragons and am excited for all that Dragonflight will have to offer.

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