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The official WoW: Forever launch notes: Shank, Death Mark and no more Lava Burst

· by Davina Asaria

One day to go, and Blizzard has published the official development notes for launch: everything that changed since the last big beta update on October 15. They confirm the Paladin, Druid and Mage changes we wrote about last week (https://legendsofazeroth.com/news/big-talent-changes-for-paladins-and-druids-just-before-the-wow-forever-launch), and there is a lot more. Rogues and Shamans in particular should read on.

The big picture

  • More damage for every class. Blizzard let go of the idea of keeping each class at its Classic power level. All classes hit harder, and monsters at higher levels get more health to match.
  • No big tuning until the raids. Apart from bugs and serious outliers, the numbers stay as they are until the raids open in December. After that comes a large tuning pass based on data from players past level 30.
  • Training costs: learning all class abilities from 1 to 60 now costs about 206 gold for every class. Warlocks pay less, to make up for the Grimoires for their pets.
  • New spells no longer jump onto your action bars by themselves. Place them yourself.
  • Bags no longer equip themselves. Drag a new bag into a bag slot yourself.
  • Faster respawns at launch, fastest in the starting zones, so the crowds on launch night don't get stuck. Blizzard turns this back down once things calm down.
  • Base stats fixed: every race now has its correct base stats. Tauren Warriors, for example, now have their proper +5 Strength over Humans (it was +2).
  • Roots from procs (Frostbite, Entrapment, Improved Wing Clip, Counterattack, Improved Hamstring) now have diminishing returns.

Rogue: a big rework

Two new tools for every Rogue:

  • Shank (level 24): 5 Energy, 10 second cooldown. Strikes with your off-hand for 50% weapon damage, cannot miss and gives you 15 Energy (25 with rank 2 at level 44).
  • Poised (level 18): out of combat with full Energy, your next Energy ability costs 10 less.

Deadly Poison and Instant Poison now scale twice as much with attack power.

Assassination

  • Murder is gone. Mutilate moves up to row 7 and hits harder (90% weapon damage, was 75%).
  • New talent Blood Splatter: Rupture lasts 6 seconds longer, Garrote 9 seconds.
  • Relentless Strikes now has 5 ranks: up to a 20% chance per combo point to restore 25 Energy.
  • Venom now works with Shank: up to 30% more poison damage and a 20% higher chance to apply poisons for 6 seconds.
  • Seal Fate now has 3 ranks, up to a 100% chance for an extra combo point on a crit. Lethality drops to 2 ranks, 20% crit damage at max rank.

Combat

  • Improved Eviscerate is now Coup de Grace, and Improved Sinister Strike is now Efficient Strikes, which also makes Hemorrhage cheaper.
  • New talents Composure (Poised saves up to 10 more Energy) and Flash of Steel (Shank gives up to 15 more Energy and has a shorter cooldown).
  • Dual Wield Specialization drops to 2 ranks, but gives 50% more off-hand damage at max rank (was 25%).
  • Aggression now boosts Sinister Strike and Eviscerate by up to 15%.

Subtlety

  • Thousand Cuts is gone. The new 31-point talent is Death Mark: a finishing move that marks the target and stores part of the damage you deal, Garrote and Rupture at double rate. After 6 seconds the stored damage hits all at once.
  • Quietus and Cutthroat are removed. New talents Boot Knife (Shank adds up to 2 extra combo points) and Quick Getaway (Sap one extra target, plus a burst of speed after a Sap).
  • Ghostly Strike now lets you use Ambush or Garrote without Stealth for 7 seconds.
  • Opportunity now has 5 ranks: up to 20% more damage for Backstab, Garrote, Ambush and Mutilate.

Shaman

  • Lava Burst has been removed. Its place goes to Call of Thunder: 5% more crit chance for Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning. Elemental Mastery is now called Lightning Mastery.
  • Lightning Bolt hits a lot harder, the highest rank by 80%. Chain Lightning now has a 2.5 second cast, hits harder and costs more mana. Shocks are back to their Classic values.
  • Lightning Overload now has up to a 30% chance for a free extra spell (was 10%).
  • Enhancement: Stormstrike now deals 150% weapon damage with a 6 second cooldown (was 100% and 8 seconds). Maelstrom Weapon triggers twice as often, Mental Dexterity gives up to 150% of your Intellect as attack power, and Flurry goes up to 30% attack speed.
  • Restoration: Riptide costs about 40% less mana but has a 12 second cooldown, and only heals over time now.
  • Totemic Projection is now Totemic Call: it teleports your totems to you, on a 30 second cooldown.

Warrior

  • Defensive Stance now gives 80% extra threat (was 30%), and Defiance up to 20% more. Good news for our tanks.
  • Slam has a 15 second cooldown (was 18).
  • Arms: Two-Handed Weapon Specialization goes up to 6% damage, Improved Tactical Mastery keeps up to 15 Rage when you change stance, and Bloodthrill now has 2 ranks.
  • Fury: two new talents. Reckless Swings costs 25% of your base health and makes your next 4 melee attacks give 5 extra Rage. Improved Whirlwind cuts the cooldown of Whirlwind by 2 seconds and adds 30% damage to the closest enemy. Flurry now has 3 ranks, up to 30% attack speed, and Bloodthirst now needs Death Wish.

Hunter

  • Aimed Shot does about 110% more bonus damage, Arcane Shot about 30% more, and Serpent Sting hits harder too. Aspect of the Hawk gives up to 110 ranged attack power.
  • All traps now share one 30 second cooldown.
  • Marksmanship: Barrage up to 15%, Sniper Shot 100% more bonus damage, Trueshot Aura up to 100 ranged attack power.
  • Survival: Lightning Reflexes now gives up to 15% Agility.

Priest

  • Holy Binding replaces Binding Heal: when you Flash Heal someone else, you are healed for 50% of it as well.
  • Shadow Word: Death now costs you 30% of your maximum health if it doesn't kill, but no longer hurts you when it misses.
  • Vampiric Embrace healing can no longer crit.

Warlock

  • Wrack hits more than twice as hard: at level 60 its base damage per second goes from 36 to 86.
  • Shadow and Flame now increases Fire or Shadow damage by up to 20% (was 10%).
  • Pets get much less health from your Stamina (2 per point, was 7.5).
  • Drain Soul gives a Soul Shard from damage (not kills) a lot less often.

Druid, Paladin and Mage

The changes from our earlier post are now official, with a few extras:

  • Druid: Bear Form threat goes up to 115% (was 50%) to make up for the loss of Blessing of Salvation. Feral damage goes up a lot: Shred 200% weapon damage, Claw 140%, Ravage 435%, and Rip, Rake, Ferocious Bite and Pounce about 25% more. Feral now has two 31-point talents to choose from: Primal Bite for bears and Shifting Power for cats (with the new Predatory Discipline). Furor and Heart of the Wild swap trees, Lacerate is now a row 4 talent, and Starfire hits about 40% harder.
  • Paladin: Blessing of Salvation, Mass Salvation, Revoke and Blessing of Light are removed. Righteous Fury now gives 33% more threat, plus 90% extra threat from Holy damage. Retribution gets a new 31-point talent, Unsealed Wrath, which stores copies of your active Seal on every hit. Vengeance now stacks 5 times.
  • Mage: Frost Blast and the Piercing Ice talent are removed, and Precision is back to 3 ranks for 6% hit with all spells.

The racial changes are the ones we already covered: https://legendsofazeroth.com/news/racial-changes-for-the-wow-forever-launch-what-changes-for-the-horde

Controller players

Blizzard now calls gamepad support functionally complete: movement, spells, targeting, looting, bags, professions, flight paths and menus all work with a controller. You set it up in Edit Mode and the Options menu. You still need a keyboard for chat.

Also good to know

In a new article Blizzard also lists a few things worth knowing on launch night:

  • At launch every character can spend up to 16 Legacy Points, and you can reach that on one character. No need to make alts for it.
  • Under the Advanced options you find a built-in Damage Meter and Cooldown Manager.
  • On the PvP rulesets you can only play one faction, so make sure your friends pick the same side.

Blizzard also released a short launch overview video:

What this means for Legends of Azeroth

Rogues and Shamans: look at your build again. Thousand Cuts and Lava Burst are gone, and Shank changes how Rogues play. Tanks: without Blessing of Salvation, Bear Form, Defensive Stance and Righteous Fury get a lot more threat, so keeping aggro should feel fine. And put about 206 gold aside for training on the way to 60.

Guild members: our Talent Calculator now shows the new trees as they are on the servers today, including Death Mark, the new Feral row and the new Paladin talents. Not every number from the notes is live yet (the Shaman changes are still missing, for example), so we update it again as more hotfixes arrive: https://legendsofazeroth.com/talents

Tomorrow it starts: maintenance from 19:00 CET, launch at 00:00 CET in the night from Wednesday to Thursday. See you in Durotar!

Sources: Blizzard (Community Manager Kaivax) on the official forums at https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/2360696 and Blizzard Entertainment at https://worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com/en-gb/news/24315821/wow-forever-whats-new-and-what-feels-familiar