New End Game Realm on Midnight Beta – Development Notes for November 18th

END-GAME REALM: XALATATH’S ENDGAME

This environment is locked to using a max level template only, and players will not be able to access the Midnight outdoor zones as the focus of this environment is on instanced content (raid, dungeon, and pvp content).
Character copy is not available on this realm.

NEW FEATURES

CLASSES

Frost

• Auto-attack damage increased by 400%.

Unholy

• Necromancer’s Bargain has been renamed to Necromancer’s Cunning and moved to the specialization tree – Putrefy now summons a Lesser Ghoul to attack instead.
• Outnumber has been redesigned and is now the capstone talent – Each Lesser Ghoul increases the damage of your permanent Ghoul by 10% and Dark Transformation additionally empowers the Claw attacks of your Lesser Ghouls to Sweeping Claws. No longer grants 4 seconds additional duration to Lesser Ghoul.
• Reaping secondary effect has been updated – Dark Transformation now resets the cooldown of Soul Reaper and allows it to be used on any target.
• Commander of the Dead now has a secondary effect – The duration of Lesser Ghouls are increased by 25%/50% of your Mastery.
• Auto-attack damage increased by 300%.
• Army of the Dead now summons 6 Lesser Ghouls.
• Lesser Ghouls now last for 6 seconds (was 8 seconds).
• March of Madness now increases the damage of Lesser Ghouls by 15% (was 30%).
• Summon Gargoyle no longer grants 50 Runic Power.
• Gargoyle Strike now always critically strikes.
• Raise Abomination and Summon Gargoyle now Putrefy 2 Lesser Ghouls (was 4).
• Magus of the Dead no longer causes Army of the Dead to summon a Magus.
• Blightfall now increases all disease damage by 10% (was 20%).
• Reanimation now has a 100% chance to reanimate a Lesser Ghoul when Putrefied.
• Sweeping Claws damage increased by 20% and now deals 35% reduced damage to secondary targets.
• Unholy Aura now grants 1%/2% Haste for each Magus of the Dead active.
• Infected Claws will now be applied to the permanent Ghoul without the need to resummon.
• Infected Claws now scales with Mastery.
• Reaping damage bonus is now correctly applied to Scourge Strike.
• Fixed an issue that caused Scourge Strike damage to not scale with Mastery.
• Army of the Dead and its follow-up talents Raise Abomination and Summon Gargoyle have been moved to the center of the talent tree.

DEMON HUNTER

• Hero Talents

  New Hero Talent: Annihilator

  New Talent: Harness the Cosmos – Voidfall Meteor damage increased by 15%. Choice node against Doomsayer.

• Final Hour has been updated – Now causes Voidfall bonuses to linger for 8 seconds (was 12 seconds).
• Fixed an issue causing all Voidfall Meteors to benefit from World Killer’s radius increase.
• Devourer

  Doomsayer has been updated – Buff is now removed after 10 seconds of entering combat (was 5 seconds).

• Voidfall Meteor damage reduced by 50%.
• World Killer Meteors now generate 1 Soul Fragment (was 2).
• Fixed an issue where World Killer Meteors were not dealing appropriately increased damage and not creating Soul Fragments for Devourer Demon Hunters.

Vengeance

• Doomsayer has been updated – Now summons 1 Voidfall Meteor (was 3).
• Meteoric Fall has been updated – Now also triggered by Soul Cleave.
• Voidfall Meteor damage reduced by 25%.

Void-Scarred

Devourer

• Developers’ notes: Devourer is still overperforming by a wide margin, so we’re tamping down Annihilator’s power while also reducing the damage of their core spells. We are intentionally not reducing The Hunt’s power to help its power relative to the rest of the Devourer kit.
• Eradicate has been updated – Damage now increases proportionally when Cull replaces Reap.
• Entropy has been updated – Now forces your Soul Fragments to 25 when a raid encounter begins.
• Mastery: Monster Within effectiveness reduced.
• Void Ray damage reduced by 25%.
• Reap damage reduced by 25%.
• Collapsing Star damage reduced by 25%.
• Voidblade damage reduced by 25%.
• Hungering Slash damage reduced by 25%.
• Voidstep damage reduced by 25%.

DRUID

• Hero Talents

  Druid of the Claw

  Claw Rampage has been updated – Attacks during Berserk only have one chance to grant Ravage, instead of one per target hit. No longer triggers off the Cat Form version of Thrash.

• Feral

  Ravage damage to its primary target reduced by 20%.

• Dreadful Wound damage reduced by 20%.
• Strike for the Heart increases Shred, Swipe, and Rake critical strike chance by 5% (was 8%).

Wildstalker

• Bloodseeker Vines damage reduced by 15%.
• Bursting Growth damage reduced by 20%.
• Vigorous Creepers causes Bloodseeker Vines to increase damage victims take from you by 4% (was 6%).

Class

• Thrash can no longer be used in Cat Form.

  Developers’ notes: Cat Form Thrash does not have a strong identity or distinctive gameplay for druids in Midnight. To free up a keybind and reduce the number of debuff auras on enemy nameplates, we are removing Thrash from druids in Cat Form.

All Druids learn Bear Form Thrash at level 11 (was a talent).
Swipe is now a Class talent (was learned at level 10).
Shred damage increased by 40%.
Cat Form Swipe damage increased by 25%.
Thrash has been removed.

Feral

All ability damage reduced by 27%.
Melee damage increased by 115%.
Moonfire with Lunar Inspiration damage increased by 15%.
Feral Frenzy damage increased by 10%.
Frantic Frenzy damage increased by 15%.
Chomp damage increased by 10%.
Unseen Slash bleed damage reduced by 30%.
Unseen Swipe damage increased by 30%.
Merciless Claws increases the damage of Swipe by 20% (was 15%).
Midnight 4-set bonus has been updated – Now increases Moment of Clarity damage by 15% (was 20%).
Wild Slashes no longer increases Thrash damage.
Veinripper no longer increases the duration of Thrash’s bleed.
Fixed issues with Frantic Frenzy that could cause it to target far away enemies or generate fewer than five combo points.
Thrashing Claws has been removed.

Guardian

Dream of Cenarius has been updated – 20 second lockout has been removed, converted to 3.0+Haste RPPM. Now stacks up to 4.
Ursoc’s Fury now generates an absorb shield based on 40% of the damage dealt (was 25%).
Ursoc’s Fury, Raze, and Vulnerable Flesh have changed locations in the talent tree.
The following talents have been removed:

• Circle of Life and Death
• Mangle

EVOKER

Preservation

• Fixed an issue where Dream Breath was incorrectly calculating its upfront healing amount when empowering beyond rank 1. The overall healing amount is now equal no matter which empower level is chosen.

HUNTER

• Hero Talents

  Dark Ranger

  Wailing Arrow has been updated – Damage increased by 100% and cast time reduced to 1 second (was 2 seconds).

  Developers’ notes: We feel that Wailing Arrow needs an increase to usability and damage.

Beast Mastery

• Through the Eyes has been updated – Now causes Black Arrow to deal 10% increased damage to enemies affected by Black Arrow’s periodic damage.

Pack Leader

• Pack Mentality has been updated – Howl of the Pack Leader now grants 100% increased Kill Command damage.
• Howl of the Pack Leader has been updated – Wyvern damage bonus increased to 15% (was 10%).

Marksmanship

• Developers’ note: We’re buffing Kill Shot and Rapid Fire to ensure they’re feeling like valuable parts of your kit. We’re increasing Aimed Shot’s cooldown to reduce its power and help with moments of Aimed Shot overflow. Lastly, we’re reducing Aimed Shot’s cast time slightly and having it grant you some additional maneuverability after its longer cast time via a reworked Ammo Conservation.
• Trueshot has been updated – Now grants 60% cooldown reduction to Aimed Shot and Rapid Fire (was 40%).
• Ammo Conservation renamed to Quick Draw and has been updated – Now causes Aimed Shot to grant 50% increased movement speed for 2 seconds, decaying rapidly over its duration. No longer grants Aimed Shot cooldown reduction.
• Aimed Shot cooldown increased to 15 seconds (was 12 seconds).
• Aimed Shot cast time reduced to 2.5 seconds (was 3 seconds).
• Kill Shot damage increased by 75%.
• Rapid Fire damage increased by 100%.
• Fixed an issue causing Deadly Insight to trigger from Marksmanship abilities.

Survival

• Strike as One has been updated – Now additionally increase your pet’s damage dealt by 30%.
• Kill Command damage increased by 200%.
• Auto-attack damage dealt increased by 150%.

MAGE

Frostfire Empowerment has been updated – Now triggered from casting Frostfire spells (was Frostfire spell damage). No longer affects Glacial Spike.

• Developers’ notes: We’re moving AOE Glacial Spike to Flash Freezeburn to make the effect clearer and not tied to Frostfire Empowerment for increased consistency and reduced aura tracking. Frostfire Empowerment triggering from casts should reduce the situations where you gain Frostfire Empowerment mid-cast.

Frostfire Bolt direct damage reduced by 40%. No longer deals increased damage in PvP combat.

• Developers’ notes: We recently fixed some issues with Frostfire Bolt, Frostbolt, and Fireball that were causing all 3 spells to deal significantly less damage than intended. This fix paired with the damage bonus should bring Frostfire Bolt’s damage to more reasonable levels.

Fixed an issue causing Frostfire Empowerment to be granted significantly more often than intended.

Frost

Flurry damage reduced by 15%.
Ice Lance now Shatters 4 stacks of Freezing (was 5).

MONK

Mistweaver

• Enveloping Mist now costs 3.6% base mana (was 4.2%).
• Mana Tea now restores 12.5% more mana.
• Rushing Wind Kick’s mana cost reduced by 50%.
• Soothing Breath healing increased by 100%.
• Enveloping Mist healing increased by 50%.
• All healing reduced by 5%.
• Jadefire Teachings now transfers 180% of damage done (was 215%).
• Ancient Teachings now transfers 25% of damage done (was 30%).
• Revival and Restoral healing increased by 100%.

Windwalker

• Singularly Focused Jade now increases Jadefire Stomp’s damage by 300% (was 500%).
• Celestial Conduit damage reduced by 75%.
• Zenith Stomp damage reduced by 33%.
• Jadefire Stomp damage reduced by 66%.
• Auto-attack damage increased by 200%.
• All spell and ability damage reduced by 13%.

PALADIN

Crusader’s Might has been updated – Now additionally causes Crusader Strike to decrease the cooldown of Judgment by 1.5 seconds.

Retribution

• Crusading Strikes has been redesigned and is being reintroduced as a choice node to Templar Strikes – Crusader Strike replaces your auto-attacks and deals Physical damage, but you auto-attack 50% slower.
• Crusading Strikes damage increased by 200%.
• Auto-attack damage increased by 300% (does not affect Crusading Strikes).
• Hammer of Wrath damage has been increased by 30%.
• Fixed an issue that caused the Hammer of Wrath tooltip to display wrong damage information.

PRIEST

Discipline

• New Talent: Depth of Shadows – Casting Shadow Word: Death has a 25% chance to summon a Shadowfiend for 5 seconds when damaging targets below 20%.
• The number of Void Shields allowed active at once is now uncapped (was limited to 3). Void Shield still applies to 3 targets per cast.
• Fixed various incorrect interactions between Void Shield and Unfolding Vision.
• Atonement heals for 50% of damage done (was 60%).
• Mind Blast damage reduced by 30%.
• Shadowfiend has been removed.

Shadow

• Developers’ notes: With this update, we’re removing Shadowfiend and its variants and replacing them with proc versions to reduce the launch sequence of cooldowns for the specialization. We’re also looking to add DoT extension gameplay to the specialization after the removal of Void Bolt from Voidform. We want this to be something that functions consistently and against multiple targets and felt Shadowy Apparitions were a good source for this effect. We’re also undoing a previous change to have Misery override Shadow Word: Pain which caused issued with solo pulling and having an ability to use on the move. Finally, we’re adding a choice against Misery for low target situations where managing both DoTs can once again be a part of expected gameplay. We expect in high target situations for Misery to be the stronger option, but DoT management is still core to Shadow and low target and spread targets situations are where Shadow Word: Pain management can continue to live.
• New Talent: Depth of Shadows – Casting Shadow Word: Death has a 25% chance to summon a Shadowfiend for 5 seconds when damaging targets below 20% or 35% with Deathspeaker talented.
• New Talent: Haunting Shadows – Shadowy Apparition damage increased by 10%. When Shadowy Apparitions deal damage, they extend the duration of Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch on the target by 1.5 seconds.
• New Talent: Invoked Nightmare – Increases the damage of Shadow Word: Pain by 150%. Choice talent with Misery.
• New Talent: Maddening Tentacles – Tentacle Slam afflicts your target with Shadow Word: Madness at 25% effectiveness.
• New Talent: Crushing Void – Tentacle Slam deals 50% increased damage and Void Volley deals 15% increased damage. When Voidform ends, you can cast Void Volley 1 time for free within 30 seconds.
• Mindbender has been redesigned – Casting Void Eruption summons a Mindbender to attack your target for 10 seconds.
• Mental Decay no longer extends the duration of Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch when Mind Flay deals damage.
• Mental Decay now increases the damage of Mind Flay by 25% (was 15%).
• Surge of Insanity now increases the damage of Mind Flay by 15% (was 60%).
• Mind Flay and Mind Flay: Insanity damage increased by 40%.
• Ancient Madness now causes Shadow Word: Madness to increase the duration of Voidform by 3 seconds (was 2.5 seconds), but its effect now diminishes by 25% per cast of Shadow Word: Madness during Voidform.
• Misery no longer replaces Shadow Word: Pain.
• Shadowfiend has been removed.

ROGUE

Outlaw

Subtlety

SHAMAN

WARLOCK

• Affliction

  Developers’ notes: We have modified the overall structure of Affliction’s talent tree to reduce the friction between selecting a build geared towards single-target damage or multi-target damage. In addition, we are reducing the throughput of Unstable Affliction and removing Soul Miser and Cloying Power to highlight Seed of Corruption as Affliction’s multi-target spender.

• New Talent: Potent Soul Shards – Increases damage dealt by Unstable Affliction and Seed of Corruption by 5%.
• New Talent: Niskaran Methods – Increases the damage of Agony and Corruption by 10%.
• New Talent: Eye Contract – Increases the duration of Summon Darkglare by 5 seconds.
• Cull the Weak has been redesigned – Casting Seed of Corruption reduces the cooldown of Dark Harvest by 5 seconds.

  Developers’ notes: We are redesigning Cull the Weak to realign with our goal of keeping pooling tied to Darkglare specifically. This effect should underline Dark Harvest as a powerful tool for Affliction in multi-target situations.

Malefic Grasp has been redesigned – While Darkglare is active, your Shadow Bolt/Drain Soul becomes Malefic Grasp.

• Malefic Grasp: Binds the target in twilight, dealing Shadow damage over 4 seconds. When Malefic Grasp deals damage, it causes all of your other periodic Affliction damage effects to instantly deal 30% of their normal periodic damage.
• Developers’ notes: Malefic Grasp being tied to Nightfall creates moments where you want to pool Unstable Affliction casts. We want to avoid a situation where it is optimal to not press your filler and wait for optimal Unstable Affliction stacks.

Creeping Death has been updated – Your Agony, Corruption, and Unstable Affliction deal damage 10%/20% faster.
Withering Bolt has been updated – Shadow Bolt/Drain Soul deal 5%/10% increased damage, up to 15%/30%, per damage over time effect you have active on the target.
Shadow of Nathreza (Rank 4) has been updated – Damage dealt by Haunt has a chance to release the demonic soul haunting its target. When released, it unleashes a devastating attack before being banished back to Nathreza.
Wrath of Nathreza has been updated – Calls down a meteor formed from the ruins of Nathreza that explodes upon impact, dealing Shadow damage to all enemies within 10 yards. Damage reduced beyond 8 targets.
Unstable Affliction damage reduced by 75%.
The position and pathing of several talents have changed.
The following talents have been removed:

• Cloying Power
• Hex Weaver
• Relinquished
• Soul Miser

Demonology

• New Talent: Empowered Felstorm – Increases the damage of your Felguard’s Felstorm by 20% and its duration by 4 seconds.
• Blighted Maw has been updated – The fangs of your Dreadstalkers are coated in corrosive bile, causing Dreadbite to deal additional damage equal to 50% of damage dealt as Plague damage.
• Summon Demonic Tyrant has been updated – Summon a Demonic Tyrant that damages your target for 15 seconds. Damage dealt by Demonic Tyrant is increased by 10% for each Wild Imp and Dreadstalker.

  Developers’ notes: Rather than only gaining power from active demons upon his arrival, Demonic Tyrant now will gain power from any demon that is active while he is. This change should make ill-timed Tyrant summons less punishing. In addition, we are decoupling Vilefiend from Tyrant to avoid any future situations where Vilefiend feels like a required talent choice when taking Summon Demonic Tyrant.

Dominion of Argus (Rank 1) now summons a subjugated demon every 2 casts of Hand of Gul’dan (was 3).
Implosion damage increased by 500%.
Aura of Contempt has been removed.

• Developers’ notes: We want to avoid situations where you need to micro-manage your Felguard’s Felstorm so we are introducing a new talent to further enhance it to take the place of Aura of Contempt.

WARRIOR

Arms

• All ability damage reduced by 20%.
• Auto-attack damage increased by 150%.

Fury

• Auto-attack damage increased by 200%.
• Apex talent Rampaging Berserker’s final node changed – Rampage extends the duration of Berserk by 1 second (was 2 seconds).

PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER

USER INTERFACE AND ACCESSIBILITY

NEW INTERFACE: DAMAGE METER

• Allows players to track combat statistics for themselves and their party members in a variety of categories. It can be enabled under Options > Gameplay Enhancements > Damage Meter.
• Once enabled, various settings for the Damage Meter are available in Edit Mode.
• Current categories include: Damage Done, DPS, Damage Taken, Healing Done, HPS, Absorbs, Interrupts, Dispels.
• Supports tracking within individual combat pulls or across all pulls.
• Supports up to 3 windows at a time (primary window can be moved/resized in Edit Mode, secondary windows adjustable outside of Edit Mode).
• Right-clicking on an individual entry in the damage meter will open a separate window containing a per-spell breakdown.
• Developers’ notes: This feature is still in active development. Various pieces of the UI are still WIP and the combat statistics shown may not be completely accurate in some cases.

UPDATED NAMEPLATES

• Nameplates of non-targeted enemies are now darker.
• Added a new nameplate style called “Health Focus.” It’s similar to the “Modern” style, but places text above the health bar rather than inside of it.

ADDON INTERFACE

• Made improvements to the ability for addons to colorize text strings that contain secret values.
• Addons must now be marked by their authors as supporting 12.0.0 in order to be allowed to load in Midnight (to prevent players’ UI breaking due outdated addons).
• Made improvements to secret-related Lua error messaging (to make it easier for addons to diagnose issues).
• Made performance improvements to the recently updated AbbreviatedNumbers APIs (which allow addons to split up and format secret numbers).