WoWFeb 11, 2016 1:26 am CT

Latest Legion alpha build unveils six new specs

The Legion alpha is having some serious issues tonight, ranging from login problems to client crashes… lots of client crashes… which have been stymieing everyone’s efforts to see what’s new. However, we do know that a new build is live with Holy Priests, Holy Paladins, Protection Paladins, Beast Mastery Hunters, Demonology Warlocks, and Arcane Mages. On top of that, Blizzard has announced changes for existing specs, including Retribution Paladins, Enhancement Shamans, Elemental Shamans, Guardian Druids, Blood Death Knights, Subtlety Rogues, Marksmanship Hunters, Survival Hunters, and Discipline Priests.

And those are just the changes Blizzard has officially told us about — datamining by Wowhead shows even more changes in the works, including even more class changes as well as new items, glyphs, and models. Read on for the full alpha build statement by Celestalon as well as the latest datamining.

Originally Posted by Celestalon (Official Post)

Hey all,

Yet another new Alpha build is on its way, hopefully today. More new and revised things are available to test:

New Specializations Unlocked – A whopping 6 new specializations are ready for testing! We’d love any and all feedback about their gameplay, artifact quest lines, abilities, etc.
- Holy Priest
- Holy Paladin
- Protection Paladin
- Beast Mastery Hunter
- Demonology Warlock
- Arcane Mage
Class Status – We’re continuing to iterate on our class abilities and talents, based on testing and feedback. This build has many revisions scattered around the classes, but here are some highlights:
- Retribution Paladins – Several talents have been revised.
- Enhancement Shamans – Many talents have been revised. We also revised some of their baseline abilities, and passives.
- Elemental Shamans – Many talents have been revised. We also revised some of their baseline abilities, and passives.
- Guardian Druids – Their core offensive combat abilities have received significant changes. Hopefully this should create more engaging gameplay.
- Blood Death Knights – Many talents have been revised. We also revised some of their baseline abilities.
- Subtlety Rogues – We’ve significantly revised their core combat abilities. We’ve also tweaked what abilities each spec has.
- Marksmanship Hunters – Several talents have been revised.
- Survival Hunters – Several talents have been revised.
- Discipline Priest – We revised some baseline abilities.
Creature Tuning – We continue to tweak the health levels of creatures in Legion. In this build, creature health has been raised, because combat times were generally too short. Feedback on whether creatures take too long or too little time to kill is valuable, as well as how sparsely or densely populated with creatures the world is. Be sure to mention specific locations when giving feedback on this!

Thanks, and we look forward to your feedback!

Also, check out the design notes from the previous build, if you haven’t already as well: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/20419964239

On the datamining front, Wowhead has a run-down of the changes, including small and large changes to classes Celestalon didn’t mention: Vengeance Demon Hunters, Frost Death Knights, Unholy Death Knights, Balance Druids, Feral Druids, Restoration Druids, Fire Mages, Frost Mages, Brewmaster Monks, Mistweaver Monks, Shadow Priests, Assassination Rogues, Outlaw Rogues, Restoration Shaman, Affliction Warlocks, Destruction Warlocks, Arms Warriors, Fury Warriors, and Protection Warriors. If you want to check out the changes in action, Wowhead has updated talent and artifact calculators so you can play with them to your heart’s content. On top of that, there are a slew of new items, including toys, pets, legendaries, and glyphs, as well as plenty of new models, including artifact weapons, cat forms, and creatures.

Personally, my favorite of the lot is Glyph of the Spectral Raptor. I want it. I need it. But not all of my coworkers agree with this obvious truism and Mitch has insisted that I include his favorite patch announcement:

Okay, here's roughly what it looks like as you gain Insanity toward Voidform.

Full size: https://t.co/XYHatqOw9d pic.twitter.com/oU5LqERP2f

— Mitch 💙 (@MitchFizzl) February 11, 2016