Patch 7.1 PTR patch notes

Dungeons and Raids

Karazhan Mythic Dungeon

• New attunement questline in Deadwing Pass.

Trial of Valor Raid

• Short questline leading into the raid.
• New World Quests: Kvaldir landing sites.

The Nighthold Raid

• New Nightfallen story quests, with new content every week leading up to the opening of The Nighthold.
• New World Quests supporting the continued Nightfallen story.

New World Quests

• Falcosaurs Swarm! – The coastline of the Broken Isles is under assault from an invasive, predatory species, and they’re breeding out of control!
  • Falcosaurs drop Falcosaur Eggs and Falcosaur Feathers, reagents for new First Aid and Cooking recipes available from the Wardens faction at Honored and Revered.
  • Find and raise your Orphaned Falcosaur pet, leading to an exclusive new mount.

New World Event Area

• Return to Alcaz Isle – Dr. Weavil and the Drudge Gnomes
  • Get to the bottom of Dr. Weavil’s insidious plans on Alcaz Isle.
  • Rewards include the Big Red Ray toy for everyone and tamable mechanical spiders for Hunters.

Class Changes

Death Knight

• Frozen Pulse now triggers if you have fewer than 2 full Runes (was 1).
• Frozen Pulse damage reduced to 60% of Attack power (was 72%).
• Glacial Advance now hits targets in melee range more reliably.

Demon Hunter

• Abilities learned have been spaced out:
  • Sigil of Silence – Level 101
  • Empower Wards – Level 103
  • Sigil of Misery – Level 105

Druid

• Mastery: Harmony now includes Frenzied Regeneration.
• Ysera’s Gift will only heal party or raid members.
• Living Seed now copies 25% of the crit heal (was 50%).
  • Seeds of the World Tree now increases that amount by 8%/point (was 10%).
• Swiftmend healing increased to 770% of Spell Power (was 700%).
• (Balance, Guardian, Feral) Druids now have Regrowth in place of Healing Touch.
  • Regrowth is castable in Moonkin Form.
  • Talents, artifact traits, and legendaries have been updated to affect Regrowth where appropriate.
  • (Restoration) Regrowth has 40% additional chance to crit (was 60%).
• Activating Incarnation no longer triggers a global cooldown for any spec.
• Incarnation: Chosen of Elune once a gain provides the armored Moonkin model.
• Galactic Guardian:
  • Now causes Moonfire to generate 10 Rage (was 15).
  • Now increases its direct damage by 300%.
  • Now has a power aura.

Hunter

• Track Mechanicals granted to all gnome and goblin hunters, as well as any hunter who uses the Mecha-Bond Imprint Matrix.
• Vulnerable now increases damage by 50% (was 25%), stacking up to 2 times (was 3 times).
• New Hunter talent (replacing Dash):
  • Trailblazer: Your movement speed is increased by 25% anytime you have not attacked for 3 seconds.
• (Survival) Animal Instincts has been redesigned: Flanking Strike now also reduces the remaining cooldown of a random one of the following abilities:
  • Flanking Strike
  • Mongoose Bite
  • Aspect of the Eagle
  • Harpoon

Mage

• (Frost) Brain Freeze now also increases the damage of your next Flurry by 30%.

Monk

• (Windwalker, Brewmaster) Crackling Jade Lightning now costs 20 Energy, plus 20 Energy per second.

Paladin

• Retribution Aura no longer ignores tanks (including self).
• In talent trees, Divine Steed for Holy and Retribution, and Blessing of Salvation for Protection have been replaced with a new talent:
  • Cavalier: Divine Steed now has 2 charges.
• Retribution
  • Holy Wrath now deal 200% of your missing health in damage to 4 nearby enemies, up to 120% of your maximum health.
  • Blade of Wrath has been redesigned: (Passive) Your auto attacks have a chance to reset the cooldown of Blade of Justice.
  • Crusade has been redesigned: Replaces Avenging Wrath. (Instant – 2 minute cooldown) Profoundly empowers your Judgment for 20 seconds.
    • While empowered, Judgment generates 1 Holy Power, has a 75% reduced cooldown, and increases your damage and healing by 3%, stacking up to 15 times.
• Protection
  • First Avenger: Avenger’s Shield now adds +50% damage to the first target, and +10% Grand Crusader proc chance.
  • Bastion of Light now has a 2 minute cooldown (was 3 minutes).
  • Crusader’s Judgment now has 2 charges, and Grand Crusader now also grants a charge of Judgment.

Priest

• (Shadow) Arcane Torrent now generates 15 Insanity.

Rogue

• Kingsbane now generates 1 combo point.
• Hemorrhage, Marked for Death, and Ghostly Strike show up on the caster’s nameplates.

Shaman

• Fire Elemental, Earth Elemental, and Feral Spirits now all have totem timers.
• Earthquake Totem has been renamed to Earthquake and no longer summons a totem.

Warlock

• Demon Skin and Demonic Circle have swapped talent locations.
• Devour Magic has returned for Felhunters.
• Unstable Affliction now overlaps when cast multiple times, rather than “rolling” any remaining damage into the new cast. This does not change the total damage dealt by multiple casts, but makes it easier for players to see the strength of an Unstable Affliction on a given target.
• Compounding Horror trait redesigned: its buff causes your next Unstable Affliction to deal (32% Spell Power) Shadow damage instantly, stacking up to 5 times.
• (Affliction) Soul Effigy is now immune to AOE damage.
• (Demonology) Demonic Empowerment now increases health by 20% (was 50%).
• (Demonology) Thal’kiel’s Consumption deals damage equal to 8% of pet health (was 6%).

Warrior

• Inspiring Presence now affects party and raid members only.

Leveling

In this patch, a large number of changes are made to improve the order and flow of abilities gained while leveling all classes.

• In many cases, the level 1-10 abilities that introduce the class have changed.
• Many special bonuses and features for class abilities are now granted by upgrades that are learned at a later level.
• This applies to every spec for every class other than Death Knights and Demon Hunters.
• Examples:
  • Druids below level 10 now use Wrath and Moonfire as their primary damage abilities, rather than Shred and Ferocious Bite.
  • While Smite will still be the first spell given to Priests at level 1, the added absorb shield effect will be an upgrade learned by Discipline at level 36, as the purpose of that effect is to add to healing in group content.
  • Rogues will start leveling with an ability that attacks with one weapon and generates one combo point. Rogues who choose Assassination specialization will replace that ability with Mutilate at level 40.

Pet Battles

• Raiding with Leashes IV
  • Delve into Ulduar, Trial of the Crusader, and Icecrown Citadel in search of rare pets and the chance to do battle with a new Celestial foe!

Player Versus Player

• Nagrand Arena has received a significant visual update.

Honor System

• Honor talents will no longer be lost when a player chooses to Prestige.
• Players will receive gold or artifact power in lieu of honor talents at higher Prestige levels.
• Unrated Rewards
  • The quality of items rewarded from skirmish and random battlegrounds now increases based on the player’s Honor Level.
• Rated Rewards
  • Players will no longer receive a bonus piece of gear based on their rating for the first two wins in each rated bracket (2v2, 3v3, 10v10).
  • Players will now receive a bonus piece of gear based on their best rating from the previous week for each rated bracket (2v2, 3v3, 10v10).