WoWJan 11, 2017 10:29 am CT

Artifact Traits in PVP are the first big change in patch 7.1.5 hotfixes

Patch day has come and gone, and that means we’re heading into hotfix week. The first hotfixes for patch 7.1.5 have arrived, and we’ll no doubt have more as Blizzard works the kinks out of the patch. But considering just how much was in 7.1.5, this batch of hotfixes is actually pretty small, with a big one for PVPers: after briefly being enabled post-patch, you can now no longer use Artifact Traits 35+ in PVP.

You can imagine the power difference between someone with a maxed out Artifact and a brand new 110, so when Legion launched, Blizzard capped the number of Artifact Traits active in PVP so the difference wasn’t staggering. (And by staggering, I mean that the passive damage increases from high-end Artifact Traits can be around 15%. Ouch.) With new ways to catch up on Artifact Power, a new 110 can have a fairly well-equipped Artifact pretty quickly — so Blizzard thought it was time to lift the restriction. But amidst a lot of player outcry, Blizzard had second thoughts.

Originally Posted by Orynx (Official Post)

However, we did not communicate this change (and its purpose) with enough advance notice to allow players to effectively prepare for it. Furthermore, while the improvements in Patch 7.1.5 make it much easier to unlock those final traits for new players or alternate characters, they weren’t available until today. While we still believe activating these traits is the correct choice for World of Warcraft PvP, the middle of an ongoing season is not the right time to make this change.

So PVP is back to the way it was… at least for now, to give PVPers time to farm up Artifact Power and max out their Traits. For the non-PVPers, the rest of the changes hit on the Brawler’s Guild, Death Knights, Priests, and Warlocks — you’ll want to give them a run-through to see if they affect you. And if you aren’t up to date on all things 7.1.5, check out the patch notes and hotfixes to date:

Find the full hotfix notes below.

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment (Official Post)

Brawler’s Guild

Financial Support buffs should now be cleared between matches.
The Prediction Incentives NPCs should no longer state that they are accepting guesses when the guessing game is not enabled.
The Prediction Incentives NPCs can now be clicked through players.
Johnny Awesome should no longer yell across servers.

Classes

Death Knight
- Reduced the damage dealt by pet abilities Sweeping Claws and Vile Gas by 40% to offset the fact that they now ignore the target’s armor.
- The damage dealt by Sweeping Claws and Vile Gas is now increased by Dreadblade (Unholy Death Knight Mastery).
Priest
- Call of the Void (Shadow Artifact Trait) will now stop channeling Mind Flay if the target moves out of line of sight of the tentacle.

Warlock
- Affliction Warlocks will no longer enter combat when using Banish on creatures who are not in combat.

Class Halls

Players are no longer able to use Artifact Power items while an Artifact that has all 54 points completed is equipped.

Items

Wilfred’s Sigil of Superior Summoning should now correctly reduce the cooldown of Infernal/Doomguard when a Wild Imp is spawned with the Impending Toom talent. Cooldowns that are over 10 minutes will be reduced to 3 minutes with Impending Doom active.

Player versus Player

Fixed an issue where some Paladin Fearless Gladiator’s armor was assigned the wrong faction. If your armor faction is incorrect, log out and then back into of World of Warcraft.
All Artifact traits after 34 are now disabled in PvP instances.
Ashran
- Several Wand and Scroll items should once again be usable within Ashran.
Priest
- Psychic Link will now deal 30% of Mind Blast and Void Bolt damage (was 100%).

Quests

Resolved an issue where Shar’thos would sometimes not grant credit for his World Quest.
During “Test at Sea”, the North Fleet Reservists will once again spawn so that you can drop plague vials on them.

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