WoW Forever beta patch notes: October 1

The October 1 WoW Forever beta update raised the level cap to 30, opened more dungeons and substantially rearranged Warrior talents. It also changed dungeon-quest experience, PvP prices, class mechanics and controller support. The changes and known issues below describe that update; linked records show their current entries.

Level cap, dungeons and the world

• Characters can now reach level 30.
• The new dungeon Excavation Site: Wetlands has a listed level range of 26–31.
• Razorfen Downs is available at 25+, and Uldaman at 30+.
• The previously available dungeons remain accessible: Ragefire Chasm, The Hall of Thanes, Ruins of Lordaeron, Wailing Caverns, Deadmines, Shadowfang Keep, Stormwind Stockade, Blackfathom Deeps, Gnomeregan, Razorfen Kraul and Scarlet Monastery.
• Darnassus and Thunder Bluff now have barbershops. Every barbershop has a barber, and city guards can give directions to one.
• World-instance behavior has been adjusted. Creating a party or changing its membership should no longer transfer the party leader to another instance.

Developer reasoning: Population and grouping features remain under iteration, and Blizzard is seeking feedback on their behavior.

Analysis — The new dungeon's listed range extends beyond the level-30 beta cap. Treat its 26–31 range and the character cap as separate facts when planning a group.

Camping, items and general fixes

• Rain is easier to see.
• The Ray Traced Shadows option has been removed while its functionality is repaired; it is intended to return in a later update.
• Night Watchman's Torch no longer causes the reported situational lag, and its effect can be cancelled.
• Across all races, weapons have been resized for more consistent proportions both in hand and sheathed on the back.
• The Boosted Rest camping debuff has a new icon and clearer tooltip text.
• Camping descriptions now say “mutually exclusive” to make the relationship between incompatible features clearer.
• Campfires no longer damage characters below level 5. Their damage is reduced when a character has less than 90% health.
• Savory Whimsyfin Delight now transforms the player into orc versions of the ninja and pirate appearances used by Savory Deviate Delight.
• Selling a bind-on-equip item whose appearance you have not collected now makes it soulbound, rather than account-bound.

Developer reasoning: The previous Savory Whimsyfin Delight transformations were placeholders. Similar transformations may return in the future.

Druid

• Critical strikes in Bear Form and Dire Bear Form generate 75% more Rage.
• Swipe now correctly gains damage equal to 3% of the Druid's attack power. Its tooltip will be corrected in a later update.
• Tiger's Fury has been removed; the change appears in both the general Druid and Feral sections of the notes.
• All shapeshift forms are immune to disarm effects. A disarm applied before shifting remains active, and damage stays reduced for the rest of that disarm.
• Faerie Fire no longer restarts the melee swing timer.

Developer reasoning: The disarm change aims to reproduce how shapeshifting felt in original WoW; shifting does not cleanse an existing disarm.

Feral

• Primal Bite generates roughly twice as much threat.
• King of the Jungle has been removed.
• The new row-4 talent Shifting Power connects to Shredding Attacks. It is usable only in Cat Form, has a 16-second cooldown, and instantly exchanges 55% of base Mana for 40 Energy. Its Mana cost equals Cat Form's and is reduced by effects that reduce shapeshifting costs.
• The row-5 talent Improved Shifting Power connects to Shifting Power and reduces its cooldown by 4/8 seconds.

Analysis — Shifting Power trades Mana for Energy without leaving Cat Form. The shared shapeshifting-cost reductions therefore affect the resources available for that exchange.

Hunter

Marksmanship

• Improved Stings has an icon closer to the original game's visual style.
• The 31-point talent Sniper Shot now reaches 45 yards. It also extends the range of the next 3 shots fired within 10 seconds by 10 yards.

Survival and pets

• Predator's Edge has an icon closer to the original game's style.
• Deflection grants 1/2/3/4/5% additional Parry, down from 2/4/6/8/10%.
• Aggressive pet behavior is available again in the spellbook's pet tab.
• Tameable beasts that had pet-ability ranks above their intended level have been corrected.

Developer caution: Correcting those ranks may make an existing pet appear to have forgotten an ability. Blizzard says the underlying problem should not recur after this fix.

Mage

• All scrolls produced through Comprehension received another balance pass. They can no longer be cast while moving.

Fire

• Hot Streak has been renamed Heating Up, because its effect no longer depends on a streak.
• Combustion again has 3 charges, down from 4.
• The Fire Vulnerability applied by Improved Scorch no longer makes a separate second resistance check.

Frost

• Winter's Chill no longer makes a separate resistance check when applied; the spell that triggers it already had to hit.

Paladin

Protection

• Redoubt grants 4/8/12/16/20% Block chance, down from 6/12/18/24/30%.
• Holy Shield grants 30% Block chance, up from 20%.

Retribution

• Champion of the Light converts 20/40/60% of Intellect into spell damage, down from 33/66/100%.
• Its tooltip no longer claims a healing increase. Blizzard states that the talent did not provide that healing benefit; this is a text correction.

Priest

• Devouring Plague can now critically strike as intended.
• Shadow Word: Death no longer receives Early Demise's benefit at every target-health percentage.
• In Discipline, Inner Focus's critical-strike bonus no longer applies to periodic effects.
• In Shadow, Shadow Weaving can no longer fail to apply.

Rogue

• A missed Expose Armor no longer consumes every combo point.
• In Subtlety, Setup grants combo points on the current target only when that target caused the dodge or resisted spell that triggered the talent.

Shaman

• Ghost Wolf is easier to see in bright environments.
• Disease Cleansing Totem now lasts the intended 5 minutes.
• Totemic Recall now restores Mana correctly.

Warlock

• Starting another spell now correctly interrupts Drain Soul.
• Incubus uses a lower-resolution model.
• Hellfire can now critically strike.
• In Affliction, Soul Harvesting has been renamed Soul Harvest. Its 50/100% Mana-regeneration increase now works correctly.
• Aggressive pet behavior is available again in the spellbook's pet tab.

Warrior

• Critical basic attacks initially received 75% more Rage; the later Warrior amendment raises the additional Rage from critical strikes to 100%, from 75%.
• Rend and Sunder Armor immediately tag enemies for the Warrior.
• Queuing Heroic Strike no longer raises the off-hand hit chance.
• The Warrior amendment reports a fix for Dual Wield Specialization granting its hit bonus to both weapons. The original post also retains this behavior in its known-issues section below.

Developer reasoning: That Dual Wield Specialization bug affected Blizzard's testing, leading to another Fury balance pass.

Arms

• Spearing Strike no longer requires a two-handed weapon. It does require Battle Stance.

Fury

• Dual Wield Specialization no longer grants 20/40/60/80/100% additional off-hand Rage generation, and no longer grants off-hand hit chance.
• Unbridled Rage's activation chance has been corrected upward to its intended value.
• Booming Voice increases Shout area by 10/20/30/40/50% and reduces Shout Rage costs by 5/10/15/20/25%.
• Unbridled Wrath no longer grants double Rage to two-handed weapons.
• The new row-2 talent Lingering Rage delays out-of-combat Rage decay by 2/4/6/8/10 seconds.
• Blood Craze no longer triggers from casting Bloodthirst.
• Improved Cleave and Boundless Rage have been removed.
• The new row-3 talent Furious Precision grants 4/7/10% off-hand hit chance.
• Raging Blows reduces the Rage cost of Cleave and Whirlwind by 3. It no longer enables off-hand Whirlwind strikes: Whirlwind now uses both weapons without that talent point.
• Flurry no longer requires Enrage; it now requires Death Wish.
• The new row-6 talent Gore Drinker requires Enrage. Enrage, Berserker Rage, Bloodrage, Death Wish and Bloodthirst cause the next 3 melee attacks to restore 0.5/1% of maximum health each.
• Improved Berserker Rage moves from row 6 to row 5.
• Berserker Rage is learned at level 30, down from 32.
• Bloodthirst's attack-power scaling rises from 35% to 45%.

Developer reasoning: Blizzard wants earlier utility and meaningful leveling choices in Fury, with fewer forced points later. Removing Enrage as Flurry's prerequisite is part of that goal.

Protection

• Iron Will moves from Fury row 2 to Protection row 1.
• Anticipation moves from row 1 to row 2.
• Toughness has been removed.
• Improved Bloodrage moves from row 2 to row 1.
• Improved Revenge moves from row 3 to row 2.
• Improved Disarm moves from row 4 to row 3.
• Improved Shield Bash moves from row 5 to row 4.

Developer reasoning: The rearrangement is intended to give characters without shields a route into the middle of Protection for a secondary PvP specialization, including access to Improved Bloodrage, Iron Will, Improved Disarm, Last Stand and Improved Shield Bash.

Analysis — The Fury changes separate off-hand accuracy into Furious Precision and make two-weapon Whirlwind baseline. Revisit old allocations around Dual Wield Specialization, Raging Blows and Flurry rather than assuming their previous roles remain intact.

Cooldown Manager and controller support

• The Cooldown Manager now supports racial abilities and Rogues.
• Supported classes should no longer show a duplicate entry for each rank of a spell.
• The pet stable interface and compact raid/party management frames support gamepads.
• Controller-interface bindings are fixed. Rebinding a controller affects only its keyboard-and-mouse interface bindings.
• Macros placed on controller action bars can be moved correctly.

PvP and professions

• Honor prices for PvP gear and upgrade tokens have been adjusted. Most rise by approximately 50% to match the intended pace of gear acquisition.
• The Honor cap rises from 15,000 to 25,000 to accommodate the new prices.
• Shenthul in Orgrimmar now trains Windshaper Skyborne characters.
• More dungeon-drop recipes for Blacksmithing and Leatherworking are available.
• Enchanting: Crafted common and uncommon wands now sell to vendors for 1 copper.
• Mining: Starter areas contain fewer Poor Copper Vein nodes.
• Skinning: A creature can again be skinned only once before it disappears.

Analysis — The higher Honor cap comes with higher purchase prices. A larger balance limit by itself does not mean the same gear takes fewer matches to obtain.

Quests and respawns

• The extra experience awarded by dungeon quests, above ordinary quest values, is reduced by 50%. This does not say that their entire experience reward is halved. Some quest-item rewards have also been recalibrated.
• Escort quests can be started with 25 or more quests in the quest log.
• Certain quest items no longer have the reported multiple-drop problem.
• Quests that provide items when started, and quests started from items, no longer have the reported incorrect sharing behavior.
• Many creatures and objects respawn more quickly in Hillsbrad Foothills, Ashenvale, Wetlands, Duskwood and Thousand Needles.

Developer reasoning: Blizzard is discussing leveling speed and reduced the dungeon-quest bonus as part of that review. Redridge Mountains and Stonetalon Mountains received respawn changes in an earlier update; reports of other quest bottlenecks are still welcome.

Local quest changes

• Darkshore: The Tharnariun's Hope item works correctly during Plagued Lands.
• Deadmines: Destruction in Deadmines is grouped under its dungeon in the quest log.
• Druid: Loot is awarded reliably during The Great Cat Spirit and The Great Windborne Cat Spirit. High Order Skyborne characters can complete Power over Poison to learn Cure Poison.
• Dun Morogh: Trolls at Shimmer Ridge respawn more evenly, with faster returns in previously sluggish areas.
• Loch Modan: Troggs in the Loch respawn slightly more slowly for In Defense of the King's Lands.
• Mulgore: Kyle's Gone Missing! has been added.
• Orgrimmar: More Smooth Boulder can be gathered for Rocks to Rests.
• Redridge Mountains: Blackrock Blockade has been updated, along with its spawn rates.
• Ruins of Lordaeron: A Frightened Request is grouped under its dungeon in the quest log. Players can no longer receive multiple copies of Bloodied Insignia.
• Wailing Caverns: Serpentbloom Snake creatures despawn after a few minutes.
• Westfall: The pocket watch in Furlbrow's Wardrobe respawns much less frequently for The Forgotten Heirloom. Undead needed for Collecting Memories and Foreman Thistlenettle for Oh Brother... respawn more quickly.

Analysis — Dungeon quests still have their ordinary quest experience plus a reduced bonus. The note specifies the bonus portion, so comparing leveling routes requires the actual reward rather than halving the old total.

Races and interface

• Gnome: Eureka! no longer benefits periodic effects. Channeled spells are not classified as periodic effects for this rule.
• Undead: Cannibalize cannot be used while the caster is immune to Physical damage.
• Hovering Spell Damage or Spell Healing on the character sheet now explains the penalty for using spell ranks far below the character's level: less benefit from spell damage/healing, and a lower chance to trigger class abilities or talents such as Frostbite and Omen of Clarity.
• Character creation shows matching icons when Standard Definition models are selected.
• The stable frame, target-frame combo points and Personal Resource Display combo points have updated artwork.
• Loot-roll messages show the player's full name.
• Auction House listings correctly show item suffixes.

Developer example: At level 60, rank-1 Frostbolt has a 0% chance to trigger Frostbite. Blizzard describes a choice between a quick slow and a higher-rank cast that can trigger the talent. This illustrates the downranking rule; it does not raise the beta's level cap.

Known issues reported with this update

• Chaining casts delays the next spell's preparation effects and sound until the previous cast animation finishes. With consecutive Fireball casts, the second cast's hand glow and crackling sound appear only after the hands finish the first cast's animation.
• Nearby enemies can parry or block attacks from behind when the attacker stands too close. Leaving more distance is the stated workaround.
• The installation is larger than intended; a future beta update is intended to reduce its size.
• Switching into or out of the controller interface resets the active Edit Mode layout to its default preset.
• Scroll of Liminal Passage does not work correctly.
• Dwarf: Updated water-splash sounds are missing. The notes identify this as fixed in a later update.
• Eureka! misses some damaging and healing spells for certain classes. The notes identify this as fixed in a later update.
• Several debuffs, including Faerie Fire and Demoralizing Shout, do not generate threat.
• Mages who learn Research may be unable to open it.
• Dual Wield Specialization incorrectly gives 2/4/6/8/10% hit chance to both hands; the issue entry says only the off hand should receive it. The later Warrior amendment reports this as fixed, while the original known-issue entry remains in the post.
• Retribution Aura uses the target's spell power instead of the Paladin's.
• Taillasher Egg objects for Break a Few Eggs respawn too slowly; a later fix is planned.
• Anduin Wrynn and other child characters unintentionally wear hats. Their removal is in progress.