Patch Notes for Season of Discovery Phase 3: New Runes, ST Raid, Class Changes

Mark your calendar for April 4 when Season of Discovery Phase 3 goes live at 1:00 pm PDT worldwide. Adventurers can level from 41 to 50, earn up to 10 additional talent points, brave new encounters in the Sunken Temple (Temple of Atal’Hakkar) as a new 20-player raid dungeon, discover new runes and abilities, and more!

New Runes

• New runes are available to discover. Each class has access to at least 6 new runes in Phase 3.

Nightmare Incursions

• A new activity called Nightmare Incursions has been added. Enter missions to face off against the new demon creatures that have taken up residence just outside the dream portals in each zone. Click here for more information on Nightmare Incursions.
• Players who wish to participate in these activities should seek out the Field Captain NPCs a short distance away from each of the Dream Portals in Duskwood, Ashenvale, Feralas, and Hinterlands to begin their adventures.
• Near each Field Captain NPC there is also an Emerald Wardens quartermaster that will sell players special Nightmare-Only consumables to help you prepare for the dangers that will await you. As you complete more missions and gain reputation with the Emerald Wardens, you’ll also gain access to other powerful rewards.
• This content is level banded with Duskwood being the level 25 incursion area, Ashenvale being level 40, and Feralas and Hinterlands being level 50 content.
• The mission quests related to this content are considered elite quests, so going into the nightmare with a 3-5 player group is recommended.

The Temple of Atal’Hakkar

• A new level 50 level-up raid is available in Phase 3; the Temple of Atal’Hakkar (aka, The Sunken Temple).
• This is a newly revamped 20-player raid version of the classic Temple of Atal’Hakkar dungeon with all new encounters and mechanics, and of course, new loot!

Classes

• Developer’s note: Below are a few of the class adjustments coming to WoW Classic Season of Discovery with patch 1.15.2. Please note that this list is not comprehensive and there are other minor adjustments coming not documented here, but these represent the most impactful changes coming this patch.
• Hunter
  • Sniper Training (Rune) – No longer grants 10% Critical Strike after not moving for 6 seconds. Sniper Training now grants a stacking 2% increased Critical Strike chance every 2 seconds when not moving and when the hunter moves, they lose one stack of Sniper Training per second.
  • Trueshot Aura (Talent) – Trueshot Aura now grants an additional attack power benefit to the hunter that is providing the aura buff.
• Shaman
  • Spirit of the Alpha (Rune) – The “Loyal Beta” effect that the shaman would gain upon casting Spirit of the Alpha on another friendly target now grants a flat 5% damage bonus to the Shaman who cast it (was attack power), as well as granting that shaman a 30% reduction in threat generated.
  • Lava Lash (Rune) has been adjusted – Now deals 100 off-hand weapon damage on hit. This damage bonus is now increased to 125% if your off-hand weapon is enchanted with Flametongue.
    • Developer’s note: The damage of Lava Lash should essentially be the same, but we’ve instead shifted more of the damage of this ability to the bonus gained when using Flametongue weapon on the off-hand.
  • Way of the Earth (Rune) – Now requires a shield in the off-hand to gain this ability’s beneficial effects.
  • Rockbiter Weapon (Spell) – The attack power bonus has been reduced.
  • Developer’s note: Most of the adjustments to Rockbiter weapon, Lava Lash, and Loyal Beta have been made to further incentivize the usage of Windfury Weapon and Flametongue Weapon when dealing damage. Shaman were able to reach very high attack power numbers by utilizing double Rockbiter Weapon and multiple stacking percentage buffs to attack power. This incentivized the use of the “tanking” imbue for DPS which led to a variety of issues. With the addition of Mental Dexterity this phase, we felt the need to tone down shaman attack power numbers and further incentivize using weapon imbues that are more geared towards damage-dealing.
• Warlock
  • Lake of Fire (Rune) – The Lake of Fire rune now requires the warlock to channel the full duration of Rain of Fire to gain the increased fire damage benefit.
  • Metamorphosis (Rune) – Warlocks may no longer gain the benefit of Soul Link while in Metamorphosis form.
• Warrior
  • Shield Slam (Talent) bonus threat calculation has been redesigned for Season of Discovery – Shield Slam now gains a % bonus to threat generated that will allow it to scale as tank damage and block value increases. Additionally, Shield Slam now gains double benefit from block value, meaning that a single point of block value now increases Shield Slam damage by 2 rather than 1.

Gnomeregan Professions

• The recipes sold by Ziri “The Wrench” Littlesprocket after players complete the quest “Salvaging the Salvagematic” have been significantly reduced in price.
• An additional teleporter has been added to the base of the pillar where Wirdal Wondergear resides in Feralas to allow players who fall off (or are evicted by Wirdal’s security team) to get back up without needing to travel all the way to Booty Bay to be teleported by Scooty.

The Blood Moon

• The existing Bloodstained Commendation items have been removed from Mai’zin’s vendor list. These commendations have been replaced with a new version of the Bloodstained Commendation that is now purchasable with a new “Massacre Coin” currency that will be available from player levels 48 and above. Please note that any existing Bloodstained Commendations players have in their inventory when patch 1.15.2 is released will now have a 2 week real-world duration and will expire after that time and disappear from your inventory. Please use these coins before Tuesday, April 16th.
• Additional rewards have been added to Mai’zin available at level 50 using the new Massacre Coin currency.

The Battle for Ashenvale

• The quests “Repelling Invaders” and “Clear the Forest” may now be completed daily (was weekly).

Quests

• The repeatable Wastewander Water Pouches turn-in quest in Gadgetzan no longer grants experience in Season of Discovery.
• The repeatable Troll Necklaces turn-in quest in Aerie Peak no longer grants experience in Season of Discovery.
• The repeatable Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin Marks of Honor quests in the 30-59 level ranges no longer grant experience in Season of Discovery.
• Any extra Warsong Gulch Marks of Honor gained past 20 will now once again mail the player the extra marks. However, marks cannot be restored via the self-service mail recovery system on the battle.net support site, so you will need to claim and use these marks within 24 hours.
• The level 50 class quests from the Temple of Atal’Hakkar now grant players all of their loot options, rather than a choice of options.
  • Developer’s note: One common issue with these quests is that some of the rewards could be a bit of a “trap” to newer or less experienced original wow players. There are a few trinkets in particular that may not look appealing at first glance but have a lot of ongoing power or utility. Less experienced players would often pass on those rewards in favor of a more immediate armor upgrade, only to find out later that they made a mistake. Because these quests are now raid quests that often times take the player deep within the new raid, we felt it was appropriate to be a bit generous here to allow players to gain all three rewards for their class quest. Please note we did not adjust these rewards at all for Season of Discovery as most of them are already quite powerful.

Dungeon Loot Updates

• Many items found in Zul’Farrak, Uldaman, Maraudon, and Blackrock Depths have been revamped with new and updated stats.

PvP Honor System

• With the release of Season of Discovery Phase 3 players will again gain the ability to rank up in the PvP Honor system with the rank cap being increased to rank 7.
• A new set of Level 50 PvP gear has been added to the PvP vendors in Stormwind and Orgrimmar. Boots and Gloves are available at rank 5, Shoulders and Legs are available at rank 6, and Chest and Helm are available at rank 7.

Dual Talent Specialization

• Players will be able to seek out the dashing dwarven explorer Grendag Brightbeard who can teach them to learn a second talent specialization.
• Players can find Grendag in Ironforge in the Forlorn Cavern and in Orgrimmar.
• Players need to be level 40 to purchase a second talent specialization.