World of Warcraft: Current Year

Arbitrary said:

Having systems that you have been carrying forward for a number of years and wanting to be free of them I can completely get, clean slate and all that. The players that have been collecting and upgrading heirlooms are going to feel like they've had something taken away from them which is true.

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Rime said:

They get the pet in CLASSIC only, not live.

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• A heavy mist surrounds you, increasing your chance to dodge.
• Deals Shadow damage over time to enemies within range. Every time it deals damage you gain additional Runic Power, up to a maximum amount.

• Brand an enemy with the mark of the Venthyr, reducing their melee and casting speeds and inflicting Shadow damage over time.
• Activating Metamorphosis applies Sinful Brand to all nearby enemies.

• For a period of time, Druid spells you cast increase your damage, healing, and haste by a percentage, stacking.
• If you spend a period of time idle, the Frenzy overcomes you, consuming a percentage of your health per stack, stunning you, and then ending.

• Fire a shot at your enemy, causing them to bleed Shadow damage over a period of time. Each time Flayed Shot deals damage, you have a chance to gain Flayer's Mark, causing your next Kill Shot to be usable on any target, regardless of their current health.

• Conjure mirrors to torment the enemy for a time. Whenever the target casts a spell or ability, a mirror is consumed to inflict Shadow damage, and their movement and cast speed are slowed.
• The final mirror will instead inflict Shadow damage to the enemy, Rooting and Silencing them for some time.

• Opens a mirror for 24 seconds summoning reflections of your order’s Fallen Ox, Crane, and Tiger adepts every 1 second for 6 seconds. Adepts associated with your specialization will fight for a longer duration and cast additional abilities.

• Hallow the target area, dealing Shadow damage to enemies and restoring health to allies over time. Within the Hallow, you may use Hammer of Wrath on any target.
• The land remains filled with anima, causing additional Shadow damage to all enemies. You gain the benefits of Consecration while within the area.

• Assault an enemy’s mind, dealing Shadow damage and briefly reversing their perception of reality. For a short time, the next moderate amount of damage they deal will heal their target, and the next moderate amount of healing they deal will damage their target.

• Slaughter the target, causing Physical damage. The target's anima mixes with your lethal poison, coating your weapons for the next 5 minutes.
• Slaughter Poison deals Shadow damage over time and steals a percentage of healing done to the target.
  
  This also awards combo points.

• Send a wave of anima at the target, which then jumps to additional nearby targets. Deals Shadow damage to enemies and restores health to allies.
  
  For each target critically struck, the cooldown of Chain Harvest is reduced.

• Call forth a cloud of chaotic anima that travels to the target enemy, dealing Shadow damage to enemies in its path. When the anima reaches the target it explodes, inflicting either Curse of Weakness or Curse of Tongues, and dealing Shadow damage over time to all nearby enemies.

• Condemn a foe to suffer for their sins, causing Shadow damage. Only usable on enemies who are above 80% health or below 20% health.
• The primary target is weakened, preventing a moderate amount of damage they would deal to you.
  
  If your foe survives, a portion of the Rage spent is refunded.

• (Replaces Death and Decay)
• Corrupts the targeted ground, causing Shadow damage over a duration of time to targets within the area.
• Affected enemies deal reduced damage to you (up to a maximum amount) and their power is transferred to you as an equal amount of Strength.
• While you remain within the area, your Necrotic Strike and Heart Strike will hit additional targets. Scourge Strike and Clawing Shadows will hit all enemies near the target.

• Charge to an enemy, inflicting Nature damage and rooting them. The target is marked for a period of time, increasing your Fury from Demon's Bite and Shear against them. You may reactivate The Hunt every 30 seconds to teleport behind the marked target and ignoring line of sight.

• Call upon the Night Fae for an eruption of energy, channeling a rapid flurry of 16 Druid spells and abilities over 4 seconds.
  
  The spells will be cast on applicable nearby targets, and the spells chosen will favor your Shapeshift form.

• Evoke the energy of Wild Spirits at the target location, applying Wild Mark to all enemies within the areas for 15 seconds and increasing your damage against them by a small amount
  
  While the Wild Spirits are active, each ability you use against a target affected by the Wild Mark calls for a spirit beast to strike your target for Nature damage.

• Draw from the ground beneath you for a period of time, dealing Nature damage over time to nearby enemies.
  
  While channeling, your ability cooldowns are reduced.

• Strike the ground fiercely to expose a faeline for 30 seconds, dealing Nature damage and taking an action based on your specialization. Your abilities have a 10% chance of resetting the cooldown of Faeline Stomp while fighting on a faeline.
  • Brewmaster: Ignite enemies along the faeline with a Breath of Fire.
  • Mistweaver: Heal allies along the faeline with an Essence Font bolt.
  • Windwalker: Rip Chi and Energy Spheres out of enemies along the faeline.

• We’ve listened to your feedback and are currently iterating on this ability.

• Surround yourself with helpful sprites, causing your next 10 spell casts to aid your target depending on your chosen spell.
  • Shadow Mend, Mind Blast, Flash Heal, Heal: Reduces an ally’s damage taken by 10% for 15 seconds.
  • Power Word: Shield: Invigorates your target with 2% mana or 20% resource.
  • Void Bolt, Prayer of Healing, Power Word: Radiance: Reduces the cooldowns of up to 5 allies’ major abilities by 3 seconds.

• Infect the target’s blood, dealing Nature damage over 10 seconds. If the target survives its full duration, they suffer additional damage and you Vanish from sight.
• Cooldown reduced by 60 seconds if Sepsis does not last its full duration.

• Transfers the life force of up to 4 enemies in the targeted area, dealing Nature damage every 0.5 sec for 3 seconds.
• Pressing Fae Transfusion again within 20 seconds will release 25% of all damage from Fae Transfusion, healing up to 8 allies near yourself.

• Expend some of your health to wither away all life force from your current target and up to 3 additional targets nearby, causing them to suffer Nature damage over 8 seconds. Additionally, casting Drain Life will also hit any enemy affected by your Soul Rot.

• Slams the ground with your weapon, releasing a shockwave dealing Nature damage and stunning up to 5 enemies for 1.5 seconds. Enemies struck take Nature damage every 2 seconds for 12 seconds and transfer it to you as 6 Rage.

• Sprout an additional limb for a limited time, dealing Shadow damage to nearby enemies. If an enemy is farther away from you, they are pulled to your location.

• Commission a duel to the death against a Condemned Demon from the Theater of Pain. Vanquishing your foe releases its demon soul and creates a pool of demon blood. Fighting within the pool increases your attack speed by 20% and reduces the damage that enemies deal to you by 10%. Fleshcraft treats the Condemned Demon as a powerful enemy.

• Command a swarm that heals or deals Shadow damage to a target and increases the effectiveness of your periodic effects on them.
  Upon expiration, travels to a new target within range, alternating between friend and foe up to a set number of times.

• Throw a deadly chakram at your current target which will rapidly deal additional Shadow damage.
  Each time the chakram deals damage, its damage is increased and you generate a small amount of Focus.

• Transform into a powerful Skeletal Mage for a period of time.
  While in the form of a skeletal mage, your Frostbolt, Fireball, and Arcane Blast hit a few additional enemies near your target, and your spell damage is increased.

• Hurl a brew created from the bones of your enemies at the ground, coating all targets struck for 10 seconds. Your abilities have an additional 15% chance to affect the target a second time with 25% effectiveness as either Shadow damage or healing.
  • Brewmaster: Tiger Palm and Keg Smash reduces the cooldown of your brews by an additional 1 second when striking enemies affected by Bonedust Brew.
  • Windwalker: Spinning Crane Kick refunds 1 Chi when striking enemies affected by Bonedust Brew.
  • Mistweaver: Gust of Mist provides additional healing to allies affected by Bonedust Brew.

• Throw a hammer at your target, dealing Shadow damage and empowering your next Word of Glory or Templar’s Verdict:
  • Holy: Word of Glory automatically triggers Light of Dawn.
  • Protection: Word of Glory automatically triggers Shield of the Righteous.
  • Retribution: Templar’s Verdict automatically triggers Divine Storm.

• An explosion of dark energy heals nearby allies and infects nearby enemies with Unholy Transfusion.
  Unholy Transfusion deals Shadow damage over time. Your allies who damage this target receive healing.

• Embed a bone spike in the target, dealing Physical damage over time until they die. Deals additional damage and generates a Combo Point for each other active bone spike.
  A charge of Serrated Bone Spike is refunded to you when the target dies or is healed to full.

• Blast your target with a Primordial Wave, healing an ally or dealing Shadow damage and applying Flame Shock to an enemy.
  • Elemental: Your next Lava Burst will also hit all targets affected by your Flame Shock.
  • Enhancement: Your next Lightning Bolt will also hit all targets affected by your Flame Shock.
  • Restoration: While an ally is targeted, Primordial Wave will cast Riptide. Your next Healing Wave will also hit all targets affected by your Riptide.

• Hurl a bolt of shadow magic at your target, dealing Shadow damage and increasing the damage of your next Incinerates, Drain Souls, or Shadow Bolts.
  Decimation Bolt's damage and the bonus to Incinerate, Drain Soul, or Shadow Bolt both increase as your target's health decreases.

• Brandish the banner of the Necrolords, increasing your movement speed and causing Mortal Strike, Raging Blow, and Shield Slam to grant you Glory. Killing an enemy grants additional stacks of Glory.
  Reactivating this ability plants the banner in the ground, granting an increased amount of maximum health and additional attack speed to you and your allies within range of the banner. Lasts additional time per Glory, up to a maximum amount.

• Admonish your target for their past transgressions, reducing the damage they deal to you and dealing Arcane damage over time.
• Shackle the Unworthy's cooldown is reduced when you damage the affected enemy with a Rune-spending attack.

• Place a Kyrian Sigil at your location that activates after a short time. The sigil detonates to deal Arcane damage and shatter Lesser Soul Fragments from enemies.

• Form a bond with an ally. On a cooldown, you may empower the bond for a period of time, granting you an effect based on your partner’s role, and granting them an effect based on your role.

• Fire a resonating arrow to the target location and fill the area with echoing anima. The effect causes your attacks to ignore line of sight to enemies in the area, and you have an increased critical strike chance against them.

• Conjure a radiant spark that causes Arcane damage instantly and additional damage over time. The target takes a percentage of increased damage from your direct damage spells, stacking each time they are struck. This effect ends after a number of spells.

• For a short duration, your Mastery is increased by a percentage. In addition:
  • Windwalkers’ Rising Sun Kick cooldown is reset instantly, and your Rising Sun Kick reduces the cost of your Chi abilities.
  • Brewmasters’ Keg Smash cooldown is reset, and enemies hit by Keg Smash take increased damage from you (stacks up to a set amount).
  • Mistweavers’ Essence Font cooldown is reset instantly and heals nearby allies on channel start and end.

• Instantly cast Holy Shock, Avenger's Shield, or Judgment on several targets within range (based on your current specialization).

• Gain the Boon of the Ascended, granting access to Ascended Nova and Ascended Blast, and increasing your movement speed. Both abilities damage your enemies, heal your allies, and build power that will erupt in a powerful explosion of damage and healing at the end of Boon of the Ascended’s duration.

• Deal Arcane damage to an enemy, extracting their anima to Animacharge a combo point.
• Damaging finishing moves that consume the same number of your combo points as your Animacharge deal damage as if they consume 7 combo points.

• Summon a totem at the target location for 30 seconds. Your next 3 damage spells or abilities will cause the totem to radiate Arcane damage to enemies near the totem and your next 3 healing spells will heal up to 6 allies near the totem. Casting this ability again while the totem is active will relocate the totem.

• Deal Arcane damage instantly and additional Arcane damage over time. If the enemy dies while affected by Scouring Tithe, you generate additional Soul Shards. If they survive, Scouring Tithe's cooldown is refreshed.

• Throw a Kyrian spear at the target location, dealing Arcane damage instantly, dealing additional damage over time, and generating Rage.
• Enemies hit are tethered to Spear of Bastion's location for the duration.

• A new idea has been pitched to make sure Torghast doesn't get too much easier as you progress through floors.
• The reward structure for Shadowlands is making sure player agency is the main factor.
• The team has been discussing how to further give customization options to druid forms or even things like Paladin wings.
• The faction imbalance is something that the team is constantly discussing. Top end raiding is a particular issue. They don't want to give the Alliance too much power to counter it, however.
• Realm health is a factor in faction imbalance that the team is addressing by launch day.
• The death of the Old Gods will definitely gain the attention of the Void Lords.
• The community team is working on an article to address things to accomplish before Shadowlands, such as when the brutosaur is going away.
• The team is just starting with the new customization options. As they see what people like and engage with, they will add more options as time goes on.
• The purpose of bringing the PvP vendor back was based on community feedback. It was a thank you to the community for letting them know how they wanted to interact with the game.
• Classic has helped the team understand a bit more about what players want. The team sees the two games as separate, however.
• The team has discussed having pet battles added to the companion app. There are no plans right now, however.
• There is a lot more work to do in giving players more ways to represent themselves in game.
• The prelaunch event will likely have more information when the 9.0 PTR starts. It will likely be a few weeks after prepatch and before launch.

• Torghast and the Maw will feature mounts to collect as rewards.
• The death elemental seen in the Maw is the mount reward for season 1 Mythic Plus.
• Weapon Swapping should be allowed in Mythic Plus again. Morgan Day made a note of this!
• Shadowlands will have multiple objectives spread throughout many different play styles (Mythic Plus, Raids, PvP) that will add additional reward choices to your weekly chest. If none of the items presented are an upgrade, there is a valuable currency to pick instead.
• The team wanted to focus on making Castle Nathria feel like a real living space.
• The Theater of Pain dungeon is inspired by Naxxramas.
• Legion Timewalking will not be added at launch, but it is something that will be explored in a future content update.
• Legendaries in Shadowlands are mostly influenced by previous set bonuses. Thunderfury's proc was too unqiue and will likely not be something added to a legendary in Shadowlands.
• In Shadowlands, Legion artifact weapon transmog will not be limited to spec. If you have the look for the artifact weapon, you can transmog it in any spec!
• Heirlooms will no longer have experience bonuses. They are looking to replace it with something that is not a raw percentage increase.
• There are no new class combinations for existing races in Shadowlands, but the team is always looking into adding it where it makes sense.

• There was a large engineering undertaking to rebuild how characters are put together under the hood, allowing for the new customization.
• More character customization will be added even after Shadowlands release.

• There is a lot the team would do differently with Island Expeditions. They took lessons from Islands and applied them to Torghast, which should feel more replayable.
• The team wanted to create a better starting experience, as the current game starts you with content that was made 10 years ago and doesn't reflect how the game is built today. That content wasn't created with a new player in mind in some cases.
• The new intro experience reflects the World of Warcraft as of 2020. There are treasures, other players around, optional rares, a mini-dungeon, and more.
• The more linear leveling experience in Shadowlands is an experiment. It's easier to tell a broader progressive narrative when you'll visit zones in a specific order.
• The sense of danger and struggle was lost when you could level through zones in any order, as a new zone didn't feel difficult due to the scaling.
• After you level your main character, then you can experience the zones in any order on alts.
• Keeping EU and US separate systems isn't great experience or design choice that the team would make. It would be great if one day people could play across both regions.

• The ability to make multiple legendaries over the course of a raid tier with the limit of only one that you can equip at any given time, create interesting decisions, but players have control over these decisions.
• You'll probably acquire legendaries faster than you did in Legion, but the final rate hasn't been determined yet.

• The team wants players to be able to pick the Covenant that they think is cool and enjoy playing more rather than having to pick one for power reasons.
• Making Covenant swapping easy would be a last resort. Choices in an RPG are what define your character and let you carve out an identity that's different from every other player around you because they reflect your priorities.
• The goal is for all end-game systems to be accessible within your first week. It'll be paced a little bit so that you don't arrive at your Covenant and have a ton of systems unlocked.
• Soulbinds and Conduits are simple modifications that should be powerful that you customize your class and spec abilities for certain situations.
• Conduits are bonus items on top of the helm or the shoulders you might get from defeating a dungeon boss or a raid boss.
• Conduits are put into the Soulbind device in your Covenant sanctum and replacing it will destroy the existing one in that slot.
• You'll need to be in your Covenant Sanctum to change your Soulbind. Respeccing the Soulbind will be a minimal anima cost. You'll need to unlock the full tree over time, it's only fully unlocked in Alpha for testing.

• The Horde is definitely in for a period of rebuilding.
• The Horde vs Alliance story isn't the main focus at the outset of Shadowlands, but there will be some story there.
• Having the final boss known at the start of the expansion makes telling the story easier, somewhat like Deathwing in Cataclysm.
• Recent expansions haven't revealed the end boss to preserve twists in the story. Sometimes the story needed to be told before the end boss made sense.
• One of the challenges in creating Shadowlands is introducing a villain and building up a villain for the very first time that we previously have known nothing about
• Villains need to be at least at Titan power level now to be a credible threat.

• Covenants
  • Covenants will also introduce Callings, which are an extension of the emissary system that guide you through the end-game and give new objectives with fun rewards that you can take back to your sanctum to help progress the story.
  • There will be all kinds of stuff you get to see and engage with as you help refuel your Covenant Sanctum with anima.
  • Each covenant has a unique story and and features that provide different experiences for a person who plays alts based on their choice of covenant.
  • Renown is the main catch-up mechanic for Shadowlands. If will be capped to a certain number that can be earned every week unless you are behind. Callings will grant you Renown upon completion if you are behind. Further sources will be Mythic+ and Pvp if you are even more behind.
  • The team wants to use the Beta to introduce these systems in a way that won't overwhelm the players.
  • The team hopes to use other aspects granted by your covenant to balance strengths and weaknesses of the class ability. Things like conduits and soulbinds will have unique spec-specific bonuses that might help balance your decision.
• Castle Nathria Raid
  • One of the bosses in Castle Nathria is a broker that Lord Denathrius has employed to curate artefacts, weapons, and objects that he has acquired from throughout the Shadowlands. These objects will be used during the encounter.
  • Castle Nathria will be broken into 3 wings with 3 bosses each before the final fight. One of these wings is a giant ballroom with stained glass and a dance floor. A fight that takes place here will have you do mechanics that feel like a dance.
• Mythic Plus
  • The seasonal affix in the start of Shadowlands Mythic+ will be themed around Castle Nathria.
  • The team is making changes to current affixes as well as discussing the potential for new ones, but the team is trying to rework current ones to make a lot of them less of a healer issue and give incentive to do appropriately. The example given is having Volcanic do less damage, but cause a knock up if hit.
  • The Maw will use the Eye of the Jailer system in which you will gain the ire of the Jailer while doing activities such as collecting anima or freeing souls. He will eventually send assassins after you among other things to make you feel unwelcome.
  • The Maw is also where you collect a currency called Stygia, which you have to collect and physically carry out of the Maw by bringing it to a specific location to extract it. if you die while carrying it, you will have to find where you dropped it and retrieve it again.
• Miscellaneous
  • Morgan cannot say off the top of his head if a new expensive mount like the Brutosaur is being added in Shadowlands.

• The Shadowlands experience is broadly linked to Shadowlands. Do not expect to return to Azeroth to complete certain quests.
• Blizzard will add new and more powerful conduits over the course of the expansion, making it necessary to seek out new conduits the entire expansion with each update. Nothing is final, but this is probably how it will work.
• Diminishing returns will ensure that you do not have to do an obscene amount of work to stay competitive.
• Players who want to go the extra mile will be able to obtain cosmetic items.
• There will not be a new class at all during Shadowlands.
• There will be several sources to acquire legendary recipes in Shadowlands.
• Achievements such as Herald of the Titans will be adjusted for the level squish.
• There are still no plans to port WoW to consoles.
• There will be nothing new for archaeology in Shadowlands.

• The team first designed the shadowlands with 4 distinct zones that represent different aspects of death.
• While leaving a covenant is a relatively straightforward process, coming back to one isn't as easy, as it is akin to "breaking" an oath.
• Players who do so will incur penalties, such as the inability to claim covenant-exclusive rewards such as armor, and even soulbind abilities. They will still be able to access sanctum content and currency, however.
• Don't expect cameos from every major character that has died in Shadowlands.
• It is likely Baine will reunite with the spirit of his father and learn the truth of his people during Shadowlands.