The World of Warcraft 12.1.5 PTR has been updated with another round of development notes, Wowhead reported, carrying class changes for the Devourer Demon Hunter, Mages and several other specialisations.
The notes also cover the single-boss raid The Unbinding of Kith'ix. Raid testing for Kith'ix began on September 16, with the schedule posted on the official World of Warcraft forums.
Class changes
Devourer Demon Hunter picks up two numerical increases: Soulforged Blades now raises the critical strike chance of Hungering Slash and Voidblade by 18%, up from 15%, and Voidpurge cuts Void Ray’s cooldown during Void Metamorphosis by 2.5 seconds instead of 2. Several talents also change position. The developers wrote that the tree’s final gate was very dense, so The Hunt and Eradicate move down into the middle gate and other talents take their place in the capstone positions.
Restoration Druid’s Nature’s Bounty has been redesigned: Regrowth now heals up to three allies who have Rejuvenation active for 15% of its healing, prioritising the lowest-health targets. The developers said the previous design caused rotational friction. Preservation Evoker’s Merithra’s Blessing and Discipline Priest’s Master the Darkness both drop from one minute to 30 seconds, and Holy Priest’s Holy Celerity and Ultimate Serenity swap positions on the specialisation tree so that Ultimate Serenity needs less investment to reach.
For Mages, several Arcane spells were added to the Spell Density system for non-Mage visibility options, and Frost picked up fixes to how Splitting Ice’s damage modifier applies to Frostbolt. Spellslinger’s Splinterstorm is now trackable in the Cooldown Manager as a buff and is no longer removed at the start of a raid encounter or a Mythic+ run.
Outlaw Rogue’s Deft Maneuvers no longer adds a flat 30 Energy to Blade Flurry’s cost; it now adds 5 Energy per target hit, up to 30, which the developers said makes the ability cheaper to maintain against small numbers of extra targets. Subtlety received a pass on Shadow damage modifiers so bonuses apply consistently to individual Shadow abilities and no longer double dip, with the notes saying the net effect on damage output remains under review.
Protection Warrior’s Execute is being restored to its earlier functionality. The developers said an earlier round of Execute changes did not accomplish their goals and that the scope of work needed is better suited to a major update, so Execute no longer consumes additional Rage for additional damage, and the notes list damage increases of 100% and 30%. Further Protection changes are being refocused on 12.2 and 13.0.
The build also adds an accessibility setting called Pulse Your Health, under the Combat Audio Alerts section of the Audio Assist options. It plays a looping sound below a health percentage the player sets, and the sound becomes progressively more aggressive as health falls.