WoW Season of Discovery 1.15.4 PTR Build Update

While players are busy trying out the new World of Warcraft expansion, other Classic Andies are clearing Vanilla content in Season of Discovery. It seems that Blizzard decided to leave the best for last, given how WoW's 20th Anniversary is on the horizon, Retail and Classic players will get to relive the glory days whilst wearing their Tier 2 sets.

With that in mind, we will take a look at the most recent PTR build for World of Warcraft Season of Discovery. It seems that the devs want players to test out the strength of the revamped tier sets within the SoD environment. 

WoW SoD PTR Build 1.15.4

The latest World of Warcraft Season of Discovery PTR build will add the following items:

• Tier 2 sets
• Zul’Gurub sets and enchants
• Blackwing Lair items

Blizzard added a new Testwerk abomination NPC for players to lay havoc on and provide feedback so stats can be adjusted when the newest patch goes live. Although the community seems rather underwhelmed by SoD, given the many setbacks from previous phases, there is still an active playerbase clearing iconic raids. 

WoW SoD PTR Class Changes

We will go over the class updates that were added to the Season of Discovery PTR build. Balancing can be quite tough, given how clunky Vanilla WoW was, and with the introduction of new abilities and items, making it even harder, but it's great to see the dev team actively tackling major issues. 

Druid

• Blackwing Lair Balance 6-piece Bonus redesigned to increase Starfire damage by 10%, stacking up to 3 times.

Hunter

• Lock and Load cooldown removed.
• Flanking Strike chance to trigger increased to 50% (was 33%).

Mage

• Blackwing Lair Damage Set 6-piece Bonus retuned to 40% (was 20%).

Paladin

• Horn of Lordaeron: This ability incorrectly had values matching the Ahn’Qiraj skill books for Strength of Earth and Grace of Air totems, which cannot be acquired yet. It now only grants those values once the Paladin learns the skill book for Blessing of Might from Ahn’Qiraj. Until then, it’s values are consistent with the talented versions of the earlier ranks of the totems (it uses the average fully-talented value of the two totems so that it can give the same bonus to both Strength and Agility).

• Molten Core Protection 6-piece Bonus now increases Holy Shield by 80% of Shield Block value (was 100%).

Rogue

• Occult Poison now increases non-Physical damage done by 3% per stack (was 2% per stack).
• Just a Flesh Wound now decreases damage done whenever this rune is applied, and applies to all damage types, not just Physical.
• Blackwing Lair Damage Set 6-piece Bonus now lowers Vanish cooldown to 1 minute, but that is not cumulative with talents.

Priest

• Vampiric Embrace now correctly heals for 10% of the Priest’s shadow damage, up to 20% when talented.
• Shadow Word: Death now benefits from Despair’s critical strike damage increase.

Shaman

• The Spirit Walk spell will now be visible on Shaman player’s pet bars while Feral Spirit is active.

Warrior

• Revenge now deals additional damage equal to 15% of the Warrior’s Attack Power.
• Frenzied Assault now grants twice as much Rage of the attack was a critical strike.

Warlock

• Metamorphosis damage penalty is now 15% (was 20%), and the threat bonus has been adjusted down to 77%.

WoW SoD PTR Item Changes

• The buff from Flask of Petrification can no longer be canceled early by clicking it off.
• Totem of Raging Fire Attack power reduced to 24 for 1-hand (was 50), and to 48 for 2-hand (was 200).
• Zandalar Predator’s Bracers now have Attack Power (was Ranged Attack Power).
• Fixed an issue with Nat Pagle’s Broken Reel having an Equip effect instead of On Use.
• Fixed an issue with the buff tooltip for Enhancement Shaman Tier 2 Draconic set 4-piece bonus to now correctly mention Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, or Shock spells.
• Fixed a typo in the Protection Warrior Tier 2 Draconic set 6-piece.
• Druids who have completed the Sulfuras quest line and have the item in their bags or in their bank can now receive a toy from Rix Xizzix in Booty Bay that will allow them to transform into a Fire Cat, even without Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros equipped.
• Fixed an issue where Magmadar’s Left Claw was displaying enchant effects in the incorrect place.
• The Rank 13 Retribution Paladin set now has Intellect added to it at the cost of Stamina.
• 12 new Relics are available.
• Rune of Healing Specialization and Rune of Meditation Specialization can now be used by all of the intended classes.

And that covers all of the changes listed in the latest World of Warcraft Season of Discovery PTR build. The community is excited to try out the revamped raids and get their hands on the very stylish Tier 2 sets. For more information, you can check out the official dev notes, here.