WoW Forever: beta build adds Cooldown Manager, nerfs Gnome racial

Blizzard took the WoW Forever beta down on the evening of 24 September to install a new build, saying the work would take at least a couple of hours. It announced the beta was back up shortly before midnight UK time, about 3 hours later, and posted its development notes for the week together with an updated list of known issues. The biggest changes are a new Cooldown Manager, a round of class changes, a heavy cut to the Gnome racial trait and, for the beta only, much cheaper talent resets. Among the bug fixes, Blizzard lists one for in-game mail ignoring surnames, which players had blamed since 18 September for beta mail going to the wrong character.

The Cooldown Manager takes key information from the buff bar or the action bars and shows it in a place the player chooses and can set up freely. It is off by default and can be turned on in Options, under Gameplay Enhancement. For now it can be tested with Druids, Mages, Priests, Warriors and Warlocks; Blizzard says more classes will follow in later updates and that the manager does not yet handle spell ranks. The feedback it most wants is which spells players wish were tracked by default. Talent resets change for the beta only: a character that has not changed talents recently pays 1 silver. After the first reset the next one costs much more, Blizzard says, and the price falls back to 1 silver after 1 hour. Blizzard gives no figure for the higher price; a report on the new build puts it at 5 gold.

Among the class changes, the Druid spell Wrath does about 50% more base damage, and Rejuvenation, Tranquility and Wild Growth can now land critical hits. For Shamans, Lightning Bolt ranks 3 and 4 hit harder so that each new rank is always an upgrade, and Lava Burst ranks 1 and 2 now do about 10% more base damage than the Lightning Bolt rank learned around the same level. The Paladin ability Holy Strike now deals 25% of weapon damage at rank 1, rising to 50% at rank 8, instead of 25% to 40%. For Holy Paladins its cooldown drops to 10 seconds from 12, and the Improved Holy Strike talent is gone, with its effect now built in. Righteous Fury now raises threat from Holy damage by 60% instead of 90%. Fire Mages keep the Wake of Fire buff for 30 seconds instead of 20 and Hot Streak for 20 instead of 15, while the cooldown of Slam for Arms Warriors rises to 18 seconds from 15. Wands no longer gain damage from spell damage. The notes say nothing about how warriors gain rage, a change many testers have complained about.

The Gnome racial trait Eureka! now gives every class a 10% discount on the mana, rage or energy cost of abilities. Blizzard's notes do not give the old values. According to the game files, which Blizzard has not confirmed, the discount used to depend on the class: 50% of mana for Mages and Warlocks, 40% of rage for Warriors, 20% of energy for Rogues and 15% of mana for Priests. The files suggest the rest of the trait is unchanged: it still covers the next 3 abilities and adds 10% to their damage, or to their healing for Priests. Blizzard described Eureka! among the racial traits it published on 22 September. Other races change too: the Tauren trait that grows bonus herbs, Cultivation, now needs a character level for each herb equal to the Herbalism skill needed to pick it divided by 5, with herbs above 300 skill open at level 60, and the Undead trait Touch of the Grave no longer breaks crowd control or triggers from abilities that deal no damage.

The updated list of known issues adds several gaps in the Cooldown Manager: it cannot track the Healthstone, Arcane Blast, pet cooldowns or item enhancements such as Windfury and rogue poisons, and for Priests it tracks all spells by default. Blizzard also warns that forming or changing a group may move players to a different instance of the world, and says it is working on improvements. The Stormwind minimap does not display properly, and the Personal Resource Display does not show combo points. Separately, another report on the new build says the Statistics tab of the character window, empty in the first beta build, now tracks figures such as kills, deaths, gold earned and quests completed; Blizzard's notes do not mention it. The beta runs until 21 October, and WoW Forever launches at 23:00 UK time on 4 November, which is midnight on 5 November in Central Europe.