WoW Forever notes: October 8 update (build 70291)

The WoW Forever Beta realm was updated to build 1.60.1.70291 following the October 8 maintenance. The new City of Dalaran dungeon is now available for testing, party dungeon experience calculations revert to Classic Era rules, and base dungeon creature kill XP is boosted by 20%.

Character & Class changes

General / Rage Mechanics

Resolved issues where damage taken calculations for Rage were using player health rather than expected mob damage, preventing higher Stamina gear from penalizing Rage gain.
Rage calculations now correctly process damage absorbs without negating Rage generation.

Druid

Fixed a bug preventing Druids from using Mana Potions while shapeshifted in Bear, Dire Bear, or Cat Form.
Bear Form and Dire Bear Form threat bonus increased to 50% (was 30%).
Demoralizing Roar now applies threat to all affected targets.
Feral: Predatory Instincts renamed to Natural Instinct and now additionally increases spell healing by 12%/25% of Intellect. Shifting Power can no longer be used while already at full energy.

Hunter

Disengage received its intended doubled threat reduction.
Resolved an issue causing hunter pets to repeatedly gain health when at low health.
Survival: Expose Prey duration increased to 10 seconds (was 5). Entrapment now properly observes diminishing returns and only procs on Frost Trap’s initial activation.

Mage

Fixed an issue where Impact could proc off Flamestrike’s periodic damage ticks.
Base points and points-per-level curves smoothed for early ranks of Frostbolt, Fireball, and Arcane Missiles.

Paladin

Retribution Aura now uses the casting Paladin’s spell power rather than the struck target’s, and its values were returned to Vanilla baselines.
Protection: Reckoning now has a 1.5-second internal cooldown. Seal of Fury and Shield Specialization no longer generate threat when restoring Mana.

Priest

Discipline: Penance tuned and fixed to be a 2-second channel rather than treating it as 3 seconds, with increased healing on ranks 2 and 4.

Shaman

Flametongue Totem now respects shapeshifted attack speed rather than equipped weapon speed.
All Shaman weapon imbues (Rockbiter Weapon, Flametongue Weapon, Frostbrand Weapon, Windfury Weapon) increased to 60-minute durations and can coexist with temporary sharpening stones and oils.
Water Shield mana return accurately displayed in the buff tooltip.

Warlock

Warlock pets are now stunned while summoning a new pet.
Demonology: Demonic Brand bonus pet damage only produces high threat when dealing Shadow damage.

Warrior

Demoralizing Shout now generates threat on all affected targets.
Arms: Deep Wounds is once again a prerequisite for Impale and no longer scales off off-hand weapon Attack Power.
Protection: Fixed an issue preventing Last Stand from granting the proper amount of health on activation.

Important bug fixes

Restored Classic looting behavior where empty creatures can still be interacted with.
Fixed visual flickering on large models and addressed unintentional long-distance creature pulls.

System changes & updates

New Dungeon: City of Dalaran dungeon open for testing.
Weapon Swapping: Players can once again swap multiple weapons within the same GCD (e.g. two-handed to sword-and-board).
Dungeon Experience: Dungeon creature kill XP increased by ~20%. In parties with varying levels, kill XP penalties were removed and reverted to Classic Era calculations based solely on the individual player’s level.
Cooldown Manager: Support extended to all classes, racial abilities, and trinkets.
Legacy System: All testers granted completion of the Legacy Challenge with 16 Legacy Points to test builds, with respec costs lowered.
Discord Voice: Integrated Discord Voice setting added under in-game audio options for party leaders.

Known issues

Updated textures for Skyborne cat form and Zephras Isle creatures will arrive in an upcoming patch.
Hunters with the Ferocity talent may see an unchanged pet critical strike chance on the character sheet (visual only).