World of Warcraft: Shadowlands players can begin to get excited about the upcoming Chains of Domination, because Blizzard Entertainment has finally released the patch notes for 9.1.0 on the PTR. The update will provide some balancing to the damage-dealing specializations of classes, add new Covenant-related content, as well as introduce the expansion’s second Raid, Sanctum of Domination.
The PTR patch notes revealed that two of the boss encounters in the Raid, Tarragrue and the Guardian of the First Ones, will be tested on April 16. In the current PTR build, a few classes also have some new Runecarving Powers being tested. Plus, the Maw will be getting a new zone and new Maw Assaults. Torghast is also now crawling with more Tormentors. And finally, there are a ton of new PvP Talents.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands patch 9.1.0 class changes
The DPS rankings are going to need a rework after the first Chains of Domination patch, because a lot of the ranged damage dealers are getting some tweaks. Two of the classes that have been dealing the most damage, Balance Druid and Fire Mage, are both being toned down a bit.
Destruction Warlock gets a 10% buff to its Chaos Bolt damage. Affliction Warlock, on the other hand, gets a fairly substantial rework that will change a lot of how the specialization is played.
Shadow Priest gets a slight nerf to its Void Bolt with the damage buff provided by the Dissonant Echoes Conduit being reduced to 20%, down from 35%. Other Conduits are perfectly viable on Shadow Priests, so this nerf can be avoided somewhat. Discipline Priest takes a big hit to Spirit Shell, the go-to Talent for raiding. The cooldown of the ability now takes 90 seconds, up from 60.
Holy Priest gets a big buff thanks to the redesign of Symbol of Hope, which will cause nearby party members to regain mana and reduce the cooldown of a major defensive ability. Combining this with the Night Fae Covenant Priest ability could be immensely powerful.
As for PvP Talents, there are 12 new ones, as well as a load that have been changed or removed. If you’d like to see them in detail, check out the complete Shadowlands 9.1.0 patch notes.
Death Knight, Druid, Warrior, and Mage all have new Runecarving powers to try out in the current build on the PTR. This doesn’t mean the other classes are not getting new Legendary powers. It just means they aren’t on the current test build for whatever reason. It’s still likely they will be reworked.
Covenant updates in Chains of Domination
There is also new content to play. The Shadowlands patch notes for 9.1.0 confirm that new Covenant Campaign Chapters will arrive with the update. There will also be 40 new Renown levels for players to earn and benefit from.
Plus, all existing Soulbinds will have four more rows for players to take advantage of. This note also implies that there are more Soulbinds on the way. The new Soulbind rows will include three new Conduit slots, two new Traits, and one Capper Trait.
