World of Warcraft: Shadowlands Patch Notes - Update 9.0.5 Adds Valor Points, Wandering Ancient Mount, and More

World of Warcraft: Shadowlands' Update 9.0.5 goes live later this week, adding Valor Points as a response to the community's feedback on endgame rewards. Aside from upgradeable Mythic Keystone gear, players can also look forward to class and covenant balance changes, the Wandering Ancient mount, and more.

Update 9.0.5 also reduces the amount of raid bosses you need to defeat for each of the Great Vault's weekly loot thresholds. Players will get a new potential item choice when downing 3, 6, and 9 bosses respectively (from 3/7/10). If you're still struggling with Sire Denathrius, you should have an easier time getting upgrades now.

Update 9.0.5's class and covenant changes will likely be the most significant shift before patch 9.1 drops. Below, you'll find a good slice of the changes and additions that WoW: Shadowlands receives this week, as per the official patch notes:

Adventures

Kyrian Covenant Companions

• Kyrian Phalanx health increased by 16%.
• Developers’ note: Phalanxes still feel underpowered relative to Halberdiers, so giving them some additional durability to allow them to fill the tank role before players have maxed out their roster.

Necrolord Covenant Companions

• Fixed an issue where Bonesmith Heirmir Serrated Shoulder Blades weren’t inflicting damage back to the enemy.
• Maldraxxus Plaguesinger’s Plague Song has been redesigned – Plague Song now deals damage to ranged enemies every round.
• Rencissa the Dynamo spell effectiveness increased by 40%.
• Assembler Xertora spell effectiveness increased by 10%.
• Rattlebag spell effectiveness increased by 20%.
• Developers’ note: We fixed a few issues where some Necrolord Covenant Companions weren’t dealing damage reliably. Additionally, a few companions have received an improvement that fits with their purpose.

Night Fae Covenant Companions

• Qadarin spell effectiveness increased by 24%.
• Blisswing’s damage reduction now correctly applies to enemies.
• Yira’liya health increased by 16% and spell effectiveness increased by 50%.
• Duskleaf health increased by 20% and spell effectiveness increased by 25%.
• Lloth’wellyn health increased by 33% and ability damage increased by 25%.
• Developers’ note: A few Night Fae Covenant Companions were not as well established in their different roles as we hoped, to address this we’ve improved many abilities and decreased some Companions’ overall fragility.

Venthyr Covenant Companions

• Venthyr Nightblade attack increased by 25%.
• Developers’ note: We’re generally happy with how the changes to Venthyr in the 9.0.2 landed, but wanted to offer some additional help for players using Nightblades to fill out their compositions.

Characters

• Undead cloaks will now be as tattered as the forsaken wearing them.

Classes

• Ashen Hallow (Venthyr Paladin), Abomination Limb (Necrolord Death Knight), Swarming Mist (Venthyr Death Knight), Death’s Due (Night Fae Death Knight), Wild Spirits (Night Fae Hunter), Resonating Arrow (Kyrian Hunter), and Ancient Aftershock (Night Fae Warrior) visual effects will now appear less overwhelming to allied players when cast in dungeons or raids. These changes are still going through iterations and may not be final.
• Many abilities are now better at avoiding in-combat enemies that the player is not engaged with (e.g. Convoke the Spirits, Starfall, Chain Harvest, Fel Bombardment, Divine Toll).

DEATH KNIGHT

Frost

• Fixed an issue that caused Inexorable Assault (Talent) to consume Spell Reflection.

Unholy

• Fixed an issue that caused Unholy Pact (Talent) to sometimes not hit large raid bosses.

Covenant Abilities

• Shackle the Unworthy (Kyrian) damage increased by 15% and damage reduction debuff increased to 8% (was 5%).
• Abomination Limb (Necrolord) now correctly deals damage and pulls in enemies while the Death Knight is crowd-controlled.
• Abomination Limb (Necrolord) no longer pulls in enemies that are in Stealth.
• Death’s Due (Night Fae) damage reduction debuff and Strength buff increased to 2% per stack (was 1%). Now stacks up to 4 times (was 8).

DEMON HUNTER

Havoc

• Unbound Chaos (Talent) damage increased to 500% (was 300%).

Covenant Abilities

• Elysian Decree (Kyrian) damage reduced by 10% for Vengeance Demon Hunters.
• Fodder to the Flame (Necrolord) has been redesigned – Your damaging abilities have a chance to call forth a demon from the Theater of Pain for 25 seconds. Throw Glaive deals lethal damage to the demon, which explodes on death, dealing damage to nearby enemies and healing you for 30% of your maximum health. The explosion deals reduced damage beyond 5 targets.
• The Hunt (Night Fae) damage decreased by 10% for Vengeance Demon Hunters.
• Sinful Brand (Venthyr) damage decreased by 10% for Vengeance Demon Hunters.

Conduits

• Repeat Decree (Kyrian) base damage now 15% (was 25%).
• Fel Defender now affects Fel Devastation for Vengeance Demon Hunters (was Fiery Brand).
• Demonic Parole will no longer engage creatures in combat when Imprison expires.

DRUID

Restoration

• Rejuvenation’s periodic healing increased by 12%.
• Wild Growth healing increased by 7%.

Covenant Abilities

• Adaptive Swarm (Necrolord) damage and healing increased by 25% and the effectiveness of periodic effects increased to 25% (was 20%). The effectiveness of periodic effects increased to 35% for Balance Druids.

Conduits

• Endless Thirst (Venthyr) now increases your critical strike chance by .8% per stack at Rank 1 (was .5%).

HUNTER

• Fixed an issue that allowed Hunters to avoid the Sated debuff when casting Primal Rage.
• Fixed an issue that caused Feign Death to be cancelled when Hunters opened their map or used an emote.

Beast Mastery

• Spitting Cobra (Talent) damage is increased by 260%.

Marksmanship

• Fixed an issue where casting Volley (Talent) right after an Aimed Shot that benefitted from Trick Shots would sometimes not apply the Trick Shots effect.

Survival

• Fixed an issue that caused Steel Trap (Talent) to be usable while Aspect of the Turtle was active.

Covenant Abilities

• Fixed an issue where Resonating Arrow (Kyrian) could fail to be cast behind your character.
• Death Chakram (Necrolord) damage increased by 15%.
• Flayed Shot (Venthyr) duration increased to 18 seconds (was 14 seconds) and costs no Focus (was 10). Flayer’s Mark now also increases the damage of your next Kill Shot by 25%.

Conduits

• Fixed an issue that sometimes caused the Markman’s Advantage buff to be removed when another player’s Hunter Mark was applied.
• Fixed an issue that sometimes caused Brutal Projections to expire early.

MAGE

Covenant Abilities

• Radiant Spark (Kyrian) damage increased by 20%.
• Deathborne (Necrolord) duration increased to 25 seconds (was 20 seconds) and Spell Power buff increased to 15% (was 10%).
• Mirrors of Torment (Venthyr)
• Arcane: Now grants a stack of Clearcasting when a mirror is consumed (was mana).
• Fire: Fire Blast cooldown reduction increased to 6 seconds (was 4 seconds).

MONK

Mistweaver

• Vivify now costs 3.8% mana (was 4.1%).
• Renewing Mist now costs 1.8% mana (was 2.2%).

Windwalker

• Xuen, the White Tiger is now vulnerable to Hibernate, Polymorph and Fear crowd-control effects.

• Touch of Death is now affected by Mastery: Combo Strikes.

• Fixed an issue that caused Storm, Earth and Fire’s cast to sometimes break nearby enemies’ Stealth.
• Fixed an issue that caused Xuen, the White Tiger to be able to target enemies in Stealth.
• Fixed an issue that caused Tiger Palm to grant an additional stack of Mark of the Crane when Storm, Earth and Fire is active.
• Fixed an issue that allowed Mark of the Crane to be maintained permanently at maximum stacks while fighting a single target.
• Fixed an issue that could prevent Storm, Earth, and Fire spirits from using Fists of Fury, Rising Sun Kick, and Whirling Dragon Punch (Talent).
• Fixed an issue that allowed Storm, Earth and Fire spirits to continue channeling Fists of Fury after the Monk's Fists of Fury channel ended.
• Fixed an issue that could cause Spinning Crane Kick's damage to not be properly increased by Mark of the Crane if targets die with the Monk's mark active.

Covenant Abilities

• Fixed an issue that caused Faeline Stomp (Night Fae) to not deal damage when used to engage creatures in combat.
• Fallen Order’s (Venthyr) fallen Tiger and Ox adepts have had their stats increased by 20%.

PALADIN

Holy

• Holy Shock now costs 16% mana (was 14%).

Protection

• Ardent Defender’s heal now has a visual effect.

Covenant Abilities

• Vanquisher’s Hammer (Necrolord) now generates 1 Holy Power when used.

Conduits

• The extra spells from Ringing Clarity (Kyrian) now have a longer delay between hits. Additionally, area-of-effect Judgment hits from Divine Toll are no longer reduced by 25% in PvP, and Judgment triggered from Ringing Clarity is reduced by 25% in PvP.
• Virtuous Command no longer plays an attack animation when it triggers.
• Fixed an issue that caused the additional Templar’s Verdict from Templar’s Vindication to not deal damage based on the initial Templar’s Verdict.

PRIEST

Discipline

• Spirit Shell (Talent) now absorbs 80% of healing done (was 100%) and the absorption limit is now based on the caster’s Spell Power rather than maximum Health.

Holy

• Divine Hymn increases healing taken by 4% (was 10%) for 15 seconds (was 8 seconds). Stacks up to 5 times (was no stacks).

Shadow

• Mastery: Shadow Weaving no longer benefits multiple times from damage amplifying effects.
• Shadowy Apparitions no longer causes targets to drop Stealth if they deal no damage.

Covenant Abilities

• Fae Guardians (Night Fae) Guardian Faerie now grants 20% damage reduction (was 10%), and Wrathful Faerie will now automatically be sent to the closest enemy target if Fae Guardians is used while an ally is targeted.
• Wrathful Faeries (Night Fae) now properly grant resources to the casting Priest when there are multiple Wrathful Faeries active on the target.
• Mindgames (Venthyr) no longer reverses damage or healing from itself when reflected.

Conduits

• Fae Fermata (Night Fae) Fae Guardians now leave a 80% effective copy of their benefit (was 60%) and can no longer be stacked on top of a Faerie for double benefit.

ROGUE

Assassination

• Level 56: New Passive: Cut to the Chase – Envenom extends the duration of your Slice and Dice by up to 3 seconds per combo point spent.
• Venomous Wounds now restores 8 Energy (was 7).
• Slice and Dice (Rank 2) has been removed.
• Fixed an issue that prevented Crimson Tempest (Talent) from triggering Alacrity (Talent).
• Fixed an issue that allowed Poison Bomb (Talent) to deal damage to Sapped targets while not breaking the crowd-control.

Subtlety

• Fixed an issue that caused Premeditation (Talent) to rarely not be applied when entering Stealth.

Covenant Abilities

• Fixed an issue that caused Echoing Reprimand (Kyrian) to apply Find Weakness for non-Subtlety Rogues when cast from Stealth.
• Serrated Bone Spike (Necrolord) initial damage increased by 300% and now grants 1 combo point plus 1 per active bone spike after it strikes the target.
• Serrated Bone Spike (Necrolord) is now removed when the target leaves combat and no longer refunds a charge and gets removed when the target is healed to full.
• Fixed an issue that prevented Serrated Bone Spike's (Necrolord) initial damage from dealing a critical strike.
• Fixed an issue that prevented Serrated Bone Spike's (Necrolord) bleed debuff from being counted towards the Envenom damage bonus from Doomblade (Legendary Power).
• Serrated Bone Spike’s (Necrolord) damage is now correctly increased by Assassinations’ Mastery: Potent Assassin.
• Broadside (Outlaw Talent) now correctly causes Sepsis (Night Fae) to generate an additional combo point.
• Flagellation (Venthyr) no longer costs Energy (was 20 Energy), duration reduced to 12 seconds (was 20 seconds), Haste is now granted immediately, and no longer has a second activation. Flagellation’s initial damage increased by 270%, additional damage from spending combo points increased by 160%, and deals damage 1 time upon use (was 3).

Conduits

• Lashing Scars (Venthyr) now causes 4 additional lashes (was 2). This will allow the Rogue to start at 5% Haste upon activation.
• Fixed an issue that caused the Count the Odds buff to be removed when any Roll the Bones enhancements expire.

SHAMAN

• Chain Lightning damage increased by 35%.
• Lightning Shield damage increased by 415%.

Elemental

• Earth Shock damage increased by 30%.
• Earthquake damage increased by 70%.
• Lava Beam damage increased by 35%.
• Lava Burst damage reduced by 10%.

Enhancement

• Lava Lash damage increased by 40%.
• Stormkeeper (Talent) now increases Chain Lightning by 300% (was 2 Lightning Bolts by 150%).
• Stormbringer can now correctly trigger from Ice Strike (Talent) and Sundering (Talent).
• Fixed an issue where Stormkeeper (Talent) and Maelstrom Weapon (Talent) were both increasing the damage of Chain Lightning at the same time.

Restoration

• Lava Burst damage reduced by 10%.
• Fixed an issue where Earthen Wall Totem (Talent) could absorb more damage than intended when an area damage spell hit multiple allies.

Covenant Abilities

• Vesper Totem (Kyrian) damage and healing increased by 25%.
• Fae Transfusion (Night Fae) damage increased by 25%, the healing from damage conversion increased to 60% (was 40%) and the heal radius increased to 20 yards (was 12 yards).
• Primordial Wave’s (Necrolord) Enhancement Lightning Bolt effect now deals 150% damage (was 100%).
• Fixed an issue that caused Primordial Wave (Necrolord) to not be usable on allies that are in Mercenary Mode.
• Chain Harvest (Venthyr) the damage and healing increased by 15% for Elemental and Restoration Shaman.
• Chain Harvest (Venthyr) will now light up on the Action Bar when players can cast it instantly through Maelstrom Weapon.

WARLOCK

• Curse of Tongues now lasts 1 minute (was 30 seconds) and lasts 20 seconds against enemy players (was 12 seconds).

Affliction

• Malefic Rapture no longer causes targets to drop Stealth if it deals no damage.
• Seed of Corruption now properly deals damage and applies Corruption if the Warlock is crowd-controlled when the seed detonates.

Demonology

• Summon Dreadstalkers, Demonic Tyrant, Vilefiend, Nether Portal demons, and Grimoire: Felguard will now listen to primary pet commands.
• Call Dreadstalkers attack power increased by 10%, and Dreadbite and Dreadlash damage increased by 10%.

Destruction

• Mastery: Chaotic Energies now properly increases the damage of Corruption.

Covenant Abilities

• Scouring Tithe (Kyrian) now requires the Warlock to be facing its target.
• Decimating Bolt (Necrolord) bonus damage from the target’s missing health increased to 100% (was 60%).
• Impending Catastrophe (Venthyr) damage while moving towards its target has been increased by 10% and its explosion damage increased by 15%.
• Impending Catastrophe (Venthyr) no longer damages Totems in its path to the target.

WARRIOR

• Fixed an issue that allowed Intervene to be applied to targets under the effect of Cyclone.

Fury

• Fixed an issue that prevented the Whirlwind buff to not be applied to the Warrior if Whirlwind was cast during Charge.

Protection

• Damage of all abilities increased by 10%. Damage of Thunder Clap increased by an additional 10%.

Covenant Abilities

• Conqueror’s Banner (Necrolord) has been redesigned – Brandish the Conqueror’s Banner, granting 400 Mastery and 30% increased movement speed to you and your 2 nearest allies and preventing movement speed from being reduced below 100%. The cooldown is now 2 minutes (was 3 minutes), duration is now 15 seconds (was 20 seconds), and the Rage generation is now 4 Rage per second for Arms and Protection, and 6 Rage per second for Fury.

Conduits

• Veteran’s Repute (Necrolord) no longer causes Conqueror’s Banner to grant stacks of Glory.

Covenants

Necrolord

Covenant Ability

• Fleshcraft has been redesigned – Form a shield of flesh and bone over 3 seconds (was 4 seconds) that absorbs damage equal to 40% of your maximum health for 2 minutes. While channeling, your damage taken is reduced by 20%. Passive effect – Moving near an enemy’s corpse consumes their essence to reduce Fleshcraft’s cooldown by 1 second.
• The slime creatures within the Plaguefall dungeon will now grant their buffs when their corpses are consumed by Fleshcraft’s passive effect (was when Fleshcraft was used on their corpses).

Soulbinds

• Volatile Solvent (Plague Deviser Marileth) now triggers when Fleshcraft’s passive effect consumes a corpse’s essence (was when Fleshcraft is cast).
• Resourceful Fleshcrafting (Bonesmith Heirmir) has been redesigned – When Fleshcraft’s passive effect consumes a corpse, the cooldown of Fleshcraft is reduced by an additional 1 second.

Anima Conductor: Flowing Power – House of Rituals

• Skelton Command now summons a skeleton when Fleshcraft’s passive effect consumes a corpse. This effect has a 5 second cooldown between summoning skeletons.

Night Fae

• Spirits within The Queen’s Conservatory are eager to return to life and will now automatically provide players with their reward without having to speak to them first.

Soulbinds

• Fixed an issue that sometimes caused players to die through Podtender (Dreamweaver) if the lethal blow had a large overkill.

Venthyr

The Ember Court

• Permanent RSVPs
• Guests who you have reached Best Friend status with now give you a permanent RSVP.
• The Permanent RSVP will allow all characters on your account to invite that guest to future Ember Courts without completing their RSVP quest again.
• Temel in Sinfall now sells a Bind on Account book at Exalted with the Ember Court. The book will teach your Dredger Butler how to handle the Cleanup and Restocking quests that follow the Ember Courts.
• One-time reputation items from Temel and Lady Ilinca will no longer appear once learned.
• Droman Aliothe’s RSVP no longer requires players to venture to Bastion and Maldraxxus for items.

Soulbinds

• Fixed an issue that allowed Service in Stone (General Draven) to be parried.

Dungeons and Raids

Halls of Atonement

• Loyal Stoneborn now persists for 45 seconds when Charmed by a Venthyr player (was 30 seconds).
• Loyal Stoneborn damage is now reduced by 50% while Charmed and Stoneborn Boon duration increased to 45 seconds (was 30 seconds).

Sanguine Depths

• Anima Cage's now persist for 1 minute after activation (was 45 seconds). While active, Sinfall Boon is applied to players when any enemy is slain nearby (was certain enemy types) and duration increased to 75 seconds (was 60 seconds).
• Moved one of the Anima Cages away from a patrolling Chamber Sentinel.

Mythic Keystone Dungeons

• The formula for determining the level of the first Mythic Keystone players receive each week has been adjusted.
• Previously, players would always receive a Keystone 1 level below the highest they'd completed so far in Season 1.
• After this change, Keystone level will continue to decrease by 1 per week until players again complete a higher level Keystone.
• For example, a player who completes a level 15 Keystone will receive a level 14 Keystone the following week. If they do not complete a 15 or higher Keystone that week, they will receive a level 13 Keystone the week after.
• Plaguefall
• Domina Venomblade
• Brood Assassins no longer trigger the Necrotic Affix.
• Sanguine Depths
• General Kaal’s Gauntlet
• Stonewall Gargons no longer trigger the Necrotic Affix.

Items and Rewards

• The community voted mount, The Wandering Ancient, is now available!

Gear acquired from Mythic Keystone dungeons are now upgradable with Valor, a new currency that is earned from completing Mythic Keystone dungeons and covenant Callings. The weekly Valor cap will start at 5000 Valor earnable in the first week, and will increase by 750 Valor each week. There will be a maximum of 1500 Valor a character can hold at a time. Gear that dropped before the patch is unable to be upgraded.

• 200 Item Level: Initial item upgrade level.
• 207 Item Level: Requires the Keystone Explorer achievement – Earned by completing all eight Shadowlands dungeons at Mythic 5 or higher, within the time limit.
• 213 Item Level: Requires the Shadowlands Keystone Conqueror achievement – Earned by completing all Shadowlands dungeons at Mythic 10 or higher, within the time limit.
• 220 Item Level: Requires the Shadowlands Keystone Master achievement – Earned by completing all Shadowlands dungeons at Mythic 15 or higher, within the time limit.
• Completing a Mythic Keystone dungeon after the timer has ended will now reward a second item. The item level of the second item will be slightly lower (e.g. finishing a Mythic 7 Keystone dungeon, but not completing the timer now rewards the party with a 200 iLvl item and a 197 iLvl item.
• The Great Vault raid loot requirements is now defeat 3/6/9 raid bosses (was 3/7/10).
• Potency Conduits now also drop in Castle Nathria.
• Once players reach 40 Renown with their Covenant, the weekly quest to gather 1000 Anima will now award you with 1500 gold.
• Once players have recruited the maximum amount of Souls for their Covenant, your weekly quest to rescue Souls from the Maw will now award you with 500 Anima.
• Rhinestone Sunglasses can now be used in transmogrification and will appear in your collection once found.
• Vendor prices for items below item level 75 have been adjusted.
• The Lightless Force weapon enchant no longer targets out-of-combat or crowd-controlled enemies.
• The Hunger of the Pack trinket now grants the Speed stat instead of movement speed percentage.
• The Barrier Generator Toy can no longer be used in instanced PvP.

You can check out the remainder of the patch notes, which include PvP and Torghast changes, at the link above. World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is now live on PC.

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