[PTS] Patch Notes 23/07/2026 - RDPS Patch and New Scenario Mechanic

[Mishas]

PTS Update 29/07/2026


Based on the feedback the team has received thus far, several adjustments have been made. You can find these below.

Balance

Magus

* Surging Power: No longer affects Baleful Transmogrification.

Why not bring back Surge of Insanity then?

[Keula]

It's not a meme of a tactic. You underestimate how many disrupts BWs/Sorcs are facing. It's gonna proc all the time.

Well sadly the enemy add-on dmg tracker seems to be broken for spell avoidances for me(works for melee though) so I can't give you exact number of disrupt/block% my spells over the last few days(sadly I dont' have any historical data either as I've messed up my user folders so many times), also disrupt as whole seems a bit buggy it doesn't even show the "disrupt" text sometimes randomly when ppl disrupt your non-targeted aoe.

But can do some math, it does +90% dmg compared to frozen touch at softcap int mastery lvl 9, it is mitigated a bit more % wise being bigger number 35% vs 28% of FT on constructs, so for it to outperform even base frozen touch you'd need ~14-15% disrupt/block rate against, which no dps has has 30% disrupt against your 15% strikethrough unless htl is up even then 1 htl might not be enough to get that high. And base frozen touch isn't a very big % of your dmg, mine says 5% of total and i even ran the 40% tactic for a bit so avg ~30% proc rate of that dataset. So like I said fluff dmg that will tickle some tanks.
Now depending on your tanks and secondary dps, it will probably do more dmg than current nerfed Frozen Fury does, though I don't think that tactic is really worth running these days anymore either. Plus new sleight of hand incoming, 6s cd on the channel is very good, potential 3s swell of gloom+piercing shadow memes, tactic slots gonna be tight. To me it just seems like it won't really do much and better tactic options exist, ofc I and many others will test it when it comes out, but saying it's so powerful that it needs 5s icd is why even bother at that point.

Yes the new BW tactic is more of meme, just looks like a worse version of swell of gloom, I have no idea what the angle here is ,even if it procs full on FBB aoe(haven't tested myself) 10s icd is wild.

[rorswar]

It's not that big of a difference for Acid Arrow and Fester. Fester is 3s on live, 2s with tactic. On PTS it is 1s cast without tactic. So when you use Acid Arrow followed by Fester they hit pretty quickly after another. Scouts still need two tactics to make it work though.
Flame Arrow is now base line and got moved to Scout, plus it has 100ft range. So for Scouts you can use it now and it gains power from points in Scout. It is pretty weak though. However, you have now 3 dots to stack on the target before burst. Broadhead, Shadow Sting and Flame Arrow.
I guess the rotation is something like that: stack the 3 dots, then Acid, then Vengeance, then Fester, then Rapid fire, Glass Arrow, Fell the Weak, maybe throw in an Eye Shot in between or a Take Down for kd. Something like that to get the full 10x stacks for Fester 2nd proc. btw: Rapid fire can now remove one absorb.

The damage potential of Scout isn't bad. I've tested it on PTS, and I can get reasonable numbers out of it.

The big difference was that previously you had longer cast times, but the time-to-timestamp was shorter.

Now, arguably you can be a bit more mobile, but you basically need to stick on that target for 10s to get remotely similar numbers as on Live. And total rotation is more around 15s, as you need to line up things beforehand. During that period, the target can be killed, out of range, LoS you, etc, etc... And since you need, as you say, VoN to get decent numbers, you're then 30s dead in the water.

Doesn't matter with a static dummy, but in an RvR environment I can see it being highly frustrating gameplay.

[lumpi33]

It's not a meme of a tactic. You underestimate how many disrupts BWs/Sorcs are facing. It's gonna proc all the time.

Well sadly the enemy add-on dmg tracker seems to be broken for spell avoidances for me(works for melee though) so I can't give you exact number of disrupt/block% my spells over the last few days(sadly I dont' have any historical data either as I've messed up my user folders so many times), also disrupt as whole seems a bit buggy it doesn't even show the "disrupt" text sometimes randomly when ppl disrupt your non-targeted aoe.

But can do some math, it does +90% dmg compared to frozen touch at softcap int mastery lvl 9, it is mitigated a bit more % wise being bigger number 35% vs 28% of FT on constructs, so for it to outperform even base frozen touch you'd need ~14-15% disrupt/block rate against, which no dps has unless htl is up even then 1 htl might not be enough to get that high. And base frozen touch isn't a very big % of your dmg, mine says 5% of total and i even ran the 40% tactic for a bit so avg ~30% proc rate of that dataset. So like I said fluff dmg that will tickle some tanks.
Now depending on your tanks and secondary dps, it will probably do more dmg than current nerfed Frozen Fury does, though I don't think that tactic is really worth running these days anymore either. Plus new sleight of hand incoming, 6s cd on the channel is very good, potential 3s swell of gloom+piercing shadow memes, tactic slots gonna be tight. To me it just seems like it won't really do much and better tactic options exist, ofc I and many others will test it when it comes out, but saying it's so powerful that it needs 5s icd is why even bother at that point.

Yes the new BW tactic is more of meme, just looks like a worse version of swell of gloom, I have no idea what the angle here is ,even if it procs full on FBB aoe(haven't tested myself) 10s icd is wild.

I like the way you think. I think it's pretty common that 1-2 spells disrupt or get blocked depending on what you are hitting. Since Deft Defender is so cheap most of them have at least DD3. Then there were some weird changes to the disrupt system that you can only reduce half of the targets disrupt with your reduced chance to disrupt. So even when you have like -10% disrupt and the target has 10% disrupt chance you have only really -5% so they will still resist 5% of the time. Most people have more than 10% disrupt chance so we are getting quickly in the range of getting 1-2 spells disrupted. I think 10-15% disrupt is a valid assumption.

Sure, the proc alone is fluff but you can easily stack your fluff with Frozen Touch, Chilling Gusts and that new tactic procs. That's before you add the ticking dots from AOE like from Ice Spikes or Gloom of Night and before you do your actual single target rotation. I think as a whole this is really nice.

With the 1.5GCD change all the passive stuff and auto attacks became more powerful and all that sorc stuff is passive without having to do anything.

I've played around with the Sorc on PTS and I think I will run Shadow of Disaster, Vision of Domination, Chilling Gusts and the new Cruel Reprisal. For the build I think I will take all from mid tree down to Absorb Vitality and down the right tree with Cruel Reprisal and drop Impending Doom. So instead of focusing on ST abilities like Swell of Gloom and Impending Doom I prefer the additional passive procs and AOE to stack up before the rotation. Echo of Power might be also worth taking. I just like AOE and the procs instead of a bit more ST burst. I'm gonna jump around in SCs doing Ice Spikes and Gloom of Night, then start focusing on one all while the dots and procs are already ticking. So nice. With the Absorb Vitality it's also easier to run in blobs solo. It's a strong self heal. BW has zero self heal now and no room for the absorb tactic.

The new BW tactic is worse than you think. It doesn't even proc on AOE of FBB. It just hits one random target around with one proc with a chance of getting the same damage back. 10s cooldown. Ridiculous. I also hate the Flame Breath with the 10s cooldown and only 40ft range. Ice Spikes have zero cooldown and 75ft range (line). Sorc is more mid/far range. BW is more into close range which is just meh on a class that has cloth armor, self damage and no escapes. On top of that you are getting extra procs when there is a Chosen around with reflect aura. Or you are getting random 4s silences from the chosen Tzeentch Reflection. This ability is such a freaking pain for BWs. Whenever they push into keeps and you want to start doing your thing that freaking silence triggers and you stand there like an idiot for 4s. That's without anyone even targeting you. With the AOE BWs have it is almost a guarantee that you get the silence. When you just hit Focused Mind it is double bad. I hate it. It's the same painful thing as with Get to the choppa. You are getting sucked in without anyone even targeting you. On Destro side I can just stand there and do my thing. No random pulls, no random silences.

What pisses me up the most is getting draftback damage from disrupts. When you want to kill a tank you get block after block, disrupt after disrupt and do actually more damage to yourself than to the target. And then there are healers with 45% disrupt, disrupting every 3-4th spell standing far away. And then there are WEs just using their immunity and you can't damage them at all before they move out of range or disappear again. Such an awful mechanic.

It feels like they are mostly balancing on theory crafting. If they would play the class live they would know what is actually wrong with them. How painful their disrupts/blocks are and how bad their survivability/escapes are. What puts the cherry on the top is that tanks even "block" you from behind or while being knocked down. Ridiculous.

Id prefer pair wise balancing of classes a lot more, but then really play with them before making changes to see how they do and what is wrong about them. Their changes feel so random and not really on point.