The change log missed two things: dying costs half as much, and two sets were reset to level 1

The October 8 build came with Blizzard’s first development notes since the first of the month, and it was a long list: the City of Dalaran opening for testing, the dungeon experience fixes, four separate Rage bugs, the Cooldown Manager covering every class. Reading the client against the previous build turns up two things the notes do not mention.

Read from the beta datamine. The published build diff moves on as new builds land, so the comparisons below are our own record of the build 70291 files against 70245, read on 9 October.

Dying the lazy way now costs half as much

When you release and let the spirit healer resurrect you instead of walking back to your corpse, the game asks you to confirm, and the confirmation spells out the price. That text changed:

Before	all of your items will take 50% durability damage, equipped and inventory
Now	all of your items will take 25% durability damage, equipped and inventory

Both confirmation strings carry the new number, and the Resurrection Sickness part is untouched. Running back to your body is still free, as it always was.

This is a bigger quality-of-life change than it looks at low level, where repair money is the thing you do not have. It is also exactly the sort of number that belongs in a change log, which is why its absence is odd rather than sinister: the notes list durability nowhere.

Sixty-six items changed quality, and two whole sets went to level 1

The same build changed the quality of 66 items. Most are small steps down: Dream Journal from epic to uncommon, and Hornbeam Heft, Ironwood Destroyer, Curl of Life and Dirt-Heavy Bracers from rare to uncommon.

The eye-catching case is different in kind. Every piece of the Shen’dorei Magister’s and Shen’dorei Peacekeeper’s sets — twenty rows, including both Ensemble entries — dropped from epic to common, and in the current files every one of those rows sits at item level 1 with a required level of 1.

We would not call that a nerf, and it is worth saying why. A nerf lowers numbers; this zeroed them. An entire set, ensembles included, pushed to common at item level 1 is what unfinished or placeholder content looks like when it is being moved out of the way, not what a tuning pass looks like. If these were meant to be real gear, they have been shelved rather than weakened.

One documented change worth a second look

One item change is in the notes’ spirit if not its text: Truthseeker’s Bow now requires level 40, where the files previously had no requirement at all. It is a rare bow, item level 45, with 7 Agility and 3 Stamina. A level requirement appearing from nothing usually means the item was reachable earlier than intended.

Three other things the files picked up

• Two new areas: Twilight Hollow, a subzone of the new Riverglades zone, and Dreambound Pinnacle, which has no parent zone listed.
• Achievements are becoming Legacy Challenges in the interface: the string that used to read “Achievement Earned” now reads “Legacy Challenge Earned”. In the same spirit, “This realm is full” became “This world is full”, which fits a game with no realm list.
• A spell called Boundless Rage was removed in the same build that fixed four Rage bugs, and Totemic Recall was added, which the Shaman deep dive had promised.

Why read the files at all when there are notes

Because the notes are written by people with a lot to ship. Four builds went out between 1 and 8 October with no change log at all, and when one arrived it was thorough about classes and quiet about durability. Neither the halved penalty nor the shelved sets are secrets; they are just not written down.

Our gear pages are generated from these files and move with them.