Another World of Warcraft Shadowlands Alpha Encrypted Build Has Shipped, Hotfix Removes Coalescing Visions Limit

Another World of Warcraft encrypted build of the Shadowlands Alpha is here, along with a hotfix which removes limits on Coalescing Visions.

First, the encrypted Shadowlands alpha. If you recall, it was discovered a few weeks ago that the Battle.net client supported an encrypted Shadowlands alpha. Now, a new build has shipped, as reported by Wowhead,

“Blizzard has shipped a new encrypted Shadowlands Alpha build, 9.0.1.33556, the first build of the week… Originally, we thought the alpha (or beta) would start in February, before PAX East. However, that event has now passed and Riot is drawing tons of hype with their announcement for Valorant this week, so Blizzard may wait for that news to subside before pushing more Shadowlands information.”

Additionally, a recent hotfix has removed the limits to Coalescing Visions among other things. Here’s the relevant bit,

• The currency limit for Coalescing Visions has been removed.
  • Developers’ note: Especially since the removal of the unique cap on Vessels, we’ve seen a lot of feedback about the inventory clutter of multiple Vessels. By removing the cap on Coalescing Visions, players should now feel free to buy Vessels from Wrathion as needed, rather than stockpiling them in bags.

The hotfix also contains tweaks to dungeons and raids,

• Ny’alotha, the Waking City
• Prophet Skitra
• [With regional restarts] Prophet Skitra now has 2 intermission phases (was 4 intermission phases) on all difficulties.
• Prophet Skitra now enters intermission phases at 33% and 66% health (was 20%, 40%, 60% and 80% health).
• [With regional restarts] Dark Ritual’s debuff effect now increases by 4% per stack (was 2% per stack) on all difficulties.
• Developers’ note: Especially as raids’ overall damage output increases, many groups are spending a disproportionate amount of time dealing with Skitra’s illusions, and often skipping other mechanics entirely. This change is aimed at making the overall pace of the fight more consistent regardless of raid damage.
• Ra-den the Despoiled
• [With regional restarts] Void Collapse cast time increased to 4.5 seconds on Raid Finder, Normal, and Heroic difficulties.
• [With regional restarts] Reduced the damage of Void Collapse on all difficulties.
• [With regional restarts] Void Defilement duration decreased to 6 seconds on Mythic difficulty.
• N’Zoth the Corruptor
• [With regional restarts] Azeroth’s Radiance now restores 25 Sanity (was 20 Sanity).
• Thought Harvester
• [With regional restarts] Harvest Thoughts Shadow damage reduced by 10%.
• [With regional restarts] Harvest Thoughts Sanity drain reduced to 300 (was 400).
• Developers’ note: We’ve seen extensive use of player immunities to avoid the consequences of certain raid mechanics, and while we want to allow player utility to function wherever possible, we’re wary when specific class compositions feel required. The changes to both Ra-den and N’Zoth are intended to make a wider range of raid compositions feel viable on Mythic difficulty.
• [With regional restarts] Mindgrasp can no longer be interrupted by Priests’ Cosmic Ripple (Talent).