The October 17, 2023 PTR Snapshot
Build 51790 was part of Dragonflight Patch 10.2 testing. Squishei’s October 17 datamine recorded changes to Demon Hunter and Monk talents and effects, among other classes. This article focuses on that historical snapshot.
The release candidate milestone preceded the November content update and Season 3. Keep the build date attached to these values when comparing older guides; they describe a stage of testing.
Selected Demon Hunter and Monk Changes
The values compare the preceding PTR version with build 51790. Blizzard’s October 17 development notes, reproduced by Wowhead, also document the Retaliation increase, Unison reduction and consolidation of Escape from Reality.
| Talent or effect | October 17 PTR change |
|---|---|
| Ragefire — Havoc | Critical-strike contribution limit: 3 → 10. |
| Retaliation — Vengeance | Counterattack coefficient: 10% → 15% of Attack Power. |
| Unison — Mistweaver | Secondary Soothing Mist healing: 75% → 50%. |
| Escape from Reality — Monk talent | Maximum talent ranks: 2 → 1. |
| Windwalker passive | Listed damage aura values: −5% → −3%. |
| Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger — Windwalker | Tiger Lightning coefficient: 23.5% → 24% of Attack Power. |
Ragefire’s stored-damage percentage remained 35%; the change increased the critical-strike contribution limit in its collection rule. Retaliation remained the talent that causes counterattacks while Demon Spikes is active, so its Attack Power coefficient describes that particular effect.
The Windwalker entries concern the listed passive aura and Tiger Lightning coefficient. They are useful records of what changed, while total character output also depends on the rest of the build, encounter and tuning.
Any Means Necessary Was a Tooltip Consistency Fix
The Demon Hunter entry concerned Any Means Necessary. Blizzard described the correction as making its displayed percentage agree before and after allocating the talent. The datamine’s tooltip referenced Mastery: Demonic Presence, but the changed entry was the talent.
That distinction keeps the record tied to the affected part of the talent system. A displayed percentage in a tooltip needs its own scope and character context before it can support a damage comparison.
Where the 550% Figure Applies
The datamine placed a 550% modifier under Mistweaver’s passive, with Expel Harm as the affected spell. The changed markup on that entry concerned its PvP multiplier; the 550% value itself was displayed without a before-and-after change.
Blizzard’s published Patch 10.2 notes explicitly describe Expel Harm’s healing increase of 550% for Mistweaver. Apply that figure to the named healing ability. It is not a measure of Brewmaster’s overall damage, healing or Stagger efficiency.
What the One-Rank Monk Talent Retained
Escape from Reality became a one-rank talent. The retained description included a 10-second window for using Transcendence: Transfer again, plus 25% increased self-Vivify healing and a 50% mana-cost refund during that window.
Those benefits belong to the talent’s conditions. The rank consolidation should be read alongside its tooltip when examining a historical Monk setup.
Compare PTR Passes With the Right Baseline
Unison illustrates why the dates matter. October 17’s PTR comparison was 75% to 50%. The published patch notes describe the broader change as 100% to 50%. Both arrive at 50%, but they compare against different earlier versions.
The update notes also place the Season 3 and Amirdrassil opening in the week of November 14, 2023, after the content update’s week of November 7. Use the appropriate dated notes for a launch comparison, and the current game’s talents for a present-day character.
