Not much is more annoying than when you try to use heroic leap and get told there isn’t a path. How is there not a path for jumping through the air?
World of Warcraft players have long wondered these sorts of things. Movement abilities like a warrior’s heroic leap or a rogue’s grappling hook have long been hindered by the need to somehow have a path.
This makes practical uses of the abilities a bit difficult at times, as jumping between different elevations or across gaps is often an impossible task despite there being no physical reason for it.
Thankfully, the gameplay limitation may not be a bother for much longer. The Shadowlands prepatch, released just this Tuesday, has made it so that many of these abilities have been given a buff to allow them to pass these gaps.
“Before the Shadowlands prepatch, those abilities were only used when there was a clear path in the surface between the points,” Wowhead writes on the update. “If that wasn’t the case, the abilities weren’t able to be used.”
The following four abilities are the ones currently updated to have this fix:
- Demon Hunter – Infernal Strike (Vengeance specialization only)
- Rogue – Grappling Hook (Outlaw specialization only)
- Warrior – Heroic Leap
- Warlock – Demonic Gateway
At this moment, it’s unknown if this update is an intended buff to these abilities or if this is one of the many bugs that the title has been experiencing. Either way, there isn’t a single player complaining about being able to use their abilities with more versatility.
Part of this is likely due to the Venthyr covenant ability, Door of Shadows, which serves as a movement ability that allows players to step through space to another location. Rather than nerf this ability to fit previous restrictions, it seems that Blizzard chose to buff all others.
If this is an unintentional change, Blizzard hasn’t had anything to say about the issue. Players may see it patched away if such is the case, but it seems unlikely when paired with the Door of Shadows ability.
There’s also not yet any word on other abilities that might work better now, such as whether there have been buffs to the racial abilities of Void Elves that allow them to rift walk to another location. Blink also might be in line to see these improvements, as the ability will only teleport players forward along a path that they can already walk in most cases.
