We’ve now finalized a series of class tuning and PvP adjustments for the 9.2.5 update. The following changes will be included in 9.2.5 next week during maintenance, and you’ll see them in the 9.2.5 patch notes:
Classes
- All classes now generate more threat when in a tank specialization.
- Developers’ notes: We’ve heard a lot of feedback about threat loss from the community (and our teammates) since the start of this season. Our design intent is that a tank who is actively directing their damage rotation at an enemy should be able to maintain threat on that enemy, but simple area of effect spells (like Consecrate or Death and Decay) alone should not be sufficient. We’ve analyzed this situation and feel that a small adjustment to tank threat modifiers should help maintain that balance for the remainder of the expansion.
Hunter
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Beast Mastery
- All damage abilities and pet damage increased by 4%.
- Beast Cleave now causes your pet to strike other targets for 100% of your pet’s damage (was 90%).
- Developers’ notes: Beast Mastery has not received as much AoE benefit from its set bonus as other specializations and consequently has fallen behind. We’re increasing the damage of their pets and Beast Cleave damage transfer to help their overall performance.
Mage
- Gift of the Lich (Necrolord Conduit) duration reduced by 33% in PvP.
- Developers’ notes: Deathborne is one of the most impactful cooldowns in the game, but at the current scale of Conduits, it’s regularly lasting 50+ seconds. We feel it’s necessary to reign in that duration in PvP.
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Arcane
- Arcane Missiles damage increased by 8%.
- Arcane Blast damage increased by 10%.
- Clearcasting can no longer be dispelled.
- Developers’ notes: We feel that Arcane single target damage would benefit from an increase, but also want to offer some dispel protection for one of their critical rotational buffs in Clearcasting. This is a change that we will evaluate further going into Dragonflight as generally, we want magical buffs like these to be dispellable. In this case, we feel there is necessary to help this specialization in the short term.
Monk
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Mistweaver
- Reduced cooldown on Zen Focus Tea (PvP Talent) to 30 seconds (was 45).
- Developers’ notes: Mistweavers are having a difficult time responding to burst damage reliably, as they regularly have to open their primary school in order to catch up. Giving them more access to an interrupt protection is intended to let them respond to burst damage more reliably.
- Reduced cooldown on Zen Focus Tea (PvP Talent) to 30 seconds (was 45).
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Windwalker
- Rising Sun Kick damage Increased by 20%. This change does not apply to PvP.
- Fists of Fury damage to primary target increased by 20%. This change does not apply to PvP.
- Blackout Kick damage increased by 20%. This change does not apply to PvP.
- Tiger Palm damage increased by 20%. This change does not apply to PvP.
- Fist of the White Tiger damage increased by 20%. This change does not apply to PvP.
- Developers’ notes: As part of our ongoing balance efforts, we’re taking a more aggressive approach towards improving Windwalker Monks’ single-target damage, so that their performance is more competitive in raid situations where their unique strengths may not come to the forefront.
Priest
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Discipline
- Blaze of Light (PvP Talent) increases damage to Smite and Penance by 30% (was 15%).
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Discipline, Shadow
- Power Word: Shield absorb amount increased by 10% in PvP.
- Fixed a bug that reduced the value of Power Word: Shield critical strikes in PvP.
- Developers’ notes: We’re looking to give Discipline more offensive options in PvP but also feel that Power Word: Shield has fallen off in terms of relative strength compared to other parts of the kit.
Rogue
- Recuperator (Conduit) healing reduced by 50% in PvP.
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Outlaw
- Between the Eyes damage increased by 20%. This change does not apply to PvP.
- Pistol Shot damage increased by 20%. This change does not apply to PvP.
- Sinister Strike damage increased by 20%. This change does not apply to PvP.
- Blade Flurry damage increased to 60% of single target damage (was 50%). This change does not apply to PvP.
- Enduring Brawler (PvP Talent) stacks up to 15 times (was 20).
- Developers’ notes: Our intent with these changes is to improve Outlaw in both single target and 5-6 target cleave situations where Blade Flurry should shine. Outlaw isn’t standing out enough in these moments and we hope these changes move us in the right direction. However, in PvP, Enduring Brawler and Recuperator have given Outlaw more survivability than intended and we’ve decided to reduce the max stack count as a result.
Shaman
- Healing Stream Totem’s healing increased by 20% in PvP.
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Elemental
- Raging Vesper Vortex (Kyrian Runecarving Power) damage reduced by 33% in PvP.
- Earth Shock damage is no longer reduced by 10% in PvP.
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Enhancement
- Chain Harvest (Venthyr) damage and healing reduced by 15% in PvP.
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Restoration
- Earthen Wall Totem’s (Talent) absorb is no longer reduced by 30% while in PvP.
- Developers’ notes: For Shaman, we want to address some of the big swing moments created by Vesper Totem and Chain Harvest, but compensate them with more sustained healing, damage and mitigation.
Warlock
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Destruction
- Ritual of Ruin (2-piece bonus) now lasts 30 seconds (was unlimited).
- Summoning a Blasphemy (4-piece bonus) no longer stuns enemies in PvP.
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Demonology
- Felguard’s Legion Strike now reduces effectiveness of healing on the target by 25% (was 10%) in PvP.
- Developers’ notes: With these changes, we’ve set out to address a strategy of disengaging from the fight except in rare moments where the Warlock can setup huge burst through the set bonus. At the same time, we’re trying to give adequate time for the Warlock to respond to Ritual of Ruin proc with a 30 second duration. Also, we’ve increased the mortal strike effect of Demonology’s pet in PvP to help their effective damage.
Warrior
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Arms
- Mortal Strike damage increased by 10%. This change does not apply to PvP.
- Overpower damage increased by 10%. This change does not apply to PvP.
- Execute and Condemn damage increased by 15%. This also affects Protection Warriors. This change does not apply to PvP.
- Developers’ notes: These changes are intended to increase Arms single target performance while not affecting areas where they already excel.
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Fury
- Depths of Insanity (Conduit) effectiveness reduced by 50% in PvP.
- Battle Trance (PvP Talent) now generates 3 rage (was 5) every 3 seconds for 18 seconds after using Raging Blow twice in a row on a target.
- Developers’ notes: 9.2.5 comes with a bug fix where the PvP talent Battle Trance wasn’t being activated by the Raging Blow replacement spell Crushing Blow from the Reckless Abandon talent. The above changes are intended to manage the effective buff Fury will be getting from that interaction.
Items
- Gladiatior’s Distinction (PvP set) bonus Stamina increased to 500 (was 350).
- Developers’ notes: In general, damage output is outpacing survivability in PvP leading to a volatile gameplay experience. We’re increasing the Stamina from the PvP trinket set bonus to reduce the effect of damage across the game.
- Cosmic Gladiator’s Echoing Resolve no longer triggers from or provides immunity to interrupt effects. The tooltip for this will be updated in a future patch.
- Developers’ notes: While the tooltip explicitly mentions interrupts, we’ve heard the feedback loud and clear that this trinket is removing counterplay that players enjoy. We’ll fix the tooltip in a future hotfix.
It is nice to know what the devs are thinking when they make changes.
