Class Tuning Incoming – 26 July

In response to player feedback and internal data, we’ve developed the following class tuning changes to address several over- and under-performing classes.

These adjustments will be applied to the live game with scheduled weekly maintenance on 26 July in this region.

Classes

Death Knight

  • Blood
    • All ability damage increased by 10%.

Druid

  • Guardian
    • Ursoc’s Fury absorb shield reduced to 50% of damage dealt by Thrash and Maul (was 60%).

Evoker

  • Augmentation
  • Developers’ notes: Augmentation is overperforming in dungeons and is doing less direct damage than intended relative to the power of their buffing effects. These adjustments will increase their personal damage in all situations and moderately reduce the effectiveness of their buffs in dungeon content.
    • Close as Clutchmates now causes Ebon Might and Breath of Eons to be 20% more effective when not in a raid (was 40%).
    • Fixed a bug where Close as Clutchmates would not increase the Evoker’s damage done via Ebon Might for periodic effects such as Fire Breath.
    • Ebon Might now increases the Evoker’s damage done by 20% (was 10%).
    • Eruption damage increased by 40%.
    • Fate Mirror’s chance to occur reduced to 15% (was 20%).
    • Aspects’ Favor amplifies Black Attunement to 7%/10% maximum health (was 10%/16%).

Hunter

  • Beast Mastery
    • Barbed Shot damage increased by 15%.
    • Cobra Shot damage increased by 15%.
    • Kill Shot damage increased by 15%.
  • Marksmanship
    • Trick Shot, Aimed Shot, and Rapid Fire ricochets now deal 65% of their normal damage (was 55%).
  • Survival
    • Mongoose Bite damage increased by 5%.
    • Raptor Strike damage increased by 5%.
    • Flanking Strike damage increased by 10%.
    • Kill Command damage increased by 10%.

Monk

  • Brewmaster
    • Damage of Spinning Crane Kick reduced by 20%.
    • Damage of Keg Smash reduced by 5%.
  • Windwalker
    • Rising Sun Kick damage increased by 10%.
    • Fists of Fury damage increased by 10%. Does not apply to PvP Combat.
    • Blackout Kick damage increased by 10%.
    • Tiger Palm damage increased by 15%.

Paladin

  • Protection
    • All ability damage increased by 8%.

Priest

  • Discipline
    • Luminous Barrier absorption increased by 30%.
  • Shadow
    • Psychic Link now causes direct damage spells to inflict 15% of their damage on all targets afflicted by your Vampiric Touch within 40 yards (was 25%).
    • Void Spike damage to enemies within 10 yards of the target reduced by 30%.
    • Devouring Plague damage increased by 12%. Does not apply to PvP Combat.
    • Mind Blast damage increased by 12%. Does not apply to PvP Combat.
    • Void Bolt damage increased by 12%. Does not apply to PvP Combat.
    • Mind Flay damage increased by 12%. Does not apply to PvP Combat.
    • Mind Flay: Insanity damage increased by 12%. Does not apply to PvP Combat.
    • Mind Spike damage increased by 12%. Does not apply to PvP Combat.
    • Mind Spike: Insanity damage increased by 12%. Does not apply to PvP Combat.
    • Shadow Word: Death damage increased by 12%. Does not apply to PvP Combat.
    • Prayer of Mending now costs 10% of base mana (was 4%).
    • Power Word: Life now costs 10% of base mana (was 4%).
    • Renew now costs 8% of base mana (was 4%).

Shaman

  • Restoration
    • All healing increased by 5%.
    • The range of Restorative Mists heals from Ascendance is now 40 yards (was 20 yards). The initial burst healing from Ascendance remains at 20 yards.

Warrior

  • Protection
    • All ability damage increased by 7%.

Player versus Player

There are a few additional PvP-specific changes that we have planned for next week’s reset, but we’re still discussing specifics. We plan to update this thread on Monday with further details.

Druid

  • Balance
    • New Moon, Half Moon, Full Moon no longer deal increased damage in PvP (was 20%).
    • Owlkin Adept (PvP Talent) now reduces cast time by 10% (was 15%).
    • High Winds (PvP Talent) now reduces the targets healing and damage by 15% for 3 seconds (was 30% for 6 seconds).
    • Umbral Embrace now increases damage of Wrath or Starfire by 15% in PvP (was 20%).

Evoker

  • Augmentation
    • Ebon Might’s increase to the Evoker’s damage is no longer 40% more effective in PvP Combat.
    • Eruption damage is now increased by 25% in PvP Combat (was 50%).
    • Upheaval damage is now increased by 25% in PvP Combat (was 15%)
    • The damage bonus from Tectonic Locus is now reduced by 70% in PvP Combat.
    • All healing done is now reduced by 10% in PvP Combat.
    • Dream Projection healing is now reduced by 25% in PvP Combat.
    • The absorption effect from Molten Blood is now reduced by 30% in PvP Combat.
    • Born in Flame now lasts 3 seconds (was 6 seconds).
    • Burnout from Born in Flame is no longer dispellable.

Hunter

  • Beast Mastery
  • Developers’ notes: We’re increasing Barbed Shot’s bleed damage, as we’d like to decrease the damage differential between attacking high armor and low armor targets for Beast Mastery Hunters.
    • Barbed Shot damage is no longer decreased in PvP Combat (was reduced by 10%).

Mage

  • Master Shepherd increases Versatility by 12% (was 6%).
  • Arcane
  • Developers’ notes: The high-end burst damage of Arcane Mage was reduced with the release of Fractures in Time, so we’re increasing the damage of Arcanosphere, as we’d like it to be a more threatening piece of Arcane’s toolkit. We’re also increasing the baseline damage of a few rotational spells, as Arcane’s overall damage has been lower than we would like, and Nether Tempest has not felt like a competitive spell in PvP.
    • Arcanosphere damage increased by 25%.
    • Arcane Missiles damage increased by 12% in PvP Combat (was 5%).
    • Arcane Orb damage increased by 30% in PvP Combat.
    • Nether Tempest damage increased by 150% in PvP Combat.
  • Fire
  • Developers’ notes: We’re offsetting a few recent damage reduction adjustments and greatly increasing the damage of Living Bomb, with the goal of making it a viable talent option in PvP.
    • Pyroblast damage increased by 18% in PvP Combat (was 12%).
    • Fire Blast damage reduced by 3% in PvP Combat (was 8%).
    • Phoenix Flames damage increased by 22% in PvP Combat (was 16%).
    • Living Bomb damage increased by 300% in PvP Combat.
  • Frost
  • Developers’ notes: We would like Ray of Frost to remain a threatening cast, but still feel it’s slightly more lethal than we’d like. Frostbolt’s damage has fallen behind other options, so we’re increasing its damage to reward casting. Snowdrift’s activation has felt a little too difficult for the amount of risk involved, so we’re reducing the time to trigger the stun effect.
    • Cryopathy is now 50% effective in PvP Combat (was 60%).
    • Frostbolt damage increased by 150% in PvP Combat (was 100%).
    • Snowdrift now has a 2 second activation time (was 3 seconds).

Priest

  • Angel’s Mercy’s cooldown reduction is now 25% effective in PvP Combat.
  • Shadow
    • Mind Trauma now steals 2% haste (was 4%) and stacks up to 9 times (was 6).
    • From Darkness Comes Light now stacks up to 25 times in PvP Combat (was 50).

Monk

  • Windwalker
  • Developers’ notes: Windwalker Monk’s damage profile is more bursty than we would like, so we are moving more of its damage into base rotational spells.
    • Rising Star critical strike damage bonus is now 50% effective in PvP Combat.
    • Serenity now increases damage and healing by 10% in PvP Combat (was 15%).
    • Whirling Dragon Punch damage is now increased by 120% in PvP Combat (was 80%).

Shaman

  • Elemental
  • Developers’ notes: We feel the backlash damage from Flame Shock has not been sufficiently high as to make the decision to dispel it compelling.
    • Control of Lava damage increased by 40%.
  • Enhancement
  • Developers’ notes: We feel the backlash damage from Flame Shock has not been sufficiently high as to make the decision to dispel it compelling.
    • Control of Lava damage increased by 40%.
  • Restoration
    • Now regenerates 700 mana per second at max level in PvP Combat (was 800).

Warrior

  • Slam damage is now increased by 85% in PvP Combat (was 48%).
  • Arms
  • Developers’ notes: We’re increasing the damage of Bladestorm baseline and removing some power from the Unhinged talent, as its damage could be unpredictable for both the Warrior and their enemies. We’re also increasing the damage of Overpower to increase Arm Warrior’s consistent pressure.
    • Overpower damage is now increased by 30% in PvP Combat (was 20%).
    • Bladestorm damage increased by 40% in PvP Combat.
    • Mortal Strike damage increased by 10% in PvP Combat.
    • Mortal Strikes from the Unhinged talent are now cast at 60% effectiveness.
  • Fury
  • Developers’ notes: We’re increasing the damage of a few Fury Warrior spells we feel are not impactful enough in PvP.
    • Execute damage is now increased by 25% in PvP Combat (was 10%).
    • Onslaught damage increased by 15% in PvP Combat.
    • Ravager damage increased by 30% in PvP Combat.
1 Like

So, i don’t understand the nerf to Brewmaster monks. Are you sure you didn’t mean to nerf guardian druid and vengence DH damage? You know… the actual meta specs?
Also, is that fat free AoE heal from Guardian every 200 rage really a thing that is gonna stay like that? Cause i would much rather see that nerfed than the personal absorb.
Also, revert the nerf to sanctified plates. Prot paladin suffers from physical damage as does blood DK.

5 Likes

The 33% of the Psychic Link nerf (this is taking in consideration the buffs to ST) makes me giggle.
I’ve calculated for 10k damage on spell before the buffs&nerfs. If before it was 2500 to another target, now it is 1620.

But considering the damage distribution in a dungeon, this is more like a 4.2% nerf (checked logs and did the math, for 406.8M damage, you’ll loose 17.12M).

But now it might become a little too much in ST, so priests won’t loose anything.

Even together with the nerfs done for evoker, won’t be enough to overthrow the meta.

2 Likes

Since Kill Shot shares spell ID between MM and BM hunter, buffing it by 15% for BM also buffs it by 15% for MM, is this intended?

In response to player feedback and internal data, we’ve developed the following class tuning changes

If this is true, then why is there no communication about the cost of word of glory self healing for protection paladin? Cleanse being 25k mana? Etc. Both EU and US forums want to know why our divine purpose and shining light procs cost mana and how you can put these mana costs on self heals after a decade+ of it only costing holy power and nothing else. Then not buffing survivability or our healing talents in any way to compensate for the mana costs.

3 Likes

where is something good (or new) for rogue ?
anything ? :smiley:

1 Like

Considering that rogues are one of the best classes for pvp and one of the best melee classes for m+ then what exactly would you like to hear? I mean any patch where they dodge nerfs should be a good patch for rogues.

1 Like

Guardian and Mage nerfs are still not enough, not by a long chalk.

1 Like

Can’t be serious :skull:

2 Likes

Shadow

  • Psychic Link now causes direct damage spells to inflict 15% of their damage on all targets afflicted by your Vampiric Touch within 40 yards (was 25%).

someone dosnt like spriest and they want to do same dps as tank or healer . / bravo # least nerf it hard and finish it . and delete this spec . with time you will brind sprist again in dark ages …and you wont see a spriest in raids . bravo

2 Likes

As I was expecting before reading ZERO change for outlaw that is underperforming since 2 season in a row.

I wonder where they get their data at this point, they don’t even buff the most awful spec.

1 Like

Damn those moonkin PvP nerfs, especially High Winds, nerfing its effect by 75%. Was it really necessary? As someone who only plays arenas casually when there is weekend event for that, I don’t feel like the spec is even remotely strong now, at all. In BFA Season 4 and Shadowlands Season 1 it was much, much better performing.

In the eventuality that someone high above reads this:

OK so first things first. You do realize that SP is REQUIRED not because of its damage, but specifically because of PI, Mass Dispel and Soothe? 5/8 dungeons REQUIRE an SP for the route. No amount of damage nerf will change that fact.

Examples:

A) HoI and the dragons before 3rd boss. DONT nerf/buff SP. Nerf those dragons so that its not such an unfair disadvantage to not have an SP.

B) Uldaman 3rd boss: That boss is a JOKE if SP can mass dispel. Nerf the damage of the dot so that the difference between having an SP or not is not such a disadvantage. Make the AoE do more damage instead.

C) For the love of GOD. Remove PI. Give priests BL instead. It creates SO many balancing problems for you guys!

I can give you tons of other examples but I think these get my point across.

Another similar to SP. Guardian Druid was already good before 10.1.5. Unlike S1, in S2 most of the damage received by tanks was physical damage. So what made GDruid “bad” in S1 was fixed in S2 because of that.

In S2, GDruid was already good because of passive healing to the party. But because you guys nerfed the passive healing done by DDs, GDruid took its place. So its not about tankines that makes GDruid meta right now.

Aug evoker was going to be a problem from the beginning. Its damage profile is something that can be balanced at tweaked. But much like SP, you cannot change the fact that it has a crazy list of utility that is unmatched by any other spek.

If I were you, I would pause the Aug idea for a minute and consider re-designing dungeons from the ground up. Among other things adding a new role (support) and doing 1-1-1-3 M+ groups.

I main Rshaman. And I take this as an insult. Honest.

A) The horrendous design of our tier set made us go down in overall HPS compared to other specs. Address THAT. Suggestion: REMOVE the dependency on riptide dot to get intant heal / healing buff. EASY.

B) 5% healing buff? What is this? What you did to the healer meta is very disappointing.

We had the healthiest healer meta I have ever seen in recent history. And you ruined it by giving HPala ALL the tools to heal while moving with instant casts, AND while simultaneously doing DPS. At-least before 10.1.5 all healers were equally capable, and all healers had an equally hard time healing.

Brewmaster dmg nerf is a bit strange indeed, though they were doing ~17% more dps than a 2nd place tanks (DH and Bear), and 28% more dps than a last place tank (prot pala). Some defensive buffs to compensate would’ve been nice.

As for the 200k party heal every 200 rage - if you remove that - you are basically nerfing healers. Bear tank doesn’t need this heal to survive, it just makes healer job much more bearable (and we all know in what a bad state healing is atm.)

Well I will take that 5% over nothing :smiley: I miss couple 20s, and this will surely help. At least it’s not a nerf…

After 10% damage buff to BDK - these will be on a rise again. The only thing BDK is missing atm is damage and this will help them to catch-up to DH and Bears. Everyone plays bears simply because they are like couple % better than DH, DK. But there are DH’s, monk who also timed +29, that means they are not that far behind as community thinks.

I know, 5% is better than nothing. But common. We had such a healthy meta and 10.1.5 ruined it so hard that I was expecting bold hotfixes. As it stands right now, the meta will stay the way it is, and probably continue through S3.

And yeah sure. Some speks are getting 20% buffs/nerfs. But that does NOT address the issues! Its the fact that some speks have too much utility, and others dont.

And as mentioned before, this has to do with the spiky damage profile / mob design of dungeons. So balancing THAT is more productive for the general community than going in and buffing / nerfing speks.

////////////////////////////
I will edit a suggestion to be a bit more positive with the discourse:
////////////////////////////

The issue with healer meta right now is that its very bursty.

For example pulls from VP: You have the solders that charge random people and leave a dot. That removes 50% of someones life, 1 tick of the dot leaves him at 10%.

ADDITIONALLY you have some dudes casting “wing buffet” and “banish”. Banish is not an issue. The wing buffet hits for 350k to a cloth wearer in VP22.

SO. The issue here is not the damage, or the HPS, or instant/casted heals. Is that if someone gets the soldier charge AND simultaneously gets a “wing buffet” that individual is 1-shot dead.

In previous expansions, the amount of casters was much lower. So this did not happen as much. In this expansion, it happens much more often. So as a healer, the moment ANYONE takes damage, you HAVE to top them up to 100%. Because if that individual receives 1 tick of damage (unavoidable or not) in the next 1 second he is dead.

That is what makes HPala so good right now.

So what you guys have to do is stop messing around with HPS and add a condition where people cannot be hit twice by abilities in less than 2s.

To add spiciness, add some AoE healer checks. Going back to VP, the well designed pulls are the sphinx dudes before the last boss. You got 1 guy doing AoE, but ONLY 1 caster that can potentially 1-shot people. 1 caster can be managed with interrupts. So if people die there its a skill issue.

Thats my suggestion to fix the healer meta with out touching HPala.

Show Affliction some Love too :upside_down_face:

Yea sure aug needed a nerf but dont nerf it to much going forward so its more like a regular dps. If thats the case redesign the whole tree or make it a tank. I dont care About how much my own spells deals.

I love seeing the other team mates dmg pop off.

1 Like

Hopefully this means I can get rid of Ray. I hate it, and especially how powerful it is.

By the way, all this crazy buffing up to 300% all over the place - do you know what that means Blizzard?

It means we can’t cast, that’s what it means. And why can’t we cast? Because everybody is zooming all over the map like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Either you increase the range of nearly all abilities for all classes or you tone down the zoomies.

Aug evoker never was a DD even if you call it one.

It is, and always will be a Support spec. And the fact that Blizz calls it DPS is just a half-baked solution to what really needs to be done to the game to add support specs.

They added Aug WAY to soon. They cant just expect to add a new role (pretending its a DD) and expect not to break a game that has been designed for the past 20 years for the holy trinity.

I would like support specs, but not like this. So my opinion is that (unfortunately for you) they should nerf/delete Aug evokers for now. And consider re-doing once again Aug evokers in S3 with 1-1-1-3 dungeon comps.

What are you talking ? You’ll be rework 10.1.7 and you’ll doing 300K ST and doing +31 keys because Blizzard will HARD BUFF you.

And Warrior dps still doesn’t exist.