Class Tuning Incoming -- 14 December

[Darkrayne-silvermoon]

I dunno, I get the need to encourage more people to play tanks but seeing multiple tanks soloing mythic bosses with ease just meant a nerf was inevitable. Don’t get why people are acting like this wasn’t going to happen.

[Vinzoru-draenor]

Can you stop nerfing tanks in pvp ffs. At this point tanks will be squishier than a dps with no damage.

[Benico-argent-dawn]

Wow, so much crying over a non-issue. 10% is not much, and it won’t impact how much fun tanking is. Tanks will still be OPAF after this nerf. This change is mainly affecting healers, because now they might need to actually pay attention to the tank’s health.

This change is good for the game.

[Darthel-burning-legion]

M0 has never been a difficult content and to be honest hardly anyone cares beyond the very beginning of the season.
I hope they didn’t balance this game taking into account m0 because then I will lose the rest of faith in the competence of blizzard employees.

[Raonmîru-draenor]

@Kaivax

With the launch of Dragonflight Season 1, we’re making some tuning adjustments to classes during scheduled weekly maintenance on 14 December.

Tank Specializations

We’ve been taking a long look at Tank survivability as we prepare for the beginning of Dragonflight Season 1. In general, we’ve found that the new talent trees have introduced a lot of power across all classes and specializations. Talents that were once exclusive through systems like the Talent Rows, Legendaries, or Covenants can now be equipped at the same time. Through our recent testing, we’ve determined that the damage done to tanks needs to be increased. While we’re thrilled that players are enjoying playing tanks in Dragonflight and want the role to be healthy, there are some negative effects that can come from tanks being too strong, that we want to avoid. We want healers to play a key role in keeping tanks alive, and tanks shouldn’t be able to easily solo large portions of encounters after the rest of their group have died.

We’re adjusting the damage reduction passives on all of the tanks, effectively increasing the damage tanks take by 10%. We think tanks will still feel powerful after this change, and it will result in a more balanced gameplay experience for all players.

Death Knight

• Blood
  • Blood Fortification no longer reduces damage taken (was 10% damage reduction).

Demon Hunter

• Vengeance
  • Demonic Wards Rank 1 and Rank 2 passives have been removed, reducing Demonic Wards total damage reduction to 10% (was 20% damage reduction).

Druid

• Guardian
  • Ursine Adept no longer reduces damage taken (was 10% damage reduction).

Monk

• Brewmaster
  • Brewmaster’s Balance no longer reduces damage taken (was 10% damage reduction)

Paladin

• Protection
  • Aegis of Light no longer reduces damage taken (was 10% damage reduction).

Warrior

• Protection
  • Vanguard no longer reduces damage taken (was 5% damage reduction).
  • Defensive Stance now reduces damage taken by 15% (was 20%). Damage reduction remains unchanged at 10% effectiveness in PVP.

---

Damage Specializations

A number of changes below are targeted at reducing the passive healing provided to several DPS specs. While some amount of passive healing can be a perk for some specializations, we think these particular abilities are providing too much benefit, particularly compared to more active options.

Demon Hunter

• The Hunt now heals for 10%/20% (as Havoc/Vengeance) of damage dealt to the marked target for 20 sec (was 25%/50% for 30 seconds).
• Charred Warblades now heals for 3% of Fire damage dealt (was 5%).
• Fixed an issue that unintentionally permitted Fodder to the Flame’s heal effect to crit.
• Havoc
  • Essence Break damage reduced by 8%.

Priest

• Shadow
  • Vampiric Touch healing reduced to 30% of damage dealt (was 50%).
  • Devouring Plague healing reduced to 30% of damage dealt (was 50%).

##Rogue

• Leeching Poison’s leech bonus reduced to 5% (was 10%).
• Assassination
  • Poison Bomb’s chance to trigger reduced to 4/8% per combo point (was 5/10%).
• Outlaw
  • Dispatch damage increased by 5%.
  • Pistol Shot damage reduced by 6%.
• Subtlety
  • Black Powder damage reduced by 5%.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Secret Technique to interact incorrectly with Cold Blood.

Warlock

• Fel Synergy now causes Soul Leech to heal you for 15% of the absorption it grants (was 25%).
• Soul Leech now grants shields up to 5% of maximum health (was 10%).
• Demon Skin now increases Soul Leech’s absorption up to 10% of maximum health (was 15%).

Warrior

• Fury
  • Gushing Wound damage and healing reduced by 10%.
  • Bloodthirst damage increased by 1%.
  • Bloodbath damage increased by 1%.
    • Developers’ notes: Bloodthirst and Bloodbath damage has been increased to compensate for the Gushing Wound damage reduction.

Player versus Player

In addition to the above game-wide Tank changes, we felt that certain tank specializations have been over performing in PvP. Alongside this, there were several DPS specializations that had self-healing higher than we were comfortable with. Most of the listed changes listed below are meant to make adjustments to address these concerns.

Demon Hunter

Developers’ notes: With the new talent trees, Demon Hunter Sigils have become stronger than we’d like in PvP, specifically the duration Sigil of Misery, so we are targeting talents that were contributing to that. Additionally, Demon Hunters’ damage in PvP is higher than we have been comfortable with so we are reducing the damage from Essence Break, in addition to last week’s reduction for The Hunt.

• Sigil of Misery PvP duration reduced to 4 seconds (was 5 seconds).
• Concentrated Sigils duration increase value reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
• Precise Sigils duration increase value reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
• Extended Sigils duration increase value reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
  • Developers’ notes: In order to display correct PvP values, the tooltip for Extended Sigils will be changed in a future update.
• Fodder to the Flame heal effect reduced by 40% in PvP combat.
• Havoc
  • Consume Soul heal effect when consuming a Demon Soul reduced by 60% in PvP combat.
  • Essence Break damage reduced by 20% in PvP combat.

Death Knight

• Blood
  • Blood for Blood increases the damage of Heart Strike by 30% (was 60%).
  • Shattering Bone damage reduced by 25% in PvP combat.

Druid

• Guardian
  • Moonfire damage reduced by 20% for Guardian Druids in PvP combat.
  • Thrash damage reduced by 20% for Guardian Druids in PvP combat.
  • Brambles damage reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
  • Rage of the Sleeper reflect damage reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
  • After the Wildfire healing reduced by 40% in PvP combat.
  • Sharpened Claws increases the damage of Thrash and Swipe by 10% (was 25%) in PvP combat.
  • Tooth and Claw increases the damage of Maul by 20% (was 40%) in PvP combat .

Paladin

• Protection
  • Word of Glory healing reduced by 30% in PvP combat (Protection Paladin only).
  • Light of the Titans healing reduced by 40% in PvP combat.
  • Guardian of the Forgotten Queen cooldown increased to 5 minutes.

Mage

• Fire
  • Combustion can no longer be dispelled.
    • Developers’ notes: We feel that the counterplay to Combustion, a major self-cast offensive cooldown, did not feel appropriate as it was easily dispelled. We are hoping with this change that it will prompt more creative solutions to counterplay the ability. We didn’t want to make this change previously, due to balance concerns, but now feel it is an appropriate time to bring it in line with other major cooldowns.

Rogue

• Soothing Darkness heal effect reduced by 50% in PvP Combat.
• Assassination
• Hemotoxin (PvP Talent) healing reduction effect reduced to 35% (was 40%).
• Subtlety
  • The Rotten damage bonus for Backstab and Shadowstrike reduced to 30% (was 50%) in PvP combat.
    • Developers’ notes: Shadowstrike was hitting too hard, leaving minimum room for counterplay for opponents and taking too much damage in a single stun.

Warrior

• Fury
  • Bloodthirst now restores 2% of your health in PvP combat (was 3%).
  • Slaughterhouse now decreases healing taken by 3% per stack (was 5% per stack).
  • Slaughterhouse now stacks up to 12 times (was 8 times).
  • Slaughterhouse duration increased to 9 seconds (was 6 seconds).
  • Slaughterhouse duration is no longer refreshed when adding stacks.
• Protection
  • Shield Charge damage reduced by 25% in PvP combat.
  • Booming Voice now increases the damage you deal by 10% (was 20%) in PvP combat.

This is a joke. Complete joke. For the first time in years people actually wanted to tank and played a lot of tanks.

But then lazy classic players WHO dont know how to Play whined on forums and now Blizzard is destoroing tanks again .

Like honestly who are people who make those decissions ?

[Raonmîru-draenor]

@Schwiifty-draenor

You can’t balance tanks off of mythic (0) dungeons. Were already overgeared by 10 item levels. The only outcome from this is making the gap between warrior tanks and the rest of the tanks wider. This is basically a nerf to all other tanks than warrior.
In mythic+ on mid to high keys this nerf will be huge. But warrior tanks will feel no difference. I really hope you can see that.

10 ? M0 are tuned around 310-320 itlv. We overgrwar them by 60 itlv now.

Blizzard devs really hate people having fun in this game.

Leveling a tank was so much fun for so many people. And now its destroyed because little timmy’s RPG fantasy is killing 3-5 Mobs max.

[Benico-argent-dawn]

Bro did you really need to quote the entire thing?

10% is peanuts. This change won’t impact how much fun it is to tank; it’ll simply give healers a little bit more to do.

[Uvi-tirion (Uvi)]

Tanks take too little damage at the moment. They are way overtuned. Thats not even funny for the Tanks themselves. Plus imagine how the healers feel.

[Alfbernt-blackmoore]

all the pleps here haven’t played on the beta with affixes and the aoe damage in m+ :). they want to heal then do some higher m+ keys. i can guarantee you that you will heal a lot and with the jucy grievous affix in the background ticking too.
necrotic is gone so no more “tank” affixes

[Tsjoh-argent-dawn (Tsjoh)]

@Raonmîru-draenor

his is a joke. Complete joke. For the first time in years people actually wanted to tank and played a lot of tanks.

But then lazy classic players WHO dont know how to Play whined on forums and now Blizzard is destoroing tanks again .

Immortal - 10% is still close to immortal. It will have 0 influence.

[Vinzoru-draenor]

Looks like Blizzard is now doing major tuning based on what happens in m0 dungeons.

[Furyeclipser-stormscale]

If all of your dds are hunters,then sure. Good luck timing key with kiting while having frost mage and ele shaman in group for example/

[Breaths-twisting-nether]

i can understand this on some tanks but there are just a few prot paladins already and now the spec is gonna be even more lost, retri is already bad , people prefer others over holy , you’re killing paladin as a whole

[Mordicus-draenor]

Faux-tank players big mad about not being “fun” (read: broken).

[Hotlips-aerie-peak]

More kneejerk yoyo nerfs. One week you’re overjoyed because they buffed some aspect of your class, you get used to the new spec, the next week they crush you with a bunch of nerfs.

You can partly blame posts like this for the tank nerfs:

https://eu.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/en/wow/t/the-current-state-of-tanks-and-their-ability-to-self-sustain/409896

[Scandals-twilights-hammer]

Overtuned tanks are indeed a problem
an OP spec attracts newbies into the role

i’ve seen tanks chainpulling packs with little concern to damage potential the group will be taking or the ability of the healer to heal such damage since they themselves are immortal.
i’ve seen tanks walking around with packs of mobs hitting them from behind
i’ve seen tanks facing frontal aoe mobs towards the group
i’ve seen tanks failing to notice the healer got aggro
this is a needed change and i hope it’ll be felt by the tanks so they can at least start learning their role or the zombies just reroll dps and learn to tank in heroics.

Let the whiners whine.

[Finesta-genjuros]

Buffing Brewmasters this week with some extra stamina because they were lagging behind only to nerf them theirmitigation a week later. Feels bad.

[Ashlein-nordrassil]

@Hotlord-tarren-mill

Do you even tank? You talk about tank shortages? I wonder if u tank or jist cry about it while playing the easy specs.

I started tanking in TBC, I have 14 tanks in total and I don’t play anything but tanks.

Am I entitled to say this nerf sucks as they already increased the damage mobs do in M+?
There is no shortage of tanks, there is shortage of tanks in pugs. They are already under constant stress, berated by the others in the group, forced to chain pull because of the timer, some of them very little damage, increased mob damage in keys… and now increased incoming damage???
Fine in +15s…. But what about more serious pugs?

[Hotlord-tarren-mill]

I”m sure you can make you”re own groups and also with the exp you have, just dont give in in toxic demands to chain pull etc.

You are the tank, you set the pace, if they dont like it, find other players.

Cuz most players only flame tanks and healers but they never even try the role.

So with you”re experience, i”m sure you can set the tone, find similar minded players and avoid the plague once as much as you could

Gluck man

[Xallaron-the-maelstrom]

Skimming through the comments here, I believe a few others have the same idea in their heads as I do.

I’m puzzled, though. While I was hoping for a change, I’m not sure this was the change I was hoping for.

It’s just not fun in any way, to join a dungeon, tank immediately goes “JUST KEEP RUNNING TILL FIRST BOSS YOU GUYS!!”… Angelic Feathers fall left and right to keep up with the flying Demon Hunter, and on the way to the first boss, you lose a dps at the first corner, as they got hit by AoE from left and right at the same time - in the attempt of healing a second dps who’s still in range, I, as the healer, get aggro and die, as even Fade isn’t enough for the AoE heavy Dongerdongs… … … Dungeons, guys… Dungeons…
All ending up with the tank solo’ing the entire pack and continuing to the boss, while the group runs back. And the tank goes “omg hurry up, guys”.

I’m very stoked about this expansion, but I must admit I started sigh’ing more than I cared for when I wanted to grab a dungeon, but couldn’t wait for a friend to tank and had to do randoms.

TO THE CASE IN POINT THOOOUUUUGH… Here’s why I’m puzzled:

I sort of welcome the change, but I’m afraid this change will hit the healers too hard, as I feel the AoE damage from mobs in these dungeons is already a lot.

Tanks will now take more damage, but what I’ve noticed from my dungeons is that most tanks I’ve been in group with heal almost the same amount as me (who’s healing 5 people), (obviously they’re overhealing like 70% of the total amount). It sort of appears to me that tank’s self-healing abilities might be a more viable place to look than at their damage reduction. At least it’ll stick more to the “tank” aspect, to be able to take hits through damage reduction, while still needing heals from an outside source. Thus losing health slower, due to still having damage reduction.

Maybe what made all this difficult in the first place, was actually that tanks were rushing ahead because nothing can hurt them, so “YOLO, group, ain’t nobody got time for teamplay, BAI”, made DPS and Healer run around like headless chicken trying to catch up, and getting picked off left and right. So increasing the amount of damage tanks take, they’ll need to do smaller pulls while they can still help with their self-healing abilities, thus not causing too much trouble to healers. Mnyeeeeh?

Oh, I’m overthinking, am I? Nah, I just like typing. Anyway, let’s see which way it turns out ey.

Best to y’all!

Merry Christmas,
High Priest Xallaron