Class Tuning Incoming - March 5

[Kaivax]

We regularly make class balance adjustments based on gameplay data and feedback from players on class performance. The following are adjustments to overperforming tier sets, along with compensating baseline buffs, to make the start of Season 2 group content smoother and less reliant on the new tier sets for players to perform well. We also plan to buff underperforming Season 2 tier sets to ensure they outperform Season 1 tier sets.

These changes will arrive with scheduled weekly maintenance (March 5 in this region).

Classes

Death Knight

• Unholy
  • Liberation of Undermine 2-set Bonus – Now increases the damage of Death Coil and Epidemic by 4.5% (was 3%).

Demon Hunter

• Havoc
  • Aldrachi Reaver: Reaver’s Mark now increases damage dealt to its target by 6%.
  • Aldrachi Reaver: Thrill of the Fight’s increase to ability damage is now 15% (was 20%).
  • Liberation of Undermine 2-set Bonus – Winning Streak!'s chance to activate increased by 25%.

Druid

• Reverted:
• Lycara’s Meditation does not retain the bonus from your last shapeshift form if you enter and then leave caster form.
• Updated Lycara’s Meditation: Players must remain in a shapeshift form for 2.9 seconds, modified by Haste, in order to retain the Lycara’s Teachings bonus from it. The ability description string will be updated in a future patch.
• Feral
  • Sunfire damage reduced by 40%.
  • Lycara’s Teachings’ Mastery bonus granted from being in Moonkin Form reduced by 66%.

Evoker

• Devastation
  • Firestorm damage increased by 40%.

Hunter

• Beast Mastery
  • The Liberation of Undermine 2-piece set bonus has been adjusted – Barbed Shot now fires at 100% (was 200%).
  • The Liberation of Undermine 4-piece set bonus has been adjusted - Potent Mutagen damage reduced by 50% and reduces the cooldown of Bestial Wrath by 0.25 seconds (was 0.5 seconds).
  • All ability and pet damage increased by 5%.

Monk

• Mistweaver
  • All Healing reduced by 4%.
  • Liberation of Undermine set bonus: Insurance! healing decreased by 30%.

Priest

• Discipline
  • Lenience no longer stacks its damage reduction effect when multiple Priests apply Atonement to a target.
  • Oracle: Preventive Measures now increases the damage of Penance, Smite, and Holy Nova by 20% (was 40%).

Rogue

• Assassination
  • All ability damage increased by 4%.
• Subtlety
  • Secret Technique damage reduced by 5%.
  • Liberation of Undermine 2-piece set bonus – Winning Streak! max stacks reduced to 8 (was 10).

Shaman

• Elemental
  • Developers’ notes: The new tier set bonuses were performing higher than we would have liked, so we’re lowering the value of the new 2-piece set bonus while increasing the damage Elemental Shaman deal baseline.
  • Liberation of Undermine 2-piece set bonus – Now summons an elemental for 6 seconds (was 8 seconds).
  • Liberation of Undermine 2-piece set bonus – Frequency of getting a bonus elemental summon from your spells lowered.
  • Liberation of Undermine 4-piece set bonus – Damage bonus of Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Tempest, and Lava Burst increased to 30% for 8 seconds (was 20% for 8 seconds).
  • Deeply Rooted Elements Ascendance procs no longer activate either the 2-piece or 4-piece bonus of the new Liberation of Undermine tier set.
  • Echo of the Elementals no longer causes the Jackpot! Buff to refresh when they appear.
  • All damage dealt increased by 5%.
• Enhancement
  • Developers’ notes: Enhancement Shaman in the Liberation of Undermine patch are performing higher than we would like. We’re making adjustments to the new Flowing Spirits talent as well as the Nerub-ar Palace and Liberation of Undermine tier set bonuses.
  • Nerub-ar Palace 4-piece set Bonus – Now has a 20% chance to summon an extra spirit when talented into Flowing Spirits. The tooltip will not reflect this change until a future patch.
  • Flowing Spirits now has a 6% chance to summon a Feral Spirit.
  • Flowing Spirits now properly summons a random Elemental Spirit when Elemental Spirits are talented.
  • Liberation of Undermine 4-piece set Bonus – Now triggers Doom Winds for 3 seconds (was 4 seconds).
  • Liberation of Undermine 4-piece set Bonus – Now increases the damage of Crash Lightning by 12% per stack (was 15%).
  • Liberation of Undermine 4-piece set Bonus – Now increases the primary target damage of Crash Lightning by 75% (was 100%).

Warlock

• Demonology
  • Liberation of Undermine 4-piece set bonus has been adjusted – Casting Hand of Gul’dan causes your active Dreadstalkers to cast Dreadbite at 20% effectiveness (was 50%).
  • Hand of Gul’dan damage increased by 20%.
  • Doomguards summoned by Pact of the Ered’ruin deal 15% increased damage.
  • Gloomhound’s Gloom Slash damage increased by 30%.
  • Wild Imp damage increased by 30%.
• Destruction
  • Liberation of Undermine 2-piece set bonus has been adjusted – Your spells and abilities have a chance to hit a Jackpot! that fires a flurry of 6 Demonfire bolts at 100% effectiveness (was 200%). Casting Summon Infernal always hits a Jackpot!.
  • Chaos Bolt damage increased by 20%.
  • Summon Infernal damage increased by 35%.
  • Developers’ notes: We’re making adjustments to Hellcaller to reduce its Soul Shard economy and increase its damage as compensation. When the availability of Soul Shards increases for Destruction, it reaches a point where Rain of Fire begins to surpass Chaos Bolt in damage output for single target due to the difference in casting times.
  • Hellcaller: Wither damage increased by 35%.
  • Hellcaller: Wither now deals damage every 3 seconds (was 2 seconds).
  • Developers’ notes: We recognize that with these changes Wither damage will also be impacted. We are distributing the lost throughput across the rest of the Hellcaller kit for Destruction.
  • Hellcaller: Blackened Soul damage increased 40%.
  • Hellcaller: Xalan’s Ferocity now increases Fire damage by 4% (was 2%).
  • Hellcaller: Xalan’s Cruelty now increases Shadow damage by 4% (was 2%).

Warrior

• Arms
  • Execute damage reduced by 15%.

Player vs. Player

• The Gladiator’s Distinction set bonus now increases Stamina by 10% (was 5%) for Tank and Damage specializations.

• The Gladiator’s Distinction set bonus now increases Stamina by 15% (was 10%) for Healer specializations.

Death Knight

• Blood
  • San’layn: The damage bonus from Frenzied Bloodthirst is now 50% effective in PvP combat.
• Frost
  • Death’s Cold Embrace (PvP talent) now increases Remorseless Winter’s damage by 400% (was 750%).

Druid

• Feral

  • Berserk now increases damage dealt by 5% in PvP combat (was 10%).

  • Ferocious Bite damage reduced by 10% in PvP combat.

Mage

• Arcane
  • Magi’s Spark now echoes spells at 25% effectiveness (was 50%) in PvP combat.
  • Arcane Missiles damage increased by 12% in PvP combat.
  • Arcane Barrage damage increased by 12% in PvP combat.
• Fire
  • Blazing Barriers from Overpowered Barrier now reflect 60% of damage absorbed (was 100%).
• Frost
  • Frostfire: Blazing Barriers from Overpowered Barrier now reflect 60% of damage absorbed (was 100%).

Monk

• Mistweaver
  • Jade Empowerment’s damage increase reduced to 1250% (was 2500%) in PvP combat.
• Windwalker
  • Slicing Winds damage reduced by 20% in PvP combat. Slicing Winds now fails if cast while in a root.

Warrior

• Arms
  • Mortal Strike damage reduced by 25% in PvP combat.
  • Execute damage increased by 20% in PvP combat.
  • Demolish final hit damage reduced by 30% in PvP combat.
• Fury
  • Rampage damage reduced by 15% in PvP combat.
  • Bladestorm damage reduced by 15% in PvP combat.
• Protection
  • Execute damage reduced by 20% in PvP combat.
  • All damage reduced by 15% in PvP combat.

[Reidrak-argent-dawn]

Again more Shaman nerfs, you won’t be happy until we are f tier again, right?

Ancestral Guidance is gone and we need it, the button bloat isn’t because too many defensives it’s due to having a bunch of 30 second abilities to press, so bring AG back.

It also feels horrible to play Primordial Wave as Elemental, rework it into something pleasant to press like you did with Enhancement…

And many talents still bugged like Frost Shocks not doing AoE after using Icefury proc.

[Stekpannaa-silvermoon]

Really no Retribution paladin buffs for Single target?
the spec is at the bottom and all the poster players for your games are saying “don’t bring a retri to your raid”. You are promoting gate keeping.

[Altoon-firemaw]

public class Blizzard {

public void tuning() {
    if (classname.isMage) {
        System.out.println("We don't touch");
    } else if (classname.isRogue()) {
        System.out.println("Nerf to the ground levels");
    } else {
        System.out.println("No action taken");
    }
}

}

[Delanjiao-silvermoon]

@Kaivax

Mistweaver

• All Healing reduced by 4%.
• Liberation of Undermine set bonus: Insurance! healing decreased by 30%.

Ok, come clean blizz. Who in your office plays disc? Dont want any other heals to be better thats it, wack mistwaver good and hard at this point you hate brewmaster so I guess mistwaver is next YEY looks like am DPS in S2 untill you finaly kill monk off… All to please your disc overlords.

[Kaivax]

Updated the Hunter section:

Hunter

• Beast Mastery
  • The Liberation of Undermine 2-piece set bonus has been adjusted – Barbed Shot now fires at 100% (was 200%).
  • The Liberation of Undermine 4-piece set bonus has been adjusted - Potent Mutagen damage reduced by 50% and reduces the cooldown of Bestial Wrath by 0.25 seconds (was 0.5 seconds).
  • All ability and pet damage increased by 10%.

[Naturnal-outland]

@Reidrak-argent-dawn

Again more Shaman nerfs, you won’t be happy until we are f tier again, right?

Ancestral Guidance is gone and we need it, the button bloat isn’t because too many defensives it’s due to having a bunch of 30 second abilities to press, so bring AG back.

It also feels horrible to play Primordial Wave as Elemental, rework it into something pleasant to press like you did with Enhancement…

And many talents still bugged like Frost Shocks not doing AoE after using Icefury proc.

@Kaivax

We regularly make class balance adjustments based on gameplay data and feedback from players on class performance.

Take it up with players who complained that Shamans are too op and should be nerfed and Blizzard listened to them. I seriously don’t know how Blizzard could make these kind of adjustments based on player feedback.

@Altoon-firemaw

public blizzard tuning()
{
    if(classname.isMage)
    {
        Sytem.out.println("We don't touch");
    }
    else
    {
        System.out.println("Nerftotheground:" +  if(classname.isRogue() = Nerf below ground levels))  );
    }
}

The code above has a syntax error.

[Alythena-ravencrest]

Good news, didn’t have to wait tuning long

[Alessthra-argent-dawn]

@Kaivax

Feral

• Berserk now increases damage dealt by 5% in PvP combat (was 10%).
• Ferocious Bite damage reduced by 10% in PvP combat

Wtf , why???

[Rar-eredar]

at least put the lube on first

[Delanjiao-silvermoon]

@Kaivax

We regularly make class balance adjustments based on gameplay data and feedback from players on class performance. The following are adjustments to overperforming tier sets, along with compensating baseline buffs, to make the start of Season 2 group content smoother and less reliant on the new tier sets for players to perform well. We also plan to buff underperforming Season 2 tier sets to ensure they outperform Season 1 tier sets.

Can we get some info on Disc Nerfs? there always in the meta you made healing painful in S1 and now you nuking Shaman and mistweaver at this pont why dont you guys just come out with a community post saying theres only one healer disc priest… Look at that holy pala in the corner he asnt stopped rocking since legon…

[Sokke-kult-der-verdammten]

@Kaivax

Monk

• Mistweaver
  • All Healing reduced by 4%.
  • Liberation of Undermine set bonus: Insurance! healing decreased by 30%.

Why ??? Whata data and feedback do you use

Buff MW monk

@Kaivax

Monk

• Mistweaver
  • Jade Empowerment’s damage increase reduced to 1250% (was 2500%) in PvP combat.

RIP MW PvP another season of Disc OP

Wth Blizzard let healer make damage and not be a passive peace of bacon in the background that get abused by DPS, 2500 too 1250 is massive why not 2500- 2000% first insanw bad
Soloq waittime will be 40 min again with this bad desicions

[Kellerkoloss-hydraxian-waterlords]

FDK, WW and Arms nerfs are needed, but some of ur class balancing are very random.

I don’t think that feral or MW nerfs were needed tbh. These two classes are underperforming atm, hopefully it will change with their tier sets

[Vailyn-draenor]

@Altoon-firemaw

public blizzard tuning()
{
    if(classname.isMage)
    {
        Sytem.out.println("We don't touch");
    }
    else
    {
        System.out.println("Nerftotheground:" +  if(classname.isRogue() = Nerf below ground levels))  );
    }
}

This made my day, 10/10.

[Benico-argent-dawn]

Time to gear up my mage!

[Grozy-mazrigos]

Very surprised to finally see warlock and especially Demonology warlocks, who were at the bottom of dps list the whole second part of s1 mentionned in the tuning passes.
I doubt those changes will make it for the 20% dps behind all the rest dps specs from the end of season 1 but we will see how it goes.
I dont like when the dps comes from the set or random trinket that is a must to get just to be competible.

[Zenoutlaw-stormscale]

Something I literally rolled a character for because it was in a totally fair balanced spot gets slammed, and for what?

[Axelz-argent-dawn]

imagine nerfing classes when instead you could buff the other classes to be up to par and actually make the pvp fun LUL, so tired of these 30minute fights, idk why you’d nerf demolish for arms either, it was an unplayed tree and its already easy for them to run out of the range for demolish to hit EVEN within the spear. also you add the new talent for frost dk and remove a good one, then nerf it, jesus christ, actually incapable of making some solid class designs at blizz nowadays.

[Axelz-argent-dawn]

the issue is frost dk right now is balanced purely around 1 bind, instead they couldve had it so the new talent would be a modifier during remorseless to amp up the dmg of oblit and frost strike, not walking like an npc and 1shotting, arms didnt need the demolish nerf just the mortal nerf, demolish is already an extremely unplayed tree in pvp and its piss easy to get out of the dmg even within the spear.

[Brenwan-the-shatar (Brenwan)]

I’m genuinely baffled by these notes talking about performance when the set bonuses aren’t available to the general public yet, and the season hasn’t started. Are we doing world quests too fast?