War Within Class Tuning Incoming – 4 September

Community General Discussion
1

We regularly make combat design adjustments based on gameplay data and feedback from players on class performance. With scheduled weekly maintenance in each region (September 4 in this region), we’ll make the following changes to classes that are over- and under-performing in various areas:

Classes

  • Death Knight
    • Frost
      • Frost Strike damage reduced by 6%. Does not apply to PvP.
      • Obliterate damage reduced by 6%. Does not apply to PvP.
      • Icy Death Torrent damage reduced by 10%.
      • Glacial Advance damage reduced by 10%. Does not apply to PvP.
  • Druid
    • Balance
      • Umbral Intensity increases the damage of Wrath by 20/40% (was 25/50%) and Starfire by 15/30% (was 50%).
      • Starsurge damage increased by 12%.
      • Starfall damage increased by 20%.
      • Harmony of the Heavens increases Eclipse power by 2% per proc, max 6% (was 1% per proc, max 5%).
    • Feral
      • Bloodtalons and Lion’s Strength now also increase the damage of Rampant Ferocity.
  • Evoker
    • Devastation
      • Damage of all spells and abilities increased by 6%.
      • Firestorm damage increased by 20%
      • Firestorm duration reduced to 10 seconds (was 12 seconds).
    • Flameshaper
      • Engulf damage increased by 30%.
  • Hunter
    • Pack Leader
      • Vicious Hunt damage increased by 10% for Beast Mastery.
      • Vicious Hunt damage decreased by 10% for Survival.
        • Developers’ notes: When Vicious Hunt’s damage reaches a certain point, it can cause Kill Command to dominate Survival’s rotation. This adjustment and subsequent compensation are meant to ensure Pack Leader Survival Hunters are utilizing the other tools at their disposal.
      • Howl of the Pack critical strike damage bonus increased to 5% for Beast Mastery (was 3%).
      • Howl of the Pack critical strike damage bonus increased to 11% for Survival (was 7%).
      • Furious Assault damage bonus increased to 60% for Survival (was 30%).
      • Cull the Herd damage over time increased to 60% for Survival (was 30%).
  • Mage
    • Fire
      • Living Bomb damage increased by 30%.
      • Pyroblast damage increased by 5%.
      • Flamestrike damage increased by 10%.
    • Frostfire
      • Frostfire Bolt damage increased by 25% for Fire.
    • Sunfury
      • Burden of Power can no longer be double dipped by spell queueing.
      • Arcane Phoenix damage dealt reduced by 10% for Arcane.
      • Arcane Soul base duration reduced to 2 seconds (was 3 seconds).
  • Paladin
    • Retribution
      • Mastery: Highlord’s Judgment reduced by 10%. For example, at level 80, 180 Mastery rating now grants 1.35% Mastery (was 1.5%).
      • All Holy spell damage increased by 5%.
  • Priest
    • Discipline
      • Oracle Discipline priests’ Preventive Measures now increases Power Word: Shield absorption by 40% (was 25%). Does not apply to PvP.
      • Atonement healing increased by 100% outside raid (was 70%). Does not apply to PvP.
      • Fixed an issue where Atonement critical healing was not increased by the correct amount outside of raid.
      • Shadow Word: Pain and Purge the Wicked damage increased by 20%.
    • Shadow
      • Voidweaver Shadow priests’ Void Blast damage increased by 20%.
  • Shaman
    • Elemental
      • Mastery: Elemental Overload’s bonus to all Elemental and Physical damage increased by 35%.
      • All damage reduced by 6%.
      • Stormbringer
        • Tempest now deals 65% of its damage to enemies near its primary target (was 50%).
        • Tempest now deals reduced damage beyond 5 targets.
    • Enhancement
      • All damage reduced by 4%.
      • Elemental Blast damage increased by 12%.
      • Stormbringer
        • Tempest now deals 65% of its damage to enemies near its primary target (was 50%).
        • Tempest now deals reduced damage beyond 5 targets.
      • Totemic
        • Tremor damage increased by 10%.
        • Searing Volley damage increased by 80%.
  • Warlock
    • Destruction
      • All ability damage increased by 5%.

Player versus Player

  • Druid
    • Rip damage increased by 15% in PvP combat.
    • Rake damage increased by 15% in PvP combat.
    • Balance
      • Lunar Calling now increases Starfire damage by 50% in PvP combat (was 65%).
      • Umbral Embrace now increases the damage of Wrath and Starfire by 40% in PvP combat (was 75%).
    • Feral
      • Taste For Blood’s damage increase to Ferocious Bite during Tiger’s Fury is decreased by 50% in PvP combat.
      • Saber Jaws effectiveness now reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
  • Mage
    • Frost
      • Ice Lance damage increased by 45% in PvP combat (was 75%).
  • Monk
    • Master of Harmony
      • Manifestation is now 50% effective in PvP combat.
    • Brewmaster
      • Chi Burst damage reduced by 30% for Brewmaster Monks in PvP combat.
    • Mistweaver
      • Peaceweaver now reduces the cooldown of Revival by 33% (was 50%).
      • Life Cocoon is now 30% more effective in PvP combat.
      • Enveloping Mist can no longer be dispelled.
  • Priest
    • Holy
      • Prayer of Mending healing increased by 65% in PvP combat.
  • Shaman
    • Enhancement
      • Lava Lash damage increased by 60% in PvP combat.
      • Stormstrike and Windstrike damage increased by 60% in PvP combat.
      • Windfury Attack damage increased by 60% in PvP combat.
  • Warrior
    • Thunderous Roar damage reduced by 15% in PvP combat.
    • Arms
      • Auto attack damage no longer decreased by an additional 12% in PvP combat.
    • Fury
      • Odyn’s Fury damage reduced by 20% in PvP combat.
1 Like
2

Nerfs to Sunfury Arcane are 100% warranted, but it makes no sense to target the parts of the Hero tree that actually make the rotation function (double dipping, which we established during the last round of tuning is an acceptable mechanic when it makes a rotation work) or give it flavour everyone loves (the Phoenix’s damage). This is a fundamental, rotational-altering change being pushed 3 days after you stated in an interview with Nagura you would not push such changes for tuning (for obvious reasons).

A far more sensible place would have been to equalize the effect of spellfire spheres and Mana Cascade stacks to the level of Fire (or even lower if need be), since those are completely passive and work far better as hero tree tuning knobs. edit: and together they would add up to a ~10%ish nerf which is exactly what would tune Sunfury down to reasonable numbers.

21 Likes
3

If you want to nerf Sunfury Arcane that is fair but please for the love of god just nerf the numbers. The current rotation is extremely fun. We have just been over this with Nether Precision double dipping.

18 Likes
4

Please enable double dip on burden of power and nerf damage on ab/abarr/am.
Double dip is a very fun playstyle and it’s rewarding when played properly.

14 Likes
5

Ok time to read this and get the popcorn ready for who is getting nerfed!

EDIT:

Awaits the Frost DK comments!

2 Likes
6

Im beginning to think, they do these tuningsjust to observe the outcry

5 Likes
7

Still no BM aoe buff :confused:

3 Likes
8

It does make for good reading material when they’re having to review code for whatever has been broken by the interns :stuck_out_tongue:

1 Like
9

Will most likely get a good idea of what specs are good in heroic week so can’t really comment on what’s good, but arcane mage is still going to be way out in front despite these nerfs compared to everything else that’s for sure.

1 Like
10

Buffing Vicious Hunt by 10% for BM is like pouring Gasoline to put out a fire. Something is seriously wrong with the specc, I know its early in the expansion but not even tier bonuses can help Beastmastery Hunters do more damage than healers at times. Their AoE is just completely gutted and their singletarget is mediocre at best. Theres a big majority of players that actually play hunter, 2nd most played class at 80 only bested by paladin at the moment. And a huge part of players now, are just being completely ignored with no communication whatsoever that it will be fixed. (Some with better knowledge than me have suggested that there is bugs with the specc altogether and with how the interaction of hero talents vs class/specc talents works.) Regardless it needs to be checked on before we go into HC week.

3 Likes
11

whenever i see a flat 5% nerf or buff i see how bored and lazy you are to instead of fixing things you stick random bfufs or nerfs and hope no one complains too much to cause ragequits/negative PR

3 Likes
12

Buffs to survival when BM is literaly unplayable in dungeons.

Brilliant design - congrats :slight_smile:

6 Likes
13

These changes will still not put hunters into relevancy. BM hunters changes are especially not enough.

3 Likes
15

I really don’t understand the arcane mage burder of power change… Why don’t you just nerf the talent to give much less damage increase instead of killing the whole fun out from it ??? You guys really did a great job making this fun gameplay loop, please don’t kill it…

11 Likes
16

I would also like to add that the entirety of the theorycrafting work done on Sunfury Arcane so far, including the guides already released to the community, is based on Burden of Power.

This change invalidates (seriously, the sims, and by proxy the various spec guides, are literally built around Burden, it’s that important to the rotation) weeks to months of work by volunteers who work for free to let the community actually play the game.

13 Likes
17

Sunfury arcane needed a simple numbers nerf, but again you choose to make changes that directly interfere with the rotation and flow of the spec. The double dipping on burden makes the spec flow so much better, and this change just ruins it.

A simple damage nerf is enough, stop messing with spec mechanics. We already went through this with nether precision.

14 Likes
18

Just nerf the damage % for the Sunfury, you’re messing up gameplay rotation. This change doesn’t make sense.

11 Likes
19

Think u gotta hit fury warriors just a tiny bit only doing 4.5-6m aoe :stuck_out_tongue:

4 Likes
20

probably not enough but its a start

4 Likes
21

Hunters are never happy, unless they’re OP :stuck_out_tongue:

But then they’ll still find something to complain about :wink:

2 Likes