wow Patch 7.1.5 Blue Posts (Class Feedback)

[Stan 5,240]

Patch 7.1.5 brings heavy changes to some classes and the developer team discusses with the community the latest class changes.

The latest class changes can be found here.

Hunter (Marksmanship)

Sigma

This is further exacerbated in 7.1.5.  Patient Sniper no longer provides an increased Focus pool, and Sidewinders generates only 35 Focus. With that in mind, and considering the passive Focus generation of 15 per GCD, Hunters are required to maintain 21.5% Haste in order to generate enough Focus to fire 3 Aimed Shots during Vulnerable. Firing a 3rd Aimed Shot during Vulnerable, especially with the new Patient Sniper design, is a huge DPS increase. 21.5% Haste will essentially be required for MM. This is a hard breakpoint, and should be eliminated before 7.1.5 goes live.

There's a lot to discuss here--some we agree with and some we don't--but I want to swing by at least on this specific observation. We agree we don't want a major breakpoint between 2 and 3 Aimed Shots after a Marked Shot (at least, not at a middling amount like 21% haste that will affect gear choice throughout the expansion). We're not decided on a fix yet; in particular, whether the standard amount should be two Aimed Shots after a Marked Shot, or three (if two, it would still be okay to have three during Bloodlust and similar situations). The ability would be tuned around whichever option. Two has some advantages like concentrating the Vulnerable burst more, requiring standing still for less time to fully utilize it, and potentially having enough leeway for an instant before one of the Aimed Shots.

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Monk (Windwalker)

Ornyx

Hey all,
Just to reiterate here (saw it brought up in the Live Q&A chat today), but we are aware of feedback regarding both Storm, Earth, and Fire and Serenity on the 7.1.5 PTR.
I don't have anything specific for this moment, but know that we've passed along notes on both of these skills to the development team. We will update you once we have more to share.

Thank you for a response - any response.
Please, though, don't let this be like what happened on the 7.1 ptr and the Demon Hunters, where we got this exact sort of message, and then silence. Last time, when that happened, I rerolled to monk. I'm so anxious it will happen yet again.

Not necessarily our goal, and I'm not saying we have any changes planned for these two skills within 7.1.5's PTR cycle (I am not sure what's on the plate there for further Monk changes), but I would like to at least work to get something shared on this, whether its a bit of philosophy or otherwise.
We have had some communication shortcomings over the past while, but we are trying something a bit new with our internal processes which should benefit us all in the long-term. :)

He also mentioned that they will be taking a look at Serenity, just as a note! 
Edit: Here's a link to the portion of the Q&A where Ion and Josh talked about Storm, Earth, and Fire and Serenity.

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Shaman (Enhancement)

Lore

Boulderfist is intended as a talent choice that creates some gaps in your rotation, by replacing your no-cooldown resource builder with something that’s overall stronger, but has charges. In 7.1, the recharge time isn’t long enough for those gaps to ever actually happen, especially with the most popular Enhancement talent build adding several more active abilities to your rotation. Its power level was also simply too high, and in this case, we’d rather let this talent have its intended effect on the pace of your rotation and buff the spec as a whole to compensate. 

Our intent is that if you want to use an ability every GCD, you should choose one of the other options in that row. Boulderfist should result in an overall more methodical pace that is more about having a little time to plan upcoming abilities. When Boulderfist is the hands-down best option in that row, that doesn’t feel like much of a choice, and as we continue tuning for 7.1.5, we hope to address this by bringing it in line with the others.

While I can appreciate that there was an original design intent behind Boulderfist, the spec as it currently exists on Live is as enjoyable to play as it's ever been since I rolled my Shaman back in BC.

We've heard it reiterated over and over (and over) again by the developers that if something about a spec felt too mandatory, it would just get rolled into the spec. I play this spec as my main because it is fun; if I cared strictly about maximum overall damage output, I'd focus on my Rogue instead. Changing a mechanic like this runs counter to the design philosophy that's been so oft repeated.

Thanks for all the feedback; this has been a consistent theme throughout the thread and elsewhere. And we don't want to disrupt the familiar playstyle of 7.1 Enhancement, if in fact the specific pacing of Boulderfist's recharge time is a major part of what makes it work so well. We will still have to address the power level in some way without diluting the feel that's been discussed here. We are currently planning the following for PTR (uncertain on timing):

• Boulderfist recharge time back to 6 seconds
• Boulderfist no longer gives a bonus to critical strike
• Rockbiter generates 20 Maelstrom (from 15)

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Warlocks

Sigma

That's all fine and dandy, now get to work fixing warlocks.

Incidentally--Imp/Succubus/Voidwalker/Felhunter/Felguard all deal 20% more damage. Most of that was datamined normally, but in particular, the increase to Felguard's attack power likely was not (simply because it's something that happens server-side).

I can think of one other thing worth calling attention to for feedback/testing that may have been missed: Mark of the Ancient Priestess and Mark of the Distant Army should do noticeably more healing/damage and be more worth using. Some of the stat-based neck enchants were also increased, but that will be clear in tooltips. Hidden Satyr scales correctly with gear now as well, and may be slightly weaker, but for the most part the other enchants were buffed to roughly its level.

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[Dansa 1]

AND STILL NOTHING TO UNHOLY ! I hate you Blizzard, i just hate you SO MUCH.

 

[Primici 7]

Yep, I'm also here to cry about Unholy Deathknight. RIP

[Maruken 31]

Isn't Unholy one of the best designed specs atm? Blizzard has worse things to worry about.

[Dansa 1]

Really mate ? It´s RNG is ridiculous and it´s one of the worst dps in the game, worse being only survival hunter or in some cases arcane mage.

[Conso 1]

Only reason arcane COULD be that bad is someone not flipping between conserve and burn phases and burning up all their mana without Evo ready.

Although Survival could use some love, still, no arguments there.

I do agree unholy could do with a review, compared to Frost Spec especially, or Arms Warr's.

Edited December 10, 2016 by Conso

[Valks 2,375]

On 12/10/2016 at 9:05 PM, Conso said:

I do agree unholy could do with a review, compared to Frost Spec especially, or Arms Warr's.

I feel like people think Unholy is very neglected because Frost has basically completely changed rotation and setup multiple times this expansion already. It probably feels like all the attention is on Frost.