wow Patch 8.3 Class Changes

[Stan 5,240]

Here is a an updated blog post with all Class changes coming in Patch 8.3.

Check out our Visions of N'Zoth Content Hub for more details!

Blizzard (Source)

In our next major content update, Visions of N’Zoth, we’re working on some tuning updates to a few specs that are under- and over-performing in various ways.

Developers’ notes: Specs which excel at DoTs on multiple targets have, over the course of many tiers of content, generally had very high performance on the average. Their DPS advantage in raid encounters that play into their multi-target strength (which are relatively common) is not balanced by a comparable disadvantage in other areas. A small reduction in damage on these specs will leave them noticeably strong in the situations in which they’re strong (albeit slightly less than before), and give other specs more opportunity to stand out at other times. At the same time, a few of the Essences added in Rise of Azshara are not performing as well as we would have liked, so we’re increasing the effectiveness of some parts of them to help keep them competitive with the other Essences available.

With the first build of the update on our Public Test Realm (PTR), you will see the following changes:

Classes

• Druid
  • Balance
    • Moonfire damage and periodic damage reduced by 10%.
    • Sunfire damage and periodic damage reduced by 10%.
    • High Noon (Azerite Trait) damage increased by 11%.
    • Power of the Moon (Azerite Trait) damage increased by 11%.
• Mage
  • Frost
    • Ice Lance damage increased by 20%.
      • Developers’ note: Ice Lance damage hasn’t kept up with Icicles scaling, making builds that ignore Ice Lance possible. The intent of this change is to give Frost Mages a better incentive to use Ice Lance within their rotation, as a DPS net gain.
• Monk
  • Brewmaster
    • Stamina bonus reduced to 30% (was 35%).
    • Stagger percentage reduced to 90% of Agility (was 105%).
    • High Tolerance now increases the effectiveness of Stagger by 5% (was 8%).
      • Developers’ notes: Brewmaster’s extremely high effective health against Physical damage meant that they are rarely in danger against spike damage that threatens other tanks. This should still be a strength of Brewmaster, but not by such a wide margin.
    • Fixed a bug causing Gift of the Ox orbs to spawn too often for players with high amounts of Stamina.
  • Mistweaver
    • Rising Mist healing increased 30% 66%, and now extends Heal-over-time effects by 3 4 seconds (was 2 seconds).
    • • Developers’ note: This talent is currently overshadowed on its row, and we want to make sure it’s competitive enough to make its unique playstyle a viable option.
    • Life Cocoon now absorbs for 55% of the caster’s maximum health (was 1100% of the caster’s spellpower). [Coming in a future PTR build]
      • Developers’ note: This ability had gotten weaker compared to player health pools since the start of the expansion, and this will help it better maintain its value.
  • Windwalker
    • Rising Sun Kick damage increased by 25%.
    • Blackout Kick damage increased by 10%.
      • Developers’ note: These changes are intended to help Windwalkers perform better in single-target fights.
• Paladin
  • Holy
    • Glimmer of Light (Azerite Trait) may now be applied to a maximum of 8 targets.
      • Developers’ notes: Over the past year, builds centered around this trait have steadily pulled ahead of all other Holy Paladin playstyles, and to some extent all other healers in high-end content. This change is meant to preserve the gameplay of the trait, but limit the ability to increase its value drastically by stacking every possible bonus that reduces Holy Shock cooldown.
• Priest
  • Discipline
    • Atonement healing reduced to 50% (was 55%).
    • Mastery: Grace effectiveness increased by 12%.
      • Developers’ notes: Discipline’s ability to contribute both damage and healing is slightly too high for what one character can bring to a group composition. At the same time, we’re making their Mastery stat slightly more attractive.
    • Schism now increases damage done from Priest spells and abilities only.
      • Developers’ notes: This is intended to be consistent with other class cooldowns.
  • Shadow
    • Auspicious Spirits damage bonus reduced to 25% (was 50%).
    • Fixed a bug causing Spiteful Apparitions (Azerite Trait) to be increased by 75% if you do not have Auspicious Spirits talented.
      • Developers’ notes: The multiplicative interaction between Auspicious Spirits, Spiteful Apparitions, and Chorus of Insanity has specifically been a big part of Shadow’s damage scaling somewhat out of control at high target counts.
    • Chorus of Insanity critical strike bonus reduced by 25%.
    • Shadow Word: Pain damage reduced by 8%.
    • Vampiric Touch damage reduced by 8%.
• Warlock
  • Affliction
    • Deathbolt now deals 20% of the total remaining damage of the Warlock’s damage over time effects on the target (was 30%).
    • Drain Soul damage increased by 50%.
    • Nightfall now increases the damage of Shadow Bolt by 50% (was 25%), and now activates 33% more often.
      • Developers’ notes: One of the key concepts about Affliction Warlock is spreading damage over time spells on a number of different targets. While Deathbolt keys off these types of spells, it provides more-than-expected burst damage and outperforms the other two talents in every situation. In addition to reducing Deathbolt’s effectiveness, we’re improving the other two options to give more options to Affliction Warlocks.

  Essences

  • Worldvein Resonance
    • Major rank 1, when used, now additionally causes you to gain +50% bonus to stats from Lifeblood Shards for 10 seconds.
  • Vision of Perfection
    • Proc rate increased by 12%.
  • Unbound Force
    • Major rank 1 damage increased by 40%.
    • Minor rank 1 duration increased to 4 seconds (was 3 seconds).
    • Minor rank 3 increase of duration increased to 2 seconds (was 1 second).
  • Purification Protocol
    • Major rank 1 damage increased by 15%.
    • Major rank 2 now has the potential work on targets that are part of raid and dungeon encounters.
  • Vitality Conduit
    • We’ve rebuilt the way this Essences works, and it should be visually more impactful, as you will now see healing on your targets.

  As always, changes like these are a work in progress. We are likely to make further adjustments for testing throughout the PTR.

  Thank you very much for your testing and feedback!

[Shadowx 1]

More priest nerf smh 

[Ragingwolf 310]

I'm looking forward on working on my Mistweaver Monk even more now.  Know only a small handful of people that aren't going to be happy with Shadow Priests in my Guild though.

[Aegrotat 80]

5 hours ago, Shadowx said:

More priest nerf smh 

As an S.Priest I can't say I'm surprised. As per usually they're at the top of the charts, and the way they naturally scale they're only going to get stronger going into the final tier for the expansion.

[Crackklaus 5]

nice and again no dh nerf -_- 

demonhunter is my main char and I have to say that the dmg output is rediculus high... in pvp we are almost in godmode only paladins with their bubbles and heals are more pain in the *filtered*...

[Znifler 58]

On 10/8/2019 at 5:12 AM, Aegrotat said:

As an S.Priest I can't say I'm surprised. As per usually they're at the top of the charts, and the way they naturally scale they're only going to get stronger going into the final tier for the expansion.

Thanks for making sense. The guy above can't handle nerfs, no matter the reason and need for it. 

[Aegrotat 80]

8 hours ago, Znifler said:

Thanks for making sense. The guy above can't handle nerfs, no matter the reason and need for it. 

I'd actually be terrified to see their numbers in 8.3 if they didn't get this nerf. Like, none of my classes get as much bonus damage per secondary stat as my S.priest. not even the ones that are better geared. And that value of secondaries is going to go up as gear naturally goes up.

[Sisterhate 0]

On 10/9/2019 at 12:27 PM, Aegrotat said:

I'd actually be terrified to see their numbers in 8.3 if they didn't get this nerf. Like, none of my classes get as much bonus damage per secondary stat as my S.priest. not even the ones that are better geared. And that value of secondaries is going to go up as gear naturally goes up.

The disc spec has been the worst and not worth playing since wod. Changed our powers, talents and just made us obsolete except in pvp settings

[Seksi 208]

11 hours ago, Sisterhate said:

The disc spec has been the worst and not worth playing since wod. Changed our powers, talents and just made us obsolete except in pvp settings

Disc is the best healer in the game for Mythic raiding, and scales really well with player skill.

[Vida 4]

Warlock changes are good ? i really love drain soul 

[Limbro 0]

On 10/8/2019 at 5:12 AM, Aegrotat said:

As an S.Priest I can't say I'm surprised. As per usually they're at the top of the charts, and the way they naturally scale they're only going to get stronger going into the final tier for the expansion.

As an S.Priest, you should know that the "bug fix" isn't a bug but something they put in this patch https://eu.battle.net/forums/en/wow/topic/17623903812. We will basically lost 15% of dps, returning at the bottom of the logs ?. It's not a nerf, it's a destruction, but my body is ready for that !

Edited November 3, 2019 by Limbro

[Desdemonique 0]

On 10/23/2019 at 10:40 AM, Vida said:

Warlock changes are good ? i really love drain soul 

Please, when is Blizzard going to stop feeding the Affliction fan bois and start paying more attention to the other 2 Warlock specs that actually require skill to play?  The only good change was the Deathbolt nerf, they should have left it at that.

[Vida 4]

On 11/9/2019 at 2:11 AM, Desdemonique said:

Please, when is Blizzard going to stop feeding the Affliction fan bois and start paying more attention to the other 2 Warlock specs that actually require skill to play?  The only good change was the Deathbolt nerf, they should have left it at that.

Actually i'm only playing alliance warlock to see their side of story and also its void elf...otherwise i'm Mistweaver monk ? (potentially to be void elf) 

Also maybe cause I like drain soul 

[Sinyria 0]

On 11/9/2019 at 1:11 AM, Desdemonique said:

Please, when is Blizzard going to stop feeding the Affliction fan bois and start paying more attention to the other 2 Warlock specs that actually require skill to play?  The only good change was the Deathbolt nerf, they should have left it at that.

Yes, cause Destru is absolutely a skill check compared to Affliction.
I'd say Destru is the easiest role to play for Locks. Affli has DoT management, Demo has pet and shard management.

Destru is just over there trying to play Arcane Mage with Fel.