wow 8.3 PTR Class Changes, Dec 4th: Discipline Priest

[Starym 3,800]

 

We have one more addition to the 8.3 class changes list, since the last update on November 20th, as Disc Priests are getting more tuning, with Penance getting buffed by 15%. We've also added the full 8.3 class changes below.

December 4th (source)

We’ve added this change to the PTR:

• Priest
  • Discipline
    • Penance healing increased by 15%.

Full list of changes:

Full class changes:

Full 8.3 Class Changes (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%.
  • Restoration
    • Mastery: Harmony healing bonus reduced by 9%.
    • High Noon (Azerite Trait) damage reduced by 34%.
      • Developers’ note: Restoration Druid has an overall package of healing, damage, and utility that is very hard to compete with in solo-healed content. Two things that stand out in particular are the efficiency of focused healing on a single target with high Mastery, and the ease of contributing DPS with very little GCD usage on Sunfire.
• 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% 33%, 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) healing reduced 12%
    • 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
    • Penance healing increased by 15%.
    • Purge the Wicked damage reduced 10%.
    • Power Word: Solace damage reduced 10%.
    • Shadow Word: Pain damage reduced 9%.
    • 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

• Condensed Life-Force
  • The damage debuff applied by your Guardian’s Azerite Spikes has been reduced to 3% increased damage (was 5%).
• 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%.
• The 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!

[Chromatics 0]

Yet nothing for enhancement shamans... Looks like we're still *filtered* boyz

[Ragingwolf 310]

No feed back yet on the newer essences of 8.3 if they rival what has already been obtainable or use per situational purposes?