wow Big Dragonflight Class Tuning: February 7th

[Staff 1,488]

 

Blizzard have updated next week's class tuning with a lot of new additions. Formerly we only saw the Guardian Druid buffs, but now we have 8 more classes added to the PvE side of things and a whole lot of PvP changes coming as well, so let's take a look.

Tuning (Source)

Classes

Death Knight

• Blood
  • Heart Strike damage increased by 15%.
  • Blood Plague damage increased by 15%.
  • Blood Boil damage increased by 15%.
  • Death and Decay damage increased by 20%.
  • Shattering Bone damage increased by 5%.
  • Sanguine Ground damage while inside Death and Decay increased to 6% (was 5%).
• Frost
  • Unleashed Frenzy duration increased to 10 seconds (was 6 seconds).
  • Cleaving Strikes Obliterate now hits 2 additional targets (was 1).
  • Frost Fever damage increased by 15%.
  • Glacial Advance damage increased by 20%.
  • Frost Strike damage increased by 10%.
  • Frostwhelp’s Aid damage increased by 100%.
  • Frostscythe damage increased by 35%

Druid

• Guardian
  • Armor from Ironfur increased by 20%.
  • Reinforced Fur now increases Armor from Ironfur by 15% (was 8%) and Barkskin’s damage reduction by 10% (was 5%).
  • Ursoc’s Fury now grants an absorb shield based on 50% of damage dealt by Thrash and Maul (was 30%).
  • Reinvigoration’s Frenzied Regeneration cooldown reduction increased to 20/40% (was 15/30%).
  • Layered Mane chance to proc increased to 10/20% (was 5/10%).
  • Lunar Beam healing increased by 130% and cooldown reduced to 1 minute.
• Developers’ notes: We are keeping a close eye on variances in survivability across tank specializations. These changes are intended to alleviate some difficulties Guardian Druids have been experiencing with certain damage types, as well as targeting some underperforming talents which were not delivering meaningful survivability improvements.
• Restoration
  • All healing reduced by 3%. This does not apply to PvP combat.

Evoker

• Preservation
  • All healing reduced by 5%.

Hunter

• Beast Mastery
  • Damage dealt by Hunter and pet abilities increased by 5%.
• Marksmanship
  • Damage dealt by Hunter and pet abilities increased by 5%.
• Survival
  • Damage dealt by Hunter and pet abilities increased by 5%.

Monk

• Mistweaver
  • All healing increased by 3%.
  • Vivify healing increased by 5%.
  • Clouded Focus now increases healing and decreases mana cost by 20% (was 15%) for Enveloping Mist and Vivify.
  • Peaceful Mending now increases the healing of Enveloping Mist and Renewing Mist by 25/50% (was 15/30%).
  • Spinning Crane Kick Damage increased by 15%.
  • Ancient Concordance increases the chance for Rising Sun Kick to reset by 5/10% (was 3/6%).
  • Lesson of Doubt increases healing and damage by up to 40% (was 35%).

Paladin

• Protection
  • Avenger’s Shield damage increased by 10%.
  • Blessed Hammer/Hammer of the Righteous/Crusader Strike damage increased by 30%.
  • Hammer of Wrath damage increased by 15%.

Priest

• Holy
  • All healing increased by 3%.

Shaman

• Healing Surge healing increased by 10%.
• Chain Heal healing increased by 10%.
• Restoration
  • Healing Wave healing increased by 10%.
  • Healing Rain healing increased by 10%.
  • Overflowing Shores healing increased by 10%.

Warlock

• Inquisitor’s Gaze Fel Barrage damage increased 35%.
• Inquisitor’s Gaze no longer casts Fel Blast.
• Summon Soulkeeper damage increased 35%.
• Developers’ notes: Inquisitor’s Gaze and Summon Soulkeeper are not contributing to the Warlock damage profile as much as we’d like. After this adjustment, we’ll continue to watch Warlocks’ overall performance and we will make further adjustments if needed.
• Destruction
  • Soul Fire damage increased 20%.
  • Incinerate damage increased 5%.
• Demonology
  • Wild Imp damage increased 15%.
  • Vilefiend damage increased 30%.
• Developers’ notes: We feel that both Destruction and Demonology could use some improvements to their overall contribution in single-target situations. These adjustments are specifically targeting talents that we feel could be more competitive, while also putting additional power into rotational spells.

Player versus Player

Items

• Neltharax, Enemy of the Sky now grants 1% attack speed in PvP Combat (was 5%).

Demon Hunter

• Havoc
  • Restless Hunter (Talent) damage bonus for next Blade Dance/Death Sweep reduced by 40% in PvP Combat.
• Developers’ notes: We’ve continued to see the potential burst provided by Restless Hunter much higher than we would like, especially in combination with Essence Break and The Hunt.

Druid

• Guardian
  • Frenzied Regeneration is now 50% effective in PvP Combat (was 62%).
• Developers’ note: This is intended to offset Reinvigoration’s buff noted above.

Evoker

• Living Flame healing increased by 30% in PvP Combat.
• Verdant Embrace healing increased by 20% in PvP Combat.
• Oppressing Roar increases the duration of incoming crowd control by 30% (was 20%) in PvP Combat.
• Developers’ notes: This is intended to offset the above noted game-wide 5% healing reduction by targeting abilities that we would like to see more prominent in a Preservation Evoker’s PvP healing profile. Additionally, Oppressing Roar has not been as valuable a talent point as we’d hoped, so we are slightly increasing its effectiveness.

Hunter

• Beast Mastery
  • Stormwing Harrier’s Camouflage 4-piece now increases the damage of your next Kill Command by 10% in PvP (was 20%).
• Marksmanship
  • Rapid Fire damage increased by 15% in PvP Combat.
  • Aimed Shot damage increased by 15% in PvP Combat.
  • Chimaera Shot damage increased by 30% in PvP Combat.
  • Unerring Vision critical strike damage bonus effectiveness reduced by 50% in PvP Combat.
• Developers’ notes: With the removal of Double Tap, Marksmanship Hunter damage has been lower than we would like to see, so we are increasing several main rotation abilities while decreasing Unerring Vision, with the goal of higher sustained damage.

Monk

• Mistweaver
  • Healing Sphere (PvP Talent) - Now triggers the dispel backlash effects from Unstable Affliction and Vampiric Touch. Healing increased by 320%.
• Developers note: This change is to have more consistency among dispel effects that are intended to require careful consideration of the risks and benefits of dispelling it. Additionally, we felt that the healing on Healing Sphere has been too weak.

Priest

• Shadow
  • Psyfiend (PvP Talent) healing reduction no longer stacks with similar effects.
• Developers’ notes: Psyfiend’s healing reduction effects appear mechanically similar to many others, but were stacking with other such effects and each other in a way that was not clearly communicated to players, and yet was having a significant impact on which specializations were being favored and often overperforming in PvP. We are standardizing their behavior to follow the same rules as similar effects.

Rogue

• Assassination
  • Vault Delver’s Toolkit 4-piece set bonus Bleed damage bonus reduced by 50% in PvP Combat.
• Developers’ notes: The 4-piece set bonus for Assassination has been more significant in their damage profile than we would like.
  • Wound Poison (Deathmark version) healing reduction no longer stacks with similar effects.
• Developer’s note: The Wound Poison (from Deathmark) healing reduction effects appear mechanically similar to many others, but were stacking with other such effects and each other in a way that was not clearly communicated to players, and yet was having a significant impact on which specializations were being favored and often overperforming in PvP. We are standardizing their behavior to follow the same rules as similar effects.

Shaman

• Restoration
  • Damage dealt to Earthen Wall Totem caused by damage absorbed by pets is reduced by 90%.
• Developers’ notes: The intent for this adjustment is to make Earthen Wall Totem feel more impactful as a defensive ability. As we noted, it was being destroyed too quickly in scenarios where teammates have pets.

Warlock

• Affliction
  • Unstable Affliction backlash damage increased by 35%.
• Developers’ notes: After our recent changes to normalize Unstable Affliction’s backlash damage, we’re seeing it get dispelled frequently. Our intent is for dispelling Unstable Affliction to require careful consideration of the risks and benefits and its damage was not fulfilling that.
• Destruction
  • Chaos Bolt damage increased by 40% in PvP Combat (was 15%).
  • Resolved an issue that caused Bane of Havoc (PvP Talent) to deal more damage than intended to targets.
• Developers’ notes: We’re addressing a bug with Bane of Havoc that was causing Havoc to deal full damage instead of the intended 60%, which is a significant nerf to the spec in PvP. Chaos Bolt has not been as threatening as intended in Dragonflight, so we’re increasing its damage to compensate for the bug fix.
  • Fel Fissure (PvP Talent) healing reduction no longer stacks with similar effects.
• Developers’ notes: Fel Fissure’s healing reduction effects appear mechanically similar to many others, but were stacking with other such effects and each other in a way that was not clearly communicated to players, and yet was having a significant impact on which specializations were being favored and often overperforming in PvP. We are standardizing their behavior to follow the same rules as similar effects.

Warrior

• Arms
  • Executioner’s Precision is now 30% effective in PvP Combat (was 50%).
  • Martial Prowess is now 33% effective in PvP Combat (was 50%).
  • Overpower damage increased by 20% in PvP Combat.
  • Slam damage increased by 40% in PvP Combat.
• Developers’ notes: We’ve seen Mortal Strike come to represent too much of Arms Warriors’ total damage in PvP. Additionally, it often results in spikier damage than we’re comfortable with, so we’re moving toward an overall rebalance across several abilities.

[ArthasStormrage87 52]

Wtf Blizz? How the hell is warlock needing a single target buff, when my ele shaman still can’t keep up with the warlocks single target in mplus. You have to be effing kidding me, there is no way warlocks single target is worst than ele’s in mplus atm. I just watched my buddy who’s same ilvl as me in a 17 last night stay at and around 90k ST for a good 45 sec into the fight then fell very slowly to around 65k. My shaman can burst for around 80k hold it for like 15 to 20 sec then dmg falls off so god damn quick. If the fight last more then 1 and a half min good luck with keeping up with other classes dmg in ST.

[Teufel 331]

10 hours ago, ArthasStormrage87 said:

Wtf Blizz? How the hell is warlock needing a single target buff, when my ele shaman still can’t keep up with the warlocks single target in mplus. You have to be effing kidding me, there is no way warlocks single target is worst than ele’s in mplus atm. I just watched my buddy who’s same ilvl as me in a 17 last night stay at and around 90k ST for a good 45 sec into the fight then fell very slowly to around 65k. My shaman can burst for around 80k hold it for like 15 to 20 sec then dmg falls off so god damn quick. If the fight last more then 1 and a half min good luck with keeping up with other classes dmg in ST.

...I'm not sure if you're trolling, or just that bad at understanding class balance and types of damage in general.

For the record, Affliction is the only Warlock spec that can consistently put out powerful ST damage without relying on Power Infusion. And if there is none - Demo and Destro do modest enough ST, especially Demo, hence the buff is justified.

Then again, if 40s is your merit of damage, I pray you never come across an Unholy (Arcane, Fire, etc) player.

[ArthasStormrage87 52]

13 hours ago, Teufel said:

...I'm not sure if you're trolling, or just that bad at understanding class balance and types of damage in general.

For the record, Affliction is the only Warlock spec that can consistently put out powerful ST damage without relying on Power Infusion. And if there is none - Demo and Destro do modest enough ST, especially Demo, hence the buff is justified.

Then again, if 40s is your merit of damage, I pray you never come across an Unholy (Arcane, Fire, etc) player.

45 sec lol! Yeah, I’am basing all that off of 45 sec of damage. First of all what boss fight last 45 sec in high end content? I was just explaining how for a class that’s ST is so bad my buddy’s dmg still looked pretty strong 45 sec into the pull and was going down pretty slow. That’s him just running his standard mplus build. Hell if I could hold 65k as long as he held 80k I would happy. I hear demo bitching about their ST, but for a class that don’t have to spec fully out of their aoe build I would say finishing a 2 or 3 min tyrannical boss with 65k is pretty solid. Hell I gotta lose 2 or 3 of my aoe talents to finish a fight with 50 to 55k! Before you say get good, I sim for a lil over 56k without lust on a 3 min patchwork.

[Rhondis 148]

The buffs for the other lock specs are needed - Demo's only strength at the moment are cleave fights and their single target is lacking. This is coming from someone who mains an Assassination rogue which is putting out crazy good ST damage in boss fights along with Sub. Our Demo lock in our Heroic and Mythic Prog in Vault always remains around 10-7th spot on the DPS meters whereas our affliction lock is top 5 at most because they excel in ST much like what Teufal said. 

Overall it is not about "git good", there are a multitude of factors that come into with the class and spec that you play. And while I can agree Elemental needs a little bit more tuning - other specs who haven't been performing as well, needs some love too.

[ArthasStormrage87 52]

On 2/5/2023 at 11:01 AM, Rhondis said:

The buffs for the other lock specs are needed - Demo's only strength at the moment are cleave fights and their single target is lacking. This is coming from someone who mains an Assassination rogue which is putting out crazy good ST damage in boss fights along with Sub. Our Demo lock in our Heroic and Mythic Prog in Vault always remains around 10-7th spot on the DPS meters whereas our affliction lock is top 5 at most because they excel in ST much like what Teufal said. 

Overall it is not about "git good", there are a multitude of factors that come into with the class and spec that you play. And while I can agree Elemental needs a little bit more tuning - other specs who haven't been performing as well, needs some love too.

That’s all I was saying I’d rather see buffs then nerfs, I was just seeing my buddy on his 405 ilvl demo finish 3 min boss fights with 65k pure single target. All while he’s exploding mobs in aoe as demo. Meanwhile I’am 404ilvl and doing pretty much what my toon sims for  finishing a 3 min boss fight with 55k if I’am lucky enough to get ascendence procs, then turn around and do crap aoe cause I had to spec out of it. Which leads to bottom of dps meters for overall. I agree those other specs could use some tuning I’am just sick of seeing ele gets tuning where it don’t really need help my last buff was aoe buff, not to mention my 4 piece tier set is like the worst designed one in the game. Mastery only effects a certain build that’s only ran in certain situations in raid, and that’s my 4 pc a lil bit of mastery after using an ability wtf is that design? 

[Rhondis 148]

On 2/8/2023 at 7:12 AM, ArthasStormrage87 said:

That’s all I was saying I’d rather see buffs then nerfs,

But you seemed rather upset that warlock, more specifically Demo and Destro getting buffs. 

I have to be frank with you - using a "3 min" boss fight as a litmus test for why locks shouldn't get buffs and why ele should is not a great argument. I can literally argue back at you that Demo lock in a single target vacuum is underperforming and that is only because we have one in our heroic and mythic raid progression and he is around 7-10 in the dps rankings. So this whole back and forth of "But he did XXK DPS this whole boss fight and I did XXK DPS less than him" isn't going to help anyone here. 

 

Ele had their buffs. Destro and Demo need theirs. If Demo was really doing that well then I guarantee you they wouldn't be receiving these buffs. Besides... blizzards ebb and flow of balance is just out of whack. And has been for years. It is what it is unfortunately, and if ele continues to underperform then hopefully blizzard responds to that too. But until then we will just have to wait.