wow Upcoming PvP Balance Changes

[Starym 3,779]

 

It seems there's more PvP tuning coming during this week's maintenance and Blizzard have given us a little look at them. Death knights, Demon Hunters, Hunters, Mages, Monks, Shamans, Warriors and Warlocks are getting tuning passes, some pretty significant, and we also get to hear the devs thinking behind them.

Blizzard

Now that Patch 7.1 has been available for a little while, we’ve been able to identify several changes to PvP tuning we’d like to make. We’d like to share those changes with you in advance, along with some developer insight. All of the following changes will only apply in PvP, and while some of them are still being tested, our goal is for all of them to go live with scheduled weekly maintenance.

Death Knight

    (Frost) Strength in PvP has been reduced by 10%.
    (Unholy) Apocalypse damage is no longer reduced in PvP (was reduced by 75%).

Developer Notes: Frost Death Knights have recently received a number of bug fixes and class tuning adjustments that have pushed their damage out of line in PvP. For Unholy, Apocalypse’s damage was reduced during beta due to its burst potential, but due to other changes, we no longer feel that reduction is necessary.

Demon Hunter

    (Havoc) Agility increased by 5%.
    (Havoc) Stamina increased by 10%.

Developer Notes: As players have become more accustomed to Demon Hunters and how to counter them, we feel their damage and general survivability has ended up a little low, so we’re giving them a little tuning to help them compete.

Hunter

    (Survival) Stamina has been increased by 15%.

Developer Notes: As a melee DPS, Survival Hunters have been a bit too squishy in PvP, so we’re increasing their Stamina.

Mage

    (Frost) Intellect has been reduced by 10%

Developer Notes: Frost Mages recently received some damage increases that we feel need to be counter-tuned in PvP.

Monk

    (Windwalker) Agility has been reduced by 10%.
    (Windwalker) Serenity now increases damage by 25% with the Spiritual Focus artifact trait (was +30%).

Developer Notes: Windwalkers are able to maintain an extremely high uptime against their targets in PvP, and their raw damage capability was just too high for a spec that’s so difficult to get away from.

Shaman

    Lava Burst now deals full damage in PvP (was reduced by 80%).
    (Elemental) Control of Lava increases Lava Burst damage by 100% (was 150%).

Developer Notes: We’ve received a lot of feedback that Elemental Shaman feel good in PvP once they have access to the Honor Talent Control of Lava, but felt too weak without it. We’ve decided to remove the PvP reduction on the base Lava Burst spell and reduce the benefit from Control of Lava to compensate. This results in effectively the same damage for players who still wish to use Control of Lava, but an increase to Lava Burst without it.

Warrior

    Hamstring damage has been increased considerably, and now lasts for 12 seconds in PvP.
    (Arms) Strength and Stamina increased by 10%.
    (Fury) Strength and Stamina increased by 10%.

Developer Notes: Patch 7.1 put Hamstring back on the global cooldown, and while we still feel that that’s the correct choice for that ability, we understand that this change had a major impact on PvP Warriors’ damage rotation, as well as Hamstring’s overall uptime. To compensate, we’ve increased Hamstring’s duration so that it needs to be applied less frequently, and massively increased its damage to help make it feel worthwhile to use. Additionally, we felt that Warriors weren't feeling quite tough enough in PvP, so we’ve increased Strength and Stamina for Arms and Fury.

Warlock

    (Destruction) Entrenched in Flame duration reduced to 3 seconds (was 4 seconds).
    (Destruction) Focused Chaos now increases Chaos Bolt damage by an additional 100% (was 150%).
    (Destruction) Shadowburn now deals 20% less damage in PvP.

Developer Notes: 7.1 introduced some new talents to Destruction Warlocks to increase their control and incentivize the use of cast time spells like Chaos Bolt. These talents were overtuned initially, but we want to keep Chaos Bolt as the best damage value for a Soul Shard.

 

[breck 29]

I was hoping the viper sting change for the hunter pvp talent would be reverted. Viper sting is a 30 percent reduction in healing with 6 second uptime and 45 second cd. I feel i am forced to use a devilsaur now or partner with a class that has a mortal strike type ability and hope they dont die before i do.

Edited November 1, 2016 by breck
typo

[VictorVakaras 80]

ooo a 15% increase in stamina for Survival - that should fix all the issues the spec has in pvp.

[Maruken 31]

4 hours ago, breck said:

I was hoping the viper sting change for the hunter pvp talent would be reverted. Viper sting is a 30 percent reduction in healing with 6 second uptime and 45 second cd. I feel i am forced to use a devilsaur now or partner with a class that has a mortal strike type ability and hope they dont die before i do.

Viper Sting's healing reduction stacks with any healing debuff, which makes it really strong. The instant 30 sec cooldown version also makes it easier to use for MM since you previously had to apply it with Aimed Shot.

Edited November 1, 2016 by Maruken

[breck 29]

That is all well and good but it does not change the position that marks still has no readily available mortal strike and i now feel beast spec and devilsaur is mandatory. As far as applying a mortal strike debuff with aimed shot that was a non issue. Instant procs on aimed from the lock and load talent and weaving aimed in to take advantage of vulnerable stacks kept the mortal strike debuff up far more than 6 seconds every 45.

[Valks 2,373]

4 hours ago, VictorVakaras said:

ooo a 15% increase in stamina for Survival - that should fix all the issues the spec has in pvp.

Do I detect a hint of sarcasm? :p

[demonardvark 556]

For Arena's I really like the un debuffing of unholys artifact signature ability, now i can be a one man apocalypse :D

yeah that was a stretch to squeeze in an overwatch joke, i regret nothing XD

[Valks 2,373]

43 minutes ago, demonardvark said:

For Arena's I really like the un debuffing of unholys artifact signature ability

It's like they've lifted your bonds and now you'll all be gods of PvP

[demonardvark 556]

15 minutes ago, Blainie said:

It's like they've lifted your bonds and now you'll all be gods of PvP

Even with the 10% frost nerf I must admit DK's do appear to be in a pretty good place pvp wise. The apocalypse undebuff will be most noticeable in the arenas (imo). So, it will be fun to be supah strong for awhile, gotta grind that honor for my appearances while I have the chance XD

[SupaGeoff 0]

So do they consider Shadow Priests to be fine or do they just assume everyone who mained spriest has rerolled or quit by now?