wow Dragonflight 10.0.7 Class Tuning: April 11th

[Staff 949]

Blizzard have announced some significant class changes coming with next week's reset, with 7 classes getting tuned, with 4 more getting some additional PvP treatment. Unholy, Balance, Guardian, Preservation get some buffs, while Beast Mastery, Survival and Retribution get nerfs.

Tuning (Source)

We continue to monitor the performance of classes across various content including Raids, Mythic+ dungeons and PvP. Below, you will find a number of changes meant to balance classes against each other in healing, tanking, and damage in various content.

DEATH KNIGHT

• Unholy
  • Developers’ notes: At high haste levels it was possible for Summon Gargoyle to lose casts of Gargoyle Strike. To help remedy that we are reducing the cast speed of Gargoyle Strike to 2.5 seconds (up from 2 seconds) while increasing the damage done to compensate for the slower cast time. We are also making some targeted tuning adjustments to Unholy to increase their damage outside of their 3-minute cooldowns.
  • Raise Dead damage increased by 10%.
  • Army of the Dead damage increased by 10%.
  • Scourge Strike damage increased by 20%.
  • Clawing Shadows damage increased by 20%.
  • Death Coil damage increased by 10%. This does not affect PvP combat.
  • Soul Reaper damage increased by 15% Unholy specialization only.
  • Gargoyle Strike cast speed increased to 2.5 seconds, up from 2.0 seconds and Gargoyle Strike damage increased by 25%.

DRUID

• Balance
  • Starsurge damage increased by 10%. This does not affect PvP combat.
  • Denizen of the Dream damage increased by 20%.
• Guardian
  • Health and healing received gain from Mastery: Nature’s Guardian increased to 70% (was 50%).
  • Barkskin cooldown reduced to 45 seconds (was 1 minute).

EVOKER

• Preservation
  • Developers’ notes: Preservation’s overall throughput is lower than we’d like since the Lifebind and Temporal Anomaly reductions. We’re compensating for this adjustment in other areas, particularly Living Flame where its healing component can sometimes feel lackluster.
  • All healing increased by 3%.
  • Living Flame’s healing increased by 15%.
  • Resonating Sphere now applies Echo to the first 5 allies it passes through (was 4 allies).

HUNTER

• Beast Mastery
  • All damage dealt by you and your pet’s abilities reduced by 3%.
• Survival
  • Developer’s notes: This change was intended to have gone live in prior tuning changes, but a data error was made and we are now correcting that. The damage dealt by Mongoose Bite in PvP will be unchanged by this adjustment.
  • Mongoose Bite damage reduced by 10%.

PALADIN

• Protection
  • Hand of the Protector now increases Word of Glory’s healing by up to 100% when cast on allies (was 250%).

PRIEST

• Holy Nova damage increased by 30%.
• Discipline
  • Developers’ notes: We are aiming to bring Discipline’s mana consumption in line with other healers, as we’ve observed the spec consistently running out of resources before other healers throughout Dragonflight. Separately, Power Word: Shield has been weaker than intended relative to other Atonement appliers, so we’re increasing its power.
  • Power Word: Shield now costs 2.4% of base mana for Discipline (was 3.1%).
  • Power Word: Shield now absorbs 25% more damage for Discipline.
  • Renew now costs 2.4% of base mana for Discipline (was 2.7%).
  • Fixed a bug causing Renew to not have its healing increased by 25% for Discipline as intended.
  • Power Word: Radiance now costs 4.5% of base mana (was 5.5%).
• Holy
  • Developers’ notes: Holy’s damage profile is behind other healers in dungeon and raid content, so we are targeting buffs to their overall damage kit.
  • Holy Fire damage increased by 15%.
  • Smite damage increased by 30%.

SHAMAN

• Restoration
  • Developers’ notes: We are happy with the reception of Restoration in 10.0.7. The specialization’s healing power is above our target in all content, so we’re adjusting it in line with our expectations.
  • All healing done reduced by 5.5%.

PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER

DRUID

• Developers’ note: This is primarily targeted at improving Cyclone’s usability for Druids in PvP, particularly for Restoration Druid as Cyclone’s short range requires them to get close to their enemies.
• Cyclone’s mana cost has been decreased by 40%.

MONK

• Mistweaver
  • Developers’ notes: We are specifically targeting Blackout Kick’s AoE damage potential as we feel Mistweaver’s healing becomes overwhelming when it can cleave its damage. We also feel Mistweaver’s mana regeneration has been too powerful, so we are adjusting Spirit of the Crane heavily.
  • Rising Sun Kick no longer deals increased damage in PvP (was 12.5%).
  • Blackout Kick copies from Teachings of the Monastery no longer deal increased damage in PvP (was 15%).
  • Spirit of the Crane now restores 0.18% mana in PvP Combat (was 0.45%).
• Windwalker
  • Fixed an issue that caused the copied Blackout Kicks from Teachings of the Monastery to deal 15% increased damage in PvP combat instead of the intended 30%.

PALADIN

• Holy
  • Developers’ notes: We are targeting buffs to Holy Paladin’s Word of Glory and Holy Shock healing to increase their instant-cast healing.
  • Word of Glory healing increased by 15% in PvP Combat.
  • Holy Shock healing increased by 30% in PvP Combat (was 15%).
• Retribution
  • Developers’ notes: Retribution Paladin has remained more powerful than we would like in PvP. With this pass we are targeting its burst damage, allied support, and personal survivability.
  • Avenging Wrath now increases damage and healing by 10% in PvP Combat (was 15%).
  • Avenging Wrath: Might now increases critical strike by 10% in PvP Combat (was 15%).
  • Divine Protection now reduces damage taken by 10% in PvP Combat (was 20%).
  • Light’s Celerity now increases the healing of Flash of Light by 20% in PvP Combat (was 50%).
  • Sanctified Plates now grants 50% less Stamina and Avoidance in PvP Combat.
  • Blessing of Sacrifice now transfers 20% of damage taken in PvP Combat (was 30%).

WARLOCK

• Demonology
  • Developers’ notes: We’re toning down the value of Immutable Hatred as it’s providing a significant boost to single target damage in PvP while being difficult to avoid.
  • Immutable Hatred now increases your primary Felguard’s Legion Strike damage by 60% when it damages 1 target in PvP Combat (down from 120%).

[Q 75]

Just waiting for all the hunters to come complaining.

[MeMy10 18]

5 hours ago, Q said:

Just waiting for all the hunters to come complaining.

Should of seen this coming, more so after they reverted the 10% buff to Kill Command. And folks on the forums are not best happy about it. BM hunters had about all of two weeks, to enjoy their buffs before Blizz started nerfing.

Edited April 8 by MeMy10

[ArthasStormrage87 39]

I play ele shaman so I’am use to going the whole expansion as if we don’t exist in game lol! Ele shaman needs talent reworks and some buffs to existing talents, but blizzard is acting as if they nailed the ele shaman tree it’s kinda frustrating.

[Jackyl 0]

8 minutes ago, ArthasStormrage87 said:

I play ele shaman so I’am use to going the whole expansion as if we don’t exist in game lol! Ele shaman needs talent reworks and some buffs to existing talents, but blizzard is acting as if they nailed the ele shaman tree it’s kinda frustrating.

I play Enhancer and it is fun and all. But i think Shaman schould get a Rework alltogether. There are still to less Tanks, and Shaman would be perfect for the first Mail-Tank. Split the Shaman into the 4 Elemental Lords. Water - Healer, Fire - Elemental, Wind(Nature) - Enhancer and Earth - Tank. i think that would be rly fun.

[MeMy10 18]

29 minutes ago, ArthasStormrage87 said:

I play ele shaman so I’am use to going the whole expansion as if we don’t exist in game lol! Ele shaman needs talent reworks and some buffs to existing talents, but blizzard is acting as if they nailed the ele shaman tree it’s kinda frustrating.

Agree, it is a complete WTH type thing when some classes are treated poorly. I am beginning to think now, that this new trying to push content out faster Blizzard, may end up not to be as great as we were hoping for.

Edited April 8 by MeMy10

[SpilledStars 32]

Honestly watching them thrash to make the character synergy reach some perfect math is exhausting.

They should have simulators to handle this, so as a player I can have class layouts I can trust enough to decide for myself which I'd love to play best.

As it stands now I don't have time to squint through all their talent readouts before I fully expect them to change again. 

[SpilledStars 32]

18 hours ago, MeMy10 said:

Agree, it is a complete WTH type thing when some classes are treated poorly. I am beginning to think now, that this new trying to push content out faster Blizzard, may end up not to be as great as we were hoping for.

I pretty much feel this way about the shaman for the entire xpac.  "I know!  let's make a bunch of element-drinking crazy foes!"   

shaman character during prepatch: ooh. elements. i could get to like this.
all specs of shaman during live xpac: elements everywhere, special quests for evokers, hi wingfolks, nothing for us really.

I mean sure, I've ranted every single pack that there's quests who tell healers nope you can't help this one, folks die in front of us and we can't do stuff.    But the entire class concept is about befriending and wielding the elements, they come when we call to them.   There should have been something.