wow Major Patch 10.2, Season 3 Class Tuning: November 14th

[Staff 1,183]

Blizzard have announced a pretty big class tuning pass coming with next week's maintenance, together with the start of Dragonflight Season 3. We have Amirdrassil tier set bonus shanges, Augmentation and Discipline nerfs, Unholy and Retribution buffs and a lot more, so let's take a look.

Class Tuning (Source)

As a result of recent testing and analysis of class performance now that the Guardians of the Dream patch is live, we’re going to make a few adjustments to over- and under-performing specs just before the beginning of Dragonflight Season 3 on Tuesday. Please note that changes to tier sets are listed below for reference, and their differentials are in comparison to the last public build of the PTR.

Again, we’d like to thank everyone who tested classes on the Guardians of the Dream PTR. Your feedback was very helpful!

Classes

Death Knight

• Unholy
  • Death Coil damage increased by 10%.
  • Scourge Strike/Clawing Shadows damage increased by 10%.
  • Ghoul damage increased by 8%.
  • Virulent Plague damage increased by 20%.
  • Apocalypse ghoul damage increased by 5%.

Demon Hunter

• Vengeance
  • Amirdrassil Tier Set: Bonus Sigil of Flame damage granted reduced by 20%.
  • Illuminated Sigils now increases Parry chance against affected targets by 15% (was 20%)

Druid

• Guardian
  • Mangle now grants 12 Rage (was 10).
  • Cat Form energy regeneration increased by 50% (was 35%).
• Balance
  • Cat Form energy regeneration increased by 50% (was 35%).
• Restoration
  • Rip damage increased by 140%. Does not apply in PvP Combat.
  • Rake damage increased by 60%.
  • Shred damage increased by 140%.
  • Ferocious Bite damage increased by 200%. Does not apply in PvP Combat.
  • Cat Form energy regeneration increased by 50% (was 35%).

Evoker

• Augmentation
• Developers’ notes: The amount of utility that Augmentation Evoker brings on top of its high damage has proven to be too powerful despite recent changes. Therefore we are further reducing their damage contributions to the group in order to balance them against other specializations.
  • Ebon Might grants 6.5% of the Evoker’s primary stat (was 8%).
  • Close as Clutchmates increases the effectiveness of Ebon Might and Breath of Eons by 10% (was 20%).
  • The amount of Versatility granted by Shifting Sands has been reduced by 15%.

Mage

• Frost
  • Amirdrassil Tier Set – 2-piece: Increases Glacial Spike damage by 16% (was 10%).
  • Amirdrassil Tier Set – 2-piece: The damage from the explosion now deals 15% of the damage dealt by Glacial Spike (was 20%).

Monk

• Brewmaster
  • Amirdrassil Tier Set 2-piece: Breath of Fire’s bonus damage increased to 40% (was 20%).
  • Amirdrassil Tier Set 4-piece: Bonus damage to targets afflicted by Breath of Fire increased to 15% (was 10%).
• Windwalker
  • Amirdrassil Tier Set: Blackout Reinforcement granted by melee abilities now occurs 66% more often and increases Blackout Kick damage by 200% (was 150%).

Paladin

• Retribution
  • All ability damage increased by 3%.

Priest

• Discipline
• Developers’ notes: Discipline healing throughput (particularly in raids) is slightly higher than we would like, given their damage and utility contributions to the group. To balance them, we’re reducing some talents that are giving a lot of power for only 1 talent point. The goal is to improve talent balance while also bringing them in line with other healers.
  • Divine Aegis absorption reduced to 5% of healing done (was 10%).
  • Inescapable Torment damage reduced by approximately 19%.

Rogue

• Assassination
• Amirdrassil Tier Set: 4-piece set bonus tooltip should now accurately reflect its actual output.
• Amirdrassil Tier Set: 4-piece set single target damage increased by 4%.

Warlock

• Destruction
  • Amirdrassil Tier Set: Flame Rift damage increased 50%.
  • Unstable Tear damage increased 5%.
  • Shadowy Tear damage increased 5%.
  • Chaos Tear damage increased 30%.
• Demonology
  • Amirdrassil Tier Set: Doom Brand single-target damage increased 50%.
  • Amirdrassil Tier Set: Doomfiend single-target damage increased 40%.
  • Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible 2-piece Set Bonus now reduces the cooldown of Grimoire: Felguard by 0.5 second (was 1 second).
• Developers’ notes: We’re reducing the power of Demonology’s previous set bonus to bring it in line with other set bonuses from Aberrus. Additionally, we’re increasing the throughput of both Destruction and Demonology’s set bonuses from Amirdrassil while also increasing the power of Dimensional Rift baseline.