Blizzard’s August 18th tuning pass presents itself as nerfs to overperforming tier bonuses from Midnight Season 2, while moving the power to the baseline classes. A trade that should be close to neutral for most specs.
We’ve asked our writers whether that holds up. For some of them, it doesn’t. Baseline compensations presented themselves as falling short of the nerfs from the bonuses, with a few changes not targeting tier sets at all.
Visceral Strength now grants 6% strength (was 10%).
Very minor nerf, also reducing the opportunity gain from gaming around Crimson Scourge. This feels like knee-jerk Mythic0-related random tuning, as Visceral Strength tends to only really kick in after the first DRW of a fight. The nerf affects both AoE and single target, which is also worrisome, as Blood only excelled in AoE. We’re very much middle-of-the-road in single-target. There are a couple of outliers propping up burst AoE (Blood Beast) that could do with some reining in (both bugs and throughput/profile), but tuning feels like it is done from Mythic 0… Worrisome.
Transfusion increases Dancing Rune Weapon damage by 5% (was 10%).
Nonsensical nerf, honestly. It barely moves the needle on anything, considering that it is a stacking buff *on the DRW* individually. The only place this will be noticeable is on the player’s hard-caster Dancing Rune Weapon, which sends the wrong message completely.
– All ability damage increased by 9%. – The Venomous Abyss 2-set bonus has been updated – Now grants 1% attack speed per stack (was 2%). Now increases Icy Death Torrent damage by 2% per stack (was 4%).
The purpose of these changes was to bring the tier set in line due to its significant power. Cutting the attack speed and Icy Death Torrent damage essentially halves the value of the tier set. Ability damage was increased to compensate; however, the net result is still a nerf. Rider of the Apocalypse was most heavily hit due to its strong synergy with the tier set, seeing a 5% DPS loss. Deathbringer only dropped 2% and is now the more viable hero talent choice.
Developers’ notes: Devourer’s 4-piece set bonus is performing significantly above expectations, so we are reducing its power. To compensate for this set bonus reduction, we are increasing all ability damage. Additionally, Devourer has been overperforming, mostly in single-target, so we are reducing the damage of Reap/Cull/Eradicate while increasing the AoE damage portion of Eradicate to reduce the impact of the change in AoE combat.
Overall, these changes hit Annihilator harder than they hit Void-Scarred, as Annihilator relied much more on the Cull damage and souls provided by the tier set. This is roughly a 4% nerf for Void-Scarred single target, a 9% nerf for Annihilator Single Target, and roughly a 1.5% AoE nerf for both. We’ll likely see some talent swaps in AoE as well, as both builds look to drop Second Helping.
The Venomous Abyss 4-set bonus has been updated – Now causes Cobra Shot to benefit from Beast Cleave at 30% effectiveness per stack (was 20%), or strike your target for an additional 20% damage per stack (was 15%).
This change increases Beast Mastery’s damage output by around 1% on single-target and 4% on AoE. It does not meaningfully alter its standing in any content.
Developers’ notes: The Venomous Abyss set bonus is overperforming our target tuning for set bonuses. However, the amount we need to reduce its value by would have a greater impact than intended on Arcane’s overall damage, so we are also making a small positive adjustment to Arcane’s baseline.
Writer Commentary
Arcane’s set bonus was definitely a bit overtuned compared to where tier sets generally land, so a small nerf to it was expected. However, the actual nerf is quite significant, and the compensation damage buff does not make up for the tier nerf. In total, these changes roughly translate to the following:
~5% nerf on single-target
~3% nerf on AoE
Arcane getting a small AoE nerf is nothing to worry about, as the AoE damage is still quite strong after the nerf. The single-target nerf is a bit more unexpected, and 5% is quite meaningful. This might impact its place in the raiding meta, where it was looking to be somewhere in the top half, but after these nerfs, it is more likely to be in the middle of the pack. Nothing to panic about; definitely still viable, just not as strong as originally expected going into the tier.
This nerfs the power of the Lingering Shadow buff quite substantially; however, thanks to the 6% increase, these changes are net neutral for overall damage.
Developers’ notes: We are increasing the throughput of the Venomous Abyss 2-set bonus for Demonology so that its performance is closer to other specialization tier set bonuses.
The buff is meant to address how Demonology tier set bonuses were single-digit, unlike the rest of the specs. It does, however, not address Warlock spec tuning as a whole, which is currently at the lower end of the pack.
Visceral Strength now grants 6% strength (was 10%).
Crimson Scourge. This feels like knee-jerk Mythic0-related random tuning, as Visceral Strength tends to only really kick in after the first DRW of a fight. The nerf affects both AoE and single target, which is also worrisome, as Blood only excelled in AoE. We’re very much middle-of-the-road in single-target. There are a couple of outliers propping up burst AoE (Blood Beast) that could do with some reining in (both bugs and throughput/profile), but tuning feels like it is done from Mythic 0… Worrisome.
Transfusion increases 
Dancing Rune Weapon damage by 5% (was 10%).
Icy Death Torrent damage by 2% per stack (was 4%).
Reap/
Cull/
Eradicate while increasing the AoE damage portion of Eradicate to reduce the impact of the change in AoE combat.
Second Helping.
Cobra Shot to benefit from 
Beast Cleave at 30% effectiveness per stack (was 20%), or strike your target for an additional 20% damage per stack (was 15%).
Lingering Shadow buff quite substantially; however, thanks to the 6% increase, these changes are net neutral for overall damage.
