Devastation and Demonology Buffs, Unholy Nerfs – 12.1 Development Notes

CLASSES

Death Knight

• Blood
  • Developers’ notes: San’layn Blood Death Knight has been overperforming in AoE and low target cleave, so we’re pulling back the damage it gains from Blood Beast and Frenzied Bloodthirst.
  • San’layn: Blood is Life now accumulates 15% of the damage dealt from the Blood Beast (was 25%).
  • San’layn: Frenzied Bloodthirst’s Death Strike and Death Coil damage bonus reduced to 5% per stack (was 6%).
  • San’layn: Visceral Strength now grants 10% Strength (was 12%).
• Unholy
  • Developers’ notes: Unholy Death Knight’s area damage has been higher than intended, so we’re reducing several of its damage-over-time effects while increasing its personal melee damage and its tier set.
  • Auto-attack damage increased by 100%.
  • Virulent Plague damage reduced by 10%.
  • Apex Talent: Forbidden Knowledge – Graveyard damage reduced by 15%.
  • Epidemic damage reduced by 12%.
  • The Venomous Abyss set bonus – Damage of Necrotic Bolt and Withering Grasp increased by 25%.

Demon Hunter

• Devourer
  • Developers’ notes: Devourer low target cleave is a little higher than intended so we are making adjustments to bring it closer in line with expectations.
  • Eradicate secondary target damage reduced by 15%.
  • Annihilator: Final Hour now causes Voidfall bonuses to persist for 6 seconds (was 8 seconds).
• Havoc
  • Developers’ notes: Havoc is a little further behind in damage than our target, we will be increasing the damage on their primary abilities.
  • Blade Dance damage increased by 6%.
  • Death Sweep damage increased by 6%.
  • Chaos Strike damage increased by 6%.
  • Annihilation damage increased by 6%.
  • The Hunt damage increased by 12%.
  • Essence Break initial damage increased by 10% and secondary damage increased by 30%.

Druid

• Balance
  • Developers’ note: We are reducing Balance’s damage overall, with a slightly larger reduction in spread target cleave. Balance still excels in spread cleave compared to other specs, but their edge will be a little smaller.
  • Moonfire damage reduced by 5%.
  • Sunfire damage reduced by 5%.
  • Shooting Stars damage reduced by 10%.
  • Starsurge damage reduced by 3%.
  • Starfall damage reduced by 3%.
  • Meteorites damage reduced by 15%.
• Guardian
  • All damage increased by 8%.

Evoker

• Devastation
  • Developers’ notes: Due to an unintended interaction with the Scintillation talent, the Venomous Abyss 2-piece bonus was providing significantly more power than intended. Based on a combination with PTR testing data and fixing the interaction, we’re increasing some of Devastation’s baseline spell damage values to keep their damage output competitive.
  • Shattering Stars that are released from an Eternity Surge due to Scintillation are now subject to Scintillation’s 40% effectiveness multiplier.
  • The Venomous Abyss 2-set Bonus – Shattering Star damage bonus reduced to 50% (was 150%).
  • Deep Breath damage increased by 30%.
  • Pyre damage increased by 10%.
  • Disintegrate damage increased by 40%.
  • Living Flame damage increased by 50%.

Hunter

• Beast Mastery
  • Cobra Shot damage reduced by 20%.
• Marksmanship
  • Developers’ notes: Marksmanship received several bug fixes that increased its damage, so we’re making some tuning adjustments to align their DPS to be closer to other DPS specs.
  • All damage dealt by you and your pets reduced by 5%.
  • Explosive Shot damage reduced by 33%.

Mage

• Arcane
  • Developers’ notes: Arcane is doing well in AoE situations but their single target damage is a bit behind our target. We are making some adjustments to bring them closer to other DPS specs.
  • Arcane Blast damage increased by 20%.
  • Spellslinger: Splintering Orbs damage bonus to Arcane Orb increased to 50% (was 10%).
  • Sunfury: Fixed an issue that prevented Meteorites from granting Clearcasting.
• Fire
  • All damage increased by 6%.
• Frost
  • Developers’ notes: The Venomous Abyss set bonus is providing more throughput value than intended. We are adjusting the set bonus, and accompanying that with an overall damage increase. Additionally, Frost’s 2-target cleave is slightly higher than we’d like. This damage profile should remain a strength for Frost Mage, but we want to bring them more in line with other classes who share that strength.
  • The Venomous Abyss 2-set Bonus – Glacial Spike damage bonus reduced to 20% (was 25%). Chance to generate an Icicle per Freezing stack Shattered reduced to 4% (was 5%).
  • The Venomous Abyss 4-set Bonus – Shatter damage bonus reduced to 5% (was 10%).
  • Splitting Ice has been updated – Flurry and Frostbolt effectiveness against the second target reduced to 50% (was 80%).
  • Fractured Frost has been updated – Ice Lance effectiveness against the second target reduced to 50% (was 100%).
  • All damage increased by 3%.

Paladin

• Holy
  • All healing increased by 5%.

Priest

• Holy
  • All healing increased by 5%.
• Shadow
  • Developers’ notes: Shadow’s performance in spread cleave is a little higher than what we expect. We are making some targeted adjustments to bring them closer to our target. We expect Shadow to continue to excel in spread cleave situations after the tuning adjustments.
  • Void Volley damage reduced by 10%.
  • The Venomous Abyss 4-set bonus now causes Tentacle Slam to grant a free use of Void Volley at 100% effectiveness (was 125%).
  • Archon: Focused Outburst now increases Void Volley damage by 5% (was 15%).

Rogue

• Assassination
  • All damage dealt increased by 10%.
• Outlaw
  • All damage dealt increased by 6%. This does not apply to PvP combat.
• Subtlety
  • All damage dealt increased by 10%. This does not apply to PvP combat.

Shaman

• Elemental
  • Developers’ notes: Farseer received a lot of changes to boost the performance of spells cast by your summoned Ancestors, but they are now performing higher than we would like.
  • Farseer: Ancestors’ Lava Burst damage reduced by 20%.
  • Farseer: Ancestors’ Chain Lightning damage reduced by 20%.

Warlock

• Developers’ notes: We are increasing the single target damage of each Warlock specialization and reducing Destruction’s cleave profile. We want Destruction to shine in 2-target situations; however, we want to keep that edge at a reasonable amount.
• Affliction
  • Haunt now increases your damage dealt to the target by 16% for 18 seconds (was 12%).
• Demonology
  • Shadow Bolt damage increased by 45%.
  • Demonbolt damage increased by 55%.
  • Summon Gloomhound damage increased by 35%.
  • Fixed a tooltip issue where the Venomous Abyss 4-set bonus stated it would cast Implosion at 125% and 150% effectiveness rather than the intended 225% and 250% effectiveness.
• Destruction
  • Havoc now causes spells to deal 50% of their damage to the marked target (was 60%).
  • Soul Fire damage increased by 45%.
  • Chaos Bolt damage increased by 5%.

Warrior

• Arms
  • Developers’ notes: We’re slightly reducing Arms Warrior’s single-target and cleave damage, and adjusting its set bonuses so the current tier set is more rewarding than mixing older pieces.
  • Powerful Momentum now increases Sweeping Strikes chain damage by 20% (was 25%).
  • Execute damage reduced by 15%.
  • Midnight Season 1 2-set bonus now increases Colossus Smash damage by 3% (was 5%).
  • The Venomous Abyss 4-set bonus – Mortal Strike and Overpower now increase the damage of your next Slam by 20% (was 10%) and stack up to 5 times (was 3).
• Protection
  • All damage increased by 6%.

DELVES

• Added 35 Coffer Key Shards as a reward to the daily repeatable quest “Prey: Anguish from Beyond”.
• Increased the amount of Coffer Key Shards given by World Quests in the Coiled Isles when they are displayed as the primary reward to 100.

EVENTS

• RITUAL SITES
  • Ritual Site tiers 1-6 vault rewards have been updated to match the Season 2 Delve tiers 1-6 vault rewards.
  • Ritual Sites now reward Season 2 crests equivalent to Delves at these tiers.
  • Tiers 1-3 remain at the Season 1 recommended item levels and tuning.
  • New recommended item levels for tiers 4-6:
    • Tier 4 – 259 (was 257)
    • Tier 5 – 268 (was 264)
    • Tier 6 – 275 (was 274)
  • The Tier 6 Advanced Ritual Studies quests will no longer offer a Nebulous Voidcore bonus roll reward. The quests remain available to complete for the relevant achievement.
• VOID ASSAULTS
  • Void Strikes, Void Incursions, and the Weekly Quest will now give Season 2 Adventurer crests.
• VOID-TOUCHED CACHES
  • New Season 2 Adventurer Warbound caches available for 200 Field Accolades.
  • New Season 2 Veteran Bind-on-Pickup caches available for 500 Field Accolades for a random slot, and 750 Field Accolades for a slot specific item.
  • The Season 1 gear caches have been removed.
• VAL AND NAIGTAL
  • World Quests, Rares, and Elites will now grant Season 2 Adventurer crests in both Normal and Heroic World Tiers.
  • Rare equipment drops will remain Warbound Until Equipped and will now drop at Season 2 Adventurer 1/6 (Normal) and Adventurer 4/6 (Heroic).
  • The World Boss and Weekly Quests will offer Season 2 Adventurer crests in Normal World Tier and Season 2 Veteran crests in Heroic World Tier.
  • The World Boss drops will remain as Season 1 drops and can no longer be upgraded.
  • The Mythic quest rewards from “Knocking off the Top (Heroic)” will also remain as Season 1 rewards and can no longer be upgraded.

PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER

Rewards

• Gladiator’s Distinction (PvP Trinket Set Bonus) now increases primary stat by 15% (was 12%) and Stamina by 5% (was 10%) for tank and damage dealer roles.
• Gladiator’s Distinction (PvP Trinket Set Bonus) now increases Stamina by 10% (was 15%) for the healer role.

Demon Hunter

• Devourer
  • Developers’ notes: With the recent buffs to Consume and overall damage, Consume no longer needs such a large increase in PvP combat, so we’re reducing it. It now also matches the damage of Devour in PvP combat.
  • Consume damage reduced by 40% in PvP combat.
  • Devour damage reduced by 8% in PvP combat.

Druid

• Restoration
  • Developers’ notes: Restoration Druid is receiving several quality of life adjustments and buffs in this update. As a result, we’re lowering some of the extra healing they were receiving in PvP combat.
  • All healing reduced by 10% in PvP combat.

Monk

• Mistweaver
  • Vital Expenditure now increases Soothing Mist’s healing by 100% (was 300%) and increases its mana cost by 33% (was 200%) in PvP combat.

Paladin

• Holy
  • All healing reduced by 15% in PvP combat.
• Protection
  • Templar: Divine Exaction causes Divine Toll to strike at 45% effectiveness in PvP combat.
• Retribution
  • Eternal Flame healing reduced by 20% in PvP combat.

Priest

• Discipline
  • Voidweaver: Quickened Pulse causes Entropic Rift and Shadow Word: Pain to deal damage 15% more often in PvP combat (was 25%).
  • Voidweaver: Expiation deals damage equal to 150% of the amount consumed (was 200%) in PvP combat.

Rogue

• Subtlety
  • Goremaw’s Bite repeats 10% damage of Finishing Moves in PvP combat.

Warrior

• Arms
  • Colossus: Dominance of the Colossus reduces damage taken from enemies affected by Demolish by up to 10% in PvP combat.