Our guide writer Petko goes over the recent class changes on live servers and talks about the biggest losers and winners of the tuning pass.
Biggest Losers
- Hunters got nerfed across all 3 specs. Beast Mastery and Markmanship were already underperforming, but received further nerfs (Trick Shots, Sentiel/Lunar Storm, target caps, Pack Leader nerfs.).
- Arms Warrior, already one of the worst specs, got nerfs to Colossus, Execute, and Slayer.
- For Devastation Evokers it’s the third week of nerfs (45 aura nerf + Flameshaper crit/damage reductions), though the Disintegrate buff fix (+76% damage) might offset some of it.
- Subtlety Rogue has poor single target and received AoE nerfs on top of it.
- Atonement has been nerfed for the third time for Discipline Priests (now 35%, down from 45%).
- Demonology Warlock’s minion damage has been nerfed (up to 45%).
Biggest Winners
- Windwalker Monk got a 10% aura nerf, but massive buffs to Fists of Fury (up to 40%), Spinning Crane Kick, and Shado-Pan talents.
- Retributions Paladin received these buffs: +12% to Divine Storm, +30% to Divine Hammer, with Templar getting weekly buffs.
- Voidform damage bonus doubled for Shadow Priests (up to 20%, was 10%).
- Assassination Rogue has been buffed across the board, being pushed as the top Rogue spec.
- Survival Hunter got as 4% aura buff, but due to Pack Leader nerfs, it’s mixed.
Neutral / Mixed
- It’s unclear if net buff or neutral, but there’s been a big redistribution from baseline into Hero talents for Frost Mages.
- Although Arcane Mages received nerfs to Splintered Orb/Splinters, Arcane should still be a strong spec.
- Diabolist has been nerfed by 35% for Warlocks.
- Elemental Shaman’s Earthquake got buffed by 15%, but Chain Lighting got nerfed by the same amount, which is a net AoE loss since Chain Lightning does roughly double Earthquake’s damage.
Healer-Wide Trend
All healers got damage buffs, as Blizzard considers healer damage output too low across the board. Holy Paladin got nerfed, further cementing Restoration Druid as the top healer.
Petko’s overall take: the Hunter nerfs are the most controversial changes he’s seen in WoW and there should be at least 3 more tuning passes coming even after launch.
