MoP Classic vs. Original: Full List of Changes and Why They Happened

Herein, we’ve collected all significant design changes made to Mists of Pandaria Classic, along with notes of explanation by the development team.

Reputations

We’ve sped up some areas where Reputation gains were otherwise too sparse. Daily quests are still the primary source for Reputations in the first few weeks of the expansion. We’ve also aligned components of Reputations that were originally introduced in later patches with their associated content updates; these will come to Mists of Pandaria Classic at later dates.

• Grand Commendations are available, allowing you to go from Revered to Exalted 100% faster and increase the reputation gains on your alts by 100% after one character on the account has Revered.
  • Available when Mogu’shan Vaults opens.
• Shado-Pan and The August Celestial dailies do not require Revered with The Golden Lotus.
  • The weapon enchants sold by Shado-Pan at Revered and the bracer enchants sold by August Celestials at Revered become available with the weekly reset after Mogu’shan Vaults opens.
• The Order of the Cloud Serpent now offer a Bind on Account Flight Log for 800 gold at Exalted. This can be sent to an alt to teach them Cloud Serpent Riding before the character becomes Exalted with the Order of the Cloud Serpent.
• Valor Point Gear Requirements
  • Reputation requirement for Valor Point Shoulders decreased to Honored with The Golden Lotus (was Revered).
  • Reputation requirement for Valor Point Hands decreased to Honored with The August Celestials (was Revered).
  • Reputation requirement for Valor Point Waist decreased to Honored with The Klaxxi (was Revered).
  • Reputation requirement for Valor Point Trinket decreased to Honored with the Shado-Pan (was Revered).
• Cooking
  • Reputation requirement for the 300 hit and 300 expertise recipes from The Tillers decreased to Revered (was Exalted).
  • All Pandaria recipes that created 5 items per craft now create 10, including Banquets and the highest tier of stat food.
• Klaxxi
  • The repeatable Klaxxi reputation quest “Seeds of Fear” now requires 5 items per turn-in (was 20). This quest becomes available with the weekly reset after the first week of raiding.
• Coming Soon
  • Ancient Guo-Lai Caches will drop Scrolls of Wisdom, Jewelcrafting Patterns, Imperial Cloth, Relics of the Thunder King, or Relics of the Guo-Lai with the weekly reset after the first week of raiding.
  • Ancient Guo-Lai Caches contain Spirits of Harmony or Treasures of the Vale when Siege of Orgrimmar becomes available.
  • Reputation tokens from rare Zandalari spawns will become available with The Thunder King content.
  • Enemies in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms will give not give reputation with The Golden Lotus until a later content release.

Raid Finder

Considering all points of view and weighing our options very carefully, we made the decision to develop MoP Classic without the Raid Finder system.

The journey through Classic expansions has allowed us to reflect on the original team’s decisions and discuss their outcomes with the same team members. We’ve also listened to players’ memories and experiences with the original content, bringing it to life again for both old and new players.

In 2011, raiding was niche, limited to organized guilds with fixed schedules, and pickup groups were rare. The development team introduced Raid Finder during Cataclysm to make raiding more accessible, despite its impact on social bonds. However, in progression Classic, we’ve seen far more players participating in Normal raiding, and we expect this to continue into MoP Classic.

Classic Progression realms have evolved differently over the last five years compared to original WoW. Classic players have built a strong raiding ecosystem, and we believe that moving into MoP Classic without Raid Finder will foster a stronger raiding community.

Celestial Dungeons

Celestial Dungeons are a new dungeon difficulty in Mists of Pandaria Classic that stand as the culmination of everything we’ve learned from Titan Rune Dungeons in Wrath of the Lich King Classic and Elemental Rune Dungeons in Cataclysm Classic.

Celestial Dungeons are:

• A new, additional difficulty tier.
• Selectable from the Dungeon Finder.
• Designed for players who are ready to move beyond Heroic dungeons.
• Infused with occasional raid-level mechanics and enemies, including appearances from bosses of the current raid tier.

Inside, players will commune with the August Celestials, gaining powerful blessings to help overcome enhanced challenges. Strategic use of these blessings will be key to success. You’ll also find:

• Gear that offers more power than Heroic Dungeon gear, including all items that used to drop in Raid Finder, particularly tier pieces.
• Items that will be target-farmable as well as random drops.
• Currency dropped by bosses that can be used to purchase a wide variety of the above.
• Legendary quest progress, with quest additions made to preserve the lore, should players choose to use Celestial Dungeons rather than Raids to progress the legendary quest chain.

Progression through patches:

• Celestial Dungeons will grow with each raid tier.
• Throne of Thunder and Siege of Orgrimmar will bring new threats and rewards and new Celestial powers to master.
• Previous tier rewards will remain available, so transmog hunters and collectors won’t miss out.
• Celestial Dungeons will go live two weeks after Mogu’shan Vaults opens, giving players time to explore the raid before diving into this new challenge.

We believe this approach keeps the spirit of Classic alive—rewarding commitment, encouraging social play, and offering meaningful progression, while still making content accessible in a more engaging and respectful way.

Queuing

• Celestial Dungeons can only be entered by using the automated Group Finder tool, and they require a minimum item level of 435 to queue, the same as Heroic dungeons.

Mechanics

• Upon entering a Celestial Dungeon, players will be greeted by the August Celestials. Speaking with a Celestial allows the player to ask for their assistance, granting the player unique powers based on which Celestial they interacted with.
• Dominion of the Empress is the buff applied to creatures in Celestial Rune Dungeons.
  • Damage Increased by 50%
  • Health Increased by 100%
• Every 60 seconds, a boss is influenced by the proclamations of Imperial Vizier Zor’lok. Zor’lok demands the influence from one of the Grand Empress’ lieutenants. The Lieutenant will appear and cast one of their raid abilities.

Rewards

• Currency: August Stone Fragments
  • Each boss in Celestial Dungeons will drop 2x of a new currency, August Stone Fragment, per player. If players have defeated all of the other bosses in the dungeon, the final boss of each dungeon will drop an extra 3 August Stone Fragments.
  • Running your first Celestial Dungeon of the day will grant an additional 4 August Stone Fragments.
  • Every Celestial Dungeon after the first one of the day will grant an additional 2 August Stone Fragments.
  • There is also a rotating daily quest for Celestial Dungeons that can be picked up from Challenger Soong or Challenger Wuli in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, for an additional 3 August Stone Fragments.
    • This daily quest will never be the same Celestial Dungeon 2 days in a row, and it will never be the same Dungeon as the Challenge Mode daily quest.
  • The cap of how many August Stone Fragments a character can hold will be low at first but will increase with the release of each raid tier.

• Avatar of the August Celestial Vendors.
• • • The August Stone Fragment currency can be used to purchase items from the new NPC, Avatar of the August Celestials, in the Shrine of Two Moons and Shrine of Seven Stars.
    • Players will be able to purchase the following goods after Mogu’shan Vaults raid launch:
      • All ‘Celestial’ items from Mogu’shan Vaults – renamed versions of the original Raid Finder gear.
      • Satchel of Celestial Chance, containing a handful of Lesser Charms of Good Fortune and a chance at unreleased Mounts from the original Mists of Pandaria expansion
      • Commendations of Service for Justice Points
      • Valor Points
    • Two weeks after each raid is released, the items on the Avatar of the August Celestials will update their tables to contain items from the new raid.
    • After the final raid of a phase has been released, the Avatar of the August Celestials will offer a Satchel of Stone Fragments for 10 August Stone Fragments.
      • This is a Bind on Account bag that you can send to an alt and open for 10 August Stone Fragments.
      • This allows players to gain progression on their alts through playing their main character, and also allows a way for alts to gain Lesser Charms of Good Fortune as well.
  • Legendary Questline Items:
    • Players can earn progress towards their Legendary questline with a chance of gaining Sigils of Power and Sigils of Wisdom drops from end bosses in Celestial Dungeons while on the associated quest.
    • Players can earn progress towards their Legendary questline by defeating the Sha of Doubt and obtaining the Chimera of Doubt while on the associated quest.
      • Players can take the route of Doubt by declining Wrathion’s request to harness Fear.

Challenge Modes

Challenge Modes are timed instance runs where your gear is scaled down to create an even playing field across groups.

In addition to the original iteration of Challenge Modes in Mists of Pandaria, Challenge Modes will also be seasonal content.

• New rewards will be granted to players who have earned the best Realm time for each dungeon.
• The rewards will be similar to PvP rewards such as Mounts, and Titles. These rewards will change depending on the season.
  • We will share the specifics of these rewards at a later date.
• The seasons for Challenge Modes will follow patch releases, ending or beginning a week or two before or after.
• Once the season is over, the leaderboards will be reset.

Currency Updates and Changes

With the first weekly reset after the MoP Classic launch the week of July 21:

• Valor
  • For Mists of Pandaria Classic, we have increased the Valor cap, and characters can now earn up to 1600 Valor per week. Likewise, similar to Cataclysm Classic, we have implemented a progressive Valor cap, which will increase by 1600 each week.
    • Developer’s notes: For example, week 1 will have a cap of 1600, and week 2 will have a cap of 3200, and so on. Our intention is to allow easier catch up, if you miss a week of reaching the cap. This will also greatly allow alt characters to catch up.
  • Daily quests, random Scenarios, random Heroic dungeons, and all levels of raiding will reward Valor.
    • Similar to Cataclysm Classic, we have increased the amount of Valor rewarded for these activities.
  • Valor will be used to purchase iLvl 489 gear in Mists of Pandaria Classic.
    • The Klaxxi, Golden Lotus, Shado-Pan, August Celestials factions, and Justice and Valor Quarter Masters at the Niuzao Temple will sell this gear.
    • Valor point gear purchases are still gated behind earning reputation with the associated faction. Some requirements have been decreased or sped up.
      • Please see the Reputation Adjustments section above for more details on what was changed.
  • Once you have collected 1000 Valor on a character on your account, all other characters on that account will have Valor point gains increased by 50% for the remainder of the week.
• Elder Charms of Good Fortune
  • This currency is used to obtain bonus rolls and is limited to a weekly Quest that grants the player three charms. These will now be subject to a rolling cap, similar to Conquest and Valor, and will be an infinitely repeatable quest.
  • The cost of Elder Charms of Good Fortune has been changed to 50 Lesser Charms of Good Fortune (was 90).

With the start of PvP Season 12 the week of July 28:

• Conquest will become earnable.
  • There is a cap of 4000 Conquest points. Similar to Cataclysm Classic, we have implemented a progressive cap, which will increase by 4000 each week.
    • Our intention is to allow easier catch up, if you miss a week of reaching the cap. This will also greatly allow alt characters to catch up.
  • Arenas and Battlegrounds reward Conquest.
  • It will be used to purchase iLvl 483 gear from Pandaren battlemasters on the Great Wall.

World Bosses

The Sha of Anger and Galleon will begin spawning one week after the release of Heart of Fear.

Classes

Tank Specialization Vengeance Updates

We want to accomplish two things: performance in Challenge Modes should be closer to how tanks perform in other circumstances, and we want to fix the bugs with minimal impact to players.

• Vengeance no longer has diminishing returns on its Attack Power gain when fighting multiple enemies.
• Vengeance will now provide increased Attack Power even if the incoming attack missed.
• Vengeance attack power generation from spells with missiles is now reduced by your damage reduction for the first 3 seconds of your damage reduction effect.
• To compensate for this, Vengeance attack power generation is now 1.8% of unmitigated damage (was 1.5%).
• Fixed a bug causing issues when wiping on an encounter and then experiencing reduced Vengeance gains the next time that enemy is engaged.

Pre-Pull Updates

We’ve made changes to how players approach the start of raid encounters to discourage complicated pre-pull routines. Our goal is to reduce these rituals without nerfing classes, ensuring players don’t feel disadvantaged if they don’t participate. While some classes will be affected, we aim to avoid making boss pulls feel clunky and emphasize that players should just enjoy the game.

On-pull, all resources are reset to specific values, with some exceptions where circumstances allow for them to break this rule. On encounter start, resources are set:

• Rage set to 25
• Runic Power set to 20
• Demonic Fury set to 200
• Burning Embers set to 1 Full Ember
• Soul Shards set to 4
  • Soul Shards are set to 4, but if Soulburn is active when the pull happens, Soul Shards are set to 3.
• Chi set to 2
  • Chi is set to 2, except for Mistweaver Monks. who keep their current Chi instead, even if it is lower than 2. Mistweavers can generate Chi alone and without the use of a cooldown
• Holy Power set to 1
  • Holy Power is set to 1, except for Holy Paladins, who you keep their current Holy Power, even if it is lower than 1. Holy Paladins can generate Holy Power alone and without the use of a cooldown.
• Combo Points set to 0
  • Combo Points are set to 0, unless the Rogue knows Premeditation and Premeditation is currently on cooldown. In that circumstance, 2 combo points are kept (if you have them). You do not generate 2 combo points, and if you happen to have more than 2 combo points on the target, you do not keep any extra and this goes down to 2.
  • This is not extended to Marked for Death, as it could lead to windows where it can be manipulated. The rogue will have to Marked for Death after combat engages.
• Death Runes all removed
  • If you are a Frost Death Knight you keep your two Death Runes from Blood of the North.
• Resources are also removed immediately after if you are the first player to hit the boss.

The following items no longer function above level 89:

• All non-Mists of Pandaria Tier set bonuses (Tier 1 – Tier 13).
• Felstriker
• Rod of the Sun King
• Heartpiece Heroic
• Heartpiece Normal
• Black Bruise Normal
• Black Bruise Heroic
• Circle of Flame
• Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa’s Rest

The following items can no longer be used in raids:

• Sulfuron Slammer
• Unconscious Dig Rat
• Turnip Punching Bag
• Skull of Impending Doom

We are working on allowing all abilities that generate resources to work on pull even if you are the first player to engage a boss. Currently the following will add to your post-encounter start resource pool:

• Charge
• Icy Touch
• Judgement
• Exorcism
• Hammer of Wrath (Ret)
• All Emberbit generators for Destruction Warlock
• All Demonic Fury generators for Demonology Warlock

The following abilities obey pre-pull rules and will pull from the encounter start pool if you engage early:

• Soulburn
• All spells with Burning Ember Cost
• Demonic Fury
• Fire Blossom
• Death Coil
• Guard
• Fire Blossom
• Shield Barrier
• If you used a Free Aimed Shot, you will pay 50 Focus as if the Aimed Shot was not free

Here is a list of all of the buffs or effects that are removed from players on boss pull:

• Tanks
  • Vengeance
• Death Knight
  • Blood Shield
  • Scent of Blood
  • Cinderglacier
  • Blood Charges
  • Runic Empowerment
  • Killing Machine
  • Chilling Fog
  • Sudden Doom
  • Soul Reaper
  • Shadow Infusion (player)
  • Shadow Infusion (pet)
  • Dark Transformation (pet)
  • Riposte (Death Knight)
  • Despawn all Blood parasites
• Druid
  • Lunar Shower
  • Shooting Shars
  • Owlkin Frenzy
  • Clearcasting
  • Predatory Swiftness
  • Tooth and Claw
  • Savage Defense
  • Savage Roar (Unglyphed)
    • If using the Glyphed version of Savage Roar, your Savage Roar buff is checked on pull.
    • If Savage Roar is active and the Glyph is known, Savage Roar is set to 12 seconds.
    • If no Glyph detected, the Glyphed buff is removed from the Druid.
  • Wild Mushrooms lose their Efflorescence to prevent Haste snapshotting.
    • NOTE: Wild Mushrooms do not lose their stored healing.
• Hunter
  • Thrill of the Hunt
  • Steady Focus
  • Ready, Set, Aim…
  • Bombardment
  • Lock and Load
  • Frenzy from you
  • Frenzy from your pet
• Mage
  • Arcane Missiles
  • Arcane Charge Debuffs
  • Heating up
  • Pyroblast
  • Icicle 1
  • Icicle 2
  • Icicle 3
  • Icicle 4
  • Icicle 5
  • Fingers of Frost
  • Brain Freeze
  • Incanter’s Absorption
• Monk
  • Shuffle
  • Elusive Brew
  • Power Guard
  • Tiger Power
  • Serpent’s Zeal
  • Muscle Memory
  • Mana Tea
  • Vital Mists
  • Tiger Strike’s
  • Tigereye Brew
  • Tigereye Brew Active
  • Combo Breaker: Blackout Kick
  • Combo Breaker: Tiger Palm
  • Sparring
  • Chi Spheres are despawned on pull
• Paladin
  • Supplication
  • Bastion of Glory
  • Shield of the Righteous
  • Grand Crusader
  • Long Arm of the Law
  • Pursuit of Justice
  • Divine Purpose
  • Alabaster Shield
  • Double Jeopardy
  • Glyph of Templar’s Verdict
  • Inquisition
• Priest
  • Twist of Fate
  • Surge of Darkness
  • Divine Insight (Shadow)
  • Evangelism (Disc)
  • All Active Renews
    • Only if they were cast by a Shadow Priest
• Rogue
  • Anticipation
  • Recuperate
  • Blindside
  • Insight Rank 1
  • Insight Rank 2
  • Insight Rank 3
  • Bandit’s Guile
  • Bandit’s Guile is set to 0
  • Slice and Dice
    • Exception for Sub Rogues that have Slice active, know Premeditation, and it’s on cooldown.
    • In that case you keep your Slice and Dice, lose all combo points on the target, your Slice and Dice is set to a 2 combo point duration, and it is updated so that it takes your current mastery to prevent any pre-pull mastery snapshots.
• Shaman
  • Clearcasting
  • Unleash Elements (Flametongue)
  • Unleash Elements (Windfury)
  • Lava Surge
  • Maelstrom Weapon
  • Searing Flames
  • Lightning Shield resets to 1 stack
• Warlock
  • Decimation
  • Backdraft
  • Soul Swap
  • Wild Imps (Despawn)
    • You are able to keep 1 Wild Imp on pull
• Warrior
  • Taste for Blood
  • Sudden Death Execute
  • Mortal Strike
  • Sweeping Strikes
  • Unbridled Rage
  • Flurry
  • Meat Cleaver
  • Bloodsurge
  • Shield Block
  • Sword and Board
  • Ultimatum
  • Riposte (Warrior)

Updated Items

• The Synapse Springs buffs are removed when the gloves are removed.
• All trinkets with Equip effects that can activate a Buff now have the effect removed when the trinket is unequipped.

Class Tuning

Reviewing the class design in the original Mists of Pandaria, we recognize that classes changed, sometimes substantially, over the course of the expansion from phase to phase. For WoW Classic expansions, we start with the class design of the final patch of the original expansion, and for Mists of Pandaria Classic, that is patch 5.4.8. Unfortunately, classes in 5.4.8 were not designed with each phase’s content (such as the first raid tier) in mind, and with no changes to classes, this would leave some in an odd state in each phase.

Many of these changes are simply reverting updates to classes that were made throughout the original Mists of Pandaria. In some cases, we plan to adjust specializations as required between patches, many of which will be reverts of these as specializations scale up.

These changes have no effect on instanced PvP content (Arenas and Battlegrounds).

General

• Added Mass Resurrection to all classes that have a healer specialization available, as a baseline spell at level 44.

Death Knight

• Blood
  • Army of the Dead no longer benefits from Vengeance attack power.
  • Blood Presence damage reduction increased to 12% (was 10%).
  • Outbreak’s base cooldown decreased to 30 seconds (was 60).
• Frost
  • Obliterate and Soul Reaper now scale with Mastery: Frozen Heart.
    • Obliterate and Soul Reaper while Dual Wielding gain 50% effectiveness from Mastery.
    • Obliterate and Soul Reaper while using a Two-Handed Weapon gain 10% effectiveness from Mastery.
  • Howling Blast’s splash damage increased to 65% (was 50%).
• Unholy
  • Unchanged

Druid

• Balance
  • Moonkin Form’s increase to Nature and Arcane damage increased to 25% (was 10%).
  • Force of Nature damage increased by 9.1%.
  • Shooting Stars will no longer split its chance to activate across multiple targets.
• Feral
  • Savage Roar’s damage increase increased to 45% (was 40%).
  • Shattering Blow is now instant cast in PvE and does not reset your swing timer.
  • Duration of Predatory Swiftness increased to 12 seconds (was 8 seconds).
  • Nature’s Swiftness can be learned, but cannot be used in PvP.
• Guardian
  • Proc chance of Dream of Cenarius from Mangle (Bear) critical strikes increased to 50% (was 40%).
  • Heart of the Wild cooldown decreased to 3 minutes (was 6 minutes).
  • Heart of the Wild is now canceled upon entering Bear Form, but will refund 4 seconds of its cooldown for each second of duration that was remaining when the buff was canceled.
  • Bear Hug against an enemy that is permanently Immune to stuns now reduces the enemy’s damage dealt by 10% for 5 seconds.
  • Bear Form now increases all damage you deal by 15%.
  • Maul’s Rage cost decreased to 20 (was 30).
• Restoration
  • Naturalist’s healing bonus increased to 15% (was 10%).

Hunter

• Beast Mastery
  • Unchanged
• Marksmanship
  • Steady Shot damage increased by 8%.
  • Aimed Shot damage increased by 5%.
  • Barrage damage increased by 15%.
  • Chimera Shot damage increased by 8%.
• Survival
  • Explosive Shot damage decreased by 5%.

Mage

• Arcane
  • Arcane Missiles damage increased by 15%,
  • Arcane Blast damage increased by 29%.
  • Arcane Barrage damage increased by 19%.
  • Arcane Blast mana cost decreased by 10%.
• Fire
  • Pyroblast’s direct damage increased by 30%.
  • Critical Mass Critical Strike bonus increased to 1.5x (was 1.3x).
  • Combustion Ignite scaling increased to 50% (was 20%).
  • Inferno Blast Ignite spreading changed to be more intuitive and spreads Ignites with higher duration instead of allowing for compressed Ignites.
• Frost
  • Unchanged

Monk

• Transcendence now has a buff to remind players they have one active. This buff may be clicked off to destroy the Spirit.
• Transcendence: Transfer no longer appears to be usable unless you have an active Transcendence Spirit and are in range of it.
• Many abilities that reset the Monk’s swing timer no longer do so:
  • Zen Sphere: Detonation
  • Gift of the Ox Sphere Summon
  • Fortifying Brew
  • Gift of the Serpent
  • Breath of Fire
  • Touch of Karma
  • The following spells intentionally reset your swing timer:
    • Black Ox Statue Summon
    • Summon Jade Serpent Statue
    • Detox
    • Ring of Peace
• Brewmaster
  • Blackout Kick damage increased by 25%.
  • Gift of the Ox Healing Sphere adjusted to increase clarity and responsiveness:
    • The color of the Gift of the Ox spheres has been changed to orang-yellow to make them more obvious to the Brewmaster (was green).
    • The size of the Gift of the Ox spheres has increased by 100%.
    • Gift of the Ox spheres now spawn 3.5 yards away from the Brewmaster (was 1.5 yards away).
    • Gift of the Ox Spheres now detect and heal the Brewmaster if they are within 3.25 yards (was 1 yard).
• Mistweaver
  • Revival healing increased by 22%.
  • Enveloping Mists healing increased by 48%.
  • Eminence healing increased to 42% of damage dealt (was 25%).
  • Jab’s Mana cost decreased to 6% of base mana (was 8%).
  • Surging Mists cost decreased to 7.65% of base mana (was 8.8%).
  • Surging Mists cast with 5 stacks of Vital Mists no longer resets your swing timer.
  • Teaching of the Monastery’s Crackling Jade Lightning bonus decreased to 25% (was 100%).
  • Mana Tea’s mana return per charge increased to 5% (was 4%).
  • Rushing Jade Wind now cancels when entering Serpent Stance.
  • Glyph of Targeted Expulsion changed to have the old Glyph of Uplift behavior outside of PvP instances, and no longer costs Chi, but instead costs 10% of base mana.
  • Jade Serpent Statues now put a debuff on the Mistweaver Monk when there are no friendly targets within 20 yards of the Statue (QoL Change).
• Windwalker
  • Windwalker Monk’s Mastery: Bottled Fury and Tigereye Brew effects are reverted to their patch 5.2 states:
    • Mastery: Bottled Fury changed to increasing the damage of your Tigereye Brew by 0.2% per Mastery (was Mastery gives a chance to gain an additional charge of Tigereye Brew when you gain a charge of Tigereye Brew).
    • Tigereye Brew starts with 3.5% damage per stack, plus 1.6% from base Mastery (was 6% damage per stack unaffected by Mastery).
    • Tigereye Brew gains a charge after spending 3 Chi (was 4 Chi).
    • T15 Windwalker Monk 4 set bonus reverted to “You have a 10% chance to gain an additional charge of Tigereye Brew every time you gain a charge of Tigereye Brew while not inside an Arena or Battleground” (was “Increases the damage of your Tigereye Brew by 0.5% per stack consumed”).
  • Storm, Earth, and Fire’s damage has been decreased to 60% (was 70%) on first split, and 45% (was 55%) on second split.
    • This is a reversion of a change in patch 5.4 that was made to Monks because they lost their old Mastery that we are now bringing back, so we are returning it to its old value.

Paladin

• Holy
  • Seal of Insight’s now restores 6% of Base Mana when it activates off a melee attack.
  • Crusader Strike’s cost for Holy Paladins decreased to 12% of Base Mana (was 15% of Base Mana).
  • Crusader Striking an enemy causes the Holy Paladin to be considered a Melee attacker for the purposes of Boss mechanics for 20 seconds.
    • If the Paladin does not Crusader Strike again within that time, they go back to being considered a non-melee attacker.
  • Holy Insight now increases the Paladin’s hit and expertise by 50% of their Spirit gained from items and effects.
  • Eternal Flame’s periodic healing decreased by 28%.
  • Eternal Flame’s Periodic can activate Illuminated Healing.
  • Illuminated Healing’s base value increased to 12% (was 10%).
  • Devotion Aura when cast by a Holy Paladin will now reduce all damage by 20% (was reducing Magical damage).
• Protection
  • The shielding on Sacred Shield increased by 43%.
  • Seal of Insight now grants Protection Paladins 10% melee and spell casting speed (was just spell casting speed). This affects Sanctity of Battle.
• Retribution
  • Divine Storm damage increased by 10%.
  • Crusader Strike damage increased by 10%.
  • Judgment damage increased by 10%.
  • Hammer of the Righteous damage increased by 10%.
  • Hammer of Wrath damage increased by 10%.
  • Exorcism damage increased by 10%.
  • Templar’s Verdict damage increased by 20%.

Priest

• Discipline
  • Divine Aegis’ shielding decreased to 90% of the critical Heal’s value (was 100%).
  • Atonement healing from damage decreased to 70% (was 90%).
  • Divine Star healing decreased by 25%.
  • Spirit Shell’s active duration increased to 15 seconds (was 10).
  • T14 set bonus Penance cooldown decreased to 1 second (was 3).
    • Developers’ notes: This bonus brings Penance to 8 seconds, like in the original 5.0.
• Holy
  • Divine Hymn now heals up to 50 targets regardless of raid size.
  • Divine Hymn healing decreased by 35%.
  • Chakra: Sanctuary’s increase to Area of Effect healing increased to 35% (was 25%).
  • Chakra: Serenity’s increase to Single-Target healing increased to 35% (was 25%).
  • Chakra’s cooldown decreased to 10 seconds (was 30 seconds).
  • Holy Word: Serenity Healing increased by 40%.
  • Holy Word: Sanctuary Healing increased by 60%.
  • Holy Word: Sanctuary Mana Cost decreased to 2.5% of base mana (was 3.8%).
  • Mastery: Echo of Light will now deal its healing every 1 second (was every 3 seconds).
    • Developers’ notes: This was originally the intended cadence of Echo of Light in Mists of Pandaria, but due to latency issues it was changed to 3 seconds.
• Shadow
  • While in Shadowform, generate Shadow Orbs passively while outside of combat, arenas, and battlegrounds.
  • Shadow Word: Pain’s damage over time increased by 18%.
  • Shadowform’s damage increase increased to 35% (was 25%).

Rogue

• Combat
  • Sinister Strike’s Energy cost decreased to 40 (was 50).
  • Sinister Strike’s weapon damage decreased to 192% (was 240%).
  • Added a counter for Bandit’s Guile that will track your sinister strikes and revealing strikes, showing how close you are to gaining Insight.
• Assassination
  • Assassin’s Resolve damage bonus increased to 40% (was 20%).
• Subtlety
  • Sanguinary Vein damage bonus increased to 50% (was 35%).

Shaman

• Healing Rain healing decreased by 25%.
• Healing Rain’s maximum duration through Conductivity decreased to 30 seconds (was 40).
• Ancestral Guidance’s healing and damage conversion decreased to 20% (was 60% for healing and 40% for damage).
• Restoration
  • Chain Heal’s fall off per target decreased to 20% (was 0%).
  • Riptide mana cost increased by 15%.
• Elemental
  • Lightning Bolt damage increased by 10%.
• Enhancement
  • Stormstrike weapon damage increased to 450% (was 380%).

Warlock

• Glyph of Eternal Resolve retains its original effects in PvP, but morphs to have the old effects from the previously removed Glyph of Everlasting Affliction while outside of PvP instances. When not in a PvP instance, Glyph of Eternal Resolve now increases the duration of the damage over time spells from your currently active specialization by 50%, but decreases their damage by 20%.
• Affliction
  • Agony’s damage over time increased by 5%.
  • Corruption’s damage over time increased by 33%.
  • Malefic Grasp damage increased by 50%.
  • Drain Soul damage increased by 50%.
  • The damage your Malefic Grasp causes your other DoTs to deal increased to 50% (was 30%).
  • The damage your Drain Soul causes your other DoTs to deal increased to 100% (was 60%).
• Demonology
  • Wild Imp damage increased by 43%.
  • The number of Imps summoned by Glyph of Imp Swarm increased to 5 (was 4).
  • Hellfire damage increased by 25%.
  • Immolation Aura damage increased by 25%.
  • Chaos Wave damage increased by 70%.
  • Doom’s damage over time increased by 33%.
• Destruction
  • Unchanged

Warrior

• Shattering Throw inside of PvE Instanced content is now instant cast and does not reset your swing timer.
• Absorbing damage while in Berserker Stance will grant Rage as if you took that damage to your health bar.
• Arms
  • Sweeping Strikes no longer double dips % damage taken modifiers on the additional target struck.
  • Sweeping Strikes now deals 60% of the attack’s damage to 1 additional target (was 50%).
  • Overpower’s weapon damage increased to 125% (was 105%).
  • Charge no longer has a minimum Range (was 8 yard minimum).
  • Charge now grants 10 Rage (was 20).
  • Charge now grants 1 Rage per yard traveled up to 10 yards.
  • With Double Time talented, the Warrior now gains a visible debuff that tells them when they can gain Rage from charging again.
• Fury
  • Crazed Berserker offhand damage increase increased to 35% (was 25%).
  • Crazed Berserker auto-attack damage increase increased to 20% (was 10%).
  • Duration of Berserker Rage and Enrage increased to 8 seconds (was 6).
  • Charge no longer has a minimum Range (was 8 yard minimum).
  • Charge now grants 10 Rage (was 20).
  • Charge now grants 1 Rage per yard traveled up to 10 yards.
  • With Double Time talented, the Warrior now gains a visible debuff that tells them when they can gain Rage from charging again.
• Protection
  • Shield Barrier’s attack power increased by 11%.

Player versus Player

MoP Classic will include Gladiator and Rank One titles and rewards for 2v2 and 5v5. There will be a flat cutoff, instead of a percentage of players for Rank One and Gladiator slots.

• Having multiple alts in the Gladiator range no longer counts towards multiple slots when calculating the cutoff for that arena bracket size.
  • For example, if you have 4 characters that are all Gladiator in 3v3, you only count as one spot and all 4 of those characters get Gladiator rewards.
  • If you have 2 characters that are Gladiator in 2v2, 2 characters that are Gladiators in 3v3, and 4 characters that are Gladiator in 5v5, you count for 1 slot in each of the brackets for cutoffs, and all receive Gladiator rewards.

PvP Seasons and Rewards

During active Arena Seasons, the Conquest cap will go up every week for all characters.

For example, if you create a new character and hit max level 4 weeks into the Arena Season, your available Conquest cap will be 4 times the weekly cap, and you can catch up to everyone else without being permanently behind.

• Item level of Season 12 Elite PvP weapons decreased to 483 (was 490).
• Item level of Season 12 Non-Elite PvP weapons increased to 483 (was 470).

Resilience, Battle Fatigue, and Dampening

In the MoP Classic Beta, we experimented with the different levels of Resilience and how those values felt for all players of varying skill levels. We also considered and discussed the original Mists of Pandaria and the intent of base Resilience. Beyond welcoming players into PvP at the ground level without a lot of PvP gear, it also was tailormade for a 3v3 Arena Experience. 2v2s and 5v5s did not grant Rank One titles in the original Mists of Pandaria, so it made sense that the focus in the original was purely on the 3v3 bracket.

Now that we have titles in the 2v2 and 5v5 brackets, we want to show those brackets the same attention and make the experience across the arenas feel good for players in any bracket. This unique challenge deserves a unique solution. We want these brackets to all be played, feel good, and be competitive. The challenge? One size does not fit all when it comes to base Resilience and team size.

Taking everything into consideration:

• Base Resilience is 35% at level 40 and below.
• Base Resilience is 40% at level 40-59
• Base Resilience is 45% at level 60-69
• Base Resilience is 50% at level 70-79
• Base Resilience is 55% at level 80-89
• Base Resilience is 63% at level 90.
• Base Resilience is 64% during 3v3 Arena matches.
• Base Resilience is 65% during 5v5 Arena matches.
• Battle Fatigue is set to -40% Healing and Shielding for the duration of Arena Season 12.
• The longest a match can go is 20 minutes (consistent with Mists of Pandaria’s final 2 seasons).
• Dampening Starts at 5 minutes in all brackets.
• Every Arena starting area now has a Bloodbath Orb, and it requires at least 2 players on a team to channel it for 2 seconds to activate.
• Activating the Bloodbath Orb casts your vote for earlier dampening in the match.
• If no teams activate their Bloodbath Orb, when the gates open an announcement will describe the match as being slower, and dampening will start at 5 minutes and at 0%.
• If one team activates their Bloodbath Orb, and the other does not, when the gates open an announcement will describe the match as having a warmup period, and dampening will start at 3 minutes and at 0%.
• If both teams activate their Bloodbath Orb, when the gates open an announcement will describe the match as a Bloodbath, and dampening will start immediately at 0%.

This will allow players to always vote for the type of game they want to play against their enemies, while knowing the specs of their opponents, but not knowing how the other team is going to vote.

We’re also turning on two enchants: Enchant Weapon – Bloody Dancing Steel and Enchant Weapon – Spirit of Conquest. These will be available after the first reset of Mogu’shan Vaults and will require 2200 Rating to purchase.

Item scaling

There is now a maximum PvE item level of 473 while inside of Arenas, Battlegrounds, and Rated Battlegrounds.

• If you are wearing a non-PvP item in an Arena, Battleground, or Rated Battleground that exceeds the 473 item level maximum, it will be set to item level 473 for that match.

PvP items like Conquest weapons at item level 490 are not affected by this cap and retain their item level.

For further changes and fixes made to the live game, please see our Mists of Pandaria Classic Hotfixes Update.