Class Tuning Incoming with 10.0.7 -- March 21

Along with the launch of patch 10.0.7 next week, we’ll make adjustments to some classes that are underperforming or overperforming in endgame content.

Because of the timing of these changes, we intend to add all of the following to the 10.0.7 patch notes. Please note that some changes below affect talents that are new or redesigned in 10.0.7, and all should be testable on the 10.0.7 PTR soon.

CLASSES

PRIEST

  • Rhapsody now grants a stack every 2 seconds (down from every 5 seconds).
  • Holy
    • Burning Vehemence now causes Holy Fire to deal 30%/60% of its initial damage to all nearby enemies (was 15%/30%) .

SHAMAN

  • Elemental
    • Swirling Currents increases the healing done by Healing Stream Totem by 40%/80% for Elemental (was 20%/40%).
  • Enhancement
    • Swirling Currents increases the healing done by Healing Stream Totem by 40%/80% for Enhancement (was 20%/40%).

WARLOCK

  • Affliction
    • Dark Virtuosity now increases the damage of Shadow Bolt and Drain Soul by 5/10% (was 15/30%).
    • Kindled Malice now increases the damage of Malefic Rapture and Seed of Corruption by 4/8% (was 8/15%).
  • Demonology
    • Felguard auto-attack damage increased by 20%.
    • Wild Imp damage increased by 20%.
    • Vilefiend damage increased by 30%.
  • Destruction
    • All ability damage increased by 3%.

PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER

MAGE

  • Frost
    • Glacial Spike deals 15% less damage and its Mastery scaling is now 60% effective (was 75%) in PvP combat.
    • Frostbolt deals 100% increased damage in PvP combat (was 50%).

PALADIN

  • Retribution
    • Execution Sentence is now 65% effective in PvP combat.
    • Wake of Ashes now deals 20% less damage in PvP combat (was 32%).
  • Protection
    • Uther’s Counsel effectiveness reduced by 33% in PvP combat.
    • Righteous Protector effectiveness reduced by 50% in PvP combat.

PRIEST

  • Renew healing is now increased by 22% in PvP combat (was 15%).
  • Prayer of Mending healing is now increased by 6% in PvP combat.
  • Holy
    • Heal healing is now increased by 43% in PvP Combat (was 35%).
    • Flash Heal healing is now increased by an additional 6% in PvP combat for Holy only.
  • Developer’s notes: These are targeted buffs to Holy Priests’ overall throughput, which has continued to fall behind other healers.

ROGUE

  • Subtlety
    • Dark Shadow effectiveness reduced by 20% in PvP combat.
    • Danse Macabre effectiveness reduced by 33% in PvP combat.
    • Perforated Veins effectiveness reduced by 25% in PvP combat.
    • Gloomblade damage increased by 20% in PvP combat.
    • Backstab damage increased by 20% in PvP combat.

WARLOCK

  • Affliction
    • Darkglare from Summon Darkglare now has 80% more health.
    • Corruption damage increased by 10% in PvP combat.
    • Agony damage increased by 10% in PvP combat.
    • Siphon Life damage increased by 20% in PvP combat.
    • Focused Malignancy increases Malefic Rapture damage by 10%/20% in PvP combat (was 15%/30%).
  • Developers’ notes: These changes are targeted at improving Affliction Warlocks’ instant cast damage, while offsetting the potential burst from Malefic Rapture with the 10.0.7 talent changes.
  • Destruction
    • Bane of Havoc now has an 18 second internal cooldown with Mayhem talented.
    • Incinerate no longer deals increased damage in PvP combat (was increased by 13%).
    • Shadowburn damage is now increased by 25% in PvP combat (was increased by 30%).
  • Developer’s notes: We’re targeting a decrease to Havoc uptime and offsetting the PvE tuning changes with some reductions to Shadowburn and Incinerate. We want builds with instant casts to be viable, while preferring that the spec relies on Chaos Bolts for most kills.

WARRIOR

  • Arms
    • Fatality now stacks Fatal Mark up to a maximum of 8 times against enemy players (was 20).
6 Likes

Very happy to see ZERO Fury warrior changes, means we good :slight_smile:

2 Likes

Hello, I am a gnome. Am I reading this right? Are you nerfing affliction in pve? Are you aware that it is the only spec in the game that hasn’t timed a 25, let alone a non-SBG/COS 24?

I don’t play affliction, but this seems like a very odd choice.

14 Likes

Protection warriors started in a good state this expansion, after the constant nerfs every week, they are no longer #1 in high keys (Paladins are) and you have just widened the gap even further by buffing protection paladins even more. This constant meta shift throughout the expansion needs to stop. This is why everyone plays alts and everyone ends up quitting later in the season due to all the time invested raising the ilvl of their mains just for you to nerf them to the ground. Your incompetence of nerfing classes instead of just buffing others is the biggest contributing factor to a dead game later in each expansion due to wasting everyone’s time.

14 Likes

Finally guardian is being looked at. O wait their being ignored again… surprise surprise

12 Likes

Seems like you missed the ret paladin nerfs on the 10.0.7 ptr today, is that stuff not making it into the final build launching Tuesday?

3 Likes

Rhapsody goes from 100 sec (1min 40 sec) to 40 sec with this change; and Burning Vehemence becomes much stronger. Yay :smiley:

2 Likes

This change makes no sense. Is protection paladin somehow overperforming? They’re a fraction of the bracket.

1 Like

wow a 3% damage increase for destro after weeks of asking for talent redesigns. Thanks blizzard it truly feels like you’re listening to feedback on the spec.

You could reduce the number of 2 point talent nodes we’re forced to take to enable more build variety.
Separate cataclysm from inferno so we can have some semblance of burst aoe without hamstringing our sustained aoe. or separate Dimensional rift from chaos incarnate so we can have another cool spell to cast while moving.
Put grand warlocks design in the class tree as a capstone instead of that terrible dread feast talent that only affects 1 spec which is antithetical to your whole design philosophy for the class tree’s.
Increase the buff window for Madness of the Azj’aqir so we don’t lose half of our damage if we have to walk for longer than 1 second.
Bring back Soul harvest/dark soul instability so we have an actual damage increasing CD to press, or atleast bring back grimoire of supremacy so that using infernal actually feels like a damage CD.

Do literally anything for this spec other than a 3% damage buff 13 weeks into a raid tier. Give us some kind of hope that you actually know what you’re doing with this spec and aren’t just spending all of your time giving Demonology and Aff the attention.

5 Likes

Yeah, 3% damage bandaid where Destro is already simming high but has nothing to cast while moving except conflagrate. I mean I’ll take it but not really what we need.

1 Like

Uhh… they nerfed affliction? Isn’t that like pretty much a niche spec at this point? I never see them in keys and just a few switch to it during certain raid bosses. That is wild they are getting nerfed.

6 Likes

Aff isn’t really being nerfed, just buffed less. They were buffed early in 10.0.7 and doing too good in 10.1 testing. Another spec that could use more talent changes.

2 Likes

Don’t expect Blizzard to do anything. They are one forum post away from “we’d rather you just not play Guardian for the forseeable future”

The sad thing is the people working on the game now are probably not old enough to remember where that is from.

At this point it is just insulting.

3 Likes

Kaivax, feel free to tell the devs to go screw themselves that they are leaving bears as they are.

1 Like

Why the nerfs to Prot and Ret Paladins in PvP?

Serious question:

But isn’t the answer to your question: stop chasing the meta? Just play the main you like and STICK WITH IT.

I swear, if I made this game, I would give your “main” a stacking bonus every 3 months you kept them as your main.

Sick and tired of the ADD mentality around characters. I’m a Monk! I’m a Spriest! I’m a Druid! I’m a Mage!!! And 98% of the time, they’re terrible at ALL of them.

5 Likes

Aren’t you on a Warrior?

Though to be serious, its because the meta is so influential at the level of content that matters that people feel the game isn’t balanced enough to play a bunch of crap specs and drag groups down.

Metas shift. Player skill and knowledge do not shift.

1 Like

So monk in particular brewmaster is way OP and too easy rotation where are the nerfs this class needs? At least 45% reduction in stamina due to OP stagger mechanic and -65% dps to keep damage inline with other tanks.

Hard to enjoy a spec that performs terribly.

Unless you’re just here for the RP…