The following PvP class adjustments will arrive with scheduled weekly maintenance (April 8 in this region). We will continue to monitor and tune class combat in PvP and PvE as necessary in the weeks to come.
PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER
DEATH KNIGHT
Unholy
Developers’ notes: We’re increasing the damage of Unholy through a few sources this week and adding some power back into their healing reduction PvP talent.
Necrotic Wounds now absorbs 4% of all healing received (was 3%).
Festering Wound damage increased by 12% in PvP combat.
Virulent Plague damage increased by 12% in PvP combat.
Death Coil damage increased by 12% in PvP combat.
DRUID
Heart of the Wild cast time reduction reduced to 15% in PvP combat (was 30%).
Feral
Rip damage decreased by 15% in PvP combat.
Restoration
Mana regeneration reduced by 70% in PvP combat (was 65%).
Liberation of Undermine 4-set bonus chance to trigger reduced to 10% in PvP combat (was 15%).
HUNTER
Marksmanship
Developers’ notes: We’re adjusting Marksmanship with the goal of reducing their maximum burst damage potential and increasing their consistent damage.
Trick Shots now hits targets for 40% of normal damage in PvP combat (was 75%).
Aspect of the Hydra now fires at 30% original value in PvP combat (was 60%).
Spotter’s Mark increases Aimed Shot’s damage by 10% in PvP combat (was 20%).
Improved Spotter’s Mark now increases the damage bonus of Spotter’s Mark by 10% in PvP combat (was 20%).
Trueshot now increases critical strike damage by 10% (was 20%).
Aimed Shot damage increased by 15% in PvP combat.
Arcane Shot damage increased by 20% in PvP combat.
MAGE
Fire
Fireball damage increased by 25%.
Sunfury Phoenix damage increased by 30% in PvP combat.
Frost
Developers’ notes: Icy Veins has been more threatening than we would like, so we’re moving more of Frost Mage’s damage baseline and making a few adjustments to PvP talents with high and low representation.
Icy Veins increases Haste by 15% in PvP combat (was 20%).
Frigid Empowerment now increases spell damage by 1% per stack in PvP combat (was 2%).
Death’s Chill now stacks up to a maximum of 10 times in PvP combat (was 15).
Slick Ice now increases the damage of Frostbolt by 2% and decreases cast time by 2% per stack in PvP combat (was 4%).
Frost Bomb (PvP Talent) damage increased by 40%.
All damage increased by 4% in PvP combat.
Ice Wall now inherits 30% of the Mage’s health (was 40%).
Overpowered Barrier (PvP Talent) now increases barrier’s absorb by 80% for Frost Mage (was 100%).
PRIEST
Discipline
Developers’ notes: We’re increasing the effectiveness of some Voidweaver specific damage this week to continue to improve its viability.
Voidweaver: Entropic Rift damage increased by 30% in PvP combat.
Voidweaver: Collapsing Void damage increased by 30% in PvP combat.
Holy
Developers’ notes: We’re reducing the strength of Oracle Holy Priest this week through nerfs to its damage and Prayer of Mending output.
Oracle: Preventive Measures now provides a 15% damage and healing bonus to its affected spells in PvP combat (was 40%).
ROGUE
Outlaw
Restless Blades effectiveness reduced by 20% in PvP combat.
Sinister Strike damage increased by 20% in PvP combat.
Pistol Shot damage increased by 20% in PvP combat.
SHAMAN
Enhancement
Developers’ notes: We’re increasing the power of some core Maelstrom spenders which have fallen behind the rest of its damage sources.
Elemental Blast damage increased by 15% in PvP combat.
Lightning Bolt damage increased by 25% in PvP combat.
Restoration
Developers’ notes: We’re increasing the strength of the Storm Conduit PvP talent and some targeted buffs to Totemic Restoration Shaman.
Storm Conduit now reduces the cooldown of spells by 4 seconds (was 3 seconds).
Storm Conduit now reduces the duration of interrupts suffered while casting Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning by 65% (was 50%).
Rain Dance now reduces the mana cost of Healing Rain and Surging Totem by 60% (was 45%).
Rain Dance now increases the healing of Healing Rain and Surging Totem by 50% (was 30%).
Acid Rain damage increased by 30% in PvP combat.
Appreciate the tunings but I just want to know why some of these specs like frost are getting some kind of compensatory buff alongside their nerfs? Like does frost really need * All damage increased by 4% in PvP combat.???
Who is this game for??? Like in PvE after the big world tournaments, they then nerf the mythic bosses to oblivion so actual players can experience the content… We are just here to fund the fun of a few, like livestock. AAA gaming calls it managing human resources lol.
PvP, they tune the classes based on the .0001% super human players who can outperform BOTs, who play a toon no where near the way normal players do…
How about they tune classes for FUN??? OH wait, I forgot, here at AAA big company gaming fun is highly regulated, and remains behind a pay wall lol. Any unsanctioned spontaneous fun should be reported immediately, big brother is watching.
Some of the current devs have privately expressed their intention for melee/caster to be the primary meta, which is fine. I think most long-time players agree that those comps and matchups tend to reflect the most true-to-intent design for arena.
But the way they’ve been so boldly hesitant to balance Feral in any meaningful way over the last five seasons is extremely lame.
Rogue and Feral are really the only melee specs in the game that can truly enable melee/caster comps, but the focus should shift to bringing other melee specs up to their level mechanically—if they’re not going to nerf Rogue and Feral’s damage to compensate for their obscenely broken kits.
Finally a relevant change that should have happened long time ago.
However, blizzard have nerfed ferals in other ways time and time again and those nerfs are still in the game. They are not necessarily output nerfs, but things that make feral more fluent and competitive amongst/playing with other specs.
Before this ssn even started, blizzard advocated that they will make pvp talent changes for a lot of specs to encourage different playstyles.
There were 0 talents added for feral, 0 positive changes.
King of the Jungle as the best pvp talent has been completely removed. Fine.
What is the replacement? None.
Bite talent nerfed, Tireless Pursuit nerfed, thorns reworked to completely useless.
Most importantly, what most ppl dont even realize, the biggest nerf was to wicked claws as MS effect. Can someone explain to me what is the reason that already lackluster MS effect got nerfed? This is the point where u should have nerfed feral dmg, like you did now, not the MS effect which enables feral to play comps without a hunter/warrior etc.
Now ferals have the worst MS effect that needs to be stacked and it is dispellable on top of it.
To sum it up, nerf to rip dmg and cyclone cast during HotW is a good change, it should have happened long time ago, but pvp talent changes should be reverted.
They are all very underwhelming now, giving u not much to choose from that actually has effect on your gameplay.
This has nothing to do with output or class being “S tier” or “F tier” for all I care.
It is simply making the class fun to play and more viable with other specs, giving you some comp options.
Reason blizzard was nerfing pvp talents was that they wanted to nerf feral in pvp but they were doing it in a wrong way. Now they finally nerfed rip and clone cast during HotW which is good.
Nerfed feral dmg = revert pvp talent changes.
Someone tell the devs frostbite needs to be removed from the game entirely. Also not sure frost needed compensation buffs, Not sure how impactful those changes will be overall.
Same with the aimed shot nerfs, lot of mod nerfs but then a 15% compensation which offsets it somewhat.
Heart of the wild cast speed reduction on cyclone just needs to be removed, or heart of the wild needs a drastically shorter duration. 1sec or lower clone cast times are extremely obnoxious.
Did UHDK need damage? thought their issue was surviving? I mean of course blizz balances by just making specs deal insane damage eventually rather than fixing their core problems.
Rip nerf is good, prob should of seen a nerf to fero bite as well and of course maim 30sec cd.
While outlaw needs a nerf, I don’t really approve of them nerfing the core concept of a spec making it not function correctly, just turns into bad gameplay. Outlaw only functions with cooldown reduction (AR uptime) on its own at least, obviously it can still stun bot for a mage regardless. Kind of like how when they made ele all about overloads then nerfed every possible overload advantage in pvp and now ele is stuck relying on just overtuned flat damage buffs to be playable.
This is becoming an increasingly common tactic on these forums - redefining what was meta and when. “5 seasons” feral has been meta for two seasons. Season 1 of tww was basically a “sorry you were bad all of dragonflight” season for feral. Wanting feral nerfs is fine but you dont have to change the past to go about getting them.
Feral isn’t necessarily untouched right? Their top damage spell got nerfed by 15%. Heart of the wild nerf is very nice too. I assume that probably isn’t enough though but we’ll see.
It’s crazy that they’ve nerfed ferals 3 times now though and if it isn’t enough this time maybe they need to look into why the only melee able to make caster/melee work are the only two melee with reliable cc/stuns, along with good damage, good mobility and constant MS. The two most important things there being MS and stuns.
Also I agree with everyone else, please do something about frostbite and crippling poison. These specs should not have permanent passive slows (also a passive root from frostbite). This needs to be addressed.
And is not just the mere root effect without dr, is the combination with a pasive 50% slowing effect with almost every spell they have, and the infinites blinks. Mages are unfair as hell but for some reason only blizzard and mages players don’t notice it…or they not want to.
Put a dr effect on the roots, take off the perma-slowing effect on every spell they throw and put it only on a spell that can’t be spamed and let the blinks intact. Change that and there will be more balance.