The can of worms have been opened and there’s no going back.
Fine, Blizzard chose not to roll out class/mechanic changes in-line with the original timeline of Wrath (which was probably a good move for Death Knights and even Rogues with the 3.3 poison change).
The previous fact of the matter is 3 out of the 4 classes (Ferals, Furys, and Marksman Hunters), which are the primary beneficiaries of armor penetration, were left in the “you’ll be better eventually” waiting room given the 3.2.2 armor penetration stat nerf back in 2009 that has been live on WotLK Classic thus far:
The nerf to armor pen in 3.2.2 is intentional. Compared to the recent buff where we increased the value of armor rating to 125%, this nerf would take it back down to 110%. While we are still evaluating the effects of this change in the 3.2.2 build, we did want to let you know of the possibility in case you were about to spend a lot on armor pen gems.
In fact, this was really the point. Several melee specs (and Marksman hunters) had begun to focus on armor pen at the expense of all other stats. Gear without armor pen was being passed over and gem sockets were increasingly being filled with just this one stat. While every spec has stats that are more valuable than others, this one felt like it was starting to trump everything. Not coincidentally, characters stacking lots of armor pen were starting to do more damage than their peers and more damage than we were comfortable with.
This change is largely for PvE reasons, though we won’t cry at all if melee damage in PvP drops a little as a result.
We’re letting you know now so that this doesn’t feel like a stealth nerf, assuming it goes live. While you might disagree or be frustrated by the change (though I also suspect it won’t come as a surprise to many players), we ask that you try and keep your response to something appropriate for these forums (originally from Ghostcrawler).
Instead of brainstorming a solution which could have addressed the issue for all of the classes mentioned above, Blizzard chose to hand-pick which classes to balance. Ret Paladins received a ~10% buff in this tier and Feral Druids are showing that the original estimate of a 5-10% buff is an understatement.
Fury Warriors may still have a beacon of hope given their scaling with Shadowmourne, but will likely still be an issue considering how far into the end-game that could be.
The one class/spec that has not been the topic of enough discussion are Marksman Hunters. With the unforeseen TYPE of balance changes that have been made to 2 classes already, the cat is out of the bag… let’s get crazy with the ideas.
In line with the ~10% DPS buffs that other classes have received, why not brainstorm buffs for Marksman Hunters that might have previously been dismissed as delusional?
- Glyph of Trueshot Aura now grants +10% critical strike on all attacks (+~640 dps)
- Address Piercing Shots munching (+~40 dps)
- Make Improved Steady Shot behave as a stacking buff instead of just one (~+20 dps)
The sum of all these proposed changes would theoretically be ~+700 dps (about +7.5% DPS output in current phase BiS - this is still much less than the buff we have already seen to Rets and Ferals).
If the formula to seeing balance changes to class specializations is enough exposure and presence on forums, consider this an initial plea.