January 6 class changes

Looks like rogue, warrior, warlock buffs. No mention of OP specs being tuned down in pvp, so demon hunters look to be running rampant for the foreseeable future. No material buffs to underperforming specs like balance Druid, mages, healer priests. RIP pvp

Newest changes to the PTR:

CLASSES

  • DRUID
    • Balance
      • Astral Communion, in addition to its active effect, also passively increases your maximum Astral Power by 20.
    • Guardian
      • Added a tracker buff for After the Wildfire to indicate remaining rage expenditure until a trigger occurs.
    • Restoration
      • New Talent - Forest’s Flow: Nourish extends the duration of your Lifebloom, Rejuvenation, Regrowth, and Wild Growth effects on the target by 2 sec. Choice node with Wild Synthesis.
      • New Talent - Wild Synthesis: Regrowth decreases the cast time of your next Nourish by 25% and causes it to receive an additional 25% bonus from Mastery: Harmony. Choice node with Forest’s Flow.
      • Forest’s Flow/Wild Synthesis choice node connection added below Nourish.
      • Nourish’s tooltip has been updated to reflect its bonus healing from Mastery Harmony numerically.
  • MONK
    • Class
      • Fixed an issue that caused the Awakened Faeline and Faeline Harmony talents to grant less chance to reset Faeline Stomp than intended.
      • Faeline Stomp now always spawns with a minimum of 1 branch.
      • Faeline Stomp now has a 100% increased chance to spawn circles within its arc.
    • Mistweaver
      • Awakened Faeline and Ancient Concordance now linger for 8 seconds after leaving Faeline Stomp.
      • Sheilun’s Gift has received some additional changes:
        • Healing increased by 15%.
        • Now stacks to a maximum of 10 clouds of mist (was 12).
        • Now triggers Mastery: Gust of Mists on all targets hit.
        • Now costs 3.5% of base mana (was 4.5%).
        • Now prioritizes its primary target for healing.
      • Rising Mist now extends Renewing Mists applied by Rapid Diffusion.
      • Vivify now costs 3.4% of base mana (was 3.8%).
      • Invoke Yu’lon, the Jade Serpent now reduces the cost of Enveloping Mist by 50% (was 33%).
      • Echoing Reverberation now only requires Enveloping Mist to trigger an additional Zen Pulse (was Enveloping Mist and Renewing Mist).
      • Zen Pulse now triggers Mastery: Gust of Mist.
    • Brewmaster
      • New ability - Spirit of the Ox: Your Rising Sun Kick and Blackout Kick have a chance to summon a Healing Sphere.
      • Stagger is now a baseline ability for the Brewmaster specialization.
      • Quick Sip now purifies 5% of damage delayed by Stagger (was 2%).
      • Gift of the Ox is now a 1 rank talent (was 2).
      • Graceful Exit is now a 1 rank talent (was 2).
      • Quick Sip is now a 1 rank talent (was 2).
      • Staggering Strikes is now a 1 rank talent (was 2).
  • PALADIN
    • Class
      • Added a tracker buff for Afterimage to indicate remaining Holy Power expenditure until a trigger occurs.
    • Holy
      • Tyr’s Deliverance healing increased by 25%.
      • Afterimage no longer triggers Awakening or Divine Purpose.
      • Avenging Crusader can now trigger and consume Divine Purpose.
  • PRIEST
    • Class
      • New talent: Sanguine Teachings - Increases Leech by 3%.
        • On a choice node against Vampiric Embrace.
      • Vampiric Embrace is no longer on the global cooldown.
      • San’layn now also causes Sanguine Teachings to grant an additional 2% Leech.
      • Manipulation can now be triggered by Discipline’s Power Word: Solace & Mind Blast and Shadow’s Mind Flay and Mind Flay: Insanity.
    • Shadow
      • Psychic Link now also functions with Mind Games, Void Bolt & Void Torrent (Not Yet Implemented).
  • ROGUE
    • Class
      • Feint is now baseline for all Rogue specs, learned at level 12.
      • Elusiveness/Cheat Death - This choice node has moved up to row 2, taking the position where Feint used to be.
      • New Talent: Unbreakable Stride (Passive) - Reduces the duration of movement slowing effects by 30%.
      • Sepsis now grants 1 use of a Stealth ability immediately, in addition to its previous effects.
      • Fixed an issue that prevented Improved Garrote’s cooldown removal from taking effect when casting Garrote using Sepsis’ Stealth ability effect.
    • Assassination
      • Kingsbane has moved and now shares a location with Dragon-Tempered Blades as a choice node.
      • Dashing Scoundrel now costs a maximum of 2 points, down from 3.
      • New Talent: Arterial Precision (Passive) - Shiv strikes 4 additional nearby enemies and increases your Bleed damage done to affected targets by 20% for 8 sec.
        • This talent is positioned in Kingsbane’s previous location.
    • Outlaw
      • Killing Spree now reduces damage taken by 65% while active.
      • Fan the Hammer’s additional Pistol Shots now generate 1 fewer combo point.
    • Subtlety
      • Invigorating Shadowdust now reduces affected cooldowns by 15/30 sec (was 10/20 sec).
      • Effectiveness reduced by 50% in PvP Combat.
  • SHAMAN
    • Class
      • Mana Spring Totem has been renamed to Mana Spring and is a passive effect. (Not Yet Implemented).
  • WARLOCK
    • Demonology
      • Felstorm, Guillotine, and Demonic Strength now place one another on cooldown:
        • Felstorm places Guillotine and Demonic Strength on cooldown for 5 seconds.
        • Demonic Strength places Felstorm and Guillotine on cooldown for 5 seconds.
        • Guillotine places Felstorm and Demonic Strength on cooldown for 8 seconds.
          • Developers’ note: This should have no impact on Demonology’s overall throughput. This change exists to help alleviate confusion on when the Felguard is able to cast Felstorm, Guillotine, or Demonic Strength by providing a visual tell through the UI.
    • Destruction
      • Ashen Remains now causes Chaos Bolt, Incinerate, and Shadowburn to deal 5/10% increased damage to targets afflicted by Immolate.
      • Eradication now causes Chaos Bolt and Shadowburn to increase the damage you deal to the target by 5/10%.
      • Burn to Ashes now causes Chaos Bolt and Rain of Fire to increase the damage of your next 2 Incinerates by 15/30% and Shadowburn to increase the damage of your next Incinerate by 15/30%.
  • WARRIOR
    • Arms
      • Improved Sweeping Strikes now lasts 6 sec (was 5).
      • Improved Mortal Strike has been removed from the tree.
      • New Talent: Strength in Arms - Overpower has a 10% increased critical strike chance and on enemies below 35% health Overpower generates 8 Rage.
      • Fatal Mark duration increased to 120 sec (was 60 sec).
      • Storm of Swords causes Whirlwind to cost 20 more Rage (was 30).
    • Fury
      • Onslaught damage increased by 40% and now generates 30 Rage (was 25).
      • Tenderize now causes Enrage to last 2 sec longer (was 1 sec).
      • Storm of Steel now reduces Ravager damage by 30% (was 40%) and Rage granted increased to 20 (was 15).
      • Frenzied Flurry increases auto-attack damage with one-handed weapons by 30% (was 5%).
      • Unbridled Ferocity - Onslaught now triggers Recklessness in addition to Rampage.
      • Storm of Swords now increases Whirlwind damage by 80% (was 70%).
      • Anger Management now also decreases the cooldown of Ravager.
        • Developers’ note: With this update we are looking to increase the effectiveness of talents that are seeing less use.

MAGE TOWER

  • The Mage Tower is now available for testing.

PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER

  • PALADIN
    • Reckoning (PvP Talent) now highlights Judgment when active.

PROFESSIONS

  • All professions have had the requirements to unlock specializations reduced. Professions with 3 specialization trees have had their final unlock reduced from profession level 100 to 75. All professions with 4 specialization trees have had their final two unlocks reduced from profession level 75/100 to levels 60/75.

TRADING POST

  • The Trading Post is currently disabled on the PTR. Thank you again for your testing and feedback!
1 Like

“Hey guys, we know that we invented this super polarizing version of marks and ignored your feedback for 3 entire expansion betas on how problematic doubletap and careful aim are as win conditions. We are just going to remove the win condition we gave you and leave everything else as-is with no explanation while simultaneously making sweeping intricate changes to other classes that include communication. We’d rather you just not play marks.”

9 Likes

Nothing can go wrong with aoe shiv.

7 Likes

Been waiting for these retribution changes, thx Bobby.

2 Likes

lol they legit gave Rogue an AOE 40% healing reduction…I actually think I’ve started losing faith in Blizzard as a company. None of these changes have anything to do with PvE and are strictly PvP.

7 Likes

Not PvP related but I like the brewmaster buffs

Not a single word on hunters

7 Likes

Hoping we get some pvp specific changes before Tuesday but it’s not looking good so far.

I don’t think we will at this point. Usually patch notes are posted Friday and if this is what they are posting I don’t forsee PvP balancing to happen.

Ya that’s my concern as well, kinda nuts tbh.

Idk it’s to be expected, PvP has been on maintenance mode since forever.

2 Likes

Lol.

Lmao, even.

16 Likes

Just saw
Soul Rending (DH leech) in PvP reduced by 40%
Soul Rend (glaive throw dot) reduced by 20% in PvP

And they buffed the hunt again lol. Hunt buffed from 184% of Attack power, to 245% of Attack Power.

Also it looks like major damage buffs to Spriest as well. All Spriest damage abilities increased by about 20% damage.

AOE Shiv added, but 40% damage nerf to garrote in PvP.

1 Like

Buff Disc Priests

4 Likes

Looks like alot of buffs to specs that dont need it.

8 Likes

Also reduced glimpse damage reduction by half. While it’s primarily used to set up a cc free hunt, or soak cc in general, it’s always bad when blizz removes skill based defensives. Reduce passive defensives instead.

Is there anything skillful about a 20 second 75% wall? (That removes disarms)

Arms got ignore pain back so legendary

6 Likes

Like zero hunter changes, nothing to talk about Hunter defensives, survivability…nothing. I’m actually pretty disappointed in Blizzard.

3 Likes

AoE shiv with with Spear of Bastion and Bladestorm sounds like a great time, a literal meatgrinder if two people are next to each other for even a second