Class balance changes in hotfixes for September 23

September 23

Hotfixes

Achievements

• Broken Isles Pathfinder Rank 1 now properly displays the amount of the mounted speed increase.

Classes

Developers’ Notes: As we discussed last week, we’ve been gathering a massive amount of data based on how each spec has been performing in this first week of raids and Mythic Keystone dungeons, so that we can make a number of tuning changes with next week’s realm maintenance. The overall goal of these changes is to buff up some underperforming specs while also reining in a couple of over-performers, without dramatically changing anyone’s playstyle or causing them to feel as though the spec they chose to focus on became the “wrong choice.”

All of these class changes will be applied during the next scheduled weekly maintenance period in each region. Note that there are also a number of PvP-specific changes, which are noted separately below.

Death Knight

• Frost
  • Remorseless Winter damage increased by 50%.
  • Obliterate damage increased by 19%.
  • Frost Strike damage increased by 12%.
  • Howling Blast damage increased by 10%.
  • Frostscythe (Talent) damage increased by 13%.
  • Frozen Pulse (Talent) damage increased by 11%.
  • Breath of Sindragosa (Talent) damage increased by 17%.

Demon Hunter

• Havoc
  • Throw Glaive damage reduced by 30%.
  • Fel Mastery (Talent) damage bonus to Fel Rush reduced to 30%.
  • Bloodlet (Talent) now deals 100% of initial Throw Glaive damage.
  • Fury of the Illidari (Artifact Ability) damage reduced by 20%.
    • Note: See below for for additional PvP tuning adjustments to Fury of the Illidari.
  • Balanced Blades (Artifact Trait) damage bonus to Blade Dance reduced to 3% per target.
• Vengeance
  • Mastery now provides 50% less damage reduction per point.
  • Demon Spikes damage reduction increased to 20%.
    • Note: Gearing heavily for Mastery was allowing Vengeance Demon Hunters to reach excessively high levels of Physical damage reduction. We’re reducing the top-end potential of this effect somewhat, and bringing up the baseline. This should also cause the value of Mastery to be more in line with other stats.

Druid

• Moonfire (non-Feral) damage increased by 10%.
• Balance
  • Sunfire damage increased by 10%.
  • Starfall damage increased by 10%.
  • Lunar Strike damage increased by 5%.
  • Solar Wrath damage increased by 5%.

Mage

• Arcane
  • Mastery effects increased by 20%.
  • Arcane Missiles damage increased by 9%.
  • Arcane Blast damage increased by 10%.
• Frost
  • Frostbolt damage increased by 8%.
  • Ice Lance damage increased by 13%.
  • Flurry damage increased by 38%.
  • Blizzard damage increased by 36%, and mana cost reduced by 50%.
  • Splitting Ice (Talent) now causes 80% of normal damage (up from 50%).
  • Ice Nova (Talent) damage increased by 13%.
  • Ray of Frost (Talent) damage increased by 28%.
  • Glacial Spike (Talent) damage increased by 15%.

Hunter

• Barrage (non-Survival) damage reduced by 20%.
• Beast Mastery
  • Bestial Wrath damage bonus increased to 25%.
• Survival
  • Flanking Strike damage increased by 62%.

Monk

• Mistweaver
  • Spinning Crane Kick (Mistweaver) damage reduced by 25%.

Paladin

• Retribution
  • Templar’s Verdict damage increased by 10%.
  • Divine Storm damage increased by 20%.
  • Crusader Strike (Retribution) damage increased by 13%.
  • Blade of Justice damage increased by 13%.
  • Judgment (Retribution) damage increased by 13%.
  • Zeal (Talent) damage increased by 13%.
  • Blade of Wrath (Talent) damage increased by 13%.

Priest

• Holy
  • Holy Nova damage reduced by 16%.
• Shadow
  • Mind Sear damage and Insanity generation increased by 50%.
  • Voidform stacks no longer increase while Dispersion and Void Torrent are active.
    • Note: These abilities prevent Insanity drain from increasing while active, which effectively reduces the Insanity drain for the entire remainder the current Voidform. This was proving to be too powerful, so we’re now making sure that the damage bonus and Insanity drain from Voidform remain in sync.
  • The benefit of Mass Hysteria (Artifact Trait) is now capped at 100%.
    • Note: We want it to be rewarding when you’re able to maintain Surrender to Madness for an extremely long time, but the amount of damage this trait was contributing in those circumstances was excessive.

Rogue

• Death From Above (Talent) area damage increased by 100%.
• Assassination
  • Deadly Poison damage increased by 30%.
  • Fan of Knives damage increased by 30%.
  • Bag of Tricks (Artifact Trait) duration reduced to 3 seconds (overall damage unchanged), radius increased to 6 yards (from 3), and now benefits from Mastery.
  • Poison Knives (Artifact Trait) no longer benefits twitch from Mastery. Damage per point increased to 4%.
• Outlaw
  • Fatebringer (Artifact Trait) Energy cost reduction reduced to 3 per rank.
  • Fate’s Thirst (Artifact Trait) damage bonus to Run Through reduced to 6% per rank.
  • Black Powder (Artifact Trait) damage bonus to Between the Eyes reduced to 6% per rank.
• Subtlelty
  • Eviscerate damage increased by 15%.
  • Nightblade damage increased by 15%.
    • Note: See below for additional PvP tuning adjustments to Eviscerate and Nightblade.
  • Shuriken Storm damage increased by 30%.
  • Second Shuriken (Artifact Trait) chance to activate increased to 30% (was 10%), damage increased by 30%, and now deals 200% additional damage while Stealth or Shadow Dance is active.

Shaman

• Elemental
  • Mastery effects increased by 12.5%.
  • Chain Lightning Maelstrom generation increased to 6.
  • Lightning Bolt (Elemental) damage increased by 23%.
  • Chain Lightning (Elemental) damage increased by 23%.
  • Lava Burst damage increased by 5%.
  • Storm Elemental (Talent)’s Call Lightning and Wind Gust damage increased by 20%.
• Enhancement
  • Fixed a bug that gave offhand special attacks a 100% chance to activate Windfury while Doom Winds was active.
  • Windfury activation chance increased to 20%.
    • Note: We’re fixing a bug that added multiple extra Windfury procs to each activation of Doom Winds, but adding some Windfury procs back by increasing the baseline activation chance. This should also improve Maelstrom generation outside of Doom Winds.
• Restoration
  • Chain Lightning (Restoration) damage increased by 23%.

Warlock

• Affliction
  • Drain Life damage increased by 10%
  • Drain Soul damage increased by 10%
  • Corruption damage increased by 10%
  • Agony damage increased by 5%
  • Unstable Affliction damage increased by 15%
  • Seed of Corruption damage increased by 15%
  • Siphon Life (Talent) damage increased by 10%
  • Haunt (Talent) damage increased by 15%
  • Phantom Singularity (Talent) damage increased by 15%
• Demonology
  • Hand of Gul’dan impact damage increased by 20%
  • Demonwrath damage increased by 15%
  • Shadowbolt damage increased by 10%
  • Doom damage increased by 10%
  • Wild Imps damage increased by 10%
  • Dreadstalker attack power increased by 10%
  • Felguard attack power increased by 10%
  • Doomguard (Demonology)’s Doom Bolt damage increased by 18%
  • Demonbolt (Talent) damage increased by 10%
  • Implosion (Talent) damage increased by 15%
  • Shadowflame (Talent) damage increased by 10%
  • Darkglare (Talent) damage increased by 10%
• Destruction
  • Chaos Bolt damage increased by 11%
  • Incinerate damage increased by 11%
  • Immolate damage increased by 11%
  • Conflagrate damage increased by 11%
  • Rain of Fire damage increased by 11%, and cast time removed
  • Cataclysm (Talent) damage increased by 11%
  • Channel Demonfire (Talent) damage increased by 11%

Warrior

• Arms
  • Exploit the Weakness (Artifact Trait) bonus reduced to 3% per point.
  • Focused Rage (Talent) damage bonus reduced to 30%.
• Fury
  • Rampage damage increased by 12%.
  • Bloodthirst damage increased by 12%.
  • Raging Blow damage increased by 5%.
  • Furious Slash damage increased by 5%.
  • Execute (Fury) damage increased by 5%.
• Protection
  • Vengeance (Talent) Rage cost reduction reduced to 35%.
  • Intercept Rage generation reduced to 10.
  • Shield Slam Rage generation reduced to 10.

PvP

Developers’ Notes: While many of the above changes are beneficial for PvP, some specs need additional tuning for PvP situations. Some of the PvP- specific changes we’re making are intended to counteract the above, while others are simply intended to help overall PvP balance.

• Battlegrounds
  • Tank-specialized characters no longer take additional damage while carrying a flag.
• Death Knight
  • Blood
    • Consumption (Artifact Ability)’s healing is no longer reduced in PvP.
    • Death Strike now factors in 50% of recent damage taken from players when determining it’s healing amount (previously, it ignored damage taken from players).
• Demon Hunter
  • Havoc
    • Fury of the Illidari (Artifact Ability) damage is now reduced by 10% in PvP (up from a 30% reduction).
  • Vengeance
    • Soul Cleave’s heal is no longer reduced in PvP.
• Druid
  • Restoration
    • Lifebloom’s bloom effect increased by 50% in PvP.
    • Critical Strike stat reduced by 50%.
    • Haste stat increased by 50%.
  • Guardian
    • Frenzied Regeneration now factors in 50% of recent damage taken from players when determining it’s healing amount (previously, it ignored damage taken from players).
• Hunter
  • Survival
    • Mongoose Fury now increases the damage of Mongoose Bite by 35% per stack in PvP (up from 25% per stack).
  • Beast Mastery
    • Agility stat reduced by 10%.
• Mage
  • Frost
    • Frostbolt now reduces movement speed by 50%.
    • Frostbolt damage is now increased by 10% in PvP (down from 20%).
  • Fire
    • World in Flames (Honor Talent)’s reduction to Flamestrike’s cast time reduced to 2 seconds.
• Monk
  • Mistweaver
    • Counteract Magic (Honor Talent) bonus to Renewing Mist reduced to 150%.
  • Windwalker
    • Strike of the Windlord (Artifact Ability) damage is now reduced by 30% in PvP (up from 50%).
    • Agility stat increased by 12%.
• Paladin
  • Retribution
    • Strength stat reduced by 5%.
  • Protection
    • Light of the Protector and Hand of the Protector healing is now reduced by 15% in PvP (up from 50%).
• Priest
  • Discipline
    • Atonement healing is now increased by 15% in PvP (down from 25%).
  • Holy
    • Apotheosis can no longer be dispelled.
• Rogue
  • Outlaw
    • Control is King (Honor Talent) duration reduced to 3 seconds.
    • Between the Eyes’ damage bonus on Critical Strikes reduced to 100% in PvP (down from 200%).
  • Subtlety
    • Eviscerate now deals 15% less damage in PvP.
    • Nightblade now deals 15% less damage in PvP.
• Warrior
  • Arms
    • Echo Slam (Honor Talent) damage reduced to 5% of the target’s total health.
  • Fury
    • Bloodthirst’s heal is no longer reduced in PvP.
  • Protection
    • Ignore Pain’s maximum absorb amount is no longer reduced in PvP. (Note: the effect of each Ignore Pain is still reduced by 20% in PvP)
• Honor System
  • The Honor system reward Glory of the Melee now rewards 500 Artifact Power (was 150).
• World PvP
  • Warden Tower World Quests now grant 150 honor (was 300).
  • Warden Tower World Quests now appear three times per day, and each quest is available for 24 hours.

Class Halls

• Druids with the Evergreen perk should no longer have their planted soils reset after entering an Arena match.
• The Soul Reapers tooltip for the Shadow Heresy talent is no longer incorrect.

Dungeons and Raids

• Emerald Nightmare
  • Fixed a bug where players would fall to their death when jumping into the Rift of Aln while mounted.
  • Warlocks will now be able to target their Soul Effigies when fighting Il’gynoth inside the heart chamber.
  • Ursoc no longer causes players to stand up (and interrupt their eating/drinking) when he respawns.
• The Arcway
  • Enemy Forces will remain in The Arcway after players have defeated Advisor Vandros.
  • Tome of Hex: Spider should now only drop for Shaman when defeating Nal’tira.
• Maw of Souls
  • Players should no longer become stuck inside the cages they’re placed in after defeating Ymiron.

Items

• Damage from Potion of the Old War and Potion of Deadly Grace reduced by 33%.
  • Developers’ Notes: Previously, we significantly buffed the damage of these potions, but then discovered some bugs that were significantly reducing their effective damage. Now that those bugs have been fixed, their damage contribution is much too high. They should still feel very rewarding to use, but we’re bringing them back down to Earth a little.
• Fixed a bug that was causing Balance Druids to sometimes engage enemies from unintended great distances with damaging trinket procs.
• The Grove Darkener’s Treads should now switch from Intellect to Agility based on your spec.

Professions

• It should now be possible to reach skill 800 in Blacksmithing.
• Cooking
  • Rank 1 of Hearty Feast should now reward one feast instead of five. Subsequent ranks reward a cost reduction, rather than additional food.
  • Demon Hunters should now get appropriate stats from feasts and other similar sources of buffs.

Quests

• In the Withered Army Training scenario, it should be less likely for Leystalker Dro to be hiding somewhere that he wouldn’t normally be encountered by clearing the room.
• A new Archaeology Quests aura is now displayed while you’re on an Archaeology quest in your current zone.
  • Developers’ Notes: This is to make sure you’re aware of how many days you have left to complete a large Archaeology project before it expires. We’re investigating ways to provide this in the quest tracker and quest log.
• Aodh Witherpetal will no longer become stuck during “DANGER: Aodh Witherpetal”.