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WoWOct 14, 2016 9:57 am CT

Latest hotfixes arrive with a round of PVP nerfs

I have bad news, everyone, because the latest hotfixes have removed collision from Spirit Cauldrons. Gone forever are the days when you could build your own Spirit Cauldron tower to traverse to the top of the spires of Dalaran. Spirit Cauldron towers, you will be missed. Maybe it’s for the best: Spirit Cauldrons aren’t cheap, and I definitely would have gone broke if I used them every time I needed to reach a tall shelf.

But for players more interested in actual gameplay, these hotfixes are mostly PVP focused, with nerfs for Frost Mages, Beast Mastery Hunters, Mistweaver Monks, Retribution Paladins, Assassination and Outlaw Rogues, and Enhancement Shaman. Whether you agree or disagree with this set of changes, the hotfix notes include developer commentary on why each was made — a feature I’ve always liked in Heroes of the Storm patch and hotfix notes, and I’m glad to see similar commentary making its way to WoW. This certainly won’t be the last change to PVP balance, as patch 7.1 will be reworking a lot of Honor Talents, including Destruction Warlocks, Windwalker Monks, Death Knights, Balance Druids, and Restoration Druids.

PVE players, don’t panic, because these changes will only affect PVP — your PVE gameplay will be the same as always.

These aren’t all of the details, of course, so see the hotfix notes below for more.

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment (Official Post)

Bonus Events

  • Entering a Timewalking Dungeon will no longer clear any planted plants from the Druid Evergreen upgrade.
  • The fireballs from the cooking buff “Pepper Breath” should now scale properly in Timewalking.
  • Class Hall Set 6-piece and 8-piece bonuses should now scale properly in Timewalking.

Classes

Druid

  • Ironfur no longer incorrectly multiplies Bonus Armor effects from temporary buffs.
  • (Balance) New Moon, Half Moon, and Full Moon are now in the Arcane spell school.

Items

  • Spirit Cauldrons no longer have collision.

Player versus Player

Reminder: These changes are only active while in PvP combat situations and do not affect PvE. Many more Honor Talent changes are coming with Patch 7.1, including changes to Destruction Warlocks, Windwalker Monks, Death Knights, Balance Druids, and Restoration Druids.

Mage

Frost

  • Ice Form now has a 60 second cooldown (was 45 seconds).
  • Ice Form can no longer be cast while stunned.
  • Ice Form will now cause the Mage to be immune to only stuns, instead of other unintended crowd-control effects, such as Paralysis.
  • Frostbolt no longer deals increased damage in PvP (was a multiplier of +10%).
    • Developers’ Notes: Frost Mages are intended to create burst windows with Shatter and Glacial Spike, but have been reaching unintended levels of damage. By reducing Frostbolt damage, we’re reducing the potential size of Icicles and Glacial Spike burst. The Ice Form fixes should reduce its uptime, which was too high.

Hunter

Beast Mastery

  • Beast Mastery Agility reduced by 10% in PvP.
    • Developers’ Notes: We’ve found Beast Mastery damage to be too high, but we don’t feel that it’s due to any specific ability or mechanic, so we’re reducing the overall PvP template.

Monk

Mistweaver

  • Mistwalk can no longer be cast while silenced.
  • Soothing Mist healing reduced by 10% in PvP. (Soothing Mist version of Ancient Mistweaver Arts is unaffected.)
  • Soothing Mist healing cast by Summon Jade Serpent Statue reduced by 10% in PvP.
    • Developers’ Notes: Mistweavers been one of our strongest healers. We feel Soothing Mist is doing too much healing per second on its own, making it so that the Mistweaver doesn’t have to use cast-time healing spells as much as other healers, even when their target is taking high amounts of damage. We’re reducing Soothing Mist slightly to address this. Mistwalk was never intended to be used while the Mistweaver was silenced or locked out of Nature, so we’ve fixed that as a bug.

Paladin

  • Pure of Heart no longer causes Cleanse to incur a cooldown when it removes poisons and diseases.
  • Pure of Heart no longer triggers when healed by a periodic heal effect, but will trigger when a spell such as Rejuvenation is initially cast.
    • Developers’ Notes: Retribution Paladins are designed to be a formidable damage dealer and also have a protective, counter-control kit for their allies. Pure of Heart is intended to “soft-counter” poisons and diseases, but we feel it’s too strong currently when the Paladin is paired with a healing-over-time healer. Pure of Heart will now only trigger when a healing spell is applied, but not periodically during the spell.

Retribution

  • Blessing of Sanctuary now has a 30 second cooldown, up from 25 seconds.
    • Developers’ Notes: Blessing of Sanctuary has proven to be a strong, signature Honor Talent, but we feel its cooldown is too short.

Rogue

Assassination

  • System Shock now properly requires an Envenom cast with 5 or more combo points.
  • System Shock’s damage has been reduced by 20%.
  • Assassination’s Agility has been reduced by 5% in PvP.
    • Developers’ Notes: The Assassination Rogue is intended to be a strong, persistent damage dealer that pressures targets but lacks the utility that Outlaw excels in or the mobility that Subtlety provides. We’ve been monitoring their damage and feel its higher than intended, and we’ve found some bugs with System Shock contributed to this. We’ve also altered their PvP template to effectively reduce their damage.

Outlaw

  • Control is King will no longer stack Adrenaline Rush above a 3 second duration.
    • Developers’ Notes: Control is King is intended to be an attractive choice for the Outlaw Rogue when within a control oriented team composition. This has worked out a bit too well. Now, subsequent procs of Control of King will no longer add to the duration, and instead will just refresh itself.

Shaman

Enhancement

  • Stormstrike’s damage is reduced by 15% in PvP.
  • Heroism and Bloodlust now have a 60 second cooldown when modified by Shamanism (was 45 seconds).
    • Developers’ Notes: The Enhancement Shaman is intended to be a formidable damage dealer who also provides offensive group utility through totems and buffs. Shamanism has been a popular choice for the Enhancement Shaman, allowing them to use Bloodlust/Heroism frequently and also in Arena combat. We like the utility this gives the Shaman, but feel its uptime is too high. Further, we feel the Enhancement Shaman’s burst damage with Stormstrike has been reaching unintended levels.

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