Latest WoW patch 7.1 hotfixes

With this week’s maintenance period, we plan to apply several hotfixes to classes (particularly in regards to PvP balance) and item rewards. We’d like to share with you a preview of those changes, along with some insight from the development team.

Classes
Priest

• Shadow: Voidform’s Insanity drain now begins at 8 Insanity per second (down from 9), but will increase at a 10% faster rate
• Developers’ Notes: We want to reduce the maximum amount of time that Surrender to Madness can be maintained, without significantly impacting Shadow otherwise. Our intent in this hotfix is that it’s still effective to use Surrender similarly to how it is currently used, but that its maximum potential in ideal situations is slightly less extreme.

Items

• All Legion Legendary items have had their item level increased by 15. This change will be applied retroactively.
• All items from the Trial of Valor have had their base item level increased by 5. This change will be applied retroactively.

PvP
(Note: The changes listed in this section only apply in PvP situations)

Death Knight

• Frost: Strength reduced by 10%
• Blood: Blood Boil no longer has its damage reduced in PvP (was previously reduced by 70%)
• Developers’ Notes: Frost Death Knight damage continues to be higher than we’d like following the changes in Patch 7.1. For Blood, we no longer feel the damage reduction on Blood Boil is necessary. We plan to make a broader set of changes for them (and other tanks) in Patch 7.1.5.

Druid

• Feral: Rake damage reduced by 20% in PvP
• Developers’ Notes: We like that Feral Druids can apply a lot of spread pressure through their bleeds, but Rake’s damage feels out of line.

Mage

• Fire: Intellect increased by 10%
• Developers’ Notes: Fire Mages have simply fallen behind in terms of damage output, and we felt they needed an increase.

Paladin

• Holy: Mana regeneration rate has been reduced by 23% while in a PvP instance
• Holy: Avenging Crusader (Honor Talent) now costs 110,000 mana (previously had no mana cost)
• Developers’ Notes: Holy Paladins are too mana efficient in current PvP gameplay. We’re reducing their overall regeneration, as well as adding a mana cost to Avenging Crusader, since it was essentially mana-free healing.

Rogue

• Feint now reduces damage taken from player-cast area-of-effect spells by 30% (down from 50%)
• Stamina for all Rogue specializations has been increased by 5%
• Developers’ Notes: Feint’s AoE damage reduction is intended to protect Rogues during dungeon and raid encounters, but many class abilities that feel like single target spells in PvP are treated as AoE effects (e.g. Lunar Strike, Ice Nova). This makes Rogues unintentionally resistant to those abilities. We’re reducing Feint’s AoE damage reduction in PvP, but increasing Stamina to compensate.

Shaman

• Elemental: Stormkeeper now increases damage of Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, and Lava Beam by 100% against players (down from 200%)
• Elemental: Intellect increased by 5%
• Developers’ Notes: Stormkeeper is at the center of a combination of cooldowns and procs that can cause extraordinarily high damage in a very short time. We’re reducing its impact but increasing Elemental’s damage overall to compensate.

Warlock

• Affliction: The damage caused by dispelling Unstable Affliction has been increased by 100%
• Destruction: Chaos Bolt damage bonus against players increased to 35% (was previously increased by 20%)
• Developers’ Notes: Patch 7.1 changed the design of Unstable Affliction, and our initial tuning on the dispel damage was simply too low. For Destruction, we want spending Soul Shards on Chaos Bolt to feel rewarding when weighed against the alternatives.