1.0.7 50 Million Critical Mass Budget Guide, Crafted Item Stat Rolls, Witch Doctors and Attack Speed, Blue Posts

Patch 5.2 PTR - Build 16618
Build 16618 will be deployed to the PTR realms soon. Don't miss GC's Patch Notes below!

Armored Skyscreamer
The blue version of the Armored Skyscreamer is now the Glory of the Thundering Raider reward.





Achievement Changes
Originally Posted by MMO-Champion
Dungeons & Raids



New Thunderforged Items
Lots of Thunderforged items have shown up over the past few days! Please note that this is not every Thunderforged item, many are still missing. The item level 496 cloaks from the previous build are now all epic and correctly set to Revered reputation required.

Level Type Spec Slot Name
528TrinketTrinket Spark of Zandalar
528TrinketTrinket Primordius' Talisman of Rage
528FingerTankFinger Jin'rokh's Soulcrystal
528NeckMeleeNeck Amulet of the Primal Turtle
528FingerMeleeFinger Band of the Scaled Tyrant
528NeckSpell SpiritNeck Horridon's Tusk Fragment
528FingerSpell SpiritFinger Petrified Eye of the Basilisk
528TrinketSpell SpiritTrinket Stolen Relic of Zuldazar
528NeckPhysical DPSNeck Talisman of Living Poison
528FingerPhysical DPSFinger Sign of the Bloodied God
528FingerPhysical DPSFinger Gore-Soaked Gear
528TrinketPhysical DPSTrinket Renataki's Soul Charm
528TrinketPhysical DPSTrinket Talisman of Bloodlust
528FingerSpell DPSFinger Jin'rokh's Dreamshard
528TrinketSpell DPSTrinket Horridon's Last Gasp
528BackTankBack Beakbreaker Greatcloak
528BackMeleeBack Hydra-Scale Bloodcloak
528BackMeleeBack Horn-Rimmed Doomcloak
528ClothSpell SpiritHead Stonegaze Hood
528ClothSpell SpiritChest Robes of Static Bursts
528ClothSpell SpiritLegs Leggings of Ebon Veins
528ClothSpell SpiritWrists Vaccinator's Armwraps
528ClothSpell SpiritHands Helix-Breaker Gloves
528BackSpell SpiritBack Drape of Booming Nights
528BackPhysical DPSBack Wastewalker's Sandblasted Drape
528ClothSpell DPSHead Flamecaster's Burning Crown
528ClothSpell DPSShoulders Fissure-Split Shoulderwraps
528ClothSpell DPSChest Robes of Mutagenic Blood
528ClothSpell DPSLegs Al'set's Tormented Leggings
528ClothSpell DPSWrists Azure Shell Bracers
528ClothSpell DPSWrists Bracers of Fragile Bone
528ClothSpell DPSHands Crystal-Claw Gloves
528ClothSpell DPSHands Lightningweaver Gauntlets
528BackSpell DPSBack Shimmershell Cape
528LeatherSpell SpiritShoulders Spaulders of Dinomancy
528LeatherSpell SpiritChest Robes of Concussive Shocks
528LeatherSpell SpiritLegs Leggings of the Malformed Sapling
528LeatherSpell SpiritWrists Vampire Bat-Hide Bracers
528LeatherSpell SpiritWrists Infinitely Conducting Bracers
528LeatherPhysical DPSHead Lightning-Eye Hood
528LeatherPhysical DPSShoulders Forgotten Mantle of the Moon
528LeatherPhysical DPSChest Rockfall Ribwraps
528LeatherPhysical DPSLegs Crimson Bloom Legguards
528LeatherPhysical DPSWrists Bindings of Multiplicative Strikes
528LeatherPhysical DPSHands Gloves of Cushioned Air
528LeatherPhysical DPSHands Grips of Vampiric Cruelty
528LeatherSpell DPSLegs Roots of Rampaging Earth
528MailSpell SpiritShoulders Spaulders of Quaking Fear
528MailSpell SpiritFeet Ghostbinder Greatboots
528MailPhysical DPSShoulders Static-Shot Shoulderguards
528MailPhysical DPSChest Sul'lithuz Sandmail
528MailPhysical DPSLegs Spearman's Jingling Leggings
528MailPhysical DPSFeet Quakestompers
528MailPhysical DPSWrists Beady-Eye Bracers
528MailPhysical DPSWrists Bracers of Mutagenic Fervor
528MailPhysical DPSHands Synapse-String Handguards
528MailSpell DPSHead Clear-Mind Helm
528MailSpell DPSLegs Legguards of Scintillating Scales
528PlateTankShoulders Metabolically Boosted Shoulderplates
528PlateTankLegs Black Blood Legplates
528PlateTankWrists Shell-Coated Wristplates
528PlateMeleeShoulders Shoulderguards of Centripetal Destruction
528PlateMeleeChest Chestplate of Violent Detonation
528PlateMeleeWaist Cloudbreaker Greatbelt
528PlateMeleeLegs Bloodlord's Bloodsoaked Legplates
528PlateMeleeWrists Frozen Warlord's Bracers
528PlateMeleeWrists Bracers of Constant Implosion
528PlateMeleeWrists Caustic Spike Bracers
528PlateMeleeHands Rein-Binder's Fists
528PlateSpell SpiritShoulders Spaulders of Primordial Growth
528PlateSpell SpiritWaist Refreshing Abalone Girdle
528PlateSpell SpiritWrists Bonemender Bracers
528PlateSpell SpiritHands Tortos' Shellseizers
528PlateSpell DPSChest Ionized Yojamban Carapace
528PlateSpell DPSWrists Armplates of the Vanquished Abomination
528ShieldTankOff Hand Greatshield of the Gloaming
528ShieldSpell SpiritOff Hand Tortos' Discarded Shell
528One-handed AxeMeleeOne Hand Shellsplitter Greataxe
528One-handed AxeMeleeOne Hand Worldbreaker's Stormscythe
528BowPhysical DPSRanged Shattered Tortoiseshell Longbow
528One-handed MaceTankOne Hand Acid-Spine Bonemace
528PolearmMeleeTwo Hand Bo-Ris, Horror in the Night
528One-handed SwordSpell SpiritOne Hand Soulblade of the Breaking Storm
528StaffPhysical DPSTwo Hand Jalak's Maelstrom Staff
528StaffSpell DPSTwo Hand Dinomancer's Spiritbinding Spire


Spell Changes
Originally Posted by MMO-Champion
Item Set Bonuses

Death Knight (Forums, Talent Calculator)

Frost

Unholy
  • Scourge Strike additional damage increased by 16% and weapon damage increased to 140%, up from 130%.

Hunter (Forums, Talent Calculator)
  • Steady Shot additional damage increased by 44% and weapon damage increased to 60%, up from 50%.

Marksmanship
  • Aimed Shot weapon damage increased to 350%, up from 320%. Additional damage increased by 20%.
  • Chimera Shot now does 315% ranged weapon Nature damage, up from 210%. Additional damage increased by 125%. Now heals you for 5% of your total health, up from 3%.

Survival

Mage (Forums, Talent Calculator)

Arcane

Monk (Forums, Talent Calculator)
  • Jab now costs 8% of Base Mana, up from 6%.

Mistweaver

Priest (Forums, Talent Calculator)
  • Penance now has a 40 yd range, up from 30.

Talents

Discipline
  • Penance now has a 9 sec cooldown, down from 10 sec.

Shadow
  • Mind Blast base damage reduced 17%. SP scaling reduced to 191%, down from 229%.
  • Shadowform now increases your Shadow damage by 25%, up from 20%.

Rogue (Forums, Talent Calculator)
Assassination
  • Dispatch now does 460% weapon damage, up from 400%. Additional damage increased by 33%.
  • Envenom base damage increased by 20%.

Combat
  • Vitality increases your Attack Power by 35%, up from 30%.

Shaman (Forums, Talent Calculator)
Elemental
  • Elemental Focus proc now increases spell damage done by 15%, up from 10%.
  • Shamanism now increases the damage of Lightning Bolt by 70%, up from 50%.

Warlock (Forums, Talent Calculator)

Demonology

Destruction
  • Conflagrate damage and SP scaling increased by 20%.
  • Immolate damage and SP scaling increased by 20%.
  • Incinerate damage and SP scaling increased by 10%.

Warrior (Forums, Talent Calculator)
Arms & Fury

Raid & Dungeon Abilities
  • Cosmic Strike Strikes an enemy, dealing 200,000 150,000 Arcane damage to alll enemies within 8 yards, knocking them back. 300 yd range. Instant.
  • Disorienting Roar Horridon emits a powerful roar, inflicting 250,000 Physical damage and disorienting all enemies for 2 sec. 2 sec cast. to all enemies and empowering allies, increasing melee attack speed by 50%. 2 sec cast.
  • Harsh Light The caster's light beam burns so intensely that it inflicts Fire damage to all victims caught in its path. This damage is shared amongst the targets with targets further away recieving more damage unless enough targets closer to the caster obscure the light from hitting them 100 yd range. Instant. receiving more damage. 100 yd range. Instant.
  • Putrify Inflicts 10,000 Inflicts 8,000 k damage every 1 second. This effect stacks. 100 yd range. Instant.
  • Quills (New) Inflicts 100,000 Physical damage to all enemies within 500 yards. 500 yd range. Instant.
  • Thundering Throw Jin'rokh the Breaker throws his current target at a distant Mogu statue, breaking the statue and inflicting 0 Physical damage. Additionally inflicts 200,000 Nature damage to other players within 14 yards of the point of impact, stunning them for 6 sec. Unlimited range. Instant. 5 sec. Unlimited range. Instant.
  • Thundering Throw Jin'rokh the Breaker throws his current target at a distant Mogu statue, breaking the statue and inflicting 0 Physical damage. Additionally inflicts 200,000 Nature damage to other players within 14 yards of the point of impact, stunning them for 6 sec. Unlimited range. Instant. 5 sec. Unlimited range. Instant.



PTR Class and Set Bonus Issues
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • Spirit Walk – cooldown reduced from 2 min to 1 min.

Priest (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • Penance – cooldown reduced from 10 sec to 9 sec.
    Tier 14 4pc – cooldown on Penance reduced from by 3 sec instead of 4 sec. (In essence, this nerfs T14 and buffs Penance while keeping the same end result.)
  • Power Infusion – we are lowering the +10% damage buff to +5%. Our goal here was noble to make Power Infusion more attractive to Shadow, but we’re worried about making the talent too powerful in PvP. Many PvP players had concerns about the buffed version of Power Infusion.

Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • Recklessness – We are going to lower Recklessness to 3 min cooldown, 30% crit (down from 5 min, 50%). We will have to adjust the Glyph of Recklessness and T14 4pc (and probably other mechanics I forgot) to keep them at the same relative power. We’re trying to move away from very long cooldowns, especially those without a lot of visual noise (e.g. a 1 min Army of the Dead would be pretty annoying to see, but Recklessness is pretty chill). It would let Recklessness line up better with Skull Banner (and maybe we would eventually just merge the two buttons), and have the added bonus of reducing warrior burst in PvP while still giving them more frequent use of the CD to avoid that all eggs in one basket feeling.

Warlock (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • We are going to go ahead and grandfather in the bug of Shadowburn granting 2 embers on a kill. It is technically a bug, which is why we fixed it, but it's been that way since MoP launched and we don't think it's causing huge balance problems, so in cases like this, we think the right thing to do is just make it official.

Mage (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  • While we like mages hard casting spells more often in PvP, we agree with the consensus that we overdid the buff to Frostbolt. We are going to revert one of the earlier changes and have it once again increase its damage by its own debuff. Base damage has been reduced to compensate, but should not change for the fully stacked case.

    Old patch note: Frostbolt deals 52% more damage, but its debuff no longer increases subsequent Frostbolt damage.

    New patch note: Frostbolt now deals 32% more damage.

Capactive Meta-gem
  • Proc now uses ranged crit/hit chances for Hunters.

DPS Tuning
  • Warrior – we reverted the nerfs to Bloodthirst, Colossus Smash and Raging Blow. We planned on taking the damage out of Execute instead, but before we do that, we’re concerned that the actual problem is the legendary meta-gem being too good for warriors, and we don’t think it’s fair to nerf all warriors because of an item that nobody will have for some time. We may nerf the metagem for warriors instead.
  • Priest – we also reverted the 20% buff to Mind Blast. This buff had also become a big PvP damage burst concern. It has a pretty small effect on PvE damage overall, but we will buff something if needed. The buff to Shadowform remains.
  • Monk – In efforts to further discourage Jab, Jab, Uplift, we increased the mana cost of Jab from 6% to 8%, increased the mana restore on Muscle Memory from 2% to 4%, and increased the mana cost of glyphed Uplift to 16% mana. So that monks feel like they can be less reliant on Jab, Jab, Uplift, we also changed Soothing Mist to generate chi more consistently (to avoid long stretches of bad luck) and increased its generation rate overall.
  • Death Knight – We reduced the health of Bloodworms to 15% (from 18%) and reduced the health healed to 25% from 30%. Our earlier buffs were too generous (and they are still significantly buffed from 5.1).

GC said it's a bug. I noticed that it also has not been fixed (um, GC, can you guys pls fix??).
We thought we did fix it. Any more information? It costs 1 ember, but if it kills the target or the target dies within 5 sec, it restores 1 ember, for a net costs of 0. If it ever restored 2 embers on a kill, that was a bug and probably got fixed.

Quick follow-up though: Is the ICD [on Rune of Re-Origination] still 22 seconds with the "new" version?
Yes. We considered lowering that to match, but held off on that for now.

It has been shown quite conclusively that a Monk using 2 one handers will out dps an equal skilled, equal geared 2h monk by about 2-3%.
It's much more helpful to show us that evidence (or link it) than to state that it exists, unless it's just up in the thread somewhere and we missed it. In any case, we're not seeing it at all. DW has an additional enchant and gem, but 2H has slightly more stats and more procs.

I feel like fury could use some nerfs (especially SMF).
We're not seeing this in 5.2. Any more information?

Either way, the point remains that Supremacy is highly inferior in most situations. This is because your mastery (extremely powerful for affliction and destruction) does your pet no benefit. Additionally, your haste does not scale the fel energy gain of the minion. This leaves your pets scaling tied directly to critical strike and spell power, unless using a pet with melee attacks (which then gets marginal haste benefit).
We think this is a legitimate criticism. We think it's only a problem at very high gear levels, but once players see the highest DPS players choosing Sacrifice, it's going to be conventional wisdom that you just have to take that talent... which we really don't want. If anything, this talent should be rare. As I've said before, the common warlock should be one with a demon. Short of having Supremacy and Service somehow give Affliction and Destruction Demo's mastery or just nerfing Sacrifice to the point where it's really only for players who hate pet bars (even at a DPS loss), we don't have a great solution yet.

If this is even remotely true then blizzard has done a horrible job. This is the first time I've read or heard the sentence "middle of the pack" regarding mages and warlocks.
I think you might be misinterpreting my comment. Perhaps it was vague. What I meant was that if you are a player wondering if your DPS is low, compare it to someone in the middle. Players almost always compare themselves to the guy at very top of the stack rank, but that dude is often overpowered and it's rarely our goal to buff everyone else up to that line. More than likely, he'll be getting a nerf.

Is removal of the T11 Protection tier gimmic going to be addressed before 5.2 hits so don't have to keep it for a 45 sec guardian prepull as retribution?
We addressed it in 5.2. When you remove the set bonuses, the buff is also cancelled.

Mage frostbolts are doing crazy damage on the PTR on full resilience targets. Something along the lines of 200k damage crits with CDs.
We did shift some damage to Frostbolt, but overall it's a good thing for the game for mages to hard cast. They have to stand still and you can cause a Frost lock.

I'm still confused. In 5.1 I never felt my DPS, or rather DK frost DPS in general was bad, or even close to bad. Where are all these buffs coming from, is there going to be some kind of counterweight in 5.2 yet to be announced?
It's a lot of things. Overall, we are balancing for 5.2. That's a different environment. Nearly everyone will quickly get better gear with more secondary stats. While everyone scales to some extent with those stats (and as much as I like to tweak the community about its seeming obsession with scaling) the fact still remains that those numbers do affect damage. Set bonuses will change. There are new trinkets and meta-gems. Not everyone will get all of those items, but we still have to take into consideration with our tuning that many will. We have to look at the new bosses. While we like there to be some variation from boss to boss depending on encounter mechanics, we also understand human nature well enough to expect that players will quickly start worrying only about their performance in the new raid and stop worrying about how well they did on the previous one. For DKs specifically, also recall that we also nerfed the current T14 2pc because it ended up so good that there was a risk DKs wouldn't feel like they could upgrade to the T15 gear.

im not saying revert the dk buffs, they are fine...but by that same logic, where are the ret sustained buffs to keep us competitive? we are already pretty far behind frost as it is.
Unless you can demonstrate to us that Ret is behind Frost in 5.2, we can't do much with comments like this.

We think Ret and Frost are where they should be in 5.1 with the exception that Frost pulls ahead too much in certain cleave and AE situations.

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This article was originally published in forum thread: Patch 5.2 PTR - Build 16618, PTR Class Balance started by chaud View original post
Comments 85 Comments
  1. Jin84's Avatar
    Mm ele buff

    And I wonder what's a skyscreamer.
  1. Scot's Avatar
    200k crits are fine because its a 2s cast? By that logic, Chi burst should 1 shot people since it has a cast time and a 30s CD.
  1. Incuded's Avatar
    Finally some DK notes. Yay for buffs!
  1. Epuration's Avatar
    so will marks finally become a real spec again?
  1. iamthedevil's Avatar
    The bat is for the Glory of the Raider?! Noooooooooooo.
  1. furydeath's Avatar
    And another 2% nerf to arcane why not like what mage will be playing arcane now anyways.
  1. elimin's Avatar
    and gone are my hopes of frost being viable in pve.
  1. sidelsky18's Avatar
    Wait, you're joking... another across-the-board nerf for arcane? This is like the 5th or 6th time arcane has been nerfed. I think we're down about 30% now on all our spells.
  1. kabshiel's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by iamthedevil View Post
    The bat is for the Glory of the Raider?! Noooooooooooo.
    Skyscreamer's the pterodactyl, not the bat.
  1. Azutael's Avatar
    Finally some buffs to demonology and destruction, will hopefully make affliction less of a must.

    Skyscreamer's the pterodactyl, not the bat.
    Indeed, the batt was called "bloodwing" afaik anyway.
  1. Smeller's Avatar
    It get's funnier and funnier if you read some posts a month ago where blizz tells ppl that arcane is fine as it is and the fire-specc nerfs where just leveling those two speccs, so they are even.
  1. asphyx5's Avatar
    PvP Wise Marks Hunter will be good, Survival Will be Tops in PvE raiding espcially when u get the new tier pieces (set bonuses)
  1. mmoce758d016cd's Avatar
    Buffs on rogues, dks and warlocks were definitely needed /lol
  1. Shawaam's Avatar
    If they want mages, or any other class for that matter, to actually cast more spells, make casting more viable. So many times you're trained without even the slightest option to cast something due to the risk of interruptions as well as just being ccd.
  1. darthmauller's Avatar
    Thank you for completely tearing down the entire play style and feel of MW monks. We sincerely appreciate you changing the entire toolkit on us in oder to homogenize us with the other healing classes even though our raids cds are completely behind and our raid utility being non-existent.

    I look forward to never fistweaving again unless its a gimmick fight or only doing so in fights where there is nothing to heal (but why even bring the healer then...) and one last thank you for making these gradually fantastic changes with only 1.5 weeks to patch, plenty of time to get ready and have alternate healers ready to play.

    BIG THANKS GC

    ps: in case you missed it, I'm being cynical...
  1. mmoc19099cb94f's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Lorgok View Post
    Buffs on rogues, dks and warlocks were definitely needed /lol
    lollollollollollol
  1. Crevox's Avatar
    LOL, ANOTHER proto drake

    Seriously Blizzard, how many times are you gonna reuse the animation?
  1. Eggwolls's Avatar
    Ugliest mount. So bad. Why bring back amazing Proto-Drake skeleton, but put such a terrible skin on it?
  1. iamthedevil's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by TylerN View Post
    Finally some buffs to demonology and destruction, will hopefully make affliction less of a must.


    Indeed, the batt was called "bloodwing" afaik anyway.
    Then.. yesssssss
  1. Trigunflame's Avatar
    We did shift some damage to Frostbolt, but overall it's a good thing for the game for mages to hard cast. They have to stand still and you can cause a Frost lock.
    Arcane and Affliction are high on many fights in 5.1, but they shouldn't be in 5.2.
    Summation: Blizzard gives the big middle finger to mages that do heroic PvE content.

    They've already ruined fire (though, due to incoming arcane nerfs may once again come out ahead) & are in the process of ruining arcane in the next patch, and frost (while still net positive in buffs thus far) may not be much better off considering how weak it is in PvE atm.

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