Incoming Class Hotfixes, Blue Posts

[Boubouille]

Update - Balance nerf changed.

We think we overnerfed Balance. Some smart players have pointed out that Balance’s dps was inflated by a bug with Starfall that we have since fixed. With that in mind, we are changing the Moonfury nerf from 15% to 10% instead of 6%. This will be hotfixed soon™.

Incoming Hotfixes

We’re in the process of planning for a number of hotfixes that are intended to be implemented within the next day or two. To help give some heads up notice we’re currently looking to make the following changes:

• Shadow Power (Shadow priest passive) is being changed from 25% to 15% of Shadow damage.
  
  
• Moonfury (Balance druid passive) is being changed from 10% to 6% Arcane and Nature damage.
  
  
• Raging Blow reduced from 120% to 100% weapon damage at max level.

In all three cases we’ve been closely monitoring performance since the patch and all 3 specs are currently doing too much damage in PvE. In the case of Shadow and Fury we were also worried about their PvP burst potential, but didn’t want to risk affecting them in PvE. Now that we have concluded they are too high in PvE, both aspects of the game should feel more balanced.

We are also looking at nerfing Aimed Shot, but compensating hunters through Aspect of the Hawk. We are also likely to lower Arcane mage mana cost in some way, which will in turn buff their dps. These don’t have those specifics just yet, but do keep an eye on the 4.0.6 hotfix blog for these and other changes as they come through.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/2259389#blog (the blog does not currently account for these intended hotfixes as they have not yet been applied)

Blue Posts

Death Knight (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
Recent DK changes
Going from 4.0.3 to 4.0.6, our goal was to lower Unholy death knight damage and raise mobility. Our 4.0.6 changes didn’t quite hit the mark (we undershot on damage and overshot on mobility), so we had to make additional adjustments. The nerfs to Death Coil and pet damage in 4.0.6 were never intended to compensate for the addition of Death's Advance, but were completely separate and PvE motivated. We felt that Unholy damage was too high in most PvE encounters, and it was necessary to reduce their dps output as a result. The mastery buff compensated for the intended adjustments a bit too much, so it was necessary to tune down those abilities again. An additional bug fix was also applied to Death and Decay that should not affect damage and was not a part of these balance adjustments.

Death's Advance was included to help address Unholy death knight mobility issues in PvP, but it turned out to be too effective, and so it was toned down. It should still help increase up-time on PvP targets though.

While these changes were up on PTR, we tend to get limited testing - particularly when there isn't new raid content to test - and the PTR is often of limited value for PvP testing. While we appreciate the efforts of the players who participated and sent us feedback, it’s still a relatively small sample size compared to the millions of players who experience the changes when they actually go live. Deploying quick fixes, especially nerfs, isn’t always popular among players, but when they're possible, we think it’s a better course of action in the long run than letting balance problems persist. We’ll continue to monitor these and other class issues and periodically step in as necessary. (Source)

Paladin (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
Hammer of the Righteous bug fix
This change to Hammer of the Righteous was a bug fix. Before the change, if the main attack missed the area attack also missed. If the main attack hit, the area attack could still miss.

Now, if the main attack misses the area attack also misses, but if the main attack hits, the area attack also hits. This means there is only one hit/miss roll for the attack, as opposed to two before.

We like that the design of this ability is different from other AoE attacks which have individual attack rolls. Hammer of the Righteous is a single attack with splash damage and we don't see a reason to change its design at this time. We just wanted to fix the consistency issue.(Source)

[rimok224]

yay even more nerfs all around

[uriahworld]

No more Warlock changes, ftw.

[neuroxin]

Noooo not my boomkin offspec! :P

[Deleted]

Sometimes you wonder why the hell they even have an PTR.

[Rainec]

why the pve dk hate?

we already got cheated out of good pve skills for lvl 81-85

[Inirit]

Sometimes you wonder why the hell they even have an PTR.

Sometimes you wonder how bad it would be if they didn't have the PTR.

[Dirtybird42o]

Oops we buffed Shadow Priest to much...sry guys hope you enjoyed being top dps for a few days....JERKS

[DiZzyBonne]

"In the case of Shadow and Fury we were also worried about their PvP burst potential, but didn’t want to risk affecting them in PvE. Now that we have concluded they are too high in PvE, both aspects of the game should feel more balanced."

Blizzards sure loves balancing this game around PvE! If their damage was fine in PvE, but too bursty in PvP, Blizzard wouldn't care because it's fine in PvE. Funny how blizzards only cares about PvE, and only makes PvP changes if it doesn't affect the PvE aspect of the game. Seriously, when are they gonna make it so certain abilities have different effects on PvE and PvP targets? They do it with CCs already, why not damage abilities?

Now, if I'm not mistaken, I believe they said they'd do something like this about a year ago. Where the hell is it?

[Deleted]

oh yeah, more hunter nerfs plx.....

[Simca]

Makes sense.

Unholy DKs were #5 and got nerfed.

Here's a deluxe order of nerfs for #1, #2, #3, and #4 on DPS.

Things should be a lot more even after this.

[Karei]

Amazing how they change a mechanic that has been in place since launch.
Besides: Shadow Power isn't our Mastery since it doesn't scale through Mastery rating.

GG Blizz, get your head out of your ass

[yoreert]

Gotta love that Hunters aren't even on the radar. Who's in charge of the Hunter division at Blizzard? Give that guy a raise.

[Liamxsquee]

REALLY Moonkin nerfs we where loved for 2 months and now they hate us ...

[slimj091]

"Raging Blow reduced from 120% to 100% weapon damage at max level."

blizzard giveth, and blizzard taketh away. i mean they wouldn't want to make it so it's worth taking a warrior as a dps on a raid..... now would they.

[Yalingo]

what was the point of buffing Boomkin mastery in the patch and then nerfing it to below where it was before the patch 2 days later??? Fuck blizzard are idiots....

[Darkguyver2020]

Gee, how kind of you guys to give warrs/boomkin/spriests a heads up about nerfs, just like you did Unholy DK's.

[mmathes339]

/putonvendoroutfit "Nerfs here, get your nerfs here!"

[Simca]

Gotta love that Hunters aren't even on the radar. Who's in charge of the Hunter division at Blizzard? Give that guy a raise.

Did you see the part about nerfing Aimed Shot?

That's where most of the Hunter DPS is coming from right now (over 30% of each of the Hunter's damage I'm looking at).

Gee, how kind of you guys to give warrs/boomkin/spriests a heads up about nerfs, just like you did Unholy DK's.

Why does it matter?

Giving a heads up doesn't change the nerf.

[Deleted]

Where are the frost mage buffs???