World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies

With scheduled weekly maintenance next week, a number of specializations will receive throughput increases to several spells targeted at improving their performance in Raid and M+ content. It’s our intent that these changes help make these Specializations viable options for raid and dungeon content.

Demon Hunter

• The Hunt’s damage over time effect no longer deals an additional tick on application. Damage dealt over the total duration remains unchanged.
• Vengeance
  
  • Thick Skin armor bonus increased to 130% (was 100%)
  • Calcified Skin initial damage reduction value increased to 12% (was 10%)
  • Painbringer duration increased to 6 seconds (was 5 seconds)

Druid

• Feral
  
  • All ability damage increased by 3%.

Evoker

• Devastation
  
  • Fire Breath damage increased by 10% for Devastation specialization only. Does not apply to PvP combat.
  • Lay Waste increases Deep Breath damage by 15%/30% (was 10%/20%).
  • Eternity Surge damage increased by 10%.
  • Firestorm damage increased by 20%.
  • Eye of Infinity generates 2 Essence on critical strike (was 1 Essence).
  • Spellweaver’s Dominance increases critical strike damage to 230% (was 220%).
  • Iridescence damage bonus increased to 20% (was 15%).

Hunter

• Survival
  
  • All ability damage and pet damage increased by 2%.
  • Butchery and Carve damage increased by 10%.
  • Fury of the Eagle damage increased by 10%.
  • Wildfire Bomb damage increased by 15%.

Mage

• Fire
  
  • Flamestrike damage increased by 15%.
  • Living Bomb damage increased by 25%.
• Frost
  
  • Frostbolt damage increased by 20%.
  • Ray of Frost damage increased by 40%.
  • Glacial Spike damage increased by 10%.

Monk

• Brewmaster
  
  • Efficacy of Stagger against Magical damage increased to 45% (was 35%).
  • Cooldown of Celestial Brew reduced to 45 seconds (was 60).
• Mistweaver
  
  • All healing increased by 5%.
  • Vivify healing increased by an additional 5%.
  • Blackout Kick damage increased by 6%.
  • Rising Sun Kick damage increased by 8%.
  • Tiger Palm damage increased by 15%.
  • Spinning Crane Kick damage increased by 5%.
  • Awakened Faeline now transfers 70% of Spinning Crane Kick’s damage into healing (was 60%).

Paladin

• Retribution
  
  • Crusader Strike damage increased by 40%.
  • Blade of Justice damage increased by 25%.
  • Final Reckoning damage increased by 15%.
  • Shield of Vengeance’s cooldown reduced to 90 seconds (was 120 seconds).
• Developers’ notes: Some of Retribution’s main rotational buttons do not feel as good to press as we’d like so we’re making some changes to help improve these abilities. Additionally, their survivability isn’t where we would like so we’re making some improvements to their defensive kit as well. We are looking at Retribution as a whole and will have more to share in the future.

Priest

• Holy
  
  • All healing done increased by 3%.
• Shadow
  
  • Focused Will provides 10% damage reduction for Shadow (down from 15%).
  • Mind Blast damage increased by 15% (Shadow only).
  • Mind Flay damage increased by 15% (this includes Mind Flay: Insanity, but not the proc from Idol of C’Thun).
  • Mind Spike damage increased by 15%.
  • Void Torrent damage increased by 15%.
  • Devouring Plague damage increased by 15%.
• Developers’ notes: These changes are aimed at improving Shadow’s single target DPS. The change to Focused Will is a targeted change for PvP to reduce Shadow’s survivability.

Rogue

• Outlaw
  
  • Precise Cuts (Talent) - Reduced bonus to Blade Flurry damage per missing target below its maximum to 2% (was 3%).
• Developers’ notes: As we monitor the developing M+ meta and related data, we have recognized that Outlaw is overperforming. We expect this change will reduce Outlaw’s damage output in encounters with target count above 1 and below 8, as their damage is currently more consistent than we intend for dungeons and encounters that frequently present those circumstances.

Warlock

• Affliction
  
  • Agony damage increased by 5%.
  • Corruption damage increased by 5%.
  • Drain Soul damage increased by 10%.
  • Pandemic Invocation damage increased by 20%.
  • Seed of Corruption damage increased by 5%.
  • Shadow Bolt damage increased by 10%.
  • Siphon Life damage increased by 10%.
  • Unstable Affliction backlash damage is no longer increased from increased damage dealt modifiers or effects that increase Unstable Affliction’s damage.
• Destruction
  
  • Channel Demonfire damage increased by 10%.
  • Rain of Fire damage increased by 15%.
  • Soul Fire damage increased by 20%.
  • Infernal and Blasphemy Immolation damage increased by 10%.
  • Conflagrate damage increased by 10%. This change does not apply to PvP combat.
  • Immolate damage increased by 10%. This change does not apply to PvP combat.
  • Incinerate damage increased by 15%. This change does not apply to PvP combat.

Player vs. Player

Demon Hunter

• Soul Rending leech bonus reduced by 40% in PvP combat.
• Havoc
  
  • Glimpse (PvP Talent) - Damage reduction reduced to 35% (was 75%).
  • Essence Break’s damage bonus for Chaos Strike and Blade Dance reduced by 37.5% in PvP combat.
  • Soulrend damage reduced by 16.7% in PvP combat.
• Developers’ notes: We have noticed Havoc Demon Hunter overperforming in several facets of PvP including personal survivability, burst damage, and overall DPS. We’re taking action to reduce their effectiveness in these areas while still aiming to keep them competitive.

Evoker

• Preservation
  
  • Energy Loop’s mana regeneration reduced by 25% in PvP combat.
• Developers’ notes: Energy Loop’s mana restoration has been overperforming compared to its contribution in PvE due to game-wide reduced mana regeneration within PvP instances. We’re adjusting this to bring it in line with expected benefits, but still want this effect to remain a powerful option as we feel it can lead to compelling decision making with Essence resources.

Mage

• Arcane
  
  • Siphon Storm’s effectiveness reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
• Developers’ notes: Siphon Storm has been a culprit for one-shot scenarios, so we are adjusting its effectiveness down heavily.
• Frost
  
  • Glacial Spike - Reduced Glacial Spike’s damage increase from Mastery: Icicles by 25% in PvP combat. This will be reflected in the tooltip in a later patch.
• Developers’ notes: Our goal is that this change to Glacial Spike’s Mastery scaling will preserve it as an option for Frost Mages but temper the effectiveness Mastery stacking had with this spell.

Monk

• Blackout Kick damage increased by 30% in PvP combat (was 15%).
• Tiger Palm damage increased by 30% in PvP combat (was 15%).
• Mistweaver
  
  • Rising Sun Kick now deals 12.5% additional damage in PvP (was 25%).
• Developer’s note: We are looking to offset the incoming PvE buffs to Rising Sun Kick as we think it currently hits hard enough to be effective for Mistweaver in PvP.
• Windwalker
  
  • Thunderfist damage reduced by 40% in PvP combat.
  • Skyreach increases critical strike chance by 30% in PvP combat (down from 50%).
  • Fists of Fury damage increased by 15% in PvP combat.
• Developers’ notes: Windwalker burst has continued to be above a level we’re comfortable with. We’re targeting Thunderfist and Skyreach, as they have been large contributors to this. We’re also increasing their sustained damage, as we feel there is room for that to improve as their burst is reduced.

Priest

• Flash Heal healing is increased by 30% in PvP combat (was 20%).
• Holy
  
  • Heal healing is increased by 35% in PvP combat (was 25%).
  • Holy Word: Serenity healing is increased by 15% in PvP combat.
• Developers’ notes: Holy received PvP reductions in casted healing effectiveness in previous patches that we now feel are unnecessary and are reverting. We also feel Holy Word: Serenity has not been as effective as we would like at handling burst damage, so we are increasing that as well.
• Shadow
  
  • Shadow Word: Death damage reduced by 30% in PvP combat for Shadow only (was 20%).
  • Mind Blast damage reduced by 25% in PvP combat for Shadow only.
  • Mind Spike damage reduced by 25% in PvP combat.
  • Devouring Plague damage reduced by 25% in PvP combat.
  • Vampiric Touch damage reduced by 5% in PvP combat (was increased by 10%).
  • The proc rate of Shadowy Insight has been reduced by 25% while in PvP combat.
  • The proc rate of Surge of Darkness has been reduced by 25% while in PvP combat.
• Developers’ notes: Shadow Priest has been widely overperforming, so we are looking to offset recent PvE buffs to them and reduce their power defensively through changes to Focused Will. We’re also reducing their instant proc damage availability as we feel Shadow Priests do not have to hard cast spells as often as we would like them to.

Rogue

• Assassination
  
  • Improved Garrote’s Garrote damage bonus reduced by 40% in PvP combat.
  • Iron Wire’s damage reduction debuff now has a PvP duration of 4 seconds (was the base 8 seconds).
• Developers’ notes: Assassination’s spread and single target Garrote pressure has been very high. We’re targeting this by decreasing the effectiveness of Improved Garrote. Iron Wire’s damage reduction effect has also felt too potent to us at preventing enemy pressure.

Warlock

• Demonology
  
  • Demonic Strength unleashes a Felstorm that deals 150% increased damage in PvP combat (was 400%).
  • Demonfire damage increased by 75% in PvP combat.
  • Dreadbite damage reduced by 10% in PvP combat.
• Developers’ notes: We feel Demonic Strength can be a difficult spell to notice and has little counter play compared to Demonic Tyrant and its associated Demonfire casts. We’re looking to adjust Demonology’s burst sources while aiming to keep them at the same relative power. We also want to slightly reduce Demonology’s overall pressure by targeting Dreadbite.

Warrior

• Defensive Stance now reduces damage done by 15% (was 20%) in PvP combat.
• Developers’ notes: Defensive Stance was adjusted in previous patches to address damage issues we no longer feel are present for Warriors. We’re increasing damage done in Defensive Stance to help increase their offensive pressure without affecting them defensively.

Here is a list of additional Feral changes coming in a future 10.0.5 PTR build:

• Moved Tear Open Wounds directly below Primal Wrath, with a connector to Pouncing Strikes.
• Moved Lunar Inspiration below and to the left of Sudden Ambush.
• Tear Open Wounds now deals 70% of the Rip damage it consumes (up from 60%).
• Taste for Blood changed to a single point node that increases Ferocious Bite damage by 5% per bleed on the target. (was a 2 point node).
• Sudden Ambush changed to a single point node that grants 6% chance per combo point spent to cause your next Shred or Rake to deal damage as though stealthed. (was a 2 point node)
• Lunar Inspiration Moonfire damage increased to 125% of 10.0.2 value.
• Relentless Predator reduces the energy cost of Ferocious Bite by 40% (up from 20%).
• Rip and Tear: Tear damage increased to 15% of Rip damage (up from 12%).
• Infected Wound bonus reverted to 10.0.2 values (increases Rake damage by 30%).
• Veinripper bonus reverted to 10.0.2 values (extends periodic bleed effect durations by 25%).

We are happy that players are enjoying the “full bleed” AOE build that almost entirely spends combo points on Primal Wrath. We want to keep that build strong for players that enjoy it, while providing other viable alternatives. As we continue to iterate on balance, we believe the last round of changes reduced its power too much, so we are undoing some changes and adding some boosts to damage dealt by Tear Open Wounds and Rip and Tear.

Lunar Inspiration is no longer a choice node with Feral Frenzy and has been moved to the middle section of the tree. We adjusted its damage to be appropriate for its new location. Taste for Blood and Sudden Ambush are now single point nodes, with the intention of making them more appealing alternatives for moving down the tree.

Classes

• Druid
  
  • Balance
    
    • Astral Communion, in addition to its active effect, also passively increases your maximum Astral Power by 20.
  • Guardian
    
    • Added a tracker buff for After the Wildfire to indicate remaining rage expenditure until a trigger occurs.
  • Restoration
    
    • New Talent - Forest’s Flow: Nourish extends the duration of your Lifebloom, Rejuvenation, Regrowth, and Wild Growth effects on the target by 2 sec. Choice node with Wild Synthesis.
    • New Talent - Wild Synthesis: Regrowth decreases the cast time of your next Nourish by 25% and causes it to receive an additional 25% bonus from Mastery: Harmony. Choice node with Forest’s Flow.
    • Forest’s Flow/Wild Synthesis choice node connection added below Nourish.
    • Nourish’s tooltip has been updated to reflect its bonus healing from Mastery Harmony numerically.
• Monk
  
  • Classes
    
    • Fixed an issue that caused the Awakened Faeline and Faeline Harmony talents to grant less chance to reset Faeline Stomp than intended.
    • Faeline Stomp now always spawns with a minimum of 1 branch.
    • Faeline Stomp now has a 100% increased chance to spawn circles within its arc.
  • Mistweaver
    
    • Awakened Faeline and Ancient Concordance now linger for 8 seconds after leaving Faeline Stomp.
    • Sheilun’s Gift has received some additional changes:
      
      • Healing increased by 15%.
      • Now stacks to a maximum of 10 clouds of mist (was 12).
      • Now triggers Mastery: Gust of Mists on all targets hit.
      • Now costs 3.5% of base mana (was 4.5%).
      • Now prioritizes its primary target for healing.
    • Rising Mist now extends Renewing Mists applied by Rapid Diffusion.
    • Vivify now costs 3.4% of base mana (was 3.8%).
    • Invoke Yu’lon, the Jade Serpent now reduces the cost of Enveloping Mist by 50% (was 33%).
    • Echoing Reverberation now only requires Enveloping Mist to trigger an additional Zen Pulse (was Enveloping Mist and Renewing Mist).
    • Zen Pulse now triggers Mastery: Gust of Mist.
  • Brewmaster
    
    • New ability - Spirit of the Ox: Your Rising Sun Kick and Blackout Kick have a chance to summon a Healing Sphere.
    • Stagger is now a baseline ability for the Brewmaster specialization.
    • Quick Sip now purifies 5% of damage delayed by Stagger (was 2%).
    • Gift of the Ox is now a 1 rank talent (was 2).
    • Graceful Exit is now a 1 rank talent (was 2).
    • Quick Sip is now a 1 rank talent (was 2).
    • Staggering Strikes is now a 1 rank talent (was 2).
• Paladin
  
  • Classes
    
    • Added a tracker buff for Afterimage to indicate remaining Holy Power expenditure until a trigger occurs.
  • Holy
    
    • Tyr’s Deliverance healing increased by 25%.
    • Afterimage no longer triggers Awakening or Divine Purpose.
    • Avenging Crusader can now trigger and consume Divine Purpose.
• Priest
  
  • Classes
    
    • New talent: Sanguine Teachings - Increases Leech by 3%.
      
      • On a choice node against Vampiric Embrace.
    • Vampiric Embrace is no longer on the global cooldown.
    • San’layn now also causes Sanguine Teachings to grant an additional 2% Leech.
    • Manipulation can now be triggered by Discipline’s Power Word: Solace & Mind Blast and Shadow’s Mind Flay and Mind Flay: Insanity.
  • Shadow
    
    • Psychic Link now also functions with Mind Games, Void Bolt & Void Torrent (Not Yet Implemented).
• Rogue
  
  • Classes
    
    • Feint is now baseline for all Rogue specs, learned at level 12.
    • Elusiveness/Cheat Death - This choice node has moved up to row 2, taking the position where Feint used to be.
    • New Talent: Unbreakable Stride (Passive) - Reduces the duration of movement slowing effects by 30%.
    • Sepsis now grants 1 use of a Stealth ability immediately, in addition to its previous effects.
    • Fixed an issue that prevented Improved Garrote’s cooldown removal from taking effect when casting Garrote using Sepsis’ Stealth ability effect.
  • Assassination
    
    • Kingsbane has moved and now shares a location with Dragon-Tempered Blades as a choice node.
    • Dashing Scoundrel now costs a maximum of 2 points, down from 3.
    • New Talent: Arterial Precision (Passive) - Shiv strikes 4 additional nearby enemies and increases your Bleed damage done to affected targets by 20% for 8 sec.
      
      • This talent is positioned in Kingsbane’s previous location.
  • Outlaw
    
    • Killing Spree now reduces damage taken by 65% while active.
    • Fan the Hammer’s additional Pistol Shots now generate 1 fewer combo point.
  • Subtlety
    
    • Invigorating Shadowdust now reduces affected cooldowns by 15/30 sec (was 10/20 sec).
    • Effectiveness reduced by 50% in PvP Combat.
• Shaman
  
  • Classes
    
    • Mana Spring Totem has been renamed to Mana Spring and is a passive effect. (Not Yet Implemented).
• Warlock
  
  • Demonology
    
    • Felstorm, Guillotine, and Demonic Strength now place one another on cooldown:
      
      • Felstorm places Guillotine and Demonic Strength on cooldown for 5 seconds.
      • Demonic Strength places Felstorm and Guillotine on cooldown for 5 seconds.
      • Guillotine places Felstorm and Demonic Strength on cooldown for 8 seconds.
        
        • Developers’ note: This should have no impact on Demonology’s overall throughput. This change exists to help alleviate confusion on when the Felguard is able to cast Felstorm, Guillotine, or Demonic Strength by providing a visual tell through the UI.
  • Destruction
    
    • Ashen Remains now causes Chaos Bolt, Incinerate, and Shadowburn to deal 5/10% increased damage to targets afflicted by Immolate.
    • Eradication now causes Chaos Bolt and Shadowburn to increase the damage you deal to the target by 5/10%.
    • Burn to Ashes now causes Chaos Bolt and Rain of Fire to increase the damage of your next 2 Incinerates by 15/30% and Shadowburn to increase the damage of your next Incinerate by 15/30%.
• Warrior
  
  • Arms
    
    • Improved Sweeping Strikes now lasts 6 sec (was 5).
    • Improved Mortal Strike has been removed from the tree.
    • New Talent: Strength in Arms - Overpower has a 10% increased critical strike chance and on enemies below 35% health Overpower generates 8 Rage.
    • Fatal Mark duration increased to 120 sec (was 60 sec).
    • Storm of Swords causes Whirlwind to cost 20 more Rage (was 30).
  • Fury
    
    • Onslaught damage increased by 40% and now generates 30 Rage (was 25).
    • Tenderize now causes Enrage to last 2 sec longer (was 1 sec).
    • Storm of Steel now reduces Ravager damage by 30% (was 40%) and Rage granted increased to 20 (was 15).
    • Frenzied Flurry increases auto-attack damage with one-handed weapons by 30% (was 5%).
    • Unbridled Ferocity - Onslaught now triggers Recklessness in addition to Rampage.
    • Storm of Swords now increases Whirlwind damage by 80% (was 70%).
    • Anger Management now also decreases the cooldown of Ravager.
      
      • Developers’ note: With this update we are looking to increase the effectiveness of talents that are seeing less use.

Mage Tower

• The Mage Tower is now available for testing.

Player Versus Player

• Paladin
  
  • Reckoning (PvP Talent) now highlights Judgment when active.

Professions

• All professions have had the requirements to unlock specializations reduced. Professions with 3 specialization trees have had their final unlock reduced from profession level 100 to 75. All professions with 4 specialization trees have had their final two unlocks reduced from profession level 75/100 to levels 60/75.

Trading Post

• The Trading Post is currently disabled on the PTR. Thank you again for your testing and feedback!

Happy New Year champions!

Before the holidays, we posted an update about future improvements that we’re working on for Rated Solo Shuffle, and we want to provide additional information on those updates. For additional information about Rated Solo Shuffle, please refer to the FAQ about Rated Solo Shuffle that was previously posted.

Coming with Weekly Restarts

Next week, we will make an update so that leaving a match will impact both Matchmaking Rating and Current Rating. We’ve received a great deal of player feedback indicating that losing only current rating has not been enough of a deterrent to leaving, and leaving is highly disruptive to the Solo Shuffle experience.

10.0.5 Improvements

We have several changes coming in 10.0.5 to improve how our system handles players who leave matches:

• Rating will be calculated per-round in games with leavers.
  
  • This has been a recurring point of feedback that we agree with. The format of Solo Shuffle is intended to have all 6 rounds completed, as there can be composition or skill imbalances between individual rounds. Now, when rating is calculated for incomplete matches (matches with leavers), gains and losses will be scaled linearly based on the number of rounds completed.
• Matchmaking Value for each player in a match will be displayed on the scoreboard.
  
  • We want to provide additional visibility to matchmaking. Matches are made based on the matchmaking rating of players, not their current rating. When a player enters a match, we determine the expected performance of players in the match based on player matchmaking rating (MMR). We take all the rounds into account, considering who was on each side and who won, so it matters which specific rounds the player wins, and not just the total number of rounds won, in calculating impact on MMR. We hope this helps players to better understand the matches they’re placed in, as well as rating changes of individual players based on the results of the match.

• A warning prompt will display the penalties for leaving if a player attempts to leave a match.
  
  • If a player attempts to leave a match in progress, they will be prompted with a warning that indicates the repercussions of leaving including penalties and forfeiture of rewards. The warning will have a 5 second countdown and the player will be required to hit ‘Accept’ to leave. Our intent with this change is to make the leaver punishments more visible, as well as requiring additional acknowledgement from the leaving player.

Players who leave excessively will be subject to account review and suspensions, as abandoning matches repeatedly is a violation of the terms of service via exploiting functionality to the detriment of the game environment and the intended player experience.

Beyond 10.0.5

Looking to the future, we’re actively discussing options we might take to incentivize more healers to queue for Solo Shuffle to reduce the queue time for the damage role. This includes ways to make Solo Shuffle gameplay a more fun, rewarding experience for healers. We do not have anything to share about that right now, but in addition to leavers, it’s a foremost concern for the team.

We’re also looking into improving the UI further for both those in-queue and those who are about to queue.

As a team, we’re excited about Rated Solo Shuffle and we’re looking to iterate and improve on it in future patches. Your feedback has been valuable and greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much!