Patch 9.2.5 Hotfixes - June 24

[chaud]

Patch 9.2.5 Hotfixes - June 24

Classes

Druid

• Guardian
  
  • [With realm restarts] Mangle and auto attack damage increased by 10%.
    
    • Developers’ note: Vengeance Demon Hunter and Guardian Druid have fallen behind in damage, particularly in single target. Our intent with these changes is to improve their performance in single-target without unduly impacting AOE environments.

Demon Hunter

• Vengeance
  
  • [With realm restarts] All damage and healing abilities increased by 3%.
  • [With realm restarts] Fracture and Shear damage increased by 20%.
  • [With realm restarts] Auto attack damage increased by 10%.
    
    • Developers’ note: Vengeance Demon Hunter and Guardian Druid have fallen behind in damage, particularly in single target. Our intent with these changes is to improve their performance in single-target without unduly impacting AOE environments.

Warlock

• Affliction
  
  • [With realm restarts] All ability damage increased by 5%.
    
    • Developers’ note: We’re seeing Affliction falling behind a bit in various content and feel a straight increase to their damage is warranted.
• Destruction
  
  • [With realm restarts] (4) Set Bonus: Blasphemy no longer grants Rain of Chaos.
  • [With realm restarts] Chaos Bolt damage increased by 5% in PvE combat.
  • [With realm restarts] Incinerate damage increased by 20%.
  • [With realm restarts] Immolate damage increased by 20%.
  • [With realm restarts] Conflagrate damage increased by 10% in PvE combat.
    
    • Developers’ note: In order to address Destruction’s excess soul shard generation issues, we’re removing the ability for the Blasphemy to grant Rain of Chaos. This will prevent their shard generation from getting out of control and rein in their AOE output. However, this will have some effect on Destruction’s single-target damage and to help counter the impact we’re increasing the damage of several single-target spells in the Destruction toolkit. This is a big shift so we’ll be monitoring feedback closely and will adjust in the future if needed.

Dungeons and Raids

• Sepulcher of the First Ones
  
  • Halondrus
    
    • Fixed an issue causing players to be unable to pick up Earthbreaker Charge immediately after recovering from the effects of Podtender (Dreamweaver Soulbind).
• The Necrotic Wake
  
  • Fixed an issue causing Destruction Warlock’s Rain of Fire to not proc Rain of Chaos or trigger Blasphemy while fighting on the necropolis.

Player versus Player

• Developers’ note: We have been monitoring PvP balance over Season 3 and are making the following adjustments. We look forward to continue to watch how the rest of the PvP season progresses.

Druid

• Balance
  
  • (2) Set Bonus: Fixed an issue where Celestial Pillar would break players from stealth.

Hunter

• [With realm restarts] Craven Strategem (Runecarving Power) now reduces the cooldown of Feign Death by 5 seconds in PvP combat (was 15 seconds).
  
  • Developers’ note: The short cooldown of Feign Death from Craven Strategem can be frustrating to play against, especially for classes whose primary damage comes from damage over time effects. We are changing the cooldown reduction from Craven Strategem to address this.

Mage

• [With realm restarts] Flow of Time (Conduit) effectiveness reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
• [With realm restarts] Netherwind Armor (PvP Talent) now reduces the chance of suffering a critical strike by 10% (was 15%).
  
  • Developers’ note: Mage survivability has continued to be higher than we would like, so we are targeting some of their defensive tools to address that while keeping the overall feel of Mage gameplay intact.

Monk

• Mistweaver
  
  • [With realm restarts] Renewing Mist now heals for an additional 25% in PvP combat (was 10%).
  • [With realm restarts] Enveloping Mist now heals for an additional 10% in PvP combat.
  • [With realm restarts] Chrysalis (PvP Talent) now reduces the cooldown of Life Cocoon by 45 seconds (was 30 seconds).
    
    • Developers’ note: Mistweavers are continuing to have a difficult time responding to burst damage reliably, as they regularly have to open their primary school in order to catch up. Increasing healing over time effects and having Cocoon available more frequently is intended to provide them with better tools to respond to burst damage more reliably.

Paladin

• Retribution
  
  • [With realm restarts] Templar’s Vindication (Conduit) now causes Templar’s Verdict to deal an additional 15% damage (was 30%) in PvP combat.
  • [With realm restarts] Shield of Vengeance damage reduced by 40% in PvP combat. Absorption amount unchanged.
    
    • Developers’ note: Retribution Paladin burst damage has scaled higher than we’d like, outpacing survivability and counterplay. We are looking to address some of those bigger swing moments without affecting their overall toolkit.

Priest

• Holy
  
  • [With realm restarts] Mana regeneration reduced by 65% in PvP combat (was 60%).
  • [With realm restarts] Holy Word: Chastise now incapacitates enemy players for 3 seconds (was 4 seconds).
  • [With realm restarts] Censure (Talent) now causes Holy Word: Chastise to stun enemy players for 3 seconds (was 4 seconds).
  • [With realm restarts] Ray of Hope (PvP Talent) cooldown is now 90 seconds (was 60 seconds).
    
    • Developers’ note: Holy Priests have been outperforming other healers, and we are looking to reduce the power of commonly picked talents and mana efficiency to better fit within other spec representation and performance.
• Shadow
  
  • [With realm restarts] Shadow Word: Pain damage increased by 15% in PvP combat.
  • [With realm restarts] Vampiric Touch damage increased by 10% in PvP combat.
    
    • Developers’ note: Shadow Priest has not received as much benefit from its set bonus as other specializations in PvP, so we are increasing parts of their consistent damage to help their overall performance.

Rogue

• Outlaw
  
  • [With realm restarts] Float like a Butterfly (PvP Talent) now reduces the cooldown of Evasion and Feint by 0.5 seconds per combo point spent (was 1 second).
    
    • Developers’ note: The uptime of defensive abilities for Outlaw has been a point of frustration due to less opportunity for enemies to capitalize on gaps of defensive cooldowns. This is intended to address that, while keeping the feel of Outlaw intact.

Warlock

• [With realm restarts] Dark Pact (Talent) now provides an absorb shield based on 300% of health sacrificed in PvP combat (was 250%).
• [With realm restarts] Essence Drain (PvP Talent) now causes the target to deal 9% less damage to the Warlock per stack.
• [With realm restarts] Essence Drain (PvP Talent) now stacks up to 4 times (was 5).
• [With realm restarts] Gateway Mastery (PvP Talent) now reduces the time between how often players can take your Demonic Gateway by 30 seconds (was 15 seconds).
• Affliction
  
  • [With realm restarts] Soul Leech grants an absorb shield based on 12% of damage dealt in PvP combat (was 8%).
    
    • Developers’ note: In 9.2.5 we removed the PvP talent Demon Armor and changed Gladiator’s Echoing Resolve to no longer interact with interrupt effects, which impacted Affliction Warlocks with their spell casts being a single school. With the combination of these changes, Affliction Warlocks’ defensives have been lower than we’d like even after our stamina increase to their base kit, so we are targeting to equip them with better survival tools in PvP.

Warrior

• [With realm restarts] The amount of Mastery granted by Conqueror’s Banner (Necrolord Ability) reduced by 33% in PvP combat.
• Fury
  
  • [With realm restarts] Crushing Blow (Raging Blow from Reckless Abandon (Talent)) now deals 20% reduced damage in PvP combat.
    
    • Developers’ note: Overall Fury damage has scaled higher than we’d like in Season 3 especially with their set bonus. We are intending to bring down some of the moments of volatility while still maintaining the high consistent damage that fulfills the fantasy of a Fury Warrior.

[vkz]

Where are the RMP nerfs ? this a joke ?

[Alohaitsjeff]

Where’s the nerf to survival hunter? This class is truly playing as expected? I’m sorry to all the survival hunters who have been patiently waiting their turn but that class is seriously op broken in mythic plus.

[deenman]

Where’s the nerf to survival hunter? This class is truly playing as expected? I’m sorry to all the survival hunters who have been patiently waiting their turn but that class is seriously op broken in mythic plus.

rogue used to fill that spot,it is kinda funny looking at the rankings,its like 99% blood dks and priest healers and dps hunters,warlocks or monks

i know it doesnt mean much,even if a class was 0.1% better it would proly still look similar

[Nathiest]

Developers’ note: Retribution Paladin burst damage has scaled higher than we’d like.

Burst Damage is all Pally's got! FCUK! I'm glad I quit this game..... until next expansion.

[Kel_Sceptic]

I haven't quit, but I'm still not playing this:

Last Played: May 29, 2022
Expiration Date Jul 12, 2022

Blizzard loves fools like me that pay out of nostalgy, and then regret 1-2 months until the get a new wave of nostalgy


Really hoping Blizzard will make a new standalone 2v2 3v3 5v5 arena type of game. Hell, even with RBGs.
Make a repeatable PvP game fun game that relies on SKILL, not on broken gear factors like PvE or ilvl that ruins the entry barrier into that game mode.

[Korendil]

Why state the set pc bonus is the problem, and then nerf the base spell. Because when the set goes away (borrowed power) the base spell will still be at a nerfed value. They just don't know the game.

[Shorteh]

In my opinion, we'd benefit more from other healers being brought up to the Holy Priest level rather than tuning down Hpri too much.
Healing this season (esp. w/ randoms) is a miserable experience, as it's incredibly punishing.
DPS can just send the damage and kill with little or no planning, meanwhile you need to spend every global by the book as a healer and hope your DPS notice enemy GO when you sit a micro-cc or its GG.

[Spacegoatmeep]

As a Destro lock, I kinda liked out of control shard generation, but happy with this fix. Everything in moderation. Balance is life

[saixilein]

Where’s the nerf to survival hunter? This class is truly playing as expected? I’m sorry to all the survival hunters who have been patiently waiting their turn but that class is seriously op broken in mythic plus.

And whats the problem with that? i mean i could understand in pvp, but i never get why people cry about to strong classes in pve. Its not like u dont an invite if u are not OP class/spec, if u dont do world first race lol

[Warning]

Funny to see a craven nerf 1 year and 4 months after providing feedback on it. This game moves far too slow for PVP to ever really be good in a modern expansion.

[Wries]

How about not doing big class design overhauls in the mid/end of a season but saving it for the next? Here our m+ grp was gearing up our first lock and it turned out to be a waste of time.

[daCarter]

Sure Destro was way to strong, but Hunter needs also a nerf!

[kamuimac]

those paladins changes - just lol . this shows how clueless devs are

also buffs to guardian druids - pure lol . did anyone of them seen venthyr guardian dmg ? :P

this is pure comedy

- - - Updated - - -

How about not doing big class design overhauls in the mid/end of a season but saving it for the next? Here our m+ grp was gearing up our first lock and it turned out to be a waste of time.

just go with 2 survival hunters. 240 survival with 4 set will outdps 3/4 of other specs in game on 280 anyway


kinda feel for destro locks though glad i stuck to my demo which gives very nice aoe resoults when pulls are coordinated :0

[Plehnard]

And whats the problem with that? i mean i could understand in pvp, but i never get why people cry about to strong classes in pve. Its not like u dont an invite if u are not OP class/spec, if u dont do world first race lol

At least for DDs there's a good chance people won't take you in M+ if you're not the "correct" class/spec.

It's not that prevalent with healers and tanks (you'll just sometimes get a funny look as a prot warrior because your kind is rarely seen 20+)

[kamuimac]

At least for DDs there's a good chance people won't take you in M+ if you're not the "correct" class/spec.

It's not that prevalent with healers and tanks (you'll just sometimes get a funny look as a prot warrior because your kind is rarely seen 20+)

yesterday i had an angry rant in /w after i left +19 because tank was a) clueless b)clueless c) clueless and im not wasting another 20 minutes before group cdisbands anyway - in rant was " how do you enjoy having now less groups as on non- meta specs yadaa yadda " was kinda funny as by the time he typed it i was already in another +19 group thanks god for new report system reported him instantly :P

non meta specs have no problem getting into group if their raider io is not garbage and itlv is decent enough (if you are not like 275 itlv and 2.7-3k score at this point it means you are fresh alt ) - unelss we are speaking about clear outliners like retri paladins . feral druids, shadow priests. but if you play this specs and didnt reroll to tank / healer last tier or at this point of this tier you can only blame yourself for it.

- - - Updated - - -

In my opinion, we'd benefit more from other healers being brought up to the Holy Priest level rather than tuning down Hpri too much.
Healing this season (esp. w/ randoms) is a miserable experience, as it's incredibly punishing.
DPS can just send the damage and kill with little or no planning, meanwhile you need to spend every global by the book as a healer and hope your DPS notice enemy GO when you sit a micro-cc or its GG.

healing is miserable experience every season - because you see all the mistakes people do and there is usually nothing you can do to prevent clueless people from doing stupid things

play with your guild as healer and experience will be milion times better.

[GMZohar1]

They finally admit that Gladiator's Resolve was changed on purpose. About time

[zenyatta]

And whats the problem with that? i mean i could understand in pvp, but i never get why people cry about to strong classes in pve. Its not like u dont an invite if u are not OP class/spec, if u dont do world first race lol

Do you play with a guild, or not play PvE at all? There's plenty of class/spec snobbery in non WF PvE content.

[Buffbringer]

Why does Blizzard hates paladins?

Seriously... paladins already suck in PVP, have almost zero mobility aside from a 45 second cooldown ability, the only thing good about it was burst damage, and they think it's out of control...

[roldy27]

And whats the problem with that? i mean i could understand in pvp, but i never get why people cry about to strong classes in pve. Its not like u dont an invite if u are not OP class/spec, if u dont do world first race lol

Because the outlier classes often deal upwards of 50% more damage than the "offmeta" classes. I am actually baffled they don't do tuning passes more often. The first two seasons I pushed keys on my ele shaman and while there certainly were some outlier classes back then as well (mage, rogue, monk come to mind) the difference didn't feel as big for some reason.

This season however I felt stupid not playing the top 3 meta classes. I did some 24s a couple months back but then decided to not bother much more. I guess blizzard realized a lot of players felt the same way I did and decided to finally take some action.. But this is still too little, too late at least for me I would say. It might be a decent change for people gearing alts and coming back to the game. I am still confused though how after almost 2 years windwalker monks burst aoe is still this insane and how SV dodged another tuning pass after dominating the m+ scene the way it currently is.