Upcoming Class Tuning Update - Destruction Warlock Nerfs Delayed to Season 4

[Lumy]

Upcoming Class Tuning Update - Destruction Warlock Nerfs Delayed to Season 4

With our next scheduled weekly maintenance (June 28 in this region), we intend to make some tuning adjustments to several classes.

Classes

• Druid
  
  • Guardian
    
    • 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
    
    • All damage and healing abilities increased by 3%.
    • Fracture and Shear damage increased by 20%.
    • 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
    
    • 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

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.
• Hunter
  
  • 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
  
  • Flow of Time (Conduit) effectiveness reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
  • 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
    
    • Renewing Mist now heals for an additional 25% in PvP combat (was 10%).
    • Enveloping Mist now heals for an additional 10% in PvP combat.
    • 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
    
    • Templar’s Vindication (Conduit) now causes Templar’s Verdict to deal an additional 15% damage (was 30%) in PvP combat.
    • 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
    
    • Mana regeneration reduced by 60% in PvP combat (was 55%).
    • Holy Word: Chastise now incapacitates enemy players for 3 seconds (was 4 seconds).
    • Censure (Talent) now causes Holy Word: Chastise to stun enemy players for 3 seconds (was 4 seconds).
    • 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
    
    • Shadow Word: Pain damage increased by 15% in PvP combat.
    • 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
    
    • 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
  
  • Dark Pact (Talent) now provides an absorb shield based on 300% of health sacrificed in PvP combat (was 250%).
  • Essence Drain (PvP Talent) now causes the target to deal 9% less damage to the Warlock per stack.
  • Essence Drain (PvP Talent) now stacks up to 4 times (was 5).
  • Gateway Mastery (PvP Talent) now reduces the time between how often players can take your Demonic Gateway by 30 seconds (was 15 seconds).
  • Affliction
    
    • 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
  
  • The amount of Mastery granted by Conqueror’s Banner (Necrolord Ability) reduced by 33% in PvP combat.
  • Fury
    
    • 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.

---

In response to player feedback, we have elected to not make changes to Destruction Warlock this week. We expect to adjust Destruction as well as Survival Hunter with the beginning of Season 4.

Previously in our April 20 tuning, we made adjustments to Destruction Warlock and Survival Hunter to reign in their performance in M+. Those changes did not turn out to do enough, and we need to make further adjustments, but we realize this will have a significant impact on players who have committed time and effort into those specs for the conclusion of the M+ season.

Please prepare for reductions to Destruction Warlock and Survival Hunter damage in high target situations at the start of Season 4.

[Relapses]

I'm glad Blizzard reconsidered ending a season before they announced its official closure. S4 waiting room here we go

[Hightotemz]

I'm glad Blizzard reconsidered ending a season before they announced its official closure. S4 waiting room here we go

Mage, rogue and ww for season 4?

[Relapses]

Mage, rogue and ww for season 4?

Mages are always a safe bet given they are the main character of WoW. This season has been an anomaly. WW slams damage in M+ like nothing else so unless they also get toned down they're likely to remain near the top. Rogue is a great call because of the utility. Wo is going away so shroud is once again an invaluable tool. It ultimately depends on exactly how much they are anticipating changing with S4 so hopefully we get more news sooner than later.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

Return of the Fire Mage meta.

[Argorwal]

Blizz needs to come out and tell us how much time needs to pass before specs are immune to nerfs.

Guardian druid was early enough to gut.

Blood DK, destro, and survival it’s too late.

[Relapses]

Blizz needs to come out and tell us how much time needs to pass before specs are immune to nerfs.

Guardian druid was early enough to gut.

Blood DK, destro, and survival it’s too late.

No class or spec is "immune" to nerfs though Blizzard definitely dropped the ball with the speed at which they are implementing these changes. Changes these drastic should never occur at the end of a patch; frankly, I'm surprised they're even bothering because the end of expansions are usually the "no rules" period of the game where they toss balance out the window and let shit hit the fan.

[Neotart]

No class or spec is "immune" to nerfs though Blizzard definitely dropped the ball with the speed at which they are implementing these changes. Changes these drastic should never occur at the end of a patch; frankly, I'm surprised they're even bothering because the end of expansions are usually the "no rules" period of the game where they toss balance out the window and let shit hit the fan.

Can u blame them? only like 4 people working over there..

[Communism]

Once again too slow to implement these changes and the season is ruined by SV/Destro meta comps.

Should have been fixed 'again' a week or so after their first set of changes back in April.

[Argorwal]

No class or spec is "immune" to nerfs though Blizzard definitely dropped the ball with the speed at which they are implementing these changes. Changes these drastic should never occur at the end of a patch; frankly, I'm surprised they're even bothering because the end of expansions are usually the "no rules" period of the game where they toss balance out the window and let shit hit the fan.

Umm, they just came out and said Destro is immune to nerfs until season 4.

[cocomen2]

Where Shaman changes? nvm Ion hates them! and they must know it.

[Relapses]

Umm, they just came out and said Destro is immune to nerfs until season 4.

If people find a weird spec 3/4s of a way through a season and it spawns a degenerate or clearly unintended playstyle they will nerf it. There is no such thing as immunity from nerfs.

[Nzx]

Where Shaman changes? nvm Ion hates them! and they must know it.

He literally plays a shaman you goof.

[Daan]

Blizz needs to come out and tell us how much time needs to pass before specs are immune to nerfs.

Guardian druid was early enough to gut.

Blood DK, destro, and survival it’s too late.

Remember the big Feral 4p Tier Set nerfs immediately after a meme pull on the PTR.

[Jorel88]

So destro, survival but no demo? Demo been high in MYTHIC + and RAID

[Puri]

It would have made zero sense to nerf the top specs at this point in a season. We knew from the beta how OP survival and destro was going to be, they implemented a early live nerf but reverted it. Yet they nerfed the balance druid set bonus, and look where they stand now.

This late in a season they should not nerf the top dps, they should buff the bottom. Shadow, Moonkin, BM and for sure many others are all on the bottom of the food chain in raid and m+, for healers discipline and MW have a ridiculously low damage output compared to other ones - which could be fixed with a single tuning pass that pretty much has no influence in anything else, but somehow they choose not to.

I have no idea why they don't just constantly adjust the specs with their overall multiplication aura they have, and just apply a weekly balancing hotfix that just makes 1% changes according to sims, and actual raid and m+ data.

Additionally they write a three liner explaining that some spec has "fallen behind" (as if they were ever in front), and buff some ability by 10% in the only balance change for that spec in the whole season, which overall translates to less than a 2% buff in a pure single target situation, while those spec are at 60% of the top spec. This doesn't feel like a buff, it rather feels like an insult.

[stoffe]

Think S4 is around corner with all this Class tuning coming in.

[Bakis]

No class is "immune" to nerfs

- but only one comp is, RMP"

Think that is a more valid take ;p