Class Tuning Incoming - December 13, 2022

[Lumy]

Class Tuning Incoming - December 13, 2022

With the launch of Dragonflight Season 1, we’re making some tuning adjustments to classes during scheduled weekly maintenance on December 13.

Tank Specializations

We’ve been taking a long look at Tank survivability as we prepare for the beginning of Dragonflight Season 1. In general, we’ve found that the new talent trees have introduced a lot of power across all classes and specializations. Talents that were once exclusive through systems like the Talent Rows, Legendaries, or Covenants can now be equipped at the same time. Through our recent testing, we’ve determined that the damage done to tanks needs to be increased. While we’re thrilled that players are enjoying playing tanks in Dragonflight and want the role to be healthy, there are some negative effects that can come from tanks being too strong, that we want to avoid. We want healers to play a key role in keeping tanks alive, and tanks shouldn’t be able to easily solo large portions of encounters after the rest of their group have died.

We’re adjusting the damage reduction passives on all of the tanks, effectively increasing the damage tanks take by 10%. We think tanks will still feel powerful after this change, and it will result in a more balanced gameplay experience for all players.

Death Knight

• Blood
  
  • Blood Fortification no longer reduces damage taken (was 10% damage reduction).

Demon Hunter

• Vengeance
  
  • Demonic Wards Rank 1 and Rank 2 passives have been removed, reducing Demonic Wards total damage reduction to 10% (was 20% damage reduction).

Druid

• Guardian
  
  • Ursine Adept no longer reduces damage taken (was 10% damage reduction).

Monk

• Brewmaster
  
  • Brewmaster’s Balance no longer reduces damage taken (was 10% damage reduction)

Paladin

• Protection
  
  • Aegis of Light no longer reduces damage taken (was 10% damage reduction).

Warrior

• Protection
  
  • Vanguard no longer reduces damage taken (was 5% damage reduction).
  • Defensive Stance now reduces damage taken by 15% (was 20%). Damage reduction remains unchanged at 10% effectiveness in PVP.

---

Damage Specializations

A number of changes below are targeted at reducing the passive healing provided to several DPS specs. While some amount of passive healing can be a perk for some specializations, we think these particular abilities are providing too much benefit, particularly compared to more active options.

Demon Hunter

• The Hunt now heals for 10%/20% (as Havoc/Vengeance) of damage dealt to the marked target for 20 sec (was 25%/50% for 30 seconds).
• Charred Warblades now heals for 3% of Fire damage dealt (was 5%).
• Fixed an issue that unintentionally permitted Fodder to the Flame’s heal effect to crit.
• Havoc
  
  • Essence Break damage reduced by 8%.

Priest

• Shadow
  
  • Vampiric Touch healing reduced to 30% of damage dealt (was 50%).
  • Devouring Plague healing reduced to 30% of damage dealt (was 50%).

Rogue

• Leeching Poison’s leech bonus reduced to 5% (was 10%).
• Assassination
  
  • Poison Bomb’s chance to trigger reduced to 4/8% per combo point (was 5/10%).
• Outlaw
  
  • Dispatch damage increased by 5%.
  • Pistol Shot damage reduced by 6%.
• Subtlety
  
  • Black Powder damage reduced by 5%.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Secret Technique to interact incorrectly with Cold Blood.

Warlock

• Fel Synergy now causes Soul Leech to heal you for 15% of the absorption it grants (was 25%).
• Soul Leech now grants shields up to 5% of maximum health (was 10%).
• Demon Skin now increases Soul Leech’s absorption up to 10% of maximum health (was 15%).

Warrior

• Fury
  
  • Gushing Wound damage and healing reduced by 10%.
  • Bloodthirst damage increased by 1%.
  • Bloodbath damage increased by 1%.
    
    • Developers’ notes: Bloodthirst and Bloodbath damage has been increased to compensate for the Gushing Wound damage reduction.

Player versus Player

In addition to the above game-wide Tank changes, we felt that certain tank specializations have been over performing in PvP. Alongside this, there were several DPS specializations that had self-healing higher than we were comfortable with. Most of the listed changes listed below are meant to make adjustments to address these concerns.

Demon Hunter

Developers’ notes: With the new talent trees, Demon Hunter Sigils have become stronger than we’d like in PvP, specifically the duration Sigil of Misery, so we are targeting talents that were contributing to that. Additionally, Demon Hunters’ damage in PvP is higher than we have been comfortable with so we are reducing the damage from Essence Break, in addition to last week’s reduction for The Hunt.

• Sigil of Misery PvP duration reduced to 4 seconds (was 5 seconds).
• Concentrated Sigils duration increase value reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
• Precise Sigils duration increase value reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
• Extended Sigils duration increase value reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
  
  • Developers’ notes: In order to display correct PvP values, the tooltip for Extended Sigils will be changed in a future update.
• Fodder to the Flame heal effect reduced by 40% in PvP combat.
• Havoc
  
  • Consume Soul heal effect when consuming a Demon Soul reduced by 60% in PvP combat.
  • Essence Break damage reduced by 20% in PvP combat.

Death Knight

• Blood
  
  • Blood for Blood increases the damage of Heart Strike by 30% (was 60%).
  • Shattering Bone damage reduced by 25% in PvP combat.

Druid

• Guardian
  
  • Moonfire damage reduced by 20% for Guardian Druids in PvP combat.
  • Thrash damage reduced by 20% for Guardian Druids in PvP combat.
  • Brambles damage reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
  • Rage of the Sleeper reflect damage reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
  • After the Wildfire healing reduced by 40% in PvP combat.
  • Sharpened Claws increases the damage of Thrash and Swipe by 10% (was 25%) in PvP combat.
  • Tooth and Claw increases the damage of Maul by 20% (was 40%) in PvP combat .

Paladin

• Protection
  
  • Word of Glory healing reduced by 30% in PvP combat (Protection Paladin only).
  • Light of the Titans healing reduced by 40% in PvP combat.
  • Guardian of the Forgotten Queen cooldown increased to 5 minutes.

Mage

• Fire
  
  • Combustion can no longer be dispelled.
    
    • Developers’ notes: We feel that the counterplay to Combustion, a major self-cast offensive cooldown, did not feel appropriate as it was easily dispelled. We are hoping with this change that it will prompt more creative solutions to counterplay the ability. We didn’t want to make this change previously, due to balance concerns, but now feel it is an appropriate time to bring it in line with other major cooldowns.

Rogue

• Soothing Darkness heal effect reduced by 50% in PvP Combat.
• Assassination
• Hemotoxin (PvP Talent) healing reduction effect reduced to 35% (was 40%).
• Subtlety
  
  • The Rotten damage bonus for Backstab and Shadowstrike reduced to 30% (was 50%) in PvP combat.
    
    • Developers’ notes: Shadowstrike was hitting too hard, leaving minimum room for counterplay for opponents and taking too much damage in a single stun.

Warrior

• Fury
  
  • Bloodthirst now restores 2% of your health in PvP combat (was 3%).
  • Slaughterhouse now decreases healing taken by 3% per stack (was 5% per stack).
  • Slaughterhouse now stacks up to 12 times (was 8 times).
  • Slaughterhouse duration increased to 9 seconds (was 6 seconds).
  • Slaughterhouse duration is no longer refreshed when adding stacks.
• Protection
  
  • Shield Charge damage reduced by 25% in PvP combat.
  • Booming Voice now increases the damage you deal by 10% (was 20%) in PvP combat.

[Biomega]

Oof on the tank changes. Isn't tanks being less reliant on healers a GOOD thing? Every top tank loves when they're in control of their own survival, rather than relying on other players. And it's much better to have them be high defense than be high DPS - and you could argue they'd have to be one of the two to be even remotely interesting to new tank players to consider the role.

Toning down self-healing on DPS is probably fine, though. That leads to weird shit.

[Relapses]

It's pretty hard to gauge how this change will pan out since there's nothing that really hurts tanks out yet. I will say that I felt pretty strong (bordering on OP) on a lot of my tanks even with absolutely no gear so I'm not against this completely. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out next week but I can see them scaling this back a bit if it makes tanking real content miserable.

[Alayea]

It sucks, but I'm mostly relieved that shaman isn't mentioned anywhere on the upcoming class tuning changes.

[Cyi]

Wait times are too high due to tank shortages. Make tanks fun to play, times decrease, people don’t like tanks being strong, nerf tanks to the ground, why play tank?

Not only did they gut the survival ability of them they went after their dps as well. Why bother playing. Meanwhile Evokers are out there.

[Tumble]

To be fair, tanks are a bit strong. I was able to solo part the last boss in ruby life pools mythic, the dragon kyrakka. Everyone died just before the dragon landed. I proceeded to finish off the 2% odd health eckhart had, and then solo the dragon. My prot paladin was only 346 at the time. While fun, that shouldn't be a possibility.

[Ohforfsake]

Well.. I could see that coming, when one day we had a blood DK solo the last boss in the MYTHIC azure vault pretty much all by himself when the healer got nuked and all the dps died shortly after. Or like the tanks can gather a whole mob of elites at the obsidian citadel and their health just doesn't drop. And also they compete with DPS specs on damage meters while doing that. There is something off there really big, and im not even sure those nerfs will bring the balance back to where it should be.

[Plehnard]

This tank nerf was to be expected. Being able to basically tank most bosses to death in M0 with 340 gear already while the rest of the group was dead is too strong. Right now you have to make really grave mistakes to die as a prot warrior (can't really talk for other tanks)

[doodle90]

Soloing is gonna suck witth these leech nerfs....BFA raids gonna take till 15.0 to solo

[Biomega]

and im not even sure those nerfs will bring the balance back to where it should be.

Which is where? No one wanting to play tank because they rely on healers to stay alive and dps to kill anything, which makes them go "so WHAT is fun about all this, exactly?" or something?

Also let's not pretend tanks ACTUALLY compete with DPS. Everyone being dead and/or terrible doesn't count.

[Phob]

Can't we let tanks have fun for a patch?

[AlmightyGerkin]

Wait times are too high due to tank shortages. Make tanks fun to play, times decrease, people don’t like tanks being strong, nerf tanks to the ground, why play tank?

Not only did they gut the survival ability of them they went after their dps as well. Why bother playing. Meanwhile Evokers are out there.

Maybe cause people's arrogance and constant put down is a reason why tanks are in short supply?

[Jester Joe]

Which is where? No one wanting to play tank because they rely on healers to stay alive and dps to kill anything, which makes them go "so WHAT is fun about all this, exactly?" or something?

Also let's not pretend tanks ACTUALLY compete with DPS. Everyone being dead and/or terrible doesn't count.

What.

Maybe not single target, but AoE for sure tanks can, I don't know what kinda tanks you're playing with but they can easily burst up to 100k DPS on an aoe pull.

Tanks are in a ridiculous spot. Healers should be needed for them in dungeons/raids.

[Biomega]

I don't know what kinda tanks you're playing with

I don't know what kinda DPS you're playing with.

Barring singular instances in weird circumstances, tanks won't compete with DPS at equal levels of skill. And no one cares that maybe there's some pulls somewhere that a tank does top damage, if they don't do it across the board.

[Tech614]

What.

Maybe not single target, but AoE for sure tanks can, I don't know what kinda tanks you're playing with but they can easily burst up to 100k DPS on an aoe pull.

Tanks are in a ridiculous spot. Healers should be needed for them in dungeons/raids.

Literally no healer doing competitive raid content or high M+ wants to be a tank healer. I don't think you have any clue what you're talking about in regards to this. Tank healing is boring af which is why top healers are up in arms about blizzard's wording even more than tanks are. Also the only tank doing competitive AoE with dps right now is brewmaster and they're squishy so can't even pull as big as other tanks. If a dps is competing with a prot war or blood DK on the dps meters then they're playing pretty horribly.

Also this is a useless ass change that makes the strong tanks stronger and the weak tanks weaker. Nerfing brewmasters and prot paladins right now is pretty damn laughable, meanwhile DK and DH will just heal 10% more with this change and prot war will just have less over healing. Someone who fails horribly at math and watched the popular Asmon clip made this change without thinking, blizzard should get someone who actually has a clue wtf they're doing to balance tanks if they want that. They nerfed defensive stance ffs, most prot wars aren't even using defensive stance and won't outside of some crazy big pulls once you reach 15+ keys lmfao.

Defending this change makes you as clueless on tanks as the slappy at blizzard who thought this was a great idea but has no idea what they're doing.

- - - Updated - - -

Well.. I could see that coming, when one day we had a blood DK solo the last boss in the MYTHIC azure vault pretty much all by himself when the healer got nuked and all the dps died shortly after. Or like the tanks can gather a whole mob of elites at the obsidian citadel and their health just doesn't drop. And also they compete with DPS specs on damage meters while doing that. There is something off there really big, and im not even sure those nerfs will bring the balance back to where it should be.

The fact you think this change makes any difference for what you posted sums up the general knowledge of non tanks in current game. The Blood DK is going to take 10% more damage which means they heal 10% more and the end result is the same. If you're clueless on tank mechanics you shouldn't be commenting on these changes. If tanks are competing with you on the dps meter I suggest getting better, because that's not a thing with players of equal skill.

[Big Thanks]

What are the damages for Outlaw PvP this time...?

50% nerf on our leech....damn...i felt that one
6% nerf to pistol shot...ok...i can live with that.

5% buff to Dispatch!!! Nice. I love that one.

Ok, not that bad.

[Jester Joe]

I don't know what kinda DPS you're playing with.

Barring singular instances in weird circumstances, tanks won't compete with DPS at equal levels of skill. And no one cares that maybe there's some pulls somewhere that a tank does top damage, if they don't do it across the board.

You realize how much it adds up across the board when they're consistently popping off every other pack pull basically?

Or are you pulling slowly or something that doesn't let tanks get high damage? DPS should be ahead still but tanks absolutely do come close and pretending they don't is just weird.

Literally no healer doing competitive raid content or high M+ wants to be a tank healer. I don't think you have any clue what you're talking about in regards to this.

Tell me where the hell I said anything close to what healers want to do lol

Nowhere. I said that tanks should need healers, that's all. Don't put words in my mouth to make an argument that doesn't exist because you're bored.

[Tyris Flare]

First week being raging is still gonna be lit

[Tech614]

Tell me where the hell I said anything close to what healers want to do lol

Nowhere. I said that tanks should need healers, that's all. Don't put words in my mouth to make an argument that doesn't exist because you're bored.

So gameplay choice healers don't want should be the game design?

Yea good luck with your game if your tank and healer gameplay is boring dog shit friend. Tanks want agency over their own gameplay and healers want to actually support the group instead of spamming a heal on the tank. Sorry you missed the boat on the last decade of WoW evolution but your mythical world where tanks need healers hasn't been a major thing since early Cata and nobody playing competitive content wants that boring ass gameplay back.

The fact you think tanks compete in damage still is telling me all I need to know about your gameplay right now. Sub par player trying to comment on balancing changes they have no clue about. The meta tank specs still don't need healers after this change and the non meta tank specs are now even worse and even less likely to be viable. Great change "tanks needing healers" my ass.

[Jester Joe]

So gameplay choice healers don't want should be the game design?

Yea good luck with your game if your tank and healer gameplay is boring dog shit friend. Tanks want agency over their own gameplay and healers want to actually support the group instead of spamming a heal on the tank. Sorry you missed the boat on the last decade of WoW evolution but your mythical world where tanks need healers hasn't been a major thing since early Cata and nobody playing competitive content wants that boring ass gameplay back.

The fact you think tanks compete in damage still is telling me all I need to know about your gameplay right now. Sub par player trying to comment on balancing changes they have no clue about. The meta tank specs still don't need healers after this change and the non meta tank specs are now even worse and even less likely to be viable. Great change "tanks needing healers" my ass.

So you got nothing besides the normal insults, gotcha.

Vague claims of knowing how everyone wants to play, and then pretending to be better by insulting rather than actually bringing any facts to the table. I get people for some reason think healers want to be a 4th dps in dungeons, but that isn't how the game works.

It's bad design to have healers that just sit there to wait until there's unavoidable damage to then throw out a heal, and sit there and pretend they're a DPS the rest of the time. That's why Blizz keeps trying to move away from that.