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
Demon Hunter
Druid
Monk
Paladin
Warrior
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.
Priest
# #Rogue
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
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.
Fodder to the Flame heal effect reduced by 40% in PvP combat.
Death Knight
Druid
GuardianMoonfire 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
ProtectionWord 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
FireCombustion 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
Warrior
FuryBloodthirst 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.