It’s no secret that quite a few unexpected classes have been underperforming inWorld of Warcraft: Dragonflightnow that Season 1 is in full swing, and thankfully Blizzard has their back with the next weekly reset. With thelaunch ofDragonflight’s Mythic Season 1, the developers finally had enough data to formulate a swift and precise response as the race to World First heats up with Liquid enjoying a comfortable lead of 5/8.
Classes such as Hunter have been dominant inDragonflight’s opening tier, a result of thepreviousWorld of Warcraftbalance tuningthat introduced significant buffs to all Hunter specs. While specs such as Fire Mage still bottomed out in performance, despite being the main beneficiary of that same batch of balance changes.
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Following the next weekly reset on December 20,World of Warcraftplayers can expect to see a 3% nerf to all Marksmanship Hunter abilities, allowing the class to stay near the top, but under more reasonable parameters. On the other hand, Fire Mages and Frost Mages will receive a 12% and 15% overall damage buff, respectively – which should move them from the realm of basement dwellers into a more respectable tier.
Death Knights inWorld of Warcrafthave plenty of reasons to rejoice as well, with Soul Reaper damage increased by 10%, and Icy Talons having its duration bumped up to 10 seconds. Furthermore, Unholy Death Knights will have their damage increased by 6% to 10% on most abilities, and the damage modifier of their Reaping talent has been upped by 25% of its original value. On a similar note, Evokers can expect a 15% damage increase to Disintegrate– but that’s also where their class tuning ends.
Arguably, the main beneficiaries of this hotfix have been Shadow Priests and Affliction Warlocks. Shadow Priests will see their damage increased by 20% on key abilities such as Mind Blast, Void Bolt, Mind Spike, and Mind Flay, with its other spells such as Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch receiving a 10% damage increase. Affliction Warlocks can expect a 20% damage increase to Shadow Bolt and Drain Soul, a 15% boost to Malefic Rapture damage, and a whooping 500% increase to the damage dealt by Pandemic Invocation.
Arms Warriors will see a small increase to their damage with an overall 3% increase, while Restoration Druids have had their healing buffed by 5%. Meanwhile, Windwalker Monks, Enhancement Shamans, and all threeRogue specs inWorld of Warcrafthave suffered a 3% nerf to their abilities. Much to the disappointment of many players, Brewmaster Monks remain in their current state with no pending changes.
Though there will always be a few unhappy voices with every set of balance changes and class tuning, this is undeniably a step in the right direction to fixing the currentWorld of Warcraftmeta. More extensive changes toWorld of Warcraft’s classeswill likely be a part of its upcoming Patch 10.0.5.
Player versus Player
Based on data we’ve observed so far in Season 1, we’re making some PvP-specific adjustments. One of the broader changes we’re making is to target mana regeneration for different healers to better balance their longevity in relationship to throughput in PvP.
World of Warcraft: Dragonflightis available on PC.
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