Tuesday, March 5, 2013

World of Warcraft: Patch 5.2 Overview (Class Changes)

In this section of this article I will review the class changes this patch. For the sake of preventing this article from becoming an enormous (though well-formatted) wall of text, I will, as usual, be going over changes I consider to be of the highest level of importance. For more information, check out the full patch notes (link).

Go back to the general changes here and go forward to the remaining changes here.

General
Area Damage Cap: The area damage cap is now 20 targets (was 10). This means area of effect damage spells now reach their maximum damage when striking 20 targets. If more than 20 targets are struck, then the total damage done is spread evenly over the actual number of targets present.
This is an enormous change that will allow players to effectively deal more AoE damage to large numbers of targets. I personally like this change and have no problem with it because there are already a number of abilities that ignore the area damage cap anyways. The new area damage cap will also make AoE farming (for those who like to run low level instances and stuff) even more of a breeze.

Death Knight
  • Death Siphon now heals for 150% of the damage dealt (was 100%).
  • Conversion now costs 5 Runic Power plus 5 per second thereafter, down from 10 Runic Power plus 10 per second.
These changes are intended to make certain tier 4 Death Knight "healing" talents more attractive. Personally, as someone who runs the third ability and has tested the other two abilities, I can agree with these buffs. Someone else may have come up with some math that shows one of these now buffed talents as completely broken, though. Either way, I'll probably be trying out these talents.
These seemingly innocuous changes are actually a pretty major damage buff. In particular, it might greatly increase a Death Knight's AoE output.
  • Strangulate's cooldown has been reduced to 60 seconds (was 2 minutes).
  • Asphyxiate's cooldown has been reduced to 30 seconds (was 1 minute).
This is pretty large buff to the Death Knight's silencing utility. The >Asphyxiate change may be a bit over the top, though (we really don't need more low-cooldown stuns in PvP, in my opinion).
These changes are some buffs to DPS DKs (numerically). Considering I haven't touched my Death Knight much since I finished leveling him to 90, I can't particularly say if Death Knights are doing poorly (I personally raided with a pretty solid DPS DK, for instance, but this doesn't mean they are doing fine). Either way, if the buffs are too out of hand, they'll probably be brought down at some point. The tier set bonus change was probably done to account for these buffs.
  • Summon Gargoyle no longer costs Runic Power.
  • Gargoyle Strike now also deals Shadow damage, in addition to Nature damage.
When I saw this change I was pretty happy. It effectively turns Summon Gargoyle into a cooldown (I really hated the Runic Power cost on it to the point I actually forget to use it because it's such a frustration to put into the rotation whenever I play as Unholy). The latter change effectively makes the Gargoyle scale off mastery, which is a buff (and, to be honest, a logical one).

Druid
Cyclone now has a 20-second cooldown for Feral Druids.
This is a long coming nerf to Feral Druid PvP. I'm at least glad Blizzard isn't touching instant cast Cyclone and, to be fair, being able to use Cyclone so frequently was silly.
  • Dispersion now has a 3-minute cooldown for Druids (was 2 minutes).
  • Shattering Blow now has a 1.5-second cast time to align correctly with the Warrior version of this ability.
These are changes to the Druid Symbiosis abilities to bring them in line. I'm under the impression these relate to Druid PvP and making certain class partners less attractive to group with.
  • Rip now deals 15% more damage.
Flat buff to Feral. Hopefully there won't be bleed-related problems because of this.
Flat buffs to Guardian. From what I've heard Guardian Druids have been pretty rare in progression lately so this might bring them in line I guess.
  • Nature's Vigil now has a 90-second cooldown (was 3 minutes), and now increases damage and healing done by 10% (was 20%).
  • The Treants summoned by Force of Nature now deal more damage and healing, and the Force of Nature tooltip will report the capabilities of these summoned pets.
  • Faerie Swarm can now snare more than one target at a time
  • Mass Entanglement now has a 30-second cooldown (was 2 minutes)
  • Typhoon now has a 30-second cooldown (was 20 seconds).
  • Displacer Beast has been redesigned. It now triggers Cat Form and grants 50% increased movement speed for 4 seconds after teleporting, and no longer activates Prowl.
  • The healing granted by Cenarion Ward when a target takes damage has been increased by 100%.
Tons of talent changes to be had here. Most of these are buffs (probably to make them more attractive), though Typhoon got a nerf and Displacer Beast can go either way. Considering I never touched Displacer Beast I'm not sure if it behaves like a Vanish, but if it did, then this is probably a nerf to Displacer Beast.
Probably more of a buff to Restoration Druids than anything, but the mana cost reductions will help out other specializations.
  • Starfire damage has been increased by 9%.
  • Starsurge damage has been increased by 9%.
  • Starfall will no longer strike targets that are affected by crowd control effects.
  • Wrath damage has been increased by 9%
Three of these changes to flat buffs to Balance Druids. The fourth change is a much-needed one for Balance Druids since Starfall isn't exactly a controllable AoE and one of the problems that essentially prohibited the use of it in many situations was it broke CC.
Thick Hide now reduces critical strike chance from all types of attacks made against the Guardian Druid, instead of just melee.
This change confuses me a little bit, especially since other tanks don't seem to get an equivalent change. In addition, it seems to be a change largely for PvP.
  • Naturalist: This new passive learned at level 10 by Restoration Druids increases all healing done by the Druid by 10%.
  • Wild Mushrooms will now gain 25% of the overhealing performed by the Druid’s Rejuvenation effects, up to a maximum of 33% of the Druid’s health in bonus healing, and growing larger as they do so. When Wild Mushroom: Bloom is cast, this bonus healing will be divided evenly amongst targets in the area of effect.
The first change is a flat buff to Restoration Druids. The second one, as far as I can tell, pretty much stores overhealing that the Druid does (maybe they cast Rejuvenation on the mushrooms themselves). It then releases this bonus healing when the mushrooms are detonated. This is probably to make the spell more attractive to use.

Hunter
Targeting for Glaive Toss and Powershot has been improved. These abilities will now always hit the primary target and are much more responsive about which secondary targets they hit.
When I saw this change I smiled a bit. As someone who runs Glaive Toss almost all the time, I noticed targets that should probably get hit don't get hit by the glaives.
  • Aimed Shot cast time has been reduced to 2.5 seconds (was 2.9 seconds).
  • Steady Shot now deals 20% more damage.
  • Aimed Shot now deals 10% more damage.
  • Chimera Shot now deals 25% more damage and heals the Hunter for 5% (was 3%) of their total health.
These changes are some nice buffs to Marksmanship Hunters. Considering they are virtually nonexistent in both PvP and PvE (though I think some of this is due to being overshadowed), I am totally fine with these buffs. I might even try Marksmanship again.
Silencing Shot now has a 24-second cooldown (was 20 seconds).
This is a small change that brings Silencing Shot in line with other long-range interrupts. I think it's pretty fair, though it may need a lockout duration increase (maybe). It also makes the talent choice slightly less attractive to take.
  • Binding Shot no longer has a Focus cost.
  • Wyvern Sting no longer has a Focus cost, and its cooldown is now 45 seconds (was 60 seconds).
These talents are on the same tier as Silencing Shot. The fact these two got buffed and Silencing Shot got nerfed makes these two talent choices far more attractive.
  • Glyph of Marked for Death has been removed and its effects are now baseline.
  • The Fetch ability from Glyph of Fetch no longer requires a target. When activated, the pet will automatically choose a nearby corpse to loot.
  • New Glyph: Glyph of Liberation. This glyph now causes Disengage to heal the Hunter for 5% of maximum health when used.
Having a bunch of glyph changes is nice, and these ones are pretty major. The first change essentially makes Hunter's Mark a passive ability (that probably should have been applied baseline to begin with). The second change makes Fetch a usable ability without all the clunk involved (it AoE loots by default). The final change brings back an old version of Exhilaration which might make Hunters have too much sustain again.
Flat buff to Survival. I don't know if it needed this much of a buff to be comparable to Beast Mastery, but if the power of Survival is too high, it'll get toned down eventually.

Mage
  • Invocation now removes Evocation's cooldown, and reduces its channeling time and duration by 50%. A completed Evocation now grants 15% increased damage for 1 minute after an Evocation is completed, instead of 25% increased damage for 40 seconds. Passive mana regeneration is reduced by 50% only while Invoker's Energy is active.
  • Glyph of Evocation now causes the Invocation talent to restore 10% (was 20%) health after completing an Evocation.
This is an interesting change, though a net damage loss for reliability (i.e. Evocation channel is easier to finish).
  • Greater invisibility now has a 90-second cooldown (was 2.5 minutes).
  • Blazing Speed is now a level-15 talent, replacing Scorch (now a fire mage ability)
  • Flameglow, a new talent is available at level 30 and replaces Blazing Speed. The passive ability encases the Mage in fiery energy, absorbing damage from each attack made against the Mage equal to 20% of their spellpower, up to a maximum of 30% of the attack.
  • Ice Floes now has a 45-second cooldown (was 1 minute) and its duration has been increased to 15 seconds (was 10 seconds).
  • Incanter's Ward can now be removed by magic dispels.
  • Ring of Frost cast instantly through Presence of Mind now has a 2-second arming period before the Freeze effect is activated against targets in the area of effect. The 2-second arming period can be reduced by Haste.
  • Temporal Ripples from Temporal Shield can no longer be dispelled.
Like the other classes, Mages also got their fair share of talent changes. These are a mix of buffs and nerfs. Personally, it's not going to really change my talent choices (except in cases where I have to switch talents), like with Scorch.
  • For Arcane Mages, Evocation now restores 40% (was 60%) of total mana over 6 seconds, and consumes all Arcane Charges. For each Arcane Charge consumed, the total amount of mana regenerated is increased by 10%, up to a maximum of 80% over 6 seconds. Evocation remains the same for Fire and Frost.
  • Arcane Blast's damage has been reduced by 22.2% and mana cost has been increased to 1.66667% of base mana (was 1.5%).
  • Arcane Missile's damage has been reduced by 22.2%.
  • Arcane Barrage's damage has been reduced by 13.6%.
  • Arcane Charges now stacks up to 4 times (was 6), increases damage by 50% (was 25%), and increases mana cost by 150% (was 75%).
These are changes for Arcane Mages, mostly in the form of nerfs. The one I would like to highlight is the changes to Arcane Charges, which is effectively a damage "increase" but will probably require charges to be dumped more often due to the heightened mana cost. Given recent talent changes, the Arcane Charges change along with the Evocation change could promote a rotation with liberal use of Evocation.
These changes augur a damage buff to Frost Mages. I'm particularly happy with the Frostbolt buff.

Monks 

(There might not be too much coverage on these changes, since I don't play much Monk)
  • (New Level-60 Talent) Ring of Peace forms an 8 yard sanctuary around a friendly target for 8 seconds, disabling enemy player auto-attacks in PvP, and causing all enemies (both players and NPCs) in the area of effect to be disarmed for the duration. In addition, enemies that cast a damaging spell while within the area of effect will be silenced for 3 seconds. The ability has a 45-second cooldown.
  • New Windwalker and Brewmaster ability added at level 30: Nimble Brew
  • Nimble Brew removes all stun, fear, and root effects, and reduces the duration of those effects if they are reapplied by 60% for 6 seconds. It has a 2-minute cooldown.
While these look kind of strange to put together, I'm bunching these additional abilities together because I feel they will both have a strong effect on Monk PvP (PvP trinkets for Monks? Zoning tool for Monks?). Ring of Peace in particular seems really silly.
  • Chi Wave now does 100% more damage and 14% less healing, and no longer costs Chi, and has a 15-second cooldown.
  • Zen Sphere now has a limit of 2 (was 1), detonates when either the recipient reaches 35% health or the Zen Sphere is dispelled, no longer costs Chi, and has a 10-second cooldown. Its periodic damage has been increased by 22%, periodic healing has been reduced by 61%, its detonation healing has been reduced by 62%, and detonation range has been increased by 40%.
  • Chi Burst now does 69% more healing, no longer costs Chi, and has a 30-second cooldown.
These are changes to the second tier Monk talents to reduce their healing strength overall, increase damage done, and remove the Chi costs. I really like them, even though I play my monk mostly as a healer.
  • Glyph of Path of Blossoms is now Glyph of Paralysis. This glyph causes the Monk's Paralysis ability to remove all damage-over-time effects on the target.
  • Paralysis is now a physical, non-magical effect, can no longer be dispelled, grounded or reflected, and its base range has been increased to 20 yards. The paralysis effect lasts 40 seconds (was 30 seconds) for non-player targets, 4 seconds when used against other players, and lasts 50% (was 200%) longer when used from behind a target.
These are some major changes to Paralysis. It is now a more reliable CC against non-player targets and is more usable in PvP as well with the new glyph.
  • Jab now costs 8% (was 4%) of base mana to use.
  • Muscle Memory is a new passive ability for Mistweaver Monks. Successful Jabs and Spinning Crane Kicks which damages at least 3 enemies cause Muscle Memory. Muscle Memory causes the Monk's next Tiger Palm or Blackout Kick to deal 150% more damage and restore 4% mana.
  • The Glyphed version of Uplift now costs 16% of base mana (was 6.6%) to cast.
  • Eminence now heals for 25% of the damage done (was 50%).
  • Serpent's Zeal heals for 12.5% per stack of damage done (was 25%).
  • Teachings of the Monastery now provides additional benefits.
These changes are for Mistweaver Monks. While I like how Mistweaver will be able to do more melee damage (with some nerfs to ensure they don't have ridiculous healing just by fighting), I am wondering if it's enough to promote the playstyle. I really like it but doubt it will see any practical use, especially in endgame settings.
New Level-75 Ability: Storm, Earth and Fire - The Windwalker can summon up to 2 elemental duplicates that mirror damaging abilities that the Monk uses while they are active. For each spirit summoned, the Monk's damage is reduced: 1 spirit causes the Monk and the spirit to deal 60% of the Monk's normal damage, while 2 spirits will cause the Monk and both active spirits to deal 45% of the Monk's normal damage. Each spirit lasts until the ability is canceled, that spirit's target dies or otherwise becomes unavailable, or they're killed (they can be targeted and have 10% of the Monk's health).
What can I even say? As an avid Warcraft III fan I was wondering when this ability was going to be implemented. I might actually go Windwalker spec now (I'm not covering any other Windwalker changes because I have no idea how Windwalker Monk works, by the way).               
Mastery: Elusive Brawler now provides 25% more Stagger per Mastery rating.
This is a slight buff to Brewmaster Monks, probably to promote more Brewmaster tanking.

Paladin
  • Repentance now has a cast time of 1.7 seconds (was 1.5 seconds).
  • Sacred Shield's absorb effect can now be dispelled.
  • Selfless Healer now boosts Flash of Light by 20/40/60% (was 33/66/100%).
  • Light's Hammer now also applies a 50% snare for 2 seconds to targets that take damage from the area of effect.
  • Hand of Purity now reduces all incoming damage by 10% in addition to its other effects.
  • Eternal Flame's periodic heal now provides 100% more healing when self-cast.
These are some Paladin talent changes. In particular, it seems some talents are nerfed down while others are buffed up to make them more attractive options, much like previous class talent changes. The change that catches my eye is the Light's Hammer change that essentially makes an AoE snare area.
Blinding Light now has a 1.8-second cast time for Holy Paladins. It remains instant cast for Retribution and Protection.
This is a change that prevents Holy Paladins from having access to a strong instant cast CC (in particular this one makes it really easy for Holy Paladins to escape sticky situations on top of their defensive strength and general slipperiness, so it got nerfed).
The base damage of Consecration has been increased by 789%, and it now scales less efficiently with attack power by approximately 11%.
789%? Is that...a typo? That seems like a really large base damage increase even given the scaling nerf.
  • Avenging Wrath now has a cooldown of 2 minutes for Retribution Paladins (was 3 minutes). The cooldown remains unchanged for Holy and Protection Paladins.
  • Seal of Justice now causes melee attacks to deal an additional 20% (was 16%) as Holy damage.
  • Sword of Light now increases Flash of Light by 100% (was 30%).
I guess Retribution needed a buff too. I'm at least glad they didn't give them a bunch of damage buffs and instead improved their damage cooldown.

Priest
This is pretty much a change that nerfs Shadow Priest's self healing strength (there is another that even further emphasizes this for all hybrid healers in PvP).
  • Halo will no longer hit enemies that are in stealth.
  • Angelic Bulwark can no longer be dispelled.
  • Dominate Mind now has a 1.8-second cast time (was 2.5 seconds).
  • Angelic Feather now has a 6 second duration (was 4 seconds).
  • Power Infusion now increases the Priest's damage by 5% in addition to current effects.
  • Phantasm no longer makes the Priest untargetable by ranged attacks, and the movement impairing immunity effect is now 5 seconds (was 3 seconds).
  • Psyfiend belonging to an individual Priest will no longer cast Psychic Horror on the same target twice.
More class talent changes. I'm kind of sad about the Halo one but I can understand the logic (too easy to cheese stealth). The other changes are more to make talents more or less desirable to take.
  • Power Word: Solace has been replaced with a new talent: Solace & Insanity
    • For Holy and Discipline, Power Word: Solace replaces Holy Fire. It deals the same damage, and interacts with other spells and abilities in the same manner but does not trigger Atonement, is instant, costs no mana, and restores 1% of maximum mana on each cast. Damage dealt by Power Word: Solace will heal a nearby friendly player within 40 yards of the target for 100% of the damage dealt (50% when healing the Priest).
    • For Shadow, this ability causes Mind Flay to gain the Insanity effect on a target affected by Devouring Plague. Insanity increases the damage of Mind Flay by 33% per Shadow Orb consumed.
  • Holy Fire is now an instant cast ability.
  • Glyph of Holy Fire has been redesigned. It now increases the range of Holy Fire, Smite, and Power Word: Solace by 10 yards.
These changes mostly relate to Holy Fire and resultant changes due to the initial changes. What immediately comes to mind is that there's no more easily used mana battery talent but rather an active nuke that can heal and also restore mana. I personally am fine with this line of changes, though I have seen some resentment over them (especially the removal of Power Word: Solace).
  • Glyph of Mind Spike only works from Mind Spikes that aren't instant casts from Surge of Darkness.
  • Glyph of Desperation has been replaced with Glyph of Binding Heal. Pain Suppression and Guardian Spirit can now always be cast while stunned
  • New Glyph: Glyph of Binding Heal applies Binding Heal a third nearby friendly target, but costs 35% more mana.
  • Glyph of Inner Focus has been replaced with Glyph of Weakened Soul. Casting Inner Focus now always grants 5 seconds of immunity to silences, interrupts, and dispels.
  • New Glyph: Glyph of Weakened Soul reduces the duration of Weakened Soul by 2 seconds.
This is probably the largest litany of glyph changes this patch. Most of them seem like glyph replacements as the original glyph effects are made baseline.
  • Evangelism's stacking effect now also increases the healing of Penance.
  • Mastery: Shield Discipline now also increases all healing done by a lesser amount, but the bonus provided by Mastery has been reduced by 36%.
  • Penance damage and healing has been increased by 20%, now a cooldown of 9 seconds (was 10 seconds), and has a range of 40 yards for both friendly and hostile targets (was 40 yards for friendly and 30 yards for hostile targets).
  • Focused Will now reduce damage taken by 15% per stack, with a limit of 2 stacks.
  • Spirit Shell can no longer be dispelled and now provides an absorb shield equal to the average healing and absorb of the triggering spell, including criticals and Divine Aegis.
  • Rapture now reduces the cost of Power Word: Shield by 25% and provides mana equal to 150% (was 200%) of the Priest's Spirit, but no longer benefits from Spirit provided by short-duration bonuses.
  • Divine Aegis now causes critical heals to apply an absorb shield on the target for 100% of the amount healed instead of healing for twice as much. In addition, it grants Power Word: Shield a chance equal to the Priest's critical chance for the shield to absorb twice as much damage.
These are a slew of Discipline changes. They are a mix of buffs and nerfs, mostly cutting the strength of absorption abilities while promotion the use of actual healing.
  • Dispersion now belongs to the Shadow spell school.
  • Shadowform now increases the Priest's Shadow damage by 25% (was 20%).
These are both changes exclusive to Shadow Priests. The first properly makes Dispersion a Shadow spell (hey it makes sense!) and the second is a flat buff to Shadow Priest damage.

Rogue
  • Preparation is now a baseline ability learned at level 68 and no longer resets the cooldown on Cloak of Shadows.
  • Versatility has been removed.
  • New Level 90 Talent: Marked for Death
    • Marks a target and instantly generates 5 combo points. When that target dies, Marked for Death's cooldown is reset. This talent has a 1-minute cooldown.
  • New Level 60 Talent: Cloak and Dagger
    • Ambush, Garrote, and Cheap Shot now have a 30-yard range, and will cause the Rogue to teleport behind the target.
  • Burst of Speed now costs 30 Energy (was 50 Energy), can be used in Stealth, and always grants increased movement speed in addition to breaking snare effects, but no longer breaks root effects.
  • Shuriken Toss now causes the Rogue to throw ranged shurikens coated in Lethal Poison and auto-attack at 75% damage (was 80%) for up to 10 seconds if the enemy is farther than 10 yards away.
  • Deadly Throw can now interrupt spellcasting when used at 3, 4 and 5 combo points, and upon interrupt prevents any spell in that school from being cast for 4, 5 and 6 seconds respectively, instead of 5 combo points and 6 seconds.
  • Nerve Strike now reduces the effectiveness of healing provided by the target by 10% (was from 25%).
  • Shadow Focus now reduces ability energy costs by 75% while stealthed (was 100%).
These are the talent changes for Rogues. The new talents and baseline Preparation are the highlights of these changes, in my opinion. Preparation going baseline is sensible considering Readiness is already baseline and is the comparable ability. The new talents interest me and I'm going to enjoy trying them out on my Rogue.
  • Dispatch now deals 15% more damage.
  • Envenom now deals 20% more damage.
  • Vitality now increases attack power by 30% (was 25%).
  • Blade Flurry has been changed. It now strikes up to 4 additional nearby targets for 40% of normal damage.
  • Sanguinary Vein now increases the damage the target takes by 20% (was 16%).
These are mostly buffs for Rogues (in particular Assassination Rogues). The highlight of these specialization changes is Blade Flurry, which is essentially a large nerf to their DPS against 2 or 3 targets.

Shaman
Shamanistic Rage is now available to Elemental Shaman as well as Enhancement Shaman.
This is a nice additional defensive cooldown for Elemental Shamans, who are known to not have that much durability otherwise.
  • Conductivity no longer requires that the target be within the area of effect of Healing Rain.
  • Conductivity now shares 30% (was 20%) of the healing received from Healing Wave, Greater Healing Wave, or Healing Surge.
  • Ancestral Swiftness now increases spell haste by 5% and melee haste by 10%, instead of 5% each.
  • Stone Bulwark Totem now absorbs 25% more damage.
  • Primal Earth Elemental and Primal Fire Elemental now deal 20% more damage.
  • Elemental Blast now has a chance to increase the caster's Agility for Enhancement Shaman.
  • Totemic Restoration no longer allows the Shaman to instantly destroy a totem to obtain a full 50% refund on cooldown. Any totems that have been destroyed or replaced behave as if the totem had been active for at least 1 second.
  • When summoned, the Stone Bulwark Totem has health equal to 10% of the casting Shaman's health.
  • The talent Nature's Guardian now preserves the player's health percentage when its maximum health boosting effect expires.
These are the talent changes for Shamans. There's nothing too notable here that I'm knowledgeable of my best guess tells me Elemental Blast the the Primal Elemental buffs are the strongest of the changes. However, like most of the other talent changes, most of them are intended to make certain options more attractive or less attractive.
  • Chain Lightning will now deal the same damage to subsequent targets as it does to the first.
  • Lava Beam's damage now increases with jumps. Each jump increases the damage by 10%.
  • Flame Shock's duration has been increased by 25%.
  • Glyph of Flame has been redesigned. This glyph now causes the Shaman to heal for 30% of the damage dealt by Flame Shock.
  • Lava Burst base damage has been reduced by 33% but now always deals a critical strike. When cast on targets affected by Flame Shock, it now deals 50% more damage.
  • Elemental Focus now increases the Shaman's spell damage by 15% (was 10%).
  • Shamanism now increases the damage of Lightning Bolt by 70% (was 50%).
These are some damage buffs to Elemental Shaman. The one I'd like to highlight because it's probably the most confusing is the Lava Burst change. What it effectively does is increase the damage Lava Burst deals against targets without Flame Shock up (deals 34% more damage than it would at the moment), while the damage against targets with Flame Shock up is unchanged. In addition, it always procs Elemental Focus now. This effectively allows Elemental Shaman to have reliable access to this buff and not be as heavily punished for having no Flame Shock up (because, for instance, it got dispelled).

Warlock
Fel Armor now reduces damage taken by 10%, instead of increasing the Warlock’s armor.
I'm pretty sure this is a buff. It's similar to an old Frost Armor change back when Frost Armor used to increase armor, then was changed to flat (physical) damage reduction. This is essentially that but much better (since it reduces all damage taken).
  • Blood Fear has been replaced by Blood Horror. Blood Horror costs 5% health, has 1 charge, and lasts 60 seconds with a 30-second cooldown. While Blood Horror is active, melee attacks that strike the Warlock will cause the attacker to be horrified for 4 seconds.
  • Burning Rush now also prevents movement-impairing effects from reducing the Warlock’s movement speed below 100% of normal, in addition to its other effects.
  • Soul Leech now provides an absorption shield instead of healing
  • Sacrificial Pact now requires the pet to sacrifice 25% of its health to activate (was 50%)
  • Kil'jaeden's Cunning is now a passive talent, and its activated ability has been removed
  • The passive damage from Archimonde's Vengeance no longer has a visual effect
  • Grimoire of Sacrifice now increases the damage of abilities by 15% (was 25%) for Destruction Warlocks and 25% (was 50%) for Affliction Warlocks. In addition, it now provides the spell Whiplash instead of Seduction when a Succubus is sacrificed.
These are the talent changes for Warlocks. Most of these are quality of life or some change or another that may make a talent more or less desirable to take. Blood Fear, for instance, is effectively nerfed as well as Sacrificial Pact. However, some other talent changes like with Kil'jaeden's Cunning and Soul Leech (I guess) are effectively buffs.
  • Haunt now causes the target to receive an additional 30% damage (was 25%) from Warlock's spells
  • Unstable Affliction’s backlash effect is now always a critical hit and deals approximately 15% more damage.
These are some (tiny) buffs to Affliction. The one that confuses me is the Unstable Affliction buff. Didn't something like this get implemented before and it turned out to be absolutely chaotic?
These are some pretty huge buffs to Demonology. Keep in mind the Immolate buff is also a buff to Destruction as well.
These are some buffs to Destruction. There's not really much to say here, since they are flat damage increases.

Warrior
The benefit of Haste from items and consumables has been increased by 50% for all Warriors.
Considering Haste isn't that attractive to Warriors usually, this might make the secondary stat a little more attractive to consider in the priorities.
  • Bladestorm now provides immunity to disarm while active.
  • Shockwave now has a 40-second cooldown (was 20 seconds), and striking 3 or more targets will reduce its cooldown by 20 seconds.
  • Second Wind now generates 15 rage (was 20 rage) over 10 seconds.
  • Warbringer now reduces the target's movement by 50% for 15 seconds (8 seconds in PvP), in addition to its other effects. The 3-second stun/knockdown is now in the diminishing returns category for stuns (same as Shockwave and Storm Bolt), and not the proc stun diminishing returns category.
  • Storm Bolt now deals 125% weapon damage (was 100%).
  • Enraged Regeneration now costs 30 Rage (was 60 Rage).
  • Impending Victory will now heal the Warrior for 15% of maximum health when they have not slain an enemy (was 10%).
These are the talent changes for Warriors. A few of them seem to be targeted towards Warrior PvP (such as for Bladestorm, Warbringer, and Warbringer), while others are changed to improve or reduce the attractiveness of the talents. The Bladestorm change is a reversion of an old change many patches ago...
The first change is a nerf to Warrior PvP (a later change gives Protection Warriors the full bonus). The second nerf is a much needed reduction to the Warrior's Execute (it was doing some massive numbers).
  • Taste for Blood has been redesigned. It now causes the Warrior to gain 2 stacks of Overpower (maximum of 5 stacks) when Mortal Strike deals damage, 1 stack when the target dodges, and no longer interacts with Heroic Strike. It now requires level 20 (used to require level 50).
  • Slam now deals 220% weapon damage (was 190%) and now costs 20 rage (was 30 rage).
  • Deep Wounds damage has been increased by 100% for Arms Warriors.
  • Whirlwind now costs 20 rage (was 30) for Arms Warriors. The cost is unchanged for Fury Warriors.
  • Overpower now costs 10 rage and reduces Mortal Strike's remaining cooldown by 0.5 seconds.
  • Sudden Death now has a 10% (was 20%) chance to activate from auto attacks or Opportunity Strike. In addition, using Execute makes Overpower free for 10 seconds.
Most of these are buffs for Arms Warriors (at least for PvE). I am at least glad they changed Taste for Blood mechanically since the old implementation where it increased Heroic Strike damage caused problems and probably still was despite the constant nerfing of it.
Bloodsurge now reduces the Rage cost of Wild Strike by 30 (was 20), and its duration has been increased to 15 seconds (was 10 seconds).
This is a slight buff to Fury Warriors. It effectively makes Wild Strike free if the effect procs.
< Go back to the general changes                                                     Check out the remaining changes >
Posted by at 8:57 AM
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