Blizzard has announced a number of class changes coming to World of Warcraft, with a heavy focus on balance. These changes come in a general sense, but a handful of them are focused on player-vs-player specifically.
These changes will also be part of an ongoing class maintenance. To quote Blizzard, “We’re working on a series of hotfixes to adjust class balance. We currently plan to implement the following changes with weekly maintenance (the morning of February 25 in the North America region). The changes are as follows:
For druids, restoration has a handful of buffs coming to the restoration spec. Rejuvenation has had its mana cost reduced to 10% base mana from its original 10.5%. Efflorescence has had its mana cost reduced significantly, lowering to 17% down from its original 21.6%. Finally, Tranquility’s direct healing has been increased by 11%. Blizzard states that these changes “should improve Restoration Druid’s raid healing output without much impact to their already-strong capabilities in dungeons and Arenas.”
There have been some all-around buffs to a handful of other classes without much in the way of mechanical changes. Marksmanship Hunters, Windwalker Monks, Frost Mages, and Demonology Warlocks have had the damage of all abilities increased by 5%. Enhancement Shamans have had the damage of all abilities increased by 3%. This increase in damage is likely to make endgame content a bit easier to manage, while also adding a bit of variety to the playable meta at the endgame.
Moving to PvP changes, there’s a handful of nerfs coming to the tankier classes. Tank specialization players will now take an additional 50% damage from enemy players, up from the original 40%. Death Knights, in particular, will be seeing some nerfs to Death Strike. For Frost and Unholy specs, Death Strike now heals for 20% of damage taken when engaged in combat with enemy players, healing for a minimum of 5% maximum health. These percentages are down from 40% and 10%, respectively. In Blood spec, these percentages are 12.5% and 3.5%, down from 25% and 7%.
Frost Mage’s Ice Barriers now absorb 40% less damage when engaged in combat with enemy players. The same change affects Fire Mage’s Blazing Barrier and Arcane Mage’s Prismatic Barrier. Affliction and Destruction warlocks are the final PvP nerfs on this list, with Demon Armor now increasing Stamina by 5% and armor by 90%, down from the original 10% and 150% respectively.
It’s interesting to see the meta shifting towards taking away the survivability of classes. Self-healing is a trademark of the Death Knight kit, so lowering the healing drastically could serve to be a powerful nerf. We’ll see how these nerfs affect the meta as the battlegrounds play on.