Blizzard delivers on its class tuning promise for Curse of Ula’tek, with wide-ranging buffs in its latest World of Warcraft patch notes.
After last week's nerf-happy World of Warcraft Midnight patch, it's time for Blizzard to swing the pendulum in the other direction. Community Manager Randy 'Kaivax' Jordan explained at the launch of WoW 12.1 that the balance team is closely watching how classes are performing in Curse of Ula'tek, given the more broad class updates and the introduction of the Coiled Isle and Venomous Abyss raid. The new WoW Midnight patch notes are almost universally good news, with Death Knights, Druids, Evokers, Monks, Paladins, and Warlocks among those coming out with a smile on their face.
"As we previously indicated, we're doing broad class tuning each week for the first three weeks of Curse of Ula'tek," Kaivax remarks. The Season 2 launch saw quite a few nerfs, with a particular focus on set bonuses from Venomous Abyss gear, but this time the World of Warcraft developer is concentrating on lifting underperformers up to match their peers. The Race to World First has been heating up - Heroic Ula'tek has now gone down following some slight nerfs, and teams are starting to defeat Mythic bosses as well - and this latest round of class tuning should help make more specs feel viable in the MMORPG's new endgame.
As usual, I'll work in alphabetical class order for simplicity, starting with Death Knights. Blizzard notes Frost DK has been performing "under our expectations, especially in the Venomous Abyss raid." It's getting a 6% buff to all ability and melee damage, along with a special 15% boost to Obliterate. For Demon Hunters, Havoc specs get a 3% damage increase across the board, while Vengeance gets a 24% raise to the effectiveness of Mastery: Fel Blood.
Restoration Druids have been struggling in dungeons, so Blizzard is implementing buffs to double the Genesis duration provided by the four-piece class set bonus, increase Wild Growth healing by 10%, and Rejuvenation and Germination healing by 15%. In order to keep the spec from feeling too strong in the raid, this is accompanied by some small nerfs. Nature's Bounty now only replicates 10% of Regrowth's healing (down from 20%), while Everbloom now heals 5 targets instead of 6, but for a slightly larger amount.
Also falling behind in dungeons are Preservation Evokers, who get some bonuses to their triage heals "to help them keep up with other healers." Verdant Embrace gets 25% stronger in PvE as standard, and Dream Simulacrum now increases that by 40% instead of 30%. Living Flame, meanwhile, receives a 20% increase to its PvE healing.
To help BM Hunters deal with larger groups, Blizzard has raised the Wild Thrash damage bonus when hitting more than two targets from 200% to 300%. Additionally, Beast Cleave gives your pets a 70% damage spread to all nearby enemies, up from 55%. Alongside this, Survival Hunters have been slightly nudged upwards with a class-wide 4% damage increase to all output from both the Hunter and their pets.
Blizzard has been watching Frost Mage's performance in Mythic Keystone dungeons, and determined that removing the health boost from Improved Ice Barrier "had a greater effect on Frost's overall survivability than intended." The team likes "the symmetry" of the three 'Improved Barrier' talents each having just a single extra effect, however, so it's instead plugging that increase back into the baseline skill, raising the Ice Barrier absorb amount to 35% of your maximum health instead of 30%.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.pcgamesn.com/world-of-warcraft/midnight-patch-notes-august-25-class-tuning
