Blizzard is publishing summarized versions of class changes in a series of blogs for Patch 5.2: Rise of the Thunder King.
The first summary deals with Death Knights, Druids, and Hunters. A common theme shared among all three classes is to make less compelling talents more attractive to players. Overall, Death Knights and Hunters were in a good spot for game play and received small changes to talents and abilities. Druid’s received the most love from developers out of these three classes. In addition to making some talent changes and improvements, Balance and Feral Druids should see an increase in PvP healing effectiveness.
Update 1: Mage, Paladin, and Priest Review
Frost mages who PvP are likely feeling the nerf bat hard in this patch but have seen a dps improvement for PvE content. Silences have been toned down some and so truly skilled PvP mages will most likely not see a significant difference in PvP. arcane mages have seen a decrease from 6 to 4 for the stack of Arcane Charge . Scorch as a talent suffered from other problems and so it has been entirely removed from the mage talent tree, instead it is a spell learned by fire mages only. Blazing Speed has been repositioned on the talent tree to the first tier of talents and the new talent Flameglow now resides in the second tier of talents which are focused around defensive abilities.
Holy Paladins are feeling the PvP nerf bat along with Frost Mages. As a result, Holy Paladins only will now have a cast time for Blinding Light and the PvP gear bonus for Holy Paladins now effects Flash of Light instead of Word of Glory. Retribution Paladins received a PvP buff by lowering the cool down on Avenging Wrath for Retribution only. Retribution also received a buff to Flash of Light to allow for increased healing from PvP Power’s conversion.
Priests received the nerf bat in both Discipline and Shadow. Shadow priests were good in PvE but weak in PvP, so Phantasm and Psyfiend talents were nerfed. The Glyph of Mind Spike was also changed. (On a personal note here, I’ve stopped actively playing my beloved Shadow Priest. Pre-patch it was a challenge to keep her alive if I did something stupid like over pull or tag an elite. Post-patch she is taking more dirt naps than any self-respecting priest finds acceptable. Admittedly her gear sucks but I’ve had her dps decline post-patch and my level 85 Monk is putting out dps rivaling that of my level 90. So for now, the priest is hanging out in the bar like a good dwarf.)
Discipline priests likely feel they’ve been nerf to the ground in PvE because their reliance on Prayer of Healing while Spirit Shell was on cool down for healing raids has changed. Spirit Shell no longer benefits from mastery. Power Word: Shield should once again be back in the rotation of Discipline Priests. The spell has had it mana costs reduced and is now capable of criting. Divine Aegis has been redesigned as well. It can no longer be spammed, rather it requires a critical on Prayer of Healing to activate. When it procs it now produces a bubble instead of doubling the healing of Prayer of Healing. Mastery has also been reworked for Discipline so that both heals and absorption benefit from the stat.
Update 3: Rogue, Shaman, and Warlock
Rogues received a lot of developer attention for this Patch. Their PvP performance was subpar and PvE had problems as well.
Rogues are no longer forced to pick between Preparation and Shadowstep. All Rogues receive Preparation now and Cloak and Dagger is the new talent which replaces Preparation. Cloak and Dagger causes the Rogue to be teleported to their target when utilizing an opener skill. Versatility has been deleted from the level 90 talent choice and has been replaced by Marked for Death. Marked for Death instantly marks the target and generates five combo points on that target. The cooldown resets when the target dies. Rogues were suffering from a lack of burst damage in PvP, yes not a typo folks, and thus the developers wanted to provide more burst damage for PvP Rogues. The new set bonus allows Rogues to store up more energy so that energy is there waiting for when they need to utilize it rather than been energy starved as just the wrong moment.
Shamans were up next and they received buffs and nerfs along the way. In many ways Shamans and Druids suffered from the same problem: too many talents felt mandatory. As a result, talents were adjusted to broaden their appeal to more Shaman’s. Elemental and Enhancement Shamans saw changes to their PvP survivability. The glyph of Flame Shock felt mandatory for all Shamans and thus the glyph is now a baseline for all Shamans.
Warlocks received the nerf bat in PvP regarding the use of Blood Fear as an offensive ability and as a result Blood Fear as a talent has been deleted. It has been replaced in the talent tree with Blood Horror which applies a buff to the Warlock and enemies who strike the Warlock in melee range are subsequently fears. Warlock pets are once again important part of playing the class. Grimoire of Sacrifice has changed so that the damage bonus from destroying the demon pet is not as high. The Blood Pact bonus to stamina from having the Imp out as a pet is now included as part of the Dark Intent skill. Thus there should be a wider variety of choices for Warlocks to utilize demon wise.
Final Update: Warriors and Monks
Arms warriors were too powerful in PvP and thus they received more nerfs than either Fury or Protection Warriors. Taste for Blood will no longer buff Heroic Strike which will serve to minimize the burst damage from the Taste for Blood. Glyph of Death from Above damage buff to Heroic Leap has been removed but the overall Glyph remains. Shockwave and Warbringer stuns have been altered. Warbringer now shares diminishing returns with non-proc stuns while adding a snare to the skill. Shockwave now has a longer cooldown if it his a single target, and a shorter cooldown when it hits multiple targets. Defensive Stance has seen a reduction in the damage mitigation for non-Protection Warriors. Arms Warriors will also notice that their skills now require more rage to utilize.
Monks received their first post Mists of Pandaria launch update. Windwalker Monks receiving the most changes overall. Chi Wave, Zen Sphere, and Chi Burst are now free to utilize but now have a cooldown. Windwalker Monks have new signature ability from Warcraft III, Storm, Earth, and Fire. Windwalkers have had their Mastery changed as well. Combo Breaker is no longer the Mastery ability, it is now Bottled Fury. Bottled Fury increases the damage bonus from Tigereye Brew. The new ability should help free up global cooldowns while providing some burst damage abilities for Windwalker Monks. Monks is PvP are a rare sight and as such, the developers paid particular attention to Monks performance in PvP this Patch. Nimble Brew was added as a talent at level 30 and added the Ring of Peace talent at level 60. Deadly Reach is no longer around, instead it was folded into the Paralysis ability. Mistwalker Monks will now have a viable chance to engage in melee healing with increased viability to “fist-weaving” monks. Prior to the patch, the healing provided via “fist-weaving” was competitive but the damage output was pathetic. Mistwalker Monks who heal via “fist-weaving” will now notice a buff their damage output make it a truly viable game play choice.
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