Well, it looks like Blizzard is following their old standard of nerf first, ask questions later as per usual. Recent additions to the 2.4 PTR patch notes include some brutal nerfs for Shamans, Priests, and Druids, as well as small Shaman and Paladin buffs and a rather nice buff to dagger Rogues.
Priests:
- Chastise no longer disorients the target, but now is instant cast and roots the target for 2 seconds.
- Power Infusion: Infuses the target with power, increasing their spell haste by 20% for 15 seconds.
- Focused Will now reduces damage by 2/3/4%, down from 1/3/5%.
Chastise basically lost its main use, as something to get melee off of the Priest. Power Infusion is just terrible now, and benefits the Priest even less than before. It might not be bad as a burst skill for Mages, but it looks like Discipline Priests are pretty much getting shafted as far as arena utility. The Focused Will change is minor, but really not necessary in my opinion. Disc Priests were hard to kill, yes, but isn’t that the whole point?
Druids:
- Lifebloom healing coefficient has been reduced.
Raise your hand if you saw this coming. With the pages and pages of crying on the General forums, it’s no wonder that Druids got a healing nerf. I’m not sure this was the right way to go in terms of balancing them for the lower brackets, and if the coefficient nerf is too bad it will spill over into PVE, but something did need to be done about them fully dominating 2v2. I think between this nerf, the change to the 4-piece bonus of the Restoration Gladiator sets, and the water change, Druid based 2v2 teams will fall back to more reasonable levels, which means there will be a nice bit of variety in the previously stagnant 2v2 scene.
Shamans:
- Nature’s Swiftness and Elemental Mastery now share a 10 second cooldown.
- Tremor Totem now pulses every 3 seconds, down from 4.
Yet another inevitable change. 5v5 comps were getting out of hand with Bloodlusted, Power Infusioned Elemental Shamans able to pump out 8000 damage in the first 2 seconds of a fight. Elemental Shamans are already a huge boon to a team with the utility and solid damage they provide, the instagib power that they had was a little ridiculous. That said, I will make the obligatory comment that they do need some love in terms of mana efficiency, and Enhancement needs a ton of buffs to be at all reasonable in PVP.
Rogues:
- Puncturing Wounds increases your critical strike chance with Backstab by 10/20/30%, and the critical strike chance with your Mutilate ability by 5/10/15%. Improved Backstab is now called Puncturing Wounds.
Wow, finally some love for dagger Rogues. Mutilate builds will now essentially negate the crit% reduction from resilience, and actually provide a boost of 2.5% crit. Granted, this is 3 more points that have to be spent in a tree that is already rather point heavy, but it’s a pretty substantial boost in my eyes. I am looking forward to picking up a dagger again, myself. Since the pre-BC hemo playstyle is dead, I haven’t felt comfortable with swords in a while, and Combat spec for PVP was really starting to get old.
In related news, there has been a screenshot making the rounds lately suggesting that racial abilities may be restricted from arena play. If this is the case, it is definitely a good step towards overall balance for the most competitive aspect of the game. Maybe Blizzard can actually make this game into a viable e-sport. Only time will tell, I suppose.
- Stray
