Tier 8 set bonuses hit the PTR
A new build has hit the patch 3.1 PTR, and with it has come something that many people have been waiting on most of all: Tier 8 set bonuses! We have all of them listed below, but keep something in mind while you read them: They are probably not finished, just take this as a preview. Set bonuses always shift and change before they go live, and I can guarantee that some of these will. At the very least, they'll have some typos and grammatical issues cleaned up, and we'll find out where the missing percentage symbols are supposed to go.Death Knight
- DPS 2Piece Bonus -- Increases the critical strike chance of Death Coil and Frost Strike by 5%.
- DPS 4Piece Bonus -- Increases the bonus damage done per disease by 20% on Blood Strike, Heart Strike, Obliterate, and Scourge Strike.
- Tank 2Piece Bonus -- Increases the damage done by Rune Strike by 5%.
- Tank 2Piece Bonus -- Increases the damage done by Rune Strike by 10%.
Druid
- Balance 4Piece Bonus -- Each time your Insect Swarm deals damage, it has a chance to make your next Starfire cast within 10 sec instant.
- Feral 2Piece Bonus -- The periodic damage dealt by your Rake, Rip, and Lacerate abilites has a chance to cause you to enter a Clearcasting state.
- Feral 4Piece Bonus -- Increases the duration of Savage Roar and Survival Instinct by 8 sec.
- Restoration 2Piece Bonus -- Increases the healing done by your Swiftmend spell by 10%.
- Restoration 4Piece Bonus -- Your Rejuvenation spell also instantly heals your target for its periodic healing amount.
- 2Piece Bonus -- Increases the damage done by your Serpent Sting by 10%.
- 4Piece Bonus -- Your Steady Shot has a chance to grant you 600 attack power for 15 sec.
- 2Piece Bonus -- Your Arcane Blast, Frostbolt, Frostfire Bolt, and Fireball spells have a chance to grant you 350 spell power for 15 sec.
- 4Piece Bonus -- You have a chance for the effect of your Missile Barrage, Hot Streak, or Brain Freeze talent not to be consumed when you cast the spells which benefit.
- Retribution 2Piece Bonus -- Increases the damage done by your Exorcism and Hammer of Wrath abilities by 10%.
- Retribution 4Piece Bonus -- Increases the critical strike chance of your Divine Storm and Crusader Strike abilities by 10%.
- Protection 2Piece Bonus -- Increases the damage done by your Seals by 10%.
- Protection 4Piece Bonus -- Shield of Righteousness now increases your shield block value by 225 for 3 sec.
- Holy 2Piece Bonus -- Your Holy Shock critical heals now also place a periodic healing effect on the target, healing for 15% of the Holy Shock's heal amount over 9 sec.
- Holy 4Piece Bonus -- Increases the damage absorbed by your Sacred Shield by 10%.
- Shadow 2Piece Bonus -- Increases the damage done by your Devouring Plague by 15%.
- Shadow 4Piece Bonus -- Your Mind Blast also grants you 15 haste rating for until cancelled.
- Healer 2Piece Bonus -- Increases the critical heal chance of your Prayer of Healing by 10%.
- Healer 4Piece Bonus -- Casting Power Word: Shield also grants you 15 spell power for until cancelled.
- 2Piece Bonus -- Your Deadly Poison causes you to gain 1 energy each time it deals damage.
- 4Piece Bonus -- The damage dealt by your Rupture can now be critical strikes.
- Enhancement 2Piece Bonus -- Increases the damage done by Lava Lash and Stormstrike by 20%.
- Enhancement 4Piece Bonus -- Increases the frequency of Maelstrom Weapon being triggered by your melee weapon attacks by 20%.
- Restoration 2Piece Bonus -- Reduces the cooldown on Riptide by 1 sec.
- Restoration 4Piece Bonus -- Reduces the cast time of Chain Heal by 0.2 sec.
- Elemental 2Piece Bonus -- The periodic damage dealt by your Flame Shock can now be critical strikes.
- Elemental 4Piece Bonus -- Your critical Strikes from Lightning Bolt cause the target to take nature damage equal to 8% of the Lightning Bolt's damage over until cancelled sec.
- 2Piece Bonus -- Increases the damage done by your Unstable Affliction and Immolate spells by 20%.
- 4Piece Bonus -- Increases the critical strike chance of your Shadow Bolt and Incinerate spells by 5%.
- Protection 2Piece Bonus -- Increases the critical strike chance of your Devastate ability by 10%.
- Protection 4Piece Bonus -- Shield Block also grants you 20% reduction to magical damage taken.
- DPS 2Piece Bonus -- Heroic Strike and Slam critical strikes have a chance to grant you 150% haste rating for 5 sec.
- DPS 4Piece Bonus -- Increases the critical strike chance of Mortal Strike and Bloodthirst by 10%.
[via MMO-Champion]
Patch 3.1 brings us Ulduar, dual specs, significant changes to all the classes, and more! We've got you covered from top to bottom with our Guide to Patch 3.1.
Patch 5.2 interview with Dave Kosak
Inside an old alt's vault
The latest patch 5.2 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria news





Reader Comments (Page 4 of 5)
Kanuris Mar 19th 2009 5:14AM
Bye bye Ret Tier 7 4 piece bonus. Bye bye significant increase in DPS.
Lyte Mar 19th 2009 7:38AM
yeah gotta say the ret paladin bonuses seem really meh". the 2 set bonus for example. we don't get to use hammer of wrath til the enemy is below 25% and 4 piece bonus gives us crit... we stack loads of crit as it is. sigh*
Delmonico Mar 19th 2009 7:48AM
I am trying to remember some of the math behind slam damage, so correct me if I am wrong.
Doesnt slam damage decrease with haste?
Matt Mar 19th 2009 8:11AM
Must mounts keep getting bigger and bigger soon Dalaran will be mount.
Geoff Mar 19th 2009 8:24AM
As a mage I'm extremely happy with the set bonuses. However, I forsee mage nerfs due to the inevitable omg 4 piece t8 BG mages mutliple missile barrage/insta pyro spam. (Imagine if it's able to have the effect every time, so if you got really lucky you had, say 4 pyros back to back O_o)
The 2 set bonus is like having another dying curse or sundial trinket. Imagine the dps spikes when combined with all cooldowns and t7 2set bonus :O
Zhiva Mar 19th 2009 8:51AM
Nerfs are there.
Molten Armor now causes 170 Fire damage when hit for all ranks (Up from 75/130/170) and also increases your critical strike rating by 25% of your spirit.
Glyph of Molten Armor - Your Molten Armor grants an additional 15% (40% total) of your spirit as critical strike rating.
It is a nerf for every mage who has less than 574 spirit (45.9*5/0.4). For example, with 287 spirit glyphed mage armor will grant only 2.5% crit chance. Down from 5%.
This way of "making spirit useful for mage" sounds like "we cut your leg so this stick will be useful for you"
Jimmy Jack Mar 19th 2009 8:42AM
Druid.
Restoration 4Piece Bonus -- Your Rejuvenation spell also instantly heals your target for its periodic healing amount.
Wot? you serious. If im readin that right, an instant heal with no (next to none) CD and instant cast with the HoT behind it.
Somehow I can see that being nerfed into oblivion before it goes live.
Joelock Mar 19th 2009 9:01AM
I believe it means it instantly heals for an amount = to 1 tick of the HoT, which dosnt seem that overpowered
Matchu Mar 19th 2009 9:07AM
"# 2Piece Bonus -- Increases the damage done by your Unstable Affliction and Immolate spells by 20%.
# 4Piece Bonus -- Increases the critical strike chance of your Shadow Bolt and Incinerate spells by 5%. "
That's a worse set bonus than the current SP boost
Fugmug Mar 19th 2009 9:32AM
"Healer 4Piece Bonus -- Casting Power Word: Shield also grants you 15 spell power for until cancelled. "
Is that 15 each time you cast it on someone? Is that 15% spellpower? Or is that a typo and should have been 150 spellpower?
Cuz if 15 is all they get, I'm thinking that we could have everyone who plays a priest fly to California on their own expense, line up for hours outside in August with no water and no bathrooms, just to get kicked in the groin by the dev team. Yeah. That would be a MUCH more generous set bonus.
Ilnara Mar 19th 2009 11:16AM
Mage 2 piece = Awesomeness.
Mage 4 piece = *shrug*
I see this one going back to the drawing board at least a few times before the patch goes live.
Zasziden Mar 19th 2009 11:44AM
Good to see shaman sets getting some good bonuses. I'll expect them to be nerfed a bit prior to release. Resto ones are a bit lackluster, but acceptable. Enhancement though, very appealing. Depending on the time attached to the Elemental 4pc, it could be great, or could just be a meh addition.
Darkmercy Mar 19th 2009 12:39PM
My god, the warlock bonuses don't suck! :D
Gritiron Mar 19th 2009 12:54PM
So like everyone else I thought WOW for the Mage 4 piece bonus, but on second thoughts it might not be so great for Arcane mages. Just having another Missile Barrage proc ain't so hot if the first one still cancels the Arcane Blast debuff stack. It might still be a DPS boost to cast an unbuffed quick Arcane Missiles, but the DPS increase over Arcane Blast won't be as big as you think. I'm sure the theorycrafters will work on it, but what are you losing by not immediately restacking Arcane Blast?
For pyros its freakin awesome.
Jason Mar 19th 2009 11:46PM
I think I kind of like the paladin protect set bonuses. The 2 piece one is amazing. I have done an analysis of the 4-piece bonus on whether or not it is useful. Check it out.
http://sacredduty.com/?p=59
ian macdonald Mar 19th 2009 2:02PM
yeah 2-piece hunter bonus is terrible. 4-piece is only OK. definitely more for the survival and MM hunters out there.
singingzombies Mar 19th 2009 2:55PM
While I like the lock bonuses in terms of raw damage I really have to say I like interesting tier bonuses like the mage ones. They just seem more fun than "add +X dmg." Oh well, I guess the RNG class deserves more RNG in their tier sets. They're used to it I guess :P
Namus Mar 19th 2009 4:47PM
4Piece Bonus -- You have a chance for the effect of your Missile Barrage, Hot Streak, or Brain Freeze talent not to be consumed when you cast the spells which benefit
sweet! a hot streak of hot streaks!!
Protection 2Piece Bonus -- Increases the damage done by your Seals by 10%.
Will it make taking Seals of the pure worthwhile?
Adjatha Mar 19th 2009 5:57PM
Ugh. The Prot Paladin set annoys me more than is healthy.
One blue gem slot? Really? Ret AND Holy have more than that.
2-set bonus gives me a 10% bonus to seal damage? Seal damage accounts for less than just about every other ability I've got. AND this gives me 30% less seal damage bonus and no bonus to (the pathetically low) judgement damage than Seals of the Pure, a first-tier talent!
Oh, and let's collect four pieces of it so we can get to the amazing block value bonus that I get AFTER the only ability that checks my block value. Sure, I can keep it up 50% of the time, but what is 225 (292 after Redoubt) realistically going to do for me? Melee bosses are hitting for 9-25k and it doesn't help at all against magic damage (you know, the whole of the end-game hardest boss challenges?), which paladins are pathetically weak against. IF the bonus to block value were added BEFORE the shield hits, at least it'd be extra damage and threat (~120 extra TPS), instead of a lackluster, meaningless, very nearly useless addition to my already underused blocking mechanic.
So poorly designed!
E Mar 20th 2009 12:38PM
Wow, they sure put a lot of f*cking thought into DK tanking bonuses.