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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsUpcoming class and item balance changes
by Adam Holisky 
Jan 7th 2010 at 8:17PM
There has been a lot of good discussion lately concerning various aspects of the DPS status quo. Some classes are putting out too much compared to their cloth counterparts, and others have suddenly found themselves too powerful in certain areas of the game. Blizzard recognizes this, and this evening the Lead System Designer, Ghostcrawler, came out and enumerated a few things Blizzard believes are true.
Ghostcrawler has left the door open to these class and item balance issues being fixed (if Blizzard decides to pursue such fixes) in either a hotfix or through an upcoming patch. Chief among these changes are an increase in warlock DPS, a decrease in rogue DPS, a change in protection warriors to limit their utility in PvP, and refinements to Icecrown Citadel weapon procs.
When looking over this laundry list of areas to change, it's important to remember that Ghostcrawler is not promising a fix, and that he and his team are not ready to share specifics. He has not promised you the pony, so don't be mad if some of these changes don't happen.
Ghostcrawler's full statement after the break.
Ghostcrawler has left the door open to these class and item balance issues being fixed (if Blizzard decides to pursue such fixes) in either a hotfix or through an upcoming patch. Chief among these changes are an increase in warlock DPS, a decrease in rogue DPS, a change in protection warriors to limit their utility in PvP, and refinements to Icecrown Citadel weapon procs.
When looking over this laundry list of areas to change, it's important to remember that Ghostcrawler is not promising a fix, and that he and his team are not ready to share specifics. He has not promised you the pony, so don't be mad if some of these changes don't happen.
Ghostcrawler's full statement after the break.
From Ghostcrawler:
As many of you have suspected, we think rogue damage is too high. We will be making hotfixes to lower the maximum damage output of Assassination and Combat rogues. The Combat nerf will be slight. Both specs should still do just fine on damage meters (assuming skill, gear etc.) but shouldn't be beating out other specs to such a large degree.
Other things on our radar that you might see soon -- none of these are promises and we have no specific changes to announce yet:
- Warlock damage in PvE is a little low.
- Protection warriors have too much utility and damage for PvP. (We don't want to hurt their tanking in PvE of course.)
- We are considering adjusting (not replacing) the Elemental 4 piece Tier 10 set bonus.
- We'll continue to refine and look at the Icecrown weapon procs.
- Other stuff (yes, we've heard your concerns), but these are the big things we are focusing on at this time.
We usually don't make such general announcements before we're ready to share the specifics, so we'll see how this works out.
Filed under: Patches, News items
Reader Comments (Page 7 of 9)
vnunes Jan 7th 2010 11:46PM
What bosses are those that rogues are always toping DPS charts? ohhhh, that's right!! Saurfang. I wonder why we best ranged on that fight....huuumm. Oh yeah, because for once there's a boss that we take on the role casters take almost every fight. You know, the one where you just hit the damn target without having to stop or move or flee from aoe, etc.
Seriously though, I've lost count as to how many times rogues have been nerfed this exp. And I'm not saying this just because I am a rogue, but even though I think we are rly quite powerful in raids right now, from my raiding experience, I think mages, hunters, shadow priests and maybe enhance shammies are able to pull the same level of dps in similar gear. I really don't see rogues as being overpowered right now.
And btw....combat spec is already broken for pve unless you use it to clear ICC trash and you guys are considering making it worse? pff...
I agree that locks need some love.
jam Jan 7th 2010 11:54PM
"And btw....combat spec is already broken for pve unless you use it to clear ICC trash and you guys are considering making it worse? pff..."
How is combat spec broken? It can't be dps-wise, as both combat and muti rogues are doing well above 10k dps in my guild on Saurfang (and topping the meters on other fights as well).
Other dps classes, be it pure or hybrid were too far behind while having equal gear.
Riley Jan 8th 2010 12:25AM
yeah, combat rogues are far from broken, any boss fight (excluding ship fight) i've done in icc so far i've been top dps, and this is with other dps, including some mut rogues, in the raid
Terethall Jan 8th 2010 4:04AM
"without having to stop or move or flee from aoe, etc."
The first thing any caster learns is that it's fine to stand in the firebombs, and that you never have to switch targets to stuff like Snobolds and Infernals.
That's the melee's job. Poor melee.
rkaliski Jan 8th 2010 12:03AM
Well, now we can be consistent and suck at pvp with all three trees instead of just 2 of the three
varilhigh Jan 8th 2010 12:19AM
Hurray for the Prot Warroior fix. Every class has always had an anti-class in PVP. As a Mage, unless something went really wrong I could always beat warriors. These Prot warriors in BG's have almost turned that on it's head. Now, if they get the jump on me, it's 50/50 whether I will be able to kill him, usally depending on CD's available and RNG.
KronosIII Jan 8th 2010 1:11AM
So your only happy when your chance to kill a warrior is 100%
interesting............
slimj091 Jan 8th 2010 6:16AM
"Every class has always had an anti-class in PVP"
except for the most part with a non prot spec every other class is the warrior anti-class except for other warriors.
Deathgodryuk Jan 8th 2010 12:44AM
@Kronos
"Anyway I have played all 3 tanks. And by far I find warriors giving the most trouble for healers."
"And I am too stubborn to roll a pally."
Something doesn't make sense here.
I'm pretty sure the reason you're being voted down is because NOTHING in this post has anything to do with Prot Warriors in a PVE tanking situation. The proposed nerf to Warriors is for PVP.
Also, your anecdotal evidence for the weakness of Warrior tanks is meaningless. Have you considered the possibility that you're just not that good at it? In 25's we generally use three Prot Warriors for our tanks and it's worked out just fine for us, just because you have trouble with it doesn't mean others do too. I'm not saying Prot Pallies aren't a bit OP, I'm just saying that Warrior tanks are capable of doing any content in the game and the fact that you cannot doesn't mean a thing.
KronosIII Jan 8th 2010 1:04AM
As I said and if you can read
I have no problems.
My problems is that healing a pally is 10 times easier then a warrior
So I say again, not my problem but a healing problem. They get healed the most and take the least amount of damage by far.
BTW lrn to reply instead of just posting randomly 5 pages into the thread.
And a nerf to pvp ALWAYS means a nerf to pve. Regardless of what they claim
KronosIII Jan 8th 2010 1:50AM
btw Anecdotal?!
Do you honestly want all the bare bone facts on why they are better? The lsit is quite huge. And if you have never seen this you must only play dps or your head has been in the ground.
Pallys have 14% increased Stam(wars 6%)
Pallys take 12% reduced damage from all sources(wars 10%)
pallys abilities with holy shield/redoubt ensure a 60% block at all times before added block rating from defense/gear (wars only have increased block rating from defense/gear)
pallys take 11% increased healing from other sources (wars none)
That is only the pure stats. I don't want to get into abilities on how they are better. But hopefully this gets your head out of the dirt. To compare abilities, you can do that on your own time. The favoritism is obvious.......
freeway8989 Jan 8th 2010 6:07PM
Krono,
Stop being an idiot:
Paladins only get 50% dmg mitigation from Divine Protection while warriors get 60% from shield wall. Conveniently forget to mention that, did we?
Oh, and lets not forget that paladins get a libram with no stats on it (just a proc) while warriors can actually equip a weapon with defense rating, stamina, strength, and other tanking stats. Hmmm? I wonder which one I would prefer...
11% extra healing? From what corner of your ass did you pull that one? It's only 5%. The same goes for damage reduced except it's only 3% and an extra 3% with Blessing of Sanctuary.
And we get the same bonus stamina.
Deathgodryuk Jan 9th 2010 1:01AM
"BTW lrn to reply instead of just posting randomly 5 pages into the thread."
Yeah, it's my fault that WoW.com's comment system is screwed up and decided I wanted to create my own post instead of replying to the one in which I clicked reply to.
I understand completely that Pallys are OP, the point is that just because they're OP doesn't mean there's something wrong with Warriors. Warriors do just fine. A skilled warrior can tank anything a Pally can, if your healers are having trouble healing you that isn't a problem with warriors, it's a problem with you.
And yes, anecdotal. If your evidence for warriors not being able to tank well because they need too many heals is that you need too many heals and that you're a warrior, that is anecdotal evidence.
Rich Jan 8th 2010 12:55AM
Uh-oh.
I play a Prot Warrior and a Mutilate Rogue :S
Aedilhild Jan 8th 2010 1:48AM
Quick — roll a warlock!
Daraia Jan 8th 2010 1:01AM
These changes have already gone live. At least the ones effecting Rogues.
Hunger for Blood was nerfed so that the Bonus Damage was reduced from 10% to 5%.
The bigger nerf was the one to the Bonus Damage Rogues gain from Attack Power to their Poisons. Specifically Instant, Deadly and Wound poisons.
I noticed the decrease in my DPS when I did a heroic and later in Raid. Couldn't figure out what was going on. The original Blue post was edited to include the changes.
KronosIII Jan 8th 2010 1:25AM
I'll post again
The problem with prot warriors is block.
They can stack a bunch of block value and wipe ppl out while they are stunned down.
The way to solve this is to honestly not allow block value/rating to be on gear and just make it a passive gain from strength or stam.
And it only got worse when they increased the amount of block rating on gear.
This led to un hittable tanks on adds and ungodly amounts of damage on shield slam hits.
I can't see why mobility will be an issue if the warrior does not do massive damage.
If they want it fixed then they must fix block for warriors .
Block for PVE right now is terrible for boss fights. Plus none of the T10 war gear has any block rating/value on it.
They fix block........they fix the problem. Make it a passive gain then a gear related gain.
Falgorn Jan 8th 2010 2:47AM
Honestly Mate -
Whether you're right or wrong, I'm fairly sure you have made your point and your opinion clear at this stage. Repeatedly making the same arguement is just going to get you more downrated.
You obviously feel strongly about the issue, but no one here has control over what is done to Warriors - and it's starting to read like you expect us to do something about it, or are holding us responsible!
Time to let go off the hate and stop clicking on the reply button.
(waits for inevitable reply...)
Beelzebud Jan 8th 2010 3:28AM
It's nice that he finally has acknowledged what us warlocks have known since the end of TBC when they nerfed us: They nerfed us too much. We've been trailing many classes this whole expansion, including hybrid classes.
NeroGato Jan 8th 2010 4:45AM
Surprise surprise, rogues get the nerf bat again!