Patch 5.3 interview with Ghostcrawler
Mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
The latest patch 5.3 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsGhostcrawler: Round 1 of patch 4.0.1 class rebalancing implemented
by Fox Van Allen 
Oct 14th 2010 at 3:00PM
WoW Insider's own Matt Rossi had a terrific post yesterday about the class balancing issues that we were seeing with patch 4.0.1. Casters like me were experiencing the thrill of god mode, with reports of mages being able to one-shot their opponents. And while we casters were getting sweet, delicious ponies, melee players got a big pile of pony excrement. Arms and fury DPS were down -- way down. So was retribution paladin and kitty DPS.
Last night, Lead Systems Designer Ghostcrawler let us all know that fixes were on the way. Today, he confirmed that fixes were implemented and explained what was done to each affected class to balance them out. The full post explaining who got buffed, who got nerfed and why is available just after the break.
Class balance as of Oct 13, 2010We made many changes yesterday. A lot of these were bug fixes, and many bug fixes will affect damage one way or the other. So just because you don't see a specific change referenced below, doesn't mean it didn't change.
With that said, here are the specific changes we made in reference to my previous post:
1) We buffed the base points and coefficients of many warrior dps abilities. We didn't do as much to tanking abilities.
We buffed the base points and coefficients of many Ret abilities.
We buffed the base points and coefficients of many Feral cat abilities.
2) We lowered the base points and coefficients of many mage abilities, but lowered Fire more than the other two.
3) We nerfed Shadow Word: Death, but it is possible we didn't nerf it enough. It should not be Shadow's biggest spell.
4) We returned Searing Pain's damage to its 3.3.5 levels.
5) We increased the benefit of resilience by 50% for players level 80 and below. The tooltips will probably not reflect this change.
We don't have any other changes to announce at this time. I am reluctant to mention additional classes or specs that we are looking at currently for fear of instilling excitement or panic.
With that said, here are the specific changes we made in reference to my previous post:
1) We buffed the base points and coefficients of many warrior dps abilities. We didn't do as much to tanking abilities.
We buffed the base points and coefficients of many Ret abilities.
We buffed the base points and coefficients of many Feral cat abilities.
2) We lowered the base points and coefficients of many mage abilities, but lowered Fire more than the other two.
3) We nerfed Shadow Word: Death, but it is possible we didn't nerf it enough. It should not be Shadow's biggest spell.
4) We returned Searing Pain's damage to its 3.3.5 levels.
5) We increased the benefit of resilience by 50% for players level 80 and below. The tooltips will probably not reflect this change.
We don't have any other changes to announce at this time. I am reluctant to mention additional classes or specs that we are looking at currently for fear of instilling excitement or panic.
This is it! Patch 4.0.1 begins the slide into December's upcoming expansion. It's a whole new game from here on out. Get oriented with our roundup of everything there is to know about patch 4.0.1 and how it changes the game until the launch of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Filed under: News items, Raiding
Reader Comments (Page 5 of 9)
Bvannas Oct 14th 2010 7:34PM
Remember when the Mage Khadgar blew up the dark portal's Physical Form?
The damage we are getting now is how mages should be :)
locksley Oct 15th 2010 7:47AM
Well. I saw it coming. It was great fun though. Blood Queen Lanathel heroic with bite buff got a little silly. I was sitting in front of my computer giggling to my 120k Arcane Blast crits, knowing I would have to see it go.
Expo Oct 14th 2010 3:09PM
Hopefully these changes are done with consideration to what level 85 damage will look like. I'd hate to hit 85 and see these number skewed the opposite direction because of an attempt to normalize a whole 2 months worth of non-consequential game time.
I guess we'll have to wait until Christmas to find out though.
Hasselhoff Oct 14th 2010 3:32PM
I really don't think these next two months can be considered inconsequential. ICC has been out for 10 months, and people are getting bored.
Nobody wants to play a game where their DPS sucks compared to others for two months. Whether that means getting blowed the hell up in PvP or getting destroyed on the meters in PvE. Titles have not been removed from being obtainable; neither have mounts. These last few challenges are all that's keeping some people in our guild from quitting until Cataclysm. In my opinion, it's a very consequential time in the game.
Expo Oct 14th 2010 3:44PM
You bring up a fair point. I'll cede that there are legitimate reasons to keep things somewhat balanced even now, but I still stand by my point that these changes will hopefully not effect the endgame at 85.
Eyhk Oct 14th 2010 4:12PM
Actually, respected theorycrafters have already pointed out to Blizzard that even at 85, there is no way the current status is balanced. What is more probable is that Blizzard already announced Cata release before Christmas so 4.0.1 HAD to be out this week, but they were not finished with the dps passes yet, so they just let it out as is, let us have our fun/misery while continuing to work on the dps passes, and then announced it as if they were simply fixing stuff. I doubt they were stupid enough to not notice melee dps going through the tubes since it was the cast for most all of the PTR.
Ronin Oct 14th 2010 3:09PM
I hope one of the classes they're looking at, but not mentioning yet, is Hunters. Is it just me, or do they never seem to care when hunters are underpowered? It is good that they've tried to bring all three specs in line with each other as far as DPS, though.
I realize there will probably be arguments about whether Hunters are in fact underpowered or not. However, even Frostheim continues to say that "Hunter dps has definitely dropped from pre-4.0.1 levels".
Ronin Oct 14th 2010 3:12PM
I should say, it's not necessarily Hunter's under-powered state that has been ignored in the past-- it's just that many Hunters' issues seem to go ignored. Beast pathing, anyone?
Theemann343 Oct 14th 2010 3:18PM
I know what you mean.. It kinda seems that hunters are kinda left out. Blizz doesn't do anything to make hunters as good as the other classes.
Ronin Oct 14th 2010 3:22PM
Of course, it's also possible that they're waiting to see how Hunters do once they get used to their new resource system, rotations, etc..
Jiffah Oct 14th 2010 4:19PM
^ this.
I think that letting hunters play around and 'relearn' their class will help in solving the issues. I'm thinking 2 weeks for a small number fix on them.
--and I'm usually good at prediciting these things--
;)
Stoop Oct 14th 2010 4:24PM
I wish they'd fix the "I summon my pet. My pet plummets from 100% to 20% health and stays there." bug. It's only been around for what? 4 years?
Quill2006 Oct 14th 2010 6:04PM
Oh good... it isn't just me having problems with the new focus mechanism that's making my dps suck! Yay. I'm hoping Jiffa's right; I'm down about 3k dps on the target dummies. Admittedly I can't use Kill Shot on the dummy, but 3k is a bit much.
And Stoop is right. It's ridiculous how long that bug's been around, and it sucks.
Nodonn Oct 14th 2010 3:10PM
''I am reluctant to mention additional classes or specs that we are looking at currently for fear of instilling excitement''
And we wouldn't want people to be exited now would we?
Hasselhoff Oct 14th 2010 3:36PM
You left out the "panic" part. Even if he explained only the other classes they were looking at buffing, the lack of any information implying a buff to would obviously (sarcasm) mean that was getting nerfed...and induce panic. He's doing the right thing.
Cephas Oct 14th 2010 4:50PM
Getting people excited would also be a bad thing. If he said, "We're considering buffing Combat Rogues," we would have gotten excited for a while, but if they later decided that they actually wouldn't be buffing us, we would have gotten angry, and that's just not healthy for anybody.
Estra Oct 14th 2010 3:10PM
Where's the boomkin nerf?
Meatwadz Oct 14th 2010 3:14PM
riiiiiight....
Kurash Oct 14th 2010 3:16PM
"So just because you don't see a specific change referenced below, doesn't mean it didn't change. "
That's where it is, in all likelihood.
jealouspirate Oct 14th 2010 3:38PM
I hope it's coming. They're devastating in BGs right now.