WoW Shadowlands: Destruction Warlock Nerfs, Vengeance Demon Hunter Buffs Lead Latest Update

By André González RodríguezUS Staff Writer

A brand-new set of changes arrived in the latest World of Warcraft Shadowlands update, and they shake up class balance with plenty of buffs and nerfs in the aftermath of WoW Shadowlands 9.2.5.

These changes cover a number of classes, including Warlock, Demon Hunter, Priest, Mage, Paladin, Druid, Hunter, Rogue, Warrior, and Monk all receiving significant buffs and nerfs. Barring anything out of the ordinary, this update will be one of the game's last prior to Dragonflight and its pre patch.

That being said, here's everything that came in the latest WoW Shadowlands update.

Latest Shadowlands Update Patch Notes: All Buffs and Nerfs

Classes

  • Druid
    • Guardian
      • [With realm restarts] Mangle and auto attack damage increased by 10%.
        • Developers’ note: Vengeance Demon Hunter and Guardian Druid have fallen behind in damage, particularly in single target. Our intent with these changes is to improve their performance in single-target without unduly impacting AOE environments.
  • Demon Hunter
    • Vengeance
      • [With realm restarts] All damage and healing abilities increased by 3%.
      • [With realm restarts] Fracture and Shear damage increased by 20%.
      • [With realm restarts] Auto attack damage increased by 10%.
        • Developers’ note: Vengeance Demon Hunter and Guardian Druid have fallen behind in damage, particularly in single target. Our intent with these changes is to improve their performance in single-target without unduly impacting AOE environments.
  • Warlock
    • Affliction
      • [With realm restarts] All ability damage increased by 5%.
        • Developers’ note: We’re seeing Affliction falling behind a bit in various content and feel a straight increase to their damage is warranted.

Dungeons and Raids

  • Sepulcher of the First Ones
    • Halondrus
      • Fixed an issue causing players to be unable to pick up Earthbreaker Charge immediately after recovering from the effects of Podtender (Dreamweaver Soulbind).
  • The Necrotic Wake
    • Fixed an issue causing Destruction Warlock’s Rain of Fire to not proc Rain of Chaos or trigger Blasphemy while fighting on the necropolis.

Player versus Player

  • Developers’ note: We have been monitoring PvP balance over Season 3 and are making the following adjustments. We look forward to continue to watch how the rest of the PvP season progresses.
  • Druid
    • Balance
      • (2) Set Bonus: Fixed an issue where Celestial Pillar would break players from stealth.
  • Hunter
    • [With realm restarts] Craven Strategem (Runecarving Power) now reduces the cooldown of Feign Death by 5 seconds in PvP combat (was 15 seconds).
      • Developers’ note: The short cooldown of Feign Death from Craven Strategem can be frustrating to play against, especially for classes whose primary damage comes from damage over time effects. We are changing the cooldown reduction from Craven Strategem to address this.
  • Mage
    • [With realm restarts] Flow of Time (Conduit) effectiveness reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
    • [With realm restarts] Netherwind Armor (PvP Talent) now reduces the chance of suffering a critical strike by 10% (was 15%).
      • Developers’ note: Mage survivability has continued to be higher than we would like, so we are targeting some of their defensive tools to address that while keeping the overall feel of Mage gameplay intact.
  • Monk
    • Mistweaver
      • [With realm restarts] Renewing Mist now heals for an additional 25% in PvP combat (was 10%).
      • [With realm restarts] Enveloping Mist now heals for an additional 10% in PvP combat.
      • [With realm restarts] Chrysalis (PvP Talent) now reduces the cooldown of Life Cocoon by 45 seconds (was 30 seconds).
        • Developers’ note: Mistweavers are continuing to have a difficult time responding to burst damage reliably, as they regularly have to open their primary school in order to catch up. Increasing healing over time effects and having Cocoon available more frequently is intended to provide them with better tools to respond to burst damage more reliably.
  • Paladin
    • Retribution
      • [With realm restarts] Templar's Vindication (Conduit) now causes Templar's Verdict to deal an additional 15% damage (was 30%) in PvP combat.
      • [With realm restarts] Shield of Vengeance damage reduced by 40% in PvP combat. Absorption amount unchanged.
        • Developers’ note: Retribution Paladin burst damage has scaled higher than we’d like, outpacing survivability and counterplay. We are looking to address some of those bigger swing moments without affecting their overall toolkit.
  • Priest
    • Holy
      • [With realm restarts] Mana regeneration reduced by 60% in PvP combat (was 55%).
      • [With realm restarts] Holy Word: Chastise now incapacitates enemy players for 3 seconds (was 4 seconds).
      • [With realm restarts] Censure (Talent) now causes Holy Word: Chastise to stun enemy players for 3 seconds (was 4 seconds).
      • [With realm restarts] Ray of Hope (PvP Talent) cooldown is now 90 seconds (was 60 seconds).
        • Developers’ note: Holy Priests have been outperforming other healers, and we are looking to reduce the power of commonly picked talents and mana efficiency to better fit within other spec representation and performance.
    • Shadow
      • [With realm restarts] Shadow Word: Pain damage increased by 15% in PvP combat.
      • [With realm restarts] Vampiric Touch damage increased by 10% in PvP combat.
        • Developers’ note: Shadow Priest has not received as much benefit from its set bonus as other specializations in PvP, so we are increasing parts of their consistent damage to help their overall performance.
  • Rogue
    • Outlaw
      • [With realm restarts] Float like a Butterfly (PvP Talent) now reduces the cooldown of Evasion and Feint by 0.5 seconds per combo point spent (was 1 second).
        • Developers’ note: The uptime of defensive abilities for Outlaw has been a point of frustration due to less opportunity for enemies to capitalize on gaps of defensive cooldowns. This is intended to address that, while keeping the feel of Outlaw intact.
  • Warlock
    • [With realm restarts] Dark Pact (Talent) now provides an absorb shield based on 300% of health sacrificed in PvP combat (was 250%).
    • [With realm restarts] Essence Drain (PvP Talent) now causes the target to deal 9% less damage to the Warlock per stack.
    • [With realm restarts] Essence Drain (PvP Talent) now stacks up to 4 times (was 5).
    • [With realm restarts] Gateway Mastery (PvP Talent) now reduces the time between how often players can take your Demonic Gateway by 30 seconds (was 15 seconds).
    • Affliction
      • [With realm restarts] Soul Leech grants an absorb shield based on 12% of damage dealt in PvP combat (was 8%).
        • Developers’ note: In 9.2.5 we removed the PvP talent Demon Armor and changed Gladiator’s Echoing Resolve to no longer interact with interrupt effects, which impacted Affliction Warlocks with their spell casts being a single school. With the combination of these changes, Affliction Warlocks’ defensives have been lower than we’d like even after our stamina increase to their base kit, so we are targeting to equip them with better survival tools in PvP.
  • Warrior
    • [With realm restarts] The amount of Mastery granted by Conqueror's Banner (Necrolord Ability) reduced by 33% in PvP combat.
    • Fury
      • [With realm restarts] Crushing Blow (Raging Blow from Reckless Abandon (Talent)) now deals 20% reduced damage in PvP combat.
        • Developers’ note: Overall Fury damage has scaled higher than we’d like in Season 3 especially with their set bonus. We are intending to bring down some of the moments of volatility while still maintaining the high consistent damage that fulfills the fantasy of a Fury Warrior.

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