Before the start of Season 2, World of Warcraft is bringing a lot of buffs and nerfs. We will show how your class changes on Wednesday.
In a few hours, World of Warcraft will kick off the second season of The War Within. To ensure a smooth launch and that all classes are approximately on equal footing, there will be another round of buffs and nerfs. Essentially, it’s one last fine-tuning before we dive into the raid “The Liberation of Lorenhall” and the new “Mythic+” dungeons on Wednesday.
What changes? Basically, many classes are seeing fine-tuning in the low percent range. However, some talents will also be drastically buffed or nerfed, and adjustments are made to the set pieces from the new raid. In brief, the changes are summarized as follows:
- Nerfs for Ferocity Druids, Mistweaver Monks, Discipline Priests, Subtlety Rogues, and Protection Warriors.
- Buffs for Unholy Death Knights, Devastation Evokers, and Assassination Rogues.
- All other specializations receive adjustments in both directions or remain untouched.
WoW Patch Notes from 05.03.2025
Here you can find all the changes scheduled for Wednesday in detail:
Death Knight
- The 2-piece set bonus from “Liberation of Lorenhall” now increases the damage of Death’s Coat and Epidemic by 4.5% (previously 3.0%).
Demon Hunter
- Devastation
- Aldrachi Hunter: Mark of the Hunter now increases the damage taken by the target by 6%.
- Aldrachi Hunter: Thrill of the Hunt now increases ability damage by 15% (previously 20%).
- The 2-piece set bonus from “Liberation of Lorenhall” will now trigger 25% more often.
Druid
- Ferocity
- Sunfire now deals 40% less damage.
- The mastery bonus of Lycaras’ Void in Moonkin Form has been reduced by 66%.
Evoker
- Devastation
- Firestorm now deals 40% more damage.
Hunter
- Beast Mastery
- The 2-piece set bonus from “Liberation of Lorenhall” has been adjusted. Spike Arrow will now fire for 100% of the damage (previously 200%).
- The 4-piece set bonus from “Liberation of Lorenhall” has been adjusted. Effective Mutagen now deals 50% less damage and reduces the cooldown of Wild Spirit’s Wrath by 0.25 seconds (previously 0.5 seconds).
- All ability and companion damage has been increased by 5%.
Monk
- Mistweaver
- All healing is reduced by 4%.
- The set bonus from “Liberation of Lorenhall” now causes 30% less healing.
Priest
- Discipline
- The damage reduction from Atonement no longer stacks when multiple priests cast Atonement on a target.
- Oracle: Preventive Measures increases the damage of Atonement, Divine Pain, and Holy Nova by 20% (previously 40%).
Rogue
- Assassination
- All ability damage is increased by 4%.
- Subtlety
- The damage of Secret Techniques is reduced by 5%.
- The 2-piece set bonus from “Liberation of Lorenhall” can now stack up to 8 times (previously 10 times).
Shaman
- Elemental
- The 2-piece set bonus from “Liberation of Lorenhall” summons an Elemental for 6 seconds (previously 8 seconds) and the chance of this happening has been reduced.
- The 4-piece set bonus from “Liberation of Lorenhall” increases the damage of Lightning Strike, Chain Lightning, Storm Fury, and Lava Eruption by 30% for 8 seconds (previously 20% for 8 seconds).
- Uplift procs from Deeply Rooted Elements no longer trigger the 2-piece or 4-piece set bonus of the new tier set.
- Echo of the Elements no longer refreshes the Jackpot! buff.
- All damage has been increased by 5%.
- Enhancement
- The 4-piece set bonus from the Palace of Nerub-ar now has a 20% chance to summon an additional spirit when the talent Flowing Spirits is chosen.
- Flowing Spirits now has a 6% chance to summon a wild spirit.
- Flowing Spirits now correctly summons a random Elemental spirit when the talent Elemental Spirits is chosen.
- The 4-piece set bonus from “Liberation of Lorenhall” now triggers Fateful Winds for 3 seconds (previously 4 seconds).
- The 4-piece set bonus from “Liberation of Lorenhall” increases the damage of Raging Lightning by 12% per stack (previously 15% per stack).
- The 4-piece set bonus from “Liberation of Lorenhall” increases the damage taken by the primary target of Raging Lightning by 75% (previously 100%).
Warlock
- Demonology
- The 4-piece set bonus from “Liberation of Lorenhall” has been adjusted. Casting Hand of Gul’dan now causes your Terrorfiends to apply Terror Bite with 20% effectiveness (previously 50%).
- Hand of Gul’dan deals 20% more damage.
- Fell Guards summoned by Pact of Ered’ruin deal 15% more damage.
- Dark Strike from the Darkhound now deals 30% more damage.
- Wild Imps deal 30% more damage.
- Destruction
- The 2-piece set bonus from “Liberation of Lorenhall” has been adjusted. Your spells and abilities now have a chance to fire a volley of 6 Demonfire bolts with 100% effectiveness (previously 200%). Summoning a Fel Beast guarantees this effect.
- Chaos Bolt deals 20% more damage.
- Summoning a Fel Beast deals 35% more damage.
- Felcaller: Wither now deals 35% more damage.
- Felcaller: Wither now deals its damage every 3 seconds (previously every 2 seconds).
- Felcaller: Blackened Soul deals 40% more damage.
- Felcaller. Xalan’s Ferocity increases fire damage by 4% (previously 2%).
- Felcaller: Xalan’s Cruelty increases shadow damage by 4% (previously 2%).
Warrior
- Arms
- Execute deals 15% less damage.
Why are the changes so important? The buffs and nerfs on Wednesday are the final fine-tuning before the second season of The War Within begins.
Typically, Blizzard holds back on further adjustments until the “World First” race is over. Only then do new buffs and nerfs happen more frequently, both for player characters and raid bosses. Blizzard intervenes earlier only if there are extreme outliers, but that is rather rare.
Which class will you start with next Wednesday in the second season of The War Within? Have you already chosen your favorite, or are you still undecided on what your “main” will be in the new season? If you can’t decide on a character or want it to be a bit easier, check out the best classes for newcomers and returners.
