WoW boosts tanks and nerfs (finally) destruction warlocks

A new round of balance changes in World of Warcraft is coming, featuring not only buffs for tanks but also nerfs for destruction warlocks.

The balance in World of Warcraft is an ongoing cycle. No wonder, with 36 specializations, many different types of content, and always new factors like tier sets, soul binds, or covenants, things can get quite mixed up. Now a new series of buffs is being introduced, primarily aimed at helping the two weakest tanks and increasing their DPS. But warlocks can also look forward to some enhancements and a rather drastic weakening.

This is how Blizzard buffs two tanks: Druids and Demon Hunters

For the tanks, there are several buffs aimed at improving solo damage. Druids and demon hunters, in particular, deal significantly lower DPS compared to death knight, monk, paladin, or warrior tanks. To help them not lag behind as much, Blizzard has targeted the following changes:

• Druid
  • Guardian
    • Damage from shred and auto attacks is increased by 10%.
• Demon Hunter
  • Vengeance
    • Damage and healing of all abilities are increased by 3%.
    • Damage from fracture and shear is increased by 20%.
    • Damage from automatic attacks is increased by 10%.

Warlocks becoming stronger – and at the same time weaker

For warlocks, there are clear buffs – especially for affliction warlocks, who were previously found at the lower end of the DPS charts. Destruction warlocks also receive enhancements, but also a significant weakening on their tier set.

• Warlock
  • Affliction
    • Damage of all abilities is increased by 5%.
  • Destruction
    • (4) Set bonus: Blasphemy no longer grants Chaos Rain.
    • Damage from chaos bolt is increased by 5% in PvE situations.
    • Damage from immolate is increased by 20%.
    • Damage from conflagrate is increased by 20%.
    • Damage from firestorm is increased by 10% in PvE situations.

What’s up with the warlock nerf? Even if it seems on paper that chaos warlocks receive a sizable buff, it’s probably a nerf. The chaos rain that blasphemy could bring resulted in additional dreadsteeds appearing, which in turn generated even more soul shards. This led to absurd amounts of AoE damage but could also be a strong buff in single target situations. To ensure no disadvantage arises in such solo target cases, there are a few buffs to the associated spells.

The AoE damage of the destruction warlock has drastically suffered from this, and the era of “infinite soul shards” is likely over. This gives other classes a bit more chance to compete at the top of the AoE charts…

When do the changes go live? With the upcoming maintenance on June 29, 2022. Once the realms are restarted early Wednesday morning, you should benefit from the adjustments – or suffer as a warlock.

What do you think of the changes? Good and meaningful adjustments? Or far too little to restore balance?