Frost Death Knights and Retribution Paladins can rejoice in World of Warcraft with a little extra help on damage, while Subtlety Rogues and Kil’jaeden are likely to curse under their breath…
After the final boss of Patch 7.2.5, Kil’jaeden, was first defeated worldwide by the Method Guild a few days ago, Blizzard followed up shortly after with a hotfix. This affects not only the general class balance but also the Tomb of Sargeras and particularly Kil’jaeden in Mythic mode.
Specifically, this means: Buffs for Frost Death Knights, Retribution and Protection Paladins, Nerf for Subtlety Rogue, Retribution Demon Hunter, and Kil’jaeden.
Here is a list of the major changes that will be implemented on the European servers during the night from July 25 to 26, 2017.
Death Knight
Frost
- A bug was fixed that prevented Rune Weapon from generating a rune at the correct speed of 1.5 seconds.
- The damage of all abilities was increased by 5%.
Paladin
Protection
-
The damage of the following abilities was increased by 4%: Shield of Vengeance, Judgment, Hammer of the Righteous, Blessed Hammer, Consecration, Shield of the Righteous, Eye of Tyr.
Retribution
-
Blade of Justice now deals 10% more damage.
-
Crusader Strike now deals 10% more damage.
-
Zeal now deals 10% more damage.
After the Frost Death Knight was pushed down the DPS rankings by its unholy brother, compensation was needed at this point. The holy Hammer swingers have also lost some strength lately, not least due to the changes to Blessing of the Ashbringer, and although they are not at the bottom, a little help with damage numbers is certainly appropriate.
Only the buff for the Protection Paladin, who already deals a lot of damage (and can take comparatively little), is questionable – especially compared to the equivalent nerf for their horned colleagues:
Demon Hunter
Retribution
- Demon Spikes now reduces physical damage taken by 12% (previously 10%).
- The damage of Fracture was reduced by 5%.
- The damage of Soul Bomb was reduced by 10%.
The nerfs to the Rogue should be looked at separately, as no change is being made to the class itself, but rather to the currently best legendary items that the Subtlety Rogue can equip:
- The duration of Master Assassin’s Cloak was reduced from 6 to 5 seconds (all specializations).
- The cooldown reduction of Denial of Giants was reduced from 0.3 to 0.2 seconds.
Additionally, there are some adjustments in the Tomb of Sargeras that affect the Fallen Avatar and especially Kil’jaeden:
Tomb of Sargeras
Fallen Avatar
- The health points of the Fallen Avatar were reduced by 5% on Mythic difficulty.
Kil’jaeden
- The health points of Kil’jaeden were reduced by 5% on Mythic difficulty.
- Armageddon now spawns 6 Armageddon Rains (previously 8) on Mythic difficulty.
- Illidan’s Blind Gaze now deals less damage at all difficulty levels.
- Demons’ Obelisk now spawns 3 Obelisks on the first use of the ability on Mythic difficulty.
Professional Guild Exorsus is upset about the hotfix
Especially the nerf to Kil’jaeden is upsetting for some raid guilds, as they feel like unpaid testers after hundreds of attempts on the final boss. How sensible the changes are is also questionable, as a large portion of the player base will likely still take a long time before they can face the Avatar or Kil’jaeden in Mythic mode.
Hotfix changes showing complete disrespect to all the efforts of top guilds. Free testers done their job, wasting month of their life.
— Exorsus (@ExorsusWoW) July 25, 2017
