With today’s server restart, a hotfix for World of Warcraft: Shadowlands has been applied, adjusting class balance. Death Knights, Druids, and Hunters are receiving heavy nerfs, but even the top PvP killers are affected.
These are the nerfs: Today, on December 16, 2020, a new hotfix for World of Warcraft was released, which among other things made the new raid Castle Nathria harder at the last minute.
Additionally, some adjustments for classes went live. Particularly Unholy Death Knights, Balance Druids, and Marksmanship Hunters are affected:
- Unholy Death Knights lose 20% of the effectiveness of their “Mastery: Dreadblade”
- Balance Druids lose 6% damage from “Starfall” and the legendary effect “Balance of All Things” loses strength
- Marksmanship Hunters lose 5% damage each from their abilities “Aimed Shot” and “Arcane Shot”
For all three classes, the nerfs hit the most important tools for damage dealing. In the DPS ranking of Shadowlands, all three were previously in the top 3. The nerfs could change that.
DK, Druid, and Hunter Nerfed
What do the nerfs mean? The Druid loses area damage with Starfall, but “Balance of All Things” was previously the strongest legendary for Balance Druids.
In particular, with the Night Fae ability “Convoke the Spirits,” which randomly casts 16 spells, Druids could achieve significant damage peaks quickly with the legendary. However, the Night Fae are still likely to be the best covenant for Druids.
“Mastery: Dreadblade” increases the damage of pets and the shadow damage dealt for the Unholy Death Knight. Since nearly all of their damage comes from these two elements, the nerf hits particularly hard. Overall, Death Knights should expect 5-7% less damage.
For the Hunter, “Aimed Shot” and “Arcane Shot” together account for nearly 50% of their damage. Therefore, the nerf affects them for about 2-3% of their total damage.
This is how strong the classes still are in the ranking: Druids and Hunters may lose a place in the DPS list, but they could also hold their ground since no other class has been significantly buffed. They have good chances to remain at the top.
Death Knights, on the other hand, could face larger losses. From the former first place, they could fall to as low as fourth place due to the nerf. However, it remains to be seen how strong the different values are for Unholy Death Knights and whether other legendary effects might be more beneficial.
PvP Nerfs for Rogues
What changes: In addition to the PvE nerfs, Rogues are getting a nerf in PvP. This mainly affects Rogues who have chosen the Kyrian as their covenant and Subtlety Rogues in general. The main changes are:
- The Soulbind ability ‘Combat Meditation’ grants 50% less mastery in PvP.
- The effectiveness of the Kyrians’ medium ‘Echo’ has been reduced by 50% in PvP (previously 30%).
- The initial damage of the Kyrian ability ‘Resounding Retribution’ has been reduced by 50% in PvP.
- ‘Shadow Blades’ now deals an additional 30% damage to player characters (previously 40%).
This should prevent Subtlety Rogues from being able to kill opposing players in the arena, battlegrounds, or open PvP in just a few seconds despite defensive cooldowns. This has previously been a major point of criticism in the community.
How the PvE changes will concretely affect the ranking and gameplay remains to be seen. Currently, the “Mythic Race” is running, where the USA has already killed 7/10 bosses before Europe even gets to start. However, at least Death Knights are still favored there as they bring a very useful ability with “Death Grip.” We eagerly await to see who wins the race and how.
