The changes to the classes in Patch 7.3 for World of Warcraft: Legion are currently coming in small doses and are being continuously adjusted. A lot can still change before the release. What is officially known so far has been compiled here.
As the PTR builds are constantly evolving and changing, and feedback from the developer forum is being considered, the changes so far are not complete and also not final.
The adjustments to the classes for WoW 7.3 listed here refer to the officially released posts by the designers and have been translated freely from English. As soon as the German patch notes are available, we will add them, at the latest by the release of WoW Update 7.3.
Death Knight
Frost
The specialization is too heavily dominated by Sindragosa’s Breath, which has significant implications for talent choices in the talent tree. The ability can be maintained for too long. In addition to the strict requirements from talents and legendary items for maintenance, a long, uninterrupted duration near the target is also required. The specialization has many talents and legendary items (individually or collectively) that flood it with resources. Sindragosa’s Breath encourages picking all of them, but is also a problem in itself.
The balance of the talents needs an overall update, especially since they are all being revised at the same time.
- All damage is increased by 21%.
- Hungry Rune Weapon (Level 58) and Unquenchable Glacier (Level 100) have swapped positions.
- The damage of Sindragosa’s Breath is increased by 10%.
There is an attempt to retain the identity of Sindragosa’s Breath, which involves the continuous consumption of Rune Power as a limiting factor. The synergies of talents and legendary items that make Sindragosa’s Breath so powerful are to be restricted, such as the synergy between Hungry Rune Weapon and the Breath. By simultaneously strengthening the ability, it should be prevented from becoming completely useless while other possible setups can catch up.
The following talents are changing their positions:
- Murderous Efficiency from Level 56 to Level 57.
- Frozen Pulse from Level 57 to Level 90.
- Runic Cycle from Level 90 to Level 56.
Additionally, some adjustments are being made to resource regeneration:
- Hungry Rune Weapon now lasts for 12 seconds (previously 15) and grants 20% haste.
- Bugfix: Hungry Rune Weapon now correctly generates one rune every 1.5 seconds instead of every second.
- Murderous Efficiency: The chance to receive a rune has been reduced from 65% to 50%.
- Horn of Winter: The cooldown has been increased from 30 to 45 seconds.
- The legendary belt Koltira’s Newfound Will now generates one rune (previously 2) and increases the damage of Obliteration by 10%.
With the changes to the positions of the talents, as well as the weakening of damage and resource regeneration, the goal is to allow for a wider selection of talents that still feels good to play.
- Icy Claws now grants a bonus of 15% (previously 10).
- Shattering Strikes now grants a bonus of 60% (previously 40).
- Freezing Fog now grants a bonus of 20% (previously 30).
- Obliteration: The duration has been increased to 10 seconds (previously 8).
- Frozen Pulse now deals 39% less damage.
- Obliteration causes Howling Gale and Frostbolt to grant Killing Machine.
In addition to the previous changes, the talent line for Level 75 is receiving an overhaul:
- Permafrost now generates a shield equal to 75% of the damage from auto attacks (previously 30%)
- White Wanderer has been reworked to: “Phantom Walk now expires 100% faster when no enemies are within 10 meters.”
- New talent: Ruthless Assault (replaces Anti-Magic Feedback): “While you are in combat and there are no enemies within 8 meters of you, you gain one stack of Ruthless Assault every second. Each stack causes your next auto attack (100% of attack power) to deal additional frost damage.”
(Author’s note: On the PTR itself, Ruthless Assault replaced White Wanderer instead of Anti-Magic Feedback. Anti-Magic Feedback now absorbs 35% more damage and generates 100% more rune power, instead of reflecting 25% of the damage back and generating no rune power.)
With these changes, the specialization should be given the opportunity to compensate for its lack of mobility, which has heavily disadvantaged it compared to many other melee fighters. The most significant and numerous changes have been made to Frost Death Knight, highlighting the major issues it has in the current content. According to some forum testers’ posts, however, the changes have already had some positive effects. The specialization seems to be on a good path to improvement. Nevertheless, progress is rather slow.
Druid
Feral
- All damage dealt is increased by 33%
- Rending now deals the same damage in 20% less time (previously 33%).
- The cooldown of Savage Roar has been increased by 50%. The damage bonus has been reduced to 15% (previously 25%).
- The damage bonus from Bite has been reduced to 25% (previously 50%). Additionally, the effect is now triggered by the use of Rampant Roots.
Since the three talents being adjusted have been the strongest for Feral Druid so far, these adjustments also aim to allow for other playstyles while punishing mistakes less severely.
Additionally, some talents are changing their positions:
- Rending from Level 90 to Level 75.
- Savage Roar from Level 75 to Level 90.
- Brutal Slash from Level 100 to Level 90.
- Elune’s Guidance from Level 90 to Level 100.
This change aims to shift Brutal Slash into a line with AoE talents along with Saber Tooth, providing a solid choice for dungeons. At the same time, Rending, Savage Roar, and Bite should remain in different lines to maintain the currently popular playstyle.
Some additional, smaller changes aim to improve the gameplay feeling and balance:
- The cooldown of Prowl has been reduced to 6 seconds for all specializations (previously 10).
- Rebirth can now be cast in all forms and is no longer influenced by Catlike Speed, nor does it consume the spell.
- The bonus damage provided by Saber Tooth to Ferocious Bite has been increased by 20%.
- The reduction of energy costs for Incarnation: King of the Jungle has been reduced from 60% to 50% and allows the use of Prowl only once.
- Moment of Clarity causes Omen of Clarity to trigger twice as often and increases the damage of affected abilities by 25%. Additionally, the spell is now stackable twice.
- The cooldown of Elune’s Guidance has been reduced to 30 seconds (previously 45) and the generated combo points have been reduced to 5 + 5 over 5 seconds (previously 5 + 8 over 8 seconds).
- Claw now generates one combo point.
- The energy costs for Claw and Rake have been reduced by 5 (to 45 and 40, respectively).
Mage
Frost
Bug fixes:
- Frozen Orb should now be affected by Shatter.
- The damage of Shadowbolt can now trigger on-use effects.
- The damage from Shadowbolt and Hail now does not create a second entry in the combat log.
- Frozen Rain now lasts for 12 seconds, unaffected by haste rating.
There are more changes that wowhead has compiled here. These refer to the changes found in the PTR at the time of the article, which, like everything described, are continuously changing in order to find the right balance.
By the way, how it could continue after Legion is hinted at by this leak regarding the new AddOn.
