The shamans are in trouble. They were too powerful for an affix in World of Warcraft – now there will be consequences.
In the past WoW week, shamans were the absolute superstars for every “Mythic+” dungeon. All other healers had basically no chance against shamans, as they could handle the affix as easily as no other class. That’s why Blizzard is reacting and nerfing the shamans with the birthday patch.
Shamans heal group affix with a single click
What was going on with shamans? In World of Warcraft, the various Xal’atath affixes rotate weekly. Sometimes you have to prevent orbs from reaching enemies, other times you need to defeat an additional enemy. However, in one week, all player characters receive a debuff that can be removed in various ways. Any type of effect removal counts – whether it’s a curse, poison, disease, or magic.
That’s precisely why shaman healers were unbeatable. While other healers struggle because they have high cooldowns on such dispels, the shaman can place a poison cleansing totem every 45 seconds, removing all poison effects from the group.
Since the affix appears roughly every 90 seconds, a healing shaman could single-handedly manage the troublesome affix with just one click, without the group needing to worry about it further.
What is changing? Blizzard seems to have found it a bit too powerful in hindsight, so with the birthday patch 11.0.5, there will now be a nerf to the poison cleansing totem. The cooldown will be increased from 45 seconds to 120 seconds (or 2 minutes). This way, the shaman will no longer be able to permanently cleanse the affix on their own, and the group must assist in one way or another.
This is not the only change awaiting classes with the big patch 11.0.5. Blizzard is working on balance and even overhauling some hero talents significantly. We have the complete patch notes for update 11.0.5 in World of Warcraft here for you.
