Blizzard
We've been working on a suite of targeted changes that focus on improving gameplay for several specs. You're going to see changes that are close to the following in the first build of the Rise of Azshara PTR (coming next week).
Demon Hunter- Vengeance
Dämonischer Schutz: damage reduction increased to 15% (was 10%). - Dämonischer Schutz: armor bonus increased to 100% (was 80%).
- Dämonenstachel: armor reduced to 60% of Agility (was 85%).
Developers' notes: More than other tanks, Vengeance is currently dealing with the problem of low mitigation when their active mitigation is down. These changes are a substantial increase to physical mitigation when Dämonenstachel is down, and a neutral-to-very-slight increase when Dämonenstachel is active. There is also some overall passive reduction to magic damage. Overall, Vengeance's sustained damage taken will be lower, and the periods of vulnerability outside of Dämonenstachel should be less dramatic.
Druid- Besänftigen, Verderbnis entfernen, Mondfeuer, and Wiedergeburt are no longer castable in Cat or Bear form by default.
- Feral Druids now have a visible passive learned at level 22 that allows Verderbnis entfernen and Soothe to be cast in Katzengestalt.
- Guardian Druids now have a visible passive learned at level 10 that allows Besänftigen, Verderbnis entfernen, Mondfeuer, and Rebirth to be cast in Bärengestalt.
Developers' notes: Guardian Druid is limited in its practical ability to use some utility abilities while tanking, and we're loosening that restriction by allowed Verderbnis entfernen in Bärengestalt. We're also cleaning up Druid shapeshifting rules slightly: the use of magical-themed spells, in Feral forms, is allowed by passive upgrades given to Guardian and Feral specializations specifically. This represents their special mastery of their “home” form that allows for limited spellcasting, and from a gameplay perspective, this allows Feral/Guardian Druids to use spells in form where there is a strong practical need. At the same time, there are situations where there is no fantasy justification or gameplay need, and spellcasting might be more restricted. For example, non-Guardian Druids can no longer cast Mondfeuer in Bärengestalt.
Guardian - Eisenfell and Schlägel now cost 40 Rage (was 45).
- Zerfleischen now generates 10 Rage (was 8).
Developers' notes: Eisenfell is intended to be maintainable with high uptime, up to 100%, and have some overlaps on top of that. Currently, depending on talent configuration, Druids may only be able to barely maintain full uptime on Eisenfell. Making Ironfurs much more available should allow better control over timing and overlaps, as well as improving Guardian mitigation overall.
Shifting to Bear Form now gives 25 Rage (was 20).
- Developer's notes: It should now be much easier to get the first Eisenfell activated promptly after engaging an enemy, due to the increased starting Rage and lower cost.
Zerfleischen and
Hauen direct damage increased by 15%.
Jäger- Beast Mastery
Stachelpfeil damage is now affected by Stacheliger Zorn. - Stachelpfeil damage reduced by 10%.
Developers' notes: We are fixing a bug that caused Bestial Wrath to not affect Stachelpfeil damage, and lowering the base damage of Barbed Shot to keep overall damage roughly unchanged.
Schurke- Gesetzlosigkeit
Klarer Kopf (Azerite Trait) now stacks once per instance of Klingenwirbel dealing damage (was once for every target Klingenwirbel hits). Each stack now provides 5% Finsterer Stoß chance (was 2%).
Developers' notes: In very large packs of enemies, especially in dungeons, Klarer Kopf provides much more damage than one copy of one Azerite Trait was intended to provide. With this change, you'll still feel this trait accelerate as you build stacks, but the size of the group that you're fighting won't affect how much damage the trait is giving you. This will be a damage increase against two targets, and a damage reduction against 3 or more targets.
Krieger- Protection
Unaufhaltbare Macht Thunderclap damage reduced to 50% (was 100%).
Developers' notes: Protection Warrior burst DPS with Avatar is extremely high for a tank. This talent was adding more damage than necessary, given that it also decreases Donnerknall's cooldown and synergizes well with certain Azerit traits.
We'll update this post as necessary, especially as we develop PvP-specific tuning adjustments over the first few weeks of the PTR.