Our Guide Writers have given their thoughts on the Patch 9.1 PTR Class Changes and new Legendaries for Build 38511. Check out all of our released opinion articles for the build below.
Class Tuning Opinions Build 38511
Blood Death Knight Changes - Guide Writer ThoughtsSurvival Hunter Changes - Guide Writer ThoughtsShadow Priest Changes - Guide Writer ThoughtsAffliction Warlock Changes - Guide Writer ThoughtsArms Warrior Changes - Guide Writer Thoughts
Covenant Legendary Opinions Build 38511
Paladin Covenant Legendaries - Guide Writer Thoughts
Currently the only changes for survival on PTR are the 15% Buffs to
Raptor Strike /
Mongoose Bite and
Flanking Strike. It is important to remember that
Mongoose Bite is a separate spell and not just a modification of
Raptor Strike, so it does not gain double the benefit. All of these buffs are focused on pure single target abilities, since Survival is currently one of the weakest, if not the weakest, specs in the game in this category. At the same time, it's likely not intended at the moment to risk buffing AoE scaling too much, which is why it was only done for single target abilities.
Overall you should expect to see 5-7% DPS gain in single target depending on your gear and build. This does raise the value of
Mastery: Spirit Bond a bit, but it is still unlikely to be anywhere close to the other stats.
Nesingwary's Trapping Apparatus builds do gain a bit more scaling potential from this going forward, however I still don't expect Survival Hunter to leave the bottom 5 single target specs even with these buffs (in part due to being that far behind, in part due to a number of other specs that it could've potentially passed, also getting their own buffs). As such, I personally hope that this isn't the end of tuning cycle, and we see a significant buff to mastery, rather just another % aura band-aid fixes.
