World of Warcraft: Forever has been live for almost a full week and Blizzard rolled out the first set of hotfixes during the the Tuesday server maintenance window.
Every Class Change in the November 10 WoW: Forever Hotfix
World of Warcraft: Forever has had a record-breaking launch for the WoW franchise. In addition to crushing concurrent player count goals, the game also boasted a pretty smooth launch window without major balance, performance, or server issues.
Although the launch has gone well, there are still some tweaks to be made with a weekly patch to apply some hotfixes. Most of the the changes impact seven of the game’s classes, but there are some other updates to the Auction House, Items, and Professions, as well.
Here is a full breakdown of all the class changes included in the November 10 update:
- Druid
- Fixed an issue where Omen of Clarity could not activate after swapping specializations.
- Restoration
- Nature’s Swiftness now also makes Wild Growth instant.
- Hunter
- Fixed a bug where Pets erroneously had 150% of their normal health. This is now corrected to 115% of their normal health.
- Arcane Shot mana cost changed to 11% of base Mana for all ranks of Arcane Shot.
- Developers’ notes: This means the Mana cost on all ranks will always be the same and rise gradually with level. Overall Mana cost at levels 6 and 60 are nearly identical to before this change, and slightly lower for levels in-between.
- Beast Mastery
- Summon Hawk Mana cost changed to 11% of base Mana for all ranks of Summon Hawk, same as Arcane Shot.
- Melee damage dealt by the Hawk pet increased by about 80%.
- Paladin
- Redoubt can now be tracked in the Cooldown Manager.
- Priest
- Fixed an issue where the Revelation enchant was activated by Vampiric Embrace healing.
- Holy
- Fixed an issue where Holy Nova was not correctly unlearend when untalenting from the spell.
- Shaman
- Maelstrom Weapon can now be tracked in the Cooldown Manager.
- Weapon imbues and Weapon totems can now be used at the same time.
- Developers’ notes: For example, this means the Shaman can benefit from Windfury Weapon and Windfury Totem at the same time, granting their attacks a chance to activate both.
- Enhancement
- Stormstrike damage reduced to 100% weapon damage (was 150%), and cooldown increased to 8 seconds (was 6 seconds).
- Mental Dexterity: Intellect to Attack Power conversion ratio reduced to 33/66/100% (was 50/100/150%).
- Maelstrom Weapon now grants 20% reduced cast time and Mana cost per application at all ranks (was 4/8/12/16/20% reduced cast time and Mana cost), and chance to activate now increases with rank and activates 6/7/8/9/10 times per minute (was 20 times per minute regardless of rank).
- Maelstrom Weapon tooltip updated to display the Shaman’s % chance to activate it based on their Main Hand Weapon’s speed. For example, if the Shaman has the 5 points into Maelstrom Weapon and has a 3.6 speed weapon it will display a 60% chance to activate on swing, compared to if the Shaman is wielding a 2.0 speed weapon it will display a 33% chance to activate on swing.
- Developers’ notes: Beta changes to Enhancement Shaman, alongside the Shock and Lightning Bolt changes aimed at Elemental Shaman, caused Enhancement to favor Spell Power and Intellect gear too heavily. While that gearing direction is not inherently a problem, it also pushed Enhancement away from Windfury, which we believe should remain at the heart of the specialization’s fantasy and gameplay. We want to make this adjustment now because it has significant implications for gearing in the upcoming raid. Addressing it before the raid opens will help prevent players from pursuing and winning highly contested items that could become much less valuable after a later change. With that in mind, many of these changes reverse the Beta adjustments aimed specifically at Enhancement and move the specialization in a more Windfury-friendly direction. We believe this better serves both Enhancement’s core fantasy and its intended gearing.
- Warlock
- Fixed a bug causing the Succubus whip sound to play much too often.
- Imp base damage of the first 4 Ranks of Imp’s Firebolt increased, and base Imp Health increased by ~15%.
- Voidwalker base Health increased by ~15%.
- Incubus base Health increased by ~15%.
- Succubus base Health increased by ~15%.
- Affliction
- Soul Siphon now grants increased effect to your Drain Life, Drain Soul, and Wrack spells by 4/8/12% per each of your Corruption, Siphon Life, and Bane of Agony spells active on the target, up to a maximum of 36% (was any Affliction spell).
- Wrack damage reduced by 30%.
- Wrack no longer increases the damage of the Warlock’s periodic effects on the target.
- Wrack tears the target apart from within for 6 seconds, inflicting Shadow damage every 1 second. While channeling, your Siphon Life, Corruption, and Bane of Agony effects on the target deal their periodic damage 100% faster.
- Developers’ notes: Wrack speeds up how often your periodic effects deal damage, not how long they last. Bane of Agony still lasts its full 24 seconds, but while Wrack is channeled on the target, it deals damage twice as often. Why this change? Besides being unique, interesting, and more viscerally satisfying to see numbers pop up more often as Affliction – it fixes an issue that the previous design of Wrack had. Previously, Wrack increased periodic damage by a percentage, so if you stopped channeling just before a periodic effect dealt damage, that effect gained 0 benefit from the Wrack you just ended. Now Wrack speeds up your periodic effects while channeled, and the time it skips is kept after Wrack’s channel ends or is interrupted. For example, if you channel Wrack for 1 second during a 3-second Corruption tick, Corruption advances 2 seconds instead of 1, so its next tick lands 1 second later instead of 2, even if you stopped channeling Wrack.
- Destruction
- Bane of Havoc – fixed a bug where this ability was not incurring a global cooldown.
- Warrior
- Arms
- Sweeping Strikes no longer loses charges if no second target is hit.
- Arms
As players continue leveling and giving Blizzard a lot more data to work with on the endgame experience, there are sure to be plenty of other balance tweaks and fixes along the way.
Be sure to check back soon for lots more World of Warcraft: Forever news and updates as the early days of the game play out.
World of Warcraft: Forever and World of Warcraft: Midnight are both available now on PC.
The post World of Warcraft: Forever’s First Big Hotfix Makes Changes to 7 Classes appeared first on VICE.
