A new week means new hotfixes! We start the week with a couple of bug fixes and class tuning coming with this week’s weekly reset for Holy Priests, Resto Shamans and Warlocks.
Those aren’t the only announced changes though. With the launch of the second phase of the prepatch Solo Shuffle is being adjusted so that tanks fill a dps or healer role. And to top it off there will be a play with the Blues event on the beta this weekend, specifically for PvP!
NOVEMBER 7, 2022
Classes
- Mage
- Fixed an issue that caused Cascading Power to not grant the correct version of Clearcasting when Arcane Empowerment (PvP Talent) was selected.
- Paladin
- Protection
- Fixed an issue where Sentinel was not benefiting from Righteous Protector’s cooldown reduction.
- Protection
- Priest
- Holy
- [Live with weekly restarts] Empyreal Blaze now has a 60 sec cooldown (was 30 sec).
- Holy
- Shaman
- Restoration
- [Live with weekly restarts] Lightning Bolt damage increased by 20% (Restoration only).
- [Live with weekly restarts] Chain Lightning damage increased by 20% (Restoration only).
- [Live with weekly restarts] Lava Burst damage increased by 20% (Restoration only).
- [Live with weekly restarts] Flame Shock damage increased by 20% (Restoration only).
- [Live with weekly restarts] Acid Rain damage increased by 20%.
- Restoration
- Warlock
- [Live with weekly restarts] Soul Leech now grants you and your pet shields that absorb 6% (was 8%) of the damage dealt.
- [Live with weekly restarts] Soul Link now increases Stamina by 5% (was 10%) if Grimoire of Sacrifice is active.
- [Live with weekly restarts] Profane Bargain now increases Stamina by 3/5% (was 5/10%) if Grimoire of Sacrifice is active.
- [Live with weekly restarts] Demonic Fortitude increases you and your pets’ maximum health by 5% (was 6%).
- [Live with weekly restarts] Inquisitor’s Gaze now casts Fel Blast more often.
- [Live with weekly restarts] Inquisitor’s Gaze damage increased by 30%.
- [Live with weekly restarts] Summon Soulkeeper damage increased by 30%.
- Fixed an issue where Greater Banish was increasing the duration of Banish in PvP.
Changes to Tanks in Solo Shuffle
Hello,
We have been following the conversation about tanks in our new PvP mode, Solo Shuffle. Tanks have long been a design challenge for PvP as their abilities and tuning are intended to allow them to survive against multiple enemies or Dungeon and Raid bosses. In Battleground modes, like Capture the Flag, where a large team killing a specific player is the primary objective, the existing design for tanks can work well. One team needs to coordinate their burst and crowd control against the other team’s tank and healers use of their defensive abilities and positioning. But, in the case of Arena, the general survivability of tanks (particularly when they are also good at dealing damage or healing their teammates) can be a frustrating experience to play against.
Our first attempt at addressing this problem in Solo Shuffle was to replace healers with tanks in matches where they were involved and to pair strong off-healing tanks (specifically Protection Paladins) against each other. The feedback we have heard from you is that these matches are not enjoyable for the other players and more needs to be done.
We want to make it clear though, excluding tanks from Arena or Solo Shuffle is not an option we are exploring. We create content that is available to everyone no matter their specialization and there are some players who enjoy playing one class or specialization. We do not want to isolate those players and believe there are more design options for us to explore.
As we continued to discuss the best solutions to the system and how to create a more positive experience in Solo Shuffle for all players, we decided to make the following changes to tanks in Solo Shuffle:
- Protection Paladins will remain classified as “healers” and will only be placed in matches where the other healer is also a Protection Paladin.
- The remaining tank specializations will be classified as a damage dealer, with a maximum of one tank damage dealer permitted in the match.
- Alongside these updates, we will be looking closely at and actively tuning tank abilities in PvP, specifically around how they fit in Solo Shuffle.
These changes will soon be live in the Dragonflight beta and are planned to be available in the Dragonflight pre-expansion patch with phase 2 during the week of November 16.
As always, we appreciate your feedback. Please continue to provide feedback via the forums or to @WarcraftDevs on Twitter.
PvP with the Blues
This Friday, November 11, come join members of the World of Warcraft development team on Valdrakken realm on Beta as we playtest Dragonflight’s new talent trees in a PvP environment. We will be observing and looking for areas of feedback on general PvP, focused on talent builds and the recent adjustments made to player health and dampening.
We’ll get underway at 3:00 p.m. PST (5:00 p.m. CST, 6:00 p.m. EST) with an hour of random Battlegrounds. To playtest this with us, log into the Beta and open Group Finder (default hotkey: i), then select Random Battlegrounds and click Join Battle.
Then starting at 4:00 p.m. PST (6:00 p.m. CST, 7:00 p.m. EST) we’re going to switch over to Rated Solo Shuffle for two hours. To playtest this with us, log into the PTR and open Group Finder (default hotkey: i), then select Rated Solo Shuffle and click Join Battle.
Before then, get your PvP character ready on Valdrakken, by simply creating a character on the realm that will be set at level 70 and you’ll be near the various gear and professions vendors in Orgrimmar and Stormwind, depending on your faction.
We look forward to playtesting with you and reading your feedback afterward, see you there!