Our Class Writers have given us a rough approximation of expected throughput changes with the weekly reset based on the class tuning notes and each individual Class Guide for more details. These estimates may vary based on the exact spells that Blizzard buffs tomorrow.
September 22nd Class Tuning Notes
Estimated Class Tuning
We asked our class writers what impact the upcoming changes will have on their spec, and here are their estimates based on sims and theorycrafting! Please click the spoiler tags to see additional information and notes from our class writers.
For DPS these are DPS Throughput increases or decreases on both Single Target and AoE.
For Healers, these are HPS Throughput numbers.
For Tanks, these are DPS Throughput numbers.
Estimated ChangesNotes
SpecSingleAoE
Blood DK0% (SL)
8% (DB)-2% (SL)
3% (DB)Hero talent choice on ST becomes a choice, SL still ahead in aoe
Frost DK4%0%Frost is in a pretty nice spot now, but mythic raiders will still mostly feel the pain of the bench until the community perception shifts.
Unholy DK3-4%
15% (bugfix)1%
7% (bugfix)Blizzard is buffing Blightfall which is heavily bugged in terms of extensions and tick time modifiers causing its damage to do way less damage than intended.
Devourer DH1%3.4%The breakdown is:
~5.2% ST buff for Annihilator, ~3.4% in AoE
~1% buff for Void-Scarred in ST, ~0.3% in AoE
Annihilator is now the de facto option for M+, although it was mostly adopted at high levels due to its AOE damage. The buffs to ST to Star and Consume/Devour make its ST a lot better, pushing it above VS at all levels.
Doesn't change much in raid, although Annihilator is much more viable in raid if you prefer the playstyle, and might now be the preferred option for Turtles
Havoc DH9%7%Aldrachi already simmed well coming into The Venomous Abyss, however, the fight profiles suited better for Fel-Scarred burst profiles and significant AoE. With the buffs, it will likely pull ahead for some fights, including on 2-target encounters, such as Twin Fangs and Lost Explorers. However, it will not always be the go-to choice for all raid encounters or mythic+.
Vengeance DH5%2.5%This is for Aldrachi Reaver (AR). AR should perform better in most raid fights and priority damage/funnel situations, but will still be significantly behind in AOE and dungeons overall, at around 30% behind.
Feral Druid1%2%These buffs are fairly insignificant, it's a small buff that doesn't really alter the status quo for hero talents in raid, where you should be playing DOTC unless you're getting PI in which case you play WS anyway, or M+, where you can play kind of whatever you want though people will continue to play DOTC.
I can only assume that whoever is in charge of balancing has a cat that's pissing them off this tier (and the last like 7). It's confusing what has happened to Feral's tuning, the spec has consistently wallowed at the bottom of the statistics chart and just as consistently been overlooked for buffs, I don't think at any point has the spec made it past the bottom 3 in the overall statistics. You may say that "clearly Feral is a single target spec, check the Boss damage statistics", and it's clear that Feral Druid doesn't even excel there. We've floated between lower top quartile and the median. If Feral Druid actually excelled in single target while being garbage at other stuff, it might be ok, but instead it's the worst of both worlds. Since these are the last scheduled tuning notes for the season and we've already seen the tuning changes for 12.1.5 (feral not included), any cats out there hoping to have a tune-up should put away their begging bowls, the 5 second rule has passed (or 5 week rule in this case) and we're clearly not being picked up.
If you're an M+ focused feral, then it's a bit of a good news/bad news situation. Good news - congratulations! Most of the complaints above don't focus on you and you're playing the content we're good at! Bad news - the buffs don't really do anything either.
Restoration Druid2%4%In raid, about half of the aura buff is compensation for the Photosynthesis fix going into the same hotfix. In Mythic+, you'll get the full 4%.
Augmentation Evoker3%5%It's unclear if Duplicate damage will also be buffed, which would be an additional 1% gain to both. These changes are small buffs to personal damage in a season where Augmentation is back to focusing on buff damage and gearing heavily into Mastery. That said, these buffs are welcome, and should especially help Augmentation players in less-coordinated Raid groups, and as well as in Mythic+.
Devastation Evoker1%4%The Devastation buffs are aimed to increase the AoE damage of the spec while also making the Apex more desirable and uplifting Flameshaper. For Scalecommanders, not a whole lot is changing. The buff to Unbound Flame is not enough to entice us to take the Apex. 1/4 Apex is still the way to go: It is a better fit for the current raid encounters and generally plays more to the strengths of SC.
On the singular Single Target encounter, Sszorak, Flameshaper is now ahead of Scalecommander by a margin large enough for your consideration. For those sticking with Scalecommander, 4/4 Apex does has a place in pure Single Target and would likely be the play instead. All of the other raid encounters feature cleave.
In Mythic+ there is now a case for Flameshaper, but time will tell. Devastation isn't exactly meta due to how spread its damage is. Higher than average overall damage can make any spec desirable so long as it fits with the comp.
Marksmanship Hunter0.5%8%8% AoE, 4% M+ Overall
These buffs try to improve Marksmanship's very poor standing in Mythic+, but are simply not enough. Despite its primary AoE mechanic being hard-capped at 8 targets, it still does less 8-target AoE DPS than Beast Mastery which is uncapped, has endless DPS mobility, and is simpler to play. Marksmanship needs massive AoE and Priority buffs to even be remotely competitive. Hard-capped specs should not be defeated by uncapped specs within their target cap boundary.
Survival Hunter0%6.2%The hitbox of Wildfire Bomb is still detrimental
Fire Mage1%4-5%As mentioned before, Fire is the least effective and least played of the Mage specs in Raid and Mythic+. Fire has no spread cleave like Frost Mage. You either do AoE or Single target with your spender, while Arcane is able to do both at the same time. The lack of priority damage and worse defensives make it a bad fit for Mythic+. Tuning the AoE damage up won't really change this, but at some point the overall damage will be high enough to overcome these shortcomings. I don't think we are there yet, but in the meantime this buff certainly helps.
Frost Mage1%5%Frost has continued to be outperformed by Arcane in most content, so these buffs to make it better in M+ are welcome. That said, this still doesn't do much to address the state of Frost's AoE rotation, in particular Blizzard still doesn't really have a role in the AoE rotation, which does not feel good.
Mistweaver Monk5.5%1%This tuning is definitely focused on direct, single-target healing. The 15% Vivify buff does not affect anything that comes additional from pressing Vivify - like Invigorating Mists and Zen Pulse, so this will only buff the direct portion.
Sheilun's Gift, on the other hand, has a natural AoE portion to it that does get increased by the 15% bonus to it, albeit most of its power does come from the main target heal. However, this does not account for too much of our healing done in Mythic+.
Single target healing is welcomed (and is honestly a major fault of Mistweaver Monk at the moment), but this is another round of increasingly small buffs to the spec while being at the very bottom of every chart in Raid (by a wide margin) and still doing pretty solidly in Mythic+ (due to most of the healing coming from damage-to-healing conversion, which is unaffected by healing tuning. Unfortunately, a 12.1.5 waiting room.
Windwalker Monk3-4%1-1.5%Windwalker gained 3-4% in single target in a much needed buff. This season has been rough for single target damage, especially compared to how strong Windwalker was in single target during Season 1. While this increase won’t entirely fix the problem, every little bit helps.
Windwalker’s strength in AoE likely makes it difficult to increase single target damage without pushing it from great to overpowered in Mythic+, which could be why Blizzard has taken a more gradual approach to single target buffs this season. However, where this buff falls short is that Rising Sun Kick continues to be quickly dropped when you have the Season 2 tier set buff and are playing Conduit of the Celestials even in single target situations. This isn’t a game-breaking problem, but it is one that is counterintuitive to many of the new players who are coming to the spec this season. The buff to Rising Sun Kick damage does help, but since it doesn’t fix this specific problem, it will continue to be a point of confusion. The clear solution is to increase the buff that Rising Sun Kick gets from the tier set enough so that you still use it in single target and swap to more Spinning Crane Kick as more targets become available.
More single target damage is a welcome improvement for those that focus on raiding, and the Mythic+ enjoyers were already having a great time, so this fall into the category of being a good buff even if it doesn’t fix all the problems.
Protection Paladin6%6%
Retribution Paladin5%5%The listed values are for templar only. Herald has been the most popular Hero tree by a wide margin so far this season, partly due to the buffs it received in 12.0.7 and partly due to most of the encounters in the Venomous Abyss catering heavily to its sustained cleave niche. These buffs won't make Templar a stronger choice in that niche, but they should make it more competitive otherwise.
Discipline Priest0%17.5% (Oracle)
27% (VW)Voidweaver is recommended for best M+ hero spec now!
Shadow Priest5-7%0-1%
This is a small buff aimed at giving shadow a little more boss and single target damage whilst trying to keep AoE and dungeon performance roughly the same. Shadow has been a strong choice for raid due to a large number of add and multi target fights, however, as those adds die faster and damage checks get more lenient the efficient spread cleave Shadow brings loses value. In dungeons, Shadow has had some issues with priority and boss damage, which this should help with, but it won't make the spec a meta contender.
Subtlety Rogue5% (Trickster)5% (Trickster)Trickster gets closer to Deathstalker but remains slightly behind in output. This is still a good change as Trickster is mechanically easier to play. Individuals who struggle with the rotation can test if their performance increases when switching hero talents.
This buff is only for the weaker hero talent, and it's not currently good.
Fury Warrior3%2%This is a passive boost to Mountain Thane, which will bring up its performance slightly with no change to the talents or rotation. Although it helps bridge the gap, Slayer is likely to remain preferred in most content, due to its better reliability.
Protection Warrior0%3.5%However, many top prot warriors are now opting for the Colossus tree in both ST and AoE, which this buff has no effect for.
