WoW Season of Discovery Phase 4: All Class Changes on PTR

World of Warcraft Season of Discovery Phase 4 is just around the corner, and with the PTR now live for testing, many players are getting to try out all of the new changes that might be coming to live servers. The developers have put in a lot of work to make sure that the end-game content is balanced and fun, which also includes adjustments to classes to make up for their weaknesses in comparison to other stronger ones.

Having that in mind, we will take a look at the Development Notes posted by Blizzard to see all of the class changes that were added to the Season of Discovery Phase 4 PTR which will give us a glimpse as to what we can expect balance-wise from the WoW Classic team.

WoW SoD Phase 4 PTR Class Changes

Along with the class changes in the Season of Discovery Phase 4 PTR, new runes were also introduced which you can learn more about, here. 

Druid

• Wild Growth healing reduced by ~50% and mana cost reduced by ~20%. The Tree of Life rune increases Wild Growth healing by 60% while the druid is in Tree Form.
• Rake and Rip damage contributions from attack power increased by roughly 50%.
• Gore’s chance to trigger from Mangle (Cat) and Shred increased to 15% (was 5%).
• Enchant Weapon - Crusader will now proc for feral druids while in Bear Form, Dire Bear Form, and Cat Form.

Hunter

• Melee Specialist no longer reduces the base cooldown on Mongoose Bite and Raptor Strike. The rune now also causes Mongoose Bite to have a 30% chance to reset the cooldown on Raptor Strike.
• Heart of the Lion is no longer a rune ability but is now learned as a baseline ability from a skill book
• A new rune has been added in place of Heart of the Lion—Cobra Slayer:
  • Your Mongoose Bite now activates when an enemy dodges your attack, and Mongoose Bite deals additional damage equal to 40% of your attack power.
• The Kill Command Rune has been removed and replaced with a new rune–Kill Shot:
  • You attempt to finish off a wounded target, firing a ranged attack dealing 100% weapon damage plus X. Kill Shot has no minimum range. Kill Shot’s cooldown is reset if used on an enemy that has 20% or less health.
• The Invigoration Rune has been removed and replaced with a new rune—Wyvern Strike:
  • Your Wyvern Sting talent is replaced with Wyvern Strike: A stinging strike that deals 100% weapon damage and poisons the target with a sting for (60% of Attack Power) Nature damage over 6 sec. Only one Sting per Hunter can be active on the target at a time”. 12 second cooldown.
• Chimera Shot resets the cooldown of Wyvern Strike when used on a target afflicted with the Wyvern Strike sting effect.
• The T.N.T. rune now also causes Explosive Trap’s initial damage to be increased by 50% of melee attack power, and Immolation Trap’s total damage to be increased by 50% of melee attack power.
• Lock and Load can no longer benefit Scatter Shot.

Mage

• Temporal Anomaly’s shield now stacks if players remain near the orb after the initial hit.
• The cooldown of Temporal Anomaly has been reduced to 30 seconds.
• Advanced Warding has been redesigned and now also allows you to apply your Mage Armor shield buffs to friendly targets as well as causes your Remove Lesser Curse ability to also remove harmful magic effects from your friendly target.

Paladin

• Seal of Martyrdom is no longer a rune ability but is now learned as a baseline ability from a skill book.
• The mana return granted by Seal of Martyrdom is now based on 65% of the damage the paladin takes from the seal (down from 133%).
• A new rune has been added in place of Seal of Martyrdom—Divine Light:
  • A powerful, expensive heal that causes 50% of any excess healing from Divine Light to be converted into an absorb shield for 15 sec. The Absorb shield does not accumulate from multiple casts. Divine Light benefits from most talents and abilities that affect Holy Light.
• Exorcist is no longer a rune ability but is now learned as a baseline ability from a skill book.
• A new rune has been added in place of Exorcist—Aura Mastery:
  • Doubles the magnitude of the paladin’s current Aura for 6 sec.
  • Aura Mastery is not affected by the Global Cooldown.
• Beacon of Light duration is now 1 hour
• Sheathe of Light no longer grants bonus healing
• The damage done by Hammer of the Righteous reduced by 50%, but threat was increased by 100% to compensate
• The bonus healing effect from critical heals was moved from the Sheathe of Light rune to the Fanatacism rune
• Infusion of Light has seen several adjustments:
  • Infusion of Light now increases damage and healing of Holy Shock by 50% (up from 20%, and previously was only healing)
  • Infusion of Light now reduces the cooldown of Holy Shock to 6 seconds
  • Infusion of Light no longer resets the Exorcism cooldown
• The Art of War has seen several adjustments:
  • The Art of War now only applies cooldown reduction and mana cost reduction to Exorcism
  • The Art of War now reduces the remaining cooldown of Exorcism by 1 second for each critical hit rather than fully resetting the cooldown
• Horn of Lordaeron rune has been removed and replaced with a new rune—Hallowed Ground:
  • Your Consecration now also heals party members within its area for 200% of the damage it deals to enemies.
• The Aegis rune has been redesigned.
  • Now requires the Redoubt talent to have any effect.
  • Aegis grants 30% increased block value and now also grants redoubt to the paladin on a successful melee critical strike, as well as having a 10% chance to grant redoubt to the paladin when receiving a melee critical strike.
• The Enlightened Judgements rune has been removed and replaced with a new rune—Malleable Protection:
  • You can now take actions during Divine Protection and its duration is increased by 50%, but it only reduces damage you take by 50% instead of granting full damage immunity.
• A new baseline ability has been added from a skill book: Avenging Wrath
  • Increase damage and healing done by 20% for 20 seconds. 2 Minute Cooldown. Causes forbearance.

Priest

• The Void Plague rune has been moved to the boots slot from the chest slot. Any Void Plague runes previously engraved on a Chest or Robe will appear as “faded rune” and will need to be engraved with a different rune to gain a rune effect.

Rogue

• A new Poison has been added—Sebacious Poison:
  • A poison effect that applies an armor debuff (roughly equivalent to Sunder Armor)
• A new poison has been added—Numbing Poison:
  • A poison effect that applies an attack speed debuff (roughly equivalent to Thunderclap)
• A new poison has been added Atrophic Poison:
  • A poison effect that applies an attack power reduction (roughly equivalent to Demoralizing Shout)
• A new Poison has been added—Occult Poison:
  • Occult Poison behaves exactly the same as Deadly Poison but also increases non-physical damage by 2% per application to a max of 10% bonus damage.
• Deadly Brew will also apply Occult Poison in place of Deadly Poison if you know Occult Poison. The tooltip has been updated to reflect this new interaction.
• Shadowstep is no longer on the Global Cooldown.

Shaman

• The Intellect to Attack Power conversion from Mental Dexterity has been reduced to 65% (from 100%)
• The AP to spell damage conversion from Mental Dexterity has been reduced to 20% (from 30%)
• Mental Dexterity no longer grants any +healing
• Maelstrom Weapon reduced or instant cast procs may no longer be used to cast Chain Heal or Healing Wave with a reduced or instant cast time
• Shamanistic Rage is no longer a rune ability but is now learned as a baseline ability from a skill book
• Shamanistic Rage now grants 10% of mana to the party (down from 20%)
• Burn now grants 2 spell damage per level (down from 4)
• A new rune has been added in place of Shamanistic Rage –Greater Ghost Wolf:
  • Ghost Wolf is now usable indoors and reduces all damage taken by 10% while active.

Warlock

• Demonic Grace is no longer on the Global Cooldown

Warrior

• Single-Minded Fury no longer increases damage dealt but now increases movement speed by 15% (up from 10%) and reduces threat generated by the Warrior by 10%.
• Blood Frenzy has been redesigned. Now increases Rend damage by 100% and causes Rend to gain increased damage equal to 3% of attack power per tick, and Rend may be used in any stance.
• Flagellation has been redesigned. Now causes the Warrior to gain Rage from physical damage taken as the warrior was wearing no armor.
• Rampage has been redesigned. Now instantly increases the Warrior’s attack power by 10% for 30 seconds and no longer stacks or costs rage to activate. Requires being enraged. 2 minute cooldown.
• Wrecking Crew now causes an enrage effect that lasts 10 seconds and increases damage done by Mortal Strike, Bloodthirst, and Shield Slam by 10%.
• The threat reduction in Gladiator Stance is now 30% (was 10%)
• Consumed by Rage now activates when exceeding 60 rage and now always lasts 12 seconds regardless of the number of attacks, but no longer grants a damage bonus.
• The Booming Voice talent now increases Battle Shout duration by 30/60/90/120/150% and reduces its rage cost by 20/40/60/80/100%.
• Commanding Shout’s rage cost was removed and its duration was increased to 5 minutes.
• Recklessness now increases critical strike chance by 50% (was 100%) and the duration is reduces to 12 seconds, but the cooldown is reduced to 5 minutes.
• Retaliation and Shield Wall have had their cooldowns reduced to 5 minutes (was 30 minutes).
• A new baseline ability has been added from a skill book: Meathook
  • Throw out a hooked chain to restrain the target and pull them towards you. Costs 15 rage, 30 yard range, and has a 35 second cooldown. This may not be used on enemies more than 1 level above the Warrior or which are marked as “boss” enemies.

And that covers all of the major class changes that were introduced in the Season of Discovery Phase 4 PTR. A lot of exciting updates to the classes as it seems Blizzard is finally looking to nerf Shamans and provide Warriors with more adequate stats and abilities.