WoW Season of Discovery Phase 2 is here and it's already introducing some important changes to classes. The class tuning in SoD promises buffs for Druids, Shamans, Mages and Priests, addressing some struggles that placed them fairly low on tier lists. The changes will be active in World of Warcraft SoD on February 21st. You can read the full patch notes here. In this article we will explain the new class changes in SoD:
Druid Tuning
Swipe has been buffed, as it now scales with attack power, gaining 10% of attack power as damage. Not only that but the threat caused by it has also been increased. Swipe really needed this boost, as it was doing 24 damage on 3 targets at a 1.75 multiplier on threat. This wasn't very useful so far but we will see how the changes will perform in SoD.
The Berserk rune caused your Mangle (Bear) ability to hit up to 3 targets and have no cooldown. Now it also makes it so now also causes Lacerate to hit 3 targets.
Rip is a finishing move that causes damage over time, increasing per combo point and by your Attack Power. It lasted 12 seconds but after the class tuning in WoW, Rip lasts 16 seconds.
The next Starfire cast after the Starsurge rune ability now has its damage increased to 80%, as it used to be 66%. Some WoW players are arguing that this might not be enough of a buff - we'll keep an eye out for how the damage feels in SoD.
Shaman Tuning
So far, the Dual Wield Specialization rune promised an increased chance to hit with both spells and melee attacks by 10% while dual wielding. It also caused the Stormstrike ability to hit with both weapons while dual-wielding. The rune now gives 50% bonus damage to your offhand weapon swings.
To add to that, Lava Lash gains 50% increased damage after the class tuning, if Flametongue Weapon is imbued on your offhand.
The proc chance of Maelstrom Weapon is now approximately 50% higher when your main hand weapon or your two-hand weapon is imbued with Windfury Weapon.
Although these class buffs are great, Shaman players will probably need an overall totem mana reduction. However, the current changes are only in regards to dual-wielding.
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Mage Tuning
Mages get only one buff in this SoD class tuning. Conjure Water (Rank 5) now conjures a full stack of 20 bottles of crystal bottles with each cast. This is a huge change, baring in mind it used to conjure only 2. The tooltip will continue to indicate that only 2 bottles were conjured. This issue will be fixed in the future.
Paladin Tuning
The Art of War causes your melee critical strikes to reset the cooldowns on Holy Shock and Exorcism. Thanks to this class tuning, it also reduces their mana cost by 80%. This is very useful and it will surely give Paladins a small spike.
Beacon of Light base mana cost has also been greatly decreased, to none.
Some WoW players may argue that this buff isn't enough, however just because a class is slightly under-performing, doesn't mean it needs a huge boost. It's important to note that these Paladin chances have been active in WoW SoD since February 14th.
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