Balance Adjustments Season of Discovery - Hunter Nerfs, Healing Mages Nerfed

Classic Posted 2023/12/01 at 9:09 PM by Rokman

you can read about here

Over the first 24 hours of Season of Discovery, we made a few discoveries of our own that resulted in design changes. We expect that most players haven’t seen much of this yet, but want to note it for reference.Season of Discovery

Healing caused by Arcane Explosion reduced by 80%.

We did not intend for Mage healing to trivialize content.

The Explosive Shot rune ability has been redesigned and its damage dramatically decreased. Each time it deals damage, it now damages all enemies within 8 yards of the primary target.
Chimera Shot damage reduced to 85% weapon damage.

When it comes to output, Hunters are proving to be an outlier. With these changes, Explosive Shot should fill the AOE niche and Hunters should still be very strong, but also more in-line with the output of other classes at level 25.

Adjustments have been made to the Ashenvale PvP event to allow it to start a bit easier.

Please be reminded that there will not be much intrigue here until Ashenvale is teeming with level 25 players.

Numerous fixes have been made to Rune acquisitions to make them less prone to bottlenecking.
Fixed a bug with Twilight Lord Kelris in Blackfathom Deeps that was causing him to target pets with his abilities too often, including his Sleep ability, which should no longer target pets at all.
Fixed a bug with Aku’mai’s Void Elemental adds that caused their Shadowbolt Volley ability to deal incorrect damage.
Going forward, if we need to make changes that will impact gameplay, we’ll note them in our usual Hotfixes Update.We encourage you to let us know about any bugs you encounter using the in-game Bug Reporter, and if you need more room to explain, post in our WoW Classic Bug Report forum.Thank you!

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Comment by JotaRandominteresting, may we finally see all classes as balanced as retail rather than as invalanced as classic *cof gladiator warrior cof*Comment by BaiFengWas fun to be a hunter for 24 hours at least. Welp, back to Wrath. Thanks a lot Blizz for forcing Hunters to go full Melee or back the the Vanilla AS/AA/MS playstyle. So much for allowing everyone to be strong.Comment by devathMuch needed nerf, its just silly if hunters can oneshot everything pressing one button.Comment by ZombloatWas fun to be a hunter for 24 hours at least. Welp, back to Wrath. Thanks a lot Blizz for forcing Hunters to go full Melee or back the the Vanilla AS/AA/MS playstyle. So much for allowing everyone to be strong.Comment by ZeldezaRip, now hunters feel identical to classic - the power from the runes made them so enjoyable.Comment by ManashiWarsong Gulch level 19 twinking is completely broken.

Tauren druids be like sunfire moonfire sunfire moonfire sunfire moonfire sunfire moonfire sunfire moonfire sunfire moonfire sunfire moonfire.

And there's absolutely nothing you can do about it.

Mark my words clearly; you WILL die.Comment by WyrmbaneAnticipated the Explosive Shot nerf, to be fair. Not entirely sure about the Chimera Shot nerf though. It seems to me like the Rogue's Quick Draw would do more damage than Chimera Shot at this stage.

I'm curious about any undocumented changes though. Warrior's Devastate rune was also heavily nerfed from 100% weapon damage (+10% per application of Sunder Armor) to 60% weapon damage (+6% per application of Sunder Armor). Why did Blizzard not mention this particular change during this announcement? Have there been any other changes that we are unaware of?Comment by BaiFengWas fun to be a hunter for 24 hours at least. Welp, back to Wrath. Thanks a lot Blizz for forcing Hunters to go full Melee or back the the Vanilla AS/AA/MS playstyle. So much for allowing everyone to be strong.Was fun to be a hunter for 24 hours at least. Welp, back to Wrath. Thanks a lot Blizz for forcing Hunters to go full Melee or back the the Vanilla AS/AA/MS playstyle. So much for allowing everyone to be strong.Comment by BaiFengRip, now hunters feel identical to classic - the power from the runes made them so enjoyable.Comment by Gadget254Explosive shot absolutely did need a damage nerf, but I don't think giving hunters a tiny aoe is the correct move here (at least with how BFD and most classic dungeons/raids are designed with small number of enemies and lack of movement spells to chain into big aoe).

The biggest problem with hunter in PVE is mana. Explosive shot was a fun different rotation spammable ability. Chimera takes so much of our mana that hunters cannot last a 3-5min boss fight, even with mana pots.

Especially horde hunters that HAVE to take Aspect of the Lion and don't have Master Marksman, its abysmally bad, we're back to vanilla rotation playing BM, a buncha runes buffing our pet exactly equal to the amount the world is buffed, if not less.

Let find a way to fix hunter mana and rotation.Comment by iiNexiusFOTM hunters are in shambles KEKWComment by ZombloatWas fun to be a hunter for 24 hours at least. Welp, back to Wrath. Thanks a lot Blizz for forcing Hunters to go full Melee or back the the Vanilla AS/AA/MS playstyle. So much for allowing everyone to be strong.Was fun to be a hunter for 24 hours at least. Welp, back to Wrath. Thanks a lot Blizz for forcing Hunters to go full Melee or back the the Vanilla AS/AA/MS playstyle. So much for allowing everyone to be strong.Comment by Adrager1Much needed nerf, its just silly if hunters can oneshot everything pressing one button.Comment by AzureShadow42Chimera takes so much of our mana that hunters cannot last a 3-5min boss fight
Comment by NarhwalsDoesnt matter if classic or retail. Hunters attract the absolute most annoying and clueless playersComment by SsatenethWas fun to be a hunter for 24 hours at least. Welp, back to Wrath. Thanks a lot Blizz for forcing Hunters to go full Melee or back the the Vanilla AS/AA/MS playstyle. So much for allowing everyone to be strong.Comment by SsatenethChimera takes so much of our mana that hunters cannot last a 3-5min boss fight
Comment by FlayOnDarkIronExplosive Shot was gutted into not even being worth pressing. Chimera Shot is in the same boat. Went from fun and effective, to misery.

The nerfs were severely heavy handed and way overdone.Comment by StoneLegionWho cares about the Nerfs. Better Question Blizzard... WHAT IS THERE TO DISCOVER WITH HUNTERS IN SoD?

Exactly... Nothing. Hunters are Vanilla all over again lol. So you failed 100% to making hunters interesting and unique.Comment by SzeeshanI've been a hunter main since the beginning. Sure, seeing nerfs suck, but they were definitely warranted. Our damage was pretty crazy compared to other classes. I feel like a lot of people are upset because hunter was the "fotm" class, everyone invested into it, and now they've been nerfed. We're only a couple days into SoD, if you want to switch to another character, you have plenty of time to do so.

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