If you haven't been paying attention to World of Warcraft news the past few days you may have missed all of the balance changes set to arrive with the next server reset. While there are certainly some great changes to be found amidst the patch notes, there are also some... questionable nerfs that if implemented could easily end up spelling doom and gloom for a couple of specializations.
Thankfully, after a few of days of non-stop yelling and some great arguments from the side of the community, Blizzard has finally decided to revoke the majority of the more egregious nerfs in favor of subtler changes. You can read the updated patch notes by heading over to the Blizzard forums, but for now here are the most important corrections:
Havoc Demon Hunter
• Bloodlet (Talent) now deals 150% of initial Throw Glaive damage.
• Throw Glaive damage reduced by 30%.
• Fel Mastery (Talent) damage bonus to Fel Rush reduced to 30%.
• Bloodlet (Talent) now deals 100% of initial Throw Glaive damage.
• Fury of the Illidari (Artifact Ability) damage reduced by 20%.
• Balanced Blades (Artifact Trait) damage bonus to Blade Dance reduced to 3% per target.
Shadow Priest
• Mind Sear damage increased by 80% and Insanity generation increased by 50%.
• Mind Flay damage increased by 20%.
• Mind Spike damage increased by 28%.
• Void Ray maximum stacks reduced to 4.
• Voidform stacks no longer increase while Dispersion is active.
Arms Warrior
• Tactician proc rate increased by 15%.
• Hamstring no longer procs Tactician.
• Exploit the Weakness (Artifact Trait) bonus reduced to 4% per point.
• Focused Rage (Talent) damage bonus reduced to 30%.
As you can see, these changes are much more reasonable, and more importantly, correctly target all of the problematic areas in each of the classes without actively making them more annoying to play. All in all, this is shaping up to be an amazing patch!
However, I can't help but feel a tinge of dread at the thought of Blizzard even considering the previous patch notes as 'balanced'. If the community didn't rally together and collectively yell at the developers for three days straight, would they really have changed any of this? The previous nerfs would've reduced the power level of problematic classes just as well as new ones, that's for sure, but they would've also made them significantly less fun to play. So to see Blizzard even propose such misguided changes is quite disappointing given how Legion has managed to improve on nearly every aspect of World of Warcraft.
To end all of this on a bit of a positive note, allow me to say that some of these changes are already implemented on the live servers! So whip out your Frost Death Knights, your Fury Warriors, your Elemental Shamans and see how well you fare in this brand new world. On the other hand, if your class hasn't received any changes just yet, worry not as they will be implemented in the upcoming server reset - a couple of hours from now. Have fun!