FEEDBACK: Mists of Pandaria Class Changes

#1 - June 12, 2025, 10:30 p.m.

Greetings,

As we have been reviewing the class design in the original Mists of Pandaria, we recognize that classes changed, sometimes substantially, over the course of the expansion from phase to phase. For our Classic expansions, we start with the class design of the final patch of the original expansion, and for Mists of Pandaria Classic, that is patch 5.4.8. Unfortunately, classes in 5.4.8 were not designed with each phase’s content (such as the first raid tier) in mind, and with no changes to classes, this would leave some in an odd state in each phase. To address this, we have gone class by class, spec by spec, and made changes.

Many of these changes are simply reverting updates to classes that were made throughout the original Mists of Pandaria. In some cases, we also brought forward fixes to classes that were not made until the Warlords of Draenor expansion pre-patch. We have indicated the source of each adjustment at the end of each class change, noted below.

Some classes have also received an early buff, despite being expected to scale well as the Mists of Pandaria Classic expansion progresses. Our intent here is to give certain specs more power to balance them early in the expansion, but we already plan to revert many of the buffs made to these specs as the expansion progresses, and these specs naturally scale back up to their expected levels.

We have also made changes to the functionality of certain abilities, glyphs, and talents for specific specs within a class. To be clear, this means that if other specs within a class also have access to the same abilities, glyphs, or talents, they will only function in a changed manner for the spec specified.

Specifically regarding PvP: All of the following changes will have no impact on instanced PvP. These class changes, including changes to Masteries and Glyphs, will revert back to their 5.4.8 functionality when characters enter PvP instances, such as Arenas and Battlegrounds.

• The only exception to these changes reverting to their 5.4.8 state are changes that include items and set bonuses. Those changes will not revert upon entering PvP instances.

Finally, although we feel all classes will benefit from these changes throughout the expansion, we will continue to monitor the classes and update them further if necessary. We are particularly eager to see how they perform in the Beta, and most importantly, we are very much looking forward to your feedback.

Druid

• Balance
  • Moonkin Form’s increase to Nature and Arcane damage has been raised to 20% (was 10%). New
  • Shooting Stars will no longer split its chance to activate across multiple targets. 5.4 Revert
• Feral
  • Ferals once again learn Nature’s Swiftness, but it cannot be used in Arenas or Battlegrounds (previously, Ferals did not learn or have access to Nature’s Swiftness). 5.4 Revert
• Guardian
  • Maul’s Rage cost has been lowered to 20 (was 30). 6.0.2 Change
• Restoration
  • Naturalist’s increase to healing has been raised to 15% (was 10%). New

Hunter

• General
  • The Sporebat pet’s Energizing Spores can now only be activated while inside of a Battleground or Arena. Sporebat’s now additionally know a new spell called Frenzying Spores. This is an active ability that grants the same effect as Serpent’s Swiftness but can only be activated outside of Battlegrounds and Arenas. New
    • Developers’ notes: Hunters perform well, but rather than nerfing them, we felt allowing them to cover less buffs was a better approach to opening up group compositions.

Mage

• Fire
  • Combustion % of Ignite’s tick damage per second raised to 50% (was 20%). 5.4 Revert

Monk

• Mistweaver
  • Teachings of the Monastery’s Crackling Jade Lightning damage bonus lowered to 25% (was 100%). New
  • Mana Tea’s mana return per charge increased to 5% (was 4%). New
  • Surging Mists cost lowered by 13%, moving its cost to 7.65% of base mana (was 8.8%). New
  • Rushing Jade Wind will now be canceled on the Mistweaver Monk when they enter Stance of the Wise Serpent. New
    • Developers’ notes: Players could enter Stance of the Fierce Tiger to activate Rushing Jade Wind for 40 Energy and then go back into Stance of the Wise Serpent without having to spend the mana cost of Rushing Jade Wind. We want to alleviate the Mistweaver mana concerns, but we don’t want the optimal way to play to be going into Tiger, casting Rushing Jade Wind, and going back into Serpent. This was considered optimal because of high mana costs and subpar mana return for Mistweaver. If those issues are solved, this should feel fine. If they aren’t, we’d rather revisit and reduce the cost of RJW/SCK for Mistweavers than perpetuate stance dancing. So no matter which way we sliced it, we didn’t want this work around to be the most efficient way to play.
  • Jab cost lowered by 25%, to 6% of base mana (was 8%). Partial 5.2 Revert
  • Enveloping Mists healing raised by 48%. 5.1 Revert
  • Eminence healing raised by 68%, moving it to a 42% conversion of damage to healing (was 25%). 5.2 Revert and 6.0.2 Change
    • Developers’ notes: Eminence benefits from the healing bonus granted by Stance of the Wise Serpent, so this translates to ~50% of damage dealt to healing.
  • Revival’s healing raised by 43%. 5.4 Revert
  • Glyph of Targeted Expulsion retains its original effects in PvP, but morphs to have the old effects from the previously removed Glyph of Uplift while outside of PvP instances. While not in a PvP instance: Glyph of Targeted Expulsion changes Uplift to no longer cost Chi, but instead cost 10% of base mana. 5.4 Revert and 5.2 Partial Revert
• Windwalker
  • Mastery: Bottled Fury changed to increasing the damage of your Tigereye Brew by 0.2% per Mastery (was Mastery gives a chance to gain an additional charge of Tigereye Brew when you gain a charge of Tigereye Brew). 5.4 Revert
  • Tigereye Brew starts with 3.5% damage per stack, plus 1.6% from base Mastery (was 6% damage per stack unaffected by Mastery). 5.4 Revert and New
  • Tigereye Brew gains a charge after spending 3 Chi (was 4 Chi). 5.4 Revert
  • T15 Windwalker Monk 4 set bonus reverted to “You have a 10% chance to gain an additional charge of Tigereye Brew every time you gain a charge of Tigereye Brew while not inside an Arena or Battleground” (was “Increases the damage of your Tigereye Brew by 0.5% per stack consumed”). 5.4 Revert

Paladin

• Holy
  • Eternal Flame’s periodic healing lowered by 28%. 5.4 Revert
  • Eternal Flame’s Periodic can activate Illuminated Healing. 5.4 Revert
  • Illuminated Healing’s base value has been raised to 12% (was 10%). 5.3 Revert
• Protection
  • The damage reduction from Sanctuary has been raised to 20% (was 15%). New
  • The shielding on Sacred Shield has been raised by 43%. 5.4 Revert
• Retribution
  • Divine Storm, Crusader Strike, Judgment, Hammer of the Righteous, Hammer of Wrath, and Exorcism have all had their damage raised by 10%. New
  • Templar’s Verdict damage raised by 20%. 6.0.2 Change

Priest

• Talents
  • Divine Star and Halo now obey AoE cap rules (20 targets for damage, 6 targets for Healing before they start splitting the effect’s total numbers). 5.4 Revert andIssue Originally Moved to 6.0 Pre-Patch`
  • The maximum times Cascade can bounce has been lowered to 3 (was 4). 5.4 Revert
• Discipline
  • Divine Aegis lowered to 80% of the Heal’s value (was 100%). New
  • T14 set bonus Penance cooldown lowered to 1 second (was 3). New
    • Developers’ notes: This bonus brings Penance to 8 seconds, like in the original 5.0.
  • Atonement healing from damage lowered to 70% (was 90%). 6.0.2 Change
  • Divine Star for Discipline Priests has had its healing lowered by 25%. 6.0.2 Change and 5.1 Partial Revert
  • Spirit Shell’s active duration raised by 50% to 15 seconds (was 10). 5.4 Revert
• Shadow
  • Generates Shadow Orbs passively while outside of combat, arenas, and battlegrounds. New
  • Shadow Form’s damage increase has been raised to 30% (was 25%). New

Rogue

• General
  • Sinister Strike’s Energy cost lowered to 40 (was 50). 5.4 Revert, Buff
  • Sinister Strike’s weapon damage lowered to 192% (was 240%). Partial 5.4 Revert, Nerf
    • Developers’ notes: This overall is Sinister Strike’s cost and damage both lowered by 20%. This allows for more fluid gameplay with cycling Insight, and an overall buff.
• Assassination
  • The damage increase from Assassin’s Resolve raised to 25% (was 20%). 5.4 Revert
• Combat
  • Added a counter for Bandit’s Guile that will track your sinister strikes and revealing strikes, showing how close you are to gaining Insight. New

Shaman

• General
  • Healing Rain healing lowered by 25%. New
• Talents
  • Healing Rain’s maximum duration through Conductivity lowered to 30 seconds (was 40). New
  • Ancestral Guidance’s healing and damage conversion lowered to 20% (was 60% for healing and 40% for damage). 6.0.2 Change
• Elemental
  • Lightning Bolt damage raised by 10%. New
• Enhancement
  • Stormstrike weapon damage raised to 450% (was 380%) 5.4 Revert
• Restoration
  • Chain Heal’s fall off per target lowered to 20% (was 0%). 5.4 Partial Revert
  • Riptide mana cost raised by 15%. 5.4 Partial Revert

Warlock

• Affliction
  • Malefic Grasp damage raised by 50%. 5.4 Revert
  • The damage your Malefic Grasp causes your other DoTs to deal raised to 50% (was 30%). 5.4 Revert
  • Drain Soul damage raised by 50%. 5.4 Revert
  • The damage your Drain Soul causes your other DoTs to deal raised to 100% (was 60%). 5.4 Revert
• Demonolgy
  • Wild Imp damage raised by 43%. 5.4 Revert
  • The number of Imps summoned by Glyph of Imp Swarm raised to 5 (was 4). 5.4 Revert
  • Hellfire and Immolation Aura damage raised by 25%. 5.4 Revert
  • Chaos Wave damage raised by 50%. 5.4 Revert
• Glyphs
  • Glyph of Eternal Resolve retains its original effects in PvP, but morphs to have the old effects from the previously removed Glyph of Everlasting Affliction while outside of PvP instances. While not in a PvP instance: Glyph of Eternal Resolve now increases the duration of the damage over time spells associated with the old Glyph of Everlasting Affliction by 50%, but decreases their damage by 20%. 5.4 Revert

Warrior

• General
  • Absorbing damage or taking damage while in Berserker Stance now grants the Warrior Rage (previously, only taking damage to your health bar granted Rage). New
• Fury
  • Crazed Berserker auto attack damage increase has been raised to 15% (was 10%). New
  • Crazed Berserker offhand damage increase has been raised to 30% (was 25%). New
  • The Duration of Berserker Rage and Enrage have been raised by 33%, to 8 seconds (was 6). New

#76 - June 13, 2025, 2:13 a.m.

Hello adventurers. We have decided to not move forward with the Hunter Sporebat pet change and will revert it off of Beta tomorrow.

#196 - June 13, 2025, 10:13 p.m.

We’ve added the following changes to the Beta:

General

• Damage over time effects should no longer fall off prematurely when a damage over time extension is used.

Classes

• Developers’ notes: The below are additional adjustments following yesterday’s changes. These are subject to the same rules as before where they do nothing in PvP and they also are subject to change.
• Paladin
  • Holy
    • Seal of Insight now has a chance to restore 4% of the Holy Paladin’s base mana when striking a target in a non-PvP environment. [5.4 Revert]
    • Devotion Aura cast by a Holy Paladin will now reduce all damage by 20% (was Magical damage only).
      • Developers’ notes: Changing Devotion Aura to reduce all damage makes it beneficial in more situations and aligns with other damage reducing abilities like Power Word: Barrier.
• Priest
  • General
    • The target caps on Divine Star, Halo, and Cascade have been returned to being uncapped for damage and healing.
      • Developers’ notes: We are still keeping Divine Star’s reduced healing for Discipline Priests but we want these abilities to feel impactful in larger raid groups still. If adjustments are still necessary to bring in Discipline Priest power it will be done in other ways. This was already partially reverted on Beta, but we’re doing it completely now for all effects.
    • Cascade returned to 4 bounces.
  • Holy
    • Holy Word: Serenity Healing increased by 40%.
    • Holy Word: Sanctuary Healing increased by 60%.
    • Holy Word: Sanctuary mana cost decreased by 33% and now costs 2.5% of base mana (was 3.8%).
    • Mastery: Echo of Light will now deal its healing every 1 second (was every 3 seconds).
      • Developers’ notes: This was originally intended in Mists of Pandaria but due to latency issues it was changed to 3 seconds. We are going to try this out to see if it works with modern tech the way that it was meant to be.
    • Divine Hymn now heals up to 50 targets regardless of raid size.
      • Developers’ notes: This was including pets in its original targeting, and instead of just making pets get the short end of the stick here - we moved this to hitting all targets. It’s a 3 minute cooldown and wasn’t that appealing compared to other cooldowns that exist. We feel this is a good direction for Discipline Priests being great with mitigation cooldowns, and Holy Priests having throughput cooldowns that reward the Priest for finding moments to get a full channel off in a fight, or in the case of Holy Word: Sanctuary - placing it in an area that players will be standing in for at least 30 seconds.

#278 - June 17, 2025, midnight

We have made additional adjustments based on the data gathered during the raid testing weekend. Thank you so much for your participation, your feedback, and your assistance in gathering data during the testing period.

A reminder that these changes:

• Are subject to change.
• The changes only affect PvE and have zero impact on Arenas and Battlegrounds.
• The changes under each Spec’s name are only active for that spec even if the ability is available to multiple specs.

We want to set expectations here: In order to let these changes rest - outside of extreme cases - we’re not going to do additional adjustments until after our next Raid test.

Death Knight

• Blood
  • Outbreak’s base cooldown for Blood Death Knights has been decreased to 30 seconds (was 60 seconds). [New]
    • Developer’s note: Blood Death Knights are strong at the start of the expansion so a buff to them may seem a bit odd, but this has much less to do with raiding performance and more to do with smoothing over the feeling in dungeons where they go between pulls and a player may not be able to drag mobs from the previous pull with them.
• Frost
  • Howling Blast’s damage to targets around the primary target has been increased to 65% of the damage dealt (was 50%). [5.2 Revert]

Druid

• Balance
  • Force of Nature for Balance Druids has had its damage increased by 9.1% to match the Moonkin Form adjustment last week. [New]
• Guardian:
  • Bear Form for Guardian Druids now increases all damage you deal by 5%. [New]

Hunter

• Survival
  • Explosive Shot damage decreased by 7%. [5.4 Revert]
    • Developer’s Note: Survival Hunters saw multiple buffs to Explosive Shot in the final 5.4 patch and hotfixes afterward. We’re going to test a revert to the final increase to Explosive Shot and see the impact. We expect this to bring damage from Survival Hunters down slightly, but they’ll get a bit of it back when Stampede correctly spawns on the target instead of next to the Hunter.

Monk:

• Mistweaver:
  • Revival healing decreased by 15% (with our previous buff this takes it to being a 22% increase to its original state). [Partial 5.5.0 Revert]

Paladin:

• Holy:
  • Seal of Insight now correctly restores base mana (was total mana). [Bugfix]
  • Seal of Insight now correctly only restores base mana for Holy Paladins. [Bugfix]
  • Seal of Insight’s Base Mana restoration increased to 6% of base mana (was 4%). [New]
  • Crusader Strike’s cost for Holy Paladins has been decreased by 20%, bringing it to 12% of base mana (was 15% of base mana). [New]
    • Developer’s Note: The Seal of Insight change was restoring an incorrect amount of mana but we overall did like the effect it had on Holy Paladins. So we’re correcting it but also raising it to 6% of base mana, and on top of that we’re also reducing the cost of Crusader Strike for Holy Paladins.

Priest

• Discipline
  • Divine Aegis’s healing conversion increased by 12.5% effectiveness, taking it to 90% (was 80%). [Partial 5.5.0 Revert]
• Holy
  • Divine Hymn healing decreased by 35%. [New]
  • Chakra: Sanctuary’s increase to area of effect healing increased to 35% (was 25%). [New]
  • Chakra: Serenity’s increase to single-target healing increased to 35% (was 25%). [New]
  • Chakra’s cooldown decreased to 10 seconds (was 30 seconds). [New]
• Shadow
  • Shadow Word: Pain’s damage over time increased by 18%. [5.4 Revert]

Warlock

• Affliction
  • Corruption’s damage over time increased by 33%. [5.2 Revert]
  • Agony’s damage over time increased by 18%. [5.4 Revert]
  • Haunt’s damage increase to your damage over time effects increased to 40% (was 35%). [5.4 Revert]
• Demonology
  • Doom’s damage over time increased by 33%. [5.2 Revert]
    • Developer’s note: Demonology is very close to Destruction now near the start of the game, and this should give it an extra push in the situations where it needs a little more help.

Warrior

• Protection
  • Shield Barrier’s attack power modifier increased to 2.0 (was 1.8). [5.2 Revert]

#327 - June 20, 2025, 8:13 p.m.

After some testing, we decided there were additional areas we wanted to look at for classes and specs.

As always, a reminder that these:

• Are subject to change.
• The changes only affect PvE and have zero impact on Arenas and Battlegrounds.
• The changes under each spec’s name are only active for that spec even if the ability is available to multiple specs.

Death Knight

• Frost
  • Soul Reaper now scales with your Mastery. [New]
  • Obliterate now scales with your Mastery. [New]

Hunter

• Marksmanship
  • Steady Shot damage increased by 10%. [New]
  • Aimed Shot damage increased by 10%. [New]
  • Barrage damage increased by 15%. [New]
  • Chimera Shot damage increased by 15%. [New]

Mage

• Arcane
  • Arcane Barrage damage increased by 19%. [5.2 Revert]
  • Arcane Blast damage increased by 29%. [5.2 Revert]
  • Arcane Blast mana cost lowered by 10% to 1.5% of base mana (was 1.666%). [5.2 Revert]
• Fire
  • Pyroblast damage increased by 12%. [5.2 Revert]
  • Critical Mass’s increase to Critical Strike increased to 1.5x (was 1.3x). [5.1 Revert]

Monk

• Brewmaster
  • Blackout Kick damage increased by 25%. [New]

Paladin

• Holy
  • Holy Insight now increases your chance to hit with Crusader Strike by 7.5%. [New]
  • Casting Crusader Strike throughout an encounter causes the Holy Paladin to be considered a Melee character when it comes to targeting for boss mechanics. If the Paladin does not cast Crusader Strike or doesn’t cast Crusader Strike for an extended period of time, the Paladin goes back to being considered a Ranged character for boss mechanics. [New]

#354 - June 24, 2025, 11:28 p.m.

Over the last few days, we’ve made additional class changes.

As always, please be reminded that these updates:

• Are subject to change.
• Only affect PvE and have no impact on Arenas and Battlegrounds.
  • The changes to Inferno Blast and all of the Bugfixes do affect PvP, as they are not adjustments. These are bug fixes.
• Are only active for the spec they`re listed under, even if the ability is available to multiple specs.

Death Knight

• Blood
  • Your Raise Dead Ghoul no longer benefits from Vengeance attack power. New
  • Your Army of the Dead no longer benefits from Vengeance attack power. New
  • Blood Presence damage reduction raised to 12% (was 10%). New
• Frost
  • Mastery: Frozen Heart’s Obliterate and Soul Reaper bonuses are lowered to 20% effectiveness when wielding a two-handed weapon. New

Druid

• Feral
  • Shattering Blow inside of PvE Instanced content is now instant cast and does not reset your swing timer. New
  • Duration of Predatory Swiftness raised to 12 seconds (was 8 seconds). New
• Guardian
  • The chance to activate Dream of Cenarius off a Mangle (Bear) crit been raised to 50% (was 40%). New
  • The cooldown on Heart of the Wild has been lowered for Guardian Druids to 3 minutes (was 6 minutes). New
  • When Bear Hug is cast on an enemy and they are permanently immune to Stuns, Bear Hug instead lowers their damage dealt by 10% for 5 seconds. New
    • The duration of this Bear Hug effect is NOT increased by the Gladiator gloves.

Mage

• Arcane
  • Arcane Missiles damage raised by 28%. 5.2 Revert
  • Arcane Blast damage raised by 37% (was 29%). New
  • Arcane Barrage damage raised by 30% (was 19%). New
• Fire
  • The way Inferno Blast spreads Ignite has been changed to be more intuitive, spreading full duration Ignites instead of allowing players to compress Ignites into very large ticks. New/Bugfix
    • We’re attempting to allow the ability to weave Ignites in hopes it can unlock some interesting Gameplay for Fire Mage. Ignite is a notoriously volatile spell where even the slightest change can have far reaching consequences, so we`re going to monitor this closely.

Monk

• Mistweaver
  • When Vital Mist is at 5 stacks, your instant cast of Surging Mist will not reset your swing timer. New

Warlock

• Affliction
  • Haunt’s damage increase to your Damage Over Time effects lowered back to 35% (was 40%). 5.5.0 Revert
  • Agony’s damage over time lowered by 11% making the overall increase to Agony during Beta a 5% increase (was 18%). Partial 5.5.0 Revert

Warrior

• Shattering Throw inside of PvE Instanced content is now instant cast and does not reset your swing timer. New

Bugfixes

• Feral Druid
  • Dream of Cenarius will no longer incorrectly consume two stacks when using Pounce. Bugfix
• Blood Death Knight
  • Dancing Rune Weapon’s damage was incorrectly reduced by 50%, it will no longer be reduced. Bugfix
  • Dancing Rune Weapon’s Rune Strike was using the incorrect version. Bugfix
  • Glyph of Dancing Rune Weapon will now correctly reduce Dancing Rune Weapon’s damage by 25% (was not reducing it at all). Bugfix
  • Rune Strike will no longer have an erroneous 10% attack power Ratio. Bugfix