WoW: The War Within class tuning brings big Fire Mage buffs

With the first season of World of Warcraft: The War Within now live, the picture surrounding how classes and specializations are performing has cleared. With a lopsided landscape to deal with, Blizzard has promised a round of changes that affect most players.

In a blue post on the official World of Warcraft forums, community manager Kaivax detailed the developer’s plans for the immediate future. After data analysis and more general feedback, significant changes will go live on September 24.

As part of that, Fire Mages will receive some significant buffs after the spec notoriously underperformed next to its spellcasting peers. Shadow Priest is also getting a nice general buff that should elevate it significantly in all PvE and PvP content.

Complete WoW: The War Within class tuning for September 24

The full breakdown of the upcoming changes, scheduled to hit live servers on September 24, is as follows:

Classes

• Death Knight
  • Rider of the Apocalypse: Trollbane’s Icy Fury slows targets by 40% (was 70%).
• Druid
  • Feral
    • Rampant Ferocity now damages enemies within 8 yards of the Druid when using Ferocious Bite, instead of enemies within 8 yards of the target.
    • Developers’ note: This change is intended to give Feral Druids more control over which enemies Rampant Ferocity’s AOE hits and avoid cases where hitting a large boss with Ferocious Bite wouldn’t hit other nearby enemies.
  • Restoration
    • All healing increased by 4%. Does not apply to PvP combat.
• Hunter
  • Beast Mastery
    • Beast Cleave damage increased to 90% (was 80%).
    • Kill Cleave damage increased to 90% (was 80%).
• Mage
  • Fire
    • Flamestrike damage increased by 15%.
    • Phoenix Flames damage increased by 20%.
    • Living Bomb damage increased by 10%.
  • Frost
    • Glacial Spike damage increased by 20%. Does not apply to PvP combat.
    • Ray of Frost damage increased by 15%. Does not apply to PvP combat.
• Priest
  • Shadow
    • All damage increased by 4%.

Player versus Player

• Death Knight
  • Unholy
    • Doomburst causes Death Coil to burst 2 Festering Wounds (was 3).
• Demon Hunter
  • Havoc
    • Demon’s Bite damage increased by 10% in PvP combat.
    • Demon Blades damage increased by 10% in PvP combat.
    • Chaos Strike/Annihilation damage increased by 10% in PvP combat.
    • Blade Dance/Death Sweep damage increased by 10% in PvP combat.
• Druid
  • Feral
    • Sabertooth now increases the damage of Ferocious Bite by 10% (was 15%) and increases the damage of Ferocious Bite per periodic effect by 2% (was 3%) in PvP combat.
    • Taste for Blood now increases the damage of Ferocious Bite by 6% (was 12%) in PvP combat.
    • Rip damage increased by 25% in PvP combat (was 15%).
    • Rake initial damage increased by 25% (was 15%) and its periodic damage increased by 10% (was -6%) in PvP combat.
• Evoker
  • Devastation
    • Eternity Surge damage reduced by 15% in PvP combat.
• Mage
  • Frostfire: Frostfire Bolt damage increased by 100% in PvP combat (was 75%).
  • Frostfire: Frostfire Empowerment increases Frostfire Bolt damage by 30% in PvP combat (was 50%).
  • Arcane
    • Arcane Blast damage increased by 45% in PvP combat (was 15%).
    • Arcane Missiles damage increased by 20% in PvP combat.
    • Arcane Barrage damage increased by 15% in PvP combat.
    • Magi’s Spark is now 50% effective in PvP combat.
  • Fire
    • Fireball damage increased by 100% in PvP combat (was 35%).
    • Greater Pyroblast cast time reduced to 4 seconds (was 4.5 seconds) but it now deals 30% of its target’s maximum health in damage (was 35%).
  • Frost
    • Ice Lance damage increased by 25% in PvP combat (was 45%).
    • Frostbolt damage increased by 150% in PvP combat (was 118%).
    • Ray of Frost damage increased by 5% in PvP combat.
    • Ice Barrier absorb amount is now decreased by 40% in PvP combat (was 25%).
• Monk
  • Mistweaver
    • Enveloping Mist healing increased by 20% in PvP combat.
    • Vivify primary healing increased by 20% in PvP combat.
• Paladin
  • Holy
    • Mana regeneration reduced by 20% in PvP combat (was 35%).
    • Holy Shock healing increased by 15% in PvP combat.
    • Word of Glory healing increased by 15% in PvP combat.
    • Holy Light healing increased by 20% in PvP combat.
• Priest
  • Discipline
    • Weal and Woe’s bonus to Power Word: Shield is now 50% effective in PvP combat.
  • Holy
    • Holy Word: Serenity healing increased by 40% in PvP combat.
    • Holy Word: Sanctify healing increased by 40% in PvP combat.
  • Shadow
    • Perfected Form now increases damage dealt during Voidform by 10% in PvP combat (was 20%).
• Rogue
  • Subtlety
    • Reverberation now increases Echoing Reprimand damage by 50% in PvP combat (was 70%).

Though the changes won’t be enough to bring Fire Mage up to the standard of the other two Mage specs in PvE, it is a step in the right direction. Arcane players may consider themselves lucky to avoid the nerf hammer, after performing extremely well in these early days.