The Truth about Nerfs in 4.2!

There has been a lot of chatter, both online and in the forums, about the upcoming Patch 4.2.  Most players are worried about the same thing: the dreaded Class Nerf!!


While it is true that, in the attempt to balance the game in all its aspects, ungainly decreases in power and abilities have been known to occur, and will continue to occur, I call upon you to use your Reason, comrades, and remember these key points:

1. The game is Always changing and Always evolving.  Changes that do not work out are very likely to be changed again.  It's part of the game, just as much as it is a part of Life.
2. Virtually all Nerfs to player classes are due to QQ'ing of the PvP community.  While class nerfs may affect all members of a class, the actual effect may be considerably less detrimental than one might think, especially if one spends more time questing and in dungeons rather than battlefields.  
3. Every Nerf, regardless of its origin, is almost always accompanied by at least one Buff.  

This last fact becomes glaringly apparent in the following list, which I've compiled from the 4.2 patch notes.  It is a fact of life that nothing is free.  Every benefit has a cost, comrades.  The trick is to lessen the cost while increasing the benefit.  

As you'll see from this list of class changes, any and all Nerfs of 4.2 are actually reasonable costs for the incredible benefits to be experienced by nearly every class!  The patch notes have been compiled and separated into 3 categories, followed by a summary:

1. Nerf:  A change that lessens the stats and/or abilities of a given class.
2. Buff:  A change that positively modifies the stats/abilities of a given class.
3. Superficial:  A change that, while it may be cool to look at or neat in some way, does not significantly alter the stats or abilities of a given class.  (They can still be awesome though.)  

Come, comrades, click "Read More" and see for yourselves.  It's not going to be what you think!  As always, the official, original patch notes can be found here.

General Changes:

Superficial:

1. /roar sound fx for ALL races.
2. /dance during combat causes no crash

All Classes:

Buff:

1. Healing Crits up .5%
2. Non-Healing/Dmg Buffs no longer cause Threat.
3. CC'd npcs no longer attack the CC'er unless the npc “sees” them casting it.
4. Aggressive Stance for pets has been removed. This is a Buff because pets will no longer wipe groups.
5. Interrupts that stop a spell of a certain school (ie: Frost, Fire, Nature, etc.) will NOT stop a similar spell of a “Dual School.” For example, interrupting a Fire Bolt will not prevent Frostfire Bolt from being cast. However, if a Dual-school spell is interrupted, then spells from BOTH schools will be affected.
6. Parry Rating for Warriors, DK's, and Paladins is now based on 27% of their bonus strength, up from 25%.

Nerf:

1. Paladins, DK's, and Warriors Dodge Chance is fixed at 5%, and will no longer be affected by Agility.

Class Changes:

Death Knights:
Nerf:

• Obliterate dmg down 10%
• Hungering Cold now has a cast time of 1.5 secs

Buff:

• Unholy Might strength increase up 5%.
• Glyph of Dark Succor now provides a HoT effect instead of a flat HP increase.

Summary:  Both Death Knight Nerfs are for the purposes of PvP balance.  Adverse PvE effects offset by increased Strength and Class HoT.

Druids:

Nerf:  

• Now gain 1 Attack Power per point of Strength, (But continue to get 2 Attack Power per point of Agility. Bonuses are concurrent.
• Innervate now restores 5% of the Target's maximum mana, instead of 20% of the Druid's max mana. (Still restores 20% if the Druid self-casts)
• Swipe dmg down 70% weapon dmg.
• Bear damage abilities were scaling too fast with higher gear levels compared to other tanks, so the following balance changes have been made. All the numbers cited are for level 85 characters; numbers will be lower for lower-level characters.
• Faerie Fire (Feral) attack power scaling has been decreased to 10.8%, down from 15%.
• Maul attack power scaling has been decreased to 19%, down from 26.4%.
• Pulverize weapon damage percent has been decreased to 60%, down from 80%.
• Mangle (Bear) weapon damage percent has been decreased to 190%, down from 260%.
• Swipe attack power scaling has been decreased to 12.3%, down from 17.1%.
• Thrash initial damage attack power scaling has been decreased to 9.82%, down from 19.2%. Periodic damage attack power scaling has been decreased to 1.67%, down from 3.26%.
• Lacerate initial damage Attack Power rating decreased to 5.52%, down from 7.66%.  Periodic damage Attack Power scaling decreased to .369%, down from .512%

Buff:

• Entangling Roots no longer deals damage. (This is a Buff because it will no longer pull threat when being used in an instance.)
• Ferocious Bite dmg increased by 15%, while its Energy Cost has been reduced.
• Mangle dmg has been increased by 70% weapon dmg.
• Omen of Clarity clearcasting buff increased to 15 secs, up from 8.
• Ravage dmg for characters level 80 and above increased 125% of weapon dmg.
• Shred dmg for level 80's and above increased by 70% weapon dmg.
• Earth and Moon duration up 3 secs.
• Bear damage abilities were scaling too fast with higher gear levels compared to other tanks, so the following balance changes have been made. All the numbers cited are for level 85 characters; numbers will be lower for lower-level characters.
• Faerie Fire (Feral) base damage has been raised to 2950, up from 679.
• Maul base damage has been raised to 35, up from 8.
• Damage per Lacerate application has been increased to 1623, up from 361.
• Mangle (Bear) bonus damage has been increased to 3306, up from 754.
• Swipe base damage has been increased to 929, up from 215.
• Thrash initial base damage has been increased to1042, up from 339. Periodic base damage has been increased to 581, up from 189. In addition, a bug was corrected where armor decreased the periodic damage done by this ability.
• Lacerate initial base damage has been increased to 3608, up from 2089. Periodic base damage has been increased to 69, up from 16.
• Natural Reaction damage reduction has been increased to 9/18%, up from 6/12%.
• Symbiosis (Mastery) has been removed and replaced with Harmony. Harmony increases direct healing by an additional 10%, and casting direct healing spells grants an additional 10% bonus to periodic healing for 10 seconds. (It's essentially the Druid's Echo of Light) Each point of mastery increases each bonus by an additional 1.25%. Healing Touch, Nourish, Swiftmend, and the initial heal from Regrowth are considered direct healing spells for the purposes of this Mastery. All other healing from druid spells is considered periodic.
• Glyphs:
• Berserk duration increase is now 10 seconds, up from 5.
• Glyph of Ferocious Bite has been redesigned. It now causes Ferocious Bite to heal the caster for 1% of maximum health for each 10 energy used.
• Glyph of Innervate now causes the druid to gain 10% of his or her maximum mana over 10 seconds when Innervate is used on a friendly target, in addition to Innervate's base effect. 

Summary:  Compared with other classes who fill similar roles, Druids have been getting a far higher benefit from gear.  Changes were instituted to balance this out, as well as to make CC's in instances more functional and pull less threat, as have all CC's for all classes.

Hunters:

Nerf:

• Multi-shot damage has been reduced. It now deals 120% weapon damage at level 80 or higher, down from 137%. (This could be considered a buff in instances, where hunters will now pull less threat.)

Buff:

• Traps now scale with hunter stats such as hit, expertise, spell penetration and attack power as intended.
• Careful Aim now grants additional critical strike chance against targets over 90% health, up from 80% health.
• 8 new rare tamable beasts have been added, each of which provides a unique taming challenge. Will you be the first hunter to tame Deth'tilac, the rarest and most powerful of them all? Players will need to progress through the Hyjal Regrowth and Molten Front daily questing areas in order to unlock access to the full gamut of taming challenges.
• Intervene (Pet Tenacity) has been redesigned. The pet runs at high speed toward a group member, reducing the damage done by the next melee or ranged attack made against them equal to 50% of the pet's total health.

Summary:  Hunter AoE and CC will now pull less threat and make mobs more controllable.  New pets and pet UI offer far more options!


Mages:
Nerf:

• Arcane Blast damage done has been reduced by 5%.
• Spellsteal mana cost has been increased by 100%.

Buff:

• Pyroblast cast when Hot Streak is not active was doing slightly less damage than the Hot Streak version. Its damage has been increased so that both versions of Pyroblast now do the same amount of damage.
• When Impact spreads Living Bomb, it will only be spread to two additional targets. The net effect is that if the mage's most recent Living Bomb target is the same as their Impact target, that target will no longer lose the Living Bomb effect. If Living Bomb is active on multiple targets when the Impact effect is cast, Living Bomb will remain active on the most recent Living Bomb target, and will be added to two other nearby targets.

Superficial:

• Deep Freeze and Ring of Frost will cause diminishing returns on each other, in addition to the spells they normally share diminishing returns with. (This is superficial because the diminishing return effect is consistant with similar effects from other classes.)

Summary:  Both Nerfs were done for PvP purposes, with the possible exception of Arcane Blast, which, as all players know, could be named Arcane Spam.  Meanwhile, Living Bomb has been modified so it doesn't randomly disappear when using Impact, a clear benefit.


Paladins:
Nerf:

• Divine Light mana cost has been increased to 35% of base mana, up from 30%.
• Flash of Light mana cost has been increased to 31% of base mana, up from 27%.
• Holy Light mana cost has been increased to 12% of base mana, up from 10%.
• Guarded By The Light no longer interacts with Holy Shield in any way.

Buff:

• Guardian of Ancient Kings uses the new Assist pet stance functionality.
• Seal of Righteousness now can be activated by any melee ability, not just single target melee abilities. This adds Hammer of the Righteous (the physical component) and Divine Storm to the list of abilities that can activate this seal. In addition, Seal of Righteousness procs can now be critical effects.
• Beacon of Light can no longer be dispelled. In addition, it now transfers 100% of the heal from Holy Light, but still 50% of the heal from other spells.
• Denounce has been redesigned. It still reduces the mana cost of Exorcism. However, it no longer has a chance on Holy Shock of making Exorcism free and instant. Instead, it has a 50/100% chance to prevent the Exorcism target from causing critical effects for the next 6 seconds. This effect can be dispelled.
• Holy Shock mana cost has been decreased to 7% of base mana, down from 8%.
• Infusion of Light can now lower the cast time of Flash of Light by 0.75/1.5 seconds, in addition to Holy Light and Divine Light. In addition, the old Denounce spell overlay effect has been transferred to Infusion of Light since Denounce is no longer a proc.
• Speed of Light now increases movement speed when Holy Radiance or Divine Protection are cast. In addition, this talent now reduces the cooldown of Holy Radiance by 13/26/40 seconds, up from 10/20/30.
• Walk in the Light now improves Word of Glory healing by 30%, in addition to its current effects.
• Hammer of the Righteous mana cost has been lowered to 10%, down from 12% to match Crusader Strike.
• Holy Shield has been redesigned. This talent is now an activated ability off the global cooldown. It grants 20% increased block amount to a paladin's shield blocks for 10 seconds, with a 30-second cooldown.
• Judgements of the Wise now procs on attempt rather than on strike, which means judgements that miss can still grant mana. This is to help ensure Protection paladins are not starved for mana if they aren't capped on hit rating.
• The Seals of Command talent now makes Seal of Righteousness hit an unlimited number of melee targets, instead of only 2 additional targets.
• Selfless Healer can no longer be dispelled and cannot be stolen via Spellsteal; and, in addition to its current effects, it lowers the cooldown of Word of Glory by 5/10 seconds.
• Glyph of Seal of Truth expertise bonus now also works when Seal of Righteousness is active.

Superficial:

• Rebuke, Divine Shield and Divine Protection have new icons.
• Ardent Defender has a new spell effect.

Summary:  Paladins will now spend less time Healing themselves and more time Healing Others, Protecting Others, Tanking, Threatening Mobs, and Mitigating damage.  14 significant Buffs are well worth the 4 comparatively tame Nerfs. 

Priests:
Nerf:

• Devouring Plague damage done has been decreased by 12%.
• Shadow Word: Pain damage done has been decreased by 12%.
• Vampiric Touch damage done has been decreased by 12%.

Buff:

• Mind Blast damage done has been increased by 12%.
• Shadowfiend uses the new Assist pet stance functionality.
• Shadow Word: Death damage done has been increased by 12%.
• Mind Flay damage done has been increased by 12%.
• Psychic Horror no longer has a forward facing requirement, making it consistent with other non-projectile-based crowd control spells.
• Sin and Punishment's Vampiric Touch backlash fear effect no longer has diminishing returns.

Superficial: 

• Players will no longer prematurely cancel a channeled spell when clicking on the Lightwell.

Summary:  DoT's have been slightly reduced no doubt for PvP reasons, but also for reduced threat generation in instances.  This has been balanced by increased direct dmg effects, as well as increased functionality for Shadowfiends, Horror effects, and Lightwells.


Rogues:

Nerf:

• Cloak of Shadows cooldown is now 2 minutes, up from 90 seconds, BUT...(see Buffs below)
• Combat Readiness and Cloak of Shadows now share a cooldown.

Buff:

• Cloak of Shadows is no longer on the global cooldown.
• Blind duration against enemy NPCs is now 1 minute, while the duration against players remains 8 seconds.
• Assassin's Resolve damage bonus has been increased to 20%, up from 15%.
• Vile Poisons now increases poison damage by 12/24/36%, up from 7/14/20%.
• Savage Combat now increases attack power by 3/6%, up from 2/4%.
• Vitality now increases attack power by 30%, up from 25%.
• Elusiveness now reduces the cooldown of Cloak of Shadows by 15/30 seconds, up from 10/20, and now also reduces the cooldown of Combat Readiness by 15/30 seconds.
• Hemorrhage base damage has been increased by 40%.
• Sanguinary Vein damage to bleeding targets has been increased to 8/16%, from 5/10%.

Superficial:

• Stealth now once again begins its cooldown once the rogue leaves Stealth.

Summary:  Subtley Rogues are now more specialized at being...well, Subtle!  Damage across the board has been buffed, as well as the addition of Blind as a viable CC.


Shaman:

Nerf:

• The amount of mana restored when Water Shield procs has been reduced by 50%.
• Mana Tide now grants 200% of the caster's Spirit, down from 400%.

Buff:

• Fire Nova damage has been increased by 15%.
• Lightning Shield and Water Shield can no longer be dispelled.
• Water Shield has had its internal cooldown reduced to 3.5 seconds, once again matching other shields.
• Call of Flame now also causes Fire Nova to add 3/6 seconds to the duration of Flame Shock auras on targets that Fire Nova damages.
• Lava Flows now grants a 30/60/90% haste buff when a Flame Shock effect is dispelled, up from 10/20/30%.
• Thunderstorm now reduces the movement speed of players it knocks back by 40% for 5 seconds.
• Improved Water Shield has been redesigned and renamed Resurgence. When Water Shield is active, Resurgence causes critical direct heals to restore mana (Resurgence rank 2 is roughly equal to 150% of the old Improved Water Shield value when a Healing Wave or Greater Healing Wave critically hits, and scaled down accordingly for faster or multi-target spells).
• Glyph of Unleashed Lightning (new Prime glyph) allows Lightning Bolt to be cast while moving.

Superficial:

• Unleash Elements is now in the Nature school, and thus can no longer be used if a shaman's Nature school has been locked out. (Superficial because it's consistent with common sense.)

Summary:  Slight nerfs to mana regeneration mostly affect Non-Healing Shaman only, and is more than offset by the insane buffs to damage, including increased Fire and Lava Damage, a Thunderstorm snare, undispellable shields, and the ability to cast Lightning Bolt while moving!  Meanwhile, Restoration Shaman have new talent functionality that significantly increases mana regeneration.


Warlocks:
Nerf:

• (Bug Fix:) It is no longer possible to leave combat while channeling Drain Soul.

Buff:

• Soul Fire is now available at level 20, down from level 54.

Superficial:

• Soul Harvest has a new spell effect.

Summary:  The nerf is negligible, and the Buff...well, speaks for itself.

Warriors:
Nerf:

• Overpower now has a 1.5-second cooldown and global cooldown (Taste for Blood's Overpower cooldown has not changed).
• Recklessness and Deadly Calm can no longer be used at the same time. One cannot be used while the other is active, but...(See Buffs)
• Two-Handed Weapon Specialization weapon damage increase has been lowered to 12%, down from 20%.
• Dual Wield Specialization weapon damage increase has been lowered to 5%, down from 10%.

Buff:

• Recklessness and Deadly Calm no longer share a cooldown.
• Retaliation, Recklessness and Shield Wall no longer have stance requirements.

Summary:  All nerfs are clearly intended for PvP balance, and while it may slightly affect PvE dps performance, Warrior Tanks are not affected at all.  In fact, with the elimination of stance requirements, Warriors have effectively gained at least 1 extra ability!

So there you have it, comrades!  Do not let the fearful mutterings of Cowards sway your spirit or your resolve!  The Firelands will soon be upon us, and there will be no place for sniveling fools for whom everything is loss.  Change has come!  Adapt, and you will survive.  Refuse, and you will not.  

It's Victory or Death, comrades.  Which will you choose?

Glory to the Horde!

~High Chieftain Ogami