Class Changes in Patch 9.1: Review

The new Patch has been released and has brought numerous big and small class changes in both PvE and PvP components. We will talk about the PvE aspect this time, so there will be no Arena/BG changes herein. The article is divided into paragraphs for better navigation.

Note: the animation, UI, and other very minor changes will not be mentioned here.

Keep in mind that in-game balance is a very delicate matter and may change drastically and all of a sudden. All the information is valid at the time of publication.

Death Knight

General

The duration of Anti-Magic Zone was reduced from 10 seconds to 8.

Blood

The damage of all spells and abilities was increased by 6%.

Frost

Chains of Ice now has a spell highlight on the action bar when the Death Knight has 20 stacks of Cold Heart (Talent).

Demon Hunter

General

The Soul Rending talent now increases Leech by 10% instead of 5%, and an additional 20% (was 25%) while Metamorphosis is active.

Annihilation. Damage increased by 15%.

Demonic Wards and Shattered Souls are now Havoc spells. Category changed from Abilities to Specialization.

Fodder to the Flame Your damaging abilities have a chance to call forth a demon from the Theater of Pain for 25 sec. Throw Glaive deals lethal damage to the demon, which explodes on death, dealing damage to nearby enemies and healing you for 25% of your maximum health. The explosion deals reduced damage beyond 5 targets.

Unnatural Malice (Conduit) now increases The Hunt‘s damage from DoT effects.

Havoc

Demon’s Bite. Damage increased by 15%.

Chaos Strike. Damage increased by 15%.

Demon Blades (Talent) damage increased by 15%.

Unbound Chaos (Talent) now increases the damage of your next Fel Rush by 500%.

Netherwalk (Talent) duration increased to 6 seconds.

Desperate Instincts talent now triggers Blur at 50% reduced duration and 50% reduced cooldown when you fall below 35% health.

Vengeance

Demonic Wards reduce all damage taken up to 20%.

Druid

General

Well-Honed Instincts (Conduit) cooldown increased by 50% at all ranks.

Balance

New Moon (Talent) now has 20 instead of 25 seconds recharge.

New Moon and Half Moon damage increased by 33%.

Solstice (Talent) now causes Shooting Stars to fall 250% more often (was 300%).

Stellar Drift (Talent) has been redesigned – Starfall deals increased damage, the cooldown was reduced to 12 seconds.

The free Starfall from Oneth’s Clear Vision (Runecarving Power) ignores the Stellar Drift (Talent) Starfall cooldown.

Balance of All Things Legendary now grants 24% increased critical strike chance (was 40%) and decreases by 3% instead of 8% every second.

Celestial Spirits – new Night Fae Druid Legendary. Reduces the cooldown of Convoke the Spirits to 1 minute and halves the duration of Convoke the Spirits. Gives Convoke the Spirits an increased chance to cast Full Moon.

Wrathful Swarm Legendary is now called Unbridled Swarm.

Guardian

Ursine Adept‘s 10% damage reduction now only applies to Druids in Bear Form.

Hunter

General

The Necrolord Ability Death Chakram can now properly bounce to targets that are not directly in front of the hunter.

Wailing Arrow has an increased (100 yards instead of 40) range but decreased incoming damage now.

Survival

Raptor Strike damage increased by 15%.

Kill Command damage increased by 15%.

Wildfire Bomb no longer hits targets very high up in the air.

Mongoose Bite (Talent) damage increased by 15%.

Flanking Strike (Talent) damage increased by 15%.

Pets

Classic pterrordax pets and Mists of Pandaria Python pets are now larger.

Mammoth Family: Trample is now instant cast (was 6-second channel).

Pterrordax Family pets have a new ability – Updraft that slows the fall speed of both itself and the hunter for 30 seconds.

Mage

Fire

Flamestrike damage was reduced by 10%.

Flame Patch (Talent) damage was reduced by 10%.

Kindling (Talent) cooldown reduction for Combustion reduced to 1 from 1.5 seconds.

Infernal Cascade (Conduit) Fire damage bonus reduced by 20%.

Monk

General

A cooldown to a Venthyr’s ability Fallen Order resets now when an encounter ends.

Fortifying Brew‘s cooldown now resets when an encounter ends for Windwalker and Mistweaver Monks.

Fixed an issue that prevented the damage and healing of Bonedust Brew (Necrolord Ability) from critically striking.

Tiger and Crane Figurines a Torghast Anima Power was completely removed.

Brewmaster

Brewmaster’s Balance All damage taken is reduced by 10% and your Armor is increased by 25%.

Mistweaver

Tiger Palm damage increased by 10%.

Blackout Kick damage increased by 10%.

Rising Sun Kick damage increased by 10%.

Spinning Crane Kick damage increased by 20%.

Enveloping Mist mana cost reduced by 7%.

Revival is now rechargeable and is now learned at levels 43 and 56. It also now procs Gust of Mists on each target healed. Has 1 charge.

Revival healing was reduced by 10%.

Soothing Mist‘s channel is no longer interrupted by Mana Tea or Zen Focus Tea.

Resplendent Mist (Conduit) now correctly affects Chi-Ji, the Red Crane’s Gust of Mists.

Harm Denial (Conduit) now correctly increases the healing of Expel Harm when used on an ally.

Fixed an issue that caused Tear of Morning (Runecarving Power) healing to not benefit from Mist Wrap (Talent).

Windwalker

Fixed an issue that prevented Bone Marrow Hops (Conduit) from increasing Bonedust Brew‘s (Necrolord Ability) damage from Storm, Earth and Fire, and Xuen, the White Tiger.

Paladin

General

Blessing of Winter from the Night Fae Ability Blessing of the Seasons can now be applied to multiple targets simultaneously.

Fixed an issue that caused Paladin auras to be removed when the Paladin swapped specializations.

Holy

Damage of all abilities reduced by 8%.

Hammer of Wrath damage reduced by an additional 10%.

Judgement damage reduced by an additional 10%.

Ashen Hallow (Venthyr Ability) damage reduced by an additional 10%.

Flash of Light healing increased by 20%.

Infusion of Light consumed by Holy Light now causes Holy Light to generate 1 Holy Power instead of 30% additional healing.

Crusader Strike mana cost increased to 11% (was 9%) base mana.

The talent Crusader’s Might reduces the cooldown of Holy Shock by 1 instead of 1.5 seconds.

Inflorescence of the Sunwell (Runecarving Power) now gives Holy Light a 30% chance to generate 2 Holy Power when it consumes Infusion of Light.

Fixed an issue that increased the damage of Hallowed Discernment (Venthyr Conduit) for Holy Paladins.

Protection

Fixed an issue that was causing Word of Glory from Royal Decree (Conduit) to consume Shining Light and Divine Purpose (Talent).

Priest

General

Clear Mind Conduit costs 15% instead of 20% less mana.

A Dissonant Echoes Potency Conduit deals 20% (was 35%) more damage.

Night Fae covenant ability Fae Guardians changed its range from none to 40 yards.

A Venthyr covenant ability Mindgames was changed from a 45 seconds recharge to 45 seconds cooldown. Charges changed from 1 to 0.

A Horrific Dictionary anima power was removed.

Maldo’s Soul Exploder anima power has now 40 yards range and affects now all enemies, who die within 60 yards.

Discipline

The cooldown to the talent Spirit Shell is increased to 90 from 60 seconds.

A Pallid Command legendary was redesigned. It summons now a Brooding Cleric and heals an ally instead of hitting an enemy for the same amount of spell power.

Holy

Symbol of Hope has been redesigned – Bolster the morale of party or raid members within 40 yards. They each recover 60 seconds of cooldown on a major defensive ability, and they regain 18% instead of 12% of their missing mana over 5 seconds.

Shadow

Devouring Plague damage reduced by 18%.

Shadow Word: Pain damage increased by 25%.

Vampiric Touch damage increased by 25%.

Shadowflame Prism (Runecarving Power) Shadowflame Rift damage reduced by 16%.

Talbadar’s Stratagem (Runecarving Power) Mind Blast‘s damage increase reduced by 8%.

Rogue

General

A new Kyrian covenant ability was added: Echoing Reprimand.

Feint duration increased from 5 to 6 seconds.

Shiv ability is redesigned. It now dispels Enrage effects regardless of Poison application. The duration of attacks for all specs lasts for 9 seconds.

Serrated Bone Spike (Necrolord) bleed now properly benefits from critical strike chance.

The shield from Cloaked in Shadows (Conduit) lasts for 4 seconds (previously had no duration) and no longer decays while the Rogue is out of stealth.

Outlaw

Fixed an issue that prevented Shiv from benefitting from Combat Potency and Broadside (Roll the Bones).

Subtlety

Backstab damage increased by 20%.

Black Powder (Rank 2) now causes targets with Find Weakness to suffer an additional 40% damage as Shadow (was 50%). However, damage per combo point increased by 33%.

Gloomblade (Talent) damage increased by 20%.

Shadow Techniques now trigger more frequently.

Shuriken Storm (Rank 2) now also increases Shuriken Storm‘s chance to critically strike by 15%.

Shaman

General

The global cooldown of the Kyrian Ability Vesper Totem is now 1 second (was 1.5 seconds), so it is now consistent with the global cooldown of all other totems. It now also inherits 10% of the caster’s maximum HP for its health pool.

Fixed an issue that prevented the Venthyr Ability Door of Shadows from being castable while moving while under the Spiritwalker’s Grace effect.

Raging Vesper Vortex now has 3 charges.

Seeds of Rampant Growth increases, in addition, your critical strike chance by 3% for 15 seconds.

The Heart of the Deathseer anima power was removed.

Enhancement

Flametongue Weapon can now trigger from all damage (was off-hand attacks only).

Restoration

Fixed an issue where Mana Tide Totem could be cast while silenced.

Warlock

General

Corruption damage increased by 15%.

The absorb shield for the Dark Pact talent has been increased by 316%.

Adaptive Armor Fragment Potency Conduit. The pure figures were changed into percents. Minimum 60=2.0%; maximum 200=4.8%

There are rank changes for the Withering Bolt Potency conduit.

The Mark of Borrowed Power anima power was removed.

Affliction

Agony damage increased by 20%.

Seed of Corruption damage increased by 25%.

Malefic Rapture damage reduced by 18%.

Summon Darkglare is no longer a talent and is now learned baseline at level 58.

Shadow Embrace is no longer learned at level 58 and is now a talent option on the level 45 row, and lasts 16 seconds (was 12 seconds), and may be applied to more than one target at a time.

Haunt and Shadow Embrace talents now also increase the damage of pets and guardians.

Sacrolash’s Dark Strike (Runecarving Power) has been redesigned – Corruption damage is increased by 25% (was 15%), and each time Corruption deals damage, it extends the duration of all your Curses active on the target by 2 seconds.

Focused Malignancy (Conduit) effectiveness reduced by 53%.

Demonology

Shadow Bolt mana cost reduced to 1.5% base mana (was 2%).

From the Shadows, the talent now also increases your pet’s Shadowflame damage.

Destruction

Chaos Bolt damage increased by 10%.

Incinerate mana cost reduced to 1.5% base mana (was 2%).

The Eradication talent now also increases the damage of pets and guardians.

Shadowburn talent damage increased by 23% and now refreshes a charge if the target dies within 5 seconds.

Warrior

General

Shattering Throw was redesigned and deals up to Demolition 1000 (was 500%) increased damage to absorb shields.

The Execute ability may be used only by Arms and Protection specs.

Arms

Mortal Strike damage increased by 10% in non-PvP situations.

Deep Wounds damage increased by 10% in non-PvP situations.

Overpower damage increased by 10%.

Execute damage increased by 10%. This does not apply to Condemn (Venthyr Ability).

Protection

Vanguard was redesigned and in addition to all other effects, it reduces all incoming damage by 10%.

Execute damage increased by 10%. This does not apply to Condemn (Venthyr Ability).