World of Warcraft patch 10.1 starts in a few days and brings many changes. We reveal what’s coming up for your class.
The first really big content update for World of Warcraft Dragonflight is in the starting blocks. Patch 10.1 Embers of Neltharion starts on May 3rd and brings a lot of highlights with it. There are not only new areas and a fresh raid, but also numerous adjustments for most classes. So that you are directly prepared, we summarize the most important changes to the classes.
death knight
The death knight changes comparatively little. The current tier set from Vault of Incarnations will be slightly weaker for Frost Death Knights. However, Blizzard supports the Unholy Death Knight and significantly increases the damage it causes. Reap, Festering Wounds, Scourge Strike, and Death Coil each deal more damage, all by double-digit percentages.
Demon Hunter
The demon hunter only has adjustments to the devastation specialization and these are minor. Throw Glaive talents are being reworked slightly so that the ability is more worthwhile on single targets as well. The set bonus from Vault of Incarnations is being nerfed drastically, and Feeding the Flame now only heals for 20% of maximum health instead of 25%.
Druid
There are a lot of detailed changes for the druid, for which it is best to take a look at the full patch notes.
In summary, the damage of many skills has been significantly increased and some talents have been reworked, so that there is more flexibility to try talents other than the most popular ones. Skills that consume Astral Power are now more powerful and should feel more rewarding than skills that generate Astral Power.
Feral druids can look forward to numerous buffs. Almost all damaging abilities have been boosted, dealing between 7% and 22% more damage. This should make wildness druids a welcome guest in dungeon groups in the future.
Guardian and Restoration druids remain almost unchanged. There are just a few new animations for the Guardian and there is a small nerf to Wild Growth in Recovery, but this is due to a bug fix.
You can see the intro to patch 10.1 here:
WoW: New cinematic “Open the path” shows the new plan of the dragons
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caller
The new class in Dragonflight isn’t quite as smooth as the developers would like, so there are some major changes to the Devastation specialization.
The adjustments are aimed at avoiding an ugly playstyle where Callers always immediately cancel their Disintegrate in order to maintain the effect of Dragon’s Fury. As such, disintegration is adjusted through talents in a way that makes it worth casting the spell in full. There are also some reworks and even entirely new talents further down the talent tree, which should lead to a little more variety in playstyles.
Hunter
Hunters get a wider range of customizations that affect all 3 specializations. Of particular note here is that revive animal is now a physical spell and no longer a nature spell. As a result, the ability can no longer be stopped by silences or interrupts.
Beast Mastery Hunters can now target up to three targets with Cobra Shot (was 2) and the damage bonus from Snake Bite has been significantly increased. Also, Pterrordax pets can finally work properly with the Pet Pet talent.
Marksmanship hunters are getting a small adjustment to some talents. Killshots are replaced with In The Rhythm and grant 12% Haste for 6 seconds each time Rapid Fire is channeled. The talent “In the Black” now only requires one talent point, but offers the same advantages as before.
For Survival Hunters, the set bonus from Vault of Incarnations will be massively nerfed. However, there is an additional 8% damage from all abilities (including the pet’s abilities). Basically a clear buff that will be even more important with the new animal set from Aberrus.
magician
For mages, the summary is simple: all mages get better. Both Arcane and Frost and Fire get buffs to many skills ranging from 8% to 15%. The class should therefore soon be represented significantly higher in the DPS rankings and regain more importance in dungeons.
monk
The healing of the Mistweaver was still a little too unreliable for the developers, as it depended heavily on chance for some abilities. This was not good for the specialization and will be changed. Invigorate now generates 50% more primary healing, while Empowering Mists are slightly weakened. The PvP talent “Pupation” will be moved to the PvE talent tree. Finally, Feyline Stomp’s cooldown is reduced by a whopping 10 seconds, allowing it to be used more frequently.
With the master brewer, on the other hand, there is only one update of a tool tip – so no significant changes.
paladin
The Paladin only got a major overhaul with patch 10.0.5, so the changes are comparatively minor and are largely limited to bug fixes.
Holy Paladins are getting a revamp from Vengeance Crusade. While active, many of your abilities cool down faster, healing allies for almost 600% of damage dealt, which will also benefit from Mastery: Lightbringer in the future.
Vengeance Paladins get a few nerfs to their healing abilities and mostly bug fixes as well.
villain
There are almost no changes for the rogue. Only the healing of Revitalizing Darkness is reduced from 30% of maximum HP to 24%. However, this comes with a big change to the characters’ HP.
shaman
For Shaman, the Deeply Rooted Elements talent has been redesigned to proc more regularly and reliably.
Elemental Shaman get buffs for many of their damaging spells, but these are only active in PvE. Lava Burst, Elemental Blast, Earth Shock, and Lightning Bolt all deal between 6% and 12% more damage.
Reinforcement shamans get some adjustments. All damage has been increased by 5% and some minor adjustments have been made to talents so that Lightning spells become Maelstrom’s primary consumer spells if desired. As with many other classes, the tier set from the Vault of Incarnations will be toned down a bit.
Sorcerer
Very little changes for Warlocks. “Demon Skin” has been slightly reduced in its effect.
Demonology Warlocks just have some tooltip tweaks and talent name changes to make them more unique.
Destruction Warlocks get small buffs. Ruin no longer increases the damage of Channel Demon Fire, but the spell does 20% more damage across the board. Shadowburn also deals 20% more damage in the future.
warrior
Warriors will only receive a few adjustments and bug fixes that shouldn’t have much impact on playstyle.
Arms warriors rejoice, as Bloodletting will now cause Mortal Strike to apply wound to targets below 35% health.
Otherwise, the warrior’s healing effects in particular have been adjusted so that they are slightly less efficient in terms of total HP. This is also mainly due to the fact that the maximum HP of all characters increases by 25%.
priest
There are a variety of changes for the Priest – some buffs and some nerfs. Shadow Word: Death now only has a 10 second cooldown, while several control effects (Psychic Scream, Void Tentacle) can now affect an infinite number of targets.
Discipline Priests get small buffs to their Divine Aegis and Power Word: Radiance, otherwise just bug fixes.
You can see the changes to the Shadow Priest below as they are getting a major overhaul.
Holy Priests are getting some changes to Divine Image so that only one Naaru is summoned at a time, but it’s progressively stronger. Thus, the battlefield should no longer be overcrowded with images.
Big rework for shadow priests
By far the biggest changes are for the Shadow Priest specialization. Since the launch of Dragonflight, it has simply not been running smoothly and is mainly associated with a strenuous, opaque play style with too many buttons. Blizzard wanted to improve that.
In the future, the Shadow Priest should generate its area damage solely through “Multi-Dotting”, so the “Mind Blast” spell will be completely eliminated. Instead, Psychic Link becomes a new must-have, as it partially duplicates the damage of all single-target abilities (except Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch) to other targets.
Basically, the further adjustments are aimed at the fact that the priest can specialize in different aspects, such as:
Priests can also increase their maximum Insanity up to 150, allowing them to conserve more charges of Devouring Plague, now the only ability that still consumes Insanity.
What’s a little bad, though, is that Shadow Priests will also lose what little mobility they have and will probably fall well behind other classes in fights with intense movement, since they can hardly cast spells while running.
You can see all the details in detail in the official, very extensive patch notes.
Incidentally, the changes have caused mixed reactions in the community. While some are happy about a few simplifications, others criticize that Blizzard is going strange ways for the shadow priest. It is now repeatedly necessary in the talent tree to select talents that bring with them negative properties and then subsequently remove them again with other talents.
How do you like the customization of your class? Are you happy with what Blizzard is doing with your class?