Another round of changes is coming to World of Warcraft’s Season of Discovery servers today, with three classes set to receive adjustments.
In the update, two classes (Warlocks and Shamans) are set to receive buffs, while Hunters are getting a straight-up nerf.
While today’s WoW SoD patch notes are relatively thin in comparison to some of the other updates the game has received in recent months, there are still some big changes coming to these classes that will affect the way they’re tuned throughout SoD phase three. All of the patch notes for today’s WoW SoD update were detailed extensively by Blizzard in a recent blue post.
Here are all of the changes coming to WoW Season of Discovery today, as well as some key takeaways.
WoW Classic SoD update: Full WoW Season of Discovery patch notes for April 30
WoW SoD phase three April 30 class balance updates
Hunter
- Bonus damage granted from Raptor Fury decreased by five percent.
- Beast Mastery rune now increases the damage of your pet by 10 percent less.
Shaman
- Rolling Thunder proc chance buffed from 30 percent to 50 percent.
- Burn (rune) now grants a “significant” bonus to your spell power while Flametongue Weapon.
Warlock
- Invocation now benefits from the Pandemic rune by applying critical strikes. Invocation also works tangentially with Unstable Affliction.
Key takeaways from WoW SoD’s April 30 update
Shamans and Warlocks received solid buffs to the way some of their abilities interact with each other. Shamans in particular have been getting plenty of attention from Blizzard in recent updates, and the class could continue to rise up the DPS charts as phase three progresses. It still remains to be seen how effective of damage-dealers Shamans will be when endgame level 60 runes and gear pieces are introduced in phase four, but if some of these baseline buffs remain in place until then, the class could be sneakily strong down the line.
The nerfs to Hunters should bring the class down slightly, but we don’t expect these changes to be groundbreaking. Hunters have been some of the most reliable and easy-to-grasp damage dealers in WoW, traditionally, but some of the extra bells and whistles they received via SoD runes have made them a little too reliable in the Classic season.
