Patch 9.2 PTR Development Notes for February 8th - Feral 4pc Tier Set Bonus Damage Nerf

PTR Posted 2022/02/08 at 7:08 PM by perculia

Hello everyone :)
Here are this week’s PTR notes:CLASSES

Death Knight

Class Sets

Unholy

4-piece: Now grants the Death Knight the Harvest Time buff if the enemy dies while Soul Reaper is active on them before it explodes.

Druid

Class Sets

Feral

4-piece: Damage done reduced by 65%.

Developers’ note: This adjustment is pretty heavy so we wanted to explain why this is necessary. Sickle of the Lion’s damage was set too high due to a bug that caused external power increases, such as Mastery and abilities that enhance Feral’s rotation, to double dip and even triple dip into those benefits. The damage reduction reflects the removal of those repeat benefits and bringing the damage in line with other set bonuses. We are watching feedback closely and will adjust, even post launch, if the need arises. Thank you for testing and providing feedback, we genuinely appreciate the support!

Guardian

4-piece: Damage done reduced by 32% and healing done reduced by 25%.

Mage

Frost

Frozen Orb damage reduced by 8%.
Blizzard damage reduced by 5% and reduces the cooldown of Frozen Orb by 0.25 seconds each time Blizzard deals damage (was 0.5 seconds).
Icy Propulsion’s (Conduit) cooldown reduction can now only occur every 0.35 seconds.

Monk

Bountiful Brew (Necrolord Runecarving Power) now extends the duration of Bonedust Brew if it triggers while a target is currently afflicted by Bonedust Brew.

Priest

Class Sets

Discipline

2-piece:

Freely cast Shadow Mends grant 2 extra seconds of Atonement to the target, up to 16 seconds total.
The duration of Manifested Twilight has been increased to 20 seconds (was 10 seconds).
Shadow Mend no longer consumes all stacks of Manifested Twilight.

DUNGEONS AND RAIDS

Tazavesh, the Veiled Market

Hylbrande

Players no longer channel on the Titan Console to view the Bypass Code, instead click the Titan Console to gain a debuff named Titanic Insight. Titanic Insight allows the player to see signs on the Titan Console for 15 seconds, but now you will be able to move and engage during the stage. The Titan Console can only be accessed by a single player every 15 seconds.

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Comment by Feralsoul

4-piece: Damage done reduced by 65%.
Developers’ note: This adjustment is pretty heavy so we wanted to explain why this is necessary. Sickle of the Lion’s damage was set too high due to a bug that caused external power increases, such as Mastery and abilities that enhance Feral’s rotation, to double dip and even triple dip into those benefits. The damage reduction reflects the removal of those repeat benefits and bringing the damage in line with other set bonuses. We are watching feedback closely and will adjust, even post launch, if the need arises. Thank you for testing and providing feedback, we genuinely appreciate the support!

Sickle of the Lion’s damage was set too high due to a bug that caused external power increases, such as Mastery and abilities that enhance Feral’s rotation, to double dip and even triple dip into those benefits.goodtheThe damage reduction reflects the removal of those repeat benefits and bringing the damage in line with other set bonuses.Thank you for testing and providing feedback, we genuinely appreciate the support!Comment by EliodenWardTheir aoe needed nerfed a bit. This crashes their single target--which is mediocre. Blizzard is over-nerfing here.

They really need to roll these back and reconsider how to nerf the AOE without trashing the single-target. Because as it is after these nerfs, they're simming for less than they currently do on live in ST...Comment by ElyrionDamage nerf sure. Icy Propulsions & Orb CD nerf though? So blizzards idea of getting people to come back playing the game is to make classes feel miserable to play once again. Yep checks out, Same old blizzard.Comment by ftwbotRevert the nerfs to the conduit and frozen orb/blizzard interaction for frost. Nerf the overall damage of blizzard and frozen orb instead. The single target is super low already... if this continues as is, frost is dead. They are pretty good with the new affix in m+ due to cdr interaction, but this nerf is about a 50% damage loss in aoe and a 10% in single target.

Frost was averaging about 26-30k dps in keys comparibly to around 18k dps for other aoe classes. This puts them at 11k-15k on the high end of play. That much damage on a spec that has *!@#ty single target mean RIP. Fire or arcane are back on the table again, but i wonder where the add slow is going to come from now with the meta key comps.Comment by BeelzeduupCan ferals just get ANYTHING please? The spec is literally unplayable right now, we're forced to play bala if we want to dps.Comment by DhrallForst is garbage in raids and PVP and is only viable in M+, yet Blizzard decided to nerf it to the ground for some reason...https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/91325418677743616/940383437351686234/unknown.pngComment by DeniedDisc tier set still looks like sh*tComment by vizuvisFeral
4-piece: Damage done reduced by 65%

As of now I consider feral dead spec once again. The introduction of feral's tier set in the PTR even if it was bugged it made the spec feel alive again.Theres no need to fix something and then apply a second "bug" fix. The initial fix alone would've been sufficent, the damage reduction to 65% would pretty much leave feral dead spec. Why are you so anti-kitten oriented? Balance had its fun and moments to shine let ferals be on the lightspot for once. Please consider reverting the unnecessary nerfs.

Frost Mage
Frozen Orb damage reduced by 8%.
Blizzard damage reduced by 5% and reduces the cooldown of Frozen Orb by 0.25 seconds each time Blizzard deals damage (was 0.5 seconds).
Icy Propulsion’s (Conduit) cooldown reduction can now only occur every 0.35 seconds.

As mage main and as someone who played and tested it in the PTR, I already expected some nerfs to bring it down with the rest of the meta m+ specs, but this nerfs combined its close to 15% nerf overall which is just way too much. The Frozen Orb damage nerf should be down to 5% instead of 8%. Blizzard CDR is overkill and Icy Propulsion's conduit CDR is pretty much ST kill. Not sure if you know but frost single target is already bad and that Orb + Conduit nerf will make it even worse. You should be aware of the fact that not every single class spec can perform good in all the game environments, frost mages were good in m+ for the AoE they bring not their ST, removing their AoE potential would drastically reduce the amount of frost mages in mythic plus. Comment by NitralOn frost mage doomcalling: at least it is 'viable' (more like top class) somewhere, and if you check the highest keys, you only see fmage in ranged spots, doing double overall than the other classes. Also it is solid mediocre in raid, which cannot be said for my UH DK. UH sux in pvp, no one brings in to m+ if the key is 20+, and it is very frustrating on the 2 platform fights in the raid by itself, not mentioning that it underperforms all melee, but enh shaman, and feral in aoe, and the other DK spec in pure ST. Also in 9.2 we get an execute niche, with witch we still do worse execute than a warrior, while having less overal, and have very little use in m+, if one of the mobs wont die right away. Frost mage will be fine. Try to main Ret Pala, Feral, or DK for a season, and you will appreciate mage with all the nerfs comming its way.Comment by SisiaFrozen Orb Nerfed? In Arena Frozen orb is already weak! How u can even think to nerf it? It should be increase his damage by 50%. Comet Storm and Frozen Orb are useless in Arena nowadays. Just test them on a player, they hit him 4% of his life.
When u nerf a spec, be sure to evaluate the impacts on Arena too.
Frost spec has to be upgraded and balanced in PvP. It defo must to be much more stronger. There is no frost mage for Rank 1 tier, just think about that developersComment by Zackolack"4-piece: Damage done reduced by 65%." Blizzard telling all ferals to reroll. This is such a huge nerf for a spec that is already a meme in M+. For a second I thought we would actually be semi decent, but of course we aren't mage/rogue/warlock so we get put back in our place [=Comment by Moonstaker>obviously broken bugs get nerfed
>players cry because they can't do effortless damage anymore

Oh, never change.Comment by Nitral'>obviously broken bugs get nerfed
>players cry because they can't do effortless damage anymore

Oh, never change.'

well in ferals case, it is famous for having no aoe, and while it was effortless damage, it happened only every 3 mins, so wan't a big constant easy thing. Compared to other better classes it would probably have less overall aoe than the better m+ specs, while also having no innervate, aoe stun, etc. (you can make a case for 'if we pull around the 3 min cd of feral it would have been broken', but you cannot do it in every instance, and there are still other better suited classes for the same thing, with more constant usefull abilities.)Comment by Apharo>obviously broken bugs get nerfed
>players cry because they can't do effortless damage anymore

Oh, never change.Comment by Nitral'Considering it's something that (as @Nithral stated) only occurs each 2.5~min (if we remember that 2-piece bonus tier reduces the time remaining of our "big" CD), it's not like having small cd classes that cand handle almost all pulls in m+ content.'

Yea I don't know anything about Feral, I don't think I've ever played a minute on it, I just know that it is useless, and should be buffed for them poor Feral players.:)
Also please Blizz, because I'm so kind and selfless, please buff DK too while you're at it, we aren't as bad, but not great either.:DComment by VSozonovI feel like the taza'vesh changes will be worst than how it is now. You rely on 1 player to do it if you're in a pug where right now there's a weakaura/addon that can help auto assign people to go where they need to goComment by Gooblolnicejoke"I believe every pala would be happy to get perma avenging wrath or a shaman getting perma bloodlust..."

Come back when you do more damage than the tank cheersComment by Tali8335Cool now change arcane mage back to 18% TotM since literally no one thinks that nerf was necessary.Comment by JDub1989Icy Veins: cooldown reduced to 2 minutes.

You forgot to add that, Blizzard. Why a 3 minute CD on the worst damage CD in the game?Comment by Tareku"Sickle of the Lion’s damage was set too high due to a bug that caused external power increases, such as Mastery and abilities that enhance Feral’s rotation, to double dip and even triple dip into those benefits. The damage reduction reflects the removal of those repeat benefits and bringing the damage in line with other set bonuses."

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