Class Writer Thoughts on March 23rd Class Tuning - Beast Mastery, Marksmanship, Windwalker, and Demonology

Posted 2021/03/24 at 6:00 AM by Jaydaa

announced class changesBeast Mastery Hunter

Beast Mastery

Beast Cleave now causes your pet to strike other targets for 90% of your pet's damage (was 75%).

Even with the nerf to Wild Spirits in 9.0.5 for Marksmanship, this was still a much-needed buff for Beast Mastery Hunters to help close the gap for the AoE potential between Marksmanship and Beast Mastery. While this will not be that useful inside Castle Nathria (with the notable exception of Stone Legion Generals), it will be very noticeable in Mythic+ dungeons and potentially in the next raid. This is effectively a 20% buff to Beast Cleave, which is quite substantial. Hopefully, this will play a bigger role in Beast Mastery's viability in the new raid in 9.1.
Marksmanship Hunter

Marksmanship

Aimed Shot damage increased by 5%, and Trick Shots now causes your Aimed Shot or Rapid Fire to ricochet for 55% of the damage (was 50%).

The buffs don't quite make up for the loss that Night Fae Hunters suffered from the Wild Spirits + Serpentstalker's Trickery bug fix, but it is a fairly decent buff for all Hunters! These changes actually benefit Kyrian Hunters the most, since Resonating Arrow amplifies baseline damage (along with it's conduit Enfeebled Mark). Night Fae is the next highest gain from these buffs due to Wild Mark which occurs during Wild Spirits.

For a rough estimation, Kyrian Hunters can expect a 2-3% buff in single target and a 4-5% buff in AoE. Night Fae Hunters can expect a 1-2% buff in their single target and about a 3-4% buff in AoE. Finally, Venthyr and Necrolord Hunters can expect a buff slightly less than Night Fae's numbers. In terms of Covenant balance, this still doesn't change anything too much. Night Fae remains the best for raid, followed by Kyrian. In Mythic+, Kyrian and Night Fae are still comparable, with Kyrian arguably pulling ahead slightly (this heavily depends on group composition and level of keys). These buffs basically make Night Fae and Kyrian super close and within margin of eachother. The best covenant now heavily depends on the type on content you're doing (remember that Kyrian is still our best option for PvP).
Windwalker Monk

Windwalker

Spinning Crane Kick damage increased by 15% (was 10%) per unique target you've struck in the last 20 seconds (was 15 seconds) with Tiger Palm, Blackout Kick, or Rising Sun Kick.
Resolved an issue with Spinning Crane Kick that prevented the ability from gaining benefit from Mastery: Combo Strikes.
Fists of Fury now deals 70% damage to secondary targets (was 50%).

After seeing a rather large drop in the WCL “rankings” following 9.0.5, Windwalker Monks see a nice chunk of buffs coming with this weekly reset. These buffs are clearly intentioned to help to compensate for the loss of damage that came with the bug fixes in 9.0.5 and should accomplish a large portion of that goal.

Mark of the Crane stacks being increased to 15% from 10% will be a nice increase in AOE damage and help to reward and incentivize players who are good at managing stacks manually without the bug that allowed to last forever.

The biggest Qualify of Life change is with the increase duration of the Mark of the Crane debuff from 15s to 20s. This cuts down on how quickly it has to be reapplied in longer fights and increases the chance that stacks will “carry over” between shorter ones. This should be a nice improvement for players that are used to the new way and those who aren’t.

The increased damage for Fists of Fury’s cleave comes as a welcome change in concert with the bug fix that prevented Fists of Fury from correctly hitting 6 total targets. Fists of Fury has been sorely lacking “umph” since the loss of Open Palm Strikes azerite trait, and these changes will help with that.

While these changes don’t help Windwalker’s single target much, if at all, which is where WW is still lacking, they should go a long way in closing the gap between pre- and post- 9.0.5 performance while maintaining less reliance on the bugs that were fixed.
Demonology Warlock

Demonology

Spell and pet damage increased by 3%.

The 3% buff should help very minorly in an area where our DPS really falls off; outside of Summon Demonic Tyrant windows. This shouldn't push it into an upper echelon of progression or anything major but it will help our sustain outside of our 1 minute (assuming you're using Wilfred's Sigil of Superior Summoning) cooldown phases. For the influx of players looking to have fun playing Demo and HP stacking through trinkets and raid cooldowns this should help them convince others in the raid they aren't a complete detriment.

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Comment by CannacellRemovedComment by DabraxusRemovedComment by sotabaCompared to the really good classes/specs hunter still suxx. And in summary we still got nerfed, so what.Comment by ShadowinfectThat %3 Demonolgy buff is nothing, it needs atleast around %15-20 for good damage and making Tyrant cast instantly. Hopely we will see old Demonolgy back as BFA. And reduce the Tyrant cooldown to 1.5 second instead of 0.6 with " Wilfred's sigil of Superior Summoning "Make Demonolgy great again.Comment by AdmThrawn...Comment by pabasaAny improvements to BM hunters are much appreciated. I do not enjoy the gameplay of marksman at all (turret gamestyle, might as well play a caster).

I know all specs are definitely competitive outside of top tier raiding and high keys, but I still feel like if I do bring my BM hunter to my +14 keys I'm still gimping the group because I have the option of being able to do higher dps as MM. All I'm asking is a buff to BM and Surv that would address this mentality.Comment by sjaakwowRemovedComment by mtmfWhat was the nerf to Wild Spirits in 9.0.5 mentioned by Impakt? Did I miss something here or is he saying the buff to the other covenant abilities was a nerf to Wild Spirits?

Edit: You beat me to it sjaakwow. I was cheking the patch notes one more time to be sure and didn't see your post.Comment by KaverRemovedComment by KaverThat said, BM needs help on single target as wellComment by HeretikAnd the single target for DH ?Comment by PaulnutzLove it. All the BM hunters in the comment section of the news yesterday "Omg, that buff doesn't do sh*t foIr us, waaahh so bad! Stupid Blizzard!". Class writer: "This is effectively a 20% buff to Beast Cleave, which is quite substantial ." ROFLComment by DabraxusObviously you missed the previous sentence "While this will not be that useful inside Castle Nathria (with the notable exception of Stone Legion Generals)"
It really doesn't do much for BM hunters.It doesn't do @#$% for them in raid lolComment by FrawtariusAny improvements to BM hunters are much appreciated. I do not enjoy the gameplay of marksman at all (turret gamestyle, might as well play a caster).

I know all specs are definitely competitive outside of top tier raiding and high keys, but I still feel like if I do bring my BM hunter to my +14 keys I'm still gimping the group because I have the option of being able to do higher dps as MM. All I'm asking is a buff to BM and Surv that would address this mentality.exactlyComment by johano3012Surv will never be great in its current state. It's time to bury the melee notionComment by Kaverbut they're already ahead of MM in pure ST fights like Sludgefist or Hungering Devourer.Comment by J00tiiThat %3 Demonolgy buff is nothing, it needs atleast around %15-20 for good damage and making Tyrant cast instantly. Hopely we will see old Demonolgy back as BFA. And reduce the Tyrant cooldown to 1.5 second instead of 0.6 with " Wilfred's sigil of Superior Summoning "Make Demonolgy great again.Comment by SarthoriusAny improvements to BM hunters are much appreciated. I do not enjoy the gameplay of marksman at all (turret gamestyle, might as well play a caster).

I know all specs are definitely competitive outside of top tier raiding and high keys, but I still feel like if I do bring my BM hunter to my +14 keys I'm still gimping the group because I have the option of being able to do higher dps as MM. All I'm asking is a buff to BM and Surv that would address this mentality.Any improvements to BM hunters are much appreciated. I do not enjoy the gameplay of marksman at all (turret gamestyle, might as well play a caster).

I know all specs are definitely competitive outside of top tier raiding and high keys, but I still feel like if I do bring my BM hunter to my +14 keys I'm still gimping the group because I have the option of being able to do higher dps as MM. All I'm asking is a buff to BM and Surv that would address this mentality.exactlyComment by Mardux11Obviously you missed the previous sentence "While this will not be that useful inside Castle Nathria (with the notable exception of Stone Legion Generals)"
It really doesn't do much for BM hunters.It doesn't do @#$% for them in raid lolComment by Blayaden01
Sorry but it is a bit more of a 'caster' than the others. And, I've played it a bit, and yes, it has great burst damage, specially on ST (the higher of the 3), but in comparison, SV has the Higher AoE (and sustained AoE), of the 3 (dunno if BM with this buff got close, but it is hard capped). But movement-heavy encounters, which in M+ at least I see some, MM suffers a bit.

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