Players protest against new The War Within class tuning
Patch 11.0.5 is officially out. However, it’s not just a celebration. Players have started protesting against War Within class tuning in patch 11.0.5
Update
We’ve revamped our article with the new Blizzard blue post on the matter.
Table of Contents
Balance does change sometimes, and some players have grudged against it. Blizzard has recently announced some class tuning that will happen in patch 11.0.5 of War Within, and some players took it personally. The mass of players protesting are casual players who want to gear up in M+ dungeons. The thing is, M+ this season is one of the hardest ever in WoW since the Legion expansion. Because of Blizzard’s new design philosophy on M+, Mythic + difficulty became much more difficult.
The new Mythic+ season is hard
In short, Mythic+ became less random because of more straightforward affixes, but the other side is that boss and trash scaled to be much more challenging and dangerous. People on Reddit have described their infuriation with this season. Many players think that the tank role became too hard. Caster mobs became so hazardous that they can and will wipe your group. And some classes are much weaker than others.
The situation doesn’t get better when some classes are objectively worse than others. For example, the best Arms Warrior players with bis gear will never outperform the best Frost DK players with bis gear. In this ecosystem, some specs are expected to outclass others because of their damage or overall usability.
Players are aware of these issues and want better conditions for their party to prevent key breaks. That’s why some specs like Fury Warriors can get outclassed with a much more stable Frost DK. This will leave some casual players with options that could be more pleasant. You should organize your group or change spec; in the worst cases, you should even change a class, which is ridiculous. Even if you organize a group, you must be very specific in choosing your teammates or follow the overall meta.
People like new affixes overall, but the scale of dungeons and balance disparity between classes is too much. It was a concerning situation overall, but Blizzard has recently released questionable class tuning in their blue post. And that was the point that broke the camel’s back.
Here is the summary of the new balance changes.
| Spec | Buffs (Single; AOE) DPS difference | Nerfs DPS difference |
| Blood DK (Deathbringer) | 5%; — | Slight Nerf in AOE |
| Blood DK (San’layn) | — | -15% — 20% Overall |
| Frost DK | 8.1%; 7.6% | — |
| Balance Druid | — | -0,5%; -5% |
| Feral Druid | approx 2%; — | — |
| Marksmanship Hunter | approx 2%; approx 2% | — |
| Survival Hunter | 6%; 9% | — |
| Arcane Mage (Sunfury) | 11.7%; 11.2% | — |
| Arcane Mage (Spellsinger) | 15-20%; 29.4% | — |
| Fire Mage | — | -6.5% |
| Frost Mage | 8%; — | — |
| Brewmaster Monk | 2.5%; 2.9% | — |
| Windwalker Monk | 3%; 4-5% | — |
| Holy Paladin | — | 2% atleast |
| Retribution Paladin | — | -3% |
| Assassination Rogue | 6%; — | — |
| Outlaw Rogue | 5% overall | — |
| Subtlety Rogue | 4%; — | — |
| Arms Warrior | — | -1% |
The best melee DPS spec Frost DK, got buffed, while Warlock and Warrior specs got nothing. Of course, this situation will affect the morale of some players.
The War Within players protest against M+
The reaction was almost instant. Players have started making groups in LFG to attract attention to this issue. They name their groups Protest, for Blizzard to take note on balance changes. One of the biggest complaints is Mage and DK buffs, which were already top-tier classes for Mythic+ dungeons. The protests started even before the release of 11.0.5. Until now, Blizzard has yet to comment on this situation. Some players considered the balance difference exaggerated, claiming that strong plays will still perform well in M+.
This is not the only problem. Many PvP players expected class tuning, too, especially for the Shuffle mode, where the meta has become stale. Blizzard took a gamble, making Blitz Battleground the main focus of this add-on and leaving most resources in this mode.
What Blizzard did about War Within protests
With the last minutes of the update, Blizzard decided to change some tuning, and the main attractors for those changes were DK specs (mainly Frost and Blood) and Arcane Mage. The announcement was made by Kaivax, the community manager, in a blue post.
Blizzard has also stated that they plan on tuning more classes next week. They will follow with more clarifications in the next blue post.
Conclusion
We will keep you updated on the matter, so be sure to bookmark this page. Please share your thoughts on the matter in the comments.
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