Stand still to shoot: the six biggest nerfs in WoW Forever's October 15 patch

The longest patch notes of the beta

Blizzard posted its largest beta development notes on the evening of October 15, US time, and the beta realms came back on build 70425 less than an hour later. Every class received changes and nine races had their racials reworked. The Forever Open, a Horde duel tournament on October 17 and 18, was played on this build, which gave the notes more attention than a normal beta update.

Many entries are bug fixes. A fix still takes something away from players who had built their play around the bug, so our episode counted those alongside intended tuning. The six nerfs below follow our episode's ranking, which weighs how much each one changes play rather than which has the largest percentage in the notes. Each class's compensation is listed with it, because a nerf read without the matching buff gives the wrong picture.

Sources: WoW Forever beta development notes, updated October 15 (build 70425) · Beta realm maintenance, October 15: realms return on build 70425 · EU copy of the October 15 development notes

Number 1: Auto Shot and wands need you to stop

One line in the notes affects four classes. Auto Shot and wands now require 0.5 seconds of standing still before they fire, which Blizzard described as matching early versions of World of Warcraft. Until then, wand duels in the beta often looked like two players shooting while running in circles, and Hunters could keep Auto Shot going while kiting.

The change was announced long before it arrived. On September 23, Kaivax wrote that Hunters and wand users did not need to stop to shoot for as long as intended and hoped to fix it the following week. The fix landed about three weeks later. Hunters can still fire Auto Shot while casting Aimed Shot or Sniper Shot, so the change removes shooting on the run, not every ranged attack. Priests, Mages and Warlocks now have to stop before a wand can finish a mob.

Player reaction was not one-sided. One Hunter who had played weeks of beta PvP backed the change on Reddit, arguing that classes without a sprint, gap closer or long-range instant attack had almost no answer to shooting on the move.

Sources: WoW Forever beta development notes, updated October 15 (build 70425) · Kaivax: Auto-shoot bug and fix incoming, September 23

Numbers 2 and 3: Paladin spell power and the Orc racials

Paladins were cut again after the October 8 Retribution Aura changes. Consecration loses more than half of the extra damage it gains from spell power, and Champion of the Light converts half as much Intellect into spell damage. Two bugs were removed: Seal of Righteousness had been getting almost twice its intended spell power benefit, and Infusion of Light gave Holy Shock 50% more damage against enemies. Shield Specialization now restores 4% of maximum mana per proc instead of 6%.

Protection received the compensation. Righteous Fury, reduced from 90% to 60% extra threat on September 24, is back at 90%. Reckoning can store up to four extra attacks again, which Blizzard said restores the Classic Era behavior players called the Reckoning bomb. It sits 20 points into Protection, so a level 30 Retribution Paladin has to respec and give up Repentance to take it. When we recorded on October 16, Reckoning was also acting as if four charges were already stored; one burst in our own combat log landed close to 1,000 damage with Seal of Righteousness. That was a bug at the time of recording, not intended behavior.

Orcs lost the defensive part of Shatter Curse. It still removes curses and banes but no longer makes you immune to them, and its magic damage reduction fell from 15% to 5%: a spell that would hit for 100 used to land for 85 and now lands for 95. Blood Fury moved from a 2-minute to a 3-minute cooldown. Axe Specialization was replaced by Savage, 1% crit chance on all attacks and spells, which helps a PvE Orc slightly regardless of weapon.

Sources: WoW Forever beta development notes, updated October 15 (build 70425) · Class Deep Dives: Paladin, published October 15

Numbers 4 to 6: Mage, Undead and Hunter pets

The largest Mage loss is not on a tooltip. Clearcasting used to roll separately for every target a spell hit, so a big Arcane Explosion or Blizzard pull produced many chances at a free cast; now it rolls once. It also no longer triggers from Dampen Magic, Amplify Magic or spells cast out of combat. A Presence of Mind bug and Missile Barrage carrying into a second Arcane Missiles were fixed. Ice Lance against frozen targets deals three times its damage instead of four, a 25% cut to that hit, and Arcane Blast's base damage and spell power scaling are both 40% lower. The notes describe Winter's Chill in two different ways, so its final values were unclear. In return, Mages got Arcane Wrath, a 16-point talent scaling with maximum mana, Missile Barrage on the first row, Critical Mass at five points for 10% crit, and Frost Blast at level 24.

Will of the Forsaken no longer works while an Undead character is under Scatter Shot. Touch of the Grave now has a 25-second internal cooldown, a 30% trigger chance for casters and 20% for melee, and no longer scales with Shadow damage bonuses.

Hunter pets were cut where they were strongest: the Crocolisk's healing reduction and the Bat's casting debuff were halved, Dismember lasts 6 seconds on a 15-second cooldown, and the Bird of Prey disarm is shorter and less frequent. Hunters can now place a Fire Trap and an Ice Trap at the same time, fire traps scale with attack power, pets use the higher of your melee or ranged crit, Trueshot Aura covers the raid, and Survival's Strider Kick works while disarmed.

Sources: WoW Forever beta development notes, updated October 15 (build 70425)

Who came out ahead

Shamans gained the most. Lava Burst moved from row 7 to row 5 of the Elemental tree as the 21-point talent, lost its prerequisite and gained a rank at level 30. A level 30 character has the 21 points it needs, and the Talented Legacy perk brings it within reach at 25. Elemental Mastery returns as the 31-point talent. Grace of Air, Strength of Earth, Windfury and Flametongue reach the whole raid, and Chain Lightning costs about 35% less mana. The costs: Fire Nova hits softer, Grounding Totem breaks after one redirect, and Windfury and Flametongue only affect players.

Shadow Priests gained Devouring Plague on a 24-second cooldown, Vampiric Embrace on 30 seconds and unresistable, the new Dark Inspiration, and Devouring Contagion spreading to two targets, while Shadow Word: Death went to 18 seconds. Warlocks got a trade: Destructive Reach now covers only Destruction, Affliction range moved to the new Grim Reach in place of Malediction, and Shadow Mastery's bonus doubles per rank. Rogues received only four bug fixes.

Humans, Orcs and Dwarves traded weapon specializations for bonuses that work with any weapon: 2% crit chance for Humans, 1% for Orcs, and Earth Fury's 2% critical damage and healing for Dwarves. The most repeated complaint in player threads was that Dwarves got crit damage while Humans got crit chance. Gnome Eureka became an 8-second window, Trolls keep 20% of health regeneration in combat, and Skyborne get 3% haste. Warriors got a raid-wide Battle Shout, and Druids keep Cat Form energy when shifting to Bear. For current talent values, use the talent calculator rather than this dated list.

Sources: WoW Forever beta development notes, updated October 15 (build 70425) · Class Deep Dives: Rogue and Warlock (earlier Destructive Reach and Malediction)