Estimated DPS Increases for August 25th Class Tuning - Preservation Evoker and Havoc Demon Hunter Buffs
Source: Wowhead
We're getting some class tuning heading into the second week of Season 2, and our class writers have given DPS estimations of the changes coming!
Our Class Writers have given us a rough approximation of expected throughput changes with the weekly reset based on the full Patch Notes and each Class Guide for more details. These estimates may vary based on the exact spells that Blizzard buffs tomorrow.
Estimated Class Tuning for August 25th
We asked our class writers what the impact of upcoming changes will be for their spec, and here are their estimations using sims and theorycrafting! Please click the spoiler tags to see additional information and notes from our class writers.
- For DPS, these are DPS Throughput increases or decreases on both Single Target and AoE.
- For Tanks, these are DPS Throughput increases or decreases on both Single Target and AoE.
- For Healers, these are HPS Throughput numbers.
| Spec | Single Target | AoE | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frost DK | 7% | 6% | |
| Havoc DH | 2.7% | 2.7% | |
| Vengeance DH | 0% | 0% | Defensively, this buff will vary based on gear, but it's around 2.5–3.5% physical DR baseline from the extra armor, depending on the k value. |
| Restoration Druid | 3% | The size of the buff depends on how heavily you were playing into the Nature's Bounty talent. Generally, the stronger the player and the more you were able to stand still and cast, the smaller this buff will be. In Mythic+, it is a more straightforward buff. | |
| Preservation Evoker | ~2% | Talent swaps might be possible based on the heavy power of the Living Flame buff. Spec is incredibly competent in both raid and mythic+ right now. | |
| Beast Mastery Hunter | 0% | 4%–10% | AoE damage increase scales between 4% (Low target AoE) to 10% (High Target AoE). |
| Survival Hunter | 3.6% | 3.6% | 3.6% buff won't do much, as the spec is utterly incapable of leveraging any of the niches commonly featured in this raid: Spread cleave, Damage windows, Execute, 2-Target cleave. Survival has none of this. |
| Frost Mage | 0% | 2%–3% | For AoE it's ~2% Spellslinger and ~3% for Frostfire. |
| Brewmaster Monk | 2.3% | 2.7% | Celestial Brew is now at 300% of its absorb amount from Season 1. |
| Retribution Paladin | 0% | 3%–8% | Prior to this change, Ret ignored the 4 set effect in a lot of situations. This buff fixes it so that you will always want to be actively using Divine Arbiter procs. It's a stronger buff on lower target counts for AoE. This may also change talent builds slightly, making Tempest of the Lightbringer worth using on single target for Templar as well. |
| Affliction Warlock | 9% | ~6–7% | The Unstable Affliction buffs are nice and surely needed, but it does not address the larger issue that Affliction has: a lack of single target in AOE. As Affliction, you are forced to take predominantly AOE talents in Mythic+, leading to a lack of single target in those scenarios. The Unstable Affliction buffs, however, MAY change things in The Venomous Abyss on fights like Sszorak and Coiled Altar. |
| Demonology Warlock | 12% | 10% | These buffs still leave Destro behind for the majority of raid encounters, but this should prop Demonology up to a playable state, outside of the 1% raiders. This should enable Demo a little more in Mythic+, as we gained more priority damage than cleave damage but won't push up into being a meta spec even remotely. |
| Destruction Warlock | 0% | Small Buff | |
| Protection Warrior | 0% | 0% | This is an extremely minor buff to reduce magic damage taken for Prot Warrior, and was already a talent we would opt into, so no build changes. Free buffs are great, but magic damage taken was not particularly an issue plaguing Prot Warrior by any means, as it is an incredibly durable tank currently. |
