EU+US PTR 7.1 Impressions for 20's

Dragpz

Grandfathered
7.1 PTR Impressions
I know things are subject to change, but I decided to compile a list of changes for classes on PTR and include my general impressions of the changes. If I'm missing something let me know, I briefly skimmed over the spellbook to see what changed.


Warriors
Arms Warrior- Heroic Throw
Prot Warrior- Heroic Throw,Focused Rage
Fury Warrior- Heroic Throw
  • Furious Slash no longer increases crit chance of Bloodthirst.
Overall Impression for Warriors: Good

Druids
Balance Druid- Regrowth, Dash, Sunfire
  • Loses Remove Corruption.
Feral Druid- Regrowth, Dash,
  • Loses Rake Stun.
  • Loses Feral Swiftness.
  • Tiger's Fury nerfed to 20 Energy and +15% damage (instead of 60 energy)
  • Loses Remove Corruption.
Resto Druid- Lifebloom, Dash, Sunfire
  • Loses Nature's Cure.
Guardian Druid- Regrowth,Dash, Ironfur
  • Loses Remove Corruption.
Overall Impression for Druids: Bad. Heavy nerfs for Feral. Resto still seems not viable.


Mages
Arcane Mages- Conjure Refreshment, Evocation(a godsend, considering how fast Arcane runs out of mana), Arcane Explosion
  • Loses Ice Barrier.
Fire Mages- Conjure Refreshment,Scorch, Flamestrike (it now slows 50%,but x2 longer cast time than blizzard)
  • Fire Blast is now 1 charge.
  • Loses Ice Barrier.
Frost Mages- Conjure Refreshment, Blizzard
  • Loses Ice Barrier.
  • Loses Pet Freeze ability.
Overall Impression for Mages: Bad, loss of Ice Barrier is a major loss in survivability. There are games in which I barely pulled through just because I had Ice Barrier at 10% HP.


Warlocks
Destro Warlock- Chaos Bolt, Life Tap
  • Loses Health Funnel.
  • Loses Soulstone.
Demo Warlock- Life Tap
  • Loses Health Funnel.
  • Loses Soulstone.
Aff Warlock- Life Tap
  • Loses Health Funnel.
  • Loses Soulstone.
Overall Impression for Locks: I guess Destros are in a good position now.


Rogues
Outlaw Rogues- Cheap Shot, Between The Eyes
  • Loses Ambush.
  • Loses Riposte.
Sublety Rogues- Cheap Shot, Shadowstrike, Nightblade
  • Loses Evasion.
  • Loses Shadowstep.
Assass Rogues- Cheap Shot, Garrote, Rupture, Sinister Strike
  • Loses Crippling Poison.
  • Loses Mutilate.
  • Loses Evasion.
  • Loses Shadowstep.
Overall Impression for Rogues: REALLY GOOD, they really want people to play Outlaw. There's going to be a lot more Outlaw rogues.


Monks
MW Monks- Crackling Jade Lightning,Renewing Mist
WW Monks- Crackling Jade Lightning, Fists of Fury, Disable
  • Loses Flying Serpent Kick.
  • Loses Windwalking.
BM Monks- Crackling Jade Lightning, Ironskin Brew
  • Loses Breath of Fire.
Overall Impression for Monks: Meh. FoF doesn't make up for the loss of Serpent Kick. Monks might be more fun to play now though.


Shamans
Ele Shammy- Earthbind Totem, Wind Shear, Far Sight (lolwat)
  • Loses Thunderstorm.
  • Loses Cleanse Spirit.
Enh Shammy- Earthbind Totem, Wind Shear, Far Sight, Stormstrike
  • Loses Frostbrand.
  • Loses Cleanse Spirit.
Resto Shammy- Earthbind Totem, Wind Shear, Far Sight, Chain Heal
  • Loses Purify Spirit.
Overall Impression for Shamans: They get an interrupt and a slow. Ele might be more viable, but what's the point of playing Ele without Thunderstorm. Resto still seems like crap.


Priests
Disc Priests- Atonement, Mind Vision, Flash Heal
  • Loses Shadow Mend.
  • Loses Plea.
  • Smite nerfed to no longer absorb damage.
Holy Priests- Holy Word: Chastise, Serendipity
Shadow Priests- Mind Vision, Flash Heal, Shadowform (?)
  • Loses Shadow Mend.
Overall Impression for Priests: Bad. Disc Priests nerfed hard. Holy Priests more viable, but playing PVP without PW:S isn't worth it in the slightest.


Hunters
Surv Hunters- Harpoon, Freezing Trap
  • Loses Aspect of the Cheetah.
  • (Talent) Animal Instincts now reduces CD of abilities.
BM Hunters- Multi-Shot, Wild Call
  • Loses Aspect of the Cheetah.
  • Loses Aspect of the Wild.
MM Hunters- Multi-Shot
  • Loses Aspect of the Cheetah.
Overall Impression for Hunters: Really good, especially Harpoon and Freezing Trap. Freezing Trap will now make it easier to tame pets.


Paladins
Ret Pallies-
  • Crusader Strike is now one charge.
Prot Pallies- Consecration, Shield of the Righteous
Holy Pallies- Consecration, Beacon of Light
Overall Impression for Pallies: Pretty good for Holy pallies.



Overall Impression of 7.1 based on PTR:
Feels like two steps back. Going from WoD to Pre-Legion felt like heaven. F2Ps experienced a golden age. In PTR's current state, the changes do more bad than good. Healers are weaker than ever. Burst damage is more rampant than ever. Tanks get some abilities to mitigate some damage, but overall, it's bad news bears for the overall balance of the classes. But, this is coming from the perspective of someone who prefers playing healer. DPS (most notably O Rogues and Surv Hunters) will probably have a blast. Whats kind of weird is the addition of these new 'vision' spells. Feels absolutely useless. Having these spells are really good in AB, but even then, the average player doesn't even care about having vision over a base.
 
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F2P stun lock rogues and a nerf to disc priests make me kinda happy. Giving resto shaman chain heal and a ranged kick is a good idea in terms of increasing viability in a BG, though the lack of a cleanse hurts. Hunters gaining a freeze is good news too.

I feel like, overall, the bracket lacked significant DPS. I've been playing BGs and using my trinket maybe once? I like the addition of traps and stun lock, even as a warrior.
 
fuck. losing Aspect of the Cheetah i was not prepared.
 
I'm really excited for beacon shenanigans. I enjoy holy paladin and this will only make them that much better! I hope to see more people running them rather than the few that still do.
 
I'm really excited for beacon shenanigans. I enjoy holy paladin and this will only make them that much better! I hope to see more people running them rather than the few that still do.

Hopefully it's enough to make up for the boring playstyle/mobility that hpal has become.

For 10-19 f2ps the changes to priests are exciting. At least the biggest issue in the bracket is being addressed. Moving the stealth stun from feral to outlaw doesn't seem like a bad thing either.

So many changes that are difficult to get a feel for without being in a 7.1 bg but at a glimpse it's looking good imo.
 
Hopefully it's enough to make up for the boring playstyle/mobility that hpal has become.

While different than wod or other expansions, I wouldn't call it boring. Bestow faith along with holy shock healing a good amount again allows for the hpally to spread heals well, and timing bestow faith well can be interesting/fun. There's some good burst potential too. I'm honestly just happy to see holy shock being worth the global again

I do miss my cleanse/speed buff talents though... Although this is remedied by proper/good positioning. No denounce for the anti crit debuff is sorely missed.
 
Shadow priests getting flash heal to replace shadowmend and shadowform is actually a buff to their survivability.

Arcane was already absolutely destroying FCs and evocation is great. Frost mages running lonely winter could be a thing and getting instant cast flurry=more mobility at the cost of survivability. It's not like mages had ice barrier before 7.0, so whatever. Scorch is cool too.

The loss of soulstone sucks, but anyone with a brain will loot a dead lock immediately so meh. Haunt got buffed in dmg (lol) and the changes will force locks to make sure they maintain agony on all targets for soul shards. chaos bolt may as well be recolored pink and renamed tickle bolt. Could care less about getting it back. Demo needs a snare from HoG back or felguards like in cata only with axe toss......only way they could be useful as a dps imo.

Sucks that the only toon I have a warforged wand on is a lock.
 
Frost mages' water elemental lose Pet Nova as well. Big loss.
Yiiiiiiiiikes. Guess Im spec'ing the ol mage arcane. Fire seems so boring.

Haunt got buffed in dmg (lol) and the changes will force locks to make sure they maintain agony on all targets for soul shards. chaos bolt may as well be recolored pink and renamed tickle bolt. Could care less about getting it back. Demo needs a snare from HoG back or felguards like in cata only with axe toss......only way they could be useful as a dps imo.

Sucks that the only toon I have a warforged wand on is a lock.
I don't play lock but I feel like affliction is gonna be one of those "kill on site" classes, given how intense agony seems to be. Is that accurate? Or is it remarkably different in pvp?
 
Weren't people just complaining earlier this week that healing was going to be too strong in 7.1?

It is too bad that resto shaman are losing their dispel. Some BGs I dispel up to 50-60 times. Earth bind will offer another escape mechanism from melee. And far site is nice addition that can be used for keeping tabs on the other faction in BGs from afar. Resto shamans will be stronger than ever.

I may play my HPaladin more now that though.
 
Yiiiiiiiiikes. Guess Im spec'ing the ol mage arcane. Fire seems so boring.


I don't play lock but I feel like affliction is gonna be one of those "kill on site" classes, given how intense agony seems to be. Is that accurate? Or is it remarkably different in pvp?
Agony by itself won't put out much pressure like mongokins spamming moonfire/sunfire and instant casts. The exception being locks that didn't take haunt for an agony that ramps up to 20 instead of 10, but even then unstable affliction would be the most dangerous spell in their toolkit.
 
Weren't people just complaining earlier this week that healing was going to be too strong in 7.1?

It is too bad that resto shaman are losing their dispel. Some BGs I dispel up to 50-60 times. Earth bind will offer another escape mechanism from melee. And far site is nice addition that can be used for keeping tabs on the other faction in BGs from afar. Resto shamans will be stronger than ever.

I may play my HPaladin more now that though.

Earthbind is a nice addition, but with Harpoon, Charge, Monk Roll and now Between the Eyes available to lower levels, it's going to be hard to actually get out of range of melees. Especially now that every one of these classes have a ranged ability to take out the totem itself.

Personally, as an RSham the only problem I had was going OOM from Healing Surge spam. But the mana values don't seem to be any different. I would say that Chain Heal is only good for topping people off, but I haven't done much testing with it.

I'm probably going to stick to playing Priests, if Holy Word: Serenity stays as powerful as it is right now (pretty much a Lay On Hands/Full Insta Heal), it might be worth going Holy, but I still feel like PW:S is too much too pass up.
 
Woohoo, sunfire + heals back for balance :D also dash is the increased speed in cat form right?
Ya, dash is a +70% sprint, though you have to stay in cat form to benefit from the sprint (if you change to any other form like travel, you'll still have the dash buff [meaning changing forms won't remove your sprint buff] but it'll not improve your movement speed at all. Movement speed boost is only applied while you're in cat form).
 

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