World of Warcraft: Blizzard Nerfed Balance Druids in PvP for Being Too Good

In an update released during the weekly reset, Blizzard essentially nerfed Balance Druids in World of Warcraft for over-performing. The company cited that the Balance Druid's ability to generate so much Astral Power allowed them to deal insane damage with Starfall and damage-over-time effects.

In the June 5 hotfix for WoW, a few adjustments have been made to severely nerf the Druid's Astral Power generation. First, the Druid's Moonfire and Sunfire abilities saw a two-point decrease in Astral Power generation. Now, these abilities only generate four instead of six when cast in PvP.

Second, Stellar Innervation, which used to generate 100% additional Astral Power when using Sunfire and Moonfire during Solar Eclipse and Lunar Eclipse, respectively, now only generates 50% additional Astral Power in PvP.

And third, Starburst now only grants eight Astral Power when enemies come into contact with a star, rather than 15 Astral Power previously.

As if those adjustments are not bad enough, additional nerfs have been implemented for some of the Balance Druids' kit. The cast time of Cyclone and Entangling Roots is now reduced only by 20% (rather than 30%) with Owlkin Adept talent. Furthermore, Goldrinn's Fang damage has essentially been halved when used in PvP.

If there's one good thing that came out of the hotfix for Balance Druids, it is that Wrath and Starfire now deal 60% increased damage in PvP, up from 50%.

Patch Notes

Druid

• Feral
  • Aberrus (2) Set Bonus: Chance for Shadows of the Predator stacks to reset reduced by 15%.
  • Aberrus (4) Set Bonus: Now increases Agility by 8% (up from 5%).

Evoker

• Preservation
  • Disintegrate damage has been increased by 15% for Preservation Evoker.

Mage

• Fire
  • Pyroblast damage increased by 5% (does not apply in PvP combat).
  • Fire Blast damage increased by 10% (does not apply in PvP combat).
  • Fireball damage increased by 10% (does not apply in PvP combat).
  • Phoenix Flames damage increased by 10% (does not apply in PvP combat).
  • Scorch damage increased by 10%.

Monk

• Brewmaster
  • All ability damage increased by 3%.
  • Rising Sun Kick damage increased by 10%.
  • Blackout Kick damage increased by 30%.
  • Tiger Palm damage increased by 30%.
• Mistweaver
  • All healing increased by 3%. This does not apply to PvP combat.

Warrior

• Arms
  • All ability damage increased by 4%.
  • Fatality Fatal Mark damage increased by 15%.
  • Deep Wounds periodic damage increased by 5%.
  • Rend periodic damage increased by 5%.
• Protection
  • All damaging abilities increased by 8%.
  • Auto-attack damage increased by 10%.
  • Spell Block's duration increased to 30 seconds (was 20 seconds).
  • Thunderlord now causes each enemy hit by Thunder Clap to reduce the remaining cooldown of Demoralizing Shout by 1.5 seconds, up to 4.5 seconds (was 1.0 seconds, up to 3.0 seconds).

The Balance Druids nerfs are pretty significant and many players are probably going to use other Druid specializations. But what do you think? Was Blizzard too hard with the nerfs or were these adjustments justified?

World of Warcraft June 5 hotfix is available on PC.