Blizzard is cutting Blightfall from 200% of remaining plague damage to 100%, effectively halving that part of the ability after a recent bug fix pushed its output considerably higher than intended. Meanwhile, Devourer Demon Hunter, Brewmaster and Mistweaver Monk, Subtlety Rogue and Enhancement Shaman are all getting buffs. Apparently Season 2’s balance spreadsheet remains very much alive and has developed opinions.
The changes arrive only two weeks after Blizzard’s enormous 23-spec September tuning pass, reinforcing something we have been seeing throughout Midnight Season 2: nobody gets to become emotionally attached to their damage meter for very long.
Unholy’s Blightfall Gets Cut in Half
The headline change is unquestionably Unholy Death Knight. Blizzard says a recent bug fix caused Blightfall to deal significantly more damage than expected, so the ability will now deal 100% of the target’s remaining plague damage instead of 200%.
There is a certain cruelty to the timing. We recently covered how an Unholy bug fix effectively produced a surprise single-target buff. Players had barely finished rearranging their builds before Blizzard returned with the other half of the sentence.
The developers are also correcting an Augmentation Evoker interaction where damage from plague eruptions could incorrectly be attributed to the Death Knight. So some of the numbers players have been staring at were not merely too high. They were occasionally wearing somebody else’s name badge.
Devourer Gets a Proper Single-Target Buff
Devourer Demon Hunter receives one of the cleaner packages. Consume and Devour gain 8% damage, Reap and Cull gain 8%, Eradicate and Collapsing Star get 8% more primary-target damage, while The Hunt’s initial hit and Voidblade both rise by 10%. None of these increases apply in PvP.
Blizzard says Devourer’s single-target sources were below expectations, which fits the continuing evolution of Midnight’s unusual third Demon Hunter specialization. Devourer has been one of the expansion’s most interesting class experiments, but interesting is not quite enough when the raid boss would prefer you had brought a larger number.
Brewmaster Gets Harder to Kill
Brewmaster’s problem is less about damage and more about remaining technically alive.
Blizzard says Brewmaster death rates in dungeons are higher than intended. Quick Sip will now purify 8% of current Stagger instead of 5% whenever the Monk gains three seconds of Stagger duration, while Pretense of Instability grants its 10% dodge bonus for eight seconds after drinking a Brew instead of five.
These are not spectacular tooltip fireworks, but they target rotational durability rather than giving Brewmaster another emergency button to remember while the health bar attempts to leave the building.
Mistweaver, Trickster and Enhancement All Move Up
Mistweaver receives straightforward raid help: Invigorating Mists healing rises by 15%, while Enveloping Mist also gains 15% healing outside PvP. That follows earlier Season 2 adjustments and suggests Blizzard still sees room to improve Mistweaver’s raid performance rather than its basic toolkit.
Subtlety Rogue’s Trickster Hero Talents are also being pushed closer to Deathstalker. Fazed increases enemy damage taken by 7% instead of 5%, Unseen Blade gains 15% damage and Coup de Grace gains 10%. That is particularly interesting after all three Rogue specs climbed into the Mythic+ top seven. Blizzard is not rescuing a dead class here. It is trying to make the less popular Hero Talent choice more competitive.
Enhancement Shaman gets the broadest traditional buff: all ability and auto-attack damage increases by 4%, with Lava Lash receiving an additional 35% increase. Blizzard explicitly says Enhancement has been underperforming this season, so there is very little mystery about the intention.
Season 2 Balance Still Refuses to Sit Still
There is also a substantial PvP tuning package attached to the October 6 changes, covering tank PvP talents and buffs for Death Knights, Hunters, Mages, Monks, Paladins, Priests, Rogues, Shamans, Warlocks and Warriors. Some of the numbers are gloriously un-subtle, including Dragon Charge gaining 300% damage and Demonology’s Call Fel Lord receiving 150% more Fel Cleave damage.
But the larger story remains Blizzard’s willingness to keep moving PvE specs deep into Season 2. We knew this would happen when the developers published their aggressive Season 2 class-tuning schedule. What has been harder to predict is just how violently individual abilities can move from one reset to the next.
Unholy is the perfect example.
A bug fix makes Blightfall surprisingly strong. Players adapt. Blizzard looks at the numbers. Blightfall goes from 200% to 100%.
Somewhere, a Death Knight is reopening Raidbots.
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