Shadowlands is the latest World of Warcraft expansion that launched November 23, 2020. Before the release of Shadowlands, Blizzard published detailed patch notes documenting all the changes in Shadowlands.
The first big change that affects every class and spec is: all tank specializations passive threat is increased. This change should be great for the game because it makes non-tank classes less likely to get aggro only for the tank to spam Taunt to get aggro back on him. Kind of like the game was back at the start!
Druids
For Druids, Feral is getting an increase in the amount of damage they can do, with all abilities, by 8%.
Restoration Druids are getting nerfed by a damage reduction of 5% overall. We talked about it in our healer changes guide so make sure to check that out.
Hunters
Beast Mastery Hunters have gotten a reduced damage of 5% for all abilities except Cobra Shot and Barbed Shot. Marksmanship Volley damage has been reduced by 30%.
Mages
Mages are in a weird place at the moment, with major nerfs here and there, and a major buff to Frost Mages.
Arcane Explosion received a damage nerf of 8%, Ice Lance damage reduced by 10% too, and Splitting Ice’s Ice Lance damage to secondary targets has also been reduced to 65% out of its previous whopping 80%.
It isn’t all bad for Mages though, as they got some buffs as well. Freezing Rain’s Blizzard got a damage increase of 60% from its 50%. Simply put, Frost mages are stronger than ever right now. Lastly, Comet Storm damage has also been increased by 5%.
Monk
Monk Windwalkers have gotten a quite large damage buff, with all of their abilities doing an increased 5% more damage! Windwalkers were always rare picks when it came to the meta of the game, but since the healer meta is going away and the focus is shifting to an extreme damage based meta, I think Windwalkers will do better now.
Paladins
Paladins have by far gotten the most changes being done to them, so breaking this down by spec will be simpler.
The general changes that have been made to the Paladin class are the Crusader Strike mana cost being reduced to 9% from the initial 15%, and Shield of the Righteous damage being nerfed by 15%.
Spec Specific Changes
Holy Paladins have received an increasing in healing for Holy Shock and Word of Glory by 10% and 9% respectively while Glimmer of Light’s healing has been reduced by a 10% rating.
Protection Paladins have received a nerf to the passive armor which is going from a 20% protection to 10%.
Retribution Paladins, on the other hand, have gotten a damage buff to all abilities of 4%. That said, the Execution Sentence talent no longer has a chance for a critical strike and its initial damage is being reduced by 25%.
Also, the Final Reckoning talent got nerfed with an increased damage taken nerf of 35% from 50%, but there is a shining light for Ret Paladin, as the Sanctified Wrath talent gets a damage increase of a whopping 50%.
Priests
Priests do not get too many changes. Discipline Priests got a substantial nerf. Power Word: Shield got a reduced percentage for absorption of 8%. Similarly, Shadow Word: Pain received a damage nerf of 10%, and even Purge The Wicked talent got a damage nerf of 10%. This patch really broke down Disciple Priest but it was well justified.
Rogue
Subtlety got a recent bug fix, nothing else.
Shaman
Shaman’s got a few changes as well, with their Chain Heals being reduced by 7%. Also, Restoration Shamans no longer provide that bonus damage of 40% from their specialization. It is now reduced to 15% unless the Resto Sham is at level 37, which clears that penalty and restores the damage back to 40%.
Warrior
Last but not least, the Warrior class receives a few tweaks. Arms Warriors get a damage buff of 6% on all of their abilities, and they added the feature where the Cleave talent no longer replaces the Sweeping Strikes in the abilities log.
Fury Warriors also get major buffs, their overall damage of all abilities has been increased by 10% along with Bladestorm talent also getting an 8% increase in damage, while Whirldwind additional target damage has been to 45% from its previous 50%.
Frenzy talent has seen a reduction in haste to 2% from 3% and an increase in max stacks to 4 from its previous 3.