We Got Some MONK And HUNTER Buffs In Shadowlands! – WoW: Shadowlands 9.0.5

Patch 9.0.5 features updates for class tuning. We also got more updates for Shadowlands as well as small but potentially interesting announcements for The Burning Crusade (TBC). It looks like Blizzard kind of released it early for some players on the battlenet client the TBC beta. Blizzard is doing tuning for a couple of different classes. One of those classes being Monks as Monks saw some of the biggest nerfs with a bug fix that has happened recently with 9.0.5. Bug fix that allowed Monks to do some great insane big AOE damage making it a very popular spec for PVE. And all of a sudden with all these bug fixes, it does not do as much damage. So it looks like Blizzard is trying to tune them back up as well as a change to Hunters to also helpfully tune them back up a little bit. 

THE BURNING CRUSADE

Not everyone is into TBC or classic experience of World of Warcraft. Players recently started receiving in the b-net the Burning Crusade Classic Beta. Some players were able to get into the login screen and look at the settings where they found out that they will be able to get Ray Traced Shadows in your Burning Crusades. However it has been officially confirmed that BC is not ready for the beta just yet. It looks like a bug maybe having to do with certain players’ clients, maybe those that have actually played back in TBC. They did also dig up a mount, one that was not originally TBC marked as Warpstalker mount because this mount was dug up not in Shadowlands data mining but in TBC client data mining. They even data mined a really janky animation for the mount. Some players already think this is going to be a TBC cashup mount. Other people are saying there’s going to be a promotional amount.   

WoW: Burning Crusade Classic 'Accidentally' Confirmed by Blizzard

SHADOWLANDS UPDATES

HUNTER

Hunters have been calling for some kind of a buff to their class in terms of damage or maybe even then take it as a department. And looks like Blizzard decided with this to use the reset. Beast cleave will now cause your pet to strike additional targets for 90% of your pet’s damage instead of 75%. Which is quite a significant damage increase in AOE as Beast Mastery, at least in previous expansion, has been the spec for big AOE damage. While also having quite a bit of single target as well. With better scaling, as we get more stats, crit strike and haste are going to get stronger in the future. So quite a bit AOE added to Beast Mastery and Marksmanship saw a buff to aim shot where his damage is squeezed by 5% and Trick Shot  now causes your Aim Shot and Rapid Fire to ricochet for 55% of the damage instead of 50%. I wonder if that Beast Mastery AOE cleave play style might be good potentially with some of the pet legendaries that allow your pets to do even more damage. I wonder if this could potentially make Beast Mastery a playable spec in mythic pluses or even in raids since quite a lot of the counters in Castle Nathria do have AOE components to them. 

Beast Mastery Hunter DPS Talents & Build Guide - Shadowlands 9.0.5 - Guides  - Wowhead
Beastmaster Hunter

While not the biggest powerhouse of single target damage Beastmaster Hunters are considered as a pretty decent choice for pure single target. And now that they can cleave pretty well, I wonder if that could be pretty good for them for a variety of PVE fights. They did have a lot of the legendaries buffed and some of those legendaries have to play off of pets, making pets do more critical strike damage. I wonder if one day that will make a bit of an impact in mythic pluses and might allow Beast Master Hunters to at least be more prominent in mythic plus. Bringing good single target damage maybe for tyrannical fights, especially those fights in mythic pluses that have a lot of movement attached to them. While also being able to have quite a bit of decent solid cleave. 

MONK

We also got Monk changes recently with patch 9.0.5. Blizzard fixed a bunch of bugs that allowed Windwalker Monks to do more damage than they were supposed to. However because of bug changes and fixes, Monks now do less damage than before. So it looks like Blizzard is trying to give them some power back. Spinning Crane Kick damage has been increased by 15% instead of 10%. Pair unique target you’ve struck in the last 20 seconds instead of 15 seconds with Tiger Palm, Blackout Kick and Rising Sun Kick. This alone is going to make Spinning Crane Kick quite a bit more AOE damage. Blizzard also resolved an issue with Spinning Crane Kick, preventing the ability from gaining benefit of mastery where apparently your Spinning Crane Kick was not working with your mastery. That alone is going to be quite a solid upgrade for Monks and it is going to make mastery a better stat for them. 

Also Fists of Fury now deals 70% damage to second-hand targets instead of 15%. This will make him quite a bit of a powerhouse since Fists of Fury is quite a bit of your single target and that is quite a lot of cleave. This I think might have a ripple effect in mythic pluses where you are trying to focus a single target down. That is going to be even more splash damage to enemies around you. I think in PVP this is going to be good. The Fists of Fury doing even more damage just nuking enemies down. It is not a 100% damage to enemies but a 20% increase is amazing. 

Windwalker Monk DPS Guide - Shadowlands 9.0.5 - World of Warcraft - Icy  Veins
Windwalker Monk

I wonder if this is going to be enough to make Windwalkers back to a competitive aspect against Outlaw Rogues in mythic pluses. Since Outlaw Rogues bring quite a lot of AOE with all that group utility with Shroud, crazy CC and survivability that Monks didn’t. Monks brought the damage down on any enemy they saw. Let’s see if with this buff it will make it more competitive. 

It is not going to be easy to take over an Outlaw Rogue in terms of how good they are in terms of utility. They are good for pushing keys however they might not be the best class to get those keys timed quickly but when it comes to making tire keys easier, Outlaw Rogues can definitely do that. And Windwalker Monks might be able to do as well with the extra damage increase. We don’t know how these buffs will apply but I think any Windwalker that’s looking for any cleave, PVE, AOE content is going to be pretty happy. 

DEMONOLOGY

There’s also an update to spell and pet damage of Demonology which by itself 3% damage increase would not seem all that good but it’s raw damage increase for your pets. As in your Treant, Imps unless they mean just your main pet. And that will probably be the only case where that actually won’t be that good of a buff. It is a small buff for Demonology, I don’t think Blizzard is trying to make Demonology better than any other spec. Small buff like this is something Blizzard did a lot before this patch. Some of them eventually would kind of stack up where eventually it would be a pretty massive buff. However I do not remember Demonology getting too many buffs in 9.0.5. As of recently they did not get a couple of things when it comes to their covenants. I wonder if this is enough to make Demonology somehow good in specific scenarios.  

World of Warcraft's Demonology Warlock is being reworked, again - Polygon

CASTLE NATHRIA

Changes in Castle Nathria includes Sludgefist. If you are fighting Sludgefist in mythic and struggling with them, Blizzard is making them a little bit easier to work with. A lot of the mechanics have certain aspects made easier. For example, Fractured Debris travel time now gives you an extra second in order to get in position (from 1.5 seconds to now 2.5 seconds). The impact locations of Fractured Debris should now be more visible in mythic difficulty. When the boss goes for the Destructive Stomp, it will be less likely to destroy pillars since that radius will be reduced to 16 yards from 20 yards. And Chain Link allowable range is now increased to 14 yards from 12 yards. 

Castle Nathria Raid Guides for Shadowlands - Boss Strategies, Rewards,  Unlock Schedule - Guides - Wowhead
Castle Nathria

STONE LEGION

Stone Legion General is probably the hardest raid boss of all of Castle Nathria. A couple of changes were done to SLG. The thing about Stone Legion when you are trying to nerf it, you can’t just nerf the boss’s health in terms of how much health someone has because it changes the fight completely. Right now in SLG there are very specific timings and specific amounts of DPS that you need to push the boss to at certain times. So if you go in too fast or if you are going too slow, the whole fight will feel completely weird and awkward. So changing boss health would have actually screwed up the fight. 

Stone Legion Generals - Castle Nathria Raid Strategy - Guides - Wowhead

So Blizzard found a way around not changing boss health therefore not changing boss timers. Instead they opted for things like certain abilities that do less damage. The Anima orbs that you picked up lasts a little bit longer so you don’t need to worry about dunking them immediately. Gargoyles with Soultaint Effigy now stacks to 80% healing reduction instead of 100%. Makes it a little bit easier for healers to maintain players when the Gargoyle turns into stone form. Making the annoying mechanics of this fight easier to deal with, without completely making the fight shorter or changing the timers which is good. So many guilds do SLG on a very specific style at very specific time intervals so definitely a nerf in that fight. 

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