Greetings!
With our patch 1.17.2 on the horizon (and a release date within the next couple months), there's a great deal of speculation regarding class changes, weapon skill, and various other balance-related topics and how they will be impacted by our upcoming changes and new post-naxxramas content. Today, we would like to share some clarifying information regarding the direction being taken in class balance and design, while avoiding specific numbers.
Weapon Skill
Weapon skill is not being removed. The system belongs in an RPG game such as World of Warcraft, and thus, we have no intentions of scrapping the system. However, another crucial part of an RPG game is being able to create the character you want to play, without outside reasons such as the meta determining their race and class—a racial weapon skill bonus shouldn't prevent someone from making a Gnome warrior—only good taste should.
To achieve this, while still maintaining the classical RPG elements of different races having various specialties and weaknesses, we will be doing a few things:
- Racial Weapon Skill Bonuses will be nerfed, while not entirely removed.
- Linearizing Weapon Skill vs Defense Skill to make the breakpoints much more clear.
- Adding +5 skill bonus rewards from various sources.
Next, we would like to provide further information on our philosophy for class changes and the direction being taken in our design, as well as information regarding what is being done, what to expect, and what not to expect. Our team is hosting multiple meetings weekly to discuss the proposed ideas and changes from the chosen class changes council (group of veteran players, not developers), and refining those ideas into finalized changes.
Our philosophy has always been focusing on enhancing and polishing the existing identity of classes and specializations, rather than reworking or replacing them entirely. As fun as some more wacky concepts may be, we want to keep true to the identity of vanilla classes. This means smaller and less drastic changes overall, which should culminate in a healthy meta allowing each class and specialization to shine in their own way.
However, changes which may seem larger are not entirely out of the equation. The following are two larger-impact changes which will be coming with Class Changes 2 in 1.17.2:
- Rogues will gain the ability to use One-Handed Axes.
- Throwing Weapons will now be repairable rather than needing restocked similar to ammo.
We hope that this post provides some clarity to the direction we are taking in our design for 1.17.2 and onward. We look forward to sharing more details as the patch's release comes closer, and seeing all the community's experimentation with these changes.