WoW class tuning lands September 1 as Bonus Rolls get loot-locked

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Blizzard has another round of World of Warcraft class tuning lined up for weekly maintenance on September 1, with buffs aimed at several underperforming raid and Mythic+ specs and a broad PvP pass meant to cut down on long, defensive matches.

The other notable change is to raid Bonus Rolls. According to Blizzard’s raid loot post, Bonus Rolls can only be used on bosses where the player is still eligible for loot. In practice, if you’ve already killed a boss on a given difficulty that week, killing it again before reset won’t let you spend a Bonus Roll there.

The timing is a bit messy. Blizzard announced the Bonus Roll change for the September 1 maintenance window, but the hotfix is already live this weekend. That means the old plan of saving rolls and spending them on repeat kills later in the week no longer works.

On the class side, the official tuning post is mostly buffs for PvE, with a few tank and healer adjustments mixed in:

  • Frost Death Knight is getting sizable single-target and cleave buffs, including 15% more Obliterate damage and 20% more Frost Strike damage.
  • Beast Mastery Hunter and Survival Hunter are both getting 7% more damage in PvE, with Survival’s increase reduced to 3% in PvP.
  • Feral Druid gets a 5% overall PvE damage buff, plus higher auto-attack and Ferocious Bite damage.
  • Balance Druid, Fire Mage, Frost Mage, Havoc Demon Hunter, and Windwalker Monk are also getting smaller PvE damage boosts.
  • Vengeance Demon Hunter’s mitigation and Fel Devastation healing are being raised, while Protection Paladin gets more damage from Blaze of Glory, Consecration, and Divine Guidance.
  • Restoration Druid and Mistweaver Monk healing are going up, and Mistweaver’s Venomous Abyss four-piece bonus is getting a higher activation chance.

PvP changes are broader. Healer specs will get less primary stat from Gladiator’s Distinction, dropping from 10% to 5%, as Blizzard says healers are topping targets too quickly. Mage barriers are being reduced, Fire Mage damage is being trimmed, Beast Mastery Hunter burst is being toned down, and Rogue’s Preemptive Maneuver is getting a smaller damage reduction.

There are buffs too, including help for Discipline Priest shields and Atonement healing, Devastation Evoker’s Flameshaper tools, Elemental Shaman’s Stormbringer damage, and Enhancement Shaman’s Stormstrike and Lava Lash. The full tuning pass is scheduled with next week’s maintenance unless individual changes are adjusted before then.

Further reading: Official WoW class tuning notes, Official raid bonus roll update