20 years is a ridiculous amount of time for a game to continue running, but somehow World of Warcraft has managed to beat the odds and is still fighting fit, two decades later. To celebrate this milestone Blizzard has just hit the game with a massive event looking back at some of the highlights of the game’s history, but there’s a catch. The anniversary update also came with some class balance changes, and things are looking a little wild out there right now.
But first: the good stuff. There’s plenty to sink your teeth into in this event, with World of Warcraft seeing the return of Blackrock Depths, a new mount, adventures with Chromie across the MMORPG’s history, and much more. My favorite thing is, of course, the return of some classic armor pieces as transmog sets, such as the brilliant Tier 2 Paladin Judgement Armor. We’ve already delved into what you can expect, but for anyone who’s been around WoW for a while – this is quite the trip down memory lane.
In the accompanying patch, however, there’s been a few upsets, mainly around class balance. Both Elemental Shamans and Outlaw Rogues are seeing their damage outputs skyrocket, absolutely smashing their way through Nerub-ar Palace, leaving every other class and subclass in the dust. Just check out Warcraft Logs to see more info, with the recent disparity between DPS becoming increasingly apparent.
Admittedly part of this appears to be down to a bug, at least for Outlaw Rogues. Through performing a quite arcane set of maneuvers and respecs, it has been possible to boost the damage of finishers. They start being cast as if they had five additional combo points used on them, which can send DPS into the stratosphere.
For Elemental Shamans, however, things are a little more complicated and seem to just be a case of them being over-tuned right now. While outputting nowhere near as much damage as Outlaw Rogues, their DPS has shot them right into second place, ahead of many stalwarts such as Beast Mastery Hunters.
All of which means that it’s chaos out there and many fans are expressing disappointment with the current balance tuning. A quick glance at the WoW forums or the game’s subreddit show the breadth of the dissatisfaction right now, but fear not – Blizzard appears to be on the case. The Outlaw Rogue bug has already been addressed and the developer is busy removing runs where this bug was exploited.
The WoW 20th anniversary event is live now. If you’d like to know more and see what exactly has changed, head over to the patch notes to read the full lowdown.
Meanwhile, our best WoW addons guide will make sure that your game is running exactly the way you want it to. Should you want to go in a different direction, our guide to the best single-player MMOs will help you find something you’re sure to love.
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