The Complete Breakdown of WoW Battle for Azeroth Class Changes

Now that we’re only a few days away from the brand new and very promising new World of Warcraft expansion Battle for Azeroth, one of the most exciting and intriguing things about it are the upcoming WoW Battle for Azeroth Class Changes.

Obviously, the next expansion will bring a plethora of new features related to all the class adjustments. Class abilities will be revamped, some will be completely wiped out from the game and completely new ones will be introduced to the gameplay.

First and foremost though, let’s take a closer look at some of the more general changes that affect all or most classes for the most part.

What are the main/general class changes in Battle for Azeroth?

These are the six primary overall modifications to how classes will work in BfA:

1. New scaling system for melee abilities

Non-caster classes will now use a new system for calculating the damage they do from abilities. All melee abilities will now utilize the numbers from your attack power and weapon damage, such as Shield Slam.

Blizzard intends to fix certain balance issues related to the different melee classes so that certain classes (like Warriors) don’t have to rely too much on their weapons to be efficient.

2. Changes to Blood Elf and Human Racials

Battle for Azeroth will bring forth two significant changes to some of the best in-game racials – Arcane Torrent for Blood Elves and Every Man for Himself for Humans.

Arcane Torrent will be given a new unique effect that’ll be added to its global cooldown, while the CD for Every Man for Himself will be increased (sorry Humans).

3. Adjustments to Bleed and Poison effects

Up until this point, the poison and bleed effects courtesy of classes like Warriors, Hunters, Rogues and Druids (in Feral spec) weren’t influenced by their haste.

Not anymore though, as in BfA these classes will find more use for haste since it’ll now affect their bleed and poison ticks. So if you’re playing a Warrior, rejoice!

4. Class cooldowns and global cooldown modifications

In Battle for Azeroth, you won’t be able to use your abilities that are part of the global cooldown at the same time. This means that you’ll have to wait for your global cooldown to expire before your next ability becomes available.

I’m sure that you’re so used to being able to use two (or even more) abilities at the same time but from now on, they’ll be tied to your GCD.

5. Innovations for all the Druid travel forms

In BfA, both the aquatic and flight forms of Druids will their own entries in your spellbook. This enables you to utilize various cosmic glyphs to alter between travel forms instantly.

However, it’s worth noting that the main button that you can use for shapeshifting will be still there and you’ll be able to use it.

6. Changes to Hunter pets

Dear Hunters, the upcoming WoW expansion will add certain revisions and tweaks to your pets, as to improve your overall gameplay.

The new changes will mean that there’ll be only 1 pet specialization per pet family – all the beasts that you have in that pet family will use the same spec. Also, every single specialization will possess certain specific characteristics.

What are the BfA Class Changes for each class?

There are quite a few changes for each class in the new expansion and here we’ll focus on the most important aspect – what the main changes for each class are.

Death Knight

• Anti-Magic Shell– Absorbs magic damage and generates Runic Power
• Corse Exploder – Previously known as Corpse Explosion
• Dark Succor – It now heals for an extra 10% of your max health
• Death’s Advance – There’s now a 45-sec cooldown
• Raise Ally – It used to cost 0 Runic Power, now it costs 30

Demon Hunter

• Chaos Brand– Brands your target, increasing its magic damage taken by 5% for 1 minute
• Chaos Nova – Now deals 20.475% of your AP and stuns your enemies for 2 seconds
• Disrupt – Formerly known as Consume Magic, it’s range is now 10 yards
• Eye Beam – It now costs 30 Fury, while its CD has been decreased to 30 secs
• Fel Rush – The Chaos damage that it does is now 23% of your AP
• Imprison – The CD is now increased to 45 seconds
• Metamorphosis – It now deals 32.75% of your AP as damage, you gain only 20% Leech, but the CD is now 4 minutes
• Consume Magic – A new ability that removes one beneficial magic effect from the target and gives you 20 Fury/Pain.

Druid

• Aquatic Form– Increases swim speed by 100% and lets you breathe underwater
• Flight Form– Lets you fly with a 150% speed increase, but requires the Riding skill
• Hibernate– Puts any Beast or Dragonkin to sleep for 40 secs and it costs 15% of your base mana
• Soothe – Dispells all enrage effects of your target
• Bear Form – Now increases armor by 220% and Stamina by 25%
• Cat Form – From now on it boosts your auto-attack damage by 40%
• Dash – The movement speed increase now lasts only 10 seconds
• Moonfire – The initial Arcane damage is now 15% of your Spell power, while the additional (spread over 16 secs) is 108% of your Spell power
• Rebirth – Now restores 100% of your (dead) target’s health and it’s also a 2-sec cast (from being an instant spell)

Hunter

• Command Pet – You command your pet to use its unique ability, depending on its current spec
• Camouflage – Same thing but with a new spell ID
• Disengage – Lets you leap backward
• Tranquilizing Shot – Removes one Enrage and one Magic effect from your target
• Mend Pet – Now heals your pet for 35% of its total health

Mage

• Arcane Intellect– Boosts your target’s Intellect by 10% for 1 hour
• Remove Curse – Removes every single Curse from your (friendly) target
• Portal: Bolarus – Opens a portal to Bolarus
• Portal: Dazar’alor – Opens a portal to Dazar’alor
• Teleport: Boralus – Teleports you to Bolarus
• Teleport: Dazar’alor – Teleports you to Dazar’alor
• Frost Nova – Now damages your enemies for 4.4775% of your Spell power
• Mana Attunement – Mana regen increased by 100%
• Polymorph – Now lasts 1 minute and costs 4.0% of your base mana
• Spellsteal – Steals a magic effect from your target and it lasts one minute
• Waterbolt – Now deals damage equal to 29.25% of your Spell power

Monk

• Mystic Touch – Weakens your target, increasing damage taken by 5%
• Blackout Kick – Now deals 77% of your AP
• Crackling Jade Lightning – Now causes Nature damage equal to 27.977% of your AP
• Paralysis – Now costs 20 Energy and the CD has been increased to 45 secs
• Spinning Crane Kick – The damage of this ability is now increased by 10%, instead of 40% as it used to be
• Tiger Palm – Now deals damage equal to 27.025% of your AP
• Transcendence: Transfer – CD now increased to 45 seconds

Paladin

• Blessing of Freedom – Instead of “placing a blessing on”, it now “blesses” a party or raid member
• Crusader Strike – Strikes the enemy for 90% of your AP and the CD is now 6 secs
• Divine Shield – Grants immunity and all harmful effects for 8 secs
• Divine Steed – Lets you “leap atop your charger”
• Hand of Reckoning – Commands the attention of your enemy, so that it now attacks you and it now costs 3% of your base mana
• Heart of the Crusader – You move 20% faster while mounted

Priest

• Power Word: Fortitude – Boosts your target’s Stamina by 10% for 1 hour
• Mass Dispel – CD increased to 45 seconds
• Prayer of Mending – Now heals your party members for 43.75% of your Spell power
• Shackle Undead – Now costs 4.0% of your base mana

Rogue

• Mystic Touch – In similar fashion to the Monk ability, it increases physical damage taken by your target by 5% for 1 minute
• Feint – The AoE damage reduction is now 40% and the CD is increased to 15 seconds
• Shroud of Concealment – Your cloak no longer “wraps” party and raid members, it now “shrouds” them instead

Shaman

• Tremor Totem– Summons an Earth totem for 10 secs that removes Sleep, Fear and Charm effects from your party/raid members within 30 yards
• Capacitor Totem – Now stuns all enemies within 8 yards for only 3 seconds, while the CD is increased to 1 minute
• Hex – Transforms a Human or Beast target into a frog (damage cancels the spell)
• Purge – Removes one beneficial magic effect from your enemy

Warlock

• Banish – Now costs 1.5% of your base mana
• Command Demon – Some of your demons now have a different most powerful ability (e.g. Felguard – Axe Toss)
• Create Healthstone – Now costs 2.0% of your base mana
• Create Soulwell – Now costs 5.0% of base mana
• Demonic Gateway – Cost changed to 20.0% of your base mana, while the cast time is now 2 seconds
• Enslave Demon – Now costs 2.0% of base mana
• Eye of Kilrogg – Cost changed to 3.0% of your base mana
• Fear – Cost increased to 15.0% of base mana
• Ritual of Summoning – Now costs 5.0% of your base mana
• Soul Shards – Should shard fragments are now generated by many of your spells
• Soulstone – Targets now resurrect with 60% health
• Summon Infernal – Your Infernal lives for 30 secs, deals damage equal to 50% of your Spell power to all enemies nearby every 2 secs, generates 1 Soul Shard Fragment every 0.5 secs and it’s no longer under Affliction/Demonology
• Shadowfury – Stuns all enemies within 8 yards for 3 secs, it’s now a baseline ability, the range has been increased to 35 yards, but the CD is now 1 minute
• Unending Resolve – Now costs 2.0% of your base mana

Warrior

• Battle Shout – Instead of Strength and Agility, it now increases Attack Power (AP)
• Charge – Now deals damage equal to 14.7% of your AP
• Heroic Leap – The damage is now equal to 10.2211% of your AP and it requires level 26 (instead of 85)
• Heroic Throw – The damage dealt is now based on 8.2212% of your AP

Conclusion

As you can see, Battle for Azeroth brings quite a few intriguing and fascinating changes to each of the 12 unique classes in World of Warcraft.

Which of the changes are most significant in your opinion and btw, what’s your favorite class? Drop a comment below with your answer – we read all of them!

For more WoW, check this out:  WoW Battle for Azeroth Patch Notes: What Kind of Shocking Changes Can We Expect?