Blizzard has announced a final set of fixes and balance changes for World of Warcraft: Forever ahead of its launch on Nov. 4, with the release date falling on Nov. 5 in some time zones. The most significant change increases damage for every class, while also raising the health of high-level creatures to compensate.
In patch notes published on the official World of Warcraft forums, Blizzard said the original game’s class power limits had made new additions require reductions elsewhere. The developers said those trade-offs left some familiar abilities feeling weaker and restricted other design possibilities. Raising damage across classes, they explained, provides more room to tune the experience.
The update also adjusts a range of classes and specializations. Blizzard said its goal is not to make every class numerically identical, but to ensure each can bring value to a group and offer memorable moments through mastery. The tuning is intended to distinguish Forever’s class changes from those introduced in The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King.
Blizzard plans to hold off on further balance changes until the game’s raids open on Dec. 9, one month after launch. It then expects to make a larger tuning pass using live-game data, including information from players progressing beyond level 30, the beta’s level cap.
Other changes include faster creature respawns in lower-level areas to accommodate the large player numbers Blizzard expects at launch. The patch also expands official gamepad support; Blizzard says players can now use a controller for all major gameplay and core user-interface experiences.
Sources: Polygon.