Blizzard has published the launch patch notes for World of Warcraft: Forever, its reimagined version of the original 2004 game, and the headline change is to player power: every class now deals more damage. Forever launches on November 4 at 3pm PST / 6pm EST, according to IGN, which falls on November 5 in some time zones, Polygon noted.
In developer notes attached to the patch, Blizzard said that holding each class roughly to Classic power budgets during the beta meant every new addition had to come at the expense of something else.
Those reductions left some iconic abilities feeling lackluster, and closed the door to other potentially exciting design options. So over the last two weeks, we've raised damage on classes across the game, and have increased the health of higher level creatures to compensate.
Blizzard also said some beta changes had turned too quickly to Burning Crusade- or Wrath-era solutions. The clearest reversal affects Elemental Shamans, who lose Lava Burst so the spec can focus on lightning abilities, IGN and GameSpot reported. GameSpot added that Paladin and Rogue talent trees were heavily reworked and that every class received some balance changes.
Racial abilities were adjusted too. According to IGN, Dwarves and Orcs each lost a passive ability, the Human Ruthless ability now raises critical strike chance by 1% instead of 2%, and Troll Berserking lasts longer.
Tuning freeze until raids
Blizzard said that, apart from bugs and serious outliers, it does not plan big tuning changes before raids open, which Polygon reported is December 9. Once it has data from players leveling past 30, the beta's level cap, the developer expects to make a large tuning pass.
Outside class tuning, Blizzard said gamepad support has "entered a complete functional state," with all major gameplay and core interface playable on a controller; the beta's controller support had been at an alpha stage, IGN reported. Creature respawn rates were raised in lower-level zones for launch, and Blizzard said it will return them to more typical rates once the initial surge of low-level characters settles. MassivelyOP reported that training costs were also adjusted.
At launch, players choose between a more classic or more modern visual style and between PvP, PvE and roleplaying server rulesets, with a hardcore ruleset planned for later, according to MassivelyOP.
