WoW WotLK Classic: Patch 3.3.5 as a base - what does that mean in concrete terms?

So this year will see the release of WoW: Wrath of the Lich King Classic. Great! And as with WoW Classic and Burning Crusade Classic, Blizzard wants to use the last patch before the pre-patch of the following expansion as a basis, at least as far as the class balance and some systems are concerned. In the following, we'll tell you what the patch 3.3.5 status means for WotLK in detail.

Learning from mistakes

It's no secret that Blizzard has been in a constant learning process since the launch of WoW in 2004/2005. Many changes that came into the game with Burning Crusade were aimed at eradicating the weaknesses of vanilla WoW that had been uncovered. It was a similar situation with WotLK, which was supposed to eliminate some TBC construction sites.

One problem that Blizzard had identified in Sunwell Plateau, for example, was so-called "class stacking", i.e. packing certain classes/specializations in large numbers in order to get the maximum out of the raid. Archetypes that couldn't represent the optimum or provide essential buffs were left behind.

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Appearance: Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street

In WotLK, such a situation should no longer exist, according to the motto: "Bring the player, not the class". In other words, it basically doesn't matter what class you play, as long as you play well, you'll get a raid spot. The developers wanted to achieve this, for example, by ensuring that important buffs and debuffs could now be delivered by different classes. They also wanted to avoid boss mechanics that would require certain classes to raid.

There were also a lot of other class adjustments. Not only at the launch of WotLK, but also in subsequent patches. And they were explained, defended, and commented on by system designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street, who deliberately sought dialogue with players from the WotLK era onward - just look at all the news about Ghostcrawler posts from that time.

Class design and balance in patch 3.3.5

So with WotLK Classic, we'll be getting the class design and balancing from patch 3.3.5. That means:

• Hit Chance, Critical Hit Chance, and Speed now equally affect melee attacks and spells.
• It is not possible to accumulate more than 100 percent armor penetration.
• Spell power now affects spell damage and healing.
• All taunt abilities now share the Diminishing Effect, plus it is now possible for bosses to be immune to companion taunts.
• Orc axe specialization now counts for fist weapons.
• Companions receive 100 percent of their master's toughening and 100 percent of their master's spell piercing / hit value and weapon lore also carry over. They will also no longer be knocked back by many knockback effects in boss fights, and they will take 90 percent less damage from area attacks.
• Area attacks do not do any more damage above 10 targets, instead the damage done is split evenly between all enemies.
• All abilities with a cooldown of ten minutes or higher may no longer be used in the arena.
• Death knights are nowhere near as overpowered in patch 3.3.5 as they were at WotLK launch (but still good).
• Rogues can carry one-handed axes.
• Protection Paladins have access to the powerful Divine Guardian and Divine Protection CDs.
• Warlocks have access to the final versions of "Molten Core" and "Conflagrate" and they can learn their riding skills at level 20 and level 40.
• Hunters can stack ammunition on up to 1,000 units. Quivers no longer give 15 percent speed, instead the speed increase is woven into the automatic shot.
• Blessing of the Kings of Paladins becomes a standard spell and disappears from the talent tree. At level 20 and 40, they learn their riding skills. The sigils are revised, respectively some sigils are removed.
• Shamans can place four predefined totems at the touch of a button. Orcs and trolls have their unique totem design.
• Will of the Forsaken of the Undead is on the same cooldown as the PvP trinkets.
• The cooldowns of countless abilities have been noticeably reduced over the course of WotLK.

Launch versus Patch 3.3.5 - what else is different?

Here are some more changes that came into the game by patch 3.3.5, but do not directly affect class balancing:

• Dual talent specialization.
• Leveling becomes easier (cheaper spells, improved mana and life regeneration, earlier important skills, experience through battlegrounds)
• Ground mounts can float, flight mounts cannot.
• Vials last one hour, but brewing now gives two vials for the same materials.
• Quest tracking has been improved.
• Players can trade bound loot within the party or raid for two hours.
• IDs for dungeons and raids can now be expanded.
• Emblems are a new currency that can be earned through raids and daily quests for heroic dungeons, for example.
• The first three riding skills can be learned at levels 20, 40 and 60, for 4 gold, 50 gold and 600 gold respectively.
• The quest log is significantly increased (not in terms of the number of quests, but the size of the log and the information displayed in the log).
• You can now compare items with each other using the shift key.
• There is an option to display quest destinations on the map / the quest log and map have also been generally reworked.
• There are weekly quests for the raid instances.
• Haris Pilton is selling a new 24-slot bag.
• Summoning stones can be used from level 15 without further restrictions.