Speed Running Classes ft. @sodapoppin | Episode 2 - The WoW: Forever Podcast

Summary of “Speed Running Classes ft. @sodapoppin | Episode 2 - The WoW: Forever Podcast”

Beta updates and upcoming communication

• The dev team says beta this week includes:
  • Raising the level cap to 30
  • Access to 21-point “Gold Star” talents
  • Two new dungeons:
    • City of Dalaran
    • The Excavation Site in the Wetlands
  • Class blogs for every class, covering details not fully discussed in the podcast.
• A prior concern resurfaced: character model/visual issues (notably skyhorn models and some druid forms).
  • They don’t announce a specific fix yet, but say it’s actively being discussed internally.

Core philosophy for class design (APM / rotations)

• The panel argues rotations should prioritize class fantasy over raw “buttons per minute.”
• General rule:
  • Keep moment-to-moment gameplay to ~3–4 core buttons under 10 seconds, leaving space for:
    • procs/utility
    • defensives
    • interrupts
    • consumables
    • situational awareness
• They want combat to avoid the “single-spell loop” problem (e.g., repetitive casting without meaningful choice, including multiple dispels).

Spell power, early leveling, and tuning examples (Druid + spellcaster gearing)

• A major change: spell power scaling on gear was reworked so spellcasters care about gear earlier (even around levels ~1–10).
• The devs lowered many spell damage coefficients based on how much spell power players realistically get from greens/typical questing gear.
• Wrath (Druid) received a notable +50% buff (as discussed by Soda and the dev), justified by its complicated history:
  • Early iterations tried making Wrath behave like a “wand” (low damage / low cost).
  • Early beta tuning wasn’t fully correct, and now it’s being corrected.
• They hint additional retuning may still be needed (e.g., druid DPS at level 60) due to overall balance budgets.

Druid changes: removing power shifting and reintroducing “shifting power”

• The original power shifting mechanic was removed because it was:
  • Unintuitive
  • A confusing “emergent” behavior (timing helm swaps, odd level timing expectations)
  • It reduced “free” global cooldown space needed for other design goals
• The devs plan to retain the spirit via a new talent:
  • “Shifting Power” consumes mana (aligned with cat-form cost), converts it into 40 energy, and has a cooldown (16s, reduced by talents)
  • Positioned as more understandable than power shifting while still supporting “between-forms” play
• They reiterate a broader stance on hybrid healing:
  • They’re cautious about making DPS hybrids too capable of off-role healing, to preserve the need for social/group play.

“Hybrid tax” debate and balance philosophy

• The devs reject the term “hybrid tax” as a concept that doesn’t work cleanly.
• Instead, they argue:
  • All specs remain competitive, but hybrids often have different toolkits, not identical DPS/healing outcomes.
  • Hybrid DPS specs may be balanced around roughly ~5% lower throughput, tied to role flexibility/healing contribution (not a simple blanket penalty).
• They emphasize combat balance is handled under a damage/healing/tank “budget” so encounter durations and boss kill pacing stay closer to classic-era expectations.

Warrior rage and rage-related fixes (community concerns)

• Warrior complaints recently center on rage generation and whether warriors can “press their buttons.”
• The devs claim:
  • Warriors aren’t getting as much rage from taking damage as intended due to a bug
  • A fix is planned soon (engineer work ongoing; not in the next build specifically)
  • They’re re-adding increased rage from crits (with a tuned value such as 75% increase)
• They defend warrior DPS identity:
  • Warriors should be best at cleave/Whirlwind-style sustained multi-target fights
• Recklessness question:
  • Recklessness cooldown was increased to avoid over-nerfing or requiring excessive compensatory tuning
  • Long-cooldown personal buffs are framed as “high-high” moments rather than constant power
• They apply the same “budget” tuning philosophy broadly: many specs initially did too much damage and required broad dial-backs.

Warrior: Bloodthirst/Bloodthirst-like proc design and Slam direction

• Bloodthirst/Bloodthrill proc changes:
  • Faster weapons should trigger it more often but deal less; slower weapons trigger less but deal more
  • Players can choose the style they prefer
• Proc-based design is intentional:
  • High highs and low lows are meant to reduce blandness
• Slam:
  • Slam was changed because forcing it into a swing-timer/cast-window model was seen as too demanding/overly strict for approachability
  • They admit slam’s current design may feel awkward and that rage economy/feel may still need adjustment

Paladins: Lay on Hands and retribution talent philosophy

• Lay on Hands cooldown reduced:
  • From ~1 hour to ~20 minutes
  • Intended to create meaningful decision points without being available every fight
• Twist of Light / seal twisting:
  • Emphasis on approachability and keeping paladins reactive with “breathing room”
  • They want some of retribution’s “classic feel” to remain, without forcing an overly rigid alternating button loop
  • They acknowledge player disagreement (some love seal twisting; some hate it)
  • They’re considering ways to preserve “twisting” input-output while avoiding hard timing requirements for new players
• Champion of the Light:
  • They discuss nerfing it (e.g., 60% instead of 100%) and removing increased healing power
  • They cite a common pattern:
    • developers sometimes reduce/remove power from talents/bonuses if they create unintended dominance (example: earlier enhancement feedback leading to later adjustments)

Rogues: subtlety/PvP concerns, energy pace, and a planned new finisher

• Subtlety and dot/CC concern:
  • Subtlety talents support dots (Ambush / Hemorrhage / Rupture mechanics), but they feel the current result isn’t ideal
• A major future change:
  • They plan to bring in Death Mark-like functionality (inspired by ideas/tests on Titan Reforged Realms in China):
    • mark a target
    • damage accumulates
    • then bursts after ~6 seconds
  • Positioned as a replacement for Thousand Cuts
  • Intended to shift gameplay toward marking + dumping into a window
• Rogue energy question:
  • They argue energy regen/spike mechanics were previously too strong in testing and caused tuning explosions
  • They reassure that PvE rogues should be top single-target damage when encounters reward their mechanics (e.g., if fights are “standstill”)
  • They stress they won’t add high-complexity regen tools lightly since numbers scale out of control

Shamans: totem twisting removal and enhancement shaman direction

• Totem twisting removed because it was:
  • timing-based and non-intuitive
  • hard for new players
  • requiring compensation/nerfs to keep buffs within damage budgets
• Raid comp concern:
  • Shaman/feral/balance numbers in 20-man groups—multiple shamans requested for raid-wide buffs
  • They discuss exploring shifting certain buffs to raid-wide rather than party-wide to reduce “must-have duplicate roles”
• Enhancement shaman + Maelstrom weapon:
  • Enhancement should still care about spell power (part of class fantasy)
  • Maelstrom enables lightning spell integration while enhancement remains fundamentally melee
  • They avoid too much “healing” crossover to prevent hybrid DPS specs from becoming too self-sufficient
  • They discuss levers like proc frequency/damage scaling and acknowledge concerns about current Maelstrom behavior (e.g., needing enough talent points for desired feel)

Hunters: stable slots, melee weaving, and dead zone

• Stable slots:
  • They plan to increase stable slots gradually, with more ways to unlock additional slots over time
• Melee weaving:
  • Current auto-shot timing issues are a bug (timers are wrong this beta week; fix incoming)
  • Melee weaving is intended to be a spec-leaning choice, not universal for everyone
  • Two intended survival playstyles:
    1. Stay in melee (“lazy but easy”)
    2. Ranged weaving with burst windows that include melee abilities/traps
• Dead zone:
  • They keep it because it preserves hunters’ classic strengths/weaknesses:
    • ranged dominance at distance
    • weakness when kited into close range

Warlocks: Destro vs shadow bolting; fear range mistake; PvP balance approach

• Destro design:
  • They want warlocks to mix fire and shadow instead of becoming “fire mage flavor”
  • Some cooldowns/mechanics are framed as payoff for using both types
• Fear range:
  • They admit a talent rework oversight
  • Fear range reduction occurred because the talent now increases range only for damaging spells (not affliction/fear)
  • They consider whether fear should be baseline or modified elsewhere, acknowledging PvP implications
• SL/SL PvP concern:
  • They accept PvP-focused specs being mainly PvP oriented
  • They don’t want to balance deeply around 1v1, since it can push toward homogenization; battleground effectiveness is the better target

Mages: frost AoE nerfs and cone of cold timing; ice block discussion

• Frost AoE nerf reasoning:
  • Driven by dungeon kiting behavior and botting/economy abuse concerns
  • Prevent mages from safely solo/kiting packs indefinitely via perfect snare coverage
  • They maintain raid AoE strength should remain important, but threat/tank interaction matters
• Cone of Cold:
  • Slight nerf to prevent always-on snare chaining; cone remains usable
• Ice Block baseline:
  • They acknowledge gut-reaction concerns (“too strong”) but note baseline could affect fantasy
  • They’re not committing to a specific change right now
• They note mage specs may currently feel like they have too few buttons, and they’re looking at adding more gameplay for the next few weeks

Priests: shadow’s role beyond utility; smite priest viability; holy fire cast time; disc vs holy

• Shadow priest:
  • Shadow isn’t meant to be “just raid utility”—damage comes first, utility is secondary and cooldown-gated
  • They reject a “mana battery” style support identity for the spec
• Dot access / tier-set gating:
  • They clarify tier sets may change late in beta since sets were designed earlier and may no longer align with current kits
• Smite priest:
  • Smite builds are intended to exist (tested and adjusted because it could be too strong with certain effects like Crusader Judgment)
  • Reinforces the hybrid tax framing:
    • smite should be strong for questing/world play
    • but shouldn’t outperform dedicated DPS specs while also having full healing
• Holy Fire:
  • Cast time reduction is “possible,” but any buff carries a cost and needs careful tuning
• Discipline vs Holy:
  • Discipline: stronger shields, including unique priest tank-saving value
  • Holy: better at healing the whole party at once
  • Discipline can indirectly help warrior rage generation via shield interactions (and they address a current rage bug)

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Presenters / contributors

• Josh Corbett (host)
• Josh Greenfield (aka “a grand mate”)
• Chris Zear
• Aiden Moon (aka “Zirene”)
• Soda Poppin (guest)
• Mitch (QA contributor, briefly referenced)
• Harley and Kristen (team members referenced for contributions)