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WoW Dragonflight patch drops huge Death Knight, Paladin, Shaman buffs

Blizzard's latest WoW Dragonflight patch buffs some of World of Warcraft's most underpowered classes, including the MMO's Death Knight, Paladin, and Shaman.

WoW Dragonflight patch drops huge Death Knight, Paladin, Shaman buffs: A panda with brown hair with a red streak at the front and glowing blue eyes looks into the camera
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World of Warcraft 

As World of Warcraft hurtles towards its new big content patch, the latest round of WoW Dragonflight hotfixes give some of the MMORPG‘s least powerful classes some much-needed TLC – and yes, as a Shaman main, I am very happy.

Death Knight, Paladin, Shaman buffs

Long have I suffered as an Elemental Shaman, struggling to deal damage and in turn embracing the alluring darkness that is Shadow Priest (which also struggles to deal damage at the moment, but that’s a side issue).

There are a whole slew of buffs to spells like Lightning Bolt and Lava Burst, but the most significant is an 80% increase to Icefury’s damage. That’s a lot, and when coupled with the ability’s interaction with Frost Shock (which has also received a generous 15% buff) you’ll be slowing enemies left, right, and centre and lining them up to knock ’em dead.

Shaman musings aside, Blood Death Knights will see all of their damaging abilities buffed by 3%, and Holy Paladin’s get 10% more healing from Light of Dawn.

Protection Paladins’ Hammer of Wrath and Hammer of Righteous damage has increased by 30% and 20% respectively, and Greater Judgement will grant your next Holy Ability an increased 40% damage against afflicted targets (was 20%).

Of these changes, the Elemental Shaman adjustments are easily the most influential. Despite its popularity, the class has been at the lower end of the high-damage classes in our WoW Dragonflight tier list, but these buffs certainly feel like they’ll elevate the mysterious spell slingers up a few tiers. 80% to Icefury, damn.

There are a tonne of changes to PvP as well, so if you’re an avid PvPer make sure you check those out.

An orc woman with green skin wearing armour shaped like a wolf'd head casts lightning around her

WoW Dragonflight February 26 Hotfixes

Below are all of the WoW Dragonflight hotfixes for February 26, courtesy of Blizzard.

Classes

Death Knight

Blood

  • [With weekly restarts] All damaging abilities increased by 3%.

Paladin

  • Fixed an issue where Greater Judgment was not doing the correct amount of damage after its recent increase.

Holy

  • [With weekly restarts] Light of Dawn healing increased by 10%.

Protection

  • [With weekly restarts] Greater Judgment’s bonus to your next Holy Power ability against the afflicted target increased to 40% (was 20%).
  • [With weekly restarts] Hammer of Wrath damage increased by 30%.
  • [With weekly restarts] Hammer of the Righteous damage increased by 20%.

Shaman

Elemental

  • [With weekly restarts] Lightning Bolt damage increased by 10% for Elemental only. Does not apply to PvP.
  • [With weekly restarts] Lava Burst damage increased by 6% for Elemental only. Does not apply to PvP.
  • [With weekly restarts] Earth Shock damage increased by 6%. Does not apply to PvP. Does not apply to PvP.
  • [With weekly restarts] Elemental Blast damage increased by 6% for Elemental only. Does not apply to PvP. Does not apply to PvP.
  • [With weekly restarts] Icefury damage increased by 80%.
  • [With weekly restarts] Icefury causes Frost Shock to generate 14 Maelstrom (was 8).
  • [With weekly restarts] Frost Shock damage increased by 15% for Elemental only.

Dungeons and Raids

Mythic+

Azure Vault

  • Crackling Vortexes have been adjusted so they no longer chase players.
    Nokhud Offensive
  • Ohn’ahra now counts as a lower priority target for certain player healing spells.

Player versus Player

Items

  • [With weekly restarts] Gladiator’s Distinction’ Stamina provided by the bonus increased by 40%

Classes

Hunter

  • [With weekly restarts] Improved Kill Shot now increases Kill Shot’s critical strike damage by 15% in PvP Combat (was 25%).

Marksmanship

  • [With weekly restarts] Razor Fragments now increases Kill Shot’s damage by 40% in PvP Combat (was 50%).
  • [With weekly restarts] Arcane Shot damage increased by 45% in PvP Combat (was 30%).
  • [With weekly restarts] Chimaera Shot damage increased by 45% in PvP Combat (was 30%).

Monk

Brewmaster

  • [With weekly restarts] Incendiary Breath (PvP Talent) now increases the Radius and Damage of Breath of Fire by 30% (was 100%).

Windwalker

  • [With weekly restarts] Touch of Karma now redirects 105% of absorbed damage in PvP Combat (was 70%).

Rogue

Assassination

  • [With weekly restarts] Hemotoxin (PvP Talent) healing reduction effect reduced to 30% (was 35%).

Outlaw

  • [With weekly restarts] Dispatch damage increased by 15% in PvP Combat.

Shaman

Enhancement

  • [With weekly restarts] Converging Storms increases Stormstrike damage by 10% per stack in PvP Combat (was 25%).
  • [With weekly restarts] Lava Lash damage increased by 15% in PvP Combat.
  • [With weekly restarts] Stormstrike damage increased by 50% in PvP Combat (was increased by 30%).
  • [With weekly restarts] Windstrike damage increased by 50% in PvP Combat (was increased by 30%).

Warrior

Fury

  • [With weekly restarts] Rampage damage increased by 15% in PvP combat.
  • [With weekly restarts] Execute damage increased by 10% in PvP. Arms and Protection damage are unchanged.

With all of these buffs, it’ll be interesting to see how the meta shapes up ahead of the next WoW Dragonflight content patch, but until then we have a rundown of the best WoW addons to help you free the Dragon Isles from the Primals, as well as WoW Dragonflight professions guide if you’re looking for something to do while we wait.

Forged in the heart of the World of Darkness, Lauren is PCGamesN's news editor and resident Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines expert. When she's not yelling at stop signs and televisions as a magnificently maniacal Malkavian, she's dropping too much money on League of Legends skins and shouting at her bank account instead. With bylines at Dexerto, The Loadout, and Wargamer, quotes from her Diablo 4 review were broadcast in cinemas worldwide, and, yes, she did ugly cry in public. She has a master's degree in War Studies and wrote her dissertation on LA Noire, which she still contends is one of the best PC games ever made.