World of Warcraft : beta

Season 6 Gear on Beta, Naxxramas, Obsidian Sanctum Loot

Zyuu — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 05:45:24 GMT

New PvP Gear available on Beta Realms

New PvP Gear (Season 6 or LK Honor 2 Gear) also named "Deadly" is available on beta realms, but you can only get them as a PvE drop from a raid boss "Archavon" (the 25-man version) inside the Vault of Archavon also known as the Wintergrasp instance. You can only access this instance after your side (Horde or Alliance) has claimed victory in Wintergrasp, you'll only have 4 hours (currently 30 min on PTR) after victory to fight Archavon.

Note: The 10-man version of Archavon drops two 10-man quality items + Season 5 Armor Sets, and the 25-man version drops four 25-man quality loot (i.e Naxxramas armor sets) and the new "Deadly" PvP gear.

More to come.

Death Knight
Deadly Gladiator's Dreadplate Shoulders
Deadly Gladiator's Bracer/Girdle/Greaves of Triumph

'Druid
Not yet.'

Hunter
Not yet.

Mage
Deadly Gladiator's Silk Handguards

Paladin
Spell - Deadly Gladiator's Ornamented Gloves
Melee - Deadly Gladiator's Scaled Legguards
Deadly Gladiator's Bracers/Girdle/Greaves of Salvation
Deadly Gladiator's Bracer/Girdle/Greaves of Triumph

Priest
Not yet.

Rogue
Not yet.

' Shaman
Spell - Deadly Gladiator's Mail Spaulders

Warlock'
Deadly Gladiator's Felweave Amice

Warrior
Deadly Gladiator's Plate Chestpiece
Deadly Gladiator's Bracer/Girdle/Greaves of Triumph

Other
Deadly Gladiator's Band of Ascendancy
Deadly Gladiator's Band of Victory

Naxxramas & Obsidian Sanctum Loot Update

Naxxramas 25-man (see the full loot table)

Weapons - Life and Death (MH Sword), Twilight Mist (1H Dagger), Touch of Horror (Wand)

Cloth' - Robes of Mutation, 'Bindings of Yearning

Leather - Esteemed Bindings (Spell), Spaulders of Egotism (Melee), Cover of Silence (Melee)

Mail - Leggings of Failed Escape (Physical DPS), Spaulders of Incoherence (Spell)

Plate - Crude Discolored Battlegrips (Melee), Girdle of Chivalry (Melee), Faceguard of the Succumbed (Spell), Abetment Bracers (Spell)

Amulets - Ousted Bead Necklance (Spell)

Relics' - Totem of Dueling, 'Totem of Misery

Obsidian Sanctum 10-man (bonus loot)
You can only get the following items if you kill Sartharion with the drakes still alive. 1 drake alive = 1 bonus loot, 2 drakes alive = 2 bonus loot, 3 drakes alive = 2 bonus loot + mount drop.

Mount - Reins of the Black Drake

Cloak - Chamber of Aspect 10 Bonus Loot 1 Tank Cloak

Ring - Chamber of Aspect 10 Bonus Loot 2 Melee Ring

Cloth - Chamber of Aspect 10 Bonus Loot 2 Priest Helm

Leather - Chamber of Aspect 10 Bonus Loot 1 Rogue Chest

Mail - Chamber of Aspect 10 Bonus Loot 2 Shaman Boots

Plate - Chamber of Aspect 10 Bonus Loot 1 Paladin Healer Boots

Obsidian Sanctum 25-man (bonus loot)
You can only get the following items if you kill Sartharion with the drakes still alive. 1 drake alive = 1 bonus loot, 2 drakes alive = 2 bonus loot, 3 drakes alive = 2 bonus loot + mount drop.

Mount - Reins of the Twilight Drake

Leather - Chamber of Aspect 25 Bonus Loot 2 Druid Helm (ilevel 226 = Kel'Thuzad quality loot)

Mail - Chamber of Aspect 25 Bonus Loot 1 Shaman Gloves

WotLK Beta Build 8926 - Instance and Badge Loot

Zyuu — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 19:09:42 GMT

"Binds to account" -- Scaling Items

The build introduced a new type of item that scales with the level of your character. The cool thing is these items are also Binds to account, meaning that you can trade them between characters on the same account whenever you want! These items will scale with your character's level from 1 all the way to 80, so no matter what level you are, you'll gain some benefit from the item.

Not all effects are available at level 1; they're gradually added in some cases as you gain levels.
Currently the only Binds on account items available are found on the Emblem of Heroism token vendor in Dalaran.
The items use a text color many will be familiar with if you've seen Martin Thunder. This was originally used as the "Artifact" color code in the game files, but no Artifact quality items were ever implemented.
The shoulder slot items all seem to gain a 10% experience gain bonus at some point. It doesn't have it at level 1, but it does have it at level 55, 70, and 80.

Naxxramas 25-man loot

Two-Handed Weapons

The Jawbone (2H Mace)Cloaks
Cloakd of the Shadowed Sun (Melee)
Shawl of the Old Maid (Caster)Amulets
Chains of Adoration (Spell)Rings
Seized Beauty (Caster DPS)Trinkets
Cloth
Sash of the Parlor
Belt of False Dignity
Distorded Limbs
Sympathetic AmicePlate
Pauldrons of Unnatural Death (Tank)
Inexorable Sabatons (Tank)
Bracers of the Tyrant (DPS)
Poignant Sabatons (Spell DPS)
Waistguard of Divine Grave (Spell DPS)

One-Handed Weapons

Split Greathammer (1H Mace)
Silent Crusader (1H Sword)Throwing Weapons
Shields
Wands
Bows & Guns
'Off-Hand'
Leather
Dislocationg Handguards (Melee)
Infectious Skitterer Leggings (Melee)
Sinner's Bindings (Melee)
Boots of Septic Wounds (Melee)Mail
Tunic of Masked Suffering (Physical DPS)
Slime Stream Bands (Physical DPS)
Depraved Linked Belt (Physical DPS)

Naxxramas 25-man Armor Sets

'Death Knight'
DPS Set
Tank Set

Druid
Feral Set
Healer Set
Nuker Set

Hunter
Hunter Set

Mage
Mage Set

Paladin
Healer Set
Melee Set
Tank Set

'Priest
Healer Set
Nuker Set

Rogue
Rogue Set

Shaman
Healer Set
Melee Set
Nuker Set

Warlock
'Warlock Set

Warrior
DPS Set
Tank Set

Obsidian Sanctum 25-man

Chestplate of the Great Aspects (Plate)
Council Chamber Epaulets (Mail)
Hyaline Helm of the Sniper (Mail)

Obsidian Sanctum 10-man

Titan's Outlook (Plate)
Wyrmrest Band (Ring)
Signet of the Accord (Ring)
Dragon Hide Bag

Badge Vendor

Emblem of Heroism drops from Heroics and 10-person tier 1 instances, Emblem of Valor drops from 25-person tier 1 instances. More items coming as we update the news!

Two-Handed Weapons

Cloaks
'Amulets'
Emblem of Heroism Amulets
Rings
Trinkets
not yet.Cloth
Emblem of Heroism Belts
Plate
Emblem of Heroism Belts

One-Handed Weapons

Throwing Weapons
None yetShields
Wands
Bows & Guns
'Off-Hand'
Leather
Emblem of Heroism Belts
Mail
Emblem of Heroism Belts

WotLK -- Beta Build 8926

Zyuu — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:54:06 GMT

Obsidian Sanctum 25-man loot: Chestplate of the Great Aspects (Plate), Wyrmrest Band (Ring)
Obsidian Sanctum 10-man loot: Signet of the Accord, Dragon Hide Bag
Blackmsithing: 7 new recipes
Tailoring' Epic Cloth:'Ebonweave Set, Spellweave Set, Moonshroud Set
Tailoring Blue Cloth: Frostsavage Set
'New Jewelcrafting' Recipe: Titanium Frostguard Ring
Heroic Mode is now available for the following dungeons: Utgarde Pinnacle, The Oculus, Azjol-Nerub, CoT:Stratholme. (src)
A new raid instance 10/25-man is available! The Obsidian Sanctum, also referred to as Chamber of Aspects: Black, is a raid dungeon with the portal located under Wyrmrest temple in Dragonblight. (src)
Naxxramas 25-man is now itemized. (src)
WoWhead updated to the latest build 8926

New Glyphs - Druid, Paladin, Shaman

Druid
Glyph of Dash - Reduces the cooldown of your Dash ability by 20%.

Paladin
Glyph of Seal of Blood - Your Seal of Blood or Seal of the Martyr increases the mana received from Spiritual Attunement by 10% while active.
Glyph of Seal of Righteousness - Reduces the cost of your Judgement spells by 10% while Seal of Righteousness is active.
Glyph of Seal of Vengeance - Your Seal of Vengeance or Seal of Corruption also grants 10 expertise while active.

Shaman
Glyph of Ghost Wolf - Your Ghost Wolf form regenerates an additional 1% of your maximum health every 5 sec.

Uncategorized Changes

New Mounts
Azure Drake - Summons and dismisses a rideable Azure Drake. This is a very fast mount. This mount can only be summoned in Outland or Northrend.
Black Mammoth - Summons and dismisses a rideable Black Mammoth Mount. This is a very fast mount.
Black Polar Bear - Summons and dismisses a rideable Black Polar Bear. This is a very fast mount.
Blue Drake - Summons and dismisses a rideable Blue Drake. This is a very fast mount. This mount can only be summoned in Outland or Northrend.
Brown Polar Bear - Summons and dismisses a rideable Brown Polar Bear. This is a very fast mount.
Bronze Drake - Summons and dismisses a rideable Bronze Drake. This is a very fast mount. This mount can only be summoned in Outland or Northrend.
Red Drake - Summons and dismisses a rideable Red Drake. This is a very fast mount. This mount can only be summoned in Outland or Northrend.
Twilight Drake - Summons and dismisses a rideable Twilight Drake. This is a very fast mount. This mount can only be summoned in Outland or Northrend.

Professions Changes

Blacksmithing
7 new recipes

Enchanting
Enchant Ring - Stamina: Permanently enchant a ring to increase Stamina by 24. Only the Enchanter's rings can be enchanted, and enchanting a ring will cause it to become soulbound.
Enchant Weapon - Accuracy: Permanently enchant a melee weapon to increase critical strike and hit rating by 25. Requires a level 60 or higher item.
Enchant Weapon - Berserking (Not yet implemented): Proc based enchant causing "Strength increased by 200 but armor reduced by 50%."
Enchant Weapon - Black Magic: Permanently enchant a melee weapon to cause your damaging spells to sometimes inflict a painful curse. Requires a level 60 or higher item.

Inscription
Certificate of Ownership - Allows you to rename your pet.

Jewelcrafting
Titanium Frostguard Ring

Tailoring
Ebonweave Set
Spellweave Set
Moonshroud Set
Frostsavage Set

Class Changes

Death Knight (8926: Skills | Talents)
Blood
- Bloody Vengeance: Reduced to 3 ranks, stacking up to 9% damage (Old: 5 ranks, stacked up to 15% damage)

Frost
- Annihilation: Changed to 33% instead of 30%. Same outcome, just different numbering.
- Killing Machine: Now only has 50% chance to proc on crit (Old: 100% chance)
- Frigid Dreadplate: Changed to 33% instead of 30%. Same outcome, just different numbering.
- Merciless Combat: Damage reduced to 12% (Old: 20%)
- Rime: Now increases your Icy Touch crit chance by 15% and gives it a 15% chance for a free Howling Blast (Old: Increases damage of Icy Touch and Howling Blast by 30%).
- Howling Blast: Tooltip damage reduced
- Blood of the North: Changed to 33% instead of 30%. Same outcome, just different numbering.
- Frost Strike: Damage reduced to 30% (down from 50%)

Unholy
- Necrosis: Now deals 10% Shadow damage (down from 25%)
- Blood-Caked Blade: Hits for 20% weapon damage plus 10% for each diseases (Old: 50% weapon damage for each disease on target)
- Desecration: Damage increase reduced to 5% (Old: 10%, as if it was ever working before)
- Unholy Blight: Damage reduced significantly, to 37 tooltip damage (Old: 152). Also now has a one minute cooldown and lasts 14 seconds, down from 20.

Druid (8926: Skills | Talents)
Balance
- Nature's Splendor changed: Increases the duration of your Moonfire, Insect Swarm, Rejuvenation, Regrowth, Lifebloom and Flourish spells by 2/3 sec. (old: 2/3%)
- Improved Insect Swarm is now available.
- Gale Winds now increases damage done by your Hurricane and Typhoon spells by 15/30% (old: 25/50%), and increases the range of your Cyclone spell by 2/4 yards.
- Eclipse cooldown reduced from 2 minutes to 30 seconds.

Feral
- Infected Wounds attack speed reduction has been lowered, it's now -3/7/10%.
- Berserk cooldown reduced from 5 to 3 minutes and description changed: When activated, this ability temporarily grants you 30% of your maximum health while in Bear Form or Dire Bear Form, causes your Mangle (Bear) and Maul attacks to hit up to 3 targets, and reduces the energy cost of all your Cat Form abilities by -50%. Lasts 15 sec. You cannot use Tiger's Fury while Berserk is active. Clears the effect of Fear and makes you immune to Fear for the duration.
- Mother Bear has been renamed to Protector of the Pack, and it's now available.
- Natural Reaction is now available.

Restoration
- Abolish Poison duration lowered from 1 min to 8 secs.
- Subtlety now reduces the chance of your spells to be dispelled (old version: only healing over time spells were affected).
- Replenish restore values changed, it's now 8 Energy, 4 Rage, 1% Mana or 16 Runic Power per tick.
- Gift of the Earthmother changed: Reduces the base global cooldown of your Rejuvenation and Lifebloom spells by 2/4/6/8/10%, and causes your Healing Touch and Nourish spells to refund 1/2/3/4/5% of their base cost for each healing over time effect on the target.

Hunter (8926: Skills | Talents)
Beast Mastery
- Aspect of the Viper changed: The hunter takes on the aspect of the viper, each ranged attack regenerates a percentage of maximum mana equal to base ranged weapon speed, but reduces your total damage done by -50%. Only one Aspect can be active at a time.
- Cobra Strikes now causes your pet's next 2 special attacks to critically hit. (old version: next 3 special attacks)
- Invigoration changed: When your pet scores a critical hit with a special ability, you have a 50/100% chance to instantly regenerate 1% mana.

Marksmanship
- Improved Steady Shot mana reduction lowered from 40 to 20%.

Survival
- Hunting Party now lasts for 15 secs.
- Lock and Load now cause your next Arcane Shot or Explosive Shot spells to trigger no cooldown, cost no mana and consume no ammo. (old version: your next 3 Arcane Shot or Explosive Shot spells were affected by this talent).
- T.N.T critical strike chance lowered from 5/10/15% to 3/6/9%.

[[Image:mage.gif]] Mage (8926: Skills | Talents)
Frost
- Gives your Frost damage spells a 5/10% chance to grant you (old version: chance to apply) the Fingers of Frost effect, which treats your next 2 Frost spells cast as if the target were Frozen. Lasts 15 sec.
- Deep Freeze rank 4 damage lowered.

Paladin (8926: Skills | Talents)
Coming soon.

Priest (8926: Skills | Talents)
Coming soon.

Rogue (8926: Skills | Talents)
Assassination
- Hunger for Blood now refunds 15 energy. (old description: "refunds the energy cost")

haman (8926: Skills | Talents)
Elemental
- Thunderstorm has new ranks (rank 1-4) and knock up range increased to 6 yards: You call down a bolt of lightning, energizing you and damaging nearby enemies within 10 yards. Restores 5% mana to you and deals 1450 to 1656 Nature damage to all nearby enemies, knocking them back 6 yards.
- Lava Flows bonus spell damage lowered: Increases the amount of bonus spell damage on your Flametongue Weapon by an additional 15/30/45%, and increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Lava Burst spell by an additional 24%.
- Storm, Earth and Fire changed: Your Lightning Bolt gains an additional 2/4/6/8/10% of your spell power, your Earth Shock's range is increased by 1/2/3/4/5 yards and the periodic damage done by your Flame Shock is increased by 10/20/30/40/50%.
- Totem of Wrath rank 4 damage increased: Summons a Totem of Wrath with 5 health at the feet of the caster. The totem increases the damage done by spells and effects by 280 for all party and raid members, and increases the critical strike chance of spells and effects by 3% against all enemies within 40 yards. Lasts 2 min.

Enhancement
- Shamanistic Focus now reduces the mana cost of your Shock spells by -45%. (old version: After landing a melee critical strike, you enter a Focused state. The Focused state reduces the mana cost of your next Shock spell by 60%.)
- Maelstrom Weapon now affects healing spells: When you critically hit with a melee weapon, you reduce the cast time of your next Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning or Lava Burst, Lesser Healing Wave, Healing Wave or Chain Heal spell by 4/8/12/16/20%. Stacks up to 5 times. Lasts 15 seconds.

Restoration
- Nature's Guardian cooldown reduced from 8 to 5 seconds.
- Ancestral Awakening healing lowered: When you critically heal with your Healing Wave or Lesser Healing Wave, you summon an Ancestral spirit to aid you, instantly healing the lowest health friendly party or raid target within 40 yards for 7/13/20% of the amount healed. (old: 20/40/60%)
- Tidal Waves changed: You have a 20/40/60/80/100% chance after you cast Chain Heal to lower the cast time of your next Lesser Healing Wave or Healing Wave spell by 30%. In addition, your Healing Wave gains an additional 4/8/12/16/20% of your bonus healing effects and your Lesser Healing Wave gains an additional 2/4/6/8/10% of your bonus healing effects.

Warlock (8926: Skills | Talents)
Coming soon.

Warrior (8926: Skills | Talents)
Arms
- Wrecking Crew - Your melee critical hits Enrage you, increasing all damage caused by 2/4/6/8/10% for 12 sec.

Fury
- Commanding Shout is now a raid wide buff: Increases maximum health of all party and raid members within 20 yards by 1080. Lasts 2 min.
- Enrage now gives you a 30% chance to receive a 2/4/6/8/10% damage bonus for 12 sec after being the victim of a damaging attack.
- Rampage now affects ranged critical hit, in addition to melee. (Your melee critical hits cause you to go on a rampage, increasing ranged and melee critical hit chance of all party and raid members within 45 yds by 5%. Lasts 10 sec.)
- Titan's Grip allows you to equip two-handed axes, maces and swords in one hand. Also reduces your chance to hit with melee abilities that require weapons by -15%.

Protection
- Devastate changed: Sunder the target's armor causing the Sunder Armor effect. In addition, causes 80% of weapon damage plus 101 for each application of Sunder Armor on the target. The Sunder Armor effect can stack up to 5 times.
- New Talent - Improved Spell Reflection (Tier 4) - Reduces the chance you'll be hit by spells by -2/4%, reduces the cooldown of your Spell Reflection ability by -2/5 sec and when the ability is used it will reflect the first spell cast against the 2/4 closest party members.

Official WotLK Beta Patch Notes Update

Zyuu — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 00:54:08 GMT

The official beta patch notes have been updated to reflect build 8905 changes, and Nethaera has highlighted everything that has changed since the last build, view it all below:

Known Issues

All classes are currently undergoing a balancing pass of all talent trees.

Classes

Death Knight damage has been decreased on almost all of their abilities.

Druid

Celestial Focus (Balance): The stun proc now works with Starfall. This talent no longer has Wrath pushback protection, but instead increases your total spell haste by 1/2/3%.
Control of Nature (Balance) has been removed.
Focused Starlight (Balance): is now Nature's Majesty (Balance): Increases the critical strike chance of your Wrath, Starfire, Starfall, Nourish, and Healing Touch spells by 2/4/6%.
Furor (Restoration): Now increases your total Intellect while in Moonkin form by 2/4/6/8/10%.
Moonglow (Balance): Now also works with Starfall. Moved to tier 2, up from tier 5.
Nature's Focus (Restoration): Now a 3 point talent, down from a 5-point talent. Also moved to Tier 1, up from Tier 2. Now also includes Nourish, Entangling Roots, Wrath and Cyclone.
Nature's Grasp (Balance): Can now be used and can proc indoors. This is now a base ability at level 11 and has a 100% chance to proc.
New Talent - Genesis (Balance): Increases the damage and healing done by your periodic spells by 1/2/3/4/5%.
New Talent - Improved Insect Swarm (Balance): Increases your damage done by your Wrath spell to targets afflicted by your Insect Swarm by 1/2/3%, and increases the critical strike chance of your Starfire spell by 1/2/3% on targets afflicted by your Moonfire spell.
New Talent - Mother Bear (Feral): Increases the bonus attack power for Bear Form and Dire Bear Form by an additional 20/40/60%, and for each friendly player in your party, damage you take is reduced while in Bear Form and Dire Bear Form by 1/2/3%.
New Talent - Natural Reaction (Feral): Increases your dodge chance while in Bear Form or Dire Bear Form by 2/4/6%, and you regenerate 1/2/3 rage everytime you dodge while in Bear Form or Dire Bear Form.
New Talent - Nature's Splendor (Balance): Increases the duration of your Moonfire, Insect Swarm, Rejuvenation, Regrowth, Lifebloom and Flourish spells by 10/20/30%.

Hunters

Aspect of the Viper - The hunter takes on the aspect of the viper, instantly regenerating mana equal to 100% of the damage done by any ranged attack or ability, but reduces your total damage done by 50%. Only one Aspect can be active at a time.
Combat Experience (Marksmanship): Now grants 3/6% Agility, up from 1/2%.
Improved Arcane Shot (Marksmanship): Now increases the damage done by your Arcane Shot by 5/10/15%.
Improved Feign Death (Survival): This talent has been replaced with Survival Tactics.
Improved Hunter's Mark (Marksmanship): Now a 3-point talent, and now increases the amount of attack power granted by your Hunter's Mark ability by 10/20/30% and reduces the mana cost of your Hunter's Mark ability by 33/66/100%.
New Talent - Survival Tactics (Survival): Reduces the chance your Feign Death ability and all trap spells will be resisted by 2/4%, and reduces the cooldown of your Disengage ability by 2/4 sec.
Rapid Killing (Marksmanship): This will now proc off Chimera Shot, but no longer works with auto-shot.
Silencing Shot (Marksmanship): This spell will now interrupt the current spell being cast on the target and lock out that school for 3 sec if the target is immune to silence effects.
Trap Mastery (Survival) is now an 11-point talent.
Trushot Aura: This Aura is now raid-wide, and now increases all ranged and melee attack power by 10%. In addition, this spell now only has one rank. All other ranks have been removed.

Mages

Slow (Arcane) mana cost reduced.

Paladins

Attack Power and Spell Power scaling on all Seals and Judgements other than Command and Blood has been reduced.
Blessing of Sanctuary reduced to 1 rank, now reduces all damage taken by 3% and generates rage, mana or runic power when a parry/dodge/block occurs.
Hammer of Wrath is now considered a Retribution spell, moved from Holy, mana cost reduced, now instant cast, global cooldown increased to 1.5, missile speed increased, now usable on targets below 35% health now scales with attack power and spell power.
Righteous Defense no longer costs mana and the global cooldown has been removed, also cooldown reduced to 10 sec.

Priests

Absolution (Discipline): This talent has swapped positions in the talent tree with Improved Inner Fire.
Enlightenment (Discipline): Increases your total Stamina, Spirit and Spell haste by 1/2/3/4/5%.
Focused Power (Discipline): Increases your total spell damage and healing done by 2/4%, but no longer increases your chance to hit with Mind Blast, and Mass Dispel.
Improved Inner Fire (Discipline) - Now also increases the bonus healing on your Inner Fire spell by 20/40/60%.(Includes the +spell power on higher ranks, as well as total number of charges).
Prayer of Mending - This spell can now critically hit.

Rogues

Anesthetic Poison now also dispels one Enrage effect on the target.
Blade Twisting (Combat) now cause all damaging melee attacks to have a 10% chance to daze for 4/8 seconds movement speed reduced by 70%.
Camouflage (Subtlety) reduced to 3 ranks for 5/10/15% speed and 2/4/6 secs off the cooldown of Stealth.
Cloak of Shadows cooldown increased to 1.5 min.
Crippling Poison reduced to 1 rank, slowing movement by 70%.
Dagger Specialization (Combat) renamed Close Quarters Combat, moved to tier 3, now increases critical strike chance with Daggers and Fist Weapons by 1/2/3/4/5%.
Damaging poisons now scale with attack power.
Deadened Nerves (Assassination) reduced to 3 ranks, now reduces all damage taken by 2/4/6%.
Deflection (Combat) reduced to 3 ranks, increasing parry by 2/4/6%.
Disarm Trap range increased to 20 yards, cast time reduced, now requires stealth.
Dual Wield Specialization (Combat) moved to tier 1.
Elusiveness (Subtlety) moved to Tier 3, now reduces cooldown of Vanish and Blind by 30/60 sec and Cloak of Shadows by 15/30 sec.
Endurance (Combat) now reduces cooldown of Evasion and Sprint by 30/60 secs.
Envenom now also increases your chance to apply poisons by 25% for 2-6 seconds (based on combo points).
Evasion, Sprint and Vanish cooldowns reduced to 3 min.
Find Weakness (Assassination) is now a passive talent, reduced to 3 ranks, increases damage of offensive abilities by 3/6/9%.
Fist Weapon Specialization (Combat) removed.
Improved Ambush (Subtlety) moved to Tier 4, reduced to 2 ranks for 25/50%.
Improved Eviscerate (Assassination) now increases damage by 7/14/20%.
Improved Expose Armor (Assassination) now reduces the energy cost by 5/10, no longer increases duration.
Improved Poisons (Assassination) now increases chance to apply poisons by 5/10/15/20/25%.
Improved Slice and Dice (Combat) reduced to 2 ranks, increases duration by 25/50%.
Improved Sprint (Combat) moved to Tier 4.
Initiative (Subtlety) moved to Tier 4, increased to 33/66/100% chance.
Lethality (Assassination) now also affects Riposte.
Lightning Reflexes (Combat) moved to tier 4.
Mace Specialization (Combat) no longer stuns enemies and instead increases critical damage bonus by 2/4/6/8/10% now ignores 3/6/9/12/15% of target's armor.
Master of Deception (Subtlety) reduced to 3 ranks.
Mind-Numbing Poison reduced to 1 rank, slowing casting speed by 60%.
Murder (Assassination) moved to tier 6, increases damage by 2/4%.
Mutilate (Assassination) no longer requires you be behind the target.
Nerves of Steel (Combat) now reduces damage taken while Stunned or Feared by 15/30%
Opportunity (Subtlety) reduced to 2 ranks for 10/20%.
Poisons skill removed. All finished poisons are available on vendors rather than created by the rogue.
Precision (Combat) now also increases chance to hit with poison attacks by 1/2/3/4/5%.
Premeditation (Subtlety) duration increased to 20 seconds cooldown reduced to 20 seconds.
Preparation (Subtlety) no longer refreshes the cooldown of Premeditation.
Relentless Strikes (Assassination) moved to Tier 1 Subtlety, made 5 ranks for 4/8/12/16/20% chance.
Riposte (Combat) now slows the target's melee attacks by 20% instead of disarming them, awards one combo point.
Serrated Blades (Subtlety) moved to Tier 3.
Shadowstep (Subtlety) is no longer usable while rooted.
Surprise Attacks (Combat) now also increases Hemorrhage damage.
Vigor (Assassination) moved to Tier 3.
Wounding Poison no longer stacks, reduces healing by 50%.

Shamans

Anticipation (Enhancement): Now is a 3-point talent, down from a 5-point talent and now reduces the duration of disarm effects on you by 16/25/50%.
Healing Grace (Restoration): Healing Way and Ancestral Fortitude are now affected by the dispel resistance portion of this talent.
Tidal Focus (Restoration): Now works with Earth Shield.

Warriors

Blood Craze (Fury) now regenerates 2/4/6% of total health over 6 seconds.
Blood Frenzy (Arms) moved to Tier 9, now increases physical damage caused by 1/2%.
Bloodthirst (Fury) now restores health based on a % of total health.
Concussion Blow (Protection) now causes damage based on attack power.
Deep Wounds (Arms) now requires Impale, causes 16/32/48% of weapon damage over 6 seconds.
Disarm rage cost reduced to 15.
Impale (Arms) moved to Tier 3, no longer requires Deep Wounds.
Improved Berserker Rage (Fury) now generates 10/20 rage.
Improved Defensive Stance (Protection) reduced to 2 ranks, now reduces spell damage taken by 3/6% and any block/parry/dodge has a 50/100% chance to enrage the warrior causing 5/10% more damage for 12 sec.
Improved Disarm (Protection) reduced to 2 ranks, now reduces the cooldown of Disarm by 10/20 sec and increases damage taken by disarmed targets by 5/10%.
Improved Disciplines (Arms) removed.
Improved Mortal Strike (Arms) now increases damage by 2/4/6/8/10%, no longer reduces cooldown.
Improved Rend (Arms) reduced to 2 ranks for 25/50%.
Improved Revenge (Protection) now increases damage Revenge causes by 10/20% and gives a 25/50% chance to stun.
Improved Shield Bash (Protection) now also increases the damage of your Shield Slam ability by 5/10%.
Improved Shield Wall now increases the damage reduction by an additional 5/10% reduces cooldown by 30/60 seconds.
Improved Slam (Fury) moved to Arms.
Improved Sunder Armor (Protection) renamed Puncture reduced to 2 ranks for 1/2 rage cost reduction.
Improved Taunt (Protection) removed, effect made baseline.
Improved Whirlwind (Fury) now increases damage of Whirlwind by 10/20%, no longer reduces cooldown.
Last Stand (Protection) cooldown reduced to 5 minutes.
Mace Specialization (Arms) now ignores 3/6/9/12/15% of target's armor.
Precision (Fury) moved to Tier 5.
Rampage now causes all party and raid members within 20 yards of the Warrior to go on a rampage, increasing melee critical hit chance by 5% for 10 seconds when the warrior scores a melee critical.
Shield Block now increases chance to block and amount blocked by 100% for 10 seconds. Cooldown increased to 60 seconds, rage cost removed.
Shield Wall now reduces all damage taken by 50% for 12 seconds cooldown reduced to 5 minutes.
Slam now suspends the weapon swing timer rather than resetting it.
Taunt cooldown reduced to 8 sec.
Toughness (Protection) moved to tier 3 , now also reduces the duration of movement slowing effects by 10/20/30/40/50%.

WotLK -- Beta Build 8820

Zyuu — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:13:23 GMT

New beta build, the size is pretty big this time around (668mb!).

New PVP Honor Rewards

New PVP Honor rewards can be purchased in Lake Wintergrasp (from assumed placeholder NPCs). Details below.

Shaman: Elemental, Enhancement, Restoration

Death Knight: DPS Plate

Relics: Totems, Idols, Librams, Sigil and Shield

New Dungeons and Level 80

Quote from: Tigole (Source)

The level cap will be 80. Storm Peaks will be available. Icecrown is still unavailable.

We'll also make the following dungeons available:

Halls of Lightning

Halls of Stone

Caverns of Time: Stratholme

The Occulus

Utgarde Pinnacle

Heroic: The Nexus (No attunement necessary -- just get level 80)

Gundrak and Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom almost made this patch but there were a few issues which held them back. Also, we sped up the leveling curve from 70-80. We're still dialing in the leveling speed so feedback is appreciated.

Professions Changes

Blacksmithing - 12 New Recipes

Jewelcrafting - 20 New Recipes
Engineering - 31 New Recipes
Inscription - Hunter, Mage, Rogue, Warlock Glyphs

Undocumented Class Changes

General

Many talents which gave pushback resist changed to reduction in casting time lost.

Death Knight

Blood Boil - Cooldown removed, 1 Blood Rune cost added. Taunt removed.

Might of Morgraine - Now affects Blood Boil, but no longer affects Obliterate.

Merciless Combat - Now works on targets with less than 35% health, up from 20%.

Bloodworms - Proc chance reduced from 4/8/12% to 3/6/9%. (Bloodworms healing has been greatly reduced too)

Endless Winter - Now reduces cost of Mind Freeze to 10 Runic Power.

Guile of Gorefiend - Now additionally affects Rune Strike.

Pestilence - Additional threat removed.

Rune of Lichbane - Now reads: Affixes your rune weapon with a rune that adds 2% extra weapon damage as Fire damage, and has a chance to stun Undead for 5 sec.

Rune of Razorice - Effect increased from 1% to 2% extra weapon damage.

Night of the Dead - Now reads: Your next 10 Plague Strikes and Scourge Strikes lower the cooldown of Raise Dead by 15/30 sec and Army of the Dead by 30/60 sec per strike.

Chains of Ice - Now reads: Shackles the target with heavy chains, reducing their movement to zero. The target regains 5% of their movement each second. Lasts for 20 sec.

Blood Aura - Now reads: All party or raid members within 45 yards of the Death Knight are healed by 1/2% of the damage they deal.

Frost Aura - Now reads: All party or raid members within 45 yards of the Death Knight gain (.5/1 per level) spell resistance.

Unholy Aura - Now reads: All party or raid members within 45 yards of the Death Knight move 8/15% faster. This effect does not stack with other movement improving effects.

Raise Dead - Ghoul now lasts until cancelled.

Hungering Cold - Now reads: Purges the earth around the Death Knight of all heat. Enemies within 10 yards are trapped in ice, preventing them from performing any action for 10 sec and infecting them with Frost Fever. Enemies are considered Frozen, but any damage other than diseases will break the ice.

Unholy Blight - Now lasts a flat 20 seconds.

Lichborne - Now lasts 15 seconds, up from 10. Cooldown increased from 1 to 3 minutes.

Death Strike - Bonus damage increased from 90 to 185. An additional 100% damage heal happens if Death Strike kills the target.

Chill to the Grave - Effect increased from 25/50% to 50/100%.

Wandering Plague - New effect: When your diseases damage an enemy, there is a chance equal to your melee critical strike chance that they will cause 33/66/100% additional damage to the target and all enemies within 8 yards. Ignores any target under the effect of a spell that is cancelled by taking damage.

Icy Touch - Damage increased slightly.

Runic Power Mastery - New effect: Increases your maximum Runic Power by 10/20/30.

Unbreakable Armor - Now additionally increases strength by 10%. Cooldown reduced from 2 minutes to 1 minute.

Frost Rune Mastery - Replaced by Rime

Rime (New Talent) - Increases the damage of your Icy Touch and Howling Blast by 15/30%.

Unholy Rune Mastery - Replace by Reaping

Reaping (New Talent) - Whenever you use Death and Decay, there is a 30/60/100% chance that all three runes become Death Runes when they activate.

Blood Presence - Healing reduced to 2% from 4%.

Anti-magic Zone - New icon

Army of the Dead - Cooldown increased from 10 to 20 minutes.

Dancing Rune Weapon - Cooldown increased from 1 to 2 minutes.

Scourge Strike - New icon

Frost Strike - Cost reduced from 50 Runic Power to 40.

Death Coil - Cost reduced from 50 Runic Power to 40.

Howling Blast - Cooldown reduced from 30 to 10 seconds.

Summon Gargoyle - Cooldown reduced from 5 to 3 minutes.

Bone Shield - Cooldown increased from 30 second to 1 minute.

Vampiric Blood - Cooldown reduced from 2 to 1 minute.

Rune Strike (New Ability) - (10 Runic Power, 5 yd range, Instant Cast, 5 sec cooldown, Requires Melee Weapon) - Instantly strike the target for weapon damage. Only usable after the Death Knight performs a melee or spell critical hit.

Path of Frost (New Ability) - (1 Frost, Instant) - The Death Knight's freezing aura creates ice beneath him feet, allowing him to walk on water. Works while mounted.

Druid

Swipe - Now hits 4 targets, up from 3.

Savage Roar - Now increases attack power by 40%, up from 35%. Duration increased from 9/12/15/18/21 seconds to 14/19/24/29/34 seconds.

Hunter

Disengage - Cooldown increased from 5 to 30 seconds, range increased from 5 to 10 yards, no longer requires melee weapon.

Track X - Now additionally increases damage dealt to X.

Aspect of the Beast - Melee attack power boost now additionally affects the hunter's pet.

Aspect of the Monkey - Now additionally reduces all damage taken. This is possibly only if you have Aspect Mastery.

Serpent Sting - RAP coefficient doubles, was 0.1 now 0.2.

Survivalist - Now increaes stamina instead of health.

Deterrance - Level changed from 20 to 60.

Improved Feign Death - now called Survival Tactics, reduces CD of disengage instead of reducing damage

Surefooted - Reduces the duration of movement imparing effects by 16/25/50%, up from 10/20/30%.

Deflection - Now additionally reduces the duration of all Disarm effects used against you by 50%. This does not stack with other Disarm duration reducing effects.

Wyvern Sting - Damage is now dealt over 6 seconds, down from 12. Damage unchanged.

Improved Hunter's Mark - Causes 66% of your Hunter's Mark ability's base attack power to apply to melee attack power as well, up from 40%.

Improved Stings - All effects increased from 6/12/18% to 10/20/30%

Trueshot Aura - Now affects raid members.

Pathfinding - Now additionally increases your speed while mounted by 5/10%. The mounted movement speed increase does not stack with other effects.

Spirit Bond - Now additionally increases healing done to you and your pet by 5%.

Distracting Shot - Now a 6 second taunt, instead of simply causing threat.

Recovery - Cooldown reduced from 5 to 3 minutes.

Kill Command - Cooldown reduced from 2 to 1 minute.

Animal Handler - Now increaeses your pet's chance to hit by 2/4%, and reduces the cooldown of your Master's Call ability by 5/10 sec. Also now marked as Not Yet Implemented.

Focused Fire - Now increases the critical strike chance of your pet's special abilities by 10/20% while Kill Command is active instead of increasing the critical strike chance of your Kill Command ability by 10/20%.

Chimera Shot - You deal 125% weapon damage, refreshing the current Sting on your target and triggering an effect: Serpent Sting - Instantly deals 40% of the damage done by your Serpent Sting. Viper Sting - Instantly restores mana to you equal to 60% of the total amount drained by your Viper Sting. Scorpid Sting - Attempts to Disarm the target for 10 sec. This effect cannot occur more than once per 1 minute.

Improved Steady Shot - Your Steady Shot hits have a 5/10/100% chance to increase the damage done by your next Aimed Shot, Arcane Shot or Chimera Shot by 15%, and reduce the mana cost of your next Aimed Shot, Arcane Shot or Chimera Shot by 40%. Now marked as not yet implemented.

Rapid Recuperation - Reduces the mana and focus cost of all shots and abilities by you and your pet by 20/40/60% while under the effect of Rapid Fire, and you gain mana equal to 50/100/150% of the damage you do under the effect of Rapid Killing over 6 sec.

Marked for Death - Increases your damage done by your shots and the damage done by your pet's special abilities by 1/2/3/4/5% on marked targets, and increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Aimed Shot, Steady Shot, Kill Shot or Chimera Shot by 2/4/6/8/10%.

Aspect Mastery - Increases the mana returned from your Aspect of the Viper by 10%, reduces the damage done to you while in Aspect of the Monkey by 10% and increases the attack power bonus gained with Aspect of the Hawk by 50%, up from 2%/2%/10%.

Master's Call - Now useable while stunned. Level 75.

Hunting Party - Cooldown removed, but now only affects Arcane Shot, Explosive Shot, and Steady Shot.

Potent Venom - Now named Noxious Stings.

Noxious Stings - If Wyvern Sting is dispelled, the dispeller is also afflicted by Wyvern Sting lasting 15/25/50% of the duration remaining, and increases all damage done by you on targets afflicted by your Serpent Sting by 1/2/3%. Marked as Not Yet Implemented.

Explosive Shot - Now an additional DoT tick when cast.

T.N.T. (New Talent) - Your Immolation Trap, Explosive Trap and Explosive Shot have a 5/10/15% to stun targets for 2 sec when they deal damage, and increases the critical strike chance of your Explosive Shot and Explosive Trap by 5/10/15%.

Hunter vs. Wild (New talent) - Increases you and your pet's attack power and ranged attack power equal to 30% of your total Stamina

Lock and Load (New talent) - You have a 33/66/100% chance when you trap a target and a 10/20/30% chance when you Sting a target to cause your next 3 Arcane Shot or Explosive Shot spells to trigger no cooldown, cost no mana and consume no ammo.

Separation Anxiety (New talent) - When your pet is greater than 20 yards from you or is out of line of sight of you, its damage is increased by 2/%/6/8/10, and when you and your pet are within 20 yards of each other, you and your pet's movement speed is increased by 2/4/6/8/10%. Marked as not yet implemented.

Mage

No changes

Paladin

Summon Warhorse - Renamed Warhorse

Vengeance - Now stacks up to 2 times, down from 3.

Summon Charger - Renamed Charger

Seal of Vengeance, Seal of Corruption - DoT duration reduced from 18 to 15 seconds.

Priest

Improved Holy Concentration - New icon

Mind Sear - Mana cost reduced from 67% to 28% of base.

Rogue

Gouge - No longer awards a combo point.

Mace Specialization - Now increases the damage dealt by your critical strikes with maces by 2/4/6/8/10%, up from 1/2/3/4/5%. However, no longer gives a chance to stun.

Shaman

Improved Stormstrike - New icon

Spectral Transformation - New icon

Maelstrom Weapon - New icon

Feral Spirit - New icon

Blessing of the Eternals - New icon

Warlock

No changes (they just applied the downranking change to a few spells they had missed)

Warrior

Thunder Clap - Cooldown increased from 4 to 6 seconds.

Bloodsurge - Now makes Slam instant, instead of reducing its swing time by 100%.

Enrage - Melee damage bonus reduced from 5/10/15/20/25% to 3/6/9/12/15%, but now has unlimited charges.

Mace Specialization - Now generates 10 rage, but chance to stun removed.

Deathwish - Tooltip clarified. This is an enrage effect.

Improved Berserker Rage - Effect increased form 5/10 to 10/20 rage.

Blood Frenzy - Effect reduced from 2/4% to 1/2%

Shield Mastery - Now increased you block value instead of increasing the amount blocked by your shield.

Improved Charge - Rage generated increased from 3/6 to 5/10.

Improved Mortal Strike - New effect: Increases the damage caused by your Mortal Strike ability by 2/4/6/8/10% and gives your Enraged Assault ability a 6/12/18/24/30% chance to refresh the cooldown of Mortal Strike.

Rampage - New effect: Your melee critical hits cause you to go on a rampage, increasing melee critical hit chance of all party and raid members within 20 yds by 5%. Lasts 10 sec.

Bladestorm - Duration increased from 4.5 to 6 seconds.

Intensify Rage - New effect: Reduces the cooldown of your Bloodrage, Berserker Rage, Recklessness and Deathwish abilities by 11/22/33%.

Improved Shield Block: Cooldown reduction increased from 5/10 seconds to 10/20 seconds.

Shield Wall - Damage reduction increased from 50% to 60%.

Unrelenting Assault - Cooldown reduction increased from 1/2 seconds to 2/4 seconds.

Strength of Arms - 2 ranks now, down from 3. Effect increases from 1/2/3% to 2/4%.

Furious Resolve - New effect: Your normal melee attacks have a 50/100% chance to reduce all healing done to the target by 25% for 8 sec. This can stack up to 2 times.

Stalwart Protector - Now named Justified Killing. Effect increased from 1/2 rage to 3/6 rage, but no longer triggers on dodging.

Shield Block - Cooldown increased from 30 seconds to 1 minute. New effect: Increases your chance to block and block value by 100% for 5 sec.

Titans Grip - Now only 1 rank, attack speed decrease removed.

Improved Sunder Armor - Now named Puncture.

Heroic Leap - New icon

Trauma - New icon

Enraged Assault - Now has 10 second cooldown.

Wrecking Crew (New talent)- Your melee critical hits have a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to Enrage you, increasing all damage caused by 3/6/9/12/15% for 12 sec.

Unending Fury (New talent) - Reduces the rage cost of your Cleave, Whirlwind and Bloodthirst abilities by 1/2/3/4/5 and gives your Enraged Assault ability a 6/12/18/24/30% chance to refresh the cooldown of Bloodthirst.

Taste for Blood (New talent)- Whenever your Rend ability causes damage, you have a 10/20/30% chance of allowing the use of your Overpower ability for 5 secs.

Inscription - New Glyphs (Hunter, Mage, Rogue, Warlock)

Hunter

Glyph - Aimed Shot 01 (Hunter): Decreases the cooldown of Aimed Shot by (-1) sec.

Glyph - Arcane Shot 01 (Hunter): Your Arcane Shot refunds 20% of its mana cost if the target has one of your Stings active on it.

Glyph - Aspect of the Beast 01 (Hunter): Increases the attack power bonus of Aspect of the Beast for you and your pet by an additional 2%.

Glyph - Aspect of the Monkey 01 (Hunter): While Aspect of the Moneky is active, each time you dodge you gain 30% increased movement speed for 6 sec. This speed does not stack with other movement speed increasing effects.

Glyph - Aspect of the Viper 01 (Hunter): You regenerate mana from Aspect of the Viper as if you had 15% less mana in your current mana pool.

Glyph - Bestial Wrath 01 (Hunter): Decreases the cooldown of Bestial Wrath by (-20) sec.

Glyph - Deterrence 01 (Hunter): Decreases the cooldown of Deterrence by (-20) sec.

Glyph - Disengage 01 (Hunter): Decreases the cooldown of Disengage by (-5) sec.

Glyph - Freezing Trap 01 (Hunter): When your Freezing Trap breaks, the victim is afflicted with a 40% snare, recovering 10% per sec. for 4 sec.

Glyph - Frost Trap 01 (Hunter): Increases the radius of the effect from your Frost Trap by 2 yards.

Glyph - Hunter's Mark 01 (Hunter): Increases the attack power bonus of your Hunter's Mark by 20%.

Glyph - Immolation Trap 01 (Hunter): Decreases the duration of the effect from your Immolation Trap by 6000 sec., but damage while active is increased by 100%

Glyph - Improved Aspect of the Hawk 01 (Hunter): Increases the effect of Improved Aspect of the Hawk by an additional 6.

Glyph - Multi-Shot 01 (Hunter): Decreases the cooldown of Multi-Shot by (-1) sec.

Glyph - Rapid Fire 01 (Hunter): Increases the haste from Rapid Fire by an additional 8%.

Glyph - Serpent Sting 01 (Hunter): Increases the duration of your Serpent Sting by 3 sec.

Glyph - Snake Trap 01 (Hunter): Your Snake Trap creates 2 additional snakes.

Glyph - Steady Shot 01 (Hunter): Increases the damage dealt by Steady Shot by 10% when your target is afflicted with Serpent Sting.

Glyph - Trueshot Aura 01 (Hunter): Increases the attack power bonus of Trueshot Aura by an additional 2%.

Glyph - Volley 01 (Hunter): Decreases the mana cost of Volley by 20%.

Glyph - Wyvern Sting 01 (Hunter): Decreases the cooldown of your Wyvern Sting by (-15) sec., but decreases the damage it deals by 20%.

Mage

Glyph of Arcane Explosion 01 (Mage): Reduces mana cost of Arcane Explosion by 10%.

Glyph of Arcane Missiles 01 (Mage): Increases the range of Arcane Missiles by 5 yards.

Glyph of Arcane Power 01 (Mage): Increases the duration of Arcane Power by 3 sec.

Glyph of Blink 01 (Mage): Increases the distance you travel with the Blink spell by 5 yards.

Glyph of Evocation 01 (Mage): Your Evocation ability also causes you to regain 15% of your health over its duration.

Glyph of Fireball 01 (Mage): Increases the initial damage dealt by Fireball by 5%, but removes the damage over time effect.

Glyph of Fireblast 01 (Mage): Increases the critical strike chance of Fireblast by 50% when the target is stunned or incapacitated.

Glyph of Frost Nova 01 (Mage): Your Frost Nova targets can take an additional 20% damage before the Frost Nova effect automatically breaks.

Glyph of Frostbolt 01 (Mage): Increases the damage dealt by Frostbolt by 5%, but removes the slowing effect.

Glyph of Ice Armor 01 (Mage): Your Ice Armor and Frost Armor spells grant an additional 20% armor and resistance.

Glyph of Ice Block 01 (Mage): Your Frost Nova cooldown is now reset every time you use Ice Block.

Glyph of Ice Lance 01 (Mage): Increases the range of your Ice Lance by 5 yards.

Glyph of Icy Veins 01 (Mage): Your Icy Veins ability also removes all movement slowing and cast time slowing effects.

Glyph of Improved Scorch 01 (Mage): The Improved Scorch talent now generates 5 applications of the Improved Scorch effect each time Scorch is cast.

Glyph of Invisibility 01 (Mage): Increases the duration of the Invisibility effect by 5 sec.

Glyph of Mage Armor 01 (Mage): Your Mage Armor spell grants an additional 20% mana regeneration while casting.

Glyph of Mana Gem 01 (Mage): Increases the mana recieved from using a mana gem by 10%.

Glyph of Polymorph 01 (Mage): Your Polymorph spell also removes all damage over time effects from the target.

Glyph of Remove Curse 01 (Mage): Your Remove Curse spell also makes the target immune to all Curses for 6 sec.

Glyph of Water Elemental 01 (Mage): Reduces the cooldown of your Summon Water Elemental spell by (-30) sec.

Rogue

Glyph - Adrenaline Rush 01 (Rogue): Decreases the cooldown of Adrenaline Rush by (-60) sec.

Glyph - Ambush 01 (Rogue): Increases the range on Ambush by 5 yards.

Glyph - Backstab 01 (Rogue): Increases the damage dealt by Backstab to stunned and incapacitated targets by 20%.

Glyph - Blade Flurry 01 (Rogue): Reduces the energy cost of Blade Flurry by 100%.

Glyph - Crippling Poison 01 (Rogue): Increases the chance to trigger Crippling Poison by 10%.

Glyph - Deadly Throw 01 (Rogue): Increases the range on Deadly Throw by 5 yards.

Glyph - Evasion 01 (Rogue): Increases the duration of Evasion by 5 sec.

Glyph - Eviscerate 01 (Rogue): Increases the critical strike chance of Eviscerate by 10%.

Glyph - Expose Armor 01 (Rogue): Increases the duration of Expose Armor by 10 sec.

Glyph - Feint 01 (Rogue): Reduces the energy cost of Feint by 10.

Glyph - Garrote 01 (Rogue): Increases periodic damage dealt by Garrrote by 45%, but decreases the duration by 3 sec.

Glyph - Ghostly Strike 01 (Rogue): Increases the damage dealt by Ghostly Strike by 50% and the duration of its effect by 4 sec., but increases its cooldown by 10 sec.

Glyph - Gouge 01 (Rogue): Reduces the power cost of Gouge by 10.

Glyph - Hemorrhage 01 (Rogue): Increases the damage bonus against targets afflicted by Hemorrhage by 40%.

Glyph - Preparation 01 (Rogue): Decreases the cooldown of Preparation by (-2) min.

Glyph - Rupture 01 (Rogue): Increases the duration of Rupture by 5 sec.

Glyph - Sap 01 (Rogue): Increases the duration of Sap by 10 sec.

Glyph - Shiv 01 (Rogue): Reduces the energy cost of Shiv by 5.

Glyph - Sinister Strike 01 (Rogue): Your Sinister Strike critical strikes have a 40% chance to add an additional combo point.

Glyph - Slice and Dice 01 (Rogue): Increases the duration of Slice and Dice by 3 sec.

Glyph - Sprint 01 (Rogue): Decreases the cooldown of Sprint by (-60) sec.

Warlock

Glyph of Banish (Warlock): Increases the duration of your Banish by 5 sec.

Glyph of Conflagrate (Warlock): Reduces tha mana cost of your Conflagrate by 20%.

Glyph of Corruption (Warlock): You Corruption spell has a 4% chance to cause you to enter a Shadow Trance state after damaging the opponent. The Shadow Trance state reduces the casting time of your next Shadow Bolt spell by 100%.

Glyph of Curse of Agony (Warlock): Increases the duration of your Curse of Agony by 4 sec.

Glyph of Death Coil (Warlock): Increases the duration of your Death Coil by 0.5.1 sec.

Glyph of Fear (Warlock): Increases the damage your Fear target can take before the Fear effect is removed by 20%.

Glyph of Felguard (Warlock): Increases your Felguard's physical damage by 20%.

Glyph of Felhunter (Warlock): Increases your Felhunter's spell damage by 20%.

Glyph of Health Funnel (Warlock): Increases the chance you'll resist spell interruption when channeling your Health Funnel spell by 100%.

Glyph of Healthstone (Warlock): You receive 30% more healing from using a healthstone.

Glyph of Howl of Terror (Warlock): Reduces the cooldown on your Howl of Terror spell by (-8) sec.

Glyph of Imp (Warlock): Increases your Imp's spell damage by 20%.

Glyph of Searing Pain (Warlock): Increases the critical strike bonus of your Searing Pain by 20%.

Glyph of Shadow Bolt (Warlock): Reduces the mana cost of your Shadow Bolt by 10%.

Glyph of Shadowburn (Warlock): Increases the critical strike chance of Shadowburn by 20% when the target is below 35% health.

Glyph of Siphon Life (Warlock): Increases the effect of your Siphon Life spell by 20%.

Glyph of Soulstone (Warlock): Increases the amount of health a player gains from resurrecting via your Soulstone by 100%.

Glyph of Succubus (Warlock): Increases the duration of your Succubus's Seduction by 3 sec.

Glyph of Unstable Affliction (Warlock): Decreases the casting time of your Unstable Affliction by 0.2.1 sec.

Glyph of Voidwalker (Warlock): Increases your Voidwalker's health by 20%.

WotLK -- Beta Build 8788

Zyuu — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 19:58:00 GMT

Rewards for the Amphitheater of Anguish questline (similar to Ring of Blood) have been added to the game.

De-Raged Waraxe (2h Axe)
Wodin's Second-Best Shanker (1h Dagger)
Icied Barbed Spear (Polearm)
Chilly Slobberknocker (Staff)
Screw-Sprung Fixer-Upper (Main Hand Mace)
Crimson Cranium Crusher (1h Mace)

Violet Citadel (Dalaran) populated with new npcs (Rhonin, leader of the Kirin Tor)

Jewelcrafting: 18 New Epic Gems

Blacksmithing: The 1-handed epic weapons have been buffed & Titanium Weapon Chain

Major changes to mana cost on spells and downranking

Almost every class specific spell had their mana cost changed, they now have a % instead of a flat amount. "This is base mana cost, not total modified by int cost".

Furthermore, major changes to downranking of spells have been put into the game, lower ranks of spells now almost always cost as much as your highest rank.

Two new tailoring embroiders

Master's Spellthread - Permanently embroiders your pants with master's spellthread, increasing spell power by 50 and Stamina by 30.
Sanctified Spellthread - Permanently embroiders your pants with sanctified spellthread, increasing spell power by 50 and Spirit by 20.

Brand new Icecrown Map

Login screen revamped again

Undocumented Class Changes

Death Knight

Blood

Bloodworms: 3/3 Your weapon hits have a 12% chance to spawn 2-4 Bloodworms. Bloodworms attack your enemies, healing you as they do damage for 20 sec or until killed. (Healing amount remains the same)
Sudden Doom now lasts 15 seconds (was 10 seconds).

Frost

Chains of Ice cooldown has been removed.
Icy Talons description changed: You leech heat from victims of your Frost Fever (old: your Icy Touch), so that when their melee speed is reduced, yours increases by 20% for the next 20 sec.
Lichborne cooldown lowered from 5 minutes to 1 minute. Duration reduced from 30 seconds to 10 seconds.
Aneurysm has been removed.
Endless Winter has been reworked and moved to Aneurysm's position, it now requires Chillblains: Your Chains of Ice has a 50/100% chance to cause Frost Fever and the cost of your Mind Freeze is reduced to 20/0 runic power.
Frigid Dreadplate changed: Enemies who hit you in melee have a 30/60/100% chance to become unsettled, decreasing their chance to hit for 5% for the next 12 sec. (old: decreasing their attack speed)
Runic Power Mastery stats changed: Scaling runic power abilities behave as if you had an additional 20% runic power. (old: 2% runic power)
Acclimation now affects the whole raid.

Unholy

Anti-Magic Shell: Runic Power cost increased from 10 RP to 20 RP.
Morbidity moved to Tier 1 in unholy
Virulence moved to Tier 2 in unholy
Blood-Caked Blade: Your autoattacks have a 5/10/15% chance to cause Blood-Caked Strike, which hits for 50% weapon damage times the number of your diseases on the target. (Was 60%)
Night of the Dead: Hitting a target with Plague Strike or Scourge Strike reduces the cooldown of your next Raise Dead and your next Army of the Dead by 30 sec / 1 min. This effect stacks up to 5 times. (was bugged to be 1 min for both ranks)
Desecration range component increased from 2 yards to 7 yards around the target.

Druid

Feral

Savage Roar: Attack power increased from 25% to 35%.

Hunter

Nothing reported or discovered just yet. Keep checking back.

Mage

Arcane

Torment of the Weak description changed: All damage you cause to Ensared targets is increased by 2/4/6%. (old version: All damage done to slowed targets is increased by 2/4/6%.)

Frost

Fingers of Frost description/duration changed: Gives your Frost damage spells a 5/10% chance to apply the Fingers of Frost effect, which treat your Frost spells cast on the target as if the target were Frozen. Lasts 4 sec. (old version: Gives your Frost damage spells a 5/10% chance to apply the Fingers of Frost effect, which treat your next 2 Frost spells cast on the target as if the target were Frozen. Lasts 10 sec.)

Paladin

Protection

Divine Shield wording change: Protects the paladin from all damage and spells for 12 sec, but increases the time between his or her attacks (old: your attacks) by 100%. Once protected, the target cannot be made invulnerable by Divine Shield, Divine Protection or Hand of Protection again for 3 min.

Priest

Nothing reported or discovered just yet. Keep checking back.

Rogue

Nothing reported or discovered just yet. Keep checking back.

Shaman

Nothing reported or discovered just yet. Keep checking back.

Warlock

Affliction

Improved Felhunter description changed: Your Felhunter gains mana equal to 100/200% (old: 50/100%) of the damage done by it's Shadow Bite ability, and increases the effect of your Felhunter's Fel Intelligence by 1/2%.
Dark Pact: Drains 700 of your summoned demon's Mana, returning 200% (old: 100%) to you.
Haunt description changed: You send a ghostly soul into the target, dealing 645 to 754 Shadow damage and increasing all damage done by your damage-over-time effects on the target by 20% (old: 0%) for 12 sec. When the Haunt spell ends or is dispelled, the soul returns to you, healing you for 20% of all damage done to the target.

Warrior

Nothing reported or discovered just yet. Keep checking back.

New WotLK build soon, Four New Fan Arts

Zyuu — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 06:36:36 GMT

A brand new Wrath of the Lich King beta build is being deployed and as always stay tuned for the latest news here and over at World of Raids.

We will be taking down the Beta realms at 3:30PM Pacific time today August 13th 2008 to update to the latest build.

We expect this process to take from six to eight hours.

Thank you for your patience!

[Source]

Four New Fan Arts

Patch Notes Update, Professions, Class, Glyphs

Kody — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 22:13:51 GMT

Even more news on the latest beta build; this one being 8770. We have word from the EU Community team about the official updates to the patch notes, as well as a number of undocumented changes -- including professions like blacksmithing, engineering and tailoring -- along with a new Warrior skill. The skill is still NYI, but the details on that and everything else can be found below.

WotLK Beta - Patch Notes Update

Blue Poster Wryxian highlighted the new changes added to the official beta patch notes.

General

Spell casting and spell channelling pushback has been changed to the following:

When casting a spell:

The first and second hit will add .5 secs each to the cast time.

All hits after the second will have no effect.

When channelling a spell:

The first and second hit reduces current duration by 25% of total duration each.

All hits after the second will have no effect.

Druids

Feral Swiftness: The movement speed buff can now be used indoors.

Hunters

Arcane Shot: No longer dispels magic effects.

Aspect of the Beast: Now increases your melee attack power by 10%.

Counterattack: Damage increased by 20%, and now also scales with your Ranged Attack Power.

Mongoose Bite: No longer requires you to dodge in order to use this ability.

Savage Strikes: Now includes Counterattack.

Tranquilizing Shot: Cooldown reduced to 15 seconds (down from 20), and now dispels Enrage and Magic effects.

Wingclip: No longer does damage.

Mages

Impact moved to tier 3, reduced to 3 ranks for 4/7/10% chance to trigger, now triggers from any damaging spell (Fire, Frost or Arcane).

Improved Mana Shield has been renamed to Arcane Shielding , reduces mana lost per damage absorbed by 17/33%,and now also increases resistances granged by Mage Armor by 25/50%.

Mana Shield now drains 1.5 mana per damage absorbed.

Summoned Water Elemental's Waterbolt range increased, mana cost reduced, Freeze range increased, mana cost increased.

Winter's Chill reduced to 3 ranks, Frost damage spells have a 33/66/100% chance to trigger the effect and the effect increases chance to crit with Arcane, Fire and Frost spells.

Shamans

Improved Lightning Shield (Enhancement) is now Improved Shields, and is in Tier-2.

Warlocks

Dark Pact: Tooltip updated to be more consistent with other similar effects and now restores 200% mana leeched from your summoned Demon, up from 100%.

Ritual of Souls: Charges increased to 25, up from 10.

Warriors

Improved Shield Wall will now reduce cooldown by 30/60 seconds.

Recklessness now increases the critical hit chance of the next 3 special ability attacks by 100%, lasts 12 seconds, cooldown reduced to 5 minutes.

Retaliation duration reduced to 12 seconds, charges reduced to 12, cooldown reduced to 5 minutes.

Shield Block now increases chance to block and amount blocked by 100% for 5 seconds. Cooldown increased to 30 seconds.

Quests

The Winterfin Caverns are once again named and player characters should be able to wear King Mrgl-Mrgl's Spare Suit within them.

Build 8770 - New Changes Part 2

Some changes (professions, glyphs, class) we did not to mention in our original post about 8770 changes.

Professions
Blacksmithing

Socket Bracer - Permanently add a socket to your bracers. Requires a level 60 or higher item.

Socket Gloves - Permanently add a socket to your gloves. Requires a level 60 or higher item.

Cooking

Delicious Roasted Boar - Creates a delicious roast boar platter for you and your friends to enjoy.

Engineering

Scrapbot - Creates a mechanical vendor that buys anything. The scrapbot leaves after 5 min.

Nitro Boosts - Permanently attaches overpowered nitro boosts to a pair of boots, allowing a skilled engineer to greatly increase run speed for until cancelled. The nitro boosts can only be activated every 5 minutes.

Gnomish Lightning Generator - Generates a bolt of lightning to strike an enemy for 2250 to 2750 Nature damage. This entire device is made of metal, and the bolt occasionally hits you.

Belt-Clipped Spynoculars - Permanently attaches a pair of spynoculars to your belt, allowing you to see far away. Only a skilled engineer can use the spynoculars.

Flexweave Underlay - Permanently attaches a flexweave underlay to a cloak, allowing a skilled engineer to turn the cloak into a parachute to fall slowly for 10 sec. The cloak can only be used every 5 minutes.

Heartseeker Scope - Attaches a permanent scope to a bow or gun that increases its ranged critical strike rating by 40.

Micro Stabilizer - Attaches a permanent micro stabilizer to a bow or gun that increases your ranged hit rating by 40.

Hyperspeed Accelerators - Permanently attaches hyperspeed accelerators to a pair of gloves, allowing a skilled engineer to increase their haste rating by 340 for 8 sec. The gloves can only be activated every few minutes.

Personal Electromagnetic Pulse Generator - Permanently attaches a high-powered device to your belt, allowing you to stun nearby mechanicals. Only a skilled engineer can activate the modified belt.

Saronite Grenade (45 yd range, instant) - Inflicts 540 to 900 Fire damage and incapacitates targets for 3 sec in a 3 yard radius. Any damage will break the effect. Unreliable against targets higher than level 90.

Saronite Bomb (45 yd range, instant) - Inflicts 1125 to 1875 Fire damage and medium siege damage in a 10 yard radius.

Herbalism

Wild Growth - Embrace the natural energies surrounding you, healing you for 2000 over 15 sec.

Note: When you use this skill you might gain herbalism points and it make flowers grow and bloom all around you. (Screenshot)

Tailoring

Brilliant Spellthread - Permanently embroiders spellthread into pants, increasing spell power by 50 and Spirit by 20.

Azure Spellthread - Permanently embroiders spellthread into pants, increasing spell power by 35 and Stamina by 20.

Shining Spellthread - Permanently embroiders spellthread into pants, increasing spell power by 35 and Spirit by 12.

Lightweave Embroidery - Embroiders a subtle pattern of light into your cloak, giving you a chance to cause an additional 800 to 1000 Holy damage when you damage an enemy with a spell. You can only embroider your own cloak and embroidering your cloak will cause it to become soulbound.

Darkglow Embroidery - Embroiders a magical pattern into your cloak, giving you a chance to restore 300 mana when you cast a spell.You can only embroider your own cloak and embroidering your cloak will cause it to become soulbound.

Swordguard Embroidery - Embroiders a magical pattern into your cloak, causing your damaging melee attacks to sometimes ignore 1000 of your target's armor. You can only embroider your own cloak and embroidering your cloak will cause it to become soulbound.

Class
Druid

Glyph of the Red Lynx (Druid) - You appear as a red lynx in your Cat Form.

Mage (not confirmed)
Mirror Image (NYI) - level 80 spell
10% of base
Instant cast - 3 min cooldown
Creates 3 copies of the caster nearby, which cast spells and attack the mage's enemies. Lasts 30 sec.

Warlock

Grand Firestone - While applied to target weapon it increases damage dealt by direct spells by 1% and spell critical strike rating by 49. Lasts for 1 hour.

Grand Spellstone - While applied to target weapon it increases damage dealt by periodic spells by 1% and spell haste rating by 60. Lasts for 1 hour.

Warrior
Enraged Assault (NYI) - level 75 skill
15 Rage 5 yd range
Instant
Requires Melee Weapon
A furious assault that consumes an Enrage effect on the warrior and attacks with all weapons. Can only be used while Enraged.

WotLK Beta and Class Changes

Kody — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 22:06:01 GMT

It was a busy weekend for blue posts on the Wrath of the Lich King beta forums and we have all of the latest below. There are quite a few Death Knight topics of discussion, as well as information on Druids, Hunters and Warriors. Read on for everything.

Druid

Feral changes - We're not done with Ferals. (src)

Hunter

Camouflage - Used to be the 51-pt Survival, but we felt it was too PvP oriented, and we're really trying to flesh the tree out to be more than traps and melee (we are not done, as you can tell). That said... Camouflage may just come back as a base ability... *maybe* =] (Though a bit different from the against-the-rules data mining version you saw). (src)

Chimera Pet critting for 5k - Because the chimera ability does two types of damage at once (like the new Mage spell), it seems to have some crazy scaling effect. This is the first pet ability with two types of damage, so it's likely that is the problem. (src)

Pet skills & focus cost - I like the idea of removing more pet abilities from Focus. It's kind of a weird energy source since it fills so quickly in most cases. Growl and Cower might be trickier, but perhaps they could just be really cheap. Making the Focus dump abilities (Bite etc.) relatively expensive could do unpredictable things to threat or dps, especially very early in a fight. It's worth considering though since then they would typically only get used if the other autocast stuff was on cooldown. Leting some specials be free would help balance utility specials with pure dps specials (which could still have a Focus cost). (src)

Exotic Pets - The NYI tag has been removed from Beast Master now, it's completely implemented. Though, we're still working on the pets themselves. (src)

Pet aggro - As you can see, the results are a little inconsistent. Before we just buff pet threat across the board, we need to make sure that there aren't more bugs resulting in spikey or unpredictable behavior. (src)

Pets and spell resistance (src)
We don't want pets to get to the point where they resist nearly all CC effects... though being that this is a board of hunters you will probably disagree. :)

But we don't want your pets to die to a single spell either, which is why we'd rather handle surviving spell damage (especially in PvP) through a percent damage reduction. That is something we are looking at now. There are also talents that can further reduce spell damage.

Because your pets benefit from your resistance, it should still be possible to get them to survive in magic-heavy PvE encounters.

Warrior
State of Protection Warriors (src)
The design is that even a decently geared Arms or Fury warrior can tank a non-heroic 5-player instance. Overall they are probably easier than the BC instances at that level, but it's because we want more people to be able to run them.

You shouldn't need to seek Strength out for your tanking set. The way the itemization is designed, you are going to end up with a bunch of Strength on the tanking pieces you do pick up. We figure it will be more fun to do dailies, offtank and perhaps (gasp) even PvP when you can still do reasonable damage (not Fury damage, but perhaps not 50% of it either). Threat generation will be easier since you'll be hitting harder, and Rage starvation might likewise be a little less. In the past, tanks often had a choice between +threat and +mitigation gear, and typically felt obliged to go with the latter (special situations, such as maybe a ZA bear run or a boss with a short enrage timer aside). We figured we'd try letting you get tanking gear that didn't crater your dps.

Tanking changes are not done (src)
We're not done. When a new build goes out in beta, it happens because someone grabs the data and makes a new build, not because we all stand back and say "There! We've done it. Let's see what they say when they get a load of THIS!"

For that reason, it's tough to compare warrior abilities to any other class' abilities. Maybe the designers just didn't work on paladins that day and were planning on making similar changes across other classes. Maybe they just wanted to see the outcome and feedback on the change before deciding whether to keep it. While it may not be fair, we definitely don't parcel out 10% of our time each week to give each class some love. Some class abilities have the exact same bugs or non-functional status they've had since beta began just because we haven't had time to fix them yet.

I know first hand that many of the changes in the last patch were intended as buffs. Obviously Shield Wall et al. had to come down in effectiveness with such a shorter cooldown. If we overcompensated, we'll fix it next time around. Blood Frenzy is a special case because we're still evaluating what to do with unique raid buffs in general. We're not at all happy with the "fun choice" of deciding whether to take a Fury warrior with awesome dps but no buffs, or an Arms warrior who begrudingly picked up BF just to earn a spot in the raid. If you've read any of my other posts, I don't at all consider warrior tanking to be in a shippable state.

Death Knight

Bloodworms & Death Strike - We might unhook Bloodworms from Death Strike again. Death Strike needs to be useful without the extra talent, so with the extra talent it feels like it might be overhealing much of the time. (src)

Death Strike healing mechanics - Death Strike heals you for 100% of the damage it dealt per disease on the target. If you hit with DS for 500 and have 1 disease it heals you for 500, two diseases would heal you for 1000 and so on. (src)

Anti-Magic Shell - We are looking at Anti-Magic Shell as possibly being runic power or even free. We need to get the remaining bugs knocked out of it to see how it feels. (src)

DK spells & attack power - Note that DK spells are not affected by spellpower and are affected by attack power. We might also allow them to use melee crit instead of spell crit if that gets to be an issue. It may not be an issue since items now always increase both melee and spell crit. Ditto for hit. (src)

Master of Ghouls and perma ghoul - No this is not intended. The ghoul should die at the end of his duration, however we do intend for deep Unholy Death Knights to have the ability to resummon their ghoul almost on a whim. (src)

Killing Machine - It needs to affect Icy Touch since we can't assume you also have Howling Blast or Frost Strike. Granted it's not great for Icy Touch, but that is better than having a talent that doesn't affect your abilities at all. We have discussed adding Obliterate, but our concern is that it would then only be used for Obliterate. Increasing the duration is an easy change. (src)

Build 8770 and bugs - You can find a list of bugs here. Thanks for the report guys, keep the bugs and feedback rolling. Unfortunately a lot of the Death Knight abilities were still in the middle of being updated to their new functionality at the time the beta push was built. Hopefully we can get all of these issues fixed soon. The faster you all make us aware of everything that's not working the quicker we can get it fixed. (src)

Pestilence - We broke Pestilence shortly before the patch went out. We got rid of the chaining effect (the green lines you used to see) in order to make it more of an area effect ability like Thunder Clap (but one that requires a target). This doesn't really change the role of the ability at all. It just makes it more consistent to apply. Unfortunately the timing of the change turned out not to be ideal. (src)

Druid

Feral changes - We're not done with Ferals. (src)

Hunter

Camouflage - Used to be the 51-pt Survival, but we felt it was too PvP oriented, and we're really trying to flesh the tree out to be more than traps and melee (we are not done, as you can tell). That said... Camouflage may just come back as a base ability... *maybe* =] (Though a bit different from the against-the-rules data mining version you saw). (src)

Chimera Pet critting for 5k - Because the chimera ability does two types of damage at once (like the new Mage spell), it seems to have some crazy scaling effect. This is the first pet ability with two types of damage, so it's likely that is the problem. (src)

Pet skills & focus cost - I like the idea of removing more pet abilities from Focus. It's kind of a weird energy source since it fills so quickly in most cases. Growl and Cower might be trickier, but perhaps they could just be really cheap. Making the Focus dump abilities (Bite etc.) relatively expensive could do unpredictable things to threat or dps, especially very early in a fight. It's worth considering though since then they would typically only get used if the other autocast stuff was on cooldown. Leting some specials be free would help balance utility specials with pure dps specials (which could still have a Focus cost). (src)

Exotic Pets - The NYI tag has been removed from Beast Master now, it's completely implemented. Though, we're still working on the pets themselves. (src)

Pet aggro - As you can see, the results are a little inconsistent. Before we just buff pet threat across the board, we need to make sure that there aren't more bugs resulting in spikey or unpredictable behavior. (src)

Pets and spell resistance (src)
We don't want pets to get to the point where they resist nearly all CC effects... though being that this is a board of hunters you will probably disagree. :)

But we don't want your pets to die to a single spell either, which is why we'd rather handle surviving spell damage (especially in PvP) through a percent damage reduction. That is something we are looking at now. There are also talents that can further reduce spell damage.

Because your pets benefit from your resistance, it should still be possible to get them to survive in magic-heavy PvE encounters.

Warrior
State of Protection Warriors (src)
The design is that even a decently geared Arms or Fury warrior can tank a non-heroic 5-player instance. Overall they are probably easier than the BC instances at that level, but it's because we want more people to be able to run them.

You shouldn't need to seek Strength out for your tanking set. The way the itemization is designed, you are going to end up with a bunch of Strength on the tanking pieces you do pick up. We figure it will be more fun to do dailies, offtank and perhaps (gasp) even PvP when you can still do reasonable damage (not Fury damage, but perhaps not 50% of it either). Threat generation will be easier since you'll be hitting harder, and Rage starvation might likewise be a little less. In the past, tanks often had a choice between +threat and +mitigation gear, and typically felt obliged to go with the latter (special situations, such as maybe a ZA bear run or a boss with a short enrage timer aside). We figured we'd try letting you get tanking gear that didn't crater your dps.

Tanking changes are not done (src)
We're not done. When a new build goes out in beta, it happens because someone grabs the data and makes a new build, not because we all stand back and say "There! We've done it. Let's see what they say when they get a load of THIS!"

For that reason, it's tough to compare warrior abilities to any other class' abilities. Maybe the designers just didn't work on paladins that day and were planning on making similar changes across other classes. Maybe they just wanted to see the outcome and feedback on the change before deciding whether to keep it. While it may not be fair, we definitely don't parcel out 10% of our time each week to give each class some love. Some class abilities have the exact same bugs or non-functional status they've had since beta began just because we haven't had time to fix them yet.

I know first hand that many of the changes in the last patch were intended as buffs. Obviously Shield Wall et al. had to come down in effectiveness with such a shorter cooldown. If we overcompensated, we'll fix it next time around. Blood Frenzy is a special case because we're still evaluating what to do with unique raid buffs in general. We're not at all happy with the "fun choice" of deciding whether to take a Fury warrior with awesome dps but no buffs, or an Arms warrior who begrudingly picked up BF just to earn a spot in the raid. If you've read any of my other posts, I don't at all consider warrior tanking to be in a shippable state.

Death Knight

Bloodworms & Death Strike - We might unhook Bloodworms from Death Strike again. Death Strike needs to be useful without the extra talent, so with the extra talent it feels like it might be overhealing much of the time. (src)

Death Strike healing mechanics - Death Strike heals you for 100% of the damage it dealt per disease on the target. If you hit with DS for 500 and have 1 disease it heals you for 500, two diseases would heal you for 1000 and so on. (src)

Anti-Magic Shell - We are looking at Anti-Magic Shell as possibly being runic power or even free. We need to get the remaining bugs knocked out of it to see how it feels. (src)

DK spells & attack power - Note that DK spells are not affected by spellpower and are affected by attack power. We might also allow them to use melee crit instead of spell crit if that gets to be an issue. It may not be an issue since items now always increase both melee and spell crit. Ditto for hit. (src)

Master of Ghouls and perma ghoul - No this is not intended. The ghoul should die at the end of his duration, however we do intend for deep Unholy Death Knights to have the ability to resummon their ghoul almost on a whim. (src)

Killing Machine - It needs to affect Icy Touch since we can't assume you also have Howling Blast or Frost Strike. Granted it's not great for Icy Touch, but that is better than having a talent that doesn't affect your abilities at all. We have discussed adding Obliterate, but our concern is that it would then only be used for Obliterate. Increasing the duration is an easy change. (src)

Build 8770 and bugs - You can find a list of bugs here. Thanks for the report guys, keep the bugs and feedback rolling. Unfortunately a lot of the Death Knight abilities were still in the middle of being updated to their new functionality at the time the beta push was built. Hopefully we can get all of these issues fixed soon. The faster you all make us aware of everything that's not working the quicker we can get it fixed. (src)

Pestilence - We broke Pestilence shortly before the patch went out. We got rid of the chaining effect (the green lines you used to see) in order to make it more of an area effect ability like Thunder Clap (but one that requires a target). This doesn't really change the role of the ability at all. It just makes it more consistent to apply. Unfortunately the timing of the change turned out not to be ideal. (src)

Night of the Dead (src)
Yes, it is a more active ways for players who want Ghouls to have them up a lot. The idea was that you might do more Plague or Scourge Strikes than normal (like even when you had a disease up) in return for having the Ghoul out more. The "next cooldown" was supposed to mean that you aren't permanently lowering the cooldown. You Raise Dead, then work to get the cooldown lower so that when the Ghoul dies, you can get another one up again. Done right, you could have very little down time.

This talent required new technology, which we either got too late for this build or ended up causing bugs somewhere. We'll get it fixed.

You should have 1 Ghoul and he should die when the timer runs out.

Death and Decay changes (src)
The change to Death and Decays cost was intended to allow DK's more flexibility and provide a better flow and wider variety of options during AE pulls.

Pull with Icy Touch, follow with Plague Strike, Pestilience the disease to everything around you and top it off with Death and Decay.

For those Unholy DK's out there you can top that off with Unholy Blight and follow up with a Obliterate on your target (or open if you want) to activate Desecrate for the AE snare and +10% damage.

Health Bonus and Improved Frost Aura (src)
Frost Presence is necessary for Frost Aura, and while Frost is not the tanking tree, Frost Presence is absolutely the tanking presence. We didn't want to create the situation where a DK assigned to dps had to switch to Frost Presence in order to buff party health.

This wasn't intended as a nerf to DK health. If their health ends up too low, we can boost it through talents or the core stamina of the class.

We don't want to have Frost Aura affect threat because we pulled all of the +threat talents from all classes. We didn't want to have to design encounters assuming every tank had those talents.

Death Knight and Raid Utility (src)
Think about it from a high level. Ten classes. Thirty specs. Imagine each spec brings something unique and very powerful to the raid. You can bring 25 (or even 10). What do you do?

Or imagine we didn't change a thing from Burning Crusade. Now we add 3 new specs to the game and give one of them 20% haste and one of them 20% spell vulnerability. Who is getting the boot? The dps warrior? The second hunter? (And this ignores specs like Survival hunter and Moonkin who traditionally didn't merit inclusions in raids, but whom we'd like to improve.)

Or imagine this scenario: you can have a pair of 20% spell vulnerability buffs or a pair of 20% haste buffs. Maybe there isn't space for all 4 characters. Are the encounters designed assuming 20% vulnerability? Or 20% haste? Both? Neither?

You can't have a unique buff from all 30 specs in the raid. You probably don't want to swap specs in and out for each boss. Some guilds probably will, though I doubt you want all the bosses to be balanced with that assumption.

I suppose we could make 5 of the specs just suck for raiding and expect that you bring the other 25, but that feels kind of lame too. There was certainly deflation following the moment when DKs thought Ebon Plague or some other buff would *insure* a spot in the raid. Is there a class and spec who is happy not to have a raid-mandatory buff or role?

All of this ignores the debuff limit, since that is more of a technical issue and not a design one. Though still, do you want to try and understand what's happening when you're looking at a boss with 60 or 100 debuff icons on it?

It's not a trivial problem.

Parry items for DK tanking
Resilience still works in PvE. Perhaps someone was hearing one of us say that the goal was not for druids and death knights to go get resilience gear in order to tank. Resilience gear is designed for PvP, not for tanking, but we aren't doing anything to prevent it from working.

A druid, death knight and warrior tank all need to end up with similar relative survivability. Some may do it with big stamina pools, some may have more mitigation, and some more avoidance (which we realize isn't as desirable as the others).

I'm not sure we'll offer two-handed tanking weapons for DK tanks, but that doesn't mean they all are supposed to dual-wield. Even among warriors, there are some who recommend using +threat weapons for some fights. If we design DKs to use dps weapons even when tanking, we'll make sure to stack their survivability stats in other ways.

Sigils are tricky things to offer as quest rewards because 9 other classes can't even use them.

Also remember Naxx has like 15 bosses and they all drop a lot of loot. The loot table for that place is gigantic. (src)
----------------------------------------------- If we don't create two-handed tanking weapons, that does not mean death knights are supposed to dual-wield to tank.

Unless we change things (and we might), dual-wielding against a boss is not a good idea since you will be on the receiving end of more parry-based fast attacks.

I also would not look at itemization and make any assumptions that we intend for end-game DKs to have lower survivability or threat generation than the 3 other tanking classes. If you end up wearing plate with wasted block and a lot of defense that benefits you less than a warrior, there will be other things to make up for it. Imagine we added a core DK ability that gives you +defense and +dodge whenever you wield a two-handed weapon. We could even make than a runeforge enchant. Imagine that DKs get double the benefit of parry on defense rating since they don't benefit from block. We have lots of knobs to turn. (src)

DK Tanking Issues Q/A (src)
Most of the arguments and concerns on this topic that I see seem to come down to these issues. Correct me if there are any I'm missing.

1) Blizzard doesn't intend death knights to be end-game tanks.
Ghostcrawler: Yes, we do.

2) Death knights don't have the mitigation to tank end-game bosses.
Ghostcrawler: We don't have enough information yet to make that call, but the design is that they do, so if they don't, we'll change the numbers. There are a lot of knobs to turn from Forceful Deflection to Frost Presence to Icebound Fortitude to passive bonuses.

3) Death knights don't have a traditional tanking tree, which feels weird.
Ghostcrawler: Totally valid concern. But we want to try and fix some of the problems with traditional tanking, such as it being not fun enough to attract enough players or utility being marginal when not tanking.

4) Because death knights don't have traditional tanking trees, I can't get all the tanking talents.
Ghostcrawler: True. Also by design. You CAN get all the tools you'll need for tanking in any tree though.

5) Death knights can tank and dps with the same spec.
Ghostcrawler: Maybe. Warrior and paladins can tank and dps with the same spec too, though a hybrid warrior tends to be less than optimal for either role at the cutting-edge of raiding. The same should be true of death knights.

6) Because death knights can tank and dps, it isn't fair to existing plate tanks who have to give up a lot of dps in order to tank.
Ghostcrawler: Also valid. Just remember the design is that any DK or warrior should be able to tank a 5-player dungeon. A dps death knight, with no tanking talents and crappy gear isn't going to be a very impressive Naxxramas MT. Maybe the death knight doesn't have to give up as much as existing tanks, though that may also be something we want to fix in the other classes.

7) Because death knights need to spend so few talents on tanking relative to warriors or paladins who spend a great chunk of talents on tanking, it's not fair.
Ghostcrawler: This is a valid concern. First, I'm not sure the numbers are all that different. Second, gear and skill probably have a much bigger impact on tanking effectiveness than spec. Third, a lot of a warrior's best tanking abilities are core to the class, though talents definitely help (and a few talents help enormously). Fourth, and most important, it doesn't seem like smart design to keep designing trees in such a way that chase off tanks.

That's a pretty controversial statement, so I should elaborate. We don't know for sure that the Prot tree scares off tanks. A lot of you adore tanking just as it is, thank you, and I'm not trying to tell you you're wrong. (I've tanked for years and I still love it.) There are some things that aren't fun about tanking that have nothing to do with the prot trees: inability to solo, stress at wiping the raid, stress at often having to lead and mark, stress at having to play every night lest your friends have to cancel the run, etc.

On the other hand, we do think the prot trees (and even Feral) could use some improvement, and you've seen a lot of those changes already. Starting over with a class' talents would be a lot of work and probably really anger players, so that isn't terribly attractive. But here is a new class without a lot of baggage, and a chance to try something different with the talent trees. Clearly a lot of people are excited about it, so maybe we're onto something. If it isn't your thing, that's cool. But make that decision for aesthetic or other reasons, not because you're convinced DKs will be bad tanks. Unconventional doesn't need to mean inferior.
style="font-size: small;"> Night of the Dead</span></strong></span> (<a href="http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=8765780434&pageNo=1&sid=2000#2">src</a>)
Yes, it is a more active ways for players who want Ghouls to have them up a lot. The idea was that you might do more Plague or Scourge Strikes than normal (like even when you had a disease up) in return for having the Ghoul out more. The "next cooldown" was supposed to mean that you aren't permanently lowering the cooldown. You Raise Dead, then work to get the cooldown lower so that when the Ghoul dies, you can get another one up again. Done right, you could have very little down time.

This talent required new technology, which we either got too late for this build or ended up causing bugs somewhere. We'll get it fixed.

You should have 1 Ghoul and he should die when the timer runs out.

Death and Decay changes (<a href="http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=8765639658&pageNo=1&sid=2000#17">src</a>)
The change to Death and Decays cost was intended to allow DK's more flexibility and provide a better flow and wider variety of options during AE pulls.

Pull with Icy Touch, follow with Plague Strike, Pestilience the disease to everything around you and top it off with Death and Decay.

For those Unholy DK's out there you can top that off with Unholy Blight and follow up with a Obliterate on your target (or open if you want) to activate Desecrate for the AE snare and +10% damage.

Health Bonus and Improved Frost Aura (<a href="http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=8765640415&pageNo=1&sid=2000#6">src</a>)
Frost Presence is necessary for Frost Aura, and while Frost is not the tanking tree, Frost Presence is absolutely the tanking presence. We didn't want to create the situation where a DK assigned to dps had to switch to Frost Presence in order to buff party health.

This wasn't intended as a nerf to DK health. If their health ends up too low, we can boost it through talents or the core stamina of the class.

We don't want to have Frost Aura affect threat because we pulled all of the +threat talents from all classes. We didn't want to have to design encounters assuming every tank had those talents.

Death Knight and Raid Utility (<a href="http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=8765638446&sid=2000&pageNo=7#132">src</a>)
Think about it from a high level. Ten classes. Thirty specs. Imagine each spec brings something unique and very powerful to the raid. You can bring 25 (or even 10). What do you do?

Or imagine we didn't change a thing from Burning Crusade. Now we add 3 new specs to the game and give one of them 20% haste and one of them 20% spell vulnerability. Who is getting the boot? The dps warrior? The second hunter? (And this ignores specs like Survival hunter and Moonkin who traditionally didn't merit inclusions in raids, but whom we'd like to improve.)

Or imagine this scenario: you can have a pair of 20% spell vulnerability buffs or a pair of 20% haste buffs. Maybe there isn't space for all 4 characters. Are the encounters designed assuming 20% vulnerability? Or 20% haste? Both? Neither?

You can't have a unique buff from all 30 specs in the raid. You probably don't want to swap specs in and out for each boss. Some guilds probably will, though I doubt you want all the bosses to be balanced with that assumption.

I suppose we could make 5 of the specs just suck for raiding and expect that you bring the other 25, but that feels kind of lame too. There was certainly deflation following the moment when DKs thought Ebon Plague or some other buff would *insure* a spot in the raid. Is there a class and spec who is happy not to have a raid-mandatory buff or role?

All of this ignores the debuff limit, since that is more of a technical issue and not a design one. Though still, do you want to try and understand what's happening when you're looking at a boss with 60 or 100 debuff icons on it?

It's not a trivial problem.

Parry items for DK tanking
Resilience still works in PvE. Perhaps someone was hearing one of us say that the goal was not for druids and death knights to go get resilience gear in order to tank. Resilience gear is designed for PvP, not for tanking, but we aren't doing anything to prevent it from working.

A druid, death knight and warrior tank all need to end up with similar relative survivability. Some may do it with big stamina pools, some may have more mitigation, and some more avoidance (which we realize isn't as desirable as the others).

I'm not sure we'll offer two-handed tanking weapons for DK tanks, but that doesn't mean they all are supposed to dual-wield. Even among warriors, there are some who recommend using +threat weapons for some fights. If we design DKs to use dps weapons even when tanking, we'll make sure to stack their survivability stats in other ways.

Sigils are tricky things to offer as quest rewards because 9 other classes can't even use them.

Also remember Naxx has like 15 bosses and they all drop a lot of loot. The loot table for that place is gigantic. (<a href="http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=8765777566&pageNo=2&sid=2000#21">src</a>)

----------------------------------------------- If we don't create two-handed tanking weapons, that does not mean death knights are supposed to dual-wield to tank.

Unless we change things (and we might), dual-wielding against a boss is not a good idea since you will be on the receiving end of more parry-based fast attacks.

I also would not look at itemization and make any assumptions that we intend for end-game DKs to have lower survivability or threat generation than the 3 other tanking classes. If you end up wearing plate with wasted block and a lot of defense that benefits you less than a warrior, there will be other things to make up for it. Imagine we added a core DK ability that gives you +defense and +dodge whenever you wield a two-handed weapon. We could even make than a runeforge enchant. Imagine that DKs get double the benefit of parry on defense rating since they don't benefit from block. We have lots of knobs to turn. (<a href="http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=8765777566&sid=2000&pageNo=2#36">src</a>)

DK Tanking Issues Q/A (<a href="http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=8765776746&sid=2000&pageNo=7#130">src</a>)
Most of the arguments and concerns on this topic that I see seem to come down to these issues. Correct me if there are any I'm missing.

1) Blizzard doesn't intend death knights to be end-game tanks.
Ghostcrawler: Yes, we do.

2) Death knights don't have the mitigation to tank end-game bosses.
Ghostcrawler: We don't have enough information yet to make that call, but the design is that they do, so if they don't, we'll change the numbers. There are a lot of knobs to turn from Forceful Deflection to Frost Presence to Icebound Fortitude to passive bonuses.

3) Death knights don't have a traditional tanking tree, which feels weird.
Ghostcrawler: Totally valid concern. But we want to try and fix some of the problems with traditional tanking, such as it being not fun enough to attract enough players or utility being marginal when not tanking.

4) Because death knights don't have traditional tanking trees, I can't get all the tanking talents.
Ghostcrawler: True. Also by design. You CAN get all the tools you'll need for tanking in any tree though.

5) Death knights can tank and dps with the same spec.
Ghostcrawler: Maybe. Warrior and paladins can tank and dps with the same spec too, though a hybrid warrior tends to be less than optimal for either role at the cutting-edge of raiding. The same should be true of death knights.

6) Because death knights can tank and dps, it isn't fair to existing plate tanks who have to give up a lot of dps in order to tank.
Ghostcrawler: Also valid. Just remember the design is that any DK or warrior should be able to tank a 5-player dungeon. A dps death knight, with no tanking talents and crappy gear isn't going to be a very impressive Naxxramas MT. Maybe the death knight doesn't have to give up as much as existing tanks, though that may also be something we want to fix in the other classes.

7) Because death knights need to spend so few talents on tanking relative to warriors or paladins who spend a great chunk of talents on tanking, it's not fair.
Ghostcrawler: This is a valid concern. First, I'm not sure the numbers are all that different. Second, gear and skill probably have a much bigger impact on tanking effectiveness than spec. Third, a lot of a warrior's best tanking abilities are core to the class, though talents definitely help (and a few talents help enormously). Fourth, and most important, it doesn't seem like smart design to keep designing trees in such a way that chase off tanks.

That's a pretty controversial statement, so I should elaborate. We don't know for sure that the Prot tree scares off tanks. A lot of you adore tanking just as it is, thank you, and I'm not trying to tell you you're wrong. (I've tanked for years and I still love it.) There are some things that aren't fun about tanking that have nothing to do with the prot trees: inability to solo, stress at wiping the raid, stress at often having to lead and mark, stress at having to play every night lest your friends have to cancel the run, etc.

On the other hand, we do think the prot trees (and even Feral) could use some improvement, and you've seen a lot of those changes already. Starting over with a class' talents would be a lot of work and probably really anger players, so that isn't terribly attractive. But here is a new class without a lot of baggage, and a chance to try something different with the talent trees. Clearly a lot of people are excited about it, so maybe we're onto something. If it isn't your thing, that's cool. But make that decision for aesthetic or other reasons, not because you're convinced DKs will be bad tanks. Unconventional doesn't need to mean inferior. </blockquote></html>

WotLK Beta Blue Posts, WoW Russian

Zyuu — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 19:29:09 GMT

WotLK Beta - Blue Posts

Death Knight
Plague Strike and Degeneration (src)
We removed the hot dispel effect from Scourge Strike and put it on the base Plague Strike. Scourge Strike will be given something to replace the loss. Even if all it does is Plague Strike but as Shadow damage, that may be sufficient.

A Brief History of Degeneration

I believe the initial version of Degeneration described at the World Wide Invitational was that it removed all hots on the target and did extra damage per hot, and the dot effect of Degen also prevented any additional hots. Wow. While this might sound fun (for the death knight) it was probably ridiculously overpowered, and very punitive towards one type of healer in particular. If you think druids are OP in Arenas, this was probably not the best way to fix that.

The version of Degeneration that existed through most (possibly all) of the alpha and beta was a spell that removed one hot and did bonus damage on its dot effect (it was originally 7x damage then lowered to 3x damage). A potentially confusing tooltip on Degeneration probably didn't help at all.

When we made the recent pass at death knight talents, we gave the Degeneration effect (dispels one hot) to Scourge Strike. Some players were concerned that meant they had to go deep Unholy in order to be effective at PvP. This was not our intent and it's probably debatable whether or not that single ability made Unholy the PvP tree.

Nevertheless, after hearing many concerns, we are giving the ability back to core Plague Strike. It currently does not scale damage if it finds a hot -- it just removes the hot. If we think the damage bonus is necessary we'll add it back, possibly with a talent.

The current Plague Strike's tooltip says something like:

A vicious strike that deals X weapon damage and infects the target with Blood Plague, a disease dealing Shadow damage over time. Will dispel one heal over time effect from the target.

Frigid Dreadplate and Tanking talent changes (src)
Frigid Dreadplate will probably not affect most bosses. It will however stack with things like Thunder Clap. It's not an expensive talent, so it may still be worth it for trash and PvP. If not, we might change it to something else, but we don't want to over stack Frost with too many tanking abilities. It's a little tricky to compare Bone Armor directly to the other two abilities since it is dependent on hits. If you take 4 quick strikes (though there is an internal cooldown) it may not be up as long as Unbreakable Armor. This is entirely dependent on the duration and internal cooldown, which fortunately are easy numbers for us to adjust to try and achieve some approximation of parity.

DK's Role in 5 and 25 players dungeons (src)
A DK of any spec should be able to tank a 5-player non-heroic instance. The same is true for a warrior, and perhaps even a paladin or druid, though those are a little tricky since the gear overlaps different roles even less. A warrior pretty much cannot tank a raid (unless he massively overgears it) without a heavy investment in the Protection tree. The difference is the DK can go into the Blood, Frost or Unholy tree and still tank. But she probably needs as many tanking talents as she can get (which does not have to mean the same number of talents that other classes spend), and definitely needs the tanking gear and player skill that go along with raiding.

Death Coil usage frequency (src)

We found that a lot of DKs were able to spam Death Coils at a pretty steady pace. Part of this was bugs, but part of it was also the Runic Power Mastery talent along with the talents that gave your runic power -- Butchery and talents like Dirge. We made a big pass on all of these numbers to get Death Coil down closer to the frequency we intended -- something more like once a cycle (if you imagine a cycle being something like Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Blood Strike, Blood Strike, Death Strike). We feel like all of the talents are more interesting choices now without some of them being no-brainers and others being lackluster. For example, Sudden Doom feels meh when you are already tossing Death Coils as fast as you can.

Unholy tree being worked on (src)
With the changes we made, the two diseases last the same amount of time, which is one of the things that makes the DK feel smoother in general. We're still working on Unholy. It has some really interesting talents but it needs to gel a little better. Since AE isn't universally useful and the Ghoul is something of an acquired taste, we'd like you to be able to build a solid Unholy tree even without those talents. Some of the talents also didn't fare well with the conversion. Blood-Caked Blade was a great talent before that didn't survive the transition well. We're still working on it.

Druid

Feral DPS - Feral Druids aren't intended to do equal DPS to a Rogue (min/max in similar gear). That said, they should scale as well as you do, which is what that post meant. (src)
Dreamstate - If we deem Moonkins to have mana issues we can change this talent to work with Spirit/improve it, but from what I've seen it's the total opposite right now. If anything we might of gone too far in Moonkin efficiency. (src)
Earth and Moon - I realize that the talent doesn't really justify more than a few points of investment. We'll do some changes here. (src)

Eclipse - Eclipse is intended to be a good DPS upgrade when you utilize it, if it isn't resulting in that then we will change the damage bonus effects it gives you. Your specific results with Eclipse testing would help. It is intended to be a long cooldown, though. Otherwise you'd get fatigue from swapping between Wrath and Starfire too much. (src)

Feral and Raid utility (src)
The best solution is that Ferals bring something great to the raid. Imagine Mark of the Wild was as good as Blessing of Kings, but they didn't stack. Now a druid or a paladin is a great addition. Or imagine the health return from Imp LotP was at the level of Blood death knight or Shadow priest. Now bringing a Feral makes it noticably easier on the healers. These are just examples, not changes I'm announcing. :)

I do think the Feral flexibility will still count for something, as will unique abilities like Innervate. But we'd like the Raid of the Future (tm) to be one where you need various roles filled, but have options for how to fill them. Ferals can fill tank roles or melee roles (or both!) and can also supply the X raid buff. It would be nice if every spec of every class could bring a version of some raid buff.

Lifebloom changes (src)
We have done some toning down of Lifebloom. Lifebloom was unintentionally buffed too much during Burning Crusade when we made the coefficient scaling work on the stack applications. This has caused a lot of problems with balance in the game. Druids are intended -- as healers -- to be able to dish out good throughput heals with very low efficiency, likewise Lifebloom is intended to be rather cheap and efficient, but not to the degree that it is today.

Compare how you healed in dungeons and raids pre-Burning Crusade to today. Before you used nearly every healing spell you had, today you just use Lifebloom and maybe your other HoTs just because they stack with Lifebloom. Not only is this boring to the player, but it pigeon holes the Druid to spamming Lifebloom on the tanks.

We hope to tone down Lifebloom and bring the Druids other healing spells up to speed in this expansion. Part of this is through changes to the Druid class, changes to other healing classes and through encounter design.

Just as a note -- we did intend to change Lifebloom in the Burning Crusade (lower the coefficent), but we ended up delaying that so that we wouldn't hurt the Druids viability in raiding. With Wrath, we're introducing a new heal, a revamped Tree Form, and other mechanics to correctly balance things out.

Hunter

Mobility - Master's Call is a stun/snare break. Instead of having the ability just work on you, we've allowed you to also cast it on other players, making it more interesting and adding group utility. Changed Surefooted to %duration instead of %resist, making it more consistent. If the numbers don't pan out right (as in it should match Fleet footed), then we'll make that change. (src)

Suvivability - We've significantly improved Deterrence, it now works on spells and has a lower cooldown. (src)
Line of Sight - We do plan to introduce two new Hunter abilities that will help combat LoS issues (those we'll announce soon), which we believe plagues Hunters the most out of other classes. We understand this has been an issue throughout Burning Crusade, but we couldn't really address it correctly without introducing new abilities, talents, etc. (which we can do in the expansion) We're also (as funny as it sounds) improving Hunter melee DPS through an improvement to Aspect of the Beast (10% Melee AP buff while this aspect is active), and removed the conditional from Mongoose Bite (so you can use it even if you haven't dodged the opponent). Though you won't be doing as much damage if you were at range, you'll find a pretty significant damage potential while in melee range with these changes. (src)
"Finishing" move - Hunter's do have a powerful front-load combo (Aimed - Multi - Arcane etc.) , but the problem they have is finishing the player off. If the player is still alive after your front load damage, you're left standing there praying for autoshot crits. This should be addressed with the introduction of "Kill Shot." Also with the revamped "Kill Command" coming in a future patch. (src)

Pets - We always believed that the Pet should be more of a focus for the Hunter in PvP (and PvE). We've revamped Pets in this expansion, giving them all unique abilities, a lot of which will help Hunters in the various arena brackets, battlegrounds, world PvP etc. (src)
Pet Bar - We don't currently have a way to fit every active pet ability on the bar. It's something we're working on, but we didn't want to hold all of the pet changes in the event it wasn't done. Think of the pet bar as shortcuts to their abilities. Just because an ability isn't on the bar doesn't mean it can't be cast or autocast. However, if you turn an ability (on the bar or in the book) to not autocast, and sometimes it turns back on itself then that is a bug. Please let us know. (src)
Mobility issues - Master's call is intended to address mobility issues. Surefooted was also changed to a duration %, which is more consistent than resist %. We also gave pet family a unique ability, so you have the choice of using a pet with a snare or stun or root etc. if you feel the need. (src)

Arcane Shot - We regret creating a dispel mechanic that also did damage, so we're re-designing that mechanic. It didn't fix any of Hunter's issues, anyways, and made them better against classes they were already good against (casters). (src)

Priest

Divine Spirit is one of the incentives to bringing a Discipline Priest to a group. We have no intentions to make this a base spell. (src)

I talked to the designer who does Inscription and was told that if we do a "spirit scroll" it won't exceed ~75% of what Divine Spirit would be. Regarding scrolls similar to other abilities (mark of the wild, arcane intellect, etc.) those are still in design. (src)

Rogue
Issue with SnD and the new smooth filling energy/mana system (src)

We think it's just a bug with Slice and Dice, which we're investigating. I'll update when I know something more. We haven't had any problems with any other spells. If your bar says you can afford it, it goes off as you would expect.

Warlock
Soul Well will have 25 charges in the next patch. (src)

The tanks situation (src)

At the moment (meaning in LK) I think paladins are close to or surpassing warriors. Ferals and DKs need some more attention. I want to stress that we have made virtually NO attempt yet to line up the tanks and compare their abilities, threat, mitigation and dps. We are not yet at that stage. It's coming, and we will get even more data when everyone is at level 80 in the beta.

Achievements

Rare Mobs Achievements - Cool idea. We'll see if we can get to it. (src)
Blade's Edge Bomberman - Providing your best times would be really helpful. It will be tuned around having an epic mount and NOT having Crusader Aura. Also, eventually there will be protection in against doing this grouped. It will be a solo achievement so don't bother testing it in groups. (src)

Eggbert - Eggbert is non-refundable since you can reacquire him through in-game methods (i.e. do the quest again next year and get another Eggbert). (src)
Searing Gorge key - You can get the Searing Gorge key back from the Locksmith once he's in the beta build. (src)
Retro Dungeon Raid Boss Kill Update - We did a pass and checked quests associated with dungeon boss kills. In an upcoming Beta build, you'll see that you'll get some dungeon/raid achievements granted retroactively. Not all dungeons and raids have quests associated with them so some players will still have to re-do the content. For example, there are no quests that validate the boss kills in Slave Pens or Blood Furnace. Also, keep in mind that in cases such as Onyxia or Zul'jin, not every raid member got quest credit for the quest item drop. We figured it was better to try to reward credit wherever possible. (src)

WoW released in Russian

Quote from: Blizzard (Source)

We are delighted to announce the release of World of Warcraft and World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade in Russian, available today. As well as being able to experience the worlds of Azeroth and Outland in Russian, players now also have access to full Russian language support and a range of payment options in roubles.

For existing players, you can convert your account to a Russian account, by following the procedure outlined here. Once your account is converted, you will be able to pay for the account in roubles. Some restrictions apply and you can read all about the distinctions here. A free migration option is available for a limited time for transfers from existing European realms to Russian language realms, to allow you to take immediate advantage of Russian language in-game support.

New players can create a Russian account here, and find out more about the benefits of these accounts here. Two new Russian language realms have been opened today for new character creation only.

A free trial is also available, allowing you to experience the World of Warcraft for ten days, absolutely free.

We extend a warm welcome to all our current and future Russian speaking players, and hope that they will now enjoy World of Warcraft even more.

WotLK Beta Patch Notes Update

Teza — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 22:47:46 GMT

The official patch notes for WotLK Beta have been updated, and Wryxian bolded/underlined the new additions which are displayed below:

Racial Abilities

Arcane Torrent (Blood Elf) global cooldown removed.

Death Knights

Death Knight spells that cost runes will now display the rune cooldowns on the spell buttons.

Mages

Arcane Blast effect duration reduced to 3 seconds, and now increases damage by 15/30/45% instead of reducing cast time.

Arcane Impact renamed Spell Impact and now affects Blast Wave, Fire Blast, Cone of Cold, and Ice Lance.

Arcane Potency now applies when Presence of Mind is active, talent prerequisite changed to Presence of Mind.

Conjured mana gems no longer disappear from your backpack after being logged out for more than 15 minutes. Higher ranks of Conjure Mana Gem will recharge an existing mana gem to maximum charges.

Empowered Arcane Missiles renamed Arcane Empowerment and no longer increases mana cost. It now also increases damage caused by Arcane Blast.

Improved Blink now also reduces mana cost by 25/50%.

Improved Mana Shield has been renamed to Arcane Shielding and now also increases resistances granged by Mage Armor by 25/50%.

Remove Lesser Curse has been renamed to Remove Curse.

Paladins

Consecration now scales with attack power and spell power.

Divine Protection now reduces all damage taken by 50% and increases time between attacks by 100%.

Exorcism mana cost reduced and now scales with attack power and spell power.

Eye for an Eye now reflects 10/20% damage from all critical hits.

Fanaticism now increases chance to critically hit by 5/10/15/20/25%.

Forbearance duration increased to 3 minutes.

Improved Blessing of Might increased to 10/20/30/40/50%.

Judgement has been replaced with 3 new spells; Judgement of Light, Judgement of Wisdom, and Judgement of Justice. All Judgement spells are considered ranged attacks for purposes of how they hit and how they critically hit. All cause damage based on attack power and spell power.

Judgement of Light now heals based on the Paladin’s attack power and spell power, the effect can not trigger more than once ever 4 seconds.

Judgement of Justice will no longer prevent Fear effects, but will only prevent NPCs from fleeing (e.g. at low health).

Judgement of Wisdom now restores mana based on the Paladin’s attack power and spell power, the effect can not trigger more than once every 4 seconds.

Precision has been removed.

Pursuit of Justice reduced to 2 ranks for 8/15% movement increase and 1/2% less chance to be hit by spells.

Righteous Defense no longer costs mana and the global cooldown has been removed.

Sacred Duty now also reduces the cooldown of Divine Protection.

All Seals have been reduced to 1 rank and now cost 14% of base mana. The duration has been increased to 2 minutes and are no longer consumed when a Judgement spell is cast. The effects can be triggered from all weapon based special abilities.

Seal of Blood now increases Judgement damabe by 45% of weapon damage.

Seal of Command now increases Judgement damage by 30% of weapon damage, 60% on stunned targets.

Seal of Righteousness deals damage based on weapons peed plus an amount based on attack power and spell power, increases Judgement damage by 25%.

Seal of Vengeance damage over time effect duration increased to 18 seconds and now applies its effect on every swing, causes damage based on attack power and spell power, and increases Judgement damage by 10% per stack of the damage over time effect.

Summon Warhorse and Summon Charger mana cost removed and no longer causes a global cooldown.

Vindication reduced to 2 ranks for 10/20% attribute reduction.

Priests

Silence (Shadow) global cooldown removed.

Rogues

Energy regeneration should now be smoother.

Warlocks

Avoidance (Felguard): Now reduces damage taken from area of effect attacks by an additional 80% and is automatically learned for the Succubus, Imp, Voidwalker, and Felhunter at level 10.

Bane now reduces the cast time of your Haunt spell.

Consume Shadows (Voidwalker): Duration reduced to 6 seconds, and effect increased 66%. Now also greatly increases all nearby allies’ stealth detection while channeled.

Demonic Sacrifice: Succubus effect reduced to 10% increased shadow damage, down from 15%. Imp effect reduced to 10% increased fire damage, down from 15%. Felguard effect now increases Fire and Shadow damage, instead of just Shadow.

Doomguard: Health increased 20%, mana increased 24%.

Emberstorm now reduces the cast time of your incinerate by 0.1/0.2/0.3/0.4/0.5 seconds.

Fel Armor - Now increases your spell damage equal to 30% of your total Spirit, but no longer increases healing done by spells and effects by 20%.

Felguard: Health increased by 10%.

Felhunter: Paranoia and Tainted Blood have been replaced with Fel Intelligence and Shadow Bite.

Fel Intelligence (Felhunter): Increases total Intellect and Spirit of party and raid members by 3%. Lasts until cancelled.

Infernal: Cooldown reduced to 15 minutes, down from 1 hour. Duration reduced to 1 minute, down from 5 minutes+. Health increased by 30%, damage increased by 60%, and armor increased by 30%.

Imp: Health increased by 20% , Armor increased 16%, mana regeneration increased 200%.

Master Demonologist (Demonology) - Most effects have been altered.

Master Demonologist – Felguard (Demonology) - Now increases all damage by 1/2/3/4/5%, and reduces all damage done to you by 1/2/3/4/5%.

Master Demonologist – Imp (Demonology) - Now increases Fire damage by 1/2/3/4/5%, and critical hit chance with Fire spells by 1/2/3/4/5%.

Master Demonologist – Succubus (Demonology) - Now increases Shadow damage by 1/2/3/4/5%, and critical hit chance with Shadow spells by 1/2/3/4/5%.

Master Demonologist (Demonology) - Most effects have been altered.

Nether Protection has been reworked. It now has a 10/20/30% chance when you’re hit with a spell to reduce all damage by that spell school by 60% for 10 seconds.

New Talent: Improved Felhunter (Affliction): Your Felhunter gains mana equal to 50/100% of the damage done by its Shadow Bite ability, and increases the effect of your Felhunter’s Fel Intelligence by 1/2%.

Rain of Fire (Doomguard): A bug has been fixed which caused each tick of Rain of Fire to consume its mana cost.

Shadow Bite (Felhunter): Deals Shadow damage plus an additional 5% Shadow damage over time effect on the target. 6 second cooldown.

Soulstone now generates a log entry indicating who casted and received a soulstone.

Spell Lock (Felhunter) global cooldown removed.

Succubus: Health increased by 20%, armor increased 22%.

Summon Dreadsteed/Felsteed: Mana cost removed, global cooldown removed.

Voidwalker: Health increased by 20%, Damage increased by 16%. The amount of attack power the Voidwalker gains from its master’s spell damage has been increased by 45%.

PvP

Medallion of the Horde and Insignia of the Alliance are now available for purchase on PvP vendors. For the purposes of testing these currently cost only gold to buy.

Professions

Leatherworking

Drums now cause a Tinnitus effect, preventing affected targets from receiving beneficial effects from other drums for two minutes.

Mining

Smelt Elementium must be relearned by players who still wish to know the spell by visiting a trainer in Blackwing Lair.

Quests

Alliance characters on the “Check in With Bizie” quest in Borean Tundra can now ask Kara Thricestar for a flying machine ride out to Bizie Wrenchshanker.

The “Escape from Winterfin Retreat” quest is now named, “Escape from the Winterfin Caverns”. The escort is shorter and no longer requires a pre-requisite quest to get a key.

There is now a new murloc questgiver named Glrglrglr within the Winterfin Caverns. This questgiver needs you to ge the key to his cage so that he can be set free. This is not an escort quest.

Fewer cannonballs are now required for the Alliance quest, “Danger! Explosives!”.

Petrov’s Cluster Bombs no longer cause caster procs during the Alliance quest, “Break the Blockade”.

The Alliance quest, “Break the Blockade” no longer caps out at revered Valiance Expedition faction.

During the Alliance quest, “Hah…You’re Not So Big Now!”, Crafty’s Ultra-Advanced Proto-Typical Shortening Blaster no longer has a chance to transform the character into a magnataur. Instead it has a chance to transform the character into the likeness of Crafty Wobblesprocket.

In Dragonblight, the “Ley Line” questline was reworked so that players are led into and must first complete the quests at the Ruby Dragonshrine before they will be given an audience with Queen Alexstrasza.

The quest character Kor’ghan (Finding the Antidote) was moved to just outside the Cleft of Shadow’s poison vendor.

User Interface

New Calendar feature: Players will be able to access the new Calendar feature by clicking on the new icon located in the top right corner of their mini map. The calendar will track in game events, allow raid scheduling, and more.

New Vanity Pet and Mount changes: Players will now be able to access their non-combat pets and mounts by clicking on the pets tab in the Character Info panel. These pets and mounts will be now learnable much like spells or abilities. Once a vanity pet or mount is learned, the icon will disappear from within a player’s inventory and reappear in the appropriate tab under the pet tab under Character Info. Say goodbye to your vanity pets and mounts taking up bag and bank slots!

Error messages should play less frequently

Tradeskills can now be linked by shift-clicking the tradeskill icon

Quests can be shared with party members at any distance

Quests can be shared with party members by linking the quest into party chat

Quests can be shared in raids but not battlegrounds

A 5 minute timer will appear over the player’s unit frame showing the countdown until your PvP flag is cleared

Tuesday Beta Blues

Kody — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 02:13:22 GMT

Fresh off the heels of yesterday's beta patch, which included a massive list of undocumented changes, we have quite a few blue posts for you of particular interest. Read on for the full details on everything, and don't forget to stay up-to-date with the latest beta news both here and on World of Raids.

General

Tigole on gold spammer exploit potential with the new calendar (src)

We have anti-gold spam measures in the works for the calendar. Please continue to post feedback or if you find anything that you believe will be exploitable or abusive.

The Zul'Aman Bear Mount will no longer drop after Lich King goes live (src)

The Zul'Aman bear will no longer be available. But the other mounts you mentioned will remain unchanged.
The reasoning behind this is that the Zul'Aman bear is obtained during an event which requires precision and skill at level 70. The accomplishment for those who have legitimately earned the mount would be diminished if we continued to allow players to obtain the mount once the level cap is raised to 80.

Classes

Death Knight: The new Frost Strike (src)

There is a bug right now preventing normalized attacks from doing non-physical damage. Frost Strike will be normalized when that bug is fixed. (Obliterate will also be normalized.)
But, sadly, instant attacks do less damage than next-swing attacks, since an instant attack also lets you get the full benefit from the normal melee swing. That's why Frost Strike does less damage now. The freezing part wasn't even factored into the damage calculation because we want to mess with that some more... as well as get feedback. :)

Death Knight: Tanking impressions (src)

Useful feedback. Thanks. :)
I don't know if this was true in your situation, but one thing I have noticed is that the death knights who have leveled quickly tend to be grouping with veteran characters in epic gear. It's tough to test threat generation of a death knight in Shadowmoon quest blues against dps classes in T4 or better gear.
If you're getting trounced by Ingvar, that is probably a problem with the dungeon and not the guys you're running with. The earlier instances need to be reasonably easy, especially since a lot of players will be running them in Borean Tundra greens.
We haven't made a big pass comparing threat, dps and mitigation among all the classes yet, frankly because the abilities haven't stabilized enough yet. Fortunately with the death knight in particular, there are a lot of knobs to turn.

Druid: Maim no longer stops auto-attacks (src)

Maim will break from the same amount of damage that Fear, Entangling Roots etc. breaks with now.

Hunter: Master's Call to be usable while stunned (src)

Able to use while stunned? Consider it done.

Hunter: Ghostcrawler on exotic pets versus normal pets (src)

The exotic pets will be different from normal pets. Ideally they might even be a little bit better, but we're very hesitant to make them too good lest we see every hunter stampede over to the BM tree. Pets are supposed to be something important to all kinds of hunters, and the BM tree already offers some amazing pet buffs and synergy. We just don't want to overdo it with this talent. :)
At the very least, the exotic pets will have a new family ability that will ideally be really useful in some situations. I'm making this one up, but imagine that since normal crabs have Pin, an exotic pet might have a Pin-like ability that did fire damage. Or imagine that you could tame a drake (you can't, because they aren't beasts) and that instead of lightning or fire breath, it had frost breath that could freeze an enemy, death knight style. Would this be useful? Probably. Does it make the 51-point talent mandatory? Ideally not. Though those 5 talent points aren't bad....
As far as what happens if you have an exotic pet and respec, most likely the pet's talents will just reset. Yeah you get a free pet respec out of the deal, but it's not as if it's free since the hunter has to respec. Any exotic pets in the stable won't be lost, but you wouldn't be able to get them out of the stable either. If you have an exotic pet at the moment you respec, then it will probably be dismissed (but not abandoned) and you won't be able to summon it again, forcing you to go swap it into the stable. (Or abandon it if you're THAT kind of hunter.)

Hunter: Ghostcrawler comments on Pet Talent feedback (src)

Great thread. Because the pet talents are such a new feature, all of this feedback is really useful.
A couple of things to keep in mind:
The bottom talents in particular need to have some pretty stringent pre-reqs so that hunters can't just cherry pick all of the active abilities. We can and will iterate on what those pre-req talents are though.
Active pet abilities in general represent some interesting design challenges. On the one hand, if the hunter just programs the pet and puts it on autopilot, then having unique abilities just sort of blends into a generic +dps for the pet. On the other hand, it would be sad if hunters never took the active abilities because the pet has trouble using the expensive ones and the hunter feels like he already has too many of his own abilities to hit.
This is something on which we'll try to hit a reasonable balance. Warlocks seem to have a pretty decent mix of demon abilities that can be used by the demon AI and some that the warlock specifically needs to use.

Mage: Arcane Blast receiving a revamp (src)

From our internal patch notes:
Arcane Blast effect duration reduced to 3 seconds, now increases damage by 15/30/45% instead of reducing cast time.

Shaman: Paralysis being replaced soon (src)

Being replaced with something soon, along with a few other changes to deep Elemental.

Shaman: Retroactive changes to "some" gear coming (src)

We hope to retroactively change some of the gear on live so the transition is less painful for classes whose core mechanics are changing.

Shaman: Lightning Bolt coefficient nerfed (src)

Lightning Bolt always had a higher coefficient than similar bolt spells. This was because there weren't as much/any nature damage debuffs. Now that they exist, we're restoring Lightning Bolt to it's intended coefficient. Your DPS in a raid setting will if anything be higher with these changes.

Warlock: Master Conjuror changes coming (src)

Master Conjurer will soon be a good investment ;)

Token system revealed, Next build changes, blue posts

Teza — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:18:38 GMT

Token system revealed

Last week, Tigole hinted that Heroic Badges and BG Tokens would get storage space. If you are on beta and type "/console showtokenframe 1" followed by "/token", this tokens window will show and it's probably the new storage system Tigole talked about that will track all your tokens, honor and arena points.

Next Beta Build - Class Changes

The official Wrath of the Lich King talent calculators have been updated on Thursday and Saturday, and we compared WoWhead talent calculators (current beta build) with official talent calculators (we assume these new class changes are from the next beta build) to find out the new class changes from Saturday's update.

Death Knight
Blood

Vendetta now heals you up to 2/4% (old version: 3/6%) of your total maximum health.

Blood Gorged (Tier 10) is now only affecting melee damage.

Mark of Blood no longer has a cooldown. (that's probably a typo on the official talent calc)

Frost

New Tier 8 Talent - Blood of the North - Whenever you used a Blood Strike, there is a 20% chance that the Blood Rune will become a Death Rune when it activates.

Improved Icy Touch now does an additional 10/20/30/40/50% damage or 20/40/60/80/100% damage to Frozen Targets.

Frost Strike no longer requires Merciless Combat to be trained.

Frost Aura now increases your Frost Resistance by 32/64 (old 26/49).

Nerves of Cold Steel moved from Tier 3 to Tier 2.

Annihilation moved from Tier 6 to Tier 3.

Merciless Combat moved from Tier 8 to Tier 6.

Aneurysm moved from Tier 8 to Tier 7.

Unholy

Corpse Explosion damage increased from 60 to 216 damage (modified by attack power).

Improved Corpse Explosion length component increased from 9 seconds to 15 seconds.

Unholy Aura now increases your Shadow Resistance by 32/64 (old 26/49).

Druid
Balance

Typhoon Mana cost increased from 475 mana to 645 mana, and damage increased from 400 to 530.

Force of Nature cooldown reduced from 3 to 2 minutes.

Feral

Primal Tenacity now reduces the duration of Fear effects by 10/20/30% (old version: 5/10/15%) , and reduces all damage taken while Stunned by 10/20/30% (old version: 5/10/15%).

Hunter
Marksmanship

Aimed Shot casting time increased from 2.5 to 3 secs.

Survival

Wyvern Sting minimum range increased to 8 yards from 5 yards.

Hunting Party - Your critical shots have a 20/30/40/50/60% (old version: 20/40/60/80/100%) chance to restore 2% mana, 10 energy, 4 rage or 10 Runic Power to all members of your party. This effect has an 8 sec. cooldown.

Mage
Arcane

Arcane Impact (tier 3) changed to Spell Impact proccing off many more spells. Tooltip: Increases the critical strike chance of your Arcane Explosion, ArcaneBlast, Blast Wave, Fire Blast, Ice Lance, Cone of Cold spells by an additional 2/4/6%.

Arcane Potency (tier 6) no longer requires 5 points in Arcane Concentration (tier 2), but 1 point in Presence of Mind.

Student of Mind (tier 9) moved to Tier 3.

Potent Spirit (tier 8) replaced with Mind Mastery. New tooltip: Increases spell damage by up to 5/10/15/20/25% of your total intellect.

Netherwind Presence (tier 10) moved to Tier 9 to replace Student of Mind. The talent has also been reworked to give 6% passive haste. New tooltip: Increases your spell haste by 2/4/6%.

Missile Barrage (tier 10) new talent to replace Netherwind Presence's instant casts with faster Arcane Missiles. Tooltip: Gives your Arcane Barrage, Fireball, Frostbolt and Frostfire Bolt spells a 3/6/9/12/15% chance to reduce the channeled duration of the next Arcane Missiles spell to 1.5 secs and fire missiles every .3 sec.

Fire

Living Bomb mana cost lowered from 400 to 388 mana, and damage increased from 51 to 56-57 (explosion dmg increased from 212 to 233-234).

Frost

Arctic Reach is no longer affecting Ice Lance.

Paladin
Holy

Holy Shock mana costs has been decreased by 30% through all ranks.

Protection

Holy Shield damage increased by 10%, charges increased to 6.

Guarded by Light proc removed. New tooltip: Reduced the mana cost of your Consectration, Holy Wrath and Avenger's Shield spells by 15%.

Retribution

Improved Blessing of Might increases the attack power bonus of Blessing of Might by 10/20/30/40/50%.

Vindication reduced to 2 talent points, debuff increased to 20%.

Pursuit of Justice reduced to 2 talent points, at 2/2 the effect is unchanged.

Priest
Discipline

Penance range is increased to 40 yard for friendly targets.

Shaman
Elemental

Convection reduced to 3 talent points. At 3/3 the effect is unchanged.

Elemental Fury has been unlinked from Elemental Focus.

Thunderstorm damage ranged moved from 595-679 to 610-694.

Enhancement

Improved Shields now increases mana gained from your Mana Shield orbs by 10% instead of 5% from Water Shield. The other effects are unchanged.

Feral Spirit - the wolves last 45 seconds instead of 30.

Restoration

Earth Shield mana cost has been doubled. Rank 3 at level 70 now costs 900 mana instead of 450.

Warlock
Affliction

Fel Concentration now also gives 14/28/42/56/70% chance to avoid interruption while casting Unstable Affliction and Haunt.

Improved Felhunter: Your felhunter gains mana equal to 50/100% of the damage done by its Shadow Bite ability, and increases the effect of your Felhunter's Fel Intellgence by 2%. (Old tooltip: Your Felhunter gains mana equal to 33% of the damage done by its Shadow Bite ability, and reduced the cooldown of your Felhunter's Expel magic by 10 sec.

Eradication now gives Corruption ticks 5/10/15% chance to increase spell casting speed by 20% for 12% instead of 4/7/10% chance.

Haunt now - casting time increased to 2 secs from 1.5 secs.

Demonology

Demonic Embrace now increases total Stamina by 2/4/6/8/10% down from 3/6/9/12/15%.

Unholy Power unlinked from Soul Link.

Demonic Sacrifice's 20% spell haste and 10% spell damage buff changed to 10% fire damage for Imp, restoring 2% of total health every 4 sec for Voidwalker, 10% shadow damage for Succubus, restoring 3% total mana every 4 sec for Felhunter and 10% shadow and fire damage, restoring 2% of total mana every 4 sec for the Felguard.

Demonic Empowerment now doesn't heal the Succubus to 100% when vanishing, only increases the Imp's spell critical chance by 20%, instead of resetting the Felhunter's cooldowns now dispels all magical effects from the Felhunter.

Destruction

Aftermath now only gives Destruction spells a 2/4% chance to daze down from 5/10%.

Conflagrate Rank 1-5 damage increased by 10.

Shadowfury Rank 1-2 damage increased by 15.

Eternal Flames tooltip clarified.

Chaos Bolt cooldown reduced from 12 to 8 seconds, damage increased by 22.

Warrior
Arms

Bloodletting renamed to Improved Rend.

Protection

Shield Specialization now generates 1 rage (old: 2 rage) when a block occurs.

WotLK - Blue Posts

Will the guards become level 75?(src)
We plan on doing a "guard pass" soon. We're also reviewing our general guard template of abilities.

Gold display in achievements (src)
We definitely want to clean up the currency display. It's on our list.

Death Knight - Talent Changes (src)
We kept reading about how players didn't use say Death Strike or Rune Tap because Vendetta was too good. This is the kind of thing we'll continue to tweak. Chains of Ice and Hungering Cold are the only reliable freezes a DK has. We'd rather base combos around that than spamming Icy Touch or Mind Freeze in hopes of a random one.
We are still concerned that Frost has too many abilities that are part of your rotation instead of situational. The new talent is intended to help with this by providing more frost runes. It may also mean that Howling Blast needs to be more situational. Give it a spin when the data are updated and let us know how it feels.

Death Knight - Frost Strike has been changed to instant (src)
We changed it to instant.

Hunter - Pet talent tier costs (src)
I wanted to clear this up since it is understandably causing some confusion.
All pet tiers cost 3 points to advance. There are no talents that cost 5 points. In the beta some tooltips may say 5 but only 3 is enforced. Most importantly this means that there are not talents that are available only to BM hunters. They can get more talents - that's all.
Furthemore, the exotic pet abilities while interesting are just the same kind of unique abilities that every pet family gets, like web or prowl. Hope that clears some things up. :)

The 1.000.000 tuskar achievement was a joke (src)
It was a joke achievement. It has been removed. The name was transferred over to the Tuskarr reputation achievement.

Fish achievement issues (src)
We updated the fishing achievement "Master Angler of Stranglethorn" to check for the Arcanite Fishing Pole or the Hook trinket.

Hellfire Ramparts achievement will be fixed in the next build (src)
This will be fixed the next time we patch.

WWI keys - no eta for the next wave of e-mails (src)
He'll need to register the key and he'll be sent an e-mail with the Beta Upgrade information when the next wave of e-mails are sent out. We do not have an ETA of when that will be.

Lich King Beta: Author Key Giveaway!

Kody — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 05:36:32 GMT

We're very excited to offer a unique opportunity for AddOn authors with projects hosted on the Curse Network. You've supported us over the years, and this giveaway is part of our thanks for all the hard work and time you've devoted to improving the experience of World of Warcraft players worldwide.
We're going to be giving away Beta keys for Wrath of the Lich King, and any AddOn author is eligible! There are a few fairly simple pieces of criteria which must be met, but all-in-all, if you're an active member of the author community, there's a good chance you'll be hearing from us soon!

How do I enter?

It's fairly simple to enter; send an email to community@curse.com and enter the subject "AddOn Author Beta Key Giveaway"
Include in the email:

Your Curse username
Your primary AddOn projects
The websites where your AddOn projects are hosted here on the Curse Network

And of course, the criteria to be eligible:

You must be an AddOn author with at least one valid AddOn project here on the Curse Network.
The project must be your creation. We cannot stress this enough; AddOns falsely claimed as your own may disqualify you from this and any future contests on Curse.com. Please respect the time AddOn authors have put into their work by leaving the opportunity to valid authors.
Compilations do not count as valid submissions for the giveaway.
At least one of your projects must be compatible with World of Warcraft patch 2.4.3.
If there are multiple members on a selected project, the code will go to the "Project Lead" and they can choose whether to use it or give it to another member of the team.

Only one Beta key will be given out to each author.
You must be entering the giveaway with either a valid US or EU World of Warcraft account -- Chinese and Korean accounts are currently not eligible for entry.
You must enter the giveaway with a valid email address which we can reply to in the event you're chosen.
Blizzard Entertainment reserves the right to deny entry into the beta.

Authors chosen for the giveaway will be contacted to supply additional information Blizzard requires to receive the Beta keys, so please submit your entry via a valid email address.
Once again, thank you from everyone at Curse for all the hard work you've put into your AddOns! See you in Northrend soon!

WotLK Beta is Live - Patch Notes

Teza — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 09:01:07 GMT

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King: Beta

Welcome to the World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Beta Test. The list below contains information on the current available content for testing and general information. This information is subject to change. Alpha testers should note that your characters have been temporarily locked out. In a few weeks time, we will unlock these characters and you will be able to continue to level them. Please visit the Beta forums to submit feedback and discuss the expansion development with others.

General

The continent of Northrend is now available! To travel there, visit one of four transportation masters in either Orgrimmar, Undercity, Stormwind Harbor,or Menethil Harbor.

The floating magical city of Dalaran is now available!

The Barber Shop has been implemented and you can now visit one of the Barber Shops in the major cities to change your appearance.

The all new Achievement System has been implemented.

Transportation between Howling Fjord and Borean Tundra can be found at the Tuskarr villages in those zones.

The level cap is currently set to 77.

Hit Rating, Critical Strike Rating, and Haste Rating now modify both melee attacks and spells.

Spellpower:

All items and effects which grant bonuses to spell damage and spell healing are being consolidated into a single stat, Spellpower. This stat will appear with the same values found on items which grant “increased spell damage and healing” such as on typical Mage and Warlock itemization.

For classes which do not heal, they should see no change in the character sheet other than new tooltip wording.

Healing characters will see their bonus healing numbers on the character sheet decrease, however, all healing spells have been modified to receive more benefit from spellpower than they received from bonus healing, with a net effect of no change to the amount healed by their spells. Some talents have had to be rebalanced to accommodate this change, but the amount healed will remain roughly the same. In addition, some talents will provide only healing spell power.

NPC Transportation Locations

Horde:

Undercity to Vengeance Landing (Howling Fjord)

Orgrimmar to Warsong Hold (Borean Tundra)

Alliance:

Menethil Harbor to Valgarde (Howling Fjord)

Stormwind Harbor to Valiance Keep (Borean Tundra)

Known Issues

The current patch notes are incomplete, but will be more progressively more comprehensive in each patch.

World Environment Zones

The following zones are available for testing: Howling Fjord, Borean Tundra, Dragonblight, and Grizzly Hills, Sholazar Basin, and Zul'Drak.

Dungeons

The following dungeons are available for testing:

Howling Fjord: Utgarde Keep (70-72)

Borean Tundra: The Nexus (70-72)

Dragonblight: Azjol-Nerub (72-74)

Grizzly Hills: Drak’Tharon Keep (74-76)

Storm Peaks: The Halls of Stone (77-79)

Classes

All Classes are available for play. Spells and talents will be available for testing past 70.

The Death Knight Hero class is now available for play.

Death Knights will now start with 0 talent points at level 55.

Creating a new Death Knight will start you at level 55 in Eastern Plaguelands.

The Death Knight start zone, Acherus, the Ebon Hold, is fully implemented and is located in the Eastern area of Eastern Plaguelands.

Druid

Brambles (Balance): Now increases the damage done by your Treants, and also damage caused from your Treants and Barkskin has a 5/10/15% chance to Daze the target for 3 sec.

Celestial Focus (Balance): The stun proc now works with Starfall.

Entangling Roots: Can now be used indoors.

Faerie Fire (Feral): Now an 11-point talent, down from being a 21-point talent.

Feral Charge (Feral) is now a 21-point talent, up from being a 11-point talent.

Feral Charge (Feral): Can now be used in Cat form.

Feral Instinct (Feral) no longer increases threat generated in Bear form, but now increases damage done by your Swipe ability by 5/10/15%.

Focused Starlight (Balance): Now also works with Starfall.

Force of Nature (Balance): Cooldown reduced to 2 minutes, down from 3.

Hurricane: No longer has a cooldown (was 1 minute).

Improved Faerie Fire (Feral): Now also works with spell hit, in addition to ranged and melee hit %.

Improved Mark of the Wild (Restoration): Now a 2-point talent, down from a 5-point talent.

Improved Tranquility (Restoration): Now also reduces the cooldown of your Tranquility spell by 25/50%.

Mangle (Feral): Now increases the damage done by Maul in addition to Shred.

Moonglow (Balance): Now also works with Starfall.

Moonkin Form (Balance) no longer increases your attack power or causes you to regenerate mana off melee attacks, but now has a chance to cause you to instantly regenerate 2% of your total mana every time you critically hit with a spell.

Nature's Focus (Restoration): Now a 3 point talent, down from a 5-point talent. Also moved to Tier 1, up from Tier 2. Now also includes Nourish.

Nature's Grace (Balance): Now also reduces the global cooldown of your Wrath spell by 50% while in effect.

Nature's Grasp (Balance): Can now be used and can proc indoors.

Nature's Reach (Balance): Now also reduces threat generated by Balance spells by 15/30%.

New Spell: Revive - Returns the spirit to the body, restoring a dead target to life with health and mana. Cannot be cast when in combat. (Ranks 1-7 added)

Omen of Clarity (Restoration): Now a passive spell. Now also works for spells (healing and damage). Proc rate is roughly 6% with a 10 second internal cooldown.

Primal Tenacity (Feral) now reduces damage while stunned by 5/10/15%, and reduces the duration of fear effects by 5/10/15%.

Remove Curse can now be used in Tree of Life form.

Soothe Animal can now be used on Dragonkin as well as Beasts.

Soothe Animal is now instant cast.

Subtlety (Restoration): Now a 3-point talent, down from a 5-point talent. Also moved to Tier 2, up from Tier 3. Also now only reduced threat for Restoration spells, and reduces the chance that your healing over time spells (Lifebloom, Regrowth and Rejuvenation) will be dispelled, rather than all Druid spells. Threat management for Balance can now be found in the Balance tree, within Nature's Reach.

Survival of the Fittest (Feral): Increased to 2/4/6%, up from 1/2/3%.

The mana regeneration penalty when in Bear Form, Dire Bear Form and Cat Form has been removed.

Tranquil Spirit (Restoration) now also includes Nourish.

Tree of Life (Restoration): 30% snare penalty has been removed.

Tree of Life (Restoration): Can now cast Dispel Curse.

Tree of Life (Restoration): You can now cast all Restoration spells (Healing Touch) in the form, but Tree of Life now only reduces the mana cost of your healing over time spells (Rejuvenation, Lifebloom, Regrowth and Flourish) by 20%.

Vengeance (Balance): Now also works with Starfall.

Hunter

All pet families now have one unique ability. New abilities have been added for families such as bears and sporebats.

Aspects now no longer cost mana.

Avoidance, Dash / Dive and Cobra Reflexes are now pet talents instead of pet skills.

Bite now has no cooldown, does the same damage and costs the same Focus as Claw, so works as a Focus dump.

Clever Traps (Survival) has been renamed "Trap Mastery."

Concussive Barrage (Marksmanship) - Can now proc from Volley attacks.

Deterrence (Survival) - Cooldown reduced to 3 minutes, and now also increases your chance to resist spells by 60%. Now has a new spell effect.

Every hunter pet can learn Growl, Cower and either Bite or Claw (never both).

Hunter pets can now learn talents in one of three trees depending on family. Pets gain talent points starting at level 20 and earn an extra talent point every 4 levels.

If a hunter tames a pet that is more than five levels beneath than the hunter's level, then the pet jumps to five levels beneath than the hunter's level.

Improved Feign Death (Survival): Now also reduces damage taken during Feign Death by 15/30%.

Loyalty, Training Points and the hunter Beast Training button no longer exist. Hunter pets can now learn all skills at their level. They will get new ranks automatically as they gain levels.

Master Tactician (Survival) - Chance to proc increased to 10%, up from 6%.

Monster Slaying (Survival) and Humanoid Slaying (Survival) has been combined into "Improved Tracking".

New Talent - Improved Tracking (Survival) - Increases all damage done to targets that are being tracked 1/2/3/4/5%.

Steady Shot now uses ammo. In result, its bonus damage has been slightly reduced. Players can notice a damage increase based upon what ammo they use.

Surefooted (Survival) now reduces the duration of movement impairing effects by 10/20/30% (instead of resist % chance).

Trap Mastery (Survival) has been removed.

Mage

Arcane Focus (Arcane) is now 3 ranks and increases chance to hit and reduces mana cost of Arcane spells by 1/2/3%.

Counterspell now costs 9% of base mana.

Frost Armor, Ice Armor, Mage Armor and Molten Armor are no longer Magic effects and cannot be dispelled.

Invisibility now makes the caster invisible after 3 seconds, reduced from 5 seconds.

Magic Attunement (Arcane) now also increases the range of your Arcane spells by 3/6 yards.

Polymorph now costs 12% of base mana.

Portal spells now cost 18% of base mana.

Prismatic Cloak (Arcane) now also reduces the fade time of Invisibility by 1/2 seconds.

Slow Fall now costs 6% of base mana.

Teleport spells now cost 9% of base mana.

Paladin

All Auras now affect all party and raid members within the area of effect.

Anticipation (Protection) moved to tier 1, now increases chance to dodge by 1/2/3/4/5%.

Avenger's Shield (Protection) cast time reduced to .5 seconds, duration increased to 10 seconds.

Avenging Wrath no longer causes Forebearance, damage increase reduced to 20%, now increases healing done by 20%.

Blessing of Freedom renamed Hand of Freedom. Only one Hand spell can be on the target per paladin at any one time. Now costs 6% of base mana.

Blessing of Light and Greater Blessing of Light removed. Their effects have been folded into all relevant abilities.

Blessing of Protection renamed Hand of Protection. Only one Hand spell can be on the target per paladin at any one time. All ranks now cost 6% of base mana.

Blessing of Sacrifice renamed Hand of Sacrifice, is now only 1 rank and transfers 20% of the damage taken to the caster, duration reduced to 12 seconds, cooldown increased to 2 minutes. Only one Hand spell can be on the target per paladin at any one time. Now costs 6% of base mana.

Blessing of Salvation renamed Hand of Salvation, now reduces total threat on the target by 2% per second for 10 seconds while also reducing all damage and healing done by 10%. Only one Hand spell can be on the target per paladin at any one time. Now costs 6% of base mana.

Conviction (Retribution) now increases critical chance with all spells and melee attacks.

Divine Intellect (Holy) moved to tier 2, increases total Intellect by 3/6/9/12/15%.

Divine Intervention cooldown reduced to 20 minutes.

Divine Protection and Divine Shield now cost 3% of base mana.

Divine Purpose (Retribution) now reduces chance to be hit by spells and ranged attacks by 1/2/3%.

Divine Strength (Holy) moved to tier 1 in the Protection tree.

Greater Blessing of Salvation removed.

Hammer of Justice now costs 3% of base mana.

Hammer of Wrath is now considered a Retribution spell, moved from Holy, mana cost reduced, missile speed increased, now usable on targets below 35% health.

Healing Light (Holy) moved to tier 2.

Holy Shield (Protection) cooldown reduced to 8 seconds.

Holy Shock (Holy) range changed to 20/40 yards when used on enemies/friends respectively, cooldown reduced to 6 seconds.

Holy Wrath is now instant cast, causes a 3 second stun, cooldown reduced to 30 seconds, radius reduced to 10 yards.

Illumination (Holy) moved to tier 3.

Improved Concentration Aura (Protection) moved to the Holy tree.

Improved Concentration Aura moved from the Protection tree to tier 4 in the Holy tree.

Improved Devotion Aura (Protection) moved to tier 4, reduced to 3 ranks, now increases armor of Devotion Aura by 17/34/50% and increases all healing done to units affected by Devotion Aura by 1/2/3%.

Improved Hammer of Justice (Protection) now reduces cooldwon by 10/20/30 secs.

Improved Righteous Fury (Protection) threat bonus folded into base spell, talent still reduces all damage taken by 2/4/6%.

Improved Sanctity Aura (Retribution) renamed Sanctified Retribution, now causes all units affected by Retribution Aura to cause 2% more damage.

Improved Seal of Righteousness (Holy) moved to tier 1, renamed XXX, now affects Seal of Righteousness, Seal of Vengeance and Seal of Corruption.

Improved Seal of the Crusader (Retribution) renamed Heart of the Crusader and the effects now apply to all Judgement spells.

Judgement of Justice will no longer prevent Fear effects, only prevent NPCs from fleeing (e.g. at low health).

Lay on Hands no longer drains all mana, cooldown reduced to 20 minutes.

Pure of Heart (Holy) reduced to 2 ranks, now reduces duration of Curse and Disease effects by 25/50%.

Redoubt (Protection) moved to tier 2.

Repentance (Retribution) mana cost changed to 9% of base, duration increased to 1 minute (10 second PvP duration), now usable against Demons, Dragonkin, Giants, Humanoids and Undead.

Retribution Aura damage increased and now gains damage based on Holy spell power.

Righteous Fury now increases threat caused by Holy damage by 90%.

Sanctified Light (Holy) now also increases the critical chance of Holy Shock.

Sanctity Aura (Retribution) removed.

Seal of Justice/Judgement reduced to 1 rank with all the effects of the previous rank 2, the Judgement effect no longer prevents Fear.

Seal of the Crusader has been removed. The effects of Judgement of the Crusader have been folded into all relevant abilities.

Seal of Vengeance damage over time effect duration increased to 18 seconds.

Spiritual Focus (Holy) moved to tier 1.

Stoicism (Protection) moved to tier 2, now reduces duration of Stun effects by 10/20/30% and reduces chance your spells will be resisted by 10/20/30%.

Toughness (Protection) moved to tier 3.

Turn Undead (ranks 1 and 2) removed. Turn Evil now granted at level 24, mana cost changed to 9% of base.

Unyielding Faith (Holy) moved to tier 2.

Priest

Circle of Healing (Holy): Now works on any targets in the caster's raid, and is now a "smart" heal and chooses the lowest health targets to heal first within it's range. Also now has a 6 second cooldown. Also no longer will heal summoned Snakes from Hunter's Snake Trap.

Enlightenment (Discipline): Now also gives 1% spell damage and 1% heal per point.

Focused Will (Discipline): Now increases healing effects on you by 3/4/5%, down from 4/7/10%.

Force of Will (Discipline): This talent now increases your spell damage by a flat amount, rather than increasing your spells by a %. (Now increases school %, rather than selected spells damage %). In other words, your spell damage gained from this talent is now reflected on your character sheet, rather than the skill tool-tips.

Holy Fire: Cast time reduced to to 2 seconds, down from 3.5. Damage increased roughly 60%. Duration for the damage over time effect reduced to 7 seconds, down from 10. Holy Fire now has a 10 second cooldown.

Improved Inner Fire (Discipline) - Now also increases the bonus healing on your Inner Fire spell by 10/20/30%.

Improved Shadow Word: Pain (Shadow) - Now increases damage done by your Shadow Word: Pain by 5/10%, but no longer increases the duration of your Shadow Word: Pain.

Levitate now costs 3% of base mana.

Lightwell (Holy): Cast time reduced to .5 sec, down from 1.5 sec. Charges increased to 10, up from 5. Now breaks from any attack that hits you for 30% or more of your total health. Cooldown reduced to 3 minutes, down from 5.

Mind Control now has only one rank and costs 12% of base mana.

Mind Soothe now has only one rank, costs 6% of base mana and has no max target level.

Mind Vision now costs 3% of base mana.

New Talent: Improved Spirit Tap (Shadow) - Gives you a 50/100% chance to gain a 50% bonus to your Spirit after gaining a critical effect chance from your Mind Blast or Shadow Word: Death spells. For the duration, your mana will regenreate at a 25% rate while casting. Lasts 8 sec.

New Talent: Twin Faiths (Discipline) - Increases your damage and healing by 1/2/3/4/5%.

Pain Suppression (Discipline): Cooldown increased to 3 minutes, up from 2.

Power Infusion (Discipline): Cooldown reduced to 2 minutes, down from 3.

Psychic Scream now costs 15% of base mana.

Searing Light (Holy): Now also increases the damage of your Holy Nova and Penance spells.

Shackle Undead now costs 9% of base mana.

Shadow Focus (Shadow): Now a 3 point talent, down from 5. Now also reduces the mana cost of your Shadow spells by 2/4/6%.

Shadow Resilience (Shadow): Now reduces physical damage taken by 2/4%, but no longer reduces the chance to be critically hit by spells.

Shadowform (Shadow): Now has an innate 30% threat reduction. Now has a shapeshift UI.

Silent Resolve (Discipline): Now a 3 point talent, down from 5 points.

Spirit Tap (Shadow) - Talent reduced to 3 points, down from 5. Now also leads into "Improved Spirit Tap"

Wand Specialization (Discipline) has been removed.

Rogue

Blade Twisting (Combat) now cause all damaging melee attacks to have a 10% chance to daze for 4/8 seconds.

Deadened Nerves (Assassination) now reduces all damage taken by 1/2/3/4/5%.

Fleet Footed (Assassination) now reduces duration of movement impairing effects by 25/50% rather than increasing resist chance.

Gouge is now only 1 rank and causes damage based on attack power.

Kick is now only 1 rank and no longer causes damage.

Nerves of Steel (Combat) now reduces the duration of all Stun and Fear effects by 15/30%.

Pick Lock and Disarm Trap no longer require Thieve's Tools.

Premeditation (Subtlety) duration increased to 20 seconds.

Riposte (Combat) now slows the target's melee attacks by 20% instead of disarming them.

Setup (Subtlety) chance to gain a combo point increased to 33/66/100%.

Vanish no longer requires the reagent Flash Powder.

Vile Poisons (Assassination) reduced to 3 ranks, now increases damage of poisons and Eviscerate by 7/14/20% and increases dispel resistance by 10/20/30%.

Shaman

All totems are now considered on the "Physical" school, and no longer magical spells.

Ancestral Knowledge (Enhancement): Now increases your Intellect by 2/4/6%, instead of increasing your total Mana by 2/4/6/8/10%.

Call of Flame (Elemental): Now also increases the damage of your Lava Burst spell by 2/4/6%.

Call of Thunder (Elemental) now also increases the critical strike chance of your Thunder spell.

Concussion (Elemental) now increases the damage of your Thunder and Lava Burst spells.

Convection (Elemental) is now a 3-point talent, down from a 5-point talent. Now lowers the mana cost of Thunder and Lava Burst.

Earth's Grasp (Elemental) is now a tier-1 talent, up from tier-2.

Elemental Detestation (Elemental) is now a tier-2 talent, up from tier-4.

Elemental Focus (Restoration): Now also can proc off Lesser Healing Wave and Healing Wave, and can be used on all healing spells.

Elemental Fury (Elemental) now requires Elemental Focus as a pre-requisite

Elemental Precision (Elemental): Chance to hit reduced to 1/2/3% from 2/4/6%, but threat reduction increased to 10/20/30% up from 4/7/10%.

Enhancing (Enhancement) Totems is now a Tier 1 talent, up from Tier-2.

Flametongue Totem is now a flat spell damage totem. All ranks have been modified.

Frostbrand's snare effect has been increased to 50%, up from 25%.

Ghost Wolf's mana cost is now 13% base.

Grace of Air Totem has been removed. (Agility has been rolled over into Strength of Earth Totem)

Improved Fire Totems (Elemental) is now (again) Improved Fire Nova Totem. It now has a 50/100% chance to stun all targets for 2 sec.

Improved Lightning Shield (Enhancement) is now Elemental Shields, and is in Tier-1.

New ranks have been added of Water Shield, starting at level 20. (Level 20, 27, 34, 41, 48, 55, 62, 69)

New Spell: Earthliving Weapon - Imbue the Shaman's weapon with earthen life. Increases healing done by x and each heal has a 20% chance to proc Earthliving on the target, healing an additionaly over 12 sec. Lasts 30 minutes.

New Talent: Cleanse Spirit (Restoration) - Cleanse the spirit of a friendly target, removing 1 poison effect, 1 disease effect, and 1 curse effect.

New Talent: Elemental Shields (Enhancement): Increases the damage done by your Lightning Shield orbs by 5/10/15%, increases the amount of mana gained from your Mana Shield orbs by 5/10/15% and increases the amount of healing done by your Earth Shield orbs by 5/10/15%.

New Talent: Mental Dexterity (Enhancement) - Increases your Attack Power by 33/66/100% of your Intellect.

Rockbiter ranks 5 through 9 have been removed. Windfury Weapon is intended to replace Rockbiter at level 30.

Shapeshifting will no longer cancel Water Walking.

Shield Specialization (Enhancement) - Now a 2-point talent, and increases the chance to block with attacks by 10/20%, and increases the amount blocked by 5/10%.

Stoneskin Totem now increases armor instead of reducing physical damage.

Storm Reach (Elemental): Now also increases the radius of your Thunder spell by 10/20%.

Strength of Earth Totem now also increases agility.

Tranquil Air Totem has been removed. (Threat is being addressed by modifications to the base threat of players and/or "baked" into tanking abilities.)

Unleashed Rage is now raid wide.

Windfury Totem is now a flat 20% melee haste totem. All ranks have been modified.

Windwall Totem has been removed.

Wrath of Air is now a flat 10% spell haste totem.

Warlock

Aftermath (Destruction) - Now a 2-point talent, down from 5.

All demon abilities and spells will automatically be learned as pets gain levels. Demon Master trainers will be removed.

Blood Pact now works raid-wide (not just in party).

Cataclysm (Destruction) - Now also increases your chance to hit with Destruction spells by 1% per point.

Curse of Recklessness will no longer prevent Fear effects, only prevent NPCs from fleeing (e.g. at low health).

Dark Pact: Tooltip updated to be more consistent with other similar effects.

Demon Armor - Now increases healing done by spells and effects by 20%, but no longer has in-combat health regeneration.

Demon Skin, Demon Armor and Fel Armor are no longer Magic effects and cannot be dispelled.

Fel Armor - Now increases your spell damage equal to 30% of your total Spirit, but no longer increases healing done by spells and effects by 20%.

Fel Stamina (Demonology) has been merged with Fel Intellect into Fel Vitality.

Howl of Terror now costs 15% of base mana.

Improved Curse of Weakness (Affliction) is now "Frailty" - Increases the amount of attack power reduced by your Curse of Weakness spell by 10/20%, and increases the amount of armor reduced by your Curse of Recklessness by 10/20%.

Improved Enslave Demon (Demonology) is now a Tier 5 talent, up from Tier 4.

Improved Lash of Pain (Destruction) and Improved Firebolt (Destruction) have been merged into one talent, Demonic Power.

Improved Shadow Bolt (Destruction) - Now increases damage by your next Shadow damage spells by 3/6/9/12/15%, down from 4/8/12/16/20%.

Mana Feed: Tooltip updated to be more consistent with other similar effects.

Master Demonologist – Felguard (Demonology) - Now increases all damage by 1/2/3/4/5%, and reduces all damage done to you by 1/2/3/4/5%.

Master Demonologist – Imp (Demonology) - Now increases Fire damage by 1/2/3/4/5%, and critical hit chance with Fire spells by 1/2/3/4/5%.

Master Demonologist – Succubus (Demonology) - Now increases Shadow damage by 1/2/3/4/5%, and critical hit chance with Shadow spells by 1/2/3/4/5%.

Master Demonologist (Demonology) - Most effects have been altered.

New Talent: Demonic Empowerment (Demonology) - Grants your Summoned Demon power for a short time.

New Talent: Eradication (Affliction) - Your Corruption, Siphon Life and Curse of Agony ticks have a 5/10/15% chance to increase your spell haste by 20% for 8 sec. This effect has a 10 second cooldown.

New Talent: Molten Core (Destruction) - Your Shadow spells and damage over time effects have a 5/10/15% chance to increase the damage of your Fire spells by 10% for 6 sec.

Pyroclasm (Destruction) - Now also includes Conflagrate.

Shadowfury (Destruction) - Can now be cast while moving. Stun duration increased to 3 seconds, up from 2.

Soul Link (Demonology) is now an 11-point talent (used to be a 31-point talent), but the 5% bonus damage from this talent has been removed. In addition, the damage absorbed by Soul Link is now 15%, down from 20%.

Soul Siphon (Affliction): Now also increases the damage of your Drain Soul.

Suppression (Affliction) is now a 3-point talent, down from 5. Now increases your chance to hit with Affliction spells by 1/2/3%, down from 1/2/3/4/5%.

Unstable Affliction (Affliction): Silence effect reduced to 3 seconds, down from 5.

Warrior

Anticipation (Protection) now increases chance to dodge by 1/2/3/4/5%, moved to tier 2.

Challenging Shout cooldown reduced to 3 minutes.

Death Wish (Fury) no longer makes you immune to Fear effects.

Death Wish and Sweeping Strikes have swapped locations in their respective talent trees.

Defensive Stance now increases threat by 45%.

Defiance (Protection) removed, replaced by Incite and moved to a new location on tier 2.

Hamstring now only has one rank and no longer causes damage.

Improved Bloodrage (Protection) now increases rage generation of both the instant and over-time effects by 25/50%.

Improved Disarm (Protection) now reduces the cooldown of Disarm and Shield Break by 5/10/15 seconds and increases damage taken by disarmed targets by 4/7/10%.

Improved Shield Block (Protection) now has 2 ranks and reduces cooldown of Shield Block by 5/10 secs. It no longer increases the number of blocks.

Iron Will (Arms) now has only 3 ranks, reducing the duration of Stun and Charm effects by 10/20/30%.

Last Stand (Protection) cooldown reduced to 6 minutes.

Mace Specialization (Arms) can no longer trigger more than once per 6 seconds.

Mocking Blow now only has one rank and causes weapon damage, cooldown reduced to 1 min and can now be used in Defensive Stance.

Overpower now only has one rank and no longer causes any bonus damage (i.e. weapon damage only).

Poleaxe Specialization (Arms) now also increases critical damage done by Axes and Polearms by 1/2/3/4/5%.

Pummel now only has one rank and no longer causes damage.

Shield Bash now only has one rank and will cause damage based on a % of AP.

Shield Block now increases chance to block and amount blocked by 100% for the next attack. Cooldown increased to 30 seconds.

Shield Slam is now available to all warriors, starting at level 40.

Shield Specialization (Protection) moved to Tier 1, now increases rage by 2 on a successful block.

Sword Specialization (Arms) can no longer trigger more than once per 6 seconds.

Toughness (Protection) moved to tier 3.

Professions

The following tradeskills are available to train up to 425: First Aid, Herbalism, Mining, Skinning, Enchanting, and Leatherworking.

User Interface

The /cower emote now has an animation.

Macros and key bindings are now saved server-side so there is no longer a need to reconfigure them when logging in using another computer.

Shift-clicking to loot mail: You can now hold Shift and click on mail in your inbox to automatically loot any items and gold without opening the mail. This default behavior can be changed via Auto Loot Mail in the Interface Options (Controls).

Combat Log Changes:

The combat log now differentiates between a spell failure due to resistance and spell failure due to missing the target. Where once both events reported as a resist; a spell missing the target is now reported as a miss.

Overhealing is now reported in the combat log.

When a source of damage is entirely prevented (by a shield block, a full resist, or a damage shield like Power Word:Shield, the prevented amount will now be displayed.