WotLK Beta Build 9014 Class Changes

Death Knight WotLK Changes

Blood

• Bloody Vengeance - No longer increases frost and shadow damage.
• Blood Tap - Tooltip Fix : Duration changed to 20 seconds. (Old 47802d.)
• Bladed Armor - Now increases attack power by 1/2/3/4/5 for every 180 armor value. (Old 1/2/3/4/5 strength for every 400 armor)
• Bloody Vengeance - Now gives you a 1/2/3% bonus to physical damage (no longer effects frost and shadow) you deal for 30 sec after dealing a critical strike from a weapon swing, spell, or ability. Now stacks up to 1 times (down from 49).
• Abomination’s Might - Range of attack power increase now 45 yds (Old 20 yds)

Frost

• Obliterate Damage lowered. (Now Rank 3 - 100% weapon damage plus 238.5, and an additional 119.25 bonus damage per disease) (Old Rank 3 - 100% weapon damage plus 252, 126 bonus damage per disease.)
• Tundra Stalker - Now gives a passive bonus increase to your Icy Touch. (20/40/60/80/100%)
• Guile of Gorefiend - No longer gives bonus to Rune Strike critical damage.
• Howling Blast - Damage increased on all ranks. (Now Rank 5 - 259 to 281) (Old Rank 5 - 192 to 208)
• Runic Focus - Description changed to : “Unlike most casters, a Death Knight’s spells cause double damage on critical hits.”

Unholy

• Death and Decay - Damage Increased (Now Rank 4 - 62 Damage) (Old Rank 4 - 52 Damage)
• Blood-Caked Blade - Damage increased to 25% of weapon damage. (Old 20% of weapon damage.)
• Blood Plague - Chance to remove a Heal over Time effect reduced to 25% (Old 50%)
• Reaping - Pestilence removed, Blood Strike added.

Druid WotLK Changes

Balance

• Starfall - Now has a 30 yard range. Instant cast.
• Nature’s Splendor - Now increases the duration of your Insect Swarm by 2.0 sec (down from 3.0)
• Typhoon - Rank 4 now does 1010 Nature damage (formerly bugged at 1 damage).

Feral

• Rake - DoT damage increased for all ranks.
• Swipe - No longer has a target limit. Now: (Rank 1) Swipe nearby enemies, inflicting 9 damage. Damage increased by attack power.
• Mangle (Cat) - Now does 200% normal damage (up from 160%). Additional damage increased for all ranks.
• Protector of the Pack - Now reduced damage per party member by 1/2/3% instead of a flat 3% for all ranks.

Hunter WotLK Changes

Beast Mastery

• Aspect of the Viper reworded - Now: The hunter takes on the aspect of the viper, causing ranged attacks to regenerate mana but reducing your total damage done by 50%. Mana gained is based on the speed of your ranged weapon. Only one Aspect can be active at a time.
• Aspect of the Wild - Rank 4 now increases Nature resistance by 130 (up from 70).
• Kindred Spirits - Description now includes “This does not stack with other movement speed increasing effects.”

Marksmanship

• Aimed Shot - Mana cost reduced from 16% to 12% of base mana. Now instant cast. Cooldown increased from 6 seconds to 10 seconds. Ranged damage increase reduced for all ranks.
• Concussive Shot - Now has a 12 sec cooldown.
• Kill Shot - Now deals 200% weapon damage (down from 205%). Base damage reduced by approx 50% on all ranks.
• Multi-Shot - Mana cost increased for 12% to 13% of base mana.
• Focused Aim - No longer effects Aimed Shot. Now also increases your chance to hit by 1/2/3%.
• Marked for Death - Now increases your damage done by your shots and the damage done by your pet’s special abilities by 1/2/3/4/5% (down from 2/4/6/8/10%) on marked targets.
• Scatter Shot - Moved from Tier 5 to Tier 3, changed trees to Survival.

Survival

• Freezing Arrow - The trap placed by the arrow now breaks on any damage (instead of having a chance to break).
• Freezing Trap - Trap now breaks on any damage once again, instead of having a chance to break. (”Any damage caused will break the ice.”)
• Lock and Load - Now has a 2/4/6% proc chance on periodic damage (down from 5/10/15%).
• Point of No Escape - Changes from 3 to 2 points. Now also effects Freezing Arrow. Critical strike chance increase on affected targets is now 3/6% instead of 2/4/6%.
• Readiness - Moved from Tier 9 to Tier 5, changed trees to Marksmanship.
• Surefooted - Moved from Tier 4 to Tier 2. No longer increases hit chance.
• T.N.T. - Moved from Tier 2 to Tier 4
• Trap Mastery - Moved from Tier 3 to Tier 9. Now effects Freezing Trap in the same way as Frost Trap (duration increase, instead of root effect on dispell).

Mage WotLK Changes

Arcane

• Sound Effect Spell - Polymorph Penguin and Polymorph Sheep added
• Missile Barrage - Now affects Arcane Barrage. Now has a 3/6/9/12/20% chance to reduce the channeled duration of the next Arcane Missiles spell by 2.5 secs and missiles will fire every .5 secs.

Fire

• Empowered Fireball - Renamed Empowered Fire. Now affects Frostfire Bolt.
• Living Bomb - Now has no knockup.

Frost

• Deep Freeze - Now does no damage.
• Frost Warding - Moved from Tier 1 to Tier 2
• Frostbite - Moved from Tier 2 to Tier 1

Paladin WotLK Changes

Holy

• Divine Plea - Now you gain 25% of your total mana over 15 sec (up from 10 sec), but the amount healed by your spells is reduced by 100% (up from 50%).
• Infusion of Light - Now your Holy Shock critical hits reduce the cast time of your next Holy Light spell by -0.50/-1 secs (down from -1.25/-2.5 sec).
• Judgements of the Pure - Now lasts 60 sec (up from 30 sec).

Retribution

• Judgements of the Wise - Now immediately grants you 33% of your base mana (instead of 20% of your maximum mana).

Priest WotLK Changes

Discipline

• Improved Inner Fire - Moved from Tier 3 to Tier 2.
• Improved Power Word: Fortitude - Moved from Tier 2 to Tier 3.
• Silent Resolve - Ranks 4 and 5 removed.
• Twin Disciplines - Now increases “damage and healing” instead of “spellpower”.

Holy

• Guardian Spirit - This sacrifice terminates the effect but heals the target of 50% of their maximum health. Up from 10%.
• Holy Nova - Mana cost reduced to 25% of base mana from 33% of base mana for higher ranks. Lower ranks also had a mana cost reduction.

Shadow

• Devouring Plague - Amount of damage that heals you now specified, 15% of damage caused by the Devouring Plague heals the caster.
• Twisted Faith - Now works if your target is afflicted by your Shadow Word: Pain instead of Mind Flay.

Rogue WotLK Changes

Assassination

• Focused Attacks - Your melee critical strikes have a 33/66/100% chance to give you 2 energy (up from 1).

Combat

• Gouge - Damage now scales with attack power.
• Aggression - Moved from Tier 5 to Tier 4. Now increases the damage of your Sinister Strike, Backstab, and Eviscerate abilities by 3/6/9/12/15% (up from 2/4/6/8/10%).
• Blade Twisting - Now also increases the damage dealt by Sinister Strike and Backstab by 5/10%.
• Vitality - Now regens 8/16/25% energy (up from 3/7/10%).

Shaman WotLK Changes

Elemental

• Fire Nova Totem - Mana cost now 33% of base mana. (Old 26%)
• Fire Nova Totem - New ranks added. (Level 75 rank 8 - 755 to 843 damage) (Level 80 Rank 9 - 893 to 997 damage)

Enhancement

• Unleashed Rage - Now increases all attack power and has a 45 yard range.
• Dual Wield Specialization - Now increases your chance to hit while dual wielding by an additional 1/2/3% (down from 2/4/6%).
• Flurry - Attack speed increase lowered by 5% (Now 5/10/15/20/25) (Old 10/15/20/25/30).
• Stormstrike - 20% damage increase now only effects Nature spells.
• Maelstrom Weapon - Chance for buff to apply lowered, now can proc on any melee weapon hit (noncrit or crit). Duration increased to 30 seconds. (New 3/6/9/12/15) (Old 20/40/60/80/100)
• Spirit Wolves - Spirit Hunt - Duration removed.

Restoration

• Improved Water Shield - Now works on Riptide Critical Hits.
• Ancestral Awakening - Now works on Riptide Critical Hits.

Totems

• Frost Resistance Totem - Duration fixed to be 5 minutes.
• Totem of Wrath - Duration fixed to be 5 minutes.
• Fire Resistance Totem - Duration fixed to be 5 minutes.

Warlock WotLK Changes

Affliction

• Everlasting Affliction - Now Drain Life and Haunt will reset Corruption instead of Drain Life and Shadow Bolt.
• Drain Soul - Drains the soul of the target, causing 426 Shadow damage over 15 sec. If the target is at or below 25% health, Drain Soul causes four times the normal damage. If the target dies while being drained, and yields experience or honor, the caster gains a Soul Shard. Soul Shards are required for other spells.
• Curse of Doom - If the target yields experience or honor when it dies from this damage, a Doomguard will be summoned. Cannot be cast on players.
• Haunt - Now heals for 100% of damage done. Down from 200%.

Demonology

• Enslave Demon - Lasts up to 60 sec. Down from 300 sec.
• Demonic Pact - Does not work on Enslaved demons.

Destruction

• Chaos Bolt - Now does fire damage instead of chaos damage.
• Conflagrate - Now works with Shadowflame as well as Immolate.

Warrior WotLK Changes

Arms

• Sword Specialization - This effect cannot occur more than once every 6 seconds.

Fury

• Armored to the Teeth - Attack Power instead of Strength armor value require lowered. (Now 1/2/3 AP for every 180 armor.) (Old 1/2/3 strength for every 400 armor)

Protection

• Thunder Clap - Maximum targets removed.
• Revenge - Damage increased (Now Rank 9 - [1454.0 + AP * 0.207] to [1776.0 + AP * 0.207]) (Old Rank 9 - [652.0 + AP * 0.093] to [796.0 + AP * 0.093])
• Sword and Board - Now effects Revenge.
• Shield Slam - Damage increased (Now Rank 8 - 990 to 1040 damage) (Old Rank 8 - 756 to 794 Damage)

Hunter Aimed Shot Damage Reduced

In a surprise move Blizzard announced earlier today that the damage on hunter’s aimed shot will be reduced. This after revealing just yesterday that aimed shot will become an instant cast in in patch 3.0.2.

Aimed Shot Damage Reduced

We’ll have to tone down the damage of Aimed Shot actually, probably in the ballpark of less than what it is now but more than what multi-shot does to a single target or arcane shot. We have not yet settled on the appropriate number.
In terms of their duration and cooldown, I think those are pretty in line with the Warrior variant. The idea behind this change is that the Hunter was intended to be a source of the “mortal strike wound” in group PvP, but keeping up the debuff is too difficult with a cast time. (source)

After blizzard’s initial post announcing instant cast aimed shot I was left thinking…what the hell, how can it possibly be balanced! Turns out there is a God after all, and it’s good to see Blizzard taking appropriate action to balance the new aimed shot. Overall I think this will be a very positive change for the hunter class, allowing them to function more like a warrior or a rogue, at least from the aspect of healing debuff utility.

In other hunter news, there were a few more changes announced by blue posters this afternoon.

Pet Health for WotLK Increased

We still are working on bumping the base health of the pets up. (source)

WotLK Beta Hunter Bugs

Bestial Wrath

We’ve actually fixed that bestial wrath bug recently, should be in the next build.

Lock and Load

It isn’t 100%, its more around 2/4/6% on periodic damage from Serpent Sting. Its proc chance is in the ballpark of Shadow Trance (Nightfall) for Warlocks, though 2% higher (since Nightfall is 4%).
Seems like a tooltip bug.
Edit: Nm, seems like its really bugged.

All in all things are looking more promising for the hunter class. Blizzard has a much better vision for the class now than they did during the first half of the Burning Crusade and I believe they will be a much more engaging and balanced class come wrath of the lich king. I really would like to see the class take more of a damage and snare role, as opposed to just mana draining and running in circles.

WotLK Hunter Buffs

Major hunter aimed shot changes - Now Instant Cast!

I have some good news, and some bad news. First, the bad news. Unfortunately we won’t be able to do the Aspect of the Viper change I discussed yesterday (passive instead of requiring you to attack the target) at this time because of technical limitations and its potential to shake up our current balance goals. However, we will evaluate it as an option for a future patch.

Now, the good news.

- Aimed Shot - This shot will now be instant cast, its damage/effect/cooldown will remain unchanged.
- Scatter shot - This will now be an 11-point Survival talent.
- Readiness - This will now be the 21-point Marksmanship talent.
- Trap Mastery - This will now be the 41-point Survival talent. Granted, not very sexy for a 41-pointer but we’ll do some changes there in a future patch (after WOLK ships).

These changes will be live in an upcoming beta build.

Wow…just wow, I’m at a loss for this change. Now, don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with buffing hunters for wotlk. There are certainly some areas where the class needs some help, but making aimed shot an instant cast seems “excessive” at the very least.

6 second cooldown, mortal strike debuff, and instant cast? I just don’t see how this can ever be balanced for PvP without some additional and major adjustments to hunter shot rotation.

PvP consideratios left aside, I think this will be a great buff for marks hunters in PvE. Hopefully bringing the spec closer to that of beast mastery once all the changes are finalized before wrath of the lich king.

WotLK Warlock Changes - Major Talent Buffs

The following is a guest commentary submitted by Menagus of the Zug Gaming forums.

Now everyone and their dog knows that warlocks are already ridiculously OP in PvE, as well as PvP. So what does Blizzard decide to do for Wrath of the Lich King? ……buff them, apparently.

Corruption is now instant cast without talent.

We’re going to make Corruption base instant cast. The Improved Corruption talent will now increase Corruption’s damage by 4/8/12/16/20%.

Ruin and Devastation changes

In an upcoming build we are changing Ruin to a 5-point talent. However, it will swap places with Devastation. Devastation will become a 1-point talent (5% spell crit). This will be a minimal change to the Destruction Warlock, while opening up Ruin to other builds without having them sacrifice their 51-point talents.

Metamorphosis changes

We recently re-designed Metamorphosis for an upcoming build. Some changes:

• It will no longer remove your pet (your pet remains)
• It increases your armor by 600%, up from 360%
• It increases all your damage by 40%
• You can still cast your regular Warlock spells
• You gain access to a few new unique Demon Form abilities that can only be used in Demon Form

Among some other improvements. It will be changed back to a 5-minute cooldown, however (with a 45 second duration). With the changes to Ruin, you can also get Metamorphosis and Ruin in a build if you wish.

Pandemic Changes

Going to be changing the visual and some other aspects of the talent soon, not going to have the Shadow Bolt graphic.

Seriously, I wish I had a lock about right now. Metamorphosis looks absolutely amazing. If I had to fathom a guess, this ability is going to have to be nerfed pretty hard in order to balance it accordingly. In fact, I have heard from a few sources that some of the warlocks in the beta think that this is even a bit too much of a buff (yeah, hard to believe, huh -.-). In any case, the change to improved corruption has been a long time crying – many warlocks have called for that for who knows how long.

Looks like everyone will be stacking warlocks in raids if these changes stay, their dps is going to be off the charts.

Level 80 Shaman Skills

Wrath of the Lich King is going to have a lot in store for the Shaman class. The new abilities that Shaman will gain promise to help bridge the gap between the crowd control based classes and the movement based classes while keeping the burst damage that shaman have come to know and love. Here are some of the new skills and abilities that shaman will be gaining on their journey to level 80.

Earthliving Weapon
90 Mana
Instant cast
Requires Melee Weapon

Imbue the Shaman’s weapon with earthen life. Increases healing done by 26 and each heal has a 20% chance to proc Earthliving on the target, healing an additional 360 over 12 sec. Lasts 30 minutes.

Earthliving weapon is a spell gained at level 30 and a new rank will become available every 10 levels after that. While the exact values of the effect are not set in stone for all the different ranks, it is fairly certain that this ability will be a staple in any Restoration Shaman’s arsenal.

Some notes on this ability from WotLK beta:

• The heal proc has the ability to proc off of each jump on a Chain Heal
• The healing done by the HoT and the threat associated with that heal are both credited to the caster of the heal, not the recipient like Prayer of Mending or Lifebloom’s final tick.
• Like Lifebloom, the HoT ticks every second.

Lava Burst
655 Mana
2 sec cast
30 yd range
8 sec cooldown

You hurl molten lava at the target, dealing 888 to 1132 Fire damage. If Flame Shock is on the target, Lava Burst will consume the Flame Shock, causing Lava Burst to critically hit.

Obtained at level 75, this ability is not only going to help keep elemental shaman PvE more exciting than spamming lightning bolts but it will be great for a burst damage setup in PvP. If you flame shock, wait a few seconds for your shock cooldown to tick down and get setup for a cast (or cast lightning bolts if you don’t have to move), Lava Burst, Elemental Mastery Chain Lightning, Earth Shock, you are going to be putting out a powerful punch that will be tough for healers to react to if they don’t see it coming.

Some notes from WotLK beta:

• Enhancement shaman specced for Elemental Devastation and Maelstorm Weapon will see great synergy by keeping flame shock on their target, waiting for a Maelstorm Weapon proc (Instant cast spells after you critically strike in melee 5 times), then Lava Bursting to guarentee a spell crit which will keep Elemental Devastation up (9% Melee Crit)
• The strength of this spell will cause enhancement shaman to use less earth shocks in times where and interrupt isn’t needed. This frees up stormstrike debuffs for other classes that will be using them like Marks Hunters, Rogues, Elemental Shaman, and Balance Druids.

Hex
150 mana
1.5 sec cast
45 sec cooldown
20 yd range

Transforms the enemy into a frog. While hexed, the target cannot attack or cast spells. Damage caused may interrupt the effect. Lasts 30 sec. Only one target can be hexed at a time. Only works on Humanoids and Beasts.

After four years in the making, player-controlled shaman finally get the ability that their server-controlled NPC brothers have had for years. One significant thing about this spell is that it is more like a fear on a long cooldown than a sheep. The target may have slight damage caused to it and being hexed will not cause the target to heal.

Some notes from WotLK beta:

• Hex is currently a Curse, so only mages, druids and resto specced shaman can remove the spell.
• Hex uses a polymorph mechanic so classes that have abilities which remove those effects, like druids that shapeshift, will be able to get out of it.
• The CD is long enough that it can be used in many situations where sap would be used in a 5 man instance. You can also use the ability to re-apply crowd control to a target who’s sap had ended.