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[notworksafe]

kinda underwhelmed by the lock changes. they all seem good, just nothing exciting.

Yeah I agree. They all seem like good changes, but there's no real "Wow!" spell.

 

[Rapstah]

Get some Jump Resist gear crafted.

That better be part of the priest update! Would make Keristrasza a pain in the ass though.

 

[speedpop]

Extremely happy with the Shaman preview.

Spiritwalker's Grace is going to be the bomb, and something that Shaman has needed since forever. Elemental Shaman will rejoice with mexican waves.

Glad to see Spirit Link has been thrown back onto the cards, and finally Earthquake. Should be very interesting to see the finished product in that spell.


The Q&A after it is interesting:

Q: Elemental doesn’t want to drop Searing Totem at range. We want to drop Magma Totem.
A: Searing Totem needs to so more single-target damage than Magma. That said, if we’re happy with the ability to occasionally place totems at range there is no reason it couldn’t apply to any totem. Imagine, “After using this spell, the next totem you drop will appear at the feet of your target.”

 

[Acosta]

GREEN FIRE, GREEN FIRE!

I love some of the Warlock changes, the synergism between the soul shards and the spells sounds powerful and will add a pretty active component to rotation (what I should use now?) and some of the spells sound great. Demon Soul sounds great, and hope it has some kind of special visual attached, depending of the demon you merge.

A bit underwhelmed to see there is not a new demon, but still hopeful.

Let´s see what the changes of the DK (other class I play) are, but I'm not really happy to see Blood as the tank tree, I just don't understand it, Frost has been considered the "tank tree" even when it wasn't, but whatever. Blood DPS was awesome for levelling. I just hope they end with that bullshit of Frost being the two weapon tree, I would like to go back to Frost with a two hand weapon.

 

[Retro]

The Q&A after it is interesting:

I took the general tone of that comment to mean "If we decide to, maybe we'll add that", but it didn't strike me as something they are planning to implement.

Warlock Clarification:

Here are a few points of clarification on some of the popular questions or concerns we're seeing.

* On regenerating shards in combat, we will add a mechanic to regen shards if we find that we need to in order to handle variable combat length. We haven’t added one yet because we really want to emphasize locks using shards at the right time and not as fast as they can with then an Evocation-like spell to bring them back again. These are supposed to be special moments in a fight -- think Bloodlust perhaps -- and not used every 20 seconds on cooldown (or whatever the cooldown ends up being).

* Demon lovers, we haven’t ruled out adding a new demon, but we want to be very careful here. We’ve had a hard enough time finding niches for some of the current ones. So we first want to make sure existing demons are cool before we’re faced with Q&A several months from now asking why the new demon either isn’t cool enough, or why warlocks no longer use, say, their felhunter because of the new demon.

* The intent for Hellfire is for it to be a specialty of Demonology warlocks. Affliction would use Seed of Corruption and Destruction would use Rain of Fire.

(Source)

So, maybe a new demon, maybe not. Was hoping Locks would get to summon an enslaved Dranei or narru or something and torture it into performing holy actions (like a version of holy shock that can damage or be used to heal the lock... maybe a form of cleanse and consecration too.) Cuz, you know.. locks aren't fucking evil enough yet :lol

Shaman Clarification:

Here's another question (statement) that we can address for you:

Q: Please make the "nature damage" for the enhance tree "elemental damage" so our bonus for putting points in isn't only affecting our nature damage.

A: We actually went with Nature damage for that reason. We thought all Elemental damage might end up just feeling like “damage.”; Since Nature damage is only a portion of your damage, choosing between an item with say haste versus mastery (i.e. Nature damage) might be more interesting. With a lot of mastery, you might actually favor other talents or different spell rotations. All of this just theoretical at this point and the passive talent tree bonuses are likely to see much iteration in beta.

(Source)

MORE Warlock Clarification:

Succubus details:

Whiplash works similar to Freeze on the mage’s Water Elemental. It requires a targeting reticule. It isn’t just a melee ability that the succubus uses at-will.

As a clarification, we are removing Soothing Kiss, not Seduction. Soothing Kiss increased the chance the target would attack something else. Seduction is the crowd control more commonly associated with the Succubus, and it’s not going anywhere.

(Source)

 

[explodet]

The intent for Hellfire is for it to be a specialty of Demonology warlocks

You know, I haven't played my demo lock in a while, but I always felt that he seemed to do more DPS when he was right up beside the target. Shadowflame, faster Decimation procs, Meta->Immolation Aura... and now Hellfire.

They should just give demo locks a melee attack.

 

[Acosta]

You know, I haven't played my demo lock in a while, but I always felt that he seemed to do more DPS when he was right up beside the target. Shadowflame, faster Decimation procs, Meta->Immolation Aura... and now Hellfire.

They should just give demo locks a melee attack.

Well, they kinda did with that crappy melee attack from Demon's form.

It would be cool to have a magic-melee class with low armor in the game (kinda like Herald of Xotli in Age of Conan), but I guess Blizzard won't go that far.

 

[explodet]

Well, they kinda did with that crappy melee attack from Demon's form.

I TOTALLY forgot about that, shows you how much I used it! :lol

It would be cool to have a magic-melee class with low armor in the game (kinda like Herald of Xotli in Age of Conan), but I guess Blizzard won't go that far.

Kinda related, when Death Knights first came out I was thinking that one of the trees would be spellpower based to make spellpower plate useable by more than one class - but again, not that far.

 

[Retro]

They should just give demo locks a melee attack.

Fel Scythe
9% Base Mana - Melee Range
Instant - 20 sec. Cooldown
Draws forth a sickle of chaotic fire, dealing x-X Fire damage instantly and y shadow damage over 5 seconds.

+ Soul Burn:
Fel Scythe cannot be resisted and pierces through all absorption effects.

Glyph of the Reaper:
Your Fel Scythe spell hits two additional nearby targets.

Glyph of the Harvester:
Your Fel Scythe spell drains x health from the target and transfers it to the warlock.

:lol

Ah, More Warlock Details:

Here's a little bit more feedback based on some of the ideas you're presenting.

* We did mean to cover doomguards and infernals, but they didn't make it into our preview. Our plan is that you can summon a doomguard or infernal as a cooldown-based pet, much like the shaman elementals, without having to give up your current, permanent demon. If we add a new demon it will likely be one of these cooldown-based ones, and not a permanent pet like the imp, voidwalker, succubus, felguard or felhunter. We’re just not convinced there is a niche for a new permanent demon (and perhaps not even a temporary one).

* Flying mounts and female Metamorphosis forms are great ideas and something we’ve had on the wish list for a long time. We can only create so many new creatures during a single expansion, and getting one of these might mean fewer new creatures in outdoor worlds or dungeons. It’s just a trade-off and sometimes you have to make hard calls. We’ll keep them on the list though.

(Source)

 

[Door2Dawn]

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm press beta invites going out

The wave of Cataclysm class changes being announced this week seems to be a harbinger of things to come -- it appears we'll be skipping the normal semi-public Friends & Family Alpha phase completely and moving right on to open beta! Blizzard PR has sent out several pre-invites to members of the media for the Cataclysm beta. These are confirmed not to be phishing emails -- they're definitely the real deal.

In the pre-invite email, Blizzard says that they're gearing up for the Cataclysm beta, and that a Battle.net account is required to participate. Members of the press with a BNet account who received the email can then sign up for the invite pool.

What we don't know: when it's happening. Press registration for the beta is open until April 15th, but Blizzard specifically states that they have no start date ready to announce. We'll keep you updated with more information, including the beta launch date and any new info that comes out of the beta, as soon as it becomes available.

Right now, if you are not a member of the press and get one of these, it is likely a scam. Practice safe browsing.

http://www.wow.com/2010/04/07/world-of-warcraft-cataclysm-press-beta-invites-going-out/

 

[Oni Link 666]

Just got Glory of the Icecrown Raider in 10 man.

 

[Retro]

Just got Glory of the Icecrown Raider in 10 man.

Gratz!

More Warlock Updates:

Here are a few more answers for you to digest.

* We do like the idea of allowing warlocks to re-skin their demons and have been talking about possible ways to implement this. I have no concrete information for you at this time beyond that.

* When it comes to naming demons, this has always been one of those sacred cows, where the hunter gets to name their pet because he loves his pet bear, but the warlock considers the demon to be something disposable -- a tool.

* The Demon Bolt debuff will only affect the warlock's demon, not other demons. We wanted a Demo-themed nuke that made it feel like the pet was part of the damage.

* For Soul Shard bags, we will probably do something like remove all the shards, reduce the bag size (a little) and convert it to a normal bag. This would be a one-time conversion. We'll probably get rid of the recipes, as we wouldn't want other classes to go out and get shard bags just to get a free bag.

Also, I don't think we'll see the priest info at any sort of reasonable time tonight. Several blue posts allude to it being in the wee hours of the morning here in the states, so... probably 2, 3 AM Eastern, if not later.

 

[notworksafe]

Lame! I wonder why they spaced the updates so far apart.

 

[Retro]

Lame! I wonder why they spaced the updates so far apart.

The official answer (source):

Keep in mind we're accommodating our community counterparts and fans in other regions by releasing these previews at various times each day and night. We do this so players in Europe, Korea, etc. aren't always getting their previews at extremely odd hours. With a global playerbase comes global release times for hot topics.

We need to ensure all of our regions have the information localized and ready to go so we can hit a single global release time. It's the way any big news post or preview has ever been published. Most of you just haven't ever noticed because we typically haven't given advanced warning with dates attached. We're still not going to attach times though because we need to make sure every region has the green light.

That's why I told you the posting times for each preview would span the majority of the 24-hour day. It's a courtesy to provide our other regions with better local posting times so the feedback, debate and discussion isn't always dominant first in the U.S. It's one of the many ways we keep a global perspective on all of the things we do here at Blizzard Entertainment.

In other words... bullshit. If only because they've been doing server maintenance on Oceanic servers during prime time since forever and always respond with some flippant comment or just ignore the complaints.

They're not an 'international company' either; I highly doubt the server jockeys and forum mods outside the US have anywhere near the same impact on the actual game's development that the folks in Irvine do, so what the hell is the point of 'ensuring all regions are ready to go'? The feedback, debate, and discussion is dominant in the U.S because that's where the people who can answer the questions without giving away too much / incorrect information are. Any questions people post on the EU servers at 3AM Pacific aren't going to be answered until somebody in California wakes up unless they predict questions and prepare answers in advance, in which case... why not just post the questions and answers straight up instead of dragging it out?

Either way, the whole 'international' thing is pointless and I have no explanation as to why they're doing it, other than maybe giving their forum mods lots of time to react to inflammatory comments, moronic trolls, and stupid posts...

.... I mean if they actually moderated things like that... but then there wouldn't be anything but blue posts at the WoW forums now, would there? :lol

If they actually follow through on what they scheduled, they'll have Priest notes up before midnight Pacific, which is 3AM on the East Coast... which is obnoxious, but... whatever... Not like it changes the fact that I have to wait until the 16th (at the earliest) to see my class' notes...

 

[Sciz]

Well, they kinda did with that crappy melee attack from Demon's form.

It would be cool to have a magic-melee class with low armor in the game (kinda like Herald of Xotli in Age of Conan), but I guess Blizzard won't go that far.

Enhancement shaman already have enough trouble staying alive. Anything with even less defensive potential would end up dying horribly all the time.

 

[Angry Grimace]

The official answer (source):



In other words... bullshit. If only because they've been doing server maintenance on Oceanic servers during prime time since forever and always respond with some flippant comment or just ignore the complaints.

They're not an 'international company' either; I highly doubt the server jockeys and forum mods outside the US have anywhere near the same impact on the actual game's development that the folks in Irvine do, so what the hell is the point of 'ensuring all regions are ready to go'? The feedback, debate, and discussion is dominant in the U.S because that's where the people who can answer the questions without giving away too much / incorrect information are. Any questions people post on the EU servers at 3AM Pacific aren't going to be answered until somebody in California wakes up unless they predict questions and prepare answers in advance, in which case... why not just post the questions and answers straight up instead of dragging it out?

Either way, the whole 'international' thing is pointless and I have no explanation as to why they're doing it, other than maybe giving their forum mods lots of time to react to inflammatory comments, moronic trolls, and stupid posts...

.... I mean if they actually moderated things like that... but then there wouldn't be anything but blue posts at the WoW forums now, would there? :lol

If they actually follow through on what they scheduled, they'll have Priest notes up before midnight Pacific, which is 3AM on the East Coast... which is obnoxious, but... whatever... Not like it changes the fact that I have to wait until the 16th (at the earliest) to see my class' notes...

Hilarity ensues: this just went up a few seconds ago. Check the timestamp on this post :lol :lol


//


In World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, we'll be making lots of changes and additions to class talents and abilities across the board. In this preview, you'll get an early look at some of the changes in store for the priest class, including a rundown of some of the new spells, abilities, and talents, as well as an overview of how the new Mastery system will work with the different talent specs.

New Priest Spells

Heal (available at level 16): While priests already have a spell called Heal, the existing version becomes obsolete at higher levels, which is something we intend to change in Cataclysm. Introduced at a low level, the "new" Heal spell will functionally work much like a down-ranked Greater Heal did in the past, adding more granularity to your direct-healing arsenal. If you need to heal someone a moderate amount and efficiency is an issue (making Flash Heal the incorrect spell for the job), then Heal is what you want to use. Heal is intended to be the priest's go-to direct-healing spell unless they need something bigger (Greater Heal) or faster (Flash Heal). We will be following a similar philosophy with all the healing classes.

Mind Spike (level 81): Deals Shadowfrost damage and puts a debuff on the target that improves subsequent Mind Spike damage. The intent of Mind Spike is to fill a niche missing in Shadow DPS, though it may be occasionally useful for healers as well. Mind Spike provides a quick nuke to use in situations where the priest doesn't have time to set up the normal rotation, such as when adds are dying too fast or you have to swap targets a lot. Spamming Mind Spike will do about as much damage as casting Mind Flay on a target afflicted with Shadow Word: Pain. The idea behind the debuff is that when you cast Mind Spike, we expect you to cast a lot of them; we don't intend you to fit it into an already full Shadow rotation. It also provides Shadow with a spell to cast when locked out of the Shadow school. (School lockouts will no longer affect both schools for multi-school spells.) 1.5-second cast. 30-yard range. No cooldown.

Inner Will (level 83): Increases movement speed by 12% and reduces the mana cost of instant-cast spells by 10%. This buff will be exclusive with Inner Fire, meaning you can't have both up at once. Inner Fire provides a spell power and Armor buff; Inner Will should be useful on a more situational basis.

Leap of Faith (level 85): Pull a party or raid member to your location. Leap of Faith (or "Life Grip") is intended to give priests a tool to help rescue fellow players who have pulled aggro, are being focused on in PvP, or just can't seem to get out of the fire in time. Instant. 30-yard range. 45-second cooldown.

Changes to Abilities and Mechanics

In addition to introducing new spells, we're planning to make changes to some of the other abilities and mechanics you're familiar with. This list and the summary of talent changes below it are by no means comprehensive, but they should give you a good sense of what we intend for each spec.


* All HoTs and DoTs will benefit from Haste and Crit innately. Hasted HoTs and DoTs will not have a shorter duration, just a shorter period in between ticks (meaning they will gain extra ticks to fill in the duration as appropriate).

* We want to bring back Shadow Word: Death as an "execute" -- something you do when the target is at 25% health.

* While we want to keep the priest's role as a well-rounded healer, we also want to make sure the class is a viable tank healer, which is something priests moved away from a little in Wrath of the Lich King. Greater Heal will probably be the tank-healing spell of choice, though we've also discussed giving Discipline a second shield so that they have a small shield to cast on lots of different targets, and a big, more expensive shield to cast on a tank or anyone else taking a ton of damage.

* Divine Spirit and Prayer of Spirit will be removed from the game. As Spirit will be the primary mana-regeneration stat, we don't want it to vary as much between solo, small group, and raid play. Blessing of Kings and Mark of the Wild will not boost Spirit either.

* Mana will be a bigger consideration for all healers. We aren't trying to make healing more painful; we're trying to make it more fun. When the cost of a spell isn't an issue, then casting the right spell for the job is less of an issue because you might as well just use your most powerful spell all of the time. We are, however, getting rid of the five-second rule, because we don't want to encourage standing around doing nothing. We're also going to cut back on the benefits of buffs such as Replenishment so priests (and all healers) don't feel as penalized when those buffs aren't available.


New Talents and Talent Changes


* We want to improve Discipline's single-target healing capacity. One key is to make sure shielding isn't always a more attractive option than healing.

* We want to improve Holy for PvP healing. One way to do this is to make sure that Heal's throughput is similar between both specs.

* We want to improve Shadow for short fights and reduce its susceptibility to school lockouts.

* Discipline will finally be getting Power Word: Barrier as a talented ability. Think of it like a group Power Word: Shield.

* We want to make Holy a little bit more interesting to play. One new talent will push the Holy priest into an improved healing state when he or she casts Prayer of Healing, Heal, or Renew three times in a row. The empowered state varies depending on the heals cast.

* Since the Shadow tree has a lot of passive damage-boosting abilities -- something we're trying to avoid in Cataclysm -- we will need to replace several of the tree's talents. One idea is to play off of the new Shadow Orbs mechanic (see Mastery section below), possibly allowing you to consume an orb to increase damage from Mind Blast or reduce Mind Spike's cast time.

* Misery will no longer affect spell Hit chance. We want players to be able to gear themselves around a Hit cap that isn't variable depending on group composition.


Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses

Discipline
Healing
Meditation
Absorption

Holy
Healing
Meditation
Radiance

Shadow
Spell damage
Spell Crit
Shadow Orbs

Absorption: Improves the strength of shields such as Power Word: Shield, Divine Aegis, and Power Word: Barrier.

Radiance: Your direct heals add a small heal-over-time component to the target.

Shadow Orbs: Casting spells grants a chance for Shadow Orbs to be created that fly around you and increase your shadow damage. This will help lower-level characters feel more like "Shadow priests" before they obtain Shadowform.

We hope you enjoyed this preview, and we're looking forward to hearing your initial thoughts and feedback on these additions and changes. Please keep in mind that this information represents a work in progress and is subject to change as development on Cataclysm continues.

 

[Angry Grimace]

I might add that the Priest changes are extremely boring and basically non-existent; Mind Spike sounds okay, except they already are outright stating it's not a spell that you have any potential to want to use outside of facerolling heroics.

And people who complained about DPS on trash mobs in heroics were stupid anyways. If the mobs are dying before you can cast on them, your input isn't necessary.

 

[notworksafe]

Levitate + Leap of Faith sounds like it's going to be an awesome combo for messing with people.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Levitate + Leap of Faith sounds like it's going to be an awesome combo for messing with people.

The problem here is that the only interesting thing Priests are getting is a gimmick useful for griefing.

 

[HarryDemeanor]

Leap of Faith (level 85): Pull a party or raid member to your location. Leap of Faith (or "Life Grip") is intended to give priests a tool to help rescue fellow players who have pulled aggro, are being focused on in PvP, or just can't seem to get out of the fire in time. Instant. 30-yard range. 45-second cooldown.

I can see this ability being cut pretty fast in beta. Doesn't seem useful at all for Priests.

 

[notworksafe]

I can see this ability being cut pretty fast in beta. Doesn't seem useful at all for Priests.

Could be kind of useful but I see it going the way of Heroic Leap, sadly.

 

[evlcookie]

Priest changes aren't all that amazing but we get a few nice things, power word barrier being one of them.

 

[jim-jam bongs]

Priest changes are painfully underwhelming, although "Life Grip" as I'm calling it sounds fun.

I can see this ability being cut pretty fast in beta. Doesn't seem useful at all for Priests.

Are you kidding? Until now we could only yell "GET OUT OF THE FIRE!" but now we can actually yank people out!

 

[Magnus]

Underwhelmed by the priest changes, but will stick by my class.

...if I ever go back to the game after a four-year addiction was cut loose by ICC's drudgery last month. :lol

 

[speedpop]

Well that was underwhelming.

I guess Blizzard start off with a bang and it will eventually fizzle into stupidity?

Poor Paladins.

 

[Xabora]

URG! Press Keys are out!
http://www.wow.com/2010/04/07/world-of-warcraft-cataclysm-press-beta-invites-going-out/

;_;


So want one.

 

[Belfast]

Utility spells like Leap of Faith are useful when encounters are built around them, instead of just forcing your party to chew through the numbers. Hopefully Cataclysm will bring some revelations for that aspect of the game, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[Kweh]

Why would the Priest want to pull a player that has agro, to him/her just so they could potentially get hit by the next Cleave or whatever?

 

[Lumine]

Aawwwe, in my mind I finally gave (ret) pallies something to close gaps similar to charge. I called it leap of faith.

A pretty big Dutch online store has cataclysm suddenly listed to release november 19th. Take it with a big grain of salt though.

 

[Rapstah]

Why would the Priest want to pull a player that has agro, to him/her just so they could potentially get hit by the next Cleave or whatever?

It could also be used on the 23 other people that don't have aggro...

I'm interested in saving people from falling damage with it though.

 

[Retro]

Hilarity ensues: this just went up a few seconds ago. Check the timestamp on this post :lol :lol

2:59 AM... can I call 'em or what?

BlueTracker has been updating often this morning, tracking the EU forums as they update the Warlock / Shaman threads with the information the US forums had yesterday. So much for international feedback, they didn't even have a guy hanging around to update the EU forums when new information went live in the US? Sad.

I guess that means we'll see Warrior around noon Eastern today, Deathknight in the evening, and Rogue at 3AM... which is ironic since that's kind of a stealth update in the dead of the night. :lol

Priest Updates:

A few quick clarifications:

Neither Inner Fire nor Inner Will has charges. The decision is on which armor you want up at the time.

Preventing dot clipping is something we want to do in general. It obviously benefits Shadow priests just as much as warlocks.

The idea behind Mind Spike is that you can't always settle into your normal, and high-ramp up rotation. It's also useful when you have to move or get school locked.

The closest analogue to PW:B is the DK Anti-Magic Zone, but it has some important differences, such as a way to counter it in PvP (since it absorbs all damage, not just magical damage).

The idea behind the Holy "cast three in a row" talent (it's called "Chakra") is that we've always positioned Holy as a versatile healer. This talent lets you shift into different modes. If you need to be a tank healer, cast three single target heals and your single-target healing is now better. Cast three area heals, and you can be a temporarily specialized group healer. We're going to try to play this mechanic up with a cool UI to try to get that "I'm almost in the zone" feel. We'll let it apply to as many types of spells as we can, perhaps even Smite for those times when nobody's taking damage.

We pulled Misery because we are pulling every group benefit that improves hit. It's annoying to have to swap your gear in and out depending on who shows up for your group. In general we're going to push even harder in Cataclysm for bringing people you like to play with, not bringing people who have awesome buffs. The answer to almost every question of "But why would they bring me?" should be "Because you know what the hell you're doing."

... sad that the answer to that question is actually "bcuz ur GS iz +4k lulz".

Spoiler

I dunno if that's actually good or not, I don't fucking use that shit.

So they want to have priests get a UI that shows what 'healing mode' they're in? And Locks have soul shards in their UI... possibly the start of a trend here; class-specific UI elements. About time :lol .

Ok, Priest notes...

Mind Spike (level 81): Deals Shadowfrost damage and puts a debuff on the target that improves subsequent Mind Spike damage.

I guess Frostfire is the new Mortal Strike, since every other damn class is getting one. :lol. Not really that impressed since they flat out tell you "This is for trash". Like Grimace says, "If the mobs are dying before you can cast on them, your input isn't necessary"... Just save your mana and move along. Might see use in PVP though, the name and ice-based damage makes me think it will be talented or glyphed to silence... maybe slow or increase casting time or something.

Inner Will (level 83): Increases movement speed by 12% and reduces the mana cost of instant-cast spells by 10%. This buff will be exclusive with Inner Fire

Meh. Useful, I guess...I mostly see priests just using it to travel faster when they can't mount and then switching back to Inner Fire when it comes time to heal. Will probably see a lot of use in PVP where instant heals are more common.

Leap of Faith (level 85): Pull a party or raid member to your location. Leap of Faith (or "Life Grip") is intended to give priests a tool to help rescue fellow players who have pulled aggro, are being focused on in PvP, or just can't seem to get out of the fire in time. Instant. 30-yard range. 45-second cooldown.

Really?

....

Really?! Not only does the name make no sense (nobody is leaping), priests are one of the last people who want someone in melee range offensively. Most healers only survive in PVP because they haven't been spotted yet; pulling an enemy right to you pretty much says "Here I am, destroy me! Oh, you don't want to walk? Let me take care of that for you!".

PVE uses... we need a spell to pull morons out of fire? Because we'd rather make healers responsible for saving DPS from themselves than just encouraging people to wake the fuck up and pay some attention instead of staring at their Recount and masturbating?

Why would the Priest want to pull a player that has agro, to him/her just so they could potentially get hit by the next Cleave or whatever?

Didn't think of that, that's another good point too... what were they thinking?

Also, Paladins have been asking for a gap-closer with that exact fucking name for at least two expansions... brilliant. Seems like something priests will use once in a blue moon or for shits & giggles while standing around in cities. /sigh.

...

Really?!

* All HoTs and DoTs will benefit from Haste and Crit innately. Hasted HoTs and DoTs will not have a shorter duration, just a shorter period in between ticks (meaning they will gain extra ticks to fill in the duration as appropriate).

So basically, any class that uses HoTs or DoTs are going to get this note slipped in. Nothing earth shattering, seems like a boost to Shadow Priests more than Holy or Disc.

We want to bring back Shadow Word: Death as an "execute" -- something you do when the target is at 25% health.

Guess everyone is getting an execute too, since Shadowburn also causes extra damage to weak targets. With the huge health pools everyone is supposed to have in Cataclysm... am I wrong in reading between the lines and automatically assuming that everyone is going to get an ability to help finish off enemies?

Divine Spirit and Prayer of Spirit will be removed from the game. As Spirit will be the primary mana-regeneration stat, we don't want it to vary as much between solo, small group, and raid play. Blessing of Kings and Mark of the Wild will not boost Spirit either.

Hmm... that does not bode well for Blessing of Wisdom, which has been a staple of Paladins since... forever. This particular change isn't that big of a deal though, they're changing a clunky stat and everything that used to prop it up to compensate is getting yanked out. No surprise.

Discipline will finally be getting Power Word: Barrier as a talented ability. Think of it like a group Power Word: Shield.

Not surprised since Spirit Link is back on the table again too... seems like Blizzard is ready to try some of the more popular abilities that they had to cut in the past.

Shadow Orbs: Casting spells grants a chance for Shadow Orbs to be created that fly around you and increase your shadow damage. This will help lower-level characters feel more like "Shadow priests" before they obtain Shadowform.

Water Shield for Priests. Gotcha.... but I was under the impression that Mastery effects don't kick in until you really get down into a tree... so... like 5 levels before you actually get Shadowform? I'm probably wrong on when Mastery kicks in, but... whatever.

Kinda underwhelmed, glad I didn't stay up.

 

[Swag]

Can't wait for the Warrior changes!

Kinda tempted to level up a Priest / Shaman now :lol

 

[Interfectum]

Can't wait for the Warrior changes!

Kinda tempted to level up a Priest / Shaman now :lol

shaman sounds awesome but i'd want to level him as alliance and the alliance races for shaman are awful.

I got a Rogue stuck at 50... waiting to see those changes before I progress further.

 

[ShallNoiseUpon]

Odds of a 'fixed' Heroic Leap seem to be increasing, with the addition of Spirit Link and PW:Barrier making returns.

 

[Retro]

shaman sounds awesome but i'd want to level him as alliance and the alliance races for shaman are awful.

Can roll Dwarf Shaman in Cataclysm. They're my favorite alliance race, actually, but I may be in the minority in that opinion. All of the other races are either silly (gnomes), overpopulated (Elves), have crappy animations (humans) or are blueberry spacegoats lol ).

I'd actually consider rolling a dwarf shaman, but I know I'll be busy with other stuff. A few friends and I decided to switch factions and try entirely new classes just to spice things up, and I got a taste for Hunters... so I'll probably be leveling a Goblin Hunter in addition to my Cowadin. Already got a GM to give me "Howitzer" on my server, which is just all kinds of kickass (I usually avoid comical names, but come on... it's a goblin ).

Just wish Achivements and Pets and stuff were account-based, makes me afraid to fall in love with a new main when my current has all of my stuff on it... :lol

Odds of a 'fixed' Heroic Leap seem to be increasing, with the addition of Spirit Link and PW:Barrier making returns.

Possibly... just wish it would go to Paladins. The Cleanse nerf really hurts Ret PVP, and as a Prot Paladin I can't say I'll be happy having to use Hand of Freedom every time it is off CD just to pretend I can actually stick to mages.

 

[Interfectum]

Just wish Achivements and Pets and stuff were account-based, makes me afraid to fall in love with a new main when my current has all of my stuff on it... :lol

I think achievements will be account based soon. It'll be interesting to see how they handle "WoW achievements" for your battle.net account. I guess just add up all the achievements across all characters and subtract duplicates?

 

[HarryDemeanor]

Can roll Dwarf Shaman in Cataclysm. They're my favorite alliance race, actually, but I may be in the minority in that opinion. All of the other races are either silly (gnomes), overpopulated (Elves), have crappy animations (humans) or are blueberry spacegoats lol ).

If Dwarves replace the Water Totem with the element of Beer then I'm in.

 

[Rapstah]

I feel like murdering someone for the awful group I just got for normal Azjol-Nerub. No one was actually tanking or removing webs/blinds (except me, but since I'm the healer I was the target of most of the CC). I emptied my mana pool healing the two paladins and had to use every single fucking cooldown in the book to get past the first boss. Meanwhile the dead rogue (died because he was getting aggro since we had no tank) yelled that I should stop wanding between heals because he thought wand casting was on the GCD. Two players left after the first boss battle because they could prove I had used Shadow Word: Death during the battle, thereby not healing them. I had used SW: D twice to get rid of Prayer of Mending stacks on myself.

Fucking morons. I feel like eating their heads now.

 

[notworksafe]

My giant prediction for the day: Permanent Infernal pet for Warlock that does a debuff when it attacks and a Priest shield that does a heal (aoe perhaps?) on dispel.

0/2 Pretty awful guesses.

Today's wild predictions:

- Warrior will get back Heroic Leap. They'll probably also get a new AOE tank move.

- Blood will obviously get all the tanking talents, which leaves room for new DPS moves. I think Frost will stay as the DW/Haste spec and Frost Pres will probably become a haste buff or something like that. I can't think of any new good DK spells, however.

- Vanish will finally work as intended (just kidding!). Most likely Rogue will get a ranged attack that is either a stun or a decent poison.

 

[Rapstah]

When did Heroic Leap get removed? BC beta?

 

[Angry Grimace]

0/2 Pretty awful guesses.

Today's wild predictions:

- Warrior will get back Heroic Leap. They'll probably also get a new AOE tank move.

- Blood will obviously get all the tanking talents, which leaves room for new DPS moves. I think Frost will stay as the DW/Haste spec and Frost Pres will probably become a haste buff or something like that. I can't think of any new good DK spells, however.

- Vanish will finally work as intended (just kidding!). Most likely Rogue will get a ranged attack that is either a stun or a decent poison.

What I was thinking with presences would just shift Unholy to Frost, Frost to Blood and Blood to Unholy. It makes more sense, but who knows if Blizzard will really want to do something like that. Of course, they would need to find a way to make Unholy presence better than Blood, which it never has been.

 

[notworksafe]

When did Heroic Leap get removed? BC beta?

Around the middle of the Wrath beta. People were using it to do terrain jumping hacks. I don't see this being as big of a deal now that they are putting flying mounts everywhere.

 

[Retro]

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will bring with it several changes to class talents and abilities. Here you will get a glimpse into some of the changes we have in store for the warrior. The information you're about to read is not complete, and is only meant to act as a preview for some of the exciting new things to come.

New Warrior Abilities

Inner Rage (Level 81): Whenever the character reaches a full 100 Rage, he or she will gain a buff that causes attacks to consume 50% more Rage and do 15% more damage for a short amount of time. This is a passive ability so it won't need to be activated by the player. The goal for this ability is to provide a benefit for hitting max Rage instead of it feeling like a penalty. However, we also don't want warriors to feel like they're supposed to pool Rage and do nothing until they hit 100, so we'll be closely monitoring how this plays out during the beta testing, and making adjustments as needed.

Gushing Wound (Level 83): This ability will apply a bleed effect to the target. If the target moves, the bleed gains an extra stack and refreshes its duration, up to a maximum of three stacks. The ability is currently planned to have no cooldown, cost 10 Rage, and have a 9-second duration. Gushing Wound is designed to be weaker than Rend with one stack, but better with three stacks, which will be reached when fighting a moving target.

Heroic Leap (Level 85): This ability makes the character leap at their target and apply the Thunder Clap ability to all enemies in the area when they land. Heroic Leap will be usable in Battle Stance and shares a cooldown with Charge, but the Juggernaut and Warbringer talents will allow Heroic Leap to be used in any stance and possibly while in combat. The cooldown for this ability might be longer than the Charge ability, but it will also apply a stun effect so you can make sure the target will still be there when you land.

Changes to Abilities and Mechanics

In addition to learning new abilities, you'll see changes to other abilities and mechanics with which you're already familiar. This list and the summary of talent changes below it are by no means comprehensive, but they should give you a good sense of what we intend for each spec.


- Heroic Strike will no longer be an "on next swing" attack, as we are removing this mechanic in Cataclysm. To keep the niche of Heroic Strike as a Rage dump, it will become an instant attack, but will cost between 10 and 30 Rage. This ability will not be usable until you have 10 Rage, but if you have more than 10, it will consume up to 30, adding additional damage for each point of Rage consumed above the base 10. Other abilities, such as Cleave, Execute, and Maul (for druids) will work similarly. The goal is to provide players with an option where if you can't afford the Rage, you don't push the button, but if you have excess Rage, you can push it a lot.

- Battle Shout, Commanding Shout, and possibly Demoralizing Shout will work more like the death knight's Horn of Winter ability. Specifically, these shouts will cost no resources, generate rage in addition to their current effects, and be on a short cooldown.

- Whirlwind will hit an unlimited number of targets, but only for 50% of weapon damage. The intent is for this ability to be used in multi-target scenarios and not on single targets.

- Overall, heals cast by players in Cataclysm will be a lower number relative to players' health than the current game. So to make the Mortal Strike debuff less mandatory but still useful in PvP, Mortal Strike will reduce healing by only 20%. All equivalent debuffs, including the Shadow priest and Frost mage debuffs, will be for 20% less healing. At the moment we aren't considering giving this debuff to anyone else, though we will certainly consider PvP utility for historically under-represented specs that use other mechanics.

- Sunder Armor will be reduced to three stacks instead of five, and still provide only a 4% reduction in armor per stack. We want to make this debuff easier to apply and less of a damage swing when it falls off.


New Talents and Talent Changes
- The Furious Sundering talent in the Fury tree will make the Sunder Armor ability cause 25/50% weapon damage and reduce the threat generated by 50/100%.

- The Mace and Poleaxe Specialization talents in the Arms tree will be removed. These provided just passive stats, which are not the kinds of talents we want to design in the future. We will keep the Sword Specialization talent, but it will be changed to a talent that applies to all types of weapons.

- As a Fury talent, Booming Voice will increase the Rage generated by shouts.

- While we like how Titan's Grip plays, we recognize some warriors liked the Fury tree because of the really fast swings that dual-wielding one-handed weapons could provide. Therefore, we're planning to try out a talent called Single-Minded Fury that is parallel to Titan's Grip and will provide a large boost to the damage of a pair of one-handed weapons.

- Several talents that reduce the Rage cost of abilities will be changed to focus on increased damage for those abilities instead.

- The new Arms talent called Disarming Nature will make successful disarms cause the target to cower in fear for 5/10 seconds.

- Another new Arms talent called Blitz will make the Charge ability hit for extra damage. The amount will possibly vary depending on the distance travelled.

- Improved Pummel, a Fury talent, will cause a successful interrupt to generate 10/20 Rage.


Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses

Arms
Melee Damage
Armor Penetration
Bonus Swing

Fury
Melee Damage
Melee Haste
Enrage Intensity

Protection
Damage Reduction
Vengeance
Critical Block Chance

Bonus Swing: This is similar to the Sword Specialization talent that is currently in the game, but Bonus Swing will work on all attacks and with all weapons. You have a chance to proc a free, instant weapon swing that hits for 50% damage.

Enrage Intensity: Every benefit of being enraged is increased. This includes doing more damage/healing/ etc. from abilities like Bloodrage, Death Wish, Enrage, Berserker Rage, and Enraged Regeneration.

Critical Block Chance: As we mentioned in the stat changes preview, block rating is changing to a chance to block 30% of a melee swing's damage. Protection warriors have a chance that the block will be a critical block and block for 60% of a melee swing's damage instead. There will likely be talents available to push the amount blocked even higher.

Vengeance: This is a mechanic to ensure that tank damage (and therefore threat) doesn't fall behind as damage-dealing classes improve their gear during the course of the expansion. All tanking specs will have Vengeance as their second talent tree passive bonus. Whenever a tank gets hit, Vengeance will give them a stacking attack power buff equal to 5% of the damage done, up to a maximum of 10% of the character's un-buffed health. For boss encounters, we expect that tanks will always have the attack power bonus equal to 10% of their health. The 5% and 10% bonuses assume 51 talent points have been put into the Protection tree. These values will be smaller at lower levels. Remember, you only get this bonus if you have spent the most talent points in the Protection tree, so you won't see Arms or Fury warriors running around with it. Vengeance will let us continue to make tank gear more or less the way we do today – there will be some damage-dealing stats, but mostly survival-oriented stats. Druids typically have more damage-dealing stats even on their tanking gear, so their Vengeance benefit may be smaller, but overall the goal is for all four tanks do about the same damage when tanking.

We hope you enjoyed this preview, and we're looking forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback on these additions and changes. Please keep in mind that this information represents a work in progress and is subject to change as development on Cataclysm continues.

 

[notworksafe]

Heroic Leap (Level 85): This ability makes the character leap at their target and apply the Thunder Clap ability to all enemies in the area when they land. Heroic Leap will be usable in Battle Stance and shares a cooldown with Charge, but the Juggernaut and Warbringer talents will allow Heroic Leap to be used in any stance and possibly while in combat. The cooldown for this ability might be longer than the Charge ability, but it will also apply a stun effect so you can make sure the target will still be there when you land.

Ding!

Gushing Wound is a really badass move as well. It'll make kiting pretty fun. Glad to see the change to MS. Finally teams without a dedicated healer will stand a bit more of a chance. Vengeance is really cool as well. It'll make DPS Tanking a lot more fun and more useful.

 

[Retro]

Thoughts:

Inner Rage is alright, but I have a feeling the buff will either be so strong warriors just pool Rage or so weak that warriors don't bother waiting to get that far. If they do their fucking job right and get rage normalized and hit the sweet spot, full rage pools should go away altogether.

Gushing Wound is cool, but I wonder if we'll see warriors apply a bunch of stacks of it and have another class drop a fear-bomb. Obviously intimidating shout no longer causes fleeing, so at least warriors can't do it all themselves.

Heroic Leap was expected, let's see of they can actually get it to work this time. Not sure about that auto-stun effect; why not just have a super-short duration physical-based snare, and skip the interrupt that stuns cause?

Heroic Strike and Shouts were announced already.

Whirlwind = Warrior Consecration. /yawn

Mortal Strike and Sunder changes also elicit a big yawn.

More passive damage talents are being removed... no shock there. Titans Grip has a Dual-wield equivalent, only took an expansion to get that done... not much else but-

The new Arms talent called Disarming Nature will make successful disarms cause the target to cower in fear for 5/10 seconds

Um... what? Obviously going to have to have a 6 second duration in PVP and suffer from Diminishing Returns... and that still sounds like it might be kind of lame.

Bonus Swing mastery effect is kinda cool, fits the theme of Arms nicely.

Improved Enrage is cool too, very neat effect of Fury.

Critical Block is an old idea that has been used in other games before... and will probably work out to be worse here.

Not sure on Vengeance... might work, but it sounds slightly screwy. One of those things I want to see working before I decide whether I like it or not, honestly. And hey, that's a stealth paladin update, since it applies to all tanks. Yay!

 

[Angry Grimace]

Ironically, the part I like most is that Pummel generates rage. I like the idea of interrupts being attractive to use (in PvE anyways) instead of assigning one guy who gripes about his DPS going down.

I'm not sure how Fury will play without Whirlwind. Spamming Auto-attacks with an occasional Bloodthirst and insta-slam? Doesn't sound exciting, but I seriously doubt Blizzard will make it that mindless.

"Bonus Swing" sounds suspiciously like Blood Caked Blade.

 

[Jin]

I'm glad they're bringing back Heroic Leap, but I'm concern that they said it may be used in combat. It should be used in combat for all stance IMO since it shares a cooldown with charge I don't think it will be OP.

 

[ShallNoiseUpon]

WHO THE FUCK CALLED HEROIC LEAP?


THIS GUY.

 

[notworksafe]

WHO THE FUCK CALLED HEROIC LEAP?

Everyone. Just sayin'.

 

[ShallNoiseUpon]

Everyone. Just sayin'.

Yeah