Frost DK PVP

So I uploaded a video to give a glimpse into what frost DK pvp is like right now. Against a warlock that won't spam you with curse of exhaustion (which is now awesome btw!), I can actually catch up to them and do substantial damage.

This isn't going to be an in depth look at how well we function vs each class. It's just me vs lemonayd (who is playing as destruction + soul link), and some random clips of how useful Hungering Cold can be in a pinch, and how hard hungering cold + howling blast combos can hit. Granted, it's really, really hard to find any sort of organized pvp on beta right now. There are no BGs or arenas, so you really have to go out and stir up trouble if you want to test some things as you go. I'm not sure if 4-6k howling blast crits will be OP at 80, but it sure is fun to 1shot a bunch of level 60 newbs that you can round up in one go.

Anyways, back to frost: My melee damage is still pretty good. I went with this build. It has RP generation that can't be beat thanks to chill of the grave and dirge. It also has cheaper RP usage due to runic power mastery. Annihilation is great for keeping the disease synergies up. Icy talons I find to be pretty worthless outside of single target DPS. It's not a pvp talent, and is in no way worth the talent sink of 10 points with imp icy touch > icy talons. If you can't be glued to your target, haste is pretty shitty. This fact is driven home even more when you find out how little of our damage is actually white damage. Death chill not only works on howling blast combos, but also frost strike and obliterates. Deathchill is the burst you should save for when your target gets low. Double crit obliterates can really mess someone up if you save up your runes.

Acclimation is great against casters, and will be even better in the arean. Each stack adds 50 resist to the school that it procced off of, so if a warlock/shadow priest combo starts dotting you up, you AND your party be sitting at around at least 150+ shadow resist in no time. I also believe this affects party pets as well. This can actually be more effective and scale better than anti-magic zone. It requires no GCDS or resources such as runes or RP to activate. It's simply passive goodness. If this was changed to be made raid-wide, it would secure a spot for frost DK tanks in any AOE-intensive fight in pve, as Anti-magic zone only absorbs so much, in a limited area, consumes an unholy rune, and has a 2 minute cooldown.

Guile of Gorefiend is one of my favorite talents in the tree. However, they need to remove the crit damage bonus from mind freeze, and replace it with howling blast, if not icy touch. It's a great offensive + defensive talent in one. Letting icebound fortitude last 18 seconds instead of 12 is actually a very noticeable bonus. It's 18 seconds of taking 50% less damage from ALL sources, AND being immune to stuns. Take that, warrior RNG!

Hungering cold I could see being pretty clutch in the arena after people blow their trinkets. It's essentially an AOE hunter freezing trap. Any damage breaks the blocks of ice, and it's a wonderful way to set up some nasty combos in coordinated pvp, or to simply use as emergency CC. Think of it as an AOE repentance that lasts 10 seconds in PVP, and 26 seconds in pve with runic power mastery. My only gripe is that it uses your entire runic power bar. I wish it had a 60 RP cost (bringing it down to just under 50RP with runic power mastery), and lasted the full 10 seconds as well. In addition, it would be nice if it had a short 2-3 second "defrosting" period where people gradually recover full movement/attack speed. During this time, it would still be possible to land some combos via howling blast/frost strike. It IS a 51 point talent after all.

The other nice thing about this build, is that it's also pretty good for tanking as well. You won't be a 25man tank with this spec, but you will be very effective at 5mans and maybe even 10mans. Time will tell.

Video.

Waste of Beta Keys.

Nothing drives me crazier than shit like this.
Seriously, who the hell lets assholes like this in, when we could get someone useful instead? :/



It's probably a good thing that I don't have the powers to, uhm, uninvite people.

Jayde has been immortalized in Ebon Hold:

New runeforging enchant:

Cindierglacier got a nice buff.



And frost strike is broken:



Then again:


That's a huge jump in damage, depending on what's currently afflicting the target.

Chains of ice & Unholy Blight thoughts/feedback

Let me know what you guys think:

Chains of Ice.

Unholy Blight.

Beta patch inc:

I'm looking forward to seeing all the new changes coming. =]

Source.

Deathstrike will probably be changed:

All it takes is a little persuasion.

PvP, Mobility, and the lackluster Anti-Magic Shell

I wrote up a little post about some test duels I had with Lemonayd on the beta. I covered all the main points on the beta forums. Please feel free to ask any questions about it here, though. I know a lot of people are reading this that aren't in the beta, so ask away.

Vendetta change, but deathstrike stays the same? Hm.

Does this make sense to anyone else?

No offense, ghost. But I think vendetta was fine the way it was. It's actually death strike that needs to change.

I really don't see myself using deathstrike in end game scenarios at all, which is a problem: It's one of our core abilities. It's fine if Vendetta tapers off in usefulness as we level because it's simply one of those talents that's just great for grinding. Sort of like fel concentration for warlocks. It's awesome for locks, but quite useless in end game scenarios (except for that very short period of arena seasons when paladin + warlock was popular, and you could take it + conc aura for 100% no interruption on damage).

My problem with deathstrike is this: It simply doesn't have ANY functionality outside of providing a health boost on a killing blow.

When oh when am I going to care about this when I am:

A) Tanking
B) In arena matches
C) Raiding

The ONLY time I will end up using this core ability is when I am grinding mobs or doing a quest here and there. That's really kind of disappointing to be honest.

Instead of nerfing vendetta and leaving it where it is in the tree (make it more accessible to other DKs), isn't it possible to give DK's more flavor and usefulness on their core abilities, like making deathstrike only usable if the target is under 20% health, and make it some sort of life-stealing execute move? I mean give us a reason to actually use it once we're 80. What am I supposed to do with it in those above scenarios? It simply has no other use in my primary level 80 roles, and if it's current functionality doesn't change, it will simply NEVER end up on one of my tanking/dps rotations at all. In fact, I never use it while tanking now, or in pvp as is.

This is especially true in an arena match. I would simply never, ever, ever waste an unholy rune that I might have needed for a degen, bone armor, anti-magic shell, anti-magic zone, etc etc, just to have the off-chance that if my target did get bursted down in time before he could catch a heal, i'd get a measely 1300 (or 650 or so, if MS'd) heal. Deathstrike is simply not worth the unholy rune outside of grinding non-elite mobs. It really saddens me to see that instead of buffing this ability up, we're only going to be forced to less damage and have less unholy utility in our rotations and have to use deathstrike more often when leveling, only to never use it again at 80. :(

It's one thing to choose to not spec vendetta at 80, because you don't need the extra healing when killing quest mobs anymore. It's another thing completely to end up never using a core ability anymore, because it does what a talent should do instead.

Also, in regards to the frost changes, my issue with it is this:

I think that our other abilities need to benefit off the target being frozen, and not just frost abilities. I don't like how it currently is, that you need to use frost rune abilities to freeze a target (in the form of frostbite procs, chais of ice, and frost strike procs, not hungering cold obviously), and then use MORE frost rune abilities to take advantage of those frozen targets (howling blast). I think it's just another heavy emphasis on solely using frost runes, while ignoring our other abilities.

A GOOD example would be how blood strike and obliterate scale well with going deep unholy (You use a bunch of non-unholy rune using abilities that continue to scale well off your unholy-rune using abilities. Unfortunately, frost only plays well with this synergy in the form of obliterate). Frost, on the other hand, just keeps wanting you to use more and more frost-rune using abilities. The new talent blood of the north is a step in the right direction for this.

PvP Imbalance: Extreme understatement

You know, there are times when class balance is a little shaky. Sometimes warlocks are a little over the top, other times it's rogues. Perhaps a well-geared and well-played hunter pew-pewing from the hilltops of AV.

And then... Then there's this bullshit, that's currently running rampant on the beta servers.

Seriously.

What the hell is this?




To give you an idea of the total horse shit that is ret paladin at the moment, why don't you take a quick gander over some of these time-stamped combat logs of my recent encounters with them. Keep in mind, these are assholes using GOREHOWL off of prince from kara.







Yep. 9k Damage in one global cooldown. Pure fucking balance right there. Gotta love beta. =]

Edit: Since apparently some people are having a difficult time grasping the fact that paladins are currently broken, and their coefficients are scaling way beyond what was intended (as often happens in beta), you might want to look at this.

Yes, kiddos, paladins are broken right now. It really pains me that I have to point out that no class should really be able to pump out 9k damage at level 70 in one single second. Sigh.

Blood spec does quite a bit of damage:

Check the combat logs.
Note: this is mostly for uploading for referrence material for forum discussions.

A bit of DK PvP

First, you'll notice a couple things: Some builds end up with deathcoil being bugged, which makes it cost zero RP to use. I've narrowed this issue down to putting anywhere from 1 to 5 points into either Tundra stalker or Rage of rivendare.

Second, you'll notice just how incredibly lame the random ghoul pathing can be without speccing master of ghouls. No offense, Blizzard, but I don't want to be forced to spend two talent points that I normally wouldn't take, just so that my pet doesn't fight as if it has down syndrome. Do I really need to sink those oh-so precious extra two talent points into my ghoul just so that he doesn't behave the way he does in this video? Really? Come on. So much for being a master of controlling undeath. I already think it kind of sucks that ghouls are so nearly exclusive to unholy builds, and require 8 talent points to really be effective. The extra two points needed to make them actually under your control is just a, how does it go? Oh yes: A slap in the face! :P

Finally, I think you'll see just how awesome death grip can be. If anything, it can simply be used for a last resort interrupt in both pve and pvp.

If you're wondering what spec I was during this. Here it is.

Finally, here's the video. It's not much, but I'm only now starting to bump into alliance now and then. I think I'm at a distinct advantage in many cases simply because not a lot of people understand or have really figured out how to fight against a DK yet. I seem to get the "Dear in the headlights" look 90% of the time I run into an alliance.

Leveling thoughts

Just thought I'd share this with some of you, since a lot of people are curious as to the best specs and leveling talents, as well as early tanking builds.

Hopefully we'll see a shakeup of DK talents in the next build or so that will make leveling less blood-required.

Vimeo can suck me.

http://www.vimeo.com/blog:140

Looks like filefront will stay as my video hosting website.

Thanks for the heads up, Justin.

Frost writeup on beta forums:

Now that the NDA has been lifted, it's possible for the public to view what kind of discussions go on between the testers and the developers. I could dig up some older post from the alpha forums, but it would probably just confuse everyone as a lot of things have now been changed.

This is simply sort of an FYI for the current state of frost, at least in my opinion.

Here is the post.


Edit: And this is why I love alpha/beta forums so, so much more. The devs not only actively read intelligent posts, but they also take the time to respond to them as well. In fact, by the end of the alpha, I believe at least 30% of the threads on the DK forums had at least one blue post in them.

Vimeo Links are currently not working,

.. and I have no idea why. In the mean time, I'm going to put these up for download at filefront.

Video#1
Video#2
Video#3
Video#4

Hope this will do for now.

Two, yes two more videos for you:

And yes, one of them is frost. No, deep frost does not cater well to leveling on it's own, as it does not have the self-sustainability required to chain pull, as blood or 17blood/xx unholy. To get the real juicy stuff in frost, you really have to go all the way down the tree, so this lends itself to an unfriendly talent tree for leveling and grinding.

However,

Frost has some amazing control and burst abilities, as you will see in the videos comments. It will have some incredible use in group pvp. Imagine being able to instantly cast an AOE Freezing trap on everyone around you, that lasts for 10 seconds in pvp, and 26 in PVE. It's ridiculously good, especially when you remember that you can bloodboil off any diseases that may have otherwise interrupted the freeze effect. How awesome is it that our AOE taunt also has a PvP use? Major kudos there!


Also, I got a little frustrated with the slower pace of frost grinding (which is really a spec for group situations, and not solo), so I respecced back to 56 points in blood and took out my aggression on a host of mobs in the bone wastes. I won't say much more, but I think you'll be very pleased with how DKs are performing.

Enjoy.

Unholy DK leveling:

Ok, so I've showed you blood spec, but what about Unholy?

Unfortunately, leveling can be pretty painful without at least 17 points in blood for butchery and vendetta, so I did this spec.

The results can be pretty impressive while AOE grinding. Here I showcase the power of the new and improved Death and Decay, in conjunction with Corpse Explosion (which now auto targets any usable corpse near you, thank god). In addition, all the mobs that I kill feed me 6% health and 20 runic power each. You can see how this can be incredibly useful for AOE grinding.

I also showcase Lichborne, Bone armor, Death gate yet again, and I summon a ghoul and have him leap to a target and explode for 2000 damage on some mobs.

Fun stuff. :)

Here is the vimeo link, and here is the high quality version available for download at filefront (~80MB).

Enjoy.

So what does a Blood DK actually play like?

So by now, you've seen the talents and the spells. You've theorycrafted. But what does a blood DK actually look like in action? I've taken some time out of my busy leveling schedule this morning to show you. - Edit: Link updated. My web host took a shit. New link should now be working on filefront.

If you like Vimeo better, you can also find it here.

This was my build.

Death Gate Spell animation = Way Cool!

Check it out.

Some pictures, just for fun:

NDA Lifted: Here are the latest changes.

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. http://beta.worldofwarcraft.com/forums

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 progressively more comprehensive in each patch.
  

World Environment: Zones

• The following zones are available for testing: Howling Fjord, Borean Tundra, Dragonblight, 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.
    
  
  

Druids

• 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.
  
• Challenging Roar now has a 3 minute cooldown, reduced from 10 minutes.
  
• 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.
  

Hunters

• 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 their own level, the pet will then have their level increased to five levels beneath the hunter’s own 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.
  

Mages

• 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.
  

Paladins

• 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.
  

Priests

• 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.

Rogues

• 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%.
  

Shamans

• 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.
  

Warlocks

• 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.

Warriors

• 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.

Fun stuff: