Upcoming class changes posted

[Gadzooks]

Link: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=14910002204&sid=1


We are planning a lot of exciting content for patch 3.1.0, and we are doing a three-part preview series on upcoming class changes. This is the first in the series: Priests, Rogues, and Shaman. Please keep in mind, that this list is not at all comprehensive, and subject to change.
PRIEST
Divine Spirit – this spell is now a core ability available to all priests.
Discipline has access to a new talent, Power Word: Barrier. (Think of it as Power Word: Shield for your whole group).
Several area of effect (AOE) heal spells have been improved: Prayer of Healing can be cast on any groups in your raid party. Holy Nova’s mana cost has been reduced. Circle of Healing now heals for more.
Shadow priest PvP survivability has been improved: Shadow Form now reduces magic as well as physical damage. Dispersion now removes snares.
Penance – this spell can now be targeted on the priest.
Serendipity – this talent now reduces the cast time of Greater Heal and Prayer of Healing when Binding Heal or Flash Heal are cast.
We are also working to give Holy additional PvP utility.

ROGUE
Hunger for Blood – instead of a self-buff, this ability can only be used when there is a bleed effect on the target. However, it has no stacks and grants a 15% damage bonus.
Adrenaline Rush – the cooldown on this ability has been lowered.
Lightning Reflexes – reduced to 3 ranks. In addition to 2/4/6% dodge, this talent now also grants 4/7/10% passive melee haste.
Killing Spree – while this ability is active, the rogue does 20% additional damage.
Savage Combat – now causes 2/4% physical damage done.
Mace Specialization – this talent now grants haste in addition to armor penetration.

SHAMAN
Chain Lightning – now jumps to 4 targets but does less damage. We wanted to make the distinction between Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning more clear.
Storm, Earth and Fire – this talent now increases all damage done by Flame Shock, not just periodic damage.
Spirit Weapons – now reduces all threat, not just melee threat.
Unleashed Rage – reduced to 2 ranks, now also increases your critical strike chance with melee attacks by 1/2%.
Totem streamlining: The Mana Spring and Healing Stream Totems have been combined. The Disease Cleansing and Poison Cleansing Totems have been combined.
We are also working on giving Enhancement and Elemental more PvP utility.

COMING SOON
Warlock
Druid
Hunter
Death Knight
Mage
Paladin
Warrior

[suicidesspyder]

PRIEST Divine Spirit – this spell is now a core ability available to all priests.
SHAMAN Totem streamlining: The Mana Spring and Healing Stream Totems have been combined. The Disease Cleansing and Poison Cleansing Totems have been combined.

Ok these two are awesome oh yes. Makes any pve team 5 boxer with a priest pretty bad ass. A bubble for whole team thats great. And after 4 years they finally decided to combine healing/mana totems and disease/poison totems. WEWT i love having a priest healer and shamans now yey yey yey lol.

[Hachoo]

OMFG...

Totem streaming - are you serious? LOL. Tank + 4 shaman will be f'ing unstoppable now unless they remove the stacking at the same time (dear lord please no).

If this goes through I will pretty much drop 3x mana/healing totems and 1 poison/disease totem in every single combat.

[Yo-Yo Freak]

PRIEST Discipline has access to a new talent, Power Word: Barrier. (Think of it as Power Word: Shield for your whole group).
SHAMAN Totem streamlining: The Mana Spring and Healing Stream Totems have been combined. The Disease Cleansing and Poison Cleansing Totems have been combined. all i have to say for shamys is ITS ABOUT FLIPPIN TIME!! and the priests things is going to awesome for PvE! wounder how long we have to w8 for this patch...

~YYF

[suicidesspyder]

Hey hachoo think tank and 3 shamans with mana/healing and one with poison/disease in certain situations that call for it. Then tank and 4 shamans with healing/mana for others. Hmm guess its time to make two totem macors now one with all having mana/healing and one having 3 with mana/healing and one with posion/disease.

[Hachoo]

I already have that... I just use ctrl+4 for mana, ctrl+alt+4 for poison on a single shaman, so if I hit ctrl+alt+4 it drops 1 poison 3 mana, if i hit ctrl+4 it drops 4 mana - ill just keep using that

but for pvp, 1+3 all the way

[suicidesspyder]

Omfg i cant wait they need to hurry up. I wonder how bad ass 5 times shamans in instances will do now. The stacking effect plus more damage we are becoming viable again.

[Zal]

Now they just need to make totems able to follow us around.

[emesis]

PRIEST Discipline has access to a new talent, Power Word: Barrier. (Think of it as Power Word: Shield for your whole group).
SHAMAN Totem streamlining: The Mana Spring and Healing Stream Totems have been combined. The Disease Cleansing and Poison Cleansing Totems have been combined. all i have to say for shamys is ITS ABOUT FLIPPIN TIME!! and the priests things is going to awesome for PvE! wounder how long we have to w8 for this patch...

~YYF

There is nothing in here to suggest that the amount healed/mana restored will be equal to the two totems combined. I would not take this for granted - at all. If true, sure that's awesome. Could be a big a nerf, too, though if they half the value of each restored.

[Clanked]

How will this affect the Glyph of Chain Lightning?

[Yo-Yo Freak]

PRIEST Discipline has access to a new talent, Power Word: Barrier. (Think of it as Power Word: Shield for your whole group).
SHAMAN Totem streamlining: The Mana Spring and Healing Stream Totems have been combined. The Disease Cleansing and Poison Cleansing Totems have been combined. all i have to say for shamys is ITS ABOUT FLIPPIN TIME!! and the priests things is going to awesome for PvE! wounder how long we have to w8 for this patch...

~YYF

There is nothing in here to suggest that the amount healed/mana restored will be equal to the two totems combined. I would not take this for granted - at all. If true, sure that's awesome. Could be a big a nerf, too, though if they half the value of each restored.dang dude why did you have to go and harsh our mellow like that... lol jk :P ya i had thought of that but i hope that they just "combine" the 2, instead of smacking them out of the park with the nerf bat. either way we won't know for sure till its out so no point in getting all worked up over what could/couldn't happen. :) :(

~YYF

[Hachoo]

Changing it to half and half wouldn't really do anything at all (ie: would be a completely pointless change). Furthermore, they've already combined a bunch of totems and never did that before, so no reason to suspect it now. However, there is a possibility they will just make it not stack at all, thats what I'd be worried about.

[Yo-Yo Freak]

Changing it to half and half wouldn't really do anything at all (ie: would be a completely pointless change). Furthermore, they've already combined a bunch of totems and never did that before, so no reason to suspect it now. However, there is a possibility they will just make it not stack at all, thats what I'd be worried about.shhh don't give them any ideas ;) i don't see why they wouldn't let it stack though, i mean it would only make sense to have them stack. if they stack i wouldn't even mind if the did cut the amount healed/mana in half, i would prefer if they didn't but as long as it stacks it would be fine for me.

all we can do is hope that it will do exactly what we want it to do

~YYF

[puppychow]

remember water totems in game currently are group only (mana/heal, poison, disease). Nothing in the notes say they changed it to raid, where stacking is really an issue -- outside of multiboxers, no one really runs 5 mans with multiple shamans.

We'll just have to wait and see for PTR, I wouldn't be super suprised if it stopped stacking but I hope it still does.

[mmcookies]

I would be really pissed if the new manaheal totems don't stack.

edit: really really really pissed

[Stealthy]

While the Shaman chnages look good on paper, I am pissed that Rogues - a class whose burst damage damage is already way too high - are getting these buffs.

Killing Spree is already an IWIN button in 1v1 and now its getting a 20% damage buff.

Adrenalin Rush already allows them to practically spam abilities like Fan Of Knives (which had its cooldown removed in 3.08 ) and now they will be able to pop it more often.

Seriously, WTF is Blizz thinking?

Cheers,
S.

[ss2]

Is there any word if the damage reduction on chain lightning jumps is changed? If it hits all 4 targets for the same amount then that's great, but if it does less damage each jump then that means the 4th jump will hit for what, 100 damage?

[algol]

Hey guys, should I use healing or mana totem in heroics? ;)

[mmcookies]

Hey guys, should I use healing or mana totem in heroics? ;)mana for trash, healing for bosses
oh wait!

still, the new manaheal totems better stack

[Nyth]

An alternative could be to have on the manaheal totem the same stacking rules as it is today e.g. healing stacks and mana doesn't.

It would basically give one more healing tick for the whole group (the totem which is currently mana only) without creating too much imbalance...

[Fat Tire]

While the Shaman chnages look good on paper, I am pissed that Rogues - a class whose burst damage damage is already way too high - are getting these buffs.

Killing Spree is already an IWIN button in 1v1 and now its getting a 20% damage buff.

Adrenalin Rush already allows them to practically spam abilities like Fan Of Knives (which had its cooldown removed in 3.08 ) and now they will be able to pop it more often.

Seriously, WTF is Blizz thinking?

Cheers,
S.these are pure pve combat buffs(which they needed).

You will see muti/opener burst nerfs to mages and rogues soon I am sure.


Disc priest are going to be very awesome and really hard to kill now. They will become the prefered healer for 4x shamans arena. although I will miss BoF/BoP greatly.....

[emesis]

An alternative could be to have on the manaheal totem the same stacking rules as it is today e.g. healing stacks and mana doesn't.

It would basically give one more healing tick for the whole group (the totem which is currently mana only) without creating too much imbalance...

Nope, BOTH healing and mana stream totem stack currently. So, combining the two totems into a replenishment totem where the healing component but not the mana component stack would be a huge, awful Nerf.

I run a DK + 4 shammies and I always have either 4 healing or 4 mana spring totems down at once, depending on the situational need. 4 mana spring totems is an extra 340 MP5 for each group member while casting spells. Anything less would be the suck. :-)

[Kaynin]

Totem streamlining: The Mana Spring and Healing Stream Totems have been combined. The Disease Cleansing and Poison Cleansing Totems have been combined.
We are also working on giving Enhancement and Elemental more PvP utility.

:love:

[Fat Tire]

Update #2

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=14910422662&sid=1 ('http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=14910422662&sid=1')


We are planning a lot of exciting content for patch
3.1.0, and we are doing a three-part preview series on upcoming class
changes. This is the second in the series: Warlocks, Druids, and
Warriors. Please keep in mind, that this list is not at all
comprehensive, and subject to change. To read the previous list in the
series, check out Part 1 -






WARLOCK

Improved Shadow Bolt – this talent now provides a 5% spell critical strike buff (similar to Improved Scorch).

Improved Soul Leech – this talent now provides Replenishment (similar to shadow priests)

Drain Soul now has a chance to produce Soul Shards even if the target doesn’t die.

Siphon Life no longer as an active ability but the talent grants the old Siphon Life effect to Corruption.

Curse of Recklessness and Curse of Weakness have been combined into one spell

Consume Shadows – this Voidwalker ability is no longer channeled but has a cooldown.

Several other warlock talents have had their ranks
reduced, their effects changed or removed. This list includes but is
not limited to Demonic Empathy, Shadow Embrace, Eradication,
Suppression, and Pandemic.
Additional new talents have been added.



DRUID



Savage Defense – this is a new passive ability. When a
druid in Dire Bear form deals a melee critical strike, the druid gains
a damage shield equal to 25% of their attack power. The next hit
completely removes the shield regardless of how much damage was done.
Survival of the Fittest has had its bonus armor reduced to compensate for the above increase in damage mitigation.

Faerie Fire (and similar debuffs) now reduces armor by 5%. See Sunder Armor in the warrior update below for additional details.

Thorns and Nature’s Grasp can be cast in Tree of Life form.

Survival Instincts now works in Moonkin form.

Replenish – to avoid confusion, this talent has been renamed “Revitalize.” It now also works with Wild Growth.

We are also looking at increasing the sustained (not burst) damage of feral druids in cat form.



WARRIOR



Changing stances now has a much reduced cost: you lose a
maximum of 20 rage (10 with Tactical Mastery). For example, if you have
100 rage and change stances, you will have 80 rage remaining. If you
have 10 rage and change stances, all of your rage is lost. In addition,
we may change the penalties associated with some stances.
You now gain rage when damage done to you is absorbed, such as through a Power Word: Shield.

Blood Frenzy now causes 2/4% physical damage done.

Sunder Armor (and similar debuffs) now reduces armor by 4%
per application, and is now a single rank. Creature armor has been
globally reduced so that debuffed targets should take about the same
damage from physical attacks that they did before this change. The net
effect should be that this debuff is slightly less mandatory in PvE and
is not disproportionately more powerful against cloth targets in PvP.
We are also adding increased damage to Arms, possibly through Overpower or Slam.

We are also looking at granting rage when the warrior blocks, dodges or parries.



COMING SOON



Hunter

Death Knight

Mage

Paladin

[Bigfish]

Class changes seem to be coming down the pike awfully fast these days. How much of this stuff actually needs changed versus changes that are being made for the sake of making changes?

[mmcookies]

Class changes seem to be coming down the pike awfully fast these days. How much of this stuff actually needs changed versus changes that are being made for the sake of making changes?protip: balanced game = dead game
the only time you'll possibly see wow balanced is when blizzard stops shipping expansions

[Fat Tire]

Class changes seem to be coming down the pike awfully fast these days. How much of this stuff actually needs changed versus changes that are being made for the sake of making changes?protip: balanced game = dead game
the only time you'll possibly see wow balanced is when blizzard stops shipping expansionsQuoted for the truth.