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Guild Perks (Guild Perks)
Guild Perks
It won't be required or forced in my opinion. Larger guilds right now already enjoy a variety of advantages in getting groups together and such. So while the new system may encourage players to take part in guilds, it can be avoided if wanted.

I have a pvp guild that is very small (about 10 members). Will it be theoretically possible to earn all the guild perks, even if we dont raid at all?
I can't say anything is final right now, but the idea (last I heard) is that there would be multiple ways to level the guild - it just may take longer for a smaller one. As expected though, we hope to do some testing on this once things are ready in the beta to get a better feel for what works and what doesn't.

Small guilds disadvantaged by guild perks?
In my experience the people who like to focus on smaller guilds don't really care what the other larger guilds are doing as they are happily doing their own thing. It also sounds like you don't fully understand the guild system and we'll have more details to help you out when we are farther along in the beta. (Source)

"Balancing" Guild Perks
I'm sure we'll be playing around with it a fair amount in the beta. We don't want it to be a mega penalty to lose the rep to where players stay in a guild they don't like - but at the same time a lot of these changes are meant to encourage guilds as a whole so we don't want it to be extremely trivial to gain the reputation to where players give no thought to guild hopping (like now). We know this may shake things up for some players but we feel it will be a better result for the game as a whole to have a stronger setup for guilds. (Source)

Impact of Guild Perks on the game
We care about all of our players. We consider many different factors before implementing new systems especially when they may affect a lot of our players. That said, we do have to design and implement what we feel is best for the game. As a random example off the top of my head, players tend to dislike nerfs, but if one class is ahead of others we will nerf that one class and not buff 9 others.

A lot of players are also afraid of change. Before they even test things out or while it's in an early stage, they will declare the world has imploded. (See talent tree changes.) None of this means we don't care about our players. We understand that things will get shaken up, this won't be the first time gets shaken up and it won't be last, but we still need to design things the way we feel they are best for the game. Players can either choose to try it out or avoid it in favor of their own style.

There may be an impact on the economy, there may be an impact on recruiting, there may be an impact on guild sizes - but the end result is likely to be very positive on the game. We aren't designing it to cripple solo players and I haven't seen anybody provide a valid example of this so far. We have made a lot of changes recently to help support both smaller and larger guilds and want players to feel special for being part of a cool guild in this multiplayer game. We are looking forward to testing this feature with the thousands and thousands of players who are (and will be) in the beta and make it the best it possibly can be for as many of our players as possible. (Source)

Classes
Paladins and Warriors are too similar
They are going to end up looking more different from each other than they do on Live today. They have gotten too similar. (Source)

AE Tanking
Neither Thunder Clap (even with the new talents) nor Consecrate will do the entire job for you, even on AE pulls. You'll need to use other attacks to maintain threat. (Source)


Druid (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Sleep (This one is actually my fault. ^^)
Sleep is not a new class ability. I assume it refers to a creature ability. (Source)


Paladin (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
(Retribution paladins, please read that post about missing changes in yesterday's post)

Depth of Gameplay
You are using "depth" to mean "I have a large toolbox" or "an answer to everything." We use "depth" to mean there is more going on than just pop your cooldowns and kill someone. Good paladins will be able to manage those new mechanics and will do competitive damage as a result. Bad paladins will do lower damage. You will find other players who get killed by you (or get beaten by you in PvE) will complain more when they think they were "outplayed" because you pushed a button and beat them. They will complain less when they think you had to juggle a lot of balls in the air well to be able to achieve that damage.

Note that I did not say they won't complain at all. In PvP it's always because the other guy was overpowered. (Source)

Ardent Defender
Ardent Defender - Activate to reduce damage taken by 20% for 10 sec. While active, attacks which would otherwise kill you cause you to be healed for 15% of your maximum health. 3 minute cooldown. Off the GCD. (Source)

Seal of Wisdom Gone
Seal of Insight is the new healer-oriented Seal. It combines the effects of Light and Wisdom.

Judgement of Wisdom's effect (casters using wands on a target to regen mana) is what we cut. The communication error is probably mine. The new spell, just called Judgement, combines the Justice (limits movement speed) and Light (chance of a melee heal) effects.

[...] Seal of Insight: Fills the Paladin with divine power, giving each single-target melee attack a chance to heal the Paladin and restore 4% of the paladin's maximum mana. Only one Seal can be active on the Paladin at any one time. Unleashing this Seal's energy will deal Holy damage to an enemy.

Judgement: Unleashes the energy of a Seal to judge an enemy for Holy damage. Judged targets move slower and cannot flee. Attacking a judged target has a chance of healing the attacker.

"Move slower" is a cap on run speed, as it is today.

Judgement is considered a melee attack for purposes of restoring mana via Seal of Insight.

We're iterating on all of this quickly though, so things might have changed by the next beta build. (Source)

Heart of the Crusader / Judgement of the Wise / Mana Regen
As clarification, Heart of the Crusader is cut. Judgements of the Wise is also cut as a talent. Instead, Ret and Prot generate mana on Judgement passively. Ret then has a 1 point talent to add Replenishment to that effect. (Source)

And do you mean that Ret and prot regain mana in way a similar to Judgements of the Wise (as in it restores mana to us upon cast)? or do you mean it is similar to Judgement of Wisdom (restores mana every time we hit the judged target)?
Judgements of the Wise. Incidentally, the Judgement of Wisdom mechanic no longer exists.

Both Ret and Prot will still have access to Divine Plea if needed for emergency mana, though we don't anticipate they will need to use it on cooldown. (Source)

Protection Paladins in Build 12539
There are no bonus Stamina talents. Prot paladins get +10% Stamina at level 10 for choosing Prot spec. We also cut the Spiritual Attunement mechanic and the "Improved Divine Plea" mechanic. Instead, Prot gets Judgement of the Wise (sans the raid Replenishment effect) as a passive, just like Ret. In essence, the melee paladins should rarely run out of mana, and if they do, they always have Divine Plea for emergencies.

Mana will still matter to them in the sense that if a Ret or Prot tries to be a healer or spam Consecrate, they'll blow through their bar more quickly than it will refill. But if they are using their normal attacks, mana should stay in a steady state.

(Note that Prot can still use Consecrate without spamming it by taking the long duration talent.) (Source)


Shaman (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Ancestral Swiftness removed from Enhancement Tree in beta is a bug
Ancestral Swiftness was not removed. Sorry for any confusion. It is still in the second tier of Enhancement, available to all. (Source)


Warlock (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Upcoming Warlock Changes
Here are a few upcoming changes you'll see in the next beta build:

-- Improved Drain Soul and Dark Pact have been cut / redesigned.
-- Aftermath is a 100% chance to proc with 2 points. That is just a tooltip error.
-- Soul Fire’s base cast time is reduced to 4 sec, and Emberstorm takes it down to 3 sec.
-- Demonic Aegis back to 15/30%.
-- Drain Life will do more competitive damage. (Source)


Warrior (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
New Impending Victory
The intent isn't that Victory Rush becomes some kind of awesome but unreliable defensive cooldown with this talent. It's more that if you spend the talent points, you can get an "Execute range" attack that isn't Execute and might heal you a little. I wouldn't consider it anywhere on par with say Toughness or Shield Mastery. (Source)

Berserker Rage requiring Berserker Stance is a bug
We did not change Berserker Rage. (Source)