World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies

Alchemy

• Quicksilver Alchemist Stone (301 Agility Alchemy Stone) - Creates Quicksilver Alchemist Stone. / Reagents: Volatile Life x 50, Cinderbloom x 24, Heartblossom x 12
• Volatile Alchemist Stone (301 Strength Alchemy Stone) - Creates Volatile Alchemist Stone. / Reagents: Volatile Life x 50, Cinderbloom x 12, Heartblossom x 24
• Vibrant Alchemist Stone (301 Intellect Alchemy Stone) - Creates Vibrant Alchemist Stone. / Reagents: Volatile Life x 50, Cinderbloom x 8, Azshara\\'s Veil x 20, Heartblossom x 8

Also, all flasks had their reagents requirements changed and now requires 8 Volatile Life (up from 6) and 8 of each Herb (down from 12)

• Flask of Titanic Strength - Creates Flask of Titanic Strength. / Reagents: Volatile Life x 8, Cinderbloom x 8, Whiptail x 8, Crystal Vial
• Flask of the Winds - Creates Flask of the Winds. / Reagents: Volatile Life x 8, Azshara\\'s Veil x 8, Whiptail x 8, Crystal Vial
• Flask of the Draconic Mind - Creates Flask of the Draconic Mind. / Reagents: Volatile Life x 8, Azshara\\'s Veil x 8, Twilight Jasmine x 8, Crystal Vial
• Flask of Flowing Water - Creates Flask of Flowing Water. / Reagents: Volatile Life x 8, Stormvine x 8, Heartblossom x 8, Crystal Vial
• Flask of Steelskin - Creates Flask of Steelskin. / Reagents: Volatile Life x 8, Cinderbloom x 8, Twilight Jasmine x 8, Crystal Vial

Archaeology

• Survey now has a 3 sec cooldown, down from 5 sec
• Archaeology: Queen Azshara's Dressing Gown now requires Level 51, down from 60.
• Archaeology: Headdress of the First Shaman now requires Level 61, down from 70.
• Archaeology: Nifflevar Bearded Axe now requires Level 71, down from 80.

Enchanting

• Enchant Bracer - Agility - Permanently enchant bracers to increase Agility by 50. Requires a level 300 or higher item.
  Creates Enchant Bracer - Agility. / Reagents: Hypnotic Dust x 12, Maelstrom Crystal x 2, Volatile Air x 15
• Enchant Bracer - Major Strength - Permanently enchant bracers to increase Strength by 50. Requires a level 300 or higher item.
  Creates Enchant Bracer - Major Strength. / Reagents: Hypnotic Dust x 6, Maelstrom Crystal x 2, Volatile Earth x 25
• Enchant Bracer - Mighty Intellect - Permanently enchant bracers to increase Intellect by 50. Requires a level 300 or higher item.
  Creates Enchant Bracer - Mighty Intellect. / Reagents: Hypnotic Dust x 4, Greater Celestial Essence x 4, Maelstrom Crystal x 2, Volatile Water x 15
• Enchanting: Enchant Off-Hand - Superior Intellect now increases intellect by 40, down from 100.

Engineering

• Engineering: Heat-Treated Spinning Lure now lasts 15 minutes, up from 5 minutes.

Inscription

• Glyph of Dark Succor - Creates Glyph of Dark Succor. / Reagents: Ethereal Ink x 3, Heavy Parchment

Jewelcrafting

• Agile Shadowspirit Diamond - Creates Agile Shadowspirit Diamond. / Reagents: Shadowspirit Diamond
• Burning Shadowspirit Diamond - Creates Burning Shadowspirit Diamond. / Reagents: Shadowspirit Diamond
• Reverberating Shadowspirit Diamond - Creates Reverberating Shadowspirit Diamond. / Reagents: Shadowspirit Diamond

Guild - General

• Now That's an Achievement now requires you to earn 2,000 guild achievement points, down from 5000.
• Time To Open A Savings Account now requires you to loo 500,000 gold from creatures, up from 200,000.

Guild - Professions

• Better Leveling Through Chemistry now requires you to create 3,000 Cataclysm flasks, down from 25,000.
• Mix Master now requires you to create 1,000 Cataclysm flasks, down from 10,000.

Reputation

• 45 Exalted Reputations no longer rewards the "The Exalted" title.

Player vs. Player

• Just Another Day in Tol Barad *New* - Complete all of the Tol Barad daily quests listed below.

Racials

• Stoneform (Dwarf) now reduces all damage taken by 10% instead of increasing armor by 10%.
• Gift of the Naaru (Draenei) now heals for 20% of their total health over 15 sec at all levels.
• Escape Artist (Gnome) now has a 1.5 min cooldown, down from 1.75 min.
• Darkflight (Worgen) now has a 2 min cooldown, down from 3 min. Now increases current movement speed by an additional 40% instead of "increasing movement speed by 40%".

Reputation

• Greater Inscription of Vicious Intellect, Greater Inscription of Vicious Strength, Greater Inscription of Vicious Agility have been added to Therazane Reputation Rewards. Arcanum of Vicious Strength, Arcanum of Vicious Agility, Arcanum of Vicious Intellect also added to the game.

Death Knight (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Blood

• Bone Shield now begins with 4 charges, up from 3 charges.

Frost

• Runic Focus now also increases spells change to hits by 9%. Spells are all Death Knight abilities that are not direct weapon strikes.

Unholy

• Blightcaller is now called Dreadblade and Increases Shadow damage done by 20%. Each point of Mastery increases Shadow damage by an additional 2.5%.
• Virulence no longer increases chance to hit with spells. Now increases the damage done by your diseases by 10/20/30%.
• Sudden Doom now only procs from main-hand auto attacks, proc rate no longer specified and now just shows up as "higher than rank 1", "higher than rank 2".
• Necrotic Strike casting time increase effect now lasts 10 sec, down from 15 sec.
• Death's Advance (Tier 4) *New* - While your Unholy Runes are both depleted, movement-impairing effects may not reduce you below 100% of normal movement speed. /

Runeforging

• Rune of Swordbreaking / Rune of Swordshattering now reduces the duration of Disarm effects by 60%, up from 50%.

Glyphs

• Inscription: Glyph of Dark Succor - Causes your Death Strike ability to always restore at least 20% of your maximum health when used while in Frost or Unholy Presence.

Druid (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Balance

• Soothe is now instant cast, down from 1.5 sec cast.
  Moonfire and Sunfire now costs 9% of base mana, down from 18% of base mana.
• Fungal Growth now has a 100 yards range, up from 30 yards.
• Total Eclipse now increases bonus damage from Eclipse by 16%, up from 12%. Each point of Mastery now increases the bonus by an additional 2%, up from 1.5%.

Feral

• Rip now scales from 16.56/33.12/49.68/66.42% of Attack Power, down from 18.4/36.8/55.2/73.6/92%.
• Rake now scales from 2.07% of Attack Power, down from 2.3%. Additional bleed damage now scales from 37.8% of Attack Power, down from 42%, base damage reduced by 10%, from 1859 to 1672.
• Shred now deals 450% damage plus 1487, up from 350% plus 1156.
• Skull Bash (Cat) / Skull Bash (Bear) now prevents spell from that school from being cast for 4 sec, down from 5 sec.
• Maul now scales from 24% of Attack Power, down from 30%.
• Lacerate now scales from 7.66% of Attack Power, down from 9.58%. Now makes enemies bleed for 35 + 2.56% of Attack Power, down from 35 + 3.2% of Attack Power.
• Mangle (Cat) now deals 460% normal damage plus 1452, up from 360% plus 1136.
• (Mangle) Mangle (Bear) now deals 235% normal damage plus 681, down from 300% plus 870.
• Pulverize now deals 80% weapon damage, down from 100%. Additional damage reduced by 20% as well, from 450 to 360.

Restoration

• Natural Shapeshifter now increases the duration of Tree of Life Form by 3/6 sec, down from 5/10 sec.
• Tree of Life now lasts 25 sec, down from 30 sec. (What do you call a druid in tree form who melees? A combat log.)
• Wild Growth now has a 8 sec cooldown, down from 10 sec. Base healing value increased by 30%, from 2866 to 3722.
• Symbiosis now increases the potency of healing spells by 11.6% (Up from 10%) on target already affected by one of your HoT. Each point of Mastery now increases heal potency by an additional 1.45%, up from 1.25%.

Hunter (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Beast Mastery

• Master's Call now has a 40 yards range, up from 25 yards. Cooldown reduced to 35 sec, down from 1 min.

Marksmanship

• Concussive Shot now dazes the target for 6 sec, up from 4 sec.

Survival

• Black Arrow base damage has been reduced by 25%, down from 2400 to 1800.
• Explosive Shot now deals [ 20.5% of Ranged AP + 340 ] damage, down from [ 27.3% of Ranged AP + 454 damage ]
• Deterrence now increases the chance melee attacks will miss you by 100% instead of increasing your parry chance.
• Hunter vs. Wild now increases your total Stamina by 5/10/15%, up from 4/7/10%.
• Serpent Spread now affects up to 4 targets.

Mage (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Arcane

• Arcane Blast now costs 7% of base mana, down from 8% of base mana.
• Arcane Barrage now costs 11% of base mana, down from 12% of base mana.
• Counterspell now prevents spell from that school of magic from being cast for 7 sec, down from 8 sec.

Fire

• Flashburn now increases damage done by all your periodic fire damage effect by 22.4%, up from 20%. Each point of Mastery increases periodic damage done by an additional 2.8%, up from 2.5%.
• Fireball now costs 12% of base mana, down from 16%.
• Living Bomb now costs 17% of base mana, down from 22%.
• Firestarter no longer requires you to use Molten Armor to cast the Scorch spell while moving.

Frost

• Deep Freeze's base damage has been reduced by 20%, from [ 1447 to 1814 ] to [ 1157 to 1451 ].
• Fingers of Frost now also increases Ice Lance damage by 15%.
• Frost Specialization now also increases the damage of Frostbolt by an additional 15%. However, if will decrease your Frostburn mastery by 6.

Paladin (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Retribution

• Crusader Strike now deals 135% weapon damage, up from 110%.
• Rebuke is now trainable by all paladins as a base spell.
• New Skill - Sacred Shield (Rank 4) *New* - When reduced below 30% health, you gain the Sacred Shield effect. The Sacred Shield absorbs [1 + 2.8 * AP] damage and increases healing received by 20%. Lasts 15 sec. This effect cannot occur more than once every 30 sec. 30 sec cooldown.

Priest (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Holy

• Prayer of Healing base healing reduced by 15%, from 3633 - 3838 to 3087 - 3262.
• Lightwell now restores [ 1.063% of Spell Power + 9929.445 ] health over 6 sec, down from [ 1.155% of Spell Power + 10792.875 ]
• Chakra now also affects Flash Heal or Greater Heal. Serenity now also procs from Flash Heal, Greater Heal, or Binding Heal. Chastise now procs from both Smite and Mind Spike.
• Blessed Resilience now also procs from a critical hit from any attack.
• Renew now costs 17% of base mana, down from 21% of base mana.

Discipline

• Focused Will now also procs from a critical hit from any attack.
• Strength of Soul has an additional effect - In addition, when you cast Power Word: Shield on yourself you are immune to Silence, Interrupt and Dispel effects for 2/4 sec.

Shadow

• Shadow Orb Power now increases the damage done by your Shadow Orbs by 21.6%, up from 20%. Each point of Mastery increases damage by an additional 1.5%, up from 1.3%.
• Mind Sear base damage has been increased by 60%, from [ 91 - 98 ] to [ 146 - 158 ]

Rogue (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Assassination

• Deadly Momentum now increases your critical strike chance of your next attack within 15 sec, up from 10 sec.

Combat

• Mastery: Main Gauche now deals damage equal to 100% of a main hand attack, up from 75%.
• Vitality now increases your Attack Power by 25%, up from 20%.
• Restless Blades now also affects Redirect.

Subtlety

• Preparation no longer affects Evasion
• Shadowstep now has a 24 sec cooldown, up from 20 sec.
• Sinister Calling now increases total Agility by 30%, up from 25%. Now increases the percentage damage bonus of Backstab and Hemorrhage by an additional 40%, up from 25%.
• Find Weakness now causes all your attacks to bypass 35/70% of that enemy's armor, up from 25/50%.
• Sanguinary Vein now also gives your Bleed effects a 50/100% chance to not break your Gouge.

Shaman (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Elemental

• Earthquake base damage has been increased by 10%, from 493 to 542.
• Purge now removes 1 Magic effect, down from 2.

Enhancement

• Mental Quickness now reduces the mana cost of your beneficial, damaging, and totem spells by 75% instead of reducing the cost of your instant spells.

Restoration

• Tremor Totem now has a 1 min cooldown, removes Fear, Charm, and Sleep effects from party and raid members within 10 yards, and can be dropped even while the caster is afflicted with such effects.
• Mana Tide Totem now gives Party members within 23 yards of the totem 400% of the caster's spirit (excluding short-duration Spirit bonuses).
• Greater Healing Wave now costs 33% of base mana, up from 30%. Base healing value increased by 20%, from 7473 - 8538 to 8968 - 10245.
• Cleansing Waters now has a 0.5 sec cooldown.
• Deep Healing now Increases the potency of your direct healing spells by up to 24% (up from 20%), based on the current health level of your target (lower health targets are healed for more). Each point of Mastery increases direct heals by up to an additional 3%. (up from 2.5%)

Warlock (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Affliction

• Curse of Exhaustion now has a 40 yards range, up from 30 yards.
• Unstable Affliction now silences the dispeller for 4 sec, down from 5 sec.

Demonology

• Demon Armor and Fel Armor now seem to be permanent (no longer lasts 30 mins?)
• Fel Armor no longer regenerates the caster's life and increases his/her maximum mana by 10% instead.
• (Metamorphosis) Immolation Aura base damage has been increased by 5%, from 538 to 567.
• Demonic Aegis now increases the amount of mana granted by Fel Armor by 50/100% instead of the amount of life.
• Demon Soul Imp effect has been changed to - Critical strike chance of your cast time Destruction spells increased by 30% for 20 sec.
• Inferno now also increases the duration fo your Immolate by 6 sec.
• Master Demonologist now increases the damage done by your demon servants and damage you deal while transformed into a demon by 16% (up from 12%). Each point of Mastery increases damage by an additional 2%. (Up from 1.5%)

Destruction

• Aftermath is now a Tier 2 talent, down from Tier 3.
• Improved Soul Fire is now a Tier 3 talent, up from Tier 2. No longer increases your spell haste and now increases your Fire and Shadow damage done by 4/8% for 15 sec after you deal damage with Soul Fire. This effect has a 6 sec cooldown.
• Burning Embers effect now deals up to [ 0.121% of Spell Power + 20.209 ], down from [ 0.143% of Spell Power + 23.921 ] damage.
• Fiery Apocalypse now increases all fire damage you deal by 10.8% (up from 10%). Each point of Mastery increases fire damage by an additional 1.35%. (up from 1.25%)

Warrior (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Fury

• Cleave now scales from 45% of Attack Power, down from 56.2% of Attack Power.
• Bloodthirst now scales from 80% of Attack Power, up from 62%.
• Raging Blow now deals 145% weapon damage, up from 80%.
• Unshackled Fury now Increases the benefit of abilities that cause or require you to be enraged by 44.8% (up from 37.6%). Each point of Mastery increases enrage effects by an additional 5.6%. (Up from 4.7%)

Arms

• Heroic Strike now scales from 93% of Attack Power, up from 75% of Attack Power.
• Juggernaut now also makes your Charge ability usable in all stances.
• War Academy now increases the damage of "Mortal Strike, Raging Blow, Devastate, Victory Rush and Slam" instead of "Heroic Strike, Cleave, Victory Rush and Slam".

It's important to note though that the next draft of the 4.0.6 patch notes to be posted are double the size of the notes currently on the home page of our website. There are many new notes for virtually every class yet to be posted.

[...] I'm still working to finish the latest patch notes. You can likely expect the updated notes to hit tomorrow evening.

Those changes were only announced in the context of warlock changes. I recognize though that the first draft of patch notes did not yet have shaman changes listed. In light of that -- and to hopefully dissuade you all from invading the warlock forum about the changes I listed there -- below you'll find the tentative shaman notes. The patch notes will likely be updated to include these changes tomorrow evening.

Shaman (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)

• Chain Heal’s effectiveness has been increased by approximately 10%.
• Hex now has a PvP duration of 8 seconds.
• Purge now dispels a single effect instead of two.
• Tremor Totem has been redesigned. The totem is now usable under Fear, Charm, or Sleep effects, and pulses much more rapidly, but lasts 6 seconds and has a 1-minute cooldown.

Elemental Combat

• Earthquake damage has been increased by approximately 10%.

Enhancement

• Flametongue Weapon damage now scales from attack power instead of spell power (for Enhancement shaman only).
• Purge no longer has its mana cost reduced by Mental Quickness.

Restoration

• Cleansing Waters no longer fires its heal effect twice when a shaman removes a Magic and a Curse debuff with a single cast.
• Deep Healing (Mastery) has been increased to 3% per point, up from 2.5%.
• Greater Healing Wave mana cost has been increased by 10%; healing done has been increased by 20%.
• Mana Tide Totem has been redesigned. The totem no longer multiplies the Spirit of those affected by it. It instead gives a flat amount of Spirit equal to 400% of the casting shaman’s Spirit, exclusive to short-term Spirit buffs affecting the shaman when the totem is dropped.

Crowd Control duration reduction
Polymorph and many other CC abilities are being reduced to 8-second durations as well. I showed you the latest shaman changes coming in the next round of patch notes. It's important to note though that the next draft of the 4.0.6 patch notes to be posted are double the size of the notes currently on the home page of our website. There are many new notes for virtually every class yet to be posted. (Source)

Vengeance Calculation
The Vengeance calculation is working correctly as far as we can ascertain. Vengeance caps at a number equal to Stamina plus 10% of base health, which is lower than 10% of health. When we buffed Stamina late in Cataclysm development, we specifically did not buff Vengeance because we didn’t think tanks needed 40% additional attack power in order to maintain threat or contribute to damage done by the group. The Vengeance tooltip is a little misleading, but in this case we think that’s fine because a more technically accurate tooltip would be quite long. Astute theorycrafters will understand the difference, while most tanks won’t actually be affected by the delta. (Source)

Warlock (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Glyph of Soul Swap change reverted
Good thread. While you're compiling feedback about the 4.0.6 warlock changes posted thus far, I want to make mention that the Glyph of Soul Swap change is being reverted for now. We don't feel that particular change is necessary as of yet, but will continue to evaluate Soul Swap's performance. (Source)

Curse of Exhaustion
Also, another change not yet listed in the notes is to the default range of Curse of Exhaustion. With the movement speed reduction at 30% in 4.0.6, down from 50%, the range is being increased to 40 yards, up from 30. (Source)

Warlocks DoTs dispell
In general, dispelling warlock DoTs is a little more punishing than we intended in the current PvP model. That said, there are yet still more changes not listed which are worth mentioning here:

1. The reduction on the Unstable Affliction silence effect is 4 seconds, up from 3 as currently listed.

2. We do think it's a little too easy to counter warlocks (and Shadow priests) with a Resto shaman's Cleansing Waters talent (as was pointed out earlier in this thread), which is being nerfed in 4.0.6 as well. (Source)

PvE warlock 4-piece set bonus (Fel Spark)
The PvE warlock 4-piece set bonus (Fel Spark) now increases the damage done by the next 2 Fel Flame spells by 300%, rather than increasing the critical effect chance of one by 100%. (Source)

PvP warlock 4-piece set bonus
The PvP warlock 4-piece set bonus has been redesigned. It now reduces the cooldown of Death Coil by 30 seconds. (Source)

Now that Cataclysm is out in the wild, more players are getting gearing up and checking out Tol Barad, the new outdoor PvP zone. Today, we wanted to address some of the concerns players have expressed about the zone, including how challenging it can be to win as the attacking team, and provide some insight into our design approach. We also wanted to share some of the lessons we learned from Wintergrasp, discuss the difference between the two zones, and touch upon the recent hotfixes made to Honor Point gains and how we plan to improve Tol Barad going forward. We're confident this zone will provide meaningful and fun PvP for some time to come, but we also recognize additional tuning is required to ensure Tol Barad is everything we intend it to be.

As we mentioned earlier, the attacking faction is having a pretty tough time winning control of Tol Barad -- and we're OK with that, at least in theory. Here's why: When we set out to create Wintergrasp, one of the issues we dealt with was that we were never able to ensure the sides were even -- in fact, they rarely were. Because the smaller team would almost always be assured defeat, we attempted to address team-size imbalance by favoring the attacker. Control of Wintergrasp went back and forth, and the result was that battles lost their impact. On most realms the defenders became complacent, knowing they were likely to lose control of the zone, returning to re-take it when it was their turn to attack. The sides swapped back and forth every few hours, and Wintergrasp wasn’t so much about an epic struggle for a meaningful piece of land as it was a complicated game of leapfrog.

Since then we’ve devised mechanics that help ensure equal team sizes, and we've taken Wintergrasp's lessons to heart when we designed Tol Barad. Tol Barad is intentionally balanced so that it’s a challenge for the attackers, because we want to make sure that control of Tol Barad matters. For the defenders, there’s a sense of urgency that Wintergrasp didn't have -- if you lose it, you’re going to have a hell of a time taking it back. For the attackers, there are a number of rewards at stake -- such as access to the Baradin Hold raid and additional daily quests -- that we hope players feel are worth fighting for. That sort of tension is what we wanted from Wintergrasp, and what we believe Tol Barad can ultimately offer.

With that being said, we want winning Tol Barad to be a challenge for the attacking faction... but we don't want it to be impossible. Taking Tol Barad should be tough -- but right now it’s a little bit too tough, and it’s something we’re actively working to balance. Earlier, we attempted to temporarily address the issue by offering a far better reward to the winning attackers: Honor Points awarded for successfully attacking were increased tenfold, but that was such a great incentive that it ultimately undermined the spirit of competition. Since then, the reward for winning as an attacker has been brought back down to a more reasonable amount.

While we've already made minor adjustments to improve the gameplay and address select exploits, our job in Tol Barad is far from over. We ultimately want to make sure that any changes we make are all steps in the right direction, and we intend to make several updates in the next minor patch to address design and balance issues affecting attackers that we can't address with hotfixes. For example, we plan to alter the battle slightly so that a team with two bases captured can more quickly and easily capture the third, as opposed to a team with one or zero bases. This way, if the defenders turtle up, it'll be a little easier for the attackers to take their last base before the defense can take one of the attackers' other bases.

We've been reading your feedback, watching trends across our global realms, and fighting plenty of battles in Tol Barad ourselves to get a feel for what's working and what isn't, and we're committed to making Tol Barad a fun and engaging zone. We want owning the zone to be meaningful throughout the lifespan of the expansion -- and while the attackers may always face somewhat of an uphill battle, the defenders should feel much more pressure not to lose than they do currently. Just the same, the attacking faction should feel motivated to take Tol Barad back, but they shouldn't feel that the odds are insurmountable. So keep fighting the good fight, and we'll continue watching the battlefield and listening to your feedback.

Cory "Mumper" Stockton is the lead content designer on World of Warcraft and enjoys a good set of LEGOs.