Furthermore, don't expect us to be ripping up every other talent tree in the game at this stage. We will continue to change talent effects before Lich King ships, but don't expect a lot more massive rejuggling of the trees themselves. The dual-spec feature will shine more light on talent design (more on that at Blizzcon) and we'll have a better idea of what we want to do with trees when that goes live. Some talent trees are nice and lean, and some probably have some points we could trim here and there.

Here is what we're inclined to do about Balance. It isn't a done deal yet because we just talked about it and didn't make the actual changes yet, so it's possible we'll hit a snag (though I don't see why).

• Moonfury and Earth and Moon down to 3 ranks from 5, but keeping the same overall benefit. That buys you 4 extra talent points to get more utility or fun talents.
• We are also going to buff Eclipse's damage a little so that you feel you're paid back for the extra proc-watching (and so I won't feel so lonely when I tell you I think it's fun).
• We're going to leave the Starfire glyph as is for now, since one of the reasons we added it was to buy you back some brain time if you were watching Eclipse too much.
• The treant health is still something on the list to look at too. I suspect it just hasn't scaled well.

As an epilogue, here are our feelings on bloat. The problem with the Balance tree was that druids had to spend nearly all their points just on pure damage. It's hard to justify giving up damage for utility, PvP or fun talents in a raid scenario. Ideally you should be trading those talents off against each other ,not against your damage (or healing or mitigation).

• Tidal Waves -- Riptide now also procs this effect.
• Riptide -- We're going to increase the initial healing component.
• Storm Reach -- now called “Elemental Reach” and includes Lava Burst.
• Improved Fire Nova Totem - Increases the damage done by your Fire Nova Totem by 10/20%, and your Fire Nova totem has a 50/100% chance to stun all targets damaged by your Fire Nova Totem for 2 sec.
• Thunderstorm -- We will probably boost the mana return to 8% of total mana. That seems more in line with similar effects. We talked a lot about buffing its damage, but decided that may not be a good idea. With its short range, it isn't a great rotational spell for a raiding Elemental shamans, and making you run up to hit a boss and run back is giving up a lot of cast time. Instead we're going to try to keep the damage and knockback more situational (in PvP it will get used a lot) and make the mana return the big PvE raiding focus.
• Maelstrom Weapon -- We have a concern that the proc per minute frequency is too often. According to our numbers, it's balanced for a two-handed weapon and a bit generous for a dual-wielder. However, this would be a nerf to Enhancement dps overall that we'd have to make up elsewhere, and it seems to be a fun change shamans are enjoying. So we're going to let this ride for now. It's something to keep an eye on, but we aren't going to change it yet.
• Lava Burst and Lightning Bolt -- And now for a few words on Elemental damage. One of the things we were trying to do to make Elemental dps more interesting was to have a Lava Burst + Flameshock variant. We also themed some new deep talents to support this play style. The problem is that lightning still seems to do more damage than fire, which in turn makes the new talents feel lame because they benefit fire and not lightning.

Now we think that Lava Burst is doing appropriate damage for its cost and if anything Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning are a little too good. (Remember they benefit from Curse of the Elements and similar spells now.) However, nerfing lightning would make it harder to level as well as making 3.0.2 kind of brutal for Elemental shamans, since Lava Burst is level 75. Hurting lightning would feel like a flat out nerf, and even though you'd partially make up for it at higher level, overall we think this would feel, um, yucky. So no big changes to lightning spells.

We talked a lot about just buffing Lava Burst and a deep fire-based talent or two. This will make Lava Burst too good on paper, but it might work out okay in the game itself. We'll just have to see. We aren't 100% sold on this course of action, so I'll update when we decide for sure.

Once again, these decisions were the consensus of our design team, so please don't give me the credit. In fact, if there are any changes you specifically don't like -- those I had nothing to do with

If I understand your question correctly, the coefficients on beta are the "real" coefficients. My comment was that we won't nerf those back down to make Lava Burst more attractive.

When I said Lightning Bolt may be too good, I meant that for its mana cost and compared to other spells, it gives you a lot of damage. When you're designing spells, you can't just keep buffing everything all the time or you end up with rampant inflation. If things are too low, you buff them and if they are too high you nerf them. (It's awesome that those two verbs do so much work in game design discussions.)

So when comparing Lava Burst to Lightning Bolt, our initial answer was not to buff Lava Burst. Lightning Bolt was already a little high when you consider all the talents that affect it and more buffs that now exist that didn't in BC (CoE for one). Buffing Lava Burst would just give shamans two spells that provide too much damage per unit mana. But in this case, that is still the route we want to take for the reasons I tried to explain above. Nerfing LB to match Lava Burst would have been fair on paper, but sucky in the game. Balancing everything with a formula and budget can get you a long way but you also need to know when to put them aside. The risk is that Elemental *might* be too good. But we'll take that chance for now.

We think we have Elemental's dps to a pretty good point now. There are some classes that are doing too much dps in your beta build, which may be one of the reason you feel low. But in our tests, Elemental is above the tanks and healers and on par with everyone who isn't broken.

Blizzcon This Week !
BlizzCon 2008 begins this Friday, October 10, at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, CA. The show will feature two days of gaming, contests, developer Q&A panels, tournaments, and more, in addition to live entertainment by comedian Patton Oswalt, all-Blizzard metal band Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftain, and Video Games Live. Our recruiting team will be there, too, so if you’re interested in a career at Blizzard Entertainment, bring along your resume, demo reel, art portfolio, or business card. See our media alert for more details: http://www.Blizzard.com/us/press/081006.html -- and keep an eye on http://www.BlizzCon.com for live updates throughout the show. (Source)

Champion of the Naaru Title not obtainable anymore in 3.0.2 ?
Whenever the next patch is released, this is true. Same with obtaining the Amani War Bear and the title Hand of A'dal. (Source)

Housing, surnames, and roleplay support
We've stated before that player housing is a consideration for some point in the future, but it would need to be thought out carefully and would want to maximize their usefullness. As always, suggestions are welcome in the Suggestion Forum.

Surnames are another thing we've said are a possibility at some point in time. Just keep in mind that with many things, there are often technical considerations that come into play as well as time tables that must be considered. We need to take a look at how much work it would take and how much time it would take and weigh that in with all of the other features that we want to add into the game or improve upon.

We've been working to add more touches into the interactivity of quests, the world, and atmosphere overall wherever we can. You'll find more seating added in within various areas. You'll find some larger more welcoming inns in some areas, or even just open spaces that allow for RPers to gather in.

In Dalaran, you'll get to experience added touches such as a toy shop, the Barbershop, and pet store. There are more touches than that you will experience as you explore Northrend.

While you're right in that we can't do big GM run events without considerable resources, we have been continuing to push and add in as many interesting touches as we can to continue to bring the world alive. (Source)

Death Knight (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))
Death Knight Creation F.A.Q. (Source)
Q. What races can be a death knight?
A. Every race has the availability of being a death knight.

Q. Who is eligible to create a death knight?
A. Players who have at least one level 55 character on a realm may create a death knight on that realm.

Q. What if I have a level 55 character on one realm but want to create a death knight on another realm to play with friends?
A. At the launch of Wrath of the Lich King, you will only be able to create a death knight on the same realm where you have an existing level 55 or higher character. In the future, we plan to allow the creation of a death knight on any realm (provided you have at least one level 55+ character).

Q. Can I create a death knight on one realm and transfer it to another realm?
A. Yes, you will be able to transfer a death knight, using either a free character move or a paid character transfer. Normal fees still apply.

Q. Can I create a death knight on one account and transfer it to a new account?
A. Death knights can be transferred with the same fees and restrictions as any other character.

Q. If I move a death knight to another realm now, can I get a refund later when the option to create a death knight anywhere is available?
A. We will not be giving refunds to players who have relocated a death knight to another realm prior to the open creation point for all realms.

Q. Can I create a death knight on the opposite faction?
A. You will be able to create a death knight on the opposite faction provided that it is on a PvE realm. The standard restrictions for character creation apply for PvP realms.

Q. Is there a limit on how many death knights I can create?
A. You will only be able to have one death knight per realm at any one time. Should you delete a death knight, you will still be able to create a new one.

Priest (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))
Shadow spec DPS
Yes, Shadow should do the same dps as other specs and classes, provided you have similar gear and skill. Replenishment is considered a buff just like all the other buffs. Its one exception is that having more than one in the raid can stack (= means that more than 10 people in the raid can benefit from replenishment) to some extent. (Source)

Warlock (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))
Demonic Circle bugged
We're fixing hundreds of bugs a week right now (maybe more). It's possible it's already on my list or that someone has fixed it already. I was just trying to offer that we do read these forums. (Source)

Shadowflame
After discussing Shadowflame a little, we think the problems are the dot and the cone. The dot makes the initial damage feel paltry and the cone makes it hard to use in every situation.

I don't have an update yet on what we're going to do about it, but that's where we are at the moment. (Source)