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  1. #1
    I Don't Work Here Endus's Avatar
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    [OFFICIAL] MoP Beta Build Changes Discussion Thread

    Edit: 29/03/12 update; this original post is NOT going to be maintained moving forward. There is a collected Shaman changes sticky post here that will be updated with everything on an ongoing basis; http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/1098979. Discussion can continue here, or in a new thread if this one dies down at some point, but be sure to check the megapost for up-to-date change information.

    To ease discussion, here's a breakdown of what we've located so far in the beta database, relevant to Shaman, that's new and interesting. We're channeling discussion to one thread, with everything new in the OP, so that the discussion can remain fairly central and with as much information as we can get.

    Bear in mind this is still beta and a lot of these numbers are simply unfinished or not yet implemented. In discussion, please focus on more general issues than scaling based off these numbers. Elemental Blast, for instance, probably doesn't really do zero damage, or they wouldn't have listed it as having damage. They just haven't added the damage numbers yet.

    Entries in blue are additions or changes, entries in dim strikeout are the parts that were changed, included for reference



    Talent Changes

    Tier 6 Talents
    • Unleashed Fury - Your elemental weapon imbues are empowered, granting additional effects when triggered with Unleash Weapon:
      • Flametongue Weapon - Increases the enemy target's damage taken from your Lightning Bolt and Lava Burst abilities by 25% for 10 sec.
      • Windfury Weapon - For 8 sec, your melee auto-attacks can trigger Static Shock.
      • Earthliving Weapon - When you use Unleash Elements on an ally, you are also healed for double the amount of healing done.
      • Frostbrand Weapon - You leech heat from the enemy target, gaining 50% movement speed for 4 sec.
      • Rockbiter Weapon - You take 40% reduced damage from the enemy target for 5 sec.
    • Primal Elementalist - Your Earth and Fire Elemental Totems draw forth powerful primal elementals directly from the elemental planes. These servitors are 50% more powerful than regular elementals, act as pets directly under your control, and gain additional abilities.
      • Primal Fire Elemental
        • Fire Blast - Instant - 6 sec cooldown - Inflicts Fire damage to an enemy.
        • Fire Nova - 2 sec cast - 10 sec cooldown - Inflicts Fire damage to nearby enemies.
        • Immolate - 2 sec cast - 10 sec cooldown - Burns an enemy, then inflicts additional Fire damage every 3 sec. for 21 sec.
        • Empower - Instant (Channeled) - 10 sec cooldown - Empowers the elemental's creator with fiery energy, increasing all damage dealt by 5% while the channel continues.
      • Primal Earth Elemental
        • Angered Earth - Instant 5 sec cooldown - Taunts and causes additional high threat to all enemies within 15 yards.
        • Pulverize - Instant - 40 sec cooldown - Smashes an enemy with a rocky fist, dealing 150% of the damage of a normal attack, and stunning the target for 4 sec.
        • Harden Skin - Instant - 60 sec cooldown - The caster's skin hardens into pure granite, reducing all damage taken by 40% for 10 sec.
        • Reinforce - Instant (Channeled) - 10 sec cooldown - Surrounds the elemental's creator with an earthen shield, reducing all damage taken by 20% while the channel continues.
    • Elemental Blast - 2 sec cast - 12 sec cooldown - Harness and direct the raw power of the elements towards an enemy target, dealing 0 Elemental damage and increasing the caster's Critical Strike, Haste, or Mastery by 5% for 8 sec.
    New Talents

    • Conductivity - When you cast Healing Wave, Greater Healing Wave, Healing Surge, or Lightning Bolt on a target located within your Healing Rain, allies standing within the Healing Rain share healing equal to 20% of the initial damage or healing done.
    This has apparently replaced Fortifying Waters.


    Changes to Existing Talents
    Some talents appear to be missing; I can't bring them up searching the DB. This could mean they've been replaced by something new, or they could be renamed. I'm not going into that until we find out which.
    • Astral Shift - Instant - 2 min cooldown - Seek haven by shifting partially into the elemental planes, reducing damage taken by 50% 40% but also all damage and healing done for 6 sec.
    • Earthgrab Totem - Instant - 30 sec cooldown - Summons an Earthgrab Totem with 100 health at the feet of the caster for 45 20 sec. The totem pulses every 2 5 sec, causing roots to ensnare the legs of all enemies within 8 10 yards for 5 sec, preventing movement. Enemies that have already been rooted once by the totem will instead have their movement speed reduced by 50%. Replaces Earthbind Totem.
    • Call of the Elements - Instant - 5 8 min cooldown - When activated, immediately finishes the cooldown on all totems with a base cooldown shorter than 5 minutes.



    New Spells
    • Capacitor Totem. Instant - 45 sec cooldown - Summons an Air totem with 5 health at the feet of the caster that gathers electrical energy from the surrounding air and then explodes after 5 sec to stun all enemies within 8 yards for 5 sec.



    New Glyphs
    These are the new and changed glyphs. There's also a bunch of existing glyphs that weren't changed that I didn't bother including. Many Primes, which were static boosts, were deliberately changed to be Majors and to be tradeoffs, as Majors should be.

    Major
    • Glyph of Capacitor Totem. Reduces the charging time of your Capacitor Totem by (2000/-1000) sec.
    • Glyph of Chaining. Doubles the jump distance of your Chain Heal spell, but reduces its healing done by 15%.
    • Glyph of Earth Shield. Your Earth Shield charges are no longer depleted when taking damage, but Earth Shield's duration is reduced to 45 sec.
    • Glyph of Feral Spirit. Increases the healing done by your Feral Spirits' Spirit Hunt by 40%.
    • Glyph of Fire Elemental Totem. Reduces the cooldown and duration of your Fire Elemental Totem by 40%.
    • Glyph of Flame Shock. Increases the duration of your Flame Shock by 25%, but reduces the initial damage dealt by 25%.
    • Glyph of Ghost Wolf. While in Ghost Wolf form, you are less hindered by effects that would reduce movement speed.
    • Glyph of Healing Stream Totem. When your Healing Stream Totem heals an ally, it also reduces their Fire, Frost, and Nature damage taken by 10% for 6 sec.
    • Glyph of Lava Burst. Your Lava Burst spell will always be a critical strike regardless of the presence of Flame Shock on the target, but it deals 5% less damage.
    • Glyph of Lava Lash. Your Lava Lash ability no longer spreads Flame Shock to nearby targets.
    • Glyph of Purge. Your Purge dispels 1 additional Magic effect.
    • Glyph of Riptide. Your Riptide no longer has a cooldown, but also no longer instantly heals the targeted ally.
    • Glyph of Spiritwalker's Grace. Increases the duration of your Spiritwalker's Grace by 5 sec.
    • Glyph of Telluric Currents. Reduces the damage dealt by your Lightning Bolt spell by 30%, but causes it to restore mana equal to 50% of damage dealt.
    • Glyph of Totemic Vigor. Increases the health of your totems by 10% of your maximum health.
    • Glyph of Unleashed Lightning. Your Lightning Bolt takes 5% longer to cast, but may be cast while moving.
    • Glyph of Water Shield. Increases the passive mana generation of your Water Shield by 10%, but Water Shield no longer activates when you receive damage.
    • Glyph of Wind Shear. Increases the school lockout duration of Wind Shear by 1 sec, but also increases the cooldown by 3 sec.

    Minor
    • Glyph of Healing Storm. Each application of Maelstrom Weapon also increases your healing done by 20%.
    • Glyph of Totemic Encirclement. When you cast a totem spell, you also place unempowered totems for any elements that are not currently active. These totems have 5 health and produce no other effects.



    Changes to Abilities

    Class
    • Healing Stream Totem - 30 sec cooldown - Summons a Healing Stream Totem with 5 health at the feet of the caster for 1 min 15 sec that heals the most injured party or raid member within 40 yards for ((0+($SP*0.3124)*1)) every 2 sec
    • Earthbind Totem - Instant - 15 30 sec cooldown - Summons an Earthbind Totem with 5 health at the feet of the caster for 45 20 sec that slows the movement speed of enemies within 10 yards.

    Elemental
    • Elemental Focus - When you land a non-periodic critical strike with a Fire, Frost, or Nature damage spell, you enter a Clearcasting state. The Clearcasting state reduces the mana cost of your next 2 damage or healing spells by 25%, increases spell damage done by 10%, and increases single-target healing done by 50%.
    • Shamanism - Increases the damage of Lightning Bolt by 50% and Chain Lightning by 70%, and reduces the casting time of both spells by 0.5 sec.
    • Lava Surge - Your Flame Shock periodic damage ticks have a chance to reset the cooldown of your Lava Burst spell and cause your next Lava Burst spell to be instant.
    Enhancement
    • Dual Wield - You may equip one-handed weapons in your off-hand, and you have a chance to parry incoming frontal melee attacks. and increases your chance to hit with melee attacks by 6%
    • Mental Quickness - Your spell power is now equal to 55% of your attack power, and you no longer benefit from other sources of spell power. Your instant beneficial, damaging, and totem spells cost 75% less mana. Your melee attacks have a 40% chance to immediately restore 5% of your mana.
    • Searing Flames - Your Searing Totem and Fire Elemental's attacks set their targets aflame, dealing 0 Fire damage over 15 sec. Stacks up to 5 times. Your Lava Lash ability will consume your Searing Flames, dealing 20% increased damage for each application on the target.
    • Spirit Walk - Instant - 2 min cooldown - Can be cast in Ghost Wolf - Removes all movement impairing effects and increases your movement speed by 60% for 15 sec.
    • Feral Spirit is now a guardian, not a pet.
    Resto
    • Purification - Increases the effectiveness of your healing spells by 25%, and the healing done by your Water totems by an additional 50%. In addition, heals you cast increase allies' maximum health by 10% of the amount healed, up to a maximum of 10% of their health.


    Okay, I think that's everything.

    All this info is being added to the main official Beta changes thread located Here as well for future reference, but we wanted a centralized discussion thread, since you folks already had 4 separate threads going by the time I got this written up.
    Last edited by Endus; 2012-03-29 at 02:39 PM.


  2. #2
    Merely a Setback Teriz's Avatar
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    I can just imagine Capacitator totem with Totemic projection. LoL!

    Elemental blast is kind of disappointing. UE talent is so-so. Elemental Pet talent is pretty damn good.

    Rockbiter is still in the game?

    Totemic Vigor just made SBT a great talent again.

    Purge is back baby!

  3. #3
    I'm actually really curious to test out the Totemic Encirclement glyph for PvP.

    Everytime I drop a totem, I get 4 (though only get the 1 effect from the totem I drop). People will have to spend the time to find the right totem (may not take long -- depends on tooltips and stuff) then bust through 10% of my HP to destroy it.

    I'm also really curious if that happens for every totem I drop or not.

    GCD 1: Drop Searing Totem
    GCD 2: Drop HTT
    GCD 3: Drop Grounding (or something)

    Does that mean I get 12 totem totems on the ground (with the effects of only the chosen 3, of course)? Because that would be hilarious.

  4. #4
    The Patient
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    Quote Originally Posted by Endus View Post
    Primal Elementalist - Your Earth and Fire Elemental Totems draw forth powerful primal elementals directly from the elemental planes. These servitors are 50% more powerful than regular elementals, act as pets directly under your control, and gain additional abilities.
    50% more? о_О Something is seriously wrong here.

  5. #5
    Merely a Setback Teriz's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Radux View Post
    I'm actually really curious to test out the Totemic Encirclement glyph for PvP.

    Everytime I drop a totem, I get 4 (though only get the 1 effect from the totem I drop). People will have to spend the time to find the right totem (may not take long -- depends on tooltips and stuff) then bust through 10% of my HP to destroy it.

    I'm also really curious if that happens for every totem I drop or not.

    GCD 1: Drop Searing Totem
    GCD 2: Drop HTT
    GCD 3: Drop Grounding (or something)

    Does that mean I get 12 totem totems on the ground (with the effects of only the chosen 3, of course)? Because that would be hilarious.
    It would be really funny dropping a Capacitor Totem totem in the mix. So while they're trying to kill your totems, they get a nice surprise.

  6. #6
    I think Enh will take the pet and Ele will take the UE one.

  7. #7
    Pit Lord Protoman's Avatar
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    Capacitor totem sounds awesome. Finally Shaman get a stun, and it's an aoe and 5 sec long.

    The glyphs also look pretty good. Curious why there is no Water shield glyph so it doesn't drop below 3 charges. And the LL glyph that doesn't spread Flame shock, whats the point of that? I would think there is a tradeoff, like more damage or crit or something.

    As for lvl 90 talents....

    Super ULE. This looks pretty good actually, not sure about the WF effect, is it going to be the same 45% chance to proc for our melee attacks? Dunno how good this will actually be. The FT and FB effects look pretty solid, FB might get more PVP use with the mini spring.

    But RB!? 40% damage reduction for 5 sec on a 15 sec cd?? So OP lol....doubt that will stay in the game. I coulda sworn they removed rockbiter, but I'm glad they didn't, even if they nerf the unleash effect.

    Elem Blast. This seems like just a solid attack with a nice buff. I wonder if Maelstrom Weapon will include this so Enhance can cast instantly and not the 2 sec cast time.

    Perma Eles. Guess I was right about them getting new abilities, it only makes sense when you consider Earth Elemental and Resto. I wonder how strong they will be, they say "50% stronger" but is that for normal lvl 90 elementals found in the world or our totem cd ones? Can't see how they would be stronger then the totem cd's, cause that would make the talent too powerful right? I really hope if they add a controllable pet bar, that the cd version will get one as well.....I will be really pissed off if not.

    Also, I saw that Fire Ele will stack Searing Flames too. I guess that means we will not get Searing Flames changed to stack from melee attacks or Flame Shock. That kinda sucks.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Endus View Post
    Primal Elementalist - Your Earth and Fire Elemental Totems draw forth powerful primal elementals directly from the elemental planes. These servitors are 50% more powerful than regular elementals, act as pets directly under your control, and gain additional abilities.
    Darn, I got all excited when joystiq posted that this talent removed the CD from ele's . Makes me even more sad with the change to the Fire ele glyph.

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by SenSayNyu View Post
    50% more? о_О Something is seriously wrong here.
    My best guess is that you can't buff the hell out of your FET anymore with INT procs (which would last the duration of the Totem) since it would operate more like a Pet, meaning buffs would benefit FET on a dynamic level, opposed to just taking a snapshot.

    Again, that's just my best guess as to why it would increase the benefit by 50%.

  10. #10
    Pet seems designed purely for Enhancement (cuz of searing flames) and not Ele or Resto.

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Northy View Post
    Pet seems designed purely for Enhancement (cuz of searing flames) and not Ele or Resto.
    I don't see why it wouldn't benefit Elemental? I mean it already does currently quite a bit. I would assume it would continue to do so, but with more control.

    FET for Enh just gives them a bigger dps boost over using Searing. It also doesn't punish them (for being bad) for using it. It also gives them way more control over Searing Flames.

    Resto... yeah I'll agree for now.

  12. #12
    I Don't Work Here Endus's Avatar
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    There's a lot of REALLY nice stuff in there. A lot of the issues people have raised are, especially, addressed in the glyphs. There's totem health, there's distraction totems, there's a lot of little things that let us stick with the old regular way or trade off a bit for a new version, which is exactly the kind of flexibility you want from glyphs.

    For Elemental PvP, for instance, there's Glyph of Lava Burst, meaning you don't need to bother with Flame Shock; you just nuke. For Enhancement, Glyph of Healing Storm means a 5x Healing Surge heals for 200% of a normal Healing Surge; there's the healing you were worried you'd lose with the loss of GHW, and it's even a minor glyph. Glyph of Ghost Wolf has the movement reduction protection we didn't want to lose.


    I also think Unleashed Fury is underestimated. Look at the Rockbiter effect again. 40% reduction from the target for 5 seconds. In a 1v1 circumstance, that's a 40% shield for 5 seconds every 15 seconds. Also, these effects are in addition to the normal ones; the Unleash Flame is +25% Lava Burst damage taken AND +20% Lava Burst damage dealt. And those effects are multiplicative, since they're separate, not additive; it's a 50% increase to LvB on whoever you just smacked. With 250% crits. That's not a tickle.

    Elemental Blast we just need more data on, really. We don't know the damage from it or if it's AoE. The self-buff is nice, since it will likely pick the highest of your stats to boost. And it has a 66% uptime, used on CD.


    And again; this is intro Beta stuff. Not live. If something's not up to snuff, there's plenty of time to get it changed. This is the START of testing and fiddling with numbers, not the end, or even the middle.


  13. #13
    The Patient
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    Quote Originally Posted by Radux View Post
    My best guess is that you can't buff the hell out of your FET anymore with INT procs (which would last the duration of the Totem) since it would operate more like a Pet, meaning buffs would benefit FET on a dynamic level, opposed to just taking a snapshot.

    Again, that's just my best guess as to why it would increase the benefit by 50%.
    Even if what you is true... talent still remains as obvious choice for ele atleast.

  14. #14
    I think if Elemental Blast is affected by Maelstrom weapon, it might be a nice boost to Enhancement. Instant cast Elemental Blast, then 8 Sec's of increased stats, very nice IMO. I hope to hear more about this during beta.

    Wish i could take part in this beta, Sadly still on deployment. Keep me posting awesome info!

    -Jeric

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by SenSayNyu View Post
    Even if what you is true... talent still remains as obvious choice for ele atleast.
    Maybe. I'm going to answer this the same way I did in another thread:

    Quote Originally Posted by Radux View Post
    Potentially.

    Though I can't deny the possible power of the UE talent for Elemental. ~67% uptime on increased (25%) damage on your 2 nukes? Yes please. Would be even better if UE also kept its initial effect.

    UE on a 15 second CD.
    Glyphed FS would be a 30 second duration.

    So UE (slight damage on target + 30% damage on next fire spell + the level 90 buff) then Flame Shock (30% buff on FS -- highest DPET spell) then go about your normal priority.

    All that would have to be mathed out and all that jazz, but it definitely has potential.

  16. #16
    Really interested in testing out the riptide glyph while raiding/dungeoning.

  17. #17
    Pit Lord Protoman's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by themaster24 View Post
    Darn, I got all excited when joystiq posted that this talent removed the CD from ele's . Makes me even more sad with the change to the Fire ele glyph.
    Oh huh. Now that you mention it, the talents don't say anything about removing the cd. So I guess we DON'T have perma ele pets then, just a stronger cd. Unless "pets under your control" implies that we can have them out all the time?

    Now I really AM annoyed that we have to talent to get proper control of them. They should still give us a pet bar with passive, offensive, defensive selections even if we can't use any of their abilities and they just autocast like normal.

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by xor View Post
    Really interested in testing out the riptide glyph while raiding/dungeoning.
    Could actually be super beneficial for single target healing (tank healing or just 5 mans).

    - Riptide (2 charges of Tidal Waves)
    - Use your Single target heals as needed

    Then just keep blanketing your group/raid.

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Protoman View Post
    Unless "pets under your control" implies that we can have them out all the time?
    I was wondering about that. Guess we'll have to wait until someone hits 90 on the beta to find out.

  20. #20
    Glyph of Telluric Currents. Reduces the damage dealt by your Lightning Bolt spell by 30%, but causes it to restore mana equal to 50% of damage dealt.

    Seeing how this mechanic will still exist and the fact that mana pools will not be increased by intellect, I am going to go ahead and predict that there will be an active regen model for all healers. I never enjoyed this mechanic because it wasn't standard. Earlier this expansion it was only used on a few fights if at all. This tier, shaman are a little more effective because this talent is much more potent. It also has bothered me that other healers don't have this type of mechanic. Their healing regen was never balanced with something like this in mind. If active regen was par for the course it might be pretty interesting. Spend time healing vs spend time regening could definitely be more compelling then what was promised and what was delivered at the beginning of Cata. I think it of course depends on how powerful healers are and how man heals their mana bar will support before considering active regen. You get the kind of decisions I think many top tier shaman are already familiar making. Do I spend time healing or do I spend time to regen with TC? Is the damage pattern allowing me to occasional regen with TC? Are there crucial moments of the fight where I need to TC, where I cannot TC? Am I hanging my other healers out to dry at certain moments by trying to "get ahead" on my mana bar? I think these kinds of decisions could be fun, I do them a lot now. I just get frustrated when I feel like I'm balanced around it and everyone else has the GCD's to heal. Just speculation, we will see where healing is headed shortly.

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