Beta Build 9061, Paladin changes, Raidcomp

[Boubouille]

Update 09:45 CEST - I'm not even going to waste a new post for this build. Most of the upcoming class changes didn't make it in this patch and it looks like it was only deployed to fix bugs. (Which is a very good thing too !). Make sure you check the last 3 posts for upcoming class changes.
Update 05:50 CEST - Oops, added Devouring Plague Change as well
Update 05:45 CEST - Added Update on Shadowflame and Haunt and an update to Upcoming Shaman Changes

WotLK Beta Build - 9061
Below are all the class changes for this build.

Death Knight (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9061))

• Ebon Plague now increases damage done by diseases by 30%. (Down from 60%)

Hunter (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9061))

• The threat value of Growl (Rank 9 - Level 80) has been increased from 800 to 1234.

Mage (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9061))

• Amplify Magic bonus to heal effects has been reduced. (480 to 255 for Rank 7, 240 to 128 for Rank 6, etc ...)
• Dampen Magic malus to heal effects has been reduced. (480 to 255 for Rank 7, 240 to 128 for Rank 6, etc ...)

Upcoming Paladin Changes

Righteous Defense -- cooldown lowered to 8 sec. It had been 10 sec recently and is 15 sec on live.

Infusion of Light -- now affects Flash of Light or Holy Light. Flash of Light is reduced to 0 cast time with 2 ranks, meaning that if you're running around and get a Holy Shock crit, you can also Flash without stopping.

Judgements of the Pure -- haste benefit now up to 15% with 5 ranks (was 10%).

Enlightened Judgements -- range benefit is now 30 yards with 2 ranks (was 20). This means you can judge or heal from the same range without having to run around so much.

Bacon of Light -- no change here, but I can never miss an opportunity to call it Bacon.

Update on Shadowflame and Haunt

Shadowflame -- We ultimately decided to keep the cone and the dot component, but just the damage. We compared Shadowflame's damage to Cone of Cold, but the latter benefits from a pretty sweet talent and is arguably a little weak-feeling without the talent. Shadowflame has no equivalent talent, so we buffed its damage by about 75%.

Haunt -- In order to give you a wider window in which to renew the spell, we lowered the cooldown to 8 sec. Refreshing Haunt will also trigger the heal from the existing Haunt, so clipping your previous one won't be as big a problem.

Devouring Plague Changes

We increased the damage coefficient of Devouring Plague to be similar to other damage over time spells. We also lowered the base damage on ranks 7, 8, and 9 to partially compensate for better scaling.

Overall this will unquestionably be a buff to the spell's damage, but I wanted to state this clearly lest you just see the base damage in a future build and think we nerfed it.

Upcoming Shaman Changes - Update

Update on Lava Burst.

We ended up buffing the damage by about 10%. You should now have a lot motivation to use it and Flame Shock once you hit level 75. Lightning Bolt isn't going anywhere so you still have your old standby, particularly for 3.0.2 and until you gain a few levels.

Raidcomp
While we wait for the patch, it might be a good time to talk a little about Raidcomp. More on that on front page when I'll be sure that it doesn't crash anything on the servers.

Short description
Raid composition is an important aspect of WoW PvE. RaidComp (from now on denoted as RC) aims to be to raid compositions what talent calculators are to talent specs; allowing everyone to play around with and share different raid compositions online. RC also helps raid leaders by giving an overview of the different buff and debuff categories. It won't do all the thinking for you, raid optimization is complex, however it should be able to do most of the grunt work and highlight some of the categories and abilities you need to look closer at. For example here you have Last Resort's regular setups for M'uru and KJ.

[Mukat]

Righteous Defense buff!
WOOT!

[aneon]

HEY NOW! Thats a rogue icon next to the upcoming pally changes. YUK!

[Boubouille]

Aw come on, it's 05:00 AM here.

[NotValidAnymore]

Aw come on, it's 05:00 AM here.

We will still have to torture you.

Just kidding, you're doing a great job, so a little icon-thingie won't harm. You already changed it anyways. ;D

[Captain Midnight]

Bacon of Light. I get it.

[aikouka]

Your raid comp thing counts all Death Knights as tanks... already pigeon holing us I see .

EDIT: Same with Feral Druids.

[Karpalo]

Aw come on, it's 05:00 AM here.

Did someone call you and yell something like "OMG BETA REALMS ARE GOING DOWN!!! PALADINS ARE GETTING 2 MINOR CHANGES!!! GET UP AND UPDATE THE DAMN FRONTPAGE!!elenven!!"

[zushiba]

Should maybe take into account 3% crit to mobs with an assassination rogue and 2% extra melee damage taken by mobs with a Combat rogue present.

[Chrisda19]

Oh my god they listened to my suggestion (not saying i was the only one on the Infusion of light thing) but still WOW!!!

[Boubouille]

@Karpalo : Yeah, pretty much. ^^
@Aikouka : Well they do have to count as something. :/

[aikouka]

@Aikouka : Well they do have to count as something. :/

Understandable, but to be honest, a tree doesn't necessarily mean anything for Death Knights, which is why they'd really need six categories (blame Blizzard's "any tree for tanking or DPS!" ideal :P). Although, at this point, I don't think you'd really see many Blood tanks.

[sunsmoon]

buffing pallys instead of nerfing them? this is some god damned bs

This might come to a surprise to you, but there are three different specs for Paladins, and all three have vastly different roles.

The one pegged as "OP" that needs to be rebalanced would be Retribution, the DPS tree of the class. The buffs were strictly two Protection (Tanking) and Holy (Healing/Support), both of which have needed a bit of extra tuning/buffing. Expect a Ret nerf eventually, but don't cry because skills and talents used ONLY by tanks and healers are getting buffed.

/fail

[DarkZero]

Nice loophole you have here with the second news's source. Just because I wanted to check the blue post. =[

[Grenwalis]

Raid Comp is WIN

[Marrakech]

that raidcomp thing is AWESOME, seriously good job

[Rilgon]

@Karpalo : Yeah, pretty much. ^^

That's kinda sad. You need more people with front-page access who can do it for you so you can sleep!

And I agree with Grenwalis, RaidComp is pretty freaking rad.

[alynash]

that raid comp thing would be a really cool addon. especially if I could use it to automatically send out invites when I'm done arranging the raid the way I want it.

[aneon]

Aw come on, it's 05:00 AM here.

Well we have to give you a hard time! BTW that RC thing is brilliant. Such a great idea whoever came up with that. Yet another reason why you are the number one WoW site.

[Amgyn]

wow that raid comp tool is AWESOME.. zomg.