World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies

The 2010 World of Warcraft Arena Tournament’s online portion has come to a close, but fear not! The Arena Tournament Realm is coming back online for everyone that participated in the 2010 event! Skirmish mode will be disabled during this time, but players will still be able to create new characters and teams in addition to being able to participate in “rated” matches. Please keep in mind that the online portion of the 2010 World of Warcraft Arena Tournament has come to a close, and that all matches played on the Arena Tournament Realm are not counted toward tournament standings or any prizes.

Enjoy!

The 2010 European Warcraft Invitational is drawing near, and while you’ll have the chance to watch some of the top players on stage, you might also want to take an occasional break from the thrill of the games and prove yourself in one of our fun activities:

• Play against fellow goblins to prove you are worthy of becoming a member of the Kezan Trading Company.
• All your gold are belong to us! Collect as much gold as you can to win the gold rush challenge.
• You’ve played StarCraft II and think you can take on the universe? Prove it in the StarCraft II tournaments and competitions.

Best of all, the winners will be receiving some great World of Warcraft and StarCraft loot, including mouse pads, posters, t-shirts and WoW: Cataclysm Beta keys.

More information about the 2010 European Warcraft Invitational can be found here: http://www.wow-europe.com/rf10/

We’re looking forward to seeing you there!

Guild wipe last week on beta servers
We had to wipe guilds on the beta server in regards to a number of bugs that were introduced with the new guild advancement system. The wipe also helps us get the most accurate testing we can with the new system.

Sorry for the late notice on this, we will do our best to give warning if we need to do it again. (Source)

Paladin (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Protection Paladin (Source)
Here is how Prot paladins are working in our current beta build. You might not see these changes in the next beta build, but in the one after that. Things are still in a high degree of flux however.

Shield of the Righteous -- Now consumes Holy Power to cause damage.

Holy Shield -- Now a passive ability that causes your Shield of the Righteous to provide 5% block per stack of Holy Power consumed. In other words, you never click Holy Shield. You just click Shield of the Righteous and buff yourself.

Hammer of the Righteous -- Now generates Holy Power but shares a cooldown with Crusader Strike. Almost all talents that affect one or the other will affect both. The intention is you use Crusader Strike -> Shield of the Righteous for single target and Hammer of the Righteous -> Shield of the Righteous for multitarget.

Avenger's Shield -- No real change, but it still hits pretty hard. Both CS and HotR can proc Grand Crusader to lower the Avenger's Shield cooldown.

Vindication -- can be caused only by Crusader Strike or Hammer of the Righteous.

Holy Wrath -- With the above changes, we think Prot paladins have enough rotational buttons to hit, so we are downplaying Holy Wrath. Holy Wrath is really intended as a Ret filler spell (for when other attacks are on cooldown). Prot could technically use Holy Wrath, but we aren't providing any talent hooks.

Consecration -- Now on a 10 sec duration with a 30 sec cooldown. The Hallowed Ground talent makes it cheaper and hit harder -- it does not affect duration. Use Consecration when you need it, but you can't spam it. This is consistent with the AE changes we are making to all tanks.

With these changes in mind, Prot will be thinking about buttons such as these:

Single Target: Judgement, Crusader Strike, Shield of the Righteous, Avenger's Shield.
Multi-target: Judgement, Consecration, Hammer of the Righteous, Shield of the Righteous, Avenger's Shield, possibly Exorcism.

None of this includes things like Seals, Inquisition, defensive cooldowns, Word of Glory, etc.

So with Vindication off of Holy Wrath, is it intended that Prot Paladins are the only tank without an AoE Physical Damage debuff, or will similar changes be made to the Warrior/Druid/DK mechanics?
Hammer of the Righteous will be AoE enough. It hits many targets. It may not be as widespread as Demo Shout on a pull like a jillion Onyxia Whelps, but we don't really expect you to debuff pulls of that size.

Let me just clarify something - Hammer of the Righteous will generate 1 Holy Power per cast, or 1 Holy Power per target hit?

One per cast. Otherwise we think paladins might want to always be hitting multiple targets, like "Let me tank the boss and one of the adds or my Holy Power generation will be low."

Is Holy Wrath going to have the same model it currently has? As a split damage ability?
Yeah, we like the split damage because it lets Ret (and Prot if needed) use it in most situations.

Also will 3 stacks of holy power when using shield of the righteousness roughly equal the amount of threat it did before it got removed or is it changed?
It will be a hard-hitting button, especially with 3 stacks. I'd guess your highest damage ability.

Paladin (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Holy Shield
As it is now, it's worthless. If you like keeping Holy Shield up, there is zero chance of using Word of Glory. The heal for Word of Glory is still insanely gimpy, even with the buff, so it's unlikely that it will be used. It's still impossible to keep Holy Shield up with great consistency.
I'd buy that if Holy Shield gave you 20% damage reduction or something, but it's 15% block -- at best. You won't even really know if you would have blocked that hit had Holy Shield been up and you could easily keep Holy Shield up and still fail to block. Because it's not 100% dependable, letting it lapse sometimes shouldn't be the end of the world. Sometimes it might make sense to delay that block and heal yourself.

As far as rotations go, something I mentioned in the live forums is we are trying letting Shield of the Righteous (or whatever we decide to call it) consume Holy Power for more damage *and* refresh Holy Shield. So you would need to get Holy Shield up, but then you could just use your shield hits instead. If you were ever in a position where you couldn't hit the boss, you could always fall back on just casting Holy Shield itself. We'll see how that feels. (Source)

Priest (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Chakra
I predict Chakra is going to be the reason players play Holy priests. It's going to be the kind of thing where you try out Disc for a few nights but decide you miss Chakra too much and go back. It's just not there yet. (Source)

So... Discipline is boring?
No, you're reading things into my words that I didn't actually say.

In LK, we would hear a lot how Disc was fun to play because of the shields and especially Penance. Priests would switch to Holy for a fight, but say that they missed the way Discipline felt. We think Holy needs something besides CoH that is a really fun mechanic that kind of sets the whole talent tree. Serendipity and Surge of Light can be fun today, but we think the tree needs more. Chakra has a ton of potential. Like I said, it's not there yet, but we have a lot of ideas for it.

Disc will be fine in Cataclysm PvE. It is going to be more well-rounded than it is today, but still have excellent absorption mechanics. (Source)

Shadow in Cataclysm
Mind Flay -- This is a technical explanation, but basically we had to rebuild it for Lich King to get it to benefit from haste correctly. Now that we have tech to let all periodics scale correctly with haste, we can change Mind Flay back to the way it used to work. The "latency" issues you experience today should be gone. You can just mash the Mind Flay button and the periodic won't clip.

Mind Blast -- With some increases scaling and the Shadow mastery, Mind Blast should always be your highest damage button (other than SWeath).

SW: Pain -- Pain and Suffering refreshes SW:Pain with your current haste, crit etc. values. All damage-over-time refresh mechanics and talents should do this now. You shouldn't have to recast a dot to benefit from a temporary buff or proc or whatever.

Spec options -- We have some plans to make early Disc more attractive to Shadow. There are probably fewer of us than you imagine, and we just can't work on every class at once. (Source)

Shaman (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Why does a DK not have to choose between horn of winter and desecration?
Because that is pretty much all the DK gets.

The shaman on the other hand gets to choose among Strength of Earth Totem, Windfury Totem, Wrath of Air Totem, Flametongue Totem, Tremor Totem, Healing Stream Totem, resistance Totems and Earthbind Totem, which doesn't even count Bloodlust / Heroism, and things like Unleashed Rage or Elemental Oath. If your buff was as competitive as theirs and you had so much versatility, we fear we'd see raids with many, many shaman in them. As it is, there's still a good chance for 3 shaman in a 25-player raid, while the DKs might get 2 slots if they're lucky.

You should get a slot because you are a good player, not because your buff rules. (Source)

Shamans are Mandatory
Throughout the history of WoW, the problem has typically been that shaman (and paladin to be fair) bring too much utility and are therefore considered too mandatory. They started out in vanilla as buff classes -- the guys you bring who don't really do much themselves but bring buffs and debuffs that make every other class perform better. You couldn't for example just stack your raid with rogues and mages because their performance would be low without the shaman and paladins -- and before LK you had to bring enough to stick one in every group.

Now, we decided to change that design because we didn't think it felt very satisfying to be the buff bot spec who got brought along as if the player were some kind of scroll or flask to improve the "real players" performance. On the other hand, we knew it would be really brutal to the shaman and paladin to just rip away all of their utility and give them the typical 2 or so raid buffs that most other classes or spec get.

But we've definitely eroded it a little, and I'm not going to apologize much for that because we want to give players flexibility -- and flexibility means you can do a raid, especially a 10-player one, without a shaman or paladin. Nobody should be mandatory, except for a tank and a few healers. Nobody should be left out either, but the specs who got left out in LK did so because of low dps -- Arms, Frost mage and Subtlety rogue. Shaman did fine.

Believe me, I have thought long and hard about scrapping the entire buff / debuff system because players focus on it too much. But I know that if we did that, players would then focus too much on damage per second and healing per second of the best players out there. We also think it would be unfortunate to lose that sense of being so much more powerful in a group than you are solo.

For now, in Cataclysm, we are just sharing even more of the buffs and debuffs across a wide gamut, especially very powerful ones like Bloodlust and Battle Rez, and chilling out the impact of some of the more potent ones, say Sunder and Curse of Elements, while also cutting back on the sheer number of buffs brought by say the Ret paladin and Balance druid.

I am much more interested in discussions about say shaman dps totems and healing totems than I am about buff totems, because we believe the latter have much less to do with either your getting to raid or your raid being succesful. (Source)

Enhancement
Enhance does fine on stationary fights like Saurfang and Festergut, but drops behind on heavy movement fights, and unfortunately the fight that counts the most has a lot of movement.

But that's not a totem problem. That's because so much of Enhancement's dps is tied up in getting procs on quick attacks. If a warrior has to move, it may not hurt them as much because their abilities are on longer cooldowns anyway and they can even store up on the rage. For energy classes it's even better because they can just unload when they do get back in range. But Enhancement just lost out on those procs, and they aren't coming back.

We're okay with some specs doing better on some fights than others, but we think Enhancement suffers a little too much when they have to move (and they aren't the only ones - Balance druids and even Elementals are in a similar bucket). We're trying to address this in Cataclysm without removing what it is that players like about Enhance.

But again, this doesn't have a lot to do with totems. They might have to drop their totems again, but that dps loss is arguably neglibile compared to the loss of not being able to deal damage for short times. (Source)

Warrior (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Tanking Talent in Fury Tree? (Die by the Sword)
I play with this Fury warrior. His dps is quite high to the extent that he pulls a lot and then generally dies before anyone can respond. This talent is dedicated to him. (Source)

Slam
One potential solution to Slam for Fury is to make the proc more predictable (like Overpower for Arms). With Enrage -> Raging Blow as the major mechanic Fury needs to pay attention to now, watching for that Bloodsurge proc may be a little too much. (Source)

Inner Rage
Also, does anyone else feel like Inner Rage is more or less pointless now? It doesn't really seem to add anything to the class other than unnecessary complexity. It feels like our rage gain is stable and well-balanced enough that the balancing doesn't need to fall back on such an obvious crutch and making the cost of your abilities fluctuate is just annoying.
Nobody is raiding and there isn't a lot of PvP on Beta (yet). Simply using an ability like Raging Calm will probably trigger Inner Rage (which was part of the idea behind it). (Source)

Death Knight (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)

• Blood - Each time you heal yourself via Death Strike, you gain 50% of the amount healed as a damage absorption shield. Absorb increased further by mastery rating.
• Frost - Increases all frost damage done by 20%. Damage increased further by mastery rating.
• Unholy - Increases the damage done by your diseases by 20%. Damage increased further by mastery rating.

Druid (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)

• Restoration - Increases the potency of your heal over time spells by up to 20% based on the current health level of your target (lower health targets are healed for more). Healing increased further by mastery rating.
• Feral - Increases the damage absorbed by your Savage Defense ability by 32% and increases the damage done by your Cat Form bleed abilities by 20%. Absorb and damage increased further by mastery rating.
• Balance - Increases the bonus damage from Eclipse by 12%. Damage increased further by mastery rating.

Hunter (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)

• Beast Mastery - Increases the damage done by your pets by 20%. Damage increased further by mastery rating.
• Marksmanship - Grants a 16% chance for your ranged attacks to also instantly fire an additional ranged shot for 80% normal damage. Chance increased further by mastery rating.
• Survival - Increases all elemental damage you deal by 20%. Damage increased further by mastery rating.

Mage (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)

• Arcane - Increases all spell damage done by up to 12% based on the amount of mana the Mage has unspent. Damage increased further with mastery rating.
• Fire - Causes your non-periodic fire spells to deal 10% additional damage over 4 sec. Damage increased further by mastery rating.
• Frost - Your Frostbolt spell causes its victim to take a 12% increased damage from all other spells you attack the victim with. Damage increased further with mastery rating.

Paladin (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)

• Protection - Increases your chance to block melee attacks by 16%. Block chance increased further by mastery rating.
• Retribution - Increases all holy damage done by 20%. Damage increased further by mastery rating.
• Holy - Your healing spells also place an absorb shield on your target for 8% of the amount healed lasting 6 sec. Absorb increased further by mastery rating.

Priest (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)

• Shadow - You have a 10% chance for your Shadow Word: Pain and Mind Flay spells to gran you a Shadow Orb each time they deal damage. The Shadow Orb Increases the damage done by your Mind Blast and Mind Spike spells by 20%. Damage increased further by mastery rating.
• Holy - Your direct healing spells heal for an additional 10% over 6 sec. Healing increased further by mastery rating.
• Discipline - Increases the potency of all your damage absorption spells by 20%. Absorption increased further by mastery rating.

Rogue (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)

• Assassination - Increases the damage done by your poisons by 20%. Damage increased further by mastery rating.
• Combat - Your main hand attacks have a 10% chance to grant you an extra off hand attack. Chance increased further by mastery rating.
• Subtlety - Increases the damage done by all your finishing moves by 20%. Damage increased further by mastery rating.

Shaman (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)

• Elemental - Grants a 20% chance for Elemental Overload to occur. Elemental Overload causes a Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, or Lava Burst spell you cast to trigger a second, similar spell on the same target at no additional cost that causes 60% of normal damage and no threat. Chance to trigger increased further by mastery rating.
• Enhancement - Increases all elemental damage done by 20%. Damage increased further by mastery rating.
• Restoration - Increases the potency of your direct healing spells by up to 20%, based on the current health level of your target (lower health targets are healed for more). Healing increased further by mastery rating.

Warlock (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)

• Demonology - Increases the damage done by your demon servants and damage you deal while transformed into a demon by 12%. Damage increased further by mastery rating.
• Destruction - Increases all fire damage you deal by 10%. Damage increased further by mastery rating.
• Affliction - Increases all periodic shadow damage you deal by 13%. Damage increased further by mastery rating.

Warrior (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)

• Fury - Increases the benefit of abilities that cause you to be enraged or consume an enrage effect by 80%. Enrage abilities improved further by mastery rating.
• Protection - Increases your chance to block by 10% and your chance to critically block by 10%. Chances increased further by mastery rating.
• Arms - Grants a 16% chance for your melee attack to instantly trigger an additional melee attack for 50% normal damage. Chance increased further by mastery rating.

Maybe I missed the memo on levels of "epicosity" or something, but I'm pretty sure the Maelstrom is a CLASS 10 epic zone. Though I guess it is missing sharks with laser beams patrolling the waters and Arthur Fonzarelli jumping across it with water skis. And dinosaurs.

[...] After reading this post I called for a meeting with TOP TOP MEN (that's two tops) in order to figure out a solution to the problem at hand. Frankly, I think we hit a home run. The next 4.0 build (or the one after) should have a Maelstrom that's between 10 - 50x more epic than what currently exists.

I'm on a shark.

Quick preview of upcoming fire changes (talents are from left to right, *denotes a change to the talent):

Tier 1:

• Master of Elements: now 2 ranks at 15/30%
• Burning Soul
• Incineration: removed
• Improved Fire Blast: moved from tier 2

Tier 2:

• Ignite
• Fire Power: Increases the damage of your Fire spells by 1/2/3% and gives your Flame Orb a 33/66/100% chance to explode at the end of its duration.
• Blazing Speed
• Impact (no useful raid utility yet... awesome ideas welcome)

Tier 3:

• Cauterize (new, 2 ranks): You have a 50/100%% chance that an attack which would otherwise kill you will instead bring you to 40% of your maximum health. However, you will burn for 12% of your maximum health every second for the next 4 sec. This effect cannot occur more than once per minute.
• Blast Wave: A wave of flame radiates outward from the target location, damaging all enemies caught within the blast for X Fire damage and are slowed by 75% for 3 sec.
• Molten Shields (new 1 rank, Blazing Speed is a prereq): Reduces the global cooldown of your Mage Ward spell by 1.5 sec and your Mage Ward triggers the Blazing Speed effect when it dissipates from absorbing damage.
• Improved Scorch: Reduces the mana cost of your Scorch spell by 50/100%

Tier 4:

• Pyromaniac
• Combustion
• Hot Streak (the instant Pyroblast no longer costs mana)
• Firestarter (new, 1 rank): Your Molten Armor allows you to cast the Scorch spell while moving instead of reducing the chance you are critically hit.

Tier 5:

• Improved Flamestrike
• Dragon's Breath
• Molten Fury

Tier 6:

• Critical Mass: Your Pyroblast and Scorch spells have a 33/66/100% chance to cause your target to be vulnerable to spell damage, increasing spell critical strike chance against that target by 5% and lasts 30 sec.

Tier 7:

• Living Bomb

End of Arena Season
The only information that we have to share with you right now is that we will announce the end of the arena season when it is almost over, just like in every previous season. We don't provide date estimates on anything and this is no exception. Several other people understood what I was saying and the end result is that you will have to wait. (Source)

Hunter (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Survival "Melee Attack Speed" buff in Raid Buffs List
The "20% melee attack speed" is in fact melee and ranged attack speed. That was just developer shorthand on my part.

The effect for Survival will probably get tied into Hunting Party since Replenishment alone doesn't do anything for hunters and longer. (Source)

Mage (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Water Elemental Cooldown
The post-death cooldown will definitely be lowered to around 2 min, the intent is definitely that after it dies you're waiting a somewhat similar amount of time before it's up again as you would have under the old scheme. (Source)

Shattered Barrier proc while silenced, stunned, etc
...worth noting that the same is true of Reactive Barrier. (Source)

Reactive Barrier
There's a reasonable chance a talent like this ends up being better in practical use than in theorycraft. It could end up needing a little something extra, or a redesign, but I'm willing to let it ride for a while to see how it actually plays out. (Source)

Paladin (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Spell hit
We'd like to give Prot paladins (Ret too) passive spell hit somewhere. (Source)

Protection
We'd also like to find a way to bring Shield of Righteousness back, but only if we can find an actual niche for it -- not just "here's another attack." Something like it consuming Holy Power but refreshing Holy Shield. (Source)

Priest (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Shadow
We haven't worked on the Shadow tree much after out initial pass (that brought Shadowy Apparition et al.). We're working on it now. Please don't expect a total overhaul where every talent is redesigned, but we are taking a hard look at all of the damage talents and trying to make the talent choices more compelling (which often means harder). (Source)

Rogue (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Elusiveness / Dirty Tricks
Elusiveness being too deep was considered a grave injustice. So we moved it up and switched it with Dirty Tricks, causing a new injustice. We'll try and find room in tier 2 for both. (Source)

Shaman (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Totems
We're fine with totem health given how easy totems are to replace. We also think it's fine to have to (sometimes) choose between a buff totem and a non-buff totem given how many different things a shaman can do.

However, we are going to increase buff totem range (and possibly other totem range) and we have figured out a way to make Searing Totem attack your target, instead of a random and probably inappropriate target. (Source)

Warrior (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Slam usable while moving
It is. (Source)

Protection changes in Build 12664
We buffed Thunder Clap to make up for the loss of the Imp TClap talent. We buffed Shockwave just because it got caught up in the big AE nerf, but it's really not an AE on the level of Hurricane / Blizzard. We buffed Devastate because we realized we had forgotten to compensate it for reducing the number of Sunder stacks.

All of those changes should bring Prot warrior abilities back to something that feels more normal to a current warrior.

Currently we are looking really hard at AE damage abilities by all tanks. We tried Thunder Clap with no cooldown and didn't like it. We also tried Thunder Clap with a Consecrate-like talent, but I'm not sure we like that either. At the moment we are thinking of nerfing any of the really passive AEs, including Swipe, Death and Decay, Damage Shield and Consecrate. All of those abilities (well, maybe not Damage Shield) would still be usable, but they would be more situational.

The bottom line is that we think all tanks need to be able to trivially handle the massive adds or straggling adds situations easily, or none of them should be able to. (Source)

Death Knight (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
No changes


Druid (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Balance

• Starsurge now also generates 10 Lunar or Solar energy.
• Wrath of Cenarius is now named Lunar Shower.
• Lunar Guidance now generates an additional 2/4/6 Lunar or Solar Energy. (Down from 5/10/15)
• Moonkin Form now increases spell haste by 5%. (Old - Spell crit)
• Genesis now increases the damage and healing done by your periodic spell damage and healing effects and by Swiftmend by 2/4/6%. (Up from 1/2/3%)
• Nature's Grace now has a 100% proc rate for all ranks. increasing your spell casting speed by 5/10/15% for 3 sec.

Feral

• Rend and Tear now increases damage done by your Maul and Shred attacks on bleeding targets by 7/13/20%. (Up from 4/8/12%) and increases the critical strike chance of your Ferocious Bite ability on bleeding targets by 8/17/25%. (5/10/15%)
• Leader of the Pack additional effect - In addition, your melee critical strikes in Cat Form and Bear Form cause you to heal for 8% of your total health and gain 8% of your maximum mana. This effect cannot occur more than once every 6 sec.
• Thick Hide now also increases armor while in Bear Form by an additional 11/22/33%, and reduces the chance you'll be critically hit by melee attacks by 2/4/6%
• Heart of the Wild now Increases your Intellect by 2/4/6%. (Down from 4/8/12%) In addition, while in Bear Form your Stamina is increased by 3/7/10% (Up from 2/4/6%) and while in Cat Form your attack power is increased by 3/7/10%. (Down from 2/4/6%)

Hunter (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Beast Mastery

• Cobra Shot now generates 9 focus. Up from 1 focus.
• Mend Pet no longer costs Focus.
• The Beast Within is now a Tier 6 talent. up from Tier 5.
• Animal Handler is gone.
• Improved Mend Pet is now a Tier 2 talent. Down from Tier 4.
• Envenomation is now a Tier 4 talent. Down from Tier 3.
• Improved Kill Command is now a Tier 1 talent. Down from Tier 2.
• One with Nature now increases the AP bonus of Aspect of the Hawk by 10/20/30% (Up from 5/10/15%) and increases the amount of focus restored by Aspect of the Fox by 5/10/15%. (Up from 2/4/6%)
• Bestial Discipline is now a 3 ranks talent (Down from 4 Ranks). Increases the Focus regeneration of your pets by 10/20/30%. (Up from 6/12/18/24%)

Marksmanship

• Concussive Shot no longer costs Focus. Now has a 5 sec cooldown.
• Steady Shot now generates 9 Focus. (Tooltip fix)
• Arcane Shot now costs 25 focus, down from 50 focus. Additional damage halved, AP scaling remains the same.
• Resistance is Futile now gives you a chance that your next Kill Command will refund its focus cost. (Old - Gives a chance to critically hit)
• Careful Aim - Increases the critical strike chance of your Steady Shot, Cobra Shot and Aimed Shot by 20/60% on targets at or above 60% health.
• Efficiency now only reduces the cost of your Arcane Shot by 1/2/3 (Down from 2/4/6). Reduction on Explosive Shot and Chimera Shot remains unchanged.

Survival

• Serpent Sting now costs 25 Focus. Down from 45.
• Aspect of the Monkey (Talent) is gone.
• Expose Weakness is gone.
• Hunting Party is now a Tier 5 1-Rank talent. Down from Tier 6 2-Ranks.
• Sniper Training is now a Tier 6 talent. Up from Tier 5.

Mage (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Arcane

• Arcane Explosion is now trained at level 12. Down from 58.
• Arcane Intellect is now trained at level 58. Up from 52.
• Evocation is now trained at level 22. Up from 12.
• Remove Curse is now trained at level 30. Up from 24.
• Teleport: Darnassus, Teleport: Exodar, Teleport: Ironforge, Teleport: Silvermoon, Teleport: Stormwind, Teleport: Theramore, Teleport: Thunder Bluff, Teleport: Undercity are now trained at level 24. Up from 22.
• Teleport: Stonard is now trained at level 52. Up from 22.
• Torment the Weak is now a Tier 2 talent. Down from Tier 5.
• Arcane Potency is now a Tier 5 talent. Up from Tier 2.

Fire (Read this post before you check the changes or I'll punch you in the face)

• Frostfire Bolt now slows the target by 20%. (Down from 40%)
• Critical Mass - Compelling talent that adds utility for all playstyles, but not dps! Sweet!
• Impact now "also gives you some useful but non-dps (aka not mandatory) raid utility."
• Improved Scorch now gives your Scorch spells a 50/100% chance to cause the target to be vulnerable to spell damage. (Up from 33/66%)
• Molten Shields has been changed to : Redesign! (Yes, that's the entire description)

Frost

• Summon Water Elemental is now trained at level 10. Down from 50. 2 min cooldown, down from 3 min.
• Ice Lance is now trained at level 28. Down from 30.
• Cone of Cold is now trained at level 18. Down from 28.
• Blizzard is now trained at level 52. Up from 18.
• Frostfire Orb now is a 2 ranks talent. Down from 3 ranks.
• Improved Freeze is now a Tier 3 talent. Down from Tier 5. Now gives your Freeze spell a 66/33% chance to cause Fingers of Frost. (Down from 100/50%)
• Enduring Winter now reduces the cost of all spells by 3%. Now has a 33% chance to grant up to 10 party of raid members mana regeneration equal to 3% of their maximum mana over 15 sec. (Old - 100% Proc Rate, 1% mana)
• Fingers of Frost is now a Tier 4 talent. Down from Tier 3.
• Ice Shards no longer increases the damage of Ice Lance. Now increases its range by 2/5 yards.
• Improved Cone of Cold is now a Tier 2 talent. Down from Tier 3.
• Brain Freeze is now a Tier 4 talent. Up from Tier 3.
• Ice Floes is now a 3 ranks (Down from 2 Ranks) talent and now reduces cooldowns by 7/15/25%. (Old - 10/20%)
• Permafrost no longer increases the duration of your Chill effects. Now also heals your Water Elemental for 15% of the damage dealt by you.
• Early Frost is now a Tier 1 talent. Down from Tier 2.
• Frost Channeling is gone.
• Reactive Barrier (Tier 5) *New* - Gives the caster a 50/100% chance for the Ice Barrier spell to automatically cast with no mana cost upon taking damage that lowers the caster's life below 50%. This effect obeys Ice Barrier's cooldown, and will trigger the cooldown when activated.

Paladin (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Holy

• Speed of Light now increases your movement speed for 4 sec. Down from 10 sec.
• Improved Lay on Hands is gone.
• Last Word (Tier 2) *New* - Gives your Word of Glory a 30/60% increased critical chance when used on targets with 35% or less health.
• Sanctified Light is now named Arbiter of the Light - Increases the critical effect chance of your Judgement, Holy Light and Templar's Verdict by 6/12%.

Protection

• Hand of Sacrifice is now trained at level 80. Up from 78.
• Seal of Justice no longer stuns the target but limit it's maximum run speed instead.
• Avenger's Shield no longer dazes the targets, but silences them for 3 secs.
• Vindication now gives your Holy Wrath a chance to reduce physical damage done by the target by 10% for 30 sec. (Old - Proc from all damaging attacks, 10 sec duration)
• Devotion Aura is now trained at level 9. Down from 18.
• Hand of Protection no longer seems to have the Avenging Wrath restriction.
• Righteous Fury now increases all threat.
• Ardent Defender - Activate to reduce damage taken by 20% for 10 sec. While Ardent Defender is active, the next attack that would otherwise kill you will instead cause you to be healed for 15% of your maximum health.
• Shield of the Templar now reduces the cooldown of Avenger's Shield by 3/7/10 sec (Up from 2/4/6 sec), Guardian of Ancient Kings by 1/2/3 min (Down from 10/20/30 min). No longer increases the amount absorbed by your Sacred Shield, now reduces the cooldown fo Avenging Wrath by 20/40/60 sec.
• Holy Shield now Lasts 20 sec. Up from 15 sec.
• Guarded by the Light has been revamped - Increases your Word of Glory by 20/40% when used to heal yourself. Any overhealing will create a protective shield equal to the amount of overhealing that lasts for 6 sec (last part NYI).
• Grand Crusader now has a chance to reduce the cooldown of your next Avenger's Shield instead of Holy Wrath.
• Hallowed Ground now increases the duration of Consecration by 15 sec (Down from 15/30) and decreases it's mana cost by 25% instead of increasing its damage.
• Protector of the Innocent is now a Tier 1 Talent. Down from Tier 2. Now Increases your healing by 1/2/3% on allies affected by Devotion Aura and increases the damage of your Retribution Aura by 20/40/60%.
• Toughness is now a Tier 2 talent. Up from Tier 1.

Retribution

• The Art of War now has a 7/15% chance to proc. (Down from 15/30%)
• Sanctity of Battle - Increases the damage by 10/20% and critical strike damage by 50/100% of your Exorcism. In addition, increases the chance you will hit with spells by 3/6%.
• Seals of Command is now a Tier 4 talent. Up from Tier 3.
• Rule of Law now Increases the critical effect chance of your Crusader Strike, Holy Shock and Word of Glory by 5/10/15%. (Old - Crusader Strike and Holy Light)
• Improved Crusader Strike is back as a Tier 3 2-Ranks talent. Reduces the cooldown of your Crusader Strike by 0.5/1 sec.

Priest (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Holy

• Desperate Prayer no longer costs mana.
• Test of Faith is now a Tier 5 talent. Down from Tier 6.
• Heavenly Voice is gone.
• Empowered Renew is now named Divine Touch - Your Renew will instantly heal the target for 5/10/15% of the total periodic effect.
• Empowered Healing has been revamped - Increases the healing done by your Flash Heal, Heal, Binding Heal and Greater Heal by 5/10/15%.

Rogue (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Subtlety

• Elusiveness is now a Tier 2 talent. Down from Tier 3.
• Dirty Tricks is now a Tier 3 talent. Down from Tier 2.

Shaman (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Enhancement

• Shamanistic Rage now causes your skills, totems, and offensive spells to consume no mana for 15 sec.

Restoration

• Nature's Swiftness no longer shares a cooldown with Elemental Mastery

Warlock (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Affliction

• Life Tap now seems to scale from 100% of Spell Power, up from 50%.
• Everlasting Affliction now Increases the critical effect chance of your Corruption, Seed of Corruption and Unstable Affliction by 5/10/15%. (Old - Increased bonus spell damage by 1/2/3%). Now gives Drain Life, Drain Soul, and Haunt a 33/66/100% chance to reset the duration of your Corruption spell on the target. (No longer procs from Shadow Bolt, Proc Rate increased from 20/40/60%)
• Death's Embrace now affects target below 25% health. (Up from 20%)
• Shadow Embrace is now a Tier 4 talent. Down from Tier 5. No longer has a cooldown.
• Eradication now is a Tier 3 talent. Down from Tier 4.
• Siphon Life is now a Tier 2 talent. Down from tier 4.
• Nightfall is now a Tier 5 talent. Down from Tier 3.
• Improved Drain Soul is gone.
• Improved Bane of Agony is now Doom and Gloom - Increases the damage done by your Bane of Agony and Bane of Doom by 5/10%.
• Soulburn: Seed of Corruption (Tier 5) *New* - Grants the Soulburn empowerment to your Seed of Corruption spell.
  Your Seed of Corruption detonation effect will afflict Corruption on all enemy targets. The Soul Shard will be refunded if the detonation is successful.
• Siphon Life (Tier 2) is back - When you deal damage with your Corruption spell, you are instantly healed for ( Glyph of Siphon Life : 60/75 )% of the damage done.

Demonology

• Demonic Aegis now Increases the effectiveness of your Demon Armor and Fel Armor spells by 15/30%. (Up from 10/20%)
• Empowered Imp now gives your Imp's Firebolt a 12% chance to cause your next Soulfire spell to be instant cast within 8 sec.

Warrior (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Arms

• Overpower now has a 1 sec cooldown. Down from 5 sec.
• Thunder Clap damage has been increased by ~25%
• Strikes of Opportunity *New* - Grants a 16% chance for your melee attacks to instantly trigger an additional melee attack for 50% normal damage. Chance increased further by mastery rating.
• Colossus Smash *New* Battle / Berserker Stance - Smashes a target for weapon damage plus 120 and weakens their defenses, allowing your Mortal Strike, Heroic Strike, Bloodthirst and Overpower
  to bypass their armor for 6 sec sec. / 30 Rage, 5 yd range, Instant, 20 sec cooldown
• Second Wind now is a Tier 2 talent. Down from Tier 6.
• Blood Frenzy now is a Tier 4 talent. Down from Tier 5.
• Sudden Death is now a Tier 5 talent (Down from Tier 4), 2 points (Down from 3 Points) and now is - Your melee hits have a 5/10% chance of resetting the cooldown on your Colossus Smash, and you keep 5/10 rage after using Execute.
• Improved Slam now also increases Slam's damage by 10/20%.
• Taste for Blood now also increases your Overpower critical strike chance by 20/40/60%.
• Improved Overpower is gone.
• Drums of War (Tier 2) *New* - Reduces the rage cost of your Hamstring, Shield Bash, Pummel, and any shouts which cost rage by 25/50%.
• Blitz is now a Tier 1 talent. Down from Tier 2.
• Impale is now a Tier 3 talent. Up from Tier 2.
• Improved Hamstring is back as a Tier 3 talent - Your Hamstring ability immobilizes the target for 5 sec. This effect cannot occur more than once every 30/60 sec.
• Tactical Mastery is back as a Tier 2 Talent - You retain up to an additional 25/50 rage when you change stances.

Fury

• Bloodthirst now has a 3 sec cooldown. Down from 4 sec.
• Victory Rush no longer has a stance requirement. (Be careful with that one, tooltip bugs happened with warrior stances)
• Unshackled Fury *New* - Increases the benefit of abilities that cause you to be enraged or consume an enrage effect by 80%.
• Flurry is now a Tier 3 talent. Down from Tier 5.
• Heroic Fury is now a Tier 5 talent. Down from Tier 4.
• Raging Blow now has a 6 sec cooldown. Up from 3 sec.
• Booming Voice now is a Tier 5 talent. Up from Tier 4.
• Fury in the Blood is gone.
• Die by the Sword (Tier 5) *New* - Increases your parry chance by 100% for 4/8 sec whenver you are brought to 20% health or less. This effect cannot occur more often than once every 2 min.
• Enrage is now a Tier 2 talent. Down from Tier 3. Changed to - Your melee hits have a 3/6/9% chance to Enrage you, giving you a 3/7/10% damage bonus for 12 sec.
• Blood Craze is now a Tier 1 talent. Down from Tier 2.
• Improved Execute is now a Tier 3 talent. Up from Tier 2.
• Armored to the Teeth is gone.
• Rude Interruption (Tier 2) *New* - Successfully interrupting a spell with Shield Bash or Pummel increases your damage by 5% for 30 sec/1 min.

Protection

• Shield Block now has a 1 min cooldown. Up from 30 sec.
• Critical Block *New* - Increases your chance to block by 10% and your chance to critically block by 10%. Chances increased further by mastery rating.
• Shockwave now deals [ 75% of AP ] damage. (Up from 38% of AP)
• Warbringer now is a Tier 5 talent. Down from Tier 6.
• Devastate additional damage has been increased by 66%.
• Damage Shield now deals 10/20% of your attack power. (Old - 20/40% of your Strength)
• Improved Revenge is now a Tier 2 talent. Down from Tier 3.
• Incite no longer affects Thunder Clap or Cleave. Additional effect - your Heroic Strike critical strikes have a 33/66/100% chance to make you next Heroic Strike also a critical strike. This effect cannot occur more than once every 6 seconds.