Active Mana Regeneration (New)
Another part of the changes to healing is providing a way for them to better manage their mana. There are ways to spend more mana for more healing but, we’re also adding methods for healers to trade extra time or healing or more mana to use later in a fight when they really need it.
Druid
- Innervate has been redesigned to now have a 2-second cast time with no cooldown, and causes the Druid to gain 2.5% of maximum mana every 4 seconds for 8 seconds. Spending any mana on a healing spell will cancel this effect.
Monk
- Crackling Jade Lightning's channel duration has been reduced to 4 seconds.
- Stance of the Wise Serpent now also causes Crackling Jade Lightning to cost no mana, and restore 2% of the Monk’s maximum mana if the ability is channeled for its full duration.
Paladin
- Divine Plea has been redesigned to be instant cast with no cooldown, and consume 3 Holy Power to immediately regain 7% of maximum mana.
Priest
- Atonement is no longer triggered by Penance.
- Penance now also refunds 1.1% of the Priest’s maximum mana each time it deals damage.
- Chakra: Chastise in addition to existing effects, now also causes Smite and Holy Fire to restore 0.75% of maximum mana each time they are cast instead of costing mana.
Shaman
- Telluric Currents is now a passive ability for Restoration Shaman and causes Lightning Bolt to restore 1.25% of maximum mana each time it is cast instead of costing mana.
- Glyph of Telluric Currents: This glyph has been removed.
Ability Pruning (Updated)
- Death Knight
- Blood Boil has been removed.
- Blood Parasites has been removed.
- Rune of the Nerubian Carapace has been removed.
- Rune Strike has been removed. now replaces Death Coil for Blood Death Knights.
- Druid
- Bear Hug has been removed.
- Innervate is now available only to Restoration Druids. has been removed. Mana costs for Druids have been adjusted accordingly.
- Mage
- Polymorph's cosmetic variants are now all learned as spells instead of having some as a Minor Glyph that alters the visuals of Polymorph: Sheep. All of these variants (except for the automatically learned one, Polymorph: Sheep) are now grouped in a Polymorph variants flyout in the Spellbook.
- Paladin
- Avenging Wrath is no longer available to Protection Paladins. now only available to Retribution Paladins.
- Divine Favor has been removed.
- Divine Plea is now only available to Holy Paladins. has been removed. Mana costs for Paladins have been adjusted accordingly.
- Rogue
- Fan of Knives is no longer available to Combat Rogues.
- Redirect has been removed.
Tank Vengeance and Resolve (Updated)
Then, to keep tank DPS meaningful, we'll be raising their damage, since it would be meager with no Vengeance Attack Power (Vengeance accounted for 70-90% of a tank's damage on high-tank-damage fights in Mists). To do that, we're increasing the damage of several prominent tank abilities, as well as having tanks also gain increased Attack Power from Mastery
and Bonus Armor, in addition to the stat’s existing benefits. That also helps keep secondary stats balanced in offensive value for them.
- General
- Bladed Armor is a new passive ability for Blood Death Knights, Guardian Druids, Brewmaster Monks, Protection Paladins, and Protection Warriors.
- Bladed Armor increases Attack Power by 100% of the character's Bonus Armor.
Class Changes
Death Knight (Updated)
We made several changes to compensate for abilities that have been removed by Ability Pruning. Blood Boil got removed and its effects were merged into Pestilence. This change in effect turned Roiling Blood into a passive ability; which we replaced with a new talent, Plaguebearer. For Blood specialization we removed Rune Strike and are adjusting the cost of Death Coil so it can be used in Rune Strike’s place.
- Plaguebearer is a new Level-56 talent for Death Knight causing Death Coil and Frost Strike to also infect the target with Frost Fever and Blood Plague.
- Crimson Scourge now interacts with Pestilence instead of Blood Boil.
- Death Coil now costs 30 Runic Power (down from 40 Runic Power).
- Glyph of Outbreak has been removed.
- Pestilence now deals damage to all targets hit, including the primary target.
- Roiling Blood has been removed.
- Sudden Doom no longer reduces the cost of Death Coil.
There were also a few other miscellaneous changes. The Runic Power generation of Anti-Magic Shell was standardized, to make it more understandable and balanced. Level-60 and Level-75 talent rows have swapped places, so the important rune regeneration talents could be acquired earlier.
- Desecrated Ground now also makes the Death Knight immune to Roots and Snares.
Monk (Updated)
- Crackling Jade Lightning's throughput has been increased by 100%, but no longer generates Chi for Mistweaver Monks.
We also did some polishing on Brewmasters and Windwalkers and made Storm, Earth, and Fire, Transcendence, and Touch of Death easier to use. Fists of Fury has also been improved; sometimes brute force is the right answer. Gift of the Ox was changed to give value to the new Multistrike stat for Brewmasters. Lastly, Tiger Strikes was improved considerably, and made available to all Monk specializations.
There were several changes that affected multiple Monk specializations. We’d like to see Monks using Transcendence more often, so its usability has been improved (some baseline, and some in a Draenor Perk). For Touch of Death, we like that it’s a unique execute being usable only once, but found it impractical to use on bosses and have improved its usability. For Tiger Strikes, we buffed it to grant Multistrike ability which it was similar to already, and extended it to work with all Monk specializations.
We’re making a few changes that mostly affects Windwalkers, but has a minor impact on Mistweavers and Brewmasters as well. For energy-based gameplay to function well, the primary limitation on ability usage should be energy, not time. As such, we're making the following changes to address GCD-capping problems. First, we’re reducing the effects and mana increase of Ascension, because it became more powerful when combined with several of our other changes to healers. We believe that Ascension will remain as a competitive talent for Brewmasters. Second, energy cost of Jab has been increased for Windwalkers. And Third, we reduced the chance for Combo Breaker to trigger. Individually, these may sound like significant nerfs but Windwalker damage has been adjusted to compensate for these changes. The goal is not to reduce DPS while addressing the issue with GCD-capping.
- Ascension now increases energy regeneration and maximum mana by 10% (down from 15%).
- Combo Breaker now has an 8% chance to trigger, per effect, per Jab (down from 12%).
- Stance of the Fierce Tiger now also increases Jab’s energy cost by 10.
A couple of additional changes for Windwalkers. Storm, Earth, and Fire, got buffed to make it smoother to use. We also buffed Fists of Fury because we felt that the ability wasn’t giving a strong enough damage boost given its restrictions and impact on the Monk's rotation.
- Storm, Earth, and Fire no longer has an energy cost, and is off GCD.
- Fists of Fury now deals 100% increased damage, and always deals full damage to your primary target; additional targets are still affected by the damage split.
For Brewmasters, Gift of the Ox has been modified to allow it to scale defensively with the new Multistrike stat. The Black Ox Statue has been modified to aid Monks in establishing aggro on new enemies.
- Black Ox Statue now also passively attracts the attention of all enemies within 30 yards, causing a minor amount of threat each second.
- Gift of the Ox now has a chance to trigger only from auto attack Multistrikes, instead of from all auto attacks. It has a 100% chance to trigger while using a two-handed weapon, and a 62.5% chance to trigger while dual wielding.
- Glyph of Leer of the Ox now also causes Black Ox Statue to passively pulse a minor amount of threat to all enemies within 30 yards.
Paladin (Updated)
- Avenging Wrath Divine Favor now also increases all of the Paladin’s healing by 100% for its duration.
We wanted to improve Seal gameplay for Protection and Retribution, so have made a few changes in that regard. Protection had three Seals, but only used Insight due to its defensive value. We’ve moved that defensive value into a passive for Protection Paladins, and expect them to primarily use a mixture of Seal of Truth and Seal of Righteousness now. To provide better gameplay between Seal of Truth and Seal of Righteousness, and effectively remove a button, we made Seal of Righteousness transform Crusader Strike into Hammer of the Righteous.
- Seal of Insight no longer gives melee attacks a chance to heal the Paladin.
- Inner Light is a new passive ability for Protection Paladins and provides a chance for each melee attack to heal the Paladin.
- Glyph of the Battle Healer is now available only for Protection Paladins, and affects healing from Inner Light instead of Seal of Insight.
- Crusader Strike and Hammer of the Righteous are no longer separate spells.
- Seal of Righteousness now also causes Crusader Strike to be replaced with Hammer of the Righteous while active.
Priest (Updated)
We swapped the Level-15 and Level-60 talent rows so players are presented with core Priest themed abilities earlier in the leveling process.
- Level-15 and Level-60 talent rows have swapped places.
Rogue (Updated)
Among some other changes to improve Rogue AoE damage, we made a couple of baseline changes, and added a few Draenor Perks that impacts their AoE.
wanted to make sure that Fan of Knives benefitted from Seal Fate.
- Blade Flurry can now trigger poisons.
Shaman (Updated)
- Feral Spirits’ damage has been increased by 100%.
- Frost Shock’s damage has been reduced by 50%.
- Multiple Earth Shields can now be applied to the same target.
- Glyph of Chaining no longer causes Chain Heal to have a 2-second cooldown.
We also made a couple quality of life improvements to Shaman Shield spells.
- Lightning Shield now persists through death.
- Water Shield now persists through death.